Dust

by J R Devoe

  Ringing steel echoes from high inside the cone. Ko Tora greets me inside the entrance, where a ledge surrounds an orange lake of swirling lava. The Aeri Elder’s face is black with soot, which makes her smile unnaturally white when she sees me.

  She points to the center of the lake. “There it is!”

  She’s right. On a platform held by chains anchored to the walls, suspended only thirty feet above the scalding lake, sits a thirty-foot tall pyramidion. Waves of orange light ripple across its polished surface.

  “Don’t worry, Nya,” she yells over the clamor of the battle above, “you’ll get more credit than you deserve when you destroy that gate key. Then we’ll all be friends and forget about what brought us here. Now, follow me.”

  Behind her, an Aeri drops and hits the lava with a splat. She wails and writhes as she sinks in the boiling liquid, her feathered wings bursting into flames.

  “Are you with me, Nya?”

  I snap my attention from the Aeri and give Ko Tora a few eager nods. She raises her sword and shouts, “To victory!”

  I leap from the ledge. My wings flutter instinctively, but I only need them for steering as the thermal pressure from below lifts me across the molten lake. I reach the platform of suspended rock with little effort and land behind Ko Tora.

  “Hurry,” she says, “destroy the Capstone before word reaches Jexa.”

  Right. I must work quickly before Jexa returns from her training.

  Ko Tora looks straight up and shouts orders to her warriors fighting above, directing them to attack a cluster of Aeri regrouping in a crevice.

  I make my way to the nearest chain. I just need to unfasten one of the four to tip the Capstone into the lava. With a boost from the thermal pressure below, a last-second warning is all Ko Tora will need to take flight.

  I kneel beside the anchor point and touch the chain, feeling its frequency, determining what disruptive vibration will shatter its bonds. But…wait.

  A realization stops me. Training? The grogginess clears from my mind. Why does Jexa need to run her Watchers through drills? They’ve fought lifetimes alongside each other. Flying in formation is their nature as sure as it is with migrating birds. Same with an eagle attacking prey. They don’t need training. Each is born a killing machine.

  “Nya, what are you doing?” says Ko Tora, her eyes wide and wild.

  I stand and march to the Capstone. My hand trembles as I reach out to touch its surface. Pushing a fingertip to the hot metal, it takes only the whisper of a vibration to send the pyramidion slumping into a mound of dust. Its avalanching slope buries me to my knees.

  I turn to catch Ko Tora’s horrified expression.

  “It’s lead!” I shout. My words echo up the hollow cone, loud enough that I hope they spew out the top and reach the Great Pyramid, to warn its meager defence force.

  But I am a fool to hold such hopes. Yet even so, on this mountain, I am the least fool of all. And everyone watching me buried to my knees in dust knows it.

  Ko Tora’s jaw hangs slack. She shakes her head in disbelief.

  I stomp out of the counterfeit Capstone’s remains and step toe to toe with her. “It was lead, you idiot!”

  I raise my hand as if to smack her and, to my surprise, she throws up both arms and turns her head away.

  The sight of her trembling gives me pause. Does she actually think I’d dust her? I must look some mad for her to believe I’d ever harm a Ko Elder. Though, if an Elder ever deserved it, it’d be Ko Tora. Her wisdom is measured only by the numbers that follow her.

  I lower my hand. “This is—”

  The platform sways under me, its chains rattling. Rocks rain down and splash into the lava below.

  Ko Tora snaps out of her stupor. “The mountain is coming down! Everyone, out!”

  The anchor chains explode from the walls. As the platform drops from under me, my wings buzz fast as a hummingbird’s to lift me above the fountains of lava splashing from below.

  Ko Tora zips straight for the entrance, risking falling debris from above and lava splash from below. She disappears into the exit just before it collapses.

  Rocks pelt me from above. A boulder slams my shoulder and drops me, so I raise my hands to shield myself. Panic already has them surging with a wild frequency. I close my eyes and fly straight upward, trying to ignore the screams of those falling around me, rising and pushing through shock waves. I don’t dust all the rocks, just the bigger ones, until I burst free of the collapsing volcano and up into the sky.

