Bone, Fog, Ash & Star (4 page)

“The Thanatosi.”

“The what?”

Foss bowed his head. He seemed strangely reluctant to speak.

“The Thanatosi are a…well, I don’t know exactly what they are. A sort of mystical tribe perhaps.”

“Tian Xia worlders,” said Eliza.

“Of course. They are assassins, essentially. They can be called upon only by Great Magic and once they have been called no power known can stop them from pursuing their goal. From what little I know, they are notoriously difficult to kill – perhaps impossible. I have never heard of them failing, giving up or being defeated.”

“Will they be back?” Eliza struggled to sit up again. Her limbs felt hot and weak.

Rea, Rom and Nell were all gaping at Foss in horror.

“They will,” said Foss. “As soon as they sense their prey is still alive. I have put a barrier around the camp. We are safe for the time being.”

Nia
, thought Eliza immediately. But no. The Urkleis, which bound Nia, was still in her chest. She could feel it: Nia’s power turned in on itself in a furious deadlock, pulsing like a second poisoned heart in her chest. Nothing had changed. Nia could not have called the Thanatosi.

“Who wants me dead?” she asked, a bit tremulously.

“Eliza,” said Foss gently, “
you
were not the target. They achieved their goal, if only temporarily.”

It took a moment for this to sink in.

“Charlie?” she blurted.

“It makes sense,” said Nell. “He’s been around forever, aye, and he is sort of a difficult personality. I imagine he’s got loads of enemies.”

“But enemies powerful enough to…” Eliza paused.

“What are we going to do if we cannay repel them?” asked Nell. “I spec the Mancers can get rid of them, nay? I mean, I know you dinnay want anything to do with them anymore, but for something very important like this…lah, we need the Mancers, nay?” This last she directed at Foss.

“Foss?” asked Eliza. She was beginning to feel faint again.

He met her gaze with a sorrowful face.

“I fear that you cannot rely on the help of the Mancers in this matter,” he said.

“That’s ridiculous!” cried Nell. “We’ll persuade them! We’ll –”

“Hush,” Rea said to her sharply, which startled Nell to silence.

“Foss.” Eliza struggled to keep her voice steady. “Tell me what you know.”

“I do not
know
anything,” he replied. “But Great Magic was worked in the Citadel recently. I had no part in it but I felt it of course, we all did…the kind of Magic that might be used to summon a great being. Or call the Thanatosi.”

Eliza shook her head. No words would come.

“I do not
know
,” Foss repeated. “But it seems possible, even likely, that the Mancers called the Thanatosi to kill your friend.”

Chapter

~3~

Charlie woke with a start and shouted,
“Help me! I’m drowning!”

Somebody grabbed his hand and the world swam into view. He was lying in a tent lit with candles and the somebody holding his hand was Eliza. The candlelight threw shadows across her face, with its pointed chin, beaky nose and serious black eyes. She had such an odd look on her face, like she’d just put something very hot in her mouth and couldn’t decide whether to swallow it or spit it out.

“Bad dream,” he muttered. “What’re you doing in here?”

“Do you remember what happened?” she asked, her voice high and strained.

Charlie thought about this a bit, then said, “Something definitely happened. I cannay move. Why cannay I move?” He kicked his legs in a sudden panic. “Oh. I can move. Then what’s wrong with me? Something’s different, aye.”

“There were…assassins,” began Eliza.

“Forsake the Ancients!” Charlie sat up in the bed and stared at her. His face had gone quite white.

“Charlie?” she said anxiously.

“Eliza…
I cannay change
. I cannay change.
Why cannay I change?”

“I couldnay…I could only save part of you. This part. The human part. I’m so sorry, Charlie.”

“Start again. Oh, by the Ancients. Start all over again, Eliza. Why cannay I change?”

She told him what had happened and he held a hand to his chest as if aware of his beating heart for the first time.

“I’m just a person,” he said dully when she had finished. “Lah, I’m just a
person
. What good is that going to do me?”

“Some of us manage to live with it,” said Eliza. “The real question is why the Mancers would send assassins after you.”

“You’re nay just a person, you’re a Sorceress,” said Charlie. “It’s nay the same thing. You can do Magic.”

Eliza took a deep breath.

“How are you
feeling
, Charlie?”

“Like I’ve been shot with arrows and killed and drowned and then dragged back. I cannay change, I cannay protect myself and there are assassins after me. Otherwise, fine. It hurts to sit up, though.”

“Then dinnay sit up.”

“No. I want to sit up.” He looked at her for a moment. “So you brought me back from…lah, being dead.”

“Yes.”

He paused to ponder this, and then said, “Thank you.”

She gave a nod and he laughed feebly.

“Ouch. It hurts to laugh too. I dinnay recommend being shot with arrows, Eliza. Keep that in mind. And
thank you
doesnay begin to sum it up of course. I dinnay know what to say to you.”

His hand was still in hers. She looked at it.

“I couldnay let you go. Charlie, do you remember just before the assassins came? I was about to tell you…” Her sentence trailed off as Foss swept into the tent.

“Ah!” he said. “You are awake. And alive! Well done. A far better state than the alternative, or so we tend to think, though we’ve no empirical evidence to back it up. The Thanatosi are back.”

“Already?” cried Eliza. She ran to the entrance of the tent. It was just after dawn. Outside the camp, the desert was obscured by fog. The wheeling white bodies of the assassins spun along the edges of Foss’s barrier.

“Thank the Ancients we have a Mancer here,” said Nell, who had been waiting outside. She was pale, and there were shadows under her eyes. “Is he awake?”

“Yes.”

Eliza could not tear her eyes away from the swift-limbed Thanatosi. They moved in a white blur, feet flashing, bright blades swinging. But they could not enter.

