Her heart was pounding much faster than she realized. She hated it when she had to be stealthy.
If they had heard anything unusual other than the door slamming shut, the men were too preoccupied with carrying the canvas to give it a second thought, giving Cadence just enough time to duck down a short hallway and observe.
The medical practice building was small, but not cramped. The practicing doctor, whomever they may have been, would have been able to fit a few more beds or cots into the space had they really wanted to, but as it was there were only four. One in each corner, walled off by curtain stands with pale yellow fabric. There wasn’t a patient in sight. Everything was clean, save for a fine layer of dust covering the tools at the foot of each bed.
The two men finished piling the canvas bundles in the center of the room. Seeing them up close, Cadence knew without a doubt they were bodies. Two dead with certainty, but without death ceremonies to sever their threads of life. And two that did not yet have the aura of death around them.
She prayed to her goddess that they would be Tillie and Dane.
“Alright, let’s send these down,” one man said to the other. “I want to get this over with. I don’t like being here any longer than I have to.”
The other folded his arms and nodded. “Agreed.” He went to a bookshelf against the wall between two beds and moved some of the books around. On one of the shelves, the books had been hiding a recessed lever. He grabbed it and forced it down. The sharp crunching sound of dirty gears filled the air.
Cadence stared at the canvas-covered bodies piled up in the middle of the room as they started to descend on a perfect circular cut-out of the wood floor. The sound of her hard swallow was masked by the creaking gears. There’s a whole gods damned basement under here!
The men dusted off their hands.
“Ready to get out of here?”
“Yeah. He said to come by for our pay next time we’re in Riddenholm. Job’s done, right? Don’t see a reason to stick around.”
So, they left. Just like that. They locked the back door behind them, oblivious to Cadence still inside. She stared at the hole in the middle of the room and the darkness it led to, wondering just what else she’d find in the basement of Deloren Sons’ Medical Practice.
Would she find Lord Deloren? Was he truly at the front of the heinous scheme she hadn’t yet pieced together? She strained her ears but couldn’t hear anything now that the dais had fully descended into the basement. There was no one in the main patient area with her, and if there was anyone below it, they were quiet as a mouse. She let out a silent breath to steel her nerves and decided to make her own descent.
She crept up to the opening and peered down, seeing the bodies below. To meet the ground would mean a twelve-foot drop. It wasn’t bad, Cadence thought. She had survived longer drops before that were on accident. It wasn’t completely dark down below, either. Somewhere in the basement was a dim light source.
Carefully, she hunkered down on the ground, grabbing the lip of the hole, and slid her legs and body off the smooth wood floor of the medical building and into the open darkness of the basement. Her fingertips burned as they held onto the lip. She couldn’t just leap down and fall on the bodies. It would be rude whether they were alive or not!
Gently, she swung her body to and fro. When she had gained enough momentum, she let go and propelled her fall away from the bodies. Her boots hit the solid stone ground, then her knees and hands. The landing was painful. And not as quiet as she would have liked.
Cadence got to her feet and dusted her palms off on her trousers. It was not a mere basement beneath the medical practice, she realized, but an entire labyrinth of catacombs. Her eyes went wide.
She went to the bodies in canvas at last, to the ones still giving off the aura of life, and started freeing them of the ropes and wrapping. Her shoulders relaxed when she revealed Tillie and Dane’s faces.
“Thank gods,” she whispered. They were out cold, but they were alive and didn’t appear to have any wounds, save for Dane’s ugly scrapes from the night at the Alabaster Bobcat. She continued tugging at the canvas rolls to completely free them, but then she heard shuffling from deeper in the catacombs. A sick, heavy, horrid feeling permeated the air.
The feeling of the Forbidden. Of hundreds of angry souls flooding into a Realm they no longer belonged to.
Cadence stared down at the two, torn between duties. She clenched her fists as she reluctantly turned away.
“I’ll come back for you two. If I don’t stop this now, it’ll just happen all over again to someone else.”
