He had been a fool, Alistair realized, to trust Gaul or Gabby. The entire Thule Cartel was demented. Why had he given up his clothes and his weapons? Why had he willingly climbed down into this horrible place?
Alistair forced his way on in the dark, his lungs and leg muscles burning furiously.
He was reminded of his transformation to Anathema, the pure and unadulterated agony that had accompanied his immolation.
Had it been this frightening?
Had it taken this long?
Alistair collided with a stone rim beneath the water, gouging flesh from one of his shins and tripping him. He toppled over it and plunged headfirst into the water, only remembering to seal his mouth at the last moment. He sputtered and flailed, his feet just reaching the floor on the other side.
He gathered himself and slowed his breathing, and then examined the damage to his leg with his fingers. He was bleeding freely, and a chunk of skin dangled from his shin, waving like a flag in the water.
Alistair inhaled deeply, and then tore the patch of skin free.
He waited until the pain passed, and then he climbed back over the stone rim.
He passed his fingers along the arch on top of the vault on his way out as an afterthought. His fingers flinched from the carved lines in the stone as if they had been burned.
He was hesitant to touch the carvings again.
After a vague interval, he did it anyway. His fingers traced the expunged and scorned name of his liquidated family, the name stripped from him in a misguided attempt to spare him some of the associated ignominy.
His very own name.
Alistair shook uncontrollably in the water for a time, until he was able to force himself back into motion. He explored inside the shallows of the vault, wading from one wall to the other and then back again, moving in a careful set of zigzags.
He was in up to his shoulders in the water when he located the stone pedestal, touching it with his extended fingers before he collided with it. He walked the perimeter of it, determining it to be rectangular, of one uniform piece without carvings or separation, and almost tall enough to clear the water, with five or so centimeters of water flowing over the top of it.
Alistair ran his fingers along the top and was surprised to discover that it was contoured, a series of smooth depressions pressed into the stone. He spent what felt like a long time in the dark, his mouth hanging open as he traced the curves and slopes of the stone on top, before an idea occurred to him.
He climbed onto the block of stone, careful to avoid hitting his head on the ceiling.
Alistair slowly lowered himself down onto the stone, lying down in the water.
The block was wide and long enough to support him easily, and the contours of the top of the stone fit him like a glove. He settled into the grooves naturally and discovered that this left the level of the water just below his face, so that he could lie without worry of getting water in his eyes or drowning.
Alistair lay on the stone platform like a patient sacrifice, waiting for his big moment.
He stayed like that, for a little while, or a long while.
“Let’s get started already,” Alistair said, closing his eyes. “I don’t have all day.”
He turned his head, and the water spilled over his face.
He opened his mouth, and then, when the water tasted fine, he swallowed.
***
Alex was stomping around the side of the townhouse, searching the gravel for stones small enough that they would not break the glass, when Emily appeared at her window in a white nightdress, yawning and fussing with her hair.
“This is a surprise,” Emily observed. “What are you doing here, Alex?”
“It’s barely ten! It’s not that late, so I figured…sorry if I woke you up.”
“You certainly did. Tomorrow will be a long day, I suspect, so I was trying to get some rest. What is going on? I would have thought you would be with Eerie.”
He ignored the various potential implications of that statement, taking it instead at face value.
“She’s asleep,” he replied. “I need to talk to you.”
“Oh, I see,” Emily said, stifling another yawn. “What is it?”
“It’s just…you’re smarter than me. I know it. You’ve always got a plan. You’ve got a plan for this right?” Alex gave her a hopeful look. “There’s got to be a way to save everyone, you and Eerie both. There is, right? Please, you have to tell me. I’ll do anything.”
“Other than make a decision,” Emily said, sounding very tired. “I have plans, Alex, but there’s no ‘both’ involved.”
Alex cast about for something to destroy in his rage and settled on repeatedly kicking a nearby bush.
“Please stop that,” Emily said. “We don’t have gardeners right now.”
Alex gave it one final petulant kick, and then finally left off. He started to pace along the small garden in front of Emily’s townhouse, marching past withered carnations in untended beds with his shoulders hunched and his hands driven deep into his pockets, the very picture of sullen and impotent rage.
“Fuck this,” Alex grumbled. “Fuck everything!”
“Please keep your voice down,” Emily said. “People are trying to sleep.”
“Who gives a shit? How am I supposed to make a decision like this? I don’t want anything bad to happen to either of you!” Alex fumed. “I’m gonna screw up and lose everything. That’s it, and we all know it.”
“I thought we were done with these fits. You’ve been doing so much better.”
“I’ve only really cared about two people in my whole life,” Alex stammered. “Now I gotta choose between them, or lose both? Pardon me for being upset.”
“Since my life is one of those at stake, it seems a little rich to complain to me about it,” Emily said. “I’m very sorry that I do not have an easy way out for you this time. I’ve given you any number of prior opportunities to consider my feelings and well-being, and you never did, did you? I don’t expect this time to be any different.”
“Emily…”
“If anything, I should be the one complaining! I move on, and the universe provides you with one more opportunity to decide my fate? It’s outrageous. Everything I’ve done was to get to the point that I could make my own decisions, and now this happens.”
