The Blood Solution (Approaching Infinity Book 3) (13 page)

“How do you feel, Mr. Kapler?” Witchlan asked.

“Stronger,” was all Raus could think to say.

“Just so,” the Emperor said. “You are now one of my shadows, Raus Kapler, bearing the weight and authority of the Empire. Congratulations.

“Your power is like Specialist Holson’s. The Resurrection Bolts enable you to raise an army of the dead to do your bidding. You command the flesh, where Specialist Holson commands bone. Unlike Specialist Holson’s skeletons, your corpses are able to transmit your power through an infectious bite to those mortally wounded. When closer to the ground, you will be able to sense the presence of raw materials.

“There is more, but everyone takes to his or her Artifact according to the match—there is always some luck involved, good or bad, producing results that are exceptional or merely good. You will have the next ten days to explore the limits of the Resurrection Bolts and the relative success or failure of the match. I will leave you to Minister Witchlan, who will explain your post and immediate assignment.

“That is all.”

“Thank you, Lord Emperor,” Raus said, but his words trailed off as the Emperor’s image faded mid-sentence.

Witchlan stepped forward. “You stand at the top of the Empire, Mr. Kapler. Not a bad trade, we think. We operate on a simple system. Seniority is the rule among Shades. Only I and the Emperor stand above Shades. That is the beginning and the end of it. For the time being you will join Specialist Holson on the Death Squad, holding the rank of Specialist yourself. Lor Kalkin, whom you will meet soon, is First Specialist, your Squad leader.

“The Emperor mentioned an assignment. You have our apologies for rushing, but there are considerations which cannot be ignored and the sooner we can field test you, the sooner we can cement our ranks and move forward here on Sarsa and beyond.”

“Yes, Minister Witchlan,” Raus said.

“Your assignment is simple. Specialist Holson has explained the presence of a traditional enemy in the north. We have detected a significant volume of refined metal and innumerable discrete energy signatures, all of which suggests the presence of high technology, and of a level seemingly on par with your own. You and Specialist Holson are to go by Tether Launch to the north and subdue or destroy whatever force you find there. The Tether Launch controls will be preprogramed to return you to the Root Palace in ten days. As the field test requires a certain degree of performance from you, communications with the Palace will be disabled and no assistance will be offered should any be required. You will excuse our rather draconian conditions, but it is a test and not a sentence—we have every confidence that you will succeed. Upon your successful return, you will be publicly inaugurated as a Shade of the Viscain Empire.

“Specialist Holson, please escort Specialist Kapler to Tether Launch Station 34 for immediate departure.”

“Yes, Minister,” Jav said.

“Good luck, Specialist Kapler,” Witchlan said.

“Thank you, Minister.”

Jav motioned for Raus to precede him back through the pressure doors.

As they walked the corridor to Tether Launch Station 34, Raus turned to Jav. “What’s Tether Launch?” he asked.

“Didn’t you ever wonder how I came to Sarsa? Or what it might feel like to be shot from your Lightning Gun?” Jav said, grinning.

“Yes and no,” Raus said, his brow wrinkling in confusion.

Jav shrugged. “Well, you’re about to find out the answer to both those questions.”

They passed through another set of pressure doors into an open bay that faced the Sarsan sky, much like the previous balcony had, but this chamber was high-ceilinged and filled with equipment. A row of great cylindrical tanks were against the wall opposite the sky. Technicians in gray coveralls were tending to various control panels and checking the equipment.

From among the technicians, Kapler nearly missed Kalkin, who was also dressed in gray. In fact, he was dressed exactly as Kapler was, in the Squad’s standard uniform. His dark hair was slicked back like Raus’s, but wasn’t as wavy.

“You must be Raus Kapler,” Kalkin said, smiling and offering his hand up high—Raus was still Dark.

“Yes—” Raus began, taking Kalkin’s hand.

“He’s our boss,” Jav whispered.

“—sir,” Raus finished.

“Lor Kalkin,” Kalkin said.

They shook hands and Raus looked to Jav. “What do they feed you here in this Root Palace? He is as small and as strong as you.” He shook his head in a combination of disbelief and jealous disgust.

