The Loss Queen (Approaching Infinity Book 5) Page 14

  “Prepare your troops for jump and stand by. Events may dictate your course in lieu of orders. I trust you will make the right choices should such circumstances arise. If you defeat Jav Holson, Raus Kapler, besides your retirement, I will grant you your fondest wish.”

  “. . .My fondest wish?” Raus stammered as, once again, his mind was opened by a key phrase. His daydreams of a rebuilt Sarsa, of him ruling with Milla Marz, beautiful and loving, at his side took on a quality of reality that was impossible to ignore. It was real, but waiting, contingent on his actions. He just needed to defeat Jav Holson.

  “Remain on alert, Raus Kapler. When the time comes, engage Jav Holson, ignore his entreaties for false, and defeat him. That is all.”

  Raus nodded and was about to reply verbally, but the image was already gone.

  His head still muzzy with the images of the future that was to come, Raus used the holographic controls to raise the bay door and ordered a thousand troops to fill the jump deck. His remaining troops he ordered to line up before the deck for subsequent transports.

  As his troops busied themselves with this, he turned to Sacy, who stared blankly back at him. He smiled, but it was bittersweet. Jav had brought him into the Empire, had been his friend from the beginning, and had suffered greatly as long as he’d known him—suffered enough maybe to cause him to commit treason. He would try to reason with him, try to get him to surrender. If Jav truly fought for Loss, surely he was the last and most desperate of their defenses. Jav’s surrender would end the fighting and The Place with Many Doors would be theirs. Retirement, Sarsa, and Milla Marz would be his. Jav would listen to reason. He would have to.

  10,923.024.0400

  Planet 1612 (Loss)

  3rd Perimeter (Barcos Steppe)

  The call alert bleated once again, automatically raising a holographic screen above Gran Pham’s brow, just before Raus’s face. This time when he opened the communication channel, though, the screen was even worse with static. It looked like Jav coming through—when the screen was composed enough to reveal anything, and the audio was as garbled as the video.

  “Jav? Is that you?”

  A stream of unintelligible noise crashed out. He heard his own name, he heard the word “orders” and the word “emergency”.

  “Jav? What did you say?” The jump initialization indicator lit up, catching Raus’s attention, and his chest began to constrict with anxiety. “Repeat! What did you say?”

  Raus watched the screen, hoping against hope that image and sound would come together and all would be clear, but when his own deck monitor screen went white, his lip curled involuntarily in the half-instant before raging fire blew out from beneath the bay door, blasting the nearest corpse troops and setting them alight. He recognized that fire, and turned reflexively with an arm before his face, but the brightness came from two sources as the bunker, some thirty meters to his left, exploded. He’d mistakenly faced the bunker to avoid the glare from the holographic screen, and the image of its destruction was etched upon his retinas, bright and persistent, visible even with his eyes closed.

  Gran Pham jumped, nearly throwing both Raus and Sacy, then trampled several corpse soldiers in its reactive escape from the blast and the ravening burn.

  Raus dropped down and approached the conflagration with slow, heavy steps, coming to a stop dangerously close. He blinked the burned-in image away, stretched out a hand to shade his view, and watched, helpless, as the flames consumed his troops, the deck, the whole of the bunker. He clenched his jaw, ground his teeth. How could Jav do this? Did their friendship mean nothing?

  He backed away, turned, leapt up to Gran Pham’s brow to rejoin Sacy, whose hand he took in his own. The Gran immediately started westward. The remaining corpse troops likewise turned as a body and began marching.

  10,923.025.0900

  Planet 1612 (Loss)

  Barcos Steppe

  Barring any major obstacles, Jav knew that his army could march the full four hundred kilometers to the remains of Raus’s bunker in just over two days, even through forest, but was just as sure that Raus would not be waiting there idle. Indeed, a few hours into the second day of uninterrupted marching, Jav could hear before he could see Raus’s advancing army. The two masses of troops, each led by a general atop his Gran, slowed to halt, separated by little more than twenty meters.

  Jav and Raus faced each other, both imperious with arms folded. Sacy stood behind Raus, but Rommel hadn’t been summoned since before the fight with Biggs.

