Noble Lies

by Lyneal Jenkins

  She had been named Yala. The human boys who drooled over her called her the golden princess. I didn’t see it. Her skin was flawless, but it provoked no emotion in me, no lust nor wish to worship the ground her feet touched, nothing other than the anticipation of her screams.

  People, supposed friends of my family line, whispered about me when they believed I paid no heed, claiming nothing could stir any emotion. They didn’t talk about it, not in the bright light of day at, but they all came from good lines and sensed I was more, that I was born to lead them.

  Only one thing stirred genuine feeling in me, and it wasn’t the people who called themselves family: mother, father and brother.

  I stroked the blade again and a shiver through my entire body. Yala left the water, her face held up to the sky, a dreamy smile lighting her eyes as she basked in the sun.

  The moment approached. I shifted, my hand shaking from excitement, as Yala hurried to her now dried clothes, looking around to make sure that she remained unobserved. She relaxed as she reached the bush I hid behind, my whole body now quivering so much the bush would surely give me away. It didn’t matter. I was ready.

  The path back to the human village ran past where I crouched; she would pass within arms width. I didn’t need to be close to hurt her, and I would demonstrate that in great detail over time, but I needed to see it. I needed to see the fear in her eyes once she realised what stood before her, the knowledge that she wouldn’t escape until I satisfied my hunger.

  As she stepped onto the path, I sprang into motion. The trees around us flattened to the ground, and the bushes ripped from their roots, hovered in the air above her shoulders before I ripped them apart, showering her with the torn foliage. Bright amber light flowed from me and I relished the complete look of terror that filled her dark eyes. With a flick of my hand, she slid towards me, her arms flailing as she tried to break free of my invisible hold. I basked in her sweet terror, drinking it down like nectar.

  With her face inches from mine, I dragged the blade down her cheek, drawing blood. She finally screamed. With a wave of my hand, I sealed her mouth, the skin covering her jaw so smooth, it was as if her face had always been that way. I admired my work; it was flawless.

  I dragged the blade down her arm as she grunted with terror, tears streaming down her cheeks. I flicked my tongue out, tracing the line of her jaw, collecting the falling tear before it dropped to the soil.

  ‘I’ve never understood the concept of crying.’ I smiled at how her nostrils flared with panic. She didn’t look so pleasurable to the eyes now. Her once flawless skin was patchy, and her eyes swollen and red. I traced the line of her eye with the point of the blade, scraping the skin. Even though I had taken care, pricks of blood welled up in the corner. I smiled, enjoying how the crimson bead swelled before gravity won and it rolled down her quivering cheek. ‘They say I am not allowed to reveal myself to you.’ I propelled her into the woods, now eager to get away from prying eyes. ‘That we can interact with you but cannot harm you.’ I threw her into the near tree. The thin trunk swayed as she dropped to the ground. ‘You are protected while we are forced to remain hidden.’ I crouched before her. Her eyes followed the point of the dagger as I held it before her. Why we were to protect such creatures, I would never understand. ‘Does that seem fair to you?’ Her eyes remained on the dagger. I lifted her chin. ‘Answer me. Does it seem fair that we should have to protect such weak creatures as you?’ Her chest heaved as she focused on my face, her eyes fixed on my lips, unblinking.

  I took several deep breaths to prevent myself from slaying her there, from severing her head from her body. Only the prospect of what was to come gave me the control to lift her from her crumpled heap and move her further into the trees, far from the humans who would come looking for her. I had no intention of keeping to my parents’ rules, but a local manhunt would draw unwanted attention, and I wanted time with the young beauty. She continued to stare at me, tears streaming over her cheeks. I had hoped she would fight, that always made for a fun activity, but she watched me with glazed eyes, already succumbing to the predator in me.

