Call Your Steel

by G. D. Penman

  They stood like that for a long moment as the family in the ruined building behind wailed and ran for their lives. Kaius withdrew his sword. Savouring the vibrations as it grated against bone and armour on its way out. He released his steel as Malius fell to the cobblestones and made sure the man saw his smile before he punched him. The strength he had called was well beyond any that he had experienced as one of Negrath's Chosen. The force of the blow snapped Malius' neck and spun his head around to face away. Malius’ steel trickled away and Kaius left his broken body kneeling in the street. Kaius drew a quaking breath then retraced his steps back to Lucia.

  The fire's heat seemed to have brought some life back to her and she had pulled herself up into a cross-legged sitting position. She greeted him with a feeble wave. He took a knee beside her and gave her a forced smile. She was staring into the fire and her eyes seemed more reflective now, he saw the flames flickering in them. Now that she was coming back to awareness she was shaking. She turned her alien eyes to him and whispered, “You killed them.”

  Kaius smiled with a swell of satisfaction but Lucia did not seem pleased. She whimpered, “You knew them and you killed them. You didn't even think about it. You just killed them.”

  Kaius shifted uncomfortably, morality was not taught to the Chosen, only obedience. They might debate how best to serve their master but never whether it was right to serve their master, he muttered, “It was them or us. In battle that is the only choice.”

  Lucia shook her head, “It shouldn't be like this. What are we going to do now?”

  Kaius looked across the city to the tower. Then he spoke with confidence, “You have Chosen me to serve you and my old master has abandoned me. I will serve you until my final breath if you will have me.”

  Lucia seemed more startled by this than by anything else, “I don't need you to serve me. I just need to get away from here. I need to find a cure or some way to restore my strength.”

  He glanced around and spoke softly, “I am yours to command in all matters but if you wish I will also offer you advice in matters which you may not be familiar.”

  She shivered,“Such as?”

  Kaius answered, “The arts of war. “

  Lucia rolled her eyes, “No. No more killing. I am not at war with anyone. I just want this to end. I just want things to go back to the way they were.”

  Kaius paused for a moment then came to his feet and looked along the length of the outer wall, searching for the tell-tale shimmer of silver. Over his shoulder he asked, “When did you change?”

  Lucia shuddered, “I... I ate something. Some sort of meat. Down under the glass, when I thought I was starving. Things have been changing ever since then.”

  He turned back to her, “By the arts of war, I also mean the philosophy that has been imparted to me in my studies. If your goal is to gather information about your condition then I recommend that you seek someone with the same condition.”

  She scoffed softly, “You know someone else who this is happening to?”

  He met her gaze and she saw his face was back to an emotionless mask, “I know of four creatures that this has happened to. One of them lives within this city.”

  Lucia returned her gaze to the fire and her eyes widened as she tried to comprehend. Her breathing came faster and faster. Kaius went on, “In war and in life it is always best to take the shortest path to your goal. Negrath can tell you what to expect. How to rejuvenate yourself. It can guide you. Even its lies will help us discern the shortest path to your goals.”

  Lucia shook her head frantically, still looking into the fire, “Absolutely not. No. No. Under no circumstances do I want to be in the same room as an Eater.”

  Kaius sighed, “You are already in the same room as an Eater. I am only suggesting that we talk to another.”

  She didn't reply, still staring intensely into the fire. He went on, “If you wish I will take you from the city. We can run and hide out in the dark lands and wait for the hunting parties to come. I am very skilled in combat and tactics, I can say this without pride as it is merely fact. I shall hold them off from you for as long as I can.”

  She glanced up at that, “How long would that be?”

  He slumped back down beside her, “It depends how many they send. Not long. Weeks. Perhaps months.”

