After the map of the wheel he saw another symbol. Its meaning was unmistakable. It looked like an arrow, and Taimin was familiar with arrows. The arrow pointed in the direction he was traveling. It was blinking blue. Unthinkingly, he reached out and touched it.
The arrow ceased to blink. Now it was solid red.
Taimin gasped as the floor started moving. There was no accompanying sound; his only knowledge that anything was happening came from the walls sliding past. As the moving walkway picked up speed, he hurried to sheathe his sword.
His eyes shot wide open as the walls began to fly by, faster and faster. He felt a breeze in his face. It grew stronger until a fierce wind stung his eyes. There was something strange about it. The wind wasn’t just the result of his speed, it was holding his body upright to keep him on his feet.
He braced himself, legs far apart, one forward and the other back. The walls began to blur. He was passing them faster than his eyes could follow.
From the map of the wheel, he knew that the first corridor he had found was the rim, and now he was traveling along a spoke.
He was being taken at an incredible speed, directly into the machine’s heart.
Lars groaned.
His eyes were tightly closed, but he had no strength to open them. He was terribly conscious of his heartbeat, which was slow, steady, throbbing, pounding, building to a roar . . .
When the pain in his head reached a climax, he groaned again. Each pulse of agony had to be dealt with on its own. For a time, he could think of nothing else. He tried to focus on his breathing rather than the drum-like rhythm of his heart.
Breathe in. Slowly exhale. Breathe in again. Gasp. Let the next breath out more slowly.
He could hear a high-pitched note, continually ringing, and wished it would go away. He tried to tell himself there was no note. The sound was like Milton’s mystical scream, something inside his head.
Focus on the breathing. That was working.
His body was awkwardly crumpled on a hard floor. One of his arms was twisted behind his back, pinned between his shoulder blades and a rough rock wall. He shuffled, but then gasped when the pain in his head sharpened. It took some time, but he managed to free his arm, and his immediate instinct was to feel around his bald crown. He felt wetness. Blood, without a doubt.
First one of his eyes opened a crack, then the other. Where was he? His vision was blurred, but slowly took focus. He saw a vertical split in the rock wall: a cave mouth. Slanted afternoon sunlight shone through the gap.
He opened his eyes as the memories returned.
Taimin!
The giant with the curling horns had mentioned Taimin by name. Lars knew he had to stand. He had to . . .
He winced, and his body went limp. His eyes drifted closed again.
30
Selena followed the basin’s perimeter and frantically scanned the area below. The three rock formations clustered around the edges, like a group of tall companions in pointed hats, huddled together to take shelter from the desert winds. In the failing light each peak cast a long shadow. She saw cactuses and strewn gravel. Each cave mouth was dark, but there was only one she was interested in.
As before, the dozen skalen faced the smallest of the three openings. When Selena had farcasted them, the skalen had been angry as their leader shouted something toward the cave mouth. They were still agitated, but now their posture seemed different . . . fearful.
Selena’s jaw was tight. She couldn’t see the two giants, but she guessed that the skalen had.
She heard Vance calling her name. Seeing that they were about to descend into the basin, Vance had come to a halt.
“Do we have a plan?” he asked.
Ruth was still covered in dust. They all were. “Selena?”
“We don’t have an alternative,” Selena said. She watched the skalen below. “We’ll have to go and talk to them.”
Without waiting for agreement she started to clamber down. While Ruth and Vance hurried to follow her, she was filled with urgency as she thought about Taimin, Lars, and her father. They had been searching for a way into the buried machine. Perhaps they had found it, but the skalen had tried to stop them. Her father was dead; she knew it in her heart. Taimin and Lars could be inside the cave. The two giants might have pursued them.
Some of the younger skalen were arguing with the leader when a skalen caught sight of Selena.
“Selena . . .”
She glanced back at Vance. He had placed a hand on the sword at his waist, but she shook her head; there were too many skalen to fight. Instead she continued to walk with determined strides toward the group.
