by Laken Cane
“Hand?” Rune asked.
“Shimmer lords have many special people who work for and with them,” Blue explained. “Hands are lieutenants of the lords. Without the hands, the lords are less powerful. They find their matches, somehow, and draw them into service. The hands are powerful. Normally, if a lord is taken, the hand will rule until the lord is returned or a new lord takes the throne.”
For a long moment, there was only silence.
“I’ll have the princess announced,” Nadaline said, finally.
At Z’s nod, she gave a short but intricate whistle, and before Rune could do more than look at Z quizzically, the biggest dog she’d ever seen loped toward them.
“Holy shit,” she said, impressed. “Is that a dog or a fucking pony?”
Z grinned. “This is Sorrow. She’s a messenger. Sorrow, this is—”
The enormous dog didn’t wait for introductions. She bent her front legs and bowed, leaving her rump up in the air.
It would have been funny but Sorrow was too stern and regal to invite amusement.
As Rune started to reach out and touch the dog, Mad Nadaline’s quick admonishment halted her.
“You can’t touch her,” the girl said. “She doesn’t like it.”
Sorrow ended her bow and turned to Blue, waiting for instructions.
“The princess has arrived,” Blue told the dog. “Send the word.”
The animal turned away, but not before Rune noticed something. “She’s pregnant.”
Sorrow snapped her head around and looked at Rune with such a human expression Rune felt a shiver of unease run through her.
“Impossible,” Blue said. “She can’t have puppies.”
“The very idea is ludicrous,” Nadaline agreed, almost apologetically.
But Sorrow kept staring.
She studied Rune, her stare like splinters of broken glass jabbing at Rune’s flesh.
Rune couldn’t move—could barely breathe—as that stare cut through her.
At last, the dog gave a satisfied huff, turned, and ran down the dirt road.
“That was fucked up,” Rune said, her voice a little hoarse. “What’s the dog’s story?”
Blue gave her a look she couldn’t interpret. “No idea. She’s from here.”
“She didn’t arrive like we did,” Z clarified. “She’s of this world. Not many are.”
“But you are,” Nadaline told Rune. Her voice was a husky, almost fearful whisper, as though she thought Rune might hit her for saying such a thing.
“I could be from anywhere.”
“No,” Blue said, flatly. “You couldn’t. You know you’re Skyllian. Born and…”
“And what?” Rune narrowed her eyes, suddenly angry. Suddenly afraid.
But Blue only shrugged. “You’re from here, is all I know.”
“You don’t really know it,” Z said.
“The legends say—”
“Fuck the legends,” Rune said. “Let’s get this shit started. I need to find Damascus. Either tell me where she is or take me there. Now.”
At that moment a…howl, it must have been a howl, blasted her eardrums. She started at the suddenness of it and flinched away from the sound, dropping her fangs.
“It’s just Sorrow,” Nadaline said. “She’s alerting the shimmers.”
Rune rubbed at the gooseflesh covering her arms. “The captured shimmers. Are their lords dead?”
“Not as far as we know. The witch holds them prisoner in her castles. She gains more pleasure from torturing them than from killing them. Their hands were captured with them. Only one hand was killed during capture.”
“Which one was killed?” Rune asked. She began walking down the long, dusty road with Blue, Z, and Mad Nadaline.
Z placed his hand against the small of her back, not to urge her on, but to maintain contact. She was glad.
“Ours,” Blue said. “The shimmer was captured just recently. When it was attacked, Death lord’s hand fought alongside us, though he was not supposed to. And even though Death Shimmer is protected by a hugely powerful army—the Army of Death and Darkness—it fell to the witch.” She gave Rune a dark look. “That is what we’re up against. Flesh is the last free shimmer.”
Rune took a deep breath and caught Z’s familiar, warm scent. “Do you know how much I want to ignore everything and hide away with you?”
He nodded. “I know.”
“Hiding isn’t possible,” Blue said, seeming to think Rune was actually considering it. “By now, the witch and her agents will know you’re here.”
Rune curled her lip. “I’d never hide from a fight.”
“Rune’s a protector,” Z said. “And a warrior. She doesn’t hide.”
Rune closed her eyes. Bad shit was coming. Whether she wanted it to or not, it was coming.
She stepped away from Z so she could think more clearly. “Do the people of the captured shimmers fight for Damascus?”
“They would,” Nadaline answered. “If she ordered them to. But she doesn’t need them. She has actual armies. Those captured simply fight each other and live in terror. Most of them, anyway. There’s nothing else they can do unless you—we—free them.”
“That will change now,” Blue disagreed. “Once word spreads that the princess has come, they will fight. They will fight against the witch.”
“They will fight for the…for Rune.” Nadaline’s smile lit up her face.
“There are larger clusters of rebels like us,” Z told her. “They fight Damascus, though most of them are dying out. She’s just too powerful. The ones who remain will fight with you.”
“We’ve been waiting for so long,” Blue said, grimly. “Waiting for the princess.” And in her eyes was a challenge.
Rune would have given just about anything to have had her crew at her side. “Then let’s go show them the wait is over.” She shot out her silver, undulating claws and they sliced through the still air with a sound like no other.
