Sorry. He sent me a pulse of warmer apology, coiling into my light enough to briefly stop my breath. Can you help Feigran move the Listers? Stanley says they’ve got the bulk of the lower levels clear now. You and Cass might have to take out a few guards, but it’s a straight shot to the sub-basement parking lot, now that their leadership has evacuated. Be sure and have Cass and Stanley look for any secondary systems, of course, like OBEs, or––
Stanley’s got the downstairs clear? My mind sharpened, clicking into full focus. Where the hell are you? Where’s Balidor?
Silence.
Then he sent an even more apologetic wave of light. ‘Dori and I are in Vatican City. He paused at my silence. I was kind of hoping you could pick us up, wife.
I began cursing at him in my mind in Prexci, but he cut me off.
No, it’s good, he sent. Briefly, he sounded almost gleeful. You won’t believe what we’ve got. It’s going to trip you out, wife.
I’m not sure if I’m up for any more surprises, I grumbled. Wasn’t blowing up one of the oldest and most art-filled places in the world enough for you, husband?
We left the museum alone.
Oh, for crying out loud––
Just come pick us up, he coaxed. We need to get out of here, wife. It’s going to be touch and go as it is.
Remembering what the monk, Deifilius, told the not-hologram of Balidor about America, I nodded grimly. I also remembered why it probably wouldn’t matter for much longer what artifacts or paintings remained in Rome, or in any other art museum in the world.
I couldn’t think about that yet, though.
I couldn’t.
“Yeah,” I muttered under my breath. “We’ll be there soon.”
REVIK WAS RIGHT.
The lower levels of the arena were more or less deserted.
Cass took out four or five flyers while I worked with Holo to get open the doors and bring the Listers through the maze of corridors under the arena floor. We managed to find clothes and blankets for most of them, although a few were still shirtless and only one found a pair of sandals that fit their feet.
There were nineteen of them in total.
As they told us their names, ages, nationalities and races, I only recognized about half from the seer and human lists. A few told us they were “heretics” who’d been pulled off the streets or out of their homes for speaking out against the Myther takeover of Rome. One was a reporter who’d spoken extensively on the feeds about human and seer rights, and the need to assist Italians living outside the gates.
I tried contacting Dante and Vik via our headset to see if I could confirm identities, but in the end, we persuaded all but one of them to come with us, after telling them what would likely happen to Rome in not too long of a time.
A few asked if we could pick up their families, and I couldn’t really bring myself to argue that point either, so in the end I told them yes.
I had to hope Revik and Balidor would agree.
Well, assuming they didn’t have the entire Myther army on our heels after what Revik did to the Vatican.
Revik sent me coordinates to pick them up not long after we’d reached the floor of the arena and were making our way across the sand to the cage under the emperor’s box. I couldn’t help but notice foot and paw prints on the sand, along with places soaked with blood where some unlucky contestant had fallen.
By the time we reached the cages, Feigran was stroking lions and purring to them, scratching under their chins and smoothing back their manes. I snorted in spite of myself, watching a male lion rub its enormous head affectionately against Feigran’s belly, making a rumbling sound that had to be a lion’s version of a purr.
I left Cass to deal with all that.
She stood lookout with Feigran, making sure he didn’t free the lions, and keeping an eye out for any more flyers that might head our way.
In just a few minutes, all of us were making our way downstairs through a trap door. Cass took the lead once more, given my blindness, and all the Listers followed her. I made Feigran walk in front of me as I took up the rear with only Holo behind me, my telekinetic structures flooded with light.
Holo had caught hold of the organic trapdoor, about to close it, when Feigran grabbed my arm, squealing. I looked at him, frowning, and he pointed past my face.
“Sister! The lions!”
My frown deepened. “What about them? They’re fine, Fig.”
“No! No! They are not fine! Sister! You cannot leave them like that! You cannot!”
Realizing he was right, I fought back a sigh.
