‘If there is someone lying in a pool of blood before you, begging, can you …’ Lex began but shook his head. ‘I don’t know if I can.’ Damn Euryale, I thought. I would not. ‘But I will try. For you. You are a great boon to us, Shannon,’ Lex said and glowered at Ulrich, who had snorted. ‘She can damned well heal. She can keep us alive, perhaps.’
‘She does not have the heart of a killer,’ Ulrich said heavily. Anja put a hand on his biceps, and he shuddered and spoke, reluctantly but honestly. ‘That is fine. I don’t know if I have one either. Neither do the poor bastards we are to fight.’ He visibly forced himself to act, and he grabbed at a very tall and heavy wooden long sword with a slightly curving edge. ‘Don’t be useless, Shannon.’ Dana was scowling to herself; apparently upset, and I thought she might be, for they were relying on me, not her to keep them alive.
I picked up a long, sturdy sword I had wanted, much like a longsword, and I loved the way it felt in my hand. I missed Father’s training with the blade. Anja grabbed a shield and an ax, complementing her brothers. She grunted at us. ‘Remember, we are allied. In this we are, and to fail at that, will condemn all of us.’
‘I’ve never wanted a fight with anyone,’ Albine spat.
‘We don’t,’ Ulrich grunted, ‘but today we will work together.’
Lex grabbed a simple wooden axe, Cherry took a thin sword, and we were nearly ready, save for Albine. She picked up a hammer. I nodded at Able; I would try to help her. All of them. In the fight if not in escape.
‘Come then,’ Cosia told us, waving at the door.
And so we went. Imagine that if you can, marching from the doorway, in a similar manner you have done for the past year, but this time at the end of the road, you will be fighting for your life. We were all solemn, but Dana was still walking out the front, brazenly holding her weapon, and casting eyes around the dark recesses of the stairways as we went down the stairs. Her eyes met mine, she smiled, coldly, nervously, scourging me, and I nodded at her. I would not fail her, either.
But how could I not? To kill someone? Impossible. Perhaps Ulrich was right to doubt me. I was useless, even if I was not mad, after all.
We were herded to the main foyer. I stopped in the doorway, clutching at my shoulder. The sun was shining and that would make the Rot happy. My shoulder had been numb, but I felt a tickle, a nudge in it. I fought the instinct to look at it, and Cosia nudged me with her armored foot. ‘Don’t get shy, girl.’ I stepped out, imagining my skin crawling with the strange stick figures, uncannily, terribly hungry, thirsty for the flesh beneath. The light bringer Mar, the strange star was just raising to the morning sky, chasing the two moons, one red, one white across the golden dark horizon, and we shivered in the cold air. Bilac and Cosia pointed us towards a spiraling stairway on the edge of the high tower, and we took it, walking precariously down the old steps. The snow had melted during the night into cold puddles, and the other Ten Tears were staring at my boots enviously.
We came to an old street, once broad and very beautiful, that much was obvious. It was littered with pillared shops and marble fronts. It was now missing roofs, and buildings had collapsed onto the street in many places. We marched up that street, where the bones of humans were evident. Then, amidst a burnt building, a giant skeleton’s foot in rusty armor could be seen amidst the rubble. Our eyes were wide at the sight as they herded us toward a ruin at the end of the street.
It grew as we approached it, and we guessed it had once been an important building in the capital of House Timmerion. ‘Look at that shit,’ Lex wondered. ‘Fit for a dozen presidents.’
‘For the King,’ I whispered. ‘And richer than ours.’
‘Kings and politicians,’ Albine said. ‘Emperors. That’s what it’s fit for. Bonaparte would love it.’
‘He would,’ Lex murmured.
Dmitri spat. ‘Didn’t we just drive him from his throne? He has a cottage now, in some island?’
‘He escaped,’ Albine said.
‘Silence!’ Cosia yelled, ‘It is no palace. It is a tomb.’
