by Galen Wolf
"I don't want to touch that thing," Torina said as the demon lifted off again and began heading back to their side of the river.
"Don't worry," shouted Morah back across to her. The witch waved. "We don't need you with us."
"What?" Atorkh was angry. "So what do we do?" He yelled over to the witch.
Her black lips curled in a smile. "I don't harbor any ill will towards you little Atorkh." She jerked her thumb towards the Belphegor. "But he might. I think he got a taste for your blood." She laughed wickedly.
Torina looked up where the demon was flying over the river at them. She saw that the Belphegor was increasing its speed. Instead of coming in for a landing, it was swooping down to attack.
She scattered back. "If your drones still work," she said rapidly. "This would be a good time." She drew her energy pistol and aimed at the darted out but her aim was off and she missed it.
Over the river, she saw that Morah and Owain and begun to walk casually away.
She glanced back just in time as the Belphegor swooped. She rolled out of its way and it went over her head. She half staggered then got to her feet, spinning round to fire again. But again she missed. The Belphegor climbed up to gain height before diving again.
Atorkh was slapping at his control screen. "The drones got too broken in the last fight. I can't get them to deploy."
Torina fired again and missed again. This time when it came, she staggered backwards and lost her footing. She tumbled over a block of stone and went sprawling, her gun clattering as it fell out of her grasp. Then in a flurry of leather wings and hooked hands, she felt the Belphegor descend on her. It landed on her like a fall of bricks. Its weight held her down and smelled the fetid stink of its breath near her face. She pushed her head out of its way but its claws pinioned her. Her k-mesh held and the monster's claws could not penetrate her flesh. Torina tried to squirm away but the thing caught her and pulled her back. Then she smelled the burn and heard the buzz of an energy weapon. The Belphegor roared in pain, but it blocked out her view so she couldn't see what was happening. It must be Atorkh firing.
The beast clawed her, wanting to finish her before turning on Atorkh. She lay half on her side, with the Belphegor grappling her, trying to find a weak spot in her armor so it could open her carcass. It slammed into her again, knocking her head into a rock. She yelped in pain.
Then she heard Atorkh shouting and yelling, all the while firing shots at the Belphegor. He was so shit, she thought, he can hardly hurt it. Then one shot hit and she smelled its roasting flesh. The thing jerked and screamed. It growled and turned, leaving Torina lying on the floor. She saw it stand and jump at Atorkh. Its mass bowled him over. Torina got to her feet. She was groggy from the blow. She touched her scalp and felt warm blood. Shaking her head to clear it, she saw the demon sprawled on Atorkh. It was digging into him with its talons and he screamed in pain. She heard a crack as it broke open his k-mesh then she heard Atorkh give a terrible yell. It began to devour him, sticking its beak into his bloody guts.
Torina ran to where she'd dropped her pistol. She bent down, snatched it and found the trigger. She couldn't afford to miss or Atorkh would be dead. She steadied her hands and took aim. The Belphegor didn't look up, too busy with its meal to pay attention to her. She squeezed the trigger and let the incendiary beam play over the Belphegor's foul carapace. She broke off and fired again. The next shot caught it in its head and it wrenched its mouth away from Atorkh's face. Blood was all over its foul jaw. She saw the beams sear the demon, penetrating its skull. It turned fully towards her, but it was badly hurt, hissing in agony. Her eyes locked with the demon's, but the Belphegor suddenly dematerialized, having no more stomach for the fight - returning to its own private hell.
Torina ran to Atorkh. He was a mess. Part of his face and jaw was missing. The k-mesh had been torn off his chest and there was a big hole in his abdomen through which she saw his glistening viscera. Her pack with her healing equipment was nearby on the ground. She snatched at her gear and sedated him, pumping in analgesia. Atorkh's writhing stopped as merciful sleep took him.
Torina saw the mess he was in. She shook her head. "Fuck, fuck, fuck." She got polymer lattice from her pack and placed it across the wounded areas. This would form a frame for the new flesh to regenerate - to replace that which the Belphegor had devoured. She made sure the polymer was anchored and her healing fields made minor repairs where the tissue was not too degenerated. Taking out stem cell syringes, she began to layer them on the polymer lattice and switched on her blue fields to stimulate the stem cells so they produced the appropriate tissue type depending on where they were, using Atorkh's own DNA as a blueprint. Then she moved her attention to his face and did the same there. She watched as new flesh began to knit together, reforming gum and cheek and tooth. Luckily, his eyes had been spared. She stroked his sweaty hair from his brow. "Stupid boy," she said. "But brave." She switched the blue fields off, then the green. The process just needed time now.
She checked her bag again. As she'd foretold much earlier, she was nearly out of healing supplies. Torina slumped down against a rock, watching Atorkh sleep and heal. She tried to settle, but she couldn't so got up and went to the edge of the mercury river. It flowed fast, running from who knew where to who knew where. But she knew the stuff would kill her if she stepped in it.
