Looming war threatens everything Fate holds dear
Fate’s reunion with Finn has given her the courage she needs to confront the dark forces poised to claim the immense power stored within the Keep. But a deadly game of deceit is playing out behind the scenes, birthing what may be an even greater threat. As war bears down on Fate and those she loves, her only hope is to break her blood oath as Keep Guardian in order to lure the final battle to unexpected realms, where surprising allies are gathering forces.
To get there, Fate must fight. She will fight for her childhood friend, whose formidable warrior skills are under the control of an ancient evil. She will fight for her father and dear friends, each of whom are prepared to die for her. And she will fight for the future she dreams of having with Finn.
Will Fate succeed in keeping her world from shattering, or is she headed for sheer destruction?
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Chapter 4 – Fate’s War
She’s Raising An Army
The awful feeling of insubstantial nothingness lasted for a split second before Fate’s awareness caught up with her scattered particles, speeding through space like tiny grains of sand. Materialization happened every bit as swiftly, bringing with it an alarming sense of veins and nerves spidering through organs, anchoring to bone, muscle and skin.
Fate grabbed at her body to check for missing parts. Sighing with relief, she blinked at the hellish fires of the giant furnaces fueling the engines deep inside the Keep. The roaring sound of flames filled the narrow tunnel she stood in. Finn and Brune appeared instantaneously from within bursts of sparking smoke. Fate rushed to him as he adjusted to his surroundings.
She smiled. “Glad to see you made it in one yummy piece.”
He kissed her. “Likewise, love. I would’ve been upset if you were missing those delicious lips.”
“Oh please, spare me,” Brune grumbled.
Fate stepped beside Finn with a sigh. She glanced each way down the length of the tunnel, filled with pipes dripping with condensation and oily panels of machinery. “Hmm, I’m not sure which way to go.”
“Of course you’re not. Why should any of this be easy?”
Finn looked at Brune. “There’s no need for that. We’ll get along a lot better if you can–”
“What? Turn my frown upside down?”
“Aye, that’d be a good start.”
“Right.” Brune turned her back to him. “I’ll go this way. You two go the other. Radio me if you find the lab.”
“Gladly.” Fate started down the tunnel with Finn.
“I’ve mostly been in the library since I got here. Is she always this unpleasant?” he asked.
“Actually, this is a good day for Brune.”
Brune’s voice crackled in the headphones built into their helmets. “I can hear you. Turn off your coms so I don’t have to listen to you two prattling on.”
Fate flicked the switch, as did Finn. “Yeah, Brune’s a real sweetheart.”
“How do you stand being around her knowing she’s the one who threw you into the Book of Fables?”
“It was nearly next to impossible at first. But she opened up one time and told me her side of the story.” Finn stared at her in disbelief. “Believe me, the last thing I wanted to do was give Brune–of all people–the benefit of the doubt. But in the end, I could see she was telling the truth. As for her tossing me into harm’s way, every decision she made was based on what was best for the Keep. It’s what we guardians are programmed to do.”
Fate glanced down at her palm, where the guardian seal glowed beneath the surface of her skin–a round symbol spinning within moving interlocking rings. It was her very own tiny version of the Keep, a built-in reminder of the blood oath she’d taken.
They slowed down to squeeze between two pipes impeding their path. “She wants the Keep Guardian position back, doesn’t she?” Finn asked.
“Almost as much as I want to be free of it.”
“Why don’t you let her have it then?”
Fate stopped and spoke in a hushed tone. “I was totally ready to have her be my proxy, but my spidey senses have been going off lately. Brune and Farouk are keeping a secret. So until I know what they’re up to, I can’t hand over my position.”
“What do you think they’re hiding?”
Fate stared into the darkness. “I don’t know, but something tells me it’s bad.”
“We need to find out. With Kaliena taking over and building arms, we can’t have dissension going on between us. We need more eyes on Brune and Farouk. When we get back, we’ll bring Sithias and Gerdie in on this.” Finn nudged her chin, raising her gaze to meet his. “And your father.”
