‘I’m fine – but Dad needs your help.’
A pained chuckle. ‘I don’t think I’m in any state to—’
The whooshing crackle of a Nephilim spear weapon cut him off – followed an instant later by a wet, explosive thump.
Macy froze, petrified. ‘M-Mr Jungala?’
A figure emerged from the smoke. But it wasn’t the Australian.
Gadreel stepped into the open, a qigun in his hands. He looked down at her, almost expressionless, as if he couldn’t even be bothered to feel contempt.
She stared back, a bird hypnotised by a cobra – then remembered she was not helpless. The trikan was heavy in her hand. She swung it back, feeling the bladed disc start to spin inside its guard, then whipped up her arm to send it at the Nephilim—
The spear thrust at her. Its ovoid head caught the trikan just as it left the handgrip, knocking it to the floor. Before she could recover, Gadreel struck again, hitting her wrist and jolting the grip from her hand. She cried out, clutching her arm.
The giant said something she didn’t understand, but she knew the tone: he was mocking her. She turned and tried to run, but had barely gone two steps before he grabbed her shoulder. She tried to pull free, but he was too strong.
He regarded her with a calculating expression, then shouldered his qigun and bent to collect the fallen trikan. A flick of his wrist, and the weapon snapped back into place inside the handgrip. He hauled her arm above her head as he rose to his full height, then pulled her towards the archway.
Nina was torn out of contact with the crystal pillar before she could react to the Nephilim warrior’s appearance. The key flew from her hand and fell from the ledge as he threw her to the floor.
Dazed, she tried to get clear. The naked giant was too fast, catching her arm in his huge hand and flinging her across the ledge. She bowled towards the drop—
She slapped her splayed palms against the smooth crystal surface, halting herself right on the precipice. The contact for an instant linked her with the other world, but she forced herself back to reality.
It had seemed like an instant to her. But it had been a second, or more. The Nephilim suddenly skip-framed closer as he charged at her—
And kicked her over the edge.
Nina fell, landing hard on the spiral below. She caromed off it and tumbled down again, and again, each touchdown like being trampled by a football team. All she could do was try to protect her head as she fell past the ranks of reviving prisoners—
She slammed down on her back. The pain was so intense she almost passed out. The chamber swam around her. She was about thirty feet above the entrance, Sidona and the other dead Nephilim below.
She also spotted the key. It had landed not far from her, perched at the edge of the path.
Nina knew she had to keep it from Gadreel – but she also needed to use it first. The sleepers had to be returned to their endless night. But she couldn’t reach the tracker, not with the warrior in her way—
She didn’t need to reach the tracker. The realisation was as clear and sharp as ice water. The device was connected to the great crystal pillar, now part of the network of earth energy – and when she used the resurrection key, she would be too. She would be able to amplify her ability to manipulate the power without being in direct contact with the machine.
She hoped.
A look up. The warrior stared back at her from on high. He saw she was not dead, and started to run down the spiral.
Nina crawled down the slope. Pain crackled through her spine, one leg blazing as if someone had driven a chisel into the bone. Blood ran from her nose. Rippling darkness encroached on her vision. She forced herself onwards. She had to reach the key, or she would die – and before long, all the Nephilim survivors, including the innocents, would suffer the same fate at the hands of the frightened human race.
The warrior continued his looping descent. Much closer, she saw the crystalline tendrils holding a Nephilim child start to melt away. The prisoners would soon recover – and once they did, there was nothing she could do to stop them.
The key was almost in reach. She dragged herself closer—
Got it.
Not knowing what to do next, she acted on instinct, pressing it with her palm against the crystal wall beneath the child.
The hidden dimension of energy surrounded her. She was still firmly connected to reality, though; her pain did not lessen. She forced herself to push through the torment of cracked bones and torn muscles to concentrate on her task.
She had to reverse the resurrection process. But how?
