Heart of Black Ice

CHAPTER 12

As Adessa moved up the riverbank on her long journey back to Ildakar, her only company was Maxim’s severed head, which she carried in a bloody sack at her side. She traveled at a steady pace, without urgency, since the hunt was over. She had killed her prey, but her quest was not finished. She still had to bring the trophy back home.

Home. Adessa rarely let herself think such thoughts. As a morazeth, she gave her body and her skills entirely to Ildakar. Adessa had no joys, no doubts, only service. She would fight and defeat any opponent in the combat arena; she would kill any enemies of the city, even the wizard commander himself. She did not count the cost in blood, nor did she celebrate the amount she spilled.

Before she had killed Maxim, he’d taunted her that Ildakar might be under siege by a Norukai war fleet. He also claimed to have broken the petrification spell and intentionally unleashed the gigantic army of General Utros. Adessa had no reason to believe this was true, since she also knew that the wizard commander had a habit of lying. Once she got back to the city, she would see the truth for herself, and fight if necessary.

As she moved mile after mile, Adessa anticipated seeing the glorious city, the arbor-lined streets, the ruling tower and the sacrificial pyramid, the combat arena soaked with blood and glory. Adessa had trained so many fighters, and some, like Ian, even became champions, a rare honor. She had also allowed Ian to become her lover, to impregnate her with her most recent child. Even though Adessa had killed Ian when he betrayed Ildakar, she could not deny the fondness she’d felt for him. If only he had not been corrupted.…

At Gant’s Ford, after leaving the Farrier family, she considered finding a riverboat pilot who would take her upriver to Ildakar, but Adessa was in no mood for company. She could travel swiftly enough alone, and she had been by herself ever since the sovrena sent her on this hunt. By now the uprising in Ildakar would have been subdued, Thora and the wizards’ duma would have reestablished their rule and punished the criminals. Adessa would come home triumphant.

She followed a dirt road alongside the Killraven River, but as she went farther from the town, the path degenerated into a faint trail among the trees. The dangerous swamps far to the north would be much more of a challenge.

After a day of hard traveling, she ate dried meat and fruit from her pack and eventually stopped to make camp. Adessa gathered dry wood in a clearing and sat on a fallen tree whose bark had rotted away. The campfire of dry willow wood, grasses, and oak twigs cracked and popped, exhaling a ribbon of smoke. She drank from her waterskin and made a small meal of more preserved food. In a few days, she would have to hunt, but tonight she would just rest and then move on as soon as the sun rose.

The nearby river curled along the banks with a whispering sound. Night birds chirped and insects muttered as they stirred in the comforting darkness.

Adessa picked up the sack with its grisly burden and set Maxim’s head on a stump across from the campfire. She pushed the fabric down to expose the discolored, swollen skin. The wizard commander’s eyes were puffy and half open, a gelatinous milky white. His mouth hung slack as the lips drooped to expose his teeth. He had once possessed a capricious trickster smile filled with more poison than humor. Now his skin held an oily greenish cast of decay, and rusty brown stains covered the stump of his neck.

Trying to balance the head upright, she pressed down to squish the soft tissue. “You will be my company for the evening,” Adessa said. “But you were not good company in life. Sovrena Thora despised you. Now you will at least be silent and respectful.”

With his dead face across from her, Adessa squatted on the log and contemplated as she finished her meal. Ravens squawked in the trees above the river and burst into flight. She looked up, wondering what had disturbed them.

Then a taunting voice sent splinters of ice down her spine. “You think you have won.”

Her hand flashed to the short sword at her side and she rose from her seat. The campfire snapped again. She looked around.

“You won’t win,” the voice said, and she turned toward Maxim’s head. Though bloated and discolored with decomposition, his eyes were now open, with the whites focused on her. “Ildakar has already fallen.”

“By the Keeper!” she cried.

“Yes, by the Keeper.” Maxim’s lips spread apart and cracked as pus leaked through them. His swollen tongue protruded from his teeth as the jaws moved to form words. “You haven’t finished the job, morazeth.”

Sure that she was imagining this nonsense, Adessa stared. “Be silent!”

When Maxim laughed, his head wobbled on the stump. “The veil is frayed, the boundaries slippery. Many souls moved through the cracks.” The head chuckled again. “And I am slippery indeed.”

“Be silent!”

Gripping her short sword, she strode around the fire to loom over the severed head. The eyes blinked at her in mocking innocence.

“I hacked your head from your body,” Adessa said. “I shattered your chest with a tree and burst your heart. You are dead.”

“Maybe I can’t be killed so easily.” He laughed again.

“I will cleave your head in two, and then I will chop those pieces into more pieces.”

He merely scoffed at her. “You think that by removing this receptacle you can destroy my spirit? You are welcome to try.” His lips curled in a sneer. His rotting eyes squinched shut and he opened them again so that runny liquid oozed out of his eyeballs. “Did you not promise my dear Thora you would bring her my head? If you hack me to bits, how will you explain your failure?”

Adessa wavered, glaring down at him.

The eerie voice continued, “Come, we will be companions on the long journey back to Ildakar! But I assure you, nothing remains of the city.” He snickered again. “How would you know? You’ve been gone so long.”

“You’re lying.”

“I see things as a spirit.”

“You know nothing. You’re my victim. You’re dead.”

“I am,” Maxim replied. “And yet I am still here.”

Frustrated and disgusted, she yanked the burlap sack over the severed head, wrapping it up and tying it tightly. Now his voice was just a whisper, but still there. She set her burden on the other side of the fallen tree. Adessa had no further appetite, nor could she sleep throughout the long and noisy night.