The God Mars Book Five: Onryo (32 page)

“When your people came and found my ship, I was
released. The battle you fought with the Keepers provided me what I
needed to rebuild. I took some of their bodies for resources, but
spared your fallen warriors out of respect and gratitude. Then I
went to continue my vendetta, and discovered your prisoners…”

I realize my father is glaring at me again. Does he
doubt my edited tale, or is it something else?

“…returned a few days later to find that the Keepers
had abandoned Eureka and taken shelter in bunkers up in the slopes.
When they returned to take slaves, I went and punished them again,
this time meeting Colonel Ram, who was able to disable many of
their weapons and take others for use defending your colony.”

“
City
,” is the only correction I get, from
Khan himself. “Katar is a City.”

“Why did you come here?”Akinaga asks.

“My technology allows me to communicate with those
like me,” I distort a bit. “I met Jak Straker during the battle at
Eureka, and then again when I returned. I already told you of
meeting Ram. We agreed to aid each other against our mutual
enemies, the monsters like us who attack you.”

“We Value your assistance,” Khan gives me, but still
with clear suspicion.

“I’m happy to give it. Your enemies are mine.”

“Bring food,” Khan commands. A few of the
civilian-dressed give quick short bows and leave.

We stand in tense silence as Khan continues to brief
the other Kings regarding today’s battle.

“Peter,” I request in my head. “Ask the others why I
can’t communicate with them at will like they can.”

“Bel thinks it’s because you don’t have
‘administrative control’,” Straker answers in my thoughts after a
moment, apparently having asked for my benefit. “Peter does.”

I suppress my frustration, and try to get into a
rhythm of asking my questions through Peter.

“This is the first time Asmodeus has sent bots?”

“First time to Katar,” Straker tells me. “First time
in weeks to Pax. Apparently he’s been holding them in reserve.”

“We just don’t know why he deployed them now,”
Erickson interjects in my head. “He’d been sending Harvesters
steadily. Then nothing for a day.”

“Same thing in the South Blade,” I let him know
through Peter. Then I worry that bots have been dispatched to
Eureka in my absence. I check my drone feeds.

“He’s up to something,” Elias decides, inserting
himself in our discreet conversation.

“The only thing he’s done is waste his toys,”
Erickson discounts.

“He’s got us all in two locations,” Straker
realizes.

“Will your people reinforce us?” I ask the Carters.
They look dour.

“They’ve agreed to help develop a defense against the
Harvesters,” Erickson tells me internally. I can see the
frustration in his metallic eyes.

“But no Guardian Forces?”

“The Council still feels we’re all being manipulated
by Yod,” Elias explains heavily. “They refuse to play into whatever
his larger game is.”

“They’re not wrong,” I allow. “But these people’s
lives are real. Will they let them die just to prove they can defy
a being that can remake them on a molecular level?” But that makes
me think. I confront the Carters: “Are they working on a defense? A
way to beat Yod?”

I don’t get an answer from any of them. I may have
just done something stupid, communicating about it in a way Yod can
likely hear.

“They may just be trying to get Yod to show himself,”
I suggest, downplaying the more dangerous possibility. “Like Chang
did when he fired on Green Station.”

“We have a more pressing problem,” Straker distracts,
tapping her finger to her mouth as our meal is carried in. “How are
you going to eat in front of your father?”

The Katar set out a feast of breads, stews and fresh
fruits. I also see pale and almost gelatinous morsels, with a smell
that vaguely reminds me of bad breath and the Dragon Jerky that
made me ill. Since the serving tray is decorated with their
iridescent wings, I expect the dish is indeed some rendering of
Dragonfly. And there’s something that resembles a section of large
intestine, only with stunted insect legs on each section. It’s been
given the Bar-Bee-Cue treatment and sliced vertically into thin
disks.

