They Who from the Heavens Came (The Wisdom, #1)

‘Close enough,’ Quetzal declared.

The projection in the room vanished and they were left watching the growing darkness eclipse the earth.

‘What is that?’ Itzy dared to ask. Fear crawled all over her.

‘Nibiru,’ Quetzal told them. ‘And it’s bigger than it looks.’

‘How could it be bigger?’ she whispered in astonishment.

‘You’ll see when you get there.’ His tone didn’t allow for the possibility that Itzy might not go with him.

Aidan gripped her hand. It felt like he was trying to press her into his body, make her part of him so she couldn’t be taken away.

‘Isn’t that dangerous?’ Myra wondered as she stared at the growing shadow. ‘Something that big….’ She turned on the Ancient, a question on her face.

Quetzal seemed to read the thought in her mind. ‘If it came too close, it would collide with Earth and destroy it. It’s happened before.’

Itzy turned to her mother. ‘Mum. You know what he’s talking about?’

Myra nodded. ‘Amazingly, I do. I saw it on one of those documentaries your father used to watch. There’s a theory that most of the Earth’s land was pushed underwater by an astronomical collision.’

‘All true,’ said Quetzal. ‘I’m sorry to say the global deluge of five thousand years ago was our fault. Nibiru is so vast that wherever there’s water, the tides lean toward it. The gravity field is too great to resist.’

‘Is that what’s to happen to us?’ Itzy demanded. ‘Have your people come to wreak havoc on us again?’

In a firm voice, Quetzal said, ‘You won’t be part of whatever happens here. You’re coming with me.’

The way he said this left no room for doubt. Itzy knew she couldn’t fight this – and she knew what she had written in her stories. Aidan would not be coming with her, wherever she was going.

Was this how it was always meant to happen? Had the Wisdom been hers all along? Or had Aidan carried it, and she had switched places with him? And if she had changed things, wouldn’t she had to have had the Wisdom to begin with, in order to switch places with Aidan?

The paradoxes made her head hurt.

She felt Aidan release her and step forward. She watched him rotate slowly to face the golden giant – to face his father. There was no escaping that hard truth, now.

‘Yer not taking her,’ he said.

Then he closed his eyes.

* * *

‘What is that thing?’ asked Verdi.

‘I really don’t want to know,’ Seth answered.

The black now fully consumed them. It had blotted out everything. All that told them they weren’t alone, now, was the sound of each other’s voices.

Outside their box, they heard the humans scream. Seth wondered why they were still standing around. What were they waiting for? Go home! he wanted to shout. Hide! Just like they were doing.

Oz returned to business. ‘So we can’t kill him,’ he said to any of them who would listen, ‘but we could trap him.’

Seth turned his head in the direction of Oz’s voice and said, ‘Keep talking.’

‘If I remember rightly, Loki was chained to a boulder, with a poisonous snake above his head dripping venom on him, like a sort of Chinese water torture.’

‘Uh-huh,’ said Seth. ‘So you’re saying –’

‘Loki’s dead,’ Oz continued. ‘I don’t know how he’s come back, but maybe we just need to recreate the circumstances of his death.’

‘I’ll catch him and bind him,’ Verdi jumped in immediately. ‘There’s a house a few doors down covered in vines. I can work with that.’

It was one of the strangest and sweetest sentences Seth had ever heard someone say. It was true what they said: having a common enemy was the quickest way to inspire solidarity.

Seth patted the boy on the shoulder. ‘Nice one,’ he said. ‘I’ll get you a boulder and a snake. Let’s see how he gets out of this without the wife around. But first –’ he danced his hands in the air and sparks of light flickered and expanded until they glowed, so the Descendants could all see each other ‘– let’s at least be able to look where we’re going.’

Oz turned to Melody. ‘Can you direct your music at someone specific?’

‘If I really concentrate, yes. Which isn’t often,’ she admitted in a small voice. ‘But I can try.’

‘Well, your targets are right there.’

Oz pointed at the Ancients, who were busy conferring themselves. Horace was looking at the sky. It was evident he wasn’t happy about whatever was coming for them. It wasn’t good to dwell on what could possibly be so terrible that it made Horace worried.

Seth studied Melody. Panic was written all over her face. There was no way that girl was going to be able to focus. Something was going to have to be done about that, if their plan depended on her to complete stage one.

He stepped toward her and put his hands on her shoulders.

‘What are you doing?’ she asked as he pressed his forehead to hers.

‘Shh,’ Seth said. He had done this with Itzy before. He trusted he could do it again with Melody.

