by Mark Jeffrey
The company took advantage of this to advance again.
Now Fell Simon sent a dozen men up the spikes. The firing ceased as they climbed, ascending slowly and laboriously, but ascending nonetheless. When the firing stopped, Maurice risked a look over the side and was met with a fog of lead that drove him back to the center. But at least now he knew what the threat was.
“What do we do now?” Sasha asked.
“I should go get him,” Ian said. “I can get up there and get him out.” Sasha looked dubious. “I’ll be okay. Their bullets can’t hurt me.”
“You don’t know that for sure,” Sasha said. “These are the Bondsman’s men. They use Niburian technology. You might be vulnerable to something you don’t know about.”
Ian flicked his gaze up to Maurice. “Well, he’s more vulnerable than I am. And he’s one of us now. I’ve got to go get him.”
Logan White-Cloud grunted his approval, and then said: “Go!”
Ian nodded and then bolted into the no-man’s land between the two sides.
Logan looked back to Sasha and said, “He’s a good man.”
Sasha smiled. “He’s the best.”
“Now I know why you like him,” Logan said with a wink. “When I first met him, I was not sure. I thought he was kind of … emaciated.”
Sasha made a face. “Yeah well. It’s true that he could use a sandwich.”
MAX QUICK and Marvin Sparkle made their way between the pyramids and monuments that rose around them like a small city. Behind them lay a ragged plain beneath and apocalypse sky. A devil’s rainbow of black and Nraple and Grinlo and green arched in the sky beneath the engorged, swollen eclipse.
“All these building weren’t here when I was on the island last time,” Max said to break the silence and tension.
“When was that?” Marvin asked.
“I think … 1504,” Max replied. “So sure: it’s been awhile.”
“Yes. And here you are again.” Marvin looked around, his massive head swiveling this way and that, eyeing the statues suspiciously as if they might come to life at any moment. “And so far, no resistance. Not even a Sentinel. This is the end game. We’re on the very veranda of the Bondsman — and the place is deserted. This is not at all how I imagined this would be.”
Just then, the duo heard the crack of gunpowder off in the far distance. Max squinted, but he couldn’t see anything. The number of gunshots and their rapidity increased.
“Must be Casey and Sasha,” Max said quietly. “And Cody and Logan. They must have run into some trouble.” He met Marvin’s stern gaze. “Don’t worry, Marvin. We’re not turning back. They’re on their own — but they can handle themselves. You and I, we’re going to see the Bondsman and ring his doorbell.”
“And you are certain he is within this place?”
Max nodded. “The ridiculously huge pyramid? Of course.”
“Because this island is this … stitch point you speak of?”
“It’s the center of the world,” Max said cryptically. “It’s the key to everything. There’s nowhere more important than here. That’s why the Bondsman is here. There’s nowhere else he would be. Once that occurred to me … once I remembered this place, I was sure. He’s taken his position over the world’s heart. And besides.” Here Max pointed to the giant pyramid — larger by several times than the Great Pyramid of Giza. “Big. Pyramid. Do I have to spell it out? The Bondsman is probably the most gaudy person you’ll ever meet. He’s dripping in gold. He’s going to leave the loudest, most obnoxious calling card possible. I’d say the largest monument complex ever built would qualify.”
“Why isn’t anyone else here?”
Max shrugged. “Probably because the Bondsman doesn’t consider anyone else worthy enough. This is his pad. For him, and him alone. You saw the City-State of the World Emperor. It’s mostly empty. He doesn’t like company. The Bondsman isn’t really a people person.”
They were on a road now that seemed to be paved in solid gold.
“You seem very sure of yourself,” Marvin said as they strangely strolled.
Max’s eyes widened in an expression of mock stress. “Yes. Well, no. I’m not sure. This could still go a lot of different ways. But I do feel ready. And I’ll never feel sure. So that has to be good enough, and there’s no reason to delay any further. Besides, the world is starting to break down, in case you hadn’t noticed. The perfect Archontic hellscape is coming. So there’s not much time left — while the word time even still means anything.”
