The Shadow Watch

by S. A. Klopfenstein

  It was a door to the New World, and it was utterly beautiful. It filled her with a twinge of light and hope.

  “People long for the Old World,” said the chancellor, gesturing at the nothingness around them. “They pray to dead gods and place their hope in Watchers. Well, if the people want the Old World, I will give it to them. In all its glory. We’ll begin with the rest of the Rulaqs. The time has come for monsters to reign over the Crooked Teeth once more.”

  The chancellor placed one of the glowing godstones in Tori’s burned hand. She tensed, but the pain did not come. He kept the other in his own hand. “To open a gate this wide, it will take both of us. All of your blood I have left.”

  Tori could see the Watchtower beyond the gateway. Its mighty towers filled the sky. A world of refuge and hope for so many like her. And now, she realized with growing dread, the chancellor will destroy that world.

  “Stretch out your hand,” the chancellor instructed, pointing toward the water-like wall. “And be brave. This is going to hurt like nothing else in this world.”

  Tori steeled herself and obeyed. Her hand penetrated the passageway. It passed through easily. The film felt thick between her fingers, like the eggs she used to prepare in the kitchens at Scelero’s estate. Her senses awakened, and she felt anger and terror once more.

  And pain!

  It shot through her anew, and again, she felt as though she were on fire. The chancellor stretched out his own hand, the watery passage vaporized, and Tori could clearly see the glorious harshness of the world beyond. The jagged black rock of the Teeth and the starkly contrasting snow of the valley. A cold wind swept through the passage, and the ground began to quake.

  Tori stood fixed in place. The gateway between the worlds held her fast as the Rulaqs lumbered through the door she and the chancellor had opened. She stood, helpless, as the terrible creatures from the Old World gathered speed on the other side, life and ferocity returning to them for the first time in hundreds of years. Their massive necks swung like battering rams, and the outer walls of the Watchtower began to crumble. More Rulaqs poured through the gateway to join the fray. Dozens more waited, pawing the earth with intense anticipation.

  But amidst the pain and the horror of standing between worlds, strength returned to Tori as well. Her senses were on fire, and a desperate idea formed in her mind. If the chancellor needed her to open this door, then she could stop this. She had to stop this. She could not stand by while her magic brought back this horror into the world. She could still save the others. The longer she stood in the doorway, the more her pain intensified, but the stronger her resolve became.

  With one frantic burst of Conjuri energy, Tori freed her hand from the gateway, and she threw the godstone through the opening into the New World. The emerald gem landed in the snow with a rush of steam. Tori leapt through the opening between the worlds and collapsed in the snow. Pain and cold and guilt filled her with a fury no longer held back by any trace of the Old World. She had never felt such an overwhelming onslaught of feeling at once. She screamed as the blood tithe took its toll. Her vision blurred with tears.

  Back in the Old World, the chancellor cried out in pain, crumpling to the ground, his hand still fixed to the gateway. The strange film began to close over the door.

  Despite the pain, Tori felt relief. I’ve done it.

  But to her horror, the door did not close instantaneously. The chancellor still had one stone, and the film descended slowly from the top of the archway.

  The Rulaqs, realizing their chance at freedom was nearly lost, stampeded through the diminishing opening. One beast arched its necks with a roar of triumph as it passed through. The film brushed against both necks, severing them clean. The Rulaq’s body crumpled beyond the door, its heads tumbling in the snow. This only intensified the horde’s rage. The remaining monsters stormed through the gate, trampling their fallen comrade, lowering their heads to avoid decapitation.

  Tori braced to be crushed to death, but none of the monstrous paws landed on her. Only a few more beasts passed through before the gate was rendered impassable for them. Several threw themselves desperately at the door and fell dead. In the New World, the beasts had worked themselves into a mad frenzy. Rulaqs roared and thundered across the valley, joining the others in their attack on the Watchtower.

  Tori glanced back. The chancellor was still trapped. The Watchtower might fall, but he would at least be left behind in that hell world.

  With a shriek, a shadow passed Tori.

