by Ren Garcia
Before she could form a new axe, he put a brutal non-cutting shot into her ribs; he heard some of them snap. She doubled over.
He then butt-ended her in the face with the pommel of his CARG. She collapsed.
Seeing victory in sight, he lifted her head and tried to give her the Sight; perhaps that will calm her down.
Again, she covered her eyes and head butted him; her head was like stone.
The area swam. Davage tried to clear his head.
She balled her fists together and slammed him in the chin, sending him backwards.
Again, they stood a few feet apart, both trying to catch their breath. They'd been fighting for five minutes, and they were exhausted.
The Black Hat turned her head and gazed at the fallen form of Bethrael lying some feet away. Davage could feel the malice pouring out of her.
The Point. Davage saw the Point.
She was going to kill Bethrael. She was going to end her life and deny her the possibility of redemption out of pure meanness.
And even though she was a Black Hat "in training," so to speak, Davage had already accepted "Beth" into his family. He felt certain she will convert and be saved and become a happy, smiling Elder just like Syg. Maybe she'd pursue a career of some sort, fall in love with some lucky fellow, pass the baton, and have children. Perhaps she will become a lady of standing of some Great House. Maybe she will want to join the Fleet. Whatever, it didn't matter. All she need do was pick a star, and he and Syg will take her there. He wanted it for her—he wanted it badly.
And all that was about to be put to rest at the end of a Black Hat's Point.
She lifted her arm and extended her finger. In a few moments, Bethrael will be dead.
Davage sprang. In an instant he brought his CARG down on her wrist, and this time he didn't use a banging, bludgeoning blow. This time he sliced her hand off clean. He even jabbed it a bit, so it snagged a nerve and un-docked it, creating pain like nothing else: Maserfeld's Cut it was called, a cruel and torturous thing to do to an enemy that created excruciating agony until medical assistance could be administered.
It was something he had never done to any of his opponents— something he had never even considered doing.
She looked at him, indignant for a moment.
Something then came out of the stump and slopped to the ground, Davage thought it was a large gout of blood.
The Black Hat then began wailing in agony hideously. She clutched her stump, bouncing up and down, whirling around like a child, her dirty robes swishing on the ground. Vomit leaked out of the folds of her black sash. She picked up her hand and held it to her breast, cradling it. She moaned and slobbered in misery.
Davage felt pity for her at that moment. He regretted what he'd done. He thought about slicing off the end of her stump. That will remove the activated nerves and provide her with at least a bit of relief.
He saw something then. The bloody, dirty mass that had come out of her stump moved. It stood up somehow in a gory clump and jumped back onto the Black Hat's chest. Quick as Creation, it crawled across her chest, up her arm, and then back into the stump.
Instantly the Black Hat stopped screaming. She regained that hideous stance, that evil demeanor.
What had he seen? Was she somehow controlled?
There was nothing for it. He was going to save this tall Black Hat too.
Davage flew into her, kneeing her in the stomach; he felt her ribs floating a bit under him. He then smashed her in the face with a full strength punch.
Sitting on top of her, he ripped off her black face-covering sash.
Underneath was a pale, blonde-headed girl. Her face was long and sallow, her blonde hair, corn-colored, was braided and pulled back. She was covered in vomit. Her blue eyes were watery and doll-like. They reminded him of Syg's eyes, how they were during their first meeting—glassy … evil.
Davage saw those eyes in his nightmares every so often; he dreamed that she turned back into what she was. They were horrible dreams.
She closed her eyes, anticipating the Sight.
With his thumbs, Davage wrenched them open and blasted her with a full lit Sight.
Forced to look, she stared at him and sighed. Her expression changed.
Davage then reared back and head butted her square in the forehead. She gave a yelp and went out cold.
It was done, the fight was over. Davage had triumphed. He felt like picking her up and throwing her down again but stopped himself.
Saddling his CARG, he Sighted her to make sure she was out. Again, heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing all indicated she was unconscious.
Something dark moved past his Sight. Looking around, he caught something lurking inside her.
It was a small man-shaped black blob—like a blood-clot with arms and legs. It seemed to know that Davage was Sighting it. It waved and bounded out of his gaze.
He looked around and found it again in her leg. It seemed to want to avoid his Sight and continued down until it was cornered in her foot.
He Sighted it hard. It was a small but massively concentrated piece of Shadow tech—of a type and complexity he'd never seen before. It had no heart that he could see. Clearly, this was the work of the Black Abbess.
