Elei's Chronicles (Books 1-3) (74 page)

***

The cabin reeked of sweat and blood. Kalaes was sprawled over the double seat across the small cabin.

“Elei.” Alendra shifted from her kneeling position next to Kalaes. Her expression was somber. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

He nodded, not trusting his voice. His feet wouldn’t move. Something cold and heavy was coiling in his stomach, twisting in his insides. He wanted to ask if Kalaes was still alive, but the words wouldn’t come.

Kalaes had promised they’d go home. He’d
promised
.

“Come,” Sacmis said kindly, and took his hand.

He snatched it back. She acted as if he might break, as if she was preparing him for something terrible. “Help Hera with the driving,” he said. “I’ll be fine.”

She hesitated, then nodded, casting one last look at Kalaes before she left.

Elei sucked in a deep, long breath, held it. Let it out. He took the last two steps to Kalaes’ side where Alendra sat. “Show me.”

The rise and fall of Kalaes’ chest was reassuring. It calmed him enough to kneel and prop his elbow on the armrest.

“His fever has dropped,” Alendra said. “He hasn’t woken up, though, despite the way you threw us all about. And look. What are these marks?”

Her thin fingers pulled down the ripped neckline of Kalaes’ t-shirt, baring his throat, and there, in a dark necklace, stood the black dots. Rex’s badge and legacy.

Elei touched his own throat and shivered.

“They appeared a short while ago,” Alendra went on, “faint at first, but then they grew darker. Oh.”

Shaking himself, Elei leaned closer. “What?”

“They’re spreading down his shoulder.” She let go of the t-shirt, her hand shaking. “Is that...?”

“Yeah, that’s Rex.” He thought of the black dots on his spine and shoulders. She’d never seen it. Hadn’t seen all the snakeskin covering the back of his body, only the marks on his cheek and neck showing above his t-shirt.

If she ever saw... He clenched his fists.

“So it’s working?” She fixed him with those golden eyes.

“I guess it is.” He rubbed his chest. “Damn.”

“But that’s good... isn’t it?” She reached for his hand and squeezed it. “Isn’t it?”

“I didn’t... expect it to work.” The realization made him bow his head.
No faith, huh?

“So he’ll be fine.”

He looked up from under his dark fringe.
Fine?
He’d be under Rex’s thumb, craving things, violent at times, depressed at others, striving for balance. Never free.
And yet... And yet...

“He’ll live.” She pulled him around the chair, drew him in, and her embrace was sweet. “He’s going to live, thanks to you,” she breathed against his neck, pressed her warm body close. “You did it.”

Her hold, her words, undid the knots inside his chest, and he felt like he’d fall to pieces. But she held him tighter, held him together, and he loved her for it.

Loved her though he didn’t know when or how that had happened and what to do about it.

Chapter Twenty

“Y
ou did it.”
Alendra swirled him round and round, floating in the blue water of his sleep. Stars and fish and eyes turned with him, with her, and her hair, clouds of gold, made a ring around them. “You did it.”

But Elei couldn’t remember what he’d done, and he didn’t care, because she was drifting away. “Alendra, wait.” Bubbles left his lips instead of sounds.

She glided, wisps of light trailing her. Explosions lit up the dark blue, sent him tumbling, and he struggled to follow her. The silence was eerie. “Wait for me!” But his words burst into stardust.

Alendra shook her head, disappointed, and vanished in the deep.

He blinked and the dark around him paled to white. The quiet hum of the engines seeped through. He’d fallen asleep where he sat, his head propped on the wall. Something warm weighed on his shoulder, and he smelled a fresh, familiar scent.
Alendra
. Soft hair tickled his cheek. She slumped against him, sleeping. His bandaged hand rested on her head.

A glance in Kalaes’ direction showed him breathing evenly, his eyes moving rapidly behind his lids. Dreaming. But his face was relaxed. Not a nightmare.

Elei sighed, relieved.

Then he remembered Hera and Sacmis together in the cockpit. Not reassured by the silence behind the closed door, he gently moved Alendra aside and arranged her against the seat. She mumbled something, wrinkled her nose, and returned to sleep.

Fighting the pull on his lips that kept twitching into a smile, he stepped up to Kalaes, checked his brow, found it cool, and this time couldn’t stop the smile from widening.

Cautiously, he entered the cockpit.

No screams, drawn weapons or pools of blood. Hera turned, giving him a questioning look. Sacmis flashed him a grin before returning to the map.

Both still alive and unhurt.
Good
.