  It was Darien in his Morph form, Tori realized with dread. He flew low, snatching up Tori’s godstone from the snow, and shot through the narrow opening. With the stones reunited, he managed to free the chancellor from the gateway. The door was nearly closed, the murderous film only feet from the ground.

  Tori tried to get up, to stop them from crossing, somehow, but she was too spent from the trip between worlds. Her hand was searing with pain, and her head felt light. She crumpled in the snow, watching helplessly as the chancellor crawled back into the New World with the help of the boy she had once loved. The boy who had betrayed her. The chancellor collapsed safely on the other side.

  The world became a mad blur. It rocked and swirled like a sick dream. Tori’s mind was fading.

  The last thing she saw, before she passed out from the pain, was the central spire of the Watchtower crashing down as the Rulaqs took back their realm.

  33

  When Tori woke, the pain from the godstones had subsided. Back in the New World, her body had healed as always. For a brief moment she basked in the absence of searing pain, but she soon jolted upright. What happened to the others?

  She had seen the crumbling walls of the Watchtower. She knew the devastation the Rulaqs must have caused. But as far as she could tell, she was nowhere near the Watchtower. The place Tori woke in was dark and smelled musty, like air gone stale across centuries. Was this dark place the land of the dead?

  The pain of the stones had been so severe, Tori had longed for death before everything had gone black. Tori tried to raise herself, but she was held back by a taut chain. Shackles were fixed at her wrists. Her hands had gone numb, though whether because of her wounds or from cold, she did not know. Her limbs were dreadfully weak, and she collapsed on the stone once more.

  A flame pierced the darkness, appearing around a corner. Voices broke the silence. A torch entered the dank chamber, followed by a second. In the light, Tori could see milky wax coating the walls. I’m not dead, she thought. I’m in a cave.

  As the intruders neared, Tori could make out the faces of Darien and a young soldier carrying a bucket and a length of tube. Elements that Tori knew all too well. She swelled with anger, reaching for her magic, but she felt only a dim sense. And then, it was gone altogether, as though it had slipped from her grasp.

  “This her?” said the strange soldier eagerly as they approached.

  “Yes, Jujen,” said Darien. “This is the Gallows Girl.”

  At the sound of his voice, Tori tensed all over. Why did he save the chancellor?

  “Ooh, rah!” said Jujen. “The most wanted criminal in all of Osha. Gods! But why’s the chancellor keeping her alive? He wants her dead, don’t he?”

  “Course he wants her dead.” A third voice. It was familiar, though Tori could not place it. “She’s the bloody reason we’re all down here. But you know the rumors spreading. The chancellor can’t afford there ter be any doubt this time about her death. He’s waiting for the right moment. Waiting till we get out o’ these damned catacombs an’ return ter Osha.”

  So that’s where we are. The catacombs. But why?

  “What are you doing here, Merri?” said Darien coolly. “You’re to be standing watch in the main chamber.”

  “I know you don’t yet trust me with her, Darien.”

  It pained Tori to hear the cook’s voice. She was relieved Merri was alive. But was she as far gone as Darien?

  “He’s your bloody captain!” said Jujen. “
You’ll address him so.”

  “Let her speak, Jujen,” said Darien.

  “I’ve seen the way you measure me… Captain. Ever since we been in the North. Like you’re worried I might be up ter something. I saw you gauging my reactions ter the destruction o’ the Watcher stronghold. An’ truth be told, I don’t blame you. I’m here ter prove where my loyalties lie.”

  Tori had to fight to control her breathing, to keep listening in secret. They didn’t seem to know she was awake.

  “And how do you wish to prove your loyalty?” said Darien.

  “Let me bleed her out, Captain,” said Ol’ Merri. “Let me harvest the Gallows Girl’s blood.”

  “Bleed her out? That’s my job!” complained Jujen.

  “Shut up, Jujen!” snapped Darien. But his voice softened as he addressed Ol’ Merri. “If all you want is to prove yourself, Merri, there is no need. I have no doubts of your loyalties.”

  Merri’s voice lowered, the way it once had when she would talk of something dark and serious, like the Watchers and the old gods, back in the kitchens of Scelero’s estate. “Ah, but there is need. I don’t want ter prove nothing for you, Darien. I need ter prove it for myself.”

