Elei's Chronicles (Books 1-3) (71 page)

Cat butted his hand, then turned and trotted away, slowing when nobody moved. Elei got up and squared his shoulders. Well, it did look like an invitation, but to what, only the gods knew.

“Shall we?” he said, not looking at the others. No point, really, when all he could see was the heat centers of their bodies.

In answer, something smashed into the double metal doors through which they’d entered with a crash.

“They’re going to break down the door,” Alendra said, and suddenly everyone was moving after Elei. “Kal, come.”

“Where to?” Hera asked. “You were not serious about the cats, were you?”

Elei shrugged and kept walking. The cats led the way, small blobs of brightness, running and stopping, setting off again, heading around the parapet and toward an unremarkable stretch of gray concrete wall.

He slowed. Maybe the cats thought they were having a stroll around the room. The double doors shook with another hit, the sound deafening, the spiral stairs vibrating and buzzing. Sweat trickled down his spine, drenching his t-shirt underneath the hoodie. The cats turned to him, tails raised like masts. What did they expect him to do? There was nothing there, nothing he could see.

“What is here, Cat?” He swallowed his frustration and scanned the warm bodies winding between his legs, pressing against his shins. Cat rubbed himself on the wall, purring. “Is there anything at all?”

He walked to the wall and ran his hands over the rough surface. He hesitated, felt his way along a sunken, fine line. Panels, about a meter square, meshed together so perfectly he could barely feel the seams. He knocked on one and it sounded hollow, but when he pushed, it didn’t move.

“Did you find something?” Hera called.

“Not sure.” He knocked on the next panel. “Cat?”

Cat meowed, placed his front paws on a ground-level panel and pushed. The panel swung inward with a faint whine and Cat poked his head inside, then jumped through and vanished. The panel swung back and forth, screeching.

Elei blinked. Well, that was an invitation for sure. He cast a glance at the others, drew his Rasmus and followed.

***

The darkness was complete; no luminescent fungi grew in the low tunnel, but Rex had adjusted Elei’s vision quickly, letting him see thick pipes lining the walls and ceiling, symbols marking them at intervals. A utility tunnel.

He took aim as they rounded a corner. “Are we heading in the right direction?”

“If we are where I think we are,” Hera muttered, her longgun pointing up, “then this is not exactly the way we should be taking. Not that we have much choice.” She cast a glance over her shoulder at the other three following in the dark.

The cats sauntered along, pausing to rub against each other or look back at their little group, eyes alight.

“Maybe there’s a staircase around here?” Telling his pulse to slow, without much success, Elei tried to see any sign of a door or trapdoor to lead them out of the utility duct. The Gultur might’ve broken the door of the hive already and it wouldn’t take them long to realize where they’d gone. “Hera?”

“Cover us.” She holstered her gun and drew out the map, unfolding it as she half-ran beside him. “If this is the hive, and this our tunnel...”

“Wait up!” Alendra sounded out of breath. “Slow down.”

“We need to go east,” Hera muttered, slowing. “Left.” She glanced around, scowled harder. “Well, and down, of course. But the map shows no exits from this tunnel. We’ll have to follow it to its end.”

“And is it a long one?”

“Not too long,” she said, to his relief. She folded the map, jammed it back into her hip pocket. “We should hurry.”

“No shit.” His leg muscles shook, urging him to run. 

“Elei!” There was a thin, sharp edge of fear to Alendra’s voice. “Stop!”

A sound reached his ears and he turned around. Retching. Kalaes was bent over, dark hair hiding his face, heaving. Alendra and Sacmis held his arms, and he hung between them.

He was vomiting blood.

This... couldn’t be good. Elei took a step toward them, the sweet-sour stench of vomit hitting him like a hammer and he was thrown back in time —Pelia’s cool hand on his forehead, Kalaes and Maera holding him up in a dank basement, Hera looking down on him with contempt.

And then the acid smell faded under the onslaught of another scent, damn sweetness, cloying and nauseating, worming into his head and body like an infection.

Gods...
“Run!” he yelled. “They’re coming.”

Alendra shot him a blank look, and Hera raised her gun.

“I smell them. Gultur.” Elei shoved her out of the way, slung Kalaes’ arm over his shoulders and pulled him upright. “Kal, come on.”

Kalaes wiped his mouth, his face gray. “Just leave me here, fe.”

Elei’s jaw clenched so hard it hurt. “Don’t ever say that again.” Alendra moved to help and Elei shook his head. “Go ahead, I’ve got him.” He called out, “Hera!” She turned, her eyes narrowed. “Go!”

Hera hesitated a fraction of a second, her eyes flashing in anger — an Echo princess probably never took orders, much less from a mortal infected with Rex — but she nodded and gestured at Sacmis.

“Cover our backs,” she said and took the lead at a light jog that sent her long hair fluttering behind her like the trails of storm clouds.

