30. Thirty
thirty
"Neira!"
Panic was fuelling him, a deep, burning fear that Erqis hadn't known in a decade and a half. Surely his eyes, in his distress, had played tricks on him. Surely Neira hadn't blasted her attacker halfway down the corridor before his flames had followed.
Erqis skidded to the ground beside her. His knees complained sharply, but that was a concern for later, because she was alive , alive and looking up at him with wide, dark eyes that he could only see because some of the tapestries had caught fire. "Are you hurt?!"
Neira was saying something, but he couldn’t hear her over the ringing in his ears. And then she caught his hands and pressed them to her chest, held them there.
Her heart beat strong, if a little fast for his liking. But his wife was alive.
Erqis bent over her to press his forehead to hers, gasping like a fish out of water. The sight of her struggling under the cloaked figure had been a lance through his heart. He had seen the blade coming down, had known that she wasn’t strong enough to stop the strike, and himself too far away to save her.
"Erqis-"
"You're alive."
Neira huffed, her breath warm on his face. "Not for much longer if you continue to suffocate me."
There were several sets of footsteps fast approaching. The urge to curl around Neira against any new possible attackers was strong, but what greeted him when he lifted his head with his teeth bared, a snarl already in his throat, was a handful of priestesses in their nightclothes, staring at them.
"Your Majesties," said one of the older women, a knit blanket draped around her shoulders, which she clutched to her chest with a ringed hand. She warily took two steps towards them, and Erqis felt his lip curl back again. "What are you…"
"I came to pray for the deceased, and I was attacked," Neira answered before Erqis could even sort through his jumbled thoughts. Her cool calm was a front – her entire body was shaking when he pulled her into his arms.
Or perhaps that was his.
"Send one of your acolytes to the palace, quickly, for guards. I believe it was the murderer who just attacked me. They might still be here." She took a deep, shuddering breath.
Erqis helped Neira to her feet. "We need to get you back to the palace." One of the acolytes had already made a beeline towards the door, but even if she ran as fast as she could, it would be some time until the guards would arrive.
"If there is someone here who'd do harm, then I will not leave them here to fend for themselves," Neira protested, her eyes hard as obsidian.
"It's you who matters," he growled, gripping her harder when she made to pull away from him. "You. You're the queen. You're my wife . You were attacked."
"So find who did this and bring me their head." It was a command delivered with such cool, firm authority that the words immediately cleared his mind of any lingering panic. This wasn't just a queen, just someone's wife – this was Neira, who had fought him every step of the way, who had done everything to keep her people safe from him. People she didn't even know – people who hadn’t even truly existed.
These priestesses and their acolytes were her people now. Neira would not back down.
"As my queen commands." Letting her go was almost impossible, his hands unwilling to yield. He didn't want to let her go. But Neira stepped away, towards the huddled group of women, pulling her cloak from her shoulders to wrap it around the youngest girl, who was shivering in her nightdress.
“Is there somewhere safe we can go?” she asked.
“Yes. Yes, of course. This way.” The older priestess swept her arm towards the back of the hall.
"Neira,” Erqis said. She looked at him over her shoulder. "Keep them safe."
A light, wondrous smile curved her mouth as she nodded at him.
Erqis forced himself to turn and walk away from her, into the burning hallway. Despite the smoke, there was no real danger of the fire spreading – the temple was solid stone, with very little wood, and the tapestries would soon enough burn themselves to ash.
He could have extinguished them, but he needed the light. When there were no more burning tapestries to light his way, he wreathed his hand in flame. Flickering shadows danced along the walls as he descended underground, even as every instinct he had tried to drag him back to Neira.
The Grey King and his Fell Queen. Ash and death.
The thought made him smile despite his grim task, despite the rush of dread still coursing through him. If Neira had been hurt, or worse…
He was fond of her, that he couldn't deny, but the intensity of his fear for her had crippled him. He could not let that happen again.
If someone managed to take her from him…
He wasn't sure if he wouldn't entirely lose his mind. His revenge would be swift, brutal, aimed at the entire realm. For her, he'd burn Malvea to the ground to punish one criminal if it came to it. And he didn’t think guilt would be able to touch him after.
Up ahead, just at the edge of his light, something moved swiftly around the corner.
"Hey!" Erqis sprinted after the phantom, curling his fingers around his flame to keep it burning.
More corridors. More corners. Every now and then he thought he heard steps behind him, or saw shadows dart far ahead. And then was greeted by a startled cry when he burst through a door beside the grand altar, where the women had gathered.
"Just me," Erqis said, keeping his voice light, because the tip of his own dagger under his chin, and Neira was staring at him with wild eyes. He closed his hand around his flame. "This place is a labyrinth. I didn't find anyone."
Slowly, the queen lowered the blade.
"What if he is in the sleeping quarters," whispered one of the younger women, looking stricken. "What if he is killing all of our sisters right now?"
What if indeed. That was something Erqis did not want on his conscience. "It's unlikely."
"We will not leave until we know everyone is safe," Neira promised, turning to the girl. She couldn't have been older than sixteen, a slight little thing with long, blonde hair, and she huddled in close when Neira opened her arms to her.
