The Last of the Ageless (44 page)

Nyr moved toward the hut, but the man with the tail didn’t step aside. Pausing inches from his face, she grinned, exposing her feline teeth.

He gave her a sullen stare. “This isn’t over yet.”

“Oh, I certainly hope not.” She stared back, fully aware of the disconcerting effect of her slitted feline eyes. To his credit, he didn’t seem fazed.

“Azaiah, move!” The voice from the hut sounded indignant.

Azaiah stepped aside, and Nyr entered the hut behind the mystic and the Joey, while Dalan’s dragonfly perched on the roof above. A messy table with two stools dominated the front room. The table lamp provided the sole source of light in the hut, now crowded with all of them inside.

“Welcome to my home,” the unfamiliar occupant of the hut said. Nyr narrowed her eyes, trying to imagine whether this young man was actually the old one she’d dragged across the drylands in search of treasure.

Behind her, she heard a buzz like Dalan’s dragonfly. When she turned, the doorway they’d come through glowed, covered by a layer of shimmering light. She put a hand against it and marveled at how solid it felt.

Azaiah stared at her from outside.

She grinned and turned her back to him. The mystic squinted and grabbed his head with both hands. Ti’rros trained Dalan’s now-useless LEC6 on the Wizard and motioned him deeper into the hut. Dalan, whose skin still sprouted feathers as he tried to maintain his in-between form, followed them into the back room. Through the doorway, all Nyr could see of the room were some stools.

Her arm throbbed. She glanced down to see its bent shape, though thankfully no bones protruded. She felt nauseous.

“Please, have a seat,” she heard the Wizard say from the other room.

The mystic’s head whipped up. “No, don’t—”

Another iridescent shield of light appeared in the doorway to the back room, trapping Dalan on the other side, away from everyone else.

An enormous pressure filled Nyr’s mind as a voice boomed,
YOU DARE TRY TO TAKE ME CAPTIVE IN MY OWN HOME?

The mystic reeled and squeezed his hands together.

KNEEL AND SURRENDER!

Caetl hadn’t been lying after all—Nyr recognized the voice inside their heads all too well.

Chapter 21

Dalan transmelded into the tail-horse and pounded his tail against the nearly invisible wall separating him from his companions and the Wizard. Although agile like an elephant’s trunk, his tail could do little against the force field.

He ran to one side of the room, rose up on his back legs, and smashed his hooves against the corner where the invisible surface met the real wall. The horse within him panicked. Trapped in an alien environment, far from the open grasslands… He shrilled.

In the other room, Nyr collapsed. With more effort than ever, Dalan pushed the animal’s thoughts down, but its fear battered at the back of his mind.

Caetl reeled back as if hit by physical blows. Dalan had hoped his dragonfly could find a way in to distract the Wizard, but Saquey sent him mental images of the outside of the hut—a shimmering force field blocked the doorway they’d come through.

The tail-horse’s panic rose again, and Dalan closed his eyes and focused on his breathing until he got it under control.

Saquey couldn’t fit through the smaller windows without damaging its wings. It sent a blurry image of Dalan as the tail-horse. He sensed Saquey’s frustration and impotence.

The Wizard stepped back into Dalan’s view, framed in the doorway to the back room. The Advisor had been regal in her advanced years, but the Wizard appeared frail, his skin wrinkled and loose. The Wizard glowered at him as though he’d heard his thoughts, but the mystic had assured Dalan that was impossible.

Isn’t it?
Dalan aimed the thought at Caetl.

The Wizard opened his arms as though speaking to a crowd. “Now that I’ve got your attention.” Dalan was surprised he could hear him through the force field, which seemed impervious to all else. “I have something to say.”

The old man addressed Nyr as her eyes opened. “First, I’d like to apologize for such a rude welcome to the small village of Cabuda. It’s normally wonderful this time of year.”

Caetl stared at their captor, and Dalan imagined the two engaged in a heated mental discussion. Ti’rros stood shoulder-to-shoulder beside Caetl, presenting a united front.

