The Soul Keepers Series, Book 1 Read online

  Treeny was just inside the door, waving them on.

  “Come on!” she yelled. “Run!”

  Rhett heard the building roaring and whining like some kind of animal. He pushed his poor, weakened body to run faster.

  He and Basil and Mak tripped over one another as they fell through the door. They hit the polished floor of the room of doors and slid.

  Within the doorway, the building was collapsing in a rush of wood and plaster and dust and furniture, sending bits of debris and dust through to the ship. As the entire thing came down on top of the doorway, Treeny swung the door shut. It slammed into its frame, cutting them off from the destruction.

  Everything was quiet.

  Looking around the room, Rhett saw most of the other syllektors that had gone in with them. Gwen was there, and the man in the baseball cap. All of them were coated in soot and battle-ravaged. But there was no Theo.

  Basil stood first. Then he helped Mak to her feet. And as soon as she was up, she brought the end of her machete down and set it at Rhett’s throat, holding him to the floor. Basil stared at her in disbelief.

  “Is someone going to tell me what in the bloody hell happened back there?” he said.

  Mak wouldn’t look at him, wouldn’t take her eyes off Rhett.

  “Oh, I am not gonna like this, am I?” Basil said.

  “You need to explain yourself,” Mak said, her voice unnervingly calm, her eyes locked on Rhett’s. “I don’t want to have to do anything either of us is going to regret, but … I can’t trust you. Not after what I just saw.”

  “Mak, I swear, I have no idea what happened,” Rhett said. “The push … it did something. It … it was just different this time. I can’t explain it.”

  “Well you better figure it out.” She kept the machete aimed at his neck.

  Captain Trier stepped in then, weaving through the waiting party to get to where Mak was holding Rhett. There was a shadow over the captain’s face, one that seemed to apply his true age to his ageless features. When he took in the sight of Mak holding the machete at Rhett’s throat, his face fell even more. Something was wrong.

  Mak stepped back and let Rhett get on his feet. Treeny joined the three of them but stood with Basil and Mak. Rhett was their prisoner now. But he didn’t wait for any of them to approach the captain.

  “What’s wrong?” Rhett asked.

  Trier looked at him, eyes slightly wider than usual, probably trying to pick up on signals from Rhett’s mind. “I might ask you the same thing,” he said.

  “Captain, we have a problem,” Mak said, still holding the machete between her and Rhett.

  “We have much more than a problem,” Trier replied.

  “What do you mean?” The machete dropped away a couple of inches.

  “It’s the lantern.” Trier grabbed at his beard, his eyes troubled.

  Rhett remembered the lantern from his first visit to the ship’s bridge. It was the compass, the captain had said, the thing that guided the Harbinger to whatever its destination was supposed to be.

  “What about it?” Basil asked, his voice frail, hesitant.

  The captain swept his eyes across the group.

  “It’s gone out,” he said.

  TWELVE

  Mak put her machete away long enough for the four of them and the captain to make their way up to the main deck. The captain had told her it wouldn’t be necessary even before she had a chance to explain why she thought she needed it. Rhett was relieved to have at least one person who would give him a chance to explain himself.

  The other syllektors who had gone into the now-destroyed apartment building were all following them up the stairs, and when they reached the tunnel that led to the steam room, everybody except for Rhett and the captain went down it to deposit the souls they had collected. Rhett couldn’t quite shake the image of the psychon holding the cancerous-looking black ooze that had once been a weightless soul and gulping it down in just a couple of greedy swigs.

  After that, the biggest portion of the group were sent by the captain to the medical bay, leaving Mak, Basil, Treeny, and Rhett to follow the captain up the last few flights of stairs to the main deck. When they arrived, Captain Trier led them into one of the small workrooms, one that was similar to the room where Rhett was first told about the syllektors. That moment now felt like it had happened on some other planet, to some other person, on some other time line. But Rhett could still feel the shock of it and the strange comfort in knowing that he hadn’t been suffering from brain damage or losing his mind.

