Danica had trouble finding her land legs — they’d been riding on the Razorwing’s back for hours, and the ground still seemed to shift and tilt beneath her even as she stepped onto the flat surface. Her head spun from dizziness and hunger, and her eyes watered in the smoke and haze. The light in the Netherwere was unnaturally dim and dank and often took Revengers years to adjust to.
They stood Cole and Danica side-by-side in front of a steep iron staircase leading to the depths of the processing tower. Both of t heir arms were still bound behind their backs. Black’s spirit wailed in the background, like he was lost at sea. Danica deduced that she had no chance of touching him so long as Raven was nearby and conscious.
She looked behind her. Burke supervised as the undead quietly hauled Cross down the ladder. He’d been wrapped up like a mummified corpse.
“Hey, bitch. Been a l ong time.”
Danica turned and looked at the man who’d sp o ke n. S he’d recognize the scratchy voice anywhere.
Vorgas Rake was lean, tall and unshaven, an imposing man with red-bl onde hair and a thin goatee surrounded by stubble. He dressed in black, and moved like a pan ther. The former pit-fighter had grown up as a street thug, but during his travels he’ d become extremely well-connected in the criminal underworld. Once he’d graduated from hired muscle to mercenary his influence and clout continued to grow. Eventually h e and his partners had formed T he Revengers, and they’d transformed Black Scar into what it was now. T hose partners were long gone, and Rake ran the show all by himself now.
“It has been a long time,” Danica answered. “ You d ick.”
Rake calmly stepp ed up and punch ed Danica in the stomach. He would never hit her in the face — he’d always told her how pretty she was.
The blow knocked the wind out of her, and for a moment Danica thought her insides might come spilling out. She wobbled in place and sank to her knees. Her breath s wouldn’t come, and her throat went raw as she tried to suck down air.
“You know you’re in deep shit, right?” Rake smiled.
Danica coughed.
“Just leave her alone,” Cole barked.
“Shut up, bitch,” growled a deep and monstrous voice. Geist stepped onto the platform. He was a mountain of a man, if indeed he was a man — six-foot-six and as broad as a barn, Geist was half-Doj and so badly scarred and burned he looked mostly dead. A cowl conceal ed most of his face, and a thick cloak made of gre y wool was wrapped around his bulk of muscles and heavy Revenger’s armor. Geist wasn’t terribly intelligent, but h e reveled in the act of killing and served Rake without question. A massive war axe and a n AA12 auto-shotgun were sl ung across his back.
“Should have known…” Danica coughed. “You two lovebirds…are never far apart.”
Geist stepped up and kicked Cole in the chest. She coughed and fell back. The gigantic steel-toed boot had torn open her shirt.
“You f ucker!” Black yelled. S he tried to get to her feet, but Raven secured her bonds and forced her back down to her knees.
H er spirit struggled in the distan ce. She sensed his frustration and rage at not being able to reach her.
“You’re t rying to call your spirit, aren’t you?” Rake smiled. “You’ve guessed by now that isn’t going to happen, I hope.” H is smile was cold and toothy. He actually would have be en quite attractive if not for the fact that he was such a lying and manipulative sadist. “Do you know why? ” he asked her. “ I’m sure you do.”
“I ’d thought…it was Narcosm…” she coughed. The Revengers had used the arcane drug for years to subdue captured mages, but when the effects hadn’t w o r n off and Danica had realized she could still detect her spir it’s presence, she ’d kno w n something else was going on. “But then I figured out that this ninja bitch behind me is a Fade.”
Rake smiled.
A Fade was a relatively new phenomenon, something of an anti-mage whose presence and force of willpower disrupt ed or suppress ed a mage’s arcane spirit. Danica had never actually run into one before, but she’d heard the stories. They were extremely rare, and some believed they didn’t even exist.
If only that were true.
“She’s smart,” Raven said behind her. T o emphasize her power, Raven exerted her will, and Danica sensed as her spirit slip ped even further away. She felt hollow and weak. H er chest w en t tight.
“Not too smart,” Rake said. Danica was still on her knees. She looked at Cole, who tried to get up. Behind her, the undead carried Cross towards a transport lift. “ I f she was smart she wouldn’t have stolen my ship, my prisoners and my men. And she would’ve had the good sense to stay hidden, so I c ould never find her.”
His smile was cold.
Danica smiled back.
“Who a re the new guys?” she asked with a nod towards the leathery undead, the tall and emaciated sentries with oversized grinning skulls and skeletal frames. “Is the Ebon Cities giving you troops now, too?”
“The Ebon Cities…” Rake laughed. He knelt down, and looked her in the eye. “Oh, Dani, you’ve missed so much in the last couple of years. I ’ve miss ed you. You know that, right?” His smile faded. “You were always one of my favorites. It really hurt when you left.” He stood up. “Th ey’re called Scarecrows: s pecial zombies with the martial skill s of a Vath but without the out-of-control bloodlust. They used to be Revengers. The Grand Vizier of Koth sold us the secrets of how to make them.”
Danica tried not to let her shock show. Koth was a renegade necropolis populated with outcast undead, exiled vampires and others not deemed worthy of rank by the Ebon Cities. The remote city of the dead had been relatively quiet the past few years, ever since Cross had destroyed their leader, the vampire called The Old One.
“Wh y are you allies with Koth?” she asked. “And w hat do you want with Cross?”
“Koth is the new super power, Dani,” Rake laughed. “The Southern Claw and the Ebon Cities have been so focused on destroying each other that you morons forgot all about Koth. And you forgot all about us.”
Raven pulled Black to her fee t and punched her in the kidneys. Pain flared down her back and into her thighs, and t ears of pain ran down her face. Geist picked up Cole, and a pair of Scarecrows stepped up and aimed their massive assault rifles at the women.
“Don’t worry about Cross,” Rake said. “He’s in good hands.” He stepped close r, un til his and Danica’s faces almost touched. His eyes were like icy glass. “You should worry more about what I’m going to do with you.”
ELEVEN
The y look into the dread sky and see a vampire fortress.
An island of jagged rock stands atop a narrow stone tower just a hundred yards away. This n ew edifice is adjacent to the tower of stone they woke on, and it’s practically a reflection save for one impo rtant difference: instead of being to pped by a small steel building, the second island is dominated by a citadel made of black rock and red iron.
It’ s a Bonespire. It’s a small Bonespire, roughly the size of a manor, but a Bonespire nevertheless.
That’s terrific, Kane says.
Look, Ronan says, and he points between the islands of stone.
The only way to get to the other mountain is to cross a narrow bridge made of crumbling earth. The bridge is only four or five feet wide but almost fifty feet long. B its of stone crumble and fa ll into the air. Both of t he thin towers are at least a mile high. They stand over a land of red water, black earth and roiling dark smoke.
A pile of equipment lies on the far side of the bridge: swords, axes, armor vests, and strange gauntlets attached to short muzzle d guns and long ammunition belts.
Great, Kane says. We’re in a fucking video game.
Do they expect us to attack the Bonespire? Sol asks. Why not send our mage with us?
