The Psychonaut - Book 1 Read online

  “I could get us out of here,” Merrick said.

  Albany glared at him. “My place is on the battlefield. Your’s is up there at the command post. You’re more hindrance than help here.”

  “I can’t leave you,” Merrick replied.

  Albany backed him up against the trunk of a conifer. “This is no time for heroics, dammit. Relay our retreat to Karapetian.” Merrick saw the courage and despair in his eyes. His senses told him Albany’s judgement was borne of pragmatism.

  “Tell him to send down whatever is left of our forces,” Albany said, “and maybe he can prevent a slaughter.”

  ~~~

  Chapter 41

  I

  Jason looked out between the roots of an overturned tree. Johnny was on the other side of the depression observing the Ukurum through field glasses. He’d taken a few cuts and bruises but between them they were in good shape. The same couldn’t be said for those they’d left behind on the flood-plain. Denzel and Lucy snuffled and rooted around in the hollow, chewing on grubs and worms they found in the soil. They stunk to high heaven but it was preferable to the stench of death that lay all around.

  He lifted a radio and pressed the send button.

  “Arun, are you receiving me?”

  There was a crackle, then the voice of the Vietnamese. “I’m here, Jason.”

  “How many men do you have left?”

  “Less than five hundred.”

  “We have even fewer. Any illusionists?”

  “Only Aislynn. The Necrolytes have taken all the others.”

  Jason tried to weigh up their situation. How had the Ukurum managed to single out the Hierophant illusionists? They were some of the first to fall, and their constructs seemed to dissolve as soon as they created them. Shamon had learned from their previous encounters and caught the Allies napping. He blamed himself, but knew it was unlikely he would live to tender his resignation.

  The radio buzzed again. “I see someone approaching through the smoke,” Arun said.”

  “It’s a woman,” said Johnny. “A damn ugly one at that.”

  Jason grunted as he recognised the figure—Theta. “Hold your fire everyone. She’s invoked a mage-lock. Let’s see what she wants.”

  Theta stopped. In her hand she held her morningstar. “Hierophants,” she shouted. “I would meet with your commander. Let them come forward, the mage-lock guarantees their safety. Jason saw the orange, glowing signature in the air and stepped out. He picked his way over the forest litter and stopped before her.

  “Speak, Ukurum,” he said. The loathing on his face was obvious.

  “Your forces are spent. There is nothing but annihilation left for you.”

  “So why parley? Just get on with it.”

  She lowered her morningstar and moved a few steps closer. “I wanted to see the defeat in your eyes, Jason. Don’t you wish your master had chosen otherwise when we met all those months ago? You could all be sharing in the conquest, rather than skulking like rats.”

  “Regrets are for the vanquished. You haven’t won yet.”

  “How long do you think you can hold out here? I give it thirty minutes at most.”

  Jason stared at her with a face of stone. “We will fight to the last person. For every man that falls, we’ll take ten of yours with us.

  Theta swung the Morningstar idly at her side like a pendulum. “It doesn’t have to be this way. Surrender now and we will let your remaining troops return to the hole you scurried from. All we ask is for you, Karapetian and your Psychonaut to be given into our hands. Oh, and the Barone slut. Lotus Hughes has a particular fate set aside for her.”

  Jason didn’t need to even think about his response. “The answer is no.”

  “Think of the bloodshed you would save.”

  He turned his back on her and walked away.

  She called after him, “Then we will slaughter every last man and woman.”

  When Jason climbed back down behind the felled tree, he found Johnny looking through his glasses and smiling.

  “I’m glad you’re facing death with a grin,” Jason said. “I’m going to give the order. Let’s take some of these bastards with us.”

  “I’d hold off another minute if I were you,” Johnny replied, handing him the binoculars.

  ~~~

  Merrick had rejoined Celestia, who greeted him by grabbing his tunic and shaking him with a force that belied her petite frame.

  “Tu est un imbecile,” she said, “why can’t you use that head of yours for once instead of trying to prove to the world that your some kind of superhero.”

