Veiled

by Silvina Niccum

  “How do you know?” Russell said with a wry smile.

  Valerie rolled her eyes.

  “OK, so they know we are coming. Does anyone know where this ambush is to happen and how?” Russell looked around at the group sarcastically, knowing that only Dorian or Valerie could answer that question.

  No answer.

  “OK, then I say we go with all we’ve got,” Russell finished.

  “That’s what they are hoping we do,” Valerie said in a low voice.

  “I don’t hear any other ideas, so…” Russell was interrupted by Henry’s voice over the caller.

  “Not now Henry, we have a serious problem here,” Russell answered irritably.

  “Wait!” Dorian came forward with a weird look on his face. “Henry has the answer.”

  * * * * *

  Chapter 6

  We all looked at Dorian like he had just lost his mind.

  “Henry, we are on Ishtar on a sky scraper that is half...” Dorian was not even finished speaking when Henry and Estelle popped out of thin air, right in front of us. He had something attached to his arm, it was hidden by his robes, but he had to pull them back to disable whatever it was.

  “I always have the answer,” Henry said smugly. “Just don’t ask where I got it or how.” He beamed.

  Dorian came to his side, nodded politely to Estelle, then turned to Henry. “Do you have something that can create a huge, loud, bright distraction?”

  Henry looked at Dorian, surprised. “As a matter of fact I do. How…”

  “Never mind, use it when we tell you to,” Dorian said with a firm voice. “I’ve seen it,” he said to Russell with confidence.

  “Good…Now, this is how I propose we go down.” Russell explained his plan for the formation we were to assume, placing Celeste in a safe position until we got to the surface, then it would be up to her to get Max to willingly leave the rebellion. He looked around then stopped abruptly.

  “Where is Richard?” Russell asked.

  We all looked around, but he was nowhere to be seen. Celeste let out a short cynical laugh, and rolled her eyes. But at this point we had no time to worry about him anymore. He had been saved once, and we could only assume that he had left the planet.

  Before we headed back down I checked for Max’s aura. Its glow was barely visible now. I hoped it wasn’t too late.

  I led the way in the formation that Russell had placed us in, with Alex on one side of me and Russell on the other. Once we touched down on the street, we moved forward with speed, knowing that we could be ambushed at any moment.

  From somewhere behind me I heard someone shout out an order, and then hundreds of shady forms encircled us. They were all around us and above us.

  “Steady…steady…” Russell said in a low voice that only we could hear. “Let them come. Don’t break formation.”

  The sneering, laughing spirits were slowly converging on us. Some growled like wild beasts, while others made taunting remarks.

  I looked over at Celeste who was positioned in the middle, her aura seemed to be emitting short bursts of bright light and dim light. Her face, however, looked determined.

  “Henry! Now!” Russell ordered and Henry, with an unusually cheerful look in his face, unstopped the top of an egg shaped device and threw it up in the air where the majority of the rebel spirits were. As soon as the device was level with their faces, it let out the loudest sound I had ever heard accompanied by an explosion of light that blinded all who were looking at it.

  We had no time to enjoy the outcome of Henry’s fireworks, but we could hear the startled spirits, screaming, scurrying, and flying in all directions. I could also hear Alex’s and Russell’s low chuckles as I led them straight to Max.

  Conveniently he had been left all alone, but he didn’t look good at all. He sat huddled in one crevice of a broken down structure. He didn’t look up at us when we spoke to him, he just sat there catatonic.

  Celeste made her way forward and we set a perimeter around them for protection.

  “We don’t have much time,” Valerie warned through gritted teeth.

  Celeste knelt down in front of Max and slid her fingers under his chin. She slowly lifted his head up, and looked tenderly into his haggard face. He looked different…ashen and beaten.

  “What have they been telling you?” she said sadly.

  He looked at her, not sure of what he was seeing and if he could trust his own eyes.

  “I came to take you with me,” Celeste said tenderly.

  Still no response.

  She leaned over and whispered something in his ear. Then she put her face right in front of his and smiled.

  “Not real,” Max said, his voice sounding strained.

  “Trust me.” Celeste stood up and extended her arm toward him. Her hand was slightly turned down toward him. She glowed so brightly, no intermittent bursts of darkness, just pure radiant light emanated from her—she looked like an angel.

  Max blinked as if he too could see the light coming from her and took that gentle hand in front of him. She helped him up; he bent down over the hand and kissed it. Celeste wrapped her other arm around him. He still kissed the other hand and now looked encircled by light. They rose up, straight up, still holding each other.

  “NOT SO FAST!” an angry voice said from behind. We turned almost simultaneously and were face to face with the enraged form of the Second One.

  His aura looked like nothing I have ever seen before. It wasn’t irradiating anything, but rather sucking in. As he stood there seething, he seemed to summon the strength of other spirits, and as they gave themselves to him, he grew in stature.

  “Give your wills to me!” he demanded as he stretched his arm toward us, his outstretched fingers beckoned the brightness of our auras to him.

  I was worried for Celeste and Max and discreetly looked up to make sure that they had left, and was glad to see two little spots of light safely rising out of this miserable place.

