She whipped her head forward. Up ahead, t he mesa came to an abrupt end just before the forest of sha rp stones.
Cassandra vaulted her dune buggy across the gully. The armored hulk soar ed through the air straight towards Black’s motorcycle.
Danica hit the brakes. T he dune buggy landed awkwardly and bounced down just ahead of her, barely missing the gul f. Cassandra spun her vehicle around and race d straight at Danica. The pale woman fired her M16 at the cycle. Danica twisted her vehicle sideways and us ed her spirit to shield her body from the ground. Metal sparked and rained around her. Danica barely missed the dune buggy as she dodged around it.
She glanced behind her. Cassandra spun her vehicle around. T he vampire tank chased down the El Camino. Cole did her best to keep her distance. C hain guns tore up the earth around Lara’s car.
Come on, Lara.
Danica looked ahead, and her heart jumped into her throat. She and Markos reached the end of the gully at the same time. He steered his dune buggy around the edge and straight towards her. Danica aimed for the stone forest, lowered her head and hit the gas. The cycle roared forward. Her spirit flowed around her in a fire shield.
Markos barely missed her and instead smashed into Cassandra. The dune buggies bounced away from each other.
Danica raced into the columns of bladed rock. An explosion shook the air behind her.
I hope Lara can get through all right.
The cycle was perfect for dodging through the sharp pillars of stone. The s pace was tight, and a single wrong turn would throw her against a sharp edge and end the race for her right there. The columns seemed to twist and snake as she darted back and forth across the smooth ground. She rocked with the cycle, dart ed in and out of the columns and moved deeper into folds of roiling crystal smoke.
A cloud of necrotic matter boiled overhead, and seconds later i t belched slippery oil rain all over the stone forest. Danica nearly lost control of the cycle. The bike slipped, and she had to right it several times to make sure she didn’t fly into a razor-edged pillar. She pushed her spirit ahead and used him to blast the oil out of her path. Slick dark fluid splattered the columns.
Gunshots ricocheted off the stone. Markos and Cassandra now shared a single dune buggy, and they blazed around a column and bore down on Danica. Streams of fire billowed out of their damaged vehicle, and they dragged a stream of smoke in their wa ke. Cassandra’s face was burned. S he grit her teeth a nd fired at the bike.
A bullet ripped into Danica’s arm. Pain lanced through her body, and she nearly spiraled out of control.
“Shit!”
The w heels skid, and the columns seemed to circle round her. Her spirit flew in and grabbed her, slowed the bike so she didn’t fly into the rocks. Danica bit through the pai n, took hold of the handles and straightened the cycle out. She’d lost her sense of direction.
The dune buggy came straight at her. Markos and Cassandra were laughing.
Danica turned and squeezed into a narrow gap between the oncoming buggy and a stone column. A sharp rock sliced her leg open, and she screamed.
Markos wasn’t able to right his course in time. The buggy slammed into the rock and exploded in a noisy blast of metal and flame. Bits of steel rained down.
Danica caught her breath. Adrenaline raced through her veins. Blood dripped down her limbs, and he r spirit quickly and painlessly sealed her wounds. She sensed his fatigue — she was asking a lot of him, and his spectral form was flushed with panic. He was afraid she wouldn’t make it out of this.
That makes two of us. But right now we have to save Cole.
She took stock of her position. Gunfire blasted in the distance to her left. She kicked the cycle into gear and raced on. Her left arm and leg ached like she’d been beaten, but thanks to her spirit the bleeding had stopped, and the pain wasn’t near ly as bad as it should have been.
She emerged from the forest of blade d stone and raced down a steep hill that curved around the far edge of the arena. A maze of short wooden bridges spanned pits in the dark hill side. G eysers of orange acid fire blasted out of the holes at random intervals. The track circle d down the hill for almost a mile.
The other two racers had somehow gotten in front of her. Lara’s El Camino race d just ahead of Creyzak ’s vampire war wagon. The Camino’s tail was on fire. Thin bone needles jutted out of the top of the car like porcupine quills, an d the driver’s side door looked ready to fall from its hinges. The war wagon had taken some damage from small-arms fire and collisions, but it s till moved ahead at full speed.
