Eve of Snows: Sundering the Gods Book One

by L. James Rice

  Artus said, “We sent word down to the holies, should have someone get him, her, soon,” Artus said.

  Eliles said, “A woman, I think.” The hair was long and gray but she couldn’t see the face until Ivin flipped the cowl. She didn’t believe her eyes until Ivin said the name.

  “Meris. Godsdamn. Who found the body?”

  Artus shrugged. “Heard a boy saw her jump, no idea who.”

  Ivin leaned in, his nose curling. “Maybe the stars told her to do it. How’d that crone make it up all them steps?”

  Artus chuckled. “Maybe your pa’s spirit done carried her on up and gave her a toss.”

  “No doubt the tavern gossip will say so.”

  Eliles listened and stared, unbelieving. She’d assumed the woman dead in Istinjoln, and to find her here, crashed to the rocks, what gods were at work to make such a thing possible? “She was in Istinjoln days before the Eve of Snows. She broke the bone that killed Ulrikt.”

  Ivin cocked his head. “She traveled all the way back here just throw herself from the tower?”

  Artus asked, “Ulrikt is dead?”

  Ivin and Eliles answer together. “No.”

  “You done just said—”

  Ivin said, “It’s a story best left to warmth and indoors.” He stalked the body’s perimeter, kneeling for a closer look. “What if she came here, garbed as a monk, to tell us something, could be one of her own gave her a toss. We need to find the boy, see what he knows. Few things are simple as they seem these days.”

  “Aye, true, lad. You’ve a better head on your shoulders than ever I did.”

  Eliles said, “I only met her once, but there’s no way I believe she jumped.”

  Rocks clattered, and she turned to spot two monks struggling over loose rocks to reach them. The men arrived without a word and loaded the old woman on linen stretched between two oak shafts without looking at her face. Whether it was fear to see someone they knew, or business-like duty, Eliles couldn’t be sure.

  They stood in silence as the monks placed Meris’ arms across her belly, unfolded pristine white linen across her remains, and finished with prayers for her soul. Within moments they toted the high oracle away, leaving only her blood on the rocks.

  Ivin spat. “I don’t need to read no bones to recognize this ill tiding.”

  “Your pa is smiling right now, boy.” Artus pulled a flask from his cloak and popped its top before taking a swig. He offered Eliles a drink, but the strength of his breath convinced her this would be unwise.

  The silence grew uncomfortable as they watched the litter disappear. Ivin bent and plucked a stem of monkshood. “A piece of beauty amid the horror.”

  Eliles clasped Ivin’s hand in hers, soothed to feel his warmth and the beat of his heart, but as she took the flower her mind wandered to the words of the Touched with the speed of gale winds: A tower, a tower, an autumn flower, read the oracle’s bones and find your tower, the first, the second build in kind. Find. In kind. Tear-blind build.

  45

  PROMISES

  In a life previous

  I was a bear with buttons for eyes

  and stitches down my spine

  a sadly happy little thing

  slumbering in the arms of children

  until arrived a day I became the child

  and ripped the eyes off mine own bear.

  So is the Odyssey of these Spaces in time.

  —Tomes of the Touched

  Kinesee awoke with her head resting in Alu’s lap, the rhythm of their hearts in cadence. Her stomach growled and she sat up. She grabbed salted chicken, a tad rude, considering they hid in a chicken house, but it was the first bit of food she found rummaging through her sack. Alu smiled and offered her an egg, more rudeness.

  She cracked the egg and drank before taking a bite of meat. “Seen the dead?” She forced herself to not call it Papa.

  “No, nothing but chickens and Tenkgur. Stupid goat.”

  They’d seen Tengkur bounce and prance right up to the dead things, and the dead didn’t even look at her. Mighty odd, she figured, considering the stories told about the Wakened. The dead killed every living thing, man and beast. Never once in them scary tales did the dead fear water, neither. Maybe spooky stories didn’t know as much as she thought.

  She sneaked to the crack in the wall and peered outside. They’d seen four Wakened yesterday: Papa, an aunt, and two cousins, but no Shadows. The creatures wandered, disappearing now and again, but came back. Only a couple hens pecked and scratched in the yard this morning.

