Stories From the Shadowlands (7 page)

"You know nothing about them." My rage was slowly building. Hadn't I fought for my life? Hadn't Heshel and I struggled to protect our family and ourselves? Hadn't we battled until we couldn't? Yes, I ended my life, but until then, I had fought.

Nero smiled. "You're one of them," he said softly. "I hadn't realized the Guards were. Thank you. It's helpful."

I barely restrained the impulse to slam my blade between his ribs. I have now chained him hand and foot to a radiator in this apartment, but I am afraid to take my eyes off him. Unfortunately, that means I must tolerate his words.

Unless I decide to cut out his tongue.

It's tempting, but I want to give Takeshi a chance to question him before we escort him to the tower.

Day 1893

"It usually takes me a few rounds to find a body I like."

Only one more day of this, and we’ll be back at the Station. In the meantime, I continue to tolerate Nero’s constant goading. I know what he’s trying to do—if I kill him, he has won. He will escape, only to return again. He uses human bodies like changes of clothes; if he doesn’t like one, he has the other Mazikin kill the body and select him another. He doesn’t give a thought to the human soul he’s displacing.

I have seen and felt many bad things, but I think this is true evil.

I have tied him up very securely, because I am beginning to suspect he will kill himself if he has the opportunity, just to escape me. And then to come back and cause more trouble. “This will be the last human body you ever steal,” I told him.

He laughed. “Takeshi has said that to me. Philip, too. And Batbayar before him, and Naveen before him, and Sarai before him, and Lajos before her. I could go on—”

"Don’t," I snapped.

"How are you different from them? Each of them tried to stop me, and all of them failed."

I had no idea, so I didn’t answer. It would only have given him another weapon. “We’ll arrive at the Station tomorrow,” I told him. Then I placed a gag over his mouth, but I was careful about it—I don’t want him to use it to suffocate himself. There is no way I’m letting him escape the dark tower this time.

Day 1894

I dreamed that I had been tied to a table. I looked up at the ceiling, where a dark shape hovered. Beyond that was nothing but a blue, swirling light. It was beautiful, but I have never felt so defeated. Then the dark shadow dove into me and I snapped awake.

Just in time to avoid being gutted by Nero.

I ducked the stabbing blade and caught his other hand, long, jagged fingernails grasping at me. His momentum brought him around, and I threw myself on top of him, shouting for one of the Guards to help me—until I noticed Nero had already killed them. As we hit the floor, he swung the blade up over his shoulder, and it sliced along my neck, but I tightened my arms around him, holding his wrists against his own windpipe while I pinned him to the ground face-down.

He lost consciousness soon thereafter, which has allowed me time to bandage my wound. It would be so easy to kill him now, to cut his throat like he did to my Guards, probably after they fell asleep on the job. He's using all his tricks. But as soon as he wakes up, we will resume our walk to the Station, and I will get him there even if I have to drag him by the feet.

Day 1895

I had to drag him by the feet. This Mazikin has killed two of my Guards, nearly killed me, and has done it all with a smile on his face. Nero is different than the rest, and I will be happy to be rid of him. Tomorrow we take him to the dark tower. I spent all of today hauling him through the city on an improvised sled of sorts, made from an apartment door and some rope I’d been carrying in my pack. I tied him tightly, muzzled him, and then took a shameful kind of pleasure in knocking him unconscious with a few swift kicks to the head. I couldn’t afford for him to be alert.

There are times when it is convenient to be in a city where the residents are oblivious to their surroundings.

My muscles were trembling and twitching by the time I made it to the Station. I was on the verge of collapse. But the look on Takeshi’s face when he saw Nero… I think my efforts were worth it, just to see his expression. For a moment, I think he was impressed with me. He’s questioning Nero now. I couldn’t stand another moment with the creature.

Day 1896

"They’ll know it was you who did this," Nero growled as we entered downtown.

"How, Nero, since you won’t be able to tell them?" Takeshi had been walking in front of us, scimitar in one hand and staff in the other, and I was walking behind the prisoner. Two of the inhuman Guards managed him with stiff poles attached to the collar at his neck, while two others held poles attached to a metal loop around his waist.