  Tori cleared her throat and opened her eyes wide. In the torchlight, she locked eyes with Darien and then Ol’ Merri. Their faces were hardened and unreadable, but Tori made no attempt to hide her disgust.

  “So, this is what it’s come to, is it?” said Tori icily. “The greatest believer I ever knew, and the greatest rebel. And you both are just mindless followers now… You do whatever the chancellor says, no questions asked. No bloody thoughts in your heads at all.”

  “Now, child,” said Merri, putting on the warm tone Tori had always known. “You’ve spent too much time with that loony Watcher captain, my dear.”

  “We didn’t know anything back then,” said Darien. “It was foolish talk.”

  “Foolish talk?” said Tori incredulously. “That was why you stood up to die the day of the Gallows?”

  “Tori, you don’t understand now,” said Darien. “But you will.”

  “I doubt that,” Tori said. “I’m a dead girl walking.”

  Darien met her gaze and then looked away. For a moment, Tori let herself believe there was some spark of the old Darien in those eyes. But she wished she hadn’t thought it.

  “You killed good soldiers,” said Darien carefully. “Good men and women. Like me and Merri.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “When you tried to fight. When you tried to leave the chancellor in the Old World. It worked the Rulaqs into madness.”

  “They destroyed the Watchtower! That was the chancellor’s plan all along.”

  “No!” Darien shot back. “You stirred them up. No one was supposed to die! But those monsters didn’t stop at the Watchtower. They turned on us all, and killed my soldiers. That’s why we’re here in these damned catacombs. The Rulaqs are destroying the North, Tori. Because of you.”

  Tori could not believe what he was saying. These were not Darien’s words. “How is it that I turned out to be the only one of us who kept their head?” said Tori.

  The room was silent. If there was a time for them to show their true colors, surely it was now. They were in some cavern, all alone, except for Jujen.

  One last time, Tori tried to reason with Darien and Merri, the slaves she’d known long ago, before they were turned to mindless soldiers. “One day, you’ll end up useless to him too, you know. And then you’ll be here like me, waiting to die. But we can get out of this! Set me free, and we can escape. We’ll run away from the chancellor and Osha, and all of this madness. Whatever you’ve been forced to do in the Legions, you can still make it right.”

  Again, there was silence. Darien and Merri smiled. They were not smiles of hope, but of pity.

  “Ha!” cried Jujen. “Listen to her. She’s gone mad!”

  Darien did not tell Jujen to shut up this time. He held Tori’s gaze. His brown eyes had never seemed so empty before. Tori had never thought she would detest looking in Darien’s eyes, but she did. She felt like she might be sick.

  “Jujen,” said Darien, “give Merri the harvesting tools. We have orders to attend to.” The young soldier looked aggravated to be taken from the duty, but he did not protest again. “Merri, she’s all yours.”

  Darien clapped Jujen on the shoulder and made to leave.

  “For a year, I prayed I’d find you alive again,” Tori shouted after him. Darien stopped and looked back. “Now… I wish I had never been gifted with magic. I wish I had stood back and let you die on that gallows.”

  Darien shook his head. “Darien did die on that gallows. And Tori must have died too. Because the Tori I knew never would have risked the lives of her friends for some damned fool act of rebellion. Watchers died in that attack too.” And with that, he left.

  Tori’s eyes welled with tears as she watched him leave. Watchers died? Oh gods! Who? She prayed it was not Ren or Mischa or Dajha. A sick dread twisted in her gut.

  Ol’ Merri strode forward, and Tori met her with a hard glare. “I was a fool to ever believe the things you used to say,” Tori said. “Your tales. The gods and their damned Watchers.”

  Merri looked away and began preparing the needle and tube that had been Tori’s world just a few short months ago. Merri said nothing. She drew a cord tight around Tori’s arm and held out the long needle.

  “Do your worst, you old bitch,” said Tori.

  And Merri did. Once again, Tori’s world became blood and pain and nothing else. As the blood drained from her, she looked straight in Merri’s eyes and let her see the pain she was inflicting. But there was no remorse hidden there.

