Diviner (28 page)

The pain in her side shredded her senses. The consuming beast in her stomach ravaged her insides. As a smoky curtain flooded her vision, dizziness spun the star into a wild frenzy.

The world above, below, and to every side blended into a whirlpool of colors, darkening every second, until everything turned black.

seventeen

 

A
s Petra slid down Xenith’s back and set her feet on the floor of the incubator room, Cassabrie looked through Petra’s eyes. The hole in the Basilica’s ceiling provided plenty of light from the sun’s early morning rays, illuminating the empty chamber.

She spoke to Petra’s mind with a calm, even voice. “I see the passage that leads to the Zodiac. It’s blocked by a stone. Do you see it?”

Petra lifted her hands in front of her eyes and spelled out, “Yes.”

“You may nod for yes and shake your head for no. I will be able to detect those movements.” She nodded.

“Do you still have the crystal and the detonator? It was a pretty rough ride.”

Petra reached under her cloak, patted a lump under her waistband, and nodded.

“Excellent. Now ask Xenith to stand guard here and wait for our return.”

Petra spelled the command out quickly. Xenith nodded, her eyes exuding excitement. Earlier, as they crossed the barrier wall, one guard had flown to investigate, but with a series of brilliant, and frightening, maneuvers through the clouds, Xenith had eluded him. The journey had obviously stoked her adventurous spirit, and she took up her new post with vigor.

“You should be able to fit through a gap,” Cassabrie said. “The obstacle was designed to keep dragons from passing through.”

As Petra approached the passage, she said with her hands, “Dragons are strong enough to move a stone that size.”

“Yes, if it were not anchored to the floor and wall. It seems that this was meant to be a permanent fixture.”

After shedding her cloak, Petra lowered herself to her stomach and wriggled into a narrow opening between the base of the stone and the wall. Her shoulders wedged for a moment, but propelled by a sudden shove from the rear, she popped through.

Now on all fours, Petra looked back through the gap. Xenith’s eyes appeared on the other side, twinkling with amusement.

“Just follow this tunnel, Petra,” Cassabrie said. “I know it’s dark, but the aura from the stardrop you swallowed should help you see.”

Petra stood and laid a hand on a side wall. Letting her fingers slide, she tiptoed into the dark corridor. “Fear not the darkness,” Cassabrie said. “Wallace told me about this place, and he is a noble young man. No matter how dark it gets, we can
know
that the ground is firm and no pitfalls await, because it has been tested by a trustworthy friend.”

Petra’s march gained speed. She looked down at her boots, barely visible in her glow. After a few seconds, they crunched grit underneath.

“Shhh,” Cassabrie warned. “Slow your pace and try not to make a sound. Wallace didn’t know if there would be a guard, but we have to assume so. Taushin is not one to leave this place unsecured.”

Petra returned to walking on tiptoes. Ahead, a light came into view. Still looking through Petra’s eyes, Cassabrie studied the path. Her many visits here in spirit form made the area a familiar one. She detected her body’s presence long ago but never found a way to get to it. Now her chance had come.

The light grew brighter, signaling their closeness to the area where the sharp stakes lay under the Zodiac’s entry corridor. The shadow of a long neck and head darkened the light before swinging out of view again.

“Stop,” Cassabrie said. “Stay close to the wall.”

Now in enough light to see, Petra flashed a finger message. “I saw a dragon.”

“Me, too. It makes sense that it would be in that chamber instead of the next one. Most dragons wouldn’t be able to stay around my body without losing their senses.”

“What do we do now?” Petra spelled.

“We’ll have to create a distraction. Let’s see if we can draw close enough to get a look.”

Petra tiptoed to the end of the tunnel and peered into the chamber. A bed of stakes took up most of the floor space, and a dragon stood to the right of the bed, its face pointing toward another tunnel on the opposite end of the chamber. Two lanterns on the wall, one near each tunnel opening, emanated strong, flickering light.

“A barrier wall guardian,” Cassabrie said. “She will not be fooled easily.”

Petra spelled out, “She is Shrillet. I have seen her before.”

“I think only a dragon’s voice will open the door. I will have to come out of your body for a short time so I can charm her into speaking the password for us. It will hurt again, so try not to groan.”

Petra’s fingers flew into action. “Not necessary. There is a hole in the door.”

“Good, but we still have to get past Shrillet.”

“If I run, maybe I can. If she chases me, she will become dizzy.”