He had a point. Looking back at their dusty and tawny hides, I saw the outline of ribs and hip bones, their shaggy coats hanging off them. Maybe a few Mythers could be spared in return for starving the animals they were using for their bloody entertainment.
Still, I wasn’t in the job of executioner, either.
“Sister!” Feigran whined. “Please! Please!”
Making up my mind, I gave him a quick look, then nodded.
It took me only a few seconds to snap the line of chains.
Feigran gripped my arm the whole time I did it, watching avidly to make sure I didn’t miss a single one. He was all smiles by the time I’d finished, patting my arm and kissing my palm once they were all free, making purring sounds of his own. From the faint blur of his irises, he might have been communicating with the lions even then.
I let him watch long enough to see the lions realize they were free and begin to roar, shake their manes, and walk away from their vigil in front of the cages.
A few began to run in long, loping strides, likely heading for the exits.
I hoped they made it.
Then Holo was pulling on my other arm, urging us down the steep staircase.
Once we were back inside the tunnel, I heard Cass and Stanley call from down below, asking what was taking us so long.
After one final glance at the departing lions, Feigran and I descended out of the sunlight while Holo swung the heavy door shut behind us with a hollow clang.
Lit by organic torches, the underground passages were an unnerving combination of ancient and modern, like most of what we’d seen in the Coliseum. Animals growled and lunged at us from cages, most of them big cats, although we also saw a cage of wolves, one filled with bears, and even a tank and cage filled with alligators.
I wondered if they’d taken all of them from one of the Italian zoos.
I knocked out a number of keepers and guards, while Cass concentrated on surveillance and secondary measures like OBEs and other fields.
We were reaching the end of the maze-like corridors, and I could see a steel-doored elevator up ahead––when we passed one last cage, this one built entirely of organic and semi-organic metals.
It was filled with seers.
I came to a dead stop, staring at them.
Holo, Cass and Feigran stopped with us, scanning that same line of faces.
All of the seers in the cages wore those bloody collars. They stared at us from between the bars, faces and eyes blank.
Then I saw a face I knew in the crowd, hanging towards the back. I saw two more near him an instant later, and sucked in a breath.
“Atwar.” I looked to the seer standing next to him, wearing another bloody collar. “Jusef. Kalashi. Gaos d’lanlente…”
Still staring at them, trying to make sense of how they could be here, after everything we’d seen below ground in those caves––it hit me suddenly.
I’d never seen them fall. I’d never seen Atwar, Jusef or Kalashi get shot. I’d never seen them scream, or catch on fire, or raise a gun in our direction.
They’d simply disappeared when the Barrier shield fell.
Kind of like how Balidor disappeared from the arena floor a few minutes ago.
Cursing, I approached the organic cage.
The three of them stared at me, just like all the seers in the cage stared at me. Atwar, Kalashi and Jusef’s faces were as blank and unblinki
ng as the rest. There was no indication in their eyes or expressions that they knew me, or recognized me in any way.
I couldn’t leave them here. It was out of the question.
At the same time, I had absolutely no idea what those collars did exactly, or if we could safely remove them without killing either the seers wearing them or ourselves. We didn’t have a lot of time, either, and we couldn’t afford to take the time to fight them off if they attacked us the instant we opened the cage doors.
I looked over my shoulder, scanning the crowd of Listers and other humans and seers.
“Any of you,” I said finally, speaking Prexci. “What do you know about these collars?”
A dark-eyed seer with an orange ring around his irises stepped forward, nodding to me, then giving a slightly warier look to Cass and Stanley.
He looked back at me.
“Esteemed Sister… they are colletti di sangue.”
“Blood collars,” Cass murmured from next to me.
I frowned, glancing at her, then back at the seer with the strange eyes. “What is your name?”
“Hogras, Esteemed Sister.”
