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Soulbound

ALEXANDER

My placid reflection stared back at me from the polished, blackstone memorial they’d erected for my brother.

Xavier Madison Devouh, it read on the reflective surface, Devoted son and brother. May the Seamstress guide his soul to a richer life full of peace and prosperity.

I absently dragged my fingers over the carved letters.

My reflection showed an adolescent, pale face, my shadowy grey bangs tossed about my brow carelessly by the cavern winds. A satin doublet was fastened up to my neck with elegant, silver buttons, gold trim embroidered with intricate patterns along the hem and neckline. A burgundy cloak was clasped at my chest, the cowl collapsed over my shoulders.

My heterochromic eyes were reversed in the reflection. The one, sapphire eye was on the left of my face; the colorless, white eye on the right.

It isn’t my face, is it? With the placement of the mismatched eyes, it was he who stood there. As though he hadn’t vanished; as though the world hadn’t shifted and died along with him.

“… can’t…” his voice whispered in my thoughts, a high-pitched ring whining in my eardrums. “Please…”

I knuckled my throbbing skull, banishing the phantom voice. It had begun after he’d disappeared from that cliff on the surface. The voice began as a slight annoyance here and there, yet now it chewed at my thoughts incessantly.

I sucked in a long, shivering breath, then blew it out in a stream of cold fog. My wolf ears grew, draping solemnly to the sides of my neck as a sickness squeezed my chest.

“Alexander?” A soft voice hushed behind me.

I turned, one of my wolf ears swiveling when a woman stepped beside me.

She was a towering figure, wrapped in a fur cloak that hid her alabaster gown and thick coat. Delicate chains were clipped to her hair on both sides, glistening like silken strings that hung from her forehead in a ‘V’ shape, a diamond droplet glinting at the center. Her grey hair was braided and draped over one shoulder, precious gemstones frosting the strands.

She had wolf ears as well, though hers were naturally showing, unlike mine. My ears only grew in times of stress or sorrow, as most mammals were wont to do. In addition, she had a wavering tail curling round her skirts, which I didn’t have with or without stress.

A tiny black bird, which I knew was named Ethil, gripped the woman’s gloved finger, and she laid her other hand on my shoulder. “The memorial service ended hours ago,” she murmured, her cloudy, blue eyes bloodshot. “Come… it’s time we took our leave.”

I turned back to my reflection in the blackstone memorial, stealing a final glance at my face.

A final glance at my brother.

“He is gone, Alex.” My mother’s boney fingers tightened on my shoulder. “Please.”

“He wouldn’t break his promise.” I croaked. The face on the stone leaked with tears. “We promised to die together. Just as we’d come into this life, we were to leave it together. He wouldn’t break it.”

“Break…” his voice hushed in my thoughts. “Promise… we… promised…”

Mother’s grip faltered, removing her hand. “Come… The ship departs soon. Your father is waiting.”

Her footfalls clicked down the marble steps, crossing the yard toward the cemetery’s exit. Wispy specters and ghosts floated between the tombstones, whispering prayers and murmuring the absurdity of how many new stones had been erected.

Many were lost in the fire last month. Many more were lost to the assassin. Even their ghosts had been destroyed from within their vessels—all the work of one, lone man.

I followed alongside Mother in silence, my soul stretching thinner as we walked away from my brother’s blackstone slab.

When we rounded the palace’s east wing, I looked to the terrace on the third floor. The latticed doors were shut, thick curtains drawn to hide the Death Princess’s chambers within.

Willow had yet to leave her room since the incident. I’d heard she’d been found and rescued from the surface canyons, the assassin chased off. She’d returned to the caverns safely, yet the moment she’d come back, she shut herself in her chambers. She hadn’t even come out for combat training all month. She never missed training, not in the last four years. Now, only a few servants saw her at all when they brought the heiress her meals.

She didn’t come to the memorial today. I couldn’t say I blamed her.

Mother and I crossed to the palace courtyard and climbed into the awaiting hover-coach, the silver buggy floating over the grey-stoned pathway as its exposed gears clattered, and the stabilizing hydraulics hissed with steam. The two horses harnessed to the front were whipped into motion, the coach lurching forward and gliding smoothly out of the palace grounds.

