by John Corwin
I ventured a careful hand and touched it. It was petrified. I looked up at the leyworm bones. I saw bits and pieces of internal organs. The area around the carcass was blackened, as if something had exploded.
"I estimate hundreds of bodies," Meghan said in a whisper. "Maybe more."
"It must have overloaded," Cinder said. "Perhaps the sheer number of cherubs caused a chain reaction. The pattern appears to have started as an implosion which sucked both light and dark aether from everything, and then exploded outward after petrifying the creature and the husks within it."
The young leyworm blinked and rumbled.
"The leyworm that spit out the first baby was drawing so much aether from the ley line beneath this place, it was literally absorbing the entire flow," I said. "And that was for one cherub."
"How many are left?" Elyssa asked. She blew out a breath. "If only we could light this whole place up instead of running around in the dark."
"Perhaps there is a way to do that in the control room," Cinder said.
I looked at the baby Bella carried then turned to the leyworm. "Why are you helping the angels?" I asked. "What do you plan to do with the babies?"
It simply stared at me for a moment, before slithering back toward the nursery. Following the creature, I switched back to incubus sight. Tendrils of gray energy drifted from the young leyworms nearby, swirling like miniature vortexes into the outstretched hands of the babies.
I told the others what I saw. "They're somehow converting aether into essence."
"It's gray, so it must be neutral essence," Adam said. "Maybe that'll keep the babies from aligning with Brightlings or Darklings."
"I don't get how these dragons know what they're doing," Shelton said. "They're a lot smarter than they look."
The young leyworm made a low rumbling noise.
Shelton gave it a nervous glance. "How do they know how to feed angels?"
"They've combed theses depths for probably thousands of years," Adam said. "I'm sure they knew all about the Seraphim. Maybe they even know who originally built this place."
At this, the leyworm's gaze flicked to me.
"Do you know?" I asked it.
It simply stared back.
"Guess you'd better brush up on your language skills," Shelton said with a chuckle. "Who'd have thought it? Leyworms, the dolphins of the underground."
The small dragon snorted.
"I should leave the baby here, then," Bella said reluctantly. "I'm afraid of upsetting its diet." She walked to the cluster of babes and set it down. "This goes against every motherly instinct in my body."
"I don't like it either," Meghan said, eyes locked onto the seemingly helpless bundles of joy. She looked to Adam. "Maybe we should take them. I can probably gather enough soul essence."
The leyworm made a harsh growling noise.
"I don't think they'll let us do that, honey," Adam replied, pulling her away from the temptation.
I heard a noise like the roar of a lion mixed with the braying of a donkey. All heads turned toward the sound. Shelton held a white-knuckled grip on his staff.
"What in the hell is coming now?"
I glanced at Elyssa. "Sound familiar?"
She nodded. "I don't think it's anything to worry about."
"I'll be the judge of that," Shelton said.
Bella patted him on the back. "I'm still here to protect you."
I spotted a glowing shape approaching from the darkness. It broke into a galloping lope, coming straight for us.
"Uh, can the leyworm help out?" Shelton said, placing himself squarely behind the reptilian creature.
Shaggy hair hung thick from the glowing creature. Tall, thin ears flopped from the top of its feline head. A long thin tongue lolled from the side of its mouth. It made another bray-roar noise, and skidded to a stop when it neared us, stopping to rub its body against the leyworm like a cat.
"Yolo?" I said.
The creature trotted up to me, and sniffed. I reached out a tentative hand, and scratched behind its ear. It made a soft noise, something between a bray and a purr.
"Wait a minute," Shelton said. "Is that the thing that chased you when you came down here the first time?"
"Yeah," I said. "Scared the crap out of us."
"Wasn't it Vadaemos's pet?"
I shrugged. "I think it just wanted attention."
Yolo brayed and licked my hand.
"Aw, he's sweet," Bella said, leaning over and scratching the beast.
