The Brilliant Dark

by S. M. Beiko

  He was right — it didn’t make up for the things he’d done. But it was what Saskia had wanted, all along. To be of use. To be chosen. So why did she feel so sick?

  She asked, “How long do we have?”

  Solomon pointed skyward. “When that moon reaches the path of the sun, there will be only the dark. If we’re going to move on this, we need to do it within the next day or so. Before Grant returns from his briefings.” He addressed the room. “We all have choices to make. We just have to decide why we’re making them.”

  As if on cue, the chamber rocked and rumbled, and someone screamed.

  * * *

  Natti, of course, loved the irony of the river being on Cecelia Bettincourt’s doorstep — and that she could use it to smash her way through. But she had to think like Phae and be practical. She could feel the water moving through the ground, deep in the pipes. Jet kept them disguised, though he was straining with the effort by now. He was, after all, way younger than they had been on their first break-in.

  Phae was ready with a shield around them all.

  “Step one, plumbing,” Natti said, her wrists twitching as she pulled forward, as if she were dragging a great rope, and the water running beneath the house swelled like a wave. She shut her eyes and focused, listening. First she went for the water tank. It crumpled the steel and burst through, and even from the house’s front yard, it was still a trial, bringing the water up, blowing the other pipes, and collecting every source as it sluiced through.

  The soldiers inside, who were more like glorified paper-pushing camera-watchers, were already yelling. The water spread. The front door burst open as the personnel, soaked, flooded onto the sidewalk.

  “Now!” Natti said, and the three ran through the door, still cloaked, but knowing Jet wouldn’t be able to hold it much longer, or that the house’s surveillance would pick them up. Natti scooped him up as they dashed.

  “Jet, can you —”

  His face was scrunched, turning red from the effort of maintaining their invisibility and searching for Saskia. “Down. Far down. Hidden in the dark . . .”

  “The summoning chamber,” Phae said, pointing them towards the basement door. She didn’t have time to process how weird it was being in this house, which had been so changed, and yet still looked like the place she’d visited to help Roan with her physics homework . . .

  They came to the door — or at least, where it should have been, and met with a completely solid concrete wall.

  “No,” Phae said as Natti put Jet back down again. “The door, the stairs . . .”

  “They may have sealed it up, or at least the main way in,” said Natti. She pulled a huge torrent of water from upstairs, down the front hall towards her, and it wrapped around both of her arms like sleeves. “Stand back.”

  She reeled and smashed both fists in a one-two at the wall, but it didn’t break like it should have.

  It flickered.

  “What —”

  Coming around the corner, panic-stricken, was just another man in grey, the white wings plain across his breast. The three stood absolutely still, but their invisibility fell with Jet’s exhaustion mixed with excitement.

  “Jordan!” he cried, but Natti scooped the kid up again, slapping a hand over his mouth, while bringing the water up behind the stunned Owl in a whip.

  He dodged, grunting, cutting a hard breeze across Natti’s eyes, but Phae got in the middle of the next blow, sending it back on the man with her shield.

  “Jordan, stop!” Phae barked, and recognition was an alarm in his eyes.

  “Phae? Jet? Why are you —” He looked from Natti to the water slowly filling up the house and sighed. “You’re here for Saskia, right?”

  He seemed as exhausted as Jet had been, all of a sudden, but he held up his hands. “Don’t worry,” he said, and with a flick of his fingers towards them, he revealed that the concrete wall was a door, and he opened it. “Parts of this house are an Owl illusion. It’s a safe place for —”

  “He’s in a uniform, I’m not taking any chances,” Natti said, pulling Jet and Phae close. “Bubble us,” she said gruffly to Phae, who brought the shield clasping around the three like a prayer.

  Natti brought the water, and suddenly they were screaming and careening down the stairs and through the back basement wall.

  * * *

  “What is it?” Solomon turned to the priest, then squinted, as if trying to send his mind back above ground. “Water. So much —”

  Shouts above, muffled by the earth hemming them in. Ella was at Saskia’s side, grabbing her sleeve.