  “I’m sorry, Celestia, but I had to—”

  “Shh,” she cut him off. “Something’s happening down there.”

  Through an instant mind-meld they saw the exchange between Theta and Jason. They also heard Johnny’s invitation to look in the direction of the mountains.

  Vast murmurations of winged creatures blackened the sky to the south. They looked more like a living weather system than multitudes of wings and beaks.

  Destain stepped up to join them. “What do you make of it?” Merrick asked him.

  “It is either a final reprieve or the killing blow to our campaign,” the clairvoyant replied.

  Two of the creatures at the front grew larger and more distinct. They were heading straight towards them.

  A Hierophant commander lifted his sword and shouted his orders. “Raise your bows and take aim.”

  “Wait,” Merrick cried. “Hold your fire.”

  The commander gave Merrick a sharp look, but backed down in obedience.

  Celestia’s brow furrowed in disbelief. “Je ne peux pas le croire, it is Biff.”

  “Fuck me, you’re right,” Merrick said. He could see Biff clearly now, strapped onto the back of a flying predator. Another, carrying Hacker followed close behind. The reptiles circled round once, then came to rest with a flurry of leathern wings. Weapons were holstered under the beasts’ main saddles, including crossbows, quarrels and spears. More winged predators circled overhead, each carrying a passenger.

  Hacker and Biff dismounted. Their combat fatigues were torn and filthy, but they were in good physical shape.

  “Hey, Merrick,” Biff said and held out his hand.

  Merrick took both their hands in turn, shaking them fervently. “You both survived. I’m amazed. What happened?”

  “No time for a story, it looks like you’re in a spot of bother. Anything we can help out with?”

  Merrick explained their predicament as quickly as he could, while the mercenaries’ faces grew sombre at the telling.

  “So those fuckers that look like papier mache inquisitors are the problem?”

  “Yeah. If you could clear the skies, we could bring in the Vril as a third wave and tackle the ground troops on an even footing.”

  “And you say their weak point is inside their hoods?”

  “It would seem so.”

  Hacker looked down on the Ukurum as they advanced on the forest. “I reckon we can take them, Biff. We’ve got the numbers.”

  “Who are your friends?” Celestia said, looking up at the flocks of predators.

  “Celebrain natives,” Biff replied. “They took us in after Hacker’s abduction—and they hate Ukurum.”

  “We haven’t a second to waste,” Merrick said. “I’m going to radio Karapetian and Jason to fill them in. Biff, do what you can for us, but remember; don’t let the Double-heads touch you.”

  Biff and Hacker saluted and returned to their mounts. The predators looked ungainly but ferocious. Merrick hoped they would be a match for the Ukurum. Once again he wondered what Shamon was holding back. He shelved the thought and raised the Hierophants on the radio.

  “Lazlo, Jason, If you can hear me, I may have some welcome news.

  ~~~

  Albany craned his neck round the bole of a coniferous tree. The bark was hard as iron, the smell of the tree’s
resin thick in the air. Not such a bad place to die, he thought. Arun stood a few paces away, knocking one of his remaining five arrows to a bow. Albany hoped he would have the foresight to save them for the Necrolytes.

  The ankle-biters had been released and were closing the gap. All Albany could make out was the agitation of fern stems that carpeted the forest floor. They advanced like a wave, occasionally revealing a flash of teeth or a glimpse of angry, red skin. It was pointless aiming a bow or slingshot at them. Sure it would take down one, but there were thousands of the things.

  “C’mon, you fuckers, I’m ready for you.” He tightened the grip on his scythe and waited for scurrying death.

  A crackle on the radio disturbed his concentration. “Receiving you, Jason. Make it quick.”

  “Albany, hold your positions. I’ve got something to try on the Ankle-biters.”

