Chapter 6
A Dark-Be-Damned, Bloody Baby
Eiko had no time to prepare. One second, she was being warned about the prince, and the next second, there was something wrapped around her throat.
She was pretty sure it was a hand.
She was too shocked to react.
Her friends were too shocked to react.
Hymn burrowed into her chest, hiding away and whimpering.
There was a large man in front of her.
He was choking her.
She was pretty sure it was the prince.
Except he wasn’t choking her, not really. He was just gripping her tightly … wordlessly. His grip felt cool and leathery, the slight creaking as he infinitesimally tightened his grip telling her he was wearing gloves. She tried to draw on Hymn’s ability again but was only met with darkness.
It’s our ability now, Hymn whispered.
Okay, the correction is so not helpful right at this moment.
Sorry, master.
Nope. We’re not doing that.
Can I call you Eiko? His fluttery little spark of excitement briefly stirred in her chest.
Sure, she said. If you stop talking, so I can concentrate on being choked out by the prince.
Prince Chasin still hadn’t uttered a word, not even a grunt or a huff to give away his emotion or intention.
He was standing so close, she could feel the heat radiating from his body, could feel how big he was compared to her, and the little shiver of power that seemed to fill the bare space between them, like a breeze getting sucked down into a chasm.
“Chasin?” Light, hurried footsteps rushed over, the female voice carrying a honeyed Goldmoor accent. She didn’t question the prince further, but it was clear from the one word she had spoken that this was not normal or expected behaviour.
The confusion and alarm searing Eiko from the fixed, silent stares of everyone around her only fuelled her own internal panic.
Chasin leaned closer, and she could feel the warmth of his choppy breath against her temple, stirring a stray tangle of hair across her nose. She wrinkled it, trying not to sneeze in his face.
He smelled like … she couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but it wasn’t pleasant, and it felt almost supernatural, as though his monster was so strong, it overpowered everything normal and human about him.
Death, she eventually realised, as he lifted one finger.
The youngest prince—the one who had screamed so horribly all those years ago in the cave—he smelled like death, now.
He lifted another finger. Slowly, achingly, still completely silent.
It wasn’t a decomposing death, or even the musty, soil-rich scent of a coffin.
It was an entirely inhuman flavour. His brand of death was silence and obscurity, a vastness like what she had felt when Hymn filled her, before he shrank into the little ribbon that she could feel trembling around her heart, shirking away from Prince Chasin.
It was a death of darkness, and somehow that had a scent.
Heady and smoky, with a hint of something salty against the back of the tongue.
Sweat and tears. It definitely wasn’t agreeable, and it was like nothing she had ever experienced before.
She had a feeling she would be remembering that exact scent in a future nightmare—possibly every future nightmare she was cursed with for the rest of her life.
He lifted another finger and then unclasped her throat and slowly stepped away from her.
He has a need to kill, Hymn whispered. It screams from him.
Say what now? she shot back in alarm.
Kaito spoke up before Hymn could respond to her, his voice cracking with nervous energy. “Uh, Eiko, Prince Chasin is … signalling something to you.”
“Commander,” the woman interrupted sharply. “All recruits will refer to Prince Chasin as Commander, as that is what he is to you, now.”
Why was everyone speaking for him?
His throat is scarred, Hymn told her. The scars are thick and deep, and they dip below his shirt. I don’t think he can speak.
But he’s the commander of the Godsguard, she returned in a panic, too overwhelmed to deal with her sudden and competing realisations. And I’m … Silenced. So … I’m a recruit. And … if he can’t speak and I can’t see—
She cut off her rambling, realising something else.
The woman had spoken to Kaito.
Kaito had also Silenced a monster.
So, they were all …
“You may go,” the woman said, “join the other non-recruits on the train.”
“I’ll … uh … good luck,” Kira whispered, hurrying off.
Everyone else stayed.
“The rest of you better hurry the fuck up and figure out what the commander told you to do, or you won’t last very long,” the woman scoffed, the soft and honeyed quality to her voice making way for a hint of derision.
What the fuck?
She and Prince Chasin walked away without another word. One set of footsteps was almost lethally silent—more silent than Eiko or any of her friends could manage—the other lithe and light, like a dancer.
“W-what did he say?” Eiko choked out. “With his … uh, hands?”
“I have no fucking clue,” Ky growled, the anger in his tone surprising Eiko until another set of footsteps approached, followed by the sound of a fist meeting flesh. “You asshole,” Ky snapped, as Kaito and Rion both made sounds of shock. “You left us to die in there.”
