Stones: Theory (Stones #4) (50 page)

B
efore closing his eyes, Matt prepares himself for the images and sounds that will flood his mind during the night, like so many nights before.

These are not dreams.

Dreams are easily forgotten when the morning sun wakes the dreamer. What Matt sees in the night lingers in his memory like an unwelcome guest. He tries to forget, but the images never give up their tenacious hold on his mind.

He lies on the
futon
next to Jessica, eyes staring at the ceiling, hands down at his side, palms facing upward, resting in the classic yoga
savasana
pose. Jessica takes a deep breath in, the signal that, at that instant, she has dropped into sleep.

It’s not so easy for him. Hours pass in the silent darkness. He drifts in and out of sleep.

Images come and go. It might be the past. Or the future.

He’s walking through a forest of rich brown trunks and massive oak trees spread far apart. The ground is flat and even. A hundred and fifty meters ahead, the trees end.

Passing the last one, he steps onto a prairie of knee-high grass. Rows of parallel lines ripple through it like gentle waves. Without effort or fatigue, he walks unaware of the passage of time. The faint aroma of cherry blossoms comes riding in on the breeze, drawing him to a low ridge. He moves up a shallow slope and reaches the top.

A large
torii
gate stands alone on the plain below.

It gives off a peculiar sound, as if from a tuning fork, drawing him closer.

A voice from behind causes him to turn back up the hill. No one is there. The voice comes again, this time from below. Turning to the torii gate, he sees a Woman dressed in white robes, standing on the other side of the gate, her eyes on Matt. The voice comes a third time, clear and steady. Matt concentrates on the words as they weave through his mind.

Pass through the gate.

He walks closer and stands on the opposite side of the torii gate a few meters from the Woman.

Her brown eyes and bronze skin are lit from within. A look of utter contentment on her face draws Matt’s eyes like a magnet.

The two of them stand apart and stare at each other.

A single chord of sound hangs between them like a strand of spider silk shimmering in the sun.

Pass through the gate and become clean.

Without taking his eyes off the Woman, Matt takes three steps forward, moving under the crossbeam of the torii. The Woman offers her hand, and Matt reaches for it. As he steps forward, the air shifts, as if it’s turning to liquid.

When he touches her fingers, they are colder and thinner than he expects. Looking up, he stares into the face of a Japanese man dressed in the white robes of a Shinto priest.

The Woman is gone.

Fear explodes in Matt’s gut. He drops the priest’s hand and takes three steps back through the gate.

“Who are you?”

“We are the
Kami
.” The priest stands with his hands together, a tall black hat riding high on his head.

“I don’t understand.”

The priest’s skin crawls with ripples and waves. “We are the Way to Peace and Unity.” His face loses its shape and becomes a grotesque mass of bulges and lumps fading in and out in a random fashion.

Matt takes another step back.

The smile on the priest’s face disappears as it stretches out of shape. His robe billows out, as if more than one person were hiding under the long folds of white cloth. His eyes bulge as he stares up at the torii gate.

Matt follows the priest’s eyes. The gate is reversed. Matt is standing in the interior. The Shinto priest is standing on the outside.

Metal spikes protrude through the priest’s skin. His teeth take on a canine appearance. Claws grow out of his fingernails. The music that floats in the air between them turns into an eerie silence. The priest’s eyes sink into deep furrows as he opens his mouth.

Sensing danger, Matt steps back again.

The priest speaks with a multitude of voices. “Give us the power.” His eyes, now dark and threatening, move methodically down Matt’s neck and arm to the Stone in his hand.

“Come and get it.” Matt looks up with a sneer.

The priest’s body goes into convulsions. As the robes fall away, he bursts into a shape out of a child’s nightmare, growing to three meters with a massive mouth and dripping fangs. The arms shrink to tiny appendages, and the body turns snake-like, covered in glistening slime and sharp scales.

The creature lunges at Matt through the torii gate, but its heavy bulk stops as it slams into an invisible vertical plane that drops down from the crossbeam overhead like a protective field.

The monster slithers back and rears up again, cobra-like. A scarlet tongue darts between its razor teeth. The mouth opens wide, and it flies at Matt’s head again, pressing itself against the protective barrier.

Squinting his eyes, Matt sees it. A light blue energy field, as thin as foil, between him and the monster, stretching across the opening of the torii gate. Light explodes as the creature beats its head, again and again, against the barrier. Black blood drips from the side of its mouth. It withdraws to brood and stare at Matt.

Let us have the power.

Matt holds up the Stone. “Let the Lethonen withdraw so that the priest can speak on his own.”

The creature opens its mouth wide and unleashes the screams of ten thousand broken dreams. Wreathing and twisting, it lunges again to snap at Matt and his Stone.

The priest is ours. Give us the power.

Matt takes a step closer to the torii gate and pushes the tip of the Stone into the light blue protective field. It cuts through easily.

The creature screams again, loses its shape and sprouts multiple heads, each striking at Matt’s hand with a gaping mouth and shark teeth. Light explodes from the tip of the Stone as the monster makes contact with it.

Matt punches his hand through the gate.

The creature draws back. Horns protrude from its multiple heads.

Matt walks through the gate, taking two steps forward. “Leave the priest now.” He drops his hands to his side. A bubble of protective blue energy flows out of the Stone and around his body.

The priest is ours. Give us the power.

Without a word, Matt lunges forward and grabs a horn in each hand. “I said
leave him
. Now.” The blue energy begins to run down his hands onto the monster.

It screams a thousand deaths and jumps back.

Matt points the Stone. Blue lightning leaps from its tip, spreading like a network of arteries over the monster’s body. The multiple heads collapse into one. Bulges move like scurrying insects under its skin as horns and scales float over its surface. Its cries rend the space around them.

