Unholy Spirit (The Necromancer's Daughter Book 3)

by Genevra Black

  But the Wounded didn't flinch. He simply straightened, suddenly looking exhausted. "The hellerunan are not here, so I am leaving."

  Zaedicus staggered to his feet, still clutching Scarlet's tatters. A small flare of hope heated his thirst for blood. "The rally," he whispered. "You must be going to Daschla's little rally. The revenant will be there. He must be slain."

  The Wounded sighed and half-turned dismissively. "No. I am not going there."

  Genuine confusion gave Zaedicus pause. "But Holloway and the other hellerune will be there. Daschla will be expecting the New Gloaming to support her forces."

  "I'm sure she will be." The Wounded walked to the terrace windows and looked out. "According to my scouts, her excuse for an army outnumbers the Reach six to one. If she can't overcome them with a thousand deathless warriors ... I won't bother wasting my men on saving her."

  Zaedicus, ruthless as he knew himself to be, found himself shocked. For a noble elf, of course, the dispensability of soldiers' lives was well known, but the Wounded Lord had always valued strategy and strength in numbers.

  "My lord, that's two thousand indestructible soldiers lost. The force that was to bring New York to its knees. If they are gone, it will change everything. The whole plan for taking the city will have to be done over."

  "Daschla is a failed experiment, Zaedicus. Just a warped little girl desperate for power over others. I don't need her or her evil spirits."

  "Power over others," the high-wight repeated, brow furrowing. "My lord, is that not what we all want? To bring the Gloaming back to glory? As our ruler, you'd have power over everyone.” Another pause, one that felt hollow and stale in his chest. “Is that not what this all has been about?”

  The Wounded lowered his gaze to the floor, toeing a fallen warrior's weapon out of the way. Rather than answer the question, he simply said, "When which cities fall won't matter, in the end. They all will, eventually."

  Then, he turned and left the bar.

  As he disappeared through the glass doors, two black-and-silver-clad New Gloaming agents stepped in to survey the scene. Zaedicus carefully laid the silk shreds on top of the ash pile and turned to them, trying to appear imperious rather than shaken by the conversation.

  "You, put these ashes and those scraps in something. I'm taking them back to Anster with me."

  Chapter Forty-Four

  “Okay, Edie.” Adam steepled his fingers. “Marius is dead. The cleric is running out of spell slots and Cal is on his last healing potion. How do you want to do this?”

  With a sigh, Edie looked up from her phone, skimming her character sheet. “Um, I think you should refer to me as my proper name if you’re going to address me.”

  “Okay, Susanne from Finance, the kobold barbarian … it’s your turn and the cyclops is charging toward you. What do you do?”

  Edie looked at the others gathered around the apartment’s dining room table. “What do you guys think?”

  Marius adjusted the sling holding his right arm. Between his own healing and frequent visits from Yuval, he had made a lot of progress in the past week, but he still winced with every movement. Dungeons & Dragons would be the only combat he’d be seeing for a while yet. “We’ve been fighting this thing for over an hour. It’s got to be close to dead. I say just hit it.”

  “You should probably Rage,” Satara suggested as she reached across him to grab a corn chip. “Aevana lowers her quarterstaff and shouts to Susanne, ‘Use your Rage! It’s the only way!’”

  Marius smirked, exchanging a glance with Edie. “Ah, right, roleplaying. Zephyr the Lightbringer … lies there limply, gasping out his last.”

  Edie scratched the back of her neck. “Okay, I shout, ‘This better not make me late to the PTA meeting!’ and I’m gonna Rage. Um, Adam, which dice is that again?”

  “Roll your d20 to hit, then roll damage for your greataxe with the d12, then add your Rage and proficiency mods.”

  She rolled, peering at the dice. “Sixteen?”

  “Okay, that hits. What’s your damage?”

  “Uh … what’s nine plus two plus three?”

  “Fourteen,” about half of the table, including Cal, replied in unison.

  “All right.” Adam grinned. “And that’s going to kill him. How are you doing it?”

  “I bonk him with my axe.”

  Satara rubbed her forehead. “You could at least try to take this a little seriously. It’s the dungeon’s final boss.”