The cityscape ahead was lined with sharp spires and gothic buildings, wedged between rocky pillars that stretched from the cavern floor all the way to the ceiling, which was hidden in misty formations that trailed with gleaming, floating lights. The lights wafted in and out of the overcast, the ethereal orbs drifting calmly as they illuminated the caverns with a pale, grey filter.

We arrived at the harbor, merchants and sailors bustling along the vibrating boardwalks. I climbed out of the coach behind Mother, stepping aside as a scaled man with webbed ears stalked past me carrying two heavy crates of fish, then followed Mother to the pier.

Grim’s seas were a vast series of wide rivers within the caverns, the lapping water split into branching straits by pillars and rock formations littered along the wide horizon. A thick fog clung to the hidden water’s surface, the smoky, grey cloak twisting and licking like a living creature all its own.

I followed Mother along the pier and climbed up the ramp to board our awaiting ship.

The vessel bobbed in the rippling water, the cutting winds beating at the half-mast sails as the hired crew members pulled them down. A raven was perched on the crow’s nest, its gaze sharp and inspecting as it cocked its head at me. It was my father’s raven, Barrach, watching us to be sure we were all accounted for, and to alert us should any danger arise.

The crew cast us off, and we departed, Low Rastiria’s harbor drifting farther and farther away.

“It will take nearly a month to arrive at the other Undercontinent,” Mother said. “I suggest we all take this time to… to heal.”

I grumbled. “Why are we returning to Low Everland so soon? I thought this was to be our permanent home.”

She knelt to me. “It’s only temporary, Alex. Your grandfather took over the role of the Death King’s Eyes for these four years, and he’s at his wits end. Your father is only returning to the post to interview new candidates. Once we’re finished, and the role is filled, we’ll return here.”

“And return to the search?” My voice was tight with anger.

Mother paused. “They are still searching on the surface, Alex. They will keep searching, so we can give him a proper burial with a true funeral and—”

“He isn’t dead!” I shouted. “He’s still up there! He’s alive! I… I hear him. It’s growing clearer by the day, Mother, I can hear him…!” My vision blurred, eyes stinging.

Her own eyes misted and she pulled me in for an embrace, her fur cloak soft against my wet cheeks. “Oh, Alex…” She drew me at arm’s length and cupped my face. “I do wish you were right.”

She rose and strode into the cabin, delicately dabbing her eyes.

He’s alive, damn it. I furiously rubbed my face dry. If they kept looking, they would find him and see.

“…so much water…” His voice hissed in my thoughts again, ringing in a shrill whine. “I… can’t breathe…”

I hit my knuckles against the post, causing the raven at the crow’s nest to croak at me angrily.

“Where are you?!” I hollered at the cavern’s misted ceiling. The Floating Lights gently twirled and swam within the formations. “Why can I hear you…?”

I sank to my knees and curled against the post, shivering.

The nearby crew members had turned at my outburst, whispering that I’d gone mad.

Perhaps I am mad, I considered, hitting my head against the post like a miserable, hollow shell. Was it him? Or was it merely my memory of him…?

Heavy footfalls clunked toward me, and I craned my gaze up.

My father’s vassal, Nathaniel, loomed over me, his burly arms set at his sides, his bear-ears perked in my direction from under his raggedy, black hair.

“Ye all right, lad?” Nathaniel asked, cocking a thick eyebrow. He wore a narrow hat with a long plume wavering at one side, and his coat was a stiff, indigo captain’s uniform. Nathaniel scratched his scruffy beard and muttered. “Yer scarin’ me crew, shoutin’ at clouds like that…”

I hung my head. “I’m sorry, Nathaniel… I’ll—”

A ghost suddenly phased through the post over my head, the pale specter’s feathered hair curling at his cheeks. “Oh, leave the young sir alone, Nathaniel!” the ghost, who was my mother’s vassal, Aiden, chided the bear-shifter. “He’s lost his twin, is this not punishment enough?”

Nathaniel’s ears curled. “Aw, I Bloody know what the lad’s goin’ through! I was only sayin’ nothing’s gonna come out ‘o—”

“Why don’t we see what comes out of you when I shove an arrow through your throat and…!”

They kept to their blathering, and I sighed and crawled under them, walking to the ship’s ledge.

