I ground my teeth as the bullet slowly worked its way to the surface of my skin, then popped out. The hole closed a second later. It still hurt like hell, but at least I wasn’t going to bleed to death.
Harliss spread his hands. “Forgive my associate,” the nirrin said. “He has been under a considerable amount of strain lately. Now then, Vincent Corinthos, my lord’s offer to you still stands. What say you?”
I looked at Cynthia’s broken form, listened to the gears in her head slowing down. Commander Courageous and I had inadvertently made it so Sakave could come through into our realm. There was no way Cynthia was going to be able to stop Sakave’s return, not unless I suddenly got my hands on some celestial metal.
Hang on.
Harliss had shown me a big hunk of celestial metal the last time I was here. We’d been off in the trees. Was the metal on the tabletop where I’d left it? I quested out with telekinetic feelers, rubbing my face as if I were considering Harliss’s question. “What guarantee do I have that Sakave won’t just kill me once he’s here?”
Harliss shook his head. “Sakave is not one to waste resources, Vincent Corinthos. When he gains access to this realm, he will crush those who violate his law, but there will not be needless violence. Should you stand with him, restore the Urisk to him, you could help shape the world and prevent the destruction you so fear.”
My telekinetic probes had reached the table. The metal cube was gone, that had been too much to hope for. But there were a bunch of tiny metal fragments embedded in the table’s surface. I grabbed those, superheated them into vapor, and pulled them in telekinetic bubbles over to Cynthia.
“He’s up to something,” Treggen said. “Where are your witty remarks, Corinthos? Where’s all your inane chatter?” He stepped up to me and cracked me across the jaw. My concentration was broken, but I’d felt the metal vapors being absorbed into Cynthia’s skin. Now I needed to buy her some time to heal up, and I needed to make it so that the fractures in reality were repaired enough that when she did strengthen reality, it would be sufficient to prevent Sakave from just busting through.
I rubbed my jaw and pointed at Treggen. “You don’t get any more free shots, asshat,” I said.
“Threatening me, Corinthos? Tell me, what good will that do? You can’t kill me. The Tempus himself couldn’t kill me, and I assure you, he is a much more challenging adversary than you are.”
I hit Treggen with a telekinetically augmented uppercut and sent him flying fifty feet into the air. He cleared some of the broken pine trees and landed with a splat. I turned to Harliss and held up my hands. “He deserved that,” was all I said.
Harliss again spread his hands. “I do not disagree. But you have not answered my question. Do so now, for my patience is not infinite.”
“I will change the Urisk,” I said. This was why I’d knocked Treggen out of the park. He totally would’ve called bullshit on me, and I hadn’t wanted that. Thing was, I wasn’t lying. “This will take me a few minutes. Do I have your word that you will not harm my friends while I work? That they will be released when this is done?”
“Corinthos,” Xavier barked. “You do not have the authority to negotiate with—” the inquisitor cut off as a nirrin closed a massive scaled hand around his neck.
Harliss couldn’t have nodded any faster if his neck were a spring. “Of course, of course. They will be restrained, but they will not be harmed.” He gestured to the nirrin holding Xavier, who loosened his grip. Xavier’s face had gone purple, and I couldn’t tell if that was from being strangled or from anger at me.
I looked at Harliss. A part of me was sad for misleading him. While the guy was on the wrong side, he was honest. That was a character trait that I wish more villains would display. I knew that the fabric of reality was weak here in the swamp, and that Opening a full-sized portal was out of the question, but a tiny one, one that a fruit fly would only barely be able to fly through was all I needed.
I created the portal and opened my mind to my followers. What I was about to do was bigger than anything I’d ever done before, and about a million times more dangerous. If I screwed this up, I might kill every Urisk on the Bright Side. And while that would fix the fractures in reality, it wasn’t the outcome I wanted. If I’m being completely honest, it had crossed my mind to let the Urisk go back to Sakave. The Chroniclers had kept harping on about how I wasn’t supposed to have the Urisk as followers anymore, but something Thad had said had been gnawing at the back of my mind since we’d spoken, and as I’d been standing in the swamp the answer had hit me.
