A Boat Made of Bone (The Chthonic Saga)

by Grotepas, Nicole

  But already she could tell he was headed for her. Kate felt his gaze landing on her face like a thunderclap. A grin played at the edges of his sensuous lips. He lowered his chin so that his eyes regarded her steadily from beneath a perfectly carved brow. Chills swarmed Kate’s flesh, threatening to eat her alive. Butterflies migrated from her belly to her knees and throat. She was paralyzed.

  “Lovely girl,” Cipher said, shoving through the crowd. Bodies parted and Kate was left standing there alone, feeling nude and like she had woken into a bad dream. “Welcome to my kingdom,” he said, stretching his hand forth and bringing her into the curve of his arm. In that manner, he led her back to his dais. Is this how it felt when Zeus slept with mortals? she wondered, feeling overwhelmed by his magnetism and suddenly speechless in the face of his transcendent beauty. She continued to stare into his dark blue eyes as they walked—or did she float?—back toward his throne. There was something luminous in his pupils. Flames, maybe. Perhaps it was an illusion.

  Before they reached the dais, Cipher let go of her and returned to his throne with an effortless jog up the stairs where he turned and sat down on the edge of his seat. It was only then that Kate noticed another throne—more of a nondescript chair, really—a few feet behind Cipher’s, hidden by the flamboyance of the grand monstrosity where he perched. Kate leaned to the side and saw that it was filled with a woman: a small, diminutive woman in a dark purple dress with an embroidered pale violet bodice and an emerald silken belt. She blinked at Kate from beneath long eyelashes. Her red hair was pulled up on top of her head in a bun while butterflies and stars sparkled across a small tiara that rested lightly upon her forehead.

  “Now then, what will you do?” Cipher asked her.

  Kate cleared her throat. It was dry. So dry. She remembered the water in her pack and wished she could take a sip from it. “Do?” she asked. Her voice crackled like static electricity.

  “You must have an offering. A performance. That’s what this whole parade is about.” His arm swept across the hall and its multitude. No one rehearsed. They stared at Kate as though aware this was a special occasion.

  “I’m not here to do a performance or compete with your subjects for your approval,” she said, wondering why her knees hadn’t melted in fear yet.

  Cipher smiled knowingly. “Ah, so it’s something else that you want. An audience with God, then?”

  Kate couldn’t help but smile. “Forgive me, but you’re not God.” It was a gamble. It was dangerous. But she was pretty sure he wouldn’t do anything to hurt her, not in front of this audience.

  Cipher frowned. The expression did nothing to mar his perfect looks. “Either you’re very brave or very stupid. You are definitely very ignorant. For here on Chthonos, I rule. These are my creatures, my subjects. They live to worship me. It brings them pure joy. Look at them. No, look. Really look. Now.” His jaw clenched as he gave his command, the order punctuated by his fist slamming on the armrest like a gavel in a courtroom.

  Kate shrugged and then did a slow circle in place, her gaze sweeping across the vast crowd. Bland, expressionless eyes stared back at her. Somehow Cipher saw adulation in their faces. Kate saw despair and hopelessness.

  Wait. There. Her breath caught. Her stomach did sixty back flips and it was all she could do to not fall to her knees or go running for him. To the left of Cipher’s dais, a man dressed as a Spartan warrior stood, a look of longing and concern on his face. It was Will. His arms were crossed and his chin was tilted down. As incapacitating as Cipher’s looks were, it was the sight of Will that truly shook her. Kate’s breath left her like she’d been punched in the stomach. She stopped in her revolution and stared at him. He’s here!

  And now she knew what to do next.

  Somehow Kate managed to tear her eyes away from him, finish her examination of the crowd and look at Cipher again.

  “Well? Impressive, no?” the light-haired demon said.

  Kate dodged the question. “I’m here to take Will Hawke back to earth,” she said. A gasp went up from the sea of people behind her and more whispers ensued. “Why hasn’t anyone come for me?” they said. “Again? She’ll never do it. It will be like the last one,” she heard behind her. Some of what she heard made her uncomfortable, but she fought it away and focused on Cipher, though her eyes longed to find Will again.

