“Come on. Let’s move.” Jules waited for him, and they walked over the rocky ground, entering a grassy field a few minutes later. The flowers were even larger than she’d imagined; huge petals spread open in the hot summery air. She neared one, staying far enough away that it couldn’t grab her if it was sentient. It reminded her of Patty, dancing in the grass, darting from their group on the day she was expelled from the Academy.
If only Jules had been able to prevent that moment, maybe the girl’s future would have been set down a different path. The idea had her contemplating Fontem’s timeline theory, and it made a little more sense. Each decision would set her and the people around her into an alternate future. Jules needed to make the correct choices to keep everyone alive. It was a lot of pressure, but somehow it felt like hers to bear, and she was ready for it.
She stared at the stigma of the flower, seeing the drops of sweet dew on it.
“Stopping to smell the roses?” Dean asked, coming beside her.
“I guess so. This place seems so peaceful.”
“Where there’s quiet and calm, there’s usually noise and chaos around the corner,” Dean said, and she wondered if he was quoting something he’d read.
“The balance, right?” she asked.
“Something like that. I remember Dad saying it to me once, and he was correct. Any time my life has become too comfortable, something happens. Isn’t that the way?” He turned from her, continuing on.
They reached the lake an hour later, the terrain more difficult to traverse than she’d assumed. She could have used her sphere to carry them, but Dean had asked to walk this part of the trip, and Jules was enjoying the time outdoors, even if she couldn’t feel the heat against her cheeks or the breeze on her forehead. It beat stressing about finding Dean and Patty.
Dean squatted at the water’s edge, the pebbles crunching under his boots. His gloved finger dipped into the lake, and he stood up, staring across the expanse. “Are you sensing anything?”
“It doesn’t really work like that,” Jules told him.
“Where to?”
She scanned their surroundings. The palms cast shadows over them now, and she watched the leaves sway over the lightly rippling lake surface. “I don’t know,” she admitted. The truth was, she was hoping her abilities picked up on something. Grabbed hold of a notion, or that they’d see a sign of the Zan’ra. So far, there was nothing of the sort.
“Let’s keep going around the lake. If we don’t see anything, we’ll watch the drone feeds and find out what else is on this continent, okay?” Jules suggested, and Dean nodded amiably.
Their boots pressed imprints in the shoreline, and Dean led her to sturdier ground as they went. They talked about his last few months, and the trouble he’d continually found himself in. She told him of the trail he’d sprinkled behind him, and how she thought she was on his track so many times.
A couple of hours later, they were on the opposite edge of the lake, with nothing but a strange rock formation ahead of them, surrounded by more of the palms and a field of bright purple and pink flowers.
“Do you hear that?” Dean asked.
Jules shook her head. “I don’t hear anything.”
“Exactly. The insects. They stopped chirping,” he told her, and she realized he was right. Their song had become part of the backdrop, and now it was gone, the entire region deathly silent.
“This isn’t good,” she whispered, spinning slowly on a heel.
Dean’s gun was in his palm, and they moved toward the rock outcropping. The stones were rounded, light gray, and twice as tall as they were.
“I don’t spot anything coming,” Dean said. He started to climb onto the rocks, his footing slipping near the top of the first one. She helped catch him with her abilities, and he smiled sheepishly. “Thanks.”
“What do you see?” she asked.
“Not much. More trees…” He stopped, pointing in the opposite direction of the sun. “Wait, the treetops are moving.”
Jules got a sinking feeling in her stomach, and the ground began to shake, a slight tremor beneath her boots. “Dean, get off those.”
“Something’s out there,” he said quietly.
“Dean…” Her hand was pressed to one of the stones, and she saw it had begun cracking. It wasn’t a rock.
He fell from above, landing on the ground with a thud, and she staggered from the gray stone.
“It’s an egg,” Dean said.
Whatever had made those eggs had to be huge, and judging from the booming incoming steps, it was heading in their direction.
