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Chapter 24

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Jayce and Leeta walked off the top step and onto a plaza that stretched to the massive doors. Trash and debris littered the plaza. Against the wall of the Pinnacle were chalky, coral-like statues of dead Pilgrims who had come before.

The doors were taller than any ship he’d seen back on Hemenway. They were built for giants, not those who’d died at the threshold.

“Ah, no more steps.” Leeta leaned forward and rested her hands on her knees.

“Well, there’s good news and bad news. Bad news is that I don’t see my group, good news is that they’re not any of the dead ones either.” Jayce kept his hilt in hand and walked across the line of statues.

“Now we wait?” Leeta kicked a bag away from a statue and pawed through the contents.

“Doesn’t seem to have worked for any of these guys,” Jayce said. “There’s a way inside, I can feel it.”

“Bet they could feel it too.” Leeta pulled out a rotten blanket and tossed it back into the bag.

Jayce started up at eternity, then looked away.

“Stings my eyes for some reason.” He put a hand against the Pinnacle to prop himself up as he yawned. “Tired. Yeah, tired right now.”

“Could it have something to do with all the walking we’ve been doing and not eating?” Leeta fiddled with the crochet of talismans and charms from the Syndicate slaver’s divining rods. “What’re we missing? There’s got to be some clue on how to get inside.”

“Dunno.” Jayce found a space between all the statues and set his back against it. “Maybe we should rest a bit.”

He slid down, already feeling relief in his legs and feet. He had almost reached the floor when Leeta grabbed him by the jacket and jerked him away with a surprising amount of force. He went sprawling across the plaza.

“Hey! What was that for?” He rubbed his chin where it had struck the polished stones.

“All of them”—Leeta shuffled backward—“none of the bodies died from violence. No defensive wounds. No shock or horror on their faces. Look.

She was right. All the statues looked almost comfortable in the moment they had died. Some were still wrapped in blankets or had borrowed the shoulder of the dead next to them for a pillow.

Jayce hopped to his feet.

“Thanks.” He yawned hard, and Leeta followed suit.

“Stop it.” She pinched the flesh of one hand between the thumb and pointer finger. “There’s something in the air here . . . something making us tired.”

“Then we’d better think fast or start slapping ourselves.” Jayce went to the enormous door and ran his hand along the mirror-smooth surface. He felt a slight depression but couldn’t see it when he took his hand away. He touched it again, then detected another one a few steps closer to the center of the door.

“What are you doing?” Leeta asked.

“Something here . . .” He ran his thumb over the stone in his hilt, then felt the edges of the invisible groove in the door. “Leeta, any of the statues have Veil weapons like I do?”

“No. Some had blades and arrows,” she said.

“None are dressed like Sodality either. If the Sodality knows about this place, and what’s in it, then they must have gotten inside. Paragons all have Veil stone hilts. Come here.” He motioned her over.

His eyelids became heavy, and his head drooped forward.

A sharp slap to his cheek jolted him away from the cusp of sleep.

“Sorry.” Leeta kissed him on the same cheek. “Do whatever it is you’re going to do quick before we both get too woozy.”

“Let’s give this a try.” He wrapped an arm around her waist and pressed the Veil stone on his hilt into one of the small indentations.

The light around them dimmed. Jayce felt his consciousness blink and he was inside a long, narrow hallway with a curved ceiling. He stepped toward the lit end of the passage and ignited his veil sword. The blade was solid and glowed white hot along the edges.

It cast ivory light against the walls. Sections of polygonal masonry blended into simple bricks, then into scales and tight grids. The tunnel looked like it had been built one small section at a time by different cultures over thousands of years, all of them a mishmash of styles and material.

He looked back for his companion, but he was alone.

“Leeta?” He turned back but all that was behind him was a solid wall, no depressions for keys or Veil stones.

“Jayce?” He heard her voice like she was just on the other side of the wall, but there was no way to get to her.

“Damn this place. Leeta! Get to the end of the tunnel and I’ll meet you there!” He took off at a slow jog. The brightness at the end dimmed the closer he got to it. He exited the tunnel and skidded to a stop and nearly fell over the edge of a drop-off. He was in a circular room with several more tunnel exits. In the center was an oblong Veil stone several times his size, floating over the chasm he’d nearly fallen into.

