by Andrea Judy
Jackson picked up the skull fragment, putting it into her back pocket.
"Are you alright?" Jackson asked Aramis.
He took a deep breath. “I’ll be alright.” He forced a smile. “Eten was a good man. Twisted in his own ways, but he didn’t deserve this. None of us did.” He let out his breath. “Come on.”
I picked up Eten’s sword and headed down the only hallway available to us. Torches flared to life as we walked down the hallway. “Guess there’s no doubt she knows we’re coming.” I muttered.
Aramis nodded. “Well the glowing stones really don’t do well for sneak attacks.”
“So who was he?” Jackson asked after several moments of silence.
Aramis sighed deeply, “He was a priest of the goddess Mene, the same goddess that the Bone Queen once worshipped. Of course, she was still Renata back then. They traveled together as a part of the same group, and I was with them for a time at the end. Ultimately, they all fell to death or to Renata’s own purpose.”
My steps were steadier now as I walked past the few bits of remaining dust, kicking them up under foot and sending the pale yellow powder flying through the air again. Jackson hurried close behind, waving her hand in front of her face to try to keep the dust away.
“Do you think she knew he would do that?” Jackson asked.
“Who?” I said absently, trying to see what lay ahead down the hallway.
“Eten. Do you think she knew he would give us the key to her?”
Aramis answered, “I think she did. She needs us to get the last gem. Well, she needs me.”
“So, we’re walking right into whatever trap she’s set for us,” Jackson muttered.
“And we’ll be ready for her,” I promised.
A door led out of one hallway and into another narrow hallway that ended in a set of stairs curling downwards. At the very bottom of the steps that curled round and round, we found a locked door.
Jackson raised her bat and Aramis readied his daggers as I pushed the sword into the keyhole. Something mechanical whirred and clicked, bits of dust flew out of the slot around the sword before something grabbed the sword and jerked it forward into the door. The sword handle clicked into place flush against the door. I slowly gripped the handle and turned. The door swung open into a room draped with red crushed velvet.
In the center of the room stood an altar draped with black fabric, candles burned all the way down, nearly to the point of burning themselves out. A few feathers and bones laid scattered across the table surface along with a short ceremonial knife with a blade blunted by time and wear.
"What is this?" Jackson whispered beside me.
I shook my head. "I think this is the end of the line." I looked around the room. Hanging on several of the walls were strange pieces of art decayed from time. The floor beneath our feet was littered with bones and each step sent the pieces of skeletons scattering across the ground beneath our feet.
I could hear Jackson's slow, shaky in and out breaths as she followed right behind me, not faltering or hesitating.
“Renata!” Aramis shouted.
"Come on out, we both know it's over," I called as I brought my pistol into my hand. "I know you're in here, and the time's over for this whole cat and mouse thing. You're caught."
"Am I the one caught or am I the one who has caught you?" Her voice echoed across the room.
Jackson jumped, tightening her grip on her bat.
"We're ready for you," I said, standing up straight and keeping my voice firm as I looked around the room, finally spotting the glint of light against the far back.
The pale grey light that flickered there matched the light from the gem that the raven had stolen from me. Without waiting, I turned my pistol, aimed, and fired toward the light.
Metal burned through bone and then hit stone. In the next instant, I saw a flash of light surging toward us. I grabbed Jackson's shoulder and pushed her out of the way. Aramis dropped to the ground just barely dodging the flare of metal flying across the space where he’d just stood.
Jackson hit the ground and crawled away while I fired toward the woman made of nothing but bone and scraps of fabric and skin. She glared toward me, half her skull gone, and the remaining sheets of her dark hair billowing around the empty space. Turning toward me I watched her skull slowly rebuild itself, stitching new pieces of bone together and slowly reforming what my bullet had torn through.
"Nice shot," she said, holding her sword in hand, gem handle glimmering.
“See, last time we didn’t get a fair fight. You caught me without any of my guns,” I said as I stepped in front of Jackson. "And, as I recall, you ran before we could finish our little spat. I think it's time we picked it back up."
She frowned, walking in a slow circle around Jackson and me, but I kept myself between her and Aramis. "If you want that stone you have to go through me," I said calmly.
"I suppose we both knew it would come to this eventually," she mused, "Ever since I first saw you hunting through the catacombs of Paris, I knew it would come to this. I knew that death would come for you and I would be her weapon once again."
"Don't flatter yourself," I said. "You're no one's weapon. You're doing this for yourself, and I'm here to do what I always do: stop the monster and save the day." I grinned. "It's a tough job but what can I say? I'm good at what I do."
“Renata, please! It’s time to let go. No one is meant to live forever. You use to believe that. Please,” Aramis begged.
She glared, growling low in her throat before she lunged at me.
I dodged the attack, though the blade just grazed my arm, barely slicing through the remaining fabric of my shirt enough for a thin cut to begin to ooze.
"Frightened of your death?" She asked me.
I shrugged. "I'm not frightened of you."
"Then you are as big a fool as I always thought," she sneered, lifting her sword and adjusting the hilt in her hands to let her thumb trace over the gem in the handle.
