“Which proved oddly challenging. Though nothing I couldn’t handle.” He shot a wink at her, then gazed down into the water. “The connection you have with that other individual kept interfering. I managed to take it over one time, but you woke before we could speak. Then, another entity trying to get into your mind tried to block me out. In the end, as always, I was too quick and too clever for them. Yet all that effort proved pointless since you awake anytime something strange occurs in your dreams. You don’t sleep much, do you, Pearl?”
“Who are you and what do you want?” Her grip on Ragenoz Rako tightened.
“For a start, I want to help you get him back.” The man pointed to George Chaucer floating just below the water’s surface.
“You can do that?” Pearl lowered her sword, but not completely.
“There is little I can’t do, my dear,” the man gloated. He enjoyed looking down at Pearl. “However, all that I do comes with a price.”
“And what’s that?” She had to know what it would take to get her father back.
The man chuckled, as if he expected the question. “An eye for an eye, a soul for a soul.”
“My…soul?” She raised her sword.
“Pearl, my dear.” Seeing her hesitation, he wrapped his arm around her. Pearl wanted to shrug it off, but his words dazed her. “This water, it is not the simple liquid you drink. The Khaous bring the souls they have devoured to these cursed pools and leave them trapped like fireflies in glass jars. But this jar has no holes to let air in and the bugs, suffocating and suffering, do not die once, but over and over again as they are broken down. After a year of soaking in these pools, the souls forget much of their lives. Within a decade, they forget their own names. After a score, they lose all sense of identity. These timeframes are considerably short for the younger victims, and I do see several souls down there about your age. I wonder, what do they still remember?”
“I…” She wanted to save her father. Everything she had done to this point she did to avenge his death.
“Are you listening, Pearl?” the man coaxed her. “Your father’s soul, his identity, is being digested.”
“No.” She dipped under his arm and backed away from him. His smile disappeared for a moment, but he forced it back, though rage filled his eyes.
“No?” he repeated, his cheerful voice laced with malice. “No? Do you realize what you are refusing? I could bring this man back to you.”
“My father would not want me to sell my soul for him.”
“Your soul would stay with you,” the man clarified. “It would just belong to me.”
“It doesn’t matter.” The man’s calm façade melted when he heard this. He rushed towards her and lifted her into the air by her arms.
“Listen to me,” he growled. The labyrinth trembled somewhere on another side of the maze. The man’s black ring glowed with impossible black light, an illuminating void. “No one refuses me. Tell me what your soul is worth and it is yours, but I will not be refused.”
“You can’t have my soul.” Pearl tried to hide her fear, but she could see it in her reflection in the man’s eyes. He noticed her looking at his eyes, and the fire in them cooled as he set her down. He backed away from her and adjusted his jacket. His ring dimmed and the trembling throughout the labyrinth settled.
“What about the truth?” he offered, his voice cool and steady.
“The truth?” She hadn’t expected another offer.
“The truth.” He smiled again, but it had loss its charm, leaving only its venom. “You live in a world of mysteries and forgotten histories. Hasn’t your perception of the world been shaken by the knowledge you’ve gained under Theseus’s tutelage? So what about the mysteries of your life? Wouldn’t you like those truths?”
“Anything that I can learn on my own, I will.” She backed up to the water’s edge. “Besides, I’m used to being in the dark about things.”
“What are you doing?” the man demanded as Pearl knelt down and rolled up her sleeve.
“Getting my father back.” Pearl’s hand shot down towards the water, but stopped an inch above the surface. Somehow, the man had run to her and grabbed her wrist before she could touch the water.
“Stupid girl.” He threw her several feet away from the pool with an effortless shove. “After all I’ve told you about the water, you would touch it? At the slightest touch, the water would pull your soul right out of your body and what good would it be to me in there?”
“Why do you want my soul so bad?” Pearl’s eyes glanced down at Ragenoz Rako sitting next to the pool’s edge, shaken from her grip by the throw.