Cold fog fell from the large stone. Beneath it, the galaxy turned ever so slowly. Stars winked and flashed as the fog drifted through it.

“This has not been my best idea,” he said to himself.

“Jayce!” Leeta came out of a tunnel adjacent to his. “What happened?”

“We made it inside . . . I presume,” he said. “Wow. Do you think this is the stone I’m supposed to—No, can’t be.”

“Jayce, I don’t like this anymore. Your master’s not here and we should’ve seen him by now, don’t you think? Some sign of him.” She rubbed her hands together.

“They couldn’t wait at the door or the sleep would’ve got them. They didn’t die there either, so they must’ve come inside.” He walked around the large Veil stone. “Or we’re ahead of them. That’s not a good . . . Hey, look at the size of this one. It could power an entire planet, couldn’t it?”

He came to the other side and found an open doorway, the arc curved to a sharp upward point. Across the threshold was a disc that bobbed up and down ever so slightly.

“Oh,” Leeta said from behind him. “That seems to be our only way onward and upward. I’m helping, by the way.”

“Let’s get on it at the same time. It’ll be tight but there’s room.” He took her hand and they stepped onto the disc as one. Leeta put her head against Jayce’s chest.

Jayce didn’t feel any acceleration. One moment they were on the disc, the next they rose through the air without any sensation at all.

“I just want to go home,” Leeta said.

“We’re getting there.” Jayce hugged her with his non-weapon arm. “Worse comes to worst . . . you take my anchor. Drop it and you’ll be with the rest of my party when they leave. I’ll take yours and deal with the Syndicate waiting for you.”

“You won’t make it.” She nuzzled against him.

“They’re expecting you—all bound up and helpless—not a Paragon with a fully powered Veil hilt and harness.” He looked down at the empty ring on the front of one shoulder. “I’ll have all that and the element of surprise.”

“We’ll be on the wrong side of the galaxy from each other,” she said.

“Have them bring you to Primus, the capital world. I’ll meet you there eventually,” he said.

“There’s a hundred billion souls on that world,” she said. “You think we’d just bump into each other?”

“But only one Citadel. That’s where the Paragons are headquartered. I’ll meet you there . . . or I’ll find someone there that knows where you are.”

“Why are you so kind to me?” She hugged him harder.

“I have a better chance at life with your anchor than you do with it, so I ca—” The tube blinked and Jayce glimpsed a throne room full of figures in dark armor. It blinked again and there was a balcony looking over an endless cityscape.

The disc stopped. It rotated slowly and stopped in front of a set of double doors that didn’t so much as open as crumble down the center line, the broken bits moving perpendicular to gravity and molding back into the tube wall. Beyond was an onyx statue of a Paragon, a short sword run through his chest, Veil hilt in hand. His face was hidden by his helmet, but the figure appeared human. The statue reached to the sky; motes of light floated down the statue’s arm like it was hollow inside.

“Creepy.” Leeta clutched his arm.

“Let’s get off at the same time and I’ll check it out,” he said, and they stepped off the disc. He pulled away from her and her touch ran down his hand and brushed against his fingertips. The statue changed as he walked around it, an internal light source giving him glimpses of star clusters and nebulae. The blade at the base was carved from the same material and couldn’t be moved.

“I think it’s OK.”

Jayce turned around, but there was no one to hear him.

“Leeta? Leeta!” He ran to the lift. The disc was still there, but there was no trace of the young woman.

“Damn it!” Jayce swiped his sword across the lift entrance and left cuts on both sides. The damage repaired itself within moments. Jayce ran a hand through his hair. He touched his anchor band and felt the talisman was still there.

Jayce raised a hand to the statue. “Who’re you supposed to be? What’s with the levels and the giant stones and . . . where did Leeta go? Where’s Maru? Dastin? Anybody? I’ll take Sarai at this point.”

Jayce sat on the statue’s pedestal.