  Cipher grinned. “Will? William Hawke? You can’t be serious. But he’s one of my favorites.” The demon stood and began pacing. “Come forward, William.” Cipher stopped and raised a hand, motioning for Will to approach.

  Kate turned as Will came to stand next to her. Her breath caught in her parched throat having him so close to her. His Spartan military skirt showed off his legs and a sword hung at his side. He exchanged a look with her, then faced Cipher. Kate clenched her hands into fists, desperate to touch him, to make sure he was real, but she withstood. At this point, upsetting Cipher didn’t seem advisable. Her tired muscles were tense and Kate could feel a headache drumming behind her eyes but she ignored it.

  Cipher laughed with a smirk. “I see that the womanizer has lured a new concubine into his trap. Oh, my apologies, William, but I’m only stating the obvious.”

  Beside her, Kate sensed Will stiffen at the insult. She didn’t know what to say. Concubine? She was familiar with Will’s past enough to not be shocked at the term womanizer, but concubine? She suddenly had visions of a hovel-full of slutty women draped across the furniture and hanging on Will while wearing thin, transparent outfits like Barbara Eden wore in I Dream of Jeannie.

  “It’s not true, Kate. Don’t listen to him. You know what’s true about me and what’s not. I’ve never lied to you,” he muttered under his breath. His arms were crossed and he glowered at the throne where Cipher now lounged like a sleeping lion.

  “I can hear you,” Cipher responded in a sing-song voice, tilting his head to one side and nudging his ear with a finger dramatically. He sat forward, suddenly taut with energy. “I do not lie, Kate. You see, the strongest connection my creatures have back to their mortal life is the only way for them to reach Earth,” Cipher explained. He stood and began pacing as though deep in thought. “William had to use sex to communicate with you, did he not? I see by your red cheeks that I am right. Sex was also the best way for me to bring him to Chthonos. We use the most telling exploits, don’t we? William may have told you anything to bring you here. What did he say? That he loved you? I do not doubt that he filled your head with these pretty little lies so that you would risk everything to come for him. I would find it deplorable if I didn’t admire it so much. Well done, William, well done, I take full credit for having taught you so well.”

  “Kate,” Will said in an anguished voice. It rang and echoed from far away. She was lost in her head, struggling to find something to anchor herself too. A memory, a dream, something true. “Please, he’s wrong. I do love you,” Will whispered.

  “Anyway,” Cipher said with a flippant wave of his hand. He stopped his pacing and stood with his back to his throne and his arms crossed behind his back. “I’ll let him go with you if you can outdo all my performers. Remember, they live to worship, to glorify me. I’m not amused by anything else. You need to reduce me to tears, if you want to live and get your precious womanizer out of here. I’m sorry, William, you know that I appreciate you and your talent. I am merely saying what I know to be true, but that does not reflect the respect I have for your skill. Just ask my Beatrice.” Cipher twisted around to glance down at the woman in the throne behind his. The woman looked surprised to be addressed. She blinked, and looked up at Cipher. She smiled faintly and nodded. “She knows what lies hidden in my heart of hearts,” Cipher said, untwisting and looking out at the crowd behind Kate and Will.

  Kate was jerked from her internal wandering as soon as Cipher called the woman by name. Beatrice, she thought, staring at the small woman. So this is who Leonardo gave up his spiritual rest for. Something tugged on Kate’s finger and she looked down at her hand. The drag
onfly ring was still a lifeless metal form, but it had nudged her.

  “Hello? Hello? I am waiting. No rehearsals, young one. Gather yourself and perform or else leave Necropolis and never return,” Cipher said. He strode purposefully behind Beatrice’s throne and because it was such a dismal excuse for one, he was able to reach over the back without even straining himself and place his hands on her shoulders.

  Kate watched him before her eyes fell to Beatrice’s face. Their gazes interlocked and Kate found herself staring into the brown eyes of the imprisoned woman. There was something buried there. Kate’s brow furrowed, the dragonfly shivered again, and Will suddenly touched her arm.

  Defiance. That was what was in Beatrice’s eyes. She looked submissive, but there was a fire alive in her.

