by Sam Sykes
‘The very same whose gate we seek,’ Miron said with a nod.
‘You son of a whore,’ Lenk growled. ‘You’ve had us seeking a gate that will let more of those things out?’
‘Please, allow me to finish-’
‘Why?’ Gariath rumbled from the corner. He approached the table, the furniture trembling with each thunderous step. ‘I smelled that thing. I know that it is nothing good. And you’re looking for the gate to let whatever created it out.’ He levelled a clawed finger at Miron. ‘We’d be better off crushing his head right now.’ He turned to Lenk and snorted. ‘Say the word and I’ll paint the wood with his face.’
‘How dare you!’ Asper roared, pushing her chair back as she leapt to her feet. ‘Even to utter such a threat is-’
‘And I’ll use your scalp to paint it!’ Gariath’s roar silenced hers as he unfurled his wings. ‘Stupid humans,’ he growled. ‘Only you would defend a man who seeks such a-’
‘There is no evidence that he seeks such a creature,’ Dreadaeleon protested, rising up to stand beside Asper. ‘He’s simply informing us of past events and, were you not so allergic to knowledge, you would know that-’
‘That what?’ Denaos interjected. ‘That he’s the one who brought it onto the ship in the first place? Don’t be stupid. If that thing serves other things called Aeons, then it only stands to reason that-’
‘To hear you calling for an end to stupidity is nearly hysterical.’ Kataria forced a laugh to emphasise the point. ‘I say “nearly” because it’s far more annoying than funny. Now, why don’t you just shut up and let him finish and we’ll-’
The sound of wood cracking interrupted her as Gariath brought his fists down hard upon the table.
‘I will not sit here and let another creature like that come and do what it did again!’
‘So that’s it?’ Asper snapped. ‘You’re just upset that you couldn’t kill that thing?’
‘Anything that Gariath can’t kill is reason enough to worry,’ Lenk countered hotly. ‘Need I add that neither he nor I nor a spear to its gut was enough to kill it? So why don’t you just-’
‘STOP!’
A voice not his own burst from a mouth that seemed to stretch too widely. The howl was heard throughout the ship and the waters beyond. The fish swarming the floating dead departed, all thoughts of food forgotten at the sound. Men fell to the deck in fear and even the moon seemed to grow a little dimmer.
Below, Miron regained his composure with a deep inhalation, as all eyes widened and all mouths shut.
‘I shall hear no accusations,’ he said calmly. ‘Not until I have said my piece.’ He took a sip of tea, looking over the edge of his cup. ‘Any further objections?’
No one dared offer any.
‘Delightful.’ He smiled. ‘As I said, by the time the Aeons had wrought the height of their woe upon mortalkind, they could no longer be called servants of the Gods. As such, a new name was crafted for them.
‘Demons,’ he said quietly. Slowly, he swept his gaze about the table, challenging anyone to enquire.
Lenk answered it.
‘I find myself wondering whether you’re madder than I thought you were, Evenhands,’ he said coldly. ‘Demons. . do not exist.’
‘There’s no evidence for it,’ Dreadaeleon agreed.
‘Mossud might beg to differ,’ Argaol muttered.
‘There’s no reason for it,’ the wizard countered. ‘Demons are, theoretically, creatures of distilled evil.’
‘And?’ the captain pressed.
‘And evil as we know it,’ the boy replied with condescending smugness, ‘or rather, as we like to think we know it, doesn’t exist. There is instinct, there is law, there is religion. These define action and the intent behind them cannot be classified by subjective definitions. And, above all, things cannot be made out of evil.’
‘Moral objections aside,’ Asper said, casting the boy a sideways glare, ‘even the high priests deny the existence of demons, Lord Evenhands.’
‘As well they should,’ Miron said, nodding. ‘It has been ages since anyone has even thought the name, much less seen one. They are too horrible to contemplate and too long forgotten to mention. I assure you, though, they do exist and you have seen one.’
‘I believe it.’
Eyes turned towards Kataria with a mixture of horror and suspicion.
‘We have legends about them,’ she continued. ‘Some of the oldest of my tribe claim that their greater ancestors were still alive when demons roamed the world.’
‘So you knew about this?’ Lenk asked accusingly. ‘Why the hell didn’t you say anything?’