“I saw people in that throne room . . . didn’t look friendly. Giant city place? How did they fit that in here? You know”—he looked up at the statue of the mortally wounded Paragon—“I’m an excellent river rat. Bad ones get eaten. Maybe I should’ve stayed at home. Kept at the Scales until my brain went to mush and I turned to the rotgut and burnt out at forty-five. Don’t knock it. Lots of fighters better than me went that way.”

He frowned at the disc.

“That would be a life without meaning or purpose. I wouldn’t have been living, I’d just be . . . being.” He looked back at the statue. “Bet you went looking for something greater and look how you ended up. You saw Leeta, right? Pretty. Nice. Smells like flowers and vanilla, somehow. I turned my back on her and poof.”

He stood up and paced around the statue.

“Now here I am talking to some kind of volcanic glass art piece that doesn’t answer and I’m about to annoy myself.” Jayce poked a finger at the dropped blade, which struck him as being oddly familiar. The statue‘s weapon nudged slightly at his touch.

“Ahh!” the statue cried out and bent forward, its dark shell cracking as the man within broke out.

Jayce backpedaled, his mind wild with fear and flailing to react to the insanity as the statue stepped off its dais and hit the floor.

Jayce wasn’t in the lift station anymore; he was on a starship. A large chamber opened out to an enormous viewing window. A dusty red world turned beneath the ship; a yellow-and-orange nebula stretched across the distant void. The Paragon was no longer a towering statue, but a human-sized warrior. The Paragon thrust an arm out and stopped himself from falling against the deck. Blood dripped down the knife in his chest and spattered against the dark metal plating and his hand.

“What the—” Jayce raised his sword arm, but his hilt was gone.

It lay next to the injured Paragon.

“Why are you fighting me?” a dark voice rumbled. Jayce spun around. A tall man in onyx armor with a bloodred-light weave beneath the plates was propped against a throne. The chair was made up of the same clear stone run through with stars and galactic phenomena like so much of what he’d seen in the Veil. Long white hair dangled from the speaker’s scalp, but he didn’t look up at Jayce or the Paragon.

“You . . . you’ll end it all,” the Paragon said. He swiped at the side of his helmet, and it fell away. Blood sprang up from the inside when it bounced against the deck. He was human with blond hair and green eyes, his face in agony, blood seeping from his mouth and down his chin with every breath.

“No, I’ll save everyone.” The other man’s voice cut through Jayce like ice. He gave off an aura that made Jayce’s skin crawl. “You’ve seen the truth, haven’t you?”

He looked up and Jayce cried out. The face of the man in the black-and-red armor was half flesh, half skull. The same visage Jayce saw when his spirit had traveled over the sky wall. Neither of the fighters reacted to Jayce’s cries or even to his presence.

The Paragon pulled the knife from his chest and a glut of blood splattered against Jayce’s hilt next to him on the deck. The Paragon picked it up, and his wound glowed with Veil light. He got to his feet and ignited his blade with a flick of his wrist, just like Jayce had learned to do.

“The Cycle will only destroy us.” The half-skull man raised an arm and shadows emanated from him. “We break free and our destiny will be ours, Taras. Why do you want to end here? Because of some prophecy you’ll die to fulfill?”

Taras. That was the name carved into the hilt. The Paragon was Sarai’s father. If this was his final moment, then the other man must be the Tyrant. Jayce froze. Part of him wondered if Sarai should have been here to see this.

“There is no freedom in slavery, Mutarin,” Taras said. “We must live. We must die. This is the Cycle and you can’t control it.”

The Tyrant laughed.

“I have already freed myself from death. You should see the glory that’s waiting for us, Taras. In fact . . . let me show you.” The Tyrant raised a double-handed hilt overhead and a massive broadsword sprang into being. He lunged at Taras and the Paragon deflected the strike with the first move of the Flow kata.

Jayce backed away as the two attacked each other. His foot bumped into something, and he looked down at an alien with short brown fur over his face. One arm was missing at the elbow and a leg was lopped off above the knee. The stumps oozed blood, and Jayce was pretty sure he was already dead.

Beside the alien lay Maru. The Wottan was deathly pale, a gash across his stomach and one arm pressed against the cut to keep his intestines inside his body. His skin was tighter than Jayce remembered; then he realized he was looking at a much younger version of Maru.

