So good.
“Don’t tell my parents,” she said as she chewed. “If you happen to see them. They’re with Bianca’s parents, I think.”
“I know.”
“I don’t want them to know anything till this is over.”
“I won’t tell them.”
“Thanks, Mike,” she said between mouthfuls. He started eating. “You’ve been such a big help.”
“Of course,” he shrugged it off. Everything, all of it, nothing at all. No biggie. Just a fun day with his Ex, helping her help the resistance so they could fight the aliens.
Yep, she thought, this works way better with kids as the heroes.
“Your help has been huge.” She cut another bite of waffle and dragged it around the butter/syrup goo. “You can’t know how important this is.” She felt so exposed standing there in the open, eating off the trunk of a car beneath the glow of the sign. Such fantastic things at stake. “They’re counting on me.” That was true, though not in the way she made it sound. No particular person or group of people was counting on her specifically to do this. What she did she did at her own insistence. A risk she took, by choice, because what it meant to everyone everywhere …
That could not be overstated.
But as Mike looked at her in the yellow light he was remarkably sublime.
“I know,” he said. “I always knew. Even back then, when you were Quiet Jess in the corner. I had a feeling even then there was way more to you than what we all saw on the surface.” He eased a bit of his admiration. “I sure didn’t think any of this,” he looked around, as if surprised by the scale of what she was involved in. “Why would I? But I knew there was more to you.” And he was looking into her eyes, with a calm, with an ease she couldn’t recall ever having experienced from him. In all those months they went out he never looked at her like he was looking at her now. “Even then I saw you were a giant. There’s a reason I was always nervous around you. I felt it then, all the time, and I understand it now. You’re amazing, Jess. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one.”
She wasn’t sure what to say. She’d stopped chewing, and realized all at once she probably looked pretty dorky right then, one cheek stuffed with a mouthful of food, jaw slack; looking into his eyes and feeling she might finally have met the real Mike.
He’d certainly met the real her.
She swallowed the food, a big lump, not fully chewed, but she swallowed it and her mouth was clear, and she rose a little to her toes and gave him a kiss. A syrupy kiss, right on the lips, for old times, lips to lips, a loving kiss and nothing more.
“Thank you,” she said as she went back to standing flat on her feet. “For everything.” He smiled, she felt a little awkwardness creep in, at least for her, and turned back to the job at hand. Eating. “And thanks for this,” she resumed. “This is so delicious.”
“You were so happy when Waffle House came to town. You really loved it.”
She really did.
They ate on, mostly in silence. He finished first, of course. His leisurely pace was still faster than her hungry one. Same old Mike. When she was done she bagged up the garbage and got the briefcase out of the backseat.
Mike didn’t ask when he would see her again, and she, in turn, didn’t say something untrue like See you later. It was a difficult good-bye, and it was incredible of him, so understanding, to just let her walk off into the woods, no further questions, and as she slipped away into the trees she hoped he would be okay. That he wouldn’t come under scrutiny, knowing that in a way it didn’t matter. The shit was about to hit the fan and she privately willed him to just survive. Do that, she thought, and, in the end, the rest will work out.
Soon she was far enough into the dark woods to no longer be able to see the big yellow sign behind her. It was tall, it was bright, but eventually she saw nothing in her periodic glances back.
At that point she stopped and set down the case, reached in her little pouch and took out the cigar Heath gave her back in the safe house. She admired it a moment, burped up the taste of hastily-eaten waffle, bit the tip, stuck it in her mouth and lit it with the plasma torch. As she did she had a feeling Pete would’ve found the torch as cool as Heath’s tri-jet. Maybe even cooler.
She took a few puffs to get it going, picked up the case and started walking.
In a sense her mission would never be complete, and so here, upon the successful recovery of the monumental Codex Amkradus, hidden for a thousand years, was as good a time as any for the celebratory smoke. She flexed her grip on the handle of the case as she walked. The softly changing embers at the tip of the cigar were mesmerizing in the deep dark, glowing and dimming as she puffed. Weak as it was the little light could give her away out there in the woods, but then so could lots of things. She herself was a heat signature, uniquely human, and if the Kel had their eyes on that area a cigar wouldn’t make it any worse.
Somehow she didn’t care.
She reached a break in the woods, skirted the edge of the trees to the next, crossed over and continued toward the hills. Soon she began to see a few artificial lights here and there in the distance. One of those neighborhoods was hers.
She kept trudging along.
There was little light from the quarter moon. Stars filled the heavens, so dense that the shapes of trees and hills were outlined against their glow on the horizon. She drew deeply on the cigar and blew a ring, the white of the smoke ghostly as it drifted in the celestial light. Truly a fine cigar. A primo stick, as Pete said. Smooth. Good draw.
She made the hills and began making her way up and down the natural trails, finding her way on instinct. Not only had she been here recently, she’d been here many times in the past, long ago. The placement of the gate a thousand years before had been at her direction.
At the crest of a hill the neighborhoods came into clear view, spread out into the valley below, beyond them the lights of the city. She paused to take it in.
