The Cypher (16 page)

“We can’t keep this up for long!” Tony yelled from the frontlines. More and more creatures were coming through the barrage, and some of the soldiers’ weapons had run out of energy. They resorted instead to handguns and their little hand-held flashlights for defense, but they would soon be overwhelmed.

“Hold it as long as you can!” The Doctor yelled and lifted up his cane, a wave of white energy rippled out from it pushing back all the creatures and buying them a couple of seconds.

Tasha threw a couple of bolts toward the firing line making gaps in the defense before centering her arms towards Elise, her blue shield taking the brunt of her attack, the shield held on, but it was obvious that she couldn’t take it for much longer.

The Doctor pulled Thomas to the base of the statue. “You can save us, Thomas.” He pointed at the inscription on the base. “This was placed here by our ancestors in case Ormagra awakened. You can activate it.”

As bullets flew by his head and creatures shrieked in his ear, Thomas focused on the inscription. He could read it easily, but unlike the code he had broken with the fauns, he felt no power coming from it.

“This is a spell Doctor! And I’m not a wizard!” he shouted. Maybe if he told Elise the words she could do something with them, but she was already losing ground to Tasha. She had fallen in one knee and straining just to keep her defense up.

“You don’t have to be,” the Doctor told him. “Words have power. You just need to unleash it.” Thomas frantically looked at the inscription. “Trust yourself, Cypher!” the Doctor yelled.

Thomas stood behind the statue and began to read aloud the inscription. As the words formed in his mind, they took a rhythm of their own.

He was barely aware as Elise defense faltered and was struck by a stream of black energy and flung by his side. Tasha’s moan of victory echoed through the cavern as she walked toward Thomas, drool dripping from her talons.

The line had broken, and most the Guardians were fighting one-on-one against the creatures.

Scores of creatures rushed toward the statue and Tony and the Doctor stood beside Thomas, trying to make a protective circle around him.

Again, Tasha lifted a hand towards them, but as the black energy formed on her palms, Bolswaithe jumped in front of her and grappled her arms, pulling them apart and making her attack strike on the walls of the tunnel.

Maybe Bolswaithe could have subdued Tasha before she had been imbued with Wraith energy, but her strength and power had grown tenfold, she was now more of a beast than an elven Queen and just like the beasts she had become she bit down hard on the butler, first on his right elbow, that broke and bent downward, and then on his head, a crystalline tusk shattering as she clamp down on the butler’s face.

Bolswaithe’s strength faltered and she flung him aside like a broken doll.

Thomas kept reading and the words echoed again and again inside his brain. He felt energy coursing through him. The strength of the humans that had placed the statue against the Ormagran ancients filled him, their energy surging through his veins. He recited the words over and over, then stepped away from the inscription and walked beside the statue. The lesser Wraith creatures vaporizing as they approached him.

All became silent for Thomas. His grandfather’s face flashed before his eyes.
“Just be brave,”
his grandpa always said. Thomas stood tall, powerful.

Tasha threw a bolt of black energy, but the energy dissipated before touching his body.

He was untouchable, a conduit for ancient power to course through.

Thomas smiled at Tasha.

As the creatures poured from Ormagra, the statue of Perseus began to glow in a golden hue. Its eyes opened and the statue lifted the head of Medusa in front of him.

Tasha tried to lunge at Thomas with her claws, but he lifted a hand and she was thrown back against the wall.

She stood up again and with a sickly crunch, leathery wings sprouted from her back. With a last roar of pure rage, she flew away and retreated into Ormagra, disappearing into its darkness.

The statue began to echo the words Thomas was reciting in a booming voice, and as they finished the inscription, Medusa’s eyes opened and a flash of pure light exploded outwards, filling the cave and the whole city in a golden glow.

Thomas collapsed. The creatures Tasha had woken from their millennial slumber turned into stone, but the gruesome creature Tasha had become was not among the forest of statues.

Henri broke out from under a mountain of stone limbs and Guardians helped Bolswaithe up. The butler turned around holding his broken arm at the elbow, his hair singed, his face covered in a black substance and his right his eye completely shut down.

“Is Thomas alright?” he asked.

Tony picked up Thomas from the ground and the Doctor passed his cane over him, a dim light bathed his body.

