Shades of Grey

CHATEAU DE MAUVAIS— FEBRUARY 1844

Sharia led me into the staircase as Navix pulled a badly beaten Liam and Ryder from their cells, binding them with identical neck shackles. Clearly they had also been roughly interrogated last night.

“Behold the mighty Hunters and their broken Maisling!” Navix called in theatrical mockery. People laughed, whispered, pointed, and a few even dared to throw rotting food at us.

“Not so strong now, are you?” called a young boy who looked to be the size of a house. He threw a rock at Ryder’s head, drawing blood. I fought tears as Ryder’s weary expression didn’t change, he merely accepted it and continued to trudge through the city. Liam wrapped his good arm around Ryder’s waist and supported him as we continued to walk.

“No, I’m not,” Ryder replied to the boy under his breath.

Sharia and Navix became increasingly impatient as we struggled under the shower of trash and rocks raining down upon us. They showed no sympathies, however, dragging and yanking the chain whenever we began to slow down.

“Hurry up!” Sharia snapped as she dragged me through a large puddle of muddy rainwater. A group of fat children nearby began laughing at me as I struggled once more to get up, covered in mud and trash, thankful (in the least possible volume of the word) that I was at least clothed. Ryder extended his hand and helped me stand up.

The humiliating trudge through the more densely populated areas of the city was strenuous and time-consuming. The rotting trash continued to fly over us with such speed and vigour that by the time we reached the tall black turreted castle of Verrilius, the three of us were smelled of a landfill.

“Be quiet,” commanded Sharia as she stood at the edge of the twisted, wrought iron gate. I stared at the frightening lion faces carved into two stone pillars on either side of the gate… the faces seemed strangely lifelike…

“Business?” asked the stone lion to my left as it suddenly sprang to life. I cried out in surprise, only to receive yet another disciplinary yank on the chain.

“Verrilius called for them, the Hunters that walked right in to the city.”

The lion’s eyes shifted to us and he examined us with a frown.

“Very well, enter.”

The lion became solid stone once more and the black gate swung open ominously. The woman walked forward and wordlessly entered the dark Niflheimian castle.

We entered a foyer that very much resembled the construction pattern of Natara’s palace: the walls were very high and curved into a cupola of black marble etched with aureate lines of poetry and various magical spells. All of the black marble surfaces in the room were very smooth and almost calmingly liquescent.

“So, this is the infamous Grey Echo? Along with her irritating cohorts?”

I looked up and recognised the appallingly thin man from Forma’s visions, dressed in robes of black, purple and gold with a smile of malicious evil. This almost distracted from the gaping scars that ran directly across his pallid face down to his thin exposed chest.

“Where’s Forma?” I asked in my worn voice. “I know you’ve—”

I grimaced as Sharia brought her thick hand across my face, leaving long streaks of blood from the many rings adorning her fingers.

“You will not speak unless spoken to!” she snapped. Verrilius reached the bottom of the staircase and put up his wrinkled hand peaceably.

“Relax, Sharia. I believe Miss Echo understands the rules of respect. You may go: you have done your duty. Navix, if you will kindly bring the Maisling over here and escort Mr Clayton out of the room to receive his reward.”

There was a beat of horrified silence. I fell to my knees as Navix unhooked Liam’s manacle and dragged a shell-shocked Ryder over to Verrilius’ feet.

“What?” I exhaled. “Liam?!”

Navix handed him a damp cloth and I watched in horror as he began to wash the makeup from what I thought had been a bruised face, revealing perfectly healthy skin underneath. He looked at me with sudden menace through his clear, focused eyes. Ryder looked just as horribly disturbed as I did.

“You didn’t!” I cried in barely a whisper.

“In exchange for delivering you to him, Verrilius offered Ryder and me the rights to continue Hunting. I suspect that the Underground is currently being raided as well, right Magus?” Liam said, addressing Verrilius.

“As we speak, Mr Clayton.”

“Liam, what have you done?!” Ryder asked in shock.

“Exactly what I swore to do last December,” replied Liam with justice. “I ensured that you and I could continue to Hunt.”

“In exchange for turning everyone over to a homicidal wizard?!” I shouted in anger. “What is the matter with you?!”

“What is the matter with me?!” Liam cried dramatically. “I’m surprise no one has done it sooner! The one way to ensure that you and your Maisling can continue to Hunt is to eliminate the competition!”

“Competition?! Liam, we are all fighting the same fight: we are your allies!”

“Everyone but Ryder is an enemy,” Liam sneered darkly. “I followed you for almost an entire month after Commencement, trying to eliminate you!”

My stomach dropped.

“That’s why you were on the Island too?” I barely managed to articulate.