  “Go out through the back!” the priest shouted. Amanda and Josh pulled Dannika out of the hearth, and someone opened a hidden door there. Saskia and Ella went to these three, while the others fled.

  “She can barely walk.” Josh turned his face from Dannika and the state she was in.

  “Don’t leave me, you idiots,” Dannika coughed, dried black flakes at the corners of her mouth. She was being taken over by a monster-parasite and still lobbing insults. Saskia looked between Ella and Amanda and Josh, but they still seemed keen on saving her.

  Damn. “Okay,” Saskia said, “We’ll get her out and take her to —”

  The water came sluicing down the stairs in a torrent, knocking the priest aside. Something bright and blue bounced down it, and the water, smashing its way around the room like a sonic clap, resolved around the sparking orb. Then it came down like an curtain, and inside the ball was Phae, back to back with Nattiq Fontaine.

  “Well,” Saskia said to Dannika, “I guess help came to you.”

  “Saskia!” Bursting out from behind Natti and Phae, unlikeliest of all, was Jet, who nearly knocked her over.

  “What are you doing here?” she cried, then pulled him off in time to see Solomon and the priest, soaked but subdued, before Phae and Natti. Saskia cried out, “Phae!”

  “I can’t believe no one’s killed either of you yet, especially you, Harken,” Natti’s hands peeled the water back to her fists, ready to use it again.

  What the priest had said earlier, about being made into a Mundane, made sense now. The priest was Arnas Harken, the neutralizer who’d severed Barton. And Roan’s step-uncle.

  “Saskia,” Phae said, holding her hands in front of her face. “Are you okay?”

  Saskia stood, Jet clinging to her, and she held tightly to him. To reassure him, she lied to herself. Phae looked like a live wire, ready to spark. “I’m fine. Please. You don’t have to —”

  “So what kinda lies you telling everyone today, Rathgar?” Natti hazarded. She was in a mood, apparently. “I hear a lot of Denizens are going missing, and your unit’s keeping busy. Are the Seals next on the list? And you’re snatching Mundanes now? How about the kid going mouldy in the corner?”

  Solomon ignored Natti, looking only at Phae, whose hair was still in signature antlers, sharp and pointed forward. Saskia always wondered if Phae could gore people with them, and she looked about ready to find out now.

  “Phae, please,” Solomon started. “I know your inherent bias —”

  “It was your idea,” Phae said through gritted teeth, “to have Barton try the Apex. A brilliant one, because it worked. Now you’re trying to get Saskia on your salvation train?” A bolt snapped off Phae’s shield and flew across Solomon’s face, leaving a long red mark, and he let out a strangled noise. “How many more of my family are you going to take?”

  Saskia was between them like a shot, and Phae flinched.

  “Stop,” she said. “Just stop. Both of you.”

  Phae’s eyes, brilliant and shocking blue, were concentrated fury. “Get out of the way, Saskia.”

  She raised her hands. “Look, we just need to talk. All of us. Like civilized —”

  “Civilized? Don’t you remember the day they took him?” Phae said, and her voice hardened, s
omething newly woken in her and ready to charge. “You’ve helped the world before, they said to him. Help it again. Help your family. And he did. Solomon was the one who talked Barton into it, for weeks. Convinced that it could save everyone. Get our friends back.”

  Saskia remembered. Of course she did. Phae and Barton had argued about it so much, and the walls were thin. Barton had spent so much time repairing the damage of the Hope Trees all over the world that Denizens looked to him as much as they did to Phae. He wanted to act, again and always. He wanted to do something.

  Then the Task Guard came, and Saskia didn’t even get to say goodbye. Not really. He said he’d be back soon. He promised. But it was one rabbit hole he couldn’t return from.

  “I’m trying to help make it right,” Saskia said, attempting to be as fierce as Phae. “What if we can get him back? What if we can get all of them back? Don’t you want to at least listen?”

