Haha, here it is, I told you it was coming quick. No give-aways though, you have to read it yourself. (Then you have to review =P)

Disclaimer: Garth Nix owns the world, death, magic in all its varieties, Mogget, Lirael etc.

FLAWLESS EVIL

Of Dreams, Visions and Memories

Reece lay on the thin mattress of his bed of metal and stone. His bells, knives, boots and clothing lay on the floor beside him so he slept naked in the chill tower room. For an instant his eyelids fluttered as they do when one dreams and then with a crackling noise ice covered his entire body from head to toe as his consciousness passed into death.

Reece dreamed, in a dark room he carried some books for his master, a scholar. Turning a corner he bumped into a boy perhaps a year younger than himself, his long messy mousy brown hair concealing his features in the dim light. "Thief!" he cried. The boy looked up in terror and screamed, white charter light poured from the very air around him as symbols whirled around and Reece knew darkness. When he awoke to the face of his old master all he could remember was the gold charter mark from the boy's head.

With a splash he stumbled to his knees, dragged towards the first gate, he saw the first gate's waterfall and passed through. In the second precinct he caught a pitfall and wedged himself in so he would not wash away, looking around he couldn't remember how he got here, the vision of his first encounter flickering through his mind still. A light flashed, he swore he saw one, even though he was in death. He turned to look…

The sun's glare caught him unprepared as the window shutter opened, shielding his eyes he let go of the window frame he had been holding and tumbled down of the chair to land with a crash. The old master came to see if he was alright and sent him outside to get some fresh air. Wandering through the shadowed alleys he found himself looking for something yet he didn't know why. Finally he came across a door hidden behind trash and he opened it. Led there by some force he did not understand. He stepped inside and in the dim light he couldn't see anything, suddenly he was tackled, held against the wall and kissed fiercely. Then he was alone again, that same golden charter mark burning itself into his memory.

Reece awoke in shallow water, looking around he realised he was in the third precinct of death. Struggling to his feet he blinked once before realising it was too late; a wave caught him and tossed him along. He struck the ground once.

The plank of wood that had struck him lay on the ground some distance away, the wall behind him bore a great hole. On the floor above another explosion shook the building as a great lance of light shot forth from one of the mages in the street. They were striking at his master. He'd been caught performing necromancy. Reece hadn't even known it but it was there and the villagers deemed it 'unclean' so the other charter mages were here with a mob to get rid of him. Running he stumbled down steps and burst out of the front door, as he watched an arc of fire spread from the top of the building and struck back at the charter mages, three of them left as cinders while the others scattered. Then one of them raised their hands and a greater mark glowed in the air. The building was struck by purple lightning and exploded, collapsing into rubble taking his master with it. He was tossed through the air and buried, the last thing he saw was a pillar of purple flame arcing into the sky.

Reece came back in the current of the fourth precinct, standing he looked around. Just metres away the deceptively short waterfall that was the gate roared away and the current pulled at his ankles but otherwise the area was relatively calm.

He awoke in calm, in a comfortable bed with candlelight flickering on the walls. Beside him sat a boy, the same boy from before, he wasn't sure why but Reece instantly liked him. He recognised the inn and knew the innkeeper. It seemed she had insisted that no scruffy ragamuffin would stay at her inn and so his hair had been cut and brushed. Now clean Reece could get a better look at him. He smiled and Reece melted, he'd been saved by a complete stranger and he was overwhelmed by the feeling of relief and gratitude. Then the woman who was the innkeeper came in and realising he was awake bustled him off for bath where he was unceremoniously stripped and put in the bath, he found he barely had the strength to stand himself and was oddly grateful for the treatment. Soaking with his eyes closed he was unprepared when the boy came racing into the room in the nude and jumped into the bath with him. Water splashed his face and he spluttered.

He fell through the waterfall and was spat out into the fifth precinct, desperately he grabbed for the black bridge and reached it, where he hauled himself up and stood on the narrow bridge, a fine line of blackness stretching out before him. He collected his thoughts and looked around, he knew he had to go on now though, something was calling him. Carefully he stepped out onto the bridge…

He sat with Kaddison, as he'd discovered the name was, staring into his liquid blue eyes in an embrace under the setting sun. They'd been walking a fine line hiding their secret and living with the villagers but it was over, soon they would have to run because someone had found them and was even now running back to the village with news of their 'unclean' behaviour. They would savour this moment though, this last jewel in a peaceful time together. The sun finally set and the torches appeared from the direction of the village, their fine line had been cut and now it was time to run.

