Destroyer Rising (19 page)

“They don’t speak?” I said.

Mike shook his head. “It’s all clicks and beats. They
don’t really hear, from what I understand. They feel the vibrations
in the air, or in the bones.”

The deep, hollow drums sounded again. I traced the
echo to the back of the boat where two bulky skeletons beat on the
rounded skulls of some unknown giants. The march was steady and
perfectly timed, regardless of the rolling waves of fire.

A wheel formed of human bones stood before a cabin
made of the same. Another skeleton stood behind the wheel, an
ancient black captain’s hat upon his head, and a skeletal parrot
resting on his shoulder.

I stared. It couldn’t be.

“Will we be safe on that?” Carter asked. “If they
can’t transport souls … I don’t want Maggie to be left in that
sea.”

Maggie wrapped her hand around Carter’s bicep.
“Wherever we go, it will be together.”

Mike crossed his arms and didn’t take his eyes from
the ship of bones. “You are not like other souls. The Ghost Pack is
known to this crew, and you will be safe. All of you.”

“Graybeard,” I whispered.

Mike jerked back like I’d struck him. “What did you
say?”

The ship came closer, and rose into the air.

“Oh, Christ,” Jimmy hissed, stepping back from the
cliff’s edge.

Shiawase stood beside me, his panda form abandoned as
he gawked at the spectacle below. “What madness is this?”

I didn’t see it at first, until my gaze swept low on
the starboard side. The hand of an enormous skeleton, impossible in
every way, lifted the ship from the sea. Fire dripped from the bow
like water, splashing and running like thin lava.

“What in the hell is that?” I asked, turning my gaze
on Mike.

He was staring at me. “What did you
say?”

“Graybeard?” I said with a frown. “What’s wrong?”

A monstrous breath sounded above me. I glanced up to
find Jasper’s reptilian head a foot above my own.

“Is it him?” I asked the dragon.

He chuffed at me, and it was all the answer I
needed.

“That’s my parrot,” I said to Mike.

Sarah burst into laughter despite the look of utter
disbelief on her face. “Of course it is. Of course it’s your bloody
parrot.”

Then I remembered what that parrot was. I’d stitched
him together when I was a kid. I’d pieced him back together with
what I thought was a random ghost with delusions of grandeur.

My eyes shifted to Mike. “Umm, is he mad about
getting turned into a bird?”

“By the gods, Damian. I don’t know.”

In the length of time it took me to consider how
badly this reunion could go, the ship docked at the edge of the
cliff, held aloft by the giant skeletal hand. Graybeard made his
way to the railing. The hollow eyes of the human skeleton stared at
me before the golden glow of the parrot’s eye sockets burst into
life.

“Vesik,” the parrot squawked and released a grating
laughter. Graybeard’s perch kicked a bony plank down to smack
against the rocky earth. Dust rose and the sound echoed in the
silence. Every skeleton on the ship had stopped moving. They stood
as still as old vampires. Only the faint screams and lapping of
waves below dared to make a sound.

Graybeard cocked his head to the side before turning
to Mike. “I have come to your aid, fire demon. Our debt is
done.”

“Once you transport my friends safely across the Sea
of Souls, our debt is done.”

“So be it.” Graybeard’s perch stepped onto the plank
and made his way down to the cliff’s edge. He rested his hand on
the hilt of a gleaming saber. “You have aged, young
necromancer.”

I rubbed my hands together and flashed an awkward
smile. “You aren’t upset about getting turned into a parrot, are
you?”

Laughter escaped the parrot, and the man’s skeleton
shook like it was in hysterics. He spoke again when the skeleton
settled. “No. I am the only member of this crew with a voice. I
need not click my jaws together in some tedious semblance of
speech.”

“Oh, good.”

“What brings you to the Sea of Souls? You appear to
have more than enough locked up inside yourself already.”

I narrowed my eyes. “You can see them?”

“Of course. I am the captain of this ship, am I not?
I see much.”

“We need only a crossing,” Mike said.

“Why not fly upon your dragon, fire demon?”

Mike glanced at Jasper. “He is not my dragon. He is
Damian’s. And you know we cannot fly into the tenth circle.”

The golden light in Graybeard’s eyes dimmed before it
bloomed again. I thought it looked a lot like a blink of sorts.
“He’s always been a temperamental beast.”

