Ravencaller

by David Dalglish

  “So many,” Tesmarie whispered. The little faery shivered. “There’s just so many.”

  Adria shut the door completely.

  “Can we fight them?” she asked.

  Devin checked his two ammo pouches and then shrugged.

  “We might,” he said. “You two have your prayers, and Tommy his magic. Me and Tesmarie can bring down a few as well, but you’re talking about five of us trying to protect the church from all sides.”

  So it was as dire as she feared, and unlike when the creatures had first taken over Low Dock, their numbers were greater and their control over the district tightened. She thought of the weird Mayor’s son, and his warnings. Those gathered monsters outside wanted to hang her from the steeple in a Ravencaller execution, with her guts ripped out and her rib cage opened. Did her church even matter to them or did they just care about her? She cast a worried look over those in her care, her eyes settling on Tommy and Malik cuddling.

  “Sena, do you trust me?” she asked.

  “Of course I do,” the Faithkeeper replied.

  “Then come with me, and do not fear.” She turned to her brother. “Ready everyone inside to leave at a moment’s notice. Bring only what they can carry.”

  “And if the dragon-sired choose to fight?” he asked.

  A deep, rumbling voice released a vicious cry to the night.

  “Chainbreaker! Come forth!”

  Adria kissed her brother’s forehead and gently brushed Tesmarie away.

  “Hold faith in me,” she said. “Now ready the others.”

  Before he might argue further, she pushed the doors open and stepped out into the night, Sena trailing a step behind.

  Logarius stood at the head of his army, a black and silver monster wrapped in wings. Adria swallowed down her rage and distaste. She had to keep a clear head. Too many lives depended upon her. She descended the few steps to the mocking calls of the creatures. The ruckus threatened her resolve. Sena’s hand sliding into hers strengthened it.

  “I am here,” Adria shouted from the bottom step. “What is it you desire of me?”

  Logarius offered a mocking bow.

  “To rid Belvua of this eyesore you call a church,” the avenria said.

  “And what of Viciss’s orders? I was granted protection.”

  Logarius slid his long daggers out from their sheaths.

  “We Forgotten Children must fight for our own future. Let the dragon crush us with his own claws if we commit a sin against him.”

  Drool landed on her shoulder. She looked up to see seven gargoyles leering down at her from the church’s rooftop.

  “Then we shall leave,” she shouted. The creatures quieted with surprise. “This building is not worth the blood it will cost. I ask that you make way for us to exit Belvua, just as you offered when you first laid claim to this district.”

  A foxkin beside Logarius started to say something but the avenria cut him off.

  “No,” he said. “The rest of Londheim must be sent a message about the cost of human pride. The people you coddle were offered a chance to leave. They stayed. Let them die in the tomb of their own making.”

  Adria squeezed Sena’s hand tightly.

  “I feared as much,” she said. She turned to the Faithkeeper. “Forgive me for this.”

  Adria ripped Sena’s soul from her body. Its brilliant light, its luminescent white fire, shone like a beacon before the church. Adria held it aloft with her left hand, the right still clutching Sena’s limp fingers. Logarius’s Forgotten Children shrank back in fear.

  “A message must indeed be sent,” she said. “But it is not yours to send.”

  Sena’s soul shot skyward, blasting through the gargoyles. A naked soul was incomprehensible power, whose very touch burned away flesh. The gargoyle’s gray bodies shriveled and collapsed. The monsters about her screamed and howled, but their cries meant nothing to her. The soul crashed down among their forces, its speed so great it was but a brilliant blur in the night. Monsters collapsed with gaping holes in their chests. Others howled as their limbs were severed, or chunks of their sides suddenly disintegrated.

  Adria took their lives with but a thought, her mind mapping a path of slaughter and Sena’s soul following it with perfect obedience. Let these vicious monsters die for threatening the innocent. Let them run. Soldiers might fear them, but she was a Mindkeeper of the Sisters, and she was sick of these creatures blaspheming their beloved name. She directed the worst of her anger toward the Ravencallers, humans so lost to hatred they would kill their own.

