Her gaze returned to the shadows and she nodded reluctantly and forced herself up the few stairs that separated them. She had expected him to continue, but he held his ground and watched her approach.
“There is nothing in the entire Darklands that would attack me directly, little Undrae. As long as you walk behind or beside me you have no reason to watch the shadows so closely. While you may not know what is there, I do, and it is all terrified of me,” Seth said with a faint hint of amusement. He didn’t bother to wait for her to respond; he simply turned and began walking once more up the seemingly endless stairs.
“Why won’t you call me by my name? You know I hate that word,” Zoelyn muttered as she stumbled after him. Fatigue was quickly overcoming her fear of Seth. She had been awake nearly twenty hours and even when fully rested she was weak compared to others. Her stamina had never been an issue before, though. Dominic knew she was sickly and never asked much from her, and with Jala her life had been even simpler. Jala asked nothing of her at all, beyond the attempts to learn about her powers. Seth, on the other hand, seemed inclined to push her until she dropped. Her feet were already raw and bleeding from the barefoot journey through the city and palace.
“When I know your name, I will use it. Zoelyn is not your name. Until I learn who you truly are, you are Undrae,” Seth respon ded calmly.
“I don’t know Seth is truly your given name should I call you demon instead?” Zoelyn grumbled.
“Call me Crow king. Call me Demon. Call me bastard,” Seth shrugged and smiled at her. “They all fit and none of them offend me. I’ve earned those names. Finn believes my current existence bothers me for the wrong reasons. It’s not what I am that pisses me off, it’s the fact that I died to become it. I was called a demon long before I actually became one. The word itself has lost all insult. What I hate is the reminder that I lost.”
“In the stories, you are an evil spirit,” Zoelyn said with a glance in his direction. She wasn’t sure how well he would welcome the topic of his reputation, but the conversation was keeping her mind from her aching body and her exhaustion.
“I think I’ve been dead for so long that most have forgotten who I was in life. Only the High Lords truly remember me now. In their stories, I am so much worse than an evil spirit.” His voice had a wistful quality and he shrugged again. “Water under the bridge. I don’t care what they say about me now. They can believe I’m simply a spirit and it works in my favor. They will think I’m weak and can be bound. By the time they recognize their error they will be dead.”
“Who?” Zoelyn asked with concern. From his words it sounded as though Seth wanted to kill everyone that spoke of him.
He paused on the landing of the next stairs and motioned to a step. Zoelyn watched him in confusion until he lowered himself gracefully to sit and motioned once again for her to join him. His gaze dropped to her feet and the blood smeared tracks she had left on the stairs. “You complain about what I call you, but you don’t complain about wounds. It makes no sense,” Seth sighed.
“Undrae is more painful than scrapes,” Zoelyn replied softly as she eyed the stair with longing. “I’m not sure I will have the energy to get back up if I allow myself to rest. Can we please just continue?”
“Yasny is waiting near my door. I can sense her there. I’m inclined to let her stew in her curiosity. She has to be frothing at the mouth to know who I’ve brought to my tower. I never bring others here.” Seth grinned, his gaze moving to the top of the stairs and back to Zoelyn. “Sit and rest. If you don’t have the strength to continue, I will help you.”
“Who is Yasny?” Zoelyn asked cautiously as she lowered herself to the cold stone beside him.
“You saw her flying above the palace in her scaly form. In life she was known as High Lady Yasnara. Her husband Kaverax is the one circling with her. They were the former leaders of the Dragons. Yasny is still social. Kaverax no longer cares about anything,” Seth explained. He leaned back against the wall and his eyes trailed across her once more.
“How can I touch you without hurting you?” Zoelyn asked hesitantly. It was obvious he wasn’t going to answer her question about who he wanted to kill, and she wasn’t sure he would want to answer this one either. She needed more information, though, to understand what was going on, and if he wouldn’t answer this one she had a thousand more to follow it up with.
“Your body craves life and I don’t qualify. I exist somewhat like you on both sides of living and dead. You have one foot among the living and one among the dead. For me, it’s closer to one toe among the living, the rest with the dead. I breathe. I bleed when wounded. I sleep, and that is about all I have in common with the living. I don’t eat food or drink or worry about other bodily concerns. I feel pain, but not pleasure; I know anger, but not joy. I have just enough life left to remember what I lack.” He spoke the words nearly in a monotone voice with no expression at all on his face.
“How do you know so much about what I am?” Zoelyn asked, her voice faltering again. She couldn’t bring herself to say the word Undrae, even if Seth said it had other meanings. To her it would always be an insult.