The Ghost Princess (Graylands Book 1)

by M. Walsh

  Again she picked up on something strange about her. Lily had a kind of almost ethereal quality about her. She was warm and friendly and, despite not wearing a coat of any kind, didn’t feel cold in the dreary weather.

  She thought of Kader and the girl he was searching for. She wondered, since he didn’t know her name or what she looked like, how he planned on finding her. Perhaps the girl would have a certain intangible quality about her? Would he just know it was her, simply speaking to her?

  Lily was talking, but she wasn’t paying attention. Dreading the words, she quietly asked, “Do you believe in destiny?”

  “What..?”

  The question echoed in Katrina’s mind, and she remembered that day, years ago, when she was asked that same thing. Back when she was just a young girl living in an orphanage, content to play with the other children with no worries or fears. But one seemingly random morning, everything changed for her.

  “Do you believe in destiny?” she repeated, her voice strained. She felt pressure form in her neck and started to feel lightheaded.

  “I don’t know,” Lily answered, as if it was part of casual discussion. “I guess it’s not something I really think about. Why do you ask?”

  Katrina was about to speak, when they suddenly heard thunder rumbling in the south. On the horizon, the sky had darkened to black, and a stark, freezing wind emanated from that direction. She felt her skin crawl. Something was happening in the south, and she could see from Lily’s face they both sensed it.

  The thunder died away, and with it, all sound ceased. The forest around them went quiet and still, and she likened it to some kind of deep breath before being plunged in ice water.

  The stillness was shattered by a piercing howl that echoed from the south. It surged over the land like a pulse, sounding like the screeching and cackling of wild animals. The sound chilled Katrina to her bones, and she felt sick to her stomach. She’d experienced this before.

  Somewhere in the south, demons were being summoned.

  As the howling faded away, Katrina grumbled, “Honestly ... what next?” Her craving for a drink overwhelmed her, and she took a big gulp from her flask.

  Lily stared at her, wide-eyed. “This wouldn’t happen to have anything to do with you, would it?”

  “At this point,” she said. “I would not be the least bit surprised.”

  “I hate to pry ... but I think now might be a good time to fill me in on what’s going on.”

  Katrina hung her head and sighed before explaining everything—Kader, his quest, the pirates, Sentries, and the Enforcer. When she finished, she looked at Lily and found an almost comical expression of bewilderment on her face.

  “Well,” Lily said after a long pause. “You weren’t kidding when you said you had a lot of shit going on.”

  “And since the entire universe seems to hate me, I guess we can add demons to the list.”

  “Yeah,” said Lily with a chuckle. “Imagine that.”

  Rubbing her forehead, she moaned. “I swear ... what the hell else could happ—”

  In an instant, Katrina felt her heart leap into her throat. Her eyes widened as shocking cold shot up and down her spine, and all color drained out of her body. Seeing the look on her face, Lily nervously turned around, and she followed suit upon seeing the massive man in black watching them.

  The Enforcer had found them.

  * * *

  Krutch Leeroy and his men heard the howling, even miles elsewhere in the forest. They had reluctantly followed Rien’s tracks, which led to a cliff. The Enforcer’s tracks followed, but it didn’t look like he caught her—although, truth be told, no one was willing to investigate much further with him lurking about. They left the bodies of the Sentries and Mage and set up camp a few miles away—but wouldn’t dare light a fire.

  Krutch did not sleep well, due to a combination of cold, discomfort, and—most of all—rampant paranoia, forcing him to spend much of the night lying awake, wide-eyed, and certain someone was going appear from the darkness and attack him. He thought every sound in the forest was the Enforcer, plowing his way into the camp and slaughtering everyone in sight. Every time he closed his eyes, he felt Cyfer Mord (if that was his real name) staring at him from the shadows, grinning, and waiting for the right moment to cut his throat.

  He was so uneasy he spent the entire night with his hand in his coat, clutching the weapon in his pocket.

  They were up and moving early the next morning. Everyone agreed to head for the western coast and join with the rest of their men waiting there. Krutch didn’t pay much attention, keeping to himself as they rode along.

