Page 131 of Deadly Maiden

I’d heard the rumor they can communicate instantly by writing on their flesh. Just the offer to allow me seals the deal better than any information. It is a somewhat concealed secret, more a rumor, and she has shared this without any fanfare.

“May I keep the enforcers? Do as I wish with them?”

“Of course. We have no allegiance to the king.”

Straight speaking. I pause to think this through. While I am here, doubting their aid, Rorsyd suffers.

“What exactly was the king asking of me? The whole of it. I don’t think you told me this.”

“No. I did not. The exact demand was this. You have seven days to surrender yourself to his men. If you do not, Rorsyd will be drowned in the sea off Tensorga. Though we know that after you surrender, he will demand you raise his daughter.”

Seven days. That’s so little time. If Andacc is not ready… “Can you get in touch with a man called Andacc?”

She smiles. “The leader of the Church of the Usurper? Yes. Within a day I can have a sister with him.”

“You know of Andacc?”

“We worship Artreos. We also like to know what is happening throughout the kingdom, beneath the surface. We collect information.” Again, that enigmatic smile. “And no, we have not told the king about Andacc or his impending rebellion, though the king has other sources and has been warned by them.”

“You are spies? Collecting information sounds like spying.”

She shrugs. This is the first body language I’ve seen apart from that smile. Are the sisters spies?

“Perhaps. You might say this.”

I may be wrong, but I am convinced of their honest…well, their betraying intentions. This has to be a huge advantage, but is it enough?

“I have only seven days. In one day I will return here. Have that sister with Andacc and ready to talk, to scribe. Okay?”

“Yes.”

As I leave, I call the undead to follow me, and to bring the two soldiers. I may have a use for them, if I can overcome my squeamishness. First, I will need to read some more and search Slaedorth.

One day.I’m frittering away a day while Rorsyd is hurting.

And if Andacc cannot hasten his rebellion…

I jog back to the fortress, placing the undead in their original positions, except for those bringing the enforcers. I leave the enforcers in the area between the gate and the silver door, restrained, of course. Bringing undead inside the fortress seems unwise.

Yet my parents did so.

Even as I walk the corridor to the library, I’m making plans. I should write this down so as not to mess myself up and end up delivering ice cream not undead.

Seven days. Even with a plan, this may be impossible. Same as my idea to make Asher alive again. I should fit that in as well. He feels essential to the future.

I don’t bother sitting. I lean over the books, muttering, jotting notes, making a list.

The floor plan shows where the gheist and etharum stores are kept, and where to find the armory. Everything we missedis downstairs, where it’s gloomy, where Rorsyd and I feared to tread too far. Another corner door in a side room branches out like the ribs of a skeleton. As I trek back down those stairs, skipping along in my eagerness and fury, I have already chosen how to make use of my undead.

There is no time to learn how to create more of them. No time to do it even if I could. I know this. My thousand will have to do. Nine hundred and forty-three. Though I’ve never counted them, I know them and their number as if they are a part of my body.

One day before I can speak to Andacc. Seven to the last day of the king’s demand.

My main desire is to rescue Rorsyd. Helping the uprising is number two.

I need my undead at Tensorga. I know how to get them there, if Andacc can clear the way.

I want my gheist pistol to have more bullets, and I want spare warnite crystals, and more darkthing matter.

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