Chapter 34
MERI
M eri slowed Nada down to a stop as they approached the Witch Stone on the outskirts of Lutecia. The day was overcast and cool, and dried leaves rustled under her feet as she swung off the mare and stood in front of the ancient object.
There was no sign of the blood and gore from the violence of a few weeks ago, when Karabil and Tharin had died at this very spot, followed in death by the assassin who had killed them. Meri bowed forward, her hands pressed together, and recited a prayer for the souls of the two brothers.
It was hard to grasp that so much had happened in such a short period of time.
She and Gallmau had returned to Lutecia and faced down a tumult of shock and uproar over the events in Terra Amata.
The Queen had handled the truth about Rixende with poise and grace, but Meri had been with her when she unsealed the envelope that held a farewell letter from her only daughter and had seen the sheen of tears in her eyes.
Xiaolian had finished reading the missive, and her pronouncements afterward had left little doubt she had accepted both Rixende’s decision and her advice on how to handle the aftermath, including naming Gallmau as heir.
Whether he liked it or not, her friend would be formally announced as the Dauphin soon, and he had asked Meri again to stay and join him in a marriage of convenience.
To be more accurate, he had begged her to marry him.
He didn’t want to face the backbiting and intrigue of the Royal Court alone, much less be married off to a stranger for political calculus.
And above all, he wanted Meri to be safe.
A life in the Royal Palace would be safe, not to mention filled with luxury and wealth. The wife of the heir to the Soissons throne would want for nothing. Meri would have the finest food, clothing, and entertainment.
The only thing she wouldn’t have was her freedom.
Karabil and Tharin would have laughed out loud at Meri’s hesitance over accepting Gallmau’s offer. She wished she could talk to the twins about it. But her two friends were dead and gone, and there was only one other person she could turn to for help with this decision.
Of course, that person was dead as well.
After tying Nada to a nearby tree, she walked over to the Witch Stone.
It smelled like the stale air of a long-closed tomb, and she hugged her arms close to her chest, a sudden chill coming over her as she drew closer to the structure.
The movement reminded her of the subtle signs she had noted over the past few days.
A faint soreness when she touched her breasts, a tingling in her chest. Her courses were late as well, but that wasn’t unusual.
Meri often missed a month or more with the demands of training and fighting—but she knew something had changed in her body.
She pulled out Cliona’s relics and bowed her head again. The woman had come from the Order of Katil to kill Sinan and had murdered her friends. But if Meri was using parts of the assassin’s body for her own purposes, she wanted to pay respects to Cliona’s soul, wherever it might be.
Meri held up the eyeballs, the blood-drop irises a contrast to the ivory blankness of the Artifact in front of her, and whispered her long-dead sister’s name.
The scent of the Witch Stone’s magic sharpened as she breathed in and out, and then a pool of shadow spilled out onto the ground in front of her like a toppled ink pot.
Meri took in a few breaths to calm her racing heart and knelt down to touch the unnatural shadow.
Darkness crept up her arm, and then small fingers intertwined with hers.
She stood up, and Sanura’s body rose with her and became solid flesh.
“Hello, Meri.” Sanura reached out to embrace her, and Meri tried not to cringe at the touch of her undead sister’s cold skin. “I wasn’t sure if you wanted to see me again.”
“Is that why you didn’t visit me in my dreams?” Meri pulled back and looked at Sanura, taking in her familiar wide smile and still-chubby cheeks. Her sister was frozen in time as the ten-year-old girl she had been before her murder.
“I thought you might need more time.” Sanura clung to Meri’s hands. “But I’m so happy you called me.”
“I need your advice.” Meri tried to organize her scattered thoughts and push away her fear.
Her sister was an undead Bone Lord who had returned from the grave, but she was family and Meri wanted to talk to someone who had known her before she became the Lioness of Abdju.
“My body feels different, Gallmau wants me to marry him, and I’m not sure what to do. ”
Meri knew what she could do. She could take herbs to regulate her courses, for one thing. Then she could wish the new Dauphin of Soissons good luck and head out to hunt monsters again. A few weeks ago, it would have been an easy decision, even as fond as she was of her friend.
That had been when she had expected Rerek to kill her within weeks or even days. It had been before the horrors and triumph of Terra Amata.
It had been before she and Gallmau had met Sinan.
“I can see possible futures.” Sanura gave her a wistful smile. “Not what will be, but what might be. But you know what’s growing inside you. You don’t need me to tell you that.”
“You’re telling me I got rid of one Bone Lord in my spine, and now I have another one growing in my belly?” Meri laughed at the absurdity of it all.
“Oh, but it’s twins, dear sister.” Sanura gave a giggle of delight.
“One from shadow, and one from light. At least, that’s a path that stretches out before you.
I can only see so much, but there is heartbreak and danger with that choice, as there is with the others you might take.
It’s like—well, a tree that branches out to reach for the sun.