The thought alone was enough. She willed it, and it happened. Energy flowed through the web of crystal fibres surrounding each Nephilim captive, suspending every cell in their bodies in a state of perfect stasis – but that flow’s force had been fading to nothing. Now, as she redirected the currents, it began to rise again.
She held the thought, feeling the pricklings of consciousness around her sink back into sleep. It was working – the resurrection had been reversed. But there was something else she had to do. What was it?
A memory of Gadreel’s sarcophagus came to her. The gas. Somehow, she sensed a source of the toxic yellow miasma above her, produced within Uluru itself by a process she didn’t understand or have time to think about. All she knew was that she had to release it—
It happened. The energy flow shifted, tripping some Veteres-made mechanism – and the gas began to gush into the top of the chamber.
The mechanism was linked to another. The large door at the chamber’s entrance began to lower, starting to seal it off from the rest of the chasm.
And she was still inside.
The thought snapped her back to reality. She withdrew the key and struggled to stand. The door inched shut. She had to get to it before it closed – or the gas reached her.
She looked up. A vile yellow cloud roiled downwards, already past the top ledge and swallowing the uppermost ranks of prisoners. The running warrior reacted in surprise as he saw it—
The fog reached him. He gasped, staggering – and fell over the edge.
He hit the side of the path two orbits below, neck snapping with a horrific crack. His limp body rebounded into the chamber’s open centre, falling another thirty feet before smashing down on the spiral – right above Nina.
She tried to run, but her battered body was slow to respond. The Nephilim’s broken corpse tumbled over the side – straight at her—
The punishing impact swept her from the ledge. She fell – on to a glassy stalagmite on the lower turn.
It stabbed through her left calf like a spear. She screamed – then her breath was pounded out as the dead warrior landed on top of her. Another spike punched through his torso, pinning him in place.
Nina gasped for air. His weight bore down relentlessly on her chest. She pushed, but he didn’t move. Darkness closed in again.
The door was still lowering, the gas drifting downwards. She turned her head towards the entrance, hoping against hope that Eddie or Cheng would appear to help her—
Instead, she saw Gadreel marching across the bridge.
The horror of utter defeat hit her. He was not alone.
He had Macy, gripping her raised wrist. His baraka was slung over one shoulder, a trikan in his other hand. Shock crossed his face as he saw his wife’s body – then rage as he spotted Nina.
His march became a run, dragging Macy with him.
Nina tried again to move, but only managed a breathless scream as her wounded leg muscles strained and tore. The dead Nephilim still trapped her. Panicked, she tried to focus. How could she stop Gadreel – and save herself?
She belatedly realised that she was still clutching the resurrection key, forgotten in her agony.
She looked back at the entrance. To either side of the bridge was a sheer drop to infinit
y. If she threw the key over the edge, Gadreel would have no way to revive his people.
She drew back her arm as far as she could. No choice but to endure the pain as the movement twisted her impaled leg. Line up, and – throw!
The key arced through the opening. Even in her weakened state, she had lobbed it far enough to clear the ledge. It dropped towards the void—
Gadreel released Macy and swung his own arm at lightning speed. The trikan flashed from its grip, spinning across the bridge . . .
And swerving in mid-air.
It swooped out from the crossing to intercept the falling key. A clang as metal struck metal – and the key was knocked back onto the ledge. The trikan returned to its owner, clanking into the handguard.
Nina stared in disbelief at the ancient weapon’s impossible manoeuvre. Macy had been right all along. The trikan really could be controlled by someone capable of channelling earth energy, steered by the unseen force levitating it. She owed her daughter an apology . . .
If she survived long enough to offer it.
The door was now almost halfway closed, the gas still rolling down towards it. In less than a minute, Nina would be entombed – and suffocated. But even with the key, Gadreel could not stop the process himself.
Which meant he had to use her instead. And with Macy as his hostage, she would have no choice but to obey.