  “Tell me it isn’t true, Jav,” Raus shouted across the open space between them.

  “That what isn’t true, Raus? Jav replied.

  “That you’ve betrayed us all.”

  Jav shrugged. “Whether I have or haven’t seems irrelevant. The Emperor has already taken steps to eliminate me. Vansen Biggs failed, though, so here I am.”

  Raus narrowed his eyes and shook his head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but you seem. . . different.”

  “How so?”

  “For the last twenty years you’ve been cold, empty, broken. Ever since Hilene died.”

  Jav bowed his head, nodded. “Yes, I suppose I have, but it didn’t start with Hilene.”

  “No, I suppose it didn’t,” Raus said, cocking his head and looking away.

  A chill pattered down Jav’s spine. He swallowed hard before speaking again. “What do you mean, Raus, that you suppose it didn’t.”

  Raus still refused to meet the sockets of the Kaiser Bones with his own eyes. “You’d been heading down that path since I met you, Jav.”

  “Since we met,” Jav said, nodding again. “That’s exactly right. It started—really started—with Anis Lausden.”

  Raus snapped to attention. With few exceptions, Jav had never been able to recall Anis Lausden’s name on his own. “What’s happened to you, Jav?”

  “You’ve known all along, haven’t you?”

  Raus shook his head. “I. . . I tried to talk to you about it, but. . .”

  “But what?” Jav cried sharply.

  “What was I to do?”

  “You could have tried harder!”

  “You could never remember them. Never knew most of them, I’m sure, and just suffered more and more, got further and further away until Hilene finally broke you.”

  “All this time,” Jav said.

  “Do you doubt the Emperor’s hand in this?” Raus cried.

  “Of course not.”

  “Then what was I to do?!”

  “Did you consider me your friend?”

  “Yes, always. And still do.”

  “It’s simple then: defy the Emperor. Join me. We’ll bring an end to the Viscain Empire together—peaceably.”

  Raus’s mind spun. He was conflicted emotionally and logically, but powerful statements repeated themselves in his head, over and over again, asserting the course he must take. “No. There’s nothing simple about that. I was prepared to offer you similar terms, though. Surrender to me, allow me to bring you back. You’re sick, Jav. You’ve been co-opted by the enemy. Perhaps we can undo what’s been done to you.”

  “What’s been done to me? Do you hear yourself, Raus? You as much as prove the validity of my rationale for being on this side of the line and still you think I’m afflicted? With what?

  “What’s been done to me—by the Emperor—has been undone. Unfortunately, what I’ve done cannot be undone. The guilt will haunt me for the rest of my life and forever into death.

  “I don’t want to hurt you Raus. Make way.”

  Gran Mid started forward and corpse troops stepped aside to create a valley large enough for the giant snake to pass.

  Despite this, however, Raus shook his head. “I can’t let you go, Jav. Too much is at stake.”

  “I thought your brother was all that mattered to you,” Jav said over his shoulder. Gran Mid was half its length into the mass of corpse soldiers.

  “But I don’t have to worry about him anymore,” Raus said
. Gran Pham shifted, to face Jav and Gran Mid.

  “Don’t do it, Raus,” Jav said. Gran Mid was now fully immersed in the sea of corpse soldiers.

  “I have to,” Raus said quietly. “She’s waiting for me.” His eyes flicked furtively for Sacy, standing next to him.

  Jav noticed this, half-understood the implication, but shook his head. “I warned you.

  “Gran Pham interface override,” he shouted. “First protocol, authorization: Holson.”

  “What? No!” Raus cried.

  “Gran Pham! Initiate full diagnostic review!”

  “No! Abort! Gran Pham! Abort! Primary authorization: Kapler!”

  But it was too late. Jav’s gamble had paid off—they hadn’t changed the codes. A shut down could have been countermanded, but once begun, the diagnostic review would take as long as ten minutes to complete, leaving Gran Pham unresponsive and inert for the duration. Jav swung his arm around, pointing a finger towards Gran Pham, and Gran Mid lurched to change direction.

  Raus leapt clear but Sacy could not react fast enough. Gran Mid rose and fell, sinking its great fangs into Gran Pham’s neck, latching onto the left side, and impaling Sacy through the chest to pin her flat.