By time the entire temple had been thoroughly searched and Neira finally agreed to return to the palace, it was closer to dawn than it was to midnight. None of the women in the sleeping quarters had been hurt or had even heard anything more than footsteps, and neither the guards nor Erqis had found any sign of the intruder.
It was like they had vanished into thin air.
"Allying yourself with the temple of Duskport’s patron goddess was a smart move," Erqis commented as they walked back towards the palace. "It's a very solid root to build your reign on."
"That's not why I did it." Neira huffed. "Not everything has a motive, you know."
"Most things do." He shrugged, draping his arm around her shoulders. "I wish you wouldn't have gone back by yourself. At night. With a killer on the loose."
"I can't do magic when you're hovering behind me, waiting for something to happen. It's extremely annoying and distracting."
Erqis blinked down at her. ”It worked?"
"Well…"
"Not here," he cut her off before she could start. Something about this night was off, and it wasn't just the fact that it was entirely possible they were being stalked right now. "We'll speak in bed."
They hadn't shared a bed since their wedding night, but now Erqis led her to his rooms. He locked the door, and even did a quick search to see if anyone was hiding under his bed or in the closet.
"I am only staying because I am exhausted," she told him as she toed off her boots, her cloak already tossed over an armchair.
"Naturally, love. I wouldn't presume anything else." Erqis grinned at her. "It's not like the last time you were here was an incredible night of carnal passion, after all."
"You-" She cut herself off with a deep breath and got into bed. "Your taste in decor is atrocious, by the way."
"You wound me." When he pulled her in, she hissed at his state of complete undress. "Now. What happened? Did she say anything?"
"No." Neira punched the pillow a few times, probably imagining it was his head, before she settled down. She was in her tunic still, her hair braided loosely. "Her throat. It was too damaged."
"Mmm." Erqis stroked his fingertips against her jaw, down her neck. In his mind, he saw Neira stabbing his dagger over and over into the regiar's throat. For not the first time, he wondered how he had managed to strangle Captain Renger. The undead, surely, didn’t need air – but then again, the servant girl needed a whole throat to speak. Perhaps reanimation mimicked real life in various ways."I didn't even think about that."
"We could have avoided all of this with just a bit of common sense."
He wondered if Lord Arwess had lain there in his cell, undead and unable to speak but otherwise aware, for days before the magical source of their unlife had been destroyed. "Regardless, I think you did good today."
"Thank you."
"What, no biting words? You're accepting a compliment, just like that?"
Neira scowled, tugging the blanket higher. "I think I did very well today, too. I can take a compliment, even from you, if it's the truth."
"All my compliments are the truth." Erqis watched her, quietly, for a long moment, his fingers still at her neck. Her pulse thumped steady. "You didn't see anything, though? When you were attacked?"
She shook her head. "It was dark, and the person had a hood. The voice sounded… odd, when they spoke to me. Distorted. I assumed it was a man, but I suppose it could have been a large woman."
"How did you throw them off?"
"I don’t know. I thought your flames knocked them back."
"Might have been." But no, Erqis thought. He had clearly seen a bright flash of green before he had released his flames. The same colour he had once spotted flashing through mist, before all hell had broken loose. "Perhaps Iphila saved you."
A small smile bloomed on her face. "She… no, never mind. Perhaps she did. I should take her an offering as thanks."
A commotion woke Erqis from a deep sleep, much too early for his liking. Neira wasn't beside him, but her voice came from the other rooms within his suite, sounding baffled.
He barely remembered to pull on some pants before wandering out, and good thing he did – his wife's maids were in the front room, looking shaken and pale. "What happened?"
"Your Majesty." The women bobbed a quick curtsy in tandem, one of them flushing bright red at his state of undress. "There is a, um... a visitor for her Majesty."
The alertness those words brought him was highly unwelcome this early in the morning. "Who?"
"We don't know her." The slightly taller young woman nervously glanced at Neira again. "We... well, we locked her in your rooms, your Majesty. We didn't know what else to do."
Neira caught his eye. She didn't need to ask the question written over her face. He wasn’t going to make her face whoever it was alone, not after last night.
"Let's go, then."
He led the way with Neira close behind, her maids a few paces back – although their trailing position was not out of only deference. The two of them seemed terrified. And for good reason – in the middle of Neira's front room stood the servant girl they had gone to see the day before. The one Neira had roused from what should have been an eternal slumber.
The front of her throat was still a ragged mess, a greenish gleam to her eyes. She stood completely still when Erqis entered, and only when Neira stepped in did the girl pivot to focus on her with a quiet, preternatural attention.
"Oh." Neira clutched Erqis’ arm, her eyes wide. "Oh… I never sent her back."
"Do you know how to?" Erqis didn't dare look away from the dead girl. The stillness of her would have been unsettling enough, the blatant display of something other, but the grisly injuries that had killed her made her truly horrifying.
"…no." She took a few careful steps to inspect the girl, her hands cupping her face. "She reminds me of the caretaker I had growing up. She took care of Ramin, too. Perhaps…" Neira worried her lower lip thoughtfully. "I will make use of her until I find out how to send her into the gods’ embrace."
"You can't have an undead servant walking around, Neira. Not like…" He waved a hand at the entirety of the servant. "Like this."
"You're not wrong." The smile on Neira's face chilled him. "Aubri, bring a scarf. And a dress that won't show stains."
Gods below.