Empire of Rust Complete Series

by V. J. Chambers

  He treaded water, shaking his head. “We’re finished.”

  “No,” said Ezekiel. “We must trust God. If he wants to deliver the victory to us, then he will.”

  “Ezekiel, we’re outnumbered. Our army deserted us. We don’t have a chance.” He scanned the shore for any sign of Leah. He needed to get to her, get her away. And Nathaniel… was it true? What the hell had happened over here?

  Those revenants hadn’t come from nowhere. They were too well organized, and there were too many of them.

  “The necromancer knows we’re here,” said Gabriel. “We didn’t surprise anyone.”

  “If we’d stayed on the other side of the wall, if we’d pressed our advantage—”

  “What advantage?” Gabriel started for the shore. It was suicide, going towards all of those revenants, but he needed to find Leah.

  “I don’t know,” said Ezekiel, coming after him. “It’s only… it was such a good plan.”

  The two emerged out of the water, dripping wet. They both drew their swords.

  The men that had come with them weren’t there anymore. They’d scattered, undoubtedly, when they’d seen the revenants. It didn’t matter. Gabriel looked for Leah again. Where was she?

  “Leah!” he yelled.

  “Watch out,” said Ezekiel. “There’s a fast one coming.”

  Gabriel turned.

  But Ezekiel was already slashing with his sword as the revenant streaked towards them. It ran into Ezekiel’s blade, its head cleanly severed.

  Gabriel looked down at the head on the sand. “That was one of the women.”

  “There’s a lot newly turned,” said Ezekiel. “They’re fast, and we won’t be able to—”

  “Leah!” Gabriel saw her, running down the shore towards them. He started for her.

  “Gabriel!” She was sobbing.

  “Your left!” said Ezekiel. “There’s one heading for you.”

  Gabriel turned, bringing up his sword. He skewered the coming revenant. “Thanks for the heads up, Ezekiel.”

  Ezekiel grunted.

  Gabriel whirled. “Ezekiel?”

  Leah gasped.

  A revenant was on Ezekiel’s back. Ezekiel was stabbing at it with his sword, but he couldn’t get high enough to hit the revenant’s head. And then he plunged the sword into the monster’s midsection, and it got stuck.

  Gabriel yelled. He ran for Ezekiel, knocking the monster off the other man’s back and driving his sword into its head.

  Ezekiel panted, looking down at the dead revenant. He tugged at his sword, which was still sticking out of it. It wouldn’t come free. It seemed caught inside somewhere, possibly on the creature’s ribs.

  “We need to get in the water!” said Leah, sprinting for it.

  Ezekiel gave one last tug on his sword. No good.

  “Come on,” said Gabriel.

  They followed her, wading through the water as fast as they could.

  The fast revenants came after them. They could come just as quickly.

  “Further,” said Leah.

  And they urged themselves out until the they could no longer touch the ground.

  The revenants fell under the water. And minutes later, they popped up, floating, waterlogged, and dead.

  The three treaded water.

  “Nathaniel’s dead,” said Leah.

  “We heard,” said Gabriel. “So, it’s true.”

  She nodded, her face twisting.

  “We should get back around the wall,” said Gabriel. “Right, Ezekiel?”

  Ezekiel shook his head. “Not me.”

  “What?”

  Ezekiel swam closer. He put his back to Gabriel and lifted a tear in his shirt to reveal a bite mark on his back. A little half-moon of reddened teeth imprints, still bleeding.

  Gabriel felt as if the sky had sunk down on top of him. “No,” he breathed.

  Ezekiel turned back around, shrugging. “It got me.”

  “I wasn’t fast enough.” Gabriel flashed back to his father, the revenants attached to his body.

  “It’s not your fault,” said Ezekiel. “Things like this just happen sometimes. It’s God’s will.”

  “No,” said Gabriel. “No, there isn’t a God.”

  Ezekiel laughed a little. “Humor me for once, Gabriel. Don’t you want to believe you’ll see me again?”

  “In some whitewashed heaven where it’s a sin for us to touch each other?” said Gabriel.

