Vontaura

by James C. Dunn

  Justus rolled over and gazed at his father. ‘What . . . happened?’

  Cathal sighed. ‘He was too strong. He’s taken Vortan.’

  ‘For what?’

  ‘I don’t know. But it gets worse.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘He’s taken my sceptre.’

  ‘Hell! That’s important now?!’

  ‘So important, Antal. I need it back.’

  ‘Fat chance. What can we do in here?’

  ‘We have to find a way out.’

  Justus sighed deeply, the room swirling purple and gold. ‘There is no way out now.’

  ‘You’ve given up already, son? What happened to everything we spoke about? Your friends, family, reasons for going on?’

  ‘I don’t deserve any of that! And they don’t deserve what I put them through!’

  ‘What you put them through? Just say it. You’re talking about your mother.’

  He struggled against it, but a tear emerged from Justus’ eye. Cathal placed a hand on his shoulder.

  ‘I’m sorry for it all,’ Justus said. ‘For running away. For killing mum. For . . .’

  ‘I know why you did it, son. You’re a good person! No matter what happens. Never think otherwise. I know what it took from you the day it happened. The day you let her go.’

  ‘Don’t!’

  ‘You thought you gave up your kindness and decency.’

  ‘Please!’

  ‘But I know she was sick. She’d been sick for so many years. I know you didn’t want to do it. I know she begged you. You surrendered yourself that night. But you did not surrender your light. You have to forgive yourself.’

  ‘You and I both know that’s the one thing I cannot do!’

  Cathal moved closer, and Justus looked deep into his eyes for the first time. ‘I should be the one to apologize, my child. For leaving. For not being there. It has killed me that I could never explain why I left. But now . . . now I think I have to. I have to account for all I have done, and tell you the truth. You deserve that most of all. Give me your hand, son. Come close.’

  He leaned in, and took Justus’ hand, placed it over his head, fingertip touching his temple. ‘Now close your eyes and focus on my voice. There is something you must know.’

  EIGHTY-FOUR

  CLICK, CLICK, CLICK.

  Anna took one clear breath in and opened her eyes. She had made it. She looked up at a star-filled sky, bordered perfectly by a wooded frontier. A single leaf fell from the tree branch. It fell slowly, gracefully, no wind present to catch its descent and bear it far off among the many trees enclosing the crowded upland.

  Click, click, click.

  The air smelled almost as fresh as it felt against her skin – cool and tranquil with strokes of warmth. She had made it. The moon loomed over her and was in its own way comforting.

  Click, click, click.

  Her lip curled into a small smile. She was actually, in a small way, proud of herself. The first human to travel such a distance in so short a time and live. Then again, she thought, sitting up and staring around at nothing but plant life and undergrowth, am I alive?

  Click, click, click.

  The continuous sound came from up in the trees. A flash of orange danced among the lower canopy. Then a small creature, with glossy fur a deep orange, dropped onto the ground beside her. Click, click, click it went, and moved towards her.

  ‘Hello,’ Anna said. ‘What are you?’ She hadn’t read about creatures like this on Earth.

  Click, click, click.

  ‘Wait.’ She recognised its gait, the face, that soft clicking from somewhere before. ‘Are you a . . . Sonii?’

  ‘A Sonii among its native forests.’

  She spun at once and stared through the tree line at the figure which had spoken.

  ‘Did you say native forests?’

  ‘Yes, Anna.’

  ‘What? Who are you?’

  ‘The Sonii’s coat is naturally orange. But it fades when they leave this world.’

  ‘That is how I’ve seen them,’ she said. ‘What are they doing here?’

  ‘Here, Anna? Do you know where here is?’

  ‘This is Earth.’

  ‘No, Anna. This is not Earth.’ The visitor stepped into view. He was shorter than her, with dark hair and sallow skin. He smiled softly.

  ‘Peter Marx?’ She fell to her knees, exhausted.

  ‘You have travelled far, Anna Berenguer.’

  She remained still upon her kneecaps.

  ‘But I am delighted that you made it. I imagine it was difficult indeed for Lucasta to allow you to leave.’

  ‘She tried to talk me out of it.’

