Princess of Death (Three Provinces Book 1) (15 page)

Nergal slid his hand down my arm and linked our fingers together; he didn’t look at the ground, just automatically accepted Ekur’s words. I enjoyed the level of trust between them; it was like me and Nam.

As we got closer to the door Nam told us all to stop, “I smell sweet disease, infection and not one I recognize. But I also smell Hallow Syndrome.”

I watched as Nergal and Ekur lifted their noses and took in deep breaths.

“You are correct Namtar, I too smell Lilu, as recent as a week ago.” Nergal confirmed.

“I have no idea what is through that door, but I want to try something,” Nam came over to me and cupped my face in his hands. All at once his green yellow magic enveloped me. I didn’t feel any different, but I too could smell the sickness, but now on my own skin.

“Now the P.O.T. will not be able to differentiate between you and whatever is in there,” Nam explained, he then did the same thing to Ekur, Nergal and himself.

We walked in and were plunged into darkness, I provided light with a simple spell and found we were standing at the bottom of a steep stair way leading up.
 I led, mainly because I was the most curious and had told Nergal’s parents I would try and fix their problem.

There was a door at the top and it opened, easily, but the Asylum just felt off. It was like pushing through something thick and moist to enter the room. The room we entered was not dark; harsh electric lights lit the place up. All I could see was a hall way lined with doors, soft music played through speakers, music meant to be peaceful but was just annoying, an assault on the ears.

As we came farther in I could smell decay, blood and something nastier in the air, rotting flesh and organs. The violet pulsing magic line was back and I went where it led. The opposite side of the room had a window, Nam looked out.

“Shit, we’re two stories up. How did that happen?”
             

“This is where it wanted us. Where the magic was drawn too,” I shrugged; it seemed to be the best explanation. I was about to open double metal doors when Nergal stopped me.

“Are you sure you want to do this? We can leave.” He was giving me an out, love and concern showed in his eyes and I was happy he was worried. But I had to do this; I had to know what was on the other side.

“It will be ok,” I was trying to convince myself as well. The door had dried blood on it, like someone had smeared the metal, like paint.

Pushing open the doors, we stilled at the sight. The room was a large common space, couches, chairs and all sorts of recreation littered throughout. With the furniture were people, well kind of.  The more appropriate term would be The Living Dead, though some were just Reanimated Corpses. The bodies were comatose, all in various stages of decomposition. My own power was attracted to all the death in the room and I could see Nam’s eyes widen in excitement at the sickness that the room basically throbbed with.

I saw that the power cord we had followed was attached to each corpse, almost sucking on them like tentacles with little mouths at the end.

“Why don’t they move?” Ekur asked. When I looked back at him I saw that Nergal and he had drawn long swords out of somewhere. Which I admit, was a nice trick to have.

“The Living Dead and Reanimated Corpses do not feed off of the dead or the sick. Nam’s magic has tricked this place into thinking we are a part of it. They will stay like this until living flesh is brought in,” I enlightened him. I wasn’t surprised he didn’t know that. I do not think anyone had come in contact with either LD’s or RC’s in years. They were usually used by Kassaptu who were warring against each other, family disputes. Or as a way to gather information, and sometimes for entertainment.

I, however, grew up near a cemetery, bored out of my mind. While I had never actually seen an LD, I had seen plenty of RC’s, though mine didn’t usually look, or smell, as bad.

“What is the difference between the two?” Ekur asked.

“The Living Dead are people who have souls and are alive but their body is rotting away and dying, a Reanimated Corpse is just as it sounds, a dead body still moving around,” said a rasping, gravelly voice from behind us. We spun around; my hands were out, digging up magic for a defensive attack.

There was an LD standing at the door. His skin was gray, sloughing away in some parts. He seemed to have all of his limbs and while his clothes looked filthy they were whole as well. His hair had begun to fall out and was a putrid shade of brown; his eyes matched exactly, still alert and whole in his sagging face. His lips were pulled back, showing too much teeth and not enough gums.

“Who are you?” I demanded.

“I am Healer Ahhazu, and the last person to become infected.” He slowly shuffled into the room.

