Tristan sighed. “And she didn’t remember Thezin, so getting to the bottom of that mystery was important to her too.”
“Yes. But this… this is an atrocious lie. She said I was her first. She treated me as such, but she lied. Not just to me, but to everyone else, including my brothers and sisters. Imagine what the Soul Crusher will say when he hears about this. Or the Time Master, who still worships Death and adores her more than anything. It will break them, Tristan. She won’t want us to go ahead with this.”
“What will happen, then, if she pulls the plug on our mission here? You’ll be ordered to come back and renounce your dream of having a family, I guess… but what about Anunit?”
“Death will probably have one of my siblings finish the race. Or maybe she’ll come here herself if I refuse to back down. Either way, none of the scenarios that begin with me telling Death about the World Crusher and Biriane will end well,” I said.
He thought about it for a moment, but his response didn’t come as a shock. I was already thinking it. “Then lie to her,” he said. “You can make yourself unseen to her. She won’t be able to track you.”
“If I lie, we can get to the bottom of this completely undisturbed.”
“Anunit must be stopped, too,” Tristan added. “She’s got too much power for my comfort.”
“I agree,” I replied. “To be honest, I’ve made my peace with the possibility that I might not see this dream of having a child come true, when all this is done.”
Tristan frowned, eyeing me closely. “It’s literally half of the reason we’ve come to this forsaken place.”
“It is, but let us consider something. Do you think Death would have locked away the World Crusher without good reason?” I asked. “I wouldn’t release her if it meant wreaking havoc into the universe. It’s where Death and I come apart. I would never do anything that would hurt the living, or my siblings for that matter. Anunit’s deal means I can get a body and have a child, have a family with you. Who am I hurting with that?”
“No one.”
“But if I let the World Crusher go… and she does something unforgivable, where does that leave me? My aching desires are not worth such horrible things,” I decided, despite the pain that throbbed in my chest upon reaching this decision. “No. We will learn the truth about the World Crusher, Tristan, but we can’t complete the third trial if it endangers others.”
He smiled a little sadly, and I knew we were on the same page, knew I’d made the right choice by bonding my soul to his. Not a day went by that I wasn’t blissfully aware of this marvelous truth. I had found love in the strangest of places, in the most difficult of circumstances. His light had brought me back to the surface. I refused to do anything that might endanger him or our relationship. This third trial was one such thing, even if Tristan didn’t say it himself.
“And once we have the truth and the three days have passed, we’ll capture Anunit and bring her back to Death,” I added. I had scanned the area prior to this statement to be sure the Reaper had really left us and wasn’t listening in.
“What if the World Crusher is harmless? The name is worrisome, but—”
“The Soul Crusher’s name is enough reason to put him away forever. Yet he roams freely, twisted as he is, but in love and thriving and doing more good than evil,” I replied. “If the World Crusher is innocent of the punishment she’s had to endure for so long, then we will free her. The trial will be completed, and we will have our family after all.”
Tristan got up and breathed in deeply, stretching his arms out as if he’d just gotten out of bed. “Well, then… it sounds like we’ve got a good plan for what’s ahead. Let us go, my love. The Temple of Roses awaits.”
He offered me his hand, and I took it, pleased with where we stood my anger muffled by layers of love and gratitude. I only hoped it would stay that way until the end of this complicated affair. Rage had brought out the worst in me before, and I didn’t want it to resurface when a clear head was so essential.
The closer we got to the city center, the more I could feel it. Not my rage, though. No. The World Crusher’s. It lingered in the air, thickening the very atmosphere around us. The sky was clear, but I felt a heavy cloud coming down, like a layer of lead pressing on my shoulders. For the first time in years, I experienced what I could only describe as a shortness of breath.
“We’re definitely getting closer,” I said, my eyes stinging. These physical sensations normally belonged only to the living, but I was experiencing them too.
Tristan gave me a worried look. “To the World Crusher?”
