How Black the Sky

by T J Marquis

  The glorious moment of light was all too brief. A fiery flash lit up the tower's zenith, and the newly blue sky went black again. Several figures came plummeting down off the tower, tossed like ragdolls by the explosion.

  The First had failed, and Gorgonbane had failed to protect him. Pierce's heart sank deeper than it ever had before.

  His depression quickly became the fuel to ignite a bonfire of rage as red as the sun above. He lost track of the moments as he began to cut through the Underlanders like a thresher through wheat. His became a world of limbs, and blood, and liquid bone. Even when he slipped in the gory muck, he managed to lash out and slay whoever was unfortunate enough to be near. He had a recollection later of one of the bounding shadows coming in to attack. It was a male of the race, like gen but black where they were grey. He had childlike features similar to Ess's, and a bearing full of confidence that also reminded Pierce of her. If the dark gen had been possessed of magic, he might have been a match for Pierce, but he was merely a skilled fighter and acrobat, and Pierce cut into his heart, melting the bone of his ribs.

  He thought, how dare they? Why try to take Overland from those to whom it belonged? Why this evil? If they would not back down, they must be slain.

  Pierce came to the end of a swath of destruction, having created a lull in the battle by killing so many gen. There was sound - he must have gotten away from Scythia, unless she had been harmed. He came back to himself and scanned the area around the tower. Ess's orange orbs were swirling about, shooting gen through their hearts. So Ess was okay, despite the fall from above. There was Agrathor, jaws open in a piercing cackle, launching streams of lightning from his skeletal fingers. Gen tried to flee, but the electricity moved among them as if they were made of metal, burning into their backs and out their eyes.

  Scythia was indeed far off, but on her feet and toppling another obelisk. Where was Axebourne? And the First? And Sev? Pierce spun and looked toward the tower's outer gate. The huge forgemaster was there, swinging a long iron bar into the ranks of approaching gen. His face was impassive, as if he were calmly exterminating vermin. How did he feel about slaying his former countrymen?

  This had to end. Where was the enemy commander? Pierce could see no evidence of an officer.

  Must he go and slay every last one of them for this to stop?

  The ground had been rumbling this whole time, and now it shook in earnest, knocking even Pierce off balance.

  A black pillar broke the surface of the ground. More than a pillar, slightly rounded on top and as thick as the tower of Chasmverge itself. There were ridges engraved in the black shape's surface like the prints of a finger.

  Pierce's heart stopped. Was that a finger?

  Three more towers emerged, another shortly after. The attacking gen and remaining werewolves began to flee. On the far side of Chasmverge, another five towers were rising, all thick and dark and ridged with those patterns like fingerprints. They flexed, bending to grip the earth.

  It couldn't be, but it had to be. Pierce's mind couldn't grasp it well enough to admit what he knew was true. This was not a mega-Monstrosity, but something more.

  What more can there be? Pierce thought. An ultra-Monstrosity...

  There was a deafening series of cracks, pops and rumbles - sounds louder than anything Pierce had ever heard. The earth beneath him shuddered, lurched downward, sending his stomach into his throat. What his body thought was solid ground tilted downward toward the Chasm. The tower's annex came off its supports and tumbled into the dark, taking who knew how much of Eff's knowledge with it. The main tower flared with the green light of its protective enchantment, trying to hold itself together. Gravity won the battle, and the tower snapped halfway up. Green light flared again, dimmed into nothingness, and the stone blocks of the ancient structure began to cascade away into the void.

  There was a final jolt, and Pierce entered a seemingly endless freefall, down and away from the red light of the sun.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Deeper

  Blackness like he'd never seen. A deep, utter, all-enveloping absence of light.

  How far had he fallen? He knew his body had grown tough, but how had he survived? It was a miracle that nothing had crushed him. Curse his bad luck.

  He lay on the ground waiting for his senses to come back to him. Slowly, they did.