The liquid rumbled like metal rather than water as it flowed. And as she watched the silver stream, she remembered what came out of the mercury. Her attention was caught by turbulence in the liquid. She saw heavings and bubblings that warned her of the creation of silver creatures, inspired by what was in her mind. Then she checked the time and remembered the coming dark. If the silver creatures didn't kill them first, the inchoatus would well up from the depths of the planet to destroy what had been created during the day and kill all living things that still remained here.
Torina stared back into the darkness of the tunnel. The way back was long and she prayed to the Queen of Disks they didn't run into anything dangerous on the way, and that they got there before the dark swallowed them. She sighed. Severan and Gaijann were gone. She'd been foolish and she should have gone with Severan but her stupid jealousy got in the way.
More time went by. Atorkh was still sleeping, but he was mostly healed. Time counted now. She went and shook him awake.
"What?" he said groggily. "Did I die?"
"Nearly, but not quite."
"Oh. Good."
She helped him up. "Come on let's go home."
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Gaijann gets a weapon
Gaijann moved more quietly and more slowly than Severan. He couldn't see the giant ahead of him so, as he went, he listened for the noises of combat. Gaijann knew he could have gone with the rest of the group - it would have been safer but he chose to go after Mehefin and Severan. He wasn't taking the risks to save Mehefin, though he was disgusted that her father and the rest of the party could leave her behind. No, he was going for the sake of his friend.
He calculated the hours they had been in the Library. Last time he checked, enough time had gone by to make him worried about the dark that would rise. More time had passed now. Way above their heads, he knew the planet was turning its face towards the darkness and when the darkness came the time of the creatures of silver would pass and in their place would come the howling forces of entropy; a dark tide that would dissolve any life forms that dared remain in the library, break them apart and return them to the entropy from which all life emerges.
By the time Gaijann got to the pool Severan was already gone. He was about to follow his leader's boot prints into the previously disregarded tunnel, when his eye was caught by movements in the silver pool. He saw it heave and shapes begin to form in it. He guessed the pool was picking up someone's memories and transforming them into a kind of life, but were the memories his or Severan's? Or even the lizards. Gaijann backed off and watched. The heaves became more substantial. Half-human creatures struggled to pull themselves free from th
e quicksilver matrix like evil babies being born. He sucked his teeth. Time to move. Gaijann got to the bottom of the stone staircase that led up the shaft and backed up higher as the embryos pulled themselves free, dragging their half-formed bodies from the mercury.
In the shadows, Gaijann was invisible to all mortal eyes. Even the infrared and ultraviolet sensitive eyes of machines would not detect him while his stealth field was up and he remained still. But these things didn't belong to any order of creature he had ever come across. He stepped back further and, as they pulled themselves from the pool, he recognized them as more Ghazzali and knew then they were hunting Severan.
The silver creatures were between him and his boss. He could wait until they had passed, but then how would that help the giant? More and more of them stumbled out of the water, took tottering steps, and then stood. Gaijann backed a few steps up the staircase and then a few more. From here he had a good view. There were hundreds of them being born: the quicksilver children of the tired gods of Law.
And then Gaijann noticed that to his right the rock was not even. There in the wall there were indentations and they were regular. He hadn't noticed these on the way down, but when they'd descended all that had been on their minds was getting to the bottom of the shaft. Hesitantly, Gaijann touched the recesses in the stone. He felt his fingers tingle, even within their gloves. He jerked them back. It was something similar to the way the knowledge had flowed into his mind from the patterns in the wall in the other room. He was curious. More confident this time and driven by the nagging anxiety in his stomach that reminded him his friend was in danger, he touched the indentations again. As his finger ends came in contact, knowledge seeped into his mind. He didn't need a book, the plans of the library began to light up in his mind. He knew that if he caressed these indentations in a certain way, a door would open and it would allow him to enter a passage. He saw the library in 3D in his mind. But more than that, he saw it in 4D - with its past and future all laid out. His mind fled from that complexity — it was too much. His brain wasn't fashioned to deal with all the dimensions of time and space these indentations offered him. Even so he salvaged enough information from the data swimming in his head and knew how he would take the passage revealed. It would allow him to take a short cut and be ahead of Severan. It would even allow him to open doors that he and Severan could retreat by unseen ways into the Library and baffle the Kissag. He and Severan and maybe Mehefin - if the lizards hadn't fucked her to death yet.
And so he pressed the indentations and the door opened — a door that hadn't shifted for centuries if not thousands of years. As Gaijann entered the smooth stone tunnel that would lead him above the heads of Severan and the Kissag, he hesitated. Then he forced himself forward. The odds against his boss meant he had to risk it so he went on. His stealth field was up and he still felt relatively undiscoverable. He began to run. The schemata of the library faded from his memory now his fingers weren't in contact with the stone, but he retained enough to know he would be above Severan now; above and probably ahead. He went forward. Further on he knew there was a way down.
