And right now it was doing its work on the evil person in front of him. No, not a person, a husk, as skin… a thing, Max thought. But that was all right, if this act saved the others. Max pushed harder. Willed harder. He felt it working.
And he felt it costing him.
He was losing something of himself, some of his power. It happened whenever he healed someone and it usually took some time for him to recover. Still, Max pushed harder, opening himself up. Though his eyes were closed, he could see light coming off Nicholas's body. There were sounds, voices, but he was barely aware of the noise.
As he put more of himself into Nicholas, he saw memory flashes. By now, he recognized them as flashes of home. Max realized he was missing an opportunity here. If he concentrated, he could be probing into Nicholas's mind.
Without breaking the healing connection between them, Max saw Nicholas's malice, his hatred of him and the others. His contempt for humans, and something else… ambition. Ambition that went beyond wanting to control one of the five planets.
He saw that Nicholas was telling the truth about the remote control in his hand. His friends would die if Nicholas let go of it. He looked for Nicholas's intentions toward the others. It was hard to see. His mind was full of twists and schemes.
Then Max felt Nicholas push back. Of course, the connection went both ways. Nicholas was getting stronger now, and probing him. He was seeing things, flashes of Max's life. And he was looking for something… the Granilith.
Max shut his mind, broke that part of their contact. He was almost certain that Nicholas had not seen the location of the Granilith and was grateful. But what else had he seen? Max felt sick knowing Nicholas had seen inside his mind.
He pushed the thought aside and concentrated on the healing. It was working. Max could feel the energy he controlled doing its job. Nicholas was nearly restored, and Max was weakening. The same process had led to Max's death with Wheeler. But it wasn't going to go that far this time. Max was different from how he had been when he had first healed Liz, different from when he had healed Wheeler.
Max was stronger now.
With a final push, Max allowed his energy to finish its work. Finally, he picked up his hands. Opening his eyes, he saw that Nicholas looked like he did in Copper Summit… like a normal, if creepy, teenage boy. He was healed, and it had taken nearly everything that Max had. Nearly everything…
But not everything.
Max felt a surge of hope. Maybe this wasn't over. Maybe there was a chance for him to save his friends and to defeat Nicholas once and for all. He had just survived something that would have killed him as recently as a year ago, so anything was possible.
Lifting his hands off Nicholas, Max sat back on the floor and took a deep breath. He was sweating and he knew he must look awful. Liz was saying something, asking him if he was okay… so were the others. For a second, he couldn't find his voice, so he just raised his hand to signal that he was all right. And he was all right. He wasn't well… he was a long way from that… but he was okay. Hope rose in his chest, faint but there.
He saw Nicholas open his eyes and touch his own face with one hand. Then he looked at Max and smiled.
"You did it," Nicholas said. "And you're still here. The way things felt there, I wasn't sure if you would make it." He got up, jumped to his feet. "You know, Max, I haven't felt this good in fifty years."
Max raised his head slowly; there was no sense in letting Nicholas know that he felt marginally better than he must have looked. Nicholas leaned down to him and grabbed him by the hair, lifting up his face.
"It's a shame you're not up to par. A few minutes ago, it was me who was under the weather. Now, it's you. Feeling weak, Max? Powers gone? Too bad, really. I always wondered who would come out on top if we went mono a mano, powers against powers. Oh well…," he said.
"As I recall, you were never much for a fair fight," Max said. It was a guess, but Nicholas twitched and Max could see that he had struck a nerve. Then the moment passed and he smiled. "That's the problem with you, Zan. You only know one way to fight, head on. You never had an appreciation for the value of subtlety, planning, real strategy."
"You mean dirty tricks and backstabbing maneuvers," Max said.
"Six of one hand, Max, half dozen of the other. But I will point out that you are the one who lost his throne and his kingdom and is now on the floor, barely able to sit up while I hold all the cards," Nicholas said.
"You got what you wanted, now let them go," Max said.
"Not yet. You will tell me where the Granilith is first, then you will die," Nicholas said.
"Let them go first," Max said. "You have me."
Nicholas shook his head and said, "Can't do that, but I will show you that you can believe me."
He hit a switch on the remote control and then tossed it aside. For a terrible moment, Max thought he had hit the switch to electrocute Liz and his friends, but nothing happened.
"We can deal, Max. Tell me where it is and I will kill you quickly," Nicholas said.
"Don't do it, Max," Liz said. "Don't tell him anything."
Max looked into Nicholas's eyes and remembered what he had seen when they were connected. Liz was right: He couldn't trust him to keep his word. In fact, if anything, he could depend on Nicholas to break it.
"Okay," he said. "Just let me say good-bye to my friends."
Nicholas nodded, and Max got up, slowly… more slowly than he needed to. He just needed to get close to Nicholas; he needed one chance to make this come out all right. One chance to do right by his friends and by Liz.
Nicholas stepped behind him and grabbed his arm to pull him up, and Max seized the opportunity. He twisted his body so that he was leaning on Nicholas's small, teenaged frame. As he came up, he balled his fist. He
heard Nicholas gasp as he realized something was wrong. The husk twisted in his arms, but Max held him firm as he brought his fist down hard and made contact with Nicholas's lower back.
As soon as he felt the contact, Max pushed the husk away from him and waited to see him disappear. For an instant, he saw terror on Nicholas's face, but the instant passed and Nicholas was still there.
Nicholas looked as surprised as Max did. "I think you missed. The spot you were looking for is a little to the right," he said. Nicholas smiled, but there was no humor in it. "You surprised me, Max. That was unusually… sneaky," Nicholas said.