Stories From the Shadowlands

  As I blocked his first few scimitar strikes, I had to remind myself we weren’t in the training room. We weren’t sparring. This was real, and Takeshi was gone, and now I had to kill the creature who stole him away.

  Then Ana tried to get between us, and all of it happened so fast. She was shouting, using her scimitar to block my thrusts. Takeshi saw his opening. One slice cut through the buckles on her armor. The second cut through her. Everything was red, and I couldn’t catch her fall because he was on me, too, and stripped the scimitar from my grasp.

  Takeshi. Takeshi. Why are you doing this?

  Yes, I admit I was that stupid. So stupid that I was slow, so stupid that I couldn’t believe what had happened even though the reality of it was advancing on me with his blade raised. The Mazikin had taken him. They’d hurt him. They’d stolen his body.

  This is the creature who killed him.

  It was that thought that made it possible for me to draw my knife, to fight in earnest, both for myself and for Ana, who lay in a pool of her own blood and was still reaching for him, Takeshi, her love. Gone.

  Rage. Even now, my hand shakes with it. Hot and relentless, it fueled me as I used my staff to block his strike and then to knock the scimitar from his hand. It made me determined as I cracked my elbow across his face, as I kneed him in the chest, as I pinned him to the ground with all my weight.

  "He’s ours now," he snarled. "The queen will eat his heart in the square."

  RAGE. My fingers curled into his hair and wrenched his head up. And then his eyes met mine.

  "We’re brothers," he said softly, his fierce grimace melting into concern. "I cared for you more than you ever knew. Don’t do something you’ll regret."

  I couldn’t breathe. My chest felt like it had been filled with concrete. “I cared for you, too,” I whispered. “And I wish I had told you.”

  I drew my knife across his throat before he could say another word. My Captain’s face went slack as his blood flowed. I bowed over him, my forehead against his temple, my fingers still in his hair, and I prayed. The words tangled in my mouth and were barely understandable, even to me. But in all my life, I’ve never said a prayer more sincere.

  Please. Please let him be free now. Please don’t let him be at their mercy.

  No. I killed that Mazikin, which freed Takeshi’s soul. He is at peace now. He isn’t hurting anymore. He’s happy and free.

  A group of inhuman Guards who had been patrolling nearby heard the noise of our fight. They carried me and Ana back to the Station. I lost consciousness somewhere along the way, but when I awoke from being healed, Raphael told me she is alive.

  I should go check on her. I owe it to Takeshi to make sure she is all right.

  Day 21096

  Ana has bolted herself inside Takeshi’s quarters and refuses to come out. Raphael tells me she is alive but not able to deal with the outside world now, and I suppose that includes me.

  I don’t blame her. She watched me slit his throat. I know I saved her. I know I did what had to be done. But I also know it will be hard to look her in the eye when I see her again.

  So I’ve decided to leave. I am the Captain now. This is my responsibility. I’m going hunting. And I will show no mercy. This time, I cannot think about releasing innocent human souls from the Mazikin realm. Every Mazikin I catch will be taken to the tower.

  Because I’ve realized something very dangerous. The Mazikin who stole Takeshi’s body—it also has his memories. Ana’s face would be imprinted in so many, and all our secrets and plans as well. If I do not act quickly, all of them will know about Ana. I promised Takeshi this would not happen.

  Day 21097

  I have summoned four platoons of Guards to the area. They will come from the southern quarter outpost and surround the area where I believe Takeshi was taken, based on his typical rate of speed, the timing of his departure and return, and the location where our paths intersected. I am bringing an additional platoon from the outpost southeast of downtown. We will sweep the area and collect the Mazikin. I will personally interrogate each before they are taken to the tower. With any luck, we will also find and destroy the nest. With any luck, we will rid the city of them.

  Day 21099

  I found him. I cornered him myself. Like Sil, now he seems to prefer bodies similar to Takeshi’s. Dark eyes, black hair, slight of build. I spotted him and another as they loped up the street, and I subdued both of them, cuffing them to a metal railing in an abandoned factory building.

