Chapter 18 #2
That was an odd choice of words, but Meri certainly would prefer Gallmau tend to her wounds than a necromancer.
He followed Sinan’s instructions, washing and drying the bloody slashes, then applying a poultice of herbs the necromancer handed to him before binding Meri’s chest and back with strips of cloth.
He could see a framework of older, healed scars as he worked.
Meri had never told him how bad her curse had become. She should have trusted him. She should have told him everything. What if this was when the undead necromancer inside her finally killed her? He didn’t know what he would do if he lost both Meri and Rixende on this cursed trip.
While Gallmau finished up the bandaging, fear and anxiety spiking through him, Sinan brought over three steaming cups.
As he had promised, they contained fragrant tea that wouldn’t have been out of place in one of Queen Xiaolian’s formal parties.
He sat down cross-legged and took a sip.
“I need to know how an assecula daemonium ended up in a Tomb Fighter’s back. ”
“Is that what Meri’s dead Bone Lord is called?” Gallmau had had enough of strange words and events he couldn’t understand.
“Some of the Blessed can maintain their souls after their bodies die.” Sinan pushed a cup of tea toward Gallmau, pulling his hand back so he didn’t brush fingers with him.
“Often through a binding to part of their remains. I was able to raise Letha because the Noviodunam was foolish enough to bury her burnt bones in their meeting room. But the soul can also be inserted into a different body and live on as a sort of parasite.”
Sinan offered the third cup to Meri, who made no move to take it.
Gallmau reached out to touch her shoulder. “Maybe he can help. At least tell him how it happened.”
“I didn’t cut a Bone Lord’s head off fast enough.” Meri picked up the cup, drained it, and lifted her chin as she replied to Sinan. “I didn’t make the same mistake with Cliona, and your mother stopped me before I could get yours off.”
“It must have happened recently,” Sinan ventured and drew back in surprise when Gallmau shook his head.
“It’s been three years.” Meri put down the cup. “I was on the arena circuit in Diutisc when a mother broke into our quarters to beg me to save her only child. He’d been taken by a Bone Lord, and the local authorities wouldn’t do anything about it. So I did.”
“That’s not possible.” Sinan shook his head.
“The assecula daemonium curse kills its victims in days, maybe weeks at most. If it’s done properly, the Blessed then becomes a corporeal spirit.
I’ve heard of some using the corpse of the person they possessed as a vehicle for a little longer, but not years. ”
Meri kept talking, her gaze far away. “Everyone knew he was a necromancer, of course, and everyone knew he preyed on little kids. Even when the Noviodunam sent their top death witch hunter to Diustic to investigate, nothing was done about him. So Rerek kept killing children—until I showed up.”
“Rerek of Diustic was absolved of all charges of necromancy by Odart of Dol himself.” Sinan said the name with more icy hatred than Gallmau had ever heard—and he had listened to plenty of people curse out the former head of the benandanti.
“Rerek was—well, still is—a powerful veneficus. His primary affinity is poison.”
“I didn’t know any of that.” Meri folded her arms against her chest, wincing as she did so.
“I couldn’t save the woman’s son or the other child we found there.
It was—the most horrible thing I had ever seen.
The arena and the money it brought me weren’t enough after that.
I returned to Kush, and Rerek was waiting for me there. ”
“He attacked you when you returned?” Gallmau had never heard the whole story, only bits of it. Meri had made it clear it wasn’t a subject she was willing to discuss.
“No.” Meri stared down at the floor, her voice low. “He went after my younger sister. I had come back to Kush with a few arena fighters I was friends with. They helped me. I found him, and I killed him. But I was too late to save Sanura.”
“Three murders you tried to stop.” Sinan rubbed at the back of his neck, frowning. “Three years since you killed him.”
“A witch told her that was how long she had left.” Gallmau knew that part. “We had a contract to stop a poisoner in Amor, but Meri cut a deal with her—after we made her promise to stop putting things in people’s wine that shouldn’t be there. Like arsenic.”
