The Labyrinth of the Dead (18 page)

"What do you suggest?"

"Give me your life."

"What?"

"Oh, brava,
Portia! I knew you’d come around to my way of thinking," Kanika cried out,
sounding like Nigel once more. "We are more alike than you care to admit, you
and I."

She ground her heel into Kanika’s belly. "Enough. I am not like you."

"Of course not," she answered
breathlessly, relaxing back to the floor with the air of a spectator at a
sporting event.

"Lady," Portia met Celestine’s gaze, "I
ask you to do this willingly. You are weakening, and when your light goes out
there will be no hope at all left. I ask that you pass on what you can to me,
that I might put an end to this entire wretched affair. What do you say?"

She shrugged inelegantly. "Since I am
bound to die horribly either way, why not?"

"Quite noble."

"Do what you must. I wash my hands of
all of this."

"Lahash, hold
Kanika down." Portia removed her foot and took Celestine firmly by the
shoulders. "I promise not to hurt you when I do this."

"I am far from caring about pain, now."

Portia kissed her whiskey-colored lips,
drawing in breath after breath of her essence. There was little left but it was
potent.

"Portia! What are you doing?" Imogen’s cry bounced out of her hearing and fell away.
Somewhere there was a scuffle, but that, too, was lost in the sea breath and
light.

Portia consumed Celestine’s power,
feeling it infuse her every cell. Her hair worked free of its braid and spread
out like a silver halo around her head. Each feather sparkled with radiance as
her wings unfurled into a protective mantle around them both.

And when the well was nearly dry, she
pulled away, not taking that last morsel. Celestine mewled as she fell to the
floor. Her amber eyes were cloudy, distant.

"Why? Why not take the lot?"

Portia shook her head, sending
glittering arcs out around her like ripples. "I am not her. I am not Nigel. I
have no need to capture your soul, just your power. I have no interest is
carrying you around in my pocket for the rest of eternity."

"I will die! No, take the last! I want
to live! I want to live on in you!"

"Absolutely not."

"Please!"

Moved to pity, Portia took up the axe,
which was blindingly bright. In a motion too quick to be seen, she severed
Celestine’s head and let the last of the warm blood spill. It seeped outward,
covering the crystalline floor and climbing up the walls. Just like the blood
of the tower’s maidens had done, Celestine’s blood turned the tower to stone,
pulling it ever closer to the living world.

"Thank you," Kanika said. "I hadn’t the
heart to off the slattern myself, but it turns out this was just what I
needed."

The stars were directly overhead,
tantalizingly close with little of the barrier remaining. Kanika had her arm
snugly around Imogen’s waist.

"I was never one for redheads, really,
but I think it might be fun to share, don’t you? Besides, now that she’s got
your eyes, it has really improved her appearance." She kissed Imogen’s cheek, having to rise up on her toes to do so.

Lahash lay in a spreading pool of
brackish blood that began to add a wine-red cast to the walls of the tower. He growled,
clutching a gushing wound at his side. Kanika twirled his dagger in her free hand.

"Captain," Portia began.

"Don’t spare me any damn pity, I
deserve this end." He rolled onto his back and groaned. "The clever bitch. She
can channel Belial to the fore. She called upon my oath and I gave over my
blade to her. I gave my death to her, gift wrapped." He coughed up a mouthful
of black, clotted blood. "Now, brave Portia, it is her turn. Kill her, for me,
for all of Salus. Damned clever bitch."

But Portia was already advancing on
Kanika with the gleaming axe.

"You’re a fool, Portia. A fool to turn
your back on me, a fool to leave our precious prize so far out of your reach.
But yet again, you have done everything I have needed you to. Misguided
nobility is the most tragic kind, isn’t it?" Kanika drew the blade across Imogen’s throat, deep enough only to draw blood. She bent
Imogen double, letting the blood drip like rubies. They lit up as they spread
across the floor, staggeringly bright.

"Did you think I meant to kill her?"
Kanika laughed shrilly. "What fun would that be? This way, I can have my cake
and eat it, too." She licked her lips lasciviously at Imogen.

