Chapter 63 THE EYE WITHIN
Dorian stared at the frosted glass, at the chilling map Lyra had drawn.
The symbol—the broken crown and the bleeding eye—wasn't on the outer walls of the palace, but right in its center. Where the ventilation shafts and the barracks were.
"This isn't a place," Dorian said, his voice suddenly turning to ice. He turned around. "This is a condition. Serra, grab the children. We're going to the vault."
"Why?" Serra had already scooped up Atlas. "Dorian, what's happening?"
"The ash," Dorian said, reaching for his radio. "That bone dust falling outside... It wasn't just a threat. It was a seed."
He pressed the button on his radio. "Kael! Status report! Kael!"
Only static came from the radio. And then, a muffled, wet coughing sound.
"Boss..." Kael's voice sounded loud, as if his lungs were filled with water. "We... we can't hold the doors."
"Has the attack started?"
"No," Kael said. His voice turned into a growl. "We... we are attacking."
(THE COLOR OF BETRAYAL: BLACK BLOOD)
A noise erupted from the corridor. Not gunshots. The sound of flesh hitting flesh, roars, and shattering glass.
The bedroom door shook.
Dorian pushed Serra behind him. He drew his sword. "Wake Lyra," he said. "We're going to need her cold."
The door was ripped off its hinges and crashed inward.
The people who entered weren't enemy soldiers. They were the palace's own guards. The loyal soldiers who had saluted Dorian this morning.
But now...
They had no eyes. Where their eyes should be, there were bleeding, red slits like the symbol. A black, tar-like liquid—the liquefied form of the ash—dripped from their mouths.
"Morgoth," Dorian whispered. "They inhaled the bone dust. They've been taken from the inside."
The lead soldier, a Beta, snarled and lunged at Dorian. Dorian swung his sword, not to kill, but to incapacitate. He slammed the pommel into the soldier's jaw. The soldier fell but got up immediately. They felt no pain.
"They don't die!" Dorian shouted. "Serra, to the vault!"
Serra had strapped the babies to her body like a kangaroo instead of using the stroller. Atlas in front, Lyra on her back.
"Move!" Serra shouted.
Dorian stepped aside. Serra fired the modified flare gun she held. But the round inside wasn't explosive; it was a liquid nitrogen capsule Lukas had developed.
The capsule exploded in the middle of the soldiers. A blue mist spread. Three soldiers froze mid-motion. Their black blood had frozen in their veins.
"Cold!" Dorian said. "Cold slows them down!"
(THE HARDEST DUEL)
They stepped out into the corridor. The palace had surrendered to chaos. Servants, guards... anyone who had breathed the outside air had turned. Only those who had stayed inside or wore filtered masks (like Lukas and Valeria) were still themselves.
At the top of the stairs, a familiar silhouette appeared.
Kael.
But this wasn't the joking man Dorian relied on.
Kael's face had turned grey. Bloody tears streamed from his eyes. He had thrown his rifle aside and gripped a massive war hammer. His chest heaved with that black poison.
"Kael," Dorian said, lowering his sword. "Kael, it's me. Can you hear me?"
Kael tilted his head. A crack came from his neck.
"Dorian..." Kael's voice clashed with another entity inside him. "Run... I can't hold it... I can't hold the thing inside..."
Suddenly, Kael roared—with an inhuman sound—and lunged at Dorian. He swung the hammer.
Dorian dodged at the last second. The hammer shattered the marble floor.
"I can't kill him!" Dorian shouted to Serra. "He's my brother!"
"Then we freeze him!" Serra said.
But Kael was fast. He attacked with Alpha strength. Dorian felt his arms go numb as he parried the blows. Kael was striking with uncontrolled power.
Dorian kicked Kael in the stomach, sending him stumbling back. "Kael! Fight it! You are an Alpha! Don't lose to a pile of dust!"
Kael hit the wall. He coughed up black blood. For a second, the redness in his eyes faded, and his own green eyes returned.
"Kill... me..." Kael said, weeping. "I'm getting close... to the babies... I can't stop it..."
As Kael was about to turn again, Dorian made his choice.
He focused on his Golden Seal.
"No," Dorian said. "I won't kill you. I will purge you."
Dorian dropped his sword. He tackled Kael. He grabbed the handle of the hammer and pressed his hand against Kael's chest, right over his heart.
"ATLAS!" Dorian shouted.
In Serra's arms, Atlas heard his father's call. His silver eyes glowed.
Dorian pulled Atlas's pure light through the seal and pumped it into Kael's body.
Kael's body convulsed as if hit by an electric shock. Black smoke erupted from his mouth, eyes, and nose. The light was burning the darkness inside him.
Kael screamed in pain and passed out.
Dorian collapsed onto Kael, gasping for air. "He's alive," he said, checking his pulse. "His pulse is beating. The poison is out."
(THE LAST BASTION: THE WINTER GARDEN)
But it wasn't over. Hundreds of turned soldiers were coming from both ends of the corridor.
"We can't go to the vault," Serra said. "They cut off the path."
"Then up," Dorian said, hoisting the unconscious Kael onto his shoulder. "To the Winter Garden. To the glass dome."
"Why there?"
"Because it's isolated," Dorian said. "And there's something there... that will amplify Lyra's power. The irrigation system."
When they entered the Winter Garden, Dorian locked the doors with magic and iron bolts. He laid Kael on the ground.
Lukas and Valeria were there too. They had escaped through the vents and taken refuge here.
"The outside has fallen," Lukas said, looking at his tablet. "The whole city... the whole capital... inhaled the ash. Millions of people... they've all become Morgoth's puppets."
The palace was surrounded. The inside had fallen. Only the space under this glass dome remained.
Dorian looked at Lyra in Serra's arms. The baby was awake.
"My daughter," Dorian said, holding Lyra's tiny hand. "We need a little winter. A real winter."
Dorian activated the fire suppression system and the irrigation sprinklers.
"Serra," Dorian said. "Don't use Atlas. Atlas will burn them. We need Lyra. She must freeze the water. We have to turn the palace into a massive ice coffin. Or they will get in."
Fists began to pound on the outer doors. The glass was cracking.
Tonight, Volcan Palace would either be a fortress or a tomb.