Ephemeral: Chapter 26

Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash

At first Clara could not process what was happening. She'd seen His Eminence take the sedative! She'd seen His Eminence fall asleep! But now His Eminence was squeezing her neck with a steely grip, making her see stars. In a few moments she would no longer be able to draw breath.

“Surprised?” His lips curled into an unpleasant sneer. “I believe you were trying to take something of mine.” His fingers dug into Clara's skin as he increased his pressure.

Clara tried to loosen his fingers with her own, but he merely squeezed harder. Clara’s chest burned; she felt paralyzed by terror, by lack of air. A wave of darkness clouded her vision. He's going to kill me!

At that moment, something buzzed and Ms. Lila appeared on a screen on the desk. “The intern has your coffee, sir.”

Raven! Happiness and dread co-mingled in Clara's throbbing head.

“Send it in,” Captain Karnak commanded. He loosened his grip, but still kept his hold on Clara's neck as the double doors opened. “I believe we have a mutual friend, Miss Milton.”

He twisted Clara about so she could see the the intern carrying Karnak's coffee.

But it wasn't Raven.

Clara's eyes widened in shock as Elder Proditor – the young Elder from the Almitas town hall! – approached the desk. He paused when he recognized Clara, then blushed slightly. “Your coffee, your Eminence.”

“Good. Are the Almitian Elders in their containment units?”

Proditor nodded, careful not to look at Clara. “Yes, sir. And we've taken the other Earthen conspirator as well. Caught her red-handed with an empty vial of sedative.”

Captain Karnak watched, bemused, as Clara's face contorted in horror. “And what of the Alden son?”

Here, the traitor frowned. “We do not have him in custody yet, but he can't escape for long. He was supposed to be with the ladies.”

Hope for Aaric trilled through Clara at this news, but she kept none for herself.

“No matter,” His Eminence said with a dismissive wave of his unoccupied hand. “Thanks to your intelligence, their paltry little plan did not succeed.” He thrust Clara onto the floor, then grabbed his cup of coffee. Had she not stretched out her hands at the last moment, she would have hit her face square on the photopetrium.

Clara lifted her eyes to Elder Proditor in grieved disbelief. How could you betray your beautiful people to a madman?!

Proditor avoided her gaze. “Shall I take this one also to the cells, your Eminence?”

“As you like,” Karnak said as he re-clasped the golden chain behind his neck and lay the Fire Stone over his heart. “They'll all be tried for treason next Elpis-rising, but that's the least of their concerns.” Here he tapped a button on his armband. “Commander Ballitor?”

“Your Eminence!” Clara heard him answer.

“Prepare to mobilize your troops. I want you ready to move into Almitas no later than ten degrees past Elpis-setting.”

Clara sat agape at this command. She saw the red flame dance in Karnak's eyes and glimpsed a blackened scar through an opening in his shirt where the Fire Stone had long lain against his muscled chest. The stone's searing power had clearly reached his heart as well. She looked away.

“How shall we prepare to engage?” Commander Ballitor asked. “To destroy or subdue?”

Dread clutched Clara's gut at the idea of the green Almitian hills getting ravaged with fire, of Mother Grace and her band of wise women never laughing again.

“Subdue, you fool,” Karnak said. “Unless you wish to raise your own food yourself.”

“No, sir. We will be ready at the at the appointed time.”

“Very well. You have your orders.” Captain Karnak switched off his armband and lounged in his seat. He smiled unpleasantly and put the tips of his fingers together as if calculating how best to make Clara suffer. “I am sorry your internship must be cut short. But you should always choose your friends wisely and your enemies more so.”

Clara slowly rose to her feet and looked the captain in the eye. “I don't believe you are sorry for anything, Captain Karnak,” she said with a confidence which surprised all in the room – including herself. Her mission's failure had ironically candled her courage; with little left to lose, she felt emboldened. Clara continued, “If you don't die of old age, you will die of madness – utterly empty and alone.”

Captain Karnak smirked, but the flames in his eyes writhed red. “Pity you must stand trial so soon. You would have made a wonderful court jester.” He nodded toward the unfaithful Elder.