“I value anything that was promised to me.” The man dusted off the knees of his white pants. “Many years ago, most likely on the day of your birth, your mother wrote your name in my book. A fine gesture, to be sure, but of little substance. A name must be written with its bearer’s own blood. I am owed a debt, but cannot collect until you die or we strike a deal.”
“My…mother..?” The word caught in Pearl’s throat and a sadness filled her, though not the longing she expected. She looked at the man, as if for the first time. “Who are you?”
He took pride in announcing himself. “I am the Man in Black. I am the Fallen One. I am the Serpent of the Garden. I am the Devil. I am the Satan. I am Lucifer of the Morningstar.”
Pearl’s katana flashed through the air, a metallic blur. Lucifer raised his arm and the blade stopped against his sleeve without even cutting it. He pushed the sword away, a small motion, but strong enough to disarm Pearl.
“But I insist you call me ‘Lucifer.’” The attack didn’t even faze him. Pearl stared wide-eyed at the ineffectiveness of her strike. She could do him no harm. “And who are you?”
“I—wha..? You know who I am,” she stammered, still shocked and now confused. “Pearl Chaucer.”
“Chaucer…” Lucifer considered this. “No doubt your father’s name. Or was it your mother’s? She’s had so many. They’re impossible to remember.”
Before Pearl could say anything, he continued,” No, that’s right. No one is really a ‘Chaucer.’ Not your mother nor your father.” He pointed to her father’s ghost. “Nor this man.”
It took several long moments for his words to set in. “’This man’? This man is father, George—“
“Mallory,” Lucifer cut in, reveling in her confusion. “George Mallory. A demonologist of the Brotherhood of the Stolen Flame, assigned to protect you from your mother when you were a year old.”
“No,” Pearl denied. “No, he was my father. He is my father. He wouldn’t have lied…to me…why would he need to protect me from my mother?”
Lucifer retrieved and returned Pearl’s swords. Close to Pearl, he stroke her hair, his sweet, calming scent clashed with the sinister air surrounding him. “This is the woman who wrote your name in my Black Book. Judith Sexton is a dangerous woman, one of many traits you seem to have inherited from her.”
Pearl recognized her mother’s first name, but not ‘Sexton.’ Questions filled her head, and she knew only one way to get rid of them. “Who are the Sextons?”
“Oh, you want answers? I told you they would cost your soul, but I am enjoying how baffling this is for you, so I’ll give you some for free. The Sextons, your mother’s family, is an ancient lineage. Your forbearers settled in England while the country was under Roman rule, and not long after, pledged eternal fealty to me. And they have served me well ever since.”
“But…” Pearl looked at soul floating below the pool’s surface. “What about my father?”
“George Mallory is not your father,” Lucifer delighted in reminding her. “Your mother used the name ‘Chaucer’ to hide her heritage. George Mallory assumed the name as his own to quell the suspicions surrounding you and your mother, and to protect you from any harsh retribution.”
The ghost of George Mallory stared back at Pearl, his eyes full of hollow recognition. Trying to remember her pained him, and yet he bore the suffer
ing. “What about my brother?”
“Half-brother, since you only share a mother,” Lucifer teased. “Seems your mother can be very…persuasive, even with the most steadfast men. Mr. Mallory included.” His wicked laugh cracked like a whip. “‘Who are you?’ indeed. A bastard child, abandoned by her mother, oblivious of her true father, and lied to her entire life by a man posing as her father. Can you feel it? The veil lifting from your eyes. The foundation of your life falling away as you discover what you truly are.”
“And what is that?” His words assaulted Pearl’s mind, making it hard to think.
“Nothing.” His voice lost its faux cheer, replaced by somber monotone. “You are nothing. Vengeance brought you here, but you have nothing to avenge. You suffered the ‘witchspawn’ title your whole life because you thought it the unjustified hatred of a fearful people. But you are a witchspawn and they had every right to fear and hate you. So will you fight for them? Or will you fight for a Brotherhood you know nothing about? Do you truly believe in this mysterious group you joined?”
