Alchemist (33 page)

“In the boot.”
Terry replied. She didn’t take her eyes off the scanner in her
hands.

Faye and Connor
exchanged a puzzled look. “Why is he in there?”

“Because he’s
bright blue!” Lyle shouted back at her. There was no time for such
questions.

The car sped down
the long driveway, churning up a plume of dust in its wake.

******

Edward looked up
as a familiar face stepped over the threshold. “We have two
thousand Alchemists at your disposal.” She said with a pleased
smirk on her face.

Edward’s gaze
narrowed, the fractured, shimmering light of the portal throwing
the angles of his face into deep shadow. It made him appear even
more sinister. “I know, I can see with your eyes remember?” He
raised a hand and she froze on the spot. “I can hear every word you
say and everything you hear.” He walked toward her until they were
face-to-face, all the while holding her, frozen in place. “And I’m
very disappointed. You’ve have my power and you’ve had two days and
that it all you have managed to raise? They have millions buried
there.”

Her eyes fluttered
as she chocked. “Please...” she choked.

“No.” He
closed his fingers and she bent forward at the waist.
Snap
. He threw her lifeless body
aside with no more care than a child throwing away an empty sweetie
wrapper. He hurried back to the desk and scooped up the papers he
had been looking over. He forced them into his pockets in handfuls
as he hurried to the portal. Taking one last look at the dusty
warehouse he stepped through. Moments later the portal closed,
plunging the abandoned building into darkness.

The silent gloom
was penetrated several minutes later. A clatter of metal and the
warehouse door slowly ascended, allowing in a shaft of light. Terry
and Lyle went in first, ducking under the door. Terry’s heart sank
when she saw the deserted temporal device.

“Edward!” shouted
Lyle, his colour rising. But the only reply he received was that of
his own voice, ringing around the four walls.

“He’s gone.” Terry
said.

Lyle looked at
Connor as he ran in carrying the scanner. He shook his head. “She’s
right, there’s no signal.”

“Damn it!”
Lyle kicked an oil drum. The barrel fell, making a hollow
boom
as it made contact with the
concrete floor. Lyle hurried to the portal machine. “He was just
here!” he turned to Rufus. “Is there any way you can make it open
where he went?”

Without a word the
Acara stepped up to the controls. His fingers glided across the
buttons at a rapid speed. After several moments he suddenly
stopped. “The core memory unit is missing. It didn’t record the
last co-ordinates.”

“Shit!” Lyle
swore, running his fingers through his hair in disbelief. They had
been so close...

“Is there nothing
you can do?” Faye asked, walking up to Rufus’s side. He shook his
head. “No, I’m afraid.”

Terry ran a hand
down her face. “I can’t believe it...”

Connor turned off
the scanner. “What do we do now?”

Lyle looked at
him. “We return to the colony and gather the troops.”

The Pyrovite
blinked at him blankly. “Why? We don’t know where he’s gone.”

Lyle shook his
head. “No, that was always the plan. If we had not returned by
tomorrow morning, Fallo was going to come through the portal with
our soldiers and look for Edward here.”

Faye’s eyes
widened. “What? Why? He could kill everyone!”

A flash of anger
crossed the general’s face. He raised a finger. “Don’t Faye. Just
don’t. You have no right to judge our King’s actions.”

“She’s right
though.” Connor said, finding his voice. “If your brother came here
he would likely kill everyone in the process of trying to find
Edward.”

Lyle watched him
from under a heavy brow. “If you want to keep your head on your
shoulders I suggest you don’t say another word.”

Connor was about
to rebuke, but Terry cut him off. “Enough!” Everyone stared at her.
“We didn’t tell you about my dad’s plans because we didn’t know if
either of you had been possessed by Edward like Darius was. I’m
sorry but until we had the scanner it was the only way we could be
sure he wasn’t still spying on us.” She looked around them all.
“And I wouldn’t have let my father come here anyway, regardless of
whether we found Edward or not. I would have gone home tomorrow
morning and stopped him.”

