The airship headed due east. No one aside from the nameless boy had been killed or seriously injured, but the attack had left everyone demoralized.
Ekko put the ship on autopilot. They knew where they were going now. The Bone Towers were a series of cylindrical rock formations near the ancient city of Karamanganji, a lonely and desolate burg filled with hollow buildings of pale ice. So far as anyone knew, the city had always been abandoned. The frigid location had been discovered a few years back, just a few hundred miles north of the ruins of Shul Ganneth, beyond what was called the White Border, a northerly latitude point where the temperature dropped at least twenty degrees.
They flew through the night. The muted groan of the engines and the howl of the frozen wind outside filled their heads. The burgeoning dawn sky was a pink stain when viewed through the smeared and broken glass. The air inside of the cabin was cold as the night’s chill crept through the twisted metal paneling.
The vessel shook as it carried through the sky. Everyone was still shaken by the Vath’s charge and by the death of a boy they’d known nothing about, except that he’d been weak and close enough to death that the Dra’aalthakmar had possessed him with ease.
“
A few months ago, something evil woke up,” Cross began. Everyone sat against the walls, watching as he spoke. He felt like he needed a storybook. “The Southern Claw knew about it before it woke, but we didn’t know much about what it really
was
.”
“
How did you know about it?” Kane asked.
“
The Lith. They aid the Southern Claw war effort with their prophecies.”
“
The Claw puts too much confidence in them, if you ask me,” Cole interjected. Cross thought she’d developed something of a maternal kinship for the boy, and his death had left her rattled and sullen. He noticed that she and Black still sat at an arm’s distance. Something had happened between them, or was about to happen.
“
What kind of ‘something evil’ are we talking about?” Black asked.
“
Like I said, we’re not sure exactly what it is, but we know its name: the Dra’aalthakmar. We just refer to it as the Sleeper. So far as the Lithian prophecies could tell us, it’s some sort of…demon, I guess. A living shadow. Anyway, it was imprisoned back on its home world, where it was buried deep underground in some kind of magical prison.
“
During The Black, that prison shifted here – to Earth. The magic that held the Sleeper in stasis weakened, and the physical location of the prison shifted much closer to the surface than it had ever been on its home world. So it was just a matter of time before the prison was compromised.”
The notion wasn’t that preposterous. Much had been destabilized during The Black, and many of the structures and ruins that populated the landscape looked half-made, but they weren’t: usually that appearance was because those structures or cities or (in some of the more horrific cases) creatures had been ripped asunder from their world and only partially recreated on Earth.
“
So that…thing we saw back at the city,” Cole asked, “
that
was the Sleeper?”
“
It took its vitamins,” Kane said.
“
It’ll keep getting bigger, I think,” Cross said, “if we don’t stop it.”
“
And how, precisely, do we do that?” Ramsey asked.
“
The Lith said that the key to stopping the Sleeper is the Woman in the Ice. I think the Sleeper knows this, and it wants to find the Woman and destroy
her
before she destroys
it
. I also think that Lucan Keth was somehow connected to the Woman, and that his primordial soul is born of the same power as she is. It’s possible, even, that the Woman is what imprisoned the Sleeper in the first place…that they’re from the same world, and they were both ripped to Earth during The Black.”
“
Am I the only one who’s stupid around here?” Kane asked. When no one said anything, he took a breath and nodded. “Let me rephrase that: am I the only one here who doesn’t know who the Woman in the Ice is?”
“
Not a
who
, a
what
,” Cole answered. “It’s some sort of ancient monument, buried deep underground. Some say it’s an obelisk, covered in images of a forgotten goddess. Some say it’s that goddess’ bones, frozen in the ice, or the frozen corpse of a lady giant. There’s supposed to be some magical power connected to the Woman, and that’s why people search for it. I was guiding an expedition of scientists and explorers to the city, and one of them thought they’d find the Woman there.”
“
Yeah,” Cross nodded. “About that…”
The ship lurched and shuddered.
“
Wait,” Black said. Ekko did a quick diagnostics check, and gave a thumbs up sign. “That scared the shit out of me,” Black laughed. “Okay…I want to make sure that I have one thing straight. You think Lucan is somehow tied to the Woman…how, exactly?”
“
I don’t know what the connection is,” Cross answered. “But I do know this: the Sleeper wants to destroy the Woman, whoever or whatever she is. And now it wants to destroy
us
, because what’s left of Lucan Keth’s soul is fused to you, me, and Ekko.”
“
Wait a minute,” Kane said. He had that sort of sarcastic and nervous yet still macho smirk on his face that so reminded Cross of his old friend, Sam Graves. “Back up a sec. This thing can apparently nuke cities just by showing up…so the strategic masterminds who run the Southern Claw sent TWO GUYS to stop it?”
Cross couldn't help but laugh.
“
Two things, pal. One, no one had any idea of exactly when this thing was going to wake up. We knew that lives would be at stake if we didn’t figure out a way to stop it, but I think the prophecies led the High Command to believe that we’d have more time. Second, Dillon and I were sent on a reconnaissance mission: information gathering, and that's
all
. We were supposed to spend time with a tribe of Lith and see if we could find the Woman in the Ice. Once we did that, the High Command would put together a research team to take over the mission.”
“
Only that's not what happened,” Black added.
“
We didn't expect the damn thing to show up in person. It woke earlier than we thought it would, and I’m guessing it followed Lucan. Like I said, he had some connection to the Woman, to the power that I think imprisoned the Sleeper in the first place. That's why it crashed your prison ship, and once it knew where you were going, that's why it waited for us in Shul Ganneth.”
“
So what did my brother have to do with any of this?” Black asked.
