“No,” he said. “You’ve allowed fear to cloud your judgement. I’m sorry, Empress, but I cannot comply.”
Her eyes caught fire, and she launched a ball of energy directly at him, shattering the golden barrier he’d created into jagged pieces that flew off in all directions. Torin twisted around, stretched out to the ball of energy and caught it, whipping it back around to her.
“Wow,” Asha said, “that’s new.”
The Empress dodged the ball of energy and took a deep breath, and Zahn noticed that her face grew dim. “You waste my time!” The Empress said and bolted away, high up into the sky.
Torin glanced up to where she went before turning to Asha and Zahn. “Asha, you should go. Meet your friend in the tower. I think she’s heading back to the Mirage to get more ambrosia. That buys you some time, but not much. Go help your friend while you still can!”
“I don’t understand,” Asha said. “Why are you doing this?”
“Just get out of here and stop the scourge!” He yelled, turning away. “I’ll do what I can to slow her down as much as possible.”
He bolted up into the sky, and for a moment, Asha and Zahn found themselves alone in high orbit above the planet.
Asha held Zahn tightly and stretched out to Oonak’s ident, and like a flash of lightning across the sky, they were gone.
CHAPTER 40
THE OBSIDIAN TOWER
Asha found herself hovering over a circular platform only a few meters wide, surrounded by thick pillars that supported a sharp dagger-like shape that formed the tower’s pinnacle. Oonak stood beside a round pedestal in the middle of the platform, examining it from all angles.
“What is it, Oonak?” Asha said, gently releasing Zahn. “The stones aren’t working?”
“I’d estimate the writing on this pedestal is as old as the engravings we found on Amithya,” he said, still studying it, “but unfortunately its too worn to decipher. I’ve tried using the three stones myself, but nothing happened. I think we’ll each need to hold a stone.” He looked up to them. “Are you both all right?”
“Mostly holding it together,” Zahn said, struggling to hold his arm up where it usually connected to his body.
Oonak shook his head. “I’m sorry, Zahn. We’ll get you patched up as soon as we can. Right now, we must use the Chintamani stones. That’s the only way we’re going to destroy the overlord above us.”
“Where?” Zahn asked.
Oonak pointed to the dark ceiling. Instead of a curved ceiling, this ceiling was convex, protruding down toward them, and Asha studied it for a moment, noticing how dark shadows swirled around on its surface.
“Is that it?” Asha asked. “Is that the overlord?”
“No,” Oonak said, “only the shell of its gravity pocket, which is luring Durazha ever nearer. If she reaches it, I cannot predict the result. Come gather around the pedestal!”
He waved them toward the round pedestal in the center of the room, and they both glided over. It was so small that, if Zahn were whole, they could have held hands and surrounded it.
Once she was closer, Asha noticed that the pedestal had strange, angular engravings that she didn’t recognize. She looked up to ask Oonak but noticed he was tending to Zahn, studying his injuries.
“Zahn,” he said, “will you be able to wield the Fire of Life in your current state? I should warn you that I cannot predict what will happen when we bring all three together. As far as I know, it has never happened before.”
Asha glided over to Zahn, and noticed that his arm was no longer drifting. “I could try healing you, but I don’t know how long that could take. I’ve never reattached a limb before.”
He turned and looked down to his arm. “No. I’ll deal with it. I don’t have any control over it, but at least my arm isn’t drifting away anymore.”
Oonak nodded sharply and glanced over Zahn’s shoulder to something far in the distance.
“Remarkable. Torin is fighting the Empress.” Oonak handed the Tulari to Zahn and the Kiss of Life to Asha. “We need to do this quickly. Wield them well, my friends.”
Asha glanced behind Zahn, surprised to see that Torin was doing everything in his power to keep the Empress from reaching them.
At that moment, a shadow descended over them, and a crack began to form along the supporting beam nearest to her.
“I think Durazha just made contact with the tower!” Asha turned to Oonak. “We’re still accelerated to a factor of sixty-four compared to planetary time, right?”
