“Aren’t you pressed for time?” Kristopher was trying hard not to sound annoyed but the examination of the bodies was setting him on edge. He hadn’t expected Lucian to care so much.
“No, but you are. I’m surprised you haven’t paid yet.” Lucian hadn’t planned to charge Kristopher, but getting all three of his necromancers killed at once was too careless. Lucian wanted to make sure the same thing wouldn’t happen often.
“You think I just happen to carry around half a million in cash?!”
They’d already told him. Lucian was proud. He really had chosen the right three. “I think you could have gotten it in the time it took me to get here. It’s not like these three were going anywhere.”
“You have to be kidding me.” All his plans lost for a lack of cash.
“Well, since you’re a -” Lucian paused. “Friend.” He narrowed his eyes and smirked. “I guess I could make an exception once. You’ll have to start playing by the rules though. Let’s just say you’ll owe me.”
“Of course, Lucian.” Kristopher nodded his head but didn’t hide the sarcasm in his voice.
“How much do you have on you?”
“Three, maybe five hundred.”
“Pocket change!” Lucian faked astonishment.
“Do you take credit cards? Maybe if you’d carried a card reader with you into the middle of nowhere this wouldn’t be an issue.”
“And waste all that money on batteries? Besides everything they have now is wireless dependent. Do you think I’d get a signal out here? You know, it’s really not that far to an ATM. I’ll wait here. Don’t forget the breadcrumbs so you can find your way back.”
“Sorry.” Kristopher choked on all the words he had to hold back but managed to get out an apology. It wasn’t a good idea for him to lose any favor with Lucian so soon. Those three men had to come back, especially with Miriel undoubtedly healing up somewhere and planning her revenge. The bitch wasn’t going to die easily and there was no telling when she’d be ready to come after him. He needed Lucian solidly on his side when that day came. Otherwise he’d be right back where he started.
“Here.” Kristopher held out his wallet and pretended to be contrite. “Take whatever collateral you need. I can have the money in your account as soon as we get back to civilization.
Lucian nodded, satisfied he had won this round. He took out the cash and one of the cards then tossed the wallet back, turning his attention to the three bodies laid out in front of him. This ceremony was nothing like the one Kristopher had gone through. It relied less on ritual and more on the skill of the necromancer performing it. Lucian didn’t bother to say the words aloud, in fact his mouth didn’t move. Lucian stood over the first body and stared at it for a few seconds, presumably going over some sort of chant in his head. Next, he knelt down by the first man and cut a small ‘x’ into the skin covering his heart, which he gently blew on. His breath looked black coming out, he wasn’t breathing life back into the corpse. Instead, he was treating it with an air that wasn’t supposed to exist in this world, and because it didn’t belong it couldn’t blend in like the oxygen required for the rest of human life on earth. As soon as the black whatever it was touched the ‘x’ the corpse began to take shallow breaths, some living color began to return to its cheeks. Kristopher stared in awe and wondered if that was what he looked like as he returned from the dead or if those boys were in the same darkness. Lucian ignored the body completely once it started breathing regularly. H repeated the process on the other two bodies, making sure they were breathing regularly. Lucian stood up and stretched out his back, brushed the dirt off his pants, then turned to Kristopher.
“Yours was much more violent. It always is when someone hasn’t been graduated into it. It’s something of a shock to a system that has no idea what it’s dealing with.”
Kristopher stared ahead blankly and blinked a few times before he realized Lucian had just answered the question running around his head since the revival began, but he couldn’t remember asking it out loud. “Graduated into what? Death?”
Lucian sighed and started to roll his eyes then stopped, instead of brushing Kristopher’s curiosity off he motioned for him to sit down on the damp grass. “There are ways to ease into death. Those are the tasks our acolytes go through before they start practicing. First, they learn how to resurrect others, not humans yet, but animals are fine. Then they try to heal wounds or pull the mortally wounded away from death. They get a taste of death from the other side and slowly they start to understand the process. Then, if they’re on track for final initiation, which is the loop you’ve already become a part of, they go through several other tests.
The first is accidental near death, like being almost fatally hit by a bus. Your own body pulls you in and out of death. It’s very hard to simulate those scenarios, actual accidental death is easier and the obvious next step. Then there’s prolonged death. We inject them with an advanced stage of some disease or form of cancer, they’re given one month to cope, to understand the process and make peace with it.” Lucian chuckled at the shock and disgust on Kristopher’s face. “It really isn’t that bad. At least not when you know you’re coming back. After that you have the non-instantaneous accidental death, which is a combination of everything. More than anything, that teaches my acolytes how to deal with pain. If you survive that you’re well on your way to becoming a master of death.
Once all those steps are finished your body handles the switch from life to death to life beautifully and all our acolytes are able to go out into the world as full members of my order. The idea is to both understand and appreciate death as intimately as possible, that way you know exactly what you’re doing when you send someone to their death or pull them back into life. You see, Kristopher, once you have a complete understanding of death you start to see.” Lucian shrugged. It was an introduction he’d given thousands of times and it usually sent people running. Very few potential acolytes made it through the first, most natural, stage of their training. Most people weren’t able to survive death and some passed on to a side he’d never seen too quickly for anyone to pull them back. This was a very rare case and usually only happened with prolonged death stage students. Very few could handle every stage and many needed years before they were willing to go onto the next one. It was like necromancer hazing, you couldn’t really be part of the group until you’d been through it all.
