20​ The Fetch

WITHIN THE HULKING fortress, Taver paced the uneven basalt floor, ignoring the ghost’s stare. Perhaps the room had once been a bed chamber. Where Reaper’s End was set deep into the mountain side, many rooms had stone floors unlike the rotting wooden ones in other areas. It meant two thirds of the fortress was habitable.

The refugees from Vasara had fled once it was clear there was no hope. Reapers was quiet; no Necros Guardians, no Aidari bustling about with chores, and no virals but for Tezcat and Nisky. Beezer had thrown everything into one last battle, and it had been suicide. Well, perhaps that wasn’t the right word for it. Was there a word for the undead ending their own existence? Anyway, none of it made sense to Taver as he paced across the uneven stone floor. He didn’t know if they were safe, or what to do next. All the while he was under the watchful eyes of a bloody ghost. Apparently, it had followed them when they had fled to the fortress, to find Nisky it’s only occupant. She was still recovering.

The ghost woman studied him from a corner of the wide chamber. She was by a narrow window. There were no shutters, nothing to block the cool breeze that wafted inside, but it didn’t disrupt her form. Not that it should have, he supposed. He had no experience with ghosts. It was hard to ignore her.

He half-expected his friend to disappear as she had once before, but the ghost woman seemed content to watch them. No, not a ghost, Tezcat had claimed with a decisive nod when he’d asked. Whenever he glanced at the woman, he saw right through her. She certainly looked like one.

‘She’s makin’ moon-eyes at you,’ laughed Tezcat, which caused him to whirl, and look right at the ghost. ‘She’s blinkin’ at you, hah!’

‘You mean winking, and I seriously doubt it. Got some ghost-grit stuck in her eye probably. You know, since you’re half dead, you should know more about this stuff.’

Tezcat folded her arms, tapping her foot. ‘Now, that’s nots nice.’

‘I don’t feel like being nice, and ...,’ he began, and then threw his arms up. ‘Everything is just so messed up.’

‘You has gots a girlfriend at least, hah!’

‘There’s a name for the sort of thing you’re suggesting,’ he growled. There had to be. The woman was smiling, but not at him. Her eyes followed Tezcat, now that he’d taken more notice. Cobwebs and dust smothered what furniture remained, oak and pine mostly. Much of it was rotting or falling to pieces where water had gotten in. There was a stench of damp and mould.

‘What is she doing here?’ he asked for the fifth time. ‘Why did she follow us? What did she do to Beezer and the others?’

‘You asked me afore, ’member?’

‘Yeah, and you didn’t give me any straight answers.’

‘She’s waitin’.’

‘Right, you said that, but waiting for what?’

There was a long pause, her brow furrowing. ‘Me, I thinks.’

‘Uh, does that include Nisky too?’ He’d developed suspicions from the bits she’d already told him, but he wanted confirmation. He didn’t like where this was going, but not knowing was worse.

‘I suppose.’

‘Cat, I’m not an idiot.’

‘You is sure abouts that?’

He sighed, pushing down the desire to lash out. He loved her, albeit in a way he found hard to define, but sometimes she just ... ‘I know there’s a connection between virals and this ghost-woman of yours, but why is she here now?’

‘To helps with ours ... um, salvation.’ She struggled a bit over the last word. She was picking at some dead skin on her left arm, peeling it off. It was something she did sometimes when uncomfortable.

‘You’re not being helpful.’ Then a thought occurred and he halted. ‘Okay, are you at least able to talk to her, or something?’ He wasn’t certain what the something might be. Virals could do a lot of strange stuff.

‘Of course. We talks all the time.’

‘You do?’ He shook his head. ‘Well, how was I supposed to know? It’s not like she’s said much since we got here.’

‘Well, how cans she? She’s not here, stupid.’

Taver stared at her, scratched his head, then glanced over at the ghost. ‘Cat, I can see her. If she’s not here, then where is she?’

‘Some-when else, and that’s alls I is sayin’. I promised, Tav.’

‘It was Beezer who told you not to tell me, wasn’t it?’

Tezcat screwed her face up in an obvious effort not to say too much. ‘Breathers doesn’t needs to know viral secrets, and I and Nisky is the last ones, on these islands anyways. We’ll takes them secrets with us when we goes ... um, some-when else.’

Taver tugged at his hair in exasperation, but then stopped to glance back at her. ‘Wait, what?’

She folded her arms and gave him a grin, one all teeth.

‘Fine, fine,’ he snapped feeling a surge of heat in his belly again. ‘You don’t want to tell me. I get it. I’m a stupid breather who doesn’t need to know anything. I know something is going on, and I don’t like it.’

‘You is my friend,’ she said in a small voice.

