The Third Kingdom

The king’s dried flesh seemed to have grown pliable, softened no doubt by Richard’s blood as well as Hannis Arc’s dark conjuring that had united the spirit with its worldly form. With each passing moment, the dead man seemed to move with greater ease, even if not as fluidly as a living person. It was almost as if the transparent presence, the glowing spirit, was in part what animated the corpse.

Richard wondered if what he was really seeing was the spirit of the dead king directing events from the underworld, directing events in the world of life.

The bluish glow of the spirit actually looked more alive than the corpse. The face of the spirit existed in the same place as that of the corpse, so that the bluish glow of its features actually filled in the missing places in the shriveled remains, giving it a fuller nose, lips, and eyes.

The new eyes saw. They looked about. They reacted.

The revived lips smiled with malice at the world around him, a world to which he had once belonged.

Hannis Arc stepped back out of the way as the spirit king swung his feet down over the side of the platform. He sat for a moment as he gazed out at the adoration of the Shun-tuk, all of them in unison now thrusting fists into the air as they chanted as one.

“Sul-a-chan! Sul-a-chan! Sul-a-chan!”

As Richard had suspected, the dead king of the half people was Emperor Sulachan from the Old World, and the old war, his spirit now brought back to the world of life.

Richard wanted to die and get it over with.

CHAPTER

69

The way the spirit king held his blood-soaked robes to his chest with his left arm and loosely clenched fist gave him a kingly pose. He looked around the chamber with a measured, regal grace, taking in the veneration of the masses watching his triumphant return to the world of the living. As the Shun-tuk went crazy chanting his name, the dead Sulachan finally began to smile in approval.

The fluid gaze of the king of the half people, once emperor of all the Old World, swept over the masses filling the cavern. His glowing eyes finally settled on Richard, his benefactor of blood.

Richard glared back. He would have given anything for his sword at that moment.

The awakened king dragged a finger through some of the still-wet blood, Richard’s blood, running down his bony chest.

Richard wished that the poisonous touch of death that he carried in his blood would take the dead man back to the world of the dead where he belonged. He knew, though, that it was an empty wish. It was going to take a lot more than wishing to banish this man from the world of life.

Sulachan brought to his lips the finger he had run through Richard’s blood, tasting it, then closed his eyes with a look of rapture. He opened his eyes again to gaze deliberately at Richard. He smiled as wicked a smile as Richard had ever seen.

All the Shun-tuk in the vast chamber stomped a foot in time to their chant of “Sul-a-chan! Sul-a-chan! Sul-a-chan!”

Still holding Richard’s gaze, the dead king walked across the dried blood on the floor toward the man who had at last rescued his spirit from the underworld—Richard, the one, Richard who had brought him back.

Richard didn’t allow himself to retreat as the king came to a stop before him.

The malevolent smile remained on the glowing bluish lips of the spirit. Even the tight flesh beneath stretched with the self-satisfied smile.

“I have been to the farthest, darkest reaches of the underworld,” the king said in an eerie voice that made Richard’s skin crawl. “I have been welcomed to travel the Keeper’s realm at will.”

“I hope you liked it there,” Richard said with sudden venom of his own, “because I am going to send you back there for good.”

The dead man’s unconcerned smile widened. “When in the darkest regions of that darkest of worlds, I met your father. I rather liked him.”

“I didn’t,” Richard said. “I’m the one who sent him to that dark eternity.”

“I know. He told me.”

The king and his attention began to move on. As he did, Hannis Arc, his tattoos no longer aglow, joined the glowing corpse of the resurrected king.

“Now that I have completed this part, Emperor, we have things to do.”

As they strolled past Richard, the dead king nodded, no longer interested or even seeming to be aware that Richard was still standing there. “Our agreements will be honored, Lord Arc. I have given you my word. Let us begin, then.” He lifted an arm, casually acknowledging the cheering, chanting masses of Shun-tuk. “I, too, am eager to begin.”

Richard wondered what, exactly, they were about to begin.

As he went past, Hannis Arc flashed a dark, impatient look at Vika while gesturing at Richard. “Put him back for now. I will get to him later.”

Vika, hands clasped behind her back, bowed her head. “By your command, Lord Arc.”