by Chris Fox
Irakesh drifted towards the bridge, an immense green cloud of barely contained fury. His opponents gaped in horror, suitably impressed and appropriately terrified. A late arrival sat near the back of the bridge, the midnight Ka-Dun who’d barely taken part in their previous struggle. The familiar pulsing of a rival access key emanated from the man. This was the one who’d wrested the key from the Ka-Dun Blair.
More than that, the key was active now. The Ark it linked to fed it a small trickle of power, thin but steady. The Mother had repaired the immense damage wrought to her control room. Interesting. Irakesh briefly considered his options. He could eradicate the Ka-Dun with little trouble, but doing so would free the key. If he could instead capture the fool, he could imprison him within the Ark of the Redwood. Doing so would deny the Mother a Ka-Dun to watch over her Ark. That would leave her little choice but to remain close to it, shackled to the structure lest some interloper invade in her absence.
One final obstacle remained, his former vassal and the annoying pups who’d yapped at him since he’d fled Peru. It was time to put them down.
73
Triumph
Blair used the Suzuki’s bumper to pull himself to his feet. Breathing was agony. Moving beyond a broken hobble an impossibility. He’d never been this badly hurt, not even when he’d fallen from the plane back in Panama. That memory summoned an image of Bridget smiling, tending to him at his bedside. Of the brief time they’d shared together. He pushed it back, craning his neck to see over the milling zombies just beyond whatever safe zone Trevor was providing.
There was no sign of Irakesh on the bridge, only more zombies. So Blair looked beyond it. A tiny figure crouched atop the odd round building just on the other side, the gift shop that sold tiny replicas of the bridge and postcards with catchy phrases. His familiar bald head shone in the setting sun, flowing white tunic and pants somehow miraculously free of dirt or blood.
Blair had but a moment to watch before Irakesh dissolved into a cloud of sickly green mist with little arcs of lightning shooting through it. Then an enormous flash burst from the building, coming towards him faster than comprehension. He blurred, but even at such accelerated speed the explosion still raced towards him.
Jordan’s neighboring blur vibrated the air around Blair, thrumming through him like the piano cord of the universe. The beefy blond werewolf leaped into their center, holding his arms aloft as if bracing an enormous wall. What was he doing? Blair had never seen anything like it, not even from Ahiga or the Mother. It looked as though he’d erected some sort of bubble around them, oily rainbows undulating along its surface where the fire burned hottest.
The inferno raged around them until Jordan collapsed to his knees, arms trembling as he sought to sustain the shelter he’d created. Could he hold on? Blair wished he had strength to lend. Then Liz was there, crouching next to Jordan. She pressed the flat of her golden blade against Jordan’s knees. It began to glow, white pulses flowing from the tip to the hilt, each one making Jordan sit a little straighter.
Blair watched as the bubble shrank, just barely covering them now. Sweat matted Jordan’s fur to his face, eyes fixed on nothing as he struggled with the powers he’d harnessed. He tilted to the right, only Liz’s arm keeping him erect. Then the fire was gone. Blair leaned on the hood, gaping as a river of light flowed into the tip of the Ark. The structure drank it in greedily, absorbing it and leaving the bridge’s smoking remains still standing.
The awful scope of Irakesh’s plan was finally clear. He’d never intended to destroy anything. The bomb was a power source, and Irakesh had just leapt ahead of every Ark Lord in the world. It was brilliant. If a weakly powered Ark had allowed Irakesh to push Blair out of his mind like a misbehaving toddler, then what could he do with a fully powered one?
“Prepare yourselves,” came a growl from behind Blair. He shifted atop the SUV to see Steve crouched on a commuter bus whose paint had been boiled away in the blast. He could still read Route 4 in the windshield. “Irakesh will attack and we have to stand together. If we don’t we have no chance.”
“Steve?” Liz called, rising from her place next to Jordan and stalking towards the midnight werewolf. “You actually want to stay and fight? I was positive you’d tell us to run, if you hadn’t already left us all to die.”
