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Chapter 24: Corrupted Reapers

Chapter 24: Corrupted Reapers

They left the two Reapers pinned to the road and continued deeper into the ruins.

The older man remained behind with them. Whether he intended to free his companions once Rook was gone or merely ensure neither idiot found a way to bite down upon the thunder charge, Rook did not ask. He had made his warning clear, and the man possessed enough sense to recognize when surviving an encounter counted as victory.

After walking deeper into the ruins Mara asked "If you knew this place was infested with them, why did you bring us here?"

"Because the alternatives have more teeth."

"Those men tried to steal our memories."

"And I dealt with them."

"You nailed them to the road."

"They were difficult to reason with."

Mara stared at him.

Rook adjusted the coffin with his remaining hand. "The Eighty-Sixth sits across the only stable passage east. Going around means several additional weeks through territory I don’t know."

"And this is safer?"

"I know what Reapers want. Monsters are less consistent."

Rook made it less than twenty paces before one of the coffin’s chains began slipping.

The iron hook Mara had secured remained in place, but the weight had shifted toward his useless arm. He tried lifting the shoulder beneath it and received no response. The limb hung against his side, its fingers curled slightly inward as the paralytic continued working through the remembered flesh.

Rook stopped and leaned forward.

"What is it?" Mara asked.

"Chain’s loose."

She moved around him and examined the straps. "The one I just secured?"

"Different one."

"How many of these are there?"

"Enough to keep a coffin on my back."

"That tells me absolutely nothing."

"It tells you there are enough."

Mara glared at the back of his head before reaching beneath his arm. The chain had twisted where it crossed his shoulder, allowing one of the hooks to work itself halfway free. She pulled it tight, threaded it through the iron ring and locked the hook back into place.

Rook shifted his weight experimentally. The weapons inside the coffin settled with a series of muted knocks, but the chain held.

"Better?" she asked.

"It’ll do."

He started walking.

Mara stared after him, then hurried to catch up before the pale chain between their wrists tightened. "You could have said thank you."

"I could have."

"But you chose not to."

"My arm is paralyzed. I’m conserving energy."

"Your mouth appears perfectly functional."

"Unfortunately, so does yours."

The ruined street narrowed as they travelled farther from the gate. Collapsed buildings leaned against one another overhead, their upper floors forming broken bridges across the road. Cold light from the scattered lanterns revealed doors that led nowhere, staircases buried beneath rubble and empty windows overlooking their path.

Rook held their lantern in his useful hand, leaving the falchion secured to the coffin. Every few steps, its frame struck his leg. He tried fastening it to his belt, but the clasp required two hands, and the lantern nearly slipped from his fingers while he fought with it.

Mara watched him struggle for several seconds before holding out her hand.

Rook looked at it. "What?"

"Give it to me."

"You know how to carry a lantern?"

"I hold the handle and make certain I don’t drop it."

"That sounds dangerously close to confidence."

"Give me the lantern."

He surrendered it reluctantly.

Mara lifted it beside her, and pale blue light spread farther across the street. The act was painfully mundane after what she had just witnessed. Minutes earlier, Rook had dismantled two men with abilities while poisoned, blinded and surrounded by smoke. Now she had to carry his lantern because he could not fasten it to his own belt.

She looked at the limp arm against his side.

"How long will it remain like that?"

"Few hours."

"You knew what the poison was immediately."

"A man once tried something similar."

"What happened to him?"

Rook stepped over a fractured section of wall. "He improved my opinion of antidotes."

Mara waited for more.

None came.

"Did he survive?"

"For a while."

"That is an extremely concerning answer."

He didn’t reply.

They walked on, placing more distance between themselves and the bloodstained street. The sounds made by the injured Reapers gradually disappeared behind them. Their lantern joined the many others scattered through the Eighty-Sixth, becoming another pale light drifting through a city that should have been empty.

Mara glanced back once.

The road had already vanished behind collapsed walls and darkness.

"I thought the Brand forced Reapers to protect souls," she said.

"It forces condemned Reapers."

She looked at his blackened arms.

Rook adjusted his useless arm against his side so it would not catch against the coffin. "The contract doesn’t trust us."

Mara looked down at the pale mark encircling her wrist. The chain connecting them had faded since the fight, though its outline remained visible whenever the lantern’s light passed over it. "Apparently, it trusted the wrong people."

"It trusted volunteers."

"What’s the difference?"

"Volunteers wanted the job."

Mara considered the men they had left nailed to the road. Both possessed abilities. Both had chosen to become Reapers, or at least had not been forced into service as Rook had. Whatever oath they had sworn had not stopped them from hunting fresh souls for their memories.

"Then volunteers don’t receive the same contract?"

"They receive authority, equipment and the right to Cull. Bastions expect them to do their duty without having pain driven through their bones every time they reconsider." Rook’s mouth twisted. "Trust. Very efficient system."

"And condemned Reapers?"

"We get the Brand. If a soul asks for help and the contract binds us, we protect them until they reach safety, reincarnate or if they release us themselves."

Mara’s attention remained upon him. "Would you really have done all of that if we weren’t connected?"

Rook continued walking.

"They threatened to take your memories."

"That doesn’t answer me." she said

"Then stop asking questions you already know the answer to."