They ran, Kalaes hanging off Elei, his weight dragging on Elei’s shoulder. The sound of their steps rang off the metal pipes, multiplied and wound around them like ropes. Or maybe it was just his heightened hearing, enhancing every sound.

“This way,” Hera called, running full out, her boots thumping, it seemed, between Elei’s ears. She disappeared around the bend of the tunnel, Alendra and Sacmis racing after her.

They followed at a slower pace, Elei hauling the other boy along. Kalaes’ skin burned. The marks, the fever, the retching, the blood, they nagged at Elei’s mind, like there was something he should understand.
But what?

Hera was trying to push a door open, leaning on it and rattling it. Sacmis was lending her shoulder, shoving against it, but the door refused to open and the scent of Gultur from behind rose like a whirlwind to swallow them up.

“The map shows no other door in this tunnel.” Hera kicked the metal frame. “Damn this place.” She kicked it again.

Voices slithered down the tunnel, impossible to tell from which direction. “Stop it, Hera.” Elei shook Kalaes, trying to keep him conscious. “Find us a way out.”

Hera cocked her head to the side, listening. Then she nodded and spun around, taking off again.

“Sacmis, give me a hand here.” Elei pushed the words through gritted teeth. “Please.”

Without a word, Sacmis came to help lift Kalaes to his feet. His dark head rolled to the side.
Shit
.

They ran, carrying Kalaes between them. They reached the end of the tunnel, crossing into another hung with lights that turned into moths and flew over their heads in circles. There were steps leading down, and then up onto a platform that rang beneath their feet. Focused on Kalaes, Elei barely glanced around until Sacmis slowed.

“Now what?” she whispered.

Elei looked up. Hera was fiddling with something on the wall, muttering under her breath. Alendra threw him a worried glance, then returned to keeping watch, Kalaes’ gun clutched tightly in both hands.

“What are you doing?” Elei demanded to know. Why are you stopping instead of running? “What’s this place?”

“I’m opening a door,” Hera said, frowning, fumbling with what looked like a lever. “To something called a dock.”

“Dock?” Elei shook his head, frustrated. His back muscles screamed from lugging Kalaes around and the arm curled around Kalaes was numb. “We’re underground, if you haven’t noticed.”

Hera didn’t dignify that with an answer. Shots rang behind them. The sound exploded in his ears, painfully loud, and he tried to turn as bullets slammed into the walls, spraying them with plaster and stone. Jumbled thoughts chased around in his head. Had Hera realized they couldn’t outrun their pursuers? Did she have a plan?

“Get down!” Alendra cried and the reality of it still escaped him, his heart pounding and all the pretty colors flashing around him. He wondered why Rex wasn’t pushing him to move, what the parasite fed on when he didn’t feed himself, and why all of a sudden he felt so lightheaded.

Someone cursed, and he was yanked sideways, forced to release Kalaes, and thrown against the wall. He blinked at Alendra. He hadn’t thought she was so strong.

“Stay here,” she said, her hand fisting in his t-shirt, and Rex’s possession relaxed for a moment, letting him see her golden eyes. They were earnest, intent, a little worried. “Are you in pain?”

“No.” He tried to push off the wall. “Kalaes...”

“Sacmis will protect him. Just—”

A whirr sounded, a vibration against his back, and Elei jerked forward as the wall slowly slid aside like a screen, allowing a glimpse into another dark hall. Alendra stepped through, and he and Sacmis dragged Kalaes into the hall, barely making it as the door slid closed, shutting out the shots and the footsteps of the approaching Gultur.

“Where’s Hera taking us?” Kalaes whispered and his voice startled Elei so much he almost fell.

I don’t know
, he thought, sucking in a calming breath,
I wish I did
, but what he said was, “Home.”

Chapter Seventeen

T
he place was
cavernous. Open space, faintly lit by emergency lights low on the walls. Hera was busy locking the sliding door, jamming something in a control panel set in a recess.

“We should be safe here for a while,” she said. “I blocked access from outside.”

“And where do we go from here?” Sacmis asked quietly.

Hera didn’t turn around. “I do not know. Nothing is marked on the map.”

“Nothing...” Elei thought he’d misheard. “Nothing beyond this room?”

She didn’t answer. Instead, she pushed off the wall and turned to face them, just as a patter echoed through. She flinched.

A rain of bullets.

With a niggling fear that the bullets might tear through the wall, he dragged Kalaes away, stumbling even though the floor was smooth. He thought it heaved beneath his feet like the deck of a ship, but a glance at Alendra showed her steady on her feet.

“Here, let me take him.” Sacmis guided Kalaes to a concrete bench and settled him. “Elei, are you all right?”

He nodded.

“It’s Rex.” Hera strode toward him, face a thundercloud. She gripped his shoulder. “Damn parasite is using up all your energy.”