“Yes. Remember the Black Fever?”
“How could I forget?” he replied with a dry chuckle.
“It feels like that, only much worse. Oh, Tristan… What if the World Crusher’s suffering spilled out into this world and killed them? What if the ghost city we’re in is proof of her unwitting devastation?”
He stepped in front of me, gripping my shoulders tightly. “We will find out. And if there is anything we can do, we will do it. Remember, we’re in this together.”
The answer was simple. In theory, everything was simple.
It was the practical side of the world that worried me, especially where a potentially uber-powerful Reaper was concerned. It had taken Death to step in and destroy the Spirit Bender, and only because he had given her no choice. She had never wanted him gone. She loved all her children—that much I knew for a fact, otherwise I would’ve been wiped out a long time ago. The Spirit Bender would’ve met his end in the nothingness much sooner too.
So it had been love that stopped Death from eliminating the World Crusher. But the same love had doomed this Reaper to an excruciatingly long time sealed away in this place. It had to be a fate worse than the nothingness…
“It’s going to get harder for me to think,” I warned Tristan. I could already feel the tendrils of World’s misery tickling my senses, eager to play with my mind. “I need you to keep me on the right path, my love. I want us to see this through, no matter what.”
“And we will,” he said, and I believed him.
I had more faith in Tristan than I did in Death. It was time for me to reach out and speak to her before things got too heavy for me to bear. I worried my lies might not flow as smoothly once we got closer to the Temple of Roses. Hugging my husband tightly, I rested my head on his shoulder and closed my eyes.
My mind reached out to Death. It was a lonely journey every time, my soul wandering off into the vastness of the universe. A mere sparkle of reason in a sea of black and planets and cosmic dust. Connecting with Death felt even worse, an emptiness taking over once our minds bonded and the words flowed freely.
“Unending, darling… How are things on your end?”
Her voice echoed inside my head, but I pulled my defenses up. She would not be able to track me. “We’re on Kellen,” I said. The lie had already been weaved minutes earlier, its seams tightened so that nothing would slip. “There’s a dangerous ghoul here that I’m supposed to capture. One that has been eating every Reaper that came for it. It’s killing the locals, too. Anunit wants me to deal with him.”
“That’s strange,” Death replied. She sounded like she believed me, though. I had heard rumors about Kellen before. Whispers from Reapers who didn’t dare go there, knowing what fate their predecessors had found. It wouldn’t matter once I got to the truth about the World Crusher, anyway. This was merely a device meant to buy me a few days here without Death’s interference. “I would’ve expected Anunit to find something else from my past to throw at your feet.”
The statement surprised me. Death had expected more dirty laundry to be aired between us. But it was her tone that bothered me most. Like it didn’t really matter. Like she didn’t really care how I felt about this.
“Are there more secrets to discover? More things you have kept from me?” I asked, allowing the coldness of my voice to flow through to her. I wanted Death to feel my dismay.
“Unen
ding, I have done many things I am not proud of. I never claimed to be perfect.”
“But you expected us to be perfect and obedient.”
“Because I made you. I am absolute in that sense.”
I scoffed. “The absolute authority, yes. Do as I say, not as I do.”
“Is there something you wish to discuss with me, Unending? Now would be a good time, I imagine, before you go hunting for a wretched ghoul. Though it does sound like an easy assignment for you.”
“It might not be,” I said, deciding to steer clear of any conversation that might light a fuse. “Anunit has flung last-minute surprises at me before. There’s probably something more to this ghoul than anyone knows—Anunit included. I will figure it out, and I will complete the third trial.”
“Good. And then you’ll bring her back to me. She and I have a lot to discuss.”
“You most certainly do,” I muttered.
“Be careful, Unending. And remember. Nothing she does is selfless. There is a purpose there. Anunit seeks to do harm of some kind, either to you or to me, or both.”
