Thicker Than Blood

Chapter 15

The Book of the Damned




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The ultimate function of prophecy is not to tell the future, but to make it.
- Joel A. Barker




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12,002 BC

Janus saw her long before she got close to where he was. Followed her progress by the flickering of the tiny candle flame as it weaved through the bookshelves on the ground floor of the library until it disappeared in the hallway that led to the second floor. She emerged a few minutes later from the hallway's other end behind him. She didn't say how she'd known exactly where to find him, and he didn't ask.

"Put the candle out and leave it here. We'll come back for it when we're done." Janus walked away, and stopped after a minute when he realized she wasn't following. He turned around. Ivy hadn't moved.

"If you think I'm going out there in the dark, you're insane," she hissed. Her hand was cupped protectively around the little flame, trying to keep it from going out because she was shaking to much for it to keep steady.

Janus glared at her. "The light will give us away. Stop being silly." He frowned. "I thought you said you knew how to do this kind of thing."

Ivy quickly closed the distance between them. Her eyes, narrowed in a glare, were an even darker blue than usual. There was a tense, electric filled silence before she pulled a square of cloth out of the bag she carried, put out the candle flame, poured the liquid wax in the cloth, and carefully tucked the whole mess into the bag.

"All right. Let's go," Ivy said quietly, but her voice still hitched. She was careful not to look at the deep places in the shadows. "Quickly, but silence over speed." He just stared at her. "What the hell is wrong with you? Go!"

Janus ignored her. "You're afraid of the dark, aren't you?" Ivy's only answer was a full body shiver. Her skin looked much to pale, and after a moment, he just shook his head and kept walking, leading her through the moonlit hallways, taking the long way around through the shadows to avoid Dalton and his guards.

How could anyone fear the dark? Janus had always felt safer at night than any other time. Even when he had nightmares, waking up to total darkness was a comfort, not something to be terrified of. Darkness didn't just hide things, darkness made things equal. In the dark it didn't matter if you --

A hand clamped over his mouth, dragging him backwards into the deep shadows until he was up against the wall.

'Dammit, Ivy, what the--' She jerked her hand away.

'Hush! Someone's coming.'

Janus turned his furious glare on her. 'Don't you ever touch me again.'

Ivy's glare was just as heated. 'Not something you'll ever have to worry about, asshole.'

'What did you just--' Janus broke off the thought and both of them froze.

Dalton walked by.

Neither child moved until long after his footsteps had faded.

Ivy shivered and turned to him. None of the fury in her eyes had faded, and now there was fear in them as well. "Let's just get this over with, okay?"

Janus didn't say a word, just glared at her for a long, silent minute, and then continued down the hall.

Dalton's room, when they finally got to it, was locked. Janus started to suggest they find some way to get in through the windows when Ivy lay her pack on the floor and took out a few thin, strangely twisted pieces of steel.

'I can do it in Algetty,' Ivy told him when she noticed his stare. She peered at the lock, then carefully slid one of the picks into it. 'I don't know if it will still work right here, the doors are different and I haven't had the time to--' The doorknob clicked softly. Ivy looked surprised, but stepped aside. 'After you.'

Only one thing in Dalton's room had changed; a bowl of dried flower petals was on the window sill, but the air was still hot and musty from being trapped in there. The candles were still in the same place -- and so was the book. While Ivy went around opening windows, Janus drug the box out from under the bed.

"Here, come help me lift it, the thing is at least--" He stopped. Ivy's eyes were locked on the box. Her face had gone white. "What is it?"

"I don't know," she whispered shakily. "But it isn't good." Ivy came closer, until she could see the words engraved beneath the silver vines on the mahogany surface. "What does it say?" Her hands were shaking.

"I don't know," Janus said, and opened the lid. A strangled sound escaped her. Her hand reached out, she jerked it back.

"Hells," she breathed.

Ivy touched the book.

In front of her the world became a starburst. Ice crackling over ice. Then the stars went black.

She was falling through oblivion, faster and faster, until the wind roared around her and she couldn't see anything but darkness rushing by. Silvery white shadows shot down after her, without faces, without form, but very real and very alive. Cold whispers rose over the fury of the wind, drowned it out, replaced it completely.

There were thousands.

They streamed down toward her in a spiral, so many going so fast they blurred together into a wall of screaming, wailing specters. Some of them were crying out for death, some for vengeance, some for life, but all of them were angry and all of them wanted blood.

Her blood.

The first caught up with her and split cleanly down its center. Row after row of ghostly teeth rolled outward. The wraith slammed into her stomach at full speed, wriggled, forced its way inside. Ivy opened her mouth, screamed at the sudden white-hot pain. Her throat was burning, but the only thing that came out was a hot, thick stream of blood. Ivy choked, clawing at her throat, and the other ghosts were almost at her, they were splitting open, and baring their jagged teeth. One hit her, and another, and then they were pouring into her --

Somewhere in the darkness of Zeal Palace, a Nu with one eye jerked suddenly awake.

-- and the world came crashing back down around her, Janus' hands clamped over her mouth, and her stomach rolling and bucking. Ivy only just made it to the little bowl of sweet-smelling dried flowers when her stomach clawed its burning way up her throat and heaved its contents into the bowl. Long after she was through, Ivy stayed there, taking in deep draughts of fresh air from the open window.

Janus eyed the box warily. "It's just a book."

Ivy laughed a little hysterically. "Sure, Janus. Just a book. In the same way Hell is just unpleasant."

