A Different Kind of Deadly (11 page)

"She made a habit of venturing through the
Moor, studying undead in their untamed habitat, one can say;
collecting minerals that couldn't be found anywhere else in the
world for the sake of Inval's studies -such devotion!"

He stopped in his tracks, a nostalgic gleam in
his eyes.

"She amused me, and I
trailed her in the guise of a basilisk. Our Lady Galatea was so
naive then," he chuckled. "She insisted that there was nothing her
precious Inval couldn't cure!
Oh
, but I
begged
to differ."

Koronos wagged a finger in the
air, suddenly thick with resentment emanating from the Dolls
present.

"I bit our fair Lady, and she contracted that
pesky little condition." His mouth crinkled at the corners as he
grinned. His teeth seemed... sharper somehow. "While she was
bed-ridden in Nethermount, Inval had the idea to come to the Moor.
A logical step. After all, one often finds cures in the place of
contraction. Inval succeeded... he found me."

A dark shadow loomed across Diana's face. I
recognized it as pain, the kind of pain that lurked so deep that it
could consume a person. I lost my interest in this story. It wasn't
my place to hear it.

But of course, I was too much of a coward to
say so.

"I told Inval the truth-"

"Liar!" Diana burst out.

Koronos pressed a hand against his
chest, feigning ignorance. "Liar? Me? No... I told the truth, Lady
Galatea... just not the whole of it. I told Inval he needed power
to undo what ailed you, more than he had at his disposal. Anyone
with a hint of magical ability knew that there was great energy in
the East. Brilliant as he was, Inval was too stupid to think that I
had the power he needed as an alternative."

Koronos covered his mouth. His shoulders shook
with silent laughter.

"I taught him how to form a Doll Contract...
to preserve his prized pupil. What I forgot to mention was that the
change was a permanent one. He traveled to the East for nothing
after damning Lady Galatea to her present state. How cruel of him,
to leave her all alone -don't you think?"

Leo had the strength to look at Koronos, who
revealed himself for who he was; a demon of similar stature to the
minotaur we saw in the fighting pit below. In place of hooves, he
had freakishly long feet, with curling nails boring holes into the
ground. Toxic boils coated the surface of his brown carapace. The
rest of him was pure muscle, whose tendons rippled beneath his
too-tight skin. I felt my blood freezing in my veins.

"Why did you do it?" Leo asked.

"I'm afraid I don't understand the question,
boy."

The Son of Soma motioned to Diana, who seemed
lifeless in her part of the room.

"What did Diana do to you? Why did she deserve
this?"

I wasn't sure whether Koronos
laughed, sighed, or did both at the same time.

His voice rumbled for a few seconds before he
replied.

"I'm a devil, child. I did it for the same
reason the sun rises in the day, or the moon beckons the tides -it
is the way of things. I was bored. She was an opportunity. It's as
simple as that."

"But..." I spoke before I even realized it was
me. "If you say you can't undo it then does that
mean..."

Leo's explanation was that Doll creation was
like a soul transfer. I thought a body had to be built, but if
Koronos was telling the truth...

"You turn a living, human
body,
into
a
Doll? It's not soul transfer, it's
transmutation?"

Koronos smiled slowly. His teeth took up
nearly half his face.

"So clever! Yes, young
necromancer."

"So there's no way Diana can turn back to a
normal human?" I asked. "Ever?"

"Not that I'm aware of." Koronos
shrugged.

"But there
has
to
be."

"Why does it matter to you?"

"Because everyone deserves a chance at life!"
I had no idea where this strength had come from, but I was certain
that I was about to get myself killed. "A second chance," I
amended. "If not to live, then to make things right."

Rather than bite my head off, as I'd
anticipated, Koronos made a pensive sound, surveying me.

"I'll tell you what, Son of Thanos. If you
manage a way to turn Diana back into her human form, then I'll be
your loyal servant till the end of your days."

Diana reached for me. "Marvin,
don't!"

"Deal."

A searing pain burned my arm. I
quickly pulled up the sleeve to find a brand.

It was two snakes eating the
others' tail. Ouroboros; the symbol for eternity.

Part Two: Ties That
Bind

A curious thing happened today; a girl-child
was sacrificed to the Pit.

Her skin was the color of the
underbelly of a fish; her eyes, like roses, bloomed to
life.

It's a rare form of albinism, to be sure -I'd
only read about it once or twice. It dawned on me, with a measure
of understanding, that she was an outcast among her nomadic people.
The sun-touched tribes of the Howling Desert, known for their tan
physiques and mighty builds... this frail child was no doubt a
pariah among them.

She had survived the fall. I admit, a part of
me was disappointed -it's not every day one gets a chance to study
such a rare specimen... but I found myself desirous of company.
That old Crone Mahlah isn't much good for anything beyond academic
discourse. If the girl is willing, she can have a home here.
Perhaps then Nethermount's dark halls will have a bit of life in
them.