I folded my arms over the rail, hearing the water lapping under the churning mists, the fog hiding the waves.

“Xavier?” I whispered, staring at the swirling, grey veil. “If I can hear you, can you hear me? Can you tell me where you are?”

“It’s… dark,” his voice hushed in my thoughts. “So dark…”

“How can we find you? What can you see?”

“Nothing.” The voice dimmed. “There is… nothing…”

“We’ll find you,” I said, my teeth sharpening, claws growing long and scraping the wooden rail. “I don’t care what they say, I will find you and bring you home.”

“Home…” The voice was so soft I almost couldn’t hear it. “Home…”

My hands balled, and I struck the rail… Then a shadow caught my eye from the mists below.

Within the light grey veil, dark splotches formed. A splintered mast of a ship peeked through the fog, its sails shredded and torn, beating in the cavern winds.

I twisted back to the arguing captain and ghost. “Nathaniel!” I called, getting the captain’s attention. “Nathaniel, there’s a wreckage here!”

Nathaniel and Aiden stopped their bickering, then came to meet me at the rail. Nathaniel produced a copper spyglass from his coat pocket and held it to his eye.

“The lad be right,” he rumbled, sounding troubled. “Aye, I reckon that be the vessel what went missin’ these last few days…”

He collapsed the spyglass with a clack, clack, clack and shoved it to my chest. “Lad, keep an eye on the mists down there. I’ll tell the boys to fetch the dinghies.”

I swallowed. “W-wait. How many days has the ship been missing?”

Nathaniel adjusted his plumed hat in a growl. “Three.”

The warmth flushed from my cheeks. “Then… then wouldn’t they be Changed—?”

“We’ll take a look ‘n see, lad,” he said, tromping off to shout at his men.

I unfolded the spyglass, the lens quivering in my fingers. All I could see was fog. Fog and tall stalagmites, the rocky pillars sprouting from the water and stretching to the ceiling…

I focused on the wreckage’s broken mast, seeing its tattered sails in greater detail through the lens. There were no bloodstains on that piece of the vessel. Perhaps the crew survived—

Skriririririri!

I ducked at the hideous shriek that split the fog, its high-pitched echo bouncing off the cavern’s pillars, then dying into silence.

The raven at the crow’s nest began to croak and caw ceaselessly, sounding the alarm.

The crew scrambled over the deck, Nathaniel shouting orders to take up arms.

Death! I sank to my knees and lifted the spyglass again, sweeping the lens over the fog. Shadows shifted behind the veil. They were creeping toward us, their hisses and bleats trumpeting louder as they neared.

I kept the lens focused on them, licking my lips and calling back, “Nathaniel, they’re over here—!”

Skririririii!

A dripping, skeletal creature leapt from the water and hooked its claws into my shoulder, yanking me overboard and dragging me into the water with a cold splash!

My pained curses bubbled in the dark waters, my shoulder burning as the creature still had me hooked, and it dragged me farther into the water’s depths toward the shrouded floor—

My head hit a stalagmite. The creature’s claws ripped out, and the cold water vanished from my skin as blackness swallowed me.

XAVIER

A freezing chill crashed over my skin.

I gasped, but sucked in water. I was drowning, my shoulder burning from puncture wounds.

Panicked, I found the brightness of the surface above, and swam upward. The water peeled away from my face and I wheezed in a reviving breath, coughing and spitting up the water.

Where am I?

I shivered in the freezing water, my burgundy cloak heavy around my shoulders. I unfastened it in case it threatened to drag me back into the water.

There was nothing but grey here. Churning mist draped the water everywhere I turned, I couldn’t even see above it.

My wolf ears were already grown, fright shaking my soul as I trembled in the water. “H… hello?!” I cried, coughing. “Is anyone there?!”

My wolf ears picked up shouting within the mist. The voices were nearby.

“Help!” I called, swimming toward the voices, my shoulder hot with pain. “P-please…! I need help!”

A splash came behind me.

I whirled, but saw nothing. “H… hello—Aaah!”

Claws dug into my back, hooking me, and I screamed as I was dragged backward—

An arrow shot at the beast, the crystal tip plunging into its skull with an ear-splitting crack! The blow was so powerful, a spiral of wind rushed after it and cleared the mist in a wide circle around me.