  High tide carried a couple dories into the strait, three remained on shore. They entertained the notion of a heroic escape, but neither of them could row a boat far even if they made it to shore alive. They sat in dirty straw suffering the stink of chicken poop and dust, moving as little as possible to keep quiet.

  Kinesee crawled to Sis and sat, gnawed on a chunk of chicken. Claws grated the northern wall, skrit-skrat echoing through the coop, and both girls tightened. Scratchy feet passed over their heads and flickers later two beady eyes and a pointy nose gazed upside down through the door. A raccoon. A no-good, stinky, chicken-and-egg-eating raccoon. The animal snarled as it flipped inside and met Alu’s boot. She struck hard and fast, but the beast clung to sealskin and bit. Kinesee grabbed a knife and lunged, plunging the blade into its back. It screeched and let go, tumbling out the door.

  If the Wakened saw or heard, or found the wretched critter’s blood trail from the coop, their hiding place would become a trap. They sat stone-still in the stir of dust, staring at the door. Chickens cackled outside, otherwise, silence. Kinesee took her breaths slow, scrunching her nose to stifle a sneeze. Solineus wouldn’t be far away by now, she promised herself, all they needed was to stay hidden.

  Stories spoke of the Wakened being dim-witted, and by grace of the gods and holy prayer she hoped they proved right on at least this one thing. The coop had one exit they’d fit through, so if the dead came through the trap door, they’d need to fight their family or scratch their way through the walls of the chicken house.

  Footsteps outside. Alu readied her spear, and Kinesee tucked her pearl in its pouch and took a knife in both hands. Ready to fight and kill, not to die.

  Slow trudging steps, dirt scuffling under heavy feet until coming to stand beneath the chicken door. Wood creaked, the coop shook, and a hand latched onto the rail outside, pulling itself up. Uncle Dom’s ripped face rose to block the sun, his gaze turning to the girls.

  Kinesee went numb, muscles freezing under the dead stare.

  Alu didn’t hesitate, driving the spear clean through the Wakened’s eye and out the back of his head. The thing fell backward, wrenching the spear, and Alu struggled with her grip, the hook of the point lodged in bone. Dom’s collapsing weight slid her to her feet and rammed her into the wall. The shaft slipped from her fingers, leaving them with fishing knives to fend for their lives.

  “Run, run to the water.”

  Alu ripped the trap door open and dropped through on faith, but Kinesee lagged behind.

  “Jump!”

  Kinesee stuck her feet through the dark hole but couldn’t make herself let go. She climbed down, shaking, unsteady. The main door stood open and Alu stood in the meager light streaking into the great room. Kinesee handed her a knife.

  “Now, follow me, run and don’t stop.”

  They sprinted through the door, keeping low into dim sunlight. Dom lay dead in the dirt and sand, and Alu pushed Kinesee by. She ran before turning to look. Her sister stood prying the spear from the Wakened’s head, strange tendrils of Shadow seeping from the corpse into the ground.

  Kinesee spotted Medlin on the hill, a cousin on mother’s side. “Alu! Run!” Kinesee pointed, and with a final tug Alu gave up on the spear and bolted.

  Kinesee leaped from a small rise and landed on the beach, tumbling and rolling into a sand-spraying sprint. The pounding of Alu’s feet gained on her from behind. She didn’t dare consider it was some
body else. The boats lay straight ahead and one’s bow broke the waves of a rising tide. Feet splashed chilling waters into the air and she turned, Alu plowed into the surf right behind her. They grabbed the bow of the boat and stared into Medlin’s sunken eyes.

  The Wakened shied from the water, but wasn’t near as dumb as Kinesee hoped. Medlin grabbed the back of the boat and pulled, trying to drag their escape inland. The girls grabbed hold best they could as a wave lifted the boat’s nose; they managed it farther into the surf as the creature screamed, water hitting its bare feet. Kinesee wailed and dug her boots into the sand, pulling with every bit of her strength as another wave washed ashore.

  Another dead thing loped on all fours down the beach, a cousin with his tongue lolling from a face and missing so much flesh it was hard to put a name to him; best Kinesee could figure, it was Ito. Together the two cousins dragged the boat backward, defeating the girls’ gains inch-by-inch.

