Chapter 22
Chapter
Twenty-Two
CHAOS
The bite of nighttime desert wind was the first thing I felt as we materialized on the edge of the barrier that led to Khan’s tomb. I remembered it well, even though centuries had passed since we sealed this place.
“Why did it have to be sand? I loathe sand. It gets everywhere,” Pan complained.
“Could be worse,” Alek said.
“Could be snakes,” Tor added.
“Snakes aren’t so bad,” Pan said. “A stern word or two and they’re sweet as mice.”
I eyed my compatriots and shook my head. Part of me wished I’d come alone, but I knew that would have been folly. I needed at least one person to watch my back. Sadly, this was the best I could come up with. What the hell had I been reduced to?
“Quiet,” I snapped, as they continued with their mindless chattering. “We need to stay focused.”
“On what, exactly?” Pan drawled. “I don’t see anything. Except sand. Oh, look. More sand.”
If he didn’t watch it, I’d end up sewing his lips shut with his own purple hair for thread.
The entrance was here, somewhere. Centuries of sandstorms had altered the landscape so much I couldn’t find the exact location.
At first I thought I’d remembered everything, but the closer I looked, the less familiar it all became.
Taking tentative steps, I reached out, hoping to sense the shift in energy around the opening.
“What the fuck is he doing?” Alek asked.
“It looks like Tai Chi to me.” Tor’s muttered response wasn’t quiet enough to escape my notice.
I snapped my attention to the Viking twins. “It’s here somewhere. I just have to find it.”
“Find what?” Pan asked.
“The entrance,” I muttered, taking a few more shuffling steps.
“You mean to tell me there’s just an opening somewhere we can waltz through? Anyone could just stumble upon Khan’s tomb?”
There was no stopping my laugh. “Exactly right. And I’m sure multiple someones have done that very thing, but they didn’t live to tell the tale.”
“Who hides something that important in plain sight?” he grumbled.
“Plenty of people, now shut up.”
Spotting something in my periphery, I turned slightly to the right and took another step.
Eureka. The desert instantly vanished, leaving me surrounded in perpetual gloom by row upon row of empty buildings untouched by time.
It was as though this town had been frozen in amber: no decay, no speck of dirt, just stasis.
“Where are all the people?” Tor asked from behind me.
I hadn’t even realized I’d walked deeper into the town and they’d followed.
“Probably dead,” Alek answered.
“Sacrificed,” I corrected.
Pan sneered. “Lovely.”
“They didn’t want any leaks. Everyone who knew about the tomb was killed.”
“Except you.”
I nodded. “Except me.”
“How’d you manage that?” Alek asked.
“I didn’t exactly give them a choice. They didn’t know who I was.”
Pan cocked one aubergine brow. “I could imagine you being hard to kill.”
Tor snorted. “Do you think we’d be off on this adventure if he weren’t?”
“Right,” Pan muttered, seeming flustered. “For a second I forgot.”
“You forgot?” Alek asked, incredulous.
“It’s not exactly like I stand around ruminating on our impending doom. I prefer to focus on the upside.”
“And what is the upside of our situation, exactly?” Alek pressed.
“I got my tail back,” he declared, allowing it to swish beside him with a little flourish.
“For fuck’s sake,” I muttered. Pan was so unlike his father in some ways it was hard to believe they were of the same bloodline. Until he looked at me, anyway. Those eyes were unmistakably Malice.
“You’d be just as chuffed if you had a tail.”
Ignoring him, I led the way down the abandoned street, following the dirt path that had never seen a single car or truck.
Deep ruts were cut into the earth from the wheels of the many wagons and carts that had been used during this town’s prime.
One such cart sat tipped on its side, now empty, but more than likely once filled with food.
“Wait,” Pan said, interrupting the silence. “If everyone’s dead, where are the bodies?”
“Oh, they’re here. Trust me. No one escaped the Black City.”
“That doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence,” he replied.
“It shouldn’t.”
Tor and Alek placed a hand on their respective weapons, taking my words to heart.
The twins crept forward, coming abreast of me.
With a sudden crack, the floor beneath Alek gave way, and he shot down with a shocked cry.
Tor reached down inhumanly fast, catching his brother by the arm and tugging him up.
“Thanks,” he breathed, his eyes round as saucers as he took in the pit below.
I moved to stand beside him, spotting the pikes he’d nearly impaled himself on. “Watch out for traps,” I said dryly.
“A little late for that, don’t you think?”
Ignoring his complaint, I moved onward, steps careful, eyes sweeping the terrain for any indication of booby traps.
