Clockworks Chronicles of Zahn

13) At Night, When the Demons Come and Whisper Your Name.

Cooper woke in a cold sweat, his right hand holding his bolt gun and his left hand on Elsie ensuring her location.

Elsie, who had gotten used to Coop waking like this, briefly looked around the room then said, “No one’s here Coop. Go back to sleep.” Then she rolled over and followed her own advice.

Cooper knew it wasn’t going to be as easy as that for him. He sat up on the side of the bed for a moment and waited for his heart to stop pounding while he thought about the dream he just had.

His night terrors were a regular occurrence since long before he was brought to Zahn. The cast of characters in his dreams were always the same nameless, faceless shades dressed in either Afghan clothes or more recently in shadowman armor. Sometimes it was worse, it was of him reliving watching her helicopter coming in for a landing to pick him and his men up under fire only to be just about to land then getting hit by an RPG in the cockpit.

Those dreams, though terrible, were not as hard for him to deal with as they used to be. Tonight’s dream was something entirely different. In this dream, he remembered being naked and chained to the floor in some sort of gothic looking stone room. Around him were shapeless shadowy shapes swaying left to right and chanting something unintelligible in some sort of dark language. The chants seemed to pull at his very being. Perhaps his soul? Cooper wasn’t sure he had one anymore after coming here.

He was chained by his wrists and kneeling on the cold stone floor. The chant seemed to pick up in tempo and went from a low guttural sound to almost a shriek. Then emptiness.

A woman floated into Cooper’s view. She was dressed in a long black sleeveless dress. Her skin was a shade of iridescent blue. Strange symbols seemed to writhe beneath her skin.

She glided towards him. Every step closer made his dread grow. He tried to raise his head to keep her in his view but when she closed to within arm’s reach, his view could only come to the level of her abdomen.

There was a flash of light and in the flash her torso became lit as if a bright and penetrating light was coming from behind her. In this moment, Coop saw something unholy writhing in her womb.

He felt her breath on the back of his neck as she bent over to bring her mouth close to his left ear and it made his skin crawl like centipedes going up and down his spine.

She whispered in his ear, “I will have your son Cooper. Then all you love will be destroyed. But worry not. You won’t be here to see it.” Then she bit his earlobe.

And then he woke.

As he sat on the side of the bed and trembled, he tried to regain a semblance of calm and convince himself it was just a dream. Then his neck on his left side felt a tickle. He reached up and felt something wet. He saw blood on his hand. He looked over at the mirror on Elsie’s vanity. Blood was dripping down from his left earlobe.

Victoria II quickly grabbed her burgundy silk robe and wrapped it around her matching pajamas. She felt an urgency she never felt before. She made her way from her chambers to the passage leading to the black pyramid and the Glass Darkly. Two sentinels were on either side of her, marching in step with her.

After navigating the maze of passages she knew like the back of her hand she stepped out onto the wooden floor of the chamber of the Glass Darkly. She abstained the chair and stood before the glass and opened herself up to the powers of the glass.

The black oval glass looked something like a black full-length mirror as it floated in the air surrounded by several brass balls about five inches in diameter. From each ball led a brass tube running out at different angles as they made their way winding and turning to disappear into the darkness and the machinery of the black pyramid.

Between the balls and the Glass Darkly was a flow of some kind of barely perceptible blue energy. While Victoria II stood before the Glass, she saw this energy flowing in waves inward across the surface to form into a featureless face. The mouth of the face began to form words.

“The Civilization is under attack from three fronts.”

Suddenly, she saw herself standing on the north parapet of the palace’s high tower. But instead of the expected view of Grandeur City, surrounding the palace were long rolling plains. Standing to the north was an army of horrible looking black automatons billowing black smoke and white steam. Their awful maws of jagged teeth were spouting red flame.

To the southwest was a demonic army of unidentifiable creatures.

But as horrible as the two armies were to behold, they weren’t the worse.

To the southeast was an army of a greater horror. As far as she could see, she saw children whose skin were pale and dead looking. Their eyes were devoid of humanity and sickly white without irises or pupils. Just to look at them made Victoria’s skin crawl.

