Eternity's Edge (29 page)

Nathan hissed at Daryl. “Is there a way to magnify him?”

“Yep.” She eased her hand toward the touch pad. “Here goes.”

Nathan glanced at Kelly and Francesca standing hand in hand near the telescope. With their heads angled upward and their eyes wide, they seemed almost hypnotized.

He looked up again. Mictar's image zoomed toward him until his body nearly filled the curved ceiling. A woman hung from a tangle of black hair in his tight fist, her face suspended a few inches off the walkway surface while her body lay prone behind him. Even though most of her features were veiled, there was no mistaking her identity.

“Mom!” Nathan shook his fist again, spitting as he screamed. “What are you doing with her? Give her back to me or I'll …” He let his voice trail off. He had no idea what to say.

“Or you'll what?” Mictar's evil grin spread across the top of the dome. “If you see fit to match your actions with your bold words, go back to where you found your mother earlier. Follow the sounds of my choir, and you will eventually find me. If you hand over the Quattro mirror, I will restore your mother to you alive.”

Mictar walked away, dragging Nathan's mother's limp body behind him.

Still clenching his pain-racked fist, Nathan spun to Daryl. “Get Dr. Gordon!”

“You got it!” Daryl tapped on the keyboard and made the adjustments — switching the radio telescope, playing the music to arrest the chaotic sounds, and opening the audio channel to the other dimension. Within seconds, a mirror image of the observatory floor appeared on the ceiling, except that the two people watching the computer screen had become Dr. Gordon and Clara. They looked up, and the four sets of eyes met.

Clara spoke up first. “We heard every word, Nathan. What are you going to do?”

“What choice do I have?” He looked at the mirror on the desk where Daryl sat. “I have to save my mother.”

A hand touched his back. “We'd better send Francesca to Earth Yellow first.”

Nathan turned. Kelly and Francesca stood in front of him, still hand in hand. “We don't have to wait for that. The mirror will take us to my mother. Daryl can send Francesca home.”

“Too early to ship her, anyway.” Daryl pointed at the laptop screen. “I'm watching the clock. It's been two hours and seven minutes, Gunther Standard Time, since his email time stamp. He has a ways to go.”

“Then Kelly and I'll go now. You can get Dr. Gordon and Clara up to speed while you're waiting.”

“But I don't know the whole story. I walked in on the show when the credits started rolling.”

Nathan let out a huff. “Okay. Here's the super short version.” Taking in a deep breath, he told the story rapid-fire, giving all the details he thought important.

Daryl looked on in wonder, even gasping when he described Daryl Blue's fall. Dr. Gordon and Clara listened in silence, Gordon pacing slowly with his hand on his chin and Clara staring from her chair.

Finally, Nathan spread out his hands. “That's it. Kelly and I had better run.”

“I agree,” Dr. Gordon said, now looking up at Nathan. “Since Earth Yellow and Red have stabilized, travel should be safe, but that might not last long.”

Nathan picked up the mirror and gave it to Kelly. “Will you hold it while I play?”

“Wait!” Francesca drew close to Nathan, almost toe to toe. “Kelly convinced me. I'll do what I have to do, even if it means getting married so young.” Raising hesitant fingers to his cheek, she whispered. “Earth Yellow needs its version of Nathan Shepherd as soon as possible.”

As Francesca handed him the violin and bow, Nathan's insides quaked. He replied, matching her whisper. “That's an amazing sacrifice. I'm sure it will all work out.”

She kissed his cheek. “If your father is anything like you, I'm sure it will.”

Again flushing hot, he stared at her gleaming eyes. “I … I don't know what to say.”

“Just be sure to tell Kelly why Nathan Shepherd is who he is.” She touched the violin bow. “Remember, your talents are a gift, not a birthright.”

He watched her finger rub the bow's polished wood. “I'll remember.”

She backed away, tears now streaming. He couldn't keep eye contact, at least not without breaking down. Forcing a smile, he turned to Daryl. “Are you going back to Earth Red after you send Francesca home?”

She shook her head hard. “You guys can keep world hopping if you want, but someone needs to run the Earth Blue observatory.”

“What about Mictar?” Kelly asked. “If he shows up again, he won't hesitate to kill you.”

Daryl grinned. “I dealt with Tony nearly every day for over two years. I have a sixth sense now about when tall, bug-eyed guys who want to suck my life energy are coming around.”

