Read The Path to Loss (Approaching Infinity Book 4) for Free Online Page A

risen to the level presented by the Gun Golems or by Garlin Braams. He hoped it never would again. He wasn’t put off by her comment, either. She only knew what she’d experienced so far. In previous conversations, she’d shown respect enough for him to believe his statements asserting the disparity between then and now. He counted himself lucky, too. She required much convincing from most others.
    “You still feeling it, Jav?” The voice was Raus’s, cutting in via Artifact.
    Jav cocked his head at the sudden communication, but didn’t respond immediately.
    “I’ll take that as a ‘yes’ then.”
    “It’s almost always the same, Raus,” Jav finally replied through is Artifact. “Just before planetfall, it’s like something inside me snaps. This time was no different.”
    “It keeps you sharp, though. You said so yourself.”
    “No, I said it makes me mean,” Jav corrected.
    This time Raus didn’t have an immediate reply. Finally he said in a tone incongruously grave, “Someday you’ll know the answer, Jav, and you’ll be able to do something about it.”
    Jav was puzzled by Raus’s response. There was something cryptic about it—something knowing?—that kept him from letting it go immediately. He had to force himself to banish his annoyance and to remember that there was no possible way Raus could be responsible for what he was feeling. He hoped there would be fighting soon. That always helped to appease the anger inside him. Well, that wasn’t true exactly, but applying his fists was one of the only ways to effectively release that anger, if only temporarily.
    By the time the Viscain column had neared the base of the mountainous outcropping of rock upon which the castle sat, a retinue of eight hundred men had descended the winding road leading from it, and filled the space that joined the road to the baked plain. Though arrayed with swords, spears, and some crude, long-barreled firearms, all of the locals were bronze-skinned and naked except for metal ornamentation in a variety of styles. Three men at the head of the throng were further adorned with willowy sheaves of brightly colored silk and were either leaders or diplomats.
    “Are you really going to speak with them?” Hilene said to Jav.
    “Yes, Hilene. I’m curious about that energy signature, and I’d like to give them a chance to display it. An occasional challenge is a welcome change, don’t you think?”
    She shrugged.
    “Well, as First General, I say it is. It’s a good exercise. Striking before the opposition has a chance to defend itself is an effective strategy, but not one we can count on every time. Striving makes you stronger. And you might learn something.”
    “Yes, General Holson,” she said.
    Her acquiescence, so hard to come by for most, was not lost on him.
    When they were still fifty meters away, Jav halted Gran Mid, leapt down easily without a break to continue walking as if he’d simply stepped down from a low stair. Hilene moved to accompany him, shoulder to shoulder, but still didn’t touch the ground. Gran Pham and Gran Lej sidled up alongside Gran Mid’s right and left respectively. Neither Raus nor Icsain stirred from their places. Nils Porta hovered in the air above Jav and Hilene, ready.
    One of the local leaders, who was covered in pale yellow silk, broke away from the contingent of men to approach Jav. Close at his back were the other two—one in pale blue, the other in green—who, despite the look of welcome upon their fellow’s face, were unabashedly suspicious.
    “Greetings,” the man in yellow said with open arms and a smile. “I am Gim Peshil, the Light Smith. Welcome to my territory. But these are strange Shields you possess. Where do you come from?”
    Jav didn’t respond immediately, and Peshil’s smile fluctuated. The word shields , which his mind accurately translated, having made sense of the local language prior to landing through intercepted broadcasts, turned over like a molasses