The Darkening (Dawn of Ascension) (8 page)

He glanced at Vela. Neither was taking on a vast power like Third Earth darkening abilities capable of moving through dimensions. His woman, yes
his woman,
stood facing Endelle’s desk, her shoulders squared and ready.

He understood something about Vela right then, that she would go the distance. He knew many Militia Warriors like this, good men and women who he would trust with his life. Most of them would go on to become Section Leaders and they always set the best example for the troops.

“What do you suggest, Madame Endelle?”

But the leader of Second Earth just shrugged. “Beats the hell out of me. I don’t do the darkening the way you described. You’ve got Third Earth chops. I don’t. This is your show, Vela. Though the one thing I can tell you is to go with your gut. The rest will follow.”

Vela turned toward Samuel. “I have no idea what we’re going to find, but I think you should have your sword with you.”

Samuel glanced at Endelle, lifting his brows. “Can I do that here? Fold my sword to me?”

“Do it. We don’t have the same security restrictions as either Apache Junction Two HQ or the palace. Thorne’s been after me about it, but for now he can just bite me.”

Samuel withheld a smile. Thorne was revered among the Militia Warriors, a man’s man, and destined apparently to replace Endelle. So to hear her say something like that about Thorne, perhaps more than anything else that had happened, made him know his life really had changed.

He thought the thought and folded his identified sword into his right hand, the blade held away from Vela. He moved to position himself on her right side.

“You ready to go for a ride, warrior?” she asked.

He knew what she meant, but their recent engagement in the elevator made him think of other things. He repressed his thoughts if not the squeeze he gave her waist or the smile that moved his lips inappropriately.

But her lips quirked as well, which made him wonder if the
breh-hedden
might have chosen wisely for him after all.

She shifted her gaze away from him. He watched her concentrate on what couldn’t be seen, probably searching for Duncan.

He tightened his hold on her waist and suddenly they were moving fast through the dark tunnel matrix she’d described, flying down one tunnel, reaching a branch, choosing with deliberate ease the next tunnel, then flying some more.

He saw the same things she’d described earlier as images raced past him. Once he’d become accustomed to the movement, he tried to see what made up the images that flashed by.

Eventually he saw landscapes and cities, a lot of smoke, ruins, people in rags, some warriors in flight battle gear, people running and large whirlwinds of light which turned out to be weapons of heavy capacity and destruction. He watched people being blown to bits, heard others scream, saw warriors flying and bearing swords. Then more landscape, a beautiful peaceful earth, then even greater turmoil.

His heart sank as Vela continued to move him through the darkening. Third Earth, too, was a world at war and somehow, one of the culprits had gotten hold of Duncan, but to what purpose? And why execute him?

Vela began to slow and his sword hummed in his hand.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” He looked around carefully.

“Do you hear that sound?”

He listened hard. And there it was. “Like a very distant explosion.”

“Yes. The last time, I barely made it out alive. They’re coming for us and they’re coming from the direction of Duncan’s tunnel. I think they must know we’re here.”

When another explosion sounded, closer still, that was all Samuel needed to know. “Get us out of here, Vela. There’s no point in moving forward if they’ve got a fix on us and it seems they do.”

He turned her in a one-eighty, keeping his sword well away from her. Then her voice was in his head.
Samuel, the return route has changed, but I don’t know why. I don’t know if we’re being directed that way, and it’s an ambush, or what?

Remember what Endelle said, go with your gut.

Then I have to change course.

Do it. I’ve been a warrior a long time. Going with your instincts will get you where you need to go, every damn time. You’re connected to this power, so follow its lead.

But even as he said this to her, mind-to-mind, an explosion sounded behind them, much closer this time.

She flowed faster than before, taking tunnel after tunnel. He could feel the dimensional crossing, like a bump in the road, but still they were pursued as another explosion sounded.

Closer.

She reached the end of a tunnel. A dead end.
I don’t know what to do?

What do you see?
All he saw was darkness, like a wall of infinite black.

I doorway with a kind of gold seal around it.

Another explosion.
Try knocking.

An explosion sounded so close his ears rang.

