by James Maxey
“Or he puts you on trial immediately for high crimes against the church and you’re dead before the day’s out.”
As I said this, the ice door cracked, suddenly collapsing beneath its own weight. Rather than the ogress and the friar, a tall woman with four arms and a pair of wings stood in the doorway. Save for being coated with fine silver fur, her face was a perfect match with Infidel.
“I apologize for eavesdropping,” Purity said, with a slight grin. “It’s the hound in me, I fear; I can hear every word spoken for a hundred yards in any direction.”
“You can hear me?” I asked.
“Menagerie’s animal senses detect you, if faintly,” Purity said. “Have you never felt as if dogs were sometimes staring at ghosts? It seems, indeed, they are.”
“Can they also feel ghosts?” I said, leaping forward, making a fist, putting all I had into a swing at her chin. I had one shot at taking her by surprise. That shot failed, my ghostly arm wafting through her.
“It seems not, now that you’re free of your driftwood shell,” she said.
“How about this?” Infidel shouted, hopping forward, raising her bound fists in an uppercut punch.
Alas, Purity caught Infidel’s arms with her hands and pushed her away. Infidel’s back slammed into the wall. Purity was on her a half second later, grabbing her by the neck, lifting her in the air.
“I like your spirit, princess,” Purity said. “I suspect your quickness to violence explains how you’ve managed to retain your virginity to the spinsterly age of thirty. You’re exactly who I need to wake Hush. Sacrificing one of my poor ice-maidens will never do when I can have the blood of a virgin princess!”
Infidel clawed at Purity’s wrist. “Your information is out of date. I’m not a virgin. I’m pregnant!”
“Pregnant by a ghost, via copulation in an abstract realm. In the material world, your physical form has never been defiled by a man!”
“Hey!” I protested. “She wasn’t defiled, period. We’re married! And wherever and however it happened, she is indeed pregnant. I saw our baby’s spirit glowing in her womb. Anyway, how can you possibly know what happened with us?”
Purity drew her face close to Infidel and sniffed the perspiration that now beaded on her brow.
“An ebony bird told me,” she said, staring into Infidel’s eyes. “You are pregnant. I can smell it in your sweat.”
“So you won’t be sacrificing her,” I said.
“So when I sacrifice her, I’ll be sacrificing two virgins at once,” said Purity.
“Why do you need to sacrifice anyone?” I asked. “What the hell is going on?”
“This world has seen its last sunrise,” said Purity, dismissing me with a wave. “There’s nothing you can do to stop me. The ogresses have gone to prepare the boats. Tarpok stands ready with the sacred harpoon. Stern even now dons his sacred garb and readies his Writ of Judgment. Leave this place, little ghost. I find your faint murmurs annoying.”
“It makes no sense!” I protested. “Killing the sun is insane! What can you possibly hope to gain from such a thing?”
Purity glanced at me. “An end to ceaseless, pointless chatter, to start with. I’ve been to the Promised Land, little ghost. I’ve seen the world in its pristine state, before the sky was tainted by the sun. All the world was once in permanent winter, beneath a silent, smooth blanket of white, slumbering like an innocent child, until it was raped by noise, by heat, by light. It is time to complete the circle, and return the world to purity.”
“You’re out of your frozen mind,” I said.
“And you’re annoying me,” Purity grumbled. “Go away, little ghost.”
When the Black Swan had used similar words, I’d been pushed away against my will. Whatever magic she’d used, Purity hadn’t mastered it. I felt no force compelling me to leave. So I wonder if she was surprised when I disappeared?
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
THAT INFIDEL
MY FINAL TEN minutes in the material world were somewhat hurried. Of course, I was unaware that my moments left were so few. Perhaps there were things I could have done differently, though it’s too late for second guessing.
With ten minutes left, I willed myself back to the deck of the Freewind, arriving at the speed of thought. The ship had been tidied up somewhat, but was still listing. From the bow of the ship, looking toward the stern, I couldn’t help but notice that the mizzenmast and the foremast were tilting in opposite directions.
