Tome of the Undergates

Twenty-Nine

A blade was a peculiar thing to feel, Asper thought.

She had never held one before, only stared at them with envy as they danced to a tune played by more capable hands. Now that she did feel one, it was heavy in her grip, like an iron burden wrought with jagged teeth.

Dripping with blood, she added mentally, Gariath’s blood. The thought of holding such a thing had occasionally crossed her mind, in her darkest anger against the dragonman.

But now that she held it. .

‘I can’t do this,’ she gasped, ‘I can’t do this, can’t do this, can’t …’

Reassuring denial was lost in an errant roar from the distant hall.

The battle, as Denaos might say in his cruder moments, had long since spent its best affections and now slid into sluggish, sleepy, blood-glutted cuddling.

The precise strikes from the longfaces’ iron spikes had become vicious, slovenly chops as their purple kindred lay beside their feet. The endless stream of frogmen had choked to narrow trickles, the pale creatures glancing around with dark eyes to seek out their emaciated Shepherds. The demons themselves had either fled or lay in smoking husks that still sighed white plumes of steam as they sank into the salt.

And even the water seemed disgusted, sliding out of the great wound in Irontide’s hide in an effort to escape the battle. Water shunned the place, she thought, and begged her to go with it. Neither of them belonged here.

They were healers. She was a healer. She served the Healer. What place did she have in this slaughter?

She did not desire an answer, but received one, anyway, at the end of her left arm. It twitched now, throbbing angrily. It did not doubt, it snarled. It did not beg, it demanded. And with each moment, it grew harder to ignore.

‘Not now,’ she whispered to her appendage. ‘Not now. I can fight this. I can resist this.’ Only remotely aware of how much of a squealing whisper her voice was, she felt the tears slide down her cheek to land upon her sleeve. ‘Not. . now.’

‘Then when?’

Asper’s head snapped towards the longface standing over her. For a woman bludgeoned and cut, she looked remarkably calm, regarding the priestess from behind a circular iron shield. The unpleasant grin that split her face, however, left no motive unclear.

‘You look lost, pinky,’ the longface said. She raised her iron spike, slammed it against her shield. ‘Need some help?’

‘S-stay back.’ Asper retreated a step, raising her left hand, then forcing it down against her side and holding up the blade. ‘I’ve got a weapon.’

‘One of our own gnawblades.’ The longface tilted her head to note the gore dripping down its handle. ‘But you don’t look like you could have done that with it.’

‘I. . I did.’

‘I haven’t seen you in the fight. Hiding is reserved for males.’ The longface smiled, took a step forwards. ‘Females fight.’

‘Stay away from me!’

‘Do your breed proud and stand,’ the woman hissed. ‘If I have to stick you in the back, I’m going to be unhappy.’

Asper took a step backwards and the longface’s grin grew broader. Unhappy, indeed. Calling the woman a liar would seem a bit futile, though. Instead, she tensed, ready to turn, ready to flee.

‘QAI ZHOTH!’ A grating roar split the air. ‘DIE, OVERSCUM! AKH ZEKH LA-’

The war cry was cut short with the sound of paper splitting. Both longface and Asper looked up, seeing a great red fist thrust into the mouth from which it had poured. Gariath offered no war cry in retort, no insult or unpleasant cackle. His blow was vicious, but his fist hung in the air long after his victim collapsed. When he finally lowered it, he gasped with such exhaustion that the rest of him threatened to follow his hand to the floor.

Still, it was enough to send three other longfaces leaping backwards, shields raised. And in the parting of purple flesh, Asper could see the red pools at his feet, the tears dripping from his flesh, the waning hatred in his eyes. His knuckles were purple, wings flaccid on his back, but his smile was large and unpleasant.

‘Lucky, lucky.’

Her attention was brought back to the longface before her, who snorted, spat and hefted her shield.

‘Looks like the darker you pinkies get, the more trouble you are.’ She flashed a grin at the priestess. ‘I don’t need you any more. I don’t want you any more.’