‘Oh, come on, imbecile,’ she snapped back, ‘what were the odds that it would come up?’
‘In the interests of preventing further delays,’ Miron said, clearing his throat, ‘may I continue?’
‘Sorry,’ Lenk muttered.
‘He certainly is,’ Kataria added snidely.
‘The suffering at the hands of the demons did not go unnoticed by the Gods and did not go unchallenged by mortals,’ Miron continued. ‘The heavenly ones spoke to the fiercest and most determined men and women, the ones free of demonic oppression, and granted unto them boons of divine power.
‘These Gods were the deities of righteousness: Talanas, the Healer, Galataur, the Sovereign, and Darior, the Judge.’
‘Who?’ Denaos asked.
‘Dariorism. An older faith, not much practised any more,’ Asper answered.
‘Indeed,’ Miron said, nodding. ‘Some faiths lost much in those times. They vested within these mortals their powers and, with that, the House of the Vanquishing Trinity, an organisation devoted to destroying the demons, was born.
‘The fighting began with great bloodshed, but for every demon that fell, more champions rose up, inspired by their rescuers. Many were lost, peoples became extinct in the span of a breath, but ultimately, mortals prevailed. The demons were pushed back and cast into hell, cursed to live in shadow for all eternity.
‘The House’s life after this was disgracefully short,’ Miron continued. ‘With no common oppressor, the suffering was forgotten by all peoples. Grudges were born, rivalries surfaced and wars between races tore the unity apart. The House was disbanded.’
‘Disbanded?’ Kataria said, raising an eyebrow. ‘Then why do you-’
‘Key positions remain,’ Miron said, ‘men and women with duties so grave that they must endure the generations. Mine is such a position, mine is such a duty. I remain charged to guard the artefacts born of the suffering, lest they fall into. . less worthy hands.’
Lenk’s eyes were the first to go alight with the realisation. ‘The book,’ he uttered, the words heavy on his tongue. ‘The book the frogmen stole.’
‘It has a name,’ the priest replied. ‘The Tome of the Undergates, penned by the most heinous of demons and their mortal subjects in the last days of the wars. They were not fools; they foresaw their banishment. Knowing this, they wrought within the pages the rituals and rites necessary to bring them back to the mortal world.’
Miron shrank with the force of his sigh, all authority and cryptic presence lost as he slumped in his seat.
‘In my arrogance, I had hoped to use the tome to enable the Aeons’ Gate. I believed that the rituals used to establish contact with hell could be used to commune with heaven.’
‘How does anything involving the word “Undergates” lend itself to beneficient purposes?’ Denaos muttered.
‘I have no idea how the Abysmyth and its vile mistress found the book,’ Miron continued, ‘but it cannot remain in their hands.’
‘Again with this “mistress”,’ Lenk murmured. ‘What are you not telling us?’
‘You’ve a right to know,’ Miron said. ‘Her name is known only to a few, but to them, she is Ulbecetonth, the Kraken Queen, Mother Deep. Once a noble servant of Zamanthras, the Mother, she was corrupted into a creature of wickedness and gluttony. It was she who birthed the Abysmyth, spoke to i
t, sent it out.’ He stared hard at Lenk. ‘It is she who seeks to return.’
A deathly silence fell over the assembled as minds struggled to comprehend what had been heaped upon them.
Demons. The word echoed in the quiescence, a lingering cancer in the minds of the companions. Legends of such creatures permeated each of them, instilled by elders seeking to tame them, reinforced by drunkards muttering nonsensical stories. Until that moment, they had seemed nothing more substantial than that.
And yet. .
‘All right.’ Lenk shattered the silence. ‘You aren’t telling us this for historical enlightenment.’
‘Apologies, but you were the one demanding answers,’ Miron replied, smiling with a gentle smugness. ‘However, you are correct. I would not tell you this for no reason.’
He took a long sip of his tea and set the cup down. The clink of the porcelain was deafening.
‘You will go after the Abysmyth. You will retrieve the tome.’
The silence that fell over them brimmed with tension this time, as every jaw went slack and every eye went as wide as they could possibly go without leaping from their sockets. Questions formed on lips, demands for further explanation, pleas for elaboration, accusations.
None were voiced before Denaos spoke.
‘You, priest,’ he said, ‘are out of your Gods-damned mind.’
