Bound (32 page)

Frigeir swung the chopper around for a second pass, turning to look at the ground below. ‘No way, sorry. Nowhere safe to put down.’

Alex and Silhouette saw nothing but ridges of grey-black rock and shale. Smoke twisted across the desolate landscape like gossamer snakes. ‘How close can you get us?’ Alex shouted.

Frigeir lifted higher, scanning the ground. ‘I can put down over there.’ His voice was tinny over the headset. ‘It won’t take you long to walk. But are you sure this is right? I can’t see anyone else.’

‘This is right,’ Alex said. ‘Put us down as close as you can.’

‘Okay then.’

Frigeir sounded dubious and Alex couldn’t blame him. The Darak burned, throbbing with anticipation. He was in no doubt whatsoever that they were virtually on top of the last piece. Yet Frigeir was right. No one and no thing but cold rock. He remembered the vision he’d had when he set the stone to find itself. A cave, a surprised face. It must be somewhere they couldn’t see from the air.

Frigeir put the helicopter down on dark shale. ‘I can wait here,’ he said, killing the engine. The blades
whup-whup-whupped
through the chill air, slowing down. ‘But you’ve only got an hour at most before it starts to get dark. I’m not flying in the dark. If you’re not back here, I’ll go without you.’

‘Fair enough. We’ll be back.’ He hoped Frigeir and Sil couldn’t hear the uncertainty in his voice.

He hopped out of the chopper, Silhouette close behind. ‘This way,’ he said, taking her hand. He was close. So close he could feel it, could imagine the completed Darak and the power it could yield. Dark thoughts ghosted across his mind, loose ideas that flitted past his consciousness like bats in the night. He hated himself for the things he considered. He looked back at Frigeir sitting in his helicopter, imagined the man’s wife, children, parents. He might not have a family, his parents might be long cold in the grave, but Alex didn’t know. Couldn’t know. Could he really go through with the things he considered, the only other option he could conceive? He had no right. If anything would make him a true monster, it was that. Better he do terrible things to himself.

He ached at the thought. Silhouette walked purposefully beside him, beautiful, powerful. She had supported and protected him all this way, but if it was a choice between true monster or sacrifice, only one option really existed. He hoped she would understand. He hoped he would be able to do it.

Uthentia in his jacket bucked and thrashed, the distant, massive voice of it hurling rage through every part of him.

‘What’s happening?’ Silhouette asked.

‘It’s getting angry because we’re getting close,’ Alex lied.

‘Read it, maybe?’ Sil suggested. ‘See what it has to say?’

‘No way. It can get fucked. I haven’t given it a chance to voice itself for a while and I’m not going to now.’

‘Fair enough. Keep it together, Alex. We’re nearly there, right?’

His stomach fluttered with his love for her. Or was it fear that she’d betray him yet? ‘You know, there’s an old yarn my Sifu told me,’ he said. ‘It’s a kind of warning tale.’

‘Oh yeah?’

He plunged on. ‘It talks about a little boy who stalked a tiger. The tiger had been terrorising his village, killing the people, and the little boy decided to be a hero and hunt it down. When he finally got near the tiger he snuck close through the undergrowth and grabbed it by the tail. The tiger got furious, started spinning around, snapping and clawing at the boy. The boy hung on for dear life, running left and right, staying safe only by staying behind the tiger. The boy panicked. He thought he’d caught the tiger, but really, the tiger had him. There was nothing he could do to defeat it and the moment he let go of the tail it would get him.’

Silhouette reached for Alex, put a palm against his cheek. ‘Why are you telling me this?’

He ignored the question. ‘The point of the story, I think, is to warn people against starting something they can’t finish. Going in blind or without a plan.’

After what seemed like a very long pause she said, ‘So what did the little boy do?’

‘Well, he couldn’t let go and he knew he would tire long before the tiger. All he could do was drag the tiger around. They were near a waterfall and the boy kept ducking and diving, avoiding the teeth and claws, moving nearer and nearer to the edge. Knowing the tiger had to die for his village to be safe, when they got near the precipice, the boy jumped.’

‘Alex, no.’

‘He hung on to the tiger and took it down with him, saving the village.’

Silhouette stopped walking. ‘Fuck that, Alex! There has to be another way.’

Alex winced, looking at the ground. ‘At what cost?’ he asked, his voice strained.

‘At whatever cost! Don’t you dare leave me, Alex. Not after all this!’