  The only thing he noticed was they seemed to be missing one of their men. He recalled there being eight when Hobbs and Arkady found him in his bungalow. Two were killed by Rien. That would leave six, excluding himself, Hobbs, and Arkady—but that morning there was only five.

  He shrugged it off, figuring he either miscounted or the missing man deserted—and frankly he wouldn’t blame the guy if he had. He only regretted to see, if someone was going to jump ship, it wasn’t Cyfer. He lingered at the back of the group, smoking a cigarette.

  Feeling uncomfortable with him riding behind, Krutch slowed his horse down and wound up riding beside him—and immediately regretted this decision, because it implied he wanted to talk. Cyfer stared at him with a blank expression, while he squirmed and fidgeted on the horse. Even the horse Cyfer was riding seemed uncomfortable.

  Unable to take the silence any longer, he choked out, “Your, uh, your horse seems uneasy.”

  “Animals generally don’t like me.”

  Krutch nodded, and painful silence returned. “You know,” he blurted. “I’m not really supposed to be here.”

  No response.

  “I mean, everyone thinks I’m, like, this bad-ass pirate guy, but I’m, uh, I’m really not all that much.”

  Still no response.

  “I mean, if I could really be frank, all these people are always trying to kill me, and they’re, uh, they’re wasting their time. Really, I’m really not much to write home about.”

  Nothing.

  “So ... yeah. If, uh, someone was, like, out to kill me—um—because they thought it would be, uh, made them famous or something, they’d be wasting their time. I’m really nothing special.”

  There was a long pause. Cyfer took a deep drag from his cigarette, his face blank and expressionless. After exhaling the smoke, he finally said, “What in the hell are you talking about?”

  They had reached a wide enough clearing to allow a view of the south when the howling started. Krutch saw the blackened sky and happened to be thinking, That doesn’t look good at all, when it started. The horses squealed and whined, some coming close to bucking off their riders.

  Like Katrina and Lily, the men were struck by profound and foreboding dread that reached each one to their core. The shrill, inhuman howl echoed throughout the land, starting in the south and drifting into the north, sounding like the undead spirit of something nasty.

  “What the hell was that?” asked Krutch.

  “Something is stirring in the south,” said Arkady. “Something evil.”

  “You mean as opposed to us..?” Cyfer murmured.

  “No. Real evil.” He paused, his face turning very grim. “Demons.”

  The other pirates fell silent, and an unspoken fear passed through each of them—except for Cyfer, who looked bemused by the whole thing. They whispered among themselves—worries of demons and worse coming after them.

  “Hey,” Krutch blurted out. “You know my idea about just ditching this job and getting the hell out of here is still on the table. I don’t know how much we’re supposed to be getting paid, but I do believe the deal was to kidnap a woman and deliver her. I don’t recall anyone mentioning the Enforcer or freaking demons in the job description.”

  “Not going to lie, Hobbs,” one of the other pirates said. “But I’m starting to side with the boss on this one.” He paused, as if
it took a moment to realize what he just said. “And he is the boss, isn’t he..?”

  Hobbs looked frustrated and cornered, but before he could speak, Krutch took a deep breath and mustered some genuine courage. “Maybe you’ve forgotten that, Hobbs? Maybe you’ve been getting a little too used to speaking on my behalf? I think it’s time you remembered that I am Krutch Leeroy, and I am the boss of this little company, and I say piss on this shit-show!”

  His head was swimming, and his cheeks were flushed—which the other men took for anger, luckily.

  Taking another deep breath, he finished, “Or do I have to remind you that I’m the guy who ...” He hesitated, trying to remember any of the absurd stories about him. Drawing a blank, he improvised, “spit in the face of the great Devil-Lord-Master, Arr-Ru Beglaarrr!”

  There was a long pause. Hobbs stared at him, wide-eyed and confused. Cyfer looked highly amused by what he was seeing. The other pirates stared in awe. Finally, one of them asked, “Who is that..?”

  “Exactly!”

