by J M Thomas
“So, I take it ‘at this might be a bit of a grey area in terms of membership, but someone in this room gave me ‘at list and requested I see to it the persons belongin’ to the names on ‘at list be killed.”
“Hold on one moment.” Alena raised a hand as footsteps thumped behind me. “I believe we have a latecomer. Excuse me, sir, I take it by your robe you’re not lost as I first might have suspected. Please tell me you’re not the true blind who Hugo assured me would be coming, since Aeron’s pet prophecy predicted a woman.”
“Oh no.” The easy grin in Don’s voice radiated before I could turn around to see who it was, my efforts earning me a twinge of pain. “I’m a weak listener who’s visiting the area for awhile, and I thought I’d scope out the local guild.”
“Splendid.” From Alena’s tone, all was not splendid. “So, Lyons has a list of people an unnamed guild member has delivered with a request that he see to their execution.” She waved a hand to encompass the room. “A fine introduction to the guild, if there ever was one.”
“Right.” Aeron nodded slowly, careful to keep his hands on the table where he’d left them. “Since I’ll be going up the river, I fought maybe someone else in the guild would be willing to see the people associated with ‘ese names get the full extent of justice comin’ to ‘em.”
Alena sneered. “And who do you suppose would do your boon for you?”
“Well,” Aeron leveled his gaze with Ethan. “I don’t keep up wiv boons the way you lot do. But there is someone wiv connections to law enforcement, someone who might feel indebted to me. You see, I’m in contact wiv a sniper who coulda just given ‘em a pop, but that’s expensive, see, and not justice.” He pursed his lips. “I fink we owe it to those spirits released before their time to go frough the channels proper-like.”
Ethan blinked a few extra times, hand coming up to settle over his chest. “Me? You want me to investigate the names on this list?”
“If you don’t want to do it for me, I understand.” Aeron tilted his head, looking straight at the woman holding Ethan’s hand. “Then do it for ‘er.”
Ethan peered at Marla next to him. His jaw set, and his eyes widened. “You didn’t.”
The look of complete shame in her eyes told him, and everyone else, that she had definitely given Aeron that list.
“You know,” Ethan’s breathing was shallow, his expression cold as he released Marla’s hand. “I’d finally found one area of my life in which I wasn’t feeling woefully inadequate. Now you’ve gone in and trounced right over it. I hope you’re proud of yourself, Lyons.” He opened his fist as if letting a handful of dust fly into the wind.
“You’re one of the least inadequate people I’ve ever met,” I whispered, eyes wide.
Somehow, Ethan heard me, a sad look passing over his face. “And yet, here I am. If my outlook is this dismal, what hope do the rest of you have?” He squeezed his eyes shut, as if only then registering that he’d insulted every necromancer in the whole city in one fell swoop.
“Sorry. I… I’m not handling this as well as I’d like. I need some time.” Ethan’s hand settled over Marla’s fingers once more. “But yes, I accept the boon from Marla. I will see to it that justice finds the names listed. The guild need not be concerned that anti-malifecium will be broken in this instance.”
“If we ‘ad any time to spare, I’d give it to you.” Aeron squinted at the man across the room. “But every second is of the essence, mate.”
“Yes, yes, of course it is.” Ethan opened his eyes again, taking a deep breath. “Alright, I accepted the boon, though it pains me. I need to hear it from you, guild master: this absolves Marla as well?”
Pain might have been a vast understatement. He looked utterly miserable.
Alena nodded. “Yes, that matter seems to be resolved. Please update us next month when we meet.” She fixed Aeron with a glare again. “Anything else?”
“Nuffink.” His innocent look was even more flimsy on the second attempt.
“No promised true blind?” Alena spread her hands, her eyes narrow. “I know you’ve been using this one, whoever she is, as a decoy. I tested her when you made your unannounced visit.”
“What true blind? I fought you didn’t believe the prophecy.” Aeron wore the expression of a naughty child hiding a cookie behind his back.
“A moment, if you please.” Alena conferred quietly with the necromancers around her, offering me and Aeron a few minutes to talk as well.
