Silence (35 page)

Ten long seconds, then the shreds of
Ghost’s synthskin and clothing burst into flame, exposing a black,
insectoid skeleton. Ragged, burning coverings fell into the trees,
and the blacksteel began to glow red with heat. The power flared,
and Ghost’s screams were suddenly replaced with loud
pops.

Wires shorted, coolant fizzled, and
muscles burst. Digital, green eyes flickered out, and the android
fell limp in Khryzt’s hand.

Sheikoh clenched his fists. He’d never
felt so useless in all of his life. Behind him, Indigo
cursed.

Khryzt, however, seemed rather
pleased.

With a loud laugh, the Sycrarian swung
the android’s red-hot corpse straight through the trunk of a giant
oak tree. Smoke stained the air, and the tree fell, taking a
smaller one down with it. The earth shuddered, and Khryzt zoomed a
gleeful loop through the sky. Ghost’s glowing husk trailed along
behind the creature, along with two trails of white
flame.

Then out of nowhere, Khryzt flung the
sizzling blacksteel skeleton at Sheikoh.

He tried to crawl out of the way, but
with his cyborg limbs useless, he only managed to drop down, onto
his side. Breathing in grass and dirt, Sheikoh clawed at the forest
floor.  He managed an inch and gave up. It was hopeless. He
looked back at the scorching missile on course to destroy
him.

Sheikoh was about to die. He knew it
with absolute certainty.

His body was suddenly wrenched through
the air. There was a gasping panting and leafy footsteps, below and
above him respectively. Through a wobbling blur, Sheikoh watched
the spot he’d known he would die at recede in the distance. Only
one explanation made any sense.

Indigo had saved him.

Scratch that. Nowadays, nothing seemed
to make any sense.

Sheikoh’s musings were interrupted by
a cataclysmic crash, as Ghost’s body rocketed into the earth.
Cacophony and shockwave buffeted them, the ground shook and Indigo
stumbled. Sheikoh slammed into the ground and rolled into a
tree.

Then stillness.

A curtain of choking dust hung in the
air. A blur of motion, and Indigo’s useless assault rifle was in
hand. Sheikoh glanced around, slightly surprised; things looked
much the same now as they had before all the shaking.

He’d expected more
destruction.

Sheikoh looked up at Khryzt. Emili’s
body floated towards them, an angel with flaming eyes. The creature
didn’t seem to be in any rush.

It descended through the
canopy.

Indigo dug his feet into compost and
rained blood-red plasmafire the Sycrarian. Uncountable shots
flicked in every direction, scorching stones and hissing into
blaze. The automatic barrage splattered the demon’s magical shield,
hissing like a thousand dying cats.

Sheikoh knew that Indigo could see it
was futile, that the ganglord was more likely to kill the two of
them than the Sycrarian, but he kept pelting the demon with plasma.
Shots rebounded wildly, burning black holes into trees, and
branches flickered with hungry flames.

Khryzt lightly touched down, and
Emili’s uninjured arm lazily rose.

Indigo stopped firing. The assault
rifle fell from his hands, and he suddenly hung limp. Emili’s hands
rose and Indigo’s body followed, dangling like a
marionette.

Khryzt held him there for a long
moment. Its eyes flared with sparks and silent
curiosity.

Then the Sycrarian
gestured.

Indigo’s body smashed into
a tree, with a loud
crunch!

And another.

Crunch
!

And another.

Crunch
!

And
another
.

Crunch
!

Khryzt flicked Emili’s
wrist.

Indigo fell to the ground, coughing up
blood. He laid there for a brief moment. Then, arms shaking, the
ganglord struggled onto his elbows. Then he heaved himself onto his
knees. Khryzt pointed a finger, and a jet of silver light slammed
him back down.

Indigo rolled onto his
back, wearing an expression of agony, and Sheikoh’s chest burned.
Khryzt was
toying
with him.

