Silence (36 page)

Her soft, pale skin, textured like
silken moonlight.

Her pink lips, sculpted with the
elegance of flower petal.

Her eyelids, finally free of the
demon’s white flame.

The demon was gone and Emili was one
her way back. The connection he should’ve lost forever had been
preserved within the girl he held in his arms.

The nightmare was finally
over.

Part III: The Price of a Dream

Chapter 18 - The
Aftermath

Sheikoh coughed at the smoke filtering
down from the burning canopy. He looked around, numb with
disbelief. Hungry flames danced around the trunks and branches of
trees in flickers of oranges and blues, blackening wood and
reducing leaves to white ash. They’d already spread farther than
Sheikoh could see, decimating a whole section of the
forest.

Ghost was dead.

It just didn’t seem possible. After
everything he and Indigo-

Indigo
!

The ganglord had been at death’s door
before taking the recoil of that massive shot, coughing up blood
with only his fury to keep him conscious. Sheikoh knew that,
whatever their past conflicts, if he left Indigo in the inferno to
die here after fighting alongside of him against impossible odds,
he’d never forgive himself for it.

Sheikoh wrapped his arms around Emili
and flicked to his feet. He peered through the flames, searching
for any sign of the ganglord. Memory streamed through his thoughts
and jolted his chest; the last thing Indigo had said to him was
thanks, right after the avalanche. In the end though, living had
only earned his relentless body a mutilation at the hands of
Khryzt. Sheikoh squinted through the smoke. The blinding flames
were creeping ever closer. Blackened trees fell, trunks infested
with hungry, leaping flames. The sparse green bulged and writhed
before his eyes, distorted by the intense heat, as it rapidly gave
way to ash. His face burned and sweat shrouded his skin.

There!

Sheikoh started moving. He could just
make out the sight of Indigo’s body sprawled within a circle of
fire. He took a running leap that barely cleared the wall of flames
and stumbled his landing, weighed down by Emili’s unconscious
body.

Sheikoh put Emili down next to Indigo,
leaned over the ganglord, and looked at him with smoke-stung eyes.
Indigo’s limbs were twisted in strange angles, and his massive
chest caved in limply. Sheikoh touched two gentle fingers to
Indigo’s neck, searching for any hint of pulse. There was nothing.
He pressed harder and made out the faintest flicker of heartbeat,
so weak though that it could give out at any time.

Sheikoh glanced wildly at the
tree-high wall of fire, slowly inching towards them. His body felt
like it was being slow roasted by the intense heat. Wind whistled
through the roaring fire, flicking scalding hot sparks against his
skin. He knew that he couldn’t make a leap over the flames carrying
both Indigo and Emili. He looked at Emili for a moment debating
taking the amulet off.

Was he willing to make a deal with a
demon?

No, that wasn’t an option. Khryzt
would just float away and leave them to die here. The creature had
as good as told him. But without magic-

In a flash, Sheikoh suddenly realized
who else might be able to help them: Camillio Tyche. His fingers
traced the ridge of his eye, searching for his monocle, but it was
in vain. Sheikoh cursed. He had lost it in the cave-in. And
Indigo’s own was shattered beyond repair. They were on their
own.

The wall of heat advanced on them,
leaping for the sky triumphantly. Sheikoh searched his pockets,
despairing at finding some way out of the wall of fire. His fingers
touched upon the dented blacksteel casing. Shock raced through him.
How could he have possibly forgotten his Trinity? Sheikoh ripped
his cellpad out of his pocket and furiously keyed in the contact,
‘Dream.’

Come on!

The Celestial picked up on the third
ring.

“
Silence?” Tyche
asked.

“
We got
the amulet around her, but we’re trapped! The forest is burning
around us, we need you,
now
!”

“
Dammit, where are you?”
Tyche asked him sharply.

“
The Schizn Canopy, same as
before. Can’t you just magic yourself here?!” Sheikoh thundered
into the receiver.