I noticed the skin along her arms and hand peeled back in thin sheets, exposing pale, thin bone beneath the surface. I could see straight into her chest cavity through the opening in her ribs just above where her belly button would have been if she still had skin. The stolen necklace glimmered against her empty chest cavity.
Looking down toward her feet, I realized she was missing one shoe and only a bare skeleton foot was visible just below the billowing of her cape swirling around her.
"You look like you're falling apart," I said, taking a careful step back, gently guiding Jackson and Aramis toward the door we'd entered from.
I felt Jackson hesitate, but then she rushed back toward the door. The Bone Queen lunged after her, but Aramis blocked her. The two undead clashed together, their swords interlocking, until the Bone Queen forced Aramis to his knees.
Jackson screamed as the Bone Queen’s sword ripped across Aramis’ neck and his head rolled to the ground. His body dropped to the ground, sword clattering at his still feet.
Chapter 15
The Bone Queen lunged forward toward Jackson. I slammed into her shoulder, knocking her off balance and directing the path of her sword to easily miss me before giving her a hard shove and knocking her backwards. She stumbled before catching her balance.
I ducked to the ground as the Bone Queen's sword rounded overhead, slicing through a few strands of my hair.
My hand grabbed onto Aramis’ sword handle as I rolled across the ground, spinning back upright just in time to bring the sword up to block her next blow. Our swords slammed together in a flaring of metal burning across metal. She pushed forward, and I felt my arms starting to buckle under the pressure and unrelenting force.
Glancing behind me, I let my sword drop and pushed backwards. Her sword grazed my forearm, then hit the ground as I took the brief reprieve to get to my feet and a better stance.
She rounded on me, advancing with several quick thrusts that I parried away from and avoided her blade once again. She over
swung and I took the chance to slash across her abdomen, clacking against several bones. I twisted my sword into her hollow rib cage and, using all my strength, pushed, sending her flying backwards, toppling to the ground and shattering the chain of the necklace. The gem clattered to the ground, rolling across the floor.
I advanced, sword up, and then brought it crashing down toward her neck, but she brought up her arm to block. My sword cracked through her bare bone arm and severed her forearm and hand from her body. They hit the ground and fell still until slowly dissolving into just a few old bone fragments.
She screamed and got back to her feet. In a rage, she lunged at me, swinging violently toward me, but I managed to easily dodge the ill-timed and poorly balanced attacks. We danced around the room as I began to attack back, cutting through the air until one blow hit hard enough to knock her down, sending her tumbling to the ground.
"It's over," I said. "This is where it ends."
She looked down at the ground and slowly put down her sword. As I reached toward it, I saw her move.
Her free hand scooped up the bones she'd lost and popped them into her mouth before grabbing her sword again and getting back to her feet. I watched in horror as the bones clattered through her rib cage and then bounced out the open bits of her body and hit the ground.
Grey smoke billowed from the bones and slowly human shapes began to form amidst the smoke and shadows. Two copies of the Bone Queen appeared out of the shadows. The three turned to grin at one another and then rushed me.
Blocking six hands and a sword put my body into overdrive as I stumbled backwards, struggling to block hit after hit that flew my way. Hands with bone tipped fingers clawed at my flesh, but I avoided the sword easily even as the bone hands grabbed at my arms, hair, and clothes.
Two arms wrapped around me and dragged me to the ground. Despite my struggling I felt myself fall onto the ground, prone and watching the shadow of the sword rise above my neck.
I tried to roll away but another of the cloned Bone Queens grabbed at my wrists and held me steady. I struggled as the blade over my neck raised and then started rushing toward me.
Instead of the brief flare of pain then nothing that I expected, instead I heard something slam into the bone queen holding the sword. There was an oof and then the distinct sound of two bodies hitting the floor and the blade hitting the ground. Jackson thudded to the floor beside me, rolling across the ground, struggling with one of the Bone Queen copies.
Taking the moment of distraction, I slammed my elbow into the face of the creature holding me down. It reeled backwards and another quick blow slamming the nose into the brain sent it stumbling into dust.
Jackson and another Bone Queen struggled on the floor, Jackson fighting wildly as clawed hands closed around her throat. She looked at me, then behind me. I turned just in time to avoid another copy swinging the sword toward where my head had just been.
Dropping low to the ground, I launched myself at the attacker. My shoulder slammed into the empty space beneath her rib cage and pushed forward into the empty cavern of her chest until it bumped into her spine. I pushed my shoulder and arm upward to rip through her rib cage, feeling the brittle bones give way under my touch. She screamed, then dropped into dust with the sword landing at my feet.
Grabbing her sword, I turned back to Jackson and her struggle. Her eyes were wide, red rimmed and her skin turning ashen and grey around her throat as the Bone Queen’s fingers ripped into her. Jackson grabbed at the necklace on the ground by her, and, with a last burst of strength, pushed it across the floor toward me. Then she fell silent and still.
The Bone Queen and I both lunged for the flickering gem on the ground, but I just barely grazed it first, pulling it from her touch and rolling back to my feet.
She lurched for me again, but I sidestepped and blocked her attack, slicing across her arm with her own sword. She howled and grabbed at my arm. Her skin had melted away and now only a blank skull with strands of black hair whipping wildly around it stared back at me.