“I know you hate me, though I’ve never done anything to wrong you. I’m not a coward. I’m pragmatic and don’t throw my life away in futile gestures. If I didn’t think we had a chance, I would have run. But we do have a chance. A damned good one. Irakesh is strong, but there are four of us. Five, if you count Blair. We all want Irakesh dead and unless I’m a bigger fool than Blair that bastard is about to show us his end game,” Steve taunted, tone just as acid as Liz’s. Blair’s eyes narrowed at the insult, but he was in no shape to do anything about it, even if he’d not been a mangled wreck. “You want to stand here bickering, or get ready for a last stand?”
“He’s right,” Jordan said. Yuri helped him regain his feet, but his chest was heaving as though he’d run a marathon. He used a paw to wipe the sweat from his forehead. “I don’t know how much that explosion took out of Irakesh, but as soon as he recovers, he’ll attack. We can’t afford to give him that chance. We need to go on the offensive.”
“It’s too late for that,” a mocking voice came from above. The mist had boiled away in the blast, leaving half-melted spires jutting into empty air. Between them stood a familiar figure, the white-clad form of Irakesh. He drifted towards the ground, left hand resting on the hilt of his oddly curved sword. The dark-skinned deathless made no other aggressive gesture as he set down just a few dozen yards from the group. He waved a hand and the zombies behind him stepped back as one, leaving him more room.
Irakesh delivered a triumphant smile, thick with a smugness Blair wished he could beat out of him. “I’ve won. The Ark is mine. The bomb has been detonated, giving me power beyond your limited comprehension. There is nothing you can do. No ability you can summon that will save you. Not even the Ka-Ken’s storied weapon poses a threat. I believe I’ll take that after I’ve incinerated the lot of you.”
“You think it will be that easy?” Liz growled, slipping into the shadow of the bus.
In that instant Jordan leapt forward, blurring as quickly as Blair had ever seen. He bounded upwards, wrapping his arms around Irakesh. Or attempting to. Jordan passed through the illusion and sailed beyond, catching himself on a blackened cable just above the wall of zombies. It snapped, dropping him into their midst. Whatever force that had held them at bay dissipated, and they fell upon Jordan as one. He came up swinging, dismembering the first and smashing the next pair’s skulls together. He danced away from them, which left him vulnerable. Blair could only watch as a bolt of eldritch fire, the same hideous green of the cloud he’d seen earlier, lanced from the air above Jordan. It caught him in the back, arching the Commander’s spine like a cat stepping on a live wire.
Then Steve raised an arm, gesturing at the place where the bolt had originated. His voice thrummed with power. “Peace, Irakesh. There is no need for us to be enemies. I control the Ark to the south. Together we can…”
“Your paltry shaping is nothing, Ka-Dun,” Irakesh cut him off. Blair couldn’t find the source of the voice. Until Irakesh appeared directly behind Steve. He jammed his hand through the back of Steve’s spine, jerking his fist with a hideous crack of bone. Steve’s legs went limp, spilling him to the ground like a puppet whose strings had suddenly been cut. “You cannot affect my mind. Even before I had the strength of the Ark, you were no match for me. But now? Now you are nothing. It is well for you that your life has some small worth to me. Lie there or there will be much, much greater pain.”
An arc of green lightning shot from the air above Irakesh, crackling through his body in rolling waves. It knocked the deathless to his knees, much as he’d done to Jordan just moments before. Blair had completely forgotten about Trevor. He looked up to see a second green cloud, smaller and les
s distinct than Irakesh had been.
Irakesh shot to his feet with a roar, snarling at the sky. “So you’ve thrown in your lot with Isis and her get. You could have been second only to me, a god in the new pantheon that will dominate this world. Yet instead you choose oblivion. Contemplate that as I unravel you.”
A bar of solid green light erupted from Irakesh’s upturned palm. It shot into the sky, wider than the trunk of any tree. It obscured Trevor’s cloud for an instant, then continued its passage into the sky. Trevor’s now solid form dropped onto a Ford Focus with a tremendous boom. His body smoked and smoldered, the scent of cooked flesh overwhelming.
