by R. E. Carr
Slowly, the corner of Jenn’s lips turned up ever so slightly. Kei’s face mirrored her own. She reached for his hand.
“Next stop Delphi Mountain. Doors open on the right,” the conductor said over the intercom. The lights from an approaching subway filled their car, blinding Jenn. Then the train melted from her view, leaving her once more in the void.
“Are you all right, Jenn?”
“CALA?”
“It is good to hear your voice again, Jenn. I was afraid that I had lost you. How are you here?”
“You have a terrific sense of timing. We have to get back to my body. I’m starting to feel a little fuzzy again.”
“I am attempting to correlate our position so that we may return before my subroutines cycle out. I believe that I have located the sixth seal and that it is open. Strangely, this seal was entirely contained within the Network—”
“The seal—it was me, me figuring out where I belong. Are you sure that it’s open?”
“I am ninety percent sure of success.”
“Then let’s get back. The next seal is on Oracle Mountain.”
“Are you certain, Jenn?”
“Yup.”
“I do not understand this logic—”
“I don’t know, but I think that this seal gave me all the information I needed. There’s something in the back of my mind, but I need time to figure it all out.”
“I propose that we concentrate on returning to your body first. Hopefully, you will be in control when we return.”
“I will be. Hey, look, CALA. I can see blue light. It’s Kei.”
Together they drifted up toward the column. Just as they entered the field Jenn swore she could see skeletal hands wrapped around Kei’s unconscious head. “What—”
“How long have they been unconscious?” Eon asked.
His Knight companion shrugged. “I found them washed up on the beach. The Beast looks worse than she does,” Dailyn said.
Winowa carefully dressed the last of Kei’s puncture wounds. “He’s feverish and losing blood. It must be the changing sickness.”
Dailyn and his sister stepped aside for a quick conference. They whispered as Eon and Winowa tried to heal their friends. Finally, Dianna rested her hand on Kei’s cheek.
“This man helped save an Oracle and bring her home. I will petition to have him brought into the shrine and treated by the Ancients’ healing stones. I believe that even though he is a man, my sisters will allow him in once—but his tribe will owe us a single favor in the future,” she said.
Winowa glared over her shoulder. “He is the heir Warlord. You know he cannot make such a promise. It isn’t—”
“He will die without their help. Look at the color of his skin,” Dailyn added. “I know the Oracle of Ice. If we can go to her, I am sure the favor will be—”
Eon finally spoke up. “We know the stories of the Oracles, Sir Dailyn. The prices they exact are also legendary. Remember how the Knights bargained for their support in their conquest of our tribe? Now all first-born females of your families are promised in service to this mountain. Although I doubt the Oracles will ask as much today, they are a capricious and arrogant people. No one can stand against them—and they know it.”
Dianna raised a brow. “You are bold, Aj’Chatan Tzin, but you know that we offer your friend his only chance for survival,” she said. “Perhaps you would be willing to strike the bargain with the Oracles, although I would suspect that the price they would ask of you would be significantly bloodier.”
“Winowa, how is Ji-ann?” Eon asked.
“Sleeping. She’s weak, but she will live.” She turned back to Kei and whispered, “I wish I had Sotaka or one of the other shamans here. They would know more about the changing sickness than I.”
“Will he die?” Eon asked.
Winowa bit her lip. She didn’t say anything for a while. Finally, she nodded. Eon took a deep breath and dropped to his knees in front of the priestess. “I will pay whatever price the Oracles ask, but only I will pay it. My tribe has nothing to do with this bargain,” he said quickly.
“I will relay your intentions to the Oracles.”
Kei screamed. The wires burrowed into his skin again, worming their cold, unfeeling tentacles into his heart and brain. The more he lashed out at his attackers, the more wires split from the trunk. Finally he hung there, suspended, spread eagle in a tangle of cabling. Blue energy coursed through him, pouring out along the cables to an unknown destination.
