Page 93 of In the Ravenous Dark
“You never mentioned anything about destroying Rovan,” Japha says dangerously.
“There was no cause to alarm anybody before we knew if she would wake up or not.” Alldan raises a hand, forestalling any objection. “Don’t forget, we helped you. We’ve sheltered you, Delphia,andRovan.”
“How?” I manage. Everything is changing so quickly. “Where are we?”
“We’re in the quarters of the Skyllean delegation in the city, where we’ve been staying when not in the palace. Your body was smuggled here from the necropolis, where it was taken for your death rites,” Alldan says with a disapproving twist to his mouth. His distaste for Thanopolis’s rituals is plainer than ever. I suppose he’s not worried about diplomacy anymore.
“I was hiding in the necropolis,” Japha elaborates, “after you freed me from my guardian. Delphia, Crisea, and your, uh,friend, Bethea, helped me. It wasn’t pleasant, but I didn’t know where elseto go. Back to the palace wasn’t an option. I didn’t want to be given another shadow to suck the life out of me. No offense,” they add in the general direction of Ivrilos.
“None taken,” Ivrilos says, even though Japha can’t hear him.
“Meanwhile,yourguardian”—Alldan’s mouth gives the same twist as he turns to me—“found Princess Delphia and told her you might not be truly dead. She couldn’t speak with him clearly, but it was enough for Japha to sneak out of the necropolis and find me here.”
“Because Rovan said you might be willing to help us escape.” Japha’s tone is biting as they glare at Alldan. They cross their arms, fingers drumming over their elbows, as if still ready to sketch sigils.
“I am helping.” Alldan looks back at me. “We got your body and Delphia out under cover of darkness, and have offered both her and Japha asylum in Skyllea.”
But not me. Not anymore.
“We haven’t yet accepted,” Japha says.
I shoot them a grateful glance. They’ve proven time and again to be the best of friends.
I still have questions. “Let me guess, you also had help. From them?” I nod at the strange bloodmages. “If it was so easy to skip in and out of the necropolis, their acolytes would be escaping all the time.”
Alldan frowns. “Yes.”
“They’re the ones who helped create the veil around Skyllea, aren’t they? Bloodmages infected with death magic? And that’s how they could sneak undetected throughthisveil. You’ve had bloodmages here with you all this time.” He nods reluctantly, and I say, “And yet you’re so disdainful of the magic they wield.”
“I’m not fond of it, no,” Alldan says coldly, “especially when it’s allowed to fester and spread unchecked until theentire worldis at risk. But we keep it strictly under control in Skyllea.” He pauses.“Which is why creatures like you are problematic. You upset the natural order.”
I scoff. “Oh, so green hair and purple eyes aresonatural? Just because you’ve been altering yourselves with magic for longer doesn’t make you the arbiters of magical purity.”
“You’re notalive,” Alldan insists.
“I’m not the first to become like this,” I burst out. “And you’re toying with the same power.” I toss my hand at the infected bloodmages. “Aren’t you worried about them becoming exactly like me? If they die—”
“If we die, we return, yes,” the woman says, her voice as thin and dry as paper. “But it is without thought or emotion. Only hunger.”
“We are not bound to a shade that will keep us focused in death, like you,” the man adds, his red eyes flickering to Ivrilos. “We have only the blight inside us, which is mindless. We struggle against losing ourselves to it in life, and we succumb in death. And so we are swiftly destroyed when our time comes.”
Thinking of an undead bloodmage with no mind of their own, only a bottomless need for blood, makes me shudder.
“In Skyllea, we have dealt with such creatures more than you have,” Alldan adds, “as we battled to keep out the blight. Whole communities were consumed until we belatedly created a barrier—but not before some of those very people, no longer human, went on to consume other communities. We call them bloodfiends.”
Maybe that’s why I heard stories of ghouls and fiends as a child, and so many warnings against mixing blood and death magic. And yet we’ve forgotten what the blightis, what it can do to people. We’re so safe behind our veil here, sheltered from the ruins of those destroyed towns and cities. From the truth. And that’s exactly how the king wants us. Blindfolded.
Especially since he’s the cause of the blight.
“But I’m not a… bloodfiend,” I say, trying out the word uncomfortably.
Alldan regards me, unblinking. “No. But maybe you’re something worse. Intelligence does not equate to virtue. Orhumanity.”
“So why go to all that trouble of getting my body out of the necropolis if you’re just going to kill me again? Howwillyou, anyway?”
“A wooden stake through the heart,” the creepy man hisses, “or one of bone. What was once alive interrupts undeath. The stake cannot be removed, and then the body must be burned.”
“Great,” I say. At least now I know why a steel dagger had no effect on the king’s heart.
