Empire of Rust Complete Series

by V. J. Chambers

  “Never mind.” The emperor turned on his heel and began jogging back up the path. “Come on, son!”

  Gabriel had no choice but to go after him.

  They emerged back at the banquet hall in a few moments, but this time, they turned towards the mansion. Because there didn’t seem to be any danger, they both slowed to a brisk walk, each holding their swords at the ready. Both were alert but neither frightened.

  As they got closer to the mansion, they began to see revenants. Like the ones Gabriel had seen from the window, they were milling about, walking to and fro aimlessly. In the gray light of morning, they looked like harmless old men.

  As the revenants caught their scent, one by one, they turned in the direction of Gabriel and his father. They started scuffling towards them. But they moved so slowly that they weren’t an immediate threat.

  He and his father walked faster.

  Then, Gideon caught sight of a streak of movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned, and saw two or three people in torn clothes running across the courtyard.

  At first, he thought they were villagers, hurrying away in fear.

  But then he saw that they were badly wounded. One’s throat was torn out. Another had a gaping hole in his stomach, and his entrails were leaking from his body.

  New revenants, he realized in a flash. The newly turned were fast.

  “Father!” he yelled. “Run!”

  The old man saw the other revenants as well.

  They took off together, over the cobblestoned path, heading as quickly as they could for the mansion.

  Behind them, the revenants kept coming.

  Gabriel felt terror rip through him. How many more like that were there? How were they ever going to get this under control? They needed to evacuate. Anyone left inside the city only had the potential to make the outbreak worse.

  Thud.

  Gabriel strained his neck back to look, still running forward.

  His father had fallen down.

  The running revenants were coming for them, closer every second.

  Gabriel halted and turned around. He ran back for the emperor. “Father!”

  The emperor was getting to his feet. “I’m fine.” He waved him on. “Go ahead, boy.”

  Gabriel hesitated.

  The revenants were even closer now. Gabriel could smell the metallic scent of their spilled blood.

  And the emperor winced.

  “What is it?”

  “My ankle. I think I twisted it.”

  Gabriel rushed over to his father, offering his shoulder.

  The emperor clutched at Gabriel.

  “Let’s go.” Gabriel dragged his father after him.

  The emperor struggled to keep up, but he couldn’t move quickly enough.

  The revenants were closing in.

  Gabriel felt panic rising in his chest. He yanked on his father, trying to get more speed.

  The revenants were on top of them. They seized the emperor, pulling him right out of Gabriel’s arms.

  Gabriel shrieked, stabbing with his sword.

  He caught one of the revenants in the face, sword impaling its head. He pulled the sword clean.

  The revenant toppled to the ground.

  But his father—

  The other revenants had their teeth in the emperor’s neck. His father’s head was thrown back, his eyes wild. He was making a horrible gurgling noise. Blood was gushing out of his father’s wounds, red and thick.

  Gabriel stabbed the other two revenants, one after the other, killing them both.

  They dropped, and his father dropped too.

  His father’s body convulsed on the ground. Blood bubbled up from his lips.

  Gabriel gritted his teeth. He wanted to scream.

  Instead he drove his already bloody sword into his own father’s head.

  And then he turned and raced for the mansion.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Darius strode through the entrance to the mansion, a stream of docile revenants following behind him. It had taken a short while for him to figure out how to best soothe them and make them do his bidding. Back on the road, he hadn’t needed to do anything other than pass close by. His presence attracted the revenants. They’d get up and follow him of their own accord, as if it were natural. But here in the city, with all the humans around, they were distracted by the smells they desired, and Darius had to exert effort.

  He wasn’t quite sure how he did it, but he somehow understood that it wasn’t enough to think his intentions, he had to feel them as well. And his body converted that feeling into something communicative. When the revenants felt it too, then they obeyed him completely.

  So, he’d spent all morning gathering them up. There were hundreds of them. Some were newly turned. There would be more turned as the days went on, as well. Wounded people would succumb to minor bites.

  Darius was angry at the carnage. He was angry that Simon had surrendered an entire city to his lust for power, and he was angry that Simon had made him part of his plan. It wasn’t what Darius wanted for himself.

  He didn’t want to be a necromancer at all, if it came down to it, but at least now, he could stop the pain and suffering. He was grateful to have that ability.

  And he noticed that the desire for flesh wasn’t quite as acute now. Maybe it was because he had conquered it last night with Michal, or maybe it was because he was too angry to focus on it. He didn’t know why, and he didn’t know if it would last, but he was grateful for that as well. It was easier to focus on his task without the constant distraction.

  He crossed over the threshold into the mansion. Inside the doorway, there were revenants feasting on corpses. Darius smelled the scent of their flesh and blood. It smelled good, a delicious bouquet, but he wasn’t overwhelmed by it.

  The revenants sensed him, and—at once—they stood up and abandoned the corpses they were eating. They fell in behind him, along with the others.

  Darius picked his way over the dead bodies and continued his walk through the mansion.

  As he moved, revenants stopped what they were doing and followed him.

  He rounded the corner and came face-to-face with a woman holding a sword. She was still wearing her nightgown, and her hair was in disarray. She pointed the sword at him, her eyes wild.