Damn it.
Danica sped down the hill. The cycle laun ched across the first bridge. T he hole beneath it was deep and filled with charred bones.
Clouds of d ust blew across the hillside like wraiths. The canyon wall was covered with cracks and foul waterfalls of sludge. T he bottom of the slope stood at the edge of a stony field.
Black raced down the hill. The Tiger’s motor revved and faded and shook hard against her stomach and legs. H er body ached. She shook her head and focused.
Don’t stop now.
She barreled over the next bridge and felt it rumble and shake beneath her. F ire exploded up from the hole just seconds later. H eat washed over her, and the force of the blast made the cycle sputter and tip. S he almost lost control. Her spirit shielded her from the heat, but not before she felt blisters sco u r her back beneath the leather armor. Sweat poured down her face and into her eyes.
Fi e ry rain scorched the ground. Danica twisted the bike and turn ed sharp at the nadir of the slope. She dodg e d broken steel girders that stuck out of the dirt like rusty knives.
The ground leveled out. She raced onto grease d stone covered with unnatural mist. Even with the speed and adrenaline and the heat of the fire still washing over her, Danica felt the cloying chill of the black field, the waves of utter cold that rolled at her like walls of frozen breath.
She was still behind the others. Cole was a hundred yards ahead, dodging Creyzak a n d the wagon, which rammed into the El Camino and sent it spinning. Metal flew into the air. B oth vehicles vanished into the brume.
Black rocketed through the field of dark stone. Vapors raced apart beneath the cycle’s armored wheels. Broken links of chain and sharp stones littered the ground. The air smelled like the inside of a meat locker.
She only made it a few yards before she had to twist the cycle so hard she almost spun out. The fi eld was littered with pits, nearly twenty- feet wide and spaced about fifty yards apart, so utterly dark and camouflaged by the stygian mist they were all but impossible to see from a distance.
Danica’s blood froze. She just knew that Lara had fallen into a pit.
She sped forward. Panic gripped her chest. Her spirit flew around her like a hurricane.
The world was blue haze and steaming dark smoke. The midnight ground seemed to go on forever. She heard the distant cheers of the captive crowd.
The vampire war wagon had stopped and parked next to one of the pits. Danica drove towards it and slowed down. Her spirit fused around her in a hot shield.
She brought the bike to a stop next to the wagon. Its bone armor and dangling chains were covered in road grit and scorch marks. Smoke poured out of i ts h eavy guns. I ron blades covered its hull like razor ed fur.
Black leapt off her cycle and ran over to the pit. The El Camino was there, stuck just a few feet below the mouth of the hole. Lara’s vehicle had fallen at a n angle and hung suspended: the front ram plates had wedged into the black stone about ten paces down from the lip, while the rear tires had turned sideways and were stuck in the wall on the opposite side. The vehicle creaked in place, ready to plummet.
“Lara!”
“Dani!” Cole’s voice came from inside the car.
Black’s spirit bristled, then roared. She heard the footsteps, but not in time.
Creyzak stepped up out of nowhere and smashed her face with a long exhaust pipe he’d ripped off his vehicle. Her spirit took the
brunt of the blow, but the impact still knocked her backwards. Blood spurted from her mouth. Her back hit the stony ground.
Creyzak brought the pipe up over his head. His translucent Vuul skin flooded with angry blood, and h is squat grey eyes burned with rage.
Danica lashed out at him with her sp irit. Fiery razor s raked Creyzak across the chest, but he leapt back in time to avoid the full force of the blow.
She struggled to her feet. H er face was numb, and the rest of her body burned with pain.
Her spirit fused to her forearm as a jagged shard of razor light. Danica’s vision had gone blurry, but her spirit helped guide her actions.
The Vuul was silent as he swung the pipe again. Danica sliced the metal apart and sent it smoking to the ground. She leapt up and kicked Creyzak in the face. G rey-green blood spurted from his mouth as he fell onto his back.
