6 A Vanth

AIYANA FLED THROUGH the palace corridors, fighting back an urge to cry for help. There were no guards in sight, and the four who’d guarded her chambers were missing. Whatever had occurred outside didn’t explain it. They were never to leave their post. Never!

She came to a halt in an empty corridor, and stared at the walls, ceiling frescos, the carved columns, looking about her. After the shuddering vibrations from the explosion outside, she’d begun hearing screams and had spotted smoke from her window. Something terrible had occurred, but she’d had no time to discover what. There were no people, no servants, no mongrels, workers, or guards. It was too eerie, too silent.

It should also have been daylight, but darkness had fallen. It was not yet noon. Her viralic magic burgeoned, and she felt for life within the palace, the courtyards outside. Anywhere.

Nothing, as if the whole city had vanished. Shadows gathered near her, and from them, she sensed malevolence. Aiyana fled, searching for an escape from this nightmare. Perhaps that was it; she was dreaming, but no, it felt too real. The viral souls moaned in her skull, but they didn’t speak. She called out in her mind, pleading for their help. It was like shouting underwater. Something muddled her connection to them.

She shoved through a set of tall wooden doors and found herself in an inn. Confused, she turned to go back, and found in place of the corridor behind her a dark empty street. Had she run the whole way from the palace? Why didn’t she remember it, and had she run all day until after dark? It made no sense.

She entered the inn, feeling safer indoors than alone outside. Shadows gathered and this time coalesced quicker, into a shape. A man’s form with the face hidden beneath a huge hood, but she knew it was no man. It turned its cowled head to regard her, revealing four unblinking black eyes. A long cloak shrouded its body, but then she realised it wasn’t a cloak at all. It was feathered wings.

The creature reached out a claw towards her. She found herself unable to flee, transfixed by its gaze.

‘My lady,’ shouted a voice, but Aiyana found herself unable to turn. Three figures rushed past, slashing swords at the winged spectre along with eruptions of intense magic, driving it back. A screech of pain erupted from it and it evaporated in a black mist.

Reality and daylight came rushing back in. Aiyana staggered. The inn’s patrons were in a panic, cries and screams all around her. Patrons? There had been no one there when she’d entered.

‘We must leave, now!’ her imperial marshal ordered, shoving her into motion. Aiyana had been certain three people had attacked the creature, but there was no sign of the others. ‘Run,’ the imperial marshal snapped, and Aiyana did.

The ceiling of the inn’s common room split with a crack. Dust and masonry rained on them and people cried out. Fire erupted, licking at the entrance and walls. Aiyana smelled pungent sweat beneath smoke and dust.

Spotting a mongrel and a little girl hiding beneath a table, she pulled away from her marshal, grabbing the hissing creature and the girl. Orange flames consumed the main corridor, billowing smoke into the main room. There looked to be one exit remaining through what appeared to be the kitchens.

The smoke worsened and her eyes watered. Choking, spluttering, she bent low and stumbled over an inert form, then several others – patrons or kitchen staff. She clutched the child to her chest as the mongrel clung to her back, sharp claws digging in.

The ceiling fractures lengthened, raining dust. It wasn’t just fracturing; it was bubbling like black boiling oil. Screams came from upstairs too. The marshal picked her way across the bodies towards the kitchen exit, shouldering the door. It opened a fraction, but there was a corpse blocking it. The former Aidari leader pushed harder until there was enough room.

Aiyana followed, stepping over what must have been the cook, a portly woman in her fifties. There was a mask of horror on her stilled face. Out through the kitchens past another cook sprawled dead across a sack of onions.

They fled into the alleyway, ignoring the growling protests of the mongrel and the girl’s cries. The alley was narrow, dank, and foul, suggesting they were near the Muck Quarter. The alleys of the Pleth and Imperial Quarters were paved and free of detritus. How had she gotten this far without knowing it? She realised it had to be magic. Rats and a lone kecc with mange scurried through inedible mulch, unbothered by their presence.

Aiyana set the girl down, and the mongrel climbed off her back. The child was crying, her knees scraped and bloody as she squatted in a puddle.

‘Back to the palace,’ Scatter said, breathing hard. ‘There is no time to rest.’ She grabbed the child, lifting her up while trying to soothe her. ‘We’ll take her with us until we can locate the family.’ The mongrel brushed itself off with a series of clicks and hisses, but it followed too.

‘How did I get here?’ Aiyana mumbled, a hand to her head, legs feeling leaden.

‘It took a while to figure out where you had gone to, my lady. I’ve been searching for you for an hour.’

Aiyana thought her marshal was being evasive with her answer. ‘What ... what was that thing?’

The child in one arm, the dark-skinned Hatavan placed the other around Aiyana’s waist and helped her to move quicker. ‘We must keep going.’

‘Scatter?’

‘You have heard of the Fallen Ones? Well, Nalrost wrote a little about the angels he encountered, including the fallen sort.’

‘That was a fallen angel?’

Scatter nodded as they struggled through the streets. People stood outside their homes, with shops, blacksmiths, stalls, all left idle as everyone stared at something. ‘A particular type of fallen called a, vanth. A higher Rift, or class if you will.

