Palaces of Light (18 page)

The ghost of a nod greeted her as their eyes met, as if he could already see into her mind, and confirmed her darkest fears.

The fat man let her hand fall and moved over to Jak. The albino teen had given up on the effort to stand and was now seated by Krysty. He made a token effort to move as the fat man grabbed at him, but in truth he was only too well aware that he could make no real resistance. The burning anger in his red eyes said everything. Despite that, he couldn’t stop the fat man taking his hand and opening the scabbed lines just as he had done with Krysty. The old woman, wordless and yet still giving out an aura of disapproval at having to deal with such matters, painted the tinctured mix on the back of his hand. Finally there was J.B. The Armorer was still standing, and had attempted to edge away as his companions were painted with the herbal mixture. He had managed only a step and a half, shuffling at a speed that was all he could muster, and seemed all the more pathetic for this fact. He, too, had the lines on the back of his hand opened up, and was briskly painted with the mixture.

“There. You can go now, Martha,” the fat man said with satisfaction, dismissing the old woman with a wave of his free hand, while with the other he sheathed the knife. The old woman gave him a withering look, one with which she also favored the three captives, before turning her back and leaving through the door the gaunt man opened for her.

Closing it at her back, he moved forward until he was level with the fat man. His eyes swooped over the three of them, seeming to capture them all in his mesmeric gaze.

That was it. Krysty realized what was going to happen next. To gain their full cooperation, without the need to take the time to persuade them of the rightness of their arguments, they would resort to that age-old type of brainwashing known as hypnotism. Her uncle, Tyas McCann, had used it for entertainment purposes back in Harmony, but had often warned of the dangers if it was put to bad use.

“Good, I see that you are all paying attention,” the fat man said quietly, but with steel in his tone. “My friend and associate Delroy here is a very persuasive man. I have no doubt that after you have been looking into his eyes for some short time, you will find that you have little desire other than to agree with what we are saying to you.”

Mutie power: Krysty was enough of one herself to recognize it when she saw it. She tried to turn away, but the mix of herbs that was in her blood was sapping her of the will to look away. More than that, she could feel that the gaunt, dark man with the gray face had a strength that was equal to her own, but could exceed her will and powers under this kind of duress. She couldn’t turn her head from him, and so couldn’t see how Jak and J.B. were reacting to his gaze; but she was in little doubt that they were already unable to look away.

The fat man waited a few moments, studying them until he was sure that his associate had them fully under control.

“Good… Now, you will listen to me, and I will explain to you why our cause is a just one, and why it will benefit you to join with us. Of course, you will have no choice to begin with, it is true. But, even in the short time that is left to us before the day of redemption, I’m sure that you will actually come to see that our way is right.”

There was something about the way in which he said the words that spoke of his complete belief in the path his people were following, no matter how dark, evil and wrong it may seem to those on the outside. It was as if he was warming to his subject, and becoming almost evangelistic as he continued.

“This area has always been special. Since the times before the first so-called native tribes rode across the old lands of Colorado, there has existed in this place a cradle of great power. The ancient races who first trod these lands and then migrated to the south knew this. That is why they built these shining palaces of wonder. They were partly to live and worship within, and also partly as a homage and shrine to the gods that gave them life and belief. The powers of the land, the sea, the earth, the air, the sun and the moon are the root forces in our existence, and those who forgot that did so at their peril. The ancients of all lands worshipped these forces as sentient beings who guided us, their children.

“So it was no wonder that when the modern world that they despised, and from which they wished to find refuge, began to collapse toward the inevitable so-called triumph of science that was the nukecaust, they sought to find a refuge in this place that had been an early shrine to the forces they followed.

“But they weren’t the only ones to seek refuge here. When they arrived, they found that there were others who also made their way here in search of refuge. These were disciples of another kind of salvation…or at least, that was how it seemed. These people were survivors of abduction by beings from other worlds or other dimensions. They weren’t sure, and they sought clarity. The one thing they knew was that something had happened to them, and that they were drawn to this place as one being possessed of great power. They didn’t know if these beings traversed space, or time or both, nor did they know if the manner in which these creatures showed themselves was real or a mental image designed to make sense to those who lived in a scientific age.

“It soon became apparent that all parties had one thing in common—they worshipped and revered a primal force, and this force had led them to this place. Some of them had come without even knowing of these palaces of worship. They knew just this—whatever had called them here had done so for a purpose, and with the world as it stood falling around their ears, then to be here made perfect sense.”

Krysty couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing: a bunch of crazies, scared and running from society, themselves, and the impending nukecaust had landed up here because somehow they’d heard it existed, and it had the bonus of being completely isolated. That she could understand: the spurious rationalizations and the way in which they were willing to bend their beliefs to fit in with each other was another matter. Krysty knew that there was a power in the earth—Gaia alone knew that she had called on it time enough—and yet she had never sought to understand what it was, or how her mutie sense could tap into it. She figured that when humankind was in a good enough state to understand it, then it would be clear.

And yet despite knowing this in her heart, she found that the words of the fat man made sense to her. She could feel the eyes of Delroy boring into her, as they were to J.B. and Jak, and she knew that whatever she might want to believe, she was fighting a losing battle against the combination of herbs and hypnotism.

And still the fat man continued.