“Miriel!” The first body snapped back into being and shrieked the name repeatedly.
Lucian stood up, ready to spit fire. “What is he talking about, Kris?”
Kristopher was beaming on the inside, it was an even better start than he could have imagined.
“She attacked us.” Alexander was already on his feet and walking over to Lucian. He looked serenely composed for someone who had just come back to life, especially when compared to his two brothers. One was screaming and the other hadn’t woken up yet. Kristopher felt a surge of pride that his threat had worked. The boy now worked for him. “Well, she killed us really, I guess. I think she’s snapped. What did you do to her, Lucian?”
It was a nice touch, Kristopher felt his heart warm to the boy.
“Really?” Lucian looked suspicious.
“Yes, sir.” Not even an eyelash out of place to show it was a lie.
“But you were shot.”
“Yes, sir.” No hesitation in the voice but the gaze started to waiver.
“Mi, I mean, Miriel, only brought guns when she needed them for a job. Not for defense. With what, exactly did she shoot you? She obviously had a knife for your brothers.”
“Damn it.” Kristopher hadn’t realized the words came out loud until Lucian had him by the throat.
“Setting something up here, Kris? Getting my men to lie to me already?” He sent a searing look to Alexander, who was now trying to find a place to run.
“Damn it. You don’t realize who that woman is. She obviously doesn’t respect death the way you, uh, we do. She thinks you’re
a freak, wants to kill us all off one at a time, then it’s your turn. She just wanted you to think she wouldn’t have a gun to make you doubt your men. Your men.”
“She killed you?” Lucian ignored Kristopher and focused on his men. All three were now awake and standing close together in solidarity.
“Yes, stabbed me, shot my brother.” Robert responded, trying to make up for his screaming her name earlier.
“Was she provoked?”
Kristopher’s heart beat faster. He hadn’t had time to go over acceptable answers. Now he was at the mercy of men he hardly knew and trusted even less.
“No. We saw her camped out here and she got violent. We tried to restrain her instead of attacking her, then she just killed us.”
Kristopher had no idea what that answer would cost him later but he was more than willing to pay for it.
“Where’s her body?” Lucian’s men were forgiven because they were his men but Kristopher didn’t have things so easy. His men wouldn’t sell him out, it seemed, but they weren’t going to go out of their way to help him either.
“She, um, she, she, didn’t die here. She was bleeding to death and she ran. I saw her fall, but when I got there the body was gone. There was so much blood on the ground it would be impossible for her to be alive.”
Lucian nodded, he had no choice but to believe Kristopher for now, especially if his men were backing the story. Miriel had killed his men but hadn’t left a scratch on Kristopher. That didn’t make sense. Now she was supposedly dead yet the body had mysteriously disappeared.
“We need to get to an ATM before you forget to pay. The men can come if you want them, but I wouldn’t advise putting them to work for a while.”
The three men looked tired, their eyes weren’t focusing on anything unless they were being addressed by Kristopher or Lucian and even then it was a massive effort. Their wounds were starting to bleed now that their hearts had started beating again, although the holes were getting smaller and starting to heal. It looked like the three boys would be better by the next morning, the process was mostly painless and the only cost would be exhaustion.
“Take the week to recover.” Kristopher hoped that would pay off at least some of his debt for the lies. “Next time I see you we’ll have somewhere to meet without a basketball court and bleachers, watch for an address.”
The men nodded, smiling would have been wasted energy so none of them bothered.
“You found somewhere for us to rent?” Now Lucian was curious, no one had said anything about this to him.
“I have a team refurbishing it as we speak. It was what I’ve been working on since we last spoke.” Kristopher met Lucian’s eyes. “It’s time for us to go public.”
Lucian nodded and started the walk back to civilization with Kristopher by his side. His eyes were sunken and ringed with black like he hadn’t slept in weeks. He paused to look over his shoulder and his eyes started to fill with regret. It was gone in the time it took him to turn around. “About time I guess.”
9. Miriel And William
“It might sting.”
“No fuck.” Miriel did the best she could to look angry and managed it pretty convincingly, pain translates into rage very easily.
The doctor chuckled. “You’ll want to watch the language if you want to be taken seriously as a lady.” His voice dropped to a whisper and he leaned close to her ear, “trust me. You’ll want them to think you’re a lady. Even if you didn’t mean to end up here, it’s better you play along. Makes things easier.”
“What, the. Ah!” Miriel screamed as he stabbed her not bleeding side with the needle he was using to sew up the other.
“I told you to watch the language.”
Miriel glared sullenly but kept her mouth shut. It wasn’t that she wanted to take the doctor’s advice, but the pain was starting to come over her in full force now. Her skin started to pale and the world was fading on and off like someone was playing with a light switch behind her eye. She could feel the needle threading her side back together, if the thought of it made her sick then the sensation of it was much, much worse.