‘Mind your-’ Asper began to scold.
‘Don’t you tell me to mind anything of mine,’ Denaos snapped back. ‘Did you not just hear what he said?’
‘I heard.’ Asper nodded. ‘And I believe he’s right to ask this of us.’
‘So it’s the whole clergy that’s insane?’ Denaos’s laughter trembled with hysteria.
‘I agree,’ Kataria piped up.
‘Thank you.’
‘No, I agree with Asper.’
‘Ah, so it’s the clergy and the shicts, is it?’ Denaos rubbed his eyes and shook his head, as though trying to emerge from some demented dream. ‘Am I the only sane one here?’
‘Demons are a threat to everything that breathes,’ Kataria added with a hiss. She drew herself up proudly, her eyes going hard as steel. ‘And it is the duty of a greater race to see them dead.’ She glanced sideways at her companions. ‘Humans can come along, too.’
‘Well, thank Silf the womenfolk are so eager to run off and die.’ He glanced at Dreadaeleon, elbowing the boy. ‘And what about you?’
‘Hm?’ The wizard glanced up with a start, roused from some deep reverie. ‘Oh. Yes, we might as well go.’
‘Oh, come on.’
‘Knowledge is the dominion of the wizards,’ the boy replied sternly. ‘There’s much we could learn from something that is supposedly distilled “evil”, if we ever get hold of a corpse.’
‘It’s not their corpse you’ll be holding.’ Denaos glanced over his shoulder at Gariath. ‘What about you?’
The dragonman merely snorted in reply.
‘Possibly the sanest thing spoken yet,’ Denaos said with a frustrated sigh.
He cast his eyes to the end of the table, where Lenk propped himself on his elbows, staring into nothingness. Such an expression did not go unrecognised.
‘I’m begging you now,’ Denaos urged hotly, ‘as the only other person here who is a man of reason and not a fanatic, pointy-eared, demented or scaly, don’t tell me you’re considering this.’
Lenk spared the briefest of moments for Denaos, taking in his hopeful expression, before turning back to Miron.
‘How do we even know where this. . Abysmyth is?’
The edge of Miron’s small smile sheared off the last layer of ease from the room.
‘We are about to find out.’ The priest looked to the dark-skinned man at the end of the table. ‘Captain, kindly bring it in.’
Argaol’s face was the colour of a fading bruise when he looked up, a gloomy blend of pale fear and nauseous green. He looked from the door to the priest, seemingly uncertain which made him more nervous.
‘What. .’ he stammered. ‘Now?’
‘Now,’ Miron replied, nodding.
‘Is it really. .’ The captain hesitated with a cringe before inhaling sharply. ‘Fine.’ He slipped from the chair to the door, leaning out into the corridor. ‘Sebast! Bring it in!’
The first mate came rushing in like a man pursued, his hands trembling with the weight of the large cylinder in his grasp. A black cloth, scrawled with chalk sigils of Talanas, Zamanthras and other less familiar faiths, was draped about it. He set it down upon the table as though it were a carcass, muttering rapid, indecipherable prayers as he wiped his hands violently on his breeches.
‘So …’ Denaos hummed as he watched the first mate disappear out of the cabin. ‘This won’t be pleasant, will it?’
‘Where these creatures are concerned, there is no such word.’
Miron reached out and slipped the cloth off with a whisper, followed by a chorus of retching and vomiting barely restrained as all assembled laid eyes upon the contents of the brass cage before them. And, with wide unblinking orbs, what lay within laid eyes upon them.
Lenk wasn’t sure if he recognised the creature as one of the white-feathered chorus from a day earlier, nor was he sure he wanted to. The creature, a strange and curious thing with the body of a portly seagull, was horrific enough from a distance. As it waddled in a slow circle about the cage, sweeping its bulging eyes around the assembly, more than a few gazes were averted.
And yet, it seemed there was no avoiding its stare. The bulbous orbs peered over the hooked nose of an old woman’s face, spotted wrinkles peeled back around its gaping mouth. The teeth within its maw, long yellow needles, chattered wordless curses as it swayed ominously within the cage.
‘What. . is it?’ The question came from Asper on a bulge of swallowed bile.
