Emergence (The Infernal Guard Book 1)

by SGD Singh

  Hitting the speaker button, Lexi shouted, “Dad?”

  “Lexi?” Philip Hewitt's voice filled the room. “Is everything alright there?”

  Glancing around at everyone, Lexi said, “All right where?”

  “Infernal Guard training. Where else?”

  Lexi and Asha gawked at each other.

  “Hello? Are you still there, sweetheart?”

  “Uh, yeah… I'm here, Dad. Everything is… okay, I guess.” She shrugged, miming blowing her head off and going cross-eyed.

  “Listen to me, Lexi. You need to go and find someone in charge right now. Tell them I spoke to Shaan, their Collector, moments ago, and he is most definitely not himself. Tell them immediately, do you understand?”

  Lexi nodded to Nidhan, who ran from the room.

  Aquila pulled out his phone, thumbs typing.

  “Okay, Dad. Someone is telling them now,” Lexi said. “What—I mean, how… ?”

  Philip Hewitt laughed. “Our family has been one of The Guard's main donors for generations. I think some distant great-great-grandmother was a Healer or something.”

  Lexi closed her eyes. “So I… will definitely have no Talent?” Her voice was almost a whisper.

  “Is that what you're worried about?” He sounded surprised. “Honey? Listen… oh, heck, I guess this is as good a time to tell you as any…” He was quiet for a long moment, and Lexi looked from Mia to Asha nervously. They heard him sigh. “You… you're adopted, Lexi. Your parents were Talented Guard members from Norway. There was a… a fight. And they… didn't survive. The decision was made to raise you Innocent and I volunteered to adopt you.”

  Lexi sat unmoving, pale as a marble statue.

  “Are you there, pumpkin? Look… I planned on telling you someday, sweetheart, and not over the phone, obviously, but now with you, of all people, worried about having no Talent, I—”

  “All these years I thought you were my father!” Lexi said. “What the hell, Dad? Aunt Penelope told me that my mother died in childbirth, for Christ's sake! She was graphically specific!”

  “Yeah, about your Aunt Penelope. She's never liked that I'm gay, so she took it upon herself to—”

  “You're gay?” Lexi blinked at Asha, who shrug-nodded. So what? “How could I not know you're gay?” But a second later, Lexi shook her head. “Secrets and lies… and you're part of The Guard! What else are you not telling me? Do you sell endangered species to make money? Did you… did you ever even care about me at all?” Lexi's eyes shone, and Asha motioned to ask her if she wanted them to go out. She waved a hand and shook her head irritably.

  “Of course!” Mr. Hewitt shouted. “Look, sweetheart, if this is all too upsetting, we can have Stevens bring you home. I don't wa—”

  “No, no, I'm fine,” Lexi said, waving at Asha to sit back down. “It's training year, Dad. I'm not leaving!” She studied the ceiling as if its presence offended her. “But you better tell me everything you know about my parents.”

  “All right, honey. I'll have our people put together a file on them right away. Everything we can find out, you'll know. And I promise, sugarplum, no more lies. Is that satisfactory?”

  Lexi frowned, then slowly smiled. “I guess…”

  “Is there anything else you need?”

  “Nothing that immediately comes to mind.”

  “If you think of anything, tell Stevens, okay? I'll be traveling for the next month. Be good, and give my love to Asha.” He hung up.

  Lexi stared at Asha. “Holy shit!” She waved her hands around. “I mean… what the fu—”

  Asha grinned. “It actually explains a lot, when you think about it.”

  Mia giggled, singing, “And your birthday's coming up, munchkin! This is gonna be fun.”

  “You two are no help.” Lexi got up, moving to the door.

  “No, sugarplum,” Mia called. “What he can help you with, we definitely can't do.” She dodged an apple Lexi threw at her before she slammed the door. “I'm going too, Asha. We'll see you later.” Mia kissed Asha on the cheek and nodded toward Aquila, who sat ignoring them, his nose back in his book, and winked. “Try to rest.”

  Chapter 42

  The last notes of a slowed-down version of Albert Zabel's Sad Marguerite at the Spinning Wheel faded from the balcony, and Asha looked up to see Aquila watching her silently from the doorway.

