And—laying dead like this—a resemblance began to materialize in her mind.Viktar’s sister disappeared six months ago…
“I should be able to revive her,” Lux finally said, and her voice emerged rasping. She needed water. Preferably without salt.
“But she’s dead.”
Lux shifted her eyes to the girl.She’s not afraid of death. How interesting.Relievedly so. Lux was sure she couldn’t have managed another’s hysterics in her present state. “What’s your name?”
“Cecily Otterbee.”
“Lux Thorn. My brilliance is necromancy.”
Albeita broken one.
The girl’s eyes rounded. “I didn’t believe necromancers were real.”
“Real as this disaster I’m in.” Lux reached down toward the dead woman. With two fingers carefully placed, she closed Hildred’s eyes, and out of habit, felt for the lifeblood congealing within her.
Her fingers paused in their assessment. She frowned—then quick as a gallowroot, shoved Hildred’s eyelids back. Lux leaned forward, looked closer, and gently pushed against one fixed pupil. She stared at the result on the pad of her finger in the moonlight.
Perfectly ordinary.
There was no slit. No leaking lifeblood.
But the body…
It was empty.
Chapter twenty-nine
CecilyOtterbeewasthirteenyears old, and the girl could feel others’ emotions. Blasted bad luck for her. When Lux had asked if she could also manipulate them, she’d said she didn’t know. She’d never tried.
They tucked Hildred’s body away from view as best they could, then Lux needed a reprieve. Her lungs were sore, and her muscles exhausted. Huddled and shivering on a rock, they stared out at the waves.
“It sounded like a dream to come here,” lamented Cecily. “I have five siblings and I’m in the middle. Do you know what that’s like? I feel forgotten a lot of the time. But Corvin—he made me feel unforgettable. He said he could see the blessing of Saints on me, and if I wished to work for Mothlock, he would ensure my education until I came of age to join their society. But when I arrived…”
Lux closed her eyes against a monstrous wave’s violent crash. She absorbed what Cecily said in rapt silence.
“I feel ill here. Deep inside. I felt it right away, but I didn’t know what it was from. Artemis is their healer. He said I was sensitive to change, that it was salt-sick and I would feel better soon, but the drink he gave me didn’t last long. And the shackles to keep me from being lost hurt my ankle bones. When I injured their cook… I swear I didn’t mean to.”
The chain clanked as the girl shifted. Lux’s hands twisted uselessly in her lap. They yearned to occupy something.
A knife. Or a throat.
“It isn’t the salt-sick,” Cecily whispered.
“I doubt it,” said Lux.
“They want so badly. I don’t think you can comprehend without feeling it yourself. It hurts me to feel it.”
“But what do they want?” said Lux, mostly to herself.
“I don’t know. But the attendants scare me. I told you about her.” Cecily pointed toward the partially hidden body. “They don’t feel like anything. And I don’t want to be like that.”
“Empty.”
“Empty.”
Lux shook her head. She’d never known anything like it. The confusion overshadowed any guilt and any dread.How could Hildred have been alive without lifeblood?The old loose pages once belonging to Riselda’s alcove said it couldn’t be done.
