A Time of Dying (Araneae Nation) (15 page)

I did what Isolde bade me not to do. I looked him in the eyes. “I saw the wing.”

“Gods damn Isolde. She kept the thing?” He rubbed his face. “I should have known.”

“You don’t understand—”

This time he cut me short. “It’s a hoax. It has to be. Nothing alive has wings that large.”

“You’re right.” I reached for the doorknob again. “Nothing alive does.”

Behind us a door slammed but not before we heard a burst of feminine giggling.

From the corner of my eye I watched Lleu exit what I assumed was a servant’s room based on its proximity to the kitchen. When he straightened his clothes, he happened to glance our way.

“Murdoch?” He hurried to fasten his pants. “Late for you to be out. Is that…Kaidi?”

Before Murdoch’s warning cleared his lips, I rammed my shoulder into his gut and slammed against the door, flinging it open wide in my haste to escape. Darkness lapped at my feet. Several torches burned outside. Perhaps meant as a deterrent for the trouble Murdoch mentioned. I didn’t care. I was too grateful my path was lit and my way was clear. Calling upon my memories of the streets, I ran past familiar shops, including Stefan’s. Faster still I ran until the gate loomed ahead.

From one step to the next, my feet sailed from beneath me. I hit the dusty road and spat dirt.

“Steady now.” Lleu patted my thigh. “No need for anyone to get stabbed. Give us the knife.”

Murdoch wrenched my arm, tearing the knife from my grip. “Explain yourself.”

“Get me to that field and I won’t have to waste words.” I let my cheek rest on the ground.

“Why? Have we not experienced all its glory?” Lleu ridiculed me. “Determined little thing.”

Murdoch nudged me with his boot. “Let’s go.”

His declaration left me and Lleu gaping up at him.

“What?” we asked in unison.

“Swear to me you will remain in your room until Hishima arrives, and I will take you where you want to go. Know this, if you give me your word and try to break it, I will restrain you in the grotto. You will meet your future husband in chains, and I will give him my sympathies before he leaves.” His threat made clear that his attraction to me was a done thing. “What do you choose?”

“I give you my word.” I wriggled from under Lleu. “Take me to the field.”

“Should I carry word to Vaughn?” Lleu stood and dusted himself clean.

“There’s no time.” I faced Murdoch. “We must leave now.”

“Stay with us, Lleu.” Murdoch sounded weary. “We’ll report to the paladin after.”

Clearly unhappy with the order, Lleu nodded. “All right.”

They flanked me as I urged them onward toward the field. By the time we arrived, the drone of an otherworldly chorus could be heard plainly by my ears. The song whispered on the breeze, a gentle beckoning, a calling of like to like that even I responded to, drawn as I was to its source.

“What’s that noise?” Lleu sucked on his teeth. “Makes my jaw hurt.”

Murdoch scanned the field with narrowed eyes. “I don’t see anything.”

“You won’t if they see us first.” I clutched his sleeve and led him behind a crumbling wall I assumed held livestock at one point. It was empty now and our best chance at remaining unseen.

“I don’t like this.” Murdoch drew closer. “Perhaps Lleu should bring word to the paladin.”

“It’s too late.” I strained my eyes. “How far are we from the bodies?”

I saw several lying in the grass, but all possessed their heads. Or they appeared to at least.

“Can’t you smell them?” Lleu fanned his face as if to clear the air.

“Not all of us have noses as sharp as yours,” I reminded him. But of course Murdoch did.

“The corpses you visited are there.” He pointed ahead of us. “The rest are farther down.”

“That’s where we must go.” I rose from my crouch. “Is there any cover to be had?”

“This area is all part of the Hamish farm. Follow the wall and we’ll meet up at the barn.”

Beside me Lleu shook his head. “Crawling in the grass and hiding in a barn, from what?”

“You’ll see,” I promised him, leaving the higher section of wall, and my protection, behind.

