Authors: Tim Marquitz
“That is the symbol of the Eidolon.”
“Your master mentioned them earlier, girl,”
Longinus said. “Who are they?”
“They are the servants of the alien, the
one who steals the life from our world.” She hocked up a nice phlegm ball and
spit it at the alien. He groaned at its impact but did nothing to wipe it from
his cheek.
Longinus yanked the alien back up,
crouching so their faces were just inches apart. “Tell us where the rest of
your people are.”
The alien stared for a moment, saying nothing,
and then a shudder rolled through him. He went limp a second later, his eyes
rolling upward. Longinus growled low in his throat and let the Felurian fall
once more.
“I can tell you where more of his kind may
be found,” Rala offered, “but only if you intend to kill more of them.”
Longinus nodded with enthusiasm. “That we
do, girl.”
And with that, we were committed.
Nine
After Rala told us what she knew about a
sect of Eidolon who had taken up residency relatively close by in recent days,
I shooed her off. While my instincts weren’t red-flagging her as someone I
shouldn’t trust—no more than my usual paranoia opined—there was just something
about all this that felt weird.
Longinus and I had searched more of the
bodies and found more of the phoenix tattoos scattered about the dead alien
bodies. They didn’t all seem to have them, but then again, it’s not like I was
picking up squishy meat divots to check. There were still enough to make it
obvious these folks were all part of the same crew.
Rala had said the Eidolon had come to
Feluris about a week back, which corresponded with Gorath’s arrival. While the
timing was perfect, it still seemed kind of coincidental unless he was packing
more power than we suspected. It didn’t seem possible he could have gathered
anyone to his side so quickly without a show of force, of some kind. Of course,
he could well have set things up ahead of time, somehow. My head spun with the
possibilities.
“These aliens carry nothing to show their
purpose.” Longinus shook green goop from his hands. It hit the ground with a
moist
plop
.
That was something else bothering me. “The
big one said they were after you.”
“We’ve established that.”
I rolled my eyes at his obtuseness. “Why?”
“Perhaps they are tracking us. In a world
devoid of magical energy, I suspect my presence is an obvious beacon.”
While I didn’t want to say it, Longinus
wasn’t but five feet from me and I could barely feel his energy pinging off my
senses. Someone would have to be looking for him specifically to notice his
power, and only if they themselves were charged up. I changed tack. “Okay,
that’s possible, but how would the Eidolon know your name?”
He turned and stared at me as though I’d
asked the dumbest question ever, but the glimmer in his eyes told me he was
thinking about it, at least.
“Gorath has no idea who you are.”
“I’m Karra’s father, damn it.” He spit the
words out.
I sighed. “How would he know that? Do you
think she told him anything?”
“Of course she wouldn’t.”
“Exactly. Karra wouldn’t tell that bastard
shit, and we both know that.” I let that sink in for a few seconds to emphasize
what he already knew but was simply too angry to accept. “And since none of the
aliens we’ve encountered since we’ve been here have survived to report your
presence, how the hell would Gorath know
you
were here in this universe, let alone trying to save her?”
He harrumphed and paced in a tight circle.
“It doesn’t matter, Triggaltheron. We need—”
“It
does
matter, and that’s what you’re not getting.” He stopped and glared at me but I
went on. “Gorath doesn’t even know you exist. He wants Lucifer and…” I started
to say what I believed was the purpose of kidnapping Karra, but decided against
it, “…for whatever reason, he thinks Karra is good bait.” I went on before he
started thinking too hard about that last bit. Realizing Gorath was likely
holding Karra so he could collect the real chum—which was me—wasn’t a road I
wanted to go down just then. Longinus would have made the swap so fast it would
have given me whiplash. “It makes no sense that he would send people to hunt
you when it was me that screwed up his plans on Earth and sent him scrambling
here in the first place. This,” I spun in a circle, waving my hands to
encompass the chunky chaos strewn across the field, “is all wrong.”
