by West, Kyle
Ashton sighed. “No matter how old you get, kid...there’s always going to be questions that can never be answered. Sometimes, age just makes the questions all the more perplexing. I worked my ass off, raised my family, all to make the questions go away. I buried myself in work. And they always remained, those questions, haunting me like ghosts. Most people ignore them and just go on with their lives. That’s what I tried to do. Your question, about what you should do...I don’t have the answer. You don’t have the answer. Even the goddamn Wanderer didn’t have an answer. Didn’t you ask him that, when you and Anna went to go see him? What did he say?”
I smiled. “A whole lot of nothing.”
“See? If a god doesn’t know, doesn’t that tell you something? It all rests on you to figure out the rest of the riddle. Whatever happens, I wouldn’t blame you either way. When you go to the heart of darkness, when you are facing down Askala, it’s just going to be you and her. And you’re not going to know anything more than you know now.”
“Thanks for reminding me.”
“Some answers just don’t come, kid, no matter how much you ask them, no matter how much you think about them. Take it from an old man.” He held up the thermos. “More coffee?”
Ashton refilled my cup, and we stared out into the starry night. After a while, he turned off the lights, so that we could see the stars more fully. The stars were bright before, but now they were magnificent.
“The Wanderer said something,” I said. “He said you were supposed to look to the stars when you were in a hole. That’s all I feel I can do. I have to hope, even if there’s no reason for it. People need hope like the lungs need air.”
Ashton slurped on his coffee. “Aye, you’re right about that. What are you hoping for, Alex?”
I took a sip of coffee, and thought for a moment. “I’m just hoping I don’t mess anything up. I hope, when the end comes, I can figure out how to save my scrawny hide. I hope I can find a way to make Anna happy, and take away all her worry and pain.”
Ashton said nothing – he only listened.
“I know,” I said. “There are some things you can mess up, and some things you just can’t. There are the doors you can’t come back from.”
I looked at the clock on the dash. It was 04:00.
I stood to leave the bridge. “Thanks for the coffee.”
“Where you off to?”
“Breakfast.”
I just couldn’t talk about what I had to do anymore. I’d have plenty of time to think about that in the coming days.
Chapter 22
We landed in the streets of downtown Los Angeles. Morning had just dawned, casting the eastern clouds a dull red.
We left the ship, stepping out into the cool, dry air, finding the streets a chaotic mess of rubble, ash, and purple blood. Corpses of dead crawlers lined the streets, some still twitching. Severed limbs and spindly legs were scattered among the refuse. Behind our landing site, the once-white U.S. Bank Tower rose into the morning air.
“Augustus is in there with the Reapers now,” Makara said.
“Is that where we’re headed?” I asked.
She nodded. “Yeah.”
Everyone walked toward the tower, picking our way through rubble and monster remains. Radaskim dragons swooped the sky above, from time to time, still placid. It seemed as if the creatures had turned to our side for good from the Wanderer’s sacrifice – it wasn’t just temporary. Or at least, that was what I hoped. They could switch back at any moment. If they did, there wasn’t much we could do about it.
We entered the wide glass doors of the building, finding ourselves in a dim lobby. There, Augustus and Black stood face-to-face, deliberating in the center of the lobby floor. Praetorians lined up behind Augustus, while Black’s elite guards backed him up. The Reapers, however, were without weapons. It looked as if Augustus was having his way with Los Angeles after all.
Char stood next to me and spoke in his low voice.
“Come on, kid. These talks will be long.”
He led me out from the lobby of the building, stepping through the open door and into the red-lit street outside. I wondered what he wanted to talk about.
The formed-up legions parted for us as we headed east down rubble-strewn streets. Parts of the tall buildings of downtown had crumbled, forming piles of debris. Many buildings’ sides were wasted and black, the result of a fire long ago. Even the sides of the white tower had been charred, though it seemed to have mostly escaped the damage. Sand covered much of the street. In places, asphalt and faded yellow paint showed through the dirt.
Random streets and intersections had been blocked off – either in preparation for the Radaskim’s attack, or from some earlier time. Beneath a pile of rubble lay some large bones from a creature I couldn’t identify –they’d been there for a while. Toward the east, brown mountains walled in the Los Angeles Basin. Their tops were lost to thick red clouds.
A few blocks to the east, an enormous dragon wheeled above some buildings, settling on the precipice of a crumbled freeway. Another dragon screeched in the air, settling nearby the first. The large one – almost as big as Chaos had been – was dark gray, almost black. The smaller dragon was crimson in hue. Their long, serpent-like necks turned toward us.
“What are we going to do about these dragons?”
That was something we had to figure out. “We might want to get closer.”
“It’s like they’re waiting for something,” Char said.
“Or someone,” I said. “Maybe they’re looking for the Wanderer.”
“The Wanderer’s gone. They’re looking for you, kid.”
“I know,” I said. “Somehow, this is working differently than we expected. The dragons have stayed on our side.”
“They could turn any second,” Char said. “That’s what the Wanderer said, isn’t it?”
Yeah, that was true.
“Alex!”
