His Ancient Heart

by M. R. Forbes

  Minutes passed. His voice grew hoarse, his arms weak. The anger burned out slowly. Finally, he dropped the sword and returned to the Overlord, kneeling in front of her again. He had tears in his eyes, splattered blood on his face and in his beard.

  "Why?" he asked her. They had never been friends. Never been close. He had drunk too much during one visit and tried to get her into his bed. She had rebuked him, used her Curse to stop him, and he had hated her since. She was a strong Overlord though. She kept Varrow quiet and calm. He respected her leadership, even if he didn't respect her. He wasn't asking why she had lied, why she had committed treason. He was asking why she was dead. How dare she die before he had a chance to make her pay.

  He lifted her head, leaned down and put his lips on hers. They were still warm. He kissed her once, holding her up by the hair, and then dropped her body back to the floor. He got to his feet and stormed back towards the front of the palace.

  "Reema, you ancient bitch," he said, reaching the antechamber and confronting the old woman. "Who was the Overlord's interim administrator?"

  Reema shook in front of him. She bowed her head. "Does that mean-"

  "The Overlord is dead," Spyne said. "The Whore killed her before I could see to it myself. Who is the Adjunct?"

  Reema wailed at the news, finally crumpling to the floor. Spyne wasn't sure if she was dead or not, and he didn't care. She hadn't answered his question.

  "General Spyne."

  A woman's voice, sharp and confident. He turned his head to see her walking up the steps and into the room. She was young, her features as pointed as her voice, every part of her reeking of intensity. She was wearing a black halter, cut so low across her chest that her breasts seemed about to fall out of it, and black leather pants snug across her lower half. She wore tall, flat leather boots and a short sword on her hip. Her dark hair fell in rings across her shoulders, framing her hawkish face.

  "Who are you?" Spyne asked, his eyes wandering her. Her clothes were unlike anything he had ever seen anyone wear, custom tailored and more than a little provocative. He lingered on her bosom, the expanse of soft, pale flesh irresistible.

  "My name is Sazi," she said. "I heard you ask the secretary for the Overlord's Adjunct. I am she. I heard there was trouble, so I came armed."

  Spyne wondered if the girl had any idea how to use the weapon, or if her appearance was all for show. "The Overlord is dead. Killed by the Whore."

  She didn't gasp, or cry, or even blink. "I will speak to the assembly," she said. "Order will be restored within the hour." There was no hint of emotion there. She was presented with a problem, and she was focused on solving it.

  Spyne smiled. He liked this girl. "See that it is. Make sure the nobles and bureaucrats know that you have my backing in whatever you need done."

  "Anything I need done, General?" she asked, stepping forward, getting close enough that he could smell her perfume. It was musky and reminded him of sex. That was no accident either. This one knew how to get what she wanted.

  "Anything," Spyne replied.

  She bowed to him and entered the assembly room, where many of the nobles had remained to keep out of harms way. Spyne could hear her voice echo from behind the door, asserting herself and taking control.

  I'll deal with you again later.

  The thought might have pleased him, had he been able to find pleasure in anything. In any case, he had something else he needed to do first.

  Spyne made the long climb into the tower, his thoughts moving between the Overlord's assistant, Sazi, and a past long turned to dust.

  Were you every so... primal... my love? Why can't I remember your face?

  It wasn't that the girl drove him to lust, but her body, her clothes, her smell. Her words suggested at it, and a suggestion was the closest he had come in more years than he could count. He knew when he had been with his wife he had felt. The closeness, the intimacy. He had felt when he killed her, too. Sadness with no remorse.

  The promise.

  He reached the top, dropping to a knee in front of the farspeak stone. It was stationary when he arrived, or so he thought. The spinning was so hard to see. He didn't know how he always knew when he was at one of the stones, but a moment later he could feel his presence.

  "Where is Talon?" he asked.

  "Headed north, to Edgewater, my Lord," Spyne said.

  "You are certain?"

  "Yes."

