by J. F. Penn
Then suddenly, there were empty cells. Finn stopped, looking inside of one, noting the crumpled blanket on the rickety bed, drops of blood on the floor. These women had gone to give birth and then they would be returned to the front cells ready to breed again.
Finn pounded his fist on the door of the last cell. "I'm too late."
A creak came from the end of the corridor.
Sienna slumped to the ground next to Finn's leg in a posture of submission, her head on one side, hair covering her face. A guard walked past, looking over with approval at what he presumed was another man's violent act.
After he passed by, his footsteps fading, Sienna looked towards the door. "There's something else behind there."
Finn took a step towards the door, sweat prickling his back, palms damp with fear of what he might find.
Sienna stood up and walked purposefully towards the door. Finn followed her. She pulled it open and immediately, a stench hit them from within. The smell of emptied bodies, disease and the rot of death. There were several bigger cells back here with up to ten women in each. They were thin and bedraggled, many of them lying on the floor or propped against the walls, some with bloody tunics. They were quiet, resigned to their fate.
"These are the ones they're finished with," Sienna whispered.
Finn frowned. "But some of the women return home. I know one in the Resistance, and she told me that when they've done their duty, they can leave. So why are these women here?"
"Perhaps they have to agree to something?" Sienna wondered aloud. "Maybe the ones who come back have promised to give up others, have promised to send other women. Maybe these are the ones who wouldn't agree."
Finn looked into the first cell, his eyes resting on each of the women in turn, each one a daughter, a mother, perhaps a sister or wife. Each one loved, and yet somehow, they ended up here. He wondered how many looked for them and his heart broke for those women who would never know they were loved. He wished he could help more, but even if they unlocked the doors to let these women out, they would perish on the journey home. They had no strength, and perhaps no will left to survive.
His anger at the Shadow Cartographers rose up inside. They needed to stop this. The only reason to breed Halbrasse was to invade and shift the border into Earth-side. But peace would mean that the Borderlands could develop into a better place. There must be a way. He looked over at Sienna. She wasn't like the other Mapwalkers, she could see both sides. Perhaps she could help.
Finn walked to the next prison door, gazing at each woman in turn. One woman had a shaved head, her face turned to the wall. But the shape of her nose, the set of her mouth were still recognizable.
"Isabel," he whispered.
20
Some of the women in the cell looked up with hollow eyes at his voice, but Isabel didn't move. Her chest rose and fell, but it was a faint movement. Her pale skin was almost translucent, and there was blood on her tunic.
"Isabel," he said again, louder this time.
She opened her eyes, and a half-smile played around her mouth as she saw him, but she didn't move, her body too weak.
Finn rattled at the door, but the lock held. Some of the women inside the cell began to moan, calling out to him in different languages. But Finn only had eyes for his sister.
"We need the key," Sienna said, softly. "It's the only way you're going to get to her. I'll stay here, and you go follow the guard."
Finn nodded, reining in his anger. There was no use trying to pick a fight with the guards when he needed to get into the cell as fast as possible. He jogged back down the corridor after the man who had passed them a little while ago.
He walked through into the main section and heard voices down the corridor. Two guards stood outside one of the women's cells. The one who had passed them told a dirty joke as the other man adjusted his uniform, a look of satisfaction on his face. Finn tuned out their words, determined not to get into a fight right now, even though he was desperate to pull out his sword and cut them both into pieces. There was a bunch of keys on the first guard's belt. The men looked up as he approached.
Finn smiled. "Hey there. I need the key for the holding cell in the back section."
The guard looked at him, eyes narrowing. "Haven't seen you around here before."
Finn nodded. "I'm new, just arrived from Old Aleppo with a girl of Mapwalker lineage. You saw her back in the corridor."
The guard nodded. "She looked fresh. Why are you putting her with the rejects?"
Finn sighed, affecting a look of resignation. "I might have sampled the merchandise on the journey, and I promised her a visit with her sister in exchange for her silence. She's a good girl. She'll behave, I promise."
The guard raised his eyebrows and laughed, the hollow noise echoing down the corridor. "Good girl? That's a riot. None of this lot are good, or at least they're only good enough for breeding." He paused, then smiled knowingly. "But we all sample the merchandise, friend. I'll pay her a visit myself later."
The guard shuffled the keys on his belt and pulled off a large brass one. "This will open the holding cells, but bring it back to the guard station as soon as you're done."
Finn took the key, nodded and turned away, walking back down the corridor. As soon as he was out of sight, he clenched his fists and exhaled sharply, pushing down his desire to kill something.
He walked through the final door and put the key in the lock, turning it with a click. As he opened it, some of the women crawled towards him, their arms outstretched as they moaned, asking for pity. Sienna slipped into the room after Finn and began talking to them, her eyes welling with tears.
Finn went to Isabel and pulled her into his arms, leaning back against the wall as he rocked her gently. She was so thin that her bones stuck out through her skin and she smelled of infection.
"It's okay, Izzy. I'm here now, I've come to take you home."
Her eyes flickered open, blue like the sky above the library when they had escaped the darkness of the city together to read in their haven. There was pain in her gaze, a deep suffering from months of torment and grief for what she had lost.
