“Let me build a fire, and then I’ll find their cremation blessing. After that, you should say some words to send him on his way.” Tobias turns and twists some knobs next to what I can only describe as a large furnace with a chimney.
My jaw drops as I glance between Emery and the furnace. “You can’t be serious. We’re putting Emery in there?”
He frowns, his eyebrows knitted together. “Well, yes, of course. I thought I explained our methods. Does this go against your beliefs on Zeta?”
My beliefs on Zeta? Um, no, how about all of humanity? I grip Emery tightly and back away. I’m not putting my best friend in there. No way. “I thought there was some kind of fire you started or something a little more, you know, peaceful and, I don’t know, ritualistic. I mean, he was a cleric, right?”
“That seems like a waste of resources to me. My people lived frugally, and the clerics would have frowned upon that.”
My heart hurts, and I can’t breathe. “I don’t want to say goodbye.”
Tobias approaches me. “I know. It’s difficult for you. But he would want what his people did. However, if you prefer something in your tradition, I’m not going to stop you.”
Tobias’s words sink in. These are Emery’s people, their ways. That’s what Emery would want. I take a deep breath. “No, let’s do it. If Emery’s pathway to the next life is through that oven, then so be it.”
“That’s good of you to respect our ways. While we wait for this to heat up, I’ll find the cremation blessing.” He heads inside the tall tower.
More to myself, I say, “Okay, I’ll just wait here.”
Saying goodbye to the dead has never been something I’ve been good at. I straighten Emery’s clothes as best I can and set him on a stone table in front of the furnace. Tobias recites the blessing, and I’m struck by how beautifully his voice inflects each syllable. The words, however, are in a language I don’t recognize. So I stand by Emery’s side, solemnly listening to the beautiful lilt of Tobias’s voice. I smile inwardly, knowing that Emery would be proud of me for being reserved and respectful.
Tobias ends his blessing and nods at me.
My turn.
I look down at Emery and almost laugh as I remember all the times he did the exact opposite of what I asked him to do. I clear my throat. “Emery D’Grath, you were a pain in the ass since the moment I laid eyes on you. You constantly disobeyed my orders, and I don’t think I’ve ever been more frustrated with someone.” A fleeting thought toward Cole crosses my mind. “But you grew on me, didn’t you? You used that sphere of yours to kick some serious ass and save mine more than once.” I smile, remembering what a great team we were. “I hope you’re in a better place eating snarp.” I lean close to Emery, and whisper, “Know this—with every breath I take, I will do nothing but work toward getting the sphere back and avenging your death. I’m going to kick so much ass.” I glance up at Tobias to see if he heard me.
He shakes his head slowly, disapproving.
What?
“Goodbye, my friend.” I cup Emery’s face in my hands and kiss him on the lips. An uncomfortable lump forms in my throat, and a tear slips down my cheek, splashing on his. I stand back and wipe my cheek. Enough. “So what now, into the oven?”
“We prefer pyre, but yes, into the oven.” He opens a metal door in front of the pyre and places Emery inside. He closes the door, turns a knob, and sparks shoot out the chimney like yellow fireflies.
I cover my heart with my hand. Oven, furnace, pyre—Emery lifts off into the air as fire.
21
Test Time
Over the next two days, we lay many more Mythosians to rest on their respective pyres. Out of respect for Emery’s people, I keep my mouth shut and help Tobias. Even though I feel the urgency of my mission, the people of Mythos need tending to first and that’s what Emery would have wanted me to do. I’m amazed at how many people Tobias knows just by looking at their faces. The others, that he doesn’t know, wear the insignia of their caste around their necks or on their clothes. I even try my hand at working the controls of the surprisingly sophisticated pyre machines. Mythosians had a lot of advanced technology against a backdrop of primitive structures and way of dress by its people. A civilization of contradiction—both new and old. I like it.
My third day on Mythos and my eyes have not changed. But I can’t go further without knowing what our plan is. I’ll continue to help Tobias with his people, but I need some answers. I climb the stairs in a narrow hall leading up to the top of the monastery where the round-shaped library is located in the tower. The room is surrounded by artwork and windows holding the highest view of the red planet and the city below. Tobias is at the center of the room, sorting through some digital documents on a large, five-foot-long computer screen. I stand next to him and watch the screen. I can’t understand any of it. There are symbols and a language I don’t know.
“We have to talk,” I say, glancing from him to the screen.
His eyes never leave the screen. “I know. Just let me see one more—”
I grasp his arm. “Tobias, look at me. We have to talk.”
Startled, he stares down into my face as if not recognizing me. “What? Oh, yes, of course.”
“How do I get immunity from the sphere?”
He backs away from the screen and moves to one of the windows in the small room. “You know, I’ve never been in here before. This place was off limits to anyone besides the clerics.”
I take a deep breath, trying to control my nerves. “Listen, I know the last two days have been tough for you, but I need to know how to get immunity from the sphere.”
“I understand. We will begin your degrees of oneness immediately.”
“Excuse me? My degrees? What are you talking about?” He better not be talking about that shit Emery used to ask me to do.
