Total Eclipse

Theres a gas station up here, David said. Nobody in it, but the bathroom is open. We used it earlier.

We meaning everybody but me, I assumed. It seemed like a mile to the corner, where the ba

The bathroom was sparkling, except for the presence of a few paper towels in the trash can, which I presumed came from my traveling companions. After taking care of the obvious and pressing need, I took the opportunity to splash water on my face, scrub off the worst of the grubbiness. Nothing I could do for the clothes, which would need to find an incinerator to throw themselves into at some point, but theyd do for now. Although I would have sold a body partpossibly a major onefor fresh underwear.

I took a deep breath and looked at myself hard in the mirror. My eyes were shadowed, raccooned with dark rings. I looked anxious, drawn, and haunted.

Nice to know I was at my best. I tried to summon up the old confidence, and saw a glimmer or two of it in the smile, the cock of my head.

Well, I thought. If Im going to go down, Im going to go down fighting. I dont have to be ashamed of that.

David knocked on the door. Are you all right?

All these years, and he hadnt learned how women linger in a bathroom? Fine, I said, sighed, and ran my fingers through my hair agai

The Fire Oracles official public entrancewell, public to the Dji

Not a single person visible. Not a bird cheeped. Not a blade of grass stirred.

David and I both stood outside the gates for a moment, looking in; I think we were both feeling a dread we couldnt consciously explain. Bad things had happened in this cemetery to me before, and I couldnt help but feel a crawling sense of foreboding.

The air was just so still.

Jo. David was looking down at the neatly raked gravel path that wound through the picturesque landscape. Footprints.

Two sets of them. One matched Kevins giant, battered kicks; the others were Cherises, judging from the small size. Wheres the Dji

Floating, David said. Dji

It had been a dumb-ass question, and Id known it as soon as Id opened my mouth. Many of the Dji

David, for whatever reason, had always taken care to do the whole human body. Id always loved that about him.

Imara, our half-Dji

David took my hand. Youre thinking about Imara.

Stop reading my mind. Its creepy that you can do that even when youre not a Dji

Im thinking of her, too, he said, and I heard the sadness in his voice, too. Im thinking that if we cant do this, were going to lose her completely.

That isnt going to happen. Come on, confidenceget it in gear! And were wasting time. You want to leave this up to Kevin and Cherise?

He winced. Definitely not.

Then lets go.

We walked together, hands clasped, down the gravel path. Except for the crunch of our shoes, it was like moving through a dream, full of color and light but nothing else. The essential life of the place was gone, or at least hidden.

The door to the mausoleum we wanted was standing wide open. Darkness was a thick, black square in the doorway, like a hole in the world, and I hesitated, glancing at David. Well? I asked.

He nodded, shut his eyes, and walked forward into it, still holding my hand tightly in his. The darkness slipped over him like water, not shadowit had a thickness to it, and its own surface tension. I watched him disappear into it, staring at our linked fingers until his were gone and mine touched the dark.

It was cold. Very cold.

Like David, I took a deep breath and went in anyway.

The trip through the cold felt as if it took forever, an eternity of freezing to the bone, and when it stopped, when I finally was able to move again, I found myself shaking violently, almost unable to stand. The darkness was gone, at least, and the air felt warm.

No. The air felt hot.

I pulled in my first breath, and it scorched my lungs. David was already coughing, and as my eyes adjusted to the sudden dazzle of light, I realized we were standing not three feet away from a blazing inferno of red, gold, and white flames that seemed to have no upward limit. The fire just dissolved into a haze of lurid glow at the top.

We were in a small rock chamber, round and rough-hewn. It was basically a big chimney, much taller than it was wide, with an opening in the center through which the fire blazed. It was not a safe place to be standing, but there were no doors, no windows, not even a handy alcove in which to try to hide. To make it even worse, I was still violently shivering from the passage through the cold, even while my skin was registering burning pain. I smelled the distinct, bitter odor of hair crisping.

Someone came at us from the other side of the brilliant blaze, and suddenly I felt the pressure of the heat ease back. It didnt leave completely, but I wasnt in danger of becoming baked goods.

Kevin. He looked singed and breathless and wild around the edges. His movements were fast and jerky, fueled by way too much adrenaline. We have to get out of here! he yelled. Its trying to kill us!

Hed extended some kind of fire protection over me and David, which was damn nice of him, considering. I wondered if Cherise had smacked the back of his head to make him think of it. If it had wanted to kill us, wed be dead! I yelled back, over the roar of the flames. Has it said anything?

Kevin gave me a blank look. Its a fire.

Trust me. It talks! Even with Kevins power canceling out the fireand this went well beyond the kind of power that Kevin the Fire Warden could have summoned up; it was more on the scale of a Dji

My body tried to sweat, to protect me, but that was like spitting in a volcano. Wisps of steam rose off my skin, but it didnt cool at all.

Kevin stared at me in utter confusion, working through what Id told him, and then turned to face the fire. Hello? he said. It would have been cute if it hadnt been so dire. Uhhi? Anybody home?

Cherise staggered around the far curve of the room and headed for us. She looked like I expected I would have in her place, if Id stumbled in here with a haphazard set of borrowed powers I didnt know how to use, only to find myself in a killing trap.

In other words, not happy.

What are you doing? she yelled at Kevin. He gave her a harassed glance. We have to get out!

Before I could stop her, she turned to the rock wall and slapped her palm against it.

As she did, she let loose a furious burst of Earth poweruncontrolled, instinctual, driven by her panic and fury. What was it Id said? Shes like a baby with a nuclear bomb and a shiny red button.