Blood Calls

by Andrew Wichland

  “It’s in the water, too?” Robin asked, cursing himself for not smelling it earlier.

  “It might be,” Freya answered. “So far we haven’t detected it. But I warned Hannah and her daughter, Kylie. They’re following our lead.”

  “It’s lucky those two were able to stick together,” Robin muttered.

  Looking around, he noticed that some people worked while others ate.

  He said, “So, have you guys been working on a way to get out of here?”

  Freya scowled. “Don’t tell me you’re still on that fairy tale?”

  “Freya,” Tekmet said, placing a hand on her shoulder. Then he turned to Robin. “Like us, you’ll find getting out of here to be rather… difficult,” he said, hesitantly.

  “What do you mean?” Robin asked, sensing there was more to what he was saying.

  “You see that guy over there?” Freya asked, pointing.

  Following the direction of her finger, he eyed a man hard at work not far from them.

  “Yeah,” he answered, nodding.

  “When we first arrived, he was trying to rally the people to revolt,” Freya explained. “Claiming that Apep was a false god and that there was more to the universe than these caverns.”

  Robin’s admiration for the man grew.

  “Then one day he vanished,” she said, cutting into Robin’s thoughts. “For two work cycles he was gone. Then he reappeared as he is now.” She shook her head. “One of Apep’s biggest followers.”

  Robin stared at her in disbelief before he looked over at the man. “Brainwashing?” he asked.

  “What else could it be?” Tekmet answered. “Instead of killing him and giving his argument credence, they did something to him that made him like this. After all, what better way to prevent uprisings than to have your slaves believe you’re a god?”

  Robin had to agree with him. “But still, there has to be a way,” he muttered, looking around him. “Because we have got to get out.”

  “Even if it were possible, why are you so eager?” Freya asked.

  “Because the Black Dragon is coming here,” he answered.

  Tekmet jerked suddenly. Grasping Robin by his upper arm, he demanded, “Are you sure?”

  “Balwin said the Black Dragon was doing an inspection of the mines,” Robin explained.

  Gulping, Tekmet looked around, as if expecting to see the Black Dragon somewhere around them. “Then you’re right, we have to get out of here,” he muttered. “Especially you two. Neither one of you are ready to be anywhere within five systems of that monster.”

  “I can’t believe that you two—” Freya began, but she stopped when Tekmet turned to her.

  “Freya, you may believe it or not,” he said. He twisted her arm upright so her covered bracelet was at her eye level. “But this is real. This is—and has always been—your destiny. And it’s about time that you embraced it!” She glanced at the strip of clothing covering her bracelet. Then she looked from one face to the other and slowly shook her head. With a jerk, she freed herself and bolted. Robin and Tekmet watched her go. Tears streamed down her face as she ran.

  At the end of their work cycle, Robin lay in the vast sleeping cavern in an alcove cut from a slab of rock. All around him at various levels were similar alcoves full of resting and sleeping people.

  He brushed pebbles out from under the small of his back. Then, using his hand as a pillow, he tried to get comfortable. After a moment, he rolled onto his back and brought his cloth-covered bracelet into his line of sight.

  He looked around before he slowly unwrapped it. Then he eyed the pulsing crystal. The beat was moving faster than ever, to the point it was almost a steady stream of light.

  He asked aloud, “What does this mean?”

  Chapter 20

  Measure of a God

  Over the next couple of days, Robin and Tekmet worked together closely in one of the new tunnels, trying to get Freya to speak to them. But she had yet to say a single word to either.

  “How long do you think she’ll keep this silence up?” Robin asked during his fourth work cycle.

  “She’s your sister,” Tekmet said, shrugging. He took a tiny sip of water before handing his flask to Robin.

  Shaking his head, Robin looked over at Freya, who was working with her back to them. “She’s basically your daughter, so you’ve known her longer,” he pointed out.

  “Yeah, but I’m still learning,” Tekmet said with a chuckle. “Especially now that she’s a teenager. And now I suspect that she’s just as stubborn and bold at times as you can be.”