  Mostly he heard the thick silence of a lonely place. Every few seconds, liquid dripped somewhere far off. The dark world smelled musty, but cold. It was cold, wasn't it? The chill had gotten into his armor, numbing his skin. He couldn't see anything.

  He did have a light, though.

  Carefully, as if afraid he might break himself, Pierce sat up. He felt around him to make sure he was not on some precarious ledge looming over the chasmic depths. The ground was damp, but not an endless puddle. He searched his body. No debris had impaled him, his armor seemed intact. His sword was back in its scabbard. He didn't remember sheathing it. He drew it.

  The blue light of the blade was blinding at first, lighting up the area as well as any torch. His eyes adjusted, and he could see that the ground was of stone, and flat. His eyes were frustrated to see only so far, and be caged by the dark.

  He looked up. All was black. There was no sign of the moon, no haze of a distant town. If he had fallen into the Underlands, it was in deep wilderness. He'd never heard of the moon being absent, but he supposed it could be part of the cycle here.

  Pierce had no food or water, only his weapons and wit. He needed to find his friends.

  He picked a direction and started out, watching the ground carefully to be certain he wasn't about to step off an edge and into the Chasm. Would the banshees rip him apart before he hit the bottom, if there was one? He could only hope that the rest of Gorgonbane, or even some of the garrison men, would see his light and come to him.

  He could only hope that some foul denizen of these depths would not spot him first.

  He guessed he'd walked a mile or so before he came to the edge of the Chasm. At least, he had to assume it was the actual Chasm. It could be some lesser crevice for all he knew. If it was the true abyss, that meant the ultra-Monstrosity had thrown the earth under Eff's tower inland, or this part of the Underlands stuck out further over the Chasm than Overland above it. There was no way to know. He decided to assume the former was the truth. That meant his comrades could, and should, be somewhere between here and the place where he'd awoken. It was a large area to search in, especially in the dark. Again he had to hope that the terrain was all as flat as it seemed, so the others would have a chance at seeing the light of his sword.

  Pierce started back in the direction he'd come. This time, he called out names every thirty steps or so.

  "Scythia?"

  "Axebourne?"

  "Aggie?" he used the hated nickname to increase his chances of a robust response.

  "Ess? Sev?"

  He didn't call out to the First. He was certain the man must be dead.

  He came across Ess first.

  Her response was weak, so soft he might have missed it if he hadn't paused to listen as a part of his search pattern. He kept calling her name as he approached the sound of her scratchy whispers. He found her.

  She was lying on a slab of rubble, eyes half-lidded, their white paint tinted blue by his sword. She reached up toward him. He grasped her hand. Though a certain electric heat shot through his body at the contact, her skin was deathly cold. He helped her up and she fell into his arms.

  "Legs are weak," she rasped. "I do not think anything is broken though. I think I managed to levitate some of the momentum away."

  He felt guilty, his hands enjoying the feel of her shoulder blades beneath her robe. He had the ridiculous urge to hold her around the waist, as if they'd come together at the dance after a feast. He would have slapped himself into sense if he could.

  "You look no worse for wear," she said with a wan smile.

  Pierce couldn't look right at her. "Just a little sore
," he said.

  "You remind me of Agrathor in his younger days," she said.

  "I've heard that before. I suppose it's an honor, though I don't plan to be quite so grumpy in my old age."

  Ess laughed softly, coughed when the laugh scratched her dry throat.

  "Or to lose your flesh, I would hope," she said.

  There was more rubble to negotiate in this area, mostly broken earth from Overland, occasionally a stray block of stone from Chasmverge. A precious few of those still shone with a weak green glow, as if holding onto their lost identity.

  They searched painstakingly in the dark for some time, Pierce trying to memorize the sights of each area they passed through. Keeping to a search pattern would be difficult in the endless dark, but the piles of rubble grew in this direction, creating more landmarks to make note of. Eventually, Ess was more steady on her feet and added the light of her orbs to that of Pierce's sword. That helped a little with keeping their bearings. The liquid surface of the strange spheres shone silver now, like the light of the absent moon.