Cinder appeared from the dim surroundings. "Justin, I took the liberty of surveying the area. I found several more crushed golems. It would appear Lornicus sent them to investigate, but the leyworms attacked."
As if in answer, the small dragon rumbled.
"Ah," Elyssa said. "I think I know Lornicus's game now."
I looked at her expectantly. "And that is?"
"He knows you have a powerful influence on beings around you. He obviously couldn't infiltrate the leyworm perimeter, so he figured you could do it." She pointed out a gray-suited shape at the fringe of the white light from the glowballs. "I'll bet he sent golems to take some of the babies."
"I estimate there are nearly a hundred destroyed golems around this area," Cinder said. "It would appear he had no success."
Shelton whistled. "That's a lot of dead golems. It can't be easy to replace them."
"Makes sense," I said, mulling it over. "Does he expect me to take a baby so he can steal it from me?" Is that what he wants in exchange for help with saving Mom?
"He wants information," Elyssa said. "Think about it. The golems didn't get close enough to see much. They may not even know these are angels."
"Wittle baby angels," Bella said in a coochie coo voice, while staring adoringly at one making eyes at her.
I looked at Cinder. "Do gray men share a consciousness of any kind? Or would an individual scout have to report the information?"
Cinder made a stiff shrug. "I do not remember. I would surmise a shared consciousness and the instant sharing of information is possible."
"They still didn't get close enough," Elyssa said. "So unless they spit out a baby at a golem's feet, I doubt they know much. Maybe they didn't even see the babies and only saw the leyworms acting weird."
"You still aren't asking the important questions," Shelton said. "Why are the leyworms doing this, and who are they helping? Because if they're helping Daelissa, we're in a world of trouble."
Chapter 8
Nobody had an answer for Shelton's questions, and the young leyworm remained silent, giving nothing away. Judging from the brutal demises the gray men had suffered, I knew we'd be no more successful removing a baby from here than they had. One thing was certain—I had to find out everything I could about this situation before agreeing to anything with Lornicus.
"I just thought of another question," I said. "Supposedly, even being near the cherubs would weaken Daelissa. How are these babies not affected?"
"The leyworms," Adam said. "If they're feeding the infants constantly, that might mitigate the effects of the cherubs. Or it could simply be the leyworms are keeping the cherubs far enough away."
This was certainly a wrinkle in the greater scheme of things. If just one angel was powerful enough to end the world, what did it mean to have a few dozen? How long would it take for them to grow up and wreak havoc? Those questions would have to wait. Since we had access to a control room with an Alabaster Arch, it was time to branch into other avenues of exploration.
"I think we should figure out how to work the control room," I said. "Maybe see if we can get the lights on in here for starters."
"And the Alabaster Arch?" Elyssa asked, eyes worried.
"That too." I ran a hand through my hair. "If we can get through to the Grand Nexus, maybe we can ward it, set up booby traps to keep Jeremiah Conroy and Daelissa from using it." Taking Mom away from them would delay them, but that would only create the constant threat of Daelissa trying to steal her back. Destroyin
g the nexus would remove the threat.
"I say we get a bunch of plastic explosives and blow it to hell," Shelton said.
I raised an eyebrow. "You think it'll work?"
He shrugged. "It's worth a try. That way we can set a timer and be far away before it blows."
"But if it causes another backlash," Bella said, eyes horrified. "What will happen to the babies? What if it husks them again?"
Shelton opened his mouth, probably to offer some heartless comment, but shut it again. "We'll figure something out," he said after a pause. "Maybe our reptilian pals here will see clear to let us evacuate them."
Bella gave Shelton a stern eye. "No blowing things up until the babies are safe."
He put up his hands in surrender. "Hey, I ain't no baby killer, woman. Sheesh."
"I don't think this place ever had an Obsidian Arch," Elyssa told me, returning from a walkabout. "I looked for rubble, or even the broken remains of a column, but the slab is smooth."
"So the creators relied on the smaller arches," I said. I sighed. "I'd really like to know who made this place. What if they're worse than the angels?"
