The Bitter Taste (3 page)

A smooth, solid black band rested on her left
index finger.

“This is for our daughter- and then for every
first-born daughter throughout time. It will bring great strength
to them.”

“I will keep it safe for them.”

He looked down at her. Yau smiled, pulled
away and moved to stand in her circle. She took the knife from her
belt and stared at it before staring back out to sea. The sun had
disappeared below the horizon now and the sky was filled with blood
red clouds.

“I’m coming, Tepil. I swear it.”

She placed the tip of the knife to her wrist.
Sweat broke out between her shoulder blades as it always did at the
thought of slicing herself open. She looked down at the criss-cross
of old scars and smiled. There was no fear this time. She sliced
the knife up from wrist to forearm and chanted the words her lord
had whispered to her the previous night.

*

She dropped to her knees and pushed her hand to the
soil, forcing her blood into the earth, calling to those whose
bones lay within its embrace.

She felt them answer- an echo of life as her
rich blood lent them the power to move once more, to regrow the
sinew and muscle they needed to rise.

When she closed her eyes she could see
through theirs- she could feel the grit in their sockets, knew the
cold, suffocating pressure of damp soil. She urged them on- to
scrabble and scrape until they were free of the rotted shrouds, to
claw the earth away until she could see the stars.

She turned her head towards the village,
opened her eyes and watched as the ground erupted and the dead rose
up, able and willing to do her bidding.

She heard a scream, quickly followed by
shouts and horrified moans as the dead all turned to face her,
awaiting her command.

She could see Amoxtl, his corpse the freshest
amongst the dead. She felt nothing for him. Her friend was no
longer there, but she knew he would want the honour.

With a thought she sent them down to the
lagoon. The older ones shuffled, barely able to control their
movements, and with every movement the wind carried to her the
wheeze of air trying to move through paper-dry lungs. The more
recently dead moved faster, keeping pace with Amoxtl as he raced to
finish what he had started in life.

She turned to face her consort.

“Perfect,” he rasped, his tongue lashing
wildly in his broken mouth.

“Oh Gods above,” another voice said.

“Go home, Nan,” Yau said without even turning
round.

“Child, what have you done? Tounatil protect,
you deal with devils this night!”

“Tounatil is powerless to protect. Look at
the sky- already he sleeps.”

“Yau, stop this- you cannot wake the dead,
you are not a God- you earn the wrath of them all with this.”

“Not all,” said Yau, and she smiled, looking
directly at Nan. “You were kind to me,” she said. “I’m sorry- but I
will not leave my brother to wander lost, not when the Lord of all
Souls waits so patiently for him.”

“Yau, please- it is not too late- give the
dead their rest, come back with me- it is not too late”

“It was too late the minute the priests gave
my parents to the Harvest.”

Yau gave Nan one long, sorrow-filled look,
and then turned back to the sea. She closed her eyes and groaned as
she stared through a multitude of focal points.

She felt their minds, sluggish and decayed
and gave them two simple orders – Find Tepil's remains, and also to
kill any sea maiden that tried to stop them.

Her inner vision blurred as they disappeared
under the water, and instinctively she pushed more energy into
their eyes, changing them until she could see again.

She gasped. It was beautiful. The water was
clear, if dark, and every living creature had a glowing aura of
white light that seemed to illuminate the water around it.

She pushed the dead forward, almost in a
trance she raised the sacrificial knife and sliced open another
artery. The more blood they had the stronger her small army would
be. She didn't hear Nan's cry of fear, or the deep satisfied sigh
of the God- all she knew was that she could see the sea maidens,
and their inky black eyes were filled with curiosity and a slowly
growing fear as the dead moved ever closer to their lair.

Yau grinned and the blood lust rose inside
her. She took every ounce of hate and grief, anger and resentment
and she pushed it through her blood and into the ground, forcing it
along the black lines of magic to her army. Even the longest dead-
those no more than skeletal husks felt the emotion enter them. As
one their movements became more coordinated. Languid, almost
floating hands became claws, reaching out and tearing into the soft
flesh of the merfolk.