“What’s up with Ethan?” I asked in a whisper. “What’s his deal?”
Aeron’s gaze made a quick pass around the room, but the rest of his body remained carefully still. “This bloke, e’s an armored type. E’s got fick defenses, and it takes a little extra to get at ‘is insides, see? Ey can seem tough enough, until you find that one little chink and get up in ‘ere.
“Once ‘at ‘appens, you find they’re not all too familiar wiv the sensation of pain.” Aeron sounded wistful. “‘Ey don’t often see it, and in between times, ‘ey can forget what it’s like to experience it for themselves. ‘E don’t wound easy, but once ‘e does, it ‘urts in a way ‘e don’t have the tools to manage.”
“So you’re walking quite the tightrope poking at poor Ethan, then.” I considered for a moment. “Are you an armored kinda man, Aeron?”
“Only a little bit. If you get your skin fick enough, you can keep your armor light.” Aeron slowly, carefully reached over to me, toyed with the zipper pull at my neck, then tapped one of the plates sewn into the leather. “Just enough.”
A frown worked its way out from my gut to my face. “What do you have to keep out? What are you afraid of?”
“Aww, it ain’t for me, love. It’s so nuffink gets frough me to ‘arm you.” His wink did little to convince me.
Swallowing hard, I caught his hand in mine, scanning the unfamiliar faces for a lower half I recognized. “Is this a fight we can win?”
“Every fight is a fight we can win.” He gave my fingers a reassuring squeeze. “In our favor, we’ve got the prophecy, so we know roughly ‘ow this’ll go down, poetically speaking. It’s last line says the little bird can seal all our fates. It’s just down to figuring out what that is, and makin’ sure the little bird is delivered safely to the moment what matters.” His smile turned sad.
“What?” I grasped his fingers tightly in mine.
“Aww, nuffink. I just wish we’d ‘ad all this time knowing who it was that’d be our little bird, is all.” His gaze softened as it roved over my face. “Already, your song is bringin’ us togevver.”
“We’ve reached the end of deliberation,” Alena announced, rising to her full, imposing height. Her very glance silenced the chatter that’d sprung up around the room. “Lyons, the location of the true blind is far too important a bargaining chip for me to let you have it.”
Aeron flashed a savage, cocky grin. “Then it’s too bad I ain’t in your guild, innit?”
“I really did not need it to come to this.” With one flick of her manicured index finger, Alena gestured to Orterios, who rolled out a scroll on his desk and sketched something in chalk.
Aeron cringed and shook in his chair as if he’d been hit by a stray bolt of electricity.
Hugo’s hand flew to his mouth. “If I may…”
“You may not, unless you wish to forfeit your neutral party status.” Alena lowered her voice to a mutter, which still carried through the room, “...Last thing we need is more mayhem tonight.”
“Feel better now?” Aeron managed, sweat beading out on his temples as his shoulders hunched. “I wager it’ll take two more ‘its at least to make what you’re sellin’ look real for the watchlin’s.”
“I’m not selling them anything.” Alena did seem to have relaxed, her demeanor cooling. “Since it seems Hugo was terribly misled, I really have no choice but to hope the watchlings didn’t get to the true blind already. If they did, she’s probably on a blood farm somewhere, or dead.”
She sc
rutinized Aeron’s face as if searching for the truth. He kept his expression impassive.
I held my breath to keep from blurting out who I was. I couldn’t understand why Aeron didn’t want me revealing my identity. It’d be so easy, and what could really be done? I wasn’t sure I could watch him hurt again and keep silent. But his almost-imperceptible head shake toward me told me to stay quiet.
I had to trust that, whatever he was doing, he’d make it worth his suffering.
I squeezed my eyes shut as he shook again, grunting in the chair next to me. A tear leaked out, but I didn’t brush it away.
Alena’s hand came up to her forehead, pinching her hair between her fingers like she was ready to yank it out by the root. “Lyons! Aeron, please! If I give you my word the true blind won’t be harmed?”