But she did not leave without seeing them armed. She left them one of her flintlock pistols and her silver dagger in case they woke. It was the best she could do before striding off down the hallway and into the deep of the catacombs.
Chapter 10
The catacomb’s walls were lined with the silent screams of the fitful dead--silent screams that Bone Priests and Priestesses were trained to hear. Cadence tried to block them out as she traveled the passageways. The candle flames recessed in the walls shied away from her as she tore past them.
None of the bodies buried beneath the building had been given a proper death ceremony. It made them ripe for the picking if a necromancer wanted a servant or a soldier. Cadence could have handled a few dozen if she’d had to, but she was unprepared to deal with the standby army in the walls surrounding her.
Every pathway in the catacombs lead to a large open room. The sick, heavy aura in the air was crushing. When Cadence stepped inside, her stomach turned.
It was so much worse than she had imagined.
At first glance she thought she had seen a pile of bodies beside the doorway, but they were only pieces. Not from just one or two bodies, but from many. Arms, legs, whole heads, various organs--the room reeked.
But in the center of the room was what she had come for. She knew. In the center was an iron table. Laying still and lifeless on top was a massive body, stitched together from the pieces of the others. Lord Deloren stood beside it with a tome in his hands.
“If it isn’t the lady who claimed to be from Pitfight Valley!” he said with a grin on his face. “My, but I’m not surprised to see you here.”
“Lord Deloren. I had so hoped I wouldn’t find you here.”
“You’re Lady Cadence de la Croix of the Botathora Sanctum. You’re one of the Sanctum’s best Bone Priestesses. Eventually you had to know your investigation would lead to me.”
“Then you suspected me from the beginning.”
“Just as you suspected me.”
She hated how calm he was. He had the overwhelming advantage and he knew it. And there wasn’t a chance in all Hells that she’d be able to get away.
“So, what’s all of this?” she asked, gesturing to the bodies and then to the monstrosity on the table. “All these bodies you’ve destroyed… and not even in the name of your research at the Physician’s College, but for this?”
“The fabled Flesh Construct.” Lord Deloren closed his tome and set it on a small table with his tools. “Interesting how we are encouraged to experiment and find ways to repair the body as doctors, yet not as anything else. No, no. Discover ways to repair the soul’s vessel as a practitioner of anything but medical science and it’s a crime. It’s Forbidden.”
“I am not here for a discussion on society’s views of medical science, Lord Deloren. I am only here on behalf of the hundreds of desecrated dead bodies I have seen. As far as I am concerned, that is your only crime.”
He laughed and took a step closer to her. “You do not have to be naïve with me, Bone Priestess. You know that is not my only crime.”
Her hand itched to grab her pistol and shoot. Simple. Clean. Done. But she stayed still.
“Before we begin, Lord Deloren, will you tell me where the bodies came from? The bodies supplied to the Physician’s College in Riddenholm are approved to be there. They are donated after death ceremonies and therefore can be studi
ed without threat of desecration. None of the bodies here have been given a death ceremony.”
“I would never steal resources from the school.” Lord Deloren shook his head. “If you survive this, Bone Priestess, you can go to old Brin Colt. For decades, he has been supplying me with materials from the cemetery. But his life has been long and rich. He went his whole career without being caught. Surely he doesn’t have time left to repent for his crimes.”
“A disappointing fact, but it will not shake my resolve, Lord Deloren.” She drew the pistol and pulled back the hammer. “What is most disappointing is how the communities of Beralin and Riddenholm will lose one of its pillars. Please do not put up a fight, my lord. It’s over.”
“Don’t put up a fight?” he remarked. “But the odds are in my favor. You are grossly outnumbered, my lady.”
Sensing the threat of Cadence’s weapon now on its master, the flesh construct came to life. Mismatched muscles rippled beneath skin that twisted in patches as it sat up and left the table. Cadence’s breath left her as the eight-foot beast towered above her. She backed away and fired a shot. The construct’s body hissed as the bullet sank in and was devoured.
