Jay Kristoff - Darkdawn

Tric looked to the pool of darkness at his back, sorrow in his voice.

‘THE NIGHT NAMED HER SON ANAIS.’

‘And Aa banished Niah from the sky for her crime,’ Mia said, her temper fraying. ‘This is children’s lore, everyone knows it. What’s it to do with me?’

Tric pointed one finger to the pool, the smooth black surface mirroring the ceiling above as if it were glass. And reflected in it, she could see a pale orb, hanging in the dark like smoke.

‘IN THE EMPIRE OF OLD ASHKAH, THEY KNEW ANAIS BY ANOTHER NAME.’

Mia looked at the glowing orb – the same she’d seen in the moment she slew Furian in Godsgrave Arena – and felt her shadow grow darker still.

‘The Moon,’ she realized.

Tric nodded. ‘HE WAS THE EATER OF FEAR. THE DAY IN THE DARKNESS. HE REFLECTED HIS FATHER’S LIGHT AND BRIGHTENED HIS MOTHER’S NIGHT. IN THE EMPIRE OF OLD ASHKAH, HE TAUGHT THE FIRST SORCERII THE ARTS ARCANE. A GOD OF MAGIK AND WISDOM AND HARMONY, WORSHIPPED ABOVE ALL OTHERS. NO SHADOW WITHOUT LIGHT, EVER DAY FOLLOWS NIGHT, BETWEEN BLACK AND WHITE …’

‘There is grey …,’ Mia murmured.

‘HE WAS THE BALANCE BETWEEN NIGHT AND DAY. THE PRINCE OF DAWN AND DUSK. AND FEARING HIS GROWING POWER, THE EVERSEEING RESOLVED TO SLAY HIS ONLY SON.’

The stone reliefs began moving again as Tric spoke. Graven hands shifting to cover sightless eyes. Mouths widening in horror. The orb in the pool shifted, became a sharp, crescent shape, dripping blood. In the back of her mind, Mia swore she could hear other voices. Thousands of them, just beyond the edge of hearing.

And they were screaming.

‘AA STRUCK WHILE ANAIS SLEPT,’ Tric continued. ‘HE CUT OFF HIS SON’S HEAD AND HURLED HIS BODY FROM THE HEAVENS. ANAIS’S CORPSE PLUMMETED TO THE EARTH, TEARING THE LAND ASUNDER AND THROWING ALL THE WORLD INTO CHAOS. THE ASHKAHI EMPIRE IN THE EAST WAS COMPLETELY DESTROYED. AND WHERE HIS SON’S BODY LAY IN THE WEST, AA COMMANDED HIS FAITHFUL TO BUILD A TEMPLE TO HIS GLORY. THAT TEMPLE BECAME A CITY, AND THAT CITY BECAME THE NEW HEART OF HIS FAITH.’

‘The Ribs.’ Ash glanced at the gravebone blade at her waist. ‘The Spine.’

‘This whole place …’ Mia realized, looking around them.

Tric nodded. ‘A GOD’S GRAVE.’

Heart hammering, mouth dry, Mia pictured the illustration she’d found at the end of Cleo’s journal – a map of Itreya before the rise of the Republic. The bay of Godsgrave had been missing entirely, a peninsula filling the Sea of Silence where the Itreyan capital now stood. And in that spot, three words had been scribed in blood-red ink.

‘Here he fell …’ she whispered.

‘HERE HE FELL.’ Tric nodded. ‘BUT GODS DON’T DIE SO EASILY. AND THE MOTHER KEEPS ONLY WHAT SHE NEEDS. ANAIS’S SOUL WASN’T EXTINGUISHED.’

Tric drew a long, slow breath, as if before a deep plunge.

‘IT WAS SHATTERED.’

His bottomless eyes were fixed upon Mia’s.

‘SOME PIECES POOLED HERE, IN THE HOLLOWS BENEATH THIS CITY’S SKIN. THE PART OF HIM THAT RAGED. THAT HATED. THAT WISHED ONLY FOR IT ALL TO END, JUST AS HE HAD.’ The wraith glanced at Mister Kindly and Eclipse, now watching him with their not-eyes. ‘IN TIME, OTHER SHARDS GAINED A SEEMING OF THEIR OWN, CRAWLING FROM THE MIRE BENEATH HIS GRAVE. CUT OFF FROM WHAT THEY’D BEEN, AND KNOWING NOT WHAT THEY WERE, THEY SOUGHT OTHERS LIKE THEM. FEASTING ON FEAR AS ANAIS HAD ONCE DONE, AND TAKING WHATEVER SHAPES AND MANNERISMS THOSE THEY RODE FOUND COMFORT IN.’

‘Daemons,’ Mia said. ‘Passengers.’

Those pitch-black eyes returned to the girl’s. ‘AND LASTLY, THE LARGEST FRAGMENTS OF THE WHOLE, THE PARTS WHICH WERE STRONGEST, FOUND THEIR WAY …’

‘… People,’ Ash breathed.