“Your word…” Aeron sagged back in relief, panting hard. “Hmm, nah, love. ‘Ad it once. Wasn’t worf much.”
A look of deep, heartbreaking regret crossed Alena’s face. “I didn’t betray you, Aeron. I didn’t fail.”
His gaze could melt cast iron. “Then keep ‘ittin’ me until you get what you want.”
“I’d really rather not.” Her voice cracked. “Please! There was a time not too long ago you’d have pulled up for me. If I needed somebody, anybody, you’d be the first one I’d call.” Alena paused for a second, then softened her tone. “What happened to us, Aeron?”
A hint of a smile made its way across Aeron’s lips, his steely gaze the only answer he gave. “Are you willin’ to make a deal?”
She froze as if sensing a trap. “Terms?”
“Easy. You send me wiv the true blind when the watchlin’s come to call. I get full guild support when the battle for Wachenta ‘appens.” He raised his voice so no one in the room could fail to comprehend him. “I come to gavver my troops for the fight.”
There was a general stirring and straightening of necromancers in their chairs as his words landed.
“But, you see, Aeron, there will be no battle!” Alena shouted, rising to her full height and pointing an accusatory finger at him. “And the only way there will be a fight is if you go around punching watchlings, dragging decoys around, and dealing with assassins.”
She shook her head, slowly lowering herself to her seat again. “Until you came into the picture, the guild had everything under perfect control. You, Aeron, are literally the only volatile component in this whole scenario that makes me think there could be a battle at all!”
“No battle, then?” Aeron stared her down.
Alena shook her head. “No battle.”
He grinned as if he’d won. “Then why not give me what I want, if it gets you what you want?”
There was dead silence.
An attendant cleared her throat. “Ma’am, the watchling delegation has arrived. Shall we bring them in?”
“No, of course not!” Alena snapped. She inhaled, held the breath for a beat, then let it out slowly. “Not at this time, thank you. In a few moments.” She turned to Aeron again. “It seems you’ve won already. You said it would take three hits to convince them. Do you stand by this?”
“I stand by every goddamn thing I said.” Aeron braced himself as she raised her hand again.
“Stop!” I cried. “Stop it, can’t you see it’s what he wants you to do? That he’s the one hurting you here?” I jumped to my feet a moment too late as Aeron jolted and gritted his teeth. “He’s provoking you to this, and you’re just letting him win!”
“And who might you be?” Alena asked, a look of distaste twisting her lips downward. “Celeste…”
“Grantham, yes.” I nodded, brain scrambling for an excuse. “And I’m an independent contractor with the department of necromancy. I’ve been stationed in Wachenta to… develop a server.” Oh, crap baskets, I’ve gone and done it now.
“The dating service?” She brought her head back to center.
“Mhmm. Only it’s not just a dating service. It has, uh, come to our attention that there is a massive problem in the necromancy community as a whole, not just this chapter. But it’s why I was instructed to work alongside Lyons.” I took a deep breath and swallowed past the lump sheer terror had planted in my throat. “The whole decoy thing is merely a coincidence. I was in the right place at the wrong time.”
“A massive problem, you say?” Alena didn’t seem convinced.
“Oh yes.” I gave a slow nod, feeling a genuine surge of empathy as I locked eyes with her. “You guys have faced so much from the normals from even a young age. You’ve been isolated, picked on, assaulted.”
I glanced at Ethan here, many heads in the room bobbing in agreement with my words. Aeron’s, to my dismay, stayed perfectly still as he sank deeper into his seat, exhaustion written over his features.
“All the while, you’ve each got gifts and talents so unique it’s hard to even know where to begin to train you to use them individually, much less how to share that with the collective whole. The necromancer’s dating service isn’t just about finding a special someone to do life with—it’s about all of you coming together as a whole, across nations, to collaborate and network and learn for the first time how to be there for each other!” Because, let’s face it, I thought. If this is the best you can do, you guys really frickin’ suck at it.
