23
ICE CLIFFS
Nikola worked it out. His stomach sank, fear spreading through his ancient blood as he realised what Helen had done – what she'd been planning all along. He should have known that she had some insane scheme, pursuing the General deep into unknown mountains. She'd made a serious miscalculation.
He tried to catch her eye without Apries noticing. Helen was edging forward into the belly of the cave under the guise of hunting out the intruder, firelight flickering over the barrel of her gun. The intruder she'd bloody well gone and invited along, thought Tesla crossly. If he made it out of here alive and in this case he really meant if, he was going to give her a right piece of his mind and possibly make a snack of her protege.
General Apries was none the wiser, black eyes darting at shadows in the tunnel. His ears pricked up at the sound of bodies hitting rock. Sand creatures – falling one by one from the roof to the floor of the tunnel. Dead.
"What the hell is going on?" he demanded, as something shredded his army into a rippling carpet of bone.
"Buggered if I know," Helen lied, incredibly well, Nikola realised.
"Something's killing your army," Nikola filled in.
The sand creatures were falling faster, several hitting the ground at a time, necks snapped. Some tried to slip away into the corners of the room but they were pursued to bloody ends. The last one put up a fight, screeching and hurling rocks until it was snatched into the darkness. An eerie silence followed.
Nikola never thought that he'd miss the sound of sand creatures scratching about but he did. He looked around, not at the tunnel but the door behind. Its stone was unyielding, offering no glimpse of its secrets or chance of escape. He was going not going to make it out of here alive. If Apries was anything like his brother then he could teleport his arse to safety. Nikola had no such luxury.
Everyone's eyes were drawn instantly to movement.
Pacing through the centre of the tunnel was Nikola's old Professor from University. The world's last true Immortal and keeper of the balance between two dangerous species. His long coats swept over the stones with a soft hiss. Tall, slender and surreal, the firelight licked around him as though greeting an old friend.
"Priest..." General Apries tensed, claws flexing slightly as he caught sight of the Immortal. It was not their first meeting. He tilted his head, eyes blacker than the tunnel. His amour glinted. "Well, well, well..."
Nikola's Professor arched a narrow eyebrow.
600 BCE, MEMPHIS, EGYPT
Limestone pillars reached up toward the heavens, shining in the morning sun like rays of the immortal god himself. Most of the temple was buried by seas of mist, lost in the rising surge that left the walls – several hundred metres long – gleaming with moisture. They were capped with decorative carvings doubling in purpose both to scare and impress the thousands of pilgrims that traversed the known world to visit the library within. Its guests were met by eight statues guarding the gates, towering half the height of the wall. They held spears with flags flapping against the wind, empty eyes gazing at the festering city. Lines of sphinxes sat either side of the walkway, lounging like lions on the savannah.
Hut-Ka-Ptah, birthplace of the empire's name – 'The White Walls', enduring and beautiful were crumbling into the sands. Its glory was lost but not its heart. The empire may have moved to Thebes and Memphis later captured by the Assyrians but the grand temple survived by the grace of local Egyptian Princes who still made the journey to pray at its alters and peruse its secret documents, too fragile to be moved.
Two of these young princes, eight and twelve, raced through the granite hallway with torches nearly blown out by the speed of their bare feet against the stone. They skidded around each corner, laughter echoing through the complex until they scampered into the depths of the main library.
The Head Priest turned slowly, lowering his patient gaze to the boys as they assembled in front of him. To them, he was so tall that the boys called him, 'statue'.
"Amasis... Apries..." he drawled each of their names so that they knew they were in trouble. Prince Amasis, by far the most curious, set his torch in a holder and scurried over to the shelves, running his sticky hands over the papyrus until he found the scroll that they had been reading yesterday. Apries was less enthusiastic, seating himself at the table, boredly flicking the edge of his quill. He was the future King but like most young Princes, he much preferred to be outside learning the art of war rather than locked in a cellar with dusty parchments.
The recent wars had lowered their numbers but there were still many Immortals left in the world, thousands even and just as many vampires. It was important to keep a close eye on the vampires, shaping the young ones and thus the next generation. The Immortals had taken up roles in the temples and nurseries, rearing baby princes and princesses.
