This probably wasn’t the best time to tell her I was planning on resurrecting the lizard.
“They make excellent sentries and guards,” I said with a shrug. “The more of my bony buddies we have around our camp tonight, the sounder you’ll sleep.”
She looked down at the half-eaten legs and the chewed-up soldier and gagged. “Please, please can we get out of here?”
“We sure can.” I stuffed the last of the hares into the sack. “I’ve got dinner too, no hunting necessary.”
She recoiled with disgust.
“After everything I’ve seen here, meat is the last thing I want to eat. Just, ugh!”
“More for me then,” I said cheerily. “But, yeah, we can go… after just one more thing.”
She looked at me with a suspicious glint in her eyes. “I don’t like the sound of this.”
Rollar’s banner was lying on the ground, and I intended to leave him a message.
“You’ll see,” I said as I picked up a broken spear shaft. I went over to the disembodied legs, dipped the end of the shaft in the bloody flesh, and walked to the banner.
“That’s disgusting!” gasped Elyse.
I ignored her and proceeded to scrawl my message on the banner.
With love from Soultaker, I wrote. Come find me for more fun and games!
Isu wanted more souls, and this little letter would ensure she got them.
Chapter Six
Elyse walked over, and a look of horror crossed her face when she’d seen what I’d written.
“We don’t need more of these goons coming after us, Vance!” Elyse said, punching me in the shoulder. “If we leave things alone, they’ll think the lizard did it.”
“I want them to come after me,” I said, fingering Grave Oath’s hilt with the fingers of my right hand. “I need more souls, Elyse.”
“Well, I don’t want to have to do any more fighting.”
“You seem to be pretty good at it, though. What was that thing you did with the glowing ropes? Some sort of holy magic? And you still haven’t told me where you’re hiding that mace of yours. It’s an awesome little weapon.”
“I only take lives when it’s absolutely necessary,” she said angrily. “Not for sport, like you do. And my powers are for me to know about, not you. As for my mace, it’s kept in a safe, easily accessible place for when I really need it.”
I didn’t feel like getting into an argument at this point, and I could see she was eager to get out of here.
“Come on,” I said, “I’m done here now. Let’s go.”
It definitely wasn’t the right moment to let her know I’d be coming back for my new pet at dawn.
We headed back in silence with my new skeletons following obediently a few yards behind us. When we arrived back at the camp, I set about preparing the hares for the fire, while Elyse cracked open one of the bottles of wine from our booty.
“Are you sure you want more of that?” I asked, careful to sound casual rather than judgmental.
“I’m feeling a bit shaken up after seeing… what we saw,” she said, staring at the fire as she took a sip.
“Fair enough. Just don’t down the whole bottle, huh?”
I laughed, but she didn’t. Instead, she took another long, deep swig of wine. I figured I’d better step in before she downed the whole bottle, so I walked over and gently took it from her and took a hefty swig myself. It was cheap, nasty stuff, not like the Erst wine. But it did the job. I sucked back another large mouthful before handing the bottle back to Elyse and then got on with roasting the hares.
I lost myself in the flames for some time—as I often did—and when I finally came back, I turned around and saw that Elyse had passed out, the half-empty bottle lying on its side near her open hand. I walked over to her, wrapped her up in her cloak, and stuck her knapsack under her head for a pillow. Then, I walked out of the campsite to go piss against a tree, and when I returned, Elyse was snoring softly.
As I dug into my meat, I noticed one of the skeletons stiffening up on the eastern perimeter of the camp. He had seen—or sensed, however it worked—something, or someone. Flipping Grave Oath in my hand, I moved stealthily into the shadows, keeping my back to the trunk of a large oak as I surveyed my surroundings. Glancing back at the skeleton, I noticed his sword was gripped limply at his side, and he had not shifted into a combat stance. It seemed that, in his eyes at least, whoever or whatever was near was not a threat.
It was then that I saw her, materializing out of the shadows and walking straight toward me.
She had appeared in human form for the first time… and what a form it was. I was already familiar with the shape and proportions of her body, but seeing the form in flesh and blood was something I hadn’t quite been prepared for. One expects gods and goddesses to be attractive in their human forms, of course, but the glimpses I’d been granted of Isu’s figure had definitely not been enough to prepare me for how beautiful she was as a human woman.
From between her twin horns, long, jet-black hair, silky and wavy, tumbled like cascading ink around her slim shoulders. On her gorgeous face, a set of strong yet distinctly feminine features were arranged in perfect symmetry; large eyes with light-gray irises that glowed with intensity sat beneath bold, sharply angled brows, while a tall, proud nose was pleasingly positioned above a pair of full, dark lips that were hungrily parted, revealing an invitingly gleaming wetness within.
She was entirely nude except for the necklace with a glowing ruby that sat beneath her collarbones. Its gentle light ebbed and flowed, seemingly in tandem with the rhythm of her heartbeat. Her skin was pale