The Wizard held up a hand. “The truth is, we’re all on the same side. As you heard from my fellow Ageless, Soledad… Ehhh, let’s just say a war is brewing. Zen is a formidable foe.”

As his tail-horse meld proved useless, Dalan slid along toward birth form, at least enough to gain human-like vocal cords and mouth structures. “Don’t care about your war, Ageless. We want our freedom.”

The Wizard waved a hand at Caetl. “Mystic, why don’t you tell him how many years we’ve been trying?”

“I already have. Now open the force field.”

“There you have it, Dalan. If he told you all you had to do was come here and wrest the secret free from me, he gave you false promises.”

“That’s not what I told them at all,” Caetl said.

Both he and Ti’rros shot forward, hands grasping. But the Wizard stepped back, his jaw set and eyes hard. Ti’rros let out an inhumanly high-pitched screech and dropped to the floor. Her blue eyes rolled back in her head.

Caetl lunged forward, and the Wizard’s mouth opened, his eyes wide with shock and pain. Caetl plunged a fist into the Ageless man’s jacket pocket but came away empty-handed.

The Wizard shoved him back, and Dalan finally saw the knife protruding from his chest. His drooping jowls tightened, and his cheekbones seemed to shift higher somehow as he transformed into a younger man. His ages flickered until he gained the presence of mind to yank the knife free. Then he stabilized at an age with Caetl.

“I’ll make things harder on them if you try that again,” the Wizard warned.

“Open the force fields and give me the amplifier.”

“Let me make this clear to all of you.” The Wizard glanced from Dalan to Ti’rros and Nyr on the floor. “There’s nothing you can do. I’m Ageless. As you just saw, any wound you manage to inflict, I will heal. You can’t hurt me.”

“Ah, that’s not entirely true.” Malice entered Caetl’s expression.

“But I can hurt you
more
. Except for you, Dalan. But everyone knows all I need to do to hurt you is to hurt
them.
” The Wizard gave a theatrical sigh. “Things were much easier when you thought me nothing more than a talking necklace. But if you help me, I promise it’ll all get better.”

Dalan didn’t know what to do or how much more Nyr and Ti’rros could withstand. Or Caetl, for that matter. Saquey’s six legs pounded at the force field over the window, but without anything to grasp, the dragonfly could only hover.

“Ehhhh, look, friends,” the Wizard said. “We’re all on the same side here, trust me. From what I understand, Zen is a pretty tough cookie.” He glanced at Dalan and said, “A tough bastard. He’s a cyborg, which means part of his body is now machine, making him stronger, probably faster, and definitely a hard hitter. He’s been killing others of my kind, as I hope Caetl mentioned to you.”

He’s trying to manipulate you,
Caetl’s warm voice filled Dalan’s mind.
Though what he says is true, you shouldn’t think him any less the enemy.

Hovering between birth form and his tail-horse transmeld, Dalan shifted his facial structure, hoping his bestial appearance looked more threatening than grotesque. He took a step forward and put on his best menacing expression, adopting Nyr’s attitude. “The question is, why should we care?”

The Wizard looked down at his hands, and his age shifted slightly. “Up until this point, I’ve only been trying to protect myself, it’s true. But in a way, I’ve also been worried about other Ageless using their powers to enslave other tribes. You don’t know how powerful our technology really is. Some of us have... differing opinions on our responsibilities to the rest of humanity.”

“Think I have some idea, after that display.”

The Wizard shook his head. “No. You have no idea. None of you do. During the Catastrophe, people exploited and misused technology in the worst ways. To avoid further corruption, the Prophet split up what technology we possessed, leaving us as eternal caretakers. But Zen, he has more than his fair share now. He’s at least three times more powerful now than any other Ageless.”

Ti’rros climbed unsteadily to her feet. “Is it possible you actually lived through the Catastrophe?”

The Wizard touched his wrist, and all the force fields disappeared. “Yes. And I’ll tell you everything you want to know about it, my friends.”

The sudden disappearance of the force fields’ hum left Dalan’s ears ringing.

