In a World without God

Chapter 52

Meeting this woman today was a stroke of luck, perhaps. Edulis thought so.

The woman wore a dragon's skull on her head. A fierce gleam shone through its hollow eye sockets. Her own eyes were pitch black without any whites, and her pupils were yellow like a cat's. Her skin was pale and blue, like that of a corpse.

"I don't smell the savages. Nor the scent of death. What is this?"

She spoke to the Harvester as if she could not see Edulis standing before her. Tentacles like snail antennae extended from the hooded face of the harvester. One, two, or three, long lines of tentacles groped through the air, and it created a gurgling, strangled sound.

The woman exclaimed. "Thirty people? There are only thirty people in the forest? Where did they all go?"

The gurgling sound continued.

"They can't have known we were coming...shit, I'm going to get in trouble again. It's bad enough that I'm being used for this shitty repetitive labor, now I'm going to get in trouble?"

The woman didn't even care about Edulis. It was as if he were a fly or a mosquito that she could swat away with a wave of her hand.

Edulis spoke up. "Nekveta, you may not pass through here."

Only then did the woman, Nekveta, look at Edulis, frowning.

"What? A child dares to utter such a noble name? Where did you learn it?"

"None of your business."

Nekveta looked Edulis up and down, then laughed. "I don't know anyone who might know me, um...oh, are you the fool who ran away from the Holy City, the reincarnation of Bosha?"

Edulis just glared at her.

"If you're Bosha, aren't you the coward who ran away until Lutea came along?"

He was right. The necromancer Nekveta was the kingdom's nightmare, and dealing with her army of immortals was no easy task. Dead allies were instantly reanimated as enemies. All they could do was wait for the light of Lutea to quell the undead. Bosha did the same.

"Hurry, finish this!" Nekveta beckoned. With that, Edulis lowered his stance. The tip of the black curved sword dangled toward the floor, and his knees bent toward the ground. All his weight was on his lower body and his sword.

As a headless quadruped began to screech and run, Edulis's body lurched forward, like an arrow wrapped in light. The silver arrow tore through the dry air, slicing through the bodies of the headless quadrupeds the Harvester was riding, slicing them in two in an instant. It was only a second.

More gurgling sounds. The Harvester on the ground shuffled to his feet. This is good. Without anything to ride, they are awfully slow.

"Come at me, Nekveta."

Nekveta must be killed. Edulis thought back to Kurzina's report.

- But soon the tables were turned. An army led by Nekveta surprised the kingdom's forces in Sijia.

- Igrainne was lost in the battle.

Granadilla led the Kingdom's army under the guise of Ygraine, and Nekveta slaughtered them. This happened after Bosha's death.

Nekveta is one of the great pillars of the witch's forces, and an enemy of the fallen army of the kingdom.

Nekveta shouted irritably, "Now I have to walk because of you. That bitch Akale gets to sit and relax all day, why couldn't I have that!"

Then she recited an incantation.

"Rivers flow and become seas, life flows and becomes death, so those who sleep beneath you, turn back death for me, Nekveta."