  “Can you explain all this portal-doorway-between-worlds stuff?”

  Aquila lowered himself into a chair with a shrug. “Explain? I doubt anyone can really explain it. There's a bunch of technical stuff in the books, but it's pretty dry and vague. From what I understand, there are certain points on the planet, like a triangulated pattern, where the… fabric between worlds is thinner. Our Infernal Guard Headquarters sit on those points, protecting each vulnerable area with layers of security and qualified warriors. There hasn't been a breach from the lower realms in… nearly nine hundred years? All the Underworlders we deal with have been here since then, with the exception of a few nasties from the neighboring world Witches conjur—which sets off alarms and gets a lot of Witches killed.”

  “So you're saying that in one… breach, a whole hell of a lot of Underworlders got in.”

  “Yeah.” Aquila stared into the fog. “They say that portal stayed open for days before it was destroyed. Witches can only open portals for a matter of minutes. I think they're called Flash Portals.”

  “Where was it? The breach, I mean.”

  “The North Pole. Ever since then, its twin portal at the South Pole has been… wonky. Finally, about three hundred years ago, we just abandoned it to frozen holy water and a few tripwires. There hasn't been any Underworlder activity at all there for double that time.”

  Asha smiled. “Well, at least we won't get posted there.”

  “Yeah, but if you can destroy portals or fortify the weak spots, you might practice with that one, since it's mostly destroyed anyway. Of course, there's nothing about how to destroy portals in any of the books today.”

  Turning her harp over, Asha opened its small compartment and looked thoughtfully down at two Seer rings—Janu's and her mother's. After a long minute, she lifted them into the light.

  Aquila straightened, watching her silently.

  Asha hesitated, then slowly put her mother's ring on her right ring finger. Then, picking up Janu's, she placed it around her right thumb.

  Asha? You don't—

  Asha snapped her gaze to him, seeing the glow of her eyes in his. “We have to tell Barindra, Aquila. The murdered family was Shaan's.”

  Aquila stood, taking out his phone.

  Aquila?

  I'll tell Barindra now.

  “There's something else. Both Ranya and I can destroy portals.” She looked up at Aquila, trying and failing to hide the sick panic that was threatening to choke her. “And we can both open them.”

  Chapter 43

  Aquila was on his phone as he led her to the staircase, but then stopped. Hanging up his phone, he turned around and guided Asha to the suites on the opposite side of the building. The garden below was lit with a warm glow, the inviting lights of the mess hall shining through the tops of the trees at the far corner. Asha thought she heard Mia laughing.

  “Barindra and Chakori want to meet in my room,” Aquila said. “It's kind of a mess, so… because, well… I didn't expect company.” He held his ring to a door three suites past Kairav's and opened it. “Apparently there's a bunch of hysterical civilian law enforcement officers in the conference room. Yael will attempt to pacify them with tea and snacks for the next twenty minutes.”

  Asha followed Aquila into his room, looking around curiously as he hurried to make the bed. The walls and ceiling were a beautiful, rich lapis blue, making the silver Moroccan lamps and ornate frame surrounding a painting of tropical birds above the bed stand out in striking contrast.

  Books filled the rest of the room. Floor-to-ceiling carved wooden bookshelves lined every available wall, bursting with titles i
n no particular order or genre. The tables on either side of the bed, now made up with a plain white-on-white cotton quilt, were piled with still more books, spilling into stacks on the floor. Asha thought Aquila's room looked like a home library where someone had stuck a bed. Larger than Asha's suite, it had five comfortable-looking chairs around a granite coffee table, also half-covered in books.

  “Wow, that's… you have a lot of books,” said Asha.

  “Yeah, well, I—”

  Chakori burst through the open door. “You have five minutes to tell us what's so important.”

  She lowered herself into one of the chairs, leaning back with an exhausted sigh. Barindra walked quietly into the room, hanging up his phone, and sat down.

  Asha and Aquila sat across from them.

  “You know that Janu left Asha his Seer ring,” Aquila told them. “Well, a few days ago, she also found her mother's ring hidden in her, uh, harp-guitar thing.”

