“Theseus, the sword is working.” She leapt over one Khaous and stabbed her blade into the chest of another. “I feel…so strong and fast.”
“It…what?” Theseus froze for a moment. The roar of a charging Khaous moved him back into action. Bolts of light shot through the trees, killing Khaous and creating an opening. The boy leapt into the opening, and waved Theseus and Pearl through, holding off the Khaous with the beams from his glove.
“Go, go, go,” Theseus barked, pushing Pearl past the boy, who no longer stood behind when she looked back. Instead, she saw the surviving monsters chasing them.
“They’re gaining on us. Where are we going?”
“I don’t know, but the boy keeps pointing this way, so that’s where we go.”
Pearl looked up. The boy jumped and strode from branch to branch above and ahead of them. He stopped every once and awhile to point forward.
“What’s that?” Far ahead of them, two white boxes with black seams, similar to the boy’s glove, waited like sentinels. A blur dropped from the trees and landed between Pearl and Theseus. Something caught Pearl’s foot and she fell to the ground with an “oof.” A grunt from Theseus told Pearl he had fallen as well. She looked back at her feet to see the boy holding onto hers and Theseus’s ankles so tight, they couldn’t shake free. Beyond the boy, the Khaous bore down on them. She kicked at him. “Let go of me.”
When she started to pick herself up, the boy threw his body on top of hers, slamming her back to the ground. Before she could threaten him, the world lit up as white light streaked above them towards the Khaous. She followed the light back to its source, the two white boxes, opened to reveal a cluster of barrels firing bolts of light like the ones from the boy’s glove. The Khaous screamed as the bolts cut through them and they exploded into the mist of Chaos energy from which they spawned. The lights died away, but the boy stayed on top of Pearl, waiting. After a few seconds of silence, he pulled himself off and released Theseus’s arm. The boy offered Pearl a hand up and she thanked him. Theseus examined the white boxes as they closed and sealed themselves.
“Some kind of cannon, with multiple, rapid firing barrels that activate when Khaous are nearby. Made from the same material as that glove of yours, boy. But why put it here?” He looked over the boxes and laughed. “Oh that’s why. This is where you’ve brought us.”
“Where?”
“Where every boy runs to when he finds himself in trouble.” Theseus smiled. “Home.”
Chapter 14
Despite the lateness of the hour, the village of the Ghost People bustled with frantic activity as men, women, and children, dressed in tan deer skins similar to the boy’s, broke down their bark and hide covered buildings. Long structures designed for housing twenty or thirty people, though some could have housed up to fifty, came down with great urgency. They threw the pieces onto their backs and marched off into the forest like ants into an anthill.
“Why are they leaving?” Pearl asked. Bone white upside-down handprints painted upon tan faces studied them as they passed, unsure if friend or foe had entered what remained of their village. Either way, the villagers stayed out of their way.
“They’re not leaving,” Theseus corrected. “They’re fleeing.”
“From what?” Theseus didn’t answer. Pearl noticed more white boxes positioned along the village’s parameter. Poles, made of the white metal, staked throughout the village glowed with white light from their tips. Positioned so their lights overlapped, they reminded Pearl of New Bethlehem’s lamps. The boy led them to the only untouched building, a small hut with enough space for a handful of people. A warm fire inside the hut made the early morning that much colder.
Their arrival unannounced, they waited outside, until a woman emerged from behind the deer hide door. She bore no white handprint on her face. Her skin, darkened and hardened by the sun, aged her appearance, though her hair retained a youthful, ebony color. Her dress made of dark pelts melded with the night, making it hard to discern her form. She took a sullen look at them, then smiled, her entire visage softening. She transformed from a stony crone to caring grandmother.
“Well, Ghost Boy, you’ve brought some interesting guests home with you.” She spoke English better than Pearl.
Recognition flashed in Theseus’s eyes. “You.”
The woman lifted a hand to silence Theseus. “Last time we met, we were much younger.”
“Pearl, this is—“
“Names are powerful things,” the woman cut Theseus off. “All words carry magic, but names in particular can be dangerous. If you must, call me the Ghost Mother. Come inside.”