____________
“Have you thought this through? Is destroying the crystal planet the best option?” Sarlun asked. His projection wavered over my office floor.
“I can’t say it’s the best option, but if he’s using it to build a giant nullifier in the future, I can erase all timelines of that planet, rendering him helpless,” I said.
Sarlun rubbed his temples. “There are so many unknowns, like how this could reverberate throughout our and the other timelines.”
“Do you have another solution?” I asked him.
The head of the Gatekeepers was getting older, and he’d become even less impulsive as he aged—not that he was ever a risk taker. “We could try to wake these Deities.”
“And let them kill Jules?” I asked.
“We can’t say for sure that would happen. Fontem thinks…”
“Fontem is in it for himself,” I blurted out.
Sarlun paused, his snout twitching to the side. “Is that what you think?”
I nodded a few times. “He’s never been straight with us. His comments are wishy-washy. You want to talk about secrets, Fontem has a few buried in his closet, maybe some under the floorboards too.”
“I thought you liked the Terellion,” Sarlun said.
I leaned onto the desk, grabbing my cup of coffee. “Sure. I do like him. But why is his hand of cards so close to his chest?”
“Maybe he doesn’t think we’re ready for what he has to tell us. Fontem is an intelligent being with loads of experience, and I imagine a lot of it would be a little heavy for our brains,” Sarlun said.
He was making some sense, but there were too many what-ifs surrounding the man.
“Dean, he’s leading you to his real collection, his treasure trove. Would he do that if he didn’t want to be a part of this team?” Sarlun asked.
I considered the question before speaking. “I don’t think he’d show us if he didn’t have a selfish motivation.”
“And what is that, exactly? He’s worked tirelessly with Regnig, helped you learn more about the Zan’ra, and now you’re spending months to seek out his hidden devices. You must trust him to an extent.”
“I do, but I also think Fontem is doing this because it aligns with what he wants,” I told him.
“And what is that? You still haven’t told me.” Sarlun was growing exasperated, and that hadn’t been my intention.
“His wife. The stories say he was obsessed with reuniting with her. Maybe that’s what he’s doing. Fontem seeks a way to find her again,” I said.
“How? You’re suggesting he’ll bribe a god with the chance to see his wife again?” Sarlun saying it out loud made me laugh.
“I don’t know what I’m saying, but I have to be cautious with him. I trust my gut, and it’s solid on this one, Sarlun.” I relaxed a bit, and his expression softened.
“Okay, that I can trust too. I hope you make sure Suma is fine out there on this fool’s errand. Messing with space and time is an extremely easy way to end up dead. If anything happens to her…” Sarlun didn’t finish the comment, though it felt like a veiled threat.
“She’s going to be fine. It’s Suma. If anyone can build a device to pause time and merge dimensions around a planet, it’s her. And this Hanrion may be unstable, but he’s clearly brilliant. You should have seen that place,” I told him, remembering the dozens of versions of the same man walking a
round, working on their tasks. I definitely didn’t want other Deans out there representing my face.
Slate had assumed that was what happened when my clone took the Delineator from my hidden stash, but we’d never obtained proof of another me. Maybe he’d used it to leave again. Somehow, thinking there was an older me watching my back was comforting, if not confusing.
“When do you arrive at Techeron?” Sarlun asked, even though I knew he was aware of our ETA.
“Three weeks or so,” I told him. I wanted to fast-forward the next while, but at least this gave Jules some time to find the others.
“I can see your cogs spinning. What is it?” Sarlun asked.
“Is it all connected?”
“Jules and the others with what… Lom?”
“It seems impossible they can be interlaced, but it feels like everything is. I can’t help but think it means something.” A headache started to creep into my temples.
“It’s natural to connect the unexplained in an effort to feel in control of the outcome, but even so, it’s highly unlikely. Perhaps Fontem is correct, though. Maybe you can use the Deity to help rid the universe of Lom. He’s breaking every fundamental law of physics, and we risk destroying everything if he succeeds,” Sarlun said.
