A Thousand Eyes

by Christian Leese

  Vann watched until the thing was far enough away. “What’s wrong with you?” he growled.

  “I was going to save everyone,” said Canis.

  “By getting yourself killed?” Thorne asked.

  He stared ahead and spoke in a low mumble. “That’s how heroes are born, aren’t they? Just give me a second.” Canis took a deep breath. “I’m having trouble with Bane. He keeps manipulating my thoughts, trying to get me to do things I don’t want to do.”

  “I see. Just tell us next time, big’un. We can help you.”

  Canis nodded. “Can you scout ahead, find us somewhere to ‘plot’ from?”

  She cocked her head, mouth open. “Okay, but while I’m gone you need to pull yourself together.”

  Canis turned his back on her, and Agrim crawled onto his shoulder. Yes, you’re right.

  Chapter 22

  Canis Rayne’s skin was cold with sweat, his insides aching and his mouth dry. All he could think about was mooncap. His mind was a haze of urges and regrets as he rooted through his pouches, but he had run out of drugs days ago. Bane had stopped aiding his recovery, stopped slicing the edge of his withdrawal. He tried to distract himself, give thought to something good in life. Beatrix Thorne. Bane forced images of her into his mind until she became nothing more than an object. A possession.

  The veins in his head throbbed as Bane tightened around his spine. Surges of hot anger boiled within him. He shivered. Canis and Vann Xan were alone, and the thought of being anywhere near him made his muscles twitch. What’s going on? Canis tried to force Thorne from his mind but couldn’t, the withdrawal from mooncap scrambling his thoughts. He looked to Vann but saw him as a stranger wanting to take Thorne away.

  “She’s mine,” said Canis as they sneaked through the streets, still waiting for her to return.

  “What?” replied Vann.

  “Thorne; she’s mine. You know what I mean.”

  “I’m sure I don’t.” Vann took a step away, looking at his belly. “Is this you speaking or the thing inside you?”

  “His name is Bane.”

  “So, you don’t deny it, then? He’s influencing your feelings toward Thorne? All you have to do is ask. I’m here to help you. We’re brothers, dammit!”

  “Why would he?”

  Vann pointed at Canis’ belly. “To create a divide between us.”

  “You don’t have control over me, Vann.”

  “I know. And I never have. All I’ve ever wanted for you is to escape Mortalo. And now all I want for you is to be happy. If it means letting you have Thorne, then so be it.”

  “Let me have her? Who do you think you are?”

  “Canis! Why are you doing this? I don’t understand. I’m there for you. I’ve always been there for you. If you want Thorne, try your luck, but she’s going to make her own mind up. You’re still a boy if you think you can force her to. We have no say in the matter of women’s hearts. I doubt she likes us at all.”

  “Still a boy. Is this what you think of me?”

  Vann ground his teeth. “That’s not what I meant.”

  Bane moved an inch, but it reminded Canis it was still there. He looked at his belly, then again at his brother. What are you doing?

  “Me? Nothing. These thoughts come from deep within you,” said Bane. “He’s the one confusing you, giving you something that is already yours.”

  She isn’t something to be given. She’s her own person, not an object.

  “Try telling Vann that.”

  Canis couldn’t fight Bane’s control, and Vann’s face distorted, his features changing into something else; his bushy brow and black hair retreated, Mortalo’s head taking form. Mortalo’s face was old, the lines creating shadows like in the streets of Blackrose—empty soul lines, the imperfections of his skin the cobbles. Canis blinked and the image of Mortalo turned white, the powder created from the bones of the dead.

  Canis hit out, his fist landing flat on Mortalo’s nose. It exploded, and blood washed away the white powder. But as it disappeared, he saw Vann’s face, not Mortalo’s. What have I done?

  Vann staggered back, his hands covered in blood. He looked at Canis with his eyes narrowed and his teeth clenched. Canis went to speak, but Vann charged him. They tumbled to the ground. Canis didn’t try to hit Vann back; instead, he focused on trying to defend himself as his brother lashed out. Vann’s eyes dilated.