“Dani!”
The car creaked in the hole behind her. Black sent her spirit into the pit. She felt him strain as he wrapped round the falling car and held it.
Creyzak leapt up. His supernatural metabolism fused his wounds together. She watched sickly black veins pulse and throb as he charged. Without her spirit, she was unarmed, and the grey-fleshed killer had two feet of height and at least a hundred pounds on her. She tensed, bent her knees, and readied for the impact.
Her spirit strained. She sensed Lara try to escape, felt her climb out and grab onto the pit wall, but the earth was dry and loose. The car slipped.
Creyzak jumped at Danica, and though she managed to twist out of the way at the last moment he still reached out and grabbed her arm, right where the bullet had struck. She screamed in pain.
They tumbled to the ground. The Vuul’s weight smothered her as they rolled over each other.
“Dani!” Cole yelled. “Dani, please…”
Lara screamed. B lack’s spirit grabbed Cole. The car fell and crashed into the darkness.
Creyzak was on Danica, and he punched her in the face with his rock-hard fist s. S kin split and blood flew everywhere. H er head smacked against the rock.
Danica’s spirit tore into the Vuul’s face like a knife. Creyzak fell back with a cry. Cole ran over from the edge of the pit, grabbed the Vuul from behind and threw him to the ground.
Danica could barely see. Blood ran into her eyes, and the bones in her face ached. She heard cheers and calls in the distance as the crowd roared it’s appreciation of the battle.
Her spirit pulsed dully at the edge of her thoughts. He had little power left. With no time to recover and with as much as she’d ask ed of him during the race, it was a wonder he’d been able to pull Lara to safety.
Cole kicked and clawed at Creyzak as he rose. The Vuul took Lara by the throat.
Black struggled to her feet. Her vision pulsed and faded. She channeled her spirit into a smoking blade and cast it at the back of Creyzak’s head.
It was too late. The Vuul snapped Cole’s neck with a swift twist just seconds before the arcane weapon cleaved through his skull. The bodies fell to the ground almost in tandem.
The distant roar of the crowd faded. The strength drained from Black’s body, and the breath left her lungs. She stumbled forward a few steps and fell to her knees.
She couldn’t breathe. Hot t ears flooded her eyes, and her mouth moved soundlessly. Her arms shook as she took Lara in her arms. Cole’s eyes were open and full of fear. Her pale skin was warm, and her dark hair was pasted to her forehead.
Danica couldn’t hold herself still. Something cold welled up inside her, an emptiness. A void. The wail she released didn’t even seem to come from her, but from somewhere else.
She held Cole tight, hugge d her, smother ed her, hoping, wishing, for her to be okay. She muttered something into Cole’s ear over and over again, and she wasn’t even sure what it was.
Her spirit faded. She heard engines approach, and she smelled the rot of carrion corp ses. Her legs had gone numb. Her t ears had run all over Lara’s dead face.
“You’re all I ever wanted…” she sobbed. “ All I ever wanted…”
Geist pulled her away. The half- Doj was too large and too strong for her to even consider putting up a fight.
R ake and Raven looked on in silence. Their dark cloaks rippled in the subterranean wind. Scarecrows gathered up the bodies and unceremoniously cast them into the pits.
Danica watched Cole fall into the dark. She seemed frozen there for a moment, trapped in black stasis. Her body was so frail, so temporary.
And then she was gone.
Do you?
“I’m impressed, Dani,” Rake said. “I guess we’ll use you after all.”
She looked at him. She felt nothing. She knew that she hated him, but at that moment all she wanted was for him to kill her. Her spirit was gone, shielded off by Raven. She had nothing left.
Not true, she told herself. You still have Cross.
But that knowledge did nothing for her pain.
Lara, the love of her life, was gone.
SIXTEEN
Rift
They enter a wasteland of broken stone.
The forest fades behind them in to a shroud of black ice mist. Steep hills made of shattered shale and loose plates of granite lead to bitter peaks that resemble teeth. The sky is flat and still, and the air is bitterly cold.