  ~~~

  Celestia occupied her body, resting in the command post. Merrick was with the Vril, waiting for Karapetian’s command to transfer them to the battlefield, so she had a rare moment to herself. She hadn’t been physically involved in the combat, but was mentally drained from the constant demands of far-sight and mind-melding. Her two fighting swords remained in scabbards at her hips, She longed to use them, to do something that would actually help. Then she remembered her terse words with Merrick and resigned herself to watching the battle through field glasses.

  The clouds were lower, more dense than ever and the flakes of precipitation descended heavy as a blanket. Visibility was difficult through the binoculars, but she could make out Shamon’s forces holding back while the ankle-biters did their work. The Double-heads bobbed like airborne, grey ice-bergs, held in reserve as they couldn’t penetrate the thick forest canopy.

  Then she saw the first of them. A predator appearing like a hawk from out of the sky. It had singled out a Double-head and circled round it while its rider loosed several arrows into the thing’s cowl. The effect was immediate; it folded in on itself and fell like a tissue Zeppelin onto the mixed forces below. It was a catastrophic demise, not just for the creature, but also for the dozens of enemy troops dissolved under its billowing cowl.

  A cheer, muted a fraction by the sound-deadening precipitation rose from the allies on the hill as, one by one, Biff and his predators took out the Double-heads.

  Her far-sight detected a change in the ether over the battlefield. The sudden appearance of Vril combatants, pouring through a rent in the air at the Psychonaut’s behest. They materialised behind the Ukurum and threw them into disarray as their battle spells took a heavy toll. She could sense Merrick through the gateway but couldn’t mind meld at this range, so she continued doing the only thing she could—watch.

  ~~~

  Just a little closer, Jason thought. The Ankle-biters were only twenty yards away when he unleashed his thaumaturgic power on the front line. There was a sudden crackle of energy that brought him to his knees, but not before he saw the crest of the toothed wave crumble. Now would be the millisecond that determined if he had been correct about their mode of communication. His far-sight ability was limited, but he could already make out the confused tripping and disjointed movement of the Ankle-biters. He had detected their primitive neural messages between each other out on the battlefield, saw how they moved as a super-organism. Their psychic network acted as invisible fibre-optics—a conduit for Jason’s thaumaturgy. It spread backwards from the front line, causing the critters to stumble over each other and agitate their nearest neighbours. This revealed another flaw in Shamon’s spawning process; if a single Ankle-biter was attacked, it turned on its perceived assailant. Jason observed with rising satisfaction the pandemonium that ensued as razor-sharp, serrated teeth bit into ruddy, putrescent flesh.

  He staggered to his feet and gave the order to charge. The allies burst from their cover, wielding halberds, morning stars and scythes. They waded into the growing wall of Ankle-biters, reaping them like stalks of wheat.

  Jason was spent, he couldn’t even lift his weapon, but enjoyed watching the graceful motion of Arun and Albany. The slaughter delivered at their hands was like an art form. Arun’s bionic arm never tired and his whirling form cut a swathe through the enemy. Albany too, moved as a lithe dancer, dealing death with his scythe.

  The allies rose to the peak of the critter mountain and continued the charge with a momentum that caught the second wave of Ukurum by surprise. Adrenaline pumped through Jason’s arteries as he forced himself to stagger forward. The enemy had turned, despite their superiority of numbers, and were retreating back out of the forest.

  ~~~

  Merrick swigged down a whole vial of elixir. He’d used about a third of it and there was no sign of him developing a tolerance. Each draught re-invigorated him, giving him the strength to hold open the gateways long enough for the thousands of Vril to gush through and engage the enemy.

  They had timed their assault with perfection. He hadn’t seen a Double-head for ten minutes, meaning the Allies could attack with impunity, the threat from the skies now removed.

  For the Ukurum, however, death continued to rain from above as the predators picked up Necrolytes and Amorphics in clawfuls, carrying them upwards then dropping them, the bodies landing with bone-shattering velocity. The enemy were caught between Jason’s advancing troops and the Vril Battle-Mages behind. Merrick could see the two remaining Simiata ploughing through the Amorphic, picking up bodies and throwing them back with inhuman force at their clones.