These two though, the Priest had to admit, were a real pair. It was never a good idea to have polar opposites for heirs. It usually ended in war unless he could manage to knock a bit of sense into them – even out the balance, so to speak.
Apries stabbed the table with the sharp nib of his quill. The Priest sighed softly. This was going to be harder than he thought.
"I might have guessed," Apries shifted at the sight of his former Priest. There was not a day of the thousands of years on his face and he couldn't help but wonder how Immortals ended up looking old. Unless they were immensely old. "If you've come to give me a lesson I think you'll find your precious libraries burned down long ago. Humanity... what can you do?"
The Professor flinched. Apries was quite right. Humanity had destroyed the troves of knowledge carefully collected by Immortals and Vampires alike. "You know why I have come."
Nikola was doing his absolute best to become invisible against the door. A vampire was going to die and he was determined that it wouldn't be him.
"I might have gone after Amasis – even Tesla," the Professor glanced briefly to the scientist, "if you hadn't come here. You know this is a forbidden world – forbidden for all of us. Now I have no choice. Tesla -if you know what's good for you, you'll leave this place and never return,"he added, directed at the scientist.
"Y-yes..." he stuttered, backing away from the door. Helen took him by the arm and tugged him out into the tunnel away from the two ancient creatures. "You could have bloody told me what you were up to!" he hissed at Helen, stepping over the corpses of slaughtered sand creatures.
"Nikola, you can't keep a secret to save your life."
True.
"Don't suppose you gave any thought to what'll happen when Apries teleports out of here and I'm the only vampire within claw's reach?"
"Oh Nikola – the Professor is not going to kill you. You're only half-vampire, remember?"
It was the one and only time Nikola didn't snap at her for pointing that out.
"I wasn't even sure he would come. It's not like he has a phone or anything. We need to get to Ashley – and Joe."
"Yeah, he's probably left your fan club after you fed him to Amasis..." Nikola pointed out.
"He'll forgive me," she hoped rather than knew. "I can't believe it, he's killed every sand creature. I was banking on saving a few."
Ashley and Joe were far above in the mouth of the small passage however the land bridge that had allowed Helen and Tesla into the tunnel was gone, destroyed by the earthquake.
"Mum?" Ashley called cautiously, waving.
"For the record, you're grounded," Helen muttered at her daughter. "Did you bring rope?" Her question was answered when Ashley threw down the end of a nylon rope.
"Are we coming down or are you guys coming up?" she asked, not sure which was safer.
"It's snowing in here," Nikola whispered to Helen, pointing up at the soft flecks wafting around them. "There must be an exit nearby. It'll take days to get back to the pass and I doubt we've got that long."
He had a point. Helen waved down Joe and her daughter.
Amasis held the terrified pilot at gunpoint, watching the mountain peaks fade away until they were indistinguishable from the puffs of white cloud. The bodies of the co-pilot and crew littered the plane, stains of blood flourishing the walls with a grisly reminder of the terror a few hours before.
Apries and the Professor were still talking as the group snuck down, winding their way through the Throat of Thoth toward a speck of daylight at the end of the tunnel. Nikola was right, it was snowing in the tunnel and the snow was getting heavier as they traversed the rubble.
"What are they doing?" Ashley asked, glancing back over at the two figures slowly circling each other.
"Preparing to fight," Helen whispered back. "It is no light thing for two immortal creatures to duel."
Another soft quake shook the tunnel. All of them stumbled falling amongst the rocks as more fragments of roof caved in and crashed down around them. A rock the size of a car landed next to Joe, shattering into a dozen pieces next to his head, falling away from him into the cave. He was too shocked to move.
"I don't know what you did, Nikola – but this place is unstable."
"Seriously, I just shifted one rock." He was about to continue his defence when he heard it. Another rockfall, far in the distance. Water pushing past it. Ice snapping. "Oh shiiiiiit..." he hissed, hustling back to his feet. "Run, now!"
