“Nadia,” said Riordan, his voice soft.
Nadia’s gaze snapped to him, and for a moment she didn’t seem to recognize him. Then a shudder went through her slight frame, and she grimaced and pressed the heels of her hands against her forehead, blinking.
“Are you hurt?” said Caina.
“No,” said Nadia, her voice toneless. “I’m fine. No, no, I’m not. Ah, shit. Shit, shit, shit.” She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths, and when she opened them again, she looked a little calmer. “Sorry. That was…”
“You don’t have to apologize for anything,” said Riordan.
“I know, I know,” said Nadia. She tried to smile at Caina. “I’m fine, really. It’s just…that fight reminded me of some things. Unpleasant experiences. I bet you understand.”
“Yeah,” said Caina, watching as Nadia took a few more deep breaths. “That was a remarkable display of magic. I knew you were powerful, but not like that. You mowed down most of those anthrophages. Riordan and I just cleaned up the leftovers.”
“What can I say?” said Nadia. “I learned everything I know the hard way.” She took another deep breath, and lucidity came into her expression. “Okay. We should keep going.” She checked her aetherometer again. “Direction hasn’t changed. I bet the maelogaunt and the doctor…what’s his name?”
“Harper,” said Caina. “Geoffrey Harper.”
“Well, I bet old Geoff and his pet maelogaunt are waiting for us at the center of this domain,” said Nadia. She paused. “Or the maelogaunt and his pet doctor.”
“At this point, that’s more likely,” said Riordan. He stepped next to his wife, and she reached over and squeezed his free hand. “That might have been all of their anthrophages. If they had any cowlspawn or wraithwolves, it would have made sense to throw them at us while we were fighting the anthrophages.”
“Harper isn’t a tactician,” said Caina.
“No,” said Riordan, “but the maelogaunt is obviously powerful, and it wouldn’t have lived long enough to become powerful if it wasn’t good at survival.” He released Nadia’s hand. “We should stay on guard, though, but I don’t think we’ll have any more large attacks like this.”
“Yeah,” said Nadia, her voice a little unsteady.
“You sure you’re up for this?” said Caina.
“Oh, yeah.” Nadia grinned that humorless, rictus-like grin she displayed in a fight. “I’m not going to pretend that I’m not in a bad mood…but do you know what one of the best ways of dealing with a bad mood is? Taking it out on someone who deserves it. And it seems like our good buddy Dr. Harper really deserves it. Let’s keep moving.”
Riordan took the lead, Caina walked behind him, and Nadia brought up the back.
###
I was kind of embarrassed. I never liked to fall apart in front of people, and I had almost fallen apart in front of Caina.
But that was just one of the many fun legacies of the Eternity Crucible.
The century and a half I had spent inside it made me one of the most powerful human wizards alive and a match for many Elven ones, but it had a price. Boy, did it have a price. The nightmares, for one. Sometimes the memories inspired bad nausea, and I had lost enough weight that sometimes strangers gave me brochures on eating disorders. I was hardly ever completely at ease anywhere. And when I had been fighting those anthrophages, suddenly I had been back at the Eternity Crucible, fighting in that strange simulacrum of a small town, killing and killing and getting killed every single day for decades and decades…
I ran through my usual litany of things to calm me down. If I hadn’t survived the Eternity Crucible, I wouldn’t have been able to stop Nicholas, and millions of people would have died. I wouldn’t have been able to survive my trip to Kalvarion with Morvilind, and we wouldn’t have ended the war with the Archons. I wouldn’t have been able to save Russell from Victor Lorenz and Vastarion. And thinking about Riordan helped. He hadn’t been in the Eternity Crucible, but he was here now. Thinking about his quiet competence, his strong hands, the way it felt when I kissed him, the way his body felt against mine, all that helped calm me down.
I hadn’t experienced anything as pleasant as that in the Eternity Crucible, let me tell you.
And I needed to stay focused. The Shadowlands were a dangerous place, and while it was likely we had killed all the maelogaunt’s minions, I wasn’t willing to bet my life on it. I needed to keep my head clear.
