Chapter 26—Pillar of Fire
The window of the glass-fronted tourist shop had already exploded into the street. Jason shouldered the door open, Vallon right behind and Xavier bringing up the rear. No staff; they’d already abandoned their posts.
“Here.”
Jason bolted past them and around the counter to a set of wooden stairs that led past brick walls covered with photos of Seattle Underground attractions and antique scenes of Seattle before the great fire.
“The underground.” Vallon hesitated, not liking the idea of being underground in the midst of the quakes.
“It makes sense, does it not? And it explains how we have not been able to sense her.”
Vallon caught his meaning. “The tides. The same tidal water that used to flood Seattle’s streets acts as a block, just like your -.” She glanced at Jason and let her thought die away. “All right. Down it is.”
She took the stairs two at a time as the building shuddered under another tremor. Pictures crashed off the walls. Clouds of dust rose up from the underground walkways that were what remained of what had once been the first floors of the Pioneer area of Seattle.
The ancient heart of Seattle, the city’s first amenities had had no end of trouble with toilets and sewage backing up due to tidal flooding. After the great fire, city fathers had planned to fix the problem, but Pioneer Square businessmen had rebuilt before the problem was solved.
When the city had built up the streets high enough to stop street flooding, it had left the first story of buildings beneath street level. As people tired of climbing ladders to street level, the original first floor of buildings had been abandoned—or had become saloons and card clubs. Eventually the underground street level had been forgotten, and would have been lost except for efforts to preserve the city’s heritage.
A string of bare electric bulbs flickered and turned amber in the dust-filled air.
“Wait here.” Xavier plunged forward to check out the tunnel ahead.
Another rumble and a loud groan grew above them. The earth wrenched again and the wall along the stairs split. One section slid right, while the other stayed where it was. Brick pulverized and fell. Glass shattered off paintings.
The sound increased as the shaking continued. It grew to a shrieking that had Jason covering his ears.
The structure was coming down. Nothing could sustain the torque the wall was experiencing.
Nothing.
Vallon grabbed Jason’s hand, dragged him into the tunnel. She forced him into a run, just as the world exploded.
The blast force threw them forward and sent the tunnel shuddering into blackness as the string of lights went out. Debris pelted Vallon’s back, her head, her legs. Wooden panels collapsed on her and the dust filled her lungs.
A pause in the earth’s protests and she shoved the panels off.
“Jason?” She coughed. No answer. “Jason?”
“Yeah. I’m here. Sort of. Wherever the hell ‘here’ is.”
She heard him stumbling to his feet. “You all right?”
“Yes. You?” The sound of his voice said he was closer. She reached out and touched a pant leg. A hand caught hers and hauled her to her feet, whether she needed help or not. “Christ, that was close.”
Vallon took back her hand and peered through the dust. It sent her coughing again. Every muscle in her body seemed to ache. “Shit. Amundson got my tools when he got my jacket. Without them we’re not going to be getting out that way by my doing anytime soon.”
She turned back the way they were going, waiting for her eyes to accustom to any light that might still be in the tunnels.
“The good news is Amundson can’t get us. So I guess we go on.”
She headed down the tunnel, picking her way over and around fallen timbers as the earth rolled and moaned around her. More dust filled the air and coated her skin, her tongue, with the taste of old clay. “Xavier?”
“Here.”
His welcome voice was closer than she’d expected.
“Vallon, you are well?”
“God, would everyone just quit worrying about me and take care of themselves? I may not have testicles, but I’m quite capable of taking care of myself.”
A snort; she couldn’t quite tell who it came from.
“The way back is blocked so I sure hope you’ve found the way forward.” She turned in the direction she thought Xavier had gone, fighting to stay upright against the wrenching motion of the earth.
“I believe I have. Surprising in its simplicity, really. Link hands so we stay together.”
Vallon hesitated, not liking it, but disliked the thought of being lost in the darkness more.
Xavier’s warm hand covered hers. Jason’s solid grip caught her other palm, so she suddenly felt as confined as a child.