A snort came from three rows behind me and to the right one row. I know, right? I thought in Don’s direction. So that’s what he meant by scoping out the place. He’ll learn what they’re all secretly thinking, who plans to betray, who will come to our aid, and best of all… what the watchlings are planning. I wonder how he’s hiding that scope on himself.
“Clever girl,” Don said aloud. One or two others murmured their agreement, though they had no idea he wasn’t talking about my proposal to hide a communications network in a dating app.
“As much as this sounds like a lovely idea to discuss at a later date,” Alena interrupted, pointing at the entrance, “we aren’t going to have a guild of necromancers in Wachenta unless I can negotiate some sort of truce with the watchlings who are literally waiting right outside that door.”
“Then give me to them,” I said.
Aeron tried to raise a finger to his lips, but it was too late.
Alena rolled her eyes. “They will know in an instant you aren’t the true blind. The second you react to magic…”
“But I am.” I smiled.
“I tested you.” Alena shook her head.” A true blind would not have seen the green smoke.”
“I didn’t see the smoke. Would you like me to show you the text I got under the table from Aeron at that moment telling me to comment on the green smoke?” I shrugged. “It’s time stamped and everything.”
Alena stared dumbfounded at Aeron with a new look of respect.
“Learnt it from the best,” he croaked out, then winked. I’d never seen anyone who could take the kind of torment he’d just suffered, then flirt with the one who’d ordered it. He turned his head to me. “Now you’ve done it, Lessie.”
Alena rose, then straightened her robe. “Show the watchlings in.”
Chapter 27 – The Night’s Depths
I sat down again, leaning close to Aeron. “Are you alright?” I whispered, unsure of whether to reach out and touch his shoulder or keep my distance.
He shook his head slowly, attention straight ahead. “Not a word. Once the watchlin’s get in, be utterly silent.”
I put a lid on the hundred questions bubbling up in my mind as I snuggled further into his jacket. I fingered the plates sewn in, wondering how much protection they really gave for how much weight they added.
When the door opened to admit the watchlings, everyone in the room stiffened. It was as if they’d been gripped by a sudden terror. Marla clasped her hand over her mouth and reached for Ethan’s hand.
He hesitated for a second, then gave it to her.
I could not, for the life of me, figure out why these three ordinary-looking people brought such palpable terror in their w
ake. They wore ornate western ponchos somewhat similar to Hugo’s, but minus the necromancer’s symbol and grey hoods. If I was honest, they looked like a country folk band, not a dangerous consortium.
At this point, I figured looks must somehow be deceiving.
The first watchling, a dark-skinned woman with sharp features and a cascade of thick, black hair French braided diagonally across her head, bowed graciously to Sian, Alena, and Hugo.
“Greetings. I am the new watcher; this woman to my right is the listener. The man to my left is the hand. Thank you for accepting our presence in your midst tonight.”
I nearly let out a gasp myself. My manager, the one who kept trying to get me to fail, was the listener. She whispered something to the hand, then both of them looked hard at me. A chill ran down my spine.
Meanwhile, the watcher kept up her speech with grace in every movement. “I recognize that our consortium and yours have been at odds for generations. The threat posed by such a weight must not cloud our interactions in this moment. I’m convinced we can, and should, take steps of peace.” She stepped back into the group of three, ceding the floor.
Alena rose to return the bow to all three in turn. “That is also the goal we seek. I am Alena, guild master of Wachenta’s necromancers. To my left is our transcriptionist, Sian. To my right is Hugo...
“We know Weaver already.” The hand tilted his long face sideways in a move likely designed to be a provocation, his wide grin revealing the dog-like canine teeth I’d come to know too well. “What a magnificent honor to meet the great-grandson of a legend.”
“I am the great-grandson of two united legends. Perhaps, some day, we will all be woven together.” Hugo gave a deep bow, then stepped back. “Until then.” He sat again, signaling everyone else to take a seat as well.
The watcher settled in, then locked eyes with Aeron. “And what’s this new development I see here? War Mage Lyons, you don’t seem to be on fantastic terms with your own guild.”
