Karina Témoin continued to urge Liliana Vess to flee Caligo before Liliana Vess caught and collared her. The more she spoke against her mistress, the hotter her collar became.
What does this mean?
“Your words…they trigger this punishment?” Liliana asked, with more fascination than horror.
That’s fairly sophisticated spellwork.
Karina nodded and winced in pain. “I’m not supposed to speak against the mistress. But milady, please, you must not stay. I wouldn’t wish this life on my worst enemy.”
I know the feeling.
“Not even on Liliana Vess,” Liliana Vess said.
Because I might…
“Well.” Karina grimaced. “Maybe I’d make an exception for that one.” The collar glowed brightly, and the woman bit her hand hard enough to draw blood in order to stifle her cry of pain.
More pain in service to Liliana Vess.
Suddenly Liliana realized what an unfeeling excuse for a human being she was. “Stop talking,” she urged the servant. “Here, let me help you.” Liliana grasped Karina’s bleeding hand in hers, pulling mana from the blood and willing that energy up to the woman’s neck and throat. It seemed to soothe the burn.
Well, look at that. I’m good for something.
Karina’s eyes went wide. “You’re a healer, milady?”
A healer. Please. Though I studied to be a healer once…less than a hundred yards from here, more than a hundred years from here…
“Something like that,” Liliana responded. Of course, all she had done was redirect the woman’s own life force to address the more significant source of pain. It was a zero-sum game. But it had served its purpose. And Liliana felt somewhat better herself—somewhat better about herself—for having done it. “Where can I take you?”
Let me do one good thing…
Karina shook her head, clearly about to urge Liliana to run away again.
No!
Liliana said, “Don’t speak. I understand. But I can’t leave you here in this condition. There must be somewhere I can take you, madame.”
One good thing…
The woman looked on Liliana with pity and some little gratitude.
The first and last person to do that in a few decades.
Finally, Karina nodded her head toward an outbuilding a few hundred yards from the mansion. Supporting the old woman, Liliana helped her along. It continued to actually feel good to help her.
I must be pathetically needy.
As they drew closer, Liliana attempted to still her thoughts and asked, “The servants’ quarters?”
Karina nodded again.
They entered. It was a kind of bunkhouse. There must have been nearly a hundred souls living in these cramped quarters. Most were asleep. A few were preparing to sleep. A few more were getting up to do whatever service was required of them. Every single one wore a gold collar exactly like Madame Témoin’s.
These aren’t servants. They’re prisoners.
“Tell me what happened here,” Liliana commanded.
A passing servant looked instantly panicked and shook her head violently to warn Karina off from speaking.
Another said, “Who is this woman?”
“I think I’ve seen her in town,” said a third.
Of course, none of them thought for a moment that she might be Liliana Vess.
Karina said, “I found her stumbling through the swamp. She was headed for the mansion.”
“Then let her,” said an old man who was pulling on his boots.
“Just tell me what happened,” Liliana repeated. “Certainly you can relate plain facts without saying anything that would result in punishment.”
Karina seemed to consider this. Then she nodded. “Yes. If I choose my words carefully, I should be all right.”
“Please. I don’t want you to hurt yourself for my sake.”
I have enough guilt, thank you very much.
Karina shook her self-bitten hand. Now that her neck burns had eased, it was clearly smarting. But she managed to ignore it. “Let’s see,” she began. “I believe it started just after word came of the destruction of the Cabal’s lich knight.”
“Yes,” Liliana said as neutrally as she could manage, “I’ve heard of him. I’d…heard of his demise.” Liliana knew that the “lich knight” referred to was Josu. He had been her first victim. She had loved her brother dearly and had sought to save his life, but instead she had cursed him with madness and had been forced to kill him herself. The Cabal later raised him as a lich, and Liliana had been forced to kill him all over again. But as he had died for the second and final time, he had told her she was a curse upon their family.
A curse upon anyone or anything I ever care about—even (especially) upon myself.
“For a brief time,” Karina was saying, “life in Caligo was good. But nature must indeed abhor a vacuum. Or at least evil does. Will-o’-the-Wisps began appearing every night in unusually high numbers. I’m sure you know the story…”
“Story?”
“From The Fall of the House of Vess. Everyone knows it.”
Liliana swallowed hard and said, “It’s been some time for me. Could you refresh my memory?”
Karina laughed ruefully. “I certainly can. I know the tale by heart, I do. My old nan read it to me on stormy nights when I was young. To keep me in my bed.”
“Did it work?”
“On me, yes. Others weren’t as cautious.”
“Or as wise.”
Karina nodded her thanks and then looked toward the ceiling, summoning up the passage, which she then recited from memory: “On dark nights you can still see the light of the Vess girl’s lantern out in the Caligo, seeking her lost brother. Those who follow are doomed to join her endless search.”
Liliana wondered who had authored this Fall of the House of Vess and how she or he had gotten everything so wrong and so right, simultaneously.
Karina said, “Everyone knows this passage, and no one was foolish enough to follow the Wisps. But this time we didn’t have to follow them. They converged at the cemetery, and she appeared.”
“Who?”
“The Curse of the House of Vess.”
“Liliana?” Liliana asked with renewed fascination.
“Liliana,” Karina confirmed.
Other “servants” began to back away.
The old man with the boots warned Karina, “Watch your tongue, you old fool.”
“I speak no treason by simply relating what happened,” Karina said in a secretive whisper that indicated less confidence than she pretended to. “Besides, I think the mistress likes for folks to know who she is.” The fact that Karina’s collar wasn’t heating up seemed to confirm her conclusion—for now. “Liliana’s first servants were the raised dead. Long dead. Thankfully, no one we loved or even recognized as having died in our lifetime was abused in this way.”
“Thankfully,” Liliana echoed. “I assume there was a fight.”
“Of course. But Liliana Vess’ zombies were capable of surviving blow after blow without the slightest damage—”
“You mean they took the damage and kept coming?”
“No, milady. I meant what I said. They were invulnerable.”
Invulnerable zombies?
“We were all forced to surrender. Collars were placed around our necks, and we were forced to serve, to rebuild the mansion, farm the lands. Everything.”
“I don’t understand. Why does this ‘Liliana’ need living thralls if she has undead servants. Did she release them back to their graves?”
“I have no idea where most of her undead minions went. A few still guard her person, but the rest just disappeared.”
“I see. She has a few with her now? Right now?”
“Half a dozen or so. Right across the grass in the main house.”
Liliana reached out then with her magics but could sense no undead activity in the area. None. Period.
This is all very strange.
Karina said, “Now will you go, milady?”
Liliana didn’t answer. She thought about Karina’s story for a long time. Finally, she said, “I want to meet this ‘Liliana Vess.’ ”