A Different Kind of Deadly (16 page)

"Well every couple generations the more
adventurous necromancers from Nethermount go topside to find mates;
freshen up the gene pool, you know? My mother was one of the
barbarians. Lived with her until I was four when my dad came to
take me back."

"So that's how you got your brown
hair."

"Yup. But what I'm trying to get at is, in my
mother's language there really isn't a word for goodbye, or at
least how we know it."

I furrowed my brow.

"That's... strange. So what do they
say?"

"
Urah,
" said Leo. "The closest
translation would probably be something like
until we meet again
."

It was surprisingly sentimental. Like many, I
always begged the barbarian tribes as, well, barbaric. Having taken
a good long look at my own community, as well as the one I found in
Krisenburg, I'm led to believe that at the end of the day we all
want the same things. A place to come home to; a sense of
belonging.

Leo's parentage was probably a conversation I
lost with years of other memories from when I was growing up. It
embarrassed me that I was so consumed by my fear of Nethermount
that I ceased considering the individuals living there.

"I'm sorry, Leo."

"What for?"

"For not being a very good friend." I looked
at the stalactites above us, ore deposits twinkling like a galaxy
unto itself. "There's not a whole lot I regret in life -I didn't do
much with it- but I do regret that."

Leo didn't say anything to that, and I
couldn't see his expression in the dark. All I heard was the sound
of footsteps. There simply wasn't anything that could be said. Or
at least that's what I thought.

"You put up with my bullshit for years,
Marvin. I laugh too loud, I eat too much, I don't try hard enough
to fit in..." I caught the movement of Leo's head as he shook it.
"Honestly, I never cared about being anyone else but me. But you
were the first person who didn't try to stick a label on me. And
you were a prodigy and heir to the great House Thanos. It felt...
like a miracle, I guess." He shrugged his broad shoulders. "I mean,
I noticed you were out of it at dinner a lot, especially after
everything that happened with Will, but that didn't change things.
It was only recently that I got the feeling that you were annoyed
-annoyed by everything."

"Is that what it looked like?"

"Yeah, I mean, how was I supposed to know
about a crippling phobia like that?" Leo asked me, shoving his
hands in his pockets. "So when I saw you walk in with Diana I felt
like you were finally taking a bigger interest in our world again.
Then I told you about the Sand Whale and you didn't laugh in my
face like everyone else."

"But I doubted you'd find them," I admitted
honestly, unwilling to lie to Leo while he still had the chance to
walk away from everything.

"It doesn't matter, Marv." I heard the strain
in his voice as he grasped for words. "To me, a friend is someone I
can be myself around. I can take all the bullshit I'm fed on a
daily basis, put that to the side, and show my true colors without
being afraid of how you'd react. You never called me a necromancer
or referred to me by the House I belonged to; from day one I was
Leo, just Leo. You're not just my friend, Marvin. You're my very
best one."

"Shit," I said.

"What?"

"I can't believe you just made me cry." I
rubbed my eyes with the back of my hand.

"They're manly tears, so it's
okay."

I snorted at Leo's reasoning, but was too
choked up to say much of anything else.

"Hurry up, boys!" Diana's voice echoes down
the cavern walls. "We're almost there!"

I raked my brain for the distance we could've
traveled in twenty-four hours with our tireless troupe. Forty
miles?

"Leo, how far did we make it?"

"Eh... about a hundred?"

I sputtered the number. "How was I asleep if
we were going that fast?"

"I didn't wanna wake you up, so I shot you up
with some opium extract."

"OPIUM?"

"Oh, so
now
you don't care about the fact
you're going to die in a day."

"I thought you said I wasn't going
to."

"Hey, all I said was you should live -don't go
putting words in my mouth." Leo raised his hands defensively. "You
had your doubts about the Sand Whales, I have mine about your rate
of survival."

I rubbed my head sorely, interrupted by the
sound of Leo's laughter beating against my skull. Once again, I'd
fallen prey to his asinine idea of a joke.

Golden light flooded the space over the next
large hill. Diana stood atop a charred monolith, surveying the land
of crackling fire from her vantage point.

"Welcome to the Salamander Nest, boys," she
announced, hopping back down to our level. "We made some good time,
but we're going to have to be quick and careful if we want to get
to the Eyes before tomorrow."

Right now, all I could feel in relation to the
heat was a dull warmth, like the kind I got catching rays of
sunlight in the attic. Diana wasn't giving us numbers in terms of
the distance we had left to travel, which told me that the terrain
was so difficult that the information wasn't worth giving in the
first place.

"Do we know exactly where the Eyes
are?"

Diana took out a roll of parchment. On it was
a painstakingly detailed map. Naturally, X marked the spot in the
most difficult area to reach.

"Purilo got as far as here," she said,
pointing to a section a quarter of a mile away from our
destination, if I was reading the key correctly. "He said that this
was the most likely spot for the Eyes to be located. But... there's
one problem."

"What's that?" I asked.

"The main passage shouldn't take more than two
people at a time. We'll need to split until we make it to the heart
of the Nest and regroup later."

