Miss Brandymoon's Device: a novel of sex, nanotech, and a sentient lava lamp (Divided Man Book 1)

by Skelley, Rune

  “I know, but it’s important. I won’t let him hurt you, I promise.”

  A feeble residue of Kyle’s signal clung to the inside of Rook’s skull. In his presence it would amplify to its previous level. She couldn’t imagine how it would feel to have both Fin’s and Kyle’s vibrations in her head at the same time. One welcome and soothing, the other harsh and proprietary. They might simply cancel each other out, but more likely they would clash and reverberate and—

  “I have to do this, Rook. I have to stop him. I know you can feel it. He’s pulling them in, making some sort of monster slave-mind. Maybe a Sinking Wisdom. Something far worse than we’ve seen.” Fin paused. “You don’t have to go.”

  Rook laid her head on Fin’s chest. No one else would deal with Kyle. If they tried to run now, he would forever be between them. They’d faced him separately with inconclusive results, so together they might stand a chance. Even without a plan.

  It would all come down to her. When standing face to face with Kyle, his malignant aura corroding her mental bastions and the traitorous princesses sabotaging her resolve from within, would she be able to repudiate him? Would she have the strength? She had to find out, because the doubt, however subtle, would undermine her relationship with Fin. Any life they tried to build together would have uncertainty for its foundation.

  “We’ll both go,” she said. “For us.” She hugged him ferociously. He tried to soothe her, murmuring.

  If Fin was distracted worrying about her, he might make a mistake. They couldn’t afford that. She must be strong so she and Fin could have a life together. This foolhardy mission might be Fin’s idea, but she was damn well going to do her share. Her princess-in-the-tower days were over.

  Rook pulled away from Fin and smiled grimly.

  “Okay,” she said. “Let’s do this. I’ll be all right. Concentrate on Kyle.”

  Fin looked her in the eyes. He nodded.

  Fin contacted the spiders for transportation. After a few seconds of sliding and twisting against the grain of consensus reality, the parking lot around them was replaced by the center aisle of Shaw Cathedral. They arrived just inside the doors, to the accompaniment of a brief squawk of feedback.

  Memories of her last trip down this aisle invaded Rook’s mind. Her stomach clenched and she swallowed hard. Fin looked at her and she remembered how important it was to be strong.

  Together they strode toward the front of the church.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  CATHEDRAL

  A Murder of Crows shall pick clean

  the bones of the Pretender and of his Legions

  from New Revelations by Reverend Brian Shaw, unpublished

  Fin glanced around the interior of the cathedral. The roof was one huge skylight, arching over the crowd and soaring into a 20-story spire of plate glass above the pulpit. Two balconies. The pews were jammed. Fin was both amused and dismayed to see the camera operators trying to figure out why their equipment suddenly stopped working. It had to be interference from the spiders’ teleporter. He’d wanted the entire viewing audience to witness Kyle’s humiliation, but by coming here they’d already knocked him off the airwaves. At least the home audience was safe, for now.

  Kyle stood on the white-carpeted stage at the front of the church, bathed in spotlights, pontificating. Fin tuned him out and continued down the aisle. No one looked their way. Rook veered off to take cover behind a pillar. The closer Fin drew to Kyle, the more uncomfortable he became, so he couldn’t blame her. Kyle’s words fell on him like acid rain, trying to etch his mind.

  Fin advanced to the front row of pews.

  “KYLE!”

  Kyle stopped speaking and looked at Fin. At the same moment, everyone in the audience looked too.

  Kyle broke into a broad grin and held his arms out in a welcoming gesture.

  “My brother.” He began to recite and the audience joined him, “Divided Seed shall a Divided Child Beget...”

  Fin felt insanity pooling around him, flowing over the audience. He shook off the effects and raced up the steps to where Kyle stood.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” Fin demanded. “You’re less qualified than me to be up here. You don’t believe any of this shit you’re saying.”

  From the audience came a low murmur. Fin took that as a good sign.

  “Brother,” Kyle said silkily, “anyone can be saved, if he but chooses the correct path. I’m living proof of that, and there might even be hope for you.”

  The crowd’s noises brightened, which told Fin he’d misread their earlier response. They clearly wanted to buy whatever Kyle happened to be selling. Shit, Fin thought, they’re as crazy as he is.