  “Vann, stop,” Canis said, raising his arms to cover his face.

  Vann punched Canis in the gut instead. Air burst from his lungs. He couldn’t breathe, and Bane injected power into his limbs.

  I don’t need it, Bane.

  Vann struck him again.

  I’m not going to fight back.

  And again.

  “You’re trying to control and manipulate me,” said Canis as his head bounced off the ground.

  “What?” asked Vann mid-strike.

  Canis coughed. “I was talking to Bane. I was trying to wrestle back control.”

  “It wasn’t you talking back there, was it? I knew it. It was Bane. He’s the one who hit me, not you.” Vann punched Canis in the stomach again.

  “Why?” asked Canis, unable able to breathe.

  “To teach it a lesson. You don’t mess with brothers.” Vann got up and offered Canis his hand.

  Canis accepted the help and struggled to his feet. “I have no interest in Thorne,” Canis lied, his respect for Vann and what he had done for him worth the price. “She’s all yours.”

  Vann nodded, seemingly more interested in trying to straighten his nose than anything Canis had to say. Canis looked at Vann’s gauntlets hanging from his belt. He would have died in seconds if Vann had wished it.

  “C’mon. Let’s try to find her,” said Vann, blowing warm air into his hands.

  Canis shrugged. “We both know she’s the one who’s going to find us.”

  “It doesn’t hurt to make it look like we care.”

  “Lead the way.”

  Chapter 23

  Beatrix Thorne had returned. Canis Rayne sat on the cold stones, eyes closed, legs crossed. He heard his friends shuffling and, although he couldn’t see them, he knew they were looking at him, waiting. The smell of unwashed bodies hung in the air and a tinge of death followed, tickling his nostrils. He shivered as the wind cut through his armor, the rooftops unprotected and wet.

  “How long does it take to talk to that thing?” Vann Xan asked. “What’re they after?”

  Canis opened his eyes. Vann peered over the edge of the rooftop. “They’ve splintered off from the other Scourge horde. There’s a new group called the Fallen, but we both know Bane cannot be trusted.”

  “It took you that long to figure that out?” Thorne asked. “We already knew that. It’s just playing with us.”

  “I had to make sure, fully check our plan.”

  Thorne raised her eyebrow. “Does your plan involve you waiting to get killed again? And what happened to Vann’s nose while I was gone? Did you run into some trouble?”

  Canis said nothing as he looked at his scarred hands, avoiding eye contact. “We have to meet with the other Scourge like Bane suggested earlier.”

  “We just met with one of them and it nearly trampled us.”

  He shook his head. “No, I mean the ones like Bane and his kin. Outside the city walls, not the Fallen.”

  Vann and Thorne glanced at each other. “Did you say ‘outside the walls?’” she asked.

  Canis nodded.

  “We can’t go out there!” she yelled but caught herself and lowered her voice. “We can’t do that. It’s suicide to leave. Bane can’t be trusted, you said so just now!”

  “You may’ve survived out there, Canis, but what chance have we got? Our bodies don’t heal like yours. There’s no ether in my veins, little brother, no bionic organs and metal plates,” said Vann.

  “I won’t let anything happen to you two, or the rest of these peopl
e. You can stay here if you like, but I just don’t see any other way.”

  Thorne looked at Vann and settled herself. “I’ll take my chances with you then, I suppose. Between the Scourge and Fallen, Blackrose is rammed full of the bastards!”

  “But not enough…” Bane’s thought trickled into Canis’ mind.

  Vann nodded and stared at Canis, as if seeing him for the first time. Canis gave him a nod back.

  Canis looked over the edge before gesturing for Vann and Thorne to follow. He had gone past the point of bothering to ask anymore and guessed they would follow. Vann had been his usual self, but Canis got the feeling he feared and respected him equally. He could not tell which emotion prevailed at this moment. And, while Vann’s loyalty was without question, Thorne was yet to be tested. He looked at the two familiar faces before jumping across to the next roof.