“You were going to let her go anyway,” Meri replied. “She started crying about her ten children who would starve without her, and you folded immediately.”
Gallmau wanted to interject that the woman had poisoned men who deserved it anyway, but he needed to focus on Sinan, now that the secret was out.
Hope surged up inside him. “If you know all about this curse, can you help? I brought Meri to Soissons to see if Zhang Jue could do something, but we found out he was dead when we arrived.”
“Zhang Jue was a high-ranking member of the benandanti, and Odart’s closest ally.
” Sinan was certainly familiar with the Noviodunam’s Bone Lord hunters.
Then again, he had killed a good number of them in the Witches’ War.
“He would have ordered Meri’s execution.
Even Abarsam would have been obligated to report her to the Synod, and they would have agreed with the Sorcier du Roi.
The Noviodunam considers any physical contact with one of us a criminal act, much less a full assecula daemonium possession. ”
Saints, bringing Meri to Zhang Jue would have been a disaster. “But you’re a necromancer. You know how the curse works, and that means you know how to get rid of it.”
Sinan fell silent for a moment, then bit his lip. “The curse is advanced ghost magic, and that isn’t my strong suit. There’s also the issue that Rerek has been feeding off of me and the thaumaturgic power I stored in my sigils. He’s more powerful now.”
“You made your pet rat a ghost.” Gallmau made a mental note to give the freaky little guy another piece of cheese if it showed up again. The rodent had certainly proved itself a boon companion on the frozen lake.
“That enchantment didn’t go the way I wanted it to.
” Sinan looked uncomfortable, then continued.
“What I could do is a summoning spell to call up my mother and other members of the Council of the Dead. The Artifact has created shadow wards around this entire area, but they can appear here in non-corporeal form.”
“No.” Meri’s mouth was set in a firm line Gallmau knew all too well. “I’m not going to become an undead slave to Sinan or Mother Naghwe. I’d rather die.”
“That’s ridiculous.” Gallmau pointed to Sinan. “We saved his life, and he owes us. Granted, he saved ours first, and we did let a sex demon feed off him by accident, but the point is he should help us, and he’s willing to do it. You can’t say no.”
“Yes, she can.” Sinan wrapped up the soap and remaining herbs and went over to his pack to store them. “She chooses death. That’s her right, and I’ll respect that.”
Gallmau went over to Sinan, grabbed his shoulder and spun him around. Sinan gave a hiss of pain, even though Gallmau hadn’t been as rough as he wanted to be. “Call your talking ghosts and ask them how to save Meri. Now.”
This couldn’t be happening. After all this time, they had finally found someone who might be able to rid Meri of her curse—and he wouldn’t help her. Without Sinan’s intervention, Meri might not be strong enough to leave the Chateau, much less help Gallmau rescue Rixende.
“What part of ‘I worship death’ do you not understand?” Sinan rubbed at his bare chest where Gallmau’s hand had touched him, then began to button his shirt to cover up his skin.
“It’s a central tenet of our beliefs. I don’t know if we could successfully expel Rerek from Meri without killing her, but it’s her choice to refuse the attempt. Not yours.”
“The two of you need to shut up.” Meri had risen to her feet, and both swords were in her hands.
For a moment Gallmau wasn’t sure if the blades were meant for him or Sinan. Then he followed her gaze to the wall of hunting trophies. One of the mounted antlers had begun to vibrate, plaster crumbling around its wooden base. Something was moving behind the wall.
Or someone.
Sinan dove for his sword, and Gallmau backed up to retrieve his own.
The wall shook violently, and one arm burst out, then another. Within a few moments a portion of it had collapsed, and a man with antlers on his head and the same gruesome mouth as the shape on Meri’s back stepped out into the room.
“Rerek.” Meri held her ground, but her hands holding the swords shook. “That’s him.”
Gallmau looked at Sinan. “Now can you do something?”
“Yes.” Sinan lifted his blade, and his shadow ribbons began to swirl around him. “I’m going to try to not die. I suggest you do the same.”