Ahriman: Gates of Ruin Read Online Free Page A

on, growing louder and stronger until, without warning, it stopped.
    Silvanus shrieked. Anguish and pain flashed across the mental bond with him, and for the blink of an eye I felt the terror and despair of his life crash back into him. Then Ahriman broke the bond, and the Sycorax dropped from the warp like a stone falling from air to water.
    My eyes snapped open, and voices began to split my thoughts.
    +Where are we?+
    +What is happening?+
    +The rest of the fleet?+
    +Where are–+
    +Silence.+ Ahriman’s sending ended the babble. I felt my hearts hammering in my chest, the blood drumming against the inside of my ears and eyes. Stillness and quiet pressed around me. The shutters had sealed over the viewing portals. The only light in the room was from the red and green glow of our helms’ eyes. +The rest of the fleet is not with us. I cannot feel any of them. Wherever we are, we are here alone.+
    The automaton, Credence, flicked out a scanning laser and clattered a squall of binary.
    Ignis shook his head.
    ‘Be at peace,’ said Ignis, ‘but be ready.’ Credence replied by arming its weapons.
    My grip on my staff tightened.
    I glanced at Ahriman. He was looking at Silvanus. The Navigator was shaking. His third eye had closed, but crusted red trails painted his face from forehead to chin.
    ‘No no, no,’ he was babbling, true eyes wide as he gazed at the black orb. He lifted it, pressed it against his eyes, his skin, his lips, every movement faster and more frantic than the last. ‘Nooo… nooo… nooo… Come back, please, come back…’ He lifted the orb and opened his mouth to swallow it.
    Ahriman’s hand closed around the Navigator’s wrist. Silvanus tried to wrench it free, but Ahriman pulled it from his fingers. The Navigator collapsed, weeping, his surface thoughts a shattered pattern of despair. Ahriman looked at the orb, then glanced at me and tossed it to me. I caught it, expecting… I do not know what I was expecting, but the cold dead weight of the thing surprised me. The sensations I had felt when I had touched it before had gone, and no song filled my head.
    +If it has ended,+ I thought aloud, + that must mean…+
    +That it has led us to where it was supposed to,+ stated Ignis. +That is the most likely of all of the current possibilities.+
    +But where are we?+ asked Astraeos.
    +The Gates of Ruin,+ I sent, and all their eyes turned to me. +That is where the orb was to lead us.+
    +Then why has the song ended?+ asked Astraeos, his fingers tense on the pommel of his sword. I shook my head.
    +I do not know.+
    +You found this way,+ spat Astraeos, disbelief and anger flowing with his thoughts. +Your craft brought us here. We were following you as much as him. And you do not know!+
    +This is the warp, you simpleton!+
    Astraeos began to draw his sword. Credence’s weapons twitched. Ahriman’s will slammed out, and I felt the moisture in my throat boil away as force and heat wrapped around my neck. Astraeos froze, a corona of cold light. He turned his gaze from one of us to another, and then I felt the fire in my throat cool, and the light holding Astraeos vanished.
    +The ship’s mistress tells me that the sensors cannot see anything outside the hull. Nothing. It is blank as far as they are concerned. And the warp drives refuse to wake.+
    +Becalmed,+ sent Ignis, with a curt nod.
    +No,+ sent Ahriman, +not quite. Something is happening on the lower decks. Carmenta cannot get any response from the machine wrights, but when she does get a vox signal she can hear– +
    +Singing,+ I sent. Ahriman looked at me, and nodded.
    +Yes.+
    ‘Hmmm… emmm… hmmm… emmm… hmmm.’
    I twisted at the sudden sound. Silvanus was sitting up at the foot of the navigation throne, rocking, a smile on his face, and humming.
    ‘Can’t you hear it?’ he asked, swaying slowly. +Hmmm… emmm… Now it will never leave me. Now I will never leave it.+
    I stared at him for a second, my skin creeping with cold.
    Then I heard it. Broken