  Logarius, however, she let live. She needed someone to give the necessary order.

  After those first vicious few seconds she pulled the soul back to a hover above her head. The warmth of its light bathed her with Sena’s memories. Oh, if only she could dive deeper within and experience her friend’s life in a far more intimate way. That time was not now, nor the church steps the place. Dozens of the Forgotten Children lay dead or dying. The collected monsters crowded closer, their weapons, be it metal or tooth and claw, bared and hungry.

  “There are enough of you I may die,” she told them. “But are you prepared to pay the cost? I only ask that we leave in peace. Save us both the bloodshed.”

  All there awaited Logarius’s order. The avenria glared at her, his wings shuddering with his every breath. Rage burned in his eyes. For a moment she thought he’d resist. No matter how many died, he would see her dead. The Forgotten Children tensed with each passing second, anticipating another display of her power.

  “You are a blight upon the Cradle,” Logarius said. “But I will not sacrifice precious lives to snuff it out. Have your freedom. We will not lay a hand upon you until you leave Belvua’s borders.”

  Adria bowed her head in understanding and then turned to the passive, dull-eyed Sena.

  “Thank you,” she whispered. She plunged the soul back into Sena’s forehead and reattached its little tendrils throughout her body. The Faithkeeper jolted awake with a long, pained scream. Adria fought against the guilt that scream awakened. Sena’s soul… she’d damaged it during its killing flight. Various memories, like wisps of white ether, had slipped free as it tore through flesh and bone. Would her friend notice? Only time would tell.

  Adria called for her brother as Sena recovered. The door to the church pushed open and her brother stepped out. She wondered if he had watched the destruction she had wrought. She prayed he hadn’t. “We’re leaving.”

  “Is it safe?” Devin asked her, his voice strangely muted.

  Adria cast a glare Logarius’s way.

  “It is.”

  Sena’s hand clutched her shoulder as the Faithkeeper struggled to keep her balance. Her eyes were bloodshot. Fury bubbled beneath her exhaustion.

  “I would have said yes,” she said. “Why did you not ask my permission? I would have said yes.”

  A valid question, and one Adria had no good answer for. Sena would not have understood what she was accepting, not really. At least the burden of the event fell squarely on Adria’s shoulders.

  The various creatures parted as the several dozen men and women exited the church. Devin led the way, and it was his shoulder, not Adria’s, that Sena relied upon for the walk out of Low Dock. Adria stayed back, ensuring not a soul remained behind. She felt the inhuman glares stabbing like pins, and she glared right back. They were shadowy beings, each and every one of them. There was no soul shimmering within their skulls. No light of the Sisters.

  “You did it,” Tommy said as he and Malik passed, the young man supporting his mentor’s weight.

  “That I did,” she said, unable to match her brother-in-law’s smile.

  The final refugees of Low Dock marched through the streets, passing guards and soldiers strung up by their arms in front of doorways. At the cleared-out west entrance, a dozen guards stood frozen by barely concealed fear at the encroaching tide of magical creatures flanking the retreating humans. Adria was the last to leave, and she turned to offer one
final good-bye to Low Dock, place of her church, and her beloved home.

  Good-bye, for it was Belvua now, and it belonged to the Forgotten Children.

  CHAPTER 22

  Dierk walked past corpse after corpse hanging in Belvua, his mind lost in pure euphoria. Every single dead human had been tied to doorways and rooftops, their stomachs and rib cages opened for a Ravencaller funeral. Vaesalaum wrapped about their unharvested souls with a noticeable bulge in its belly. The creature fed well, Dierk thought, and so did he.

  A million memories, Vaesalaum replied. Read. Eat. Drink.

  Dierk did not fall into them like he normally would. There were just too many. Instead experiences floated over him, a sampler buffet curated by the nisse. He felt phantom punches on his chin from fights, felt wetness on his erect penis from electric snippets of encounters, sometimes from a man’s point of view, sometimes a woman’s. The world before his eyes lost its firm reality. Walls and homes gave way to fields, to forests, to tight bedroom walls and cramped barracks. Excitement would flush through him as he watched their (his) hand strike a killing blow against one of the magical creatures in last night’s battle. He had not participated like the other Ravencallers, but with so many collected memories filling him, he might as well have. Dierk walked, intoxicated, stumbling down an abandoned street with but one location in mind.

