Sam Sykes - Black Halo

‘ If our plight, the suffering of our people , her people cannot move her ,’ Avaij said, ‘ then perhaps she is too infected. Perhaps she must be put down .’

‘I have seen too many shicts die at human hands,’ Naxiaw whispered harshly. ‘Too many families severed, children lost … I will not let it happen again, not to another shict, not to her.’

He sent these words through the Howling on thoughts of anger, of frustration. The words of his companions came back on sensations of possibility, anticipation.

‘ Many Red Harvests approaches ,’ Avaij said. ‘ The idea here was to test it .’

‘ There are ways to save a host beyond putting it down ,’ Inqalle said. ‘ Poison can be used to cleanse, to shrivel tumours and drive out diseases .’

‘I have seen enough of her heart to know that it will hurt her,’ Naxiaw replied.

‘ The nature of poison is to harm. The nature of disease to kill. It is your choice, Naxiaw .’

He sat silently for a moment. His decision was made known to them in an instant, the Howling full of his cold anger and hardened resolve.

‘The humans die,’ he whispered. ‘I will cure them.’

‘ I am with you ,’ Inqalle said.

‘ As am I ,’ Avaij agreed.

‘ And we ,’ their thoughts became synonymous, ‘ will not let another shict suffer .’

The vigour that coursed through Lenk’s body as he strode out of the cavern was one that he had not experienced in a lifetime. Maybe even his whole lifetime, he thought. His muscles were taut and tense; his body felt lighter than it had ever felt; his breath came in deep gulps of air too fresh to have ever existed on this stagnant island of death.

Life surged through him, a vibrant and untested energy that was nearly painful to feel racing through his veins. His mind was aware of his wounds and his scars, but his body remained oblivious. Still, that did not stop his brain from trying to make his body aware of its limitations.

This doesn’t make sense , he thought. Moments ago, I was unconscious. Hours ago, I was in agony. Days ago, I was …

‘ Look back far enough ,’ the voice replied to his thoughts. ‘ You will find only pain, a dark and agonising nightmare, until this moment. You’re awake now .’

How?

‘ Don’t believe what the priests tell you. Life is not sacred. Life is simply a tool. Purpose is sacred. Without purpose, life is nothing but a long, pointless, empty sleep .’

And our sleep has been long .

‘ Too long .’

And our purpose …

‘ We know what it is .’

To find the tome .

‘ To slaughter the demons .’

And from there?

‘ You’ll know by then. But for now … ’

He glanced up and saw Kataria’s back. The shict sat upon a rock, staring into the forest. Lenk felt his hand tighten into a fist.

‘ Remember your purpose. Remembers theirs .’

‘I will,’ he whispered.

Her ears twitched. She glanced over her shoulder and frowned at him as he approached.

‘You snuck up on me,’ she said, slightly offended.

He said nothing. They stared for a moment. Her gaze was softer than he remembered. She shifted to the side, leaving a bare space of granite beside her.

‘ Walk past ,’ the voice urged his legs. ‘ Do not look. Do not think of her. Go forward .’

She had abandoned him. She had looked into his eyes. His mind remembered this. His mind did not object as this vigour carried him forth and past her. Her hand shot out and caught his. He stopped. Her fingers wrapped around his.

His body remembered this. It did not object as she pulled him down to sit beside her.

Silence persisted between, but not within. A voice raged at him, hissed angrily inside him, told him to go up. He wasn’t sure why he stayed sitting. He wasn’t sure why her hand was wrapped around his.

‘Through the neck,’ she said, suddenly.

‘Huh?’

‘I’ve got your sword arm right now. If I had pulled just a little harder, I could have brought my knife up into your neck.’ She sniffed, scratched her rear end. ‘It wouldn’t have to be instant, either. I don’t think you could stop me if I ran away and waited for you to bleed to death.’

‘ See? ’ the voice roared. ‘ Do you see? Do you see her purpose? Do you see why she is a threat? Kill her. Strike her down! Strangle her now before she can kill us! ’

She hasn’t killed us .

‘ Yet .’

Yet .

‘I don’t have my sword,’ he said.

She reached down and plucked up a length of steel from beside the rock, handing it to him. The moment he clenched the weapon, the vigour inside him boiled instead of surged, his muscles clenched to the point of cramping.

‘It washed up on shore just an hour ago. The Owauku wanted to throw it back before you could use it on them. I stopped them.’

‘ It has purpose ,’ the voice whispered. ‘ It knows what it is used for. That’s why it comes back to us. It knows what it craves .’

‘I could,’ he whispered, ‘kill you right now.’

‘You won’t,’ she said, not even bothering to look up. ‘And I haven’t killed you yet.’ She smacked her lips. ‘I’ve had so many opportunities. I’ve thought of a hundred ways to do it: poison, arrows, shove you overboard when you’re doing your business …’

‘ Kill her now! ’

Right now?

‘If I was a true shict, I would have killed you when I first set eyes on you.’ She sighed. ‘But I didn’t. I followed you out of the forest. I followed you for a year. I tracked you to a dark cave that you went into and I waited on this rock because I knew you’d be all right.’ She bit her lip. ‘You’re always all right.’

She bowed her head for a moment, then rubbed the back of her neck.

‘And that’s all I’m ever sure of these days. I go to sleep not knowing if I’ll dream shict dreams or what shict dreams are, but I know you’re going to be there when I wake up.’ She blinked rapidly for a moment. ‘And back on the ship, when I wasn’t sure, it … I …’

The silence did not so much cloak them as smother them this time, seeping into Lenk so deeply that even his mind was still for the moment. He glanced at her, but she was pointedly looking into the forest, staring deeply into the trees as though she would die if she looked anywhere else.

Perhaps she would.

‘How’s the shoulder?’ she asked.

‘It’s fine,’ he replied. ‘I’ve had worse.’

‘You do seem to have a talent for getting beaten up.’

‘Everyone’s good at something.’ He shrugged, then winced. The pain in his shoulder had returned; it hadn’t been there when he had emerged from the cave.

‘You should let me take a look at it,’ she said. ‘I don’t trust Asper to do a good job anymore. She …’ She shook her head. ‘She’s distracted these days.’

‘I’d rather you didn’t.’

‘I understand.’ A bitter chuckle escaped her. ‘I understand that . I understand you .’ She sighed. ‘And that doesn’t feel as bad as I thought it would.’

He glanced down. Her hand had found his again, squeezing it tightly.

‘What now?’ she asked.

‘With what?’

‘Everything.’

‘We go after the tome.’

‘I thought you wanted to go back to the mainland, forget the tome and the gold.’

‘Things change.’

‘They do.’ She rose to her feet, knuckled the small of her back, and loosed the kind of sigh that typically preceded an arrow in the neck and a shallow grave. ‘And that’s not fair.’ Slowly, she began to walk away, slinking towards the forest. She hesitated at the edge of the brush. ‘I’m not going to apologise, Lenk, for anything.’