Xavier led them farther into the darkness. With the dust particles in the air it felt as if they were walking through heavy velvet. Sound seemed to die almost before it began. A layer of grit lay on her skin, and the darkness seeped into her pores. The continued tremors through the soles of her feet only left her cut loose from all vantage points. The closest thing to triangulating her position was the contact of Jason’s and Xavier’s hands.
She -reached- to steady herself, but the feel of water almost doubled her over. Only Xavier’s squeeze of her hand and a slight flow of power, stopped her from staggering.
She almost pulled loose, but not before she realized he was somehow using the Gift to guide them.
“How can you stand it?”
She felt the shrug through his hand. “It must be done. And here we are.”
He pressed her hand against the wall and she jerked back in surprise. It wasn’t a tunnel wall at all, simply a façade, an illusion.
“How?”
“She uses the Gift to hold the earth upright. Here.”
He placed his palm over her hand and ran power through her so she could see how it was done. Nothing as powerful as what he’d used to save her house. A simple golden thread from the soil. It pulsed into the wall, and the earth under her palm fell like water to the ground.
Air moved across her skin and a faint glimmer of light came from down the tunnel they’d exposed. She looked at Xavier and Jason.
“I suppose she knows we’re here now.”
“She is consumed with other things, I think.”
“Let’s hope,” Jason said, and entered the tunnel. Xavier stopped him.
“You should reconsider, Detective. This is no battle for someone like you.”
“And I say I’m not that unlike you. Ask Vallon. I seem to be able to change things, too. Ask Vallon. I managed to change my wife’s gravesite. Besides, I’m not leaving Vallon to face this alone.”
At this Xavier grinned. “And I would.”
“You never know, do you? I do know that I’m dependable.”
A snort, and Xavier ducked into the new tunnel. It sloped down gradually at first. The glimmer of light proved to be a string of electric lights hung from the ceiling. The grey concrete walls held what looked like government markings.
“I think this is an old cold war bunker. Someone got power to it.”
“You’re probably right. There’s even air circulation. I remember reading somewhere about the old tunnels, but I think everyone just assumes they’re the Underground.”
Vallon looked up at the ceiling, feeling the weight of Seattle above her. All her secret delving into the earth hadn’t prepared her for how it felt to be under the earth herself. At least the shaking didn’t seem to have done the same level of damage here, even though the air carried a thin haze.
When the tunnels branched off, Vallon stopped, even though Xavier headed unerringly towards the tunnel that led down.
“Wait. There are people here. Gifted.” She motioned to a level tunnel headed away from Xavier’s destination. -Reached- and scented Fi’s anise and mint.
Xavier looked past her. “You may go there if you cho
ose, but my path lies downward.”
“But Fi.”
He must have felt her need, for he sighed. “I fear the damage she’ll do if we delay. Power builds under the city. Even the water can’t disguise it.”
Through the nauseating flow of the tidal flats she sensed what Xavier described. Golden rage, too large to measure and destructive beyond belief.
She jerked back, and swayed. “Whoa. That’s a punch in the gut. But Fi’s that way. I can’t leave her.”
“She chose to come here.”
“And you said it was an addiction. So what? We just abandon her because of it? Do as most cities do to druggies and alcoholics? Is that it?”
“I do not blame the victim, Vallon. But many will die if we do not stop Rebecca Murdoch. You know this.”
“But….” She scrubbed at her eyes, unsure what to do; because he was right, dammit. But it was Fi….
“Vallon, listen.” Jason caught her shoulders. “He says I’m not going to be much good to you in this. Why don’t I get Fi, and you and Xavier go do whatever it is you have to do?”
Vallon thought about it and finally nodded. “Fi’s there—maybe a thousand feet farther down the tunnel, but there are others there two. Maybe two dozen people. Get them, too, if you can.”
Jason nodded and turned, but Vallon caught his arm and leaned up to kiss his cheek.
“Thank you. Thank you so much.”
He gave her a pained look, a shrug, and he was gone.
“I owe him a lot.” She turned back to Xavier as the earth rattled around them. The concrete groaned and a huge crack ran down the center of the ceiling. “Let’s get this over with.”
Xavier led on as the tremors increased again. The tunnel heaved. The concrete began to hail down on them, leaving bare earthen tunnels.
“How the heck was she planning on getting away if she destroys her way to the surface?”
