Someone else wanted Auggie? Someone was defyingLuciferto have him? Why in the world would anyone want to make such an enemy? Unless they were already rivals with Lucifer.
My eyes flicked down to my pod, only a quarter-full now. I needed to end this before I was completely defenseless.
“And if he’s worth nothing, I suppose you don’t care if I do this?” Ambrosia flicked a hand back and the horse carrying Auggie turned its head a full 180 degrees to peer back at the unconscious boy. Its eyes glowed with menace as bones from its rib cage began to twist upward, like spikes, growing closer to Auggie’s defenseless body. “I didn’t hear anything about the boy being unharmed, after all.”
I blinked, mind whirring. I could … what could I do? A spell for … for …. Panic ebbed in my chest as I drew a blank. What else could I do without running out of power? I needed to do somethingnow.
One of the horse’s ribs pierced Auggie’s left ankle and something black dribbled from the wound, mixed with his blood. I reached down and tugged at my feet, grunting with the effort of trying to free them from my boots.
Something dark caught my eye in the distance, and I squinted as a black shape flew rapidly toward us from beyond Ambrosia. Ambrosia noticed my attention shift and turned just in time for the black streak to slam into her head, knocking her over and out cold, all at once. I gaped at the witch, lying still on the ground as flies dropped around her like dirt being thrown into an open grave, many covering her body, obscuring her even in unconsciousness. The horse at her back, in response, collapsed in upon itself as well, the light going out of its eyes. Auggie landed atop the pile of bones, appearing unharmed, not even stirring.
A breath of relief escaped me in a whoosh. I leaned over my knees, thankful for the turn of events.
I stared at the woman, much shorter than her intimidating figure had initially suggested, before I noticed the bodies of foxes entangling her feet. She had been standing on them, letting them propel her forward like a ghost. Her skin was an even deeper green than the four-armed body, rust-colored hair spilling out from her headdress.
The black shape that had taken out Ambrosia slowed and veered back in my direction. I braced myself for this new attack, then blinked as it stopped before me and dropped to the ground, sniffing my boots.
“Narcissa,” I said with a sigh of relief. “I don’t think I’ve ever been so glad to see you in my life.” I’d been very close to letting this go very badly. If not for Narcissa…. My parents would never have frozen like I had. The best I could do was copy the great work they’d done. I hadn’t even been able to come up with a single potion to help when it mattered most.
Narcissa mewed happily, then batted at my feet, which I realized were also free of the necromancer’s powers.
I took a step toward Ambrosia, noting the large gash on her head, black blood flowing freely from the wound. A rock lay beside her.
Someone gasped behind me, and I whirled to face them. My hands automatically reached into my pockets. Perhaps a repeat of the previous spell was in order.
But it was the four-armed woman who’d gasped. She was on her knees, dragging in ragged breaths, weapons tossed aside. Her bun had come loose, and stringy hair fell into her face. I blinked. Shouldn’t she have died like the horse had? I took a step away from her. “You stay right there, and we won’t have to hurt you as well,” I said, trying to sound much more confident than I felt.
Narcissa hissed her agreement with my words.
The woman looked up, appearing tired and defeated. She shook her head. “You will get no trouble from me. Instead, you have my eternal thanks. I’ve been under the necromancer’s rule for near a dozen years now.”
I blinked, absorbing this information. Sweat glistened on the woman’s green skin, her frame trembling. If Ambrosia’s powers had been giving her dead body life, she should have returned to being a corpse, or rather a mess of corpses stitched together, if that was what she was. “What did Ambrosia … do to you? Did she create you from other people?”
The woman licked her lips, an exhausted smile ghosting across her face. “No, that was my own doing.” Struggling to sit up, she pulled up her shirt to bare her stomach, where a strange rune glowed, a symbol that radiated power, pulsing with a black light as if from within her body. “I’m afraid I really am cursed, but I did it to myself. I was so afraid of death that I found a way to cheat it. Unfortunately, over the years, I have had to replace parts of my own body to remain whole. Especially after a skirmish with Vikings. That was a rough time.”
I squinted at her as she pulled her hair back, reassembling her bun with two hands as her other two arms kept her balanced. “And you upgraded, apparently.”
“Ha. Yes, you could call it that.” With a grunt, the woman got to her feet. “The bodies I used to supplement my own were dead, of course. When I passed Ambrosia’s territory over a decade ago, she took advantage, enslaving me with her powers.” She shuddered. “I knew what she was doing, but was unable to stop her, trapped within my own body. It was horrible, the things she made me do.” She closed her eyes for a moment before reopening them. “Even in sleep, she retained enough power over me that I couldn’t do anything against her. Only now that she’s been knocked out cold have I felt my first moments of freedom in years.”
I nodded solemnly. “I too crave freedom, to be out from under another’s thumb.”
The witch considered. “Yes, the boy is the key to that, from what I hear.”
“Yes.”
“The boy,” the woman said, eyes shifting to settle on Auggie. “He’s certainly attracting a lot of attention, isn’t he?”
“To my misfortune.”
She returned her gaze to me. “And you’re truly only escorting him for Lucifer?”
“Yes.”
“To what end?”
I hesitated. “I haven’t the slightest idea. And I don’t really care. He’s a means to an end.”
“A means to an end.” She straightened, looking down her nose at me. She had a good foot on me. An intimidating foot. “Then I shall help you achieve your freedom, as recompense.”
