by Chad Huskins
The girls followed fast on her heels.
All around them, they heard the shrieks of fell creatures piercing the night.
: The Darkness and the Light:
They hastened into the alley, watching the world be lit by fiery fell-lightning that rippled across the clouds like a forest fire. The center of the main storm cloud turned black as smoke, then split open and birthed numerous balls of flame, which fell towards the earth like meteorites, most of them fizzling out long before they hit the earth. At the same time, the blizzard only intensified.
Drea held the Old Man up and pointed at the shadows all around. Thryis held tight, shivering. Drea was kept warm by the unnatural heat wafting off the Old Man, but Thryis was not so lucky.
Ahead of them, Lady Blackveil appeared to float a few inches above the ground; the only evidence that she wasn’t floating were her footprints in snow.
They passed down one dark alley after the next. They heard the whistles and alarms of Lictors close by. Somewhere behind them, a voice called out, “Over here! I’ve found fresh footprints!” More whistles went up, Lictors and Rain Guards closing in on the area where they’d heard the report of Lady Blackveil’s pistol.
Soon, they’ll follow those tracks back to their source, Drea thought. Back to the mariya shop where Dustrang’s corpse lies.
Overhead, more fell-lightning bloomed, bathing the world in an unnatural light. Lady Blackveil led them down the Lane of Fabrics, where a pair of Lictors was coming right towards them. Drea panicked. Thryis gasped. But the Lady merely waved a hand at them, gesturing that they should stand to one side of the lane. The Lictors passed right by them, despite the fact that the three of them must have looked suspicious, especially since two of them were holding pistols.
But as they rushed past, Lady Blackveil continued gesturing in the air, and the bluestones woven into her black stola glowed with darklight. Drea suddenly recalled what she had learned from The Essence of Stygian, that jypsite was required for Alchemy, but bluestones were necessary for Curses and Conduction.
Lady Blackveil clearly knew her trade, the Lictors passed right by them with nary a look in their direction. Drea and Thryis held their breaths, and exchanged a look of wonderment.
It’s as though we’re as invisible as air.
Once the lane was clear, the Lady waved for them to follow her. They ran up the Stairs of Arakus, then crossed onto the Avenue of Apothecaries, then hustled quietly down a series of winding alleys, and then onto the Street of Steam.
They passed a group of humming steam-powered generators that were mounted to the sides of buildings. These were the Collegium’s power substations, which channeled the electricity and pressurized steam coming from the Great Generator, then dispensed it to the wealthier neighborhoods.
There were a few late-night maintenance workers clinging to wooden ladders, checking on any substation pipes that had ruptured from the cold. None of the workers appeared to see the three ladies, for Lady Blackveil was still drawing her wardspell in the air.
As they crossed a bridge over the Split, an arc of fell-lightning flashed across the sky, and, for a moment, Drea thought she spotted a girl standing thirty feet or so in front of them, a pretty blonde-haired girl in a red stola, half lost amid the clouds of swirling snow…
“Saephis,” she whispered.
Lady Blackveil saw her, too, and quickly grabbed Drea by the wrist and pulled her and Thryis both behind a wagon someone had left parked on the side of the road. She waved for them to kneel, then peeked around the side of the wagon.
“The vehl probably led her to us,” she said. “They sniffed us out.”
“What do we do?” Drea asked.
“If she’s even half as strong a Conductor as her uncle,” said the Lady, “then there’s nothing either one of you can do.”
Just then, they heard whistles. And the ringing of the city’s bells. “A full alarm is going up,” Drea said.
“Yes, which means someone has probably found Lord Dustrang’s body. Lord Syphen’s curse on Dustrang led him straight to Dustrang, and he most likely told the Lictors.”
“One of the Triumverate is dead,” Drea said. “And now every Rain Guard and Lictor in the city will be looking for his killer.”
“But they can’t know it was us that took Dustrang,” Thryis pointed out.
“No,” the Lady said. “But Lord Syphen will surely suspect me. He knows I’ve returned, and he remembers how I came after his people before. So all the city’s guards will be looking for a woman fitting my description.” She looked at Drea meaningfully. “Which means they’re after me, not you two. You two can still get clear of this.”