They were silent for another long moment and then Max said, “Hey. Why is your last name ‘Sparkle’? You don’t really look like the sparkly type — and I’m pretty sure that’s not an African last name.”
On this one rare occasion, Marvin Sparkle actually laughed. “Here we are in the valley of demons, and you ask me this. Very well. As matter of fact, it is African. We have a word to describe how diamonds shine in the sunlight — it is not exactly ’sparkle’ — but when I first learned English, and I learned of this word ‘sparkle’, I took it as a translation of my tribal name. And Marvin, before you ask, was the name given to me by the missionary that taught me these words. So that is how I became Marvin Sparkle.”
Max nodded. “And your real name? What did your mother call you?”
Marvin looked at him and said mock-solemnly: “If you defeat the Bondsman, I will tell you. If not, you will die in agony and now ignorance as well.”
“Fair enough. How about this then. Were you born this freakishly huge? Were you like, a giant baby?”
“Yes,” Sparkle said. “My father had to build a new crib for me, for the one of my brothers and sisters was far too tiny.”
“Man. Your mother must have been like, What did I give birth to?”
“Don’t talk about my mother,” Sparkle said, getting suddenly very serious.
“Save it for the Bondsman,” Max said. “Come on, big guy. We’re on the same side.”
THE GUNFIGHT was not going well.
Ian had rescued Maurice without too much trouble, but once the threat of a sniper from above was removed, Fell Simon was able to focus his men exclusively on the company. And now he had air support: several Sky Chambers had arrived on the scene, and they blasted away from above, forcing the company away from the spike. Huge slabs of rock rained down on the area they had just vacated.
Casey realized at some point that the Sky Chambers were not aiming at them — rather, they were aiming at anything they could use for cover. The company was being driven out in the open, onto the plain.
Fell Simon was playing with them. He didn’t want an easy kill. He wanted to savor this, probably to kill them all himself.
Cody and Casey slung lead back to back, each protecting the other; Maurice, Logan and Sasha did the same in a triangular formation. Maurice was by far the weakest marksman of the group, but a battle-madness had descended on him and he was able to make up in volume what he lacked in precision.
But wounds were starting to appear.
Casey already had a bullet in one leg. Cody had one in each arm. Logan had a clipped shoulder — his shirt now hung torn, spattered with his old, deep red blood, exposing the wound.
Ian knew the company could not last much longer. Wrapping himself in metal fully, he charged Fell Simon with a roar.
It appeared to the army that a fierce metal bull was running up the sand hill, raising a giant dust-cloud in its wake. It would batter them to bits and ribbons when it arrived.
Simon saw him coming, and instantly diverted more than half of his men to train their weapons on Ian. When he saw bullets were not even slowing Ian down, he muttered something into the Whispering Stone ring on his finger, and the Sky Chambers began firing directly at Ian.
The Niburian weapons were a whole different matter from the bullets. The lava gouts and beams raining down from above slammed into Ian with the force of a tidal wave. He dropped to the ground, stunned.
“Ian! Get out of there!” Sasha cried.
In a fit of momentary desperation and anger, she shot her eldritch White Roses at the Sky Chamber firing at Ian, but even her wonderous weapons did not seem to have any effect on the craft.
The Sky Chambers were merciless. Ian’s body bucked with each new blast. The bloodmetal rippled and bubbled — it was clearly taking damage. Already, it was starting to split apart along the line of his spine — Sasha could see the seams separating. Another couple of hits and the armor might slough off of Ian entirely …
And Ian seemed powerless to do anything about it. Every time he tried to get up, the Sky Chambers would just smack him again. Inside his suit, Ian was panicking — he’d always felt well-nigh invincible when covered with the bloodmetal. Now, he felt helpless — and things were getting worse fast. He felt the heat of the energy weapons starting to bleed though his protection. He might be burned alive, cooked inside the suit, even before the armor was torn from him.
