The Jade Queen

by Jack Conner

  Then Eliza was beside him and together they peered over the edge.

  Screaming, clutching the jewel, Queen Iasolla plummeted into the chasm. Her white shape dwindled and dwindled against the flaring green, and then she fell into the green fire and a burst of energy plumed out, obscuring her from sight.

  “The Queen is dead,” Lynch said. He wiped sweat from his brow.

  “I can’t believe it,” Eliza breathed.

  He nodded tiredly, and she kissed him.

  “We’re safe,” he said.

  Around them the jade halls shook. Eliza looked up worriedly.

  “Not yet,” she said.

  ***

  She was right. The labyrinth trembled violently. Pieces of machinery began to crumble apart.

  “Come on,” she said.

  Eliza helped him to his feet. The world still spun around him, and he realized the Queen had struck him even harder than he’d thought.

  Eliza half-supported him down the hall, and with every step he grew stronger. By the time they reached the Control Room, he was able to stand on his own. They found Lars Gunnerson chained to the pipe where Eliza had left him. Lynch almost smiled to see the man frothing and spitting.

  The whole chamber shook. Arcs of green energy flowed up the ribs and crackled in the central tube above. The air just below it shimmered and writhed with green fire. It looked unstable, and the whole chamber rocked with horrific force.

  When Gunnerson saw them, he sat up. “Where’s the jewel?”

  “Destroyed,” Lynch said.

  “Along with your Queen,” Eliza added.

  “You fools! You’ve doomed us all.”

  “We just saved us,” Eliza said.

  Gunnerson swore. “Yes, congratulations, you’ve just saved humanity, you’ll probably get a medal, but all of us here in the city are as good as dead. Without the jewel to complete the sequence, there’s no way to release the energy the machine’s been building. It’s ready to blow at any moment.”

  Lynch tossed him the jade sword. “If you hurry, maybe you can make it out.”

  Gunnerson picked up the sword, a mystified expression on his face. Then he eyed his bare wrist, chained to the pipe, and a look of hate replaced the look of confusion.

  “You bastard!” he said.

  “Next time we’ll match,” Lynch said.

  He and Eliza found guns among the troopers’ corpses. Both exhausted and limping, they quit the Control Room and made their way to the entrance of the underworld, where they ascended the stairs, leaving the clockwork labyrinth behind. The mountain wind blew chill through Lynch’s hair, and he relished it, pausing to take a deep breath when they reached the top of the stairs. Eliza glanced sideways at him, and he could read her thoughts. She had known Gunnerson much better than he did.

  “I know,” he said. “I’m a bastard.”

  She squeezed his hand. “He deserved worse. But part of me is glad you didn’t give it to him.”

  The sun was just setting behind the mountains. Under its red light, the camp had fallen into chaos. Soldiers and diggers ran all about. The mountain shook, and the members of the Society wore mixed looks. Some were joyous, doubtless thinking the quaking mountain merely the prelude to the Ascendance. Others seemed to realize something was wrong. They packed bags or chiseled things from the sides of Atlantan ruins, looting the place before they fled.

  “We have to get to the dirigible,” Eliza said.

  They set off. Lynch’s hook was revealed, but no one noticed it in all the bedlam. The mountain shook more violently. “It’ll be glorious!” someone said. “We will be kings!” “We’re all going to die!” said another. “Something’s gone bad!” “Where’s Lord Wilhelm?” came other cries.

  Lynch and Eliza found the dirigible already teeming with activity. Several troopers had decided to make a run for it, and they were just about to cast off. Eliza shot one through the chest, Lynch another.

  “You’re an excellent shot,” Lynch told her as they boarded.

  “Not bad yourself for a man with one eye.”

  He cast off while she manned the wheel. Below them the mountain shuddered, and people screamed. As Eliza guided the dirigible forward, something erupted, and green fire flashed bright enough to burn Lynch’s retina.

  “Hold on,” Eliza said.

  She kicked the dirigible into high gear, and it shot out over the lip of the mountain. Lynch held on tight. Behind them, the mountain exploded into green fire. The blast shook him. Rattled his teeth. Then, gradually, it subsided. He breathed gratefully. Riding the winds, the airship soared away from the jade city, last scion of Atlantis, as its own terrible engines consumed it.

  ***

  Lynch pressed Eliza to him and kissed her. Green fire still burned on the mountaintop and strange fireworks burst in the sky overhead, making her eyes dance with otherworldly lights. It felt wonderful to be alive, and to have her by his side. Finally, after all they had been through . . .

  “Amazing,” she said, staring backward at the fires.

  “Yes,” he said. “A hell of a thing.”

  “Do you think she really meant to do it? Destroy the world?”

  He paused. “No,” he said at last. “I think for her, her son was the world. The rest was just shadows.”

  She drew him close. “Oh, Lynch . . .”

  He nodded to a pile of blankets on the deck. “Those look very comfortable.”

  “Oh, Lynch!”

  The sun cast a crimson glow over the mountains, and as it set the dirigible raced into the west.

  THE END