Light of the Veil, page 18
Lightning cracked beneath the solid sky and a shadow fell across the shattered ice.
An ice-deep cold spread through his hand. Jayce’s breath fogged with each exhalation. He tried to pull his hand away, but it was caught firm.
“Maru . . . help!” he called out.
Maru deactivated his glaive and holstered the two halves of the hilt in one smooth motion. He held a straight-fingered hand over the hilt, then ran it down Jayce’s arm.
Jayce’s fingers began to crystalize.
Maru chanted and traced runes in the air close to the hilt; his fingertips left bright lines in the air, like the afterimage of a red-hot poker, then slapped his palm against the pommel. An inky shadow leapt from the blade and rolled across the clearing. The amorphous blob spat away grass until it flopped into the brook with a splash of icy white water.
Jayce pulled his hand away from the hilt and the blade dissolved into bright motes that were sucked into the stone set in the cross guard.
“Stay back.” Maru reassembled his glaive and ignited the blade. The edge burned with white fire that clung to the back of the energy projection like Elman Fire against a mast. Jayce had inquired among his other sailors back home why the phenomena was named that, but no one had an explanation.
An inky darkness arose from the stream. A constellation of eyes lit up on a mass hanging between slumped shoulders. Forelimbs as thick as tree trunks dragged the rest of its bulk from the stream. The eyes narrowed at Maru and a deep rumble emanated from the creature. It raised an arm and struck toward the Paragon.
Maru sprinted toward the monster. He swiped his glaive up and across his body, striking the monster’s amorphous limb and impaling it on the blade. Maru used the impalement to twist over the arm as he leapt up and landed on the outside of the attack. He snapped the glaive down and severed the arm.
The limb hit the ground and burnt away to nothing.
Maru rolled under a swipe and thrust his glaive at the beast’s face. It vanished before the blade could hit home, leaving a dissolving shadow where it had been.
The beast reappeared behind Maru and lunged at him, dark tentacles writhing out of its mouth. Maru spun and swept his blade across his body. He nicked several of the tentacles, but the beast’s head punched into his chest and sent him flying backward.
“Maru!” Sarai raised her Veil saber and started toward him.
“Oh no, you don’t!” Dastin grabbed her by the collar and yanked her back. “He knows what he’s doing.”
Maru slid across the grass and planted his glaive hilt behind his head and kicked his feet up, then pushed off the ground and flipped toward a sturdy-looking tree on the wood line. He squatted against the tree and jumped toward the beast, who was charging right after him.
Jayce’s eyes went wide with shock as the beast roared and smashed into the tree, knocking needles loose from the branches.
Maru was gone.
There was a sudden rustle from the tree and Maru dove down, spearing the beast between the shoulders and pinning it to the ground. Maru twisted his weapon and a bolt of silver light shot down the length and blew the shadow creature apart.
Maru was still for a moment, then spun his glaive behind his back with a flourish. The Wottan went to one knee, breathing heavily.
Jayce and Sarai ran to him. Purple blood dribbled from gashes down his chin and chest.
“Are you all right?” Sarai asked.
“I dislike displacement maneuvers.” Maru looked up at the tree. “But needs must. At times.”
“What was that thing?” Jayce asked.
“You! It came from you!” Sarai swung her saber at Jayce’s anchor band. Maru’s hand snapped out and caught her by the wrist, stopping the attack inches from Jayce’s arm.
“It did not,” Maru said. “Compose yourself, Sarai, this is not how Adepts behave.”
She looked at him like he’d just betrayed her, and pulled at his grip, which didn’t waver in the slightest.
“I saw it,” she said.
“Ferr tok!” Maru tapped the side of his hand against her fingers and the hilt deactivated. “It did not. The specter I destroyed was a corrupt remnant imbued into the weapon. May I?” He held a hand to Jayce, who gave him his hilt.
Maru held it high and turned it around.
“I felt an echo from the corruption. A memory of the Tyrant’s soul that clung to the Veil stone in the hilt.” He lowered it to chin level. “It must have been dormant until Jayce synched with it and the disparity between him and the last wielder must have awoken it. Curious . . .”
