by M. R. Forbes
Silas took three quick, long strides towards it and raised his blade. He was silent as he brought it down towards the creature's back.
Thrummm...
They were back in real time. The Shifter moved aside, letting Silas' blade stab the air beside it, and then reached out and grabbed his wrist.
Thrummm...
They vanished. It slammed an elbow back into his face, rocking it backwards and opening the skin below his eye. He threw a stiff punch into its back, scraping his knuckles on the tough hide but getting enough force behind it to make it let go. It kicked backwards, catching him in the gut and sending him sliding across the floor.
Thrummm...
"Silas?" he heard Wilem say. To him, they were changing positions without any time in between.
He rolled backwards to his feet, bringing his ircidium blade up to catch the lightning that launched from the Shifter's free hand. A bright ball of fire rocketed towards the creature.
Thrummm...
The fire sat suspended in time. The Shifter moved to the side to get out of the path. The unintended motion gave Silas the time he needed to get back in motion, and he raced forward towards it.
Something slammed into him, throwing him sideways. He kept moving, rolling along the floor. While they had been in real time, reinforcements had arrived in the distortion.
Silas bounced to his feet and caught the orc's attack. He knocked the blade aside and stabbed it smoothly in the chest. He pulled the sword out and turned away from a second, throwing a punch and knocking it off-balance. He kept rotating, letting his momentum carry his blade into its side and back out again.
Thrummm...
They fell out of the distortion, along with the orcs. Silas heard Wilem shout in surprise, and saw him backing away from a group of Shifters. He heard heavy feet near the back of the room, and risked a glance to see Oz lumbering in.
Thrummm...
They left real time. The Shifter General was easy to see in the distortion as the only thing moving. Silas ran towards it, not wasting the opportunity to run his sword across the soldiers that were trapped out of sync.
He maneuvered past the stationary creatures, and realized he had been wrong.
The Shifter General wasn't the only thing moving.
"Talon," Clau said, a smile spreading on his intense face. "You were telling the truth about the Shifters."
"Are you going to help me?" he asked.
"With this, yes. Once this is done..."
Thrummm...
Time adjusted again. Clau knocked aside the sword of a soldier and stabbed it. "Over there," he said.
The Shifter was heading towards Wilem. The Mediator cast out another ball of fire, but it exploded in the space between them as the General deflected it with magic of its own.
"I'm trusting you, brother," Silas said. He drew back his arm, and threw his blade as hard as he could.
It was perfectly balanced for a sword. It was poorly balanced as a throwing knife. It spun end over end, and struck the creature hard in the temple with the flat of the blade. It wasn't enough to do any damage, but it was enough to redirect its attention.
That was all Silas had been trying to do.
"Yaaaaaaa," he cried out as he charged, unarmed, at the creature. It turned towards him. It could see he was weaponless. There was no ircidium to protect him.
Thrummm...
It couldn't fight him there, where Wilem could attack. It raised its hand, sending a dozen bolts of energy towards him. He turned his body to the side and dove forward, feeling the burning pain as one of the bolts struck his arm and two more grazed his leg. He flipped over and was back on his feet, leaping into the air, coming fast at the Shifter, throwing out his leg to kick it in the chest.
It caught the leg, turning so that it could use his momentum and throw him into the metal wall of one of the reactor components. He hit it hard, feeling his body flex beneath the blow. His eyes were blurry when he looked up at the creature standing over him.
"You lost," Silas said.
It didn't speak. He could tell it had sensed Clau.
Too late.
He smiled as he watched the blade cut easily through the Shifter's neck.
Thrummm...
The head tumbled to the floor. The soldiers around them cried out in fear and shock, and then vanished.
"It comes back," Oz bellowed from across the room.
Silas looked up at Clau, standing over him with his sword in hand. They stared at one another as the heartbeats passed.
Clau held out his hand. Silas took it, and let himself be pulled to his feet.
"Get your sword," he said. "There are still a few left."
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Wilem
Wilem saw his fireball vanish between him and the creature. He felt his heart pounding in his chest, so fast that he thought it would explode. As Silas had warned, he was powerless against this thing.
He was going to die.
Then he saw the blade smack against it. He heard Silas shout, and saw him running. Was that Clau behind him?
An instant later they were all in front of him. The creature's head was falling from its body and onto the floor. Clau was standing over Silas. Wilem didn't dare move. He didn't dare breathe. He called on his Curse, prepared to kill Clau if he tried to hurt the other man.
He didn't. He helped him to his feet.
"Get your sword," Clau said. "There are still a few left." He looked back towards Wilem. "A truce for the moment, son. There are enemies gathered here that are a greater threat than Silas Morningstar and Eryn Albion."
He didn't know what to think, so he didn't even try. He gathered himself and went to where Silas' sword was resting. He picked it up and handed it to him.
"How?"
"Later," Silas said. "Come with us."
"It is running. It is afraid."
The voices sounded in his mind. The juggernauts. He heard their footsteps echoing from somewhere beyond the reactor. They were coming this way.
