The Blood Solution (Approaching Infinity Book 3) (20 page)

“There may come a time when you will have to stand in my way, to stop me. I’m telling you now, if that time ever comes, do what you have to do and I will never blame you, or fault you, or condemn you for it.”

Raus stared, tried to laugh, couldn’t. “Jav, I—” He shook his head, frowning. “How do I—how does
anyone
—respond to something like that?”

“You don’t.”

“So, Jav Holson, the Ritual Mask is intact, functional,” the Emperor hissed.

“Yes, Lord Emperor,” Jav said to the floor of the Emperor’s chamber. He was dressed in the grays of the Squad, with a gray leather jacket to replace the black one given to him by Salavar Grummel, and wore black cloth shoes in place of boots.

“How do you account for that?”

“I can’t. I was just as surprised as I imagine you were, Lord Emperor. I
can
say that by necessity, in training in the Eighteen Heavenly Claws, I spent more time accustomed to the Ritual Mask’s absence, or at least its inaccessibility, than to its presence or what it could do for me.”

“I do not blame you, Jav Holson, nor am I judging you. As the Ritual Mask’s creator, I alone should understand its potential and its limitations. I must say that I have been intrigued with the notion of a Shade possessing two Artifacts and what that would do, how the Artifacts would act together. I daresay that anyone in your position would do just about anything to retain two Artifacts and justifiably so. The potential power increase is too great a temptation to ignore. However, in your case, it seems any concerns regarding an increase in power were unwarranted. It pleases me that the Ritual Mask preserved you, though. Losing you would would have been a waste.

“Do you know why the Kaiser Bones abandoned you?”

“No. But Thars Kohanic claimed to have communicated with the Bones. And I’m now quite certain that the sound I started hearing after fighting Ty Karr is a chorus of voices, unintelligible but constant and. . .” Jav thought for a moment. What was it about the voices? He could discern no discrete words or overall purpose, but he could tell that the voices were at least one thing. “Insistent.”

The Emperor was silent, with triangle eyes revealing a warm, undulating flame and nothing else. Finally, something like a sigh set the Emperor’s flame to flickering. “I’m sure it’s simply your subconscious trying to apply order to chaos. You received quite a shock when Ty Karr was defeated. We all did. The last vengeful act of a dying god. But remember, Jav Holson:
you
destroyed Bahahm, utterly, while he merely left you with a ringing in your ears. Which is the more noteworthy?”

“Yes, Lord Emperor.”

“You have access to both Artifacts now?”

Jav hesitated, searching for the right words. “I can feel the Ritual Mask, but the Kaiser Bones are in the way.”

The Emperor seemed to nod without moving.

“That is all, Jav Holson. You are dismissed.”

“Thank you, Lord Emperor.”

“I’ve never walked across the Black Fields without having to constantly look over my shoulder. It’s a strange feeling.”

“I’d say you’ll get used to it, Raus, but even this is temporary,” Jav said, his hands jammed into the pockets of his gray jacket.

“I know. I’ve seen what happens to planets the Emperor has fed on. And I know that we’ll be moving on as soon as we’re able.”

Jav nodded. “There’s still plenty to do here, though. There are three other planets in this system, all quite small and barren except for the one gas giant, but with the resources we can get from them, we may be able to start rebuilding the Grans. The Transit Division will need to install jump deck relays, too, so that we can re-establish contact with the rest of the Empire.”

“So, for a little while, anyway, I can play at being a peaceful monarch?” Raus smiled wanly.

Not knowing how to respond to that, Jav puffed his cheeks and released a long breath.

“Don’t worry, Jav. I know what the future holds for me, for this planet, and the people left on it. Ban is the only thing that’s important to me. Ban and my pledge to the Empire.” Raus brightened suddenly and changed the subject. “You must be anxious.”

“About what?”

Raus turned to Jav in surprise. “About that young lady we’ve got sequestered up there in my Tower.”

Jav stopped in his tracks, his eyes wide and wild. “Anis. . . Lausden. . .” He shot a look at Raus and bolted for the Tower that loomed ahead of them.

“Hey!” Raus cried,  taking off after him.