Fuck that. Samuel, use your sword.

He didn’t pause to ask questions. He summoned his dark power and as his smoky mist swirled around him, he sliced at the wall with his blade and what do you know, an opening peeled back.

A man in long black terry robe, a cigarette in one hand and martini glass in the other, stared back at him and muttered. “Oh, shit!”

Samuel stepped through the opening, dragging Vela with him, turned and faced the breach but he saw nothing just the wall.

But he heard another explosion.

“Fuck.” Their host said. “The wreckers followed you.”

Samuel turned back to face the robed stranger. “What do we do?”

He rolled his eyes, settled his cigarette carefully on an ashtray, placed his martini glass on the coffee table then went to the wall.

Samuel pulled Vela close as another not-so-distant explosion rocked the space.

 “I could use some help here,” the stranger called out.

Vela went to the wall, and placed her hands on it alongside the man.

“Shit, this isn’t working,” the man shouted.

Samuel’s instincts kicked in and he went to the stranger. He placed his hand on the man’s back and his own power flowed. A kind of
zing
went through him, into the stranger, and the power amplified about a hundred fold.

Then everything went black.

Sometime later he woke up on his back.

“He’s awake now,” Vela said.

He shifted his head slightly. Vela had hold of his hand, her knees curled next to him. Her long, unruly hair, full of waves and curls, hung beside her face, an almost angelic look. He squeezed her hand.

“You okay?” she asked.

He glanced around. He was on the floor, in the same room, the stranger’s living room. “What happened?”

“You amplified Merl’s power and he sealed the tunnel back up. Looks like we opened up an exit point that had been closed for about five decades.”

He glanced at her other hand. She held a martini glass. “You’re drinking?”

“Seemed like a good idea. Greygoose dirty. Very nice. And we were very lucky Merl was here.”

She’d called him by name twice.

He didn’t like that. At all.

He sat up, his head spinning. Shit, where was his identified sword. Only he could touch the grip or the hilt. Jesus. “Where’s my sword?”

Merl said. “It’s humming over there.” He gestured behind him.

Samuel widened his eyes. His sword was stuck about ten inches into the wall, on the opposite side of the large room, at least thirty feet away from where he now sat. There were many issues to address right now like how much he didn’t like his new host since he could sense his male-hunting stench, but he needed to take care of his weapon first.

As he rose to his feet, he said, “I take it we’ve reached some kind of safe haven here on Second and you must be from Third.”

“Guilty.”

Had
Merl
actually said that?

Samuel crossed in front of him, catching his gaze and holding it hard, as he passed by.

The man held up both hands in surrender, a new cigarette in one hand and a half full martini in the other.

Samuel pulled his sword from the wall, the familiar feel of the grip a comfort in what had become an increasingly bizarre situation. “We’re on Second?”

Merl nodded and took a slow drag on his cigarette, squinting, savoring. “Yeah, you can fold it anywhere you want. I don’t have shields up. Haven’t needed them. Of course your arrival, as well as Vela’s,” he offered her a smile as he sipped his martini, then finished his thought. “Anyway, your arrival will force me to rethink my strategy.”

He’d called Vela by name and smiled at her.

Good ol’ Merl was starting to piss him off.

Samuel thought-the-thought and got rid of his sword. He returned to Vela, and as he passed by Merl again, he made eye-contact and let him feel just what he thought about this Third ascender, with a power similar to his own.

Merl’s lips quirked as he once more raised his martini glass and his cigarette in surrender. What a prick.

When Samuel reached Vela, she sent,
What’s the matter? You’re all pissy and from what I can tell, Merl just saved our lives.

I had something to do with that.

Her expression softened.
Yeah, you did and it cost you.

“Okay, you two. Enough with the telepathic chit-chat. It’s kinda rude.” The last word came out with a stretched ‘u’ sound. This man was one piece-of-work.

The weird thing was, Merl was warrior-sized and matched Samuel pound-for-pound. He wore black silk bottoms, but the terry robe, open to the waist, exposed muscled pecs.

Samuel slipped his arm around Vela. “Who are you?” he asked, not trusting much about this stranger.

