Spires of Infinity (30 page)

She made her mask zoom in on the walls surrounding the Spires. They seemed

well fortified against attack. Robotic guards patrolled the walls and the land around and behind them. Large gun placements and towers surrounded the facility to help fend off attack. She was going to need an army to break into there.

Scanning the terrain between the Quarantine Zone and the Spires of Infinity, the Apostle saw a small town midway between them. Other than that there was nothing but flat red sand in every direction to the horizon, broken only by patches of purple grass.

As she turned around to regard the Quarantine Zone, blood sloshed loudly in her belly at the sudden movement. There were tens of thousands of mutants down there.

Many of them had human parents, but had been twisted so badly by radiation that they could not meld with human society. She’d gleaned from Kevin’s mind that most of them had at least some intelligence, while others were little more than feral beasts. Some had inhuman strength, but others could barely move under their own power.

A plan began to form in her mind. Promises to lead them out of their

imprisonment would rally the mutants to Cain’s banner, and the Apostle would have her army. There was no stronger ally than a religious zealot who would give his life for Cain. She had a great deal of experience inspiring religious zealots.

Sitting back down, the Apostle massaged at her belly, feeling uncomfortably large around the middle. She began to plan exactly how things were to play out as she waited for her body to digest the blood. Soon she would have her revenge on the Council for everything they’d done to her. She would travel back and prevent the Council from ever forcing her to kill, then she would go to Perdition and put an end to Cain’s wretched life.

Cain was suddenly back inside her head with no more pain to chase him away.

He practically bled eagerness, and she had the impression of someone leaning forward in his chair in anticipation. If he were so eager to die, she would not disappoint.

Chapter 26: The Distorted Lands

“Wow,” Sam leaned forward in her saddle. Her black eye was fading rapidly, and her right hand was healing well under the bandages Gabriel had wrapped around it. She scratched idly at the stitches in her cheek as she examined what lay ahead. “Things look pretty busy in town. I wonder what’s going on.”

Following her line of sight, Gabriel saw that the streets of the middling sized town ahead were full of milling people. With all the doom and gloom that Sam spewed about the land out here, he wouldn’t have expected to find a respectable town. In other towns they’d passed there was maybe one NVM for every ten people, but from what he could see of the town ahead, all the people were NVMs.

“Well of course, stupid,” Sam rolled her eyes theatrically when he brought it up.

“New Hope is an NVM town. There’s too much radiation this close to the Quarantine Zone for anyone else to survive for long. Everyone else dies of poisoning, or mutates into something else, so everyone but NVMs avoid this place. It’s kinda where those rich enough to be NVMs gather to act superior to everyone else without being bothered by them.”

“Why don’t you live here?”

Sam snorted, and then laughed at having done so before answering.

“Look at me. Do I look like I’d blend in with the snobby rich? And besides,” she pointed meaningfully to the distant walls in the east. “Who in their right mind would wanna live within sight of the Quarantine Zone? That’s just plain dumb. And you can see the Spires of Infinity over there too. That’s even dumber!”

Glancing at the Quarantine Zone, Gabriel could not even imagine how much time

it had taken to build something like that massive wall in a place so poisoned by radiation.

At first he thought it was a cliff or plateau, but as they drew closer he saw that it was concrete and metal, stretching out of sight to the north and south.

His broken rib jabbed sharply with every breath he took, but the cut over it was healing well, as was his sprained ankle and other hurts. If they ran into any trouble upon reaching the Spires, Gabriel was still in pretty bad shape. He’d feel a lot better about going to a place that filled Sam with so much fear if he had a week or two to finish healing.

“I know you’re going to call me stupid for asking this,” he sighed, wishing he hadn’t with the sharp pain it caused, “but what
is
the Quarantine Zone anyway?”

Slumping with annoyance, Sam grumbled something under her breath. “Haven’t

I explained that like three times already!”

