Chapter 4
Elemental beings made of earth are proof of the life that permeates nature. Sentient yet of low intelligence, mudarks seem to have only one goal. To feed.
THE COMPENDIUM OF HORRORS
The wards spat blue sparks as the huge rock slammed into them.
I barely had time to register what that meant before another rock hit. The wards fizzed, enraged, and the hairs on my nape stood as the temperature dropped.
So far, the windows had held, but that didn’t mean that another assault wouldn’t break them.
I needed to know what was hurling the rocks, but the storm and the tinted windows significantly reduced visibility.
Seconds dragged by before I forced myself to move closer, framing my eyes with my hands and pressing them to the glass to peer out.
Shit! What was that thing lumbering along the tree line? It was hard to make out details, but it was huge and blocky and…was it made of mud? A mud man?
The carriage rocked, and I almost lost my balance.
Another hit, farther down the tram this time. My breath plumed in front of my face.
The creatures were going to take down the wards.
Think, Ana, by the Trinity, think. There had to be a fail-safe. Some kind of alarm, something. I scanned the walls and the area by the door, staggering on my feet and bracing when another blow shook the carriage.
Nothing here.
I grabbed my pack and ran through to the next carriage, wildly searching, moving faster and faster through the tram, until I burst into the driver’s cab, where winking buttons and flashing lights greeted me, along with what looked like a radio coms unit.
I grabbed it and pressed the button. “Hello?” I let go of the button for a beat. Static crackled. I tried again. “Can anyone hear me?”
“This is Border House Nightsbridge,” a gruff male voice informed me. “Who is this?”
“My name is Anamaya. I’m on the tram, and it’s under attack.”
“Anamaya Onyx?”
“Yes! Please send help.”
Static followed.
I pressed the button. “Hello?”
Nothing.
“Hello? Please, can you hear me?”
Static…and then, “You don’t belong here, Onyx bitch.”
Ice flooded my veins, quickly morphing into frostbitten rage. “Listen, you shit-stain, you best—”
The carriage jolted hard enough to throw me off my feet and into the far wall headfirst.
I came to on the ground, but the world looked odd, and it took a moment for my brain to recalibrate and adjust its perspective. I was pressed to the cabin wall, which was now flush to the ground. We’d been derailed, and the whole contraption was now on its side.
Fuck, fuck, fuck. I pushed to my feet, blinking back the blood trickling into my eye.
I prodded it. Dammit, it was deep. Probably would need stitches.
No way to know how bad it was without pain to guide me.
My hands trembled as I pulled a roll of bandages from my pack, winding some around my head to staunch the worst of the bleeding.
First aid was essential with my condition.
The Academy was another fifteen minutes by tram. I’d have to go on foot and outrun anything that came after me. Maybe I’d get lucky. Maybe the mud men were gone. Maybe they just wanted to play and knock over the tram and—
The crunch and squeal of metal told a different story. They were tearing it open like a tin can.
Shit. I had to get out, but there was nothing to break the cabin window with.
Wait. Was that a hatch? Of course, a hatch in the floor which was now facing me. I ran my fingers over the surface, searching for a latch, some way to get it open. I brushed over a hexagonal indent. The perfect fit for a metal nut? Or was it key? It had to be a key. I needed a hexagonal key!
The crunch and groan of metal was replaced by soft growls.
The mud men were inside.
Dammit, where was the damn key?
I spotted a hook by the radio with a key symbol painted above it, but the key was gone. It must have fallen when the tram derailed. It had to be here somewhere.
I fell to my knees, palms sweeping over the ground. Come on, come on. Please! My chest was too tight, my breath coming in shallow, fast gasps, and black dots danced in my vision in time to the throb of my head.
Heavy footsteps echoed toward me along with gruff grunts and growls. Rocks settled in my belly.
Please, please, please… My fingers brushed something cold and hard under the control panel.
I hesitated, gripping it tighter. Could it be.
..? My breath hitched as I pulled it free and squinted in the dim light—yes!
The key! Hands shaking, I quickly inserted it into the hatch and twisted. It turned a little, then got stuck.
Something crashed behind me, and the thud of footsteps grew louder—too close.
I was moments away from discovery. I set the key back to the start position, then twisted again, hard enough to bruise my fingers.