“Don’t you know where all the traps are?” Tor asked. “You say you were here when this was created.”
“That wasn’t my responsibility.”
“What did you do then?”
“I put him in his tomb.”
The Berserker gave me a considering look, his horns glinting ominously in the dim light. “You must have been close. That’s usually reserved for family.”
I shrugged. “He served a purpose.”
“He waged war,” Alek said, mirroring his brother as he studied me. “For you?”
I jerked my chin in a sharp nod. “It looked like it was going to be a successful endeavor, up until the end, anyway.”
“No one knows how close the apocalypse was,” Pan murmured.
“They never do. Blissfully unaware, even now.”
“I envy them,” Tor said quietly.
“You do?”
“It would be nice to focus on happiness for once.”
He wasn’t wrong about that. Even so, I preferred to face my destiny with eyes wide open.
“So do we have a location in mind, or are we just wandering around aimlessly?” Pan asked.
“I just told you I placed him in his tomb. Obviously I know where we’re going.”
“Care to enlighten the rest of us?”
I gestured toward the much larger building in the center of the city. It wasn’t exactly a palace, but it was as close to one as a place like this had. “There.”
With grim nods, we continued on in that direction, Alek letting out a soft, “That’s more like it.”
“More like what?” I asked.
He pointed at a couple of cobwebs hanging off one of the buildings. “More like I expected.”
“Fucking spiders. They’ll make a home anywhere,” Tor said under his breath.
I had a bad feeling about this new development.
“If the town is dead, what do the spiders eat?” Alek asked.
Reaching up, I brushed a large cobweb away from my face.
This one spanned from one building all the way across the road to another.
The sticky web got caught around my hand, and I had to brush it off on my pants.
It didn’t want to release me. With a grunt, I tried harder, not really seeing my surroundings as I stumbled across another string of web closer to the ground.
Two things happened at the same time: Pan grabbed my shoulder, attempting to pull me back, and a foul stench wafted from the ground. A chitinous sound rolled through the air, sending all the hairs on my body to attention.
“What was that?” Pan asked.
Before I could answer, an enormous spider darted out of a trapdoor in the earth and snatched him up in its forelegs.
“Gaaahhh!” Pan screamed, caught completely off guard as he flailed about upside down. “Unhand me, you fiend!”
“That’ll teach it,” Alek said with a snicker.
“Are you laughing at me?” Pan shouted as he fought to escape the arachnid’s clutches.
His movement only served to incense the spider further. Its fangs sank into Pan’s thigh, making the demon cry out in agony.
“A little help here,” he shouted, face etched in pain.
Malice would castrate me if I let something happen to his son, which was why my sword was in my hand and I was already halfway to the spider before he’d finished speaking.
The creature was absurdly large, easily the size of the nearby buildings.
I wasn’t surprised when my blade met significant resistance, the leg I was attempting to sever as thick as a tree trunk.
Alek and Tor were right beside me, opting to use their bare hands rather than blades as they too went after the spider’s limbs.
The Vikings snarled as their bodies swelled, veins popping across their muscles.
These were the Berserkers I’d heard about but never witnessed. Warriors made to fight at my side.
A crack followed by a squelching sound called my attention to Tor, who had ripped a leg straight out of the beast’s abdomen. Still, the monster didn’t drop Pan, who was now hurling putrid green balls of plague into the spider’s face.
“Was that supposed to do something?” Tor sneered, voice far harsher than I was used to, given the bloodlust pumping through his veins.
“It was worth a try,” Pan shouted back, his own voice laced with pain. Abandoning the orbs, he started smashing his fists into whatever part of the spider he could reach.
Alek yanked another leg free and tossed it to the side, growling as he latched on to a second limb.
The spider stumbled, and I used that opportunity to dart under its belly, thrusting my blade upward into its thorax before running full tilt and slicing the thing open from end to end.
Ichor spilled from it in a disgusting waterfall of black slime, but finally it released Pan, dropping him to the ground with a thud.
The beast let out an enraged cry, trying and failing to get back up. Its breaths were numbered, but still it refused to die.
Alek roared, finally unsheathing his weapon and beheading the monster in one clean swipe.
“And stay dead!” Pan shouted as the oversized head rolled down the lane we’d just traversed, setting off a series of traps we’d managed to avoid.
“Everyone in one piece?” I asked, wiping the spider’s guts off my face.
“I’m alive,” Alek said, breaths coming in harsh pants as the lightning faded from his eyes and his body returned to its normal size.