But now, with Seafields in the Shield’s hands, the Hellguards’ forces could reverse the route we had just taken to strike deep into the Green Heart.
We passed between two of the patrol ships. They were huge, with massive square-rigged sails, many banks of oars, and steam-driven propellers. Cannons poked out above and below decks. They had none of our boat’s simple elegance - they looked more like some mad child had screamed, “Make it go faster! And give it more guns!”
They didn’t even hail us as we passed.
“Really don’t care about anything going this direction, I guess,” Losywa said. “Or anything our size.”
Commerce continued. And where there was trade, there might be progress, and hope for the future. If we could keep the peace. I kept telling myself that as we sailed out of the Green Heart’s waters, past the mouth of the Paint, past the new border where my parents might or might not have fought and might or might not have died. Into the territory occupied by the Shield. Into the lion’s den.
“What is it?” Tess asked, seeing something in my face. I just shook my head and didn’t answer.
I’d been to Seafields before, before the Overlords and Hellguard took it. It had changed.
The Shield didn’t have patrol boats out. But they’d fortified the harbor beyond recognition with thick walls of stone and wood. Each side was wrapped in its own paranoia - the Green Heart with a blockade against a Shield armada that didn’t seem to exist, the Shield reinforcing against an attack from an adversary that seemed more interested in defense.
But how to be sure? The Shield was now controlled by ancient horrors even more devious and ruthless than Yoshana, whose plots could mature over centuries. The fact that I saw no assault force didn’t mean there was none. And on the other side, the Heart’s defensive warships could bombard a city just as well as they could blockade against attackers.
Peace was a fragile thing. And possibly an illusory one.
“I will guide you in,” Legion told Losywa. She almost objected, but realized the wraith knew where we were going and she did not. Still, she flinched away every time the creature came close to touching her. Again, I didn’t blame her a bit.
The ambassador seemed amused, as usual. But why wouldn’t it be? It was home, and we were about to be completely in its power.
Tacking inside the harbor was harder than keeping the right general bearing on the sea, or for that matter poling a raft. When we got close enough to the quay Legion indicated, Ram threw the painter. A pair of men in black and red uniforms hauled us in.
These weren’t dockworkers. We were mooring ourselves to a military pier.
“You made good time, skinwalker,” one of the soldiers called. “But this isn’t the boat we were expecting. What happened, you lose the first one?”
The wraith hissed at them, and they laughed. Maybe Legion wasn’t quite as at home as I’d thought. Somehow that didn’t make me feel any better.
As the soldiers strained to bring the ship to the dock, Dee said quietly, “The term ‘skinwalker’ may be taken from ancient lore involving evil sorcerers who could take the appearance or inhabit the bodies of others. If that’s the case, the term is likely pejorative. You’ll notice the dagger emblem on the uniforms. That’s a Shield insignia, whereas our friend Legion is an agent of the Darklands. Perhaps the alliance is not an entirely happy one.”
That wasn’t hard to imagine. My Rockwall and Monolith troops didn’t get along terribly well, and the Shield and the Darklands had been just as much at each other’s throats over the years.
The ambassador’s hearing was unnaturally acute, not surprisingly. “Some of these humans don’t yet understand who they answer to,” it growled. “They will in time. One day when my hand is around their throat they’ll understand.”
“What’s that, skinwalker?” asked the nearer Shield trooper as he lashed the boat fast. “Not trying to scare your guests, are you?”
He held out a hand to Prophetess. Both soldiers had the air of casual competence I’d come to associate with the disciplined veterans of the Monolith or the Knights of Resurrection. The pier was slightly higher than the boat’s deck, but the man easily pulled Tess up. “There now. Better up here on land with real men than down on that nasty ship with a wraith and those walking dead, eh, missy?”
Cat leaped up to Tess’ side and grinned at the soldier. “Better.”
“God,” the other man gasped. “That’s a paleo!”
“Yes she is,” I said. “A little help here? I took a bullet to the knee last month and I don’t jump like I used to.”