Tobias studies me, looking as confused as I am. “But I thought you understood. That is the way to gain immunity to the sphere. That is what you want, correct?”
“Well, yes, but I thought—”
“I did tell you that how long this takes is up to you.”
I pace around the room, arms crossed, my hands balled into fists. Starfire! This is vintage Cole. He knew what Tobias had in store for me. Degrees of oneness. Damn him to cold space!
“Honestly I don’t think it will take nearly as long as you think. You’re a good person, right?”
I stare at him in shock, my mouth agape. Is he serious right now? “Did Cole not tell you anything about me?”
“Not much, just that you grew up together.” Then another thought occurs to him. “Also, it’s obvious he’s got you on some kind of pedestal. So just stay there and you’ll be fine.”
Pedestal? Me? I put my head in my hands and moan. I think I’m going to be sick. Oh, we are fucked. “Tobias, I lie on a regular basis. I cheat. I steal almost everything. In fact, I’ve already stolen two interesting-looking artifacts from one of the meeting rooms on the third tier of the city. And I fight for the fun of it. I’m pretty much the worst human being who ever lived. How do you think this is going to turn out?”
Tobias’s face changes from confident to confused to a solemn acceptance of my admission. Now it’s his turn to pace, muttering to himself. “If we start from the beginning, she can center herself then atonement…but then we don’t have much time.” He looks up at me. “Have you killed?”
“Yep.”
He hangs his head and paces some more, his mind clearly working overtime. He stops and asks, “How many intelligent lives?”
“Huh, that’s a good question. What do you mean by intelligent?”
Tobias takes a deep breath, rolls his eyes, and paces around some more, continuing to mutter.
It’s exhausting watching him. Whatever he’s planning will never work. I can’t be made into a good person. That ship jettisoned a long time ago. “Look, can’t we just skip these degree things? I can handle whatever I need to.”
He turns back arou
nd, his expression unreadable. “You’re that confident?”
I roll my eyes. “Yes, bring it on. The faster, the better.”
Tobias raises his hands in the air submissively. “Well, then I’ll leave it up to you. Follow me.”
Okay? We traverse the staircase back down to the meeting room at the ground floor of the monastery.
“Okay, here is your first test. You must find the secret door. That is the path you have to take to gain your immunity to the sphere.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”
He crosses his arms. “Find the door.”
“Fine.” I turn around and assess my surroundings. There are no doors besides the one that leads outside. I examine each wall, my hand traveling along the cool, red stone, feeling for any kind of lever or button. There has to be a door somewhere.
After two walls and nothing, I stop and look down at the floor. It’s poured cement, the same ruddy color as the walls. There are four large circular cutouts at the four corners of the room. They appear to be hand chiseled. Three of them have tables set in them. The fourth has a metal podium set in the center. I walk over to the podium and look up and down the sides and front of it. I try to move the podium, but it won’t budge.
I step back and look at the room set up again. Three round tables with chairs in three cement circles and a podium in the fourth. What’s not right? I walk to one of the tables, dragging my fingers across the top. I sit down in a chair, leaning back. So, this is some type of meeting room. People sit in the chairs, and there’s a podium for someone to speak—
I sit up straight, staring at the podium. It’s turned the wrong way, facing a corner in the room, not the tables. I slide my chair back and get to my feet. Slowly, I make my way back toward the podium and bypass it to the corner of the room. There, where the two walls meet, is a slot in the wall. I pull out my knife and insert it.
Nothing. I look around, it must be for a key.
A key!
My legs can’t travel back up the stairs fast enough.
Tobias yells after me, “Where are you going?”
“I’ll be right back.”
I reach the sleeping quarters where we’ve been staying and dash to my bunk. I reach under my pillow and grasp the strange-looking artifact. I rush back downstairs to the corner in the meeting room, Tobias on my heels and Emery’s key in my hand.
“How did you obtain that key? I intended to meditate to locate it,” Tobias says, curiously.
“Well, then you would have been pondering for quite some time because Emery gave this to me before he died.”
“Perhaps you can handle yourself. That key hung from my brother’s neck for as long as he had been our leader. I assumed he hid it when the Cadmarians attacked. Somehow he passed it to Emery.” He nods, approvingly. “Well done, Raven Nevar. You have more than passed your first test. Ready for the second?”
“Let’s do this.”
“All right. Use the key.”
Slowly, I push the key into the slot in the wall. There’s a click, and the key has found its home. A sound behind me makes me turn. The podium slides in a circular motion, revealing a three-and-a-half-foot-wide hole in the floor. There’s a metal ladder leading down. I move toward the hole and crouch beside it, assessing the depth. The subfloor is eight feet below us. It reminds me of Teagan’s bunker, gray metal, and fluorescent light.
I look back up at Tobias, waiting for his instructions.
“Here is your second test. Down there is something that can give you what you seek—immunity to the sphere. Only those who have completed the degrees of oneness have come back the same. Are you sure you want to go down?”
“Yeah. I’ve been in worse spots before.” I take a deep breath, check my pistol, and take my first step down into the bowels of the monastery.
“Be careful, Raven.”
