eyes.
CHAPTER XXXV
AS ACTINIUS STRODE ACROSS THE RECLUSE’S OUTERward, he pulled his robe closer against the cold night air. Two consuls named Jacob and Aaron followed him.
Actinius scowled. He would have preferred to remain inside where it was warm, but he had an important task to perform. The first of many, he guessed, because Einar and Reznik were finally ready to start their work. As the three men crossed the outer ward, lumbering shrews and partly camouflaged envelopers could be seen prowling and soaring about, their numbers nothing compared to those waiting in hiding as they protected the Recluse.
It was nearly midnight in Parthalon, and the three magenta moons cast eerie shadows across the ward’s colorful terrazzo floor. By this time most of the Minion blood had been cleaned away from the multicolored tiles. Walking on, Actinius approached the newly constructed cages.
Hundreds of wooden crates stood in the moonlight. Each crate had been constructed at the Ghetto of the Shunned. Then the crates had been crammed full of lepers and flown to the Recluse by Serena’s envelopers. Should more subjects be needed, they too would be brought from the Ghetto. Actinius came to stand before one of the cages. He turned to his consuls.
“Any one of them will do,” he said matter-of-factly.
Jacob walked to the cage and unlocked the door. Aaron quickly selected a female prisoner of middle age. She would have been attractive, had leprosy not assaulted her face and body. As Aaron grabbed her and hauled her out, she screamed and kicked at him. Actinius quickly held up one hand.
“Remember our instructions!” he reminded the consuls. “There is to be no craft use. It might compromise our research.”
The woman screamed again, then lunged forward to viciously bite Aaron on the hand. Laughing, Actinius stepped closer and rendered her unconscious with a single swipe across the face. She fell to the tile floor. After Aaron slung her across his back, the cage door was locked again and the three mystics returned to the Recluse.
As they climbed the castle’s broad steps, the men saw that the Recluse remained busy, despite the late hour. Every oil lamp was lit, and enchanted to stay that way. Consuls and Valrenkians hurried here and there, each following Einar’s various orders. More shrews and envelopers prowled the majestic hallways and salons. On reaching the grand foyer, the men turned down one hall, then walked toward the nearest secret doorway leading to the lower regions.
Half an hour later they arrived at their destination. As they walked in, Einar and Reznik looked up from a scroll they were huddling over. Seeing his first test subject casually slung over Aaron’s shoulder, Einar frowned.
“Is she dead?” he demanded.
“Only unconscious,” Actinius answered. “It was needed.”
Einar nodded. “Very well,” he said. “But don’t do it again.”
He pointed to a stone table on the room’s other side. “Over there,” he ordered. As Aaron placed the body on the table, Actinius looked around.
They were standing in another of Failee’s research chambers. Einar realized that it would have been easier to conduct his experiments in a room aboveground, but for security’s sake he had decided to work here. Like many of the underground chambers, this room had been cut from the surrounding rock. It was spacious and well lit. Bookcases lined the walls. Its center encircled by a golden band, the precious Vagaries scroll lay atop a table standing in one corner.
A parchment holding Failee’s recently discovered formula lay unrolled and suspended by enchantment against another wall. The parchment took up the wall’s entire length. Other tables laden with various instruments, books, and bottles also stood nearby. Actinius knew that those were Reznik’s things. On the wall over the table, another chart had been hung. It showed a strange, oblong form that was mapped into various sections. Each section was labeled in Old Eutracian.
Einar looked at Actinius. He nodded. The consul walked to the table supporting the unconscious woman. Reaching into the folds of his robe, he produced a waterproofed leather bag. After placing it over the woman’s head he pulled its drawstring tight around her neck.
“Be careful!” Einar said. “Do not damage her throat!” Nodding, Actinius loosened the drawstring a bit.
Awakened by her sudden inability to breathe, for several agonizing moments the woman struggled against her murderer. Soon her jangling slowed, then stopped altogether. Actinius removed the leather bag from around her head.
Walking to the table, Einar and Reznik looked down at her. Starving her lungs had been the best way to kill her without using the craft or otherwise damaging her body.
“What is your opinion?” Einar asked Reznik. “Is this subject suitable?”
“Yes,” the Valrenkian answered. “This manner of death most closely matches the original victim’s.” Satisfied with Reznik’s answer, Einar went to stand before Failee’s elegant formula.
Walking to the other table, Reznik selected an hourglass and a razor-sharp boning knife. Walking back, he bent over the fresh corpse. With one stroke he cut away the woman’s rags, then dropped them to the floor. Bending over farther, he placed an ear against her bare chest.
“You may start,” Reznik said.
As Actinius turned the hourglass over, Einar started reading Failee’s formula aloud. When he finished he walked over to stand beside Reznik. Standing up, the Valrenkian shook his head.
“Her liver will tell us more,” he said simply. Taking up his boning knife, he sliced open the dead woman’s abdomen.
Fascinated, Einar, Aaron, and Jacob neared to watch the Valrenkian work. Being a partial adept, Reznik possessed skills that they did not-skills that would prove vital to their mission. Among his other talents, Reznik was a haruspex, or “reader of entrails.” And because the blood that was so vital to the craft was filtered through one’s liver, that organ would best tell them what they needed to know.
For the first time since meeting Reznik, Einar was genuinely glad that the Valrenkian partial adept was a part of their group. Haruspication was an immensely detailed art that called for years of specialized training. It could truly be mastered only by partial adepts, because only they had full access to the Paragon’s organic facet. True haruspices were few and far between, and Reznik was perhaps the world’s finest. Among his other talents was tasseomancy, otherwise known as tea leaf reading. He was also a shell, smoke, and pendulum scryer, and could use those items for divination.
Reznik lifted the red liver from the gaping abdominal cavity. It dripped blood as he walked it to another table and placed it onto a pewter tray. He then looked up at the diagram on the wall that Actinius had wondered about earlier.
Actinius suddenly understood that the oblong shape depicted there was that of a human liver. The organ in the diagram was sectioned off into various oddly shaped areas. Each section was labeled in Old Eutracian. Silently translating the labels into the present day’s dialect, he saw such phrases as “Life Forces,” “Aging,” “Illnesses,” and “Intelligence.” Walking nearer, Actinius watched Reznik sit on a stool standing before the table.
First the Valrenkian turned the liver so that its position exactly matched the one in the diagram. He then took up a pair of magnifying spectacles and arranged them on his face. After wiping his hands down the length of his bloody smock, he picked up another knife and methodically started sectioning the liver into pieces matching those shown in the diagram. As the time passed, Einar, Aaron, and Jacob remained watchful. They couldn’t help but find their appreciation for Reznik’s talents growing with every moment.
Referring to the chart, Reznik segregated the liver section known as “Life Forces.” It was an oblong piece about the size of a hen’s egg, and looked just like the one in the diagram. Putting it into a separate pan, Reznik placed the first pan aside. Taking up a finer knife, Reznik shaved off a slice. It took several tries before he had the thinness he wanted.
Using a pair of silver tongs, he held the slice to the light. It had been shaven so thin that it was translucent. After placing the slice into another pan, Reznik leaned back and took a deep breath.
