Lord of Dust

by Erme Lander

  “How did you know what she meant?” He pressed her gently. “I can remember seeing you being held by a man, then it goes fuzzy, like a dream. I’ve got a glimpse of your mother’s face, nobody else’s. Do you know where she is?”

  Talia felt the tears gather and it came out as a wail, “I don’t know, I don’t know. She left me. I don’t know why.” She felt herself curling into a ball of shame and an arm came around her. Daniel pulled her into his arms.

  “You found me again. You can find her.” Talia sobbed in his arms, the hurt of years soaking into his shirt.

  “How? I can’t even remember what she looks like.”

  “How did you find me when you thought I was dead?”

  Talia sniffed, wiping her streaming nose across her arm. “I reached for you, for the person you should have been.”

  “Then you do the same for your mother. Feel for her.”

  “I can’t.”

  “You did, Talia do you remember telling me you couldn’t jump to begin with? You didn’t just take me back, you also took me back in time, my parents hadn’t missed me at all. You got us out of that hole, you can get us out of this one.” He gave her an extra squeeze and pulled her to her feet.

  Talia looked around, “Now?”

  “Let me get Biggles back first. I don’t want him wandering off. Want to come down with me and I’ll sort those chains out?”

  She nodded, not wanting to leave him. Biggles grabbed his stick and Daniel amused them both by throwing it as they walked. To her surprise, she had it dropped at her feet. Biggles sat waiting with an adoring expression on his face. She bent to pick it up and jumped back as he licked her face. Daniel laughed. She stared, she wasn’t used to him being this confident. He’d changed, he wasn’t the weakling she’d known before.

  He waved down at the small cottage at the start of the path and peered over the hedge to see if anyone was in the garden. “Mrs Pickles saw us and thought it was your fault I was in the state I was.”

  Talia bit her lip, it was her fault he’d followed in the first place. They snuck behind the hedge and into the orchard, Daniel grabbed a bag and filled it with food.

  “Know what you’re like.” he said when he caught her looking. Biggles was shut in, bribed to keep quiet with a treat and Talia marvelled again at a world so rich that it could afford to have special treats for dogs. Daniel examined her wrist and went to find some tools.

  They walked down to the end of the orchard, out of sight of the house. “This shouldn’t be difficult, it looks like it’s been cast.” At her look, he qualified, “It’ll have a lot of impurities in it.” The manacle shattered with a few blows. She rubbed her wrist as he scooped up the chain to hide it.

  “Right.” Daniel put his hands on her shoulders and Talia forced herself not to think of his grey reflection doing the same. “Think of your mother coming through to your time. What do you remember about her, tell me.”

  “I remember...” She closed her eyes. “I remember her holding me in the dark, being told not to jump, that it was dangerous…” She turned herself around so she was facing away from him, feeling the comfort of his warm hands. “She was frightened.” A wondering caught her, she’d never realised what the edge had been in her mother’s voice. She took a deep breath and allowed herself to sort through her memories, casting her mind past the red and black of her closed eyelids. A trace of a whisper beckoned and she raised her hands.

  Chapter 18

  They stumbled through the opening, it was a shock to be back in the ash covered streets after the warm colourful autumn. Daniel was disappointed, this looked exactly the same as the Narith he’d jumped into last time. Everything was still grey and black, the mists coiling through the night and the sudden pattering of disintegration in the distance that always made you jump.

  “Where are we?”

  “Wait,” Talia began to cough and Daniel held her upright. She wheezed, “That’s Cobalt Street up there.”

  “So, have we gone back in time to when your mother arrived? I can’t tell, it all looks the same to me.”

  “That place,” she pointed to their right at an imposing building. “A couple of years ago a rival clique tried to start, Dodie made an example of them. She had the whole thing burnt down around their ears.” She shrugged at Daniel’s look. “They were dealing in children, Dodie objected to it.”

