by Bob Dattolo
She nodded and wiped the ash away. “Come. We have a visit to put into motion.”
Melissa was still crying when Mom stood, carrying me, “I don’t understand? What’s happening? Why did those things burn up?”
Mom obviously didn’t want to say anything, she just didn’t think that she could get away with not filling in our guest. “Ceri is drained. Nearly to death. You’ve heard her, she’s died twice already. She needs more energy, and the rodents…gave her some energy to hold on.”
“I don’t understand?”
“It’s all right. You will at some point. Come, we need to go to the between lands.”
“Uhh, what? The between lands?”
“Yes. Have you ever been there?”
“No? My parents were going to take me for my 17th birthday, but…”
“Then come. You get to see it early. We need to visit a gift that the king of the fey bestowed upon Ceri.”
“Gift? What gift?”
“Land. Much land. Come.”
Chapter 15
Much of the next bit was lost to me. While the spark of energy I received from the little corpses revived me, it’s more like they just sort of kept me from passing on. That’s a horrifying thought. While I’ve died a few times, I don’t like the idea of it. I get that the ones that have passed over have loved whatever lies beyond this…I have what I want right now. If I had to give it all up, magic, money…my legs…I’d do it. If I got to stay with Mom, I’d do it. Even if it’s just for another 20 minutes.
I get that I might not be permanently dead if I pass on, too. I do get that. I just don’t want to trust it. I don’t want to blindly go into something that will kill me, trusting that just because I came through it before means I’ll get through it this time. Pilots don’t do that. You don’t see them patting the wing of the plane and saying, “nope, no check today before we take off”. That’d be stupid. Just because it worked once doesn’t mean it’ll work again. Especially since we have no idea how or why it’s happening.
I know we moved. I felt it. I couldn’t quite see it since my eyes seemed to be fading in and out. I kept hearing things as if they were right in my ear canal and then they’re a thousand yards away behind an armored door. There didn’t seem to be any in between, which I would have loved. Nor can I control it. Obviously. Scents weren’t any better, although the changes in them weren’t quite as severe.
But I felt death all around me. It’s everywhere.
I didn’t realize we were in the between lands until the flavor of the dead changed. It didn’t help that we seemed to be moving quickly. Like faster than a car, quickly. That didn’t make any sense to me at all. I just couldn’t quite care enough to ask about it.
I did try to keep my little prayer to Mom going the entire time. She kept touching me through it while also praying to me as well. We had this little exchange thing going, and I struggled to keep it moving.
I did send tendrils of light out to Christine, Leticia, and Rachel. I didn’t hide anything from them, so they knew I was in a bad way. I couldn’t quite connect enough to tell them what happened. Nor did I connect enough for Rachel to see it. If I’m going to die…if it’s going to happen and stick, I don’t want them to be part of it. I can’t do that to them.
And, yeah, I know that Rachel will follow me if it happens. Leticia will move on because she’ll have to. Christine has Mr. Reynolds and he’ll coach her to wait. Another goddess of death will be along at some point. It’s just a matter of time.
Light and shapes finally cut through the fog in my eyes, although none of it made sense to me. Mom finally became clear to me as she leaned down. Melissa was next to her, crouching with her. We still moved, but I don’t have the foggiest idea how we’re moving. We’re in the between lands, and they don’t exactly have flatbed trucks to haul us around.
Mom had tears in her eyes, “Are you back with us?”
I still couldn’t move much at all. I can get my eyes to move and blink on command, but it’s a struggle. Instead of trying to answer, I pinged her again through prayer. I am.
She clutched my hand, squeezing tight enough to make me want to gasp. On the other side, Melissa did the same thing, squeezing just as tight. “We’re on our way. We should be there in about an hour.”
Where?
Mom looked to Melissa, “She asked where we’re going.”
“How do you know that? She didn’t say anything at all?”
“We have…a connection. I swear to you I’ll explain it at some point. I’m just not prepared to do that right now.”
“Will it also cover how dead animals burned up when she touched them?”
“It will.”
She nodded twice, then looked down, “Okay…”
Mom looked back at me, “We’re going to the catacombs.”
Why?
“It’s…the catacombs. They were built just over 100,000 years ago. They were meant to house the dead. Fey, orcs, trolls, anyone that was part of the kingdom. Over the centuries and millennia, it grew and grew. It took nearly 80,000 years to fill it and for the site to be closed. 80,000 years of deaths. More millions of bodies than I can adequately express to you. It houses the dead for all of the between lands. There is a city built atop it…and a massive castle that housed the king during ceremonies. It’s not as large as the main one, but it is at least twice the size of my estate home.”
That’s a lot of dead bodies. I can’t imagine how many people die in a given year for an entire world, essentially. 10,000? No, it has to be more than that. Not every person in the between lands lives thousands of years like the fey do. 50,000 a year? 100? Does the place house 8 billion dead?
Yeah…yeah, I think I can see why the king wouldn’t have wanted Cerwon to be anywhere near it if touching a dead body when she’s drained will cause it to burn up. That’s not the greatest thing to do with someone’s loved one.