  ‘I feared she would. Did you not tell her the Sonii’s message?’

  ‘In the end I did,’ Anna said. ‘I kept what little hope there was to myself, even though I knew . . . I knew everyone else was surrounded by the same darkness.’

  ‘What darkness, Anna?’ Peter asked. ‘Surely it cannot have arrived already!’

  ‘You knew Erebus was coming for us?’ She was on her feet again. ‘You knew and could do nothing but send me a ridiculous riddle?’

  ‘Riddle? What riddle? I sent the Sonii to retrieve you. I sent nothing else.’

  ‘Then who?’ She staggered towards a nearby tree and sat upon a large root at its base. ‘Who the hell is playing with our lives? Who is hiding in the shadows and watching, waiting, laughing at us?’

  Peter stepped down and stood above her. ‘I think we have our paths crossed, Anna. It appears you know more than I do in some small way. And yet there is much I have to tell you, before we can settle on what to do next.’

  ‘But we are going to do something?’

  He smiled, like a small, mischievous child. ‘If it means my death.’

  And he sat down upon the root beside her. As though she hadn’t just met the oldest living man, a man she thought was dead, she proceeded to tell him everything that had happened since they left Erebus and the lightning planet five months earlier. She told him that Justus had headed for Earth as he had told him.

  ‘Wonderful!’ Peter said. ‘Very good.’

  She explained all about their return to Titan and their subsequent imprisonment. Then came news of the Sonii, of the return of Erebus, and her family’s death.

  ‘Oh, Anna,’ he said as she began to cry, and he held her for some time. His small, smooth hands wiped the tears from beneath her eyes; and he too shed a tear as though he felt her agony as deeply as she did. ‘You’ve come through so much. No one would ever have expected you to do the things you have done, to make the choices you have made. But you have done your part. You can rest here now. There is no place safer.’

  ‘I don’t . . . I don’t care about my safety. I left everyone behind.’

  ‘Anna,’ he said, and took careful hold of her face. She looked into his eyes, and saw a thing familiar; his touch and his gaze was warm and tender. ‘Anna, you trust me, yes?’

  ‘Yes, Peter.’

  ‘Then trust what I have to say: I will do everything in my power to help those you left behind.’ He smiled and she nodded.

  ‘I have to know,’ she said. ‘I saw you. You fought that creature. My father. I saw you fall over the cliff face. We all thought you were buried. Lost. How did you survive?’

  ‘Firstly, Anna, you must know that the creature I fought was no longer your father. Dathlan died many weeks before, and he died a brave death, as he resisted the wicked deeds of Lesper and Kramer. The creature I fought was the result of their experiment.

  ‘But it was stronger than me. Stronger by far. I was close to death. Light and fire rained down from above even as you fled the Zinn’s caverns. And as I stood upon the brink, I thought I glimpsed the other side. It was not filled with darkness. I was consumed by hope. And I surrendered to the warmth. Then came the light, and it carried me away, to this place. The light which came for me destroyed Tempest-Beta just as your journey here destroyed Io.’

  ‘A
nd that brings us to it,’ she said. ‘I left everyone behind, expecting to go to Earth. If this isn’t Earth, then where are we?’

  ‘Yes. Yes that brings us to it. But you are tired, and almost certainly would not grasp the truth if I told you now. Sit with me. Eat what food I have brought, and get some sleep. Tomorrow I’ll tell you everything.’

  ‘I haven’t been through what I have to learn absolutely nothing!’ she said. ‘I’ll sleep better knowing the truth.’

  ‘No,’ he said. ‘No, you won’t sleep at all once you hear what has to be said.’

  ‘Then tell me something. Anything.’

  ‘I will tell you this,’ he said. ‘The forces of darkness are moving. They are stronger now than they ever were. But so too are the forces of light. It was that light which saved me from Tempest-Beta. It was that light which bore me here. Tomorrow, Anna, you will see it for yourself.’

  EIGHTY-FIVE

  ANNA WOKE THE next morning to a warm breeze and a soft light settling upon her skin. The sound of birds like none she had ever heard in the gardens of Titan moved amongst the narrow canopy above, and with them came a pleasant humming, hopeful and sad all at once.