Beautiful.
She took another puff.
After a few minutes she continued on, up the hill the rest of the way, no sign of Kel, no sign anyone had come. The hole where she dug her way out of the little cave was there, same as she left it. A very small opening, not obvious at all now that she saw it from this side. She made her way through, waiting until she was all the way in before flipping on the little LED light. The cave came alive in its harsh blue-white light.
There was the gate.
On the other side, Hamonhept. Arclyss might be waiting. It had been a while. Absently she wondered how long before Bianca and Nani checked for her on the other side. Maybe they’d already been. Even if they had she knew they would check back.
She set the briefcase on a boulder and stood there many long minutes, just relaxing, puffing the cigar, feeling how much she’d earned that pause. Savoring every bit of sensory joy there was to be had in that brief slice of time.
After a while she chomped the stogie between her teeth, reached back and drew the sword. She went to the gate, found the key slot, put the tip to the edge and …
Shoved it in.
The gate came alive. Same crackle of sudden energy she remembered, blue iris fanning around and across from the edges. As it connected she felt the nerves she’d been suppressing, having been uncertain if, after all this, the gate would work again.
But it did. And now the way was open.
She sheathed the sword, took one more puff and dropped the cigar, crushed it beneath her boot, flipped off the LED light and retrieved the case. Electric blue light from the gate played across every surface. She faced the opening, flexing her grip on the handle. Walked right up to the edge; felt the subtle tingle of electric power, static charging the air.
Took a deep breath.
And stepped through.
To the other side. That same feeling of dramatic displacement, getting so familiar now, and she was clear and stepping into the cavern she remembered below the Necrops. Torches burned around the space. The statue of her
ancient form, Aesha, loomed.
Galfar was there.
She saw him at once, alone in the giant room.
“Galfar!” she resisted the urge to run to him—long enough to find the key slot on this side of the gate, insert the sword and shut it off.
The portal collapsed and the gate was inert. She withdrew the sword and sheathed it, leapt to the floor and rushed to her old mentor.
“Galfar!” How was Galfar here?! “What are you doing here?” Immediately she began wondering what had happened in her absence. Whatever it was it wasn’t good. Galfar was thrilled to see her, but worried, and his tight-lipped greeting confirmed her own worry as she reached him. She held back the urge to grip him in an embrace. He looked frail. And troubled.
Instead she took his hand.
He troubled smile became a frown. “War has come.”
- PART TWO -
CHAPTER 40: INTO THE FIRE
They’d been once. For a day. Bianca’s impatience drove that visit, though Nani was interested to see for herself, to have a look at this new world, a world from Kel legend, and so she agreed and they went. Hamonhept turned out to be beautiful, with its blue-giant motherworld that looked like Saturn, but there’d been no sign of Jess.
And so they returned. To Anitra, where they were now, and the tons of things happening in order to prepare and send their armies to Earth to fight a war against the Kel. There was still so much to do. On top of that borderline hopelessness, for Bianca, was the additional and constant worry, nagging, the empty feeling that wouldn’t change until she held Jessica in her arms and confirmed she’d made it. Even with that horrible emptiness, though, coupled with the crushing scale of the impossible future ahead …
Bianca was pretty sure she’d never felt happier.
Truly. Nani made her sing. No boy had ever made her feel this way, and she was absolutely blown away by the power of the passion she’d been sitting on. How had she never seen it?! After the kiss … Such heaven, floodgates released, pouring into an unrelenting happiness since that moment; an ecstasy that, truthfully, defied reason. It was a uniquely challenging bliss to be fighting as she worked each moment to keep her focus on the important things at hand. War was coming. Big, interplanetary war, about to take place on her world, Earth. Preparations on Anitra were nearly complete, no more reason to wait, tensions across the world high. Deadly anticipation.
She giggled. Sitting in the cantina alone, waiting on her scientist lover, wrestling with that same rush of feelings, that persistent conflict of emotion.
At the moment they were in Osaka, fine tuning ways the Reaver could be used to disrupt Kel command and control. Though many scientists were involved by now, Nani continued to run the show. She was tying it all together and had been from the start, driving it, even as Bianca continued to play her role.
They’d had another discussion earlier that day, at Darvon’s house, which had become their sort of de facto landing pad. The place they went to in the moments between the flurries of demands, to get away, to grab brief snatches of home. To pretend they had a life. They’d become closer friends with Egg, and Egg’s desire to be involved was quite clear. Egg wanted to come the next time they went to check for Jess. Darvon too. The Hestron’s argument was that there was no danger in it, Nani and Bianca were going to get Jess from a world no one knew of but them. There was no reason not to let them tag along, though their eager insistence made the whole thing seem more like a party than a mission.
For the moment Bianca waited in the cantina for Nani to see what she would say. They’d been planning the next time. The next trip to check. And as Nani walked in Bianca could tell by the look on her face the time was now.
They were going to Hamonhept.
