Greenstone and Ironwood, Book One

by Luke Webster

  Greenstone and Ironwood

  Book One

  Luke Webster

  Smashwords Edition

  This book is also available in print at Lulu.

  Copyright 2009 Luke Webster

  For the latest news on book two, higher quality maps and other information, visit:

  http://www.lukewebster.net

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  Dedicated to Damita, Bill and Jack.

  Special thanks to BMB, Zok, Praetor and Badminton.

  Prologue

  Ash crossed the timber-framed hall in a lazy descent. The grey residue symbolized the last thirty years of Ironwood’s history, a by-product of the industrial boom that transformed the city, both through its skyline of belching chimneys and foundries, and the political makeup of a rising middle class of wealthy peasants.

  Gervius Poltim, the Patriarcht of Ironwood Proper, founder of the twelve hundred year old city, watched the ash settle on his right hand. The intolerable stink of nearby factories wafted through the draughty hall. Incessant hammering tolled forth from close by refineries and added to Poltim’s mixed mood of anger and exhaustion. Ancient hands twisted around the hand rests of the iron throne like an oak root. If he had the strength he would have reached out and brushed the ash away, as if it were the city itself that he could reach and erase. But such actions evaded his ancient limbs. He watched with a still face, seething inside, as a carer wiped away the stain.

  Once worshipped as a god, Poltim was now considered by most in Ironwood to be nothing more than an archaic symbol of the city’s past.

  The Patriarcht’s sole source of financial outlay now came from the small group of wealthy followers tied to the Cult of the Patriacht, a secretive sect that the Church of Ea-Manati had tried to weed out

  The church and nobles tolerated his presence in the absence of an alternative method of removing him. Prophets had long seen visions of the city’s destruction with his death. Such as he was the founder of Ironwood, so would he be responsible for its end. Poltim had done much to spread such premonitions early in his reign.

  A blade slashed out. Poltim’s features portrayed no emotion as he watched the flow and ebb of the girl’s life dry up, her blood splashing at the hem of his robes.

  Poltim only knew one thing – Loathing, a disgust at his own inability to feel anything else. Twelve hundred years of existence had desensitized him to human expression so much that he could not even feign remorse or excitement at a child’s death. And he loathed it.

  Poltim looked to the man holding the dagger, sporting a blue vest over a mail shirt. The expectations of his highest agents were harsh. In order to reach the highest rank in the Patriarcht’s house one had to sever all ties with immediate family for good. So it was that the Patriarcht looked to his newest right hand man, Killan Vehgrant, standing over the body of his wife and child, a solemn look in his eye. The man had joined Poltim’s service twelve years prior, proving to be both dedicated and ruthless in his ascent to the Patriarcht’s side. Poltim had long stopped wondering at the lines man would cross for power.

  “Come,” he whispered through taut lips, hard as fossilized stone.

  Killan stepped over the body of his daughter and knelt in her pooled blood, kissing the bloody robe of the Patriarcht.

  “Here marks a man of the Order,” rattled the Patriarcht. “Under the mantle of the gods, old and new alike, I raise him to the rank of right-hand.” A final pronounced rattle ordered Killan to stand.

  Killan rose and moved to the right side of his lord. Slaves dragged away the corpses.

  The Patriarcht watched two boys appear carrying buckets and a mop. The sight of the cleaning boys filled him with more disgust at the city he had founded. Cleaning in the temple was a full time job. Ash from the smokestacks and factories blew night and day, serving to choke the entire city with a poisonous layer of soot.

  The doors at the far end of the hall opened, stirring the Patriarcht from his dozing mood. His eyes cracked open as he realised the face of the approaching man. Kaiser Tell, haggard from years of mining profitless stone in the Notorious Clefts, strode towards him with a triumphant gaze.

  The Patriarcht shuddered, a rare sense of excitement causing the clots in his veins to stir. In two hands Kaiser carried a small oak chest, held out towards Poltim’s greedy eyes in offering.

