by T. G. Ayer
Or dead.
Her muscles were rigid and her lips opened slightly. Movement within her mouth made me want to shudder but at least I knew something was still happening. If the shadows of the communication with the dead still writhed within the deathtalker, it meant they were still bound to the person they were talking to,
My stomach swirled with fear though, an inexplicable sense warning me something was very wrong. And just as I was about to reach out and shake Nerina’s shoulder to confirm she was okay, she shuddered, her torso convulsing as though she were in the midst of a seizure. Her shoulders stiffened and her head tilted back, her lips opening wider as the multitude of smoke tendrils twisted inside. They seemed to struggle to escape even though she did nothing too stop then from escaping.
Her cloak feel away revealing long beautiful silver braids that glinted like living snakes as her body shuddered as she flailed and fell backwards to the floor..
Shit. Something was wrong.
I sprang toward her but I was too late to catch her. I winced, eyes half closed, expecting to hear the thud as her skull hit the wood. But I only heard silence and the shuffling of fabric.
I opened my eyes, unsurprised to find Saleem on the floor before me with an unconscious Nerina cradled in his arms. I scrambled over to him, grateful he'd had the presence of mind to move fast and catch her in time.
"What's wrong with her?" I whispered, touching her cool cheek with my fingers as though the mere contact would revive her.
Saleem studied her face, his frown making his own concern all too clear. "I'm afraid I have no idea. This appears to be becoming a regular issue for me and I'm not liking it."
I shook my head at Saleem and stared at Nerina. “Hold onto her. I’m going to try to speak to her in the ether.”
Saleem gave me a sober nod and I focused my thoughts to reach out for Nerina’s lifethread within the ether. A microsecond later, I was relieved to find that she was very much alive though I found nothing sinister to explain why she’d passed out.
Which meant the reason she’d fallen unconscious had nothing to do with any ethereal force.
I slipped back into the physical realm and shook my head at Saleem’s questioning look. But before I could open my mouth to voice my frustrations, Nerina blinked and took a breath as she looked around her.
Her eyes widened when she found herself lying in Saleem’s arms. Then she met my eyes. What I saw wasn’t at all reassuring.
10
“What’s going on, Nerina?” I asked, recognising the disorientation in her eyes, the confusion.
She shook her head as she stared up at Saleem's face. Her cheeks reddened and she sat up quickly despite Saleem's hold on her shoulders.
"Hey, take it easy," he said softly, his eyes filled with worry.
She scooted to the side and swiveled on her butt to stare at him. "What happened? Why were you holding me?" she asked blinking slowly at him before looking over at me.
I grinned. "We lost you somewhere along the line. And you passed out. I tried to find you in the ether but all I got was a confirmation through the lifethread that you were still alive."
I shrugged with not wanting to make a big deal about things but we were still out of luck when it came to knowing more about who my attackers were.
Nerina shook her head. "I'm not sure what happened." She glanced over at the corpse which lay as still as it had been from the moment we'd arrived home. Nerina's eyes narrowed and she shifted to her knees to crawl over to the dead man. "I was trying to access him mind but there seemed to be some sort of block on him."
"Like a mental block done by a mindmelder?" I asked, feeling a little uncomfortable knowing that my own mind had been tampered with, my memories stripped from me.
Nerina started to nod and then she stopped, her face going emotionless. "No. Not blocked. Blank."
"Blank?" I prodded when she didn't keep talking.
She shifted her gaze to me. "Yeah. Like there was nothing there."
"So we were too late," Saleem muttered and got to his feet. He appeared genuinely upset that he'd predicted the death of the man's brain cells preventing us gaining access to his memories.
But Nerina was shaking her head. "No. I don't think it had anything to do with how fast you guys got him here. His brain cells are intact, still contains electrical activity. But his mental capacity seems to have been erased."
I snorted and folded my arms. "What? Someone out there controlling him and then pulled the kill switch before he can talk?"
