Page 49 of Jacinth

CHAPTER 34

Skyler

Well,that was going to hurt when I woke up, I thought idly and rubbed the back of my head.

I was familiar enough with the feel of things now to know when I was in a vision, but I’d damn well take a second to check-in and make sure my body wasn’t dying before worrying what the Fates had decided I needed to see now. There was a mild thumping in my head and my neck felt like it was carrying a freight train, but a quick scan of my limbs and digits told me there shouldn’t be any issue with my corporeal form when I returned.

Satisfied that I wouldn’t be spending my last moments on another being’s agenda, I turned my attention to the scene playing out behind me.

Alisdair. Of course, I was seeing Alisdair again. It made a lot more sense now I knew he was Father Dare.

We were in the middle of the same auditorium I had seen Orion sit in while waiting to testify against his once best friend. The empty audience seating was, as always, bathed in darkness. Any who might be in attendance were invisible from my vantage point.

The stage was a different story.

Spot lit by a single bulb, Alisdair kneeled center stage. His hands were bound in a blinding white light, yet his chin was lifted, with defiance written all over his face. At the edge of the spotlight, a dark shadow loomed.

“Alisdair, necromancer apprentice of the third degree. Assessed level of power seven and two. You stand accused of gross misconduct of the highest order, eventuating in the death of several peers and the acquisition of power beyond that which naturally occurs in you.

“You have been tried and found guilty; and are hereby sentenced to death by removal of soul to be executed immediately in the presence of those you see here. Do you have any final words?”

“That which is dead will not remain so.”

The shadow raised his hand toward the prisoner, and the white light expanded to encapsulate his body.

“I’m afraid in this case, that is inaccurate.”

It happened quickly. One minute, Alisdair was kneeling, surrounded by light; the next, his body slumped, and the soul faded from view.

Once the execution was complete, a group of shadowed figures rose from the front row and exited the auditorium, the body left to rot like so much garbage.

Which is why they missed it.

A tiny thread of shadow traced from the center of Alisdair’s lifeless chest out into the darkness of the room. As I watched, the thread grew in breadth until it surrounded Alisdair’s form, much like the light had moments before.

With a great, gasping inhale, he returned to the land of the living. He jackknifed upright, breathing hard as he ran his hands over his body, as though needing to check the integrity of the vessel. Finding it sound, he sat back and pulled from the collar of his shirt a familiar-looking amulet.

I remembered seeing the piece around his neck a few days ago when we had first met him in town. It seemed to be the source of this extra power he was rocking.

I watched as he pulled himself to his feet and, on a whim, decided to ask something of my power.

“Show me the origin of that amulet.”

The world around me blurred, and I found myself in a library. The smell of old books was a deceptive comfort as I moved through the stacks. In a shadowed back corner, a robed figure bent low over a heavy tome. Beside him on a desk was a cauldron with various ingredients strewn around.

The cloaked figure held a chunk of metal out over the concoction, a green glow in the dim light, whilst muttering incomprehensible words. I thought the language may be foreign. The pattern of speech didn’t follow that of any language I had heard before.

I knew of a second person’s approach by the soft tap of footsteps. The dark hair and smaller stature were all the signs I needed to verify his identity.

“Is it done?” Alisdair asked, his face illuminated by the cauldron as he leaned over the lip.

“All but the sacrifice. Do you have someone en route? It needs the soul to bind it.”

Alisdair nodded in agreement and stepped back to allow the other man to work.

As I witnessed the knife sliding into the base of the unwitting sacrifice’s skull, I reflected the powerlessness of being a watcher.

I had no influence here. I couldn’t prevent or alter events, only learn from them and hope that the lesson could help in my present.

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