Golden Tide (Song of the Aura, Book Four) (20 page)

At the entrance into the mountain, Lauro suddenly stopped dead. The wind was positively
dead
inside the doors… he could feel it like a wound in the air. And there was something else, tugging at his awareness, demanding attention like the menacing clouds of an oncoming storm.

“
Mudlo…” he said hesitantly as the ranger joined him, “Why did Steamclaw bolt?”

“
I don’t…” Mudlo began, but then he paused. “Do you hear something, Lauro? It sounds like…”

“…
Marching,” the prince finished. “I’ve been hearing it, and not realizing it… for at least an hour. But now…”

He spun around as the wind screamed in his ears and threw bloody colors at his eyes. Gold glinted scarlet in the dying sunlight, miles down the slopes of the Giant’s Mount. That
had
been marching. Someone was coming!

With a curse, Lauro gestured to Mudlo and slipped stealthily into the darkness beyond the behemoth stone doors. The space was just wide enough for two people- or one draik- to slip through. Mudlo followed a second later. As soon as they had entered, the door began to slide close, eerily silent except for the whirring of gears far overhead.

As darkness closed in over them, Mudlo finally let loose with an oath. “That was…”

“…
the Golden Nation,” Lauro confirmed. “The Sky’s been giving me hints for hours now, only I’ve been too tired to understand them. Those blasted coal-skins and their war machines are probably swarming all over the island!”

The door continued to slide closed. “Then, ah… why did we come in here?” Mudlo asked.

“
Because the Red Aura’s the only one who can protect us from that blasted army!” Lauro exclaimed, suddenly feeling frantic. What if he had done wrong to trust Steamclaw, and now they had walked into a trap?

With a shuddering
BOOM,
the door closed, and the pair was plunged into total darkness.

“
Blast,” Mudlo said, stuttering gone. “I hope we…”

His words were drowned out, as millions of gears and mechanisms all whirred into motion simultaneously. A bold red light flooded the entire cavernous space beyond the doors, and a rich, booming voice called to them from everywhere at once.

“
Welcome, Children of Men, to my realm! I am Automo, Maker of Wonders and Tamer of Beasts! Fear not, for you are protected from all harm, here in my scarlet hall!”

~

“
NO! Don’t go! Lauro!” Gribly sat up so fast that his hammock tipped him out onto the floor with a
smack!
“Oh Creator, no…” he moaned, too surprised and disoriented to get up.

The dream… He had been trying to send another dream to Lauro, knowing the prince would need every advantage he could get… Traveller had appeared, stopping him, showing him a vision… He had seen Lauro and a man in gray and blue under attack by legions of gold-armored, lifeless monsters… He had seen the
Invincible
speeding toward an enormous waterfall, Captain Berne standing grimly at the bow, sailing to his death…

Fate is tearing apart at the seams,
Traveller had told him.
The old boundaries are no more. Norne, the Aura of Fate, is losing her hold. If you do not set Destiny back on its course…

And then he had Lauro, impaled on a bone-white sword with streaks of red set in the blade. He had been smiling through the blood…

“
No…” he whispered, almost whimpering. There had been more visions, showing him what he had to do… but it would mean sacrificing
her!
“No… No, no, no… I’ve broken free… I won’t leave her… I won’t stop…” But he knew his protestations were useless. He had seen war sweeping the world. He had seen his friends killed or pushed into hiding. He had seen the future, without the Creator’s guidance touching the world through him, and Lauro, and Elia, and… and Gramling. Even Gramling the Pit Strider had a part to play.

“
I will not give in,” he snarled, pushing himself up and stumbling to his feet, swaying with the rolling motion of the deck.

There was too much to think about, too much to consider after the swirling visions of the Aura-dream. If he turned aside to help the prince of Vastion, would Elia still survive? Could he save her? There had been visions of what might happen… but nothing was definite. Not anymore. Somehow Fate
was
unraveling, and even if he couldn’t stop it, it was his duty to slow it down. It was his
duty
to help the world.

“
I will not give in!” he shouted, reaching out his hand to his staff, where it lay discarded on the floor. It leaped into his hand, and he slammed it on the ground. “I will not give IN!”

He stumbled half-blind through the hallways of the ship. There were still not many crewmen or nymphs, so he was not interrupted before he climbed out onto the
Invincible
’s exterior, stomping across the deck until he came to where Captain Berne stood, his Ghost Form glowing slightly in the unlit night.

“
You smell angry,”
Berne said without turning. His arms were outstretched, as if he wanted to soak in as much of the sea air as possible. Strange, the senses he seemed to gain while in that form… Gribly was still in disbelief that he hadn’t revealed it beforehand.

“
I am,” he answered, and sat down. There was a hollowness in his chest. Why had he come this far, if only to fail?

“
Why?” That voice was Gram’s, not Berne’s. The Lord of Rogues slipped silently out of the shadows, massive war hammer hanging easily in his grip, black coat turned up at the collar to keep out the night’s chill. That reminded Gribly of how cold he really was now, and he shivered.

“
I’ve led us astray.”

“
What do you mean, Son?” Gram seemed slightly easier with the term. He sat beside his son on an outcropping of solid metal, almost a bench. The
Invincible
was a strange vessel, to be sure.

“
I… I’ve had a dream. From the Aura.”

“
Damnable spirits. Think they rule everything.” Gribly smiled, despite himself, but didn’t feel any better.