Longinus shook his head. “The why doesn’t
matter.” His voice was like a rumbling river freed from a shattered dam. “I’m
going to tear these Eidolon limb from limb and find my daughter.”
As smart as he was, it always came down to
power in his world.
Hulk smash!
Longinus
had never had to scrape by on his wits or contacts, never had to rationalize a
problem from the ground up because he’d always been able to muscle his way
through it. Strength was his answer, as it often was with the
supernaturals
in his league. Since it succeeded every other
time, he didn’t feel the need to change his tactics.
I didn’t live in that world and never have.
More often than not, I’d gotten by with being smarter (or luckier) than the
folks trying to kill me, slipping through a situation by the hair on my
shriveled nut sack rather than whipping them out and beating folks down with
them. None of this made sense from that perspective. If Gorath had sent the
Eidolon after Longinus, he had a reason and it wasn’t that he thought they’d
succeed in killing him. The aliens we’d fought were grunts, the big one just a
larger variety of cannon fodder. None of them packed the kind of power to take
out Longinus. They could wear him down, but…
And there it was.
“Damn it. He’s trying to weaken us…
you
.”
“With this?” He motioned to the corpses.
“He’s throwing flies at a bull.”
“This particular bull has had his horns
dulled.” The words were out before I could think to filter them.
Longinus’ eyes narrowed, and I could feel
his power building like the red at his cheeks. “I hear cowardice in your voice,
Triggaltheron, not wisdom.”
I chuckled, unable to hold it back. “Well,
I sure as fuck don’t want to die. That’s what you’re hearing, and this feels
like a setup to me.” As dim as I could be sometimes, I’d been setup enough
times to know what one felt like. This had setup written all over it.
“We came to face down this Gorath. If he is
leading us closer to him, then what do we have to lose?”
Besides our lives and Karra’s, our pride,
and quite possibly our watertight anal fortitude? I guess nothing. “If he’s
figured out we’re here, hunting him down, he knows, firsthand in fact, just how
taxing the journey is. It seems to me like he’s trying to wear us down, you
specifically seeing how you’re the real threat, before we make it to that final
confrontation. Can you not see that?”
“So you would risk my daughter’s life while
we chase the tail of Jesus’ pet rather than follow the clues we’ve uncovered?”
It was like arguing with a wall; a really,
really, really, thick one. “That’s not what I’m saying…not exactly.”
Longinus drew a deep breath and let it out
in a huff. He held his hand out before him, and I felt a sudden spike of
magical energy. A blue dot glimmered to life in his palm as his power faded. He
tossed the blue thing to me, and I caught it, realizing it was a mystical gem
similar to the one I’d used to draw Mihheer out of DRAC headquarters.
“It appears we have different ideas as to
what is best for Karra, and we’ve no time to argue which is best.” The
inference was that my way sucked. “I will follow the Eidolon scum to their hive
and find what I can there. Do what you think is best.” He motioned to the gem.
“Should you need assistance, you can use the gem to contact me.”
The blue dot throbbed in my hand so I slid
it into my pocket. This was stupid, but we’d wasted enough time arguing
already. Longinus was dead set on chasing after the phantom bread crumbs that
had been laid out before us. There was nothing I could do to convince him it
was a mistake, so I just nodded. He stared at me for a long moment, as if
waiting for me to argue some more, and then turned away when he realized I
wasn’t gonna. Longinus stormed off without another word.
I stood there until he walked into the
shadows of the buildings and slipped between them to disappear from sight. As
much as I didn’t want to be left alone on this alien planet full of people out
to kill us, I couldn’t shake the feeling that Gorath was leading us into a trap
and Longinus was walking right into it. The trail might eventually lead to
Karra, but by the time we got there, we’d be too weak to save her…or me.
