Page 25 - Mad Shadows II

Valuta went on to tell me that something bad had happened
in Glacken over a century ago, something that had destroyed
the sleepy little hamlet and poisoned all the land thereabouts.
No one knew for certain what had really happened, and no one
had ever bothered to find out. But Glacken had become a ghost
town, and it was said that all you can hear at night was the
moaning of the wind and the croaking of the bullfrogs in the
nearby swamps of Baloo Fen.

“So the ghouls shun the area,” she said. “The Elders believe
it to be cursed and spoiled.”

I leaned back, stretched my legs and gave her a long,
thoughtful look, all the while admiring her beauty, of course.
“You’re going to work a bit of necromancy, aren’t you?”

“Oh, it’s nothing like resurrecting the dead, I assure you.”
Valuta’s amber eyes glittered with amusement. “Have you the
stomach for it?”

“We’ll find out, won’t we? But I’ll need something my
dowsing rod can use as a guide to help me find the graves.
Something from the graveyard or a relic from the church.”

“I thought so.” She reached into a pocket and held out her
hand. “Will this do? I found it in the ruins of the old church.”

She showed me the burnt and broken remains of an Alacrux
medallion: a sword with a wreath of thorns wrapped around its
hilt — the sacred icon of the Estaerine Church.

“That’ll do.”
“So we have a bargain?”
“Lady, for one-hundred marks, I’d venture into Hell with
just a knife and shovel.”
“Oh, those I have, but you won’t need to get any closer to
Hell than that graveyard. If you leave now, you’ll get there by
moonhigh. Supper will be waiting for you when you return.”
She gave me a long, penetrating look. “Unless you’d rather wait
until morning?”
“Hell, it’s just an old cemetery, and I’m not afraid of the
dark, either.”

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