  “Get to the point, Aquila,” said Chakori, filling a glass with clove water.

  Asha held up her right hand, “Tonight I put them on.”

  Barindra straightened, and Chakori lowered her glass, her bright orange eyes settling on Asha.

  “The family that was killed,” said Asha, swallowing. “Eight people, five of them children… they were your Collector Shaan's entire family. We need to find him, which I can do if I have something that belongs—”

  Chakori had her phone out. “Bring the photo to Desai's suite,” she said, sounding grim.

  “And there's something else,” said Aquila. “Asha's not the only one who can close portals. Ranya can too.”

  Chakori finished her water in one big gulp. “So, what's the problem?”

  Aquila turned to Asha and she said, “The problem is, we can both open them.”

  Chakori looked suddenly sick, and Barindra froze. After a long minute, he punched a number on his phone. “Uma. Give your report in Aquila's room. Yes, now.” He hung up. “Okay, we make our priority finding Ranya and neutralizing the threat.” He turned to Aquila. “We will try healing if at all possible. Who knows, maybe because she's genetically Guard she'll respond differently to the treatments.” Pointing to Asha, he said, “You can find her, so it won't be a problem.”

  “It has been a problem,” said Asha. “Sir.”

  “Then we keep trying,” he said.

  Asha and Aquila exchanged glances. Aquila started to say something but Javin entered holding a framed photo. Chakori pointed to Asha.

  Asha looked at the smiling family in the photo, and her insides made a sickening lurch.

  “This was on the desk, too, Commander,” said Javin, holding up a wrapped gift in her other hand. “I thought you would want to see it right away. I don't know if—”

  Chakori rose and looked from the package to Asha in alarm. “I think we should—”

  “No.” Barindra sounded as if he was holding his temper with great effort. “We're done coddling her. Open it.”

  Javin set the box on the coffee table. It was roughly the size of a large shoe-box, wrapped in magenta tissue paper. A fancy silver ribbon was tied in an elaborate bow around it.

  The card had one word. Asha.

  Feeling the blood drain from her face, Asha said, “This was on Shaan's desk?”

  Javin nodded, untying the ribbon. She lifted the top, revealing a bouquet of strange flowers. They looked like large poppies, except backwards. Instead of the petals being red, they were dark green and enormous, at least four times the size of ordinary poppy flowers. The fuzzy centers were milky white, their stems and spiky leaves bright red. It looked like a dozen, tied together with an embroidered green ribbon that complemented the red stems.

  As Asha reached for them, Javin let the lid drop to the floor, and took a quick step back. Asha's hand froze where it was.

  “Flowers?” She looked at Aquila, confused. “Wh—I don't get it. What's the problem?”

  Those aren't flowers. They're a poisonous plant from Atala. The Zombie chemical weapon is made from them. It's a message from the Goblins. We killed one of theirs, so…

  “A message from Goblins or Ranya,” said Asha. “Only Shaan could have put that here, right? Underworlders can't get past Headquarters security. Ranya killed his entire family to have him possessed by a Revenant, and now she's using him to… to… I don't know, laugh at us before trying to kill everyone. Don't you see? The Goblin was working for her. The Asura, the Vampires, the demon horse Dänav—they're all working for her.”

  “That's a hell of a lot of assumptions, Sandhu.” Chakori pointed at the flowers, cursing. “And I think those prove Underworlders can get past our security.”

  “Only after possessing one of us! Commander—”

  Uma and Fanishwar entered the room, followed by Garud. They each took one look in the box on the table and froze, their faces masks of fury.

  Uma picked up the card, and glared at Asha. “Dare we hope that you know anything about this, Sandhu?”

  Aquila stood. “She didn't even know what those are! Which wouldn't have been the case if you hadn't had her spending every waking hour on kitchen duty!”

  “Every waking hour? Are you sure about that, Desai?” She poked a finger at Aquila's chest, and he stepped back, looking furious.

  “Uma!” Barindra snapped, his voice like a whip, and everyone froze.

