Resounding Echo

by Michelle Louring

absentmindedly noted that it was the first time in weeks she had felt anything but numb.

  36

  Her mornings just seemed to get better and better.

  Even though she had finally managed to get some sleep, she was not quite happy with the sight she woke up to.

  Ardeth was sitting casually on her windowsill, as if it was completely normal for him to be there. She buried her head in her pillow and let out a long, suffering groan.

  “How long have you been sitting there?” She asked, her voice muffled by the pillow.

  In her mind she could practically see him shrug before answering. “For some time, I guess.”

  She removed her head from the pillow, mostly because it was getting hard to breathe.

  “Some people would be disturbed by having someone watch them sleep, you know…” Especially by less than stable men, who could pull their bones from their bodies.

  “You don’t like me very much, do you?” He asked slowly and looked at her thoughtfully.

  She sat up suddenly and glared at him.

  “Well, I’m sorry!” She said sarcastically. “Could it have something to do with you leaving me bleeding on the ground the first time we met or that you’re working for someone who wants to kill me?”

  When he didn’t answer, she threw the covers aside, not caring about modesty and got up. She grabbed some clothes and started to get dressed.

  She could feel him watch her silently. Normally she wouldn’t care about anyone seeing her dressed in nothing but her underwear, but she still felt chills run down her spine at the feeling of Ardeth’s eyes on her.

  She was just about to pull her shirt over her head, when he spoke.

  “I don’t really care about the Demios’ intentions.” He said quietly. His admission made her pause and she looked over her shoulder at him. She had suspected that ever since their meeting at Cadeyrn’s temple, but hearing it from his own lips still surprised her.

  “When why do you still work with them?” She asked.

  He leaned back and looked out the window thoughtfully as he considered the question.

  “A sense of purpose, I suppose…” He said slowly. “Somewhere to belong.”

  Selissa felt herself soften at his words. She knew that feeling all too well.

  She looked at the tattoo on his cheek and thought back to the townspeople that had shunned Nadia. Was that how he had lived all his life?

  She wanted to ask him about it, but it felt too personal. Instead she opted for something she had wondered about for some time now.

  “How many of you are there?” She asked. She had seen four of the Demios’ members by now and one of them was no longer alive. Knowing how many was left would be a great help.

  “It differs.” He said and turned his head to look at her. “Eight or nine, at most. Most of them don’t last long.”

  She pulled her shirt on and turned to face him fully.

  “What do you mean?” She frowned. None of the Demios she had met went down easily.

  “Ilyan likes to… perform experiments.” He said and watched her closely for her reaction.

  Nausea washed over her. She could only imagine which kind of experiments he was talking about.

  “Experiments? On the Demios members?” She asked slowly, afraid of the answer. “Why?”

  “He is obsessed with the idea of freeing Azarial. The only sure way to do that is to acquire Cadeyrn’s powers.” He explained. “And since he hasn’t been able to do that, he has tried other ways to break the seal. And since some of us possess great magical powers, he has tried to use them as substitutes.”

  “And they died.” She guessed.

  “Gruesomely.”

  She shuddered, trying not to imagine it. She sat down on the bed and tried to calm her thoughts.

  “So if they get me, they can complete the ritual and break the seal?” She asked.

  “If all goes well, yes.” He said. She looked up at him confused.

  “What do you mean?” She asked.

  “They tried with the last host. His body wasn’t strong enough to contain the power, so he died before the ritual was complete.” He explained.

  She nodded mutely. That made sense. After all, she had almost collapsed by forcefully drawing out just a little portion of Cadeyrn’s power. To forcefully release it all at once would surely be more than a human body could handle.

  “How long ago was that?” She asked quietly. He shrugged.

  “Fifteen years or so. I wasn’t around back then.” He said.

  “Do you know the name of the host?” She asked. She was curious. She knew there had been others before her, but she didn’t know anything about them.

  “Are you sure you want to know?” He asked hesitantly.

