“Care to enlighten me?” Mind asked.
Jeric glanced in his direction. “Dedliss is a world known for a single element, brutality. It was once a world rich in forests and beautiful lakes, but House Torn’Ent converted most of the surface into the Bone Crucible, an arena where thousands fight for survival. The contests are beamcast throughout the Empire, making House Torn-Ent one of the richest.”
“Wealth gained from blood,” Mind said, wrinkling his nose in distaste. “Who are the combatants?”
Tardoq motioned to himself. “Dakorians like myself are frequently entered, as are outcasts, criminal krey, and human slaves. Occasionally a house in need of glint will enter one of their higher ranked dakorians, or even a Bloodwall.”
Mind understood the strange words from context. Glint was coin, beamcast meant some kind of viewing mechanism that allowed other worlds to witness events on Dedliss. In just a small conversation, Mind was forced to acknowledge the sheer vastness to the Krey Empire.
“How would you fare?” Mind asked Tardoq.
Tardoq met his gaze. “Few can stand against me, but in the Crucible, Bloodwalls have fallen to humble krey. The only sure bet is that humans always die.”
“And how will we draw the Bonebreaker out?” Mind asked.
They ascended a rise and came to a natural cave. In the recessed space, an arch of stone curved over the opening, the shape distinct and obviously made by the hand of man. The cave was empty, just a shallow crack near the summit of a towering peak.
“I think you should enter a ranked contest,” Jeric said, nodding to Mind as he pressed his palm against the side of the arch. “If you defeat a dakorian, your fame will be instant, and should draw the Bonebreaker out of hiding.”
“Who would I face?” he asked.
“Probably a criminal dakorian,” Tardoq said, but he had a frown on his face, as if he disliked the suggestion. “They never pit humans against krey. They don’t want slaves seeing other humans killing krey. It happens in the war contests, but not in the ranked events.”
Mind liked the suggestion. It was bold and would draw a quick response. With Draeken and Serak so close to opening the Dark Gate, time was against them, and a quick return with the Bonebreaker would add critical aid to their effort. It did beg one question.
“Do the krey have technology that would help us locate the Dark Gate and destroy it?” Mind asked. “Or perhaps destroy Serak from one of your skyships?”
“It is possible,” Jeric said. “But the Eternals do not own any ships with such capabilities, and even if we did, any action of such magnitude would reveal the Empire to the people.”
Behind the effort to keep Lumineia hidden was the real truth. The Eternals were not as strong as Mind had assumed. A skyship undoubtedly cost a great deal of coin, or glint, as Jeric had said. He wondered how many Eternals even served Ero. Ten? Fifty?
“And the other Eternals?” Tardoq asked.
“Occupied,” Jeric said. “To bring them now would just open Lumineia to other threats.”
The Gate glowed to life, the silver liquid shimmering into place to resemble a mirror. Jeric reached up and touched his pendent, his body changing, his arms slimming and skin darkening into his true form.
Ero.
“Keep your eyes open,” Ero warned Mind. “And remember, in this place, you are viewed much like cattle.”
“I’m not giving up my sword.”
Tardoq chuckled. “This is the one world where humans are allowed to carry weapons. Of course, if you draw the blade, guards will crush you to pulp. But it’s to be expected that human combatants be armed. It helps the oddsmakers to understand what value to place on your life.”
“Ready?” Ero asked.
Mind stepped past them and into the Gate. As in his trip to Kelindor, he felt a tug, and then stepped onto a raised platform. He swept his surroundings with shock, a single thought reverberating in his mind.
He was no longer on Lumineia.
The room he’d entered was enormous, larger even than the entire city of Herosian. Platforms lined the cavernous space, stacked twenty high and hundreds long. Each contained a single world Gate.
The exterior of the room was all glass, unbroken sheets that extended for hundreds of feet, allowing a clear view of the churning currents of magma cascading down the mountain. The Gate chamber sat on the slope of the volcano. At the base of the volcano, a war waged, with blasts of fire, light, and other energies.
At the center of the Gate Chamber, an enormous sphere hovered in the air. Images of battle and combat washed across the surface, before being replaced with runic text, which Mind took to understand as a call to spend glint in order to watch more.
“We’ll need to get you registered,” Ero said. “This way.”
Ero crossed the platform to a much smaller Gate, this one obviously connecting only to the locations on the world of Dedliss. He tapped the symbols on the side and the silver shimmered. Tardoq followed, and Mind passed through, entering a much smaller room.
Obviously underground, the room was spherical in shape. They stood on a platform at the center, which connected by walkways to the exterior. Combatants prowled the interior of cages that lined every inch of the sphere. Abruptly the sphere shifted, turning on an axis to bring a certain cage in line with one of the walkways, where a krey woman explained the value of a dakorian inside the cell to another krey. Although the cells on the ceiling were now horizontal, the captives stood on the sides as if the gravity had turned.
The center of the chamber contained a circular desk with a krey man and woman behind it. Both obviously bored, they spoke to a dakorian and a krey at his side, who argued that his soldier should receive a better ranked position in the upcoming duels.
“He’s two hundred years old,” the krey behind the counter scoffed. “He won’t last long in a ranked contest.”
“He was nearly a Bloodwall for house Thorn’Vall,” the krey protested. “And he saw combat on the moons of Urgin.”
The female krey shrugged. “Just let him die in the seventh tier.”
The male frowned but tapped a floating sphere. The symbols changed, and he rattled off instructions to the seller, who nodded eagerly before making his way to one of the small Gates lining the platform.
“How can I understand them?” Mind murmured to Tardoq.
“Language is universal throughout the Empire,” he replied. “Even slaves are encoded with the knowledge.”
“But I wasn’t born in the Empire,” Mind said.