Jasper chuffed.

The parrot turned its focus to me. “You are full of
surprises, necromancer. You are not truly a necromancer, though,
are you?” Graybeard walked closer, standing between Vicky and me.
“You have become something far more than that. What purpose do you
have in the Burning Lands?”

Carter and the wolves shifted closer, two in back one
in front. It was a pattern of attack I’d seen more than once. I
glanced at Mike.

“It is safe to answer,” the fire demon said.

Graybeard looked at the demon before returning his
gaze to me. “I mean you no ill will. Except, perhaps, the fire
demon. What brings you here, Damian?”

I still remembered hiding the barely feathered parrot
corpse in a shoebox under my bed. He had told great tales of his
adventures in the Caribbean, and occasionally got into fights with
Jasper. I smiled remembering the flying feathers and chomping
teeth.

“She brings us here,” I said, gesturing to Vicky with
an open palm. Bubbles snorted and bumped up against her. Vicky ran
her fingers through the cu sith’s bristly fur.

Graybeard studied Vicky for a time. “She is bound to
a devil.” His voice was low. “You truly make for the tenth circle?”
He turned to face the ship and look out across the fiery sea. “It
makes sense now. I have seen them flocking around the tenth. There
are a great many adversaries in your way, Damian Vesik.”

“Not enough,” I said quietly.

The parrot hopped and turned around on the skeleton’s
shoulder. “Have you found a weapon to slay a devil? Has the mighty
Hephaestus forged another immortal blade? For you know the
splendorum mortem cannot kill the lords and ladies of the Burning
Lands.”

I don’t know how Graybeard knew about that, but this
didn’t seem the time to ask. Maybe the breaking of the Seal tipped
people off after Ezekiel died? Of course it did. “I know,” I
said.

“That theory has never been tested,” Mike said. “But
considering the power tied to the dagger, I suspect you are
right.”

“Who do you hunt?” Graybeard asked. “You bring the
ghost pack and a cu sith and a dragon, while the two of you are
already gods. Why endanger the others?”

“They couldn’t keep us away if they tried,” Carter
said.

Graybeard watched the werewolves for a moment. “I
mean you no harm, wolves, but I will strike you down if you attack
me or mine.” It wasn’t a hostile threat; it was a simple statement
of fact. “Who do you hunt?”

“Prosperine,” I said. “She is bound to
Prosperine.”

Graybeard looked up at the sky. “You mean to slay the
Destroyer?” The parrot laughed again. “Save yourself the effort and
jump into the Sea of Souls. Let the fires do their work. It will be
quicker. Like a hangman’s noose.”

I crossed my arms and stared at the old pirate. “This
is worth any price, Graybeard, and I am willing to pay it. Vicky
will be free and Prosperine will be dead, or we’ll all die
trying.”

The lights in Graybeard’s eyes dimmed. He looked at
Vicky before nodding and turning back to me. “It is a man’s own
prerogative to choose where he dies. Darkfall is not long away. We
must move if you are to prevent the rise of the Destroyer.”

“How long has it been?” I asked Mike.

He glanced at the sun. “Four hours. It is time to
return to Hugh.”

“Do you not travel with us?” Graybeard asked.

“The others do,” Mike said. “I must return Damian to
his realm. There are …
tools
we need for the battle
ahead.”

“So be it,” Graybeard said. “Send him from the Sea of
Souls. It will carve a new path through the Burning Lands, and make
it easier for him to return.”

I looked down into the roiling sea of fire. “I don’t
think that sounds like a great idea.”

Graybeard laughed quietly. “No, Vesik. I mean from
the deck of my ship. There are laws, natures, that govern the
Burning Lands, but there are ways around them. You have to know the
right demons.”

“We have safe passage then?” I asked. “For all of my
allies here?”

“I will treat them as though they were my own
crew.”

“Just keep their skin on, yeah?”

The parrot cackled as the skeleton turned away. “I
missed your nonsense, Damian Vesik. I will protect you and yours so
long as they are under my watch. Come, board the ship so you may
tell people of the glories of the Bone Sails.”

“Do you trust him?” Maggie asked as Graybeard
vanished over the railing.