  “Gran Mid,” Jav said quietly. “Fire.”

  An orange white line flashed from between where Mid’s jaws made contact with Gran Pham’s hide. Mid closed its jaws as Pham’s eyes blew out and it vomited fire. The head came away, crashing to the ground where it tumbled into the midst of corpse soldiers. The rest of Pham’s body remained upright, the gaping wound left by Mid’s bite bleeding fire and oily black smoke.

  Raus cried out in rage, and his corpse troops instantly mobilized to engage Jav’s skeletons. They also swarmed Gran Mid, gripping at its ribs, trying to climb up.

  “Gran Mid! Fire!” Jav shouted. Gran Mid responded, by spraying its flames in an arc about itself setting the animate corpses to blazing.

  Raus stomped forward, knocking aside skeletons and flaming corpses alike, until he broke into a run for Gran Mid, finally launching himself powerfully through the air to tackle Jav and loose him from his perch. Jav was unprepared for this tactic and so fell beneath Raus’s substantial mass, hitting the ground hard on his back with Raus atop him. Raus reached down with both hands, thick fingers snaking around Jav’s neck, and began to squeeze.

  For a moment, it looked as if this would end the conflict, but as Raus flexed his prodigious muscles to do with his hands to Jav what Gran Mid had done to Gran Pham, Jav disappeared and Raus’s fingers closed on smoke. Before he could react to the change in situation, Raus felt his head yanked back, straining upon his neck, and then the world spun, the ground became the sky.

  Raus crashed into the broadside of Gran Pham’s standing shell, caved in the ribs beneath the thick, fire-resistant hide, and tipped the whole of the Gran over, sending up a fresh black plume, and squeezing out dirty, dying flames from the ragged neck as it hit the ground. Raus pulled himself free of the wreckage, rose to see Jav standing defiantly before him.

  “Raus, please rethink this.”

  Raus shook his head, started forward.

  “What are you fighting for? For Sarsa?

  “It’s gone,” Jav said. “It was gone before you left it.”

  “I can rebuild it. Together with her. I have to defeat you, Jav.”

  “You can’t beat me, Raus.”

  “I have to.”

  Raus reached out to grab Jav with his right hand, but had his wrist seized and his progress halted. Still he grinned and the air filled with free electricity. Jav’s body arched. He threw his head back in agony and finally staggered backwards as the current subsided.

  “You say I can’t beat you? We’ll see.”

  “Please, Raus.”

  Raus reached out once again while bringing forth the current. Jav was snared by both. The shock incapacitated him and Raus took his face in one big hand and proceeded to drive the back of his head into the ground repeatedly. When the electricity ceased, between impacts, Jav wrapped his arms around Raus’s forearm, and using AI, kicked both feet against Raus’s ribcage with sudden, vicious fury. Raus’s right arm ripped free, right along the scar left by his encounter with Garlin Braams so many years ago. The arm hung in the air for a moment. The fingers released their hold and Jav spun to right himself and land on both feet. He yanked on the arm, snapping the thin Resurrection Bolt wires still connecting it to the pulpy socket, causing Raus to howl.

  Separated from the rest of the body, the arm underwent a startling change: the square-headed bolts up its length sagged as fabulous livid bruises bloomed to discolor every last bit of skin while the bone and muscle within went soft, putrefying in an instant. Jav flung the rotted thing away from him.

  Raus heaved and stared murder. He looked up at the sky and spread his remaining arm to welcome a lightning strike from above. Following the flash, Raus had a new right arm, pristine except for the difference in color from the rest of his body.

  Jav leapt forward with the True Kaiser Kick, striking first Raus’s forehead, then the left side of his jaw and sending him backpedaling with an obviously broken neck. Another lightning strike brought his neck back into proper alignment.

  “You can’t win, Raus,” Jav said in a small voice.

  “I have to.”

  “You can’t!” Jav cried, sounding as if he were on the verge of tears.

  “Then hurry this up!” Raus snarled, charging forward.

