Spires of Infinity (50 page)

Looking over his shoulder, Gabriel stared deeply into her eyes.

“You’re right. I’m scum. I was a selfish, murdering bastard, never caring who I hurt, or what lies I told to get what I wanted. But there’s one thing you don’t seem to realize. People change. It’s what life is all about. You learn and grow, and become more than what you are. If there is darkness in us, we can overcome it. We can
change.

I’m not that man anymore. I
will
overcome my past, and I
will
change.”

“You’ll never change. You can lie to yourself all you want, but it will never bring absolution. You’ll never be anything but the lying murderer that you are now!”

“Perhaps I need to perform one final act of sacrifice to show how truly and deeply sorry I am for the things that I’ve done. There’s only one way to find out. You’ve got about thirty seconds to kiss your own ass goodbye.”

*****

Gabriel turned back to the keyboard.

“
You don’t have what it takes
,” the Apostle screamed. Flinching, Gabriel put weight on his injured leg and dropped to his knee with a surprised yelp. Stretching for the keyboard with the extended reach of his knife, he fought to get back to his feet so he could reach the button that would end everything.

Seeming to grab her by the throat in a stranglehold, Cain threw the Apostle at Gabriel. Screaming defiance as her sword arm raised of its own accord to cut him down, she hurled at him with all the speed her ailing body could manage.

Pulling himself up, Gabriel turned and parried her blade with his knife at the last possible second. The Apostle’s momentum hit him and her blade slid down his to the hilt. Grinding against each other, the two blades spat sparks. With a snap the Apostle’s blade sheared through the crossguard on his knife. She angled the blade to take his hand off at the wrist, but it struck a gold wristwatch and was deflected, severing the last two fingers of his left hand instead.

Cursing, Gabriel dropped his knife as his severed fingers fell away, and the watch shattered, the pieces clanking and clattering against the metal grating at their feet.

Chortling with glee, Cain forced the Apostle’s arm back and swung her sword.

The blade slashed across Gabriel’s chest and abdomen, spewing blood into the air in long strings as he collapsed back against the console.

Screaming in rage at Cain’s control, the Apostle fought to break free. She cared little for Gabriel’s life. It was the violation of having her own body taken from her that she hated. Reaching out with her free hand, Cain clenched a handful of the fallen man’s shirt. Yanking Gabriel up, he drove the Apostle’s blade through his belly and whatever breath he had left in him came out in a slow wheeze as he collapsed against her.

In a frenzy, Cain used the Apostle’s leg to kick Gabriel off of her blade and lifted him up by a fist around his throat. His eyes darted around lazily, and the Apostle could tell that he knew he was dying as he fought to breathe.

Cain forced the Apostle’s blade up, letting the point hover above the bridge of Gabriel’s nose. Relishing in his victory, Cain held the pose, so that Gabriel saw and understood just what his fate would be.

Gabriel’s eyes shifted to the Apostle’s face and narrowed in defiance. He was a brave man to look his own death in the face and glare back defiantly.

Howling with laughter at the look, Cain seemed to caper around in the Apostle’s mind like a lunatic, leaving her frozen in place.

Gabriel winked at her. The Apostle had no idea what it was supposed to mean.

He was seconds from death, yet he winked at her as if conspiring over a childish prank.

With a heave that seemed to be the very last of his strength, Gabriel lifted his right hand. Somehow he’d managed to keep his grip on his pistol. Surprise washed through the Apostle as the barrel knocked her blade aside, and jammed into her left eye.

The chamber revolved as he pulled the trigger, but no explosion of pain came from the bullet tearing through her skull. The click of a misfire filled the air.

As Cain came to himself and began to shove the tip of her blade toward Gabriel’s throat, the Apostle sighed inwardly with relief. Though he was near death, Gabriel still fought. She had to admire his stubbornness if nothing else, but she would just as soon not have that gun go off in her face.

Another click sounded through the air as the cylinder of the revolver turned, and another bullet refused to fire.

As Cain drove the Apostle’s blade toward Gabriel’s throat, the trigger was pulled one last time.

