Grail of the Summer Stars (Aetherial Tales) (55 page)

Aurata had made some sign she hadn’t seen. Some of her followers grabbed Stevie, their fingers like claws in her arms. Astonished, she cried out, trying to fight, doubling over with shock and pain. Then she saw why they were holding her.

Slahvin’s security guards were seizing Mist. The others were holding Stevie back so she couldn’t get involved. Taken by stealth, Mist fought furiously, landing a few good blows before they overpowered him. There were too many of them, bristling with an Otherworldly power that he couldn’t match.

“Stevie!” he yelled as he was bundled away, struggling at every step. His anguish echoed in the corridor after he was out of sight.

“What the hell are you doing?” Stevie shouted. “He was going to help you!”

Aurata turned to Stevie with a gelid stare. “Do you take me for an idiot? I know him. He said a lot, but he didn’t need to open his mouth for me to know he is not on my side. I wish he’d been different, but I haven’t time to waste on sentiment. However, I do need you. So it goes without saying that unless you cooperate, Mist will suffer untold tortures that I’ll leave to your imagination. Behave, and all will be well. Do you understand?”

She nodded, faint with pain. “Whatever you want, I’ll do it.”

“Good girl, sweet Fela.” Aurata touched her cheek. “You always were my kitten.”

*   *   *

Mist was thrown into a dark, windowless space. There was a shockwave like that of a door slamming as he hit the floor. His eyes adjusted rapidly to wavelengths humans could not perceive and he found himself in a plain grey space, like a giant safe with rounded corners.

In the center sat Rufus, arms wrapped around his drawn-up knees. His hair cloaked his shoulders, pooling on the rubber-textured floor. His chin jerked up as Mist landed full-length beside him.

“Ah, there you are,” Rufus said flatly. “You didn’t try
reasoning
with her, did you? Fatal mistake.”

“What the hell is this?” Mist stared around at the cell, scared and furious.

“I believe it’s what they call the panic room. A place for rich folk to hide if intruders raid their mansion.”

“How long have you been—?”

“Couple of hours.” Rufus sighed. “Should have known this would happen. Aurata doesn’t trust us. I never thought she’d go to these lengths to stop us sabotaging her plan. But then, I’m notoriously stupid.”

“She’s taken Stevie.” Mist rose to his knees. “We have to get out of here—surely we can break out?”

“Do we want to? At least no one’s assaulting or harassing us in here.”

Mist was already on his feet, searching the walls. If there was a door, its edges were seamless. Panic and fury rose as he searched again. “There’s no way out,” he said.

Rufus looked up, frowning. “There must be.”

“Well, there isn’t.” In frustration Mist hammered on the wall and yelled, “
Aurata!
”

“It won’t do any good shouting,” said Rufus. “I’ve tried.”

Mist stilled himself, tuning his senses to the atmosphere. At once he felt a familiar pressure, a warping of the air like an unseen semi-elastic cage around them.

“A web,” he said. “This isn’t a room, it’s an eightfold web they’ve woven to keep us in here. Slahvin and his lackeys.”

“Oh, great,” Rufus said tightly. “Strictly speaking not lackeys, but Aurata’s chosen ones. I used to have followers. I miss those days. You can’t get the staff.”

“I truly hope you’re not going to sit there making facetious remarks,” Mist growled, dropping to his knees beside his brother. “Help me, for fuck’s sake!”

“Well, this is ironic, isn’t it?” Rufus met his glare. “You come here slavering for my blood. Now you’re begging for my help! Your worst nightmare in the world was to spend eternity stuck with me—and here we are, trapped in a cell together.”

“Yes, the gods must be laughing their fucking heads off.”

“Too right, because I’ll tell you what’s worse—I really liked you as Adam Leith. He was sweet and scared and malleable. Now you’ve turned back into Mistangamesh, I don’t like you one little bit. Damn right, we should have gone our separate ways. Being stuck here with you turns out to be
my
worst nightmare, as well.”

“Then help me, you pigheaded fuckwit.” Mist grabbed a handful of Rufus’s hair and twisted. His brother yelped with pain. “We need to forget that Aurata was ever our sister.”

“That’s not so easy,” Rufus shot back. “She was like an angel, coming to pull me out of the pit. She saved me.”

“No. She was just gathering a special recruit. She didn’t hesitate to throw you aside the moment you wouldn’t cooperate. Maybe it’s
me
who’s meant to save you, heaven help me.”