  The rest of us still shone, but I could see how our auras struggled against the pull of the Second One. By now his form towered over us and his followers were literally throwing themselves into him, every one of them added to the mass. But he didn’t keep his form for long, his face looked disfigured and points began to protrude first from his chin, then his cheeks, then his head. Pretty soon his face didn’t look human at all, it looked like a dragon’s head and his body started to take that form as well.

  All the while, he heaved and roared and stared at us with a sneer.

  “Give me your will, and together we will become something better.”

  “No, thank you,” Valerie said in a strangled whisper.

  Instinctively we huddled even closer together, and we were now a tight little bundle. I could actually see how hard we were trying to hold on to whatever made us shine. The light itself looked like it was struggling between his pull and our own efforts. I could feel our fear, but I could feel our determination and our stubborn unwillingness to be part of the dragon.

  The dragon smiled broadly now as the last few spirits threw themselves into the mass and finished forming the dragon’s tail. He now was the size of a building and looked down on us with hungry red eyes.

  “We are Legion!” the dragon snarled. “We are of one mind and one will.” Then he laughed thunderously. His voice was the unified sound of all the spirits that formed it.

  We were also of one mind, as we clustered together out of the dragon’s way, and were trying to figure out a way out.

  “We have to leave!” Dorian warned.

  “He will catch us!” Henry cried with a shaky voice.

  “I will not be eaten by that thing!” Valerie said.

  “Me either!” Russell, Alex, and Dane all declared almost at once.

  “Then I suggest we fly!” Dorian yelled as the dragon’s head started coming down on us.

  “No, this way!” Alex shouted, and he led us not away from the dragon but toward it.

  Still clas
ping hands we followed Alex’s lead, as we flew right past the dragon’s head. The dragon swished its tail and broke us up. Dorian, Katie, Henry, and Estelle were on one side of the dragon and the rest of us were on the other.

  We were disoriented for a moment, but then Alex started shouting instructions to Dorian. After some maneuvering we managed to get away from the fast moving tail and reunited.

  “We act as one! You will be Legion!” the dragon yelled.

  By now the pull was even stronger, and even our strong wills were starting to wane.

  “Our auras don’t look good. We have to get out now!” I said.

  Alex looked at me, his face looking pale. He nodded once and, closing his eyes, pulled us straight up.

  “Grab Henry!” I shouted as I looked back and saw that he was leaning in toward the dragon.

  Russell let go of Nancy’s hand and flew down toward Henry. He grabbed his arm and pulled him up to the rest of us.

  The dragon’s wings were now flapping and we barely missed them as we flew straight up.

  We had scarcely cleared the top of the wings when we heard some weird noise coming from within the dragon.

  “Stay together!” the Second One’s voice warned. “We are Legion,” the united voice of the dragon repeated.

  We kept flying as fast as we could, and the dragon was now in hot pursuit, flying swiftly after us. We had no chance of out flying the dragon. It was too fast for us, but we still flew on in spite of evident doom.

  It was about to take the last plunge and overtake us, when the dragon began writhing with unusual force, missing us by inches. Something or someone from within was trying to get out, and was causing the dragon to go into spasms. We took this opportunity to fly off, only turning once to see if we were still being chased.

  “What the…?” Max exclaimed as he saw us flying out of the planet, being chased by the dragon.

  “No time, let’s go!” Alex shouted and grabbed him by the robe and pulled him and Celeste close to our little cluster.

  “NO!” The dragon’s voice was thunderous. “We are…”

  The tail of the dragon twisted to one side and the body jerked to the other, the head swinging from side to side unnaturally. Then something burst out of the head and the whole dragon exploded into smaller pieces. The spirits that made it were being thrown in all directions and the dragon fell apart.

  In the distance we could hear the Second One laughing. His laughter was a strange mixture of rage and pleasure.

  We flew straight to the gathering place after our escape; we had no inclination to wander around the universe. We were among the first spirits to arrive and watched as the rest of the host made their peaceful entrance.

  In the distance I felt Agatha’s presence and turned to face her, while she was still some distance away. She glided straight toward me, looking shaken and less sure of herself.

  “You will never get me to change my mind,” I told her, when she was near me.

  “I know,” Agatha answered casually, like the thought hadn’t even crossed her mind.

  “Then what are you doing here? Trying to see what happy spirits look like?” I said smugly.

  “My version of happy is different from yours. You know, Tess, there are some spirits who I like and some who I hate, you…I happen to hate. Nothing personal, I just do, can’t help myself. Just thinking about all the different ways in which I will enjoy making your mortality miserable makes me happy,” she added brightly.

  “Well, that sounds like fun…for about two millennia—then what? How long can you really stand to watch others from the side lines without being a player yourself? Even if you succeed in making my life miserable, it won’t last. I’ll still have periods of enjoyment that will far outweigh the misery that you might happen to cause me.”

  From the distance we could hear a fresh wave of laughter from my clan, they had been recounting the story about Legion to Celeste and Max—proving my point beautifully in the process.

  “So that’s why you are here? To tell me how much you’ll enjoy making me miserable?” I said with irony.