  I am sure their screams could be heard up and down the street.

  “Tell me,” I said. “Tell me what you know about Takeshi. What you know about us.”

  “Nothing,” he spat out.

  But a few minutes later, he was willing to speak again, just to end the pain. I stepped back to allow him.

  “The hope,” he said quietly. “There was so much of it. And so much despair. He was too weak to fight my brothers and sisters off when they set upon him. They possessed him immediately, didn’t want to carry him back to the nest. Too eager. And scared. A Guard! That has never happened before.” He stood up a little straighter, his wrists still bound. “And as he lay tied to the table, his only thoughts were of her. And you. He knew he had failed. He was scared. Terrified. Defeated.”

  “Stop,” I said. “Stop talking now.”

  “Isn’t this what you wanted to know? He felt like a fool. He knew he had done this to himself. He tried to hold on with all his might, but I tore him loose. I sent him to my homeland.”

  “And he wasn’t there long.” Because I freed him. I liberated his soul.

  The Mazikin’s eyes narrowed, an angry flush spreading across his face. “We’ll get you, too. One day. And we’ll get Ana as well.”

  That was when I cut out his tongue. His companion’s, too. And then I personally dragged them down the street, all the way through downtown, all the way to the tower, and I pushed them through the doors. I don’t feel, not right now. I have a mission, and it is not yet complete.

  Day 21167

  Sixty-eight days, seventy-nine Mazikin taken to the tower. I have destroyed so many. And condemned so many souls to eternal suffering. But somehow, despite this cost, and though I know he is free, it doesn’t end my dreams of his face, how it looked right after I cut his throat.

  Day 21169

  I arrived at the station this morning. I left one platoon in the area we swept, but it seems that all the Mazikin have fled. We did not find the nest, and I am not so naive as to believe we truly killed them all. But I do believe I may have prevented the knowledge of Ana’s identity from spreading. Only time will tell, but in recent days, none of the Mazikin we caught seemed aware that I am not the only human Guard left in the city.

  I should be glad about that. But I just checked in with Raphael, and he said that Ana has neither left her room nor eaten food that has been brought to her. And I wonder: is she allowing herself to die? Does she realize that will only pull her farther from Takeshi? If she dies, she will lose herself in this city. Her chance of making it to the Countryside any time soon will fade. And I know—Takeshi is waiting for her.

  I will not allow her to do this to herself. Or to him.

  Day 21170

  She would not let me in. She would not answer my shouts through the door. And so I broke it down. I strode into Takeshi’s quarters and found Ana curled into a ball on his bed, and for a moment I seized up with rage and horror. The stench was awful. The sight was worse.

  I took two steps forward and hoisted her up by the shoulders. She was limp for a moment, but she began to struggle as I pulled her from Takeshi’s cot, the place where they spent their last few hours of happiness. She bit and clawed at me with dirty, long fingernails, but she was so weak that it was not difficult to drag her down the hall to the shower room, her pathetic cries ringing down the corridor and drawing the other Guards out of their chambers to watch the spectacle.

  I was past caring for her dignity, for her protests. If T
akeshi saw her like this, his heart would shatter. I turned on the cold water and held her down as it drenched us both.

  “Let me go!” she shrieked, scoring my arms with her nails. “Let me go!”

  “I will not let you go,” I shouted, shaking her, my anger getting the best of me. “I will never let you go.”

  Something about that phrase made her go still. She gaped up at me, water rolling in rivulets down her haggard face, through her matted hair. “What did you say?” she whispered hoarsely.

  “I said I will never let you go. So stop fighting me and think of Takeshi. Not how you miss him. Not your final memory of him. Think of what he would say if he were here.”

  She blinked at me.

  “Think of what he would want you to do, Ana.” I pulled her shirt off, and then yanked her pants off, shouting for Rais to bring me an extra pair of fatigues from her quarters and leave it outside. His gruff acknowledgement came a moment later.