“Merl Tuttle, escapee from Third Earth, former warrior, including stretches inside the darkening grid. Got sick of the chaos on Third and found a way to get out. Question is, how did you find me? I haven’t had visitors from Third since I got here.”

“We’re not from Third,” he said.

“Why, Vela, you didn’t tell me that.”

He’d caressed her name.  Hell, he’d poured oil over every single one of those words, the bastard, and now a lovely red hue covered Samuel’s vision as his dark power rose in a sudden smoky stream.

He launched at Merl before he had time to think or before he could respond to Vela calling out, “Don’t, Samuel. He’s a friend!”

He caught bare arms, because somewhere in Samuel flying at Merl, the Third ascender had lost his robe and dropped into a fighting stance.

Samuel grappled with him, wrestling him to the ground, then letting his fists fly.

Merl folded out of his hold, levitated. Samuel’s dark power recognized his foe and responded with similar levitation and folding, until once more he made contact.

But Merl had more power and the next thing Samuel knew, he lay face down on the carpet, a knee in his back, and one arm pulled back and upright to the breaking point.

“You done throwing a fit?”

“Don’t talk to my woman that way.” The words sounded slurred since they were half-spoken into a thick carpet.

“Fine.”

“Fine.”

Merl let him go. Samuel rose to his feet, breathing hard, sweating, mad. He glared at Merl. “Just leave Vela alone. She’s mine.”

Merl opened his mouth to speak then closed it. “Hold the phone. Are we talking that
breh-hedden
shit here? I mean I heard rumors that Thorne had been laid waste. It’s the
breh-hedden,
isn’t it?”

But Samuel stepped into him and got about an inch away from his nose “
Breh-hedden
or not, stay the fuck away from my woman. We clear?”

Merl narrowed his eyes and though he said nothing, he stared back, nostrils flaring.

But suddenly the air above them was full of light, then little pin-pricks of fiery pain hit his bare shoulders, arms and back. He waved his hands, as Merl did, batting away the annoying bites of fire.

“What the hell is that? Another trick Merl?”

“I didn’t do that.”

“Are you two Neanderthals finished?”

The sound of Vela’s voice, as well as the cessation of sparks falling all around him, caused Samuel to turn and stare at her. “What was that?”

She turned a palm up and a small firework appeared, which she then launched toward the ceiling. When it floated down, it winked out in a succession of small bursts of flames.

“Why did you do that?” Samuel asked.

“Because you’re both being ridiculous, especially you!”

“Why, me?” He jerked his thumb toward Merl. “This asshole was disrespecting you.”

“And you were treating him like a moron. Knock it off.”

Her criticism rankled.

Merl pulled at the sides of his bottoms. “I have little holes in my pjs.”

Vela rolled her eyes but walked toward the entry wall. “Sorry, Merl, but I don’t give a rat’s ass about your pajamas.” She planted a hand on the wall, her blond hair falling almost to her waist. He decided he loved her hair. “I need to know about this. What it is, how we got through, and what those explosions were. You said something earlier about wreckers.”

“Yeah,
Merl
,” Samuel said, without affection, “Tell us about the wreckers.”

Merl held out his hand and a lit cigarette appeared between his fingers. He took a puff, once more squinting slightly, glaring. The bastard.

After he’d released a puff of smoke in Samuel’s direction, he said, “Look, I don’t know who either of you are, but clearly you’ve got a lot of power between you. Which one of you saw the gate?”

Vela turned slightly toward the wall. “I did. We’d reached the end of the tunnel and I saw a glowing archway here, in this location. Samuel couldn’t see it, but he used his sword to break through.”

He narrowed his eyes at Samuel. “Only a powerful warrior can use his sword to make a breach in a gate.” Then back to Vela. “But it’s the rare ascender who can locate gates like mine.”

Vela turned toward him. “So then you had enough power to find this gate in the first place?”

Merl took another drag, another sip. He glanced at her. “Hell, no. I paid a fortune, a life’s fortune, to have the gate made then erased from all the grid documents.” His eyes grew cloudy.