Havoc of Souls Page 23

  “I choose you. I surrender my power to you that I may evolve through you. I, the spark born of Charu’s being, am tied to you now by fate’s design. You will bring me into this new world, and I will honor you foremost as mother.”

  Meredith reached toward the female as if to touch her, and the woman smiled and leaned into Meredith’s trembling hand before bursting into a shower of light dispersing through Meredith’s body, sinking down into her womb.

  Meredith came to on the floor with a shuddering breath. Her insides felt as if a blowtorch had been taken to them, but she forced herself to her feet. Palearas stood nearby, a satisfied look on his face. He’d broken Xavier’s neck and clawed the wulkwos from the corpse. The creature twisted savagely but was helpless in his grip. He bowed to her and held his prisoner toward her.

  “Take this unworthy one into your light.”

  “Are you not worried about being taken too?”

  The male shook his head, a smile on his lips. “I’m safe in my vessel for now. I wait for my lady to be freed, then I shall gladly go to Aites at her side.”

  Meredith nodded and then turned her burning gaze back to the wulkwos that had assaulted her.

  “Traitor!” the captive wulkwos snarled.

  Meredith looked at the creature, aware of everything going on around her as if she could see more and sense more than ever before. She could hear the brutal crack of Charu’s hammer as he tore about the vessels of his foes. Her eyes scanned the numerous beings who swarmed over each other in their attempt to overwhelm her male. They stood out starkly in the darkness, everything defined with clarity.

  She outstretched a glowing hand and touched the wulkwos. The light flared around her as she came into contact with him. He convulsed and screamed, his form pulling apart and fragmenting as she drew the threads of his essence into a void space inside of her. She closed her eyes, casting her mind to feeling about within herself. It was an odd sensation, breathing him into her core, but once he was within it, it was as if he were far removed from her and set behind barriers.

  The soul of the spirit wasn’t within her but transferred through her to its prison where it would be judged. She understood that instinctively as if the knowledge had been given to her as much as the light itself had. She would never again be touched by darkness. Never again would it be able to find a place to dwell within her.

  Her eyes snapped open and she raised her arms, her lips parting as she called the name of the lauchume. The bloody remains of his human form lay at Charu’s feet as he rounded again on his enemy, having beaten back another fresh surge of the horde. Confronted with such numbers, Meredith could see that his great strength was beginning to wear down. Not even Charu could continue forever. The feathers of his wings were tattered and still he used them to move between his enemies.

  It was time to finish this.

  “Lacth.” The name fell from her lips in a surge of power that rippled through the room. The male in question spasmed. “Lacth, I call you unto me. Your power here is no more.” She stretched her arms wider. “Come, wulkwos, come unto me. Come, you unfettered beings of Aites, come unto me. My light pierces you and reveals you. You are scattered to the shadows. The light contains you all. Marish hinthial favin.”

  The lauchume’s claws scrabbled across the floor in a desperate attempt to escape the light decimating his form, pulling him apart bit by bit as all of his magic seeped out of him as he vomited.

  The screams of the creatures were deafening, their misery palpable as one by one the tendrils of darkness drew into her to be sealed within. Wave upon wave drew into her but naught one remained, save for the lingering fragmented spirit of Lacth.

  He struggled against her light but even he couldn’t wrestle free of it. His magic resisted her light until the last bit of it fled from him, leaving only the fragmenting bones of the male still struggling to withdraw from her. Her light surged with a more powerful wave, swallowing up more and more of the horde, until even Lacth’s bones disintegrated and drew within her, sending him through the containment portal within her.

  They had been returned to Aites for their judgment.

  As she breathed him into the void within, her body shone brighter than ever. Her power flowed through her even as she felt the blood vessels burst and the cells of her body collapse and die. She knew she was dying and yet she was summoned by a call she couldn’t resist. Everything within her responded to it, to this purpose that unfolded before her.