  “I’m done listening,” Phae said, and her shield began to expand until Natti pressed a hand to her shoulder and pointed.

  “Hey,” she said calmly, “let’s not blow everyone up here.” Saskia turned to where she’d been pointing, to Ella and Dannika in the corner. Dannika was writhing, screaming savagely.

  “That’s Dannika Cole. She was bitten by a river hunter,” Saskia said hastily. “Please Phae. Help her. You remember when it was Barton, when he was bitten. You know how to fix this. Then I can explain everything.”

  Phae’s eyes looked dangerous. Then the bright shield came down, and her eyes faded back to brown. The antlers, however, still pulsed.

  She stared hard at Saskia for a long time, then brushed past her to do the one thing she could never refuse: help.

  Footsteps pounded down the summoning chamber’s earthen stairs, and Saskia, Natti, Solomon, and Arnas jerked towards it. The owner slipped, caught himself, his face pale and anxious.

  “Jordan.” Solomon raised an eyebrow. “Are you managing?”

  “Barely,” he admitted. “The whole house is flooding, and as it is there’ll be more ETG techs coming in to assess the surveillance equipment. And the water tank is in the main basement which is cloaked to look like a storage room over a pretty obvious hideout.” He stared accusingly at Natti.

  Natti rolled her eyes. “Look, man, it’s survival of the fittest. It’s not personal. But I am the fittest.” She took a quick survey of the room then, her hard stare falling on Solomon. “I’ll clear the water up, and you get your little illusions back running, then I’ll come back. I want to hear this, too.”

  Natti’s gaze fell on Saskia, softening slightly. “She would’ve ripped this house off its foundation to get you home safe, you know.”

  Saskia only nodded, looking to Phae in the corner, glowing with purpose and, Saskia imagined, love — even though it hurt her badly to feel it.

  Saskia hoped she was worthy of it.

  * * *

  It was about as calm as everyone was going to get. Natti had cleared the water away from every inch of the house before the ETG clean-up crew arrived. After some convincing from Jordan, they’d ruled it out as faulty maintenance and left. In the meantime, Jet had fallen asleep in Phae’s lap. Dannika had been moved upstairs to a bed to rest, and Ella had gone with her.

  Saskia sat next to Phae now, still in the summoning chamber, wishing again that she could read minds. Arnas and Solomon sat before her and made their case. Natti leaned against a far wall, in the dark, listening and likely reliving the last time she’d been down here. It was familiar territory for them all. Let us make you an offer in a dark place, you’re the only ones who can save us . . .

  After they’d gone through it all, Phae just sat there, as if she had been slapped repeatedly and now was numb to every blow. Her previous fury seemed banked up now, and Saskia wondered if it was the result of holding it in for so many years, and if it would come out again harsher than before. She hadn’t moved when Solomon told her Roan was likely alive down there, wherever she was. It wouldn’t be easy for Phae to trust any of this, not with what had been taken from her already.

  Saskia paced as she ran through it all like she was testing a formula. “So say you open the door. You go through. Then what? It won’t be so easy — it never is. If it was, Ancient would’ve burst through by now on its own and this conversation would be moot.” She surveyed the others, arms folded, but no one offered any further insight. “You’ll have to get out again from the other side, too. There’ll be work to do down there. If you survive getting through in the first place.”

  The priest and Solomon exchanged a look. “Whoever goes in may not come out,” Solomon said. “We’ve made peace with that.”

  “And who will you send?” Phae asked, looking pointedly at Saskia, who wasn’t fast enough to look away.

  She was caught out — at least the longing on her face was. It has to be me, Saskia thought, and she thought it so strongly that it somehow became a wish, and with no stars bright enough in the sky, she sent it up to the dark moon, begging.

  “I will go,” Solomon said evenly. “I will find my son, and Roan Harken, if need be,” he seemed nonplussed, that Roan was a mere afterthought. “But I’ve the experience, and the power at the very least. Whatever is down there, I will manage it, and I will finish this.”