‘Really? I mean that much to you?’

‘Fuck!’ She spun around, walked away a few paces, turned back. ‘Fucking yes! All right? It started out for me as a bit of an adventure. Something interesting at last. For a time there I even thought about doing what Joseph asked of me. Then I thought about maybe trying to take the stone for myself. But the Kin would still hate me either way. I would still be alone. I told you before, you with the Darak means I don’t have to be alone any more. I can live with being an outsider if I’m not alone.’

He trembled all over. ‘I love you, Silhouette.’ The words felt like cotton wool balls, dragged reluctantly from his throat.

She stepped up, kissed him hard. ‘I love you too, Iron Balls, you fucking stupid little human.’

He laughed, despite his anguish. ‘You are so romantic.’

She had tears in her eyes. ‘The last person I said that to was my mother, Alex. Don’t you dare leave me too.’

He kissed her, held her tightly, her body pressed against his. Could he really give in to the monster, to keep a monster? He didn’t want to be alone either. Keeping to himself was one thing, but being really alone, lost in all this power, was terrifying.

‘Don’t give up on me,’ she said into his neck, her breath sending shivers through his spine. ‘Find another way.’

‘I’ll try, Sil.’ And he meant it. He hated himself, but he meant it.

They walked past a shoulder of dark rock, Alex’s mind churning with formless emotion. The voice of his Sifu drifted through.
Never be distracted while you are engaged in battle. If the fight is not yet won, nothing else matters. Nothing!

This fight was far from won. The Darak pounded against his chest like a second heart. The last part lay somewhere nearby. For thousands of years the stone had existed apart from itself, broken, incomplete. It had an almost sentient desire to be whole again, channelled through him. And Uthentia, trapped in a book, washed white hot fury through him, filling him with images of murdering Silhouette in hideous ways, getting Frigeir to fly him back to Reykjavik, sending the chopper to crash in a fiery spectacle in the most crowded street he could find. He forced himself to focus only on the Darak. Ignoring Uthentia was like ignoring a red-hot branding iron pressed against his mind. He breathed, focused, brought all his training to the fore.
Just a little bit longer
.

As they cleared the rugged boulders, a narrow channel appeared through the rock. Someone stood in the shadow of the passage. A Kin, ancient and powerful, his presence unchecked in this uninhabited wasteland, miles from anyone. ‘I’ve been expecting you,’ he said in a deep voice.

Alex recognised the man’s face from his vision. ‘So you know why I’m here.’

‘How did you do it?’ the man asked. ‘Find me?’

‘I wasn’t looking for you.’

‘No, of course not. How did you find the shard?’

‘The two pieces I already have were able to trace their lost brother,’ Alex said.

The man nodded, his expression resigned. ‘Of course. Then it is true.’

‘What’s your name?’ Alex asked. He sounded tired. He knew a fight was coming.

‘Ovidius. You?’

Alex recognised the name from his research in Lorenzo’s Den, though his mind had trouble grasping the concept. ‘My name is Alex Caine. I’m afraid I’m going to take the stone.’

‘Yes. I suppose you are.’

Alex was stunned. Surely this guardian of ages would stand against him. ‘Really?’ he asked suspiciously.

Ovidius dropped to his knees and pulled his shirt off over his head. Bare-chested, trembling in the cold, he laid a heavy dagger on the shale before himself. ‘Over a thousand years ago I first had the vision. Already I’d spent so many lifetimes protecting the piece of the Darak that had been entrusted to me. That first premonition of you nearly destroyed me.’

Alex crouched to maintain eye level with Ovidius, but kept a safe distance between them. ‘Premonition?’

‘They began after I’d already guarded the stone for several hundred years. I was supposed to be dead, but I knew others would find it. I defended it time and again. The visions would warn me, help me prepare. Then I saw you. Not very clearly, I don’t recognise you now, but the same assailant appeared to me again and again. That first time, when the vision showed me broken, bleeding, dying, I despaired. For a thousand years I’ve been seeing variations of that same prophecy. I’ve thought of hunting you down, forcing the confrontation, but I couldn’t even know if you’d been born yet. I’ve ventured forth occasionally, when I’ve needed to feed. I’ve watched the world, studied history passing. Waited for you.’

‘I really don’t want to hurt you,’ Alex said. ‘I’d rather not hurt anyone else.’ He ignored the insistent cajoling of the book, drumming thoughts of murder into his brain.

