Revelation (26 page)

Where is she?
Askal asked.

“She’s somewhere east of here,” I said. “She left yesterday, to go after me.”

I had no idea what Anna thought she was doing. She was strong, but she wasn’t invincible. If she ran into the crawler army, then she wasn’t going to survive. All I could do was find her before that happened. If it hadn’t already.

Your mate?
Askal asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “Sort of.”

Askal was confused by my answer, but did not respond directly. Clearly, relationships among the Askala were far less complex. Instead, I focused on scanning the ground for signs of motion.

An hour passed in this way. We took the same route as we had on our way to the Great Blight. If Anna was heading there, then we should find her on that path. Neither Samuel nor Marcus knew exactly where she had been going, so they might have gotten off-course.

We had been flying an hour when Askal veered for the ground.

“You found something?” I asked, teeth chattering.

I believe that is her.

I gazed in the direction we were descending. I saw a solitary female figure, katana in hand. She had long black hair, blown by the wind, and held a blade in her right hand. It was definitely Anna. She turned, gazing up into the sky at us. I wondered what she would be thinking, seeing a dragon flying down at her. She placed herself in a ready stance, her katana held in both hands in front.

Askal swooped down, landing a good distance away. He landed face out, I guess to let Anna know that he wasn’t a threat.

I hopped down and ran toward her, keeping my face turned until I felt my eyes return to normal. When I turned to face Anna, her eyes were wide with disbelief. She sheathed her katana, and started walking my direction.

Suddenly, she was in my arms. I held her tight.

“Don’t do that again,” I said.

“I could say the same for you.”

“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “I found you and that’s what counts.”

She looked at me with tearful eyes. “I should have trusted you. I thought, if I hurried...I might be able to find you. To say I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright,” I said. “None of that matters now. You were doing what you thought was right. I would have done the same.”

She pulled back, looking me in the face. It was hard to read those green eyes.

“You really just took off after me?” I asked.

She gave a small smile. “I knew you were in the Great Blight, somewhere. An hour after you left, I tried to get Makara go fly the ship there. She wouldn’t budge. Said her place was with the army. So that morning, I left, with nothing but my pack and my katana.”

“What about your bike?” I asked.

She shrugged. “That old thing broke down. Tried for hours to fix it, and just ended up leaving it there.” She stopped, looking up at me. “I knew, even at the time, that going east after you was stupid. But I figured if
you
could be stupid about something you believed in, why couldn’t I be, also?”

I didn’t have an answer for that. Her logic was flawless.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I flew back on that Askala there, and...”

“Askala?”

“Yeah. His name is Askal, and he is an Askala.” I smiled. “It’s what their entire species is called.”

Anna laughed.

“What’s so funny?”

“Told
you they weren’t dragons.”

I laughed as well. I remembered our conversation from earlier, of how Anna hated for them to be called dragons. I wasn’t even thinking of that when I decided on the name.

“I guess we all got what we wanted, in the end.”

Anna gazed over my shoulder, at the Askala. “You just got on that thing and flew away, like you owned it. There was no hesitation.” She paused. “I couldn’t have done that.”

“I don’t know,” I said. “You might have, if you knew what I knew.”

Anna stared off doubtfully. I brushed a strand of hair out of her face.

“You’ll never believe what happened to me,” I said.

She looked at me. “You went to the Great Blight.”

“How did you know that? You mentioned it a second ago, but...”

“It really wasn’t that hard to figure out. With the way your eyes were, I thought you were one of
them
. I thought you went to go join them. I planned on doing the same thing.”

“What?”

“Well, I don’t know what I planned, really. The thought did cross my mind, though. I thought it would all make sense, when I got there.”

She took a few steps toward Askal. She didn’t seem afraid of him. Admittedly, for an Askala, he was on the cute side. The dragon, in turn, gazed at Anna silently with his white eyes. Anna smiled.

“Funny name,” she said. “Askal.”

“Don’t let him hear you say that.”

“He can talk?”

