Spires of Infinity (32 page)

Chapter 28: The Spires of Infinity

The Spires of Infinity loomed over Gabriel like the huge fangs of a gigantic beast stretching for the heavens. Far taller than any building he’d ever seen, they would have dwarfed even the Sears Tower in Chicago. The tallest building in his home city would have looked like a tiny house next to the Spires.

There were nine towers in all. Eight of them were fang shaped, arranged in a

circle, curving inward toward the ninth. The central tower was gigantic needle pointing toward the sun at all times during daylight hours, following its progress across the sky from horizon to horizon. On a guess, he’d put the central spire at five miles high, and that was probably being conservative.

Drawing closer, Gabriel observed that the central spire never dropped below a

thirty-degree angle to the ground in following the sun. Still, the fact that such a huge structure moved a hundred and twenty degrees twice a day without a hitch after centuries of abandonment was a testament to how advanced the technology was. The machinery had to be ridiculously powerful, and the bedrock would need to be solid metal to be able to hold up so much constantly shifting weight.

Gleaming darkly in the sunlight, the Spires appeared be made of the same highly polished, reflective, black substance as the blade of Gabriel’s knife.

Traveling for days between New Hope and the Spires, Gabriel could think of, or look at, little else. It was easy to see why they were called the Spires of Infinity, as they seemed to stretch away into forever. When one took in the spectacular sky silhouetting them, they were the most impressive, awe-inspiring things that Gabriel had ever seen or dreamt of in his entire life.

In the days since New Hope Gabriel’s broken rib had mostly healed up. It still ached a bit, but it wasn’t the sharp pain it had been. His ankle was mostly healed up as well. Sam had removed the stitches from the cut in her cheek and was also walking without a limp now. Her black eye had almost completely faded away, and the healing scar on her cheek didn’t mar her beauty so much as enhance it by making her look more her age.

Considering the tall wall of dull gray metal surrounding the Spires, he found it hard to judge its height, as anything looked small compared to the looming towers. It was hard to tell how close they were. Distance really did seem to stretch and fold in on itself. As they passed through the folds, the Spires would randomly jump up to meet them, then jump back into the distance. Also very disconcerting was the fact that every time the towers moved, so did all of the celestial objects in the sky. Distance was not the only thing that appeared to be distorted, but time as well.

Many different thoughts warred against each other in Gabriel’s mind. The sci-fi nerd in him was practically creaming his pants over everything, the Spires, the distortion in time and space, the alien world in general. Part of him was wired with anticipation over finally reaching his mission objective. And another part of him was excited over the prospect of being able to go home at last.

The rest of him was wondering what he was going to do with Sam. He wanted to

stay with her, to be with her, maybe even to marry her, but he did not belong in her world, and with that tail and those ears, she did not belong in his. On Earth she’d stand out terribly, and it was only a matter of time before she attracted the wrong sort of attention from whatever government conspiracy happened to catch her first. There seemed to be no way that they could end up together and that was tearing him apart inside.

Whoever the Apostle was, he was on Gabriel’s mind too. Was he the reason

Gabriel had been sent here? It seemed much too big a coincidence. However, the fact that he had a madman with an army of the worst mutations on the planet nipping at his figurative heels filled him with urgency. They could really put a dent in whatever he was supposed to do when he finally reached his destination.

“I’m starting to think we’re never gonna get there,” Sam sighed, shielding her eyes as she looked toward the Spires of Infinity. “They’ve been
right there
for days, and we never seem to get any closer.”

“We’ll get there eventually,” Gabriel replied.

“Can’t we just find somewhere safe until this Apostle person is gone,” Sam

pleaded, flashing him a hopeful look.

“I don’t think I can, but if you want to head toward safety until things blow over, that’s fine. I’ll meet up with you later.”

“You promised,” Sam hissed at him. “You’re
not
sending me away! You
promised
!”

“Fine,” Gabriel made a placating gesture. “Sorry.”

“There’s something bothering you. I can tell. What is it?”

“There’s a hundred different things.”

