Leviathan (Fist of Light Series) (31 page)

Zack's eyes were cold, determined. “We'll put it to bed. No cost is too high. There's nothing left for us to go back to.”

“Midreal did it. We can too,” Simon asserted.

I grunted in agreement. Movement from the soldiers drew my attention. They had stood as quiet sentinels throughout the encounter, but it appeared they were stirring to life. I fervently wished my weapons hadn't been left with my body. The tattered rags we wore were far from threatening.

Auckland sat back in his chair, an indecipherable smile on his face. “There is a quiet beauty in this place. It grows on you.” His smile soured. “I've a mind to keep Cusion's dark heart beating until I no longer have use of it. Then maybe we shall emulate the people of Midreal and take the reins from our oppressor.”

“You can't mean that!” Mary’s face twisted into a horrified grimace.

“Naïve child, you are far too innocent to understand. This hold is small, numbering a hundred on the best of days. Over time, one grows accustomed to this place. One must adapt and survive, after all. We haven't survived this long without making sacrifices.”

Now everyone was noticing the commotion. My eyes tracked the soldiers’ movements, plotted out distances and thought up ways to strike. But it would all be useless. Without some definable destination, we'd be dead within a foot of the tunnel's exit. The end result would be the same, whether we survived to escape or not. A smoldering rage heated beneath my ribcage, but I pushed it down, for now. There still might be time before things got messy. I held up a hand to my friends, a signal to wait. If they swarmed us, they would outnumber us more than three to one.

“I bet it’s easier when you force others to make those sacrifices for you.” Kathryne's anger brimmed and began to overflow.

I gambled. “You're right. Your numbers are too small to take losses. A slight imbalance and the hordes could overrun your ramparts with ease.”

Auckland signaled his people. “Boy, you and your friends are hardly a match for my men. Weaponless and powerless.” He scoffed. “You don't stand a chance.”

“It looks like your humanity has fled with any sense of civility.” Kathryne readied herself.

Gallick had his eyes fixated on the dark stone of the table. “Gallick,” I began. “You're a part of this madness?”

“Arenson knows his duty,” Auckland snapped.

“There be some things in this place that have leeched a bit o' the humanity from all of us,” Gallick lamented, raising remorseful eyes to meet mine. “But as long as I am Auckland's man, there is no denying his rule. Tis the way of things, here. Without honor and purpose, I am nothing.” I felt him trying to communicate something, but whatever it was, the meaning fell short.

“Take them,” Auckland commanded, a primal glee lighting up his features. “Stuff them in the cells. Give them plenty of time to think about their fate.”

Cruel laughter traveled through the small company of soldiers as they called for support. The embers of my anger smelt the core of my being, bursting into a consuming rage. More men poured in now, presenting overwhelming odds. I demanded the presence of my power, begged and pleaded when that didn't work. Something about being cut off from my body had changed everything. I was defenseless. The mass of soldiers swarmed us at our seats, barely giving us time to stand before they started grappling, locking down body parts and trundling us into heaps. Kathryne lashed out expertly with her hands, sending two guards stumbling off before she was subdued. The pack tried put up as good as they got, but there were just too many. For my part, I got busy looking stupid and powerless as a single soldier bound me in place. Beaten senseless, we were dragged into an open atrium a few rooms away, where a bright orb of whirling power floated. That was all the glimpse I had before the soldiers shoved us into a cell, slamming the door shut behind us and locking it with a crude implement. Despite the simple lever, it was effective in keeping us contained.

I was certain that the light in this place, the bright illumination that seeped through the cracks was no natural thing. It was powered by souls of the dead, their essence sullied and put to use in this grotesque way. Then, of course, the others would consume a portion of stolen energy, keeping their metaphysical bodies alive even as this world drained them of power. Surviving by consuming the energy of countless innocents. It was no different than Cusion's cruel methods, and it was despicable. There was one thing we learned from this encounter, though, one piece of information that could prove useful if we lived through this. Somewhere in this twisted world would be a dark beating core, and it could be destroyed.

We had been talking for hours, a useless exchange of words that meant nothing in the scheme of things. Half-baked plans for escape tumbled from our lips without pause, but none held up under any scrutiny. Not that we scrutinized them, for some glimmer of hope remained, snuffed and guttering though it was. There was no way to determine the passage of time, with the ambivalent, unchanging light. It seemed this world was a stickler for extremes, whether it be eternal night or light. Eventually, my mind strayed to other lines of thought. After all, there wasn't much to occupy it and therefore it was only natural to distract myself from a looming fate.

Fear consumed the people of this place, its caustic touch burning away the moral fiber of its inhabitants. Try as I might, I couldn't truly stay angry with the underlings of this operation. They were only human, or whatever they might have been before they came here. In this place, it held true that only those who preyed on the weak survived. That nasty certainty only served to bring the peoples of this hold down to the same level of those dark entities that drained their own precious energies. Instinct told me that this didn't necessarily apply absolutely. I saw the hesitation, the guilt lurking within Gallick, even honor, misplaced though it was. Maybe that was what he had been trying to convey, that he desperately clung to the only remnant of humanity left to him. I couldn't help but laugh. Here I was, facing the extinction of my soul and I was mulling over the nature of honor and morality.

