Bane of the Dead (Seraphim Revival Book 1) (33 page)

“Seth, I’m sorry about your son and Quennin. I know words can’t right what I did, but please believe me, they’re sincere.”

Seth’s face twisted up at the mention of his dead son. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

“I won’t ever forget what you did.” He steeled himself with another slow breath. “But I will forgive you for the death of my son.”

“And Quennin? Is she…” The words caught in Jack’s throat.

“The Bane almost killed her, but she survived.”

“That’s good to hear.” Jack sighed heavily. “I’m glad. You know, it’s a small miracle we didn’t kill each other. Despite all my planning, I still needed your help in the end.”

“What are friends for?”

Jack gave him a tired smile. “Yeah.”

The ground trembled.

“Should we be getting out of here?” Jack asked.

“Yeah. Seems like the Gate is getting ready to break free.”

Jack tried to stand up, but his legs wobbled even in the low gravity. Seth stepped over and helped him up. They walked out side by side with Seth supporting him.

At the airlock, both pilots checked their seals. Seth put on the black fishbowl helmet.

“It’s amazing these things still work,” Seth linked over. “The Eleven built to last when they hid the Gate.”

“Why not use my pressure suit?” Jack asked.

“It has a big hole in the side, remember?”

“Oh, right.”

The airlock opened and the two pilots walked out into the darkness. Seth guided Jack every step of the way

“Where are we going?” Jack asked.

“Straight ahead. The exit isn’t too far.”

“Can you see anything?”

“Yeah. This helmet has quite a few imaging options.”

“I’m glad one of us can see.”

“Your i-suit has a light.”

“Okay.” Jack linked to the suit and switched on the light. It illuminated a small patch of the gloom. “Well, that’s a little better.”

They walked down the narrow tunnel to the tiered cities. Seth guided Jack through the dark until they reached a pale structure. It took him a moment to realize he was staring at his seraph’s leg. He was so used to feeling the seraph’s presence that its absence caused him to shudder.

He closed his eyes and tried to command the seraph to move.

Nothing.

“I can’t get to the cockpit like this,” Jack said.

“Right. Stay here. I’ll be back.”

Seth propped Jack against the seraph and disappeared into darkness. A minute went by, then two. Five minutes later, the ground shook violently and Jack slipped onto the ground. He again tried to will the seraph into motion, but nothing happened.

Ten minutes ticked by.

“Seth?”

“Hold on. My seraph doesn’t want to move.”

Three more minutes passed. Jack was alone and in darkness except for the i-suit’s meager helmet light.

Finally, a black shape approached so suddenly Jack flinched away. He looked up and saw the arm of Seth’s seraph reach down through a curtain of black, its hand settling directly in front of him.

“Hurry up and step on,” Seth said.

Jack stood up and limped onto the giant hand.

“Hold on.”

Jack wrapped his arms around the thumb. The hand moved up and across, stopping by his seraph’s cockpit. He let go, crawled on his hands and knees, and dropped inside.

Jack collapsed into the pilot alcove, his thoughts once again melting and merging with the seraph’s.

“Ahh. There you are, buddy.”

The seraph did not respond.

Images and sensations opened in his mind. Thoughts of his own body shrank away. He became the seraph once more. Around the edges of awareness, an uncomfortable fuzziness existed, perhaps a side effect of the painkillers. He found that tasks required more concentration than normal.

Power trickled through his body. Repairs were incomplete, but all critical damage had been patched up or bypassed.

A tremor shook the ground, the most violent yet.

“That didn’t feel good.” Jack rose from the ground and flexed his wings.

“That Gate is becoming more unstable,” Seth said. “Hey, Jack?”

“Yeah?”

“I’ve discussed what has happened with the Choir. We know pilots are just attempts to recreate the Bane. The Choir… they want you to return to Aktenzek, and… and I agree with them.”

“Thanks, but no thanks. Those corpses have already messed with me enough.”

“Jack, the Original Eleven are gone. They’ve fled the Choir.”

“
What?
”

“They fooled all of us. You, me, all the pilots. Even the Choir. Jack, we were all used. You don’t have to face this alone. Despite what has happened, you belong with us, and you know it.”

