Inherited War 3: Retaliation (16 page)

“No talking, can’t breathe.” Snows voice was faint, but Thalo finally felt the lift move. They were going down, and fast. Then a memory of a rumor he had once heard trickled into his brain, something about a catacomb underneath the city. That didn’t seem entirely right but he was so squashed he could barely think at the moment. As Jeth slowly crushed the life out of Thalo, his mind drifted back to the capitol steps and the banners, band and cheering females. That would have been a death to remember.

PART TWO
BATTLES

“Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best; it removes all that is base. All men are afraid in battle. The coward is the one who lets his fear overcome his sense of duty. Duty is the essence of manhood.”

General George S. Patton

“This is as true in everyday life as in battle: we are given one life and the decision is ours to wait for circumstances to make up our mind, or whether to act, and in acting, to live.”

Omar N. Bradley

“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

Winston Churchill

CHAPTER 9

The darkness was complete. No light, no sounds, and no temperature. This is how it was in the beginning, before the universe was created. Total and utter emptiness, stretching for eternity without end, without time. The black consumed everything, everyone. Despair was prevalent, anger and frustration ruled this emptiness, almost. There was something else there, buried deep within the dark, almost extinguished, almost.

Sky focused her thoughts and Gavreal’s words fluttered around the formless void of her mind. Take control. She did. She forced her mind to imagine her body as it was in Gavreal’s mind. She put everything she had into it and it slowly coalesced into reality. She left the form empty, hollow like a mold. She filled it with her mind. Slowly, like a metal so hot it had melted, she poured herself into the mold that was her form. As she occupied the new form, she gained the senses that came with it.

She could feel the mental ground beneath her feet and the pressure of another’s mind around her body. As her awareness filled the head of the mold, she gained sight and hearing. She almost wished she hadn’t. A hissing sound almost like laughter filled the space around her. It slithered into her ears and wormed its way through her mind. She shivered as it danced down her spine and chilled her newly made innards.

She opened her eyes for the first time in Cole’s mind and was shocked. Either Gavreal had understated what he saw or it had gotten worse. Horrid shapes flit in and out of her sight, nightmares of undreamed proportions were barely held at bay. She stood in the calm center at the eye of the storm that was Cole’s mind.

His torment and turmoil were mixed with the anger and despair she had felt before. Her eyes were drawn to the only other stable thing near her. Across from her, on the opposite side of the calm center, was a figure. Taller than her but indistinct in shape due to the voluminous robes that billowed and blew in the wake of the passing nightmares. Its hood was pulled down low over its face, hiding it from sight. Sky assumed that it was the one wheezing out the horrid parody of laughter.

She opened her mouth to speak but was stopped with a slight gesture of where its hand would be, if it had one buried beneath the long sleeves of the night black robe.

“So long to take form,” The words paralyzed her as they too assaulted her mind. “To even need a form to function, so very pathetic. It seems your unnatural friend didn’t teach you well enough. Oh, don’t be surprised about what I know. I know more than you will ever imagine.” Sky fought to maintain control, the more it talked the more her form threatened to tear apart and leave her adrift again.

“This from a being that hides his own form behind a robe, I am not impressed.” She choked the words out through gritted teeth. She had practiced this with Gavreal over and over. She needed to lock the form in her mind but she had been assaulted too fast, she hadn’t been ready. She blocked out everything and forced her mind to hold the image of her body as she imagined it. The being, whoever it was, radiated a faint air of anticipation as it watched her struggle. With great effort, she locked the form in her mind and shoved it down deep in her consciousness. She built a wall around it and made it as safe from attack as she could.

She stood a little straighter and stared defiantly at the being. All she received in return was amusement that turned to disgust.

“This is what they send, a fledgling. Someone not remotely ready for the challenge ahead.” Sky saw a slight movement in the hood, maybe a shake of the head. “I will devour your mind and then finish dominating the weak humans. There is only one way this can end, only one outcome that is possible. I will enjoy tormenting you, I think. Yes, yes I will indeed.”

Now that her form was locked in, Sky could shift her focus to confronting the being.

“I will not be easily beaten,” she said. “I love Cole and will fight for him, with all I have.”

“You don’t have enough.” The being raised its left arm in a pointing gesture. “Look, is this worth even saving. I give you this one chance to retreat and leave me to this mind. I will not offer it again.”

Sky looked at the swirling mass of shapes that tormented Cole. She shivered again at some of the horrors he had plaguing him. She shook her head no, not daring to speak. She looked back to the creature, who was once again standing still with its arms dangling at its sides.

“So be it.” It muttered and the swirling masses vanished so suddenly that Sky wasn’t sure if they had really been there at all. Its hissing voice spoke again. “Why do you persist on fighting for this human? It is pathetic and barbarous. Look,” as he spoke their surroundings suddenly changed. They stood in the intersection of two tunnels. The walls were black and slimy, dripping noxious goo that puddle on the floor in rank pools.

“This is what his people thought of space and the beings that lived in it.” Sky turned as she heard a hiss behind her. A creature was separating itself from the wall. Its black insect-like body blended in perfectly with the dark tunnel walls. It turned toward Sky, its segmented tail curled up and ready to strike. Its blind face opening to reveal a mouth that hissed with anticipation.

“No, this was a fiction,” Sky said. “A movie, nothing more.” The creature took a step closer to Sky. “They made lots of movies about space. About the beings that lived there and they were not all monsters.” As she spoke, Sky focused her mind and brought her will to bear. With a snap-hiss, a steady green light formed to her right. A young man dressed in black with blonde hair stepped in front of Sky and waved a fantastical sword of green light back and forth in front of the hideous creature.

