The Line Madder, page 13
“Cut the crap,” I grumble. “You’re trying to kill people, namely your children, and if you still think you’re some kind of good person after that, I’d like you to rethink what the hell you’re doing.”
The snake arm shoots out at me and I fully become the sha that my Blood allows me to be. I bite into the neck of the snake and it bleeds water. I twist the snake around, trying to tear it right off of Apophis’ stone body. It breaks free and dissolves. I turn back.
Ser stays in place as Apophis backs up towards the position behind him that Ser moved to when I bit him. Is she afraid? This isn’t the time for her to be freezing up. She might get frozen in place as a statue if she doesn’t get the hell out of the way. When Apophis gets closer she finally moves, grabbing him with a surprising speed and holding him in place with her claws. She then slams her stinger into him. Except it doesn’t actually go in.
“This body is not soft enough for you to pierce like that,” Apophis shouts triumphantly. “You will not be able to defeat me!” He points at Ser, ready to turn her to stone, but Tala jumps in the way. He hits both of them.
I’m the only one left.
“Turn them back and I might not kill you,” I demand. “This is the only chance I’ll give you.”
“I don’t need your chances,” Apophis spits. “You can’t defeat me. I’m not just being confident, I’m telling you a fact. In less than a minute, you won’t have a single chance of killing me.”
He turns to the cat statue and becomes a snake. Then he shoots himself through it, shattering it from the center. It recoils, almost seeming alive until it dissolves instantly. Not a single piece of it remains. Apophis radiates an intense gold light that makes it difficult to look at him. He turns back to his human-like form and faces me once more.
“Only the Blood or Voice of the cat can kill me. You and your companions have neither. Your efforts are useless, as are the paths you have given your lives. They will no longer be statues in eight hours from now, but the path you all have set yourselves on must change from there if you wish to continue living. Do you understand?”
“Like hell I’ll let you tell me or anyone else what to do,” I tell him.
His brow furrows. “You remind me of someone, Madder. Someone that I have been quite familiar with over time.”
“Is it my father that you helped kill? It sure couldn’t be my mother. I’d hate to believe that trash like you would even think you have the right to talk about her as if you were friends.”
“No, Madder. It’s me.”
I laugh. I actually laugh. But it’s not a kind and warm laugh. No, it’s a cruel laugh distorted by anger and repulsion, and carried by the tension in the air. It’s a laugh that throws back my head in hideous amusement. “You think we’re alike? You have to be the most disgusting thing I’ve ever met. I’m sure you’ve spent too much time in here reading bad books. There’s no other way you’d pull that overused trope on me. I’m not going to tell you that we’re nothing alike. I’m sure someone could find some kind of similarity somewhere. But don’t ever tell me that you associate me with something as vile as you are again, or I might make you wish I had the ability to kill you.”
“You sure sound stronger than you are, Madder. Too bad your words can’t protect your fragile little body. I’m growing tired of your insults and I might just kill you yet.”
I can’t listen to him any longer. I turn completely into the sha once more and Apophis shifts entirely into the snake. My Blood is flaring around me as if even being used to its fullest degree isn't enough release of its power. I look down at my paws at it surrounds me and notice that my fur, formerly black, is becoming red. Not bright red, but the red of rust or dried blood. I’m not sure how it happened or what it means, but it gives me the confidence to attack the golden serpent before me. A storm much like my previous one brews in the building, using the open door downstairs as an opening for moisture to be drawn inside.
The clock on the front of the building chimes seven times and Serket H. Madder stands at my side, no longer frozen in stone and no longer unable to fight. She shifts into a scorpion the size of a large dog, matching me in size. “I didn’t want you to fight him alone,” Ser says with a warm yet quick smile on her face. Her smile doesn’t reach to her eyes and it’s not hard to tell that she isn’t focused on any kind of conversation, just preventing any more destruction caused by her father.
I fight alongside Ser against Apophis, using the power I inherited from my mother Iris to push him back. The smaller clock on the wall of the library tells me that it is now fifteen minutes after seven. No one has made any progress on either side. Then Darian Apophis starts using his new ability to turn people and objects to stone, and that is where we finally manage to get ahead.
We evade the attacks as the stone books fall around us, we dodge when the walls become rock. We do well until Ser’s stinger is hit.
“Ser!” I exclaim. “Will you be all right?”
“Better than all right,” she tells me. “This is our chance to end this.”
“What?” I am entirely confused.
“Bring your storm over here.”
The red mass of water and whipping winds lifts Ser and me into the air right above Apophis and he stops slithering to find out what we’re doing. He turns back to his more human form once more, somehow thinking that through whatever happens, he’ll be invincible with his stone body. That is his mistake. That is why he stands no chance. At this point I think I know what Ser is doing and I’m sure it won’t end well for her snake of a father. Ser motions for me to lower the storm a little, and I do. “Hold on to me!” She shouts. Again, I follow her directions. She jumps out of the storm and leaps right at Apophis, stone stinger pointed right at his heart while I hold her as if she is a spear.
