Jonathan Maberry - Flesh & Bone

“Blessings to you all, my reapers,” Mother Rose said in a soft southern drawl. “May you always walk the shortest path to the darkness.”

“Praise be to the darkness,” they responded.

Reapers , mused Lilah. Her hands tightened on the shaft of her spear.

One of the men Lilah had seen on the bikes, the one with the two-handed sword, knelt and kissed one of the streamers that was tied to Mother Rose’s ankle. It did not seem to matter to him that this streamer had trailed in the dirt and mud.

“What have you found, Brother Simon?” asked Mother Rose.

“The gray wanderers you flushed toward the clearing are still there,” said the man. “Jack and I—”

“Brother Jack,” corrected Mother Rose.

Brother Simon nodded, took a breath, and continued. “Brother Jack and I put the call out all along the western slope. There are at least three or four hundred grays heading downland now, which means that those trails will be totally blocked. Sister Abigail has her reapers on the north flank, and Brother Gomez is in a nice blind down at the southern end. If any of Carter’s people slip the grays, they’ll have to take one of those two routes, and they’ll walk right into our people.”

Mother Rose nodded.

“I think Carter and his people are still heading southwest,” continued Brother Simon.

“Good,” said Mother Rose, nodding her approval. “That means the heretics will walk right into Saint John.”

At the mention of that name, Lilah saw many of the people stiffen, their smiles becoming tighter, forced.

“It would be better for Carter if he let us catch them,” said one of the reapers, a woman with red poppies tattooed on her face. “They’d at least have a chance to join us instead of immediately going into the darkness.”

Many of the others nodded. Mother Rose’s smile was less forced and entirely unpleasant. Lilah did not like that smile. Not one little bit. It was the way she imagined a shark might smile.

Mother Rose said, “Saint John is the favored son of the Lord Thanatos.”

“Praise be to the darkness,” replied the gathered reapers immediately upon hearing the name.

“Saint John has his own path to the darkness,” continued Mother Rose, “and it is for him alone and not for us to understand.”

“All blessings to Saint John,” said Brother Simon. “All blessings to the beloved of Lord Thanatos.”

As the others echoed his words and bowed low, Lilah saw Mother Rose cut a quick look at her bodyguard. Was that a smile they shared? Or a sneer? Lilah was not well practiced at reading faces, but she had spied on Charlie Pink-eye and his crew many times, and she could recognize deceit when she saw it. Whoever this Saint John was, Lilah guessed that he should be worried about how much Mother Rose truly respected him.

And what was that name Mother Rose had mentioned?

Thanatos.

Lilah frowned. The name tugged at a memory. Not someone she’d ever met, but something she’d read. She didn’t push at it; instead she relaxed her thoughts and let the memory float to the top.

Thanatos. One of two aspects of death from ancient Greek culture. Her frown deepened because as she remembered it, Thanatos was the nonviolent death god. The one who came to relieve suffering. And yet all these people were heavily armed. Lilah decided that whoever this “Carter” person was, she was glad she was not in his shoes.

Below, Brother Simon clamped his jaws shut, clearly struggling with something else that he wanted to say, or perhaps feared to say.

Mother Rose saw this and touched his face. “What is it?”

“A few of the scouts have sighted a, um… girl with a slingshot among Carter’s refugees.” He spoke as if prying the words from his mouth. “The descriptions match Sister Margaret.”

Everyone gasped and took involuntary steps away from Brother Simon, as if they expected lightning to strike him for some great sin. Suddenly the giant dropped his sledgehammer and caught Brother Simon by the throat, lifting him effortlessly until the reaper stood on the very tips of his shoes.

“We do not speak that name,” he growled. Brother Simon’s face turned red and then purple as the giant squeezed his hand.

Mother Rose leaned past the giant. “Are you sure, brother?” she asked in a voice that was as cold and hard as a knife blade.

“Y-yes,” croaked Brother Simon in a strangled little voice.

The giant glanced at Mother Rose, who studied the choking reaper with narrowed eyes. She touched the giant’s arm, a soft brush of fingertips over the landscape of his bulging muscles.

“Brother Alexi…,” she said, and the giant released Brother Simon, who collapsed to his knees, gasping and honking as he fought to drag in a breath. The giant, Alexi, picked up his sledgehammer and returned to his station just behind Mother Rose.

The woman reached out and touched Brother Simon’s cheek. “Tell me,” she said.

“I–I have it from five separate scouts, your holiness,” stammered Brother Simon, his throat still raw. “The description matches, even to the markings.” As he said this, he touched the pattern of flowers tattooed on his scalp. “Wild roses and thorns.”

“Sister Margaret is dead,” said Mother Rose in a harsh whisper. “My daughter abandoned her family and her god. She runs with heretics and blasphemers. She is dead.” Mother Rose spat this last word. “The gift of darkness is not for her. I hope that her flesh lives on forever. Lost, alone, and damned.”

The reaper placed his forehead on the dirt by Mother Rose’s feet. “Holiness, forgive this foolish sinner for causing you pain.” His body shook with sobs, and Lilah could not tell if his tears were from grief, regret, or fear.

The scene below held for a moment longer, and then Mother Rose bent to the man, kissed his head, and drew him to his feet. “There is no sin in telling the truth, beloved Brother Simon,” she said. “Be at peace with the knowledge that the darkness waits to enfold you.”

Brother Simon’s mumbled reply was too faint for Lilah to hear. He faded back into the crowd. A few of the other reapers touched him lightly on the shoulder.

Lilah sneered at this. When the others thought that he was going to be punished, they’d all stepped back and disowned him; but in the light of Mother Rose’s forgiveness, they crowded around to share in the blessing he’d been given. That was not faith, not as Lilah defined it. It was cowardice. These reapers, dangerous as they may be, were ruled by fear as much as by devotion to their strange faith.

Lilah hoped she would not need the knowledge, but she filed it away nonetheless.

A female reaper bowed. Mother Rose said, “Speak freely, Sister Caitlyn.”

“Before I heard the darkness call me—”

“All praise the darkness,” intoned the others.

“—I lived in Red Rock, near Las Vegas. I worked as a hunter for a group of refugees, and I know the desert and these woods as well as anyone. There are game paths all through here, and from the trail-sign I’ve seen, I think it’s clear that the, uh, person who used to be your daughter is leading Carter’s people along those trails. Rumors say that she’s lived out here since leaving the grace of the church. If so, then she must know every one of these trails. There are some that aren’t easy to spot.”

“You think she can help the heretics slip past us?” asked Mother Rose, one eyebrow arched.

Sister Caitlyn flushed, but she lifted her chin. “I know I could do it, and there are some experienced hunters with Carter. The desert is not as empty as people think. There are always places to hide.”

Mother Rose nodded. “Thank you, Sister Caitlyn. Your service to our god makes smooth your pathway to the holy darkness.”