  Ana did not struggle, even though I had stripped her bare and was still holding her under the chilling spray of the shower in that dank, mildewed room. I gentled my touch, pushing a bar of grimy soap into her palm, urging her to clean herself up, reminding her that Takeshi would want to see her strong and fierce, not defeated and childlike. She needed to do this for him.

  “But he’s gone,” she said. “He’s gone.”

  I took her face in my hands. “But I’m here. And I need you. We’re partners now. I can’t do this without you.”

  “You don’t need me.”

  I gritted my teeth. “I do. Together, you and I will kill them all. We will destroy them. We will make them wish they had never come to this city in the first place.”

  Her eyes sparked with something dark and brutal. “We could kill them all,” she said quietly. Her grip on the soap tightened.

  “Yes. We will kill them all. Every last one. You and me.”

  “We will kill them all.” She leaned against the dingy tile, weak from hunger and struggling. “Now get out of here and give me some privacy.”

  I did, relief singing in my veins. But I stood outside the shower room, just in case. I’m not letting her out of hearing range until I’m sure she’s all right.

  Day 21171

  We’re leaving in a few hours, back to the region south of downtown, to meet with the Guards there and plan. I have gone over my map, plotted every patrol, ranging from the cluster of stout huts forty-seven blocks south of the dark tower all the way up to the edge of downtown. Once we’ve covered there, we will hike north, toward Harag zone, a favorite of the Mazikin, given its location north of the tower, making access to it more difficult.

  Ana and I went to see Michael late yesterday evening. He cursed at both of us, but he did seem to be a bit gentler with Ana—and he had already crafted her an exquisite set of throwing knives, plus new holsters for them. I believe it was his way of saying he’s sorry, that he understands what Takeshi meant to her.

  She is strong. Steadier. She ate a huge amount last night and this morning, making up for all the lost days, packing stale bread and overripe, bruised fruit into her mouth. She did it all with a grim sense of purpose.

  I think the Mazikin will regret taking Takeshi. They have only made us more determined to exterminate them.

  Day 21249

  A setback today. At least, I think it was. I woke up to find Ana gone, and I tracked her—all the way to the dark tower. Her footsteps in the grime at the side of the road led straight to the entrance. Knowing I would never find her inside, I waited. And waited. The gloom set my teeth on edge. I could feel the building reaching for me.

  Then, quite suddenly, she burst through the doors, tears streaming down her face. I jumped to my feet. “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “I hear his voice,” she said, her voice rasping and weak. “I hear his voice inside. He tells me to go on, to remember who I am, to never give up.”

  “And that’s why you went inside?”

  She nodded. “I needed to hear it.”

  “But you take a risk every time you go in.”

  Her eyes met mine. “Hearing his voice is worth that risk.”

  “Are you ready to go back to the apartment? We have a long patrol this afternoon.”

  She swiped her hands across her face, smearing tears over her cheeks. “Not yet. Will you wait?”

  I sighed. “Yes. But only one more time. And you’d better come back out.”

  “Yes, Captain.” And then she clenched her fists and pushed her way into the dark tower again.

  I had to carry her back to the apartment. And right now, she is caught in a nightmare. I can hear her crying out. The tower has a lingering effect, but outside its walls, the voice that could save you is often silent. I know this from experience. That kind of evil has more than one way of defeating you.

  Day 21285

  I had the oddest experience today. I captured a Mazikin at the northeastern edge of downtown and tied him to a chair to question him. And he began to spout—in English—the most ridiculous gibberish about how I had no probable cause to “arrest” him, how he had rights and was going to call a lawyer and no one treated Americans this way. Clearly, the memories of the host body were taking a toll on this Mazikin, who was probably young and impressionable. But it was a bit comical, watching this paunchy middle-aged man, red-faced and full of indignation that I had violated his “civil rights.” Clearly, the world has changed, or perhaps only in America. When my people were being beaten in the streets, when we were told we could not go to school, when we were loaded onto trains and became numbers instead of names, no one worried about our rights at all.