The man held out his hand and with a gesture, lifted the alien into the air and began to walk it backwards. The alien hissed and thrashed but was unable to free itself from the magic grip the young man had on it.

“But there was bad there as well.” A second snap-hiss and a red light shone with the same fierceness as a gigantic figure all in black strode out from the shadows and faced the young man.

Sky smiled, she knew this movie well. It had, after all, been Cole’s favorite. “In the end,” she said with a gritted smile, “he was good.” The new figure slowly turned and aided the young man. Sky braved a smile as she saw her two knights face down and defeat the horrid creature from the nightmarish imaginations of the movies.

“Enough,” the robed and hooded figure said. The scene disappeared in a flash, replaced by a grey nothingness. Sky turned to face her aggressor. She took a step forward. The pushback was nearly impossible to resist. She took a second, more halting step. She was five feet away when she took the next step. Four. She was stopped cold, mere feet from the being. She pushed with all her might and managed another half step. She shuffled forward that way until she was within arm’s reach.

“What do you possibly hope to accomplish? You hold no power here,” it hissed into her mind, testing her resolve. She ignored it and began to raise her arms. Slowly, inch by inch, they rose until they were at the head of the creature. She slowly closed her hands over the cowl of the robe. The being did nothing to stop her other than throw the weight of its will against hers.

With a quick flick of her mind and wrist, she managed to throw the hood back and away from the figures head. She screamed at what assailed her mind. Its head moved in a blur, vibrating so fast she couldn’t see its features. Left and right, back and forth it moved with such speed that it defied the logical part of her mind and sent it tumbling away, screaming in terror. Then just when she couldn’t take it anymore, the being vanished. Sky collapsed on the ground. She was breathing heavy even thought she didn’t need to breathe at all. It was one of the down sides of locking a form so deeply in your mind, Gavreal had said. Your mind needs to make it as real as possible so you will breathe, sweat, feel hot and cold, and have a heartbeat. It was good news that her form was getting stronger, but it was hampering her now. Gavreal’s voice drifted forward again. Take control, do not be led around.

That’s exactly what was happening. The being had taken control from the start and Sky had been following its lead. No more, she vowed. She rose and turned to get her bearings. The being had reappeared behind her. She ignored it, and it apparently ignored her as well. She cast out her conscious mind, looking for Cole. This was, after all, his mind; he had to be there somewhere. The creature sensed what she was doing.

“Ahh, not giving up, I see. Looking for the pathetic human? You might not like what you find.” The hissing laughter followed its voice.

Sky ignored the taunting and focused on her search. She was figuring if it didn’t want her to do something, that it might be in her best interest to do that thing. She caught a faint trace of something other than the despair and anger that had been all around. She latched onto it and pulled herself closer. She flew across the formless void but felt like she wasn’t moving at all. With nothing around her to mark speed or passage of time or distance, all she had to go on was the strength of the feeling she had grabbed onto. Slowly it was getting stronger and stronger, so she pushed herself harder. She glanced over and saw that the being was nowhere to be seen.

Suddenly without warning, she was there. One moment she was racing across the empty landscape, the next she was standing in a hallway in front of a door. No one was around; she had the hall to herself. With a shove from her mind, she threw open the door and ran into the room. She skidded to a halt.

The tableau in front of her was unreal. In the middle of the room, held in place by what appeared to be a living metal that had wrapped itself around his legs and arms to keep him in a very uncomfortable position off the floor, was Cole. On the floor a few feet away was Cole’s biological father, crouched in the corner, was Split, and standing before Cole was an Esii like she had never seen before. She slowly moved into the room and glanced at each person there. All were frozen in time, still as statues. She moved her way around the Esii until she could see Cole clearly. She gasped a little as she saw him. He had a steel mask bolted to his face. Screws above and below his ocular ridge held the heavy piece of metal to his skin. Then she glanced up at the Esii to Cole’s front.

She was shocked to see the beings mutilated state. Its skin had been flayed from its scalp and around its face and down its neck. She assumed he lacked skin over its entire body, except its face. Its eyes and mouth were sewn together with heavy gauge steel cable. It was truly disgusting. Then she heard a sound come from behind her. She turned to see Cole shift a bit in place; he wasn’t frozen. This was where his mind was being kept. She reached out to him but was stopped.

Her fingers trembled mere inches from his face but she couldn’t move them any closer. She glanced to the side and saw the creature standing there, still covered head to toe in robes.

“This may be more interesting than I first thought,” it hissed. Slowly Cole sunk into the floor of the room and the other statues followed suit. Sky was stuck standing where she was, arms stretched out to someone that wasn’t there anymore. “I have tested your strengths and weaknesses, now is the time to contest for his mind.”

Sky tried to move, but the force holding her in place was absolute and rock steady. The world around her slowly vanished and she was pulled back into the inky blackness of before creation.

The elevator binged merrily and opened its doors. Thalo came flying out as the sudden pressure from behind had no opposing force to keep him in place. He went sprawling across the floor as he heard giggles from the elevator. A few other chuckles drifted around the room he had been so viciously dumped into. He stood and brushed off the imaginary dirt and real shame he had gathered in his headlong flight across the floor, and finally took notice of the space around him.

The word, catacombs, held a certain connotation to Thalo. Dank, musty, tomblike caverns located underground. Most likely filled with the forgotten remains of ancestors long passed. This was not that place. Warm lights glowed in the ceilings and solid metal floors, walls, and ceilings separated the living from the solid rock walls. Monitors showing images of the world above were made to look like windows. Not a bad place really, Thalo thought. He felt a tug on his arm.