Soul Shelter

by Nathan Thompson

  I nodded and stood in front of her, half-blade held in both hands. Gradually, large metal doors began to emerge from the ceiling and floor, slowly and loudly. Still nothing emerged from the other side. But as the doors continued to close, a thought suddenly occurred to me.

  Every unobstructed pathway in this place had been opened either by brute force or treachery, with treachery only happening once. If these doors had been torn open, what good would they be now?

  I rejected that thought. If the doors had been completely ruined, they wouldn’t have been able to open or close at all. So I continued to stand guard, listening for anything I could, but the only noise I could hear was the scraping and sliding of large metal sheets.

  They could function, I realized, but they had clearly seen better days. Numerous dents decorated our side of the barriers, bringing my earlier fears back to the forefront of my brain.

  Also, as loudly as this portal was closing, there was no way anything nearby wasn’t going to hear it, and know we were here.

  Then again, they would have heard our earlier battle. Stop panicking, I urged myself. You just battled undead wolves, rat-monsters and saw a giant bear the size of a house.

  I finally saw movement down the corridor just before the damaged doors fully closed. Another eaterling, one at the rat-lizard level, was running furiously toward the closing barrier, shouting as loudly as it could, and in multiple languages.

  “Don’t shut!” the creature screamed, yellow eyes wide with terror. “Don’t shut—don’t shut—don’t—”

  The doors finished closing. We could hear the eaterling scream and bang against them, but they still held firm, despite their visible damage. Nova let out a sigh as we both finally relaxed.

  “I can’t believe I didn’t make that the first thing I did after the battle,” she said as she wiped her forehead. “Sorry about my panic attack earlier, Jasper. It won’t happen again.”

  “If it does, I’ll just do a better job of turning your attention back to more urgent matters,” I offered, “and I’ll need you to do the same for me. Because dealing with all the things bumping around in the dark is absolutely terrifying. Even if they’re just eaterlings.”

  “You’re right.” Nova nodded. “But now we should—”

  The eaterling behind the door let out an ear-wrenching shriek, then went silent with a loud crunch.

  For a moment, everything went quiet.

  Then, right against the barrier, something giggled.

  We leaned forward to peer into the darkness, and strained our ears to listen. The room was dark, but it was not nearly as large as Vessa’s sanctuary.

  CHAPTER NINE

  I bit back a shriek of terror as I leaped backwards and brandished my halfblade at whatever lurked just behind the battered metal. I could feel Nestor run up my leg and cling to my back, chittering in my mind the same phrase over and over.

  Bad-thing. Bad-thing. Bad-thing...

  He trailed off. My green eyes locked with Nova’s own glowing sky-blue orbs.

  “Run,” we said at once, turning to flee back into the emergency drive room, so that we could close the larger, stronger door and have a second barrier between us and whatever had just killed the eaterling.

  We were halfway across the room before the thing giggled again, and the doors leading to safety snapped shut, far faster than should have been possible. Nova and I skidded to a complete stop, staring at our lost exit in disbelief.

  Another giggle, and the doors quickly opened several hand-widths, before snapping shut again.

  “I’ve lost power,” Nova breathed, clenching her hands and trying not to shake. “I can’t re-open the door.”

  Our exit opened halfway for a split-second, then immediately closed again. A third giggle trickled out from behind us.

  So we whirled back around and pointed our weapons at the thing giggling from beyond.

  We had no illusions about the monster being unable to enter our room. If it could open the door behind us remotely, the door in front wouldn’t be any obstruction at all. I expected it to open any moment, revealing some horrible monstrosity my mind was not prepared to comprehend yet. But that didn’t happen.

  Instead, we just heard a loud, but polite, knock. Then everything was quiet again.

  For a moment, we just stared at the dented door and panted, wondering what in the hollow American hells was happening. Then the thing knocked again, politely, but clumsily, as if its hand was the wrong shape or size for the behavior it tried to imitate. It waited, and then tried one more time, like the ancient American children did back in the days they went door-to-door selling cookies.