“Come,” Proditor said, taking Clara's right arm. He held her so tightly, she dared not think of escape. Anyway, she now had nowhere to escape to. Soon all the Elders would be tried for treason and all Almitas would be enslaved to Agilis. She wondered as she turned away from the smug dictator whether slavery was preferable to outright destruction.

But she had not gone four steps before a crash sounded outside the wooden doors.

Proditor paused and looked with questioning eyes at His Eminence.

Captain Karnak's grin vanished, but he remained seated.

Lila buzzed, “Sir, it's that wo – ...”

BLAST!

That sounded like an electric staff!

Before Clara could fully comprehend what was going on, someone kicked the wooden doors inwards and there, panting as if she'd run uphill, stood Raven holding a blue-pulsing staff to her shoulder like a rifle.

Proditor let go of Clara's arm and dropped to the ground, his hands covering his head.

“Clara, get behind me,” Raven said, not taking her eyes off Captain Karnak.

Clara blinked as if seeing a hallucination. She had no idea how Raven had managed to escape custody nor gotten hold of a blast staff. Then she vaguely remembered Raven had taken Judo classes in college.

“Clara! Come on!” Raven barked. “The others will be here soon.”

Clara obeyed and went to Raven's right. Elder Proditor remained face down on the floor.

Captain Karnak grinned. “The penalty for treason is life imprisonment. The penalty for attempted murder is death.”

“Shall I do the honors, then?” Raven said, pointing her weapon to Captain Karnak's chest. “I hear you were quite successful at your last attempt. Shortly after you landed, right?”

Captain Karnak's face darkened.

“Now give us what we came for, and we'll see you get a fair trial,” Raven said.

“You ignorant foreigner,” Captain Karnak chuckled. The stone on his chest glowed brighter. “I think not.”

“Raven, he's mobilized the troops!” Clara said. “They'll be marching into Almitas after dark!”

Raven knit her brows together. “They say that trinket makes you immortal. I doubt it makes you invincible.”

“Let's test your hypothesis, shall we?” Captain Karnak stood swiftly to his feet. Without warning, the Fire Stone sent a blast of red laser-like energy right toward Raven's face.

She dodged it a split second before it nailed her between the eyes. She responded with a returning blue blast at Karnak's chest, but to no avail. The stone had formed a protective shield which masked his face down to the front of his feet. Raven's blue bolt fizzled audibly as it smoked against his ruby red glow.

His Eminence smiled. “You didn't really think a flimsy electric pulse could destroy this stone, did you?”

“I wasn't aiming for the stone,” Raven muttered.

His Eminence slowly took a step forward. “Come now, let's be diplomatic. You're studying diplomacy, aren't you?” He stepped closer. “In a few degrees, you will be entirely surrounded. So why don't you put the staff down? It will be far less messy.”

Raven cleared her throat and – without taking her eyes off Karnak – leaned ever so slightly to her right.

Clara caught the subtle movement. It was a signal. She moved to her right and noticed that Captain Karnak's force field only shielded his front, leaving his back and side entirely exposed. In her peripheral vision, she caught a brief nod from Raven and finally understood. A diversion! I'm supposed to be the diversion!

Clara scanned her surroundings for a possible distraction or at least something to throw. But she was too far from the desk.

“Why should I listen to you and lower my weapon?” Raven asked, backing up slowly. “You'll kill us no matter what I do.”

“Ah,” Karnak smiled, “but there are many ways to die; some are more painful than others.”

Raven adjusted her grip on the blast staff; her hands were sweating. “Then what will you tell the Vitae Conglomerate when our transport arrives? The V. C. won't ignore a significant financial investment gone awry. What if they launch an in-depth investigation and send more people to this planet?”

His Eminence shrugged. “I doubt the V. C. would trouble itself for a mere handful of graduate students. Perhaps some unfortunate accident occurred shortly after your landing.” He stepped closer. “Elpis 7 is still an untamed planet, after all.”

Raven had run out of small talk and was rapidly running out of space. She took a step backward to maintain some distance between herself and His Eminence. In a few steps, she'd have her back against the wooden doors, and he'd be close enough to disarm her.

Come on Clara! Her heart jack-hammered against her ribs. Think! Diversion, diversion, divert … DIVE!

Knowing that she'd lose her nerve if she overthought it, Clara closed her eyes and made a running leap toward Captain Karnak – something between a tackle and a handspring prep.