The sound of footsteps came from behind. I turned to see Anna sliding to a stop, kicking up a cloud of dust.
“Couldn’t wait for me, could you?” she asked.
I shrugged. “You snooze, you lose.”
She forced a frown. “I don’t think that saying really works in this situation.”
“You know what I mean.”
Char just watched both of us, shaking his head.
“Whatever,” Anna said. Her eyes gazed ahead to the dragons. “I want to see one of those things up close. Plus, you need your bodyguard.”
“I don’t need a bodyguard,” I said.
“I wasn’t talking to you.”
Before I could respond, Char cut in.
“Shall we?”
We turned back to the dragons perched on the edge of the freeway. They continued to watch.
We walked forward once more. The dragons swarmed the sky, circling above the eastern side of the decayed cityscape. They seemed to be gathering above the large, dark dragon.
“I wonder what they’re doing,” Anna asked.
Char watched as well, narrowing his eyes to see into the distance. “It sure is something.”
“It’s like...” Anna paused mid-sentence. “It’s like this world isn’t ours anymore, you know?”
Anna was right. Even if we somehow defeated Askala and the Radaskim were stopped, against all odds, I had no idea what the future would look like. The Elekai would live among us, I supposed. The Old World would crumble completely to dust, leaving humanity to live among an alien race. We’d probably never be able to rebuild – not to the level of the Old World. I imagined that all traces of that world would be buried and gone, in a few centuries. I’d be long dead by then, and so would everyone else. But it was the future we fought for – the only future we knew.
***
We reached the overpass. The dragons remained still, so still that they could have been confused for statues. Up close, however, there was no way these creatures were anything but real. Sharp talons enclosed the concrete railing on the freeway'
s side, which was riddled with cracks and caked with dust. The dragons’ scales shimmered in the dull red sunlight, crimson for the smaller one, and dark gray, almost black, for the large one. From those scales rose sharp spikes from the creatures’ backs and tails.
These creatures of conquest and brutality were under the command of the Elekai. Which meant that I could control them.
Or, so the theory went.
As Char and I stood, staring, I definitely had my doubts. It seemed impossible that I could control these beasts – especially the big one. Those whitened eyes stared at me with such hatred – especially from the dark one.
I guessed there was nothing to do but try.
“I need to get up close,” I said.
“There's an on-ramp that way,” Char said, pointing to our left.
We walked in that direction as the dragons looked on.
“This is crazy,” Char said.
“I know,” I said. “Crazy times call for crazy measures.”
Char grunted in response.
Anna walked on my other side. She seemed tense, and it was probably all she could do to not draw her katana. A blade wouldn’t do much good against a dragon.
We reached the on-ramp. It was a short climb to the battered highway above. The charred shell of a sedan blocked the on-ramp horizontally. Flecks of turquoise paint clung to its chassis.
We went around the car and reached the top of the highway, turning to where the dragons roosted. Their heads swiveled upon stalk-like necks toward our position. Even with dusty distance, their white eyes glowed. Though these creatures were on our side, just seeing them stare at me sent a chill down my spine. There was something different about these dragons. I could feel the violence boiling within them. It was hard to imagine these dragons getting along with the Elekai ones, especially when their allegiance might only be temporary.
Anna, at last, unsheathed her blade. The dragons gave no reaction. More dragons wheeled above, a menacing foreground against the dilapidated towers of downtown Los Angeles. A chilly wind gusted, stinging with dry cold. About twelve dragons flew above our heads like vultures. I wondered if this was some sort of trap; were they pretending to be friendly, only to deliver a death blow? The possibility, or perhaps, the probability, didn't escape my mind.
But we had come too far. Char drew his handgun, keeping it pointed at the pavement. The dragons continued to circle, some of them dropping lower.
At last, we stood in front of the two dragons, so much larger now that we were close. They towered above, the dark gray one twice as tall as any Elekai dragon. Scars and crevices crisscrossed scales that appeared to be as hard as stone. Their long tails, fitted with cruel spikes, shifted back and forth, stirring dust from the surface of the freeway. A large, especially deadly spike jutted from the tip of each of those tails, sharper than any human blade. The white eyes of the dark dragon narrowed, as if in challenge. I focused on those eyes. I knew this was a test of dominance and will; I’d lose them if I looked away first. Those eyes were white, abyssal depths. Haunting emptiness.
Unlike the Elekai, these were creatures without souls. They were organic robots obeying the will of their true master: Askala.
For now, that link had been severed by the Wanderer’s sacrifice. If it hadn’t, these dragons would have killed me a long time ago.
I saw the Wanderer in my mind’s eye, and calmness permeated my entire being. Wild, tumultuous power radiated from these dragons. They had hearts of chaos.
Tame them, the Wanderer’s voice intoned.
I focused a single thought to push against that madness. That thought came in the form of two words.
Your names.
The thought pushed against the anarchic, powerful stream of consciousness that blared from the Radaskim dragons’ minds. They regarded me with cold, reptilian eyes.
The smaller, crimson one linked to me first, begrudgingly giving his name.
Mordium.
The dark dragon waited a long time, before the force of my will linked him to me.