“Then toss your weapon away and remove your veil,” Drea said. “Surely they can’t arrest every woman in the city on the off chance she might be Lady Blackv—”
The Lady silenced her by removing her veil, revealing a face horribly scarred. Thryis gasped, and Drea’s heart skipped. The eyes and nose were fine, but everything below the nose appeared to have suffered from some chemical burn, and the lower lip was peeled back to expose the teeth and gums in a permanent and ghastly grin.
“Veiled or unveiled,” the Lady said. “It makes no difference. Lord Syphen knows what to look for.” She covered her face back up, and touched Drea’s shoulder. “Take the Old Man. Get back to your cottage before anyone notices you’re missing.”
“I know you’re out here, Lady Blackveil!” shouted Saephis Syphen. “The vehl whispered it to me! Come out and say hello!”
Drea heard her tittering in that way she always did when teasing someone.
The Lady looked past Drea. “Thryis Ardenk, I approached you on the Street of Steel because I’d heard of your loyalties to Drea Kalder. Will you guard her, even at Death’s door?”
“Every fool knows this,” Thryis answered.
The Lady nodded. “Then you’re both in good hands. Go now, and let me face your new-sister alone. And if you make it home, tell Daedron Syphen…” She hesitated a moment, the next part looking like it pained her to say it. “Tell him he has a deal.”
“I will,” Drea said.
“And if ever you see the Host in your dreams again, run.”
“Where are you, my Lady?” Saephis taunted. “I know you’re here, the vehl are very adamant, very loyal! Don’t keep hiding! I know you’re very shy about your looks, but I promise I won’t tease you any!”
“Go,” Lady Blackveil said. She pointed behind them, to the mouth of an alley. “And whatever you do, don’t look back. You may not like what you see.”
Drea started to argue that they could make it together, somehow, but Thryis pulled her away by the hand, and they took off down the alley. The wind howled louder, and the fellstorm blasted the world with several bouts of thunder. Drea’s heart was in her throat, and she could tell by Thryis’s breathing that she was terrified.
Suddenly, behind them, they heard what sounded like an explosion, and an ear-piercing scream.
They heard Lady Blackveil call out. Her words echoed off the alley walls, and competed with the fellstorm’s thunder.
“Saephis Syphen, I am Lady Blackveil!” she cried. “And I’ve come here to kill the Thirteen Heroes! I am a daughter of Uda, and I’ve come to Drith with naught but venom in my heart! I am trained in the darkest of Arcana, and I came here to kill the pretenders to the Throne! I came here to kill your uncle, the fell-sorcerer Phaedos Syphen! I claim vengeance, and as I draw breath, I aim to kill until there are no Heroes left!”
Another explosion of thunder, and, when they looked back over their shoulders, Drea and Thryis both saw a strange darkness falling down from the sky.
It was exactly the same as the night she had been visited at her cottage. It was the same inky, formless shadow. It touched the rooftops all around them and then came cascading down the walls like an oil spill. Within that darkness, Drea saw hundreds of eyes, heard hundreds of whisperings.
Long, tenebrous shadows reached out to them. Fingers
. Tentacles. All of them were tickling the stone walls, groping the random trash they found in the alleys.
“Drea—”
“Don’t look, Thryis!” she shouted. “Don’t look at it, just keep running!”
The fellstorm exploded across the sky, shedding fire like a tree being shaken of its morning dew. The contradictions of the storm were manifold, the cold wind broken intermittently by waves of heat, the light fighting against the darkness.
Drea and Thryis ran up a flight of steps, then darted down an alleyway behind a row of mariya shops, then across the Forum. They passed beneath the feet of Loraci, then ran down a street where homeless people were huddled at the steps of the Temple of Mezu, begging the All-God to intervene and bring this mad storm to an end.
Down another alley, then across the Avenue of Song. They passed a homeless woman who was on her knees in the snow, looking up at the sky with her hands out to the side, her eyes showing a kind of foggy insanity. She was murmuring some prayer to Sora, the Mother of Mercy.