“Shit!”
It continued forward, but she could only back away so much. Behind her, something wet slithered and squelched along the ground.
The pile of bodies was moving on its own.
“Lord Deloren, stop this vile magic, now!” Cadence yelled.
“They no longer function on magic, Bone Priestess.” He stood back and watched his creatures stalk her. “Can’t you tell?”
She tried to focus, to beat down her fear so the logic could come back. When she finally had the nerve to stare into the construct’s blue and brown eyes, she didn’t feel the aura of necromancy reanimating it. The pile of bodies crawling around behind her wasn’t reanimated, either.
“They’re alive. You gave them souls.” Her mouth was dry.
“It is so good to have the talents of the Tano family close by. Master Tano has this amazing talent to find souls no matter where they are. My newborn son died over twenty years ago in my arms. There was nothing to stop his soul from meeting Botathora and moving on to the next stage of death.”
“That’s when a soul is finally safe from the prying hands of you wicked necromancers!”
“That is what I thought, too. And yet, Master Tano plucked him from Botathora’s special place in the underworld and brought him to me. And now he is here with me, strong and healthy as ever! I guarantee you, Bone Priestess…” he rubbed his hands together, “... you did not bring enough bullets to bring him down.”
“And this one’s soul?” Cadence moved out of the path of the body pile. It was slow and didn’t have the ability to do anything but feebly wave the limbs awkwardly sticking out of it. The worst it could do to her was make her vomit.
“My first wife,” Lord Deloren said. “She fell ill shortly after giving birth. Admittedly, my grief for our dead son quickly turned to rage and I didn’t have it in me to give her a proper death ceremony. She didn’t properly nurture our baby while it was inside of her, and I have always held her responsible for his death. Therefore, I didn’t think she deserved a proper death, herself.”
Cadence’s stomach turned again. She couldn’t find anything to say and continued backing away as the creatures pursued her. Her fingers went to the bullets along her belt and she tried to reload her pistol.
Lord Deloren went back to his tome, reading it from the small table, and started removing his gloves. The sleek brown goatskin was fit for a noble but hid something vile beneath his left hand. Cadence watched him reveal his Anzharian Maw—the undeniable mark of a necromancer.
The parasite was given to mages when they were ready to fully dedicate themselves to the practice. It could never be removed. No matter how much of the arm was amputated, the Maw would be there. It was used to siphon life energy out of mortal beings. Once they began reanimating the dead, a necromancer relied on life energy to keep themselves sustained, but it was also the very life force that brought bodies back from the dead for them to use.
Next time, she told herself, she’d just start investigations with an extremely thorough handshake.
She was much faster than Lord Deloren’s monstrosities, but she had no idea how to take them down with what little she had. Besides, she knew she was in for a whole lot more.
“I’m surprised you came down here,” he mused, opening his hand wide. The Maw embedded in his palm had rows of sharp, needle-like teeth. It snapped hungrily at the air. “Took a lot of guts to come down pathways lined with an army in stasis. All for me?”
With a silver bullet loaded, she turned her pistol on him. The flesh construct’s speed increased and swung its arm to stop her. Cadence felt the impact of over four feet and eighty pounds of flesh. It was like getting hit by a whole other person. She fell back, hard, and the construct loomed over her, getting ready to swing his fist down on her face. She rolled away. The construct’s attack connected with the ground.
For all the work put into it, Cadence saw that it was an unstable creature. Flesh split along the construct’s hand as it hit solid ground with a splat. Dark, coagulating blood seeped out from the wound, and the dark stitching along the pinky and the wrist started to come undone.
“You wouldn’t dare wake all those corpses in the catacombs,” Cadence said, getting to her feet. “All that moving earth would cave in this whole place. We’d all die.”
“I would absolutely dare it, Bone Priestess. I fortified this place long before I started storing bodies.” He smirked. “The earth would rumble a bit, yes. And the neighbors would just shrug it off as feuding faeries or the goddess Rosamar moving beneath the ground. They will have no idea of my creations.”
