I chuckled, shook my head softly, and swigged.
Chapter Five
For a while, Elyse and I sat in silence, passing the wine between us and taking languid sips, watching the campfire writhe gently as the darkness grew thick around us. My skeleton was patrolling the perimeter of our camp, at my command. I hadn’t thrown my soul out and done the puppet-master thing; I wanted him to act independently, and knew that he could, after seeing what the first skeletons I’d raised had done in the skirmish in the crypt. Perhaps he would have protected the camp of his own accord anyway, but I wanted to be sure so that Elyse and I could get some rest. Erst was a long way off, and unless we hitched a ride, we’d have a few days of trekking ahead of us.
I noticed Elyse’s eyes were on the skeleton. She was staring at it with a look that was half fear, half revulsion. I guess I couldn’t blame her; the sight of a skeleton walking around like a living being wasn’t exactly the sort of thing that most people were used to. Even me.
The gentle light from the fire illuminated Elyse’s delicate features in a most pleasing way, and I took a few moments to appreciate her natural beauty. Her large eyes sparkled subtly in the firelight under her finely curved eyebrows, and her full lips, wet from wine, gleamed enticingly. The curve of her slender neck beckoned to my lips, and again my thoughts turned to what was concealed beneath her cleric’s robe.
She abruptly turned to face me, and for a moment, my eyes met hers. She responded with a shy smile, while I simply chuckled softly and passed her the bottle.
“So, are we actually going to eat anything, or are we just going to have a liquid dinner and get smashed around the campfire?” I asked. “I didn’t know that members of the clergy were allowed to drink more than a sip of wine outside church services.”
Elyse blushed. “Well, we’re not supposed to make a habit of it, but the Lord of Light doesn’t mind if we indulge every now and then.”
I was about to crack a joke about Nabu taking this lenience to its extreme, but I held my tongue; Elyse seemed to be lightening up, and I didn’t want to kill the mood by mentioning the man who’d taken everything from her. For the same reason, I decided not to ask her about Erst or the vineyards for the moment.
“Maybe I’ve misjudged you churchies then,” I said, taking out Grave Oath to sharpen its edges on a whetstone while we chatted. “I guess not all of you walk around with quarterstaffs stuck all the way up your asses.”
Elyse laughed uproariously and infectiously. “You have a way with words, Vance. Perhaps not a wholesome way, but a way nonetheless.”
I hadn’t thought my joke was particularly funny, but hey, if she liked it, who was I to judge?
“The truth is,” she continued, her tone taking on a more serious air, “I didn’t join the clergy because of faith or religion or anything like that. I mean, I do believe in the Lord of Light, of course—and I know the extent of his powers well—but I didn’t become a bishop out of any sense of religious devotion. I mean, if I really only wanted to serve the Lord of Light, I would have become a nun. Simple nuns and monks are the truest and sincerest servants of the Lord.”
“Why did you become a bishop then?”
“To serve the people of Erst,” she said immediately. “The poor. The peasants.”
I nodded and took another swig of wine. “A noble ideal, Elyse. I can respect someone joining the church to do that.”
“I grew up dirt-poor. I know how the peasants suffer. And having a corrupt bishop ruling over Erst only hurts the poor. The bishop I took over from had been so greedy that his excessive sacred taxes caused a famine that killed hundreds of families. I realized a long time ago that the only way to change the system was from within. So, that’s what I did. And it worked—at least until Nabu came along. I know that there were powerful forces both within the church and outside it that vehemently opposed my reforms and wanted me gone. They helped Nabu oust me. And now, the poor are right back where they started: starving, and working to fill up the clergy’s bellies and purses.”
“All the more reason to take that shithead Nabu out,” I growled, infused with a fresh sense of purpose. “I’m glad I decided to help you.”
She gave me a smile that seemed to come from straight from her heart. It lit up her eyes, and two cute dimples appeared in her cheeks. Her smiles added a knee-weakening attractiveness to her face, and I was seized by an urge to gather her in my arms and plant my lips on hers. I could tell from the hunger sizzling more subtly in her eyes that she would have welcomed this. But I could also see that she was drunk.
While I was feeling only a slight buzz from the wine I’d imbibed so far, I could tell that drinking more than a sip or two was something Elyse wasn’t accustomed to. I wasn’t sure why she’d decided to indulge tonight. Perhaps she was left shaken after the admittedly disturbing sight of the skeleton stalking through the shadows around the camp—or maybe after witnessing the paladin’s soul get sucked into my dagger. It might have just been because she was nervous around me, which was understandable enough. I guessed it probably wasn’t exactly
