Calling On Fire (Book 1) (35 page)

“Yeah right, ya pipsqueak,” Toman growled, but Esset had already slipped out the door before he could finish the insult.

Later that day, Toman and Esset were playing cards in Toman’s room. They’d borrowed a deck of cards and set up on Toman’s blankets, since the animator was beginning to go stir- crazy with inactivity. He enjoyed reading occasionally, but it wasn’t his favorite pastime either, so Esset had taken pity on him.

“I swear, you’re cheating,” Toman accused Esset, looking at his once again abominable hand. “You have to be.”

“Oh come on, Toman. Of the two of us, it’s far easier for you to cheat, and you know I have a lousy poker face. You and I both know I’m not cheating,” Esset replied, playing another card. Toman scowled at the patterned piece.

“Yeah, whatever,” he grumbled. “I’m just not feeling well today. More so than usual. That must be why I’m doing so bad.” He threw down his own card with a bit of ill temper, and Esset didn’t argue with him.

“Esset?” Lady Ateala’s musical voice came questioningly from the doorway.

“Ah, there you are. Hello, Toman. Do you mind if I steal away your brother for a bit?” the lady asked, stepping into the room when both looked up to greet her and see what she needed.

“Bah, go ahead. I keep losing anyways,” Toman said, throwing down the rest of his hand. Esset winced when he saw his brother’s cards—he hadn’t lied.

“What can I do for you?” Esset asked, tactfully placing his own cards face down.

“I was hoping you could deliver a prescription,” Lady Ateala replied, her demeanor a bit apologetic. “It’s for Granny Ida. It’s the tea she needs—she’s out again already, and she can’t sleep without it. She told me yesterday she only had a day’s worth left, and she’d send her grandson by to pick it up for her today. But her grandson isn’t very reliable… Something must have happened, or he forgot, so Ida doesn’t have her tea. I just want to make sure she gets it.”

“Of course,” Esset agreed readily, getting to his feet. Toman glanced at his brother, then snuck his hand across the bed to peek at Esset’s hand. He scowled when he saw it, then stuffed all the cards together and started shuffling them.

“You’ll be okay without me?” Esset asked Toman.

“Oh yeah, ’cause losing at cards was helping so much…” he grumbled. Esset chose to give him the benefit of the unwell and not take offense.

“See you later then,” Esset said instead, as if he had been given a more cordial response.

“Thank you, Esset,” Lady Ateala thanked him as she stepped out of the way to let him out of the room. Esset just gave her a small smile and nod of acknowledgment—it was small enough payment for what she’d done for Toman.

“Well, I’m no good at cards, but do you want to play a game? I have other things I need to do, but they can wait a few minutes, and I could use a brief break,” the lady suggested once Esset was out the door.

“I’d like that,” Toman replied, cheering up slightly. He’d seen the eyes Esset had been making at her, but he wouldn’t say no to a card game with the pretty healer.

“Okay then, shuffle those cards and deal me in.” Swinging the door shut behind her, Lady Ateala headed over to the bed and took Esset’s seat. They chatted a bit as Toman shuffled, dealt, and they played the hand.

“Now then, you’ve been having a rough day, I see,” the lady healer said as they finished the hand—Toman had won despite his bad luck, so either Lady Ateala was being particularly nice or she really was that bad at cards.

“Yeah, I haven’t been feeling so great,” Toman admitted.

“Hm…” Lady Ateala said. “Why don’t you lie down flat? I’ll take a look at you.” Toman obliged, shifting the pillows around so that he could stretch out flat atop the covers of the bed. Lady Ateala went to his side and gently pressed her fingers against his neck to measure his pulse.

“In what way haven’t you been feeling well?” she asked, moving her hand to his forehead to check his temperature.

“Just…kind of a general unwellness,” Toman responded. “Like I almost feel nauseous, almost have a headache…kind of achy all over, actually.”

“When did this start?” the lady asked.

“I felt like this when I woke up this morning. It gets better and worse in waves.”

“Hm… this could be part of the venom’s work, or it could be the anti-venom. It’s tough to say. It might be part of the natural process of getting better, or it could be a symptom of something else. I don’t want you to worry, just to be aware,” Lady Ateala explained as she looked him over.

“All right, now I want you to breathe evenly and try to relax. I want to feel your resting pulse, so just calm yourself. I don’t want you to fall asleep, but I need you totally relaxed.” Her tone was smooth and soothing, almost hypnotic, as he closed his eyes and followed her instructions.

“Just lie still,” Lady Ateala murmured. Toman felt her fingers on the inside of his arm, opposite his elbow. There was a gentle pressure for a moment, then again on the same spot on his other arm. As he laid still and tried to slow his heartbeat through relaxation, he felt her fingers on his neck again, on the left, then on the right side. Then he had a sudden itch on his nose and he reflexively went to move his hand to scratch it. A cold shock ran through him when his arm didn’t respond. His eyes snapped open and he tried to jerk, to move his body, any part of his body, but he was a stranger trapped in his own physical form, a mere passenger instead of an agent of his own movements.

Instinctively, he reached for his magic, and his thoughts—and thus instincts—reached for Esset first. At the same time, his open eyes now saw Lady Ateala over him, but he couldn’t comprehend her smile. He couldn’t see her hands, but her fingers had taken hold of the fingers of his gloves.