Keep it together, Nadia.
And the danger did help. There’s nothing like survival to focus the mind.
We reached the end of the rubble-choked street, and once more the world blurred and changed around us. The street vanished, and instead, I found myself standing in a corridor lined on either wall by metal lockers. The floors, walls, and ceiling were all painted a bland institutional-looking green, the color somehow sickly and diseased-looking. Harsh fluorescent lights dotted the ceiling, throwing pools of light and shadow across the scuffed floor.
“A military barracks?” said Caina, looking around.
“Maybe,” I said. “I don’t recognize it.”
“Neither of you do?” said Riordan, startled.
“No,” I said. “What is it?”
“An American high school,” said Riordan.
“Ah, well, I’m British,” said Caina.
“And I never went to an actual school,” I said. Well, kindergarten, but that was a hundred and seventy-five years ago, so I only remember bits and pieces of it. My tutors had been the various ex-security service professionals and former organized crime members that Morvilind had recruited for his retainers. Which, I supposed, explained why I had an encyclopedic knowledge of firearms and security methods, but I still hadn’t read one of my husband’s historical novels.
“Are all American high schools so grim-looking?” said Caina.
“Some of them are,” said Riordan. “Depends on how old the building is. But this is a memory. One of the maelogaunt’s victims remembered high school this way. Grim and terrifying. You put a bunch of teenagers together in a concrete box every day, they tend to prey on each other.” I wondered what his own teenage years had been like. I knew that he was from Texas and his family had been dirt poor. Other than mentioning that he had been focused on trying to find a way to save his older brother Aidan from his servitude to Morvilind, Riordan never talked much about his childhood. Maybe I should ask him about it.
But later, not when we were tracking the maelogaunt.
Speaking of that, I fished my aetherometer out and looked at the display.
“We’re not far,” I said, pointing. “Maybe another hundred meters or so that way. Harper might even be inside this weird high school.”
“Let’s go,” said Riordan.
We headed through the corridor of lockers. Whoever had lived this memory, I realized, hadn’t enjoyed high school. All the angles of the corridor were slightly distorted, and the lockers loomed like tombstones against the wall. The darkness inside the classroom doors seemed deeper and blacker than it should have been. The entire place seemed like a sort of carnival funhouse, with looming shadows and twisted angles. I half-expected to see homicidal clowns bursting out of the classroom doors.
The corridor ended in a large room full of round tables and folding chairs. There was a long counter with a bunch of steam trays, a big kitchen visible behind it.
“Cafeteria,” said Riordan.
I pulled out my aetherometer. “We’re right on top of him. Behind those doors.” On the far side of the cafeteria was a closed pair of double doors. Next to the doors was a plaque with the word GYMNASIUM on it. The letters glowed with crimson light and looked like the logo of a horror video.
“I’m guessing someone didn’t enjoy gym class,” I said.
“Seems that way,” said Riordan. “All right. Caina and I will go in first. As soon as you see Harper and the maelogaunt, attack.”
I nodded. “Should I get Harper or the maelogaunt first?”
/> “Maelogaunt,” said Caina. “The more I think about it, the more certain I am that the maelogaunt has taken control without Harper realizing it. If we kill the maelogaunt, he might regain control of his senses.”
“Or the shock will kill him,” said Riordan.
I shrugged. “No great loss. He was feeding on a bunch of newborns. A flame sphere through the forehead is a lot quicker than what the Inquisition will do to him.”
“Agreed,” said Caina. “Ready when you are.”
We crossed to the gym doors.
“On three,” said Riordan. He grasped the right door, and Caina the left. “One, two…three!”
They pulled the doors open and darted inside, and I cast the Shield spell before me and stepped into the gymnasium.
***
Chapter 9: Lost Memories
Caina hadn’t spent a lot of time in high school gymnasiums, but she knew what they were supposed to look like. The basketball hoops, the collapsible bleachers, the scoreboard, the banners denoting state or county championships, the mascot that was either a fierce animal or some sort of archaic soldier, like the Warrior Falcons or the Fighting Warthogs or whatever. This gym had all the features she expected.
