Crow - The Awakening (78 page)

"You saved me. And risked yourself. You would have died to save me," she said softly. She looked deep into his eyes, completely astonished, and cocked her head. "Why?"

Steven really didn't have a good answer but he felt her in his head and guessed she would figure it out anyway. He breathed in, closing his eyes as she sifted through his memories and motives, a remarkably deep, intimate touch he had not experienced since Asherah. He trembled, but not from fear. He didn't know why but his heart hurt.

Her eyes filled with astonishment. "You have compassion. How is that possible?" She seemed as confused by him as he was with her. She was not the monster he had expected her to be, and nor was he what she expected.

Steven again found himself speechless at the question. How do you answer a question like that? It's like asking why someone can see.

She put her other hand on his face. "You are not what I expected, deviant," Penipe said, her brows furrowed in concentration.

"I'm Steven," Steven said, shuddering under her touch as she reached in and found the other presence that had been with him for years. "You must be Penipe." Steven now recognized her from the drawing that Asherah had sketched of them.

Suddenly she gasped and she jerked back. "Asherah!" Penipe's eyes got wide, filling with pain and terror.

"What?" Steven asked, alarmed and looking around, wondering if Asherah had somehow found herself there.

Penipe grabbed his face and pulled it around so Steven could look at her. "You have to get me to her!" She said firmly, trembling.

Steven moved his mouth to respond but couldn't form a question. Penipe gasped in exasperation looking up and around. "I can't make you do this, Steven. You have to do it yourself." She looked back into his eyes, crying now. "Please! She's dying." Her voice broke as she fought back a sob.

"Asherah?" Steven shook his head, trying to make sense of it.

"My daughter. You can't feel it?" She looked at him, incredulous. She reached back into his head instinctively. "No, she's shielding you. She's dying and trying not to distract you." Penipe had no words for the stunning depth of love her daughter had for this deviant. She continued to hold Steven's face, looking as deep into his eyes, pleading. "Please don't let her die. Please," she begged. "Experience your bond!"

Steven suddenly felt like he couldn't breathe. His throat hurt and the rest of his body hurt in ways he couldn't understand. His arms felt like they were close to being dislocated and his ankles felt like they were constricted tightly. His mouth was parched and his head hurt badly. He got dizzy and weak and this time Penipe was holding him up.

"Yes. That's her," Penipe nodded as she felt the same thing along with Steven. "Take me to her. Please."

"But I don't know what... how." Steven's confusion grew. What was he supposed to do and how was what he wanted to ask, but he was floundering. None of it made any sense.

Penipe took a deep breath, controlling her urge to cry out in frustration. "Where have you seen her the most lately?"

"The greenhouse," Steven said. She was always hanging out there and he had considered moving his computer stuff out of there. "But she's always talking to me no matter where I go."

"That's the bond, Steven. You will never be apart again, unless..." Penipe didn't continue, pursing her lips to not go that route, and refocused back to the task. "The greenhouse. See it."

"I don't..." Steven started to say, but she shook him and looked in his eyes, determined.

"Look inside yourself and see it!" Penipe was exasperated.

Steven recalled the greenhouse, the palms and banana trees, his fig trees, the tons of plants. He looked around, missing it all and wishing he was there.

"Do you see it?" Penipe asked impatiently. Steven nodded. "Make it real," Penipe instructed curtly.

"How?" Steven looked at her, and brushed a palm frond out of his way so he could see her better.

Penipe ducked, looking at the frond, then back at him. "That's how." She released him and walked around the greenhouse. "Okay, now see Asherah."

Steven looked around him, incredulous. He saw his family and friends standing just outside the greenhouse. "Sally," Steven whispered.

"Steven!" Penipe yelled at him. He turned and she was right in his face. "Focus. Please," she said, restraining herself. "Asherah."

"But..." Steven started.

"She's real, Steven. More real than you can imagine. But she's about to die." Penipe grabbed the back of Steven's neck as she embraced him and put her forehead on his. "Please don't let her die. She's my daughter. Please. Asherah. See her. Let your heart open to her."