"Then they're worse," Elyssa said. "For now, we have to worry about the clear and present danger."
"And learn how to speak leywormese," I added.
She smiled. "That too."
We herded everyone back to the control room, with Elyssa batting away any stray cherubs wandering across our path.
Shelton glanced back at the yellow glow in the center. "I wonder how long it takes to process a cherub. The one that thing ate earlier still hasn't come out."
"I find the entire process extremely disturbing," Meghan said. "Eating those disgusting husks and regurgitating a baby seems incredibly unnatural."
Nobody disagreed.
Once back inside the control room, we studied every inch of the place, but came no closer to finding out how to turn on the lights in the main cavern, or how to make the Alabaster Arch do what we wanted.
"Maybe we should recruit an operator," Adam said. "At the very least, they could tell us how to turn on the lights."
"Sounds like a plan to me," Shelton said. "Jeremiah Conroy was using the operators at Queens Gate and the Grotto to figure out how to use the smaller arches." He looked at me. "Maybe our Darkwater creds will still hold water with them."
I raised an eyebrow. Jeremiah was using an Arcane company named Darkwater to explore dangerous relics like Thunder Rock. Shelton and I had masqueraded as employees to glean information from arch operators. "I dunno. Sounds risky."
He shrugged. "Hey, what's the worst that can happen?"
"An awful lot," I said.
Adam chuckled. "Are we going to kidnap one? Or go through the process of vetting someone so we can trust them." He motioned around us. "True, they may know about these control rooms, but the babies out there are complete game changers."
"Of course we'll vet them," Shelton said, blowing out a breath. "It's about time we brought in an expert, for crying out loud. I don't know jack about traversion theory."
Adam raised an eyebrow. "How do you suggest we go about it?"
"I dunno yet." Shelton pursed his lips. "Let me think about it."
I looked at the still-open portal back to the mansion. "I wonder if the omniarches here work, just in case we lose the connection back home."
"I'll put that on a list of things to test," Adam said, pulling out an arctablet and tapping on it.
Cinder, who'd been inspecting the Alabaster Arch, approached as we discussed plans. "Justin, I think I will remain here and survey the cavern. Perhaps I should also attempt to establish communications with the leyworms."
"Be careful," I told him. "I don't want them to mistake you for a hostile gray man."
"I believe the smaller leyworm now recognizes me," he said. "Hopefully this will prevent an attack."
"Okay. I'll close the portal behind us. If you need us to open it, call, okay?" Arcphones used ley lines for a wireless signal, so contacting us shouldn't be an issue.
"I will, Justin."
The rest of us stepped back through the portal to the mansion.
After disconnecting the arch, I walked upstairs after the others. My mind still reeled from the discovery of angel babies. Even though the leyworm I'd rescued from Dash Armstrong had vouched for me, did that mean we were on their safe list? Or would things be different the next time I walked in there?
And who are they really helping?
So much made so little sense. True, I'd only known leyworms in the most terrifying sense, when they'd chased our small group through dark tunnels deep in the earth during our expedition to apprehend Vadaemos. I wondered if Yolo could communicate with the leyworms. They seemed pretty cozy.
Elyssa and I took a flying carpet down into Queens Gate that night. The bustling city looked like London from the Victorian Era. A huge clock tower rose from the center, flanked on either side by domed buildings used for official Arcane Council meetings, among other things. We grabbed dinner at the Copper Swan, a popular Chinese restaurant.
"I think Shelton is right," Elyssa said as we discussed his plan to question an arch operator about the control room beneath El Dorado. "You obviously can't tell the operator this is about El Dorado unless he still believes your Darkwater story."
"If the arch operators don't help, what then?" I asked.
Elyssa shrugged. "Kidnap one? Torture him for information?"
I felt my forehead pinch. "What?"
Elyssa laughed. "I'm kidding, babe." She put a hand atop mine. "Do we even know where this Darkwater organization is based? Maybe we could break into their headquarters and find more useful information than the operators know."
