“Shut up!” Kate twisted her riding crop in her hands. “Don’t ever mention my sister’s name.”
“Dr. White abused her, broke her, mutilated her into an inhuman thing. The doctor was under Gaios’s command. Gaios has no respect for humanity.”
Kate pressured her horse with her knee and faced him away from the groaning cadaver, back toward the way they had come.
Simon said, “That’s odd talk coming from the mouth of a reanimated murderer.”
“Archer, you know we are different. We’re magicians. We aren’t truly human. Most magicians choose to hide, but some, like Gaios, prey on the weak. And some, like us, protect the weak from such predators.”
“Like us?” Simon laughed.
“We may be allies of convenience,” the dead man said, “but we are allies nonetheless. We must band together or we will be obliterated separately.”
“You surely know that I have been banished from the aether. I have no power for you to exploit. Do you have a scheme to stop Gaios that doesn’t require magic?”
“There are ways to make you what you were, Archer. There are ways to reconnect to the aether. I have spent these last few months since our encounter with Ra, studying the possibilities. You see, when I was reanimating Rowan Barnes, I lost some of my powers when the filthy magic-eater touched him. However, I found a way back, and I can bring you along that same path too. Look closer at my condemnation.”
Kate looked at Simon, confused. Then she heard the note pinned to the cadaver’s chest fluttering in the breeze. Housebreaker. Kate nudged her horse closer to the dead man as Simon’s hand slipped to his cane’s handle. She took the paper carefully, pulling out the heavy needle that fastened it to the shirt. She flipped the paper over and gasped.
Simon rode closer because Kate sat in the saddle staring down with intense concentration. When he drew near, he could see the sheet wasn’t simple paper. It was vellum. It had once been a scroll and appeared quite old. The vellum was crowded with handwritten words in peculiar script.
“Medieval?” he asked.
“German. Probably ninth-century.” She nodded without looking up. “It’s blood magic.”
The cadaver said, “It is called the Womb of Schattenwald. It will restore your magic, Archer. It is my gift to you.”
“I don’t practice blood magic,” Simon replied icily.
“I can instruct you.”
“I mean I won’t do it.”
“It’s your only way. Without your powers, you stand no chance against Gaios. He will kill you and everyone and everything you love. Only blood has the power to open the road to the aether. You have been changed by some of the most powerful magic in history.”
“So a little blood will wipe away the magic of Ra? I find that hard to believe.”
“A little blood? No.”
Simon growled, “Do you truly believe I would lower myself to sacrifice some innocent just to regain my powers?”
“Not some innocent.” The hanged man swung silently in his noose for a moment until dead eyes fell on Kate. “It must be the blood of someone who loves you.”
Simon shouted in sudden rage. His hand swept up with a flash of steel and he sliced the cadaver through the neck. The dry thing’s body parted just under the jaw and the torso dropped to the ground. The head tumbled through the night air to fall into the grass and roll a few feet against a rock. Aethelred pounced forward, barking loudly at it.
Simon stood in his stirrups, chest heaving, trying to determine if he would trample the body into dust. The fact that he was thinking about it meant he wouldn’t do it. He reined his horse back and dropped his sword arm. His voice was ragged with anger. “Kate, leave that damned thing and let’s go.”
“I think we should keep it,” Kate said.
“What?” Simon turned to her in surprise.
“Spells can be refashioned.” Her gaze fell on the German script again with undisguised curiosity. “We should study it.”
“Kate, it’s from Ash.”
“We can’t be afraid of her.” She glanced up at Simon. “That seems like something you would have said once.”
Simon said nothing now. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Kate, or even himself for that matter, but magic this black had a way of tainting any who even touched it. It was why he had always cautioned Nick about using necromancy. With power that vile, control was an illusion. And now they were bringing it into their home, bringing Ash into their home. They might as well bring in Satan himself.
He kicked his mount into a gallop up the dark road. They rode the way they had come with the diminishing sounds of late-summer frolic in the background.
Chapter 6