Excerpt from Tears of Requiem
(
Contains spoilers for Book 1)
Kyrie
was collecting firewood when he heard thunder, shivered, and saw the smoke
creature.
The smoke was distant, a league away, but
Kyrie could see there was something wrong about it.
It coiled through the sunset, serpentine,
moving toward him. A
wisp of some campfire?
A cloud? No.
Whatever this was, it moved like a living
creature. Kyrie's fingers went numb, and
he dropped the branches he'd collected.
"Agnus Dei!" he whispered through
clenched teeth. "Where are you?
She didn't answer.
Kyrie tore his eyes away from the smoke and
scanned the woods for her. In the twilight,
he saw rustling oaks, birches, and elms.
He saw fleeing animals: birds,
squirrels, and a deer. But he could not
see his companion.
"Agnus Dei, where are you?" he
whispered again. He dared not speak
louder. "There's something coming
over, and it doesn't look friendly."
Still she did not appear, and Kyrie cursed
and returned his eyes to the smoke. It
was so close now, Kyrie could see that it was indeed
alive. Arms and legs grew from it, and
its eyes glinted like diamonds. Teeth
filled its maw. Whatever this creature
was, it was no wisp of smoke. It seemed
to see Kyrie and approached him, soon five hundred feet away, then only a
hundred, then a dozen.
Kyrie considered shifting into dragon
form. Like all Vir Requis--or at least,
the five that remained after the war--he could become a dragon.
He could blow fire, slash with claws, bite
with fangs. But as the creature
approached, Kyrie remained human.
Turning into a dragon was dangerous; men hated dragons and hunted them.
And besides, Kyrie doubted even dragonfire
and fangs could kill this smoky being.
Instead, he addressed the creature.
"What are you?
Turn back!"
The creature seemed to laugh.
Its laughter was like thunder, shaking the
trees. It floated above Kyrie, thirty
feet long and undulating. It wasn't made
of smoke, Kyrie realized. It seemed
woven of darkness, but even that was inaccurate.
Darkness was merely the lack of light.
This creature was the opposite of light,
deeper and blacker than mere darkness.
"Leave this place!" Kyrie
demanded. He glanced around the
forest. Where was Agnus Dei?
He would not let this creature harm her.
He had to protect her.
He loved Agnus Dei more than anything; he
would beat this creature to death with his fists, if he had to.
"You...," the creature
whispered. Its voice made trees wilt,
turn gray, and fall to the forest floor.
"...are... Vir Requis...."
Kyrie wanted to attack.
He wanted to flee.
He wanted to find Agnus Dei.
He wanted to do anything but just stand
there, hearing that voice--no, not a voice, but merely an echo--a sound that
made his insides shrivel up.
"I...," he began.
With fumbling fingers, he managed to draw his
dagger. "You will...."
He could say no more.
All he saw was that creature of blackness,
its diamond eyes, its teeth like wisps of white
smoke. He felt as if he too became
smoke. His soul seemed to leave his
body, flowing from his nostrils and mouth.
He could see his body below, wobbling on the forest floor--just a kid,
seventeen years old with a shock of yellow hair and too many battle scars.
And then he could see too much.
He screamed.
He saw the universe.
Not only the three dimensions of his world,
but endless others. His spirit was no
longer confined to his skull. It spread
through the forest, through the empire of Osanna, through the multitudes of
dimensions beyond. So much space!
So much pain.
So much fear.
Kyrie whimpered. He wanted to
hide, to weep, but had no eyes for tears.
"Please," he whispered.
"Please, it's so... open.
So much space.
So much pain."
The creature laughed, and Kyrie knew he
would soon join it, become smoke and blackness and flow through the endless,
empty spaces.
"Agnus Dei," he managed to
whisper. "I love you...."
A voice, worlds distant, answered him.
"This is no time for romance,
pup. Get out of here, run!"
Hands clutched his shoulders.
Shoulders!
Yes, he had shoulders, and a body, and a physical form.
He had tears, he had a voice, had--
"Pup, snap out of it!" said the
voice. He felt a hand slap his
face. He could feel!
He could feel his body again.
