Rogue (26 page)

Ajay abruptly held up his hand and called a halt and they slowed to a trot. Fifty yards ahead, the edge of the plain dropped off abruptly. Will dismounted, handed his horse to Elise, and walked forward until he came within sight of the edge of a cliff. He realized they were on top of a wide bluff, perched over and looking down on a huge, bowl-shaped valley below. The main highway provided the only practical entrance into it, through a narrow neck far below to his left. A similar bluff rose up across from them on the other side of the bowl. Both bluffs ran all the way around the rim of the valley, until they both bumped up against the obstacle that provided its northern perimeter.

The wall.

The photos they'd seen from the drone hadn't prepared them for actually laying eyes on the Citadel. The quality of the construction didn't surprise him—smooth, seamless, brutal, and unadorned—but the scope of the complex was almost beyond imagining. The wall wasn't simply tall; it was hundreds of feet high, blank and oppressive, and it angled slightly forward so that it seemed to exert its own gravity on the valley below.

Will looked back at Elise.
Keep the horses quiet. The rest of you need to see this.

Elise gathered the horses together and, he assumed, communicated something to them that left them calm and willing to wait patiently. Then she and the others walked up beside Will. The moment they all saw the hellish vision, the entire party immediately dropped to their knees, as much in shock as in an effort to stay out of sight.

That glow they'd seen rose from a thousand campfires. Gathered around them, from wall to canyon wall, the entire bowl was carpeted with a sea of malignant armies. There were many distinct encampments, but from here they all blended together in waves of motion and sound and gleams of dangerous metal, rising from the dread valley.

“Monstrous,” said Ajay softly. “Monstrous.”

“I don't scare easy, right?” whispered Nick. “But in this case I might have to change my shorts.”

“That's part of what those walls are for,” said Elise. “To inspire fear and awe.”

“Like I said,” said Jericho. “That's how they keep the peasants in line.”

“At least we have a better idea of what we're up against,” said Will.

“Us against
all that
?” asked Nick. “Dude, you need a checkup from the neck up.”

The encampment appeared to cover every square inch of the valley, and more regiments of foot soldiers were marching down the road to join them, their footsteps stomping out a martial drumbeat. There didn't appear to be enough room to pitch another tent on unoccupied ground, other than the line of the stone highway that cut through the teeming throng all the way to the walls.

“I see Hobbes,” said Ajay.

“Gimme a break,” said Nick. “How can you pick out one dude in all that mess down there?”

“He's on that central road,” said Ajay, pointing down. “Riding toward the wall, about halfway through the valley. With a much larger escort this time.”

“What about Brooke?” asked Will.

“She's riding right behind him.”

“Guess there can't be that many blondes down there,” said Nick.

“Actually, there is an entire battalion of some kind of creatures with golden hair over that way,” said Ajay, pointing to the left near the canyon wall. “Although it's covering their entire bodies.”

“Awesome,” said Nick, taking out his binoculars. “Sounds like yetis.”

“Are Hobbes and Brooke heading toward an entrance?” asked Jericho.

“Yes,” said Ajay, creeping forward a bit. “Where, as you might imagine, there is a pair of massively impressive gates set in the wall.”

“Yep, definitely yetis,” said Nick, looking through the binoculars.

“Would you please try to stay focused,” said Jericho.

“Dude, it's
yetis,
” said Nick, but then he swung the glasses over toward the gates. “Hey, you're right, I can sort of see Brooke, too. And if you don't mind my saying so, she looks kind of hot in that armor.”

Will craned his neck up to see a little better; he couldn't locate Brooke, but he could just make out the shape of the gates, the only disruption in the unbroken smooth line of the walls. He took out his own binoculars and sighted them along the road until he spotted movement. As he adjusted the focus wheel, he caught a flash of long blond hair against dark armor.

Seeing her there, riding into the middle of that darkness, Will's heart sank and questions filled his head. How had he so badly misjudged her? How could she have fallen so far into whatever level of madness was required to put her there in that terrible place at this particular time? What good could she think was ever going to come from what she was doing?

“Are the gates opening?” asked Jericho.

“Not the massive gates themselves,” said Ajay. “It appears there's a smaller entrance or door built into them. Wide enough to admit a couple of riders.”

“Get me to a church,” said Nick, staring through the glasses. “Would you look at those knockers.”

Elise punched him on the shoulder. Nick lowered the glasses.

“What?”

“You know what,” she said.

“I was talking about the
doors,
” he said, offering her the binoculars. “Look for yourself.”

“There are indeed two immense rings of steel attached to large plates on the gates,” said Ajay. “Which I suppose you could mischaracterize as ‘knockers.' ”

“See?” Nick asked Elise.

“Although I suspect they're purely ornamental,” said Ajay.

“Aren't knockers always ornamental?” asked Nick.

This time Will punched him on the shoulder.

“I wouldn't say that,” said Jericho. “Some of those jamokes down there are definitely big enough to use them.”

“Knock, knock,” said Nick. “Who's there? Boo. Boo who? Hey, what are you so upset about?”

“I am going to throw you off this cliff,” said Elise.

“They're riding inside now,” said Ajay. “Hobbes, Brooke, and their escort…and now the smaller doors are closing behind them.”

“So she's inside,” said Will.

“So how do
we
get inside?” asked Elise.

Will looked from her to Ajay. Then everyone else slowly turned and looked at Ajay, who finally noticed the attention. He stood up and slowly backed away from the cliff.

“Oh, no. Absolutely not, Will. I'm putting my foot down this time—”

“Come on, buddy,” said Nick.