  Ezekiel looked away. “You’re wasting energy treading water here. You need to swim around the wall. I’ll stay here until I can’t anymore, and then…”

  “No,” Gabriel said again. “That bite might take days to kill you. You might have enough time—”

  “It’s unpredictable, and you know it,” said Ezekiel. “It might kill me in two minutes.”

  Gabriel swam closer to the other man. He put his forehead against Ezekiel’s. “I’m not leaving you.”

  “You have to.” Ezekiel’s voice was quiet.

  “But… but we never… It’s too soon. There’s so much we didn’t… You didn’t…”

  “We never would have,” whispered Ezekiel. “You and I are too different. You know that. I know that. It’s better this way. I’ll go to see my God. You’ll keep going.”

  Gabriel shook his head furiously. “I’ll drag you with me if I have to. You might have several days of life left, several precious days, and I won’t let you throw them away.”

  Ezekiel pulled him close, his lips seeking Gabriel’s.

  Gabriel closed his eyes. The feel of the other man’s kiss was exquisite, and he didn’t want to let go. He wanted to stay lost in this—the pleasure—and not face the pain that was intruding on his consciousness, the panic and agony. He didn’t resist as Ezekiel’s hands roamed over his body. By the time he realized what Ezekiel was up to, it was too late.

  Ezekiel pulled out Gabriel’s sword and swam backwards in the dark water.

  “Wait,” said Gabriel, swimming after him. “What are you doing?”

  “Forget about me,” said Ezekiel. “I’m already dead.” And he drove the sword into his chest.

  Immediately, he started to sink.

  Gabriel swam over, thrashing in the water, trying to pull Ezekiel back.

  But the other man was too deep, already down beneath the waves.

  Gabriel let out a strangled cry. He splashed through the water again, reaching down, hoping to brush against part of Ezekiel’s body.

  Nothing.

  That can’t have just happened, he thought. He can’t be gone. He was just touching me.

  “Gabriel,” murmured Leah.

  He turned to look at her, wide-eyed. Then he looked back at the place where Ezekiel had sunk. He held his breath and dove down under the waves, eyes open. The salt stung, and it was too dark to see anyway. He surfaced, sputtering.

  “We have to go,” she said softly.

  He shoved wet hair out of his face. “But, Leah, he…”

  “I know,” she said. “We have to go.”

  He supposed she knew how this felt. After all, Nathaniel was… He looked back at the empty, dark water. Ezekiel, where are you? But then he swam over to her.

  Wordlessly, they turned towards the wall and kicked their legs. They swam through the darkness, away from the revenants, away from Ezekiel, who was lost. Lost forever. Gabriel felt weak and confused.

  On the other side of the wall, they were safe from revenants.

  They swam back up to the shore and emerged from the water, soaking and shivering.

  As they trudged up the sand, a figure appeared from the darkness, advancing on them. At first, Gabriel thought it was the necromancer, because the figure was clad in a long, flowing dark robe.

  But as the figure got closer, Gabriel could see her face in the moonlight.

  It was his sister, Michal. She was pale and terrible. Her lips were dark in the night. Her eyes were black hollows. She was flanked by six or seven revenants, all of which stood at sil
ent attention behind her—dead and solemn soldiers.

  She stared him down.

  Gabriel was tired, wet, exhausted, and still reeling from the loss of Ezekiel. He staggered closer to her.

  She lifted her chin, looking down her nose at him. “Kneel,” she said.

  He did it without thought. She was too awful not to be obeyed. She was a monstrous queen. He gazed up at her. “What happened to you?” he muttered.

  “Your army is in shambles. You are quite alone except for your wife. Do you surrender?”

  Gabriel swallowed. He guessed there was no way left to fight.

  “Where is your lover? The one that you went after? The one that you put in high esteem above my husband?”

  “Michal, I was never going to trade Darius. He was in no danger. I promise you—”

  “Where is your lover?” she thundered. Her face was carved from marble.

  Gabriel looked away. “He’s dead.”

  “I see.” She stepped closer, and her long, ashen fingers danced under his chin. “Surrender, brother.”

