Defiler's Curse by H. D. A. Roberts

Author:H. D. A. Roberts [Roberts, H. D. A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-09-05T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 43

“Orpheus,” I said once they were out of sight, “contact the guards we put on Leviathan’s seal. Make sure they’re still in place. And then see if someone can scrape up the numbers to double them up.”

“On it.” He made his way to the side, where he could talk in private.

Hellstrom came over to me, scowling, but also with a spring in her step.

“Not bad, Graves,” she said. She looked me up and down. “You really can’t do anything without getting hurt, can you?”

“I’ve had an unlucky couple of months,” I said in as dignified a way as I could manage while whistling through the gaps formerly occupied by teeth. Which wasn’t very.

“You always were a master of understatement.”

“Thank you.”

“Shame they got away, though. Especially that Shroud character. He doesn’t deserve to just leave.”

BANG!

Gunshot.

Eyes snapped towards the doorway the trio had vanished through.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

There was a silence and then one more, final, gunshot.

“Still feel bad?” I asked evenly.

“What did you do?”

“Left a little program behind in Shroud’s head. I assumed that Rerek would have another card to play, so I put in some instructions that would have him shoot his friend, his charge and then himself the next time he stepped through a Portal.”

She blinked.

“Damn me, Graves, that’s cold.”

“Relax, I had him aim for lower spines and guts. Nobody died. Probably.”

“Oh,” she replied, wiggling her nose. “I suppose I can live with that.”

“I mean, if Rerek then turns around and blasts Shroud into pieces for a perceived betrayal, that’s hardly my fault.”

“You’re making it worse again.”

“Is ‘worse’ really the word?” I replied mischievously.

She snorted.

I banished my Spirits and returned to my seat so I could start dealing with my various wounds. Re-growing the teeth was going to be a nightmare. I hated that. Setting the fingers wasn’t much fun, either, they were going to ache for days after this. Naturally, attempting to fix the cut in my scars just resulted in worse scars. Stupid Behemoth taint...

While I was doing that, Hellstrom was talking to her people, getting them whipped up and on-side. By the time I was finished casting (though not healing, unfortunately), they’d already agreed to send more volunteers to the Garrison and were discussing calling up their Reserves.

Orpheus came back and leant down to whisper to me.

“We’re good. I managed to get a few more men diverted from other maintenance teams, but we are now rather scraping the barrel.”

“It’ll have to do. As long as they know to call us at the first sign of trouble, we should be alright.”

“They do.”

“Okay.”

“God, we really need to tighten up your Healing Constructs,” he said as he got to work replacing my hasty Spells.

“I was in a rush.”

“Evidently.”

I frowned and he grinned back.

Hellstrom wrapped up her speech and opened up the floor for debate while she came back to me.

“How is he?” she asked Orpheus.

“I’m fine,” I said deliberately.

“His thick skull saved him from too much harm,” Orpheus replied, ignoring me.

Hellstrom chuckled. Her phone buzzed before she could say anything back and she picked it up.

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