**
Galfar was overjoyed, impatient and worried all at the same time. He squeezed Jessica’s hand, so happy to see her—our priestess has returned!—so much to tell her, but the Fist were loose in the city and it was only a matter of time before they discovered this room. He’d been afraid every moment they would find it and destroy the gate before she could make it through. They hadn’t, Jessica was here, she made it in time—she made it!—he was filled with relief and ...
All he could do was frown.
“The Necrops is under siege,” he told her. He noticed the polished metal case in her hand, exquisitely formed; some godlike technology from whence she came. He had no doubt she’d found what she went for. In that amazing case must surely be the Codex Amkradus. Could it save them from the current threat?
“Under siege?” she asked. “By who? The Fist?”
An obvious conclusion. Of course the Fist were the biggest danger. He could see all the questions in her face.
He nodded. “Arclyss called for a meeting with Cheops. Soon after that the Fist Lord circled the city and declared war. Even now some of his army has made it within the city walls.”
A dark cloud came over Jessica’s expression. Galfar watched as she looked up, around the cavernous room. They were alone. One of Arclysses’ generals was outside, a few of the Forgotten with him, ready to defend the gate room if need be. Right then they were safe. The Necrops was huge. But the Fist were searching.
Jessica returned her attention to him, eyes brighter and more yellow even than when he last saw her. She’d gained strength. It was clear she’d continued to grow. Wherever she’d been … she was now a true priestess, had indeed found herself, and he felt humble before her.
“Where is Cheops?” she asked, the darkness expanding across her countenance. For a moment Galfar feared for poor Cheops.
“On the field of battle, as I last knew.”
His priestess seemed to be calculating things.
Deciding what to do next.
“Is there something I can ride? A mount? A chariot? I must face him.”
“Erius is here,” said Galfar.
And at the mention of Erius the dark cloud flickered briefly. He could see she relished the prospect of that reunion.
**
Cee Ranok, queen of the Kel, Tremarch, was at an impasse. Torn. The conquest of another world was not supposed to go this way. It was supposed to unite them, not further divide their ranks, and she was unclear on the best path forward. She paced in her private stateroom, debating her next action. Voltan was with her aboard her flagship, not prisoner, not yet—that would surely not fly in the current, heated climate—but he was held under order, awaiting her next command. She’d been of a mind to go back to Kel, to arrange some sort of spectacle with the key human captives, presidents and kings, maybe a parade or a broadcast, showing the results of the invasion, maps of the human world, demarcations of previous political lines, maybe even with each leader overlaid. A dissection of their conquest. A public display followed by executions. Something to rally the fraying populace.
But she could not decide.
It wasn’t as if things were utterly falling apart. But with the rise of the Prophecy fanatics and the erosion of her hold over Voltan and certain of the officers beneath her, neither were things getting better. The writing was on the wall and something needed to be done.
“My queen,” the comm in her stateroom interrupted her thoughts. She’d stopped to stand to one side, staring at a large monitor and its display of the conquered world below. The call was from the admiral in charge of her flagship; senior officer aboard, next to Voltan. She straightened the fur wrap at her shoulders.
“Video.”
His face came on the screen. “We have discovered something of interest.”
This made her heart skip.
“Yes?”
“We detected a unique signal, in an area where we’ve had our focus. Weak,” he said. “We might’ve missed it otherwise. It came from the area where the battle with the super-human took place. Boise, the city is called.”
The herald! The thought blasted immediately to mind. But it had to be.
She masked her surprise. “What sort of signal?” One of the devices? Had the gi
rl returned? Popped back to her home after running away?
“We thought one of the transit devices at first,” her admiral said. Her heart had started racing. “But upon investigation it turned out to be a larger device. A ring gate. We’ve only just uncovered it.”
A ring gate? “You’ve located it?”
“Yes, my queen. We sent down a craft at its detection.” As far as Cee knew her admiral was not aligned against her.
“Tell me of the gate.”
“Preliminary evaluation of the signal and the device tell us it’s a connecting point.”
“Where does it go?”
“Unknown at this stage.”
Wherever it went, the herald either went there or came from there. With no further information than that Cee knew it with a certainty.
She started for the door and her bridge, speaking as she went.
“Secure it. Bring it up.”
CHAPTER 41: EXPOSED
Jess charged through the streets of the ruined city. Erius was stoked to be with her again, having practically knocked her over during their hurried reunion. Now he was showing off, how fast he could run, the solid echo of his heavy hooves reverberating from the close confines of the decaying buildings as he tore up the ancient streets, cutting sharp corners with serious force, leaning hard into each turn and surging ahead to speed, faster and more lithe than a horse half his size, making toward the edge of the city.
It wasn’t long before they met their first resistance.
“Move!” she threw out a hand, knocking the unsuspecting Fist warrior clean from his mount. Erius plowed on, scaring the Fist’s horse into a stand on its hind legs and a frightened neigh, stumbling backward and out of the way as the giant galloped past at full speed, slowing for nothing.
Two more Fist came into the street ahead, flanking each other, side-by-side and charging head-on.
Star Angel: Prophecy Page 47