by D. N. Leo
Arik’s heart skipped a beat. If they were indeed his people, he had abandoned them. It was his fault they were in this condition.
“Arik?” a woman’s voice called out, sending a chill up his spine. It was a haunting cry from his past.
The crowd split. From its midst, a beautiful woman with a hauntingly sad face walked out.
“Xanthe?” Arik felt a lump in his throat. The beautiful healer of the Yellow Shield tribe now looked like a ghost, frail and sad. Was he responsible for this?
Tears streamed down Xanthe’s face. She turned around and spoke several sentences in Xiilok that he couldn’t understand. But in front of him was unmistakably the village of the Yellow Shield tribe—one that had saved him and nurtured him back to life.
Xanthe approached him, her body shaking with emotion. “I knew you’d come back for us.” She looked at Dinah. “Lamixg said you were going to come back and save us.” Several people standing in the back burst into tears.
“Lamixg means leader in their language. Xanthe is the healer of the village,” he translated to Dinah. But he could see that she had turned on the translator in her wrist unit and could understand perfectly what was being said.
He could see tears gleaming in Dinah’s eyes. Perhaps there was human emotion in her after all. He turned toward Xanthe. “I’m here to take you home. Where’s Lamixg? He said I didn’t have to start my leadership until he completed what he needed to do.”
Xanthe nodded and gestured the way. They followed her toward the back of the basement. She pushed open another set of doors. Chill air blasted out, mixed with the scent of death.
Inside the dark room were rows and rows of corpses.
Arik froze at the door, unable to move his body. Xanthe tugged at his elbow. He nodded and followed her in.
In the corner, the man with the yellow-shaded eyes, the leader of the tribe, the one who had picked him up from the black mud where he lay waiting to die and had taken him back to safety, lay dead and frozen. Was this his fault for denying his responsibility for years?
“How did he die?” he asked although he didn’t want to know the answer. There was nothing he could do to change this.
“He came back to tell us you accepted the position and were coming back to take us to a safer place. He had some other arrangements with the Eudaizian. But that night, Grace came with a man. They were chased, and we helped them. But then the whole village was swamped with the Red Shield. They captured us and killed Lamixg and your wife.”
Dinah’s eyebrow shot up, but she instantly neutralized her expression and looked away.
Arik nodded. At Carfax Tower, Grace had escaped with a man and left a space creature in disguise in the tower with him. It made perfect sense—she had run back to the Yellow Shield tribe to seek shelter. But she had taken a stranger and deadly enemies back to the tribe.
Arik sighed. I’m so sorry, he thought. That’s my fault. He turned to Xanthe. “Do you know the way out of here?”
“Yes, we need only to cross over the hill. But this place is surrounded by dead swamps. The only way out is to fight through the Red Shield camp. There are only women and children here. There is no way they can survive either the swamps or the fight.”
“Where are the men?”
“Most of them were killed during the attack. We were not equipped for combat.”
Arik nodded.
Xanthe continued, “Some of the survivors have regrouped on the other side of the hill. They wanted to rescue us, but Lamixg asked them not to. He knew it would be another bloodbath, and they would lose. He asked us to wait here for you, and for the men to wait on the other side of the hill.”
“How could he be so sure?”
“He had a vision before he died.” Xanthe looked into his eyes. “He saw you save us as an angel.”
“I’m no angel, Xanthe. But I’ll do my best to get people out of there.” As he turned around, he saw a tiny body lying on a bench at the far end of the room. He froze and then started to walk toward the body.
Xanthe pulled at his elbow. “Don’t Arik. We’ve lost Liv, but we still have the other five children. If you don’t get them out now, we’ll lose all of them.”
He nodded. “I need a moment to talk to Dinah.”
Xanthe nodded and backed away.
He led Dinah outside the room. He braced his hands on the wall, closed his eyes, and inhaled deeply. He pounded his head against the stone wall. The image of Liv flashed back to him, plaguing his mind.
He had been recovering in Xanthe’s healing chamber. Liv came every day. She brought him water and wildflowers she had picked herself. She was the size of a toddler but had the mind of a five-year-old. She was gifted with healing power.
Now she was dead, and he was staring at a wall. He felt Dinah’s hand on his shoulder and shrugged it off. He didn’t mean to. But he did.
“I’m going to take them home.”
“As an angel? Because you need miracles to do that. We’ve only dealt with two robots and had so much trouble already. We can’t use guns in Xiilok. And this place is surrounded by dead swamps.”
“I have a solution. But I’m going to do it on my own.”
“So you don’t need me?”
“No.”
She looked up and him and said, “Okay, fine.” Then she turned on her heel and walked away.
27
Cooper opened his eyes groggily and saw Jenny’s bright face looking at him.
“There you are.” She smiled at him then turned to talk to someone. “Can he sit up now?”
He blinked to clear his vision and saw a man in a white coat looking down at him. He sat up.
“You’re a lucky man, Cooper Donovan.”
He looked at Jenny and then back at the man. “Yes, I am. Who are you?”
“I’m one of the gatekeepers at the Daimon Gate. Ms. Bonneville…”
“Jenny.”