"It is pleased to kill them all," Oz said. He stopped next to Wilem. A fair amount of its rust had been scratched away, and its blade was slick with blood, but the metal man was unharmed.
Silas and Clau led them forward, across the length of the reactor to the core.
Bang!
They were halfway there when they heard it.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
There was a soft glow that rose up from the core, from the resonance of the ebocite and the surrounding crystals. It vanished beneath a heavy mass.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"What is it?" he asked.
Silas and Clau kept moving, positioning themselves to either side of the entry to the core.
Bang! Bang! Boom!
Something slammed into the doorway. Something big.
Boom! Boom!
Wilem turned away, and saw Eryn in the corner. Tears leapt into his eyes at the sight of her. He forgot all about the creatures that Silas and Clau were chasing. He ran over to where she lay.
"It is running. It is hiding. It is afraid. It is not all afraid. It is large."
A dozen juggernauts arrived at the reactor, their ircidium frames moving as fast as the energy that powered them would allow.
"Hold," he heard Clau say in his mind, sending an order to the metal men. They stopped moving.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Something pounded the doorway, but couldn't get through. The wall was made of ircidium, and it wasn't able to pierce it.
"Eryn?" Wilem leaned down over her. She looked peaceful, almost happy. Except... his eyes landed on her hand. It was gray, thick and scaled like the creatures' were. "Eryn?" Her face was resting on its right side. He put his hand on it, and turned it." Half of her face was grey, her hair solid and stiff, her mouth larger and more full.
She opened her eyes. One of them was the same blue as the eyes on the thing Clau and Silas had just killed. "Wilem? Is that you?" The words sounded distorted.
"I'm here." He twisted, pulling the bag from his back.
"What's happening?" she asked. "I feel strange. I'm scared."
Boom! Boom!
"All is well, my love. Don't be afraid, I'm here."
She smiled. The teeth on her right side were long and pointed. Wilem took out the box and opened it. There was one vial remaining.
"Did you say my love, Wilem? Did I hear that right?"
He hadn't realized he'd said it. He bit his lip. There was no going back now. "Yes, you did. I love you, Eryn. I'm going to save you." He felt the wetness on his cheeks, joining the blood that had dried there and softening it again.
Boom! Boom!
"I know you will," she said. "I love you, too."
He fumbled with the vial and the injector, nearly dropping it.
"I'm going to give you the cure. Its going to put you to sleep for a while. When you wake up, you'll be free of this place, and you'll be well again."
I hope.
"Thank you for saving me, Wilem. I love you."
"Don't thank me," he said, putting the tip of the injector to her neck. "When you wake up, you can thank Silas."
Her eyes grew wide, and her smile grew even larger. He released the blood, watching it drain into her body.
Boom!
Her eyes rolled back in her head, and then closed. She was so still he thought the cure had killed her. "Eryn?" he put his ear to her lips, and felt a soft but steady warmth from them. The box was empty, so he left it there. He picked Eryn up with the greatest care, holding her over his shoulder. "Silas, we need to get her out of here."
Silas was still waiting by the door. He looked across at Clau, who motioned with his hand. They both joined him in the corner.
Boom! Boom!
"There's a dragon in the core," Clau said. "A dragon!"
Boom!
"What's a dragon?" Wilem asked.
"You don't want to know," Silas said. He looked back at the door. "We can't get past it, to the rest of the Shifters. It would take at least half a dozen wizards to try to down a dragon, and we only have one."
He was speaking as if he were a different person... again.
"Talon, tell me if this is crazy, but... I'm thinking we should just leave it be. It has been here all this time, after all."
Silas looked at Clau, and rubbed his chin with his hand. He smiled. "They can't grow their numbers without the elite, which means it will run out of food sooner or later. It's too big to get out without breaking down the walls, and it can't break through ircidium, which means it's trapped. I think there may be one thing we still agree on."
Clau stared at the doorway. A huge talon the size of a man appeared in it.
Boom!
It slammed against the wall again.
"It was an honor to fight by your side again, brother, but we must deal with the other matter," Clau said. He didn't sound pleased about it. "I can't just let you go. You broke the promise."
Wilem started gathering his magic, preparing for a fight, but Silas held up his free hand.
"Wilem, don't. There are too many juggernauts."
He nodded and released it.
"A duel," Clau said, his eyes passing over Silas' wounded shoulder. "I wish it could be on more even footing. In any event, you're surrounded by juggernauts under my control. I don't have to offer you even that much, but I still honor and respect the man that you once were."
Silas' laugh held no humor. "You shouldn't respect me, brother. I've been through too much to let honor guide my path. Right, Oz?"
Wilem didn't know how the metal man had been so quiet. He hadn't even noticed him moving up behind Clau. When his thick blade passed through the General's chest, he jumped back in surprise.
"It is pleased to defend First of Nine," Oz said.
"I'm sorry," Silas said. "You are wrong. He is wrong. I'll go and tell him that myself."
Clau didn't hear him. He was already dead.
