Page 118 of Bite The Terror That Feeds

“Mau Lin Thia.” The translation of that wasMountain of Souls.

A shiver of unease ran down my spine. I was relieved his back was to me so he couldn’t see the horror upon my face. In a single breath, I erased it, turning my face back to a blank canvas.

We continued the rest of the way on foot, slowly circling higher toward the top of the mountain. That walk was spent in heavy silence. There was too much dread in my heart to utter a single word.

Higher and higher we went, the trail finally leveling off once we reached the top.

It was a graveyard of stone. Large rocks jutted out of the ground, some of their tips sharp like daggers. They all pointed to the sky, elevated above the forest and the borith trees. The rocks were far taller than us, several feet higher. If I didn’t know what it was, I would assume it was nothing at all.

Until I saw a flash.

It was a quick flicker of light, like a reflection in an opaque mirror, and then it disappeared as if it had never happened at all.

I stopped breathing.

My father stepped forward and approached the center dais. It was made of stone like all the rest, but it had a large opening in the center. It was black, no bottom visible, as if it extended all the way down to the bottom of the mountain. “I think you understand, Clara.”

I moved to the other side of the dais, too afraid to touch anything. “That light…what was it?”

“A soul.”

“Whose soul…?” A creature of the forest? An Ethereal?

“A human.” He said it simply, without emotion, without anything.

All I could do was stare at his face, the shock so potent it could bring me to my knees. Instead of keeping my breaths normal, I felt them elevate suddenly, and a hot flash of heat ripped through my flesh and made me a little dizzy. “I—I don’t understand.”

“Gifted from the gods—immortality.”

“So…” I couldn’t even form coherent thoughts. It was far too disturbing.

“Their souls are brought here for us to use.”

“But how do we use them?”

His palms rested on the rim of the stone, unafraid to touch it. “You saw the Litheal River on our voyage.”

It took me a moment to understand. “The souls travel to the bottom of the mountain…”

“Where they’re dissolved into the river.”

“And that river feeds our crops…and fills our waterskins.”

He gave a subtle nod. “Yes.”

The horror was indescribable. I felt sick in my own skin but couldn’t shed the trappings. I’d lived nearly two thousand years…on the souls of innocents. My heart continued to beat because someone else’s didn’t. “What happens to them?”

“Once they’re used, they dissolve.”

“You’re saying their souls don’t travel to the afterlife…because they’re used to keep us alive?” I almost couldn’t bring myself to say the words out loud. Hot tears started in the back of my eyes. This felt like a bad dream…a nightmare.

“Yes.”

I stared and stared and stared. Horrified, I didn’t know what else to do.

“I understand this is a shock—”

“Gods haven’t spoken to you, have they?” I looked at the black hole again, the place where every human met their doom. “We built this. We did this. And then we lie to the others so they can enjoy their long lives without guilt.”