The Last of the Ageless (51 page)

Out of the corner of his eye, Korreth caught movement. Zen vaulted over the wall and landed in front of them. His cyborg parts creaked and groaned, but his glowing eyes showed no hint of pain.

The wind fled from him, and Jorrim took a step back, as though pushed back by its force. Korreth did his best to appear nonchalant as he gripped the Ancient SCL, but his heart raced and he imagined his eyes were as wide and fearful as Dalan’s. He wondered if Soledad had time to finish her spell, and what it would do to them. He didn’t feel any different.

Another man clambered over the wall after Zen. He threw back his hood, and his tail unfurled from beneath his shirt.

“Azaiah,” Dalan whispered. “But Saquey showed me...”

“Looks like Nyr was right after all,” Jorrim muttered.

Zen’s voice boomed, “You surround yourself with these puny humans, Ageless sister?”

A fresh red line marred the side of his face, probably from Dalan. Hope rose in Korreth’s chest.

“Let’s make introductions, shall we?” Soledad said, nonplussed. “These days, I call myself Soledad.” Zen snorted, but didn’t interrupt. “These are my faithful followers, Korreth and Jorrim. And these—” She motioned to Dalan and Ti’rros.

Dalan stepped forward, his eyes hard. “Dalan, the transmelder you had the pleasure of fighting just yesterday.”

Pride welled in his throat for the boy, the only one who’d fought the cyborg and lived.

Looking equally unimpressed, the Joey said, “Ti’rros.”

Zen’s laughter rumbled in the ground and the buildings around them. “Very good, very good. This is Azaiah, a ‘faithful follower,’ as you put it, of our brother, Liang. And I call myself Zen, first of the Ageless to become enlightened since the day we knew we were Ageless.”

Soledad smirked, but gestured to an open door of a large, gray-walled storage building. “Won’t you come in for tea?”

To his surprise, Zen and Azaiah entered first, apparently unperturbed by the possibility of a trap. The large space opened around a table and six chairs. Zen put a foot onto a chair to test its strength before resting his massive frame in it.

“It would appear you’re fresh out of tea and crumpets.” His voice echoed in the emptiness.

“Yes, well, the people took what they could when they fled.” Soledad sat down at the table with him, while everyone else remained standing.

Though allied with Zen, Azaiah lingered near the door as if ill at ease. Korreth nodded to Jorrim, and they took up posts on either side of the room, keeping both Azaiah and Zen in their sights.

Tapping her long nails on the table, Soledad shifted into a young woman and smiled. “Why don’t you start by telling me why you did this,” she waved a hand in Zen’s direction.

“You mean why I decided to use my allotment of technology to its fullest potential? I’m not going to wait around for some indeterminate time and then just give it all back to these ungrateful morons.”

“So you’re a rebel. You’ve got a problem with authority,” Soledad sat back and examined her nails.

“That’s not it at all.” The giant’s lips drew down, as though baffled. “I’m tired of living in squalor for century after century. I want what’s best for our kind, for the Ageless.”

“And that’s why you’ve been killing us off?” Soledad rolled her eyes. “Please.”

“Most of those were accidents.”

“It didn’t look like an accident when you killed Cerrit.”

Korreth held his breath. If Zen killed her… Jorrim’s eyes were wide, and he nodded to reassure him.

Zen shook his head. “Did you know the Purebreeds killed my sister Rafia?”

“These Purebreeds?” Soledad jerked her thumb back at Korreth and Jorrim. “No.”

“You know what I mean. They also killed Timar. And when I went to investigate, they killed me too.”

Soledad leaned forward. “We’ve all lost a few ages over the years. What do you mean?”

“They’d rigged a trap in a grain silo. I went in and couldn’t claw my way free. I suffocated. Again and again. Over and over, each of my ages died in agony as I struggled... for hours. Have you ever died of suffocation, Soledad?”

Korreth’s stomach sank. He couldn’t imagine the torture of dying once of suffocation, but over and over? He’d assumed some of the Ageless would’ve gone mad over the centuries, but Zen was a special case.

