The Power and the Glory

Book 1 Chapter XV: Skeletons

Abi sat down on the cold stone floor beside the grave and eyed it dubiously. Everyone will know I've succeeded if I raise Lord what's-his-name. If I choose a commoner instead they'll say it's all a hoax and the person wasn't really dead. Damn you, Kiriyuki! Why couldn't you mind your own business for once?

Two storeys above her the main door creaked open. At once Abi jumped to her feet. She shook her coat and dusted off her trousers. Quickly she glanced around to make sure nothing was out of place. The whole time she listened for footsteps.

She heard them. Someone descended the stairs to the first level. They crossed it and descended another flight of stairs to the second one. At the bottom of those stairs the footsteps stopped. Then they started again, crossing the second level towards the third flight of stairs.

Abi looked around wildly. None of her immediate relatives were buried here. She hadn't been close to anyone here. How could she explain her presence if she was caught?

Idiot, she grumbled at herself. Why didn't I think of an excuse earlier?

The footsteps stopped again. For a moment there was dead silence, as if she'd imagined the whole thing.

"Abihira? Are you down there?" Irímé's voice called from the top of the third stairs.

Most people who've just had a fright will feel extremely foolish when they learn there was nothing to be afraid of. Abi had called herself an idiot when she thought she had reason to worry. Now she called herself a good few stronger words.

"What are you doing here?" she shouted up at Irímé, not bothering to answer his question. Well, she supposed that she was answering it simply by speaking.

Irímé began to descend the third staircase. The eerie echoes of his footsteps almost drowned out his voice. "I couldn't find you anywhere else. I thought I might as well try here before looking outside the palace. Are you going to raise the dead here?"

Abi blinked in confusion. How did he jump to that conclusion so quickly? "What makes you think that?"

Irímé reached the bottom of the steps. He looked around in every direction but the right one before he saw her. "A necromancer in a crypt. It's rather obvious."

Well. When he put it that way it did seem rather obvious.

"Are you going to try to stop me?" Abi asked, fully expecting a battle.

Irímé shook his head. He wound his way around the tombs placed at random spaces all over the floor -- whoever had built the crypt had not given any thought to the layout, and future generations continued in the same vein -- until he reached her. From the stairs to the unfortunate lord's tomb was only about ten ornthal[1] in a straight line. The lack of any coherent method in where the tombs were built meant it took almost five minutes for Irímé to get there.

"Actually I'd like to help you," he said, as calmly as if he was offering his help in choosing paint or wallpaper. He eyed Lord Tiraldhros's tomb with interest. Oblivious to the shock his announcement had caused, he continued, "Is this who you want to raise first?"

If there wasn't such a high chance of tripping over someone's final resting place Abi would have staggered back in astonishment. Most people did not react well to the thought of necromancy. Over the years she'd seen many different reactions to the mere suggestion it might be possible. They ranged from horror to disgust to "those are just fairy-tales and you're a fool for believing them". When people found out it was possible... Well, the uproar caused by the walking corpses showed what happened then. No normal person would ever want anything to do with necromancy. This was a simple and incontrovertible fact. Abi knew it as well as she knew that it meant she was decidedly not normal.

"Why--" Abi's voice came out as a high-pitched squeak. She cleared her throat and tried again. "Why do you want to help?"

Irímé shrugged, which was hardly reassuring. For one awful moment Abi thought she was stuck in a betrothal with one of those idiots who would do something dangerous on a whim and then blame everyone else for the inevitable disaster.