It was a domed, marble building of formerly gilded walls, burnt and crushed in many places. We climbed the rubble and the cracked stairs and got up to the edge of the main building, hovering near doors that were twenty feet high. We were herded inside by Bilac’s savage pushes and Cosia’s impatient growls and there, after a short, dark hallway that had been stripped clean of anything valuable, we faced an arena. Cosia grinned as we gazed over the thousands of dusty seats at the labyrinthine, round bottom with crumbling walls, shadowy corridors and pools of water, miles wide. ‘That is what remains of Lion’s Maw. A great theater once, the floor is gone and only the vast underground rooms and storehouses remain. A dangerous place, to be sure, even without the Twisted Necks lurking inside. It is oval shaped and near three miles wide. You will go down there and face your opposition. Some might come back if you work well together.’
‘Where is the opposition? These Twisted Necks,’ Alexei asked nervously, his shield banging on his mace. ‘You said inside?’
‘Shut up. They are coming,’ Bilac growled. ‘Listen up. Do not waste your energies. Use them when you must and only when you are sure it will have a suitable … effect. Waste is death. You might go into a panic and gather too much of the Shades, then release it too soon and too sloppily, the weave imperfect, and that will be doom for you. You might release spells of Fury until you burn up, even after there is only work for a simple sword, finishing the wounded. Do not waste your power. Use only as much as you know you can hold. Keep your heads. That is as important as your power.’
‘Here,’ Cosia said, pulling Dana to her. ‘Look.’
Opposite us, in the bottom of the labyrinth, our foes appeared. Humans like us, most young, apparently, they were a nervous bunch. A tall brunette girl was gesturing at us, perhaps their leader, exhorting them. Most were boys, three were but kids. Bilac grunted. Cosia was whispering to Dana. ‘See them. Kill them.’ My sister was nodding.
Bilac smiled at us. ‘Dana will lead you. You will obey her.’
‘What the …’ Ulrich began, and Dana turned to mock him with her eyes.
Dana smiled nervously. ‘They don’t have a chance.’
‘They do,’ Bilac warned. ‘Do not underestimate them. Some of them discovered particular spells when they arrived. Just like some of you did. Perhaps they have humble skills, as well. And speaking of which, I will find out why the doors are open so often.’ She glowered at us briefly, and I bit my lip to stop from giving Anja away with my eyes.
A horn blared mournfully, the flat tone rising in note and then it ended abruptly.
‘There is no more ceremony to this than that,’ Cosia stated. ‘When the horn sounds again, the battle begins. Go and fight. I bet against you, by the way, so do not bother coming back. If you do, you will be killers the lot, with scars you’ll carry for the rest of your miserable lives.’ She snorted and pointed at an archway to the side, one leading to the labyrinth. Bilac snapped her fingers, her ring glowed briefly, and we gained the access to the Shades. We caressed it for a moment, enjoying its stunning wholeness; the mystery of the filling Void, and we saw the Twisted Necks moving to where we could not see them. Cosia cursed at us, and we roused ourselves and walked for the way down, stumbling through the small incline that had once been a marble-laden stairway with fanciful paintings of winged lions. Alexei cursed profusely as he stabbed his heel on some sharp stones. A stub of a statue was guarding the ominous door below.
We entered it and reached the darkness, the tunnels running whichever way. Our Bone Fetters were glowing in the dark. ‘Stay together?’ Dmitri asked.
‘And get fried all at once?’ Ulrich said. ‘Teams, we shall do teams.’
‘I suppose I know the teams you have in mind,’ Dana smirked. ‘You and the rest together, Shannon and I alone at the front. No. We have no way to keep in touch. It’s a maze. We don’t know it. And you will do what I tell you to do.’ She faced the big man with a
cheerful smile. Ulrich shuddered in violent anger, but Anja again calmed him with a soft whisper.
‘You got better ideas?’ Ulrich grunted, pained with humiliation.
‘Sure,’ Dana grinned. ‘Tear your robes and wrap up the fetters. All save one. You.’
‘What do you mean? Save for Ulrich?’ Dmitri asked. ‘For what?’
Anja slapped his forehead. ‘To be a damned decoy while the rest will be invisible in this murk. I’ll do it. The dangerous part.’
Ulrich squared his shoulders. ‘No. The bitch is in command, isn’t she? I’ll do it.’
‘Very brave.’ Dana said, as she knew he would not lose face by refusing. ‘Don’t get hurt.’
‘I’ll make sure I don’t,’ he spat.
We tore at the robes and wrapped up our forearms tightly so there was no light emanating from the Bone Fetters. Albine gave me a strip of hers. We stared at each other in silence. Ways were branching right and left and a tight one just ahead. ‘Let’s go forward,’ Ulrich said. ‘Grab them by the throat.’