  “Yes,” Gabriel breathed. It seemed like a relief at that moment.

  * * *

  Michal waited to see that Gabriel and Leah were secure in their cell in the dungeons and then she headed back up the main level of the mansion, where Darius waited for her.

  Outside, their army of revenants was tearing apart what was left of Gabriel’s army. Some of the rebels had gotten away, but she was reasonably sure they weren’t a threat, so she wasn’t giving much concern to them. Whatever was left was being munched on by revenants. One look over the walls revealed the carnage—men and women’s organs strewn over the ground, revenants kneeling over them and feasting on flesh.

  Michal didn’t like to look at it for too long, though.

  It made her hungry. The bright tang of all that blood. It smelled like a banquet of delights, more delicious than anything she’d ever tasted. It took all her power to keep from flinging open the doors to the mansion, running out to the fields and joining in with the revenants.

  Darius was in the receiving room. He slumped in the emperor’s throne, glowering at the ground.

  “My love,” she said, running her fingers over the top of his bald head.

  He looked up at her. “The mansion is in an uproar. All the nobles want leave to go away from the city. I managed to calm them by explaining how dangerous that would be at the moment with all the revenants out there. Revenants with a taste for human meat.”

  “Good,” she said. “Gabriel and Leah are locked away. The threat has passed.”

  Darius shook his head. “No, I don’t think so.”

  She raised her eyebrows. “You think there is another army?”

  “No, but there are still threats.” He got up from the throne, folding her into his arms. He kissed the top of her head and murmured into her hair. “The revenants themselves, for one. There are too many of them. We cannot control them all, not the ones who are drawn to us. They will destroy the entire empire eventually. All we will be left with is this city.”

  “No, Darius.” She pulled away to look up at him. “That won’t happen.”

  He tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear. “It’s already happening. We must face the facts. This empire is crumbling away, even as we tighten our grasp on it.”

  She sighed, closing her eyes. “What would you have us do? Crown Gabriel again? Run away? Where could we even go?”

  “I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t have the answers.”

  “It may work out yet, Darius. We have no other challengers. We have to solve the problem of the revenants, that’s all.”

  He laughed softly. “That’s all. As if it’s solvable.”

  “It is.” She opened her eyes, gazing into his. She tried to believe it as she said it.

  He kissed her forehead. “My sweet one. So hopeful.”

  But she could feel it too. They wouldn’t be able to keep this up forever. And that terrified her.

  * * *

  Leah huddled in the corner of her cell. The dungeons here were slimy and cold and smelled strongly of sea water. The walls were covered in thick layers of barnacles. She didn’t like it here.

  She couldn’t help but think of Nathaniel—the way he had looked after he turned, so eager to eat her alive. Every time she closed her eyes, that was what she saw. She couldn’t sleep in this horrible clammy place, but even if she could, she knew that she would see him in her dreams.

  It was too much—the dungeon, Nathaniel’s death, the defeat of the army. She started to cry. Really cry. She hadn’t had time after Nathaniel, not right in the moment. Now, she gave in to her despair, and she sobbed and wailed, giving voice to her heartbreak.

  “Leah.” There were tears in Gabriel’s voice as well. “I’m so sorry.”

  She felt horrible, suddenly. She had been so focused on her own pain, she hadn’t even thought about Gabriel. She crawled to the edge of her cell. Gabriel was next to her, so she couldn’t see him, but here she felt closer to him. She might even be able to touch him…

  She reached out her hand, thrusting it through the bars, twisting around into Gabriel’s cell. “Gabriel?”

  His hand around hers. “I’m here.”

  “I’m sorry too,” she said. “About Ezekiel.”

  Gabriel didn’t say anything, but she could hear that his breath had grown unsteady. Several minutes passed with neither of them speaking, just crying softly together.

  “How did it happen?” said Gabriel eventually. “With Nathaniel?”

  “The revenants showed up,” she said. “There were so many of them.”

  “The necromancer sent them. He knew we were coming.”

  “I guess so,” she said. “Anyway, Nathaniel got bitten. The villagers were so sure he was going to come back from the dead, that he was going to bring back all the others who had died. And…” She bit her lip. “He did. He rose up as a revenant. He started to bite everything.”