He closed his eyes and sent his own heat pouring through her head, letting it flurry under her skin, into her veins. He sensed the calm settling over the girl. He held her there longer, not wanting to end it too soon, for fear that the effect might not last.

He tried to imagine the beautiful person who might lie inside her. The picture swam up in his mental vision, gaining clarity. He used his painter’s eye to re-draw her expression into one of peace and inner strength. He illuminated her face and gave her eyes a brightness that made her beautiful.

Then he forced the image out of his head and into hers, making her feel what he wanted her to feel. He heard Melody’s breathing slow down. Her upper arm muscles softened under his hands and he relaxed his grip on her. She let out a deep sigh.

He drew back and examined her. She looked like a different person – stronger, more confident. He was constantly surprising himself with what he could do.

‘What’d you do to her?’ Verdi asked in awe.

‘I helped her focus,’ Seth explained. To her, he said, ‘Now get them.’

Melody nodded slowly, a look of determination on her face, mixed with something else. It might have been gratitude.

Then Seth removed the box.

Melody closed her eyes, again slowly. Concentration consumed her, and she let the music fly out of her. Her companions couldn’t hear it, but they could see what it did to the Ancients. They stopped what they were doing and wore dazzled expressions, like they could see something beautiful coming for them and they couldn’t wait to greet it.

‘Verdi,’ Oz said in a low voice.

Verdi was already there, his hands outstretched in the direction of the vine-covered house. He pulled down its wisps and snaked them toward the Ancients. He aimed for both of them. Why stop at just Loki?

He wove the vines around their enemies’ wrists, ankles, waists, necks. A movement of Seth’s hands made two enormous stones, like the ones that made up Stone Henge, appear behind the Ancients, and Verdi sent them flying against the rocks. The thick plants coiled more tightly around their victims, strangling them.

A serpent with wings appeared in the air, hovering just above their heads. Its vicious jaws opened and venom dripped down its chin.

The music ended.

Loki, in his giant form again, shrieked in agony as a drop of the poison fell on his head. As he writhed, the ground below them began to quiver.

‘Oh yeah,’ said Oz. ‘I knew there was something about that story I was forgetting.’

The ground shook more. It built into all-out tremors, until Descendants and onlookers alike were knocked to the road.

‘I am so sick of falling over,’ Seth grumbled his way out of his fear.

The Earth quaked harder and the road split beneath them. Seth found himself lying splayed over two halves of the ground, which were now separating and each trying to take him with them. He tossed himself to one side and rolled away from the precipice. He was now several feet and a sudden death away from his companions.

But Seth was generally an optimist, so he chose to focus on the fact that Loki’s death throes were what had obviously begun the earthquake. It meant he, too, had been sitting upon the split in the Earth. He dropped into the unknown, stone and snake and all.

Horace remained and pulled himself out of the vines. He seemed to have forgotten whatever megalomaniacal plans he’d had. He ignored the ravaging of the ground and looked at the sky again, at the black impending doom they still had to contend with, which Seth feared might be somewhat harder to defeat than the shape-shifter.

A herd of skeletal mastodons stampeded up the road toward them. They dropped into the chasm as well, as if they knew that was really where they belonged and they’d had enough of modern life, thank you.

Seth had no idea where the gigantosaurus was. He thought that should worry him, but he was preoccupied with the gnashing of tectonic plates under his body.

‘We have to find Itzy and Aidan!’ Oz shouted over the sound of the roofs of the houses collapsing in on themselves and crushing everything underneath.

At last, the humans ran. They tore down the road screaming, as if they could outrun an earthquake.

Seth rolled onto his back and wiped his hands through the air, erasing the wall that divided the street in two. ‘Come on, then!’ he yelled back.

The four of them scrambled to their feet. Melody, Verdi and Oz steadied themselves against each other on one side of the chasm, while Seth did his best to mimic a tightrope walker by spreading out his arms for balance on the other side. Several times, he fell over, but he kept picking himself up.

There was a point beyond where the wall had been where the chasm tapered off and the road was whole again. They hobbled toward it, as the Earth’s stomach slowly settled.

While he ran, Seth quickly drew in the air and a car appeared. A gleaming red Aston Martin. Even when panicked, he had style.

‘Get in!’ he cried, and the four of them piled into the vehicle.

‘Nice skills,’ Verdi said as Seth turned the ignition and let the engine roar.

‘Where are we going?’ Seth asked.

It was Oz who answered. ‘My sister’s house. Now.’