Dark Rain: Book 1 of The Aetherium Saga

by Jilly MacKenzie

  Casting a sideways glance to their smoky newcomer, she noticed it was the young Irishman with the scratched face, who had directed her find Cat. He was bent double, violently coughing. His previously dark blonde hair was now caked in ash. But upon looking around at Cat and the library girl, they too were covered in ash. We all are. Cavere’s blood too…

  Upon entering the isolated section the group halted at a crime scene. Cat and library girl both released a shared gasp of horror.

  Deryk... Lenore identified as they slipped by his eviscerated remains.

  ‘Bloody hell... Literally!’ the young man croaked, half-disgusted, half-bewildered.

  Everyone covered their noses and held their breath as they passed, avoiding the gaseous bloody stench rising from the mess. The library girl threw up, and one of her books slipped out from under her jacket. She caught it quickly, and swallowed repeatedly, getting herself together again. Cat put a comforting hand on her back, and the girl nodded in appreciation.

  Moving further along the dark corridor, Anubis emerged from her room, outfitted in a Drakestoke winter coat and boots. She paused and eyed the intruders suspiciously. So some survived…

  Lenore narrowed her eyes at Anubis' attire, equally as suspicious. She looks prepared to go outside. Does she know a way out?

  As if reading her thoughts, Anubis turned on her heel and made a quick beckoning motion with her hand as she strode to the back of the isolation section. They followed eagerly, and upon turning a corner, Anubis swung open a dark doorway, revealing an expanse of glistening snow beyond. Never had the rush of wintry air through an open door felt so euphoric, and never had snow looked so welcoming.

  The group bolted through the open door way, feet crunching into the untouched blanket of snow, and they flopped down. They covered their flushed skin with snow and took deep gulps of unpolluted, icy air. Anubis looked on as the four Drakestoke survivors sighed and moaned in bliss, coughing up the remnants of smoke and ash from their lungs.

  Make that five Drakestoke survivors, Anubis noted upon spying a figure bounding through the deep snow towards them.

  ‘Kitten!’

  Cat’s small blonde head popped up out of the snow, and she began scrambling towards the caller in a snowy flurry of yelping and crying. Lenore's heart soared at the sight of Axel alive and well, and Cat’s relief as she jumped into his arms planting numerous kisses on his snow-covered head.

  At the show of affection, the young Irishman held out his hand to Lenore.

  ‘Hi,’ he strained out with an exhausted grin, ‘I'm Finn.’

  She took his hand in a tentative ashen grip, ‘Lenore.’ He rose to his feet, helping her up.

  ‘Emile…’ the library girl muttered as he also aided her in rising to her unsteady feet.

  ‘Well, we gonna get out of here or...?’

  Energy lasers interrupted him, striking the snow beside the group, and melting holes into the deep powder, kicking up white flurries around them.

  Everybody scattered for cover, and Axel scooped up Cat who was frozen in fear.

  For the first time in her life, Lenore felt her death was imminent. The IGS are here.

  Chapter 14

  Vicissitude

  The blinding amber of skycraft lights flooded the wintry courtyard, and Anubis followed the group as they fled behind a groundskeeper's outbuilding, using snow, blown up by the jets of the searching skycrafts, to their advantage as they moved.

  ‘Out of the fire and into the frying pan!’ Finn exclaimed as they cowered behind the small ruined building. Lenore urged him to hush, looking the sky in fear.

  Anubis heard a skycraft soar away loudly, taking its search lights with it. The courtyard was once again plunged into darkness, with only the golden glow from the blazing chateau dimly illuminating the disturbed snow.

  ‘One doing a sweep over this section, two others scouting further ahead at the main gate,’ Finn explained in a low voice, craning his head around the corner for a better view.

  ‘How are we going to get past them?’ asked Cat's small voice from underneath Axels arm.

  ‘We'll have to move soon, they'll find us eventually with their heat sensors,’ stated Finn. He seemed more in awe of the arsenal of the skycrafts than his own imminent danger.

