Crown of Ash (Blood Skies, Book 4)

by Steven Montano

  “Shit,” Kane said, and he fired his M4 around the corner.

  “Move back,” Maul said.

  The Gol pushed past Kane, calmly stepped up to the corner of the building, and tossed a grenade at the source of the gunfire. Shouts of warning rang out, and Kane heard a vehicle back away. He poked his head out just in time to see a Scarecrow aim its cannon right at him. A dark armored Hummer and a small group of Revengers stood behind the undead. One of them looked familiar, and Kane realized he knew him: it was a former inmate in the prison named Gath. Kane didn’t have time to wonder why he was dressed as a Revenger.

  The grenade went off, and the Hummer flew backwards. Its back end crashed into a nearby building.

  The explosion made the Scarecrow’s shot go wide, and instead of hitting Kane it blasted away a chunk of stone high in the tower wall.

  Several Revengers flew through the air and landed in bloody heaps. One was missing his legs, and another had lost an arm.

  Gath’s chest had been blown open. His corpse smoldered.

  The Scarecrow ran straight at them. Kane and Ronan shot it in the face. Bullets smashed into its grinning skull. The gaunt undead raised its cannon and aimed while it charged, undeterred by their assault.

  “Duck!” Jade yelled from behind them. Her spirit came out of nowhere and drilled forward, a lance of green acid that impaled the Scarecrow and filled the air with ghastly fumes. The creature withered, and its gun lowered to the ground.

  Kane ran up and snatched the weapon away. The rifle was heavy and almost 4-feet long, but he swung it around, dropped prone and balanced it on a loose rock to help him aim. Revengers fired at them from a block away. The Hummer roared to life.

  The 20mm cannon ripped backwards. Kane felt the impact in his shoulder, and his eyes watered from the sound of the sharp crack as the shell launched. The front section of the Hummer exploded. Oil and water shot up from the shattered engine block, and the dead driver flew forward through the broken window.

  Ronan leapt over Kane and ran at the other Revengers, firing as he went. Maur tossed another grenade as Jade’s spirit hammered the Revengers with cold black nails. Men fell screaming. Those that survived were mowed down by Ronan.

  Kane hefted up the cannon and brought it with him. He felt stronger than he had in some time, and full of vitality. He could have hefted that thing around anywhere.

  Careful, he warned himself. That’s not natural. You know where that strength is coming from.

  At that moment, he didn’t care.

  Smoke drifted over them as they moved across the street and up to the building the Revengers guarded, a pale structure that looked like an industrial plant or a factory. They saw an open set of damaged steel doors at the bottom of a short iron staircase. Steel yellow barrels leaked phosphorescent ooze. Kane smelled gas. The space beyond the open doorway was black and still.

  “There’s something down there…” Jade said.

  “Uh, that’s sort of why we want to go in…” Kane said.

  “No, you don’t understand…there’s something down there. Something powerful.”

  They looked at each another. Explosions hammered Voth Ra’morg’s outer walls. They heard explosive bursts of gunfire and Razorwing calls. The ground shook from the battle outside.

  “Then that is where Maur needs to go,” the Gol said, and he stepped forward. Ronan nodded and followed with a What the hell, why not? look on his face.

  Jade hesitated.

  “You don’t have to go,” Kane said as he stepped close. “You don’t owe us anything.” He nodded at her. “Find a place to hold up. We can take care of this.”

  “No,” she said with a shake of her head. He realized it wasn’t fear that held her back – she’d been an enforcer for Klos Vago and the Shard, after all, and she’d doubtlessly done and seen things that would have given him nightmares – but something else.

  She’s making a choice. She’s deciding if we’re worth putting herself in this much danger.

  After a moment, she moved towards the stairs.

  “You’d better be worth it,” she said. Kane stood there, dumbfounded, before he turned and followed her inside.

  Cold shadows filled the building. Ronan lit a flare, but even that did little to combat the darkness.

  Old machines littered an underground industrial graveyard. The light from the door behind them was muted, stifled by the black interior.

  Jade couldn’t send her spirit ahead. Kane wasn’t surprised: he knew The Revengers had their ways to combat mages. He only hoped she’d be able to call on it again when it mattered.