  Day 21314

  It is done. Ana and I have destroyed the nest we found a few days ago, just outside the search radius I had established after Takeshi was taken. They really are demonically clever creatures. However, now their nest is burning, and many of them have been sent back to their home realm. It always seems one or two escape, and that is all they need to regain their foothold in this city.

  Ana smiled as she watched the flames devour the set of rowhouses where they’d established themselves, probably burrowing through the walls to connect each one. It was unstable and easy to bring down. The fire reflected in Ana’s eyes, glinted off her black hair. She looked beautiful and vengeful, and I felt as if I had given her something good.

  She doesn’t want to talk about Takeshi. Or how she is doing. I am glad, because I don’t really want to, either. It seems the best thing we can do for each other is to kill.

  The blood on our hands is solace.

  Day 23916

  Ana and I have been patrolling near the northern wall, where we have reason to believe the Mazikin have located their latest nest. This morning we overheard the distinctive grunt and cough of a Mazikin inside a vast warehouse, and Ana suggested we worm our way into the duct system. I have taught Ana the language, and now both of us can understand and speak it with a great deal of proficiency—enough to fool the creatures themselves, as we’ve done on many occasions, luring them into alleys and basements to meet their doom.

  We were lucky—the nest was in the warehouse.

  We were not lucky—we found ourselves precariously positioned in metal ducts over their altar, peering through a vent, just as they tied a man to the table.

  When they do the ritual, they call the spirit from their homeland, inviting it into the body they have made available. They tell it to pull with all its might, to tear the human’s soul from deep within and banish it. It is a chant of praise and celebration, the most evil kind I can imagine.

  I had to clamp my hand over Ana’s mouth to keep her from screaming with rage. Her fingernails dug into the back of my hand. “Be silent,” I whispered, holding her mercilessly tight, my mouth right against her ear. “There are over a hundred Mazikin not twenty feet below us. If you want to kill them all, they cannot know we’re here right now. But I promise you: we WILL kill them all.”

  That seemed to quiet her. But as she
went still, it allowed me to hear the anguished cries of the man below us as a Mazikin ripped his soul away. I have a sick feeling that the sound will follow me into my dreams tonight.

  Day 23917

  This is the second nest we have destroyed in the last thousand days. Ana is the masked demon, the stealthy killer, and I am the scourge that all of them fear. The last nine hundred days have been spent shedding a mighty river of blood in this city, killing and killing and killing. Yes, I know they come back, but I also believe we are freeing their victims. And this time, this time I think we might have done it. We caught them by surprise. They were not on their guard. I will search tomorrow for traces of survivors, but for the first time in a long time, I will allow myself to feel some hope.

  Day 23918

  No sign of survivors. We will patrol the entire city for signs of them, but I think it is possible we have rid this city of Mazikin. When I told Ana, she smiled. It was a hard, bitter smile, but a smile nonetheless.

  Day 24041

  My mood today is one of general irritation. The Guards are complaining about their training schedules, particularly because the Mazikin have been so quiet lately. They are losing their discipline—I recently discovered that in the past twenty days, no fewer than three Guards have misplaced their scimitars and had to go to Michael for replacements. Scimitars! How do you lose a two-foot-long, razor sharp blade? Why wouldn’t you treat a weapon like that with every respect? No, I refuse to lower our readiness just because the threat may be gone. This has made me a very unpopular Captain, but I cannot worry about that. If we find that we have truly rid the city of Mazikin, then perhaps I will relent. But not until then.

  Day 24756

  My hopes have been crushed. Every day since we destroyed the nest east of downtown, I have allowed those hopes to grow. It has been quiet throughout the city. No signs of Mazikin activity. All the Guards began to look at me differently, with begrudging admiration, maybe, instead of their usual suspicion and resentment.

  That’s about to change. I was patrolling north of downtown, east of Harag, when I caught the unmistakable scent of incense. It has been hundreds of days since I smelled it, but my body’s response was instant and powerful, my gut clenching and saliva filling my mouth. And a bitter, black, cold sense of failure filling my chest.