Earthshaker

Chapter 21

Chapter 21The eye bolted through the network, cutting from one ley line to another at a high rate of speed. Swiveling every so often to look back in my direction.

I charged after it as fast as I could, shunting my mind along the maze of channels. Bucking right and left and up and down, leaping gaps and flashing through intersections. Barely managing to follow the ever-shifting trail through the earth.

Wondering how I'd find my way back. I was already lost, and the glowing lines went dark as the eye flew past. How could I retrace our route if I couldn't even see the paths we'd followed?

The eye sped up, hurtling through a mass of tangled lines. Reaching deep, I found the will and strength to keep up, diving along the roller coaster course.

Then, the eye swiveled for another look. I felt the force of the Presence again, seething and solid, sending out waves of malignance. Of penetrating awareness. Even as it darted away, I felt it reach for me, like before.

Suddenly, the eye zoomed off faster than ever and disappeared in the tangle of lines. Bearing down, I found more speed and barreled after it, pouring on everything I had.

I whipped around one hairpin turn after another, swooping through the spaghetti tangle of dead and dying conduits. Flashed through the curlicues like an electron swirling through wild atomic orbits, rolling and banking and diving.

Then, suddenly, I emerged on a straightaway. One long line with a blazing blur of light at the end. One bright star waving from afar.

Just as I was nearly upon it, it leaped away. Carried by momentum, I whipped through the spot it had occupied...and found myself caught, spinning out of control in a clutching grip of unbreakable force.

It was like being tangled in bungee cords that stretched and twisted and tugged, snapping me in one direction and then another and then another. Flinging and bouncing me with such speed and power, it seemed like I was being thrown in all directions at once.

The speed of my flight kept increasing. I snapped out and back, out and back with so much force, I thought I was going to blow apart. Thought my mind was going to explode from the whiplash.

It was then I felt the Presence all around me, burning hot with hateful pleasure. Pressing in upon me like the coils of a boa constrictor, crushing me. Splitting me open.

I screamed. Felt jagged waves of agony rip through me as the Presence widened and deepened the wound. As it reached in, grabbed hold, and turned me inside-out.

I kept screaming, and the brutal, spasmodic jerking got worse and worse. The Presence flashed images in my mind, snippets of memories or visions racing too fast to see.

Suddenly, I sped up again, a thousand times faster. Such a jump, it was like I hadn't been moving at all before. And now I knew, without a doubt, that I was finished. I was going the way of Aggie, by the very same hand, leaving my life and the world behind. Leaving everyone behind.

As I started to slip away, two things haunted my disintegrating mind. One, the fact that I would die without knowing the truth about the killer. And two, that I would never see Dale Briar again.

Dale. I thought of him as I started to let go. As the current swept the billion bits of me in opposite directions.

Then, there was a single frozen instant, a last eyeblink of clarity. Glittering and gossamer and pellucid. Floating like a diamond in the center of my tenuous self. Even as I gazed into it, I knew it held the truth.

I saw myself rising from the earth, slowly turning. Smiling serenely in radiant sunlight, hair flowing. Dirt falling away from my bare, pale skin. My eyes flickering open, gazing back at me, all-wise and all-knowing. So much more.

So much more. Was it the past or the future? What I was or what I was destined to become? I wished I knew.

Just as I reached out to her, to myself, the moment rippled away like a reflection on the surface of a pond. Gone forever.

I rippled away, too, for good and all, under the watchful gaze of the Presence. Done and defeated, beyond all regret and awareness. Surrender at last.

Which is why it was such a shock when she appeared. Laurel.

I was so far gone, I didn't even really recognize her at first. Everything was a blur as the trap continued to thrash and bludgeon me out of existence.

But then she leapt in and stopped it. Held it. Opened it. Drew my scattered shards together and hurled me out of it.

I tumbled along a ley line channel and skidded to a stop. Watching as Laurel wrestled the twitching, groaning trap. From where I sat, it looked like a hundred straining bands of glowing cherry red, all of them studded with barbs and sharp teeth. At least that was how I saw it; to move freely among the ley lines, its true form must have been some kind of raw energy.

"Get out of here!" said Laurel. "Do what I say!"

I could barely think straight. "What?" The details of my situation were coming back to me with aching slowness.