  Daniel rubbed his face and tried not to think of Dodie’s straightforward approach to something she didn’t like. So they had come back in time after all, he’d expected differences he could see. “In theory, your mother should be here.” He looked around, seeing nothing in the gloom, then rummaged in his bag and clicked something on. A beam of light flashed across the alleyway. “Should have thought of bringing a torch sooner.” He gave a grin, ghoulish in the light.

  “This isn’t far from Dodie’s.” Talia looked thoughtful.

  “So where’s your mother?”

  A scuffle in the darkness, Daniel flicked the beam of light into an adjoining alley and a slender shadow moved. He grabbed Talia’s wrist, pulling her forwards. A flicker in the light of the torch, he swore and ducked at the brick flying through the air.

  He waved his hand sending the light wavering, “It’s okay! We don’t mean any harm.” A stream of swear words answered him. “Look, I’ll stop here. I’ve not got a weapon, I just want to help. What’s your name?”

  Silence. Daniel had left the beam to one side to stop it blinding the woman against the wall. It rested on a small bundle of rags. To his horror it became a child in the light, the dirty hair turning translucent. A small blonde girl, not much more than a bag of bones hunched in the corner.

  Why wasn’t she moving? “What’s wrong with her,” he whispered.

  “None of your business.” The woman was all aggression, a knife out ready.

  “Please,” he stammered. Talia – the other one – had frozen, with her wrist limp in his hand. He pulled himself together, “Look, we can help you. We know about the grey men.”

  The woman’s head jerked up and stared at him. She was dark haired, with Talia’s thin face and light build. The same darting feral intelligence in her eyes – like Talia she was a survivor. “Why?”

  “We need the knowledge you have.”

  “Fuck off, I’m not dealing with the likes of you no more.” The answer came back as quick as a slap.

  Daniel moved forwards and the woman stooped to pick up another brick with her free hand. “Please, we’re not your enemy...” Desperation filled him, how could they talk if she wouldn’t trust them?

  They all felt the rift begin to open. The only one that didn’t react was the child. She stared into space, huddled against the wall. Daniel was sure something wasn’t right, she should be more alert than this.

  Talia’s mother turned slowly, dread in her face. Daniel waited for the figure to come pouring through like sand and started when he saw long fingers pulling the edges of the rift apart. The rift was a black jagged split in the light of the torch beam. A foot appeared, thin and angular, the toes spread wide. Was this the original being? Had it followed Talia’s mother through the trackway?

  Talia’s mother shook herself and scooped up her daughter. She backed towards them, keeping the emerging figure in view. “You wanted to help, then help.” The child was silent in her arms, a bundle of nothing.

  The grey man had nearly squeezed out of the rift. Rags covered it, hiding it’s body. It moved differently to the others, not a slow automation, this had a grace more like a predator.

  “I can stop it.” Terror screamed through at the thought of touching this thing. Daniel felt the familiar lethargy overtaking him. He took a step forwards and raised his hands.

  “No!” Talia knocked his arm down. “It’s not you, look!” She swung his arm with the torch over the creature’s face and he saw bulging eyes and a domed skull. Its foot hit the floor and he watched, fascinated as it crumbled slightly, bits flaking off.

  The seam snapped shut. Th
e creature stumbled and a tremor ran over its skin. It turned towards them, its blind eyes searching. This grey man was different, more skeletal, its hands curving into claws, rags hanging and obscuring the rest of its figure. Daniel wasn’t sure what was worse, the flashes of detail in the light of the torch or the knowledge it was there in the dark. Talia’s mother stared at Daniel and then at the monster as it began to walk deliberately toward them, flakes of dust dropping off with each step.

  Daniel was frozen to the spot. The lethargy felt worse this time, tears rose in his eyes – he didn’t remember this. Frantically he ran through his memories and failed to get through the mist. He was sure they were supposed to do something. He could only remember a small figure in the gloom, not this nightmare in front of them.