  At reaching the throne, Kaiser knelt before his lord, placing the chest on the sticky stones.

  “Rise,” Poltim ordered.

  “My lord, I bring you that which you have longed for.” Kaiser’s voice was rough, croaky from a straining journey through the mountains.

  “The Plague of Jer Gakt.” The mention of it brought lost memories to the ancient’s mind.

  “It is as you said. Within the Cleft I fond a cavern, buried deep below the Earth.”

  “Tell me what you saw,” Poltim demanded.

  “From foot to ceiling there were eggs, protected in resin, humming even at my entry. Some had been disturbed where we had blasted through the walls, I am sure I breathed in the spores upon entering.”

  “Yes,” the Patriarcht agreed. “Even now I can feel my body responding to you, as if I am waking from a coma. What of the workers?”

  “I had the miners poisoned,” Kaiser remarked. “My servant has stayed behind to dispose of the bodies and wait for our return.”

  “Thus you have done well, Kaiser.”

  “I found this in the cavern too,” Kaiser continued, opening the chest.

  Inside sat a large opaque egg, shimmering under the surface of a resin coat. Poltim drew in a tight breathe. Below the protective coat he could just make out the fibrous tendrils connected in the centre by a round head, the size of a fingernail. The creature inside pulsed, growing excited in the light of the hall.

  “A queen,” Poltim marveled.

  For the first time in centuries the Patriarcht felt alive.

  1

  The corpse rose, a slow movement that sent a throb of pressure through diluted eyes and down its spine. Perched up on one elbow it looked around, noting the pallid bodies on rusted iron tables and heaped remains thrown into corners. Cold, square tiles ran to the ceiling, grey under a flickering light and framed by mould. A square grate sat in the centre of the room, stained from years of use.

  The flesh of the creature was pale, as if the blood inside had not flowed for sometime. Bunched muscles ran its length, slow to regain life, turning as hard as stone once flexed. Along the throat and side of the corpse’s neck ran a crisscrossing of scars, as if half the head had been removed before being resewn to the neck. This was not the cause of death however, these scars had long since healed.

  Its muscles struggled to react as it dragged naked legs across the table and sat up, struggling with balance. It tried to conjure a name, a handle to relate with, but the only word that existed in its consciousness was ‘Dead’. It would make do for now.

  “You don’t look so good,” came a voice, deep and clear from behind the table.

  ‘Who are you?’ Dead tried to ask, a thick glut of blood clotting the mouth. Dead used fingers to scoop out the putrid mess. He retched.

  “Who… are… you?” Dead gasped. His stomach contracted but the gut was empty.

  “I don’t know,” answered the voice. “Like you I woke in this room.” The figure stepped round to face Dead. “I can’t touch anything.” The man stood ta
ll, lean and strong, his tailored suit immaculate, a stylized haircut cut fresh. He was transparent, his presence never quite in focus, his image causing the eyes to wander.

  “You’re a ghost.” Dead passed his hands along the table. There was a side tray with varied surgical instruments. He picked up a scalpel, it was tarnished but otherwise clean.

  “I see you’re not,” the ghost sighed. “What’s your name?”

  “I can’t remember. I think it might be Dead.”

  “I doubt it.”

  “Well, what’s yours?”

  “Uh, I couldn’t say either.”

  “I’ll call you Ghost then.”

  “Ghost?” he wrinkled his nose.

  “I’ll remember that. How long have I been here for?”

  “I couldn’t say,” Ghost answered, his face still screwed. “You were here when I woke up and that was a while ago. I tried to leave but can’t get through the door.”

  “You’re a ghost that can’t go through walls?”

  There were footsteps. Ghost fidgeted in anxiety while Dead laid down on the palette trying to look inconspicuous. The door creaked open and a man dressed in a soiled apron over shirt entered. He surveyed the room, noting what corpses lay where. The doctor ignored the spirit fidgeting in the center of the morgue, walking to Dead’s corpse and examining the congealed blood that framed the scene.