Thank you.
“You’re welcome. Now…while you were out and before I realized you weren’t improving, Tara gave me her presentation.” She nodded, “I thought it would calm things down when it looked like you were heading towards healing.
Melissa laughed, “Oh my God, they’re so freaking cool!”
Mom nodded, “I agree. We will be purchasing the dating service, the virtual reality, and the touchscreen interface. She will be brought in as a partial owner in each of the companies so that she receives a fair cut of everything across the board.” She smiled at my ping of concern. “As for the chips? What she has there is simply amazing. She is being brought in on a third ownership of a new company that will absorb the chip making company that we own as well as another. We will begin testing and marketing the chips and will fund any and all research that she wants to do.”
That’s so exciting!
“She is very excited. We will be paying for a lawyer that will only work with her as we work through the paperwork. Her parents…I agree that they are working to their limits. It’s just that their limits are very low. Very, in comparison to her. They won’t be forgotten, though. She will receive a sizable fortune up front for everything and then earn a salary. Her parents will also be put onto salary so that they have money at their disposal. I think this is a turning point for her.”
She must be beside herself with happiness. I’m sorry I missed it.
“Don’t apologize for missing it. It is done and her life is going to improve.”
Good.
My energy sucked away from me, leaving me receding into darkness as I felt my heart stop again.
Dammit to hell.
Even with that, I could still feel things around me. Not quite like when I was killed by the vampires and starting to get raped. No one is touching me like that right now. I can feel…movement. Not physical, either.
Magical.
Spiritual.
I can feel the dead. So many dead. They’re thick in the ground beneath us. Creatures that I’ve never even dreamed of before. Things I never knew existed
.
Dragons.
Monsters with multiple heads, arms, wings…so many variations that I can’t even begin to weed through them before they move out of range.
They each call to me in their own way. They scream to me. Beg me to stop and touch them. Call them back to life and be mine.
Not that any of them know that.
It’s my nature. My drive. It wants me to surround myself with the dead. The world doesn’t need the living. The living ruin. Destroy. Tear through the earth for anything of value and leave destruction in their wake.
The dead don’t do that. They rest. They are one with nature. With the cycle of life.
And they’re mine.
They’re my domain.
I attempted to send a ping out to Mom, but I’m not sure it made it.
I’m still here.
Nothing came back to me. I hoped like hell that she’s really there. That she knows I’m still here. Somehow.
When I was with the vampires, I created a window for Mom to see through. I can’t do that. I can’t touch my magic in the slightest to try and get anything like that going. It’s just me here, feeling the flaring heat of the dead, with my senses reaching out farther and farther.
For the longest time, I connected my senses with my magic. I only felt out to where my magic flowed. Except now I can feel out so, so far…yet I don’t have magic at my disposal. I don’t know how that works, but I’ll take it.
I’ll take it, because I’m starting to feel something in the distance, maybe five miles away. It’s…it’s big. Bright. I’m just at the edge of it, and I swear it’s like staring into a thousand suns with a magnifying glass. It’s searing in its brightness and seems to want to send my body up into a curl of smoke as it burns through me without mercy.
Except I know what it is.
It’s the dead. The catacombs. It has to be. I thought the dead were thick in the soil beneath us? It’s nothing in comparison.
As the distance closed, my senses reached farther into it, letting me see a mass of the dead…so many. I can even tell that the catacombs continue on for miles beyond where I can feel. Miles beyond and then deep. I’m feeling tunnels and rooms carved thousands of feet down. I’m not sure it’s a true catacomb, but it might as well be. This is the kind of place where you get lost and die if you take the wrong turn. It’s big in ways that some cities don’t even approach. It’s big and thick with the dead.
Something pinged me hard, and I knew my hair would stand up if it could. It sounded so pristine and clear and clean and powerful, that I wanted to bow to it and suck it up at the same time.
A deep, rumbling voice reached me through the fog in my head.
I see you have arrived.
I can’t see the person’s face…and then I realized it’s not a person that I’m feeling. Hearing. It’s soooo not a person
I sent a feeble shaft of golden light at the hazy figure in my head, getting a deep, bone-rattling laugh back.
At long last…at long last. We have waited for you to arrive. Your people await. We have been busy, but we need the spark, your spark, to become what we should be.
I tried to send something back, Who are you? What are you? I can’t see you.
The rumbling laughter reached me again, You are alive…sort of. As for what I am? I am yours. I have been yours since before time began. I will always be yours. As are my brothers. The four of us are guardians of the city of the dead. Your city. We stand mute sentinel to keep your people safe…and now it is time for you to be received.
Where is my mother? My friend?
Fear not, my queen. The woman that I believe is your mother is fine. Your conveyance is no longer here, although I believe your friend is still here. They are unsure how to handle me. Not that I have presented a threat. I believe they are just…terrified.
My mother is the goddess of battle. What has terrified her?
Another chuckle reached me, That would be me…and my brothers. They have just landed, and your mother readies her magic.
