1
Prologue
HELENA WONDERED SOMETIMES IF SHE STILL HAD eyes. The darkness surrounding her never ended. She thought at first if she waited long enough, some glimmer of light would appear, or someone would come. Yet no matter how long she waited, there was nothing.
Just endless dark.
She had a body; she could feel it wrapped around her like a cage, but no amount of effort or determination could make it move. It floated inert and unresponsive except when jerking violently as the surges hit—jolts of electricity tearing through her, beginning at the base of her neck and making every muscle in her body seize violently. As suddenly as they came, they’d be gone. They were her only sense of time.
They were done to ensure her muscles couldn’t deteriorate altogether while she was in stasis. Helena remembered that detail. Remembered that she’d been placed there as a prisoner, kept preserved, but someday, someone would come for her.
At first, she’d counted the time in between surges to calculate their frequency. Second by second. Ten thousand, eight hundred. Every three hours without fail. Always the same. Then she’d counted the surges, but as the number grew and grew, she stopped, afraid to know.
She forced herself to focus on other things, not the wait. Not the endlessness. Not the dark. She had to wait, so she gave herself a routine to keep her mind fresh. Imagined walks. Cliffs and sky. Visited all the places she’d ever wandered. All the books she’d read.
She had to endure. To stay alert. That way she would be ready. She had to stay ready.
She would not let herself fade away.
CHAPTER 1
WHEN LIGHT CAME, IT NEARLY SPLIT HELENA’S brain open.
There was screaming.
“f**k! How’s this one awake?” A voice broke through the sensory agony.
Light was stabbing her. A spike driven through her eyes, burrowing into her skull. Gods, her eyes.
She writhed. The brightness blurred, careening. The burn of fluid rushed down her throat. A roar in her ears.
Slick fingers dug into her arms, against bone, dragging her up. Air hit her lungs, sending them seizing as the fluid came back up.
“f**k this stasis gel. Can’t get a decent grip. Make her shut up! She’s about to drown herself.”
Her head slammed into something as she was dropped. Rough stone tore her hands. She scrabbled blindly, trying to push herself up. Her eyes squeezed shut, but the light was still a knife in her skull. A hard object was ripped off the back of her neck, and something warm and wet ran across her skin.
“How the f**k is she awake? Someone must’ve f****d the dosage on this one. Don’t let her crawl off.”
Her arms were gripped again, and she was heaved up from the ground.
She tore herself free, forcing her eyes open. All she could make out was blinding white. She lunged towards it.
“You f*****g b***h, you cut me!”
Pain exploded across the back of her head.
THERE WAS STILL LIGHT WHEN she regained consciousness.
It came slowly, as though she were underwater, swimming towards a surface that rippled just beyond reach, consciousness seeping back in. Her eyes were closed; the light was just beyond them. She could feel the pain of it already.
She was lying on something hard. A cold table, its metal inert beneath her fingers.
She could dimly make out voices, muffled but close.
“Well?” A woman’s voice. “Any others?”
“No.” A man’s voice. That first voice from earlier. “We’ve pulled the rest out. It was just this one stored wrong.”
“And she was conscious when you opened the tank?”
“Sure was. Started screaming when we lifted the top and pulled her up. Gave me a heart attack, I can tell you. Willems was so startled, he nearly drowned her, and when we did get her out, she was f*****g feral. Scratched the s**t out of me until we got her knocked out. Had the intravenous and all, but the sedation was turned off. Someone must’ve bumped it.”
“That doesn’t explain the lack of records for this one,” said the woman. “Seems odd.”
“Probably done in a hurry. Couldn’t have been kept for long. Even the ones properly done are mostly dead. Lot of the tanks are just soup and bones.” The man laughed nervously.
“We’ll know more once I have her in Central,” the woman said. She sounded disinterested. “You were right to call this in. It’s anomalous. Let me know how many of the rest wake. Any corpses intact enough for reanimation go to the mines. The living stock goes to the Outpost.”
“Of course. And you’ll put in a good word for me, right? It would mean a lot if it comes from you.” The man sounded hopeful, and his chuckle was forced. “Not getting any younger, you know.”
“The High Necromancer has many petitions to consider. Your work will not be forgotten. Have a lorry made ready for transport.”
There were retreating footsteps followed by an irritated sigh.
“There’s no need to feign unconsciousness; I know you’re awake. Open your eyes,” the woman said. “I’ve altered your senses, so the light shouldn’t be too much.”
Helena peered cautiously through her lashes.
The world around her was greenish dusk, every form shadow-like. The vague shape of a person moved on her right side.
Her eyes followed sluggishly.
“Good. You’re following instructions and tracking motion.”
Helena tried to speak, but a low gasping emerged.
There was a click of a pen and papers shuffling.
“So, Prisoner 1273, or are you Prisoner 19819? You have two inmate numbers, and there’s no record of either in this facility. Do you happen to have a name?”
Helena said nothing. Now that the mere concept of light was not a terror, she could think a little. She was still a captive.
The woman gave an impatient huff. “Do you understand me?”
Helena gave no response.
“Well, I suppose I can’t expect much. We’ll know soon anyway. You, bring her.”
The shape blurred away, and new figures appeared. Cold skin pressed against her wrists. The stench of chemical preservatives and old meat burned in her nose. Necrothralls. She tried to make out the faces, but her eyes kept sliding off, refusing to focus.
The table began vibrating as it was rolled across a stone floor, radiating through her skull into her teeth.
Then it was so bright, it was like needles being driven into her retinas. She gave a muffled scream, squeezing her eyes shut again.
There was a nauseating lurch upwards, and everything grew darker again, a motor rumbling to life somewhere beneath her.
She needed to escape. She tried to shift and felt the clank of metal.
“Lie still.” The woman’s voice was suddenly back. Very close.
Helena jerked away, breath coming in rapid pants and her hands and feet twisting against the restraints. She had to run. She had to—
“Don’t make my day harder,” the woman said, her voice icy.
Fingers gripped the base of Helena’s skull, and a pulse of energy flooded through her brain.
Darkness again.
