by A. L. Knorr
Vesuvius was dormant, that much was apparent from the outside. But inside, standing high up within the ribs of the deadly giant and looking down, I could sense the power of this natural wonder. I had never seen anything so incredible in my entire life. Even Targa’s descriptions of the ancient ruins of Atlantis, or Georjie’s account of Queen Elphame’s castle in the fae lands of Stavarjak could not compare.
I felt like I’d slipped through a portal into an alien universe, or maybe stepped into an artist’s depiction of hell. The air rippled with heat and purgatorial fumes, though there was very little smoke.
Some two thousand feet below and laying mostly open before us was what could only be described as the world’s most bizarre cavern. Not yet visible was the source of orange light from far below, the sleeping engine of roiling lava that was the heart and guts of Vesuvius.
Ledges and walkways of varying thicknesses and depths—from a few feet wide to as wide as a freeway—could be seen running around the inside of the volcano, all the way to the bottom, but so uneven and littered with detritus that taking these ledges would be more like scrambling than hiking, where one needed to use both hands to get along. Deep, dark shadows hid much of the interior, keeping its secrets away from the light. The rumble was louder standing here at the edge of the mountain’s rib, but still distant and almost soothing. There were no other sounds, no voices, no signs of movement.
“Come on,” Ryan said, turning from the ledge to take a curved path to the right. “They’ll be further down.”
Further down meant hotter and closer to the source of the gas, but neither Tomio nor I protested. A ripple in my lungs made me press a hand to my chest and pause. Ryan glanced back and happened to see me with my hand on my breast.
“It’s just your lungs dealing with the gas,” he murmured. “You’ll feel dizzy in a few minutes, but that will come and go in waves. You get used to it. Eventually.”
Tomio suppressed what might have been a belch or a hiccup, then nodded, thumping the side of his fist on his own chest.
More of the volcano’s core came into view as we followed Ryan along the craggy inner wall. When a perfectly round amber eye appeared far below, my breath was stolen from my chest and my legs stopped moving. A single massive pool of lava churned beneath a black layer of cracked and shifting cooled magma. I had seen video footage of bright orange lava spewing from within the earth like a fountain, sending sprays of molten rock in all directions to blacken and harden into super fertile newly formed land.
This was not like that, but it explained the low rumble.
Vesuvius’ great engine of heat and liquid rock was very much alive, but it shifted slowly and sleepily, its top layer cooling rapidly as little jets of steam and vapors spouted from the cracks. From this great height above, the eye looked small, but a person standing next to it on its flat rim would be a tiny figure indeed.
A wave of dizziness passed through me like a specter had passed through my body. I bent over and put my hands on my knees, closing my eyes until the feeling passed. I felt Tomio’s hand on my back. I understood why Ryan hadn’t been moving faster now. My lungs and brain had enough on their plate processing the atmosphere in here. If I had to run while feeling this whoopsy, I risked falling off an edge.
The dizziness passed, as Ryan had said it would, and I stood, nodding to the boys to let them know I was okay. They looked like they might be fighting their own vertigo. A moment later Ryan continued on, scoping the strange landscape ahead.
The cavern was not entirely hollow, but had a main column of open space above the mouth. From there countless caves and lava tubes broke from the central space to run out like veins to the skin of the monster.
When we passed a vent we knew it, and stopped to breathe in the less toxic air current as it flowed softly across our path from one invisible intake vent to an outtake vent. I knew from Ryan’s movement when one was coming, he’d slow and turn his face into it to take a breath before moving on. Then Tomio would pause and do the same, then it would be my turn.
I had to suppress another jolt of near-panic when I looked behind at where we’d come from and realized that I was hopelessly lost. Without Ryan, we would never find the way we’d come in. Unless one of the airflows entered through a vent large enough for a human to pass, the only way out without our navigator would be with fire-power, straight through the side of the volcano’s walls.
I shoved the unpleasant feeling of claustrophobia lingering at the edge of my mind violently away, and concentrated on what my eyes could see. This wasn’t much more of a comfort but at least it gave me something to do.