  “How many times did Janu tell you the Talent of a Seer is not an exact science? Do we really need to waste time explaining it all over again?” Barindra fixed them with his cold gaze. “Sandhu doesn't know any more than she has already told us. I understand we're all working under a fair amount of pressure these days, but it's no excuse for disrespect. Now give us your report. After which, we will attempt to find Shaan, and then Aquila and Sandhu will both get some sleep.” He raised his hand as Aquila started to protest. “That's an order.”

  Uma sunk into the nearest chair with a sigh, flipping her white braid behind her as she crossed an ankle over one knee. “Apologies, Commander. These civilian cops make me insane!” She massaged her temples.

  Asha took an apple out of the silver bowl in front of her and, throwing it in the air, gave Uma its energy.

  “Cute,” Uma said flatly, glancing at her, but Asha could see she felt a little better.

  Aquila grinned. Extremely cute!

  Clearing her throat, Uma began, “The IGP of Ludhiana called an hour ago.”

  That's the Inspector General of Police.

  I figured that one out, thanks.

  Cute and smart!

  “It seems he was visited by two Vampires and an especially nasty Goblin at twenty-three hundred hours. In his home, no less. From what he described, the Goblin sounds like Mamono himself—who, according to Japanese authorities, hasn't left Tokyo for three hundred years. If he has, which I strongly suspect, it was under the radar and this threat is even worse than we thought.” Uma gestured to the flowers. “Obviously.”

  “What were their demands?” growled Barindra.

  “The Inspector was, understandably, quite shaken up. I mean, they threatened his kids, for Christ's sake!” Uma sighed heavily and drank some water. “Basically, Mamono told him he had to pay fifty million Euros to stop the Underworlders' diabolical plan of unleashing a terrible disease on the crowd at the Engineering Expo on the twenty-first. Which is in eight days. They also made it very clear that if the answer is no, or if they don't receive the money within forty-eight hours, they'll kill his entire family.”

  Chakori said, “I don't think we need to wonder what this terrible disease is.”

  “That's the Winter Solstice,” Asha said.

  Uma shook her head as if Asha's voice were a pestering fly. “What?”

  “The twenty-first of December. It's the Winter Solstice.”

  “What's your point, Sandhu?” said Chakori irritably, but Fanishwar and Garud straightened.

  “It's the longest night of the year,” said Asha, addressing Barindra. “And this year, it's also a new
moon. Commander, I think this is a diversion. Ranya wants your focus somewhere else so she can get to the portal and open it.”

  “You think, or you know?” Barindra asked.

  “I… think,” said Asha, looking at her hands, and Uma snorted.

  “Even if it is a diversion, distraction, misdirection, we can't just ignore this,” said Chakori, waving a hand at the box of poisonous flowers, and Garud nodded. “Last year there were more than a hundred thousand visitors at the Engineering Expo, from more than fifty cities across the country. And that's just visitors. Add a thousand more working the event. More, even. And these are people who travel internationally. It would mean the third Zombie apocalypse within two days!”

  Barindra held up a hand. “No one's ignoring anything. Goddamn it, everybody sit the hell down and take a deep breath. Sandhu? Can you find Shaan with that picture?”

  Asha nodded. “I can try.”

  She stood up and sat on the bed. Aquila moved to sit next to her, leaving open chairs for all but Garud, who stood by a bookshelf, crossing his massive arms. Everyone went perfectly still, watching her. Asha gazed at the image of Shaan until the others in the picture were a blur. Then, touching her hand to the photo, she closed her eyes and focused on the image of his face, reaching with her mind to the only living person in the picture.

  And—nothing.

  There was just empty darkness.

  It was as if the person didn't exist.

  Asha shook her head. “I'm sorry. This picture… it's blank. Maybe it doesn't work on the possessed. Or the Revenant has already driven him to suicide… or maybe we need something more personal? Like, I don't know, hair? Nail clippings?”

  Chakori and Uma exchanged a glance, and Barindra turned to Fanishwar. “See if you can get something from the house.”

  Fanishwar nodded and left the room.

  Barindra stood, looking down at Asha and Aquila. “You two. Go to the mess hall and eat, then get some rest. Now.”