Chapter 18
GALLMAU
“ I f I carried you here just so you could try to stab us in our sleep, I’m going to be downright pissed.
” Gallmau sat up and had no trouble locating the weapon he had heard drawn and the person who held it.
Sinan knelt on the floor near his travel pack, which Gallmau had carefully placed near the stove to dry, not wanting to know what might be inside.
The necromancer must have quickly thrown on the servant clothes Gallmau had brought to the room, since he now wore a pair of trousers and an unbuttoned shirt under his shroud cloak.
“What did the two of you do to me?” Sinan kept his grip tight on the hilt of his sword, but he didn’t rise to his feet.
Gallmau recalled what the necromancer had said about never starting a fight he had any chance of losing. Sinan couldn’t be fully recovered from last night, and he had a reason to be suspicious. Meri had cut his clothes off while Gallmau held him down.
Still, the necromancer was more fun to be around when he was unconscious.
“Let me see.” Gallmau decided not to go for his sword and instead try talking to Sinan.
He stood up from the tangle of blankets and walked over to his clothes.
The storm still howled for their deaths outside the lodge, but the room was now comfortably warm, even though Gallmau was nude.
“First, I pulled you out of the mouth of a demon catfish while Meri stabbed it to death. Then I carried you up the damn mountain to the only shelter available. After that, we saved you from freezing to death. Feel free to thank us for any one of those actions.”
Sinan’s eyes had traveled up and down Gallmau’s body when he had first gotten up, but he averted his gaze now—a little too quickly. Maybe the necromancer did like men, or maybe it was all wishful thinking on Gallmau’s part.
“Don’t even think about it.” Meri popped up in front of Sinan, the necromancer’s sword now in her hands.
He jerked back in surprise, not as accustomed as Gallmau was to speed fighter tricks.
Meri was naked as well, and although Gallmau tried to respect her privacy during their adventures together, he had seen her before with little or no clothing on and knew what a stunning body she had.
Now, though—she was a vision of beauty and anger, her skin glowing in the red light streaming out of the stove and her uncovered hair shining like a halo above her head.
The room was dim otherwise, as the high windows on the wall were dark.
It was either too late at night or too early in the morning to be awoken by someone pulling a weapon on them, and Meri looked like Saint Kreztina herself, ready to smite demons with her speed and sword.
Sinan rose to his feet empty-handed, his eyes wide as he stared at Meri. “Are you one of us?”
“I would not recommend accusing Meri of being a Bone Lord when she has your sword in her hand.” Gallmau wriggled into his pants and came over to see if he could stop Meri from doing something rash.
“Are you a venefica?” Sinan was not letting go of this line of questioning, which wasn’t good for his health.
Meri laughed, which might be a sign she wasn’t going to kill Sinan, or might be because she wanted to mock him before she skewered him with his own sword.
“I’m awfully good under the sheets, but I’m not a demoness who drains the life from the men she fucks.” She handed Gallmau Sinan’s sword, which was quite a relief, and went to grab her clothes. “I think you breathed in too much water when that fish tried to eat you.”
“You drained power from me for hours.” Sinan sounded deadly serious—although he tended to sound deadly even in casual conversation.
“First from my cloak, although you shouldn’t have been able to activate any of my sigils.
It should have warmed you, nothing more.
Then I was next to both of you for hours, and you sapped most of the thaumaturgic power I’d stored up.
A speed fighter couldn’t do that, but a venefica could. ”
Meri didn’t respond to Sinan. Instead, she pulled on her pants and ignored him.
“The only Bone Lord parts of you that weren’t drowned froze when I got you out of the water.
” Gallmau had a growing sense of unease about both what Sinan was saying and Meri’s strange reaction to it.
She wasn’t one to back down from a confrontation.
He still felt obligated to take her side.
“You’re lucky to be alive, but you’re wondering why you’re tired and out of sorts with your death magic. ”
“The cold would have killed me, yes.” Sinan answered Gallmau without taking his eyes off Meri, even though she had her back to him. “But it couldn’t feed off the sigils in my cloak. I should have woken up hours ago, even after what you did, and I shouldn’t be this weak.”
Meri stiffened, and Gallmau worried she would turn around and shut up Sinan permanently.