“Please . . . ,” he begged.
Out of the darkness, a white-and-gray-spotted leopard limped into the blue light. Its once-mighty saber teeth were now chipped and rotten. It cocked its feline head toward Kei and raised a mangy paw.
“Help me,” Kei whimpered.
The leopard lifted his other paw and the entire limb fell away—rotten. The ensnared Beast screamed again as his totem howled. As the animal thrashed, a bundle of metallic fibers spewed from its festering stump. The wires quickly solidified into a steel leg.
“No, please! By the spirits, no—” Kei repeated over and over again. The energy coursed through him again as blood dribbled from his eyes and mouth. The leopard snarled and limped out of his view. As the padding, clanging of its footsteps faded away, Kei could hear a far more sinister sound. The wires shifted, hurling him backward. Floating in the darkness, Kei heard alien clicking and whirring.
“Is it one of us?”
“It’s one of us.”
“It’s strange—ugly.”
“Weak.”
“Corrupted.”
“Filthy.”
“Impure—”
“Who is there?” Kei roared. “Let me go!”
The voices grew louder, calling him dirtier and dirtier names. A spotlight shone in his eyes, and pairs of long, pale gray hands began darting in and out of the darkness. He heard more clicking, then watched his skin being peeled from his leg. As he looked down, he could see a bulbous gray head bending over his torso. It turned sharply to look at him, its shimmering black eyes showing Kei his own horrified face.
Kei screamed.
The acolytes of the Oracle of Ice stood in a semicircle around the kneeling Eon, Winowa, and the now-awake Serif-fan. Behind the supplicants, Dailyn and Dianna bowed their heads reverently.
The lead acolyte lowered her light-blue hood. “You wish to pay the Oracle’s price, no matter what that may be? Once you agree to this bargain, you shall be bound by blood and soul to complete the pact. We Oracles of the Spirit Tribe have stood as the sole guardians of the last portal to the Ancients and their wisdom for thousands of years. Our words are sacred and our gifts divine. Do you accept this bargain, Aj’Chatan Tzin of the Phantom Tribe?”
Eon squeezed Jenn’s hand and smiled. “I will pay the price. I accept your mistress’s bargain.”
The acolyte raised her hands heavenward. “So let it be done. You bind yourself in a pact with the Irreproachable Licia, Oracle of Ice. Dianna, take the women to the shrine so they may purify themselves and bask in the wisdom of our great masters. Our slaves will carry the fallen one to the inner sanctum. As for you, Phantom, Licia will come now to make her bargain.”
“Eon . . . ,” the Serif-fan started to say, but she was ushered out. One by one, the acolytes left. Only Dailyn remained at the door.
“What makes you so special?” Eon asked over his shoulder.
“Licia and we were friends as children. We are afforded certain luxuries at her shrine,” Dailyn sighed.
“You must have been good friends to be allowed this far up the mountain.”
“Eon, when you are done here, there is something we must discuss . . . ,” Dailyn started.
Eon sighed and watched in wonder as his breath crystallized in midair. A cold breeze rolled from the inner sanctuary door. At first Eon tried
to fight off the shivers, but then he realized his light prayer robe could only keep him so warm. A pattern of frost spread out in a fan from the threshold. Eon’s eyes widened as the door burst open.
“She’s so young,” Eon said flatly.
Eon watched Dailyn bow to the nearly naked woman. Both men were careful not to let their eyes rest too long on her chain-mail loincloth or frost-covered, shapely legs. The icy woman stretched languidly and brushed some frozen wisps of hair out of her eyes. A magnificent, five-pointed-star sapphire melded into her pale forehead. She wore tons of rimed jewelry on her arms and neck. Her hair had turned a frosty blue as well, and fell in chunky pigtails from the top of her head.
“Dailyn!” she cried, running right past the kneeling Phantom. Before she could embrace the Knight, he shoved her back at arm’s length.
