Daughter of Darkness

Chapter 38

The three of us lay in bed and talk for half an hour or so, Kassia making Hale and I laugh with every other sentence.

She's crass and loud, blunt and rude and I find myself liking her more and more with each passing minute. Beautiful and confident, she strides into a room and demands attention, bright and glaring like the sun. Then she opens her mouth and you realize that she's less like the sun and more like a huge lightning storm, striking and obliterating with deadly precision, but beautiful to watch all the same.

When Willow finally comes into the infirmary with a small group of guards on her heels, I'm tucked against Hale's side, Kassia sprawled across the bed, her head resting on my legs. We're all in the middle of cackling at a story she's telling about a drunken guard and a pig.

The second I see Willow though, I'm out of bed on shaking legs, staggering towards her. She looks awful, deep purple under her sunken eyes, hair lank and dull, hanging limply. Her pale skin is covered in a sheen of sweat. Whatever she had to give to save me, it was almost too much. The thought chills me to my core.

Then she's in my arms and I taste salt on my lips, crying soundlessly. She feels like a skeleton under her soft pink gown and I can count the notches of her spine with my fingers.

After a long minute, I pull away, slightly embarrassed that Hale and Kassia are present, but Willow grabs my hands, squeezing them tightly in her freezing ones.

"I know..." She smiles. "I love you too."

I laugh, a weak, watery sound but warmth spills through my chest. We're okay. For now, we're okay.

Mortimer steps out from behind the guards, giving me an apologetic smile. "As much as I loathe to interrupt this tender moment, there are important things that need to be discussed." He dismisses the guards, their boots clomping in an organized symphony as they file into the hall.

"I suppose that's my cue to leave as well," Hale says, getting off of the bed slowly.

"Stay," I blurt, getting a warm smile in return.

"I'm not sure that's-" Mortimer starts but I cut him off.

"He's staying. He's already fought to save our lives and he got pulled into this when someone decided to use him to get to me."

Which reminds me, we still need Willow to see if she can get anything from Hale's mind. As much as I hate to ask her to do anything else right now. But we need whatever evidence we can get before revealing Darius's betrayal. And it would help if Willow could find and see proof with her own two eyes, rather than having only my word to go off of.

Even with proof though, revealing Darius's true nature is going to hurt her.

Mortimer looks like he's going to protest further so I add, "Besides, if you make him leave, I'll just tell him everything later. You're just giving me extra work in my- fragile state." Cue pathetic cough.

I swear I see something that looks suspiciously like a twinkle of respect in his eyes as he bows his head. "As you wish."

Willow and I stagger back to sit together on the bed, my body sagging against the pillows. Getting up took more out of me than I'd expected. Hale brings over chairs for him and Mortimer while Kassia leans against the door, arms crossed, expression blank.

"Before we begin, I had this retrieved for you." Mortimer pulls a cloth-wrapped bundle from his robes and hands it to me. I know instantly by the weight that it's my silver dagger.

"I feel like this thing should be hung on the wall with all the other legendary weapons," I mutter to myself.

Willow had taken me by one of the royal collection rooms a week ago, where all of the weapons from stories or great battles hung on the wall. My fingers had itched to hold Mercy, the sword that Lady Jana Valysmarr had used in all of my stories. Willow must have seen the longing on my face though because she ushered me out the door before I gathered up the courage to rip it off of the wall. The guards would have probably tackled me in two seconds but it would have been so worth it.

"You'd have to name it something horribly obvious, like Shadow Slayer," Hale suggests, giving me a mischievous grin. "Or how about, No More Necromancer?"

I laugh, feeling dumb when no one else does. "Oh come on, that was-" I see Mortimer's grim expression. "Oh gods, what? Why do you look like that?"

He shuffles uncomfortably in his chair, robes rustling. "The thing is, my dear girl, you didn't actually kill the necromancer."

Everything stops and I swear the world tilts sideways. "I- what?"

Mortimer looks like he's sucking on a lemon. "When I heard Kassia and Hale's accounts of what occurred in the ballroom and the explosion that ensued after you stabbed him, something felt off. In the tale where Melora kills the necromancer, she cradles him in her arms as the darkness leaves and once he was free and dead, she burns his body. He doesn't explode." He sighs, rubbing at his white hair. "So I did more research and what I found is grave indeed. It seems that you destroyed the vessel, the projection of himself that he sends out to do his binding. In all ways it is the necromancer... in all ways except physically, that is."

Hale and Kassia look stricken. They had risked their lives to save me and kill him. I had given my life to do the same. And it was all for nothing.

"So in order to kill the necromancer, we have to find his physical body and do it?" My voice sounds reasonably calm but Hale looks up sharply. His hand resting on the bed next to mine shifts slightly, his thumb brushing my knuckles.

"That's correct. However, we now know that a silver knife works as a weapon against him. I have two scribes digging through the royal vaults now looking for more."

I nod, still struggling to process the fact that the threat is still here. That enemies are closing in from all sides.

"Furthermore..." Mortimer reaches out to grip my hand in his, shocking me out of my stupor. "By destroying the projection, you have seriously wounded the necromancer. I imagine it will take him weeks to gather his power again and even then, he'll be more cautious now." A gentle squeeze. "You have bought us invaluable time, Talia."

He gets up, pats me on the shoulder, then leaves, giving us a minute alone.

His words sound hollow. Though I hadn't felt victorious, we had still triumphed over our enemy, still won. But now... all I can taste are the bitter ashes of disappointment. We had nearly all been killed fighting what wasn't even the true battle. Looking around and seeing everyone's faces tells me they are all thinking the same thing.

I grind my teeth. No. It didn't mean nothing. I refuse to believe that, not today, not while I've been brought back from Baeyr's grasp and blessed with a second chance.

"I know what you're all thinking," I say, breaking the silence. Three sets of tired, defeated eyes meet mine. "But you're wrong. We're all still alive. Even if it wasn't the victory we wanted, we still fought against the necromancer and won. We won. We still have our lives and the will to keep fighting. I won't - no, I refuse, to spit on that gift."

I meet Kassia's tawny eyes. "We will prepare so we aren't caught off guard next time. When he shows up, we'll be ready for him."

Hale's emerald ones. "We will fight to protect those weaker than us. We will fight with everything we have, every bit of strength we can muster."

And finally, Willow's crystal blue eyes. "We will show the necromancer that power means nothing when you're fighting against those who fight to protect their loved ones."

"I can think of no people I would rather have standing by my side. And when the time comes, we face him and we defeat him. We will win, I know we will."

I fall silent, uncertain of what else to say. I spoke from the heart, to combat the helplessness and fear that rose at the idea of having to face the necromancer again. But facing my friends now, I feel lighter.

"Here, here," Kassia says, and everyone laughs, the tension draining away.

But three sets of eyes meet mine, eyes that now look a little brighter, that sparkle with hope.