  "Then why are you in Varrow?"

  Spyne was expecting the question. "I came to the city for fresh horses. I encountered some difficulty."

  "Difficulty?"

  "The Whore. Eryn Albion. She was here. The Overlord was seeking to give her shelter."

  A slight pause was the only hint that he was surprised.

  "Are they dead?"

  There was no emotion in the question. It was an expectation.

  "Overlord Prezi is dead. Killed by Albion. She used her Curse on me, knocked me out. She escaped."

  "She knocked you out?" Now he clearly was surprised. "How did she get past your men?"

  "They can't shift, my Lord, and this Albion girl seems to have mastered the fields. She also had a juggernaut assisting her."

  "Which model?"

  "A One Zero, my Lord."

  The pause on the other side stretched long enough that Spyne almost questioned it.

  "Find Eryn Albion, General," he said at last. "Destroy the juggernaut."

  Spyne was unaccustomed to any emotion that wasn't anger. Even so, he nearly choked on his surprise.

  "The juggernaut, my Lord? It is nothing more than metal and magic. What about Talon?"

  "You are certain Talon is headed towards Edgewater?"

  "Yes, my Lord."

  "Then your orders are to destroy the juggernaut. I will make other arrangements for Talon."

  Spyne felt his anger rising, his face turning red. It was Talon he wanted to face. Talon he wanted to kill. "My Lord," he began.

  "The juggernaut," he said, voice still flat and calm. "And Eryn Albion if you can manage it. Those are your orders. Remember the promise."

  The promise. Spyne closed his eyes, wrestling with his anger, fighting against it. He had to keep the promise. It was more important than his desires, his anger, his hatred.

  The promise was everything.

  "As you command, my Lord. May I ask you a question?"

  "What is it, General?"

  "Genesia. The memories..." He paused, not sure what to say. "My wife..."

  "Ashes and dust," came the reply. "Remember the promise."

  Spyne bowed, swallowing the rest of his words. They didn't matter. They wouldn't bring back her smile or her laugh. They wouldn't fill his emptiness or return his feeling. They were like everything else around him.

  Ashes and dust.

  CHAPTER FORTY

  Talon

  Curio led Talon back down the steps, out onto the deck and across to the bow.

  "A warning," he said as they walked. "Some people may find some of the objects in my collection disturbing. All I ask is that you save your judgement of me, and put your energy into your own truths."

  Talon wasn't sure what the merchant meant, but his reluctance to show it to him, coupled with the words, was hardly reassuring. "I have my needs and desires. You have yours."

  They entered the forward bridge. Talon expected that they would go back up, but instead Curio led him to a second wide staircase that matched the one Gerland had vanished down. The oar deck with its rows of benches and stowed oars was visible through a small round window in the stairwell, but the steps themselves continued to descend beneath it.

  "I made the mistake of keeping the books upstairs on my first ship," Curio said. "The hold was too damp for the paper. Spyne set the entire bridge on fire. I was fortunate that we were able to put it out before it spread to the hull."

  "Why did he kill your wife?" Talon asked.

  Curio looked at him coldly. "She was a beautiful woman. They took her, him an
d his Historians, each in turn, before they killed her. That man had no emotion, even in that."

  They came to a stop at a large ircidium door. It was the most ircidium Talon could remember seeing outside of a palace or Genesia; a long, smooth block mounted on reinforced hinges. "Where did you get this?" he asked.

  "I purchased swords from rebels. It took ten years to have enough of that alloy to make the door. It's strong enough to protect the collection, light enough to rest in the bow of the ship." He produced a key from his pocket, placing it in the lock and turning. Then he tapped the door with his finger to push it open. "Remember. Do not judge."

  He didn't hear the last words Curio said. His attention immediately went to the top of a long, wide hold, where thick growths of plants clung to the walls and ceiling, emitting a soft phosphorescent light that illuminated the entire room.