His soul coalesced, and his body sucked it
back in. It felt like water flowing back
into a jug. His spirit slammed into his
skull, and he convulsed, and jumped to his feet.
He hadn't realized he had fallen.
"Agnus Dei!" he said.
Tears filled his eyes.
His beloved knelt above him, her tanned face
so beautiful to him, her curls of black hair tickling his cheeks.
"What, where--"
She hoisted him to his feet.
"Run, pup.
Run!"
She pulled him up, and they ran through the
forest. When Kyrie glanced over his
shoulder, he saw the black creature. It
was chasing them, flowing between the trees.
Every tree it passed wilted and fell.
"What is that thing?" Agnus Dei
cried as they ran.
"I don't know," Kyrie said, boots
kicking up leaves and dirt. He almost
fell over a root, steadied himself, and kept running.
"Don't look into its eyes, Agnus Dei.
It did something to me.
I'm not sure what.
But don't look at it.
Just run."
"I am running, pup.
And I'm a lot faster than you."
"Agnus Dei, this is not the time for
another race." He panted.
"Everything is a competition with you,
even who can flee faster from a flying smoke demon."
The creature shrieked behind them.
It was a sound like fingernails on glass.
Kyrie and Agnus Dei covered their ears and
grimaced while running. Birds fell dead
from the sky. Bugs burst open on the
ground, spraying blood. The creature
shrieked again, and Kyrie screamed in pain; his eardrums felt close to tearing.
It was dark now.
The sun disappeared behind the horizon,
leaving only red and orange wisps across the forest.
The creature grew in darkness.
When Kyrie looked at it again, it was twice
the size.
"I think it likes darkness,"
Kyrie shouted. It was rumbling and
cackling behind him, and trees kept wilting.
The boles crashed around them, maggoty and gray and crumbling.
"Then we'll roast the bastard with
dragonfire," Agnus Dei said. She
leaped over a fallen tree, spun around, and shifted.
Leathern wings grew from her back.
Red scales flowed across her.
Fangs and claws sprouted from her.
Within seconds, she was a dragon.
With a howl, she blew white-hot fire at the
smoky creature.
Kyrie ducked and rolled, the fire flowing
over his head. He shifted too.
Blue scales covered him, he ballooned in
size, and soon he too was a dragon. He
blew the hottest, whitest fire he could, hitting the creature head on.
It screamed.
Trees cracked.
Boulders shattered.
Kyrie too screamed, his ears thudding, but
kept breathing fire. Agnus Dei blew fire
too. And yet the creature lived,
swirling and crying. Kyrie felt its tug,
felt his soul being sucked out, drawn into those empty spaces.
He shook his head and gritted his teeth,
clinging onto himself.
"We need light!" Kyrie
shouted. "The light bothers it, not
the heat. Let's light this forest."
Agnus Dei nodded, and they began blowing
fire in all directions. The trees,
moments before lush and green, had wilted around the creature.
They were now dry and caught fire easily.
They crackled, blazing, and the creature
howled. A crack ran along the earth, and
sparks rained from the sky. The creature
seemed to suck in the light. Wisps of
light flowed into it, and it howled.
"Leave this place!" Kyrie shouted
to it. "There is light here, light
that will burn you. Fly away into
darkness."
It howled, surrounded by firelight, and
gave Kyrie a last glare. Its eyes were
so mean, small, and glittering, that Kyrie shuddered.
Finally it coiled, spun around, and fled
into the night.
Kyrie watched it flee, then
turned to Agnus Dei, who still stood in dragon form.
"Let's contain this fire," he said.
She nodded, and they shoved the burning
trees into a great pyre. With dragon
claws, they dug ruts around it, so it would not spread, and tossed the dirt
onto the burning boles. They worked
silently until the fire died to embers.
Their work done, they shifted back into
human forms and collapsed into the ash and dirt.
Kyrie was bone tired.
Blowing so much fire had taken a lot out of him,
and he shivered to remember what the creature had done.
Out of his body, his soul had glimpsed
something... something Kyrie shuddered to remember.
He pushed it out of his mind.
He had seen a horror beyond the world he did
not want to ponder.
"You all right?" he asked Agnus
Dei.
