Vesik 04 - This Broken World (15 page)

“Yes.”

“I’ve never experienced them like this before.”

“If you have travelled the Ways, you have experienced this. It simply happened so quickly in your perception that you cannot recall it.”

The thought of those twisted moments of violent movement and light being the same as this was hard to imagine. Travel in the Warded Ways normally made me sick as hell.

“Your purpose is to help whoever brings the hand of glory?” I asked, as much to myself as to her. I moved my thumb and felt the smooth skin of a young woman beneath it, not the dead hand I’d started with. “If you’re bound to the hand, then you’re compelled to help the bearer?”

“It is a compulsion, yes. I am not meant to help a false bearer.”

I glanced at her as we walked forward through the darkness. Did she mean she’d kill a false bearer?

“Not necessarily,” she said.

I blinked. “Did I ask that out loud?”

“You did not need to. You are in my realm.”

I couldn’t stifle a shiver. “Whose compulsion drives you? Am I asking that right?”

She nodded. “He was known as the Mad King.”

“The Nameless King?” I said. “The forger of the Warded Ways?”

“Yes. The Mad King was not so terrible. His compulsion rewards me with joy when I help you through the Abyss.”

“You have no free will,” I said.

“And do you, child of Anubis?” She smiled and turned her gaze back to our invisible path as we took one slow step after another. “Or do you walk the path of your destiny?”

“Bloody hell, lady. I’m kind of in shock here. I don’t think I can ponder the great and wonderful meaning of life right now.”

She gave me a small smile.

“The Abyss you mentioned?”

“Yes?”

“Is it the Burning Lands?” I asked.

“No, it is this place,” she said as she swept her golden arm before us. A gown of light draped from her wrist. “Endless darkness filled with the tiniest hope.”

“I don’t see much hope in this place.” My eyes wandered over the endless night. Tiny pinpricks of light shone like scattered stars in a moonless sky. Nothing so great as to warrant the name hope.

“You are that hope.”

I turned my head to stare at Gaia. “What do you mean?”

“Were you to stand in this spot for several days, the Old God beside you would devour your existence. Look carefully. Do not be afraid. It cannot harm you now.” She held out her left hand and the glow around her brightened.

A dark, slimy tentacle caught my peripheral vision. I turned slowly, my heart racing despite Gaia’s promises that I was safe. I shivered and winced away from the monstrosity beside us.

The tentacle was one of many. All joined to a grayish body made golden by Gaia’s light. A great eye sat above an enormous beak. Within the beak I could see three smaller beaks. Smaller is an odd word, considering each beak was ten feet long. The eye followed us, raised as it was along a circle of gray flesh, pocked with scars and bumps. The oblong pupil slowly widened in a blood red iris.

“It is known as Croatoan,” Gaia said. “I believe you already of this beast.”

My jaw slowly fell open as I realized Croatoan’s tentacles vanished into the black space a hundred feet above us. I could scarcely comprehend its size, and I was standing beside it.

“Why is it here?” I asked.

“Banished here by your brother when he could not kill it.”

“The Old Man killed Croatoan.”

“Leviticus may have believed Croatoan could not survive the Abyss, but he was mistaken. There are a thousand foul creatures that dwell here. Many are more powerful than the savage devils of the Burning Lands.”

A Leviathan a fraction the size of the thing beside us had torn down a steel bridge in moments. Ezekiel truly did mean to destroy the world as we knew it. I shivered and looked away from the mass of tentacles and the beaks that looked as though they could swallow Aeros whole.

“Your father is a madman, Damian.”

“Ezekiel is not my father,” I said.

“Perhaps he is not, in your heart, but you are the seventh son of Anubis.”

I wanted to drop her hand and scream in protest and disgust. She squeezed my hand more tightly. She already knew what I was thinking.

“You cannot imagine the things that will be hunting you before the war is over.”

“You sure know how to make a guy feel special.”

She gave me a sideways glance and a small smile. “Once Ezekiel has fallen, one of the Seals will fall with him. Did you know one of the minor Seals has already fallen?”

“What?” I looked into Gaia’s eyes.

“Philip was part of the Seal of Anubis.”