The hut lacked nay furnishing beyond a rolled up sleeping mat in the corner. They sat around the fire in the middle of the room, Theseus and Pearl on one side, their backs to the doorway, and the Ghost Mother opposite them, the Ghost Boy standing at her side. The older woman moved with the caution of a woman twice her and Theseus’s age, yet Pearl recognized the controlled movements of someone trying to appear frail and careful. She must have felt Pearl’s eyes on her because she stared straight at Pearl, her piercing gaze reading the chapters of Pearl’s life. Pearl didn’t sense any incursions within her mind, but steeled her mental defenses anyway. She distrusted the Ghost Mother, but thoughts of her own mother stirred in her presence.
“I would welcome you to our village.” The Ghost Mother spoke to Theseus, but continued to stare at Pearl. “But, as you saw, we are moving south. The winters here can be so cold.”
“Ah, winter,” Theseus pondered aloud, a smug smile crawling onto his face. The Ghost Mother smirked, but her eyes narrowed as they cut to Theseus. “Even though it’s months away.”
“When a man walks, he carries only his burdens. When a people walk, all burdens fall upon their shoulders. Travel takes time, especially with this many people. But we both know you have other implications.”
“What are you really running from?” Pearl blurted out. Theseus cringed at her, as if she had tripped over her own feet and landed flat on her face. The Ghost Mother looked at Pearl with withdrawn and distant eyes.
“Words born of ignorance are the spawn of fools, Pearl.” Hearing the Ghost Mother say her name incited more unexplainable contempt in Pearl. “I pray you’re strong enough to do more than flee should you ever confront the evils that cast shadows upon the Khaous.”
“‘Cast shadows upon’..? What do you mean?” Pearl looked at Theseus, but he kept his eyes forward. “There’s something more powerful than the Khaous?”
The Ghost Mother straightened her back and took a deep breath. “‘The Bright Ones.’ That is our name for them. They arrived in a thundering metal craft that fell from the stars, but landed as softly as the feather of a dove. They looked human, and wore metal clothing that glowed. When they spoke, it was in a tongue none had ever hear, yet all could understand. We welcomed them as gods, and they accepted us as kin. We gifted them with food and clothing, all that we could provide. In exchange, they gave us weapons.”
The Ghost Boy stepped forward and presented his armlet. In a series of clicks, the armlet unfolded around the Ghost Boy’s hand and lower arm. “These gifts were to be used to slay the Khaous, a task the Bright Ones charged onto us and a task for which we were already equipped. For years, we had been fighting the Khaous with ancient magics known only to our people. Or, at least, to the people we used to be. It had insured our survival for many years, but the cost was growing. When word came of a northern tribe surrendering their minds and bodies to their beast gods in order to fight off the Khaous, we accepted the Bright Ones as our masters and their weapons as our own. We were fools to think these new gods and their tools did not come with a price of their own, a price made clear in the Hill of the Shadow Heart.”
“The Black Hill,” Theseus translated.
“I figured that out by myself.” Pearl’s face reddened. She couldn’t stand the idea of this woman thinking less of her, a confusing thought given her distrust of the Ghost Mother.
The Ghost Mother smiled, as if she had read Pearl’s inner confusion, but continued her tale. “The Bright Ones returned to the stars in their craft, three remaining behind to aid our people. They sought to destroy the Shadow Heart and called for the warriors to follow them. All who entered the tunnels, the Ghost Boy’s parents among them, never returned. My father, the chief, had walked besides the Bright Ones into the hill, refusing to send his men anywhere he would not go. My mother, after months of waiting for his return, died off a broken heart, and it fell to me to lead my people. Fearing the retribution of the Bright Ones, we forsook our names, the name of our people, the power the gods had given us, our history, everything that shaped us. When they return, they will find nothing but ghosts.”
“Why would these people come for you?” Theseus asked.
“Because they are gods,” she corrected him. Wind rolled through the door cover, causing the fire to flicker. The Ghost Mother stared over Pearl and Theseus as though a frightful visitor had entered with the wind. She tried to whisper, but her fear only made her words louder. “Beings whose very words had power in them. You’ve seen what their weapons can do and they freely gave them to us. No being does that unless they’re certain their gifts can do them no harm.”