The first soldier met my black eyes squarely and grasped my hand. “A Select and a paleo. That’s not a pair I would’ve expected to see together.”
“You and me both, buddy. I’ll tell you the story sometime if I live.”
“You really Minos? The guy who bumped off Yoshana?”
I raised an eyebrow. “That depends. Is that a good thing or a bad thing around here?”
The soldier chuckled. “Good question. It’s an impressive thing, no doubt about that.”
“Less impressive than you might think. That’s another story I’ll tell you if I live.”
“Man, those sound like two good stories. It’s a shame you’re going off with the skinwalker, ’cause I probably won’t get to hear ’em. I don’t expect to see you again. At least, not with your own mind behind your eyes.” The man’s bantering tone had gone deadly serious at the end. “You watch yourself up there. If I was you, I’d leave the women here with us. I promise we’ll get ’em home safe. If they go where you’re going… I wouldn’t take that bet.”
The summer day was warm and bright, but I shivered as if a cloud had blotted out the sun. The second Shield trooper was glaring at Legion and his guards, who had clambered up onto the pier by themselves.
“Good luck, Judge Minos. We’ll wait for you here,” Losywa announced. “For when you return.”
“Better if you go home,” I said. “I don’t know how safe it’ll be.”
“A damn sight safer than you’re going to be,” the soldier who’d been doing the talking put in. I’d gotten his point already.
Legion was grinning again. “As agreed,” it said, and tossed seven coins at Losywa, one at a time. The gold flashed as each coin flew through the air. “And now, Judge Minos, your chariot awaits.”
“Chariot” wasn’t the word I would have chosen. The vehicle at the end of the pier was an ugly, rectangular box on wheels. More than a chariot, the image that came to mind was a giant, mobile coffin. There were no horses to pull it.
The box had six doors, three on each side. Inside it was divided into two sections, the back a large area with two pairs of facing benches accessed by the four rear doors, and the front a smaller cabin with three seats. One of Legion’s guards opened the rear doors for Tess, Cat, Dee, and me as we clambered into the back, then joined us. There was plenty of room, and no one had to share a bench with the soulless.
The interior was stark and not especially comfortable, all metal with minimal padding and small windows protected with thick wire mesh. It was dark and smelled old. The impression of a coffin was even greater on the inside.
“Some sort of ancient troop carrier, I imagine,” Dee concluded. I supposed he was probably right, although how the Hellguard had kept the thing running for three centuries was a mystery to me.
The vehicle abruptly lurched into motion and a low, rumbling vibration filled it. After the initial jolt I found it more comfortable than riding a horse or even sitting in the bed of a wagon, and it certainly beat the soaking, swaying terror of a sailboat on the sea. But I couldn’t say that I was enjoying the experience.
We picked up speed imperceptibly, but soon I could see the town passing outside the little windows far faster than the fastest horse could run. Tess was sitting next to me, and she gripped my hand. I felt better at the contact.
“The soldiers back there…” Tess’ words trailed off, but I knew where she
was going.
“Those were Shield regulars. The Second Expeditionary Legion, by their uniform.” I’d developed a passing familiarity with the Shield’s military forces growing up in the Green Heart, especially the First and Second Expeditionary. It came from knowing that they were glowering at us from across the border. “They didn’t seem thrilled with Legion or his troops.”
I shot a glance at the soulless who shared the compartment with us. He remained as impassive as ever. “Maybe there’s a possibility… if their forces are as divided as ours…”
“Don’t they say loose lips sink ships?” Tess said sharply.
“I’m not saying anything Gurath doesn’t already know,” I snapped. But she was right. It was foolish to talk strategy in Legion’s presence – and disturbing that she needed to remind me of it. I nodded and shut up.
Despite the troop carrier’s shuddering and the unpleasant company of Legion’s guard, Tess quickly fell asleep leaning against my shoulder. Dee slumped in his seat and snored quietly. Cat’s eyes narrowed to slits, although I was sure she would jolt instantly to full alertness at the slightest danger. She slept like her namesake.