He tried to bargain with us as we neared the tower. He began to make promises. How the Mazikin would not attack the Guards anymore, how they would keep to themselves. All of it desperate lies. Takeshi ignored him. He had been completely unsuccessful in the interrogation. Nero had told him nothing useful.

By the time we stood in front of the looming building, the place of nightmares, Nero was rabid, struggling fiercely. Takeshi held the door open as the Guards carefully removed the poles from his restraints. I stepped up behind him. “Last words?”

"My children will hunt you down, Malachi.” His blue eyes glinted with absolute hatred as his said my name. “One day, they will eat your heart.”

He lunged for me, but I shoved him hard. He staggered into the lobby of the building and spun around. For a moment, it looked like he might charge right back out.

But then the tower sank its claws deep into his mind. Takeshi slammed the door shut as Nero began to scream.

Day 1964

A breakthrough. I overheard conversation coming from an air vent 5 blocks n/nw of the apartment building where I have set up my temporary outpost. Two Mazikin, discussing using the basement of the building as a place to stash recruits. I had to conceal myself in a large trash bin to avoid detection. I am unsure how to rid myself of this smell. When I return to the Station, a new set of armor is in order.

Day 1965

Failure. Basement deserted as of this morning, with no signs of occupation. As I exited the building, I was set upon by four Mazikin who had been waiting. The whole thing was a set up to lure me to the basement. Fortunately, they underestimated me, and three ended up dead. Unfortunately, the one I captured threw himself out the window of my apartment before I had a chance to question him.

Day 1985

I've found the nest (6 blocks west, 29 blocks south of leaning tower/pyramid) in the top two floors of a four-story tenement. They are using the residents on the lower floors as both recruits and cover. I hid in an apartment across the street and watched at night while they did their evil ritual. It took everything in me not to climb the stairs and intervene, but there are too many of them, at least 50. I need Takeshi and two squads of Guards. I've sent one of the Street Guards to the Station to inform the Captain.

Day 1987

Takeshi joined me in the apartment I've claimed a few hours ago. One squad is coming from the southwesterly outpost and another is being drawn from the other approximately 12 miles due south. In the time I've been waiting, I've watched two more souls destroyed by the Mazikin. It makes me sick to watch, but I do not look away. I will bear witness to what they've done, and tomorrow, I will repay the Mazikin for their cruelty.

Day 1988

It is done. We swarmed the building from all entry points while more Guards remained outside to prevent escape. We have captured any residents who may still be themselves, but they will be held until their status can be definitively determined. I stationed myself in the stairwell on the second floor and terminated several Mazikin myself. It was two hours of bloody chaos. And now I am back in the apartment and wondering: did I only kill Mazikin? Or did I mistakenly kill humans as well?

Day 4000

Four thousand days in this city. So long, but when I realize it is only the beginning of forever, it makes it difficult to breathe. Most days, it doesn't bother me, but today… I wonder if my family remembers me, if they ever wonder where I am. They are a constant ache in my chest, but perhaps I am barely even a memory to them. I think that might be the worst punishment of all, to wonder if the people who loved you have forgotten your face and your name.

Day 4003

One of the Guards made a terrible discovery today as we prepared our assault plan on the nest we located to the northwest of the southeastern Guard outpost. There is a second nest, or so he claims—and this one is less than ten miles to the south-southwest of the Station, much closer than a nest has ever been to the Sanctum or our base. I am leaving immediately to do reconnaissance. If it is true, it means that the Mazikin have been growing their numbers quickly and without detection. In other words, it means that I am failing the people of this city.

Day 4008

I interrogated a Mazikin prisoner today. Ara, a well-known scout I captured five blocks north of the nest we've located near the Station. She knew she was destined for the tower, and her terror got the best of her as I began to question her.

