Knights of the Grey City

Chapter 58 - CHECKMATE

The dream was in disarray.

The ruins were overturned and leaning against each other, uprooted from the white sand. Deep slashes cut through everything, bisecting carved faces and leaving deep scores in the wave-eroded pillars. A bronze statue of a man astride a horse had been cut into three sections, head and torso and horse scattered.

I felt fuzzy and slow-witted, like I hadn't for a long time in these dreams. I drifted forward, unable to muster fear or worry, only feeling vaguely concerned. Something here wasn't right.

I came to a familiar clearing: a deep crater in the sand. The sword was gone. Something else was gone, too—someone else? There had been someone here?

I found the name and spoke it into the deep. "Leviathan?"

"Hush," came the softest noise. "It is not safe here."

I tried to make my brain catch up with what I was seeing, what was missing. "What happened?" I whispered, my voice muffled and underwater-sounding.

"Our opponent moves," the voice breathed. I still could not see Leviathan, but I caught the faintest hint of movement out in the waters ahead, like his shadow-black body had momentarily blinked against a light source. "I have come to fear that it is spying on us."

"Spying... how? I'm dreaming," I said dully.

"Second... focus, please," Leviathan prompted me. "Where is your mind? Has our connection eroded?" he fell silent—he had spoken too loudly.

Far in the distance, there was a sound. It had the resonant quality of a whale's call, but was torn and high-pitched, like a stuttering shriek. I found myself drifting backwards.

"Second... I will break contact in just a moment," he said. "I'll take care of this if I can. But we may not be able to speak for some time. Please be careful. Something is happening... is changing... our opponent means to stop us before we get any further."

"How?" I asked.

Another shriek, jagged and staccato, closer.

"I do not know. Be careful."

And just like that, the dream faded. I sat bolt upright in my bed, breathing in the darkness, straining to hear the faint whale-call shriek in the distance. There was only the faint rush of cars outside.

I reported what I'd experienced to the other three Knights while we travelled No Man's Land, headed for our third, and hopefully final, attempt on the walled district.

"I wish I knew more about how your connection with Leviathan works," Huang said.

I had a sudden, dreadful thought. "There are cracks in the Sentry tower," I said.

"Those have been there from the very beginning," Huang said in surprise. "Since I first found the place."

"They've been growing steadily deeper since I've been here," I said. "I wasn't sure at first because it happened so gradually. But the last time we were there... I noticed that they were definitely much deeper, and they also had some kind of color change going on. I forgot to mention it. We got caught up in Rayne's navigation stuff... but it has me worried now. The Tower... that's the brain. That's where the data is. That's where Leviathan is."

"He's alive," Rayne said.

I looked up toward her, where she flew alongside Huang at the front of the group. "How do you know?"

"All that energy is still flowing into you," she explained. "You're still contending with his instincts, aren't you? That means he's alive."