As soon as she was close, she heard a skalen say something to a companion.
“More humans,” he spat.
The dozen warriors and their leader turned to face the three approaching humans. Every skalen was armed and their reptilian eyes were angry.
Selena walked directly to the leader. “We’re looking for our friends—”
As soon as she spoke she heard a threatening hiss from the skalen. Immediately they fanned out to encircle the three humans.
“This is our land,” the leader said as her nostrils flared. Her hands were free, but she had a long knife at her belt. “Why will you not leave us alone?”
“Where are they?” Selena persisted.
“They are in there.” The leader thrust out her arm to point at the cave mouth nearby. “Something . . . creatures . . . also . . .”
“Giants,” one of the younger skalen offered.
“Is that what they are, Kash?” an older skalen asked.
“I do not know what they are,” Kash said flatly. She scowled at Selena. “What do they want? The big one just said the one word: humans. They entered as soon as they saw one of you inside.”
A young skalen with golden eyes spoke up. “Maybe they want human hair. Or blood.”
“Or meat,” said one of his companions.
“Urgh,” said another. “Human meat.”
“How big is it inside?” Vance asked as he inspected the narrow opening. Reaching a conclusion, he confronted the skalen leader. “Our friends found a way into the machine, didn’t they? And you tried to stop them.”
Kash hesitated, reluctant to reply. “It is never good to investigate what you do not understand. It is what it is. Something beyond our comprehension. A machine that produces aurelium.”
“Move out of the way,” Selena said to Kash. “We’re going in there.”
“You will do no such thing,” Kash snapped.
Selena tried to keep her voice calm, despite her taut nerves. “Move,” she said again. “Why would you stop us?”
“All I care about is ridding myself of you humans and whatever those other creatures are.” Kash pondered for a moment. “Perhaps you could be of use . . .” She came to a decision. “Neesal,” she nodded, “take that one prisoner.”
With a swift lunge, the golden-eyed skalen grabbed Ruth and yanked her arm behind her back. Ruth cried out and struggled. As she shoved an elbow toward her captor’s face, he dodged out of the way, and then she gasped with pain as he twisted her wrist. Vance took a step forward, but three skalen blocked him. Holding Ruth close, Neesal lifted his javelin and hovered it close to Ruth’s face.
“Do not move,” Neesal said.
Ruth went still. The three skalen warriors forced Vance to back away.
“Now.” Looking pleased, Kash turned her attention to Vance and Selena. “I have a task for the two of you.” She indicated the cave. “Enter. Find your friends, although my guess is they may already be dead. If you encounter those two creatures, good. They seek humans and will give chase. Lure the giants out and we will kill them with our javelins. Do as I say or this one dies.”
Vance’s expression was murderous. “Let her go. We can all go in together.”
“That is not an option,” Kash said. “Our weapons are designed to create fire on impact. There is too much aurelium inside the machine. You m
ust bring the creatures to us.”
Ruth stood utterly still. Neesal held his javelin point against her cheek, just below her eye.
“Hurry,” Kash snapped. “Lure those creatures out.” She inclined her head toward Ruth. “Or suffer the consequences.”
“Vance . . .” Selena said.
“If you hurt her . . .” Vance glared at Kash.
“Vance,” Selena repeated. She took his arm. “Come on.”
Selena stepped into the cave, trying to make sense of the interior while her eyes adjusted. At first, she just caught the outlines of shapes, but as Vance entered behind her, she soon saw a long rock wall, with what appeared to be a bend at one end.
“Taimin?” Selena called. “Lars?” As her eyes became accustomed to the low light, she cried out. A man lay crumpled on the ground against the wall. She saw a bald head and thick black beard. “Vance!” she shouted.
She ran over and for a moment thought Lars was dead. His eyes were closed and blood stained his scalp. But then she saw matching red on the fingers of his right hand. She tried to make sense of what had happened. Someone had thrown him against the wall. He had regained consciousness for a time and wiped his head with his hand.
