Imperium (Caulborn) (17 page)

I walked to the crater’s edge and skidded down the embankment to the center of the hole. By my best guess, it was right about where I’d lifted the creatures into the sky. I shuddered when I realized that if the crystal soldiers had detonated in the center of the city all the Urisk would be dead. I closed my eyes again and concentrated. The land rumbled beneath me. I screwed my eyes shut and pulled with everything I had. Just a few days ago, flattening the landscape had been a simple matter. I’d done it effortlessly. Now, I had to strain to move every rock and bit of dirt. Slowly, very slowly, the earth below me began to rise.

When the crater was level with the rest of the land, I smoothed it over and brought up some grass. I couldn’t manage any trees this time; I just didn’t have the power to spare. Instead, I took everything I had left and focused on the ruined wall. The first time, I’d made it out of rock. I thought that strong granite and marble would be a formidable defense. Now I realized my people would need something better than that.

I laid my hands against the jagged, cold stone and took a deep breath. I’d never tried anything like this before, but hey, I’m a god here. That has to count for something. I sent energy into the stone, life and sentience. The rock wall shimmered slightly, then the broken segments began to reform.

Began to heal.

The wall was confused for a moment. It babbled as its mind formed and language took hold. “You are Aegeon,” I said. “You are responsible for protecting my people. When armies attack or invaders approach, you must warn the Urisk and me. The one who leads when I am absent is called Lotholio. Do you understand, Aegeon?”

I understand.
His voice came back strong and deep. I didn’t realize I’d made him a bass. It fit.

“Guard them well, Aegeon.” I left the wall and went back to the cathedral grounds. Lotholio and the priests were working quickly. Many of the fallen had been healed and were helping their neighbors. I surveyed the city. Aegeon rose twenty feet high, but siege equipment or flyers could still get in. I rubbed my temples. More of my followers had regained consciousness, more of them were praying, and everyone that the priests healed in my name was offering up words of thanks. I took that faith and stretched out my arms.

All the shattered glass in the city began to rise. I called it from everywhere. From the bodies of the dead, from the wounded, from where it was embedded in homes and furniture. I pushed it up, until the sky was a swirling spiral of glimmering glass shards. I sent my power into the glass, heating it, shaping it, restructuring it. Sweat ran down my brow. I clenched my fists and began to seal it into place. When I was done, a translucent dome sat atop Aegeon. There was no seam between the wall and the dome; they were part of one another, and would provide a much better defense to the Urisk than just the wall alone.

Lotholio came up to me. His hands were covered with pink blood, too. “The wounded have been tended to, Lord,” he said. “All the people are healed.”

I blinked at him. “That was fast. Nice work, Loth.”

Lotholio looked at me in confusion. “It has been close to seven hours since you blessed us with the gift of healing, Lord.”

Seven hours? I frowned. My powers must’ve been a lot weaker if it had taken me that long to repair the damage here and build Aegeon and the dome. Still, I could feel my faith reserves replenishing at a much faster rate. Lotholio turned his eyes toward the dome.

“Lord, forgive the impertinence, but what if the glass breaks?”

I smiled. “Nothing to worry about there. I’ve altered it at the molecular level, Lotholio. That’s not glass anymore. It’s solid diamond. It’d take a helluva blast to shatter that.”

Lotholio’s eyes shimmered, the Urisk equivalent of a smile. Then he froze. “The wall is speaking to me, Lord,” he whispered.

“That’s Aegeon,” I said. “He’ll help protect you while I’m gone.”

“He says that a group of Urisk are trying to get into the city, but they can’t find the gate.”

“There isn’t one,” I said. “Aegeon will open at any point for people that are allowed in. Right now, though, he doesn’t know who’s permitted. He’ll show you an image of whoever’s trying to gain access to the city, and if you permit it, he’ll grant them passage. He can also allow rain or snow in through the dome if you want, and he’s permeable, so he cycles in fresh air for the city, too.”

Lotholio nodded and focused on Aegeon. A hole twenty feet in diameter appeared in Aegeon to our left, and five Urisk came through, pulling a cart loaded with vegetables. The hole closed as soon as the last had passed. I turned back to Lotholio.