  “But she has a tender side as well,” Robin pointed out. They watched Freya turn as Hannah and Kylie approached her and took some water.

  Then Tekmet lowered his voice and said, “Have you had any luck getting that armor to work?”

  Sighing, Robin shook his head. “Nothing so far,” he admitted. “The crystal is pulsing faster, though.”

  “Pulsing faster?” Tekmet looked thoughtful.

  “Something on your mind?” Robin asked.

  Blinking, Tekmet looked back at him. “Sorry. Can you tell me about the last time you were able to use the armor?”

  Robin thought about the unexpected question. “Right before I was captured in Bazzar by Karon and Valarka, and…”

  He allowed his voice to trail off as he tried to make some connections. Then he held up his wrist and said, “You think this thing has been deactivating the nanites from their injection?”

  The Anubis shrugged. “What else could it be doing?”

  “But Tekmet,” Robin continued, “if that’s true, why hasn’t it done it faster?”

  “It would be a delicate process,” Tekmet said. “Like deactivating any bomb. One wrong move and you blow yourself up. Remember, the nanites have explosive powers. And until two days ago, Freya’s crystal was behaving the same as yours. I think it was deactivating her nanites, too.”

  “Two days,” Robin muttered, looking away in thought. “How fast was her crystal pulsing before it stopped?”

  Tekmet pointed to Robin’s cloth-covered band and said, “Let me see.”

  Glancing around again to make sure they weren’t being watched, Robin shuffled closer and drew back the cloth. The pulsing light was practically iridescent.

  Tekmet said, “Could be any day now.”

  Robin quickly covered his bracelet again. Then he said, “If the nanites aren’t active anymore, then we may have a chance to escape. But the main problem is—”

  He was interrupted by heavy footsteps and a flash of pain.

  Cringing, he looked at the sentinel as it cracked its whip again.

  “Get back to work, you two!” it barked before striking out at them with the whip.

  “Those guys patrol everywhere,” Robin finished. “I can’t just armor up out here. They could turn on some random person.”

  Tekmet nodded.

  Before Robin could pick up his tools, a deep rumbling filled his ears. The ground beneath his feet vibrated along with it. He looked up and saw fine lines of dust and dirt falling from above.

  “Cave in!” Robin shouted. The pair dropped their tools and bolted.

  As they approached Freya, Robin skidded to a stop. His eyes locked on a teenage boy who was running from the new tunnel, hands over his head as rocks started falling around him.

  Robin sprinted toward the boy and tackled him, knocking him back just as part of the ceiling came down.

  For several long moments, Robin lost consciousness. When he awakened slowly, he could barely see the darkness was so complete. If not for the shards of light that managed to get through the wall of rocks trapping them. Bit by bit, he pushed the rocks off of them. With one of the boy’s arms wrapped around his shoulder, Robin carried him over the pile of rocks that were now blocking the tunnel. Pushing aside the ones in the way.

  When he reached the ground, Robin handed the boy off to a distraught woman who was clearly his mother.

  “He’s unconscious
, and he may have a busted leg, but he’s alive,” Robin reassured her as the woman gratefully took her son from him and held him tightly.

  “Gods be praised! Thank you! Thank you!” the woman sobbed. She and two others carried the boy away.

  Breathing deeply, Robin hunched over, hands on his thighs. “Well, that was—”

  Suddenly, Freya flung herself on him, arms clutched around his neck.

  “Don’t you ever scare me like that again!” she cried, sobbing into his shoulder. Then she stepped back and punched his shoulder. “I just got you back again! I don’t want to lose you!”

  “Hey, tough girl,” he said.

  When she finally smiled he said, “I’m all right. Just a few scratches and maybe a bruise or two.”

  Their moment was interrupted by the crack and sting of a sentinel’s whip. “Back to work!”

  Later, in the sleeping cavern, Robin watched as Freya gently looked the boy over.