  My upward flight slows as gravity below me seems to shift. The falling mass creates a suction that drags me down with it, so I fly sidelong, blind in a storm of ash and dust. I think I’m flying at an upward angle until I crash onto the rocky ground. Here I bury my face into my arms as a tsunami of dirt and volcanic ash washes over me. The blanket of debris grows thicker over me and I try to slow my breathing, but it chokes me anyway. Soot clogs my nose and dust fills my lungs.

  When the initial wave passes I sit up and shake the ash from my wings, brush it from my skin, but I find breathing no easier. In fact, I can hardly see farther than my own outstretched hand!

  I fly straight up into the air to avoid suffocating. It takes a rise of one hundred feet to clear the dust. The cloud is still thickest where the volcano was, but it cannot hide what is left in its place. A sunken pit thrice the size of the volcano’s base now disappears deep into the earth. It descends into darkness as far as I can see, but I feel as if my spirit has sunk even lower than the lowest depths of that pit.

  I hover for a long while, watching a few survivors rise above the cloud. Less than one hundred. We’ve lost the bulk of our fighting force within seconds.

  Ko Tora hovers half a league away from me. “Back to the pyramids!” she orders.

  Many are already flying hard north.

  “Wait!” shouts another voice from below. Kassini rises up to meet Ko Tora. “Listen!” She points to the pit, where I now see the edge had been bored out in a perfect circle.

  I cock my ear toward the hole and hear shouts rising from the darkness.

  “Help us!” shout voices, thousands of them.

  “We’ll need them at the pyramids,” says Kassini, wide-eyed and breathless.

  “We don’t have time!” says Ko Tora, and her wild eyes reveal she is on the verge of unraveling.

  “Jexa is probably already at the pyramids with the real Capstone,” I say, trying hard to keep a lid on my rage. Further rattling Ko Tora will serve none of us well.

  “It’s too early,” Ko Tora says, turning her back to the hole and the voices rising from it.

  “She doesn’t need to be on time. We built up the defences there and then abandoned them,” I point out, feeling anger swell in my chest and up my throat, heating my words. “If she takes the pyramids, she can hold them from us for as long as she wants.”

  “So we need our numbers back,” says Kassini while nodding eagerly as she reinforces her point. “As many as we can get. And there are many more below who have plenty of cause to fight Jexa.”

  “The Ori slaves,” says another Fori, noting the pit’s perfectly round edge.

  By now, a crowd has gathered around us, the buzz of excited wings clearing pockets of floating ash from around us.

  Ko Tora’s expression sets. “You’re right. We shall not return empty-handed.”

  It takes great effort to keep myself from throttling her. Is she really trying to make this sound like a victory of sorts?

  “Everyone, split into teams,” says Ko Tora. “Let’s go.”

  She flies down into the pit with two dozen surviving raiders behind her. I’m lingering in the rear, but I stop at the hole entrance. Heat rises from below and tousles my hair, blasts me like a furnace. Cold sweat covers my body.

  Looking into that great abyss feels like staring into the Dark itself. Already Ko Tora and her party have disappeared. Swallowed whole. If something happens, like a collapsing of the walls or getting lost in a labyr
inth of lightless caverns, none would ever know what happened to us.

  “Where are you?” rises a shout.

  “I can’t see the surface!” comes another. “It’s too dark!”

  The shouting fades…“This way!” growing fainter with each second…“I can’t see!”…until…nothing.

  It’s so silent I hear the dust settle around me.

  Then it hits me like a battering ram. Almost knocks the wind from my lungs. What if this is another stage to Jexa’s plan? The real trap? To lure us into the Dark on our own free will would be the ultimate stroke of genius. Her coup de grace. And the fools dove headfirst into it!

  Well, this is one suicide mission Ko Tora will not drag me into. I won’t do it. They may have cost us this war, but they will not take my life with it.

