The ghost hovered in the air before the guillotine. A man, his hair slicked back from his forehead, his eyes blank, his face twisted with savage joy. Elder Murray shouted something, she couldnt be sure what; her skin tingled and itched and threatened to crawl away from her body entirely. A powerful ghost, too powerful. What the fuck was he, how the fuck had she
I command you to be still! Elder Griffins voice rang out, echoed off the walls, speared through Chesss body. By my power I command it!
It wouldnt work. She knew without even looking that it wouldnt. But the executioner did he have another skull? Some graveyard dirt?
Dana screamed. Chess glanced over and saw the ghost fighting with Elder Murray, its mouth open in a ghastly smile, its eyes narrow with effort. The ghost held the ritual blade in its hand, the one the executioner had used to summon his psychopomp.
No time to watch. No time to look at them, and it wouldnt do any good anyway. The room was filled with noise and energy and heat, a confusing mishmash of images her brain couldnt process. She focused on the smoking censer, the stang in the corner, the black bag beside it. The executioner dug through it frantically, pulling things out
Someone fell into her, she tumbled to the hard floor with a thud.
More screams, more shouts. Something clattered to the floor. The energy was unbearable. It wasnt a rush anymore, wasnt a high. It was an invasion, shoving her around, distorting her thoughts and her vision and infecting her with everyone elses panic.
She had to calm down. Her hands refused to obey her. Her tattoos prickled and burned, as they were designed to do. The ghosts presence set them off, an early warning system she was usually grateful for but would gladly have done without at that moment. Chaos reigned in the execution room, carrying her along on a wild riptide of blood.
Okay. Deep breath. Pause. She closed her eyes, dug down deep to the emptiness in her soul. The place where things like love and happiness and warmth should be, the place that was an almost empty room for her, the place where only two people lived, and one of them hated her.
But it was enough. It was enough to have that moment of silence, to tune out the terror and noise around her and find her own strength.
She opened her eyes. Her limbs obeyed her. She sprang to her feet, ignoring the painand almost lost her hard-fought calm.
Elder Murray was dead. His body lay stretched across the floor like a corpse ready for cremation. A gaping bloody wound leered at her from his throat.
Behind him the executioner slumped against the wall, his robe soaked with blood. She barely saw him through the ghost, blazing white, bloated with the energy hed stolen. Chess groaned. A ghost with that much power was like an ex-con on Cloud-laced speedunstoppable, without feelings, without logic. A killing machine who wouldnt stop until he was forced to.
And they were locked in with it.
Oh, shitthey were locked in with them. The iron walls kept the spirits of Elder Murray and the executioner locked in just as surely as the rest of them; Chess saw them out of the corner of her eye, faint shapes struggling to come into being.
There was a chance they wouldnt be hungry, that they wouldnt become murderous, but the odds were about as good as the odds that shed be able to fall asleep that night without a handful of her pills. In other words, not fucking good at all. In a minute or so the ghosts would find their shapes, find their powers, and things would go from worse to totally fucking awful.
Blood spattered the walls, dripped off the shiny blade of the guillotine, and ran in thick streams along the cement. It dripped from the ceiling where it had sprayed from Elder Murrays neck; it formed a glistening pool around the body, outlined footprints in a dizzying pattern, and smeared around the broken remains of the dogs skull. Fuck. No psychopomp. Did he have another?
Elder Griffin was covered with blood. Dana too, her eyes wide. But Chess wasnt the only one whod rallied. Danas eyes were dark and fierce with determination; Elder Griffin fairly glowed with power and strength.
Chess caught Danas eye, jerked her head toward the bag. Dana nodded and took a step forward.
By my power I command you to be still, she said, each word loud and clear. I command you to go back to your place of silence.
By my power I command you to be still, she said, each word loud and clear. I command you to go back to your place of silence.
The ghost turned to look at her, and Dana edged back, drawing it away. Chess inched to the left, trying not to catch the ghosts attention. She had to get to that bag. Had to get to the bag or they would all die. Maybe theyd die anyway, but she was damned if she wasnt at least going to try to save them. Life might be a pool of shit but the City was worsefor her anywayand she had no intention of going there. Not that day.
Her feet in their stiff shoes slipped in thick blood; the scent of it filled the air, a coppery tang beneath the herbs. How long would those burn, and was there more?
The ghost moved toward Dana, who kept talking, words of power flowing from her mouth. He clutched the knife in one semi-solid hand, blood dripping down the blade and covering his spectral skin. Viewed through him it looked black, like ink.
