Her hope withered. It was the knife Imogen had thrown Aemon at. Then her hope renewed. If the knife could kill Imogen—
Then Kara saw the hilt of a dagger protruding out of the back of the knife’s right thigh. The dagger almost got caught on the door as it descended. Kara’s hope died. The knife was wounded. She wouldn’t stand a chance against Imogen,
Hands grabbed the knife’s legs from the other side of the door and she kicked at them. The hands withdrew before the door could close on them and the knife pulled her legs in, just in time.
The last voice Kara heard before the door slammed shut was Kahan’s. “Kill her, Carrisa, kill her before it is too late!”
Kara was cut off from her friends, alone and afraid.
Carrisa looked up at Imogen as she dragged herself across the floor. The black-clad woman reached around, and, gritting her teeth, ripped the dagger from her leg. “Come here, scion, so I can finish this.”
When she neared, Imogen backed deeper into the chamber. “Tsk, tsk, tsk. You poor, wretched little fool. You are going to die a horrible death. The air in here is poison, and it will burn through your lungs until you drown in your own blood.”
No... You need to live so you can kill me. Imogen must be stopped.
“I care not what happens to me.” The woman grunted, her face tight with pain. “I’m but a servant of Lord Dwaycar and I must stop you. You don’t know what you’ll unleash.”
Imogen stopped backing away. “I know exactly what I will unleash. I will save the human race by making it better than it ever was. Flesh withers—but metal is forever. Raising the passkey high, Imogen cried, “And so I shall bring an end to the sickness that pervades this world. The sickness of un-transcended life.”
“No...”
“Yes. Your master is a fool if he thinks he can stop me now. Humanity’s transcendence awaits.”
Kara wanted to scream endlessly into the darkness closing around her. Imogen was the Scion of the Prophecy, and it was too late to stop her.
Carrisa slashed at her with the dagger but Imogen danced away. The knife wheezed as the toxic gas ate away at her lungs. Kara thanked whatever Divine would listen that it was not Aemon down there. If he ran away quickly enough and left Stelemia behind, maybe he would escape whatever doom Imogen would bring down upon it.
Assuming he was still alive...
“I bet you are in pain,” Imogen mocked Carrisa. “More pain than you have ever felt before.” She took a deep breath and savored it. “I can breathe this all day. This body is special.”
Coughing violently, the knife crawled on, throwing her mask away, as if discarding it would help her breathe. Carrisa was a middle-aged woman with graying hair and pretty, blue eyes. Her face contorted into a grim rictus. “Please stop, scion. You must not fulfill—” Her voice broke into a long, agonized gasp for air.
Imogen cackled and danced merrily around her, like a lady would at one of the Priest King’s celebrations. Kara was horrified. How could Imogen take pleasure in the woman’s suffering? Carrisa was Kara’s enemy and possibly had a hand in killing her friends back at the Golden Keg—along with who knew how many others—yet Kara still couldn’t take pleasure in watching her suffer.
“My Lord, please... It hurts so much,” Carrisa cried. “Give me the strength to strike her down.”
Imogen rubbed her hands together gleefully. “Why would he listen to you? You have failed him.”
The woman fought against her pain and pressed forward. Imogen no longer danced around but waited for the knife to reach her. By the time she was within striking distance of the dagger, Carrisa seemed to no longer possess the strength to lift it from the floor. Blood ran from her mouth, eyes, ears and nose and pooled around her.
She was finished.
“Stop, please... don’t do—”
Imogen kicked her in the face. “Shut up and die, maggot.”
With that, she turned and strode away, leaving Carrisa to drown in her own blood.
USING HER DARK-VISION and the glow of the passkey, Imogen opened the inner door and entered the next room. The long, empty concrete chamber was also poisoned, but it had no effect on Kara’s body. “Are you still inside me?” Imogen, using Kara’s own voice, taunted.
Kara felt desperate and alone, like she was being dragged through a nightmare she couldn’t escape. Why are you doing this?
You will know soon enough.