A flash of fell-lightning revealed a wall filled with crude graffiti behind the madwoman. And, amid all that of those randomly painted symbols, Drea caught sight of familiar words,
Kalder does not bend
Who put this here?
She barely had time to register the strangeness of the graffiti before she heard the terrible whispers in the air—the whispers of the vehl. Those noises came from everywhere, bleeding from the brick and mortar all around them.
Drea pulled Thryis down another alley, but Thryis tripped and fell over. She pushed herself up to one knee, wound up her clockwork leg, and said, “Keep going, Drea luv! I’m fine!”
They finally made it to the Avenue of Gods, passed the Senate, passed the statues of Mezu and Yanuus. They came to a row of houses, finally making it to the house of Lord Syphen. Panting, they came to a stop at a dead streetlight, hiding behind it. They peeked at the house, looking for any strange activity.
The fellstorm gave them light by which to see if any house guards were on alert outside. They saw nothing, and no one. All around them, the city bells were ringing, marking the death of a great man.
Drea looked at her friend. “All right, you have to go home now.”
“No, Drea!” Thryis said. “I’m coming with you.”
“Thryis, you’re not allowed inside—”
“We’ll sneak around the side, to the back of the house. I’ll escort you to your cottage and stay the night.”
“Thryis, if they see you—”
“I’ll hide beneath your bed if I have to, but I’m not leaving you alone! Not tonight, at least!”
Drea sighed. It would be no use arguing with Thryis when she was in this kind of a mood. “All right, but just tonight.”
They snuck through the narrow alley between the Syphenus house and a neighboring house. They made their way by the fell-light being released by the storm. But they had to be careful, for the same light that was allowing them to make their way to the cottage could allow house guards to spot them from far away.
“Hopefully, no one comes upon our tracks,” Drea whispered as they made their way across the back lawn and into the trees. She looked up at the sky. So far, she had seen no more sign of vehl, and heard no more demonic whispers.
We may be in the clear.
They came upon the cottage just as the fellstorm-cast shadows slashed across it. The snow wasn’t so deep amid the trees, making the trek easier.
As they approached the door, Thryis tripped. Her false leg had become entangled in a tree root, and she fell forward.
“Come on, Thryis. Almost there—” Drea stopped when she heard a screeching sound that jarred her. The trees around them hissed and rattled, and Drea was aware that the forest had grown darker. Looking up, she saw that the fellstorm was dimming, but not because it was dying out. No, there was something blanketing the trees…
“They’re here, Thryis,” Drea whispered. “They’re here.”
Drea turned in the direction of a sound. To her right, there were eyes peeking out from behind the trees.
Before her mind could grapple with the vision, black tentacles came racing out of the darkness, reaching for her! She saw the shapes coming at her, she saw rows upon rows of jagged teeth, twisting and spiraling as they came at her. The dark throats of a dozen vehl opened to swallow her and Thryis both.
The teeth chattered, Chitta-klak-chitta-klak-chitta-klak!
Drea just had time to bring the Old Man up to bear, and squeezed the trigger. The resulting boom! nearly burst her ears, and the recoil sent a shock of pain up through her wrist, elbow, and shoulder.
The Old Man’s bullet missed the vehl entirely, smacking into a tree and sending out shards of bark. I missed!
As it turned out, it didn’t matter, because a second later, the tree exploded as a hole was torn open in the air itself. It was as if a giant funnel had been opened, spreading wider and wider, revealing a deep, dark chasm, from which no light could escape. The trees bent towards that hole, as did all the shadows.
As were the vehl.
The demons screamed and clawed at the trees, searching for some kind of purchase, trying to keep from being pulled into that hole. They were being sucked in by a gale-force wind, one that didn’t affect Drea and Thryis at all. They stood there, holding each other and watching the demons as Lady Blackveil’s aphotic abyssal consumed them, sending them to what appeared to be a realm of infinite darkness.
Dozens of them were pulled in, and because the vehl were all nearly as black as that hole in the air, all Drea could see of them were their mad eyes and salivating teeth.
But the hole closed quickly, and not all vehl were pulled through. Drea could hear them whispering, chattering, skulking around in the dark. She caught glimpses of their inky-black bodies moving from tree to tree.
