“Uh, my hand, m’lady? But why—”
“Do it, you yellow-livered toad’s cock!” she snapped. A few of the tavern’s patrons snickered at this insult, and shouted mocking insults of their own at the actor, who was so obviously terrified of a woman half his size.
He held out his trembling hand for her, palm up, and she grinned swiftly before she stabbed the bone into his hand. As he yelped with pain, I felt a jolt of energy rip through my body—my actual body in the assassin’s chamber in Luminescent Spires, not Talon’s body—and suddenly my spirit was ripped out of the undead harpy and stuffed into the actor’s body.
This was entirely different to seeing the world through the eyes and senses of one of my undead minions. The biggest difference was the emptiness—or, rather, the very distinct lack of it. My undead creatures were, generally speaking, empty vessels, with only the faintest traces of old memories and who or what they had been while living. The actor’s body was utterly different, for he had a living mind … and it was howling out with panic and terror now, and doing everything it could to fight me off and force me out of his body. As hard as his mind fought, though, he couldn’t shove me out. I was in it like a vengeful demon, possessing him completely.
Even so, this whole thing would have been a lot easier if he agreed to cooperate. Unlike how it was with my undead creatures, I could actually make this creature speak.
“Anna-Lucielle,” I said, manipulating the actor’s vocal cords, “explain to him exactly what’s going on, and make sure he understands that things will go a lot better for him if he cooperates.”
“What?! I didn’t say that!” the actor gasped immediately after my words came out of his mouth. “But I did! But … I didn’t, it wasn’t me speaking! But…”
I could feel the giddying confusion swirling through his brain.
“You and I need to go somewhere quiet to talk,” Anna-Lucielle said coolly. “Follow me.”
“Do it, asshole,” I said, manipulating his mouth and tongue again.
“I’m not a … wait, I didn’t say that! But, but…”
“Shut up before I start making you punch yourself in the face!” I made him yell. I then made him curl his own fist and point it at his nose. He tried to fight against me, but he couldn’t overcome my will. The tavern patrons had been watching this, and they all burst out laughing.
“Don’t hurt yourself too bad, pretty boy!” one of them yelled.
“I’m taking bets!” another yelled. “Two to one odds that he knocks himself out with three punches!”
Confused and quite terrified, the actor had no choice but to follow Anna-Lucielle out of the tavern and into a quiet alley behind it. She calmly explained to him what she had done, and that I would be taking full control of his body, and that he would, essentially, be impersonating me. She made sure he understood that it would be a lot easier if he simply gave in and allowed me to take control instead of trying to fight me. It would, she explained, be the greatest performance of his entire acting career, and this line warmed him up to the idea.
“All right, all right, I’ll do it,” he said with a sigh. “After all, this mess is partly my fault for having unwittingly helped Rodrick. I should do what I can to rectify my past mistakes. Lord Chauzec, I allow you full control of my body for as long as you need it.”
As soon as he said this, I felt his resistance crumble away. Now, possessing his body felt a lot more like controlling one of my undead creatures. With this job complete, I was ready to turn this siege around and bring the fight to the Church of Light Army. And with my wyrm speeding toward Brakith under the ground, the tide was about to turn in a major way.
I clenched my hand into a fist and smacked my palm. “Let the Battle of Brakith begin.”
Chapter Nineteen
Wearing the body of my doppelganger as if it were a suit of living flesh armor, I strode out of the alley. All resistance on the actor’s part was gone, and it really felt as if I was there in Brakith in person.
“Come on Anna-Lucielle,” I called out over my shoulder. “We have work to do. The Beauty Mirror, please.”
She smiled at me, clearly understanding that I now had complete control over the actor’s body.
“I’m glad to have you with us,” she said as she scurried over and handed me the beauty mirror. “It’s terrible what’s happening to our home.”
“It is,” I said as I held the mirror. “But I plan to put a stop to it.”
I called on the Beauty Mirror’s magical powers of deception, weaving an even more complete illusion around the body I was occupying. Now, anyone who saw me, aside from the most powerful Fated people, would be absolutely convinced that this living zombie was actually me. Even those Fated among the Church of Light, who had powers of insight, wouldn’t be able to see through my ruse.
“My armor, where is it?” I asked Anna-Lucielle.
“After the harpies dropped all the baggage in the top castle tower, we moved it to a more secure location,” Anna-Lucielle answered. “One that wasn’t quite so exposed to projectiles from trebuchets and catapults.”
“Ah yes, those little annoyances,” I said, feeling my sixth sense tingling. I abruptly stopped in my tracks, grabbed her, slung her over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes, and sprang nimbly to the right, just as a boulder the size of an ox came hurtling down from above. The projectile missed us by inches and smashed into the ground where we’d been standing moments earlier.
I set down Anna-Lucielle and continued calmly onwards.
“So where is this safe location you were talking about?” I
