by Ashley Capes
Movement caught his eye.
Behind Luis, who was examining the floor for tracks, something stirred.
Finally.
A torso was rising from the stones, as if sitting up from a grave. Two more to the left of the first, and three more opposite them. Grey-Faces, all. They were sitting up, rising to their spindly feet.
Never clenched his sword – the Leschnilef had been lying in wait, lying within the very stone itself. The shuffling whispers of dry skin soon filled the temple from all directions. Luis had looked up with a frown, and seeing the stone-wraiths rising, leapt to Never’s side.
“What now?” Luis asked, eyes wide.
“If they come close, kill them,” Never said.
“That’s our plan?”
“For now.”
Most of the figures were emaciated beyond that of the vision he’d received in the Hanik Library. Skin hung from their bones in thin strips. Their narrow eyes were deep-set, a weak glow within. Few possessed a full set of intact limbs; others were missing whole arms or legs, their limping supported by crutches made from yellowed bones.
The Leschnilef gasped and hissed with each step, as though their lungs were straining. One of the things ran a maggoty-white tongue over cracked lips.
In the forefront stood a stronger stone wraith – taller, his grey skin taut but whole. Still not the creature of Never’s vision, but moving fluidly enough. Talons tipped its fingers. Worn leather belt and dark pants, torn to the knees, made up the only clothing – its chest was little more than a wall of visible ribs.
“Give her to us,” Never said.
The leader raised an arm to point. You are most welcome, young fools. Its mouth had not moved.
“Where is she?”
Your sacrifice will be remembered – we have waited long for this, long indeed.
Never held the sword up to the light and the glow flared. “You will be the first to die by this.”
So be it. The leader gestured around him. My brethren will feast upon me and then you and your friend, Amouni. We live long, on even a little of your bodies.
“Will you?” Never raised an eyebrow. The thing was afraid, beneath the indifference. There was a hint of desperation. What could he do? His blood? But he could make no orbs, could not do what Snow had done.
And killing them would not reveal Tsolde.
If she lived.
We must survive.
Never spat. “And why is that? You are filthy scavengers, no more.”
How quick to judge – typical Amouni. He drew himself up. We had lived in the earth for generations before your kind came. We tended to the dark, to the great bones of the earth. Above, mankind thrived, even with our hunger. We knew when to limit the crop, how to steer them, to raise a bounty so none here would go without and yet maintain fair harvest.
“What is he saying?” Luis asked.
Never glared at the leader of the Leschnilef. “Fair harvest – they were lives.”
Do you not eat?
“That’s enough. Show us Tsolde or die. Choose quickly.”
There is another choice. The slithering smugness of its voice returned now. It twisted its torso and flung both hands into the air. The creatures opened their mouths in unison and a deep groan rose, a hundred voices – more, he couldn’t tell.
The sound swelled, fogging his mind.
“Attack,” he shouted as he leapt from the table. Luis’ boots slammed after him.
The leader fell back.
A wraith moved to intercept Never but he swung hard and the thing’s head spun free, bouncing across the stones. The faint blue glow stayed in the air moments after Never’s swing, as if tearing at it.
Never kicked the next thing to the ground and stomped on the chest, caving it in with a crunch. A third stone wraith lunged at him – more of a stumble, truly – and he pivoted, driving an elbow into its back, shattering the spine.
The press of creatures grew, even as he cut them down.
The chant continued and Luis was shouting as he swung, the sound of steel slicing through bone filling the temple. Never hacked and slashed his way to the leader, who stood in an open space, flexing his talons.
Never broke free and charged, swinging the sword in an overhead arc.
The wraith fell into the stone. Faster than Never’s eyes could trace, the thing was gone, swallowed by the very temple floor, though nothing had collapsed.
An indrawn breath behind him.
Never managed half a turn before something hard cracked into the back of his head.
Chapter 24.
Never woke to the same shadows broken by the faint blue glow of the orbs.
He lay on stone, arms bound behind his back. Throbbing pounded in his head from the blow he’d been dealt. At least his leg no longer hurt – in fact, he’d long since lost his limp. Little use his new, swift healing would be now. He twisted, searching. Stone wraiths milled around the table, near enough that he could hear the hiss of their flaking skin rubbing against one another. Another sound grew in the darkness too, the gnawing of teeth on bone.
Gods, no...
Nearby, a group of the wraiths crouched over a body of their own kin, scrabbling for bones and chewing on the pieces they won. The same sounds drifted from various parts of the temple, as if the living had dragged corpses away for privacy.
He thrashed against his bonds.
Shadowy figures continued to move beyond the light, sneaking behind other shapes. The weaker ones, scavenging for scraps? A few were certainly smaller.
Luis.
Never glanced up at the table. As the creatures shifted, he caught a glimpse of a cloak. Luis. Never rolled to his knees. A nearby wraith spun its back on him, hunching protectively over a severed arm. Another pair of the creatures paused, long bones gripped in shaking hands.
His sword lay on the ground between them; they’d been shifting it with the bones.
Couldn’t they touch the blade?
He swore. It hardly mattered, he was caught, bound firm. And it wasn’t rope – some manner of cold substance kept him without the use of his hands. “Leave him be,” he shouted.