“She would be affected, but maybe not quickly enough. I could come out of you and try to hypno—”

A loud creaking noise interrupted. The chamber’s ceiling opened. Two panels swung down, revealing a flying dragon dropping through.

“It’s Fellina,” Cassabrie said.

As Fellina landed, Shrillet swung toward her, her ears bent back and her eyes aflame. “Why are you here, mate of Arxad?”

“Taushin summoned all dragons to come to his aid,” Fellina said, heaving deep breaths.

“I am excepted. My orders are to guard this area and allow no one to pass through.”

Fellina thumped her tail, breaking one of the stakes. “And I am conveying the command of the king of the dragons. Are you refusing to obey?”

“Since when are you an emissary of Taushin? And since when does the high priest’s mate take on such a menial task?”

“If you do not believe me, then follow and see. There is a great disturbance at the Basilica, and Taushin needs your aid.”

“I have an idea,” Petra spelled out.

“Okay,” Cassabrie said. “Let’s hear it.”

“Too long to sign.” Petra sprinted into the chamber.

“Wait! She will kill you!”

Shrillet roared at Petra. “What are you doing here?”

Petra, of course, didn’t answer. She just kept running.

“You will die!” Shrillet reared her head back and launched a ball of flames. Fellina blocked it with a wing and flew at Shrillet, knocking her down.

As the two dragons fought, their tails whipped back and forth, Shrillet’s on the floor and Fellina’s in the air. Petra jumped over one tail, ducked under the other, and scurried into the tunnel leading to the sanctuary. She leaped through the hole in the door at the end of the tunnel and, once inside, halted.

Cassabrie gazed through Petra’s eyes. Her body hovered over the floor, radiating silvery white light. With red hair, green eyes, and blue cloak, everything seemed intact, everything, that is, except two missing fingers.

Growls, roars, and shrieks pierced her reverie. The muscular guardian dragon would surely overcome Fellina soon. “Okay, Petra,” Cassabrie said. “Let’s find the hole for the crystal.”

Clawing and pulling, Jason muscled into the sword-inflicted wound. He crawled across the floor of the deflating star, coming closer and closer to Koren’s curled body as Exodus slowly sank.

Below, Randall let go of the rope and joined Elyssa. Positioned beneath the star, they extended their arms. “Jason!” Randall called. “Jump when you get her. Tibalt has the rope.”

A sizzling sound and strange odor dragged Jason’s attention from Koren’s prone body to the spear jutting through the star’s membrane nearby. “I have to check something.” He scrambled past Koren and batted the sparks away from a tube attached to the spear. It stopped sizzling, at least for the moment. When he returned to Koren, he slid his arms under her body and lifted as he rose. The floor bent under their combined weights, and blood poured over his arms and dripped down to his trousers and shoes. “I’ve got you,” he whispered. “We’re only about eight feet off the ground now, so I’m going to walk to the opening and try to jump. Randall and Elyssa are down there ready to catch —”

The floor ripped away. Still cradling Koren, Jason dropped, bending his knees to brace for contact. Four arms broke his fall. As they steadied him, the arms guided him to his knees and Koren to the ground.

Elyssa swatted his shirt. “You’re smoldering!”

“Thanks.” Jason brushed Koren’s hair from her eyes. She lay with her back on the ground and her hips turned to the right. Her cloak spread out underneath her body, catching blood in a pool next to her side.

Elyssa laid a hand on Koren’s chest. “She’s breathing, but I can’t feel a heartbeat. She’s losing a lot of blood.”

“Where’s Deference?”

“With her mother. She’s coming.”

“All dragons hear me!” Arxad shouted. “Go to your homes. Taushin has declared a new lockdown.” The dragons took flight, some still wavering as they tried to shake off the effects of Koren’s power.

Zena climbed aboard Taushin. As he lifted off the ground, he called out, “When the disease takes hold, you will need more than stardrops to cure their ills.”

About ten paces from Koren, Exodus sat on the cobblestones, sputtering and sizzling. Its energy had collapsed into a ball of radiance, now no taller than a human adult. The spear lay next to it with the strange tube still attached.

While Tibalt and Randall gathered around, Deference knelt at Koren’s side and reached her hand into the gaping wound. When she withdrew it, she looked at Jason and Elyssa in turn. “We can’t just stitch the skin. She has internal damage that has to be repaired, or she’ll die very soon. I’m surprised she isn’t dead already.”