“Jenny ran over to the gate with the Ultimate Asylum Status. She used that to ask us to help you. Normally, it wouldn’t work. And what you needed was medical help, not protection. But because you are Eudaizian—”
“Am I?”
“Yes, we scanned your unit.”
“I gave them the phone Ciaran gave you.” Jenny grinned.
“And you do have a pre-registered privilege, an agreement between Eudaiz and the Daimon Gate. Therefore, you’ll have all the medical assistance you need. The poison in you is mostly treated—”
“Mostly? So I’m only half alive?”
The man smiled. “No, you’re a hundred percent alive in this dimension because we have corrected the corrupted blood cells and everything the toxin damaged in your body. There are, however, some otherworldly elements that our technology couldn’t handle. So if you travel to another dimension within the material world, or if you cross worlds, you must be careful.”
From the top of the middle hill, looking at the hillside outside the bunker where the Yellow Shield tribe was held captive, Dinah watched Arik from a distance. She knew what he planned to do now.
The middle hill looked down on the bunker, and she could see the hill the tribe members had to cross to get back to where their men were waiting. She had seen Arik do something similar when he’d formed the light bridge from hilltop to hilltop for Ciaran. But when he’d done it that time, he’d had help from Jael, the angel of light.
Now he was alone. He had formed a bridge by himself when she was injured, and Ciaran needed to carry her back to safety. But Ciaran said it had taken a toll on him.
And that bridge had been for only two people.
This one would be for more than two hundred people of the village tribe. She didn’t know how he could do this. But those women and children seemed to hold a very special place in his heart, and he would do whatever it took to bring them home.
Arik had told her Jael had shown him something he could use. She didn’t know what it was. But she knew Arik was no angel.
He walked around the top of the
hill. The ground was covered in rocks and meteorites in many different shapes, sizes, and colors. He stood in front of a few large, shiny rocks that arched above him, looking like giant gates. He braced his hands on the two sides of the rock arch, and he looked up.
She smiled. He was smart.
This spot was the ideal position for solar attraction, the sort of light shining on this universe in its own cycle. In the material world, they had the solar system. People on Earth had the sun. But Xiilok was located in a universe in between.
This was a different kind of solar energy. It must be what Jael had taught him to use.
Arik glanced down to the valley and saw the village people standing outside their camp, waiting.
He closed his eyes and tightened his grip on the stone arch.
Dinah saw sparks above and heard the rumbling and crackling sound of a large amount of solar energy being drawn. The light shone down to the arch, and Arik bridged the light from the camp to the other side of the hill. The bridge was magnificent, as big as the hill itself.
Xanthe stood in front of the crowd. She led, followed by her five children, as beautiful as little angels. They walked quickly onto the bridge.
But the rest of the village people hesitated.
“Come on!” Dinah muttered. She understood why they would be scared. After all, the light bridge had appeared right in front of them.
Xanthe and the children set an example for the rest. They moved farther onto the bridge and waved their hands to encourage the others to come.
Arik opened his eyes and looked down the valley at Xanthe. Dinah knew with the brightness of the light, he wouldn’t be able to see her now standing at the side of the bridge. Judging by the look on his face, she thought he must feel the weight of the people moved across the bridge of light.
“Come on, move!” she said again. But it didn’t help.
A small stream of blood trickled from Arik’s nose.
It was not just the weight of people, but also holding the light together. It must have been taking a lot from him. He didn’t look like he could hold it for much longer.
“Come on, walk!” she shouted.
Arik saw her now. He looked at her. The energy had been drained from him, and she could see the intensity of the light wavering. The bridge shook a bit, causing Xanthe and the children to reel.
That won’t help, she thought.
Arik couldn’t even speak. He held tight to the stone arch, but if these people didn’t walk soon, his knees would buckle, and he’d have to let go.
How did she understand him so well? She could even feel his energy level. She felt the surge of energy within her own body.
She felt a connection to him.
She walked over and stood behind him. She wrapped her arms around his waist. With the halo of light around them, she knew the people looking up from the bottom of the hill wouldn’t see the shadow of her tiny body. She spread her weaponry wings. Arik would look like an angel with his wings spread wide and a glorious light surrounding him.
Some people in the crowd burst into tears, and all of them started walking over the bridge.
She could feel him grunting with the heavy weight. His energy was dissipating at an alarming level.
Dinah touched the mark of the jumper at the back of her neck. Perhaps she was destined to do this. There wasn’t time to think about it. She pulled out her needle stack and opened a compartment containing a needle with a red tail.
She pulled it out and jabbed it into the mark at the back of her neck, the round circle marking all individuals who had jumped over the aperture of the multiverse—a rare event that bore a reputation for accentuating individual natural talent and bringing power.
She hadn’t had any special power her whole life. At least that was the story she had told others, and it was true. What she hadn’t told anyone was that she knew how to trigger the effect, even if it didn’t happen naturally.
She felt the pull of energy instantly. And she knew what she had to do.
She yanked Arik’s shirt off and saw a glowing spot on his spine below his neck. She drew solar energy into her body, poked a large needle into the glowing spot on his back, and transferred her energy to him.