  Pierce had been worried about the Second, had waited to ask what he was dying to know. He couldn't wait anymore.

  "I saw the enchantment almost work," he said. "Why did it fail?"

  She was a long time in answering, but Pierce let her have the silence. He imagined she must be in mourning for the failure, for the loss of her master. She must be worried about her comrades.

  "I believe," she said at last, "that the magic simply was not compatible with the nature of the sky. It tried to work - we all saw it light up blue - but then it failed. I will not know why for certain until I speak with the First."

  "So it didn't have anything to do with the attack of those shadow people?" Pierce asked. He'd been worried they were the cause of the failure, worried it was his fault for not finding a way to stop them.

  "Ah, the supra-gen," Ess said. "My kin, but those who still serve Kash. No, Pierce, they clashed with us after the enchantment failed. You saw the explosion?"

  Pierce nodded.

  "Simple fire magic, but effective. They needn't have tried so hard to stop us," Ess said thoughtfully. "Though it is interesting that they cared to."

  "You think Kash's spies realized what we were up to?"

  "Almost certainly," Ess said. She stumbled over a chunk of rock and fell into Pierce. He helped right her again.

  "Why is it odd that they tried then?" Pierce asked.

  Ess looked up at him as if the answer should be obvious.

  "Well it means you were right about the color blue. They hate it. It may even be a poison to them in large amounts. If we had succeeded, Overland might be inhospitable to them. What I think is interesting, though, is that they cared to sabotage the enchantment when it was not going to work anyway. Perhaps Kash did not know any better than we did, though somehow, I doubt it."

  Pierce thought about this. Something in all of it felt wrong, but he couldn't figure out what.

  "The First should have known," Pierce said. "He shouldn't have been so confident if it wasn't going to work."

  Ess waved a hand tiredly. "You may have noticed that humility was not his strong suit."

  Pierce shrugged. He hadn't really considered the man's disposition to be prideful. He'd taken it as more of an old man's confidence. Ess would know better than he would, though.

  "In any case," he started, then they heard a voice. It was calling out the names of the members of Gorgonbane, as Pierce had done.

  "It's Scythia," Pierce said. "Scythia!" he called.

  "Pierce!" she called back. Over a rise in the rubble there appeared a vaguely humanoid form, made up of small, hazy points of light. Scythia's gems. She must have activated them to shed some light.

  They came together atop a hill of broken earth, and Scythia gave Ess a powerful hug.

  "Just you two so far?" she asked. The others nodded. Scythia looked worried.

  "The tower's wreckage is widespread," said Ess, by way of comforting the other woman.

  They hadn't even set out again when they saw the flash of lightning in the distance. It could only be one person.

  "Agrathor!" Scythia hollered, dashing off in that direction. Pierce supported Ess and they followed more slowly.

  The skeleton man held his electric spear aloft, illuminating his path. It proved a worthy beacon to lead his comrades to him.

  Scythia hugged him as well, an awkward embrace, due to his armor and lack of meat, but warm all the same.

  "You haven't seen Axie or the First?" she asked Agrathor.

  "No," he said. "And I never lost consciousness. I feel as if I've been searching for hours."

  "Well," said Scythia, turning away, "if their need was urgent, I would sense it. They'll be okay." She seemed to be trying to convince herself.

  They followed the mounting wreckage until they came to the edge of the Chasm. This brought Pierce at least in something of a loop, but it was impossible to tell how close he'd been to this exact spot during his first circuit.

  A large portion of the tower had collapsed here, and there were heaps and mounds of broken stone. Everyone called out to Axebourne and the First. Pierce called out for Sev. With every shout, Pierce felt certain that some terrible thing would emerge from the depthless dark to attack. Thankfully, nothing did.

  "They could be in the rubble," Agrathor said. "We won't know unless we dig." He went straight to it, grasping blocks of stone both whole and shattered, tossing them aside or into the Chasm.