Jav burst into the room, knocking the door from its frame and drawing the locking mechanism into a jagged length of twisted ruin. He stood there staring at Anis, prone and unmoving on the floor. He moved slowly, sure that he was already too late, but unable to banish hope completely. He knelt down and propped her head upon his lap, cradling it at the same time. Her breath was faint and shallow. Her lids were closed, but because of the angle, revealed a hint of the dulled glimmer of her eyes. The remnants of a smile adorned her lips.

Jav squeezed his eyes shut, wetting her face with his tears. He bent and gingerly kissed her lips while stroking her soft, straw-colored hair. He held her close like that for several minutes.

He straightened and saw Raus in the doorway. “I. . . She. . . The moment you mentioned her, I knew that something was wrong.”

Raus gaped, shock and confusion plain on his face.

Jav sat her up so that he could hold her more closely, resting her head upon his chest. He placed one hand upon her breast and bowed his head as he felt the last heartbeat shudder out of her. He clutched her to him tightly for a time and then laid her back down.

“Jav, if we hurry, there may still be a chance to save her.”

Jav sniffed back tears and nodded. He picked Anis up and followed Raus out of the room with her in his arms.

Raus stared at the girl suspended nude in the fluid-filled tank. The tests confirmed what he could see with his own eyes, that she had died of malnourishment. He had informed Barson’s chief of Anis’s presence, but was explicit about her going undisturbed for the duration of their ten-day assignment. The state of the door’s lock made it clear that she had been alone, safe from any prying eyes or ill intent. The food stores in her apartment had been untouched. It was as if she had stood in the middle of the room until she collapsed from hunger and waited just long enough to die in Jav’s arms.

He felt very close to Jav just now. Both he and Jav suffered a similar fate where women were concerned and circumstances seemed to dictate that it was indeed fate at work, perhaps with a little help here and there from unseen, unknown agents: there were too many coincidences and outright challenges to nature to ignore. He wondered what he should tell Jav, if it would make any difference, if it would help.

The timing made it clear that on some primitive, inaccessible level Jav felt Anis Lausden slipping away, but even now, Jav could not seem to make that conscious connection, that she and the thing he complained of losing were one and the same. Jav was distraught, but it appeared to Raus to be of a different order than what he had spoken of while they were still in the north.

Perhaps it was better if Jav didn’t make the connection. Raus didn’t know, but some force, active or passive, was working to erase Jav’s knowledge of any association with the person Anis Lausden echoed. Should he attempt to interfere with that force? To what end? Would it help Jav in any way or serve only increase the mounting number of tragedies, as tragedy seemed to be the end result of every coupling? And would interfering make Raus a target as well?

In the end, as far as fate was concerned, Raus supposed it didn’t matter what he did. He didn’t want to make things worse than they had to be, though, so he would simply wait and see. He would not mention anything to do with soul echoes again unless Jav brought them up or if it was regarding his own trouble with Milla Marz. The Tower was set to be dismantled, his brother and the lightning gun to be transported to the Root Palace. He could see to Anis Lausden’s burial discreetly and outside of Jav’s notice easily enough if that’s how it needed to be.

One thing did bother him, though. While he fully believed that a larger force—fate—was at work, he couldn’t ignore the
timing
of his and Jav’s assignment. Raus was new to the Empire, but he was no fool. No advantage had been gained by their swift departure, unless that advantage had something to do with Anis Lausden being left alone. She had been perfectly fine when they left, but Jav had started to act strangely soon after they arrived in the north, as if he knew subconsciously that something had happened to her. It’s possible that Jav’s behavior had nothing to do with Anis, that it was due instead to Kohanic’s influence on him, but Raus didn’t think that that was the case, not wholly, anyway. None of it made any sense, though. Ultimately, she had died of natural causes. If she or her association with Jav were dangerous, why not simply kill her? Why go through the trouble to cover it up?

Raus shook his head suddenly and pinched the area between his eyes to relieve the building tension there. He had to stop this line of thinking. There were no answers. He would be the best friend to Jav that he could and let the natural course of future events direct how he should do that.

“How did she die, Raus?”