‘What?’ Asper could not help but look incredulous as the longface stalked away. ‘That’s it?’

‘I’ll be back later.’

‘But. . you were going to. . I mean, I’ve. . I’ve got a gnawblade!’

‘There are always more weapons.’

‘You can’t just-’

Stop that. Her thoughts echoed in the sound of iron soles. This is your chance. Run. You don’t belong here. Her eyes narrowed upon Gariath, swinging wide against an encroaching longface. He doesn’t want you here. He wants to die. She swept the rest of the battle. No sign of Dreadaeleon, either. He’s dead. . you can’t bring people back from the dead. No one can.

There’s nothing you can do here.

The longface swung her iron spike, testing its weight. Her left arm twitched.

You shouldn’t even be with these people.

Gariath buckled to one knee under a sudden blow from behind. Her left arm throbbed.

What, she asked herself, could you even do?

She clenched her jaw, tightened her grip upon the weapon. And, in the faint flash of crimson that ran down her arm in time with the beating of her heart and the burning of her skin, she knew her answer.

The longface’s ears twitched at the sound of whistling iron. She whirled, just in time to see the blade go spinning past the side of her head. The blow was slight, a faint tug on her shoulder that she might have ignored if not for the trail of red that followed the tumbling weapon.

Lips drawn tightly, the woman regarded the empty, trembling pink hand extended at her.

‘Fine, then.’ The longface rolled her shoulder, even as her wound wept. ‘There’s plenty of time left in the day.’

‘Stay away from my friends,’ the human female warned.

The longface smirked at the sudden hardness in the human’s voice. ‘Stay away from you, stay away from your friends.’ She hoisted her weapon and advanced in slow, clanging strides. ‘Make up your mind.’

One quick swing, the longface thought, and it would be over. Pink flesh was soft, weak and tore like paper saturated in fat. If the female turned and ran, it would take only a little longer. Even though the longface’s own gnawblade was quivering in a motionless body somewhere, the chase would be a pleasant distraction before returning to the business of slaughtering underscum and whatever the winged red thing was.

The human did not turn and run, however. Her advance came in bold, decisive steps. ‘Bold’, the longface had learned, was the overscum word for ‘stupid, but admirable’. That made sense, the purple woman decided, since this one approached her without fear. Without weapon, without armour, but without fear, the human extended her left arm like a fleshy, flimsy shield.

‘Master Sheraptus would like you,’ she said.

The woman showed no reaction, no wide-eyed honour that such a proclamation should entail. The longface narrowed her eyes. This one’s death suddenly became more necessary.

They closed without haste, the longface swung without urgency. One quick swing, she thought in one moment and cursed in the next. The woman side-stepped the blow; clumsy, the purple creature scolded herself, but nothing urgent. The next one would do it.

The woman’s left arm shot out, clamped around her throat, and the longface couldn’t help but smile at the weak and sweat-laden grip.

‘This is it?’ she chuckled. ‘You won’t be a great loss to any-’

In a twitch of muscle, the pink arm became something else, something stronger. The fingers tensed, skin tightening around the bony joints as they dug into hard, purple flesh. The longface’s voice was strangled as she felt her own blood mingle with the cold sweat. Impressive, she thought, but netherlings were hard, netherlings were strong.

That thought abandoned her, a sudden panic seizing her as the human female’s hand began to glow. Her eyes went wide, alternately blinded and captivated by the pulsating light that drifted between bright crimson and darkest black.

‘Nethra,’ she tried to sputter through the choking grasp.

No more time wasted, she resolved. No more humouring the little pink weakling. One quick swing and it would be over. She kept that thought as she raised her iron spike to the sky.

‘No,’ the human whispered.

There was a sudden red flash. The longface became a trembling symphony, her shriek accompanied by the sudden snapping of bone, the snapping of bone accompanied by her sword falling to the stones. She looked to her arm, the folded, bunching mass that used to be her appendage as it twisted of its own sudden, violent accord, cracking and bending backwards like a wet branch.