  “How is he?” Robin asked when she came over.

  “He’s lucky,” she answered. “His leg isn’t broken. He just has a bad bone bruise, perhaps a crack. He needs to take it easy so it can heal right.”

  At Freya’s words, his mother began sobbing again. “How is he supposed to take it easy? If the Underworld Guardians—”

  “Sentinels?” Robin interrupted.

  She looked at him like he was speaking a foreign language.

  “You mean the Sentinels?” he said again, facing her. “What are they going to do, kill him?”

  Her silence spoke volumes.

  “Are you saying that the sentinels and ‘Apep’ would demand his death because he has an injured leg?” He could feel his temper rising.

  “What use is he to anyone if he can’t work?” a voice said from behind him.

  Turning, Robin found himself face to face with the man who had previously tried to stage an uprising. An idea suddenly popped into Robin’s head.

  “What good is he?” Robin asked. “He’s a living being, and he has a right to live!”

  “It is against the commandments to interfere with the Guardians’ decisions!” the man snapped. “It is against the law of Apep!”

  “Then why do you follow him?” Robin demanded, pushing the man back. “Why would any of you follow a god who would call for the death of a person you know, a boy whom you grew up with, just because he’s injured?”

  “Apep is a caring and loving god!” the man defended. “If it weren’t for Apep—”

  “What?” Robin snarled. “We’d be dead?”

  Robin noticed a small crowd forming around him. “What kind of life is this? We are worked till the day we die or our backs give out, with no hope for a brighter future.”

  “What better future could there be?” the man argued.

  “I know there is more to life beyond these dark caverns!” Robin asserted.

  Several people murmured to one another, but he couldn’t tell if they were on his side or not.

  He continued, “I have seen the stars shine like diamonds in the night sky! I know what it’s like to laugh and play in the sunshine! And I have known free air!”

  He paused and looked at each face in turn.

  “Isn’t that the life a god would want for his or her children? Not to—”

  He was silenced as a laser whip wrapped around his neck. Instantly, Robin jerked and gagged. His hands flew up to grasp the whip, but he was yanked off his feet with a jerk.

  He landed hard on his back, the wind knocked out of him.

  “You are guilty of speaking out against the gods!” the sentinel above him snarled.

  “Fluently,” Robin said as the whip retracted.

  Before he could react further, two sentinels grabbed him by his upper arms. As they dragged him away, a flash of movement caught his eye.

  “Let him go!” Freya demanded, drawing back the pick in her hands.

  A sentinel blocked the blow with its arm. Before she could draw the tool back for another attack, the guard seized her by the throat.

  “And you will join him!”

  The sentinels tugged Robin and Freya through several tunnels before they stopped at a rock face. With the sound of rock grinding against rock, the wall slid open, revealing a long hallway lined with steel doors that were inset with small, barred windows.

  The sentinels dragged them down the hallway, where they were separated and pushed into two rooms across from one another.

  Robin sprang to his feet just as the door slammed shut behind the sentinel. He brushed himself off and walked to the window. Two sentinels remained, standing guard at the entrance.

  “I told you,” Freya called out from the cell next to him. “I told you this would happen.”

  Robin saw her standing behind her door’s window.

  “Then what are you doing here?” he asked.

  “Maybe what you have is contagious,” she finally said.

  Chuckling, Robin moved over to lie on the cot attached to the wall near the door. Unwrapping the cloth, he watched as the crystal on his bracelet continued to pulse iridescently. Eventually, the incessant pattern lulled him to sleep.

  Chapter 21

  Escape

  Robin woke with a jerk. He glanced around the darkened room as he tried to remember what had happened. Then he closed his eyes with a growl of frustration.

  Giving himself a shake and cursing himself for slipping into sleep, he sat up and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Lowering his hand, he scanned the darkened room again. The only light came from the barred window.

  He froze and stared at his bracelet. A giant grin spread across his face when he realized the crystal was no longer pulsing.

