by Deck Davis
You could be gone before he gets back, my love. My sweet. Gone before the sun taints the sky.
The voices had been getting stronger in the hours since Jakub had left, but Morrigan had resisted using her potion. She was used to it by now; she’d experimented with how long it took Zelox and Chancel and Yutulia to get stronger, to exercise more of a right over the body she had claimed.
Zelox was usually the first to wake. First to wake, but always the weakest.
Chancel was the second, but he seemed content to let Morrigan keep control, for now.
Yutulia was the problem, because Yutulia never spoke. The girl had a patience nothing could match. This was her body, her flesh, and she’d been cast out from it, but the little bitch had enough nerve to wait for her chance take it back. She would never try it when she knew Morrigan had her potions with her.
Morrigan never knew when circumstance might leave her without the concoction that kept Yutulia and Zelox weak, and so she’d tested herself.
In her hut, she’d put an uncorked vial of potion in front of her, marked a starting time on the clock, and then waited for the beings in her to stir.
It began with Zelox waking, spitting his words into her mind with the hiss of a snake.
Then he’d try to gain some movement, but never tried to claim the whole body.
Eyelids, eyebrows, toes. He was content to make them flutter, raise, or wiggle, nothing more.
But Yutulia was patient, and she never moved, never spoke. She just stayed in the recess of their mind, watching from the shadows and brooding as she grew stronger, stronger, stronger…but never strong enough.
Because Morrigan always lost her nerve, and drank the potion.
She might have been the invader of this body, but she was terrified of its host. The girl was evil. A soul so corrupted nothing could save it. Those Death Bringers had put Morrigan inside this girl’s body, feeding her to it.
Then, after doing that, they had the nerve to banish them from the tribe.
Come, my darling, said Zelox. The moon glows, the crows are nesting. The necromancer will be back soon, is it not so?
“Shut up.”
The boy looked at Morrigan now, but she was at a loss to explain it. She didn’t want to, really. She knew that even though the boy couldn’t speak, he could understand, but she wouldn’t be able to find the words.
For all her show of bravery, she was always scared. She wanted her family with her, her dead family, the ones who the Death Bringers had surely put inside the living Killeshi children by now.
If only she were back with the tribe, she could look into the children’s eyes and see the spirits of her mother, her father, her brother, all staring back at her.
Yes, they’re waiting, said Zelox. You know what you could do, don’t you? I know you well enough to know, my dear, that your mind is as cunning as fox…fox…a fox.
“I think it’s time for you to sleep again. I’ve had enough of your shit.”
You feel so alone. I feel it seeping from you. After all, this body is quite cramped, no? Our feelings rebound against each other. You feel her, too, don’t you?
“Yutulia won’t wake yet.”
She’s already awake. Yutulia wakes before me, my sweet. But she watches, and she can hear us now. Why not talk to us, Yutulia? Let’s have a party in your body, the one which Morrigan has so dutifully taken care of.
“Don’t goad her,” said Morrigan.
Yutulia, if you are listening, you should thank Morrigan. Spirits don’t often seize control of their hosts, so it must have been quite a shock. But possessing spirits aren’t quite so conscientious, either. Morrigan took you when you were a slip of a thing, and she has made you strong. Fed you well. Given you muscles, skills. You know, Yutulia, now might be a good time to…
“Shut up!” said Morrigan.
She should have consumed the potion an hour ago, when she felt Zelox start to stir. It was like in itch in her brain at first, right on the edge of her skull. She’d only had time to grab one potion when they left her hut, and it could be hours before she could find one of her hidden caches.
If she could just hold out another thirty minutes, that would buy enough time. Then she’d drink it, send Zelox and the bitch back to sleep, and she’d be good for half a day.
In the meantime, she had to put up with his words, his tricks, his ramblings.
You can’t trust him. He isn’t coming back.
“He’ll be back.”
She’d put more trust in Jakub than she had in anyone in the last decade. Not just when she’d entered his tent; she did that because she had needs, and it was good to be in a body so she could feel them.
More than that, she needed what he promised; a way to flush the other beings from her body.
You think he can do that? Take matters into your own hands, Morrigan. Deliver the body of the necromancer to the tribe. Look at it; it’s lying their waiting for you to use it. He’s a master, you know. A great prize. They’re sure to take you back if you deliver him to them while his spirit is still warm.
Zelox was reading her thoughts easier now. That was another sign of the progression, and marked the beginnings of the end of how long she could wait. Yutulia would be getting stronger, waiting, and perhaps she’d see this as her chance to take the body back.
She opened her bag and found the vial of potion. It was a hue of blue, with red speckles floating in it. She knew it would taste foul and make her want to retch, but she’d gotten used to suffering that now.
She uncorked it. The pungent stench assaulted her, twisted through her nostrils and deep inside her.
You’re making a mistake, Morrigan. I am the only ally you have. Your one, sweet, true friend, my girl. You need me because I am you.
“It’s time for you to sleep.”
“No,” said a voice.
This wasn’t Zelox.
She knew it wasn’t Yutulia, either.
This was a raspy voice, a hiss worse than Zelox’s.