Raus whirled, surprised by Jav’s presence. “How long have you been standing there?”

Jav shook his head, shrugged. He had his new leather jacket hooked on one finger over his right shoulder. “A minute, two? I don’t know.”

“Starvation,” Raus said.

“What?”

“She died of starvation.”

“With all that food available to her?”

Raus nodded. He lowered his eyes and said what he thought might be plausible, but which he didn’t believe to be true. “It’s possible that at heart she resented the position she’d been put into and that this was her protest.”

Jav pursed his lips and looked longingly at Anis floating peacefully in the tank. “I suppose it is possible at that.”

Raus waited nervously for more from Jav, some doubt, some suspicion, but there was nothing. “I can see to her burial, Jav,” he said.

“No, that’s okay. I’ll take care of it. I know I just met her, but I really liked her, Raus. She didn’t look anything like her, but for some reason she reminded me of Mai.”

Raus’s breath caught in his chest.
For some reason
. . .

Together, Jav and Raus buried Anis Lausden. Besides the two of them, the Emperor and Salton Stoakes, no one knew what she was to Jav. Her friends and what little family she had had given her up for dead as soon as she’d been taken to the Tower. They were too busy realizing the utter hopelessness of their plight with the arrival of the Vine to do anything but mourn silently.

Raus couldn’t help feeling a small sliver of terror work its way under his skin, deep and inextricable. For all the power that he and Jav had at their disposal, in the end it meant nothing. He felt sorry for Jav. He felt sorry for Anis. But his life and that of his brother would have to come first. Fate was fate. Those who could manipulate fate required a healthy respect, and Raus would not hesitate to oblige.

Jav exited his quarters, a wide grin on his face. Warmly, he greeted Kalkin, who stood just outside, and took his leave. Kalkin watched him walk off and join Raus further down the corridor, the two on their way to an appointment with Gilf Scanlan in lieu of the daily briefing. What was of greater interest to Kalkin, though, was the look of satisfaction on Tia Winn’s face as she, too, watched Jav go on his way.

“Tia,” Kalkin said, “I know the look on Jav’s face. I’ve had it myself. What confirms it is the look on
your
face, which is worrisome.”

Tia wore a form-fitting blood red tube that just managed to cover her private parts and thigh-high tights, striped the same red and a white that was difficult to distinguish from her skin. She turned to Kalkin, folded her arms over the ample white breast nearly overflowing the tight red fabric, bent to look him in the eye, and pouted. “Why would you say that?”

He met her gaze with a stoney one of his own, blinking lazily, waiting for her to answer her own question.

“You know, no one talks to me the way you do. I’m your senior. I was your
teacher
, Lor Kalkin.”

He blinked again, waiting patiently.

She frowned, growled in frustration, and snatched his hand in hers. She tried to pull him along with her down the corridor, in the opposite direction Jav and Raus had gone, but she couldn’t budge him. She turned and stared at him open-mouthed, forgetting that his gravity rank outclassed hers, making her larger stature meaningless. She pinched her face up in exertion, pulled with all her strength, and still she couldn’t budge him.

Finally, her face softened and she pleaded, “Please?”

Kalkin rolled his eyes and allowed himself to be led down the hall into Tia’s quarters.

Inside, she told him to sit on the bed. She climbed on herself, sitting cross-legged near the head where she grabbed and hugged a pillow. Kalkin took a deep breath, wondering what he was in for. He sat down on the edge of the bed, keeping an eye on her over his shoulder.

Just as she opened her mouth to speak, Kalkin felt her power at work. Nothing was different except that they were both sitting on the bed, naked and facing each other.

“There,” she said. “Both of us at our most defenseless.”

Kalkin snorted. “Defenseless?”

“What?” she said, feigning hurt.

“Never mind. Are you going to explain what’s going on?”

“Yes. But only because it’s you asking.”

“You mean because I caught you?”

“Well, yes, but just because someone caught me doesn’t mean I have to admit to the accusations. I’ll explain to
you
.”

Kalkin narrowed his eyes.

“Do you ever wish you were someone else?” she said.

Kalkin shook his head, confused by the non sequitur.