  “You’re crazy,” Fin said.

  Kyle fell silent, a tiny smirk toying with one corner of his mouth. The audience sat expectantly.

  Fin turned to the crowd and saw that Rook had left her hiding place and was coming to join him. Encouraged, he told the rapt congregation, “He’s insane. Kyle Tanner is insane and he’s spreading his insanity to you. It’s contagious. Can’t you feel it?”

  No reaction.

  Kyle chuckled and his smile broadened. “Rook. I knew you’d come,” he said, his vivid green eyes never leaving Fin.

  The audience turned to look at Rook.

  “My wife,” Kyle explained. “Come here, darling.”

  Rook took a faltering step.

  “NO!” Fin yelled. “She’s my wife, not yours!”

  There were scattered gasps from the crowd when Fin uttered that blasphemy.

  “Rook’s my wife,” Fin repeated. “She chose to marry me. You gave her no choice.”

  Kyle smiled beatifically.

  “Why don’t we let her choose now?”

  Rook stumbled up the stairs and stopped halfway between Fin and Kyle. Panic ruled her face as she looked out over the audience. Fin reached for her, but his hand was buffeted away by some unseen force.

  “No,” Kyle said. “Neither of us touches her. She decides.”

  Fin watched Rook crumble into wretched tears. Towering, malignant forces stormed inside her. The delicate strands connecting him to her stretched taut, singing with tension. She’d known it would be this bad. This was a sacrifice to demonstrate the strength of her love. Fin ached.

  “Rook,” Kyle said soothingly, “it’s time to decide. Which one of us do you Complete?”

  Rook lurched and almost fell. She turned her eyes to Fin and he could feel her pleading. She stepped backward, away from both of them. Fin tried to send her comfort and encountered Kyle weaving a shroud of his insanity around her. Rook sank to her knees.

  The audience was rapt.

  Fin turned all of his will on them. He broadcast to them the way he had to the aliens when he broke the Floating Wisdom.

  “Snap out of it!”

  *** *** ***

  Kyle was unaccountably stronger now. Upon entering the cathedral, a full-blown voracious throbbing supplanted Rook’s gnawing little Kyle vibration and fully awakened Brook and Bramble. Kyle barged into her head, wrapped barbed tentacles around her freewill, and lasciviously stroked her libido. His throb amplified tenfold and drove out thought. Brook and Bramble basked in the glare of his personality, pulling Rook up onto the stage and toward oblivion.

  On her knees now, swaying, Rook fought off unconsciousness and watched the horrendous scene through her tears. Kyle was everywhere. She was drowning in him, swept downstream on his greedy currents. She could still see Fin, receding on the shoreline. Was he speaking? Did he see her? Distantly, she heard Fin yelling. The current suddenly let her go as a collective cry of anguish rose from the crowd, Kyle, and Fin. Rook felt something snap in her own head and cried out as well.

  Kyle roared in fury and leapt at Fin.

  Fin tried to dodge, but Kyle plowed into his legs and took him down.

  Fin slammed his elbow into Kyle’s chin and sent him rolling, vestments writhing around him. Fin dove after Kyle, colliding with him as he rose to a
crouch.

  They tangled together and blurred in Rook’s vision. Their black and green garments fused them into one entity, bruising her perceptions. She closed her eyes, but her mind filled with the image of a spinning coin. Her gown was not so regal now, but still stark-hued, constructed of opposites and contradictions. The choice remained hers to make, but she couldn’t tell one brother from the other. Chance threatened to step in and decide in her stead.

  The haunted verdigris blur of her husbands continued to tumble, savagely struggling for the upper hand. Waves of heat and prickly static emanated from the brothers as their minds grappled as violently as their bodies, jerking her heart back and forth through emotional electromagnetism. Her vision swam from turmoil, and also from the shimmering heat generated by the battle.

  The men stood, began circling. Their fighting stances were mirror images. Rook was disoriented. Fin or Kyle? Which was which? Both wanted her, to hide her away from the world. Both were fundamentally connected to her, needed her to be Complete. Both claimed her, married her.

