Elisha Daemon by E.C. Ambrose

Author:E.C. Ambrose
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: DAW
Published: 2018-02-06T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

Gasping for breath, Elisha stood once more in Danek’s basement study, staring at the blood-spattered walls. What would happen to a living man left in the Valley? He had no idea. It was not a place like other places, but rather a between, a portal through which the dead must pass, leaving behind their earthly cares. He sank into Danek’s abandoned chair. The indivisi of plague himself suffered from leprosy, a disease that had spoiled his body, but also left him bitter and closed. At any other time, Elisha would have sympathized with the man, suffering first from his sickness, then from the disdain showed to him by other men. It was that suffering and the medical skill that grew from it which had drawn him to Danek—to a man who might be so much like himself. His chest tightened. He reached back, re-opening the Valley through Lucius’s blood, using it to search for the man he had left behind. The swirls among the shadows showed the signs of other travelers, trails of absence in the same way that death left marks upon the earth, but Danek was gone. Elisha returned, once more empty-handed.

Then he remembered his patient’s hair, torn from his scalp to be used—for what? A talisman? Danek hardly needed a talisman of disease, he carried it within him. A charm, then—not a blessing, but a curse. Elisha pictured the night of Guy’s departure, Danek’s parting gesture to present him with a sachet to ward off the pestilence. To be given to the Pope. Good God: he had sent his gift to the heart of the Church itself.

Back in the Maestro’s study, Elisha searched Danek’s few belongings, looking for any clues: writing perhaps, a journal of his accomplishments, or a treatise on his methods; any hint at all of how the plague might be fought, but he found nothing. True to his fears, he found no trace of the boy’s hair either. Facing his ignorance, Elisha considered what to do next—what could possibly be done next. Had Danek given him any lead to pursue? Any course at all to lead him to his next steps? Danek claimed the plague could not be stopped, not by him nor by Elisha. Could it be true? The idea chilled Elisha more than any single death had ever done. The thickening of the Valley and the way it remained so near the surface made passing through it easier than ever, and could be an end unto itself for the mancers who commanded Danek’s terrible design. Thousands were dying, all around Elisha, all the time, his distorted sight barely discerning any more between the living and the dying, and mancers like Silvio became drunk on the power, no longer able to control their dark desires, or no longer caring to conceal them. Danek drained Lucius of his blood to be sure, but he had not the skill to skin him so well.

For a moment, Elisha sat stunned by the recognition that he

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