“Shut up.” She covered her ears and dropped to her knees. “Just shut up…please…shut up and tell me what you want…”
“You know what I want, but let me tell you what I can give you,” Lucifer knelt down next to her. “I have a need for you. I can give you a purpose. Give me your soul and I will rebuild your life. Sign with your blood in the Black Book and I will bring you to your mother and your brother.”
The offer enticed her, despite its poison. “My mother and my brother?”
“Yes, your family.” Pearl thought on this. She longed to ask her mother why she never came back for her, and to meet a brother she had never met.
“Pearl.” She whipped her head towards the pool of water. George Mallory’s ghost still waded just under the surface, almost out of sight, but Pearl could feel his eyes on her. A sense of security came over her, the same feeling she would get whenever her father stood between her and Crowley. She smiled as she remembered how big he seemed to grow whenever someone threatened her, but would look so meek and little afterwards. Her thoughts moved to Theseus, and how he had stood between her and the Khaous chasing her out of the forest. Theseus searching for her with the Ghost Boy at his side. Theseus offering to abandon his duties and take her to England to start a new life, not once, but twice. The Ghost Mother had made a similar offer. Yet here she stood, speaking to the Devil in a maze in a cavern underground.
“Here I stand.” She didn’t remember standing up. While not her true father, George Mallory had raised and protected her like one for as long as Pearl could remember. She loved him like a father, and he had loved her like a daughter. His assignment to protect Pearl had ended once her mother disappeared, but he had remained for Pearl. She touched her katana Theseus had given—no, entrusted to—to her. He had trained her in the ways of the sword, but how she used it fell on her. Subjected to the opinions and instructions of others for so long, she had forgotten her choices shaped her actions, as Theseus had told her so many times before. So she made another choice.
“No.”
“No?” Lucifer echoed as if he had never heard the word before. “No what?”
“You can’t have my soul.” With a swift pull, she drew Ragenoz Rako and raised it at Lucifer, who remained where he was, unfazed by her sudden moves. Pearl circled and kept an eye on him.
“So you’ve chosen a life devoid of purpose.” The labyrinth shook as his ring glowed with dark light.
“I’ve chosen to give purpose to my life, to follow my own path.” She smiled at George Mallory’s ghost. “That’s he would want. That’s what Theseus would want. And that’s what I want.”
“And your mother and brother?” This gave Pearl pause, but it passed.
“If they are alive, I will find them on my own.” The rumbling grew louder and closer, accompanied by the sound of crumbling stone and shattering walls.
“You fail to understand me. I will have what I am owed. A soul is still a soul, whether given willingly or stripped from a corpse, and yours belongs to me.” His voice lost any trace of goodwill, the cold poison of every word bit and stung like insects. “I would say ‘good bye,’ but I’m sure I will see you again shortly.”
Her Forewarn gave a short scream for her to move backwards as far and as fast as possible. As she backflipped away, the wall to her left exploded inward as something charged through it. When the dust cleared, Pearl gasped in the face of the giant bone construct towering over her, its tail of spines lashing about. It glared at her, slammed its hands into the ground, and roared, energy gathering in its mouth.
Not this time. Pearled thrusted her sword into the ground, swung her bow off her back, and nocked an arrow. As she held the arrow, she could feel the mana within becoming excited and the arrow glowed. She loosed it and in midflight the arrow turned into pure light and shot forward with a burst of acceleration. Struck dead in the chest, the bone construct staggered backwards, the energy in its mouth dissipating. Every shot she fired pushed the construct back another few feet. She drew one more arrow, held it longer than any of the arrows she had shot already, waiting until the arrow’s mana grew so excited the wood cracked, then fired it at the construct’s head.
The force of the shot tipped the construct over and it fell into the pool behind it, sending a spray of water into the air. An eerie moan echoed out as the souls in the water fell like rain. Pearl readied her bow, prepared for the monster’s reemergence. Two claws, each the size of a bear, breached the pool’s surface and dug into the ground as the construct pulled itself out of the half-empty pool with a clattering roar. The waters had combined with the construct’s bones, running beneath the outer shell of bones and pooling within its ribcage.