My stomach fluttered, but it wasn’t the
cowardice Longinus had ascribed to me; it was the sad pang of guilt and
uncertainty. I hadn’t been afraid to follow him. Well, not afraid for me, at
least. If what I suspected was true, Gorath was leading Longinus to his death,
but without me there, he’d have nothing to use against Lucifer, which was his
ultimate goal. That bought me—and Karra—a little more time to figure something
out while he and Longinus went at it.
A stranger in a strange land, I only had
two sources of information available to me. The first had led Longinus on his
way so that was covered. It was up to me to check with the other.
Ten
It hadn’t been that long since we’d talked
to Jesus’ go-to-guy, but I wasn’t exactly spoiled with options. He might not
have had time to figure anything out yet, but Longinus had been too busy
arguing with him earlier to ask anything beyond the obvious. It was possible he
knew something even if he hadn’t heard anything specific about Karra or Gorath.
Just by living here and being an information merchant, he would have knowledge
that might help me to understand what the Eidolon were and the deeper reasons
as to why they were here. Maybe there was a clue in all that to lead me in the
right direction.
I made my way through the city as
discreetly as I could, wishing I had my hoodie with me. It’s hard to be
inconspicuous when you’re pinkish and everyone else is orange and striped. As
before, most of the people I came across darted off in the other direction or
crossed the street to avoid me once they realized I was there. They cast sneaky
glances my direction, but none of them bothered to look outright or engage me
in any way.
With all the fighting and the arrival of
the Eidolon to scour the remains of Feluris, they must have been shell shocked.
I couldn’t blame them. At least it made things a little easier on me. The
general populace—unlike that of Earth—wasn’t gunning for each other out in the
open, every stare a challenge. The Felurians wanted nothing to do with
different right now; they’d had enough. Back home, however, different would
have made me a target. Maybe this place wasn’t so bad, after all.
Then again, in all my wanderings, I hadn’t
seen a single liquor store or
titty
bar anywhere in
town. That sure as shit knocked it down a few pegs on my all-time favorite vacation
hotspot list. It might be an okay place to stop for gas and cookies, but you
damn well didn’t want to be stuck here. Sadly, that’s what we were until we’d
scooped up Karra and returned to God’s cloud bunker with Longinus reporting for
duty. That would make for an interesting reality TV show. If I didn’t die in
the middle of the conflagration, maybe I could sell the rights and get out of
the supernatural business for good.
Yeah, and donkey shit takes like chocolate.
Now, more than ever, I realized why life
had been so interesting since Lucifer went on hiatus. It might not have been
public knowledge I was his son, but there had to be some damage magnet sewn
into my ass, which drew his enemies to me. That was why he’d offered me the
position of Anti-Christ, why he wanted me to be more active in the politics and
powers of Hell. He
knew
, sooner or
later, people would find out who I was and they’d come after me. I’d inherit
the burdens of Hell whether I wanted them or not.
Shit, it was probably part of the package
deal he’d been handed by God when he was booted from Heaven.
Though shalt not pass Go. Though shalt not
collect two hundred dollars.
My life had already been planned out, and all
I’d done was make it harder by resisting every effort Lucifer made to prepare
me for the inevitable.
That thought sunk into my stomach like a
stone. My anger ignited a moment later.
He could have told me. He could have sat me
down and explained all this. I probably wouldn’t have done anything different
than I had as far as my life went, which is a sad statement as to the level of my
motivation, but at least I would have known. Karra wouldn’t be in this mess if
I’d realized I was Lucifer’s son sooner. When Gorath came knocking, looking for
Daddy, I would have known to protect her better, to keep her with me rather
than chasing her away. I thought I was saving her from getting involved, but
I’d only made it easier for Gorath to grab her when it should have been me.
With those thoughts filling my head, my
feet scraping unconsciously across the sidewalk, I stumbled across a stone and
nearly fell flat on my face. I cursed under my breath and hopped up off my
knees, then went to lean into the nearby wall so I could catch my breath.
Paranoia had my eyes on a swivel, looking to see if anyone had seen my
graceless display of
dumbrobatics
, and I suddenly
noticed I was just across the street from the shop Jesus had taken us to.
