Wandering Spirit (Bill of the Dead Adventures Book 2) by Rick Gualtieri

Author:Rick Gualtieri [Gualtieri, Rick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Freewill Press
Published: 2020-10-05T16:00:00+00:00

“I will admit to being surprised,” Alexander said as we strolled through the keep, the guards seeming to give him an even wider berth than they had Theodora. “That doesn’t happen often, so you can imagine how appreciative I am when it does.”

“Surprised, my lord?”

“At you. When I first heard of you, that is. I knew the great Khan would eventually send an emissary, but I must admit, I didn’t expect him to send a fellow European.”

“I was there for...”

He held up a hand. “I’m well aware of your journeys. Quite the wanderer, are you not? To have traveled so far despite the frailty of your mortality, braving the unknown. It speaks a lot of the mettle of a man. I should know. But we’re not here to talk about me. The First – the others anyway – will be interested to know that my gamble paid off.”

“Your gamble?”

Alexander grinned at me. “Did you ever stop to wonder how it was that your so-called lord has been allowed to control so much at his relatively tender age?”

I raised an eyebrow, remembering how Sukh had once shared his own thoughts on the matter with me. When I first met the Khagan – the Khan, as Alexander now called him – he was old, in human terms anyway, even if he didn’t look it. By our race’s standards, though, his long years were nothing, especially compared to the man I now stood in front of.

I was well aware that, after a century and a half, I merited a slight modicum of respect among the rabble, yet most of the coven heads of Europe had treated me as if I might soil myself like a newborn at any given moment. And they themselves were little more than children to the First.

In short, age mattered to immortals.

But, as Sukh had once explained, in its absence, power could be used to garner respect, which was precisely the gambit my sire had played. I chose, however, to keep my tongue still on the matter, despite knowing Alexander could rip the information from my mind should he please.

“I imagine that you have not,” he continued, thankfully choosing conversation over compulsion. “And there is a reason for that. You’re loyal to the man. Perhaps not as much as those raised from birth under his rule might be, but I can tell you came to appreciate the spark of greatness within him, never stopping to question how he could be master over so much when others his age might very well still be hunting for derelicts on country roads.”

“You’re right. I never thought to question it.”

“That’s because loyalty is powerful, akin to love in some ways. When Ögedei was turned, my brothers and sisters demanded he be humbled, be made to crawl back up the ranks over the centuries until he’d earned back his seat of power. But I had a different perspective. I’ve seen what happens to an empire when its leader is plucked away and the generals are left scrambling for power.

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