Steven was trembling, but wasn't sure why. His closeness to Penipe reminded him strongly of Asherah. She was here, touching him. He put his hands on her shoulders and felt her armor. It was real. He could feel her arms under the armor move. Asherah was truly real. He didn't know how, but it couldn't be any other way. Steven took in a deep breath as his heart swelled, then ached with extreme guilt. All these years and she was real all this time, waiting patiently for him while he spent all that time denying her. He spontaneously started crying for her.

"No, Steven. Don't get distracted. Asherah," Penipe said, squeezing the back of his neck gently, bringing him back to the now.

Steven felt something, like a release of pressure as he took a deep breath and he looked around the side of Penipe's face. There she was, sitting on a stool and tied up with zip ties. Asherah was battered and gasping, her neck tightly constricted by a zip tie. She looked at him, silently crying. Penipe turned around to look where Steven was looking, but couldn't see anything but the greenhouse. "You see her, don't you?" she whispered. Steven nodded, unable to take his eyes off Asherah. Even beat up and bleeding she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. "Make it real," Penipe whispered into his ear, embracing him closely as she followed his thoughts. She could see her through his eyes now and what she saw terrified her.

Lohet found himself in a lower access level under a pile of broken chunks of the boulder that slammed into him. He blinked and assessed himself. He was tough, but not invulnerable. He had definitely sustained injuries and at least a couple of fractures. He moved his arm a little. There was a fracture. He winced and stiffened the muscles in that arm. They would serve as a splint until the fracture healed, but the result was an arm that would be largely useless until the bone set. He felt like a leg may have also suffered similar, but moving it didn't produce a similar experience.

Relieved, Lohet pushed the rubble off him with his good arm and stood up. A lot of his paint had been abraded off and he was bruised and bleeding in a few spots. His blood bled white, oozing down the cuts he incurred from the impact. But no free flowing wounds. All in all he was still sufficiently functional to continue the mission.

As he stood up, he saw a couple of technicians standing there staring at him, their mouths gaping. He could only imagine how he looked to them right now, then it occurred to him that emerging from under the pile of rubble like some sort of undead phoenix probably added an extra kick to that image. He smiled at them, letting his canines show. One of the guys gulped and started backing away. The guy reached forward and grabbed his friend and they both fled as fast as they could through the debris.

"Pretty fast for humans," Lohet observed to himself. He looked up. The boulder had broken up when it hit the floor above, leaving a gaping hole. Lohet jumped up through the hole and found himself faced with a maze of debris. He picked his way through it, moving steel beams and chunks of concrete out of the way as he made himself through.

He finally came up to where Migalo was buried. He could hear him clawing at the rubble that buried him and started pulling parts of the ceiling and the floor that used to be overhead away, revealing a thoroughly disgruntled wolfman. He reached down and lifted Migalo to his feet. "Status?"

Migalo looked down at himself and moved his arms and legs and took a deep breath. "Nothing serious. Scrapes and cuts and some crushing wounds," Migalo responded, feeling relieved that was all it was. "You?"

"Fractured arm, cuts and scrapes," Lohet commented.

"Turn around," Migalo said. He looked at Lohet's back. "You're bleeding a little but it's just oozing." Lohet nodded in confirmation.

"Ahem. When you boys are finished coddling each other, I could use a hand," Sirel said up ahead. They could see her feet. Lohet rushed to her. She was solidly embedded in a large pile of concrete; it looked like a supporting column came down on her.

"What do you require?" Lohet asked, unsure if he should just start pulling chunks off. There was more that could come down.

"It's wedged. I can keep it from crushing me, but I can't lift it any further," Sirel said, her singsong voice sounding a little stressed as it filtered through the concrete.

"I'm climbing on." Lohet grabbed the support beam and climbed up to the top, several floors up. Part of it was still solidly attached to part of the cave ceiling. The cave ceiling itself appeared to have sunk down before lodging against something out of sight. Had it kept coming down, it would have crushed the entire complex and they all would have perished. Lohet looked at the steel bolts and started ripping them out. The ceiling didn't shift, thankfully, but the beam did. He maneuvered himself on the cave side of the beam and pushed against it with his feet to keep it from being wedged against the stone. "It's free!" he called below.

