“You don’t know the half of it,” said Danny.
“And I don’t want to know the full of it either. I’ll come back in a few hours. Go speak to Minoro, he’ll sort your room out.”
The mercenary gave a final nod and then left the pub.
*
The attic room was a dusty, cramped thing up two flights of crooked stairs. It had three lumpy cots bunched together, a sink basin, and a sofa that belonged on a rubbish tip.
“This is me,” said Delagio as he threw himself down on the sofa, crossing his winkle picker boots on the arm and placing his Stetson over his head.
“God, it’s hot in here.” Hollie threw her things down on the rightmost cot and then climbed onto it, shuffling over to the only window in the room and popping it open. The muted sounds and smells of the city poured through the opening. “Huh, there’s an old set of stairs right here,” she said.
“Probably so people can make a quick getaway from Lawbringers,” said Danny, flopping down onto the cot and making its springs squeal. “This place has got a real Wild West vibe to it.”
“More steampunk, in my opinion,” said Hollie lying down and tucking a thin pillow under her head.
“What’s a steampunk?” asked Danny with a frown.
“Dude, you don’t know what steampunk is?” added Delagio from under his hat.
“No.”
“It’s like Victorian industrial, but a bit more modern,” explained Hollie. “Steam powered tanks, zeppelin airships and clockwork cars, that kind of thing. Basically how the world would be if the Victorian era had kept going, and steam power and mechanics had continued together instead of getting replaced by modern electronics.”
“I’m confused, is that an actual thing?” said Danny, with a look of confusion.
“No it’s a concept. Like in books and films. But if it was a real thing,” she raised a lazy hand and pointed a finger at the window, “Concavious would be it.”
“Okay, that’s pretty cool I guess,” said Danny with a big yawn.
“Oh just shut up and go to sleep,” groaned Hollie and chucked her pillow at his face. “Actually give that back, this mattress is awful.”
Danny laughed and threw it back to her before settling down and closing his eyes. It wasn’t long before all three of them were fast asleep, Danny letting out muffled snores from a face squashed into his own pillow.
I turned a valve on a copper pipe descending from the wall into the sink, and water spluttered out. After smelling and deciding it was clean enough, I drank a few handfuls, and then cooled my neck and forehead. Felling refreshed, I turned the valve back off and mopped my face dry with an old towel, marvelling at how such a small action could make such a big difference. Before lying down on the cot, I unsheathed Crimson and placed it next to my pillow. Then I settled down, trying to wriggle my body into the spaces between the hard lumps of mattress.
When I was relatively comfortable, I unzipped my jacket and pulled out my Biomote, changing over to the vocal-link screen. I tapped Gabriella’s name and pressed down to receive. As usual, nothing but the hiss of static poured through the receiver.
“We’re coming to save you all,” I whispered. “Just hold on.”
Still there was nothing but the rush of static feedback.
“I love you, Ella.”
I switched off the link and returned the Biomote to my uniform, and then closed my eyes.
Sleep took me in seconds.
*
The eerie, primordial music woke me.
Rain pattered down on my face, tapping against my eyelids until I parted them. I blinked up at the red sky, which swirled around a dark vortex. It was the same as the one that had settled over Chapter Hill, preceding The Sorrow’s arrival on Earth.
The Red Storm.
Something was pressed against my hand. I curled my fingers around it and bought it into view. It was a Reaper Mask, the bronzed faceplate styled with decorative flourishes and ancient symbols, and a thin line where the mouth would have been. The mask had been scorched so badly on one side that it looked completely black. I turned it over and my stomach tightened in revulsion when I saw the charred flesh that filled the concave space. I threw the mask away from me and then used my aching limbs to push myself into a sitting position. As I stared groggily around, the rain continued to beat down on me, soaking my hair and sending cold beads of water dripping down my neck. I saw that I was back in the ruins of Chapter Hill, the buildings collapsing in on themselves and leaking water from broken pipes. But there was something different about the mountains of rubble this time. They were darker and glinted in patches, as if hiding precious jewels. I glanced down and let out a gasp of horror as burned masks, incinerated robes and charred bones filled my view.