I nodded back towards the cage, and the collars. “What do the collars do? They are different from regular sight-restraint collars. We saw seers using their abilities with them. We saw them building shields, reading others––”
“Yes, Esteemed Bridge,” Hogras affirmed. “They are not sight restraint collars so much as thought restraints.” At something in my face, he frowned, looking uncomfortable. He glanced at Cass, then Stanley, then Feigran, then back at me.
He looked visibly nervous now, I noticed.
“The monks call them colletti di penitenza,” he explained. “Collars of sin… of penance. They say they are for our benefit. For being born unclean. They make our thoughts…”
He trailed, hesitating. He glanced nervously at Stanley, who was frowning at him, too, his eyes slightly out of focus as he scanned scanned the strange seer.
“…Clean,” Hogras finished awkwardly. “They make our thoughts clean. They make it so we can only think thoughts of the One God, of serving God’s servants. We care only about serving Deifilius and his Holy Guard. Of serving the Displacement.”
Quirking an eyebrow, I glanced at Cass, who also frowned.
She folded her arms, shifting into a more wide-legged stance as she looked over the big male.
I shifted my gaze back to the male seer, and found myself looking him over, too. He was tall, I realized, as I took in his length in a longer glance. He stood around six-five, maybe six-six, with shoulder-length, reddish-brown hair and a muscular chest. The stolen pants he wore barely fit around his muscular legs and abdomen. His dark skin shone with dirt and sweat, but he had a handsome face, a muscular, well-formed body.
“Why aren’t you wearing one?” I asked. “A collar? Why would they bother to imprison seers at all, if they can control your thoughts?”
“I did wear one, Holy Sister,” he said, bowing his head.
He glanced at Stanley again, his eyes nervous, then back at me.
“A human became infatuated with me, Esteemed Bridge, and removed my collar whenever we were alone. She and I became lovers, for many months, but eventually our affair was discovered. Once I had fouled the soul of one of the Dragon’s people, I could not be permitted to live. I had to be killed by fire.”
My frown deepened, right before I muttered my opinion on that in Prexci.
On my other side, Holo grunted in agreement.
“And the female?” Stanley said. “What happened to her?”
Hogras turned his head, meeting Stanley’s gaze. “They burned her to death, as well. In front of me. In front of her sisters. And her parents.”
I grimaced.
For a few seconds all of us just stood there, silent.
Then I motioned with my head towards the cages. “Can we release them?”
Hesitating, the male seer looked at the seers in the cages. “Yes.”
“It is safe for us?” Holo clarified. “There aren’t any trip wires or explosives? It won’t kill the seers themselves if we cut them free?”
Another pause, then the seer shook his head slowly. “No.”
“Then what?” I said, impatient. “You’re not telling us something. What is it?”
The seer’s odd, dark chocolate and orange eyes shifted back to me.
“It is just… they may be confused, Esteemed One,” he said, apologetic. “Depending on how long they have worn the device, they may not be clear in mind. I still get confused.” He licked his lips nervously, staring around at all of us. “They might be dangerous to you, Holy Sister. I would not be too quick to open their cages, if you choose to free them.”
“Is it addictive?” Cass said. “Like wires?”
I scowled at her. I couldn’t help it.
Seeming to feel my stare, she reddened, but didn’t take her eyes off the male seer with the orange rings around his irises. Hogras looked at her, too. Seeming to think about the question for a moment, he shook his head slowly, his own lips curling in a frown.
“No,” he said. “It is not addictive, Formidable One. But the collare del sangue… it changes you. It reroutes something in your mind.”
He touched his temple lightly with his fingers, looking at me.
“There are changes to how one thinks. To how one reasons, and experiences. There are changes to how one perceives other seers, and their light. I cannot explain. If they are new to the collars, this will not be a problem.”
Glancing at Feigran, who was now standing next to him, he flinched visibly, taking a half-step back. Feigran didn’t so much as blink. Stepping forward to close the gap, he continued to stare up at Hogras with far-seeing eyes, as if he were looking into the big seer’s molecules and atoms.
