by Joshua Khan
Why attack Gehenna? This sorcerer didn’t need to kidnap its people; he or she must’ve had plenty of dreamers already in order to sail the ship all the way from Lu Feng, across the Eagle Mountains, the Centaur Grasslands, and a few seas.
Unless their power ran out over time, when their dreams grew stale…
Thorn felt a chill as he watched one of the soldiers check an old woman who was suspended from the webs. Whether she was asleep or dead, Thorn couldn’t tell.
Then, to his horror, the soldier sliced her open.
Out tumbled thousands of sparkling newborn jewel spiders.
Thorn retched.
The man cut the body from the web and dragged it away, letting the new spiders creep off to find their first meal of dreams.
There was Thorn’s answer: the sorcerer was using up his dreamers, including those from Gehenna.
He had to do something.
Thorn patted Hades’s furry cheek. “You wait here, all right?”
Hades snarled.
“Oh, you’ve got a better plan?”
Thorn checked to make sure his bow, arrows, and knife were all in place. He grabbed a strand of spider silk and tested it with a good pull. It was secure.
Hades snapped his teeth.
“I’m just going to have a look around,” said Thorn. “I’ll be back soon.”
And with that he slid down into the heart of the jewel spiders’ nest.
Malice. A bad name for a bad town.
Nobody chose to live in Malice. You ended up there when there was nowhere else to go. It was a place for exiles.
“Not nice. Not nice at all…” whispered a frightened Dott.
Crows haunted the bare branches, and they flocked in cawing packs above the town gates, where a gallows hung on either side. Thankfully, they were empty.
Lily was glad she’d swapped her dress for a plain one from Jared’s daughter and had left Zephyr back at Three Barrows. Instead, she rode on a mule. Even though she was still within the boundary of her own realm, Lily felt unsafe.
A gang of ragged children barged past, bumping into her mule, yelling at Dott.
“Watch it!” Lily shouted as one tugged the mule’s tail.
A boy threw a slushy snowball. A few more followed, aimed at Dott. Then the troll stamped her foot. “Not nice!” she bellowed. The children fled.
More crows watched from the rusty bars of the portcullis. They were big, ugly, and…feathery. Nowhere as handsome as the bats of Castle Gloom.
“Not nice at all,” repeated Dott.
Where to begin?
Lily nudged her mule toward a couple of guards. They wore the uniform of her Black Guard but without pride. One of them poked his spear at Dott. “You’re an ugly one, aren’t you?”
“Leave her alone.” Lily pushed the spear aside.
“Lord Tenebrae doesn’t want trolls here, terrorizing decent folk.”
“There are decent folk in Malice?”
The second guard laughed as his companion scowled. “That’s true enough. A girl like you will need a troll, in case that sharp tongue of yours gets you in trouble. Now what is it that you want?”
“I’m looking for the cave of jewel spiders,” she said.
The guard scratched his nose. “Is that right? Hmm…where is it?”
The other guard made an extravagant shrug. “Y’know what? Slipped right out of my head.” He grinned at her and rubbed his fingers together. “A crown or two might prompt my memory.”
Lily reached for her purse.
It wasn’t there. Had she dropped it? She looked at the muddy ground. She checked her belt again. She was sure she’d tied it on….
“Lost something?” asked a guard.
Lily patted her clothing. Where was it?
Then she saw the children at the end of the street, laughing and waving a small silk purse. Her purse. A moment later, they vanished down an alleyway.
“You’re not from around here, are you?” asked the other guard.
“Just visiting,” Lily hissed through her gritted teeth. Robbed, right at the gates. “Aren’t you going to chase after them?”
The guards looked at each other, then at her. “No. We guard the gate; we don’t catch thieves.”
“Look, where are the jewel spider caves?”
“You got any money?”
“No.”
“Then we can’t help you.”
Lily sighed and looked over to Dott. “I asked these two men for help, but they won’t give it.”
“Not ’elp?”