  She was aware of Charu dropping his hammer and rushing toward her, the stark lines of sadness that marked his face when he wrapped his arms around her body as she collapsed upon herself. She was being drawn away, but she fought to stay long enough to caress the side of his face with her palm and push three words from her lips.

  “I love you.”

  On her last breath, Meredith lost the remaining bond to life. Her breath stilled and her heart stuttered its final beats until it too lay still within her breast. Her finger twitched and then she was gone, pulled along an aethereal river from everything she’d known.

  Chapter 32

  Charu bent his head over the still body in his arms. He could no longer call it Meredith. It was but her fleshy shell. Meredith was gone. He watched the light fade from her, the red glow changing back to the brightest blue-white of the lantern. It receded, and blood trickled from her lips as she used her last breath to whisper to him of her love. Never before in his memory had he wept, but he did then. Hot red tears slipped from him, his soul bleeding with loss. His primary serpent swept around his neck, dropped from his body and slid onto her, followed by another and another, every part of his being desiring contact and experiencing the sorrow of loss.

  He lifted her remains into his arms, her flesh adorned with the shimmering coils. He would not leave her to rot above ground. He would see that she was buried and then he would hunt her soul out in the next world. He wouldn’t be apart from her. Holding her close, he felt the bite of sorrow strike him deep, and all of his being bowed in overwhelming grief.

  He left the mansion with his burden until he arrived at a hill overlooking a view that stretched across the horizon. Setting her gently on the ground, he manifested his hammer and swung it, ignoring the pangs of exhaustion. With every blow, rock broke apart until a crevice lay before him.

  Charu dropped into the hole and turned toward the edge long enough to gather his mate back into his arms. Lovingly, he settled her into her earthen bed. His lips caressed her cheek in a final farewell to the flesh of the being he’d so loved. The flesh he’d embraced and kissed. He held the memory of each touch close to his heart as he pulled away and pushed himself out of the grave. He worked quickly to fill the broken rock and soil back into the grave, sealing away her cherished flesh from the appetites of any creatures that may wish to feast upon her. Even through it all, he could feel something change in the air, a cleanliness that swept through, banishing the miasma on a breath.

  Stepping away from the grave, he raised his head in wonder.

  Never had he expected that.

  Humans crept out of their hiding places and stepped out of the mansion. He sneered at them but strode past. They had betrayed themselves and their people, all for their selfish desire to be kept safe from the taint. He had no reason to destroy them, though he itched to do so. Instead, he turned his head, refusing to even look upon them.

  He raised a hand and prepared to manifest his link to the gate when a vesseled wulkwos stepped in his path. The male exceeded him in height by at least a foot and by all appearances matched him for strength. Charu lowered his hand and narrowed his eyes, aggression unfurling through him. He tightened his grip on his hammer, preparing his attack, when the male raised his empty palms up in supplication. The gesture caught him off guard and he paused, staring at the clawed hands before meeting the male’s glowing yellow eyes.

  “Gatekeeper,” the male said respectfully, not flinching or withdrawing from Charu’s hard regard. He lowered his hammer.


  “Why do you linger in this world, wulkwos?”

  The male bowed his head and lowered himself further onto his coils.

  “I am Palearas. I’ve served as guard to your human during her time here. Though I gave pretense of service to the lauchume’s sick aspirations, I protected her. I ask that you recognize your debt to me that I call to be repaid. As for your question, I am bound to my mistress, Tiurma, she who ruled the wulkwos before she took Lacth for her mate. She had a bargain with your human. She traded knowledge to be set free from the vessel her mate bound her to that she might leave this plane in peace. I ask that you fulfill the agreement.”

  Charu snarled, his serpents writhing around him, infuriated that the male dared approach him when the wounds of his mate’s loss were still fresh.

  “Your mistress destroyed my mate.”

  The wulkwos didn’t deny it. Instead, he inclined his head.