“What the hell?”
I scrambled to my feet and stumbled backwards, breaking the brittle bones and masks under my step. What surrounded me wasn’t hills of rubble and mortar.
They were mountains of dead Reapers.
“This isn’t real. None of this is real,” I told myself. Then why the hell does it feel so real?
I scrambled over the sea of dead bodies, trying to ignore the repulsive crunch and crack of their scorched remains as I climbed up a steep mound to get a better view. The detritus around me was so brittle and loosely stacked that it felt like I was trying to move up a set of crumbling stairs. I had to keep every movement as light as possible as anything heavier shifted the remnants beneath my boots and sent my leading foot sliding from underneath me. As I forced my way upward – sending an avalanche of skulls and masks tumbling down behind me – the eerie music continued to play, tickling my mind like melodic feathers.
I finally managed to break to the top of the sinister mountain and stared out across Chapter Hill. The view was sickening: a field of dead Reapers covering the area as far as the eye could see, as if the whole region had become the mass grave for an entire species. As I stared out I saw a familiar figure standing on another hill of Reapers in the near distance. The person was wearing a shimmering Reaper mask, but I instantly recognised the flowing black hair that whipped out in strands as the breeze tugged at it.
“Gabriella,” I shouted, my voice echoing out among the destruction, followed by the cracking sound of a few Reaper skulls as they came loose from the masses and tumbled down the hills of death. Gabriella pointed upwards at the tormented sky, where I saw a mass of colossal shapes swirling beyond the dark clouds, and heard them release guttural roars. Gabriella lowered the gesturing hand and then hooked her finger towards herself, beckoning for me to follow. A moment later she turned and jumped off the pile of bodies.
If this is a dream – or even a vision – then I have control of my abilities.
I closed my eyes and slowed my breath, willing the switch to come. After a few moments I felt the shift inside and snapped my eyes open. I launched myself off the pile of bodies, my footsteps feather-light as I sped along the top of the Reaper mound, not dislodging a single remain. I crested the next hill of bodies and flew over the top, sliding down to the bottom like a pro-surfer. Gabriella still managed to stay ahead of me, her body shimmering and jerking forward, like a CCTV image on time-lapse.
I kept rushing after her, moving like a streak of light through the body-littered ruins of Chapter Hill. When buildings came close, I jumped up and sprinted along their sides, before jumping to adjacent ones, never disturbing a single brick or piece of wood.
The music got louder as I chased the bizarre masked version of Gabriella through the town and towards the bridge from my previous vision. This time, when I reached it, there were rows of dead Reapers bowed down on their knees in reverence. Unlike the ones piled around the city, they hadn’t been burned or ripped apart, but had simply died from exposure, their bodies decayed to yellowing bones and rusting masks. I reached out and pulled one of the masks off, the sound like paper tearing. The skull on the other side had only two eye sockets and then a blank section of smooth bone from that point downward.
Looking up, I saw Gabriella standing at the threshold to my house. The door was open and a bright red glow poured out from behind her. I rushed along the bridge, feeling it start to break away underneath my feet once again. Glancing over my shoulder I saw the whole of Chapter Hill tearing itself apart, and all of it – including the countless remains of the Reapers – was vacuumed up in a tornado of bone and brick, towards the Red Storm and the creatures beyond.
I broke through the threshold and the door slammed shut behind me. This time I was surprised to see that I wasn’t in the weird pit area, but rather back in the Reaper Archives, standing in front of the Blood Veil. Dozens of versions of Gabriella and I were stood in ranks, weapons drawn and facing the shimmering wall, ready for battle. The masked Gabriella was standing, facing me in the central aisle of space between our doppelgängers. My stomach knotted as she slowly removed the mask, but underneath was her beautiful, smiling face. She held out her hand and walked towards me. I reached out with my own, and as we connected she guided me around to face the Blood Veil. A single Reaper had been blocked from view behind her, kneeling down with his arms stretched out towards the portal.
See and understand, she said in a soft voice.