Swallowing, Hogras looked back at me.
“If they have worn the collar for a long time, it will take them some time to adjust, Esteemed Bridge. I am told some never come back. The colletti di sangue, they are meant to reprogram us. To make us… different.”
I was still frowning. My blindness was frustrating the hell out of me, truthfully.
I wanted to see what he was seeing.
More than that, I wanted to know how these collared seers saw us.
“As dangerous,” Stanley said, answering my unspoken question. “They see us as dangerous, Esteemed Sister. That is why he’s looking at all of us the way he is. He’s afraid of us.” A faint thread of contempt entered Stanley’s voice as he frowned. “He thinks of us as a different species almost. To him we are dangerous, and liable to kill him at any moment. He sees the humans as safe, as his rightful masters. He sees us as a mortal threat.”
I looked at the orange and brown-eyed seer.
“Is that true?” I said.
The tall seer reddened slightly, but nodded.
“Yes. It is true, Esteemed One. I am sorry.” He glanced at Stanley, and now I could see him consciously trying to relax his guard, to control his fear of the other male. “We are conditioned to see you as demons, in a sense. As savages.” He looked back at me. “As a threat.”
Anger rose in my light.
Biting my lip, I looked back at the seers in the cages.
I could see the fear on them now.
That blank-eyed stare remained, but I could see the tension in their bodies, the way they huddled together in the center of the cage, as if for safety. At the same time, I knew Hogras was probably right. If they were afraid of us, they might try to kill us just to protect themselves.
I knew they couldn’t do much, given me and Cass and the telekinesis, but I didn’t want to be forced to kill them, either.
“Do we have a cutting tool?” I said, without looking away from their faces.
In my periphery, I saw Stanley nod. “Yes, Esteemed Bridge.”
I nodded. “Okay. We’re going to cut them all free. We’ll see what we have after that.” Grimacing a little, I nodded towards Atwar, Kalashi an
d Jusef. “At least we know they haven’t been wearing the collars for long. As for the rest of them, we can only hope for the best.”
Stanley nodded.
Reaching into his vest pocket, he took out a light green, metal tool. I watched the organic transform under his fingers after he must have sent a command to it, using his light. In seconds, it had reformed into a blunt-nosed cutting tool.
Once it did, Stanley stepped towards the cage bars, gripping the cutter handles.
All of the seers inside stepped back.
Watching them cower from us, staring between our faces, their backs and sides pressed into the far wall, I sighed. We didn’t have time for this.
Picking one of the seers at random, I grabbed him with the telekinesis and brought him roughly to the bars of the cage. When he flailed, screaming, I slammed him up against the iron bars, pinning his arms and legs to his sides.
Everyone on our side of the bars took a step back.
Everyone but me and Cass.
Once I had the seer still, his neck and head pressed into the space between two of the organic bars, I looked at Stanley.
“Okay, brother,” I said. “Cut it.”
39
APOCALYPSE
THE VATICAN BURNED, its clouds darkening the late afternoon sky.
Looking at the billowing black smoke pluming upwards, shot through with gold and orange from the still-raging fires, I couldn’t help but stare, nausea rising in the pit of my stomach when I thought about the art work that had lived inside those walls.
I couldn’t help but feel sick and sad at the thought.
I knew this place, like most places in the world, had a mixed history, and that a lot of it wasn’t good. I could rationalize it in a million different ways from Sunday, but the reality was, history was burning behind those walls. The history of the only civilization I’d ever really known was billowing through the air overhead, blocking the sun in a snowstorm of dark flakes of burning ash.
It really was the apocalypse.
The reality of that hit me, really hit me, maybe for the first time.
Through all these months, all these years since I last lived in San Francisco, some part of me harbored some hope, somewhere in the far back of my mind, that all of this was just temporary.
Sun Page 52