Caterpillar,
Peter reminds me. I was afraid
I’d seen it before, in its pre-charred and pre-sliced state. I saw
my first one as we were out hunting Harvesters. The strange
circular cuts in the leaves got my attention again, and I took the
time to go looking for the culprit. Alive, they’re cold, slow
moving, and keep themselves visually hidden as they eat. They have
fearsome bladed mouths, but apparently only hunger for plant
matter. One day I saw a Dragonfly swoop in and carry one off. It
was barely able to fight back. Freakish thing. But the Pax
ancestors brought the DNA to Mars with purpose, and engineered them
to withstand the environment and—for some unclear reason—to grow
many times the size they were on Earth. I wonder if their size is
about surviving the environment or the differences in gravity, or
if they’d planned them to provide protein for us as well as the
Dragons.

I also remember our feast with the Pax, how they
served us the charred flesh of much larger and warm-blooded
creatures, and how Ram warned that those of us who had never eaten
meat or “day-ree” could get sick because we lacked certain enzymes.
But then I saw him and the other Modded eat freely of it, even
ravenously, including the recently Companion-Bound.

There are cultures on Earth who eat these things
as a delicacy,
Peter encourages.
Who knows? It might be
delicious. I’m game if you are, lad.

“What about the mask?” I ask in my head, as our hosts
bid us to sit and dine with them.

Trust me.

I feel my face… shift. It feels like all the blood is
rushing in, swelling the tissues. But then I feel bones move,
stretch. My skin seems to go tight, then relaxes.

I cautiously unseal my skull-face and throat guard,
and lower it down around my neck on its cords. The shock reaction I
get doesn’t come from my father—he still glares at me like I’ve
deeply wronged him—but from Straker and the Carters. I lock
Straker’s eyes, and she flashes me what she sees:

I’m
Peter
. Or a younger, stronger version of
him. I feel shaky.

I promise it’s not permanent, lad. I’ll put it back
to yours when we’re out of here.

That’s not very comforting.

Our hosts bid us to sit across the long table from
them, and trays are passed around. The Katar eat heartily but
neatly, with a variety of what appear to be hand-crafted
utensils.

I do try the cooked flesh morsels. I think Peter
enjoys them more than I do. I find the texture especially
disturbing, and the flavors are too unusual for my palate. I eat
politely, accepting the Katar gift of food, but focus on the beans,
grains and fresh fruits.

We are also provided tea and water, as well as a
strong milky beverage that our hosts call “Sockay”. I notice my
father politely declines, and I suspect I should because of my
faith, but this may reveal me. While I‘m struggling with this,
Peter chooses for me, apparently having a preference for the drink.
It’s slightly sweet, and burns a little on the way down.

It’s a home-brewed grain and yeast culture
wine,
Peter explains, accepting another cup from Akinaga.
Or
more accurately a beer. It’s about 18% alcohol, but it shouldn’t
affect us much. Unfortunately.

My gauges tell me it’s high in carbohydrates, but
that seems to be its only practical value. The odd flavor, however,
grows on me much quicker than the insect meats. And our hosts
appear to appreciate that I’m appreciating it, like we’ve
established some important common ground. I even think I catch the
quickest grin from Khan. (I wonder how he would react if he knew
who I really am, or half am.)

But Khan is clearly preoccupied. We’re reaching our
fills of food and drink when Negev comes in, looking dour. He
whispers in Khan’s ear to be discreet, but I can hear what he’s
saying. Then Khan shares the news with everyone else:

“My daughter is missing. It seems of her own intent,
as she slipped away from her handmen. There have been no signs of
incursion. My men have searched every room, rock and shelter. She
is not in the City.”

“Is there any other way out of the canyon?” I blurt
out. At least Khan seems to appreciate my attention, but his
fellows seem unwilling to answer the question. After several tense
seconds, Khan decides to trust us.

“There are unused tunnels. The Terraformers drilled
them for us as escape routes, should our Wall be breached. They
felt it would reduce violence if we were able to retreat rather
than be trapped. They have never been used.”

Negev, looking like he hadn’t considered the
possibility, runs to check these exits.

“Why would she leave?” Erickson asks before I
can.

Akinaga looks suddenly ill.

