CHAPTER 20
Wakefulness crept uneasily over Mikiss, beginning with an ache behind his eyes and growing into a dull pain that reached through his skull and down his spine. Though his eyes were closed, he still tried to recoil from the light that pierced his eyelids and sparked a strange sense of fear. He tried to move, and discovered that his hands were bound behind his back and his muscles almost cried with fatigue, as though he had been running through the night. His lips were crusted and he moaned with the effort needed to breathe in the dusty sweat-laced air. Exhausted beyond belief, he slumped back down.
He felt something touch his brow. Whatever it was, it felt hot and rasping on his skin, and as he flinched away from it he smelled a man near him, a scent of dirt and grease. Then a waft of perfume, near-imperceptible, reached him from further away. As he tried to recog¬nise it, Mikiss realised how parched his throat was. From somewhere on the other side of the room a chair scraped. He felt it through the stone floor on which he was lying as much as heard it, then sandpaper hands cradled his head and raised him up.
'Awake at last. You must be thirsty.' A woman's voice plucked a string inside him.
Mikiss tried to reply, but nothing came out except a wheeze. He recognised Nai as the person holding him when the necromancer's servant said crossly, 'Damn you, woman, after all you've done to him, you tease him about it?'
'Oh, quiet now,' the strange woman replied tartly. 'Just because your hands are untied doesn't mean your tongue can run loose; if it happens again, Legana will cut it out.'
Mikiss heard the swish of her skirts as the woman walked closer. 'Here, give him some wine to drink. It won't satisfy him, but 1 need him to speak a little more coherently.'
A goblet was held to his lips and Mikiss slurped greedily. When he finally managed to force his encrusted eyes open, the room was nothing more than a blur for a moment, then the outlines of people started to take shape. After a few moments he could make out Major Amber, bound as he was, lying in a corner, and two women standing before a covered window. Groggily, he sat up and tried to focus on the speaker, the woman who'd faced down Isherin Purn.
'What have you done to me?' Mikiss croaked. 'Feels like I've been drugged. How long did I sleep?'
'You slept most of the day, the sun is on its way down now.'
Mikiss winced as he looked at the light behind her. 'Then why is it so bright?'
'Because what I did to you was rather more permanent than drug¬ging,' she said, shrugging. 'You are my prisoners, but I don't care much for interrogation; it's messy, noisy and unreliable.'
He looked up at Nai for answers and saw the strange manservant had a thunderous look on his face. Whatever she'd done, it was bad enough that even the prospect of mutilation would not cow the man.
'I don't understand,' he rasped. 'Why the light? And who are you.''
She sighed. 'How discourteous of me. My name is Zhia Vukotic, and I hope you enjoyed the dawn yesterday, because it is the last you'll ever see.'
'What?' Mikiss tried to rise, but was betrayed by exhaustion. He fell back against Nai, and as he did so, he felt something around bis neck, a bandage of some kind. He stayed silent for a few moments, then almost sobbed, 'You've-'
'I've shared my curse with you, yes,' Zhia Vukotic told him tin patiently. 'Nai, please check the wound.'
The servant growled, but deftly unwrapped the length of material around Mikiss' neck. As he peered down, Mikiss saw his eyes widen and he mouthed a curse before releasing Mikiss and letting him fall to the floor.
'It's almost healed,' Nai said as Mikiss groaned.
'Excellent. Now, Messenger – Mikiss – you can fight this, or you can accept what has happened and get on with it,' the woman said, almost preening. 'It doesn't really matter, because my power over you Is now absolute. You will answer my questions, so the only mallei for debate is how much discomfort you wish to endure before you do so. Do you understand?.''
Mikiss stared at her with a glazed expression. When he turned to
Nai, the servant looked both horrified and disgusted, echoed on Major
Amber's face.
'While we're on the subject of the current state of play, you will all do better if you accept that I own you now. You have committed capital offences in Scree – spying and necromancy – so your lives are forfeit. I offer you clemency, in the form of servitude.' She looked at the woman beside her. 'As Legana knows, I share my secrets only with those who have secrets of their own, but since I can hardly trust any of you yet, I have taken the precaution of placing a small enchant¬ment on you, to prevent you repeating anything said in my presence. Do you understand?'
Mikiss looked at his companions. Nai, still defiant, said nothing; the major just shrugged his shoulders, as though a change of master meant little.
'What do you want with us?' Mikiss asked.
'You will tell me about your mission in Scree,' she said. 'After that, I'm sure I will find a use for you.'
'And if we don't tell you?'
'You no longer have the choice,' she said apologetically, 'not now the wound on your neck has healed.'
Mikiss' hand flew to his neck. The skin was a little tender, but he could feel no injury.
'My curse has you fully in its grip now,' she went on, watching his exploration, 'and it is now a small matter to compel you to speak, or to do exactly as I wish. So let us start. Tell me about your mission in Scree.'
As Zhia spoke those last words, Mikiss felt as though his head had been seized in a vice and wrenched upwards. The blood fizzed and boiled as he fought to keep his mouth closed; black and purple stars burst in front of his eyes until, through no volition of his own, he felt his mouth open and words began to pour out.
It didn't take long, for Lord Styrax had told Mikiss little more than his immediate task: to find the necromancer Isherin Purn in Scree and either secure an artefact of great power from him, or through him, on Lord Styrax's behalf, obviously, or report back on how to acquire it. The necromancer had told him little more in the brief time they were together, for he was intent on hearing all about the Menin conquest of Thotel.
When Mikiss had finished his uncontrolled babbling, the vampire looked far from satisfied.
'So the necromancer said nothing more, other than that he was sure there was a Crystal Skull in the city?'
'He was not so foolish as to go hunting for the bearer of such a weapon,' Nai interjected. 'Either it would be in the hands of a prac¬tised user, in which case his strength would not be enough, or not, in which case the wielder would most likely use it with abandon, and be unable to control the energies released.'
'He could not tell which?' Zhia pressed.
'He suspected a novice, since he had detected experiments per¬formed with the Skull.'
'So when the opportunity came,' mused Zhia, 'he asked his former lord for help, no doubt hoping Styrax would send someone foolish enough to do the confrontation for him. The most likely outcome would be the death of all those involved, leaving Isherin Purn to skip through the ashes and claim his prize.'
For reasons Mikiss could not fathom, this cheered the woman immensely. She announced breezily, 'So, we have someone running around the city with a Crystal Skull. Legana, why am 1 not sur¬prised?'
The pretty dark-haired woman looked taken aback at being addressed, but she said at once, 'Because it confirms some things and explains others. If you'll forgive my presumption, I'm rather more interested in Purn's original mission in the West.' She looked at Mikiss. 'Did you say he was Malich's apprentice?'
Mikiss didn't reply until Zhia turned back to him, whereupon the words spilled out unbidden. 'His apprentice, yes, sent to stir up trouble within the Farlan. I don't know any more.'