A/N: Sections of this chapter have been taken from chapter 12 of Days of Magic Nights of War, "Darkness and anticipation." I'm not going to highlight what are direct quotes because that will interrupt the flow, but I'm sure you'll spot them. The rest of the chapter I will rewrite. :) Thank you everyone for reading! x

The Sacbrood

Carrion looked out from the prow of the boat, feeling the spray of the seawater cool his face. The sky was cloudless and full of bright stars, but the sound of the beat of the oar drum and the grunts of the stitchling sailors stopped the moment from being peaceful. Behind him Letheo sat huddled against the side of the boat, under a heavy woollen cloak. Carrion looked down on him then back at his other passenger.

Leeman Vol was also looking up at the stars. Lord Carrion had seen many disgusting things, and thought that nothing more could surprise him. But Leeman Vol was something else. He made even Carrion's stomach turn as he looked at him.

Leeman Vol had a terrifying reputation, which travelled before him. He was famous in the Abarat for his hideous appearance and his disgusting obsession with insects. Carrion looked at him now with contempt. He was annoyed that he had to spend any time the company of anyone so repulsive. As he watched Vol, a large maggot began to wiggle its way out of a crater in Vol's face. Carrion bit the inside of his mouth to stop himself from betraying his revulsion.

Leeman Vol had lost his nose many years ago, when a particularly vicious spider had bitten him and injected its venom into his face. Slowly his nose had rotted away until all that had remained were two slimy holes. In its place he had fashioned a new nose out of leather, which he now wore strapped to his face. But this was not the only thing that made his appearance strange.

Vol had been born with three mouths, complete with many yellow teeth. These he had filed over the years into sharp points, which were razor sharp. These mouths gave him almost a triple voice, which made people cover their ears against a sound they had heard many times in their nightmares.

But what his particular birth defect of many mouths gave him was a curious ability to speak the language of bugs. Such was his love of insects that he brought his choice specimens with him wherever he went, allowing them to live on his body. They crawled over his skin and up and down his clothes. Among them were miggis lice, furgito flies, threck roaches and knuckle worms. Sometimes with bit him in their frenzy or burrowed into his skin to lay their eggs.

"Stand Letheo," Carrion ordered.

Letheo stood reluctantly; he disliked sailing, the motion always made him feel ill. He stood determinedly, and tried to avoid being pushed into Vol by the sway of the boat.

"Do you know where we are heading?" Carrion asked.

Letheo shook his head, then realising that Carrion wasn't going to accept that, he replied.

"Are we going to Pixlar's city? He has been exploring down into the sea my Lord."

"Yes, Pixlar has been exploring. He has a great curiosity for what lies in the deep dark of the Isabella," Carrion replied. "And what do they say is down there … Vol?"

Leeman Vol appeared startled to be asked such a question.

"The Requiax?"

"Yes, the Requiax," Carrion replied. "Very good Vol. The Requiax are very powerful beings. I have heard stories of beasts of such size that a grown man could stand in it's eye socket. They are very fearsome."

"We are going to find the Requiax?" Letheo asked nervously. The prospect held no joy for him, and even Leeman Vol looked alarmed.

"No, I have no interest in the Requiax," Carrion replied looking back out into the water. "I shall leave Pixlar to do his explorations in peace. Let us hope that he is careful and does not make the Commexco kid an orphan."

Letheo had no doubt that his master would find it very amusing if Pixlar were to meet his end in the jaws of a hideous monster, and that his hopes of Pixlar being careful were in jest.

"No, we are going to the pyramids of Xuxux," Carrion revealed, and slowly the first of the six pyramids of Xuxux came into view.

The largest one of them all, reached up into the sky, so high that clouds had begun to gather around its summit. The hour at the pyramids was one in the morning, and even the light from the stars was beginning to be blotted out by the clouds, plunging them into even deeper darkness.

As the pace of the rowing slowed, the stitchlings began to light the lamps on front of the boat to illuminate the way.