“Let's get serious,” Nathan said. “It's really dangerous. You shouldn't stay.”

“Well, if it isn't Mr. Dangerous himself telling me what to do!” She gave him a light punch on the arm. “Go get 'em, tiger. I'll be a phone call away if you need me.”

Nathan shook her hand, interlocking their thumbs. “I couldn't do it without you.”

She pulled her hand away and stared at her palm. “Then take my advice. You wash up and let Kelly-kins change her bandage. Otherwise you'll leave a trail even a hound with a sinus infection could follow.”

18
PHYSICAL DARKNESS

 

After changing her bandage, Kelly walked into the telescope's shadow with the mirror in both hands. She pointed the reflective surface at Nathan, who stood ready to play the violin. Even though he had washed, his wounds burned like fire. Still, his hands felt nimble enough to manage a tune.

Above, Clara and Dr. Gordon watched from their upside-down perspective while Daryl looked on from the Earth Blue computer desk.

Once again playing “Foundation's Key,” Nathan kept an eye on the dark reflection. Although his fingers and palms ached, he pushed through the performance. As before, though it seemed so long ago, the mirror showed the Earth Red graveyard, but the rift in the dark sky was much smaller.

He stopped playing and reached to the floor for a small flashlight he had found in the desk. Pointing it at the mirror, he nodded at Kelly. “Here we go.”

The glass bounced the beam, enhancing it with supercharged energy. Static pounded once again, this time from the speakers in the observatory wall. Spinning darkness enveloped them in an ebony cocoon, slowly decelerating until it came to a stop.

Nathan reached out his hand. The inky blackness felt solid, a thin fibrous netting like black spider webs, yet not sticky. The noise died away. The last time they arrived in this dark realm, his mother's sweet violin replaced the static, but now no sad
melody would signal that she sat in the midst of a fragile floor, waiting for deliverance.

Pressing his feet down, he tested the dark floor. Solid. Not a hint of crumbling. At least now they probably wouldn't plunge into the realm of dreams.

He tucked the violin under his arm and aimed the flashlight into the darkness. It was time to push ahead and find the hideous monster that dared to drag his mother around like a discarded mannequin.

The beam washed over a fibrous mass, a stringy substance that looked like the thickest cobwebs in the cosmos. He half expected a Shelob-sized spider to skitter down and wrap both of them up for a midnight snack.

Although the flashlight beam started out strong, when it struck the webbing, the light energy poured down the strands. As it trickled toward the floor, a slight crackling noise sounded from the material, and the liquid light thinned out the net as if burning it away.

Nathan clicked off the flashlight. Better to save the batteries. Although cutting the strings away might help, the process was way too slow. Using the light as a blowtorch would take hours, and the beam didn't shoot out more than a few inches.

Kelly's voice came from behind him, muffled by the matrix. “I hear something. It sounds like stalkers doing their shrieking circle around Scarlet's dome.”

He turned, but only blackness met his eyes. Still, the warmth of her body radiated over his, and her gentle breaths caressed his cheek. She was definitely close. “That's what we're looking for. Mictar must be nearby.”

She turned his body ninety degrees to the right. “They're coming from that way. I'll correct as we go.”

Taking a careful step, he pushed a mass of webbing to the side and plowed through. With every touch, the strands popped and crackled, emanating tiny multi-colored sparks that sprang
across his field of vision and died away. With thick outcrops of tangled netting obstructing their path, they high-stepped, sometimes planting their feet in soft, crackling piles. As they pressed down, the surface felt like spongy moss but looked like glittering obsidian.

Nathan halted. The popping sounds continued for a moment, then stopped. Could the extra noise have been an echo? Not likely. The stringy mass snuffed out nearly every sound, so the noise had to be pretty loud to make it to their ears.

“What is it?” Kelly asked.

“Shh!” He touched her arm. “Hear anything?”

“Besides the horrible singing?” She paused for a second. “No.”

He lifted a foot and pressed down again, raising another shower of crackling sparks. “I mean that noise. When I stop walking, I hear it again.”

“The singing pretty much drowns everything out for me.”

Nathan strained his ears. Only Kelly's breaths interrupted the dead silence. Could Mictar be lurking? Maybe he lied about trading for the mirror and really planned to ambush them and steal what he had been trying to get ever since this ordeal began. Could the other stalkers provide a clue?