“What the hell happened here?” Nergal questioned him.

“I’m not sure. We were experimenting with why people of Salas cannot travel freely, as most know. But aside from that, the Asylum was running normally, taking in new patients, releasing those who were cured.” He tried to shrug, but it didn’t seem to work and sounded like he ripped something, pain slithered over his features briefly.

“Then we noticed anyone who died became a RC, we had no Necromancer on staff and they are so rare we just locked them in the basement until they could be dealt with, that is until one attacked another Healer.”

“That’s impossible!” I exclaimed, “RC’s are peaceful, they do not usually attack unless the person that raised them requests it.” That was a Salas legend, only LD’s were flesh hungry, and then only in the end stages when their mind started to rot away.

“We know, but yet here is the proof. Once attacked, the Healer slowly became a LD, and we could not stop the infection,” Ahhazu looked miserable.

“So you quarantined the whole place, allowed this to happen?” Ekur was furious.

Chapter 15

“Of course not! Once I realized the disease spread by bite I tried to evacuate but the Asylum shut us down, it would not allow anyone out. It’s a built in magical defense to protect the outside in case something horrible has gone wrong.
 The LD’s went crazy with all the living tissue around and within a month everyone was contaminated.” Ahhazu said, indignantly.

“How are you still coherent after all this time?” My eyes narrowed at him; maybe he was the cause of all of this.

“I locked myself in my lab. I have created a serum with a combination of magic and medicine that slows down the virus.” He looked concerned, “have you come to destroy this place? Half of the people in the building are still alive. I think I am very close to finding the cure.” He seemed almost desperate, his eyes large in his skull, but even amongst all the death, insanity hadn’t taken him and hope shone in his eyes.

“We don’t know. Tell me when you figured the Asylum had become a P.O.T. and hadn’t just been using the defense system?”
 I was staring at the magic leaching on the bodies in the room.

“When that showed up,” he answered, pointing at where I stared. “Almost at the same time I could feel the building feeding off the energy in us. Then it started to call victims and I knew that I was living in a Place of Taint.”.

“I think that the building has contracted our disease,” he admitted.

“I don’t think so,” Nam spoke for the first time.

“What?” I looked at him; his eyes were fixed to the ceiling.

“I do not get the same sensation from the Asylum that I do from the Healer.” Walking to the wall he placed a hand against the dingy beige plaster.
 Closing his eyes I watched him try and read the building.

Nam’s eyes snapped open and focused on me, intensity burned in them, “the Asylum has contracted Hallow Syndrome.”

You could have heard a damn pin drop, the silence was so great. Nergal looked the most shocked.

“Did your sister come here for treatment?” I asked.

“I don’t know, I know she went a way for a while when she first got sick.”

“Can you show us patient files?” I questioned Ahhazu.

“No, it would be unethical.” He shook his head and it was pretty gross to watch.

“Ethics went out the window when everyone became zombies,” Ekur’s laugh was more of a snarky bark.

“Zombie is a derogatory term,” Nam scolded.

“Boys,” I snapped, “Ahhazu take us to the patient files, now.”

He led us out of the room and down a flight of stairs; we passed even more bodies, the purple magic sucking at them. Finally we came to a small room filled with filing cabinets.

“I’ll wait outside.”  Ahhazu sounded upset, but I could have cared less.

We searched for Lilu’s file, and I found it. She had been diagnosed with Hallow Syndrome five years before the Asylum became a P.O.T. I scanned her file, each sentence caused dread to fill me up.

“What does it say?” Nergal asked, coming to peer over my shoulder.

“Your sister came here for the normal observations and studies for someone suffering Hallow Syndrome. She stayed for about six months, even her death sentence is in these papers,” I told him. I faced all three of them.

“But it looks like when your parents decided to not kill her, they sent her here for “treatment” every week until this place shut down.” I even made the bunny ears with one hand. Treatment for
Hallow Syndrome
consisted of counseling, more tests and usually a drug that would keep the patient calm. It didn’t really work. Hallow Syndrome progressed violently, eventually the drug stopped working, there was no cure.