She had felt bones broken before, blood spilled, iron in her flesh. This pain that raked through her was nothing like that, no cause, no physical presence. It was simply a blink of the eye, a twitch of muscle, a snap, and then her arm folded over itself violently again, her elbow touching her shoulder.

‘What. .’ she screamed through the sound, ‘what is this? WHAT IS THIS?’

‘I’m sorry,’ someone sobbed.

She turned to the human female, saw the tears in her eyes, flooding down her cheeks with unrestrained swiftness. She saw the sleeve of the pink creature’s robe rip and burst apart into blue ribbons, exposing an expanse of glowing red beneath. The light that engulfed the woman’s arm pulsed, and with every heartbeat, blackened bones, joints and knuckles flashed through the crimson.

‘I’m so sorry,’ the woman whispered again.

‘Then stop! Stop it! STOP-’

Another snap. The netherling collapsed to her right knee, her left leg a knotted mass of folded bone and sinew, her heel touching her knee, her iron-clad toes brushing against her rear. The woman collapsed with her, her entire body shaking, save for the arm that dug its skeletal claws deeper into the purple throat.

‘I can’t,’ the human whimpered, ‘I can’t. . I can’t stop.’

The sensation of tears was alien to the netherling. She had never cried before. Netherlings were hard. Netherlings were strong. Netherlings did not cry. Netherlings did not beg.

‘Please,’ she shrieked, ‘please! It hurts! It hurts so-’

Snap.

She felt her teeth touch the back of her tongue, her jaw folding once, twice over itself. Salty tears pooled in her mouth, leaking out over her shattered jaw. She felt her spine bend, groaning like an old and feeble tree before breaking.

Snap; her other arm.

‘It’s not my fault,’ the human whispered.

Snap; her other leg.

‘What could I do?’ the human whimpered.

Snap; her neck.

‘Forgive me,’ the human pleaded.

Asper would have thanked Talanas for her tears, thanked the Healer that she could not see the abomination she had created through the liquid veil. She would have praised Him for the fact that she could not hear the screams emanating from what used to be a mouth over the shrieking inside her mind. But she could not bring herself to utter any thanks, to remember that she had lips with which to praise.

The pain, the searing red and black that engulfed her, would not allow it. The arm could not let her stop.

Her body was limp behind it, so much useless flesh leaking tears that hung from the rigid, glowing appendage. She could not pull her arm from the longface’s throat, could not form a prayer for salvation. She could do nothing but close her eyes.

She tried to ignore the loud cracking sound that followed. She tried to ignore the feeling of her palm closing in on itself. She tried to ignore the bright flash of red behind her eyelids.

She tried, failed, and whispered, ‘Forgive me. .’

She had prayed before that she would never see what she did when she opened her eyes again.

There was nothing left of the longface. There was no iron, no black hair or even a trace of purple flesh. Nothing to even suggest that anyone had ever stood there, knelt there, died there.

Nothing, except Asper, upon the floor, and the black, sooty stains that surrounded her. Her arm was a testament, a whole, pink thing that now lay in her lap, satiated. It was whole again, free of burning, free of glowing. It felt normal, good.

Why, she asked her thoughts, does it feel good?

Whoever heard her had no answer.

Three times now, she thought next. Once for the frogman in the Riptide’s cargo hold. Twice for the longface. Three times-

That was an accident, she interrupted herself, no. . that was. .

‘Interesting. .’

She didn’t bother to look up at the sound of the masculine voice. It was far away now, the shadow cast by his slight form nothing but a wisp of blackness to join the smears upon the floor.

‘What do you call that?’ he asked.

‘A curse,’ she whispered in reply, ‘that the Gods won’t take away.’

‘There are no such things as Gods.’

She had no answer.

‘Power, however, is absolute. And you, little creature, have such a thing.’

Asper craned her neck up, feeling its stiffness, to regard the man. The male longface, clad in robes that looked untainted despite the water, blood and ash that seeped through the great hall, looked almost friendly compared to the woman. His face, narrow as it was, had a smile that was not unpleasant and his eyes flashed with an intrigue, rather than malice.