‘Lead on, bait,’ Dana grinned. ‘That way.’ She pointed right. ‘We’ll burn them up, all right.’
‘The horn has not been blown,’ Alexei said dubiously, but shrugged. ‘But yeah, I suppose we should move. It was not against the rules. There are none, just the way we like it.’ He pushed Dmitri, who laughed back, sweating in fear.
Ulrich hefted his heavy blade and walked forward. The water was dripping, and above us, the walls glistened where ancient bits of masonry and heavy timber hung broken. ‘It’s incredibly like earth this place,’ Lex was whispering. ‘They build stuff just like we do.’
‘This is prettier. Some buildings have not been built by manual labor,’ I whispered. ‘They used magic. Spells of Gift.’
‘This could be in Rome, much like the Coliseum,’ Albine said. ‘We visited it once with the family. On business. Some old buildings can be seen, stabbing out of dust.’
‘Well, they built here first, then on earth,’ I said. ‘Our ancestors came from these lands or some other place. No wonder so many things remind us of home.’
‘This is our home now,’ Dana hissed. ‘Or grave, if you mess up. Give them no quarter unless you wish to take their place.’
‘We know how to fight,’ Anja said with a warning. ‘Not to kill but to fight. Perhaps you shall teach us how to take lives.’
‘Yes,’ Dana whispered.
The horn blared, and the note ended, ringing in our ears.
The echo of it went on and on, and we stood still, not quite comprehending we were now all potentially in danger of dying.
‘Go,’ Dana growled at Ulrich, who nodded despite his apparent anger at the imperious demand. Allies for now, he would have to be watched. We walked on, trying to stay quiet. In the shadows, a large snake slithered, and we took the time to avoid it. I was sweating in terror. Surely, Euryale would not risk our deaths. Mine and Dana’s? No. However, she might fail to protect me nonetheless, and perhaps she was mad enough to enjoy gambling away everything she had hoped to gain for such a long time, whatever that was. Her sister, even? Possibly. She was a First Born, and such creatures find logic boring, perhaps. We walked on, trying not to make too many distracting noises, but the slashes and scrapes echoing in the confines made it sound like an army was dragging its feet over the gravel. The way zigzagged many rooms opened up to the left and right, water dripped, a bit of wind buffeted the dark corners. A pack of rats ran down one way to the right. Ulrich passed it and followed a long corridor cutting left, walking for what I thought was the middle of the arena, but I gazed at the tunnel with rats.
Light. I saw a red light burning at the end of it. I bobbed up and down, and there was another. They disappeared. ‘Wait!’ I hissed. ‘Out there.’
Ulrich stopped and came to me. He stared down the passageway. Then he gazed at me, very close. ‘You sure?’
‘I’m bloody sure. They ran to the left,’ I hissed at him.
‘Follow me,’ Ulrich said heavily. ‘The healer’s got a hunch.’
‘I saw them,’ I insisted as they filed after Ulrich, giving me uncertain looks. ’I damned well did,’ I added. I was walking and trying to fathom how far it was to the passageway ahead. I was grasping at the healing spell, briefly, and then letting it go. I felt the others holding power as well, saw their spells in my mind and then, suddenly, a bit further off, two others. I felt them, just like I felt my friends’ magic and those of the gorgons. They were not too near though not far either. Previously, I had known there were other saa’dark in the tower, but now I could feel they were very near, and then I sensed their whereabouts. They were holding onto spells like ours, the familiar firewall weave. I stopped. I felt them moving. To the left of us, two of them, definitely. Then, behind us. ‘Ulrich!’ I hissed. He stopped, looking at me incredulously.
‘What now?’ he hissed back. ‘You have to pee?’
‘I think they saw your glow. They’re coming from the tunnel we just left. I think. I … feel them.’
‘You sure?’ Lex asked. ‘I feel nothing but the Shades.’
‘You feel them?’ Dana asked, perplexed. ‘We all feel there’s something happening with the power, but you are saying you see individual spells?’
‘You are not seeing things again?’ Dmitri asked, turning me around, and I ripped my hand from his grasp.
‘I am not! No!’ I said. ‘They are coming. Two? More perhaps, but two, at least.’