It snagged before turning all the way. The hatch popped open, and dizzy with relief, I fell out into the storm, into the sheets of rain that soaked me instantly, blinding me momentarily before I could tug up my hood.
I rushed to the front of the toppled carriage and pressed my body to it, shrinking into the growing gloom and the chaos of the storm as I studied the terrain.
Any second now, the monsters would reach the control room, and once they got there, they’d discover the hatch—and come for me.
I’d give anything to have my toxin-covered knuckle dusters or blades with me now.
But those items had been prohibited. I’d managed to smuggle in a vial of toxin hidden in a cushioned pocket of my bag, but it was useless without a way to inject it, and who knew if it would even work on these mud men.
Fighting was not an option, not against these monsters.
Running was my only choice, but it would put me out in the open. A target. The alternative was the forest, and the host of deadly things that resided there. Nope. I’d take the slow, lumbering mud men any day, and anything else that wanted me would have to break cover and come for me.
Something smashed behind me.
My cue to move.
I burst into a sprint, falling into a focused rhythm that ignored the elements, the roar of triumph from the monsters behind me, and the fact that I was now prey.
I ran—pack bumping the small of my back, legs pumping, lungs working to keep me fueled—and ate the distance, flying across the wet ground along the tracks, thankful for the grip and the stability of my boots.
This I could do all day—run without breaking much of a sweat, without tiring. I could run for miles. Not magic, not Weave power, but something else. Something innate that I’d never understood, but damn, I was grateful for it now.
The ground shook, the air trembling as the Horrors closed in.
Do not look back. Keep moving.
Lightning lit up the world with a flash that was too bright. Too close.
Someone screamed, a desperate, wretched sound that turned my bowels liquid.
Shadows tracked me, running parallel within the cover of the woodland. If they stayed there, it would be fine. The vibration of the mud men’s pursuit had faded—I’d lost them, for now.
Another flash.
The storm was closer. The lightning was almost on me, bringing with it the sharp scent of ozone.
The things running parallel to me broke cover and cut toward the track. My heart leapt into my throat, dread pushing me harder, tearing through my reserves to maintain the advantage of distance.
A rush of heat in my muscles warned me that I was testing my boundaries, that I needed to scale back, but that wasn’t an option, because the things chasing me were fast and gaining ground.
Pale, humanoid, and long-limbed was all I could collate without breaking my focus, but it was enough to tease the primal part of my brain that urged me to scream in terror.
I fought the urge and won.
A fuzzy sensation filled my head for a moment, and then a voice whispered,
“Anamaya.”
“Onyx.”
“Onyx…”
Shit, the voice was in my head. Horror fisted my heart. “Get out! Get out of my head.”
“Get out! Get out of my head,” the voice mimicked, rising above the storm, outside my mind, around me, echoing over and over. “Get out! Get out of my head.”
Several voices now—my voice screaming at me—spawning a vise around my lungs.
My pace faltered, slowing me down for just a beat.
But it was enough.
Hands grabbed me, then shoved me off the tracks and into the mud.
I rolled and scrambled to my feet, surrounded by faceless, pale monsters, with arms too long and hunched backs. They circled me, screaming my words back at me until it was all I could hear, until my head pulsed, and I feared my brain would explode.
My vision blurred. No, it was them blurring.
I turned this way and that, searching for escape—heart beating so hard I was afraid it would bruise—and, oh God, they were changing.
Dark hair sprouted from their scalps, their skin deepening to a brown that matched mine.
The blank canvas of their faces bubbled and warped until I was looking at a woman.
The same woman I saw in the mirror every day.
My dark brows, my sharp, angular face, my brown eyes.
Me. They were all me. “Stop it! Stop!”
“Stop it! Stop!” they mimicked, moving closer, mouths stretching in impossibly wide smiles that stole the power from my limbs, leaving me weak and trembling.
I couldn’t move. What was happening?
What was this?
“Onyx. We will crawl into your mind and eat your brain. Become Onyx. All will be Onyx. Yes, we like this. We want this.”
The certainty that I was about to die bloomed like a wildfire inside me. As I looked into my eyes, into the faces that belonged to me and now belonged to all these others, I had no doubt that, in the next few moments, my inability to feel pain would be my greatest weapon.
“Fuck you!” I spat the words through rapidly numbing lips. “Fuck you all!”
“Fuck you!” they screamed back. “Fuck you all!”