  “Okay, fine … I soar through the air! And, uh … I slice him across the chest, cutting off both nipples in one fell swoop. As he comes crashing to the ground, I jump back.”

  Over Elle’s cackling, Cal grunted. “Would a cyclops have two nipples or one nipple?”

  Adam clapped, scribbling a few things down behind his GM screen. “Cool, so he’s dead, which means you’re free from initiative … and you can plunder his treasure if you like.”

  “Yay!” Elle pointed across the table at Marius. “I’m going to run over to Zephyr and touch him to cast Revivify.”

  “Zephyr thanks you,” Marius replied.

  “Aaaaand?”

  He sighed. “And gives you a chaste kiss on the hand.”

  Cal raised a finger. “I blow on the barrels of my pistols all sexy and holster them. Then I run over and start looting the gold pile.” He picked up his twenty-sided die and rolled a three. “Ah, shit.”

  “You don’t have to roll for that, I’ll just give you treasure.” Adam shuffled some papers behind his screen before pointing to each one of them, starting with Elle. “Firbolg cleric Ewelina—”

  “Ewelina what, Adam?”

  He sighed. “Ewelina the Well-Endowed … you receive ninety gold pieces and a Scroll of Hideous Laughter.”

  “Hell yes.”

  “Cal, Bruce Killshot the half-orc gunslinger receives sixty gold pieces and a violet garnet. Zephyr the human paladin, you get sixty gold pieces and a Scroll of Detect Undead.”

  “A scroll for a spell I already have … how generous.” Marius nodded across the table to Cal. “See, there’s one now.”

  “Don’t start with me, Sparky.”

  “Aevana the high elf sorcerer receives one hundred and fifty gold pieces and a Scroll of Shocking Grasp. And Susanne from Finance receives forty gold and five flasks of acid.”

  “It begs the question,” Edie said, “what was a cyclops doing with all these scrolls?”

  Marius frowned. “How insulting. Light reading, obviously.”

  “Did he just tell a joke?” Cal rasped. “I think you just told a joke.”

  “All right.” Adam looked up from his papers. “So, after plundering the hoard of the cyclops, your adventuring party manages to find its way out of the dark caves. As you exit, you realize you’ve been in there all day, and you kind of”—he blocked his eyes with a hand—“wince against the sunset. Except for Susanne, of course, who’s wearing goggles.”

  “Cat-eye goggles. Tortoiseshell.”

  “Right. So, would you like to go back to the village, or … what would you like to do?”

  Cal grunted, scribbling on his character sheet with a pencil that looked comically small in his big, meaty hand. “Let’s go back so I can sell all this shit and get some cash. Bruce Killshot wants to woo some tavern wenches.”

  “Okay, so you journey back to Mako Village. It takes about a day, so remove one day’s provisions from your sheet. And, um, as you enter the market, where would you like to go first?”

  Elle raised her hand. “Are there any fruit stands nearby?”

  “Yes, there’s one in the square.”

  “I would like to steal a watermelon.”

  Marius sighed. “Do I have to witness this? Stealing breaks my tenets.”

  “It breaks your tenets, not mine!” Elle held up her character sheet, pointing aggressively. “It says right here, my religious tenets are eating pussy and having fun!”

  Adam looked at Marius. “Uh, the group can split up and Zephyr can
go with someone else.”

  “I’m going to the jeweler,” Satara said, crunching another chip.

  “Me, too,” Cal chimed in. “Yo, Dungeon Master, if I sell this garnet, can I buy a tattoo?”

  “Depends…” Adam raised a brow. “What do you want?”

  Cal extended his fists. “Knuck tats. One’ll say KILL and the other’ll say SHOT.”

  Edie leaned back in her chair, tuning the others out as they argued about knuckle tattoos and the logistics of illicit melons. Considering the horror of the last few weeks and the exhaustion in her body, it was nice to take a moment to breathe, even if it meant being coerced into playing a tabletop roleplaying game.

  She scratched the back of her neck again. It was itchy as hell for some reason.

  Sitting at the end of the table, opposite Adam, she was the first to notice the apartment door opening. Her heart sped up a little, but she relaxed once she realized who it was.

