In Shadow
Karel said nothing almost all the way back to the Strahov fortress.
As their car drew up outside, he said to her, "Until we've resolved this, I don't want you wandering off alone again."
"I can look after myself."
"I've no doubt of that. But I'd rather be certain. Let me look into it." His eyes held hers until finally she shrugged and nodded in agreement.
There were fewer guards than usual patrolling the winding corridors. The entire fortress felt as if it were enveloped in a sacred hush, a huge brick and steel temple about to bear witness to the most ancient secrets of all.
Karel stopped as they reached an intersection in the corridor. "I'm going to the laboratory to start the preparations for the awakening. I'd like you to go and collect something from the central control room."
"Something being…?"
"I take it you know now where the Periapt Shards came from."
"They're the remnants of the last of the Blades, of course."
"And they have to be reforged into a single blade again. Nothing else will kill a full blooded Nephili."
At her questioning glance, he added, "It's already done. I ordered Gunderson to take care of it. So, if you'd be kind enough to go and get it from him, I'll meet you in the Lab."
He drew something out from the inside of his coat; the Sanglyph. Her eyebrows rose.
"You won't be missing anything," he said. "It's an unremarkable ceremony, and I'd rather you weren't there when he first awakens."
With a gesture, Karel drew a nearby guard over to them and indicated that he should go with Lara. "I've impressed upon Gunderson that he should consider himself your subordinate as well as mine."
"I'm sure he was delighted to hear that. Don't worry, I won't let him give me any trouble."
Gunderson was waiting for her as she arrived at the central control room with her silent escort, holding something long and slender wrapped in black cloth.
"Evening, Gunderson," she said brightly, and held her hand out for it. He simply looked at her, as imposing as ever, something in his stance and the tense grip of his fingers suggesting that he would be just as happy to see the Blade embedded in her chest as the Sleeper's.
"Didn't Karel tell you you had to do what I said?" she asked with conscious impertinence. He dropped it into her palm, his face expressionless.
"You can go now," she said, and turned her back on him. After a few seconds, she heard him leave, slamming the door, and she held the package up in front of her and pushed aside the cloth.
The sword was beautiful, a far grander version of its former incarnation as the Shards. The blade itself was translucent and shimmering with crystalline blue highlights which ran ceaselessly up and down its length. The handle, by contrast, was a rich gold colour, the hilt throwing out a gilded aura like a lion's mane. The weapon did not so much reflect the room's light as absorb and intensify it.
She stood for a moment in thought, then told the guard to take her to Eckhardt's laboratory as quickly as possible.
On her arrival, she dismissed the man and poked her head cautiously through the tall doors, her gaze rapidly sweeping the huge sunless chamber. The Sleeper in his bindings had been lowered to floor level, but there was no sign of Karel, which for the moment suited Lara perfectly. His concerns notwithstanding, this was something she intended to witness. Still clutching the Blade, she quickly crossed the floor and took up position in the shadows, behind one of the massive stanchions.
A few minutes afterwards Karel came in, bolting the doors behind him. The lights dimmed as he strode purposefully across to the centre and stood tall before the Sleeper. Taking out the Sanglyph, he held it up and appeared to be concentrating hard. It began to glow with a dull, throbbing red light that hurt her eyes. His lips forming words that she couldn't quite hear, he then took the disc in one palm and held it against the Sleeper's chest, the red glow enveloping the whole of the emaciated figure before abruptly shutting off. The Sanglyph itself simply disintegrated in Karel's hand, falling away into a fine dark powder.
And that was that; unremarkable, just as he had said, but what came next wasn't.
For a long moment, nothing happened. Then the electric blue fire surrounding the Sleeper flickered, died, and revived in a furious burst of emerald. A split-second later, the red eyes came alive and in a deathly silent blur he broke all his bracings and lunged at Karel, clawed hands snatching for his throat before Lara had time to draw breath.
Her hand went to the Blade, but Karel was quicker. Showing no sign of alarm, he caught the talons in his own hands and held them away from himself while the other Nephili writhed and snarled, keen teeth snapping inches from his face.
Lara stared. "Talk about getting out of bed on the wrong side…" she muttered.
She inched forward cautiously, lying on her stomach, grasping the stanchion with one hand and peering around it.
Karel's form wavered in the dim light, and for an instant there were two identical tall, angular figures in front of her; then he changed again into the Nephilic aspect, his hair glowing whitely in the gloom. The Sleeper tilted his head and opened his mouth. A long snakelike tongue flickered over thin colourless lips. "Jehoiakim," he said in a dry hiss, and let go.
Karel took a step back. "You can come out now, Lara," he said without turning around.
Lara's mouth quirked. Of course…
Reasoning that it might not be a good idea to approach a newly awakened Nephili while holding a Lux Veritatis weapon, she set it down on the sand and cautiously crept closer.
She felt like an intruder as she watched them stare into each other's eyes. The other one raised a hand again, gently this time, and touched it to Karel's temple.
"How did you know I was there?" she murmured as she drew nearer.
"How did I know you'd ignore my advice?" countered Karel, but her attention was taken entirely by the Sleeper…by Amiel…as it lowered its hand and turned its head with slow deliberation.