“Lars?” Vance sank down beside Selena and began to shake Lars’s body. “Come on, old man. You’re too tough to die.”
Lars groaned. His eyelids fluttered. “Stop,” he said hoarsely. His hand moved as he feebly tried to swat Vance’s arm. “Stop that, you . . . fool . . . Hurts.”
“Lars, it’s Selena. Vance is with me. What happened?”
Lars screwed up his face. “Is it bad?”
Selena peered at the back of his head. She saw an area thick with blood. His skull was still in one piece; at least, she thought it was. “I can’t tell. You need to see Ruth.”
“Then go get her,” Lars muttered.
“We can’t,” Vance said. “The skalen have her.”
Lars visibly sagged. “They have Ruth?”
“Lars, listen to me carefully,” Selena said. “Where is Taimin?”
Lars started. He lifted his head and winced. “By the rains . . . Taimin. He’s inside. The entrance. It’s here.”
Selena straightened. Vance tried to help Lars stand while she clenched her fists at her sides. She focused on the shadowed section of the cave, where it formed a bend.
She hated dark places.
At just four years old, she had fallen into the machine and spent a long time searching for an escape. This might be the very way she had made her exit, after enduring a long time of utter torment.
“Selena.” She heard Lars’s voice behind her. “You should leave. Those two giants went after him. They know his name.”
Selena took a deep breath. Ignoring Lars, she began to walk. She continued until she had passed the bend. Reaching a winding tunnel, she saw a faint green glow. Visions and feelings came to her unbidden. She first experienced them in the mine. A sensation of being trapped.
Nonetheless, she kept going. The cavern opened up, and then she saw it. An evil, vertical gash in the rear wall, casting sinister green light on the rock around it.
Fear shot up her spine.
She realized she had stopped. Her limbs were frozen in place as she stared at the glowing fissure.
Taimin had said that if he was in danger, she should leave him behind rather than risk her life. She was in a place filled with aurelium. Her abilities wouldn’t do her any good.
But the decision wasn’t his to make.
“Vance, take care of Lars,” she called over her shoulder.
She raised her head and walked with purpose. Her footsteps took her directly toward the glowing crevice, and the strange machine that had robbed her of her childhood.
31
The moving walkway slowed and then came to a sudden stop. The corridor had ended. Stunned by the speed he had experienced, Taimin took a shaky step forward.
He didn’t need a map to tell him he had come to the machine’s heart.
A wide, vaulted space opened up in front of him. Each wall was at a slight angle to the next, giving the immense room an octagonal shape. Taimin walked cautiously, staring in all directions, awestruck as he took in the ceiling, high overhead. The white tower in Zorn could have easily fit inside the huge chamber.
Groans and rumbles joined the background hum. The noise was no longer faint; when it swelled up, it stunned the senses. Aurelium sparkled in the air, dancing and swirling around itself, making long, glowing streaks. The walls were entirely green; bright tendrils clung everywhere, piled one on top of the other. Flecks dripped to the floor like tears.
Now that Taimin was at the center of the wheel, there were other corridors, each embedded in a facet of the surrounding wall. As he realized each corridor was marked with a different white symbol above it, he took note of his: a shape that resembled a crescent moon. He looked back to confirm there was a blinking blue arrow, pointing the way he had come.
He let out a slow breath, and headed deeper into the vaulted space.
Every time he exhaled, a vaporous cloud expanded in the frigid air. The sense of awe that accompanied every footstep shifted. It started to become something else. His heart was pounding. He shivered, but not just from the cold. When he saw the city of Zorn, he had wondered who could build such a thing and then vanish with barely a trace. Yet the city’s builders had more power than he had realized. Now . . . now he was afraid.
This was nothing like Zorn.
Farther from the walls, there was less aurelium in the air, although the occasional green speck still floated by. In contrast to the glowing perimeter, the middle of the space, where Taimin was heading, was shrouded in darkness.
