Chapter 13 #3
“This is purely a professional call. I have something to show you.”
“Can you bring it to my office?”
“Afraid not. It needs to stay put.” I gave him Ronald’s address. “Dr. Adam and I will be here waiting for you.”
Zachariah’s low chuckle reverberated in my ear. “You and Dr. Adam, huh? How’s that going?”
“Purely professional, Zach.”
“If you say so.” He hung up. Smug bastard always had to have the last word.
As I paced the floor, I typed a text message to Vale, asking whether all his resources were now devoted to the Coranians. We had all the information we needed to find Leanne. What we didn’t have was time.
A curt knock on the door alerted me to Zachariah’s arrival. He entered the condo dressed in one of his many golf outfits. White polo shirt. Red-and-blue argyle shirts. Knee-length red socks. White shoes.
“You look like a court jester,” I said.
“And you look like you rolled right out of bed.”
“You said you were in your office when I called.”
“I was. I played this morning.”
“Don’t you ever get bored of it?”
“I find ways to keep things interesting.” He spared a glance over my shoulder at Dr. Adam, approaching from the hallway. “You should try it sometime.”
“Hello, Zachariah,” the druid said. “Has Maya updated you on the situation?”
“No. She issued a command. For some strange reason, I found myself agreeing to it.”
“Right this way,” I said. “We need to work in the bedroom.”
“I said we might be friends,” Zach said. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” Zach stopped short in the doorway and observed the life-sustaining equipment. “Oh, I see. Is he alive?”
“Barely.”
“Is this why you called me here? You know I’d prefer to conduct my services in my office.”
I plucked the cane from against the wall and thrust it at Zach. “We need information on this.”
Zach scrutinized the cane. “Bone?”
“I knew you’d recognize it immediately.”
“I’m flattered.” The necromancer walked to the window and held the cane up to the natural light. “Bones have great significance in a variety of cultures.”
“Kind of significant for holding bodies together too.”
Zach gripped the cane like a golf club and pretended to putt an invisible ball. “This moves beautifully. Light but sturdy. I’m envious.”
“Ronald isn’t using it for golf.”
“Ah, yes. The question remains—what is he using it for? I’d always assumed it was needed for him to walk, but now that I’m holding it in my own two hands, I can see that’s not the reason.” His hand slid down the length of the cane. “What do you know about Koschei the Deathless?”
“Nothing.”
He clucked his tongue. “Education has become a mockery.”
“I’m a kinesthetic learner. I learn by doing.”
Zach raised his eyebrows. “Trust me, Maya. I’m unsure what your kinks are, but I feel confident you do not want to do Koschei the Deathless.”
He had me there. “Tell me about him.”
He set the cane against the wall. “Koschei was Slavic. The short version is that his soul was hidden inside a needle, that was inside an egg, that was inside a duck, then a hare, then a chest.”
“Those had to be the weirdest Russian nesting dolls ever.”
Zach’s disapproving look appeared. Message received. “Some regional versions of the story say that Koschei’s immortality was preserved in his bones. The only way to kill him was to destroy the bones or scatter them.”
“Those types of stories usually involve a villain. Ronald is hardly a villain.”
“Not always. Norse. Celtic. Many cultures have tales where bones act as soul anchors or house one’s essence.
Look at the ancient Egyptians. They believed that ka, their word for life-force, required a physical anchor.
Bones were carefully preserved during mummification because any damage to them could prevent reunification. ”
It was easy to understand why. They outlasted flesh and other parts of the body. Bones endured.
“Okay, but none of that explains why Ronald would anchor his soul to the cane. He’s an ordinary elf.”
“I would venture a guess that perhaps this young ordinary elf would have preferred to be something more extraordinary. Perhaps this cane was the closest he could get.”
I studied the elderly elf currently wasting away in his bed. Zach’s theory backed up my own. Young Ronald had longed for immortality. Ronald, you clever fool. How could you know at such a young age that you’d want to live forever?
“Incredible work, Maya,” Dr. Adam said. I’d become so engrossed in my discussion with Zachariah that I’d forgotten the druid was in the room.
Zach gazed at me with a look bordering on approval. “You came up with this theory on your own?”
“It was more of a hunch, really.” My intuition had been honed like any other skill. It was good to know that one hadn’t grown dull like so many others.
“But does your hunch tell you how he did it?”
“Not without help, I imagine.”
“Definitely not. I’d wager one of his bones was chosen as the receptacle, then part of his soul was interred there. The bone was then removed from his body and added to the staff.”
I gazed at Ronald. “Which bone would’ve been removed?”
“If we examine his body for scarring, I believe we’ll find the answer.”
“The cane is the length of his hip to his foot,” Dr. Adam said. “It isn’t possible.”
“It’s combined with other bones that don’t belong to your elf. You’re a doctor. Which bone would you have chosen?”
“None of them,” the healer replied.
“Fair enough. Ronald’s an elf. If I were him, I would’ve chosen a bone from his ear. One would only need the smallest of bones to preserve a soul outside the body.”
To become deathless.
Dr. Adam leaned over to examine Ronald’s pointed ears. “There’s a small scar here,” he said, observing the left one. “You wouldn’t even notice it if you didn’t know to look for it.”
Many youthful decisions were reckless and foolish. Ronald’s youthful hubris was the only thing keeping him alive right now. Without the cane anchoring him to this world, the elf would have quickly succumbed to the faerie’s “charms.”
“How do you know so much about this subject?” I asked Zach.
“Isn’t it obvious? I’m a necromancer. Overcoming death is one of our favorite topics.”
“I wouldn’t describe what you do as overcoming death.”
He gave me a flat look. “I literally raise the dead, Maya.”
“But it’s only temporary. You have a quick chat and then they’re back to being dead.”
“Would you be more impressed if I were able to raise an army of zombies?”
I blanched. “Don’t even joke about that. I’m a one-woman security team at the moment.” I clasped the elf’s pruned hand. “Promise me you’ll hang in there, Ronald. The cavalry is coming. They’re just taking the slow boat.”
I turned to leave and noticed Zachariah gazing at me in quiet contemplation. “What?”
He shrugged. “Your bedside manner isn’t terrible.”
“I’m growing on you, aren’t?”
“Like a fungus.”
“I promise to hold your hand, too, should you ever find yourself in a lovesick coma.”
He raked a hand through his perfect hair. “I’m far more likely to succumb to my own reflection in a lake.”
“I bet you have a piece of your soul squirreled away for safekeeping.” Like ordinary elves, necromancers weren’t immortal.
He followed me down the hallway. “I know I may seem arrogant and selfish to you, but I have no desire to surpass my expiration date.”
I glanced at him sideways. “You know what, Zach? You’re growing on me too.”
“Let’s keep this between us, shall we? I have a reputation to uphold.” He reached the living room first and ground to a halt. “What on earth?”
It took me a second to notice the shadow that clung to the ceiling.
When it realized it had been spotted, it jumped to the light fixture and swung to the opposite wall.
“Wait!” I yelled.
The shadow didn’t wait. It slid through the imperceptible gap between the window and the sill.
Zach stared at the window. “Was that the shadow-man that killed Darlene?”
“Yes.” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “And I think he was here to claim me as his next victim.”