THE VROL TRILOGY (26 page)

Draagh told them that the
process only took days to complete, as each nanobot was connected
to the other, facilitating a global network. His people then had to
construct complex equipment, enabling Socrates access to the world
- something akin to a frequency translator. This made access to
Socrates slower than usual, but still enabled mages to engage the
intelligence network in near real-time.


Another thing they learned about
the bots is that not all were the same. Most were of a standard,
workhorse variety, able to perform a myriad of functions, but those
that enabled, for example, teleportation or advanced wavelength
attacks, were of different builds, and not as plentiful, thereby
resulting in a more time-consuming effort to cantus spells of these
types. This is precisely why Draagh used his staff for 4D time
slips - the amount of data being sent to the limited number of bots
was immeasurable (he also frequently used his staff for 3D porting,
but this was not necessary. He once said it just looked
cool
). Another thing
about the bots was that some existed in the atmosphere, but others
existed inside living things, one such type being the salubots,
which monitored health and assisted in healing. Lycans and vampires
had very different salubots in their systems, with those of the
lycans being strong and superior, while the vampire variety barely
kept them alive at the expense of rapid healing, hence, their
constantly rotting flesh.

Furthering their lessons, Draagh had
introduced Max to the basic concepts of his staff. Max asked when
he would get one, and with a grin, Draagh responded, "When you are
as old as dirt, my boy."

Jennie was learning to do simultaneous
cantuses, such as wearing the gauntlet on her left hand and
punching something, while shooting flames at it with her wand. She
also learned some shortcuts, which pleased Draagh, as he had a
tendency to shorten phrases, and thought she was quite brilliant
for attempting to do so with her cantuses. Not all worked. In fact,
a couple backfired, as attested by the housekeepers who were
required to clean the animal guts and tar off the walls in the main
hall. She also tied her wand to her katana, with admirable results,
such as when she once pointed her sword at a large melon on a table
in the dining area, levitated it to her position. She then sliced
it into pieces in the air, and set each piece back down onto
individual plates in front of lycan soldiers. She received three
marriage proposals for that feat of skill. Max was impressed with
the feat, but not the proposals.

Joining with his two students, Draagh
explained that as they would one day leave the world of the Rhönen
Dominion, they would need to enhance their training and solidify
their skills with some fieldwork. This excited Jennie, who had been
itching to get out of the castle. Max was not for it or against it,
completely confident in what he already learned, but did agree that
it could be beneficial to them all.

They were to go on a recon mission with
a group of Krynos' finest warriors, to see if Vladros had more of
his agents hanging around a local village of normals, and to meet
with the town mayor. Krynos had troops making regular rounds in the
local villages for the protection of the people, who were all part
of the Dominion, but Vladros was a bitterly jealous and vicious
vampire, bent on the destruction of the lycans (nothing new there).
However, he couldn't simply drain all of the normals, as he would
then no longer have a food supply; normal human blood was the only
nourishment their systems could tolerate. He had to keep them alive
and procreating.

###

Far to the north of the safety and
comfort of the Dominion, in a dungeon below Vladros' dilapidated
castle, Ryder Johnson sat on the cold, stone floor of his cell,
sipping on a small bowl of rancid blood that the jail keepers gave
him.

This tastes like
crap
, he thought to himself. It was the
blood of a normal who died days earlier, so the vital fluid already
began to putrefy. The only reason it hadn't coagulated was because
all vampires had an anti-coagulant protein in their saliva, and
someone had apparently spit in that particular batch of vital
fluid. Still, it satiated his hunger, which had been overwhelming
since his crash. He had no idea where he was, but wanted to get
out, eliminate Gunnarsson, locate his ship, and then find
the
dega bitch
who wasted his time on useless
dates
.

As he stared at the pool of
semi-congealed red liquid in his bowl, he was startled by a voice
outside the cell, around the corner and out of visual
range.

"Your name is weak," said the voice,
"and I have an incredibly low tolerance for weakness."

Johnson lifted his head up once he
heard the voice, and responded while looking to the darkness,
saying, "You want weak? Come on inside, ass-hat."

"Ah," came the voice, hidden from
around the corner, "you attempt to portray strength, but is it just
a ruse?"

Johnson looked in the direction of the
voice and said, "What do you think? What do I have to lose? I'm
locked up in this shitty cell, drinking rotten blood, and even
though I find it disgusting, it kills my hunger. I just want to get
out and find someone so I can kill him slowly."

"Slowly? As in torture?" asked the
voice.

"Yes. I want to watch him suffer. Who
are you and where am I?"

Vladros walked out from around the
corner, but not the corner from where Johnson thought the voice
came from. That much surprised him, but what startled him even more
was the man's appearance. He was tall, pale and had a misshapen
face, with rotten flecks of flesh hanging from his chin. Wearing
tightly fitting black leather garb with a long, elegant black cape,
he gave Johnson a creepy, horrific stare from near-dead looking
eyes.

"I am Lord Vladros, the leader of this
world. Tell me who you are and where you come from."

Vladros listened to Johnson for over an
hour, piecing a puzzle together from what the former lieutenant
told him, and after some thought decided to not kill his prisoner.
Rather, he wanted to put him to good use, as that was his nature -
to use and continue.

"I have listened to your
story, and although it sounds untrue, I have had experience with a
mage who can do those things. His kind is called the
Prīmulī
, and he is only
one step below Jah - he whom we despise even more than the lycans.
While this mage is quite dangerous, he has weaknesses, his primary
one being the fact that he values life. To defeat him is simple.
Destroy those he loves and he will buckle. It is easier to destroy
than it is to create."

