Eternal Day Page 4

  The air rumbled, vibrating with steady beats, ahead of the arrival of the domed city. Ten miles across, carried aloft by massive engines, Aeternae Noctis was spawned by the technological genius of the icrathari prince, Rohkeus, shortly before he was assassinated. For a thousand years, the city had protected the remnants of humanity by racing through the night.

  No longer.

  A daeva attack on Aeternae Noctis had stranded the city in the path of approaching dawn. Rohkeus’s true plan for the city had unfolded in the moment of utter calamity.

  The palladium glass dome of Aeternae Noctis reflected the unbearable heat of the sun.

  He had never intended for the city, or humanity, to spend eternity in darkness.

  Rohkeus’s grand plan continued to unfold. For a millennium, the icrathari and vampires had managed the city’s population by culling children and placing them in hibernation in palladium glass coffins.

  The children were awakened, their coffins melted down and recast into domes for four new cities in what was formerly Colorado. The human population of Aeternae Noctis had transferred to those cities, but Aeternae Noctis continued to travel across the planet.

  The domed city loomed now—a marvel of icrathari genius and vampiric labor—blocking out the rising sun. Hot air gusted from the massive engines that pockmarked its lower surface. A hatch on the bottom of the city yawned apart, and a winged figure swooped toward Tera. Her gauzy white dress and long silver tresses gave her the appearance of an angel, her large bat wings notwithstanding. The tips of her horned wings were gilded in gold.

  Ashra, the icrathari queen, gave the disheveled trio a critical look. “You won, or you wouldn’t be alive, but it appears it was a close fight.”

  “Too close,” Tera murmured. “Can you take them?”

  Ashra wrapped her arms around Talon and Yuri. Her wings swept down, carrying them up. Tera followed Ashra through the hatch and into the lower levels of Aeternae Noctis, which contained large engine rooms and solar-powered fuel canisters. The walls curved in concentric circles toward the hollow shaft in the heart of the black tower.

  The vampires used the elevator to travel the height of the tower, but the shaft provided easy access to the three icrathari. Apparently unburdened by the extra weight, Ashra carried Talon and Yuri up to the highest level of Malum Turris. Tera soared after them; together, they arrived at the top floor.

  The administrative center of Aeternae Noctis gleamed and glowed with the height of human technology prior to the apocalypse. Large monitors and networked consoles churned out more automated reports than Tera cared to understand. What on Earth did Siri do with all of them? What could they possibly tell her after a thousand years of monotony distinguished only by how many daeva attacks they had sustained that month?

  Siri, who had been reviewing one of her interminable reports, glanced up. Her wings twitched, and her eyebrows drew together. “You need a…bath.”

  Tera scowled. Siri was technically their resident genius, but sometimes, she questioned Siri’s powers of observation.

  Ashra tapped on the communicator to broadcast a message through the tower. “Rafael, Jaden, we need you in the chamber, right now.”

  Less than a minute later, Jaden Hunter, the elder vampire, strode into the chamber. Formerly human, over six feet tall, he looked nothing at all like Rohkeus, the icrathari prince. He possessed, however, Rohkeus’s soul. His conflict with, and eventually, his love for Ashra had triggered the turning point for Aeternae Noctis.

  He was also too recently human to be nonchalant about injury. His gaze flicked over Talon and Yuri; concern leaped into his green eyes. “Are you all right?”

  “Tera patched us up,” Talon said. “But I strongly recommend rethinking our policy on bringing the daevas to the negotiating table alive. They’re not interested in talking.”

  A soft whoosh signaled the arrival of the elevator. Rafael Varens, Siri’s elder vampire mate, stepped off. Brown-haired and hazel-eyed, Rafael looked ordinary, until he smiled. He did not possess Jaden’s striking good looks or Talon’s flamboyant style, but his air of quiet competence inspired confidence.

  “May I examine you?” he asked Yuri with the courtesy of a professional healer.

  His examination took less than a minute. “It’s likely your preemptive vaccination with aconite saved both your lives.”

  “Because it’s hard to be poisoned when you already are poisoned?” Talon asked sarcastically.