They barely made it fifty metres when the first surge of glacier water poured through the hole into their tunnel. It slammed into the ground, shifting boulders out of its way. The freezing water frothed, forced out of the tiny hole in a roar.
Everyone paused to watch. There was silence then a cold wind rushing over them, blowing away the snow.
Apries and the Immortal were hit first, the torrent knocking them down like bowling pins. They thrashed against the water as it threw them into rocks along with the bodies of the sand creatures, swirling around them like shrivelled Autumn leaves.
The others ran, cold spray on their backs and the first trickles of water rising underfoot as they bolted toward the end of the tunnel. The light in front grew bigger. The mouth of the tunnel opened out with a jagged edge gaping at the world. They could see the beginnings of mountains. A smear of blue sky. Nikola looked over his shoulder – and screamed.
Dr Will Zimmerman was asleep. Bits of chip were sprinkled over his shirt, ground into the couch as he rolled onto his stomach. The TV was on but the original program had finished hours ago. Something obscure was playing now – the kind of thing that the networks pretended they didn't buy then sort to hide in the wee hours of the morning when only very drunk people were awake.
Druitt had been prepared to render the irritating protege unconscious but there was no need. He stepped silently through the office toward the monitors. John bent over, knocking the mouse to wake it up. A few clicks and he was scrolling through the Sanctuary's files, hunting until he found it.
The screen prompted him for a password.
John hesitated, clearly changing his mind after a moment's thought. The folder unlocked though he seemed slightly disappointed.
"That hurts..." he whispered to Helen.
He inserted a USB drive into the computer and started copying. A snore from the couch told him he was in no danger.
The water hit Nikola like a wall, dislocating vertebrae as it churned against him, pushing him through the cave. He was helpless as the others sank into the water. He reached for Helen just before she went under, their fingertips brushing. Then she was gone.
Nikola had no time to think. Suddenly the world became impossibly bright. He was outside, the glare giving way to a perfect vista of the ice locked valley. He was still going forwards, flying through the air – then dropping sharply. Nikola looked down and saw nothing but white beneath. They'd been thrown clear of the tunnel and entered free-fall over the mountains.
He yelped, flailing uselessly at the water.
Boulders started dropping out of the wave, snatched from the torrent by gravity. They seemed to fall for an age before smashing into the snow below, rolling down the mountainside until they looked like fluffy white snowballs.
Nikola fell faster. The water around him was losing all its strength. Other bodies were falling, sand creatures raining down. Amongst them was a flare of dark brown hair.
"Helen!" he screamed, trying to move toward her.
She was groggy, blood running from her forehead. It took her a moment to realise what was happening. "Nikola!"
They all smashed to the ground together – a brand new waterfall forming at the mouth of the cave above. It tickled down in a serene curtain, giving now indication of the violence of its birth.
Joe was amazed to find his eyes open. Daylight. Snow – god lots of snow. He tried to turned his head but the perfectly Joe-shaped hole in the snow was a snug fit and deep, at least ten feet. Nothing seemed to hurt but it was impossible to tell if that was because he was unscathed or more likely, very cold.
A shadow passed over his hole – then a rope dangled in. Surprised that his hands worked, Joe took hold, wrapping the nylon around his wrists. The slack vanished, a sharp tightening of the rope into his gloves – then he was pulled free.
Ashley found Tesla knelt over her mother's body, his hands cupping her face tenderly. She stepped back, not sure what to do as Tesla leaned down, whispering something against Helen's ear. Helen awoke a moment later, reaching up to hold Tesla's wrist, squeezing it softly, dare she believe it – affectionately.
"Where are the others?" Joe rasped, kneeling down to pick a broken vampire claw out of the snow. He held the curved, sharp object up to the light, then cringed. "Ew..."
"Apries is alive," Helen replied, kneeling now. "And I don't have any increased desire to kill Nikola, so I guess our Immortal is too."
"Gee thanks, Helen... What about -" Nikola pointed up toward the cave and its fresh waterfall dribbling into an ice lake.
"There's no point going back until we have those stones."
"Then we are going back," he replied carefully.