  “Kate,” Will whispered from beside her. “You don’t have to do this. I—I promise you that I didn’t know when it all started in the dreams that I was a prisoner here. When I found out, I left you. This is too dangerous. If you go now, Cipher will let you leave. If you perform and he doesn’t like it, I don’t know what will happen. He might keep you here.”

  “Why did you want him? I mean when you stole his soul?” Kate asked Cipher, raising her voice to be heard over the hum of the entertainers behind her. Their voices buzzed with energy at the prospect of Kate performing and Will being let go.

  Cipher straightened and removed his hands from Beatrice’s shoulders and placed them on the back of her meager throne. “Well, obviously dear girl because he was weak, filled with regret, and because he’s one of the best. I fill my city with the best.”

  There was something wrong with this. Kate’s thoughts attached to what the demon said and held fast. Will was weak. Weak because he was filled with regret about his life. The things he’d told her in the dreams were true—the man Will had been wasn’t the man she’d fallen for. Maybe he had been a man-whore, a womanizer, and maybe for all she knew, he really did have a hovel full of concubines. And there was a chance that everything he’d told her had been lies just to lure her into this trap so he could get off Chthonos.

  Kate turned to look at Will. Before she could say anything, he spoke. “You don’t have to do this Kate. I don’t want you to. I can’t promise that what Cipher says he’ll do, he’ll do.”

  “Do you love me, Will?” Kate asked, studying his face. Will’s vibrant blue eyes narrowed and his familiar lips pulled into a thin line.

  “I never lied about that, Kate, and I have been with you only. Have loved only you, since I stumbled into your dreams.”

  “Oh do hurry up. We haven’t got all eternity, you know,” Cipher said, laughing at his own joke—everyone in the room knew just the opposite to be true. He walked down the stairs of the dais and sat on the bottom step, one leg extended and the foot of the other resting on the tiled floor.

  Kate slipped her backpack off and pulled the Nalgene out. Cipher rolled his eyes in a bored gesture and began to count backwards from ten. Kate took a sip of water and returned the bottle to her pack.

  “I will sing,” she said. The performers behind them let out a collective gasp. “You’ll let him go if my singing pleases you?”

  “I promise it,” Cipher said, standing up and crossing his heart with one hand.

  Will was silent. Kate glanced at him and noted the frown on his lips. “I have to do this, Will. It’s what I came for.” She turned to the crowd of entertainers. “Does anyone have a guitar I can borrow?”

  ***

  A man pushed through the crowd and emerged carrying a polished yellow six-string acoustic guitar in one hand. A strap dangled from it. Kate stared at the guitar wondering if it would be too big. The guy carrying it stopped in front of her and smiled.

  “Listen,” he said in a soft, kind voice. Kate had been so fixated on the guitar that she failed to notice who was bringing her the guitar. A man, that was the most she’d paid attention to. “Listen,” he repeated. “I’ve noticed that he prefers a simple chord progression with a complex melody and lyrics that are about him.”

  Kate closed her mouth, nodding. “Thanks for the tip, Mr. Denver.” He looked just like the pictures—wearing something he might have worn at the height of his career, including large, wire-framed glasses and a pair of heeled boots.

  “You can do this. We all want you to,” he said quietly before leaving.

  “Thanks,” she said again, a shiver making her gut tremble.

  John Denver! I’m playing on John Denver’s guitar, she thought, turning back to face Cipher. There would be time to muse on that later. For now she had to focus on the moment. She ducked under the strap and did a few practice strums on the guitar before adjusting the tuning. The tone was good—deep in the low notes and bright in all the right places. Kate finished warming up her fingers and then cleared her throat. Will stood to her side, shifting on his feet uncomfortably while Cipher had settled back into his throne in a casual repose. Beatrice regarded her from behind Cipher with a severe look, almost as though she feared what would happen next.

  “Go ahead,” the demon said. “This should be very good. Very good indeed.”

  Kate squeezed her eyes shut and began playing. She wanted to follow John Denver’s advice and sing a song devoted to glorifying this insecure, narcissistic demon. Instead the song she’d written for Will—what seemed like ages ago—spilled from her lips. She didn’t fight it. Kate knew from years of playing that if she fought what the muses gave her, her creative process was sapped and she suffered a famine of production.

