Read Valley of Fires: A Conquered Earth Novel (The Conquered Earth Series) Online
Authors: J. Barton Mitchell
Valley of Fires: A Conquered Earth Novel (The Conquered Earth Series) (56 page)
She punched the armor in frustration.
“What?” Holt asked.
“It’s just…” she started, but couldn’t finish, looking back at the ever-growing field of energy.
“Not fair,” Holt finished for her. Mira nodded. “Is it gone?”
“Not yet.”
“Then there’s a chance.”
She shook her head. “You don’t understand. It can’t leave its armor, it’s going to fade inside.”
“Why can’t it leave?” Holt, she knew, was looking for a solution. It was maybe his most endearing trait, a refusal to blindly accept defeat.
“It can’t push out,” she told him. “It’s too weak.”
“What if it could?”
Mira sighed. “It couldn’t live outside in the open, it would fade too quickly.”
“But it’s right there.
Look!
” He pointed at the Nexus, maybe five miles away, above all the buildings. “It doesn’t have to survive that long, once it gets back there—”
“It will be recharged,” Mira concluded, thinking now.
“There has to be a way to get it out, to give it a shot at least.”
There was one way, she’d done it before, recently, allowed two of the entities to pass through her. She could probably do something similar now, draw Ambassador into the air, give it part of her strength. But …
“I’d need your help,” she told Holt. “It’s so weak I don’t think I can find it on my own, but if we both try, together…”
Holt didn’t hesitate. “What do you need me to do?”
Mira smiled. “Are you sure? It’s going to hurt.”
“It saved your life,” he answered. “Mine too.”
Mira touched him gently, thankful … then turned and placed both her hands on Ambassador’s broken shell.
“What do I do?” Holt asked.
“Put your hands on me,” she said. “I’m going to pull your mind inside the machine, then try and find Ambassador. If I do, and I can pull it out, it will pass through both of us. I can try and give it some of our strength. Are you ready?”
Holt wrapped his arms around her waist, pushed in close. “Ready.”
Max whined under them, uncertain.
Mira closed her eyes, took a deep breath … and reached into Ambassador’s shell with her mind. There was nothing but darkness, no color, no light. She felt her heart sink. Maybe it was already gone?
Mira reached back and touched Holt’s mind, let its familiar confidence give her strength. Together they pushed inside further, exploring the dark, looking for any sign of consciousness.
Finally, she saw it.
A dim, flickering spark of color, twirling reds against purple. She felt her heart accelerate, pressed forward, pulling Holt with her.
Ambassador was weak, barely any sentience or energy left, but she reached out to it nonetheless. Mira felt a slight twinge from it, a hint of fondness, recognition. It was still there, Ambassador was alive.
She poured all her energy and intention into it, borrowing what she could from Holt, adding his focus to her own, suggesting to the dying entity what she intended, what she wanted it to do.
It flared slightly, grew brighter, as if committed not to give up.
Ambassador’s presence moved toward her … and fire-like pain lanced through her body.
In the background, she felt Holt’s arms flex around her, knew the sensations had seared over him as well.
Mira fought the dizziness and pain. It grew more intense, building and flaring as the faded colors of Ambassador tunneled through her and Holt, pushing on, burning bright, finally passing through the dark into the outside air.
As it did, Mira held on, pushing into it as much of her mental energy as she could, trying to fortify it, to give it enough life to finally get where it had longed to be for so long.
Then it was done. Mira collapsed to the ground, and Holt fell beside her. Max was on top of both of them, whining and barking.
Mira weakly opened her eyes.
In the air hovered Ambassador, its intricate crystalline form filled with purple, like an amethyst of pure energy, but nowhere near as vibrant as it had once been. The crystalline structure seemed to fluctuate, to break and remake itself. It had managed to escape its shell, but it wasn’t going to last long.
Still, it hesitated, staring down at her, lighting the bridge in violet hues. Mira could sense its feelings. Affection. Sadness, knowing it would never see her again … and deep gratitude.
Mira soaked them in, letting them fill her, but she knew it had little time.
Go,
she projected.
Hurry.
Ambassador hovered a moment more,… then it flashed and floated away, over the edge of the bridge, over the bay, headed toward the others that were rising up into the sky toward the Nexus.
Holt sat up and leaned back against the smoking remains of Ambassador’s armor. Mira did too. The pain was receding, the memory fading. Max squirmed his way in between them, and they both pet his head.
“Well,” Holt finally said. “That hurt a lot.”