  I laughed, and my barely conscious captive focused, her panicked eyes seeking me out, her chin tilted up with a hint of defiance. That was more like it. If only she knew what I planned to do to her. How much flesh would I need to carve from her conscious body before that flicker of defiance gave way to complete resignation? How many times would I need to revive her before I watched her mind break? I was eager to find out.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  I heaved, tears streaming down my cheeks as I tried to repel the darkness that had claimed my mind for its own. I still felt the warm blood flowing over my hands, unable to banish the image of the woman, lay on a stone table, her insides open as I removed slices of her intestines while she watched, using my control over her body to keep her conscious.

  I heaved again. I needed to focus on something else, anything that could dispel the disgust and horror, not for what I had done, but for the pleasure I had taken from it. It had been real. I still heard her screams echoing around the caves I’d held her in. I opened my eyes, but everything blurred, out of focus. I wiped my face with my hands. They came away wet, as if I’d cried for hours. I blinked, trying to focus, to figure out where I was.

  Once high buildings surrounded me, either in a state of deterioration with walls and windows missing or demolished, leaving their metal bones rising above deep piles of rubble. Burnt out cars and carcasses decorating every visible spot. The desolate city looked like a firebomb had consumed it some time ago. At least it didn’t smell of rotting flesh. It was day, maybe late afternoon, the grey sky unmoving. And then there was the silence. I had never realised how noisy the world was before and the absence of noise surrounding me felt unnatural. Too unnatural to be real. Even if I had woken in a devastated world, there would be some noise, and with all the dead bodies scattered around, the insects would have a feast. But I detected nothing, only death and me. I remained alone.

  At least it was an improvement on Cleas’s mind. Then again, being drowned in a bucket of diarrhoea would be better than being a passenger in that creepy ass’s mind.

  If the place wasn’t real, then it had to be a construct of my own thoughts, just like the well I had shoved Cleas into. That meant I would be able to control it, just like I had the creature I overpowered Cleas with. And, if I controlled it, I could get out. I closed my eyes, wishing to be free, to be back in the bullet-ridden room in Ten Downing Street. God, how long ago that fight seemed. I heard voices, but when I opened my eyes, I remained in the destroyed city, my only companions the chard corpses and the horror of what I had just gone through.

  ‘Hello?’ I winced at my own hoarse voice, sure that if I called too loud, the corpses would come to life having witnessed the crime I had just committed, their bony fingers reaching for me, ready to cart me off to hell.

  ‘What were you thinking?’ Adam demanded.

  I whirled around, trying to seek him out, yet afraid to. Had he seen what I’d done to the girl? Even if it hadn’t been real, which seemed more and more plausible, I had still conjured it up and I had enjoyed it. Not now. In the aftermath, I couldn’t escape the horror at my thoughts and actions, real or not.

  ‘I didn’t tell her to come here.’ Eris’s voice sounded as distant as Adam. I tried to pinpoint their location, but it didn’t matter how far I ran, the voices remained just out of reach, always around the next corner.

  ‘You brought her here in the first place.’ I could almost see them stood a foot apart, Adam towering over Eris while she ignored the obvious threat. She had the luxury of knowing he would never hurt her or couldn’t hurt her. Their friendship still baffled me.

  ‘I didn’t tell her to come back on her own. I didn’t think she was stupid enough to appear on live television.’

  ‘You made her a pawn in your future plans!’ Raged rippled through Adam’s words. Even knowing she could beat him, I felt fear for Eris’s surviv
al. ‘Plans that you keep from me even now!’

  The distance darkened as fresh black fog rolled towards me once more.

  ‘Adam!’ I screamed, begging for him to hear me. No voice responded. Maybe no one had ever been there.

  It wouldn’t help, but I ran through the streets, sprinting until a tower of swirling darkness blocked my way.

  I screamed, but no one heard me. I was lost.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  I stood back to admire my handwork. It had taken some time, but I’d managed to get their eyes to stay open without conscious thought.

  The picture still wasn’t right. The corpses remained rigid; I had calcified their bones and fused the joints together in quick time. I’d become more skilled.

