by Chris Fox
Jordan landed on a branch, and held position. Several moments later Leti shimmered into existence on the branch next to him. “Why have you stopped?”
“Just testing a theory,” Jordan replied. He stared in the direction of the pulse, but studied everything in his peripheral vision. If he was right, they were not alone. Something was out there, watching. “Do you feel the pulse yet?”
“Yes.” A broad grin slid onto her face. “I began feeling it not long after we left the river. I will not lie, I was concerned when even the deathless heard the city before I did. I was concerned that I had been judged unworthy.”
“You have,” roared a voice from above.
Jordan recognized Elia’s voice immediately.
A beam of intense green light shot down at them, dissolving the tree they were standing on, and they tumbled toward the jungle floor in a mass of burning tree limbs.
50
Elia
Trevor blurred to buy himself time to think. He examined the situation tactically, not liking what he found. A light-furred female in warform had appeared for a split second. One clawed hand was wrapped around a thick tree limb, while the other was pointed in Jordan’s direction.
She discharged a beam of green light from the bracelet on her wrist. It seemed similar to the blast the boomerang fired, but this one was darker and more dispersed.
Even with the blur going, he barely saw the Ka-Ken before she began slipping back into the shadows. Trevor leapt toward the werewolf, firing a wave of radiation from both hands.
It wasn’t nearly as lethal as the boomerang, but in this instance it proved just as effective. The blast caught the werewolf full in the face, and she tumbled limply from the tree.
Trevor kicked off the trunk of the tree she’d been in, watching as she fell. She disappeared into the foliage, so Trevor did the same. The jungle had gone silent. Dense, wet smoke came from the tree the werewolf had obliterated. It cut visibility, and overpowered anything he might have made out through scent.
The only visible person was Jordan, standing amidst the burning logs. He was in a relaxed stance, waiting.
“Hey, Jordan,” Trevor called. He blurred to another limb, not speaking again until he was safely in a new position. “Remember that trick Blair learned back in Peru? The ping?” Trevor blurred again, moving to another tree.
“On it,” Jordan called back. Trevor felt something wash over him, tingling at the edges of his mind. He recognized it as the prelude to whatever shaping Blair had used to touch his mind.
Jordan’s weapon leapt into his hand and he began firing into the trees. Trevor blurred, following the path of the bullets. He grinned as he realized how Jordan was using them. The bullets weren’t designed to kill—they couldn’t. What they could do was give away the location of anyone they hit.
Trevor intensified the blur, following the first bullet Jordan had fired. It spun slowly through the air, finally stopping in midair about three feet above a thick tree limb. A few drops of blood fountained into the air, and Trevor fired off a burst of radiation at that location. The move exposed a blond female, her body spinning to the jungle floor.
Green flashes came from another tree, and a third female tumbled to the ground. That had to be Anput. She’d already fled back into the shadows, as had he.
Two more Ka-Ken lunged from the darkness near Trevor. He blocked a savage swipe from the first, but the second punched through his chest with a clawed fist. She bit down on his neck, roaring in rage. A third female appeared, then a fourth. Before either could attack, Leti lunged from the darkness, raging into them in a flurry of claws and teeth.
Another shot came from the trees—Anput with her boomerang. The blast caught Jordan and his two assailants, all three collapsing into a smoking heap.
Trevor came down on one of the werewolves Leti was fighting, digging the claws of one hand into the wolf’s neck. He plunged the other into the base of her spine, ripping it out of her back. She screamed, swiping awkwardly at him. Trevor rolled away, disappearing into the shadows.
A pulse of invisible force exploded from Jordan, and Trevor was hurled into the air along with everyone around him. Jordan raised his hands, and the werewolves all hung in midair. Trevor was released, dropping silently to the foliage below.
“Elia, I’m pretty sure you’re breaking rules—” Jordan was knocked from his feet by a dark green blast. The werewolves were suddenly released, each fleeing back into the shadows.