  She sagged and wept, her shoulders heaving. Kaius sat uncomfortably by her side, glancing around nervously. Eventually he shuffled over slightly and put an arm around her shoulders. She practically flung herself into his arms, sobbing and gasping as he looked into the middle distance and tried to calm his own discomfort. When she seemed to be running out of tears he asked, “Imagine that you did have the power of one of the Eaters. What would you change?”

  She snorted. Everyone in the world had complaints. Nobody was allowed to speak them, but they all carried with them in their mind a perfect world where everyone was kind and there was no hunger or pain. But there was no use in dreams. Dreams that could never be fulfilled turned to poison. They made you forget how the world really was. Dreams could trap you just as surely as having no hope at all. She wondered at this. Her tears dried on her cheeks in the fire's heat. She thought about her entire life and the paths she had walked. She said, “No more killing. Real laws that would protect people. The real people. The ones who live out in the dark and work themselves to death trying to feed the lazy sots in the cities.”

  Kaius smiled at that, and with that small encouragement she pressed on, “No more wars. No more abuse of power. No more using people like pieces in a game.”

  Kaius bowed to her, “It is within your power to change things with this gift you have been given. With your power, you could remake the world to protect those who are weak.”

  She shook her head sadly, “Life isn't a song, Kaius.”

  Kaius stared at her then, long and hard, “Nothing changes that we do not change. Let life be a song.”

  She returned to staring into the fire and he interrupted her reverie, “What is your decision?”

  She nearly started crying all over again but gradually got control of herself. When her breathing had evened out she replied, “Let’s take the shortest path, Kaius.”

  He smiled softly and squeezed her gently against the side of his body with what he hoped was appropriate warmth. He helped her to her feet and kept a grip on her hand. Together they walked towards the tower, past the ruins that they had made.

  Chapter 11- The Burned Ones

  Kaius wore the robes of the Marked. His new armour looked the same as the old. He walked through the streets with Lucia stumbling along beside him. He walked into the tower unchallenged and carried her quietly down the stairs until the torches turned to oil lamps.

  He settled her in a dark alcove far from the stairs then retraced his steps from the visit before. With called speed he moved up the stairs in between the patrols of the chosen and with called strength he tore a galvanic lantern from the wall, twisting it free of the copper wire that tangled up through the ivory walls. It was still glowing brightly, so close to the source. Kaius rushed down the stairs and shattered the glass against the steel door. The tiny spark of Valerius’ power discharged into the metal and it melted away. He retrieved Lucia and dragged her on through the corridors.

  Every time Kaius called on her powers that thin cord connecting them lit up and she felt her strength trickling away down it. She fuelled the fire that glowed around him, but if she severed that connection they would be defenceless.

  The last of Negrath’s Marked stood guard before the final door into the darkness, weapons at the ready. Kaius did not know this man. He had been down here since before Kaius had even come to the city, since before he was born. He could have been here for a hundred years and nobody above would have known. There was no point in bluff or bluster, only the Beloved of Negrath was granted audience beyond that door.

  Kaius called his steel and came on hard. The Marked was stronger and faster than Kaius had expected but the wellspring of p
ower now at his disposal was beyond anything he had ever known. There was no time for subtlety with a tower full of enemies above. He struck with all of his strength, snapping the mace heads from the Marked's weapons and then following through in a plunging strike to the man's chest. The armour flowed away, trickling into the cracks in the flagstones. The body that hit the ground was nothing more than a torso and head. This man had given all of his parts in Negrath's service. His face was missing a nose and what was left of him was criss-crossed with scars. Kaius could not even begin to guess at his age.

  With one arm tucked under Lucia and an oil lantern sizzling away in the other they pushed through the great wooden doors. The floor was rough-hewn stone, barely worked by human hands. This place was more cavern than room. Walking in deeper, the sounds of their steps echoed strangely. They existed in a tiny bubble of light with darkness pressing in all around them.

