The Ancient Ones (The Legacy Trilogy Book 3) (65 page)

‘The shadow remains,’ Samuel stated, cutting him short. ‘Better not to speak of it.’

‘So you still believe there is no hope for her?’

‘It is not what I believe, Leopold. I am sorry, as I said before. It is simply fate. Soon, she will perish. It cannot be avoided.’

It was a room of blue that Samuel led him to, with a raised circle of stones in the centre. Some stones had long ago been broken and lay askew from their original place.

‘The Temple of Shadows,’ Leopold said. ‘The same as the one in Koia that was green.’

‘Another one, yes. There are many across the world. This is the place that Lomar escaped to many years ago, when he stole away my newborn son. Poltamir was awaiting him, preparing his foul plans. I suspect there was no grand palace or dome around it then. All that would have come afterwards.’

At the side of the chamber was another room and Samuel strode determinably into it. A velvet curtain hung against one wall, a child-sized bed its only other feature. On the bed was a small, black casket.

‘This is it,’ said Samuel. ‘This is the box that once contained my son.’

He opened the lid revealing the padded interior.

‘The fool Lomar opened it,’ boomed the voice of Poltamir, surprising Leopold nearly out of his skin. ‘I had warned him not to, but he opened it a crack and that was more than enough for Lin to escape. He abandoned his body and found another.’

‘What did you do with his body?’ Samuel demanded, calling to the room.

‘I disposed of it. It did not live long once unoccupied.’

‘You should never have caged him.’ The magician was fuming. ‘You tampered with the balance.’

‘You are one to talk!’ the omnipotent voice bellowed. ‘You, who have slain two of Lin’s servants, have done more unbalancing in your short time than anyone. How is Lin supposed to carry on without his sentinels? Who will cultivate mankind without them? Am I to be the only one?’

‘He will not need such help in future,’ Samuel replied. ‘Not if I still have anything to do with it.’

‘I was impressed by the casket you fashioned,’ continued Poltamir. ‘It took me countless years to craft the one you hold, yet you copied it from only a short examination. Time is no petty thing. To harness it is the greatest of skills.’

‘I have a knack,’ Samuel replied, speaking aloud to the bodiless voice. ‘Perhaps it is another gift from the dark spirits within me?’

‘No, it is simply a mutation, pure chance,’ the voice rattled. ‘You are an interesting quirk of nature. I sometimes wonder what might have become of you if Lomar had not planted his seeds of evil within you. This world sometimes creates such rare creatures as yourself, instilled with natural power.’

‘Perhaps our world is tired of the evil upon it, and fights back. We are all part of it, and at times I sense it has realised the mischief we are up to.’

‘Perhaps,’ mused the voice. ‘Sometime I sense the deepest rumblings running through the soil, like vast, drawn out thoughts I cannot comprehend, each one years in the making. Still, it matters not. Now the moment has come, I am quite looking forward to our duel.’

Samuel went to the curtain and flung it aside. Leopold stepped back with alarm, for an enormous lidless eye was there, filling the entire wall and staring in at them, laced with throbbing red veins.

‘Why did you take him!’ Samuel demanded, unperturbed by the sight. ‘Why did you steal away my son?’

The eye regarded him with simmering rage. ‘I had to. None of us would exist if I had not. He would have grown of age and reaped his harvest by now. You would be a babe again, somewhere upon the world, and I would have gone back into hiding, waiting for him to pass. Or worse yet, Cang’s misguided plan may have worked and with Lin dead we would be dissolving in the guts of demons even now, never to live again, never to die. By thwarting Cang’s scheme and stealing your boy, I saved us all.’

‘Yet that was not your motive, Poltamir. You stole the child to steal his power and make yourself a god. Your current condition is proof enough of that.’

‘True,’ rumbled Poltamir, ‘but Lomar ruined it. I will quickly dispatch you, and then I shall find him. Nothing shall stop me! Once that is done, I will gladly wait for my master’s return, and the finish of this miserable existence.’

‘I will not let it end like this,’ Samuel declared.

‘You will have no choice! Give in to me, Samuel, or your demons may indeed break free.’

‘Never!’ the magician replied.

Laughter echoed from all around, and the room shook violently. The great eye descended, leaving an empty chasm behind it. Leopold took a step to look down the hole; there was nothing visible in the darkness. The sound of many things approaching, a violent slapping of limbs, made him retreat.