  Adria’s church was but a smoldering ruin of ash and embers.

  Finding her is pointless, Vaesalaum insisted. Enjoy the feast.

  “No,” he said. “No, no, this time I will do it. This time I’ll tell her.”

  But that meant finding her. Where might she have gone? There was no chance she’d died, he was certain of that. Sure, he’d listened in on the devastating reports delivered to his father in the dead of night. He knew the effort to retake the district had ended in colossal failure. Adria was too powerful, though. Too amazing and special to die like the rest of the humans. If only he could spot her brilliant soul, so bright it shined through walls and flesh like nothing…

  “You said I now have nisse eyes,” Dierk said, an idea popping into his head. “Can you help me then? Can you help me see her?”

  The long creature floated in a figure-eight path before his face. Dierk realized just how much the nisse had grown since they first met. It’d tripled in length at the least. The eyeless childlike face finally hovered still in a weird stare.

  If it will make Dierk happy.

  The world darkened and lost much of its color. The souls of the guards hanging from the doorways of human homes brightened so that they were unmistakable. Their pearlescent glow was nothing, nothing at all, compared to the brilliant beacon blazing several miles away. Its light passed through stone walls as if they were translucent. The edges of its beams streaked to the heavens.

  “There you are, my beautiful Adria,” he whispered, a drunkard’s smile plastered across his face.

  Dierk left Belvua via the cistern tunnel, following Adria’s light like a guiding star. For once he wore no disguise, and he did not care about any strange looks the haggard and nervous early-morning crowds cast his way. What did their opinions matter? He could barely see them through the shadowy haze. His every step felt like another person’s, for the memories Vaesalaum had devoured still clung to his mind like a welcome stranger.

  It was in the Church District that Dierk found her home. Vaesalaum stayed away, and not for the first time upon meeting Adria, he realized.

  “Are you afraid of her?” he asked.

  Chainbreaker will see me, the nisse said. Chainbreaker will not like what she sees.

  Whatever. Let the strange nisse keep away. Dierk didn’t need it. He didn’t need anyone. Confidence surged through his veins in a way he had never before experienced in his life. He approached the modest home’s door and knocked several times. Out stepped his beloved goddess-made-flesh.

  “Dierk?” Adria asked, confused.

  He didn’t respond immediately. Her face was uncovered. Without her mask, he could see the gentle slope of her nose, the sharp prominence of her cheekbones, the pale pink of her lips. Adoration flooded his chest. Bravery powered his movements. His arms spread wide, and he wrapped her in a tight embrace. Her scent wafted up his nostrils and to his brain, painting his vision red. She felt rigid in his arms. Tired. Confused. That was fine. He’d come to help.

  “I am so happy you lived,” Dierk said upon pulling away. “I know you said you’d stay, but you left, and that was smart. You were smart.”

  “Perhaps,” she said. Her arms crossed over her chest. She wasn’t wearing her thick Mindkeeper attire but instead a thin shift covered by a long-sleeved shirt. Dierk could see the shape of her breasts, even see faint outlines of her nipples hardening from the cold. It was several seconds before he realized he was staring at them and not her.

  “I, um,” he stammered, heat flushing into his neck. “Are you well?”

  “How did you find me?” she asked. “Did someone tell you I was staying at my brother’s?”

  He shook his head, the act almost costing him his balance. It felt like his brain was made entirely of air.

  “That’s partly why I’m here,” he said. “I wanted you to know, I can see how special you are. I can see you. Your soul. It’s so bright, and wonderful, and different from everyone in all of Londheim. Did you know that? How amazing you are?”

  Surely she did, but she clearly didn’t understand what he was getting at; that much was obvious by her constricted frown.

  “I’m not sure what you’re implying,” she said.

  “Your soul,” he said, as if that explained everything. “It’s special, and I know, deep down I know, that I’m the only one that understands.”