  They alternated between rooftop and street level, keeping an ear to the ground for any Fallen that may come thundering through. The outer Companies had become stomping grounds for the Wardens and their human underlings; survivors had long since fled. There were few Scourge, and he guessed the bulk of them were in pursuit of the remaining people.

  Just beyond the guard tower, the streets were empty, but the people—his people—were lying in wait, hopefully ready to follow his command and charge into battle. None of them had heard of Canis Rayne until his fight with the Warden. The idea danced up his spine and made his head swim. My every whim, beck, and call. How grateful they’ll be when I free them.

  Canis’ thoughts occupied the full scope of his concentration, and they found their way to the outer watchtower Mortalo had taken him to days before. He looked at Thorne. She shook as the trapdoor lifted. He remembered the same fear consuming him and put his arm around her.

  “Do we have to?” Thorne asked, pushing his arm off.

  Canis nodded. “If we don’t know everything possible about the Fallen, we’ll never be able to defeat them. We need help.”

  She peered into the tunnel. “Fine, but don’t make me regret this.”

  “Do you know of any other way?”

  “Maybe The Herald’s Ravine, but now that I think about it, maybe this is better.”

  “The Herald’s Ravine?” Bane asked.

  Speak when spoken to, thought Canis, trying to insert some kind of authority. He shrugged, knowing little about it, and finding comfort in places already tread, finding comfort after silencing Bane.

  The clock tower donged.

  They slid down the pipe, Canis first, and edged out of Blackrose. He heard Thorne’s sharp breaths behind him and again remembered the same choking feeling that had consumed him when he’d first navigated the tunnel. The descent was less cumbersome than his last attempt, although his companions were likely to be in a different mindset. He tried to sympathize with them, went to offer words of encouragement, but something inside him made it so pointless.

  “Vann doesn’t need your help,” said Bane.

  The smell of soil replaced the rust and damp. Fresh air. They emerged next to Blackrose. Canis went into the woods without stopping to take in his surroundings. Vann and Thorne followed at a crawl, stumbling around with their gazes fixated on the scenery, trying to comprehend the idea of open space, trees, and bare dirt as their heads jerked to follow every sound. There was fear in their eyes, but Canis had no time for it. The people in Blackrose didn’t have time for it. His thoughts and feeling were mixed; he didn’t understand why one moment he cared for his companions, but the next he did not. It was the same for Blackrose’s people. Is it Mortalo’s influence, the Scourge’s, or is this who I really am?

  “This is awful,” Thorne said.

  Bane’s presence stayed on the edge of control once they were out of Blackrose, growing louder with every step from the walls and into the forest. “The western path is much quicker,” Bane hissed.

  I don’t want them to see the fake settlement. It’ll frighten them.

  The forest grew denser with every step, but Canis managed to find his way. When he looked back, they weren’t faring as well, huddled together as they navigated the trees. Every twig snap, every rattle of the wind, sent their gazes darting, searching for the source of the foreign sounds.

  “You whispered tales of beasts,” Vann said, his voice shaking.

  “They won’t bother us,” Canis replied. “We shouldn’t be wasting our time with animals, anyway. The only creature you have to be scared of is Agrim! He’ll jump at anything if he hasn’t had time to feed!” He leaned against a tree for a moment and shut his eyes. The others stopped in place. “We’re close.”

  “Wait here,” said Bane. Canis stopped the others.

  “What’s up?” asked Vann.

  “It’s nearly time.”

  Bane retreated from Canis’ mind. Canis blinked and felt the presence of Agrim. He felt its simple need for food and shelter. He felt its limbs as if they were his own. Canis blinked again and the feeling was gone.

  “What should the two of us do?” Vann asked.

  “Get ready to defend me if things go wrong.”

  Thorne frowned. “They aren’t going to show themselves the way Bane did, are they? I don’t know if I can take seeing it again.”

  Canis shrugged.

  Tree branches shifted and danced, rattling against the dried trunks in hollow tones, but there was no wind through the glade to propel them. The air grew thick and stagnant with a heavy, acrid smell, and a thin haze cut back their visibility.