I dusted my pants and was ready to start
off again when I spied an alien stroll out of the shop’s door. He waved a
friendly goodbye over his shoulder as he swung the door shut. His loose shirt
caught the handle as he did, forcing him to step back quickly or have it ripped
off. He cursed as he yanked it free, my eyes drawn to a dark splotch on his
skin. There, where it had been hidden under the shirt he was wrangling to get
control of, was a circular tattoo inked into his ribs. It was the same black
phoenix that was on the aliens who’d attacked us back with the old man and girl.
I jumped into the nearby alley to keep him
from spotting me just before he got his shirt corralled. He strutted down the
street with only a cursory look around, clearly less concerned with social
faux pas
than I was. Lucky bastard. I
followed after him a moment later without even thinking about it. There wasn’t
much cover on the battered sidewalk, and I was pretty much out in the open, but
my gut was telling me to stay on the customer rather than see Jo. Just as it
was with Longinus earlier, it was like I’d walked into a girl’s locker room;
something was fishy.
For the life of me, I couldn’t understand
why someone working for Gorath would be hanging out with one of Jesus’ buddies.
I got the shifty shopkeeper aspect of it, the snitch playing both sides of the
fence since it was clear one of the invaders would leave sooner or later, but
the Eidolon were chewing up the potential for profit across the board. Why
would Jo risk dealing with them…unless that was how he got his information;
little leaks in the Eidolon infrastructure he was exploiting before it all went
bust.
A sudden rush of hope warmed my skin. If Jo
was reaching out to the Eidolon for the inside scoop, the alien strutting down
the street like he didn’t have a care in the world probably knew something
worth asking him about. Even if he didn’t, it was obvious he was confident in
his cover of average, ordinary citizen. There was a good chance he would lead
me to a gathering of his fellow Eidolon where I could learn more about them. If
all else failed, I could always go back and question Jo. Knowing a little more
about his latest
customer
might be
the screw I needed to twist for information.
Either way, opportunities were opening up
that I hadn’t had just a few minutes prior, which was always a good thing. I
stuck with the tattooed dude. Oblivious, or simply unconcerned, he walked on
without casting a single glance behind. He knew where he was going and clearly
had no expectations of being hassled along the way. That worked in my favor
because all he had to do was look back and he would know I was following him.
The other Felurians out on the streets continued
to do the same as they had since we’d shown up. As soon as they saw me, they
veered off but their tentativeness was an asset rather than a liability. They
walked with their chins down and eyes on the ground. It wasn’t until they were
almost on top of me that they realized I was there and shifted gears. That kept
the alien I was following from noticing any additional weirdness on their part.
They were past him and out of his line of sight when they had their little
hissy fits of Chihuahua panic. I was doubly grateful they didn’t piss
themselves when they looked up to see me…though, admittedly, that would have
been funny.
The alien wound his way through the beat up
town, traveling in the opposite direction Rala had pointed us in. This side of
town didn’t look any better. There were no good sides, apparently. Most of the
shops were abandoned, and no one had bothered to even board them up. Broken
windows led into rifled stores, and while I wasn’t sure what was of value on
Feluris, what was left looked a lot like junk, to me. It was also clear the
planet had taken a serious hit to its population.
There weren’t any aliens squatting in the
empty shops or camping out on the streets. It seemed there was more than enough
living space for those who’d survived the war; certainly enough for them to
keep out of sight. There weren’t any children that I noticed, either, or old
folks and cripples. The Felurians I’d come across all seemed to be middle-aged,
at least as far as I could tell, and functional. I didn’t know if that was a
societal or species thing, but it was weird. As much as the Felurians were like
humans, it made sense there would be kids running about and old folks screaming
at them to get off the rubble. The lack of the other ends of the scale made me
wonder just how bad the battle for Feluris had actually been.
The Eidolon I was tracking slowed and
brought my full attention back to him. He went on a little longer, until he
came to a broad avenue, about twice the size as the other roads we’d traversed.