  It wouldn’t be long before I was selected for priest training, possibly even by Malachi himself. He was a pompous fool, but nobody could deny his skills, and if I was trained by the best, then I would soon rise to the top, advancing my plan. I would lead the Siis to greatness and take my true place as ruler to all, including the humans who are so sure of their dominance.

  I walked among the five figures, recalling each of their deaths in vivid detail.

  The old woman, she had been the last to give up, for her eyes to become void of all emotion as she fell into a catatonic state. And I had only been halfway through skinning her alive.

  I looked forward to the moment that shift happened, I could almost hear the snap as their mind broke and they retreated from me, but it also meant that their usefulness came to an end.

  There had been a time I had immediately disposed of the bodies, but after watching a human child play with a scrap of leather, sculptured into a small human, I had found another use for the corpses. It amused me to see what I could do with their forms. Amused me to consider how they would feel about the violation.

  I stroked my finger alone the woman’s face, following the line of each crease. Even though I appreciated my creation, I wanted to have her back for a while. The fun had ended too quickly.

  Very little remained of her now. The old never did have much flesh. How such a weak species had survived so long mystified me. Why the council prevented us from ruling them remained an even greater mystery.

  The old woman lay on a stone, every part of her now skinned except her aged face and her bare breasts which hung empty over the bones of her ribcage. Her legs were bent as if in the middle of giving birth. I chuckled as I took in the scene I had carefully constructed. In a way, she was.

  Her legs were spread wide, making room for my creation. The three men were of similar age to the woman. They had all been friends from before the woman had birthed her first child. I had watched them with amusement, wanting to play with them even then. And it had taken me the lifetime of the humans, but the moment had finally come.

  I admired the three men, their bones still covered in chunks of flesh, crawling from between her legs. It had taken me some time to get all three spines fused together in such a way as to make it appear that they were one hideous creature, spewing from the dead woman’s womb. Their fleshy arms reached out, fingers poised as if clawing their way to freedom. Their heads tilted up, their mouths wide open in a silent snarl.

  The fifth and final figure, a child of six, had not one mark on him, nor was he dead. He stared ahead, unblinking. He was the youngest child born to the woman’s blood.

  I had hoped to make the child watch as I mutilated the four adults before him, but his mind had escaped before the first death occurred. I felt cheated; there had been no pleading or bargaining, and more importantly, there had been no look of defeat. He had just gone away, leaving his body behind. It left me deflated. I had waited so long for this moment only for it to be spoilt by a human child.

  If only my mother hadn’t been watching when the woman had first crossed my path; we wouldn’t have left the country in haste, to a place where others of our kind didn’t know of the whispers surrounding me.

  My parents never talked about why we left, they didn’t need to; they knew about me. They couldn’t hide it from their eyes. They knew I was superior, and they trembled before my wrath. As with the other mindless followers, they lived in fear of their laws. Father had caught me once. I’d enjoyed how his face had drawn in horror upon seeing my works of art, the knowledge that his son would be a more powerful priest than he, so obvious in how he tried to hide my art from the world.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  I fell to my knees, retching. The fog retreated, leaving me alone in the abandoned city with corpses for company. It would return. It always returned.

  How many times had it been? I tried to recall but bile rushed into my throat. So many horrors. So much blood. So many people dead.

  I retched again, unable to shed the taste of blood in my mouth. I hadn’t committed the crimes—I understood that each experience came from Cleas—but I couldn’t shake the revulsion that my hands had killed so many innocent people and that I had enjoyed every minute of it.

  ‘It’s Cleas’s pleasure.’ I hugged myself, trying not to fall into a pit of despair. ‘The revulsion is mine.’

  I had taken to talking to myself after the fifth or sixth time of returning from the black fog, from Cleas’s memories, each one more horrific than the one before it. I hadn’t heard anyone else since the first time Adam’s voice had drifted into my charred hell and the silence heightened my sense of desolation. I retched again, sure that this time would be the charm and my stomach would empty its contents over the nearest charred remains. But like each and every time before, nothing came up. If it had, maybe the retching would stop.

