Page 126 of Deadly Maiden

I yawn and look up, turn to sight the corridor. Sunlight still slants in. I’m three quarters through the diary, and the day is ending.

I traipse out to the forecourt, and open one wing of the gate enough to see what’s happening outside. Nothing really. The undead are less active. Should I make them rest, burrow under the earth again? I don’t know if I should. The books might tell me?

Keep reading then. Rorsyd will return tomorrow. I beckon Asher into the valley, summon Anathema, and we have a late game, kicking the ball to each other, and fetching it when it rolls too far, then kicking it again. Exercise done, I go to the library and grab the diary to take to bed with me, while being careful not to let any bookmarks fall from their places.

Did I lock the rear door?

I get up to check. Yes, I did.

Even with my acute ability tofeelwhat lives, or unlives, in Slaedorth, I’m anxious by myself.

It’s close to midnight when I turn the final page on the diary and lay the book on the floor. I may have nightmares if I let what I read overwhelm me. Maybe I misread some of it? Tomorrow I will see. Instead of fretting, I count sheep in my head.

I turn over and pretend Rorsyd is here with his broad back heating the bed. It requires much imagination, but drowsiness wanders in, then a dream slips in to nestle beside it, then sleep claims me.

I dream of Rorsyd flying me across the skies.

A strangeness follows me, and I fall from his back. Falling falling…

The ground comes up.

Morning? Yes, it is.

Staring at the immensely high ceiling, I blink myself into wakefulness. Then I spring from the bed and run to look out that shuttered window. No sign of Rorsyd out there. If he was in the fortress, I would know. The front silver door needs a key to open, but he has the spare key.

“Damn.”

I amble out to the valley with a bowl of honeyed grains, some rock-hard bread, and a strip of the smoked meat Andacc left us. I am not yet willing to try the mutton Rorsyd prepared.

Asher is sitting with Anathema, and a sheep crops grass near him. He’s admiring the mountains. Or I imagine he is doing that. How did he get out here? I’m shocked and chagrined to realize I somehow locked him outside, all night.

Then I check the fortress and the sky behind us. Still no sign of Rorsyd. I will make use of my free time without my soulmate by running through what I found in my parents’ diary. The bizarre, somewhat ugly stuff needs airing, needs turning over in my brain.

Doing that in the fresh air is definitely best.

I fetch the diary and sit next to Asher. Asher, almost king of Orencia? If he had survived his brother’s capture, yes. He might have been king, but only for an instant. The Aos Sin had marched into Orencia by then. No one will consider him ruler material now.

Maybe I will be able to understand my parents’ intentions today? I know what they did to him, and it revolted me when I saw that in the diary. Perhaps I read it wrong? I was exhausted by then—late last night, my eyes were raw and bleary. And I was worrying about Rorsyd, even though he can take care of himself.

“Right. Rereading time.” I will do this methodically.

I turn to the first bookmark of note, take a spoonful of crunchy grains and nuts, then a swig of water to wash it down. There is some hard cheese somewhere in the rations. Must look for that later.

I load up the points to muse over.One. Raising an undead is mentioned in this early passage, but only after they found instructions in one of the textbooks here. No notes as to which. I’ve already gleaned the fact that the founder of this place is someone they call Yeavin the Shadow. Catchy name for a villain. It could have been his book. Must look in the aisles of shelves for his books.

Bookmark Two.Their first wondering about darkthing matter was one of their own breakthroughs. Same as me. Only it was not due to healing anyone or an animal. Theirs came from a newly dead man. Note. Darkthing matter can be extracted fromthe newly dead, if they suffered a wound that went gangrenous prior to death. But it must be extracted quite quickly.

Bookmark Three.They embarked on investigating the generation of gheist or getharum from etharum, but it appears they were unsuccessful and only extracted it from the ghosts of the dead soldiers brought here. Curious that I succeeded. They referred to a list in a textbook which has the different uses of etharum and its different forms. The textbook is the skinnyComparative Magikvolume I already nabbed.

Must read that soon.

Asher has wandered inside Slaedorth, and the sun is getting high. I may have to retreat to the library to avoid sunburned skin.

I run through the next bookmarks, and these add little to what I have. Then…

Bookmark.Oh yes. This must have happened earlier, but they wrote it here.

They obtained permission to keep the corpses of killed Aos Sin soldiers and stored them here, and pulled a lot of darkthing matter from them. Were they all dead when they arrived? That part is unclear. The gheist must have come from some of them, too, obviously.

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