The other thing I couldn’t help but notice was the giant. I blinked, certain that my phantom eyes were confused. There was a naked man at least a mile tall wading in the ocean beside the Freewind. The waves broke against his belly button. Above him, the darkest, most menacing storm clouds I’d ever seen churned violently, though for some reason the seas all around us were relatively calm and only the barest breeze stirred the air. Gale’s handiwork, perhaps?
“Your eyes do not deceive you,” said Jasmine Romer, materializing before me. “This is my eldest grandson, Levi, which is short for Leviathan. You may guess the magical gift granted him by the Mer-King.”
“He gets big?”
“And stays big,” said Jasmine. “Once, he was able to return to human size, but he has not done so since he fell in love with a young cloud giantess. He’s thrived in his new world, and is now a commander aboard a hurricane.”
This was interesting, but had nothing to do with my reason for returning to the ship. Before I could tell Jasmine about Infidel’s peril, Levi bent over the Freewind and used fingers the size of tree trunks to gently scoop up Cinnamon, Sage, and Poppy from the deck. He lifted them toward the swirling clouds high overhead. It made me notice how quiet the ship was. Shouldn’t ice-maidens still be working their bucket brigade?
“Levi feels the Freewind is beyond repair,” Jasmine said, shaking her head sadly. “The keel has been damaged and Sorrow said she’d be unable to mend it unless the ship was in dry dock. Only Gale, Mako, and Rigger remain aboard, vowing to see the ship to port. Their stubbornness may be the death of them.”
The mention of Sorrow snapped my focus back to my immediate problem: “Infidel’s been captured. From what I can figure out, Purity has been allied with the ice-ogres and the Church of the Book to kill Glorious for some time now. They plan to use Infidel as a human sacrifice to wake Hush. I don’t think we have much time to stop them.”
“Then let’s hope my grandson’s aim is as good as he says it is,” said Jasmine.
“I need to find Sorrow,” I said. “I’m hoping she can... wait, why should we worry about Levi’s aim?”
“Because an hour ago, at her request, he threw Sorrow at the ice-ogre’s village.”
And that’s how the first minute of my last ten came to a close.
Nine minutes left: I willed myself back into the sky above the ogre temple. Sorrow was nowhere to be seen. Had she fallen short? Assuming that Leviathan’s strength scaled magically, and that Sorrow had been a mere pebble in his hand, was even he big enough to fling her this far?
I glanced down at Hush’s mouth atop the cliff. Should I go back and try to find Infidel? What could I do there when I did find her, other than annoy Purity? There had to be a better plan.
I looked south, back in the direction of the Freewind. If I went back there, could I convince Leviathan to come up here? He’d gotten to the Freewind quickly enough. I had some experience with hurricane-force winds; he could probably cover a hundred miles or more in an hour. But as I looked toward the horizon, I saw a bright speck against the night sky, like a shooting star with no trail, hurtling toward me.
With a thought, I flew closer. As the distance closed, I realized I was looking at a sizable bird. My sense of scale, however, was thrown off by the difficulty of judging size with only the stars as a backdrop. I drew closer still and found that I wasn’t looking at a bird; I was looking at a pair of copper limbs shaped to resemble albatross wings, covered with fine glass feathers that sparkled in the starlight. Judg
ing from the human figure at the center, the wingspan was at least sixty feet across.
At the center of the wings was a suit of jet black iron armor. Behind the helmet’s gleaming glass faceplate, I caught a glimpse of a woman gazing out. Sorrow?
Who else could it be?
She sailed past, leaving only a soft tinkling sound in her wake, like wind chimes in a gentle breeze. With a quick glance at the ground flashing below, I saw she was flying at a pace that would have left Slor Tonn in the dust. Of course, ‘leaving in the dust’ is really only an appropriate metaphor for horseback riding; fifty years of earthbound existence had left me unprepared for good analogies in describing the speed of flight. Suffice to say, she was moving very damn fast. I gave chase, as one moment bled into the next.
With eight minutes to go, I realized I had no way of speaking with Sorrow. My wooden body was now completely gone... save for the one seed pod ear-ring that Sorrow wore. I caught up and peered through the glass visor that protected her from the wind. It was apparent she couldn’t see me, and it was difficult to tell given the tightness of her iron helmet if she still wore the ear. I brushed my spectral fingers along her left cheek and found the pod. My fingers tingled as they connected with whatever faint magic remained in the dry vegetation.
