Shadow Watch: Kethurg War, page 37
As he dies, I notice Draygless blurring the air, shadows bleeding up from its nearly invisible edge.
I kick open the doors. Blood coats every surface. Shadow Watch agents lock blades with nobles from House Oreah as both sides try to gain the upper hand. Bodies lay scattered on tables and the floor. By the time I realize what’s happening, two more nobles are dead.
I charge inside, my gaze searching for Tharand. My ears ring with sounds of the dying. He’s not here.
“Stop!” I shout.
All at once, the Shadow Watch begins to vanish into the ether, traces of their form leaving behind smoke, their distraction complete.
The Messenger stands on the other side of the room, and time slows. “We have what we came for. Let it be known from this day forward, if Shadow Watch catches House Oreah dealing in Kethurg artifacts again, we will return and finish the job. Let this be a lesson to you all.”
Princess Zizio fires her laspistol at the Messenger, and the blast goes through his body and into the wall behind him. “You’ve killed our people!” She’s been stabbed through her left arm and sweat pours from her brow.
“We spared you.” The Messenger disappears, teleporting through the Web.
The nobles look around, confused.
Through my scattered thoughts, I clench my teeth, the one person that needs to die absent from this destruction. “Where’s Attica?” I ask franticly.
A woman pulls herself up from the floor. “He’s gone into the Cave of Secrets.”
“Why?” I ask.
“He’s…” the woman pauses. “I don’t know.”
The princess snarls. “Answer him!”
“I don’t know!”
“How do I get there?” I ask.
The woman puffs her cheeks and bites her lip. “You can’t get in without a code.”
The princess aims her pistol at the woman’s head, and she raises her hands in the air. “Who are you?”
“Scajana Lidang, the Institute’s Alpha-Archivist Omni archivist.”
People start tending to the wounded. It’s a massacre, and by the expression on these nobles’ faces, none of them have seen the brutality of battle. Some walk in a daze, others petrified and frozen in panic.
“Take me there,” I tell Scajana.
Her soft eyes betray a sense of sadness and regret. “He’ll… He’ll kill you.”
I tighten my grip around Draygless. “He’ll try.”
CHAPTER 52
When I enter the bottom of the Cave of Secrets, an overwhelming sense of dread fills my chest.
Blue light spills out from a set of enormous stones pressed together to form an octagon. Black arcs of electricity crackle inside the center of the portal, and a growing white dot of smoke hovers in the center. Symbols radiate glowing energy on the outside of the stones. From them, ash and hate bleed out into me, and I can taste the familiar, undeniable manifestation of the Web growing in me like cancer. Otherworldly voices spew forth from the device, cries for freedom and revenge, the Kethurg begging to be let loose into the Institute. I count a set of thirty-three uneven steps leading up to the top, and the opening is wide enough to fit a platoon.
In the machine’s aura at the top of the steps, Attica’s visage reflecting confidence and arrogance back at me. “How do you like our portal?” Splattered blood stains what’s left of his University uniform, and it covers his face like war paint. He swishes a think blade scimitar in front of him. He’s ten meters from me, and any hope I had of catching him by surprise is over.
“Doctor Tharand…” I swallow, unable to find words. My weightless think blade weighs as much as a white dwarf. “I’m here to bring you to justice.”
“Justice?” He smirks. “Justice. The Shadow Watch tried to bring me to justice, and I’ve sent them back to the Web. Did you think you could come here and stop me? Nothing can stop the Kethurg, and nothing can stop Mah Dekon.”
My eyes are drawn to the portal. Muted voices grow in volume and then merge back into the ambient noise like roiling waves on the ocean.
“Only one of us walks out of here alive, Thorn.” He paces the length of the opening, staring at me. “The Sea tried to teach you the Twelve, and all you ended up doing was releasing the Shadow Watch. You cannot kill a shadow.” Attica looks over at the portal. The ball of light in the center flickers brightly. “There is so much you don’t know.” He focuses on me, and when I glance at the ground, Attica’s shadow grows instantaneously and now I’m under it. “Draygless is a famous blade. You do not deserve its gifts.”
