Shadows Bear No Names (The Blackened Prophecy Book 1) (22 page)

The creature pointed his right hand at Ray,
“Soliahis!”

“I don’t think he meant
hello
, Ga’an!” Ray yelled, the creature’s guttural voice pulling himself back to his senses. He burst his rounds at the creature.

Ga’an blinked, the sudden loudness of the shots waking him. He raised his own gun and fired.

The creature didn’t run or hide; it simply raised its left hand to its face. Ray saw their rounds meet its flesh but were they hurting it?
Did it bleed?
At least the shots disturbed the thing, and gave them ground to retreat to the ship.

“Raymond Harris, these weapons are inadequate. Their firepower is weak.”

“I can see that! Come on!” Ray fired his last rounds and ran toward the
Fox
. The old men and Sarah had reached the docking ramps already.

“Tarash ink massante sek Soliahis!”
the creature spoke in his guttural language again, pointing at Ray and Ga’an. He walked toward them but seemed in no hurry.

The terrifying scream filled the air again.

“Raymond Harris!” Ga’an yelled in his booming voice.

Ray looked back and cursed, reloading his weapon.

Two pairs of ellipsoid glowing orbs stood between him and Ga’an. The lights flickered and a hulking tiger-like animal appeared out of thin air.

Ray’s jaw dropped. He was no xeno-biologist but the animal looked familiar—and yet completely
different
to his eyes.
And hungry.

“It was hanging from that wall,” Ga’an said, seeing Ray’s surprise.

“I didn’t see anything!” Ray protested, stepping back slowly when the thing snarled and moved toward Ray.

“It is a creature of the night,” Ga’an moved slowly behind the alien, trying not to provoke it. The other one
—
a Baeal, Ray reasoned, stood in the doorway, watching his pet do his bidding.

“Ga’an, I’m open to suggestions.”

“It smells your fear. Do not do anything rash.”

“Ga’an...”

“Do nothing rash, Raymond Harris.”

“Ga’an, it’s about to
eat me!
”

Ga’an looked around hopelessly. “I can try and attack it from behind.”

“With
what!
”

“My hands.”

“Ga’an
—
”

The tall Ancient didn’t wait for Ray’s input and jumped on the animal. Ray winced, trying not to imagine Ga’an eaten alive by the feral alien, but instead Ga’an fell to the floor with a heavy
thunk.

“What the hell!” The creature still lay before Ray but Ga’an had passed right through it. “How did that happen!”

“Do not question the good fate! Run to the ship, Raymond Harris!” Ga’an stood up and ran toward the
Fox
, Ray right behind him. They dashed into the ship and closed the airlock doors.

Ray risked a backward glance and saw the Baeal standing still, not following them. The huge alien watched them embark and gave one last look at its
flickering
pet, then turned and walked away down the corridor.

Ga’an panted beside Ray, still looking shaken from his encounter with his lifelong enemy. Ray sensed the tall man’s confidence fading, after facing his bitter rival, the adversary being everything he had feared.

“You have to see this!” Sarah called from the cockpit. Ray pulled himself together and dashed, leaving the shaken alien at the airlock.

“What’s it?” he asked as he entered the cockpit. Reverend Marcus and Brother Cavil were there too, watching in silence.

“The Baeal ship,” Sarah pointed. “Something’s happening to it.” The spider-like alien vessel flickered where it docked, like ripples in a pond.

“Is it cloaking? Brother Cavil asked.

“If it’s cloaking, it’s not doing a good job,” Sarah shook her head, “the energy readings are off the charts. Scanners would pick them out from the end of the system.”

“The same thing happened to that thing back in the corridor.”

“It is going back to its own plane of existence,” Ga’an’s voice surprised them. No one had noticed him coming into the cockpit and it made the sleeping cat jump.

“You should not creep up on older people like that!” Brother Cavil protested, his father murmuring in support. Ray heard ‘…disrespect to elders.’

Ga’an ignored the old men, “The stones are preventing them from staying on this plane too long.” He leaned forward to look at the charts on
Fox’s
screen. “When they had first attacked the Empire, Baeal forces disappeared and reappeared at random.”

“First?” Ray asked, as he watched the ship fade into nothingness before them.

“Eventually, their stays prolonged with each attack,” Ga’an’s voice lacked any emotion. “Without anyone to unite and activate the Arinar, they broke the barrier and poured into our space through their gates. The gates keep their connection stable.”

