by M. R. Forbes
A figure appeared in the stone. The creature with the wooden gray skin.
"It can't be." Silas dropped the paper he was holding and stumbled to the stone. "It's impossible."
The monster was standing over Eryn, looking down at her.
"What is that thing?" Wilem asked.
"An ancient enemy. Long extinct."
"It doesn't look extinct."
"No."
The creature turned and looked up, its blue eyes catching the ball. Wilem felt like it was looking right at them.
Before he could move, Silas had his sword in hand, and he brought it down on the stone. The ircidium blade sparked as it dug halfway through.
"We need the map, now!" Silas' face had turned pale, and he attacked the shelves on the opposite side of the room.
Wilem dug into a shelf of his own, throwing books aside and glancing at the papers. He hadn't gotten far when he felt his Curse tingle.
"They're coming," he said. The fear grew nearly unbearable in the space of a heartbeat. "A lot of them, I think."
"Likely all of them," Silas said. He reached up to a top shelf and pulled down a rolled up page. "This is it. We need to get someplace safe so we can figure out where to go."
"Wizard. It has activated the eye. It must be destroyed."
Wilem gripped his head, squeezing his eyes tight and forcing his magic inward. "Silas!" He wasn't sure he could control it. There were too many, and the fear was too great.
Silas ran to the doorway. They could hear the echoes of the juggernauts now, closing in on them from both sides.
"Too late," he said. "There has to be another way."
He fell to his his knees and unrolled the map, using his finger to find their position. The footsteps grew louder.
"Wilem, kill Talon, and I will save you."
Wilem felt his stomach drop. That wasn't the voice of a juggernaut. It was General Clau.
"Wilem, she's put a spell on you. Whatever she told you, it is a lie. That is what they do, Wilem, the Liar and his Whore."
He looked at Silas, who was staring closely at the map. The noise outside was growing so loud, they had to be so close.
"Kill him, Wilem. You'll be a hero. Trust me, son."
It would be so easy. Take the sword, and cut off Silas' head while he was staring at the map. He could survive this. He could get out of Genesia alive.
Without Eryn.
"No," he shouted out loud.
Silas stood up and approached him, ignoring his outburst. "Wilem, we need your Curse. There is another room below this one. They'll have to go all the way around to get down there. You need to get us through, and then use the cure so that the juggernauts can't find you."
"Very well. I'm sorry, Wilem. I have no choice but to kill you, too."
Wilem looked from Silas, to the floor.
"Through the floor?"
"Yes. I know you can do it. Eryn has stopped time itself. This must be easier."
He'd never done it. He'd never heard of anyone doing it. It should be possible, shouldn't it? If he could make plants grow from nothing in an instant, or create light from nowhere?
He let his Curse come forth. It filled his whole body in an instant, leaving it tingling. "Conficio," he said, pushing his hand against the floor. It rocked and quivered as though it was made of cloth, and then vanished.
They fell through the newly made hole, along with one of the bookshelves. It was a twelve foot drop, and they hit the ground hard, though Wilem hardly felt it at all.
"Let it go," Silas said through gritted teeth.
His Curse was out of control. The juggernauts were so close, and it fought to escape by keeping the power flowing. "I can't. I can't get it to stop."
Silas rolled to his feet. "Then I'm sorry for this, my boy."
Wilem saw the shine of Silas' blade rise up, and then he saw the pommel coming down at his head.
He didn't have time to move.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Silas
Silas lowered Wilem to the floor, shifting him on his side so he could remove his pack and pull it open. He heard the footsteps of the juggernauts above them. They moved into the room, and then backed out. They would know that Wilem was down here, and they would come. It was up to him to get him out before that happened.
He opened the pack. The box was easy to find in there, and he took it out and undid the clasps, thankful it hadn't been crushed in the fall. Flipping it open, his eyes travelled from the vials of blood to the small instrument used to inject it. He pulled both from the box and examined them, trying to figure out how to use it.
"It is damaged."
The voice came from inside the room. Silas lifted his head, looking around for the first time.
They were in a storage room of some kind, lit by white stones that made a ring around the walls. In one corner was a pile of worn gears and pistons. Next to it were shelves with boxes of small parts that appeared unused.
"It is not alone."
Silas spun on his heels, surveying the rest of the room. A pile of arms, legs, torsos, and heads came into view. One of the heads had a gold light shining from its eyes.
"It is..." The words sounded from an immovable mouth, muffled by its passage through the ircidium. The juggernaut didn't finish the sentence.
Silas returned his attention to Wilem. He manipulated the vial and the injector, until he managed to get both to fit together. He wouldn't have known where to put it, except there was a bruise and scab where Wilem had injected himself the last time. Silas sunk the point in and released the blood.
Wilem gasped, his body straightening and relaxing.
"It is coming," the juggernaut said.
Silas ignored it, returning the box to the pack, and the pack to his shoulder. He lifted Wilem, and then picked up the map and shoved it in the back of his pants. They needed to get away from this room, far away, before the others could descend to this level. He found the door and reached for the handle.
"Does it not remember it?"