Imogen hitched up her dress and dug her
fingers into the flesh of her thigh. She raised a small black stylus, like the
kind used to inscribe wet clay, and thrust it into Kanika’s
heart. "I unmake you."

The tower rocked with the force of her
words as purple-brown demon blood began to spout from the wound. Kanika lost
her grip on Imogen and clawed at the sliver of metal.

"What is that?" Portia’s voice echoed
with light.

Imogen looked abashed. "It was
Celestine’s secret weapon. I stole it when I realized she had no intention of
stopping Belial. It has cost me much to carry it." With a hand seared with rising
welts, she pulled up her gown to reveal where a large portion of her thigh was
necrotic and scarred. "I sealed it into my own flesh."

"Imogen…."

Kanika rolled and writhed, cursing
loudly.

"It won’t kill her, I don’t think. It
isn’t large enough and I do not have the power I once did. But it will buy us
time. Come, you must see this for yourself."

Out on the balcony, the sky was falling.

—13—

THE DOME of ever-perfect blue had cracked asunder.
The ground surrounding the tower was gone. The structure seemed held aloft by a
single beam of light that throbbed in time to the rift engine beneath it.

Gone was the skyline of Salus, the tall
peaks of factories and mints that stamped out coin after coin of shadow-gold.
The treasure itself now burned in the great boilers below, generating the
energy needed to rend the planes of reality apart.

"Celestine was right," Imogen murmured
in fearful awe. "It is too late to stop this."

At the horizon a jagged border of pipes
and gear glowed red, bits of false sky clung to the edge of the shadow-world,
and a line of craggy hills with city lights glowed in the distance with the
burr of airships sounding overhead.

"Do you know where we are?" Imogen
rubbed the wound on her throat.

Leaning out over the balcony, Portia
squinted into the distance. "Capitola-by-the-Sea, I think. They have a harbor
and an airstrip with a zeppelin hangar that services the Royal Air Force. I
went with my parents once, the only time they took me out with them. There was
a scene, and they never let me go with them again."

Imogen began to say something soothing,
but she was distracted by two herders scuttling from stone to stone, arms laden
with bulging sacks that clanged with the sound of metal on metal. "What’s
that?"

"Reinforcements. And weapons."

"What good will it do?"

Portia regarded her beloved. "This is
war, now. We need to alert the Primacy. We need to mobilize the full might of
the Grigori. The Aldias will soon learn that their
plan has come to fruition. We need to be ready for that."

Imogen opened her mouth, but shut it
again with a click. She leaned over the railing and watched more and more of
the barrier between the worlds crumble away as the light around them grew
stronger. "You could have left me here, you know. I don’t want the weight of
this." She indicated the severed edge of Salus knitting itself into the living
realm.

"If I had known this was the price, I
might have changed my mind."

"No, you wouldn’t have. I know you too
well." Imogen sighed. "Besides, Belial was in league with Nigel and the whole
damned lot of them from the beginning. This would have come about, regardless.
But I do wish I had never been part of it."

"If you had never been a part of this,
you would never have been a part of me, either."

"I realize that. But how can you weigh
even the truest of love against the destruction of the world and the shattering
of our most solemn vows of protection?"

Portia had no answer for her. She only
turned away to find Kanika.

Inside, the girl’s body lay sprawled on
the floor, her eyelids fluttering and the grey irises darting back and forth.
She had wrenched the black stiletto free, along with a glob of flesh, leaving a
chunk missing from her chest like a bite taken from an apple.

Portia could see Nigel there within
her, panting with exertion. "What was that?" he growled. "Curse that damn
crafty hussy!"

"Nigel, this ends now. You are going to
help me put this back to rights."

"I’m afraid not, sister dear."

"Then I am going to have to kill you."

"We have already had this discussion, I
think, and I don’t see what’s changed. You won’t shed innocent blood."

"You told me she wasn’t innocent."
Taking the axe in both hands, Portia stood over Kanika’s
body. "I sever Kanika from Nigel, I split the two souls one from another." She
brought the axe down in an arc of brilliance, slamming it down into Kanika’s narrow chest. Intense radiance blossomed beneath
her blade, and Nigel screamed in his own pale voice. He shuddered and moaned,
his soul lying beside a gleaming sphere.

