Dust

by J R Devoe

  Jexa, however, relinquishes the opportunity to exploit the exposure. Instead, she deflects the spear and shuffles back. When she ducks and spins away from a swipe at her head, I see concern on her face. She respects this opponent.

  Before I know it, Mora is sitting me on the bottom level of the pyramid. The battle has moved up the pyramid steps, with everyone racing toward the Capstone. A few dead and wounded roll to the ground around us.

  Two Ori menders join us and set to work fixing my leg. Soon the sharp stabbing turns to dull throbbing.

  I watch the duel on the walkway ahead, mesmerized. This newcomer handles my mother’s spear with such grace. Her footwork is fluid, stepping forward and backward like a dance while spinning the spear around her back and shooting it forward from her hip so that, even with a few repeated shots like this, Jexa struggles to predict where the spear tip will reach until near too late.

  This smooth style of fighting differs greatly from the choppy hacks and slashes taught by Jaleera. How has this fighter remained in our ranks so long without drawing attention to herself? She couldn’t have.

  “Who is that, Mora?” I ask. “I’ve not seen her before.”

  Something about Mora’s grave stare, and the way she stops directing the work on my leg, draws my attention away from the fight.

  “Yes, you have,” she tells me.

  Before she can elaborate, a wounded Fori on the step to my right jumps to her feet despite her wounded leg. She points her axe at the duel. “Look! It’s K’lora!”

  My heart skips a few beats.

  “It can’t be!” shouts a voice from above.

  Everything around me blurs. The only thing I see is the figure between Jexa and me, how her feet step confidently as she defends and attacks with my mother’s—no, her spear—with a finesse beyond anything I’ve ever seen.

  How is this possible? It isn’t. That fall must have jarred my sense loose. Unless…

  I lean back to take in the portal above, where Jexa’s warriors pour onto this planet from distant worlds. But now I see the Watchers are not the only species to have heard Jexa’s call. Four-winged Servants fall through the gate with them.

  “It is K’lora!” says the skeptical Fori from above. “Back from the dead!”

  Of course! I’m on my feet without any regard for my broken leg. Jexa didn’t care about calling Watchers from distant planets. The only thing she ever wanted was to erase her one defeat—the loss inflicted by K’lora!

  I laugh in crazed delight and watch my mother in amazement. My mother! But she is not back from the dead as they claim. Somehow, Jexa has used the portal to disrupt linear time and summoned K’lora from the past. And there she is, my own mother, right before my eyes!

  The clamor of battle on the pyramid above fades. Steady strikes of steel on diamond ring loud from the causeway, each contact sending a vibration through Jexa’s spear that knocks loose a handful of sparks.

  The stories are true. K’lora is as good as the legends claim. Better, even.

  But here she is at a disadvantage. She is fighting a better version of Jexa, one that has spent lifetimes meditating over their first battle and devising proper countermoves.

  This doesn’t faze K’lora. She presses the attack with short jabs and narrow slashes, driving Jexa backward. The smacking of shafts and the ringing of spear tips rattles my nerves. Mother drives Jexa back down causeway until Jexa gets her timing. In a flash Jexa blocks a swipe and pins mother’s spear tip to the ground with her own, then jumps into a spinning back kick. Her rear leg stretches wide and hits mother’s chest with a force that lifts her off her feet.

  A crushing weight forces the air from my lungs as I watch my mother fly through the air and land on her back. Her spear bounces behind her and then rolls across the stone.

  Jexa sweeps her spear tip at mother on the ground. K’lora rolls backward and handsprings onto her feet in time to avoid the blade, which slices off a strand of her brown hair. Hair just like mine.

  K’lora side flips her way back to her spear and, while upside down in mid-cartwheel, grabs the centre of the shaft. Then she’s on the attack again, spear shafts ringing and steel tips singing. Grunting rises louder from both fighters as they tire, but the tightness in my own chest has loosened and allows for easier breathing as my confidence in mother grows.

  I’m vaguely aware of the Ori tending my shattered leg. The pain is mostly numb, with only an intense throbbing reminding me of my recent brush with death. My mother’s deathly dance with Jexa is all I care about. From the crowd gathering to either side of the causeway, I’m not alone in my fixation.