"
Split up?
" Leo and I asked together,
just as thrilled about the idea. Diana nodded.

"Leo is a capable necromancer, so he can
protect himself just fine. You and Uhh make a formidable team,"
Diana smiled in her most reassuring way -doing little to ease our
nerves on the plan. "Marvin isn't as trained, so my experience will
come as an advantage."

"I don't want to risk Will finding Leo," I
said.

"Will won't kill him." Diana looked between
the two of us. "The only interest he has is in killing Marvin,
which is another reason I'm going with him. He needs to get rid of
either me or him directly to accomplish that goal. While he wants a
painful revenge, I'm sure he'll settle for a quick death if there's
a chance Marvin can escape him."

I'd almost forgotten about our conjoined
health. Taking that into consideration, Diana's plan made more
sense than not. Leo would even be more useful as bait, and he
wouldn't be in danger once Will passed him by.

"To that end..." Diana rummaged
through her supply pack, handing Leo a pack of cylinder tins.
"These are signal flares. If Will passes you then light one. If you
absolutely need help, light two so Marvin and I can make sure we
get to you."

"And the spares?"

"Never hurts to be prepared," she said.
"Ready?"

Leo and I looked at one another, leery of this
venture.

"This is supposed to be the part where we
kiss, right?"

"Over my dead body," I
grinned. "
Urah,
Leo."

He clasped my arm in a firm shake. "Urah,
Marv."

The phrase make parting much easier than what
it could have been. It helped to think this wasn't the last time
I'd see a good friend. This was not a farewell, but a
promise.

Until we meet again, Leo -even if I die, live.
Live a good, long life, and then meet me on the other side. We'll
hunt all the Sand Whales you want, and Diana will be human, and
I'll be Marvin... your friend.

Part Three: Into the
Fire

In my pursuit of the power to save
you I fear I've lost my senses. I've tempted Feyt, and in return
she gave me magic -the likes this world should never have
seen.

The horrors I've committed in its
misuse are such that Koronos would pause at the aftermath.
Necromancy is taboo in this place. My raising the people whose
lives I've stolen as a form of recompense has been met with disdain
and hostility from local villagers. I do not want to fight, Diana.
But I've come too far to run.

Even now I see them; fires
encroaching this valley of plum trees. A group calling themselves
the Duskfell Knights are after my head, leading this invasion on my
research grounds. There is no light in this Darkness. It is
unnatural, and has no place in the cycle of life and death. It has
made a monster of the man I was, a monster known as a
Ghostwalker.

It's preposterous, the more I
think of the title. I've seen plenty of ghosts in my line of work.
Their feet never touch the ground. As such, the name itself is a
contradiction, as is my existence now that it has found its way to
me.

I studied bodies to save lives,
not steal them, and I've made more mistakes than I can remember in
my search for knowledge. Most of my students have taken what few
breakthroughs I had to bastardize them with occult fanaticism.
Most, but not you.

I hear the sound of intruders
breaking through the gate. This letter will probably never reach
you. If it ever does, know that I'm no longer here. I have lived a
failure, and will die a coward, as nothing terrifies me more than
living in a world without you in it.

Find your happiness, Diana. I am
sorry that it did not lie with me.

~Inval

Year 864 S.E.

22: The Demon's
Secret

Koronos reclined
in a pool of lava, his human form immune to its
otherwise lethal touch. He breathed the sulfur in the air, a
refreshing change from the stagnant stench of rotting flesh in
Krisenburg.

"It's good to take a vacation every so often,
wouldn't you agree?" he asked his servant.

Will sat perched atop an overhang, surveying
the Salamander Nest from this vantage point. He saw Marvin's Doll
emerge from the Ichor Pass, the black slivering path which served
as a hidden entrance into this place. It was difficult to spot for
those with mere mortal eyes, but not for a Doll of his
origins.

He scowled into the fissures of
steam.

"You said you'd give them three days,
Koronos."

"And so I am; you are still on your leash,"
said the fiend, inspecting his devilish nails. "They can do
whatever they please during that time. I don't recall stating that
I'd stay in the same place either."

Will snorted. Leave it to demons to play all
sides of the field. Despite his disdain for Marvin, Will pitied him
in this regard. He never dealt with a denizen of Hell before, and
as such, was at a monumental disadvantage.

"Do humor this old devil," said Koronos. He
appeared behind Will in the blink of an eye, fully dressed in a
brilliant saffron robe. "I'd like to know what you'll do to that
sweet boy once I set you free."

"Who says I'll go after him right away?" Will
glanced from the corner of his eyes. "Maybe my real target was you
all along."

"Oh how absolutely charming!" Koronos ran his
fingers through Will's blonde hair, but his nails scraped the
porcelain scalp, drawing black blood. "But let's be honest, my pet.
You can't defeat me, and that's a fact."

Will cringed as he felt his wounds seal shut,
a painfully burning sensation. He was all but immortal; even if he
were to be smashed into bits Will would eventually recover, but
that power came at the price of immeasurable agony.