I dozed fitfully, usually waking when the vehicle slowed to negotiate some obstacle or jounced through one of the gigantic potholes that cratered the roadway. We continued on into the night. A dim, red glow with no particular source illuminated the inside of the cabin, providing just enough light to see my companions without blinding me to the darkened landscape outside. Mostly that was just trees. That their shadows seemed somehow twisted and menacing must have been my imagination.
We stopped only once, when the sun was edging over the horizon and dew was on the grass at the side of the road. We all stretched painfully and staggered out of the car to relieve ourselves. My knee had stiffened during the night and hurt more than usual to move.
There were no signs of civilization, no facilities except the privacy afforded by the trees. I limped off behind one, then limped back.
“Where are we?” I asked Legion as one of its guards did something complicated to the vehicle involving large metal canisters.
“Inside the Darklands. It won’t be long now.” I was getting even sicker of the wraith’s perpetual smirk. The deeper we were brought into the thing’s domain, the more unsettling it became. But I had to admit I was amazed at the distance we’d traveled. We had passed out of occupied Green Heart territory and crossed all of the Shield in a single day. That would have taken us weeks on foot.
“Come on, time to get moving again,” the ambassador said.
“Can we at least stop to eat?” Tess demanded.
“You are welcome to eat in the truck. But we should not keep my masters waiting now that we are so close.”
I had exactly the opposite reaction. The closer we got, the more inclined I was to keep his masters waiting as long as possible.
The next time the vehicle stopped was the last. There was an unnerving sense of finality as it shuddered to a halt and the vibration ceased. I found I’d gotten used to it. Or maybe it was just that I understood what it meant to have reached our destination.
We shaded our eyes as we emerged from the dimly lit interior into the bright blue skies of noon. But if the heavens above gave no sign that we were in the Darklands, not so the earth below. The ruins of a devastated town surrounded us. We were near the sea - a few miles away to my right, I could see a forest of skeletal buildings, the tallest I’d ever seen, poking out of an expanse of gentle waves. Some were so huge that their tops vanished into the clouds. A monument to man’s pride – and the Fall that came after.
Directly in front of us stretched a tall, black iron fence much like the inner defenses of Our Lady. And the resemblance didn’t end there. Behind the fence rose a cathedral like Our Lady’s basilica but far larger, grander, and more beautiful. From the outside, at least, it was in perfect repair, an island of order in the decrepit waste around us.
“My master’s citadel,” Legion announced. Its annoying little smile had widened into a grin as we goggled at the building.
Soulless guards in their dark uniforms lined the perimeter. Two of them pulled aside a heavy gate, and we followed the ambassador across a courtyard paved in marble so white the reflected sunlight hurt my eyes.
The great central doors of the cathedral stood open and the wraith strode in without pausing, wordlessly passing two more unmoving soldiers. They made no attempt to take the shirasaya katana I used as a walking stick, or Cat’s knife. Their indifference to our weapons only made me more nervous.
I whispered to Dee, “If I don’t make it, let Roshel and everyone else at Our Lady know what’s happened.”
The occultist nodded. Somehow neither of us had any doubt that he would live, even if I didn’t. Some things in the world were constants, like Dee’s survival skills. I only wished I felt nearly as good about my own.
Inside, even illuminated only by the light filtering through the stained glass windows, the structure was even more breathtaking. Rows of columns marched toward the altar, each so wide two men couldn’t circle it with their arms and stretching up dozens of feet to a painted ceiling. The pews had been removed, making the space seem even more vast.
Legion continued, confident but unhurried. We trailed along in the creature’s wake until it stopped twenty feet from where the altar should have been and prostrated itself before a huge throne.
Light blossomed from a hundred sources simultaneously. The dark shape looming on that seat resolved into a gigantic man rising smoothly to an inhuman height. His hair was long and black, his skin the color of mahogany. Like Stephen, he wore his shirt open to reveal his muscled chest. I was sure that, unlike Stephen, the massive physique was real. Although far more of the Darkness filled this body than the dead lord of the Source’s.