“Kah-Terina came to me to talk about your live
blades.” He nods at the Companions. “She told me there was one
more, that she almost accepted bonding with it during your journey
together, but the machine would have enslaved her.”

“That threat has been resolved,” Elias explains.
“It’s just a matter of compatibility.”

“But we already know the Blade was willing to take
her,” Erickson considers darkly.

“That Blade is inaccessible,” my father—who was also
almost taken by the thing—insists. “It lies across the Hot Zone.
And a large body of deep standing water, several kilometers across.
And usually invisible from this side.”

“The legend of the Occasional Lake?” Taloff, the
Merchant King, asks like this is an old camp tale. So Yod has let
his barriers be seen before. (To what purpose?)

“She spoke of the living sword to me as well,” Khan
admits heavily. “She tried to convince me that it could help
protect us from the demon’s horrors. She wanted to take a scouting
party, and try to find the route of the Lost Century. I denied her.
I told her I would not give any of our warriors to such a fate,
having their bodies and minds corrupted and slaved to a machine
that feeds itself on the flesh of others.”

He doesn’t care that he’s just insulted three of
those who have come to protect his people, his city.

“Why did she go
alone
?” Almquist, the Engineer
King, asks.

“If she can’t find a way through the radiation, she
may dare a lethal dose, and hope the Companion will heal her before
she dies,” Elias grimly guesses, realizing his insensitivity too
late. I can see the terrible fear of a parent under Khan’s stoic
façade.

“What about the Lake?” Erickson wonders.

I
wonder if she’d been thinking about doing
this before we left the company of the Forge. Did she ask them
where their passage was, hoping it might be found again? But I know
she’ll only find a way across the barriers if Yod
wants
her
to have the Blade. If he doesn’t, I’m sure he’ll let her die
trying. If he does… That possibility is just as callous.

With a good guess where she’s gone, Khan meets Negev
at the hidden entrance to the escape tunnel that passes through the
north wall of the canyon. The opening is covered by an ingeniously
hinged solid stone door, and I can see that the rocks above the
entrance have been rigged to slide and bury it. I can also see sign
in the dust that someone—one person, but dragging something heavy
on rails—has recently passed through the door.

“Do we know how long she’s been gone?” Erickson asks
Khan. He defers to Negev.

“She was last seen at sunrise breakfast, then told
her handmen she was going to bathe.”

She may have several hours head start on us.

The tunnel into the ridge is really only wide enough
for one person to pass at a time, and is unlit. With my enhanced
vision, I can see her tracks in the dust. She looks like she was
moving in a hurry. But there are also the parallel marks that tell
me she was dragging something on a small but solid sledge. That
implies she’d been planning long enough to pack something bigger
than she could carry.

Did she figure out a way to get across to the
Barrow?

“Do your people still keep pressure suits?” Peter
asks through me.

Khan looks to Negev, who runs to check something. I
assume the answer is yes.

“Would a pressure suit protect her from the
radiation?” Straker doesn’t believe.

“It would protect her from the water,” Elias decides.
“And perhaps shield her enough to survive exposure long enough to
get to the Barrow.”

“And what about Chang?” Straker discreetly asks in
our heads, her bright green eyes wide with worry, reminding us “Yod
left him to guard the last Companion. Is he just going to let her
take it?”

“If she fails, she dies,” Erickson says out loud
before he realizes our company, his turn to be insensitive. He
turns to Khan. “I’m sorry.”

Khan is stone-faced, but he still can’t completely
hide his pain, his panic. This is the most human—the most
vulnerable—I’ve ever seen him. But he keeps his airs. He is a king,
after all, and a warrior, and his people are counting on him to be
so, especially now.

He calls his warriors, tells them to prepare to move
out.

“It’s not safe,” Straker warns them firmly. “The
radiation will be fatal to you. Then there’s the water…”

He doesn’t seem willing to just give up, no matter
how suicidal the mission. But his people need him. So

“I’ll go,” I volunteer myself, however selfishly. I’m
going if he agrees or not. “I can move faster than you anyway,
cover more ground. And I can survive the radiation.” But I know as
I say it that it may only be Peter that survives.