Black Halo

The tome is the key. The man in the cave told me that. There’s more written on it than Miron would have me believe. His purpose was to lie and to obscure. Maybe there’s something worse written in it than I would imagine. But maybe … maybe there’s something in it I need to see, no matter the danger.

And there is plenty.

The Shen are numerous, Togu has told me. They relentlessly patrol their island home of Jaga. They tattoo themselves with a black line for each kill they make, a red line for each head they’ve crushed. I’ve never seen one without at least three red lines upon it, the rest of them in black. They are violent; they are watchful; they live on an island that no one knows the location of.

And they have the tome.

I will go after it. I will find it. I will learn the truth inside it. I will take them, the betrayers, with me.

I won’t give them another chance to kill me.

I will follow my purpose.

I will kill them all.

Epilogue

THE STIRRING IN THE SEA

Mesri had been a holy man, once: a revered speaker of the will of the Zamanthras. He had guided his people through many trials and many hardships. He was the chain that had held Port Yonder together. He was a leader. He was a man of the Gods. He was good.

And now, he was a fast-fading memory, his eyes shut tight and drifting beneath a cloak of shimmering blue as his body was commended to the depths. The last body to go under, the other victims of the longfaces’ attack having since been offered to the ocean. It had begun reverently enough, with the ritual candles burned and the holy words spoken.

But the candles had been extinguished by a stray wave. The people did not know all the words. Mesri did. Mesri was dead. So was half of Port Yonder. And once that reality became too apparent, the funerals lasted as long as it took to identify the bodies and drop them into the harbour.

By the time they sent Mesri to Zamanthras, only two remained to watch him sink beneath the blue. Only Kasla. Only Hanth.

The girl peered out over the edge of the dock. ‘Do we say something?’

‘To who?’ he asked.

She glanced around the empty harbour. ‘To Zamanthras?’

‘Feel free,’ he said.

Kasla inhaled deeply and looked for inspiration. She looked to the sky, grey and thundering. She looked to the sea, glutted with corpses. She looked to the city, its blackened ruin and blood-spattered sands. And so, she looked out over the ocean and spat.

‘Thanks for nothing.’

They continued to stare at the sea, saying nothing. Neither of them felt an obligation to stay, to remain silent. Neither of them knew where they would go, what they would say.

‘Are you going to stay?’ Kasla asked.

‘I am returning home,’ he replied.

‘You say that, but you don’t look like you’re from around here. Your skin is too white and your eyes are too dark to be Tohanan. And you very clearly don’t follow Zamanthras.’

‘Zamanthras doesn’t tell me who I am. Neither do your people.’

She shrugged. ‘I guess not. Still, you kept everyone safe while we rescued them from the longfaces. They’ll welcome you for that.’

‘That’s fine,’ he replied. ‘I’m glad they’re safe for now.’

‘They are. We all are.’ She reached out, slid a hand into his robe and smiled. ‘Heartbeat.’

He turned on her. ‘What?’

‘I can feel it through your skin,’ she said, running her fingers over his chest. ‘You must be stressed.’

‘I … am …’ he said, nodding weakly.

‘You need food. Fortunately, the cooks survived.’ She patted him on the back and began walking to the wreckage of Port Yonder. ‘Come on.’

He turned and began to follow. The water lapped at the docks. The sky rumbled. And between the voices of the storm and the sea, Hanth heard a whisper reach his ears from the waves.

‘Ulbecetonth honours her promises, Mouth.’

He forced himself to keep going, to keep his eyes forward. He didn’t dare look behind him for fear of seeing four golden eyes peering at him from the depths, a grey dorsal fin splitting the waters.

On the sands below, the females were joyous. The air was rife with the shrieking of Those Green Things as they were driven under lash and blade to chop more wood and haul it to the shore to be built into ships. The slightest excuse — a pause to take a drink, a load moving too slow — was used to justify an immediate execution.

‘Shouldn’t you stop them?’ a rasping voice asked from behind him.

Sheraptus scowled; between the shriek of Those Green Things, the laughter of the females and the cackle of the sikkhuns as more and more corpses were hurled into their pits, the sound of the Grey One That Grins was just somehow even more grating.

‘It’s quite wasteful, you know,’ his companion said. ‘If you have no slaves, you will have no ships and you will have no way to find the tome.’

‘No,’ Sheraptus said, pointedly.

‘No?’

‘I’m bored with that. I found your stupid tome and it cost me dearly.’

‘You’ve never given a concern for cost before.’

‘That was before I lost my best warriors, my First Carnassial and my ship for the sake of a few pieces of pressed wood. This is no longer interesting.’

‘There is still more to learn.’

‘Of what? Overscum? They show up where you don’t want them to and ruin everything. That’s as much as I need to know and as much as I care to know. I’ve decided … we’re returning to the Nether. There are plenty more wars to be fought there.’

‘But so little power to be gained,’ the Grey One That Grins urged. ‘Consider all that you have found here; consider all that we have given you to fight Ulbecetonth’s children on our behalf. The martyr stones, the poison …’

‘The power I’ve found here is weak and fleeting. I’ve not yet met anyone who can best me.’

‘No. Only those who can best your ship.’

‘You are aggravating me,’ Sheraptus growled. ‘Consider my gratitude for the stones to be my aversion to killing you.’

‘Most appreciated. However, I feel you may be a little shortsighted.’

‘I also feel that way. I was apparently too hasty in offering such gratitude.’

‘I simply mean to imply that you are letting your mood sour the potential for one of the greatest powers you’ve yet to see.’

‘Power … is that all you think me concerned with?’

‘No. This power, however, you might be … considering it comes in a form you will find most pleasing.’

Sheraptus paused, a smile growing across his lips as the Grey One That Grins drew the words out between his long teeth.

‘The priestess.’