The Forgotten City (41 page)

I
nspiration had struck while he was sitting on the toilet at the new Tracker Headquarters. It was such a strike of clarity that he had to jump and run to his computer despite his current indisposition. Without a second’s pause, he’d typed in his new theory and equations, based around the blood antidote for the fireblood poison of the Omarians. He calculated it again twice, and three times after that, with the same conclusion. This was it. This was the formula to change Ev’r back.

He’d been so beside himself with excitement that he’d run out to Ismail, standing on the balcony of the new Tracker Headquarters, and tried to tell him – but only ended up babbling something about pink and purple balloons, tripping over his pants, and faceplanting. At that exact moment Smudge K-Ruz had turned up out of the blue to see him. Suffice it to say she hadn’t returned any of his calls – but he wasn’t giving up. Unfortunately, Diamond seemed to be applying the same principle to him. She hung around like a bad smell, peppered him with fly-by kisses, wrote him novel-length love letters and sprinkled glitter on his head everywhere he went. It was exceptionally difficult to look manly with glitter in his hair. But perhaps the most disturbing part of it was he was starting to really enjoy her company. She was, by an immeasurable leap, the most brilliant person he had ever met, but never seemed to have a bad word to say about anyone or anything. She understood him when he spoke, not just about tech and inventing, but about life, growing up in Ufftown and being a half-breed. They connected on so many levels, yet Eli still didn’t feel that spark of attraction. He’d always believed love should be like getting struck by lightning, not slow growth like mold. But maybe he’d been wrong. Maybe this was actually the best way – to start off as friends and go from there. He didn’t know, but one thing was sure – he’d well and truly sailed into the Port of Confusion as far as what he wanted from a partner was concerned.

Now he stood in the transflyer bays above Headquarters, loading in the dart-vials for a mega-drop over Golmaria. He jolted as Diamond’s face popped up from behind a bench.

“You’re thinking about me, aren’t you?” she said.

Ismail, loading the transflyer beside Eli, started and clutched at his chest. Since Eli had removed the zombie heart and transplanted an internal robotic heart in its place, he’d grown even stronger, his biceps like boulders. Clearly he’d gotten Eli’s share of muscle as well as his own.

“No!” Eli said.

“That’s a yes!” Diamond squealed, bouncing up and down.

Ismail shook his head, looking confused and slightly disturbed. “Can you please bed that girl already,” he muttered to Eli.

“I’m a little busy at the moment,” Eli said, bright red splotches breaking across his face. He really hadn’t had a whole lot of experience in the bedding of girls department – a few acutely embarrassing moments along the way, and then a long stretch of involuntary celibacy. Ismail read his thoughts, then looked as though he sincerely wished he hadn’t. Nelly gave a deep sigh of disgust from inside Eli’s pocket. She still hadn’t completely forgiven him for leaving her with Diamond and Mr Nimbles, but they were getting there.

The doors to the top-floor craft bay slid open and the commander, Silho and Diega, with baby Alejan, stepped in. Both Silho and Copernicus were finally starting to recover their strength – they’d been hit hard, both physically and psychologically, but Eli knew they were helping each other through it. They’d even moved in together. Eli had wondered how the commander, who was a lot more rigid than most with routines and order, would cope with having to share space, but he hadn’t heard them arguing yet. Inevitably it would happen – but at the moment the only loud sounds coming from their apartment were the type that sent Eli scuttling away denying that he’d heard anything, even though he’d heard everything, or at least enough to know he shouldn’t be interrupting.

Silho came to him now and looked over the dart-vials. “I think you’ve found it this time,” she said with an encouraging smile. The Solace, her mother’s blade, was hanging from her belt.

“I think so too,” he replied, smiling back.

Ismail said nothing. Eli knew he still didn’t believe that the transformation could happen, but Eli’s endless positivity had worn him down into at least participating. The more days that passed, the more time he spent as himself and less as the soldier. His military skills were becoming more a part of him as a whole, rather than a completely different persona that blocked out his emotions. Ismail had some scars that would never heal, but the scullion was making amazing progress all things considered. He still wasn’t a big sharer by any stretch of the imagination, but he had started to talk a little bit more about his past.

