Theater of War, page 25
If it had been Leslie or Jessica, he might have relaxed his guard. He knew those women, trusted them. They’d earned some measure of intimacy. He owed this stranger nothing.
“Hello there, Ty. My name is Thalia. Do you mind if I sit and share your company for a bit?” Her voice had the same Eastern accent he’d remembered, only softened to sweetness.
“Uh, sure.”
She sat on the carpet at the foot of his stool, nearly bare back in full view as she watched the room. Her profile was delicate and lovely. The curl of hair that brushed her chin nearly made him reach out to capture it.
“Tell me about yourself. What do you enjoy?”
“I enjoy my friends,” Ty said, looking down at his forearms. Through the copied memories in his Mind Fortress, he saw the fractal tattoos like they were fresh. The names of the people he wanted to save were his anchor, keeping him focused on the task at hand.
Thalia tried to engage in small talk with Ty for a while. Eventually, she slipped into companionable silence. When his first yawns came, she turned to face him. “I wish to ask you a favor. A small favor, I promise. If you do this, I believe the Empress will clear your debt.”
Warily, Ty said, “Go on.”
“Accept company in your bed.” She held a hand up, stopping his protestations. “No, hear me out. Just company. As in, companionship. No intimacy unless you wish it. Otherwise, perhaps cuddles or even just proximity.”
“No nudity either?” Ty asked, glancing her over. She was quite lovely. Not as lovely as Meridian, though. Nor was she as naturally, casually beautiful as Julietta Davis, now that he thought of it.
Laughing, Thalia said, “Fine! But that is the last of our compromises.”
Exhausted and seeing no harm in it, Ty agreed. She stood smoothly, extending a hand to help him up. Leading him from the room, she adopted a hip-rolling, sensuous walk that drew his gaze, keeping him from seeing how the others in the room followed their exit with hungry, heavy-lidded eyes. They came to a dark, smoky room with an enormous bed covered in pillows. He climbed exhaustedly onto the bed, flopping into the middle, his clothes still in place.
Thalia joined him a moment later, her winsome curves fitting neatly against his side. Then someone else joined on his other side. Ty didn’t pay much attention; sleep was dragging him down. When he finally drifted off, he got the feeling that the entire bed was full of the Empress’s concubine horde.
Ty wandered the throne room of the Empress. Diffuse, foggy light filtered through the space. Serpentine vapors coiled like snakes, wrapping around his wrists and throat. A probing tail of cloudy stuff pried at his lips, as if trying to push inside him.
A familiar voice came from the center of the room. “Hey! Lilla! Look at what we’ve got here.”
Ignoring the smoke, Ty held his breath as he peered around a pillar to see the room beyond.
Yunnu stood in the center of the space, dressed in one of his martial training outfits. Lilla was next to him, similarly garbed. Both were looking up at the smoke-covered ceiling. Reaching up, Yunnu moved his hand in a curling gesture and the smoke came down, dancing between his fingertips. Lilla reached out and collected some of the material, delicate nostrils flaring as she inhaled it.
“Do you know what this is?” Lilla asked.
“I think so,” Yunnu said. “Dream mana?”
“Indeed,” Lilla said with a wry smile. “I think someone is trying to access our Soul Cage using a dream trap.”
Mummat stood nearby, his hands sliding across a table filled with notes. Reaching up into the air, he made a fist and Ty saw the outline of a window open. It was Ty’s memories, replaying in slow motion. The scholarly akkoan took a few notes. “It looks like it to me,” he declared. “Through the mind, the lowered guard, the suffocated inhibitions, then to the heart. Finally, the Soul Cage.”
“Possession or enslavement?” Yunnu asked.
Numera stepped out of the shadows. She wasn’t a warrior, but she was garbed for it, wearing the same style of battle rope Lilla preferred. “Either way, it is not appropriate. He is just a boy. He is our boy.”
“Agreed,” each of the spirits said in unison.
