The Last of the Ageless (55 page)

The mystic’s eyes bored into him, through him, unblinking. Dalan heard shots fired nearby and hoped that Korreth and Jorrim were aware of their location.

“Jaul. Neula.” The mystic continued in his strange voice. “Jaul would have been my second when I challenged Clan Master Klin… But I killed them like worthless Purebreeds. They deserved better.”

Dalan reached out with his mind.
What do you mean? Need your help to take the Wizard down, remember? Help us, Caetl.
But though he kneeled beside him, the mystic’s mind was impossibly far away.

The grasses rustled, and Nyr sat up with a hand to her head. Most of the bleeding had stopped, at least.

“Those are my clanmates he’s talking about.” Her eyebrows lowered. “It may be too late to save Caetl.”

Her green eyes locked onto Dalan, her pupils widening from slits to dark holes. “Avenge him, Dalan.”

Dalan snorted in agreement. The Wizard had made them a clan when he leashed them together. Without a word, he galloped after the Ageless, his veins filled with adrenaline and anguish. It was too late to help Caetl, but to save Nyr and Ti’rros, Dalan would have to either incapacitate the Wizard… or kill him.

Korreth dashed to the Joey—the hybrid, he remembered—while not rising from a crouch. Not far away, the mystic climbed to his feet and took off in the direction the Wizard and Dalan had gone.

Korreth repositioned Ti’rros’s limbs into better angles, but that was all he could do for her. The Wizard must be torturing them into unconsciousness.

Azaiah smirked. “I guess my master has them under control. What about her, then, huh?”

At first, Korreth thought Azaiah meant Ti’rros, or even Nyr. But his gun was pointed at a different angle… in Soledad’s direction.

“The two of you must want to keep her alive for some reason, am I right? Otherwise why wouldn’t you have overpowered her by now and won back your freedom, your humanity? You’re no better than dogs, unworthy of the civilization Zen will bring about.”

The Changeling’s words triggered a flash of memory. Soledad had told Korreth, “Then we can free our knowledge, restore civilization, and teach humanity to use the technology properly. At least, I’d like to hope so.” He remembered the hope in her voice, the conviction in her eyes.

“Don’t be a fool,” Jorrim’s voice startled him. “She put a spell on us. That’s the only thing keeping us from killing her ourselves. Go ahead—you’ll be doing us a favor.”

Something in Jorrim’s words struck the wrong chord with Korreth. Before Soledad had been poisoned by the dart, she hadn’t actually ordered them to take Dalan and the others outside. In fact, she hadn’t ordered them around much since they’d entered Searchtown.

Their mistress was clever—she wanted
them free to act of their own accord.

Which meant Soledad would never join Zen. She’d tricked him as part of her plan, but now she was trapped in this age by the poison, unable to heal.

The Changeling’s gaze shifted over to Korreth, and his eyes narrowed. “No, you’re lying.
He
cares if she lives.”

Red energy burned through Azaiah’s throat and jaw. His eyes widened, and his rigid body fell straight back, flattening the grasses.

Korreth blinked, and then tore his gaze away from the mutilated corpse. “I thought you were going to let him do it.”

“His finger twitched.” Jorrim frowned.

Nodding, Korreth kneeled down beside Soledad.

Jorrim scanned the horizon before coming over. “What are you doing?”

“Checking that she’s still alive. Her breathing was slow earlier.” Korreth passed a hand in front of her mouth and nose.

When Korreth touched her neck, Jorrim said, “I think her spell will break if she dies. Then we can leave and not look back. We helped Dalan out, and I’d say that’s all we owe him. This is a fight between the Ageless, and if the other Changelings are fool enough to get in their way, I say we let them.”

“But she’s not dead.” He tried shaking her to wake her up.

Jorrim grabbed his upper arm and pulled him away. “What’s the matter with you? Don’t you want to go home? To see your kids?”

“What if the spell kills
us
if she dies?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

Jorrim’s look of disapproval made his chest ache. He
did
want to go home, but Soledad had a plan to defeat Zen. He remembered how many corpses the monster had left behind from the last village he’d visited.