The sound, somehow, of hope.
Soon, the shimmers would stir with hope, with belief.
They believed the tales.
They believed Rune Alexander, the princess, had come to save them.
She wished she believed it as well.
Chapter Five
The first city they neared looked as if it had been copied from the ancient Rome of Rune’s world. It was majestic from a distance. Tall pillars and round, pristine buildings arose from the dusty earth. White column after column marched with solemnity into the horizon, disappearing from view with disconcerting abruptness.
And it was overflowing with people.
She could hear them, and she could smell them.
She wrinkled her nose at the stench of living beings packed together too tightly. It didn’t matter that she and the others were a quarter of a mile from the gates, she could smell those inside the city. “Is this…what the fuck shimmer are we in, anyway?”
“We’re still in shimmer three,” Blue said. “Death.”
“There are guards inside the city,” Mad Nadaline murmured. “Scores of them. We must be careful.” She glanced sideways at Rune, smiling. “Though the chances of our capture have significantly lessened with you here.”
“No one will capture you while you’re close to me,” Rune promised. “Do we need to go inside?”
“This is the city of Necrosis,” Blue told her. “It is the capitol of the death shimmer. Our lord inhabited this city and it was inside Necrosis that his hand was slaughtered.”
Rune raised her eyebrow. “Yeah?”
“The splintered Army of Death and Darkness is inside this city. It’s imperative they reconnect and fight for you. You’ll need them.”
“What makes you think they’ll follow us?”
Blue lifted her chin. “They’ll follow you.”
“Also,” Nadaline said, “I heard tell a new hand arrived. He’ll head them. Separated they are nothing. Led by their hand…”
“With the hand, the Ar
my of Death and Darkness is unstoppable,” Blue finished.
Rune lifted an eyebrow. “Their shimmer was taken and they’re hiding from the witch. I’m thinking unstoppable is a bit of a stretch.”
“Damascus took their leader. The members of the Army are not alive, exactly,” Z said. “They need a lord, leader, or hand who can command them. And it takes a very powerful person to do that.” He shrugged. “We need them.”
“First,” Blue said, “we have to get inside and find the new hand. He’ll have to call them. Animate them.”
“How do you know the hand is inside the city?”
“We don’t.” Blue’s voice was grim. “We believe he appeared there. There were reports from the city that the dead stirred.” She shook her head. “We’re almost sure.”
“Okay,” Rune said. “Fine. Let’s get inside the city and get our backup of death soldiers. But then we march on the shimmer of magic. I’m not wasting more time. Flesh will find us.”
She had to get the cure. Even if she could be cold enough to never take it back to her world, she was rotting.
No one disagreed, but she had a strong feeling they weren’t finished convincing her to visit the Flesh Shimmer before the journey to take down Damascus.
“Let’s make this quick,” she said, and shot out her claws.
Blue laughed, quietly. “It won’t happen quickly and before we’re out of the city we likely won’t…” She took a deep breath and gestured helplessly. “We may not all make it back out.” She looked at Z.
He gave her hair a quick tug. “We’ll make it out.” Then his gaze hardened as he glanced around at all of them, and lingered on Rune. “Stay together.”
Blue pulled silver blades from the sheaths strapped to both her thighs. She gave them a sharp whip through the air, and they lengthened to the size of swords.
“Impressive,” Rune said, and turned to Mad Nadaline. “What do you have?”
Nadaline shrugged. “I have a little touch of magic, Princess. I’ll make out okay.”
Rune smiled at Z. “You can still fight?”
“I’m Shiv Crew, sweet thing.” He returned her smile, his deep green eyes crinkling at the corners. He shook his dirty-blond hair out of his face, then slid his blades into his hands. “I can still do everything.”
He took her breath away.
“The witch’s army will be watching for us,” Blue interrupted. “They’ll know Rune will seek the dead.”
“Fuck them,” Rune said, wiping sweat from her forehead.
“They’re dangerous, Rune,” Nadaline said. “They—”
“Wait.” Z held up a finger. “Be quiet.”
Rune frowned. “What is it?”
He closed his eyes. “Something Gunnar the Ghoul said. Give me a second.”
Rune shivered as a cold, furtive finger scraped its way down her spine.
But at last he opened his eyes and shook his head. “It’s gone.”
“Maybe you’ll remember later,” Rune said. “Doesn’t matter. We know what we have to do.”
Why did the fucking ghoul have to be so cryptic? He could have told her everything and saved them all a hell of a lot of time and trouble.
Without another word, they began walking toward the city. They’d slip inside the gates and blend with the teaming humanity there.
“Where do we find the Army?” Rune asked, as they got closer to the city.
“We don’t,” Nadaline said. “We find the hand. He’ll find his dead.”
“They’ll be deep inside the ground,” Blue told her. “Buried.”
The terrain outside the city walls was rough and jagged. A single dirt road wound toward the city, bracketed on either side by malodorous ditches.
Trees grew in abundance, but the grass was dry and brown, the land flat.
“It’ll be hard to sneak in,” Rune said.