  All up the pyramid, every Watcher and Servant has put their quarrel on hold to watch the infamous duel replay.

  As the parrying progresses, K’lora finds her rhythm and drives Jexa back with unpredictable swings and straight shots with her spear. Jexa stumbles in her retreat, barely able to raise her spear to block the relentless jabs.

  Growing up, I’d never been proud when they called me K’lora’s daughter. For that, I was a fool. Those who followed her in rebellion were anything but. She is magnificent.

  Mora’s fingernails dig into my knee. I spare her a glance and see she is frowning, shifting nervously while watching the portal above us more than the duel. Then I see what she’s watching for.

  My heart stops dead for a few beats at the sight of a Watcher falling from the spherical gate. Red hair ripples like flames in the wind as she glides toward the causeway. Lifetimes younger, Jaleera is still a jealous fool eager to earn her place as Jexa’s right hand.

  I vault to my feet, but the Ori hold me back. “Mother!” I shout.

  K’lora’s feet slide to a stop as she breaks her attack. She glances over her shoulder at me, and for the longest moment our eyes meet. I can’t help but smile. Though she’d never suspect I am her infant daughter, I see the fury in her eyes soften. A moment of peace in the eyes of a hurricane.

  I shatter our reunion by pointing to Jaleera swooping down at her. She spots the intruder and breaks her spear shaft over her knee. She wields a half in each hand, ready to meet Jaleera when she lands on the side closest to the pyramid.

  K’lora stands with an enemy to her right and left. Holding half a spear toward both of them, she waits for her enemy to attack.

  Jexa jumps in with a jab. K’lora deflects it with the pointed end of her spear. When Jaleera takes a stab at her back, she blocks it with the blunt end, making clear who she considers her main threat.

  Both Jexa and Jaleera come in hard from both sides, and K’lora meets their weapons with a confidence that suggests she may be able to glimpse a second or two into the future. In fact, she makes fools of both supreme Watchers, batting away their weapons and landing kicks that knock them off balance and send them stumbling.

  K’lora takes a swing with both shaft halves to knock young Jaleera’s spear from her hands. She then turns to meet Jexa’s swipe, sending her into a spin, and even lands a smack across her back with the blunt end of her spear. As Jexa stumbles to regain her footing and Jaleera lunges in to recover her spear, mother leaps into a scissor push kick that hits Jaleera in the chest and knocks her back. She raises her spear tip over Jaleera, but doesn’t follow through. Instead, she kicks Jaleera’s spear off the causeway and rushes at Jexa.

  My mother has many chances like this to strike down Jaleera, but she restrains herself. She doesn’t think Jaleera will actually take her out. She believes friendship trumps ambition with her. That Jaleera is a warrior of honor. If my mother ever was a fool about anything, it was their friendship.

  A swing at her belly from Jexa forces her to spring backward while doubling over. From this bent position she punches the ground before Jexa’s feet, while simultaneously raising her rear leg to sweep Jaleera’s forward leg up and around to send her stumbling to the side.

  The causeway under Jexa collapses from the shockwave delivered by my mother’s fist. Jexa sinks to her waist in a pit of rubble. Mother turns to J
aleera and rushes with both halves of her spear, swinging furiously from every angle, her face twisted in a grimace of anger and regret.

  Jaleera blocks and shuffles backward while timing mother’s movements. She manages to get a few swipes in to counter and halt her retreat, but it’s not near enough to stop K’lora’s momentum. She front kicks Jaleera to create space between them, which she uses to launch into a forward spin through the air that ends in her driving her spear tip into Jaleera’s collar bone.

  Mother screams in anger and frustration. It’s the only noise I’ve ever heard from her mouth, and it sends a chill through me.

  Jaleera’s knees haven’t hit the ground when K’lora circles behind her to face Jexa. As Jexa climbs onto the causeway, mother adopts a wide stance, the blunt end of her spear held before her as she beckons Jexa to attack.

