The Burning World

by Kris Austen Radcliffe

  Rysa coughed.

  You need to get your body under control! her dark Fate yelled.

  I’m trying, Rysa thought.

  Behind them, in the playground, every green and red of the slides and equipment brightened. Every random snowflake drifting in through the frigid Wyoming air blinked. Every gesture intensified as her seers overreacted.

  The sudden re-rising of Ladon’s anger appeared in the set of his shoulders.

  His jacket clinked. “Stop enthralling us, Dunn,” he growled.

  Yet he continued to walk toward the gate.

  Rysa gripped Ladon’s shoulder. Ahead of them, just outside the gate, the camera guy stood with his news camera on his shoulder and with its operating light blazing. The reporter stood next to him, slack-jawed.

  Officer Seaver and all the other cops around the cars looked just as terrified.

  Rysa nodded toward the normals. “Not good,” she whispered. Panicked normals would not help anyone.

  Andreas immediately flooded the area with ‘calm’ and his counter to his mother’s voice enthralling and calling scents.

  “So my son can enthrall the locals but I can’t?” Dunn stalked back toward the slide.

  Daisy stalked after her mother. “He’s not crazy!” she yelled. Daisy, at least, was no longer enthralled to be quiet.

  Dunn whipped around. “How long did she give you before you need another healing? Because you will. No one can make a systemic change. Not one that will allow a pregnant person to handle a First activation.” She thumped her own chest. “I can’t do that and neither can a half-breed.”

  Daisy zipped up her jacket. She glanced back at Rysa and placed her hand on her belly. “Why are you like this? Why do you mess with some people and not others?” she said.

  “No choice.” Dunn kicked at the slide.

  “Why did you hide me when Rysa and Andreas arrived? If you didn’t want to help me anymore, then own it! Let me go!”

  “We. Have. No. Choice!” Dunn screamed.

  Ladon carried Rysa through the gate.

  I can’t scream like that, Rysa thought. She opened her mouth to suck in her breath.

  Only a wheeze escaped.

  “Andreas!” Ladon yelled. “She can’t breathe!”

  That cop, the officer named Seaver, pushed between two other cops and ran toward them, but Anna stepped into his path. “Oxygen. Now,” she ordered. Anna, too, had broken the ‘quiet’ order, if not the ‘leave,’ and Andreas’s counters seemed to be enough, once they were out of the gate.

  Officer Seaver didn’t argue. He ran for his cruiser instead.

  Andreas touched Rysa’s forehead. When he pulled back his fingers, he touched them each to his thumb as if he didn’t trust the temperature information his fingertips provided. “No fever,” he said, but sealed his lips over hers anyway.

  The healing brew of calling scents he’d calibrated specifically for her pushed into her throat.

  Rysa gasped. “Thank you,” she said.

  Dragon perceiving flooded her mind again: Her own body fluxed in much the same way as Daisy’s, yet neither dragon could see why.

  In the playground, Dunn screamed at Daisy. “The Whispering One wants me to shove a piece of Janus’s talisman into your gut so she can pull you into to new-space!” She threw a rock at the slide. “Now tell me how I haven’t been protecting you!”

  All the color drained from Daisy’s face. Her mouth opened, then closed, and she stared at her mother.

  Dunn slapped the side of her head. “It’s always been this way, for me. The Whispering One tells me to be crazy and I’m crazy but I’m not. I just want to be left alone.”

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Ladon dropped Rysa’s feet to the ground outside the playground gate. How long would Andreas’s healing calling scents hold? She looked over Ladon’s shoulder at the playground. How long would the healing she gave Daisy hold?

  Ladon held her against his chest. “Don’t use your seers. Don’t enthrall and don’t heal anyone but yourself, okay? Please,” he whispered in her ear.

  Identical instructions flowed from Dragon.

  They weren’t giving her orders. The underlying context flowing with the words wasn’t “do as I say or else.” They were afraid.

  Afraid that this time, what worked last time wouldn’t work again. Afraid that this moment might be more than Ladon could take and that he would relapse into a rampage. Afraid that Dunn would leverage Rysa’s pain—and Daisy’s—into an excuse to expose the dragons to the reporter and her camera guy.