‘Darkin,’ Mia said.

Tric nodded. ‘BUT AT THE HEART OF YOU – DAEMONS OR DARKIN – YOU ARE ALL THE SAME. SEARCHING FOR THE MISSING PIECES OF YOURSELF. SEEKING TO BECOME WHOLE AGAIN. THE SCATTERED PIECES OF A SHATTERED GOD.’

Eclipse scoffed. ‘… THIS IS MADNESS …’

‘… i mean to cause no one alarm , but i concur with the mongrel …’

‘LOOK AT YOUR SHADOW, MIA,’ Tric said. ‘WHAT DO YOU SEE?’

Mia looked to the darkness at her feet. It was still stretching out towards that pool of black blood, just as Jonnen’s was. But even with her passengers sitting on the shore across from her, it was still …

‘Dark enough for two,’ she said.

‘SO IT WAS WITH CLEO,’ Tric said. ‘SHE ALSO LEARNED THE TRUTH OF WHAT SHE WAS. CHOSEN BY THE MOTHER, SHE JOURNEYED ACROSS THE LANDS OF ITREYA, SEEKING TO UNITE THE SHATTERED PIECES OF ANAIS’S SOUL. SHE GATHERED A LEGION OF PASSENGERS TO HER SIDE. SEEKING OTHERS LIKE HER AND—’

‘Eating them,’ Mia said, recalling the journal.

‘TAKING THE SHARDS OF HIS ESSENCE INTO HERSELF.’

Mia frowned. ‘So the fragment that was inside Furian …’

‘IS NOW PART OF YOU. IN SLAYING HIM WITH YOUR OWN HAND, YOU’VE CLAIMED IT AS YOURS. MERGING TWO INTO A LARGER WHOLE. THE MANY WERE ONE. AND WILL BE AGAIN.’

‘But Lord Cassius died right in front of me. I didn’t feel any stronger.’

‘CASSIUS WASN’T SLAIN BY A DARKIN. THE FRAGMENT IN HIM WAS LOST FOREVER. EVENTUALLY, EVEN GODS CAN DIE.’

Mia’s pulse was thumping in her veins, her belly a roiling slick of ice. She could feel the malice emanating from that blackened pool, the fury in the air around her. She understood it now, at last. It was the same fury she’d reached out and touched during the truedark massacre, the night she’d first truly wielded the power within her. Tearing the Philosopher’s Stone to pieces. Storming the Basilica Grande and destroying the grand statue of Aa outside it. Embracing the black and bitter rage in this city’s bones.

It was the rage of a child, betrayed by the one who should have loved it most.

The rage of a son, by his father slain.

The deadboy’s bottomless eyes bored into her own.

‘Cleo’s journal … she spoke of a child inside her,’ Mia said.

‘… SHE WAS A LUNATIC, MIA …’ Eclipse growled.

‘This whole tale sounds like lunacy,’ she breathed.

‘NO,’ Tric replied. ‘IT’S—’

‘… destiny … ? ’ Mister Kindly scoffed.

Tric turned bottomless eyes on the shadowcat.

‘IF SHE HAS COURAGE ENOUGH TO SEIZE IT.’

‘… this is the darkest shade of nonsense …’

Eclipse concurred with a sneer.

‘… YOU HONESTLY WISH ME TO BELIEVE THIS IDIOT MOGGY IS A GOD … ?’

‘ANAIS’S SOUL SHATTERED INTO HUNDREDS OF FRAGMENTS. YOU’RE NO MORE GODLIKE THAN A DROP OF WATER IS THE OCEAN. BUT YOU MUST FEEL YOU’RE ALL BOUND TO EACH OTHER? DON’T YOU SENSE YOU ARE … INCOMPLETE?’

Mia knew what the Hearthless boy was talking about. The sickness and hunger she’d always felt around Cassius, Furian, now Jonnen. She never felt as whole as when Mister Kindly and Eclipse walked in her shadow. And she felt stronger than ever since Furian had died at her hands.

But still, it seemed sheer madness – this talk of fragmented gods and shattered souls, of restoring the balance between light and dark.

‘YOU MUST MAKE WHOLE WHAT WAS BROKEN, MIA. YOU MUST RETURN MAGIK TO THE WORLD. RESTORE THE BALANCE BETWEEN NIGHT AND DAY, LIKE IT WAS IN THE BEGINNING. LIKE IT WAS ALWAYS MEANT TO BE. ONE SUN. ONE NIGHT. ONE MOON.’

She motioned to the blackened pool. ‘If it’s pieces of him I’m supposed to seek, that seems a good place to start.’

‘NO,’ Tric said. ‘THIS IS ANAIS’S FURY. THIS IS HIS RAGE. THE PART OF HIM THAT HAS LAIN IN THE DARK AND FESTERED, THAT WANTS ONLY TO DESTROY. YOU MUST REMAKE THE WORLD, MIA. NOT UNDO IT. THIS IS YOUR PURPOSE.’