The warehouse
lapsed into silence. Connor stared at Lyle while Faye and Rufus
exchanged worried glances. Finally Rufus broke the quiet. “So what
do we do?”

Terry nodded at
the portal device. “Does it still work?”

“Yes.”

“Then take us to
Cresswell. I think I know where Edward’s going.”

******

The street erupted
into a blind flurry when the portal materialised. Those standing
closest jumped back in fright, some retreating several paces. A
sense of the danger it posed suddenly spurred the Alchemists into
action and they all took up arms, organising themselves into a
defensive position a short way from the portals threshold. The only
ones who did not heed their fighting instinct were two mothers with
their young children. They were quickly whisked away to a safe
distance by their fellow citizens. The primeval Alchemists in the
street also formed a defensive line. They called to one another,
co-ordinating a ring around the floating portal. Some clambered up
the sides of buildings, while others stood with their human-shaped
brethren.

For a long minute
nothing happened. Then a screaming Terry emerged – falling from the
hole in the universe that had manifested several feet above the
ground. She made contact with the rocky ground face-first. She
rolled over and coughed, taking a hand to her aching chest. Then
Faye landed on top of her and she screamed again, winded. “Oh my
god! I’m so sorry!” Faye apologised, climbing off her. Terry winced
and slowly sat up. “It’s ok...” she muttered, barely managing a
whisper. The Alchemists had gathered around them now, hands
offering help from every direction. Connor and the boys tumbled
through, landing on top of some un-suspecting Alchemists who broke
their fall.

Terry looked at
Faye as she helped her up. “What is it with these bloody portals
and opening so far off the floor?”

“My lady!” said
one of the Alchemists as they huddled around her, offering
assistance. She waved them away. “Find my father.”

Molten
Metal

Another spire
toppled as a Monoglyph ploughed through it, sending stone and
rubble raining onto the street below. Screams filled the air as
people fled a city caving in about their ears. Rockets and
fireballs whistled overhead and distant explosions rattled the
earth as some Pyrovites, the Kamari among them, sought to fight
back; but their efforts did little, if anything, to deter the
thirty-foot robots that stormed the capital. At their feet,
primeval Alchemists swarmed through the streets in droves, killing
and destroying whatever lay in their path.

From the high
vantage point of the watch tower that stood to the west of the city
Edward marvelled the chaos that unfolded below him. The Prime
Minister slumped to his knees. He winced at the screams of the
dying and the roar of war, carried to him on the howling wind.
Tears streamed down his bloody face. “Please...” he begged, a cold
wind whistling over him, “You have to stop this! I will give you
anything you want!”

Edward turned his
head, glaring down at the fallen premier. “I already have what I
want.”

The fire elemental
stared up at him through wide, beaten eyes. “I don’t understand...”
he cried, throwing his head forward. One of the guards pulled his
head back, forcing him to look at his captor. He struggled, but the
binds they had used to tie his hands held firm behind his back.

“You’re people
Prime Minister, will all die. I will wipe every last bloody fire
and water elemental off the face of this world.”

“Why? What have
they ever done to deserve this?”

He wheeled round.
“You’re ancestors hunted my race! Killed thousands of us!”

The beaten man
shook his head. “That was a very long time ago...you cannot blame
people who have done anything wrong for the sins of their
ancestors.”

“I can and I
shall.” He said, turning back to the scene of destruction that
spread out before him. “Your races and the Alchemists have not
changed. My wife and I came to Marrich to hide, yet instead of
coming only for me you killed her instead.”

Another explosion
in the distance rumbled and rocked the landscape, sending a loose
pebble and dust clattering from the heights of the watch tower.

The Prime Minister
knew the story. He had not when he was a young man when it happened
as such matters had been kept secret in the interest of national
security. But that all changed when he had come to power.

He drew a breath
and sat up, his body protesting from the effort. “Your wife did not
deserve to die. She was innocent, I know. It was an accident. That
Kamari only opened fire on her because she got in the way.”

