The Conquering Dark: Crown (26 page)

“Because he believes he can do as he pleases. We believe otherwise. You can do good or ill. He chose poorly. What about you?”

Something changed in Jane's eyes as she looked up at him. The fear and despair faded to be replaced with purpose. “What do I have to do?”

After leaving Malcolm to handle the Baroness, Kate and the others followed Simon down the steep slope into the stygian blackness. The cave walls around them were alive and shifting constantly. They had to move quickly to stay ahead of it as the very floor tried to drag them back to the main temple above. In the distance a deep red glow beckoned.

It was hard to tell how long they struggled through the madhouse of a tunnel, but eventually the ground settled into a permanent state. They rushed forward until finally they turned a corner and stared into a vast cavern. Fifty feet ahead of them, the black volcanic soil ended abruptly in a massive lava pool, bubbling like a witch's cauldron that dominated the huge center of the chamber. Magma exploded from the pool in orange geysers, bursting in evanescent arches of liquid rock morphing from orange to black in midair as they cooled. The lake seemed to breathe, expanding and contracting, rising and falling, its surface level changing several feet in a matter of minutes, spectacular and terrifying at once. Black plates, cut by jagged cracks of orange, floated atop the magma. They shifted and rolled like a child's puzzle with the pieces skewed.

An island rose in the center of the burning pool. It was nearly one hundred feet across and Gaios knelt with his arms buried in the ground as the earth heaved and bucked at his command. The waves of blistering heat made the air shimmer.

Simon slipped off his coat and flung it aside. He loosened the collar of his white shirt and rolled up the sleeves. His chest glowed as the runic tattoos flared.

Kate pulled several vials from her bandolier and handed them out. She stared pointedly at Simon. “Put on more of this before you do something stupid.”

“You mean
in case.
” Simon uncorked it with his thumb and poured a generous amount in his hand.

“I mean
before.
” Kate made sure they all slathered the heavy lotion over their exposed skin.

“Gaios is in a trance,” Nick pointed out, allowing the gel to be placed only on his face and neck. “He's drawing power from the Earth.”

“Then he's vulnerable. Be ready.” Simon was in motion. He raced to the edge of the lava and bounded onto the tilting stone platforms, hopscotching across the lake. He didn't see the column of rock that rose and slammed into his midsection, shoving him up against the roof of the cave forty feet above.

“You seek to harm me in my own temple?” Gaios turned slowly around, his hands coming loose from the volcanic soil. “Is there no end to you fools? There is nothing you can do against me. Why won't you learn?”

Simon shouted in pain as the pressure threatened to crush him. Gasping out a spell, a tattoo flared again and his skin solidified into stone, holding back the column. Below him, Nick's hands coated with ice. Steam rose as the cold vapors evaporated in the heat, encircling him in mist. Nick flung bolts at Gaios, but a curtain of magma lifted and the ice lances merely evaporated. Kate vaulted from rock floe to rock floe until she was near enough to shoot a vial and throw several more with her other hand. Gaios raised a maelstrom of swirling stones that smashed them all, save one, which broke against the demigod's calf. He screamed as acid ate at his still-very-human flesh.

Kate leapt the final gap across the molten pool to the shore of Gaios's island, her pistol flashing from its holster. They had to keep the elemental's attention on them and give Simon a chance to free himself. Nick swung his arms out and a wave of lava rose straight up out of the back of the pool and flopped toward Gaios. The demigod saw it at the last moment and held up a hand, solidifying it into solid black stone.

Kate launched another vial. A cloud of amber swirled around Gaios and solidified on his chest and head. She let loose a cry of triumph. She shot at the demigod, but the ball pinged off a chunk of rock that flew up in its path.

Kate saw something hurtling toward her as Gaios yanked Simon off the ceiling and threw him at her. Simon's stone spell made his form something Gaios could manipulate. Simon couldn't even cry out to warn Kate. He was going to crush her.

She tried to jump clear but Simon veered with her. He screamed with tremendous effort as his body suddenly shifted, the hardened shell around him cracking and flying out behind him. He collided as flesh and bone with Kate. The hard impact sent them tumbling toward the edge of the lava pool. Kate's vision went brilliant white. She lay beneath him as he thrust his arms and legs out spread-eagle to halt their momentum. Kate stirred under Simon's desperate hand and her eyes blinked open. They had skidded to a stop inches from the edge. The heat from the lava seared their exposed skin even through the gel. They came to their feet.