“However…” I turned the file around so they could see the writing. The first sets of notes were normal Healer chicken scratch in ink. Details of her therapy sessions where at first Lilu spoke about normal girls things, then grieved over the death of her mother and how she was scared to go crazy and die, but by the end was detailing how she wanted to kill members of her family and have sex with her brother.

While, sure, most of that was enough to creep out even me, it was the last few pages of notes that made me truly fearful. Two pages of typed words, in red, smelling like old blood, information of the trips Lilu had made to the Asylum since it shut down.

“Did my sister update her own file?” Nergal sounded incredulous.

“No… I’m pretty sure the Asylum has been recording the notes: I bet she talks to it like she did her therapist. Her illness took whatever was originally wrong here and warped it.” I glanced at the words. Lilu really wanted to be queen and even more, she didn’t want to die.

“We have to shut this down before it becomes completely conscious,” I lowered my voice, worried that the building could hear me, “we don’t want it to realize what power it could possibly have.” If this Asylum became like the Plantation it would be even more powerful. There was enough magic
fuelling Lilu and the building to make them both a potent threat. I didn’t think Adura needed evil quite like what these two were becoming.

“How do we shut it down?” Nam looked a little panicked around the edges and I could understand, we were standing in what was kind of the “belly of the beast.”

“A spell of some kind. I’m just not sure if I can do it by myself.” I was hoping for a little divine intervention, actually. I needed to cut off its connection to Lilu, it was her leaking Hallow Syndrome back up the power line combined with whatever disease the Healers had unleashed accidentally that was causing this mess. If I could stop one, then the other could get sorted out naturally.

“You will not be alone, best beloved one,” Nergal took the file from me and put it back, carefully.

We went back out into the corridor where I spoke to Ahhazu, “How much time do you think you would need to find an antidote?”

“I think another couple of months. I can feel how close I am, but I think the building can feel it too, a few times,” he looked around and I knew why, I felt like I was being watched too. “I have been locked out of my office or gotten lost on my way back. I constantly feel watched.”

“Okay, I think I can help with that. If I can do a barrier spell with enough power I can cut off Lilu’s tie to this place which will make sure it can’t become any more sentient.” I was pretty sure it would work; I was more concerned with whether I could focus and hold a spell so large, without at least a coven of 13.

“Will it reverse the P.O.T. status?” Ahhazu asked.

“I would guess not,” Nam answered for me, “once a P.O.T. always a P.O.T., it just won’t be as…as…alive.”

“But it will allow you the time to fix what went down here and evacuate everyone to one of the Healer Centers.” (Or in Biri, hospitals.) I hoped this would be a satisfactory answer.

“May I suggest we get out of here Princess?” Ekur suggested, “I feel it unwise to linger here anymore than necessary.”

“Yes, Ereshkigal, we should go. It feels too much like allowing the enemy in on battle plans.” Nergal took my hand in his, his tenderness sinking into me; it was a good sensation because the air in the Asylum was almost icy, probably why it didn’t smell worse than it already did.

“I hope it works. As much as I want to save my patients and friends, if it doesn’t…” Ahhazu trailed off.

“We’ll do what we need to.” I felt something ripple through me at that point, my senses went on alert as the lights above us flickered and brightened, I could almost feel the walls around us swell outwards and then return to normal. Like something was waking up.

“We need to leave, now,” Nam had urgency in his voice.

“Be safe Ahhazu,” I told him as we began to run back the way we came. I could feel anger, intense hate leaking out of the walls, like it had just realized we weren’t an LD or an RC. As we ran I managed to gasp out to Nam.

“Is the spell you put on us waning?”

“I believe so. If we don’t hurry we’re going to look like food in the next few moments.” He wasn’t out of breath but it is hard to run and talk.

As we sprinted through the door and down the dark stair well I began to hear the shuffling, painful sounds of the LDs and RCs waking up. My magic surged behind, feeling out for the death that congregated inside the building. I felt their pull and it was almost enough to make me want to stop and go back, to push my magic inside each of them and find out what made them tick.

But my feelings for my companions and the thought of those suffering at Bet Pagri stopped me; instead I took that magic and put up a shield around us, giving us the few minutes more we needed to get outside into the fresh air and star speckled sky.