“Wanna talk about it?”

“Not really.”

“You men,” Sam sounded as weary as Gabriel felt. “You never share your

feelings because it’s just so unmanly. Keeping things inside is dumb. They eat away at you and then you go crazy, and next thing you know you’re laughing maniacally, covered in the blood of your victims.”

“That’s not funny,” Gabriel glared at her, seeing the bodies of the Children of the Chosen flying apart under the hail of his bullets.

He’d been sent here to earn redemption, and all he’d managed to do so far was

makes plans to fornicate, and murder a truckload of people. Both were sins of great magnitude if the preachers knew what they were talking about.

“You’ve been acting weird ever since we got away from the Children. What’s

wrong? Wait, I think I know. You’ve never killed anyone before, have you? Right?

You feel guilty, or something stupid like that. I guess I felt the same the first time I killed someone to protect myself.”

Shocked, Gabriel looked at her. He knew she’d killed the Chosen One, and

Devileye’s lackey too, but others as well?

“I knew it.” Sam winked. “That’s it exactly, isn’t it? I was twelve the first time I killed someone. He tried to rape me. Before he could stick it in me, I grabbed a stool. It was the only thing I could reach, and I hit him as hard as I could in the head over and over again until he stopped moving. I’d always been taught how horrible killing is, especially in a world that does its best to kill us all already. I was so horrified I wanted to die, but when the sun came up in the morning, I realized something very important.”

“What’s that?”

“I deserve to live too,” Sam said simply, shrugging easily. “Because someone’s bigger and stronger than me doesn’t mean he has the right to hurt me, rape me, kill me. I have to the right to defend and live my life. I deserve to be happy and safe, and no one else has the right to take that from me. If God, or the Father Sun and Celestial Mother, or whoever else is waiting for me at the end, has a problem with that, they can go to hell.

Sometimes you meet bad people, and they won’t stop trying to hurt you until they’re dead. In my opinion, if that happens, the sin is on them, not me. Defending yourself and those you care about is not a bad thing, even if you have to kill to do it.”

“I guess you’re right,” Gabriel nodded. Though her words made sense he

couldn’t help but feel the blood of the Children of the Chosen on his hands.

“I don’t belong here,” Gabriel muttered under his breath, but Sam’s hearing was sharper than he realized.

“Look around, Gabriel.
Nobody
belongs here. This world is dying, and it’ll take everyone with it when the big day comes. Every year the sun gets darker, and everything gets colder.”

“Maybe that’s why I’m here. Maybe I’m here to make it right again.”

“Things are almost hopeless enough for me to wish that was true. You may be
my
hero, Gabriel, but you’re kinda pathetic to be the savior of the world.”

“Trust me, I don’t want to be anyone’s savior.”

“I hope you remember your promise when this is over,” Sam whispered. Gabriel

did not think he was supposed to hear. “I don’t wanna be alone anymore.”

He was about to reassure her, but his cathor abruptly stopped moving. He kicked it in the ribs but it remained in place. Looking up, he saw a large gate in the dull gray wall around the Spires of Infinity not ten feet in front of him.

“We’re there,” he said in surprise.

“I guess we are.”

Studying the wall, Gabriel thought it had to be at least a hundred yards high, if not more. Regular watchtowers dotted the top, as well as huge guns built right into the wall itself. Dark shapes patrolled the wall tops, though they seemed not to have noticed Gabriel and Sam below.

“Hey,” Gabriel called, waving his hands. “Down here!”

The distant figures paid him no mind.

Looking to Sam, Gabriel found her looking back at him. With an uncomfortable

shrug, she gestured to the gate.

“Have I mentioned this place is supposed to be haunted,” she asked, eyeing the figures atop the wall nervously.

“There’s no such thing as ghosts.”

“Then who are they,” Sam pointed upward. “This place was abandoned centuries

ago! Let’s leave, Gabriel. I have a really bad feeling about this place.”

“You know I can’t.”

Dismounting, Gabriel walked to the gate, leaving Sam to growl something very

unflattering about men that he was pretty sure she meant him to overhear. She dismounted and followed, still grumbling bitterly.