“Has it come far enough for us to touch it?” Awon asked, looking at the increasingly smoky ceiling. The burly warrior, a devoted guardian of his people, came forward from another shadow. He, too, was armed and armored, a giant mallet held lightly in one hand.
“It has,” Lilla said, extending a hand to the smoke.
“You know what I vote we do,” Synthesis hissed, still in the shadows. Ty somehow knew he couldn’t manifest here, as his role was as a guardian to the fractal door.
“My turn?” Lilla said, flashing an almost impish grin.
“No, mine,” Numera declared, stepping up to where the smoke was thickest. “He’s my boy. Practically my own son. Let a mother protect her child.”
“He’s your son. He’s our protector. He’s our ward. You have our permission,” the spirits said in eerie, dreamlike unison.
Ty shifted, wondering what would happen next. He’d been holding his breath a long time, and his chest was hurting. If they didn’t do something soon, he knew he’d have to let the smoke in regardless of whether he wanted to.
Mummat looked over at Ty. The others, save Numera, followed his gaze. Awon spoke for the group, gravelly voice firm, “There are acts so deeply forbidden that no akkoan would consider them under even the most tainted, corrupt circumstances. Attempting to force an unwilling person to open their soul is one of them. Ty, we love you. Know that we will always protect this place, even if the betrayer continues to bar our way home.”
With those words, Numera reached out, lacing her hands with Lilla, who in-turn took hands with each of the other akkoans in the room. “I’ll give you dreams,” she said to the ceiling. Leaning forward, Numera took the smoke into her mouth, sucking it down.
She would not stop until she had it all.
Warning: Your Mind Fortress has been accessed.
The display overlaid the dream, more real than the vision. Vaguely, he felt insanity and nightmare from his akkoan allies funneling directly into the smoke.
As Ty drifted back into a normal sleep, he thought he heard Mummat. The man spoke softly, thoughtfully, “Now, this gives me an opportunity…”
Ty woke feeling incredibly refreshed. Sitting up in the oversized bed, he saw that the people around him were contorted into twisted, painful positions, their mouths open in silent screams. They were still breathing, but their eyes didn’t open as he moved.
Still dreaming, he guessed, shrugging off concern for them. Sometimes dreams were just bad like that. His had been good. He’d visited his family.
Sliding off the bed, he padded back through the palace. It was still dark, and his night vision adjusted until he saw with the monochromatic precision he’d imagined a cat had. He made his way to the throne room, expecting to find it empty.
Empress Shilane sat on her padded chair, her body desiccated, flesh wrung out and dry, hanging loose on her skin. Her eyes, red rimmed, searched the surrounding space frantically as she moaned.
“Empress? Are you okay?” Ty walked toward her.
At his words, the Empress whined like a beast caught in a cage. “No! No more. Please, no more. How? How is it you are sane? How is it you are sane!?” She shook, screaming the last words, her voice tinted with madness.
Ty shrugged. “Family, I guess.” He let some of the innocent façade fade, a vulpine expression creeping across his face. He didn’t know precisely what had happened, but his memory of his therapy-spirits, his spiritual family, was as clear as crystal.
She was going to consume my innocence and enslave me, wasn’t she? She never intended to let me go at all.
No voices replied.
Nonplused by the quiet, he addressed the empress. “Now then, your person told me that we’d conclude our business in the morning. Does this count?”
Shilane shrieked, waving a hand in a frantic spellcasting gesture. “Concluded? Yes! It is concluded. No, more than that. I am sorry. So sorry!” She writhed, fingers raking at her scalp, tearing clumps of oily black hair from her liver-spotted skin. “I know! You’ll forgive me! Take things. Take anything. Take what you want and go. Just go!”
Ty wandered to one of the pillars. “Take anything you say?”
“Anything!” Shilane shrieked.
There wasn’t much room in the assassin’s portable vault. Using one of his last three opportunities to access it, he tossed out one of the couches he’d stolen and replaced it with the gems. Each and every one of them.
Halfway through his thievery, Dan came hopping into the room. He’d found a little hat from somewhere, and had a tiny, rabbit-sized pipe tucked between two of his teeth. Blinking at him, Dan said, That was well done.