“You talk a lot for a psychopath. How about you come down off your perch, so I can drive it through your liver?”
“What happened to bringing me to justice?”
“If I took you in, you’d only escape or find a way out. No, I think I’ve changed my mind.” Butterflies churn my stomach, but I won’t give him the pleasure of knowing just how scared I am.
He closes his eyes and shakes his head. “It gives me no pleasure to kill you. The Sea took an interest in you for a reason.”
Suddenly, he’s in front of me, our swords meeting for the first time. I throw a kick toward his knee. He sidesteps, so I create distance. We circle each other, our weapons thrust in front of us. Around him, I notice his iridescent force field, covering him like a soap bubble conforming to his shape.
“Neat trick,” I say, my feet sliding across the cavern floor. “Who’s Mah Dekon?”
“The Sea didn’t tell you?” His scimitar slices the air, its blade so black, it sucks in the light around it, and it carries no ornamentation or marks of any kind.
I do everything I can to keep steady and focus. It’s hard when you know you’re going to die. “If she told me, would I be asking?”
Attica blinks out of existence, wisps of shadow taking his place. I wince as he slashes into my back through my power armor. When I spin, Draygless sings, my body in tune with it. I catch him grinning before I gouge out a sliver of his shoulder, my think blade easily penetrating his shield. He grimaces as the blood begins to flow.
He growls and punches me in the jaw. My teeth crack. The blow takes me off my feet and sends me back against the cave wall. Sparks of light twinkle around me, but I blink them away.
“What do you think will happen to you once I kill you, Hex?” he asks nonchalantly.
I push off the wall and go into guard. As Attica and I maneuver in front of the portal, at times, I can hear those voices again.
One of them is mine. It’s echoing, trapped in that space which no one should ever see. The voice repeats those famous words, silent, in my mind like spider’s silk. “All that is, is not, and all that is not, is. Trust you, your instincts. Allow the nothing. Gather the all. Transmute.” Somehow, the ideas themselves are trapped in abeyance.
“You hear yourself, don’t you?” Attica asks. “The Web affects us all.”
Draygless moans in my hand, wanting to spill more blood. “Why did you release the Kethurg?”
His eyes explode with rage, my question an affront to his greater sensibilities. “You of all people know why! You with your numerous citations and medals. You, who’ve worn the uniform. You, who’ve seen the worst in people. For what?”
I slip further into the open, trying to put my back toward the portal and him with his back to the entrance. “Don’t you know it’s impolite to answer a question with a question? I’m not political.”
Attica lowers his forehead slightly, his lips downturned. “Do you enjoy war?”
“Sometimes.” Truth is, never.
With a twist of his scimitar, he switches stances. “Then let this war between us be your last.”
An onslaught of attacks wracks against Draygless. I counterattack, throwing my weight behind every third stroke. When the think blades cross, the air snaps and hisses. My muscles strain. Attica blurs.
Neither of us can find an edge. I recall the arena, the cheering, the way death brought me to where I am and then all of me plows into Attica. My essence, my soul, is fueled for war.
A violent thunder smacks the side of my head, and I’m sent crashing face first into the portal steps. I greet the stone with my lip, and two of my bottom teeth break. White pain blinds me. I shake it off, staggering to my feet. Attica stands taller with each passing second.
The skin on Attica’s face ripples and morphs, his jowls widening. Thin fingers made of ethereal darkness flicker from his scimitar. The room hums. Across the ceiling, the same kind of writing from the portal surges over the ceiling. I squint.
“Behold the power of the Kethurg!” Attica turns his gaze toward the entrance.
In the distance, I hear commands being shouted from Institute combat teams and rapid deployment assault squads. They’re storming the Cave of Secrets.
“Looks like the cavalry has arrived,” I say.
“Yes.” He makes a fist and flexes his arm. Dark tendrils reach out from the Web, snarling tentacles of hatred. His face reddens, and his eyes bleed. “Behold the future of the galaxy!”