Reece came back to himself on the far side of the fifth precinct, his feet had carried him across the narrow bridge and the fine black line that marked its existence now stretched out behind him, a line he no longer trod. He stepped through the gate to the sixth precinct with all it's hordes of dead, he was here now, and he would not turn back.

Kaddison was dead, he had wept over his body when the villagers had left and he had cast all manner of spells until he was exhausted. When he had finished every living thing for a hundred yards was dead or dying and the air itself burned with his pain… and Kaddison's soul had been bound to the truth of his body in life. Now he crept through the town avoiding the villagers, the guards and the protective enchantments. Slowly he worked his way to his old masters building, still it sat as a pile of rubble and he opened it up again, clambering his way down to the underground library and bringing it to life again with light.

Reece stood in the short stretch of the river that was the seventh precinct and looked up at the wall of fire, he was nearly there…

There by the lights of the charter and by the blessing of time he searched and found. He had the secret to controlling life and death, he had the tools of his master, and he would find his way. He entered into death and made his way through cautiously, using everything he had learned, the words of power and the caution of fear. Reciting the incantations and passing through each gate in turn. When finally he passed through the curtain of fire and stepped through into the eighth precinct and found his love waiting for him. They came together and Kaddison spoke for the first time in too long, "Could it be, we can be together outside of time as well as inside?"

The dream faded and Reece found himself to indeed be in the eighth precinct, though this time there was no one to meet him there. Looking around he could not see anyone, no dead, no living, no necromancers, nothing. The precinct was unusually empty. In the almost complete darkness he cast around with his eyes and his mind but he found nothing, he was completely alone in the eighth precinct. Surely it would not lead him into the ninth precinct? Beyond the ninth gate? There was a loud explosion and he spun to look.

The roof of the library blew off, the ice that now encased its entire interior shattering and melting into pools across the room, ruining the books beyond repair, destroying the secrets they held. Reece stood with the spirit boy beside him. His icy charter mark flared with his power but in the end he did not use charter magic. He had never been good at it anyway. With a screeching noise a wave of free magic ripped itself from his throat and spread out. A half dozen buildings collapsed under the force and nearly two dozen people died in that alone. Drawing Mosrael, Reece rang the bell for the first time in his life. It's high, piercing tones spread out from the ruined library in a tone that literally woke the dead. Those people just dead, dead rats from the sewers, even from the graveyard beyond the town. A horde of uncontrolled dead rose. As Reece climbed back up to street level Kaddison beat him to it and with a greater mark of the charter brought fire raining down on the village. When he reached the street level Reece was at the centre of it all, an orange tinged white demon, his clothes even sapped of their colour during his trip into death now blazed with the reflected light of the fire. The dead ran rampant and the villagers ran in a panic, burning, being eaten or being trampled by their fellows. The hordes and the fire followed them away from the village, if any escaped they were few, few indeed.

Reece found himself in the ninth precinct; he felt no desire to look up though. There was a sound and he turned as someone else came through the darkness into the ninth precinct. He was no longer alone.

***

Lirael tossed on her mattress in the inn, Sabriel slept soundly in the next room but she could find no sleep. The door creaked and a small white cat crept into the room. Soundlessly he padded across the room and leapt up onto Lirael's chest where he cocked his head and blinked once. Together they froze and passed into death.

When Lirael landed in death she was confused, she'd been having a dream about being chased through the palace at Belisaere by something dead but she hadn't gone into death, and she had no idea how it was possible in her sleep. No sooner had she started thinking coherently again though than the world spun around her into a green and grey blur and she was staggering to her feet again elsewhere in death. At first she could see nothing different, one part of death was much like another in the first precinct, but after a moment she realised she could feel something else nearby. Poking around a bit she finally found the spirit of a boy. When she touched him though his eyes flew open, the brilliant blue in the ocean of dead grey around her caught her by surprise and she gasped.

This moment of distraction was all he needed. Kaddison launched himself up and tackled her pushing them both off balance. Lirael gasped as they hit the water.

Her fur was soaked, with her wide cat eyes she glared at the man standing some metres away with the wash basin that he'd just tipped on her. Cat eyes? That can't be right. The man before her was wearing the outfit of the Abhorsen. He turned as one of the charter servants entered the room with a piece of parchment and handed it to him, hi eyes opened wide and he beckoned to the cat before racing out of the door. Within moments they were mounted on the paperwing, with a great burst of acceleration it shot off the platform and into the sky, bursting forth from the mist in a great hurry.