But since Lost Gate was constructed from the memories of the maelogaunt’s victims, and the particular victim who had contributed this memory seemed to have feared his or her high school, this gymnasium looked like a twisted funhouse version of the real thing.
The collapsible bleachers were extended and filled with distorted shadows. The shadows were jeering and taunting and shouting insults. The scoreboard was lit up, and the word FAILURE flashed on its surface over and over, sometimes changing to ALL THE OTHER KIDS ARE LAUGHING AT YOU. The air stank of sweat and blood and fear.
But that wasn’t the strangest thing of all.
Something like a thick spider’s web made of smoke filled the back half of the gymnasium. Suspended in the web were a dozen translucent images of sleeping infants, their faces twisted with distress. Those had to be the maelogaunt’s links to the infants, allowing it to drain their memories into its web. If Caina could get close enough, she could destroy the links with her valikon and free the infants.
Andromache Kardamnos and Winston Ravenwood were suspended in the web. Both were unconscious, their eyes darting back and forth behind closed lids. Caina wondered how long it would take the maelogaunt to feed on them. If she saved them, would they awaken as brain-dead vegetables?
Harper and the maelogaunt stood before the web. Harper shook with rage, his face almost purple with fury as he stared at them. The maelogaunt stood motionless in its greasy gray robes, though from time to time a tentacle slithered out from beneath the hem or darted out from inside its cowl.
“You!” snarled Harper. “This is my domain! This…”
Nadia wasn’t in the mood for the speech. Even as her left hand held the shimmering gray dome of the Shield spell before her, she stepped forward and gestured with her right. A ball of fire hurtled from her fingers and streaked towards the maelogaunt, which gestured and cast a spell of its own. A sheet of mist rose up before the maelogaunt in a variant of the Shield spell. Nadia’s fire hit it hard, but the maelogaunt’s magic was enough to blunt the force of the attack.
“You can’t hurt me here!” said Harper. “You can’t! Lost Gate is mine! My domain, my realm. I am a god here!” He flung out a hand at the web. “When Andromache wakes up, I’m going to make her scream. I’m going to make her crawl on the ground and kiss my shoes. We’ll see who’s smug then, won’t we? We’ll…”
“Enough,” said Riordan, and another ball of flame spun to life over Nadia’s palm. Caina adjusted her grip on her valikon. If she got close enough, not even the most powerful Shield spell would protect the maelogaunt. Riordan started forward, and Caina followed, bringing up her valikon.
“Wait!”
The maelogaunt’s voice was a gurgling, horrid rasp. Harper flinched, and his eyes went hazy and unfocused. Here in the Shadowlands, Caina could see the magical link that bound the maelogaunt to Harper and saw that it was flawed. The renegade Legion wizard had either set down useless spells in the Summoning Codex all those years ago, or Harper had botched the spell. The twisted link allowed the maelogaunt to influence him, and to influence him so thoroughly that Harper didn’t even realize it was happening.
“Wait, humans,” said the maelogaunt. Its cowl lifted, and Caina saw the misshapen insect-like face, the multifaceted eyes, the pincers, the barbed tentacles. “I would parley. Wait. Perhaps we need not destroy each other.”
“You are one ugly bastard, aren’t you?” said Nadia.
“I can see your mind,” said the maelogaunt. “It is filled with agony and blood and death after death after death.” Its gaze swung to Riordan. “I can see yours as well, full of sorrow and duty and the Shadowmorph.” The gruesome face turned to Caina. “But your mind is a blank. You are valikarion, one of the knights who defended the Elves in ancient epochs.” The maelogaunt paused. “I did not know humans could become valikarion.”
“It was a surprise to me, too,” said Caina.
“In those ancient days, the valikarion slew many of my kind,” said the maelogaunt. “But we slew many valikarion as well. Perhaps we need not slay each other. An accommodation might be reached.”
