by Deck Davis
But to bring back a person…many souls must account for the resurrection of just one. That is the balance.
We prepared Clare’s body with goodlight, and I was given permission to perform the resurrection myself. She had suffered damage to her face and she would live with that when we resurrected her, but it didn’t matter; all that mattered was bringing her back.
Then, I received yet more news. Assassins had infiltrated the Queen’s palace and poisoned the pheasant that her cooks prepared for a grand banquet. Five of the Queen’s brothers, two generals, and half the noblemen of the Red Eye all dead within one feast. You’ve probably heard of the Night of the Poisonous Poultry, as the bards like to call it.
They told me that I couldn’t have the soul essence for Clare; it was needed elsewhere. They didn’t have to tell me the reason. I knew that the noblemen who clutched their throats at Queen Patience’s table supplied half the wealth of the queendom, and there was no question they would be denied resurrection in the place of a journeywoman alchemist.
So it was that I left the academy and took my talents elsewhere; to people who could supply me with soul essence, and who would keep their word - the Baelin.
This, Rud, is why I find myself here, in your hamlet. Soul essence doesn’t come cheap, and I am still paying its price.”
“So they didn’t banish you? You left?”
“They say I was banished to make themselves look better. It sounds much nicer to say they rid the Red Eye Queendom of a rogue necromancer, than to say they broke a promise to a loyal servant.”
“The Baelin kept their promise? Is Clare alive?”
“She’s alive, yes, but we no longer speak. The extent of the damage to her face was too much. Not everyone is glad to be brought back from the dead.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. We all have enough sorrow of our own to take on anybody else’s.”
CHAPTER 18
His spell sent Jakub into Ludwig’s mind so that he could see through his eyes as he sneaked into the camp.
The first thing he saw was orange flames all around him.
“Fireballs?” said Ludwig. When Jakub was in his mind, they could speak through his thoughts. “You know how I feel fireballs and mages.”
“I don’t think so. Look around for me, please.”
When Ludwig turned his head left, then right, then left again, and he realized that they were torches affixed to stone walls of the hill
This was no natural hill. Maybe it had been once, but someone had dug deep into it, carving out a chunk so that the inside could serve as a habitat, while the outside was left intact so the hillside was a natural wall.
“Walk around the outskirts,” said Jakub.
“There’s a lot of people here. I don’t like it.”
“Only people who’ve been to the Greylands can see you. Do you know how unlikely it is that even one person who came back from death is living here?”
“Not just people, Jakub. Cats, too.”
That sent a spike of worry through Jakub. Cats were eerily attuned to the Greylands, and could somehow sense when something from the land between life and death was present.
“Stay away from them. As far back as you can. Turn your head so I can get a better view.”
Ludwig turned to the left, giving Jakub a full view of a trench dug into the ground. There was a wooden bench above it, and the bench had holes cut into it at even intervals.
A man with his pants around his ankles was squatting over one hole. He was red-faced and grunting, and seemed to be having a hell of a hard time. He glanced around and looked straight at Ludwig.
Jakub flinched, then reminded himself where he was. He’s looking at Ludwig, not me. I need to calm down.
The man looked away not a second later, and Jakub told himself to keep his nerve. He knew that normal people couldn’t see Ludwig, and of those who could see him, only a rare few could ever harm him. That didn’t stop him being anxious.
“Woah, look to the right please,” said Jakub. “I’m not going to be able to forget that for a while.”
Ludwig turned his head and brought the main area of the camp into view. The area of the hill that had been dug out was larger than he thought, with two dozen tents on one side, and piles of wood, metal, weapons and armor on the other.
Across from the pile of armor and weapons was a bonfire with four around it. Three men were sitting on one, five women took another, the third was empty, and the fourth was occupied by a man wearing dark robes. The man in the robes was staring into the flames, lost in thought, ignoring everyone else around him.
It was more of a hamlet than a camp. As strange as it was for a bunch of non-Killeshi people to live here, he guessed they’d picked as good a place as any. The hills formed natural walls around them, and even the Killeshi weren’t crazy enough to attack a guarded hamlet on the higher ground.
“This isn’t just a camp,” said Ludwig. “They live here.”
“Do you see any sign of the soldier’s body?”
“I can smell it, but I can’t see it.”
“Damn it. I need you to have a look around. If it’s here, I need you to see it.”
“What then?”
“I’ll figure it out. Just explore.”
“But the cats,” said Ludwig. “I’m pushing my luck as it is.”
“Move a few paces to the left, and don’t look at the latrines again, gods. Part of me wants to know that the guy managed to relive himself without his head exploding, but I don’t wanna see it.”
Ludwig moved to his left as requested, giving Jakub a better view of the bonfire.
“Good. See the guys over at the bonfire? Try and listen into their conversation.”
The sounds of the general area dimmed as Ludwig concentrated, and the noises near the bonfire intensified. Jakub heard the crackle of the fire licking over the wood. The women sitting on their log giggled, while the three teenage boys appeared to be in serious conversation.
