Revelation

The image of guns spewing toward the sky left my mind, entering Askal’s.

Your puny weapons will not harm me. If all of what you said is true, then we do not have time.

“You can only take me if you drop me off somewhere in the distance. I don’t want them hurting you. They won’t understand.” I sighed. “Hell, they might even shoot me, for all I know.”

Askal paused, considering.

“I think maybe we should just…go.”

I didn’t have to explain where I meant. Askal knew immediately. Ragnarok Crater. It was time to end this — and waiting wasn’t going to help anything.

No, Askal answered. One day, we will go, brother. But not now. They are too strong.

I just wanted this to be over with. All the same, I realized Askal was right. The others needed to know about everything I had learned. Everything, in case I failed. After they knew, then I could go.

I nodded. “I don’t know how my friends will feel about a dragon walking around their camp…”

In the next thought transferred to me, I could imagine a sharp, toothy smile, although Askal’s face remained expressionless.

Perhaps they will change their minds when they see me fighting for them.

“Fighting for us?”

Yes. The Elekai and the humans are on the same side. We both hate the Radaskim with all of our souls. The sooner we realize that, the sooner we can stand against them.

This was all growing much larger than I could have ever imagined. It wasn’t just the humans we were trying to bring together. It was a whole tribe of aliens. I wondered what the aftereffects would be. Would the Elekai and humanity live in peace, if they ever won?

I could sense that Askal thought this was a strange question. One, because no one had ever beaten the Radaskim before, not on a thousand worlds. And two, the Elekai were at their core peacemakers, and would never attack humans.

“We are different, then,” I said.

Askal still did not understand, but he saw my thoughts when I realized that it was not the Elekai who would attack us. It was we who would attack them.

Askal was shocked at this, and for a moment, no thought crossed over from him. Finally, he responded.

There are always second chances. There are always new beginnings.

Then I knew it was time. “I’m glad to have met you, Askal.”

The Askala nodded, closing his white eyes. Upon opening them, he readied his legs to cast off.

I circled around the dragon’s back, hopped on, and settled between the two ridges. Immediately, Askal took off for the west. The fungus fell away before me. The warmth of the Great Blight was left behind, and the cold air whipped at my face and body, shocking my senses.

I leaned forward, both to get a steady grip and to keep warm from Askal’s body. We were flying west, and soon crossed the border of the Great Blight. For hours, we flew across the Wasteland, past the smoking ruin of Vegas, past tall mesas and cracked mountains. It was hard to believe, looking down at the city, that it had been brought down so quickly. We flew on, past flat deserts and ridges of mountains capped in red cloud and snow.

Things had changed, so much so that I wondered how it would all ever work out. The hard part, the immediate problem, was going to be making the others understand everything — for them not only to accept me back, but to believe what I had to tell them. I had seen the Elekai, had spoken to the Wanderer. I was the messenger. I had the revelation.

Would any of them believe? It was hard to imagine Samuel or Ashton buying it. I realized then what I would have to do. I would have to agree to go back to Skyhome, so that Ashton could test me. He could see for himself, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that the virus that infected me was different from any other kind. Maybe when he saw that, he would understand.

Maybe they all would.

Chapter 21

Askal landed a good distance away from where the army was camped. The Askala settled behind a tall, wide mesa that would completely block him from view. I told him to wait there, and that I’d be back in an hour or two.

As I jogged away, I saw ripples in my vision once more. My eyes were reverting to their normal state. So I had to be touching something with the xenovirus, somehow, for my eyes to turn white. When I walked into camp, I wouldn’t be mistaken for a Howler. Maybe the whitened eyes were an effect that only happened while communicating with xenolife. That would make sense. It made me wonder why my eyes had been white back on Odin, after I had first woken up. Then again, hadn’t I been communicating then, too? The Wanderer had sent me that vision, so maybe the vision had something to do with it. It was good news, because it meant I could have some control over when my eyes were white, and when they were normal. Or at least, that’s what my hope was. I would have to test that theory later. Maybe it was something Ashton could test. Hopefully, going back to Skyhome wouldn’t be necessary to figure that out.

After hiking a mile or so, Odin came into view on top of the same bare hill where I had departed from it. It was mid-afternoon — the warmest part of the day, which meant the frigid air was barely tolerable. Gilgamesh was gone; Odin was the only ship left. The hill was surrounded by crude tents, shanties, and blazing fires to keep back the cold. Now off the back of the dragon, now out of the Great Blight, I was hit in full force by the reality of the frigid air.

I rushed ahead to get to the ship. My mind raced with everything I would tell everyone. I didn’t even know where to start.

As I passed the outer ring of tents, I started to feel nervous. I passed under the gaze of fearful men, who stared to the east from where they had fled, huddling in groups around fires for warmth. I hurried past them, averting my eyes. I passed women and children, wrapped in blankets inside tents. The army had remained camped on the hill rather than moving on, which meant that Makara and the gang lords had come to some kind of impasse. With both the cold and the xenoswarm, any lack of movement was death.

I wished I had a mirror, so I could make absolutely sure my eyes were not white. Just in case, I had my hood drawn up, and kept my face down. Getting mistaken for a Howler would be the worst thing possible right now. I’d be dead before I even had the chance to do my job.

I climbed the hill, the sharp wind blasting against me. I started to run, the cold air like ice in my lungs. I crested the hill, and Odin hulked above me. I couldn’t see inside the tinted windshield, but if anyone was in the cockpit, they would now see me. I just stood there, in the cold, waiting for someone to come out and meet me. I didn’t want them to think I was being aggressive. I also didn’t want them to somehow capture me before I had a chance to explain what had happened. I grew colder the longer I stood there. It looked like I was going to have to go into Odin myself. Maybe they were all away, for some reason. If luck was with me, Samuel or Michael would be the first one out that door. Both of them had been the calmest at my change.

I grew impatient, and started walking forward toward Odin. It was then that the blast door slid open. Makara walked out, alone, wearing a thick black parka with the hood pulled up. She stood on the boarding ramp a moment, arms folded, staring in my direction. Her expression was inscrutable.

Finally, she sighed and walked the rest of the way down the boarding ramp, and came forward. The fact that she was approaching me rather than calling for backup was a good sign, I guess. Maybe she had changed her mind. Still, I felt nervous, even though it was only Makara and I had known her longer than any of the others. I