  When it was finished, Merri jerked her to her feet. “Come along, Gallows Girl.”

  “Where?”

  “To atone for the lives you took.”

  Tori had nearly forgotten the toll that bloodletting took on her body. She staggered along, Merri’s grip firm on her wrist, or else she would have likely fallen. They passed through a series of passages and emerged in an expansive chamber brimming with soldiers and Morphs. At the center of the room, the Watchers were gathered in a cluster. All were in chains, kneeling. The chancellor stood at the center of the room. Vashti stood at his side, looking angrier than ever. Cyrus Maro looked terrible. His eyes were dark and his skin was deathly pale.

  Atone for the lives I took. Tori feared the worst as she took in the sight of the Shadow Watch in chains. She had not forgotten the chancellor’s deal in the Old World. She had broken it, and she realized how foolish that last desperate act had been. She had risked the lives of her friends, and not just from the Rulaqs.

  “You look worse than me,” said Cyrus Maro, his eyes alighting with a dark fire as they settled on her.

  Tori did not speak. Merri led her forward and shoved her to her knees before the chancellor. Tori was relieved to see Ren and Mischa and Dajha and many of the others. But her stomach churned at the faces that were missing. She caught Mischa’s gaze. “W-where’s Zaya?”

  Tears streaked Mischa’s cheeks. Blood still trickled from the crook of her arm where the needle had stolen her magic. She could barely manage to shake her head before she began sobbing.

  “N-no,” Tori murmured.

  “Your friend is dead,” said the chancellor, leaning on a shoddy cane made from a tent pole. “Along with three other Watchers. To say nothing of the dozens of loyal Shadows we lost. All thanks to the Gallows Girl.”

  Tori felt the intensity of the Watchers’ eyes as they looked to her. She shook her head. “Y-you attacked us! This was your doing.” She looked around the room. There was hate and sorrow and confusion in their eyes, but they did not believe her. “Please, don’t listen to his lies!”

  But even she did not fully believe the words. Tori choked back tears. Zaya had been one of the kindest people she’d ever known. And she was dead.

  “That is where you are wrong, Astoria. I never wished
to kill your Watcher friends.”

  The passage between worlds had taken a harsh toll. The chancellor’s voice was more subdued than ever, barely more than a whisper. But somehow, it managed to be even more terrifying. Cyrus Maro looked out at the kneeling Watchers, and Tori realized why they were all gathered here.

  This was an execution. Because of her last desperate act of rebellion.

  “You were my enemies,” said the chancellor. “You plotted against my throne. You cannot fault me for attacking your Watchtower. But I knew that many of you were led astray by the charisma of manipulative leaders. So, I made a deal with your Gallows Girl. If she came quietly, I promised to spare you all. But Tori never cared for any of you. Despite my act of grace, she just had to attempt one last act of resistance. An act that killed Watchers and Shadows alike. And now, someone must pay for the lives of our fallen comrades.”

  The chamber thundered with the cheers of the Shadows and Morphs. The crowd parted, and Darien came forward, shoving Ren Andovier to the center of the chamber. Tori’s heart collapsed inside her chest.

  “N-no! Please! Not him! Kill me.”

  The chancellor’s laugh was like ice. “That was always going to happen, Astoria. And when we reach Osha, you will die. In front of all the empire. But for now, there must be blood for blood.”

  The soldiers chanted, “Blood for blood! Blood for blood!”

  Ren’s head rose weakly, and he met Tori’s gaze.

  “I’m so sorry,” Tori whispered between sobs. All strength had left her. She slumped forward and only Merri’s grip could hold her up.

  Ren shook his head. “You did good. I would have done the same.”

  The room went silent. “So say the leaders of your worthless rebellion,” the chancellor said, gesturing to the Watchers. “You hear how much they care for your lives. They sound like Morgathian radicals, willing to sacrifice their women and children for one last chance at rebellion.”

  No Watchers spoke, but Tori knew what they were thinking. She was thinking it too. Tori had risked their lives for nothing. And now, Ren was going to die because of her.