“I assume this means you have an offer?” said Riordan.
“Indeed, symbiont,” said maelogaunt. “You have invaded Lost Gate, my realm, without provocation.”
“Provocation?” said Nadia. “Hey, asshole, we’re not the ones feeding off the memories of newborns.”
The maelogaunt’s shoulders rippled in a decent approximation of a shrug. “Humans must kill to sustain themselves. You consume plants and animals and eat their lives to preserve your own. I must do the same.” The creature made a hideous rasping sound that was probably a laugh. “That your pain is also delicious is merely a bonus.”
“You’re not making your case,” said Caina. “What’s your offer?”
“I will release the infants,” said the maelogaunt, “and I shall not return to your hospital. If I do this, you will leave in peace and trouble me no further.”
“What about Harper?” said Caina.
“The human is mine,” said the maelogaunt. The alien hiss in its voice deepened. “He is mine. He has given himself to me of his own free will. Your own God will not overrule human free will. Why should you presume to do so?”
“I’m good with leaving him here if you are,” said Nadia. “If we take him back the Inquisition is just going to shoot him.”
“What about Andromache and Winston?” said Caina, gesturing to where they hung suspended in the web of mist.
“They are mine,” said the maelogaunt. “I must feed. Do I not require sustenance? It is a small price to pay. I can see into their minds, and I see that they have already reproduced. Their blood shall live on. Is that not their duty to humanity? You breed like rabbits, generations after generations dying.”
“Gosh,” said Nadia. “You really suck at negotiation, don’t you?”
“This is our offer,” said Caina. “You will release the infants, Andromache Kardamnos, and Winston Ravenwood. You will furthermore never trouble the hospital again. If you do all this, we shall depart Lost Gate and leave you in peace.”
“The price is too high,” hissed the maelogaunt. “Instead I shall have all – the infants, the woman, the man, and your lives as well!”
Caina lifted her valikon, Riordan took a step forward, and Nadia began casting a spell, and the maelogaunt exploded.
At least, it looked like it exploded. The cowl of its robe tore open, and dozens of tentacles erupted in all directions. Several of the tentacles seized Harper and pulled him close. The confusion vanished from the doctor’s face, and Harper just had time to scream in terror.
Tentacles plunged into his open mouth, into his nostrils, and more into his ears, and Harper disappeared into the writhing mass of tentacles. There was a flash of
gray light, and both Harper and the maelogaunt disappeared.
In their place appeared a twisted horror.
It looked as if Harper and the maelogaunt had merged, becoming a single creature. Harper’s torso rose out of a mass of writhing tentacles and pincered claws, his skin turned gray and glistening, his mouth filled with jagged fangs, his eyes glowing with gray mist. The maelogaunt had possessed Harper and utterly dominated him. Caina had heard of this happening before, of a foolish wizard who lost control of the Shadowlands creature he had summoned only to find himself dominated by the creature.
Harper had learned that lesson a little too late.
The maelogaunt screamed and lurched forward with terrific speed despite its bulk, and Nadia hurled a volley of lightning globes at the creature. The maelogaunt reacted and cast a spell, calling a Shield of blue-white light that absorbed the attack. In its new, mutated form, the maelogaunt could summon far more potent levels of magical force, more than enough to defend against Nadia’s spells.
But no matter how powerful it had become, the maelogaunt still could not cast a Shield strong enough to block a valikon. Caina sprinted forward, intending to take off the maelogaunt’s head and end the fight before it could begin.
The maelogaunt was faster. A tentacle snapped out with the force of a cracked whip and curled around her left ankle. The maelogaunt yanked her foot out from beneath her, and Caina fell backward hard, her head bouncing off the floor of the gymnasium.
Everything went black.
###
The ghastly thing that Harper had become yanked Caina off her feet and her head hit the floorboards of the gymnasium with a nasty thud. She went limp, and I didn’t know if she had been knocked out, or if the impact had cracked her skull or killed her. It had certainly sounded loud enough to kill her.
Cloak & Ghost: Lost Gate Page 11