“That’s why I need you to tell me how to fix it!” Alex shouted. “You’re right! It’s not fair! None of this is fair. I want to make everything right. I just need you to…”
“Quiet down. You don’t need to explain anything to me. You want me to give you an out,” Emily said, leaning her elbows on the windowsill. “By coming up with a perfect solution, or by bowing gracefully out of the picture and giving you permission to save your girlfriend instead.”
“That’s not…”
“It is! You know it! You are the most selfish boy I’ve ever met!”
“I’m trying to help! What the fuck? What did I…?”
“You want me to say it’s okay to abandon me to my horrible destiny. That’s your pattern, Alex. You want what you want, and then you want to be forgiven for it. You want to be coddled and spoiled, and you never want to be in trouble for anything. That’s what you want.”
“That’s fucking nonsense!”
“Don’t bother pretending. I know you believe every word. I can see it in your halo. It’s all right there for everyone to see, if they only knew how to look. The world’s most selfish boy, asking to be let off the hook one more time. You know what? I’m tired. I just want to go back to sleep for a few hours. I give you permission, Alex. Go save your precious Eerie, and don’t worry about me at all. I’ll be a good girl and die quietly, the way I should have the first time I became an imposition on you.”
“That’s not it at all!” Alex barked at her. “You’ve got it all wrong! You aren’t listening to me.”
“You have never listened to me! Not even once!”
“I’ve been listening to both of you,” M
itsuru said, putting a hand on Alex’s shoulder, and nearly causing him to jump out of his skin in fright. “I was trying to go to bed early. Since you woke me up, you’re gonna make it up to me.”
She twisted Alex’s arm behind his back before he could object or formulate a defense. He yelped and went up on his tiptoes and struggled, but her grip was ruthless, and the pain only worsened when he fought.
“Not fair!” Alex gave in, and Mitsuru relaxed her grip marginally. “Why am I the only one in trouble?”
“He seems to have reverted to his prior, less appealing self,” Emily said, yawning. “Can you do something, Ms. Aoki?”
“I doubt it, but I don’t mind trying,” Mitsuru said, dragging Alex away from the townhouse. “Come along, Alex. It’s been a long time since I saw you in the gym.”
“What? No! This is bullshit!” Alex shouted, as Mitsuru pulled him along. “Total bullshit!”
Emily watched them go with a bemused expression.
“That boy,” she said, “never learns.”
***
It was hard to keep the water down, and it seemed to scorch each of his organs in turn as it spread through his body.
He kept still and quiet, more out of long habit than any fear of observation.
He was certain that the Thule Cartel could keep watch on their own dungeons, and were likely doing so. Nonetheless.
He suffered quietly because that was how he suffered, not because his pride was at stake.
Alistair could not remember having any of that to begin with.
His stimulus-starved eyes were drawn to the swirling colors like bees to wildflowers. As soon as they appeared near the periphery of his vision, he found his attention fixed on them. Swirling and sinuous cords of pure cerulean and magenta and umber, intertwined and refracting all about the ceiling of the darkened vault.
After an uncertain amount of time, the quantity and intensity of the colors became oppressive, seeming to press him further down into the water in which he floated.
He seemed to have drifted, somehow, in the confusion of his hallucinations, and now Alistair was uncertain whether he was still in the original vault, or somewhere else entirely, in one of the other vaults or floating along the winding corridors.
He floated with the current, it never occurring to him to wonder how long there had been a current.
The colors beat down upon him, like a cruel aurora borealis.
Alistair cried out, or he meant to do so. He could not be sure whether he had risked opening his mouth, for fear the colors would rush inside him, filling his lungs with their vivid squirming.
He closed his eyes, so as to shut them out.
That, as he soon discovered, was a mistake.
***
Refugees occupied most of the classrooms around the gym, so they had to make do with a basketball court, the floor squeaking with every step. Alex glanced at his jeans and sweatshirt and made a face.
“I don’t suppose you’d let me run up to my room to change?”
Mitsuru’s eyes flicked over to him.
“You’re fine,” she said, tugging a mat into the center of the court. “No-Gi practice is more relevant to our occupation.”
“This is stupid,” Alex said, helping her arrange the mat. “We aren’t at the Academy anymore, you know?”
“Remind me,” Mitsuru said. “When did you graduate?”
Alex muttered beneath his breath as he straightened up.
“I thought so,” Mitsuru said. “You are an Auditor in training, and I am your superior, offering you supplementary education. Isn’t that generous of me?”
Mitsuru kicked off her sandals, and then tossed her jacket on them.
“All I have is a mouthpiece,” Alex said hopefully. “We need gloves at least, right?”
Mitsuru held up two sets of gloves.
Alex sighed as he stepped out of his shoes and socks, and then pulled off his sweatshirt before he stepped onto the wrestling mat.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
Alex glanced at Mitsuru resentfully.
“Is it supposed to be a secret?” She pulled on a headband. “You were just yelling about it for the entire world to hear.”
“I don’t want to talk about it at all.”