“The Quarantine Zone is an area where the worst of the radiation is,” Mister

Mittens explained. “Several radiation bombs exploded in a cluster, and the radiation is still thick and deadly, even to NVMs and people who have been immunized. The wall was originally to protect travelers from the radiation, but now it keeps the mutants in.

Mutants too far removed from humanity get tossed in as soon as they’re born if their parents don’t kill them right off.”

After all of the grotesque mutations he’d seen already, Gabriel wondered what the people of Ethos considered too far removed from humanity.

Eyeing the Spires of Infinity on the opposite horizon, Sam shuddered. “Those

things creep me the hell out. Can’t you feel something just
wrong
when you look at them? They look like really long teeth, waiting for someone stupid enough to get close enough to bite. You’re
really
gonna drag me over there?”

“I have to go,” Gabriel sighed. “It’s the entire reason I’m here.”

“You never did explain that,” Mister Mittens said with a shrug, something that was just plain weird coming from a cat. “If you remember nothing, and are suffering from severe delusions, how do you know you’re supposed to go there?”

“They’re not delusions,” Gabriel sighed wearily. He was so tired of no one

believing him. Though, he supposed that it came with the territory when you went to law school. Everyone always assumed you were lying, even outside of work.

“Your lack of detail on the matter begs to differ,” Mister Mittens pressed.

“I was killed,” Gabriel said. “I told you that. And I got a second chance if I agreed to go to the Spires of Infinity and do something. I have no idea what I’m supposed to do, but I have to go there. I could lose my second chance as easily as it was given if I stray from my path.”

“You really musta hit your head hard,” Sam nearly fell from her saddle in her

merriment. “No wonder you kept that to yourself. It must even sound silly to a crazy person. When we get to the Spires and you find them empty, will you
please
at least
consider
that this is all in your head? I think you need a doctor or something. I mean, stuff like that isn’t normal. You’re not well. You need help.”

Easier to make sense of the reported ratings for American Idol than win an

argument with a woman who has already decided you’re wrong.

“Still, you
do
have an Imperial Crest. Maybe you actually were sent out here for something, and you just forgot about it when you hit your head. Maybe there’ll be someone there that can set you straight. Our journey is almost over. You won’t forget your promise, will you?”

“Which one,” Gabriel knew it for a mistake the second the words were through

his lips. Sam’s tail lashed in what he’d come to recognize as anger or frustration, and he quickly added. “Of course I remember. I’m not going
anywhere
without you.”

Sniffing loudly, Sam turned her head away from him, gazing at the Spires of

Infinity again.

“I wouldn’t have come half this far without you,” Gabriel said. “Thank you, for everything.”

“Why does it sound like you’re saying goodbye?”

“I can’t thank you?”

Sam was quiet for a very long time before turning to look at him with a pained expression.

“I,” she started, then stopped for a few seconds to compose herself. “If they’d taken you and left me, I’d never have come for you. I’d have run away and left you to rot. That’s what’s kept me alive since I was a little girl. Seeing you risk your life for my sorry hide, when I wouldn’t have even thought to . . . it just has me feeling a little worthless. I didn’t deserve to be rescued, but you came for me anyway. You make me want to believe in your fairytale world, but I know that it can’t possibly be real. I just don’t want you to freak out when you find out it’s not real. I’m afraid you’ll leave me if you do. I don’t deserve you, but I don’t wanna lose you.”

“Everyone deserves to be happy and safe,” Gabriel said. “That’s why I became a lawyer, but somewhere along the way I lost sight of my ideals and got blinded by the fame, the money, and the women that come with being successful. I forgot that other people are human beings too, and they have thoughts and feelings of their own, just like me. You made me remember, and for that, I will
always
come for you. Whenever you are in trouble, I will always be there to save you from it. I wanted to be a hero, but I became a villain instead. You reminded me that it’s not too late to be a hero.

“Whether or not you believe my story, it’s true. There’s something waiting for me at the Spires of Infinity, and there’s nothing that can stop me from going there now. I want to make the things I’ve done wrong right again. I’ve done awful things, treated women like playthings, lied in court, set murderers free to kill again. You made me realize how wrong I’ve been, and I will forever be in your debt because of it.”

