A Different Kind of Deadly (15 page)

"Marv's right for once," Leo vouched of my
behalf. "We don't have enough time to think about everything in our
way. Once we get all our supplies we only have two days head start
before Koronos sics his homicidal Doll on us."

The urgency of our quest hit Jiki full force
since our arrival. The Rusalka grabbed me and Leo by the wrist.
Diana followed along by default.

"There's a s-s-shortcut to Purilo's from
here," she said, leading us through a crevasse hidden behind a veil
of moss. Glow worms hung from high shelves in the stone, basking
the hall in an eery blue light. "Tell him about K-Koronos. He
s-should help free of c-charge."

"Purilo has a score to settle with him too?"
Diana asked. I heard the incredulous smile in her voice. "I thought
he just hated everyone equally."

"He was s-s-stupid enough to s-strike a deal
with him," Jiki spat. "Teach me Alchemy, he s-said! What does he
have to s-show for it? A hand made of s-s-solid gold, his middle
finger out and c-cast in precious metal for the world to
s-see."

"That's pretty epic, actually," Leo whispered
to me. I bit back a smile, but a glance at Diana told me we weren't
the only ones who found this funny.

The tunnel stretched for nearly a quarter of a
mile, leading farther and farther from the heart of Krisenburg.
This Purilo character really liked his privacy.

We heard the sound of rushing water as we
approached the final bend, coming by a waterfall. Jiki and Diana
took the lead, passing through the curtain. Leo and I followed
dutifully, startled to find that we were completely dry on the
other side.

"Oh MY-" Diana balked. Everyone turned to the
nearest wall, where we similarly did a double-take. The wall was
overtaken by the silhouette of a giant phallus.

In response to Diana's voice, it jerked,
disappearing a moment later. We turned around to see a- well...
nothing.

"Diana?!" It was a male
voice. Leo and I craned our necks and watched as an incredibly
short figure appeared from a neighboring hall. "I heard a rumor
that you were back, but I didn't think you actually-!" He fixed his
beady eyes on the Rusalka in our midst, his elderly face contorting
into one of acute displeasure. "
Jiki
."

"Purilo," she responded. "Diana isn't your
only guest. This is Leo and Marvin; they c-came all the way from
Nethermount."

"Necromancers?" Purilo asked, his voice raised
in mild interest. He surveyed the two of us, finally stopping at
Diana, where he kissed the back of her hand. "No matter. It's been
ages, my dear."

"I'm afraid we aren't here for pleasantries,"
Diana remarked, offering a slightly uncomfortable smile. "Koronos
is giving us a bit of trouble. We were hoping you'd be able to
enchant our gear before we set off for the Salamander
Nest."

"KORONOS?" Purilo's eyes, a startling shade of
amber, burst into fiery life. "That EVIL, SCHEMING, TWO-TIMING
BASTARD!"

"Demons c-can only prey upon the
s-shortcomings of others," Jiki said nonchalantly. "Blame your own
greed."

"Don't make me get my mop you overgrown
puddle," he muttered. Purilo returned his attention to Diana while
walking beneath a curtain to an adjoining chamber. He waved behind
for us to follow him into this office setting. "Salamander Nest,
you say. So you're after the Eyes?"

"That's our main objective, yes," Diana
said.

Purilo eyed me and Leo sharply.

"Featherweight and Glacial Touch."

"What?" I asked.

"The enchantments you'll need if you want to
last a day in the Nest," he sighed exasperatedly. "Now give me that
damn armor before I change my mind!"

It was the first time I saw Leo flustered; I
was already so accustomed to being yelled at that I didn't respond
over half the time to new commands. We stripped into our
underclothes, handing the little man our gear. Diana did the same
with her chest piece.

"There's food in the larder," Purilo said,
pulling on a set of goggles. "I can see you're in a rush, and I
need to get started if you want to leave in the next hour. Leave
me."

One by one we filed out of the room, following
Jiki who seemed to be a common visitor in this hermit's lair. But
before I could touch the curtain I felt an invisible force blocking
my way; the familiar sensation of static told me magic was at work
here.

"You stay," Purilo said from his table. "You
have the Ouborous on your wrists."

I looked down, upset at the reminder. The
snakes coiled in their usual manner, and it made my skin itch just
to look at them.

"I do," I acknowledged.

Purilo grabbed a pipe from a nearby stand,
lighting the end with a runestone. He puffed twice, each time
forming perfect rings of smoke.

"What was the basis of your deal with
Koronos?"

"Why do you need to know?"

He unveiled his golden finger, frozen in an
eternal gesture of obscenity. "I did the same, but unlike you I was
intelligent enough to render our contract void."

"You can do that?"

Purilo snorted, scoring glyphs into the
surface of our armor. "Devils work in loopholes. If you want to be
free of their influence you have to beat them at their game. The
fact that Koronos found it worth making a bargain with you tells me
you have potential to aspire to much greater things than the
freak-show in Krisenburg."

"As of right now," I said, "the only thing I
aspire to is to come out of this alive."

Purilo threw his head back, laughing so
heartily that he seemed to grow taller because of it.