Nerina raised an eyebrow. "Probably. Considering the circumstances, I wouldn't be surprised."
"So what is he then? Some kind of machine soldier?"
Nerina shook her head. "Can't say. But I will say soon enough. I'm going to go in again."
I held out a hand and went closer to her side. "Are you sure that's a good idea?" In my peripherals I could see Saleem stiffen as well. He also believed this wasn't such a good idea.
But Nerina smiled. "I'll be fine, Mel. I've already made the connection with his mind. And you can pull me out in case things go sideways."
"I don't think so, lady. I wasn't so successful just now when I tried to find you."
Nerina waved a hand at me. "I'll be fine. I promise." Then she faced the corpse, her expression stubborn.
Nerina focused on the dead man, her eyes a steely gray with determination. She inched forward until her knees were almost touching the man's hip. I held my breath and watched with trepidation, almost as though I knew something was going to happen.
When it did, it was the last thing that I had expected.
Nerina lowered her face to the man's head, tucking the braids of platinum hair behind her ear. Then she exhaled a little more of her deathtalker mist, allowing the gray cloud to hone in on the man. The tendrils swirled and twisted as they wafted toward the corpse.
The twisting shadows entered his mouth like a swarm of grey snakes. This time the man's body stiffened as though his muscles and flesh were physically rejecting the smoke.
I stepped forward, the tiniest movement that urged me to get closer, a strange blend of paranoia and premonition. As Nerina started to inhale to drag the smoke back inside her, the corpse began to vibrate. I let out a soft gasp at the sight but I remained otherwise silent for fear of hastening the process.
Nerina's body stiffened and her eyes opened. She must have understood that something was off, her own sense of awareness on alert much like mine.
She watched the body shudder as though the man were experiencing a strange form of convulsions. But then, just when I thought he was going to stop moving, the shaking got worse, worsening in a way that made me afraid.
The skin of his body appeared to break off into tiny pieces, shifting apart cell by cell, bits of his skin separating. The dead man's body was coming apart right in front of us.
I looked over at Saleem whose features were twisted in confusion, confirming that he was just as perplexed as I was.
This was insane. And there wasn't a thing we could do but watch as the body disintegrated before our eyes, disintegrating bit by bit. It was almost as though I was watching an image on a screen coming apart one pixel at a time.
Each piece of the corpse split off and faded away into thin air and though the process was slow, everything happened faster than I was able to process.
At last, the final pieces of the dead body vibrated and then twisted on the air before they too evaporated into nothingness.
For a moment, three pairs of eyes stared at my faded rug where the man had lain only moments ago. Then Nerina looked up and met my eyes, her expression filled with enough confusion leaving me with little doubt that this sort of thing had never happened to her before.
Considering she was supposed to be the professional where talking to the dead was concerned, her surprise was a very bad thing.
Three voices chimed as one, "What the hell just happened?"
11
For a long moment, there was silence
in the hall. Until at last, I took a deep breath. "I vote for a do-over for today. Who else is with me?"
Saleem snorted and Nerina chuckled, then replied, "Count me in. Maybe we can skip today altogether and just move on to tomorrow?"
I smiled and shook my head, still staring hard at the empty spot on the rug. The hallway was quiet and cold, as though the house itself understood something weird had just happened. I blinked and then straightened before turning on my heel and heading for the kitchen.
"I'm making something hot with a dollop of bourbon. Anyone want some?" I called over my shoulder as I entered the kitchen.
Footsteps followed me as Nerina and Saleem came up behind me. I was at the sink filling the kettle when they both entered. Nerina grabbed mugs from the cupboard across from me and then said, "I'm having red bush tea. You?"
"Coffee for me. And the djinn will have lemon and ginger 'cos he's weird like that." I eyed him, wondering if he'd veto the lame tea and choose something stronger, but he didn't.