  “It’s poisonous only to humans. For icrathari and vampires, aconite is a transformative reagent, but only after it attains a critical concentration. Short of that, you might as well be poisoned.” Rafael shrugged. “If we’re going to keep battling them, you need to be prepared.”

  “Yeah, about that…” Talon’s voice trailed off.

  “We need peace,” Ashra said. “For the sake of the four cities, if nothing else. We may be able to fight off daeva attacks indefinitely, but one slip, and we could lose entire cities—all humanity.”

  “You shouldn’t have let them leave Aeternae Noctis,” Talon said.

  “The human population had no space to grow in Aeternae Noctis. This way, we can release all the children sleeping within the ark.”

  Siri spoke up. “Talon is right, to some extent. We’ve only postponed the problem, not solved it. At some point, the humans are going to start bumping up against the population limits of their domed cities, and then what?”

  “We’ll address that when we get to it, but the daevas are a problem for the here and now,” Ashra said. “Did you see the immortali?”

  Tera drew a deep breath. “Yes, we did.”

  “And he attacked you?”

  “He injured both Yuri and Talon.”

  Talon snarled. “I got in a few good hits of my own.”

  “But he scampered away,” Tera added. “Whereas Yuri and Talon were in no condition to scamper.”

  Ashra frowned. “Did you say anything to him?”

  “No, but I spoke to Canya and Daryun.”

  Ashra’s golden eyes widened. “They’re still alive?”

  Tera nodded. “The last two of the four icrathari who chose not to enter Aeternae Noctis.” The other two were dead—Megun, slain by Ashra during the attack on Aeternae Noctis, and Elken, killed by Rafael in a more recent battle with the daevas.

  “How did they look?”

  Talon snickered. “Excessively sun tanned.”

  Ashra’s narrow-eyed gaze quelled Talon more effectively than anything anyone else could have said. “Tera?”

  Tera shrugged. “They looked like daevas. We’re not the same species anymore—not after a thousand years of evolution in vastly different environments.” She lowered herself into a chair; to hell with the need to look like she could stand up to Ashra. The need for posturing was long in the past. “We spoke.”

  Ashra’s eyebrow darted up.

  “Canya called me a traitor. Said we had betrayed our purpose.”

  “What?” Ashra’s wings flared out. Leather ruffled against air, the sound ominous.

  Talon took a careful step away from the icrathari queen; Tera suppressed a chuckle. It wasn’t too far off to suppose that the only person Talon was afraid of was Ashra.

  Tera continued. “Daryun seemed reasonable. He tried to stop Canya and me from fighting, but then Canya went after Yuri, Erich got involved, and conversation seemed redundant at that point.”

  “Is Daryun the key then, not Erich?”

  Tera shrugged. “What do you want, Ashra? A friendly chat over a cup of tea? You’re not going to get that. The daevas have at least three leaders—Canya, Daryun, and the immortali, Erich. At least two of them hate us—hate me personally. I’m not the right person to lead the hunts, but I’m the only one who can—which leaves us in a deadlock.”

  “Don’t send the warlord to negotiate peace?” Ashra asked. “What do you want, Tera?”

  To end Erich’s madness and pain. Tera ground her teeth. “I want security for Aeternae Noc
tis and our four settlements.”

  “Security, not peace?”

  Tera chuckled without humor. Of course Ashra would notice her choice of words. “Security is mandatory; peace optional. We can negotiate with the daevas, or we can destroy them. Either way would be fine by me.”

  “There are thousands of them. Even if we transformed all the humans to vampires, we would never be able to match them in battle.”

  “We could if we drag out all that twenty-second-century technology Siri has stashed in the basement.”

  Siri shook her head. “And risk it falling into the hands of the daevas? Absolutely not.”

  “What if the alternative was us losing—one vampire at a time, one battle at a time? We don’t have the numbers to win decisively, and every time we fight, it’s on their turf. There is no way to win this—”

  “Unless we negotiate peace,” Ashra said.