Jorrim tilted his head. “Have you forgotten what she’s put us through? If it weren’t for her, we’d probably be back to our tribes by now.”

Korreth met his friend’s gaze. “If it weren’t for her, we would be corpses at the bottom of a ravine, trampled to death.” He reached for her again.

“Don’t wake her up!”

“I’m not going to kill an unconscious, defenseless person.”

“Don’t worry,” Jorrim said, raising the rifle to his shoulder. “I’ll do it.” His trigger finger hesitated.

“Caetl told me she’s probably the only one who can stop Zen. Our people will never be safe,” Korreth said in a final attempt to stop him. But Jorrim hadn’t hesitated on purpose, he realized. “You can’t do it, can you?”

Jorrim’s pale face went red, then purple as he strained to pull the trigger. Korreth gently slapped her twice, and then hit her harder.

“What’s the matter with you? Let’s keep her unconscious.” Jorrim pleaded. “We can drug her again and go home. Keep her hidden until we figure out what to do.”

“Something amazing and horrible happened here, Jorrim!” He looked up at his friend. “They saw the Catastrophe.”

“You’re doing this for curiosity’s sake?” His friend’s voice shot from despondent to enraged in a split second.

Korreth put a hand under Soledad’s back and lifted her to a sitting position. Her muscles seemed to help him, as though she were coming to consciousness. “That and the fact that Zen won’t stop until he dominates every race he considers unworthy. Which would include both our tribes. Only Soledad knows how to stop him.”

Their mistress took a deep breath, and then coughed and aged. Whatever poison had rendered her unconscious before instantly wore off. Soledad smiled up at them.

“Great,” Jorrim said, scowling.

She took in their surroundings, but they couldn’t see much beyond the waving grasses.

“Help me up,” she said, and Korreth pulled her to her feet.

In the distance, the others stood out like monoliths in the slanting rays of light.

The beads in Soledad’s hair clacked together as her gaze darted between the two of them. “You need to fight Zen until I’m ready.”

Jorrim groaned and crossed his arms. “She’s going to get us killed.”

Korreth grabbed her by the shoulders. “If we could help Dalan subdue the Wizard… Then he could help us with Zen. He may be our best weapon against him.”

“No.” Her head tilted. “I am. Now go and keep Zen busy.”

Chapter 29

The grasses slapped Korreth’s arms as his body struggled to keep up with Soledad.

“Kaia fled toward Searchtown?” Korreth asked between breaths.

Soledad’s voice held a bitter tone. “She and Gryid must have a plan they forgot to let us in on.”

“So she didn’t trust you after all,” Jorrim said.

She paced him and Jorrim but eventually left them behind, framed by the backdrop of Searchtown ahead. Soon the figures near the dilapidated wall resolved into humanoid shapes. In the late afternoon sunlight, a smaller figure stood up to a bigger one: Kaia pointed a gun up at the giant.

With light flashing off his forearms, Gryid charged Zen from behind and slashed at the backs of his knees. Korreth squinted. The red-haired Ageless had strapped blades to his forearms. The giant turned, scooped Gryid up with one arm, and tossed him at Kaia.

The two of them flew through the air to crash against the stone wall. They toppled the piled stones and came to a rest next to one of the multicolored buildings. Without giving them time to recover, Zen lumbered toward them. Gryid popped back to his feet. Kaia didn’t.

Soledad gasped and raced ahead. Korreth couldn’t believe the battle he was witnessing. Jorrim had been right—this fight belonged to the Ageless alone. But Soledad’s order to keep Zen busy forced him to keep running toward the Ageless against his will.

Zen’s arm raised and plunged toward Kaia’s prone body. With Soledad and Zen in the way, Korreth couldn’t see what happened. Gryid screamed and threw himself at the cyborg.

A few seconds later, Soledad stood over Kaia. “No, no, no, no.” She dropped to her knees in the rubble by the body.

Despite the spell, Korreth and Jorrim paused on either side of their mistress. Kaia had died in the ruins of her own town, a place she had inhabited for centuries.

