She shrugged. “It’s a small price to pay.”
“Is it?”
“We can use it to control the Sentinel. We can find the company in charge of him, where they’re stationed, and all I need is to get close enough so I can make eye contact and he can hear me.”
“And what would be the point of that?”
“One less Sentinel for the High Harvester to deploy into battle. That’s the first and most important. Second, the ledger Rune and I found at the castle contains lists of all the organs used to create the revenants, and Mayer said Matteo’s body was used almost in its entirety. Rune has the ledger, I’m sure. He wouldn’t leave it behind. It’s the one thing that tells him the story of how he was made, that offers him a glimpse into his identity. I intend to read that ledger from cover to cover, then hunt down every Construct still alive, and every murdering Sentinel, and retrieve what belonged to Matteo. I will give him a proper burial even if it takes me years. Decades.”
“Seraphina,” Idris sighed. He pulled her into a hug. “What happened wasn’t your fault.”
“No,” she said, her voice muffled against his chest.
She clung to his shoulders and bit her tongue again. Every time a conversation skirted close to what she’d read in Matteo’s journal, nagging whispers rose at the back of her mind.
“What about Matteo’s hands?” he asked.
“Rune will keep them, of course. He’s not like the others, I swear it. You’ll see when you meet him.”
“I believe you.”
“Also, I was thinking…” She disentangled herself from him and tapped her chin. “Wouldn’t you like to dissect one of them?”
He furrowed his brows in warning.
“The revenants are the Harvester’s greatest weapons. Wouldn’t learning how they function – how they’re evenpossible! – help the Sarumite Order and the resistance win the war? I remember you saying something similar.”
“Using my own words against me.”
“They’re not–”
“Human? Their bodies aren’t sacred?”
Seraphina rolled her lips, waiting for him to fight this inner battle and come to the only conclusion that made sense.
“You’re right, they’re blasphemous,” he said. “Revenants are abominations.”
“With one exception.”
He didn’t contradict her, though she sensed he wanted to. He’d come around, Seraphina would make sure of it. No one who spent five minutes in Rune’s presence could see him as a monster.
“So, we… turn back?” she asked.
“If you’re sure. You’re the one with the relic, and you’re the one who has to suffer the consequences of using it.”
“I’m sure. This is the right thing to do.”
They turned the cart around. Seraphina could laugh at the absurdity of what they were doing. From trying to avoid the heat of the war, now they were looking to walk right into it. But having a Sentinel… Owning a Sentinel she could command however she saw fit – that could turn the tide. What Matteo had done with the Bastion Weaves inside the city walls was defensive. She herself was the kind to go on the offensive.
Chapter Eleven
Constructs and Sentinels were different.
The company was in a neighboring village, south-west, possibly conquered a few days prior. Seraphina and Idris followed the troops’ tracks and found their camp before nightfall. The soldiers had occupied the church, the tavern, and some of the largest farmhouses. There were sentries on the roads in and out, so they left the cart in the woods and approached on foot.
Idris led the way, since he could see perfectly in the dark. Seraphina had scolded him thoroughly and not let up until he took Saint Vivia’s relic out of the medicine chest and slid it onto the plain cord around his neck that held a small, metal cylinder. That reminded her of the crucifix Matteo had given her, which she didn’t have anymore. The Watch in Ingolstadt had taken it when they’d thrown her into prison, and it was lost forever.
They stayed low and observed from a distance. It wasn’t snowing anymore, but no one wanted to be outside, so the village was silent. There were lights in the windows, and the tavern was packed with men celebrating today’s victory. Aside from the soldiers on patrol, there was no other movement.