46
Gadreel hurried across the bridge towards the crystal chamber. He dropped the trikan and unshouldered his spear, then retrieved the key and released Macy. Key in one hand, baraka in the other, he went to the foot of the metal walkway and shouted. Zan responded, dazed; Nina had forgotten the translator was there. The Nephilim impatiently pulled the Chinese man with him under the slowly descending door. He noted the gas with concern, then stood before Nina, weapon aimed up at her as he spoke.
Still unsteady, Zan translated for him. ‘Lord Gadreel orders you to use the resurrection key to wake his people.’
‘Tell Lord Gadreel that he can go fuck himself,’ Nina growled back.
Zan didn’t need to relay her words; her attitude was enough for Gadreel to understand. He scowled, then tossed the key beside Nina and aimed his spear through the doorway at the terrified Macy. Again, Zan’s translation skills were unnecessary.
‘You son of a bitch,’ Nina spat.
The Nephilim leader spoke: a single sharp word at a time. A countdown.
Zan hurriedly caught up. ‘He will kill her in three, two—’
She snatched up the key. The action made her moan in pain, but it was not merely physical. She had gambled and lost, and now she was out of options.
Except . . .
Nina looked back up at Gadreel, suddenly determined – then placed the key firmly against the floor. The parallel world of earth energy swallowed her.
‘Mom!’ Macy cried as her wounded mother went into a trance. ‘Don’t do it! You can’t let him win!’
But Nina didn’t respond. The ten-year-old stared helplessly at the scene, watching the door edge down and guessing from Zan’s nervous upwards glances that there was some other danger coming closer. She wanted to run, but was too scared – Gadreel was still pointing his spear at her.
Her gaze found the abandoned trikan. Only feet away – but she didn’t dare move towards it. If Gadreel was distracted, she might be able to reach the weapon, but right now, she was trapped—
She flinched at a flash inside the chamber. Gadreel and Zan also reacted with surprise. Another burst of light, and this time she saw the source: what looked like a tiny lightning bolt crackling across the crystal wall. Another followed, larger, then another – this one outside the pillar.
The Nephilim barked a command to Zan. The translator stammered a reply, then started towards Macy. ‘Professor Wilde!’ he said. ‘If you don’t stop whatever you’re doing, Lord Gadreel has told me to – to throw your daughter into the pit!’
Macy wanted to run, but Gadreel’s spear was still raised. Zan emerged from the chamber and advanced on her—
A frantic howl from above – and Cheng leapt down from the walkway at his countryman.
He hit Zan feet-first, kicking him hard in the back. The student landed heavily, but the translator’s own touchdown would be far harder. The blow propelled him over the edge, sending him shrieking into the unseen depths kilometres below.
Cheng’s unexpected appearance caught Gadreel by surprise. He whipped his weapon towards the new arrival – then saw Macy lunge for the fallen trikan. He swept the spear after her, thumb poised over the trigger crystal—
Liquid energy flashed across the chamber right in front of him. He jerked back – then whirled to face Nina. Shocked realisation crossed his face: she was doing here what Sidona had done to a whole city, creating a surge of earth energy that would build to an explosive release.
His baraka came up at her—
Macy flung the trikan with a yell of pure protective rage.
The bladed disc sliced through the air, curving beneath the chamber’s still-closing door . . . then angling back up as she willed it to save her mother.
It homed in – and hit.
Gadreel roared as the trikan, blades glowing with earth energy, hacked his hand off at the wrist in a spray of blood. The spear clanked to the floor, his fist still clenched around it. He staggered back, clutching at the spouting stump—
The walls came alive with seething, roiling power – then a bolt as thick as a tree trunk lanced out from beneath Nina and blasted the Nephilim leader in the chest.
The impact’s explosive force sent him hurtling out through the opening and over the precipice beyond. His entire body wreathed in flames, he plummeted into the void with a long, echoing scream of defeat.
Macy stared after him in shock – then dropped the trikan and ran into the pillar. ‘Mom!’ she cried. ‘Cheng, help me!’