"Now, that's a good idea," I said.
"Probably because a woman thought of it," she said.
I snorted. "I think we should start with the operators. Infiltrating Darkwater sounds risky." I narrowed my eyes in thought, remembering a conversation I'd once had with Bella. "Although…back in the day, Bella and Stacey used to be cat burglars. Maybe they could help with something on that scale."
Elyssa's violet eyes widened. "They were thieves?"
I nodded. "Bella told me stories about the two of them. Maybe they'd be willing to come out of retirement."
"It could be fun," she said, pursing her lips.
"Now you're scaring me again," I said with a smirk.
After dinner, we went back to the mansion and found Bella playing Scrabble with a grumpy-looking Shelton.
"You clearly don't have a life," he said, as she placed a long word I'd never seen before across the board. "What do you do, read dictionaries all day? Is that even a word?"
"Of course," the petite Arcane said with a bright smile.
"What the hell does it mean?" he said.
"It means I won." She stuck out her tongue.
Shelton's grumpy façade vanished in a burst of laughter.
"We've been discussing plans," I told them as Bella cleared the board.
Shelton gave us a suspicious look. "As in plans for new bedroom furniture or plans for something that'll make me wish I didn't know you?"
I took a seat at the table. "We figured grilling one of the arch operators might be a good starting point, but Elyssa thinks infiltrating Darkwater is a good backup plan in case the operators don't have answers." I chewed on my inner lip. "We need to know how to operate the Alabaster Arch so we find out where the Grand Nexus is. We need to know how to turn on the lights. We need information to bargain with Lornicus so he'll help me rescue Mom."
Shelton's forehead wrinkled into an incredulous look. "Just so happens I know where Darkwater is located," he said.
My eyebrows pinched. "You do? How?"
He shrugged. "When we were pretending to work for Darkwater, I did a little extra research. I don't like impersonating employees of a company I know nothing about. I also wondered what kind of people the Conroys were hiring."
"Tell us more," Elyssa said, taking a seat nex
t to Bella.
"Jarrod Sager originally owned the company when it was known as Arcane Enterprises," he said, speaking of his adoptive father, the former Arcanus Primus, now dead thanks to the late Bigglesworth. Shelton flinched, but soldiered on. "He hired them for the Gloom Initiative, even though using his own company for a public contract was an obvious conflict of interest. Cyphanis Rax, his primary opponent for the Primus election, dug up the dirt and called him out on it. Everyone figured Sager's political career was over, but then I caught the Pinkerton Gang, and dear old dad took the credit for it."
"You caught the Pinkertons?" Elyssa said, an amazed look on her face. "They remained at the top of the Templar Most Wanted for years."
He gave a modest shrug. "I was getting pretty good at the bounty hunting biz."
"They weren't political enemies of your father, were they?" Bella asked.
A scowl twisted his lips. "Nah, they were legit bad guys. Not the ones Aerianas sent me after."
Aerianas, Vadaemos's daughter, had used Shelton to carry out bounty contracts on Sager's political enemies in a twisted deal with Daelissa to push funding for the Gloom Initiative through the Overworld Conclave. Sager needed political cover to fund the project and Shelton had unwittingly helped him by bringing in his opponents on fake charges. We still didn't know much about the Gloom Initiative or its purpose.
"Taking credit for their capture was enough to rescue Sager's career?" I asked.
Shelton nodded. "Once Aerianas got her claws into me and had me hunting down political enemies of Dad's, Cyphanis's name came up."
"Did you arrest him?" I asked.
"No. He was too rich and powerful for me to go after. I tried a couple of times, but the man was untouchable." Shelton shrugged. "Plus, he moved around a lot, so it was hard to get a fix on him. Most of the time, I ended up tracking one of his doubles instead of the real deal." He leaned back in his chair. "So, Sager sold the company to a shell corporation owned by the Conroys, and the name changed from Arcane Enterprises to Darkwater."