The wraiths grew still.
They parted and the leader strode forward, covering half the distance between them.
Awake already? We’ve barely had time to begin.
Never reached his feet. “Begin what? If Luis isn’t alive –”
You will have your turn. Amouni blood is difficult to manage, it takes care. Preparation. Unlike your friend.
No way to cut himself and use it against them.
“And Tsolde? What have you done with her?”
The thing’s face did not change but the smile was clear in the words. We have no idea; she escaped one of our... former brethren, shall we say. We will retrieve her later. First, your friend and then, once the instruments have been collected, you.
He clenched his fists, all he could manage. A pitiful, futile act. Damn them! They’d used his assumptions about Tsolde as bait; they’d never held her in the temple. He was a fool. And now he’d dragged Luis into the heart of their lair. “You are but a husk. A mockery of life,” Never growled.
Perhaps. But your efforts to bring us food remain most welcome.
The gathered crowd, those that weren’t feasting, rubbed their limbs together in a sickening display of anticipation. Never charged the leader, dropping his shoulder.
Foolish.
It sidestepped his charge, a long arm flashing out. Talons raked Never’s back and he stumbled again.
But had the creature made a mistake?
Blood welled in the wounds. The wraiths hissed now, flinching back. Never urged his blood forth... only to let it fall, splattering around him. There was no blood to draw from his captors.
The leader threw back his head and laughter rang in Never’s mind.
Movement.
A flash of blue. The leader’s head hit the stone with a wet slap, a glimpse of black blood sneaking out from und
er the neck. Narrow, slitted eyes fell dark.
Tsolde stood in the light, glowing blade in her hand. Her face was smudged with dirt and she bore half a dozen cuts and a large bruise on her head. When she turned on the nearest stone wraith, it flinched back.
The entire group had frozen – even those eating, all simply staring at Tsolde and the corpse at her feet. None spoke. Could any speak at all? Had only the leader been able to communicate? Never watched them until finally, one of the Leschnilef stepped back. Another, as if deriving courage from the first step of its kin, began to slide away from the light.
And then there was a mass evacuation, wraiths fleeing or sinking into stone – many taking detached limbs or flaps of skin or greyed organs with them. In moments, the temple was empty.
Tsolde grinned down at him. “That’s three times I’ve had to save you, Never.”
“Any time you decide that I need saving, feel most welcome,” Never said.
She cut him free of his bindings, some manner of hardened mud, then they ran to Luis. He too, had been bound to the table at wrists and ankles by the dark mud, with its hard surface. “Is he alive?” Tsolde asked as she cut through the mud.
Never felt around Luis’ neck for a pulse and uttered a prayer of thanks when he found it. “They may have drugged him. Or it could have been their song – it nearly had me blacked out before the leader hit me.”
“What now?” she asked. “Can you carry him?”
He nodded. “I’ll manage. You just keep the wraiths away.”
He lifted Luis across his shoulders with a grunt, his recently healed leg wavering a moment before he straightened and started across the now-cluttered floor where he paused to accept the second blade from Tsolde. There were many more pieces of bone and half-corpses than he recalled killing.
How many had died in the fight over the first few bodies?
The stone wraiths did not follow them out and down the streets, or if they did, the things remained out of sight. All the better. Doubtless they would soon be fighting over their master’s remains.
During the walk through the streets, between houses and through squares ringed by the odd, single-homes, he paused to rest often but none of the Leschnilef dared attack. During such rests, Tsolde prowled the immediate area, glowing sword in hand. The second he’d belted around his waist and together the two weapons provided more than enough light in sections of the city where the crystal spheres had darkened.
Luis woke with a deep groan before they reached the ladder. “My head...” He squinted against the glow from the swords. “Never? Tsolde! You’re alive, I thought...”
“Thanks to Tsolde we’re all alive.” Never explained what had happened, finishing with a smile. “And so now I owe Tsolde once more and I can’t imagine she’ll let me off lightly.”
“No way,” she said with a grin of her own.
“Count me in on the debt,” Luis said. He glanced to the ladder. “Think you can help me up that? That song from the wraiths, it’s echoing in my head. It was like fighting my way out of a clinging fog.”
“Agreed,” Never said. “I’ll go first and pull you up. Tsolde, rear guard.”
He climbed to the balcony and then leaned down to grip Luis’ arm when the man climbed, with careful movements, into reach. Hauling him up, he patted Luis on the back, then caught Tsolde when she neared.
Then it was a long climb up to the World Stair with its images and empty landings... Never frowned as he walked. The World Stair? Since when had he known its translated name? There was more, the true Amouni for the stair being Vi Mon.
Mon, world and Vi, walk.
By the landing other words had crept back in. Mother, father, brother. Greetings and curses, sometimes whole phrases. As if the leader of the stone wraiths had unlocked memories of the Amouni tongue.
And for a time, centuries at least, the thing had probably been the only living creature to utter the words.
Now, who knew? Snow might know a little of the language, perhaps even more, but he wasn’t going to share his secrets unless it played to his advantage. And so far, almost everything had. Whoever Snow came into contact with he changed – for the worse, of late. Cog was one, Darom another. Would he destroy Sacha too? Never himself?