“Maybe so.” Rufus’s head was tipped back, his voice tight with pain. “Full circle, she said.”

“So work with me for once. We’re Aelyr, Felynx, sons of Poectilictis. It’s time to reclaim that power and do whatever it takes to stop her.”

“Ow.” Rufus jerked loose. “Let go! Enough. I’m with you, Mist.” He bared his teeth in a smile, half-vicious, half-teasing. “You know I can’t resist you when you play rough.”

*   *   *

The promontory floated high above the chasm, exposed to the desert’s bitter cold. In the dark, overarched by a trillion stars, the height was barely discernible. Stevie could look up, and not think about the canyon far below.

They’d put her into a robe of fine silk, exquisitely patterned like devoré velvet in shades of orange, gold and red, with subtle shapes that echoed the creatures on the Felixatus shell. Aurata and Veropardus—Stevie couldn’t think of him as “Oliver” anymore—were dressed in the same ritual garments, as were ten of Aurata’s followers. They might have looked slightly ridiculous, if they had not appeared so eldritch, like beautiful demons. The ten wore weightless headdresses like tongues of flame, and masks, too. Their eyes gleamed through holes in elongated, expressionless lynx faces.

The night chill stung as they worked. Aurata had her adherents manhandle a block of stone to the edge of the lookout rock, then directed Stevie to set the Felixatus upon it.

As she did so—as passive as a slave, suppressing all emotion—Veropardus’s hands hovered over hers, like those of an adult trying to guide a child. His touch made her cringe. He had no mask, but she would have preferred seeing a mask to his callous, naked face.

“The lens must be angled to follow the constellation of Auriga,” he said. “We need to focus the maximum spectrum of starlight into—”

“Veropardus.” Aurata’s curt tone stopped him. “Stand back. Let Stevie do this.”

“It’s my duty,” he said fiercely.

“Not anymore. We’ve been through this. She’s the one with the delicacy of touch. Would you please set aside your ego for the sake of the greater good?”

“After I’ve worked so hard in the service of this cause, even
died
for it—you won’t let me fulfill my role?”

They paused, glaring at each other in a battle of wills that Aurata was bound to win. She said smoothly, “Veropardus, I won’t tolerate an argument on this sacred night. Do you want to help me?”

“Of course.”

“Then go back and gather everyone who remains, and have them guard the place where the arch joins the canyon edge. No one must have access to the path. The process begins now and must not be interrupted. That’s what I need from you tonight. Strength and protection. Can you do that?”

He surrendered. “Yes, beloved lady of fire,” he murmured. He bent to kiss her hand, and, to Stevie’s relief, walked away along the spine of the arch.

Aurata continued the explanation. “The Felixatus will concentrate starlight like a battery storing energy. The photons act to agitate the Felynx soul-essences that wait within.”

A million of them, yet so tiny
, Stevie thought,
each curled up like a glow-worm no bigger than an atom
 … Just trying to imagine it made her head spin.

“Meanwhile, my companions will be helping me to weave energy webs to weaken the structure of the Earth’s crust. And as the Felixatus becomes saturated with pent-up energy, we wait for sunrise.”

Stevie caught her breath. “I’m no physicist, still less a magician—but won’t the first beam of sunlight cause a massive overload?”

“Exactly!” Aurata squeezed her shoulders. “You get it.”

“Do I? Won’t it simply explode?”

“Of course it won’t. Think, Stevie: after all, you rebuilt it. The Felixatus is constructed so that its force can escape only from a precise point. The sphere will shoot out a beam of fire powerful enough to rip open reality itself. That’s the instant at which you swivel the apparatus and direct the beam right into the heart of our energy webs. The Earth itself will crack. Magma will erupt, beginning a self-sustaining process that will vaporize all barriers, melting Vaeth and Spiral one. And we’ll achieve our dream: reunification.”

“Or the end of everything,” said Stevie.

“That’s not for you to worry about.”

“But all the trapped soul-energies—won’t this destroy them? I don’t see how they can survive. Are they happy to be sacrificed?”

“In their position, I’d be ecstatic.” Aurata’s tone held a firm threat. “No more questions, Stevie, for Mist’s sake.”

She set to work, rotating the Felixatus until it glimmered with evanescent light in response to the stars. Then she made tiny adjustments, a cog tooth at a time, angling the lens until it found the Auriga constellation overhead and focused upon the bright yellow star Capella amid the river of the Milky Way.