“Don’t worry about that, Asha!” Oonak called out. “We have to do this now. Position yourselves equally around the pedestal.”
Zahn moved into position. “Okay. What next?”
Asha looked over his shoulder to the support beams that were crumbling around them, before looking back to the Chintamani in her hands, panic threatening to overtake her.
“Put them together!” she screamed.
And in perfect unison, they moved their stones forward, touching all three Chintamani together.
To Asha’s surprise, when they made contact, the three stones flew upward and spun around in a circle above the pedestal, right below the center of the gravity pocket. They spun faster and faster until the Fire of Life blended and stretched, becoming a thin ring which intersected with the other two.
“What’s happening?” Asha said.
Oonak’s face filled with bewilderment.
Asha glanced back to Torin struggling with the Empress. She had just broken through one of his golden barriers and charged directly toward them.
When she looked back, the Kiss of Life followed suit, blending into another ring which intersected with the first at a clean right angle.
“Zahn! The Empress is fighting Torin behind you,” Asha yelled. She tried to point, but found that she was utterly frozen. “And I can’t move. Can either of you move?”
He strained but remained frozen. “I can’t move, either! Oonak, what’s going on?”
“Neither of you can see it? The Chintamani have anchored themselves to us,” Oonak said. “Just a few more seconds!”
As he finished speaking, the Empress darted up to them and glanced around. Her eyes locked on the Breath of Life, whirling around madly below the gravity pocket.
“Finally!” The Empress bellowed, and reached out for it.
“FREEZE!”
The voice was so filled with passion that Asha didn’t even recognize it at first, but when she turned, Torin was standing at the edge of the platform.
Before the Empress could move, Torin materialized a golden barrier between her and the stone and charged toward her without hesitation.
Without even turning, the Empress shattered the barrier with her right hand and launched a wide volley of golden light cones in his direction. Yet her gaze was immovable, and she reached out to grab the whirling stone.
“STOP!” Torin screamed, charging directly toward the Empress as brilliant beams of golden light shot out of his hands, momentarily blinding everyone in the room.
A bloodcurdling cry permeated the space, and when the light faded, the Empress and Torin were lying motionless on the floor beside Oonak.
They had fallen beside each other, and Empress Amaraloka’s red hair seemed darker than before, limp and lifeless.
“NO!” Another voice cried out.
Still unable to move, Asha realized it was Jyana, floating in the air behind Oonak, opposite from where Torin had been.
“Torin?” Jyana’s voice was small now, as a look of shock washed across her face, melting into despair. She rushed over to Torin’s body. “My love.”
Asha’s eyes searched the scene until she noticed a small maroon hilt protruding from the neck of the Empress, and when she studied Torin’s body, a dagger was protruding from the side of his neck, too.
“The Dagger of Kirin,” Zahn whispered. “They each had one.”
“Torin,” Asha whispered, “after everything he did for us.”
“Asha!�
�� Oonak yelled, pointing to something behind her.
She turned just in time to see massive chunks of rock break off from the ceiling, and a bright light flickered above them. All of the warmth drained out of her face when she realized the terrible truth: Durazha’s flagship was exploding.
Asha glanced up and was surprised to see the overlord’s dark orb above them rapidly grow, like a shadow expanding into infinity, clouding over everything in sight. And before another thought could enter her mind, they were all consumed into a world of perpetual night.
CHAPTER 41
NEGATIVE SPACE
Zahn found himself floating in the midst of a dim realm, completely without gravity or form.
He blinked a few times, but could see no one around, only strange warping shadows that twisted and distorted all around him. When he tried to grab one of the forms, his hands couldn’t get a hold of anything, like grasping at smoke.
“Asha?” he called out. “Oonak? Can anyone hear me?”
Without warning, he felt himself being pulled aside. To his dismay, the outline of an enormous armored creature, even bigger than Navika, came into view in the shadowy space above him. Its legs were folded, and its armor was so dark that he couldn’t discern much depth, only the jagged outline of a figure.