Johnson looked at the vampire leader
and asked, "Where am I, and what have I become?"

"You are a vampire - a lover of death
and taker of the blood, and from what you have told me, you indeed
love death, though your distaste for blood shall wane as time
passes on. Come with me and I shall show you more."

A prison guard came out of the shadows
and opened Johnson's cell door, allowing him to accompany Lord
Vladros out of the dungeon, and into the darkness above.

###

Max and Jennie dressed down in leather,
quadrinium battle armor and katanas, preparing to go to the local
villages and visit with the normals, who, by the way, adored the
lycans. In fact, it was considered quite an honor to be accepted
into the clan, as they were known to be noble, strong and kind. If
a normal was brought into the clan, and had family in the village,
it was well known that he or she would be able to care for their
family well, as lycans soldiers were paid handsomely for their
duties.

The recon team met down in the common
area of the castle, and all were glad to see Jennie, one of the few
female lycan warriors ever known, and certainly the most beautiful.
Donus was to lead the recon team, and shouted out when he saw
Jennie and Max.

"My friends! Come! Accompany me at the
point!"

The two offworlders trotted over to
Donus' location and stood with him in the lead position, prepared
to get out and have some fun. The Massive gate of the castle opened
and the lycans burst out onto the wide pathway, long ago created by
the continual footsteps of those seeking a better life.

As the group, two dozen in size,
rambled down a narrowing path, various team members bounded off to
check trees for signs of enemy scent. Max thought that looked fun,
and started to make great leaps in the forest, narrowly missing
trees as he flew through the foliage. Perched near the top of a
large pine, he looked down at the marching group of lycans, unable
to see Jennie.

"Hey Gunnarsson," she said, hanging
upside-down from a branch right next to him. "Having a blast? I
know I am!" She let go, falling multiple meters, and quietly landed
on the mossy forest floor. She laughed and looked up to where Max
was, but not seeing him, she only heard his voice.

"Hey, are you looking for someone?" he
asked from behind her position, as he casually leaned up against a
tree.

"Ooh, you're fast, but not fast
enough!" she yelped as she bounded out forward, catching up with
the group while laughing.

Their hearts were racing as they played
like children who had been let out after weeks of rain. Max was
elated because Jennie seemed happy, and that their relationship was
improving on a daily basis. Jennie was just content to get out of
the castle.

In any normal situation, Donus would
have commanded those who had split off from the group to come back,
but Max and Jennie were enjoying their first time out of the
castle. They were also quite special, a well-known fact throughout
Krynos' military. The two bounded out ahead, smelling and touching,
listening and howling. Max started to pay a bit more attention to
his surroundings, and not Jennie's shapely posterior, after he
nearly did a face dump into a tree

Not too long after they left they
arrived at the village, with various normals walking about, working
and selling goods and foodstuffs. A blacksmith pounded away at his
iron works with loud, clanging noises, as smoke rose out of
chimneys of quaint huts lining the muddy, unpaved main
thoroughfare. Max found it to be beautifully archaic, and quite
different from the world into which he was born. Jennie pranced
down the road, waving and greeting little children, all of whom
showed no fear of the marching lycan soldiers. It was apparent that
these people enjoyed the protection of the Dominion, and relations
between the castle and the hamlet were quite good.

Donus broke off from his group and went
to one of the larger buildings, calling Max and Jennie to go with
him. Even though the building was larger than most of the others,
it still comprised of a single floor, just like all the others.
Knocking before entering, the three found a portly normal male,
eloquently dressed in various fabrics and leathers, seated behind a
modest desk that was overflowing with stacks of
manuscripts.

"Ah, Donus, good sir," exclaimed the
plump man of fairly advanced age, his short, white hair accentuated
by green eyes, "so good to see you again. Please! Please, come and
have a seat."

Then, noticing Jennie, he said, "Please
by all means, introduce me to this rarity of nature. It is not
often we are visited by someone of such bold beauty."

Jennie would have blushed, had she not
felt that the older gentleman was being a bit perverted, but took a
seat on a rickety wooden chair. Donus and Max chose chairs that
seemed to be more stable.

"Mayor Stein," started Donus, "these
are visitors to the Dominion, Max Gunnarsson, and his companion,
Jennie Escalante. They join us as we make our rounds."

Jennie cringed at Donus'
statement, never having considered herself to be Max's
companion
.

"I was informed that there have been
assorted attacks by Vladros' death squads, and, on King Krynos'
orders, I am to compile a list of the missing from
here."

Mayor Stein quickly shuffled through
his manuscripts and pulled one out, handing it to Donus. "Here, my
good sir. I believe this will give you enough information. I must
say, although we have recently suffered some losses, mostly males,
they are not what they were in the past. That being said, has the
King given further thought to my request for a permanent garrison
in town?"

Donus briefly scanned over the names
and descriptions on the manuscript, and then turned his attention
back to the mayor.

"I am pleased to say that King Krynos
has agreed to your offer of hosting troops here, but we shall build
our own quarters, as it is not our way to inhabit the homes of
locals and take advantage of their hospitality. Would you be so
kind as to loan me a quill and ink so I may make a copy of this
listing?"

Max and Jennie looked at each other,
never having considered that the process of something so simple -
making a duplicate of data - would be such a chore. On their world,
they would touch a command on their console, with a duplicate being
sent to wherever they desired. The Dominion was an old world of the
future, yet it had a certain charm that was lacking on their home
world of Azul.