“Your business is with him, not us,” Dailyn said.
“How dare you repel the attentions of an Oracle? Just who do you think you are?” Licia spat. Her cold, blue eyes burned as she watched the Knight’s face remain impassive.
“Before you were an Oracle, you were betrothed to our cousins, who are of a higher station than us. We will not dishonor ourselves, even for an Oracle,” Dailyn said, his voice cold.
“How ironic it is that I was chosen to be the Oracle of Ice. I must have learned a thing or two from you,” Licia spat. “I took my sister’s place on the mountain rather than be married to anyone else.”
“It is not the time to discuss the past, Licia. Time is short and our friend needs your assistance. We pray you will not let your bitterness toward us affect your judgment of him.”
Eon remained on his knees, marveling at the spectacle. Licia circled the Phantom.
“I’ve never seen violet hair on a man before. So you’re telling me that this is your friend, Dailyn? He’s not a Knight, is he?”
Dailyn shook his head. “He’s from the Western Tribes.”
Licia smiled and crouched in front of Eon. She brushed the hair from his eyes, leaving streaks of frost in his bangs. “My precious Dailyn would never consort with a Commoner, would he?” she whispered. “I have to wonder. However, since you are neither blind, nor hobbled, nor in all black, I must assume that you aren’t a Phantom.” She licked her lips. “You have a nice face, Commoner.”
Dailyn stiffened slightly. Licia grinned. She peeked over Eon’s shoulder even as the stranger shivered. “You still care. Don’t you, Dailyn? But you’re just too proud to show it. You think it is honor, but I think that it’s fear.”
“Don’t be like this, Licia. You were an honorable woman in Jasturia.”
“I wasn’t honorable enough,” she said. “I think I know my price. Your friend will take your reserved place tonight. Hopefully, he’ll be able to satisfy me before he dies of hypothermia.”
“Your will is law here,” Dailyn said. “Please excuse me. We wish to go and visit our sister.”
“I haven’t heard your voice break in years, Dailyn.”
“Do we have your leave to exit, Lady Oracle? Our sister and we need to go and prepare our friend Kei for the altar. He does not have much time, Lady Oracle,” Dailyn said, this time holding his voice in check.
Licia laughed. “Very well, you have my leave, good Knight. My high priestess will bless the body and lead you to the Sanctuary. His women may attend the ceremony as his champions. As for this man . . .” She grinned. “My servants will escort him to my private chambers.”
“Filthy.”
“Corrupt.”
The words echoed in Kei’s frantically twitching ears. His body was poked, prodded, violated. The endless bright light forced his eyes into slits. Every once in a while, his inner eyelids would flick across his blank stare.
“Does it know that it is artificial?”
Kei turned and looked in the direction of the last voice. Something deep within his eyes lit up. He tried to speak.
“I thought that the marker would be dead by now. Its purpose was served.”
“Mother?” Kei whispered.
Another alien figure stepped into the light. Her flowing white hair perfectly framed her narrow face. Her soft, gray skin seemed luminous even in the harsh light. She stretched out her three-fingered hand and traced the blood streaks on Kei’s face. Without opening her mouth she addressed Kei, “I am an Iaxani, my boy. I’m inside your mind. I am a part of you.”
“What are you doing here? You are dead,” Kei asked, his face paling.
“So weak,” she said. “Little more strength than any worker.”
“Stop this, please. Not my mother. You cannot do this to my mother—” Kei growled.
“Disconnect him. He serves no purpose,” Iaxani said.
“What are you?” Kei snarled. Her thrashed until his left hand broke free.
He grabbed his head as all the clicking in the room coalesced into a single deafening whine. The wires tore from his flesh, sending blood spraying across the strange woman. Although she wore Kei’s mother’s face, her black eyes showed the flailing Beast-Man nothing but scorn.
“He is not worth our time.”
Kei’s torso broke free of the wires and tumbled into the abyss. His roar rapidly faded as he fell out of the light, heading straight into oblivion.
