The Innocence of Death

by E G Stone

  This cave was clear of stalactites, but stalagmites rose from the ground in varying degrees of thickness and pointiness. One of the more knife-like ones had an initiate impaled on it by his shoulder, bent backwards so all his weight was resting on the injury. He was paler than Justice, but with Mercy’s white hair. He tried to stand at an angle so the pressure on his back would be less, and keep the stalagmite from sinking deeper into him. I recognised the aurai from earlier, though the rest of him was scratched up and bloody. I choked back what little lunch I had eaten and blinked away my dizziness.

  The initiate didn’t look anything like a willing supporter of the Order. He was crying and muttering pleas under his breath. He fixed his eyes on me and I saw a faint flicker of hope fill them. “Help me,” he mouthed. I struggled more against my guards, but they held me fast. The hope in the aurai’s eyes died and I felt it draining from me, too.

  At least the aurai had the ability to die.

  I was thrown into a corner, hitting my shoulder hard enough for something to crack and pop. I snarled in pain and ended up sounding a lot more defiant than I had expected. The female warrior leaned over and sneered, showing her teeth. I could see she had a forked, snake-like tongue. I didn’t know what she was, but I had a feeling she was a lot more dangerous than I was.

  “You will soon be dancing to our tune, human. Fighting will do you no good,” she hissed. I wanted to muster the will to do something heroically stupid, like spitting in her face or swinging at her with a right hook. All I managed was a moan of pain.

  The male warrior chained my hands to the wall behind me. Heavy manacles weighed down my wrists and bit into my hands as I moved. The guards took a moment to laugh in my face, then sauntered off to who knows where. I slumped against the wall, muscles shaking. I didn’t have much strength left in me, and certainly not to fight where it was useless.

  “You are not an initiate.”

  I jumped and got my arms wrenched for my effort. I looked around wildly, but the only people in the cavern were me and the aurai impaled on the rock. Which meant… “You can still talk?!”

  “They would not cut out my tongue,” the aurai panted. His voice was twisted and in obvious pain, but he was coherent and clear. I was astonished and weirdly impressed. “I may have need of it later in my life with the Order.”

  “Sure, because they want assassins that will talk you to death,” I scoffed. I shifted, the manacles clinking against the chain. “Look, I don’t mean to pry, but do you really believe that this, this ‘torture to achieve balance’ is a good thing?”

  The initiate let out a sound somewhere between a laugh and a groan of pain. As I watched, he accidentally shifted so that the rock twisted in his shoulder. The aurai’s face grew pale and he took a couple of shaky breaths. He licked his lips and spoke, “I was not informed of such things when I joined the Order.”

  “It seems like that would be something you should know,” I said. “I only came for an appointment and look at me. I would think they tell initiates these things. Especially since the Ancient One and her Grandmasterness Mercy seem to think that everyone volunteers for this.”

  “Those who join the Order believe in protecting the balance,” the aurai panted. Sweat was starting to plaster his hair to his head, making the white locks appear silver. “I believed in the honour of my bloodline. My uncle joined the Order, and his father before him, and so on back for centuries.”

  “Why don’t you leave, then?” I asked.

  “Once they have ‘conditioned’ you, they believe they own you,” the aurai said, voice pained. He took a breath that sent shudders through this body. “The only way to pass the conditioning is to swear an oath to protect the balance with every ounce of your life and until your death.”

  “These guys are absolutely insane,” I concluded. That didn’t exactly bode well to me. I looked around at the various instruments of torture in the cave. Most of them weren’t more than pointy pieces of metal, but some looked as though they had very specific functions. Given that I couldn’t die, I was either about to go through a very serious amount of pain or give in to whatever they wanted. Whatever that was.

  “Look,” I said, pulling myself together enough to look at the sylph without shaking apart. “I’m going to get out of here. And when I do, I’m going to take you with me.”

  “They will not allow it,” the aurai said. “I must endure this until they deem me worthy again. Either that or I will die, and serve the balance that way.”