  They came soon enough to what Kaius had taken to be curtains but now looked like very fine but tattered leather, so thin that the light passed right through them, revealing a pattern of veins within. Spasmodically pumping not blood but something putrid and yellowish. The curtains twitched and shied away from the heat of the torch as they approached and Lucia shuddered. They hung from what may have once been bone but were now eroded down to twig like thickness. There was a bramble of these bones running across patches on the ceiling. All interconnected and growing denser the closer that the interlopers got to the creature at the heart of the cavern. They moved past the things that were like arms, the rotten things with too many branching points and fingers that had brushed over Kaius. They moved past the tendrils of ragged, putrid flesh that reached out towards them like the arms of deep sea creatures.

  Whenever any part of the ruined flesh mindlessly reached for them, the light and heat of the lantern rebuffed it. They walked towards the strangled sound of breathing and came to what had been Negrath's head. It was too long to be human, even if it wasn't so many times larger. The flesh was blackened along the upturned side with glimpses of bone revealed. Sickness had swollen the flesh of the other side to make it a pallid mass of lumps, leaking fluid that had congealed on the floor, running into the drains carved there and clogging them. In the black mass of burned flesh three eyes opened, one was white and blind but the other two lit up brightly. Exposed muscles twitched all over the face and by some deep-rooted instinct, it tried to pull away from the heat and light, to retreat to the cold darkness it had made for itself.

  It lacked the strength. Its destroyed body weighted it down and, after some straining, it submitted to their attention. The eyes narrowed and Kaius toppled to the ground like his strings had been cut, nearly hauling Lucia with him. He could not move for the massive weight of his called steel. What Negrath lacked in raw strength, he made up for in experience, it had reached out and pinched Lucia’s connection to him shut. Lucia staggered forward and then toppled to lie, propped up against the sticky side of Negrath's head. It grunted at the impact. Then a wretched sound echoed through the chamber, a gurgling that it took Lucia some time to recognise as laughter.

  Her hair became matted against Negrath's exposed flesh and liquid trickled down the back of her neck. The laughter gradually abated and the air in the room shifted as Negrath inhaled. The sound of its voice was sickening, a gargling shrieking sound that ratcheted up and down in volume without logic. “You came all this way to finish your murder and you fail. Your power fails as I knew it would. Starve, Sun-Eater. Starve. All these years. I knew you endured. All these years. I could still sense you somewhere. Out in the ruins of your kingdom. Even as I wiped your name away from memory and we rebuilt the world in our image.”

  Kaius groaned from where he lay and Negrath snarled, “Silence. Monkey. I speak to the organ grinder.”

  So many of these words were alien that Lucia sat in silence trying to piece them together. Negrath knew that she was powerless. He knew why. He thought she was another Eater. One that had tried to kill him and had eaten his son. If that was the secret, eating other people, Lucia would just starve. And the way that the other one had killed and eaten... She could not imagine why you would grind a person's organs. Lucia was not familiar with the makings of sausages, only with the end product. The silence became oppressive until she whispered, “I didn't do anything to you. Please help me. You think I am someone else.”

  Negrath lurched and roared, “You did this to me. You burned me. Do you know how long eternity stretches? How long pain will endure as your body rots around you. Do not think I cannot see through your eyes. But I have won. Our alliance destroyed you and our power block the light from you and you… You have lost. I have won.”

  The last words were a pained whimper from the great beast. Lucia's head lulled to the side. She saw Kaius dragging himself to his knees, inch by painful inch under the weight of metal with no strength but his own. Then her eyes slipped out of focus, the pupils separating out to show her new spectra of colour and motion.

  She saw the huge tangled mass of cords flowing out of Negrath, stretching out in every direction. Power flooding through them, enough to have drained her dry in a moment. Some were the simple weaves she had seen attached to the Chosen but others she could not guess the purpose of. She saw the raw information of Negrath's thoughts pumping through the connection to his Beloved. She saw a few cords so deeply ingrained that Negrath did not even think of them, stretching out to touch the other Eaters. They were thicker than all of the others, dense and complex, and Lucia did not know whether they were attacks or the bonds of alliance. She doubted that Negrath knew either. She caught a glimpse of her connection to Kaius, pinched shut by a twist of Negrath's will. She saw one small strand outside of his grasp and poured the last of her strength into it. Warmth spread through her as she fell unconscious.