It shuddered and roiled in his Sight. Making a break for it, it darted past his Sight and back out her stump. There, in the dirty ground, it began growing to man-sized.
"Daaaavvvaaaaggggee …" it hissed. "IIIII heeerrreeee forrr youuuu …"
It lunged at Davage. He dove aside and again, got his CARG out.
He sliced its leg off.
Bounding, it came at him again.
Its head flew off and splatted in the dust.
Swing. It could no longer be considered male.
Moving like a demon, it seized Dav by the shoulders, reared back, and plunged his head into the open, oozing stump of its neck.
Davage was overwhelmed with foulness. He could feel the horrid, viscous matter surging up around him, constricting his throat, entering his mouth.
Moments from death, Davage lit his Sight. Instantly, its rank interior charred and shriveled. It roared in agony.
It spat Davage out and buckled, falling into the dirt.
Davage recoiled and shuddered—the touch of this horrid creation was truly appalling.
Davage saw something.
The creature's cleaved nether parts were making their way to Bethrael's prone body. With sinuous movement and evil intentions, it crawled up onto her chest.
The captain pounced.
He flew toward her, grabbed the thing, and hit it hard with Sight. He felt great pleasure as it withered and perished into soot.
He turned to the rest of it. He was going to Sight this travesty into oblivion and good riddance!
Shrieking in fear, the remaining pieces, head, and main body of the thing collected itself and tore off with speed toward the main mass of Black Hats and Shadow tech beyond.
From the towers, horns sounded. A flock of black Shadow tech birds took flight and teemed in his direction, blotting out the feeble, dry sun.
Davage saddled the CARG and picked up the tall Black Hat and put her hand in his pocket. He then ran to Bethrael and picked her up as well. They weren't particularly heavy, but after so much activity, he was tired, winded.
Panting, he sprinted across a bridge toward the Silver Temple, about two hundred yards distant. He could hear the black hordes flapping, leaping, and bounding behind him.
He Sighted the temple. He could see through its outer wall, but what he saw didn't make any sense. It made no sense at all.
He saw bleak landscapes and dust. He saw crude silver structures. He saw advanced cities and light.
(Sygillis—wide-eyed … evil.)
He saw Hulgismen, naked, barbaric. He saw people wearing silver clothing, tending silver, seal-like beasts.
(Syg—happy, e
yes loving.)
He saw a Black Temple … a high throne, someone twisted and terrifying sitting alone at the top. He saw a Silver Temple, eyes opening, throne empty.
(Sygillis … evil—hands ready to choke … eyes alight with hate.)
(Syg … full of love … arms held open for a loving embrace …)
("I am going to kill you …")
("I love you …")
He looked away; the images of Syg frightened him. He couldn't bear the thought of her as she once was, an evil automaton.
It was as if time was in flux with in temple, as if it existed in many places at once.
He didn't want to go in there. Anywhere but in there.
Panting, he approached the side of the temple—it towered overhead. There was a large moat surrounding it—a moat of black tar.
Horns again. Shadow tech beasts began bounding down from the heights above.
They were surrounding Davage; he had no place to go.
Poof! He Wafted into the Silver Temple.
When he re-appeared, he was still outside, Shadow tech beasts all around.
He couldn't Waft through the walls of the temple. How was that possible? A Waft-lock—was the temple protected by a Waft-lock, just like the Sisters did on board his ship to prevent invaders from boarding?
There must be something like that.
He landed back down near the edge of the moat, stumbled, and dropped the tall Black Hat, and she hit the ground and did a halfsomersault. He was about to drop Bethrael as well but made an extra effort not to.
The hordes were all around. He set Beth down and unsaddled his CARG again.
He Sighted them and could see their red hearts, beating hard in anticipation of the kill.
He shattered the heart of one demon with his CARG, then another, then another. The creatures staggered and became indistinct for a moment, but he knew they will be back. Getting rid of Shadow tech for good was a job for the Sisters.
BOOM!
He heard a huge explosion overhead. He looked up.
High overhead, the Spiders had made another hole in the side of the temple, debris raining down. Again, he could see silver lances dart out of the hole. More silver specs floating about. He could see the bright silvery interior of the temple. The spiders, legs waving, caught one or two of the silver specs and devoured them.
"I don't want to go in there," Dav panted.
Davage cleared out a few more beasts, then, still holding his CARG, picked up Beth and the other Black Hat.
