The Primate laughed as the revenant withdrew the sword; he could feel the wound resealing itself. The woman plunged the sword in again, this time pushing the point up, towards Melovar's heart.
The pain was excruciating, but Melovar continued to laugh, hiding the effort as he continued to squeeze the revenant's neck. If the woman had been alive, she would have choked and perished long ago, but this… thing… had no breath to yearn for. Finally, Melovar felt the vertebrae give beneath his fingers. As the woman withdrew the sword and prepared to plunge it into Melovar's flesh again, the Primate felt the spine crack. He gave one last squeeze, and the revenant crumpled to the ground.
The Primate turned to the ruler of the Akari, who looked at him with wary eyes. "The old ways are finished with, Dain Barden," Melovar said. "Your exile can end. We need to talk."
The tall warrior took his hand away from his war hammer, tugging on his forked beard. "Yes, Primate," Barden said. "I can see that we do."
~
DAIN Barden entertained Primate Melovar Aspen at his frozen palace in the ice city of Ku Kara, with Melovar's men remaining outside the city. A woman bowed in front of the Primate, descending to one knee to offer him strips of salted seal liver.
Melovar took one of the strips and put it in his mouth, rolling the oily texture over his tongue before biting into it. He chewed thoughtfully before swallowing. Disgusting.
Compared to the pain of withdrawal from the elixir, compared to the pain of his burned and ruined skin, it was nothing.
"I can see you admiring her beauty," Dain Barden said, gesturing to the near-naked young woman, dressed in a transparent garment of silver gauze. Her golden hair flowed to her waist, and the large nipples that crowned her breasts could be seen pressing up against the material. Her narrow waist flared to hips that were round and descended to long, athletic legs.
"I am an old man," said the Primate, "and a templar. Such pleasures have never driven me."
Barden gestured, and the young woman came closer to him. He ran his fingers over her hair. Except for the whiteness of her eyes, and the glowing symbols tattooed on her skin, she could have been alive. "My niece," he said. "She drowned in the ice a month ago. Such a shame."
Melovar nodded, shifting on the furs that cushioned his seat of ice. This was Barden's palace, and as host it was the Dain's prerogative to dictate the flow of conversation.
Dain Barden dismissed the woman with a curt gesture. "So let us be clear," he said. "You know where this relic is, along with this pool of essence?"
"That is correct," Melovar said.
Barden looked past the Primate's shoulder. "Renrik?" he called.
Melovar turned in his seat, where an Akari in a silver robe approached. He had black hair, which was unusual for an Akari, and wore a necklace of what appeared to be bones around his neck.
"Primate Melovar Aspen, this is Renrik Hormundar, one of my best necromancers. Well, Renrik?"
The necromancer ignored the Primate. "We have examined the book. It is authentic. We believe the relic exists, as does this pool. The structure though, where the relic is housed… we cannot say where it is."
"And we can return to the Empire?" Dain Barden addressed Melovar.
"Yes," said the Primate. "You can resume links with the houses, with the Assembly, and with the Empire. Your exile will be revoked."
"This relic will be ours?" Dain Barden asked.
"Yes. And the essence," Melovar said.
"And in return?"
"In return, you provide your formidable warriors to fight alongside the imperial legion and our templars."
Renrik spoke up, "But not in the warmer lands. Not in Altura, Halaran, or Petrya. Our warriors will decompose too quickly."
"Agreed." Melovar knew that with the Akari added to his strength in the colder lands in the east, he would be able to free up more of the Black Army to crush Altura.
"However, I know what you want most of all," Dain Barden said.
Melovar knew he was too eager, and that the Akari knew it. He didn't care.
"Yes, I want the secret."
"The reason we were exiled." Dain Barden regarded him with level eyes.
"Yes, yes, I want it."
"Let us show it to you first, and then we'll see if you're still so eager."
~
THE Primate wished Zavros was with him. The sharp-eyed templar would understand much more than did Melovar himself. Nevertheless, it was beautiful to behold.
Dain Barden spoke as he showed the Primate the cavernous chambers deep beneath the ice city. "The dead are animated using the necromancers' arts. Depending on the age of the body and the skills it possessed in life, it may become a warrior, or a servant, or a, how do you say it, a creature of pleasure?
Melovar shivered. "How long do the revenants last?"
Necromancer Renrik spoke up. "We do not call them revenants, that is a word of your people." He gestured to a corpse that lay flat on a slab of ice. "To us he is a draug, the plural of which is draugar."
"Not ghouls then?" Melovar smiled thinly, his lips splitting again and blood trickling through the cracks.