  A wave surged, driving the dead prancing away from the spray and froth, but they took hold of the boat, and heaved as the water receded. Kinesee’s fingers slipped and she lurched backward before regaining a grip in this tug-of-war. The tide was their hope, until Medlin climbed into the boat, coming at them with bared and bloody teeth.

  A wave rushed ashore, sending freezing waters as high as their thighs, lifting them from their feet as it rocked the dory. Medlin tumbled and fell as the boat shifted, scrambled to her feet, and with a flash which might as well have come from heaven, a blade severed Ito’s head in a splash of black gore. A rush of gray blurred across Kinesee’s vision with the muted thumps of hooves in sand.

  The boat lurched seaward and Medlin tumbled over the starboard edge, a piercing wail as she hit the water. Smoke seemed to rise from her body, but Kinesee grasped the truth, it was Shadow escaping. Within flickers Medlin floated dead in the water, and the surf drew Shadowy tendrils into its frothing depths, dispersing its darkness as if the thing never existed.

  The next waves caught the toes of a man’s boots and Kinesee ran to Solineus with tears wetting her cheeks. He wasn’t the man she remembered, clad in mail and with a curved sword in either hand, but his face and smile were everything she remembered and dreamed of.

  “The coop was safer for you birds.” He hugged her, then Alu, as she latched onto his other side. “How many more Wakened?”

  Kinesee couldn’t manage words through her tears, so Alu answered. “Papa and Aunt Oleu, best we know.”

  He stuck his swords in the sand and his hands slid under Kinesee’s arms to lift, setting her into the boat. Alu climbed aboard, and Solineus shoved the dory into deeper water. “Drop anchor and wait for me, I’ve another promise to keep.”

  The girls struggled to lift the anchor, but managed to flip it over the edge. They sat bobbing in the strait, watching. Kinesee’s heart thrummed a desperate rhythm. In a single day she’d lost everybody important in her life save for her sister and this stranger. Solineus should climb into the boat, row them to safety. The words dangled on her trembling lips, but she couldn’t give them voice.

  Solineus dragged Ito to the water, Shadow seeping from his body, stretching stringy like translucent strands of seaweed refusing to snap as tiny fingers clung to the sand. When a wave found the body the Shadow struggled, but the water drew its wriggling essence until the black splotch in the water faded into nothingness.

  Kinesee prayed without words, saying goodbye to kin, while thankful he no longer threatened the living.

  SINCE FIRST REALIZING the demons feared water, he’d wondered why. Now he planned on enjoying it.

  Solineus dropped Ito’s body in a rushing wave, fascinated as strips of Shadow leeched from the body, morphed into ink, and diluted from existence. The image forced the surreal recollection of his soul afloat in the blue sea of his dreams, but he hoped the Shadows met torment instead of tranquility. Demons didn’t deserve a gentle exit when kind folk such as Dareun met tortuous ends with their souls trapped in a doomed land.

  A shrill scream overpowered the rumbling surf. Solineus met the eyeless gaze of the Shadow rising above Dom’s corpse and sloshed to shore.

  Kinesee cried out. “Let’s leave! Don’t fight that thing.”

  He walked between the swords standing in the sand and grabbed their hilts. The murmur of the Twins’ voices nudged into the background of his thoughts, goosebumps rising on his arms with the tingle of power the blades fed him.

  He turned and smiled, reassuring. “No worries, sweet girls.”

  The Shadow squirmed free of the corpse but several tendrils remained lodged in the body. He stepped within a few feet and spit. The saliva struck and breached the creature clean through, pulling a thin streak of the monster’s being to the turf. Its metallic shriek, the way it cowered and suffered pain made him smile.

  “Gotta say, that’s godsdamned funny.”

  He resisted the urge to open his canteen on the thing and instead crossed the twins through the hazy form. No resistance, but the blades left crisp lines of clean air in their wake. The Shadow went silent and unmoving, faded. Pathetic how quiet these creatures departed the world after wreaking bloody havoc. When Colok struck the Shadows, their anguish satisfied the yearning for revenge.