“Let the people rest, then start rebuilding as soon as you can. I’m going to pay a visit to the hobgoblins and trolls. Aegeon,” I called. “Open.” I took off at a run, surging through Aegeon’s gateway. The top speed a normal human can attain is roughly thirty miles an hour. Petra, going all out, can top sixty. Me, as a god, on the Bright Side? Well, let’s just say I could give the Flash a run for his money.

The landscape flashed past me in a blur: mountains, meadows, volcanoes, ponds. I could see the jagged range of mountains ahead where the hobgoblins and trolls made their homes. I’d charge in, grab the leader of each tribe and then I’d make them talk. I’d—

I hit a solid wall in the air. Moving at the speed I was, I bounced off and flew sixty or seventy feet before I crashed into the ground. “Turn back,” a voice sneered. “You are not welcome here.”

It was a phasilion. No, I realized, it was an entire clan of phasilions. Dozens upon dozens of them, linked together to form an invisible, solid perimeter around the hobgoblin and troll lands. “Treggen said to give you a message, Corinthos,” the voice continued. “Surrender, or your people will continue to die.”

“Where is Treggen?” I demanded. “I will speak with him directly, not through some lackey gateway of a fae.”

A tension, almost a sensation of electricity, buzzed in the air. As a god, I’d be able to resist if a single phasilion tried to transport me somewhere against my will. I’d probably even be able to resist a small group of them. But I doubted I could resist every phasilion in the clan. The voice was angry when it spoke again.

“The message has been delivered, Corinthos. Treggen will expect an answer. Will you surrender?”

I considered trying to compel them, like I had the one by the Children’s Museum. I thought about trying to just burn them all, and force my way through. But with half my followers dead, my powers were much weaker than they had been. If I failed and ran out of power, the phasilion would overwhelm me and the Urisk would be without their god. I ground my teeth.

“Sure, I’ve got an answer,” I said calmly. “You tell Treggen to go fuck himself.” I shot out blasts of force and fire as I turned. They wouldn’t be strong enough to kill the clan, but it would hurt a great many of them, and right now I really wanted to hurt something. Shrieks of pain resounded around me as I raced back to the Urisk. Aegeon sensed my presence and opened for me. I sought out Lotholio, and found him drafting plans for the rebuilding.

“Loth, does the name Treggen mean anything to you?” He thought for a moment, his eyes brightening and fading. Finally he shook his head. I told him about the phasilion clan I’d encountered. “See if you can learn anything about him, okay? But be careful, he wants the Urisk for something.”

Loth nodded.

“I will, Lord, and thank you for everything.”

I nodded and tried not to grimace. Half his population was dead, half his city was gone, and he was thanking me. I’d never felt more inadequate in my life. Part of me wanted to try Shallar again, but I knew my followers wouldn’t be up for that.

I made my way back to the cathedral grounds, where I could sense a phasilion. “Aviorla?” I asked.

Her voice was a soothing sound. “Yes, Vincent Corinthos?”

I relaxed muscles I hadn’t realized were tensed. “There was another phasilion in Boston,” I said. “Did you know it?”

“Grenlori,” she said. “I tried to call out and warn you, but he blocked me. I hope you did not come to any harm as a result of his actions.”

“I’m fine, thanks. But how did I not sense Grenlori before?” Phasilion can move under their own power, but it takes years for them to move a few yards. I should’ve been able to sense Grenlori long before he was able to superimpose himself over Aviorla.

“Someone moved him in front of me,” Aviorla replied.

“Who?”

“I know not his name,” she said. “He looked like this.” An image formed in my mind, a picture of Robert Maxwell, a.k.a Lord Treggen. “I feared him,” Avirola whispered. I certainly couldn’t blame her there. Something about this man was downright unsettling. I said my goodbyes and stepped into Aviorla.

The wee hours of the morning behind the Children’s Museum were very quiet. You could almost forget you’re in a city with over half a million people. I checked my watch. It was quarter past one in the morning. I wasn’t surprised to find my car had been towed. The trains stop running after midnight, so I needed a cab. I pulled out my cell phone and flipped it open. The words “low battery” glowed at me for a moment and then the screen went dark. I closed my eyes. Yep, it had been that kind of a day. This part of the city was mostly tourist attractions and workplaces, so randomly finding a cab here would be unlikely.

