Page 49 of Spectral Seas (Spectral Worlds #2)

A BBY CLIMBED UP into a gap in the embattlement and stood while the other three climbed up into the neighboring gaps.

When all four were standing, Abby yelled back to Sss’kallion, “You’re attempting to summon something from the void! That’s insanity.”

“Insssanity? Your friend Sss’kyrone whissspersss in your ear. He sssaid the sssame. But tell me, isss it insssane to bring our rassse back to our former glory?” Sss’kallion dramatically raised his arms to either side. “Isss it insssane to re-cuh-laim our true dessserved ssstatusss? Before your kind wasss brought to exissstence, our kind ruled the planesss.”

Abby leapt from the parapet onto the plateau. “It’s impressive,” he said. “This giant quant, whatever it is.”

“It isss a chasssmic bridge.”

Leta, Soren, and Sss’kyrone dropped to the ground to flank Abby.

“A chasmic bridge,” said Abby. “Sounds ominous. Where does one find something like that? ”

“It’sss alwaysss been here.”

“I get that.” Abby nodded thoughtfully then casually stepped forward, leading the other three toward Sss’kallion and the gyroscopic orb. “Something this large,” he said. “Not quite a bubble…but it’s obviously ancient technology.”

“It isss our technology,” said Sss’kallion. “The sssame technology that your cuh-ind has ta-cuh-en and usssed to gain control of the ssspectral worlds.”

Abby shook his head. “I’d remember if I came across something like this.”

“It wasss hidden.”

“Hidden from the Alpha plane?” asked Abby.

“Hidden from time eternal,” said Sss’kallion. “We knew of it, much of our lossst technology isss documented in the most ancient of our ssscriptures. It wasss my role, in ssservice to Sss’kyrone, to perussse the archivesss in sssearch of sssuch itemsss that cuh-ould be usssefull. It wasss there I learned of the chasssmic bridge, a devissse powerful enough to reach to the void. The void to which the Ancient Ones were cast. But there were no desssigns, only mention. We sssearched for it, for thousssands of yearsss, and when othersss sssaid that it was not to be found, we sssearched another thousssand. We too were beginning to believe it wasss forever lossst. Then, jussst a year ago, a cave-in revealed a cavity to the ssside of the great garden. It was within the hollow that we dissscovered the chasssmic bridge.” Sss’kallion slowly turned to praise the huge machine. “It wasss what we had been waiting for, the devissse we’d sssearched for, for so many yearsss, the tool to bring about the return of our massstersss.” He spun back around to face Abby and the group. “We continued our effortsss in sssecret, gathering enough cuh-rystalsss from the ssspectral planes to replace those that had been stripped, enough to generate the power nesssessary to open the void and let the ancient onesss return.”

Abby stopped and placed his hands akimbo onto his hips. “To operate a quantum device, you need a spectrum,” he said.

“That isss correct,” said Sss’kallion. “We needed cuh-rystals from acrosss the planes.”

“Let me guess,” said Abby. “Sss’kyrone here wasn’t on board with your plan to bring back the ancients, so you overthrew him.”

Sss’kallion shrugged. “It wasss the yearsss away from our massster’sss all powerful guidanssse, the temptationsss that led him to ssstray,” said the lizard. “He had to be removed. An unfortunate sss’circumssstance that will be rectified upon the massster’sss return. We have the devissse, we’ve retrieved the cuh-ryssstals needed to power it, and sssoon, we will open the bridge to the void.”

“Even if it were possible, to open a bridge to the void is reckless. You don’t know what will happen.”

“Oh,” said Sss’kallion, “but we do.” The lizard looked away from them to face the sphere, then again raised his arms to either side. The flaming orbs in his eyes brightened to a brilliant white-blue, and the speed of the rotating bands increased.

Abby met eyes with Leta. “ He keeps saying we ,” he chipped. “ And I don’t think he’s talking about the other priests. Can you play back the music from the Viridian feast?”

Leta inhaled a deep breath through her nose, clasped her hands together, one over the other, then slowly slid her limber fingers up onto her wrist console so it appeared that she was tending an itch. “Now?” she chipped.

“ Now ,” he chipped back. “Just remember this time to shift yourself out of phase.”

“ Sure thing .”

Then aloud to Sss’kallion, Abby yelled, “Wait! Wait!”

Sss’kallion’s head wobbled back toward Abby, tilted to the side, then straightened as his tongue twice quickly flitted out.

With a clench of a muscle above his brow, Abby shifted slightly down spectrum, confident Sss’kallion wouldn’t notice.

The effect of the Viridian music was near instant. As the tech of Leta’s suit projected the first haunting notes of eerie siren song, Sss’kallion and the reptoids, warriors and priests alike, began to twitch and stumble, and behind them near the wall, the air began to ripple. The air-distortions manifested into several tight columns, evenly spaced around the perimeter. They rapidly gained density, and transparent figures materialized that solidified into Viridian commandos, two dozen in all, and none in protective atmospheric suits worn by Uhggwa and his escort.

“Okay,” chipped Abby. “Kill the music.”

~*~