  The devastation was appalling, but meant they had the upper hand.

  A down draft of air alerted him to the approach of Biff on his reptilian sky-steed.

  “It’s a slaughter,” he announced, as Merrick let through the final contingent of Vril and closed the gateway. He should have felt elation, but something shifted in his consciousness as if tectonic plates ground and slipped against each other. The presence of a colossal, sentient mind—no, a meeting of minds.

  He gave Biff a half-hearted thumbs up then picked up his radio. “Lazlo,” he said. “Do you feel it?”

  “Yes,” came the reply. “I’ve never experienced such a distortion in the ether.”

  “What in Christ’s name is it?”

  As if in answer, the ground began to shake with a violence that jarred the bones. Merrick turned to the west and saw a mountain peak rise up with monolithic slowness, like a gigantic tree uprooting itself. Vast columns of rock split from its sides and boulders were flung across the lower slopes of the mountains. And still it rose.

  All on the battlefield were thrown to the ground. Merrick lifted his head and saw the granite peel away from a form made of rock. It stood, at least one hundred and fifty metres tall. Its rhino-like head hunched forward, arched back rising up behind, crested by trees and soil.

  “A Leviathan,” Karapetian breathed over the radio. “If Shamon has tamed one, then we don’t stand a chance.”

  Merrick recalled his and Celestia’s journey through the portal cross-roads. They had seen a smaller brother to this rock-giant and hadn’t stayed around to see how it responded to them. But there was no escaping this beast. It pulled one foot out of its mountain roots, then the other and stomped towards them. Every footfall reverberated through the ground while small rocks bounced on the hardpan floor. Merrick stood, along with thousands of others, petrified as it loomed closer through the falling skin-snow.

  The behemoth stepped over the two rivers and reached the Vril in ten strides. A gargantuan arm fell to the Earth at their flank, bringing up the sediment of the flood plain as it scraped its spade-like hand along in a sweeping motion. The landslide caught up hundreds of Vril bodies and buried them in an avalanche of rock and soil. Johnny’s airborne army swarmed around it but their arrows were impotent against the thing’s might. It swatted at them with ponderous hands, but caused few casualties.

  The Behomoth stood to its full height and uttered a roar, gusting a blast of sulphurous air over the multitudes. It se
rved to break the spell transfixing the allies. They ran as a confused mass, away from the beast, back towards a false haven. The Colossus by-passed the Ukurum, who were as frightened as the allied warriors, and bore down on its fleeing targets.

  “Take cover, anywhere you can,” Karapetian called through the radio.

  Merrick watched the chaos unfold and determined not to give in to panic. Without considering the wisdom of his actions, he tore a hole in the ether and stepped through. It was a brief journey that brought him to the apex of the Leviathan’s spine. Surrounding him were fallen conifers and rolling boulders. It was all he could do to keep his feet. He moved forwards to the Behomoth’s shoulder as far as he dared and observed the carnage below. Great moraines of earth piled up on the flood plain as it scooped up handful after handful of material. Merrick saw in horror how these mounds became barrows for the asphyxiated, allied troops. Its feet, the size of houses and dropping tree roots and boulders were brought down without mercy on the diminishing brigades.

  Abject helplessness threatened to overcome Merrick as he rejected one course of action after another. It was then, he perceived a pause in the Behomoth’s progress. As it stilled itself, he opened his third eye and sensed an undercurrent of sentience emanating from the colossal, primitive brain. It seemed to be at battle with itself, groaning in primeval agony. Yet when Merrick delved deeper, he discovered the struggle was not with itself but a parasitic invader.

  Shamon.

  The Behomoth was stationary now, Shamon’s essence had fatigued and withdrew to his secret command lair. Merrick considered astral pursuit, but it was beyond even his capabilities to find the Ukurum leader’s hidden refuge. Instead, he plunged across the dimensions to the Hierophant camp. Back to Celestia.