  Tera shrugged. “Or unless we kill their leaders. The chaos will buy us a few decades of peace. The scramble for power will take out more daevas than we ever could.”

  Ashra frowned, turning away to slowly pace the room. Her wings ruffled. “We knew them once. Megun. Elken. Canya. Daryun. We were friends.”

  “A thousand years ago.” And far too long to hold on to memories of friendship. “They defied Rohkeus when he ordered them to enter Aeternae Noctis. I’m certain they’ve lived to regret their decision.”

  “But why did Canya call you a traitor when she was the one who disobeyed Rohkeus?”

  “She didn’t elaborate. We skipped most of the social niceties and quickly got to the fighting.”

  Ashra frowned. “You trained together.”

  Tera nodded. “A long time ago.” She drummed her fingers on the armrest. “What do you want, Ashra? A not-so-friendly chitchat that may accomplish absolutely nothing, or a fight—”

  “That could also accomplish absolutely nothing?” Ashra’s tone was icy. “I want solutions.”

  “There are no easy solutions.”

  Ashra nodded thoughtfully. “You’re the one out there, in the depths of daeva territory. You have to make the call.”

  You have to make the call.

  Wonderful. Tera scowled. Shove the decision and the responsibility on me.

  But then again, the responsibility was hers. She had created Erich.

  If nothing else, she owed it to Ashra to end the threat that Erich posed. After his crippling attack on both Yuri and Talon, it was clear Erich was a greater threat than Canya or Daryun.

  Take out Erich. Take out Canya. Perhaps then, Daryun will negotiate.

  Or maybe the losses will drive Daryun over the edge, beyond negotiation.

  Tera sighed as she leaned on the balcony. Her suite overlooked the village at the base of Malum Turris. Rafael lived there, with his son, Stefan, and Siri, in a tiny cottage surrounded by herbs and flowers.

  At that moment, Stefan romped through his father’s garden with the careless abandon of a five-year-old child. Khiarra, Jaden’s half-sister, was a few years older, but still young enough to enjoy a game of tag.

  The game, however, seemed entirely lopsided. Two of its four players soared overhead, carried aloft by black wings. Megun, the half-icrathari, half-daeva child named for her mother, was as pretty as any icrathari, her hair as golden as her eyes. Aisling, Ashra and Jaden’s daughter, combined the fey physique and wings of the icrathari with the reckless stamp of human beauty.

  The four children danced and played in the garden, apparently indifferent to the physical differences among them.

  Was there any room in their innocent friendship for a daeva, or an immortali?

  Peace is brilliant, as a concept, but sometimes, that is all it is—a concept.

  Love, too.

  Tera straightened; her wings flared to their full span, stretching against the tightness of her back and shoulder muscles. In the end, we have our roles and responsibilities. And my role, as warlord and protector of Aeternae Noctis, is to end the threat of Erich Dale.

  The terminal console in her room beeped an alarm. Frowning, she examined the landscape captured by one of the many external cameras. A lone figure stood on a nearby ridge. It was tall, not winged. Not a daeva. Erich?

  He was alone, not protected by his daeva army. She would not find a more perfect opportunity than right now.

  For a moment, Tera contemplated summoning Yuri and Talon, but they were both still on the mend. She could invite Jaden and Rafael on her hunt, but the fact remained—Erich was her problem. She had created him; she was responsible for ending him.

  One-on-one, even slightly weakened as she was from blood loss, she was more than capable of taking him down. She was, after all, an icrathari, and he was only…Erich.

  Artist. Poet.

  Immortali.

  Chapter 4

  The cold night air welcomed Tera back into harsh world outside Aeternae Noctis. Her preternatural vision separated the darkness of the moonless night into shades of gray, distinct enough to identify the distant figure on the ridge as it turned away.

  Her wings beat down, closing the distance rapidly, but by the time she reached where he had been standing, there was no sign of him.

  She scowled. He could not have simply vanished. The ridge offered few locations to hide, and the only logical place he would have gone was underground. A quick search around small heaps of rocks revealed a tunnel scarcely large enough for a human. The air emanating from the shaft was rich with Erich’s scent.