He stopped, turned around, and approached the pile of parts. Any memory could help him recover something that could be useful.
"Should I?"
"It is One Zero. It is damaged. It is coming."
Silas stared at the head. It was coated in a thick layer of rust. Two of the long spikes on its crown were missing, and the corner was dented inward. "It means nothing to me. What is coming?"
"The enemy. It is coming. It does not fear it. It is not to be feared. It is confused."
"Confused? How?"
"It has no orders. It is told to wait in here. It is told it is done. It is coming. How can it be done?"
Silas turned back towards the door. Wilem was limp over his shoulder. He couldn't fight like this.
"Get up," Silas said. The juggernaut didn't move. Silas growled and faced the metal man. "Get up, One Zero. That's an order."
He could hear the turning of the gears, and a small gout of mist sprayed from the juggernaut's neck. Metal crashed around it as it pulled its eight foot frame to a standing position.
"It is up, my Lord."
"You won't stay up for long like that, will you?" Silas asked. The ircidium man was rusted and dented, battered and bent. It was missing an entire arm, as well as its sword. It was different than the one he had destroyed. It was thicker, heavier, more primitive.
"I need you to carry the boy. Do not let any harm come to him. Do you understand, One Zero?"
"Yes, my Lord. It is pleased to be of service."
It sounded pleased when it spoke, but the juggernauts were creatures of ebocite and ircidium. They didn't have emotions, or feelings. Only directives and orders.
It approached Silas with a loud clanging of feet and grinding of metal. Its arm reached out to take Wilem, and Silas handed him over.
"You will only take orders from me. That is an order."
"Yes, my Lord. It is pleased to follow First of Nine." It held Wilem over its shoulder without any hint of
difficulty. A drop of dark blood fell from its elbow joint. "It is minor," it said when Silas glanced at the drip. "It has fluid on the shelf. It would be pleased if First of Nine would take the fluid and put it in its bag."
Silas looked over to the shelf. There was a stack of round, metal containers there. "This?" he asked, picking one up.
"Yes."
Silas shoved two of them in his bag and returned it to his back. Then he opened the door.
A gray face greeted him, teeth bared and hands slashing at his chest. Silas stepped backwards and drew his sword while the creature hopped towards him.
A heavy ircidium boot caught it full in the side, sending it hard into the wall. Bones shattered beneath the force, and it crumpled in a heap.
"It is sorry. It did not wait for its order."
Silas couldn't keep himself from smiling. He couldn't remember yet where the juggernaut had come from, but he could guess why they had sent it to the scrap pile.
"I don't care if you kick every monster that comes near us, but don't let anything happen to the boy."
"Yes, my Lord. It is pleased to fight."
Silas tried the door again. The hallway was empty. The single creature had likely come to investigate the noise they had made when they came through the floor.
"I know quiet is difficult for a thing like yourself, One Zero, but do your best."
"Yes, my Lord." The juggernaut shuffled forward behind him, its feet rising only an inch off the floor before coming down again. The motion made less noise than Silas had dared hope for. "It is quiet."
Silas sheathed his sword again and withdrew the map. He unrolled it in his hands, and traced a line from their position. They would need to go down, way down. There was a set of stairs on the east and west ends, and a single shaft to the south. They were closest to the west stairs, which meant that was the direction the juggernauts were likely to be massing.
"Follow me," he said, moving along a long, dim corridor towards the east end. The juggernaut followed behind him, keeping its feet low and bending at the knees, propelled forward with a strange but effective gait that made only the slightest whisper of sliding metal.
"Where is it going?" it asked.
"We need to get to the reactor."
"It is not safe."
"How do you know?"
"It is here. It hides. One Zero has heard it."
Silas pictured the creature's face again, and the blue eyes that seemed to look right through him. He had recognized the face as soon as he had seen it.
I killed you, all those years ago. I broke you, and it broke your army.
He stopped walking, putting his hand up on the wall and and closing his eyes. He could almost see it now. He could almost feel it.
Ares-Nor.
Two hundred thousand soldiers had gathered there to face down the enemy horde. Two hundred thousand mortal souls, one thousand wizards, five thousand juggernauts, and the Nine, assembled to cast off the foothold of the Shifters, who were outnumbered nearly ten to one.
The odds were against the humans before the battle had ever started.
Fire and lightning had rained from the sky, metal had crashed and clanged, and thousands upon thousands had died. They had numbers on their side, but the Shifters had time and wizardry of their own, as well as the massive flying beasts that laid waste to everything around them. The dragons. There were only three, but three was enough.
Silas put his hand to his chest, tracing the scar along it and remembering.
He had reached their General. He had put his sword into its gut, just before the dragon had swooped in and raked him across the chest, throwing him dozens of feet away and leaving him with a wound that would have been fatal for anyone else. The creature had been crumpled in the mud, its blue blood spreading freely across the field, the beast sitting over it, protecting it from further attack. The other Shifters had seen their leader fall, and in that moment their war had been lost.
Forever.
Or so he had thought. Somehow, it was still alive. Somehow, it had escaped the massacre that followed, and found its way to Genesia.