“Of course he is,” the Doctor said, “he is our Cypher.”

A Little Adventure

Thomas finished the third chapter of
Return of the Nautilus
, and closed the book with his forearm. His hands were bandaged because of the cuts he had sustained in the obsidian tunnel.

Although the doctors at the medical ward had given him a clean bill of health, Bolswaithe insisted that he stay in bed for a day or two. The butler’s hair had been repaired of the damage and even upgraded to a more distinguished look. The balding circle at the back of his head had disappeared and his hair was a little bit longer and fuller. His arm was on a sling and his head bandaged, not because it needed to be, but because he still wanted to keep appearances with Tony and Henri.

Tasha and her technician were listed among the twenty seven casualties of the battle; a number that Thomas thought was very low after living through it, but unacceptable for the Doctor who felt that they had fallen complacent and secure after five hundred years of controlling the
Book of Concord
and were completely unprepared against the Wraith. He immediately ordered a full production run of Tony’s prototype weapon and increased research of technologies specific to counter the Wraith.

Many of the soldiers that had been in the battle needed some psychiatric evaluation and counseling after being exposed to Wraith creatures, some even had to be sent to mental wards for treatment, but Thomas felt fine, he’d seen monsters. That was all.

There was a knock on the door. “Come in,” Thomas said. Doctor Franco entered the room carrying a cup of tea. Wisps of steam overflowed the cup and seemed to dance over it.

“King Seryaan sends his regards and a little medicine,” the Doctor said placing the cup in Thomas’s hands. “Go on,” he encouraged him.

Thomas blew a little on the cup before taking a sip. He expected the tea to be hot, but the liquid wasn’t even warm. It was incredibly refreshing and he felt a tingling sensation on his hands. He sipped a little bit more. A warm sensation enveloped him, and he watched as his skin took on a blue hue.

“How’s Elise?” Thomas asked. He had not seen her since Ormagra.

“She’ll be fine,” the Doctor said. “She’s in Ukiah with her parents, but she’ll be back in a week.” The Doctor sat on the side of the bed as Thomas took another sip of the tea. “We are pretty sure that Tasha escaped,” he said pulling out a tabloid from his coat. There was a picture of a huge whirlpool in the sea with the headlines:
A HOLE IN THE OCEAN WILL DRY THE EARTH!
And,
THE DEVIL TAKES A SWIM!

“Ormagra has flooded,” the Doctor said. “Crab fishermen reported a whirlpool forming in the middle of the Bering Sea. There was a T.V. crew on one of the boats and they filmed a little of the whirlpool before it filled Ormagra and disappeared.”

Thomas opened the magazine. On the first page was a firsthand account from the fishing crew that saw the event.

“A bolt of black lightning came out from the sea,” the Doctor said paraphrasing the article. “A horrible shriek came from the center of the whirlpool and the devil flew out from it.”

“That has to be Tasha,” Thomas said sadly. “Or whatever she’s become.”

“King Seryaan himself sealed the portal from Maresha to Ormagra,” the Doctor continued. “Some secrets are better left alone.”

Thomas let the magazine fall on his lap. “It’s my fault Tasha went mad,” he said.

The Doctor patted his leg. “Tasha’s madness began more than five centuries ago. She probably caused the Earthquakes that destroyed her Cascadia kingdom in 1700. King Seryaan always suspected it had been her delving into Wraith Magic that caused it, but they could never prove it since she was the only survivor. She was looking for Ormagra since then.”

“I gave her the spell to awaken Ormagra,” Thomas told him.

“She used you, Thomas. And she used us to get to you. Only a Cypher could translate the spell without going slowly mad while trying. She waited three hundred years for you. You can’t blame yourself for what happened. She always craved power.” The Doctor patted his leg again, “I can read most minds, but I could only perceive little out of Tasha, and whenever I tried, she always hid her true intentions under layers of lies. Am I to blame for what she did?”

“Tony said that she probably used magic to have that special power over me,” Thomas confided. He had been infatuated with Tasha, and even after he’d seen what she’d become and known that she had used him, he still missed her eyes.