  Now he was looking for that same reassurance. He needed someone to tell him that what he had done back there—to that girl—was normal. Maybe not normal. But at least understood. He could still see that girl’s confused and frightened stare, the knowledge in her eyes that she should have been dead—that she had been sure she was going to die—even as she escaped the building. Rhett had made that happen; he’d broken that certainty. He had conquered the absolution of death, without even knowing that he was going to do it.

  How?

  When the door was shut, Mak used her machete to point at a chair.

  “Sit,” she said to Rhett, the way she might order a dog around. “And don’t move. Don’t even speak.”

  Rhett sank into the chair willingly, happy to be able to sit and allow his body—scraped and bruised and covered in singe marks (not to mention the possibility of his broken ribs)—to rest.

  Captain Trier put out a steady hand and pushed the machete down, getting it out of Rhett’s face. Mak looked frustrated, but she didn’t raise the blade again.

  “You first,” the captain said. “And you can start by telling me what happened to Theo.” He fixed his eyes on Rhett, who had to look away as he simply shook his head. The captain let out a rush of air that was somewhere between a sigh and a sob, and said, “Okay. Now the rest.”

  Mak explained it all to him, her way. She told him that Rhett had given the girl’s life back, that he had made the choice for her to live, that he had healed her.

  “He’s not a syllektor,” Mak said. “He’s … something else.”

  There was quiet then, ominous and smothering. Rhett thought that he would suffocate under the weight of it, even though suffocating was apparently not possible. The captain was staring at him, maybe trying to assess the validity of what Mak had said. He raised his eyebrows in question. Rhett had no choice but to nod—Mak may have spun it into something that sounded terrible, but all of the major details had been true.

  Rhett took a quick glance in Basil’s direction. He was standing against the wall in his ruined blazer, arms folded, eyes enormous and shocked and afraid. He didn’t look like Basil at all.

  “How?” the captain asked, regaining Rhett’s attention.

  “I have no idea,” Rhett said.

  “Enough about this bollocks with Rhett,” Basil suddenly burst out. “No offense, mate. But I want to hear about the bloody lantern.”

  Captain Trier looked around at them, his eyes searching theirs, possibly for the best way to tell them what had happened and why. He opened his mouth, but before he could speak, there was a knock at the door.

  Everyone lifted their heads, the unspoken hope hanging between them that Theo was the one knocking, that he really had found his way back, just as Basil said he would.

  The captain nodded at Treeny, who opened the door slowly, gingerly, as if the steel had been superheated and was going to burn her.

  A man with almost no hair and round spectacles stepped in. He had on a shirt and tie and slacks, all black as night. He matched the captain’s military stance, hands behind his back, feet apart. He was a syllektor, but he definitely wasn’t Theo, and he was also all business.

  “Captain, I’m sorry to interrupt,” the new guy said.

  “That’s okay, Henry,” Trier replied. “What is it? Please tell me the lantern’s come back on.”

  “I’m afraid not, sir,” Henry replied, his face falling. “There’s something
else you need to see.”

  The captain followed Henry out of the room without question and without finishing his story about the lantern, and the others followed the captain. Mak didn’t even try to stop Rhett when he got up and trailed behind. The unspoken question hung around all of them, like a piano about to drop from the sky: What now?

  Henry led them all up the spiral staircase to the bridge. It was a percussion line of feet on metal as all six of them made their way up, with Rhett bringing up the rear. He pulled himself onto the bridge, where the others were all standing together, looking out over the front of the ship.

  A few miles ahead, hanging above the water like a living shadow, was a gargantuan mass of clouds. They were so black that not even the nearly constant jabs of brilliant, blue lightning could illuminate them. A sheet of rain fell from the bottom of the clouds, swaying like the hem of a dress in the wind. More lightning stabbed at the waves. Thunder grumbled and cracked.

  Nobody said a word.

  “Sir?” Henry said.