“I do not think she plans to get away.”
That gave her pause. If Rebecca Murdoch didn’t care if she lived or died, it was going to make dealing with her that much more difficult.
They rounded a corner and the lit tunnels ended. One moment the concrete was there, light bulbs pulsing with the quakes, and the next the tunnel was rough earth drilling steeply downward. A gust of sulfurous heat blasted up at them.
Xavier paused. “Perhaps you should leave this to me.”
“Like hell. She killed Simon and Janet and she tried to kill me.”
She pushed past him to lead into the tunnel. The slope, the crumbling soil underneath, made it hard to walk. She balanced by running her palms down the walls, and felt as if she were traversing a snake’s gullet.
Rough soil and stone. The weight of the city above and around her now. Heat gusted in her face. Down and down, Xavier close at her back.
They finally came out at a high-ceilinged cavern that was about 50 feet across. Sulfurous heat blasted her back from the entrance. When she started forward, Xavier grabbed the back of her jeans. “Wait,” he mouthed.
His pupils dilated as his face reflecting the cavern’s ruddy glow. Vallon didn’t wait for his verdict. She -reached- and the power almost knocked her off her feet. She staggered back against his chest and his broad hands steadied her, but not before she felt what had been done. She went to speak but his fingers stopped her.
“Please,” he whispered, and looked back the way they’d come; pushed her lightly in that direction.
“Vallon Drake and company. Welcome to the end.”
The remembered, taunting voice stopped Vallon from leaving even if she had wanted to go. She shoved away from Xavier, stepped into the cavern, and realized it stretched into the distance, north and south to either side. Only a laser could cut the darkness that filled its length, but here a pillar of light subdued the darkness.
“Hello, Rebecca. It’s been a long time.”
“Long enough for you to find someone else to feed off, I see. Just like your father.”
Clad in white, Rebecca Murdoch stood proud and fair fifteen feet away. She still had the regal bearing Vallon remembered. She still had the full mouth, but her eyes had transformed into huge black pupils that had lost all but the faintest ring of blue.
The heated air whipped her golden hair around her face. Beyond her, the pillar of golden light shimmered floor to ceiling at the far side of the cavern. It was a Hollywood scene that left Vallon feeling dim and dark and unable to triangulate on her side of the cavern.
Beyond Rebecca ran a narrow crack in the cavern floor that emitted the ruddy light and the sulfur-and-iron stench. Over it ran a narrow stone bridge. The ‘cracks of doom’ came to mind from a favorite childhood novel. Or the pits of Moria. But even the ruddy light couldn’t lessen the glow of that golden pillar beyond Rebecca.
“I’ll take that as a compliment.” Vallon stepped further into the cavern.
“Vallon, do not move.” Xavier’s voice. “She tries to lure you within her reach.”
“You think she can’t get me here?” She scanned the cavern, -reached- again, and knew. “She’s shifted Rainier’s whole magma chamber. She’s used fissures in the earth’s crust to channel the magma. You think she can’t get me wherever I am in these tunnels?”
“You should go while you can. I will deal with her.”
“So sweet. A man to help poor Vallon. Vallon, dear, I think he cares for you.” She swung her gaze to Xavier. “Don’t you know she uses men up and throws them away? Her father used me like that—a broodmare for his get.”
Vallon shivered. Was that what the notations on the files meant? No way in hell was she Rebecca’s daughter.
.
Rebecca lifted her chin at them. “But then, that’s what makes this whole escapade of mine so delicious.”
The woman was insane, but that didn’t negate the fact that she had power. How she came to have this much power was the question. Vallon’s gaze was drawn back to the glowing pillar.
Perhaps….
Vallon -reached- for it, trying to understand: Power. Pulsing power channeled through the earth—warm, welcoming, and tuned to—Rebecca. Licorice, but there was a caste to it of Fi’s anise and mint.
She dove deeper into the flood of power that flowed up from the floor, but seemed to cycle in a pattern so beautiful she could not look away.
“Vallon watch out!”
The yank on her arm also wrenched her awareness out of the pillar. She stood swaying as the floor trembled, as a crack appeared directly under where she’d stood.
