Revik never flinched. I don’t know if he was even aware of me at that point.
My light flickered around the raft, checking the rest of our team.
I felt Illeg and Holo helping Balidor channel light, bringing it in from the city to reinforce the people fallen on the shore. Stanley knelt by Cass, doing something to her with his light, or trying to, at least.
Feigran sat on the other end of the boat, watching Revik and bouncing up and down a little in his seat, a giant grin on his face. He wasn’t watching the shore, or even Revik’s face. He stared up above Revik’s head, the expression in his eyes delighted.
Dalai lay down in the raft beside me. She aimed her gun at the shore, picking off seers in the Myther group with her gun to drop the shields.
I watched when, gunstock propped on her shoulder, she hit the first seer wearing a bloody collar in the middle of the forehead. She didn’t pause, but ran down the line of them, expelling the spent casings and chambering new bullets as she took them out one by one.
Slowly, the Barrier shield over the shore wavered… then fell.
I no longer saw Atwar, or Jusef, or Kalashi.
Once the shield was down, I felt Dalai, Stanley and Holo join the fight too, using their light on the lines of human shoulders. Somewhere in the higher structures of my light, I felt them pushing humans to shoot one another, to train their guns on themselves.
It made me wince, but I knew it couldn’t be helped.
We were all-in.
I jumped, turning when an explosion rocked the other side of the cave.
Through Revik’s light, I felt he’d found a pocket of gas. He’d used it to blow out one side of the cave wall, and now rocks and boulders were raining down on that end of the group, forcing them to shift their focus from us entirely. I watched them flee, screaming and falling under the collapsed cave wall. Water poured out of the opening Revik created, and for the first time, I remembered the waterfall, and the fact that we were directly under some kind of massive aquifer, if not some part of the river.
I watched in disbelief, a near fear, as Revik drew a long streaming cloud of that gas out of the cave opening. Pulling it into a densely-packed ball, he ignited it, coiling it out like a whip or a flamethrower over the fleeing soldiers.
Their screams turned deafening as they ran, stampeding into the cave wall, looking for an opening, for any way out.
There was no where to go.
Revik drew out more of the gas as the first group burned.
He took out most of the remaining soldiers in a matter of seconds.
The monk who’d warned us earlier was already face-down on the ground.
My eyes returned to him for some reason once I realized the fight was over.
He lay on the dark, wet rocks of the lake’s shore. Part of his robe, near his feet, was burning. His bald head was exposed from his fallen hood, misshapen under the bright lights. His neck and part of his face were visibly patterned with blood. I could see the odd shape of his skull, the contrast between his blood and the pale, white skin of his hands and arms.
I’d seen Revik crush his skull in the first few seconds of his onslaught.
Balidor screamed at him when he’d done it.
“NO!” Terror shook the Adhipan leader’s words. “NO, goddamn it! How the hell do we stop what he’s done to her? You’ve just fucking killed her, Nenz! You fucking killed her!”
Revik hadn’t even turned his head
If Balidor’s words bothered him, I didn’t feel so much as a flicker in his light.
Then again, I wasn’t sure if Revik was really with us anymore. The man standing there, waging war on the shore of that lake with every tool available in his arsenal, was pretty much pure, one hundred percent Syrimne d’Gaos.
I watched as he took out the last group of humans, all of whom were fighting to squeeze around two shorn pieces of dark rock, which blocked the mouth of the cave’s only entrance or exit. Early in the fight, Revik ripped that rock off the walls, blocking the tunnel entrance to keep them from escaping.
A last cloud of the gas ignited. Revik slammed it into the group by the tunnel’s entrance, setting the remaining humans on fire. Once he’d let it go, I heard smaller explosions as he systematically exploded rifles, most of which I realized were conventional, like the kind Dalai still aimed at the shore, picking off stragglers.
The screams grew louder, echoing over the water.
Still, there were a lot fewer of them now.
I watched them burn. I made myself watch––not letting myself turn away.
It was over a few seconds later.
Then the only screams I heard came from Cass.
Revik turned to me, feeling the last human die.
It occurred to me I’d felt it too, now that the Myther shield was down.
“It’s done,” he said, blunt. “Drop the shield, Allie. Save your light.”
I did as he said without thought, without hesitation.
Revik barely gave me a glance. He didn’t pause, but climbed over the raft to where Balidor and Cass lay in the bottom of the boat.
“Get us to shore,” I told Holo, following Revik across the raft.
Like me, Holo and Illeg didn’t hesitate. They grabbed hold of the organic cable and began pulling us towards shore with all of their strength. Two of the original eight or so spotlights on the shore were still operational, so we could all see everything now.
I could smell the bodies burning, too.
Revik knelt down next to Cass.
Balidor glared at him, his face red and contorted in anger.
“You’ve fucking killed her,” he snarled. “Why the fuck didn’t you take control of his mind first? Get him to turn the goddamned thing off?”
Revik barely gave him a glance. “They had him shielded,” he said.
“The seers, then!” Balidor began angrily. “Why the fuck didn’t you––”
“There was no time,” Revik said, his tone warning, yet still somehow dismissive. “Hold her. Hold her down. You, too,” he added, turning briefly to Stanley. Looking at me, he nodded towards her legs. “You get her, too, wife.”