“Listen to the lads,” said Jakub.
Ludwig concentrate his hearing further, and Jakub heard voices speak clearly.
“Gregor says we’re short of hands,” said one teen. “He’s thinking of going to Pendle and recruiting.”
“Who’d want to work here? The pay is shit and the hours are insane. As soon as I’m of age, I’m leaving.”
“He’ll take anyone, I think. Vagrants, thieves, deserters. Anyone who can work.”
One teen cast a look across the bonfire at the robed man. He spoke in a hushed voice. “No wonder we’re looking for anyone we can get. People won’t want to come here when they realize what’s going on.”
“Will you stop with that?”
“Five people missing, Henry.”
“Three people killed by the Killeshi, who took their bodies. Two stole a goat and ran. That’s not going missing.”
“You’re seriously telling me that Yurik, Olly and Fearnhope would get themselves killed by a bunch of spear dancers? And that Henrietta and her brother would steal, when they’ve lived here all their lives? It’s him. I’m telling you. They brought a body back for him last night.”
“Yeah? Well that’s his line of work, after all…”
“I know, but it’s still strange.”
Jakub tried to take in what he was seeing. This was a community of sorts, that was becoming clear, and it was made up from families who’d lived here a while, as well as newcomers.
That was fine, but what about the robed man? Was there any truth to the disappearances the teen talked about?
Either way, someone from this community had brought the soldier’s body here for the robed man.
Jakub was distracted from further thought when an older man joined the bonfire, sitting beside the robed figure. He had a wispy beard that looked soft enough to tear away from his face with a gust of wind.
“Concentrate on those two now,” Jakub told Ludwig.
The hound turned his head, and fresh voices drift
ed over from the fire, competing with the crackle and hiss of the flames.
“It isn’t him,” said the old man.
The robed figure nodded. “I know.”
The accent sent a jolt of recognition in Jakub. Not his voice, but more the general sound of it.
“This guy is from the capital,” said Jakub. “I’m sure of it.”
“You all sound the same to me,” said Ludwig.
“We went to a lot of trouble to get him for you,” said the man. “Anyone could have come back to the outpost. Imagine if any soldiers had been left? If they’d seen us there? The queen treasures her outpost, and if word got back to her that we were implicated…”
“You didn’t massacre the men, did you? They were already dead.”
“That’s as maybe, but the bastard caught holding stolen goods still looks as guilty as they fella who stole them in the first place. So, if the soldier isn’t him…”
“He can lead us to him, you idiot. Do you think I send you out on errands for the sake of it?”
From the way the old man was biting his top lip and furrowing of his brow, he was holding back anger. “I think you’ll send me to do anything that takes your fancy. You know I’m your puppet until you do what you said you would. You folks…thinkin’ you’re special ‘cause you was born into a family rich enough to shit gold. Gettin’ that fancy education, learning stuff that we never had the chance to.”
The robed man silenced him with a stare. Jakub could only see the back of the robed man’s head now, but if the old man’s expression reflected what his face looked like, then it was one to fear.
“My education means nothing,” he said, “and my family were poorer than yours. This here would have been luxury to me, you ignorant old prick. Life’s what you make of it. I said I would help you, and I will. I understand the importance of this for you.”
“I can’t sleep knowing where she is.”
“They Greylands aren’t as bad as they say. Trust me. Continue to lend me your resources to find him, and I’ll reward you.”
The old man scratched his wispy beard. “You’ll take him back to the Baelin, won’t you?”
“Is the fight of the Red Eye Queendom and the Baelin really anything to do with you?”
“Well, we live in Red Eye lands, don’t we? Even if the Killeshi say this place is theirs.”
“What does the Queen do for you?”
The old man scratched his beard harder, but said nothing.
“The answer is that she doesn’t lift a finger. Isn’t that right? What would it matter to you if we take this man’s body back to the Baelin? He sold himself to them when he deserted from the army and sailed to their lands. What becomes of him in death won’t matter to your way of life. The only thing you need to remember is this; help me find the body, and I will bring your wife back for you. That’s on top of everything else I’ve done – the initiations, the feast. I think I’ve proven my worth.”
Bring your wife back for you.
Jakub let the words bounce around in his head.
This man was a necromancer. So, was he from the academy?
No time to think. The old man left the bonfire now and ambled back across the hamlet and to the tents on the east side.
Alone, the robed man stood up from his log. He turned until he was looking in Ludwig’s direction.
He wasn’t just looking in his direction; he was staring straight at him.
If Jakub wasn’t disembodied at that moment, he was sure a shard of cold would have seeped through him. At that moment he realized two things.
One, it was certain this man was a necromancer, because he could see Ludwig. There was no doubt from the strength of his stare.
Two, now that the flames of the fire illuminated his robes better, revealing the outline of the academy emblem woven into the fabric, though the emblem itself had been torn off.
The robed man walked in Ludwig’s direction.
“You need to fade,” said Jakub.
Ludwig retreated back a few paces so that he was further in the shadows. Across the way, the robed man stopped walking. He turned to face the teens on the log across the bonfire.