Madam Orley joined them. She remained standing, her body stiff. “But we don’t have a surgeon, Agatha. What can we do?”

“I think a stardrop’s her only hope.” Deference offered a weak smile and added, “Mother.”

“But won’t that just strip her spirit away?” Jason asked. “We didn’t bring the manacles, so we don’t have a way to preserve her body.”

Arxad’s head slid between Jason’s and Elyssa’s and hovered over Koren. “She is a Starlighter. Just as the stardrop did not kill Elyssa, it should not be fatal to Koren. Koren is likely even more immune than Elyssa was.”

Jason looked at his palms. The pain from the last time he had scooped a stardrop was still a fresh memory, but that didn’t matter. “I’ll get one.”

As he began to rise, Elyssa pushed him back down. “Stay put, hero. You’ve suffered enough.” She hurried to the remains of Exodus, scooped out some of the radiance, and walked back slowly, compressing the light in her hand. “It’ll be just a few seconds.”

“Arxad, what’s all this talk about a disease?” Jason asked.

As Arxad straightened, his head reeled back with his neck. “This is exactly what I feared. Very few know what happened the last time a human punctured Exodus. It released a disease that killed every human on Starlight. With the previous event, it merely sprayed the gas-born virus as it flew away. This time, Exodus stayed here and emptied every drop of its blight over the crowd.”

“Had anyone come close to developing a cure?”

“Somewhat close,” Arxad said. “At least we thought so. The most brilliant scientist I have ever known, Orson by name, worked tirelessly to find a cure. However, even though he was motivated by the impending death of his daughter, he was unable to complete his work before they both perished along with all of humanity. But he was able to salvage two uninfected human embryos, and we encased them in incubating eggs. I took them to Darksphere, cared for them until they hatched, and went back and forth between the worlds for the next thirty years, helping them learn how to survive. I provided some technology that the humans had here before the plague, including an understanding of genetics and light, but I tried to keep them from learning about advanced weaponry. All of this took place more than five hundred years ago. Only a few of us are old enough to remember those days — myself, Magnar, Hyborn, and our recently departed Tamminy.”

“I’ve got it.” Elyssa opened her palm. A dazzling stardrop rolled around in the center. “Now I have to get her to swallow it.” She lowered herself to her knees, pushed the stardrop deep into Koren’s mouth, and pressed her lips closed. Koren gagged and jerked her head, but her reflexes took over, and she swallowed the stardrop.

As Jason moved out of the way, Elyssa planted a knee on each side of Koren’s body and dangled the pendant over her. She laid her palm on Koren’s chest and, just as she had done with Petra, slid her hand toward Koren’s stomach. “I found it. It just dropped out of her esophagus.”

Koren lurched. Her arms flailed. She kicked wildly, but Elyssa sat fully on Koren’s hips, pinning her.

Randall locked down one of Koren’s arms, while Jason held the other. Koren’s face glowed red. She wagged her head from side to side, groaning loudly.

Tilting her head upward, Elyssa cried out, “The pain! Oh! It’s so horrible!” Her pendant seemed to catch on fire.

Turning redder than Koren’s face, it sizzled as it swayed back and forth over Koren’s abdomen.

Deference touched the wound on Koren’s side. “It’s not closing, but the bleeding is slowing down.”

Koren’s eyes snapped open, but they seemed crazed. She stared at Elyssa and cried out, “Can you see them? Look! You must help them!”

Koren’s back arched, bucking Elyssa. Elyssa grabbed Koren’s cloak and hung on, her eyes rolling wildly.

“I see them!” Elyssa cried out. “I see the people!”

As Koren settled, her whispers gurgled. “Dive … dive into … their pain. Say what I cannot. I will … give you words.”

Clutching Koren’s cloak with shaking hands, Elyssa moaned as she spoke. “Their skin peels. Their flesh rots. The children crumble into pieces before a mother’s crying eyes. Fathers mourn, lifting up arms with no hands as they beg for an end to the suffering. Common graves fill with limbless bodies, and no one sings a dirge. Who can weep when the reservoirs are drained?”

Elyssa pressed on Koren’s stomach, her pendant still sizzling red as she spoke with a series of erratic gasps. “Some rot on the inside. With no loved ones to carry them, they must crawl to the grave and wait for death to come. Taking in a final breath, they curse the Creator and roll into the pit. There they join the forsaken, the forgotten, the foul masses who now carry the stench of souls who lived in the security of a shadow and carried it with them to eternal darkness.”