torg 03- The Nightmare Dream (38 page)

She took his hand with her right hand

(never with the left)

and together they started down the bridge toward Aysle realm.

Toward Earth.

146

Jean Malraux had been lost in total darkness. He felt the touch of the Nameless One, and thought for sure that he was finally going to pay for the changes he had made in his religion. He did not consider his actions sins exactly, but he felt that one day there might be a reckoning. He was certain, as the blackness engulfed him, that this was that day.

He didn't know how much time had passed before he felt the pinpricks on his back flare with sensation. It wasn't pain, not really. It was more like a tiny charge of energy being released, and he felt it flow into his body. That was when the darkness was replaced with the

vision.

Light bathed Malraux, flooding him, illuminating his soul. In the light he saw the vision of a paradise, a place where the sins of the flesh had been contained by machines! There were people like the young woman on the bridge, made of flesh and machine, and they seemed strong and at peace.

"What are you showing me?" Malraux asked. "What does this mean?"

More images flashed before him, and he saw the people connect with machines in ways that he would have once called blasphemy. His darkness device floated before him, the celestial cross of Avignon, caught in the middle of the high-tech dream. The dream images flowed into the cross, illuminating its obsidian face. As the antipope watched, he saw snaking veins of circuitry spread throughout the obsidian cross. The darkness device was accepting this dream!

"What does this mean?" Malraux asked again.

The cross sang to him. It was the familiar song that he had heard throughout the centuries, only now it had a new twist. The circuitry veins emerged from the cross, reaching toward Malraux with purpose and determination. Before he could react, the wires attached to his flesh and penetrated his skin.

"We are not alone," Malraux said as the wires worked their way into his body, melding with his hand and face. The technology was so powerful! Malraux cherished the sensations it filled him with.

He looked down and he saw the bridge of light beneath him, leading from this dream realm toward Earth. Below that, he could see Earth's Avignon. Already the images of technology were rushing down the bridge to change the reality of Magna Verita on Earth. Sparkling

lines of circuitry erupted along the bridge as the new reality took hold.

"The age of the Cyberpapacy is here," Malraux said, repeating the words his darkness device sang to him. "I am this world's saviour — I am the Cyberpope."

He stepped onto the bridge to meet his flock.

147

Ellen Conners stood before the microphones, printed speech in her hand. She tapped the microphones once, then spoke.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the press, I have the conclusions of the Delphi Council's investigation into the assassination of President Jonathan Wells," Conners began. "The assassin has been identified as Congressman Andrew Jackson Decker."

A hush fell over the assembled crowd. Conners leaned forward to continue when a voice called out of the audience.

"Excuse me, Madame Director, but I have evidence that refutes your findings!"

"Who said that?" she demanded. "Identify yourself."

"Certainly," Senator Robert Gage said as he stepped forward. Beside him were Major Charles Co vent, Colonel McCall, and the two teens, Coyote and Rat.

Conners face dropped as they made their way to the podium to speak.

148

Mobius watched the spot where the vortex had once churned, willing it to start spinning again. It refused. What's more, the planet was turning, once again spinning its ordinary cycle of day and night.

He stood on the deck of his boat, watching the sea. He

had failed again. He would not become the Torg today. But his realm was in place. He had time.

He had all the time in the world.

"Take us back to the Nile," he ordered, and Dr. Mobius entered his cabin, slamming the door behind him.

149

Tolwyn stepped from the maelstrom bridge and bent to examine the field of crys flowers. It worked! She had remembered the land as Ardinay had commanded, releasing her memories in the Dream Time through her story, and they were reflected into a new land. She smiled, looking up to see Lady Ardinay step from the bridge, the dwarves beside her, Kurst, Julie and Djil behind them. In Tolwyn's memories, Lady Ardinay was Lady Ardinay, so Uthorion was forced out as the Lady of the Light returned to her body.

The Lady of the Light looked upon the assembled forces of Aysle that had awaited her. She smiled. "The war is over, my people," Ardinay who was Ardinay again called. "Put away your weapons for another day. Now the healing must begin."

Ardinay embraced Tolwyn, and the paladin felt like a girl again. She hugged the Lady of the Houses back, returning the love she felt for the great woman.

"Yay!" the dwarves shouted in unison. "Hai, Tolwyn! Hai, Aysle!"

150

Somewhere in the portion of Aysle realm that was once Scandinavia, Uthorion opened Thorfinn Bjanni's eyes and gazed upon the elven wizard, Delyndun. Then he closed the Viking's eyes. He needed to rest, for sundering souls weakened him so.

And he had so much still to do.

151

Beneath Illmound Keep, Thratchen stared into the swirling maelstrom that held the Gaunt Man. He watched as the High Lord continued through his cycle of rebirth and destruction.

"The Nameless One is more than a legend, Gaunt Man," Thratchen said softly. "Much more. I have learned that this day. But I also learned that the other child of the maelstrom exists as well. There is much to contemplate." He turned and left the chamber.

He did not see the Gaunt Man's hand stretch out from the maelstrom, flex, then get pulled back in by the raging forces of destruction.

Here ends

The Nightmare Dream,

Book Three of The Possibility Wars .