I didn’t have time to sit around and do that now, though. Isu’s silent call seemed to be growing more urgent.
“Hey, Elyse,” I said, “are there catacombs beneath this cathedral, where old bones and bodies are stored?”
“There are,” she said. “They’re part of the network of crypts we went through to get here.”
I started to turn toward the exit, and she moved as if to come with me, but I held up a hand to stop her.
“I’m going alone,” I said. “You two stay and rest up here for a while. I’ll be back before long.”
Before I left, I summoned more skeletons from the corpses of Nabu’s soldiers. I left the Crusaders untouched, because I had other plans for them: I hoped Isu might grant me the power to summon a greater undead than a skeleton. I also didn’t want to use my powers to tamper with Nabu’s corpse; I couldn’t stand the thought of having his skeleton fight alongside me.
With my replenished undead army behind me, I left the women and picked up a burning torch to light my way into the crypts. I didn’t know where I was going, but I figured Isu would guide me. I wasn’t wrong. As soon as I set foot in the crypt, an icy breeze whipped through the maze-like space and rippled down a murky corridor. Isu’s presence was strong here, and more prominent than it had been in the cathedral above. However, I could feel that I wasn’t quite upon her just yet.
I pressed on, and again the chilly breeze licked my body before it rushed around a corner. I followed it, heading ever deeper into the crypts. Soon enough, I found myself in the catacombs. This part of the crypts seemed older than the rest, and the musty smell of old death lingered in the air here.
It was comforting.
Ever since I’d started on this journey, this necromancer’s path, I’d begun to think about death and the dead quite differently. I’d never feared death, but I hadn’t exactly thought about it much either. Now, though, I was feeling increasingly intrigued by it, thinking about the mystery of it, the afterlife—or, rather, which one of the many versions of the afterlife the different zealots tried to peddle was closest to the truth—and what lay beyond that one-way door. As a necromancer, I was now in a position to learn more about it than I ever had, and it filled me with a desire to know even more, to dig deeper, ever deeper.
The wind directed me around one more corner, then down a spiral staircase. I was deep in the belly of the crypts now, and the narrow chambers I was walking through were packed with decaying skeletons, stacked up in piles in alcoves in the walls. As I reached the end of the chamber, where an ornate doorway led to another room, the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. Without a moment of hesitation, I spun around into a fighting stance with Grave Oath in my right hand and a throwing star in my left.
My undead paused behind me, and they hadn’t moved to attack the figure. The reason was clear: standing before me was a familiar figure, although she was clothed this time. Long dark hair tumbled in silky cascades around her snow-pale shoulders. Pert breasts shifted invitingly beneath a figure-hugging dress that glinted and shimmered metallically in the torchlight, as if made from the iridescent scales of some mythical rainbow serpent. The dress, slit on both sides to expose long, curvaceous legs, hugged a slim waist that flared out into rolling hips. Atop this sensual body was a pale, achingly beautiful face dominated by a pair of hypnotic auburn eyes set beneath strong arched eyebrows. Her full dark lips stood out against the paleness of her skin.
I lowered my weapons and relaxed. “Good to see you again, Isu.”
She walked like a tigress, inviting and threatening at once, her beguiling eyes never once leaving mine as she approached me. “The gift of Nabu’s soul,” she purred, “was exquisite, Vance. Thank you. My powers grow ever greater. All thanks to you. And, as you know, when my powers swell, so too do yours.”
She drifted past me, slid around to my rear, brushed her fingertips with a featherlight touch across my left cheek.
“What power does my mighty necromancer desire?” she whispered into my right ear as she circled me, leaning in close, so that her icy breath sent a chill scuttling down my spine. “Ask it of me, and I shall grant it.”
“Those dead Crusaders in the cathedral,” I said, “would make excellent allies. But not just as the usual skeletal warriors. You gave me the power to raise beasts before, like I did with Fang. Now, I want to be able to do that with humans.”
“You desire the flesh to remain on their bones?”
“I want zombies, yeah.”
“I suspected that you would ask me for such a thing, so I have already prepared this power for you. There is only one thing I ask for in return.” She gave me a sultry smile as she came to my front and ran her fingertips slowly down my chest.
“I already gave you the souls of those crusaders. And Nabu’s soul. What else could you possibly want?”
Again she leaned in to whisper in my ear, and the chill of her icy breath condensed on my cheek. “A kiss.”
“Well, that’s easy enough.”
I slid my right arm around her waist and slipped my left hand through her dark mane to pull her close. Her wet lips parted hungrily as I pressed mine against them, but instead of sharing a passionate kiss, a gush of paralyzingly cold liquid surged into my mouth from hers.
Suddenly, both of her hands were clamped on the back of my skull in a vice grip as she held me fast with surprising strength. The torrent of freezing liquid