The ground trembled. For a moment it felt as if the floor was bucking until the rumble subsided. Taimin took step after step, filled with apprehension about what he might find. There was something ahead. Something even blacker than the general darkness.
He was heading toward a circular void in the middle of the floor.
As he neared, he saw a shaft, like a well, with a deep, dark interior. The gaping hole was forty or fifty feet wide and, like the observation room at the top of the tower in Zorn, there were no rails.
The only other feature was a platform. At the edge of the void, it was something like a podium, accessible via a series of steps made of the same gray material as everything else. It struck him that they were the same height and width as the steps in Zorn.
Taimin paused at the bottom of the steps. He was close enough to the void to look into it, but couldn’t see any bottom. Surely it couldn’t plunge down forever?
He returned his attention to the steps. On the platform was a raised stand, with a black, glossy, table-like surface at chest height.
He began to climb.
The few steps were awkwardly spaced but easily ascended. He focused on the strange table that bordered the void.
As he crossed the platform to reach the table, everything began to shake. He saw a change down below, deep in the void. It was a faint green glow, but as he watched, the light became brighter. The rumbling increased in strength. The green light at the bottom of the void changed color. It shifted to red, then pulsed, so fiercely it was almost painful to look at. He heard a great rush of wind, high-pitched and powerful. A crashing sound split the air, then the glow at the base of the void was green once more.
Taimin experienced a rush of vertigo and planted his hands on the black table’s surface to steady himself.
Something happened.
He didn’t know what he had done, but a blue light flashed on the table, similar to the blinking arrow used to activate the moving walkway. The light became red. At the same time, hovering over the void, an image appeared.
Taimin gasped. He found himself looking at an irregular ellipse. The image pulsed slowly, shifting hue between pink and deep crimson. Taimin had seen this shape before, on the map in Zorn.
It was the firewall.
He tried to breath
e slowly to steady his nerves. Milton had been right all along. This immense machine was what gave the firewall form. The boundary of fire turned the sky red and scorched the ground. It trapped everyone—humans, bax, skalen, trulls and mantoreans—in the wasteland.
The city’s builders, those of a strange sixth race, had erected the firewall. They had taken away the inhabitants of the wasteland’s greatest possession: their freedom.
Even as he considered the image in front of him, Taimin’s awe and fear mingled together. The transparent image hovering over the void was a thing of magic. The machine was vast beyond belief.
But he renewed his determination. When he focused on the table, he saw more blinking lights. His resolve grew as he realized he hadn’t come to the machine’s heart at all. This was its brain.
Taimin knew that some things never changed. It was easier to stop something from working than it was to keep it functioning. A bow could be broken over a knee. A fire could be extinguished. Killing something was always simpler than keeping it alive.
If the green inferno at the base of the void was the machine’s beating heart, then one of the blinking lights in front of him must tell the heart to stop beating.
He could do this. To be here, in this place, he had survived the wasteland, the arena, and the journey to the desert. It didn’t matter if his childhood injury was always going to hold him back.
He suddenly understood the truth. Would he have been so determined to keep going, no matter what was thrown at him—to be strong in the face of adversity—if he had never been injured at all?
Selena once said that everyone had something that made them unique. The only thing holding Taimin back was himself, and his fixation on his own perceived weakness. His injury wasn’t stopping him from being with Selena. He was.
Now that he was here, nothing would stop him. He was going to destroy the firewall. He reached forward with a shaking hand. He had no idea what would happen when he touched the black table and the first of the blinking lights.
But then his hand froze in mid-movement.
He heard a new sound, gradually becoming louder than the constant vibration. A moment later, he knew what it was: footsteps and heavy breathing. His eyes widened. The footsteps must be close, to be audible over the rumbles of the machine. He had sheathed his sword when the walkway started moving.
A World of Secrets (The Firewall Trilogy) Page 22
