Gates of Rapture(34)
However, as she turned in the direction of the moving air, who should appear but that worthless piece of shit, Casimir. Only he looked really different. “Holy hell, what the fuck happened to you?”
Casimir wore a white robe and was completely bald. She moved in close, still levitating, but scooted up higher in the air and put both her hands on his head. She read the names inked on his skull. “These your kids?”
“My sons, yes.”
“Imagine you having children.”
“I was shocked myself.”
“So, you slumming it or what?”
His gaze took in the the fair-like atmosphere. “I take it these are the warrior games.”
“If you’re looking for Grace, she’s in the stands with Leto, but I suspect he won’t give you much of a welcome. He lost it when Grace left and went through some kind of change none of us has figured out.”
Casimir glanced at her. She couldn’t get used to what he looked like without all his long curly hair. He was still a handsome bastard, though.
“How has Leto changed?”
“Bigger at times, then not.”
“Cryptic.”
“You can see for yourself if you stick around long enough. So, did you come here hoping to bust up my latest power couple?”
He shook his head. “No, but I have a feeling that my being here won’t exactly be welcomed or understood.”
“Now who’s being cryptic? Cut the shit, Caz. What’s going on?”
“I’m here to serve as a Guardian of Ascension to one of your warriors. This particular warrior, it would seem, is ascending to Third Earth.”
“What?” Endelle had always had a good sense of things, especially when a major ascension was in progress. “Who the hell is ascending to Third?”
He swept a hand in the direction of the grandstands. “Why, Leto, of course.”
Even the air around her seemed to slow to a halt. Her mind got stuck in neutral and wouldn’t budge. She just kept staring at Casimir. Finally, she said, “That make no sense at all.”
“Are you sure? You said Leto has gone through a change. Could it be Third Earth–related?”
She frowned because certain things started making sense. Was that why Leto could change into something that resembled Greaves’s Third Earth death vampires? Maybe Leto’s ability to shift into an über-warrior wasn’t about his former addiction to dying blood after all.
But if he was ascending to Third, what about Grace? Usually, if an ascender was married, his or her better half emerged with new powers at the same time. Unless of course you counted obsidian flame as a power matching Leto’s ability to morph into Leto-the-Hulk.
A sudden loud thumping drew her attention to the south.
“Fireworks,” Casimir said. “How nice.”
“Sweet Christ, if you intend to start showing some manners, I might just puke.”
Casimir met her gaze and smiled.
At the distant end of the valley, fireworks shot into the air. These were not quite as high or as magnificent as the usual display, probably because they had to be contained within the dome of Diallo’s mist.
However, the effect wasn’t diminished in the slightest. Music blared through a number of loudspeakers, a kind of brisk Sousa march, and sure enough, at least a hundred DNA-altered swans and geese took to the skies in strict formation, guided by their handlers. Instead of flying straight over, however, they flew in spirals, around and around, in order to draw out the moment. At the same time, all those equally well-trained teens began climbing the poles and lighting the massive bowls of wood. Before long, the field was lit in a startling amount of fire-based light.
It might have been home-spun spectacle, but damn, it worked.
She knew Leto and Diallo had cooked something up as a competition for all the hard training the hidden colonies’ warriors had done all around the globe. But she hadn’t expected to find fairly grand spectacle and some goddam righteous oratory at the games as well. Leto had somehow reached into the hearts of every ascended vampire present, caught their souls in his hands, and squeezed hard until cries of near-ecstasy filled the valley.
Even she had been moved by his speech, ready to take up arms, or to do whatever she could against Greaves. Leto had moved her, had made her believe that they would win, somehow, and that it rested not on the might of an army, but on the convictions and lives of the average, everyday ascender.
Leto had spoken the truth as well, more than even he knew.
War was close.
The flying squadrons of geese and swans, and a smaller one of ducks, were opposite her now. The music had changed to something by Debussy so that the flying spirals had taken almost elegant and certainly more complicated patterns. Even the fireworks had slowed to match the music. A series of red whales swam in blue-and-gold fireworks off to the south. Magnificent.