CHAPTER FORTY
Silas
They made their way from the reactor. The juggernauts were stationary around them, their last command from Clau telling them to 'hold'. Silas could only hope they would come to life, should the remaining Shifters make an effort to escape the core.
He wasn't thrilled with the idea of leaving any of them alive, but he was certain that if they had never left Genesia before their General had died, they would never leave this place now. Besides, without their leader to care for them and share the energy of the ebocite, and with a hungry, trapped dragon above them, they were as good as dead already.
As for Clau... He felt the sting of remorse for what he had done, but he couldn't justify having done anything else. He was a better swordsman than Clau, but his arm was hurting, and his legs not much better. Even now he walked with a slight limp, absorbing more pain than any normal human could bear.
Of course, he was no normal human.
He couldn't have won in a duel, and they had both known it. Deceit had been his only path. It pained him to do that to someone who he had once shared so much with. They had both been living and working in Genesia when war had come. They had both been transformed into creatures of magic to save mankind from annihilation.
What good is survival, if it turns us against each other?
That was where he kept getting stuck. That was where all of his loyalties and promises fell apart. How many had he killed, to protect his control and preserve his power? How much blood was on his hands? He still didn't think he had a complete accounting of it. He wondered if he ever would.
Murderer.
The Shifters had killed over a million of them. If they had killed a million more since then... all they had succeeded in doing was trading one monster for another. He could see the joy, the brightness, the richness of life in Genesia before they had harnessed the power of the ebocite. Before they had inadvertently brought the Shifters to them, creating a juxtaposition between their worlds, their times.
The war had ended over a thousand years ago. The Shifters were defeated. Why had none of the richness returned?
Silas had tasked Oz to take Eryn back to the shaft, but Wilem had insisted on carrying her, at least until they reached the disc. It would carry them to the ground level of the structure, and from there they would ride the second disc to the top. Silas would make his report, but not the report he was expecting.
He watched the Mediator with her. He couldn't have been more gentle, and his concern couldn't have been more obvious. When Silas had seen Eryn's skin, he had felt a moment of panic as well, but the boy had confided that she was beginning to look better already, now that she had been given the cure.
The cure. They had learned it was no cure at all. It was able to fight back against the Curse, to reduce its numbers and offer some relief, but it was a temporary fix. Could it truly be cured? He didn't know, and they would never know until they found its origin. That was their first goal, once they had left this place. The cure had helped Eryn so far, but he wasn't convinced it would completely reverse the changes she had been undergoing. She needed more, and they had none.
"Oz, can you take Eryn now?" Wilem asked as they entered the shaft and stepped upon the stone.
The crumpled body of a juggernaut lay in the corner. Silas could guess that Clau had somehow ridden the creature down and used it to absorb the impact. How could he have survived that fall? Maybe the duel would have been more fair than he had thought.
"It is pleased to carry it," Oz said, leaning so Wilem could put Eryn over the metal man's shoulder.
Wilem kissed her forehead before the juggernaut straightened, and then took position in the center of the floor. He looked older, more confident. He threw his arms wide and summoned his Curse. "Leva," he said.
The disc began to rise.
They could still feel the vibrations, and hear the booming echoes of the dragon's fits as they reached the ground floor. They walked quickly through a large atrium that had once been filled with thousands of plants and birds, b
ut now was a large, empty, decayed shell.
Like the Empire.
Silas shook his head at the thought. They kept walking.
"Do you think he'll speak to you?" Wilem asked.
Silas shrugged. "I don't know. I don't even know what I'm going to say. How do I put such things into words?"
"When the emotions come, the words will come with them," Wilem said.
They reached the base of the structure, where the stone disc rested and the tower rose so high above them that they couldn't see the top. Silas took deep breaths as Wilem used his Curse to lift them once more. They floated through the tower, up and up for what felt like ages. With each heartbeat, they drew a little closer to the stone that he knew would be at the summit. With each heartbeat, his anger grew.
The stone reached the top of the tower, making a perfect seal and completing the floor of the topmost room. Inside the room, against the northern wall was a pedestal, with the farspeak stone floating a few inches above it. On the eastern floor rested a small wooden hatch, a hatch that the Generals must have gone through so many times over the years to make their reports.
Silas didn't say anything to them. He walked straight over to the stone. He could feel his ebocite heart thrumming to be so near to it, and without prompting it began to spin.
They waited while it gained momentum, rotating vertically at first, and then adding a tilt to its axis. It turned faster and faster, until it didn't look like it was turning at all.
"Talon." The voice was soft and cold, confident and sure. "It is too late for you to make your report." A pause. "Did you kill him?"
"Clau?" Silas asked. "You left me little choice. Rossum? Yes, him as well."
A long silence. So long they wondered if he had left them.
"The promise is broken," he said. "I always feared it might be, but I never expected it would be you."
"Why not? You lied to me. You tricked me. You used me." Wilem was wrong. The emotions were leaving him struggling to find the right words. "I'm going to find you, Jeremiah. I'm going to find you, and I'm going to kill you. I'm going to set these people free."