Or perhaps she was just too numb to see it.

‘I. . I killed her,’ was all Asper could choke out through her tears.

‘She is. . was just a female. There are more.’

‘I. . but. . I didn’t just kill her. I. . made her go away.’ She stared down at her arm again. ‘There’s nothing left of her.’

‘Truly impressive.’ His bony hands applauded. ‘Imagine my shock. I had no idea females could even use nethra, much less to such. . ends.’

‘It’s a curse,’ she repeated, more to herself than to him.

‘Whatever you choose to call it, it’s worthy of the attention of Sheraptus.’ She felt his eyes wander over her, felt his grin grow broader. ‘Other appreciable qualities considered. ’ He thrust his hand towards her like a weapon. ‘So, if you would please rise — our business here is concluded and we must be off.’

He was right, she thought as she looked up. The hall was largely abandoned now, the battle concluded in the moments when she had held her eyes tight and asked questions no one would answer.

Who had emerged victorious, she could not say.

The defeated lay dead in the dozens, stacked in heaps, strewn across the floor, floating listlessly in the pools of salt water. Flakes of ash drifted lazily on the breeze as the pulsating, fleshy sacs still burned like grotesque pyres. There were grunts called out in harsh tongues, iron scraping on stone as the longfaces hurried back to their vessel, leaving the bodies of their comrades where they lay.

Of her own companions, there was no sign.

Not such a bad thing, she reasoned; they wouldn’t have seen what she had just done. They wouldn’t have known she had the power. . the curse to unmake people, to reduce them to nothing. Dreadaeleon’s magic still left ash behind, Gariath left bodies in his wake. Of her foe, there was nothing left: no skin, no bone.

No soul.

She had not the strength to explain it any more, to justify it to them, to whoever Sheraptus was, or to herself. She could not bear to look upon the arm masquerading behind its pink softness, concealing the crimson and gloom. Three times had it emerged, two times it had left nothing, a thousand times had she looked up to the sky and asked why.

And a thousand times, no one had answered.

The male looked up at the sound of a wailing, warbling horn and frowned. ‘The time has come to depart, I’m afraid.’ He scrutinised her through his white eyes. ‘It has been a long day. Frankly, I am not sure you are worth the trouble it would take to bring you along.’ He snapped his fingers, sending a blue electric glow crackling at the tips. ‘Your arm will have to suffice. You can keep the other parts.’

Asper looked up as he levelled the finger at her, watching the sphere of lightning grow. It was not with apathy that she stared, but weariness, relief that came with the grim knowledge that there was only one way to ensure there would never be a fourth time.

The male muttered a word of power. The electricity burst forth with a loud cracking sound. Asper stared at it through eyes with no more tears to shed. The male’s own stare went alight with energy. One more word, she knew, and it would all be over.

That, too, was not such a bad thing.

‘BURN, HERETIC!’

A wall of flame erupted between the two of them. The electric blue faded as the male recoiled, snarling angrily. He turned, more annoyed than anything else, to regard the boy standing at the end of the hissing fire.

Dreadaeleon looked ready to keel over at any moment. His coat hung loosely, tattered in some places, bloodied in others, from a body that appeared shrunken and withered. The veins creeping up from his jawline and the violent quaking that seized his body suggested that whatever damage had been done to him was by his own hand, his magic having eaten at him deeper than any blade.

Asper could muster no excitement at his appearance, nor concern for his frailty. She felt a twinge of scorn, diluted by pity. All this meant was that someone else had to die before her curse could finally be lifted.

‘Ah.’ The male longface smiled at the newcomer with the familiarity of two old friends meeting. ‘I was wondering who that was.’ He glanced at the wall of flame and, with a word and a wave, reduced it to a sizzling black line upon the floor. ‘Decent enough work, really. I was beginning to wonder if any of your breed could use nethra at all.’

Dreadaeleon tilted his head to the side. The male grinned and held up a hand.