Around them small fishlike creatures began to gather around the boat and followed them in the water closer and closer to the bottom of the largest pyramid. They seemed drawn by something on the boat, either the lights or those onboard. Letheo looked down on them in apprehension, he did not fancy falling into the midst of them, and yet their moment was strangely hypnotic.

As they drifted in the water, the air around them started to vibrate. Vol felt the bugs on his body start to buzz with anticipation and he leant forward over the prow to hear the strange noise that was growing louder as they drew closer.

It sounded like an orchestra of high-pitched screeches, or many wings fluttering and rubbing together, but what was making the noise, Vol couldn't identify.

"The Pyramids are the resting places of the Abarat's royal families and nobles. Along with all their possessions… slaves, eunuchs, horses, cats, sacred serpents and their basilisk," Carrion listed. "Or course, it does not follow that all of those extras were also dead at the time of their interment."

"Buried alive?" Letheo questioned with a shudder.

"It gives me great enjoyment to think so," Carrion replied.

Letheo tried not to imagine Carrion's death and being thrown onto the funeral pyre with him, but still the thought haunted him. It did not give him enjoyment to think of this.

The way here had been perfectly clear and without incident, clearly it had been money well spent. Carrion had bribed many people in order to get near the island. Soldiers who worked for the church of Xuxux guarded the pyramids. They patrolled the seas around from trespassers, but Carrion had arranged for an interruption in their patrol, and his boat had sailed in unnoticed.

As the boat stopped at the bottom of the largest pyramid, the noise grew louder.

"What is that?" Letheo asked. The sound was so loud that it took all his control not to cover his ears and cower.

"They know we are near," Carrion replied. "Come!"

Letheo let Carrion and Vol go before him, and then he stepped out of the boat and onto the solid rock. Behind him the stitchlings were bringing a man wrapped in chains. He had a terrified expression on his face and his eyes were darting here and there. Letheo almost felt sorry for him, but then again, there must be a reason Carrion had brought him and his pity didn't last long.

Carrion looked upwards and admired the scale of the pyramid. He had chosen the right place, all those years ago, when he started his plan in motion. No one could ever imagine the scale of his ambition, not even his grandmother. Pixlar's explorations were childs-play compared to his visions.

"This man," Carrion said as the prisoner was brought forward, "decided that he did not have to wait for his lovers to grow up … he thought he would take them whilst they were still children… of course, he did not require them to be willing."

The man whimpered as he was dragged towards Carrion. Letheo shrank back from him, he could smell the fear on him, and his moment of sorrow for him was long since passed.

"Of course the punishment for such unnatural behaviour is death," Carrion continued. He smiled at the man. "But I have decided that I will spare his life, in return for his assistance."

The terrified man trembled before them all, he stood frozen as the stitchlings removed this chains. He looked at Carrion as if he wished he had perished on the journey here.

Carrion held out something in his hand. It glowed brightly and the prisoner reached for it without thinking. It was a key, filled with magic. It reflected in the prisoner's eyes as he stared at it in wonder. Then he looked back at Carrion and he seemed surprised to find the key in his hand.

"I want you to open the door," Carrion instructed.

The terrified man looked around for help, but seeing that no one was stepping up to save him, he looked at the large stone door with the same terrified expression he wore when looking at Carrion. Staggering towards it he put the key into the lock. His shaking hand tried to turn the key, but it seemed to be disappearing into the door and lighting up the surrounding stone of the heavy door. The man took an unsteady step backwards as the door began to open.

The stench that greeted them from the other side was overwhelming. Even Lord Carrion recoiled at the smell, like nothing he had ever known before. Worse then rotten flesh and fermenting waste. Letheo covered his mouth as he choked and his eyes began to water.

"What is that?" he asked, desperate for a breath of fresh air.

"Sacbrood," Leeman Vol answered looking excited. "There is only one creature that makes a smell such as that. It is Sacbrood. How did you get them?"

Carrion nodded.

"Yes Leeman, you are correct. How about we take a closer look," Carrion said stepping forward. He pushed the prisoner towards the door. "Go inside and tell me how many there are."