  "Where did you get it?" Talon asked. The ceiling was ten feet above him, too high for him to reach, though he stretched his hand out towards the plants anyway. They had been everywhere in Genesia, lining all of the tunnels, the atrium. Anywhere they needed light.

  "A man in the northern islands discovered it growing in a cave. I bought only the smallest vines, planted them near the walls as he suggested. It grew so fast."

  It did, Talon remembered. Spyne was the one who pruned it back, kept it fed and orderly. Spyne, the gardener.

  What happened to you? What happened to all of us?

  He overcame his initial surprise at the vegetation and lowered his eyes to scan the rest of the room. He saw it immediately, the reason Curio had asked him not to judge.

  Sitting in an ircidium cage near the front of the room was a girl. She couldn't have been more than fourteen, with long brown hair and sad eyes. She looked well enough, groomed and bathed and clothed, and the cage was clean and decorated, with a small bed, a chair, and some dolls laying on the floor.

  There was a line of blood running from her eyes.

  She was pregnant.

  "What is the meaning this?" Talon asked, looking at her, his anger rising despite Curio's requests. She looked back at him, though she didn't say anything or act surprised to see him.

  "She is Cursed," Curio said. "I purchased her from her parents. I..."

  He paused. This was what he hadn't wanted Talon to see. This is what he had been afraid of.

  He was right to be afraid.

  "Release her," Talon said, his voice ice.

  "I... I can't. It isn't safe. For her, or for those around her."

  As if in response, the girl let out a choked groan, and her hands spread to her sides. Energy crackled from her fingertips, lashing out, captured and absorbed by the ircidium bars. Fresh blood welled from her eyes, and she slumped onto the bed.

  "She wasn't always locked up, but she can't control it," Curio said. "Not since she has been with child."

  "Yours?" Talon asked.

  The man looked away but nodded.

  "Why?"

  "Curiosities," was all he said in his defense.

  Talon felt the urge to break Curio's neck, but he fought against it. They still needed passage, and despite his revulsion at the girl's situation, it was clear that he was right about her lack of control. He couldn't save her if he never made it to Edgewater. If he never found the Refinery.

  He walked over to the cage and put his hands to the bars. The girl looked over at him, her expression curious.

  "Are you well?" he asked.

  She nodded meekly.

  "I will get you out of here, when it's safe for you."

  She gave him a weak smile.

  He turned away from her. His eyes landed on a pedestal near the center of the room. A dark orb rested on top of it. It was an artifact that was familiar to him. A farspeak stone.

  "You talk to him?" Talon asked, approaching it.

  "No," Curio said. "I bought this from a man who found it in a pile of rubble, up on the slope of Empire Mountain. He sold me many books along with it. Spyne got the books, but he didn't get that. I don't understand it. All I know is that every so often it will lift from the pedestal, and I can hear voices through it. That is how I knew about you and your exploits. I heard someone speak to General Spyne, ordering him to find you. You're telling me the other voice is the Emperor?"

  "Yes."

  He started towards it. If he had the time, he could wait and hear all that he commanded his Generals and Overlords to do. If he had time, perhaps he could use that information to determine where he might be.

  A low howl and a rustling stole his attention. It turned his entire body cold.

  Talon stopped walking and listened.

  The howl came again.

  He turned slowly to his right. There was another cage here, again made of ircidium. He had been so focused on the stone that he hadn't noticed it.

  Inside of it was a Shifter. An orc.

  "Where did you get this?" Talon said, turning on Curio, grabbing him by the collar of his vest and lifting him off the ground.

  Curio looked over at the creature. It was hunched in the center of the cage, flashing in and out of existence, its toothy mouth bent in an angry sneer.

  "Up.. Up the river, and then through the southern Gorges, about two weeks in. I've been trying to map all of them a little bit at a time. Spotted it near the shore. It took me three weeks to capture it."

  "How many did you see?" Talon kept the merchant off the ground, pulling the vest collar together and choking the man.

  "I... I don't know... three? Four? One? They all look the same."

  What was in that gorge?