Nerina shrugged. "Nothing wrong with lemon and ginger with a dollop of bourbon." She smiled as she rummaged inside the tea drawer and grabbed what she needed. Despite her pleasant expression her shoulders were stiff and her eyes dark with worry. I didn't push her, just let the air simmer with the tension emanating from all three of us.
With the kettle on the boil, I considered looking for cookies or the makings of sandwiches but I wasn't hungry and I didn't think anyone was up for food after what we'd just been through.
"To be honest, I'd be happy to forgo the coffee and just make it bourbon neat, but my only excuse is it's way too early in the morning for booze."
Nerina snorted. "As if that would stop you if you really wanted it." The kettle was boiling rapidly enough to hide the tremor in her voice but I caught it loud and clear.
I patted the seat next to me. "Take a load off and tell me what you think happened."
Nerina's eyes narrowed and she paused for a second. Then she obeyed and sank onto the chair with a sigh. "I honestly don't know. What I just saw...it makes me question everything I know about communicating with the dead."
I pursed my lips but Saleem voiced my thoughts. "What if the guy wasn't dead at all?"
Nerina looked up at him. "What do you mean? Specifically I mean. There are a number of options."
I squinted at her. "I was thinking he's a machine or something. But what other options do you have in mind?"
"Zombies, for one," said Saleem as he walked over from the doorway.
I rolled my eyes. "Trust you to come up with that lame option. Zombies." I snickered but when I looked over at Nerina she clearly wasn't amused. I stared at her. "You think it could be zombies?"
She swallowed and then gave a short nod. "Yes. A version of what the media tells us are zombies. But similar enough that it would tick the zombie box nicely."
The sound of the kettle whistling in the kitchen was drowned out by the ringing in my ears. I’d dealt with lots of weird creatures. I’d even fought a golem clay but the thought of the undead roaming around trying to kill me just gave me the heebie jeebies.
Saleem’s voice cut into my thoughts. “I’ve come into contact with a few of them. Mostly when controlled by a mage or necromancer who is up to no good.”
I sat very still and wondered if I was in shock. The clinking of cups and the sloshing of liquids told me that Saleem was busy finishing off the drinks. Nerina was also silent beside me and I had to wonder what she was thinking. As a deathtalker she trod the thin line between communer and necromancy so this had to be a real serious concern that she wasn’t able to actually communicate with the dead man. Dead thing?
Saleem set the mugs onto the counter and stalked over to the cupboard above the fridge that held the booze. His spine was stiff as though he was determined to ensure we got our fair share of booze. Guess he was as affected by this crazy day as I was.
I glanced over at Nerina as I lifted my mug of black coffee and blew on the surface. Nerina was just sitting there, staring at her mug as though she was having a secret conversation with the liquid inside it.
I tapped her foot with my toe and she looked up. Her lips twisted in a lopsided smile. "Sorry. I was away with the fairies."
"Be careful. You don't want any of the Fae to hear you. I heard that's some kind of racial slur or something these days."
I rolled my eyes though Nerina stiffened. "I wasn't aware of that," she said, her tone perturbed now as she glanced at me for confirmation.
I shook my head and gave her a stern look. "Don't listen to him. He's full of crap sometimes."
She forced a smile and sat back as Saleem dosed our drinks then capped the bottle and left it dead centre of the kitchen table.
When he sat and took a sip from his lemon-ginger-bourbon tea, I cleared my throat. "So what did that all look like to you, Nerina? What's your take?"
Nerina shrugged one shoulder. "I know I couldn't read his mind so the best conclusion is there was no consciousness inside his mind."
"But he did have a brain. I mean, physiologically, his body contained an actual human brain?"
She nodded. "There was also electrical activity which let me to confirm that he was alive and that I could complete the communication link with him."
"But you were shut out, right?" As she nodded, I asked, "Was it like a wall? Like a mental block? Or just a whole lotta nothing?"
"A whole lotta nothing. That about sums it up."
I squinted at Saleem. "You get anything? No energy activity on the ether before I dragged you into that godforsaken place?"
"Not a blip. And I'm assuming you're asking because you didn't get anything either?"