  Jav struck him with a front kick to the midsection, raked a claw hand across his face as he bent double, tearing ruts through his cheek, was about to strike again when the Resurrection Shock filled the air. The lines dug into Raus’s cheek mended. The electricity staggered Jav, but he thought that perhaps it wasn’t as intense as it had been the times before. He wanted to finish this. For himself. For Raus.

  Jav leapt up, his knees close to his chest, his hands one over the other, clutching for the Kaiser Claw. He calculated instantly and twisted, but met with astonishing results. Something had resisted the reducing force that usually characterized the Claw and in the end his hands had slipped from crown and chin before completing the revolution. Raus’s thick neck was stretched, its muscles standing and strained, but once more the Resurrection Shock came, making Jav go rigid, and bringing the neck back to its original proportions.

  The attack had brought Raus to his knees. He seemed dazed, his recuperative powers working reflexively. Jav staggered back, and amidst the continuing grand scale chaos of corpse versus skeleton, he realized that there was only one way to end this fight. Raus would run out of energy, but as long as the Resurrection Bolts remained, he wouldn’t—he couldn’t—die. Nor would he stop.

  Jav reached out, took hold of the right Bolt with his right hand, then jumped up and around onto Raus’s right shoulder, where he squatted. Now gripping the bolt with both hands, he began to pull. The image of Biggs’s wings coming away flashed before his eyes, but this weed was far more tenacious. It took all his strength combined with AI, but finally, Jav straightened his legs and freed the Bolt from its nest at the base of Raus’s neck, the nerve wires pulling through Raus’s new arm, his torso, his right leg, making them twitch grotesquely. Jav crouched again and leapt free, escaping a feeble swiping arm. The force of the jump pushed Raus in the opposite direction, but he checked his fall with his left hand.

  The wires whipped and sought ingress into exposed flesh, reaching for Raus, squirming searchingly over and across Jav’s body.

  “I’m sorry, Raus.”

  Raus seemed senseless, but managed to whisper, “Me, too.”

  Jav held the Bolt suspended between the palms of his hands. Once again, he initiated the Kaiser Claw. He worked on bringing his hands together and after struggling for what seemed a long time, he succeeded in reducing the Bolt once, razing its surface features, then a second time, robbing it of its luster, and a final, third time, snapping it in two before it flashed to powder.

  The right side of Raus’s bod
y lurched as if being struck by a barrage of physical blows. Bruises spread like stains and liquefied purple meat poured out of the hole left by the Resurrection Bolt. Some of the bruises receded as Raus’s body shook involuntarily.

  The remaining Bolt, Jav realized, was trying to compensate. He walked over, took the Bolt in both hands, and with a foot against Raus’s left shoulder, uprooted it. Much of what its nerve wires were connected to had rotted already, so it came away more easily than the first. This, too, he subjected to the Kaiser Claw.

  The corpse soldiers had stopped. The skeletons continued however, applying their pole swords to inert targets. Jav stopped them.

  He tried to glance at what had become of Raus, but couldn’t bring himself to do so. He wasn’t happy or proud. The thought of his friend pooling on the ground just meters away now was too terrible to think about, but he couldn’t ignore him, nor could he let him end that way.

  “Good bye, Raus,” Jav said. “Gran Mid!” he called.

  The skeleton snake eased closer.

  “Fire.”

  A small, sustained gout of flame shot out, engulfing Raus’s remains, blasting them mostly to ash. When the stream let up, the spot continued to burn.

  “We are sorry,” the Voice of a Hundred Heroes said in Jav’s head. “In spite of the many horrors you’ve committed, we know that you prize friendship.”

  Nervous and unstable, Jav laughed. It was that or cry. “Quite the contradiction, isn’t it?” He couldn’t finish without his voice cracking. “Thanks, I think.”

  “Our sympathy is genuine, but you must understand: the task ahead of you will require more horrors.”

  Jav stared at the flames dancing over Raus’s remains and couldn’t help thinking back to the smoldering corpses of the Heavy Land Division soldiers piled outside the Loss Tower. The Loss Queen had known, had seen with her own eyes, but had said nothing. He knew their deaths pained her. It wasn’t fair for him to go unpunished and the strain upon her was evident, but he’d been given the chance to begin to make amends. He shook his head to clear it, finally responding, “I know.”