The corridor was featureless and his light feet went soft as a cat's across the dust-laden floor. Then he noticed something and stopped. There were shelves on either side. They held objects that it was hard to make any sense of. The closest he could guess that this was some kind of guard post. It seemed the Anubisites had protected their library jealously. They didn't want anyone coming and stealing their knowledge and so they had set up traps and in earlier days there had been sentient guards here. This was one of their posts. Gaijann could see screens and portals that, though now quiet, had probably once allowed the guards to observe all corners of the library. He looked at the objects and sighed. He wished Atorkh was here. The kid would know how to switch these things on.
Gaijann examined the objects on the shelves. Some hung in brackets on the walls. Were they guns? He went to touch one and then wondered whether it was rigged up to keep off thieves. He looked hard all around the objects. It didn't seem booby-trapped. Diffidently, he took one of the guns from their brackets. The thing was light. But no use as he didn't know how to make it work. He couldn't even find a trigger. He put it down. There were also clusters of objects that felt like carbon eggs. He took one down and weighed it. It was far heavier than it should be - it weighed more than if it was fashioned out of lead, or even gold. There was a button at its less convex end. It looked like a grenade. It probably was a grenade. He took four of them, which was the most he could easily carry, and put them in his utility belt. Then he cursed himself that he had let his fascination with gadgets get the better of him and made him lose time. He started off again running along the corridor.
Gaijann reached the end quicker than he had thought he would. In front of him was the shaft down. In the darkness he doubted anyone below would even think to look up, but he could see down. There was a room down there. He could see the Kissag below. They had created some kind of rest area for themselves. He wondered how they felt comfortable enough to rest when they knew what night would bring. But they were well set up - maybe they hoped to meet their Professor here?
Gaijann laid down at the lip of the shaft and peered down. He could see the lizards and with his suit's sonic circuits he could hear them talking. He had no rifle but he could lob down a few of the Xaolin grenades and as far as he could tell, short of learning to fly, the lizards couldn't get up to him.
He formulated a plan to wait until he heard the commotion that Severan's arrival would surely bring. Then he'd act.
A minute went by — then another. This was taking too long. He imagined Severan caught between the Kissag in front and the quicksilver Ghazzali conjured by his own imagination behind. He had faith in Severan's ability to survive. His leader was no ordinary man and he would cut through the Kissag like a scythe through grass. And when he got this far, Gaijann would be down to help him. Even if they died, they would die together. Gaijann had always believed he and Severan would go that way — side by side, never surrendering.
But the minutes went by and all he could hear was the low muttering of the lizards at rest below and the steady pulse of his heart. He gripped the grenade and it was sweaty in his hand.
Then he heard the sound of the lizards below becoming alert and starting to give excited yaps. The Kissag raiding party had arrived with Mehefin. The short cut had allowed him to get here even faster than her. There was no sign of Severan yet. He glanced down. Mehefin appeared untouched. That was unlike them. The lizards usually pawed their treats before bringing them home. And then he saw - not only was she untouched, but they seemed to be treating her with some kind of respect.
Gaijann heard noise from further down in the corridor. It must be Severan. He tensed. He saw the lizards had heard it too. They snickered and hissed at each other in their reptilian babble. From the way they were gesturing and yapping, they wanted to go and explore and see what was coming their way. But Mehefin raised up her hand and they stopped.
"In the name of whatever gods you honour," she said, "will you just try to get something right? Just try to follow simple instructions and not fuck up? Just once."
A huge red Kissag whom Gaijann took to be their leader hissed a command to his soldiers. They stopped their jostling and did what he said.
"So?" the lizard leader said in the common tongue. His face twisted and Gaijann guessed that he was smiling.
"So, just do what we agreed," said Mehefin. "Follow the instructions my father gave you."
"We did," said the red lizard.
"No, you did not. The instructions were to hang back. To enter the library after Severan's party as a backup for our mission."
"He surprised us. He started attacking."
Mehefin shook her head in disbelief. "You weren't supposed to be close enough for him to notice you. Of course when your warriors popped up and started firing at him, he was bound to respond."
"Our men were not properly briefed," said a green Kis
sag — some kind of lieutenant.
"Well they should have been." She jabbed her finger at the leader. "By you. And now the whole thing has gone to dogshit."
"The planet is turning," said the green Kissag. "We cannot afford to be here once darkness comes."
Gaijann watched as a collective shudder went round the assembled Kissag warriors.
"This place is cursed," said the green Kissag.
Mehefin snapped." Don't be stupid. Don't think for yourself. Just do what you are told,"
"So what is the plan now?" their leader asked.
"I will rejoin my father. We will go with the human party to the Room of Dissolution. You will act as backup. You will destroy anything that threatens our mission."
"And what about the humans?"
"Let them live as long as they are useful. After that you may kill them."
"And what about the giant Severan?"
Gaijann heard a tone of awe in the lizard's voice. His fame had spread wide and even they feared him. He was only disappointed they didn't say "And Gaijann..." but there was still time for them to learn. Them and all their tribe.
Mehefin paused. "Keep Severan alive," she said.
The noise of combat grew louder. Mehefin's brow furrowed. "What's that?"
"Fighting," said the green lizard. "Severan has followed us. He wants to rescue you." He made a curious hissing sound that Gaijann guessed was laughter.