“If they don’t help me, we’ll never find Gabriel.”
“Bootiful boy?”
“Yes, the beautiful boy.”
“I like bootiful boy.”
“We all do,” Lily lied. “But if these men won’t help, we won’t find him.”
Dott thought. Then her small eyes grew red and her teeth ground together as she faced the two guardsmen. “Not ’elp?”
Lily smiled. “Oh, dear. She’s upset. You ever dealt with an upset troll?”
The two guardsmen backed away, their spears shaking in their hands. “Keep her away. We’re warning you.”
Dott grabbed a spear and snapped it in half. “Not ’elp?”
“Now tell us where the caves are before my friend rearranges your limbs in strange and unusual ways,” Lily said sincerely.
The guard who’d lost his spear turned tail and ran off. The remaining one gulped. “The caves are east of Malice,” he said. “People used to live there but not in a long while.”
“Because of the jewel spiders?”
“Yeah. That, and the burning.”
Now that was interesting. “Tell me more.”
The guard spoke. “It was before my time, but some of the old boys talk about it. Everyone knows the jewel spiders came from Malice, but not everyone knows how they were destroyed.”
“You found the nest and set fire to it.”
“The nest wasn’t the only thing that went to the flames, m’lady.” The guard touched an amulet at his neck. “There was a woman who lived near the caves. She kept herself to herself, and people said she had airs and graces. Rumors spread, like they do. People said she was a witch and claimed it was her who summoned the jewel spiders in the first place. You know how it is with witches. Women shouldn’t practice magic. It’s not natural.”
“So they say,” Lily replied coolly.
“I hear stories that the folk at Castle Gloom were behind it, Lord Charon himself.” He looked around him, checking to make sure no one else was listening. “He wanted rid of this woman and didn’t care how. Anyway, he bribed a few of the locals, who then took it upon themselves to deal with her. If you know what I mean…”
She did. Her father had banned execution by fire on the first day of his rule, and Lily knew, proudly, that there hadn’t been a single one in the last fifteen years. But her grandfather, Iblis’s own sire, Charon, had been a fanatic about burnings. Hundreds had gone up in flames during his time. The ballads and tales referred to him as Charon the Baker. A silly nickname for so evil a man. Lily shook her head. “These things used to happen, sadly.”
“Oh, the story’s not finished. They say she’s back.”
“The woman who died?”
“Her ghost. Back for revenge. A couple of houses have burned down. Suspicious, if you ask me.”
“That happens when you’ve got thatched roofs and open fires. Doesn’t mean it’s a ghost.”
“Maybe you’re right. Maybe you’re not.” He turned along the dirt road. “I’ll show you the caves, but that’s it, agreed?”
The town sprawled. The outer walls had either crumbled or the stones had been stolen to build houses. Rickety hovels crowded the crooked alleyways, and mangy dogs barked from the doorways. Lily saw zombies and beggars, and sometimes it was hard to tell which was which. Children picked through garbage, searching for morsels and fighting off the crows.
Lily felt shame. These were her people. They shouldn
’t be living like this, coffin-measured already.
Eventually they reached an abandoned hill. The houses were wrecks and hadn’t been occupied in years; now they were home only to mice and pigeons.
The guard pointed to a ruined structure. “That’s where she lived. The witch, I mean.”
Caves indented the hillside another hundred yards along from the witch’s house. Icicles hung over the entrance of the largest. It looked as if a giant mouth was waiting to swallow them up.
“Me not go,” said Dott, putting her arm protectively around the mule. “Bob scared.”
“You want to stay and look after him?”
Dott nodded vigorously.
“I’ve shown you the caves,” said the guard, shifting uneasily. “You can find your own way back, right? I need to return to the gate.”
Lily waved the guard away.
So this was where the jewel spider nest had been found twenty years ago. Lily inspected the cave mouth. Nothing moved.