Pounding on the gate, Gabriel soon realized that the metal was far too thick for it to be heard on the other side.

“Look there,” Mister Mittens said, pointing with a paw. “That looks like the

control panels in the Haven. Perhaps your badge will open it.”

Reaching into his coat, Gabriel pulled out the golden plaque. His heavy duster was still stained with dark blotches, though he had washed it thoroughly. As much as he wanted to be rid of it, he didn’t have a spare and he would likely freeze to death without.

Though the blood had been washed away, he still thought he could smell it, and it felt like he was carrying everyone that he’d killed on his back.

His father’s voice ranted and taunted him about it continually, and it was getting harder and harder to ignore.

The blood made him think of his days as a lawyer, and all of the horrible things he’d done to maintain his reputation as the best. He’d lied, cheated, stolen things, sabotaged the competition, and worst of all, set murderers that should have been imprisoned free. How many of them had gone on to kill again because of him?

Whatever redemption he’d been sent to earn, maybe he didn’t deserve it. Maybe he was
already
in hell.

Sudden realization came to him. The Northern Sage had been trying to tell him something what seemed like a thousand years ago. He’d been trying to teach Gabriel a lesson, but he’d been too stupid and arrogant to see it. Whatever he did here at the destination wasn’t what would redeem him. It was how he’d changed along the way that was important. He’d learned many valuable things about himself on his journey.

Looking back, he supposed he was grateful for that. He’d never even realized what a bastard he was until he’d met Sam, and learned to care about someone other than himself.

The thought of having lived and died without ever seeing her face seemed so horrible to him.

He didn’t know what awaited him behind that wall, and he couldn’t see what the future held. Whatever happened, he could clearly see his past mistakes, and he wanted to make them better. He’d been given the greatest gift anyone could ever ask for. Sam had done so much to show him the error of his ways that he couldn’t imagine life without her now. He wanted to be a better person for her sake, even if it was too little too late. He’d been given a second chance even though he didn’t deserve it, and a love that he never would have known otherwise.

Gabriel was a different man than he’d been at the beginning of his journey.

The journey was over. His goal was just behind that wall. He only hoped that he’d learned what he needed to in order to face what he’d been sent to face.

“Hey,” Sam waved a hand in his face. “Wake up and open the door already. If

we have to go in, let’s get it over with!”

Turning the plaque around in his hands, Gabriel wondered where it, and the rest of his belongings, had come from in the first place. When he arrived on Ethos, his cathor was waiting for him with his saddlebags, and he’d been wearing his coat and gunbelts.

On top of that, looking into a mirror was like looking at the face of an older, much more rugged brother he’d never known he’d had.

Glancing at his wristwatch, Gabriel wondered, yet again, why he’d been allowed to keep
that
of all the things that he’d had on him at the time of his death. Did it have something to do with his mission?

“What is wrong with you,” Sam made an annoyed angry sound deep in her throat.

“This whole time it’s been ‘we have to go to the Spires of Infinity blah blah blah.’ Now we’re here and you’re hesitating? Stop being a pussy!”

“You’re the only woman I’ve ever heard call someone a pussy before,” Gabriel

said, his amusement pushing away some of his wariness and heavyheartedness.

Fumbling the plaque open, he shoved the USB connector into the port below the

control panel. At first nothing appeared to happen. Then there came the sounds of machinery rumbling deeply within the gate. Slowly it raised eight feet and stopped with a loud clinking.

Stuffing the badge into his pocket, Gabriel walked back to his cathor, grabbing the reins. Sam followed suit and the two of them walked their animals under the gate and into a large, somewhat empty courtyard. One of the eight fang shaped Spires was directly ahead. The ground was paved with cement, though it was in disrepair, with cracks and holes everywhere, and gravel strewn about. The gate closed ominously behind them.

There were several robots patrolling the courtyard. They were big, intimidating things with large guns attached to their arms where hands should have been, vaguely reminding Gabriel of the movie Robocop.