We walked between our doubles, towards the pulsing red wall. As we did, our doppelgängers started a low chant.
We are the first. We are the cycle.
The Blood Veil reacted to the words, swirling around itself and releasing long, slick tendrils that snaked towards the waiting Reaper. The celestial music had become so loud it was almost deafening, trying to drown out the chants of our counterparts. As we kept moving closer, the chanting grew louder and more ferocious.
WE ARE THE FIRST. WE ARE THE CYCLE.
The tendrils wrapped tightly around the Reaper and started to drag him into the Veil; he started to struggle, trying to prize himself away, but it was too late. The Veil had him. I winced as I heard his bones snap under the enormous pressure of the tendrils, and a deranged, soul-searing sound came from within his mask.
See and understand, said Gabriella, gesturing towards the Veil.
For a long while nothing happened, and then slowly a gigantic form emerged from the crimson wall, like a demon emerging from hell. It was a figure I recognised well. Dark armour covered in spikes and ancient symbols. Arching horns. A sword so big it was almost the same length as a person. A metallic mask secured by old straps, abyss-deep eye sockets, and vertical slits where the mouth should have been. I saw and I finally understood.
The Sorrow had once been a Reaper.
*
I woke up gasping in a pool of my own sweat. My head was swimming and I felt so nauseous that I could feel saliva rising up into my mouth. I opened my eyes to see thick smoke swirling around the attic room and panic hit me.
The pub is on fire!
I tried to sit up, but my body wouldn’t respond. Confused, I tried to wiggle my fingers, but it was as if my brain had forgotten they were connected to me.
It’s just sleep paralysis, that’s all…surely.
That theory went out the window when I strained my eyes to the side and stared at the others. They were fixed rigid in their sleep, their arms pinned down at their sides in a way that made them look dead. I tried to shout out at them, but my voice just emerged as a garbled moan. A moment later I realised that I couldn’t smell smoke, but rather a sweet and sickly scent that was so strong I could taste it at the back of my throat. This isn’t sleep paralysis. Why can’t I move? Why can’t I speak? It was like when I’d first had my Awakening and I had been paralyzed on my bed, whilst Gabriella and the other Guardians had come to collect me.
Once again people came to collect me.
The window was kicked in and I saw four gas-masked figures climb over the sill, landing next to Hollie on the cot and then jumping down onto the floor. As they moved through the thin mist, I recognised the numerous belts and holsters, and the trademark leather trench coats they wore.
Lawbringers.
One of them was carrying an electronic unit that emitted a sound like a Geiger counter. “It’s okay,” he said. “The potency has gone. We’re safe.” He and the others whipped off their gasmasks and I was shocked to see the face of Lawbringer Parlow. “They’re on their way now.” He pointed around the room. “Grab one each and lets get them out, quickly.”
I tried to strain against the effect of whatever had rendered my body immobile. If I could have reached the energy reserves inside me, I knew I could have easily broken free of the mental binds, but whatever neurochemical agent they had used on us had dampened my brain’s connection to my body. I couldn’t switch it on.
Lawbringer Parlow’s face appeared above mine, and his eyebrows rose when he saw I was awake. “Alex. Or rather, Alexander Eden,” he said in an apologetic tone. “I’m really sorry to do this to you and your friends, you seem like good people. But after I realised who you were, I couldn’t just let you leave this city with Jack. If you only knew how much you were worth to the Umbra, you would understand. My friends and I can retire from the job with everything we’ve ever wanted.”
“Bastard!” I shouted, but only a strangled sound came from my throat. Lawbringer Parlow gave a sympathetic smile and then started to slide his arms underneath my back.
The was a smash as the door to the room burst open and I saw a flash of silver before a bullet cracked into the forehead of the Lawbringer trying to pick up Delagio. The man’s legs buckled beneath him and he folded to the floor.
Two of the other Lawbringers reached for their guns.
Boom! Boom!
Their hands were still moving towards their holsters when their heads snapped back and they collapsed like ragdolls. Lawbringer Parlow turned around and spoke diplomatically, his voice full of panic. “You can’t do this. You’ll be sentenced to death!”
