The story so far: To prevent a god from ravaging their world, Tollon and his friends have come to another world, which has already tried to kill them. Now read on . . .
The gods are playing with us. Ovedisca took my sister as a sacrifice. But heโs got opposition.
We follow a path through the woods and come out at a replica of the Tebestora school. I catch a glimpse of my highwayman up ahead and head toward what feels like the inevitable goal: the graveyard.
The graveyard here is not quite the same as in our world. There is no chapel, none at all. Clearly a chapel for Thessar is not welcome here. And there are many, many fresh graves.
Katrina and I get shovels from the gravediggerโs shack and dig. Only one foot down, we hit something solid. It turns out to be a crystal coffin. And one of the students is in it. She looks as if she knew she was being sealed up when she was put in it. That’s a look of stark horror on her face.
Two more graves yield another student and an instructor. All looking as if the horror of whatโs happening was the last thing they knew.
Katrina goes back to the first coffin and smashes the shovel into it as hard as she can. It has no effect. She tries the flat of the blade, the edge of the blade. Still no effect.
I have an inspiration. I stand on the other side of the coffin and draw my sword.
Katrina shakes her head, โYouโll just dull . . . hmmm, maybe not.โ
I give her a tight smile. โMaybe not.โ I donโt want to cut the girl in two, so I line up my stroke by bringing the tip of the sword down to touch the coffin. I mean to lift it, but it has other ideas. A cold white fire starts rising up the blade from the coffin. It flares, and I jerk away the sword.
Thereโs a girl screaming in the grave. Sheโs alive. And my sword now has a slight white glow along the edge, as well as a red one in the center.
ยง
We are five days unearthing coffins and freeing their occupants. They are all hysterical, with one exception, when they are freed. Quite a few still are. Honorable Alencar has been ministering to them, marshalling those that have recovered. Miaโs been helping her.
It is late in the fifth afternoon. Iโm resting in the old school building, well, this duplicate of the old school building. It makes me feel comfortable, and I need that. My muscles are sore from days of digging. My sword can light up a room.
Honorable Alencar comes in. I start to greet her, and she barks out a short laugh. โAfter these many days, Tollon, I think you can call me Alesca.โ She sits down beside me on the bench. โThereโs one person missing, and one extra person.โ She looks around to make sure sheโs not being overheard. โHonorable Strunstur is not among the ones youโve freed. And that girl who didnโt scream when you freed her? Sheโs not one of ours.โ
โWho is she, then?โ
โNo one knows.โ Alesca frowns. โSheโs been helpful. Never talks, but she has a way with the hysterical ones. They calm down quite a bit with her around.โ She bites her lip. โNo oneโs seen her eat. She doesnโt eat, she doesnโt drink, she doesnโt sleep, and Iโm beginning to think she doesnโt breathe. Sheโs too warm to be a reanimated corpse.โ She shrugs. โI have no clue as to what she can be.โ She yawns. โAnd I am so tired.โ In a moment, her head drops down, and I can hear her softly snoring.
Without quite knowing how, I realize there is somebody sitting on the other side of me. I turn. Itโs the girl. Dark yellow of skin, dark brown of hair, and as I look into her eyes, I see that there is nothing there. She opens her mouth. There are no teeth, no tongue, just emptiness. The mouth quickly opens wider and wider, until itโs big enough to swallow me whole. Which it does.
(To be continued . . . we hope!)
Oh poor Tollon. And a mouth like that, she should be ashamed of herself. ๐
He doesn’t mention whether she had bad breath. But she definitely has a cavity. ๐
And thank you for my morning chuckle ๐
You still manage to surprise.
๐