She has no name, or so she told me. If she is
willing, I have one in mind.

Diana.

-Inval's Diary

Year 844 S.E.

16: Three Days

I gaped at the tattoo
that had spontaneously appeared on my arm,
dismayed to see that it moved. The snakes twirled around like a
mobius strip, an impossible structure that had somehow found a home
on my body.

Diana's features were more human, and more
terrifying, than ever before. But rather than anger, she looked
helpless... helpless and afraid. It came to me with a measure of
shock that this was scarier than her rage.

Lord Koronos offered up a toothy
grin.

"Naturally, if you don't turn Lady Galatea
back into a human, your soul is mine. Standard procedure,
really."

"And what happens once it's yours?" I mustered
the courage to ask.

Lord Koronos motioned to Will. "Well, you
become like him."

"A Doll?"

"A slave... for all eternity."

It struck me as funny that my mother had said
something very similar just a few days prior. To normal people, I'm
sure that necromancers are demons, and indeed, it seems as that we
have much in common. The dead are our play things, and afterlives
are irrelevant.

But why I, of all people, deserved this was
beyond my ability to understand.

Leo set a hand on my shoulder, drawing me back
to our unfortunate reality. He was the only one brave enough to
look Koronos in his inhuman eyes.

"So what happens now?"

The demon paused for a few seconds, finally
raising three fingers.

"I give you three days. Whether you choose to
stay here, in Krisenburg, research ways of saving Lady Galatea, or
seek out the Eyes of the Leviathan, the choice is
yours."

"And after three days have passed?" asked
Leo.

"I set Will free." It was evident by Will's
startled expression that he wasn't expecting this either. Koronos
snorted, "He's been an entertaining distraction the past several
years, but I figure it's more amusing for him to complete his own
objectives. Killing you," he said pointedly, glancing in my
direction.

Will seemed elated by the news, which made
this bad day even worse -something I wasn't sure was
possible.

So instead of thirty days to become a proper
necromancer, I now had three before a killing machine would come
after me, and in the (likely) event I died before reversing Diana's
Doll Contract, my soul belonged to a literal demon. And in the
off-chance I do turn Diana back into a human, there's no guarantee
Will won't kill me off anyway.

I KNEW there was a reason I avoided going
out.

"Ah, but I'm not unsympathetic to your
plight." Koronos pressed a hand to his chest, a comical gesture in
his bestial form. He produced a sack, roughly the size of a grown
man's head, from a hidden compartment in his seat. "The only reason
you came to the Harpy Den was for funds, am I correct? Take this,
with my blessing."

I eyed the burlap bag mistrustfully. "It's not
cursed, is it?"

"My good little necromancer," he chuckled.
"Are you suggesting you're not cursed enough as it
stands?"

Leo took the sack without prompting. He held
it protectively, and Tully sat atop the bag as though also trying
to guard the parcel. That money was probably the only handicap we
were going to get in any of this.

Koronos looked pleased as he turned to
Diana.

"I expected more of a reaction from you than
that initial outburst, my dear. Or are you overwhelmed by
nostalgia?"

She didn't even look at the demon, walking up
to me before jerking my arm so hard I thought it would pop right
out of its socket.

"We're getting Uhh out once he's done with his
match. After that, we have some errands to run."

"Okay," I said, recognizing I was too deep in
shit to argue. We left the viewing box, and Koronos behind us.
Still, I couldn't shake the feeling that we were being watched.
"I'm sor-"

"Don't you
dare
apologize!" she
screamed, stopping me dead in my tracks. Diana whirled on me and I
saw the expression of someone ready to burst into tears of
frustration. Only she couldn't, so her eyes just shined in their
pale, pale, pink. "This isn't something a simple sorry can
fix!"

My mouth drooped.

"Look," said Leo, cutting in between us.
"What's done is done. And either you can sit here bitching at
Marvin for a bone-head move, or you can both focus on outsmarting
that horny bastard."

I grimaced at his choice of words,
but couldn't argue with Leo's logic.

By the irritated look on Diana's face, neither
could she.

Leo looked between us, at Tully, and nodded to
the air.

"Now how about you," he said
to Diana, "tell us what you know instead of keeping everything a
damn secret. And
you
," he said to me, "listen to her so you can avoid running
into malicious Dolls and demon contracts, got
it?"

"Got it," I squeaked, looking at the
floor.

"Alright," Diana sighed, calm enough to speak
without yelling, "I'll tell you more, but first we get supplies. We
now need armor on top of fire retardants, an enchanter, and weapons
for the two of you."

"
Weapons?!
" Leo balked. "But we're
necromancers! Undead fight for us!"

"Your undead will have their hands full," she
muttered dangerously. "Either you put weapons in your hands and use
them, or you'll lose them and whatever other limbs you hold of
value. That Doll back there is not a joke. Had he been serious, he
could have killed me in that pit without batting an
eyelash."

I recalled Diana's first match
against the minotaur, and suddenly my veins ran thick with
ice.