  They were asking her to keep herself—and them—as safe as possible while they figured out what to do.

  But they didn’t have time to figure things out. They no longer had the luxury of a moment to contemplate. She no longer had a pause in which to breathe so she could clear away the overlapping, overwhelming sensory input of her attention-deficit-addled brain.

  Because monsters stalked the world and Dunn had the means to stop them. The how-to instructions, though, not so much. They were to build a cage. But how? At the base? Would they have time? They had the who and the what, but nothing else.

  And now Dunn—because, like Rysa, she felt buried under her life—had lashed out.

  All of Dunn’s behaviors? The screaming? The yelling? The forcing others to do what she wanted? She was trying to find something—or someone—to grab onto.

  How could the Progenitors not see the truth for twenty-three centuries? Dunn didn’t want to be left alone. She needed a fucking hug.

  The problem was that she’d never been offered a real one before. Twenty-three centuries of being branded “crazy” to the point where even the obviously commanding woman in the playground had internalized it. Twenty-three centuries of being a Progenitor—being “in charge,” never experiencing anyone offering help, only following orders, or taking, or being too afraid to see the person in front of them—had put up barriers.

  Rysa pushed off Ladon. “I need to talk to her. I need to talk to Dunn.” Except the world spun.

  Ladon caught her. “Love, don’t push it. Please.”

  She looked up at her wonderful husband’s face. Ladon, the man who saw through her own lashing out when they first met. He’d cared enough to try.

  She glanced at Anna, then at Andreas. How many times had the long immortal tried with Dunn? Why didn’t she trust anyone enough to let them in?

  We don’t have time, her present-seer whispered.

  It has to be now, her dark Fate said.

  All three of her seers screamed. They lit up and they vibrated and there was nothing her healer could do about it. Nothing Ladon could do. Nothing anyone could do except cringe.

  Nothing.

  It had to be now.

  A pulse hit the world. An invisible wave, something that moved in new-space and not the real. A tsunami of energy, a gale-force wind, a propagation of change, washed through the what-was-is-will-be.

  Every cop cruiser sitting in the intersection whooped once. Half the pick-ups and cars parked nearby started, then shut off. Every single cell phone rang once, then stopped. Harsh, grating static erupted from all the police radios, then stopped as suddenly as it started.

  Ladon gasped and gripped his forehead the way he did when cell phones or wifi gave him a headache. He staggered but didn’t lose his footing. Anna also staggered and held her head, but she too, held her footing, as did Andreas.

  In the park, Daisy yelped.

  Dunn, though, buckled over as if she were about to throw up.

  “No, no, no,” Rysa stammered. They were supposed to have another hour or so. That’s what Harold said. They should have had enough time to get Dunn under control and to at least dig in their heels.

  But monsters didn’t work that way.

  Disorientation blasted from both dragons. They both flickered to visibility, both showing as outlines against the black iron posts and bare trees of the fence around the playground, as if they momentarily lost their extended, enhance
d ability to mimic to full invisibility.

  Officer Seaver dropped the oxygen kit he carried toward Rysa as he groped for his sidearm. “What the hell!”

  “Andreas!” Rysa yelled. “Help the dragons!”

  A massive calibrated-for-normals dose of ‘ignore the dragons’ washed from Andreas. “What just happened?” he asked.

  Ladon looked nauseated. “I don’t know.”

  Officer Seaver lowered his weapon, though he continued to hold it in ready position. “You said dragons! I heard you say dragons!” he yelled. “You’re fucking enthralling us again, aren’t you!”

  He aimed his weapon at Andreas. “You Shifters need to start acting like citizens, understand? You need to stop interfering or I’ll arrest your entire group.”

  Whatever had swept through had cleared all the ‘calm’ from the air, as well. All the calling scents, including Dunn’s, except for Andreas’s ‘ignore the dragons’ which he exhaled after the wave.

  The wave that had, for a moment, cleared the fog and exposed the terrifying underbelly of the truth to Rysa.

  “Michael Seaver.” She pointed at the trooper. When they first met, her future-seer told her that she would give an order that would send him to his death. He was going to die, but he didn’t need to know that now. “You will follow my directives.”