Through the subroute. It must have come through the subroute. Some of them survived.
He opened his eyes. He remembered the creatures from the Rushes. They had been so similar to the Shifters, but he had never seen any that looked like that before.
"It is damaged?" the juggernaut asked.
"No, I'm fine," Silas said. "We need to go down there, One Zero. We need to find it, and destroy it." He took a deep breath and started moving again.
"It is pleased to destroy it."
###
They managed to hide from the juggernauts when they appeared at the east stairs. There were ten in the group, but whether that was all of them or not was unclear. Silas had been expecting them to go west, and just the fact that any had come that way was curious.
Until he saw Clau.
The General came up behind the juggernauts, a few minutes after they had gone past and spread out. They were hiding in a small storage room, filled with metal cans similar to the liquid One Zero had asked for, but the creature had said that these were filled with food.
"It is for First of Nine, if First of Nine is broken."
Clau had stood right outside the door where they were hiding, his head raised into the air and his eyes closed. He wasn't listening for signs of them. When Silas saw the grey stone around the man's neck, he was certain he was listening to, and communicating with, the juggernauts.
He left a couple of minutes later, walking off to the west at a pace both purposeful and calm. Even as he did, two of the metal men had returned, taking up a position in front of the stairs. Silas considered simply destroying them and moving on, but he knew Clau well enough to know that it was a trap.
Which meant there was only one other way down, and the only person who could get them there was unconscious, with a nice sized lump on his head.
"Wilem," Silas whispered, leaning his face in over the boy's. He had lifted him from One Zero's shoulder, not wanting the juggernaut to move for fear of being heard, and laid him on the ground at the creature's rusted feet. "Wilem."
He has a certain plain handsomeness to him, I suppose. Eryn's first crush? A love formed in the heat of emotion? Or something real and lasting, like Alyssa and I?
He shook his head. He didn't know if Alyssa was real, or if she had ever loved him at all. The memories were there, but now they felt so incomplete. It was strange to think that the ring he had given her had broken him from the unnatural control he had put him under.
Wilem's eyes fluttered, rolling behind his lids.
"Wilem," Silas said again. "Wake up, my boy. Eryn needs you."
He opened his eyes, and put his hand to his head while he groaned. "Silas?"
One Zero bent over and tilted his head to look down. When Wilem saw him he tried to back away, which only pushed him harder against the creature's legs.
"It is well," Silas said. "This one is on our side."
"It is pleased to follow First of Nine," One Zero said.
Wilem didn't look convinced, but he stopped trying to escape. "The Curse isn't responding to it."
"One Zero is older than the others roaming Genesia, though I assume that much was obvious by his condition."
"It is broken. It is minor. It is pleased to fight."
"One Zero?" Wilem asked. "Oz?"
The juggernaut made a wheezing sound that might have been mistaken for laughter, had it been truly capable of such emotion. "One Zero is Oz, yes. It is pleased."
Silas held out his hand and helped Wilem to his feet. "I'm sorry about your head. How does it feel?"
"There are three of you right now, but I know the proper one is in the center. I'll live. You did what you had to do, my Curse would have gotten us caught or killed."
Silas took out the map and unrolled it. "We're here," he said. "We need to get over here. There are at least ten juggernauts down here with us. Two near the stairs,
and eight wandering the halls. Do you feel them?"
"No, but the cure helps calm things a bit."
"If they were close, would you still feel it?"
"Yes."
"Then they aren't close. With your help, we should be able to avoid them and get to the shaft. There is one complication."
"General Clau," Wilem said.
Silas bunched his forehead. "How did you know?"
"He was... talking to me, the way the juggernauts do. He told me... He told me if I killed you, he would forgive me. He said I had fallen for your lies, and Eryn's... um..."
"You needn't say it. Thank you for not killing me."
Wilem smiled. "You're welcome."
"It is ready," Oz said.
"Are you ready?" Silas asked.
"Yes. Did you say we needed to get to a shaft?"
"There is a shaft that drops to a room next to the reactor. We can reach Eryn from there, but we'll need your magic again to do it."
"What do I have to do?"
"At the bottom of the shaft should be a round, stone platform. You need to bring it up to us." That was how the wizards had travelled down to the reactor, and up to the tower. He didn't recall seeing them do it, but he knew it to be true.
"I can't lift solid stone like that. I'm not strong enough."
"You have to be. The ebocite will help you."
"How do you know? Are you remembering?"
Silas shook his head. "Bits and pieces only. There is one other thing I am gaining understanding of."
"What's that?"
"Aren was wrong about the Curse. We've always had the power. The wizards. The things living inside of you, they don't belong, but the magic doesn't come from them. They feed on it, but it comes from you." He put his hand to his head. Catching one memory had led him to another. "The ebocite... The resonance..." The words came slowly as he pieced them together. "It is like taking a thousand wizards and placing them inside a crystal. It creates power. Immense power. The power to do anything."
He fell to his knees, the rush of memories coming on too strong. It blended together, such that he could barely tell one from another.
"Silas?" Wilem put a hand on his shoulder.