Her lips moved, and Finn bent his head so he could hear her.
"So good to see you." Her voice rasped, the breath of someone shut away from the light for too long.
He pulled out the little horse he had whittled and pushed it into her hand. "I made this for you. She's running like you always wanted to. It's time to run now, Izzy."
"It's too late." Isabel lifted her hand and placed it on her belly over the rust marks of dried blood.
Sienna came over and knelt next to them. She helped Isabel lift her tunic to reveal a deep wound, a yellow and black gash across her stomach oozing with pus and blood, an angry red infection around it. The stench rising from it made Finn gag.
"No," he gasped. "We have to get you out of here."
Isabel put her hand out and held his with the tiny bit of strength she had left.
"This is where we come to die." She took another breath. "But these women did not betray their families. These women are heroes. You have to stop this happening again, Finn. I have a daughter, Emily. Find her. Don't let her be raised by the Shadow Cartographers. Don't let this happen to her."
Tears streamed down Finn's cheeks. "I promise."
Isabel took another breath, and this time there was a rattle as she exhaled. Her head dropped back against Finn's chest, and he held her close as she groaned in pain.
Finn bent his head to hers. "Don't leave me, Izzy."
His sister took one last breath and then she was still.
Her weight sagged against him. His precious sister was lost, and her child was somewhere in this hellhole of a castle. Finn's tears slowed as his anger burned white-hot. He gently laid Isabel's body on the ground, knowing he could not bury her now. This dead flesh was not his sister, and she would want him to find her daughter, not wait here to be taken by the guards.
Finn stood, his body shaking with ange
r and grief as Sienna closed Isabel's eyes. The women moaned around them, most of them not far off death themselves. Finn clenched his fists and gripped the pommel of his sword. He stormed out of the cell, leaving the door wide open behind him.
"Finn, wait," Sienna shouted after him, but he ignored her. Those guards would be the first to go, and then he would see what other damage he could bring to this evil place.
He ran down the corridor. His blood was up, and he felt like a berserker from the Viking myths he and Izzy read about together. Family and blood were everything.
The two guards turned to face him, their faces confused as he ran towards them. They reached for their weapons, but Finn got there first, bringing his sword down in a heavy swipe cleaving the first man across the belly. He looked down in surprise, hands bloody as he held his stomach. Then his guts slithered out and the man crumpled to the floor.
The other guard pulled his sword and parried Finn, but he was no match for the better swordsman. Finn hacked down his sword, beating the man to his knees.
"Please, take whatever you want."
"I'll take you to Hell." Finn swung his sword, and the man's head separated from his body, rolling to Sienna's feet as she cautiously approached, hands outstretched to pacify him.
"You have to stop now, Finn. There will be more guards coming with all the noise. You can't help Isabel's daughter – your niece – if you're captured."
Sienna came closer, and Finn looked at her, taking in the laughter lines at the corners of her eyes. Laughter seemed so far away right now. He couldn't let her be taken.
"You shouldn't be here." He took her hands in his. "The Borderlands are not your place. I wouldn't wish this life on anyone, and certainly not on you." He slowly lifted a finger to stroke her cheek. He wanted to kiss her, to lose himself in her.
The sound of running feet and the shouts of guards came from the corridors ahead.
Finn grabbed Sienna's hand. "We need to get back to the others, find your father and Emily."
He took one last look at the cells behind, the women trapped inside. He would avenge his sister, and then he would stop this evil trade. He would find whoever ran this place and bring it down. If it took him the rest of his life.
Together, they ran back through the corridors, down to the storeroom where the others waited.
Mila looked up as they came in, noting the blood on Finn's clothes. "What the hell?"
"Finn's sister is dead," Sienna said. "But he has a niece, and there are more children here, born from enforced slavery."
Finn stepped forward. "You need to find Sienna's father, but I'm going after the children. I wish you all the best for your journey onwards."
He nodded at them all. At the door, he took one last look back at Sienna, wondering if he would ever see her again. She would soon be returning Earth-side, and his path was here in the Borderlands. He turned and walked out of the door.
Sienna watched Finn go. What she had seen in the fertility halls had shocked her to the core. Like him, she wanted to free all the women, tear down this hated castle. But there weren't enough of them to win the war now. She had to find her father first, but she swore to return here. She could only hope that Finn would make it. He had fulfilled his part of the bargain, and now, of course, he had to try to save his family. But her heart ached as he walked out and she suddenly realized the Borderlander meant more than she had thought. Their little team was incomplete without him.
"We did some investigating," Mila said, interrupting her thoughts. "The dungeons where we saw the flesh maps are another level down."
Sienna nodded her head. "Let's go." Her voice was strong, but inside she wondered whether her father could possibly still be alive.
As they walked down the corridor and descended the stairs to the level of the dungeons, a sense of foreboding rose inside her. A copper smell of dried blood hung in the air mingled with smoke from torches held in brackets against the wall.
They heard the sound of running feet as they walked, but all were heading away from them. Finn's rampage had drawn the guards away from them and Sienna hoped that somehow he would be able to escape.