  “You’ve got to be kidding,” Nova breathed quietly, and I had to agree. The unseen creature’s behavior was maddening. It clearly had us trapped, and was comfortable letting us know. But it was acting like one of the ancient evil spirits that needed permission before it could enter someone’s home.

  Well, we certainly had no intention of inviting the creature in. It could wait on the other side of the barrier for eternity, as far as we were concerned.

  One minute passed. And then another. We waited for five agonizing minutes, without hearing so much as breathing from behind the battered metal door.

  Then we both jumped in alarm as the top door suddenly dented right above the seams in the middle. Then it dented again as a second blow impacted, and then a third, and then a fourth, until it no longer met at all with the bottom metal sheet. It hung just over the other barrier like a curtain, leaving a fist-sized crack of darkness between the two metal slabs.

  Then the unseen thing stopped. I peered at the crack, unable to see anything in the darkness beyond. As far as we could tell, the thing had completely vanished.

  Still-there, Nestor whimpered in my mind. Still-there...still-there...still-there—

  Two white hands, each the size of my skull, and with too many joints on the fingers, jammed their way through the opening, each grasping one of the metal barriers. They clenched and yanked backwards, bending the metal with an ear-scraping screech. Then they yanked a second time, and both metal slabs were torn free from the doorway.

  Nova screamed and fired her war-baton immediately, her aim steady enough to send the beam perfectly through the new opening, despite her panic. She screamed again and fired the weapon slightly to the right, now that the doorway was completely clear, and then to the left again, doing her best to cover every possible angle the invisible horror could be hiding in. She fired again and again, and on the fifth blast I caught the faintest sight of something tall, bipedal, and horribly elongated, standing just a few feet away from the door, glossy round eyes shining as it looked at us. Nova must have noticed the monster too, because she directed her last two blasts straight at the figure’s center mass. But both times, the flashes of light revealed nothing nearby. The thing was no longer there.

  “Did I get it?” she asked me, panting with spent adrenaline. But I had no idea.

  “I... don’t think so,” I admitted, wishing my own attacks were stronger. I wracked my brain for some skill that might be useful right now, that would make me something other than a bystander or helpless victim. Nothing but a handful of numbers came to mind.

  Nestor? I asked my terrified little companion. Is it still there?

  Before the lifemouse could answer, the thing in the dark giggled again.

  “Heeeeerrrrrrre...” the painfully familiar voice said, no longer as distant as it had been the first time I heard it. “Foouunnnd youuuu...”

  Two small, shining orbs, hanging just under the corridor ceiling, suddenly appeared. They lasted just long enough to blink at us, then vanish again. Nova shouted and raised her baton again, but I caught her arm.

  “Don’t,” I hissed. “It’s a trap. It wants to tire us out.”

  “I want it to just come out and fight,” she growled, clearly trying to drown her fear out in rage. Which sounded like an excellent idea, come to think of it. “But it probably knows that,” she reasoned
. “Which is why it won’t come out right now.”

  We had to find a way to avoid playing its games, while still staying sane enough to avoid making other mistakes.

  Nestor? I asked my bonded friend. Can you tell where it is now?

  Far-back, the little mouse sent to my mind and Nova’s. Right-wall.

  Nova immediately aimed her weapon in that direction, but Nestor sent us another warning.

  More-come.

  “Sheeeee’s herrrrrre,” the creature moaned again, and more pairs of glassy orbs appeared from further down the hall.

  “Are you serious?” Nova snapped in a low voice. “This is ridiculous!”

  Terrifying, I thought. You mean that this is terrifying, but I’d rather you’d call it ridiculous, too.

  “These look smaller,” I whispered back at her, and many of the glassy, shining eyes appeared to be at our own eye level. “How many more blasts can you fire?”

