Shadow of Forever (Eaters of the Light Book 2)

by J. Edward Neill

  I nodded.

  “Joff,” she said as she walked out, “I’m sorry. For everything. We’ll figure this out. We’ll make things right again. Be careful. I’ll find you wherever you go.”

  The door sealed behind her.

  I stood in the shadows of her sterile room.

  And I knew I’d never see her again.

  * * *

  I wasn’t sure how long I waited until I breathed again. Long after Aly was gone and the house fell silent, I awoke as if from a dream. My journey to Arcadia felt like a failure, and the life I’d lived was destroyed.

  Again.

  I had to snap out of it.

  With a shiver, I awoke. I gazed out Aly’s windows, and I realized I didn’t know where I was in Arcadia. A gentle slope fell away from the house, descending to a green and blue-watered river. On the far shore, I glimpsed other mansions much like Aly and Tabir’s, only smaller.

  Tabir, I remembered his face at the wedding. He’d been condescending, but even then I’d glimpsed his fear. I couldn’t yet fathom why he’d want me dead. If his wife’s work was to research a cure for the Strigoi contagion, I imagined he’d want the only person immune to it to be alive.

  Unless…

  Maybe…

  I didn’t type anything on Aly’s computer. I knew it wouldn’t matter. With a sigh, I unsealed the office door using the code she’d given me.

  Twelve. Ten. Seventy-six.

  My birthday.

  With an ache in my chest, I wandered into the rooms beyond my sister’s study. The mansion’s outer walls were blue crystal, but the inner walls were stone, a rare luxury on strikingly flat Sumer. I snared a handful of seeds and fruit from a bowl, and I ate as I trespassed the labyrinth of doors.

  The first six I opened revealed nothing of interest. I counted two bedrooms, two closets, a full-room shower, and one starkly empty room. I didn’t know what I was looking for, but I knew it lay somewhere else in the house.

  I can’t just leave, I thought.

  There’s something here.

  And then I came to another door.

  Near the back of the house, through a hall untouched by sunlight, I found it. I uttered the password, but it didn’t open.

  This is the one.

  I closed my eyes.

  I knew the answer.

  “Nine. Twenty-nine. Seventy-two.”

  Aly’s birthday.

  I heard a ping. The door cracked a few centimeters ajar. When I looked inside, I understood why she hadn’t given me the password.

  I’d just found Tabir’s office.

  I crept inside. I didn’t know what kind of security Tabir kept in his house, and I supposed I didn’t care. I still wasn’t sure what I was doing or what would become of me beyond the next few minutes.

  And yet the shadow of an idea had awoken in my mind.

  I walked to his computer console. It covered the top of his desk. It was the top of his desk, laid flat atop it, twenty times as big as a skypad. I keyed it on. The entire surface flickered to life, the pale blue light illuminating the room. “Come on. Work,” I hoped. But when it asked for a fingerprint, I knew it wouldn’t grant me access.

  I glanced around the room. Tabir’s office was surprisingly small. Parts of it reminded me of rooms I’d seen on Earth, with wooden-paneled cabinets and a soft, carpeted floor. But the rest was pure Arcadian design, the black, white, and silver panels concealing devices I didn’t know a thing about.

  I opened his desk drawers.

  Nothing.

  I ran my fingers along the shelves behind his desk. Most were empty. There were nearly no books on Sumer, meaning Tabir’s shelves had little to hold except baubles and strange pieces of Arcadian art.

  Nothing.

  I knelt to the cabinets beneath the shelves and tugged open each wooden door.

  Nothing. Not even dust.

  I stood and smelled the air. Tabir’s office had a smell unlike the rest of the house. It made no sense. I couldn’t place it at first. It was somehow…familiar.

  I rounded his desk and walked to the far wall. More cabinets stood from floor to ceiling, and more glass sculptures lurked on the shelves. Some of the pieces looked like things I’d seen in textbooks back on Earth, like human insides twisting into themselves.

  I knelt to look in the lower cabinets.

