The Stone Sorceress

Chapter 41

Chapter 41

Eros winced in pain when he touched his bandaged torso. Sitting up in his bed, he saw a woman wearing two pistols on her hip arguing with a doctor. The mage at her side looked at Eros, and whispered something into her ear.

"You're awake," Typhon said rushing over.

Sabriel asked, "How are you feeling?"

"It appears that I'm alright." Eros was still reliving the horrors, reconstructing events in his mind.

"Was it really him?"

"Yes."

"How?"

Eros moved in his bed, "He's become the devil." He looked from the mage to the gunslinger, "I couldn't match him."

"Remember that you don't need to face him alone."

They shared a look of solidarity.

Eros asked, "Why did you come back?"

"Look what happens to you when we don't," Sabriel laughed, "Somebody has to look after you."

Eros smiled.

"We overheard a drunkard in a tavern, he spoke of a devil fly upon a winged stallion--"

"With a pretty lady."

"I knew this wasn't over, that the third stone was in Nunnehi."

"Where you--"

"-- and the princess where."

"We knew we had to make it back here."

"Sorry for being late," Sabriel said.

"I'm glad you returned."

Typhon said, "But it seems that we've missed the action."

"What happened after I passed out?"

"Thanatos retreated in the wake of your duel."

Eros grumbled, "He had what he came for."

The gunslinger continued, "You and the admiral were brought here. Aegis received treatment, and discharged herself."

"She's made of tough stuff," Typhon interjected.

"And..." Eros was worried about sparking another fight.

Sabriel read his intention, "Astraea has remained here under close watch." She paused before saying, "It couldn't have been easy for her, to do what she did."

Eros was silent. Aurora, meanwhile, had entered the ward, and now rushed forward to embrace him. Skoll wasn't far behind her. The admiral too had heard Eros was awake, and came over to see him.

"How are you?" Eros said.

"I'll live," Aegis continued after a brief pause, "Which is more than many can say after encountering Uroboros on the high seas."

During the ensuing silence, Eros's eyes settled upon Astraea, who lingered at the far end of the room. The others followed his eyes, and, deciding to give the two some time, they excused themselves.

The sorceress came to his bedside, her physiognomy was that of a woman who felt in trouble: her head was lowered, and her eyes only momentarily looked up to satisfy herself that he was alright.

"How are you?" Eros asked.

Astraea said, "How am I? I should be asking you."

"I'll be fine." Eros, on one elbow, reached out, and raised Astraea's chin, she looked at him.

"Why?" He asked.

"I couldn't watch him kill you, that's all." Astraea didn't open up easily; if it were otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to survive all this time. "I love him." Astraea looked out the window before looking back at Eros, "I don't need to tell you of the man he was. But," Astraea looked down, Eros took her hand in his, "He is changed, there's a darkness in him now. I don't know where it comes from."

Eros conjectured that the king was inviolate and that if Thanatos had truly killed the devil, as surreal as that was, then he would have ascended, which is to say that Thanatos, his old friend, was now the anti-christ.

"Thankyou," Eros said returning to the moment. He leaned in, Astraea rose to meet him, and the two kissed.

The others felt that they had given the pair sufficient time together, thus discharging decorum, and returned to Eros's bedside. After a degree of conversing Eros asked Aegis if she knew anyone learned in sorceress lore. He explained that somehow, they were what this was all about.

Aegis replied, "Nebuchadnezaar."

"The playwright?"

"Yes, if there's an authority on sorceri, it's him."

Aurora said, "We cannot seriously take a history lesson from a playwright?"

"Nebuchadnezaar is an aficionado on the subject having conducted many researches on them. He is obsessed with the romance surrounding the sorceri, and considers the past excellent source material for his stories." She continued, "And they are not all fiction, his seminal work, The Sorceress Wars, is said to be a dramatisation of historical fact." Eros smiled because he easily perceived that Aegis was a lover of the stage. She humoured him by elaborating a little, "I'll have you know, that The Sorceress Wars is a timeless story in which Arethusa, desperately seeking to keep safe her lands falls into darkness, and is lost forever."

Eros cried in pain, Astraea had squeezed his hand so tight.

"I would very much like to hear what he has to say," Astraea said.

Eros rose from bed, nurses rushed over when he fell to the floor. Despite their protestations he left the ward. He too had recalled the name – Arethusa – and he caught the wavery tenor in Astraea's voice. He wanted to meet the playwright. Astraea supported him, her head under an arm that lay across her shoulders.

Nebuchadnezaar's magnificent residence once belonged to Anone Chantelle, a duchess whose debauch and frivolities had ruined her. The portico mansion possessed a history that attested to its splendour. Within the stucco walls countesses had damned priests, fortunes had been squandered, and secrets lay buried.

The company was told to wait a short while when they arrived because they were not expected. The playwright entered more a wizard than a writer with a white beard, long robes. He was a little corpulent, but possessed a kind face. He held his arms wide as if he were on stage performing to an audience, and said, "Admiral Aegis, the Princess of Hyperion," he bowed as if to applause, "I am Nebuchadnezaar."