  Jexa comes at her with a whirlwind of slashes and jabs, which K’lora blocks and deflects in a backward parry with one arm held behind her back. It’s a fine display of skill and confidence, but it’s not enough. Jexa is too fast, coming from too many angles for one stub of a weapon to defend against. In one swift movement, Jexa bats mother’s spear away and keeps twirling backward until she drives her spear’s bottom tip into mother’s belly.

  “No!” I scream.

  As my mother falls to her knees, I hobble down the causeway with Mora’s dagger.

  Jexa wrenches her blade free and holds it vertically over mother’s chest, preparing to add her spark to the collection in her spear. Tears well in my eyes, because I’m not fast enough to stop it.

  When Jexa sees me coming, her eyes light up. She crouches beside K’lora and points to me. By the softening of mother’s eyes, Jexa is telling her who I am. And the sorrow suggests that Jexa is telling her what she’s going to do to me.

  I’m halfway across the causeway when Jexa heaves up on her weapon for its final plunge. Tears blur my eyes. I can’t bear to watch this, but I can’t look away.

  K’lora keeps her eyes on me, all the fight in her replaced by the warmth of a mother’s love. As Jexa drives her spear down, I avoid stealing a look to spare mother a hint of her imminent death. Instead, I smile at her and hope it’s the last thing she ever sees.

  But Jexa’s spear does not reach its destination. A shriek tears through the air, which freezes her downward plunge. The piercing wail is loud enough to shred my eardrums, and covering my ears with both hands does nothing to save them. All I can do is fall to the ground like everyone else. I see Ori burrow into the sand and crawl in a panic underground. The only one not affected like this is Jexa, who drops her spear and stares up at the portal.

  I almost puke as I come to a sickening realization. Jexa’s timing for opening the gate didn’t line up with the duel between her and my mother. She went a little farther back, to a time before K’lora stole away her prized pet.

  Another shriek blasts through the portal. It rattles my spark, paralyzes my mind, and locks my muscles stiff.

  Jexa’s soul-eating sky serpent has heard her call. And, like a dutiful pet, it is on its way to destroy all of her enemies. This time, K’lora is in no shape to stop it. Jexa has outwitted us all.

  30

  —

  NYA

  IT’S HARD TO IMAGINE a creature like Jexa ever loving something, but I swear that’s what now lightens the darkness in her eyes as she watches the portal above. And as she drops to her knees with outstretched arms, it becomes clear who owns who. A master speaks from the past, and a servant throws out her arms and shouts, “I’m here! Come to me!”

  The sight of Jexa’s vulnerability to this thing stirs my belly. It’s as if these heaven-shaking wails warp her into a trance. An intelligent evil posing as a mindless beast instructs her to bring it back into existence with a knowledge known only to a few beings across the Universe.

  A ground-shaking shriek tears through the air and rattles me to my core. It ignites my nerve endings so that every one of them feels as if it’s on fire. The portal above glows red and throbs like the pressure inside my head. I crawl to my feet on the bridge over the moat, close enough to reach my mother if I’m fast, but I cannot take another step in that direction. My destiny is to my rear.

  A louder shriek rips through the air, sending a vibration of terror through my heart. Even the Watchers stare at the sky in fear.

  I narrow my eyes on the portal and clench my fists. It cannot come here. The monster and its master can never be reunited, no matter what it costs me. I must keep them separated, in past and present, where my mother can kill one and we can continue the fight against the other with some semblance of hope.

  I must destroy the Capstone.

  If I don’t, Jexa will not rest until her spear shaft glows bright with the light of every spark that had blasted outward from the birth of time. The innocent will forever remain in her grasp until the day she decides to toss that weapon into the Dark with all its imprisoned souls.

  A blast of half shriek, half growl, shakes the ground. The bulbous portal swells. Wings and scales appear through the wavy walls of energy. It’s like watching a dragon try to break free from the confines of a translucent egg.

  This time, I do not tremble.

  I understand why my mother abandoned me after my birth to fight Jexa. She did it for the love of me and every other innocent being that could not defend itself. But I am a child no more. I am my mother’s daughter, and I will carry on her legacy, even if it means I share her fate.