Thad had suggested that the Urisk could worship someone else. I’d dismissed the thought because there weren’t any other gods I’d trust the Urisk with. In fact, the only person I would wholly trust with the Urisk’s safety and well-being was Lotholio.
As a deity, I have full control over the Bright Side. I can control its weather patterns. I can create sentient constructs, like Aegeon and the watchers. I can change the face of the landscape with a wave of my hand, and I can end or restore life as I see fit. I had the ability to bestow new powers on the Urisk, but it wasn’t something I did, because you don’t want to forcibly evolve a species; that can have detrimental repercussions. But right now, I had to take a chance that what I was planning possible was not only possible, but would be successful, too. It was the only way to ensure the Urisk would stay as they were, and still repair the damage to time and reality.
I touched the Urisk’s hearts and minds, gently putting them all to sleep. I put Aegeon and the watchers under, too. I didn’t want anything to distract me from this, because one wrong move, and it was all over. I left Lotholio awake. I needed his mind active and alert if this was going to work. I took in a breath, let it out slowly, and began reweaving. That was the only word I could think to describe it; changing the threads of Lotholio’s being, altering it, enhancing it, empowering it.
My eyes snapped open a short while later, and I collapsed on the ground. That had taken way more effort than I’d anticipated, and I was staggered at my own stupidity for underestimating it so badly. How could I have possibly thought—
I stopped. My head felt clearer than I could ever remember. I hadn’t even realized how foggy I was, even just a few minutes ago. I’d thought I was being clear and rational, but—
“Is it done, Vincent Corinthos?” Harliss asked.
I glanced around. Jake and Xavier were on their knees, with Cynthia lying prone on the ground. They were encircled by nirrin, but appeared unharmed. It looked like the nirrin had been as good as his word. “Yes, Harliss, it is done,” I said. “The Urisk are changed.” Around me, I could feel the fractures in reality sealing, time healing itself. Cynthia’s gears and cogs began spinning faster. The other nirrin shifted as if the wind had changed. Harliss picked up on it, too.
“What is happening? What have you done?”
I got to my feet and tried to brush the muck from my jeans. “Well, it’s kind of a long story, Harl, but I’ll give you the CliffsNotes. Part of the reason that reality and time have been so weak around here lately is because I did something that caused some issues in the time stream. Turns out the Urisk were supposed to all die; Treggen was supposed to succeed in turning them back into homicidal Black Flashes, and when I stopped him, it fractured time. Treggen’s old pals the Chroniclers told me that time was broken because I still had powers from the Urisk, and I wasn’t supposed to. Then you suggested that I change the Urisk, and I thought, ‘What a great idea.’ I changed them so they no longer worship me. They don’t worship Sakave, either, so don’t get your hopes up. I took an Urisk I trust completely and elevated him to be a deity all his own. The Urisk now worship him, and he will not stand idly by and let you take his people.”
I didn’t dare risk a glance at Cynthia. C’mon kid, you’d better be almost healed up. My powers are just a shadow of what they use
d to be, and I’m running out of monologue to stall this guy.
“As an added bonus,” I continued. “Once the Urisk stopped worshipping me, the fractures in time and reality started to heal themselves. I’m pretty sure you can feel it, too. Sakave’s not forcing his way into this realm, Harliss. You’ve lost. You have been a fair adversary, and so now I will respond in kind. The nirrin can remain here in the swamp, with no repercussions, so long as you do nothing to harm this realm or its people.”
There was a subtle shift to my right. Cynthia stirred and pulled herself to her knees, the dent in her head gone. She put her hands out in front of her and a bubble of crackling white light shimmered around her. The nirrin nearby were thrown backward, slammed against the ground and did not stir. “Vincent Corinthos,” she called. “I need a few minutes to reinforce reality.”
