If I know what’s good for me, I should make this Evengi my pretty little dead thing. He would ask far fewer questions when he is no longer a member of the living. It’s what my father would expect from me.
Instead, I find myself smiling as I step away. “Why wouldn’t I want to marry the handsomest man in town?”
Evengi’s eyebrows shoot up, and I laugh slightly to myself as I turn only to find myself staring into the stony face of Brom the Bones. However, his attention isn’t on me at all, but on Evengi. “Mind if I cut in?” he asks, but from the tone of his voice it’s clear it isn’t a request.
“Of course,” Evengi says graciously as he places my hand into Brom’s. “I thank you for sharing her.” Then to me he winks. “I’ll keep my end of the bargain whenever you decide to be straight with me. We can discuss my dancing later.”
Then he walks off, leaving me standing next to Brom while he squeezes my hand just a little too hard. The both of us staring after Evengi Ichabod and wondering just who this traveler who came to our small town might be.
Chapter Seven
Evengi
Ishouldn’t have made such a scene, but I can’t find it in myself to regret that decision.
That dance was the most fun I’ve had in a long time. It has been a while since I’ve had a worthy partner.
I raise the glass to my lips and take a sip of the tart apple cider within, wishing all the while that the ghosts would be quiet so I can properly think. Or better yet, they would actually say something that might just help me to figure out what’s going on here. But their murmurs and hisses remain incoherent, just a buzz of noise in my ear.
There are always ghosts around but never so many. Nor are they usually so loud and angry. This is a telltale sign ofnecromancy or some other desecration of the dead is happening. Given the history of this town the question is if I’m dealing with a living necromancer… or if this is still an aftershock of the battle that took place at the mass grave this town is built next to.
One hundred necromancers is an impressive number, so even if it happened five hundred years ago, I wouldn’t be surprised if they still have the ability to affect the spirits today.
But then again this is more than an echo. It’s almost as if the souls have been stirred up. The past battle might explain their numbers, but it doesn’t explain why they are so instigated. They were always here but something newly got their attention and got them riled up like this. Which brings me back to my theory that there’s a necromancer here. A living and actively practicing necromancer.
It makes sense that they would come here, this must be hallowed ground to them, a place full of so many remains of their own kind. If there’s two things that necromancers love, it’s dead things and a sense of superiority over their fellow necromancers.
They all want to be the best necromancer there ever was as if there’s some sort of art to playing puppet master to dead things. And to display that power over other necromancers by reanimating the corpses of their rivals? It’s perhaps a necromancer’s favorite thing to do.
So no, I’m quite certain there’s a necromancer here, and I need to find them and make them face the justice of the gods if I intend to get a moment’s peace from these infernally loud ghosts.
I twitch my head slightly, a habit that I’d thought I’d broken but then I twitch my head again, my neck moving of its own accord as if I’m trying to shake the sound out of my ear.
I grimace as I look up to see Natasya watching me from where she is standing next to her fiancé Brom. I raise my glass slightly and smirk.
She rolls her eyes and looks away, but I catch her continue to watch me out of the corner of her eye. It seems as though I’ve managed to bewitch Brom’s pretty little fiancée at least half as much as she has bewitched me.
I feel a slight pang of guilt when I remember that Brom is my friend, even though it was long ago, and he likely doesn’t remember it. But I quickly assuage it when I remember that the only reason, I am interested in Natasya is that I’m suspicious of her. I don’t know just what I suspect her of, perhaps she is even my necromancer, but one thing I know for certain is that she is not who she appears to be.
I know a false premise when I see one. After all, my life has been one false premise or the other since I became a ghost hunter.
I’m doing him a favor if I get her attention off of him. At best, she’s just after his title and worst-case scenario, she is looking for a sacrifice for some dark ritual.
Either way, if I can draw her attention away from him then I can save my former friend some heartache and agony when he realizes that his lovely fiancée is not quite the woman she has led him to believe she is.
I glance around, taking in the people of Sunder Hollow. There’s a small group of ladies who seem to keep edging nearer, looking at me as if they are contemplating devouring my soul or something. I stifle a shiver and glance to my right. I find a portly older woman standing off to the side clapping her hands along with the tune.
She seems a bit bored and looks the type to gossip so I step toward her. I clear my throat. “Care to dance?”
Her face breaks out in a wide grin, one that I cannot help but return. It seems that, despite my duplicitous nature and borderline betrayal of an old friend, I have still managed to make someone’s night. Now I can only hope that she can help makemine by shedding some light on certain areas I’m having a hard time understanding.
“My name is Evengi,” I say as I pull her into a dance position and begin moving to time with the fiddle players.
“Oh, I know who you are,” she says smiling up at me. I believe that she intends to sound coy, but her response is just a bit unsettling.
“You seem like the type of woman who is well informed,” I say smoothly, determined to not allow the conversation to get derailed. I was not as successful as I would have liked with Natasya, and I intend to not make the same mistake twice.
“Indeed,” she replies with a titter. “I can tell you anything you want to know about Sunder Hollow. Why, I’ve lived here my whole life and known most everyone here for just as long.”