Gaios's amber prison abruptly shattered, sending shards of it everywhere. Simon covered Kate and a few of the slivers struck them, but none were debilitating. Simon spun back to face Gaios. The elemental straightened, brushing the remainder of the amber from his robes with annoyance. His eyes grew dark and seemed to roll into his head. His fingers stretched taut.

“Come, children,” he pronounced. “I want you to see the end.”

Simon and Kate started desperately at Gaios again, but their knees buckled under them. The singular sound of their footsteps in the rough soil was quickly shattered by a splitting noise that sounded like giant trees cracking open and the ground was wracked by a tremor. Simon crashed into the dirt. Kate tumbled next to him. The earth roared and a huge wave of force washed over them. The roof of the chamber exploded outward. Columns toppled and smashed into pieces. Huge chunks of flaming marble blasted into the sky. Flames spewed forth from the rent ground. The vulnerable humans were thrown about like leaves. They reached for one another, trying to help, trying to support. Chunks of black stone rained down around them.

Then the sky broke open. The blackness split into a grey haze. A burning stench rolled over them in a wave of smoke. The quaking earth wrenched to a stop. The stone walls around them had disappeared and they saw the smashed remnants of the black basalt temple and beyond that, the crumbling bricks and stones of London. Gaios had brought the floor of his chamber to the surface, destroying much of his temple in the process.

Kate pushed herself up on shaking arms. Simon was fighting his way back to his feet as well. She looked around and saw Nick and Charlotte nearby, recovering their wits quickly. The earth shook under her, rattling through her aching bones. Her eyes quickly found Gaios.

A hot wind blew the demigod's hair and robes. Smoke from burning London swept past him. Gaios laughed wildly. He raised his arms like a symphony conductor calling down the triumphant finale. The ground around him began to crack and magma seeped up to the surface.

Kate and Simon jumped to their feet. Searing ooze rolled toward them. They ran as more geysers of lava erupted everywhere. Terrible heat roared over them. They pounded over the quaking ground, cracks and crevasses opening all around. Nick came at them from one side and Charlotte loped from the other. They all hurdled onto a huge mound of bricks and stones that had once been a building. A sputtering trail of magma lapped at the base. With arms grasping those who faltered, they climbed above the red pools. Their safe harbor was going to be short-lived, Kate feared, because she could feel it shifting beneath their feet.

Over the sounds of destruction and Gaios's hoarse laughter, stones clattered down the far side of the mound. Kate looked over the crest to see Malcolm and Penny climbing toward them. The hunter carried her rucksack and blunderbuss as Penny labored up the hill. She was smeared with blood and ash. Malcolm assisted Jane, and Hogarth came after Imogen over the rough terrain. Kate ran up and took hold of her sister. A quick examination assured Kate she was fine.

“He's killing the city,” Malcolm shouted over the roaring wind that whipped his black hair in streams around his head.

Penny dropped to her knees. At first, Kate thought she was too exhausted to stand. Indeed she might have been, but she was working carefully on something. A device of metal and crystal sat in her lap. It was the heart of the altar from Gaios's island. She had a panel off the back and a small tool inside it. She made frantic adjustments despite the rocking stones on which she sat.

A wave of lava broke from the ground at the foot of their refuge and swept up toward them. Nick shoved in front of the rest and raised a wall of ice, screaming with effort as he did so in the blasting heat. The globs of magma struck the white shield and sizzled it away, but Nick kept it thick until the lava slid back down the stone slope.

Gaios laughed harder from the distance. A huge plume of magma exploded behind him, silhouetting him black against the red.

Nick slumped onto his knees. “I can't hold it off next time.”

“Won't be a next time.” Penny stood with the strange device. It glittered in the weak sunlight. “I need a power source and I can knock Gaios on his ass. For a second.”

Simon didn't question her. “Nick, you're up.”

The older magician groaned but started to his feet.

Jane stepped forward, staring at the device with shame and anger. “I'll do it.”

“No, Miss Somerset. You're—”

“Mr. Archer, please!” she demanded. The once-mousy woman stood with hair astray and face coated with grime. She ceased clutching her torn disheveled clothes. There was an extraordinary force of will behind her eyes. She glanced over at Malcolm, who nodded to her with approval.