“Yes, I followed you through that damn storm and onto that God-forsaken island. I killed those two stupid Terre Sprite guards and sent the Coeur troll after you. I alerted the Tyragnon to your presence when that witless Nemorosa tried to send you away on that blue ship…”

Ryder’s face contorted into a twisted frown of shock.

“What?! You set all of that up?! When we broke the Fire Sprites out of their contract with the Tyragnon…that was all a lie?!”

“Of course it was! And when we went to fight the ghosts of the werewolf attack, there we got rid of Sonjya Malakim and her twit of a Maisling, Aryn.”

“And in Japan?” probed Ryder.

“Deitrich Stanislov and his Maisling, Kaiser.”

Ryder’s eyes were narrow in rage.

“Did you have anything to do with the Hybrid attack on the school?”

Liam laughed.

“Of course: I was the one who let them in.”

I gasped in horror.

“But, why?!”

“Why do you not see it? If you were to eliminate all other Hunters, you would be free to kill all the Creatures, thus receiving all of the glory! Eternal fame and wealth are ripe for the taking!”

“But it is against the Code!” Ryder protested. “You cannot!”

“Screw the code,” Liam snapped.

Ryder’s eyes widened as he tried to hold back tears of frustration.

“How could you have just thrown away ten years of training?!” I interjected, recalling how often the Lords and Ladies praised teamwork and unity.

“Did you not hear me, Grey?” he said, cupping my face with his hand. “Eternal fame and wealth! With no other Hunters to ruin it, I can finally be recognised. I can demand payment for my services. I can become the world’s protector! With everyone gone, Ryder and I can be more famous and more powerful than anyone we ever studied in school!”

He released me and I fell to the floor, too shocked to move. I eyed Ryder and saw rageful disgust cloud his expression.

“I can’t believe you would stoop so low…” he exhaled.

“Shut it, Ryder!” he nearly screamed. “I can’t believe you don’t see that I’m doing us a favour!”

Ryder ignored Liam. He simply sat quietly between Navix and Verrilius, staring at the floor.

“Oooh, this is quite entertaining!” Navix tittered. “The deception, the drama!”

Liam walked away from me and stood next to Verrilius, watching me with smug pride.

“I now understand why you wish to eradicate Creature Hunters,” I exhaled to Verrilius, trying to sort out everything I had just learned.

Verrilius leaned forward.

“You can see now the dangers of the Creature Hunter? The unjustifiable slaughter that you commit on a daily basis? The megalomania?”

“One asshole does not reflect on the entirety of Hunters!” I cried, my voice and posture growing stronger with conviction. “We exterminate the vermin, leaving the world for the humans! God did the same for Noah and his family with the flood!”

“HOW DARE YOU COMPARE YOURSELF TO GOD!” He shouted. His arms rose suddenly and a swirling wind whipped strongly about the room.

“Only God may deem fit the time to purge the filth of the world,” he said softly once silence had taken the room again.

“But He may use man to do His work as well,” I countered. “Have you not thought that we are merely His instruments?”

A sarcastic smile spread across Verrilius’ lips and he stepped towards me, knocking Liam forward with the butt of his staff.

“Would you call this cowering, backstabbing wretch an instrument of God?” he leered, smacking Liam on the nose. I heard it break and watched Liam cry out. Ryder didn’t even look up as blood began to pour from Liam’s nostrils. The sight of it broke my heart.

“No,” I admitted, answering Verrilius’ question. “God’s chosen instruments would not be so easily swayed.”

Liam stood, visibly shaken by my cold reply and Verrilius’ attack. He recovered himself quickly though and walked over to Navix. He knelt next to Ryder, placing his hand on Ryder’s shoulder. Ryder shrugged it away. Liam looked taken aback, but stood straight and kept his eyes dark when he saw I was still looking at him.

“I couldn’t agree more!” Verrilius shouted, bringing the butt of his staff across my face and sending me to the floor again. I gently touched my left eye and winced as I felt a bruise beginning to form.

“Navix, will you escort Mr Clayton to his room to claim his reward?” Verrilius commanded, keeping his eye fixed on me.

“What about this thing, Magus?” Navix asked, kicking a lifeless Ryder in the side. Ryder collapsed limply to the floor.

“Leave him. I shall place him with the other after I’ve gotten what I wanted from Miss Echo.”

Liam’s face fell.

“Wait a minute, you said you only wanted Grey! You promised Ryder would be alright!”

Verrilius turned to him, a frown of irritation etched into his scarred brow.

“That hasn’t seemed to bother you last night when one of my associates was beating the Maisling within an inch of his life.”

Verrilius turned a motionless Ryder over with his bare foot so Liam could behold the extent of the damage last night’s interrogation had done. It was indeed a disturbingly bruised and bloody sight. Liam then grew angry and began to fight as Navix wrapped his arm around Liam’s abdomen, forcibly dragging him out of the room.

