Read Online Blood Ties by Kevin Emerson - Free Book Online Page A

glimpse of some leviathan of the deep.
    Oliver watched serenely, noting that Dean was gripping the sides of his seat.
    â€œIt’s almost over.” Moments later, the charion began to level out and settled into a trench cut into the seafloor. The lights speared upward, and Oliver reclined his seat to watch for the belly of a giant squid or sperm whale or something even stranger still.
    â€œWhoa! What was that?” Dean exclaimed, bolting up in his seat moments later.
    Oliver had seen it, too. Something striding on the seafloor, stepping over their trench, its leathery belly stretching up into the dark. “We’re probably passing through a borderland area,” said Oliver. “It could have been anything.”
    Soon the blurring ocean dark had put the cabin to sleep once more.
    Halfway across the Atlantic, a pleasant ding sounded, waking Oliver. He yawned, thinking that, all in all, he’d probably gotten more sleep on this trip than he had in the entire last weekend. With the excitement of travel, that conversation between his parents and Tyrus seemed almost unreal.
    â€œAre we there?” Dean mumbled.
    â€œNo, but”—Oliver motioned to the windows—“check it out.”
    The train had risen out of the trench, and the waters around them were glowing with red light from ahead. Stretching in either direction were conical buildings, round at the base and rising to hollow points. From their tops spouted jets of orange light and billowing clouds of ash that drifted upward into the darkness. The charion halted, towers on either side.
    â€œNow arriving at Atlantic One Refinery. All departing passengers report to compression chambers and prepare to disembark.”
    â€œThose are magmalight refineries,” said Oliver. “They’re built here, where the two ocean plates are spreading apart, because magma is easy to drill for. And you need cold water and pressure for refining.”
    Oliver gazed off into the water, superheated around these refineries and clouded with red bacteria blooms, and wondered what it would be like to work and live here. Peaceful, he imagined.
    The charion arrived at the Morosia station several hours later. Feeling stiff and bleary, they exited with the rest of the passengers and crossed the station, which seemed very old, made of stone blocks and lit with torches. After a short walk they entered a vast, high-ceilinged cavern, its curved roof studded with stalactites.
    â€œWhoa,” Dean breathed.
    A wide river of black water flowed through the center of the cavern. Torches on the wall cast no reflection on it. In fact, the river didn’t really seem to be made of water. Yet there was something flowing by: a liquid concentration of energy that seemed to ripple.
    â€œThat’s Acheron,” said Oliver. “The river of sorrow…”
    â€œSo that’s what, like, liquid sadness?” Dean asked.
    â€œTechnically, it’s force leaving this world, but some of that energy is life, and the loss of life causes a sad feeling in humans. The river transfers energy between worlds.”
    As the crowd of passengers from the charion stood at the black river’s edge, a low horn sounded. In response, a small amber light ignited on the far side of the river. The light bobbed in the gloom, slowly growing in size. Soon they could make out its source: a lantern hung from the railing of a large square skiff. It was a ferry, empty except for a single figure using a long pole to push it through the water.
    Dean almost laughed. “You guys build trains through the mantle of the planet, and that’s the best you can do for crossing this river?”
    â€œ Tsss, ” Oliver hissed, noting a few annoyed glances in their direction. “That’s New World stuff. Across this river is the Old World. You have to do things a certain way.”
    â€œYou couldn’t just build a bridge?”
    Oliver almost smiled, but kept his voice