  “I just wanted to make sure you were aware of how things are really going to be. It might help you in your…preparations,” She said without her usual arrogance.

  “Thanks for the warning. I’ll keep that in mind while I prepare. I’m curious though, why did you guys choose Max, of all spirits, to torture?” I asked.

  “Because, he has a hero complex. He would sacrifice himself for any of his loved ones, even Eros who so obviously betrayed him.” She said with a sneer. “The rest of you are not so self sacrificing.”

  “It sounds to me like Max is not the only one with a hero complex,” I pointed out.

  “Oh yeah, tell me please—I do want to know,” she said greedily. “Any information you can give me will be truly valued.”

  “You.”

  “Me?” She was taken by surprise.

  “You are perfectly willing to sacrifice your own existence—for what? The Second One, Legion? You may have an impact on my mortality, maybe even some of my friends’, but when our lives are over—then what? What’s really in it for you? You will never evolve. This is it for you—a spirit, not even a ghost. You’ll always be a form that will never exist in a tangible way.

  “Really Agatha, I honestly had you pegged for someone who is in it for herself, rather than ‘the hero type’ as you so well put it.”

  “We will possess your bodies,” she refuted.

  “Yeah…you and all the cast-outs will be fighting for the one mortal stupid enough to allow that. It sounds like it will be cramped in there. Good luck!” I said brightly, and turned to leave.

  My words must have struck a chord, because she just hovered there, looking after me, hating me even more for finding her weak spot.

  I turned my head and looked at her over my shoulder, and I saw that Eros was whispering something in her ear. She ignored him for a while, then let out a growl, and was gone in an instant.

  Eros was still looking down, but before he too turned to leave, he exchanged looks with Max. For a moment they stared at each other, and then Eros spun around and flew away after Agatha.

  * * * * *

  Chapter 7

  “Well...for better or for worse the time has come,” Henry announced with a beaming smile. Ever since he was able to use his smuggled alien explosives to save one of our own, he had been in the best of moods. Not that I blame him—it’s Russell and Alex that I blame for keeping the conversation alive by asking him question after question. Henry was bad enough without encouragement; with it he was downright vexing.

  Richard, who left Ishtar before we tried to rescue Max, kept to himself until Max got him to come over. They had a long conversation where they patched things up—Celeste, however, was not part of the patching up—she instead came to my side with a smirk on her face.

  “Go ahead…you can gloat now,” Celeste said the moment she was free of Max’s iron clasp. He only let go of her while he talked to Richard, otherwise they were pretty much an appendage to each other—not that she minded.

  “What, me? I never gloat,” I said faking innocence.

  “Yeah, right,” she said through squinted eyes and pursed up lips.

  “You have to tell me what happened. How did you ever end up going to Ishtar?” I asked.

  She let out a low growl and took my hand just like old times. We glided some distance from the group and floated aimlessly through space. “If you tell anyone I will…never mind…you were right, Richard is an idiot,” she said owning up to her mistake. “All he cares about is himself and anyone who happens to make him feel good at the time.”

  “So…how did you get to Ishtar?”

  “Some females came up to him after one of his speeches and suggested we follow them to a planet where a group of spirits needed his kind of persuasive power, so of course, we did. It was Ishtar, but from above you can’t tell that there’s anything wrong with it. Max and Eros were already there
as if waiting for us and that’s when I realized that something was not right.

  “Max came to my side immediately and told me that I had to leave right away. I had never seen him like that before, he looked very worried, and he begged me to leave. I told him I wouldn’t leave without him, and he said that he couldn’t leave without Eros and Richard, but that I had to leave at once. He said it would be too much, that he wasn’t strong enough to deal with that.

  “You can only imagine that when he said that I was more curious than ever to know what he meant by it. So I insisted, and he just kept being stubborn, until finally I wore him down and he said he loved me and if any harm came to me he could never forgive himself.

  “That’s when a bunch of spirits showed up and Eros told us how he had planned this and had turned out better than he had imagined, and how he would be rewarded and blah, blah, blah. Then Max went crazy and demanded that they take him and let me go, I had no idea where Richard was at that point, it was like he saw trouble and ran for it. Then I looked back at Max and…it hit me!” She looked at me significantly.

  “What, what hit you?”

  She looked at me with dismay. “That I loved him and what an idiot I had been, for not seeing it before.” Her face was expectant like I should be able to relate somehow.

  “So…you are in Max’s clan now?” I asked, a bit bewildered.

  Celeste looked at me like I was an idiot and started to say something about Alex, but he was gliding over to our side, so she just said we would talk about that later.

  “What are you two up to now?” Alex asked brightly.

  “I was just telling Tess that she was right and I was wrong. There. I said it. Are you happy now?” She grinned and bounced off to join Max, and subject herself to his tight grip.

  Right then the Herald’s trumpets started sounding through our calling stones. They were quite musical, and their sound got better as more spirits assembled together. Each individual’s sound coming from each call stone sounded more triumphant and glorious as the crowds increased. Once we were all assembled the music from the trumpets was at its height of beauty and perfection.