The Marriage of the Living Dark

“Staff’

He shook the thing, as if that would rectify the fault, but all that happened was that a second line started flashing under the first. Loading Jam.

He stared at it, unable to believe what he was looking at. Only once - once in all his time as a soldier! - had he had a gun jam on him. And never a JPK-4. Karr looked up. Their footsteps were getting distant If he didn’t go now ... He began to run. As he entered the stairwell, there was a gust of warm air and then a brilliant searing light He turned instinctively, closing his eyes, yet he knew even as he did what it was. A light grenade. And Chen and Ebert had run straight into it They would be crawling about down there, blind and defenceless. There was no time to worry about a broken gun.

Karr leapt the flight of stairs and hauled himself about the turn, seeing, even as he did, the small, neat figure that stepped out from the passage to the side and raised his gun.

DeVore ...

He saw Ebert turn, blind as he was, and face their mortal enemy, almost as if he saw him. “You shall not prevail...”

There was no time to call a warning. Throwing himself forward, Karr leapt, even as the gun went off.

Half a second too late, he cannoned into DeVore’s back, slamming him down onto the floor.

For a moment he lay there, groaning, hurt himself, his leg twisted in the fall. Then, forcing himself up, he reached out and closed his fingers about the barrel of the JPK-4.

He had done this once before. In another world. In another life. Now he must do it again.

DeVore lay just beneath Karr, his head turned to the side, a small trail of blood trickling from beneath the chin.

Karr closed both hands about the barrel and raised the gun. The malfunction message was still flashing, but it did not matter now. He swung it back, then brought it sharply down, the heavy wooden butt striking DeVore’s skull with a wet yet solid crack.

For a moment Karr stared at the shattered mess that had been DeVore’s head, then, with a shudder, he let the gun fall from his hands. Was that it? Was it over now?

He looked across. Chen was sitting up, knuckling his eyes and groaning. Just across from him Ebert lay still, blood pooling dark beneath him. “Aiya ...”

He tried to get up, and almost fell back, the pain from his leg was so intense.

“Chen ...” he groaned. “Kao Chen ...”

Chen turned his head blindly. “Gregor? Is that you?”

“Yes ... he’s dead, Chen. I got him.”

Chen laughed, such relief in his voice that Karr thought for a moment he was going to cry. “You’re sure?” he said. “I mean ... if s really him?” “Yes ... but ...” He swallowed, then went on, steeling himself to voice his fears. “I think Hans is dead.”

Chen’s groan, the grimace of pain on his face, mirrored how Karr himself felt inside.

For a moment silence. Then, quietly. “But we got him, Chen. We finally got him.”

Master Tuan had felt the disturbance in the air as the first of them had died.

Now there only remained the one.

THE MARRIAGE OF THE LIVING DARK

“When he is gone the breach will be healed, the universe made whole.” Kim, standing beside him, looked out at the scene before the ancient temple as they brought Eberf s body from the craft and laid it in the sunlight He watched them gather about the bier and saw the sadness in their faces, and wondered, not for the first time, what was the purpose of it all. “One must not think in terms of purpose,” Tuan said, as if he read Kim’s thoughts. “One must learn to live for the day.” “Would it were that easy,” Kim said. “Or do you forget I am dead?”

“In this world, yes. But in the world to come ...?”

Kim looked to him, surprised. “What do you mean?”

“Wait and see, Kim Ward. Wait and see.”

Jelka turned as the three men stepped from the air. This time she was ready for it This time she steeled herself not to show the turmoil within her. Even so, it was a shock to see that Kim was smiling.

“Prepare yourselves,” he said, K. echoing the words alongside him. “If s time.” Behind him, Tuan Ti Fo turned and, stepping within the no-space, walked over to where his twin crouched, suspended in his natural shape. For a moment he seemed to hunch, as if in prayer, and then, from within his cloak, he withdrew a long, thin blade that seemed to flicker with a strange light Stepping forward, he plunged the blade deep into the creature’s abdomen, embracing it, merging with it even as they watched. There was a cry of intense, almost unbearable pain, and then the air about the two creatures shimmered Buildings wavered and vanished. The two gate-craft flickered and were gone. In an instant all was changed, transformed.

A ripple, and then stillness.

A bird called, high and clear.

Jelka blinked. Where Kim had been, Joseph now stood. But not just Joseph, for in his eyes she saw both Kim and K., the three in one.And flowers! Everywhere one looked, flowers!

Jelka laughed, astonished, then turned. All about her, her friends were looking down and staring at themselves, as if they had been bom anew. As indeed they had!

Even Ebert, who had died, now stood among them, his blue eyes staring about him in amazement Karr laughed and held up his right arm. It flared a brilliant gold in the sunlight “Look!” he called, amazed. “I’ve got a metal arm!” Jelka stared, reminded terribly of her father at that moment, then turned back, facing Joseph. Facing the stranger who was now her man, throughout all time and all realities.

“If s done,” he said, coming over and embracing her. “This is all there is now.

The rest...”

He touched his head gingerly, then laughed.

“What is it?” she asked, concerned.

His eyes met hers, sparkling eyes that seemed more alive than she had ever seen them. “If s just that I’ve forgotten.”