I stretched next to her and placed my lips against her cheek.
“Can you hear me?” I shouted.
I heard nothing, but Sorrow jerked her head to the left.
“Stagger?” she said, though I could barely hear her above the rush of wind. “Where have you been? What’s wrong with your voice?”
“Body’s gone,” I said, trying to keep things as simple as possible. “Purity’s in the dragon’s head on top of the cliff. She’s captured Infidel.”
Sorrow’s eyes scanned the landscape. She gave a quick nod. “I see it.”
I looked in the dragon’s direction, surprised that Sorrow had found it so easily, and discovered that Hush’s head of translucent ice was now aglow with a pale blue light. Sorrow’s wings sang out like a thousand tiny bells as she tilted into a dive, heading straight for the dragon’s skull.
Even with the amazing speed with which Sorrow flew, we were still so far away. Impatient, I zipped back in the cavern of Hush’s jaws, with seven minutes left.
The three walrus-skin boats had been dragged into the center of the room. In one boat stood Judge Stern, Brother Will, and the bodyguard from the ship, now dressed in the Immaculate Attire. Behind them sat a crew of human oarsmen. Judge Stern held a yard-long tube of rolled-up parchment with both hands. The scroll glowed faintly in my ghostly vision. It was still sealed, but I recognized it at once as a Writ of Judgment.
These sacred documents were issued by the Voice of the Book himself; they were not issued lightly. If the Voice of the Book pronounced you guilty of a crime deserving death, and the Writ of Judgment was read in your presence by a duly appointed authority of the Church, you would die.
In the second boat stood Tarpok, holding his cast iron harpoon straight as a flagpole, his chest thrust out, looking as if he were in command of the world. The Gloryhammer hung across his back, slung on a strap of seal leather. Behind him were three ogresses – all priestesses, judging from their garb – and a dozen human sailors from Stern’s boat at the oars.
In the final boat loomed Purity, in a boat manned by ice-maidens. She held the Jagged Heart, which proved to be the source of the light I’d seen outside. In the brightness of the glow, it was difficult to look at Purity directly, though I had no choice. She was holding Infidel by the throat, dangling her off the front of the boat. Infidel squirmed in her grasp, which was loose enough to allow for some cursing.
“You prehistoric witch!” Infidel shouted, vainly trying to stab Purity with the phantom blade of the bone-handled knife. “You can’t be this stupid! The judge will kill you the second you’ve completed his dirty work! It’s probably your name on the scroll!”
“The judge knows this is a one-way journey for him,” said Purity. “He’s willing to die for his cause. How can I not trust a man like that?”
Judge Stern frowned. “If your trust in me is so great, I wish you’d allow me to question your prisoner. I fear, if she is the Infidel, her dragon-tainted blood may ruin your sacrifice. There’s no way her spiritual essence can be considered innocent.”
Purity chuckled. “There’s no dragon blood in this poor girl’s veins. I’d be able to smell it. She may be an infidel, but she’s not the Infidel.”
I was hovering near the roof of the cavern. No one knew I was there. I had to get Infidel free. There was one thing I hadn’t yet done as a ghost that sprang to mind, though whether from inspiration or desperation I cannot say.
With six minutes remaining, I flew down from the cavern toward Purity, waving my phantom limbs for all they were worth, thrusting my face inches before the old witch’s mug. I screamed at the top of my ghost lungs, “BOO!”
To my utter astonishment, it worked. Purity flinched, dropping Infidel to grab the Jagged Heart with all four hands. She looked frightened as she swung the harpoon in a clumsy arc, using it as a battle staff rather than a thrusting weapon. Given my proximity, I was nowhere near the blade. This proved fortunate, since the shaft of the harpoon impacted my ghostly ribs with a sickening thud that knocked me backward. I flitted toward the roof, clutching my chest. The pain was unbelievable. My ghostly bones had been broken. How could ephemeral mist fracture?
Despite my lack of actual lungs, I coughed violently. Dark blood sprayed from my phantom lips.