He walks with the small army of Grey Clan. The black wind batters them mercilessly. T heir clothing is weighted down with shadows.
The land slopes up. T he climb through the Burned Hills is arduous. H is muscles ache. H e uses whatever cracks and crevices he can find to haul himself up the rock face.
The stones grow tall er. Mov ing through them is like navigating a path of knives. The path is riddled with pits and flaws left by acid shower s.
The land is sharp. Blood sluices down his hand as he crawls through the razor peaks.
The Burned Hills are vast, and they are covered with caustic stains and burns.
The dark mountains fade into the endless dusk. There’ s nothing to the north or south, but to the west, many miles away, stands a mountain.
I know that mountain. I’ve seen it before.
The Black Citadel wait s on that distant peak. It holds the entrance to the Carrion Rift, and the way home.
The trek across the Burned Hills is riddled with hardship.
The mist on the ground conceal s dark crevices, wounds in the stone that lead to underground sea s of void darkness.
Several Grey Clan d ie. They don’t see the cracks until it’s too late, and they scream and fall and are gone before anyone knows what happened.
The sky bleeds liquid. It’s been so long since he’s seen rain he almost forgets what it’s like, but he know s it wasn’ t like this. The substance is b lack and viscous, like tar and honey. It paints them dark, makes their feet stick to the ground. Its touch is ice cold and stings the flesh.
They move on.
Vast worms slither across the landscape. Like the other creatures of the Whisperlands they are more shadow than real, smelted charcoal forms that writhe and twist across the Hills. The worms are halfhumanoid: slimy torsos with gangly arms and sharp talons and rows of razor spines atop massive inchworm bodies.
The travelers try to avoid these horrors, but can’t. More Grey Clan fall in an onslaught of blade s and poison-tipped tails, chewed to bloody bits or thrown against the rocks and reduced to blood stains on the stones.
He kills one of the beasts on his own, and with Kyver’s aid he kills another. Shadow skin reinforced with chitnous bone plate makes the beasts difficult to destroy.
After a time, bone-tired and covered in blue-black blood and worm remains, he and the survivors finally reach the far side of the Burned Hills.
There are only ten of them left now, where before there were over twenty.
The y stand at the edge of a poison glade.
Pools of briny water release bursts of vile yellow slime. Viscous pools churn with slithering grease. S tones shaped like coffins sta
nd on the other side of the pools, near a small forest of dark trees at the base of the mountain.
They carefully navigate through the area. S mall animal-like creatures, purple and black lizards and razorback toads, race away as they approach.
The smooth stones are slabs of frozen crystal fused around humanoid remains. The creatures frozen within have claws and sha rp fangs, and he realizes they’ re vampires, trapped in the dark ice.
They pass through a graveyard of frost- en tombed dead. The sick pools bubble and pop as they walk through the labyrinth of ice sarcophagi.
A storm churns over the mountain. The peak is preposterously tall and looms over their heads. Dull bursts of thunder echo out of the sky. Pale explosions detonate within the cobalt clouds.
They’ v e nearly reached the forest when the stones fall apart.
Icy rock melt s like candles. Thick chunks of frozen crystal fly through the air. The cloying cold turns to a sweltering heat. Massive talons tear through the ice. Dripping anemic bodies pull themselves free. Slathering fangs open wide and issue cold howls.
He draws his blade. There are a dozen vampires, and they descend on the group from all directions. Flesh tears and blood flies. His arms ache as he does battle. Gore covers his face.
They are beset by waves of un dead. K ni f e — like claws pierce reptilian flesh. Hammers smash vampire skulls into pulp. C laws rend open torsos and tear off faces.
Kyver motions. He and Vala run for a narrow corridor lead ing into the mountain, located just past the small forest.
Cross follows. A vampire flies at him with such speed he can’t react before it throws him to the ground. The back of his head strikes rock. Everything bleeds to a blur. He feels the body come down on top of him.
Talons scrape across his knuckles. H e hisses as blood pours onto his face. He pushes back with all of his strength.
The vampire glares down at him. Cross sees himself r eflected back in its glassy eyes.
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