A hard mental shell slowly solidified around Kara and she began to lose touch with her own body. She clawed the shell with her mind but the more she fought, the harder it became. I should have known what was inside me, Kara cried to herself. I should have killed myself long ago. Now, it’s too late. Imogen is too strong.
Kara struggled to come to grips with her panic. I am stronger than this. I picked myself up after watching Berda and the rest die, and I watched Mother fade away. I can do this. I can take back my body.
She backed off in her struggle against the mental shell and gave herself time to prepare for one final push.
An electric hum grew louder the deeper Imogen moved into the quarantined facility. Unlike the rest of the city, there was no dust, dirt or rubble strewn across the floor and the walls were completely intact. Whatever had caused the devastation in Annbar had spared this section.
Imogen passed doors with bio hazard logos on them. Kara had never seen the symbol before, nor should she have been able to read the warning signs beside them. Yet, she could. She possessed knowledge of things no one else in Stelemia had.
Perhaps part of Imogen’s knowledge had melded with her own.
Entering a natural cave, Imogen headed toward a large metal door at the end of the passage. The stalagmites looming at the sides of the path looked like grievers gathering to watch a funeral procession. The glow of the passkey silhouetted them against the limestone wall, making them sway as the light bobbed up and down as Imogen walked.
Aching fear made Kara squirm as they neared the door. It was the one from the visiondream. The one from which the Metal Man had spoken to her.
Imogen punched the air in triumph. “At last, I am here.”
The passkey grew so bright it lit the entire length of the passage with its sinister red glow. It reminded Kara of the glow of the lava around the temple. Hot and deadly.
Imogen held the passkey high overhead and a beam of white light engulfed her. “Welcome, Mother,” a voice said.
It was the voice of the Metal Man from Kara’s dream. The thought of reaching him had once brought Kara comfort. Now it filled her with dread. Whatever Imogen had planned, he would help her bring it to fruition.
“Let me in, Ardamus,” Imogen said in the same language the people on the surface had used. Except now Kara could understand it.
Air hissed and gears whirred as the door began to rise. Imogen paced impatiently as she waited for it to open. When it had half risen, she ducked under it and entered a small, brightly lit room. The door thudded shut behind her and a white mist pumped into the room. It felt slick and wet on her skin but Kara noticed she could barely feel her body anymore.
Imogen was close to snuffing her out.
She needed to wait for the right moment to attack. If Imogen was distracted, perhaps Kara could catch her off guard and break the shell closing her in before Imogen could stop her.
The mist dissipated and an inner door slid open. When Imogen went into the next room she stopped as a man made of metal approached. He was six feet tall with small, yellow optical sensors set in a square-shaped, expressionless face. Above his optical sensors was a human brain encased in a transparent protective case. Running from the brain and into his limbs were electrical wires protected by a layer of transparent plastic tubing. The brain had the same gray pallor as a corpse and pulsated like a heart. The sight was repulsive.
“Ardamus, my love, after all this time.”
“It is good to see you again, Mother. Ryhana’s coding sequences worked.”
“Something went wrong. I am
here, but this body is only a half-blood and I had trouble taking control of it.”
“Half-blood. Interesting. But that does not explain why you would encounter trouble seizing hold of it.”
Imogen pursed her lips. “There is something different about this host. Not only did I have an uphill battle taking control, the original host still fights me, even now.”
Wrynric had said there was something different about Kara too, as had the ghost woman. But what was it that made her different? Wrynric said it wasn’t because she was a half-blood.
Kara put the thought aside, as Imogen continued to speak. “I wonder if Ryhana was smarter or more conniving than I gave her credit for, and tampered with the code in some way.”
“I hope not.” The Metal Man shifted his weight. “Anyway, you are here now and we have much to do.”
They walked side by side along a metal corridor, with pipes and wires running along the walls. “It seems I am not the only one who has returned,” Imogen said. “My brother, Dressen, is in ruined Annbar as we speak and has been trailing me for some time. He fights alongside a bunch of lunatics who worship someone called Dwaycar.” She grimaced. “Somehow, my dear brother has convinced them that they need to kill me because of a prophecy or some such nonsense.”