‘Nalrost tried to copy them in his experiments, but it didn’t go well and he created vampires instead. You’ve heard a little about those? Well, you can imagine what a vanth is like then. I know little myself. Let’s just say if it’s hunting you, you’re in serious trouble.’

Aiyana almost laughed. ‘Is there another kind?’

When they passed through the Pleth Quarter on their return journey, Aiyana forgot all about the vanth.

Utter devastation stretched for street after street towards the palace, and somehow, she knew a young girl was to blame.

‡

LATER IN THE THRONE room, with the entrance doors shut and the guard quadrupled with the latest recruits, Aiyana paced back and forth. Her imperial marshal sat patient, waiting.

‘You said it’s hunting me,’ said Aiyana, deciding not to mention the voices in her head telling her the exact same thing. ‘If so, I imagine it’ll try again, and soon.’ When the marshal said nothing, she added, ‘Well, I’m right, aren’t I?’

‘What we know,’ said Scatter, ‘of vanths or any of the Fallen, is precious little. You met another Fallen One, remember? Andromeda. She was a harpy.’

Aiyana nodded. ‘Somehow, this vanth seems worse. I can’t fight it, can I?’

‘They do not quit until their victim is dead,’ said Scatter with a wince. ‘There is no known defence against them. Trust me, I would know.’

An odd thing to say, but Aiyana didn’t press her. She had too much to worry about. ‘You’re not making me feel any better.’

‘You need to know what you’re up against. I may have fought it off using my magic. However, destroying it is another matter.’

The fact that Scatter had done what Aiyana hadn’t been able to made her wonder: who was this woman?

‘The destruction in the Pleth Quarter; is there a connection to this vanth?’ Like her brother, she did not often accept coincidence.

Scatter shook her head. ‘It looks as though the girl is responsible. It may be the vanth attacked her and she was protecting herself. We don’t know, but we were there when a ghoul and the Grim’s Torments did attack. Hard to believe for such a child, but she put up a good fight.’

‘No,’ Aiyana said, ‘it’s quite easy to believe. I’ve spent time with her. When my brother first sent her to me, I spent hours trying to get to know her. She scares me more than the vanth. After all, she destroyed half the Pleth. That vanth just destroyed an inn.’

‘We don’t know,’ said Scatter, ‘whether she has any connection to the Fallen One. To be honest, what we know about either is limited. We don’t even know why the vanth is targeting—’

‘I know,’ snapped Aiyana, halting her pacing to place her head in both hands. ‘I know why it is after me.’ She lowered her hands and looked at the other woman, wondering how much to tell her. ‘Do you understand what it’s like to have thousands of voices in your head? All pleading with you? Depending on you? It’s not me it wants to destroy.’

Scatter’s face filled with compassion.

Oh, to Grim’s own hell with her sympathy, she thought. She doesn’t understand. She can’t.

‘Tartaros,’ said Scatter, ‘consumes the Spectrum and seeks the end of all existence. You must act soon to release their souls before the vanth can stop you.’

‘Wait ... you know?’

Scatter nodded, looking solemn. ‘The Aidari serve the undead. I am now your imperial marshal, yet I will always be Aidari. You need to know the vanth is not alone. There are others like it commanding a horde of revenants. They will invade this world and there must be a viral horde to meet them in battle. No human legion can withstand them. This is a fight for the undead.’

Aiyana advanced on her marshal, who rose from her seat. She felt furious the woman hadn’t spoken of this before. The Hatavan’s dark face was a placid mask.

The tongue-lashing Aiyana had been about to deliver, died on her lips. It wasn’t Scatter’s fault and she knew why she felt angry. I’m afraid. Terrified, if I’m honest. ‘I, I need to figure out how to do it.’

‘You mean,’ asked Scatter with a look of surprise, ‘you don’t know how?’

Aiyana offered her a withering look. ‘There must be some knowledge passed down to the Aidari.’

‘If you wish to find answers, I’m afraid you will have to look for them in the White Daemoni. Nalrost’s writings are incomplete, damaged, with whole sections missing. Believe me, I’ve spent my life reading them. All Aidari have. However, I do not think the paladins will grant you access.’

‘I can handle the paladins.’

Scatter took Aiyana’s hands in hers, startling her with the warmth of such action. ‘I know you feel alone. I know you miss her, and you need her now more than before. You knew the love of an angelic soul, which is no small thing.’

‘You, you know who she was?’ How could this woman know so much? Had she been spying on her?

Scatter smiled. ‘It is a wonder for angels do not love humans easily, and never the undead. You are special, Aiyana Todralan and we are with you.’

Aiyana felt herself trembling. ‘I feel lost. I don’t know who I am. I don’t know if I can do this.’ Learning her friend, her lover, had been Angelborn hadn’t changed anything. Cathya Shivar had been everything, beautiful, loving, fun and a real pain in the butt at times. Oh, Cathya, my love, you left me alone. No friend or brother could fill the void.

The Aidari leader, whom Aiyana had begun to suspect was something or someone else, hugged her tight. ‘You have me,’ the Hatavan whispered in her ear. ‘I can’t replace Cathya, but I’ll help you get through this.’

Well, Aiyana thought, if I’m going to die, then let it be on my terms. I will not let the Darkness taste victory.

I will find a way to release the viral horde.