“Then why do it?” Cadence was careful to move far away from the construct before aiming her pistol at Lord Deloren again. “That’s what you all want, isn’t it? Necromancers are all the same, Lord Deloren. You all want to control your armies so that you can terrorize those who have wronged you and take over the land.”
“Trust that those who have wronged me have already been terrorized, Bone Priestess. We are not all the same.”
The pistol was shaking in her hand. She needed answers before she ended him. She needed to understand. The construct’s speed spiked once again as soon as it saw the threat she posed to Lord Deloren, and it raced toward her.
She turned and fired the shot into the construct, hitting it in the shoulder. It reared back and the wound hissed. Threads holding the shoulder and the arm together loosened.
“Bone Priestess, all this effort was merely a means to protect myself. Once I had convinced myself of what I’d do with my son’s soul, I knew it’d take a long time and I’d be breaking a lot of laws.” Lord Deloren’s hand pulsed with black energy that arced like lightning between his fingers. “I will not be stopped. Even if I wanted to, it’s too late to stop. The Maw is already a part of me. I will be feeding from mortal energy till the day the Rot consumes me.”
Cadence backed away from the construct, putting as much distance between them while she reloaded.
“And it was all so you could turn your son’s soul into this thing?”
Lord Deloren shrugged. “It was also so I could turn my first wife into that thing.”
The body pile had reached Cadence and swung its several arms at her, knocking her to the ground. Hands clawed and pulled, but the pile’s chaotic movements couldn’t overwhelm Cadence. She shoved them away and crawled out of reach, tucking stray wisps of hair behind her ear.
The rumble she had been dreading arrived. Lord Deloren summoned his army from the catacombs around them.
“Tillie! Tillie, wake up!”
Tillie could feel her body shaking, but there was only darkness. The fatigue consuming her was unfathomable. Her eyelids were so heavy, she didn’t think she’d ever have the strength to open them.
But strong hands shook her shoulders and wouldn’t relent. H
er mind slowly rose from the depths of unconsciousness. After a groan, her dark eyes fluttered open.
Dane breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank gods! How do you feel?”
Tillie shivered though she was still half covered by canvas. The air was thick and nauseating, and something smelled vile. She sat up from the ground and looked at the two dead bodies behind her.
“Like I’m going to vomit. We have to get out of here! Something about this place is wrong—”
“You’re sensing the Forbidden,” Dane told her. “And under any other circumstance, I’d say you’re right about leaving. But…” he took her hand and slapped the hilt of a silver dagger in her palm, “... but Cadence is here. I bet she came to get us.”
Tillie’s heartbeat quickened. “Where are we?”
“Not a clue. But we’re underground. Got here on that platform I bet.” He gestured to the dais with the two bodies. “Do you remember what happened before? It’s a blur for me.”
Tillie pushed the rest of the canvas off and got to her feet. Dane rose with her.
“We went to Tano Manor to ask about Lord Deloren. We were invited in by the woman at the door, and then she must have used some kind of magic on us to make us fall asleep. That’s all I remember. Did we even get to ask our question?”
“Does it matter? Seems like the answer is a very positive yes at this point. Come on, let’s see if we can find Cadence. She left us some of her weapons, so be careful. She knew there would be danger.”
Before they had taken two steps toward the catacomb pathways, the ground beneath them rumbled. The earthen walls of the pathways cracked and crumbled and dust filled the air.
Tillie glanced at Dane. “Still Forbidden?”
He nodded. “Guess we found all those bodies you were worried about.” One by one, corpses in varying states of decay burst forth from the rubble.
Tillie could not be so calm. Her insides quaked as she watched the bodies twist and reanimate, jerking around aimlessly. She had worried about desecration of bodies, but only at the level Cadence first spoke to her of. Only of the casual mistreatment of the dead, the dissection without permission, the lack of proper death ceremonies…
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