  The hunt had begun.

  The narrow tunnel wound deep into the earth and swelled into vast caverns. Water flowed through many of the caves, the small streams merging into large rivers. More than once, Tera had to fly over the raging waters that churned and bubbled as they poured down a whirlpool, plunging to even greater depths.

  The world beneath the Earth was larger than the one above it.

  And it was not empty.

  Erich’s scent was scarcely more than a whiff, buried beneath the damp aroma of spindly life and encompassing rot. Mushrooms and ferns sprouted at the water’s edge, the damp soil covered with the shriveled fungi that had preceded them. Blue-white light, emanating from the wafer-thin moss that covered the cave walls, purged darkness from that underground world.

  Tera drew a deep breath infused with life—all that was growing and thriving.

  Who knew that such beauty existed beneath the Earth?

  On a whim, she chose a path that curved through limestone caves. Stalactites and stalagmites merged into columns that glowed pink, yellow, and blue, perhaps from bioluminescence or phosphorescent. Siri would probably have known the difference; Tera simply enjoyed the view. Her fingertips brushed over the limestone icicles; the contact burst into explosions of color, as if the stone were alive.

  The world the daevas inhabited was not as dark and bleak as she had imagined. She frowned, her eyebrows drawing into a furrow. What else didn’t she know about them?

  A whisper of sound, scarcely more than a breath of air, brushed past her. She glanced sharply over her shoulder. Her wings beat down, carrying her up into the upper reaches of the massive cavern. Tera perched upon a narrow ledge and drew her wings around her, concealing her silver braid and pale features in shadow.

  The whisper suddenly bubbled into childlike laughter. Tiny daevas, scarcely larger than spring chickens, tumbled into the cavern. Their wings seemed absurdly large compared to their tiny bodies; they flapped in an uncoordinated way, as likely to propel the infant daevas into the air as plunge them to the ground.

  Adult daevas, trailing behind the giggling infants, murmured in lowered voices. Often they laughed—friends enjoying each other’s company. No nihilism. No fear. No aggression.

  Yet these same creatures attacked Aeternae Noctis in uncountable hordes, their black wings blotting out the light of the moon.

  One of the daevas jerked to a stop and held up her hand for quiet, but the children’s giggles and laughter continued to echo through the cavern. Nonpluss
ed, the daeva glanced around, even looked up.

  Tera held her breath.

  After a moment, still wearing a half-frown, the daeva shrugged and continued on her way. The sound of laughter eventually trailed into silence. Only then did Tera soar off her perch, darting around the stalactites, to encircle the cavern. A human-sized opening on the far size of the cavern caught her eye, and she swooped down to land in front of it.

  Erich. She smelled him—not the warm scent associated with his immediate presence, but a deeper, lingering aroma of his repeated passing through that small opening. Her wings folded around her, she ducked into the cave.

  A pale glow pulsing from limestone rock spread light over the smooth walls. Her footsteps made no sound as she walked around the cave. Colors—likely plant pigments—blended by an expert hand, spread into a dazzling fresco on a white limestone canvas.

  Her fingertips brushed against the mural of Malum Turris and of the darkened village sprawled at its base. Beyond, a magnificent vista of snowcapped mountains, waterfalls, and pine forests. Scarcely visible, between hell and heaven, a trembling hand had painted the curve of the dome.

  The great lie of Aeternae Noctis…

  Tera glanced over her shoulder at the other paintings on the wall. Like a dizzying hall of mirrors, her face stared back at her—her iconic braid draped over a shoulder, her expression solemn, her eyes wide and unrevealing.

  At least, that was what she could make out beneath the vicious scratches, as if the artist had attempted to scrape out each image, leaving only fragments of her face

  How deep was his anger and hate?

  A heavy weight pressed against her chest. Erich had to be destroyed for the threat he posed to Aeternae Noctis, but if she had one wish, it would be to apologize to Erich. She had created him and destroyed him. She would finally end his pain and madness forever.

  But she had never meant to hurt him.

  “What are you waiting for?” a voice hissed in Erich’s ear.