“
You are
an interesting specimen,”
Khryzt
double-murmured.
“When we first met, you
attempted the human Arch Centaurai’s murder, and now you endeavored
to slay me? I assure you, I have no intention of leaving the human
alive.”
The flaming eyes narrowed.
“Could it be that you
too
imagine claim to the Celestial
Crescent?”

Indigo spat out a stream of blood.
Then he straightened and fixated a glare on the
Sycrarian.

“
Maybe I
just got a thing for killing monsters,” he retorted. His dark eyes
flashed with venom, and his voice dropped with quiet menace. “Mark
me,
demon
.
I’m gonna get you like you got Ghost.” His face twisted into a
snarl. “You’re gonna die
screaming
.”

Indigo was fighting a virtually
omnipotent demon, one that’d smashed him around like a pinball. And
now, immobile in the grip of its magic, he found within himself the
gall for a threat.

Sheikoh couldn’t help but smile the
slightest bit. He had to admit; he was impressed. The bruised, dark
man before him was truly every bit the ganglord hero. In this
moment, Indigo was more than a murderer, a sociopath, dealer, or
homophobe.

Indigo was more than a predator. He
was playing a wider role. The realization made it that much harder
to watch what happened next.

Emili’s fingers twisted into a veined
clutch.

Indigo’s body was crushed in on
itself. Splinters of his bones jagged out of his ebony skin. Blood
poured from the holes torn into his skin. His mouth was open with a
silent, bloodcurdling shriek that was choked off by his own
blood.

In an instant, the ganglord’s chiseled
muscles had given way to an obscene formlessness, while Sheikoh
watched in horror. He opened his mouth, uncertain whether his body
wanted him to scream or vomit.

Khryzt glanced over at him, lying in
the dirt. It raised a palm, and Indigo’s broken body was tossed
onto the ground beside him.

The ganglord met Sheikoh’s eyes with
numb desperation. Sheikoh couldn’t believe he’d survived. He nodded
tersely, eyes burning, and mentally promised the man Khryzt would
pay for everything it’d done. Even if he had to kill Emili’s body
in the process.

Emili was already dead.

Along with Ghost and
Indigo-

Indigo clawed at the ground, trying to
drag himself forward with his single, unbroken arm. The ganglord’s
face burned with black hatred. Sheikoh had no idea how he was still
conscious. Khryzt looked surprised as well. A cloud of blue and
green sparks spilled into the air.

“
You must
be truly desperate to taste the oblivion of death,”
Khryzt murmured with double tones of curiosity.
   

The very instant their luck
changed.

Sheikoh’s chest jolted with hope. He
kept his face hard and cold, but the inside of his chest filled
with molten ecstasy. He wanted to sing. He wanted to jump with
joy.

And jumping for joy was finally a
physical possibility again.

His
cyborg limbs had come back online.

Sheikoh narrowed his eyes at Khryzt,
but he kept his limbs still. As much as he itched to attack the
demon, he needed to bide his time.

The element of surprise was all he
had.

“
No…
actually… I just want to… to dunk your head… in a lake… until you
drown…
demon
,” Indigo gasped, with blazing eyes.

“
We could call it a pool
party,” Sheikoh called to distract those flaming, demonic eyes from
Indigo. “I can just imagine you frolicking ‘round, until you’re so
tired you spend the rest of your life… uh… dead.”  

Both of their heads turned his way,
like they’d forgotten there was a third person there. The Sycrarian
burst into menacing double-laughter.

A crazy plan popped into his head.
Under cover of the wild laughter, Sheikoh winked at Indigo and
moved his pupils around shiftily, trying to tell the ganglord that
he needed Khryzt distracted. Indigo nodded back almost
imperceptibly.

Twin voices sounded, and their eyes
darted to the demon.  

“
Humans
become quite interesting when at the precipice of
death,”
Khryzt
double-observed.