  10

  The Enforcer stood ten yards away, looking like a sentinel of doom within the gray fog and somehow even more threatening than when Katrina saw him the previous night. The bloodstained blade and ax were in his hands, and he stared at them from beneath his featureless mask. His shoulders heaved up and down with heavy breathing, as if he was in a state of constant anger.

  She ignored the familiar hint of panic brushing her heart, grabbed Lily’s hand, and started running. The forest wasn’t as thick, and the landscape was mostly flat. Her only hope was they’d come across some kind of cave or steep enough elevation, combined with the fog, allowing them to hide.

  Although she didn’t see him, Katrina could hear the Enforcer’s thudding footsteps following them. Despite their running at top speed, he seemed to be trailing them every step of the way. The forest began to sink downhill, but the land was still flat, and worse, the trees became more spread apart. Unless they found some kind of cover, the only option would be to make a stand.

  “There!” she said, seeing the faint hint of a stone structure through the fog.

  Running toward it, they found themselves in a clearing before coming across a massive archway of stone. If there had once been gates, they were long gone. Beyond the arch was a vast graveyard. Ancient tombstones of varying size spread out in tightly packed lines—some broken, all filthy. The stone structure was a dilapidated cathedral at the far end.

  Katrina tried not to take their ending up in an old cemetery as an omen and said, “I think we can hide in the cathedral. We might be able to ...”

  She turned and saw Lily standing frozen outside the archway. The color had drained from her face, and she was clutching her chest like her heart was hurting.

  “Lily..?” she asked. “What’s wrong?”

  Her eyes were wide, and she looked like a cornered animal. “I shouldn’t be here,” she moaned in a whisper. “I can’t ... I shouldn’t be here.”

  “Lily, we don’t have a choice. We can’t fight the Enforcer.”

  Lily looked around, her face starting to shine with sweat. Somewhere in the fog, they could hear the Enforcer approaching. “He’s coming,” she said. “We need someplace to hide.”

  “Then let’s go ...”

  “No!” Lily barked, snatching her hand away. She hesitated, her eyes shaking, and said, more calm, “You don’t understand. I’m not supposed to be here.”

  Katrina felt tension grip the back of her neck. It was bad enough she had to worry about suffering another panic attack, now it looked like Lily might have one of her own. The Enforcer was close.

  “Lily, we don’t have time for this,” she said, grabbing her by the wrist. “We have to go, now!”

  “You go inside,” Lily said, resisting. “I—I’ll find someplace else to hide.”

  “Are you crazy? Where are you going to go?”

  “I’ll be okay! Seriously, don’t worry about me!”

  The footsteps were closer.

  “Lily, I’m not—” Without realizing it, the words came out. And for a moment, Katrina’s normally harsh, scratchy voice sounded strong and sure: “I’m not going to leave you! Come on!”

  Gripping Lily’s wrist tight, she pulled her toward the ruined cathedral. Lily made one final, feeble attempt to dissuade her, then clenched her face, as if bracing for intense pain, and let herself be taken into the cemetery.

  They ran through the graveyard. Katrina forced away any unfortunate implications of the scene and ignored any unpleasant memories they suggested. She had no idea what this place was or who was buried here, but she considered even if there were some malevolent spirits haunting the cemetery, they couldn’t be worse than the Enforcer.

  Reaching the cathedral, she kicked down the rotted wooden door. The inside was dark, cold, and smelled of age and dust. Decayed clumps of wood that were once pews littered the grimy floor. Webs of all sorts hung from the walls and ceiling, and piles of long dead leaves had gathered in the corners. The center was a stone altar that was bare and showed no signs of what religion this place might have once worshipped. Katrina found nothing she could recognize of any faith she knew of.

  Behind the altar was a narrow entranceway leading to some kind of cellar. She took a quick glance inside—seeing it as a potential place to hide, but ensuring there was another way out should the Enforcer find them. Hints of light shined down in the far corners of the cellar, suggesting windows or openings in the foundation. Either way, she was confident they could slip out if necessary.