His anger vanished in an instant. She always had a way of doing that. ‘I’m sorry, Cat. It’s just, I don’t know how to protect you. Those wights out there, there’s nothing to stop them coming in here is there? I need to find out from her if you’re safe.’

She nodded. ‘Okay, I’ll goes ask.’ She walked over to the corner, where the ghost-woman was, and then they both vanished. Taver stood transfixed, staring at the spot where they’d been. He shook his head and resumed pacing, more nervous than before.

There were actual ghosts – assuming Tezcat was right about this woman not being one – rumoured to be guarding Reaper’s End. Not that he’d seen any. At least, if they existed, they’d once been human in life. He thought he’d rather them than this one who threatened to take Tezcat from him.

A hand tugging his tunic made him jump and utter a curse. ‘She says,’ announced Tezcat, ‘real ghosts doesn’t let breathers in, but them wights is different. Them ghosts what live here can’t stop ’em.’

‘Wait, if they stop breathers, then how come they let me in?’ So, there were ghosts at Reaper’s End after all. He glanced at the corner to find the ghost-woman had returned.

‘Those ghosts has all fled into the mountains. They doesn’t like wights much.’ The undead girl then shrugged. ‘She says it wouldn’t has made much difference far as you is concerned. She gives weird answers sometimes. Just says you is different, and them ghosts knows you. Asides, I thinks Beezer had made a deal with ’em, to let Aidari and Necros pass.’

‘That’s it?’ No one thinks I’m going to like what I hear. Is the truth about who I am so terrible? Son of Nalrost. No, he refused to let himself think on it. If they survived, he’d have time to worry over it later.

‘We needs to trap ’em all.’

‘What are you talking about?’ He didn’t mean to be rude, but he felt irritable, as though itching all over and unable to scratch.

‘Them wights what’s got yours knees all knockin’ together.’ She giggled, but her voice had a nervous edge.

‘Okay, how are we supposed to do the impossible then?’

‘She says we needs big mirrors. They doesn’t like reflections, at least not theirs own. Minds me o’ my friend.’

‘Eh?’

‘Oh, you doesn’t knows him because he’s not born yet. His name is, uh, um, well, it will be Fin Todder.’ By the look on her face, he could see she’d no intention of telling him more. Not born yet? What was happening? She’d screwed her face up again, brow furrowing.

He shook his head to clear it, trying to focus on what he could understand. ‘And the mirrors will work?’ 

She shrugged. ‘There’s some mirrors in an old room downstairs. Nisk’s looking at ’em. She knows.’

Oh yeah, he thought, virals can communicate without speaking, or at least these two can.

A faint shriek erupted in the distance beyond the narrow window. With a start, he realised Tezcat and the woman had vanished.

I hate it when she does that.

***

HAVING GOTTEN LOST twice, he discovered Nisky in an old hall deeper within Reaper’s End. Somewhat recovered, she stood below two wall-mounted mirrors. She still looked gaunt, near skeletal, although, he supposed, it’s a look the undead do well. It didn’t inspire confidence in him, however.

The space itself was massive, having once served as a great hall or a throne room. Some one hundred feet across at its widest, and forty high at the centre, it was oval shaped. Decorated columns lined the room’s centre leading to an empty dais at the far end. There were twin polished bronze disks, ten feet in diameter, mounted on the wall to one side. Massive braziers heaped with coals stood below each disk. Taver assumed that with the braziers lit, the chamber would fill with golden light from the mirrors. As it was, their glory was dim, the only light coming from a dozen wall mounted torches.

Nisky, balancing on wooden steps, was in the process of attempting to cover up one of the mirrors. Taver rushed to help her.

She nodded her thanks. They covered both with tapestries ripped from the opposite wall, and rigged them to a single rope. Two mirrors, big as they were, hardly seemed enough. There were thousands of wights to trap, assuming this was going to work at all.

‘Okay,’ he said, sweating as he stood with hands on hips to examine the result. ‘How is this going to go?’

‘Well, I,’ Nisky replied, ‘will spring the trap at the right moment, I would imagine. The wrong moment won’t do after all.’

‘That’s it? A couple of mirrors is all we’ve got? I know they’re big, but after what I’ve seen, it seems a little pathetic.’ How does this work anyway? Obviously, it was going to involve magic.

‘What were you expecting? A heroic army in golden armour, with silver mirrored shields, advancing on the enemy in glorious battle?’

He frowned, and then grinned. ‘You know, that doesn’t sound half bad. Okay, what about myself and Cat? What do we do?’

‘You will be the bait,’ she said with an answering grin, which unnerved him. He’d never seen her grin like that. It looked, feral and like she knew something he didn’t. Something important.

‘You know, it didn’t work out well last time we tried that.’

‘I guess that depends on perspective, doesn’t it?’

Now, what was that supposed to mean? ‘Uh, do the mirrors trap them like reflections or something?’

