The Way of the Brother Gods (16 page)

The stone dropped to the floor with a thud. Fawbry bent over it, sniffed, and then tried to pick it up. He couldn't budge it anymore than he could have lifted the creature at its original size.

Tommy raised his head with an approving expression and his body lifted upward, slipping through the ceiling as if nothing blocked his path.

"Where's he going?" Fawbry asked.

Malja looked to the monitors but heard the painful screams first. Bluesmen patrolling the halls found themselves being compacted into ever smaller bits until they became dense stones. Every image the monitor brought up displayed a similar scene.

"I wonder," Malja said and closed her eyes.

When she opened her eyes, she saw through Tommy again. She watched as he drifted through walls and floors and ceilings. Every Bluesmen, every insect, every threat that came after him met the same fate. He passed above the building into the main Dish itself. He floated along its smooth, open surface until he reached the center. Stretching out both hands, he looked to the night sky. Streams of power surged through the air, from every edge, every panel, every part of the Dish. They pooled in a central point hundreds of feet above him and poured down into his hands.

The entire building shook as if the ground quaked. Fawbry grabbed Malja's shoulder and shook her extra. "This building isn't safe. We've got to do something." He turned to Cole. "Get him back in here to heal her so we can get out." The walls rumbled.

"It's him," Malja said. "Tommy is drawing in all the power Cole's Dish can produce."

The shock on Fawbry's face matched the shiver in his hands. "We've got to stop him."

"Why? He's a god. Let him have the power. He's destroying our enemies with little effort and besides, he's Tommy. He loves us." Metal whined in the distance echoing up the vents like a lonely cat. "This is who he is. This is purity to him. With this kind of power, he can bring peace and security to this world. He can end the brutal lives and all we've endured since the Devastation. And, he can open the exact portal to my home."

"Kryssta and Korstra are our gods. He's just a boy. And this much power might destroy him."

Malja shook her head. "I've seen inside him. He is more than you know."

Fawbry dabbed at his eyes and turned away with a huff. He knelt beside Cole and stroked her hair. "I can't believe this is how it all ends. Not only Tommy, but Malja goes insane. Even Cole is mentally gone. How did I end up the only one left with a brain?"

"I'm not insane," Malja said. "Tommy won't let anything —"

"How do you know it's even Tommy? Barris Mont is still in there. Did you even consider that unleashing Tommy like this, giving him all this power, more power than a young boy knows how to handle, it all might be the very thing Barris Mont wants most?"

"But Tommy's still in there. Barris can't —"

"If the bit of Tommy that's in that body gets burnt to pieces by all this magic, then Barris is in there to take over."

Cole awoke. She touched Fawbry's cheek and mumbled. Fawbry looked down, offered a loving smile, and stroked her hair. "Please," he said to Malja while never looking away from Cole. "Do something to stop this."

The Dish building jolted to one side. The monitor fell from the wall and smashed into the floor. Sparks and electricity crackled off the open wires dangling from where the monitor had been mounted.

Malja had one hand on the wall to steady herself. "It's Tommy in there," she said. "Trust me. I was given the bottle. I freed him and all his power. It's Tommy. He's going to make all this right. He's going to get me home."

"You selfish fool," Fawbry said. "I thought you really cared about us. I thought we had become a family. But even now, you're willing to risk this entire world just so you can see your home."

"You don't understand."

Fawbry opened his mouth, and Malja fully expected him to yell at her. He had done so before and often gave her the perspective she needed. But he didn't say anything. He closed his mouth with a sad expression, disappointed, and returned his attentions to Cole.

Magic energized his skin, coursing through his blood, pumping in his heart and brain. Tommy felt stronger, loving, powerful. He wanted to suck in all the Dish could provide. He wanted to draw in all the magic of every magician. The world could be his to mold. A figure stepped out on the Dish's edge. A Bluesman. Tommy couldn't dispose of him during this moment. Too dangerous while all this power streamed into him. Another Bluesman stepped out. And another. More and more until they had spread around the entire edge of the Dish, surrounding him from a wide distance. Each one had a little metal box and a flat guitar. Harskill stood with them, too. He raised and lowered his hand in one strong motion — a signal. All the Bluesmen strummed their guitars. From the metal boxes, a huge sound erupted. The electrified guitar sounds continued as the Bluesmen played. The air around the edges shimmered. One more Bluesman stepped forward — Wolf. He played atop the complex rhythms and rhythmic lines of the others. As he did so, as the pace increased, the shimmering air became a magic force like a wall that blocked the energy Tommy tried to absorb.

"What's that noise?" Fawbry asked as the muffled music reached into the air ducts.

Malja rubbed her eyes. "The Bluesmen are using their magic to try to stop Tommy. Harskill's with them."

Though weak and sounding more like an elderly woman, Cole Watts commanded attention just by speaking. She pointed at Malja and said, "The schuco system. If you shut it off ..." She dropped back against Fawbry and closed her eyes.

"She's right," Fawbry said. "If you go down into the sewers, follow the conduit line back to the schuco junction box, you could shut down all the power to the Dish. Cut off the power and all of this threat goes away."

Malja didn't move.

"You've got to do this," Fawbry said. "We'll find some other way to get you home, but I know you too well. You won't sacrifice Tommy for this. You never have before."

"He was never a god before."

"He isn't now. He's just a magician — a terrifyingly powerful magician, but still a magician."

She leaned forward, letting her forehead press against the wall. "I don't want to hurt him. We have no idea what cutting his power off might do."

Fawbry's tone softened. "But we do know he can't keep taking on more power. Eventually, something bad will happen to us, to the world, to him. And you know very well that the real worry isn't Tommy. It's Barris. That's who you should stop."