He didn’t consider that he’d have a weak spot, and he didn’t consider that his own power could bring him down. Ser’s venom flows into the man’s heart and it carries his own power into him. His stone body slowly becomes more of a different kind of material, and far less alive than he ever thought that it could be. His power reacts differently than Blood and Voice do with the stone. He changes into something that isn’t stone at all. He’s made of gold, an actual golden snake to mirror his power.
“You can’t do this,” he hisses as he turns into a snake for the final time. “Your damned children will destroy everything if I don’t kill you…”
He doesn’t speak again and he doesn’t move either. He is just an immobile snake, circling like a crown until the neck and head rise to the air. He’s more lifeless than any of my petrified friends. Somehow I’m certain that he won’t turn back when everyone else does. My thoughts are confirmed when they all start to stir, leaving only the snake unable to move.
“You did it,” Tala notices. Tears stain her face.
“Good job, you two,” Morgan says.
“That felt awful. Thanks for kicking him in for us.” Cloude stretches after staying in place for so long. “You feeling better, Dalila?”
“Yeah,” Cloude’s girlfriend responds.
We all stand around Apophis as Ser explains what happened. I fill in details that she missed. There’s a silence for a few minutes. No one is certain on what to do next.
“Should we smash him?” Ser asks. She fortunately has no reservations about killing the man.
“We should try.”
“Good.” She takes the clock off of the wall and hits the gold snake with it. The clock dissolves the same way that the cat statue did before.
“We can’t kill him then. Only the cat can,” I remind her.
“We’ll wait. I’m sure if only the cat can destroy him, the cat will find a way to get it done someday. For now we should take our friends and go home.” Ser hugs me. “I’m glad you didn’t die,” she whispers.
“I’m glad you didn’t either,” I reply.
We then leave, and for the first time, we’re all finally accepting that we might have a chance at a long future together and that we’re in no immediate danger. This, I decide, is exactly what I’ve been working towards since I left the coffee shop at that time that feels like so long ago. This is the future I was working towards whether I knew it at the time or not. These people, these friends that I have made are finally safe from the evil that threatened them, and finally we can all move ahead, feeling confident in the fact that such evil will never return for us.
At least not if we can help it. Not yet.
PART II
Chapter 15
Thirty years have passed since I last faced Darian Apophis.
The worlds have changed since then. Ashen has started a plan to take over and claim the other worlds, starting with a small world called Hopea and moving on later to greater things, namely Virid and Rubia. It was only a couple of months ago that the forces of Ashen entered Rubia and started pushing families out of their homes.
It was also around then that I ended up in the hospital. I suppose that should teach me not to fight people that have had actual training. In my defense, one of the fighters from Ashen was walking right towards the graves of my parents.
That was the night that I killed the man right in front of them. Of course, when the rest of Ashen’s forces noticed what I had done, they fought me. I managed to escape, but not before getting badly injured and leaving my gun behind as something they could trace back to me.
I did not use my Blood that night, for it would have led Ashen’s government to demonize anyone else with the energy.
So I was at a disadvantage and I’ve been in recovery in Rubia for a couple of months. Meanwhile, Ser and our daughter, Oriel, have been living in a dull home in Ashen, in one of the world’s worst neighborhoods.
But they won’t be anymore.
I knock forcefully on the door. The air is cold and it would be quite nice to get inside a home soon. I wait. They have to be home, right? Then again, Ser could be working on some big archaeology project with her team and Oriel could be at the house of one of her friends. As long as she didn’t get a damn boyfriend while I was gone.
The door opens and Oriel’s surprised face appears in the dim lighting. “Father?” A small smile creeps across her face. “I’m glad you’re back.”
“So am I,” I say. “I wish I could have been back sooner.”
Ser walks up behind Oriel. “So do I.” She shakes her head, a habit I’ve gotten quite used to seeing from her over the years. “I wouldn’t be shocked if you don’t want to come in, but this is our home now. Great, isn’t it?”
I look around the faded room. The whole thing screams dust even though there’s no actual dust around. The dirty pink carpet has very little visual appeal against the rust orange walls, and the limp green curtains do nothing to make the place look any brighter. It’s a good thing the house in Rubia has not been sold.
“It’s awful,” I declare. “We’re moving back.”
“That’s exactly what I had hoped you would say,” Ser tells me. Then she sits down on the old blue couch and picks at one of the holes in the arm. “My team discovered something lately. It’s a little concerning.”
“What is it?” I stand by the matching rocking chair and pet the youngest one of our two cats, which had made a nice little bed of sorts out of the chair. She doesn’t stir when I touch her.
“Do you remember the statue that Apophis broke all those years ago? I’m not sure if you would now, but we found more like it. Not like cats in figure, but as other very familiar shapes. Namely a shrew, a deer, a horse, a jackal, a spider, a scorpion, and a sha.”