  “How about you don’t,” I said. “One way or another, we’re getting out of here. They may not have been responsible for killing Magnus, but these people need to be taken apart. So I’m going to make it my grand mission in life. And I’ll need your help.”

  “How can you be so sure of this?” the aurai asked.

  “Oh, you know, because it’s the only option I’ve got. Well, the only real option,” I said. “Besides, I work with some very determined people. And my job’s not done yet. I can’t believe that I’m going to be down here forever, being tortured by a cult of insane people.”

  “You wouldn’t be down here forever,” the aurai rasped. He licked his lips again and I wondered how long he had been without water. Even if it had been only an hour or so since he’d been dragged away before my very eyes, it was too long. “Only until you die and serve the balance that way.”

  “Like I said. Forever.”

  The aurai looked at me in confusion. Just at that moment, a new person walked into the room. When I say walked, I really mean slithered. This person had a human torso and snake trunk, complete with rattle on the end. His— hers—its skin was the same poisonous green as the scales of the snake parts and I could see fangs dripping a dangerous bluish liquid. It hissed when it hit the ground. Note to self: stay away from poisonous fangs.

  “Human,” the snake-person hissed. “It has been an age since I have had a human life to play with. So fragile, but so evocative. You feel things so much deeper than most immortals.”

  “That’s great, but I’m actually not all that keen on being tortured,” I said. “I work for Death and he’s going to be mightily displeased when he learns of this.”

  “Who you work for is of no interest to me,” the snake snapped. It grabbed a small knife like a scalpel. It was just about then that I realised something very important. I was absolutely terrified of pain. The last couple of days had given me enough insight to know this for sure.

  “That’s unfortunate,” I said, my voice two notes higher than usual. “Because when I signed on with Death, he disconnected me from my life-force.”

  “What does tha —”

  “I can’t die,” I squeaked. “I can’t die. I’m not living and so I can’t die. No matter what you do to me, I won’t swear to join your idiotic cult. And you can’t kill me, so the balance is never going to be served with me.”

  The snake hissed, rattling its tail. “We shall see about that.”

  It lunged for me and swiped the scalpel across my throat. For the second time in as many days, someone slit my throat with the intent to kill. And, annoyingly, for the second time in as many days, it failed to kill me.

  I coughed my way back to consciousness mere moments after the snake had attempted to kill me. “Seriously?! That was your solution?”

  The snake backed away from me—an odd thing to see in a reptile. It said something in a foreign language that was mostly hisses and buzzing. Then, the snake dropped the knife, turned tail and fled.

  “Well, now what?” I asked the aurai. Despite being in obvious pain, he just threw back his head and started laughing. He pushed against the stone and let out a gasp of pain, but a smile still lit his features.

  “Now, we may actually have a hope of getting out of here,” he panted, teeth flashing in the dim light.

  “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m still chained to a wall and you’re, well, you’ve been stabbed in the shoulder by a rock.” I jingled my chains to prove my point. The aurai shoo
k his head and pushed himself against the rock again. I realised that he wasn’t just struggling, he was making an active effort to lift himself off the rock. With his back bowed backwards, he couldn’t get enough leverage to really do anything, but he was trying.

  “Don’t you see? You cannot be killed. You are not attached to a life-force in the way that even us immortals are,” the aurai said. He screwed up his features and pushed with everything he had. It was still not enough. There were several inches of stone protruding from his shoulder and all he was doing was tearing the wound larger.

  “Stop!” I cried, pulling against the manacles. I couldn’t do anything to help him.

  “Ngggh,” the aurai grunted. “No. I c-can do this!”

  “You’re going to do more damage,” I insisted.

  “We will get free and the Order can’t do anything about it,” the aurai growled. He shuffled his feet so that his back was bowed backwards even more, then pushed himself upwards. He gained another two inches before he couldn’t move anymore.

  “As far as I can see, we’re trapped here,” I said, hoping my words wouldn’t provoke this guy into doing anything even more stupid.

  “You really are as ignorant as you appear,” the aurai chuckled. I was pretty certain the pain had gone to his head. “You are not connected to a life-force. You cannot die.”

