Ashy Silence

  A pleasant twilight had fallen on the City when Kai left the Institute. The bodies still y in dark puddles, but the debris of crystals and walls had already been removed. The guards of harmony set up a new crystal that glimmered red and telling of the crime of the horror-bringers. Kai hurried home, he still had pace duties and then the evening shift. Walking up to his door Kai almost calmed himself down. But all his bours went to waste when Arn stepped out to meet him. But unlike the morning meeting not all of him. The man was disintegrating.

  "Song of Ashes," Kai whispered, stopping.

  "Kai! I was forced... I didn't want to..." Arn wheezed, clinging to the wall. His fingers crumbled, leaving grey marks. "They're not what they want to appear to be..."

  His leg had thinned badly to the bone, his side was completely gone, his robe was falling apart, and his amulet of loyalty was cracked. There was a cloying smell of burning in the air. Arn's eyes burned with fever and his face was already cracking, bck stains creeping to his temples, heralding the next loss. The head. He reached out a hand, clutching something in it.

  "What have you done, Arn!" Kai stepped back.

  "Come here, boy!" Arn rushed over and despite his condition caught up to Kai in a few leaps, knocked him to the floor and put the small thing in his palm.

  Kai broke free from the dying man's embrace, leaving him lying on the floor.

  Arn's voice was breaking, as was the expression on his face:

  "Don't believe... them. They... They-- Aaah! Wintering waltzer... R-R-Ratyal's swinethrope... The tree's vein of... Ba-ba-basalt sweet-shrinky worm-bearer.... Ziggurat of souls... H-hollow comprehensiveness..." The words were cut short. Bckness reached Arn's forehead, his eyes rolled back, his face contorted as if from a blow. He clutched at his temple, his lips twitching as if he wanted to speak, but part of his head crumbled into ash. "Vilima... brabo... daayaaaaa..."

  Kai stood as if struck by light, looking at the grey dust left by his neighbour. His shard of dream seemed to twitch in a frenzy, stabbing his neck sharply. Kai looked at what Arn had handed him. An artefact simir to the dream shard, but slightly different, and Kai didn't know its purpose. Arn finally fell silent, and Kai heard footsteps. But he also heard something that made all his hair stand on end.

  "Silence is Dark, and a word is dust,

  Your voice — just ashes betraying trust."

  The nearest talking wall sang the Song of Silence. Kai cmped his mouth shut and clenched his throat, then quickly headed toward his room to wait out the madness. Behind him, the footsteps quickened into a fast run, but Kai focused on the path. Just to get home. His room felt so welcome and safe, even the intrusive mirror seemed like the best friend at this moment. In a way it was. Kai had already touched door number 1138 when his shoulder was grabbed and roughly turned round.

  He was turned round by a man with rough square facial features and a scar across his nose, clearly male. Instead of his usual robe, he wore something like a brown jumpsuit with lots of pockets and an iron polished breastpte. There was no amulet of loyalty. Kai's eyes widened with horror and moved his hand from his throat to his amulet. The reaction was understandable, it was the reason the man got his name, the horror-bringer. He was the reason such the awful Song had descended upon their sector. But how was Arn, who had returned to the Darkness, connected to this?

  "Breathe steady, make no sound nor cry,

  For each word births a pain that won’t die."

  The horror-bringer pressed his lips together with his fingers, unnecessarily reminding Kai to keep silent in the realm of the Song of Silence. Then he frowned and grabbed Kai's amulet, snatching it from his trembling fingers. Kai tried to resist, but the horror-bringer was much stronger. He threw the amulet to the floor and smashed it with his heel. "This is the end," Kai realised. - "There's no going back."

  Two more horror-bringers ran up to the singing wall and struck it with their hammers. Their attacks caused the wall to fall silent and crack. The stone crumbled away, revealing a nightmare: human bones, flesh and faces woven into the masonry like a mosaic. The eyes of the entombed, alive but empty, stared back at Kai. He suppressed a cry, for the Song of Silence still filled his ears. All the walls of the pace were singing it!