They came to a partially open door. Sienna pushed it open to find a man, or what had once been a man, chained face down on a thick wooden table. His back had been carved with the lines of a city, his ruined flesh still wet with blood. His hair was matted and stuck to his head, his face turned away. But the shape of his shoulders, the curve of his neck were familiar. Could it possibly be him?
21
"Careful." Mila walked in beside Sienna. Perry and Xander followed behind, keeping an eye out for the guards.
The room was dimly lit by the flicker of flames in a stone fireplace and torches in brackets around the walls. Rushes covered the floor by the table, dark with blood.
Sienna walked to the man's head. With a shaking hand, she gently pulled back the hair around his face. Her hand flew to her mouth and tears welled in her eyes as she saw his features. His eyes were shut and swollen from a beating, his lips cracked and bleeding, but it was her father.
"Dad," she whispered, kneeling next to him, her fingers brushing his temple. His body must be a mass of agony, and yet somehow he still lived.
The man's eyes flickered open, a piercing blue, and when he saw her a flash of recognition lit up his face and then a deep despair came over him.
"Sienna," he whispered. "You shouldn't be here."
"I came to take you home." She looked around desperately for a way to get him out of the bonds. Perry and Mila searched the room for a way to unlock the shackles. Xander stood by the door, his body tense and alert.
"Here." Mila held up a key and then returned to the table, unlocking the shackles at John's wrists and ankles. He groaned, flinching as he arched away from the wood. Blood ran from the wounds on his back, revealing the city in more detail.
Mila's eyes widened. "It's Old Aleppo." Her eyes met Sienna's. "They're drawing the city of the warlord into Earth-side. They're going to shift the Borderlands."
John nodded. "My skin is the Map of Shadows. They lured us here –" His words were cut off as he coughed, blood trickling from the side of his mouth.
Perry and Sienna helped John sit up, his face a mask of agony as he tried to speak again. "They needed more power, a map made from the skin of a Blood Cartographer, a map that would remake the border in their favor and start the invasion."
He paled, eyes closing as his head lolled to one side.
"No, Dad, please," Sienna whispered as his body slumped against hers.
Perry helped her lift him, blood soaking into his shirt. "Usually the Blood Cartographers are tattooed over a long period of time, often slowly for years." He frowned. "This has been done in a hurry. Each drop of his blood makes the map stronger, but it may cost him everything."
"We have to get him back to the Ministry."
John's eyes fluttered open. "Don't let them use my body, Sienna. Destroy the map. Finish me so they can't use it." He reached out a hand in desperation.
Sienna took it in hers. "You're coming home with me." Tears welled in her eyes, and she thought of Finn losing Isabel, and of the skins in the nearby dungeon. Was this land only one of loss, a dark reflection of the world she had left behind? "I need you, Dad. Besides, I don't know how to get us all home. I need you to show me."
John's head dropped again, his eyes rolling back in his head as he passed out.
"We need to get him to a doctor," Sienna said.
Mila looked grave. "The only way is to get him back to the Ministry. Can you take us all through?"
Sienna nodded. "I'll try." But in her heart, she worried that she wasn't strong enough.
Suddenly from outside the door came the double-time step of a patrol heading towards them.
"Shut the door, Xander," Mila called. "You can't let them in. Sienna will be able to get us all out of here soon enough."
Xander turned, and his face was as Sienna had glimpsed it in the jungle and again
in the torture of the beasts in the labyrinth. His hazel-gold eyes were now black.
"I don't think so." Xander's voice was quiet, and he stepped aside as a group of guards arrived. They filed into the room, weapons pointed at the team, forming a phalanx of sharp spears. Xander stood with them facing the Mapwalker team.
Footsteps echoed down the hall and a tall man walked in, a wolf pelt cloak over his tailored suit.
Perry did a double take, his face a mask of confusion. "Dad?"
Sienna recognized Sir Douglas Mercator, the man who tried to buy her grandfather's map shop. Cartographic royalty and it would seem – a Shadow Cartographer.
"Good to see you all." Sir Douglas smiled. "Especially you, son. This map –" He pointed at John. "Is the last map we need before the invasion." He inclined his head towards Sienna. "And her blood will help make it more powerful."
Perry shook his head. "No, I didn't bring her for that." Perry looked over at Sienna and Mila, shaking his head. "I didn't know, I promise."
"But I did." Xander stepped forward,
"Why are you doing this?" Mila said, her fists clenched. Sienna put a hand on her arm to hold her friend's anger back.
"It's time for a change," Xander answered. "I'm sick of hiding our magic as we do Earth-side, pretending we are nothing. Here in the Borderlands, I can use my powers as much as I like. I can create anything. My future lies here."
Sir Douglas put his hand on Xander's shoulder, nodding his head with pride. "You've done well." He looked over at Perry. "And now you, my son. It's time to stand with us. The balance is shifting. You can embrace who you truly are, a Halbrasse of great power."
"But … I can't –"
"That man killed Morwenna." Sir Douglas spat the words as he pointed at John. "He murdered your mother."
"No." Sienna turned to Perry, pleading with them. "There must be some mistake or a reason why. Please –"