“
That’s not the point. And they don’t think that, they just… oh, never mind. But when Traveller warned me I was taking the wrong path… I think he was right.”

Gram stiffened beside him. From his point of view, the Gray Aura had stolen his children and caused his wife’s death. “Backing out, Boy?” he said, voice deceptively quiet.

“
No! I don’t
want
this! But… but what I’ve seen… I
can’t
just leave Vastion to burn! All those people… I’m running away from my duty,
Father
, and yet… I love Elia, and can’t let her suffer, even if it’s for the good of the many! I don’t… know… what to do. I can’t think.” He put his forehead against the rough, knobbly end of Traveller’s staff, closing his eyes and grimacing, wishing he could sleep or die and forget about his “duty” forever.

“
I made that choice, long ago…” Gram said suddenly, seeming less angry than before. “The choice of duty. I abandoned… everything. I grieved because I had lost what I loved, and so I neglected the love that was still there…”

“
What?” Gribly opened his eyes and looked at the pirate king. Gram’s eyes were distant, and his plump face seemed drawn thin with memories of sorrow. In that glance, Gribly saw the man from Wanderwillow’s vision book: the one who had defied the Aura and the Creator, and sunk into a life of violence and crime because of it.

But Gram
knew
he had done wrong. He
knew
it, somehow. He always had.

“
Father…” Gribly asked hesitantly, “Who
were
you?”

Slowly, Gram turned his head to face his son. For a moment he did not answer, but then he seemed to break inside. His face grew even sadder. Then the moment passed, and he almost-
almost
- smiled. Standing, he took off his coat and draped it about Gribly’s shoulders. The thief stared numbly on, wondering what this new change meant. Gram sat down, sighing, his yellow shirt fluttering in the night wind.

“
It was ages ago, it seems. I was… what the lands would call a hero. It was to be I who led the hunt… the last, great hunt, to root out the final resistance of the Legion, many marches away on the heights of the Deathly Mount, in the land that now calls itself the Golden Nation.”

“
Wha…” Whatever Gribly had expected, it certainly was not
this
.

“
But… I strayed.” Gram seemed to be talking to himself now, hands gripping his hammer so tightly the white of his knuckles shone in the dark. “I was never the One, in my own mind. I was never the Prophet.”

Gribly made a strangled noise, shocked. Berne seemed unaffected… he just kept staring forward, embracing the night sea. Gram continued.

“
I let myself fall for a woman, and then I forsook the Aura to spend my life with her, ignoring my duty…” Gram was shaking, and not from the cold. “It didn’t work. Not how I wanted. You can’t… can’t run from duty, any more than you can from love. Or hate. My choices… they came back to haunt me, in the end. The Pit took Alwene, and stole away my son… and even then, I didn’t repent… not when I lost you… I… just…
Can’t!”

The last word was a roar, as Gram leaped to his feet, shaking his hammer at the sky. Lightning flashed in a spider-web of light overhead, and Gribly felt a
push
on his mind, like he felt whenever entering the world of half-dreams that made up his nights, now. A slow fire was spreading through his veins, and with it a concussive, icy certainty. A knowledge, infused in his mind.

The pieces fit.

“
You
were supposed to save the world, Father. The Aura’s only picked me because you… you failed. And Gramling, who should have been here to help me all along, is now one of our worst enemies.
You
did all this!”

He turned to his father, tears streaming down his face, but- curiously- he felt no anger… only sorrow. And weight. A heavy, heavy weight.

“
Yes…” whispered his father. “I have failed… not once, but
twice
. And now… now I can never make it up.”

“
No…” Gribly pulled himself off his seat, leaning on his staff for support. He felt so… old. So tired. “No. I see it now. I have a chance to make it all right. I thought I was nothing, in my old life. Just a thief, trying to get by. But now… now I see it was never meant to be that way. I’m meant to save us, like the Aura all say. But… I need you. The Creator… He must have put you in my path, just like he put Lauro, and Elia…
exactly
when I needed you most. One day… who knows? Perhaps even Gramling can be turned, and serve the Aura’s purpose once more.” Gram’s mouth opened in protest, but Gribly stopped him. “They’re not acting on their own, Father. Not Traveller, at least. They’re acting on behalf of the Creator… and
He
won’t go wrong!”

“
But… how do you know?” Gram whispered, humbled and looking beaten by his own tale.

“
Oh, I can feel it,” Gribly said. Suddenly, the spark of an idea began to flame in his mind. “I
am
the Prophet, you know. What you were meant to be… I
am
. It’s high time I started acting like it, don’t you think?”

Gram stood still, not speaking. A minute or more passed, father and son staring each other down in the dark. Then:

“
Yes. I see. Lead, Son… and I… I will follow.”

“
Songs of the Creator,”
Berne suddenly gasped, turning towards them.
“There is a fell current in the water… as if…”
The pirate nymph spun back, crouching and staring into the dark horizon, his misty form flickering and constantly re-forming, looking slightly different each time.

“
What could…?” Gram began, but Gribly cried out in pain and both men turned to look at him.

“
The staff!” He gritted through clenched teeth, “It’s burning… and I can’t let go!”

“
Ships…”
Berne said quietly, beginning to change back into his First Form, blue coat swirling and anchorblade glimmering at his back.
“I feel… dozens. Hundreds…”
He paused, fully Nymph again, then went on. “…and they’re all heading towards us, far faster than we’re going. It’s… it’s an
invasion.
”