In a short moment, their energy was connected, as were their bodies and souls.
Cooper looked up to the hill in front of him. “Bloody hell, that’s Dinah and Arik.”
Jenny turned around. In front of them, her brother and Dinah glowed in a magnificent wedge of light. They scrambled to their feet and ran in that direction.
28
The bridge glowed brighter, and the people moved faster over it. Xanthe stopped near the end of the bridge to ensure everyone had crossed over. She looked at Arik, bowed with appreciation, and left the bridge.
Arik withdrew the bridge. She wasn’t sure if he was even aware of what he was doing now. His head lolled back, and he collapsed onto her. She lowered him to the ground.
“Arik, open your eyes. Talk to me, please.”
He was totally out of it.
Then Dinah felt the ground shaking. She looked behind her and saw the giant head of Roallix slowly emerging from the other side of the hill. Then his body. He opened his mouth to smile, and she could feel the heat waves coming out from between the sharp pieces of ivory rock that served as his teeth.
She pulled Arik backward and tucked him behind a rock. Then she charged at Roallix’s face, pumping out her most lethal needles. She wasn’t surprised to find they caused no damage.
She pulled out her gun and fired. The laser beams erupted from the gun, went sideways, and hit a large rock, sending it collapsing to the ground.
“Oh, that’s totally unfair! Look at the size of you compared to the woman you’re fighting!” Cooper shouted, charging up from behind her, followed by Jenny.
“Can you two take Arik and go? He’s behind the rock.” She pointed at Roallix, who was either smiling evilly or grinding his teeth. “This thing doesn’t understand reason.”
Arik opened his eyes. He could hear the commotion but couldn’t see anyone. He was tucked between two large rocks. Dinah. The memory rushed back to him. He tried to sit up, but every movement was like trying to move a mountain.
Then Jenny rushed over. “Thank god you’re okay.” She reached down to give him a hand. He grabbed her hands so she could help haul him up.
“What’s happening?”
“Dinah and Cooper are fighting a hulk.”
The world in front of him was a blur. “No, I can’t move yet. I’ll only be a burden. Go help them.” He leaned against a rock.
“All right. You stay right here, Arik.”
Jenny left him and rushed back out.
Arik bore his weight on the rock and worked his way slowly around and out to the front.
There he saw the giant he thought they had killed before. It roared at Dinah. She had stabbed her knife to its face, and it had thrown her backward, sending her rolling across the rocky surface. Cooper pulled out his knife and was about to attack. Jenny came up from behind him. She picked up a rock, ran to get momentum, and threw it at the hulk’s eye.
Bullseye. It roared again.
In front of Arik’s eyes, the creature swung its gigantic arm like a crane and knocked Cooper and Jenny off the hilltop, tossing them like rag dolls to the mouth of the canyon.
From the ground, Dinah shot up, wings spread. She flew down to the canyon to save Cooper and Jenny.
Roallix bent down. He grabbed Dinah by the wings and pulled her up. She wriggled in his grip like a desperate little bird. He held her wings and smashed her body to the ground, over and over again.
Arik pulled out his gun. He knew shooting here wouldn’t work, but he had to try. He tried doing what he saw Ciaran do with the sword. He used whatever strength was left in his body to concentrate his light energy into the gun, and he pulled the trigger.
Instead of the normal laser beam, a wave of light came out and hit Roallix right in the middle of the he
ad. The beam immobilized him, and he dropped Dinah, but not before tearing off her wings.
Arik slumped to the ground. He knew he had nothing left. He couldn’t move. He lay down and waited for Roallix to come and savage him.
The hulk stomped his feet in anger and moved toward him. And then he saw Dinah surge up from the ground.
No, it wasn’t her. It was something else.
Her porcelain skin glowed in a halo of white light. Her eyes were bloodshot. Her long raven hair had turned as white as a cloud. And her tiny body floated, hovering above the ground.
Roallix was stunned. He paused and stared at the tiny white person floating in front of him.
“A life for a life. A heart for a heart. Magic for magic. A curse for a curse. I swear to my god, whoever kills me has to die the same way I did. In any world, at any time, that devil cannot return to life,” Dinah said and raised her arms, pointing toward Roallix as she spoke.
Roallix frowned.
Then her tiny arms stretched out as fast as lightning. Before Roallix could do anything, she ripped his heart out.
He looked down at the hole in his chest, and the heart dripping blood in front of him.
His heart evaporated into thin air. And then so did his body.
Dinah’s body flopped to the ground.
Arik crawled toward her and pulled her into his arms. There was nothing left in her. Not even a pulse. But this was Dinah, the person—or the alien—he had known. Her skin and her face had returned to normal.
But her hair remained white.
He heard the sound of wings flapping, the sound of something landing, and then footsteps behind him. But he was beyond care. There was no way his sister and Cooper had survived that fall. And he didn’t know if Dinah could be revived.
Jael stepped out in front of him. He reached out for Dinah. Arik clutched her tighter in his arms.
Jael grabbed them both. Then it seemed as if they were flying. Everything around him turned white.