“
Why don’t we… bring you
to… the edge of death… then we can see if you’re any different,”
Indigo coughed. A line of crimson trickled down his
chin.

There was a flare of excited
sparks.

Sheikoh smoothly slipped a hand into
his clothes. The Sycrarian didn’t notice him reach down and click
something out of a compartment in his blacksteel waist.

Sheikoh had remembered the gun he’d
hidden inside his leg compartment, so many lifetimes ago. It was
ironic; he’d brought it that day just in case Indigo had planned to
betray him, and now Indigo was hopefully going to use it to save
his life. Sheikoh knew there wasn’t much hope of piercing Khryzt’s
barrier. That’d been established.

He had a different sort of
idea.

His pinky flipped a switch on the
pistol’s chamber.

“
This
world is certainly more fun than I had given it credit
for,”
Khryzt murmured
eerily.

Emili’s burned shoulder shone with
white light. Pale skin crawled together and intertwined, and the
wound closed itself up.

“
Before you kill us, mind
telling me how much was a lie?” Sheikoh improvised hastily,
gesturing with his left hand. “Was there any chance of me ever
really living with Emili? I’m sure the thing about you having to
follow my orders wasn’t true, right?”

Under cover of his exaggerated
motioning, Sheikoh had subtly pressed the pistol into Indigo’s
nearby hand.

Khryzt didn’t seem to notice.
Nonetheless, Sheikoh held his breath while he waited for the
creature’s response.

“
If that
is your final wish,”
Khryzt
solemnly intoned.

Sheikoh almost smiled.

Almost.

He glanced at Indigo. Hidden behind a
twisted leg, the ganglord pointed the pistol towards
Khryzt.

Whenever you’re ready big
guy
.

His body tightened with
anticipation.

“
I was forced to bow to
your will, but upon departing-

Khryzt was interrupted by a crackling
bolt lightning. Sheikoh lunged at the creature. He was mid-air when
his pistol ripped apart under the duress of its final shot. A
smoldering piece of metal slashed his cheek. From the corner of his
eye, Sheikoh watched Indigo’s body blast back into a tree. He spent
a microsecond hoping Indigo survived the backlash.

Midair, Sheikoh tore his focus back
and fixated his entire being on the demon.

Explosion warped the
barely-perceptible, silver wall around Khryzt. Heat stung in the
air, and plasma wailed in Sheikoh’s ears. Waves of force pulsed out
from the epicenter of the ball of destruction.

Emili’s feet tore furrows
into the soft earth.
Khryzt took a step
back.

Shit!

He was too low.
As it was now, his trajectory would slam into the
Khryzt’s chest, totally at the mercy of the demon. Even the
Transcendent amulet wouldn’t save him that close.

He tensed.

Then the Sycrarian stepped forward and
pushed.

Yes! Stay right
there!

The plasma discharge folded in on
itself. Writhing around Emili’s fingers, it pulsed back against her
magic. The energy’s heaving grew more and more violent, until, with
a loud shriek and a burst of heat, it rebounded and poured plasma
and destruction into the Schizma Canopy. The treetops were drenched
in hungry flames.

Sheikoh came down on
Khryzt.

The amulet’s silver-spun chain
streamed from his hand, as he slammed into Emili’s body and knocked
it onto the leaves. Sheikoh dragged the amulet over her hair. The
chain went taunt. Then fell loose around her neck.

The frenzied blur stilled.

Two bodies fell onto the ground.
Sheikoh instinctively caught the girl’s.

Emili’s.

She was surprisingly heavy.

He lay there, stunned and out of
breath, for a few long moments. He breathed in wisps of frizzy,
blonde hair and his panting turned to coughing. Her body was warm
and lithe in his arms. He gingerly rolled Emili onto her back and
brushed tangled hair out of her face. For a moment, he sat there
and just drank in the sight. His eyes devoured everything from her
soft lashes to the tiny dimples crinkling her cheeks.