And she heard their teeth chattering away in the dark. Chitta-klak-chitta-klak-chitta-klak!
“Drea?”
“Yes, luv?”
“There’s more.”
“I know, luv.”
“Are we dreaming?”
“No, luv. Just stay close.”
They started backing up towards the cottage, for what little refuge it could offer. Drea pointed the Old Man at the darkness, straining her eyes to see the shapes moving around them.
Then, Thryis screamed and fell to the ground, and began sliding away from Drea, as though being dragged by some invisible force. “Drea!” she cried. Drea saw what had her—a single black tentacle, wrapped around her clockwork leg.
Simultaneously, Drea dove at her, caught her by the hand, and fired the Old Man at the sinister eyes she saw coming for them.
The Old Man barked loudly again, and once more tore a hole in reality. A second later, Drea realized she’d made a horrible mistake. The hole in the air pulled on the vehl, and as the demon was sucked into that dark void, it held tight to Thryis’s mechanical leg. Thryis was lifted off the ground, and Drea with her. They were both spinning in the air, the vehl’s other tentacles were reaching out to grab hold of the earth, the trees, the cottage, anything to prevent it from being devoured by the aphotic abyssal.
“Drea!” Thryis screamed, spinning in the air. The vehl had hold of her, trying to use her as an anchor.
“Hang on, Thryis!” Drea cried, pulling on her and trying to weigh her down.
“You have to let me go, luv!”
“No, I won’t—”
“You have to let me—”
The thought sprang to Drea’s mind all at once. While they were both spinning in the air, she wrapped her legs around Thryis’s waist, anchoring herself. She dropped the Old Man so that she could use both her hands to undo the straps on Thryis’s false leg. Drea forced herself not to look back at the vehl, or at the dark abyss they were both about to be sucked into.
Higher and higher they went, the vehl screeching at them and clutching at anything.
At last, the straps of Thryis’s legs came loose, and the prosth
etic leg was torn off in the vehl’s grip. Both of them plummeted twenty feet, their fall punctuated by hard branches. When they hit the ground, Drea’s head smacked against a rock hidden beneath the snow.
For a moment, her vision went blurry.
Chitta-klak-chitta-klak-chitta-klak!
She heard Thryis moaning. Drea pushed herself up off the ground, her hand searching for Thryis in the dark. She found her hand, and gave it a squeeze. “Thryis? Thryis luv—”
She heard the whispering of more vehl. Drea looked around and saw the dark shapes closing in on her. She searched the ground nearby for the Old Man, but couldn’t find where she’d tossed it.
Soon, the darkness enveloped her. She heard the chattering teeth all around her. Chitta-klak-chitta-klak-chitta-klak!
Drea knelt over Thryis, who appeared to be unconscious. “I’m sorry, Thryis,” she sobbed. “Your Drea tried…she tried…” She instinctively placed her body to cover Thryis’s, hoping they would take her and leave her friend. “I tried…I tried, luv…”
The vehl seemed to know she no longer had the Old Man to help her. They tittered as they closed in. Drea closed her eyes. She felt a cold, wet tentacle around her throat…
Ssssssssssssssssssss-chhhhuuuuuuuuuu
Drea opened her eyes and looked around. The tentacle that had been around her throat came away quickly. She heard indignant screams from the vehl all around her, and when she turned to look back at the source of the commotion, she found a large iron golem stepping out from behind the trees.
“Demonspawn of Underrealm,” the golem addressed them. His armor was breathing clouds of steam, and the crixstones on his gauntlets flash with green darklight. “Agents of the Fell Abyss. My name is Lord Hiss. Kill me, I beg you.”
: Curses and Revelation s:
At first, the vehl didn’t seem to know what to do with him. They circled him in the air like trout circling the lure, wanting to bite, but sensing a trap.
Drea shook Thryis to try and wake her, but her eyes were still fluttering. Drea stood up and grabbed her by both her arms. Luckily, losing a leg and working inside the Great Generator had made Thryis almost as light as a couple of down pillows, and Drea was able to drag her away towards the cottage.