Vontaura

by James C. Dunn

  Aíron rubbed her sleeves on her eyes, tears seeping down her face. ‘I’m sorry . . . Raj, it was all my fault.’

  ‘What was?’

  ‘Noah . . . and . . . and Shree.’

  He looked as though his stomach had plummeted. ‘You mean they . . .’

  She was sobbing uncontrollably. ‘We tried to . . . to save you . . . but we . . . I couldn’t. They were trapped . . . the furnace . . . he told me . . . I dragged you out.’

  ‘Shh, shh, shh.’ He pushed himself up and took hold of her. Neither knew what to say. Water birds glided down from the sky and settled across the lake’s surface, happily swimming back and forth. No cares. No worries. No clue.

  ‘She . . . She was . . . with Noah?’ he said.

  Aíron pulled back, held his hand tight. ‘Together. Yes.’

  ‘I don’t blame you, Aíron. I never would.’

  ‘But I deserve to be. I only ever thought about myself. My spoiled life. My own needs.’

  ‘You shouldn’t. Shouldn’t have to. I’ll think about you instead. If you want.’

  She smiled. ‘I do, Raj. More than anything, I do.’

  Two freshly-dug graves lay at the edge of a field of green. A desolate wind blew through a million chains of sward as six figures stood still in silent thought. Aíron sobbed into Raj’s arms. Lanfranc Vortan and Peter Marx stood nearby, while Justus and Dimal, who had returned with them, stood side by side. Nobody spoke a word as each made their peace with the fate of their friends.

  The Gilaxath and their black moon was gone. Justus could hardly believe the thought. Peter’s plan had done it. The ultimatter placed inside the sceptre had entered the Gilaxath’s blood stream and returned with it. Just like it had happened on Titan, Peter explained, when Anna watched it vanish into thin air. The Masterium’s black-rock lair had detonated, imploded. The Earth was safe, the entire Luna base wiped out by the shockwave.

  They were all . . . fortunate.

  ‘Noah didn’t murder his family,’ Dimal said eventually to Justus. ‘You were right to trust him.’ A tear fell down her cheek. She wiped it aside and braved the moment. ‘I just . . . thought you should know. He was a good man.’

  ‘The best,’ Justus said. ‘And Shree the bravest.’

  ‘If she could have been with anyone at the end,’ Raj said, ‘it would have been Noah. The weed. I miss him.’

  Justus turned to Dimal. ‘I prayed that we’d see each other again. That you had stayed close.’

  ‘As close as I could, and as far as I could make myself go.’

  ‘At least I have you back.’ As their hands hung side by side he touched his fingers to hers. She pulled her arm back and turned to look into his eyes. ‘Don’t I? Dim?’

  She turned away from him. ‘You walked, Antal.’ A knife in his heart. ‘I understand now. You were meant to. The Crimson Flux can’t be revived. We can’t be replaced one at a time with a newer model. Not now Shree and Noah are gone.’

  ‘Adra.’

  ‘Some things can’t be fixed.’

  ‘Adra, I love you.’

  ‘You need to go with your father, Antal.’

  ‘I need you.’

  ‘They’re calling you Vontaura, you know? Everyone in the world will know your real name soon. And beyond that, I reckon.’

  ‘I don’t want that.’

  ‘It’s not up to you how you’re known. Some things are just out of our control. And some things aren’t. You need to do what’s right. And so do I.’ She held his gaze, the sound of water stirred in the wind. Adra Dimal said nothing more. She turned and walked away. Aíron and Raj followed shortly after, joined before long by Vortan.

  Peter remained at his side. His mere presence was reassuring. He was a brand new person, neither his friend nor his father, and yet both at the same time. But in that moment his eyes were changed, filled with a doom as deep as Justus’ soul. ‘A price,’ Peter said. ‘A price for your gift. You will lose everything you love. Stay away from them. Remain here with the Flux until I come for you. Remain alone. Remain strong.’

  NINETY-NINE

  JUSTUS FOUND IT impossible to sleep in the days following the Dark and Silent Invasion. He did as Peter asked and didn’t talk to his friends, even those that wanted to. He ignored Raj and Aíron, who sent messages to the Flux from Vortan’s apartment in the city. He couldn’t talk to them. The guilt was beyond excruciating.

  They had achieved a victory. To Justus it felt anything but victorious. He considered Peter’s words and remained alone. A price for your gift. You will lose everything you love. Stay away from them.

  He spent time sitting in the cockpit of the Scarlet Flux and staring out at the lake and inner island. On one occasion he swam across to the isle and spent all day tidying the area around his mother’s grave. The last time he’d visited, he had never felt more feeble or despondent. Now he felt peaceful and suffered nothing but an aching back.

  It was ten days before Peter returned. The evening was late when his one-man craft set down near the Flux and he scurried out as though they’d been apart for years. The sun was still in the sky; summer had endured into late September.