“You’ll always be my hero, no matter what you have or haven’t done, or whether or not you’re crazy and delusional.”

With that, Sam ruined the moment, demonstrating just how repulsive she could be by scratching herself vigorously for a second in a very naughty place.

“I wonder if there’s such thing as an obedience school for wolfgirls,” Gabriel mused jokingly.

“Celestial Mother,” Mister Mittens cried. “If only!”

“Hey,” Sam eyed the cat on her shoulders. “Bad kitty!”

The ridiculousness of the situation hit Gabriel and he could not keep himself from laughing. Soon, Sam joined in, and the dark mood that had settled over them since escaping the Children of the Chosen was gone, just like that.

Having said everything that needed saying, they rode toward New Hope in

silence. Distances were strange in the flat wasteland, and the town was further away than it appeared. Gabriel took the opportunity to work with his Sa’Dhi, studying both the wall of the Quarantine Zone and the Spires of Infinity in turn.

After a while Mister Mittens began humming to himself, which slowly became

singing. His song was in a language Gabriel had never heard, sounding triumphant and sad at the same time. For a cat, he sang beautifully.

“I don’t know which is weirder, that the cat’s singing, or that he’s got such a lovely voice.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Mister Mittens sat on his haunches and took a deep bow. If shrugs and nods from a cat looked odd, the bow was downright ridiculous.

“What was that? I kind of liked it.”

“From an opera,” Mister Mittens explained in a puffed up, lecturing tone. “The heroes return triumphantly from battle, though many have fallen along the way. A triumphant melody in a minor chord.”

Nodding, Gabriel knew little about music, being terminally tone deaf. He enjoyed listening to music, but had never been a fan of opera. The vibrato style that most opera singers seemed to employ annoyed the hell out of him. In his opinion it completely ruined the music. Call him uncultured, but he knew good music when he heard it and some fat broad wailing in Italian, unable to decide whether she should be singing the note high or low, was
not
good music.

“I know things look closer than they are out here,” Gabriel eyed New Hope, “but shouldn’t we be in town already?”

“That’s from the Spires of Infinity,” Sam explained. “They say things get screwy around them. This place is called the Distorted Lands. Distance stretches and folds over itself. Far away things can be close, and close things can be really far away.”

Gabriel looked toward the Spires of Infinity on the horizon. The central spire had followed the sun’s progress across the sky, with a barely visible line of light connecting them. He wondered if they were closer or further than they appeared.

There was a British sci-fi comedy that he could never remember the name of

where the characters were falling into a black hole and the closer they got the more it distorted their perceptions of distance and time. The situation made for a whole slew of gags that were probably only funny to the Brits. Maybe the Spires of Infinity generated some sort of gravity distortion that did the same. From his knowledge of time and instantaneous travel from one point in space to another, gleaned over a lifetime of watching sci-fi, a doorway to other times and worlds would need some sort of

gravitational anomaly to function. Perhaps the Spires had been built in a place where such an anomaly already existed in nature.

As the day began to move toward a close, they passed the first of the people

leaving town. A man with floppy dog-ears and his wife, who bore cat ears and a cat tail.

Carrying as much as they could on a makeshift litter between them, they seemed intent on getting as far from town as quickly as possible. They didn’t even notice Sam’s cathor until she reined it in to keep from trampling them.

“What’s going on,” she asked. “Are all those people I can see running around in town fleeing like you are?”

Looking from Sam to Gabriel, then to their pistols, the man bowed his head

respectfully. “Pardon Lawmen, but there aren’t a few hundred more of you on the way are there?”

Gabriel shook his head.

“Then New Hope is as good as dead,” he moaned, hefting his end of the litter,

readying to be on his way.

“Wait,” Sam ordered. When she used that tone, even a deaf man could hear the

implied violence in it if she didn’t get what she wanted. “Answer my question, please.