The Paladin's Odyssey (The Windows of Heaven) (12 page)

Pyra ran from the dead shell of her childhood, trying to fight down her panic.
She’s at the Divine Breeding section of the Temple labs! I don’t have clearance for those spaces!
Her legs raced toward Mnemosynae’s Shrine before she even knew what she would do there.
Maybe Mnemosynae will help. I just want to see my Mauma one last time
;
is that so terrible?

The shrine was empty but open. Mnemosynae hated locks.
A luxury she can afford in the protection of the Temple complex,
Pyra realized as she entered the sanctum. Beyond the votive altar, the Mistress’ personal quarters lay behind a hanging tapestry. Pyra brushed it aside and entered.

Clutter filled the tiny suite. Scrolls draped across the reading table, or hung from dusty racks. At the far end of the chamber glowed an oracle orb on a large writing table
—
Mnemosynae’s gateway to the Temple’s enormous differential calculating engine—which all Council members had. Pyra saw what she needed on the table, basking in the orb’s sickly glow.

She picked up one of Mnemosynae’s personal access cartouches; an intricately segmented raised polygon set on a medallion.
The Mistress wa
s so absent-minded sometimes! Pandura always keeps hers locked away.

Pyra grabbed the cartouche-key and bolted back out through the shrine. It was getting dark outside.

She slowed on her approach to the laboratory wing. The outer guard smiled at her as she passed into the Court of Beasts, where a cartouche-sealed entrance to the Divine Breeding section lay for the priest-technicians when they needed animal test subjects. Pyra paused to talk to some of the animals as she normally would, until the roving inner sentry passed through the indoor menagerie. She smiled at him and he returned her smile
;
he met her for worship
regularly
and was not a bad sort. He always tipped her well, at any rate.
I hope he doesn’t get in trouble for what I’m
doing
.

Once the sentry had left the menagerie, she said farewell to the fern chitters and moved deeper into the huge chamber. The
counter-weighted sliding
stone slab
that gave access to the sacred labs lay on the far side of the room. Cheerful
gold filigree inscriptions
with
incantation blessings on
both
the animals and the sacred research
inlaid
the huge panel. Its glaring contradiction struck Pyra for the first time
.

In
the
center
of the sliding panel
lay a metallic cartouche slot full of movable silvery pin beads designed to mold around the polygon key. Pyra glanced around one last time to make sure nobody else was in that part of the menagerie.

S
he pressed Mnemosynae’s medallion into the slot.

The stone door slid inward, then to one side, with a remarkable lack of noise. Pyra stepped inside and turned to see the vault close behind her. The short tunnel bent at a right angle toward a lighted space beyond. She poked her head around the corner.

Another smaller menagerie opened into rows of cages filled with all sorts of creatures Pyra had never seen before. No priestly technicians were about, so she bolted across to the nearest aisle between two rows of cages.

The animals in this new menagerie all seemed to be composites of dissimilar kinds. Pyra
approached the outer
bars and peered in at a creature that seemed to be a rabbit with no fur
, but
the slimy green skin of a frog. She tried to speak to it as she would a rabbit, but got no response. It just stared out at her with blank miserable eyes.
She spoke to it again, but
it leaped at her with venomous snake-like fangs bared
,
and tried to gnaw at the
inner
wire mesh
.
Quickfire arcs flashed into its mouth until it fell away, stunned.

Pyra jumped back
,
and
ran
down the aisle
between the cages
toward another sealed door
at the other end
.

Something in the corner of her eye made her
pause.

In the last cage on her right
sat
a beast that looked
something
like Taanyx
with coarser hair. It
face
d
the
rear
of its cage,
away from her
, with its
forward
parts in the shadow of a taller pen in the next row that had a solid back
.
Pyra welcomed a
nything comforting
or
familiar in this place.
She approached the
cage
slowly, hoping not to frighten the animal. T
he creature swung around at the
tap
of her
steps
. Pyra bit down on her tongue until it bled to keep from screaming.

