Fires That Forge by R J Hanson

Author:R J Hanson [Hanson, R J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9798621162634
Publisher: Hanson Publishing
Published: 2020-04-05T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter IX

The Family Business

“Jaime, you understand what I need you to do?” Silas asked.

“Yes, sir,” Jaime said, not taking his eyes from the silver coin pinched between Silas’s thumb and king finger.

“Repeat it back to me,” Silas said.

“I’m to mark the third stone in and fourth up from the gate in front of that wizard tower,” Jaime said. “I mark it with an ‘x’ with a line under it.”

“Good lad,” Silas said. “Where did you get this coin?”

“Found it, sir,” Jaime said, smiling.

“Good lad.”

Silas handed over the coin and Jaime sprinted from the examination room. Silenstui would be along soon enough and would likely not raise a brow at Silas’s current study. Silas moved to the door that locked away his vials, tonics, and herbs and produced a key from his pocket. Unlocking the door, a door Dunewell had sat next to not half an hour prior, Silas opened it and hauled the body from within.

Once the vampire’s latest victim was on the examination table, Silas went to his usual practice. He carefully studied the clothing, the soles of the simple leather shoes, the fingernails, the teeth, and the graying orbs that had served for eyes to the deceased. From time to time he would stop to make a note or two on a piece of parchment nearby.

It struck him that there was no involuntary loss of bodily fluid. There was no sign of urine or feces on the specimen’s clothing. This indicated the use of either some sort of paralytic or calming agent. Fascinating!

His initial examination done; he removed the fellow’s clothing. Livor mortis had fully settled, obscuring any evidence of bruising on the subject’s lower extremities. However, Silas didn’t expect to find anything of interest there. He did notice that the coloration was a bit dark.

Livor mortis, sometimes called lividity or hypostasis, was the occurrence of blood settling to the lowest areas of the body once the heart ceased pumping. This pooling caused the blood to gather or settle in those areas, in turn causing discoloration. Silas had found measuring the varying degrees of livor mortis a useful means of determining a time of death.

Silas made a slight incision in the subject’s heel and collected a sample of the blood pooled there. He mixed a portion of it with a clear liquid in a vial and poured another portion into a nearby flame. He was amazed.

The color and smell of the smoke indicated blood bereft of life for weeks although this subject had clearly not been dead for more than a few days at most. The blood failed to mix with the potion he’d prepared which also indicated the blood was from a creature that had been dead for closer to a month. His mind swirled with possibilities.

After several minutes of work Silas had drained all the blood from his subject and found that every bit of it was consistent with his sample. This man’s body had been dead for a day; two at the most. However, his

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