I slammed her sword straight between her eyes, ripping through bone. A screaming wind tore through the chambers as her body dropped to the ground. I grabbed the second gem from the ground and pulled the sword free from the now totally still body of the Bone Queen before rushing for Jackson’s side.
I shook her shoulder, but she didn’t move.
“You have to finish it,” Aramis’ voice spoke up.
Chapter 16
I jumped and spun toward Aramis’ body, now sitting up, head attached and looking like nothing had happened.
“What?” I stared at him.
He tapped his chest. “So long as this gem is in me, I can’t die.” He let his fingers curl into his ribcage. “You need to destroy these gems before Renata wakes again. You’ve only stopped her momentarily.”
Slow realization hit me. “You knew all along that stopping her meant you would have to die.”
He smiled. “I’ve lived longer than I ever wanted to. I’m ready.” His fingers curled around the gem in his chest. “Once I rip this out, you have to use her sword to destroy the rest of the gems. That will take care of everything. That’s the only way.”
I slowly nodded. “After all this, that ought to be easy.”
He smiled. “Give me a good burial?” he asked.
“The best,” I promised. “Thank you, Aramis.”
He flashed a grin at me before closing his eyes. Taking a deep breath, he ripped the stone free from his body. Instantly, his skin melted away until nothing but a pile of bones remained, the skeletal hand still clutching at the stone.
I carefully pulled the stone from my friend’s hand, and turned back to the still body of the Bone Queen.
She started to move and I knew time was nearly gone. I ripped the gem free from the golden necklace and placed it and the stone from Aramis over her throat and immediately slammed the sword through them and her.
Light ruptured from the inside out of the Bone Queen, ripping through her slowly, obliterating her skull then down her spine, and burning away every fragment of bone that it touched. As the light tore through her she lurched toward me, wrapping her hands around my throat. I coughed, pain searing through me and eating me up. Light flickered all around me until the flaring pain became overwhelming; everything went white hot and silent.
Chapter 17
Something slammed into my chest.
A violent cough sent me doubling over, struggling with the weight over my chest. I groaned, "What the-"
"Don't you ever scare me like that again!" Jackson snapped overhead. "God, what were you doing?"
"Exactly what I told you I'd do, getting rid of the Bone Queen." I said, catching my breath.
"Yeah, well next time don't try to take yourself out doing it. I won't always be around to breathe life back into you, got it?" she ordered.
I smiled faintly. "Got it." I rubbed my head, looking around.
Only a few strands of dark hair and a small piece of metal from the hilt of the sword remained of the Bone Queen.
I turned toward Jackson. “You were dead.”
Jackson blinked. “I came to and found you dead! I was just unconscious. What were you even thinking?" Jackson demanded.
I coughed and sat up, rubbing my chest, bruised ribs at least. "What do you think I was doing? Having a picnic with the Bone Queen? What did you expect me to do? I had to do what I had to do to make sure that she was stopped. All those gems are gone now, and according to what Aramis told us that means that she's gone, that she can't come back and do this anymore." I said, "That's worth any risk, even my own life."
Jackson frowned. "Well, regardless, I'm glad you're alright," she said, offering her hand and helping me get to my feet. "Now, if we're done, we still need to find a way out of here."
“First,” I shakily got to my feet and found the collection of Aramis’ bones, “help me collect these. Looks like we’ve got two funerals to put on.”
Jackson looked over and
bit at her lip. “That’s Aramis, isn’t it?”
I nodded silently.
She closed her eyes for a few seconds before joining me in collecting the bones and carefully putting them into her bag.
I groaned in pain at putting weight on my leg, but took a deep breath and pushed through it.
"This place looks well built, like the bottom of a building of some sort. I bet we can find a staircase or something. There has to be some way out of here and back to the surface. I'd kill for some fresh air." Jackson said.
Every part of my body felt tender and bruised. Hell, every part of me probably was bruised, but I felt somehow lighter. "She's gone. She's really gone." I shook my head, laughing. "You know, for a minute there, just a minute, I really thought she had me."
"I don't think anyone will ever really have you down for long," Jackson said, guiding me toward a hallway at the edge of the room.
"That's a lot more faith in me than you had when we first met," I said.
"Let's just say you're very persuasive after I've seen you in action," she said before she turned and took a quick walk around the wall. Pushing aside a few loose bricks, she called, "Hey, stairs leading upwards!"
"Told you." I tried to increase my walking pace to get to the stairs.
Jackson helped me, making sure I stayed upright in my haste to get up the stairs.
I stumbled a few times, but Jackson kept me from face planting and eating the clay. I grunted in pain as we climbed higher up the stairs and streaks of sunlight began to appear. The air warmed and suddenly wasn't so stale and coarse in my lungs. Against the burning pain of my injuries, I took a deep breath and then let it all out.
"God that feels good," I murmured.
Jackson nodded beside me, taking her own slow, deep breaths. She finally turned to me and asked, "What are we going to do about Aramis and Eten?"
I took a deep breath. "Well, we made a promise to them, right? We promised that we'd get a real burial site, somewhere that Eten could rest in."