“Maru!” Jayce touched the Paragon’s shoulder.

A blow from out of nowhere landed against his chin and sent him reeling back. His head bounced off a wall. His hilt was back in his hand, and he waved it at whatever had just struck him.

“Jayce? My goodness, I’m so sorry.” Maru put the knife edge of his hand against Jayce’s wrist and kept the blade angled away from him.

Jayce’s eyes went wide with surprise. Maru wasn’t injured—at all—and they were back in the long hallway full of statues in their recesses.

“Why did you punch me?” Jayce felt a welt forming under his bottom lip.

“You appeared out of nowhere and my reflexes got the better of me. Are you injured? How did you get here?” Maru asked.

Jayce raised his hands in despair. He looked over the hilt, which was devoid of any of blood. He read the name engraved on the end cap, then looked back down the hallway for Taras.

“Where’s . . . anyone else?” Jayce asked. “Leeta? Have you seen her? Human. Female. Really pretty. Seems to like me. I don’t find that combination that often.”

Maru’s brow perked up.

“Sarai and I became separated when we came through the doors,” Maru said. “She wasn’t in the giant stone chamber. I have been alone for several hours. Who is Leeta? She must be an Attuned like you or of a different Veil school.”

“She’s Attuned. Got kidnapped from her world and brought here to pull a stone out for the Syndicate,” Jayce said. “Can you scry for her? She’s all alone and unarmed. We need you to—”

“Only Attuned with a Veil stone can enter the Pinnacle, Jayce,” Maru said. “You had to use it to get through the Gate of Eternal Slumber.”

“One, you could’ve warned me about the sleeping trap. Two, that’s not right because I got her through with just my stone. I had my arm around her when I plugged it in.” Jayce mimed using his hilt as a key.

“That’s not possible,” Maru said, shaking his head. “That’s why only Sarai and I entered the Pinnacle. Dastin, Neff, and Eabani are waiting for us at the base of the stairs. I told them to wait ten hours for us, then break their anchors if we haven’t returned. I assumed we’d reach the Pinnacle before you. As for the sleeping ward . . . I didn’t know about it. This other person . . . the Veil tests us. It will tempt us with our deepest desires to keep us from the Pinnacle. Are you sure she’s real?”

“I’m not making Leeta up.” Jayce pointed to the flower bracelet she’d given him. “You think I’d make one of these for myself for kicks and giggles?”

Maru held up a hand. “I believe you. But Sarai and I had to use our blade stones as keys individually. We came through and she was in a tunnel next to mine that led to a massive way stone.”

“That’s what happened to us—Wait, hold on.” Jayce put his hands on his hips. “But Leeta doesn’t have a blade stone.”

“Knowledge learned through millennia of Sodality expeditions into the Veil and to the Pinnacle are consistent: a blade stone is needed to pass the Gate of Everlasting Dawn.” Maru paused. “Hmm, High Paragon Vitrix the Seventh once wrote a rather lengthy codicil on how our translations of the first records were likely incorrect from linguistic shifts over thousands of years. He speculated that the Gate of Everlasting Dawn should be the Gate of Eternal Slumber. I will most certainly add this information to the Paragon archives once we return home. As for this Leeta, perhaps I am wrong now, I often am. But if you carried her across the threshold, then that is certainly in contravention of the sacred texts.”

“Which you just realized are wrong,” Jayce said.

“The name was wrong. The method to access the—Perhaps your judgment is clouded by a hormonal surge. Dastin tells me this is rather common in postadolescent humans. You and Sarai are of that age.”

“No surging with Sarai. None! She left me behind after I dragged her out of the river. She mention any of that to you?”

“No, but I suspected,” Maru said. “Curious that she and I were separated after entering the Pinnacle but you and this Leeta were not.”

“Why do you . . . not know the reason that happened?” Jayce asked.

“I assume it is the Pinnacle continuing to test all who enter. The Sodality has speculations on this phenomenon, but no concrete theories or explanations. Paragons strive toward a more perfect understanding of all things. But some puzzles are more difficult than others. Come, let us keep moving. Tell me what’s happened to you.”

Jayce got Maru up to speed, giving extra details about Leeta to prove to Maru—and himself—that she was a real person.

