“Saveus.”
He wasstunned.All he could do was nod.The soul dissipated, wafting like smoke in abreeze.The two of them were still surrounded by a purple, grasping crowd, allof them glinting and sparkling with unknown substance.He was convinced, morethan ever, that the dust in the air was the true essence of the soul.
Thenecromancers had trusted him.They were begging him for help.He felt, all atonce, as if he had been imbued with a noble purpose.
Zariaslapped him across the face.
“Youfucking codpiece!”
“What?”he asked, smarting.
Herteeth glinted purple as she snarled.“You tryin’ to leap to your death?”
“I wasfollowing the souls!”He gestured at the surrounding fog, sweeping a handthrough the trails of dust.“They told me to.The necromancers.The dust—”
“Somefucking dead people beckoned you into a chasm?Is that your defense?”
“Well,yes.”
Sheslapped him again.
Aroundthem, Caine rolled a film of bones down the masonry of the tower.He paused attheir level, unleashed a crop field of vertebral stalks, and shook the skullsincredibly hard.On the wall, bones festered into words.
BAD
BAD
BAD
“Sorry,father,” Isaac said.
Thefield of skulls gave him a pointed, eyeless look.Moments later, they bentthemselves downward, gazing along the remaining length of the obelisk.
“We’refine,” Isaac said, gesturing over to the spiral staircase across from them.“Keep harassing Berith.Don’t let him gain a lead.”
Theskulls nodded, and the bones split into crawling formations as they raced andspat down the walls of the tower.Slowly, Isaac and Zaria rose to their feet,making sure their stance was steady on the nest of pipes.It was trickyfooting.Many of the ducts were thin, brittle, and horribly rent by necroticscars.Still, despite the obvious damage, the souls managed to hold the metalnetting in place.Their wispy limbs drifted toward the opposite stairway, likewind bending the plume of a campfire’s smoke.
Closeto them, the glass pillar of souls still teemed with thousands of souls.Isaacfelt very certain that he was being watched.Faces blurred into a fog.
He tooka moment to flex his arm, the one the souls had entered.
“Didyou see that?”he asked.
Zariastepped carefully over a jagged valve.“Not now, love.”
“The soulentered through my skin, like sand through a sieve.It....”He flexed hislimb again.“It gave me a burst of strength.How is that possible?”
“Isaac,quit faffin’ about.”
Heflinched.He knew he had to increase his pace.Uneasily, he began to step andlurch across the pipes, sometimes crawling with his hands to ensure a steadybalance.As he moved, he suddenly remembered a mural he had seen in thenecropolis, where a god bearing the emblem of the stripes and stars had infusedhis worshippers with a swarm of insects, which had burrowed readily through theskin.
Burrowedthrough the skin....
Thedust.
Thedust made of souls.
Isaaclooked around him again, startled.The purple fog seemed to linger and twist.The air sparkled like a precious metal.
