Void Domain, Book 02 полностью

Nel followed it outside, up the handful of steps to the dorm, and into the building. It gathered again just inside; a much smaller ball of light this time. Up the steps it went and Nel followed. Through the door to room three-one-three.

Shalise lay in bed, unmoving.

“Taking a nap,” Nel said. “In her bed.”

“She isn’t talking to a poorly dressed woman?”

“The trace indicates she talked to someone in a hallway of the school, then there was a short pause in the lobby of the dorms. That couldn’t have been longer than a simple greeting.” Nel paused as she watched Sister Cross bite the edge of her lip. “I could search deeper, if you need?”

“No,” Sister Cross said. “There wouldn’t have been enough time for any lengthy conversations if she’s already in her room.”

Nel sighed as Sister Cross seemed to relax. She hadn’t realized her heart was beating so hard until she let her guard down.

“Sister Stirling.”

Nel almost jumped to her feet. Her breath caught at the hard look Sister Cross gave her. No, not her. Sister Cross was looking over her shoulder.

It took a small amount of effort to avoid cursing in front of the other nun as she turned to look. Nel had forgotten one thing.

“What is that?”

“The frankincense gets to be too much,” Nel said. “It must be ventilated.”

The open window flew shut. The glass cracked and shattered, pieces falling over her bed.

Nel started in her seat. She whipped her head back to face Sister Cross.

The woman’s brown eyes had gone full white.

Flinching back, Nel caught her fall on the edge of the altar. The table jolted.

A hot coal bounced out of the burner and landed on the altar. It skidded across the marble surface, burning the tablecloth as it went.

Nel quickly grabbed it with her gloved hands and tossed it back into the burner. The cloth fingertips of her gloves almost burnt through. Luckily I have spares.

“Sister Stirling.”

She almost knocked the burner over at the tone in Sister Cross’ voice.

“I gave strict orders not to do anything that would draw attention to you. The necromancer knows what an augur is. He was after you. He may know that you use frankincense to induce your visions.”

“The air must be ventilated,” Nel repeated. “I will die otherwise.”

“Find another method then. It is an honor and a privilege to be an augur. Replacing you wouldn’t be hard, but it would be tedious.”

It doesn’t feel like either a privilege or an honor, Nel thought. She couldn’t even remember why she chose to become an augur.

“Pack your bags, Sister Stirling. We’ll be relocating you again tomorrow.”

The fire faded from Sister Cross’ eyes as she stood. Without even a glance at the augur, Sister Cross turned and left the room. The door slammed as she went.

A cold breeze of fresh air blew in from the broken window.

Nel took a deep breath. “At least relocating will mean fresh air. For a few hours.”

With a sigh, she started picking up bits of broken glass from her bed. She wanted a nap too. The abomination was just having textbooks read to her by her pet. Not even worth noting.

Sister Cross left the small house they had appropriated by the front door. It was abandoned, near as anyone could tell. A small house on the outskirts of Brakket.

A thought occurred to Nel as she watched Sister Cross leave through her window. She broke the window. All the fresh air was billowing in and the frankincense was leaving.

But… Keeping the frankincense in was the whole reason the window was supposed to be shut. They were relocating tomorrow? Why not now? Was Sister Cross providing an opportunity for the necromancer to come out?

Nel gasped a lungful of fresh air. “Am I bait?” she whispered to herself. “Or…”

She glanced back at the floating hair and leg. They hovered just above the altar, right where she left them.

“Is she trying to kill me?”

Nel scrambled back to the altar.

She knew a lot that she had been forbidden from telling the other nuns. They weren’t allowed to have contact with her at all anymore.

If the necromancers did show up and killed her, Sister Cross could just say it was because of opening her window. If she bothered to explain at all.

Nel did a quick scan of the three items already floating over the altar. None of them had moved in the last fifteen minutes, it didn’t take more than a second.

The small brown hair floated out of her desk and above the burner. Nel tossed another two beads of frankincense on the coals and took a deep breath.

Her room vanished once again, only to be replaced by her room. This version of her room had a ball of light hovering on the other side of her altar.

She followed it out, past the two guards with blindfolds and earplugs. It went down the stairs and out the door.

The line of light formed into a tiny ball a short distance down the street.

It just ended.