  Seasick, Rook dragged herself to the altar and drew her knees up to her chest, her traitorous eyes squeezed shut.

  Inside her mind the connection to each man was strong, but nearly invisible. Blotting out the stars, swallowing the moonlight, they were like wormholes in space, with blackly glowing outlines. Their mingled emotions saturated Rook and her princesses with an overwhelming fusion of love and entitlement, jealousy and passion, fascination and fear. The sheer volume and intensity obscured their sources and Rook was no better able to tell Fin from Kyle.

  If either discovered that his brother also shared a connection with her, the battlefield would switch to her head. They would tear her apart in their efforts to claim her. In a flash of self-preservation, Rook built a wall to keep them separated, then opened her eyes. The men became more distinct.

  Kyle swung at Fin. Fin rolled with the impact, too late to reduce the blow’s effect. He turned far to his right and dropped to one knee. When Kyle closed in, Fin drove his left boot into Kyle’s gut, doubling him over. Fin came across with his right, standing to augment the uppercut. He hit Kyle on the nose and laid him out on his back.

  Fin pounced. He landed atop Kyle, glaring.

  Kyle spat blood at Fin and locked on with fierce eyes. Fin reared back and tried to scream. Only a small cracked sound escaped.

  Kyle jackhammered Fin’s mind. The surge of hatred penetrated Rook’s confusion and her shriek blew out every speaker in the hall.

  Fin rallied and drove back Kyle’s psychic ram. He clawed at Kyle’s mind, seeking loose areas and tiny cracks. He seeped in. Kyle convulsed, knocking Fin over and momentarily breaking the mental circuit. Rook sagged with relief.

  Again, they both stood. They remained still, concentrating their assaults on the mental arena. They launched brute-force attacks, attempts to crush the other’s will.

  Rook turned away and vomited. She needed to end this, but didn’t know how. Bramble and Brook could end it. They clamored to join Kyle, assured that with their help he would triumph. Rook recoiled from opening her reserves to anyone, too afraid of what would happen if she entered the fray.

  The temperature rose. The deathly white carpet began to smoke. The nearest television camera shorted out in a shower of sparks.

  A low moan rose up from the congregation, and Kyle leered at Fin. He tapped into his followers’ minds, drawing power to throw at his brother. In the front row of pews, a middle-aged woman with teased hair silently burst into flames. She stayed primly in her seat and was instantly reduced to a pile of black ash.

  “Stop!” Fin yelled. “You’re killing them!”

  “They like it,” Kyle said. “Can I get an amen?”

  “Amen,” the flock said as one, the word trailing off into incoherency as Kyle increased his power grab.

  Fin ceased his counterattack to focus on defending himself. The power surge from the audience was grinding away his defenses. Rook could feel him pushing to shore them up. She could feel the pulsing energy all around her. As Kyle increased his attack even further, she felt tremors in the floor.

  Fin roared, and shoved against the stream of antagonizing force. More cameras erupted in smoke and sparks. The building shook, and the glass spire overhead shattered in a concussive crash. Tons of glass began the long descent toward the combatants.

  Rook screamed and rolled under the altar. Kyle and Fin didn’t move. The deadly hail of razors thundered down, engulfing the entire front of the chapel. The sunset playing among the cascading shards created glowing shafts like an image from a prayer book. Both men were untouched. Seven-foot slabs stood in a jagged forest all around them.

  Kyle regrouped and assailed Fin again. Fueled by his pool of slave minds, he loosed a searing fusillade. The center section of the audience was now empty back to the fourth row. Fin fell to his knees, struggling to expel Kyle from his head. He slumped forward, clutching his face in his hands.

  Kyle laughed and pressed his advantage, snaking deeper into Fin’s brain. Flares of light from the pews told Rook more followers were combusting to fuel Kyle’s offensive, driving Bramble nearly orgasmic.

  Rook sobbed, staring horrified at Kyle. His reflection moved erratically across the towering shards of glass, creating a horde of demonic preachers. Now free of her earlier confusion, she tried to feed Fin’s struggle with her waning strength. The princesses fought to aid Kyle, but Rook furiously returned them to their prisons and concentrated what remained of her energies on Fin. It was enough to halt Kyle’s slithering advance.