I gripped Cass’s ankles, again obeying him without thought.
I felt his light go into Cass.
He was careful, sliding tendrils of his aleimi into her skull. I felt those thread-like strands wrap around the tiny, organic object I’d felt in her earlier. Then he was experimenting with the object, using the telekinesis. I thought at first he was trying to turn it off.
Abruptly, Cass screamed louder. She writhed under our collective hands, screaming as if someone just poured acid on her.
I’d thought her screams were loud before.
Now she really did sound like she was dying.
She couldn’t breathe hard enough to deal with the pain. She sucked in breaths, her whole body contorting into unnatural shapes as we fought to hold her down, to keep her still. I went from gripping her in my hands to using my knees, hands and all of my weight on her ankles, and I still couldn’t keep her down. Dalai came over to help when Cass almost kicked me off, practically lying on her right leg, while I took the left one.
I realized Revik was trying to remove the organic from her skull.
Balidor must have realized the same thing.
“No!” Balidor screamed. “Goddamn it! You’ll kill her!”
“Shut the fuck up,” Revik growled.
Even then, he barely spared the Adhipan leader a glance.
I felt his concentration sharpen, and tightened my light over his, protecting him from the volatile emotions of Balidor and Cass’s screams, giving him a light-filled bubble to work from. I don’t know if he noticed, given the intensity of his focus, but I felt his light stabilize, right before more of it started channeling down from the humans in the city above.
It struck me, watching him work, how much different everything felt with Shadow’s network gone. Even blind in some respects as I was, even here in Rome, a Myther-h
eld city, even with so many dead human lights from what Revik had just done––the Barrier space felt weirdly clean, like water instead of oil.
I could see in unnerving detail as Revik moved the tiny, flashing organic through Cass’s brain. He moved it excruciatingly slow, bringing the stone-like object down from an area above her eyebrows in a nearly straight line towards her nasal cavity.
I gasped and winced, watching him do it, picking up on sympathetic pain even apart from the waves of agony coming off Cass’s light.
It seemed to go on forever.
By the end, all of us but Feigran crouched over her, silent, pinning different parts of her to the raft while she writhed and screamed, fighting to get away. Even Balidor stopped focusing on Revik. He focused entirely on Cass, tears running down his cheeks, murmuring under his breath either to her or the gods as Revik worked on her.
He still sat astride her, holding one of her arms and shoulders in his hands while Stanley held her other arm and shoulder to the organic mat.
The silence stretched.
I gritted my teeth, watching Revik move the tiny piece––
When suddenly, it was over.
I felt it leave her brain.
Then Cass was coughing, twisting on the bottom of the raft, gasping for breath. We all got off of her, giving her space, even Balidor, although the Adhipan leader hovered near, watching her, his hand on her back as her body wracked under the coughs.
A few seconds later, a small, dark green bead fell into her hand, covered in a thread of blood. I grimaced, looking away, even as Cass covered her mouth, her body lurching as if she was fighting not to throw up.
Before anyone could speak, she threw it in the lake.
Then Balidor’s arms were around her, and she burst into tears.
Leaning back, I released her leg entirely, even as Dalai did the same.
Holo and Illeg, who I realized only then had stopped pulling for shore, began to move the raft again in swift jerks, bringing us closer to the smell of burning bodies and blood.
I watched Cass and Balidor a few seconds longer as he caressed her hair and face, holding her against his shoulder as she wrapped her arms around his back.
Revik glanced at me, and for the first time, I realized he’d paled.
He’d paled a lot.
He looked completely drained.
Even so, his mind was utterly clear when it rose in mine.
Wife, see if you can do anything for her, once they’ve recovered from some of the emotional part. You’re better at the healing stuff than I am. She’s going to have a hell of a headache for a few days if you don’t repair some of those nerve endings.
I nodded, wrapping my hand around his arm.
The instant I touched him, I started feeding him some of my light.
His eyes closed, longer than a blink. Turning, he gave me a grateful look, then slumped back on the raft, closing his eyes for longer before he looked at me, smiling faintly.
His fingers wrapped around mine.
The two of us just lay there, in the bottom of the raft, while Illeg and Holo pulled us the rest of the way to shore.
36
BREAD AND CIRCUSES
“YOU’VE STARTED A goddamned war,” Balidor retorted, motioning angrily with a hand as he walked rapidly down the stone corridor alongside Revik. “…Not to mention the goddamned war crime you just committed on a grand scale. Are you seriously telling me that’s the most measured way we could have handled this?”
Revik gave him a cold look.
“It’s the only way we could have handled it, brother,” he said.
Revik glanced at me, his light flickering over mine, checking over my body and light before he clicked out. Without a pause, he re-holstered the non-organic gun he’d pulled off a dead human soldier by the lake, scowling.
“You need to wake the fuck up to the situation we’re now in, brother.” Revik gave Balidor a hard look, without slowing his pace. “They’re about to end the world. That means everyone. Human and seer. Moreover, if we allow them to succeed, the Dreng will be able to pass through those doors. They could potentially annihilate the next cycle of humans and seers. Or warp it beyond recognition before it has a chance to develop.”