“
Not if I
can’t sense any of you! Wherever you are, you’re too close to the
amulet! Get some distance and I might be able to
help!”
Tyche retorted
harshly.

During the conversation, Sheikoh had
had to roll both Emili into balls, the wall of fire had crept so
close to them. They were all huddled within the last three feet of
ground that remained untouched by the surrounding
flames.

Of course not,
Sheikoh realized, furious at himself. He knew
what he had to do. It wasn’t going to be pretty, but it was their
only chance.

“
Okay, get ready. As soon
as can feel me or whatever, get here. We’re out of time,” Sheikoh
told the Celestial.

He took a deep breath. The
smoke seared his lungs. That was nothing compared to what was about
to come. Sheikoh gazed down at Emili’s sleeping face, steeling
himself against what was about to come. Then he bunched up his
cyborg legs and sprung through the roaring wall of flames as hard
as he could. He thought if he went fast enough the flames wouldn’t
catch.
He quickly realized he’d never been
more wrong in his life.

Sheikoh’s flesh erupted. Pain seared
itself into his skin. His hair and clothes burst into flame
instantly. The horrible agony ripped him apart. Tendrils of fire
danced over him, reveling in his unparalleled agony. His world
scattered before the singular reality of his screaming
torture.

Sheikoh didn’t notice when he passed
through the other side of the fire. He barely noticed his
collarbone crack as he slammed against a tree, or the splinters
shoving themselves deep into his flesh. But he did notice when his
flaming body pounded into the ground. Sheikoh squirmed and rolled,
desperately trying to choke his flaming agony.

A lifetime later, a wind was slowly
ripping sparks and tendrils of flame off of him. Layer by layer,
the pain dulled somewhere into the realm of bearable sensation.
Sheikoh opened his haggard eyes and found Camillio Tyche, standing
above him. For the merest moment, Tyche’s glowing blue eyes sent a
shiver down Sheikoh’s spine. His thoughts stuttered back to Khryzt
and how nearly the creature had killed him. Sheikoh quickly shook
off the thought and desperately pointed over where Indigo and Emili
were.

“
They’re in
there!”

Camillio Tyche’s face hardened with
strain.  The Celestial extended two clawed hands and leaned
towards the inferno. The roar of the fire was suddenly accompanied
by a howling, blue whirlwind at the edges of the blaze. The blue
twister ripped leaps of the fire into itself, screaming and growing
into the overhead clouds, until Sheikoh couldn’t make out where it
ended. Bigger and bigger tendrils of flame were consumed by the
blue vortex until the whole fire was sucked into the massive
twister suddenly like a tent to expose the unconscious duo hidden
behind its flaming walls.

Sheikoh looked at the Celestial with
awe. Camillio Tyche wore a pained look of intense concentration.
Sweat dripped from his skin, and his arms shook. His jagged
ponytail danced in the wind of his magic. As Sheikoh watched, Tyche
pushed his arms to the side and the wailing wind of the blue
tornado exploded outwards. The Celestial was knocked backwards at
the force. Sheikoh rushed behind Camillio and caught his light
body. The fires around them flattened beneath the powerful wind,
pressed out like cigarette embers.

“
Celestial can heal people,
right?” Sheikoh asked. His jaw was slack and his words muddled from
pain.

Tyche took a deep breath, and his eyes
flared bright blue. He began touching Sheikoh’s burns, his fingers
glowing on contact. The relief was unimaginably sweet.

Sheikoh had to force himself to push
the Celestial’s healing hands away.

“
No time, mate, Indigo
needs that magic of yours more,” Sheikoh told Camillio
sharply.

Camillio nodded once and
began moving towards the ganglord.
“He
isn’t dead, is he?”
Camillio Tyche asked
Sheikoh in the echoing double voice of magic. Sheikoh shivered. He
gingerly picked himself up and limped behind Camillio.

“
He
wasn’t before, but he very well could be,” Sheikoh answered grimly.
“The
demon
crushed him like it was nothing.”

