Chapter 22
MERI
M eri awoke to the cool touch of Sinan’s hand on her shoulder. It took her a few seconds to remember what that meant.
“Are you well?” The necromancer looked—more human, somehow. He had stubble around his chin, and his dark eyes had lost that dangerous glitter. “Gallmau and I have everything ready for us to head out, but I should change your bandage first.”
Meri pushed herself into a sitting position and blinked into full awareness. “You can still touch me.”
Sinan gave her a rueful smile. “And I’m still useless as a sorcerer.”
Until last night, Meri wouldn’t have believed necromancy could be cured, much less that she would hope Sinan’s curse would return so he could help them with his death magic. Then again, before they had defeated Rerek she might not have tumbled a Bone Lord, either.
She waited until he had cleaned and redressed the wounds on her back before pulling on her now-dry garments and going to relieve herself.
When she returned she noticed a breakfast laid out near the fire, including hot tea and a warm porridge.
Gallmau hated to see anyone go hungry, and he always handled the cooking when they were traveling.
It was unusual he wasn’t around to urge her to eat more.
“Gallmau went out to scout our surroundings.” Sinan stowed the supplies he had used on her wounds in his travel sack as he spoke.
His pack, made from a pale silk fabric similar to his shroud, had kept his belongings protected even when he had been dragged underwater by the demon catfish.
Her own pack was long gone, since she had thrown it aside to gain better speed when she had tried to rescue Gallmau from the same beast in the lake.
“The storm’s over, but whoever created it is still out there.
If this was our welcome, Jacques and Abarsam were probably attacked as well. ”
“Or they could already have found Rixende.” Meri wanted Gallmau’s sister to be safe, but she also liked to win, and they had lost valuable time fighting the storm and Rerek.
“I can’t sense if the princess is still among the living.” Sinan pulled a small leather pouch from his pack and brought it over to Meri. “Even basic death magic is beyond me now, but I was hoping you might be able to use these relics.”
Meri opened the pouch and pulled out two small objects.
Both were spherical, their surfaces gleaming white except for a red mark, like a drop of blood.
She turned them over and saw fine red lines on the opposite side and a short stalk, as if they had been stone buds lopped off a petrified plant.
They had a hard, smooth surface, more like ivory than polished stone.
It took several moments for Meri to figure out why they looked familiar.
“These look like Cliona’s eyes.” Meri wasn’t often squeamish, but she did have her limits. “Please tell me they’re not.”
“I turned them into bone after I removed them.” Sinan sounded detached and clinical about digging out the eyeballs of the necromancer assassin.
“It’s the first step in creating a talisman from someone with a shadow affinity.
Others of the Blessed could do much more with such powerful relics.
We have our own craftsmen, similar to the Artifex Guild in the Noviodunam. ”
“Let me guess.” Meri kept Cliona’s petrified eyes cupped in her hand, both fascinated and repulsed. “Your artifices make cursed jewelry and attractive vials to store poison in.”
“Cursed or enchanted, poison or medicine—everything depends on how you use it.” Sinan sighed. “Or can’t use it, in my case. I’ve seen mages with no necromantic abilities use relics like these. Since you were recently possessed by an assecula daemonium, maybe they would work for you.”
“I’m not trying necromancy.” Meri slid the spheres into the bag and handed them to Sinan. “Please take your eyeballs back. You told me you considered relics to be gruesome trophies from murdered babies the first time we met, remember?”
“We don’t take trophies. We take useful body parts from those we love and those we hate.
” Sinan tucked the bag into a pocket, perhaps hoping Gallmau would be more accepting of Cliona’s eyeballs.
“In a duel to the death, the loser surrenders their physical remains to the winner. In a natural death, many of the Blessed will pass on their bodies to those they cherished during life.”
“I don’t want chopped-up bits of dead people, whether I hated them or not.
” She could sense Sinan wanted to reach out to her, to continue the rapprochement they had started last night.
That made her uneasy. It wasn’t that she regretted the sex—it had been wonderful, and she had needed a catharsis—but there was such a gulf between the two of them she couldn’t imagine how they could bridge it.
Perhaps it was enough to know Sinan wanted their mission to succeed as much as she and Gallmau did.