He gave me another bare glance, his voice gruff.
“Allie’s the only person we know of who might have a prayer of stopping that from happening. We might need every one of us in the Four just to save a handful of humans and seers––assuming we can save anyone at all.” He gave Balidor another hard look. “We have to be realists now, goddamn it. We cannot afford to play by the old rules. We also can’t gamble on letting them take any one of us, alive or dead.”
Still scowling, he aimed his gaze down the corridor.
“We’re also running out of time,” he growled. “These Myther fucks are systematically killing every Lister they can get their hands on. They’re herding everyone else towards those gates. If Kali’s vision is correct, they’ll try to open the doors as soon as they have the living light they think they need. They might have that in weeks… if not days. If we fail in this, everyone is dead. Get it? Including those brainwashed fuckers I just killed.”
He glared down the tunnel in front of him, taking my hand firmly in his before he began lengthening his strides.
“Unless you think Kali’s vision was b.s.,” he muttered angrily. “In which case, we’re just flying totally blind, and anything we’re doing is questionable.”
“Anything we’re doing?” Balidor retorted. “You just committed mass-murder!”
“And saved your fucking life,” Revik growled, turning on him without slowing. “Or are you forgetting what these assholes did to our people in Cairo? You’re on the List too, brother Balidor.” He jerked his chin towards Cass. “So’s your fucking girlfriend. So is Holo. And Stanley. And Illeg. So is Dalai. So is my wife.”
I flinched, gritting my teeth at the anger coming off his light.
I knew it wasn’t all directed at Balidor, not really.
Some of it was that he really didn’t like killing, despite his words. He’d never liked it, whether with telekinesis or a gun––no matter how good he was with either or both.
I’d lost track of how long we’d been walking by then.
I’d lost track of how long Balidor and Revik had been arguing, too.
Then again, those two things were more or less the same thing. Balidor even argued with him as we crossed underground rivers, shouting at him over the sound of the water. He argued with him as we used organic ropes to get across that crumbling ledge, when we waded through the stagnant water of one of those underground ponds that smelled like death.
I could have traced my inner clock backwards to make a guess as to how much of the tunnel we’d traversed by then, but I didn’t bother. What mattered was how close we were to the surface. To my light, it felt like we were only about thirty minutes from that underground river where we’d left the boat.
One thing was for certain: we were definitely moving a lot faster traveling up than we had been going down.
We didn’t waste much time by that lake either.
Once we reached the shore, Revik and I used the telekinesis to clear us a path to the tunnel.
We moved the rock barriers he’d dropped over the tunnel entrance first, then shifted enough dead bodies to clear us a path. We only did enough to make a path for our team, but I was exhausted by the time we finished.
I can’t even imagine how Revik must have felt.
The rest of our group spent that time finding electric torches that worked, guns, full magazines––even a few extra items like full canteens, flares, two working radios set to the Myther security channels, a medi-kit, a satchel of protein rations.
None of us talked much until we started heading back.
Since then, our sole “conversation” consisted of Balidor and Revik arguing.
I knew Balidor was still dealing with the emotional fallout of thinking he was watching Cass
die in front of him. I knew his being forced to watch her in that much pain, without being able to do a damned thing about it, must have been hard on him.
I also knew Balidor was right in some ways––or would have been right, if we were living in a different world, or a different time.
As it was, I was firmly and completely on Revik’s side in this.
I also couldn’t help fielding my own irritation at him yelling at Revik for getting us out of that mess, not to mention single-handedly saving Cass’s life.
Cass, to her credit, had been remarkably quiet.
I don’t think she’d said two words since we got off that raft.
Even though I listened to Balidor and Revik in one part of my mind, most of my attention focused on what lay ahead. I hoped like hell there wouldn’t be another reception party waiting for us when we arrived at that river, but I knew what we’d do if there was.
To that end, I’d been doing my best to channel as much light to Revik as I could, pulling surreptitiously from humans I could feel in the city above.
I knew that was risky too, given that there was some kind of construct around the city, no matter how thin compared to what we’d been used to in Shadow cities. There was a good chance those bleeding slave-seers kept an eye on that construct in some way. There was also a good chance a general alert had gone out about us being in Rome.
Then again, given that it looked like Atwar struck a deal with the Mythers either before or after we got here, it’s possible they’d known we were here all along.
I admit, the Atwar thing still bothered me.
Despite his arrogance and grandiosity, I’d liked him. I’d liked Jusef even more, who was definitely the funny one of the mated pair.
More than that, I’d believed him. I’d believed Atwar when he told us the story about his brother being enslaved in New Delhi. I’d believed him that he genuinely wanted to help us stop the Mythers from ending the world. I’d believed his anger and his grief, and his desire to protect his people, human and seer, from the encroaching fanatics to the west.
Moreover, it was depressing that seers would still turn on other seers, even now, in the face of what the Mythers appeared to be doing to our kind. I found it tough to swallow that he could have told us all that so convincingly, just as a means of bringing us here.
Sun Page 47
