“Livestock.”
“Aye,well—” She adjusted the strap of her pauldron, looking disgusted at thematerial.“Vekra’s tits.”
Isaaccontinued to write.
“WhatI’m getting at,” Zaria said, “is that you said they were warring, constantly,to get these bodies.War brings injury.Soldiers would come back without alimb, with burns, broken teeth, arrows they couldn’t dig out.Always a lottacripples, coming outta war.These bone cunts must’ve had broken bodies.So whydid they never put their own souls into other people?”
“Itdoesn’t work like that,” Isaac said.“It’s called core rejection.A soul can’tbe implanted into a body that doesn’t ‘fit’, for lack of a better word.”
Zariatrailed her hand along a hanging chain.
“Itdepends,” Isaac continued, stuffing his tablet into his pack, “on thecomposition of the original body, and how it compares to the new.Putting thesoul of one species into another is near-immediately fatal.Even a same-speciestransfer—human to human, for instance—can cause a very deleterious effect.Thenew body can’t bend its limbs.It can hardly draw breath.The organs starvefrom lack of nourishment.And the brain itself—the organ which shares reasoningwith the soul—almost always drives the new soul insane, from what we assume arethe incompatibilities of personality.The old person lingers in the flesh.Theyinfect the new, leeching memory and habits and thoughts.The results are ...disquieting.”
Zarialooked down the line of cages.It stretched to the endof the room.“Stuffing new souls into old bodies doesn’t work at all, then?”
“Itonly works with family,” he said.“Close blood relations, like father to son,where the inheritance is strong.Even then, it’s tricky.The Diet of Ninehasn’t developed the proper technology to do the procedure without great risk.To date, few have survived the operation.”He flipped a page on his sketchpad,continuing to jot down notes.“That was one of the reasons my father was sentto this tomb.These necromancers excelled in manipulating souls, and the Diethoped they might find some clues or machines that could improve thediscipline.”
“Idon’t like that,” Zaria said.“Some things should stay buried.”
“Magiccan be made ethical.That is why the Diet exists.”
“Ain’ta diet about eating things?”
Isaacdid not answer.
Thelaboratory filled with silence.Around them, osseous fibers snarled across thewall, growing like fungus on a corpse.
“Thissorceress,” Zaria said.“She’s the lone survivor, of all this?”
“Theonly one.”
“Isthat the kind of murderous cunt we’re making alliances with now?”
Isaacpursed his lips, staring up at the apparatus of an energy converter.“It’sgoing to be very temporary.”
“Ithink so—check ahead.”
Helooked over the metal cage.On the stone floor of the laboratory, stampedthrough the layers of dust, there were many footprints, all walking inproximity.For a moment, Isaac thought of soldiers filed strictly for a march.
“They’rerecent,” Zaria said.She sniffed the air, her black nose twitching.“I cansmell ‘em through the rot.Lots of humans.”
“Thralls.”
“Aye.”
Isaacmoved to approach.
Heknew, for a fact, that the necromancer wouldn’t have asked for their aidagainst the puppeteer if the two of them weren’t in a position to help—namely,if Isaac and Zaria weren’t getting close to their mutual enemy.Whoever thisinterloper was, they were standing between them, the necromancer, and hisfather.After following a trail of bodies for several days, the two of themwere finally closing in.
Aconfrontation was coming.
Slowly,Isaac limbered himself, working through some of the pre-mnemonic positions.“Beon your guard.”
Zaria nodded,keeping the spear tip of her polearm pointed at the laboratory exit.He pacedaround her, noting with some disquiet just how many sets of footprints werestamped through the dust.He poked his head through the door.The corridorbeyond was empty, ribbed with the bulbous lamps of cartilage light.Above, thegiant vertebrae running through the vaulted ceiling had stopped taking theappearance of lumbar sockets—now, they were beginning to fan out into a sacralappendage, which would form the wall of bone that, in humans, connected thespine to the pelvis.They were reaching the groin of the colossus.
Fromthe pelvis, they would have to descend the legs.At the feet of the giantcorpse, the necromancer would be waiting.
Sowould his father.