  He jerked as if startled.

  Yes! her dark Fate said. Be the Prime you were always meant to be.

  “You are in the presence of the only people who can stop what has started. You are in the presence of the only authority that matters.”

  One of the other cops yelled. Next to the fence, the reporter said, “Did you get that?”

  They were filming everything Rysa did.

  “Yeah,” the camera guy said. “The camera’s working again.”

  “You said dragons,” Officer Seaver repeated.

  It didn’t matter anymore. Nothing mattered.

  The rip or hole or looking glass Aiden Blake had opened when he stepped into new-space had just become a door.

  Red blossomed in the sky over the Rocky Mountains. Bright, fire-engine red, not the evening sunset red that had begun spreading along the horizon. Real, blood red.

  In the playground, Dunn pointed at the sky. “We’re supposed to have more time!” she screamed.

  The red contracted into an arch looming just above the sawtooth mountains. Yellow filled in under the red until that color, too, contracted to a vivid, distinct swoop. Then a bright, electric blue arch appeared under the yellow.

  A primary rainbow hung off the curve of the world.

  “What’s that?” Officer Seaver said.

  Rysa had seen cities in flames. She’d seen Burners. She’d seen death. This was the Burning World. This was what the Fates had been seeing for at least a century and a half and never figured out. Never understood. Because one hundred fifty years ago, this would have looked like magic.

  Sufficiently advanced engineering always looks like magic to cave dwellers banging rocks together, her dark Fate said.

  Dunn grabbed Daisy’s shoulders. “Our dragons didn’t cause that.” She pointed at the colors on the horizon, then nodded toward Ladon before squeezing Daisy’s arm again. “Ladon and Anna were the best of us, when it happened. Their job was to protect us. That’s what they do. Both of them.”

  Rysa shuffled through the gate. Ladon quickly wrapped his arm around her waist even though the pain radiating off him suggested that the pulse had triggered a near-debilitating headache.

  I need to know that wave didn’t cause aneurisms, she pushed out to the dragons. She followed her push with words: “I need imaging on Ladon and Anna. Check them for issues.”

  An image immediately followed: Both human brains looked correct to the dragons.

  “I hurt. That’s all,” Ladon said. “Both dragons say that they’re okay.”

  When she looked over her shoulder, Andreas was already checking Anna and providing pain relief.

  Rysa and Ladon stopped about ten feet from Dunn and Daisy.

  “Dunn,” Ladon snarled.

  Daisy placed her hand on her mother’s elbow. “Mom, you need to cooperate now.”

  Next to Dunn, Rysa’s friend did her best not to shake. She did her best to stay calm and to help her mother process what was happening, because that’s what Daisy did.

  Daisy looked up at the screaming colors in the sky. “I have to do this, don’t I, Mom? You were right. We have no choice. I have to take a shard and go into new-space.”

  One Alchemist on this side, and one on the other, her dark Fate whispered.

  “Do you two even know what to do?” Rysa said. “Neither of you has seers. Is the Whispering One feeding you instructions?”

  If they didn’t know what to do, then Daisy crossing over would make no difference.

  “Tell Gavin I love him, okay? Tell him I’m sorry.” Daisy pinched her lips and wiped at her eye. “Please make sure he’s okay. Please.”

  The world needed Daisy here, not on the new-side, controlling whatever cage they needed to build from the inside out. Crossing into new-space would kill her. She’d never come back. If she died, the world would suffer. Not just the baby she carried, not just Gavin, but the entire planet. Earth would lose another godling.

  “Gavin Bower is Legion,” Ladon said.

  Daisy gasped, but she held her tears. She nodded.

  “I hear the Whispering One,” Dunn said. “Daisy doesn’t. I can take multiple shards into myself and it won’t kill me. It will Daisy.” She gripped the black bag she carried. “The Whispering One can feed me instructions on this side, which she can’t Daisy. There’s no other option.”

  “No!” Rysa stepped between Dunn and Daisy. “We’ve lost two of our Firsts. Please don’t take another.”