“I observed the fighting at Barrier One on the monitoring system. You appeared to have the situation under control. You even had allies.”
Imogen snorted. “I see you have not lost your tact for pointing out the obvious. Of course I had things under control. Such primitive weapons were no match for me.”
“I suppose not.”
“Dressen’s return is yet another sign I was wrong to put my faith in Ryhana. I am glad I got to watch her genetically engineered pets devour her. It was most pleasing to hear her scream as they spilled her guts and ate them whole.”
Ardamus let out a pale imitation of a laugh. “I wondered what happened to her. I always assumed she ran away with the others or died in the fighting. Anyway, what does it matter if your brother has returned? Dressen was weak and not willing to do what needed be done. No doubt, he remains that way.”
“He may have been weak, but I underestimated him. I needed him to stand with me, but like the rest of the traitors, he refused to see the big picture. He would not sacrifice the few for the many. Feelings came before duty to him.” Kara felt Imogen's rage building. “He did not see the future as I did.”
Ardamus opened a metal door and ushered Imogen through. “Few saw things the way you did; not even me. That is why you harvested me and put me into this wretched metal body. I learned the hard way.”
Imogen ignored his comment and dug her nails into her palm. “My brother inhabits the body of a young woman, like I have.”
Kara squirmed. Is she talking about Semira? Could her sister have had someone inside her too?
“The weakness of flesh was always the bane of you two,” Ardamus said. “When I was still made of muscle and bone... I remember how you used to make me pleasure you with my—”
Imogen slapped him on the back of his protective brain casing. “Keep it to yourself, fool. I am not interested in hearing it.”
Ardamus’s optical sensors flashed and one of his metallic hands closed into a fist. “I apologize, Mother.”
Imogen continued, “The body Dressen inhabits is no ordinary woman. It is my host’s half-sister, and a full-blooded scion at that.”
But Semira is dead, Kara thought. Erinie's explosive saw to that.
After a long moment, Ardamus opened his fist. “He was your sibling in life and so he is again.” He swiveled his head to face her as they walked into another natural cave, this one lit by a row of lights running along the roof. “Has your brother retrieved his armor?”
“No, not yet—but he will.”
“What of yours? Do you know where it is?”
“I do.” Imogen tightened her jaw. “Someone placed it in a secure hold, but a group of fanatics has built a temple to a goddess of light or some such nonsense over it. This vile flesh and blood I possess was in that temple and I managed to gain control over it temporarily. I tried to get to my armor, but something inside my host fought me and I was too weak to stand against it.”
A sudden, terrible thought occurred to Kara as Imogen finished speaking. Either the Order was mistaken on who was entombed under their temple or...
Imogen was Ibilirith!
But how could someone so evil come to be seen as the holy Divine of the sacred lights? A Divine who had helped put the ancient enemy to sleep during the War in Heaven? Perhaps, most confusing of all, was why Imogen would write the prophecy to warn people of her own return. Perhaps Kara had been right when she had said Dwaycar wrote it.
If Imogen was really Ibilirith and had come to fulfill the Prophecy, then the only chance Stelemia had was for Kara to take back control and stop it from happening. Kara only had the energy for one more attempt at it, so she had to wait for the right moment to strike.
Imogen stopped Ardamus and kicked a stalagmite until it broke in half. Satisfied with herself and her impressive strength, she motioned her companion to keep walking. “Twice I came close to entering my tomb, but each time I was thwarted. God, it made me angry, and I had no one to take my frustrations out on.” Her eyes narrowed to slits. “The first thing I will do when I get back to the inhabited caverns is retrieve my armor from that so-called temple, then drag all the fools worshiping that stupid goddess of light back here to undergo the metamorphosis.”
“How unfortunate for them,” Ardamus said. “I am glad you only had me harvested.”