  “There was no doubt that the result would end her mortal existence. Tiurma knew it. The queen dwells close to the cave of the Fates and often receives their council and friendship since she was born into Aites. She knew, and the human also knew. It was the path outlined, the only way to win.”

  “I was sent here to collect the wulkwos. It was my duty!”

  The male laughed.

  “We both know that the will of the aiser and the Fates do not work in such clear-cut ways. You were sent to this world for a purpose. You were to gather the escaped souls causing havoc on this plane, but you needed a bond formed with another to triumph—to bear forth the spirit of a new age.”

  Charu growled. So much that had been unclear and confused suddenly clarifying in his mind. His inexplicable reaction to Meredith, the way he was drawn to her and bent his will for her when he would not do so for any other. The way his lamp attuned to her, enough to protect her, even from him, when its strange sentience that had developed over the ages sensed that she was in danger.

  Everything had been orchestrated before he’d ever set foot on the mortal world.

  He’d been both correct and mistaken about Meredith. She was both a gift from the gods and a cruel destiny that saw her snatched away from... from life. Throwing back his head, he bellowed to the heavens until he, wrung of emotion, dropped to his knees.

  “The aiser would not cause you to suffer needlessly,” the wulkwos murmured, his voice heavy with sympathy.

  Charu released a bitter laugh. “Would they not? They laid out a path for her that led her through madness and horrors and delivered her to a premature death. All to save a race that will never know her name or remember her deed. They destroyed me in destroying her, offering me love only to take her away. I, who never knew or needed the foreign touch of love.”

  The wulkwos looked away, unable to offer any words of comfort. Charu sighed and pushed himself to his feet. He could at the very least honor the memory of his mate by fulfilling her oath. He doubted he would find her through the endless expanse of Aites. He would spend lifetime after lifetime haunting the world, looking for his mate. If he must abandon the gate, so be it.

  The wulkwos tilted his head. “Do you regret knowing love? Many a being of Aites would give anything to feel it.” He set his claws over his chest and looked thoughtful. “This world changed us, much for the worse, I think. It gave us too much and too many of our kind fell into their madness, but it also gave us the chance to know more than we could in Aites. The chance to love.”

  Charu considered the other male’s words. He recalled the look of happiness that had been so much a part of Ischar. Had he been wearing such a look in their time together before they were separated? Would he have rather never known her and loved her than knowing the loss of her?

  He saw her then in that moment when they’d met, her naked body shivering as she looked up at him with hope in her eyes. The vision shifted and he saw her stubborn glare by the campfire. It changed again and he was looking at the sight that had greeted him when he glanced over his shoulder and saw her trudging behind him, unwilling to give up even when he was at his most merciless. He recalled the way her face lit up at simple pleasures. He saw her as she looked when she walked beside him through the forest, the way she’d talked on and on, and the sweet sound of her laughter.

  Another memory flooded him and he bowed his head against the grief. She lay beside him, her body naked and spent from love-making. The corners of her eyes crinkled with affection as she ran her fingers through his hair. He heard the sound of her sigh when he leaned down to kiss her. Her moans of desire. Yet the memory of her love shining from her as she looked upon him was what undid him.

  “No,” he said hoarsely. “I can never regret it. It was everything.”

  The wulkwos nodded and said nothing more. They walked into the mansion and Charu followed him to a library that still carried traces of his mate’s scent from when she’d been there. He attempted not to think of it as he made his way to the rear of the room and faced the large statue crouched in one corner.

  In some ways, the stone vessel was appropriate. Its twisted features were a suitable reflection of the wulkwos. She was coiled within there, watching and waiting. He didn’t make her wait any longer. Heaving his hammer, he brought it down on the statue, the power of his weapon breaking the bonds even as its material form shattered the rock. The female sprung from the rubble in the full, terrible magnificence of her form.

  To Charu’s surprise, her face immediately softened and she bowed before him, her eyes burning with emotion that he’d never expected one of Aites to feel.