Irakesh’s chest erupted as a golden blade burst through his heart in a shower of desiccated gore. He stumbled forward with a cough, blinking rapidly. Then his eyes glowed and he blurred. The movement was far faster than Blair could track. Irakesh slid off the sword, whipping behind Liz with his own blade in hand. It pierced her chest in cruel mockery of Liz’s own attack. She gasped, trying to slide loose from the blade jutting from her chest.
Irakesh refused to let her. He blurred again, twisting his arm around her neck and pushing the blade deeper until nothing but the hilt showed. Blair’s teeth clenched as the rage built.
“Ah, Ka-Ken, so much spirit. Would that I could convince you to join my cause. You’d be legendary, my wrath made manifest in this world,” Irakesh said, bending Liz almost double so her head was near his own. His eyes twinkled malevolently.
There is no hope. As long as Irakesh holds the key, he is as a god, the beast rumbled, sadly.
Blair’s eyes widened. What if he no longer held the key? The Mother had designed them. She’d been meticulous in her planning, to the point where she’d modified the racial memory of their entire species. Would she have designed the key so that it could be used by her enemies? Of course not. If Irakesh was able to use the key it must be because the key assumed he one of the Mother’s children.
You are cunning, Ka-Dun. I grasp the heart of your plan. It may work. Shape his helixes. Change him, that the key will see the truth.
Blair staggered from the hood of the car, using one partially healed leg to fling himself awkwardly in Irakesh’s direction. He nearly missed, straining so that his outstretched hand just barely grasped the deathless’s foot. The moment he touched it Blair blurred, accelerating his consciousness for the feat he was about to attempt.
Relax your vigilance, Ka-Dun. Let me guide you. I will show you the way.
Blair did. He allowed the beast to guide him, amazed as his perceptions shifted. He rode the signal his body somehow broadcast into Irakesh, so intricate that it penetrated his very DNA. It shifted and changed, proteins re-arranging as Blair somehow altered the deathless. Irakesh swung to face him, releasing the hilt of the sword he’d rammed through Liz. He reached for Blair, his eyes promising a swift death.
Too late. Blair achieved some sort of critical mass, some change in the very fiber of Irakesh’s being. His electromagnetic signature, or maybe aura was a better word. It shifted from a pale blue to a deep, sickly green.
“Nooo,” Irakesh shrieked, diving towards Blair. He never made it. Brilliant silver light burst from every pore in the deathless’s body, forcing Blair to avert his eyes. It washed over him, somehow familiar and comforting like a night’s rest after a day that refused to end.
Blair shielded his gaze, watching in awe as the bits of light drifted skyward. They formed a bright orb about a foot above Irakesh’s head, pulsing and flowing like a miniature silver sun. Was that the key? It was breathtaking.
The orb shot towards Blair, searing his chest and face as the energy penetrated him. The agony was incredible. Unforgettable. The only time he’d ever experienced something like this had been in Peru, when he’d first grasped the Mother’s hand. When he’d accepted the key to the Ark.
The pain subsided. Blair couldn’t remember when he’d felt so alive. He looked down in wonder, finding his body whole and undamaged. Lurking somewhere at the edge of his consciousness was a vast reserve, an ocean of light that he could tap into if he just reached for it.
74
Hope
The lack of oxygen crowded Liz’s vision with black spots. That was hardly a surprise, given the two-foot span of golden steel jutting from her chest. It should have been slick with gore, but a detached part of her realized that the blade was pristine, somehow free of any stain.
She was vaguely aware as the arm slid free of her neck, allowing her to topple onto the charred pavement. Liz pressed her chest against the ground, gritting her teeth as the point of the sword dug into the pavement. The blade was gradually forced from her body, eventually clattering to the ground next to her.
A moment later her chest filled with the familiar fire of healing. Blood began to pump again, sluggishly but enough to keep her conscious. What the hell had happened? She’d been aware of Irakesh’s attack, but had no idea why he’d suddenly released her. She shifted her body, turning her head until she was forced to shield her eyes against a brilliant silver glow.
It emanated from Blair, his silver fur composed of light. It should have been impossible to look upon, but the longer she stared the easier it became. Her hand dropped, no longer necessary to shield her eyes. The light was clean and pure, bathing the area in its wonderful warmth. She could feel the strength of it, how similar it was to the light that she’d just pulled through the blade when she had finally laid Cyntia to rest.