  Peter’s arms were outstretched, and he held Justus close. He looked at the treeline around them, and to the isle in the lake. He closed his eyes for a moment, then spoke. ‘I have received word. Good word at last. I had feared they may not come. A fleet of ships has this evening passed Mars. Their trajectory indicates they are coming here.’

  ‘The Alignment? How many?’ Justus asked.

  ‘Far fewer than I had hoped.’

  ‘And Luna?’

  ‘Some two-hundred made it out. They’re calling our clash the Ar Krimar AbTaurasfir. The Battle of Four Tauras.’

  He sighed. ‘So what happens now?’

  ‘Everything I knew has now occurred. Any future is possible.’

  Justus turned and stared across the lake. ‘You knew all this would happen. For forty years you knew, Peter. Was there nothing you could do . . . for Shree, for Noah, for Anna’s family?’

  ‘It was the condition. I had no power over this.’

  ‘Condition? What do you mean?’

  ‘That is my last admission. I have you again, Antal, but it fills me with dread to think I may lose you if I say this. But I must.’ Justus said nothing and allowed him to continue. ‘Noah and Shree. I believe I know why they are gone. They are gone . . . because of me.’

  ‘Peter,’ he said. ‘I won’t allow you to take the blame.’

  ‘But the blame lies with me. Below Malizar’s House . . . in the dark container where I revealed myself to you . . . I presented you with an image.’

  ‘I remember,’ Justus said. ‘You showed me how you got here. You showed yourself at my birth. And Anna’s birth, too, on Titan. I remember now. You gave us something. What did you give us?’

  ‘A gift, Antal. The gift of intuition, of foresight and forethought. That was my task. The real reason I was sent back. If you and Anna were ever to meet, you would have to see the place where you would unite. You both saw Erebus. You saw the Darkness with it. But there was a price.’

  ‘You say it again. What price?’

  ‘There is balance for everything in this universe. You gained one thing. One thing greater than all others, and for that reason would lose everything else. Everyone else.’

  ‘That’s why Noah and Shree . . . and everyone else I ever loved. And mum?’ Peter shook his head. ‘You knew all this time. You knew I would lose my friends. That giving me that . . . thing would result in their deaths. Will the others be taken too? Aíron, Raj, Adra? You?’

  ‘I don’t know, son. But it had to happen, as terrible as it is. It was the only way.’

  ‘Then what is the point? In any of this?’

  ‘You lost, and so did Anna. But you also saw. Anna saw her mother. You grew up seeing things you could not explain. And you still can see.’

  ‘And Anna?’

  ‘Her vision was broken the moment she plac
ed the bracelet over her arm below Erebus. Only you can still see what nobody else can.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘I will show you. Close your eyes, and think of them. Think of the first person that appears before you.’

  He closed his eyes and thought . . .

  . . . thought of Anna. Thought hard. A light in the distance, in his mind’s eye. Anna was there, far away. Far among distant clouds of Light and Dark. She sat before an intense light, filled with warmth and strength. She smiled, surrounded by moving creatures. She was happy. Then she was gone . . .

  . . . in her place stood Diego Ferranti. He was gaunt and troubled, but assured, happy in the company of the Crilshan Gordian. Alongside them stood Avéne Ketrass and a weeping Callista. A baby hung in the old woman’s arms. They were all filled with hope. Then they were gone . . .

  . . . and there she was. Adra Dimal stood upon a metal balcony overlooking a teeming city. She was crying. Aíron and Raj sat inside, holding each other close. Vortan was with them . . .

  ‘Antal. Son, what is it? What do you see?’

  ‘I see them. Anna’s alive!’

  ‘Good.’

  ‘So are the others. You’re right, they’re coming. They’re coming here.’

  Silence.

  ‘Peter?’

  Silence again. He didn’t answer. Justus opened his eyes and froze still, unable to move or to speak. Peter trembled before him. A shade towered behind him. It sent a chill through his bones, his eyes filled with tears. He couldn’t think. His mind was numb. Blackness filled the air about them.

  Without warning Justus felt himself choking, retching, falling to his knees. A burning hot wind surrounded him. The heavens grew dark, as though night had fallen, the sun ripped from the sky. He turned to the side. A sound like water bubbling. Bones cracking. The lake began to boil.

  Then the trees around him burst into flame, surrounding them in a ring of scorching air. The one-man craft was forced into the burning maelstrom above. The Flux buckled under the pressure and plunged onto its side. The shade behind Peter revealed its face, though both knew it could be only one.

  ‘This time there are no words.’ His roaring voice sent all else quiet, as though they were in the eye of a cyclone. ‘No words remain. Nothing remains. Nothing but you and me, Peter Marx.’

  Justus tried to cry ‘No!’ but all his strength was forced out of him.

  Peter smiled at his son.

  Justus reached for his hand. Not close enough.

  Malizar’s hand like black smoke cut between them. He stood over them both, wrapped in darkness. ‘Seventy years ago a Iástron boy was born,’ he said. ‘And then that boy was murdered.’

  Peter looked into Justus’ eyes.

  ‘I was born. And then you killed me, Peter Marx.’