The scullion nodded to Silho and kept loading. Eli knew Silho wanted to get closer to him, that she felt a sense of family bond with him, and had been ecstatic to see him alive, but Ismail always kept his distance. He had decided not to tell Silho that her carer Hammersmith had, in return for drugs, sold her out to the Omarians, implanting their tracking device into her back. Nothing good could come from it – only more pain for Silho. So he and Eli kept it to themselves, though Eli knew the guilt was eating at Ismail.

“All stocked?” Copernicus asked.

“Locked and loaded, boss, and ready to fly,” Eli told him.

The others had all said they would come with him for support – all of them except Jude. Eli felt a pang in his chest.

“I’ll just call …” Eli hesitated. “Well, I was just going to call Jude and let him know we’re going.”

Copernicus’ face tightened and he moved away to inspect the craft. The commander really hadn’t appreciated all Jude’s attempts, after everyone had been reunited, to win Silho over. He’d made a lot of accusations against the commander, and even Eli felt as though Jude had majorly crossed the line. Even so, he was torn between feeling for Jude’s desperation to be with the girl he loved and the pain it had caused the commander. Silho had made it clear all the way though, she was staying with Copernicus – end of story. Her loyalty to him had never wavered. It made it easier to forgive Jude – for him anyway. Eli didn’t think the commander would ever forgive him.

Silho moved over to join Copernicus and Eli dialed the palace. The call went straight through to Jude’s desk, where he was sitting with SevenM and Penman behind him.

“I just wanted to let you know we’re flying out to Golmaria now,” Eli told him.

“Good luck, and be careful,” Jude said.

“Thanks. See you when we get back.”

Jude gave his warm smile, but Eli saw sadness in his eyes, longing. He ended the transmission and the picture fuzzed out. Eli pushed the heaviness off his chest and turned to the others, saying, “Okay – all aboard. Not you, Diamond – I see you there!” He pointed to her trying to sneak inside the newly completed
Ory-6
. Slowly he was becoming an expert on Diamond’s covert shadow-stepping.

“Rats’ tails,” the imp-breed girl cursed, and Mr Nimbles hissed at him.

“Soldiers only. No civilians. Go and visit Flintlock,” he told them. The Corámorán was now living with a group of other gargantuan-breeds who had been excluded from their clans for a variety of reasons, and by all reports she was doing fine, gradually learning to be her own boss. The type of mental conditioning that she’d been subjected to didn’t change overnight, but she was fighting.

As for their marriage, it had taken Eli a while, but he’d finally convinced her that she didn’t need to stay married to him, that she should be free to chose who she wanted to be with, instead of being forced. It was funny, though: once their relationship had been officially annulled, he’d actually missed calling her ‘his wife’. It’d had a nice ring to it, but the truth was they weren’t in love with each other. Mutual admiration, close friendship – but not love. And so Eli’s search continued.

*****

They reached Golmaria just on sunsrise. Even bathed in the golden beauty of the new day, it still looked gloomy and haunted. Silho and Copernicus immediately picked up on the position of the Ravien. They were still under the ground, but now they’d shifted to the bore holes on the other side of the city. Diega, with Alejan in his baby capsule beside her, positioned the craft over the deep wells.

“Okay, dropping the darts,” Eli said, tension making his arms feel rigid.

He flicked the switch, and they watched as pallet after pallet of the vials dropped down into the ground. The Ravien started crawling out. Eli held his breath, biting his lip as the monsters started convulsing, shivering, dropping … and changing … without changing back.

Eli heard Ismail inhale sharply.

“It’s working,” the commander said. “Take us down.”

Diega sailed the
Ory-6
down to the desert in front of the bore holes. Everywhere along the entrance of the city naked people were sitting up, looking dazed and confused.

Ismail burst out of the craft even before it had fully touched down and Eli followed. As Ismail set off running, Eli adjusted his scanner to Ev’r’s previous physical form, allowing for a margin of weight loss or gain, and scanned the masses of transformed people. His machine started beeping and Eli raced, following the navigation to the match’s location. He lowered his scanner and looked ahead of him to a group of the changed. At first he couldn’t see her, but then he spotted a person looking up at him through a fringe of white blonde hair – those eyes – that smile …

“Snack-size,” Ev’r mouthed.

Eli ran to her, skidding down in front of her and throwing his arms around her.

A moment later, he heard the sound of running boots and felt Ev’r’s body jolt. He pulled away and saw her eyes were focused behind him, where Ismail stood watching them.