  “Odd….” the doctor murmured, removing the mess with a rag, “we’d better see what brought you here.” Dead lay in silence, alarmed. He felt something tug in his chest, an unexplained dullness. He opened diluted eyes to see the tarnished scalpel bloodied. The doctor saw the reaction and gasped, pulling back. Dead reached out and caught the scalpel wielding hand.

  “Let go,” the doctor shrieked, grasping for a cutting tool on the tray with his free hand. Dead held tight, dragging the doctor closer and tearing the scalpel away. Dead hammered the scalpel into the doctor’s eye. The screaming increased. Again Dead forced it in, juice bubbling from the wound. The rending blade sliced through, opening parts of the doctor’s cheekbone and ears and chipping teeth. The scream raised an octave. In the torrential rage of Dead’s mind a faint whisper embodied Ghost’s rants to let go. Dead was nothing more than a mindless, thrashing killer, with no grace or purpose except the desire to obliterate life. The scalpel split, its blade lodged in the top of the doctor’s skull. With the blade shattered Dead returned from psychosis. He let go and watched the doctor fall, a bloody, destroyed mess, whimpering out the last dregs of life.

  “What have you done?” Ghost cried. “You murderer.” The spirit’s eyes were filled with ethereal tears.

  Dead was numb, no emotion stirring… Nothing.

  “I think,” he stated in a calm voice, “I was defending myself.” From shoulder to shoulder Dead was open, fatty tissue and meat puckering out from his chest, a result of the interrupted autopsy.

  “But there was no reason,” bewailed Ghost, heaving in nauseam, “he could have helped you. He didn’t know that you were alive…. Or not dead.”

  Dead did not respond.

  Silence reigned. The killer focused on the blood weaving a trail from the doctor’s still body, leading to the central drain.

  Dead tried to think… to understand why he had woken in a morgue. He had a deep wound across his chest that didn’t hurt, was seeing ghosts and had killed. Attempts at recollection failed. When a thought came he tried to hold onto it, to lock it into memory, but they were sucked into a deep, far-reaching void in his mind. As soon as a new thought came along the previous one was fleeting. The act of remembering became an insurmountable challenge.

  “I’m leaving,” he proclaimed, frustrated. Ghost looked up, speechless. “Are you going to stay here?”

  “You think I want to go anywhere with you?” Ghost spat.

  “Then stay here,” Dead answered, challenging the spirit to find company with anyone else. For a moment the pair stared at one another before the ghost seemed to shrink in acceptance.

  “You can’t go around like that,” Ghost huffed, pointing at Dead’s naked, mutilated body. While the deep wound across his chest did not bother the corpse, it wept down to his clotting pubic hair. “You should do something about the cut.”

  “Like?”

  “Patch it,” Ghost stated, pointing to a needle and thread scattered among the doctor’s tools.

  Dead complied and with clumsy fingers set to stitching himself. His lack of grace, coupled with the strain of seeing the incision, made the job a poor one at best. With his left hand he pinned the two flaps of skin together, with the right he pushed the needle through the meat. It was tougher than expected, the skin hard, as though he had been deceased for some time.

  Dead stood in the cold room, a messy patchwork of stitches congealed with blood spanning his chest.

  “You need clothes.” Ghost told him.

  Dead nodded in response. The longer he stayed awake the more he could form thoughts and connections, as if his brain were trying to wake up, giving him some form of control over his actions. He walked over to the body of the doctor and started undressing him. The clothes were bloody but sufficient, the apron absorbing much of the blood, protecting the undergarments. As Dead turned the doctor over to take his shirt he heard a low groan. Dead looked at Ghost whose mouth hung agape in horror.

  “He’s alive,” monotoned Dead.

  “Just leave him,” stuttered Ghost.

  Dead looked sideways into the doctor’s mutilated face. Several wounds hadn’t bled, leaving exposed bone. Dead felt a curiosity tick in his mind, as if reminded of something long forgotten.

  “What’s he doing here?” asked Dead, confused. “Did I do this?”