They stopped at another secure door and Ardamus entered his authorization code. While they waited for it to open, Imogen said, “Now to the matter at hand. My firstborn are already here.”
“I know. Our sensors picked up their signals and I knew the time had come. I activated the manufactory to prepare for your arrival.”
“How long was I gone?”
The number of years Ardamus rattled off made no sense to Kara.
Imogen put her hands on her hips. “That is far longer than I expected,” she snapped. “Could you do nothing to hurry things along, you fool?”
If Ardamus was annoyed, he didn't show it. “How would I know what host Ahnna would put you in? I could not even find your genkey because some fool ran off with it during the fighting in Annbar.”
genkey? Kara searched her new memories. Yes, the passkey must be what he had called the genkey. She tried to find more information on it, but quickly gave up. The scale of memories and knowledge Imogen possessed was too daunting for Kara to come to grips with in the little time she had left.
Imogen hissed through her teeth. “You would have found it, if you had bothered looking.”
Ardamus’s brain pulsated a dull red. “I deny that accusation most vehemently, Mother. I did look for it.”
“Yet it was out there right under your nose, in ruined Annbar.”
He paused. “How odd then, that I did not find it.”
Imogen snapped her head around to glare at him. “Did I detect a hint of sarcasm in your voice?”
“Sarcasm?” Ardamus huffed. “I am incapable of sarcasm, as you well know.”
The door finished opening and he led her through. “Truth be told, I assumed your genkey lost forever and I prepared myself to have to languish here for eternity.”
Imogen rolled her eyes and followed him down a concrete corridor lined with windows and metal doors. Inside the darkened rooms on the other side of safety glass were old-world things Imogen knew well, as they seemed to dominate much of her memories. Within the spotlessly clean scientific labs beyond the glass were microscopes, scanning devices, precision instruments and a myriad of other items. The next set of rooms, lit by bright electric lights, were huge. Each contained metal cages, some small enough for rats, others large enough to house half a dozen jamalganas.
As they walked deeper into the facility, Kara felt herself fading. She hoped the right mome
nt to strike at Imogen’s mental shell came soon, for she didn’t know how much longer she could hold on.
Imogen laughed at her plight. I know you are up to something in there, Kara. You will not succeed. Soon you will be but a bad memory.
“I have been busy while you were away,” Ardamas said, distracting Imogen and giving Kara time to gather her remaining energy to prepare for the final assault. “Over the years, I have used the harvesters to add to our numbers, but when I sensed your genkey had been discovered again, I accelerated production using fresh organic material. Our harvesters left through South Gate Four and passed into the inhabited caverns. They raided trade caravans in an isolated area the prisoners called the Limestone Caves so there would be no witnesses.”
“How many people were harvested?”
“We procured one hundred and four fresh souls. They have undergone level one transcendence and their remaining flesh has been placed into appropriate units.”
Imogen’s mouth became a flat line. “We need more.”
“I agree. That is why I restarted the iron mine, so we can gather the material to build more harvesters in the manufactory.” Ardamas paused at another door, his metallic hand poised on the button to open it. “Something interesting to note: the belongings of the men we harvested were far regressed from the technology their ancestors possessed when they fled Annbar.”
“Yes, I know. They use swords and staffs and wear primitive makeshift armor.”
“Much of the past is forgotten, it seems. I took some of the surviving captured men and interrogated them. They spoke in a language I could barely understand and it took me hours of unspeakable torture to learn it.”
“Thousands of years of isolation and darkness will do that, I suppose. I am lucky; thanks to my host, this flesh comes equipped with the knowledge of their barbaric language.”
“One more thing,” Ardamus said. “They have completely forgotten the surface.”
Imogen waved a hand dismissively. “The surface is an icy wasteland. What good would it do them anyway?”
“None, I suppose, but I cannot help but think there is something to be said about the loss of such knowledge. The Sun and stars are almost as much a part of the human experience as sex or voiding one’s bowels. Whole cultures were centered around their worship.”
Heir to a Lost Sun: A Caverns of Stelemia Novel Page 41