Piercing sapphire eyes bored into me.
His voice grated, deep and ominous as a stone door sealing a tomb. “So you’re the one who helped assassinate my lieutenant, got my friend Seven killed, and cut off my daughter’s head? You’ve got some nerve showing up here. I thought Select were supposed to be smart.”
7. The Dark Lord
My daughter. Those eyes. I tried to swallow but found my throat was too dry. We’d truly stepped in it this time.
“Lord Gurath?” Once the words were out of my mouth, I regretted the honorific as much as I regretted the tremor I could hear in my own voice. But the Hellguard was terrifying. Bigger than Seven, more terrible than Yoshana. “Your ambassador invited us to speak with you and discuss peace.”
Gurath boomed out a laugh that echoed in the huge church. “And you believed anything that lying sack of crap said? You really are an idiot.”
It was as if the demon’s words entered my body and sank into my stomach as lead weights. “You mean you didn’t invite us?”
The sapphire eyes locked onto mine. Even in my fear, I couldn’t look away. I didn’t know if the awe and terror flooding me were a natural reaction to that huge, ancient monster, or an effect of the Darkness. Gurath replied, “I invited you. But the wolf doesn’t discuss peace with the sheep.”
A black cloud formed beneath Tess, rising up around her legs. She stifled a scream.
“The prophetess who can resist the Darkness,” the master of the Hellguard continued. “I wonder if you imagine you can resist me.”
Cat’s knuckles were white on the hilt of her dagger.
I found my voice. “Stop. That. I can’t stop you from destroying us. But I can make sure you have to. You can kill us, but we won’t be your toys.”
The huge demon laughed again and sank back onto his throne. The Darkness vanished. “Now you sound like someone worth having a discussion with.” He turned his piercing glare on Legion, still face down on the floor. “Get up and go do something useful while real people talk.”
The wraith climbed to its feet and slunk away.
“Disgusting things,” Gurath muttered. Only when he rested his hand on it did I notice the double
-headed ax leaning against the throne. Next to him it seemed to be of a normal size. I wasn’t sure I could have lifted it. On his other side rested a rifle, a complex thing of sculpted black metal that bore little resemblance to the simple carbines we could still make.
The weapons were incongruous in the church. Except for them, and the demon lord’s seat in place of the altar, it still looked like a house of worship, majestic and immaculate.
Tess had noticed the same thing. “Beautiful,” she whispered under her breath as she looked around, no longer mesmerized by the Hellguard’s awesome presence.
Gurath chuckled. “What, you expected it to be smeared with blood and feces, maybe with some half-eaten corpses lying around? Why would I do that? I live here.”
Those eyes focused on me again. “And so here you are in my home. My enemy, his pet prophet, a paleo bodyguard who might weigh a hundred pounds dripping wet, and what? Some half-educated windbag that thinks he’s an occultist?”
For all his bantering tone, this was not Seven, an incredibly dangerous man constrained by his own decency. This was a being still more dangerous, constrained by nothing. “I wasn’t joking before,” he continued. “You have a lot to answer for, Minos. You can start with my daughter.”
“I didn’t have the impression the two of you got along,” I said carefully. Of course, I also hadn’t realized they were related. I wondered if Yoshana had known. She’d never mentioned it, but the similarity was striking. But for her white hair, she had been the demon lord on a smaller scale. “She did kill your lieutenant.”
Gurath smiled, a hard twist of the lips with no humor behind it. “Yes. Yashuath was becoming an annoyance. Demanding that we press our attack before I was ready. Three hundred years old, and he had no patience. I could have killed him myself, but why? He was strong enough that fighting him would have been risky, and I don’t take unnecessary risks. And having him killed by my disgraced Overlord daughter? Plausible deniability, and any of my men who figured it out were impressed at how cunning it was.” The smile turned still more vicious. “She was useful to me in so many ways that she never suspected, my Yoshana. And now you’ve taken away my favorite catspaw. I’m not pleased.”
Passing Through Darkness- The Complete Cycle Page 84