“Who’s to say these beings will hear us out?”
“You can’t know until you ask,” he said, giving me a smile.
“It’s beginning to feel like we might not have a choice. Okay, I’d better sign off and get to the bridge. The crew is growing restless, and I need to ensure their spirits are high,” I told him.
Sarlun’s projection shimmered again as he stood. “Be careful, Dean Parker. I’ve known you a long time, and you have an innate ability to make the correct decisions, but I fear Lom of Pleva brings out the worst in you. He makes you impulsive, and threatening your family is the one thing he does purposefully. That’s why he continues to do it. You need to harness your emotions, think this through logically, and ultimately, you will make the right moves when it’s time,” Sarlun said.
Sage wisdom if I’d ever heard it. “Thank you. You’ve been a good friend and mentor, Sarlun,” I said, and with that, our call was over.
Eleven
Dean was on his feet an instant later, pulse rifle aiming toward the incoming beast. They couldn’t spot it through the thick vegetation, but it was there, rushing forward with chilling ferocity. The egg near them continued to crack, lines running horizontally across the exterior, and Jules peeked at it to see a snub-like beak protrude. A section of the shell fell to the ground, and she was greeted by three gaping white eyes with small dots for pupils.
Instead of hesitating, she encircled herself and Dean with her sphere, and lifted them in the air. She stayed there, hovering ten feet above the eggs. Another started to wobble, meaning a second was now about to hatch.
“There it is,” Dean said from her right. He still aimed the gun, even though they were inside her shield.
It emerged from the cover of the stubby palm trees, shrieking as it saw someone near its eggs. The thing looked like an alien version of a dinosaur. It relied on two immense legs as its thrashing tail clubbed a tree, cracking it in half. Spikes lined its back, all the way to the front of its head, and it paused, shrieking violently. Its arms were powerful, and she was sure she saw a thumb there, making it an even more dangerous creature.
Big teeth protruded from a long jaw, and they were yellow, flesh-covered, and overlapping one another.
“Jules, there’s more.” Dean pointed to the left, and she saw them. At least ten of the giant monsters walked to the outcropping, silently watching the invaders with interest.
“Then we’re going to leave,” she said, moving them backwards through the air. Jules wavered, the shield flickering, but it held.
“What was that?” Dean asked, eyes wide in horror. “Are you losing the powers?”
She shook her head but couldn’t explain the temporary fluctuation. “I think it’s okay…”
The creatures grew nearer, walking with heavy treads, the rest of the eggs crumbling under the vibrations. An egg fell to its side, the gray-speckled shell splitting in half. A baby tumbled out, flailing its skinny tail. Jules guessed the thing already weighed more than she did.
Her head ached suddenly. One moment she felt strong and capable, the very next she was in pain, and she glanced at Dean, feeling the trickle of blood running over her lip. It was inside her EVA helmet, and she wasn’t able to wipe it off.
“Jules, what is it?” Dean asked, but his voice was far away, a distant echo in the recesses of her mind.
She saw the figure, a giant shadow waving in the breeze, as if it was tethered at its feet. She glanced down, recognizing the circle symbol etched into the coffin it occupied. Free me, Ja’ri. You know you must. It is the only way. The voice was distinctly female: strong and raspy, but a woman’s.
“Jules, what’s happening?” Dean shook her, and she broke from the daydream, the shadow behind her eyelids dissipating. She returned to her body, and the sphere disappeared. They were thirty meters in the air, and Dean windmilled his arms as gravity took hold, but Jules managed to reactivate the sphere just in time, catching herself. Dean continued to fall toward the shells, and the monsters raced for his plunging form.
Jules shouted, sending a tendril through the sphere, and lashed it to his ankle. He dangled there, slightly out of reach for the aliens, who jumped and clawed toward him. One landed a blow, battering Dean to the side, but she lifted him up to avoid another strike.