“Perfect end to a perfect day,” Mira agreed.
Both of them breathed in and out, exhausted and spent, too tired to move.
“Feels like forever since I just … sat down,” Holt said.
They stayed that way a long time, watching Ambassador disappear within the mass of other entities, blending into them, watching the Nexus continue to grow.
“Look,” Holt said, nodding to where the buildings met the ocean. There was something huge there, made of the same black metal as the Citadel, but nowhere near as big. It was also something Mira had seen before.
An Assembly Presidium, one of the giant baseships that had barreled out of the sky years ago. Looking closer, Mira saw why Holt had pointed it out.
Just visible in the light from the Nexus, she could see thousands of tiny dots exiting the structure, slowly walking out of its gateways and into the city ruins. They were people, she suddenly realized, and given where they were coming from, it became clear who they were.
“Oh my God…” Mira breathed, and she slipped her hand into Holt’s.
It was the Succumbed. No longer affected by the Tone because the Tone was gone. Adults. Their parents and siblings and everyone they had lost. What they were watching here was probably repeating in every Presidium in the world.
Mira felt an odd emotion form as she watched the tiny figures. “I’m scared,” she whispered, “and I don’t know why.”
Holt squeezed her hand. “Because it’s all changed. Everything’s new, all over again.”
Mira looked back to the Nexus, watching it swirl and flash, colors of all kinds blending in and out of it.
She could feel the projections coming from the sky, and they were similar emotions to hers. Excitement. Apprehension. Elation. The Assembly were at a crossroads too. In spite of all they had done, she was happy for them. She hoped, with whatever new destiny awaited them, that they could begin to undo all the darkness they had caused. Maybe they could make it all mean something.
“Can you feel her?” Holt asked.
Mira smiled and nodded, closing her eyes, concentrating. “Zoey has her own colors within it all. She’s … beautiful.”
“What will they do now?”
“They don’t know,” Mira answered. “Leave. Travel. Explore. Everything the Nexus had always hoped they would. The same thing is happening all over the world, at all the Citadels. When they leave, it will be as one Whole. Zoey brought them together in a way they never dreamed they could be.”
As Mira spoke, there was an ironic melancholy to knowing that when the Nexus was gone, the host of feelings and projections that crowded her mind would be gone as well. She’d grown used to the sensations, to the thoughts of the others. She’d come to see them as family.
“She loved you, you know,” Holt said quietly.
Thoughts of Zoey swirled in her head, memories she would always have. She would always be with her. “I know.”
There was a pause before Holt spoke next, feeling the words before expressing them. “
I
love you.”
Mira sighed. Emotion and warmth spread through her. They were just words. Words that events had almost denied her of hearing, but the relief she felt at finally hearing them was intense. She had no idea just how much she had wanted those words until now. “I love you too.”
She held Holt’s hand tighter, never wanting to let go. “I know we said no more promises,” Mira told him, echoing something he’d said to her once before, “but, whatever happens next … promise that you’ll always be here. With me.”
Holt slowly turned to her. She did the same, studying his brown eyes, his disheveled hair, the calmness he exuded. Everything about him made her feel safe, made her feel home.
“Where else would I be?” he asked. Then he leaned in, slowly, and his lips found hers. They kissed while Max rested between them, eyes closed serenely.
In the distance, beyond the bay, thousands of survivors walked slowly out of the Presidium. Landships gently rolled to a stop in front of the enormous structure, their colorful sails the first sight Earth’s adults had seen in years. The crews watched, nervous, apprehensive … then slowly, the two groups moved toward one another.
Above, the Ephemera glided up, absorbing into the Nexus, thousands of them, bits of golden light that streaked across the sky. They would leave soon, as one Whole, and when they did, they would be like every other form of life in the universe.
Where they went didn’t matter, what mattered was that they were free … and no longer alone.
Midnight City
The Severed Tower
J. Barton Mitchell is a creator and writer of speculative fiction living in Los Angeles.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
THOMAS DUNNE BOOKS.
An imprint of St. Martin’s Press.
VALLEY OF FIRES.
Copyright © 2014 by J. Barton Mitchell. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
Cover photographs: landscape © Trevillion Images; symbol, fire, oil rigs © Shutterstock; man © Christophe Dessaine/Trevillion Images; girl © Arcangel Images
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The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-1-250-00948-7 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-250-02071-0 (e-book)
e-ISBN 9781250020710
First Edition: December 2014