Pearl loosed a charged arrow, but before the arrow struck, a tendril of water surged out, blocking the arrow, then snaking back into the construct. Before Pearl could draw another arrow, a narrow bone fragment longer than her arm shot through the bow, breaking it in half, and pierced into the ground behind her. A quick shout from her Forewarn and a slight lean out of the way had spared Pearl the bow’s fate.
Discarding the two bow fragments, she pulled Ragenoz Rako out of the dirt. The bone construct thrusted its arms forward and they stretched out towards Pearl, two jets of bone and water. Pearl smiled, remembering the fight against the Grey King. She spun out of the way and cut into one of the arms as it rushed past her. The force of the water almost knocked her sword out of her hands, but she held tight. Though the bones lacked any Chaos energy in or around them, the energy saturated the water and her sword devoured it. The blade’s dark runes ignited with life. The construct’s arms closed in around her, wrapping into a ring to constrict her. She slashed in a circle to free herself, the water falling inert to the ground. The bones, controlled by a different magic, crawled through the dirt to return to the monster, no matter how much she smashed them.
It roared at her and once again gathered energy into its mouth, but Pearl charged forward, not giving it the time it needed. The construct reared back as Pearl leapt up at its head, and unleashed a stream of purple energy. Pearl swung down on the blast, splitting it around her and absorbing a portion of the energy into the runes. She hung in the air, her descent halted by the force of the attack, the back of her jacket flapping behind her like a pair of wings. Then, she felt the glowing warmth of Ragenoz Rako.
Fire like the wings of a great bird fanned out from the blade and wrapped around the construct. Water boiled and evaporated, bones burned and crumbled into char. The monster flailed around, trying to extinguish the flames enveloping its body, its agonized cries drawing Pearl’s sympathy. She rushed under its arms and stabbed into the skulls composing its head. The red light in the skull’s eye sockets snapped to darkness, and what remained of the construct’s body crumbled into an unmoving pyre. Pearl crawled out from among the bones and found herself face to face with her father. Freed from their watery prison, the other souls ascended to the cavern ceiling, taking
no notice of their savior. George Mallory watched them, then turned back to Pearl.
“Pearl.” He stroke her cheek, his touch like a drop of cold rain, but Pearl felt its warm love.
“Father.” She wiped a tear from her eye as he joined the others on their final journey. When he faded from sight, she climbed over the rubble of the fallen wall and walked along the path on the other side, unafraid of being attacked.
Chapter 17
An eerie calm had filled Pearl. The labyrinth, grave and silent like a crypt, remained empty since her fight with the bone construct. The Khaous no longer attacked her, though she suspected the Black Heart held them back. She found no trace of Theseus or the Ghost Boy either, and continued wandering the maze, using the position of the cavern’s sun as a reference point. Despite the ominous silence, Pearl knew the peace wouldn’t last forever and her arms hung ready by her swords.
The soft pitter-patter of small feet drawing closer stirred Pearl’s Forewarn and it rung a warning. Pearl pressed herself against the wall and drew Ragenoz Rako, careful not to make a sound. She reached the corner and peeked around. A young girl, about eleven or twelve years old, wearing a white dress that made her midnight black hair even darker, skipped down the path away from Pearl, then disappeared down a path to the left. A faint giggling floated through the air, though it sounded like an echo from much further away. The giggling faded like a specter, replaced by the sound of heavy footsteps running towards her position from her right. She made herself as small as possible against the wall, ready to lunge out. Theseus’s sudden appearance stunned Pearl silent, her mouth and tongue tumbling over sounds as she tried to call out. He searched the area with a frantic back and forth of his eyes, overlooking Pearl not an arm’s length away.
“Damn,” he swore as the ever quiet Ghost Boy joined him. “Lost her. Boy, can you find her?”
The Ghost Boy’s face tensed as he focused on his gloves. He released a burst of held breath and shook his head in failure. Theseus stood still, listening for something to give him direction.
The Lamplighter (Lamplighter Saga Book 0) Page 16