The Malevolent Seven by Sebastien de Castell

Author:Sebastien de Castell [de Castell, Sebastien]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Quercus
Published: 2023-05-10T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter 24

Voices from the Shadows

I’ve made a lot of bad decisions in my life. An argument could be made – in fact, it had been made, by the kind-hearted woman to whom I was about to be wed, just minutes before she cast a skin binding on me (which really isn’t as much fun as it sounds- try to imagine your own skin becoming a straitjacket: you could theoretically get out of it, but you really wouldn’t want to) – that I’d never made a good decision. Given she subsequently tried to stab me to death with my own sword, I could see her point; deciding to marry her had clearly been one of those bad decisions she’d been so forcefully complaining about. Accepting a mysterious invitation to leave the safety of Tenebris’ path, risking certain and no doubt horribly painful death in search of some enigmatic stranger, lent further credence to that particular view.

‘Hello?’ I called out to the all-encompassing darkness surrounding me.

The tremor in my voice was unflattering. You never want to sound frightened while wandering blindly in the Infernal demesne. That single step off the path had been all it took to lose sight of Corrigan and the others; now I could see no points of reference whatsoever, just endless shadows everywhere, swirling and oozing like thick blots of oil across glass.

Better than walking through the grasping hands of the damned, I supposed. Though that didn’t explain the shaking of my own hands. I felt that uncomfortable itch at the back of my neck that told me I was being watched.

‘Why is that which we cannot see so much more terrifying than the horrors we can?’ I asked aloud. I hadn’t been expecting – or even wanting – an answer.

Alas, that’s usually when answers come.

‘It’s the emptiness we all fear,’ said a voice older and slightly higher-pitched than my own. Where it had come from I couldn’t tell. ‘Death. Pain. Madness. These are all merely gates through which we pass into that void. Do you recall the secret name of that emptiness?’

I called out to the darkness, ‘And here I thought I was being lured into a fatal encounter with some hideous demoniac monstrosity planning to feast on my soul for ever and a day. But if my eternal torment is going to involve listening to a philosopher, I’m out of here.’ I made a show of turning to leave, despite having not the first idea how I’d get back to Tenebris and my crew.

Whoever it was laughed, as embracing as a warm blanket; light-hearted, if tempered with a touch of old-age wheeze. I remembered that laugh even before I recognized the voice to which it belonged.

From the smothering, swirling void of shadows emerged a figure, at first barely more than the faint tracing of a charcoal line upon a vast black canvas. Her shape grew more distinct with every step, until I could make out her silhouette. She was taller than me, and I wasn’t a short man by any means.

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