Zen let out a roar of pain, but Korreth couldn’t take his eyes off the pulverized corpse. He was thankful she’d been face-down. Still, he knew he’d never get the image out of his mind: Kaia’s skull, neck, and part of her upper torso were flattened, as though a boulder had fallen on her.

Korreth resolved to avoid sharing Kaia’s gruesome fate. The wind swirled around them, and Korreth and Jorrim raised their weapons.

Her voice rough with tears and rage, Soledad commanded, “Attack Zen. Wear him down. But don’t kill him.”

Like puppets, Korreth and Jorrim pivoted toward the monstrous giant. Korreth’s mind whirred. All this time, Soledad had told them she needed them to help her defeat Zen. He didn’t understand why she wouldn’t let them kill him if the chance arose.

“Then it will be my turn,” she said in a gravelly voice.

Korreth’s gaze anchored to the cyborg. With the blades strapped to his forearms, Gryid kept Zen occupied. The cyborg’s fist crashed through another of the multicolored buildings. Then he plucked one of the lampposts lining the street like the stem of a flower. Zen twirled it around in his metal hands and its oil splashed Gryid in the face.

Together, Korreth and Jorrim fired their SCLs. Korreth’s shot went wide as the cyborg twisted to avoid Gryid’s slashing arms. Jorrim’s bolt splashed against the cyborg’s upper arm as he swung the lamppost at the other Ageless. Some of the energy must have struck a nerve, because Zen howled and faced them.

“You two fools? You just don’t know to leave well enough alone.”

“Split up,” Jorrim said, sprinting away from Korreth and back out into the grasslands.

Forced to choose between a moving target and a stationary one, Zen charged Korreth. He took aim as Gryid followed behind the cyborg. Gryid got in one good slice at the back of Zen’s knee before dancing away. Zen yelled and swiveled the opposite direction Korreth had expected, causing him to waste another shot.

Korreth clambered back over the wall, keeping his barrel pointed in Zen’s direction. He needed to lead the cyborg away from any other weapons he might find in Searchtown.

Jorrim fired twice, low. Zen’s leg spasmed, and he fell to the side, catching himself on an elbow against the wall.

Gryid rushed in. With his other hand, Zen punched him in the face. Korreth heard the crunch of bone as Gryid crumpled. He shifted ages and reeled backward, still aging. He was back on his feet in an instant, but so was Zen.

They rushed toward each other. Zen batted Gryid aside with the lamppost, sending him back over the wall into Searchtown. One crash followed another as Gryid’s body hit the ground somewhere beyond the perimeter buildings.

“Now, then,” Zen said.

His eyes lit up when he spotted Jorrim. The cyborg moved faster than Korreth could have imagined. Jorrim got off one useless shot to the cyborg’s well-protected chest before Zen backhanded him.

Time seemed to slow. Zen bore down on his victim before Jorrim even hit the ground. Soledad’s words came back to Korreth as he watched,
“But if one of you were to die from some other means...”

Jorrim’s legs hit the ground first, but his top half didn’t shed enough momentum, and he tumbled head over heels into the grasses.

“I’d lose you both,”
she had said.

Korreth hesitated. He thought of his son’s dimples and his daughter’s curly hair. Jorrim’s death could buy him freedom.

Zen’s fist descended.

Korreth gasped and pulled the trigger. A red ball of energy splashed against Zen’s metallic legs. The giant yelped in pain and fell forward as his legs locked. Korreth’s eyes widened, wondering if Zen would crush Jorrim when he fell. Selfish hope arose in him again, appalling him.

The cyborg caught himself on one fist and one knee over top of Jorrim. He regained his feet.

Korreth let out a yell, purging himself of his selfish desires. Jorrim was his friend; what had he been thinking? He aimed and fired again, but this shot hit nothing but metal.

He held his breath, hoping to see Jorrim rise as well.

“Soledad,” Gryid yelled. “What are you waiting for?”

Zen’s eyes darted back and forth between Gryid, standing on the wall, and Soledad, who remained beside Kaia’s body.