Instead of answering, she said, ‘Beezer knew the wights would circumvent any trap he laid, any attempt to ambush them.’

‘So, you’re saying he sent us up into the mountains, knowing we’d fail?’

‘But you didn’t fail.’

‘Depends on perspective.’

She smiled. ‘I know now why I like you. You remind me of my late husband.’

Oh no, he thought, what’s that supposed to mean? ‘Cat won’t tell me anything. What are you both hiding from me?’

‘Everything, of course.’

‘Great.’

‘It is as it must be, since we are the undead, and you are of the living. You are Aidari. You should know this.’

Well, that tells me nothing. ‘My studies got cut short. I didn’t get to that part.’ Do I want to know anyhow? Probably something I won’t like. In fact, it will definitely be something I won’t like.

A shriek heralded their arrival, somewhere outside. Rushing to one of the tall windows, on the opposite side, they peered out through smeared, cracked glass. These windows were more recent, added in the last few decades by the mages, he guessed. It was difficult to make out anything through the bubbled panes, but some had holes. The day was growing old, but it was light enough to see by. Damn you, Cat, where are you? If she didn’t return, would it not be for the best? I guess, it depends on where she’s gotten to.

‘If this fails,’ whispered Nisky in his ear, her voice husky, ‘you must run. You are more important than you realise. It will not be easy to defeat.’

He nodded agreement, although he did not intend to leave his friend behind. If she wouldn’t go, neither would he. ‘You said, it, but there are thousands out there.’

‘There were, but they’ve converged into a single entity. We call it a, Fetch.’

Well, that sounded a lot worse.

‘We undead have a sense for such things, an arcane knowledge, which is innate.’

‘In other words, you knew this would happen.’

She stared off though the window pane, into nothing. ‘Suspected, would be more accurate. There are but three of us remaining. No matter how skilled I am, this Fetch ...,’ her face fell, as she glanced at him.

‘We’re in trouble in other words.’

‘Perhaps. It is a single reflection of all those wights. The one who summoned them, she worked the necessary magic to form this creature. She seeks to spare you, and will not risk thousands of wights overwhelming this fortress. One Fetch, one single mind, this she can control better and thus keep it from killing you. A mother’s love is powerful.’

‘She is not my mother,’ he shot back, recalling his odd conversation with Beezer. ‘She is not.’

Nisky smiled, but it was a sad one.

He forced himself to calm. ‘Wait, if you’re right and she wants to keep me safe, why do you want me to run if it goes bad?’ If it goes bad? As though there was any other way for it to go.

Nisky grimaced. ‘All I know is you are powerful in your own right. You just don’t know it yet. For now, she will control you if she can. There is much more at stake here than you can appreciate.’

He didn’t want to think about Rade, whoever she really was. I’ll deal with her when the time comes. ‘Okay, then tell me who is the ghost-woman. I mean, the one upstairs? Nisky, I need to know. Please.’

The undead woman shook her head. ‘Tezcat doesn’t want to tell you, because you don’t want to hear. She does not wish to hurt you.’

‘Wait, she told me Beezer ...’ no, actually, he had assumed and she’d let him.

‘I know she loves you, Taver, and the fact you breathe air, and that your heart beats doesn’t factor into it. But then, you know this.’

‘I don’t—’

‘She’s leaving, Taver, as am I. We go to re-join the others. A war is coming, a conflict that defines who and what we are. It is the reason for our existence. We knew this moment would arrive. Beezer has been preparing us for some time. Our big secret. All of the undead knew.’

Taver didn’t say anything for several minutes. Another shriek ripped through the night, but he barely heard. The ghostly woman was responsible for taking the undead. Salvation, was the word Tezcat had used, a word she’d gone to the trouble of learning to say correctly. He remembered the ghost on the battlefield. Beezer and the others, they’d planned for their own defeat, but perhaps it had been something else.

‘Who is she?’

‘One day, her name will be known, and remembered for all time.’

‘Oh, I get it. I don’t need to know.’

‘She has not been born yet, Taver. We are all joined to her, all undead linked to her soul across time. I do not know how, only that it took extreme magical skill to achieve, and much death. She will not exist for another two hundred years. Ignore the decrepit bodies we wear. Those don’t matter. It’s what’s inside that counts. We will be needed, just not here, and not now. This way, we will be preserved.’

It was then he spotted the creature as he glanced out of the window. It landed on a derelict tower, which jutted at right angles to the main fortress. Arching its neck, the menace spread ethereal wings, balancing upon a crooked spire. The earliest stars peeked through the darkening blue.

Tezcat returned with a sharp tug on his sleeve, making Taver jump and curse. He would never get used to that.

This time she didn’t giggle, but wore a grave look on her face. He glanced back outside in time to see the Fetch spread its wings and dive from the tower.

It was headed straight for them.