I slowed my steps. “Because Anubis was his father?”

“Ah, you do learn quickly. You and Leviticus are also minor Seals. While the death of Anubis could be enough to unleash the Old Gods upon the earth, the Seal will still hold much back, so long as the sons survive.”

“But I won’t live that long,” I said. “What happens when age catches up with me?”

“Dark times, Damian. The darkest of times.” She gave me a small smile. “There was a golden age of Faerie. After the Nameless King was struck down by Gwynn Ap Nudd, and the Seals were laid upon all the lands, peace reigned for thousands of years.

“It was not until Anubis betrayed Ra and damaged one of the Seals that the others began to decay.”

“How did he betray Ra?”

“One of Anubis’s sons was under Ra’s protection. Once Anubis realized he could become stronger by eliminating his first born, it became his mission. After many years of combat, he succeeded in killing the man. The man had been one of Ra’s closest friends for millennia, and had trained Leviticus in the darkest of arts.”

I began to have an even clearer understanding of Edgar’s hatred for Ezekiel. I glanced to my right, expecting to see the Leviathan looming over us, but it was gone. I looked behind us and could see nothing.

“It is left behind, on the other side of the world. Pray you never need face that creature. I have enjoyed our journey, Damian. Fare thee well.”

Gaia released my hand.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

A
s fast as the world had vanished into darkness when we began the trip, torchlight exploded into my vision. My staff hit the floor and clattered to a rest. I heard the hand of glory land with a dull, fleshy thud. The light was nearly blinding, although I was quite certain the hall I was kneeling in was actually quite dim. I took a deep breath. My palms were flat against the cold stone tiles. I could see another hall branching off to the sides of the room I was in, and another trailed off into the distance. Two pillars stood to either side of me.

The hand of glory was between my own hands. It was a dead, gray thing once more. I swung the backpack off my arm and unzipped it. I picked up Gaia’s severed forearm, cringed at the chill in the dead flesh, and tucked it into the backpack. I checked to make sure I still had the Splendorum Mortem and the rest of my portable armory.

I heard footsteps echoing through the hall. The echo made it hard to pinpoint, but I thought it was coming from my right. I pushed off the marble-like floor. There was no sense in being sprawled out on the floor when those footsteps arrived.

“Shit,” I said, realizing the marble column beside me was the lower calf of an enormous sculpture. My eyes trailed up to the stone kilt and outstretched sword. Some thirty feet above me, the sculpture was locked in battle with another monolith. One wore a horned helmet. The other’s head was faceless. A smooth, swirled stone surface.

“Welcome, Damian Vesik.” The voice was musical, enticing, and some part of my brain screamed that it shouldn’t be.

I turned my gaze to the entryway. A creature stood there, more beautiful than I can describe. She was tall, like Nixie, and her skin was almost as pale as the marble floor. The color of her eyes seemed to shift between an array of prismatic colors. She held her hand out and I almost reached for it.

“Glamour.” I frowned and raised my staff instead.

“I’m sorry?” she asked. She tilted her head to one side.

I bared my teeth, grabbed the rune at the three quarters mark on my staff, and smacked the ferrule into the stone.

The creature screamed as its glamour was stripped away. Reptilian skin reflected the dim torchlight when the glamour fell from the woman’s body. Only her white dress remained as the woman raised her arms to cover her face. “I do not wish to frighten you, Damian Vesik. Do not look at me.”

“You obviously haven’t met my friends,” I said as I extended my hand. I hadn’t meant to frighten her, either. Well, at least not once I realized she actually
was
there just to greet me.

She peered out from between her scaly fingers and blinked her yellow eyes. The blink was slow and methodical. She looked down at my outstretched palm and then up to my eyes.

“But you are a necromancer,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

I smiled. “I get that a lot. I’m sorry if I frightened you.”

She reached out and took my hand, her movements slow. I really had scared her.

“You don’t know what I am.”

“I assume you are Fae.”

Her lipless mouth curled up into a smile. “I am Utukku.”

“Utukku?” I asked as I let her lead me from the chamber I arrived in. “I know that name from somewhere.” And I did, but damned if I could remember where.