The tight knots in Fate’s stomach loosened and she nodded. “Sounds like a plan.” She rose on tiptoe to kiss him, when she noticed a blue spark out of the corner of her eye. “Hey, I see something.” She darted in the direction of the glinting lights, leaving Finn kissing air.
They caught up to a long line of spider bots carrying luminescent sapphires. Stepping over them, they pushed forward to the front. After several minutes, a round hatch stopped them from going any further. The spiders continued to scrabble forward through a small hole next the entrance.
Fate surveyed her surroundings. “This looks familiar. I’m pretty sure the laboratory is behind this door.” She pressed the radio on. “We found the lab, Brune.”
“I’ll be right there.”
Finn ran his hands over the hatch and doorframe. “I’m not seeing any way to open it. The door probably unlocks from the inside.”
Fate noticed a small panel off to one side of the tunnel. It looked like the ones she’d seen on many of the vaults. Lifting her hand, she waved her palm over the surface. A series of beeps and lights flickered. The sound of compressed air releasing and grinding iron filled the narrow tunnel as the hatch’s iris rotated open.
Drawing their laser guns, Fate and Finn stepped cautiously through the opening. Humid air smelling of ozone clung to their skin. A complex system of glass beakers boiling with a luminous aquamarine liquid took up the vast portion of the laboratory. Spider bots delivering the sapphires crawled over hundreds of buckets filled with gemstones.
A sudden movement from the other side of the room had them aiming their laser guns in the direction of the noise. Unintelligible jabbering resounded through the room as a robot staggered back and fell onto the buckets of gemstones. A sparkling carpet of blue stones spilled across the floor.
“That’s the scientist robot.” Fate inched forward to get a better look.
Much like the librarian robots, this one was spindly with six arms, but its head was humanoid, fleshy and blue tinged. Its flat, wrinkled features narrowed into a pointed chin. Glowing, bulgy eyes stared back at them as it scrambled to stand.
“I’d say it’s more of a cyborg since its not all machine,” Finn offered.
Brune rushed in. “So this is what’s been making Kaliena’s trouble juice.” She stormed over to the robot. “Take us to the core.”
The scientist shrank from her, talking a mile a minute in a language none of them understood.
Brune took a small instrument from her utility belt and clicked it on. The robot’s voice amplified with a fuzzy, crackling sound. A few seconds later, the words began to make sense. She looked at Fate. “Did you forget about your transmodulator? You have one too.”
Fate glanced down at her belt. Leave it to Brune to make her feel like an idiot.
“Who are you?” The scientist asked. “You don’t have the proper authorization to be here. You’ve disrupted my work. Timing is crucial. The distillation process must remain uninterrupted. You have to–”
“Stop talking and listen.” Brune pressed her laser gun against his forehead. “And don’t pretend you can’t understand me. The transmodulator works both ways.”
The robot nodded.
She dropped her aim. “Did you know your work is destroying the core?”
The robot blinked, its gleaming eyes roving the room as it considered her question. “No, this is illogical. Neither my values or my program, would ever allow for the destruction of any part of the Obiectis.”
Fate remembered Vasha’s recording. This was the Golandon’s best scientist–chosen to be cybernetically enhanced for life extension–stored in stasis if the time ever came when something broke that could not be fixed by the maintenance robots. Kaliena was that broken thing. Vasha had predicted he would find a way to wake her. If only he knew that what he’d woken was bent on reclaiming her godhood at any cost.
Fate turned on her transmodulator. “We know your job is to fix what can’t be repaired by the maintenance robots, but you have to believe us, the core is damaged. One of the rings has stopped rotating.”
The scientist juddered over to a blank wall. Waving several hands, he triggered a 3D rendering of the Keep with its turning hoops, except for the ring that had gone still. He gave a little yelp and then brought up a schematic of the interior workings of the Keep. The scientist flipped through layers and layers of intricate images, until at last, he stopped to stare at a round vault holding what looked like a ball of energy. Twisting his hand and fingers as if turning a dial, he subdued the light enough to display the details of a deep blue crystal.