  Lenore nodded in agreement, thinking hard about how to go about their dash for freedom. Turning to Anubis, she studied the dried blood on her pale hands, and encrusted under her long nails. Anubis was aware she was being scrutinised, and she met Lenore’s eyes with a steady gaze. A gaze that was both knowing, and unapologetic. Proud of the murder she had just committed.

  Being so close to the mysterious masked woman, Lenore felt uneasy as she noticed more details about Anubis. Even though I can't see all of her face, I can tell she is beautiful. Wild brown hair, oval face with a symmetrical, aesthetically pleasing structure. Distinctly feminine. Full red lips. Steel blue eyes.

  Anubis' hot breath billowed out from her masked nose, creating an ominous cloud of obscurity about her, like a cloak of protection from Lenore's prying eyes. Meeting Anubis' intense gaze, Lenore voiced her concerns in a hushed voice, ‘I know what Deryk did.’

  Anubis narrowed her eyes, and her jaw tensed at the mention of his name.

  ‘And I know you feel that what you did was justice,’ she continued, ‘But you don't have to kill.’

  The group listened intently, and Anubis' red lips flashed a subtle sinister smile, and raised a delicately arched eyebrow as she listened. She doesn't know my pain, Anubis glowered.

  ‘I don't believe you to be… a bad person,’ Lenore soothed, ‘Just someone that bad things have happened to.’

  Anubis sneered at Lenore’s sympathy, and huffed out a cloud of steamed bitterness from her flared nostrils.

  ‘Why did you help us leave?’ Lenore probed.

  ‘And you chased Deryk off before he could…,’ Cat's small voice added as she peeked out from over Axels protective arm.

  Anubis looked at the faces beside her. It was all just circumstance. None of you are special. You all just happened to be in the right places at the right time. I care for nothing. And no-one. Not even myself.

  The hum of a skycraft could be heard approaching from the right, and its bright yellow lights appeared over one of the chateau towers like an angry, mechanical sun. Its searchlight would sweep over them soon, revealing their bedraggled figures ripe for capture.

  With a sense of urgency, Lenore met Anubis' gaze and stated with earnest, ‘I know more than you think. I know you are connected to a... a powerful being.’

  Lenore's words pierced Anubis' core, as if they found her deepest, darkest cavern and lit a flare, revealing all her secrets. How does she know all of this? Anubis puzzled. About me. About my shadow man? Is she IGS? No… she wouldn’t be fearing for her life along with the others if she were. She is something else.

  The skycraft light was almost upon them, and the group was poised ready to flee and hope for the best. Lenore urged them to stay put, and Axel growled with fear and frustration, holding Cat close.

  ‘Can you call it? To help us? It will protect you! Get it to protect us! Here and now!’ Lenore pleaded hurriedly to Anubis.

  Anubis felt her urgency, and she was suddenly aware of Lenore’s importance. This woman is part of something bigger than me. She knows things. Important things.

  Watching their approaching doom, Anubis stood and walked confidently from her hiding place, stopping to look upon Lenore and the group for a moment. I don’t know how to call him. But there is something I can do. Something I have wanted for quite some time. It is time for me to finally rest.

  Lenore looked on in horror as Anubis strode purposefully towards the middle of the courtyard, awaiting in the path of the oncoming skycraft.

  ‘What is she doing?’ Finn quizzed in horror.

  ‘Anubis!’ Lenore croaked out, but was ignored.

  Anubis stood facing the skycraft as it closed in on her. It's time now. I did what I needed
to do. Deryk is dead. You were only here for me, I see that now. You are part of something big, and you have managed to make it this far tonight. At least I can help you go a little further.

  Anubis was suddenly illuminated in an aura of yellow, and she bolted across the courtyard and out into the grounds. Drawing the skycraft away from the group's hiding place.

  ‘She a decoy!’ Lenore realised, but could not accept what she was seeing. The connection to the rogue Anuna, and the most important person on Earth, has chosen to die.

  Axel shook Lenore's shoulder snapping her mind back to their situation. The two other skycrafts slowly drifted along the perimeter of the grounds towards where Anubis was struggling through the calf-deep snow. No doubt looking on, watching their teammates in the other skycraft bring down their target... Thought Lenore sickeningly.

