Sword of Dreams (The Reforged Trilogy) (49 page)

"Darius!" Ava cried. "Come on!"

He dove for the ladder as another one of Gavriel's madmen snatched the knife from his companion's neck and hurled it back. The blade flipped once and then buried itself deep into the meat of Darius' arm. The Prian clenched his teeth and hauled himself laboriously down after his sister.

Tiberius ran back down to the lip of the ravine and waved to Kemmer. "You wanted to stand by your Waygate?" he called. "I hope you meant it. Get down there!"

"What the hells do you think you're going to do up here alone?" Kemmer shouted.

"Get out of here and let me do my job!"

Kemmer nodded. He leapt over Enu-Io's body and climbed down the ladder as fast as his trembling limbs would carry him. As soon as he reached the bottom, Tiberius heaved the ladder free and threw it down, narrowly avoiding hitting Kemmer at the bottom of the crevasse.

"Go!" Tiberius' voice was barely audible and sounded very far away.

Kemmer turned and ran for the Waygate.

"The heart that loves will never fail. Even when shattered by loss, it beats ever on."

- Titania Cavainna, Arcadian monarch (230 PA)

Gavriel stepped down from the hauler's cab. The blood of its former owner was still spattered cross the dashboard. Nihilists surged out across the mountainside. Black robes stood out against the gray sky, a tide of shadows rising up to swallow all life. Gavriel's heart swelled to see his flock filling the ground and sky.

But there was a stone holding back the tide… A barrel-chested Prian man stood at the edge of the crevasse. He was considerably younger than Gavriel, but still an old man. His shoulders were squared as he fired into the nearest Nihilists. Thirteen of Gavriel's people were already down, lying in the red-spattered snow, including Pharra, one of his Emberguard. With Hallax gone, only four remained…

A screeching hawk swooped out of the swirling fog, clawing and ripping at Nihilists as they tried to charge at her master. The man whistled and the bird arrowed out. The little beast's wickedly hooked talons shone red. A young Arcadian man was flying toward the ravine and screamed in pain as the hawk tore through the delicate membrane of his wing. The fairy landed in a jumble of wet robes and feathers.

"Gavriel!" the Prian called over the howling gale.

Xartasia stepped lightly down from the truck and stood beside Gavriel. "Pay him no mind. There is work to be done."

"Face me, Gavriel!" The challenge echoed off the misty mountain. "You are mine!"

Against Xartasia's soft-spoken protests, Gavriel strode up the slope. His followers parted before him, pulling back to make way. Gavriel stopped a few yards away from the shouting Prian and held up an age-scarred hand. The hawk wheeled and came to rest on the other man's shoulder.

"Who are you?" Gavriel asked. Thunder punctuated the question. "Why do you challenge me?"

"My name is Tiberius Myles, captain of the Blue Phoenix! I will have your blood for what you've done, Gavriel!"

"What I've done?" Gavriel laughed. "I will deliver worlds from pain! I will open the way for death–"

"Shut up!" Tiberius snarled. "I'm not talking about that. The Pylos police are on their way now to stop you. You'll answer to me for what you've done to
mine
!"

"You're Maeve's captain," Gavriel said. "Are you angry that I destroyed her? She is free now, Captain Myles."

"Maeve chose her own life, the good and the bad. No, I'm going to burn you down for what you did to my Duaal!" There were tears in Tiberius' fierce blue eyes. He held his NI pistol leveled at Gavriel. "Duaal Sinnay! Do you remember him?"

Now Gavriel frowned, a seething suspicion growing inside him. "I remember."

"He was just a boy!" Tiberius said. Even his hawk glared coldly at Gavriel. "A child! You used Duaal. You hurt him!"

"And what does the boy mean to you?"

"Everything! I found him on the Phoenix! I took him away from Prianus! But he's never forgotten what you did! He's still suffering… Because of you!" Tiberius' face was red with fury and the tears fell, joining the rain beaded in his white beard. "If I can kill you, maybe he'll finally have some peace!"

Gavriel's fury rose to meet Tiberius'. "
You
took the boy? It took me over a decade to replace the power I lost with him!"