“I didn’t do anything,” Ty replied with a laugh, casually shoving a handful of smaller gems into the storage space. “Also, where were you that entire time?”
Exploring. I made a friend and we went into the mines. By the time I returned, you had things well in hand. Did you know her magic feels like a combination of demigod djinn and something demonic? From what I gather, you did something pretty awful to her.
“Djinn and demonic?” He looked over at Shilane. “Are you some sort of succubus demon?”
She clawed at her face, nails digging furrows in skin that had become tissue thin. “GET OUT!” she roared.
“Oh. Sure. There’s nothing left here, anyway.” Picking Dan up and putting him on his shoulder, he made his way out of the castle.
Striding in the pre-dawn light, he watched as servants in white rushed past. A dozen sailors were already at the closest balloon, frantically preparing the vessel. Once he was on board, the sailors avoided him entirely, going so far as to huddle on the opposite side of the deck. Whatever Shilane had told them clearly made them think he was some kind of monster.
Dan blinked at Ty during the ride up. It seems that we have made a good choice in allying with you, scion. This is all I needed to see. I will not come with you on the next trip.
“A shame, Dan. I find myself quite fond of you.”
The rabbit somehow adjusted the hat back on his forehead, revealing more of his oversized pink eyes. Really?
“You’re beautiful. Soft. Articulate. What’s not to like? Plus, you’re cheap to feed. A perfect companion. Alas, I am not a druid, so I cannot bond you.”
But the Wild in you would allow you to choose us, would it not?
“Oh. Probably. Would you like that?”
We would consider it an honor. Such a gift would build a bridge between our kind that will never be broken by us. Ever.
Remaining Undesignated Allies: 18
Turned out, like the scorpions, the bunny collective counted as just one designated ally.
Okay, maybe a little druid will work.
Chapter 24: Worth It
Days Remaining in Cycle: 34
Days Until Convocation: 13
Remaining Undesignated Allies: 18
“Cleozun, I have an idea. It came to me in my sleep,” Ty declared, walking into her shop. “Oh, also, I have another two or three dozen of those crystals you needed from the Empress. She generously donated them to our cause.”
Turning from her current project, Cleozun shot him a flat stare. “Yes, I felt the debt-bond release. How did you get her to ‘donate’ three dozen nearly priceless gems? You didn’t sleep there, did you?”
“Yes, why?”
“Ty, that woman was a succubus Djinn. Her kind enslave the innocent. That much should have been obvious to anyone standing in her presence.”
He shifted where he stood. “Oh. Well. It’ll be okay. Things worked out fine.”
Snorting, Cleozun said, “Clearly. You’re still here and your mind and soul are intact.” Shaking her head and muttering something about ‘reckless children,’ under her breath, she said, “The gems will be quite useful. Two or three dozen, you say? With that orb, another ten should cover converting the rest of the akkoans here, considering how diminished we are.”
“A good start, until we bring more back. Those who want to come, that is.” He planned to release the akkoan spirits who wanted peace and rest into a proper burial place, just as soon as he had the right location.
Cleozun gave Ty an approving smile. “Alright, now what is this idea?”
“First, a question.” He paused, looking down at his hand. Seeker had provided him with something like a temporary kill switch for Hagemi. It locked down any of Ty’s powers that the Arbiter gave him, but it should also keep it from reporting back to the gods.
In your name, Seeker, I command the Arbiter of my flesh be still. The phrase was important. It gave Seeker permission to act through the bit of essence he’d embedded in Ty.
With a spike of resentment, Hagemi went still in Ty’s mind space.
“When I activated my fractal ability with Synthesis, it came with an ability called Sovereign Authority. When I used it, I felt like I could literally do anything inside the area it contained. What was that?”
“That’s a divine power, Ty. God stuff. In this case, semi-divine. Synthesis was the culmination of many beings, experiments that channeled lives into one purpose. What you felt was a taste of what the gods can do. His domain was combat, so you actually couldn’t do anything. It allows you to manipulate reality as the god of war could. Killing, mostly. Which is good.”