I told her that I might spare her if she gave me what I wanted. So she did. She gave me numbers. She gave me the name of the leader of this second nest—a Mazikin I have not encountered before who goes by "Juri." She confirmed that Sil is responsible for the other nest. She talked and talked and talked, and as Russian is her preferred language, I took notes and did my best to keep up.

At the end, she looked up at me. Though there is an animal inside her, a truly evil demon who brings nothing but destruction, her smile was strangely beautiful in its hope for mercy. And as I gave the order to prepare her for transport downtown, as she began to scream, I wondered if I have become strangely ugly in my deceit.

Is it wrong to lie, given what's at stake?

Is it wrong to hurt and maim and kill, if I am doing my duty and protecting the defenseless citizens beneath this dome of darkness?

Takeshi says this is in the service of what is right, but I cannot help but fear that I lose a piece of myself every single time. Still, I will do what I can, perhaps until there is nothing left of me.

Day 4010

I should be sleeping. A few hours from now, I will be leading an assault on a Mazikin nest, the first time I have been the ranking officer in an operation this large. Takeshi is to the south, where he will lead a coordinated attack on the other nest. He and his Guards left this morning.

I cannot quiet my thoughts.

There is a Mazikin standing outside the corner building where we know the nest is located. I have been watching him for quite a while. I do not recognize him, but that is not unusual. There's a chance I've killed him before, and he is merely wearing a new skin. Or perhaps not. There is something bold in his posture, chillingly fearless. He reminds me of Nero, though I know it could not possibly be him. From my vantage point on the fourth floor of this high-rise, I can see him, looking up at the sky and squinting. It is such a human behavior, something I have done many times, desperate to see the sky, the stars, the sun.

What are his thoughts, I wonder—

As I wrote that, he did the eeriest thing. He stopped looking at the sky—and he started to look up the street. Something has caught his attention. I know it isn't possible, but from this distance, it seems as if he is looking right at me. And now he has gone inside. There was something about the way his posture changed that tells me he is tense with suspicion and alarm. No more waiting. I am going to give the order for an immediate attack.

Day 4011

Nest destroyed. No sign of a single survivor. Awaiting word from Takeshi as to whether his assault was also successful. I am also awaiting my turn under the healing hands of Raphael, as I've suffered a bite wound to my shoulder and claw scrapes to my throat. Other Guards were more severely wounded, though, and they must be tended to first.

The Mazikin who was standing outside the building—that was Juri, the one Ara had told me about. He was brazen during the attack. Far more so than Sil ever has been. Instead of ordering his Mazikin to flee, as we expected, he commanded them to fight, and then took me on himself. And the only reason I know it was Juri is because he touched his chest as he stalked forward, and he told me himself. He wanted me to know his name.

It was not a difficult battle. He did not last long, though he was able to wound me. That did not worry me—but his demeanor did. He appeared curious during his attack on me, as if he knew it would not be the only time, as if he was focused more on learning than surviving. So I tried to subdue him. He might not have been a threat today, but he was so eerily calm, so assured, so calculating… I knew he would be a threat in the future if I did not take care.

But he forced my hand. He seemed almost happy when I plunged my blade into his chest. He whispered a word in a language I do not understand, and when I asked Raphael, he said it meant "soon."

Day 4013

Our dual assault on the nests cut the Mazikin numbers to nearly nothing, but we discovered signs this morning that some of them escaped from the southernmost enclave. Takeshi was white with rage, and he would not look at me. I can tell he believes he is the one who failed us all, but it could just as easily have been my mission.

I wanted to ask him about Sil, who wears the skin of Takeshi's countrymen so he can mock him in his own language. And about Nero, who did the same with Philip and other Guards before him. I cannot stop thinking about Juri and the way he looked at me. As if he had chosen me, as if he had come just to take me on.

But even as I write that, it seems rather self-centered and paranoid. Still, his final word—soon—echoes in my nightmares.

Day 4561

It's been at least a hundred days at least since I thought about him, Juri, the Mazikin who brazenly took me on, the one whose final word had faded in my memory until tonight, when he whispered it into my nightmare once again.

SOON.