  "How long ago?"

  "I-"

  "How long?"

  "Just before we came to Fulton. I haven't figured out what it eats yet."

  Talon growled and threw Curio away from him. He stumbled and fell to the floor.

  "You want to know what it eats?" Talon said. "You haven't gotten close enough to it." He stuck his hand between the bars. The Shifter could surely smell the prozoa, surely feel the power of the ebocite in his chest. It lunged at his hand, and he pulled it back just in time. Then he drew his sword.

  "What are you doing?" Curio asked in a voice choppy with fear.

  "What you should have. This is no curiosity." He swung the sword, using it to break the lock from the cage. He pulled the door open.

  "Are you mad?" Curio said.

  The orc vanished.

  Talon turned, reaching out and catching the orc's claw as it came back into view. He stabbed it in the chest and shoved it to the ground.

  A muffled howl pierced the hull of the barge.

  An angry howl that echoed all around them.

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

  Talon

  "What is that?" Curio asked. The howling was rising in pitch, volume, and numbers.

  "You fool," Talon said. "You led them to the town."

  Talon lifted his blade and ran towards the Cursed girl's cage. He didn't slow as he smacked the lock off and headed for the stairs. "Get out of here," he shouted back to her.

  His mind was racing as fast as his body, with all that he had just seen. From the Cursed girl to the farspeak stone, to the captive Shifter. Especially the stone. How could Curio hear him through it, without him knowing the merchant was there? The stones connected one to another, guided by the user's magic. Or so he had always believed.

  What if there were some that could capture everything? Every conversation between Overlords. Every plot and plan. Did Jeremiah have such a stone?

  Talon reached the top of the steps and rushed out onto the dock, almost at the same time Wilem and Delia appeared on the other end of the boat. Wilem had uncovered the staff, and he held it ready for use.

  "What's happening?" he asked.

  "Shifters," Talon said.

  The first screams started rising from the town.

  What about the Shifters? Where had they come from? The last group had been hiding in Genesia, feeding on the reactor. Those demons had a general to lead them. This gro
up obviously didn't, or they wouldn't be howling like that. Without the general, the lesser creatures like the orcs and goblins didn't have the intelligence to make decisions. If they had been lost somewhere, trapped somewhere, feeding on a store of ebocite or the prozoa that was sure to be living in the river, they would never have left, never have moved without the command.

  Until Curio had taken one alive.

  Their minds were simple. When one moved, they all moved.

  They had followed the merchant's barge to Fulton, and the last order they had probably received had been to kill any humans they found.

  "We have to stop them, or they'll kill every person in Fulton," Talon said. He expected Wilem to react with a mixture of fear and resolve. Instead, there was only resolve.

  He started crossing the length of the deck. He'd only taken two steps when the first of the orcs appeared on the rail of the barge, flashing into their time for only an instant before vanishing again.

  "Be ready, they can appear anywhere," he shouted.

  An orc blinked in behind him. He felt the heat of it the moment it materialized, and he jabbed his sword back, catching it in the stomach before it could plant its claws into him. It howled and fell away. Another appeared to replace it, and Talon caught its hand and punched it in the face with the hilt of his sword. It screeched and vanished.

  He turned back just in time to see one of the orcs appear in front of Wilem.

  "Litsus," Wilem said. A blot of light launched from the end of his staff, lashing out at the creature and burning it to char.

  Talon caught movement in the corner of his eye and turned to see Curio finally coming up out of the hold. He was sweaty and pale, his eyes wild with fear.

  "Delia," he shouted, looking for his daughter. He saw her with Wilem and started running their way.

  An orc appeared right behind him, reaching around and grabbing him by the waist.

  "What?" he managed to say, before the Shifter twisted his neck and dropped his lifeless body to the deck.

  More screams started sounding from the town itself, one of them right at the base of the barge. Abeleth came running up a moment later, an orc right behind him. It pounced at the boy, and then fell back in a flash of light and explosion of magic.