Ren.
“I’m sorry.” Ren spoke low, the words rasped out in pain. “My monster … he … he was tearing me apart.”
His monster. So they had all caved. All of them except Kira. And the stoneborn were supposed to be the stubborn, immovable people. Kira had been stronger than them all.
“We need to focus,” Eiko said, cutting through whatever angry retort Ky was mustering. “It sounds like only the non-recruits get to go back on the train. Did the group from Oakensnare make it?”
“Only three of them,” Kaito replied. “They’re talking to the commander.”
“Talking to him?” she questioned. “They understand the hand signals?”
“They’re doing them right back to him. They must have studied his language, knowing they’d make it through the Quiet.
Cocky fucking bastards. There are a bunch of Goldmoor soldiers here, but they’re all armoured up in gold, so they must be part of the Godsguard.
The others—including the woman who was just here—are talking to the people who made it out of the Quiet, directing them onto the train or telling them whatever the commander just told us. ”
“Let’s just follow the Oakensnare group,” Rion said weakly. “They started walking.”
Eiko groaned, setting her cane shakily against the ground. “They’re gonna make us walk all the way back to Goldmoor, aren’t they?”
Rion let out a short breath of pain. “Probably.”
“Are you okay?” Eiko turned towards the sound of Rion’s voice. “Why can’t you walk?” She assumed her brother was still carrying her friend.
“Just some mild paralysis,” Rion said dryly. “Nothing to write home about. Which I can do now, by the way. Write home. Because we survived!”
“For now,” Ren grunted. They moved slowly, towards the sound of the train vibrating to life. “I don’t know about you guys, but my monster is already testing the limits of my mind.”
“I’ve come to an agreement with mine,” Ky said stiffly. “And Eiko Silenced a dark-be-damned, bloody baby, so …”
“What?” Kaito and Rion barked at the same time.
I’m not a baby, Hymn protested, unfurling from his tight wrap around Eiko’s heart and winding down her arm to tangle with her fingers. I’m almost a hundred.
“He’s almost a hundred,” she told the others.
Ky scoffed. “Mine said that means he’s a baby.”
“Did yours try to call you master?” Eiko asked. “I don’t think Hymn is super experienced with the whole Silencing thing.”
It’s my first time, Hymn admitted sheepishly.
The others spluttered out shocked and bewildered sounds.
“Master my ass. Mine is still trying to pry me open and leave me in a bloody mess on the ground,” Ren said, before adding, “Only you, Eiko.”
“You really bonded a bloody baby?” Kaito barked a laugh. “Of course you did.” He sounded like he was shaking his head. “Mine is still refusing to use my name. Keeps calling me a pitiful human.”
“Mine is ignoring me,” Rion said softly.
“She thought she could overpower me easily. She’s angry that she couldn’t.
She’s punishing me by causing me so much nerve pain in my arms and legs that I can hardly move.
” Rion barely sounded like she was in pain.
But that was Rion; she would keep it inside as much as possible so as not to burden anyone else.
“Are you sure I’m not too heavy?” she added lowly.
“Quit asking,” Kaito grunted.
Beside them, the train chuffed a heavy hissing of steam into the air, sluggishly beginning to chug along the tracks.
“How many non-recruits survived?” Eiko asked. “They aren’t going to wait to see if anyone else comes out?”
“About seven, I think,” Kaito replied. “But half of them were carried on by the others. They were probably dead. I guess we’ve reached the limit for how long you can realistically survive inside the Quiet.”
“And how many recruits?” Eiko asked.
“Three of the Oakensnare group, including the one Cairn tried to refuse entry to the Kingsweep—he doesn’t even look injured, but the other two are pretty fucked up.
I guess they lost the woman they were with.
There’s a guy. I think he’s from Suntide or maybe Goldmoor.
He has that sun-blessed look about him, but he seems pretty tough.
He’s writing shit in a little notebook …
Ah … I think he’s actually taking notes on us. ”
Eiko sighed. “That’s not creepy at all.”
“There’s another guy, a bit further back,” Kaito added, sounding like he was craning his neck. “He’s massive, has that oaken skin you see in Ironglade. Um, yeah, and he’s staring at us too.”
“Because we’re the largest group who made it out,” Rion explained. “Other than the three guys from Oakensnare, everyone else is alone.”
“Everyone is a strong word,” Ren mumbled. “It’s just us, the Oakensnare lads; the two massive, creepy dudes; and the weird girl.”