  “Accept the quiet as sacred grace,

  For words bring only decay’s embrace.”

  A few more of their brethren joined the horror-bringers. One of them beckoned to the one holding Kai. The scarred man nodded and put his other hand on Kai's shoulder. The tter tugged desperately, breaking free of the grip and rushed to escape.

  All the windows in the corridor shattered into shards, and out of them entered the corridor huge bck snakes with almost human faces, but overly stretched and toothy. The Hydra on the roof! On the necks of the incoming monster stood the guards of harmony, their bdes glowing red and some glowing white, and drops fell from them, burning the floor with a sizzle. Merciful Darkness!

  The serpent closest to Kai looked him in the eye. It had already travelled far into the corridor, its neck dangling in the air, going out the window and upwards. Three guards jumped off his body. One of them swung his sword at Kai, and his glowing bde went through the wall.

  Kai turned around and rushed towards the horror-bringers. He was in time to hear a woman shriek, and the throat of one of the horror-bringers that had been struck by the guard disappeared in thick smoke with fiery sparks. When the smoke cleared, the body was already flying to the floor, and only a fp of spine connected the remains of the head to the body.

  "No!" cried the other horror-bringer in a man's voice, and his throat, too, burst with smoke and ashes.

  “Heart, beat in rhythm with the Dark,

  Forget your doubts, your dreams, your spark.”

  The Hydra heads sank into the fallen bodies and began to devour the flesh, jerking them and drenching the floor in blood. The remaining horror-bringers began to retreat towards the levi-shafts. A guard sshed with his sword and the red-hot bde sliced another outw in two, the halves smoking. Kai sprinted past him and caught up with the retreating group.

  On the floor he saw a human with a familiar throat wound. The corpse was clutching an amulet of loyalty, probably trying to pray to the Lords. But the Song made no exception for Mantras and Litanies.

  “Gaze deep within — no truth is there,

  Just hollow signs the Dark ys bare.”

  Kai heard the door creak open and a frightened female voice:

  "Eve!"

  Explosion.

  "Mom...?"

  Explosion.

  The scarred horror-bringer gnced at Kai on the run and made no attempt to stop him. They reached the levi-shafts together, and Kai noticed that the lights in them had gone out, turning them into regur shafts. But that didn't stop the horror-bringers - they jumped straight into the dark abyss of the lowering shaft.

  "Not the worst way to end this situation," Kai thought to himself as the male horror-bringer wrapped one arm under his arms and jumped after his horrified comrades. Instead of a long fall, they reached the opposite wall of the shaft and slid down it. Kai couldn't see, but he realised that the horror-bringers were using spider gloves. Where did these mad killers get such artefacts?

  A light appeared in the opening from which they had jumped - the guard of harmony looked up at them, illuminating his path with his white sword. Then his dark silhouette moved away, but within a couple of heartbeats, the Hydra's head began to descend into the shaft. It curved at the head's base, creating a horizontal support for the guard's feet, but for the most part the monster's neck remained upright, lowering its rider swiftly and decisively. The light from the sword lighted up the bowels of the shaft.

  The horror-bringer holding Kai wiggled the arm he was holding Kai with and Kai nearly slipped down, but realised in time to grab onto his descender's shoulder. The scarred man reached to his belt and pulled out his hammer. "He doesn't want to... No..." Ran through Kai's mind. The glowing drops from the sword flew in front of his nose, illuminating the sliding horror-bringers below. Kai grabbed the hammer with one hand, and when the toothy face appeared in front of him, struck it with all his might. It was enough to make it recoil, the guard of harmony on him staggered back and with his hand tried to hold on to the serpent's body.