“Sacmis told me Kalaes is...” Hera cast about for a word. “... is okay.”

“He’s alive. And his fever is down.” And damn if that stupid grin didn’t threaten to split his face in two. “I guess that would make him okay.”

Hera reached out as if to grab him and haul him closer. “The fever’s gone? Is he awake?”

“Not yet. But he’s asleep and dreaming.” Hera looked alarmed. “He seems peaceful,” he added.

Her shoulders relaxed and her hand dropped to her lap. “Good. Let him dream then. We need to set the new coordinates. Sorry, Sacmis. You’re going in the back with Kalaes.” She didn’t look at her. “Only Elei and myself will know our destination. Until I can trust you again.”

“You’d better make up your mind, Hera.” Sacmis left the co-pilot’s seat. “Before I lose my faith in you.”

Hera stared after her, winced when the door closed. “That went down well.”

“What did you expect?” He took the vacated seat. “After all she’s been through with us, not only do you not trust her, you trust the enemy more.”

“And since when have you become an expert in relations?”

It was his turn to wince. “I’m not...” He sighed. “Forget it.” He checked the system, their depth and position, the radar for anything suspicious. Cat wandered by, gave him a disinterested look and returned to the cabin.

A rustle caught his attention. The map was pushed over the console in his direction. Hera’s graceful hand, the bones marked with the black lines of Regina, gripped the other end. Rex was quiet in his head, his heart calm.

“Apologies,” Hera said, a little roughly. “That was uncalled for. This is not your fault.”

Stifling a surprised snort, Elei took the other end of the map and spread it out. “It’s okay.”

He followed the coast of Dakru with his forefinger — the jagged cliffs, the towns he’d crossed, Artemisia, Aerica, Dakru city. Traced the curve of the island and wondered if its base was a perfect circle like Ert’s seemed to be.

“Where are we heading?” Find a cache, she’d said, to give the Undercurrent the upper hand, to win the war.

“I believe this”, she touched her thumb on the map, “might be the best spot.”

He squinted at the dot. “Abydos?” The northern-most city of Dakru, west of Teos. Teos. He shuddered.

“Yes, south of Abydos. A cache of vehicles, and one of weapons. I had hoped to go here,” and to Elei’s shock she tapped on Artemisia, the port where he’d landed when he’d first arrived in Dakru.

“Are you mad?” he demanded. “That’s practically next to Dakru City.”

“Close but not too close. Think. We’d take the capital by storm, control the heart of the Seven Islands.”

“You’re thinking war strategy. I thought we were only going to help the resistance.”

The map creaked as Hera gripped it hard enough to tear. “We are the resistance. If we cannot rely on the council, then we need to do all we can to end this.”

Cold crept up his spine. “It’s on the other side of Dakru. We’d have to go around Dakru, we could be pursued again, and Kalaes—”

“Which is precisely why we are not going there.” She sat back in the pilot’s chair, gaze thoughtful. “Too risky. Kalaes will not be in a shape to outrun danger for a while, even if Rex manages to undo most of the damage.” She tapped her fingers on the armrest. “I’ll do all I can to bring peace, but I will not risk him if I can help it.”

He didn’t think he’d ever hear Hera admit aloud that she gave a damn about Kalaes. His lips were pulling into that ridiculous grin again and he pressed them together.

“Do you really think what we’re doing can make such a difference?” he asked. “Turn the odds in our favor? Even if we manage to take Dakru and all the islands, what about the sea? The regime controls the ocean, the boats, and even watercars like this one. How can we defeat them?”

Hera chewed on her lower lip. The jewel-like patterns of Regina glittered on her throat. “You are right that the sea is important,” she said, “and I think I have an idea of how to take care of that. I’ve been thinking about the pillars.”

He tilted his head back, gave her a narrow look. “What about the pillars?”

“I’ll tell you. But first, here are the coordinates.” Hera sat back in her chair, wearing a satisfied little smirk. “Full speed ahead, captain.”

***

The sea stretched before them, dark, shot with shafts of golden light nearer the surface. Lots of fish swam there, in the azure haze, swirling like clouds of silver. Sometimes larger fish crossed their path, and Hera named them when Elei asked — a whale shark, big like their watercar, casting a long shadow overhead, a bluefin tuna, glistening like a blade of polished gunmetal.

A visit to the back cabin showed him Kalaes, Alendra and Sacmis fast asleep. Elei’s lids drooped despite his earlier nap, and his stomach twisted with hunger. No more blue bread, no more water.

A race against time
.

