Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 80829 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 404(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80829 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 404(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
“There is no place for you here, soulless.”
The invader dashed out of the tower.
This knowledge was important, but it wasn’t enough. It related to the gress as a whole, but my opponent was a Kael. I needed more.
I moved my hand, bending the vision to my will. The temple vanished. I scrolled through the world, looking for the right combination of data. Mountains and valleys rolled around me, the sky darker, then lighter, the moons rising and falling…
There it was. I stopped the memory carousel. A fortress rose in front of me, carved from a mountain side. I took a step forward, conquering miles in a single movement, and landed on its wall.
I watched the gress train within the fort. I walked between them. I listened to them talk. I saw them spar, then learn to kill. I was there when they passed their trials and became Kael. I witnessed them don the devourer shrouds that took root within their bodies. I saw them suffer and inflict that suffering tenfold on others as efficiency mutated into cruelty.
I watched them take their first contracts and step into the cosmos.
I watched them hunt down their prey.
I watched them kill my mother.
12
I opened my eyes. Nothing had changed in the tunnel. Bear still napped curled up around me. Jovo’s eyes were closed. I didn’t know how much time had passed, but I wasn’t overly thirsty, so it couldn’t have been more than a couple of hours.
I spent years in the gress world. I watched a generation of their young train, grow, achieve their rank, and be unleashed. I knew how they fought. I knew how they thought. I had accessed a layered memory, not just the recollection of a single being, but a collected amalgam of experiences, so complex that they blended into a simulation created in my mind.
I had accepted my inheritance. It didn’t sit quite right. And I instinctually knew why: walking through the memories of others was a skill, and I was less than a novice. If it wasn’t for the overwhelming need to get back home, I could’ve gotten lost in the gress’ world. The desperation had anchored me. Next time I would have to be much more careful.
And there would be a next time, just not any time soon. The gem had gone dormant. I’d drained whatever psychic battery powered it to nothing. The knowledge wasn’t gone. It was still there, deep within me, beginning to rebuild its reserves. The gem required time to recharge – I had no idea how much – and until it replenished itself, I was on my own, without visions and without helpful hints. That was fine. I found what I was looking for.
The Kael’gress were assassins, killers for hire, who spilled into the galaxy by the tens of thousands, taking contracts from the highest bidder. To their planet, they were a lifeline that assured supplies and survival. To everyone else, they were a blight, motivated by greed and reveling in sadistic cruelty. They weren’t born cruel. They were conditioned into it, and what happened to Jovo told me that the gress waiting for us to enter the anchor room was no exception.
That desire to inflict suffering was a weakness, and I would use it. I needed answers. If I succeeded, I would get them today. If I failed, I would never leave this breach.
Everything I went through until now was training. This would be the real test. Only one question remained: could I hold out long enough?
I rolled to my feet and stretched, working out the stiffness in my legs and back. Jovo uncoiled and bounced to his feet. His eyes were calm and cold.
I pulled out the spider rope, folded it in half, and twisted the middle into a slip knot. I tested the loop on my arm. When I tugged on the rope, my makeshift lasso tightened around my wrist. I loosened the loop again and wrapped the rope around my left arm, holding the end in my hand.
“Ready?”
He nodded.
I reached for the dial and deactivated it. The barrier vanished. I waited for a moment. The gress could ambush us now, but he would not. The tunnel was narrow, and their bodies were fragile. He would wait until we entered the anchor chamber, where he would have plenty of room to maneuver. Attack and avoid, bleed the opponent and bide your time, wear them down and then strike the final blow, that was the Kael way.
The space beyond the tunnel lay empty. The way to the chamber was open.
I dropped the dial into my backpack, and we started forward.
The gress was watching us. I felt his gaze latch onto me. He was out there somewhere.
We passed through the massive stone doorway. Bright lights came on, flooding the big room in harsh artificial sunshine. The anchor chamber was a perfect square, sixty-eight yards across. The floor, the walls, and the ceiling were identical, built with huge slabs of yellow stone, weathered and rough. Large clusters of pale crystals shone between the ceiling tiles, leaving no shadows in which to hide. The floor was bare, except for the dark pillar of the anchor jutting from the center of the room.