Lirael's face burst from the water as she fell through the waterfall into the second precinct. She almost managed to stand again before Kaddison rose from the water again and tackled her over once more. Together they fell into a pit-fall and were swept towards the third gate where they tumbled through into the shallow water.

Panicking now Lirael thrashed wildly in an attempt to get free of this spirit that was attacking her but she could not, not before a wave came up and swamped them both…

The paperwing touched down in the middle of a destroyed village, the air was still smoky and numerous spot fires still burnt in the shells of buildings. The ground was littered with human body fragments, though noticeably there were no whole dead people. The wind blew down from the north fiercely and caused tumbling clouds of dust and ash to swirl through the air. From her position on the paperwing's wing she watched as the man who was Abhorsen swore and began searching the village, calling out to anyone who was still alive.

Lirael came back to herself in the brief moment of stability as she passed into the fourth precinct, struggling with the boy still her focus was continually distracted by visions, images of death and terror. A necromancer had risen to great power and he had brought many towns under his control through the fear spread by his first great massacre. She saw whole towns destroyed by the dead and battles fought by the Abhorsen and the king's armies.

Together Lirael and the boy tumbled through the fourth and fifth precincts and came to rest in the sixth precinct before the images let up in their intensity. Oddly enough there were few dead in their immediate vicinity, despite the masses that Lirael could feel just on the outskirts of her senses. Then, almost as if it had been triggered by the mass of dead a very specific, clear vision intruded on her mind.

She sat on the wing of the paperwing next to the Abhorsen and watched from above, at the base of the Clayre's glacier a large army of dead and living barbarians faced off against the last imperial army… and it was losing, slowly the imperial troops were gaining ground, reducing the army of dead one by one. When it seemed a though victory was certain though a massive form rose amidst what remained of the dead army. A mordicant of massive strength, it lunged forwards and in one movement took out three soldiers, and again with its next swing. They scattered before it like chaff but even it could not hope to be successful against the number that it faced.

But it was not supposed to be successful.

From the rear of the dead army two figures could be seen making an escape, the paperwing flew low to see better and Lirael gasped back in her real self. The boy she was struggling with was one of them! The other was bizarrely all white, almost invisible against the snow. As they neared the top they quickly overcame the Clayre guards that blocked their way and entered the icy domain.

The vision ended suddenly and Lirael found herself in the seventh precinct headed straight for the wall of fire. Desperately she tried to swim against the current back the way they had come but the boy still had hold of her and was dragging her against her will ever deeper into death.

With a whoosh the struggling duo burst into the eighth precinct. Lirael fell apart from the boy and began to drift on the current as the final vision assaulted her.

The Abhorsen stood in a narrow ice corridor facing the white boy. The other boy, the one she'd been struggling with, was nowhere to be seen, presumably dealt with already. The Abhorsen was breathing hard but the white boy looked like he was still in control. Without warning the Abhorsen attacked with charter and his sword and the boy responded in kind with free magic and daggers, the man who was Abhorsen made a mistake though, he was thrown to the wall with a dagger lodged in his shoulder. The white boy stood over him about ready to strike the killing blow when suddenly she jumped in front, or the cat she seemed to inhabit did. Her collar was loosened and she had this sense of roaring freedom. She watched as the white boys face changed to one of terror and he fled, but she caught him. A white tendril of pure magic reached out and plucked him off the ground before pinning him to the ice, whatever she was now though she wasn't as interested in this quarry. With a blast she embedded the hapless boy in the ice and simultaneously sent the Abhorsen shooting out of the tunnel. Exiting the tunnel she sealed the ice behind her and turned to the Abhorsen with intent to kill. It was not to be though, a silver band swung over her head and as the world went dark the vision ended.

Lirael was dropped through the gate into the ninth precinct where she staggered to her feet and looked around… and came face to face with Reece… the white boy…

Dun, dun, dun... A cliffhanger I know! I'm evil right?

This one was a marathon though, 3000 words! I'm so proud and I hope you like it. It answers a lot of questions, creates just a couple more (I think) and asks one BIG question. "What is going to happen next?"

Well you'll just have to wait and see, Muahahahaha!

Mogget scratches MasterOfGrey with a claw, "Behave yourself."

Me: Sorry...

Anyway please, please, please review. Criticism as well as compliments, anything you want to say. I want to hear it! =D