“A shadow. Not an animal, not real. Too many teeth. Too many eyes.” The hunter’s entire body twitches with some remembered reflex. “There was a dead man with it.”
Shae’s heartbeat picks up. He wonders if Arthur can feel his pulse where they touch. “Was he walking?” he asks quickly. “What color were his eyes?”
“Yes,” the hunter answers. “Red.”
Arthur’s hand tenses again on Shae’s neck. Shae swallows, but keeps going with the questions, not wanting to waste any time. “What happened then?”
“I fell,” the dead man sighs, lips barely moving. “Then everything was cold and dark.”
Shae frowns. “What’s the last thing you saw?”
“Nothing,” the dead man says. “I saw nothing.” His voice grows fainter as he speaks, and his ribcage shudders weakly under Shae’s hand.
“Did it hurt?” Shae asks quickly. “Did you feel anything?”
But with one final rattle, the dead man slumps motionless once more. The flow of cold power cuts off, the last of it recoiling up Shae’s arm. Shae hangs his head, counting his breaths as his power resettles beneath his heart. It’s easier than it’s ever been before, with Arthur’s thumb gently stroking the side of his neck, easing away the tension.
“Thanks,” Shae says eventually, and immediately regrets it because Arthur lets go and stands up.
“Red eyes,” Arthur says, shaking his head. “Either demon possession or an acolyte of the Flame Twins, and I wouldn’t better on the latter.”
“I wouldn’t either.” Shae twists one of his rings, his nervousness mounting once again. They’re still so far away from the border, surely Izen can’t reach this far south yet. The spells in Shae’s rings are still intact, surely Izen can’t have found him on purpose. It could be another demon, with another target.
“And the other creature sounds like another vaidkos,” Arthur says. “I don’t like that we’ve run across two of them now. That’s as many as I’ve ever seen in my life, within one week. But he didn’t say anything about it attacking him, and I don’t see any injuries on him.”
Shae stands up too. His shakiness and nausea has nothing to do with the after-effects of magic. “It’s the same as the one in the graveyard,” he says quietly. “It took his soul.”
The warm breeze rustles through the trees, stirring up road dust and whipping Shae’s coat around him. Arthur puts a hand to his chest in warding. “Light guide us,” he mutters. “I need to report this to the order.”
Reflexive fear tightens Shae’s nerves. He can’t afford too long of a delay, and the thought of Arthur leaving him for the Radiant Order makes his pulse pick up. “Are any of you stationed nearby?”
“No, but the next village should be close. I’ll just talk to the local guard and pass a message along,” Arthur answers, alleviating Shae’s sudden worry. He rubs his stubbled jaw, looking down at the hunter. Then he kneels down and gently closes the dead man’s eyes. “We’ll need to tell them to come out and retrieve our friend anyway.”
“All right.”
He’s more relieved than he should be that Arthur doesn’t want to detour. He’s gotten far too used to being able to rely on his companion, instead of keeping him at arms’ length, no closer and no farther. And he has a sinking feeling that all of this—the soul stealing, Izen, his own weakening spirit—is related. He’s going to need all the help he can get.
The sand is pouring through the hourglass. Shae doesn’t know how much is left. It might be time to tell Arthur the truth about his journey. The whole truth.
?
CHAPTER TWELVE
Arthur
They don’t stay long in the next town, putting in a good afternoon’s travel after reporting the hunter’s body to the local guard. As the evening deepens, they make camp in a dry cave. Other travelers have used it before, judging from the footprints and campfire remnants, but nobody recently enough for Arthur to expect company. He makes sure Duchess has food and water, then walks a loop around the entrance and says the prayer to set the warding magic. Same as every night.
Except when he’s done, he opens his eyes to see Shae leaning against the cave entrance, watching him. Arthur mostly doesn’t find the necromancer unnerving anymore, but there’s an odd, contemplative stillness to his dark gaze now. Arthur feels like he’s under inspection.
He’s not sure he dislikes it.
“What are the parameters of your warding spell?” Shae asks.
Arthur answers as he steps out of the cave again, looking for enough dry wood to start a fire. “The boundary extends about a hundred feet past the circle I walk. If any mortal creature bigger than a rabbit crosses, or anything demonic of any size, it alerts me.”
“Could they know we’re here, though?”
“I suppose. I don’t have cloaking magic.” Radiant Vara’s purview is more concerned with revelation than concealment.