“To me, at least. It’s a side effect of...”

I didn’t finish my sentence, but Anna pieced together the rest on her own.

“You
are
infected, then.”

“Yes. But it’s not what you think. I will actually be okay. At least, for a while.”

“What do you mean by that?”

As she looked at me with worry, I explained everything I had gone through, leaving nothing out. I told Anna about my dreams of the Wanderer while the rest of them had been fighting for their lives. I told her about how Askal had taken me to the broken Xenolith, and about the pool beneath its roots. I told her what the Wanderer had related to me on the island – about the
Elekai
and the
Radaskim
. Finally, I got to the part where I had agreed to try and fight the
Radaskim
Xenomind, by infecting it with the
Elekai
version of the xenovirus. She was a little confused when I said that that Wanderer had called the
Radaskim
Xenomind Askala, so maybe I could have chosen my name for
the
Askala better. The Wanderer had also called Askala the Dark Voice. That, at least, was enough to differentiate that Xenomind from the Wanderer, who was the
Elekai
Voice.

Anna said nothing once I was finished telling her my story. I wanted to give her time, so I waited for her to break the silence. Such things took time to process.

The first thing she said, however, was unexpected.

“The prophecy is true, then. I thought when I saw you here, safe, that perhaps I would have more time.” She sighed. “The old man was right, in the end.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The Wanderer told me that I would lose someone I loved. So, I stopped trying...to love, I mean.”

Anna said nothing more, and I felt myself tearing up. What she was saying I couldn’t believe. She
loved
me? She hadn’t said it directly, but...

“I had no idea,” I said. “And...”

I didn’t know how to go on. Instead, I held her as her eyes watered up. Her tears fell to the cold dust. Finally, she looked up at me, her eyes haunted.

“You can’t go dying,” she said. “We need you still.”

She broke down in tears. I could do nothing but hold her.

“It’s alright,” I said. “It will all work out, somehow.”

“No, it won’t! You’re going to die, you know? You’ve just told me that much.”

“Maybe there’s a chance I won’t die.” I knew it was a long shot, but I just didn’t want Anna to be sad anymore. “He just said ‘sacrifice.’ He didn’t say that sacrifice was me dying.”

“Everyone else’s prophecy came true, didn’t it? Why wouldn’t mine? Why wouldn’t yours? They are one and the same.”

I didn’t have an answer for that. Instead, I kissed her. She stilled, settling into me, her muscles going slack.

“It is the only way,” I said, when we parted. “If this is my path, and if it saves everyone, I have to do it. He told me, in that cave, that it all hinged on me. I know what I have to do.”

From far in the past, a thought came to me. Something my father always told me. I said it now.

“A man does not do what he wants. He does what he must.”

She pulled back, wiping her eyes. “There
has
to be another way. We’ll find it. We’ll talk to the Wanderer, together, and we’ll make him tell us.”

I felt only sadness. Though the Wanderer was an
Elekai
Xenomind with millions of years of memory and knowledge, he did not know everything. All he knew was what it would take to win. And that meant infecting the
Radaskim
Xenomind, and bringing about the end of the invasion.

“We have to find Askala,” I said. “The Wanderer said that she is like the mother of all the
Radaskim
. She is the source of the Great Blight’s power. She directs it, and without her, they would be powerless. If she is infected, then it all reverts to the
Elekai’s
control. The invasion will be stopped in its tracks.”

“You don’t know that,” Anna said, stubbornly. “If we can just kill her, somehow...”

“Another Xenomind would rise up and fill her place,” I said. “All the memories are preserved in the xenofungus. All it would take is a new body to manifest them. Askala cannot be killed. She can only be converted.”

“Maybe you’re right,” Anna said. “Still – I’m not giving up.”

I loved her for saying that. And looking into her eyes, I believed her. I hoped, foolishly perhaps, that she would find a way. If only it were that easy.

Askal snorted from behind – probably impatient to be off. I turned, seeing him watch us with his alien, white eyes.