A similar blast caught Trevor in the back. The pain was blinding, and he was dimly aware of the ground rushing up at him. Trevor’s cheek landed on the warm dirt, and his unfocused gaze settling on a black beetle scuttling across a leaf. His entire body spasmed, and he couldn’t seem to make his muscles work.
“Ow.” A second blast burned into Trevor, then a third. Blackness overtook him.
51
El Dorado
Jordan blurred into a crouch next to Trevor’s still-smoking body. It reeked of cooked meat, and worse, less identifiable things. He couldn’t check for a pulse, so he decided to trust in deathless physiology. Either Trevor was “alive” or he wasn’t. All Jordan could do was win this fight.
He willed a telekinetic bubble, covering both him and Trevor. It was the same he’d used to shelter the group on the bridge back in San Francisco. If it could hold a nuclear blast at bay before he was an Ark Lord, it should damned sure be enough to keep out a few laser shots.
As if in answer to his thoughts, a flurry of dark green bolts rained down, scattering across the surface of his bubble in iridescent ripples. Jordan could feel them sapping the bubble, but he fed more energy back into it. The Ark was much further away now, but he was still drawing a steady flow of power—enough to sustain the bubble indefinitely, if needed.
“Elia,” Jordan roared. He spun slowly in place, scanning the trees above him. There was nothing to see, of course. “I’m not going to claim to understand your religion, but I find it hard to believe that ambushing people is considered kosher. If the city judges us worthy, then it finds us. That’s how it works right? If we’re not worthy, it will hide. So what do you gain out of attacking us?”
At first only the jungle answered, the returning buzz of insects.
Elia finally spoke, “You will not profane the Holy City with your heresy. I will not let you bring our ancient enemy into the very heart of the Mother’s kingdom. You are a threat to everything we’ve built—one I will not allow to continue.”
Another flurry of bolts came from the trees, rippling harmlessly off the shield he’d erected. Jordan said nothing, allowing it to continue for long moments. He glanced at Trevor, but the deathless still wasn’t moving.
“You can’t stop us, Elia.”
Elia’s form dropped through the trees, and she shifted to human form as she landed. The priestess stalked outside his bubble like a jungle cat. “Your strength has limits, and I am patient. When you drop that bubble, you die. Your deathless friend is proof that an Ark Lord can be hurt. You are no tougher than we. You can bleed, and you can die.”
“I can also kill.” Jordan rose from Trevor’s side and walked to the edge of the bubble. He stared at Elia through the oily surface. “I’m going to give you one chance, Elia. Withdraw, or I will end you. Don’t make me do this.”
“Wait,” Leti said. She shimmered into view outside the bubble, dropping respectfully to one knee next to Elia. “Elder sister, I beg of you. Do not do this. It isn’t right to interfere with a supplicant. I can feel the pull of the city. I can feel it getting stronger. It is not your place to judge. The city does that. Do you really believe the council will condone your actions?”
“You presume to lecture me?” Elia leaned closer to Leti and lowered her voice. “You are guiding the ancient enemy to the heart of our power. There is no greater heresy. Your actions are treasonous, and it is the duty of every sister to put an end to you.”
Jordan was distracted by the sudden pounding in the distance. It wasn’t like dr
ums, not exactly. The same pulse they’d been following was at the heart of it, but there were more layers now.
Whum, whum, whum. Whum, whum, whum.
“We shall soon see which of us is right,” Leti taunted. She rose to her feet, every bit Elia’s equal. “The city comes for us both.”
“You will be judged for your actions, little sister,” Elia hissed. Her eyes leaked the kind of hatred Jordan had rarely seen. Then she vanished.
The rhythmic pulses were coming faster now, and they vibrated through Jordan. He could feel them in his teeth.
“Hey, you alive-ish down there?” Jordan asked, shaking Trevor’s limp form.
“Ow. Those bracelets. So shitty. Would not recommend.” Trevor climbed shakily to his feet. Steam still rose from the parts of his clothing that had survived the blasts, and much of his skin was charred. “What did I miss? That pulsing is intense.”