We began to descend a long slope of smooth, powdery rock, and the feeling of being infinitesimally small returned with a vengeance. It was like being in the dwarf’s underground city, but without the mining railways, or the huge carved columns holding up the ceiling. One could imagine the sound of singing echoing through this place. A companionable and comforting way to pass the time and keep one’s mind off the fact that one was basically enclosed in a superheated stone womb that could fill with molten rock at any moment.
“There.” The whisper jarred me out of my reverie. I followed Ryan’s pointed finger and at first saw nothing out of place.
Then the light shifted and brightened, as one of those big black blocks of hardened lava rolled over.
Not quite directly across from us but close, and further down, two small figures moved slowly along a narrow ledge, then disappeared a moment later as a shadow swallowed them up.
My heart surged and my lungs gave that weird fluttering sensation as my mind processed what I’d seen: two people, the one in the lead larger and misshapen. The second followed so closely there was almost no space between them. The leader was weirdly shaped because he was carrying a body.
There was no way they could hear us, as far away as we were and against that low rumble of Vesuvius’ guts, still the three of us crouched at the edge of the cliff and kept our voices low.
“I’ll get ahead of them by traversing that ledge,” Ryan gestured to a narrow ridge, “you keep going and get behind them. Wait for me to distract Nero, then deal with Dante and get Gage out of here. Looks like they’ve knocked him out or drugged him.”
Ryan took a step but Tomio stopped him with a loaded four words. “Shouldn’t Saxony distract Nero?”
My thudding heart swelled at Tomio’s vote of confidence. Nero was the dangerous one, and while Ryan was also Burned, he’d only been so for a matter of weeks. I’d had a year of training with Basil and with combat coaches, and I could handle record levels of heat and power. It made sense to me as well that I be the one to distract Nero, though the idea of it made my lips feel numb.
Ryan bared his teeth, his white grin a specter in the gloom as we locked eyes in a way that gave me chills. “You want to sacrifice your life for my twin? Be my guest, but if I go after Dante, I will end him. That okay with you?”
“No!” I hissed. If anything happened to Dante, I would never be free of Enzo. I gave Tomio a look that said I was okay with Ryan’s original plan. “I’m sworn to return him to his father in one piece. Neutralize him, but don’t hurt him. At least, not excessively.” I wouldn’t mind if Dante came out of this with a few bruises, and somehow I thought even his own father wouldn’t be too sorry about that either, after all the stress and frustration the young mafia don-to-be had caused.
We agreed and split up, Ryan tackling the volcano’s terrain at a dangerous speed. He was gone from sight in a moment. Tomio and I moved like shadows over the strange blend of jagged rocks and smooth pathways covered in volcanic dust. We descended where we could to bring ourselves even with where we’d last seen our targets. Scrambling over sections of loose boulders, it was impossible not to disturb the rubble in such poor light and volcanic stone was noisy, with a glass against glass kind of clink. My heart sank as we approached. Unless we found a flat section, there was no way we could be totally silent as we crept up on them.
A voi
ce bounced off the stone as I joined Tomio where he pressed himself up against a wall behind a short outcrop. The language was Italian, but it was still too far away and soft to pick out words I recognized.
Tomio’s fingers closed gently around my wrist as I pressed against him and the wall. Ahead of us lay a narrow, treacherous path with a cavernous drop-off on one side, and layers of outcroppings, each standing proud of the next. In one way it was perfect for sneaking up on someone and staying hidden, but one wrong move and one might tumble into the abyss before us which had no visible bottom, just a yawning crack of darkness, hidden from even the volcano’s low pulsing light.
With a quick glance around the outcropping, Tomio signaled he was about to move with two squeezes of my wrist. He slipped around the jutting feature and into the next shadow. I followed without giving myself time to think about what lay below. Volcanic dust puffed from our feet and I heard small clusters of grit and little stones tumble into the crevice. We moved along this way, like stop-motion characters, slipping from shadow to shadow until the murmur of Italian grew clearer.