But nothing had happened the first time he'd touched it. And something had definitely happened to her. Was it...was it because of her connection to Dalton, or...the fact that she had magic? Janus narrowed his violet eyes at the maroon leather cover.

He'd be damned, Janus thought as he brushed his fingers over the cover, before was going to let --

In front of him the world exploded. Fire bloomed into a raging inferno. Then all the lights faded to shadow.

Everywhere, as far as Janus could see, the world was a swirling blue vortex. The black wind screamed all around him, tugging at his robes, his hair, and something inside of him, twisting and worming its way into his very soul, until he felt like he'd been frozen from the inside out.

Then the people began to appear.

First it was a man. Tall, light brown hair, robes and jewelry fit for a king.

Then it was Zeal.

And they just stood there for a while, not saying a word, not moving, not even breathing. Then other people began to appear. Slowly at first, and then faster, until it seemed like every man, woman, and child in the whole of the Kingdom of Zeal stood on the writhing blue surface.

Even Schala.

The black wind increased the pitch of its scream, higher and higher and higher, and deeper, more full-throated, until it wasn't a wind at all, it was a cry of absolute rage. It cut off in a sickening, liquid burble.

Then they began to burn.

And that was when the people came alive, and screamed, like nothing he had ever heard before, worse even than the wind because this was real, it was real living people in agony. They were running around, rolling, trying to put out the fire that was eating the flesh away from their bones, dropping it in charred hunks on the ground. Janus tried closing his eyes, but it didn't work, it didn't make the screaming go away, didn't take away the sounds of people burning, didn't erase the picture frozen in his mind, of even Schala burning to nothing but a charred skeleton, and --

The Nu looked up at the crescent moon that hung in the sky, felt the cool trickle of the night wind over its skin, and then it closed its single eye and disappeared in a white flash.


-- and it was a damned good thing Ivy had placed the empty bowl in his hands because no way in hell could he have made it all the way across the room.

"What the hell was that?" Janus finally managed in a strangled whisper.

"I think they were ghosts, I--" She stopped. He was staring at her.

"What did you see?"

"What did you see?"

They glared at each other for a long, tense moment. Janus would have died before he'd admit it, but the familiarity of fighting with her was somehow a comfort. Not everything had changed, the world was still sane, and Ivy was still a bitch.

"Mine was a warning," Ivy finally conceded, and dropped her eyes. "A fuck-the-hell-off-and-don't-touch-me-again kind of warning." I think...

It had either been GO AWAY or YOU'RE MINE...

Either way, just the thought of it made her want to be sick again.

Janus swallowed, wishing he had something to get the sour taste out of his mouth. "I think mine may have been the future," he whispered at last.

The soft sigh of the wind through the trees and over the water was the only sound for a long time.

"Burn it," Ivy said at last, her voice full of conviction and fear. She glared at the book and couldn't suppress a shudder of revulsion. "It's--" She was shaking her head, backing away from it like it was alive and might eat her at any moment. "It's not right. It shouldn't... I mean, it's..."

Janus knew what she was trying to say. The book was wrong on some fundamental level he couldn't quite put his finger on. But they couldn't just burn the damned thing. They needed it. He knew that in the same way he knew the book wasn't right. It was probably the only link they had to Lavos, and whatever the hell it was Dalton was doing.

"Can you do any magic yet?" Janus asked her quietly, reaching a decision. Ivy shook her head, never taking her eyes off the book. "All right." He closed the box, and stood to his feet. "We can't keep coming here to get to the book. We can't take the book with us because Dalton will follow it to us." He looked up and met her eyes. "We'll have to wait until you learn to cast illusions." Ivy saw where he was going and shook her head, fear creeping through the anger in her eyes. "Then we sneak in here, steal the book, and leave an illusion for as long as it takes to get what we need."

"No," Ivy said, her voice shaking. "No. You can do it all by your fucking self because there is no way in hell I'm touching that...thing again." She shivered, holding on to herself.

Janus ignored her, pushing the box back under the bed, emptying the evidence of his vision out over the window into the lake, putting out the candles, and closing all the windows. Finally finished, he turned to her.

"No. You're coming with me because I can't do this by myself." Ivy opened her mouth to protest so he just talked faster. "This might be the only chance we have against Lavos. Are you willing to risk everything because you were too chicken shit to take on a book? No -- no, shut up and listen to me. I am not going to let you back down when something you could do might save my sister, all right? You won't have to touch it if you're so scared. I will. Okay?"

Ivy nodded, slowly, her eyes completely taken over by the fear. "Okay."

Janus took a deep breath. "Good." He opened the door. "Now let's get out of here."


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Rast: Ya'll can thank Ollen70 for this one getting out so fast. I think that's one of my favorite reviews so far. Anyway, this is pretty much the halfway point for part one. (Cue bells, party whistles, and confetti.) I think I can get it done in 30 but if not, I know it won't be more than 35. For part one. It won't be over, it'll just be...well, to sound corny and cliche, this is just the beginning of the...well, of the beginning.

Anyway, regardless, the chapters should start getting out faster. Especially if you leave gobs and gobs of reviews. Not that I'm one of those authors that'll hold off chapters until they get a certain number of review, but... well, those of you that write know how it is. The more people like it, the more you want to write it.

Which brings me down to business.

C'mon.

Won't take you but a minute.

You know you wanna.

It's a little button.

You know the one.

It's right...

...down...

...there.

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