‘Apologies. “Magic” is your word for it, I believe.’

‘We have laws for it, too,’ the boy said sharply. ‘There are rules to practice by.’

‘Law. . rule. .’ The longface shrugged. ‘I have not learned those words yet. They sound like weakness to me, though.’ He smiled. ‘I suppose I should not be too surprised, though, since all your language seems to convey varying degrees of that. From my home, we-’

‘Clever,’ Dreadaeleon interrupted, taking a step forwards. ‘I’m less interested in where you came from and more in how you’re still standing.’

‘Ah, after this, you mean?’ He gestured over the burning sacs, the seas of ash. ‘Duty, I suppose someone of your breed might call it. The underscum are in our way. Sheraptus desires them dead and. . well, look. The price one pays for nethra would be a further detriment. Thusly. .’ He snapped his fingers, smiled. ‘We removed it.’

‘Impossible.’

‘We do not know that word, either.’

‘How many of you are there?’ the boy demanded. ‘How many heretics remain?’

‘Perhaps you refer to males, the only ones capable of nethra.’ The longface shrugged. ‘Not so many, but if power were not a rare quality, any thick-of-skull female could do it.’ He glanced sidelong at Asper. ‘Speaking of which, I have business with this one. If you had claims on her arm, you must live with that disappointment.’

‘Arm?’

In any other moment, Asper’s pulse would have risen, mind gone racing for excuses. Now, what did it matter what Dreadaeleon knew? He would be dead. She would follow. Nothing remained to be spoken, nothing remained to resist as the longface took a step forwards.

‘As well as whatever else I can salvage,’ he said, chuckling. ‘An arm is not such an important thing to one who carries no weapons, is it?’ His eyes ran up and down her body hungrily. ‘Particularly when the rest of her can be put to a much more proper use.’

His purple hand extended with the vaguest hint of an excited tremble coursing down his digits. His tongue flicked out, a tiny line of pink sliding across long, white teeth.

‘GET AWAY FROM HER!’ Dreadaeleon’s roar was followed by a racking cough, a shudder in his stance. The longface, if his quirked brow was any indication, seemed less than impressed.

‘This belongs to you? I am sorry in a terrible way, but I must damage your property. I need the arm.’ He waved dismissively. ‘You can have the rest when I am finished.’

‘I said,’ the boy uttered against the hiss of flames, ‘stay away from her.’

At that, Asper’s eyes did go slightly wider. The flames that danced on Dreadaeleon’s outstretched palm were barely stronger than that of a candle, but every moment they burned caused his body to shudder, to tremble. Why, she asked him silently, why don’t you do it? Burn your heretic. Save your laws.

She then saw the longface’s hand, also outstretched, a single finger pointed directly at her. She glanced back to Dreadaeleon. No, she wanted to cry out to him, but had no voice in her raw throat, don’t do it. Not for me, Dread. I want this to happen. . I want-

Dreadaeleon shuddered suddenly. The longface’s grin broadened as the boy shifted slightly, trying to conceal the dark stain that appeared on his lap.

‘Pushed yourself too far, it is apparent.’ The purple man laughed. ‘Is it really worth the shame, pinkling? I am no bloodthirsty female. Step aside, let me do my business, and you may clean yourself in peace. I have no wish to harm a fellow user.’

‘I’m not your fellow.’

‘Whatever laws separate us are as trivial and fleeting as the gods your breed claims to love.’

‘It’s not about laws.’

‘Oh. .’ The longface’s mouth twisted into a frown. ‘All this over a female, then? You do not have many where you come from?’

‘Stop talking about her,’ the boy spat. The sphere of flame growing in his palm bloomed into an orchid of fire. ‘I’m the only one standing in your way. Face me.’

The only one. . Asper let that thought drift into nothingness as the male longface raised his hand, levelled it at Dreadaeleon.

‘Point,’ he said simply, ‘goodbye.’

