Collision: The Alliance Series Book Three (22 page)

Still…

I hurried down the road, not caring when people stared at the sight of a girl clad in black faux-leather running through the crowds of tourists. I had the feeling time was limited. For Vey-Xanetha—and Earth.

CHAPTER TWELVE

ADA

No magic-creatures awaited us in the Passages this time, but we moved quickly all the same. Kay led us to a deserted stretch of corridor around the corner from the doorway back to London. Everyone was on edge, and by the distant sound of voices, there were a lot of guards about, though this corridor had been blocked off for our use only. I couldn’t help glancing at the old staircase to the hidden Passage, but there was definitely no activity down that way. Damn. Just as the Law Division had started properly putting a plan of action together to help the Enzarians get safely to the shelter, this magical chaos had thrown everything off.

“Right,” said Kay, world-key in hand “I can take us through to the base, or open a door at random and try to find the villages. Anyone got any other ideas?”

“Find Mathran,” I said. “And see if he’s found anything else.” There didn’t seem to be much more we could do, short of using magic. Part of me was curious what would happen, of course, but maybe Kay’s influence was rubbing off on me. Next I’d be challenging griffins.

“Yeah. He used magic,” said Kay. “If he was channelling that deity, maybe we could do the same.”

“What?” I said. “Seriously?” He couldn’t seriously be considering tapping into magic on this world, especially after the stunt he’d pulled with that griffin. Did he
want
to get himself put on probation?

“Are you out of your mind?” said Raj. “I’ve been arrested on five universes, yes, but I think pissing off a magical deity is a bit more serious than accidental trespassing.”

“Just an idea.”

I wondered what else he might be scheming. Using his invisibility power, maybe. He still hadn’t told the others about being an amplifier. Probably, he didn’t want Mathran or anyone else on Vey-Xanetha to know. It didn’t hurt to be careful.

But I couldn’t get Ms Weston’s words out of my head—
seek out the problem at its source.

Kay used the device to open a door, clipping the Chameleon earpiece to his ear. I wore the other one, though I hadn’t told the others yet. Even Kay. Part of me was still irritated he’d even think I’d consider quitting, but I knew he was more concerned for my mental well-being. But like dealing with the nightmares, the only way I could think of to push what happened to those merchants from my mind was to take practical steps to figure out who—or what—was responsible.

The doorway opened less than a metre from the entrance to the base. We stepped through, and into a storm.

Lightning stabbed the sky, and Raj jumped back, cursing, even though it was nowhere near us.

“Doesn’t look like a normal storm,” I said. For one thing, no rain fell, and the magic level surged high with each fork of red-tinged lighting, making my skin buzz all over.

“Great,” said Raj, and cursed as Kay ran the three metres to the door, which opened. The rest of us joined him, and Mathran hurried us inside.

Lightning struck right behind us, accompanied with another thunderous clap like falling rocks.

“What in all universes is going on out there?” Raj demanded. “Is it safe for us to stay here?”

“Of course,” said Mathran, not reacting to his outburst. “The storm is the first ordinary sign we have seen in days. It means the seasons may be returning to normal.”

“Reassuring,” Kay muttered from beside me.

The injured man lay in the other room, half-conscious on the sofa, watched over by an anxious-looking Avar.

“I’ve set up a link with Central,” he said. “Our communication systems went out, but I used the backup system so you’ll be able to send messages back, if you need to.”

“At least there’s that.” Iriel exchanged glances with Raj.

“So what now?” I asked. “We have to wait here until it passes?” I glanced at Kay, who didn’t look too pleased at the idea.

“That would be the wisest choice.”

“I can work on translating those codes now, anyway,” said Iriel, in an attempt to defuse the tension brewing in the air. “There’s something else I wanted to do. Do you have a map?”

A flash lit up outside the window. Purple lightning raged, the sky burned red, even the clouds over the forest. To the people living below, it really would seem like the end of the world.

Mathran showed us upstairs. A number of rooms had been put aside for guests. An uncomfortable-looking metal-framed bed was the single piece of furniture, but I had an en-suite bathroom, even running water. But I couldn’t suppress a pang for all the people out on Vey-Xanetha, enduring the storm.

I headed downstairs to find Iriel and Raj in the computer room, the latter surrounded by papers.

“Where are the others?” I asked.

“Mathran and Avar are talking to that injured guy,” said Iriel. “And Kay’s…” She shrugged.

“No clue,” said Raj, throwing and catching a tennis ball. “I was trying to demonstrate the backlash rule,” he explained. “Mathran still doesn’t get it.”

“Don’t break anything.” Iriel stacked papers on the table. She must have printed them on Earth. I joined her, flipping open a notepad. Logic wasn’t my strong point, fighting was, but hey, maybe I could come up with something. Starting with the three gods. I divided the page into three columns and listed what we knew about each of them.

In the end, my list said:

Veyak: weather.

Aktha: machinery and buildings.

Xanet: nature and healing.

That suggested Veyak’s power was the one causing the trouble, right? But it didn’t explain
why.

Chewing on the end of my pen, I debated. It felt oddly like tempting fate to write down what
I
could do, but I couldn’t help thinking there might be some kind of connection. Vey-Xanetha’s sources were external, but did some summoners have internal sources, too, if magic could alter their appearance? I wished I’d asked Kevar how that worked, but the language barrier was a problem. If they had no term for third level or backlash, they didn’t see magic in the same way that I did. And I couldn’t claim I completely understood my own magic. The only records were on my homeworld—

Wait a minute. It had totally slipped my mind. There
was
a record… in Ms Weston’s office. The file that showed my real identity.
How
could I have forgotten about it?