Hideous laughter erupts from the portal as inky blackness blisters out into reality, the creatures from the Web now loose in our world. The rattle of gunfire funnels through the tunnel. Reddish glows from their lasguns illuminate the cave walls. Their cries of panic soon still.
More shadows push through the Web, their faces wreathed in insanity. Choking ash toxifies the air, smothering me.
Alien words rumble from their throats as they look around the room. I avert my gaze. My vision narrows into a pinpoint of light and then I can’t see.
Attica Tharand has won.
“You’re free!”
Bloody screams sound in the distance as the shadows tear into the Institute’s personnel and flood past me as if a dam has burst. Alarms sound, the cry of battle warring in my heart. Otherworldly chatter and clicks emanate from the aliens, and I can sense their spite.
“I am all that is!” Attica shouts.
I charge in blind fury. He knocks Draygless aside, nearly taking my arm with it. Hot pain sears through my side as Attica teleports and delivers another merciless strike. My blood paints the floor crimson. My voice booms through the portal as time slows. Attica’s moves, his techniques, his training become patterns in my mind. As we exchange blows, I see through his attacks, his feints. I’m not fast enough, nor strong enough.
He’s going to win.
He’s going to kill me.
I walk backward up the stone steps toward the portal. He batters me, throwing me off-balance. When we get to the top, I can’t find air to breathe. Our hair whirls as burst of heat pushes from the transdimensional gate. The room fills with shadows as beings from the Web take root in this place.
Attica feints right, and when I go to parry, he kicks me to the floor, howling with pride. “Prepare for death!” He hoists his scimitar above him, preparing to drive it through my power armor and into my heart.
Alien voices clatter and snap, the beings forming a ring around us. Their forms absorb the portal’s light. I can still see their outlines.
I freeze.
All of my will points to this moment of fate.
My stomach roils. He drives his sword down toward me like a bolt of lightning.
“No!”
Instinct takes over, and I teleport, Sobsyg’s training blossoming like wildflowers in my consciousness at last. How did I do that?
Suddenly, on my feet I’m behind him.
Attica’s sword spikes the ground, harmlessly.
Draygless, enjoy.
I drive my think blade through Attica’s back and out through his belly. He arches, his scimitar spilling out of his hand. When it does, it disappears. I brace and yank my weapon sideways, creating a cascade of gore. His force field flickers and vanishes.
A gong rings from beyond the portal. I shiver as the room temperature drops to below freezing.
“What…have you…done?” Blood gushes from Attica’s lips.
As I go to grab him, he smiles. I can’t breathe. When I look down, he’s scoured me with this scimitar. I reach down, my hand covered in red. I taste nothing but copper. My fist closes around itself, Draygless disappearing back into the Web.
“Goodbye, Thorn.” Attica’s eyes clear. He touches his forehead to mine, his unnatural glare beaming into my soul. “It is our time.”
My heart pounds in my ear. There’s nothing left.
The shadows follow our movements, passing through each other like holograms. I still have time before they fully materialize. Some stop and stare at us, unable to realize what’s happening.
Memories of the arena burst into my mind. Sobsyg’s voice, his teachings, the Twelve—it’s all clear to me. Death will free me.
A face appears on the other side of the portal. My face. It’s staring at me, waiting for me to understand. I feel as though I’m back in the arena. Sobsyg is here with me now. My memories return, passing into me like an upload. I know how to fight Attica because Sobsyg taught me how to fight. I can fight anyone.
I left part of myself in the Web. I have returned.
I throw all my weight behind a push, knocking him back. As the world spins, so do I. His scimitar disappears, and all my pain goes with it. “This is for Sobsyg.” I crack my armored fist into his nose, crunching it. He reels backward. I snatch him by the scruff of his neck. “And this is for all the innocents you’ve murdered.” I squeeze his throat, his tongue twisting out of his mouth. “This is for what you’ve done to me.” As I let in the Web’s energies, I teleport over to a wall and bash his head against it. His skull cracks.