  Kai tried to strike from below at the monster's jaw, but missed, and the hammer flew out of his hands, soaring upwards before crashing downwards. The monster's face came close to Kai's once more. There were no thoughts or emotions left in his mind - only the will to survive. Kai struck what he had in his other hand - Arn's artefact - at the monster's eye. The artifact entered it with a slimy sound, like hitting a cube of porridge. The eye popped, the serpent jerked, and the guardian lost his bance and flew into the abyss, screaming low, but not for long - the viotion of the Song of Silence had torn off his head this time, and it, his body, and his sword all three flew towards the ground floor.

  The serpent, freed from its rider, straightened up and tried to bite Kai. The light from the sword flew down, but Kai had time to see the sharp rows of teeth flying at him before the horror-bringer holding him stopped doing that. Kai flew downwards, but managed to suppress a scream. Arn's face distorted with madness and the burning City from the dream came to mind. Could this really be the death memories? I wish I could live longer...

  Kai was caught by the lower horror-bringer by the mantle. Kai started to slip out of it, but managed to turn around and wrap his arms around his saviour. Looking up, Kai saw nothing due to the darkness and heard nothing but the sound of wind in his ears. Everyone made it the rest of the way without any surprises. At the bottom they were met by fttened armour, blood filling the cracks of the cracked ptform. The horror-bringers still silent, stone-faced, ran out into the street. Kai had finally given up hope that this was all a nightmare and was shivering with his whole body. The Song of Silence could no longer be heard, but no one wanted to take any chances. The scarred horror-bringer had survived after all. He spent a few moments searching for his hammer, and also took the guard's extinguished sword.

  Outside, another horror was waiting for them, accompanied by a small herd of bicorns, cousins of the nullcorns, only more massive and with tougher skin. This horror-bringer had stolen them from the construction of the new road wayshrine of the Voice of The Truth, located nearby.

  The criminals began to mount the bicorns, but Kai hesitated. He had never thought these draft animals could be ridden. He didn't even know how to ride nullcorns. One of the horror-bringers grabbed Kai and threw him on the croup of the two-horned animal, then climbed on its back.

  Kai calmed down a little - he could ride as a load. He looked up at the top of the pace of humans, but it was out of sight, and neither was the Hydra. The bicorn beneath him ran, and to steady himself, Kai sat up and wrapped his arms around the horror-bringer from behind.

  Kai was jolted and tossed about, but he cast another gnce over his shoulder at his former home. He knew that if he ever came back here, it wouldn't be as a resident. Kai felt an unusual fondness for his room, his fun locker, the bed and chair that strengthened his spirit. Even the mirror appeared in his mind as genuinely cheerful and caring. Without thinking, he grabbed for his amulet, but it was gone, his fingers clenched on the emptiness. Tears came to Kai's eyes.

  The horror-bringer on bicorns had shifted to a gallop. They raced through the streets, scaring away the inhabitants and trampling the depersonalised. Guards of harmony on nullcorns sprang ahead, their glowing swords shining brightly in the twilight. The thorror-bringers turned aside and appeared in an alley of statues of horror. They didn't scare Kai now, for his life had become scarier.

  The bicorns headed straight through the statues. Stone rubble with blood flew to the sides of Kai. He wasn't even surprised by this blood. Turning around, Kai saw the rubble blocking the path of the chase - the nullcorns seemed starved compared to the bicorns. Their legs began to trip as they tried to step on the sharp debris of the statues of horror. Several guards fell off of them and wanted to run after the horror-bringers on their own feet, but they were ordered to stay.

  As Kai returned his gaze forward, the bloody stone head of the ‘Mother’ swept in front of him. The bicorns broke out of the alley and ran down the alleyways, leaving the shouts of the guards behind them. The rider in front of Kai threw down without turning round:

  "I hope you didn't drop the artefact. We paid dearly for it, servantboy."

  Kai gnced at his hand - Arn's artefact was so deeply embedded in it by its sharp corners that it looked as if it would stay in his hand even if Kai unclenched it. Where were they headed? And what awaited him in the company of these violent criminals? They had saved him. They had killed him. Fear and despair gripped Kai's heart.