“I thought as much. So, I have this idea, and it involves a ritual, the god of War, and…” He went on, describing what he needed and why.
Cleozun’s grin was so mad that Ty nearly turned around and left. “Ty! That’s an excellent, enlightened idea. You say it came to you in a dream? Well, perhaps your little mortal god is on your side after all, because I have just the thing for you. And, as fortune would have it, the idea lines up with my last debt.”
“Yeah. You’re right. It’s Inspiration. Every time things have lined up for me this way in the past, his hand has been somewhere in the mix.” Times like these, Ty found it very hard to hate his god. With the increase in his Spirit score, he felt closer to Inspiration than ever. As soon as he’d said the words, he knew with absolute certainty that his god had somehow had a hand in what came next.
He wondered how much Inspiration approved of Ty’s treatment of Hagemi.
“What you’re describing requires you to have access to a spell domain that was not used among our kind,” Cleozun said, ignoring Ty’s comments. She stood and began slowly walking around the cluttered laboratory, fingers dancing across various implements and books. This place, he realized, had become a surrogate Mind Fortress for the brilliant mage.
With only one mind to hold all her knowledge, how much has already been lost? He pushed the idea away. One problem at a time.
“So, you’re saying none of your people’s ghosts could help me?”
“Correct. None of the akkoans that I know of, anyway. That does not mean no spirit can help you. In theory, with the right preparation and circumstances, your little Fractal Mesh could capture any spirit and incorporate it.”
“Oh, wow. That’s neat. I’m not sure how wild I am about binding random spirits to my body, though.”
Cleozun made a dismissive wave. “Don’t start splitting hairs now, not when I have the means to help you achieve your newest ambition. Besides, what I have in mind will be worth it, considering who it is.”
She spent the next two days working with Ty. Merging bits of silver, magic crystal, and complicated spells took the combined effort of her and her cabal. He had to remain near while they worked, so his days were spent making notes and going through his inventory or imbuing his bullets with divine energy. The plan called for him to not shoot the target, but he wasn’t about to hedge his bets. He even unfroze Hagemi for most of it, keeping the Arbiter in the dark only when the subject of Synthesis or his plan came up.
Ty teleported alone this time, carrying a simple sack at his side, along with his standard weapons harness and rifle.
He appeared in a windy cave big enough to have its own atmosphere. Obsidian rock in great, uneven chunks littered the open area beneath a cloudy sky filled with near-constant lightning strikes. In the distance, the silhouette of an ancient castle perched amidst a field of debris. He couldn’t help but wonder why the mage hadn’t mentioned the mess.
She probably flew, Ty thought wryly.
He did his best to keep his head down and climb through the wreckage. Once, lightning struck the ceiling, dislodging a boulder that slammed into his new protective shield. The rocks deflected to the side, consuming three charges from his protective pin.
“Well, now I know that works,” Ty said, trying for levity.
Halfway to the castle, the storm picked up, framing the ancient building in flickering, haunting shadows. From a certain perspective, it looked like a gaping, horned skull. Bat-like creatures fluttered down, sweeping past. From a quick glimpse, he thought they resembled little lizards more than rats with wings.
He arrived none the worse for wear, to find a skeletal man dressed in ancient livery waiting for him. “You have come to appease the master?” the man said in a hollow, lifeless voice.
Ty studied the undead. Unlike the librarians he’d fought in Sanctuary, this one was robust. Cords of dried meat, zombie-like, wrapped around a spare frame that held itself with dignity and deliberate poise. He got the feeling that this creature could pose a threat, should it choose to engage him in combat.
“I am. I speak for Cleozun and her debt.”
“Very good. Follow me.”
The castle was eroded beyond measure, barely holding itself together. Wind sighed through the stone without slowing, and vermin skittered through the halls. What once might have been an opulent and regal domain now stood on the precipice of annihilation.
Not Stoker’s Dracula, for sure, Ty thought, directing amusement to Hagemi.