  Darius had seen her before, he thought, at the wedding feast. But he’d been introduced to so many people then, he couldn’t remember who was who. He held up a hand, signaling her to stop. “It’s all right. I am the necromancer.”

  The woman swallowed. She peered around him at the mass of revenants, all standing still behind him. The tip of her sword wavered, and then she let it fall. “You passed the test, then? You didn’t kill the emperor’s daughter?”

  Darius opened his mouth to answer.

  But a door adjacent to them burst open, and a man streaked through it. There was blood smeared on his forehead. He was panting.

  Darius recognized this man. He was Gabriel, the heir to the empire and Michal’s brother. He remembered him because of the way that Gabriel had refused to shake hands with him at the feast. Darius remembered thinking that if Gabriel wanted to protect his sister, there were better ways to do it than refusing a handshake, which was essentially pointless.

  “Gabriel,” said the woman, dropping her sword with a clatter and running for him.

  The man ran to her as well. “Leah.” He wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly. “Are you okay? Is the baby all right?”

  Leah pulled back. “I hurt my toe.”

  Gabriel laughed a little. Then he extricated himself entirely from her, dragging a hand over his face. “My father…”

  “What?” said Leah.

  Gabriel seemed to notice Darius for the first time. “Oh. You’re here.” He eyed the stretch of revenants. “Well, they really do become harmless, don’t they?”

  Darius was confused. Simon had told him that Gabriel was a faggot, but Darius was pretty sure the other man had ask
ed Leah about a baby. How did that work?

  “Where’s Michal?” said Gabriel.

  “I told Simon to take her someplace safe.”

  “Simon?” said Gabriel. “What’s he up to, anyway? My father said this was his plan.”

  “You spoke to the emperor?” said Leah. “Where is he?”

  Gabriel hung his head. “He…” He raised his gaze and there were tears in his eyes. “He’s dead.”

  “Oh,” said Leah, and she hugged Gabriel again.

  Darius started moving again. He didn’t have time to stay and watch this. These people were okay now. He needed to finish clearing out the revenants. Of course, if the emperor was dead, that meant that Gabriel was now the emperor. Simon wouldn’t like that. He’d be scheming to undo that, Darius was sure of it.

  But Darius didn’t want anything to do with it. He was sick of being Simon’s puppet.

  * * *

  Michal had been locked in her room all morning. Simon had left her there and instructed her to stay inside. She hadn’t wanted to listen to Simon, so at one point, she’d left. But she’d immediately seen several revenants wandering the halls, so she’d run back to her room and bolted both the main door and the door that the servants used. After that, she’d spent the rest of her time pacing, staring out her window, and worrying.

  She was annoyed that her window didn’t face the city, even though she’d never wanted a room that faced that way before. No, she’d been quite pleased with her window that overlooked the bay, all the blue water stretching out to the horizon. Now, however, it was annoying because she had no idea what was going on in the city. She felt entirely cut off from everything. She was frightened that the entire city might turn into revenants while she stayed locked away here. She’d be alone, the last human, trapped in a city of the dead.

  It made her feel horrible and terrified.

  Which wasn’t fair, not really, because she hadn’t had a chance to feel anything about her wedding night yet, and she was still confused about it. It had been the most intense experience of her life—well, until she’d been trapped in her room with revenants close by trying to kill her—and she felt deeply bonded to Darius, but she was also unsure if she trusted him. She thought of the way he’d put his teeth into her. He hadn’t made her bleed, that was true, but she wasn’t sure if he’d always have so much restraint.

  What happened if he bit her? Truly bit her?

  He had the same virus as the revenants. Would she become a revenant?

  There was a knock at the door.

  Knocking means a person, right? she thought frantically. A revenant doesn’t knock.

  The knock again. More insistent now.

  “Hello?” Her voice quavered.

  “Michal, let me in.”

  She recognized Darius’s voice immediately, and she hurried over to open the door. Darius was outside, but so were hundreds of revenants, standing listlessly behind him. She stepped back, putting her fingers to her lips.

  “Don’t mind them,” said Darius, coming into the room and shutting the door behind him. “They’ll stay out there and they won’t hurt anyone. I’m going to take them out past the gate, but I needed to know you were all right first.”

  She nodded. “Fine.”

  He nodded. “Good.”

  The two stood there, facing each other, with a few feet of distance between them. Michal found it a little strange. Last night, they’d touched everywhere, and now it seemed there was a rift between them.

  She stretched out her hand. “And you’re all right?”

  He seized her hand. “Now that I see you, I am.”

  She bit her lip.

  He tugged her close to him.

  She wrapped her arms around him. He was huge and solid, like the trunk of a tree, and she felt swallowed by his bulk. Maybe she should have been afraid of him. She wasn’t.

  He sighed softly and then he was holding her body against his. He buried his face in her hair. “I smelled cinnamon, and I knew you were here. I had to see you.”

  She closed her eyes and rested her cheek against his chest. “Why did you leave me this morning? I didn’t want you to go.”

  “I had to stop the revenants.”

  She looked up at him. “How did they get in?”

  He looked up at the ceiling. “Simon. Simon did it.”