  I limp back toward the pyramid. In my retreat, I can’t resist a look back over my shoulder, to my mother lying motionless at Jexa’s feet, her chest rising and falling lightly.

  Jexa’s attention falls to me. By the alarm in her eyes, she knows my intent as I hobble on a broken leg. She bends and picks up her spear, and though I try moving faster, I know she will beat me in a race. If not on the causeway, then up the many stone levels that stand between me and the gate key.

  A bolt whizzes over my shoulder toward Jexa’s heart. She bats it away with her spear.

  Suddenly my feet lift from the ground as Deka heaves me over his shoulder. I want to shout out in relief as he lowers his crossbow and carries me toward the Great Pyramid, but I save my energy.

  Even with the burden of my weight, he is fast. Plus, when I look up from my slumped position over his back, I do so just in time to see my mother stab Jexa in the calf.

  Jexa doesn’t allow even a whisper of pain. She just falls backward, arms flailing, where she rolls with my mother on the ground.

  I look away from the scuffle. There is no time to worry about K’lora. She’s already proven that she can handle herself. There is something greater that requires my attention.

  Jexa’s beloved must be an abominably large beast. The portal above pulsates, dilating and constricting as the serpent tries crossing the bridge between both timelines. With each outward throb, the portal’s crystalline perimeter retains a bit of its stretch, slowly growing with each pulse. Like a baby eager to escape the womb, the beast pushes hard to enter our world.

  Deka sets me onto the pyramid’s bottom tier. He stops to catch his breath and winces when he looks above. I join him in surveying our climb. It’s a far trek up once. But to do it up and down, and then up again… he must be exhausted. Yet if that’s the case, he doesn’t let it show. He grabs me under my armpits to lift me.

  “I can climb,” I say, dreading to be more of a burden to him.

  I stand and lean against the face of the second stone tier. Before I begin my ascent, I steal a look back down the causeway, just in time to see Jexa drive her spear into my mother’s chest.

  The flash of light blinds me. I close my eyes and climb up onto the pyramid’s second level. Now is not the time to mourn someone I’d thought dead my whole life. My eyes remain closed as I climb. It’s all I can do to keep the hot pain in my leg from weighing me down. To see how far remains would only work against me.

  TWHAP!

  I jolt, and a hand pats my shoulder.
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br />   “It’s okay,” Deka says. “I’m here.”

  “That noise?” It was too close.

  “My crossbow.”

  “Is she coming?”

  “Yes.”

  By the shudder in his voice, I know Jexa is closing on us.

  “Keep climbing,” he says.

  I hear the creaking of polymer as Deka reloads his crossbow.

  TWHAP! Another whistling bolt fades through the air.

  I try to block out everything and keep climbing, trusting that Deka is watching over me. The climb seems to go on forever, but I dare not stop.

  Hands and feet patter on the stone beside me. “Almost there,” comes Sheffa’s voice. “Race to the top?”

  I allow a half-hearted laugh.

  As I climb higher, the loosing of arrows and bolts becomes more frequent. Feet scuff and weapons clatter off stone above. I can travel blind like this no more. I open my eyes to see a sapien shoot out into the sky, and I follow his line of fire to a swerving Aeri who narrowly avoids the projectile.

  I see we’re only a dozen tiers below the Capstone and breathe the biggest sigh of relief. We’re on the home stretch now. But we’re not in the clear.

  Below, two Aeri have each taken an end of Jexa’s spear and are struggling to hoist her by the vertical shaft. Four more Aeri have acquired Watcher shields and form one great shield before the rising trio, blocking the crossbow bolts raining down.

  “I’m out!” shouts Deka. He’s on the level below me and flings his crossbow at Jexa’s rising entourage. It bounces off a shield and tumbles below.

  So far.

  I swallow hard and return my attention above. A few sapiens loose arrows, but six of them have gathered three tiers below the Capstone, where they can hold a tighter perimeter.

  “I’m out!” shouts Marlok.

  “Me too!”

  A shiver prickles my spine despite the heat and exertion. Jexa now rises unopposed. Deka and his fighters should have saved a few bolts for a close quarters encounter.