Dozens of snaking arms burst into the room. Samuel acted swiftly, cutting the severed tentacles, letting them squirm on the floor. The sound of even more things followed, reverberating up the tunnel.

‘Let’s go,’ Samuel exclaimed.

They left the temple, running through the buildings and finally breaking outdoors. They tore down the slope, where gigantic tendrils rose from beneath the buildings, crashing them down around them. The black towers broke from the ground, great talons that lifted on the end of armoured, foot-like growths.

They passed bewildered guards. Poltamir had abandoned his droning call and his soldiers ran screaming, freed from their overseer’s domination.

‘Come, we must go,’ Samuel declared.

He grabbed Leopold around the waist and Leopold knew what was to follow. His head reeled as they launched away, flying into the air, smashing through the bone wall of the dome and out into the morning light. Below them, escaping down the street, were the others. Daneel had Salu draped over his shoulders and Kali was carrying Toby in her arms, while Captain Orrell was pulling Rei behind him.

Samuel and Leopold landed not far in front of the others and, thankfully, this time it was a gentle descent.

‘Leopold!’ Kali called hurrying towards them.

Far behind, the immense dome cracked. It split like an egg, enormous pieces of roof falling in upon itself, and thousands of tentacles forcing their way out. At their core, forcing itself up from beneath the hill, rose the torso of the beast that was Poltamir—a column of leathery flesh the size of a mountain, covered in countless squirming arms, large and small, continuing to rise until it dwarfed its former enclosure.

‘Watch out!’ Captain Orrell warned as a nearby ebony tower erupted from the ground. It arched itself up on the end of its snaking appendage and pounded down beside them, crushing a row of houses beneath its weight. Every moment, in every direction, more such things were rising from the earth.

‘Where does it end?’ Daneel shouted. ‘How big is this thing?’

‘He is beneath this whole city,’ the magician explained. ‘And given that he could reach our ship, perhaps even further. I will have to kill him. Keep going. Get away, as far as you can. Leopold, your sword.’ Leopold had no time to flinch before his father’s weapon came flying from its sheath into the magician’s hand, without him taking his eye from the mountainous beast that was bringing ruin to the city. ‘Daneel, guard Salu well. If I live, I will need him after this.’

In a flash the magician was gone to battle, cutting through rows of snaking tentacles on his way as they burst from the streets.

A roar of anger issued from Poltamir, his limbs thrashing in anger. He drew the entirety of his body from the earth, trailing thick roots below. He heaved his mass forwards, sending up clouds of dust at his base that swallowed the city at his foot. The dome had entirely collapsed now, a thin shell crushed beneath him.

They tried to run, but more of Poltamir’s limbs lurched from the ground. They changed route a dozen times trying to find a way through the maze of destruction to the coast. Meanwhile, behind them, Samuel and Poltamir waged their cataclysmic battle.

The ocean appeared, but the stretch of street tore itself up in front of them, as another tentacle raised itself to full height and wavered hesitantly. The street was impossible to cross, and it left them standing there, wondering which way to go.

Rei looked crestfallen, surveying the destruction. She turned, casting her gaze upon the gigantic, repugnant body of Poltamir: a hairy, blackened egg.

Captain Orrell held her by the shoulders and shook her. ‘Jessicah!’ he said. ‘Jessicah, can you hear me?’

‘She’s gone,’ Daneel told him, regarding the captain with pity.

‘No,’ he said determinedly. ‘I know she is still in there. She has to be!’

Rei shook her head with dismay. ‘Poltamir? Poltamir!’ She laughed, slightly at first but growing louder and more maniacal. Her hair was across her face. ‘Good!’ she wailed. ‘I am glad it has come to this. Look at him! Look at what the fool did to himself! And now he and Samuel will destroy each other! What a beautiful finale!’

Beams of light shone from the magician, lightning crackled, and the distant atom of his form flashed about, sending lengths of Poltamir’s flesh dropping to the ground with each pass, crushing city blocks underneath—but Poltamir was endless. What he lacked in speed he made up for in mass, and he attacked Samuel from all directions, more of his tendrils rising from the ground at his base, infinite in number.

Samuel peeled away from the battle and coursed towards the group. He landed before them, but the man that arrived was very different to the one that had left.

‘Samuel!’ Leopold said with wonder. ‘What have you done to yourself?’