She lit a candle. The entrance wasn’t very high, and she had to crouch to enter. Webs caught in her fingertips and hair, but these were the webs of common spiders, not the crystal-covered silk threads of the jewel spiders. The air was stale and the ground littered with more than a decade’s worth of dried leaves and other rubbish.
Fifteen or so feet in, the cave opened up and Lily could straighten. Ice coated the walls and a thin mist chilled her ankles. There were thousands of crevasses and narrow cracks within the walls. Any one of them could have hidden a hundred spiders, big and small.
“Hello?”
Only her echo answered.
Lily straightened her collar. There was no escape from the cold.
What had she expected? To find all her lost villagers neatly tied up in cobwebs for her to rescue?
All she’d gotten was a story about a poor innocent woman, burned alive for something she knew nothing about.
She turned and saw Dott approaching.
“Go back, Dott. There’s nothing—”
It wasn’t her troll friend.
The candlelight flickered as the figure, a woman, entered the cavern.
“Hello,” said Lily. “Who are…?”
She was young, beautiful, sad, and very dead. Her pale, delicate features were not of flesh and bone but the ethereal mist of a phantom.
The ghost looked around her. She clutched at her neck with long, thin fingers.
“Who are you?” Lily reached forward. If she could touch her, she might be able to learn something. “I’m Lily Shadow.”
The woman paused, then slowly rotated toward Lily. Her eyes widened.
She recognizes me. But how?
“Do I know you?”
The woman’s eyes narrowed, and she pulled at her hair, or so it seemed. She shook her head. Her face twisted into a mask of agony and rage.
“Let me help you.”
The ice began to melt and crack. The woman’s clothing blackened and flames, white and the faintest blue, licked along her arms. The flesh began to bubble and peel.
Lily backed away. The heat was singeing her own skin.
The woman reached toward her.
“Stay back…” Lily choked out.
Now the ghost’s hair caught alight. The flames burned silently but with ferocious intensity.
Smoke began to fill the cavern, carrying with it the stench of cooking flesh.
Lily darted to the left, but the ghost clutched her arm. The sleeve burst into flame, and Lily tore it off even as she screamed from the pain. The ghost tried to grab her by her hair, but Lily stumbled away.
“What do you want?” Lily cried. “Who are you?”
“Prin’ess!”
Dott barged straight through the ghost. Flames hit the troll, but they didn’t stop her. She tucked Lily under one arm and, protecting her with her own body, charged back out. They were blasted by fire and Lily screamed, but a second later she was outside, flat on the ground. Dott groaned, steam rolling off her burned back and smoldering clothes.
Lily lay in the snow, stunned.
And the ghost was gone.
“She’s a revenant,” said Lily as she scooped more snow over her injured arm.
“Rev’nant?” asked Dott.
They sat outside the caves, a safe distance away. The mule, Bob, pawed at the ground, looking for some green grass.
“A vengeful spirit.” Her skin was red but unbroken, and the snow was already cooling it off. But if Dott hadn’t come along…
Revenants were bad news. Unjustly murdered, the spirit would never rest until it had had its revenge. There were plenty of tragic tales of revenants harming the descendants of those responsible for their deaths because they’d been unable to avenge themselves on their original enemies. To make matters worse, their powers grew over time. Right now, Lily reckoned the revenant was limited to the cave and areas nearby, but the longer the ghost waited for revenge, the farther she’d be able to reach.
It seemed the guard had spoken true about Charon Shadow being behind the burning. The revenant couldn’t get him, so it had attacked Lily, his granddaughter.
But why had Charon arranged this woman’s death in the first place? And why the secrecy? If she had been the one responsible for the jewel spiders, then he would have attended the burning and condemned the victim personally. Something wasn’t right.
“Who are you?” Lily asked the empty air.
The woman’s former house was just a few hundred yards back up the road. Maybe she’d find out there?
As long as the revenant doesn’t reappear to cook me up…
Lily brushed the snow off. Her arm felt better now. “Let’s go have a look, shall we?”
Dott gathered Bob’s reins.
