Tim Lebbon - Echo city

She would never have believed that blindness would inspire timelessness, but when Nophel's torch flared alight ahead of her and he signaled that they could do the same, she had no idea how much time had passed. She had little opportunity to find out. The curtain before them took her breath away, and any other thoughts fled her mind.

At first she thought it was fire, but of course she would have seen it long before now. Stretching up into the darkness above them, beyond the reach of her torch, the curtain was a shimmering, moving thing, rustling in an absent breeze. It could have been water, but she heard no splashing or pouring. It could have been metal, but surely it would have clanged and creaked where it bent and moved so much?

"What the fuck is that?" Malia said softly.

"We're beneath the canal," Nophel said. "When the Dragarians dug that, they were working down here also. Alexia says…" He drifted off, listening to a voice Peer could not hear. "She says they worked deep down through the Echoes, cutting even their history off from our own. Different barriers in each Echo. This is one of the hardest to get through, but also the quickest."

"But what is it?" Peer asked, unable to keep the quaver from her voice. There was something unnatural about the way this curtain moved before them, almost as if…

"Looks like it's alive," Malia said.

Alexia appeared before them, fading into existence and frowning in concentration or pain. Maybe it does hurt, Peer thought, and she surprised herself by hoping that it did.

"Not alive like anything we'd understand," the Unseen said. She sighed, rubbed at her face, then turned toward the barrier. "It's soul-fire. That's what we call it, anyway. I'm not sure it has any other name, don't even know whether the Dragarians have named it. Probably not. They just made it and placed it here."

"What does it do?" Peer asked, already filled with dread.

"Doesn't matter," Malia said. "We just need to get through."

"It steals your soul if you touch it," Alexia said, smiling. "But it doesn't kill you. Leaves you walking. There are several Unseen, on this side or the other, existing without a soul because of that… thing."

"How can that be?" Peer said quietly, almost to herself. It was a dreadful idea, fantastic, and something she had never heard of before.

"We know the way through," Alexia said. "All you have to do is follow."

"And you found the route how?" Malia asked.

"Trial and error."

"And the wandering soulless are your errors?"

"No, they're their own. Do you want to find this Rufus or not?"

"Of course," Nophel said. "We're working together, and there has to be trust." Peer nodded at him, but his single good eye could not convey any such emotion. It moved from sad to pained and back again, and she had rarely seen any other expression. She wondered what it must be like holding all that inside.

"Keep the strings short and taut," Alexia said, as she frowned and faded again. She closed her eyes as she went, and Peer wondered whether she was praying.

It struck her that she knew none of the Unseen's religious allegiances. Originally Scarlet Blades, they would have been raised Hanharan, steeped in that religion from a very early age and sermonized regularly once they were initiated into the Blades. And even three years ago, Alexia had worked against the Watchers, leading to Peer's imprisonment and torture. But since their transformation, surely much would have changed.

Now was not the time to ask. Indeed, if there had ever been a time, it was long past.

They approached the soul-fire. Peer concentrated, watching the tight string before her, turning left when it veered that way and then heading straight into the shimmering curtain. It stank of a baby's skin and a rash-plague sufferer's final breath. She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, and The faces scream and rage, their pain illimitable, the shrieks beyond any contemplation of sanity, and they surge around her like walls of stone flowing as fluid, always threatening to crush her, squeeze the air from her lungs, suck the blood from her veins, and she opens her mouth to scream but can taste only the soul-fire, rancid things, and fine grapes.

Why didn't you tell us? she thought, and then they were through. She went to her knees and heard Nophel's groan ahead of her, but her string quickly pulled taut.

"You could have warned us," she said, but if the Unseen responded, she did not hear. He tugged at the string and she stood, glancing back at Malia's pale face behind her.

"Well, that was nice," Malia gasped. Behind her, the soul-fire made no sound as it fell and burned.

They moved on, their Unseen guides not pausing. The ground headed upward, steepening sharply. They followed the slope, then at some unknown signal turned left, approaching a wall of rock that loomed from the darkness like the edge of the world.

Nophel glanced back over his shoulder and whispered, "Sometimes guards, sometimes not. She'll go ahead to see." His string relaxed and the end hit the ground, and Peer saw his head move slightly as he watched Alexia's progress.

She returned quickly, manifesting again as she walked and sighing when she stopped, resting her hands on her knees for a moment.

"Sick?" Peer asked.

"Been running," she said, but she was not out of breath. "It's quiet. But beyond the wall, some of their things keep watch. You have your swords?"

"What things?" Malia asked.

"Like hounds, except slower. Blind. Don't let them bite you." Alexia looked at where the other two Unseen would be standing. She gave a quick hand signal, then started to fade again.

"What was that?" Peer asked. "Alexia?" But the Unseen was already moving away, then she disappeared completely, the end of Nophel's string grasped in her hand. "Nophel?" Peer asked.

"Just telling them to keep watch," he said. "As must we all."

The gap in the stone wall was obvious only when they drew very close and she saw the end of Nophel's string pass inside. He followed, and then Peer was in as well, walls brushing both arms as the path narrowed even further. She held the torch in the same hand as her string and tried to reach her sword, but the little man pulled her on, and she could not turn enough between those sheer walls to draw her weapon.

From ahead, she heard a quiet, strangled shout. Nophel's torch danced about, then extinguished altogether.

"Here!" he shouted. "Peer!"

She ran, shoving the Unseen man aside and bursting from the short tunnel. Nophel was on the ground with a black creature standing over him, its jaws wide as it lowered its head toward his throat. As Peer was reaching for her sword, it screamed, darting its jaw to the right at the wound that had suddenly opened in its flank. Alexia withdrew her sword and buried it in the creature's shoulder. Nophel slid aside as the creature dropped dead.

"You all right?" Peer asked, and he nodded sharply.

"Watch for yourself," he said, standing. She did, shining the torch around as the end of her string led her forward again. She smiled uncertainly, hoping that if he was looking, the short man would see it as an apology.

Several shadowy shapes stalked them. Malia's small crossbow sang, a thud and a whine signifying a hit. Two more creatures came at Nophel and Peer. She gripped her sword hard and then stepped aside. The first thing snapped at where she'd been standing, and she swept the blade down across the back of its neck. It stuck fast in the thing's flesh, driving it to the ground. It died without a whimper.

Malia's crossbow whispered again, and then the things were dead.

"That wasn't too hard," Malia said.

"Alexia says there are usually Dragarians controlling them," Nophel said. "This is the first time she's heard of them being loose down here."