“Fine. Be a grump,” Mitsuru said, stretching briefly before settling into an open stance. “I’ll get it out of you one way or the other.”
“We should never have rescued you,” Alex said, sighing as he took his stance. “What are we doing?”
“Just a little light sparring,” Mitsuru said, tossing him gloves and headgear. “Freestyle.”
“I don’t mind practice,” Alex said, finding the gloves to be a serviceable size, but the headgear far too big, “but I don’t wanna hurt you.”
“I wasn’t planning on letting you do any damage,” Mitsuru said. “Don’t worry, I’ll hold back. I won’t break anything important.”
Alex grimaced and did his best to adjust the fit on the borrowed gear.
The mat was tacky and small, clinging to their bare feet as they circled and restricting their movement. At opposite ends of the mat they were only just out of each other’s grasps.
Mitsuru pawed the air in front of Alex’s face with her open hands. He batted them away and stepped back.
She circled and feinted, then resumed pawing at him. He knocked her hands aside again.
The cycle repeated.
Her hands came closer with each pass.
Alex was unsure whether she was feeling him out or toying with him.
The next time he brushed her hands away, Mitsuru kicked him savagely below the knee, bringing tears to his eyes.
He limped back and circled, testing his leg.
“Careful, Ms. Aoki,” he said. “I need to be okay for the field.”
“Then I suggest you learn to defend yourself,” Mitsuru said. “Quickly.”
She came forward, her open hands probing.
He brushed them aside as he leapt back, anticipating another kick.
Mitsuru popped him in the nose with a straight jab.
Alex retreated, throwing a wild cross off his back foot. Mitsuru took it on her shoulder and hit him with three quick body blows that stole his wind and hobbled him. All he could do was cover up and circle, staying out of the reach of the worst of her offense, but eating jabs and leg kicks as freely as she wanted to throw them.
“Fuck, I give,” Alex said, waving her off and putting his hands on his knees. He spit his mouthpiece to the mat. “You didn’t get any worse, did you, Ms. Aoki?”
“Why should I have?” Mitsuru fished out her mouthpiece. “I’m just a backup.”
“Right,” Alex said. “That still bothering you?”
“I’m not the one screaming at their ex in the middle of the night. We can talk about my problems some other time.”
“I don’t really wanna…”
“Talk or spar,” Mitsuru said, adjusting her gloves. “Your choice.”
“Fuck it,” Alex said, popping his mouthpiece back in. “Hit me.”
She came forward immediately, but this time Alex held his ground, forcing her back with leg checks and counterpunches. She came in high, and he stayed low and tight. She used her jab to try and open the body, but nothing big got through his guard. He tried the cross again and came up with nothing, but he caught her attempt at a sidekick and tossed her back.
Mitsuru bounced off her back foot and stuck her jab out further than he had thought possible, clipping his nose. He knew she would step in behind the jab, and this time, he thought she might follow high, so he met her with a feint and then a sweeping elbow.
Alex caught her in the neck and staggered her, too surprised at his own success to follow up.
Mitsuru shook it off as she circled. She squared her shoulders and feinted for his head, snapping off a leg kick when he committed. He caught her foot on his shin, and the pain was intense, but from the way she started to limp, Alex thought she might have gotten
the worst of it.
The mat was a tiny, painful world, and they fought over every centimeter of it.
Mitsuru steered him relentlessly, forcing him to the edge of the mat and boxing him into the corners, always giving herself a variety of angles from which to attack. Alex knew he could not match her footwork, so he moved conservatively, in constant guard, relying on his range to keep her at bay.
She tagged him a couple times in the side and caught him in the thigh with another kick. He managed to disengage each time without taking more damage, but he was slowing down and sucking wind.
Mitsuru turned and sidestepped, cutting off an advance that he had never intended to make, while Alex circled, forcing her to either step over her own foot or face him on her weak side. She chose to reset her position, and Alex launched an attack immediately when he saw she was off balance.
His first two jabs went wide, but the third clipped her jaw and made her step back.
He followed with a cross on her weaker left side and caught her in the cheek hard enough to turn her head. He grabbed the back of her neck and pulled her toward him, leaping forward with his knee aimed for her sternum. Mitsuru got her hands up in time to block most of the strike, but the elbow he threw after caught her solidly in the ear.
Elated and smelling blood, Alex threw a straight right, and it smacked into Mitsuru’s shoulder.
He pushed through her guard, eating a pair of jabs in his chin and his swollen nose, but he got hold of her neck, and threw another high inside knee. He caught her beneath the ribs, earning a grunt, and pulled back for an elbow strike.
Mitsuru seized hold of his collar and his belt, but before he could react, she tugged and rotated, pulling him smoothly across her hip and slamming him into the mat. He hit the foam pad hard, the impact knocking the air from his lungs. He brought his knees in to protect his body and raised his hands to shield his head, but she grabbed hold of his left arm, falling flat on her back and then pulling his arm across her chest. Her legs whipped around his shoulder, sinking in a triangle, while she pulled his arm straight, using her hip as a fulcrum.
The Church of Sleep (Central Series Book 5) Page 54
