The Soulless

by Kate Martin

  She had known building him this dreadfully transparent room had been a mistake.

  “Kailas!” With a small push of her power, the stone door flew open, nearly shattering the glass walls. The heat from within the room rushed over her, intense enough that even in the heat of Hell, Lillianna began to sweat. Her heels clacked lightly along the stone floor. “Kai, I’ve had enough. This ends now.”

  The boy, his auburn hair soaked from so many hours in the glass room, and his normally pale skin burned red while he worked shirtless and unprotected, hardly reacted. “No,” he said, bent over the large labrynth he had carved into the floor two days ago. “I can find him. I can find him again.”

  “I am tired of the hellfire every step I take. If you continue to cause a storm like this, someone in the Mortal Realm will take notice and I’ll not have that. Now, cease. Or I will bring an end to it myself.”

  “I just need a few more minutes.” He sounded fevered, frenzied, lost in the haze that was labrynths and their magic.

  “No. You lost him, and my patience is wearing thin.”

  “No! I can do it! I can—”

  Lillianna dragged her foot across one line that had been carved into the floor. The power in the room popped with force enough to send her flailing for balance, and lifted from the boy in such a rush that he collapsed with a scream. The temperature dropped some without his spell fueling and charging the air, but it was still oppressively hot, even for Hell.

  Not the best way to end a spell, but it got the job done.

  Kai moaned, writhing on the ground in the middle of his now ruined labrynth as the last of the power drained away. Lillianna could see it, like the heat that permeated the room, coming off him in shimmering waves.

  She waited while he finished his involuntary fit, ready for the tantrum that would follow.

  It took longer than she expected. A bead of sweat had trickled down the side of her face and she was preparing to leave when he struck.

  “You said! You said to find him!” He scrambled up from his prone position, wobbling and nearly pitching over as his fingers dug into the floor. “I had him! I nearly had him!”

  Lillianna flicked the sweat from her face. “You did not.”

  “I would have.” He steadied on his feet, fire burning in those eyes that had first drawn her to him. Brown overlaid by silver. “He can’t hide forever. I found him. I had him!”

  “Get a hold of yourself and come inside. I refuse to stay in this hell-forsaken sauna of yours any longer.” Loose strands of her long white blonde hair stuck to her neck. A cool bath was in order.

  After the child’s tantrum was over, of course.

  Only one foot over the threshold and Kai let out a furious scream. The pressure of immense power on the air returned, the stone foundation of her millennia-old home shook, and the flash of magic prickled her back. She smelled the singeing of her fine silk dress. He would pay for that.

  With the death of his scream came the death of what power remained inside him. Now fully drained of what he had built up with his labrynth, the manor stood still and the air became breathable. With a glance over her shoulder, she saw him, still at the center of his special workshop that let him access the Mortal Realm above, shaking, trembling, and sweating, worn down, though anger seethed behind his eyes.

  “There now,” she said, “are you quite through?” She went in, sure he would follow, though she didn’t care if he did or not. She had accomplished her purpose. Perhaps now her walk through the garden could be completed. After all, the ingredients she needed were for him.

  He stomped along after her, his gait uneven and his breathing so heavy she was surprised he managed to speak when he opened his mouth. “You told me to find him.”

  “That I did.”

  “Then why did you stop me like that?”

  “I have a word for you, my young child. Stealth. It is not accomplished by creating unnatural storms that tear the Mortal Realm apart. I’ll not be found out. And if you lead anyone to me, it will be your head that rolls.” Parting the ornate stone and glass double doors, Lillianna stepped out into her garden once again, breathing in the warm, despair-filled air of Hell.

  Truly a lovely day.

  She picked up her shears and the stone bowl she had been forced to discard before, and headed into the brush. Her favorite plants always grew best when left to their own devices.

  Kai stayed at the edge of the garden, never having been very good at avoiding the many thorns and needles. “Same old threat.”