“Leti, how close is the city, do you think?” Jordan asked. He dropped the telekinetic bubble, and hopped twenty feet into the air, grabbing a vine hanging from one of the upper limbs of a huge tree. A flock of parrots burst into flight, winging their way to new perches a healthy distance away.
“I do not know,” Leti said. “Perhaps if we can get above the treetops?” She leapt into the air, bounding up into the canopy.
Jordan gave one last look around the clearing, just to make sure Elia was really gone. He sent a final ping, allowing the energy to ripple through the trees in every direction. It met resistance from Trevor and Leti, and a single other consciousness that he guessed must be Anput. There was no sign of Elia or her companions.
He followed Leti up into the canopy, surprised by how far he had to climb before he got above the trees. All around him lay an impenetrable green canopy. Their vantage was on the side of a gently sloped hill overlooking a valley. The only thing not covered in thick vegetation was the river itself, a muddy swath of brown snaking through the valley and disappearing between two hills in the distance.
“The pulse is coming from that direction.” Jordan pointed toward a hill to the southeast. “It feels close, but I don’t see anything.”
“Nor do I,” Leti agreed. She was perched atop a neighboring tree, maybe a dozen feet away. “I suppose we have no choice but to continue on.”
Jordan nodded. He didn’t like the idea of heading blindly into the jungle—especially knowing Elia was out there—but there just weren’t any other good options. He released the tree, dropping toward the ground nearly a hundred feet below. The wind tore at his clothing as he fell, and Jordan smiled as the ground rushed up. He cushioned his fall telekinetically, but still sent up a huge cloud of debris.
“Show off,” Trevor groused. “See anything?”
“Nope. Can’t see a goddamned thing. Let’s keep moving toward the pulse. We’ve got to be close.”
Trevor nodded, climbing unsteadily to his feet from his perch on a giant root.
“You going to be okay?” Jordan asked. He couldn’t resist taunting the deathless. “I could carry you—you know, if you need protecting.”
“Fucker,” Trevor shot back, but there was no heat to it. He melted into the shadows. “Lead the way. I can keep up.”
They leapt back into the trees, quickly working their way across the valley. By the time they reached the top of the hill he’d seen, Jordan was covered in sweat. He wasn’t tired, exactly, but this humidity was getting a little old.
Leti had gone a little ways ahead, and her excited call snapped him out of the endless swinging between trees. She was crouched atop a tree limb, pointing deeper into the jungle. Jordan bounded through the trees, landing on a branch a little below her.
“Holy crap,” he said. They were the only two words he could find.
Before them lay a sprawling golden city. There were pyramids of all sizes, with dozens of obelisks made tiny next to them. Broad marble avenues flowed between the pyramids. Every inch of every structure gleamed gold. “Well, I guess that explains the El Dorado myth.”
Trevor materialized on a neighboring tree. “This explains so much. Look to the right and left. See the edges of the field?”
“Field?” Jordan peered into the jungle, unsure what Trevor meant. Then he spotted it: about a hundred yards off, there was a shimmering white field that blurred the jungle around it. He looked the opposite way and saw an identical field. Glancing up, he saw it there, too, near the top of the canopy. “What am I looking at?”
“I think we’re looking through a portal,” Trevor explained. He pointed at the edge of the shimmering field. “If we went down there, I’m thinking the city wouldn’t be visible. We can see it through this portal, and I think it’s the portal that’s giving off that pulsing.”
Anput’s disembodied voice spoke. “That would explain why no one ever found the city. It’s not anyplace that can be reached directly, and the location of the portal is constantly changing.”
“The city might not even be on this continent,” Trevor mused.
“Mohn spent a lot of satellite hours scanning these jungles. Their search was kind of a joke outside their department,” Jordan allowed. “We’d have picked up a city with this much metal a decade ago—longer, maybe.”
“I think we’re on to something,” Anput said.