“He’s not here anymore,” the Oracle of Ice said as she pressed her forehead against Kei’s.
Both Winowa and Jenn jumped to their feet. The giant statues of the first Oracles glared at the puny interlopers—all while supporting the soaring roof. As the sun streamed in from the skylight, the gems on their stone foreheads pulsed. Beyond the statues, a priceless view of all of Delphi and the harbor stretched out as far as the eye could see.
“Is . . . he . . . ?” Jenn stammered.
“But he’s breathing!” Winowa cried.
“His body is alive. In fact, it is healing well, but there is no soul in this body that I can detect. The spirit within my stone should have reacted to his consciousness,” Licia said. “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
“He has to be there! A soul can’t just disappear, can it?” Jenn cried. Before she could run up the stairs, two blue-robed acolytes grabbed her roughly by the arms.
“You may not approach our Oracle without permission,” one said.
“Let go of me. I’ve got a rock in my skull too,” Jenn snapped.
“Don’t disturb her, Ji-ann,” Winowa said. “Please forgive us, Oracle.”
Licia ignored the Common girl, and instead glared at Jenn. “Your stone is nothing. It contains no soul. Now, quiet your yammering so I may open the path to Heaven and let the Ancients provide us with the answer.”
“Jenn, I am detecting an energy signature coming from the pattern of jewels on the wall behind the Oracle.”
“Do you know what’s happened to Kei? What does she mean? How can he be gone?”
“Processing.”
Jenn’s jaw dropped as she watched as Licia kneel in front of the rear wall of the shrine. From the floor to the twenty-foot-high ceilings, precious jewels of every kind sparkled in the dappled light. As Licia began to chant, each and every sapphire and topaz began to glow, forming a magnificent jellyfish pattern against the stone.
“That’s one expensive jellyfish,” Jenn muttered.
“Incoming signal. Brace for impact, Jenn.”
Kei shivered in the dark. He clutched his knees and whimpered. His ears remained pressed against his head as his tail curled protectively around his crusting-over sores.
“Ji-ann, I am sorry,” he whispered. “I have failed you.”
“You have failed us all, my son,” a harsh voice bellowed from the darkness.
“Father?” Kei asked. “No—Please Great Spirit, not this again. Anything but this!”
; Licia flew backward against the Altar of the Ancients. Several topazes shattered as a blue column of light shot from the wall into Kei’s unconscious body. In the glow, Jenn saw letters and numbers, but once she blinked the symbols disappeared.
The acolytes surrounded their fallen Oracle. Jenn seized the opportunity to run to Kei’s side.
“CALA? CALA, are you there?”
“Signal interfering, Jenn. I feel pain—”
“CALA!”
“14B-Rheak is attempting to update me. So much pain—”
“CALA, hang in there. Kei needs us.”
“The seal is here, Jenn. The array of crystals is a direct connection to the Universal Network. If I can interface, we can bring this mission—I am not supposed—to—to feel like this—”
“Hang in there. I’ll get you closer.”
Jenn ran to the array and touched a stone. Her body collapsed beside the Oracle.
Jenn fell through the shadows. Branches and limbs cracked and snapped around her until she landed with a thud on a furry arm.
“Who is it now?” a familiar voice croaked.
“Kei!” Jenn cried. “Is it really you?”
“It cannot be. Ji-ann cannot be here. This place is too dark for Ji-ann,” he hissed.
“Kei? What have they done to you?” Jenn asked as red light poured from her forehead. The new glow illuminated the dark streaks running down his cheeks.
“I am in the spirit realm, suffering for my sins, am I not? Are you here to save me, my Serif-fan?” he asked, his eyes glazed over.
“Kei, snap out of it! You aren’t dead. You somehow got trapped inside the Network when you tried to help me.”
“I am not real, Serif-fan. I am a construct. They built me out of unwanted parts—”