Th
is
sphinx had
vacant
blue eyes in a
flat-topped
semi-human face
with no forehead above its brows. It
held nothing of the wise mythical creature
that gave its name to
Taanyx’s breed.
Fur
grew wiry
at its
shoulders
, while a pair of twisted
,
man—
hairy arms with
fidgeting
rat-like hands
replaced front legs and paws.
A d
ull contorted mockery of
both
man and cat
,
t
he monster vomited, defecated in its cage
,
and
then
sat indifferently in its own feces
while it
mimicked
dirty
words at her
, no doubt taught to it by its keepers for their own amusement
.

Pyra
choked back a scream, turned, and
bolted
for the new door. Her hands shook as she raised Mnemosynae’s medallion to its cartouche slot. When the panel slid away, she faced a short corridor with open
bays
on either side. The ideogram glyphs on the wall at the hall’s end read
Sacred Birthing
.
Only an echoing drip of water sounded from within.

The door closed behind her like the
seal
of a great tomb.
Pyra
moved down the corridor slowly and found the first two recessed rooms on either side empty except for a large polished stone slab in each. The slabs both had gutters around the
ir
edge
s
. The gutters disturbed her somehow
…

When s
he came to the
vault’s
second
set of
bays,
her diaphragm froze. There was no breath left with which to scream.

What remained of
Mauma
splayed across the guttered stone table
like a shed cloak
with dangling legs
, abdomen ripped open all the way up
past
her sternum
;
all
strangely bloodless.
D
ead eyes flared, her jaws locked open in a
n unholy
silent
shriek
, frozen in the agony and panic of her last moments,
as
whatever
was
growing inside her violently liberated itself.

Pyra hyperventilate
d
and whimper
ed
until
flashing
spots
danced
before her eyes
; the welcoming
ghost-light committee
at the threshold of madness
.
Mauma’s
dead
eyes laughed and screamed at her; laughed and screamed
at the Temple’s practical
joke of a better tomorrow
,
until Pyra’s
body went limp. She never felt
her head
crack when it hit the stone floor.

V

oices argued over her in the darkness.

Mnemosynae said,
“It’s a perfect op
portunity to test Lethae’s work.
”

“Can Lethae wipe the memories entirely?” Pandura asked.

“Not entirely. But with Lethae’s blocks and my spell suggestions, Pyra will awaken from the worst nightmare of her life—nothing more.”

Pandura’s voice wilted
.
“I do
n’t want the child to disappear.
”

O
ily light filled Pyra’s eyes—they were only half open. The silhouettes of three heads hovered over her. She could not move, but felt nothing restraining her limbs. The implications of what she heard tried to lodge themselves in her mind, but it seemed
as
shut down as her body.

Mnemosynae’s voice cracked with
…
was it concern?
“Then allow Lethae and
me
to work on her.”

“Fine,” said Pandura. “I’ve questioned Harachne, who was probably the last to see her. That useless dolt upset Pyra about her mother, which is probably what began the whole episode. There was a scuffle, in which Pyra broke her lyre. We should probably replace the instrument and begin our focus there. While you’re at it, can you implant fond associations in her memories of me? I fear the child and I have grown apart.”

“I can, Pandura, but you
must
take Pyra under your wing
to
actually reinforce those impressions
so they
last. You must be
mother to her.”

A
shadow nodded. “I can do that.
W
hat
of
her security access?”

Mnemosynae said, “It must be unchanged to avoid suspicion. I’ll keep her busy divining and counseling—away from the breeding facility.”

“But she is always in that menagerie, singing to those beasts.”

“We can reinforce happy memories of the menagerie,” said a third female voice—Lethae. “There’s no reason to think the entrance to the hidden sections will unduly attract her. It would be more dangerous to forbid her.”

“Do it then!”

Mnemosynae said,
“I wi
ll administer the first potion,
Lethae will assist. The girl may have heard us, so we will begin here
…
”

Pyra felt a slight prick in her neck
, t
hen absolute nothingness.