The overlord regarded Zahn as a giant would regard a worm, glaring down to him with two red slits for eyes.
Zahn…
Without moving its mouth, he heard the overlord’s voice within his mind as crisply as if he’d whispered into his ear. Something about the overlord confused him, but he wasn’t sure exactly what it was.
To his left, he saw Asha pulled up beside him.
Asha…
To Zahn’s right, the overlord pulled up Oonak even closer.
Oonak… Fool! You have failed your friends, just as you failed the one you claimed to love!
Before Zahn had a chance to move, the overlord shot a large grey cone out of one of his dark hands that curved around, surrounding them.
Zahn zoomed up to the edge of the grey orb and did everything he could think of to damage the shell, but nothing he did had an effect. Yet the overlord didn’t acknowledge this at all. It had already turned, examining something in the distance.
“Guys, we’re trapped!”
Asha glided over and comforted Zahn, taking his hand in hers. “It’s going to be okay, Zahn. We’ll figure this out, just like we always do.”
Oonak studied the negative space around them, shadowy shapes still twisting and warping in the distance. “How strange. Somehow, all of this seems familiar.”
Zahn spun around. “Wait a minute, what was the overlord talking about, Oon? Why did it say that you failed your beloved? Who was she?”
Oonak turned to him, pain swirling within his gaze. “She was my first soul mate, Zahn. No more, no less. During a mission, we were ambushed by a Vakragha cruiser, and her ship was torn apart. She died instantly.”
Asha blinked. “I’m sorry.”
“That’s horrible,” Zahn whispered. “I don’t blame you if you don’t want to talk about it.”
“It’s okay,” Oonak continued. “Talking about it has been one of my greatest sources of healing.”
“Why didn’t you tell us before?” Zahn said.
His expression stiffened. “You never inquired of my past.”
“Look!” Asha pointed over to another floating figure across from them, to the overlords right hand side.
When Zahn focused, he discerned what he could only assume was a Vakragha commander clad in thick armor and an impenetrably black helmet, trembling as she held something.
“That’s Durazha, isn’t it?” Asha drifted to the edge of the orb. “But how is time flowing the same for her as us?”
“As I said before, time flows differently in a gravity pocket,” Oonak said. “And it’s possible that only etheric bodies can enter this realm. After all, an overlord is not physical in the same way we are.”
“So it’s just energy?” Zahn asked.
“Essentially, yes. And lucky for us, we may be able to discern their conversation if we tune in closely.”
Zahn did, and was barely able to discern that they were making demands of each other, but not much else. He turned to Asha. “How much can you hear?”
“Most of it,” she said. “She’s negotiating with the overlord. Wow. In exchange for the Kiss of Life, she demands that it transform her into an overlord, as well as transfer ownership of this entire planet to her!”
Oonak’s expression fell. “The Kiss of Life.”
“Look!” Asha called out. “Someone else arrived. If you calm your thoughts, you can hear them clearer. Try it, Zahn.”
To his surprise, another armored Vakragha had arrived, taller than the first, and Zahn inhaled deeply, calming himself. After a few seconds, he discerned a heated discussion.
The voice he heard was terribly familiar.
“—were a deluded child! Failing to understand even the most basic rules of the etheric plane. You fail to realize the grander game that you are playing, Durazha, and you have proven yourself the fool!”
The first armored figure moved to the side and spun around, shooting dark orbs from her hands. “Your time has come and gone, father! But I was cut down in my prime. In a short time, I stole your entire faction from you and struck you down. I am ten times the autarch you ever were!”
Asha turned to him. “It’s Durazha and Razakh! They’re fighting for the Kiss of Life! I can’t believe it.”
“I’m afraid it doesn’t matter,” Oonak said. “No matter who wins, the victor will give the physical manifestation of the Kiss of Life to the overlord, giving it power over death itself.”
Zahn turned to Oonak and searched his eyes, finding only despair. “There must be something we can do.”