  ‘Now’s our chance! All three crafts are distracted!’ Finn urged as he stood. Lenore agreed and began to run, urging the others to move towards the cover of the forest. They all wasted no time sprinting across the dark, empty expanse of snow towards the tree line.

  As Lenore ran for her life, she couldn’t help but glance across to Anubis' distant figure, surrounded by the three skycrafts. She was clambering through the illuminated snow as one of them shot her every now and then with energy beams. Unbearable sadness gripped Lenore's heart as she realised the cruel game the IGS were playing. Toying with her. Like she was prey in a blood sport.

  Searing shots grazed Anubis’ arms, and one on her thigh made her stumble. She struggled to her feet and continued when another shot pierced into her shoulder blade and out through her clavicle. The shock made her spin and fall backwards into the snow.

  A frustrated moan of helplessness escaped Lenore’s lips as she ran, and the cold air rushing by her, froze the tear streaks running down her face.

  Somehow, in a daze of shock and grief, with her ears filled with the sound of lasers, and the smell of fire in her nose, Lenore was panting with four others in the shadow of a forest.

  Coming to her senses, she took note of her surroundings. The group had collapsed from exhaustion and relief just within the boundary of the forest outside of Drakestoke.

  The institution now was a castle-shaped inferno. Its dark smoke floated up to blend with the night sky, carrying with it the souls of people who should not have been there to begin with. Cat was on her knees sobbing woefully at the sight of her beloved home on its final night. A place of so much happiness for her and Axel had become one of such death and ruin, within just a few hours after such a happy celebration.

  And Lenore could see the memories incinerate in the orange reflection in Cat's teary eyes.

  Getting to her unsteady feet, Lenore looked upon the blazing devastation, thinking of the unbearable final moments of its charred victims.

  And she imagined the heartless IGS skycrew, laughing over their comms system, as they slowly killed Anubis, shot by shot. It was in that moment that Lenore finally understood the darkness in Anubis' heart. For she too was feeling a fire in her soul, as hot as the flames which filled her vision. She too was feeling the need for retribution and justice as her icy, numbed fists clenched in hatred. And Lenore's seething bloodlust was hungering for IGS blood.

  ‘They will pay for this,’ Lenore vowed, as she settled down beside her weeping friends, and they shared an embrace of ash, blood, and snow.

  ***

  Anubis lay in the snow, her body punctured and bleeding from various laser shots. She turned her face slowly to the side and looked upon Deryk’s dried blood on her hand and smiled. I did it. I killed him. Mummy can be with you now. My… baby.

  She reached up and touched her cold, hard mask, as tears of pain and resignation trickled down her pale face. She blinked up at the blinding yellow lights, and her hand dropped down, back into the sanguine soaked snow.

  Chapter 15

  Angel Of Death

  Looking upon her dying form, Marduk’s heart was breaking, yet he couldn’t help but swell with admiration. He had seen her take her revenge, and witnessed her become judge, jury, and executioner, all at once in a brilliant display. She was honest, true, and raw. She had a purpose, and succeeded in fulfilling it. And now she had chosen to die.

  He could feel her defiance and absolution as she bled out onto the pure snow. She is beautiful. The warmth of her blood floated upwards in a delicate mist of cathartic release, and Marduk could sense her energy waning, pulling on his own life-force. He had to act.

  Halting the encircling soldiers in their own ring of time cessation, he approached Anubis and knelt down beside her. It pained him to look upon her punctured form, and he stroked her hair. Their blue eyes met one another, sharing their melancholy.

  No, she mentally groaned, as he lifted her head, cradling her body in his arms.

  I must, he replied softly, sending his understanding and regret through their shared connection. He knew she wanted to die here, but he could not allow it. Her death would result in his own, for that is the risk Anuna take when they make the Ankida bond. Out of his own will to survive, and selfishness of wanting her to remain, he began to send forth his aether to repair her wounds.

  His eyes burned azure, illuminating the weak protest in Anubis' hard gaze. His black and bronze hair fluttered as energy radiated from his being. It flowed through their cosmic bond, pouring from his fingertips which held her in a firm embrace.

  Marduk's brows furrowed and his expression was intense as he laid his head on hers, feeling her disappointment and confusion as he healed her.

  Why? she probed his mind.