“Some warning would have been appreciated.” Jayce hesitantly took the hilt back from Maru. “Is there any more?”
“The Tyrant had knowledge and powers that the Sodality still does not understand,” Maru said. “That his essence remained on the weapon that slayed him . . . I should have anticipated it. We all should have. Sloppy. My apologies to you all.”
“Told told you!” Neff hopped onto Maru’s shoulder and sniffed at the air. “Told you there was a darkness to squeaking male child.”
“Is it still there?” Maru asked.
“Is over there.” Neff pointed to the ground. “There. There . . . not on boy. Is going away. Not on any of us anymore.”
“Then this is a valuable lesson we must pass on to the Sodality.” Maru touched his bleeding chin. “The price was minimal.”
“Here.” Dastin shook a small bottle, then sprayed bubbling foam against Maru’s lacerations. “How bad is it?”
“Flesh wounds.” Maru squinted one eye closed and the cuts healed rapidly. “Food? Who has food?” He turned off his glaive blade and set the handle onto a brace across his back. Eabani tossed him a tin and Maru devoured wriggling shrimp.
“How’d you do that?” Jayce asked.
“The displacement or the healing?” Maru turned around and Jayce saw several tree branches embedded in the back of Maru’s clothes. “Walk and talk. No doubt we’ve attracted some attention.”
“The—Oof!” Jayce caught his pack and swung the straps onto his shoulders as he followed Maru. “The displacement. That demon thing did it and then—”
“Just as we can shunt from the Iron Soul to planetside, one with the right training, attunement”—he tapped the glowing stone in his harness—“and concentration can do the same. It is inherently dangerous. The slightest error can result in catastrophe.”
“Every Attuned has to walk past the skeleton of Paragon Bulsarra on the way to the training halls,” Sarai said. “He almost shunted through the doors. Almost.”
“That sounds terrifying.” Jayce glanced at his Veil hilt. “Hold on, did you say this is the thing that killed the Tyrant?”
“As I told you before, it was a group effort,” Maru said, “but it struck the final blow.”
“That would’ve been something cool to tell me when I got it.” Jayce smiled.
Maru stopped and put a hand to Jayce’s chest.
“Weapons are nothing, young one. There are no dangerous weapons. Only dangerous people. The last man to carry that blade into battle was far braver and determined than anyone I have ever met. He would have torn the life from the Tyrant with his bare hands if he had to. That hilt has no legacy.” He looked at Sarai, then back at Jayce. “Only history.”
“But it had an . . . ink monster,” Jayce said.
Maru snorted and continued walking.
“The Veil’s mysteries shall endure for all time,” the Paragon said. “Once we assume to know too much, the Veil will humble us with our ignorance. Now, return to proper march order and let us cease our prattle before Gunny Dastin has an aneurysm.”
“My eye wasn’t twitching that badly,” Dastin said.
Jayce kept the hilt in his hand as they continued through the forest. The stone in the hilt glowed softly and he felt like something inside was watching him.
Chapter 19
Dead undergrowth snapped beneath Jayce’s boots as they continued through the forest. Needles fell from the branches and a chill nipped at his ears and nose.
“It me, or is it getting cold out here?” Jayce asked.
“Does feel like winter.” Sarai shivered and zipped up the front of her jacket.
“The song, can you both still hear it?” Maru asked.
Jayce turned away from the group and cocked an ear up. He hummed the first few stanzas, then pointed at an angle to the left of the way they’d been walking. He turned around and found Sarai pointing the same way.
“It isn’t any weaker or stronger,” she said. “What does that mean?”
“I’m not sure.” Maru stroked his chin. “Sodality records of this particular apparition are contradictory.”
“We spread them out and basic land-navigation techniques can tell us how far the tower is,” Dastin said. “We only have a direction now. Two different vectors to the same point and some trigonometry will—”
“If we were anywhere but the Veil that would be an excellent idea,” Maru said. “But the Veil has a way of changing the rules. Look.”