“You got it, kiddo,” I said. Thank Christ those pieces of celestial metal had been enough to repair her important bits. I wondered how much we’d need to get to give her a full adult-sized skeleton and skin. Jake was crouching protectively over the Electric Infant, Xavier right beside him. Both of them were inside Cynthia’s bubble, which I assumed would act as a force field to protect Cynthia while she worked.
As one, the nirrin turned to Harliss. And here comes the moment of surrender, I thought. Harliss was a rational villain, and I had no doubt he’d see the wisdom in giving up here.
Harliss looked between me and Cynthia. Then he absolutely lost his shit. He screamed, a primal, guttural wrenching sound that chilled me to my bones. All along, Harliss had come across as an administrator, a gangly nirrin who followed Sakave like a lost puppy. But now, in hindsight, I realized that there was no way he, Sakave’s right-hand man, a member of a race of shock troops, could be just a boot kisser. His robe ripped as his body erupted in tendrils of muscle. His limbs elongated in seconds, and suddenly, he stood nearly nine feet tall, and had the bulk to match. His companions had undergone similar transformations, though none were as large as Harliss.
Several of the nirrin charged at Cynthia, but they rebounded off her bubble. Either the force field was weakening or these nirrin were tougher, because they got back up and charged again. Jake’s and Xavier’s guns had been taken from them and were sitting in a neat pile some fifty feet away. The big security guard and the inquisitor huddled inside the force field, armed with rocks and sticks they’d picked up. If Cynthia’s bubble faltered, they weren’t going down without a fight.
Harliss only had eyes for me. He charged me, his legs pounding like giant pistons, covering the space between us in a flash. I barely rolled out of the way in time to avoid a blow from a fist the size of a toaster. I was back on my feet and unloaded a column of elemental fire right into Harliss’s face. The giant nirrin staggered back, but shrugged it off and surged forward again. Wow, those scales were quite the armor.
All right, fire doesn’t work. Let’s try to trip him up. I stretched out with telekinesis, and frowned when nothing happened. Crap. Using the Urisk’s powers was such a habit now that I’d forgotten they no longer worshipped me. This was going to take a lot of getting used to. I rolled to the side again, and Harliss’s swing snapped a tree cleanly in half. The sound of splintering wood and the smell of rot ripped through the air as he grabbed the tree and used it like a club, swinging wildly at me.
Nimble as I was, I couldn’t dodge all his attacks. One of them caught me in the stomach and launched me into the air. I hit a nearby tree hard enough to crack a rib and slid down the ragged bark. I’d gotten spoiled being able to telekinetically cushion myself, and now, I was remembering how gravity and physics were complete and utter bitches.
I fell to all fours. Harliss was charging forward again. It would’ve been so easy to just Open a portal and drop him a hundred miles from here, into the ocean, or just let him fall from the farthest point in the sky that I could see. But until Cynthia said that reality was strengthened, I couldn’t risk it.
As I’d been thinking, Harliss had only taken a step. I’d used tachyon to accelerate my thoughts without even realizing it. Focus, Vincent, focus. If I could get behind him, I could probably scramble up his back and slit his throat with my switchblade. It wasn’t a great plan, but I had time to weigh several other options, and they all came out about the same.
Step one, turn invisible. I tapped the kobolds’ faith and disappeared. Okay. Now, all I had to do was—
Time shifted back to its normal speed. Evidently, I couldn’t hold the accelerated thinking for very long. Harliss surged forward, straight at me. “I can smell you!” the nirrin roared and swung the tree again, this time taking my legs out from under me. I landed flat on my back, hard enough to knock the wind from my lungs and break my concentration so I became visible again. Harliss was charging forward again, bringing the tree up over his shoulder so he could squash me with it. He seemed to be moving in slow motion again.
Okay, as the Dread Pirate Roberts might say, what are our assets? I’d lost telekinesis, pyrokinesis, and telepathy, but I still had invisibility, night vision, and elemental fire. None of those were helping. Holy light wasn’t going to work, either, because Harliss didn’t have eyes. Can’t blind someone who can’t see. How did he see? Did he use echolocation like a bat? Why hadn’t I asked that before? Never mind, not important. What else could I do?
