A Different Kind of Deadly (4 page)

Regardless, Leo was kind-hearted and
relatively benign as compared to the rest of the people in
Nethermount, so I didn't see the harm in giving him an encouraging
smile.

"I believe in you, Leo."

Though there was no way in hell I'd believe in
a Sand Whale.

Tears came to his eyes. "I shouldn't have
doubted you, Marvin." He pulled me in for a sudden, back breaking
hug. "You're a true friend!"

"Leo... I... can't..."

I struggled immensely. Through their research,
members of House Soma were possessed of inhuman strength, and Leo
was no exception. I went blue in the face, terrified, yet amused on
some deep level. I was convinced I was going to die in Nethermount
for being a failure of a necromancer, handed over as material for
any number of experiments before becoming some hideous undead
slave. I never thought I'd die in the arms of a friend.

The world began to go black when I felt myself
getting jerked back. I gasped as air rushed into my lungs. It was
about a minute before I realized how quiet it had
gotten.

When I raised my head, Leo wasn't staring at
me, and neither was anyone in the room.

In the moment Diana pulled me out of Leo's
crushing embrace, her hood had fallen back. She glared daggers at
everyone, and I felt tension running through her porcelain
limbs.

A familiar clacking pierced my ears as my
mother walked across the room. She stopped right in front of me,
and I saw such a foreign emotion flash across her eyes that she
looked like a stranger.

"Marvin..." my mother's voice was breaking.
"What have you done?"

7: The Crone of
Astheneia

My mother seemed
human
for the first time in over two
decades. There was real emotion reflected in her eyes, not the
frosted mirrors I'd known for years. She looked from me, to Diana,
and asked one question.

"Does he know?"

Diana shook her head.

Something was tapping in the room. It was slow
and measured, and any necromancer worth his salt was filled with
foreboding.

Approaching our small group was a ghastly hag
known as the Crone of Astheneia.

Like other high ranking members of her House,
her face was chemically burned. A web of scars that never
completely healed limned her skin in reddish welts. Her one
remaining eye socket was a sagging, oblong shape hanging off her
cheek. Strands of gray hair clung to the edges of an otherwise bald
scalp, and the whole picture was decidedly hideous.

If there was such a thing as a
ruler of Nethermount, the Crone would be the one to hold that
title. It was said that she had been here long before the Houses
were formed. In numerical terms, this placed her age at a minimum
of four centuries.

While I can't say I believe that rumor, she
certainly looked it.

The tapping sound came from the gnarled cane
in her hand. It was warped all the way up, culminating in a six
headed hydra. Its individual necks coiled around her fingers and
around her wrist. I was horrified to witness one sinking its fangs
into her thumb, and I wondered what kind of monster this woman was
that she didn't even flinch at the cane making a meal of her
fingers.

"Diana." The Crone's voice
suited her namesake; a scratchy sound that was breathless and
forceful all at once. "I see your...
knack
for making an entrance is the
same as ever."

The Crone came closer, and I was
surprised to discover that she smelled... sweet, like chocolate and
fresh cut flowers.

She raised her cane at me.

"Wait!" My mother held her hand for
pause.

"What is it, Formosa?" The
Crone asked. "You can still bear another child to inherit Thanos.
This one is a
failure
."

The word cut through me like a serrated knife.
In my mind, I cradled this severed piece of ego, but I couldn't
stop it from bleeding out no matter how hard I tried.

"Great Witch." My mother dipped her head in a
low bow. "Marvin's only crime was his ignorance. He couldn't
possibly have known that-"

The Crone slammed her cane on the floor,
jarring everyone in the room.

"Would that I could show you
the terrors that Doll rained upon us, Formosa." Her voice had a
new, sinister edge to it. "We couldn't even destroy her, only lock
her up in a wooden box," the Crone wheezed in her interpretation of
a snort. "Ignorance is not enough to excuse such a
stupid
blunder."

Something strange happened then.

It felt as though a hook had latched onto
me... not physically, but deeper; much, much deeper. I panicked for
a moment, but was soon filled with a reassurance I couldn't
place.

"Spare him, Mahlah," a new speaker commanded.
I tilted my head back slowly. Diana's painted lips had somehow
become faceted... and moved in a way that looked oddly human. She
stared down the Crone, something that I didn't think was
possible.

Diana's sudden ability to speak must've been
significant. Something changed in the older faces in the room, and
it was especially pronounced in the way Mahlah the Crone stared at
us because of it.

"You would risk your life for his, Diana?" She
lowered her head. "Very well." The Crone held her cane with both
hands, looking at me directly for the first time in any of this.
"Marvin of House Thanos, you have committed the highest taboo
through your affiliation with the marionette known as Diana
Galatea. This is grounds for immediate execution."