“I’ve seen this place before, Zahn,” Oonak said, his voice taking on a heaviness that it hadn’t before. “It was during our first adventure together, on Aarava. Do you remember how I saw us in an abyss? Vayuna showed me this future, although how she could predict all of this is beyond my imagining.” He closed his eyes in surrender. “We’ve done all that we can. I’m sorry, Zahn.”
“Shh!” Asha said. “Look!”
Zahn focused back onto the fight. From their vantage point, it almost appeared to be a dance as Razakh and Durazha dodged the dark orbs they shot at each other. The overlord must have been mesmerized by this, because Zahn noticed that it couldn’t look away from their battle. He strained to hear their cries.
“I am the chosen one, father!” she screamed. “The Anuttam chose me! You are too weak!”
“Durazha!” Razakh called out. “I gave you the gift of new life, yet you betray me! Do you so quickly forget my words? I can take that gift away!”
Two long obsidian spikes shot out of Razakh’s arms, and he charged toward Durazha, plunging them deep into her chest. He twisted them inside of her, and she wailed in fantastic pain.
“The Kiss of Life is mine!” Razakh screamed, and sliced off Durazha’s head in one quick motion, taking the dim body of the Kiss of Life in his hands. The autarch gazed into the stone, transfixed. “Overlord, have I proven myself worthy?”
To Zahn’s shock, an orb whirling in blue, golden, and rose light rushed up from the haze below and lit up the entire shadowy realm, inverting the edges of the gravity pocket into a field of strange silvery light.
You infinite fool!
His gaze was drawn to the overlord whose massive body rippled and lost clarity. The creature shielded its eyes from the blinding light of the orb, which plunged deep into the dark entity, filling it with flowing, multicolored light.
“Zahn!” Oonak called out. “The Chintamani are one! The stones must have been uniting this entire time, and now they are one. Our efforts were not in vain!”
He didn’t have much time to consider Oonak’s words before the silvery light stretched beyond the edges of the realm, connecting to the orb in the center with long ten
drils made of light, until he could see nothing else.
With a final whooshing sound, the entire realm was swallowed up in that strange silvery light, and Zahn felt as if he were being taken far, far away.
CHAPTER 42
THE GALACTIC GAME
A flood of images rushed into Oonak’s mind.
First, he saw a massive white bubble appear in low orbit over a fiery world, like a soap bubble clinging to a dirty rock. The white bubble glowed brighter and brighter, until it exploded with light. When the light faded, the white sphere and any sign of Durazha’s flagship was gone. Even her entire fleet had vanished. The multitude of orange volcanic freckles across its surface faded, and the planet became utterly calm for the first time in millennia.
Another vision came to him, and Oonak saw Avani from a great distance, a glimmering orb resplendent in the rich blues of its oceans and forests. Nearby, a dark circle approached Avani’s moon, but as he watched, the shadow grew smaller and smaller, until he could no longer discern it against the backdrop of stars. In his final vision, Oonak saw dozens of crystal ships, not unlike his own, fly in formation around Avani, engaging with the remnants of Razakh’s fleet. The dark ships made small gravity wells, but the distortions faded almost as quickly as they formed. Among the crystal ships was a familiar amber octahedron, rushing toward the fleet with a wild energy, and Oonak smiled.
Their power over gravity was fading by the moment, and without their gravity abilities to aid them, the remnants of the fleet did something that he had never seen the Vakragha do before: they retreated, jumping out of the system before they were decimated completely. All around the galaxy, the Confederation must have seen how the Vakragha fissures were fading and sent the few ships they had available. Now that the Vakragha’s power was waning, sending even a few ships could be of great assistance.
Still, Oonak stiffened at the thought that other factions were still out there. One overlord did not rule over their entire race. The Confederation knew that much. To ensure peace, they would have to track down overlords strewn across the galaxy.
The Mirage on the Brink of Oblivion (The Epic of Aravinda Book 3) Page 25