I nodded and bit my lip. "I wish I could just throw a possibility in the air but I'm stumped. Other than a mindless body being controlled by some external force, I have no other suggestions." I threw my hands in the air.
"So that leaves us with the question of who could have been controlling your deadly groupies and the even better question is why?" Nerina said, her tone harder than I'd ever heard it before.
Nerina had always been the gentlest of the five Ni'amh and I'd often wondered if she'd had the chops to do what the prophecy of the Ni’amh predicted, be part of the five who would save the DarkWorld.
But every so often, she showed her true colors, which were unsurprisingly the dark shiny grey of solid steel. It was a comfort that she was one of us because something told me that she would make a very dangerous enemy.
I sighed and sipped my drink then gulped it down. It burned all the way to my stomach and totally hit the spot.
The warmth filled me and I realised suddenly that I'd been cold inside and out. I frowned as I took stock and slowly became aware of how cold I was. No wonder I'd made a beeline for the bourbon.
"Guys? Are you also feeling as cold as I am?"
Both looked over at me and frowned, each taking a few seconds to do a self check.
"Yep."
"Yeah."
I shook my head. "It's probably just shock but let's just keep that in mind when we figure out what this is all about."
"So what's the next step?" asked Saleem after he'd swallowed a mouthful of his drink.
"I think we need to do some research," I said, looking at Nerina as I kept sipping. "Do you know where we can easily access information on necromancy, this kind of hive mind control thing? I'd bet this information is not something readily available." Something about the attack didn't sit right with me and I was afraid to voice it out loud in case I made it a reality.
Someone wanted me dead.
That wasn't something anyone was able to accept easily. And the fact that they had almost succeeded wasn't at all comforting. I had the worst feeling that this can of worms was best avoided considering we had so many other things on our plates that we needed to get out of the way. Like the Sharaita asking for its price, for example. Life-threatening stuff that didn't need more life-threatening stuff being piled onto it.
Ne
rina nodded, then set her mug down after draining it . "I agree. I'll get into the archives and have a look around." Her expression wasn't at all comforting. She looked like she'd already gotten the bad news and I wasn't sure if it was that she only expected bad news, or that she already had an idea of what was going on and it was nothing good.
I was about to voice the question when Saleem cleared his throat. "I'm going to speak to Fathima anyway about the whole Axiat thing. I'll ask her to check the historical info in Mithras for us. Maybe we can find something there to cross check."
I nodded. "Okay. I'll check with Horner. See if he has anything we can use. I'm heading over to see Ash soon. Hopefully I actually get there this time."
I laughed but it wasn't at all funny. This had been a really long morning and I was already done for the day.
12
When Nerina left, the silence in the kitchen thickened as Saleem studied my face. I could tell the the twist of his brow and the darkness in his eyes meant he was pissed off at me.
His eyes glittered gold and steel as he said, "I'm not sure what to say other than you're being reckless."
I opened my mouth to yell at him, defend myself with all I had. But then I fell silent and sank against the back of the chair. "I'd ask for a clarification on specific recklessness you are referring to but I'm too tired to fight."
"It's not about fighting, Mel. You've suddenly gotten yourself a bunch of badass powers that you're still trying to wade through. Pushing yourself beyond your limits too quickly could be dangerous for your health."
I smirked and tilted my head. "You saying you're concerned about my health?" I teased.
Saleem's lip curled for a moment and then his smile disappeared. "I'm saying that you need to train, to work through your new powers and understand them better. Or else next time you're going to conjure yourself up an Axiat that you can't handle."
I folded my arms. "Not like I managed to handle Axiat in the first place. I had to call for help remember," I muttered. I wasn't sure why I was annoyed about having to call on Saleem to bail me out. Yes, he'd spent all his energy in order to help me, but it wasn't as if I could expect to run before I could walk. Saleem really was right but I wasn't going to admit it this minute. And if that meant I was being stubborn then so be it.