  “Why would I care? It was fifteen years ago.” She said. She couldn’t have been much more than five years old back then and it was not like she could remember anything from back then anyway.

  “You should have found out by now that the dead don’t always stay dead.” He said smirking.

  She had no idea what he was talking about, but she had a feeling she wasn’t going to like it.

  “I can only tell you what I have been told…” He said. “But as far as I know, the last host’s name was Alassane.”

  Selissa was glad she was already sitting down.

  “What?! You can’t be serious…” She said shocked. It couldn’t be…

  She recalled the image of Alassane’s burning skeleton form. Was he really an undead? More important, was he the one who had been Cadeyrn’s former host? It just couldn’t be.

  “It’s true.” Ardeth said, watching her calmly. There was nothing in his voice that suggested that he was lying to her.

  She felt herself shaking. It all came as a shock, but at the same time a lot of things suddenly made sense.

  The first time she had met Alassane, he had felt familiar because of Cadeyrn’s memories. He had been protecting her, because he was just as involved as she was.

  “So he’s really not human?” She asked quietly. She still had a hard time believing it.

  “No… He’s not.” He said. “The only reason why he could appear human and still had his free will is because he was raised by divine magic, not necromancy.”

  All the things he hadn’t told her… And still she had followed him blindly for as long as she did.

  “That filthy, lying son of a—“ She spat furiously. She stood up and started pacing rapidly.

  “Calm down or you’re going to wear a hole in the floor.” Ardeth said as he watched her pace back and forth.

  “I’m just so sick of everyone lying to me.” She said resignedly as she stopped and slumped down on the bed again. Ardeth watched her thoughtfully.

  “I’m not lying to you.” He said honestly.

  She looked at him and almost laughed at the irony. The only person she could actually trust to be truthful to her, was a man she had once been sure was going to kill her.

  That didn’t bode well for her.

  37

  During the following days, Selissa slowly started to get used to Ardeth’s presence.

  He stuck around and would always appear when it suited him. It still made her uneasy that she didn’t know why he was there, but as he had said himself, it was not for sure that he actually had a reason. Only sane people needed a reason for doing something after all.

  “Are you really content with running errands for some old fool who might keel over and die any minute?” He asked as they walked down the street. She was currently putting in orders at the local stores for Elias, and somehow she had ended up with a tag-along.

  “As I have told you countless times already, it’s none of your business.” She said as she checked her list. She only needed to go to the butcher and she was done. Of course, Ardeth wasn’t making her work easy.

  His tattoo might be covered by his hair, but that didn’t stop him from attracting attention. Peo
ple would literally stop and stare when he made his way past them, and he didn’t even seem to notice.

  She discreetly looked at him out of the corner of her eye. She had to admit that even if you hadn’t seen him rip out his shoulder bone, he was someone you took notice of.

  Alassane had been taller than her, but Ardeth practically towered above her and everyone else. And there was no way she could deny he was attractive.

  It was something she was beginning to notice more and more as she spent time with him.

  At first she had been acutely aware of him because he frightened her. Now she was still acutely aware of him, but because of an entirely different reason.

  It wasn’t that she was completely new to such feelings. But whatever brief affairs she had had, it had always been with harmless village boys. Safe… This was anything but safe.

  She nodded along absentmindedly at something Ardeth said, even though she hadn’t registered the words.

  “What’s wrong?” He asked, obviously having noticed that her thoughts were somewhere else.

  Startled out of her musings, she smiled at him. “Nothing’s wrong. Just lost in thought, I guess.”

  He looked at her appraisingly. “That’s good.” He said. “Because we might have a problem soon.”

  Shocked, she looked at him. “What kind of problem?” She asked warily. To people like them, a problem wouldn’t be something trivial, like not making it back before dinner. A problem meant that someone was going to get hurt. And she had an eerie feeling it was going to be her.

  “We should get out of the streets, or he is going to attack us here.” He said and looked around. He looked thoughtful as if he was trying to figure something out.

  “You would mind these people getting hurt because