  He scanned the perimeter for threats and sheathed his swords, took Dom by his feet and dragged him through the house door. The empty shell no longer felt a home, cold, dark, hollow. Plenty of split wood sat stacked by the hearth. In moments a fire stoked with skins of oil raged, sending smoke through the hole in the conical roof. In time it would be seen for horizons. He lifted Ielu and placed her body in the flames, followed by Dom. As dignified an end as time allowed.

  Blades sang from sheaths and whispers flirted with his consciousness as he drew the Twins, exiting the home with cautious steps. Oleu came from the woods, stopping to stare at him before eyeing the girls floating on the boat. She sat back on her haunches, waiting, a mop of hair turned dark with dried blood clinging to her lifeless face, but she wasn’t his target, the next arrival was. Iku carried his fishing spear and Solineus found it more difficult than expected to separate his memories of a living man he called friend from a corpse given life by a demon.

  The pair gazed at him, assessing him, perhaps. Unusual behavior for creatures who attacked without a second thought. Solineus nodded to Iku with a sullen grin. The Lady spoke to Iku in his dreams and told him Solineus would save his girls and free Iku. At the time he knew nothing of what this meant, but he swore to fulfill the Lady’s promise. If the man’s soul remained trapped within its shell, he wanted him to know he kept the first half of this promise, and soon he’d keep the second.

  He turned and strode into Iku’s home, nostrils assaulted by the acrid, sulfurous fumes of burning flesh and whale oil. The smoke burnt his eyes, but better for him to suffer than the girls. Whatever they’d been through, they didn’t need the image of their father’s death seared into their memories, even if dead already. He waited for the inevitable, staring at the open portal through the roiling haze.

  The Taken strolled into the room impervious to the stench, blank eyes unblinking.

  “The girls are safe, Iku. I will see them to Herald’s Watch and do my best to see they reach old age.” He hoped to see a reaction, a glimmer of recognition, but the man’s sallow face didn’t so much as twitch. He’d done what he could, now time to finish things.

  Solineus raised the blade in his right hand to honor the sun and dropped his left to honor the lands and seas. The creatures rushed, Oleu on all fours and leaping, Iku charging through with his spear. A Twin struck the shaft of the spear, shaving splinters and fingers into the air while stepping beneath the soaring woman. The second Twin swept a gash clean from Oleu’s neck to her pelvis, and she dropped into a flailing, hissing mass of innards.

  He twisted to face Iku, the Wakened struggling to grasp the spear with a hand missing fingers. The dead’s strength wasn’t of flesh, it was of Shadow, and a thrust of the spear even with a single hand carried the force o
f two men, but it was too slow. Solineus slapped the spear to the side, a blade severing the man’s arm before the second took his head.

  Solineus stood, not knowing whether his tears were from smoke or sorrow. Over the span of the last two weeks killing had become a constant companion, but the agony of this death drove nails into his heart. The man had taken him in, fed and clothed him, bequeathed to him a sword passed down through generations. Bittersweet, knowing he killed a man already gone. Worse that the chore remained unfinished.

  He tipped a stool upright and sat, wrapping a cloth around his nose and mouth, waiting for the Shadows to rise. When Shadows emanated from the dead, they blended with the smoke, and he didn’t waste time with spit or water. He no longer concerned himself with revenge. The Shadows faded from the universe, split by the Twins, and he lifted the bodies into the fire.

  Solineus strolled to the beach and watched thick smoke rise to mingle with clouds as he removed the saddle and tack from his horse, setting the animal free.

  A blow to his calf came from nowhere and he looked down at a set of horns attached to a sneaky little goat.

  He cocked an eyebrow. “Well, hello, Tengkur.” He lifted the malcontent goat, strode through icy waters with oiled boots and set her in Kinesee’s lap before climbing into the dory with the girls. The sisters stared mute as he pulled anchor and grabbed the oars. The girls’ sorrow and his own guilt for not saving more of the family compelled him to say something, but it pained him to speak.

  “Your father is free. Pray for his soul, so he may cross the Bridge of Living Stars in peace.”

  He couldn’t meet their eyes. Oars struck water and he pulled, the exertion straining his shoulders, providing a focus for his mind and a release. The girls weren’t so lucky, he needed to take their minds off the day. “We’ll make for Herald’s Watch, meet up with folks I know. Ivin Choerkin and his kin should be there by now.”