He stood noble and majestic like some benevolent god come to heal the world. It was without a doubt the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. Tears fell unheeded down her cheeks as she sat mesmerized. It took some time to notice the figure at Blair’s feet, a familiar dark-skinned man garbed in loose white garments. Irakesh shielded himself with his arms, covering his face and balling up into a fetal position. This was the villain they’d been afraid of for so long?
Liz rose to her feet, still unsteady but markedly better now that the healing had begun. She glanced around, spotting Jordan’s crumpled form. He’d been bitten repeatedly by zombies, terrible wounds in his arms and back. Yet the zombies had fallen back, cowering at the edge of the magnificent glow coming from Blair. Jordan groaned, struggling into a sitting position. He was alive.
She caught movement from the other direction, not far from Blair. Steve’s battered body lay next to what may have once been a luxury sedan, his face twisted into a mask of hatred and rage. He glared at Blair but didn’t seem willing to approach.
Where was Trevor? She craned her neck, peering wildly around the bridge. There. His still smoking body had made an impact crater in the hood of a Focus. She rushed over, feeling his wrist for a pulse. There was none, of course, and she felt like a fool.
“Did…did we win?” Trevor wheezed, tilting his head in her direction. His face was badly burned, the hair charred to ash. It was a miracle he’d survived.
“We won,” she said, resisting the urge to put a comforting hand on his charred shoulder. It would probably be agony for him.
“What’s that light?” he whispered, trying to peer in the direction of the silver glow. “It hurts.”
She glanced in that direction in time to see Blair kneel next to Irakesh. He hoisted the deathless aloft with one hand, peering directly into his eyes. “You’ve killed my friends. Murdered innocents. All so you could seize control of this Ark and begin your unholy empire. But you failed. How does it feel, Irakesh? How does it feel knowing we beat you, that in the end all of your plans account for nothing?”
“Just kill me and be done with it,” Irakesh spit on the ground at Blair’s feet.
“I’m not going to kill you.” Blair gave a wicked grin, dropping Irakesh. “I’m going to delve your mind until I’ve gleaned every bit of useful information about this world. Then I’m going to turn you over to the Mother. It’s only fitting that she decide your fate.”
Irakesh didn’t reply, instead glaring sullenly at the ground. He seemed to grasp the futility of his situatio
n, yet Liz could take no joy in it. Not after everything they’d lost.
Blair raised a palm, aiming it towards the zombies clogging the remainder of the bridge. A thousand tendrils of silver flame burst forth, flowing around her and the others. The light spun into the zombies with incredible fury, rivaling the bomb itself. When it faded, nothing remained save piles of ash. The remains of the bridge were completely free of zombies. Liz stared in awe as Blair walked over and picked up Irakesh’s sword, examining it for a long moment. Then the weapon melted, flowing up his arm and disappearing as their clothing did when shifting.
Blair turned towards the group, taking them all in. His eyes held a weight she knew must be mirrored in them all. He cleared his throat, pausing for a long moment before speaking. “We’ve won and I think that entitles us to a little rest. I have a lot to learn about controlling an Ark, but some things have already been explained to me by the beast. Hold still. This will feel a little odd.”
A pulse of silver light radiated from Blair, bathing them all. Her skin tingled, warm and prickly like static electricity. Then the flash grew brighter and there was a feeling of vertigo. She was blind. Her heart quickened. She’d always been a little claustrophobic and part of her screamed out to escape.
When the light faded she stood in a wide chamber that mirrored the Ark in Peru, identical to the central chamber save that the statues and murals had clearly been created by a different hand. Blair had teleported them. Was that even scientifically possible? Just how advanced had the ancients really been?
The others gaped openly, Jordan’s rifle clattering to the ground as he examined his surroundings. Trevor braced himself against the side of an obelisk, but kept his feet. Steve simply sat down with his hands in his lap. Yuri seemed less phased than the rest of them, removing a candy bar from his jacket and tearing open the wrapper.