The madman caught her approaching from his left and turned toward Clara with his arms bracing behind his virtual shield.

That was the opportunity Raven needed. Without hesitation, she blasted Captain Karnak and caught his vulnerable right side.

The force of the blast sent both him and Clara sprawling against the hard stone floor. Dazed, Clara opened her eyes from a half-recumbent position caddy-cornered to the still-prostrate Proditor. The smell of something burning revived her.

Captain Karnak sputtered and coughed, then focused the Fire Stone's laser-like energy on cauterizing his gaping wound. The gem's power thus engaged, his protective shield flickered, weakened.

Almost immediately, the electric staff hummed in anticipation of another pulse.

“What are you doing?!” Clara asked as Raven took aim again. “This wasn't the plan!”

“No, Clara,” Raven said, not taking her eyes off of Karnak. “This just wasn't your plan.”

BLAST!

Clara barely covered her face with her arm in time. She looked down and saw some of Karnak's blood on her own blouse. Clara, unnerved by this unexpected second attack, looked at Raven with wide eyes. The captain was already down, but she had hit him again – this time badly damaging his shoulder and severing the gold chain about his neck. The heavy Fire Stone rolled down his chest, end over end across the black marbled floor until it stopped an inch before Raven's feet.

His Eminence was wroth! He raised himself onto his good elbow. Curses spewed from his mouth like refuse from a severed sewer line. But even quicker than the curses came the dark red blood which oozed dangerously from his body.

Clara felt sick to her stomach and immobilized by shock. She'd never known Raven to be violent, and this mission was not supposed to be an assassination! She wanted to shout that at the top of her lungs, but she'd mislaid her voice.

Then her ears suddenly picked up the distant sound of boots marching through the corridor outside the doors. “Raven, th-they're coming!” Her tongue felt uncoordinated. “Guards! Get the Fire Stone in the box!” Clara's fingers felt thick and unweildly as they fumbled around in her pocket for the metal container. She tossed the metal cube to her friend. It clattered onto the floor within Raven's easy reach.

Raven stood as if entranced; she was wholly absorbed in studying the ruby red stone before her. It glinted seductively in her blast staff's pulsing blue light. Its writhing flame reflected in Raven's dark eyes. Her lips parted slightly in desire – then she let out an exultant cackling laugh that made Clara’s neck hairs stand on end.

To Clara's utter disbelief, Raven reached down and – with Captain Karnak groaning in the background – grasped the treasure in her slender fingers and held it up to the light. It's multi-faceted surface sent rosy beams throughout the great photopetrium room. “This gem is the greatest hope of humankind!” Raven declared. “The essence of divinity in my very own hand! What is the Vitae Conglomerate compared to eternal vitality?”

“Raven!” Clara pleaded as her anxiety turned to panic. “That rock is poisonous! Put it in the box! The guards are almost here!”

Raven ignored her and continued staring into the stone. A red tendril of undulating radiation reached out from the gem and caressed Raven’s cheek. She smiled, strode toward the wounded captain, and yanked the remainder of the gold chain from his neck. He yelped in pain. Then she reattached the stone into its setting and tied the two chain ends back together.

Clara watched in horror as Raven lifted the gold circlet above her head and set the stone over her heart. Raven took a deep breath and closed her eyes in pleasure as if savoring the sensation of the powerful jewel against her skin – of the power now flowing through her veins.

Raven opened her eyes; they glowed with red flame.

For the first time in her life, Clara felt afraid of her friend.

“Thief! Cur!” Captain Karnak shouted from the ground. “That stone’s rightfully mine!”

“Oh, really?” Raven asked casually. “Is that what your teammate said before you murdered him in cold blood?” She aimed the pulsing staff at the captain's face. “I think justice has been long overdue.”

Karnak grinned. “You pull that trigger, you are no more just than I.”

“On the contrary,” Raven said, swinging her black braid behind her, “You are just … no more.”

Karnak's jaw dropped as the pulsing blue staff hummed with surging power.

“Raven, no!” Clara shrieked.

BLAST!

Clara put up both her arms to ward off the explosion. She felt the heat and something wet spray on her forearms. Her breath came in short gasps, then she coughed at the acrid smell of burnt flesh. She'd had no love for His Eminence, but for Raven to shoot him at point blank range … the ugly wrongness threatened to make her wretch. And at the core of her being, she knew something else had died in that blast – something far more precious to her.