“It is late; we were in there much longer than I thought we were,” Nam said as the door slammed shut behind us.  I didn’t speak, I was suddenly tired and hungry, there was no way I was going to do any large magic working until the next moonrise.

“Ereshkigal would you like to camp out here so we can get started first thing tomorrow?” Nergal asked me.

“I think that would be a good idea, that way we can keep an eye on things,” I nodded in agreement.

Ekur went over the bag he had dropped near a tree before we went inside. I was so glad that he and Nam had the sense to grab provisions when we called them. I do not know what I would do without my Namtar.

“Nam, can you take the rest of this funk off me so I can feel semi clean again?” I shivered, standing in the open air, I wanted food and sleep so badly.

He nodded and within moments we all breathed a sigh of relief as the magic was lifted from our skin completely. We backed away from the Asylum, farther into the woods where we had some shelter but could still see the offending building.

“I’m not sure how much sleep I’ll get with that thing staring at us,” Nam complained, starting a small camp fire. He brought out a few containers, undid the Stay Fresh and Stasis spells on them so he could heat up the food.

“Well, we’ll have to try Namtar,” Ekur said and he and Nergal set up bed rolls and the traditional camping and outdoor protective spells.

I curled my lip, I hated camping, hated sleeping outside. I had thought after that first night outdoors I wouldn’t have to do it again so soon. I missed my bed at the Estate or even the one I’d been sleeping in at Bet Pagri. Rolling my eyes, I went and helped, even my inner monologue sounded whiny.

As I sat down on the hovering bed roll and took a bowl of stew and a slice of bread, Namtar came over and joined me, we ate in silence. I waited for him to speak, I’d known him too long, there was something on his mind.

“I think you should call in your favour from Ibbi and her sisters,” he finally said.

“Call in the death nymphs? Why?” I asked, after swallowing. The hot stew hit my stomach and I began to feel a bit better.

“You cannot do the type of magic we need tomorrow with just the four of us. Especially since Alu magic is so much different than ours. Ibbi’s troupe will give you the numbers you need to form a circle.”

We ate in silence for a bit longer; I nudged his shoulder with mine causing him to snort, “I hate it when you’re right.”

“I am always right,” he laughed.

“Oh okay, sure you are,” I reached over and poked him; startled, he fell off the bed roll, landing on his butt, clutching his empty soup bowl.

I heard a weird noise and looked over, Ekur and Nergal were practically dying they were laughing so hard.

“Are you laughing at me?” I asked with a sinister look in my eyes, trying not to smile.
 I stood up and slowly walked towards the pair of them. They stopped laughing at once, sensing the predator in their midst. If I had wanted to seduce them I’d have failed, it was Ishtar who had that gift. But I could make them fear me and that was sometimes better than lust.

“I think I’ll help Namtar clean up,” Ekur cleared his throat and practically ran from me.

Nergal met me and I could hear his heartbeat, smell the trepidation on his skin, his breath, which startled me a little. I didn’t realize I’d put so much into making me seem like I was hunting him, but I must have.

He reached for me and crushed me against him, his mouth furiously on mine, his wings wrapping around us so I was swamped with his heat, scent and touch. His mouth left a scorching path from mine across my cheek and down to my neck. I arched against him as he bit the skin below my ear lightly, licking me at such a sensitive point that I practically trembled as arousal flooded through me.

I wanted him; through the stress, the anxiety and weariness I wanted this Alu to be my first, here in these woods and I didn’t care if we had an audience. I was just following what my body craved. No one had ever made me feel more alive and wanton than I did right that second, his fingers digging into my flesh, mouth sucking at me, my own hand buried in his hair.

“Oh Eshie, get a fucking room,” Nam’s irritated voice cut through the passion in my mind. I heard a low warning growl from Nergal and cupped his face in my palm. I placed a chaste kiss on his lips, heart filling up with something. I wasn’t sure it was love, but it was strong and it was there.

“Be nice,” I warned.

“And if you could pull back your magic a bit Princess that’d be great.” Ekur was practically begging me. Nergal pulled back his wings and I realized Ekur was more than uncomfortable he was turned on.