Portia reached out and plucked forth
the tiny kernel that was Kanika, the remaining bonds easily severed. It shone
in her hand just like a large pearl, gleaming with sassy charm and cheeky
laughter. Portia smiled at it, feeling the familiar essence of her guide and
companion in this tiny nugget of soul.

"I keep my promises." Portia slid the
girl’s essence into the velvet bag that had once kept Imogen’s
pendant safe and tucked it back into the front of her corset. It felt warm
between her breasts.

With the binding soul gone, the spirit
body of Kanika began to dissolve, leaving Nigel and his cadre of consumed
spirits naked, with no defenses.

Sulking, Nigel drew his aura of shades
closely about him. "See what you’ve done! There was a lot of trouble gone into
that, and now I have to start all over! The Aldias will not be pleased."

"I have had quite enough of what the
Aldias want, and I aim to put a stop to this whole charade!"

The rift engine lurched, rocking the
tower, and a shrill whistle came up from the ground. It began as a sound like a
tea kettle boiling and grew into a piercing noise that sent even Nigel reeling
and covering his ears.

"Portia!" Imogen’s
voice was the very sound of terror, strangled and sharp.

Portia raised the axe to finish Nigel.
"Just give me a minute."

"Portia! Portia, please!" Her voice
cracked with panic, rising into a scream.

Portia reluctantly
stepped away from Nigel. "I’m coming, Imogen!"
The blaring noise disoriented her, causing her steps to falter.

Imogen clutched the glassy railing that
bounded the balcony with white-knuckled intensity. The air blowing in from
outside smelled strongly of the sea and of coal fumes and burnt coffee. The
blaring abruptly stopped and Portia shook her head, trying to regain her
equilibrium.

"Imogen!" Portia shut her eyes tightly
and took a deep breath, bringing her strength to the fore.

"Portia…" Imogen’s
voice was nearly lost amid the crashing of waves upon the rocky shore and the
roar of the dozen airships circling above. "Portia, help me." Her words dissolved
into nothing as Portia rushed through the open doorway.

She raced to her beloved’s side. Out on
the open balcony, the damp wind stung Portia’s face, driving the breath from
her body with shock. The tower now perched on a craggy outcropping that jutted
into the sea, peppered by the rolling breakers. The rocky hills marched up the
shoreline and the warm glow of gaslights could be easily seen just beyond them.
Yes, it was indeed Capitola-by-the-Sea. The briny gusts brought gooseflesh to
Portia’s arms and whipped her fine, silver hair into wet snarls. She wrapped
her wings around her shoulders for warmth and turned to include Imogen in her
embrace. But she was alone.

"Imogen! Imogen, where are you?"

Nigel’s form drifted toward her in a
weakly glimmering haze. He remained just inside the threshold of the tower.
"Missing something, dear sister?" His smile was mocking.

"Tell me where she is!"

He shrugged. "How should I know? I
thought you were her keeper, not I. Besides, the world is a frightening place,
is it not? So dangerous and unpredictable. I think I’ll stay here in Salus,
where it’s safe. For now. The door is open now, thanks to Imogen. If you ever
see her again, do express to her my thanks."

One of the air force dirigibles began
to descend, shining its light directly onto
Portia. Commands were bellowed from one ship to another as they
converged on the tower. She brought up one silvery wing to shield her eyes.

Nigel stepped back into the room, away
from the oncoming ships. "I suppose I must thank you for this as well. As much
as it is a burden to start all over again, I do so love a challenge, and no one
was going to take me seriously using that little girl’s body, anyhow."

"Nigel!" Portia had only managed one
stride toward him when the net fell. The sopping hemp was startlingly heavy.
With the wet roping around her arms, swinging the axe was clumsy at best. She
hacked furiously at it, nearly freeing herself before another fell, and
another.

Nigel shook his head, feigning pity.
"I’m so sorry, sister dear. But you’ll be all right, you’re a tough lass. Oh,
by the way, I hear this place has a wonderful library," he said
conversationally, "and there is a volume I have been after for quite some time.
I think I might have to go take a look. I have so many plans."

"Come out here! Come out here and face
me!" She struggled against the wet ropes that bound her and they grew tighter
as she fought.