It doesn’t know which leaves will thrive or which will wither and die. ”
Meri considered that for a moment, then bent to kiss Sanura’s forehead. “Thank you. I suppose in the end I should be happy I even have a choice to make.”
Sanura nodded, then held out her hand. Something black and fluttering descended down from the sky, and Meri jerked back before realizing it wasn’t a bat. Her sister closed her hand around the absence of light, and a sealed envelope covered in loops of elegant writing appeared.
“This is from Sister Rixende, for her mother.” Sanura handed the letter to Meri, and it appeared as ordinary as a royal missive sent through death magic could be. “She can be bossy, like you, but I like her.”
She pressed her small hands together and unfolded them to reveal a single piece of paper, creased over and over into an intricate series of folds.
“This is for you and Gallmau from Brother Sinan. He wasn’t sure he wanted to send the letter at all, but in the end he told me that if you summoned me, I could give it to you. ”
“Please don’t wait until I make a pilgrimage to an ancient gravestone set up by demons before you visit me again.
” Meri reached out to stroke her sister’s cheek.
“That annoying ghost rat of Gallmau’s doesn’t hesitate to pop into my rooms any time it wants, so I’m sure you won’t have any trouble getting into the palace. ”
Sanura giggled again, the sound at once familiar and yet unexpected. She had been a happy child, and it shouldn’t be a surprise that she had kept her good humor after becoming a ghost.
Her sister’s shape shimmered, becoming less real. “I will, Meri. I promise. But for now I’ll leave you with your decision and the letters. Whatever you choose, know that I love you and will watch over you.”
She faded away then, and Meri was left alone with two scraps of paper and the memories of a life and family she had left behind in Abdju years ago.
Nada gave a soft snort as Meri walked over to untie her, and she wasn’t surprised to hear the sound of hoofbeats approaching.
Gallmau rode up on Argant, trying to look abashed that he hadn’t been able to wait and allow Meri more time to meet with her sister alone. His undead rat clung onto one of his shoulders, the blue light of its eyes visible even in the sunlight.
“How did it go?” Gallmau glanced at the Witch Stone and then back at her. “My rat became excited all of a sudden, and I thought that meant Sanura had shown up.”
“She did.” Meri mounted Nada and nudged her horse closer to Gallmau. “Rixende is doing well. She gave Sanura a letter for me to give to her mother, so we should send word to the Queen as soon as we get back.”
She looked down the road at the escort waiting for them.
Gallmau had managed to convince his new royal guards, headed by his old friend Tumas, to keep a distance away and give them some privacy.
The men were bunched up in a group on their horses, with a luxurious carriage in reserve, presumably in case Meri had a fainting spell, or some such nonsense.
“Sanura gave me another message, as well.” Meri pulled the folded paper out to show to Gallmau and was only mildly surprised when it unfolded itself in an entirely unnatural way. She was even less surprised that the dark red letters on the page appeared to have been written out in dried blood.
To Her Serene Majesty, Queen Xiaolian, and Monsieur de Rohan, Dauphin of the Kingdom of Soissons:
The Councils of the Living and the Dead in Karakoncolos formally accept your government’s offer of a non-aggression pact between your country and the City of the Blessed.
We have communicated this agreement to the Governor of Iotape, as his city has security arrangements with Karakoncolos, and we withdraw any objections to their resumption of full diplomatic and trade relations with the Kingdom of Soissons.
These agreements do not include the Noviodunam, and we continue to bar visitation of any of its members to Iotape without the Council’s prior permission.
Below the flowing script, a bolder set of letters had been written out in ordinary black ink.
Dear Gallmau and Meri,
If you’re receiving this shadow letter, I’ll take it to mean that you both still agree to visitations by a corporeal spirit and a very disobedient corpus animatum.
I therefore assume you will also accept a short note from me.
I regret that our time together was brief and continue to hope that someday we will cross paths, and not swords, again.
Sinan
They both reached the end of the letter at the same time, and the look of longing on Gallmau’s face was so intense Meri felt a pang of sympathy, whether for him or both of them, she couldn’t tell.
“I didn’t expect him to write.” Gallmau accepted the note from Meri and tucked it into a pocket. She half-wanted to take it back and keep it herself.
The two of them set off down the road to the waiting guards and Gallmau blurted out, “Look, Meri, I know how difficult life in the Royal Court can be. If you want to get far, far away, I promise I’ll help you slip out through the garden maze without anyone being the wiser.”
Meri laughed. “Honestly, I’d make a run for it if I thought you would come with me. But we both have our obligations now.”
Meri had always chosen her freedom over anything else. But that was in the past, and today she had made a decision about her future. She would stay in Soissons with Gallmau to take care of him and whoever else came along.
Her hand dropped to pat her abdomen and she watched as Gallmau’s eyes widened. “Even Sanura can’t tell me for sure what will happen, but I have a feeling it’s going to get interesting.”