Malja closed her eyes. She had hoped to be transported back to Tommy, but it didn't happen. She stayed in that air duct, listening to the muted tones of Blues music and the growing wheeze of Cole's struggled breaths. And she felt something in the back of her eyes. A strange sensation as if someone were back there, touching her eyeballs, tickling or stroking, them. Irritating them, too.

Barris?
She didn't know why she thought his name but the odd feeling left right away. He had been spying on her through her own eyes just as she could see through Tommy. But why would he care at all what she was doing? Unless Fawbry was right.

"Okay," Malja said, turning to Fawbry and Cole, the familiar determination back on her face. "How do I get to the schuco?"

Chapter 19

Many years back, when Malja lived with Uncle Gregor and dreamed of vengeance, she came across a vacant vemmer hole. Vemmers were long, wide-bodied serpents that burrowed into the ground and waited to ambush prey. Feeling a sense of adventure, Malja poked her head down the hole. Numerous skeletons of numerous creatures littered the bottom — some half-eaten, some still with flesh rotting away. The atrocious smell caused her to vomit and nearly pass out.

Standing over a rough-cut hole in the Dish air ducts that led to the defunct sewer system, Malja wished for that odor. The sewer she had walked through before had smelled bad, of course, but it was a field of flowers compared to this one. She held back from vomiting but didn't know if that success would last. No matter. She had an important task ahead of her — she couldn't care about personal comfort.

The climb into the sewers was easy. Cole had installed footholds some time ago and a knotted rope hung down as well. When Malja set foot on the muddy floor, the sound of slushing and oozing destroyed any chance of holding back. She threw up. To her surprise, she discovered that purging her stomach made the sewer easier to take.

Wiping her mouth, she scanned the area. No more than ten feet across, the arched tunnel had two metal walkways lining either side. Most of the walkways were covered in slime but a rusty railing would help to keep from slipping. What would have been the waterway long ago, now was a mix of dry beds and foul slurry. A long line of lights strung on the side marked the way to the schuco.

Malja followed the trail, one hand hovering just above the railing should she need it. Normally, she would trust her balance and not care if she fell, but the thought of being covered in aged feces and rotted corpses made her want to throw up once again. She moved fast but not as fast as she was capable. Too much mold and slime everywhere. She felt like she walked on ice.

Her eye twitched,
and she was inside Tommy. The Bluesmen continued to cast their music spell, pushing back against Tommy's attempt to gain more and more energy. But some energy slipped through. She could feel him growing stronger. With one finger, he pointed toward an older Bluesman. The guitar strings snapped, and as the Bluesman looked at his instrument, his body liquefied — the watery remains flowed into the Dish.

One down.

Back in the sewers, Malja's skin prickled. That last thought wasn't hers and wasn't Tommy's. Barris Mont. Of course the connection would reach to him, too
—
it was his tendril, after all.

You're a gullible fool,
Barris said in her head.

Malja quickened her pace, lowering her hand to the rail just in case. "Fawbry was right. You want to take over Tommy for yourself."

I just needed to break the hold he had on me. Had you put that bottle on the pedestal, I'd have taken over safely and with ease. But you messed it up. You do that quite often.

"This whole time he wasn't crazy. He was fighting to keep you locked away."

And now that you've opened up all his potential spells, my freedom is certain. He can't control that kind of power. He's just a boy.

"He's a lot more than just that." The sewer tunnel seemed to have no end. She sped up to a light jog, her heart pounding. Thinking of the moment she shattered that bottle, Tommy and Barris frozen and full of odd expressions. She thought she had been doing the right thing. Always she had tried to help Tommy, but it seemed she always failed. "Not this time," she whispered to herself.

You won't make it,
Barris said.
I've killed two more Bluesmen. When I finish them all, the power flooding into Tommy will overload his mind. Burn out his internal circuitry. And I will finally have a body that I can make use of. Trying to cut off the schuco won't matter. It's too far away. That and the fact that I have enough power now to send you a little present.

A thick growl and a strong snort echoed from further down the tunnel. Malja vaulted over the railing and landed on a dry section of the waterway. She slipped Viper free and listened. Heavy footfalls followed by another snort. Whatever creature Barris had conjured, it sounded big.

An orange light grew in the distance, bouncing as the sounds of galloping neared. Malja shifted her feet back and forth, digging them into the soft ground, as she readied for a rough impact. The creature arrived with a thunderous cry. Shaped like a massive horse, it bore a brown exoskeleton that clattered as it moved. The gaps between its tough exterior plates burned bright orange.

It was nothing but fire inside.

It lowered its head and headed straight for Malja. She tried to hold her ground, but the beast whipped its head and flung her aside. It smelled of burned wood and flesh. She hit the railing, her lungs expelling every bit of air she had, and she dropped into the muck below.

The beast turned around and pawed the ground. Malja popped back to her feet and spit her mouth clean. With a fierce bellow, the beast leaned forward. Fire glowed inside its mouth and a molten liquid sprayed out, sizzling wherever it fell.

The beast tore down the waterway, snorting as it lowered its head once more. Malja held still, letting it think she would take another hit. At the last second, she jumped high and to the side, kicked off the railing, and landed on the creature's back. Though it let out a grunt of surprise, it reacted just as fast as Malja. It bucked hard. With nothing but smooth bone plates to hold onto, Malja was thrown upward into the ceiling and back down into the muck.

She refused to let the creature have another run at her. As it turned around, she launched forward. With an upward swing, she dug Viper into the creature's belly and ripped the weapon back. Gobs of molten liquid dropped to the ground, burning a hole beneath the beast. It screamed at Malja but even as it completed its turn, the battle had ended.

Its back legs became unsteady like a newborn. More fiery liquid burned through the ground. It tried to push off, to attack Malja one desperate time, but the pressure broke through the weakened ground. The hole opened up like an uncovered well and the beast fell to its demise.