  Pierce joined him, then Scythia. Ess sat down in exhaust, but slowly put her telekinesis to work removing rubble as well. They had to be careful as they did this, excavating from the top of each mound, and downward.

  They had worked their way through several smaller mounds and moved on to a higher pile of the tower's wreckage when Pierce caught sight of a faint blue light. It was bobbing slightly, at eye level an indeterminate distance away, swimming through the dark. Someone must have just come up a rise.

  "Sev?" Pierce called, raising his sword. The bobbing paused and a voice called back faintly. It was the forgemaster's. He carried a leftover chunk of luminous crystal.

  Pierce wanted to rush and collect him, but doing anything quickly in this near pitch blackness was unwise. He held his sword higher and waited for Sev to come nearer. He stopped at the bottom of the pile Pierce was on and called up.

  "The others are with you?" Sev said.

  "All but Axebourne and the First," Pierce called back.

  Sev paused. "I can take you to them," he said. Even his normally flat voice sounded grey when he said this. Something must be wrong.

  "What is it?" Pierce asked.

  "I dug them out of the rubble, Pierce," Sev said. "They are dead."

  Scythia wouldn't believe it when Pierce found her and told her.

  She kept thinking, He is too tough. We've been through too much.

  Yet when she bent the Circlet of Knowing toward Sev, it revealed him as honest. She had another question for the forgemaster, but the question scared her, and she decided to wait. First, she needed to see Axebourne for herself.

  There was a little hollow in the tower's rubble where Sev had dug the bodies out. He said he'd seen Axebourne's halberd sticking out of the ruins - an unmistakable marker. He had laid the bodies out as if they were sleeping, left the big man's weapon laying across his chest.

  Scythia had no words, no thoughts even. She fell on Axebourne's body and wept. Her sorrow was violent, penetrating. It was a thousand times deeper than what she'd experienced on hearing of the destruction of Chasmreach, or of learning of the death of her parents several years ago. Axie had been her friend, companion, comrade - all these things and more. He'd known her like a brother and cared for her, in all ways, like a father. How many times had they saved each other's lives? How many close calls had there been, with long nights of frantic love to push away the darkness of war and bloodshed? There would be no other lover like him, no one so completely and utterly hers.

  A
ll these thoughts and an endless cascade of inexpressible feelings flooded through her veins and nerves, filling her deepest parts, both carnal and ethereal, with loss, and a void darker than the bottom of the Chasm.

  Pierce watched in empathy and discomfort as Scythia continued to sob over the corpse of her husband. The others watched for a few moments, then turned away and left the little hollow. It was hard to know which was the right thing to do, to come beside her in her grief, or to leave her to it and let it run its course.

  Pierce quietly approached the body of the First. It seemed like someone should be mourning him too. Why wasn't Ess doing so? Perhaps to fall on his body and weep like Scythia was not her way.

  The man's eyes were closed. Sev must have done that. Eff looked frail in his well-worn robes. Blood had seeped through in places. Strangely, his face looked a little blue. Either the fall or the explosion had killed him. The bloody spots must be from severely broken bones where the skin had been ruptured.

  Pierce stole a glance at Scythia. She didn't even know he was there. Her face was buried in her husband's chest. Her sobs were heart-wrenching.

  Pierce felt gingerly up both of Eff's arms. There were breaks all the way up, and places where the bones had simply been shattered. Had death come quickly? The bones in his legs were much the same. It was possible the pain from so many bones being simultaneously broken would have caused Eff to blackout. That would have been a mercy. Despite all his power, it seemed he wasn't as durable as Ess and the rest of Gorgonbane. Pierce thought that odd.

  He had the urge to inspect Axebourne as well, but he could not simply ask Scythia to move aside. He had seen that man resist the massive weight of a Monstrosity's hand as it tried to smash him. The red-bearded barbarian had held the thing down as if he were restraining a child. It was hard to believe any explosion or fall could have killed him.

  Pierce took one last look at Eff, saying a short prayer to the Blacksmith for his soul, and left the hollow to Scythia and Axebourne.