You got it. My feet hit the bottom, making the tell-tale titanium reverberation. There are two ways to advance, both lit. I pivot and go right first. There are doors to the left and right. Some are locked, while others are open, revealing rooms with desks and toilets. They remind me of prison cells. But that seems unlikely for a monastery. I reach the end of the passageway, about five hundred feet from where I started and turn around.
I pass back under the ladder headed in the opposite direction. This must be the right way. There are no doors, and up ahead is a right turn at the end of the passage. From there, I find stairs leading down. I continue my descent, making more rights and lefts downward as I navigate what has now turned into an underground titanium maze.
Using the skills I learned when I was a kid, I mark the walls with each turn I make. I want to be able to get out of here and potentially in a hurry, depending on what I find. I take one last right turn and end at an entryway that leads into a large chamber. The ceiling has to be at least thirty feet tall.
Inside the room is a large cage, and inside the cage is a desk, toilet, and bed. On the bed is a man. I stop dead in my tracks.
Could he be alive? Was he spared during the attack? Is he a criminal? I move to the cage cautiously and grasp one of the bars. The man is either dead or asleep. Even if he somehow managed to survive the attack, surely he wouldn’t have survived down here alone, due to dehydration and starvation. He appears to be Mythosian, his long silver hairs strewn over a pillow on the bed. I move around the cage, looking at him from all angles. Why would the clerics put him down here? Is he part of the test?
The man awakens and I jump. Starfire! He’s alive. I draw my weapon.
“Who’s there? Is that you, Artis? Where have you been?” the man asks, trying to come out of his sleep.
“I’m not Artis. Who are you?” I aim my pistol at him.
Suddenly, as if realizing he’s in the presence of a stranger, he sits up in his bunk. “Who am I? Who are you, and where is Artis?”
“They are all dead. Cadmar attacked your people.”
Then he’s on his feet, striding over to me. He can’t be more than forty, but his eyes seem much older. “What? Why would they? What would cause them to come here?” Before I can answer, he waves his hand. “Never mind. It doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is the sphere. Which cleric possesses it now?”
“Well, um…” I get a distinct feeling that my answer isn’t going to go over too well. “Emery D’Grath had it, but then he was killed.”
“Emery? Killed? But he’s so young. What cleric took it from him?”
“Well, I can’t be completely sure, but I think Garren Geldian, the princess of Cadmar, may have it now.”
The man’s eyes turn to silver saucers as he falls back from the bars of the cage. “Oh no. The sphere is gone from Mythos?”
Okay, this guy is kooky. “So here’s the deal. I don’t know why you’re down here in a cage, but I’m willing to cut you some slack since you’re one of two remaining Mythosians left in the galaxy. I can get the sphere back if I get immunity to it. Can you do that?”
He looks around at the cage. “Yes.”
Well, that was easy. “Okay, thanks. What do I need to do?”
He laughs. “You’re an entertaining one. Where do you come from, stranger?”
“Zeta. Could we—”
“Silence. I told you I can. I didn’t say I would. Look at you. You’re not ready to accept such a power. You should go home to your planet.”
Frustration bubbles up inside, and I can’t control it. “No, I can’t.”
The man’s demeanor changes instantly. He moves toward me, his eyes narrowed, his back straight, and now, I’m the imprisoned one. He doesn’t move his lips, but his eerie voice seeps into my mind, You’re still afraid. You have no degrees of oneness. His eyelids flutter shut as if seeing something in his mind. Yet something about you…something that survives. Very intriguing. He opens his eyes, revealing a glowing green ring around his silver irises. Show me what you fear.
I back away from the cage. The hair on the back of my neck
stands on end. Something is wrong. Tobias was right. I’m not ready. I turn to get out, but I can’t move—like I’ve been paralyzed to the spot and lost all control of my limbs. Then he’s inside my mind, rifling through my memories. Images starting with my childhood on Zeta, my family and friends, pass through my mind and seamlessly into his. I close my eyes and try to shake him loose.
Get out!
He conjures up from the dark recesses of my mind those nightmares that are rooted in reality. Mom. Dad. Bren. My arm. Over and over again, the images of that fateful day pass before my mind’s eye, forcing me to relive the nightmare. I can’t breathe.
Again.
Again.
Again.
I scream, and just before darkness takes me, a loud, booming voice says, “Enough!”
Slowly, I drift back from the dark void.
Am I dead?
No, you’re not.
Emery?
Wake up, Raven.
I open my eyes, blinking back the light. I’m in my bunk in the monastery. How did I get here? Slowly, testing out my arms and legs, I sit up. My battle suit is gone. In its place, I’m wearing a lightweight muslin shirt and pants. My head hurts, and everything is blurry.
What happened? I was trying to find immunity. I shake my head to clear my mind. So unclear.
Oh my god. The cage. Somehow the man, or whatever that thing was, got inside my head.
I swing my legs over the side of the bed and stand. There are soft leather shoes next to the bunk. I slip them on and walk over to the window. Down by the cleric pyre, Tobias is tending to more of his dead. My head still foggy, I descend the stairs to the meeting room at the base of the monastery. I rub my arms. My skin prickles. The podium has been pushed back, sealing off the hole in the floor.
I wander outside to the pyre. “Tobias?”
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