There were only a couple of buildings lining the street at the far ends and an
archaic building, which looked like a church parked dead center of the block. There
were no crosses set upon the roof’s pinnacle, no Star of David, or Golden
Arches, or anything to show any sort of religious denomination. It made me
think all of the Felurians were like Rala and the old seer: godless heathens. I
grinned bitterly at that. There were worse ways to live, but unfortunately for
them, the gods they dismissed hadn’t been so considerate as to do the same.
I slowed and let the alien put some extra distance
between us. Window coverings all along our route had fluttered as we passed,
making it more than obvious the neighborhood was watching. And judging from the
way he was eyeballing the church, I had a feeling he was going there. The last
thing I wanted to do was strut down the street and have his buddies warn him I
was on his six. If he was going to meet more Eidolon, I couldn’t assume they
were as careless as he was. It’d be nice, and I could certainly hope, but I’m
just not that lucky.
Sure enough, he turned along the cracked
sidewalk and walked up the stairs leading to the double doors of the church.
Again, he didn’t bother to look back before he pushed one of the doors open and
slipped into the darkness inside. I waited a minute before I went after him,
making it to the stairs without any obvious signs someone had seen me. The beat
up steps loomed before me, and I wished then that I’d have hung a little closer
to have seen his exact path. Cracks ran all through them, gray lines threatening
to give up the ghost at any moment. I risked them in a rush of movement,
skipping up the stairs on my toes, picking the most stable looking of them to
place my feet as I dodged the loose chips that littered them. They held. What
was even better, homeboy had left the door cracked open.
I inched up to the darkness and peered
inside. Wasn’t much to see but an empty, dilapidated foyer, filled with worn
chairs and small tables, but I could hear the chatter of voices somewhere
inside. They weren’t clear enough to pick out what was being said, but it was
obvious there were several different people speaking, echoes resounding through
the place. I squeezed through the door and stepped inside. Fortunately, the
worn carpet muffled the creak of the wooden floor underneath, and the voices
kept on without pause.
A quick glance about told me the building
hadn’t seen life in quite a long time, well before God and his cronies came to
town. Cobwebs hung from the foyer ceiling like a mossy blanket. There wasn’t
but an inch or two that wasn’t coated in the glistening gray. Dust stole the
color from the carpet, a stirred up trail leading straight ahead. From there, another
set of slightly open double doors led directly into the building. That was
where I thought the voices were coming from. Off to the sides were two narrow
stairwells stashed into the darker corners. They both twisted upwards to
disappear into the ceiling. The voices went on, rising in volume and energy,
the sound drifting in from the other room.
No time to worry about leaving a trail
behind to be noticed, I ran off to the left—probably some inherent Satanic
impulse—and eased up the stairwell. Unlike those outside, these had been
protected from the weather and were fairly sturdy. Also carpeted, the slight squeaks
they gave off were too quiet to be heard over the noise the Eidolon guy and his
buddies were making. I wound my way up the steps, vowing not to vomit at their
dizzying sharpness. Whatever architect designed them was a sadist with a
penchant for sharp angles and enclosed spaces. It reminded me of the grave
Karra had dumped me in not too long back. Cold shivers prickled the hairs on my
arms at the thought, but I shook it off. This wasn’t the time for reminiscing
or I’d find myself in another hole, this time for good.
The stairs opened up onto a narrow landing,
a number of wooden benches stretched across the space. Just in front of them
was a short wall with an ornate railing that curved across the top of it. The
voices were louder as I crept between the rows and toward the balcony. The gray
creep of spider webs clung to the ceiling of the landing just as it had the
foyer below, but the roof angled upward into a great arch the closer I came to
the edge. I could smell the cloying scent of dust and moldy rot in the air as I
settled in at the edge of the balcony. The voices went on without interruption.
“This is foolish, Hurn,” I heard someone
say, my gaze darting between the railing and wall to see who spoke.