  ‘Let me the hell in here!’ Maria said, her voice distant.

  Someone responded to her, a man I didn’t recognise, the words a breathless whisper I couldn’t decipher.

  ‘Let her pass,’ Adam said, his voice loud as if he stood with me. I even spun around in the hope I would see him. I knew I wouldn’t, but the disappointment hurt, and tears cut tracks through the grime on my cheeks.

  ‘What the hell is going on with her?’ Maria demanded. I almost smiled, able to image her glaring at Adam with her hands on her hips. ‘Is she in a coma?’

  ‘A fatigue state,’ Adam answered, his voice lifeless, void of all emotion, like he’d given up. ‘There is a chair in the corner.’

  Something scraped, most likely the chair against the floor, and Maria sighed as if she sunk into the seat with exhaustion. ‘It’s been three days. How long will this last?’

  ‘She bonded with Cleas,’ Adam said, bitterness straining his words. ‘If she were Siis, she would already be insane. With a human… we can only hope it is different.’

  They fell silent. I screamed their names as I navigated around a large pile of rubble in the road. What was it with the destruction around me? Could I find nothing better to imagine?

  ‘You don’t think she is going to snap out of it?’ Maria said, unable to hear me.

  ‘I worry who she will be if she does.’

  ‘Me too,’ I muttered, avoiding the pile of carcasses that had piled up near the front of an old clothes store. I wasn’t in the throes of Cleas’s memories right then, but the horror, revulsion and shame stayed to me, wanting to beat me down with each step I took. I glanced at the distance, relieved to see no sign of the glinting fog. For now.

  ‘Do you love her?’ Maria asked.

  I stopped with my breath held, waiting for his answer, praying I didn’t get carted into hell before it could come.

  ‘Don’t look at me like that,’ Maria said with no animosity. If I didn’t know her, I could have sworn that there had been a smidge of compassion in her voice. ‘She loves you, you know?’

  I groaned. I would strangle her when I broke past whatever held me in the deserted wasteland.

  Adam sighed like he carried the world on his shoulders. ‘It is complicated.’

  My heart ached and I almost cried some more.

  ‘What isn’t?’ Maria said. ‘We are sat in the Prime Minister’s pe
rsonal medical centre, talking about an alliance, while my best friend has a metal war with a sociopath.’

  Adam emitted a short bark of laughter. ‘Are you saying that miracles can happen?’

  ‘I'm saying that we are living a miracle, be it a twisted dark secret of one that will probably get us all killed.’

  Silence followed and I called out for them, impatient to hear their voices.

  ‘They have been lying to us for years,’ Maria said, likely glaring into space. ‘Humans are lied to about the threat out there.’

  ‘You mean threats like me?’ I could almost see Adam, his lips curled in amusement.

  Maria snorted. ‘When have you ever been a threat to me?’

  Adam chuckled. I wanted to see it, to see him smile for the first time in what felt like forever. Intense jealousy caused me to clench my fists. Why did Maria get to see this side of him when everything between him and I had become so strained?

  ‘Is it because of your dead wife and child?’ Maria said, as tactless as a brazen whore in a monastery.

  My jealousy intensified and I tilted my head, afraid to miss anything. I knew Adam had once been bonded and had a child, and that a friend had betrayed them to Vakros, effectively signing their death warrant. Past that, I knew nothing. I’d always been afraid to ask, hoping that one day, he would feel comfortable enough to tell me. Maria and he seemed to have reached that point, and I hadn’t seen it happening. What else had I missed?

  I sensed the approaching fog before I saw it creeping over the burnt-out cars, devouring everything in its wake. ‘Not again. Please, I can’t take anymore.’

  The fog continued towards me, uncaring of my pleas. I closed my eyes, tears already streaming down my face, dread for what horror I’d experience while riding the train through Cleas’s mind.