We crawled and scuttled, knelt and crept our way to the Hamish barn. Murdoch did as I did. We made silence envy our stealth. I had been right about him. His black hair and dark eyes made him part of the night. Lleu was less careful, humoring me and mocking Murdoch with each step.

When at last we slunk into the deepest shadows cast by the barn, I began to see the corpses. I inspected each one for signs of movement but saw none. Slumped against the stone wall, I knew if this outing failed that I had failed. Hishima would take me home, and all I knew would be lost. All I had done would be in vain. All the poor souls I had laid to rest would have been for naught.

“Still not seeing anything,” Lleu muttered.

Murdoch leaned forward. “Who is that humming?”

I pushed him back before he exposed himself to moonlight and made himself an easy target. I wondered then if the peculiar song called to him as it did to me. After all, it did raise the dead.

I had witnessed this event several times, but I had learned it was far easier to stop the plague victims from raising than battle them afterwards when their strength doubled and their purpose, whatever it was, guided them from the grave and initiated them to a life of…whatever they were.

“Is this going to take all night?” Lleu yawned. “The humming is annoying, but it’s hardly…” He sat bolt upright and rubbed his eyes. “Did that…? Did I just see what I…? No. No. It can’t be.”

The dead were rising.

Murdoch fisted Lleu’s shirt and yanked him back into shadow. “Get down.”

“That’s not right.” Lleu dragged a hand down his mouth. “They’re dead. I saw it myself.”

One by one the corpses rose with great care, as if waking stiff from a long sleep and shaking their limbs loose. Disregarding their kin, they stared skyward. A few clawed feebly at the moon.

“I don’t understand.” Murdoch braced his shoulder against mine.

“They’re rising.” I gave him time to absorb. “This is why you had to see it for yourself.”

“The plague does this?” Lleu leaned forward, horrified fascination taking over. “How?”

“I would rather explain the particulars of the infection as I know them only once. Wait until we return to Cathis, then I will tell you all I know.” I knew Murdoch, knew he would carry me into his paladin’s bedchamber if need be to report direct to him what we had witnessed.

“There’s nothing for it.” Lleu reached for his sword. “We have to bring one to Vaughn.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” We had no rope, no cage and no way to entice them.

“You’re right.” Murdoch palmed his blade. “He’ll want to see this.”

“You can’t just stroll out there and capture one.” I was awed by their rashness.

“What would you have us do, then?” Lleu scowled. “Walk up and introduce ourselves? Ask if they remember us? Ask if they know who they are—or were? What then? Ask if they’d mind flashing Vaughn their stinking arses?” His chest was pumping. “Give me good reason not to try.”

The tickle in my earlobe returned twofold. “Will this do?”

My head fell back on my shoulders. In my eyes, the vastness of the sky narrowed to a speck.

The harbinger had arrived.

Lleu followed my gaze. “That is a female,” he said succinctly, “and she has wings.”

“She appears not to have lost any,” Murdoch observed. “There must be more, then.”

“I would say so, though I can’t tell them apart. I haven’t seen many, perhaps three or four.”

“Three or four.” Conviction from him made the odds surmountable.

“Do we go after her or one of the others?” Lleu kept his sights set on the harbinger.

Murdoch craned his neck to better gauge her distance. “How good is your aim?”

“With the hawser?” Pride straightened his shoulders. “Excellent.”

“What do you say, Kaidi?” Murdoch rocked on the balls of his feet. “Can we take her?”

“No.” I snagged his belt. “You’d be a fool to try.”

“A fool is one who wastes a prime opportunity.” Lleu began stretching his arms.

“You’ll get yourselves killed.” Even I had better sense than to stroll onto a crowded field.

“Then arm us with knowledge.” Murdoch steadied himself. “What do we need to know?”

Tempted as I was to play the role of fool and waste their
prime opportunity
, I knew this must be done. Murdoch and Lleu were hardier than I was, and I had survived interludes with the risers.

There was nothing for it. I had to trust them to take care of themselves for the good of us all.