Quietus.
A chill passed over me. Feeling the emotions of the Radaskim was so much different than with the Elekai. Sharing thoughts with Askal seemed to give energy. This drained it. They would obey me, yes – but only because they were forced. Whether they could find a way to override the Wanderer’s Releasing, I couldn’t say.
Mordium, I thought. Quietus. You are both Elekai, now.
Immediately, twin hisses escaped from their serpentine mouths. Anna and Char jumped back from either side of me. I remained still, attempting to affirm my control over these creatures. The dragons above circled lower. Something like a cruel smile came to Quietus’s thin, reptile lips – but really, it was more a baring of teeth. Those teeth were cracked, decaying, sharp.
Who are you to command us, puny mortal? Quietus thought. We are the Radaskim, hearts of chaos. Eternity lies ahead, and behind – we have drunk full of its emptiness. The Void calls us home, in the end. The Radaskim have known this, from the dawn of time until the dusk of all things. Like twin mirrors, the light ever reflects, unending, unyielding. But what can you know of these things, you of sixteen years, when my spirit has endured more than sixteen million?
Even as he spoke such terrible things, I knew them to be true.
I am Quietus, bane of a thousand worlds. The screams of races reside within my soul, of which your puny kind are no match. You have killed the Lord Chaos, no small feat – but you will find that many of Askala’s children are his equal, and that some are far more terrible. You challenge me, mortal, and seek to rule that which is eternal?
I seek only the victory of the Elekai, I thought. And you will help me secure it.
Something like glee danced in those white eyes.
Will I, now? Curious that the old fool gave up his spirit for this slight boon. For in so doing, he sealed his doom and that of the cursed Elekai. Never again shall that trickster arise. Though there be thousands of worlds yet to smite, never shall he walk them again – should you fail, little one. That he placed trust in you, least of all races, dirtiest, foulest, most reviled! Had we not come to destroy you, you would have destroyed yourselves.
I stood stunned at Quietus’s revelation. Mordium looked on in silence, his eyes as empty as the vacuum of space. On the sides of the highways, more dragons settled, watching the proceedings.
The Elekai were first, I thought in response. And the Elekai will be last.
The Elekai are weak! The Elekai plant the gardens; the Radaskim reap them. Such is the order of the Universe. In order to create, you must first destroy. This is the heart of truth: that existence is a lie, and we no more than a thought, the destruction of universes infinite. All things shall pass, all courses have been set from the beginning for ruin. There is no use in fighting this inevitability. The only control we have is in sweet destruction. Destruction of all, destruction of the lie that is existence! In the end, nothing shall bloom, no star shall shine, and darkness deep shall stretch eternal. No laughter, no tears, nor even memories shall be preserved. That is the fate of all things, little Elekai, if the Radaskim are not permitted to destroy. We are the gods, and Ragnarok our judgment. And like all others, humanity shall enter our thrall.
The cold wind blew, as if in time to Quietus’s dark thoughts. I stood still, not wanting to think about them. No thought crossed from Quietus for a long while.
Anna and Char watched the dragon from my either side, ready to run or fight at any moment.
Is this how you attacked every world? I thought. With a meteor?
Quietus answered. The method is different, for each world. Different diseases necessitate different cures. And the pestilence of your race runs deep.
What makes you hate us so?
Death is my name. Quietus. The End of all Things. Yes. I was created by my Mother to hate, and that hatred I have nursed for uncounted eons, mostly in darkness. You know not the darkness of space, being trapped with your thoughts for thousands of years, w
ith nothing but the fell whispers of the Dark Mother – such imprisonment I have endured between Reapings. Death brings succor, and I drink deeply of its draft – though I am never permitted to embrace it in full. How I long for that death, little Elekai. But she will not let me have it, not until all fades to silence.
You can be free, I said. It has been said, in order to know hate, one must first know love.
I have debated this vile thought for years untold, Quietus answered. And there is only nothing. You seek, and you do not find. Everything is a lie. There is only...nothing...the ultimate truth.
Something like a sigh escaped the dragon – a strange sound to come from a creature so large, so brutal. It sounded...pained. Tired.
What is truth, Elekai, but your conception of it? I have searched the depths of your heart and know that you hold no conviction. A being of no conviction is but a leaf in the wind, having no control over its course. It goes where the wind wills. What do you believe, young Elekai? I see you hope that I might be changed. Hope is but a dream, a dream best abandoned before it blinds with false brightness.
Hope does not always lead to a false end.
There is no fighting the Radaskim, Quietus thought. On countless worlds they brood, and this world is just one among thousands. Four hundred years hence, they shall return. That was the duration of our last stasis – four hundred long years. From the world of Tar’Sha’Lak we sailed the Void, four hundred years ago. The Dark Mother may be killed, but never shall the Radaskim fall. We are too many. A Second Reaping shall come, far more terrible than the first...
Four hundred years, little Elekai. Are you ready?
I sensed no lie in Quietus’s words. I only felt a numb, cold shock overtake me. What Quietus said was true. Even if we won, in four hundred years, they would return from the nearest Radaskim world.