  She pushed Lily into the cellar and covered the entrance with a fallen stone tablet near the altar. Beneath the cathedral was even more dismal and grimy than the main floor. It was crowded with broken debris of wood and stone. What this garbage might have been in the cathedral’s heyday, Katrina could not have guessed.

  She led Lily to a far corner, near a small opening looking outside. The corner they were in was directly under and to the left of the entrance. Outside was nothing but eerie silence—not even the wind or sound of leaves blowing. She didn’t take that to heart. Somehow she suspected that was exactly when the Enforcer would make his presence known.

  She kept her eyes locked to the distance. The silence became more pronounced—almost unnaturally—as if the forest outside had frozen in space. She saw no movement among the trees. Without realizing it, her hand had gone to handle of her sword.

  Suddenly, a massive boot slammed down with a heavy thump only a few feet from the window. Katrina’s eyes drifted up, seeing the loose, ragged pants, torn shirt, and finally the blank mask with eyes revealing nothing. His gloved hands gripped the blade and ax, and she heard his muffled breathing, even from where she was.

  The Enforcer stood in the open, his thick chest heaving up and down. He scanned the area, slowly and robotically. Despite his mask, his body language revealed barely contained fury. Cold, calculating anger, ready to lash out. He took measured steps forward, not yet toward the cathedral, as if to make sure his prey wasn’t in sight before searching the ruin.

  Katrina’s heart pounded in her chest, and her skin turned clammy. Her hand was shaking, even as it was gripping the sword. She watched the Enforcer move about like a wolf carefully sniffing the air. He wandered out of her sight, not yet in the cathedral, and she wondered if he really didn’t know where they were or if he was lulling them into false security.

  That, she realized, was the hell of it. She didn’t know how intelligent—or unintelligent—the Enforcer was. He moved about like a drone with single-minded drive and pursuit. She saw anger in the way he lashed out at his prey—but he was at the same time dispassionate. Like a clockwork machine programmed to kill with barbaric savagery.

  The boot dropped down again, this time right outside the window. She flinched and almost drew her sword right there. She couldn’t see the rest of him and bit her tongue. Was he just toying with them? Did he know exactly where they were? Would that thick mitt of a hand spring down through the openin
g any moment and lock itself on her throat?

  Lily had propped her back against the wall and sank to the floor, looking ill and pained. She was shaking and clutched her head like it was going to split in two. Her breathing was rapid and hoarse—but she was trying to rein it in to not make a sound.

  Katrina looked at her and wondered what caused this sudden outburst. Until now, Lily had been nothing but calm, easy-going, and upbeat. Was it related to Enforcer? Katrina herself felt icy chills in his presence. Was it worse for Lily in some way? Or was it the cemetery? What could this place be—or have been—to cause her such distress?

  Outside, the Enforcer entered the cathedral. She heard his heavy steps even through the thick floor. Puffs of dust and cobwebs shook loose and wafted down with each step that slowly moved toward the back.

  She wondered if he would find the entrance to the cellar. How long would he look? And even if he left the cathedral and was out of sight, how could she be sure he wasn’t lying in wait for them to leave their hiding place?

  Again she cursed not being able to understand her foe. The Enforcer was an entirely unique beast, unlike any opponent or predator she could anticipate. For all she knew, he would stand guard outside and starve them out. Marauders would give up or assume they had escaped. Animals could sniff them out and would attack without hesitation. There was no guessing how the Enforcer would proceed.

  His footsteps reached the back of the cathedral. She looked out the opening and wondered if it would be worth trying to make an escape. They would have to move fast because who knew how long he’d linger in there. Her only concern was the dead leaves everywhere. Unless they moved carefully, they’d make a lot of noise.

  I’d have to hold him off while Lily escaped.

  The thought came to her so suddenly and abruptly, with such chilling certainty, Katrina almost didn’t think it was her own. It was only then she saw her hand had been at her sword the whole time, ready to draw. And most surprising, she realized, was her determination to ensure no harm would come to Lily—even if it meant trying to fight the Enforcer alone.