"So tell me about the mess you're in -we'll
see if we can't pull another one out from under that bastard's
feet!"

I looked at the ground, fearful of this
opportunity of a helping hand. I've grown suspicious of those who
claimed to have my best interests at heart, but found little reason
to mind Purilo's offer. It was truly amazing how people could be
made to cooperate in the face of a common enemy.

"I promised to turn Diana back into a
human."

Ding!

Purilo's hammer fell to the ground with the
sound of a tiny bell. It was quiet for a long minute. Finally, he
removed his goggles and crossed his arms.

"Once a person becomes a Doll there's no going
back."

"You can't know that for certain."

"I do," said Purilo. He glanced from side to
side. "What I'm about to tell you must remain in this room, am I
understood?"

I nodded.

"I've made Dolls, Marvin. I tried to get to
the Eyes myself, so I needed the extra hands. I've also spent the
better half of my life trying to understand the process and undo it
myself. I know how you necromancers work. Bodies are complicated
machines, and you're talented mechanics -but the composition of a
Doll isn't even remotely similar. It defies all known laws and
conventions."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Was
Purilo telling me I was dead before I even started?

"There must be something," I insisted. "How
does the transformation work?"

Purilo shook his head at my eagerness,
returning to his task at hand. Rather than ignore me, as I
expected, he coached me through the process.

"Extremities first," he began. "Always at the
point furthest from the heart. Nerves shut down. There's no pain,
just numbing, as though your limbs are falling asleep. Everything
calcifies from that point, joints fold in and form organic
bearings. The entire process takes about a half hour to
complete."

"Can it be interrupted?"

"I never tried," he admitted. "It's traumatic
enough; I'm not the monsters from House Myalo or House Ponos. I've
never gotten a rise out of seeing needless suffering."

"You're a lot nicer than Jiki let
on."

"Bring her up again and I'll prove her right
on that count," he warned. "Damn water spirits, always finding ways
to ruin my research..."

I yawned.

Almost by magic, and by now I suspected there
was a great deal in this place, a cot appeared not far from where I
was standing. I blinked at its soft cushions, swaying at the sight
of it.

"Sleep for a while; you have a long trek ahead
of you," Purilo ordered. "If you're brave enough to bet your soul
with the forces of Hell then it's the least I can do."

I smiled weakly, sinking into the mattress.
Something about Purilo's statement swam around in my head over the
next several minutes. It disturbed me, but not in the usual way. It
hit me with a startled jolt that this was the first time anyone had
called me brave.

Me.

Marvin the coward.  Marvin the fool.
Marvin the failure.

A few days in the Moor of Souls was changing
all of it. Truly, Necessity was a marvelous teacher.

Marvin the brave, huh?

If I only had two more days to live, which
seemed to be the case no matter how I looked at it, then I guess
I'd rather be a brave failure than a cowardly fool. Funny how
staring Death in the face makes a man stop caring about what others
think of him. More and more, I realized how unhappy I'd been
chasing the approval of others while trying to dodge their
expectations.

This was my life, and only as its running out
am I starting to understand this thing called living.

21: Till We Meet
Again

I didn't need to open
my eyes to know I was being carried. I was
greeted by Uhh's crumbling facade, prompting me to check for
blistering sores on the parts of my body in contact with his
corrosive limbs.

I was in the armor Jiki had given us earlier;
you'd think I would've recalled being put back into it. Rather than
weighty sheets of tanned leather and scale, the material felt light
-almost nonexistent. The suit reverberated with the silent hum of
enchantments, and it was with a bemused sense of awe that I came to
understand the genius of Purilo's craft.

"Had a nice nap, Princess?"

I shifted my focus to Leo, whose face was
hidden beneath a pall of darkness. The only light that came through
this part of the Moor came from distant rivers of acid, and the
glint of crystal embedded in the cavern walls.

"How long was I out?"

"A whole day."

"A day?" I gasped, shifting my weight into a
somewhat upright position. "What did Purilo do to me that made me
sleep that long?"

"Easy, Marv. Half-pint didn't do anything to
you," said Leo. "The stress just wound you a little too tight.
Purilo was an ass, but his place is probably the safest in the
entire Moor. You felt safe enough to let yourself recover. We all
did."

It was a reasonable explanation.

"I wish I could've said goodbye to him and
Jiki, though."

"You make it sound like they're your last
words."

"They probably are," I snorted, troubled by my
calmness on the matter. "I've got a day left before Will comes to
get his revenge on me -for a crime I don't remember doing, and then
Koronos gets my soul for the rest of eternity."

Leo slapped me on the back.

"C'mon, you. If you really wanna say goodbye
to the guys back in Krisenburg then do it yourself."

"Now?"

"Of course not
now
, but later." I heard
the smile, but I couldn't see it. "And then, a few weeks later, see
them again so you can say goodbye a second time, then a third, and
a fourth, and on and on, till you're old enough and need to become
undead yourself."

I chuckled, "Then it really isn't goodbye, is
it?"

Leo scratched his head. "You know how I got
brown hair instead of white, Marv?"

I made a face at the sudden change in
conversation. "Yeah, what about it?"