“You can relax now, Clara,” Raven said with a total disregard for the dead and the approaching boots outside. “He is no longer of any account.”

The voice was her friend's, but its unconcerned air was foreign. Clara slowly lowered her arms and tried not to stare at where Captain Karnak's body had been. Elder Proditor still lay in his prostrate position on the floor as if dead himself. Clara could see him trembling.

“What's the matter?” Raven frowned when Clara remained mute. “We've won!”

“Yes … but … the mission wasn't to kill ...”

“Oh, that!” Raven rolled her glowing eyes. “You lack vision, Clara. Don't you see? We've not only rid the Silexians of a dictator, we've captured the ultimate power of the universe! We can be forever young and strong, undiminished by the passage of time! We can be goddesses!”

Clara winced at Raven's shrill raptures. She took a step backward toward the doors. The guards' steps sounded forcefully close now. “Raven,” she said with a tremor in her voice. “Remember all the wars we learned about in our history classes? Man never makes a good god.”

“Then it's a good thing we're not men!” Raven retorted. “Besides, I'm tired of goodness. It only makes life more difficult.”

Clara continued backing toward the exit. “Raven, that stone is skewing your better judgment ...”

“You think I’m mad?!” Raven shouted as she tapped the bottom of her staff onto the floor.

Clara's blood ran cold as the weapon hummed to life.

At that moment, someone pounded on the door. “Your Eminence?”

“Come in!” Raven called.

Clara ducked through the door past two dozen armed soldiers as they entered the room led by Commander Ballitor. “Your secretary pressed the silent alarm. Is everything al ...” The commander stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of Raven wearing the Fire Stone, blast staff in hand. He removed his helmet and gazed in shock at the still-smoking remains of Captain Karnak on the floor.

“There’s been a change in management,” Raven said with a smug smile.

The soldiers looked at one another, uncertain whether to fire or to salute. The commander looked again at the Fire Stone, drew in a shaky breath, and knelt in the customary manner. “I see, Your Eminence.”

“Your Eminence!” repeated the troop as they also dropped to their knees and put their right fists over their left shoulders.

Even Elder Proditor rose from his belly to assume the respectful position. “Your Eminence!”

Raven frowned. “To be honest, I have never cared for that title.”

The soldiers, the former Elder, and the commander looked at one another in confusion. “What title would you prefer, ma'am?” Ballitor asked.

Raven thought a moment. “I think I’d prefer … 'Your Worship.'” She grinned, her eyes glowing.

“Your Worship!” Everyone in the room affirmed as they repeated their salute.

“You may rise,” Raven said, luxuriating in her self-proclaimed position.

The guards obeyed. Commander Ballitor stood and cleared his throat. “If it pleases Your Em – … Your Worship,” he corrected, “would you still have us march into Almitas after Elpis-setting?”

Raven considered as her eyes fell on Elder Proditor. “Not yet. I have some new ideas for Almitas ... and for Agilis as well. But I may need to consult with this insider before ordering an invasion.”

Elder Proditor dropped his gaze to the floor.

“Very good, Your Worship. We will await your orders.”

“My first is this: inform the Grand Assembly members that I no longer require their service. Henceforth, I relieve them of the burden of Silexian leadership and shall sacrificially dedicate myself to ruling this clan on my own.”

Commander Ballitor glanced at the glowing stone about Raven's neck and nodded slowly. “Yes, Your Worship.”

“Also,” Raven frowned, “send a sanitation team to remove my predecessor's remains.”

“Yes, Your Worship.”

“Very good. You are dismissed, then.”

The troop bowed, turned in unison, and marched out of the office.

“Now Clara,” Raven said as she reclined in what had been Captain Karnak's black leather office chair, “you said you had some concern for my sanity? Clara?”

Raven sat up in her seat and looked over the desk's computer screens toward where her friend had been standing. But Clara had long since left the premises, having ducked and snuck out right as the troop had filed in.

Raven’s face darkened as she tightened her grip on the battle staff. “So be it, old friend.”

So what do you think?

Whew! Today’s plot twist was a bit intense. Were you surprised or did you see it coming? Let me know in the comments below!