Instead she collapsed.
Gallmau dropped Sinan’s sword and rushed to her side, panic rising in his chest. She arched, the spasms so severe only her head and feet touched the floor.
When her body finally loosened, she tried to twist and rise then fell face down.
For a moment, Gallmau thought the dim light in the room was playing tricks with his eyes.
The bare skin on her back had begun to ripple, as if a rock had been tossed into a pond of flesh.
He reached out his hand to her, unsure of what to do. Part of him knew Meri would never want to reveal her secret to Sinan. The other, terrified part wanted to get on his knees and beg the necromancer for help.
“Don’t touch her back.” Sinan came over and crouched down next to the two of them, his eyes alight with curiosity. A few wisps of shadow swirled around him, nothing like the bands of dark Gallmau had seen previously.
A face took shape in between Meri’s shoulder blades, pressing up through the skin to form jutting eyebrows, a nose, and a wide, voracious mouth. Gallmau swallowed down a rush of nausea, not wanting to see this horror but unable to look away.
“Well.” Sinan let out a sigh. “This explains a lot.”
“You know magic. Do something to help her.” Gallmau turned to Sinan, fury mixing with mounting fear. None of her previous attacks had been this bad, and he had never seen the dead Bone Lord who had cursed Meri. Why was this happening now?”
“Gallmau.” Meri’s voice cracked with agony, but there was no panic there, only resignation and resolve. At least she was still able to speak. “Get my blades and tell that son of a bitch necromancer to stay out of this.”
Sinan cocked his head, that odd movement he made when non-Bone Lords did things that confused him. “I think you should do what she says.”
Gallmau rushed back to their makeshift sleeping pile and grabbed both curved swords, pulling the blades free. He crossed back to find the mouth on Meri’s back forming soundless words as Sinan watched intently.
“I don’t know what you plan to do with these, but I don’t think you’re even strong enough to lift them.
” Gallmau didn’t want to get any closer to the snarling visage on her back, but he was desperate to help her any way he could.
He held out the hilts to Meri, who pushed herself up on her arms and took both swords before collapsing back on her stomach.
She breathed in and out for a few seconds, then raised her arms behind her and slashed at her back, letting out a choked sob.
“Meri, no.” All Gallmau could see was blood and flayed skin, and for the first time in his life he felt light-headed at the sight of violence. He had seen men die—and women, too—but the damage Meri had inflicted on herself affected him more than any of the battles he had been in.
“ Assecula daemonium. ” Sinan rose to his feet and went over to his pack, rummaging through it and taking out a wrapped parcel before crossing over to the stove and lifting the kettle on top of it. “I’ve read about it, of course, but I’ve never seen one inside a living person. Fascinating.”
“What the fuck are you even saying?” Gallmau grabbed the shirt he had been about to put on and balled it up on Meri’s back, pressing as blood oozed and turned the white linen fabric red. “Stop with that Bone Lord babble, and do something useful.”
“I’m making tea.” Sinan didn’t sound upset by what had happened in the slightest, which made Gallmau wish they had left him to be eaten by the catfish. “It would have been helpful to know in advance one of my Blessed-hating companions on this trip was possessed by an undead veneficus.”
“Help me sit up.” Meri interrupted Gallmau from walking over to Sinan and throttling him. He carefully lifted her, alarmed by how much blood was seeping into his shirt.
“How often do you use Abarsam’s blades on your assecula?
” Sinan poured steaming water into a bowl and came over to rest it on the floor, along with his parcel.
He unwrapped the package. Inside was a white, waxy square, a pile of sweet-smelling dried leaves and flowers, and strips of cloth with sigils on them.
“Once a month if I’m lucky.” Meri used one arm to hold the shirt on her back and the other to push Gallmau away from her. She regarded Sinan and his supplies with suspicion. “More often if I’m not. In any event, you’re not using any of your death magic on me.”
Sinan shook his head, put the sigil-marked strips into his pocket, and picked up the white square.
“This is olive oil soap.” He gave it to Gallmau along with a soft rag and motioned to the bowl of warm water.
“Take that dirty shirt of yours off of her and wash the cuts with this. I can’t touch her, and she wouldn’t want me to anyway. ”