Rian, Halbert, and Ransey left the Sancta, leaving Chayer that morning. They reached Fiddle again at night. Ransey went to the inn. Rian went to the graveyard with Halbert, neither of them saying anything. The smell around Rian had gotten worse, though only Ransey complained about it. Rian’s entire right arm was rotting now, along with other parts of him. Sleep didn’t give him energy, and neither did resting on burial ground.

The next night they were in Marl. Despite the snow, Rian went to the graveyard with Halbert. It was a cold night, but Rian stayed in the graveyard, huddled against a tree. When they reached Noantha the next night, the snow was coming down in thick drifts.

“It’s too cold for you to sleep outside,” Halbert said. “I’ll go to the inn with you.”

Ransey sighed. “Maybe the cold in the room will lessen the smell.”

“It’s your lady that did this,” Halbert said. “I thought you said it was a gift.”

“Not the smell,” Ransey said.

Rian wondered about what Percival had said, about the Speaker of the Dead having opposed Mortua. Maybe that was why Mortua wanted him dead and in her grasp, other than her just not liking undead. It was warmer in the inn, bringing Rian’s thoughts back to the moment. The three of them sat at a table in the back corner. The other tables were full.

A woman joined them at the table, the hood of her dark brown cloak back. Her long black hair was tied in two loose braids. Her eyes were a light shade of brown. Her clothes looked weathered, though not so ragged as Rian’s and Halbert’s. She had a sheathed sword at her belt. Ransey raised a brow at her but said nothing.

“Eiva,” Halbert said with a nod.

Eiva smiled. “Halbert. Rian.” She nodded to both of them.

Ransey sighed. “You must be the wayward Sancta Knight these two led astray.”

Eiva’s smile vanished. She gave Ransey a cold look. “It’s the Sancta who led me astray.” She looked at Rian and Halbert. “I stopped by the Sancta to officially resign and heard Mortua allowed the two of you to get involved in her problem.”

“It’s a problem for all of Ivrua,” Ransey said.

Eiva ignored him. “I’m worried about her motives.”

“As am I,” Halbert said. “She’s done something to Rian, to get him in her grasp.”

Eiva looked at Rian. “What has she done?” She sniffed. “And what’s rotting?”

“Me,” Rian said. He lowered his hood and showed her his arm.

Eiva frowned hard. She looked at Ransey with a frightening glare.

“Perhaps she is repaying him for his help,” Ransey said. “I don’t understand why all of you think being eternally bound to restless bones is preferable to a proper death.”

“Preferable to rotting to death,” Eiva said.

Ransey sighed. “I’ll let the three of you catch up. I’ll be in the room.” He left the table and went upstairs.

“Did you find out more about your magic?” Rian asked.

Eiva frowned. “I was searching for the one known as the Raven Witch. There’s mostly only rumors and legends about her, but I believe she may be my mother. Maybe she can help me understand my magic, why ravens are so drawn to me.” She sighed. “I can continue that search later. I’m going with you to stop the cults.”

“The Sancta—” Halbert began.

“The Sancta is busy with their pointless trial,” Eiva said. “What’s the point of a trial if all involved believe the accused is guilty? I don’t think they’ll be paying attention to this, even if Ransey does find out about my magic. They expect this to be dealt with by Ransey and those chosen by the gods. Did you know most of the Sancta doesn’t know the gods chose a necromancer to help Ransey?” She smiled. “I wonder what they would think of that.”

“I think it was a way to get the Speaker of the Dead out of the way,” Halbert said. “Clearly there’s more to that title than the dead told me.”

“They didn’t tell me anything about it either,” Rian said.

Eiva frowned. “All the more reason to go with you. You’ll need an ally. Ransey certainly isn’t your ally.”

The three of them shared the room with Ransey that night. In the morning, the four of them left Noantha for a village not far from the mountain ruins. It was even colder out there. Rian had never been to this village before and didn’t know its name. It was medium sized, with a good sized graveyard at the edge. Rian shivered against the snow, more than Eiva and Ransey. He had his hood up again as part of his neck was rotting.