“No! It was one thing to employ me as the basis for a cover story while passing through relatively unoccupied enemy territory, but to ask me to sit on the back of a horse, unprotected, and ride through an assembled host comprising the entire history of human nightmares into God knows whatever worse assembly of creatures might be waiting for us on the other side of those doors, provided we even make it that far? It's not fair no matter how you look at it, and I simply won't stand for it.”

Will listened carefully. Heard the tremor in Ajay's voice and registered the terror in his eyes. He glanced over at Elise and first saw and then heard that she was thinking the same thing.

Maybe it's too much to ask.

No maybe about it,
she answered.

“I heard that,” said Ajay.

Will and Elise glanced at each other, concerned.

Can he bust into our channel already?

“No, you didn't,” said Will, calling his bluff.

“Heard what?” asked Nick.

“And if you did, you'd know that I happen to agree with you, Ajay,” said Will. “It is too much to ask. We're going to look for another way inside.”

“Thank you,” said Ajay, taking Will's hand and trying to kiss it. “Thank you thank you thank you.”

“But if we can't find one,” said Elise, “you're Plan B.”

“Then I'll find us another way in even if it kills me,” said Ajay.

“Dude, what did you hear?” Nick asked Ajay.

“It's not important.”

“Leave it alone, kid,” Jericho said to Nick.

They all backed away from the cliff and then quietly walked their horses far enough from the edge to feel they could mount up safely again.

As they started riding, Will stared up at the Citadel, hoping for some kind of inspiration to strike. He felt as close to total exhaustion as he thought he could get. The sight of that army down there coupled with the dread gravity of the wall bearing down on them left him feeling hopeless and afraid. The task ahead seemed more than impossible, more than he could even begin to surmount. He hardly possessed the energy to lift his head and look up at the Citadel. The faint thought that everything in the zone, on some level, might not be real offered the only comfort he could find.

They were much closer to the wall here, and the line continued on past where it bumped up against the bluff for a considerable distance to their right, for at least another mile or more. Will briefly considered trying to send a mental probe out along the wall, to see if he could locate a weakness or opening in the fortress's implacable shell, but the risk of having it run into some force or creature along the way that could sense it and trace it back to him outweighed the benefit. Once an alarm was sounded, they wouldn't be going up against the kind of weak-minded minions they'd dealt with up to this point. They were standing on the doorstep of the darkness itself, and the Makers—or the Other Team, or whatever they called themselves—were just on the other side of that wall. The slightest misstep now would have the deadliest consequences, for all of them.

Will led them along at a walk, trying to keep as quiet as possible. He attempted for what seemed like the thousandth time to reach out mentally toward Dave, hoping they might be close enough to him now to get through, feeling more in need of his guidance than ever. Will summoned up the image of that large dome from the photograph, the place where he'd intuited that Dave might be, and zeroed in on it.

Nothing.

What are you thinking, Will?

Will turned his head to look at Elise but she was looking up at the wall, preoccupied; she hadn't sent the message. Then he realized…that was Ajay's voice.

I don't know yet,
Will answered.

Before offering any advice of my own—and I do have a suggestion that might be helpful—may I first express my deepest gratitude to you for sparing me from the dim-witted scenario that would have offered me up as bait in order to gain entry to this wretched fortress.

Ajay sounded as clear as a bell now and as crisp as the voice of a postgraduate student, or maybe a professor; the two-year-old had grown up fast.

You already thanked me, Ajay.

But not properly.

Will finally glanced over at him, riding along behind Jericho, smiling beatifically, his bright luminous eyes shining and opened wider than ever. A radically different quality emanated from Ajay now; he was calmer and centered. He looked much older and wiser than his years, a lot more than he had even ten minutes earlier. The word that came to Will's mind to best describe this new quality was
saintly.

You've been the truest friend I've ever known, or will ever hope to know. Since the day we met you've helped me in every possible way, far from the least of which was showing me how to find the strength to endure this terrifying transformation we're all undergoing. You've done this more by way of doing than in anything you've said, although your words are always welcome, and I am eternally grateful to you in ways I can't even express, although I remain willing to try—

You're doing a fine job,
Will sent back, if for no other reason than to slow down the torrent of words flowing into his head.
I really appreciate what you're saying.

I just thought that, since I seem to suddenly possess the means to do so in a conveniently private way, I had better seize the moment to say it now. Who knows if or when we'll have another opportunity? The changes are occurring so rapidly now, certainly within me, that I've lost sight of any logical end point, not to mention that after a dispassionate analysis of our circumstances, I can't help concluding that we're nearing some sort of resolution, one way or another.

Let's hope you're right.

The wall looked as if it ran on forever, but the distance between it and the bluff gradually narrowed. Will tapped his mount into a trot and they all picked up their pace. Jericho kept even with Will, so Ajay remained directly across from him, and once they'd made eye contact again, Ajay continued.

I also want you to know that I'll be perfectly at peace with whatever happens to me from this point forward. I'm not afraid anymore. Of this place, or whatever's in there or even of dying. Dying painfully over a protracted period of time I'm not so sure about, but if it was to happen suddenly, I'm more or less sure I can handle it.

I guess I'm glad to hear that, Ajay, but I'm going to do everything I can to make sure it doesn't happen.

Ajay gave him an O-K sign.

Now, with regard to our aforementioned powers, one of the most recent that's developed for me—one that I actually just added to the repertoire within the last few minutes—is that I appear to have acquired the ability to project my mind into places that are far beyond my physical location. I haven't had time to fully test the limits of it yet, of course, but I believe this is traditionally referred to as—

Omniscience.

Ajay smiled at him.
Exactly so. Le mot juste. Have you experienced this one as well yet?

A little. You're a bit ahead of me on that one, Ajay.

Well, in addition to our own individual abilities, I believe that some of our secondary powers will inevitably begin to overlap. This telepathy, for instance, although I don't imagine that Nick has picked that up yet—