She was right, and I knew it. I also hated it. She couldn’t even make it easy for me to be angry with her. Sometimes there were reasons, good and solid and understandable reasons for her actions, especially where Anunit was concerned. It made it hard for me to control this blistering anger, so I decided to end the communication before I let something slip.
Pulling away from my husband, I gave him a peck on the lips. “Let’s go.”
The alley snaked through the city, traversing several small hills. We crossed abandoned squares with large hexagonal stone tiles and remnants of wrought iron tables. People had gathered here to talk over drinks and perhaps even dance under the moonlight. Trees must’ve grown taller than the buildings here. I could almost hear the glasses clinking and the water trickling in the massive fountains whose stone ghosts still reigned in their centers.
We passed large, administrative looking buildings with wide steps and elegantly sloped roofs. But even here, time had left its mark. The facades had been eaten away, the mortar and bricks revealed.
The Temple of Roses loomed ahead. It no longer had a roof. There was only the skeleton remaining, a hundred columns atop a gargantuan platform foundation. The columns were white marble with ornate bases and equally detailed crowns. The massive cylinders were partially worn down, of course, like everything else, but I could still see the sculpted fine lines of roses and leafy vines. In some places I could even make out thorns, poking from the stems.
I felt queasy. It hurt deeply to be this close to the World Crusher.
Tristan held my hand, his grip tightening as we took a few more steps toward the temple. Despite the light shining down on the city, the space between the columns was dark. A black mist persisted there, obscuring everything, keeping it a secret from the outer world.
“Well, here we are,” my husband muttered. His expression told me everything I needed to know. He was just as uneasy, and it made me wonder.
“Can you feel her?” I asked.
He nodded once. “I think so. I can’t offer a better explanation for the dread that’s been growing inside me for the past couple of hours.”
Towers pierced the blue sky: four giants with sharply pointed conical roofs, the light dancing off their metallic tiles. They were tall and slender structures, and I imagined at least a couple thousand steps between us and the top. I wondered what purpose their height served other than observing the areas surrounding the city. Then I noticed the bells. Each of the towers had been fitted with big, black, iron bells. I doubted they had been rung since the civilization had perished.
A low growl emerged from the temple, sending chills up my spine.
“They’re here,” I whispered.
One by one, the figures emerged from the darkness between the columns. To my surprise, they didn’t look like ordinary ghouls. No… they looked more like Reapers. Slim and clad in black and white, they carried half-moon scythes in their bony hands. They had pale skin, almost white, and obsidian eyes where the stars had long ago burnt out.
There were six of them. Six men of fae origin, I noticed, with long pale blond hair and eerily identical facial features. I wondered if they’d been born brothers, died brothers, and then become Reaper brothers before their eventual downfall. It didn’t make sense that they still had scythes, however. Ghouls and scythes did not belong together.
One of them bore a scar down his right cheek, a delicate pink line that traveled from his temple to the left corner of his mouth. He sneered as he descended the temple’s steps, black boots clicking on the white stone. He gripped his weapon tightly, knuckles almost tearing through his pearlescent skin.
“You’re not supposed to be here,” he said. His voice made me tremble.
Tristan’s blood was frozen. His temperature had dropped a few more degrees, and his hand was sweating as it clutched mine. These ghouls had a powerful effect on me. I loathed to even imagine what they were doing to my husband, an otherwise fearless creature.
“And yet I stand before you,” I replied, raising my chin in defiance. “You’re keeping a secret in there. I want to know everything about it.”
The scarred ghoul threw his head back and laughed, while the others grinned in amusement as they too reached the ground floor. Mere feet remained between us, and my free hand was already moving toward my scythe. One more step, and I would be forced to use it sooner than I’d hoped.
“You’re brave, I’ll give you that,” the scarred ghoul said. “State your name, so we know who it is we’re sending away.”
“I am Unending, and you will accept my presence, soul eater! Who are you to think you can stop me?”
