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A large castle dominated the lakeshore, beautifully wrought with turrets and spires, a moat and a drawbridge.
The death vampires flew into one of the upper balconies, but she was drawn across the bridge, over the moat and though a vast courtyard. Massive doors opened and she moved into what she knew to be a throne room.
The vision paused as though waiting for something. Finally a man appeared, one she despised beyond
any she had known in her entire life. He was called Chustaffus and he was the only man to have ever taken Endelle against her will.
He walked swiftly through the room and she followed him. What the castle lacked in modern structure, a full-blown war room made up for with every electronic device man had created in any dimension.
She hovered in the air at the back of his command center and watched as the monitors showed not his world, but Second Earth. She recognized the three theaters of war.
Three other men were there, all warrior tough. She knew them as Chustaffus’s sons, all made in his image. Chustaffus put his hands on the shoulders of two of them. “And we’re sure Duncan is dead at last?”
“He is, father,” the tallest said.
“Then let the final assault on Second Earth begin.” Chustaffus’s hard, brutal voice commanded the room.
Each monitor suddenly filled with what looked like smoke at first glance. Endelle soon realized she was looking at thousands upon thousands of death vampires flying into each of three theaters of war on Second Earth.
Over the next few minutes, she watched her armies overcome and slaughtered. Bombs exploded in constant succession as well.
Though time-elapsed in the vision, the assault went on for hours.
Other images passed through the main monitor as she watched the physical decimation of Metro Phoenix Two, then extending to every major city in the world.
The vision shifted and in a Paris Two castle, she watched as the royalty of her world paid fealty to Chustaffus who sat on the throne.
In the vision, she appeared as well, bound in chains, enhanced with Chustaffus’s power so that she couldn’t escape. “And you, Endelle, will belong to me for a very long time.”
Just as she thought the nightmarish images were coming to an end, she felt a hand on her shoulder within the vision. Turning, she saw Duncan who nodded somberly. “You must send me to Third. The future isn’t fixed. You must let me try, as well as Luken.”
Finally, the vision drifted away.
Never in Endelle’s long-lived life had she had a vision of any kind. She wasn’t made of Seer material.
Yet, she’d just seen the future of her world laid out for her: Luken’s fate appeared to begin a terrible sequence of events, ending almost simultaneously with the destruction of her armies and the major cities of Second Earth.
Endelle wasn’t a weeper, but as she lay on the floor, goddam tears streamed from her eyes and into her hair.
It took her a long time to realize that Merl knelt beside her and held her right hand in both of his.
When she finally shifted to look at him, he was frowning. “What happened?” he asked. He reached down and wiped at the tears on her face. “Did you have a vision?”
“Yes.”
“What did you see?”
All she could do for a long moment was shake her head slowly back and forth. “I had a fucking vision of our world and it’s not good. In fact, I don’t think it could be worse.”
He sighed heavily. “We’re in trouble then.”
The man who smiled so easily, who usually had a French martini in one hand and a lit cigarette in the other, had never looked more somber.
She remained where she was, still on the floor and stretched out prone. “I thought when I defeated Greaves, we’d start rolling the war back. But that’s not the case. In fact, I’m now understanding why the war has worsened. The three generals are being helped.”
“Let me guess; Chustaffus has his hand in the pie.”
“Both fists.”