  And that’s when I saw it.

  Behind a crystalline sculpture of a thin, almost skeletal woman, a small black object lay hidden. I sniffed the air around it and made a face. Whatever it was, it had an oily reek. Back on my earthbound farm, I’d caught the odors of dead things: birds, gophers, and mice. The black thing’s scent reminded me of them, but oilier.

  Like the pans Dad and I used to leave beneath our tractor engines.

  Like the barrels in the barn we never emptied.

  Like…

  I reached in and pulled the object out. It was obviously a weapon. No bigger than my open palm, it had a tiny trigger and a slender barrel.

  I knew what it was.

  I hated to touch it.

  It was a Strigoi weapon.

  Made by humans.

  It’d been the smell that led me to it. Somehow, I’d caught the scent all the way back in Aly’s room. With a grimace, I dropped it back in its hiding spot, but its odor clung to my hand. It reeked of them. I hated myself for being so curious.

  I had to leave.

  Dizzy, I fled Tabir’s office. I didn’t think to seal the door. It never occurred to me that I might’ve triggered an alarm or that men might be waiting for me outside. I felt too sick to think. My heart banged against my ribs, and my head swam with visions of terrible things.

  What have I done? I thought as I waded through the house.

  I’ve killed Aly.

  I’ve killed everyone.

  I staggered out the front door. The morning stunned me, the two suns blazing in the cloudless sky. I stood in the grass courtyard, gazing into the blinding light, waiting for Tabir’s men to slaughter me.

  But my sister, it seemed, had other plans in mind for me.

  Bleary, my eyes hurting, I glimpsed the gate at the courtyard’s entrance. The black steel bars were open, and a hovercar, Aly’s, sat humming on the street beyond.

  No one was in the car.

  She’d left it for me.

  She must’ve taken a hovercab.

  I considered leaving the car and walking away. Arcadia was surrounded by the same grand forest encircling the rest of humanity on the planet. I could’ve run to the trees. I could’ve fallen off the face of Sumer, never to be known again.

  I walked to the hovercar and sat inside.

  I saw the datapad sitting on the seat beside me. I lifted it to my eyes and saw the message Aly had tapped in only minutes ago:

  Joff,

  My husband is working on technology gleaned from Callista.

  He’s trying to prolong human life. His scientists are growing artificial tissues and replacement organs.

  But’s there’s problems with the science. When he told me, I knew what was happening.

  Test subjects have developed a strange sensitivity to light.

  They’ve become angry. Nocturnal. And in some cases, violent.

  And the weapons they’ve made work better when it’s dark.

  You were right about everything.

  I love you.

  Hurts

  I slept.

  I wandered in my mind’s darkness.

  And many hours later, as Atreya and Kokab collapsed below the horizon, I awoke in a place I’d never been.

  “Where am I?” I slurred. The hovercar had come to a stop, and night closed in on all sides.

  “Thirteen kilometers north of Mercuria.” The car surprised me when it answered. “At the primary residence of Samison and Maura Turani.”

  “Wait.” I sat up, more than a little unsteady. “I didn’t ask to come here. I—”

  “This destination was chosen prior to your entry in the vehicle.�
�

  Aly, I knew. But I thought—

  “How long have we been driving?”

  “Fourteen hours and seven minutes,” the hovercar replied. It spoke my language better than the other car had. Aly must’ve had it customized.

  I rubbed my eyes. I couldn’t recall being in the car so long. In truth, I’d missed the entire trip. I’d ducked into the car outside Aly’s house, hunkered down to avoid being seen, and woken up fourteen hours later.

  The red pills, I realized. Knocked me out.

  Aly again.

  I shook my head, pushed the door open, and stepped into the balmy night. The hovercar hummed beside me, but save for the wind riding through the trees, the world was quiet. The car had stopped at the end of a road and the beginning of a path into the woods. I saw lights a few hundred meters away, winking at me through the leaves.

  “Maura’s house?” I said to myself. “Why here?”