“What I told Isolde about the butcher is true. I did learn cleaner killing from watching him at work, but that was the easy part.” Both males stared at me. “The first time I saw the corpses rise, I thought—I hoped—they were alive. That somehow we had buried them by mistake.” I wiped a hand down my pant leg. “I tried to help them. They’re stronger, faster than normal Araneaeans.”

Murdoch paused to consider that. “Did they respond to you?”

I laughed. “That they did.”

Lleu watched us, confusion drawing his brow tight. “What’s funny about that?”

“They were my family.” The truth sobered me. “My own family and they tried to kill me.” Maier had almost succeeded.

“They had no memory of you at all?” Pity lent Murdoch’s voice a soft edge.

“None.” No matter how many I had confronted, none had known me. “That’s how I learned to fight. I tried reasoning with them, I did. When that failed, we struggled.” Sad knowledge filled me. “They would have killed me had I not killed them, though a few did escape me at first.”

Murdoch stroked my hair. “That’s when you sought out the butcher, I take it?”

“It was.” How I had hated that taste of defeat. “I did so after I knew they were beyond help.”

“Did you never capture one?” All of a sudden I was of interest to Lleu.

“No.” I hated admitting, “I’m too weak to overpower one even if I could have caught it.”

“Hmm.” Lleu worked the hawser through his hands.

“What are you thinking?” Murdoch asked him.

“Forget the risers.” He pointed to the harbinger. “We should start at the top.”

For the first time since her arrival, I dared let my gaze lift to her. She seemed to drift upon a breeze unfelt by the rest of us. Her wings moved with such speed they were near invisible in the dark. From a distance, she was lovely. Moonlight kissed her pale skin, glistening on her fair hair. A sheer gown crisscrossed her back to avoid binding her wings and fluttered around her ankles.

Up close, I would find her far less pleasing. Bones would protrude beneath her skin. Yellow pumped in her veins, making the red blood in her coy smile all the more macabre. Caresses from her taloned fingertips cut to the bone. She must possess all her wings to glide with such elegance.

Two of her sisters were not so fortunate. I wondered what had become of them.

Lleu pointed a stern finger at me. “Wait here.”

“If we don’t return…” Murdoch ran a lock of my hair through his fingers, “…run.”

“I’ll bring word of this to your paladin.” We all would. I would not leave them behind.

“He won’t believe it.” He reasoned, “He’ll think you escaped the towers and we followed.”

When their bodies were found with their necks broken… “He’ll think I killed you.” All signs would point to that conclusion. I could not afford such doubt to be cast upon me.

“You did stab him,” Lleu reminded me.

“I apologized for that,” I snapped.

“Remember what I said.” Murdoch pressed my shoulder flat to the wall. “Run if you must.”

I nodded as the impact of his words rocked me.

Run, Murdoch said. From his paladin. From my clan’s only hope. Run. How I longed for the option. If I was to ensure the safety of the Segestriidae people, then I had no choice. I must greet Hishima and let him be persuaded by Vaughn to enlist the Mimetidae’s aid. Run? I wish I could.

Even if this night meant bringing Vaughn ill tidings, I had no choice but to bear the news.

“Be careful,” I begged them.

“Let’s go.” Murdoch waved Lleu forward, and together they crept onto the field.

Two males, two swords, and a hawser—their plan was obvious. For it to work, their execution must be flawless.

Eager for this to be done, I leaned forward, watching. The risers paid no attention to Lleu or Murdoch, if they saw them. I had tracked their forward progress, and even I had difficulty sorting them from shadow. The harbinger, though, she sensed something was amiss. Her flight became a series of darting inspections. The risers turned frantic at her nearness. The hum from her throat—or was it her wings?—agitated them. She landed once, twice, and the risers converged there with a gnashing of teeth and howling of rage. How the guards in Cathis failed to hear them amazed me. Though I had wondered as much before and decided the droning must repel those outside its influence while luring those within. Buried in the steady hum I believed there was a compulsion.