Maru listened attentively, then stopped when they reached a statue of a four-armed warrior wielding a pole arm on either side of his body.

“Sarai said you two became separated in the river. Likely she did not want you to reach the Pinnacle and claim the stone at the top,” Maru said. “She has a number of insecurities that I have been unable to train out of her.”

“And when were you going to tell me that this hilt belonged to her father?” Jayce asked.

“When the time was right,” Maru said. “I worried that knowing you had such an auspicious weapon would go to your head. Make you overly confident in dangerous situations.”

“Maru . . . can we stop with the secrets? Because now I’m paranoid that if I blink too hard you’ll disappear and then I’ll be left here with absolutely no clues as to what to do next. And it’s not just me, Leeta needs you. You can do something with these, right?” He pointed to his anchor.

“The anchors are locked to the gates they came from, but if they’re damaged before the seal breaks, it can release the bearer in the vicinity of their home gate,” Maru said. “It’s not recommended. You could reincorporate inside a wall or underground or—”

“Not what I want to hear!” Jayce shouted. “I just—Damn it!”

“I understand your frustration,” Maru said.

“Do you? I told someone that needed help—your help—that there was a chance she might be able to survive this nightmare.” Jayce turned away and crossed his arms.

“Did you tell her I had the skills and ability you hoped I had?” Maru asked.

“No, I just said you’re one of the most skilled Paragons in the entire Sodality and if anyone would be able to help her, it would be you.” Jayce lowered his head.

“Then you told the truth and acted with kindness to one in need. What more could anyone ask of you?”

“I was going to swap anchors with her if you couldn’t help,” Jayce said.

“There’s altruism, and then there’s stupidity,” Maru said. “Are you prepared to wield a soul stone from the Pinnacle, Jayce?”

“As I have no idea how to do that, I’ll go with no.”

“If you returned to her gate to fight the Syndicate, you’d likely explode trying to control powers you do not understand. We cannot save everyone, Jayce. We must save those we can when we can,” Maru said. “Being a Paragon is not easy. Even we have limits.”

“I couldn’t help Kay,” Jayce said. “I feel guilty enough for losing a friend. I’d rather not lose anyone else if I can help it.”

“Sarai didn’t need you when she fell into the river?” Maru asked.

“Well, that . . . that shouldn’t count.”

“It certainly mattered to her. And me. And countless others across the Governance,” Maru said. “Many Attuned lack your essential humanity, Jayce. You will become a great Paragon one day and I will be honored to continue your training. Now, I fear for both Sarai and this Leeta person right now. We need to find them.”

“And we do that by . . .”

“We continue the ascent. The Pinnacle is the domain of the Sainted One. I suspect he is the intelligence that tests everyone who enters. The soul stones he protects are of particular importance,” Maru said.

“They have something to do with the Cycle?”

“That is the assumption, but no one has ever made it this far before,” Maru said.

“I’m honored. Hold on, what was that vision with Taras and the Tyrant that I had?” Jayce asked. “Did that really happen?”

“It was not a vision. You stepped into the past,” Maru said. “Marshall Tulkan and I were gravely injured during the initial fight with the Tyrant. Tulkan, he is a Borasti. Downy fur. Arm. Leg?” Maru touched himself where Jayce had seen the other alien injured.

“That’s him,” Jayce said.

“You were definitely shown the past. Sarai’s father struck down the Tyrant and stopped him from reaching the . . . It isn’t relevant. We need to find Sarai before she’s tested beyond her abilities.”

“No, no! I want to know everything, Maru. Why are you hiding things from me? Is this a Paragon trait or a you thing?”

“Not every secret will make you happy, Jayce. You know as much as Sarai at the moment, and if we dither here, she is at risk. Do you want to have a tantrum or do you want to find her?”

“Tantrum? I wasn’t—Let’s keep moving, then.” Jayce looked away, embarrassed.

“Then to that stairwell.” Maru pointed to a corner at the end of the statuary hall and an opening to stairs leading upward.

“Where did that—You know what? I don’t need to understand everything. Let’s keep going. Leeta and Sarai need me. Us. Mostly you.”


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