  He released a short humoured breath, because you are more important than you realise.

  Tears began to roll down her cheeks again, let me go, she moaned. He laughed uncomfortably and ignored her plea, cradling her as he focused on mending the wounds.

  I’ve suffered enough in this life. I am done.

  His face softened and he looked her in the eyes, it is divine to suffer. A rite of passage onto greater things. You saved me during my suffering, and now I've saved you.

  Her wounds had closed up, and the bleeding had ceased. Marduk's luminosity retreated back into himself, and he could feel that his energy had been greatly depleted. His heart sank, as he realised that he couldn't take her with him.

  She looked up at him with hatred, you’re leaving me here.

  Yes, I am sorry.

  Her eyes fluttered to the stationary IGS soldiers around her, anxiously.

  They will not kill you, Marduk assured, I will be back for you.

  You put too much faith in these men... You should have let me die.

  ‘Live...’ Marduk breathed as he kissed her forehead and aetherated away. Abandoning Anubis as twelve IGS enforcers closed in around her, pistols aimed.

  She lay motionless as they inspected, photographed, and bound her. Her senses acclimatised to their presence, and murmuring beneath their armoured visors. And it wasn't until she was being hauled away that she noticed the huge glyph indented in the snow where she had lain.

  ***

  Marduk emerged out into the empty main deck of the Ùruv, heavy-hearted and exhausted. His finite amount of aether began to frustrate him more than ever.

  ‘Why did you do it Marduk?’ Nanaya inquired as she joined him at the curved window looking out towards Earth's sun.

  ‘Do what exactly?’ he asked with a sigh.

  ‘The Ankida, two years ago,’ she stated, ‘You knew it is a weakness. You cannot afford to have any more weaknesses.’

  His eyes snapped to her in anger, and she bowed her head apologetically.

  ‘Bel…’ she began softly, using his formal Babylonian title, ‘I can sense that you have almost no aether left. What did you do?’

  ‘My chosen was dying,’ he revealed.

  Nanaya’s heart constricted at his words, and she wanted to yell at him, but allowed only a frustrated hiss escape her lips. She knew all too well that when it comes to his Chosen, Marduk was as protective and
defensive as a new mother.

  ‘You know of my life after you woke me from my dormancy, and left me to roam the Earth for a millennium,’ he complained.

  ‘Please Marduk!’ she begged in a hushed voice, ‘the others do not know I woke you so soon. The Tiamatian plan was only a whisper back then. I wanted you free and safe, I…did it for you.’

  Marduk raised hand dismissively, ‘Nanaya, I’ve realised I’ve never thanked you…’ he looked at her with a gentle expression. ‘Thank you,’ he smiled.

  She rushed to his side with relief, and grasped his hand, ‘Marduk, I always thought you were angry with me. I hate it when you are angry with me.’

  ‘I know,’ he chuckled, ‘When we were young, you sulked in my favourite places, just so I would come across you and befriend you again.’

  She smiled with sad nostalgia, ‘I miss those times.’ And Marduk put a comforting arm around her as they gazed out at the distant planets.

  ‘My oldest friend…’ he soothed, ‘We have had long and eventful lives, have we not?’

  ‘You more than most,’ she corrected, humorously. And in all those millennia, he never came to love me, she lamented to herself.

  ‘In all my long years before my fall, I never changed. I became stagnant. Stuck in my destructive cycle… I learned more in the 1000 years after my fall, than I did from all of my 450,000 years before. I am a better person from it.’

  ‘Person?’ puzzled Nanaya with a smirk.

  He met her prying gaze with a soft smile, and exhaled. ‘You know I am changed.’

  ‘Yes, I know. But you are Anunnaki, Marduk. Not human.’

  ‘I am different,’ he frowned, shaking his head slowly, ‘I’ve experienced a grounding like none of you ever have. I am cut off from the universal aether. I am as close to human as an Anuna can possibly be.’

  ‘It won’t always be like this,’ she assured with a level gaze, ‘You will be great again, Marduk.’

  He looked at her in amusement, ‘The damage is done, Nanaya. The Fall is irreversible.’

  She looked away uneasily, shaking her head in silence.