She glanced at the ghosts of Murray and the executioner again. They were almost fully formed now, slowly squirming into being like maggots erupting from a slab of rotting steak. Shetheydidnt have much time.
Dana screamed. The ghost jumped at her. Elder Griffin leapt to the side, joining the struggle, as the ghost attempted to slice Danas throat.
Chess dove for the bag. More herbs firstshe grabbed the little baggies, dumped them on the dying fire in the censer. The smoke thickened. Another psychopomp, please let him have a spare. She threw things from his bag, not watching where they landed, the hair on the back of her neck practically pulling itself out of her skin. She couldnt hear much, what was happening? Were Dana and Elder Griffin dead? Oh, shit
Her hand found something solid and her body flooded with relief. Another skull. Thank the gods who didnt exist, he had a spare. She yanked it out, tore at the inert silk wrapping it, barely glanced at it as she set it down.
A roar behind her. The ghost had spotted her. Dana and Elder Griffin tried to hold it, but it made itself transparent and sprang at her through the guillotine. She ducked out of the way. I call on the escorts of the City of the Dead, she managed, stumbling, trying to keep within reach of the skull but away from the ghosts grabbing hand. By my power I call you!
The skull rattled. Chess pushed more power out, as much as she couldnot an easy task when trying to keep from being turned into an energy snack for a rampaging dead man.
Another problem faced her as well. No passport. The spirit hadnt been accounted for, didnt have a marking on his body; there was a chance the dog wouldnt know which spirit to grab when it came. It had happened to Chess once before, a few months previously, and the dog had gone after her. She would never forget that feeling, the horrible sensation of her soul being pulled from her body like a banana from its peel
Not to mention the additional spirits forming not five feet away, the executioner and Elder Murray.
No passport! she said with a gasp, and Danas eyes widened. She glanced at the knife in her hand, raised her eyebrows, and Chess nodded because she had no choice.
Dana tossed the knife. The ghost spun around when it clattered to the floor, leapt for it. Chess grabbed the executioners Ectoplasmarker and popped the cap, held it ready in her fist, and shouted.
Just as shed thought, the ghost wheeled back around and came after her with the knife. Dana and Elder Griffin moved, Chess didnt see where. She was too busy watching the ghost, seeing his solid hand raise over her head, grabbing his wrist with her left hand and bringing the marker up with her right.
He didnt have a passportthey hadnt expected him, hadnt designed one. Oh fucking well. The blade hovered above her eye, its point tacky with coagulating blood, while she scrawled a series of Xs on the spectral skin. The ghosts face twisted with rage.
Now for the worst part. With every bit of strength she had left she pushed herself to the side, to the skull, and, dropping the marker, brought her right hand to the blades point.
She hadnt expected it to hurt instantly but it did. Ow, it really fucking did, and her blood poured from the wound onto the skull, and she shoved all of that pain and all of her power into her next words.
I offer the escorts an appeasement for their aid! Escorts come now! Take this man to the place of silence, by my power and by my blood I command it!
The dog roared into being, huge and shaggy, its fangs bared. This wasnt just a dog, it was a wolf, what the fuck was the executioner doing with an unauthorized psychopomp
The ghosts eyes widened. His mouth opened in a silent scream as he tried to jump away, all thoughts of killing forgotten. The dogthe wolfwent after him, its body moving low and fast like the predator it was.
The ghosts of the executioner and Elder Murray were fully formed now, huddled in the corner. Chess could see the last vestiges of sanity, of who they were in life, draining away, could see them trying to hold on.
It didnt matter. The wolf howled. A hole ripped open in the thin veil between her world and the spirit one, the wolf snatched the original ghost in its massive jaw. Ectoplasm burst from the ghosts body under the wolfs teeth. The ghost screamed, an act somehow more horrible because of its silence.
The wolf turned toward Elder Murray and the executioner. They huddled together, trying so hard. Tears sprang to Chesss eyes. Shed never known Elder Murray well, never dealt much with him, but his last act was to struggle to retain some humanity, and she couldnt help the surge of affectionate sadness, of pride, that threatened to overwhelm her.
Dana and Elder Griffin were beside her, Dana squeezing her hand. The wolf leapt, still clutching their unwelcome visitor in its teeth, and caught Elder Murray and the executioner in a bizarre bear hug; he carried them through the wavering hole and it snapped shut behind them, leaving the three still alive to stare open-mouthed at where it had been.