Finally, they exited the passage and resumed the trek up the World Stair, passing the ocean steps and across another landing; then it was the waving grasses and wheat of the Marlosa plains and the imperial city itself, smaller than he was accustomed to.
The next landing took them through other cities, cities unknown – one might have been Kiymako, with its lattice-work of interconnected walkways between buildings, but it was subtly different, narrower somehow, more fanciful.
Another city was a glistening wonder of rose and another perched on the edge of a great desert. Where did such a desert lie? The Empty Sea in Vadiya did not own such a city.
“These places,” Tsolde said. “Are they even real?”
“A dream of the Amouni?” he suggested. “Perhaps, but I feel they must have – at one time at least, been true places.”
The final landing revealed another door – sealed shut. Yet, again, as with all the others, at pressure from his foot the switch caused a silver line to split the stone. Unlike the others, a blinding light waited beyond.
Never shielded his eyes, grunting at the pain.
In time, his eyes adjusted and he moved into the open air, still blinking at the afternoon light. A glade similar to that found in the centre of their long path, spread before him. Grass and red toadstools peered between a heavy carpet of pine needles. No pool here, but from memory, he knew a stream ran down the mountain beyond the wood.
Never stumbled deeper into the clearing then lowered himself to the earth with a long sigh, lying in the grass and staring up at the clouds, a white and grey patchwork with only glimpses of blue between. “I’m sick to death of caves and tunnels,” he announced.
Luis chuckled from where he sat nearby. “You’ve said that before, you know.”
“At least The Amber Isle had jewels.”
Tsolde walked by, stretching her arms and rolling her shoulders as she breathed deep. “It’s cold up here too but I can feel the air at least.”
“We’ll start a fire soon,” Never said. He sat up. “So tell us, Tsolde. What happened down there?”
“I don’t really know. One moment I was frozen in shock, watching you run toward poor Darom and then something cold took my arm and I was inside stone. It was heavy, weighing against my arms and legs, my chest and face, everywhere, yet something pulled me through as if the rock were water.” She shivered and it no longer seemed about the cold. “When we broke free it was in the underground city and a thin, husk of a creature was dragging me along the street. I screamed but it wrapped a dry hand over my mouth and its voice spoke within my mind, threatening me.”
“How did you escape?” Luis asked.
“I fought free when it paused to rest – I think I was too heavy for it to drag along.”
Never nodded. Had that been the first creature he and Luis had seen? “They’re a dying race; it probably didn’t have the strength.”
“Well, I panicked. It screamed after me. There was so much despair and rage in the sound that I just fled at first, but it seemed they waited at the end of every street I chose. It wasn’t until I stumbled into one of the temples that I was safe. Doors snapped down, closing behind me and I was sealed within.”
Never leant forward. “The temple did that by itself, you didn’t touch anything?”
“No. All I did was run within and collapse.”
“Perhaps it protected her,” Luis said. “The place certainly felt alive, in a strange way, to me.”
“As good an explanation as any,” Never agreed with a nod.
“When I finally caught my breath I explored in the dark, but found nothing, only stone benches. The creatures spoke in my mind the whole time, taunting me.” Her jaw was clenched. “I don’t know for how long, but eve
ntually they stopped and something... urged me out. It was as if I knew you were in danger; the doors opened when I approached.” She shook her head. “I nearly didn’t go out there again but by the time I saw the light from the big temple I knew that I had to go. I snuck inside and they were... feeding on each other.”
Luis blinked. “I don’t remember that.”
Never slapped him on the shoulder. “Be glad that you don’t.”
“I found the sword and you know the rest.”
“We do.” Never smiled and Luis grinned.
“Well, now it’s your turn,” she said. “What next, Never?”
“We take the trail through the pine there. It follows the peaks of the Folhan into Marlosa. Half a day to the Marlosi side.”
“And the border?”
“Who knows now that the Vadiya are here. We’ll sneak around,” he said.
“And what about the Altar of Stars – how are we going to find that?” she asked.
“I’ll know when it’s close,” he said, toying with the strange sword. In the daylight, its glow remained absent.
“Will we reach it by tomorrow night?” Luis asked. “I think I’ve kept track of the days and nights but I’m not certain.”
“We will.” He closed his eyes. “We need sleep first. And food somehow. I don’t suppose anyone’s been hiding a piece of roasted chicken, have they?”
“Yes, but I ate it already,” Luis said with a straight face. “Sorry.”
“What about you, Tsolde?”
“Nothing.”
He sighed as he removed the Amouni sword, tossing it to Luis. “Well, how about you start the watch and wake me in a while. As soon as it gets dark, we’ll see if we can’t borrow something nice from whoever’s camped at the border.”
“If someone is camped at the border,” Luis said.
“Don’t forget, I’m usually quite lucky.” Never lay back with a smile. Free of the mines, free of the Leschnilef, finally close to his goal. Relief mingled with joy. “Someone will be there.”
Tsolde snorted. “With your luck it will be the entire Vadiya army.”
He rolled onto his side. “Then there’ll be a bigger menu to choose from, won’t there?”