The longface thrust his hand forwards with a grunt. The air rippled as an invisible force struck Dreadaeleon, his fire extinguished and his frail body sent flying to crash against a pillar. He staggered to his feet, swayed precariously with only a moment to cast a desperate stare in her direction before crashing upon the floor, unmoving, unbreathing.

‘Dread.’ Asper could do no more than whisper, could find no strength. That was going to happen, she knew, he would die before she did, as the only one who had stood in the longface’s way. That was logical.

Why, then, did she want to cry out so much louder?

‘Annoying,’ the male muttered, turning back to her. ‘Perhaps it is worth taking whatever consists of your thoughts to find out what makes you do things like that.’ He flicked his fingers and spoke a word that called flames to his palms. ‘Small steps, I suppose. Arm first. Brain later.’

‘Dread. .’ she whispered again, watching the boy lying motionless in a puddle of salt water.

He could have stayed behind, she knew, he could have crept up on the longface and struck him from behind. If she had died, his laws would have been upheld, his faithlessness upheld. Maybe even proven, she thought.

Instead, he had stood against the longface, weakened as he was. He had died, his pants soiled, face-down upon unsympathetic stones. For what? That he might preserve her? Though he might not have known it, all he had preserved was a curse. And not knowing that, all he had done was give her the few breaths it took for the longface to approach her.

Where was the reason? Where was the logic?

By the time the longface stood over her, all teeth and fire, she had no answer and Dreadaeleon was still dead.

‘Do not think this to be unkind, little pinkling.’ He extended his hand, the fire engulfing it from tip to wrist. ‘It is the way of things, you find, as all others shall. We are netherling. We are Arkklan Kaharn.’ He narrowed his eyes, glowing red. ‘Ours is the right to take.’

There was no cry from her, no protest as he eyed her arm hungrily. She barely had eyes for him and his wicked fire. Her gaze was upon Dreadaeleon, her lips quivering as they sought the words to offer his limp body.

You shouldn’t have bothered, she thought. It’s better this way. . you didn’t have to die, Dread. I did. You shouldn’t have become involved.

‘Forgive me,’ was all she whispered.

All that she heard, however, was the throaty, ragged breath from above. Longface and priestess looked up as one, seeing the massive, red chest that rose and fell with each red-flecked burst of air. They looked up further, past the massive, winged shoulders and into the narrowed, black eyes that stared down contemptuously upon them.

‘Oh. . my. .’ The longface swallowed hard at the sight of rows of white, glistening teeth bared at him.

Gariath’s jaws flashed open, his roar sending the male’s white hair whipping across his purple face. The netherling responded swiftly, hands up like torches against the night, mouth straining not to fumble in fear as he uttered the words that caused the flames to leap from his palms and into the gaping maw of this new aggressor.

The dragonman vanished behind the curtain of fire for but a moment before emerging, flesh smeared black, blood boiling in the crevasses of his scowl, eyes painted a ferocious orange by the flame. His hands rose, pressing against the fire, containing it within his claws until he reached down to seize the netherling’s own digits with an extinguishing hiss and a sputter of smoke.

The longface’s shriek was louder than the sound of his fingers snapping, the tears streaming from his eyes thicker than the blood coating his foe’s face. He staggered backwards as Gariath released him, his appendages hanging limply at his sides, oozing liquid that sizzled as it spattered upon the ground.

‘You. . you dare!’ the longface tried to roar, but could only whimper as he fought to scowl through his sobs. ‘It is futile, beast! Your whole fleeting life is nothing but a sigh on the wind before Sheraptus finds you! Both of you! ALL OF YOU!’

Gariath ignored him, stalking towards the netherling with claws flexing.

‘We are netherling!’ the longface continued to shriek. ‘We come from nothing! We return to nothing! And nothing you do can change-’

‘Stop.’

Gariath interrupted the longface, sliding the tips of his claws between delicate teeth. He hooked another two digits under his prey’s upper jaw. The skin of the netherling’s mouth gave one groan of protest, choked on the man’s terrified sob.

‘Talking.’