Less than a second later, before he could try to defend himself with magic, she easily slipped both gloves from his hands. His magic, his only defense, was gone, and someone had his gloves. His thoughts scrambled madly as he tried to comprehend what was happening.

Esset had made good time getting the tea to the old lady, but once there, he was loathe to hurry back to the vague oppression of Toman’s temper. The day was pleasant, so he meandered over to the town fountain. He greeted many of the villagers as he passed—thanks to Lady Ateala’s errands, he knew many of them now, and his dramatic entrance was a distant memory.

Esset was thinking about how peaceful it was when every stitch of clothing he was wearing suddenly jerked. Esset staggered a step and then braced himself, thinking, “
What in the name of Bright Hyrishal was that?
”

“You know, when I started my little project with the Reshkin and the Nadra, I never dreamed that it would deliver me the animator,” Lady Ateala crooned. She stood over Toman, looking at him with a somewhat dreamy gaze. The helpless young man lay rigid, screaming inside and fighting fiercely but futilely in spirit. He reeled from being cut off from every bit of physical and magical control he knew, so it was taking longer for the lady’s words to sink in. They still didn’t entirely make sense, even when he processed the words themselves. Toman froze internally, but the pieces began to fall into place with the name she spoke next.

“Lord Moloch… he will be so pleased,” she purred, smiling maliciously. “He was pleased enough just hearing that I had you. I asked him if he wanted to have you personally, but he said I could have you if I wanted. It was so generous of him. But of course he wants your little gloves, so I had to wait until you had them again before making my move.” She sat down beside him and began walking two fingers up his throat and chin to tweak his nose. “You were very careful with them…but not careful enough. You were so very trusting.” Her smile was supremely superior and smug now.

She got up again and went to the cupboard. She opened the small door, happily swaying to some tune only she could hear. She withdrew a knife from the cupboard that anyone could easily have assumed was there for surgeries and other medical purposes. Toman knew that Lady Ateala now had a purpose in mind that had nothing to do with healing. If she were a pawn of Moloch’s, it did not bode well for him.

“It was so much fun playing you—you and your so-called brother both. What a couple of bleeding hearts.” She smirked at him and leaned in, trailing the flat of the blade along his cheek and whispering, as if telling him a secret.

“I was behind it all, you know, behind everything that brought you here. The Reshkin were my special project. I don’t have a lot of magic, you see, but I’m very good with what I do have. I’m good at making little changes, so I made a lot of little changes in the Reshkin, over time. I made them bigger, stronger, and tougher. And, of course, I made them far more venomous—that was the easiest part! And then I coordinated them and sent them after the Nadra. The stupid snakes were clueless! I was delighted when they brought me some of their own kind, writhing in an agony that I was responsible for. I, of course, played the caring but helpless healer and inside, I rejoiced at the obvious success of my project.

“I thought, perhaps, I could exterminate those snakes completely. I was very put out when you and the summoner came on the scene, but when I discovered what I really had… Well, that was a different story altogether.” Lady Ateala trailed the knife down the front of Toman’s shirt, the sharp blade catching or slicing the cloth slightly in places.

“Do you know how many places a human body can be sliced or stabbed without damaging anything important? It’s really quite remarkable. To do so, however, takes a very detailed and precise knowledge of human anatomy. Fortunately for you, I am a very good healer.” She alternately teased and mocked in a disturbing fashion. Her fingers trailed along behind the blade, then moved around it to lead the way. She felt his chest beneath the cloth of the shirt and felt the gap between two ribs with her fingertips.

“Here, for example,” she whispered. Toman felt the prick of the knife tip against his skin for a long moment before she exerted pressure on the handle. Very slowly, the blade sank into his skin and through his flesh until it had been buried hilt deep. Lady Ateala traced her fingers on his skin around the knife handle, but Toman didn’t even feel it. All he could feel was the agony of the cold steel embedded in his body, the pain amplified by his helplessness and complete inability to control anything but his eyes. Even his throat was frozen, rendering him unable to do anything other than swallow.

“Just a hairsbreadth to either side of the blade are internal organs that, if pierced, would eventually kill you. But just here… very little real damage has been done. Does that not cheer you?” Lady Ateala smiled as she began to slowly withdraw the knife. Toman had tried to hold his breath throughout the whole ordeal, but it was impossible, especially with the pain of it. Each breath sent new agony ripping through his body as his flesh pushed against the blade with tiny movements, reminding itself of its pain. Blood began to flow freely from the wound once the blade began to withdraw, staining the clean white sheets of the bed and sinking into the mattress.

“But I’m not here to please you, I’m here to please me,” the lady purred. “As I was saying before, the Reshkin were all my doing, and when you were delivered to me, I was very happy. When I learned that you were the animator that Lord Moloch both hates and desires so very much, I knew I’d gotten a lucky break.

“You see, Reshkin bites aren’t lethal to humans if treated within a day or even two, and after a dose of anti-venom, the patient will be completely well again within three days. Yes, that’s right, it’s only thanks to me that you’re still here, like this, right now. I’ve been poisoning you this entire time. If you hadn’t received a single injection after the first, you would have been perfectly well right now. As I said…
so
trusting.” With the emphatic “so,” Lady Ateala had found a new spot for her knife and thrust it into his chest. Toman gasped and choked as another cold shock flooded his body.

“There we are,” Lady Ateala crooned.