In Part 1, Lilian is trying to dissuade Jem from her suicidal quest to Alinakard's twin city on the opposite riverbank - a trip no one has ever returned from. In Part 2, Lilian betrays Jem to her father, starting a chain reaction that forces her (and the reluctant gate-guard, Kinley) over the bridge in Part 3. Lilian is sucked into a fight court in Part 4 whilst Kinley’s past haunts him.
Kinley slid through the crowded streets of the strange city like a hunting cat, his face scrunched up as he followed the ghostly whisper to - well, wherever it was taking him. His slipshod guard’s demeanour had vanished along with Lilian and the few city inhabitants that bothered to notice him flinched out of his way. In his former life as a Padfoot Tracker, he had been sent to the fringes of the known world, to face down and exterminate unknown dangers. This was just another assignment, albeit one with paved streets.
The ghost led him out of the city centre, through a warren of smaller streets and then through a gate that opened up into a shock of green parkland, punctuated by large, beehive burial mounds. Kinley took a moment to check his weapons cache, his fingers running over his shirt cuffs, belt and back pocket. Magnate Diamous had not permitted him anything as crass as a crossbow, but he had his small pistol, a few knives, a smoke capsule and a knuckle duster available. Everything else could be improvised.
Every single burial mound was open. The first two were empty, but in the third, the skeleton’s head turned to face Kinley as he peered into the entrance. Heart beating fast, he jumped back and swore.
“We’ve been waiting for one like you,” the voice whispered in his ear. Inside the earth tomb, he heard the scrape of bone on dried mud. Inch by inch, the skeleton leveraged itself into the daylight, its headdress hanging off the polished skull. Kinley watched, horrified as it held out a hand and the smallest finger joint fell off. When the voice spoke again, it came from the direction of the corpse.
“I am Legata Martia. Welcome, scout, to Aeon.”
Around him, the shadows changed and lengthened as the other graveyard inhabitants crawled out of their mounds. Every single one was polished bone, without a single scrap of flesh left hanging.
Kinley’s fingers brushed his faithful knuckle-duster and for the first time, he longed for a hammer instead.
*
Lilian glared down at the white rabbit, which had pattered to a halt at the side of the arena. Its nose twitched nervously, but it didn’t look dangerous. It certainly didn’t warrant the attention of her undead audience or the announcement with drums.
Gingerly, with several halting steps, she approached the creature and picked it up. The rabbit briefly pedalled its feet before it settled in her arms. Lilian stroked its ears and glanced up at the spectators.
“She’s mortal!” the unseen announcer shouted gleefully. “She has passed!”
“That’s it?” Lilian yelled, but her voice was lost in the commotion. Corpses wheezed and clattered, the drums banged and someone - several someone’s - started blowing whistles. The doors of the area swung open again and she decided to argue the point later. If they wanted her to stroke a rabbit, she would stroke the damn rabbit. She went through the exit, down a steep incline and into a well-lit room which contained three living soldiers in faded Alinakard livery.
“Thank the Gods,” their leader exclaimed. “You are from our time.”
Lilian blinked and shook her head, almost laughing at the absurdity. His skin was tanned and covered by a beard, but she recognised the voice of her mother’s lover. “It’s good to meet you again, Captain Afizere.”
*
Kinley tensed, waiting for the attack. The Legata merely waited, in a way that implied she had all the time in the world. After thirty tense seconds, he relaxed, feeling a little silly.
“Melior,” she approved. “This conversation will be much faster if you throw away all your preconceptions. Here, the dead remain with the living and see much further than their descendants. We need you and you, I think, need us.”
Kinley mulled this over chewing the inside of his left cheek. “Yup,” he said reluctantly. “You’ve got me, there. I wanna know what’s goin’ on. Why’re you here an’ still movin’?”
“We cannot leave,” the skeleton replied. Her jaw did not move and the voice seemed to come from the area of her ribs, complete with a spider’s web. Kinley redirected his gaze to her skull, which was not much better. You don’t realise how much you rely on eye movement in a conversation until you are staring into eye sockets. “Aeon is trapped in a causality loop which means our bodies wear out but our spirits remain trapped in a single, recurring day. We need someone to break it.”
“An’ no one from here can do that?” Kinley asked. He glanced around, but the rest of the graveyard was keeping a polite distance.
“No,” Legata Martia sighed. “Everyone buried here in this patch of ground has tried and failed. Only a descendant of the philosopher who trapped us all can enter his room and destroy his device. The idiot wanted eternal life. Instead, he got turned to ash and condemned the rest of us to rot.”
*
Recognition, horror and resignation, flashed across the Captain’s face. “Well met, little Lilian,” he said, with a courtly bow. “How long has it been? Is your mother well?”
Lilian carefully placed the rabbit by her feet. “It’s been a decade, Sirrah and I took my mother’s place when death claimed her. What are you doing here? Why are you in the fight court? And - why the rabbit?”
Afizere sighed. “We came here, hoping to enlist a demon to break down the bloody tower at the heart of this city. The whole place is a trap, little pearl. A device in a locked room, in a city of circled time, ruled by the damned and the dead.”
He glanced down at the rabbit with a grimace. "That creature is sent out to determine what you are. A demon would tear it apart and it would flee from a corpse. Only a living person can pick it up. Everyone here has passed that particular test. But no one has figured out how to win the next one and until we do, we are stuck in this room.”
Lilian’s heart sank with her expression. “What happens if we can’t get out?” she asked.
“If we don’t starve to death, we get eaten. Either way, we will join the rest of the undead, sat outside.”
There’s got to be a way out. Figure out the next test with Lilian in Part 6.