She lay beside him, chest rising and
falling as she panted. Ash smeared her
cheeks and filled her mane of curls. He
reached out, touched those curls, and kissed her cheek.
She shoved him back.
"Am I all right?" she said.
"Oh, thank you for asking, brave hero,
defender of distressed damsels. But if I
recall correctly, you're the one who almost died.
I had to show up to save your backside.
So the question is, pup:
Are you all right?"
He grumbled and rose to his feet.
"I'm fine, and I've told you a million
times. You might be a couple years older
than me, but don't call me pup."
She stood up, brushed ash off her leggings,
and smirked. "Okay, puppy
pup." When he scowled, she walked
up to him, mussed his hair, and kissed his cheek.
"For what it's worth, I'm glad you're
all right. But you're still a pup."
Kyrie looked to the night sky.
The creature was gone, but he could still
imagine it, and his belly knotted.
"Have you ever seen anything like that?
What was it?"
Agnus Dei scrunched her lips and tapped her
cheek. "I think it was a
nightshade."
Kyrie raised an eyebrow.
"A nightshade?
I've never heard of them."
"I don't know much about them,"
Agnus Dei said. She too looked to the
sky, as if scanning for its return.
"But my mother used to tell me stories of them.
She said they were made of unlight."
"Unlight?"
Agnus Dei nodded.
"The opposite of
light. Did you see how our
firelight disappeared into it, as if the creature and light cancelled each
other out? That's unlight."
"Scary stuff."
Kyrie hugged himself.
He remembered the firelight flowing into the
nightshade, like wisps of cloud. Had his
soul looked the same when the creature pulled it?
"Do you reckon Lacrimosa knows more
about them?"
"Maybe.
Mother knows a lot.
You and I never read much growing up, but
Mother was raised in Requiem before it was destroyed.
She spent her childhood in libraries.
Let's find her.
I hope Mother and Father didn't meet that
nightshade too."
They walked through the forest, heading
south toward their camp. The Draco
constellation shone above between the boughs, the stars of Requiem, guiding
them. Crickets chirped, and Kyrie held
Agnus Dei's hand. Her hand was slender
and warm. It was hard to believe that,
only a week ago, they'd been fighting Dies Irae.
It seemed a lifetime ago that they'd stolen
the tyrant's amulet, freed his griffins, and found sanctuary in this
forest. A chapter in Kyrie's life had
ended when he'd sent Dies Irae fleeing, wounded, back to Confutatis.
A new chapter had begun now, it seemed, and
Kyrie didn't like how it started. Not
one bit.
They were still far from camp when they
heard boots trudging toward them. At
first, Kyrie wanted to flee. He was used
to footfalls heralding pursuit--Dies Irae's soldiers with swords and
crossbows. But then he heard Lacrimosa's
voice calling, "Agnus Dei!
Daughter, do you hear me?"
Agnus Dei cried, "Mother!
I'm here."
Soon Lacrimosa emerged from between the
trees, carrying a tin lantern. Kyrie
couldn't help himself.
Whenever he saw Agnus Dei's mother, the queen of fallen Requiem, he
paused and stared. Lacrimosa, pale and
dainty, seemed woven of moonlight. Her
hair was a gold so fair, it was almost white.
Her eyes were pools of lavender, and she wore
a pendant shaped as a bluebell.
"Agnus Dei, are you all right?"
Lacrimosa said. "We heard fire and
howls, and I heard you scream."
Agnus Dei hugged her mother.
The two looked nothing alike, Kyrie
reflected. Agnus Dei had tanned skin,
curly black hair, and blazing brown eyes.
Lacrimosa was starlight; Agnus Dei was fire.
"We saw a nightshade," Kyrie said
to the two women. "Well, we did
more than see it. The bloody thing
nearly killed us before we blinded it.
Do you know much about nightshades, Lacrimosa?"
Lacrimosa grew even paler than usual.
"Nightshades," she whispered.
A voice spoke ahead between the trees, deep
and gruff. "Impossible."
With snapping twigs and ragged breathing,
Benedictus--King of Requiem and father to Agnus Dei--emerged from the
trees. He held a torch and walked up to
them. His chest rose and fell.