  “Time to put the theory to the test,” he muttered, raising his hand.

  He focused on what he wanted to happen. His grin grew wider as armor expanded from the bracelet, covering his hand and forearm and stopping just under his elbow.

  “I’m back!” he cheered in celebration.

  “What?” Freya called from her cell. “I didn’t know you had gone.”

  Ignoring her, Robin climbed to his feet and went to the window. Peering out, he eyed the two sentinels at the end of the hall.

  “Oh, buckethead! I have something for you!” he called.

  For a second they didn’t move. Then the one closest to his cell stepped forward.

  Drawing back, Robin concentrated. At once a beam of light shot forward from a slot on the forearm, forming a sword blade. When the sentinel arrived in front of the door, Robin thrust the blade forward, through the door and through the sentinel.

  For a second the robot stood there, looking at him. Then Robin withdrew the blade, and it crumpled to the floor in a shower of sparks.

  “What’s going on out there? What was that?” Freya demanded.

  Without answering, Robin used the illuminated blade to cut a large hole in his door. He kicked the section free and stepped through to face the second sentinel. It charged him, with its blaster aimed at Robin.

  Acting on reflex, Robin rolled forward as his blade retracted. The tips of his fingers were covered by sharp armored claws.

  He lashed at the sentinel’s ankle as it passed, severing the support hydraulic. As it fell to its knees, Robin stepped behind it. He drove his covered fist through its back and out its chest. Pulling back, he ripped out the power unit. The sentinel crumpled to the floor.

  Robin breathed hard and looked up at Freya’s cell. She gaped at him from the window.

  Quickly making his way there, he ordered, “Get away from the door!”

  The blade extended again, and he cut a hole big enough for her to pass through. As he helped her climb out, she stared at the sentinel’s crumpled remains, then at Robin.

  “How…?”

  Smiling, he raised his armored forearm and hand.

  “Told ya so.”

  The armor expanded up the rest of his arm. She looked amazed when it covered his chest, the other arm, his legs, and his head.

  �
��Some fairy tale, eh?” he teased as the holo readout flicked on.

  Mutely, she nodded.

  “Good. Now that we’re on the same page, let’s get the heck out of here!” He turned toward the exit.

  “Wait,” Freya called.

  Robin turned back.

  “I’m not going anywhere without Tekmet, Hannah, and Kylie,” she said firmly.

  Robin faced her, hand on one hip.

  “Tekmet is the only father I’ve ever known,” she continued, and Robin felt a pang in his heart for Jun. “Hannah is my old friend, and I helped bring Kylie into this world. I always wanted her to know freedom.”

  Robin looked at her. “Is that all?” he asked.

  For a second, Freya returned his stare. Then she nodded.

  “Fine. Then let’s go,” he said. He pointed toward the door and stepped toward it.

  For a second, Freya frowned and blinked in confusion.

  “What?” she asked. She seemed stunned that he hadn’t offered an argument.

  “You didn’t honestly believe I’d leave them behind, did you?” Robin said. Then he punched a hole through the door and forced it open.

  Freya walked submissively behind Robin as they wandered the tunnels and caverns, searching for Freya’s friends and family. Each time they encountered work groups, Robin glared as they averted their eyes.

  That’s starting to get annoying, Robin thought after the fifth group. At the same time, he was relieved that they didn’t see any sentinels.

  They finally found Tekmet among a group of anubises.

  “Wait here,” Robin said to Freya in his altered voice. “I’m the one in disguise.”

  As Robin drew close, Tekmet straightened, his eyes blazing with hate.

  “You must come with me!” Robin said.

  Tekmet arched an eyebrow.

  “I don’t see why,” he said, slinging his drill over his shoulder. “I’m not a sound engineer.”

  Behind his mask, Robin rolled his eyes. Again with the twentieth-century robot jokes.

  Suddenly three sentinels approached. One grasped Freya by her arm. He turned to Robin and said, “What are you doing with these two?”