“You didn’t kill the Bright Ones,” Pearl pointed out. “Why should you be punished?”
“Why wouldn’t we be punished? How many times in the tales have displeased gods acted irrationally? How many times are the innocent punished by their hands for minor slights against them? We had accepted them as blood, so who else will they think guilty for the loss of their brethren?”
“Pearl, no more,” Theseus commanded. “It is not our place to judge anyone from hiding from divine vengeance. We, more than any others, know better.” Certain Pearl wouldn’t speak out, he asked the Ghost Mother, “Could you afford to leave behind one of your huts? We need shelter for the night.”
“You may have this one.” The Ghost Mother stood with grace and speed rivaling Pearl’s, her need for deception gone. “My ghosts journey to our new home, yet I am still here. As my father before me, I do not allow them to venture where I would not. Heh. It is the one thing no one can ever escape: being our parents’ children.” She began to leave, but stopped at the door. “Pearl, join me outside.”
Pearl looked to Theseus for guidance, but his face told her he had none to give. With a sigh, she followed the Ghost Mother outside, the Ghost Boy tailing both of them. A sentry just outside the hut’s opening followed Pearl with his eyes, making it clear he wasn’t here for her protection. Besides him, the hut was protected by four white boxes positioned in a square around it, as well as three of the glowing poles planted in a triangle formation. They watched in silence as a dozen men, oblivious of their audience, took apart the few remaining buildings.
“Why is he called the ‘Ghost Boy’? Are all boys named ‘Ghost Boy’?” Pearl asked first.
“The children are named at birth, but bear the title ‘The Ghost of…’ Had you been born among us, you would have been as ‘The Ghost of Pearl.’ The Ghost Boy was no different, until the day he abandoned all names and took a vow of silence. No one knows why he did it, but I suspect the suffering was too great when he truly came to understand the depth of his loss. He taught himself to move unnoticed and silently, much to the irritation of some of the other villagers, and the name ‘Ghost Boy’ has been with him ever since.”
“Come here.” The Ghost Mother drew Pearl closer, held her head still, and stared into her eyes. Her gaze locked Pearl’s eyes forward until she released Pearl several seconds later. “Thank you.”
“What just happened? I didn’t feel anything happen.”
“You shouldn’t have. Reading souls reveals as much as reading minds, without such invasive tactics. Yours revealed all it wanted to and nothing more, keeping your secrets safe. Go now. Rest. And tell Theseus I have questions for him.”
Theseus was spreading their sleeping mats out when Pearl reentered the hut, and left without a word when she told him of the Ghost Mother’s request. Pearl tried to settle in, but the mat did little to soften the ground. While sleep eluded her, she waited for Theseus to return. Despite conversing just outside, Theseus and the Ghost Mother’s hushed tones hid their words. After an hour of whispers, Theseus returned and laid on his mat.
“What did you talk about?”
“Things I’m well aware of.” He extinguished the fire with a wave of his hand and turned away.
***
A man wearing a white suit stood before Pearl. Wings of burnt whit feathers sprouted from his back. Behind him, half hidden by his wings knelt two people. He gestured to them and asked, “Want to make a trade?”
Pearl awoke soaked in sweat and wrestling with the blankets constricting and choking her. She tore them aside and stumbled out of the hut gasping for air. Cool morning mist, illuminated by the dim light of a sunrise trying to break through it, hung heavy on the trees and grass. As she took several deep breathes, Pearl discovered their hut stood alone. Where a village once stood, a large, green clearing remained. The sentry from the night before still stood by the door, one of the white metal poles in his hand. The Ghost People had taken the other poles and the white boxes in the night, so his was the last one. He locked eyes with Pearl one last time, then walked away without a word, disappearing into the mist. She returned to the hut and shook Theseus awake. “Theseus, it’s morning.”
He growled several curses at her and swung a slow, lazy fist at her, which she leaned out of the way to avoid. He continued to growl as he rolled off his mat and the two of them prepared their packs.