The place was desolate. Tall grass covered the ground, and the thistles were chest high. Thick bands of ivy choked the trees. The house, overgrown, was a decaying ruin, though with a little imagination Lily could picture what it had once been: a two-story town house with strong walls and thick thatch.
“Not nice,” complained Dott. “Go home now.”
“I just want to look around.”
“Home…”
“I’ll be quick. Promise.” Lily waded through the grass and stepped over the threshold.
Rats scurried back into their holes as Lily entered the main room. There were the remnants of a staircase, and a few timbers framed what had once been a roof.
Hands on hips, Lily turned slowly. Snow covered the flagstones, but the coating of white failed to cover the pall of deep sadness that lingered here.
“What do you want?” Lily asked. Was the ghost nearby? If only she could speak with it…
The furniture remained, rotten due to years of exposure, and laced with cobwebs. The fireplace, built of good, close-fitting stone, looked like it could still be used. The iron frame around it was twisted, but a blacksmith could beat it back into shape.
“Now, this is strange….”
The table had a vase on it, one filled with fresh flowers.
Black roses.
The only place black roses grew was in the Night Garden at Castle Gloom. Lily bent over to smell them.
Hmm, the scent was weak. Someone must have taken a clipping from her own bushes and replanted it here. But without the…unique soil of the Night Garden to nourish it, the roses had lost most of their perfume.
The flowers were an offering to the unquiet spirit. Giving gifts to the dead, and undead, was a common practice in Gehenna. But who was the giver?
Whoever the woman had been in life, she’d been better off than most of the locals. A few battered pewter plates lay in the corner, and there was a jug just like the ones she’d find on her table back in Castle Gloom. Pewter wasn’t cheap.
Not cheap at all.
Lily picked up the jug and looked at its base. She wiped off the twenty years’ worth of soot and dirt.
And saw the hammer and crescent symbol.
This was from Castle Gloom.
She
found a plate and inspected it. It bore the same maker’s mark. So did the goblet.
“Who are you?” Lily asked. “Tell me.”
Where would you keep secrets?
Lily’s gaze landed on the stairs. The bottom few steps had survived because they were made of stone. That was unusual. She tapped them—they were solid—then she looked behind them.
Under the collapsed, rotten timbers, she spotted a chest. The wooden lid had warped and was held together by rusty iron bands.
“I’ve found something!” she shouted, pulling the chest into the center of the room.
Dott came in and joined her. “Nice stuff?”
“Let’s see.” Lily tried to lift the lid. She couldn’t; the hinges had rusted through.
Dott dug her fingers into the lid and tore it off, wood, hinges, and bindings.
“Thanks.”
Damp and moths had destroyed the dresses, but from the patches of silk Lily could tell they’d once been fine and beautiful. And black. The stitching was small and neat, not the coarse sewing used on servants’ clothing.
Under the clothing were pieces of jewelry: a necklace and two bracelets. The silver had fused; still, Lily saw that it had been fine, delicate work, similar to the pieces she’d inherited from her mother. Black pearls dotted the bottom of the chest.
And finally, letters, most reduced to mulch. Lily carefully lifted out a tissue-thin sheet. The ink had faded to brown and could barely be read. The handwriting was neat, long, and elegant.
“This writing…” said Lily, checking the achingly familiar style, the narrow l, the small loop that made the e and the a look nearly identical. She could just make out the last line. She read it aloud.
“You will always have my love, now and forever…”
Lily’s heart skipped a beat as she saw the signature, one she recognized almost as well as her own.
“Iblis Shadow.”
Thorn crept through the cloud ship. The walls, floor, and columns felt like marble, but he noticed some of them unravel and sway in the breeze. Stairs linked the many levels and platforms, and he walked over rainclouds and through chambers where the air was filled with a static buzz and lightning flashed high above him.
Webs draped across the columns and walls. Others dangled from the roof like flags. Jewel spiders busied themselves upon the poor victims.