“I do not understand. Why does he fight against our ghouls? The last time I saw him he could take their minds in his hand like grains of rice.” Ayaan shook her head. “Unless the Tsarevich is stronger. I think his control is the better. Yes, that must be it.” Ayaan sucked on her lower lip. Sarah watched the woman who had been her mentor. If you just glanced at her she looked the same as ever'she was still Ayaan'yet if you took a closer look it was unmistakable. She was a corpse now. You could see the way her skin was tightening in her face. You could see it in how much weight she'd lost'she was half the size she used to be. Or maybe it just seemed that way. In life Ayaan had been a towering figure to Sarah. She supposed everyone's parents were like that. In death she was just one more ghoul.
'Stay here,' Ayaan told her, and started hobbling away toward the yurt. Was she going to protect the Tsarevich? Sarah could hardly believe it. They'd done it. They had broken Ayaan, broken her mind. Such a thing shouldn't have been possible. Yet Ayaan herself had frequently warned Sarah that humanity was a liability. Sarah remembered perfectly what Ayaan had said around the campfire one night when Sarah was sixteen years old. 'None of us,' she said, 'is immune to death or madness. The time may come when you have to sanitize me. You may have to shoot me because I've panicked so badly I threaten the squad. None of you may hesitate, when that moment comes.'
Now she seemed to have changed her tune. Was she really a believer? Did she really believe in the Tsarevich, like the two liches Sarah had already killed? Or was she just afraid of death, like her father had been, and Gary before him?
Speaking of the devil'Sarah looked up to see Gary whirling through the Tsarevich's army like a top. He was under sustained gunfire and his skull had taken on a patchy and mottled appearance'he was being healed as fast as he was being injured but the process wasn't perfect. Sarah just didn't know how long it could be kept up. She knew her father was doing it. She knew he had to be somewhere nearby. Gary's legs flexed and sharp fragments of bone jutted out of him, covered him in vicious spikes. He tore through a machine gun position and the weapon's wooden stock shivered into pieces. The gunners were thrown away like crumpled bits of paper.
Sarah suddenly realized she'd been left alone. Ayaan and the werewolf had both abandoned her. Well, they had more serious problems. Sarah's hands were tied so securely there wasn't much she could do, anyway.
Or maybe there was. She turned around in place, taking in the frenetic energy of the camp, the living people running in every direction, the ghouls taking up defensive formations. She found what she wanted and headed toward it at a run. A single mummy, standing alone at the back of the valley next to a big rock formation. It'she'held a jar in her hands with something round and murky inside.
'I was sent by Ptolemaeus Canopus,' she said, skidding to a stop in the dirt. 'Are you alright? We need to work together if we're going to get out of here.'
The mummy didn't move. The thing in the jar didn't move either but she could feel a haze of dark energy wafting off of it. It was desperately trying to get her attention. She looked down, through the glass, and saw a human brain there. Nasty, but hardly the worst thing she'd ever seen.
Behind her she heard a prolonged scream and she turned to look. Blood jetted high over the crowd, a fountain of it. Gary had grown an extra joint at the end of his legs, a curved, scythe-like foot that looked perfect for evisceration.
She looked back down at the brain. It was trying to tell her something. She felt a strange weight in her left hand. It felt heavy, as if it was being pushed downward. She frowned. What the hell did the brain want? She could reach into the pockets of her sweatshirt, just as she had done while she watched Ptolemy's execution. She reached in and felt something soft and hairy. She drew it out of her pocket.
Oh. Okay. They had taken the green sword away from her, as they had stripped her of all her weapons. They had left her the noose and the withered piece of matted fur Mael Mag Och once worn as an armband.
Sarah,he said, as she ran the fox fur between her fingers.I didn't really expect you to make it this far. I suppose I didn't expect you to fail, either. Though some things run in families, alas.