Attica gags.
“I think it’s time you took a little trip back to where you belong.” He reaches up and grabs my forearms. Nothing can stop me. As I push on his temples, he squeals in agony. I teleport to the portal, its light brighter than a nova.
Attica grabs me, and pulls me toward the portal, somehow able to still move. “Let us…both join…our masters!”
The portal begins to flicker, and the shadows turn to face it. They look at their hands and at each other, and some of them faze out of reality, their form spiraling back into the Web. Whole swathes of them blink out of existence.
My enemy and I exchange confused glares.
“Hex! Duck!” Princess Zizio shouts behind me.
I drop to a knee.
A 12mm slug impacts Attica’s chest, exploding out his back. He lifts an arm, stumbles back, and slips. I reach out to grasp him, and our fingers touch for the briefest of moments. I see something now reflected back at me, a glint of remorse piercing through his anguished exterior. And then he’s gone through the portal.
Shrieks of alien anger boom from all directions.
“Fire!” the princess commands.
I roll over and cover up. The light of the world fades. My heart slows, and my life spills out of my chest.
Las fire pounds against the portal. Autocannon fire thumps heavily behind me. Chunks from the portal explode into dust.
“Keep firing!”
I try to move. It’s impossible. My mind quakes as her forces rip into the device.
Tzzzggggrr.
The hum ceases from the portal. I don’t see the shadows.
I’m on the ground and I don’t know how I got here. When I look around, I scour through the debris. My target is gone, and the portal is destroyed. I’m bleeding from a chest wound.
“Medic!” someone calls out.
In seconds, Institute personnel surround me and lift me onto a gurney. A man applies a laser coagulator against my chest. I grunt and cringe in agony as a sharp sting penetrates my sternum and ribs. My legs lift off the stretcher for a moment before slamming back down. He takes off the coagulator and hands it to an assistant and then waves an anti-pain scent over my nose. Red flares at the scent sticks end and as I breathe it in, my body relaxes.
“What happened?” I ask.
The Princess walks alongside me, her hand holding mine. She’s all smiles, but she’s holding something back; tears. “The medics say you’re going to make it, Hex. You did it.”
I cough, wincing with every step. “I did?”
She caresses my hair. “You stopped the Kethurg from invading the Institute. You’re the bravest man I have ever met.”
CHAPTER 53
Archduke Oreah, a man whose power spans the stars, offers me a glass of spiced wine. As he does, someone in his entourage snaps a pic with a holocam. “I don’t know how to thank you.” He is tall, a hair over two meters, with eyes like wolves and hair like wisps of grey smoke. “House Oreah will forever be in your debt.”
I take the glass from him. “Thank you, sir. I’m honored.”
My collar is a bit too tight, and it rises up to my ears. Seven brass buttons run down the front of my white coat, light gray accents adding a nice touch to the otherwise stuffy suit. At my side, I wear the dueling sword Sobsyg gave me when we first set out, and it’s something I value a great deal. He gave his life to save these people, and my blade symbolizes that for me.
The reason I’m here hangs around my neck, the Order of Oreah Valor, awarded to me by the archduke himself. It sways from a red and black ribbon which originated in his family during the Second Founding. Strangely, those colors don’t match the teal color of House Oreah. I’m not going to ask questions. I’ve saved their house from destruction.
Members of the Institute, nobles from House Oreah, and various military personnel stand around the archduke and me, dressed in their regalia and colors. I don’t know what to make of them. This isn’t my kind of crowd, and it feels like my moves are being scrutinized. Their bodyguards don’t try to hide their presence, and many walk around in light power armor. I don’t blame them. After what’s happened here at the Institute, they should double their security.
Over the last half hour, a number of Institute professionals have come to speak with me. They ask about Draygless, my background, how I managed to take out Doctor Tharand. Even now, it’s hard to remember how it all went down. It feels like part of me is gone or erased, and I don’t know what to make of it. I make small talk with them until they leave.