Fell Simon grinned. He barked some more orders and his men spread out even further around the company. They intensified the frequency of their firing. Since they nearly encircled the company, they were hitting each other now and then. But none of them cared. Only the Bondsman mattered — and the purity of their service to him.
The company should have been dead by now, Casey realized. There was no way they should be standing, so outmatched and at the center of a circle firing at them like this. If not for the theurgic weapons of the Red Roses and White Rose literally shooting opposing bullets out of the air, she knew they would have been felled long before now.
And even Logan and Cody were able to perform here and there as if they, too, wielded magic guns. But in their case it was sheer skill and concentration.
All of this was not enough.
Cody was hit in the hand and dropped one of his two guns. But he didn’t miss a beat — he kept firing with his remaining good hand with a redoubled effort.
Casey saw this out the corner of her eye and felt a morose, sinking feeling. This was starting to feel like Arturo Gyp, like Blackthorne all over again. She couldn’t lose Cody twice —!
Maurice now took a bullet to the knee — and dropped, screaming in pain.
The sloppiness of exhaustion was kicking in for the company, whereas Fell Simon had comparatively unlimited men — whenever one wave was exhausted, he sent the next wave in while the first line rested.
They were all about to fall over, and Ian was about to get cooked, when suddenly an invisible shield appeared around the company. The gouts from the Sky Chamber splashed off something like a glass dome, and the bullets from Fell Simon and his men were deflected harmlessly. Yet the company could still shoot through this shield.
Huh?
Casey looked up and saw Jane Willow, standing atop one of the stone spikes, playing a wooden flute. Piercing notes of music containing several layers of fractal information and vibration cascaded through the air. Casey could actually see the air shimmer as the musical power unfolded as it flew.
At first, Casey wondered why Jane hadn’t simply lit up her star power and attacked the ships directly. But then Casey realized instinctively that Jane would not have been able to protect the company at the same time. The music was how Jane focused her power, shaped it, gave it structure. She had opted for a surgical defensive maneuver instead of a chaotic attack.
Fell Simon, his men and the Sky Chambers spotted Jane as well and began targeting her — but she had erected a shield of sound around herself as well and could not be harmed.
For several long moments, the company was able to rest, at last. They stood, panting, trying to regain their strength while Jane Willow protected them. But even so, Casey wondered how long Jane could keep this up. She was playing ferociously — but the full firepower of Fell Simon was now directed solely at her, and already, she was struggling to keep up.
They were not out of the woods yet.
“I WANT YOU to wait outside,” Max said to Marvin Sparkle.
“No,” Marvin protested. “We go in together. I wish to gaze upon the Bondsman’s face when the mask comes off.”
Max shook his head. “He’s just going to kill you. Which, despite my better judgement and our spotty history together, I’ll actually feel bad about now.”
“You should not go in there alone,” Sparkle grumbled, with that voice of his like two boulders rubbing together.
Max looked up at him gratefully, but said firmly: “No, Marvin. I won’t allow it. I’ll keep you out myself if I have to. But I know what you’re worried about — and I’m not going to ‘Bondsman up’ as Casey put it. I know you’re skeptical with a capital skept about that, just like she was. But I kept her away, along with Sasha, Ian — everyone — because I don’t want to lose any of you.” Max cast a furtive glance at the far end of the plain, where a battle clearly raged. He winced when he saw that Sky Chambers above were now firing down into the battle. “If they were here … the Bondsman would just kill them, using their deaths to goad me into making the same mistake here that I made with the Machine.
“But I’ve learned from that. This time, I know what I’m doing. I understand what’s in play here and what to do about it. There’s a certain way I have to face the Bondsman, and only I can do it — and do it alone. Even if Enki himself were still alive and here right now I wouldn’t even allow him to come with me.
“You’re just going to have to trust me.”