  “They’re here,” said Bane. “I’ve been able to sense them for a short time, to speak with them, but I’ve convinced them you’re of no threat.”

  Like they’re the ones who have anything to worry about. Canis saw the other two tense as the haze rolled in and the trees creaked.

  “Welcome,” a hushed voice drifted to him.

  “Tell me you heard that, Canis,” Thorne said.

  “I did.”

  “So did I,” Vann chipped in. “What’s going on?”

  A tall, lean, humanoid figure staggered out of the fog and shook its head from side to side, looking at the three visitors.

  “Are you the leader?” Canis called.

  Neither Bane nor the figure said anything. The sound of more feet crunching against the forest floor filled the air. They stepped into the light cast by the moon. All were perfect human copies in their waxy, muscled physique, though the faces and eyes kept the familiar distance. They grouped together, a mass of heads and well-kept hair. He looked back and saw his companions squirming in place.

  “Thank you for meeting with us,” Canis said.

  “Do not fear,” the seven or so human figures said in a chorus. “Not us.”

  “I don’t,” said Canis, placing himself between the Scourge and his friends. Agrim crawled onto his shoulder, its front legs raised in defense.

  “The Fallen mean to kill us,” the figures said. They all spoke in a low, harsh whisper, but the sheer number of them filtering into the clearing made the words echo around them, as though they spoke right into Canis’ ears. “And they mean to kill you, too.”

  “What do they have against us?” Vann asked. “Or you, for that matter.”

  The voices swirled around, making one indistinguishable from another. “They want what they cannot have.”

  “The Wardens?” Thorne asked.

  “The city?” Vann asked.

  “Humanity,” the voices piped in a short staccato. The trees rustled again. “Where we want to coexist with humanity, the Fallen want to destroy it. To start over and do what it sees as a better job.”

  “We’re doing that bad?” Thorne asked from under Vann’s arm.

  “You hate each other,” they droned.

  Thorne made no arguments to defend their past dealings.

  More than one pair of feet crept though the forest to join their kin. The human hosts appearing had the same simple grin Canis had come to expect, but they moved as
one. They paced around their guests, gazes locked with Canis.

  “Fairness,” the voices said. “We’re all equal here. That’s what happens outside your walls.”

  A woman brushed against Canis’ leg. She looked at him, eyes piercing through the same hollow gaze as the other vessels. Canis saw the machinations of the parasites inside.

  Bane remained quiet, perhaps out of a sense of reverence for his brothers, perhaps because he couldn’t orate as well as these, or maybe he was busy filling them in on what had happened or acting as a puppet master. Canis remembered when he had heard Bane trying to communicate with the Warden back in Blackrose and noted the parasite’s words from before when he signaled his kin’s arrival. He tried to hack into Bane’s thoughts again but got Agrim’s instead. The beast’s mind was bent on protecting its home—Canis’ hair.

  “We cannot hope to defeat the Fallen,” the voices chimed. “Not alone. Nor can you.”

  “What can we do?” Canis asked.

  “Unite.”

  “You mean like you?” Thorne asked. “Become a host?”

  “This is what the Fallen do not understand, what our younger ones struggle to grasp.” The chorus swirled and modulated in timbre. More people walked along the flanks of the moonlit gathering. “The Fallen see themselves at the top. We do not see a top. All are equal.”

  Canis nodded.

  “And once you kill them,” the voices said. “You take back your lands, and the walls of Blackrose will not be needed. You can take back the cities of the Imperium.”

  “Life outside the walls?” Vann asked. “But we can do so much with the heart of Blackrose.”

  “Outside is best. You’ve been trapped for so long,” one distinct, forceful voice said.

  “Best,” the others joined in.

  “To slip the bonds of your prison,” the chorus said, whole again. “Then you’ll truly be free.”

  “And you’ll help us do this?” Canis asked.

  “We will come with you, but we need a way in,” the voices said.

  A bald man stepped in front of Canis’ path and stared at him, his eyes churning with silent intensity; the intellect of the thing inside bristling with every twitch of muscle and vocalization, straining against the flood of the other voices. It reminded him of Mortalo.