I saw his fingers twitching towards a concealed knife at his back and I tried to scream out a warning, but nothing intelligible came out. The Lawbringer grabbed it and motioned to flick it at the figure standing on the threshold.
“Jack, no!”
Boom!
Lawbringer Parlow was dead before his hand even got close to throwing the knife. He fell backwards onto me, sliding over my legs and the edge of the cot, before finally hitting the floor, where blue blood spilled out of the massive exit wound at the back of his skull.
“My name is Zero, you piece of shit.”
Zero stepped across the threshold, followed by several of his men, all dressed in black hooded, leather dusters. The commotion had woken up the other Guardians and they were staring around in panic.
“Get Grediya in here.”
There was some shouting at the doorway, and then a female Elf with black hair braided into cornrows and carrying a worn satchel over one shoulder rushed into the room.
“What did those arseholes dose ‘em with?” demanded Zero.
The Elf rushed to the side of Hollie, whipping a small torch the size of a pen lid from her side and prizing the Guardian’s eyelids as wide as they could go. She pressed her face close to Hollie’s as she peered into them by torchlight.
“I’ve just killed four Lawbringers, do you think you could hurry the bloody hell up?”
“Sure, I can rush. Then we can give them the wrong antidote and kill them,” snapped Grediya over her shoulder.
Zero raised his hands up. “Fine.” He turned to one his men. “Get the others to prepare the ships. We’re leaving now.”
“But the storm?”
“It’s at its tail end. Plus we don’t have much of a choice. Half of Concavious will have heard that. We’re about to have the whole city on our backs.”
“Yes, Zero,” said the man and then rushed from the room.
“It’s a gas form of Amabalysin plant poisoning,” Grediya said as she opened her satchel and took out a leather pouch, which she dumped down on the bed. “The toxins
suppress motor cortex and temporal lobe function in most humanoid species.” She flipped open the pouch to reveal several vials of multi-coloured substances and syringes. “It’s temporary, but this will help clear it from their systems much quicker. Grediya snatched out a red vial and dipped a needle inside, drawing it to a third full. “Do the rest!” she ordered, holding up the syringe and checking for air bubbles. “Same amount as this, directly into the neck!” She knelt down in front of Hollie and pushed her head to the side before sticking the needle into her neck. The Guardian gave a muffled sound that evolved into a scream.
Zero signalled two of his men and they all ran towards the pouch, taking it in turns to fill the syringes from the vial. Once Zero had filled his, he placed the syringe between his teeth and stamped over to me, using his one hand to shove my head to the side. He snatched the syringe from his mouth and jabbed what felt like liquid fire into my neck. While I was still reeling from the absolute agony of the flames that rushed through my body – igniting my mind in flashing sparks that made me see red spots and taste ginger of all things – the old Chosen hoisted me onto his shoulder.
“Get their stuff,” he ordered. “We’re off, now!”
I was draped over Zero’s shoulder as he jumped onto the cot and swung a leg over the windowsill, hopping onto the rickety staircase that ran down the side of the Jackalope and Hart. From my position, I could see a sea of Lawbringers converging on the pub from all directions of the city, armed and ready for a fight.
I tried my voice again and found that it had already starting to work. “They’re coming,” I croaked.
“I know.”
“Why did you kill those Lawbringers? Why risk your life and livelihood just to help us?”
Zero didn’t even hesitate to answer.
“I already told you kid, I work for you now.”
39
Gabriella
With Physicker Agorias dead and Lilith absent from the colosseum, it seemed there were no torturers available to hand. The Pitguards beat me as they dragged me back to my cell, but it was done almost half-heartedly, as if they were unsure of how to deal with the situation. When they dumped me back into the dark prison and reattached the adamantine chains, they did so in silence, and then left the cell without doing anything else to me. I was glad to see that the torch next to Grey’s severed head had gone out. But that didn’t stop me from sensing his presence, didn’t stop me feeling his blank eyes staring at me, accusing me of my failure to stop Lilith.
The Veil Page 56
