AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Then it has come to this again. After all these years…”
“Are you behind it?”Was this all an act?“The Spirits are your domain.”
She sighed. “Disrupting the Spirits is forbidden. A desecration. Why do you think the skin and flesh is removed as soon as possible? When only the bones remain no Spirit, no matter how powerful can force its way back inside. Or be forced.”
“Mysister—”
“Would not be strong enough. Perhaps if she trained for the next two decades. No. This is older than all of us.”
“Who?” I asked, despite already knowing the answer.Von Lemerch.
“I tell you this only because you’re family. There are two temples—have been since Herebov took Ealhswip as his bride. You and I descend from the daughter she had before they met—Eydis. She became the head of the Temple after her mother died and Herebov claimed Tal. Eydis accepted his rule, perhaps in honor of her mother, perhaps because Herebov’s soldiers rode through the streets, and most of the priestesses followed her.
“But a small group did not accept anyone besides the Goddess above them and split off, determined to reclaim what had been stolen. Eydis’s journals describe the dead walking the streets, attacking soldiers and civilians alike. Together with Herebov’s children by his second wife, Yelena, and the Sigil Guild, Eydis finally stopped the dead.”
“If they won, why is it happening again?”
Morovara’s eyes flashed in anger. “They won a battle, not the war, and only broke the balance further. The Spirits still feel the Gate to the other side and come to Tal, but they never move on. The royals refuse to even acknowledge the problem as their magic enforce the status quo. A city filled with Spirits draw more pilgrims—more commerce and money. Why care about the peace of those already dead?”
I remembered Dimitri’s dismissing tone when talking about the poor and those streaming into the city. If he thought the living should look after themselves, what did he think of the dead? I’d seen flashes of change and care, but had he saved Tal from the firebecause he cared about the people or because this was the city he had been raised to rule?
“And those who did not follow Eydis?”
“The Temple has tried to eradicate the refusers for generations, but a secret sect is difficult to find and in times of hardship their membership grows, especially when they claim the last divine ruler leads them. Lately, their bloody symbol has been everywhere.”
The cold I’d felt earlier settled deeper in my bones. There was only one symbol she could be talking about. Dimitri asked me about it only last night when he found me under its red eyes. It seemed the Spirit of Lowtown was not its real name, and the rebellion it called for was one much older than my sister’s.
“And Ealhswip?” I asked hungrily. Finally, things were fitting together. Had Lumi known all this?
“They say she still walks, but there has been no proof for two centuries, only attempts against the royals. If we could restore the balance…”
The blue burning eyes. How she commanded the priestesses in the crypt. Lumi claimed von Lemerch could not die. If she was not Ealhswip, she was something eerily similar.
This was what Dimitri needed to know, but how could I tell him? Just the realization that these were von Lemerch’s secrets after all, squeezed my throat.
I forced my next words out, focusing on how this was the Temple’s truth, how the connection was only my conjecture. “Can she be killed?”
“An animated body will rot without consuming more Spirits.” Morovara lowered her voice. “But if the divine ruler still exists, I’m not sure anything besides the Goddess herself can bring her home.”
“What does she want?”
“Revenge, child. Like any wronged woman, she wants revenge and to ensure no one can ever betray her ever again.”
The cold reached my racing heart.How did we fight death itself?
I had believed if I could only tell Dimitri the truth, if he could convince the king to act, then surely, they could handle von Lemerch. Lock her in prison and throw away the key. Hang her and all this would be over.
I had thought von Lemerch familiar from the start. Had assumed I had seen her in Kirill’s office or on the street. Had been unable to connect her to the stone face of the woman embraced by Herebov before the palace and the beautifully chiseled face of the prince’s game pieces. They overlapped in my mind. The aged features smoothing until I knew it was the same slim nose and lips. The same slightly tilted eyes.
The knowledge settled around me like a manacle.
Her curse seemed a living thing wrapping around my throat. I did not need to test it to know, I would not be able to repeat any of what I had just learned. I should have stopped my questions earlier. Left before I knew.
What would I tell Dimitri when he asked?
Again, I was falling, damn it, and this time I did not see the ground. My world was one of chamber pots, tending hearths, gathering debts, and stealing to keep us afloat. Dreams and dancing. I loved to listen to the lorists tell of mages and faraway cities. But undead queens and the lies our very city was built on were not for the likes of me to unravel.
Run, part of me said.You can leave it all behind.