  Fire poured from Kaius fingertips and Negrath squealed in terror. Whatever hold it had over him released. He rose to his feet and stopped holding back. The flames lashed out. Igniting all of the paper-thin skin hanging from the roof. Negrath rolled and tore parts of itself away, trying to escape the flames. Lucia toppled to the ground, her cheeks becoming hollow before Kaius eyes. He stopped the flames and drew a ragged breath in the superheated air of the cavern. He pointed to Lucia, “You fix her now or I burn you. I burn every part of you. The Eaters are eternal, or so they say. Do you think you will still live if you are ash? Do you think that you will want to?”

  Negrath wailed, “I cannot undo what has been done. All four of us hid the sun away. It cannot be broken. She will wither. I will prevail.”

  Kaius eyes narrowed, “You will prevail as ashes or you will save her. Where have you hidden this boy? I will fetch him out from anywhere in this world.”

  Negrath laughed again and it rolled through the cavern, “You know nothing. She will wither. My servants will carve her into pieces. They will slide her down my throat. I will be master of fire and storm. I will remake myself. I will wage war on all of the others and bring them to heel. Those that cross me shall be my fodder. I shall be the all in one. There shall be no other. No one, but me.”

  Kaius’ mind spun out the paths ahead of him and then he spoke softly, “There cannot be so much of you that is still alive. If I carve you. She can eat. Whatever sustains you can sustain her until we find whatever you have hidden.”

  Negrath chuckled,“I think not.”

  With a crack of thunder Valerius hit Kaius across the back of the head.

  Chapter 12- The Lessons of Youth

  Kaius did not see Valerius move, he only felt the impact of steel boots in his side. His armour, so crippling a moment ago, probably saved his life. Rolling across the room got him out of striking distance and positioned him between Negrath's greatest servant and the girl. He spun to face Valerius and startled at his armoured form.

  Valerius armour was not smooth and simple, it had a mess of sharp spikes jutting out from the joints and the plates were asymmetrical in shape and size. His face was still visible, as though it were
growing out of the barbed metal. He had tears flowing down his cheeks, reflecting the dull red glow from the embers of his still burning master, “Why would you betray us? After all that I have done for you.”

  Kaius was silent for a long moment, considering, then he spat, “After everything you allowed me to do for you?”

  Valerius’ face contorted in disbelief but Kaius snapped at him before he could refute it, “I killed for you and your master. I gave you my entire life. And you took it. Without a moment of doubt or care.”

  A blade snapped into Kaius hand and he advanced. Valerius expanded his gauntlets and reformed them so that his arms ended in great spikes.

  Kaius snarled, “I do not belong to you Valerius. I do not belong to Negrath. There are higher goals than obedience.”

  Valerius froze, stunned at this sedition. Then he whispered, “But I loved you.”

  Kaius brushed the words away with disdain, “You wanted me. You do not know love.”

  The Beloved raised the great spike of his arm. His face contorted in hatred and a bolt of lightning lashed out from the tip. It struck Kaius in the chest and passed through his armour. The steel carried the lightning all over him. He could do nothing but twitch and burn.

  After what seemed like an eternity the lightning stopped and Kaius fell to the ground gasping. His armour fell away and the burns and cuts of the day were exposed to the ashen air. The sudden heat hanging all around them made him groan. Sweat trickled and stung his many injuries. Valerius tensed and shook his head as Kaius rose to his feet. Kaius called his sword again and charged. The result was the same as before. The lightning blazed through the room blinding bright and rolling thunder through the cavern. It was briefer this time and the impact flung Kaius back. Electricity still crawled over his sword and his once sure hands trembled.