  Rysa staggered, but Daisy held her up. Ladon stepped forward. Dunn snarled at him.

  “Fuck you, Dunn,” he said, and wrapped his arm around Rysa’s waist again.

  Behind them, out by the road, several of the cops sped away.

  Rysa turned toward Daisy. “There has to be another way.”

  Andreas walked through the gate. “I’ll go.”

  Dunn touched her son’s cheek. “You don’t have the correct power set.”

  “I’ll go,” Ladon said. “Dragon will go with me. We’ll survive it. We’ve survived worse.”

  Not Ladon. Rysa couldn’t lose him… again. Again echoed from her dark Fate. Again. Like Daisy, he wouldn’t come back, and neither would Dragon. He didn’t have the power set needed, either.

  Dunn shook her head. “Sacrificing yourself won’t work. You aren’t a Shifter.”

  “I’ll go,” Rysa said. “I can do it. I see what needs seeing. I’m Shifter and Fate. I burned out the sniffer-bots in my blood. I could cycle myself up and use my seers and—”

  “No.” Dunn stepped back. Her eyes glazed over. “That’s not your role. We need you here.” She pointed at the sky. “They weren’t supposed to come through for another week. We prepared, but it didn’t matter.”

  Anna jogged through the gate. “How many, Dunn?” She looked up at the sky. “For how long? What are they flying? How long before the world’s militaries are overpowered? Exactly what are we dealing with here? Tactical information would be very helpful right now.”

  Dragon and Sister-Dragon both pushed the same thought: We do not understand what is happening.

  Dunn’s face hardened. She stared at the sky. “It’s time.” She pointed at Daisy. “She says it’s now because that damned thing opened and the surge of energy it released will help you to cross into new-space.”

  She shook her head as if disagreeing with someone no one else heard. “I don’t want her to die.” She waved her hand and the air around her fingers shimmered. “It will kill her.”

  Daisy pointed at the arches on the horizon. “I don’t think we have any other option.”

  “I’ll go!” Rysa yelled. “I’m not pregnant. I’m a Shifter. I can do this.” S
he had her dark Fate. She was her dark Fate.

  Rysa manifested a blade around both her hands.

  “Rysa,” Ladon blinked. Color drained from his face. “Don’t,” he whispered.

  He’d lose himself again. He’d rampage. But with whatever was about to rain down from the sky, maybe a rampage would help.

  But she wasn’t evil. She wouldn’t push him into turning into a monster like the one they’d met in the vision. “I will come back. I promise.” She would. The Dracae needed her.

  Her dark Fate appeared directly in front of Rysa. Not physically—Ladon and Daisy moved as if they had no idea of phantom floating in the air between Rysa and them.

  Rysa’s dark Fate cupped her face. “Listen to me. We need to be precise, okay? You’re a confluence. You’re the point where several rivers of time come together. But those rivers have been engineered. Do you understand? They were never supposed to combine. Dams were built but some of us forced the issue.”

  “I understand,” Rysa said. “Can I do this?”

  Her dark Fate sighed. “I don’t know.” She closed her eyes. “Neither does the Whispering One. You’re supposed to be on this side. We are without fate here, and we don’t know if this is your destiny.” Then she disappeared.

  Rysa blinked. She didn’t have time to sort out what her dark Fate manifesting and vanishing meant, though it probably had something to do with the energy wave and her broken sniffers. “Okay,” she said. She shook her arms. “Okay. Dunn, what do I need to do?”

  Dunn dropped her black bag on the ground. The flap opened and the shards tumbled out. “We take these into ourselves.”

  Someone down by the television station truck shouted. The last of the cop cars started up, sirens blaring, and headed back into Cheyenne. Only Officer Seaver remained.

  On the horizon, the primary colors of the arch changed to orange, green, and violet.

  “You can’t, Rysa,” Daisy said. “It has to be me. I’m the First Alchemist. It has to be my power set.”

  Dunn stiffened. “We need to do this now,” she said. “The Whispering One says we’re losing the energy.” Her mouth opened and her hand touched her lips. “I’m so sorry we didn’t remember. I’m so sorry we didn’t help to build a world where we could have stopped this. I’m so sorry.”