Chapter 29 #2
He immediately releases the squeeze, since the only thing he wants to do is plod along so slowly that I’m struggling to walk this slowly myself.
“Now, let’s go.”
“Where are we going?”
“We’re going to check on the houses and see where they are with them. And you’re going to stay on your horse. Put your hands down. Why are your hands creeping so high?”
“I don’t know!”
“I sure would be afraid if he rode up in my world,” Vero says with a whole subway load of sarcasm.
“Vero, I’m going to sic my horse on you,” Riley threatens as he aims the horse toward Vero. The horse is being so careful that Vero is easily outwalking it, though. “Just… give us fifty-two years and we’ll catch up.”
I laugh while I pet Sigma. “You’re a good boy, aren’t you? Taking good care of your rider?”
He snaps his teeth at me and Riley nearly leaps off.
“Why did I get the evil horse? The rest seemed less evil,” Riley says.
I think about the horses that have tried to maim us, attack us, and get in our way, wondering which horse he thought was less evil.
At this point, I think he’s just making up shit in the hope I cave and let him turn his renowned horse of the apocalypse into a retired pasture pet that he might throw apples to once in a while.
We get about halfway to the town before we find Mickey sleeping in the sun. He has a blanket down in the grass and is cuddling a pillow. Vero stomps over and menacingly hovers over him until Mickey grows uncomfortable enough that he opens an eye.
“You do know that you’d sleep less and be less exhausted if you didn’t have so many undead alive all the time, right?” Vero asks.
I hesitate as I question why I’ve never realized this.
Mickey just shrugs. “They’re so happy! Look how happy they are. How can I possibly toss them back underground?” He hugs his pillow and tries to go back to sleep, but Vero pulls the pillow from him and drags Mickey to his feet. Evidently, he’s not done with him.
“Toss some of them back into their graves so you can function. How many do you have active right now?”
“Not that many,” he mumbles.
Vero’s gaze is impressively intimidating. “How many?”
Mickey glances away from him. “We need them to rebuild the town.”
“How many are active that are not currently helping rebuild the town?”
“Like… five.”
Vero’s eyes are piercing. Mickey looks at Riley for help, but Riley is having his own crisis in the form of a very well-behaved horse.
“Fine… four hundred and seven.”
That catches Riley’s attention. “What the fuck, Mickey? You keep four hundred undead alive at all times?”
“I just… how do you bring someone back to life and then say, ‘JK, back to the ground you go!’ It’s too cruel.”
“You have hundreds working here and hundreds more out there just like… living their best lives?” Riley asks in disbelief.
“Shhh. Let’s talk about you and your horse. So cute.”
Vero grabs Mickey and shakes him a little. “Put some back before you kill yourself.”
His body seems to have no life as it flops all around. “I don’t wanna.”
Vero looms over Mickey and fixes him with a vicious look. “Do. It,” Vero growls.
“You can’t make me,” Mickey says, then hurries off to Riley. “Can I ride too? I’m getting bullied on the ground.”
“I really don’t know. He might try to eat you,” Riley says, but Mickey’s apparently willing to take the chance since he clambers on. The horse is perfectly fine with Mickey, and Mickey looks quite pleased to have someone to carry him around.
And off they go.
Vero just stares after them, probably shocked his menacing attitude didn’t fix anything. “Have you ever heard of a necromancer with that much power?”
“Can’t say that I have,” I respond.
“He’s going to kill himself,” Vero growls.
“He didn’t seem surprised when you told him that,” I say. “Maybe Riley can talk some sense into him. Riley does seem to be the only one he listens to.”
We manage to get to the middle of town where everyone is busy repairing the homes. Though I wonder if we’ll have issues down the line with separation between the two sides, they seem to be working together quite well now that the people enacting the laws are gone.
Story sees us and rushes over with a smile on his face. “Your horse is so neat!” he says to Riley, who just grunts in response.
“Riley is scared of horses,” Mickey explains. “I’ll probably just put him in a room and summon like fifteen horses and force him to spend twenty-four hours in the room with them.”
“And you think that’ll cure him?” Story asks.
“For sure,” Mickey says.
“I kind of feel like it might do the opposite…”
“Nah.”
Everyone stops working and hurries over to us, but I’m not quite sure why until Lark drops to her knees in front of me. “We will do anything you ask of us. You are too gracious of a god. We do not deserve this much kindness,” she says, and I see everyone else kneeling as well.
I shake my head and try to wave them to their feet.
“No, please get up. I don’t need you to kneel before me.
I am not that kind of god. I will happily take care of you, and in return, I expect simple rules to be followed.
I do not put up with any discrimination between those with magic and those who don’t have it.
I will do my best to find a way to break the brands so those with magic can have it again. So please stand up.”
Lark stands and the others follow. “Thank you.”
“I’m just doing what I think is right,” I tell her.
The people are eager to show me what work they’ve accomplished, and truly, I’m not sure how they’ve already done so much. Riley plods along behind us on his super-slow horse looking more relaxed than he did before, though it has to be hard to feel terrified when the horse is barely moving.
It’s like I can feel the strength returning to this world. And I can feel the power returning to my body.
When we reach the stable, I grab Riley and pull him down. We lost Mickey and Vero at some point, so it’s just the two of us.
“You’re pretty damn happy, aren’t you?” Riley asks.
I beam at him. “Maybe just a little.”
“A little? Bullshit.” He’s grinning at me now.
“What about you?”
“I’m happy to be off the horse,” he says.
“Then why are you still touching him?”
He looks over to where his hand is pressed against the horse’s neck and hastily pulls it back.
“To be like, ‘Whoa, horse, don’t eat me,’ kind of thing. Or like, ‘You have to go through this hand to try.’”
“Sure, sure.”
I pull him in for a soft kiss. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
“You’re going to give me too big of a head, saying shit like that,” he warns me.
I give him another kiss and he smiles at me. “Soooo… about nailing you in the corner… that still available?”
Riley laughs. “How about somewhere in the palace? This area seems a bit too open to the public.”
“Deal,” I say as I decide to unsaddle the horse as fast as I can, planning to show Riley how to do it himself later when there aren’t pressing matters to attend to.