At first the Apostle wasn’t quite sure what happened. There was a loud noise, and half of he world ceased to be. Her head was knocked backward so severely that she thought her neck would break as something slammed into the top of her eye socket.

Warm wetness poured down her face and her grip on Gabriel loosened. The third bullet had fired, and her left eye had been blown right out of her metal skull.

When the shock of the moment passed, the pain hit her. Sharp and hot, like

molten metal pouring into her eye, it jabbed deeply into her skull and she threw back her head, shrieking. Only once had she felt more pain than this.

Growing stronger and sharper with every beat of her heart, the pain forced Cain to flee from the Apostle’s mind, no matter his resolve to remain despite it. Stumbling backward, she clutched both hands to her ruined eye. Blood poured through her fingers and the pain seemed to wash all thought away. She screamed again, and again, trying, without success, to shake the pain off, or will it to lessen. The vision in her remaining eye began to waver as unbidden tears welled up in it.

Falling back against the console bonelessly and then to the catwalk, Gabriel lay bleeding, still clutching his pistol. Rage took over and the Apostle stormed forward, holding one hand to her empty, bleeding eye socket, and retrieving her sword with the other. While there was still life in his body he would see and know that he had been completely defeated.

Kicking Gabriel sharply in the ribs, the Apostle turned him onto his back so he could watch. Stepping to the console, she raised the sword above her head, and paused so he would know and understand what she was about to do.

*****

The Apostle shrieked like a banshee as Gabriel fell against the console, and then to the catwalk. He couldn’t feel his legs or the wound in his belly. He thought she might have severed his spine when she ran him through. His body shook with blood loss and shock, and everything seemed very far away.

He felt the impact of the Apostle’s foot in his ribs as she rolled him over and raised her sword over her head to smash the console.

He’d been right. The pain of losing an eye had broken her master’s control over her. Of course she’d probably want to kill him herself now for having half-blinded her.

Pity the bullet hadn’t punched through her skull and killed her too. He’d thought it strange that she cut her arm before running for the Gate, but then he’d put it together with the things she’d said. She’d cut herself to free herself from her master’s grip for just long enough to escape, but Gabriel had ruined it by closing the Gate and Cain had taken her again when the wound miraculously healed seconds later.

None of that seemed very important now. His pain, his thoughts, and his body

felt distant as he watched and wondered why, exactly, the Northern Sage had sent him to fight a being so much stronger and more resilient than himself. It didn’t make any sense.

He obviously hadn’t had what it takes to beat her, so why send him at all? He’d obviously grown as a person, and maybe even started on the path to redemption, even if he’d put more than a few feet wrong on the way. But was that the only reason he’d been sent? To have a change of heart and realize the wrongs of his life?

No. The Northern Sage had sent him for a reason, and he had failed. Now he was dying for the second time, and he would never see Sam again.

It’s strange what realizations can come to a man when he’s minutes away from

death. Gabriel had a sudden moment of mental clarity, and the clouds in his vision seemed to part as he focused on the Apostle. He’d been sent to this time and this place for a reason. He hadn’t been sent to
fight
the Apostle. He was a mere human, and she was something else entirely above his class. How could he have ever been stupid enough to think that he could win?

He hadn’t been sent to fight. He’d been sent because he had an unequaled skill with words. If he could convince a jury that Satan himself was innocent, he could damn well talk the Apostle into pressing that button! That was the reason he was here. That was the reason he had been chosen.

*****

A sharp pain jolted the Apostle’s spine as something tugged on her tail.

Looking down, she saw that Gabriel had a handful of her fur. She tried to shake him free by lashing her tail, but he wouldn’t let go.

“Listen to me,” he wheezed, blood bubbling from his mouth and nose.

“You dare touch me,” the Apostle shrieked in rage. “Take your filthy hand off of me!”

“I don’t have much time. Please. It’s my last request before I die. After I say what I need to say, you can do whatever you want, but listen to me for just one minute.”

The Apostle was not sure what made her lower her sword. Perhaps it was the

look in his eyes, or the tone in his voice. Before she knew it, her sword arm was hanging at her side.