  ‘You’re right, Marrak. I tried to kill you.’

  ‘You failed, Peter.’

  ‘I failed. And you became this.’

  Malizar raised Peter into the air, his hand wrapped around his throat. Justus fought to move, but slipped from his knee and fell onto his side, looking up with failing vision as his father’s throat was crushed before him.

  ‘You saw what I would become and then you caused it! Now I will end it!’

  The heat burned Justus’ face, the smell of scorching flesh stomach-turning. He looked up at them both and watched Malizar drop Peter. The black shroud lifted and Malizar fell backwards. The fire burned black around him, but at once he could breathe.

  Voices cried out above him. Hands wrapped around his waist and helped him to his feet. ‘Are you all right? Hello? Can you hear me?’

  ‘Father . . . help Peter . . .’

  ‘He’s here, Justus. He’s here.’

  ‘Antal?’ The sound of Peter’s voice was greater than anything imaginable in that moment. He was so disorientated, it was like he’d been dreaming. His vision returned and he gazed down at Malizar’s lifeless body. He looked like a wretched old man. Pitiful, almost.

  His father reached out and Justus held him. He too looking upsettingly old. Old but never pitiable. ‘What did they do to him?’ Justus asked.

  ‘They have done many things. But here they did nothing,’ Peter said. ‘I am responsible for him. It was me that had to stop him.’

  Around them both, many dozens of blue-clad men and women were gathering. Vehicles and many craft hovered in the air above, putting out the burning wood on all sides. Several large men carried a clear cage towards them. Malizar was hauled up and forced within. The Order of the Laxiad carried the Dark Lord – a lord no more – into a nearby craft.

  ‘We knew he survived Luna,’ Peter said. ‘I knew he would come for me. You asked me what I was doing for forty years. I was doing many things. One of these was perfecting a way to stop Marrak. It took years, but we managed to generate a toxin that he would breathe in. I simply had to get close enough to administer it. He is unconscious, paralyzed for the time being.’

  ‘So you laid a trap, and we were the bait.’

  ‘I was the bait. But I wanted you with me. You’re the only one I have left, Antal.’

  ‘Is it true what he said? You tried to kill him when he was just a new-born?’

  ‘It’s true. I did. I looked into a thousand of his futures and I saw Darkness in every one. I attempted to solve the problem in the only way I thought I could. But nothing I did would take his life. To my eternal shame I left him out in the cold of Europa. A second out among the ice and he should have been dead. But he didn’t die. He endured. I realised then that nothing could kill him, so I attempted to teach him, to support and raise him.

  ‘But there is no human or Iástron like Marrak Malizar. He remembered. He was a baby, weeks old, and he remembered. No one but he and I knew. Until now.’

  Justus looked away. ‘I can’t say I agree with what you did. But that was a lifetime ago. He is what he is now because of himself. Because of his choices. Not because of you. We have him. He’s imprisoned, and he will never be free again.’

  ‘Not never, Antal. As long as we can hold him. And no more than that.’

  ‘If you hadn’t lost your gift,’ Justus said, ‘maybe we could have stopped him sooner.’

  ‘It is over for the time being, son. And I have said it many times: a gift is given, not taken.’

  ‘What does that mean? Tell me.’

  ‘Take it to mean whatever you wish for now. There are more pressing issues to consider. Humanity has been dealt a severe blow. We must repair now, not dwell.

  ‘Anna is still out there. She is safe. The Gilaxiad is safe. The bracelet she carries is out of the Masterium’s reach. Humanity is protected. We will find her one day. Though, after all she has been through I think that, deep down, she may have found a peace on the Blue and Green World that she will not find anywhere else.’

  ‘So Gilaxiad is over? The prophecy is complete?’

  ‘Our race has been saved. For now. Anna took a leap of faith to bring me what was needed. She lost much through her choice to save us.’ Peter bowed his head and walked past the blue crowd toward the Scarlet Flux.

  Justus moved, then stopped and turned. He watched his father before staring back across the lake to the island at its centre, then to what was left of the memorial graves at the grassy shoreline. Loss and gain. Is that what it all boiled down to? Is that what really defined his life? Or indeed everyone’s?

  The ash-filled ruins of the lakeside parted beneath his feet. Darkness, silence, and ruin crossed his past, present, and future, all transformed into a moment of triumph. Whether against Malizar, the Gilaxath, or Death itself, victory, at least of sorts, had surely been won.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  James Dunn is a freelance writer and author of the Gilaxiad Series. He lives in Manchester, UK, where he spends a good deal of his time reading, writing, daydreaming, and describing himself in the third person. Inspired by writers such as Conan Doyle, Tolkien, Asimov, and Crichton, he hopes to continue writing for as long as he can grasp a pe
n, and further still.

  You can contact James at gilaxiad@gmail.com.

  NOW AVAILABLE:

  The Gilaxiad Series

  Iástron (Volume I of the Gilaxiad)

  Vontaura (Volume II of the Gilaxiad)

  COMING 2014:

  Masterium (Volume III of the Gilaxiad)