The Doctor sighed, “I would have felt it, Thomas,” he said. “It was real, at least on your part, and you shouldn’t feel ashamed about that either. That’s just how life works.” The Doctor sighed. “Tasha was always a special lady.”

Thomas straightened up in bed. Thanks to Seryaan’s medicine, the pain in his hands had disappeared and he took off the bandages. His wounds had completely healed. Even the ones that had required stitches – the surgical twine fell off from his hands as the newly-formed skin rejected it.

“What about my grandfather?” he asked. He had thought long and hard about his encounter with his grandpa and what he had told him about Guardians Inc. It was true that humans had abused nature and overexploited the planet, but it was also true that things were changing. Slowly, but getting better all the time. And if technology was the only thing that could save the planet from another extinction brought on by the Wraiths, he had to stay with the Guardians.

A world ruled by magic sounded beautiful. No old age, no sickness, but at what cost? Thomas doubted that all humans would share that Utopia. What would happen to the billions that magical creatures deemed needless or redundant? How many humans would the magical creatures feel were extra in their world?

It had happened before. Roughly one thousand years of dark ages were example enough for Thomas. He couldn’t allow that to happen.

No, he would find the
Book of Concord
.

He’d spoken with the Doctor about it while his wounds were bandaged but Doctor Franco had kept a respectful silence.

The Doctor sighed. “Morgan’s decision to help the Warmaster is troubling, Thomas. But you can’t blame him for his weakness. He’s been given what other men can only dream about. He’s been tempted into the Warmaster’s service, like so many before him, but he has not been corrupted or he would have killed you in Ormagra.” The Doctor stood up from the bed. “He loves you, Thomas. He told you himself. He’ll come around. Just think that we are in a race for the
Book of Concord
and he’s on another team.”

Yes, Thomas thought, it would certainly be easier on him and he was confident that grandpa still loved him.

“He decoded the second clue,” Thomas told him. “When I entered the room the insects fell to the ground.”

The Doctor lifted his cane. “I don’t think that was ever a clue. It was probably set up by Tasha, by the way,” The Doctor pulled out a photocopy taken from an old manuscript and handed it to Thomas. “Was this the man that gave you the cloth in the library?”

The page was written in heavy black letters and showed a man just like the one that had given Thomas the title of the
un-readable
book. His arms were bound behind his back and what looked like an Arab warrior was standing over him with a sword drawn. The drawing was very faint and extremely old, but Thomas identified him immediately.

“Yes” he said returning the page. “That’s him.”

“Then it was her for sure, she had dealings with this creature before.” The Doctor said with a sigh, “I also believe that she was responsible for the attack on your house. The creatures that attacked you are attuned to Wraith Magic and the Warmaster has never delved into it. Not even during World War II.”

The Doctor stood up from the bed. “Tasha needed a lure to get both Cyphers at the same time into Ormagra. Either of you could have deciphered the spell and then she would have killed you both at the same time.” He walked toward the door. “I think that we’re still in the lead.” He smiled as he opened the door. “We just have to make sure we win this race.”

“How many signs do I have to decipher to find the book, Doctor?”

“Well,” the Doctor counted in his head, “it took twelve for Niccolo de Conti in 1444, but only five for Lucius Cornelius Sulla in 85 BC.” He smiled and tapped the ground with his cane. “So, I guess we’ll find out. Won’t we?” He closed the door.

Thomas finished the tea and picked up the book again. He knew that his grandfather loved him and deep inside he trusted him to do the right thing.

Shortly after, Killjoy entered the room. Thomas had asked Bolswaithe to call her. She was dressed in a heavy sweater and carried her ever-present coffee mug and metal pad. Only in her commorancy, and when they where training, would she show him her true self.

“You have something to ask,” Killjoy said sitting down on a chair by Thomas’s side. She was direct, as usual.

“Yes, Miss Khanna.” Thomas sat on the bed. “I’ve read a lot about your people. And how you can see the future.”

“And?” Killjoy took off her big sunglasses and sipped from her coffee.

“You knew this was going to happen since you read my palms in your office. Didn’t you?” Thomas asked. It wasn’t a question, more of an accusation. “You could have stopped my grandfather from being kidnapped.”

Killjoy didn’t move. “Like all seers, I only saw possibilities, and only about you.”

