Page 21 of The Death Wish

Silas frowned, dragging his gaze from the carpet of slumbering souls. He turned; to find all but one of his curious gang of ghosts had fallen fast asleep.

Thank you, ankou.

He was not certain who it was that remained to address him. The robustness of their shadow suggested one of the men, but he had no time for questions. The soul sank to the ground, adding their darkness to the low mound of those who had already succumbed to the strange sleep that held the entire graveyard. Their forms were a pile in front of the open gate, taking up one of the last remaining spaces he could see in the entire yard.

A squeak drew his attention. Scuttling out from a hole down near the base of the church doors, the church grim made an appearance. A white form that darted so quickly he wasn’t quite certain what the creature was, until it drew nearer. Despite having only three legs, the white ferret moved at quite the clip, slipping up and over the array of prone forms that separated it from where Silas stood. Its yew-berry-red eyes fixed on him.

He crouched to meet it, extending his arm to allow it to scamper up and find a place upon his shoulder. If he were not mistaken there was something of a relieved air about the creature.

‘Have you been waiting for me?’ He received the nuzzle of a wet, cold nose behind his ear in reply. ‘What is going on here?’

He was expecting no reply from the ferret; even Forneus had never managed such a feat.

‘We have gathered them for you.’

Silas whirled about, spinning so quickly his passenger hissed, digging in tiny claws.

Herbert stood by the central grave, the most elaborate in the yard. The headstone was shaped like a small temple, witha weeping angel upon its top, covered in so much lichen it looked as though the wings truly were feathered. Two lost souls lay together on the length of its stone base, clasped hands discernible, despite their blurry forms.

‘Herbert? Gracious, what are you doing here at this hour?’ The boy wore no coat, and to Silas’s horror, no shoes either. ‘Christ, you’ll freeze if –’

‘Do not concern yourself with that,’ the boy said, in a voice entirely unlike his own. ‘He feels none of it.’

Silas’s eyes widened. ‘Izanami?’

‘Take your succour, ankou. You must replenish what was lost.’

‘My succour? What is happening here? Was it you who summoned all these souls?’

‘Against the law of things, yes.’

‘Why? Do you wish me to send all of them on?’

‘You overestimate yourself, ankou. The strength is not in you.’

Silas swallowed. ‘No…it is not.’ A terrible thought struck him. ‘Is this my end too? Are you here for me?’ He shook his head, and took a step back. ‘I will not go, yet, Izanami. I will not leave him. It is not yet done, and we are so close.’

‘Calm yourself. I do not take you from him yet.’

Silas balled his fists, the scythe vibrating in his curled fingers. He refused to think too deeply on that single word, yet. There was an abyss of sadness in its simple form. ‘Then tell me what it is you seek here.’

‘You two Horsemen are close indeed. Which makes the Blight grow ever stronger in defiance. Its reach stretches ever wider, and gathers those it taints in greater number. I have made an exception to my involvement here, and have gathered many of my lost children, so that you might be made exceptional.’ Herbert lifted an arm, and swept it to indicate the entirety of thegraveyard. There was darkness on his palms, dirt perhaps. ‘You push at your boundaries, Silas Mercer.’

A new panic gripped him. ‘I am tired, but I am not done for. I can see this through. I’m certain. What can you do for me?’

The question was bold, perhaps stupidly so. Who was he to demand anything from Death? But then, he’d done so once and come out victorious. Sybilla lived to prove it.

Herbert smiled, but it somehow held none of the vivacity of the boy himself. ‘There will come a time when your stubbornness shall no longer amuse me. I am fickle that way.’

‘So long as it is not today.’ Silas’s pulse thumped unkindly, sick with the notion he might have stepped into his own grave here.

‘It is not today.’

‘Then tell me what I must do.’ Herbert shivered hard, and Silas knew that death had lied to him. ‘The boy feels you there. He is in pain.’

‘He is human. To feel pain is in their nature. You know that.’

‘But his pain is not natural, nor necessary.’