“
He was working for the Ebon Cities,” Cross answered. “We weren't sure how much they knew, but it stands to reason they'd want to take measures to protect themselves if they thought some ancient power was about to wake up. That, or else they thought they could find a way to direct that power against the Southern Claw. It just makes sense they'd want to get their hands on Lucan.”
The ship cut through the sky. The walls rattled, and they heard ice and stone pummel the hull. The wind outside turned to a low moan. They were close to the Reach.
Everyone sat or crouched low, their faces grim.
“
Lucan is dead, right?” Kane asked.
“
Yes,” Cross answered. “So far as I can tell. But some fragment of his spirit is still here. It was scattered, but its pieces found shelter in the three closest mages.”
“
Ekko's not a mage,” Ramsey pointed out.
“
No,” Black answered, “but she sees spirits, and she communicates with them. That seemed to be enough for Lucan to make a connection.”
“
That's why the Sleeper came after us in Krul,” Cross added.
“
Yeah,” Cole said. “What happened there, exactly?”
“
You’re welcome,” Ramsey said with a smile. “Sorry I couldn't do it sooner. Had I known how important your mission had become, I'd have made efforts to get you out of there before then.”
“
What?” Kane asked, exasperated. “My head is going to explode from all of this bullshit...who the hell are YOU, now? A spy?”
“
Well…yes,” Ramsey said in an off-handed manner.
“
Well...” Kane seemed at a loss. “Fine!”
“
I've been feeding information to the Southern Claw from inside of Krul for about two years,” Ramsey said. “On occasion, when the opportunity presented itself, I arranged for prisoners to be ‘lost’ so that they could find their way home.”
Cross wondered if Ramsey had been the one who'd helped Graves and Morg escape. His old teammates had both been incarcerated in and had later escaped from Krul. Morg's imprisonment might have been before Ramsey's time there, but Graves’ wouldn't have been. He'd have to ask the Gol about it later.
“
Those runes of yours…” Kane said approvingly.
“
They helped. Being a natural born liar comes in handy, too.”
“
So what do
you
know about all of this?” Cole asked.
“
I didn't know anything at first. But Cross was pretty delirious in his sleep, and he started to drop tidbits of information. I think it must have been while you were figuring out that you were bonded to Ekko and Black, and so also to this Lucan. It's hard to get messages out to the Alliance – I only do it every few weeks – but when I figured out that you were onto something important, I gathered some information myself and figured out who you were.”
“
How did you get us out?” Black asked.
“
Cross guessed that this shadow thing was trying to find the three of you,” Ramsey said, “since you're carrying around what's left of Lucan’s super-spirit. But no matter how powerful it is, I knew it would never find you with the arcane safeguards around the city, so when I knew you'd all be out in the open and in the same place, I...turned the safeguards off. Or I arranged to have it happen, at any rate.”
“
And then it found us,” Cross nodded.
“
Well, a distraction did seem to be in order,” Ramsey smiled.
“
Destroying a city is a good distraction,” Kane said. “Though I wish you wouldn’t have waited so God-damned long to spring us…”
“
I can only save so many,” Ramsey interrupted. “Let’s just leave it at that. If I could have saved every prisoner who came into Krul, I would have. But that’s not how it worked. I had to let some die, so that I could save many more. The Southern Claw felt that having a spy inside of Krul was worth more than saving every prisoner who wound up in the city. It’s an awful risk, smuggling prisoners out…every time I did it, I ran the risk of being exposed. And let’s just say that it…wasn’t easy, getting me in as deep as we did. A lot of sacrifices were made.” He swallowed, pained by some memory. Kane looked about to apologize, but Ramsey held up a hand. “Like I said…let’s just leave it at that.”
For a minute or so, no one spoke.
“
Wait,” Cross said at last. “Did you say you’ve just been in touch with the Alliance...”
“
I have. We can call them up on the radio I brought from the safe house. Commander King has put part of Claw Company on standby to help us out in Karamanganji.”
“
Woo-hoo!” Kane shouted. “So
they
can handle this now!”
“
No,” Cross said. “The three of us,” he indicated himself, Black and Ekko, “need to get to the Woman in the Ice. For all we know, we’re the key to unlocking her power and stopping this damned thing.”
Kane looked dejected, but he nodded.
“
I knew you were going to say that,” he smiled. “Shit.” He stood up and walked over to Ekko. Her blank vampire's eyes were impossible to read. They might as well have been pools of oil. Kane stood behind her and put his hands on her shoulders.
“
How long till we reach Karamanganji?” Black asked, breaking the silence.
About five hours
, Ekko answered in Cross' mind. He passed the information along.
“
I'm going to get some sleep.”
They all followed the advice, all except the pilot. Ekko needed no sleep. She'd already dreamed her last dream.
I’ve hated you all of my life
, Cross thought. He didn’t direct the sentiment at Ekko, but to all of the vampires in the world, every bloodsucker in the darkness, every undead who waited and plotted from the other side of the black walls of their dead cities.
I’ve never had any reason to do anything else. I’ve always been afraid of you. All that you do is take. You’ve never done anything but destroy everything I ever loved
.
Ekko turned, and looked at him. Her eyes might have been cold and glassy voids, but her expression was one of sadness.
God damn it
.
When Cross slept, he dreamed that he was back on the mountain. Snow was there with him, along with Dillon and Graves. They all smiled. He heard the waters and felt his feet in the stream, even as he watched the cold fire race up the mountainside and consume them.
Later, he sat in the dark. They flew through the night. Ekko expected them to arrive at Karamanganji just after dawn. Cross rubbed his eyes and sat uncomfortably against the wall. His spirit swirled near his hands and kept them warm as she slid in and out of his fingers like a warming gel.