The creature screamed in pain and released me, squirming into the water out of sight. Now that the mists had cleared, I saw a winged man flying above, a second arrow nocked along his bowstring.

“Young sir!” the bird-shifter called. He put away his bow and arrow and soared down to me, grasping my outstretched hand to pull me out of the water. “the Archer be praised, you’re alive! Don’t worry, your mother has exterminated the rest of them, all that’s left was the one who’d dragged you under.”

I blinked at the winged man, baffled. “My… mother?”

He flew us onto a ship’s deck, and I fell over my knees and hacked the water from my lungs, quivering at the pain in my shoulder and back.

A wide circle had formed around me, and I heard a woman barking orders.

“Make way!” she commanded. “Make way, that is my son…! Alexander! Alexander, are you hurt?!”

The woman came hustling toward me, clad in a fur cloak and her braided hair tussled and frazzled around the twinkling gemstones pinned in the strands. She crouched and held a tender, gloved hand to my shoulder wound. “Bloods be good, you’ll need medical attention… I’m glad I resurrected Aiden in time to find you.” She turned to the winged man who’d flown me here. “Aiden, tell the ship nurse to treat Alexander immediately—”

“No,” I said, panting over the floorboards. “I… I’m not Alex…”

But why do I know that name? The thought stabbed my brain, and I clutched my throbbing head. I knew someone with that name… yes, I knew them well… but how?

I shook my head. I had other priorities to see to. “Was another found?” I asked the woman. Death, but she looked familiar. I coughed. “Other than me? A girl, with white hair. She… she was with me—had you found her as well? Please, there is a man after us, I don’t… I don’t know what’s happened to…”

My temples swelled, and I grunted, head shaking desperately.

The woman’s breath died on her tongue. She squeezed my good shoulder and lifted my chin to face her, staring at my eyes. “Seamstress Cleanse me,” she whispered, tears welling. “Xavier…?”

“Yes…” I said slowly, the name familiar. “Yes, that’s right. That’s my name… but I must find my friend.” Her name returned in a blink. “I must find Willow.”

“Oh, Nira be blessed…!” She took my hand eagerly and dragged me toward the cabin. “Lucas! Lucas, come look, we’ve found…!”

“Where am I…?” A voice trilled in my thoughts, a whining ring hitting my eardrums.

I screeched to a stop, the woman’s grip pulled from my fingers.

“Who… who’d said that?” I asked, a chill prickling the hairs on my neck.

“Xavier?” the voice called, shaking. “Xavier, can you hear me?”

I knew that voice… it was… “Alex?” I whispered, remembering the name of my brother.

“Yes!” He laughed, though still sounded shaken. “Where are you? It’s so dark here… There’s n-nothing. But I can see the ship. I can see Mother. Where are you?”

“I… don’t know,” I admitted, gazing at the woman who now stared at me in shock. “Mother…” I said. “Yes, that’s right. That’s who you are—”

Her face suddenly shrank away, the world sucked into a funnel as I was thrown backward.

The world I’d seen had been condensed into a single, circular window, which hung suspended in an empty, black void I now floated in. All traces of pain had vanished, along with the chilled water soaking my garments and hair.

I stared at my hands, at my feet. I radiated with a soft light.

In the window, the woman leapt back. “Death’s Head!” she shouted, her voice crystal clear and echoing all around this void. “Alexander…?”

The window streaked left and right, blinking. “What in Death…?” Alex’s voice hissed. Hands appeared in the window, palms turning in examination. “What was that place? Xavier…? Can you hear me?”

I reached a hand at the window. It was like touching water, the images rippling under my fingers. I pushed on it, pulling myself through—

The void was sucked away behind me, and I collapsed into the outside world, cold and bleeding as the pain burned at my shoulder and back.

Screams echoed from my head.

“Alex?” I panted, searching the deck for him, but couldn’t find him. My breaths grew ragged, the screams worsening. “Alex! Stop it, stop screaming…!”

I clutched my wolf ears, but it did nothing to blot out his frightened cries. I pushed on my skull desperately, staring at Mother. “Wh… what’s happening…?”

Mother’s grey face had drained white, whispering, “Great Mother below.”