  She peered about the clearing and watched Peter sitting across the bow they had sat upon the night before. He sang quietly to the peculiar orange creatures as they purred back, nipping from one branch to another playfully. His back was turned and in that moment Anna saw the ancient man beneath the young, immaculate skin. He sat in the same position he had been in when she went to sleep. He had not moved, had not slept, in hours.

  She picked herself up and reached across to find the backpack Ferranti had given her. She had forgotten all about it.

  ‘Your backpack,’ Peter said without moving. ‘It landed not far from your crash site. You’ll find it undamaged, I hope. Did you sleep well?’

  ‘Better than I have in months.’

  ‘Did you dream?’

  ‘Not that I can remember.’ She found her aching feet and approached him. ‘Why?’

  ‘When was the last time you do remember?’

  She thought carefully. ‘I can’t recall. Months, I think. Not since before . . . Erebus.’

  Peter turned on the thick root and peered at her powerfully. ‘I thought so.’

  ‘Why?’ she asked. ‘Why can’t I dream?’ As she said it, she realised the absurdity of it. All her visions except for those of her mother had been awful. She did not miss the bad dreams.

  ‘The presence, the manifestation, the dark thing that stopped me using my gift upon Erebus,’ Peter said, standing. ‘The dark force, the malevolent presence. It is here with us, even now.’

  Anna raised her arm and the black, veined band shuddered. As it did, so too did her body; goose bumps surged the length of her arm.

  ‘Nobody on Erebus dreamed, Anna. Not in the entire ten years I spent there. The Darkness within stopped it.’ He began to walk. ‘It’s time we made a move.’

  ‘Aren’t we going to talk?’

  He climbed over the root and, throwing the black and gold backpack over his shoulders, started back down the hill. ‘It will take all day.’

  The two walked in silence through the thick, boiling forest. It did take all day. The Sonii pursued, clicking and dancing among the trees above. The first few hours went the slowest, as they moved along an ascending ridge, eventually leaving the forest behind. A single, orange Sonii followed on foot beside Anna as Peter led up front. Before them stretched a gargantuan valley, the far mountains upon the other side only just visible beyond the great forest in between.

  They descended the mount. Through the tree line and along a river running they trudged, for several hours more, as the path on which he led her rose once more uphill. The Sonii was holding Anna’s hand by this point, after which it lagged behind. And so she picked it up and carried it along. It was not particularly heavy, and she could feel its heartbeat up against her breast as it slept.

  ‘One of the Sonii came with me,’ Anna asked Peter quietly. ‘I can’t tell. Is this it?’

  ‘No,’ he answered. ‘No, the Sonii which came with you did not survive the landing.’

  ‘What?’ She sighed deeply, devoured by guilt.

  ‘I buried it after tending to you and leaving you to rest. The one in your arms is younger, but of the same family as the group sent for you.’

  At that point the orange creature jumped up from Anna’s arms and smelt the air.

  ‘We must be close,’ he said.

  ‘To where?’ she asked.

  ‘The Hill of Cádrabie.’

  The Sonii charged off. It led them to the far slopes of the hill of Cádrabie, which Peter explained meant “elderly” through rough translation of their fading lexicon; and from there they crossed a field of orange trees into a thick wood of lavender and sapphire. The darkening sky disappeared through the tree tops as they passed along a leaf-littered road, multicoloured and beautiful. The roots of the trees emerged from the ground more and more the deeper they moved, as though eager to rise up or else reaching for the branches above. They climbed. Eventually they reached a clearing upon the higher reaches of the hill. At the top stood proud a single tree.

  Many Sonii sat still nearby, watching. Peter quickened his pace until he stood beside their guide near the base of the tree. Anna meandered slowly through the network of surfacing roots and stopped beside them. She looked up. The Great Tree’s branches, almost bare, were moving back and forth like a powerful wind shook each bough independently. But the wind was still. All was silent.

  ‘This,’ Peter said, ‘is the Shilvar.’

  ‘It’s . . . It’s a tree.’

  ‘No! No, not a tree, Anna. The Shilvar.’