Purity composed herself as she realized the source of her ambush. She tilted her head back and laughed.
“Little ghost!” she said. “I thought you’d fled! You should use more caution. Don’t you know this harpoon is used to hunt the dead?”
Actually, I did know that. Aurora had said that she used the harpoon to hunt phantom whales. Apparently, it could injure phantom men as well. I was glad I hadn’t been near the pointy end.
Infidel had landed on the ice and was trying to wriggle away. Judge Stern’s bodyguard had leapt from his boat and was loping toward Infidel to retrieve her. The form-fitting Immaculate Attire didn’t flatter his rather large gut. Any sense of comedy I might have felt about his appearance in the armor vanished the second he drew his long sword with his eyes fixed on my wife.
“Before you kill me,” I said to Purity, blinking away tears as blood dribbled down my chin, “you should know that Infidel was right. I spied on Judge Stern earlier and he has three Scrolls of Judgment; one for Glorious, one for you, and the last one for Hush!”
It was a lie, of course. At least, if it was truth, it was a truth I couldn’t verify. I felt lightheaded as I wiped blood from my mouth. It glistened on my ghost fingers, red and wet and warm.
I looked down at the bone-handled knife in Infidel’s hand as she made one last desperate, instinctive attempt to use the phantom blade to cut the leather that bound her legs. Blood on the knife had always pulled my ghostly form more fully into the material world. Would the blade still react to blood?
I flew down and closed my bloody fingers around the intangible steel. I shuddered as I felt it drink.
Five minutes left.
I remained a ghost. But the bone-handled knife, coated with my blood, suddenly sliced through the leather that bound Infidel’s legs. The guard stood over her, sword drawn. Infidel kicked with her now-free left leg, letting loose a loud grunt as she put her full strength into the guard’s right knee cap. With a popping sound, his leg bent backward. He toppled toward her, chopping his blade toward her brow.
Infidel raised her bound wrists, straining to pull her hands apart. She caught the falling blade against her leather bindings. It didn’t quite cut through. She twisted her arms and yanked the sword from the guard’s grasp. Bracing the sword between her knees, she slid her wrists along the sword’s edge and was free.
She sprung to her feet with a back flip, sword in hand. Before anyone could react, she sprang
forward and punched the tip of the blade into the back of the guard’s skull, in the half-inch gap between his helmet and his collar. His flailing limbs instantly went slack. Everyone on Judge Stern’s boat turned pale.
“Yeah,” she said, with a glare in their direction. “That Infidel.”
I wasn’t certain she should be boasting, given that she was half-naked, bruised head to toe, and armed only with a long sword and a semi-material hunting knife, facing off against a shape-shifting witch and a half-ton ogre carrying weapons crafted from dragons. In fact, as much as I admired her swagger, I really hoped she’d find her inner Stagger and run like hell. Before I could draw a pained breath into my broken chest to offer the advice, the roof caved in.
Four minutes to go.
A chunk of ice the size of an elephant smashed into the floor between Infidel and the three boats. Something dark sat atop it, but vanished in a blizzard before my eyes could focus. Infidel reacted with surprising calmness, stepping backward to avoid the gusting snow. Some of the mariners aboard Judge Stern’s boat didn’t wait for the air to clear before jumping ship and making a break for it. Stern cast a wicked glance backward, the ferocity of his gaze halting the remaining mariners from abandoning their posts.
The snow cleared and revealed Sorrow crouched atop an imposing boulder of bluish ice. Her wings had either been torn away by impact, or she’d shed them to improve her freedom of movement. Her iron armor clung to her like a coat of paint. She stood, stretching her left hand. Iron razors six inches long sprang from her fingertips.
Her other gauntlet crumbled, revealing her right hand, blood-red with rust. For some reason, her naked hand was far more menacing than the clawed gauntlet.
“I come to this place intending no malice,” she announced. “Purity, we’re kindred spirits, aware that the world is an unjust place. We seek, in our own fashion, to better it; I would rather be your friend than your foe. But I cannot let you extinguish the sun. Renounce your plans and join me on a more constructive path. If you refuse, I give my solemn vow that I will kill everyone in this room.”