“Get half a dozen men armed,” said the necromancer. “Guard the entrance. Send another half dozen into the fields and scout for ten circular yards. Do it now.”
“What’s wrong?” said one teen.
“We have a spy.”
“He knows you’re here, Lud. You need to fade. Go back into the Greylands, you’ll be safe there.”
“Not with you in my head. You know what would happen if I faded with you still in my head.”
“You’re right. Let him get closer, I need to see his face so I can describe him to Kortho.”
“He’s building a spell in his mind,” said Ludwig. “I can feel it.”
“Concentrate on his face, Lud. A second longer…”
The robed man mumbled something. Smelling through his hound’s more sensitive nose, Jakub caught the whiff of mana building up, even from across the way. Whatever spell the necromancer was building, it was aimed at Ludwig.
“Time to fade. I’ll call on you when it’s safe,” said Jakub.
As flares of red and white light built around the necromancer, Jakub spoke his word of revocation.
In an instant, he found himself back in the fields, back in his own body and sitting on the grass.
The undead boy was gone, and now there was activity from a hundred meters away, over at the opening in the hill walls, where a group of figures were emerging.
“Kid,” said Jakub, as quietly as he could.
There was no answer.
“Kid! Now’s not the time to go running off on me.”
The boy appeared in front of him. He hadn’t stepped out of hiding or from the shadows; he’d blinked into existence.
“Where were you?”
The boy stared back at him. He opened his lips an inch and tried to talk, but without a full tongue, he could only make a groaning sound. His expression was pained.
Something was clearly wrong, but Jakub heard shouting from behind him, and he knew he didn’t have time to try and communicate with the boy.
He wanted to get as far from here as possible, but there was something to do first.
Touching his thumb tattoo, he brought up his map of the Killeshi lands. The map spun in cobwebbed, neon light in front of him, but there was no danger of the patrollers seeing it, since the map existed only in his mind.
He marked the location of the wall on his map, and then he kneeled beside the boy. “Ludwig had to go away for a while, but I have another friend you need to meet. His name is Kortho, and you’ll like him. Okay?”
He revoked the Summon Bound spell, and Ludwig faded, leaving Jakub and the boy alone.
“Time to go back the way we came,” he said.
CHAPTER 19
Their walk back gave him time to reflect on what he’d seen. Not that there was much he could work out, but he had to try.
First, who were the people living in the hill? They hadn’t been Killeshi, but they had been trying to live on Killeshi lands without being noticed. Or at least, with the defence of giant walls.
It wasn’t the people who had bothered him most, though. It was the necromancer, and there was no doubt that’s what the man had been. Only two kinds of people could have seen Ludwig; someone who had died and had been to the Greylands and been brought back, or someone steeped in the magic of death. A brief visit to the Greylands was a requirement for every trainee necromancer, so that he could meet his first bound creature.
Given the conversation he’d heard the necromancer and the old man having, there could be no doubt what he was. That was the worrying thing; the necromancer had told the old man he wanted to recover a body for the Baelin. There could be only one body he was talking about.
“So, we have a man in an academy robes trying to hunt a body,” said Jakob. The boy looked at him. “I’m thinking aloud. Helps me work through things,
rather than bottling them up. You mind if I talk at you?”
The boy shook his head. He walked with his arms around his own chest, hugging himself. He hadn’t been the same since they’d left the hill, and Jakub couldn’t work out why. He wished the boy would tell him.
Right now, he had too much on his mind to worry.
“The academy sent us to recover Harry Helmund’s body. They wouldn’t have sent someone else, not without telling Kortho. What would be the point? So maybe this guy isn’t part of the academy. Maybe…”
The thought hit him with the force of a warhammer to the chest. Kortho’s words flooded back to him in a tidal rush, the consequences of them thudding in his skull.
The banished necromancer. Students at the academy gossiped about a man the academy had expelled because of his use of banned necromancy.
This was him. It had to be.
So now, Jakub had a master necromancer known for his penchant for dark magic competing with him to find the traitor’s body so he could give it back to the Baelin.
Jakub had never needed Kortho’s help more.
“Let’s pick up our pace,” he told the boy.
By the time he followed his map beyond the outpost and to where the Killeshi woman had marked her hut, he was no closer to the answer, and he gave up thinking about it.
When her hut loomed into view, he was happy that he’d soon see Kortho again.
Kortho might know why the necromancer was so set on finding the traitor’s body, and how he and Jakub could beat him to it.
Even if he didn’t, Jakub just wanted to see his friend again. Being so close to getting back to him, he pictured the wyrm thorn buried in his chest, and his own chest filled with worry.
The hut was fifty meters away. It was made from wood, with a slanted roof covered in vines and leaves. Without a marking on his map, it was so well blended into the Killeshi terrain that he could have walked right by it.
As he and the boy neared it, the hut door opened and the silhouette of the Killeshi woman appeared in the doorway.
Jakub couldn’t contain himself now, and he picked up his pace.