Ryan had said to wait for him to distract Nero, but he hadn’t said what that distraction would be, and nothing had happened yet. When Tomio and I breached the next outcrop it would be the last. The final section was open and without cover, the element of surprise would surely be lost.
We pressed our backs against the warm walls of Vesuvius and waited. Tomio’s fingers, soft from coatings of dust, slipped around my wrist again but this touch was different. It wasn’t meant to communicate, only to comfort. I was momentarily jarred at how clearly his touch communicated this to me. No fire passed between us, yet there was a bond, a strong one, one I might have been foolish not to have recognized earlier.
A pop of pink light exploded across my retinas, making me gasp and Tomio stiffen. With a squeeze on my wrist, Tomio lurched around the final outcropping. I followed, fire licking along my spine and ribcage, begging to be used.
As the scene materialized before our eyes, my mind struggled to make sense of it.
Nero’s tall, lithe figure straightened as he looked around, seeing Ryan bearing down on him. Rose colored light cascaded across the terrain ahead of Gage’s twin, illuminating a face straight out of a nightmare, nuclear eyes blazing like pink coals. But he was too far away for surprise to work in his favor, thanks to the broad open patch where Nero had chosen to stop.
Gage’s form was seated on the rock. He looked boneless, like a ragdoll someone had propped on a shelf and allowed to flop over.
Dante had been kneeling before Gage, but sprang to his feet at the interruption. He turned and I caught sight of his face, or where his face should be. My heart turned over with horror and a scream lanced through my mind. Big flat round eyes like a bug, reflected orange and pink and black as he turned to behold us. A moment later I realized he was wearing a gasmask.
I expected Nero to move away from Gage and Dante to face Ryan, but instead he grabbed Dante’s hand and yanked him into a crouch before Gage. Slamming one hand against Gage’s chest and the other against Dante’s chest, his body bowed under some force, flexing and tightening visibly.
An amber-white glow appeared under Nero’s hand, moving from within Gage’s body. He stiffened, his ribcage pressed outward as though pulled by Nero’s hands.
It happened so quickly it took my breath away. Tomio and I sprinted, full in the open now, toward the threesome.
The light passed out of Gage’s body and into Nero’s hand. Flashing along like a sun, it traveled up Nero’s arm, through his shoulder and across his chest. When it reached the middle of Nero’s torso, Gage’s body collapsed as though boneless and the light zipped down Nero’s other arm and into Dante, where it paused and seemed to compress itself against him, like it had struck resistance.
Ryan was upon them. Screaming, he barreled into Nero and the pink light disappeared. There was an explosion of white light so bright I was momentarily blind.
Tomio tackled Dante. Flipping him over a leg, Tomio had him on his chest on the ground, gasmask turned to one side and muffled cries issuing from within.
Nero and Ryan tangled amidst explosions of light and color so bright it was impossible to make out who was doing what.
I flew to Gage’s form, my trembling fingers searching for a pulse under his jaw. There was none. I prayed it was my own panic keeping me from finding it.
“Gage?” I called his name and slapped his cheeks as I lay him out on the rock. His head rolled to the side, limp and unresponsive.
“Is he alive?” Tomio called from where he held Dante down in the dust, a knee on his back.
“I can’t tell,” I cried, trying to detect breathing where there was none. I tried his wrists and his neck again, feeling for that subtle rhythm of life, the surge of blood through veins. No pulse. “Come on, Gage,” I whispered, beginning compressions on his chest.
Some voice in the back of my mind was screaming, trying to get my attention. I shoved it away and focused on counting the compressions, sifting through memories of the CPR training I’d received in gym class in grade ten. Was it thirty chest compressions and then two breaths with the head tilted back? Did I plug his nose? I couldn’t remember and that screaming in the back of my mind wouldn’t go away. I ignored it as the voice of panic. Gage’s body shook as I worked to wake up his heart, his mouth lax and open, his eyes closed.