Elei shrank back. Her fingertips dug into his muscle and her scent, unbearably sweet, sent his heart booming. “Hera...” He clasped her wrist and tried to shove her away but couldn’t. She pushed him until his back hit the wall and he sank down, his knees buckling.

“It’s okay if it uses my energy,” he rasped, “as long as it controls
telmion
.”

She leaned over him, silky hair brushing his face. “It’s trying to take you over again.”

“Trying.” He looked up at her, and thought he saw blood dripping down her face, her throat. He shuddered. “But maybe Regina is already controlling you.”

She bared her teeth in scary smile. “I’ll—”

“Hera,” Kalaes said hoarsely. “You promised me.”

Her eyes widened. She sagged and her hold loosened. “What do you see, Elei?” she whispered. “When you look at me, what do you see?”

He looked at her. The skin of things was back, showing him her dark eyes, curious, angry and concerned.

“I see your blood,” he said, his voice just a breath. “I see you dying.”

“Well,” she straightened, “that is not so frightening, is it?”

“You think? It is scary to me.” He inhaled, and that was a mistake so close to her. Her face distorted, twisting into a grotesque mask. “And what do you see?”

“I see...” She turned and slid down the wall beside him. “I see murder in your eyes. I see weapons in your hands. I see my death in you.” She sighed and closed her eyes, leaned her head back. “And yours in me.”

“As long as you don’t follow up with that.” Alendra stood before them, the gun still in her hand.

Elei blinked at her, then at Hera. “What should we do?”

She shook her head. “Believe.”

“In what?”

“In what we know, what we promised.” She glanced at him sideways. “I promised to be your friend. I promised Kalaes not to hurt you. That’s all I’m hanging on to now. That I know who you are, all of you, even if my eyes tell me otherwise.”

He supposed she was right. Could he do that? A quick look showed him long fangs, a muzzle like a dog’s. He turned his gaze away. “I’ll try.” No promises. Not fair perhaps, but Rex... Rex often surprised him with its strength.

She nodded, seeming to accept that. “Good.”

***

“Hera.” Sacmis stood outlined in silver light, against a backdrop of what looked like machines and glass screens, but she was gazing beyond at something he couldn’t see. “Would you look at this.”

Hera had wandered to the far wall where lights flashed. “What is it?”

“Do you think we can drive them?” Sacmis asked.

Drive what?
Elei sat up.

“One moment.” Hera was examining what looked like a data processor. Well, at least it had a screen, lit up now and flashing a message, and what looked like buttons along one side of it. “I think I’ve found a GKL800 point. An information base.”

“What I’ve found might be more urgent,” Sacmis said.

Hera grunted, pulled something out the side of the screen —
a slim data rod?
— and went to join her.

Another patter of bullets on the closed door behind them. Elei inched up the wall to stand.

“It’s a dock.” Alendra stood rigid and still, her fair hair moving with each breath. “No wonder nothing is marked beyond this room.”

Casting Kalaes’ slumped form a worried glance, Elei staggered toward her, and froze, a hand going to his gun. Below his feet opened a hangar full of large vehicles. They weren’t like aircars; in fact, they were unlike anything Elei had ever seen.

Like fish, scaly and with long tails, lying flat on the concrete floor, the cockpit window in the front like an evil, dark eye. If they had wheels or air cushions, he couldn’t see them.

Hera appeared at his side. She vaulted over the short parapet, flying through the air, her long hair a dark cloud. She landed in a crouch beside one of the strange vehicles before he even had time to gasp her name.

“This is our way out,” she said, her voice carrying on the still, dusty air. “This dock.”

Elei squinted at a reflection on the far wall. It was black and sheer, sparkling like a huge mirror. His stomach cramped. “That’s not a wall.”

“It’s a window,” Hera said, striding to the vehicle and laying a hand on it, softly, as if not to awaken it. “And a gate.”

A window. To where?
Elei jumped over the parapet, following her down. Deep inside, he knew what lay beyond, but fear didn’t let the knowledge surface. He walked past Hera, past three vehicles parked side by side, all the way to the dark glass and placed both hands on it. It was made up of huge rectangular pieces, held together with steel bands, and so cold it burned his fingers.

Something flashed behind the sparkling surface — long and silvery, writhing, vanishing back into the dark.

“A fish,” he breathed and took a step back, his heart hammering. The glass was all that stood between him and the depths of the ocean, where the five hells were, where the damned lived in frigid water and agony. “It’s the sea.”

Alendra was suddenly there, grasping his shoulder. “They’re watercars. If this is a gate, like Hera says, we can take one of their vehicles and drive back to Dakru.”