“The forms that Blood and Voice have appeared in.” It’s confusing, but somehow it seems as if someone has found out about what had happened and created statues. Or alternatively, there were statues created many years ago, and the Blood or Voice of each individual that carried the energy formed based on those statues. Either way, it’s something that would have been very uncomfortable to find.
“As well, there are statues of a lioness, a reindeer, and of course, there was the cat statue that was destroyed.”
“There isn’t any energy that matches those animals, though.”
“There is. Oriel has developed her Blood fully over the past month. She is the lioness, and she brought her friend to me to receive Blood from me. I generally don’t give it out anymore, but I could tell that Eleida Iltaski needed it, as someone that spent her whole life being an assistant to those with stronger capabilities.”
“I told Mother about Eleida,” Oriel explains. “I was tired of seeing her getting beaten around by the stronger guys.”
“I’m proud of both of you.” I watch as Oriel’s eyes light up. “It would be quite nice to meet Iltaski sometime.”
“I’m not sure about who the cat could be,” Ser admits. “But I’m certain that we’ll find the cat when we need to.”
“Where are the statues now?” I sit down on the chair, and the young cat leaps down into my lap.
“That’s the worst part. After we took them out of the ground not far from one of Hopea’s diamond mines, they were stolen. We have no idea where they could be now.” Ser’s head lowers in defeat.
“Don’t worry about it, Mother,” Oriel says. “We’re going to find them. Eleida has already contacted some people she knows to start checking museums and stuff.”
“Are those the same people that kick her around?” I question.
“No, it’s a few people that she met online. If they try anything, I’ll kick them in.”
“Good.” I stand up again and pace to the small window.
“Are we going back to Rubia?” Ser faces me and stands as well.
“Of course.”
Two days later, we arrive in Rubia. It looks greatly unchanged. It is a relatively small city in the center of the large world, a river surrounding it, and dry hot land on all sides that can be described best as a boiling desert. Ashen’s attacks have not damaged it much. The portal from Ashen has brought us to the busiest part of Rubia’s main city, the marketplace at the eastern edge of the river. Today it’s busier than usual. This is the second day of the annual summer trade fair.
Though it would be preferable to get back to our own home immediately, Ser has other plans. I follow her from booth to booth as she examines fine fabrics and clay items. Then I spot something at one of the booths that definitely catches my eye. It’s my gun, complete with the one line of grey on it from the time I placed it on the wrong table and put it in wet paint. How did the man behind the booth get this?
“I would like to have this gun,” I state.
The older man behind the booth hands it to me. “What do you have for me in return?”
I remove a large purple crystal from my pocket. I was planning to use this to pay the people that are moving our small number of useful household items from Ashen to Rubia, but the same value of Ashen’s currency will work well enough for that. I place the dark crystal on the table.
“Very good, very good.” The man inspects the object. It vaguely reminds me of the way that Lucy Valentina eyed the crystal I gave her years ago. I shake that thought. Thoughts of Lucy aren’t quite pleasant ones. “You may take the gun.”
I take it and slip it into the inner pocket of my long leather coat after making sure that all of the bullets had been removed. “Where did you get this gun?” I ask.
“I found it discarded not too far from here,” he whispers. “I think it was actually close to the base that Ashen’s forces have built here.”
I’m not certain that he didn’t steal it from them, but I’m not about to accuse him of that to his face, so I thank him and walk away. Stolen or not, that man just helped me get my gun back, and I’m not going to complain about that.
I meet up with Ser and Oriel again at a booth that is selling jewelry. “This just makes me uncomfortable,” Ser grumbles as she points to a golden bracelet that was shaped to resemble a snake. “It makes me feel like he’s watching me.”
Oriel grins. “What would you do if I actually bought it?”
“I’d probably regret stopping here instead of going home,” Ser replies.
Oriel pushes it away from her. “I don’t really need this. And that whole statues thing is making you uncomfortable enough.”
“Are you done?” They turn their attention to me as I speak.
“We are,” Ser says. “I found some nice things to decorate the living room with…”
I can tell that she’s more than excited to live in decent conditions again.
We walk back to our home in the west end of the city. When we finally get there, I notice that someone has been inside. The door is ajar and the lights are on. Certainly not how we left it. “Be careful,” I tell my family.
“I’ll pull the door open more,” my wife decides. “I’ll have my Blood ready in case the person inside attacks us.” A good choice. Ser’s Blood, taking the form of a scorpion or its separate parts, is more intimidating in such a situation than either a lioness or the dog-like sha. Ser prepares the tail of a scorpion to attack as she pushes the door in. No one is behind the door.
“Strange,” Oriel comments. The three of us walk in together. When we reach the living room, we see a man sitting on the red velvet recliner drinking a coffee. “Good morning,” he welcomes in an oddly familiar voice.
“What are you doing in our house?” Ser questions.
“I’ve been keeping it for you. They wanted to take it, you know.” The man turns his head to face us. Along the left side of his face is a thin pinkish-white line that runs from beside his eye to the edge of his jaw. That is a line that I created. A line that I made right before I shot him in the head.
“I thought I killed you,” I snarl.