His skin had changed, transformed into a perfect black stone. The magician opened his gleaming fist and dropped Leopold’s sword to the earth—the steel was glowing hot and twisted.

‘I have changed myself,’ he replied, his mouth unmoving, his voice alien, echoing out of his chest, ‘to better fight him. Don’t worry; I can change back if I wish. I am sorry about your sword, Leopold. It served us both well, but its usefulness is at an end.’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ Leopold said, shaking his head as he looked at the ruined length of steel. ‘What will you do?’

‘I fight on.’ As he spoke, a cracked corner of his face fell away, revealing molten fire underneath.

‘You’re hurt!’ Kali said.

‘True, but I cannot give up. I just needed a brief respite.’

Behind him, Poltamir was hauling himself across the city. He was titanic in scale, yet he dragged his bulk across the city with surprising speed, tearing up his tentacles behind him, or snapping them off at the ground like unwanted roots. The network of limbs that rose across the city trembled as he cut his link with them, then continued their wavering, some autonomous sense in them taking over.

‘Now go,’ Samuel told them, and with a flick of his finger the hole in the street filled with rubble, a bridge for them to cross.

Again the magician flew to battle, but his companions remained motionless.

‘What’s wrong?’ Leopold asked. ‘Why aren’t we moving?’

‘There’s no point, Leopold,’ Daneel stated, and he plopped old Salu upon the dusty road. ‘We can’t outrun the beast. Even if we made it to the coast, what then?’

‘We could ... we could ...’ Leopold stammered, but even he could find no answer.

‘Look,’ Daneel said, thrusting his finger towards the sea, for between collapsed buildings they could see a patch of blue, and dark, sinewy things were bristling upon the water in wait. ‘We can’t hope to outrun it. It’s everywhere!’

‘What is that?’ Kali called and Leopold turned his attention to the city once more.

Some shining haze had formed around Samuel, even as he continued battling the giant. A red fire surrounded him, blazing behind as he flew.

‘He’s changing,’ Leopold said. ‘The demons are taking him, but he fights on. He has no casket. If he continues, we won’t be able to save him.’

‘He mentioned Salu,’ Daneel said, looking to the old man’s body on the ground, ‘but only he knows what to do.’

‘Where is Toby?’ Leopold then asked, for moments before the boy had been standing beside them.

‘There!’ Kali called.

The boy has climbed onto the shattered stump of a building and was peering at the calamity of Poltamir.

‘I’ll go,’ Leopold said, and clambered after him. When he had scaled up beside the boy he saw there were tears in his eyes.

‘Toby, what is it? What’s wrong?’ Leopold asked.

Toby looked at him, eyes trembling, glistening, his mouth moving silently as he attempted to speak. Unfulfilled, he turned back to follow Samuel as the boiling shroud of fire continued to expand.

‘Toby, come down from there!’ Kali beckoned from below, offering up her hand. The boy ignored her pleas.

The fiery form of Samuel vanished amongst the nest of writhing appendages around Poltamir’s body.

‘Where has he gone?’ Leopold asked when the magician did not immediately reappear.

They waited. The echoes of battle faded across the city. Only the hissing sounds of Poltamir’s incessant movements carried on the wind. Then, all the countless tendrils became agitated and convulsed wildly, excited. A sound followed, like a scream from ten thousand tortured mouths, and a blinding flash of light erupted from Poltamir’s core. A wall of dust raced along the streets, and, as it passed Leopold and the others, it carried a muffled boom that sent them to their knees.

The forest of tentacles, raised up from so many openings in the streets, fell flat, flopping to the earth, crushing everything below in clouds of billowing dust, and were still.

More distant rumbling followed, and the central core of Poltamir split open, falling apart—a ruined husk—and something new came striding from its middle. It was a gargantuan, naked figure bathed in flames, half of Poltamir’s height, with nine faces spread across its monstrous, wolf-like head. All their mouths roared and it shook its fists with fury, stomping in the ruined corpse of its foe, snapping pieces of black flesh away and clawing them to the earth.

Another flash of light followed. This time, the creature held out its arms, and the corpse of Poltamir contracted, falling upon itself, sucked in towards this being of fire. The giant appendages of dark, taloned flesh withdrew, snaking back under the ground, turning to vapour and absorbed into the beast. The newly formed creature roared triumphantly, stretching its neck to the sky.