Black Halo

‘You ask the unnatural,’ Yldus replied. ‘You are here, beneath our feet. We are netherling. Because of this, you are going to die. It will not be swift. It will not be merciful. But it will happen. Ours is the right to take. Yours … the right to die.’

‘Then do it,’ the human spat back.

‘To demand is not your right. We require something in this city. You will offer it to us.’

‘Why should I? Why would I? You’ve killed …’ He paused to gasp, hacking viciously.

‘We have. We do.’ Yldus turned his gaze to the burning skyline. ‘To kill, to bleed, to die. This is simply what it means to be netherling.’ He glanced back at the man. ‘What does it mean to be human, overscum?’

‘It means … it …’

‘Hard to say, I realise. Females may only be concerned with your breed as to how much you glut their sikkhuns, but I have taken great pains to learn about your breed. It’s been difficult, but I have learned something.

‘To be human,’ he said, ‘is to deny. It is to fight, to flee, to beg or to pray, despite that each action leads to only one outcome. Your people can run, but we can run faster. Your people can fight, but we can kill them. Your people can pray …’ He glanced down at the man, taking note of the chain hanging from his neck. ‘Hasn’t worked so well for you, has it?

‘You are faced with inevitabilities: you will die. We will have what we need. Your people will die. How many of them, though, is undetermined. To kill is female. I cannot stop them from doing this. To direct is male. I can point them away from your people, let your people hide, flee, think that their gods are listening to them while we collect what we require and leave.’

He regarded the man evenly.

‘This is the choice you are offered. Deny it if you wish.’

The man’s face was too agonised to allow for any lengthy contemplation. His answer was swift and tinged with red.

‘What do you want?’

Yldus reached down, plucking the chain from the man’s neck. It ended in a symbol: a crude iron gauntlet clutching thirteen arrows. He studied it briefly, then held it before the man.

‘I know what this is,’ he said.

‘So?’

‘So you already know what I want.’

‘No,’ he said, shaking a trembling head. ‘No, I cannot do that. I swore an oath.’

‘Oaths are broken.’

‘Before the Gods.’

‘Gods are false.’

‘To perform a duty.’

‘You have failed,’ Yldus said. ‘Whatever you might have done for those you looked to is no longer a concern. Whatever you might do for those who look to you can still be effected.’

The man’s neck trembled under the weight of acknowledgement, forced him to nod weakly after a moment.

‘The temple,’ he said. He thrust a trembling finger to the distant cliffs and the humble building upon them. ‘What you seek is in the temple, beyond the pool. Do as you swore.’

‘It would be pointless,’ Yldus replied, rising to his feet. ‘I will do as netherlings do.’

‘Then whatever you do,’ the man said, grimacing, ‘whatever makes you need that cursed thing … you will die.’ He spoke without joy, without hate, without emotion. ‘And whatever you are, you will remember this day. You will know what it is you’re trying to kill. And you will know why we pray.’

He met Yldus’ eyes. He did not flinch in pain.

‘And I wonder who will answer yours?’

The man’s eyes were still, rigid with insulting certainty. Yldus felt his own narrow despite himself. He raised his hand and levelled it at the man, his vision bathed in crimson. The man did not flinch.

The man did not breathe.

Yldus lowered his arm, letting the power slip from his hand and eyes alike. The rain fell a little harder now, its droplets cold on his skin. The sky was grey now, the orange of the fire-painted clouds going runny as the blazes fell to impotent smoke.

He spared only another moment for the sight of the skyline, for the man, for this city before he trudged towards the distant cliffs, the metal solidarity of the First’s footsteps following him.

‘UYE!’ one of the longfaces howled.

‘TOH!’ six replied in grating harmony.

And then there was the sound of thunder.

Hidden behind the largest of the pillars marching the circle of the temple’s pool, the Mouth could not see the doors give way, but he heard them splinter open. He heard the sound of longfaces cursing as they made their way in; the defenders of Yonder had come here to the temple first, barricading the doors with crates and sandbags.

Not enough to stand against the invaders’ ram, of course, but the people of Yonder knew nothing of the creatures that had come in great black boats to their city. They could not have been prepared for the merciless heathen assault that came to their streets on howling war cries and clanging iron. They were people of fear and memory. Those people protected their churches, as much out of instinct as out of principle.

Their dedication to defending the doors, and later the streets, had made it easy enough for him to slip in unnoticed. The longfaces were complicating things, though.

‘This is why I hate coming in unannounced.’ A voice echoed: harsh, iron, female. ‘Look at what they put out to stop us. Wood. Sand. Barely more of an obstacle than the overscum. You know not a single female netherling died today?’

‘As I planned.’ Another voice replied: deep, arrogant, male. ‘These were not creatures worth bleeding over.’

‘If we had let them know we were coming, they might have been. They had weapons. They were clearly preparing for something.’

‘They had spears. For fishing,’ the male said. ‘Like Those Green Things back on the island. They are chattel. These were obstacles. Neither are worth losing females over.’

‘We’ve got plenty of females. What we don’t have is things worth fighting.’ The female muttered over the sound of more bodies entering. ‘I heard the Master’s ship sank. Everyone but him died in it. That must have been a fight.’

A chorus of female voices grunted their agreement.

‘And now we have sixteen fewer females for the final attack,’ the male replied wearily. ‘I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that, yet again, no one but me seems to be taking account of the long term. We have more important foes than pink things.’

‘Right, the underscum,’ she said. ‘But the Grey One That Grins says this thing will kill them, right? What’s the point, then?’

‘The point is to kill the underscum.’

‘We’ve done it before. With the poison.’

‘The poison is limited, and it’s far too weak to destroy what we’re meant to kill. This … relic, I believe it’s called, will give us the edge we need.’

‘We’re netherling. We have enough edges.’

‘And yet, here we are,’ the male sighed. ‘I don’t ask that you understand, Qaine, merely that you do.’ He hummed. ‘The overscum said it was beyond the pool … but where?’

The female echoed his thoughtful hum. The Mouth heard her shuffle around the pool’s perimeter. He slid lower against the pillar, shrouding himself further in the shadow of the temple. His hands slipped down to the satchel at his side, producing a short knife and the vial.

He stared at the latter intently. If he was discovered, there would be no time to use it, no time to deliver it to