Page 129 of The Simurgh

Christ, she was a horror. A threat of foulness beyond measure.

Silas shivered. He doubted he’d ever warm again.

Morrigan was ravenous. Death’s daughter hungered for the world Samyaza had failed to claim for her. The failure had festered within her, for thousands of years, and now her appetite consumed her. Those in her Sluagh all knew what it was to be so consumed. To regret, and fail.

Silas knew then what must be done. If this was about hunger, then let them feed.

He reached out blindly and found the prince close. Too close to the goddess. And she’d not touch a hair upon his head. ‘Pitch, keep behind your flame while I see to this.’

‘Again? What are you going to do?’

‘Sate their hunger.’ Silas raised his head, and Pitch’s horrified expression told him he looked about as well as he felt.

‘What the fuck does that mean?’

‘That you will not like what you see, my love.’

‘Don’t call me that.’ Pitch punched at him. ‘Don’t you dare talk like that when you look like you’re heading off to a war you know you can’t win.’

‘I’ll win.’ He had no choice in that, for the alternative would leave Pitch at the goddess’s mercy. ‘But you must stay back, and let me do what must be done.’

He wasn’t sure how he was going to stand, let alone face a goddes. His burial was a slow one, the tonnage of the souls and their lost chances and fatal decisions bearing down on him.

‘You are asking too much of me today. The Herlequin was bad enough.’ Pitch clutched Silas’s hand, and their rings met. There again was the subtle spark that came with connection, a breath of fresh air Silas sucked in greedily. ‘Let me help you.’

‘Knowing you are safe will make me stronger than the gods.’ Silas readied to stand, hoping Izanami had made him steely enough. ‘Guard yourself. You have the scythe too. But you must give me your word you’ll not step in, no matter how dire it may seem. Promise me?’

Perhaps he’d not said it loudly enough over the cries and roars of the Sluagh, for Pitch bit at his lip, toying with the cuff of Silas’s coat.

‘Pitch.’

‘I promise. Fuck…just be done with this and come back to me. Do you hear me?’

Barely. Silas’s ears were filled with torment. ‘I do.’

The prince helped him to his feet. Standing upright was not so simple as Silas had hoped. He refused to move any further until Pitch had waded over to the far side of the pool, dragging the cloak behind. The firelight went with him, leaving Silas in semi-darkness at the centre, but he saw well enough though that Pitch’s eyes never left him.

Silas’s breath shuddered from him as he steadied, the pressure of the trapped souls intensifying. His entire body trembled, the desolation of the ravens piling upon him.

He lifted his arms, and Christ it was no easy thing. He might as well be shackled to the ground with weighty chains, the drag at his arms a mighty force to reckon with.

Silas braced himself. He closed his eyes, and with a rounding of his lips, whistled for the Sluagh, calling it out of the darkness.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

NOT FORthe first time Pitch found himself missing the days when Silas was a bumbler, easily led and reticent to do anything remotely foolish or risky.

As he had promised, Pitch protected himself, growing his flame, forming a shield, nothing too large or showy, a simple barrier to hold between himself and whatever lay ahead. Again.

The ankou stood like some terrible god preparing for vengeance. Arms raised, the scythe still just a ring upon his finger. He had no blade, no shield of fire to protect him. Pitch ran his thumb over his own ring, unsure if he’d ever felt such a terror as this.

Silas whistled. A single note that scraped at Pitch’s insides and sent Macha’s raven into a maddened swirl. The air deadened.

Pitch drew a breath, his throat rasping, his airway narrowed as an emotion he had no name for swept over him.

Sadness was too simple a word. This was a melancholy, a sorrow of such magnitude it could have no other creator but death.

Pitch struggled with the urge to throw his promise into the flame and do exactly what Silas had forbidden. Step in.