Monster Planet(77)

'You saved me, you healed me,' she said, feeling like a toddler, feeling like her dad was the strongest man on earth. 'I got too close to the fungus queen. That was supposed to be fatal.'

Dekalb put an arm around her shoulder and lead her through the house. The furniture inside, the fixtures of the rooms meant nothing to her. They passed through the front door and into the street overrun with trees.

'I didn't know I had it in me,' he said. 'Your Egyptian, um, friend came and found me. He said you were dying and I was the only one who could stop it. I didn't know what he was talking about but then I saw you looking so blue and still and I couldn't help it, I just picked you up and held onto you and suddenly you started coughing. I guess I did something. It left me so tired, though. I kind of want to just go back to my tower.'

'What about her?' Sarah asked, fear suddenly blooming inside her, cold and sweaty. 'What about the one I shot, the, the lich I shot?'

Ptolemy raised one arm and pointed down the street. Sarah saw the building where she had taken refuge. One whole side of its facade had crumbled down into the street. In the exposed innards of the place she saw a tangle of rebar sticking out of half of a retaining wall. A human figure had been impaled on half a dozen spars'clearly the work of someone with superhuman strength. She glanced at Ptolemy and the mummy bowed.

The impaled woman looked nothing at all like the blight demon. She was short, almost as short as Sarah and her skin was barely mottled with fungus. Her head was missing altogether. Sarah looked down and saw it near the woman's feet, scorched and silvered. It sat on top of the remains of a campfire.

'He burned it for six hours straight,' her father told her. 'That should do it. She wasn't like Gary. I'm pretty sure.'

Sarah felt weak and sick and feverish but she had to see for herself. She climbed up into the ruined building, whimpering a little every time she put her foot down on a pile of broken bricks and it started to slide away from her. Eventually she reached the skull. She picked it up and slammed it against a block of concrete. It cracked open and inside she found only ashes.

It was about as dead as you could get. It would have to be enough.

Looking at the corpse, of what had been done to sanitize the lich, a cold feeling seeped through her hands, her wrists. Up her forearms. She had something to do. A duty. She had pretended like she was done, that her responsibilities were discharged. She had hidden in fear. Not anymore. She knew what had to be done.

'The Tsarevich isn't going to like this,' she said, scrambling back down into the street. 'I think we just declared war. What happened to her soldiers?'

The soapstone buzzed under her fingers.i scattered chased them chased they scattered

Sarah nodded. 'So they probably went back to their master. What about those relics she was after, did you figure out why he wanted them?'

no

Sarah frowned. He could be clear-spoken when he wanted.

He had gathered them up while she was examining the dead lich's skull. He handed them to her and she studied them. The length of fur was matted and disgusting. The noose looked like it might fall apart at any second. She studied the sword, though, and something about it called to her. It was ancient, truly ancient, and bright green with verdigris. The blade had fused with its scabbard and showed a spot of bronze at its tip, as if someone had used it like a walking stick and repeatedly struck it against hard ground. The hilt was made of twisted cable and fashioned in the shape of a howling warrior. She grasped it with one hand, intending to wave it through the air a few times and get a feel for its balance. Before she could lift it, though'

'dare you, I've given you a command! You will do as I say, and you'll do it now, lass, because there is one f*cking lot more riding on this than you think. I'

The voice in her head made her want to drop the sword, made her want to cover her ears it was so loud. It made her teeth shake. When it stopped she felt like someone was looking right into her head, like whoever it was who belonged to the sword had noticed her intrusion, had become aware that she could hear him. At the same time she realized exactly who it was. Or who he had always said he was.

Sarah,he said.Dearie, you're not supposed to be here. Not yet.

'Hi, Jack,' she replied. She let go of the sword. It clattered on the street. Her hand buzzed and shook'she had to grab her wrist to make it stop. It felt like she'd been polluted by bad energy, but the feeling faded once she was rid of the relic. She turned to her father. 'Whose sword is this?' she demanded. 'Did it belong to Jack before he became a ghost?'