  “Yes, we’ve established this fact. Which is why the snake-thing tried to slit my throat,” I said. “And why I’m now standing in a puddle of my own blood, with no apparent wound.”

  “But this means that you are neither alive nor dead,” the aurai said. “The Order has no power over you. You are not within their system of balance, because you cannot be alive, nor can you be killed. It’s why they fight for the balance in the first place. Because Death and Life are too powerful for them to control. If those two got it in their head to change things, the Order could do nothing. So they try to keep the world around Life and Death in balance, in the hopes that it will maintain peace. You’re not a part of their battle!”

  “As much as I love not being part of their battle,” I said, “we still have one problem. We’re trapped down here. And I may not be able to die, but I can still be tortured. I feel plenty of pain.”

  “The Order wouldn’t dare. You are as close to the balance as they’re ever going to get. You walk the line between Life and Death.” The aurai let out a bark of laughter, then groaned in pain. I was afraid he was going to pass out, but apparently everybody in the entire world of the Elsewhere is tougher than I am.

  “So, what, I’m some sort of ideal?” I said. “A sacred relic?”

  “We would not put it like that.”

  I jumped as far as the manacles would allow. The Ancient One was standing in the entrance to the cave, leaning on his staff and wearing a very displeased expression. Mercy stood just behind him, her face as expressionless as ever. I still got the distinct impression she wasn’t pleased. Maybe it was the way she had her hands clenched into fists. Behind them was Yolanda, looking rather the more worse for wear. She had a cut over one eye and a swollen lip. Her knuckles were bleeding, too. But she was whole and grinning at me with no small amount of pleasure.

  She hadn’t abandoned me after all, even against such impossible odds.

  The snake-person who was going to torture me was behind Yolanda, looking extremely uncertain. Its eyes kept flickering to me and it rang its hands nervously.

  “We do not know what you are, but you are correct,” the Ancient One said, curling his lip. “We have no providence over you. There is nothing we can do to you, nor should we. You walk the balance.”

  Mercy stepped forwards, holding a set of keys in her hands. She strode towards me and knelt to undo the manacles around my wrists. “How?” she asked with a breath. I could hear the longing in her voice. “How did you come to be part of the balance?”

  I shrugged, rubbing my raw wrists gently. “Death offered me a job. I took it.”

  “But…you are no more than human,” Mercy said in almost a plea. “Please, tell me.”

  “I have told you, Mercy,” I lay a hand on her shoulder. I didn’t like her, I didn’t like what she believed, I was terrified of her occupation, but that didn’t mean I wanted her to suffer. I just couldn’t give her what she wanted. “There is nothing more.”

  She slumped her shoulders barely half-an-inch, but it was enough to tell me that this had been a real blow. I doubted very much we would ever be friends. Actually, I had probably made an enemy. Given the look on the Ancient One’s face, I had probably made more than one. I walked over to the aurai initiate, who had watched everything in silence, trying to catch his breath through the pain.

  “Do you want to be here?” I asked him, loudly enough that there could be no doubt of the Ancient One’s hearing.

  “No,” he breathed. I nodded and looked at Yolanda. She walked over and helped me lift the injured creature off the stalagmite. He cried out in pain as we freed him. Then, he finally relaxed, his legs trembling. Yolanda let him lean on her.

  “Right then,” I said, glaring at the Ancient One. “We’re going. You’ve made it perfectly clear that you had nothing to do with the death of Magnus, Ennedi Tiger or no.”

  “Indeed,” the Ancient One sneered. “We wish you well on your journey of balance, human.”

  “It’s Cal. My name is Cal. Really, it’s not that hard,” I said. “One whole syllable less than ‘human’.”

  “Escort them out,” the Ancient One hissed to Mercy. She bowed her head and led us out. I didn’t pay any more attention to the caves the second time around. I doubted I would ever be invited back here, and I didn’t care to memorise this place. I ignored the stares of the initiates and full members of the Order. Yolanda didn’t pay them any attention, either. She just walked straight on after Mercy, letting the exhausted and injured aurai lean on her.

