I plunged the dagger into his chest and watched as the enchanted dagger sucked his soul out of his writhing, screaming body. I waited until he was as withered as an old raisin before plucking Grave Oath out of his chest.
“At least we know where Nabu is now,” I said to Rami and Elyse.
“Soultaker,” said Rami, “may I journey with you to Nabu’s cathedral? This man said that it’s heavily guarded. Perhaps it would be beneficial to both of us if we were to help each other.”
“As long as you promise to let me kill him,” I said. “You can take whatever it is of Nabu’s you’re after, but his soul is mine.”
“I can agree to such terms.”
I turned to Elyse, wondering how she was feeling about this stunning Yengish woman tagging along. Just as I looked at her, I managed to catch her giving Rami a cold, sidelong glance. But she covered her near-open jealousy so quickly with a warm, friendly smile that I was left wondering if I’d actually seen anything negative in her eyes at all.
“I think,” said Elyse, preempting my question, “that it would be wonderful to have some female company on this journey. You know, to balance out the excess of masculinity,” she added, rolling her eyes.
“Hey, it’s not my problem that you’re so used to being around pansy-ass clergymen who faint at the sight of a papercut that you can’t handle the presence of a real man. But anyway, I guess that settles it. Rami, you’re welcome to join us. Just remember what we agreed to: Nabu’s soul is mine.”
“The joy of ending the fat wine-sot’s life will be yours, and yours alone,” said Rami solemnly. “I swear this on the honor of my sect.”
“Thanks. Now, though, we have another problem to worry about. This shriveled-up asshole said there are hundreds of soldiers guarding the cathedral. We have to get the three of us, a couple of skeleton warriors, and a zombie lizard inside the cathedral grounds without being seen. How are we gonna do this?”
It was Elyse who eventually came up with an idea.
“You know,” she said, “it’s about the time of year that they start to deliver the wine made in this vineyard to the towns, in barrels.”
“So, what are you saying, we hide in wine barrels?” I asked. “That’s all well and good for us and the skeletons, but for him,” I said, pointing at Fang, “there’s no wine barrel on the planet that’s big enough.”
“Not in wine barrels—wine carts. The wine carts we use in Erst are huge; they’re big, covered wagons pulled by teams of oxen. We always preferred to transport one large, bulk shipment of wine instead of going back and forth with many small deliveries. The carts are big enough for that lizard thing, trust me. And the rest of us too. As long as we can convince the driver to help us—”
“Oh, I think I’ll be able to ‘convince’ him pretty quickly,” I said, grinning and twirling Grave Oath slowly in my hand. “Don’t you worry about that.”
“All right,” said Elyse. “Well, let’s not waste any more time. Come, follow me; the wagon for this vineyard should be around the back of the manor.”
We followed Elyse, skirting around the edges of the vineyard and keeping just inside the woods so that the sight of a bunch of walking skeletons and a giant zombie lizard wouldn’t alarm the laborers. Soon enough, we got within sight of the manor house and saw that a massive wagon was, indeed, parked around the back with a large team of oxen already hitched to it. Laborers were busy loading it with barrels of wine; it looked like we had arrived at exactly the right time.
“Okay,” I said, cracking my knuckles and stretching my neck, “I’ll go ahead and do some ‘convincing,’ and then—”
“Wait, wait,” said Elyse, peering through the falling dusk at the overseer. “I know the manager. He was one of the few men who supported me and who didn’t believe Bishop Nabu’s lies about me. Let me talk to him. I think I can convince him to help us. And when I say ‘convince,’ I actually mean convince.”
“What about the two soldiers standing on either side of him?” I asked. “They’re wearing Church of Light tabards. They’re obviously Nabu’s men. I don’t think they’re going to be as happy to see you as your buddy the manager will be.”
“Hmm, yeah, you might be right. They could be a problem. Let’s get a bit closer and check things out. Maybe, um… get your lizard and skeletons to wait here, though.”
“His name is Fang, okay?” I said, giving Fang an affectionate scratch behind his ear hole. “But yeah, I’ll leave him here.”
The three of us crept through the vineyard, staying hidden behind the grape vines. Eventually, we got close enough to the wagons to eavesdrop.
“Get these stupid peasants to hurry up,” one of the soldiers growled at the manager, who was a portly, middle-aged fellow with an expansive gut and a shiny, bald head. “Bishop Nabu is expecting his wine by midnight, and it’s a three-hour ride in this slow-ass wagon.”
“They’re going as quickly as they can,” protested the manager. “You do realize that these wine barrels are heavy, don’t you?”
“Quit your bellyaching, you fat git, unless you want me to pull more of your teeth out with my rusty pliers!” snapped the soldier. “Make your idiots work faster, or I’ll break another one of your fingers!”
“Yes, yes, okay, okay,” whimpered the manager. “Just don’t… don’t hurt me again, please.”
I turned and looked at Elyse.
“I don’t think your friend would mind if I took care of these two assholes.”
“No,” she said. “I think he’d be quite happy, actually.”
“On three, we show ourselves. Those two chumps don’t know it yet, but they’ve got about five seconds of life left. You two ready?”
They nodded.
“Good. One, two, three!”
We burst out of
