21 Chapter 19 (2/2)

Doubt grew in dark and fertile soil.

ERBRECHEN, UNWILLING TO let his friends, who now numbered in the thousands, stray from his influence, used no scouts. As such, when they arrived, en ma.s.se, at Verteidigung, they found the gates closed and the walls manned. The city and surrounding farmlands, having been pounded by Regen's storm long in advance of their arrival, looked to be in a state of advanced ruin. Much of the land had been burned, blasted by lightning, pelted by fist-sized hail, and then flooded. Gehirn noted a distinct lack of corpses. Odd. With this much destruction she expected at least some.

Erbrechen sent one of his new friends—a pompous woman who had not yet lost the fat of her previous life—forward to demand the surrender of Verteidigung. The soldiers on the wall pincus.h.i.+oned her with a dozen crossbow bolts and she toppled into the mud.

Erbrechen shook his head, tutted, and turned sad green eyes on Gehirn. ”I don't know why they bother. They will have to apologize.”

Then, when the woman climbed awkwardly to her feet, turned, and walked back toward Erbrechen's litter, he offered a soft ”Oh.” He frowned at the approaching woman. ”She is dead, right?”

”Yes,” answered Gehirn, still sitting beside Erbrechen. ”I suspect Verteidigung has a powerful Phobic with a deep fear of death and the dead.”

”You don't say. Burn her.”

Gehirn felt a feral grin stretch her face as she let loose some small shred of the doubt and depression that she held tight to her heart. The woman and a hundred paces of ground around her burst into flames. The damp earth quickly guttered, but the woman burned on, a pillar of fire shuffling ever closer. Even at this range she smelled delicious.

Erbrechen cleared his throat gently. ”She's still coming,” he said with a slight tremor.

A sob was wrenched from Gehirn's soul as she relaxed her weakening grip on reality. Perhaps, in his fear, Erbrechen's control slipped for a moment, because in that instant, Gehirn understood she was naught but the Slaver's toy. At best a favored toy, but certainly nothing more. Erbrechen would use her and cast her aside. Her fate would be no different from Regen's. She was helpless.

He devours my need like he sucks back that stew. Just another soul sliding into a fat belly that will never fill.

But she still had her fire . . .

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The flames enshrouding the woman flickered, brightened, and became a blinding white beacon. The skeletal image of the woman remained written on the stunned retinas of all witnesses for several seconds. She was dust and ash, a stain in the wind.

Gehirn screamed, clenched fists held tight against her chest like a child cowering before an enraged adult. Pressure built inside her skull, seeking escape. My eyes, she thought, will boil.

Sanity, the ant.i.thesis to power. To embrace one was to abandon the other. Betrayed and yet trapped and helpless, Gehirn cradled her hurts like a young girl holding a wounded bird. She knew Erbrechen used her but this knowledge did nothing to free her from the Slaver's clutches. She both loved and hated—loathed and wors.h.i.+ped—the obscene slug.

Knowledge didn't set her free; it more clearly displayed the true depth of her prison.

Gehirn screamed, throat raw and burning.

Stone walls glowed red and ran like mud. The city gates fell apart, little more than kindling now.

Within the city Gehirn saw the dead rise, climbing unsteadily to their feet and looking about in uncomprehending horror. The corpses, united in purpose, stalked the burning ruin, staggered through the open gates, and launched themselves at Erbrechen's mob. The dead burned, but kept coming.

Erbrechen wailed as his litter lurched chaotically. His power kept those close from fleeing but they couldn't move fast enough while bearing the weight of the litter, his corpulent body, and Gehirn.

Levering herself to her feet to better see, Gehirn watched the approaching dead. They can have me. Death had to be better than this.

Erbrechen screamed at Gehirn, ”Stop them! Burn them! Burn them all!”

Gehirn was a slave—to both Erbrechen and the fire. She heard the former's command and obeyed the latter's desire.

The city burned.

The fields burned.

The dead burned.

The world became a roaring tornado of ash and smoke.

Fire spread.

Gehirn screamed and laughed and sobbed and cackled.

Cyclonic pillars of ash, once human life, spun in the growing storm winds.

Burn the world.

Erbrechen's litter lurched and collapsed to the ground, crus.h.i.+ng those unfortunate enough to be trapped below. The Ha.s.sebrand somehow remained standing. Erbrechen shouted himself hoa.r.s.e commanding Gehirn to stop, but the d.a.m.ned woman was beyond all thought, lost to the pure s.e.xual joy of fire.

Dawning terror broke over Erbrechen as he realized his soul stew had no effect on his pet Ha.s.sebrand. Sharing it had been a waste.

Using muscles unused in years, he dragged himself closer to Gehirn. When he got close enough he slammed the wailing woman in the back of the knees with a ma.s.sive arm. Gehirn dropped like a stone, and Erbrechen, levering himself up with one shaking gelatinous arm, pummeled her face until the Ha.s.sebrand lost consciousness.

After, as Erbrechen's surviving followers busied themselves collecting supplies and rounding up those who had not burned in the city, he sat staring at the unconscious woman. She seemed at peace, the bright canines hidden. Rounder and much older than he liked, she still had something about her he found fascinating.

She's dangerous.

True, but there was something more. She not only loved him—as all must—she wanted to love him. Somehow that set her apart. He reached a hand toward her face and stopped just shy of touching her. Could she love him for who he really was?

No, she loves your need of love. Nothing more. She loved because—like the others—she had no choice. No one knew just how lonely it was to live at the center.

Erbrechen withdrew his hand to dab at his cheek. Was that a tear? He snorted. Self-pity ill becomes you.

Still, it would be nice to have someone at his side, someone who truly loved him. Maybe I could love her in return. I could try.

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