A Different Kind of Deadly (3 page)

I froze as I did when I was too scared to
move, and watched as she pulled out pen and paper, furiously
scribbling a message on the page.

Get a grip, and calm yourself.
There's a simple solution to this.

She ran and jumped into the Pit,
and I cringed at the sound of breaking bones. I approached the edge
against my better judgment so I could see what Diana was up
to.

Her unassuming face and frame were
now scouring through the bodies. This sentient doll tore a fastened
cloak off the back of a corpse so fast that its head went flying
off its shoulders. Now that she had what she needed, Diana punched
the closest wall, burrowing her fists in the earth.

She repeated this motion until she
reached the surface.

She grabbed the bloody gloves that I'd thrown
aside, put on her new getup, and effectively disguised the obvious
trademarks of her inhuman nature.

Take me with you,
She wrote in her journal.
Act like I'm your project.

I knew that I didn't have a choice in the
matter, and just like everything else in my life, I
obeyed.

Dinnertime was a mandatory affair when all
living members of Nethermount gathered in the central cavern. I
don't know why this rule exists, but I know that the penalties for
avoiding it are bad enough where even my mother doesn't want to
mention what they are.

Diana and I navigated through the
servant route alongside a number of patchwork cadavers that were
dressed in butler attire. The clothing distracted me from the
stitches that kept the eyes of the undead permanently open and
their mouths fixed in too-wide smiles.

The black suits were impeccably
maintained, and often recycled from the clothing people had died
in. Necromancers were an unexpectedly thrifty bunch. They also made
surprisingly good tailors.

Half the designs weren't bad,
either.

I ran a hand down my face. How a group of
people could have such good and bad taste at the same time, I'll
never understand.

5: Hall of the Six
Houses

The denizens of
Nethermount
dined in the Hall of the Six
Houses. Of all the caverns in the place, it was the largest as well
as the most uniform. Straight edges formed diamond-sharp corners,
and from above one could tell that room was in the shape of a six
pointed star.

Each House had their own alcove and
specialization with regards to their research.

House Soma dealt with physical aspects in
their experiments. Its members often jumbled corpses together like
patchwork quilts. Transplants and taxidermy were among its most
common practices. Knitting was also quite popular among its
distinguished young ladies.

House Myalo's psychologists were
held in the highest esteem. They were unusual among the Six Houses,
for they preferred their subjects alive. Its members would then
test the mental capacity of various races through the most creative
experiments. Unsurprisingly, some of the best artists could be
found among their numbers.

Myalites were also seen as the philanthropists
of the Six Houses, for they were the only ones so generous as to
offer the bodies of their test subjects once they were through with
them.

House Astheneia was comprised
solely of women. They could often be found tending the garden at
the heart of their section of the caverns. Medicines were their
trade. They had a deal with House Myalo, for any subjects that had
their minds broken, but still breathed, were sent directly to the
women so they could test their pharmaceuticals. If a woman's
research was deemed particularly ground-breaking, then she would
earn the honor of having her face disfigured by acid. This often
did more to aid the appearance of the Sickly Sisters than
not.

House Ponos the was counterpart to Astheneia,
and natural mates. Girls were born to the Sickly Sisters, while
boy-children were given to the men of Ponos. They took subjects
that were widely considered scraps by the rest of Nethermount
society, and tested the strength of the tissue, often through means
of tearing or crushing.

House Psychi possessed some of the most
talented anthropologists in the continent. Its members go through
astounding lengths to research the background of the cadavers that
come to Nethermount. They pride themselves in making the most
life-like undead, so much so that their rite-of-passage involves
reanimating a body and successfully integrating it in its natural
surface-dwelling society.

Last but not least, there was House Thanos;
the smallest of the Six Houses with its two living
members.

My mother, the current Head of
House, shot me a wary look from across the Hall. I looked around
and realized that other members of our community were also facing
my direction.

I was used to people staring at me
because I was seen as the heir of an incredibly prestigious House.
The fact that it was verging on extinction also made me somewhat of
an endangered species in their eyes.

This time was strange for a different reason,
and that was because I always entered alone... until
now.

Although Diana's face and joints were hidden
from public view, her movements were still too graceful to be
either human or undead. I felt the blood draining from my face; the
only thing necromancers liked more than conducting their own
research was scrutinizing someone else's. I know that Diana told me
to act like she was my project, but I didn't know if I would be
able to treat her like one.

And at the rate interest was growing, it was
only a matter of time before I'd find out.