  The air smelled like the underside of a car. The floor was covered in frozen sludge pools and slicks of ice grease. Shell casings, iron filings and shattered steel were everywhere.

  They found a closed trap door in the floor. Ronan’s flare revealed footsteps in the sticky film on the ground and debris that had been pushed aside. A small group had recently passed through the area.

  They opened the door and found an iron ladder that led straight down into metal darkness. Kane took the lead and descended the ladder two rungs at a time. His heart hammered, and his breaths were fast. Tension mounted in his arms.

  We hear you

  God damn it, not now.

  We hear you know you feel the lust the pain in your heart in your blood your soul the pain that stabbing hurt the want the desire blood your blood her blood hers hers yes hers

  Kane came to ground in a half-completed basement. He stepped away from the ladder and punched the steel wall, hard. Pain shot down his arm, and blood ran from the broken skin on his knuckles. His eyes regained their focus. After a moment the voices were unintelligible again, just faint whispers at the edge of his thoughts.

  Pipe junctions issued steam jets and dripped semi-petrified drops of greasy water. Yellow bulbs lit the area the color of old bones. They heard a boiler somewhere nearby, and the air smelled like a urinal.

  They went just a few feet away from the ladder when they came across a section of wall that had been ripped open by some powerful force. A series of natural tunnels made of dark shale waited on the other side of the hole. Drifts of ebon dust fell across the low and narrow passage. They saw murky blue light in the distance, a glow the color of icy milk.

  “What the hell?” Ronan said.

  “Maur is tired of strange shit like this.”

  “You and me both, pal,” Kane echoed.

  “We must be close,” Jade said. “My spirit is going crazy from all of the thaumaturgic activity coming from down there.”

  Kane looked down the tunnel. He felt like they were nearing an end. For some reason, he didn’t want to step through. He closed his eyes for a moment, and he saw Ekko. His heart ached.

  Without another word, Kane entered the tunnel.

  He felt like he’d stepped into a freezer. The stone underfoot cracked like brittle ice. He tasted salt and the tang of frozen blood. Everything was so still he was almost afraid to move, for fear that the tunnels would collapse at his touch.

  They followed the source of the light. The ice-wreathed walls glowed like a distant moon. Tiny cracks in the walls held glittering blood crystals like small red diamonds.

  Kane’s skin was raw with cold, and his breaths frosted as they left his aching throat. He shivered and pulled his dirty armor coat tighter around his body. He shook his gun to dislodge the ice shards in the barrel.

  The tunnel emptied into a dark and massive chamber that looked like it had been the sight of a recent bombing. The walls were scorched and twisted. Shadows swam against the stone.

  A ring of torches illuminated a sharp pillar made of monstrous dark ice skulls. Kane saw the bones of horned things, flat-headed beasts, creatures with tusks and snouts. He recognized some of the skulls as those of Gorgoloth or Vuul, but many were foreign to him, forgotten creatures from other worlds.

  Each skull had been carefully packed and sealed into place with some reflective organic glaze. The smoothed exteri
or of the ten-foot-tall structure flickered with dirty yellow light. There were no exits from the room except for a dark and mist-filled pit that somehow held the pillar aloft. The bone edifice drifted at the center of that purple and black morass of shadow fumes. Deep sounds issued from the pit like rhythmic metal pounding.

  “Drop your guns!” Rake shouted. “Or we’ll drop your girl.”

  The Revengers stood on the other side of the obelisk, at the far end of the chamber. Kane recognized Rake, the little-seen leader of The Revengers and the man in charge of Black Scar. He was accompanied by a number of other Revengers, among them Geist, his half-Doj henchman; a dark-haired woman with tattoos on her face and arms; and Burke, the false Burke, supposedly a vampire named Krage, but his semblance to the Burke they’d seen just minutes before was almost exact, save for the fact that this Burke was unscarred.

  A pair of Scarecrows held a chain attached to a massive Talon beast’s neck and six arms. The brutish creature scrambled against its bonds and growled noisily. It desperately wanted to get at Kane and the others.

  Cross was there, unconscious and strapped to one of the Scarecrow’s backs like he was a baby in a papoose.