  Trier stepped closer to the window.

  “Prepare the ship for an attack,” he said, his voice low. “Alert the crew.”

  Henry’s eyes got wide. He took a few steps backward, as if retreating from the oncoming storm. “Aye, Captain. Right away,” he said, and then ran back down the stairs.

  “Captain,” Basil said. “Are you … are you sure there’s going to be an attack? I mean, that’s just a storm. Isn’t it? We’re used to this kind of thing. I mean, I am. I don’t know about you guys…” His voice trailed away, getting small and helpless as the bubbling knot of black storm clouds expanded across the horizon.

  “I’ve been on this ship for more than three hundred years, Mr. Winthrop,” Trier responded, almost in a whisper. “And I have never seen anything like this before.”

  Rhett stepped up next to the captain, maybe to get a better view, maybe to get away from Mak and her machete for what he was going to say next.

  “I think I need to tell you guys something,” he said, turning to face them all.

  Mak narrowed her eyes, squeezing the handle of her machete with both hands as if trying to choke it to death. Basil and Treeny were still only capable of gaping, except now they were gaping at Rhett instead of the storm.

  “Go on, Mr. Snyder,” the captain said without taking his eyes off the sky. Rhett had a suspicion that the captain had known about the she-thing for a long time, had probably picked it up from Rhett’s defenseless thoughts the moment they had returned from San Francisco. He felt stupid for not realizing it earlier.

  But he told the others. He told them about the flickering lights and how the world had seemed to cease its existence in those few moments that the girl in the hospital gown had shown herself to Rhett. He told them what she had said while she stood there, dripping water that came from nowhere onto the road. These are your last days, she had told him. And she had been nothing if not truthful. If she had anything to do with the storm that was about to overtake the Harbinger—and of course she did—then she was coming for him. As she had promised.

  Find your power. Then I will come for it.

  I will come for you.

  When Rhett was finished, the captain spoke first.

  “Her name is Urcena,” he said casually, like it was the most logical thing to say at that moment.

  “Wait … what? How do you know?” Mak asked, her voice implying that she had lost her trust in everybody, not just Rhett.

  “When you got back from San Francisco, it was all over Rhett’s mind. He was afraid.” Trier glanced at Rhett. Rhett felt ashamed and relieved all at once.

  “Well shit, I’d be afraid, too,” Basil nearly yelled. “That bitch sounds like a bloody nightmare. What does she want with us?”

  “It’s not any of you she wants,” Rhett said quietly, running a hand through his hair. He looked at Basil and saw the understanding that bloomed on his face.

  “Back there … in the building…” Basil began.

  “Yeah.”

  “What is she?” Mak interjected, directing the question at Captain Trier.

  “It’s hard to say. After I saw her in Rhett’s thoughts, I did some research. I had to go pretty deep into the library just to find anything remotely like her. But I came across that name, and it seemed to match up. Most of what I found claims that she’s some kind of demon.”

  “Great,” Basil said. “Bloody great.”

  “It’s not a coincidence that all of this is happening at the same time,” the captain continued. “The demon—Urcena—has the power to bring this entire ship to its knees. But not alone.”

  “The psychons,” Rhett said, realizing what he should have already.

  “She’s using them,” Mak whispered. “That’s how they keep finding us.”

  “In the physical plane, yes,” the captain said, turning back to the storm. “But I believe that the psychons’ ship is in that storm somewhere. And there’s no way that either they or Urcena could have found us here.”

  “Wait, did you say the psychons have a ship?” Rhett asked. “Here?”

  The captain nodded. “I’m afraid so. The psychons interact with the physical plane the same way that we do. Their ship is an abomination. But its formidability is nearly as strong as the Harbinger’s. I’ve only ever encountered it one other time, and that day was … unfortunate.”