  Basile stepped in, a book tucked under his arm, his overcoat dusted with snow.

  Edie stood from the table. “Hey!”

  “Howdy,” he said as he entered the dining room. He pushed his glasses up his nose. “What’s this?”

  “Dungeons and Dragons,” Adam replied, giving him a once over. “You look good. Feeling better?”

  “Not really. But I’ll live. Or, continue to exist, I guess.”

  Satara had twisted around in her chair to face him. “You should rest more. You deserve it—you almost killed yourself barely a week ago.”

  “Meh.” Basile waved a dismissive hand, then beckoned to Edie. “Come here. I need to talk to you.”

  She glanced at the others. “Uh, keep playing while I’m gone,” she said, handing her character sheet to Cal before following Basile into the living room.

  With a groan and what she swore was cracking bones, the priest settled onto the sofa, gesturing for her to sit next to him. She faced him with crisscrossed legs.

  “So,” she began, keeping her voice low. “Are you … really okay? I was so sure you were gone, then you came to and were alive. Grumpy as always, but alive.”

  He exhaled slowly, adjusting his glasses again. “I’m … well, I’ll be fine. I’ve got work to do.” He patted the book in his lap. “We’ve got work to do.”

  Edie felt any mirth or energy the game had given her draining away when he said that. She scratched the back of her neck.

  Basile peered at her. “Something bothering you?”

  “It’s … nothing.”

  “Turn around.” He gestured with his chin. “Something’s different; I can feel it.”

  After a moment’s hesitation, she did as he said, brushing her ponytail over one shoulder. Behind her, Basile sighed, and she could hear him take a picture with his phone. When she looked over inquisitively, he offered it to her.

  Shit. Edie blinked. “A new tattoo. Or mark. Or whatever it is.” She turned around, still looking down at the screen. “What is it?”

  “It’s othala, the blood. It represents family. Blood. Birthright. Prosperity within a clan or group. On the other hand, of course, it means … well, you saw it on the Blood Eagles’ banners. Totalitarianism, prejudice … bondage.”

  She cringed. “I’m … not sure I want that tattooed on my body after everything that happened.”

  “Yeah. Seems like you don’t really have a choice, though.” With a light sigh, he shrugged and spread his hands. “Try not to worry about it too much. Your actions speak for themselves.”

  “I guess.” Edie wasn’t as confident. At least her jacket would mostly cover it. “So, what did you want to talk to me about? You said there was work to do…?”

  Basile nodded and adjusted his glasses as he flipped through the leatherbound book in his lap. “The Riders loaned us some of the valkyir, and as you know, some of them died. A couple were unable to be retrieved. So even if we didn’t owe them before, we sure as hell do now.”

  “Right.” Everyone always wanted something, but at least this was pretty fair. “What do they want?”

  “Well, we did agree to help them find Skuld. I’ve been doing some research, confirming my suspicions about how Daschla might have been created. If the Gloaming has her somewhere … well, I know the valkyir are going to make finding their Rider-General a priority, so it should be the Reach’s priority, too. Doing anything else first is going to make things, uh, complicated with the Riders, and we could really use the allies.”

  A bitter taste entered Edie’s mouth. “We … the Reach.” She jerked a thumb toward the dining room. “Why are you talking to me about this and not them?”

  “Because you’re the Reacher. That’s what I’ve gathered, anyway.”

  “Astrid wanted me to be the Reacher. I really— I don’t think I’m qualified. I’d be terrible at it. That’s what I keep trying to tell everyone.”

  Basile sighed. “Edie. The world needs the Reach, and the Reach needs a leader. Astrid was part of the Reach for a thousand years, and she chose you. If not Edie Holloway, then who?”

  She hesitated, rubbing her hands together. “I’ve actually been giving it a lot of thought. Astrid thought we needed one leader, but … I don’t think that’s true. Why do we only need one? Why can’t we have more than one? Like a council or something? Then we can all hold each other accountable and everyone has strengths to fill in the others’ weaknesses…”

  The priest tilted his head. “Who do you have in mind, exactly?”