Ovidius flashed a grin that disappeared as fast as it had appeared. ‘Isn’t that just it, though?’

‘Is it?’

‘How much do you want to kill me? Not when you think about it, but when you let your true feelings rise?’

‘I want to rip you limb from limb,’ Alex admitted. ‘But those aren’t my true feelings. That’s the book at work. Uthentia’s desires.’

Ovidius’s face twisted with discomfort. ‘Interesting,’ he said. ‘You still differentiate.’

‘Haven’t you seen all this?’ Silhouette asked. ‘Don’t you know what’s going to happen?’

Ovidius laughed, a high, shrill sound, sudden and short. ‘The visions are always different. I knew you were coming. For a thousand years I’ve known you were coming, but every time it’s slightly different. Sometimes we fight, sometimes I die.’

‘Do I ever die?’ Alex asked quietly.

Ovidius lifted his face, his eyes haunted. ‘No.’

They were silent for several moments. Alex wanted to get the shard and move on, but this strange old Kin deserved some time, some chance. Would he really let Alex pass? The dagger sat on the stones between them like a gate.

Ovidius’s shades were every colour of despair and disappointment, sadness and melancholy. He showed no intention of fighting, of trying to stop Alex. He moved so quickly that Alex was on his feet, crouched and ready, almost before he realised he’d moved. Ovidius held the dagger out in front of himself. He pointed the hilt at Alex. ‘Use it,’ he said.

Alex kept his distance, still tense. ‘What?’

‘Kill me.’

‘I don’t want to.’

‘I should have died aeons ago, Alex Caine. What difference does it make now?’

Alex relaxed his ready position, tried to stand more casually. ‘You were supposed to kill yourself,’ he said. Uthentia howled his rage through Alex’s brain, the Fey creature’s wrath almost deafening in its intensity. Alex gritted his teeth, tried to shut it out. ‘It’s not my desire to kill you.’

‘You don’t want to give in to that urge?’ Ovidius said, his eyes wild. ‘I can see it in you, I can see the ’sign pouring off you. Your bloodlust is enormous. Imagine the thrill you’d get plunging this blade into my heart! Think of it, finishing one as ancient as I!’

Uthentia thrashed at Alex’s mind, forcing Alex to stagger forward against his will. He concentrated only on the stone at his chest, tried to ignore the hurricane of desperation pulsing from the presence of Uthentia. ‘I will not kill you!’ he yelled, his throat raw with the effort. ‘Uthentia does not rule me!’

Ovidius smiled, his hand reaching out to wrap around the other already holding the dagger. The point trembled as it pointed in towards his chest. ‘Perhaps there is some hope then,’ he said and slammed the blade into his body. He bucked, his mouth dropping open with a cough of surprise and pain. He twisted, grimacing in agony as his blood flooded over his hands to spatter on the dark grey rock under his knees. He stared into Alex’s eyes and Alex watched a life unimaginable blink out.

Ovidius fell forward and was still.

Alex pressed his palms against his face, shaking with the force of Uthentia’s furious dissatisfaction. He sucked in air and kept his mind focused on the Darak, let its magic soak through his body, infuse every vein and fibre. ‘I deny you!’ he growled and the rage subsided to the dull roar he had come to accept as normal.

Silhouette crouched beside Ovidius, closed his eyes. ‘Poor bastard. I seem to be seeing a lot of old Kin die lately.’

‘Even when I refuse to kill, this whole situation ends in death,’ Alex said. ‘Hard to believe he’s been here all this time, protecting the stone, and it ended for him like this. So quickly.’

‘He should have died a long time ago. Shouldn’t have still been here.’

‘He was testing me.’ Alex felt Uthentia’s muffled joy at the death of such a being even while it raged that Alex hadn’t done the murder. He did his best to ignore it.

‘You passed,’ Silhouette said, putting one hand on his shoulder. ‘You resisted.’

‘To what end?’ The sound of a helicopter made them both spin around. ‘Frigeir …?’ Alex started to say.

‘No,’ Silhouette said sharply. ‘Alex, this is someone else arriving. You better find the shard!’

Alex stared at the approaching chopper. For some reason it struck him as very strange that whatever had been tracking them all this time would arrive by helicopter, just as they had. Maybe there
was
another way.

Silhouette dragged at his sleeve. ‘Alex, come on!’

They turned and ran into the dark cleft between tall, cold rocks.