Chapter 25
MERI
M eri held out one of the swords Abarsam had given her, watching as the tip of the blade vibrated. In her other hand, she held one of Sinan’s ghost lanterns, glowing enough to illuminate several feet around her.
She had never tried anything like this. Her curved swords were infused with the Grand Vizier’s aquamancy—she knew that much. They had proved to be potent weapons against monsters and death magic. Now, here she was, using a necromancer’s ghostly lamp to help her cast her own water spell.
As the exhausting day had slid into twilight, Sinan had shown her and Valentina everything he had brought with him in his pack, an obvious ploy to defuse the tensions between her and Gallmau.
She knew about the medical supplies, but not about the nature of the waterproof silk of his pack, which was woven from the webs of a horrifying Archaic spider-like monster that lurked around Karakoncolos.
He had also brought food rations known as corpse meat—and was puzzled by the women’s lack of interest in trying the necromantically preserved beef.
Two other items caught her attention—and fascinated Valentina, who deluged Sinan with technical questions.
Meri cared only for their usefulness. The first was a metal sphere, created by an Artifex that somehow both he and Valentina knew, which emitted an ear-splitting bang and a flash of blinding light.
It required no magic, death or otherwise, to use.
He had only one left, having used the others when he and Gallmau were fending off their attackers.
Since Meri had little interest in non-lethal weapons, she insisted Valentina take the device, and the medica agreed, after some hesitation.
The second were ghost lamps, miniature versions of the beautiful hammered-bronze lanterns of Western Kush, with star shapes cut out of the metal to create a delicate cage for the light within.
They were more elegant and strange than the electromantic lanterns she was familiar with and required some magic to activate.
Sinan couldn’t turn them on, and Valentina wouldn’t, even though the necromancer argued that even if they relied on necromantic power, there weren’t any actual ghosts inside, so why should it be a problem?
Meri had touched her blades to the ghost lamps and was surprised when the two of them emitted a fractionated glow of green light. She grabbed one, announced she was taking first watch and looking for drinking water, and had left the camp before Gallmau could stop her.
Meri turned to the right, and the blade stopped vibrating.
Turning left brought out a faint tremble in the steel.
Progress. It had occurred to her that if her blades could activate a magical device from Karakoncolos, perhaps the ghost lamp could allow her to use her weapons as water-divining rods.
Perhaps it was sacrilegious, but if the Prophets truly disapproved of her trying witchcraft, why would they allow her to succeed?
After all, the man who had created the magic in the blades was himself a pious follower of the Three Prophets.
Devout, but ambitious. Could Abarsam be ruthless enough to help kill off his competitors?
She didn’t want to think of it as a possibility, but in the back of her mind she thought of the coincidence that Abarsam had been in the South of Soissons, close enough to arrive in Lutecia in time to lend his assistance to Jacques.
He had even convinced the incensor to pretend that Zhang Jue had sent an invitation to him.
After another quarter of an hour of painstaking focus, she heard a faint burbling of water in front of her.
Her blades had led her to a small stream—one more gift from Abarsam the Magnificent.
She knelt beside the rushing blackness of the water and said a quick prayer of thanks to the Prophets before filling the water pouches she had brought with them.
Little things could get you killed as easily as large ones, and all of them needed to keep up their strength if they were to have any hope of finding Rixende and getting out of this forsaken trap alive.
Then she added another prayer, that she wouldn’t have to fight her old lover.
She rose to her feet, then froze as she spotted a faint glow of light in the looming shadows of the monstrous trees.
The desire to fall into the comfort of speed was overwhelming, but she pushed it aside.
Valentina had been adamant that if Meri used her Gift again before she fully recovered, the searing head pain she had experienced would progress to unconsciousness or even death.
When it came to healing, the medica had proven she knew what she was talking about.
Instead, she used one of her blades to extinguish the light in her hand and moved with careful silent steps. She recognized the odd greenish glow as the other ghost lantern before she could make out Sinan’s graceful silhouette.
The necromancer paused, as if he realized coming up on her too quickly might be hazardous to his health.
In the darkness, the light he dangled from his hand cast a pattern of stars over his ethereal features and ink-black hair.