Jack sensed the sincerity in Seth’s words. The offer truly was tempting. He missed Seth and Quennin, and he wanted to repay them for all the wrongs he had committed. However, seventeen years on his own, free of the Choir’s machinations?
That
was something he did not regret.

“Sorry, Seth. I’m tempted, but I’m not going back.”

The tier cities shook with tremendous force. Power surged through his body. Shunts ignited with brilliant light.

“Jack, you don’t—”

He closed the channel.

The edges of his wings blurred with radiant energy. He lifted off the ground and floated into the middle of the tiered cities.

Nearby, other seraphs powered up.

Jack flew out of the cylinder and headed towards the surface. He wove through the planet’s interior chasms.

Massive seismic motion spread throughout the planet. The Gate had broken free and now ascended in a wild spiral. It also grew in size and intensity, tearing Imayirot apart from the inside.

Jack reached the surface and accelerated into low orbit. He turned around and watched for the Gate to emerge.

Already, vast cracks gaped all across Imayirot’s surface. Cities and domes crumbled as the ground convulsed underneath them. The entire planet, long dead and cold, now quaked on every continent. The planet’s crust opened and heaved. Nine badly injured seraphs flew out of the planet, moments before the passage collapsed behind them.

Jack zoomed in on the point where the Gate should exit. The crust collapsed inward in an expanding ring, like a funnel of rock and ash.

The funnel deepened and widened, rock flowing inward like water. It appeared as if the entire planet was being sucked into itself. Then the bottom of the funnel rose upward, first as a bulge, then as a tight spiral of debris. A point of light burst out the end.

Imayirot disintegrated. A full half of the planet exploded outward with violent force. Jack dodged a boulder the size of Europe. He pulled into a much higher orbit, watching Imayirot’s planetary remains expand. Some of the debris followed the fast-moving Gate in a strange, ragged comet tail.

The Gate accelerated, faster and faster until finally it vanished from sight.

Jack checked his scanners. Somehow, the Gate now traveled faster the speed of light.

“So much for everyone’s prize.”

Jack set his fold coordinates and vanished from the system.

***

Only two weeks had passed since the battle at Imayirot, and yet everything had completely changed.

“I still can’t believe you killed the Bane.” Quennin rode in Seth’s seraph-hand, a bubble of chaos energy shielding her from the wind.

“You do know that I had significant help from Jack.”

“So? It was your shot that killed the monster.” Quennin winked and blew a kiss towards the cockpit.

“Are you trying to distract me? It’s going to look really bad if I crash into the Sovereign’s Palace.”

“For you, Seth, I think they’d build a new Palace every day for the rest of your life, just so you can crash into it.”

“Not
funny
.”

Seth descended through Aktenzek, passed the final security checkpoint, and headed to the Core and the Sovereign’s Palace. The massive mirror-plated pyramid rose up from the white planetoid, and a thin landing platform extended out from the side. He zoomed in on the crowd of thousands on the landing platform.

“Uhh…
people
,” Seth muttered.

“It’ll be over quickly.”

“That doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

A bulbous circle tipped the landing platform. All manner of craft docked along its circumference. Seth counted thirty-one seraphs: one full squadron from both the Earth Nation and Aktenzek, along with all six Renseki and the Sovereign.

Seth touched down on the outer lip of the landing platform. He folded his wings and let clamps secure him in place.

With a moment of concentration, he separated his mind from the seraph. Quennin joined him outside the cockpit.

“Ready?” she asked.

“Yeah. Let’s get this over with.”

Seth and Quennin walked across a plateau that separated them from the dignitaries below. Only a select few joined them up top.

The Renseki stood to his right, resplendent in perfectly tailored storm-gray coats splashed with silver. Next to them waited Sovereign Vorin Daelus, his own gold-adorned coat looking even more immaculate than usual.

Behind the Renseki and their Sovereign were two rows of seraph pilots, the elites of both the Earth Nation and Aktenzek. Jared stood rigidly at the far left of the EN row, appearing even more uncomfortable than Seth with this formality. Behind Jared, Seth thought he could just make out Yonu over the first row’s shoulders.

But Seth found his attention drawn to the three men on his left. The trio wore dark green jackets and black trousers, gold sigils on their right breast announcing their rank. They were Executives of the Grendeni, and they had arrived one week ago, offering a temporary cease fire with hopes of negotiating a more permanent peace.