“He’s trying to manipulate you,” Caetl squeezed his hands into fists. “You can’t trust anything he says.”

Dalan hesitated, unsure about stepping over the threshold where the force field had been. The Wizard’s change of heart was suspicious, but even with a price to the knowledge, he couldn’t help but ask, “How did it happen? Was it…” he glanced at Ti’rros, hoping she wouldn’t take offense, “…an invasion?”

The Wizard squinted, as though trying to see through a dense fog. “The Catastrophe? Ehhhh… the K’inTesh
did
park ships all around the Earth. Plenty of people, including myself, certainly thought they would invade. It worried a lot of people. Powerful people. I wasn’t privy to a lot of the decisions, you know. But what I
do
know is that the aliens didn’t communicate with us, or at least, not in a way we could understand.”

Dalan felt his partial transmeld slipping as his mind reeled. He stood before one of the Ancients.

The mystic jutted his chin out.
When he says K’inTesh, he means the Joeys. While you’ve got him distracted, I’m going to check on Nyr and try to reset her arm while she’s unconscious.

Dalan glanced at Nyr, whose eyes had closed once more. He cautiously stepped from the back room into the main room of the hut.

The Wizard kept his eyes on Dalan as he told his story, paying no attention to Caetl’s movements. “As in many battles waged throughout history, it’s hard to say who fired the first shot, but I believe it was us. Some arrogant rising power wanted to show the aliens who was boss. They sent missiles into space, killing a bunch of K’inTesh before they could fight back. Or someone got scared, who knows, hmm? The point is, nobody followed a rational, reasonable,
scientific
means of uncovering what was going on. Regardless of who fired first, we brought this on ourselves.”

Dalan’s heart sank. This changed everything. The Teachings assumed the Ancients abhorred violence. But the Wizard suggested that, not only had there been many battles before the aliens arrived, but their Ancient ancestors had reacted first, bringing about the violent and devastating Catastrophe.

Nyr screamed and lashed out. Her foot connected with the leg of the table. A crash followed, and the light went out.

Dalan lunged toward where he’d last seen the Wizard. He fumbled, catching cloth with his partially transmelded hands, and he slammed the Ageless to the wall. “Don’t mean to let you get away, Wizard. Stay right where you are.”

Faint light shone in from one of the windows.

“It’s okay!” Dalan heard the chagrin in Caetl’s tone. “Nyr woke up when I reset her arm.”

“Bastard.” Nyr’s voice was rough with pain.

“Hey, Dalan reset my shoulder for me, and he was right; I did thank him later. The least you could do—”

“Shut up, mystic. Find the damn light.”

“Okay, okay.”

Dalan heard a click, and the light returned. He released the Wizard and concentrated on maintaining enough of the tail-horse meld to suppress the necklace while keeping his clothing, which stretched tight over bulky inhuman muscles.

“I let her know what fun she missed.” Caetl winked at Dalan, but then whispered into his mind,
She needs to wrap that arm up tight so the bone can mend, preferably with a splint. Doubtful that she’ll listen to me, though.

Nyr held her swollen, blue forearm away from her body. Dalan wondered if Caetl had reset the bone properly. The swelling made it impossible to tell.

“Don’t let him talk you to death.” Nyr’s red hair was tousled. “We don’t care about your stupid stories of the past. Just take the damn necklaces off.”

Though Dalan had let go of the Wizard, Nyr’s menacing tone kept him pinned to the wall, despite what he’d said about their inability to hurt him.

“Now,” she said, eyebrow raised.

The Wizard wedged himself into the corner. His arms fluttered up like a dragonfly’s wings. “Ehhh… I’d love to, friends, really I would. But the truth is, I don’t know how.”

Before Dalan could blink, Nyr lunged past him and pressed the Wizard into the corner. The claws of her good hand rested lightly on his face, beside his eye.

“Let’s see you shift ages before I can slice you to ribbons.” She gnashed her pointed incisors inches from his neck, and Dalan wondered if she really would use her fangs as well as her claws.