She turned to see the boy standing beside her now.
“No,” the boy said again. He wasn’t speaking, though; his words seemed to project from his mind.
I told you, didn’t I? You should have listened to me. Now look at the mess you’ve gotten us into.
“Shut up.”
The boy slapped the vial out of Morrigan’s hands. She tried to catch it, but it smashed against the alcove wall and shattered, and the liquid spread over the dirt.
She got to her knees and lapped at it with her tongue, tasting potion and dirt mingling into one. She’d gotten some of the liquid, but not enough.
Now, her bag was empty.
She had just enough time to feel something stir in her mind; a being rising from the darkness.
Then the boy was on her, clawing at her eyes and her cheeks.
CHAPTER 52
He was back again, back in the Greylands, a place where no mortal should go. A place he’d been to once, and one which he’d been lucky to escape from with his mind not shredded like a puppy’s toy.
They were standing on a landmass floating amidst a hundred channels of blue liquid that flowed into every direction in the distance, rivers of soul essence with the spirits of the dead in them.
Up above, the sky was dotted with holes like the mouth of a watering can, each hole a portal, each portal with something dead breaching it in a spray of death juices and soul essence.
Dogs, whales, goblins, dwarves, people, they all fell through the holes one after another, falling through the sky and plummeting into the rivers of essence, which would carry them through the Greylands. Each entry was the start of a clock, a resurrection window sure to close ninety-nine percent of the time, for this was the Greylands, the place between death, and nothing was expected to leave save the spirits that had taken permanent residence.
They couldn’t stay here for long. It was dangerous enough for Jakub even with his mental training, but it was deadly for Rud.
Chaser
was standing over her master’s body, barking at him to get up.
“Rud, get up.”
The Greylands had got to him already, and they’d only been here a few seconds.
Jakub first cast Essence Grab, draining pure essence from the river flowing next to him. Then, with his necklace full, he spoke the spellword of Health Harvest, and converted some of the essence into a healing wind, which he sent into Rud.
As Rud shuddered, coughed, and then bolted upright, words drifted into Jakub’s vision.
*Necromancy Experience Gained!*
[IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ]
He was close to earning novice level 3. At any other time, any other place, another step toward new powers would have sparked joy in him, but there was no joy in the Greylands.
“Where are we?” said Rud.
“I don’t have time to be nice about this, so I’m not going to tell it to you gently,” said Jakub. “This is the Greylands; its where you go when you die, before your soul completes its transition.”
“Are we…dead? Florence! What about her?”
“She’s back in the hamlet, remember? We’re not dead.”
“Then why isn’t she here?”
“Forget about her and focus, Rud. You wouldn’t want her to be here with us, trust me. We’re in danger.”
Rud gave Chaser a pat on the head to stop her begging for it, and then he stood up and turned in a circle, looking around. By the time he completed the circle his face was whiter, his eyes wider.
“This is hell. Or one of the seven.”
“No, it’s the Greylands, which is a different thing.”
“Then tell me what that thing is, and then try and sell me on this not being hell.”
Rud pointed north, his arms shaking, to a monstrosity of a creature in the distance, an arachnid twenty feet tall with limbs that jutted off at impossible angles and writhed in a motion that made Jakub feel sick. Its flesh was dark red and slick with juice. It was sitting guard over a pile of eggs, skulls, and what looked to be organs, snapping its spindly limbs at anything that moved too close.
The more Jakub focused on the creature the more the arachnid’s image began to fragment, almost as if he was looking at it through a prism.
One fragment of its being extended, stretching across the horizon and toward Jakub.
He looked at the ground. When he looked up, the arachnid and its nest were a mile closer. Just like that; a stare that lasted too long, a trick of the light, and there it was.
He’d come so close to losing a part of his mind to it; that was what things did down here, it was why the Greylands were so dangerous.
“You can’t look at anything that lives here,” he warned Rud. “The more you stare, the more you allow the beings here to lock onto your thoughts, and they ride them like waves so they can get to you. Every thought they touch gets corrupted, and it’s lost to you.”
“Like what? You mean I’ll lose my mind down here?”
“Memories. Anything - your first kiss, the first time you ate carrots. Or maybe you’ll lose knowledge, like how to hold a sword properly, how to speak. There’s no telling what they’ll take. So, don’t look at anything.”
“How do we get out?”
“That’s the magic question. Keep your eyes on the ground.”
Chaser snarled. She was standing right beside Jakub’s leg and snapping at something in the distance.
“Don’t look, Chaser.”
“Don’t worry about her. Animals are fine; they aren’t affected. Nor do we have to worry about looking at animals from above who’ve died and found themselves here. It’s only the beings of the Greylands we have to worry about, the things that have been here so long and are trapped here.”
“I thought this was the place where they decide where to send your soul? Nothing stays here, does it?”
“There’s no they, Rud, and you’re right in a sense. Some things are allowed to stay here, and some things fight to stay here. When a being resists the draw of its soul away from the Greylands, it changes. It becomes like the arachnid we saw over there, or worse. Always rooted to a nest, only able to travel by capturing thoughts cast its way, and then riding them and devouring them. So don’t look at anything unless I say it’s okay.”
