4 Feeding Time

Lorn let herself to be guided by the witch as they crept through the city. Tharaxis was unlike any metropolis she’d known—it was massive in scale; she couldn’t fix it in her mind despite having seen it from a hilltop.

There were dead souls everywhere, huddling together in groups as if for warmth. Not that they were cold, she supposed. Being dead, well, such things didn’t matter. It could have been an icy wasteland and it would’ve made no difference. She got the sense they sought each other out of a need for comfort, a connection to their former lives, no matter if they couldn’t remember.

Lorn didn’t feel the need for that, though she did appreciate acquiring companions. She wasn’t at all certain of either, but she guessed being alone would’ve been worse.

‘Where are you taking me?’ she demanded, walking beside the former Aidari witch. She noted several child souls floating out a window. She gave a little hop as she walked, but again, it didn’t work. Just bloody great. I’m dead and I don’t even get to enjoy the fun bits. Maybe only deceased children could float?

She spotted one of the Fractured lingering in a darkened doorway. His eyes followed her, hungry. She pulled her gaze away, deciding that staring likely drew their attention. Maybe that was why other souls refused to meet her eyes.

‘There is a resistance in Tharaxis,’ said Shakti after a time. ‘It formed after the first attacks. We thought they were shraeds back then, you see. It weren’t till I found Axiom that I learnt the difference, yes, yes.’

‘Actually, it was I who found you,’ said the shraed, though he remained out of sight. His voice emanated from Shakti’s direction. ‘Don’t go rewriting history. They like to do that, but you shouldn’t.’

‘Yeah, he is a bit unusual, isn’t he?’ agreed Lorn.

‘Leastways, he’s not like his regular kin; shraeds are nasty enough creatures, yes, yes,’ said Shakti. ‘Souleaters are worse, though.’

Lorn guessed Axiom was hiding within Shakti’s soul or so she assumed from the dark aura surrounding the old woman. Those two seemed to have some symbiotic bond, or was it parasitic in nature? Whatever it was, she still couldn’t tease it out. They seemed an unlikely partnership.

‘Is Axiom something like the Shadow Twins then? Like a relative?’ Lorn hated calling them by their obviously chosen title; it sounded arrogant, and likely a name Manic had come up with. She also realised she missed them, and that irritated her. She had not expected such a range of emotions in the afterlife.

Shakti shook her head as she grabbed Lorn’s arm and hauled her to the opposite side of the street, passing what looked to be a particularly dangerous building. Filthy darkness – the only way Lorn could describe it – emanated from the windows and a jagged doorway. Whatever was inside, she didn’t want to know.

‘In a manner of speaking, he is, yes, yes,’ said the old woman. ‘All three turned sentient, independent of the Darkness as I’m sure you’ve guessed. Ax managed it sometime after the other two, although I don’t know the details, no, no. It’s something that may become more common, I think. Ax doesn’t tell me everything, though.’

‘You blather too much,’ said the shraed’s voice. ‘I can’t go trusting you with details.’ The aura around the dead witch shimmered and seemed to vibrate. ‘Not when you go rewriting history too. I’ll be infamous one day, and those details will be important. The Librarian was writing them all down, somewhere ... till he got interrupted.’

‘So,’ said Lorn, feeling a bit mischievous, ‘Ax serves them or something?’

Shakti glanced at her, and a ripple of darkness crossed her face like a spasm of anger. Lorn guessed that had been Axiom’s reaction, and not Shakti’s.

‘He does not serve, no, no. The Twins don’t demand loyalty or obedience. They make alliances. You should know not to antagonise their sort.’

Lorn smiled. ‘Oh, you know, it’s just something I do. Is that what happened, then? Did you make an alliance with a shraed?’

‘You ask too many questions. You should be quiet, yes, yes.’

‘Yeah,’ agreed Axiom in a somewhat sulky tone, ‘What the witch said.’

‘You promised me answers, remember? Both of you. I need to know everything. I can still back out of this little venture.’

The old woman halted in the middle of a street, with a sigh. ‘Fine, fine. I hope you know that you’re an irritating young woman, despite being dead, yes, yes. Let’s just say, Ax needs a sentient soul near him to survive.’

‘Hey,’ the shraed exclaimed. ‘I never gave you authority to go spitting my private business about the place!’

‘We need her,’ the witch snapped, before grimacing at Lorn. ‘His mind is tenuous at times, you see. He forgets things and recent events have left him ... a little fragile. He fears he will return to a mindless state, yes, yes.’

Another ripple of darkness distorted her features for a moment. ‘I’m not afraid! You don’t know anything witch!’

‘He also gets a little tetchy. I’m a caretaker of sorts until he can find a particular someone. I suppose in this, he is different.’

‘Don’t go naming names, witch.’

‘I didn’t.’

‘Good, because I still can’t remember what his name was. Just promise me you won’t go telling her anything else,’ the shraed added. ‘She might go rewriting stuff too. She looks the type.’

It wasn’t exactly a proper explanation, but Lorn decided not to press the issue. So, Axiom was in league with the twins, but likely had his own agenda, and was hiding in Tharaxis until he could find whoever it was, he’d lost, lest he lose his mind. Great. The someone he’d lost did intrigue her. A person he needed to survive, or so it sounded like. Why would a shraed, even a sentient one, need someone to survive? Interesting, but of little use to her.

‘Will this thing we’re doing help Threadfin?’ she asked.