  “I do enjoy it.” Side-stepping a particular vine that had grown an impressive set of teeth, she reached up and clipped a bright purple flower into her bowl. Two more followed.

  “What do you want me to do then? I have to find him.”

  “Indeed you do.” This time she clipped a brilliantly blue seed pod.

  A small silence passed, then she heard a handful of rocks scatter angrily across her stone walk. “I had him. I did! He’s slipping in and out like he’s drowning and can’t stay afloat. If you had just let me finish—”

  With ease Lillianna stepped around a large black bush of blood red berries, pulling a handful of them free and dropping them into her bowl. Selecting one purple flower, she squeezed the thick petals until they bled, and began coating her pale right hand in the rich liquid that poured forth. The way the dark juice rolled over her flesh reminded her of the eclipse-like transformation that took place when she was at her full power. She liked it. Two more steps and she was once again face-to-face with the young boy. “There was nothing to finish. You had hold of him once. Once. Tracking takes time and skill. You have neither patience, nor much experience, prodigy though you are. Take a day or two. Let him forget the experience. Reassess your own plan, make changes, then try again. You do not carry on like a mad man for days on end. It’s annoying.”

  “You know nothing of working labrynths.” Now out in the light of Hell’s day, the burns on his skin were far more pronounced. “You’re a demon! You can’t even begin to understand what they feel like, what they—”

  Lillianna locked her hand around his throat. “Are you forgetting who I am, child of mine? Poor child whom I saved from the alleys of Tarkava. Who wouldn’t even know how to use his power if it weren’t for me? Who would have finished out his life as a whore to the gutters and anything that saw fit to crawl in them? Would you like me to remind you?”

  His lips began to turn blue almost instantly. She could feel the venom of the flower, slick between her hand and his throat. She knew the warmth that radiated from it burned deep into his flesh, seeking out his veins and traveling first upwards through his face, then down towards his lungs and heart. It was his least favorite way to die. He had made the mistake of telling her that once. He had also told her how the venom raced through his body like wildfire, blazing hot and burning him, only to be followed by an icy cold pain.

  She leaned in close, brushing her nose against the crook of his neck and savoring the scent of death. Hunger rose up. It had been so long since she had properly fed, but this would have to do. “Shall I remind you?” she asked, when Kai gave no response other than a few choked gasps. “I am Lillianna. The first of my kind. The origin. I am now, and always have been, a goddess of death, of pain, suffering, and the strength that comes from them. You are a child. My child, by choice. And I can choose to take that away. Now relax. You know it only grows worse when you struggle. I shall be done soon.”

  He had grown tense in her grip, his body rigid and twitching at his fingers and toes. Paralysis had set in at his mouth—providing her blissful silence—and that meant the time drew near. She knelt, pressing her ear to his bare chest, listening to his young heart flutter and struggle against the poison. It thumped, and thumped, skipped a beat, then thumped again.

  In those skipped beats, she smelled the first tendrils of death creep in.

  Moaning in anticipation, Lillianna pulled back and slammed her hand against his chest, directly over his heart. Reli
nquishing the hold she maintained so diligently, she allowed the power that lay within her to rush into him, wrapping her tentacles around those delicate first tendrils.

  They were not quick enough to get away. Inwardly, she pulled.

  The taste of Death flooded her, sweeping through with a deep cold that curled around her and finally settled at her core, quelling the hunger that was so often left unsatisfied.

  Once satiated, she drew back, and in one graceful movement took up a blue seedpod, crushed it in her left hand and smeared the substance that squished out along the other side of Kai’s neck.

  He had described it to her as a rush of cold, quenching the heat that had threatened to kill him, then a steady warmth that brought life back to his struggling heart. She watched color return to his face, then released him, sitting back to enjoy the aftereffects of her meal, and to wait for the recovery of the boy.

  He collapsed again, this time with his back to her, his shoulders heaving as he remembered to breathe the life back into himself. With her hunger sated, a moment of rare compassion came over her, and she gracefully moved closer to him, stroking the long scars on his back that followed the curves of his shoulder blades.