The mound of stones shook. Heavy rocks and chunks of concrete rolled down.

Simon started toward the base of their crumbling mountain. “Everyone spread out and make for Gaios when Penny gives us the chance.”

Penny held the device in her outstretched arms until she could see the inverted image of Gaios in the crystal. Jane came next to her. There was a sudden calmness to the lightning elemental though her face held nothing but sheer determination. A roar built as the smoldering soul of the petite woman gave birth to a ribbon of electricity. It broke from her hands and cracked from her fingers to strike the device.

Penny gritted her teeth, losing sensation in her arms and hands. She didn't feel as if she was being struck by the lightning although her teeth chattered from the feedback of so much power only inches from her. Her hands tried to shake, but she forced them to stay steady.

When the heart of the altar could hold no more of Jane's power, it bucked in Penny's hands. A weird disruption spread from the crystal. It seemed to tear open the air as it stretched across the ruined square. The disturbance slithered around Gaios, coating him in an unseen sheath, as his face twisted in alarm. He was torn free from the earth and suspended in space, buffeted as if caught in a brutal gale. Green swirls of aether streamed out of him from his eyes and mouth. The demigod collapsed to the ground in a rain of rocks. He fell limply to his hands and knees. The magma lake ceased roiling. London stopped shaking.

Simon led the charge off the mound of stones and across the lava-drenched battlefield toward the black basalt remnant of the temple.

The elemental struggled to his feet, wide-eyed, waving a hand. A rock rose up from the ground, wobbling and slow, to block a volley of Imogen's quills. An ice lance impaled Gaios in the shoulder, spinning him back. Malcolm rolled to his belly and rested Penny's blunderbuss on a rock. He fired off a shell. The stunned elemental lifted his hands, calling forth a stone shield. Its flimsy surface shattered from the impact, sending shrapnel flying back into the demigod. Kate lobbed three vials of treacle at Gaios, pinning him in place. Imogen fired more quills at him while a bolt of lightning struck the elemental square in the chest. Gaios screamed and hunched over the pain, his limbs going limp in the wake of Imogen's toxins.

Under the cover of the barrage, Simon appeared before Gaios now, the runes on his body flaring through the smoke of the lightning. He reached out for the trapped elemental. “Your time is up.”

Then the world around them went mad as Gaios lost control of his power. The section of earth rumbled and bucked. Everyone was thrown to the ground. Kate dropped hard to the dirt. Geysers of flame spewed from cracks ripped in the crust. Choking ash and dust filled the air.

However, even Gaios was no longer immune to the upheaval. He was thrown into the air and fell back limp. Like an old man who suddenly found his body betraying him, he labored to rise. He looked frightened as he tried to bring his earth under control, but nothing happened. He raised his fists with soil sifting out from between his fingers.

“Gaios!” Simon shouted. “Stop!”

Gaios turned to the scribe, who was reaching out toward him. The elemental began to shake. Magma splashed high, like whitecaps in a storm. Streams of black and red lava swirled through the air and converged on Gaios. He stood with arms upraised as the searing river of boiling rock poured over him.

There was no chance for Simon to touch the elemental now. Fire rained down everywhere. Even Simon's stone form would not save him from this. Kate rushed toward him, shouting for him to run. Globs of lava fell all around him.

The air seemed suddenly frigid. Magma spouts froze black. The open square transformed into a weird gallery of stalagmites of solid basalt, glittering in the half-light. It was a forest of large black spikes sticking out of the earth. The strange formations were thicker and more numerous closer to the center of the square where a great single pillar of stone stood with Gaios buried inside. From within that rock, a primal scream ripped out with a voice that came from deep inside the earth.

The surrounding obsidian pillars shattered in an instant. The air filled with a terrifying mix of huge stones rocketing amidst a black razor dust. It was like being trapped inside a thunderstorm, with black mist roaring and lightning cracking overhead. The air was thick and difficult to breathe.

Kate shouted, still too far from Simon. She watched with relief as he turned his body to nearly impervious rock, his only hope of surviving so close to the center of the maelstrom. Kate saw the rest of the team spread out to her right, scrambling with instant ability to protect themselves. She agonized that she was too far away to help.