Underwater. In the blue
. Panic gripped Elei. “Yeah, sure.” He took another step back, brought short by Alendra’s hand. Sailing on the water, that was normal, that was expected, but going through it, like a dolphin, like a stingray... Deep down where sirens swam and the gods reigned.

The doors behind them rattled with another volley of bullets. He turned. Sacmis was helping Kalaes down a flight of steps Elei hadn’t noticed, leading him to their small group in the hangar. She was always so gentle with him, despite Kalaes’ suspicions, gentle with all of them. Maybe it was about time they trusted her. Maybe her love for justice —
or Hera?
— was that strong.

Elei started forward when Kalaes stumbled, Sacmis’ arm around him the only thing saving him from kissing the floor. He slipped an arm around his friend, felt his heartbeat hammering through the soaked shirt.

“So cold,” Kalaes breathed. “Pelia, cover up the little ones, close the windows. There’re birds outside, they’re trying to get in, and we can’t...” He groaned.

Oh, shit
.
Hallucinations?
“Hold on,” Elei said. “We’ll be fine.”

“Where’s Pelia?” Kalaes whispered.

Elei winced. Okay, a plan, they needed a plan. “We get one of these cars and we go to Dakru. Hera, you think we can drive them?”

Hera was climbing up the side of a watercar. “Do you think I’ve ever seen anything like this?” Her voice thundered in the empty space. “Let’s see if we can get in first.”

Always so cool-headed, apart from the moments Regina took her.

Kalaes shuddered, and Elei tightened his hold.

Alendra climbed after Hera. A hatch opened low on the side of the vehicle and steps unfolded all the way to the floor.

“Sobek’s tail,” Sacmis whispered.

The pounding on the door behind them went up a notch, jerking Elei out of his trance. “Let’s go.”

Alendra and Hera entered the watercar while the besieged door boomed, sounding like it’d blow up any moment. With Sacmis’ help, he dragged Kalaes up the steps — don’t think, just move — and managed to get him inside. It was dark and cold, the walls and floor covered in a sort of black tapestry.

Hera stood in a doorway, a frown on her face. “Have they broken through?”

“Not yet.” Elei panted, hauling Kalaes to a seat with security straps. “Found the cockpit?”

“In here.” Hera nodded over her shoulder. “Have a look. Maybe you can get the damn vehicle to work, because I cannot.”

“I need to make sure he’s okay first.” Elei strapped Kalaes in the seat, patted him on the shoulder, pulled his gaze from that white, grimacing face. “Bring down the fever.”

“What you need to do,” Hera snapped, “is to make sure we get out of here, now.”

He turned to tell her where to shove it, when Alendra placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Tell me what to do,” she said, her gaze heavy like gold.

He wanted to touch her face, inhale her soft smell, fall in her arms and hide. Instead he said, “Would you put some cold compresses on him? And give him water. And pills.”

She nodded, her brow furrowing. “There’s not much water left.”

“Then use it all.” He tried to catch Kalaes’ unfocused gaze. “Hang on, man. We’re going home.”

He brushed past Hera, and she grabbed a handful of his hoodie as soon as he’d stepped inside the cockpit. She turned him around.

“Why do you lie to him?”

“Lie?” Exhaustion warred with grief, and it all turned into a ball of rage. “Lie? We are going home. That’s where I intend to take him once this is over.”

“He will not make it, Elei.” Her voice was quiet. “You have to see that.”

“See what?” He grabbed her wrist and forced her fingers to unclench and free him. “He’ll make it. We may not be as strong as the Gultur, but we’ve survived over the centuries.”

“That is not...” She shrugged, looking down. “Not the point. He’s too far gone. The marks have spread down his back.
Palantin
is eating at his insides. He cannot keep liquids down and he’s burning up. His fever is too high. Soon he’ll stop responding and his organs will shut down. I’m only being realistic, Elei. He’s as good as dead.”

A growl rose in Elei’s throat. “Don’t say that!” He shoved her backward until her back hit the wall, his heart booming. He didn’t look at her, not wanting to see what Rex would show him. “Don’t you ever say that. I’m taking him home.”

And that was that, as far as he was concerned, the odds be damned.

***

The cockpit smelled of nepheline, a whiff of powdery mold and sharp dakron fumes. He expected clouds of dust to rise when he fell into one of the two pilot chairs, but only a small puff enveloped him, tickling his nose.

Sacmis came to stand behind him and Hera took the other seat, silent and scowling, her small mouth pursed as if to keep any words from spilling.

Good
. He wanted to smash the strange controls he saw before him, take a club at the windows, shred the chairs until the anger ran out of him like water. But no such luck.

He stared at the panels, trying to decide what to do.

“Is this not like a seleukid panel?” Sacmis said.

“I hope you’re not asking me,” Elei muttered, kicking the base of the console. “Pissing seleukids.”

“Is it Rex, making you act like this?” Sacmis asked, her breath warm against his neck.