He’s dead, Saxony, whispered a cold voice from a dark corner, calm and detached. They killed him. It’s all over for Gage.
“No,” I screamed, feeling my lips and chin tremble as I leaned down to breathe into his lungs. They inflated beneath my hand and hope surged in my breast as I resumed compressions, but he was not breathing on his own.
Another scream in the back of my skull, it was almost something I could understand, didn’t want to listen to.
He’s dead. It’s no use, came that same steely reckoning.
“Gage?” Eyes glued to his face, I compressed, barely aware that somewhere in the distance, glows of light were popping from below. Tomio called again, his words as foreign to me as Farsi.
Gage inhaled and my heart surged with fresh hope, but it was a horrible choking sound followed by a cough.
The gasmask! Ripped the scream across my mind, finally clear. Get the mask!
I took a hot inhale and at Tomio, pale and wide-eyed. “Throw me the mask,” I yelled, extending a hand. “Now, Tomio! Now!”
Understanding broke over Tomio’s features. He yanked the gasmask off Dante, who immediately began to laugh and cough at the same time.
“You’re too late, little Inferno,” he wheezed, sending little puffs of dust up in front of his face. He inhaled and tried to speak again but only coughed as ash filled his lungs.
Snatching the mask out of the air, I pulled its straps over Gage’s head and settled it into place. His chest rose and the mask’s vents sighed as air passed through them. I put my fingers under his jaw and felt a thready, weak pulse.
“Gage?” I croaked, feeling a cold calm steal over me. The rising panic, the screaming voice and the cold whispers all ceased. I couldn’t see Gage’s face behind the mask, but behind the glass panels over the eyes, his lashes were down against his cheek. He was breathing and his heart was beating, but he was still not conscious.
The events of the last several minutes caught up to me. Like puzzle pieces sliding into place, the picture formed and I understood. Nero had not needed to dehydrate Gage to take his fire, he had the ability to take a fire by force. Gage was fireless, possibly still dying. We had no idea what forcefully taking his fire had done to him. We had to get him out of here.
Twenty-One
A New Human
One hand on Gage’s gently moving chest, I looked at Tomio, whose eyes were so big they seemed to float in his face.
“We can’t go back the way we came,” I called, feeling my lungs butterfly as they dealt with the fumes.
“Even if Ryan wasn’t busy—” Tomio gestured to
the edge just beyond him and then seemed to be lost at how to finish the sentence as he peered down.
Leaving Gage’s side, I went to the edge and felt my muscles lock as I found Nero and Ryan engaged in spectacular combat on the edge of the magma. They were two tiny figures throwing colored light as they tangled, almost dancing with one another, albeit violently. As we watched in dumb amazement, Ryan absorbed a blue flame Nero had hurled, seeming to carry its momentum into himself and using it to throw a spinning kick that knocked Nero sideways, directly onto the cracked surface of the magma.
“How did they get down there?” I breathed, but was too stunned to register Tomio’s answer.
Small flickers of orange licked from Nero’s clothing and shoes as he rolled over the dense half-hardened surface. His shoes flared and caught fire, burning away completely in seconds and leaving him barefoot. Unconcerned about what they were fighting on, Ryan tackled Nero and Nero received him as they seemed momentarily consumed by fire the color of limes. Buzzing and snapping sounds drifted up to our ears as rainbows of embers spiraled from the impacts of their bodies. Strange scents mingled in my nose, the volcano’s gases mixed with the alchemy going on below. Ryan appeared to have no shoes now as well, and fire had burned away the bottom halves of his pant legs. They moved across the surface of Vesuvius’ deadly core, unconcerned and unaffected by the barbecue pit they danced over.
How was Ryan, so newly Burned, able to do such alchemy and handle himself well enough to hold Nero, a much more experienced Burned mage, off? It struck me that whatever they’d been up to with all the traveling, they were not just Burned magi anymore, but something else. Something different.
“He’s giving us time,” I said, tearing myself away from the sight below. “We can’t go back to the vent we came in, even if we could find it, we won’t be able to get Gage through it.”