Showing bloody teeth, Gabriel smiled. “If you destroy this place it will cause something called a paradox that will devour all of space and time. It won’t just destroy things in the future. Things in the past will also cease to exist.”

“So what,” the Apostle growled. It felt like someone had jabbed a red-hot poker into her eye and was busy twisting it for all he was worth.

“You want to avenge someone. If you do as Cain wishes, there will be no one to avenge. They’ll never have existed at all. Which is worse, that they are dead now while you still remember and mourn them, or that none of you ever existed and no one even cares that they are gone?”

Staring down at him, the Apostle realized that her depth perception was

completely gone.

After everything she’d been through today, she’d never really thought about what would happen if Cain succeeded. If nothing ever existed, she would never have killed the other Subjects, true. However, who would remember? Who would know what the

Council had done? Who would make them pay?

“Do you want to erase everything that has ever happened,” Gabriel wheezed, “or do you want to go down fighting for what
you
believe in, rather than for what your master wishes?”

“Explain!”

“Press the E key. We both die, but Cain loses. He loses you, and his chance to end existence. You defeat him. His plans are ruined and he can never use you again.

He’s made a slave of you. Will you die on his leash, or will you die protecting the lives of countless trillions of people from the greatest evil they’ll never know? You’re going to die here, the only question is how you’ll meet the end.”

Still holding the end of her tail, Gabriel winked.

She stared down at him for a long moment before glancing at the keyboard. Cain was gone from her mind for the time being. He could not stop her if she pressed that button. She would be acting of her own free will for the first time in her entire life. She would die, and there would be no one left to avenge the other Subjects, but Cain’s plans would be stopped, and his tool for spreading darkness and slavery would be lost to him.

If she pressed that button, she would be free at last.

Looking to her sword, the Apostle thought back on her life. She’d been created to serve Cain. It was the reason she lived. Her duty was to smash the console. But what if Gabriel was right? If she didn’t push that button, every living being, everyone who had lived, everyone living, and everyone that ever
would
live, would be killed. She had been forced to murder her own brothers and sisters. If she did Cain’s bidding she would murder uncountable other innocents.

She couldn’t do it. The realization seemed strange to her. She’d never cared much for whether humans lived or died. All she’d ever cared about was her revenge. If she allowed Cain to win when she could have stopped him, she would be as guilty as he was for the deaths of so many. She couldn’t stand by and let that happen.

The Apostle of Cain made her decision.

“People can change,” the Apostle asked, setting her sword aside to free her hand.

“That’s right,” Gabriel answered.

“I want to be free. I want to be the hero for once in my life.”

Turning to the console, the Apostle considered the E key for a split second before jabbing a finger down on it.

“If it makes a difference, I’m sorry I killed you. The Council may escape my

wrath, but at least Cain is no longer spreading darkness star by star.”

“Containment field breached,” Allie’s emotionless, computerized voice sounded

over a loudspeaker. “Integrity unsustainable. Catastrophic failure in Containment Area.”

“Thank you,” Gabriel said. “Unfortunately, I’m the only one that will ever know that the Apostle of Cain was our savior, but everyone will continue to live, and it’s all because of you.”

“Cora. My name is Cora, remember it. If I am to die, I will not die as the Apostle of Cain. I will die as Cora, the pretty name a very strange boy gave to me. I will die on my terms, as the person I wish to be.”

“I’ll remember.”

Tremors began to run through the cavern, the catwalk swayed and began to

screech as metal bent and twisted, drawn toward the silver sphere. Pieces of the ceiling began to break away, and fall toward it as well.

Retrieving her sword, Cora placed both hands firmly on the hilt. If she were

going to die, it would be on her feet fighting. She’d never given up, even when she had to kill her own family to survive.

“Come on then,” she screamed at the sphere. “Swallow me up if you can!”

With the last of her waning strength, Cora leapt onto the railing and threw herself at the sphere. She pulled her sword back and swung it at the surface with all of her might. Reality twisted around her as she plunged through the silvery surface into blackness that went on forever, and ever, and ever. Free of Cain’s leash, and the title of Apostle, she smiled for the first time in her life. Freedom was oh so sweet.