  He squeezed her fingers. “How horrible.”

  “I killed him,” she said. “It. He wasn’t himself anymore. He was an it. I stabbed it while it tried to devour me.”

  Gabriel let out a long, slow breath. “You’re very strong, Leah.”

  “I’m not. I’m lost without him. I can’t do this anymore. Everything was for him.”

  “We’re both lost,” said Gabriel.

  “You really cared about Ezekiel, didn’t you?”

  Gabriel laughed softly. “I suppose you could never understand why.”

  “No, I didn’t mean—”

  “In some ways, maybe I don’t understand it either. But he did mean something to me. I did love him. I feel like he was too twisted in self-hatred to be anything other than horrible sometimes. But if I could have had more time with him, maybe then he would have changed. Softened. When I was with him…”

  It was her turn to squeeze Gabriel’s hand.

  “As touching as this is,” said another voice. “Some of us are trying to get some sleep.”

  Gabriel let go of Leah’s hand. “Simon? Is that you?”

  A giggle from the depths of the dungeon. “Hello, brother. You cost me my empire, and I hate you. But oh, how the tables have turned. Here you are, no better off than me.”

  “Simon, why are you in the dungeon? I left you in very nice quarters, awaiting trial.”

  “Yes, well, our sister and her monster seemed to think I belonged down here. So, now here we both are. Imprisoned together. Of course, it occurs to me that maybe I am a bit better off.”

  “Simon—”

  “Yes,” mused Simon. “You see, I’m getting out of here.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Gabriel pressed himself against the bars of his cell, trying to see his brother. He could tell the direction that the voice was coming from, but it was too dark down here to make anything out. “What do you mean you’re getting out of here?”

  “I mean that I have connections that you don’t have, b
rother. You burned all your bridges when you rode out of the city, leaving the court here at the mercy of the necromancer.”

  “You brought the necromancer,” said Gabriel. “None of this would have happened if it weren’t for you.”

  “Yes, well, I feel wretched about that now.” Simon didn’t sound like he felt wretched. “Funny thing, that one. Darius. I thought he’d be easy to manipulate. You should have seen him when I found him. Outcast, spending his days and nights protecting the city of Jeffsotow. No one really spoke to him. They were frightened of how dark his skin was, you see. I thought he’d be grateful. I took him away from all of that, gave him power and married him to an emperor’s daughter. I thought he’d be kissing my feet.”

  “You forced him to murder people,” said Gabriel. “I doubt that endeared you to him.”

  “Doesn’t seem to have a problem murdering people,” said Simon. “I didn’t see it, but I heard about it. Poor Uncle Matthew. They put their revenants on him, and the whole court watched while they devoured him.”

  Simon had a point, of course. The army of people he’d brought with him had been destroyed by Darius’s revenants. If Darius had been opposed to murder before, he seemed to have gotten over it. Probably he told himself that he had to do what he had to do in order to stay in power. But that didn’t mean that people weren’t dying.

  “Look,” said Gabriel, “Darius is the problem, Simon. You and I, we could work together to get rid of him. Tell me about your connections.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous, Gabriel. I’m not falling for that. I don’t have any reason to work with you. I hate you. I’ve always hated you.”

  Gabriel rested his head against the bars to his cell. “I’m not fond of you either, Simon. That’s not the point. Do you realize that there are hordes of revenants making their way south even as we speak? They’re drawn to the necromancer, and they’re climbing over the walls and tearing down the fences. There’s not going to be an empire if we don’t stop Darius. That’s more important than any feud the two of us have.”

  “So self interested, aren’t you?” said Simon. “Well, I don’t care if you rot in here. While you’ve been gone, the empire’s gone to hell. Our darling sister disbanded the council right away, but trapped all the council members and their families in the city. As you can imagine, that didn’t make them very happy. So, who did they come to? Me, that’s who. And tonight, the council members will come for me. They’ll take me out of the dungeon, and we’ll leave this city and establish the true empire elsewhere. With me, the true emperor.”