  “Not many,” Nova admitted, her own eyes still glowing. “I’m going to save the rest of my power for my own spells and techniques now. Wait... I can make these things out.” Her light-blue eyes widened. “American gods, Jas. They’re all people... and they’re dead...”

  A second later, my own vision was able to make out the details of the creatures stumbling forward. Figures that could have passed for the people I had seen on other worlds, save for their torn clothing and the mortal wounds visible on their chests and necks, came stumbling forward, some clutching sharpened tools and makeshift weapons. Looters, I had realized. The eaterlings hadn’t been the only ones to have scavenged about Vessa’s ship over the decades. I was just glad that none of the figures wore the robes of Vessa’s old crew.

  But there were at least a dozen of them, along with another handful of shambling eaterlings right behind them, including the one that had just died at the doorway. Most of them were around my level of power, but a few were at the pool stage of qi Advancement, meaning they were over half a stage beyond my own. I also sensed a power that did not belong to any of the three Sources animating them.

  “Death qi,” Nova whispered, still watching the bodies advance. “And... something else. But there shouldn’t be any power other than the three Source energies...”

  A few days ago, I had asked Vessa if a fourth Source, or some other power, existed, and she had vehemently, but nervously denied it. I suspected that she had been taught exactly what she had told me, but had begun to doubt the answer herself.

  If we lived through this, I would have to tell her that in this matter, her doubts were more honest than her education had been.

  “It’s okay, Jas,” Nova assured me, though her own voice was unsteady. “We’ve both fought undead before by now, these things are much weaker than me, and we’re both armed with Sourceweapons. We can handle this.”

  The unseen thing in the back must have been waiting for her to say that, because it suddenly crept forward, finally coming into view.

  My first thought was that someone had taken a human man, shaved off his hair, bleached his skin, stretched his entire body until it was half again the original length, and then decided he still wasn’t long enough, and added more bones to his legs, fingers, and arms. He was clothed in the stretched, ruined remains of a normal-sized shirt and trousers, with a long, sleeveless robe hanging to his knees. His flesh was shriveled and bone-white, and his unnaturally jointed fingers were sharp at the tips. He stared at us with shining, black-orb eyes, and opened his distended mouth to speak at us again.

  “You’rrrre herrrrre,” he moaned in a sinister whisper, black eyes locked on Nova. “Fouunnnnnd youuuu...”

  “Stay away from me, you sick creep,” my friend growled. “Or I will knock that nasty head of yours clean off its shoulders.”

  The monster giggled again, an oddly high-pitched sound that did not fit his otherwise low voice.

  “Commmme plaaaay,” the man-like creature moaned. “Come plaaay with pupppettt...”

  Nova snarled again as the monster advanced behind his wall of undead, and I winced in realization.

  “Puppet,” I said to Nova. “This thing is being controlled by something else.” I swallowed an entire gallon of fear down my throat, cleared it, and then addressed the creature myself. “Who are you? Why do you want to hurt my friend?

  But the Longman, as my mind just named him, did not so much as look at me.

  “Commme plaaay,” the monster moaned again. “Come plaaay with my dolllll.”

  Nova shouted in anger and raised her baton, then swore and lowered it.

  “Right,” she snarled. “It’s being irritating on purpose.”

  I suddenly remembered I had an ancient expert inside my mind.

  Senior Mara, I sent to the dragon in my soul, so distraught I had not even noticed her until now. Do you know what this thing is?

  The finger-puppet of an ancient one, the old dragon growled, and I saw her spirit tremble and spit with rage. A small tendril of a creature that wrought murder across the night sky! Kill it, rider! Kill it, so that you may give a hundred slain vessel-saints whatever justice you can! And for the sake of your ancestors’ honor, do not let this damned thing lay a finger on the Holy Beacon!

  That was... passionate and unhelpful, I replied as the mass of undead slowly lumbered toward us, as if they were purposefully taking their time. I noticed that they had begun to spread out, as if they were worried Nova would slip past the Longman. None of them paid any attention at all to me or Nestor. How do we kill this thing? What are his powers and weaknesses? What of the corpses he animated?