“So it’ll happen in our fight as well if we can’t do something about it,” Sarah completed the bleak picture.

“All right, that did it,” Reverend Marcus said, standing up slowly. “I am listening to the babbling of ignorant children, talking about things they do not understand.” He looked at everyone in anger, including the cat. “Now, someone tell me who you are and why you are interested in my Arinar!”

Brother Cavil cleared his throat, smiling apologetically, “Father, meet Ga’an, the first Nucteel mankind has ever met”—he pointed at the tall man—“and Raymond Harris, our only hope to save the known galaxy.”

Reverend Marcus took an old, rusty monocle from his pocket and screwed it into his left eye, looking at Ga’an and Ray one by one. “Interesting.” He pushed Ga’an with his finger, as if checking he was real. “Most interesting.” He turned to Sarah. “Little miss, will you be so kind as to prepare something to eat? I am hungry.”

Ga’an stood puzzled, but Ray laughed, shaking his head in disbelief as Reverend Marcus pushed a protesting Sarah toward the lounge, telling her about his favorite soup.

Chapter THIRTY

THE TALE OF TWO WORLDS

“I studied the Ancients my whole life,” Reverend Marcus said, spooning his soup with great appetite. “When my work back on Bunari was interrupted,” he stopped to shake his head with distaste, “I found other dig sites to continue my research.”

“You don’t look like the travelling type, Reverend,” Ray said, reaching for the pot to fill his own plate.

Reverend Marcus humphed. “I travelled the skies when you were playing with your toys.” He gestured for Sarah to give him more soup before continuing. “Eventually, some ignorant scientist finally heard that I am the utmost expert and found me for a new site.”

“You found the Arinar on that asteroid?”

“No,” the elder man’s eyebrows drew together with sudden anger, “by the time I was invited, they had already dug it out of the rock and desecrated it,” he grimaced. “Their
reports
were full of illiteracy. From what I could gather in my studies, each Arinar had a guardian. A statue like the one on Bunari. Well, this one did not. They probably broke the thing while they were at it.” He looked at his son and shook his finger, “Mark my words, son, if that happened on Bunari, they would have been hanged.”

“Anyway,” Ray stopped the reverend, seeing where Brother Cavil got his habits, “you were telling us about the statuette.”

“Statuette?” Reverend Marcus scowled, unhappy about being interrupted, but then his face brightened. “Ah yes, the Arinar!” He leaned back in his chair, happily patting his belly, murmuring his pleasure about the soup. “Scriptures tell us about the
Nucteel
using these stones as some sort of barrier against the ‘Baeal’, whatever that is.”

Ga’an’s muscles tensed, not missing the old man’s emphasis on the word
Nucteel,
and Ray hoped the hulking alien wasn’t going into a rage episode.

“I am a Nucteel.”

“And I told you what I think you are, tall…” Reverend Marcus looked at Ga’an, “
very
tall man. You are a fraud. It is neither possible not probable to have a living Ancient here. If no one ever told you before, your species died a few million years ago! Find another lie!” The elder Cavil shouted the last words, hitting his spoon onto the table with each word.

“You are trying my patience, old man!” Ga’an narrowed his eyes.

“Ah, perhaps you should tell us more, father,” Brother Cavil intervened, trying to calm down Ga’an and probably keeping his father alive. “I really do not wish to be a punch bag again.”

Please don’t tell anything Ga’an.
Ray winced at the memory of Reverend Marcus calling Ga’an a fraud of ancient history—the first time—when Brother Cavil said he was an actual Nucteel. Brother Cavil had to jump on Ga’an’s back and Sarah hugged the Ancient from the front, her heels sliding against the sheer force of Ga’an. Ga’an punched and kicked, roared and cursed, reaching for the elder Cavil.

Reverend Marcus humphed. “I do not wish to be gagged and locked again. If I must submit to your barbarous methods, I prefer to listen to your colorful deceits.”

“Great gods…” Sarah murmured.

“The writings are somewhat ambiguous,” Reverend Marcus continued after a moment of pause and everyone gave a sigh of relief, “but they speak of a savior, a
Lohil
, who has the power to activate the stones. According to the lore, each stone has power of its own, radiating an energy beyond my comprehension, but they need to be used in harmony as a whole to be effective and the Lohil
is the only one who can make them work together. The Lohil needs the stones and the stones need the Lohil.”

“A savior from Baeal?” Sarah asked.