No, wrong question. What else could the kobolds do?
Well, there was one other trick I’d seen them do. It had never occurred to me to try it, but hey, no time like the present.
I tapped all the kobold faith I had left and Glimpsed a time when they’d come to my aid while I was fighting pukwudgies in the Undercity. They’d transformed into dragons the size of dogs and strafed the puks, giving me time to fight. I can do anything my followers can do; anything they can do, but on a much bigger scale.
I felt my body stretch, change, and grow, both in size and mass. My clothes shredded as my bones popped and elongated, my nails hardened into claws, and gleaming red scales blossomed over my skin. My sense of smell became a thousand times more acute, and I blinked as I could suddenly see through multiple spectrums of light: infrared, ultraviolet, faint radio waves coming off of Xavier’s phone. Wings erupted from my back, and my jaw elongated to accommodate three new rows of teeth. My tongue stretched, became forked, and I found, had some kind of stinger on its tip.
I was Bahumat. I was Smaug. I was Fin Fang Foom. I was, in short, a dragon. And I was pissed. I threw my considerable weight forward and roared. It made Harliss’s earlier howls sound like a sick kitten’s mewling. I beat my wings, sending a rush of air forward that toppled the now tiny nirrin to the ground. He looked so small, scrabbling back to his feet, brandishing that stick. Had I actually been afraid of that tiny little twig? The world quaked as I stomped forward, and I let out a column of crimson hellfire into the sky.
Harliss was running away. No, no, that simply would not do. I shot forward, grabbed Harliss up in my jaws and crunched down. He squealed and flailed as I chewed. Hot liquid spurted from his body and ran down my chin. I made a note to tell Megan later that she was wrong; the nirrin did not, in fact, taste like chicken. I spat Harliss’s remains out and immolated them with another blast of hellfire. Something small and hard wedged itself between two of my fangs. I plucked out the octahedron from my teeth, and held it pinched between my claws.
I gave a laughing roar, a primal sound that felt so good. Was this how Cather felt? My god, the power this form had. I was practically invincible like this. I could—
And then I ran out of kobold faith. I was suddenly stark naked, astride a pile of ash and scales that had once been Harliss. The fighting all around me had stopped. Jake, Xavier, the nirrin, all stared at me with horror. I was suddenly exhausted, and the taste of chewed Harliss in my mouth made me want to vomit. Christ, why had eating him seemed like a good idea?
But I knew this was one of thos
e moments where I could completely end the fighting if I played it cool. So I wiped the blood from my mouth with the back of my hand and glared at the nirrin. “Anyone else?” I snarled.
In response, a glowing wraith appeared in the doorway of the Legion of Doom building. It strained, as if it were pushing against something invisible and heavy. Then a purple-skinned figure staggered through into the swamp. He stood perhaps six feet tall, his silver hair hanging in a ponytail over one shoulder. A black trenchcloak billowed out behind him like a cape.
Sakave had arrived.
Chapter 13
In his final days, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease took their toll on Mitt. He could no longer tell reality from fantasy, and would speak at length of how he had worked as a supernatural cop to keep Massachusetts safe from monsters like vampires and werewolves. His son confided in me that Mitt swore the Anisa Amulet was real, that he had found it with his partner, Jack, and that this Jack had hidden it somewhere in the Commonwealth. When pressed, Mitt couldn’t remember where his supposed partner had hidden this treasure.
He passed away three days later, surrounded by his loved ones.
—From The Man Who Made Commander Courageous: The Biography of Mitt Nollen
“We meet face to face at last, Vincent Corinthos,” Sakave said as he regarded me. Figures. I’m about to have a showdown with a big bad evil dude, and I’m stark freaking naked. Why couldn’t my pants be like the ones the Hulk wears, where no matter what, they didn’t shred? Maybe they had to be purple. Note to self: get some purple pants.
Fractures: Caulborn 4 Page 21