“Can you translate their song?” he asked.

“Some of it.” She drummed her fingers on Nathan's arm. “They're going on and on about a final merging of the three earths, something about a great sacrifice that will turn on the Lucifer machine.”

“That can't be good.”

“Tell me about it. Now they're saying only Earth Yellow will survive, and they will inhabit it once the rodents are eliminated.”

“Rodents? Must be their pet name for humans.”

“I don't think they're singing about field mice.”

Nathan pressed on, but the popping sounds continued. Whoever stalked from behind always waited for them to start
moving again before taking his own steps. Maybe Mictar didn't want to attack two people at once, but he had seemed adept at handling that many before. Then again, Kelly didn't hear it, so maybe it was in his imagination.

After a minute or so, Kelly turned him a few degrees to the left. He paused and craned his neck. Dissonant song, a series of long vowel sounds, finally reached his ears, warped and distant. The stalkers were somewhere out there.

He turned and listened again, but the shrieks allowed for no other sounds. Mictar apparently didn't have the guts to show himself. Nathan suppressed a sigh. Even if they were being stalked, what could he do? Just wait around? He lowered his head and trudged on.

Kelly grabbed the back of his shirt. “Don't leave me. If we're getting close to those white-haired freaks, I'm sticking to you like glue.”

As they struggled forward, the song grew louder. In his mind, he labeled the noise the “foul vowels,” but the moniker sounded too corny to say out loud. Besides, it was probably better not to talk. If they could hear the stalkers, maybe the stalkers could hear them. “If you hear anything important,” he whispered, “let me know. Otherwise, we'd better keep quiet.”

She replied with another quick tug on his shirt, enough to let him know she understood.

After a minute or two, he reached a thick wall of webbing, too thick to swipe away with his hand. He turned on the flashlight and set the beam on the black barrier. The light poured down the surface, sizzling all the way to the floor.

He flicked the light off again and felt the spot with his fingers. Although the beam had left an indentation, it couldn't have been more than a millimeter deep. It might take hours to burn through it.

He set down the flashlight, violin, and bow, then tried to tear
at the wall with both hands. Although it seemed soft enough, like cotton or terrycloth, his nails couldn't penetrate.

After a few seconds of futile scratching, he picked up his things and whispered to Kelly. “The wall's too tough. Let's see if there's a crack in it somewhere.” He slid the flashlight into his pocket and pushed the violin into her hand.

“I heard it,” she whispered.

“Heard what?”

“The popping noise behind us. Someone's back there.”

“If Mictar was going to attack, I think he'd have done it by now.”

“Maybe not. He could be waiting for a more convenient place. It feels kind of stupid to march right into his lair.”

“I know. But I don't think we have much choice.” Laying his left hand on the wall, he pushed forward through thick webbing, trying to forge a path parallel to the barrier. Still clutching his shirt, Kelly followed.

The foul vowels continued to emanate from beyond the flexible wall. As Nathan trudged, it seemed that the wall curved, as if it were a circular shield protecting whatever was inside. He halted and slid his hand upward on the barrier, standing on tiptoes to reach as high as he could. The shield curved slightly away. The barrier was a dome, a much bigger, darker dome than the prisons that held Scarlet and the other supplicants.

He knelt and pushed his fingertips into the intersection between the shield and the floor. The wall bent inward, allowing his fingers to slide through. With a quiet grunt, he lifted. His wounded hands ached, but the thick cottony material budged. Now able to curl his fingers up on the other side, he pulled harder. The material spilled slowly around his hands, like viscous gelatin warmed by his touch. As he held the curtain a foot or so off the floor, cacophonous vowels poured through the gap, now much louder than before.

He let the wall down and rose to his feet. “It's heavy, but I'm
sure you can handle it. If you hold it up, I'll squeeze through. Then I'll hold it up for you from the inside.”

She pulled harder on his shirt. “I don't want to be separated, not even for a second. The minute you get inside, who knows what might happen? Mictar might grab you, or you might fall into someone's nightmare.”

“Do you have another idea?”

“Remember what your father said?” She pulled his wrist and dragged his knuckles over the mirror's surface. “When you get in trouble, look at the mirror. I'd say that being stuck in a cosmic spider web with that creep lugging your mother around fits the definition of trouble.”