“As I said, the scriptures are ambiguous. Creating a timeframe about the Nucteel is hard. Did they all disappear because of this Baeal? Did their empire live its lifespan like any other and diminished into nothingness? I cannot say. There are divine passages, chants that talk about a female and something called Nightfall.”

“
They are coming back home to claim it, but they too are afraid of Her like you will be,”
Ray quoted.

“Yes, young man. That is one of the passages. It talks about something dark and evil happening. The texts we had were incomplete and the details impossible to make out. The ones they refer as
Them
is probably the same thing the scriptures refer as Baeal. However, I do not know who
Her
is or what does it represent. Perhaps their god.”

“And the Nightfall?” Ray asked.

“End of times, perhaps.”

Ray nodded to Sarah and she reached under her seat, taking the first statuette from the backpack and setting it on the table.

Reverend Marcus pursed his lips. “Gabriel, you removed the Arinar from the temple and gave it to these ignoramuses?”

“Father, we—” Brother Cavil tried to explain, but his father silenced him with a look, shaking his head as if to say ‘
I am not amused’.

“What does this stone do in particular?” Ray asked, saving Brother Cavil from his father’s disapproval. The priest gave him a thankful smile.

“This is
Ijjok
,” the Reverend answered, “It is the map stone.”

“Map of what?” Sarah asked.

“Once activated, it is supposed to show anything the Lohil wants to find.” He took out the stone he carried with him from his robes and placed it near the other artifact, “And this is
K’ta
, the planar stone,” he explained, showing its markings. “The K’ta, if I am not mistaken, is a planar gateway that bars passage in between planes. It touches the other planes and creates a connection or disconnects one if the Lohil wants.” Reverend Marcus shrugged. “Of course, even though these artifacts hold a great deal of place in the Nucteel culture, it may very well be folklore. There are three more stones, according to the scriptures.
Serhmana
the power stone,
Yrrha
the shield stone, and
Mara’tthane
the lock stone. They were never found as you may have guessed.”

“I didn’t know they were missing.” Ray said

“It is a wonder you bunch know anything, boy.”

“Map stone. That makes sense,” Sarah jumped in, preventing Reverend Marcus from continuing his colorful speech.

“It is a map for the Lohil, showing the galaxy around him, centering him on the map.” Ga’an’s voice irked the reverend, who had seemed to forget Ga’an altogether. “It can show what the Lohil wants.”

“I already told that, very tall man.”

“Ours shows the galaxy whenever the boss touches it,” Sarah said with a fake smile.

Reverend Marcus folded his arms angrily, “
Our
stone!”

Brother Cavil explained—for the seventh time—but his father ignored him like a parent listening to a story of monsters under the bed. Sarah jumped into the conversation to tell the reverend about the events on Tarra and even Darty meowed a few times, though it soon lost interest in the matter and started licking its paws. The rest were too engrossed in the discussion to back off and in a matter of seconds, the trio devolved into an argument about ignorance and showing respect to elders.

“Enough!” Ray slammed his fist on the table, silencing them in an instant. “I don’t have time for this!” He reached for the Arinar,
touching Ijjok first. The stone responded immediately, glowing with bright blue light and becoming transparent. Inside the now-glass statuette, stars shone, spinning slowly in harmony. “This shows what I want to see? Good.” Ray closed his eyes and focused on the
Fox
. He felt the stone respond and the view zoomed in to their location. Now they could see the asteroid base and their ship, the
Fox
. Ray pulled his hand away from the statuette and it immediately returned to its original form. He could have sworn he felt
sadness
through his touch when he pulled away from the Arinar, as if the thing longed for him to hold it.

Then he reached for K’ta. The moment he touched it, the Arinar glowed with bright purple light and Ray felt something like the touch of a cold, spring breeze.

“Ray…” Sarah’s voice was a whisper. “The air around you, it’s rippling like that ship!”

Ray thought he saw moving
auras
around the stone. Shadows maybe. He gently pulled back and everything returned to normal, again feeling the Arinar’s yearning, as he had with Ijjok.

“Interesting,” Reverend Marcus said, but Ray saw he’d reached the man’s senses this time. “So you can use the stones, as it was described.”

Ray nodded.

“And the stones are actually working and not simply a myth.”

Ray nodded again.

Reverend Marcus took a deep breath, scratching his right ear, “All right, very tall man,” he said, turning to Ga’an, finally acknowledging his existence, “I am guessing you will end up as real as well.”

Ga’an just growled.