Poof! He Wafted upwards.
He reappeared in midair, about seven hundred feet off the ground— his heart was pounding. It was so hard to Waft carrying someone.
Poof!
Once again he reappeared in midair, this time about two thousand feet off the ground. Looking up, he saw he was about a hundred feet short of the hole.
He couldn't feel his arms … everything was fading.
There were black spiders, crawling about. There were men mounted on strange silver beasts, carrying bright lances. They fought the spiders, pushing them back.
The hole began to get smaller.
The mounted silver men retreated back into the hole.
Near total exhaustion, near death, Davage Wafted one last time.
Poof!
He re-emerged in a cool, quiet silver space.
He had no idea where the Black Hats were. He thought his CARG was still in his hand, but he wasn't sure.
He fell and fell … a waiting silver far below.
* * * * *
"There it is, just like Dav mentioned," Kilos said in Davage's office looking at the viewer logs of the Seeker's plunge near Metatron.
Syg sat next to her, leaning over, straining to see.
There on the viewer, amid the amber dullness of darkened Metatron, was a shining silver pyramid.
"Is that your temple?"
"Looks like it," Syg said. "Of course, it wasn't silver the last time I was there."
They gazed at the grainy, indistinct images of the viewer. The Seeker certainly couldn't see like Dav could.
"Look there," Syg said. "There's a whole Shadow tech army trying to knock it down. There must be at least five Black Hats down there to create that much, probably more."
"How come it's still standing? I would have thought it would be leveled by now."
"I don't know."
Syg thought of Dav, down there, surround by all that. She pushed the thought from her mind and went to the window. Outside, the stars streaked by.
"When will we arrive there?"
"About three hours."
"Can't we get there any faster? Go to Stellar Mach perhaps?"
"No, Stellar Mach is not good for short hops—we'd shoot right past the system and end up farther out than we are now. We are currently at the mark."
"What?"
"We're at max revolutions, Syg. We're going as fast as we can."
Syg sighed and put her head on the glass. She felt helpless.
"I know how you feel, but truly, what I told Saari before is probably correct—Dav's no doubt creating a nightmare for them down there. He can handle himself. He has his Gifts, and if I really thought he was in life-threatening danger, I'd be pulling my hair out with worry right now."
"You think so?"
"I do—and he'll probably have a Black Hat or two with him when we get there."
Syg turned from the window, furious. "If he's risking his life down there for the sake of saving a Black Hat—if he's not fighting with all his strength, if he's not fighting to kill—then I'll kill him myself as soon as I've covered him in kisses."
"Well, I suppose you're probably going to have to be cross with him—knowing Dav the way I do, he's going to try and save a few. That's Dav—stubborn."
Kilos, still looking at the viewer, saw something odd. "Syg, look at this …"
Syg came over, and Kilos ran it back. On the screen, as the ship soared by the Silver Temple, something happened to it—an explosion at its heights.
"Look there, it appears the Shadow tech beasts were successful in breaching the temple's outer wall."
"It was just a matter of time, I guess," Syg said.
"But watch … watch this …"
On the fuzzy viewer, slowed to a crawl, they could see something coming out of the hole—something bright and silvery. Silver bolts.
"What is that?" Kilos asked.
"I'm not sure. In my dream I could hear my Hulgismen calling out to me."
"Hulgismen don't speak."
"But mine were. Could it be that the Hulgismen within the temple are somehow fighting back?"
"With what?"
"I don't know, I really don't. In my dream it seemed like the Hulgismen were evolving—growing, becoming more than what they were."
Kilos looked at the screen, at the frozen image, at the silver bolts shooting out of the hole. "Well, I suppose we'll know soon enough."
"We are going to be under heavy attack. The Black Hats will try to shoot us down. And they are more than capable of doing it."
"We've the Arrow Shot. I'm sure you've seen them before. Fast transports loaded with Sisters and Marines. We blast them down from mid-orbit to the surface en masse. We'll take casualties, of course, but usually we find success if we launch enough of them.
"I'd rather we not lose anybody."
"It's part of the job. We all understand that."
Syg thought for a moment. "Ki, can you take me to the Sisters?"
"What?"
"I've a plan, but I'll need the Sisters' help."
10
THE SILVER TEMPLE
When Davage opened his eyes, he thought he was in a great silver ocean, surrounded by it. He could feel it all around him—silver and a great, booming quiet.
He rubbed his tired eyes and looked around.