“What's so funny?” Jas lifted his head from a pose of similar contemplation.

“Nothing.” I smiled. “The nature of things. Our ability to delay the inevitable by avoiding reality.”

“You think we're done for?” Zack's vibrant eyes pierced me.

Simon expressed his own thoughts. “Our bodies are gone and we're stuck inside an insatiable beast that's about to devour
everything
! This Leviathan will only get stronger as it consumes more souls. Even if there was a way to kill it, we're about to be extinguished. Herk and Razor managed to stay safe on the other side, but even if they could help us, the time differential make sure that anything they try will come too late. It's over.”

Mary practically throttled the little guy. “Stop it!” she demanded. “Don't say that! Take it back!”

Simon's eyes bulged and the pack's eyes widened collectively at the sight. Mary was acting entirely out of character, a development that was fast becoming a disturbing trend. Then she relented, bursting back as if she'd been burned and landing in a huddled heap on the floor. Jas snatched Mary up in his arms and whispered sweet nothings in her ear. He wiped a stream of tears running down her face and wiped a stray strand of hair out of her eyes. Mary burrowed her face into the crook of his shoulder while the rest of us tried to give them as much privacy as was possible in such a confined space. That was enough to make me seriously begin to consider this the end of days.

I let everything cool down before continuing. We had all the time in the world, after all. “I didn't say this was over. Far from it. Unfortunately, I've a feeling it’s just begun.”

“What makes you think that?” Kathryne reached for the reassuring touch of her weapons but still found nothing. They were such an integral part of her that missing them was equivalent to amputating a limb.

I shrugged. “A hunch.”

“Another hunch?” she asked, an incredulous frown on her face.

“They haven't been wrong so far.” Simon shrugged.

We all wanted a silver lining to latch onto, but they needed the truth. “It'd be easier to hand out a load of lies that would make us all feel better, I know. But that's all I've got. I've just got a sense that it doesn't end here. I'm not willing to lie down and die for these bastards. No way am I going to live out the rest of my existence powering the furnaces of this dark place. No, if I'm to die, I'll be bringing down this whole place with me.” A grin stretched the folds of my face into a dark parody of a smile.

T
he heady promise of revenge eventually dulled with the passing of incalculable hours, bringing us back to the monotonous exercise of survival. Until the status quo changed and inaction was replaced with action.

“Don't make a sound,” a hard voice commanded as the lock was lifted and removed.

I expected my body to be tired, or at least strained and in some pain from sitting on the cold stone for hours on end. Surprisingly, it wasn't. Apparently, being a ghost had advantages. I just couldn't shake the feeling that just standing still caused harm. It was this place, I knew, the workings of the Leviathan's body that drained life until only a dry husk was left. Shaking these thoughts from my head, I crouched as a hooded form ghosted into our midst, closing the door behind it.

“Have you been sent to finish the job?” Kathryne said with venom in her voice as she rose.

A pile of tattered black cloaks were thrown onto the ground, the thump startling all of us into activity. Slowly, to keep us from his throat, the intruder pulled back on his hood and revealed himself. My spirits rose at the sight of Gallick's friendly visage. His luminous armor had been discarded and he now possessed a black sword in place of the shining one.

“Gallick. What
exactly
are you doing here?” I asked him. “Must not you honor your master? That is why you left us to rot, isn't it?”

He ground his feet into the uncompromising stone. “There be no honor in serving a master who has none of his own. There'd be dreams for this place, once. Auckland was a bright star, and many be inclined to follow that kind of man. Things be changed from what they were. I no longer be one to follow the biddings of his tainted soul.”

Jas picked up one of the cloaks and wrapped it around himself. “Good enough.”

Finally, I understood what he'd been trying to communicate before. “So if you've been planning a jailbreak, what took you so long?”

“I was waiting,” he grunted.

“For what?” I asked.

“The opportune moment.”

“And this is it?” Zack looked around, as if expecting some sort of clarion call.

“This be it. We'd best be going before the moment passes.” He pointed at the cloaks. “These will do much to hide you from the hordes for as long as their power holds out. You'd better be sure that secret weapon of yours is up to it.” He eyed me.

“Where will we go?” Mary sniffled and rubbed at her bloodshot eyes before enfolding herself in a cloak.

Gallick twiddled with his thumbs nervously, anxious to be off. “Cusion has a beating heart that drives him, like any other beast. If you be set in your course to destroy him, you must leave all doubts behind. No other has survived the maze.”

“What's the maze?” Simon asked.

“It be the core of Cusion, a labyrinth o' sorts. If the tales be true, Cusion's greatest weakness will be there.”

I wasn't going anywhere until I'd filled in all the cracks. “And what else?” There had to be more than that.

“Also, his greatest strength. There'd be good reasons why no one tells tales of it in anything but whispers.”

“
Great
.” Simon bit off the sarcastic remark before grabbing his own cloak.

“Why are you
really
trying to help us? You have more than misplaced honor weighing on you,” Zack asked.

“I'm tired. This blighted place be wearing on the soul. Eventually, I'll be drained, a directionless being of the horde. Struggling to hold to a semblance of life is not living. My humanity be slipping away. It must end.” With the last bit, he raised his voice in challenge, shaking his fist at the walls around him before realizing his error and glancing at the door.