Page 53 of The Missing Sentinel
Ducarius knew that because Chander was always being goaded into eating them based on that premise despite the Arch Lich’s insistence that they were disgusting and he did not have to eat them. Chander was wrong. They were tasty. But Ducarius was not about to fight with the Arch Lich about it.
Once Ducarius had set aside the last bowl to dry, he plucked the stew recipe out of the small stack Adney had created for the now-missing skeletons.
“Where did the food come from?” Ducarius asked as he read the recipe. “Was there a farm while the land was more plentiful?”
“No, everything was created by magic.”
“That explains the flat taste,” Ducarius muttered. “The bad news is that the food could vanish like everything else is randomly disappearing in the castle.”
“Yes, that worry crossed my mind. I will give up my portion if necessary to ensure Adney has something in his belly.”
“No, you will not. I have experience with hunger pangs, and you do not. If anyone must skip a meal, it will be me.”
“Why would you have experience with hunger pangs?”
“I was a skeleton for centuries.”
Drexley frowned. “Yes, of course, I recall learning that. I have forgotten nothing about you. Or at least I hope I havenot. Maybe I have. No, I suppose I had thought that without a stomach you could not starve and therefore would have no hunger.”
“Do not ask me how it works as I was given no concrete information despite surviving it myself, but I must assume that because I was never supposed to be a skeleton, my body went on craving the normal things it should have.”
“That makes sense, I suppose. Magic is a strange thing.”
“As this crumbling realm can attest,” Ducarius grumbled. He still hoped to whisk Drexley and Adney to the Council and allow them to have some sense of security as the necromancer’s life ebbed away. But the only things that remained strong were Adney’s stubbornness and his insistence that he die in his own realm. And nothing would sway Drexley from respecting Adney’s wishes.
“Should I find a carving knife for the vegetables, or would you prefer to cut them with one of your daggers?” Drexley asked cheekily as he handed Ducarius a handful of tubers.
“My daggers are weapons, not kitchen utensils.”
“As our supply of lit candles dwindles, I have grown grateful for the poisonous glow around your blades,” Drexley mused. “But the green and black offer a rather spooky ambiance.”
“You have lived with a necromancer for five centuries; many would define this entire castle as spooky.”
“Such a fuss being made over sorcerers who raise souls from the dead.”
Ducarius chuckled as he took a large knife from Drexley and went to work cutting vegetables into reasonably the same size as the recipe stated. Thankfully, Adney lacked respect for the former chefs of the castle and had broken every detail of the recipe down using simple language. It gave an inexperiencedsentinel with no skill in the kitchen some measure of comfort as he went about his work.
“As one of those souls walking among the living, I am grateful for necromantic magic.”
“Yes, the alternative would be loving you on the other side of the veil.”
“Where you would lack the ability to climb into my bed and demand satisfaction,” Ducarius said. “Lovemaking in the physical sense is impossible.”
“Not that I wish to insinuate that lovemaking is the most important aspect of our relationship, but I am keen on having you inside me.”
“I know. I was exhausted last night, but still I had to strip off my clothes and please you.”
Drexley laughed so hard he had to brace a hand on the long table in the middle of the kitchen where they were steadily chopping. “I barely had a toe onto the mattress before you were yanking at my dressing gown. It was you who were insatiable last eve, not me.”
“I hate your dressing gown.”
“It is perverse of me, but I like the frown on your face whenever you see it. Even if you pass it to grab a cloth to clean up our mess following our lovemaking, you sternly glare at it. It never fails to amuse me.”
“You are a strange man, Drexley.”
“Then you must be the oddest man alive since you are the one who loves me.”
“As I have explained to you, being odd is a beautiful thing. I rejoice in my strangeness and my love for you.”