Sweat soaked his leathery face and matted his
graying black hair.
He glared at Kyrie, fists clenched.
"I'm telling you, we saw a
nightshade," Kyrie said to his king.
At least, Benedictus had once been his king, back when Requiem still
stood and a million Vir Requis still flew.
"Tell him, Agnus Dei."
Agnus Dei spent a moment describing their
ordeal to her parents. When she was
done, even Benedictus looked pale. The
king closed his eyes and seemed lost in old, painful memories.
For a long time, the others stood in silence,
waiting for Benedictus to speak.
Finally Benedictus opened his eyes and
said, "We leave this forest. It's
no longer safe."
He began trudging through the woods.
The others hurried to keep up.
"Why?" Kyrie demanded.
"What do you know of these
creatures? Speak, Benedictus!"
The older man, a good four decades Kyrie's
senior, scowled. "You don't want to
know, kid."
They continued walking through the
night. Their boots rustled fallen leaves
and damp twigs, and the wind moaned.
Kyrie tightened his cloak around him, but found no warmth.
He tried to speak a few times, but Benedictus
scowled and silenced him, saying these woods were full of ears.
And so Kyrie walked silently, thoughts
rattling in his skull. He remembered
floating over his body. The nightshade
had tugged his soul, and was taking it... where?
To a place colder and
darker than this night, than any night.
Kyrie shivered. He didn't know
how long they walked through the forest.
It seemed like hours, but time felt lost to Kyrie.
Finally he could bear it no longer.
He grabbed Benedictus's shoulder.
"That thing did something to me,
Benedictus. I don't know what, but it
scared me."
Benedictus grumbled.
"The night is no time to speak of these
things."
"I don't care.
It seemed to... pull me, Benedictus.
Not my body, but whatever's inside my
body. My soul, if you'd believe it.
And I saw things.
Well, I didn't see them, but I felt them.
Dimensions, and space, and
other worlds. My soul seemed to
balloon to fill them, like smoke in a jar, and...."
His stomach knotted.
He took a deep breath.
"I think I've earned the right to learn
more. Tell us what you know."
Benedictus growled, still stomping through
the dark woods. "You want to know
about nightshades, kid?" He pointed
his torch to his left. "Look."
Kyrie looked, and saw that they had chanced
upon a road that ran downhill, cut through a farm, and ended at a village.
The village burned.
Kyrie saw bodies between the buildings.
A dozen nightshades swarmed above them,
coiling, their eyes glittering. The
creatures laughed, their voices like thunder.
"Stars," Agnus Dei
whispered. She placed a hand on Kyrie's
shoulder. "Are those
people all dead?"
Benedictus shook his head, staring at the
village below. "Not dead.
Something worse.
Their souls are with the nightshades now,
lost in the worlds beyond this world, in lands of darkness and fear.
They will remain there forever.
They are already praying for death, but no
death will release them."
For a long moment, the companions--the last
surviving Vir Requis--stared down at the village.
Finally Kyrie nodded.
"Great!" he said.
"Just great.
We finally defeat the griffins, and now these
guys show up. As much as I'd love to
fight them too, and start a whole new war, I think I'll pass.
Not our problem.
Osanna is infested with nightshades?
Let Dies Irae handle them.
Come on, Benedictus.
Let's return to Requiem, or at least, what's
left of it. This is not our war."
"But it is our war," Lacrimosa
answered for her husband, voice haunted. "I remember tales of these
nightshades. They were sealed centuries
ago. Only the one who sits upon Osanna's
throne could release them. That means
these creatures work for Dies Irae now.
And that means...."
Kyrie clutched his head and finished the
sentence for her. "They're hunting
us."
The nightshades below shrieked as one.
Though they were a league away, and the
companions were hidden in the trees, the nightshades saw them.
Their eyes blazed, and they abandoned the
village. They came flowing up the
declivity, heading to the Vir Requis.
"Fly!" Benedictus shouted.
He shifted into a black dragon, flapped his
wings, and flew into the night.
"Only light can stop them.
Fly after me, we seek sunrise!"
The others shifted too, and the four Vir
Requis flew in dragon form.
Dozens of nightshades howled behind them,
chasing in the night.
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