6: Lenold and The Sand
Whale

Lenold, of House
Soma
, made a beeline towards me almost as
soon as I entered the room. I suppose I could say he was a friend
of mine, but he lacked the quiet understanding Diana and I shared.
Regardless, he was a friendly sort, and his presence would buy us
some time from the rest of the people who would wait to see how
this conversation played out.

I feel I should mention that, even among
Nethermount society, there were certain... eccentric figures.
Lenold, (or Leo, as he preferred to be called) was most definitely
one of them.

He was tan, for starters, something highly
unusual for our sun-deprived group. His hair was brown, rather than
some dowdy shade of white or gray, and then there was Tully, his
skeletal parrot (which was actually a chicken), who was perched on
his left shoulder at all times. There were other things as well,
but I was certain they would become apparent soon
enough.

Leo clasped me by the arms with an
enthusiastic grin. "Marvin, I'm so glad you made it!" his voice
boomed.

The chicken-parrot flapped its beak open,
prompting Leo to pat it on the head.

"Tully's been missing you as well. Isn't he a
softy?" He made a kissing face at his... well, to be honest I
wasn't sure what to call Tully. With Leo it could be family, a pet,
or a fetish, and I wish I could reject the possibility that it
wasn't all three.

Once Leo was through with his public
affections, he cast Diana a curious look.

"It's awfully rare that you come wanting to
display a project." His voice was a combination of excitement and
seriousness.

"She's not for display."

I kicked myself a little for calling Diana a
"she" instead of the neutral "it". Leo gave me an unabashedly
puzzled stare.

"She's not?"

I hesitated. "She... isn't finished just yet."
I took a mental sigh of relief for coming up with an excuse. "The
bell rang while I was in the middle of some adjustments, so I was
forced to take her with me."

"As expected of the heir to House Thanos!"
Leo's eyes lit up with admiration. He sat a hand on my shoulder,
swerving me away from view. "Don't be too upset with me for saying
this," he began in hushed tones, "but I wasn't sure whether or not
I'd be able to trust you with something."

I blinked, having no idea where this was
coming from.

Leo opened his other hand. I wasn't sure what
to make of the object that sat in it, which seemed to be nothing
more than a leather oval with strings hanging from either
end.

"Is that a... parrot-sized
codpiece?"

"A parrot-sized..." his mouth
drooped, and the stupidity of my guess hit me at full force.
"That's brilliant!" Leo exclaimed. "But no, Marvin. This is an eye
patch."

"An eye patch?"

"My grandfather gave it to me just yesterday
after dinner." Leo nodded vigorously. "You see, Marvin, this isn't
just any old eye patch. It was my great-great-great-great-great
grandfather's eye patch."

"You mean, Larry?"

"No, that was my uncle."

"Lionel?"

"That was my second cousin, twice
removed."

"What about Liechtenstein?"

"No, Marvin! Leeroy's!" He shook me my the
shoulders. "And while we're on the topic, Liechtenstein isn't
actually related to me. He was the family golem for a few
generations, so I understand how someone from another House could
get confused. But honestly, you should know me better by
now."

I felt a little bad for Leo
at that moment. He often went out of his way to eat next to me at
the Thanos section of the Hall. The sad part was that I regularly
blacked out whenever I looked at some of the other experiments in
the same room. Leo was just the special sort of person who could
talk
at
someone
as well as with them, so I doubt it would've mattered if I was
comatose at the time.

"Okay... so Leeroy." I raked my brain through
the history of House Soma. The names of all its male members
inexplicably began with the letter L, so it took me a while. "You
mean the one that kept getting thrown down the Pit by surfacers
every time he went topside?"

"Yes!" Leo grinned so hard I thought his face
might break in half. "You see, Leeroy's life mission was to find a
naturally occurring automaton."

That last phrase rang a bell.

A naturally occurring automaton was a fancy
term for something we called a True Golem. Topsiders commonly
referred to them as elementals or nature spirits. These beings were
popular characters in children's bedtime stories. I remember
falling asleep to a number of them myself. Among these parables,
none were as popular as the Tale of Leeroy.

I gave Leo a funny look, wondering if he and I
were thinking the same thing.

"Do you mean the Leeroy who tried to hunt a
Sand Whale?"

"One and the same." He shook the fist with the
eye patch. "Don't you see, Marvin? The mantel's been passed down!
It now falls unto me to finish the quest!"

I wasn't sure what to tell him. In the stories
that I'd heard about Leeroy, he was a bit... touched in the head.
He ran out into the middle of the desert only to encounter a group
of barbarians. No one is sure how he managed not to get killed.
He'd be away from Nethermount for weeks at a time, inevitably
getting thrown down the Pit upon his return. The story was a
popular lesson on persistence... and all but solidified the fact
that Sand Whales did not exist.