  I rise from the hole entrance and fly hard toward the green line of forest tracing the northern horizon.

  Somehow, the farther I fly from the pit, the louder the voices of its captives follow me.

  “Save me, Nya!”

  “Don’t leave us!”

  “Where are you going? Please, come back!”

  “Coward! Get back here!”

  “We need you!”

  I cover my ears and scream for them to stop, but it doesn’t work. When I close my eyes all I see is their faces screaming at me in the dark.

  “Get out of my head!” I shout.

  They ignore my demand and continue. Pleading for my help.

  When I open my eyes, it’s just in time to see the rough bark of a tree. I slam into it at top speed, and the impact puts a sudden end to my madness.

  24

  —

  NYA

  IF MY DESPERATION TO get the hell away from that pit wasn’t obvious enough, all you needed to do was look at my wings. Even after slamming into that tree and rendering myself unconscious, my wings kept me flying, so that when I wake, I’m buzzing over the treetops, still traveling northbound.

  That collision seemed to have knocked the voices from my head as well. Instead, a loud ringing is all I can hear. I’m abundantly grateful for this tone. At least now I can think.

  Having stared into Jexa’s dark leaves me with a new view on life. I could have been lost down there, but I’m not. I’m still free and alive. Every breath I take is a blessing. I have a future, however short it may be, and I will cherish every heartbeat from this second forward. I will no longer fret about the past, nor shall I dread the future. In doing so, my standard for joy has decreased dramatically.

  That whack on the head also made clear what I must do. I will round up survivors, starting with Mora and her Ori. They’ll dig out a marvelous sanctuary, where we will live with Deka and his folk, all of us, deep within Gaia. The Fori will devise a way to grow vegetation down there. They’ve succeeded in this on the dark side of tidally locked moons. They will do it underground here, as well. With any luck, the Black Tide will miss us. When Jexa’s army of darkness moves on to the next planet, we shall resurface and begin life anew.

  I smile and even allow a laugh, though I’ll admit this laughter does sound a bit crazed. But these are crazy times. To endure, one must become a little mad. I’ve been adapting to planets for ten lifetimes. This is simply an adjustment of a different kind. Besides, this seemed to have been my fate all along. At least, it’s the kindest one I can hope for. I’d resisted every other option, yet this one kicks my heart into a hopeful dance. And even if this wasn’t my destiny, I shall make it so.

  My optimism, however, evaporates when I reach the sapien hideout. I feel the gloom long before Mora races out to meet me. It’s thick with emotion, like fog over my heart.

  “It’s not a good time,” she warns.

  That’s an understatement if there ever was one. Though, I’m surprised to hear she’s referring to Deka. Against her urging, I order she take me to him. I find him and Marlok carrying a body wrapped in fabric through the forest toward the sea.

  “It was a rogue Fori,” Mora says. “A deserter from the pyramids. She told us about Jexa’s offer. Is it true?”

  I nod, but I don’t notice her reaction. All I can see is Deka carrying a corpse that belonged to his friend.

  “They’re taking her body home,” Mora tells me. “They don’t belong here.”

  That last part Mora said is true, which makes her first claim impossible with their current technology. They certainly do not belong here, but they cannot take her body home. Not to her true home, anyway. Because Deka’s ancestors were not born on this planet.

  I look up through the canopy, to the bulging seam of stars in the night sky. The first sapiens came from somewhere out there. I’ve seen artwork on other planets that bear near identical resemblance to Deka. These images rise more clearly from the depths of my memories every time I see one these sapiens. And how am I so sure those other races have not originated here? Well, the premature oxidation of their bodies is evidence enough of that. The original sapiens must have evolved elsewhere, on a planet more in harmony with their physical make-up. Of that I have no doubt.

  Watching Deka struggle with Marlok to carry the girl’s body, I’m trying to understand why they’d waste so much energy relocating it. This collection of organic molecules is just a vessel. A container that no longer holds the spark that once gave it life. It will do better nurturing the forest, becoming one with this planet.