  The room was hushed except for her singing and playing. Even Cipher watched with an intense stare, his head cocked to one side and his face fixed into a passive expression. Kate’s voice soared through the chamber, echoing up into the dome as though through the heavens. Her eyes were closed as the desire to possess Will and bring him into her world flowed into her voice, undistilled by the worry of how the world would perceive her for loving a dream, and untethered of any of her own earthly prejudices.

  When she finished, the room was as silent as a tomb. The sound of someone’s feet shuffling across the floor disturbed the quiet as though they shifted uncomfortably, waiting for a pronouncement from Cipher.

  Kate glanced shyly at Will. “Kate . . . that was . . . I’m speechless. Beautiful, but the word hardly does it justice,” he said, drawing himself up with a deep inhalation, seemingly preparing for a negative response from the demon.

  “Thanks,” she answered with a nod, resting her hands on the body of the guitar.

  “What I want to know,” Cipher boomed with a voice full of distaste, “is how that song has anything to do with me? Because it didn’t.” He pressed down on the armrests of his throne as he rose to his feet and began pacing with his arms crossed. His finger and thumb toyed with his chin and rubbed up and down across the stubble covering his angular jaw line. “I’m offended actually. I mean, why would you do that? Are you trying to insult me? What are you saying . . . That I’m a kraken? So, you’re the gorgon and I’m the kraken and you’re going to turn me to stone? Is that it? I’m hurt. Really hurt. Look at me. I’m not a hideous creature. Am I? Beatrice?” He turned and stared at the small woman with an appeal in his face.

  “No, my lord. Never,” Beatrice answered in a voice like dark silk. It was the first Kate had heard her speak.

  “Thank you, sweet rosebud.” Cipher turned, seeming satisfied.

  Kate exchanged a worried glance with Will.

  “Your singing was beautiful. If only—if only,” he exclaimed loudly, dramatically, “you’d sung about me, I could set William free. But I regret to tell you that a deal is, after all, a deal.”

  “Kate, thank you. Thank you. It was beautiful. No matter what he says, no matter if it didn’t work. Think nothing of it,” Will said in concerned rush.

  “It didn’t work, Kate, that’s true. You had the opportunity and you flung it aside in order to serenade your womanizing, dead boyfriend. I hope you’re happy,” the demon said, his voice rising an octave
. He raised his arm and made a clipped come-hither gesture with his hand. A scuffling sound rose from the far edges of the room as two large guards carrying spears came toward Kate.

  Her heard thundered. She hissed and turned toward Cipher. “The muses do what they want. I can’t stop them. I can only answer to them,” Kate explained as the guards drew closer. “If I don’t listen to them, they never come back.”

  “What’s this? You blame the muses? They’ll be outraged to hear an excuse like this,” Cipher said with a smirk, as though he couldn’t wait to see the muses rip Kate apart. The guards arrived and pushed Will aside. They positioned themselves on either side of her.

  “I’d like another chance,” Kate said plainly as the men took her by the arms, preparing to haul her off. “I’ve never sung to such a noble audience and for such a beautiful God. Please. Please . . .” she begged, losing all her dignity but unable to care. The guards began to drag her away. Will paced in a tight circle, alternately wringing his hands and toying with the hilt of his sword.

  Kate tried to dig her heels into the smooth floor as the guards pulled her away. “Please, Cipher. One more chance!” she yelled. “I will sing your beauty the praises it deserves! I’ve never seen a more beautiful creature than you. Never!”

  Cipher fingered his chin and chuckled. “Liar. But you have what they call chutzpah. I like that. I’m going to allow it. One more chance. If you disappoint me, my minions will take your body and you’ll be trapped here forever in a body of Chthonos. Do you agree to these terms?”

  The guards stopped, loosened their grip, and let Kate regain her balance. She shook herself and straightened the guitar that was still balanced around her body on its strap.

  Kate glanced at Will. He was shaking his head and saying no, no, no under his breath. Kate moved to resume her position beside him. She ran a shaking hand through her hair and stopped beside Will.

  “This must be good, better. Worthy of a swoon, you understand?” Cipher asked.