  You have named him correctly in your mind, Elder Mara said as she continued to growl and spit. The Longman is powerful, but not quite beyond the one by your side. If she is careful, she may yet slay him. But he has great physical might, and is able to stretch and contort his body at will, making him difficult to attack. Beyond that, he will have a handful of powers related to whatever the body’s former owner had in life, albeit in a diminished capacity. I suspect he will have some kind of breath attack, so beware the movements of his mouth. His offspring will have increased strength and durability beyond their own Advancement, but their speed has suffered. If you are wise and calm, you will be a match for even the ones stronger than you. But kill the Longman, rider! Kill him, so that his maker, that thing that came from beyond the night sky, may feel some small measure of the pain it so deeply deserves! Murderer! Pervert! Blasphemous slime! Immortals curse every part of him to the most painful of oblivions!

  Very well, I nodded, raising my halfblade, and eyeing the advancing horde.

  The dragon’s anger had somehow calmed me. I was able—for now, at least—to put the Longman and his shambling pack into the corner of my mind that had been able to handle the eaterlings, the massive deathbeast, the cage-drake, and the ursine bloodbeast. That murderous sanity that had let me first protect Vessa back in my malnourished state returned in full force.

  I was brave again, yet if I did not act right now, and wisely, I would still be worth no more to Nova than a hundred paralyzed cowards shivering at her back.

  “Senior Mara says you are a match for the long-limbed man if you fight carefully,” I whispered to Nova. “He is physically strong and a skilled contortionist, but he has very few powers beyond that, save for a breath attack of some kind. The walking murdered are slow brutes. They will attempt to restrict your attempts to battle the Longman,” I said, though I was guessing on that last bit. “Nestor and I are a match for them, though we must be careful as well. We will battle them so that you may fight the Longman unrestricted. Good luck, Nova... and I love you, too,” I added firmly at the end.

  “Blast it, Jasper,” she growled, not in the mood for such confessions. “I’d hit you for that, if it wouldn’t make me a hypocrite. But that just means neither of us are allowed to die now. You better wipe the floor with those things, or I’ll never let you utter another silly confession within my presence.”

  “Fine,” I said, turning my gaze back to the
foes before us, and realizing that the creatures still hadn’t made it to our position. Instead they seemed content to hem us in, advancing forward inch by inch. The Longman hung behind them, grinning with his distended lower jaw and sharpened teeth, and waiting for us to try and maneuver past his shambling offspring. “Since you all are such polite guests,” I said, quickly sheathing my halfblade to free up both my hands, “allow me to be a proper host, and begin cooking.”

  My hands flashed out a spell of math, giving me the precise measurements needed to immerse my enemies in flame. Math mana spells surprised me with their ease, taking less time to cast than even my mana bolts did. I had the necessary data less than a second later, and I used it to alter my fire bolt and direct it into my enemy’s midst, investing several drops of fire qi into the attack as well.

  Good, Elder Mara hissed into my mind. That’s exactly how you combine Sources. Now kill them all, for the sake of the night sky itself!

  As fire flashed out in front of us, I tried to determine how well I had accomplished exactly what the old dragon had wished for. The flame was just bright enough for my companions and I to close our eyes reflexively, though it did no harm to our enhanced eyes. When I opened my own orbs, I could see that most of the zombies were still burning. A few had crumpled apart onto the floor, including all of the eaterling corpses, while the strongest ones looked barely singed. But the rest of them now had blackened skin, and with at least one limb still flaming, and slowly burning into ash. The Longman had barely flinched at the nearby fire, partly because I hadn’t bothered with including him in the blast to begin with. But his bleached head, and the blackened faces of his children now turned all at once to stare at me.

  “Youuuu,” the deformed giant moaned, as if he were considering me for the first time. He pointed a four-jointed finger at me, and the remaining zombies turned to shuffle toward my direction.

  “Givvve,” the closest one moaned.