As one, the Aktenai on the plateau all dropped to a single knee, bowing their heads towards Seth. The Grendeni Executives also bowed their heads, but with less enthusiasm than their hosts. The Earth Nation pilots clapped and cheered, as their bizarre culture dictated for such events.

“At least smile,” Quennin whispered into his ear.

Seth tried.

“And try not to look like you’re in pain when you do it.”

He also tried this.

Finally, the Aktenai on the plateau rose, and Vorin stepped forward.

“Venerable master.” Vorin bowed his head, addressing Seth with the deepest respect any Aktenai could address another. “If you would, please follow me.”

“Sovereign, you don’t have to call me that.”

“How else shall I address the Slayer of the Bane? Please, come this way.”

Seth followed him to the front edge of the plateau and looked down at the sea of people. The crowd noise evaporated into nothing.

Vorin’s amplified voice boomed across the landing platform. “Citizens of Aktenzek! Citizens of Earth! I present to you the Slayer of the Bane: Pilot Seth Elexen!”

Thousands of people bowed in his presence, and many of them fell to one knee in a show of even deeper respect. Seth bit into the inside of his lip, the magnitude of their silent praise almost overwhelming him to the point of tears. The few hundred Earth dignitaries clapping boisterously failed to ruin the effect.

Seth inclined his neck to the crowd.

With a hand on his shoulder, Vorin guided him to his seat. Seth, the other pilots, and the Grendeni Executives sat down. Vorin cleared his throat and began his speech.

For such a momentous occasion, his speech remained short and to the point. He touched on the Great Mission, the Bane’s defeat, and what this meant for Aktenzek. He also mentioned the treachery of the Original Eleven, their exposed lies, and the danger Zu’Rashik now posed to everyone.

But most importantly, Vorin spoke of the peace accords between the Aktenai and the Grendeni. The reasons behind the endless feud had evaporated: the Bane was dead, the Original Eleven were now hated equally by both sides, and the Gate they both coveted had slipped through their grasps.

Vorin acknowledged that peace would not be easy to establish or maintain, but he stressed that it was a worthy goal to strive towards. Seth saw two of the Grendeni Executives nodding thoughtfully. The third seemed more reserved.

Vorin ended his speech on this note, but his was not the last. Aktenai pilots and Earth representatives came forward and spoke. Personalities from the Choir and even one of the Executives took their turns as the day dragged on.

Eventually, the dignitaries atop the plateau broke for dinner, and Seth found himself in the Sovereign’s private residence.

Fluted half-columns supported the dining room’s high ceiling. Three long wooden tables formed a U, their sides carved and painted with seraphs by the Palace’s artisans. Immaculate artwork of seraphs in combat against the Bane dominated each table’s center. Seth thought a certain angular black seraph, scarred with gray lines and imbued with purple runic shunts, had been featured a bit too heavily in the paintings.

Seth sat at the head of the middle table, Vorin to his left and Quennin to his right. Servants rushed about, bringing out the trays of hot food and cold beverages. Seth took a sip from his spiced juice and set it down.

He turned to Vorin. “Sovereign, do you believe we’ll actually have peace?”

“Eventually,” Vorin said. “Though it will be a long and difficult road. However, there are many reasons to be optimistic. One, the Original Eleven were the very reason Aktenzek never listened to past Grendeni peace offers. Those manipulators constantly fanned the fires of war for their own gains. Two, the war has been carried out mostly by robotic ships. Though both sides have committed atrocities, they have, thankfully, not been the norm. I believe our peoples will adjust to the peace.”

“We also now have a common enemy,” Quennin said.

“Absolutely,” Vorin said. “With the Eleven in possession of Zu’Rashik, its industrial base, and half the fleet, they pose a very real military threat. The appearance of those thrones, which the Choir knew nothing about, only deepens my concern. The Grendeni fear the Eleven’s intentions, and that fear may open up some interesting discussions in the days to come.”

“Can we trust them?” Seth asked.

“Perhaps. We shall have to see, but I remain hopeful that we can forge a lasting peace. In fact, securing the Gate may prove to be our best opportunity to unite our two peoples in a common task, and I plan to raise this point with the Executives.”