“Last night, the Ghost Mother offered to adopt you as a Ghost Person,” Theseus told her with a sleepy grumble. “You would have gone south with them instead of going to the Black Hill.”
“Did you tell her that I want to go to the Black Hill?” She secured her swords onto her belt and her bow and quiver onto her back. “That you already offered to take me away?”
“You’re still here, aren’t you?” Theseus chuckled. “She would have taken you away as you slept if I had told her to, but I knew you would hunt me down for such an insult.”
When they pulled back the deer hide door, they found the Ghost Boy waiting for them outside. He pointed to his chest, then to the two of them, and then raised three fingers to them.
“Does he…does he want to come with us, Theseus?”
“I think he does.”
“Do you want to come with us?” Pearl asked the Ghost Boy, who nodded. “Are you certain? Wouldn’t you rather be with your people? Your family?”
He doesn’t have a family, Pearl recalled. His story was much like hers and Theseus’s. The Ghost Boy shook his head, pointed at Theseus, then Pearl, and then himself. She mirrored the Boy’s actions, then held out her hand.
“We’re his family now,” Pearl informed Theseus. The Ghost Boy grinned and took Pearl’s hand.
Chapter 15
The Black Hill looked like any other grassy knoll, albeit taller and steeper. The clear moat-like lake around it was knee-deep and devoid of any life. But without other hills beside it, the singular Black Hill stood like a silent, invasive monolith. The air here pulled at Pearl’s breath, as if it was choking her. Two large doors, made of the darkest wood Pearl had ever seen, were embedded on the Hill’s eastern face, perpetual shadows hanging over the hillside and reminding Pearl of the darkness within. But as foreboding as they appeared, Pearl doubted their purpose.
“Aren’t doors useless here?” Pearl, Theseus, and the Ghost Boy observed the Hill from the tree line, a timber wall circumventing the Hill about a hundred yards away from its base. The similarities to the wall of trees that surrounded New Bethlehem haunted Pearl. The screams of that night threatened to return, but she took a deep breath and pushed them away. “I thought the Khaous could materialize anywhere during Nightfall.”
“The Hill itself is largely hollow and structurally unstable, so the Brotherhood ha
d to build up a wooden framework to prevent it from collapsing. That opening is the only secure entry to the tunnels from the surface. The doors themselves are the focus of a binding spell trapping the Khaous spawning within the Black Hill. The number of Khaous the Black Heart can create is proportionate to distance. The further away…”
“The fewer Khaous it’s able to create,” Pearl finished. “So the Black Heart has limits.”
“Exactly. This is the hope we must cling to.” Theseus patted her on the shoulder. “When the doors were built, the wood was brown. Over time, the Chaos energy within corrupted it.”
The Ghost Boy remained close to Pearl’s side as they crossed the wooden bridge over the lake to the doors, which grew more ominous as they drew closer. The morning sun glimmered on the lake as a light breeze shook ripples loose across the surface. Theseus stopped just before the door and held out his hand. The air between him and the door shimmer with heat, and the two doors opened with the sound of wood splitting, followed by a long, low moaning.
Stagnant air rushed out as fresh air blew past them to replace it. The sunlight shone straight through the doors into the Hill’s interior, but couldn’t illuminate the devouring black beyond the doors. But when Theseus and Pearl raised their lanterns, the darkness fled from the Fire of God. Joining them, the Ghost Boy created an orb of light in the palm of his glove. Their combined radiance reached to the ceiling high above them and stretched out in all directions, revealing a honeycomb-like structure of tunnels digging into the earth below them. With another wooden groan, the doors closed shut behind them, making them the sole beacon of light.
“Let’s see where we need to go.” Theseus unrolled his map of the tunnels, and Pearl took note of the differences in their actual surroundings. Something had dug countless new tunnels, more than those mapped by the Brotherhood. Nonetheless, Theseus found the tunnel entrance they had to go through and followed the route traced on the map. Pearl and the Ghost Boy kept an eye out for any Khaous lurking in the shadows, but Pearl’s Forewarn remained silent and they saw nothing but rocks fallen from the ceiling. The absence of the Khaous became more haunting than their presence.
The Lamplighter (Lamplighter Saga Book 0) Page 14