Andy Remic - Soul Stealers

The group turned, looked down, and stared.

Distant, two pale-skinned figures emerged. They were tall, lithe, athletic, and moved with a balanced ease across uneven ground. Even from this great remoteness it was clear they were Graal's daughters, the vachines who had attacked Kell and Saark earlier. They were the Soul Stealers. And they still hunted Kell's blood.

"I thought we'd scared them off," said Saark, voice little more than a whisper.

"No chance, lad," said Kell, eyes hooded. "And look. This time they brought friends."

Behind the two women, on long chain leashes, came the cankers. There were three of them, but these were smaller than previous beasts and appeared, almost, like bow-legged horses. Only these seemed to have no skin. Bloody, crimson flesh gleamed, even from this distance. One of the skinless cankers screeched, and the sound echoed through the basin valley like a woman being stabbed, reverberating on high spirals of wind. It was a chilling sound.

"Time for us to move on, I think," said Saark, mouth dry, voice a whisper.

"Let's go," agreed Kell, and they headed down the opposite side of Demon's Ridge as far below, in the valley, the Soul Stealers sniffed the air and started forward in pursuit.

General Graal knelt on luxurious rugs, his body naked and oiled, and grasped the black sword in shaking fingers. He had imbibed drugs, the leaf of the Truaga Plant, and allowed his blood to be filtered through KaKa Leaves. And although he was considered an amateur in circles of magick, this simple spell taught by Kradek-ka, this simple mind-to-mind communion using blood-oil as a signal carrier was something at which Graal was becoming peculiarly adept. For he knew he would need this skill when the Vampire Warlords returned…

Kuradek, Meshwar and Bhu Vanesh.

It had been an age since they walked the lands. An age since they sat on the Granite Thrones. But their time was about to return, and Graal could feel their apprehension in the Blood Void; could feel their frustration and eagerness, and ultimately, their desire to return with their toxicity, with their plague.

"Kradek-ka?" he whispered.

"I am here," said Kradek-ka, the telltale tick tick tick of his vachine clockwork filling Graal's mind and making it difficult to concentrate over such distance.

"I am finished here. Falanor is a conquered land."

"Yes. You have conquered it, Graal; you have brought a bloody retribution for their past; for the times of Ankarok. Servants they again shall be! And, as a consequence, we have enough blood-oil for the Summoning. But still, we need the third Soul Gem. Without it, we will have no control of the Vampire Warlords. With all three Soul Gems, we will be Masters." He laughed, a cold cruel laugh.

"Does Anukis know?" said Graal.

"No. She is a simple fool. She believes me, and she trusts me; after all, I am Watchmaker, I am Engineer! She was polluted by her mother as a child, I fear, fed simple morals and indoctrinated in the way of vachine; she wishes to see the vachine society expand and prosper, despite what they did because of her impure nature; despite what Vashell was forced to do – by coercion, and by magick. But she will come round, Graal. She will deliver the Soul Gem voluntarily… And if she does not? Well, I will rip the Gem from her chest with my own teeth. The Engineer Religion must end here. It is time for a new Empire. An Empire based on Blood and Sacrifice and Vampire Plague!"

Graal said nothing for a moment, and thought of his own daughters, Shanna and Tashmaniok. If they had carried a gem of infinite power, of destructive soul magick buried deep within their own flesh, if they had carried a key to controlling the ancient vampire gods – would he sacrifice them? He smiled then. Of course he would. For they were only flesh, and bone, and what Kradek-ka and Graal planned… Well, that was immortality. Power. And total control.

"What of the second?" said Graal, then. "Have the three moons aligned?"

"The moons are aligned," confirmed Kradek-ka. "And even as we speak, Jageraw is in the mountains on his strange deviant course. As the Book of Angels decreed, the Gems had to be implanted in Guardian Souls. When released, only then would they have the true power to control the Vampire Warlords."

"So we have Anukis. We have Jageraw. Our lady, our contact implanted the third… have you found her, yet? Have you found the Guardian?"

"Yes." Kradek-ka's voice was soft. Clockwork gears stepped and clicked with a vague, background buzz. "I know the Guardian now."

"Did she choose well? Is the Guardian known to me?" said Graal, voice grave.

"Let us just say this answers a puzzle which has haunted us for many a day, General Graal."

The brass chamber in the Engineer's Palace was cold, and eerily quiet at this hour of the night. Sa entered, pulling a high-collared shimmering iron gown tight. Her eyes burned with annoyance. "This had better be good," she snarled, striding across the metal floor, boots ringing. Then she stopped. She stared at Walgrishnacht and the three remaining members of his platoon.

The Cardinal and his vachine warriors were in a sorry state. Their flesh was cut and burned, by weapons and by ice, and their armour and clothing was in tatters showing signs of many a battle. The vachine warriors wore bloodied bandages with pride.

"You came through the mountains?"

"Through the Secret Paths," said Walgrishnacht.

"And you have news," said Sa, briskly.

"Princess Jaranis is dead. General Graal had her murdered. I assume this precludes invasion."

"It is not your duty to assume," snapped Sa, eyes narrowed. "You were pursued?"

"By cankers," said Walgrishnacht, voice level. Tagortel gave a short hiss, air rushing past his vachine fangs. He gestured to Sa, who nodded. For cankers to attack vachine was unheard of. Unbelievable! Even to utter such a breath was heresy in the Engineer's Palace.

"You can prove this?" said Tagor-tel, voice low and filled with poison.

Beja stepped from the shadows, and he carried a sack. Unceremoniously, he upended the cloth and a huge, deformed canker head rolled out, leaving bloodoil smears on the chamber floor.

Sa took an involuntary step back. She met Walgrishnacht's steel gaze.

"We are not the enemy here," said the Cardinal, and she noted his hand was on his sword-hilt. He had a finger missing.

"Do you realise to whom you speak?" hissed Sa, invoking her Watchmaker status.

"Yes," said Walgrishnacht. "But it looks to me that Graal intends to invade. You must call the War Council. If you do not pull our troops, and our Ferals back from Untamed Lands, we will be defenceless. Silva Valley will be defenceless!"

Sa gave a nod. She turned to Tagor-tel. "Any news from Fiddion?"

"No. He has been strangely silent."

"Then call the War Council," said Sa, voice bleak. "Come the spring, it appears we go to war."

Kell and his fellow travellers made a hasty descent into a narrow pass which led through the mountains. Tension was eating them, now. On their trail were two cross-breed vachine albino killers. Which meant… what? That the vachine and albino soldiers were breeding? Saark shivered at the thought as he moved lithely across rocky ground, and a cold wind laced with ice caressed him.

"You're going to have to leave the donkey," said Kell, finally, as they stumbled through a narrow inverted V, leading to a rocky ravine.

"No."

"It's not up for debate, Saark. With those bastards on our tail, we need to put down more speed. She's slowing us down." Kell placed his hand gently on Saark's arm. "My friend. If Mary is with us when the cankers come, they will tear her to pieces. You know this."

Saark nodded, and with a tear in his eye he patted the donkey's muzzle, removed the heavy load from her back and took a few essentials from the bags, before slapping her rump with the hilt of his rapier. With a startled "eeyore", Mary cantered back down the trail, then turned and stared at Saark reproachfully with large, baleful eyes.