Blood of the Cosmos (62 page)

The Shana Rei were far less logical and more dangerous; they were truly insane and unpredictable, so they would have to be destroyed sooner or later. And Exxos needed to be prepared to do that, should an appropriate opportunity arise.

Now, with their communication routines safely interlocked and their processing power churning beneath the notice of the Shana Rei, the combined robots developed a new theoretical concept—an entropy dampener, based on higher-order crystalline theory and lattice mathematics. If the robots could create such a device and turn it against the Shana Rei, they might be able to freeze the creatures of darkness into reality and solidify their reluctant existence, turning chaos itself against the enemy.

Once it was designed, Exxos and all his duplicates could modify their internal structure, change the circuitry so that their mechanical bodies encompassed the chaos-lock device. Despite the ingenuity of the potential solution, however, there simply weren't enough robots left to make that plan a viable path to defeating the Shana Rei. The processing power exceeded what they could accomplish.

Nevertheless, Exxos would continue to ponder the solution, expand it, search for a way to make it extendable. There was time. And the black robots knew how to bide their time.

Drifting in space now, he watched the hex plates from the Dyson sphere assemble like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle wrapping around a huge hull framework, building another deadly robot warship. Their invincible fleet was taking shape.

He activated his motivators to propel himself through the vacuum to where the hexagonal cylinders looked larger, more ominous, nestled inside the dark nebula. Exxos plunged deep into the shadow cloud, curious to see what the shadows were doing with their new prisoner.

He hoped the Shana Rei would let him interrogate or at least torture the pathetic halfbreed male. So much to learn, so much to observe … Perhaps if they flayed enough information from the captive, Exxos could even choose an appropriate target for the first full-fledged assault of their invincible new fleet.

 

CHAPTER

105

ROD'H

He floated in a world of tangible nightmares, and no matter how loudly he screamed, no sound echoed back through this empty, isolated bubble of darkness.

After tearing apart the verdani battleship like a pack of Ildiran jackal lizards, spilling the countless frozen Onthos bodies like seeds from a pod, the robot ships had left his ship exposed to the shadow cloud. As fearsome as the Klikiss robots were, the creatures of darkness were far, far worse.

Rod'h hung helpless now … cold, aching, blind. If he were superstitious, he might have believed himself dead—but this limbo was the antithesis of a Lightsource.

“Release me!” he screamed, and a silence as deep as the blackness buried his words. He reached out with his mind and his heart. It felt as if all the comforting strands of
thism
hung around him in frayed ends. The only faint connection he still felt came from the lifeline to his siblings, and they were much too far away to help.

Gale'nh was there—he could feel his brother inside his mind—but an infinite distance away … and with wrenching despair, Rod'h realized that meant the rest of the warliners had fled. They were long gone, and Rod'h felt very alone. But he remembered that Gale'nh had endured this, too. And survived.

All his life Rod'h had wanted to be recognized for his abilities, to demonstrate his skills and his worth, yet now he felt afraid. What had attracted the shadows to him? What did they want? He understood what his brother had experienced when the Shana Rei captured the
Kolpraxa
and consumed the entire crew. Still, they had been unable to defeat his brother, and they would not be able to defeat him either. Somehow, the halfbreeds had a strength that the shadows did not understand.

Rod'h had that strength. He knew it.

In desperation, he reached out for Gale'nh, but it felt as if his nerves were being flayed from within. How had his brother been able to endure this?

Unable to connect, he reached out farther, stronger. Muree'n was out there as well, somewhere … probably on Ildira. And Tamo'l was with the misbreeds on Kuivahr.

Finally, there was Osira'h, his strongest sibling. He caught the faintest of threads, a tiny contact, and he followed them but tried even harder to find Osira'h—yes, there she was! He was surprised to discover that she and Tamo'l were together in the sanctuary domes. He shouted to his sisters with his mind, begging them to notice him, but he heard only silence.

“I am strong enough!” he cried out, but the ringing black silence did not give him confidence, and the fear grew like a smoldering fire within him. Like the faeros!

Before he could reach out to the fiery elementals he had touched at Wulfton, his impotent defiance sparked a change in the formless void. Shapes twisted and emerged—a black smear deepened out of the emptiness, and a smoldering incandescent eye appeared out of the center. It was an iconic representation that struck fear into Rod'h, a useless shame.

In the sealed records unearthed by Anton Colicos and the rememberer kith, Rod'h had seen drawings of the ancient Shana Rei. He had thought they were mere drawings, the imaginings of an Ildiran rememberer who wanted to frighten an audience. But this thing was
real
, and Rod'h faced it now.

A pulsing, hideous voice echoed inside his skull. “We have you. We will know you.”

Dark fingers clawed inside his mind, sifting through his thoughts and ripping away his knowledge. The shadows plucked at his memories, extracted and inspected strings buried deep in his mind.

“I refuse!” Rod'h said.

Another inkblot appeared with its staring eye, then another, until he was surrounded by the maddening manifestations. Rod'h squeezed his eyes shut, but he still saw those blazing eyes inside his mind.

“You are different from other Ildirans.” The voice sawed like a dull serrated edge through his brain.

“You are different from humans … stronger. Interesting.”

“It concerns us.”

“
We must understand.
We will tear understanding from you.”

“No!” Rod'h screamed.

“How many others are there?”

“He is like the other one we captured.”

“We drained that one, but did not understand him. Nor did we destroy him.”

“We must be more thorough with this one. We will extract everything.”

“Thought by thought.”

“Memory by memory.”

The creatures of darkness pulsed around him, pressed against him, pushed into his mind like leeches. “How many others are there like you?”

“Where do they come from?”

“Are you in league with eternity's mind?”

Rod'h screamed, and he buried the information deep. He wasn't even sure what the questions meant. He simply fought back.