He limped after her around the spiral’s first leg. She saw the gas cloud falling towards them. ‘What is that?’
‘Bad!’ Cheng replied. The toxic yellow miasma would reach Nina in seconds. They got to her first. He saw the spike through her leg – and the dead giant pinning her in place. ‘We’ve got to move him off her!’
‘Oh God,’ Macy moaned, cringing – but she still strained to help him lift the impaled corpse.
Nina released the key, gasping in pain – then saw the young pair and reacted in horror. ‘No! What are you doing? Get out, get out!’
‘I’m not leaving you, Mom!’ cried Macy. She tugged desperately at the Nephilim’s arm as Cheng crouched to lever his body upwards. Blood gushed from the body’s wounds, flowing over the glowing surface underfoot. ‘Come on!’
‘You’ve got to leave me! There isn’t time – you’ll die as well!’
‘You’re not going to die!’ Macy shouted back. Her voice was nothing like her father’s, but to Nina she had never sounded more like him. The gas cloud reached the level above, sickly tendrils wisping downwards as if clutching for their prey. ‘We can do it!’
Her daughter’s utter conviction and determination sparked Nina’s own. Despite the pain, she pushed at the giant with all her remaining strength. All three of them gasped and growled, straining – then the Nephilim came free, his dead weight sending him slithering over the bloodied edge to land with a crack of bones below.
‘This is going to hurt, sorry!’ said Cheng. Before Nina could respond, he pulled her wounded leg sharply from the spike. She screamed. He and Macy tried to support her – but like the warrior, her own weight dragged her over the slick side.
She fell, screaming again – and landed hard on the Nephilim’s corpse.
‘Mom!’ Macy cried, running down the crystalline ramp to her. ‘Are you okay?’
‘No, I’m – fricking not!’ Nina managed to gasp. She crawled off the dead giant, Macy taking her arm to help her. The gap under the
door was now only three feet high and shrinking every second. ‘Go on, go – get out!’
‘Not without you!’ Macy dragged her mother across the floor. ‘Cheng, come on!’
Cheng moved to jump down – then swayed as his vertigo returned, stepping back—
He slipped on the Nephilim’s blood – and tumbled down the slope.
His flailing ankle struck a jagged crystal spike. The snap of fracturing bone was clear even across the chamber.
‘Cheng!’ cried Macy. She shoved Nina through the shrinking opening, then started to run back to him—
Nina grabbed her. ‘No! You won’t reach him – you’ll both die!’
‘Mom, no!’ She tried to break free. ‘We can save him! We can—’
‘Macy!’ Nina pulled her daughter forcefully to her. ‘You. Will. Die. I won’t let that happen. Never.’
‘No!’ Macy wailed again – but she knew her mother was right.
They both stared helplessly as Cheng tried to stand, only for his injured leg to give way. The gas cloud passed the ledge where Nina had been trapped, a vaporous hammer about to crush him . . .
Then, unexpectedly, he looked back at them – face alight with hope. He dragged himself to an empty recess. ‘What are you doing?’ Nina shouted.
‘I can put myself into stasis!’ Cheng called back, excitement plain even through the pain in his voice.
‘You’re crazy! You don’t even know if it’ll work!’ The gap shrank to a foot, then inches.
‘You started the process, so it should keep going – but I don’t have much choice now, do I?’ He dropped back against the glowing crystal. ‘And . . . I really am going to become a part of history!’
‘Cheng, no!’ Nina cried – but then door met floor with a sonorous thud. The light filtering through the crystal wall took on a yellow tinge as the gas finally filled the chamber.
Macy gazed wide-eyed at the barrier. ‘Oh no. Oh no,’ she whispered. ‘Is . . . is he dead?’
‘I don’t know,’ Nina answered truthfully. ‘But maybe some day, a long time from now . . . somebody will find out.’
The Resurrection Key Page 53