  Kai said nothing, lying there, exhausted, perhaps leaning into her touch just a bit. She stroked his hair and drew circles on his temples. He snuggled closer, resting his head in her lap.

  The double doors to the garden opened, and Olin stepped into view. He was tall, well-muscled, broad through the shoulders, and chiseled like a marble statue. Coupled with his diametric coloring, so much like her own—hair black as night and skin polished marble—and those ice blue eyes that could send shivers down her spine, he was everything Lillianna enjoyed in a man.

  He took one look at Kai and frowned. “I told you to stop feeding off him.”

  Everything she enjoyed, until he opened his mouth.

  She rolled her eyes and waved him off. “He’s fine. Besides, he had worn himself so far down with his labrynth he was an easy feast.”

  “He has a purpose. And that purpose is not to be your snack food. If you kill him—”

  “I will not kill him. Completely. He’s been through it a thousand times. He’s fine. Besides, I was hungry. Who was I to use? It’s been so long since you’ve brought me a human. And since I am avoiding the Mortal Realm…”

  “Next time, speak up.” He turned his gaze to Kai, who remained curled at Lillianna’s side. “And you, don’t you have your own work to be tending to?”

  “She stopped me,” Kai said.

  “She stopped you?” Olin sounded surprised.

  Oh dear. How many times was he going to turn that cold stare on her today? “He was causing too much of a disturbance,” she said.

  Olin scoffed. “You mean he was irritating you.”

  “Did you not detect the storm? I thought we were trying to be discreet.”

  “Indeed.” Olin’s attention returned to Kai. “You are supposed to be focusing on remaining calm while building labrynths.”

  This time Kai sat up, though he did not move away from Lillianna. He leaned back on his arms defiantly, stretching out the corded muscles in his young chest. “It’s harder than it looks.”

  “Clean yourself up,” Olin said, “and get back at it.”

  Kai huffed, but Lillianna knew he had better sense than to try his luck mouthing off a second time that day. It was a pity Kai hadn’t met them in reverse. Olin would most likely have only given him the broadside of his fist across the face. He wouldn’t have brought the boy to death’s door as she had done. Oh well.

  “Remember what I said, Kai,” she called after him as he sulked his way indoors. “Stealth.”

  The double doors creaked shut. “I felt the power blow,” Olin said to her. “You broke the labrynth, didn’t you?”

  “He wouldn’t come out on his own.”

  “One day you are going to kill him, and everything will be for naught if that happens.”

  Lillianna stood, brushing off her silk dress and remembering that it needed changing after Kai’s antics. “Don’t lecture me. It is my plan.”

  “And yet you do reckless things.”

  “It’s your move. I am simply waiting my turn. I see you’ve returned, have you any good news for me?”

  “Talconay is going to war with Vaah. It should serve our purposes nicely.”

  Nicely indeed. The two eastern most countries on the whole of the Dactic continent bleeding each other for months if not years. Perfect. “I’m glad to hear it. Kai, I’m sure, will be happy to hear the news. He’s been waiting for an excuse to run rampant on the people of Talconay since their capital city was so cruel to him.”

  “He’ll have ample opportunity to practice his abilities up there. I shall see to it.”

  “Excellent.” She took up her stone bowl and headed for the doors. Now for that bath.

  Olin stopped her. “About your brother.”

  Blistering god flesh. “There is no ‘about my brother.’”

  “I am simply suggesting that we prepare.”

  “Prepare for what? My brother has been in hiding for nearly two thousand years. He made no move when Cel-Eza fought the hordes of Firnnar, or when Kaeie and Kesi nearly tore each other’s identical heads off. If all that didn’t turn his head, I doubt I will.”

  Olin didn’t look convinced. “If you say so.”

  “I do say so. The matters of the gods are beyond him now. And once they are truly within my reach, I do not intend to share.”

