Jentt hesitated for the barest of seconds—He’s going to sayyes,she thought—but instead he said: “If you’re selfish, so am I.” Lifting one of her hands, he kissed her knuckles. “I’ve loved this time with you. Vast improvement over being dead.” He hooked his other arm around her and pulled her closer so she could feel the hardness between his legs. “Let me demonstrate again how much of an improvement it is.”
She laughed and returned his kisses.
Still, a worm of doubt twisted inside her:the army could be in the valley, Eklor could still be planning to destroy the guild, and the Five could be the only ones with both the awareness and the experience to stop him. Or it could be all in her head. And memories.
A brisk knock sounded on the door, and they broke apart.
“Clothe yourselves,” Zera demanded as she opened the door. “It’s all of us, and we need to talk.” She barged in, followed by Stran, Amurra, and Marso.
For a brief instant, Kreya was annoyed, but that faded fast. For all of them to be here so early, something had to be wrong. She swung herself out of bed as Jentt wrapped a sheet around his waist and sat up. She noticed the others were all dressed, though they could have been wearing the same clothes as last night. She kept her voice calm and even, despite the way her heart rate had increased. “You have my attention. Talk.”
“There are a lot of unknowns,” Zera began, “but here is what wedoknow. Eklor has resurrected eight people, the latest revival occurring this morning—”
Kreya cut her off. “Eight?”
That was impossible. Even if his body had another fifty years left of life in it, how could he have resurrected so many? Unless he was only giving a few years to each. Or less.That’s possible,she thought. He’d said he was giving them new life,but he could have been lying about thelengthof that new life. “Sorry. Continue,” she said.
“We believe that for every person he saves, he’s murdering another.” Zera waved papers in the air. “The dates and times of the resurrections and deaths line up exactly.”
Amurra gently pushed Marso forward. “Tell them what you saw.”
“I can confirm the connection,” Marso said. He was trembling as he spoke, his eyes flitting back and forth as if he wanted to flee to the comfort of a fountain. “I read it in the bones. For every life Eklor gives, he’s taking another.”
A few decades ago, Kreya would have believed him without question, but she’d seen what happened when he tried to read the bones now. “You read this?”
“I... It’s not the same as it was. I can’t... But I can answer a single question. Amurra helped me. I’m not... healed... but I’m better. And Eklor is killing to heal.”
“All the murders—yeah, I’m calling them that, even though they’re recorded as natural,” Zera said, “happened in the hospital on the third tier.”
“What we don’t know iswhyhe’s killing them,” Amurra said.
“Bones?” Stran suggested. “Could he be using their bones for the resurrections and counting on no one making the connection?”
“Except he’d need the bonesbeforethe spell, which should mean the deaths are occurringbefore,” Zera said. “Plus he should have plenty of bones from the plains. Kreya saw them in Lorn’s palace.”
Kreya had a thought. A terrible thought. It shouldn’t have been possible, of course, but this was Eklor... “Did you check with the hospital? Were the bodies missing?”
“No, but—”
That was not the answer she was hoping for. “Were the bodies missing bones?”
“Not that the hospital reported, but—”
“You said that the deaths occurred at the precise moment of resurrection.”
Zera waved her papers again. “Yes. All the times line up exactly, and we confirmed with the hospital that the victims weren’t sick or injured enough to die. Their deaths are all unexplained. Their bodies untouched.”
“Shit,” Kreya said. She closed her eyes. “He’s not taking bones. He’s taking blood.” Probably sent a construct to infiltrate the hospital. It wouldn’t have been difficult to design one to perform that task—she could’ve done it in a few hours. You could even make it look like a typical cleaning construct, like the kind that she’d had cleaning the tower stairs. It could have passed unnoticed, retrieved the blood, and delivered it to Eklor for use at a later date.
In a satisfied voice, Amurra said, “I told you we should tell her. She knows more about the resurrection spell than anyone.”
Except she clearly didn’t. He must have stumbled onto, or more likely intentionally developed, a new variant of the resurrection spell, one where his own life force wasn’t affected.
Actually, now that she thought of it, she could see how such a spell would be crafted. A few tweaks to the words. Substitute in your “donor’s” blood.I just didn’t think of it, because I’m not pure evil.Someone like Eklor... He could have created a spell to do exactly this.
No—hedidcreate such a spell. That was apparent now.
“What is it?” Jentt asked. “What’s wrong?” He added, “Aside from everything.”