“All a dream,” she murmured, disappointment crushing her low to the ground.

“No,” Eli said. “Ev’r, listen. The Mocking Witch brought him back to life with her own heart – but now she’s dead – he’s free and you’re free. It’s really him.”

Ev’r’s eyes bore into Eli. He could see she couldn’t believe what he was saying; she couldn’t even fathom it. He thought she might actually start punching him.

Ismail came and crouched down beside her. “Zara, it’s me,” he said. And then it looked like she was going to punch him instead.

Eli maneuvered himself out from between them and stood up, backing away. He watched Ismail showing her his scars, sharing the memories that only they would have, convincing her, until she grabbed hold of him with so much ferocity it looked like they were going to rip each other apart. Their happiness beyond measure brightened every corner of this forgotten city.

No tears came to Eli’s eyes – not this time. After all the fear, all the pain, all the suffering and death – this was a moment of pure joy that he would never forget for as long as he lived.

He backed further away, letting them have the space to themselves. He turned to find Silho and the commander standing some distance behind him. He walked to them, and the commander gave him a nod.

“You did it. You resuscitated the world’s most dangerous woman.” His voice was heavy with misgiving.

“The second most dangerous woman,” Silho corrected him.

“My mistake,” he said, a faint smile curving his lips.

She gave Eli a hug, then the three of them headed back toward where Diega waited in the
Ory-6
. They passed many groups of recovering people, who were starting to speak with each other.

“I think we’re going to need a bigger craft,” Eli said.

Copernicus took his com and dialed in to the new military base. “Santana,” he said, “we have a situation. We’re going to need a mass-mover. The largest one you have.”

Suddenly the ground began to quake and a roar blasted the air, intensifying until it was deafening. Eli blocked his ears, looking to the commander for instruction. Copernicus had his eyes focused on one of the bore holes ahead of them. Eli saw a realization surface in his expression.

“Back!” Copernicus shouted, gesturing to him and Silho to run. Eli clutched Nelly in his pocket as the three of them took off toward cover. The quaking rocked the ground and with a crash, a massive craft, of a design Eli had never seen before, rammed up out of the bore hole and skidded along the sand, finally coming to rest a short distance from where Eli and the others stood. On a front panel of the craft, Eli spotted some words written in ancient-Urigin:
Scorpian Manticore
. Silho and Copernicus drew their weapons and aimed them at the craft as a platform began to lower from its base.

“Identify yourselves!” the commander demanded as silhouettes appeared on the gangplank.

A male voice called back, “Controllers DeCavisi and Croy … and Shah-Jahan RaAhura.”

To the people who own my heart – my husband, George and my sons, Josef and Daniel.

All my love to my wonderful family – Berto, Emma and Charlotte, Dad and especially Mum, my best friend and always the first reader of everything I write.

With deep gratitude to my incredible agent, Sophie Hamley, again and always.

My heartfelt thanks to everyone at Momentum Books, most especially Joel Naoum and Mark Harding for their ongoing support and creative brilliance, as well as my continually amazing editor Sarah JH Fletcher.

To all my wonderful friends and family for their encouragement and love, with an especially huge thanks to Dan Hanks, Claire Byrnes and Karla Johnston, and to the whole crew of incredible Momentum writers.  

Infinite gratitude to all the artists who inspire my work with their writing, art and performance. Most especially Clayton Watson and Jaime Jasso.

And finally much love always to the readers who have stepped into my world and given back so much support and reassurance. This book came to be because of you.

Nina D’Aleo wrote her first book at age seven (a fantasy adventure about a girl named Tina and her flying horse). Due to most of the book being written with a feather dipped in water, no one else has ever read “Tina and White Beauty.” Many more dream worlds and illegible books followed. Nina blames early exposure to Middle-earth and Narnia for her general inability to stick to reality. She also blames her parents. And her brother.

Nina has completed degrees in creative writing and psychology. She currently lives in Brisbane, Australia, with her husband, George, their two sons, Josef and Daniel, and two cats Mr. Foofy and Gypsy. She spends most of her days playing with toys, saying things like “share,” “play gentle,” and “let’s eat our veggies” and hearing things like “no,” “no way” and “NEVER!”. She is also working on more books – including the next book in the Demon War Chronicles series.