  Saskia felt like she was about to leap out of her skin, but Phae’s cool expression nailed her in place.

  “Good,” Phae said curtly. “It should be you, anyway. Call it retribution.” She jerked her chin at Saskia questioningly. “As for this device, signal, receiver, whatever. Why does it have to be Saskia making it work? Why can’t she tell you her method, and we leave her out of it?”

  Saskia didn’t dare touch the pocket of her wrinkled uniform jacket where the Quartz was. Phae was trying to protect someone who had already betrayed her.

  “Saskia has integrated herself into Project Crossover,” said Solomon, “and she will have access to the equipment to implement her patch into the system. Think of her like an unseen mouse in the maze. If it were me doing it all, I would be stopped immediately. At least this way, I can keep her hidden while she does what is needed, act as though I’m out to stop her, and go through before anyone can get in my way.”

  His eyes skated to Saskia. She pushed everything down. She was blank. Even without the mind-reading, she feared that age and experience made him accustomed to teenage recklessness. Saskia was already formulating how she was going to get past him.

  His eyes closed; he suddenly looked much older. Phae had moved on, addressing Arnas now. “And you? While everyone’s inside risking their lives, what will you be doing?”

  He lowered his head, rubbing a finger in the red circle which, upon closer inspection, was simply drawn on in pastel. Saskia had been so afraid of it, but it had just been symbolic. Arnas Harken didn’t belong anywhere, like her, and whatever it was he believed — that the Darklings would somehow lead to their salvation, that Ancient could rise and turn the tide of war, or that he, just a Mundane man now, might be reconnected with his god by doing this service — she felt sorry for him.

  “I’ll be gathering the others,” Arnas said, his meek voice more assertive. “And offering protection, sanctuary, for those who need it. We don’t know how long Solomon will be on the other side. The Task Guard will act quickly when they realize what we’ve done. There will be reparations. Those of us left behind will have to fight, and those who can’t fight will have to protect each other.”

  “Everyone’s scared.” Natti came forward into the light, unfolding her arms. “Mundanes and Denizens both. We can’t fight each other if there isn’t a world to fight over, I guess.” She seemed to be working something out in her head, her jaw moving. “My people are safe for now, but the fight will come to them, and every corner of the globe, I’m sure. But they’ll fight back. And so will I. If you’re looking to gather an army, you can count me in.”

  Ph
ae sucked on her teeth. “So much for keeping our heads on straight.”

  “Better crooked than off,” Natti shot back, but she smiled.

  Phae looked back at Saskia and exhaled. “Listen, Saskia. You know how dangerous this is. I hope you do by now, anyway.”

  Saskia nodded, bright hope blooming in her stomach.

  Phae shook her head. “I can’t deny that you’re strong,” Phae said quietly. “Strong in all kinds of ways that I’m not. I want to help, if I can. If that means supporting you in doing this, using your gifts —”

  “Or curses,” Saskia cut in.

  Phae scoffed, shaking her head. “Best to not let them go to waste.”

  Phae knew full well the weight of giving Saskia such permission. Saskia had been through a hell none of them could comprehend and had come out the other side into a life she had to rebuild from the scraps she’d found, surprised that, in the heaps of the leftover world, Phae and Barton had been there to claim her. That kind of love didn’t just come along. Not anymore. But it was worth risking everything for. Natti understood that. Maybe Phae did now, too.

  “It will have to be tomorrow.” Solomon’s words floated in the room like a threat. “The element of surprise is required to make this work.”

  Saskia nodded. She had a rudimentary rigging built for the Quartz in the lab already. It wasn’t perfect, but it would have to be now.

  “Is it okay if I . . . stay here tonight?” Saskia directed this question to Phae, but also to Arnas, to Solomon. They’d offered her their help, and she’d pushed that to its limits.

  Phae opened her mouth as if to argue but stopped short. “Fine. We can stay, too, I presume?”

  Arnas nodded. “Of course.”

  “Beats a sofa,” Natti sighed. “Any food around here?”