“No! You swore you would allow Ryder and me to leave! You promised me that if I delivered Grey to you, you would allow us to go on our way! YOU PROMISED!”

Liam’s voice died as Navix left through a very large door in the side of the foyer.

I turned wildly to Verrilius.

“Alright, Verrilius! I’ve heard about how you were searching for me! NOW TELL ME WHAT THE BLOODY HELL YOU WANT! WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT?!”

Verrilius remained stoically snide and gave me a leery sneer as I stood in place, breathing heavily in anger.

“I wanted you because rumours of the infamous Grey Echo have reached my ears. I wanted to see if you were really as strong as they said, and if you were, I would have made great use of you. However, I can see that the rumours have been greatly exaggerated. My purpose was to possibly gain a loyal and committed fighter to help in my destruction of the Hunters, but you sadly possess neither of those attributes.”

He was lying. I could see it in his empty eyes — there was something he was hiding from me, similar to whatever it was that Natara recognised and decided to keep from me. He then noticed my intensely studious stare and quickly changed the subject.

“Have you thought at all about your Fairy?” he asked, abruptly segueing the conversation once again.

Every muscle in my body clenched as I tried to restrain myself from acting rashly. I noticed a similar stir of movement in Ryder.

“Every minute of every day,” I answered. Verrilius laughed, expecting such a loyal answer.

“Well, we’ve been having very intriguing conversations over these past few weeks. I’ve actually grown quite fond of her,” he chuckled. “Her first transformation was quite amazing. I’ve never seen such a beautiful werewolf…”

My breathing grew laborious as I realised that a full moon had already passed. While Forma was locked in his dungeons, suffering under the weight of Natara’s curse, I had been safe in the Underground with other Hunters. How could I have not felt her? Did Verrilius do something? Had I mistaken the change for one of my nightmares? My fists clenched even more in my guilt-fueled rage.

“Grey, what does he mean?” Ryder asked, finding his strength as he pulled himself to a sitting position.

Verrilius raised his eyebrows, surprised that I hadn’t told Ryder about Forma’s condition.

“Been keeping secrets, have we, Miss Echo?” he jeered.

“If I find out that you’ve harmed her in any way, I will kill you,” I said darkly.

“Good, very good,” he said, impressed. He glanced up at the window, watching as the light of the full moon began to flood in. My heart clenched. “Because you may want to see her before it happens again.”

With a wave of his hand, a circle of purple flames rose around me, but it didn’t burn hot. Instead, the flames turned into a life size image of a cell and cowering in the corner was a terrified, malnourished Forma. She trembled violently, shaking her thick chain restraints with each movement.

“No!” I called fruitlessly, reaching toward the Forma mirage.

“Grey, what’s happening?!” Ryder called, crawling towards me.

I was too horrified to answer, too caught up watching as Forma’s tremors increased in power along with the cold sweat that had broken out over her body.

“Forma, you can fight this, you can!” I said under my breath, willing her to fight it.

“Oh my God…” Ryder exhaled as he watched, the realisation dawning on him. Forma’s body then grew calm for a split second.

“I’m sorry,” she said under a weary sob that slowly became the loudest cry of pain I had ever heard in my life from anyone, Creature or human, almost bordering on a dark roar. She clenched her teeth and closed her eyes, trying to breathe slowly and steadily. Her eyes then opened and I gasped. They were bright gold with a black slit of an iris in the centre: wolf eyes.

In fury, I looked up at Verrilius. He was watching me through the flames with sadistic satisfaction.

“What do you expect me to do? Just sit here and watch?!” I shouted.

“I’m curious, what exactly would you do? You know very well there is nothing you can do to stop it. You brought this upon her, after all.”

I turned back to the Forma mirage, collapsing to the ground in horror as I realised that he was right. There was nothing I could do to help. I could only watch and cry as the horrific change I had inadvertently caused came to fruition. Ryder watched with amorous concern as well, unable to believe what he was seeing.

Forma’s screams were then silenced as a tangible shudder travelled from her body through the foundations of the castle. Her muscles then clenched and jagged lines of light broke out over her skin, ripping and tearing their way across her body.

“No…” I whispered powerlessly, reaching for her.

Forma then began convulsing like St. Vitus causing the strong beams of light emanating from her skin to dance around the dungeon. This was followed shortly by the forming of thick tufts of fur. Her limbs began to enlarge as the fur spread quickly across her body. It would not be long now…

I covered my eyes, unable to watch but forced to listen as her screams slowly turned into earth shattering roars. Then, the noises and light vanished and all I heard were the heavy, focused snorts of a werewolf.