Both Jav and Kalkin laughed at that, but Kalkin waved his hands. “No, no. Jav is the strong one. I’m the smart one.”

Jav grinned. “Don’t you believe him. He could turn us both to paste without lifting a finger. That’s why he’s the boss.”

Raus wasn’t sure how far to believe Jav’s statement, but he knew that he’d entered a world where he was no longer the strongest or the best—and
boss
was a concept he understood. He was beginning to see that leadership within the Viscain Empire was equivalent to true ability and not something falsely or mistakenly awarded. Kalkin looked young, younger than Jav even, but it meant as little as Raus’s own appearance. Years could be hidden.

Technicians approached Raus and Jav and fixed the remote Tether Launch controls to their wrists. Jav went Dark and was clad in the Kaiser Bones before his technician was finished.

“If you’ll step up into the tank,” Kalkin said to Raus, gesturing to the back of the chamber.

Raus did as asked and was a bit embarrassed when prompted by the attending technician to turn back around to face the open bay. Jav stepped into the tank next to Raus’s and allowed the liquid Vine fiber, jetting from a nozzle behind him, to wrap around his torso. Raus could not hide the look of surprise and mild revulsion as he was subjected to the same process.

“Relax, Specialist Kapler,” Kalkin said, chuckling. “The fiber will set, will synch with your Artifact via the control device on your wrist, and will cease to be a nuisance.”

Kalkin got an affirming nod from a technician working the controls at a podium near the bay doors, and in turn, shared a silent nod with Jav.

“Specialist Kapler,” Kalkin said, “physically you are a Shade of the Viscain Empire, but successful completion of this assignment will serve as your true license. Specialist Holson will be your only back-up, and should only be used for counsel except in case of emergency. You are scheduled for automatic return in ten days. No communication with the Empire will be possible during that intervening time. While in synch with your Artifact the Tether Launch control is quite durable, but you may wish to pay special attention to its care if you wish to return as quickly as possible at the conclusion of the assignment. I believe most of this has already been explained to you, so I will simply ask: Do you have any questions?”

He had many, regardless of how often he heard the same information, but shook his head. “No, sir.”

Kalkin nodded. “Specialist Holson will be able to answer any questions that may come up.” Kalkin patted the tank and said to Raus, “Brace yourself.” To the technician at the control podium he said in a loud voice, “Tanks three and four, ready for launch. Initiate countdown.”

Before the open bay, a holographic projection as big as Raus himself, began counting down from ten. The wall behind the tanks thrummed with untold power as some immense engine began cycling up. He swallowed hard, not at all clear about what was to happen when the countdown reached zero.

“Try to keep your eyes open,” Jav shouted from the tank next to him.

Raus heard the words, but didn’t understand their meaning, which prompted him to cry out, “What?” But the countdown completed then and both Raus and Jav lurched forward, each at the head of a jagged fork of lightning that raced half the circumference of the planet in less than a heartbeat.

They found themselves in twin bowls of glassy ice, the lips of which rising waist high—to Jav, anyway—in a field of unbroken white. Snow was everywhere, on the ground and in the air, blown by sharp, frigid winds, swirling and darting like fat, wet needles. But Raus felt none of it, was touched not in the least by the cold he knew surrounded them.

He took a step and shuddered at what lay beneath him, beneath the snow and ice and frozen earth.

“There are bodies here, countless bodies, well-preserved by the freezing cold,” Raus said.

“Then you should have no trouble crippling the North, even if their Witch Kings still rule,” Jav replied. “Let’s get to some higher ground to get the lay of the land.”

Raus nodded.

They trudged through the thick snow, Raus smiling at the lack of resistance it offered him in his Darkened state. A grade ahead of them made steady progress upward and promised to provide an improved vantage.

“Were you able to keep your eyes open?” Jav asked as they went.

“Yes, but I couldn’t tell you what I saw, not even if I wanted to,” Raus said.

“You can pick up more each time you go, the more your body gets used to it. There was more to see on my trip to Sarsa from the Vine, though.”

The incline they walked grew steeper and the snow in the air thicker, swirling with building winds that howled through unseen crevices in the rock below them, hidden by the cold, white crust. More than once, Raus thought he saw shapes in the flurries, birds or strange shadows that went counter to the wind.