  We emerged in the graveyard where we had gone in without even the Ennedi tiger as escort. Mercy didn’t say goodbye, just turned back around and vanished into the monument. I took a moment to rest, sitting on the top of a headstone.

  “I haven’t been here a full week and I’ve already offended a cult, ticked off an all-knowing Irishman, and killed a vampire. Oh, and I haven’t finished my first task for Death,” I said. I looked at the aurai, still leaning against Yolanda. He stared at me in wide-eyed astonishment. “I’m Cal Thorpe,” I said. “I’m Death’s marketing agent.”

  “Agravaine,” the aurai said breathlessly. “It is good to meet you, Cal.”

  “You, too.”

  He took the opportunity to succumb to gravity and pass out.

  I sat on that stone for a good while longer before I spoke. While I waited, I rubbed the raw skin on my wrists, as though the pain would wake me up. It didn’t, but I kept rubbing at my skin. Finally, I took a breath and looked up at Yolanda. “We’ve gotten nowhere. That lead with the Ennedi Tiger was all we had. Fionn thought it dangerous enough that he had to kill me for it, and it led nowhere.”

  Yolanda nodded. “I thought the Order would have known something.”

  “All we got from them was a good deal of outrage and an almost-torture session. Mercy didn’t do it,” I said. “And no one else there would be stupid enough to upset their precious ‘balance’ by doing it.”

  “Then there must have been another reason for killing Magnus that we don’t know about,” Yolanda reasoned. I nodded.

  “I feared as much. My only problem is that we’ve run out of people in Elsewhere who knew something,” I said. “Unless you can think of another force that might have had access to an Ennedi Tiger and might have wanted to kill Life’s favourite person.”

  Yolanda shook her head.

  “Well, then we’re going to have to figure out how in the world to find out more about Magnus.”

  “We will have to go to the mortal realms,” Yolanda said. She didn’t sound terribly thrilled about the prospect. At this point, I couldn’t blame her. Everywhere this miserable investigat
ion had led us was full of pain and violence and a whole lot of things that really wanted to kill me. I didn’t think that investigating the life and times of a successful jewel thief on Earth was really going to be much better.

  Maybe if Magnus were nothing more than a fisherman. Or a banker. Or anything other than a jewel thief. I had a feeling things were going to be just as complicated and dangerous.

  “A couple of problems,” I said. “Death said I couldn’t return to the mortal realms. He said something about having removed me from the timeline or fate or whatever. And you’re…you’re a troll. How are you going to blend in?”

  Yolanda grinned at me. “Humans are very stupid,” she said. “They don’t know a troll from a rock. Ah, no offence.”

  “None taken,” I muttered. I sighed. “Alright, let’s get Agravaine the aurai to Doc Graveltoes. Then I have to see a guy about a travel pass.”

  “Can we get popcorn when we’re there?”

  Waiting for Death

  Agravaine was dutifully delivered to Graveltoes, who clucked over the aurai’s wounds and shooed Yolanda and me out of the hospital. I think he was growing just as tired of me as I was of him, but according to Yolanda, he was the best to help Agravaine. When we got to the annoyingly familiar street, I looked around for any other vampires or people trying to kill or kidnap me. Given my recent experiences, I felt just fine being slightly paranoid. To my relief, though, there were no vampires, no members of the Order waiting with ritualistic swords or torture devices, not even a slightly furious wyvern. However, Iggy and the Rolls Royce were waiting for us. I looked at Yolanda in question.

  “I thought we weren’t going to be availing ourselves of Iggy’s services,” I said slowly. “That he worked for Death and wasn’t going to ferry us from place to place.” The chauffeur looked at me with those pinprick fires that he had for eyes and raised his eyebrows.

  “Iggy?” he rumbled. “Hmmph.”

  The door to the back of the Rolls opened and Death’s voice greeted me, “I am not certain Yggdral appreciates the nickname, Cal.”