The man dug his heels into the ground and refused to move.

"No."

"You can count can't you?" Carrion asked, before he kicked the back of the man's knees. The prisoner crumpled and Carrion pushed him forward. He fell through the door and fell into the pyramid in a heap.

He lay motionless for a while on the dirty floor.

Carrion reached inside of his coat and pulled out a Pixlar invention. A small spinning top lay in his hand and when Carrion threw it into the pyramid it began to spin and light up the room around it.

The prisoner slowly climbed to his feet and Leeman Vol took a step closer. The darkness around them was crawling with life, every surface of the walls teeming. On the floor small eyeless beings slithered through the filth and towards the light. Carrion threw in some more spinning tops and the vastness of the room became apparent. The prisoner started to whimper once more as small creatures began to slither towards him.

"This is greater than I imagined," Carrion said as he looked around in awe.

The tombs of the royal family were unrecognisable. The coffins, statues and treasures had long since been devoured by the hungry sacbrood bugs. Nothing of the beauty of the tomb remained.

Suddenly there was a rush of noise and the beasts began moving towards the light. Letheo almost fell over himself trying to get away, and even Vol seemed alarmed.

"They are moving towards us! There must be thousands, tens of thousands!" Vol exclaimed.

"Oh I do hope so," Carrion replied. "But we mustn't be afraid Vol. We are the masters here and they must learn."

Leeman Vol did not look convinced.

"There are millions. These creatures are not just in the pyramids. They've dug down into the earth beneath the pyramids and made hives for themselves. Hives the size of cities. Every one lined with cells, and each one of these cells filled with eggs, all ready to be born at a single command."

"From you?" Vol asked.

"From us, Vol. From us. You need me and my power to protect you from being slaughtered when the Last Day comes, and I need your mouths to communicate with the Sacbrood. That seems fair doesn't it?"

Vol stared at Carrion wide eyed.

"Y…yes, I suppose so, yes."

Letheo remained far back. This was more than he cared to know about the dark nature of his master. It reminded him that although he managed to stay useful to his master, and had not been punished for a long time, Lord Carrion was a dangerous man. Even more dangerous than he ever could have imagined. He also realised that his own life was in even more peril than ever before, if Carrion decided that he no longer wanted anyone knowing about his sacbrood secret, then he'd be having a trip to the morgue.

"Then you can start by telling me what they are saying," Carrion said. Vol stepped forward with a hesitant step. The bugs were awe-inspiring, and varying in size. Some filling the room as high as he could see, some so small that he had not even noticed them before. The prisoner looked at him with pleading eyes, but Vol ignored him. He was filth, like the waste on the floor.

"They welcome you," Vol said, concentrating on all the many voices. Finally one stood out from all the others. "But they are impatient. They have been waiting a long time."
"Yes, I understand," Carrion said into the teeming mass. "It will not be long now."

"Do you promise?"

"Yes," Carrion replied.

"We have waited so long, we are growing restless, and hungry…"

"I know, I…"

"So hungry," Vol translated, as he turned pale. The bugs on his body started running for cover with screeching sounds.

"My Lord," Vol said stepping back. "We should leave. If… if you've finished talking with them," he added.

"Yes," Carrion agreed. "Close the door Vol."

"But the man…"

"Leave him for the bugs," Carrion said. "As a gesture of good will."

"But My Lord!" the man inside screamed. "You promised!"

"Yes, I did. But we mustn't be selfish, we must think of the greater good," Carrion said walking away.

The man tried to make a dash towards the door, but slipped on the slimy floor. Vol panicked and began to push at the heavy door. Carrion, seeing that the sacbrood were growing closer, pushed his weight behind the door also. A few of the smaller ones began to rush towards them, but Carrion was faster. The door slammed shut on the prisoner's screams and then all that could be heard was the howls of the bugs.

"If this was unleashed on the world, it would be the end of everything we know," Vol said in astonishment. "Utter chaos. Total destruction. The end."

"No, Vol you are wrong," Carrion said. "It will be the beginning."