Please…can you talk to her?
Nay, my queen. We are quite and truly dead, although we move. We cannot talk again until you grant us the gift. Once you do that, we can speak.
I can’t grant you the gift. My magic…it is very nearly gone.
One more chuckle, Oh no, my queen. Your living magic may be gone, but you are the goddess of death. The queen of the dead. You have far more at your disposal than you realize. You are just attempting to access it as if you were alive.
But…I can’t even move! I’m dead!
No. The normal dead cannot move. You can…you just don’t know how yet.
I don’t know how? What does that mean?
Can you back off from my mother for now? I have to think!
We will do as you say.
The presence stayed with me as I sat back, mentally speaking.
I can feel the mass of the dead not that far away from me. They’re…God, there are so many of them that it’s hard to decipher where one stops, and another starts. Just like the nearest…
Jesus. Just like the nearest orbs of fire in my head?
Now that I focus on them, I can feel them. The dragons I felt before? They’re honest to God dragons. Except they’re dead. They’re dead, and they’re still here, moving around. I can’t quite feel if their souls are there, but since he talked to me, I believe they might be.
What does that mean? Maybe they were gifted with something at some point?
But if that’s the case, what does that mean for me? I can raise someone from the dead. I can raise a zombie. Sometimes when I die, I’m still floating around here, just unable to move my body. Even a zombie could move….
Even a zombie could move a body.
That’s…that’s it. That’s the key. I’m dead, but I’m sort of not. I’m still here. My body is here. Yet I can’t move my body because it’s dead. I can’t use my normal magic because it’s drained…but if I really have access to magic while I’m dead, which I did when I was dead with the vampires…then maybe the issue is that I have to raise myself as a zombie until I can gain more energy, then come back to life?
I swear the ground trembled beneath me, and four massive roars filled my head as I shifted inside and reached for where I should be feeling magic.
I should be feeling it, but it’s just cold fire. It feels like nothing on the outside beyond a spot of heat that sends shivers down my back. Yet when I reach into it…when I reach into it, it’s a world of power.
It burns across my nerve endings, making my strained nerves feel like an orgasm in comparison. Except this is from so much power. So, so much. It’s a tempest in a teacup of pure, untapped magic.
I think it’s time to tap that magic.
Sinking into things, I pulled at the edges of the power, getting thick wisps to float out. I wasn’t expecting them to wrap around me and yank me in, leaving me floating in the depth of the maelstrom.
It filled me. Thick and heavy and compacted, a thousand pounds packed into a ten-pound box.
A box that wants to be…sort of alive again.
Light glared into my head again as my body came back online. My wonky senses settled immediately, and a wash of power roared out of me and off into the distance, taking with it my straining senses as I felt for the dead.
They pinged and flared across my brain, making me laugh as I lifted up in a corona of power, landing lightly on my feet as my unseeing eyes took in the dead in the vast, vast city beneath me and heading off under the hills and mountains. Hundreds of miles of corridors and hundreds of thousands of rooms and niches.
And bodies. Billions. That wasn’t an exaggeration. I can feel them, and every one of them gives me a tiny flare of energy as I touch them.
That sends my eyes open again, seeing around me and taking in the four massive dragons towering far above me. Each has to be at least 40 feet tall at the head, with huge flaring wings. They look tattered and worn, but I can tell that they can still fly.
They look every inch an undead dragon. A lich, maybe? I’m not sure how to classify that. Then again, maybe I’m one as well?
“You’re all much bigger than I expected.”
The largest head snaked down and reached in towards me, My queen?
I smiled and spread my arms, feeling power pool out of me in an unstoppable wave, “Maybe I am. Maybe I am not. Then again…this would be much easier if you could talk.”
Unlike with the people I’ve brought back, these dragons hadn’t passed over. They stayed here through sheer force of will, driving their bodies. As my magic feels them, I can tell that he’s been here for more than 250,000 years. A quarter of a million years…all to meet me.
“Welcome back to the world of the living. Your loyalty…anything I have that you need is yours. You just need to ask.”
He went to answer, then froze as my magic blossomed in each of them. This time I felt it even more than before. Their massive bodies healed in huge waves, returning life to them in fits and starts. Their scales went from dead and gray…to beautiful. Greens and reds and blacks and…alive.
Their hearts beat as one for the first time and they took their first breaths as my unbeating heart soared for them…then they roared their happiness to the heavens, sending a massive line of fire hot enough to melt hardened steel into the air.
When they came back down, I moved up to them, getting a gasp from behind me as their heads came down to meet me.
As I looked across them, I realized that each of them had what looked like a crown of steel through the forest of horns across their head. Steel that I could use.
Power rumbled through me. “I have a gift for you.”
“No, my queen, you have done enough already.” The one on the left, slightly smaller than the rest, smiled at me. I never thought a dragon would be able to do that.
“I have not. And, if I’m your queen, I can bestow another gift on you. Hold a moment, let me see if I can do this.”
What do I do here? Can I even do anything? I feel like I can. I feel so powerful…so much more than I was before.