More than that was too much, and too scary.
Sinan watched her face, as if seeking clues that would help him understand her. “What if Cliona’s relics could help you communicate with Sanura?”
The agony of seeing her murdered sister’s body years ago flooded back, along with the fresh grief of knowing Sanura’s soul had clung to this world only to save Meri.
“I want my sister to be at peace. She suffered not only before her death but after it, because of me. I have my memories of her—she was in my dreams last night. I don’t want the ability to call her up from the grave. ”
“She hasn’t passed into the Holy Void of Chaos if she dream-walked into your sleep world last night.
” Sinan turned his attention back to organizing his travel pack and cleaning his sword, as Meri tried to absorb what he had said.
She took a deep breath, reminding herself that Sinan, even without his necromancy, still thought and spoke like a Bone Lord. Last night couldn’t change that.
“We should go now.” Gallmau leaned in from the doorway. His posture was stiff, and he avoided looking at Meri, instead directing his comment at Sinan. “The sun’s up, and the snow and ice from last night are melting.”
Now, what had gotten into him? Gallmau sometimes expressed regret about his tendency to sin, but after a few prayers and some cider, he was back to bedding whichever handsome local man had caught his eye.
Granted, tumbling a necromancer like Sinan might require a few extra offerings to his patron saint.
“I suppose I should take your advice and put this on.” Sinan held up the breastplate for Gallmau’s inspection. “Do you still think we should head North?”
“We’ll stick to your plan.” Gallmau turned to leave without a word to Meri, and Sinan tagged along after him, peppering him with questions about the layout of the terrain.
Now she was annoyed. Granted, she had never joined Gallmau in bed with a man before, but it wasn’t like his preferences were a surprise to her.
She couldn’t figure out if he was jealous of her being alone with Sinan or embarrassed about last night.
Either way, they didn’t have the luxury of Gallmau sulking.
They had barely escaped with their lives and still had no idea who or what they would face next.
Cursing men and their moods, Meri crammed the food into her mouth, strapped on her swords, and followed them.
After securing the door of the chateau, the three of them made their way down a different trail off the mountain, through the monstrous trees of the ancient forest that surrounded the hunting lodge.
They could have made faster headway on the sunny meadow that began as the elevation flattened, but Gallmau set a pace so slow Meri wanted to scream.
The prince kept ignoring her, even as he chatted with Sinan about their location and where to search for Rixende next.
She decided to let her friend be, hoping he would get over whatever imagined insult he blamed her for on his own.
Since the two men were absorbed in their conversation, she picked up the pace, determined to scout out the trail ahead by herself.
Then she stumbled over a rise in the ground and almost fell.
It was clumsy of her, but she hadn’t fully recovered from yesterday.
It was an entirely insignificant event, except that Gallmau lost his mind over it.
“You need to be more careful.” Gallmau rushed over and began inspecting her for injuries as if she had run through a gauntlet of assassins from the Order of Katil. “Your back could start to bleed more, and you’re still exhausted from last night.”
“What are you raving on about?” Meri slapped away Gallmau’s hands. “You’ve been a miserable grump since I woke up, and now you’re acting like I’m a walking glass figurine. I slept more last night than you and Sinan did.”
Meri had been too exhausted to be fully pulled from sleep by their carousing, but the two men’s impressive stamina had half-woken her a few times. Too bad all that sex hadn’t distracted Gallmau from his need to be too protective, too much of the time.
“Last night is what caused the problem.” Gallmau shot a glance at Sinan, perhaps for support. The necromancer stood staring at them with his head tilted, clearly as baffled as Meri was by the prince’s behavior. “My—member was inside your—well, you know what happened.”
“You can say we fucked.” Meri often found the prince’s embarrassment when it came to talking about sex cute, but she wasn’t in the mood for this nonsense. “None of the ferocious nuns who taught you making babies is a dirty terrible thing will pop out of the ground and whack your hand.”
“You could be with child.” Gallmau’s face was flushed again, but it was from anger, not shame. “My child. It could be hurt by the fall or in the next fight we’re in. You shouldn’t be here. It’s not safe.”
Meri stared back at him, speechless for a moment. Then she exploded.