He smiled. “We are the Ghoul Reapers of Biriane. And we’ve never eaten a soul.”
The statement hit me like a sledgehammer. Its implication didn’t make sense. How were they ghouls and Reapers at the same time? How was this even possible? Questions flooded my mind as I beheld these strange creatures. Unfortunately, Death was not a reliable source right now. I would have to get my truth from the so-called Ghoul Reapers of Biriane instead.
Unending
“How is that even possible?” I asked, unable to look away from these strange and unexpected creatures. They looked more like me than the animalistic ghouls I’d become accustomed to. It was only their eye color that betrayed their nature. Nothing else. Only the blackness in their eyes. It spoke of hunger and solitude, of emptiness and a void that could never be filled.
The first ghoul gave me a faded smile. “There are many things we thought impossible, until they became possible.” It made his pink scar arch into a smile of its own.
“Then explain. How does a Reaper become a ghoul without consuming a living soul, when that is the very trigger that creates the ghoul in the first place?” I replied.
“Perhaps we should begin with some names,” my husband suggested, in a gentle bid to diffuse the tension that had gripped everyone present. No, I wasn’t supposed to be here, but they weren’t supposed to exist. There were questions that needed answering, and a hostile environment was not the best way to achieve that. “I’m Tristan, a vampire of The Shade.”
“A living creature! I might rip your heart out, just for kicks!” the scarred one spat, narrowing his black eyes at Tristan’s hand, then mine. “Are those wedding bands I see?”
“Yes. We are married,” I said, noticing the sudden shifts in the ghoul’s demeanor, jumping from agitated and bloodthirsty to calm and eloquent with incredible speed. “The union was blessed by Death herself.”
“Of course,” another ghoul grumbled. “Anything for her precious Reaper.”
“Odd. But I suppose we’ve all seen odder things come to pass,” the scarred one replied. “I’m Eneas. Once Reaper of the Fire Star. Now Ghoul Reaper of Biriane. That’s the best we’ve been able to come up with.”
“I’m Fileas,” the second one said, proceeding to introduce the others, too. “That’s M
alin, Deas, Hadras, and Filicore. We’re all brothers in life and in death. Careful with Hadras, in particular. He likes to get rough.”
To prove that point, Hadras snapped his fangs at us, chuckling maniacally. The others were amused for a second, but they didn’t stick to one emotional state for too long. Tristan sucked in a breath, trying to ignore their outburst. “I thought I was losing my mind for a second. You all look so much alike. Did you die together, too?”
They nodded at once. “A terrible flood, eons ago,” Eneas said. “We died so our people might live. And look at us now. Worthless!” he snarled, then shook his head as if to push that rage back to the bottom of his consciousness.
“You sacrificed yourselves. Perhaps it’s why you were selected to become Reapers in the first place. Someone high up saw your strength and nobility,” I replied. “But I’m still not clear as to how you came to be… this.” I gestured at their eyes.
Around us, the afternoon began to settle slowly into shades of red. Plumes of purple and orange stretched across the sky, the huge sun melting into the western horizon with a heavy glow. The winds intensified, raising threads of white dust and swirling them through the alleys to the south. Once in a while, the particles flickered white, like diamond specks dancing in the breeze.
The whiteness of this city and the blackness of the Ghoul Reapers’ eyes had the same loneliness in common. They had been forgotten. Left here to exist without anyone’s knowledge but Death’s—and Anunit’s. Now mine and Tristan’s, too.
Eneas didn’t put his scythe away, and neither did his brothers, but I did notice a softening of his tone as he spoke. “What do you know about this place? About us? Someone clearly pointed you in this direction. Was it Death?”
“No,” I said. “Anunit.”
Filicore growled. It was in that sound that I recognized the primal bestiality of a ghoul. It sent shivers down my back. “She should have kept her mouth shut. We are all sworn to secrecy.”
A Shade of Vampire 90: A Ruler of Clones Page 5