At once a distinct thread of white light appeared between the lens and the heavens. The Felixatus began to vibrate, singing in a faint discord that sent shivers through her. Behind her and Aurata, the ten chosen Aetherials formed a circle—more of an oval, as the rock was narrow—and began a slow dance. Energy lines sizzled between them like sparkler trails.

“Good girl,” said Aurata. “That’s it. Now we follow the star and wait for sunrise. Are you cold?”

“No,” she lied. Aurata’s concern seemed ridiculous in the context of her general callousness. “I thought Rufus would be here.”

“I had to pop him out of the way with Mist. No time for arguments or weakness.”

“What will happen to them?”

“Don’t worry about that.”

“You really don’t care about anyone, do you?” Stevie’s voice was soft. “You claimed to love Fela, but you killed her without a moment’s hesitation.”

“Oh, I hesitated, my dear. I’m not your enemy. Real love means putting tender feelings aside for the greater good.”

Stevie felt it no longer mattered what she said. “So, how much did it hurt to watch Veropardus drowning Fela?”

“It broke my heart.” The response was so quick, it might even be sincere.

“Or to frame Rufus for her death?”

“Likewise. Yet it was destiny—otherwise you wouldn’t be here now, holding secrets that even Veropardus has lost. The unseen mechanisms of the universe delivered you to us, like an orrery bringing the planets into alignment. Clockwork.”

“If I hadn’t met Daniel … then Professor Manifold wouldn’t have found the Felixatus base … Mist wouldn’t have found me … and we might still be living our small peaceful lives in ignorance. I wish I could’ve stopped this before it began.”

“Don’t say that.” Aurata’s voice was warm. “Stevie, what you’re doing is noble. You should be full of joy.”

“Well, I’m not. I’m scared. But I’ve been on this journey before. If I come back as someone else, or dissolve into oblivion—I’ve no control over that.”

“None of us has. That’s well said, because I don’t know if any of us will survive. The point is, we may not be doing this for ourselves, but for those who come after. Isn’t that the greatest sacrifice of all?”

“A sacrifice to Qesoth?” Stevie’s voice trembled. She had a vision of the Earth, like molten gold in a crucible, being poured into a new mold.

“And the completion of what we tried to do in Azantios, long ages ago.”

Stevie wished she could love and trust Aurata as blindly as her followers did, to share their transcendent ecstasy. It was too late. Dr. Gregory’s kind face came into her mind and she longed to ask his opinion:
Is Aurata mad, psychotic, deluded?

Perhaps her plan was a delusion—but one thing was sure. Fela had died because she’d stumbled onto inappropriate knowledge, and nothing had changed: Stevie still knew too much. At some point, she was certain, Aurata would cast her into the canyon, a sacrifice with no one to save her.

Close to dawn, a wash of luminescence rose from the horizon. “The zodiacal light!” said Aurata. “What a beautiful omen. It’s nearly time.”

Stars faded as the sky became a vast, paling dome of violet-blue. A line of bright gold formed along the horizon. Aurata rose to her feet, lifting Stevie with her.

Stevie saw the drop yawning below, cold indigo shadow. She felt her legs weaken, her stomach tightening. Unstrung, she needed all her self-control to force the panic down.

She tried to edge back, to gain a few inches of safety, but found she couldn’t move. Invisible wires constrained her. The air shuddered with waves of power, woven by the tenfold web of Aurata’s new Felynx. Their eyes glowed within their masks and their hair writhed with static charge.

Aurata’s palm landed between Stevie’s shoulders, caressing her hair like a lover. The long drop below made her so dizzy she couldn’t move or think. Then Aurata raised both hands as if casting out a fishing net.

Stevie realized Aurata was using the thickly spun energy of the tenfold web to create a force of her own. Hovering above the canyon, her spell appeared as a vast and quivering transparent disk like a giant lens, deforming the precipice behind it. Sparks raced around its circumference.

“There,” said Aurata. “Do you see the vortex I’ve made? See how it distorts the light? The moment the sun touches the Felixatus, you must rotate the mechanism to send the beam straight into the center of the whorl. Steady hands. Don’t rush. Just be accurate. The fire beam will find its true route.”

An eerie chanting rose from her acolytes, “
Elysiana, O Melusina, Naamon-a-Asru, O-ah Sibeyla…”
They stood with heads tilted back in rapture, weaving a bright complex mesh of power. The changing air pressure hurt her ears and the rock arch swayed alarmingly.