“Now that I can see one up close,” Anna said, walking toward Askal, “they are kind of endearing, aren’t they?”

Askal cooed in answer to Anna’s statement. This Askala knew how to play his cards. It was a strange sound to be coming from a creature so large and so dangerous.

We went to stand before the dragon together. Askal regarded Anna with his white, intelligent eyes.

“Can I touch him?” she asked.

“Go ahead.”

Slowly, Anna placed a hand on him, rubbing Askal’s neck.

“He’s warm,” she said, surprised.

Askal nodded his head toward me. He wanted to say something.

I placed my hand alongside Anna’s.

Your mate?

I felt my face go red.
I’m working on it.

You should mate with her.

My face burned even hotter at the suggestion. Askal didn’t understand that we humans worked a little differently from the Askala.

“What is he saying?” Anna asked, with a smile.

I was too flustered to answer immediately. I felt my vision swim, and Anna’s form wobbled before me.

She paused a moment. “Your eyes...”

“They turned just now, didn’t they?”

She nodded.

“So, it
is
when I’m interacting with xenolife. Otherwise, they are normal.”

“That’s it, then?”

“They were white while I was in the Great Blight. They are white here, touching Askal. And when I awoke on
Odin,
after having my dream, they were white...” I paused. “I think the connection is clear.”

“Well, what is he saying? You still haven’t answered me.”

I hesitated, wondering how to respond. Clearly, the Askala liked to cut to the chase. Askal felt insistent that I should tell her
exactly
what he had said.

I decided to compromise a bit.

“He says...” I paused. “He says that you and I make a good pair.”

She smiled, and blushed slightly.

I hopped onto Askal’s back, reaching out a hand for Anna. She hesitated at first. After a moment, she took it, and I helped her onto Askal’s back. She sat behind me, wrapped her arms around me, settling her head on my shoulder.

With a thought, I gave an image of the mesa we had left behind. With a roar, Askal cast off, leaving the ground below.

It was time to meet with the others.

Chapter 22

When Askal flew near the mesa, I decided on impulse to fly directly into the camp. These people would have to get the idea that at least some of the Askala were on our side. What better way to do that than flying one and landing it in the middle of all of them?

It seemed like a great idea at the time.

“Um...” Anna said. “Are you sure we shouldn’t be landing this thing farther away?”

“A little shock might do everyone good,” I said.

“I think they’ve had enough shock...”

Just when I realized that Anna was probably right, it was too late. The camp came alive, having spied the dragon from a distance. People ran into tents, grabbed rifles, and pointed them into the air.

They reacted far more quickly than I would have thought. They must have trained or something.

“Pull back,” I said.

Askal obeyed, and I could feel his gratefulness. Several shots fired, but they were so distant that they would have missed by a wide margin. Askal wheeled around, turning to the direction we had come from.

Only to find
Gilgamesh
approaching at lightning speed.

“Down!” I yelled.

The ship’s turrets opened fire, bullets whizzing through the air. Anna began to slide off the Askala’s back. She screamed, but Askal jerked to the side, throwing her back on before she could fall. Her fingers dug into my torso, and I gritted my teeth in pain.

“You alright?” I asked.

Anna didn’t answer as the ship swooped overhead, the turret disengaging.

Tell your girl to hold on
.

What?

There was a lull for a moment.

“Anna, hold on!”

She complied, and immediately after, Askal made a nosedive, letting out a mighty bellow. We both cried out as we zoomed toward the nearby mesa.
Gilgamesh
was turning around, chasing Askal away. They meant to shoot us down, right here, right now.

I can’t outrun that metal Askala
, Askal said.

I knew he couldn’t.
Gilgamesh
was
way
too fast. Instead, Askal circled round the mesa, then roosted on a ledge. His long neck craned to the left, the right, searching for somewhere to hide.

But it was too late. Slowly,
Gilgamesh
glided round the mesa sideways, its front facing toward us. Its twin turrets spun, aiming directly at us all. Anna and I threw up our hands, waving at the ship’s crew to stop.