“Is that the crystal core?” Fate asked.
The scientist didn’t answer. He was intent on magnifying the image. Sliding his hand, he turned the crystal rendering, surveying the smooth surface, his head hunched forward in concentration. He stopped and went rigid when he came to a gaping hole, crawling with millions of spider robots. He turned stiffly to them with a stunned expression. “I was assured the crystals were being delivered from a surplus source.”
Fate stepped forward. “Who told you that?”
“The High Priestess, Kaliena. Her health was deteriorating. She required tremendous amounts of elixir to regenerate.”
“Is she back to normal health now?”
Squeaks came from the scientist’s neck as he nodded. Fate couldn’t help feeling sorry for him. Isolation had made him vulnerable to manipulation, and he appeared to be in need of a little repairing of his own.
“If Kaliena’s healthy, why are you still making the elixir?” she asked.
“Kaliena requires elixir for the others.”
Fate’s stomach tightened. Wodrid was one of them. Unbeknownst to her, the sorcerer had stalked her for years, waiting patiently for her to be summoned to the Keep so he could sneak in as one of her fans. After he’d revealed his true identity, they’d all discovered he was Kaliena’s lover. In their last confrontation with Wodrid, Jessie had killed him, but Kaliena had used the Orb of Aeternitis he’d stolen from them to reanimate him. He was undead now, just as Brune had been, and would remain so, unless Kaliena could fully restore him. But she would need the Rod to do that.
Fate reached for the chain holding the tiny gold Rod beneath her armor. Eustace had tried to convince her to lock the Rod in a safe place, but she’d refused. She was beginning to think maybe she should have. Kaliena already possessed the Orb. If she got her hands on the Rod, it would be game over, not just for them but for the universe at large.
Whosoever unites the Orb and Rod of Aeternitis lives as a god.
From all accounts, it appeared Kaliena was forming a contingency plan to this ultimate goal. With enough elixir, she could restore Wodrid back to the living. But who were the others?
Finn moved in toward the scientist, his eyes darkening with concern. “Can you calculate how many others there are, based on how much elixir Kaliena has asked you to make?”
The scientist counted silently, all the fingers of his six hands moving rapidly while gazing at the ceiling. After a few seconds of this, he looked at Finn. “At least two hundred thousand.”
Fate stared back with mouth hanging open.
Brune was the first to break the silence. “Your numbers are off. There aren’t that many people–or creatures for that matter–here in the Keep.”
The scientist tilted his head with a soft clank and thought for a moment. “True, there are not that many living organisms readily available.”
Finn visibly tensed. “Do your subjects need to be alive for the elixir to work?”
“No, they do not. Large quantities of elixir will regenerate dead matter as well.”
Fate gulped. “Please tell me there isn’t hundreds of thousands of dead matter lying around inside the Keep.”
“Not in the hundreds of thousands,” the scientist assured her. “During the Dark Tide period, we imprisoned approximately fifty thousand of the insane in the lower cells. The corpses are relatively intact.”
“Relatively?” Fate squirmed with discomfort. “As in partially rotted?”
“While reanimation is instantaneous. Decayed flesh regenerates over time, as long as the elixir is administered consistently.”
Fate made a face. “Oh great, he’s talking zombies.”
Brune shot Fate a dismissive scowl before aiming her annoyance at the scientist. “Fifty thousand isn’t even close to what you calculated. Where would all the other bodies come from?”
The scientist teetered from one foot to the other as he turned to her. “The ship graveyard that litters the Chaos Region from the galactic Thousand Year War, of course. From there I can use freshly thawed corpses from the deep freeze of space.”
It was Brune’s turn to teeter. She grabbed a nearby table for support. “There’s no more guessing what Kaliena’s been planning. She’s raising an army.”
This concludes Chapter 4 of Fate’s War.
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