‘She is special, is she not?’ Alexei smirked and clapped my back. ‘Sucks at rag balling but knows stuff. Where are they?’
‘I said behind us. Some are right over there, soon,’ I said with fear thrumming in my voice, turning to stare back at the corridor we left. ‘Get ready! Put the weapons away, or they will burn up.’
‘Good thinking,’ Anja grinned nervously, and Cherry smiled at me, nodding in appreciation I found briefly annoying. We turned to stare up the tunnel, a huddled bunch of people unsure of what to do. We slowly put down our weapons, and I held my breath, feeling foolish. Was I wrong? I turned to look back in the other direction, and Ulrich was about to explode. But he didn’t. Instead, he froze. A step echoed in the tunnel we had vacated. Then, lights, whisperings.
‘They are coming,’ Dana said. ‘She was right. Line up.’ They did.
‘I told you,’ I said darkly. ‘Should we speak to them first?’
‘No,’ Dana said quietly.
‘Hold,’ Ulrich added.
The enemy rounded the corner.
The enemy was young and scared.
One was a boy, with freckles and a quick, smart face, an astonished look on it. One was a girl, tall and gangly, with a scarred forehead. Her eyes were slanted and she looked like she was from far away. They were holding power, the same fiery spell we all knew. They took a tentative step forward as if wondering and doubting their eyes as they saw us standing there. I saw they were reluctant.
‘Wait!’ said the boy hurriedly. ‘We ran away because we don’t wish to …’
‘Kill them,’ Dana hissed and fire spewed out from her hands. That somehow ripped open the gates of hell and the Ten Tears; tense to begin with did the unthinkable. Screams were heard as my friends sought to bury their fears with fire, to survive, doubts pushed away by Dana’s initiative. Strings of flames danced from the outstretched hands of my compatriots, and I saw three rip through and engulf the boy’s torso. His face betrayed horror and surprise as the flames cut holes in him and then exploded around him to engulf the corridor and the floor. Water hissed and evaporated, rats died with brief squeals in hidden holes, and so did the boy, dropping to his knees in a terrible inferno, and then falling on his face, his hands gone. It all happened so fast it was hard to understand. He was but a child, and then he was dead. The girl had fallen onto her belly in the water and now she shrieked as the flames licked at her back. She shot up amidst the spreading flames, her hair on fire, and she ran off screaming.
‘Cut the spells,’ Dana shrieked. �
�Well done,’ she added.
‘He wanted to …’ I added in terror and saw Anja’s face, with a told-you-so look scourging me.
‘Die. He wanted to die for that is the only way for us out of this,’ Dana told me with bitter tones as she pushed me. ‘Down here, sister, I’m the one who makes miracles. I just taught the Ten Tears how to survive. In addition, we have more to do now. We will do it too. We know how.’
‘I …’ Lex began; his face shocked as he stared at the flaming corpse, but he did not finish as Anja pushed him.
‘She is right. We have to finish this and wonder about our souls later,’ she said hollowly. Dmitri and Alexei were picking up their weapons, and Dana was walking forward.
‘You feel anything else out there, sister?’ she asked.
‘Nothing near,’ I said with a trembling, angry voice, about to explode with emotion. Rage? Fear? ‘She is still holding the spell, but she is running.’
‘Let’s go, then,’ Dana hissed. My sister nodded, giving me an unsympathetic, challenging look and went forward. Albine beat her to it. Her face was ashen, and a bit mad, sweating in terror. She was whispering, and I caught what she was saying. ‘Able. Wait for me.’
‘Sister?’ Able said. ‘She is …’ Suicidal, I added in my mind.
‘After her,’ Albine said suddenly, her voice high-pitched and scared as she dodged past Dana, leaving her weapon. She jumped over the charred corpse, running after the burning girl. Able took after her.
‘Wait!’ Ulrich hissed as we grabbed at the wooden weapons. ‘Gods damn it!’
We ran after them, cursing as Dmitri spilled into a pool of slippery mucus, hindering us, but finally we scrambled after Albine and Able. We all stared at the dead boy as we passed him, and Anja was wiping tears off her face. His death would change everything. So far, we had been the victims. Now we had made a choice.
The Dark Levy: Stories of the Nine Worlds (Ten Tears Chronicles - a dark fantasy action adventure Book 1) Page 25