“So you’re determined to kill me.”
“Darling, Vallon. I prayed you would come. My greatest fear was that you had actually left the city after my little attack.” Rebecca showed her white teeth. “But here you are, ready and waiting. Shall we get this over with?”
“Why are you doing this? What have you got against me? Seattle? The AGS?”
Rebecca’s lovely face hardened, and if anything, the last blue disappeared from her gaze. “You think you know what the AGS is? You think you know?”
Her voice rose piercing and echoed in the room. The walls seemed to reverberate with it, sound crashing down the lengths of the cavern and back again until Vallon had to cover her ears.
“Tell me,” she said.
“All those years I believed. But your father—he grew discontented and led a number of us away in the belief there were greater things we could do.”
Xavier took another step forward and her head turreted towards him. “Stop right there.” She panned back to Vallon. “So what were those greater things, you ask?” Conversational. “Weapons.”
It came out in a hiss, a spit. Rebecca glared. “’Gild the Lily,’ Vallon. That was what they called it. They wanted us to be weapons, and even then I still believed and gave my aid—until something went horribly wrong. An earthquake. A tsunami and entire islands gone.”
The woman’s face had gone haunted.
“Southeast Asia,” Vallon breathed, almost
immobilized at the memory of the horror of Christmas 2004.
“My two daughters were vacationing on the Phi Phi Islands when it happened. They were lost. I’ll not see something happen again. The AGS is a threat because they breed us. Every Gifted is a threat because they have the potential for power. Seattle draws those with the greatest power. So Seattle must die.”
A rumbling vibrated up through Vallon’s feet and broke through her shock. The ground shook.
“Vallon, you have to leave.”
Rebecca turned and ran lightly across the stone bridge, just as the floor cracked and the bridge collapsed into the heated pit in the floor. There was no way across to where she took up position beside the pillar.
“No way,” Vallon said. “This is my battle. You heard her. My father helped cause this.” She planted her feet, reached for her vellum and swore.
Cracks lasered across the floor towards them.
“I’ll back you up. Amundson got my kit.”
Xavier caught her hand. She shivered, then opened herself to him, as his awareness slammed deep into the ground dragging her with him. Down.
Down into the earth, through the heat and thunder of knotted power gathered under the city. Vallon struggled to hold to him, to stop herself from burning up in the heat.
Xavier’s presence was a brighter torch in the brilliance, as if he not only used the power, but became a flame of cedar and incense He pulled the power to him, spread brilliant hands wide, and sent forth blinding sheets of power into the darker depths of more-stable earth.
The pulsing knot of power seemed to flicker and dim. The magma cooled as he dispersed the power broadly.
The earth wrenched. Wrenched again, and threw Vallon’s awareness deeper. Into the deep places of the shifting plates of the earth.
Never had she been so deep. Never had she been aware of the way the continent folded and warped like stony cloth as the Pacific Plate dove below. She wanted to scream. Wanted to run, but something stopped her. She -reached-. To where so much energy was pent up in fault upon fault, upon fault, where the two plates had temporarily locked together. All along the Pacific coast. And what Xavier was doing:
“Xavier, no!” she slammed into him and back into her body and collapsed to her knees. Xavier staggered beside her.
“What?” His gaze was unfocussed.
“You’re going to unlock the big one. The power—it’s going to unlock the faults like a zipper all along the coast. You’ll kill everyone.”
With a crash the floor of the cavern fell away, leaving a heaving lake of magma. Sulfur burned her lungs and the heat seared her hair, yet across the cavern still stood Rebecca.
“Go, Vallon, help the others and be safe. I’ll deal with her directly.”
She hesitated.
“Please, Bela Menina.”
His black eyes burned as he grabbed her for a kiss, but then the earth shook and the magma bubbled. He looked from her to face across the cavern, and the floor began to crumble towards Rebecca. His doing, no doubt.
Vallon touched her mouth. She didn’t know how to do what he did. There was nothing she could do without her pens and vellum. She turned to go. Stopped.
“I’m sorry,” she said, because she didn’t want to hurt like this.
“Sorry?” For a moment his gaze focused on her.
“I might love you, I think. And most anyone I care about dies.”