“We need to discuss our next move immediately,” said Foss. “Come, Eliza Tok. And you too…Eliza’s friend.”

“You still dinnay know my name, do you?” said Nell in disbelief. Foss pretended not to hear her, and the two girls followed him back into Charlie’s tent.

“Everything OK?” Charlie asked weakly.

“For the moment,” said Foss. “I assume you have realized that you are no longer a Shade.”

Charlie nodded. Nell gasped and began to ask a question but Foss carried on, cutting her off: “You will live out your life as a mortal human now. No doubt you will adjust. However, if we do not hide you from the Thanatosi it will be a very short life indeed.”

“Hide me where?”

“Ah! Excellent question, quite to the point.” Foss paused. “I do not know.”

“Foss,” said Eliza, “do you have
any
idea why the Mancers would be trying to kill Charlie?”

He shook his head briefly, a gesture that might have meant
no
or
not now
. She let it drop, a cold creeping feeling around her heart. She thought perhaps she knew the reason.

“The
Mancers!”
exclaimed Charlie, recovering from his shock just enough to get angry. “Typical crazy controlling Mancer behaviour! No offense, Foss. Kyreth
said
they were going to let me off the hook for spying, aye, but I should have known better than to believe it. Still, sort of late for them to change their minds, nay? I mean, that was
years
ago.”

“We can come to that later,” said Eliza. “A hiding place is the most important thing now.”

“The Thanatosi are relentless,” said Foss. “They will never stop seeking their prey.”

Charlie slumped back against the pillows.

“I know where we can go, aye,” said Nell suddenly.

“We?”
said Charlie. She ignored him and held out her hand to Foss, as if offering it to him to kiss. He looked at it in surprise. On her finger, she wore the ring Jalo the Faery had given her when they parted ways in Tian Xia.

“The Realm of the Faeries!” she said. “Jalo can give us sanctuary. These Thanatosi or whatever you call them, lah, they wouldnay be able to follow us there, would they?”

“True,” said Foss. “If the Faeries were willing to give you sanctuary, you would be safe. The Thanatosi cannot enter that Realm uninvited.”

“What’s this
we
and
us
business?” asked Charlie. “You dinnay need to hide.”

Nell turned on him, her violet eyes flashing angrily. “Do you really think the Faeries would take
you
in by yourself? If I go with you, Jalo will help. But I dinnay remember him being terribly fond of
you
, lah. Seeing as the first thing you did when you met him was try to kill him.”

“If you can call finding him with a sword at your throat
meeting
him,” huffed Charlie.

“Stop it!” said Eliza. “Nell is right. Jalo would help her but I’m nay sure he’d help you alone, Charlie. Can you do it, Nell? I know you’ve got this exam coming up.”

“I’ll bring my notes. I can study in the Realm of the Faeries as well as anywhere,” said Nell lightly, as if they were proposing a drive to the seaside. “As long as I’m back in time for the test. I’ve got a month, aye.”

“Then I’ve got a month to stop the Thanatosi once you two are safe. We should leave right away.”

“We?” said Charlie again. “So you’re coming too? We’re all going to the Realm of the Faeries together?”

“Someone has to get you safely to Tian Xia,” said Eliza. “Once you’re in touch with Jalo, I’ll be comfortable leaving you alone. But until then I’m nay letting you out of my sight. Will you come, Foss? We’ll need barriers.”

“Of course,” he said. “We will leave at once.”

~~~

They packed up their few belongings quickly. Of her birthday gifts, Eliza brought with her the peculiar weapon Swarn had sent, the scabbard Nell had made her, into which she fitted her dagger, and the backpack her grandmother had woven, which she filled with supplies. The rest she left with her father. Charlie limped out of his tent, Sorma herbs packed against his tightly bandaged wounds. He looked at the Thanatosi, still leaping and spinning and swarming along the barrier in eery silence.

“Makes me dizzy watching them, aye,” he said flatly. “Do they nary stop moving?”

“Look at that! They can turn right upside down. Like gravity doesnay apply to them!” exclaimed Nell. “It would be fascinating to be able to study one of them in a lab. See how they work, aye. Like those jumps they make. How do they
do
that?”

Charlie gave her a faintly disgusted look. “You’re creepy when you get all scientific,” he said.

“Come,” said Foss. “They cannot stray far from the ground. We shall be out of their reach in no time.” He gestured towards the waiting dragon.

Charlie grimaced. “I’m nay sure how I feel about sitting on some flying beast’s back. I’m usually the back, aye.”

“Nay anymore,” said Nell, a bit cruelly.

Rom came out to see them off, supporting Rea with one arm.

“So you’re off again,” said Rea, squinting in the sun. “You’ll be careful?”

“I always am,” said Eliza. She kissed her mother on her cool cheek, struggling to ignore the hum of the Urkleis as she did so. Then she threw her arms around her father and hugged him goodbye.

“Take care, my girl,” he whispered.

“I’ll be back soon,” she said. “We’ll play chess with my new set.”

He kissed her and smiled. “You’re all right, then?”

She nodded. “It was a good birthday, up until the assassins.”

Foss helped Nell and Charlie onto the dragon’s neck and seated himself just before its wings. Eliza climbed up the gold-scaled back. The dragon swiveled its neck and watched her with one brilliant eye. Dragons knew a being of power when they encountered one and this dragon had flown with Eliza before. She seated herself on the middle of its back, behind Foss, gripping the golden spike in front of her. Foss called out a command and the dragon leaped into the air, its huge wings accordioning out. Below them the barrier crumbled, but the Thanatosi were no longer interested in the Sorma camp. In a swirl of white limbs and flashing swords, they came leaping across the desert after the dragon. The dragon beat its massive wings, climbing higher and higher into the sky and leaving the Thanatosi behind.