  And then I understood.

  I leaned into the hovercar.

  “Hovercar,” I said, “go to…ummm…Arcadia. Wait, no. Your next destination is…Venya. Yes, Venya. There’s a festival grounds in the city’s heart. Drive there and don’t stop for anything. Ok?”

  “Will you be entering the vehicle?” she asked me.

  “No.” I snatched the datapad Aly had left and patted the car’s roof. “This time, you’re going alone. And oh, when you get to Venya, wipe this destination from your memory. You can do that, right?”

  “Yes,” the car said.

  I wasn’t sure I believed it.

  I shut the door. The hovercar hummed off into the night. Once it was gone, I found myself alone with the forest. It stretched skyward on all sides, denser and darker than the woodland I was accustomed to. I supposed I had no other choice. I had to follow the path.

  I left the road. My boots crunched on the ground, while the tiny lights blazing through the leaves guided me. With every step, I moved deeper into the trees. I smelled heavy moisture in the air. The rain had only just died, and the water streamed down from the forest canopy. Twice along the way, I cupped my hands and drank. The fruits I’d eaten at Aly’s house hadn’t been enough. I was half-starved.

  Many hundred steps into the trees, I saw what awaited me:

  A house.

  Maura’s.

  Not sure she’ll be glad to see me.

  I came to the house and stood at the wooden steps leading up to the door. The walls were glass, not unlike the house I’d lived in, though the dwelling was far bigger. Through the crystalline walls, I glimpsed the interior. Dark pillars and white parchment blinds separated the rooms. The floors were planked with fine Sumerian woodwork.

  Beautiful, I thought.

  I’d never have been able to give Maura this life.

  I climbed the short stairwell and halted outside the door.

  I realized what I was about to do might alter the course of many people’s lives. I’d done it to Aly, and the guilt was already chewing me up. If I knocked on Maura’s door, I had no idea what would happen.

  I raised my knuckles.

  I waited for a few tortured seconds.

  And I knocked three times.

  A shadow moved inside the house. The walls weren’t so clear as to let me see every detail. I wasn’t sure what I feared, but the tension of not knowing who would answer the door tightened in my throat.

  The door cracked open. A woman, forty-years old and with eyes full of worry, stood before me. She was shorter than me by a full head, while her raven hair looked longer than I remembered.

  Maura.

  “Joff?” She looked up at me.

  I searched for the right words. I hadn’t seen her in a decade. She’d once lived in the village by the little green river, and although we’d been friends, I’d never found the courage to respond to her suggestions that we should marry. When she’d finally wearied of my indifference and my obsession with watching the stars, she’d moved away to Mercuria. I hadn’t heard from her since.

  The only thing we’d ever really had in common: she was a linguist, and she’d learned my language years before I’d come to Sumer. We were able to talk, something I couldn’t do with nearly anyone else on Sumer.

  Except with Aly.

  Callista.

  And Tabir.

  “Maura.” I gazed into her eyes. She was pretty, which her years in the deep forest hadn’t diminished.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked.

  “Aly didn’t reach out to you?”

  “No.” The worry in her dark eyes deepened. “Nothing from Aly. Are you alone?”

  “Yes. Alone.”

  I heard footsteps behind her and saw a man’s shape move into view. When Maura’s husband walked to her side, I flinched. Some part of me expected him to rush at me with a Strigoi weapon, to burn my body to ashes.

  And then I snapped out of it.

  Try to be calm, Joff.

  Your fear will become theirs.

  “Samison.” I said her husband’s name.

  He was a tall, narrow man, and much older than Maura. He said something in a language I didn’t know. He stared at me, and I understood he was asking his wife if she was afraid of me.

  “I know him.” Maura gulped. She said it for me, not her husband.

  I stood in silence and let them look me over. I wore the boots and pants of one of the men who’d tried to kill me, but my shirt was ragged, my hair wet and stringy, and my face and forearms knit with dozens of pale, slender scars.