"You'll face me for what you did to my boy! Duel me!" Tiberius shouted.

"I answer your challenge!"

Xartasia fanned her wings in irritation. "Lord Gavriel, we do not have time for such distractions!"

"Take the flock to the Waygate and await me," Gavriel told her. "For what this man has done, what he's cost me, I will send him into darkness myself!"

"Gavriel…"

"Go!" the ancient Nihilist commanded. He shouted to the Nihilists. "Follow her!"

Xartasia pursed her lips and sang a single high note. She turned and swept off into the mist. The rest of the Church of Nihil streamed past the old men and toward the ravine.

________

"Where are we going?" Xen gasped when Kemmer caught up.

"Where
can
we go, you idiot? Unless you can climb that–" Kemmer pointed to the sheer wall of wet gray stone. "–we're stuck down here!"

Loud thuds and shouts chased the retreating archeologists through the narrow canyon. With the ladder gone, the Nihilists were lowering ropes and cables – probably salvaged from their hauler – over the ravine's edge. They were climbing down fast, with little regard for injury as the sick and less athletic of their numbers slipped or even fell.

Darius struggled to keep up and leaned against the wall of the crevice. Every time he reached out to steady himself, Darius grunted. Blood streamed down his wounded arm. Ava scrambled back to help her brother. He pushed her away.

"Just keep moving! Those crazy bastards are right behind us!" he grunted.

As if in answer, shouts and darkly exultant songs echoed across the mountain. The Arcadian Nihilists had no need for ladders or ropes. They wheeled and dove into the ravine. A bullet whizzed down the crevasse and cracked against the wall, flinging pieces of stone in every direction. A stone struck Kemmer in the cheek, stinging and cutting a red line into his skin. The cultists were closing quickly. Another shot rang out. They did not have long.

"Get to the Waygate!" Kemmer instructed.

"Doc!"

Ava and Xen had made it to their camp and were struggling to pull a table up against the side of the Waygate, into some sort of barricade. Phillip darted out from around one of the overturned tables and grabbed Kemmer. They dove back behind cover just as the Nihilists opened fire again. Guns popped and the bullets drove deep dents into the upended tabletops. A laser bored a suddenly molten hole in the steel and seared down the length of Ava's leg. She grabbed the wound and hot blood spurted from between her fingers.

"Ava!" Phillip shouted, crouched on her other side.

Darius and Xen hunkered down behind another one of the tables. Kemmer steadied his arms on the edge of his own makeshift barricade and emptied his pistol into the oncoming Nihilists. They were close together as they charged down the ravine and Kemmer's shots tore through five of them, but there were a dozen more to replace each one.

Arcadians circled his Waygate like oversized white vultures, beating their wings hard and fast to remain aloft in the wind-swept rain. In the presence of the quickly growing crowd, the light of the Waygate rippled faster and brighter, like an iridescent ocean. The whole thing seemed almost alive. Alive and excited.

"Take the Waygate!"

The order rang out through the ravine. Kemmer peered carefully around the edge of the barrier. A woman perched on a thin spar of rain-slicked stone just a few yards above the Waygate arch. It was another Arcadian. For a moment, Kemmer thought it was Maeve. It was not her, he realized, but this fairy looked very much like Tiberius' first mate. She was older – as best Kemmer could guess – and wore her raven-black hair long. Unlike the dirty, diseased Nihilists pouring into the ravine, this Arcadian was gowned all in perfectly clean, flowing white. She raised a slim, perfect hand.

"Take the Waygate!" she sang out again. "For Lord Gavriel and the end of all! Take it!"

The tattered cult surged forward, guns ablaze. Bullets and lasers sizzled in the rain as they chopped and tore at the archeologists' flimsy barrier. Xen jumped to his feet, screaming. "Run!"

"Up to the Waygate!" Kemmer shouted. "Get onto the stairs! It won't help us much against those bird-backs, but we can defend them against the rest!"

Ava leaned on Phillip, blood streaming down her leg, and the two of them ran to the huge white steps of the Waygate. Darius, Xen and Kemmer bolted after them.