“My kind are not many,” she said before she paused briefly. “Anymore.”

“What happened?” I asked. I stopped dead in my tracks when we turned a corner.

She laughed quietly. “It is impressive, no?”

Enormous sculptures filled the entire hall. Every column stretching to the ceiling was an elaborately carved figure. I started walking again, counting the steps between one monolith’s base and the next when Utukku spoke again.

“Your people killed most of us in the war with the werewolves.”

“Those were not my people.”

“I am sorry, Damian Vesik, but I have no reason to believe you. I have seen the most noble of you become death incarnate on this earth. There were more of us, once. In Atlantis.”

“Fuck, I’m sorry.” I already knew where the story was going.

“The darkness that took Atlantis into the sea took the lives of my people.”

The Old Man.

“We harbor no ill will for what he did so long ago, Damian Vesik. The water witches would have killed us all eventually. Gwynn Ap Nudd gave us sanctuary in Faerie after the fall of Atlantis. It is why we survive to this day.” She released my hand. “And this is a beautiful place to live.”

“It is at that,” I said. My eyes followed her gesture to another hall. This one was shorter and ended in two massive doors. A sun was carved into the left door, surrounded by jewels and what looked like gold. As we got closer, I could see there were thousands of runes carved into the door as well.

“One of the court has requested an audience with you,” she said. “You may wait in your chambers so you have a modicum of privacy.”

“That?” I said, hooking my thumb at the door.

“Yes,” she said. “You seem sincere, Damian Vesik. I feel as though you meant your apologies for the actions of another man. Perhaps the Queen of the water witches is indeed wrong about you.”

“What do you mean by that?” I asked as I reached the doorway.

She pushed a translucent veil to the side and I easily walked past her in the huge doorway. “It is nothing to be concerned with now. Please, make yourself comfortable.” The Uttuku’s voice echoed in the room. “It was … nice to meet you.” She nodded once and her footsteps clicked on the marble floors as she disappeared through the veil in the doorway.

I stared after her for a moment, wondering what she’d left me to. I turned my attention back to the room itself. The light from the sconces barely reached the ceiling of the room. If I had to guess, I would say the stonework was at least twenty-five feet above my head.

The bed was just as massive as the room itself, looking like at least two king size mattresses pushed together. Four stone posts stood at each corner of the bed, each intricately carved with vines and flowers. I didn’t realize how high the bed was until I got closer. The top of the mattress was at my waist.

I set the backpack on the long marble dresser beside the bed. I blinked and looked again before I realized it was the end table.

“Damn.” I laid my staff behind the bag to keep it from rolling off.

“You do leave an impression.”

I jumped at the woman’s voice behind me. When I spun around, I found Cara hovering just inside the doorway. She swooped down on her black and white atlas moth wings and landed nimbly on the end table.

“Mom!” I said.

She laughed. “You will only confuse the Fae, calling me that here.”

“Is that a bad thing?” I asked.

She frowned slightly. “I suppose not, now that you mention it.” Cara adjusted the two swords sheathed on her back. “You met an Utukku.”

“Yes, I think I scared the crap out of her.”

Cara nodded and a broad smile lit the sharp features of her face. “I think that encounter was a test from our illustrious king.”

“Did he think I was going to turn into a slavering monster and eat her because necromancers used to be at war with her people?”

“It sounds silly when you put it like that, but yes, I imagine that was exactly the point.”

I hopped backwards to land my ass on the bed. “Why would he do that?”

She walked closer to the edge of the end table and sat down on the ferrule of my staff. “It is so odd to see you in Faerie.” She paused and ran her hands over the golden greaves covering her legs. “You need to understand something, Damian. You are the first necromancer to be invited to Faerie since Glenn became king.”

“I thought the Old Man had been here.”

“I said invited, not ‘kicked in the front door.’ There is a subtle difference.”

I scratched the back of my neck and laughed. “Not so subtle, methinks.”

“Your encounter with the Utukku went well. Admittedly, I would not have removed the glamour from the first Fae I encountered in the Royal House, but I am not you.”

“When you put it like that …” I said under my breath.