Chaser barked even more now. Her body tensed, her nose twitched, and her canine teeth stuck out. She growled so hard that she tremored.
“There are more of them now,” said Rud. “I can feel them in the distance.”
“They’re starting to gather. They’ll watch us, hoping that we look. Don’t give them what they want.”
He tried to sound brave, but the truth was he could feel them watching, too. He daren’t raised his head to look, because there could be so many now that even a brief glance would be enough for them to catch his thoughts and ride one. All the same, even without looking he could sense them lurking, pressing on his mind and urging him to look.
He was worth a lot to them down here. Not only a mortal soul, but a necromancer. His thoughts would make for the ultimate corruption.
“I want to leave. This place is weird.”
“We’re going,” said Jakub. “But I need to find the way, and there’s something I have to do down here.”
“What about the things?”
“If you don’t look at them, they can’t travel to us. They’ll crowd the horizon in every direction once words gets out that we’re here. And not just them; there will be demons, imps, golems, gremlins, everything you can think of, and they’ll all try to make you look at them.”
“Then how are we supposed to walk through it?”
“That’s part of what I need to do.”
“I trust you, then. Just get us out of here. I need to get back to Florence.”
“You two are together?”
“We were planning to be.”
“Then let’s get you out of here.”
“What about necromancer Ryden? Won’t he come for us?”
“He’ll open a portal too, but time is different in the Greylands. It’s a hell of a lot slower, so even though the portal will take seconds to open on the surface, from our point of view we’ll have eight to ten minutes. By my reckoning we’ve wasted a few of them, so let’s go.”
“Which way?”
“You don’t need to know; you just need to keep your eyes on the ground and follow my feet.”
Rud nudged him and pointed up at the sky. “Jakub. Look.”
“I told you to keep your eyes…oh.”
As if it wasn’t bad enough to be surrounded by a horizon of thought-corrupting arachnids, they had airborne problems now, too.
Another portal was starting to open. This was one of hundreds in the Greylands sky, and shouldn’t have worried him.
Running was their first plan, but he catalogued what he had to fight with in case it came to a fight with Ryden.
His spells were out; none of his necromancy was effective offensively, and even if it was, Ryden was a master. The battleground of spells was so unevenly slanted that Jakub was toppling over the edge.
What about his weapons? He had his vagrant blade, his blackened sword, and the crossbow he’d looted from killing the guys in Morrigan’s hut. The problem was, he’d never trained for crossbow use. He had the Basics of Archery talent tome, of course, but he didn’t have a spare few hours to read it.
No, if it came to a fight, they were going to lose. He just had to make sure that didn’t happen.
That meant finding his way out of the Greylands. To do that, he needed to find Ludwig.
CHAPTER 53
Staring at the ground, he pressed his thumb tattoo and cast his map on the ground. It had changed now, no longer showing the Killeshi lands but the Greylands instead, though much of the terrain was blackened.
He hadn’t explored the place, and there were no Greylands maps in the academy library for him to add to his map. That meant that he was wondering blind, but that didn’t matter.
“What the hell?”
said Rud. “More magic?”
Rud moved back, stepping away from the map as if it were made of fire.
“Does magic bother you?”
“I’ve never trusted it.”
“You don’t have much of a choice. This is just a map. Now let me work.”
With his map overlaid on the ground, Jakub spoke the spellword of Summon Bound.
As before, Ludwig didn’t come, but this time something else happened. On the map at his feet, a dot flashed. It was way across the map, through miles and miles of black, but there it was.
Then the dot faded.
Jakub spoke his spellword again, and the dot flashed.
“That’s where Ludwig is, and he isn’t moving.”
“Ludwig?”
“I have a dog, too.”
The hike that followed wasn’t the easiest of his life. Not only did he have to stop every so often and use Summon Bound to see Ludwig’s dot on his map, then drain essence from the channels around them to top up his necklace, but the channels of essence themselves were a problem.
Some of them flowed straight through their path to Ludwig, and Jakub and Rud had to skirt around them without lifting their eyes off the ground. Finding parts narrow enough to leap over was a task in itself.
It was ten minutes into their journey, where they hadn’t gotten far at all, that a further problem emerged.
Another dot appeared on his map now, this one with a name floating next to it.
Necromancer Ryden Renault.
Necromancer Ryden’s dot was moving much quicker across the map than they were. Being a master, he was able to move freer in the Greylands than Jakub, and their head start of only five or six minutes was being cut short.
“Why’s he so fast?” asked Rud.
“Because he can look around, so he doesn’t have to take as much care in his footing as we do.”
“How? I thought you said looking at them would…pulverize your head, or whatever?”
“Ryden is a master necromancer, and I’m just a novice. The gulf in skill is becoming quite apparent.”
They pushed on faster, skirting channels of soul essence, scaling hills of bone, and crossing streams using bridges made from frozen blood. Jakub didn’t even stop when he needed to check his map; he cast it on the ground as he ran, and the light warped and bobbled over rocks and dents in the terrain.