“But this leaves us with a lot of questions,” Jordan said. “Who made the portal, and where will it take us if we step through?”
Leti dropped down to Jordan’s branch. “I do not wish to sound like a zealot, but you must have faith, Ark Lord. I do not know what the city holds for us, but there is only one way to learn the answer. Let us see what the City of the Gods wishes us to see.”
52
Matron Davina
Elia’s fury had not abated by the time they arrived at the Temple of Divine Winds. The pyramid wasn’t the largest, and it wasn’t the most powerful—but it was filled with people she trusted, people who agreed about the threat that this Ark Lord and his allies posed.
She cloaked herself in shadow, passing by the guards. She didn’t have time for them; she needed to speak to the matron. Gliding silently through the temple, she finally stopped at a small chamber with a simple cloth door hanging. That cloth had been shaped by the matron herself, woven from strands of gold. It absorbed signals and prevented anyone from probing into her quarters with shaping.
Elia ducked under the heavy cloth, stepping into a narrow chamber. It had the same small bed she herself slept on, one of many testaments that they stood no higher than their brothers and sisters, even if they were slightly closer to the Mother.
“Were you successful?” Matron Davina asked. The old woman sat at a tiny writing desk, scrawling away in a journal with a cobalt pen. The woman’s long white hair screened her face, giving Elia only her neutral tone to work with. Was the matron angry?
“I was not,” Elia admitted. There was no point in dithering. “We attacked the Ark Lord, but his defenses were potent. In time we could have overcome him, but the city chose to reveal itself. The portal was no more than a few hundred meters away, and I thought it best we not be discovered tampering with the Ark Lord.”
“Very wise,” the matron murmured. She still hadn’t looked up, and her pen continued to scratch across the page. “If the council learned that you had interfered with a seeking, they would have no choice but to intervene. Part of your mission was stealth, was it not? The threat was to be eliminated quietly.”
“Yes, but—”
“No but,” the matron roared. Her head snapped up; her dark eyes fixed on Elia. “You told me you could do this thing. You gave me your word. You have failed. What will we do if the Ark Lord tells the council? How will you respond to that allegation? They will delve into your mind, and when they do they will see what you have done.”
“Matron, I…” Elia licked her lips. She’d been about to make another excuse. Excuses would not help them. Excuses could not fix anything. “What would you have me do?”
“You will go to the rest of the c
ouncil, immediately,” the matron instructed. “You will tell them what you have done, and why you have done it. We see the ancient enemy as invaders, and were doing what we must to keep them from the city.” She bent back to her journal, and the scratching began again. “I will not be able to intercede, nor will I admit to having met with you. The council may choose to punish you; if they do, that punishment will be far less if you are the one to bring the situation to their attention. You must get ahead of this if we are to have any chance of regaining control.”
“As you say, Matron.” Elia bobbed a curtsy and backed from the chamber. She had a feeling she wouldn’t enjoy the interrogation the council would give her, but it was still possible they could salvage something from this.
Leti and her Ark Lord master were leading the ancient enemy into the city. Couldn’t Elia be forgiven for zealously defending their most sacred place?
53
Picked Off
Windigo reveled in the strength his new body afforded. And it was well and truly his. The Bear had been vanquished, trapped in the recesses of his own mind.
Windigo had worn countless forms over a near-infinite lifetime, but none had been as powerful as Yosemite. The Great Bear brimmed with power, one of Isis’s most potent creations. Yet, for all his power, the Bear’s mind had been shockingly easy to overcome. The Bear had been naive to the extreme, and it had been a simple matter to manipulate him.
Now, the Bear’s consciousness had retreated to the dim recesses of his mind. He’d given up, recoiling from the carnage he knew Windigo had planned, the carnage he was even now about to execute.
Windigo gave a ghastly, skeletal grin and walked silently toward the row of cars the locals had fashioned into a crude wall. He could smell the dogs prowling in the darkness on either side, could hear their hearts beating.