The water became murky with scales and blood.
The Maidens' shrieks filled Yau's head even as she heard nothing,
and she pushed harder, wielding her weapons, moving with them,
pulling chunks of hair from scalp, ripping fins from tails. As the
excitement built up in her, the dead became more animated. Dead
eyes showed her fear and horror, dried up tongues became plump, and
Yau could taste the bitter tang of sea-blood in her mouth.

A maiden flashed past, a jagged knife slicing
through zombie flesh. Yau felt the pain in her body and gave the
walking corpse free reign. It lurched forward, gripping the
mermaid, bony fingers digging easily into the gelatinous flesh,
bursting through veins and sinews. The maiden writhed, fighting
back, but the zombie merely opened its rotten maw and sank its
teeth into her side, biting and chewing until blood and organs
formed a murky cloud around it and the mermaid stopped
struggling.

The merfolk fought back in panicked frenzy,
arcing through the water, quick like the silverfish on the spring
tide. They ripped bones apart, wrenched skulls from necks and
battered them against the seabed rocks, but Yau didn't care,
already she had shifted her focus, pulling away from one lost case
to attack from another angle. She rested in Amoxtl's mind, watching
as the zombies tore the mermaids apart. In her semi-conscious state
she could hear the death cries of the maiden's- a high pitched
squeal that seemed to make the sands beneath Amoxtl's feet shift.
Yau cursed. She was running out of time, the stream of power from
her body weakening as the wounds clotted. Leaving her zombie army
to wrestle with the fish people, and embedded deep in Amoxtl's
mind, she searched for her brother.

Rocks were little problem to her, she had
Amoxtl turn them over, pulling at them even as she fought to
rebuild his ripping muscle. Shrimp scuttled around them, nipping at
the dead flesh.

An eel moved out of the coral and wrapped
itself around Amoxtl's leg, biting into the sagging flesh. Yau
ignored them all. She could see her brother, his face bloated, the
skin ripping as he swelled up.

Up on the cliff, Yau gave a choked sob. She
hated to see him this way, to see how the maidens had sacrificed
him. She squeezed her palms, and her blood oozed out into the
ground. She sent the tendril of magic to her brother, and watched
as the facsimile of life bought colour to his face.

He looked up at her as she stared out of
Amoxtl's eyes, and there was no hint of the man she had known, just
the remains, waiting for her to control and bury him.

She called out to him, Amoxtl's mouth opening
in a mirror image of her own, and water flooded the orifice. Yau
used him to claw at her brother, pulling him from the entrapment,
fighting against the current to keep the rocks from crushing him
and keeping him from the air.

The sound of shrieking maidens quietened, the
ocean became gradually more silent and Yau gasped.

In her protective circle she coughed and a
jet of sea foam splattered onto the grass. She was losing them- the
connection fading.

She reached out for the knife.

“No, Yau! Stop it!” Nan screamed, fists
smashing ineffectually against the magical barrier.

The God laughed.

“Yes!” He cried. “Do it!”

Yau dragged the knife blade up the length of
her inner wrist. Blood gushed, soaking the ground. Yau felt the
pulse and she screamed as her mind careened down the lines, calling
out to the dead. The floating corpses of the maidens began to
twitch; the fallen bodies of humans once more began to move. Yau
spread her mind around all of them, bringing them to one place,
ripping into the last of the maidens. She felt every cut and blow
inflicted on her army, but she cared nothing for them. She plunged
a fist out, grabbing a handful of slimy, matted hair. The mermaid
screamed; the sound deafening, but Yau let her host pull it closer,
sinking its teeth into the soft flesh, ripping a chunk out of the
throat. The scream died, the maiden convulsed, clawing at the
zombies face and still Yau let it tear the mermaid apart, until
there was only a torn up skeleton left- and when it was truly dead,
Yau pushed her essence into the body and bought it back, sending
the corpse back into the fight to rip her sister's limb from
limb.