  Rubbing her neck again, she looked toward the dining room. It was a lot to consider, but she’d had plenty of time to mull it over. At this point, the answer to that question seemed so obvious she wondered why it even had to be asked.

  Silently, she indicated Cal and Satara. “I could add more people later if I needed to.”

  “Hm…” Basile peered at her thoughtfully. At length, he spread his hands again. “Well, hey. If you’re all serious about this thing, you’re going to need a place to set up. Somewhere with lots of room, walls for defense … somewhere that makes the Reach look important when people visit.”

  “Yeah,” Edie scoffed. “I’ll start searching the classifieds and see if I can find a fortress for rent.”

  “No need.” A grin spread across his face, eyes twinkling. “I know a place.”

  THE END

  Thank you for reading! Be sure to turn the page for a glossary of terms. You might learn a thing or two about Norse pronunciation, too!

  And if you’d like to know when Book 4 is available (and get a free short story about Edie and Cal’s trip to retrieve her undead hamster from the emergency veterinarian), be sure to join my mailing list at GenevraBlack.com.

  Glossary

  I use a lot of crazy words in this book that you might not know how to pronounce, so here’s a small list of all of the Norse words in Unholy Spirit and how to say them.

  Some things to keep in mind before you read this guide:

  Some words have been adapted from Old Norse rather than taken from Old Norse, so their pronunciations are different. It’s also important to note that any “authentic” Norse pronunciation is reconstructed.

  Some words are pronounced different contemporarily, so they aren’t widely pronounced the way the Norse would have said them. In fact, I mix and match a lot—sometimes I use the legit Old Norse words for things, and sometimes I use the more contemporary forms. In the case of valkyrie/valkyir, I literally just made up the plural “valkyir” because it sounded cool.

  I’ve had to cobble together words like “hellerune,” etc., from other languages, so their pronunciation is a little fudged. As for the full sentences, I’m absolutely fudging vocab and grammar. If you know someone who can hook me up with an authentic Old Norse translation, I’ll take all the help I can get.

  Pronunciation basics: the Norse almost always rolled their r’s. The letters f and v, when they don’t start the word, are pronounced as a v sound and a w sound respectively. The “aw” I’ve written to express the letter á is a round
-mouthed almost-o sound like the au in the English word “maul” as opposed to “ow.” The letter j is pronounced like y is in English. The letter thorn (Þ, þ) is pronounced like the “th” in “Thor,” while the eth (Ð, ð) is pronounced like the “th” in “father” or “this.” I’ve expressed the eth sound as “dth” because that’s what it sounds like to me.

  CHARACTER NAMES:

  Sárr – SAWR (almost “sore.”)

  Marius – MAH-ree-us

  Eirik – EY-rick

  Fiskbein – FISK-bane

  Indriði – INDRI-dthee

  Hati – HA-tee

  Sköll – skohl

  Roggvi – ROGG-vee

  Ynga – ING-ga

  Freyja – frey-ya (Or, with reconstructed Norse pronunciation, “FROY-ya.”)

  Odin – OH-din (Old Norse “Óðinn” or “OH-dthin.”)

  Vidarr – Vih-DAAR (Old Norse “Víðarr,” or “Vee-DTHARR)

  Skuld – skoold

  Daschla – DAHsh-la

  Hærfríðr – HAir-free-dthir (with “HA” said like you’re starting to say “had,” so it’s really more like “haaihr.”)

  Oddfreyr – ODD-froy-r

  Göndul – GOAN-dool

  Skögul – SKO-gool

  Geirskögul – GAIR-sko-gool

  Gunnr – goon-r (sort of a clipped “oo” sound rather than long)

  Hildr – hill-dr

  RUNE NAMES:

  Ingwaz – ING-wahz

  Ehwaz – EH-wahz

  Othala – OATH-a-lah

  MISC:

  Ván – vawn

  Hellerune – HELLA-roona

  Hellerunan – HELLA-roonen

  Vættr – vaa-tur (where “æ” is pronounced like the a in “had” or “mad.”)

  Wight – white

  Dís – dees (longer “ee” sound than in “griss.”)

  Heimdyrr – HAYM-dyur (the y sound makes a rounded “ee” sound like the u in “tune,” but it’s difficult to say.)