  Ghost snorted, unaware that Dead could not remember the actions of a moment past.

  “Should I kill him?” Dead wondered.

  “What? No… no.” Ghost answered.

  Dead’s calmness was at odds with the psychotic rage he had exhibited before. The monster obeyed, proceeding to remove the doctor’s clothes with little regard to comfort. As the doctor’s shirt came away his head fell back to the tile floor with a wet thud. Dead ignored a quiet whimper, unbuckling the doctor’s belt and removing a greasy set of pants.

  Dead stood dressed. His dark hair was a clotted mess and the white shirt more a kaleidoscope of human fluid. Unlike the primitive spectre of nightmare he resembled upon waking however, his figure could now pass among the worst echelons of society. Rocking on meaty legs, Dead steadied and stepped over the freshest body in the morgue, an uncommitted ghost in tow.

  2

  Damian Steward locked swords with his enemy. The woody crack echoed down split halls and half crumbling walls. The regent’s son gritted his teeth, holding tight to his blade through numb fingers. Pushing hard, his foe tumbled back for the briefest of moments, expertly regaining his balance before Damian could swoop in with a fatal blow.

  The pair circled one another, stepping over rubble, aware of the danger of slipping in the frosty morning. Steeling himself, Damian lunged, the tip of his sword aimed at belly height. The blow missed and Damian, slow to reel in his blade, was punished with a crack across the fingers. Swearing aloud, Damian’s sword fell as its owner grasped at the ringing hand, already numb from the chilled morning.

  “Don’t drop your sword, it is your shield,” smiled Fredrick, quoting his own sword master’s admonishments. As the son of an Imperial senator Fredrick was in the Steward’s care, his father sent into the Northane Kingdom three years before as an ambassador of the Empire.

  “That hurt,” Damian replied, still clutching his fingers. Fredrick was a better swordsman than the heir, and more still than some twice his age. Swore fingers were a common ailment for Damian when he dueled with Fredrick yet he always came back for another round. The remains of the old citadel was their favourite testing grounds, secluded from the crowded training yard of Greenstone and packed with hidden tunnels and secret rooms.

  Defeated for the moment, Damian
retrieved his blade and sheathed it, leading the way up a spiral stairwell. The boys picked their way past a skeleton on the steps, left to decay where the soldier had died. A bullet hole marked the centre of its chest, the heavy ball bearing had sheared through the plate mail, only stopping when it touched the back plate. Braving stern faces, the boys continued up, neither willing to break the silence with their fear of the close proximity of the remains.

  When debris prevented any further ascent the boys chose to explore the surrounding rooms. Fredrick gave an excited yelp, finding an unexplored rift in the brickwork. The two boys mapped out the new tunnel, unaware that the secret passage had once been a service tunnel for servants carrying faecal buckets. Internal sewerage systems were a modern development among the city’s architectural elite.

  “This must have been one of King Asis’ secret tunnels,” Damian noted, trying to sound educated to his foreign friend.

  “He would have used it to smuggle in prisoners,” Fredrick replied. Having resided in the city long enough to know much of its history. “I bet there is a torture chamber close by.”

  “I don’t think so,” Damian considered. “I bet this was an escape tunnel. You know they say that Asis was never caught by the nobles and that he escaped to the Empire.”

  “Who says that?” Fredrick wondered, having never heard the story.

  “Some of my cousins were discussing it.”

  “Oh,” Fredrick sighed. Few among the nobles had been as open to the foreigner as the Steward family. In the eyes of most Ironwood residents the Empire was a point of trade and nothing more. Most saw the culture and languages of the Imperials as something to be shunned.

  “If Asis escaped to my homeland then I think I would have heard it.”

  “He’s meant to be hiding in secret,” Damian continued. “Preparing to regain the city only when the time is right.”

  “Wouldn’t that spell trouble for the Stewards?” Fredrick asked, noting that their role of regency was meant to warm the seat of power until a new king was found for Ironwood.