  “Lord gatekeeper, I honor the sacrifice made.”

  He inclined his head in acknowledgment even though it pained him. Turning away from the sight of the queen embracing the male, he raised a hand and drew upon his bond to the gate. In the wall, a doorway opened up, and a road extended along a torchlit path that led to the great ebony gates that stretched from the floor to the roof of the cavern of the soul’s passage.

  Stepping to the side, he gestured for the wulkwos to precede him. They smiled at him gratefully, their bodies shimmering with light as they slipped into the mist of the other world, disappearing from sight. Charu stepped to the edge of the portal and hesitated. He cast one last look around the room, drawing the fading scent of Meredith into his lungs. He stepped forward to enter into the mists when a quiet sob drew his attention.

  He frowned. Stepping away from the portal he followed the sounds of grief until he caught sight of the small lasa curled into herself, weeping in a hidden nook. The dark stain had diminished from the healing light—Meredith’s light—had cast, but the glow of the spirit was weak and sick. He was tempted to withdraw and leave her to her misery for her betrayal, to leave her to wander the mortal world, but he hesitated. His mate would have pitied her, even wronged as she’d been. She would have insisted that they help her.

  Grinding his teeth, he choked down his anger and cleared his throat, making his presence known. The lasa gasped and stiffened, her eyes fastening on him with terror. He crossed his arms over his chest and huffed.

  “Well, come on then. Can’t leave you to run about here.”

  A look of disbelief crossed her pale face.

  “You... will take me?”

  “I cannot return you to where you were taken, but I can take you with me to the gates.”

  She bit her lip with obvious reluctance. He let out an exasperated sigh and pushed a hand through his hair. Irritation flared at her unreasonable behavior. She was fortunate that he was inclined to help her at all. If not for the merciful nature of his mate and his love for her memory...

  “You want to continue on here?”

  “No,” she whispered.

  “Let’s go then, before I change my mind. I do this not because I feel any mercy toward you, but because my mate would have,” he snapped as he stomped away. He was aware of the slight figure rising and following after him. He stopped at the edge and waited impatiently as she timidly made her way through, her arms wrapped around her and shivering as s
he stepped onto the road.

  “I will find you, Meredith,” he whispered.

  He slipped into the mist and the portal closed behind him, leaving behind everything that remained of the living world of men.

  He descended along the path, the small flickering light of the lasa trailing behind him. The lasa’s wings had burst from her back but they hung at her sides as if she didn’t have the energy to raise them. He fluffed his black wings and strove to ignore her. They walked down the path, the mist clinging to them, drawing closer to the gates and the towering structure adjoining them where he dwelt.

  The gate glowed with a pearly light, restored when the lauchume had been returned with all those bound to him. Charu stood close, his eyes inspecting it for any weakness. Finding none, he patted at a post and stepped away. There were no souls waiting to be attended to, much to his disappointment. He’d harbored some small hope that his mate would be there among countless others waiting for admittance. No doubt Culsa or Culsans had overseen his duties in his absence. With heavy steps, he headed toward his tower, his mind turning with plans on how he might search for his mate when there were so many avenues through Aites.

  His steps slowed as he approached the doorway and saw the shimmering golden form waiting nearby. His ears tilted forward with curiosity. It was unheard of for an aiser to approach his abode. He wondered what merited the occasion. He gnashed his teeth, resentful of the intrusion that would delay his search.

  Turan, like most aiser, towered over him, her long limbs shining with golden radiance. Unlike most of the heavenly deities, she was among those closest to the dead. She anointed the flesh at death, easing the transition for the dead from the living world before the vanth retrieved them. Mother of lasa and vanth alike, she was beautiful, maternal, and foreboding. He heard the lasa behind him draw in a sharp breath of surprise but resolutely ignored it.

  Charu bowed low before Turan, careful not to offend her by wounding her with his horns. A smile touched her lips and her eyes were warm as she looked down upon him.