‘A parasite,’ Miron answered, regarding the creature without emotion. ‘It heralds the approach of the Abysmyth, gluts itself on the suffering and sinew left behind.’ He leaned closer to the cage, sneering. ‘Their proper name. . is “Omen”.’
‘Omen. .’ Lenk repeated, apparently the only other one amongst them not so stricken with revulsion as to be rendered speechless.
‘So named for their precursorship of all things foul. They are the harbingers and the criers of Ulbecetonth, the cherubs that fly about her crown.’ He settled back, steepling his fingers. ‘To see them darkening the sky in such brazen numbers is disturbing.’
‘Yeah,’ Lenk muttered, glaring at the priest. ‘That was only slightly obvious, thank you.’
The only agreement came from the Omen itself as it chattered its teeth, the yellow needles clicking upon each other as it peered at the companions. Only Dreadaeleon leaned forwards to peer back, observing its lipless mouth with disgust.
‘It’s. . as if it’s trying to speak,’ he whispered. There was a flash of movement behind the creature’s teeth, a glimmer of saliva that heralded the boy’s blanch. ‘It’s got inner lips.’
‘It’s got what?’ Lenk asked, sharing the wizard’s expression.
‘Its lips are behind its teeth.’ Dreadaeleon tapped the cage curiously. ‘Like a gopher. . but why?’
In answer, the creature lunged at his finger, gnashing its teeth with such speed that only the startled shriek that sent him falling out of his chair spared his digit. The Omen hissed, ruffling its feathers as if in challenge as it settled onto its pudgy white haunches.
‘Part-gopher, part-bird, part-woman. .’ Lenk tapped his chin thoughtfully and glared up at Miron. ‘This changes nothing, you realise.’
‘It proves the existence of demons, at least,’ Asper offered meekly.
‘No, the giant fish-demon proved the existence of demons,’ Lenk spat back. ‘What was the point of bringing this out? Shock?’
‘Information,’ Miron replied coolly. ‘An Omen is not a complex creature, living only to eat and cause misery. Neither takes a great amount of intellect, and thus, an Omen is incapable of lying.’
; ‘So ask it a question,’ Lenk said, ‘and see what it says.’
‘It doesn’t offer information without incentive,’ Miron said.
‘You mean. . torture?’ Denaos asked, grimacing.
‘Not the kind you would be versed in.’ Miron affixed a piercing gaze upon the rogue, observing him casually shift his eyes away. ‘After all, how does one torture that which feeds on suffering?’
‘Rip its wings off and roast half of it until the other half talks!’ Argaol slammed his fist upon the table, drawing the creature’s attention. ‘So long as it gets me further away from that foulness that infected my ship, who cares?’ He leaned forwards, snarling. ‘Speak, bird, where did you come from?’
The creature replied by tilting its withered head as if studying him. His facade of fearlessness twitched, threatened to break.
‘Speak!’
The Omen’s mouth craned open slowly, exposing a tiny void beyond the yellow teeth. A low, gurgling noise emitted from within before a voice, masculine and terrified, boiled out of its throat.
‘Captain,’ it uttered without moving its mouth, ‘Captain, where are you? You’re. . you’re supposed to protect us! Where are you? Why aren’t you here? CAPTAIN!’
Argaol fell back into his chair as if struck. His face was as white as his eyes as he stared, not at the parasite, but at the empty space before him. His jaw hung from his face, his voice oozing out of his mouth like spittle.
‘That’s. . Anjus. He is. . he was the master of wares. What’s-’
‘Zamanthras preserve me,’ the Omen continued, its voice now another man’s, ‘Zamanthras preserve me, Zamanthras preserve me. I’m not going to make it. Mother wash away my sins. I. . I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die! Please, just let me live long enough to see my wife again, please. . PLEASE!’
‘Nor does the Omen truly speak,’ Miron said, sighing. ‘It can only mimic what it has heard. But it does so-’
‘IT HURTS!’ the parasite’s imitation voice wailed. ‘IT HURTS SO MUCH!’
‘Accurately.’
‘Make it stop.’ Argaol’s demand brimmed with tears. ‘Make it shut up!’
‘Your suffering will be brief, Captain,’ the priest said. ‘If that is all we require, then let it be so.’ He turned to Asper and offered a weak smile. ‘Would you kindly do me the favour of reciting, Priestess?’