“Did you see that just now?” he asked Jav.

Jav turned his head sharply, attempting to track something in the air alien to the whiteout in which they found themselves. “I keep seeing something, but every time I try to focus on it it disappears or melts away into the storm. Once there’s actually something to see, this snow shouldn’t be an obstacle to a Shade’s senses.”

“So what does that say about something we’ve both noticed but can’t do more than glimpse or register?” Raus asked.

“A good question. So far, it means nothing. If whatever it is becomes a threat, then it’ll mean we were poorly equipped to assess that threat.”

Raus laughed at Jav’s matter-of-fact flippancy. Jav shrugged.

A sharp peak of dark rock peeked from the snow and served as the only marker for what would have been a sudden and treacherous fall. Looking over the curl of rock revealed a broad valley, somewhat sheltered from the wind, surrounded on all sides by high white walls, natural hills that backed into a tall range of mountains. Within the valley, the white upon the cradling walls gave way to more of the dark stone. What the valley held though, was what they sought. The land below spread out some thirty kilometers to the north, terminating in the high, near-vertical mountain range, and spread maybe fifteen kilometers between the rows of hills. In a blackened crater before the sheer rising wall of the mountains stood a tower, not unlike Raus’s, but which was twice the size and looked like a giant taper, tip aflame, set out as an offering to or vigil for some ancient force of nature.

Straight down, the precipice fell several hundred meters. A winding path snaked through the high walls two kilometers to the east and led north into what appeared to be a settlement around the base of the tower. Even from this distance, they could see men standing about in great numbers, looking, Raus thought, like sheep grazing. But smoke and steam rose from several different sites and from the tower as well, indicating industry, however primitive.

“Not quite so impressive, eh?” Raus said a little nervously.

Jav shrugged again. “You never know.”

Something had caught Raus’s eye. Suddenly he slapped his own cheek and his hand came away wet. “Something
bit
me,” he said.

“Bit you?”

Raus ran his thick fingers over a deep cut that was already starting to seal from both ends. He wiped at the gray-green blood but the cut was already gone when Jav took a closer look.

Jav frowned but said nothing about the fresh, thin scar that decorated Raus’s cheek. “Well, you appear to be all right. What do you suggest we do?”

Raus rubbed absently at his new scar. “The path is a little far and taking it would rob us of any advantage of surprise. While Dark, the terrain poses little difficulty for us. Let’s drop down from here and approach the settlement from the west.”

Jav motioned for Raus to take the first step off the precipice. Raus gave him a half-suspicious look before doing so. Jav followed, and the two found themselves in a maze of sorts. Half-buried in snow, walls of dirty ice, sometimes translucent, sometimes opaque, formed an intaglio pattern that had perhaps been determined ages ago by run off from the mountain now behind them. The air was almost clear of snow down here, improving visibility substantially.

“That may not have been a good idea. This ice is old and hard and was just as likely to cut us in two as shatter beneath us.”

Jav nodded. “We’re okay.”

They wove their way through the blades of ice until they came to a dead end. Raus put both hands upon the ice and was about to rest his head against it in temporary defeat when he turned suddenly to Jav, a smile upon his lips. He turned back to the ice and pushed. Though it stretched up five or six meters, it could not stand against Raus’s new strength. The base groaned and made a series of sharp cracking sounds where Raus pushed, but the sheet toppled and shattered into a million shards when it crashed into another, sending a rain of freshly cut stained glass and stones of various size into the snow upon the ground, raising countless little plumes on impact.

“Very subtle,” Jav said, the sound of the shattering ice still echoing between and through the maze walls. “We’re sure to surprise them if we continue like this.”

Raus made a sour face. “Come on.”

“Yes, sir.”

They soon found themselves walking down a dry riverbed a hundred meters wide with banks that ranged in height from just over Jav’s head to veritable cliffs. Here the river had still been shallow. Dry spindly trees, bone-white and long-dead, decorated the banks at intervals like fossilized spiderwebs. There were skeletons strewn about—some in pieces, some half in the ground, some whole but in strange poses—all of them frozen and clinging to swords or spears where there were hands to hold them.