  The room fell silent for a moment. The gray clouds and water were behind them and beside them. But ahead of them, the storm was advancing, its blackness eating away at the sky little by little, spitting daggers of lightning that lit the waves … and everything below the surface. Rhett caught sight of a monstrous shadow—an enormous creature that seemed to be moving with the storm, heading for the Harbinger. There was at least one giant, lobsterlike claw and the familiar curl of tentacles. Rhett’s mind raced with panic.

  “So how did the psychons—and this Urcena … thing—find us?” Mak asked.

  The captain waited, pondering the question. “Someone told them where to find us,” he said finally.

  Mak’s eyes widened into huge, angry discs. She aimed them at Rhett. “You did this,” she seethed. “You and that stupid, unnatural thing you can do.”

  “Mak, listen—” Rhett started.

  “There’s nothing to listen to!” she cried. She stepped forward, her machete held out in front of her. Basil moved to stand between her and Rhett.

  “Mak, love,” Basil said. “Let’s just take a second—”

  “Makayla—” the captain tried.

  “Don’t you call me that!” she snapped. “Don’t you dare call me that! It’s not fair.”

  Basil took a step toward her, hands up. “Sweetheart…”

  Captain Trier stood by, apparently letting the accusations run their course. Treeny had shuffled closer to him. She had her tablet held at her chest and her arms wrapped around it like a schoolgirl. Her eyes were closed and her mouth was moving. Maybe she was whispering to herself, trying to drown out the fighting. Maybe she was praying.

  While Mak and Basil had it out and Rhett stood there, with the storm drawing nearer behind him, Treeny turned and stepped in front of Captain Trier. He was following the argument between Basil and Mak, concern growing on his face. Treeny’s tablet slipped from her hands and hit the floor with a dull, plastic-y crack. She stood facing the captain.

  And then she plunged her hand into his chest.

  Captain Trier’s face went dark as Treeny’s arm disappeared into him with a sound like some vegetable being split open. Her hand dove through his uniform and through his flesh as if they were no denser than tissue paper. The captain’s mouth fell open, and the veins that wormed their way up his neck and across his face turned a deep, deep blue.

  Treeny rummaged around in the hole she had created, her arm wedged between two of the captain’s ribs, and when her hand reemerged, it held a still-beating heart. She tossed it in the air once and then caught it like it was a baseball.

  “CAPTAIN!”
Mak screamed. She ran at Treeny, machete held above her with both hands.

  Treeny lifted her leg up and kicked the captain right in the center of his chest, just to the right of the empty, exposed cavity she had left in him, where there was nothing but some hollow, dangling tubes and red, shining flaps. He flew backward, slamming against the window that encased the bridge, shattering the glass.

  Rhett moved as quickly as he could, sprinting toward the captain as Mak brought her machete down on top of Treeny. There was a clang of metal on metal as Treeny met the machete with one of her own knives. Rhett caught the captain before he could fall to the floor.

  Lightning struck the water near the Harbinger’s front end and the world went blindingly white. Thunder cracked so loud above their heads that Rhett thought the universe itself was being ripped in two. And when the bellow of the thunder and the overwhelming brilliance of the lightning faded, the rain started, a curtain of it that swept across the ship from bow to stern, coming down in sheets and pouring inside the bridge through the broken window.

  Mak—and now Basil—went after Treeny for the captain’s heart. But Captain Trier seemed to know how things were going to turn out. Because he looked at Rhett, his face turned up to the clouds and being pummeled by raindrops.

  “Remember … what I said … Twice-Born Son,” he said. His voice was low, little more than a harsh whisper. “This is a second chance.”

  “Hang on, Captain,” Rhett said. He was fighting against the rain. It was whipping into the bridge from the wind, making the floor slippery. His body was weak and injured. He was losing his grip.

  Behind him, Treeny was holding the other two off but barely. She was working with only the single knife in one hand. Her other hand still held the captain’s heart. And yet the ferocity in her movements didn’t waver. She was faster and stronger than Rhett had ever seen her, clearly pulling strength from the other thing that must have been lingering inside her all along.