She moved now, out from under a spell, and had to rein herself in as fury battled inside her. These creatures weren’t going to harm Dean. She recalled the Sprites that had taken her mother and Dean last year, and the bloodshed in the aftermath. She couldn’t let that happen again. These creatures were trying to protect their young, and she and Dean were the invaders.
Jules calmed, pulling Dean into her sphere as they raced over the palm-like trees, heading farther into the valley.
“What the hell was that?” Dean asked, panting for breath between words.
“There’s a Deity here,” she said.
“Are you sure?”
“One hundred percent. It showed itself to me. Called me Ja’ri.” She paused, waiting for a reply from Dean. She expected he’d order her to return to the portal, to observe, record, then report, but he surprised her.
“Then let’s go find it. Maybe you can ask it some questions,” Dean suggested.
All those times visiting Desolate, and she’d attempted to query the underwater god, but he’d been quiet for most of her trips. Then, when he’d actually spoken to her the day of the lightning storm, she’d been unable to pull any useful information out of him.
“He said I’d be rewarded if I helped,” she told Dean.
“What does that mean?”
They floated lower than she’d normally go, on the off chance the Deity pulled her from concentration again. “Your guess is as good as mine, I’m afraid. Fontem thinks we might be able to ask a favor of them. That we can stop Lom of Pleva,” she said.
“I just want to find Patty,” Dean said.
“If Lom does what he’s attempting, there will be no future for her,” Jules tried to explain. “For any of us.”
“I know, but… you will help me, right? You promised.” Dean squinted behind his mask, and Jules nodded in reply.
“I will.”
“Where’s this Deity you saw?” Dean asked.
The planet was immense, and there was a lot of surface to cover, but Jules assumed the situation would be similar to Desolate. She knew how far it was, relatively, and she tried to picture the landscape the god had shown her a few minutes earlier. She’d heard the sound of rushing water and observed a massive tree behind the shadow.
“Dean, check your drones for a waterfall near a huge tree. Not a palm like the others. This one looked more like an oak tree with black leaves,” she told him, and he slipped the tablet from his pack, a
ctivating it a second later.
“I’m on it.”
How many Deities were there? The circle on the coffin… that had to mean something. Did the underwater one have that same mark? She closed her eyes, trying to picture it, and they sprang open. It did have the mark, she was certain. It was faint, maybe burned into the wood, but it had been there.
She puzzled over it as they moved across the terrain, and she spotted more of the local creatures below, drinking from a peaceful lake in a glade.
“Circles,” she muttered. “What does it mean?”
“Jules, what are you going on about?” Dean asked, not tearing his gaze from his tablet.
“The Deities are in coffins. Presumably, the Four placed them in those, sealing them from the outside world. I have to guess the Zan’ra were unable to kill the gods, so they trapped them instead,” she said, feeling like she was still missing something.
“Four… didn’t you say there were four circles on Desolate’s symbol?” Dean asked.
“That’s it!” she shouted, drawing his attention from the video feeds.
“What’s it?”
“The four circles. There will be four sealed Deities, one for each of us. That symbol, it’s been found by Regnig and Fontem on a few things, passing references to the Zan’ra. We’re the four circles. The Four,” she said, as if that really explained anything.
“So there are four of these things? And you’re saying the second is here?” he asked.
“At the tree with the black leaves…” She glanced toward the horizon and was glad there was still a lot of daylight remaining.
“Where are the other two?” Dean asked.
“I have to assume the Golnex system has one, since your sister and Lan’i were spotted there searching the mountains, and that leaves the fourth on the next newly-discovered portal world,” Jules said.
“Then…”
“Maybe they’re doing their rounds. We might be able to find them on the next world, if we time it right,” Jules said.
Old Secrets (The Survivors Book Thirteen) Page 11
