Des doubted the man was still conscious. Seven. Six. They hadn’t given him anything to keep him awake until the last minute.
A shame really.
Two. One. Zero. Des let out a satisfied sigh as the flesh went still. Perfect.
“Why not use the heart in its own body? That’s better, right daddy?”
“Usually. This is a special case. An experiment, if you will.” He turned off to one side and shouted, “Hugo!”
The glassy-eyed boy wheeled in a sheet covered gurney.
“Killing them just makes everything disappear. But your future friend gave me an idea. Several actually, but this one idea is required for the others. You see, parts of them don’t disappear if they were detached before death.”
He whisked off the sheet and tossed it over Hugo’s head.
Three arms, a leg from the knee down, and several things Des couldn’t even guess at all lay on the table. Claws, tentacles, and even eyes. None of them looked remotely human.
“It was tricky and quite enjoyable trying to figure out exactly how much I could get away with before the things died.”
He took one arm off the slab and placed it over their current subject’s arm. “We’ll attach analogous limbs where they go, removing the existing meat. The rest,” he took a hook-like thing–Des couldn’t even decide what it might have been originally used for–and started placing it around the body. “Well, we’ll handle them on a case by case basis.”
Des took the knee-length leg. There was no indication whether it was a left or a right leg. Looking at it closely, it might have even been a hand. “We won’t be able to make these very fast.”
“We’ll get faster with practice. Once this one is finished, I’m sure he’ll be happy to help. Then the next ones we build will help build more which will help build more. And so on! Besides, trying new things is fun! And,” he reached up and pinched both of Des’ cheeks. She could feel the sticky blood he left behind. “It is good bonding time.”
Des would have blushed if she could. She was about to comment back, but her father already had the man’s arm off. How he managed that fast, Des had no idea. She’d have to work double time to even keep somewhat near him.
“Huh,” he said. He brought a bent stitching needle right in front of his wide grin. “I think we need the heavy-duty needles.”
— — —
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
Nel tore the tentacle out of the air in front of her and flung it across the chamber. It landed with a slop against the floor. She slammed her hands into the marble altar.
None of her tension left with that brief bout of rage.
She was so tired. Nel collapsed on the altar, putting her head against the cold marble. Just a short rest.
The peace was intoxicating. Relaxing every day with Lady Ylva. Being well-fed and well-rested. Nothing trying to kill her–probably.
Nel might be a slave, but it was a comfortable life. She doubted Lady Ylva would disallow short trips outside of her domain. She hadn’t bothered asking; it wasn’t like she could leave while the Elysium Order might still be looking for her. Maybe in a year, she’d risk it.
All the peace and quiet made her forget the demands of being an augur.
It wasn’t like she let her abilities wane. Nel kept up tabs on all the people who might potentially become a threat to her. Eva, Arachne, Devon, and Zoe first and foremost. She wouldn’t call it spying, at least not to their faces, but it definitely kept her from atrophying.
No. Simple scrying wasn’t the problem. Finding a target with no information about them or their whereabouts was not only stressful, but near impossible.
And the stupid tentacle monster’s limbs did not help.
Nel had told Eva multiple times, ‘I can only track back the last fifteen minutes of their lives.’ Tracing through someone’s steps further than fifteen minutes got exponentially harder with every passing minute. It was technically possible, but very difficult. The strain from attempting to look further back was the biggest source of her exhaustion.
She’d only been an augur for a year and a handful of months. A task like this would have been handed to one of the higher augurs in the order. The more experienced.
When working for the Elysium Order, any potential fetter would be shipped immediately to the augur. Even at the cost of nuns. Haste was important and they knew it.
What does Eva do? She comes in five hours after the thing died and has the gall to ask Nel who was the one to order the thing around.
Nel would have punched the little abomination in her face had she not been worried that Eva would kick her down the pit with her new legs.
Then there was Lady Ylva. She had a brazen personality at the best of times.
Finding out that two demons had ignored her ring set her off on a rampage.
Nel vowed then and there to never be the cause of ire for the woman. Only a single chain kept the throne in the center chamber from falling into the pit. She had yet to return from the room of sands and water.
There was no doubt in Nel’s mind that the demon would want to know who ordered the attack on Zoe. Nel hoped to have the information by the time Lady Ylva returned.
That wasn’t going to happen.
Nel could search through every building in Brakket within an hour. It wasn’t that large of a town. But the enemy didn’t need to be in town. They could be in Cuba for all Nel knew. When hunting for the Elysium Order, there was always some intel that led to even a vague location. Some starting place to focus her efforts.
This was so far out of her expertise.
But she would try.
Nel lifted her head from the marble slab and slid the frankincense right under her nose. She took a deep breath and started searching.
She couldn’t be useless. She couldn’t afford to be useless. Lady Ylva would realize her mistake in taking Nel in and kick her out to the nuns.
Or worse.
Chapter 012
Eva spun on her heel and caught the rock out of the air.
It was small and not pointed. That was a relief at least. Her fellow students weren’t trying to kill her. It crumbled under the might of her claws. Too easy, far too easy. Probably had been designed to shatter on impact to create dust and a large mark on her back.
Unbelievable.
“A-are you alright?”
“Fine,” Eva ground out while giving a long, hard glare at the group of three students that stood where the rock had come from. She knew which of the three had done it. It did take more concentration to use, but her blood sight didn’t suddenly stop working just because she got eyes.
Not that anyone else knew that. They didn’t know how she got around without eyes in the first place.
Being able to glare again was fun, Eva had to admit. Especially because her new eyes tended to cause others to wilt and run away. She very much enjoyed seeing those three students break into a full sprint down the hall, only to crash into someone coming around a corner.
“That was mean,” Shalise shouted after them.
“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.” Eva let out a soft sigh as she turned back towards their next class. “I liked it better when they were avoiding and ignoring me.”
“You skip alchemy so you probably missed the rumors,” Juliana said.
“What, people think I had something to do with his injuries?”
“It is a well-known fact that you two hate each other.”
Eva gave Juliana a look. Even she shied away from it. New eyes are fun. Eva shook her head and glanced back at Juliana. “We don’t hate each other. I skipped class because he doesn’t let me work. He doesn’t let me work because he’s worried about chemicals soaking into my non-lab safe gloves. That’s a valid reason on both our parts. He isn’t my best friend or anything, but I don’t want him dead.”