“No,” Soledad said. “And that doesn’t give you any reason to go around murdering other Ageless.”

If he killed Soledad, nothing could stop him from destroying any town or village he wanted. She was their only hope of defeating him. Yet, if she died, they were free. Korreth’s gaze flicked to Jorrim.

“Cerrit was a mistake,” the giant said, “but truly, I have no patience for the ones who destroy their own technology or let it molder. We Ageless could be so much more, Soledad. We could bring about a new age.”

He cocked his head. “Tell me, why are
you
here? Surely you realize that your very presence undermines the Prophet’s
most
sacred Mandate.”

“We haven’t had much success confronting you one on one. So we forged an alliance.” Soledad shrugged.

“Yet here you are, alone. Say you manage to drive me out—or kill me, whichever. Do you really expect me to believe that you won’t take a peek at Kaia’s secrets?”

Soledad waved that away. “I was with her in the lab just a few days ago. I don’t pry into her technology, and she doesn’t pry into mine.”

“How civilized.” Zen rose, and Korreth found himself holding his breath. “Then you won’t mind giving me a tour while our host is away.”

“Wait,” Soledad said. “Azaiah, please go with my followers and escort the Changeling and the Joey outside.” Soledad’s child-like eyes met Korreth’s as she continued, “But then you may return.”

Korreth tensed, waiting to see who would make the first move. Zen nodded at Azaiah to carry out Soledad’s command. Korreth moved toward Dalan, though he wasn’t sure what he would do if the boy resisted. At Soledad’s command, they would injure or kill the transmelder, whether they wanted to or not.

Except, Soledad hadn’t actually issued a command to the two of them.

Dalan held up a hand. “Ti’rros, let’s go outside.”

The Joey turned gracefully and Jorrim visibly breathed a sigh of relief. “That could’ve gotten messy,” he muttered as they escorted the Wizard’s pawns outside. As soon as they set foot on the street, Azaiah positioned himself in the doorway.

“Thank you for not resisting,” Korreth said.

“Of course,” Dalan said. A green dragonfly buzzed overhead and into the building.

“What do you think they’re doing?” Jorrim asked.

Azaiah grinned at them, his tail thumping on the door frame. “Zen’s going to convince her, just as he did my master.”

Korreth imagined Soledad and Zen together, enslaving tribe after tribe.

“It would seem so,” Ti’rros said. “Caetl feared this would happen.”

She gave no command to us,
Korreth tapped on Jorrim’s shoulder.
Why?

Jorrim shrugged and said, “It doesn’t matter. If she does join Zen, we won’t have to fight him after all.”

Korreth shook his head. It was a clue, but he couldn’t figure it out. “I can’t believe he’ll convince her. It doesn’t make sense.”

“Nyr and Caetl suspected she might go over to his side all along,” Dalan said. “I naively assumed she was better than that.”

Jorrim squinted at him. “Better? She’s nothing but a manipulator.”

Korreth blinked, and said without thinking, “What if
she
is manipulating Zen?”

“Then she’s a fool,” Azaiah said, his tail curling. “You’re either with Zen or against him. He’ll allow no middle ground. My master saved both our lives when he agreed to join him.”

“Azaiah’s right.” Korreth spoke quietly so his words wouldn’t carry inside. “All the Ageless are a little off, and it’s no wonder, after living through the Catastrophe and seeing the horrible things that must have happened during that time. And then to live on for several more centuries after that.”

“And dying over and over,” Jorrim said.

He tapped on Jorrim’s forearm.
Convince him
.

Jorrim took a breath, his eyes darting around as though looking for the words. “You have to wonder whether Zen and the Wizard are truly sane… Remember how many of your tribemates Zen killed? And now your Wizard has joined him?”

“I’m a Changeling, but without much power compared to most.” Azaiah shrugged. “I’ve often found that the best way to survive in this world is to ally myself with more powerful friends. And Zen is, without question, more powerful than all the rest.” The gleam in the man’s eyes made Korreth uncomfortable. “When the Ageless rule over all the other tribes, human or alien, I will have been one of their longest and most faithful allies.”