Still, they tore knowledge from him. He tried to stop them, but against his will he revealed that Gale'nh was alive, that his brother had escaped from the dead
Kolpraxa
, and that he was now part of the Solar Navy fleet—which could fight with the searing weapons that had just severely damaged the Shana Rei.

They also learned about Muree'n, his youngest halfbreed sibling, who was on Ildira—also well guarded, another difficult target.

The Shana Rei had rebuilt their ships with the dark material that englobed the Gardeners' star, but they were wary about suffering too much destruction. They desired an easier target.

Rod'h fought back and could not understand how they were extracting information from him. He tried to empty his thoughts, tried to withdraw into himself before he revealed anything vital.… He even willed himself to die, if that would save his siblings and save the Ildiran Empire, but the shadows refused to let him do so.

The Shana Rei continued to interrogate him, and finally, even though he resisted with all his might, they pulled one last important detail from his mind.

Tamo'l and Osira'h, together.

Both relatively unprotected on an isolated Ildiran world.

Kuivahr.

He wailed and tried to block out the thoughts, yet they weren't finished.

Another terrifying shape appeared. It looked like a large mechanical beetle with a black metal carapace and a flat geometric head studded with red optical sensors like bright stars in this incomprehensible void.

The Klikiss robot extended segmented limbs from its abdomen plate. Sharp claws opened and closed, reaching toward him with a sharp physical threat that seemed out of place in this nonsensical gulf.

The robot's voice buzzed. “I have more questions, but the answers do not particularly matter. The pleasure comes in the interrogation itself.”

The robot approached. Even though Rod'h could not hear himself scream, he heard the clacking of the razor-edged pincers.

 

CHAPTER

106

ARITA

Back from the Wild and settled in her familiar quarters in the fungus-reef city, Arita told her parents about her unusual encounters with the Onthos out in the Wild. She reminded herself that the Gardeners were, after all, aliens—more unusual than even the Ildiran race. Strange behavior was to be expected, but still she was troubled.

She showed them images of the swath of dead worldtrees on the ridge, and the green priests expressed dismay; they had been entirely unaware of the blight … which should have been impossible. It seemed as if the verdani mind itself had not noticed the dead trees. They sent direct messages to Kennebar and his followers, as well as to the Onthos scattered out in the Wild.

The Onthos did not respond. Oddly enough, when Kennebar responded, he seemed unconcerned and disinterested. Remembering what Collin had told her when she was out in the wilderness, Arita found that very disturbing.

She spent days walking in the forest away from the fungus-reef city. The worldtrees created private thickets, and she could easily find a place to be alone. Back when she and Collin had submitted themselves to the verdani, engulfed by living fronds and vines, they had each been transformed, in their own way. As she wandered through the underbrush, she wondered if the trees would ever give her a second chance. If the trees called her, if the thickets beckoned her with another embrace, Arita would leap at the opportunity.

And what was that other, mysterious voice that came to her in dreams and in the back of her mind, like music but with images of the vast universe?

“I knew where to find you, Arita,” called a voice from the trees above. “This time, I came to see you. I could not stand to be in the Wild any longer.” Collin scrambled down, hung onto a thick frond, and dropped to the ground. “I left Kennebar and the others.”

She was shocked to see him here. She gasped, then laughed, and before she could stop herself, she ran to him. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close, not speaking for a long moment. He felt solid, warm. How she had missed him! Arita let herself respond to the embrace. She didn't need to be a green priest to communicate in this way.

But she felt deep tension inside him. Warm perspiration dampened his emerald skin. She pulled back and looked him in the eye. “I know you couldn't send a message through telink. Too uncertain.”

Collin hunkered down next to her on the forest floor. “Whatever is wrong, it's growing more and more dangerous.”

She had never felt vulnerable like this before. The worldtrees and the green priests had always been able to see everything; it was just a part of life on Theroc.

Collin shook his head, distraught. “There are mistakes and dangerous omissions in telink. The blight is growing. How many trees are already lost? Either the worldforest mind is ignoring what might be a crisis, or it's blinded in sections. Worse, what if the trees are somehow
hiding
what's really happening?”

“But … the verdani mind knows everything.”

“No.” Collin sounded bleak. “Not anymore.” Alarm filled his eyes, which were also covered with a sheen of tears. “The rest of our group doesn't question Kennebar. It's as if they share the taint with the worldforest. Even I can barely find Kennebar. He's just a flicker to me, lost among the infinite details of the verdani mind.”

“Then how are you untouched?” Arita asked.

He wrapped his arms around her and drew her close. “I've kept my distance more and more, sheltering myself. I don't use telink as I once did, and I feel more alone than ever.”

Collin was confused and troubled, and Arita's heart went out to him. Always before,
she'd
been the one who was lost while he tried to comfort her. Now it was her turn. “Maybe you shouldn't go back there. Stay here with me.”

“I can't—it's the
worldforest
! How can I just abandon it?” He took her face in his hands, bent so close she could feel his breath on her skin. “I need you, Arita. The worldtrees could never replace you, and now I can't even trust them anymore. I'll be stronger if we're together.” He lowered his gaze. “I
have
to try again. Will you come with me? Talk with Kennebar, if he'll allow it? See him for yourself?”

“Of course I will. We should talk to my parents. They'll rally the green priests, send an expedition.”

Collin drew back. “Kennebar and his followers would reject me. What if the rest of the green priests did the same? But they couldn't ignore the daughter of Father Peter and Mother Estarra. They would have to let you see.”

Arita couldn't turn him down, and she did not want to release his hand. “Then we'll go right away.”

Collin flashed her a grateful smile. “I'll be glad to have you with me.”

 

CHAPTER

107

KING PETER