The image was replaced with the normal featureless face which said, “The war has already begun. The one with flowers is not your friend. The one with gold wants your kingdom. Your only hope lay with the children of Wingdama.” The face went away.

Victoria knew she had all she was going to get from the Glass tonight. She collapsed backwards into the chair and closed her eyes to process the visions.

Ouihan woke up with a start. He looked up to see Brother sitting next to him. Brother said with a smile, “Well, welcome back to da living.”

Ouihan rubbed his eyes then face with both hands. “How long have I been out?”

“Oh, day and a half. I had ta drag Sister off and put her ta bed no long ago. I promise her I’d git her once ya wake.” He left the room.

While Ouihan laid there waiting, he thought on the dark dreams he had. He knew they were just some glimpses into the flow of mana around him and the city. He sensed there was a definite darkening of the flow. Some evil and unwholesome things were being done.

But there was something else. He felt himself drawn to another of his fellow orphans. Not in the same way as he was drawn to Sister. However, he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. While he was trying to sort out his feelings, Sister rushed into the room and gave him a big hug, squeezing him so tight it took his breath away.

“I know you can’t be killed, but I still couldn’t help but be afraid you weren’t gonna wake up.” Sister said lovingly.

“I know. You have had too much loss my dear.” And he felt he had lost many over his years, even if he didn’t remember them. He gently pushed her away. “I’m gonna be alright. Right now, you need to go get some sleep Sissy. I had a revelation in my dreams about you and Brother. We’ll talk about it when you’ve had some rest.”

She nodded and kissed him. She reluctantly let Brother bring her back to her bed.

Ouihan laid back down and closed his eyes to think on his dreams and portents.

Mousy woke up in her bed as well. She felt something wasn’t right.

She looked around her room and over to her roommate, Yoyo who was sleeping soundly in her bed. She clasped her silver pendant which was suspended around her neck by a piece of string. She sold the silver chain that went with it a long time ago for enough bread to feed her and Yoyo for three days. This was before they found their way to Sister and her covey of orphans. The pendant she wore was all she had left of her family. She treasured it far more than anything else, save her family of orphans.

She knew she was done sleeping for the night. Not long-ago, sleep was a luxury a street child rarely had. Before Sister and Brother had taken her and Yoyo in, they had even less sleep. In the last two months, even though she has had more than normal sleep, she still slept little. And when she did sleep it was always in short spans. Yoyo, on the other hand, took to palace life with abandon. It seemed she was trying to make up for 13 years of lack of sleep.

Mousy got up and wrapped her burgundy robe with the seal of Arkanti on it. She remembered two months ago when she, along with all the other orphans, were given their new pajamas and robes and how treasured they were.

There were a lot of new things which went with their new lives which were an adjustment. Some good, some not so much. However, for the last two days things seemed to promise to get better with Lady Elsinore taking over their care, education and in general, their lives.

She felt herself drawn down the stairs to the second floor and the infirmary. She passed Sister and Brother walking back up the stairs and she stopped them with a question.

“How’s Ouihan?”

Sister was the first to reply. “He’s fine now. He just woke up.”

“Oh, that’s good. I’m gonna look in on him then.”

“Tha’s gud.” Brother said as they continued on up the stairs.

Mousy went down the hall to the infirmary and quietly knocked on the door.

“Come in Mousy.” Ouihan said.

She was startled by him knowing it was her. She shrugged and opened the door and let herself in. “Hey.” She said quietly.

“Hey Mouse. Or should I say Melanie.” Ouihan said, with soft assurance.

The name sounded and felt right. It seemed to awaken something deep within her. She wasn’t sure where it came from, but then again, she wasn’t sure where she came from.

She didn’t remember her family. She was told by Yoyo her parents found her in the arms of a dead woman who was obviously murdered. Yoyo was three at the time. Yoyo’s parents took care of her for another year before they died of cholera. The only clue Mousy had of her family was the pendant of fine silver with some kind of family crest.