"Run!" said Laurel. "Back to the surface!"

I shook myself, struggling to snap out of the daze I was in. The pieces of my consciousness fluttered together, assembling a kind of makeshift self—sluggish and incomplete, like a person made of snapshots of herself, unconnected.

"Get out of here!" I could tell from Laurel's voice she was under great strain, she couldn't hold out for long...but I couldn't get myself to move. I just hung there and stared as the battle continued.

"Gaia!" said Laurel. "You're going to die if you don't run!"

Her voice got through to me that time. The pieces of my blown-apart mind clicked together—most if not all, just enough to light a fire under me. I knew she was right, knew I had to get away...but there was one problem. "I'm lost!" The wild chase through the maze of ley lines had left me completely disoriented.

"Just head for the surface!" One of the jagged bands snapped hard against Laurel's cheek—the part of her spiritual form that corresponded to her cheek, anyway—and she had to pry it off. "Go straight up!"

"But what if I can't find my body?" I said.

"Trust me!" said Laurel. "You'll find it! Now go!"

Gathering my strength, I aimed myself upward. Reached toward the surface, prepared to launch myself away from the dead heart of Cousin Canyon.

Just as I was about to push off, though, I heard Laurel cry out. Looking in her direction, I saw the trap had wrapped itself around her. As powerful as Laurel was, I could see she no longer had the advantage. That thing was going to tear her apart the way it almost had me.

I looked up again, toward the escape she'd bought me. But I couldn't leave her behind like that, sacrificing herself for me. I made up my mind I was going to try to help her. I hadn't been strong enough to beat the trap on my own, but maybe the two of us together could do it.

"Gaia, no!" said Laurel.

I waited a moment, steeling myself for what was to come. Digging as deep as I could for the strength I was going to need.

I remembered the vision of myself rising up from the earth, serene and all-knowing. So much more than I had been. Didn't matter if the vision had come from the past or future; either way, it had shown me what I could be. What I should be.

So much more. I took a deep breath and charged forward. Laurel begged me to turn back and run away...and then her shouts turned into anguished cries as the trap contracted around her.

Howling with rage, I leaped onto the trap and tore at its bands, ripping them away from Laurel. As I attacked the thing, Laurel fought back from inside it, stripping away the jagged restraints. Working together, we pulled them out by the roots and hurled them away.

The trap started spinning again, wrenching in different directions. Trying to throw me, but I wouldn't be thrown. I held on tight, tearing apart the spiny webbing of bands, digging through to my friend.

But as the trap spun faster, the bands toughened. They grew more animated, twisting around us, jolting us, pounding us. One punched through me and left me reeling, barely hanging on.

That was when Laurel screamed. Looking down into the trap, I saw several of the bands wrapped around her throat, choking the life out of her. She clawed at them but couldn't free herself.

And still, the trap spun faster. The earth around me blurred again, melting into a smear of color.

I thought of that vision of myself again. Wished I were that person, the one who was so much more. The one who looked like she could do anything. Not just throw around some rocks and dirt.

That was when it happened.

Suddenly, I surged with fresh power. New strength rushed into me like a wind, recharging me...surpassing me.

I didn't question it. As soon as the new strength hit me, I burst into action. Punched right through the trap with one blow, ripped the bands from around Laurel's throat.

Next, I cracked open the trap, splitting it clear through to the core. It stopped spinning and fell apart, its halves collapsing on either side. Laurel and I fell together amid the tangled wreckage, finally free.

As we lay there, I sensed the Presence watching over us again. Looking around, I saw the eyeball in its starburst, staring at us from a nearby channel. Radiating waves of hatred...and something else.

Fear?

Flush with my new power surge, I probed further, searching for answers. Stormed through the window of its awareness, reaching for the mind behind it. Grabbing for something, anything I could take.

The eye spun around and zoomed off, but it was too late. I'd already stolen something from it—a map of crisscrossing glowing lines, frozen in my mind in stark relief.

In my state of heightened power and awareness, I understood instantly. It was the route the eye was following in its flight from Cousin Canyon. The trail, perhaps, that would lead me to Aggie's killer.

And Laurel's, though she wasn't dead yet. I sensed the spark of life still flickering within her. Gathering her up, I aimed for the surface and leaped.