A Soul For Trouble

Chapter 4

Trouble stopped asking questions for almost an hour after Dev told her about the necromancer. The silence soothed him after all of her hysterics earlier. Thankfully, the calming spell seemed to work on her.

"Are you hungry?" he asked when the shadows began to lengthen from the late afternoon sun.

Her nose moved from side to side against his back.

He cringed at the thought of what she might have wiped on his cloak. "I'm planning on stopping at an inn tonight. You could use a bath and some suitable travelling clothes."

"I smell bad?"

Far from it. Underneath the smoke, she still smelled of warm bread and baked apples. "You're covered in soot and dirt."

She sighed. "I suppose a bath would be nice, and a hot meal."

A hot meal would do her some good. Several meals, in fact. She was far too thin for his liking. The hollowed recesses under her cheeks and along her collarbones made him fear she would snap in his hands.

"Why did you want to return to that place when they treated you so horribly?"

She removed one hand from his waist. Although he couldn't see what she was doing, he suspected she was playing with the thin gold chain around her neck. "It's the only home I've ever known. My mother was from there."

"And where is she now?"

Her body went rigid. "She died ten winters ago."

"And your father?"

"Why are you interested in my past?"

The acid in her voice almost singed him. He had unwittingly stumbled on a touchy subject with her. But at least now he knew why she worked for that bully of an innkeeper. "I was just curious about you. Perhaps if I knew more, I might understand why Loku chose you."

She flinched, followed by a hiss.

"What?"

"Loku said something very crude."

Despite her reaction, he couldn't suppress his amusement. "That sounds like him."

"Have you ever heard him?"

Her body began to relax against his again, and the sensation felt so good, it almost unnerved him. She was the first female Soulbearer, a fact he couldn't ignore. Dev cleared his mind and focused on her question instead of the pressure of her cheek between his shoulders. "I've had a few conversations with him over the years. Occasionally, he'll take over the Soulbearer's body and speak."

"Like last night?"

The image of her face when Robb grabbed her hand and Loku spoke to her flashed in his mind. He'd called her tasty. Odd choice of words for the thin girl riding behind him. Dev had drawn his sword and was about to rouse Robb from Loku's control with a whack on the shins when the assassin's blade lodged itself in the old man's back.

Guilt over his failure weighed down his limbs like heavy chains. This was the first time a Soulbearer had been murdered. He feared what the Mages' Council would say when they learned about it. They would probably strip him of his responsibility. Not that he minded. He'd been risking his life to protect Soulbearers for over a century now, and Loku had thwarted him at every opportunity.

"Why did you choose her over me, Loku?" he asked.

Trouble flinched again.

"What did he say?"

She hesitated. "He said you were too stiff."

"Were those his exact words?"

"Um, no, but I don't want to repeat what he said exactly."