He pointed his glaive staff toward the direction Sarai and Dastin had given. Ruins made of white, chalky bricks were just visible through the fog.
Eabani growled and readied his crossbow. His goatee flapped from side to side, and he spit toward the buildings.
“Where’d those come from?” he asked. “Wasn’t there a second ago.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Maru said. “That is the way we need to go.”
“Principals fall back to center, close on them.” Dastin and Maru led the Attuned pair into the ruins. Eabani kept watch behind them.
Jayce fiddled with his hilt as they crossed the threshold between the ruins and the forest. The buildings were mostly single storied with no roofs. The brickwork changed from building to building, the orientation and size of the bricks different, as well as the height of the doorways.
“Who built all this?” Jayce whispered.
“We did.” Maru did a combat peek around a corner, then waved the rest of them across a street with deep ruts from countless carts that had rolled down the street. He bounded across the street and took his place in the lead. “At least, these are buildings from our home reality that have been imbued with Veil flecks. Shrines. Houses of healing. These structures are a reflection of what is there . . . and are also here.”
“But why are they all here?” Jayce rubbed knuckles on one wall and it flaked off into clumps of chalky dust.
“Because the Veil wants them here,” Maru said.
Dastin held up a fist and the party froze. He made quick hand gestures and ducked as he went to a low wall. Eabani clicked the safety switch off his crossbow. Sarai tapped Jayce on the shoulder twice, then pointed one finger up and then at a mound of rubble behind them.
Jayce raised his hands in confusion.
Sarai rolled her eyes and then leaned closer to his ear.
“Dastin saw hostiles. Take cover while Maru scouts a way around. We get separated, that pile of crap back there is our rally point.” She pushed him toward a half-crumbled wall. Jayce dropped his pack as quietly as he could against the wall.
Jayce took a sip from a hose connected to a water bladder on his back. Dastin took a crossbow bolt from the bandolier across his chest and tapped the arrowhead against the wall, then pointed at Jayce, then to a hole in the wall.
Jayce got the hint and crawled to the hole and looked through.
They were on a steep hillside. Below was a dead city with a hodgepodge of quarters, none with the same architectural style. A crumbling dome rose over the distant fog, an enormous crack riven through the top. Roads connected through each quarter but didn’t run from one to the other.
A river ran through the city; bridges made of crude wood and rope connected to suspended segments. Other bridges were floating slabs of masonry that led halfway across and became elegant arches to the other bank.
“It’s a bloody labyrinth down there,” he whispered.
“Shh!” Dastin snapped. He tapped the arrowhead again and then angled it down. Jayce looked down the slope and his breath caught in his throat. There was a temple of sorts at the lower level. The roof was gone, but an altar with ivory statues around it was visible. In the center of the altar was a Veil stone.
It glowed with a magnificence that was still there when he closed his eyes and turned his face away. He touched the stone in his harness and felt that it was a pale reflection of the power and potential of what was on the altar.
“I think that’s a ship stone.” Sarai peeked over his shoulder. “Oh, it’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
“Sure is.” Jayce licked his lips, suddenly thirsty. “How would . . . how does someone claim it? Synch with it?”
Sarai mimed reaching out and grabbing it, then pressed her hand to her chest.
“That’s all,” she said. “You should go get it. Then break your anchor and go go go back to the Aperture. We’ll meet you there in no time flat.”
“Maru needs us to synch with the stones at the Pinnacle,” Jayce said. “We can only do it once, right?”
“Right,” Neff whispered in Jayce’s ear. Jayce seized up out of shock and the Docent slapped a furry paw over Jayce’s mouth. “I see the stone fever fever in your eyes. Always like this, so close to the prize you’ve wanted for so long and you want to take the first one you can get your dirty hands on. Can’t you tell?”
“Tell what?” Sarai asked.
Jayce tried to talk, but his words died against Neff’s paw.
“Someone’s already watching it,” Neff said. “Someone has designs for it. I feel the greed. Long snout. Claws. Predator intelligence.”