Marvin regarded him squarely, and for a moment Max thought he wouldn’t give in. But then he seemed to sag, and a small smile lifted his lips at the corners. “I mislike this,” he said. “But I see a new fire in your eye that was not there before. Not a fire of anger or hatred. It’s more like you have a secret — or have discovered one. Yes, you have learned much since the Machine. You are not the same person.”
Max nodded and then said quietly, “No. I am not.”
Marvin put a hand on Max’s shoulder. “Okay, my friend. I will stay out here and guard you from nothing.”
Max laughed. “That’s the first time you’ve ever called me ‘my friend’.”
But then, they were both interrupted by a low and descending warble like air pressure suddenly dropping. They both snapped their heads to the sky.
There, with a horrible roar, a region of blackness with a spangle of static around it appeared. Max’s heart sank. The breakdown in reality was now beginning here on the island. Air and cloud whirled around the blackness and coalesced into a funnel, formed a tornado tearing at the fabric of space-time.
Little by little, the Archontic dream of a Perpetual Now filled with horror and fear was beginning to come true.
Then, another horrible void appeared over the battle raging in the distance — but this one did some good: one of Fell Simon’s Sky Chambers was immediately pulled into the vortex. It was not destroyed so much as it never existed as it entered the rift — all memory of it was erased, and only horror whirled where once it had been for every moment in history.
More, but mercifully less virulent voids appeared scattered in other places across the island. One was simply a fissure, a long black crack running down from the sky and into a spiked rock wherein it disappeared. But by vanishing supporting layers of stone beneath the rock spire, its stability was suddenly compromised — and the whole thing toppled and tumbled into the crack and was erased.
“If this is happening here on this island, the rest of the world beyond must be in sorry shape,” Max said. “I’ve got to go, Marvin. There isn’t much time left.”
Marvin Sparkle nodded and folded his arms. Max turned and faced the giant pyramid. A single tall open-air doorway was cut into the red granite band at the bottom. Max stared at the white limestone the ran all the rest of the way up past the red granite to the electrum capstone at the very top. And just beyond this, just past the tip of the pyramid in the sky, was the sun, blotted out by the moon in a perpetual eclipse.
Max girded himself to meet the Bondsman and stepped through the door.
JANE WILLOW WAS not able to prot
ect the base of the stone spike upon which she stood.
She was already protecting the company and herself — she could not erect a barrier in a third place. The effort was just too much of a strain.
The Sky Chambers did not take long to discover this. Switching their tactics from trying to kill her and the company to merely trying to topple her perch, they fired at the stone finger. Rock snapped and spat sand, and stone collapsed downward — and Jane came tumbling down with it.
She switched the song she was playing on the wooden flute to an entirely new melody — one that caused her to float and escape the avalanche trying to suck her down with it. But while she was able to protect herself from enemy fire, she was not able to protect the company and Ian at the same time.
Ian had risen at last from the utter pummeling he had suffered and whooshed sloppily back to the company. He fell in the middle of the circle, unable to rise or do anything else other than that. Sasha watched him with horror in her eyes, but she could not allow herself to be distracted to any great degree: the White Roses commanded her full attention.
Vulnerable now, Casey and Cody — and Sasha, Maurice and Logan — renewed their efforts to protect themselves from the storm of bullets whizzing at them. But they had had a rest, and were fresh now with replenished vigor. Still, their attackers were legion and growing. And should they get the upper hand by some miracle, they all knew that the three Sky Chambers hovering patiently over the heads would simply begin raining beams of destruction on them.
Yet the Sky Chambers had lost of their number to one of those strange black vortexes they had first seen in New York. It spun in a spangle of static and nothingness just overhead and the remaining Sky Chambers gave it a wide berth. Casey prayed for the sudden appearance of one or two more to suck in the remainder of their airborne foes.
Jane Willow had by now reached the ground. She pushed her way through Fell Simon’s men and headed for the company. Casey and Sasha blasted her a path — but she had no need of that: her own protective bubble of sound acted like a wedge as she moved, shoving bodies this way and that.