As the words left the Azaiah’s mouth, Dalan’s head fell forward. His arms flew out, as though he’d tripped, but recovered. Ti’rros grabbed him around the torso and supported his weight. “Dalan?”

“Saw… something,” the boy said. “A mental image, like from Saquey, but not. From Nyr’s eyes.”

“What?” Azaiah’s brows furrowed.

Dalan pushed Ti’rros away and stood on his own. “Believe it may be a message from Caetl, a plea for help. Nyr’s in trouble. We’ve got to go. If Caetl isn’t protecting Nyr against the Wizard…”

“The Wizard can torture me as easily as Nyr,” the Joey said. “I can do nothing out there. Go.”

The boy stared at her before handing her his weapon. “Need this more than I do.”

Then he dropped to his hands and feet. As he transmelded the rest of the way into the golden horse-like creature, Azaiah’s expression shifted from awe to disgust to pure envy. The boy galloped toward the northern wall, kicking up dust in his wake.

“Give me the gun, Joey,” Azaiah stepped forward, out of the doorway.

“Try to take it,” Ti’rros said, pointing it at him.

Jorrim shouldered past the four-eyed Changeling into the building. Korreth followed, knowing Ti’rros had Azaiah outmatched, tail for tail.

“What’s the plan, Jorrim?” he whispered.

“I was hoping you had one.” Jorrim’s teeth flashed in the darkened interior.

Korreth held out a hand and looked Jorrim in the eye. As they clasped hands, he said, “Fight well. We’ll make it through this somehow.”

Jorrim said, “Let’s hope we don’t have to fight at all.”

They arrived to hear Soledad say, “And I suppose if I simply agreed to join you, I too, could share in your knowledge and power. You think I’ll give up on the Prophet’s Mandate, just like that?”

Zen ran his hand along the wall. “I don’t understand why so many Ageless are married to the ravings of one man who probably died centuries ago. But if you really do believe in the Prophet’s words, you’ll know that his first and foremost goal of splitting us apart was to separate the technology so that no tyrant could take possession of it in the chaotic years following the Catastrophe.”

“Yes, and if
we’re
the tyrants…”

Korreth and Jorrim fanned out to either side of their mistress. Korreth found himself wondering where the mystic was. Maybe Caetl had disappeared because the Wizard had control over him, just as he’d warned.

The giant didn’t spare them a glance. “Tell me, Soledad. As you said before, it’s not like we hid much technology. The Prophet knew people would find and salvage whatever they could in the early days after the Catastrophe. So why give us such an impossible task of guardianship?”

“He always meant for us to give the knowledge back one day. When people are ready. When we can be sure they won’t abuse it.”

Her gaze locked on Korreth, as though trying to communicate without words, like a mystic. His faith that she was manipulating Zen faltered.

“I think it’s safe to say that’ll never happen,” Zen replied. “We remember all too well what it was like before the Catastrophe, so we know how technology can be abused. They don’t. We can only safeguard it if we survive.”

“Thanks to
you
,” Soledad reminded him.

“Sometimes I forget the limits of your non-enhanced bodies, since I’ve been living with my cybernetics for so long. I’d apologize, but what good would that do? Let us band together to avoid extinction. And one day, if his prophecies do come true by some miracle, we can be stewards and shepherds, teaching our descendants what they need to know to avoid making our mistakes. And if not, in the meantime we Ageless will endure, and improve upon our shared knowledge, and never have to fear death again.”

Korreth remembered back to when Soledad had told him her hopes for the future… That she wished humankind deserved to have all the technology back. But his words notwithstanding, Zen wanted to hoard it.

Soledad nodded along, like a child being lectured by an elder about something she’d already learned. “Look, I agree with most of what you’re saying. I get that we all have our philosophical differences, but I refuse to betray Kaia. If you think you’ll be able to win her to your side by holding her people or the lab hostage, you are sorely mistaken.”