“What are you doing?” asked Iriel curiously. I wondered what my facial expression had shown.

I shrugged. “Thinking. Trying to figure out about these gods. Different magic types. Like if there’s a reason one works and the others don’t.”

“It’s all alien to me,” said Raj, tossing the tennis ball into the air again.

At that moment, Mathran came back in.

“Hey,” I said to him. “Er. I’ve been writing down what each of the gods can do. I thought it’d help if we knew.
Is there any way to tell if the same thing’s happening to everyone who has Aktha’s power? Or Xanet?”

He hesitated. “I have been unable to make contact with anywhere, but I can think of a village which is sustained by Aktha’s power.”

“And there might be answers there?”

I took his silence as
maybe.
But walking out into the storm wasn’t a wise move.

“It was the summoners’ destination.”

Oh.
I glanced at Raj and Iriel, who looked equally uneasy at the prospect of facing whatever force killed those merchants.

“I will assist you, if need be,” said Mathran. “This is the sixth day since the gods left, and if all is as they say in the carvings, the village will soon fall.”

“Wait, what?” said Raj, his eyes widening. “The carvings predicted this?”

“We have never been able to translate the text, but the pictorial form is well-known.” He returned to the computer-like glass box in the corner, and manipulated a series of wires. A sequence of images flashed on the screen.

“The first image shows the continents stopping their motion.”

It looked like a meaningless jumble of lines to me, but I had no clue about ancient Vey-Xanethan art styles.

“The next image shows the fall of Aktha’s village.”

This time, I made out the image amongst the lines, of buildings falling in pieces.

“And the next?” Iriel prompted.

“A great chasm opens in the world’s centre, and our world unravelling, one piece at a time. Our cities fall, the forests return to the earth, the mountains are levelled, and the skies rain down upon the land, flooding it. As the floods clear, the gods have departed for good, leaving nothing but barren wasteland. Then the land rebuilds itself. But the image shows no people. Presumably, they die when the chasm opens–most accounts say all life is sacrificed to the abyss.”

I gaped at him. “And you didn’t tell us this before?”

“It’s a scare story, right?” said Raj, shifting on the sofa, away from the images.

“I didn’t want to alarm you. Your supervisor said you would see these tales as… scare stories, as you put it.”

“Let’s hope so,” said Raj. “Iriel, please tell me those symbols of yours don’t say that.”

“Haven’t a clue.” Iriel seemed calmer, so I guessed she didn’t believe it was true. She’d been an Ambassador the longest, and they had to deal with false alarms all the time. This wasn’t any different. Right?

Iriel lifted a piece of paper, the map she’d been working on, where she’d drawn a few dots. “I put some calculations through the computer at Central. Based on that, I’ve figured out the exact place where the changes started, based on what Mathran told us.” She nodded to him.

“Wow,” I said. This was more concrete than an old story about the apocalypse.

“She’s a genius,” said Raj. “I think your computer analogy was pretty apt. The changes start over here.” He tapped a spot on the map. “Only it stopped… at this point.” He tapped somewhere else. “Problem is, we’d need to get to the exact spot. The doorways are too random for that.”

“Oh,” I said, thinking of all the times the world-key had landed us in the middle of nowhere.

“That appears to be beside the village,” said Mathran, frowning. “I will have to see if it’s possible for us to get there after this storm.”

The storm showed no signs of abating and as it was past one in the morning on Earth, I found myself dozing off on the arm of the chair. I jolted awake when someone said my name.

“You were talking to yourself,” said Iriel.

“Oops.” At least I wasn’t screaming. Or drooling, for that matter.

“The storm’s calmed now. Mathran says we might be able to leave.”

“Might?” I asked, rubbing sleep from my eyes. “To go to the village?”

“He got a message from Kevar saying a traveller arrived from the village—he called it Aktha’s village. Apparently something weird’s happened there. Everyone’s vanished.”

“Huh?”

“That’s what he said. And Aktha’s village is near where the continent shift is supposed to start. Do you know where Kay is?”

I shook my head. “I’ll check upstairs.”

Probably beating up invisible monsters
. Or trying out a new magic trick. Not that he’d use actual magic here… at least, I hoped not. I found Kay’s room with the door shut, and knocked. Then knocked again. No answer. I pushed the door open a fraction, and froze. Kay lay on the bed, his jacket slung over the edge. At first he didn’t appear to be asleep, considering his hands were clenched at his sides, but he didn’t move when I knocked again.

“Kay?”

No response.

I crept closer, my guard boots making no sound on the floor. Even in sleep, the muscles in his arms were tensed, though I couldn’t help remembering how nice it felt to have those strong arms wrapped around
me.
And that for my own sake, I should probably back off. At least he was fully clothed, otherwise I was pretty sure I’d have already spontaneously combusted.

Heart beating so loud I thought it might wake him, I crouched down, and reached to touch his shoulder–

His entire body went rigid, then he rolled out the way and was on his feet in a second. I caught myself before I lost my balance.

“Whoa!” I said. “It’s only me.”

“Sorry,” he said. His eyes were wide open, not at all like he’d been asleep a second before. He ran a hand through his hair, glancing over his shoulder as though he expected monsters to attack.

I backed away, my face heating up. “Sorry. I know a thing or two about nightmares.”

“When are we leaving?”

“Soon. The storm’s stopped.”

“Sure.”

I left the room.
You handled that well.
I guess it freaked me out to see
him
freaked out. I glanced over my shoulder at the slightest noise, half afraid the storm would come back and leave us stranded here. The sooner we got outside, the better.