Kalaes shuddered in his sleep. The white web of
palantin
climbed one side of his neck and curled into starbursts, fading where it met the black dots of Rex. There was no outward sign of the battle taking place within, and Elei had to hope
palantin
hadn’t scarred Kalaes’ organs too badly.

Elei returned to the cockpit and glared at the acceleration lever as if that could make them go faster. Hera was rubbing off on him.
Damn
.

The light faded. Maybe night had fallen on the world above. Time had lost all meaning. The control panel shimmered, dissolved into scintillating spores, and he was falling through the blue again, water sliding cool against his skin. Alendra took his hand and smiled. “I want to see you,” she said, “see the scars,” and he flinched because if she saw them, she’d run away.

“Elei.” A hand shook him. “Wake up. Should I ask Alendra to replace you?”

“No.” He blinked furiously, rubbed his bleary eyes. “Sorry.”

Hera said nothing, maneuvering the watercar over a sandy underwater plain, overgrown in places with patches of undulating grasses. He re-checked the coordinates, corrected their course, made sure everything was okay.

“You’re probably dehydrated,” she said, startling him. “Gultur can go for four days without water. Mortals two at best.”

“But Rex— ”

“Rex is an unknown factor. It can do so much, and yet it may be draining you to keep itself alive.”

But he couldn’t muster any anger against the parasite. Hells, if it saved Kalaes, he might build an altar to Rex and worship it, like the Gultur worshiped Regina.

“As for food,” Hera went on, “the body can go longer without, but we’ve been burning a lot of energy. You,” she slanted a quick look at him, “probably need twice as much food as any of us. Rex keeps flooding your system with adrenaline, especially now that
telmion
is suppressed.”

Gods, why did she have to speak of food? The hollow ache in his belly flared and dizziness washed over him. “Can we change the subject?”

Hera snickered. “Your stomach sounds like a
molosse
dog in heat.”

“Thanks, Hera, just what I needed to know.”

The silence stretched like the sea, the hum of the engines only deepening it. He kept nodding off. His mouth was so dry he couldn’t wet his chapped lips and his throat hurt like knives when he tried to swallow.

Hera nudged him. “Dakru,” she said, her voice breathy. “We’re cruising along the northern coast.”

Stark cliffs rose to their right, cragged, dark and solemn, and as they sank deeper, Hera adjusting the controls, the cliffs melted into a uniform wall of gray.

“Just like Ert,” he whispered. It was true, it was all true. The islands are man-made.

Schools of small fish, flashing orange bands and golden circles in the headlights, engulfed the watercar, then moved on. A bleep on the radar caught his attention, but the small dot moved away, not to return. Then more fish, shapes against the otherwise smooth wall, sharks, jellyfish, curious squid.

Endless. An endless journey
.

His head pounded and his leg throbbed. His chin dipped time and again, and he jerked back to wakefulness to find Hera driving with a scowl pinching her features.

This time she was checking the map. She’d pinned her long dark hair at her nape with gods knew what, so her profile glowed clear and white against the dark glass.

“I really should have asked Alendra to replace you,” she said when he shook his head to clear it. “Changing depth,” she announced, and the watercar lurched and sank.

“Why’re we going down?” His voice slurred.

“To find the gate.”

The gate
. He tried to collect his wandering thoughts and glanced outside.

They slid downward, facing the wall, and the water darkened to the color of a bruise, blue-purple and disturbingly beautiful. Symbols on the wall blinked in and out of existence, brushed by the headlights. There they were again — the panels, the marks of human craftsmanship.

“Here, stop the watercar, gods damn it. Where in Nunet’s name are the brakes?” Hera’s hands moved over the switches frantically. “Where—”

Elei found the brakes and the vehicle screeched and shook. He adjusted what he hoped were the thrusters and ballast, and was glad when the screeching stopped.

“Can you see a gate?” Because all he could see was the smooth wall.

Her white teeth flashed in a smile. She reached around the side of the console and pressed something.

The wall before them slid aside like a curtain. Oh right, was all he could muster as a ripple went through the water, and the opening sucked the sea and the watercar with it into the black bowels of Dakru.

***

Elei stood at the open door of the watercar, his Rasmus drawn, a finger caressing the trigger. The hangar was dark, quiet, and enormous. Faint green lights blinked on the machines crowding the far wall.

Cautiously he went down the steps, teeth gritting against the renewed pain in his leg, gun trained on every shadow, every corner. He limped around the watercar were seawater dripped in pools on the rough floor. Then he stalked between the other watercars, parked in orderly rows in the dimness.