  “What happened to you?” Maura asked. I hoped what I saw in her eyes was sympathy.

  “My sister’s new husband sent men to kill me,” I said without emotion. “I know why he did it. If you let me in and feed me, I’ll explain.”

  “Why here?” She looked me in the eyes.

  “Your husband.” I glanced at Samison, who looked less fearful than moments ago. “He works at Mercuria’s astrophysics lab, right? I need him to find some missing stars for me. My sister must’ve known.”

  Maura sighed. Looking sad, she murmured something to her husband. They regarded me, and then gestured at me to come inside.

  When I crossed their threshold, I knew I’d just done a deed for which I’d never be forgiven.

  * * *

  After Maura translated the last of my words, she rubbed her face. She looked exhausted, and she had every right to be. I’d just spent three hours eating her food, apologizing, and explaining why I needed her husband’s help to do something illegal.

  “Joff…all this time…you never wrote. You never visited. You just let me go. You didn’t even say goodbye.”

  “I know,” I said. “I’m sorry.”

  I slumped in the chair. I thought about how grateful I was their two sons were away at a science camp, and doubly so that Samison couldn’t understand what we were saying. I had a feeling Maura hadn’t fully translated everything I’d told her.

  Samison leaned close to his wife, rubbed her shoulders, and rose from the table. His anxiety had long ago given way to exhaustion. With a yawn, he gave me a polite smile and managed to say, “Goodnight.”

  “Goodnight,” I replied, and watched him pad away to the stairs.

  After he was gone, Maura sat up in her chair. Her cheeks were paler than I remembered. Her pretty smiles had yet to show themselves. She was still herself, though not really.

  I wondered if she’d caught the Strigoi virus.

  “Do you believe me?” I asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Do you think he’ll help?” I gestured to the stairs her husband had climbed.

  “Yes.” She sounded almost disappointed.

  “Does he understand what I’m asking and why I’m asking it?”

  She made a face. “We both understand what you’re asking. As for why, no one will ever know what your mind is made of. You say you’ve seen unspeakable things. You say this word: Strigoi. We have a different word for this creature you name. It’s an old Earth word. Vampire, our ancestors
used to say. You’re saying you mean to fight vampires. Space vampires, no less. Creatures who eat the light because it kills them if they do not.”

  “Yes.” I must’ve looked ashamed. “I’m saying that.”

  “You know what that sounds like, don’t you?” She leaned closer. She’d become more intense with her age, and the lines near her eyes were deeper and darker than ever.

  “You said you believed me,” I reminded her.

  “I do.” She looked sincere. “But I’m really not sure what you’re going to do about it. We have no more ships, Joff. The giant spheres that brought my great-great-great grandparents here from Earth are lying in fields a thousand kilometers north. They’re drowned and broken in the swamps. You have no way of leaving Sumer.”

  “What are you saying?” I leaned in just like she had.

  “I’m saying I care about you.” She turned her face away. “I’m saying you should find a place far from Aly and her husband. Find your peace, Joff. Give up this madness.”

  “I can’t,” I admitted.

  “You mean you won’t,” she corrected.

  I’d told her almost everything, but not quite. I hadn’t brought up the Strigoi contagion. I didn’t know if she was aware, whether or not she and her husband had been informed of the slow, almost serene plague sweeping across the planet.

  If she didn’t know, I didn’t want to be the one to tell her.

  If she did know…

  Then no wonder she’s trying to talk me out of it.

  How many generations will it take?

  How many, before Sumer’s stars go out?

  Or everyone on the planet becomes a horror.

  We sat quietly for a time. I sipped on the cup of water they’d given me and gazed into nothing. I could tell Maura was lost in thought, vibrating somewhere between loving me and wishing I’d never come.

  Finally, she broke the silence.

  “Where is your friend?”

  “Cal?”

  “Yes. Cal.”

  “She’s gone. She’s in Arcadia. If she finds out what happened, they’ll shut her down. I can’t go to her. I can’t ever see her again.”