  I approach. “Deka…”

  His shoulders hunch at the sound of my voice. He sets the girl’s remains down. When he turns, his teeth are clenched and his face is twisted in animal rage so much that I hardly recognize him. He points a condemning finger at me and says, “You stay away from us.”

  I place a hand over my heart and recoil. “I—”

  “You did this,” he growls. “I’ll not have your curse harm another one of my kind, you foul creature.”

  His tone shocks me. This is not the Deka I know.

  “This wasn’t my fault.”

  Deka’s face twitches and his expression softens. Tears glaze his eyes, and I see it’s disappointment that tames his anger. “You promised we’d be safe here. You said your people would watch over us and they didn’t. Now Mali is dead. Our kind don’t come back from death like you do. This is final.” His lips quiver as he draws in a shuddering breath. In a flash, his rage returns in full. “Are you hearing me? It’s permanent! She’s gone! Forever!”

  He stares at me expectantly, awaiting a response, but I struggle to find the words.

  “I—I’m…I’m sorry,” is all I can say. The words sound foreign leaving my mouth, so much that I’m sure I’ve never said them before. But it’s true. I am sorry. Everyone I’ve ever tried to help ends up worse than when I started. Why haven’t I learned this yet? I should have stuck to what I’m good at and left these poor folk alone. Oh, mother! How many more races have I done this to? How many more will suffer in my quest for satisfaction?

  “You’re all demons in disguise,” he says, and his words are laced with pure hate.

  I take a step forward. “Deka, you—”

  He raises his crossbow and aims it at my belly. “I curse the day I ever set eyes on you.”

  These words pierce deeper than any arrow ever could. Tears well in my eyes, and it takes everything in me to keep them from spilling over. I see now more than ever that I should have stuck to what nature made me, but it’s not too late. I can’t bring his dead friend back, but I can give Deka’s colony a bright future.

  He gives me a disgusted shake of his head, then picks up the corpse by its feet and continues carrying it toward the sea.

  I do not know where a sapien spark goes when it leaves its body, but I take comfort in knowing hers can’t be in a worse place than the dark underground where she’d spent most of her life.

  To Mora, I say, “Keep an eye on them. See them safe from the forest, then you may do as you please.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “I was made for one thing. I now see how to use that ability for good
.”

  “You know where to find the Capstone?”

  “I don’t need to,” I say, rubbing the tears from my eyes. “That chunk of gold is just the key. Without the gate, it’s useless.”

  Mora’s eyes grow wide with understanding. “I don’t suppose there’s anything I can say to stop you.”

  I shake my head.

  “We’ll escort them from the forest,” Mora says. “You have my word. When they’re gone, I’ll head for the pyramids.” She cocks her head. “I will say, this isn’t the worst idea you’ve ever come up with.”

  Laughter is what escapes my mouth. Ridiculous laugher.

  “Goodbye, Mora.”

  With that, I rise into an eastward flight, back toward the Great Pyramid. I will destroy that sacred structure block by block if I must. By choosing the right stones, I may even save myself a lot of effort and topple it. It’s not impossible. Though my lack of enthusiasm and practice for my work has left me the weakest dust maiden in my cohort, it’s never too late to strive for greatness. And what better project to learn on. If this works, I’ll be a legend among my kind.

  • • •

  When you’re racing toward your death, you gain a new appreciation for things you never gave much thought to before. Like the ocean. I’ve never really given these massive bodies of water the credit they deserve. Yet I’ve never been to a planet without one, which leads me to believe life cannot exist without them.

  On this day, I follow the coast to draw in as much of the salty air as I can. Sunlight sparkles off the water and almost blinds me. The trees to my right pulsate with life. I swear I hear every one of their leaves rustle in greeting as I pass. At the border of death, I have never felt so connected to life.

  This splendid flight doesn’t last long. I’m not even halfway to the pyramids when I become too heavy for my own wings. This fatigue hits fast and drags me down until I’m crashing onto the rocky shore, where I roll short of the water line.