  Fin felt the support and hungrily drew in as much as Rook could give. He thrashed on the floor, rolling in glass. He needed more amperage, couldn’t drive Kyle out. Fin howled. He called out for aid, for more power, and received an answer.

  With a sudden influx of energy from the spiders, Fin repelled the invasion. Kyle was furious, but even with his anger he could not stop Fin from pushing him out and resealing the fallen defenses. Fin stood and poured his full intensity onto one area of Kyle’s shields. Kyle demanded more power to brace the weakening walls, and Fin focused his beam on an even smaller area.

  The carpet was now smoking heavily. With popping noises, flames sprang up. The conflagration spread into a large circle, and the huge slabs of glass shattered in the intense heat. Neither man could be seen through the four-foot flames and thick white smoke.

  The fire vanished, as the adversaries withdrew their all-out attacks and sized each other up. The smoke rising from the carpet turned black, a cloud of poisonous fumes expanding to engulf the church.

  Fin and Kyle each gathered energy for a new gambit, attuning to the masses augmenting their powers. They had different polarities, different textures. The dividing wall in Rook’s head rippled like a waterfall, threatening to collapse. As she shored it up, Brook and Bramble’s prisons failed and they emerged wild-eyed and giddy. Rook slammed her mind closed. A dreadful anticipation and mental ozone, like an electrified fog, choked her thoughts and seized her lungs. She could no longer aid Fin, but the twins couldn’t aid Kyle either.

  As Fin and Kyle built up their strength, they built up auras around themselves. The gangrenous glow enshrouding Kyle gave him a corpselike aspect, while pulsations of unearthly emerald flowed around Fin. Rook’s skin crawled with static and her muscles twitched. The polarization of their energies drove swirling eddies through the smoke filling the cathedral. Soon the roiling cloud parted down the center between them, splitting to the accompaniment of indoor lightning leaping from one hemisphere to the other. The entire central section of pews now stood barren, and there were empty pockets throughout the side sections and the two balconies.

  Icy winds carried the worst of the smoke out through the ruined spire, leaving the brothers to regard each other. They paused, fully charged and locked on target.

  Kyle sneered and said, “If only you had been carted off to reform school, or better yet killed yourself when your mother abandoned you. It would have saved so m
uch trouble.” Fin didn’t flinch. Kyle continued. “I see you’ve had to look outside of humanity altogether to find friends, and we both know about your recent marital troubles. Nobody loves you, Fin. Not like they love me.”

  Fin coolly replied, “Yeah, they love you. Just like they did back in your glory days, before your knee went to shit. Remember who stuck by you in rehab? Remember who cared if you showed up? Nobody. That’s who loved you then, and that’s who loves you now.”

  Kyle said, “So nobody loves either one of us. Whatever.”

  “No,” Fin said, “nobody loves you. Rook loves me.”

  Kyle laughed. “She’s done all the things with me she ever did with you.”

  Fin renewed his heavy assault. Kyle blocked it easily, still laughing. He retaliated, carpet-bombing Fin’s mind. Fin stood his ground, grimacing with the effort.

  Rook emerged from her shelter and stared at the scene. Wind screamed between Fin and Kyle, and green-white tendrils of energy crawled across the floor around their feet. The walls of the cathedral were ready to buckle. The superstructure of Rook’s mind was ready to collapse as well. If her wall fell, that would be the end. They would all die.

  It was Fin’s wall that cracked, though. He remained standing, frozen in place. Kyle had advanced deep into Fin’s territory, and now controlled him physically. Controlled his breath, denied it.

  Rook felt Fin’s panic, the drowning pressure. Kyle’s laughter subsided to a persistent chuckle as he turned to her.

  Rook’s vision constricted to a fuzzy halo surrounding Kyle, her own lungs rigid. Air rasped into her throat as Fin let her go. His connection remained, but she could feel him sinking away, steadfastly refusing to stoop to Kyle’s level of depravity and sacrifice the aliens for more power.

  “NO!” Rook wailed.

  “Yes, you do love him, don’t you?” Kyle deadpanned. “Well, then I suppose you’re the one I should be talking to. Talking about love, or at least respect.” The last word was a snarl, but he chuckled again. “I never really saw what was going on between us, but I do now.”