Edward
reeled round to him, his eyes ablaze. “She was one of your
kind!
Your
kind!” he screamed,
grabbing the man by the collar and striking him across the face. He
flung him away, uninterested that the man lay coughing up blood in
ragged breaths. The Phantom stormed back to the edge of the stone
balcony. “That’s what I get for marrying a fire elemental I
suppose. If it had not been that fucking insect that killed her it
would have been your people anyway. You kill your own kind if
you’re not busy burning everyone else.” He spat bitterly, his hands
coming to rest upon the cold stone wall.

The Prime Minister
coughed, a mouthful of blood spewing from his lips. He heaved
himself upright. “What do you mean?” he asked. Angry eyes returned
to him. “You’re talking about Terrifallo?” The red mist descended
over the Phantom and he knew. The Prime Minister shook his head.
“She didn’t kill your wife...” he coughed, as he shifted his weight
from one aching knee to the other. “She wasn’t even there.”

Edward struck him
again, sending him back to the floor. Saying nothing, he turned
away.

More blood poured
from the Prime Minister’s mouth, this time with a broken tooth. He
spat it out. His head reeled but he wasn’t done yet. “You won’t be
allowed to get away with this! They won’t let you!” he shouted,
finding his voice.

Edward’s eyes
widened. He turned to face the fallen man. “Who?” he asked, but he
already knew the answer.

“You know exactly
who I’m talking about. It’s there, the fear in your eyes.” He said
defiantly, between coughs, his head cold pressed against the
flagstones.

Edward stormed
over to him and dragged the man to his feet. Holding his face close
to his own he whispered coldly, “No one is coming to save you. You
exiled the only person who ever stopped me.”

A crimson smile
crossed his lips. “I didn’t, I opposed it when it went through
parliament years ago.”

“And it did you no
good. You were not even a minister then!”

“It doesn’t
matter, they’ll still come.”

Edward flung him
to the floor, delivering a swift kick to the ribs. “Feel that?
That’s just the start! No-one is coming to save you or anyone!” He
grabbed the Prime Minister by the hair and pulled his head back
again, pressing a blade to his throat. “You have failed your
people.”

An explosion
nearby knocked them both to the floor. Cursing, Edward stood and
hurried to the balcony. “What the hell was that?” he shouted to the
reanimated Alchemists who had been guarding the prisoner. The
corpses had also been caught off guard and had fallen over with him
and the Prime Minister. They struggled back to their feet, training
large metal blades on the prisoner and looking about in
confusion.

Edward peered into
the dust cloud. There was a grinding scream, the sound of gunfire
and then silence. He squinted, trying desperately to see what was
going on only yards away.

Suddenly, a large
metal head flew out of the cloud, smashing into the base of the
watch tower. The stones held but a shock rattled upward through the
ancient stones. The Monoglyph head rolled to a stop a short
distance from the base, its metal eyes staring vacantly into the
sky. Edward gestured to his puppets and four of the Alchemists
gathered at either side of him, making ready.

Five silhouettes
appeared through the dust. Edward steadied himself, shaking his
head. It couldn’t be...

“
Edward!”
shouted Terry at the top of her voice, as the line stopped at the
foot of the tower, the wind carrying her voice high.

“Kill them!”
he shouted to the Alchemists. But they hesitated. “Kill them!” he
shouted, shutting his eyes and clutching his hands to his forehead.
The effort of trying to control them made him wince; when once
their hollowed minds had folded so easily, now they resisted with
the weight of eons of instinct behind them. The Alchemists crumpled
to the ground, clutching silently at their heads. Feeling their
life force vanish, Edward released his grip, cursing angrily. He
booted one of the fallen in frustration. He looked back to the
road. His eyes widened.
Where did they
go?
Turning, he fled away from the balcony, abandoning
the Prime Minister to his fate.

On the opposite
side Edward jumped, sailing downward on a roaring wind. It seemed
to howl even more as he flexed his hands, slowing his descent. He
landed in a crouch. Taking one last look up the one hundred foot
tower he had just leapt from, he hurried off among the low lying
houses that clustered around its foot.