The old healer’s face spasmed in irritation again, and this time it seemed the annoyance was her own. She nodded. ‘Possibly, in an indirect way, it might. There is no way to be certain, though, no, no. There are ripples across the Spectrum from even the smallest of actions. Now, are you happy, or do I need to answer another thousand questions?’

‘Actually, it’s one thousand three hundred and fifty-two, if you can spare the time.’

She received a long-suffering stare in response, though she thought she heard Axiom giggle. They got going again, and after a few more twists and turns, arrived at a broad alleyway. There was refuse lying about, mostly old bones, shattered pottery, and some fur. Nothing that belonged to the dead. She wondered again who had lived there. What had happened to them? She supposed it was likely their souls remained, those that hadn’t been eaten.

The old woman turned to her as they paused outside a stone entrance. There was no door. It seemed there were none in the city. Darkness bled from the portal, but nothing like she’d seen earlier—it was an absence of light rather than a malevolent presence.

‘This is the way to the Librarian’s former abode,’ Shakti warned. ‘That creature used to snatch souls of its own, you know. Of course, he’s not at home these days. Got snatched, the arrogant two-headed imbecile, hah!’

‘Then why are we here?’ Lorn demanded.

‘Because its old lair is now the heart of our resistance. We took it over. Or, well, our leader did.’

Axiom chose that moment to appear, separating from the witch and taking the form of a young man. Perhaps his contact with her soul had given him more energy or something. He seemed to be getting better at it. Though the form shimmered now and then, it was otherwise convincing.

The shraed glanced at her and shrugged. ‘I’ve been practicing. Anyway, the Librarian wasn’t near as clever as what he thought himself, or themselves? He or they, left a lot of information behind, and we’ve learned enough to enter the souleater’s realm. In fact, we have a plan.’

Lorn stared back at him, confused.

The shraed grinned. ‘We learned that another Tharaxis is layered over this one. The eaters exist there, crossing over to this Tharaxis to hunt. We need a way to cross to their side.’

‘Yes, yes, yes,’ muttered Shakti, climbing the few steps to the door. ‘Let’s get on with this before—’

A massive shadow swept over their heads.

Instinctively, Lorn ducked. Then another swept down and snatched Shakti off her feet. Her soul seemed to stretch into nothingness as she was hauled into the air screeching.

***

LORN HID INSIDE THE doorway. There was no sign of Shakti. Gone. Eaten.

It was obvious they’d been attacked by souleaters, though she’d failed to get a proper look. Winged, dark, and unnaturally fast was all she remembered. Screams ripped through Tharaxis and she spotted souls fleeing, though others just stood staring. One fled past where she was hiding, until a souleater landed in his path. One of its wings arched down, and from it extended a long talon that seemed insubstantial compared to the rest of the predator. It pinned the man’s soul—not cutting, but somehow holding him in place.

Had she been alive she wouldn’t have dared breathe or move a muscle. Being dead, remaining still without breathing wasn’t much of a challenge.

And this time, she got a good look at the creature.

***

YALDO CRIED OUT IN terror as an eater descended and snatched Kael from the rooftop. His friend let loose a mournful wail as the eater climbed, its vast wings beating an horrendous downdraft.

The boy hadn’t even tried to run. It was if he’d finally accepted his fate. Well, Yaldo bloody well hadn’t.

He toppled backwards from the blast of wind, slamming against the rooftop. There was no wind in Tharaxis but that which the eaters’ created. It was powerful enough to toss souls for leagues, not that it mattered. The eaters always found them.

A second creature came hurtling down, and Yaldo with a squeal leapt over the roof’s edge. It was a long way down, this building tens of stories high. Being dead was fun sometimes, and he’d practiced falling with Kael many times. It wasn’t like falling when alive of course, since in Tharaxis, they’d let themselves smash into the ground. It didn’t hurt, more like being hit by a hard gust of wind. Both boys had liked the feeling.

Yaldo had been caught by the eaters twice, but he’d escaped both times. He’d also gotten sick afterwards, but Aiyana had helped him get better. He didn’t know why he hadn’t turned into one of the Fractured.

When he was halfway down, he let himself drift, and then fell in towards the building. He’d discovered by trial and error, that if he willed something, he could make it happen. In this way, he fell in through an open window and landed lightly. Then he broke into a run. Floating was fun, but it was slower. He’d argued with Kael that it should’ve been the other way around, but the laws of Tharaxis said different.

The room behind him exploded in a haze of dust and bricks. Yaldo willed himself to speed. He didn’t know much about how things were supposed to work. He’d never paid attention to his lessons when alive, or at least, he pretended he hadn’t. Still, he knew by instinct how things did work in Tharaxis. He’d tried teaching Kael everything he’d figured out, but the other boy always had trouble picking things up. He’d been more dead than Yaldo. Poor old Kael.

He zipped through the building, which like most in Tharaxis, was mostly empty. Dead grown-ups seemed to like gathering in open streets, or huddling in doorways. It made the hunt easier for the eaters. The souls of children seemed to have a better grasp of survival, and like Yaldo, often hid within the darkness of the buildings. Unfortunately, this meant the eaters sought them out more. They liked the chase.

Yaldo passed a few of those child souls as he crossed into a second building, and yelled at them to flee.

Everything exploded behind him, and the eater seemed to be gaining on him. With a yell, Yaldo leapt through a window and willed himself to float upwards at speed.

Unfortunately, there was another eater waiting for him to do just that.

It seemed his time had also run out.