  — CHAPTER SIX —

  Alec, what have you done to him?” Carma stood over the bed where Bri slept soundly, shivering beneath the covers with fever despite the cool cloth on his head. The worst of the cuts had been wrapped, but the white bandages made him look paler and the bruises more pronounced.

  “What have I done to him?” Alec whispered harshly from across the room. When Carma had first come in, he had carefully unwound his hand from Bri’s and started to pace. “What have you done to him? What has anyone done to him?”

  Carma looked at the boy over her shoulder. “I did nothing but take him away from all his hurts. That is all.”

  Not all. There were some, it seemed, the boy would never be able to escape. “I would like to speak to you outside,” Alec said.

  She huffed, but gathered her skirt in one hand and headed for the hallway. Somehow, she’d had time to get herself properly attired as a lady of modern times. Alec left the door cracked open behind them, so as to hear if Bri needed anything.

  “Well? What is it, Alec? It’s been two hundred years, so I suppose I am due one of your lectures.”

  He would not let her goad him into another argument. “Where did you get him?”

  “A caravan. He was their main attraction. Fortune Teller Extraordinaire. But they were not kind to him. Caged, as I was, I saw that.”

  “And he sold you his soul?”

  “Yes. We made a deal.”

  “And what deal is that?”

  “It may be none of your business.”

  He hit the wall with the side of his fist. “Dammit, Carma. You asked me to take care of him, I have to know what I’m dealing with. He’s just a boy. A kid. Gods, he can’t be more than twelve.”

  “Thirteen.”

  “Thirteen? He looks ten.”

  Carma shrugged. “That happens when you’re underfed.”

  Alec held his breath and ran his hands through his hair. How could a child so young sell his soul to a demon? Had things really been so bad? Or was she lying? Well, not lying. Demons couldn’t lie. Not directly. They could misdirect, omit, twist reality to suit their purposes, but they could not lie.

  “Did you trick him?”

  “No.” She seemed insulted.

  “Did you kill for him?”

  “Is there any other way? When someone makes a pact with a demon, that is usually their intent.” She took him by the wrist and held his right arm up where he could see the scarred lines that ran back and forth, curvi
ng and crisscrossing up and down his forearm and hand.

  Alec pulled free. “You know what I mean. Did you kill people just so you could take him?”

  She smiled sweetly. “No. I did not. He made a deal with me just as everyone else has.”

  “He’s too young to know what it means.”

  “He made the deal nonetheless.”

  “Tell me what you promised him. What did he trade his soul for?”

  “Ten years of protected freedom.”

  “Ten years?” Alec peered through the partially opened door at the boy in the bed. “That’s awfully generous of you.”

  Carma shrugged. “He’s very young. Now, are you finished interrogating me?”

  “What is he?”

  “What?” The word rolled off her pouting lips. “Alec, what an absolutely insensitive question.”

  “Answer me.” He was careful of his tone. While her games were wearing thin, he had to remember he only walked about, lived, because it pleased her for him to do so. If he pushed too far—it could be centuries before he saw light and life again. Two hundred years ago he might not have cared—hell, two days ago he may not have cared—but now, with Bri around…

  Carma twirled a delicate silver curl that hung by her face, somehow free of the pins that held the rest of her hair to her head in a complicated style. “He is important.”

  “That doesn’t tell me anything. Carma, how can I help him if I don’t know what he needs help with?”

  She released the curl. “Fine. As I said, the caravan passed him off as a fortune teller, and he is, of sorts. He sees the future. He sees into the myst.”

  “The myst?” Alec suddenly felt the need to hold onto the wall for support, but he steeled his knees. Bri had mentioned the myst as well. “Humans can’t see into the myst.”

  “This one can.”

  “How?”

  “It doesn’t matter how. He can. But he has little control over the ability, and from what I managed to see, the touch of another person can inundate him with unwanted visions. So be careful how you handle him.”