  Damn it all to the void, he was screwing this up. He could barely understand what he was saying, so why should she? Dierk shook his head back and forth, trying to dismiss the fog that seemed to have settled over him. Too many memories. Too many souls fed upon.

  “I’m not sure what you are implying, but I am a Mindkeeper of the Sisters, as faithful and as loyal as hundreds of others in their service,” she said. “Did—did your father ask you to check on me?”

  “My father? No. Fuck no. He doesn’t know I’m here.”

  He thought that’d make her feel better, but instead it just confused her further.

  “Then why are you here?” she asked. She could tell something important was on his mind. Not a surprise. Would he be so infatuated with someone whose mind wasn’t sharp as a blade? “The real reason. Tell me.”

  Cold sweat rolled down his neck. His armpits felt like swamps. He couldn’t bring himself to look her in the eye, so he made his confession as he stared at the socks on her feet.

  “I think that… I think that it could be something special. We could be something special, you know? If you’d like, you could come over to my father’s mansion. You could stay there even, it’s very nice, and we have more than enough rooms. It’d give us a lot of time to talk.”

  She wasn’t answering. Was she flattered by the offer? Or was it too much commitment much too soon?

  “You don’t have to, of course,” he quickly added. “We could just go somewhere warm. There’s some great bakeries near our mansion. Would you like me to buy you something, maybe some shortbread or a slice of pie?”

  Finally Adria found her tongue. Shock tinged her every word.

  “I spent last night fleeing the only home I’ve known in years,” she said. “I betrayed a close friend so I might kill with abandon. There’s blood on my hands, of humans and monsters, and you want us to go on a date? How are you the Mayor’s son and yet so clueless?”

  That last sentence was a jagged rusty knife stabbing straight into his heart and then twisting.

  “I—I didn’t mean it like… I’m sorry. Please. I’m sorry, Adria. Don’t be mad at me. Please don’t be mad.”

  The Mindkeeper looked torn between anger and pity, and Dierk couldn’t decide which hurt him worse.

  “You
need help,” she said. “You barely know me, and I know nothing of you. Whatever you think you mean by ‘we,’ it’s make-believe. Do you understand that? It’s hopeful imagination, and it has no bearing on the real world.”

  Breathing was suddenly, unbearably difficult. He tried to figure out the nicest thing to say, some clever argument or honest confession that would make Adria see how wrong she was, how cruel she was being, but the only thing that tumbled out his tongue-tied mouth was, “Oh. All right. I get it.”

  Her expression softened, but Dierk was in too much pain. He didn’t want her sympathy. He didn’t want her comfort. His feet couldn’t move him fast enough as he turned and ran, not bothering to say good-bye. Snot dripped down his lip as he sprinted in the cold. Tears rolled down his cheeks, first a few, then a torrent. One word pounded in his mind like the world’s largest drum.

  Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

  Cute little homes dusted with snow passed by in a blur. He shoved past anyone remotely in his way, not giving a shit if it angered them. He ran, ran, ran until his lungs threatened to give out. Dierk spotted an empty crevice between two homes, hardly more than a rat hole, but it was enough for him. He more crawled than walked into it, and once in its private confines he curled into a ball and bawled into his arms. His heart ached, its tender flesh so badly ruptured he felt a physical pain across his chest. Whatever remnants of hope he’d felt were long gone, replaced with seething hatred. Stupid. So fucking stupid. Why did he think she would care one bit about his ugly, awkward self?

  Vaesalaum appeared before him, its childlike face mere inches from his nose.

  Vaesalaum warned you, the nisse whispered into his mind. Vaesalaum will wait for the human to stop behaving as a child.

  Dierk wanted nothing to do with the damn creature. His protest was a wordless howl, but that was enough to make it shimmer into nothingness. He glared at where it’d been, his hatred quickly redirecting back toward himself. He thought with the nisse’s help he’d become a better person. With power would come confidence. With confidence would come attractiveness, and worthiness for such a beautiful goddess. No one else matched his magical and political power combined. Son of the Mayor. Student of Vaesalaum. Ravencaller of the Forgotten Children.