“Got it.” I turned to Rami. “You coming?”
“I’ll just sit here a while,” she answered. “I need to do some thinking.”
I nodded. “I’ll be back in a couple of minutes.”
Elyse and I went behind the altar to the sacristy before we crossed into a side corridor. Elyse pushed open the door, and we entered a rectangular chamber that stank of incense. A collection of ceremonial robes hung from an open wardrobe, and a large, ornately carved desk was decorated with icons of the Lord of Light, chalices, and scrolls. Leather-bound tomes sat within a dusty bookcase, and it looked like none of them had been pulled out for years. Anyone who walked into this room would suspect that Nabu was nothing but a regular bishop.
Elyse went to a door at the back of the room and tried to turn the doorknob but found that it was locked.
“I’ll go back and search Nabu’s corpse,” she said. “The key’s probably in one of his pockets.”
“No need to waste time doing that.” I stepped up to the door. “We’ve already smashed so much stuff in this cathedral that a broken door isn’t going to make much of a difference.”
“I wouldn’t want to give the people more work to—”
I booted the door with a powerful frontal kick. With a sharp snap, the lock ripped out of the frame, and the door swung open.
“Ugh,” I gasped, and stumbled back as a wave of foul-smelling air hit me. “Smells like a troll’s ass in there!”
“By the Lord of Light!” Elyse lifted her hand to her nose.
I had a feeling we weren’t going to like what we’d find in the room, but morbid curiosity urged me on.
“Let’s see where this stench is coming from,” I said grimly, holding my breath as I stepped into the gloomy chamber.
Chapter Seventeen
At the back of the room was an altar covered in a thick coating of black, congealed blood and rotting bits of gore. A curved dagger rested on top of the altar, and a discarded white dress of some sort, splattered with blood, lay on the floor.
“I guess this is where Nabu used to make his sacrifices to the Blood God,” I muttered.
Elyse nodded, pinching her nose and staring around her in horror. “Worshipping the Lord of Light in the open while making sacrifices to the Blood God in secret. No more evil deeds will take place in here. And we’ll make sure those poor girls get decent burials.”
“We will. In the meantime though, you need to change your clothes, and I think one of these will suit you nicely.”
I walked to a rack with more white dresses like the bloodstained one lying on the floor, but these were clean and unused.
“I’m not wearing that!” Elyse objected.
“Why not?”
“Because it’s what that monster made his sacrificial victims wear before he cut out their hearts!”
“Exactly. What better garment to remind you of the injustices you’re fighting against and keep that fire in your heart burning?”
Elyse stared at the white dresses, considering my point. “I’m not sure I agree.”
“You’d be honoring the memory of the girls. You’d be saying a permanent ‘fuck you’ to Nabu and anyone else like him.”
“Perhaps.” Her eyes were starting to glisten, but she was still unconvinced.
“You could be like an avenging angel,” I continued, “meting out justice for every poor girl sacrificed in those rituals.”
Now, instead of revulsion, Elyse’s eyes lit up with a fierce, determined fire.
“Yes,” she murmured, her gaze locked on the dresses. “That’s perfect. An avenging angel.”
She walked over to the rack and picked out a dress in her size. “I’ll get changed in the other room. I can’t handle the stink in here any more.”
We left the room, and I headed back out into the cathedral to allow her to put on her new dress. She came out a few moments later, and it was immediately clear that her new dress was a vast improvement over her frumpy cleric’s robe. Now, instead of her body being almost completely covered up, it was almost completely revealed, and what a welcome change that was.
The little white dress was very low-cut, and it had a generous amount of cleavage, displaying a large portion of her full breasts with the top edge of her areolas peeping out above the fabric. It was pleasingly tight around her slim waist and flat belly, and it flared out a little over her hips. The bottom ended just below the meeting of her thighs, giving me an unobstructed view of her long, shapely legs. The elastic edge held the strapless dress in place around her breasts, revealing her slim shoulders, which, like the rest of her body, were creamy white.
I made no secret of my staring. But instead of being offended, Elyse flashed me a flirtatious smile, and she blushed subtly. She turned around, providing me with a view of her round ass pressing gently against the back of the dress. A V-shaped opening started right above it, revealing most of her smooth back.
“It fits perfectly,” I said, “but you might have a little trouble hiding that mace of yours now.”
She ran her fingers through her hair, her gaze locked onto mine, and there was an unmistakable hunger simmering in those sultry eyes.
“I’m not just a bishop anymore.” She smiled. “I’m a warrior of Light. I’m not going to hide my weapon. I’m going to wear it proudly at my side.”
It seemed that she had changed more than just her clothes. I had to admit that I was a fan of this new Elyse.
“Welcome to the Badass Weapons Club,” I said with a wink. “I think you’ll like our perks, right, Rami?”
Rami, however, hadn’t moved since we’d entered the sanctuary. She remained as glum as ever and simply shrugged in response. Her eyes were locked onto the amulet in her hands. I figured that it