He stared at where the mirror had to be, but blackness veiled everything. “How can I use it? I can't even see it.”

“Scarlet has a light of her own. I think she'll shine it for you, but you probably have to ask.”

“No music?”

Kelly pressed his palm flat on the glass. “Just talk to her and see what happens.”

Nathan stared at the spot where his hand met the mirror. The image of Scarlet came to mind, her pleading eyes as she leaned close, his fingers wrapped around her pulsing heart, and finally, as he drew his hand away, the imprint emblazoned on the heart's surface. His need for rescue grasped her sacrificial provision. Now he finally understood. She was his supplicant in more ways than one.

“Scarlet?” he said softly. “I could use some help here. Can you give us a little light?”

Warmth surged through his body. His chest tightened, forcing him to gasp for breath. Finally catching air, he heaved it in and out. Light seeped from around his hand, outlining it in red. The glass grew so hot, he jerked away. The glow spread over Kelly's face, her expression solemn, yet filled with wonder. She seemed to have no trouble handling the heated mirror.

As if sketched on the surface by an animated light pen, Scarlet's image appeared in the reflection, the same pose she had struck when he saw her in the dream, her dress open, her heart pulsing bright red. Crimson light burst forth in a broad ray, melting the strands of black webbing.

Nathan took the mirror, now merely warm at the edges, and pointed it at the dome wall. The red light sizzled against the barrier and streamed down to the floor, like blood flowing from a wounded beast. The beam narrowed into a slender shaft and cut into the thick material, raising splashes of reddish sparks that arced to the floor and jumped around in a frenzied dance before dying in a puff of smoke.

Moving the mirror in a tight circle, he burned a wide swath, cutting deeper and deeper as he edged toward the wall. Finally, the light broke through.

The horrible song exploded from within. The mirror's light dimmed, and its cutting power diminished. The dripping red sparks solidified and dropped to the ground as black beads that rolled across the floor.

Nathan swept the beads out of the way with his foot. Obviously the foul vowels were neutralizing Scarlet's light, somehow transforming it into dark energy. He took three steps closer and stood within a few inches of the wall as he continued to cut. Maybe that would intensify the beam's effect.

The breach in the wall grew. Since the material was so soft and pliable, anyone could probably slide through the gap. He nodded at Kelly, who was already edging close to the hole, the red glow covering her entire frame in its bloody mask. “Try to go in,” he called. “I'll be right behind you.”

She pushed the dripping curtain to the side and stepped into the dome. Grabbing the violin, Nathan rushed in. As soon as he broke through, Kelly grabbed his arm. Her shivering body sent tremors into his own. “It's so cold in here!”

The stalkers' wails pierced his eardrums. “And loud!”

She pressed her hands over her ears and shouted. “They're cheering. Like someone scored a touchdown.”

“That can't be good.” Using the mirror's waning beam, he scanned the area. Dozens of dark streams, like thick rivers of smoke, passed horizontally through the red light, each one emanating from a central point. As one of the streams brushed Nathan's cheek, a burst of song blasted into his ears, and a cold chill plunged through his skin. The cloud of black passed by and splattered against the wall, combining with other streams to seal the breach Scarlet had cut.

“Looks like the door closed behind us,” Kelly said.

Nathan pulled her to his side. “Let's find where those black things are coming from. Mictar has to be behind this.”

Angling his body toward the source of the streams, he pointed the mirror, still glowing with enough red light to guide their steps. With the violin tucked under his arm, he skulked forward. In the absence of black webbing, he and Kelly moved easily across the dark floor, though the flowing air grew colder and the horrendous singing grew louder with every step.

After a few seconds, they reached a dark hole, an eight-foot-wide circle in the floor from which cold, song-soaked air poured forth, gusting and spewing new black streams with every dissonant phrase.

Now shivering violently, Kelly hugged Nathan with both arms. Her teeth chattered. “Any … any idea where we are?”

Nathan, warmth still radiating from within as a result of his touch on the mirror, gazed into the hole. “Right over the three domes, I think. This must be where they create dark energy with their songs.” He gazed up. Some of the streams escaped through a hole in the cap of the dome. “I guess the energy absorbs light and heat and solidifies in the wall and in that tangled web outside.”

Kelly thrust her finger upward. “What's that?”