Asper was jolted by the sound. The sudden rip, the shudder of the longface’s body as it twitched, then hung in Gariath’s grasp for a moment. When the body hit the floor, when Gariath stood, breathing heavily, streaked with blood and black, something purple, white and glistening clenched in his hand, she realised.

I’m still alive.

For all the death that surrounded her, all the ash pervading the air, all the blood on the stones, the only person who should have died was still alive. Her, she realised, and Gariath.

But Dread. .

‘Dread,’ she said suddenly, clambering to her feet. She looked to Gariath with desperation. ‘He’s-’

‘Still alive,’ the dragonman grunted, tossing the glistening object of purple and white over his shoulder to clatter and bounce across the floor.

‘He. . is?’

He is. She could see it, the faint stir of his body as he pulled himself out of the salt water, only to collapse again.

‘He is! He’s still alive.’

‘I am still alive.’

Asper looked up, took a step back as Gariath staggered forwards. The murder in his eyes had not dissipated, the red did not coat his hands entirely. His teeth were bared at her, his body shuddering with every haggard step he took towards her.

‘Still alive,’ he repeated, ‘because of you.’

‘Because of. .’ She glanced over his body, saw the gaping wounds, the chunks of missing flesh, the countless bruises. ‘Gariath, you need help.’

‘You already helped me,’ he snarled, taking another step forwards. ‘You fought that one longface, left me with three others.’ His wings twitched and his lip curled. ‘Does it look like three could kill me?’

At that moment, it looked like a half-blind, incontinent kitten could kill him, but she chose to say something more sympathetic.

‘I can tend to you, Gariath. I can-’

‘What can you do?’ he roared and his body trembled with the effort. ‘You cannot kill. You cannot let me be killed. You can’t do anything!’ She recoiled, not at his bared teeth, but at the tears that glistened in his eyes. ‘I should be dead! I should be with my ancestors! I should be with my family!’ He levelled a finger at her. ‘And all I have now. . is you.’

‘I. . didn’t-’

‘And you won’t.’ He drew his arm back. ‘Ever again.’

The blow came fiercely, but slowly. Asper instinctively darted away from it, but it did not stop. His great red fist became a falling comet, dragging the rest of him to the floor where he struck with a crash. She remained tense, even as he dragged himself towards her, extended a quivering hand and uttered two words.

‘Hate. . you. .’

And he fell. Still breathing, she noted, but not moving, like Dreadaeleon, like the rest of Irontide. Whatever it had been before, before it was taken by pirates, before it was taken by demons, it was truly forsaken now.

Bodies lay everywhere, the salt choked with blood, the stones littered with flesh, the air tainted by ash. Whatever netherlings had escaped were gone now, their snarling cries absent in the silence as smoke and water poured out of Irontide’s jagged hole. Death drew a merry ring about the hall, haphazard bodies scattered artistically in a ritual circle at the centre of which stood Asper, still alive, still breathing.

Still cursed.

‘Why,’ she asked as she collapsed to her knees, ‘why am I still alive?’

‘Good question.’

Denaos did not look entirely out of place, standing nearby, hands on hips as he surveyed the carnage. Clad in black, his flesh purple in places from bruising, he looked the very spectre of Gevrauch, come to reap a bloody harvest from the white and purple fields. The rogue merely scratched his chin, then looked to her and smiled.

‘Still alive, I see.’ His eyes drifted to Gariath and Dreadaeleon. ‘And them?’

‘Yes,’ she replied.

‘Not by much, it looks like,’ he said, wincing. Quietly, he stepped forwards. ‘Netherlings gone?’

‘Yes.’

‘Demons dead?’

‘Yes.’

She felt his shadow, cool against the heat of the flames. She felt his hand on her shoulder, strong against the softness of her aching body. She felt his eyes on hers, hard and real, full of questions and answers.

‘Asper,’ he asked, ‘are you all right?’

She bit her lower lip, wishing more than anything that she had tears left to weep with. Instead, she collapsed forwards, pressing her face against his shoulder as she whispered.

‘Yes.’