“As far as I can throw him,” Mike said. “That’s
actually pretty far.”

I grinned at the demon. “I feel like I’m rubbing off
on you.”

“Gods help us,” Sarah muttered.

The deck of the Bone Sails was solid beneath my feet.
I’d expected it to have some give or flexibility to it when I saw
the leather ties holding the ship together. When I reached the top
of the stairs leading to the wheelhouse, I stomped on it again to
see if it was any different.

Several of the skeletons looked up at the sudden tap,
and I swore the nearest one frowned at me. It made a shooing motion
with its bony fingers and I slowly backed away toward
Graybeard.

“You make too much noise,” the parrot said as the
ship tilted slightly.

“Sorry?”

“I’m sure they’ll get over it.” Graybeard watched
skeletons move across the deck, tightening the leather and bone
sails. “You have loyal friends, Damian Vesik.”

I looked at my motley group of allies as Jasper
settled onto Bubbles’s back. The wolves were spread out between
Mike and Sarah, while Jimmy pointed at something in the distance
and started shouting.

“Not the most patient of wolves, that one,” Graybeard
said.

“No shit,” I muttered.

“How is Samantha?”

I glanced at Graybeard before grabbing the smooth
railing, almost flinching away from the polished femur. “She’s
good.”

“You always were a terrible liar. Is she well?”

“She’s a vampire,” I said, remembering the late
nights I used to spend talking to this parrot. He’d tell me tales
of dark things not fit for a child, and they were some of my
favorite bedtime stories. I took a deep breath. “It’s my
fault.”

“She is one of the beings you stretched your soul out
for.”

“What?” I asked, turning around and leaning on the
railing.

“I can see the stretches and ties that are not the
substance of nature, Damian Vesik. Perhaps an unintended
consequence of my …” The parrot looked down at the pirate’s chest
and up to his hat, before he finished. “… altered state.”

“Maybe.”

“I am sure you did not intend to make her one of the
undead.”

“Mostly not. Only when I realized she was going to
die.”

Graybeard stayed silent for a time, until the ship
grew nearer to the fiery waves. “A nobler effort than bonding a man
to a parrot, I think, if no less forbidden.”

“How do you know that? How did you know that was
forbidden?”

“Your master told me much before she sent me into the
Burning Lands with Ronwe.”

“Zola,” I said with a laugh that trailed off as I
considered the rest of his words. Graybeard knew Ronwe?

“Brace yourselves!” Graybeard shouted.

I looked around for some kind of imminent threat, but
that wasn’t what he’d been warning us about at all.

The hull of the ship slammed into the Sea of Souls,
sending up arcs of flame and screaming souls alike. I watched the
skeletons sweep the clinging souls away, and cringed at the
contorted faces and cries for help.

“Do not pity the monsters,” Graybeard said. “Those
are the demons who would have destroyed the Burning Lands. Betrayal
and murder are all the imposters know.”

“They’re Geryon?”

“Once,” Graybeard said. His bones clicked as he gave
a sideways nod. “You encountered them in the sixth circle?”

“Three of them, yes.”

“And you’re alive. Impressive. What of the
imposters?”

I turned back to face the bow, watching the waves of
fire crest and crash and swell as a hot dry wind whipped across the
deck. “They’re dead.”

“Truly?” He remained silent until I turned
around.

“Yes, why?”

“It is a rare thing for the imposters to die. They
are notoriously difficult to kill.”

“We aren’t so easy to kill either, although they
didn’t exactly go down without a fight.”

“We are nearly at the midway point,” Graybeard said.
“Fetch your demon and make ready.”

“I don’t think Mike would like you calling him mine,”
I said, smiling.

“I mean the child. Her soul is wandering.”

My gaze snapped to where I’d last seen Vicky. She
wasn’t there.

“Where’s Vicky!” I shouted as I hurdled the railing
and cracked onto the deck below, running to the others.

“She was just here …” Shiawase looked around and
frowned deeply. He drew his sword and turned in a slow circle.

“Graybeard!” I said. “Ask the crew!”

He nodded and began rapping out a stuttering pattern
on the bone wheel. The skeleton closest to us pulled on my sleeve
and gestured to the shadowed hold at the bow. I followed the
fleshless creature to the front of the ship, the others trailing
behind us.