“Yes,” Z agreed. “Guards are everywhere. Fighting is unavoidable, but we need to dodge them for as long as possible.”
None of the people inside the city spilled over to the outside, and that was because, Z informed her, Damascus had forbidden it. They were all to stay inside the walls—even the guards and fighters she’d stationed there.
He’d also told her that other guards were patrolling the roads and woods, searching for rebels and escapees, but Rune saw none of them.
But as she and her little crew crouched behind the cover of trees and piles of huge, dusty stones, eyeing the surrounding area, a group of perhaps ten people ran screaming through the open city gates.
Z blew out a hard breath. “They’re as good as dead.”
“But a good distraction.” Blue’s voice was emotionless. “Wait for the guards to give chase and then we’ll run for the gates.”
Blue reminded Rune of the people she’d fought when she first entered Skyll.
The fighters had been cold. Unemotional.
But she understood. It was the only way to survive—mentally as well as physically.
The guards came.
Rune was expecting tall, helmeted men on horseback.
But the guards were not on horseback.
They were not even men.
“Fuck me,” she whispered.
Blue might have laughed, but Rune was too caught up in the drama unfolding to pay her much attention.
She felt Z squeeze her shoulder, and she shuddered. “What are they?”
“Monsters,” he replied. “Legislators, they’re called, and they belong to the witch. Get ready to run.”
Rune could have outrun them all and entered the gates like a flash of lightning, but she wouldn’t leave them behind.
As she ran, she didn’t see the looming gate or the rough terrain or Z at her side. She saw the guards.
Legislators.
Monsters.
The guards ran the people down and laughed as they slaughtered them.
She caught glimpses, and it was enough for her.
Standing at least twelve feet tall, they looked reasonably similar to upright buffalo. Coarse, curly hair, hooves on their feet, sharp horns curling from their enormous heads.
Faces and fingers and voices of men.
Having a good old time as they stomped skulls and tore limb from limb the ragged bunch who’d sought to escape the captured city.
One of the huge apparitions bared his teeth and ripped a strip of flesh from the white leg of one of the victims.
Without even thinking about it, she veered off her path and went for the legislators.
She didn’t care that they needed to sneak into the city. She didn’t care that she was ruining their chances of leaving the city with the Army of Death and Darkness.
Didn’t even think about it.
There was only rage in her mind.
And she, too, was a monster.
A hungry, angry monster.
Chapter Six
She ran snarling into the fray, and after a moment of entirely human-looking shock, the guards stopped their frenzied feeding and ran to meet her.
“Don’t you kill our princess,” Nadaline screamed.
As if.
As fucking if.
She streaked across the ground and jumped, climbing the first legislator like a fur-covered ladder—his head was hanging by a thread and he hadn’t yet fallen to the ground before she was driving her claws through the second one’s eyes.
Fighting, she was free.
She didn’t have to think or worry or fear.
Just kill.
Something inside her eased.
Each legislator’s death released a puff of thick greenish gas that smelled like…evil. Damascus was attached to her creations.
Would she feel their deaths?
Rune hoped so.
She hoped it would hurt.
Savage in her lust for blood, Rune tore into the guards with dark delight—and when the doomed guards began to roar in pain, panic, and fear, those inside the city were alerted.
Z was suddenly beside h
er, wielding his silver like he’d always done, every cut counting, every blow bringing pain to the enemy.
He was hers.
He’d always been hers.
Maybe even more importantly, she was his.
She barely noticed that Blue and Nadaline had joined the fight until she saw Blue twirling her two fancy swords like an angry, deadly ninja. At her back Nadaline glowed green and tossed devastating fireballs that made Rune think of—and miss—Lex.
“Dude,” Rune murmured, admiring.
Those inside the city—Damascus’s minions and shimmer prisoners alike—began to spill from the gates to fight. As though the people had just needed a push to activate them, they were abruptly changed from cringing, fearful men and women to outraged warriors.
They had no real weapons, but they grabbed stones, sticks, hammers, whatever they could find, and their desperation made them challengers to the horrible legislators.
“Where is the fucking Army?” Rune yelled to Z.
He shook his head. “We’ll have to wait for the hand to force them from the ground.”
“Fuck me.” Rune was fed up with the useless dead army. She sliced off a legislator’s arm and then impaled another enemy who was inches away from caving in Z’s gorgeous head.
“Great distraction,” Blue shouted, appearing beside Rune. “Let’s go while we can.” Then she hesitated. “Smart thing to do, attacking the guards.”
“Let’s go fetch the hand and wake the Army of Crap and Incompetence,” Rune replied. She wasn’t holding out any hope the hand would actually be found, but she was willing to give it a shot.
They ducked, fought, and sliced their way through the overwhelming crowds of people to run finally through the gates of the city.
“Where’s Nadaline?” Rune asked.
“Already inside,” Z answered.
The city wasn’t safe, but it was emptier of the witch’s people than it had been. Not that it really mattered—there was no chance of sneaking in under the radar after the attack.
The city was destroyed. Little remained but crumbling walls, destroyed roads, burnt buildings, and muddy, filthy lands.