It eventually stopped and the active pain was reduced to a dull throb. Miriel couldn’t help but feel proud she’d made it through the whole thing without blacking out, but the effort was exhausting. Very little sounded better to her at that moment than sleep, except maybe to wake up and realize all of this was just a very exhausting dream. To wake up and see Lucian passed out and looking half-dead on her couch, that would make things better. Maybe sleep would help after all.
“Very impressive I must say, most women would have fainted at the mere thought of what you just went through. You’re obviously not here because the outside world was too tough. You’ll have a scar though I’m afraid. Our perfect world includes quite a lot less in medical technology. Take the good with the bad.”
Miriel mumbled something she hoped would masquerade as a response. Going through surgery with instruments that looked like they came straight out of a Dickens’s novel sapped all the energy normally used for idle chitchat.
“I know you’re tired.” His tone suggested the knowledge of it didn’t make him sympathetic. “But you need to know the rules first. In case I’m not here when you wake up.”
Miriel looked over at him and then rolled back onto the pillow, struggling to keep her now impossibly heavy eyelids from staying closed.
“There will be clothes for you to change into on the chair next to you. Do not, absolutely not, go out in your own clothes. I cannot stress that enough. That’s just if you feel like you have to go out at all. You’ll figure out why. You’ll be moved into the house of an older woman, probably a widow.” He put a strange stress on the word. “Tomorrow at the latest. God knows it’s not medically safe, but it is proper. Try to act pretentious if you can. Aloof, snobby, mysterious, whatever. Just prove you can play along. And play well. Oh, and the widows here aren’t actually widows, at least not the majority of them. They’re just women whose husbands weren’t crazy enough to come here with them. So don’t mention it or ask for details or show any kind of sympathy. And again, just play along. You can’t leave once you’re in so you might as well just play along.”
Miriel looked over at the doctor again and her eyes narrowed but she wasn’t in the mood or the condition to ask questions and listen to answers. Instead, she rolled over and closed her eyes, trying to stay warm with the thin hospital blanket she’d been given.
The doctor stared at her for a few seconds and then started to walk out. “You better have heard that because chances are I won’t be able to repeat it tomorrow.” He closed and locked the door on his way out, picking up a coat, hat, cane, and gloves before venturing outside to track down the man who’d brought Miriel in from the outside.
As tired as she was, now that she was alone it was impossible to sleep. There was no guarantee what would happen if she fell asleep and someone came in. She had nothing to defend herself with and was in no shape to do anything by hand. Vulnerability was a new, unpleasant feeling. Miriel settled for staying awake. A good choice considering she couldn’t do anything else.
The room wasn’t very big, about the size of a small bedroom, and it seemed to be a multipurpose room. It had the equipment for a surgery, pharmacy, and examination room. The fact that the doctor wasn’t here and it was well into the afternoon meant he probably worked through house calls. Miriel was lucky he’d been here when she showed up, she’d probably made him late to his first appointment. The door was closed and Miriel wasn’t feeling up to walking around to explore, not to mention the door was locked from the outside. She kept focusing on things around the room. There was a table next to her bed with a large doctor’s reference manual and some medical journals, although the journals were yellow, falling apart, and out of date. It was clear nothing there was new. There was a shelf covering the far wall covered with vials and jars filled with various powders and liquids, probably to use for the pharmacy. Each bottle had a small label wi
th writing on it but Miriel couldn’t read them from where she lay. Things were cluttered but neat and the floor had been swept recently with no cobwebs or dust bunnies. At least none that you could easily see. There was one window behind Miriel, but her side was throbbing too much for her to twist around and look through it. She could see sunlight, which was how she’d guessed it was sometime in the afternoon. She could also hear people walking up and down the street outside, no one sounded like they were in a hurry and no one sounded like they were trying to find her.
Miriel’s eyes started to get heavy and she remembered the doctor had locked the door on his way out, which meant she would hear anyone before they were able to get in. She touched the stitches on her side and winced. They were not poorly done exactly, but they were rather archaic. Miriel shrugged and finally allowed her eyes to close as she settled into a light but comfortable sleep.
“Can you wake up now, please?”
Miriel blinked a few times before she realized she was the one who needed to do the waking up. After making this realization and squinting the world into view she thought this was a very odd way to wake up a stab-wound victim who had been at death’s door just a few short hours ago. The light in the room wasn’t as strong as it had been when she fell asleep but there was a hint of sunrise, so Miriel assumed it was morning the next day. It didn’t make sense that she would be forced to wake up so soon unless they had found out who she was and decided to kick her out of their commune and back into the waiting arms of Kristopher.
“Look, it’s not that, as a doctor, I think you should be moved so soon. It’s just,” he paused, “improper. Being a man living alone, you being an unknown single woman. It’s ridiculous, I know. But it’s how things are done.”
“Okay?” Miriel looked at him, still trying to make sense of the whole situation.
“Just trust me until you figure it out. And you have to get dressed.”
The Price of Life Page 9