I took a slow breath and tried to put my thoughts in order. I’d been on the Bright Side for almost an entire day. Galahad was probably worried sick, not to mention Petra. First order of business was to let everyone know I was all right. I found a pay phone about fifteen minutes later. It’s a good thing Uncle Dave is toll free. I dialed his number and he answered on the second ring.

“Hey Uncle Dave, it’s Vincent.”

“Vinnie? Where ya been, kid? Aunt Matilda’s been worried about you.” Galahad XI notified me that you had gone missing.

“Some friends in the next town over needed my help, Uncle Dave. Things were really bad over there. It took a lot longer than I expected. Tell Aunt Matilda that I’ll stop in to see her tomorrow.” There was an emergency on the Bright Side that I had to tend to. I’ll be back in the office tomorrow. “I hope I didn’t leave too much of a mess in the kitchen.” Was everything cleaned up from my fight yesterday?

“Your aunt got all the stains off the ceiling, if that’s what you’re asking, kiddo.” The situation had been handled. I let out a sigh of relief. “You sound wiped out, kid. You need anything?”

“Yes, my car got towed I need a cab.” No coded message here, I just needed a ride. I gave him my location.

“Consider it done, kiddo. I’ll get one of your cousins to pick up your wheels in the morning. Let me know if you need anything else.” I hung up and the cab arrived about ten minutes later. I must’ve dozed off during the ride because it seemed like I’d just sat down when the driver told me we were there. I paid him and dragged myself into my apartment building. I leaned against the walls of the elevator as it took me up to the third floor. I made my way down the hallway to my apartment. I didn’t even bother with my keys, I just Opened the door. As the lock clicked, exhaustion took a firm hold on me. My eyes refused to focus and the world started to spin.

The door swung inward. I fell forward and Petra caught me. She was wearing a black T-shirt that read ‘Han Shot First’ and a pair of pink sweats. There were orange streaks in a couple of places on her shirt. She picked me up and gently kicked the door shut. She smelled like strawberries. And Cheetos. Well, that explained the orange.

“Vincent, thank Aphrodite,” she whispered as she squeezed me. “Are you all right?” Her eyes were huge with concern. “I’ve been worried sick about you. I got your note, but when you didn’t come home and no one at the office knew where you were, I thought you might have been taken, too.” She carried me into the living room and set me down on the couch. I looked into her face and saw her dark eyes held tears. I snuggled into her.

“Nobody’s taking me, babe,” I said into her neck.

“You look exhausted. What happened?”

I told her. I told her about the crystal soldiers and the Urisk and the devastation. Told her about the body count and the repairs. It all came flooding out of me. I think I was crying at one point, but I wasn’t not sure. I felt so ineffective. The Urisk relied on me to protect them and I’d failed them.

Petra just held me. “You did everything you could, Vincent,” she said quietly.

“And it wasn’t enough. For Christ’s sake, Petra, I’m their freaking god and I couldn’t do enough.”

Petra was quiet for a moment. “What happened to the ones who died?”

“I told you that,” I said. “An explosion killed them.”

She gave me a smile, the kind that you use on someone who’s just said something very stupid. “I meant, what happens after they die?”

“Oh. The good Urisk will go to a place called Robac. It’s their version of paradise.”

“What’s it like there?”

I smiled. “It’s whatever the individual person wants it to be. If they want it to be a quiet, tranquil place where they can continue learning, then that’s what he or she gets. If he wants it to be a wild party with topless dancers, then that’s what he’ll get.” I always thought myself rather clever for setting it up like that. Each person had their own idea of what Robac would be, so I figured I’d give them what they wanted. So far it seemed to work out fine. Just the same, I’d rather not so many of them have to go at once.

“What about the bad Urisk?” Petra had wriggled onto the couch next to me. The cushions sagged a bit and I was forced to lean into her. Well, maybe not forced. Her skin was soft and smooth, and the scents of strawberries and Cheetos were soothing.

“Nothing. They don’t go to a Hell or Tartarus, if that’s what you’re asking. They just cease.”

“Wow,” she said, pulling back from me. “Isn’t that kind of extreme? No chance at redemption?”

I shrugged. “Makes for a much more compelling reason to be a good person. If you live according to the tenets I set down, and honestly, they aren’t that hard, then you’re all set. In fact, most Urisk go directly to Robac. If a soul is questionable, then I review it. In the five years that I’ve been their god, I’ve let all but four go on. Believe me, it’s not something I do lightly.”