Everything was lead and red laserfire and chaos. Ava just could not move fast enough. A pack of cultists dashed across the wet ground then swarmed over her and Phillip. Ava shoved the geologist aside just as a tailless Lyran leapt at her, foam streaking his muzzle. The Nihilist sank long fangs into Ava's throat and tore. Blood fountained into the air, liquid rubies in the light of the Waygate.

"Ava!" Phillip screamed.

"Get moving!" Darius shouted. He grabbed Phillip and hauled him up the steps of the Waygate.

"Let me go!"

"She wouldn't want you to die for her, you dumb slat! Come on!"

A laser blast lanced through Xen's stomach. He swayed and pressed shaking silver hands to the wound. Kemmer caught his elbow and struggled, trying to drag the other archeologist up. The clean white of the ziggurat was growing slick with blood and rain… but the lasers, the bullets seemed to simply slide off without leaving a mark. Kemmer yanked Xen's long arm.

"Move, you arrogant bastard!" he grunted. "Get up!"

But Xen would not move. The color was fading from his compound eyes. "I can't. Tell Xia–"

Kemmer never found out what Xen wanted to tell her. The Nihilists were at the foot of the stair and the air was full of Arcadians. One of the bird-back bastards swooped low and stabbed a spear into Xen's chest, terribly and finally silencing the Ixthian. Kemmer made a futile grab at the Arcadian, but he was already out of reach. Swearing, the archeologist clambered up the oversized stairs, toward the Waygate.

Darius and Phillip had pressed themselves up against the huge shimmering ring. It protected their back against those Nihilists climbing the steps, but offered no defense against the Arcadians circling overhead, shouting and singing. Phillip was doubled over, clutching a wound in his stomach. His freckles stood out against his pale skin.

Darius sported several fresh wounds. His shirt clung to his skin, wet with blood and rain. The digger had grabbed a one-armed Arcadian and run him through with his own spear. A knife lashed to a broom handle, really, but the weapon had done its job. Kemmer threw himself against the Waygate beside Darius as the other Prian kicked the impaled fairy off the top of the pyramid.

"I had no idea you were so useful," Kemmer gasped.

"You never asked," said Darius. His voice was tight with pain. "You assumed I didn't know how to do anything but dig. We're not going to win this, doc."

There was nothing to say. After all Kemmer had done to try to protect the Waygate, he was going to lose it. And to a bunch of… of uneducated aliens!

As Darius fended off a Dailon cultist with his appropriated spear, a cluster of Arcadians dove out of the sky and snatched Phillip. The geologist screamed as they yanked him off his feet, up into the air. Darius spun, shouted and hurled his spear at the Nihilist holding Phillip's arms. The clumsily-made weapon fell well short of its intended target and clattered down the stepped side of the Waygate. The Arcadians flew higher and higher.

"Phil!" Darius shouted.

If the freckled geologist gave any answer, it was whipped away by the wind. The Arcadians abruptly parted, releasing Phillip. He shrieked and plummeted a hundred feet to the rocky ravine floor. There was a terrible crunch. Darius swore and charged down the stairs toward the broken body.

"No!" Kemmer shouted. "Don't go down there!"

The Cult of Nihil was waiting for him. A human in red and a tarnished-looking Ixthian grabbed Darius, dragging him down to the rain-slicked step. He shouted and wrenched his uninjured arm free. Darius balled his fist and slammed it into the Ixthian's nose, but before he could rise, the human stomped down on his knee. The Ixthian pulled a snub-nosed gun from her wet black robe and shot Darius twice in the stomach. The digger groaned, pressing his hands against his bleeding guts as he died.

Hundreds of moaning, crying, singing and howling Nihilists surged all around the Waygate, closing in on Kemmer. The woman in white watched imperiously from on high.

Another Arcadian dropped down on Kemmer and he dove aside. The fairy could not correct his course in time and crashed into the Waygate. He tumbled down the stairs and into the other Nihilists. Kemmer sprinted after him and landed badly on one ankle. Something inside popped agonizingly, but he did not slow.

Kemmer scooped up a fallen gun and swung it around at the regal Arcadian woman. He fired, but she was far away and the laser only bored a steaming hole into stone a yard off target.