I gulped.

"However..." The Crone shot Diana a menacing
glare. "She has deemed it fit to form a Doll Contract, hereby
marking you the Inheritor."

The Crone flipped her cane around in the blink
of an eye, and six very hungry hydras snapped at my nose
point-blank. Diana squeezed my shoulder extra hard to keep me from
passing out.

"You have two choices, Heir of Thanos," the
Crone declared. "Die now, for your impudence, or accept the quest
necessary to clear your name."

"What... is this quest?"

"Descend the deepest veins of
Nethermount, until you reach the Moor of Souls. Find the Eyes of
the Leviathan, and return to us a hero." One of the hydra's lunged
forward, drawing blood.

"What is your choice, Son of
Thanos?"

I felt my consciousness slipping.

"Life," I garbled.

Before I passed out, I heard a sound similar
to a steam engine, like the bastardized echo of a sigh.

"
You are a fool, Marvin
."

A failure, and a fool.

8: The Seventh
Disciple

The world was bobbing
up and down.

My eyes flicked open, catching sight of the
torches that lined the walls through the servant
tunnels.

Diana's face looked down at me, looking more
human than ever.

"Don't look behind us, Marvin."

I looked behind us.

A gathering of undead marched at a respectable
distance, and also blocked the way back by sheer
numbers.

Diana sighed, "You never listen."

The events of what transpired
returned to me. I ran a finger down the bridge of my nose, where
the Crone's hydra headed cane had drawn blood. To my dismay, the
wound was still there.

Diana was holding me in her arms
princess-style. The embarrassment didn't faze me nearly as hard as
my need for answers.

"Diana... what's going on?" I
quickly clarified my question. "Who are you?"

Years ago, when I had opened that coffin in
the attic, I expected to find surgical equipment, or maybe broken
pieces of an alembic or distillery.

Instead, I found a doll. It was easily the
most beautiful thing I'd ever seen in my life, and by far the most
beautiful thing in Nethermount. I was a bit startled when she sat
up and started doing things on her own (who wouldn't be?) but I
never, not in a million years, would have thought that she was
dangerous in any way.

Today was the first time I'd seen Diana's
physical strength in action, and through her, learned the first
name of the Crone. Whatever, or whoever Diana was, she was ancient.
And, if Mahlah's words were any indication, a monster.

"I am Diana Galatea. I am... I
was... Inval's disciple."

Inval?

Wait.

Inval was the First Necromancer;
the man who came to Nethermount of his own accord where he met the
Crone of Astheneia and convinced her to let him stay. He was
brilliant in every story I'd heard of him. Whether he was a genius
or a madman, Inval was regarded as the greatest among us; to most,
he was a hero, and some, a God.

He was known to have six
disciples: Soma, Myalo, Astheneia, Ponos, Psychi, and Thanos. If
what Diana was saying was true, that she was also Inval's student,
it meant that there should have been a Seventh House...
hers.

I didn't have time to ask any more questions,
as she came to a sudden stop.

An icy draft shot towards the ceiling. I
shivered and craned my head, seeing that we were at the end of the
hall, and at the edge of a dark hole.

Diana cradled my head against her chest, now
warmer than ever.

"Close your eyes, Marvin."

"WAIT!"

Diana turned around. Someone was shoving their
way through the mass of undead. I recognized Tully, who flapped his
wings wildly to grab my attention.

Leo made it through to the front, carrying a
massive backpack and a bag that smelled of food.

"Turn back," Diana ordered. "This is not your
quest."

Leo squinted at her. "That's for Marvin to
decide." He turned to me. "It's my fault you're in this mess. If
I'd let go earlier then the porcelain bouncer over here wouldn't
have had her cover blown."

"Leo..." I looked between him and the dark pit
ahead of us. "I can't ask you to go so far for me."

"You're not asking," he pointed out. "I'll
follow at a distance even if you tell me to stay. You proved that
you were a true friend, Marvin. I'm not going to let you go
alone."

"He's not alone," Diana cut in.

"Yeah?" Leo straightened his back. "Well the
more the merrier, then."

I was touched.

"Do what you want," I said finally. "Just
don't blame me if this all goes to hell."

Diana pressed my head into her
shoulder immediately after that, and jumped into the pit without
any warning. I was so scared that I couldn't scream, but I did hear
Leo's triumphant roar as he came with us.

We fell, and fell, and fell so far that I
began to wonder if the drop would never end. The chill from earlier
translated to steam at some point, and my skin and hair were soon
wet with humidity.