  ‘You’re going to have to explain. What is it?’

  ‘A life form not of this galaxy. A force which travelled here innumerable millennia ago. A spirit containing pure and absolute light.’

  The branches swayed back and forth, beckoning to her.

  ‘Go,’ Peter said. ‘They have been waiting.’

  Anna stepped up and the roots beneath her feet spread around her ankles and along her legs. The branches above descended, reaching, wrapping, stretching to gain contact. She did not move, and closed her eyes.

  Before her stood the tree, as though in her mind it waited. And a voice, kind and warm and like no voice she had ever before heard, sang.

  ‘Anna Berenguer of Titan,’ it said. ‘Far from your home you have come to be here. Through despair and darkness to stand before us. You alone of all your people save Peter Marx bear witness to the ending of one age, and the beginning of another.’

  I see the ending, she thought; but I cannot see a beginning.

  ‘No being may,’ came the soft reply. ‘Except for two.’ Anna waited in silence, no energy remaining to ask who they may be. ‘Anna Berenguer and Antal Justus once saw what was yet to come. Now only he may do so.’

  Why? she thought

  As though in response, her arm rose from beside her, the dark band and now-blackened hand swaying in front.

  I understand.

  A deep, silver pool lay open to the stars at the bottom of Cádrabie. A golden moon flooded much of the sky, echoed into the silent stream which ran nearby. Anna undressed and slowly sank into the pool. Upon the other side, Peter remained clothed, and would not approach the pool. He wandered around and knelt close by with his legs crossed.

  ‘I’ve been thinking about what the Shilvar said to me,’ Anna said. Her interaction had lasted almost an hour, during which many thoughts were exchanged, though many questions remained unanswered.

  ‘I won’t ask you to tell me what the Shilvar told you,’ Peter interrupted. ‘Their light is a precious one. Something almost extinguished in this universe.’

  ‘They said so much, and yet nothing at all.’ She sighed and lay back, soaking her long hair. ‘But I think I understand now. You sent the Sonii for me because I’m wearing this bracelet. It’s important?’

  ‘Incredib
ly, Anna. But we don’t have to talk now. Rest. You deserve that. Feel the light of this place filling you, surrounding you, protecting you. Be at peace.’

  She inhaled deeply, allowed the warm water to immerse her completely. She held her breath and closed her eyes, and lay back. Was it possible to remain under there forever, and never again surface? She could breathe in, let the water flood her lungs, drift away for eternity in exchange for a moment of pain. As simply as the thought emerged, the reality became altogether impossible. She surfaced.

  No more was said. Peter left her to wind down in the pool of the beautiful Blue and Green World. The playful Sonii waited until she was finished before approaching her, taking her hand, and leading her to a bed of moss and fresh grass it had made up.

  And when she slept that night, she slept a dreamless sleep, devoid of all the wondrous – and not so wondrous – things she had seen. But a dark cloud remained over her. She knew and she felt as though it was all just beginning.

  EIGHTY-SIX

  PETER HAD GIVEN much thought to where they would go from here. Anna’s part in all of it was still unclear, even to him. She had brought the bracelet from Erebus here. It was safe. Out of the way of the creature which came for her. Came for it. That is what it wanted. Peter was sure of it. The bracelet aside, most immediate and heavy on his mind was his own role in the coming struggle, of which the Shilvar had so far withheld from him.

  He was greeted by a warm air and the gentle purring of swinging creatures in the branches above as he moved up the hill toward the calling voice of the light-bearers. It was peaceful, and so tempting to remain here for as long as he would be allowed.

  Ever since he first perceived the light he had been affected. Deep below Tempest-Beta, when he was surrounded by darkness and conceded defeat, they found him. The light literally pulled him across space. And there were the Sonii, faithful pupils of the Light. The orange creatures were beyond intelligent, more so than humans in most ways. They had once built their own interstellar crafts from the precious bark of the Shilvar; not wood, but a substance inconceivable even to Peter. Under Shilvar instruction the Sonii had grown great. Until the Masterium descended, forcing them into hiding among the planet’s great forests. And there they had remained, for as long as mankind had been among the stars, and longer.