“We’ll have to stay put until nightfall,” he confirms. “Here—you might want to read this.”
He opens the tome to the section about the Cemetery of Doom, a grim expression on his face. “You might want to brace yourself for what you’re about to find out.”
CHAPTER V
Cerys
I watch as the sun disappears behind the hills, taking its warmth away with it. I rub my arms against the evening chill, thinking about what I’ve read. What I didn’t understand, Xerxes explained to me, and it only made matters worse. Him, with all his experience defending the realms against cosmic behemoths has a strong stomach for things like this, but he doesn’t like it any more than I do.
Nobody in their right mind would.
“Every night corpses crawl out of their graves, and roam the hill,” I breathe. “Travelling by night, we might not even reach the top.”
“We will,” Xerxes replies. “We will only travel by night until we reach the hill. Few people venture into those parts, so we will be able to climb it by day unseen. If night catches us there, I will carry you and Nazarean, but you must hold on tight and not let go no matter what.”
I nod, unable to speak past the knot in my throat. He’s not able to see me, but he can sense me, just like I can sense him standing behind me while I lean out over the windowsill to admire the sunset.
Hues of orange and crimson pool over the hill line, bathing the sky in magical colors. I breathe in, smelling rain on the air. I push my face up, letting it imbue my skin.
“I’ve never used the elements in a fight,” I say. “I’m not even sure I can. I mean, I don’t command them myself, I command them using their connection with my clients.”
“We’ll find a way.” He sounds so warm and reliable, it’s hard to believe this is the same man who basically said I’d mean nothing more than a hot night to him. How can he have been so cruel last night, and yet so warm and accommodating today?
I turn around to face him. I’ve spent all day studying the tome, and pretending to even when I wasn’t, simply to avoid facing him. Even when my focus left me, I kept looking down or checking Nazarean, stroking him and feeding him, avoiding direct eye contact with Xerxes. Whenever he left the room for food and drink I breathed out a sigh of relief.
But discussing with him what I learned from the book was interesting and absorbing while we talked over bagels and coffee. Even then I’ve avoided looking him straight on in the face.
It’s been quite a productive day despite the tension between us. We learned more than I would have ever expected from the former Grand Mage’s meetings. Xerxes, as a high-blood supernatural, has been able to read much faster than me, identifying the bits that were of interest to us, but I must say it’s his experience that makes all the difference.
“I’ve been around for a long time, and I’ve outlived three Grand Mages. We didn’t have any direct contact, but I kept tabs on them. I have a good idea of their life’s work,” he explained. “But I wouldn’t have thought that they had information on the Firestone. It was genius on your part to suggest we look there.”
I lower my head, hiding my blush. “Thank you, but I was thinking more of myself than you when I suggested it. You know, because of the blood oath. I needed him in order to sanctify it, but after knowing him better that word seems strange.”
He takes another step and, for the first time since last night, we’re close enough that I can smell him. I breathe in deeply, despite the fear that it may have become a drug to me.
“I can still give you a blood oath, even without someone to sanctify it.”
“No offense, but what would such an oath be worth?”
“There are more ways than one to sanctify a blood bond. I witnessed Lysander make an oath to Arielle de Saelaria when we first met.”
“Yes, and look what happened to them. It bound them together as fated mates. We already are that, what if the oath makes the connection unbreakable?”
He studies me with a calm that borders on resignation. “I think the connection already is unbreakable. Last night ended badly. I crossed the line, for which I’m sorry, but the first part of it was genuine. I was never that honest with anyone before in my life. I’ve never talked about myself before.”
“It’s so strange, hearing someone so old and experienced as you speak about first times.” I smile, but I’m pretty sure it shows the bitterness I feel inside.
He smiles back, which seems an unnatural response from his handsome but brutish face. For a moment there I think that he might want to deepen the moment, but he turns away, starting to pack the things he gathered for our journey.
“The sun is almost set. I suggest we start our journey to the Hill of Doom, it will take a couple of nights. Then we’ll set up camp at the base of the hill. There is a magic border around the hill that the spirits cannot pass, so we’ll be safe. We can start to train there, and we’ll use the elements to do it.”
“Like I said, I’ve never used the elements for battle before. I mean, I can conjure storms and snow, and even stir fire inside a volcano, but I told you, it was always through the elements’ connection to my clients, not to me. I’m just someone who can channel them right.”
He nods as if understanding perfectly what I’m talking about. “What you do is called element bending. Most trained element benders can only master one element, like air or water or fire. You’re special, because all of the elements respond to your calling. You think you don’t have a direct influence on them because you never tried, you stuck to helping others. I’m pretty sure I can work with that, I can teach you how to use them for war.”
War. Now that’s a word that sounds like it fits in his mouth.
“Are you sure I’m not better off with blades or something?”
“It would take months of training for you to use conventional weapons in a way that would do damage and protect you. Besides, there’s no point trying something new if you already have something that you’re comfortable with.”
I pick up Nazarean and approach him.
“Xerxes,” I start, though I’m not very sure how to ask him this. “We never talked about how you create the Undead, and I suppose at this point it’s better that I don’t know but... These creatures that crawl out of their graves at the Cemetery of Doom, how are they different from the ones you make?”
“In one essential way—my Undead do not have souls. They’re only shells of once living creatures, which is why they rot, and why they can be killed in conventional ways. They make decisions based on the broken bits of information and memory left over in their brains. With the creatures at the Cemetery of Doom it’s the other way around. They’re living souls inside dead bodies. Killing their bodies will only slow them down, but not annihilate them. My Undead are easy to kill because there’s no mind ordering the matter to go on. It’s the other way around with those we’re going to encounter. Their souls are strong, and they keep their bodies going.”
My skin crawls at the image his words create in my mind. “So what are we going to do? How are we going to make it past them?”