  He felt a hand close around his elbow and Talia began to pull him backwards, babbling under her breath that they had to move. He wasn’t sure who she was talking to, her or himself. His mouth opened and he staggered as the child was shoved into his arms. His arms closed instinctively around her, cradling the light weight as he would Dominic. He dropped his chin onto her head and smelt the sea. He was so tired, why didn’t he give up? Let the grey man have him, that was obvious what was supposed to happen. Why else would it have his face in the future?

  One slow step at a time, Talia dragged him and the child backwards. He could hear her whimpering, the slow shuffle of their steps. A shadow flitted in the torchlight and Daniel remembered the last member of their party.

  “Run.” He forced his head up and saw Talia’s mother, face snarling as she stumbled towards the figure, her knife raised as she gasped, “Take her and run.”

  “No...” The word was torn from him. This was the woman they were supposed to save. She could have told them the information they needed to know. No time to get her to trust them. She couldn’t do anything to hurt this monster. Surely she’d know that.

  The grey figure appeared to hesitate and then casually raised its hand to grab her wrist. The torchlight showed grim flashes of the scene, jerking at each of the steps Talia forced him to take backwards. He watched the silent flickering film as the woman gasped and sank to her knees. He expected her skin to dessicate. Instead, the grey man’s own skin moved, flooding over hers. A muffled gasp came from her and she dropped the knife. Every detail of her clothing and features became outlined in the dust. The grey man shrank, pouring itself onto her.

  She arched her back and opened her mouth to silently scream and emitted a golden light that didn’t reflect on the alley walls. Cracks appeared in the grey to shine a pale gold in the darkness. Talia had stopped moving backwards, he could feel her resting against his shoulder, muffled sobs coming through. He closed his eyes briefly and held the child tight.

  Through a misty gaze he watched as the small grey figure collect itself, stand upright and move towards the closed rift. It paused, raised its head as though sniffing and then turned to stride the other way. No random shuffle, a purposeful stride from the slender figure of what had been Talia’s mother.

  Talia cried into his shoulder in a way he’d never seen her do before. He shifted the silent child into one arm and held her in the other. Both Talia. Daniel stared down at them in shock. This wasn’t going how it was supposed to happen. He felt his brain go into meltdown.

  “I remember you being given to a large woman. What happened? I can’t remember.” He frantically ran through his memories of a different past, one where they’d won – they must have. Why would he have been back in his world if they hadn’t won? Why couldn’t he remember properly?

  He turned to look at Talia, mind grasping at straws. She’d brought him here for a reason. She was going to sacrifice him to the Dust Lord, to get her Daniel back but he was her Daniel. His mouth began to move, eyes wide. His voice cracked, “Please...” He gathered himself, she was the one who’d just seen her mother die. He closed his eyes and forced the words out, voice shaking, “You need to take me to the Dust Lord. I need to replace the Daniel you know.”

  Talia turned to look up at him and slapped his face, hard. “Don’t be fucking stupid.” she hissed, the tear stains running down her cheeks. “I need you.”

  The night was eerily quiet in the face of her admission. He gaped stupidly and collected himself as she took his elbow. After a few steps, she stopped. “I don’t know where to go. This isn’t my city.”

  The sky was beginning to lighten in the pre-dawn. Talia shivered and leant against him. Daniel wriggled down until he could sit on a pile of fallen bricks and held his free arm out. She hesitated and curled up against him. The child remained a bundle of rags. He shifted her into a more comfortable position. He wondered what it would be like to wander his own world, twelve years before his present time, seeing familiar places and people that weren’t the ones he knew.

  “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine,” she snapped.

  Daniel shrugged it away, he wasn’t going to argue with her at the moment. She was far from fine. Come to that, he wasn’t fine either. The misty parts in his memory were worrying him. He’d assumed they’d been from defeating the Dust Lord in some kind of way, a sort of fairy tale he hadn’t been allowed to remember. He had to sort things out in his head. “Was that him? Was that the thing Kenderick was talking about?”

  “Dunno. Certainly wasn’t one of the grey men that we had. Those actually looked like you.”

