Chapter 14 #2
“It smells like death magic.” Meri jabbed one of her blades at the animal, but Sinan expanded his shadow armor, and the tip of her sword stopped as if hitting a stone wall.
Sinan didn’t want to start a full-blown battle with the Lioness, but he wasn’t afraid to demonstrate his ability to defend himself.
Abarsam’s water swords had impressive power, but they couldn’t get past his shadow shields as long as he had the strength to maintain them.
“It should. It’s a corpus animatum I created.
If you react like that every time I use my Gift, this is going to be a difficult partnership. ”
“How many other undead slaves do you have?” Meri kept her swords gripped tight in her hands. “Victims you murdered, then stole their souls so they’d be cursed for eternity—I want to know.”
“Only this one.” Sinan hadn’t expected a Tomb Fighter to accept either him or his abilities, but Meri’s reaction to the small animal was excessive. “He’d been run over and was dying anyway. Besides, Karakoncolos law forbids turning a human into a corpus animatum.”
“Your city is protected by drowned men who crawl out of the water to tear the flesh off their victims.”
Meri knew about the hortdan , Karakoncolos’s aquatic army that defended the underground waterways leading to his city. Her hatred of his people aside, she was oddly focused on corpse spells.
“The hortdan are ancient soldiers cursed centuries ago for razing a city and slaughtering everyone in it.” Sinan tried a muttered spell to force the rat to leave before the Lioness became more violent.
It had no discernable effect on the animal.
“They’ve been haunting the rivers of Zyx long before Karakoncolos was founded. ”
A good thing, too, since they guarded the water routes crucial to delivering food and other goods to his underground home. Although they did make travel by boat more exciting than it needed to be.
Gallmau held his hands out for calm, and Meri jammed her blades back into their scabbards. The prince leaned forward to regard the undead rodent. “Nice pet you have there. Maybe he wants some cheese.”
“It can’t eat food. It’s dead.” Sinan gave up arguing with Meri and focused on stopping Gallmau from hand-feeding the disobedient death construct his limited grasp of ghost spells had created.
The prince held out a piece of cheese from the plate in front of him anyway, and the rat scrambled off Sinan’s arm and hopped onto the tabletop.
Meri’s hands flew to her sword hilts again.
Why hadn’t he spent longer trying to release the animal’s soul? His creation might need a full exorcism, and he didn’t have the skills or time to do that. He might have to ask for his mother’s help, which would be humiliating.
The rat stood up on its hind legs and waddled over to the prince, sniffing the air and ignoring Sinan entirely.
Unlike Meri, Gallmau appeared amused by the corpus animatum.
“You don’t like obeying your Bone Lord master, do you?
” The prince pointed to the platter in front of him and addressed the rodent in soft, sweet tones, as if the creature were a small child.
“And you’re polite enough to accept my friendly offer of dinner, unlike him.
So here you are—three of the finest cheeses in Soissons. ”
The animal’s whiskers quivered at the piece in Gallmau’s huge hands. Then it sprang forward with a snarl, landing on top of the food. The prince pulled back, startled, and the rat and the entire platter of cheese vanished into shadow.
“That was creepy as fuck.” Gallmau grabbed his mug of cider as if it might disappear as well. “Can’t fault your pet for its taste, though.”
Three men walked up to the table, and Sinan dismissed the barrier that kept sound from escaping or entering their space. He knew how this would go, and the time for talking was over.
Two of the trio were visibly intoxicated, with the anger and overconfidence that comes to some men with strong drink. Those he could deal with, possibly by injuring them severely but not fatally. The third was the Shield.
“Fucking death witch, burn in Hell.” One of the drunks led with that, which wasn’t promising.
Sinan sent more shadows swirling around him and began to rise to his feet.
He had only promised not to harm any of the Queen’s subjects unless attacked.
This was a set-up by the Shields, and he wasn’t about to risk his own life by trying to avoid killing people who wanted him dead.
Gallmau sighed and wiped his mouth on his sleeve. “I’ll take the two drunks. You get the big guy.”
“Fine.” Meri put on a flirtatious smile, which was highly inappropriate for the situation. “Sinan, shadow-walk out of here. We’ve got this.”
“I said, burn in Hell!” The man who had spoken first tried to grab the back of Sinan’s neck and began to punch at the shadow shield.
Sinan could use the bands of power to slice the man’s hands off, but the fool would bleed to death in short order. His powers were all—or nothing but death.
“I don’t need the two of you to defend me.
” Sinan sent a jolt of power through his shields, and the man cried out in pain.
That was about it for nonlethal force, and the next time the man tried to touch him, it would be the last thing he ever did.
There were shouts from people in the tavern and chairs started to turn over as a crowd gathered around them.
Not good, not good at all.
“You need us to stop a massacre.” Meri stood up and whipped off the coat she had draped over her dress for the ball. Under her breath, she snarled, “Now, I said.”
Sinan raised his hands and faded into shadow.
He hated to leave like a coward and allow two people who despised his kind to fight for him.
Holding himself inside the darkness, he murmured a prayer to the Lady to give him strength and prepared to step out again.
Like it or not, he had joined forces with the bastard prince and the Lioness of Abdju, and their enemies were his, at least for now.
Meri was suddenly on the table, her long skirt gone, posing like a Kushian court dancer with a tight gold top, uncovered arms, and flowing silk trousers that must have been underneath her Continental-style dress. She waved a pair of large men’s pants in the air as if they were a battle flag.
“Not the first man who’s lost his britches after one look at me, and he won’t be the last.” Meri pointed to the Shield, who was on the floor, red-faced and naked with his shirt knotted around his legs.
Laughter and shouts of “Lioness! Lioness!” rang out from the crowd.
Gallmau grabbed both of the drunks who had been staring open-mouthed at the Shield by their shirts and hoisted them over his head as if they weighed no more than tankards of ale.
“I know most of you think these two are pretty deep in their cups to pick a fight with the Lioness of Abdju and me.” His voice boomed out over the room, and the crowd pointed and roared in mirth as the men clawed at the air helplessly.
“But I say, they’re not drunk enough.” He lowered the men down, then dropped them the final foot in a heap on the floor. “Free drinks for the whole pub—on me!”
The crowd roared and surged forward, slapping Gallmau’s back as Meri blew kisses and brandished her swords in a coquettish pose.
“That’s our true king!” shouted someone to general applause, and Sinan allowed himself to slip away, the heat and noise of the merriment fading away into the cool silence of shadow.