“But then you knew that I would end up here.”

“I knew that you might end up being a Guardian, yes,” she opened her eyes. “It was a possibility.”

Thomas extended his palms to her. “Can you see if I will be with my grandfather again?”

Killjoy centered her gaze on him. “I’m sorry,” she said, “I can’t help you.”

“You can’t or you won’t?”

“My power, like that of all seers, emanates from the Oracle. It’s like stargazing – seeing a distant star through a telescope is safe. You can learn a little about it, study it, and before you found the first sign, I could read the possibilities before you. But now it would be like watching the sun with the naked eye. It would only burn me. I’m sorry, Thomas, but you are now linked to the Oracle, a force of nature no one understands.”

Thomas sat in silence for a long time, trying to assimilate what Killjoy had said. It was still unreal just how much his life had changed and how important everyone thought he was for the future.

“Thomas,” Killjoy said as she stood up to leave. “Unlike the past, the future doesn’t exist. It’s just possibilities. Our choices and actions write it.”

“I don’t understand.”

“It’s all right,” she told him. “You will if you find the
Book of Concord
. That is your quest now.”

“And if I don’t find it?” he asked. “What then?”

“Then the world will change.” She took another sip from her coffee. “And we’ll do our best to change with it.”

He had asked her to come and visit for reassurance or understanding, and all Killjoy had done was put more pressure on him. The last time a Cypher had failed to find the
Book of Concord
the Roman Empire fell and the Dark Ages had engulfed humanity. He felt the weight of the world upon his shoulders.

“There is something more isn’t it?” she asked.

“When I struck grandpa,” he told her, “something happened between the two of us. In our heads, I mean.”

Killjoy approached the bed. “Tell me.” She pierced him with her clear brown eyes.

Thomas suddenly realized that what he had felt wasn’t a sign or something the Oracle or the other Cyphers had left for him because he could talk about it. He explained the feelings and the sounds to Killjoy, the darkness and the muffled voices.

She sat down in silence, meditating about what Thomas had said. After a couple of minutes, she opened her eyes and stood. “I think that these visions were memories,” she said shaking her head.

“Whose memories?”

“Pursuing these visions only brings heartache,” she warned.

“I need to know.” The vision haunted him since leaving Ormagra.

Killjoy bit her lip, but she knew that he wouldn’t drop it until she spoke. “It was a message, Thomas. A glimpse into someone else’s life.” She walked toward the door.

“But whose life?” Thomas urged. He couldn’t stand being left with another question.

Killjoy stopped at the door. Before she put on her heavy glasses, he saw the strain in her face, the conflict she felt about telling him more.

“Please,” he pleaded and she paused.

“Someone close…” she said and lifted a hand before he could ask more. She drew in a deep breath. “Close both to you and your grandfather. More than that, I cannot say, and that is the truth.”

She walked out closing the door behind her, and leaving Thomas to ponder what she had meant. A message? A glimpse into someone’s life? Someone close to both him and gramps?

He brought the vision back. Of all the things he recalled, only one made sense. The sounds being heard from underwater.

He froze, his stomach clenched. His parents had disappeared at sea. Could it be that it was the last memory of his father? The moment of his death?

It couldn’t be. There had been fear, followed by happiness, and he doubted drowning ended with happiness.

A flame of hope was kindled. Maybe it was just wishful thinking, but he’d lived and seen things that he couldn’t imagine existed two months before. If he could believe in limitless rooms, doors opening anywhere around the world and Magic, why couldn’t he believe that his parents were alive?

And that somehow he would find them.

Bolswaithe entered the room and found Thomas smiling from ear to ear.

“Mr. Della Francesca and Henri are waiting for you on the lawn, Thomas.” Bolswaithe was carrying the picnic basket. “Tony said that it’s Thai food today. Should I tell them to begin without you?”

“No,” Thomas said as he jumped from the bed. “Go ahead, I’m coming.” Bolswaithe smiled too, and closed the door.

Thomas was sure now that the robot was learning to be human – another thing to be glad about.

He remembered his first day at Guardians Inc.
“It’s just a little adventure,”
his grandfather had told him when they entered the mansion grounds, and just two months later, he had learned and experienced more than in his first sixteen years combined.