Matt moves closer to the beast, takes a deep breath and puts both hands on its skin. “Leave him.”

The shape of the monster slowly changes back into the form of the priest, now naked of the Shinto robes that lie in shreds at his feet.

Looking down at his hands, the priest’s fists slowly uncurl.

“What is your name?” Matt says. “What do you do?”

The man raises his head. “Miyazawa. Master priest of the Earth United Shinto Alliance.”

Matt studies Miyazawa’s eyes. Recognition floods in. “I’ve seen you before.” He puts a hand on the priest’s cheek and moves his head to the side for a look behind his right ear. It’s just as he suspects. A blue jewel floats in the skin. “You got this from Ryzaard. Now you’re handing them out to everyone.”

“It is the path to unity. To peace.” Miyazawa presses his palms together in the center of his chest. “To becoming one with the
Kami
.”

Matt pulls back his hand. “Ryzaard is deceiving you. Using you. Do you really think he wants the same thing you do?”

No hint of emotion moves on Miyazawa’s face. “He’s been kind enough to provide the money and means for Shinto to spread to all lands and people. It would have been impossible without him. The world
is
at peace. War and destruction have been avoided. What more proof do I need?”

“But don’t you see what’s happening? He’s using Shinto to distribute the blue jewel imbeds.” Matt steps back and runs a finger along the vertical beam of the torii gate. “As soon as he’s finished, he’ll no longer have need of you or Shinto. You’ll be discarded like a piece of trash.”

“How do you know this?”

“I
know
.”

An eyebrow lifts on the priest’s face. “But the implants. They
are
bringing us together on the Mesh. Peace and unity are not an illusion. It’s happening. Paradise is coming, just as Ryzaard promised. And Shinto is part of it.”

Matt shakes his head. “Yes. For now. It’s an illusion. I’ve seen what Ryzaard plans to do with the blue jewels. So have others. It’s not difficult to comprehend. His plan makes perfect sense. He’ll bring Paradise, but it won’t be what you expect.”

“I don’t understand. We all want Paradise.”

“He’s going to use the implants to take control of everyone’s mind. Then we
will
have Paradise, Ryzaard’s vision of Paradise. No crime. No suffering. But most importantly, no free will.”

Miyazawa’s eyes find the Stone in Matt’s hand. “How do you know this?”

“I’ve seen it.” Matt moves his Stone from hand to hand. “Ryzaard himself showed it to me, a long time ago. He wanted me to be part of it, to share it with him. But I refused to use my power to turn the human race into slaves.”

For the first time, a hint of emotion appears on the priest’s face.

“Ryzaard is using me to enslave the human race?” Miyazawa’s eyes narrow. He brings his hands together and stares up at the torii gate over their heads.

Matt slowly nods. “But it’s more complicated than that.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve been infected by the
Lethonen
. Thousands of them. They’ve taken over your mind and body. I can only guess that they’re trying to get to Ryzaard and his Stones through you. Trying to get some part of his power.”

The priest shakes his head. “The
Lethonen
?” He scans his own body, as if trying to see into it, starting with his hands and arms, and then moving down his torso to his knees and feet. “What are the
Lethonen
?”

How can Matt explain what he himself doesn’t understand?

“I’ve seen them, felt them. You might say they’re
Kami
, but the bad kind. They crave power and will do anything to get it.”

Miyazawa looks at his arms and legs. “They’re gone now, but they’re coming back, aren’t they?”

“The
Lethonen
?” Matt nods. “I scared them off, but as soon as I leave . . .”

“I’ll be under their power again.” His eyes drift around as he reaches down and pulls up the torn rags of his Shinto robes. “How can I get rid of them?”

“I’m guessing they’ve taken over your mind. You must have invited them in at some point. I don’t know what you can do.” Matt holds his Stone in his hand, warm and hard, and takes a step back.

They stand on opposite sides of the torii gate.

The priest stares at Matt’s Stone. “I’ve seen that before. Ryzaard has many. You have one. That means you have power. You can help me. You can come to me and cast them out.” The movement begins under his skin again. Small bulges appear in random places. The bones of his face shift. He hands go up to his eyes, and he screams. “Find me! Before it’s too late.” Stumbling backwards, Miyazawa falls on the ground and reaches up to Matt.

“Where are you?” Matt says.

Miyazawa opens his mouth and tries to answer, but he chokes on the words. His cheekbones sink in and completely disappear as his mouth and head double in size. Scales form on his skin and a mass of sharp needles poke through his chest. Then he morphs into a full-blown monster and lunges at Matt.

As the monster slams into the blue energy field dropping down from the crossbeam of the gate, it opens its mouth.

Give us the power.

Matt backs up, turns and runs in the opposite direction.

“O
hayou gozaimasu
. Time to get up.” The thin voice of a woman drifts through a whirlwind of movement, color and sound that circles Miyazawa.

The voices of the
Kami
move inside him like swarms of insects creeping through his body.

The female Shinto priest comes closer.

“Restful dreams last night, Miyazawa-
san
?”

The cold metal tip of a transdermal injector touches the soft skin of his neck just above the jugular. The subtle hiss of compressed air is followed by a rush of light down his spine. It fans out and turns into a warm embrace that cradles his entire body.

When his eyes flip open, the assistant priest is bending over him in her snow-white robes. The voices inside scatter like startled cockroaches.

She disconnects a tube of green liquid. “You were talking in your sleep. Very strange. You’ve never done that before.”

“The
Kami
speak to me.” Miyazawa lifts his upper body into a sitting position and swings his legs off the side of the bed. “Perhaps I spoke to them as well.”