His eyes glinted like dirty marbles in the dim light. He didn’t blink.
He didn’t need to blink anymore.
He smiled a wide, dry corpse’s smile and began to walk towards me. His steps were halting and stiff. His arms hung limp at his sides.
I counted his strides. I did not draw Toadsticker. I did not turn and run.
But oh, how I wanted to.
The dead man stopped six feet from me. That was close enough to hear the sucking noises from the holes in his chest as he walked.
Poor dead Skin worked his jaw experimentally, and then wet his lips with thick dried blood from a tongue gone white and stiff.
“Fancy meeting you here, Finder.”
His voice was Skin’s but slurred and weak. The wounds around the shafts of the crossbow bolts gurgled and hissed. I gathered the Corpsemaster was having trouble forcing air through the pierced lungs.
“Corpsemaster.” I nodded in what I hoped was a polite sign of deference. “I was hoping we could speak.”
Skin raised an eyebrow and feigned an expression of surprise. “Why, isn’t that a change of heart, Mr. Markhat. You, wanting to speak to me. I feared that after our last meeting we would never meet socially again.”
I kept my face carefully blank and my mouth even more carefully shut.
“I trust your stay at the Werewilk estate is proving interesting?”
“Very.” I realized I’d fallen into attention, and made myself relax. “I suppose I ought to thank you for what you did in the yard.”
Hisvin raised a dead hand in a gesture of dismissal. “Not at all, Finder. I was merely enforcing Regency law- rogue sorcerers, caught in the act of using magic against a law-abiding citizen of the realm? I simply had no choice but to take action. Though it was fortunate I happened along, when I did.”
“A happy coincidence, all around.” I made myself take a couple of slow, deep breaths. “I’m in over my head here. Your presence proves that. I’d like to know what I can do to keep myself and these people alive.”
Hisvin made wet chuckling noises. “I do admire your blunt nature, Finder. To a point.” He coughed up a mouthful of dark blood and spat it to the dirt. “But to answer your question. Remain indoors. Remain vigilant. Remain prepared to fight or to flee, as circumstances dictate.”
That wasn’t what I’d expected to hear. My expression must have conveyed what I dared not voice.
“I’ve disappointed you.” More blood came up. I studied the tips of my boots. “For that, I am chagrined. But you see, Finder, regardless of what you think about me, I am determined to remain honest with you. It’s a bit of a game, if you prefer to think of it in that way. The first time I lie to you, I lose. And I do not love to lose.”
I didn’t like the sudden change in Hisvin’s tone. I decided to risk changing the subject. “Why bring Darla here? Why bring Mama?”
The Corpsemaster pulled Skin’s lips back in a grin. “Your involvement in this matter is known, Finder. The other parties involved were already scheming to use Miss Tomas and Missus Hog as hostages. I brought them here, using the most expedient means possible, so that I could protect them. Even I cannot be all places at once.”
“You’re making me nervous, admitting things like that, sir.”
“As I said, I am resolved to tell the truth, even if it casts me in less than an omnipotent light.”
“I’m honored. Really. But I’m still in the dark about what’s going on here. Who are these people? What are they after? Why are they shooting anyone who ventures outdoors, and why haven’t they stormed the house?”
Before Hisvin could reply, a ruckus sounded from the House, and I knew Lady Werewilk had unleashed her spells on the yard. There were shouts, and the faint whish-thunk of crossbows throwing, and the much fainter splintering cracks of bolts shattering against Werewilk’s sturdy walls.
And now the Corpsemaster knew the Lady herself was a rogue sorceress.
Hisvin smiled. “You need have no concern for her safety, Finder. I myself trained her in certain aspects of the Arts, though she of course does not know this. She will suffer no consequences for her small departure from Regency law.”
“You trained the Lady?”
“My association with House Werewilk is long and subtle, Finder. For reasons you will soon understand.” Shouts rose up, from men in the yard, and Hisvin made a small motion with two fingers on his right hand.
Lightning fell from the sky. Men screamed, but only briefly.
And then there was silence.
“Time is short. They want the banshee, Finder. They now suspect you have it. Had I not brought your womenfolk here, Miss Tomas and Missus Hog would even now be in the hands of persons who lack my own delicate sensibilities. You still blame me for Miss Tomas’s recent misadventures at the hands of the blood cult. I refuse to allow another act of violence to be laid at my feet.”
“Why not send them down the Brown, or out West?”
Hisvin sighed. “Because the persons against whom I am aligned have long reaches, Finder. I assure you of this. There is no safer place than here, where I can extend to them my protection. Until and unless I fall, that is. Should that occur, I suggest you run as far and as fast as you can.”
“If you fall?” I shivered. The wind was chilly. It smelled of smoke and burning hair. “Corpsemaster, if I may again be blunt, what the hell is going on out here?”
“History,” said Hisvin. He smiled a small rueful smile. “History is being made, and we shall have the misfortune to play a role in it. You may sit, Finder. And you as well, Mr. Prestley. What I have to say will take a bit of time.” The dead man dropped to his knees, then back onto his ass. The bending caused a slow gush of old blood to ooze from his wounds. “We might as well be comfortable.”
Evis joined me, gliding out of the shadows without a sound. I shrugged and sat, and Evis followed suit.
“Once upon a time,” said the Corpsemaster, “monsters walked the earth.”
“Some might observe that they still do.”
“Some might. But Finder, the monsters I speak of were far greater and far more terrible than anything you know. They walked the lands like furious mountains, and their mere words were sufficient to bring wrack and ruin to all they beheld. These were not mere sorcerers, Finder, Mr. Prestley. They were primal forces embodied, made nearly divine by the magics they wielded. Such was their power that the spells they spoke may never be spoken again.” Hisvin frowned. “Even now, I fail to convey the extent of their abilities. Suffice it to say, though, that even a person of my stature and prowess would be utterly insignificant in the face of these creatures. Yes. Think of it that way-take all of my sorcerous kin, resurrect all of us who perished during the War, and if all were arrayed at the height of their powers and put in the path of the least of these ancient beings, we should all be crushed underfoot in an instant.”
Evis tilted his head and spoke a soft word I didn’t know.
Hisvin repeated it. “Yes,” he said, beaming. “I did not know you were a student of pre-Kingdom history, Mr. Prestley. But you are correct. I speak of the alarkin. The Old Ones.”
“Never heard of them,” I whispered. “But I went to a public school. Are you telling me that’s what’s buried under the Ring, sir? One of these alarkins?”
Hisvin shook his head. “What was buried beneath the old stone ring was a mere bauble placed there by myself some eighty years ago. I also laid the stones, some years before that, and spread false rumors of their origins. The Ring was meant to discourage further excavations. Similar measures have, in the past, proven more than sufficient to either kill the excavators or convince them further efforts were simply too risky. But not this time, I fear. No. Today, the other parties show the rare and irrepressible determination of madmen and fools.”
“I saw an unusually tall person at the excavation yesterday. Might that be one of your foolish mad sorcerers?”
“One of them. I suspect there are at least three.”
I whistled. Even during the darkest days of the War, wand-wavers working together was well nigh unheard of. They historically seemed unable to remain on the same continent without quickly resorting to sorcerous blood feuds.
“Anyone else on your side?”
The Corpsemaster shrugged. “No. We stand alone.”