The beam lifted up and Lohet guided it past the stone protuberance and it shot up through the building's ceiling until Lohet could see the bottom of it. Sirel was holding it up, grinning. "You're such a sweetie, Lohet." She looked down. "Look out below!" She moved out from under the beam and it crashed back down. She saw Migalo jumping back, growling. Once the dust cleared, she grabbed Lohet and they floated back down to where Migalo was standing.

Migalo grabbed Sirel's arm and turned her around, examining her. "Nothing visible. Bones?" he asked. She shook her head, grinning at the attention she was getting.

"Where's Penipe?" Lohet looked around and back at Migalo.

Migalo sniffed, "She went that way after the deviant."

Sirel giggled and skipped over to a clear spot in the hall. "They're here, silly."

Lohet walked up and he could suddenly smell something familiar. Migalo noticed it too. "The greenhouse."

"The gate is closing, so we better go through quickly," Lohet said, pushing Migalo toward the smell. He disappeared. Lohet entered after him and finally Sirel. They all found themselves standing not in the greenhouse, but in the cave on Endard.

Sally was there, as were the rest of those they left back on the roof. All were looking down. Sarah looked back at him and gasped. Lohet was used to that. Sally looked at him too, tears streaming down her face. Penipe burst through them and landed against his chest crying inconsolably. "I can't save them! Please, Lohet! She's dying!" she sobbed.

Steven was stunned. He hesitated but Penipe's grip on his arm tightened. "Please, Steven." He looked at her then back at Asherah. She was suffering and gasping for breath. There was a zip tie around her neck and it was pinching her air off. She was weaker now and no longer able to fight against it to take a breath. Her mouth was open as she tried to get air but her lips were blue. Steven realized that she was dying and he felt it inside. She looked at Steven but didn't say anything. Steven's heart hurt for her pain and he felt strength leave him as he gave all he had inside to make her stronger. She shook her head slightly and he walked closer to her, kneeling down before her. Looking around, he saw the knife. It was bloody and stuck in the wood of the bench.

"Who would do this?" he asked quietly, almost rhetorically. Asherah was still shaking her head, too weak to respond. Her eyes darted to something behind him. But Steven couldn't break his gaze from her. He pulled the knife from the bench and grabbed the zip tie and started cutting it. It constricted her more as he pressed the knife on it to cut and he cut harder, feeling his own neck constricting. Suddenly it popped off and Asherah sagged, taking a deep breath. Steven reached around her and cut the zip ties that bound her wrists, then looked around at her ankles that were still attached to the stool by zip ties. She clawed at Steven and pulled herself to him, putting her lips to Steven's ear. "Watch out, Steven," she said, her voice raspy but he heard it clear as a bell inside.

He looked behind him just in time to hear Penipe screaming again, this time in fury. Laurence had just about made his way to him when she pounced on him. He was knocked down but rolled instinctively and bounced back toward his attacker. Penipe grabbed for his head but he ducked and delivered powerful blows to her torso then drove an elbow at her jaw. Stunned, Penipe spun around, nearly falling over. She looked back at him just in time for him to whack her hard with his baton and she fell back limp.

Asherah tried to scream. Her strength wasn't back yet and she fell over onto the floor as she let go of Steven. Steven caught her head to keep it from hitting the stone. She trembled in fear and anger as Steven stood up, standing between Laurence and Asherah. Laurence looked at him and smirked, wagging a finger at him. He knelt down beside Penipe and felt her pulse. Still alive. He drew blood when he hit her though, but he decided not to wipe his baton off. Any tissue sample is better than no sample if the worst were to happen. He put the baton in its pouch and stood up, facing Steven.

"You know, I thought I was going to have a really bad day until you arrived," Laurence laughed. "You seem to have come just in the nick of time." He held his hands out to his sides looking around the cave. "I was beginning to wonder if I was going to be stuck here." He walked toward the side of the cave. "Princess here was no help at all. And believe me, she would have if she could have."

Steven felt a burning in his chest as he maintained his position between Laurence and Asherah. Laurence looked at him, then walked over toward the other side of the cave. Steven adjusted his position between himself and Asherah, shielding her.