“It’s a trap,” Maru said. Jayce did a double take at the Paragon, who appeared seemingly out of nowhere. “Powerful stones must be found, they don’t give themselves away.”
“Then what’s that one doing there?” Jayce asked.
“You’ve been to a Shrine, what did you see around the altar?” Maru asked.
“Symbols without any repetition. The—Look!” Jayce pressed his face against the hole in the wall. Below, at the altar, ghostly figures appeared. All bowed and prayed toward the altar.
“They’re summoning a stone from our reality,” Maru said. “Interesting. They appear to be from the Star Cult from the Occarian sector, by their robes at least. I’ve found a way down. Leave them to their business and follow me.”
“Wrong souls. There’s others down there.” Neff hopped to Maru’s shoulder.
“Then we best avoid them,” Maru said. The party came to a spiral staircase that ran perpendicular to a sheer cliff. The staircase ended in broken blocks a few feet over the top of the cliff, but there was no connection to the hilltop or even handrails.
“Nope.” Eabani tried to back away. Dastin grabbed him by the collar and kept him from moving farther. “No no no, I don’t do heights.”
“You’re gonna have to.” Dastin shook Eabani. “There’s a faster way down, but you’re not going to like the sudden stop at the bottom.”
“Just knock me out.” Eabani nodded quickly. “Toss me across the gap and carry me down. Much better way.”
“Wouldn’t we all just love to be carried everywhere and wake up after a good nap to a nice stretch and tea?” Dastin’s voice grew slightly louder. “Are you going to leave our little miss behind because you’re a chicken shit?”
“I am not a prey avian!” Eabani shouted, then hunched his shoulders as he heard his words echo off the forest.
“Help? Help!” came from the fog.
Dastin let Eabani go, then held up a knife hand cocked next to his face.
“Toss me the gear.” Eabani dropped his pack, then got a running start and jumped across the gap. He hit the central pillar and fell back. His claws scratched long gouges against the flaky bricks and stopped himself before he could fall.
A sharp whistle went over Jayce’s head. At the edge of the fog, dark figures emerged, all with bows in hand. One took aim at the party and let loose. Maru knocked the arrow away with his glaive.
“I don’t think they want help,” Jayce said.
“You’re figuring this out real quick, aren’t you?” Dastin smacked him on the shoulder. “Toss your gear to ’Bani—hurry!”
Jayce heard the crack of more arrows against Maru’s blade and chucked his pack to Eabani. It almost fell short and Eabani caught it with his arms extended. The counterbalance almost tipped him over the edge of the stairs.
Eabani let out a roar that sent more fear through Jayce than the raiders firing arrows.
“Here goes!” Sarai jumped off the cliff and into Eabani’s arms.
“Your turn.” Dastin prodded Jayce on his back.
“I don’t think he’ll catch me,” Jayce said to him.
“You either jump in the next two seconds or we’ll see if I can kick your ass across the gap!” Dastin shouldered his crossbow and fired at the bowmen. One went down with a cry, grasping his thigh.
“Sure wish I could do that shunt thing.” Jayce ran toward the stairwell. He planted his last step to propel himself forward . . . and lost his footing to a loose pebble. Jayce got some momentum to clear the gap, but not enough.
His heels went over his head, and he spun his arms as he got a very clear look at the chasm leading all the way down to a river white with rapids.
Eabani caught him by the ankle and swung him to the level below him on the circular stairway. Jayce thumped against the central pillar and fell against the stairs.
“Move it!” Dastin yelled down at him. The gunnery sergeant hesitated for a heartbeat when he looked all the way down, then jumped the gap. Maru landed next to Jayce and helped him up.
“I miss my boats and all the water monsters,” Jayce said as Sarai came around the stairs and motioned at him to get moving. Eabani had all the packs either on his back or had their straps in hand.
“It spirals down, keep going,” Maru said to him.
Jayce concentrated on the steps and put one foot in front of the other as fast as he could. He didn’t know what the species that made the staircase had against handrails, but he hoped he never had to visit their planet.