Those maidens that still lived stopped
fighting for Tepil's corpse and instead began fighting to get away.
As they fled, Yau's shout of triumph echoed around the cliff's, and
as the dead pulled the rocked away from Tepil, she turned from the
sea to stare at Nan.

“He's free,” she told the weeping woman,
grinning. “And he will be buried and he will rest in peace.”

“At what cost,” Nan whispered, hugging
herself. “Look at what you've done!”

Yau didn't answer, she glanced at the God,
who stood tall and proud, watching as the dead emerged from the
water, traipsing across the sand.

“You are a worthy queen,” he murmured, “and
the line will only get stronger through the generations.”

Yau turned to stare at her army, lurching and
hobbling back up to the village. The people stood there, making
signs against them, weeping when they saw someone they recognised,
and Yau continued to stand there, blood dripping down her arm,
soaking into her clothing.

No one dared come up to her, though she could
already see the priests guarding against her. Her hut burned in the
night. She smiled, glad that they had severed her ties to them.

Tepil stood at the edge of the grave site,
and Yau stepped out of the circle. She felt the magic crack and
break around her, and the zombies shuddered, the magic seeping out
of them.

Yau moved as quickly as her tired body
could.

“Tepil,” she murmured, and the corpse turned
to face her. She flinched away from the face- rotting, bulging
flesh turning her stomach at last.

Someone brushed past her, and she felt Amoxtl
fading in her mind as he returned to his grave.

“I need a shovel,” Yau murmured, swaying on
her feet.

Warm hands gripped her from behind.

“No, see- there is already a grave for your
brother,” the god whispered in her ear.

Yau forced her head to move, and she could
see it, next to the altar- a deep hole waiting to hold her
brother.

She smiled, and looked at him, willing him to
understand her final order.

Tepil moved, squelching, and Yau winced as
strips of skin left a slimy trail where he stepped.

“Who dug it?” she asked.

“What are Godly powers for if not making my
queen’s wishes come true?”

Yau smiled and watched her brother sink into
the hole.

“Go to sleep now,” she murmured, her eyes
growing heavy as her body gave into exhaustion. “I'll see you in
the afterlife, my brother.”

She blinked and the hole was filled. Nan
whimpered on the grass.

“I have one last gift for you,” the god said.
Yau turned.

Tepil smiled at her. No bloating, no half
eaten face or eyes. He was perfect and solid.

“Thank you,” he said; his voice just as she
had heard it the morning he went fishing.

“Rest in peace, my brother,” Yau said,
smiling. “I will see you in the afterlife one day.

He smiled and nodded. The god lifted a hand
and darkness shrouded Tepil. He was gone before Yau could process
it.

“You are ready to move on from this place?”
the god asked.

Yau crouched in front of Nan. The older woman
wept, but she clung to Yau when she reached out.

“Thank you- for everything,” Yau said. Her
voice was thick with unshed tears. “You were the only true friend I
had. I’m sorry I could not be the daughter you needed.”

She stood and backed away from the older
woman. Tears streamed down Nan’s face.

“I’m ready,” Yau said.

She felt him step close behind her, and the
nothingness that enveloped her was like an old friend.

Yau accepted it; let it flow over her body.
She didn’t know where she was going or what would happen to her
once she got there, but she felt safe. Nothing bad would happen
whilst she carried a god’s child within her, and after that...
well, she would deal with the future when it came.

About the author

Leanne is a graphic designer and complementary
therapist by trade. Writing is her escape. She lives in the middle
of nowhere, England with her long suffering other half and three
cats. Sometimes she emerges from her ever growing aloe vera forest
and grumbles at the outside world before retreating back into the
shadows.

Occasionally she blogs over on her
website
, but more
often than not she’s hunched over her desk drawing and muttering to
herself.

Other Titles by Leanne Fitzpatrick

The Bitter Taste

Runaway Dead: A Cherry Garcia Investigation

In the Hands of a Saint: A Cherry Garcia Short
Story

Dare to connect socially

Twitter:
http://twitter.com/AcidAmoeba/