Sinan could have been one of those desert demons from the tales of Kushian storytellers—unnaturally beautiful strangers who approached travelers at night, some intent on murder, others on seduction.
She held up her own lamp and used her sword to let it blaze light before walking up to him.
He had a smile on his face as she approached. “You’ve mastered your ghost lamp quickly, for someone who didn’t want anything to do with the magic of the Blessed.”
“You’re a bad influence on me.” Meri came closer to him, then reached out to stroke the side of his face.
His eyes gleamed with interest, but he didn’t reach out to touch her back. Instead, he asked permission. “I’d like to kiss you again.”
“Such a polite death witch.” Meri reached up and pulled his face down to hers.
He opened his mouth a fraction, his tongue darting in and sending a shiver of desire through her. They pressed closer, and as he ran his hand down the concavity of her spine to the small of her back, she ground her hips against his, enjoying the low moan that escaped from him.
Meri pulled away from Sinan, laughing. “If we go much farther, I’m not going to be of much use as a guard. Did Gallmau send you out here to check on me?”
Sinan didn’t try to pull her back into an embrace but didn’t move farther away, either. “He wanted to go himself, but I convinced him Valentina would be nervous if she woke up and found me watching over her.”
“Thank you.” Meri decided Sinan saving her from a fight with Gallmau deserved another kiss, and their mouths moved together for a long moment, leaving both of them breathing fast and hard. “I think Valentina makes you nervous—or is it aroused?”
“More of the first than the second,” Sinan admitted.
“And me?” she asked, pressing her chest against his and tracing patterns on his neck with her fingers.
Sinan let out a small sigh. “More of the second than the first.”
“Good.” Meri liked the sound of that. Not that she was jealous of Valentina, but she was already sharing Sinan with Gallmau, and that was quite enough.
Speaking of her favorite bastard prince, Meri needed a plan to give her time to get over her anger at him for accusing Abarsam of the unthinkable—even as she allowed there was a chance Gallmau was right. That wasn’t something she wanted to admit to him.
She pressed her lips near Sinan’s ear. “Gallmau needs rest, and I need him to stop talking about babies and marriage so I can focus on getting us out of this alive.”
“I could try to distract him.” Sinan said this in all seriousness, as if seducing Gallmau would be a challenge. “He gave Valentina his sleeping roll, so maybe he’ll want to come over to mine.”
“He’ll want to, trust me.” Meri gestured to the water pouches slung over her shoulder. “Bring these back for me and get Gallmau off so he’s sleeping when I finish first watch.”
Sinan laughed—a lovely sound, nothing like what she would have expected from a Bone Lord—and then his face took on a more somber expression.
“I could sense when an owl killed a rabbit near the camp. Some of my Gift is coming back, but not much and not fast enough, especially since we’re facing more than one sorcerer. ”
One of the sorcerers could be Abarsam. No, Meri wasn’t going to believe that. “We don’t even know where our enemies are located, much less who they are.”
“I think they’ll send out the Azhdarchid in the morning to see why their men didn’t return.
” Sinan thought about battle the way she did—logically trying to guess his opponent’s next move, then planning how to counter it.
In many ways, the two of them weren’t so different.
“If we can spot it in flight, we might be able to trace its path backward toward whoever is controlling it. It’s likely the beast master would keep Rixende close to him. ”
“It’s a good idea.” Meri slipped off the straps of the water bottles and dropped them to the ground.
“I have a bad one, if you’re interested.
” She let her hand run down the front of his chest, then lifted up the smooth fabric of his shirt to stroke the hard curves of his abdomen.
Making love again to someone who should be her worst enemy wasn’t the wisest decision, but she didn’t care.
Her hand moved lower, and she undid the drawstring on his trousers.
Sinan pulled her toward him and began moving over the skin of her neck and chest with his mouth, arousing her with a series of gentle nibbles. Heat flushed through her body, flaring between her thighs.
Getting close to death did this to her—made her treasure the pleasures of life even more.
“I like your bad idea.” Sinan worked his way back up to her ear, pulling on the lobe with his teeth. “Maybe I can distract you and Gallmau tonight.”