Claude de Lune

Himalia

"Are we there yet, Priest?" Amadeus asked from the back of the wagon.

Claud slowed his pace until he walked alongside the wagon's rear wheel. "Almost." Amadeus had been asleep since they left the last waypoint between Viperstone and the coast that morning. He'd walked with them for half a mile the previous day before he almost collapsed. Even though he'd said he was well enough to travel, the liar.

Undine had to force him to ride in the wagon with their luggage. Claud imagined that if Amadeus had refused, would have picked him up and tossed him in there. Now she walked up front, quiet and vigilant as usual.

The winds struck them head on, tinged with salt and sea foam. Hours from now, he'd be on a boat headed south to the archives, ever closer to his goal. Or to nothing. His trip had a dual purpose now. To find his mother and to deliver a message, whose importance Amadeus had stressed since they left Viperstone. But his mother came first. Once he found her, or didn't, then he'd worry about playing messenger.

"Can I ask you something, Preist?" Amadeus sat with his head leaning against the side of the wagon, legs dangling out the back and lute in hand. Strange, he'd never asked for permission to speak his mind before. Perhaps purgatory had made him delirious.

And this was the first time Amadeus allowed Claud to refuse instead of hounding him. Yet he didn't. Perhaps his three-day vigil had made him delirious, too. "Ask away."

He strummed his lute, and soft, plucky notes echoed within the wagon. "What was it like in the Priesthood?"

Claud couldn't stop the cringe tightening his shoulders. "It was... interesting being under the tutelage of the prefects. They always talked big to us, told us we weren't just fighting the netherborne, but fighting for the future of humanity. I ate it up, of course, because I was sixteen and stupid and desperate. Priests get to travel all over the world, and that's what I wanted?"

Amadeus paused his strumming. "Is it not what you got?"

He didn't miss a beat. "No. Once you join the Priesthood, you're trapped. They don't allow you to leave without the permission of someone high up. And they usually refused. The priesthood likes to keep its numbers healthy. And that's nothing compared to the other nefarious dealing they were into. It was no secret what they did to necromancers; they were proud of it."

"And you? Were you proud of it?"

"I didn't care... until I learned my mother was a necromancer. Then everything made sense. Why she left me behind. Why she stopped writing. I could listen to the other trainees talk about the executions anymore. Any of those people could've been her."

Amadeus turned his gaze to the trees. "I see. Knowledge brings clarity. The fire is becomes your enemy once you know it burns and becomes you ally when you learn it soothes."

"You're a philosopher now?" Claud asked with a snort.

"No. It's something on one of my instructors at the archives used to say. She was full of wisdom." He gave a rueful smile that made his eyes glimmer. "She'd knock me over my head if she knew how careless I'd been back there."

Claud breathed a laugh. "She sounds like a treat."

"She is." He laid back in the wagon. "Wake me when we're at the coast."

***

Claud didn't have to wake Amadeus. The noise was more than enough.

The port city had all the raucous of Avaly with none of the charm. The people shouted at each other from across the streets, over the shops and through the alleys. Heck, they spoke in high volumes even to those standing right next to them. Shepherd boys herded livestock, local and exotic, along the sides of the street. Vendors sat by the stands, either yelling sweet, enticing nothings at passerby or yelling obscenities at the "street rats" trying to steal their wares.