  And they saw Danica…what had once been Danica.

  “Black!” Ronan shouted.

  “What have you done to her?!” Maur shouted.

  Kane looked at her in horror. The transformation that had been forced on her was stark. Blood stained the side of her leather armor. Her hair had gone almost white, and her glazed eyes glowed like sparkling ice. Her flesh was frosted. She looked something like the angel avatars the team had faced in the Bonespire, those undead machinations that Korva had used to try and capture Soulrazor, but in lieu of angel’s wings Danica had been given an arcane-mechanical arm, an animated appendage of blood-colored steel and iron. The flesh was visibly raw where the limb had been fused to her shoulder.

  Crackling energies whirled in her grip. Drops of caustic fire fell from her golem fingers and turned the ground white.

  “She’s better now,” Rake said with a shrug. He was so casual about the situation, like he was getting ready for a friendly game of cards. “We had to rip her spirit away, then give it back to her. It was the only way to make her a suitable sacrifice.”

  “Sacrifice…” Kane said.

  Oh, shit.

  “This nice little tower of skulls here generates a portal,” Rake said. “It belongs to the Shadow Lords, the mages who breached the hole and found a way into the Whisperlands. After we pass through, we’ll use Cross as a tool to track down the Obelisk of Dreams, and then we’ll use Danica to destroy it.” He paused, tapped a fingerless glove against his lips, and smiled. “Of course, you won’t be there…”

  Black’s eyes flashed with hot light. The metal burned against her skin. The smell of burning flesh filled the air.

  “Jade!” Kane shouted.

  One of the Revengers, the dark-skinned and rail-thin woman, stepped forward. Kane saw her eyes flash, and he realized she was what interfered with their magic. She was a Fade.

  He saw Jade’s face, saw her panic as she failed to call her spirit. He grabbed her and threw them both to the ground.

  Left, quick! a voice shouted in his head.

  “Left!” he shouted.

  Ronan and Maur followed them. All four barely dodged a barrage of steaming razors. Danica’s angry ghost folded into bleeding fog.

  The Revengers loosed their weapons, and the Scarecrows leveled their cannons.

  “Ronan,” Kane shouted. “Kill that bitch!”

  Ronan didn’t hesitate. Even as Revenger assault rifles and Scarecrow 20mm cannons took aim, Ronan drew a kukri, dove forward, and used the full force of his body to cast the weapon through the air. He landed hard on the ground just as the blade punched through the Fade’s skull and snapped her head backwards.

  At the same moment, Danica fell to the ground in a heap.

  “Jade!” Kane shouted. “Now!”

  The sound of gunfire roared through his ears. Kane saw blasts and bullets flash towards them. He balled up his body, ready to be torn apart.

  Jade’s shield threw back shrapnel. A glittering star storm of white explosions flashed less than a foot from Kane’s face.

  Rake pushed past the Scarecrows. The air was alight with hex rot and electricity. Swirling black winds kicked up an icy storm.

  Danica stood up, and shouted. Her eyes glowed like an exploding star. Revengers turned and fired at her.

  Geist growled and charged at Danica with a heavy steel hammer. She lashed them with waves of spark and steel. Broken slivers and hot embers ripped through armor and flesh. Geist and most of the Revengers were dead before they hit the ground.

  Rake saw the attack coming at the last moment and turned his own spirit to deflect hers. Energies collided in a pillar of liquid flame. Rake fell back. His cloak burned and his armor smoked.

  Kane and Ronan leapt forward and engaged the Scarecrows. Jade dropped the shield and was about to blast the undead when Kane remembered that Cross was tethered to one of the Scarecrow’s backs.

  “Wait!”

  Chains snapped, and the Talon sprang forward. The dark-skinned brute was the size of a male gorilla. Knotted black muscles strained with rage, and its six fists pounded the dirt. A decorative gold and iron mask had been surgically fused to its fanged face. The creature issued a guttural and blood-curdling howl.

  The Scarecrows fired again. Jade hammered one of them with a blast of sub-arctic air. Ebon flesh peeled away as it fell to the ground.

  Duck!

  The voice came just in time. Kane barely dodged one of the Talon’s incredibly long arms. Claws the size of steak knives raked against the stone. Kane jumped back.