“This place was once known as the Mesa Verde, and many of the practices we have adopted come from the old ways—the ways of those who were before even those tribes that are erroneously called the Native Americans. The words we intone on our sacred ceremonies are theirs. The notion of giving energy back to the sun and the moon by sacrificing a willing young person whose lifeblood is transmuted back into the stuff of life itself by recycling is nothing new, merely something that has run throughout history. Indeed, it can be said that the nukecaust was just the unconscious desire of the old whitecoats and their sec to do such a thing. The difference between us and them, of course, is that we are aware of our actions, and therefore more in control of them.”

That’s your view of it, Krysty thought bitterly. And yet even as she did so, another part of her disagreed, feeling that it made perfect sense. She fought it, sealing off a part of her mind as best as she could, so that it couldn’t get at the very core of her being, even if she was forced to act accordingly on other levels.

Meanwhile, the fat man droned on. Surprisingly, he had something to say that caught her attention on every level.

“The ironic thing is that in seeking to escape their fate, our forebears landed up in just such a place as would benefit them the best. The nukecaust was particularly harsh on this part of the land, and for some time our histories tell us that it was doubtful that any would survive. Many who were born had terrible deformities and didn’t survive past infancy. And of those who had come here, many were sick and bought the farm. But those who survived adapted along with Mother Earth. Just as she became strong in new ways to survive the sickness, so did our people. Outlanders came to us, to keep our gene pool from stagnating, and as they had traversed the rad-blasted lands so they, too, were touched with the hand of the new nature.

“The power that lay within the land was now theirs—ours—to harness. We found that we had the ability to cloud the minds of others, to make them accede to our demands with little resistance. And that was when it became apparent that we were now in a position to achieve our aim.”

Krysty forced herself to speak. It was slow, and it sounded as though her voice was being choked from her, but still she managed to say, “Talk so much, but say nothing. What do you want?”

The fat man shook his head sadly. “I would have thought a bright girl like you, with the power that I can tell that you possess, would have worked that out by now. We want to join with the power of the earth. That’s where we belong. To become one with the sun and the moon. But to do that, we need power. We need to boost the psychic energies we possess to reach the critical mass. Only then, when that power is focused, will we be able to ascend and find our rightful place. But to do that, we needed the life forces that would grant us that power.”

“Young life,” Krysty rasped, thinking of the sacrifices they had seen.

“Absolutely,” the fat man agreed. “You understand totally. That’s good. It makes Delroy’s task that much easier. You see, we didn’t particularly wish to leave the Mesa Verde as we consider it our home, and we don’t welcome interference. To leave invites such interference. But it was a necessity that we do this. And so we began to travel in small groups around the wastes, seeking settlements that were run by fools. That wasn’t difficult, I assure you. My heavens,” he added in a suddenly changed and confidential tone, “have you seen the mentality of some of the people who live out there these days?

“Personally, leaving aside the work, I feel we can only have been doing a good turn to those young folk that we took. But anyway,” he continued, remembering himself and returning to his previous, more formal intonation, “we made it our task to travel forth and recruit for the great work. The elders of the settlements we traveled to would not understand, and anyway their energies were not those we needed. So we designed a show that would both explain to the young the meaning of what we were doing, and also recruit them to our cause. From there, it was simple. If they weren’t willing at first, then they soon saw the truth in what we were doing. As would you, if there were time. But as there isn’t, then we must rely on Delroy and his powers. Now, if you’ll follow me…”

He turned and walked to the door. Despite the anger and revulsion that was within her, Krysty found herself rising and following the fat man. Looking around, she could see that Jak and J.B. were also on their feet and moving to the door. In that part of her mind that she had portioned off, Krysty was despairing of the fact that she was powerless to resist. Yet she could also feel that the rest of her mind saw nothing wrong in following orders. To be so separated was a strange and almost indescribable thing. She hoped that the others had also been able to cling to part of their own will and identity. The awful thing was that she found herself unable to ask…

That had been how long before? A day? Two? More? It was impossible to tell, for time seemed to move in such an elastic manner now that they were here. All she knew was that it was time for another sacrifice. The feeling came upon her, there was no need for words. Without prompting, she left her task and moved to the area where the makeshift altar had been built. She jostled for position with the young, despite the revulsion that rose in part of her psyche. She could see Jak and J.B., but couldn’t read their impassive expressions. They, like her, seemed keen to gain a good view. The crowds parted to allow the loathsome fat man to walk through. A young woman followed, a beatific look on her face as she ascended the altar and lay ready to buy the farm.

The fat man yelled his incantation in a tongue that may well have been ancient, but could just easily have been of his own making and have no language as its base. It seemed absurd and sick as he raised the knife and brought it down into the woman’s chest, carving open her breastbone before reaching in and pulling out her heart, stuffing it into his fat maw.

Krysty watched the girl rather than the fat man. Did she, she wondered, have a few seconds of life left after the beating heart was ripped out? Did she see him eat her life? And did she accept that as salvation? The scream she made as the knife hit was certainly more akin to the sound of pleasure than that of agony.

There was one thing for sure: whatever the cause, and whatever power lay in the valley—whether from the minds of those muties who lived there, or from some force in the earth, and beyond understanding—she could feel it surge as the girl chilled. It reached out greedily, sucking up the life force as it seeped from her, sending a charge through the crowd. It was a palpable, living thing, and she could see how its presence was so seductive.

So seductive that she knew she had to escape, as did J.B. and Jak, before its intoxication overtook them for real, and not under the duress of hypnotism.

For, unless she was mistaken, she could already feel that seductive pull telling her that to move with the crowd would bring her salvation and freedom from earthly cares and ties.