Father Desmond Porter's Arc

Chapter 3 of 7

Desmond walked with one hand on the wall. The stone was cold and damp. He heard water somewhere ahead and followed the sound. The passage opened into a tall slot where a canyon wall rose above him, streaked with slow trickles that pooled at his feet. Light fell from a crack far above. He knelt at a pool and drank from his cupped hand. He was washing the cut on his palm when the humming started behind him. Not one panel. Three. He turned and saw the passage he had come from was the only way out. The water ran down a sheer face he could not climb. He had walked himself into a corner. He drew the violet shard from his coat and held it in his good hand. He set his back against the wet stone. The first scout came through the gap fast, curled antenna twitching, black eyes catching the light. Desmond swung low and drove the shard up under the plate at its throat. The scout dropped without a sound. The second came over the first and clicked hard. Desmond took a blow across the shoulder that spun him against the wall. He felt something tear. He kept the shard. He kicked the scout's knee sideways and stabbed down through the joint of its neck. It fell into the pool and the water went dark. The third scout stopped in the gap and raised a short rod. Desmond threw the shard. It struck the scout in the eye and the scout went backward into the rock and slid down. Desmond crossed the pool and finished it with a stone. He stood in the water and shook. His right arm would not lift above his belt. He pulled the shard from the third scout's face and wiped it on his coat. He cut the humming panel off the belt of the nearest body and held it in his palm. It buzzed against his skin the way the components on his workbench buzzed when he laid stained glass over them. He understood then that he was carrying two working pieces now, the shard and the panel, and that the Vael would keep coming while he carried them. He did not put the panel down. He tied his coat sleeve tight around his shoulder with his teeth and started back the way the scouts had come. The route to the meeting place was gone. The wings were still in the chapel. He had to get there before the next group found the bodies in the water.