Страница 73 из 111
Uma thundered toward me, ax up. She swung, I dodged. Swing, dodge, swing. I was still on my back, and her legs were straddling me. I wasn’t going to luck out much longer.
I saw someone extract from our group—Jareen was ru
Jareen grabbed my staff out of the ground. “Kitty!” She threw it, with a lot better aim than I had. It pierced the bubble we were in and sailed right for me. I grabbed Uma’s leg and used it to help slide myself under her. Rolled, jumped up, and grabbed the staff as if I’d done this move a thousand times before.
Chose not to marvel. Spun and stabbed, just as Uma was spi
The staff went through her stomach. All the way through to the middle and stuck there. I leaped back as she stared at me. “I . . . ca
“Wa
The ax fell out of her hands and tumbled to the ground. She grabbed the staff with both hands and tried to pull it out of herself. The bubble we were in started shaking.
Uma looked at me again. “I . . . ca
“She lied.” I watched the light go out of Uma’s eyes. “Sayonara, Bitch Leader.” I looked around. “ACE, we going down?”
Yes, Kitty. Lilith is still fighting to survive.
I thought about what I knew from when we’d first found ACE. “Take us down, to Jareen.” The bubble started to lower. “Soul sister! Need your help, if you’re up for it.”
Jareen nodded, but Lilith still had some power, because our bubble shifted, far away from Jareen and the others. It was shaking, and I saw Uma’s body tumble out and hit the ground, staff still inside her. I knew she was dead.
I also knew when the bubble was gone because I started to tumble as if gravity was back and seriously pissed that I’d ignored it for so long. I closed my eyes and winced. This was going to hurt. A lot.
But it didn’t hurt all that much. Because instead of hitting the ground, I fell where I’d been falling for the past year—into Martini’s arms.
“Ooof!” Okay, it wasn’t the most smooth or romantic thing he could have said, but I was okay with it.
“I’m not that heavy!”
“Baby, you’re not heavy at all. You just fell a long way.” He was shaking. “I hate it when you do that, you know.” I shifted and wrapped my legs around his waist. He gri
I kissed him, hard. But not too long. “Jeff, you have to get me back to Jareen.”
“I’m right here.” So she was. Forgot, all these folks had the superspeed. “Naked Apes are really into public displays of affection. It’s nauseating back there, and here, and you’ve rubbed off on the Cat People and Major Doggies, too.”
“Jeff, meet Jareen, my new best friend forever. Jareen, we need to cha
“Er . . . while that sounds great, I think I’ll choose not becoming like Uma.”
Kitty, we must do it now. ACE ca
“Has to be now. Jareen, it goes through you, and you birth it. Somehow. Otherwise, Lilith will be around and able to join with someone like Uma, or someone worse.”
Jareen looked apprehensive, at least as much as a Giant Lizard could. “Why me?”
“Because you’re just like Kitty,” Martini said. “Only green and with a tail. But personality and brainwise? You’re her twin.”
Kitty!
“ACE is freaking, Jareen. Please.” I took her hand.
She nodded. “Okay. Tell Neeraj—”
We didn’t get to find out what she wanted us to tell him, though I could guess, because her head went back sharply. Martini caught her before she went down. She was rigid, but because ACE was inside me, I could see a glowing substance fu
I watched the color motes fly through the air. They swirled around everyone with us, then everyone on the planet, then the planet itself. I watched via ACE, so I saw the colored pieces of Lilith’s consciousness swirl through our solar system then move off, toward Alpha Centauri.
It is done. Lilith is scattered. ACE sounded sad.
Are we safe from her?
Yes. Lilith is one with the cosmos now and can join God.
Interesting. Even the superconsciousnesses got to go to Heaven apparently. Even the ones who’d tried to take over the universe.
God forgives.
Oh, right. ACE heard more than top-layer, focused thoughts. How could God forgive her?
Once Lilith was . . . birthed . . . Lilith saw all and so could understand Lilith’s wrongdoing. And repent. ACE sounded a little unsure on this point, and I decided we could table the rest of our intergalactic comparative religion course for another time. However, ACE still sounded sad.
Do you envy her?
In a way. But ACE pities Lilith more. ACE has what Lilith did not.
Love.
Yes. Because of Kitty.
No. Because of ACE. You loved Earth before you met me, ACE. You cared and protected and mourned its inhabitants as your own. You did that, not me, not Paul. You could have told us you were God and we would have believed you. But you didn’t, because you also have humility. If you want to leave us, I’ll birth you. But if you want to stay, we would be happier.
ACE wants to stay. ACE has a home here, and a purpose.
Jareen groaned and came back. “That sucked. Did it work?”
“Yes, good job. You birthed a demigoddess and saved the universe.”
She gri
CHAPTER 54
“LET’S GO HOME,” Martini said.
“It’s not over, Jeff.”
“Looks over to me.”
“Where’s the battle cruiser?”
“Good point.” Martini looked up. “I don’t see it, but that might not mean anything.”
Kitty, the ship has taken its shuttles and is heading back to Alpha Centauri.
Why?
The rules must be followed.
They have rules and follow them?
Yes. Does Kitty wish a listing of the rules?
No, ACE. I’ll take your word for it. Of course, our game has rules, too. I told Martini that the ship was gone.
“Good, so we’re done.”
“No. We have to take the king.”
He groaned. “How? He’s on Alpha Four.”
ACE?
Yes, Kitty. Who should come?
All, if they can stand the trip.
Many are hurt, but all can survive it.
And come back?
If they choose to. There was evasion in ACE’s tone.
I know what’s coming. And what I have to risk.
Very well.
Billy Idol’s ‘Cradle of Love’ started in my ears as I felt ACE gather us all up, dead bodies included.
“Fitting song.” Martini put his arm around me.
“You can hear it?” I wondered if my iPod was too loud.
“I think we can all hear it. ACE must like your musical taste. Someone should.”
We time warped. That’s the only way to describe it, though we didn’t have to dance or anything. But once we were all in ACE’s bubble, so to speak, we shifted. I could see the planets, stars, and empty space whiz by us, but I got the impression I was the only one who could.
We landed at a plaza in front of a place that made Martini Manor look like welfare housing. Frankly, it made the Taj Mahal look skimpy. Huge, white, built on the side of a hill—the architects had wanted to make darned sure that when you stood at the bottom of the many steps leading up you knew you were an insignificant peasant.
“Guess this is your family estate.”