  She extricated herself. “What?” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Why would Simon do this?”

  “He wants the throne. He thinks that if he saves the city from the threat of revenants, the council will pick him to be emperor instead of your brother. He says he’s always been responsible, and Gabriel has always been reckless.”

  Michal’s lips parted. It was true that Gabriel didn’t spend a lot of time doing serious things. He was generally gallivanting around in the evenings, drinking and carousing. Well, at least he had done that before marrying that Leah woman. Still, the council did see Gabriel as a liability. Simon’s plan might work.

  “There’s more news,” said Darius. “It won’t be easy for you to hear.”

  “What?” She braced herself.

  “It’s your father.”

  “Yes?”

  “He’s… he’s dead.”

  “Oh.” She let out a breath, and she realized she was relieved. She’d been expecting something terrible and traumatizing, and this news wasn’t as bad as what she’d imagined. It wasn’t that she didn’t care about the death of her father. She did. But she also couldn’t help but remember the way her father had treated her, especially these last few days. She shook herself. “Darius, we have to tell Gabriel about Simon’s plan. Is it safe in the hall now? Can I leave my room to find him?”

  Darius hesitated.

  “What?” she said.

  “It’s only that I’m not sure I…” He swallowed. “I’m not very fond of your brother Simon.”

  “Well, that makes two of us.”

  “But I’m not sure if I think this Gabriel is any better. If he really cared about you, why did he allow you to marry me?”

  Michal cocked her head to one side. “That’s a funny thing to say.”

  “It’s not,” said Darius. “You were in danger—”

  “From you?” She shook her head. “You wouldn’t hurt me.”

  “That’s the thing. I might have. I didn’t want to, but that doesn’t mean…” He turned away, and his voice got quiet. “I might still hurt you.”

  She was worried about this too. Hadn’t she thought about it just this morning? But she put her hand on his shoulder. “You won’t.”

  Darius turned back to her. “He didn’t protect you.”

  “He tried,” said Michal. “But I was… curious about you. I half-wanted it, you know? I knew it wasn’t smart, but something inside me…”

  He licked his lips.

  She caught his face with both hands and tugged him down so that she could kiss him. She couldn’t resist his full lips.

  A soft groan escaped his throat, and he pulled her body into his. His lips and tongue moved against hers, sending thrills of pleasure through her. He nibbled on her lips, her tongue.

  She clung to him.

  When the kiss was finally over, she was still in his arms.

  He brushed her hair away from her face. “If you trust Gabriel, then we’ll tell him.”

  “Gabriel is ten times the man that Simon is,” she said.

  * * *

  Gabriel rubbed his forehead.

  “I’m sorry, sir,” said Darius.

  “No,” said Gabriel. “It sounds like Simon. He’s never been satisfied with anything he had. Of course he’d want more. And with his mother always feeling as if she should have borne the heir, he’s dead set on it.” He got up from his chair. He, Leah, Michal, and Darius were gathered here, taking a much-needed break from trying to put everything back together after the revenant attack, which wasn’t an easy task. There was so much destruction, so many dead. With his father gone, everyone was looking to him for leaders
hip, and he realized that he really had no idea what to do. All his plans for what he’d do after he was emperor had hinged on stability. He wasn’t prepared to deal with this kind of massacre. Gabriel gripped the back of the chair. “Well, I won’t let him do it.”

  “Of course not,” said Michal. “But how are we going to stop him? You know the general opinion of you is that you’re reckless. The council will side with Simon.”

  Gabriel gestured to Leah. “But I got married. She’s pregnant. Father said that would show that I was settling down.”

  Michal scrutinized Leah. “Pregnant? Have you two been married long enough to be pregnant?”

  Leah glared at Michal.

  Gabriel held up a hand. “Never mind that.”

  “I don’t understand,” said Darius. “Simon told me that you were a faggot. Was he lying about that?”

  Michal’s eyes got wide.

  Gabriel gave Darius a pained expression. “Really. Must you use that word?”

  “Is there another word?” said Darius. “Sodomite, maybe?”

  “Forget it,” said Gabriel. He let go of the chair and began to pace behind it.

  “Well, that’s not true, is it?” said Michal. “I mean, those are just nasty rumors. Like you said, you’re married.”

  Gabriel stopped pacing. He didn’t say anything.

  “Oh,” said Michal, in a different voice. “Well, but now that you have Leah, you’ve… grown out of it, right?”

  Gabriel glared at her. “Not now, Michal. This is not important now.”

  “Well, if Simon tells the council, or if he has proof… Is there proof, Gabriel, or is it all just rumor?”

  “How would you prove something like that?” said Darius, making a face.

  “Listen,” said Gabriel, “it’s not that big of a deal. I don’t see anything wrong with it at all. Before the Scourge—”

  “But that’s exactly what they’ll say,” said Michal. “They’ll say that you’ll bring the Scourge back. But Simon has brought a necromancer, saving the city, and they’ll think that he’s bringing back the golden years, when revenants worked the fields and there was a necromancer for every land-owning regent.”

  “And it’s worse than that,” said Darius. “The emperor knew about Simon’s plan. He was helping.”