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Piper reaches out to a contact she has at a local inn within the town limits of Rivre.
I watch them outside, peering through the fogged window in case Piper needs me. She informed me before she went inside that the contact isn’t exactly a friend. More of a friend of Bronger’s—the man who kidnapped Piper as a child.
He’s wearing paldihv, a cloak of shadows one has to kill the previous owner in order to possess.
The sight of it seems to throw Piper off. I suppose that makes sense, given Marcus owns paldihv himself.
When Piper meets me outside, her teeth are clamped.
I frown. “What is it?”
Piper bites back a shudder. “Nothing. That male is just a pig, is all.”
When we make it back to the cave, she tells me what she learned.
The news isn’t good.
Three days.
I have three days until Az unleashes the Others on Othian in a second attack.
The fastest I’ve ever run was when I was trying to get back to Ermengarde before Abra completed the ritual that gave Farin complete control over Nox’s body.
Even then, I wasn’t fast enough.
Now I have three days to get from Rivre to Meranthi.
The distance itself would be problematic on its own. Combine that with the fact that I can only travel at night, and it’s improbable I’ll make it.
Then there’s the complication of the Sahli.
I’m not exactly an expert when it comes to running. Never really did much of it when I was human. Something tells me miles and miles of sand aren’t exactly the most conducive medium for speed.
Or endurance, now that I think of it.
I’ll never make it. Piper’s right about that, and shrugging off her concern doesn’t make it any less true.
It doesn’t have to be this way, says a voice, one that’s all too familiar, even when it shouldn’t be. Even when I never actually heard it back when it dwelled inside me. The parasite skitters inside the black adamant box I keep looped to my belt, tucked underneath my tunic, not because I want it close to my skin, but because I don’t want to have to look at it. Piper’s offered to carry it for me several times after seeing what it does to me to have it so close, but I can’t bring myself to let it out of my sight. There’s something about the feeling of the cold ancient metal against my skin that comforts me, reminds me that the parasite is still trapped, that it hasn’t found someone to let it out.
You don’t have to be a slave to the night, you know, it says again, its voice slippery against the inside of my skull.
“There’s not a way to make this thing soundproof, is there?” I ask no one in particular.
Piper shoots me a concerned glance, but she shakes her head all the same. She’s used to the parasite talking to me at this point, though I think it makes her uncomfortable.
That’s fair.
I could help you. You and me, we could be whoever you want to be. I could give you a new body, one not cursed like yours is.
I’m not entirely sure that’s true, and as much as I’d love to walk in the sun again, to be free of this cursed body, I’m not an idiot.
Well, I suppose I’m kind of an idiot.
But I’m not that much of an idiot.
“Shouldn’t you be afraid of what I might do to you, if I absorbed you?” I ask it, ignoring the way Piper wriggles in her cot, like she’s trying not to listen in but can’t help that she has excellent hearing.
You’re right. Your powers now might very well allow you to absorb me. Makes it seem like a good deal on your end. Just think of what you could use me for. A new body. Maybe even one Nox isn’t cursed not to love. Who knows? Besides, don’t you still want children one day? A new body could be useful for that as well.