She could hardly bear to meet the eyes that burned into her like twin scarlet searchlights. It made the hairs on the back of her neck rise in alarm, and suddenly Lara knew how the lone gazelle must feel under the lioness' piercing stare, small, horribly exposed, and marked for death.
It was all she could do to stop herself from flinching as the creature leaned close-too close-and sniffed at her with jerking movements of its head, wide nostrils flaring as it took in her scent. Its proximity triggered every primitive warning system in her body, her pulse accelerating madly as jolts of adrenaline washed through her, and every instinct screamed at her to move, run.
My second close Nephilim encounter of the day. Not quite as…gratifying as the first one.
Karel was simultaneously speaking to it, in a language she didn't understand but recognised as Hebrew. It turned its head in his direction without taking its eyes from Lara. Its stare was unblinking-literally, since it had no eyelids. And with no discernible irises or pupils either, it was like looking at two holes cut into a skull filled with fierce crimson light.
"It'll be some time before he reorients himself," said Karel, looking closely into the savagely elegant face.
It spoke a few words in a difficult rasp. Karel listened, then said, "He wants you to know that he's pleased you're helping our cause."
It bared long teeth at her in what could have been a smile, or equally, a statement of its intention to feast on her flesh. "My pleasure," she said faintly.
"I think you should leave him alone for a while," Karel said. "He's not accustomed to human company. Come on," he added, as she remained transfixed by fear and fascination in equal measure, taking her hand and pulling her away. "If you want to watch, you can do so from up there." He looked up to the catwalk, then back to her, and she allowed herself to be removed; not that she'd have had much of a choice, had it come to a contest of physical strength.
"You certainly are fond of danger, aren't you," he remarked as they crossed the grated floor.
"I used to live on it."
"And now?"
"I'm not sure," she said thoughtfully. "Why do you ask?"
"Because I have an assignment you might consider worth your while."
"Ah-ha. You want me to recover the Seal of Solomon."
"That's a trail that's been cold for six hundred years. Do you think you could pick it up again?"
"If I can't, no-one can," she replied, but inwardly she felt the same churning unease that had gripped her as she stood above the Tombs of Ancients, knowing she would have to descend, wanting to be anywhere else. If she'd been given free choice, she would never again have left the daylight behind to crawl beneath suffocating, oppressive tons of rock and dirt.
She swung up onto the ladder and Karel followed her, their feet making dull metallic clangs on the treads. It was even darker there than at floor level, the bright aluminium railings fading to ghost-grey before disappearing into shadow above them and to either side.
"Tell me, Lara," Karel said as they reached the top. "There must be something you want…something that your wealth couldn't get for you…
Lara swallowed hard and took several seconds to answers. "A few years ago," she began, "some friends of mine were murdered…in Africa…all I had to go on was a bullet I took from one of the bodies." In fact she had had to use a hunting knife to cut it out from where it was lodged in Putai's chest, tears of rage and despair falling onto the still face, the sand around them formed into viscous red clumps.
Her fingers crept upwards unconsciously to touch the Amulet. "I couldn't match it to any known weapon. I never found the killers. But I promised myself that someday I would..."
"So you want revenge."
She hesitated, about to open her mouth and form the word justice instead-and then she thought, why soften it? Why lie?
"Say it, Lara." Karel's voice was low and compelling in her ear.
Her eyes lifted, clear and hard. "Yes. I want revenge."
He contemplated her without replying, then turned to look back down at Amiel. The expression on his face never altered, but she thought that perhaps he seemed…sad? wistful? as they watched the other Nephili, unsteady on his clawed feet, moving this way and that as he took in his surroundings.
"His blood, his essence, will be the catalyst to bring the rest of my kindred back to power. Our bloodline is the most powerful this world has ever known."
Karel tapped his fingers lightly against the railing. Lara decided that he wasn't sad, just pensive. She was learning to interpret the most subtle nuances of his moods.
He continued, "And with the last of the Blades in our hands…and with the Lux Veritatis all but destroyed…there will be none left who can stop us."
She turned to him with the earliest stirrings of anticipation.
"You said you wanted revenge. And you shall have it. You will rule the Nephilim by my side, and they will heed your command just as they heed mine. They will do anything you want, Lara…rule nations in your name…be the instruments of your retribution…"
His eyes, black as night, lingered in hers before he directed his gaze down into the arena again, and she did likewise.
Leaning on the railing in the enveloping obscurity with Karel close beside her, Lara saw her future beginning to take shape, nebulous as yet, and stretching down a long road into shadow…but these shadows she welcomed, and she smiled slowly in dark satisfaction.
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Quickest. Update. Everrr :-)
Thanks very much for all your lovely reviews last chapter, especially to those I haven't yet thanked personally, or haven't been able to (like the anonymous reviews) Everyone have a sugar muffin from my latest batch!
I'm really pleased that the wing scene went down so well, as I spent ages lovingly crafting it with fangirlish dedication. And you haven't seen the last of those wings, either.
Now, click that review button and bring meaning to Jordy's pathetic, weaselly existence... ;)