Camillio quickened his
pace. When he reached Indigo, he leaned over the unconscious
ganglord and put a hand over his chest, closing his glowing eyes.
Sheikoh watched with wide eyes
as Indigo’s
chest slowly reflated. He heard a deep, grinding sound within the
ganglord’s body.

Camillio opened his stark-blue eyes.
They met Sheikoh’s, whose questioning gaze was answered by the
Celestial’s bleak expression. He felt as though he’d been smashed
in the stomach with a hammer.

“
His
heart’s stopped,”
Tyche slowly told
him.
                                                                 

No way…

Indigo couldn’t be dead. The ganglord
had been - was - tougher than anyone that Sheikoh had ever known.
There was no way he was dead. Sheikoh was sure of it. Nonetheless,
coldness settled in his chest. Smoke stung his eyes, and he was
surprised to find his cheeks stained with tears. Camillio’s next
words sliced straight through Sheikoh’s abject shock.

“
By
chance, have you ever used a defibrillator?”
Tyche asked, still in magic dual-tone. His
glowing blue eyes held Sheikoh’s black ones steadily.

“
No, but I’ve had one used
on me..?” Sheikoh answered slowly.

“
I can
feel Indigo’s life-force inside of him. If you can show me where to
put my hands, I might be able to shock his heartbeat
back..?”
Camillio’s double-mused
thoughtfully.

Sheikoh closed his eyes and thought
back to the pain of the electrical shock that’d brought him back
from his cyborg surgery. It was so long ago. He focused intently on
the memory, trying to dredge up specifics, but his thoughts were
infuriatingly blurry. He was frustrated Camillio didn’t know how to
do this himself. Why wasn’t this a part of Celestial training?
Sheikoh couldn’t recall much more than two vague, sharp pains in
his chest area.

Finally, Sheikoh pointed to the areas
he thought were right.

“
I can’t
promise anything,”
Camillio Tyche
murmured in the echoing dual-voice of magic, placing his hands
where Sheikoh had signified.

The Celestial’s face hardened with
concentration. His blue eyes flashed and Indigo’s torso bounced
upwards and fell back to the ground limply. Sheikoh held his breath
as he and the Celestial waited for a few moments, watching the
fallen ganglord. Tyche, wearing bitter disappointment, lifted his
hands off of Indigo’s chest and looked away.

“
Wait, do it again, mate, I
think you’re supposed to do it a couple of times,” Sheikoh urged
the Celestial quickly.

Tyche turned his normal blue irises on
Sheikoh searchingly for a moment. Then they flared with that
sapphire sheen of power. The Celestial gently let his palms fall on
the ganglord’s chest. He took a deep breath and blasted Indigo with
another shock of energy.

This time Indigo heaved forward
gasping, his eyes opened wide in fear. Camillio’s hands were
knocked off of the ganglord’s massive, heaving chest. Sheikoh and
Camillio watched Indigo as the man fell back panting with heavy
breaths, and then exchanged smiles of relief.

Camillio leaned back over Indigo and
begun to heal the ganglord’s shattered bones. Then he did the same
for Sheikoh. As the Celestial healed them the two of them, Sheikoh
told the Celestial everything that had happened, including how
Ghost had died. After he finished healing them, Camillio
said;

“
As long
as the demon didn’t break Ghost’s blood rune, he isn’t dead.
He
is
most
likely in need of considerable repairs though. More importantly,
what became of the Transcendent Codex? And the
Centaurai?”

At that, they began searching the
fire-razed area. As Sheikoh kicked through blackened splinters of
wood, he heard Indigo shout. He turned around and saw that the
ganglord had found the broken, blacksteel frame of Ghost’s body.
Indigo carried Legacy’s leader out of the hole and tossed him onto
the grass.

Then Sheikoh turned back through the
blackened forest and discovered something more ominous. There, on
the ground right in front of him, two of their Swifthooves lay in
puddles of blood with cut throats. The third, the one that Ghost
had ridden there, was missing.