  DUCK!

  It was Danica’s voice inside his head. Kane flattened himself against the floor.

  A screaming cone of fire and force tore the Talon open. Its chest cavity twisted and exploded in a mass of skin and molten guts. The beast’s howls rang loud and long as it fell to the ground.

  Kane looked at Danica. Her steel arm smoked, and her body was shrouded in a corona of white fire.

  “How did you do that?”

  You were bitten, her voice told him. So was I. That’s how they kept me alive when they hacked off my arm. But I’m not going to Turn.

  “Neither am I,” he snarled, and he rose to his feet.

  Jade and Rake did battle with arcane blades and hex missiles. Their attacks spiraled and bounced off of one another, sparked green and red explosions that smelled like a furnace.

  Maur dodged around the perimeter of the battle, trying to get a clear shot at the Scarecrow that held Cross. Ronan circled the same undead and looked for an opening, his blades ready; his wrapped face and dark hair made him melt into the shadows.

  Cross was tightly secured to the Scarecrow’s back, but he was still unconscious.

  Ronan found an opening. He raced in and sliced the Scarecrow’s cannon in half.

  Kane! Help!

  Burke was gone. He was Krage now, a vampire with pale eyes, paler skin and enormous claws. He held Danica by the throat and dragged her towards the obelisk.

  Krage’s vampire servants poured grave dust and unholy oils in a perimeter around the obelisk. They were preparing some ritual to breach the barrier to the Whisperlands.

  “Hey asshole!” Kane shouted. He aimed the cannon at Krage.

  Duck, he thought to Danica.

  The recoil threw him back. Danica pulled away and screamed as Krage’s talons tore out of part of her good shoulder.

  The shell took Krage in the chest and tore him in half. Bloody meat and bone fragments splattered all over the obelisk.

  One of the other vampires threw vials of blood to the ground and chanted in some sibilant alien tongue. The other one leapt on top of Danica. They grappled, and claws slashed into Danica’s ribs before Kane could find a shot.

  He felt Danica’s scream more than heard it. The force of it tore through his chest an
d filled him with loss.

  “Dani!” he shouted. He dropped the cannon and ran.

  He heard a scream behind him. Jade fell to the ground. Blood seeped from her mouth and nose, and the side of her face was burned.

  A fist of light crashed into Kane’s side. He felt his ribs crack. Blinding pain spread up and down his body. He went to his knees and fell inches away from Jade.

  “Nice try,” Rake said, but he wasn’t talking to Kane or Jade, but to the vampires. “We knew the Ebon Cities would try to beat us to the Obelisk. Too bad.” The red-headed warlock held his clenched fists together. Whips of razor light shot out and tore a vampire’s head from its shoulders. The last vampire bore her fangs and soared at Rake with a dark-bladed scimitar in hand.

  Danica struggled to rise. Blood poured out of her ruined stomach. Her eyes were lifeless.

  Kane stood up. His head swam, and his ribs felt like they were on fire. He drew his blade and ran at Rake.

  Rake pulled out a Mac-10. He gunned the vampire down with hexed bullets. Kane was less than a yard away when Rake turned and shot him in the stomach.

  Sharp pain exploded through his body. He felt the bullets shred through his organs. Something inside him broke. He fell, stood up again, and stumbled forward. Everything faded in and out. Kane’s arms failed him. He couldn’t feel anything, couldn’t find the strength to lift his weapons.

  He was only dimly aware of Ronan shouting to him.

  Mike, Danica’s voice said in his mind. Mike…

  He thought of Ekko. He saw her face, and felt her skin. He held her in his arms, touched the smooth curve of her back, felt the soft touch of her lips on his neck. He was warm, warm in the way that only Ekko had ever made him.

  Everything bled to white. It was like he’d fallen into a world of light and snow. In his mind, Ekko was there, waiting in a pale field and wearing a blood red dress, the one she’d worn when they’d first met, when he’d been so simple and lost and she’d taken him away from a dull life and given him something good, something worth living.

  She’d given him her love. It was the greatest thing he’d ever known.

  She was what he saw, and why he smiled, even as Rake shot him in the face and killed him.