Entropy's Heralds: Pilgrims Path Book 3 by Vic Davis

Author:Vic Davis [Davis, Vic]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Vic Davis
Published: 2021-06-26T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Unintended Consequences

The slip point exiting Timathur’s node was now well behind them; it had barely required a skirmish to breach. The small group of thirty or so Council inerts guarding it had feebly started to build fortifications: a crude barricade covering only a small portion of the width of the opening. But lacking the tools or resources to accomplish much, their efforts had failed. They were easily overrun and decohered.

Two cycles passed uneventfully. Vinks kept them moving at a rigorous pace but could not push them too hard: a consequence of relying on slow and capricious Drothgar to pull the supply train. The limited scouts at their disposal reconnoitered forward down the Pilgrim’s Road to determine the strength of the enemy at the next slip point. Occasional patrols on the flanks checked to make sure an improbable ambush was not possible.

Pilgrim hovered forward at a brisk pace at the vanguard of the column accompanied by almost every surviving friend ever made in this strange world. It felt a peculiar sensation within its core: an inkling that a rendezvous with destiny was approaching. The intelligence that had been crafted to safeguard and activate the entropic weapon, harbored now within its very own form walls, agreed. It possessed knowledge imparted to it from Odnir, the mysterious and powerful former leader of the Exiles. No doubt it also incorporated much of the information from Etheria’s message as well. The weapon counseled caution. The opponents that they must confront were formidable, even chained as they were within their recursive prison.

They came upon yet another cluster of ruined buildings on the side of the road: the skeleton of a tavern, the demolished walls of a small caravanserai. “This branch of the Pilgrim’s Road used to be quite well traveled,” signaled Breaker. “Timathur was no metropolis but it was a decent resting spot on the way to and from the Free Cities. Merchants and pilgrims both plied this path regularly.”

“Bandits too,” remarked Master Sergeant Bleaks. “The True Path worked for one of the city states down near Xin’s Hold before my time. It was in the company’s official records, but I heard the old timers talk about it too. Xin’s line was quite tenacious. There was a line of Xin anamorphs holding power there for a very long time.”

“I think I’ve heard this story from Ziks,” recalled Pilgrim with a sudden stab of regret or perhaps guilt and a concerned thought: what was Ziks doing now? How would they activate the monolith once they returned without a message device from Etheria? That complication to their plan had not even been considered. Pilgrim pushed the matter aside. “Apparently the Endarchs locked the place up, then suddenly burst out with a vengeance to convert all their neighbors to the will of the council.”

“Something like that,” replied Breaker. “We nearly stopped them at Kish.”

“It was a close-run thing to be sure,” signaled Stinky. “But looking back, I wonder what chance we really had. We knew so little back then and most of what we thought we knew was pure conjecture.

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