  “You said Kenderick had books on this. Did you manage to read anything useful?”

  “How should I know what’s in them?” Talia sounded grumpy.

  Daniel realised she probably couldn’t read. He rubbed his face, “We need to get back into his rooms so I can look. Maybe there will be more information. Can you get us back there?”

  Talia shook his arm off and stood. “Probably. I’d rather go in through a proper door than jump and have another grey man wandering around. We need to leave quickly though, before it can raise another of those things.” Talia raised her hands to get ready and paused, tilting her head, “I can feel another track.” At Daniel’s look she said, “It’s not mine. It goes back a long way. I can’t see the end of it.” She trailed off, awed.

  A shiver ran through the child and Daniel looked down at her, “We need to do something with you first.” He laughed ruefully, “I mean with her... You know what I mean. We can’t just take her with us. It’s dangerous.”

  She thought for a moment, “We gotta get her to Dodie.”

  “Why Dodie?”

  “She brought me up. She’s the only mother I remember.” Her tone was vicious in grief. She grabbed his elbow and marched them both down the alleyway. Daniel cradled the child as they walked. She was so light in his arms, maybe it was shock keeping her quiet. She didn’t snuggle, just lay passively accepting his embrace, like a small animal not wanting to call attention to itself.

  A building loomed in front, one of the few he’d seen with lights showing. They’d seen no one on their way, the lamps had been lit at every intersection. In fact there’d been more of them, one of the few changes he’d been able to notice. Several men loitered round the doorway, bursts of laughter coming from them every so often. Daniel guessed they were to keep undesirables away.

  “Wait here.” Talia darted away to speak to them before he could say that he’d go with her. The door was held open by a man and she disappeared. Daniel leant against the wall, watching the darker figures with narrowed eyes, wondering if he was succeeding in looking dangerous. Was this the right thing to do? Wouldn’t it be better to bring this child into the future? She didn’t feel much larger than Dominic. His protective instincts began to stir as the door slammed open again and Talia was followed out by a large woman. A flickering shadow caught his eye at the intersection, a figure watching them under the lamps. He couldn’t quite make it out. He stared at it and stopped as the woman with Talia walked up to him.

  “You.” A finger pointed in his direction. “This is the last time I do anything for you.” Daniel’s mouth fell open,
he’d never met this person before. The child was plucked out of his unresisting arms. “I’ll take her. No promises though.”

  The woman turned, robes swirling. The child, resting her head on Dodie’s shoulder, opened her eyes for the first time. She met his gaze and he shivered, they were blank.

  “Come on.” Talia began tugging at his shoulder, “We need to leave.”

  “Why?” He resisted, torn between wanting to help his friend as a child and the person stood in front of him.

  “She said something,” Talia hissed. “It was subtle, but I recognised the signal from when I grew up with her. I’ve seen it happen before. Come on, do you have to be a nob about this?” The old insult jolted and he followed her gaze, the men loitering around the door had doubled. Daniel backed away, trying for a nonchalant walk and stumbled over his own feet.

  “Why? I thought you said she’d help?”

  “Yeah, but we’re an attachment to the child and she doesn’t like her children having any other attachments.” Talia walked faster.

  Hair rose on the back of Daniel’s neck, “What are they going to do?”

  Talia muttered something rude under her breath, “Somehow I don’t think you’ll like it.” A catcall came from behind and a metallic sound that made Daniel’s blood run cold.

  “They’ve got knives? They’re going to kill us?”

  She nodded, “They’ll have worse than knives. At the moment they’re playing a game. Let them think we’re playing by the same rules. Once we’re behind the corner, run. They’ll try to cut us off in the next street. We’ll go down the alley instead.”

  “Can we get out that way?”

  “No.” Talia’s face had a grim smile, “But I can get us away.”

  Chapter 19

  A smell of smoke greeted them as they walked out of the mouth of the alley, mixed in with the usual dead smell of the old city. Shouting could be heard in the distance. Daniel looked around, still expecting to see the men waiting for them after so many years.