“I’ll see if I can find the house Frida said to look for,” Ransey said. “Hopefully I can make a good start on getting us in there tomorrow morning. Meet me at the inn.”

“Is he always so demanding?” Eiva asked.

Halbert nodded. “He’s always been like that.”

The three of them went to the inn, finding a table in a back corner of the main room. Ransey joined them there a while later. He and Eiva ate.

“How did it go?” Eiva asked.

“It went well,” Ransey said. “You, me, and Rian will search the house tomorrow.” He frowned at Rian. “Though that smell could become a problem.”

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“Did the house smell particularly good?” Eiva asked.

“No,” Ransey said. “I said it could become a problem, not that it will be.”

In the morning, Halbert went to the graveyard while Rian and Eiva went with Ransey to a house that looked about to collapse. The wood appeared wet in places. Ransey knocked on the front door, which was answered by a man wearing a dirty black apron. Were those bloodstains on the apron? It was hard to tell. The man smiled when he saw Ransey and opened the door further.

“Who have you brought with you?” the man asked.

“This is Rian and Eiva,” Ransey said.

Rian kept the hood of his cloak up.

The man nodded. “The more the better.”

The three of them entered the narrow hall that smelled of mold.

“The others are already here,” the man said. “In the back.”

They followed him along the hall, passing a few closed doors along the way. The man opened the door at the end of the hall. The room was crowded, like the basement at the other cult house. The one window had been boarded over. There were a lot of candles lit on small tables around the room. At the front of the room was a long wooden table, but no one was strapped to it. The man moved to the front of the room and started the meeting.

“Eiva,” Ransey whispered. “Are you good at sneaking around?”

“Possibly,” Eiva said. “I haven’t done much of it.”

“Look for a dagger with a dark blade,” Ransey said. “I didn’t see it with him.”

Eiva left the room.

The man at the front of the room was talking, but Rian barely heard him. Something else had his attention. The feeling from before was back, a feeling of something stirring inside of him. He still didn’t know what it was, or why it felt familiar. He hadn’t felt it on the way back to Haren, or much on the way back to the Sancta before. Rian tried to focus on what the man was saying, but he couldn’t. He wanted nothing more than to sleep, not that it would do any good.

Eiva came back before long. “I didn’t find any daggers,” she whispered.

Ransey frowned hard.

The meeting concluded without any mention of a dagger, or of future sacrifices. Ransey, Eiva, and Rian met up with Halbert at the graveyard. Rian felt the energy of the burial ground as soon as he entered the graveyard, but it still couldn’t reach him past what Mortua had done.

“We didn’t find the dagger,” Ransey said. “I will return there tonight and see what I can find.”

“We’ll be at the inn,” Eiva said, shivering in the light snow.

For now they all went to the inn, finding a table in a far corner. There weren’t many people at the inn. The day dragged on. When the sun had set, Ransey left for the cult house alone. Rian was relieved Ransey hadn’t wanted him and Eiva to come. He was certain the house had smelled worse than he did.

“Have you heard the voices of the dead recently?” Halbert asked Rian.

“No,” Rian said. “What Mortua did is stopping them from reaching me.” Sometimes he thought he heard them in the distance, or heard far off whispers when he slept.

“Likely part of her plan,” Halbert said.

Eiva frowned. “Do we have any idea how to undo what she did?”

“Not yet,” Halbert said.

Ransey joined them at the table, grinning. “The cult leader has been in constant contact with someone in Urvus. I believe the next cult could be in Veron.” His grin faded. “This cult is going to sacrifice someone out in the forest tomorrow night.”

“We’ll be there,” Eiva said.

Ransey nodded. “They’ll do it when the sun goes down.”

The four of them went up to the one inn room. Rian barely slept. In the morning, more of him was rotting than before, and the feeling of wrongness had gotten only stronger. Ransey started grumbling about the smell as soon as he was awake. Rian, Halbert, and Eiva went to wait at the graveyard. They would meet Ransey at the inn just before sunset.

Rian sat at the base of a tree, shivering. He pulled his cloak closer around him, but it didn’t help much. His cloak was soaked through in places by what was seeping out of the rotting parts of him. His clothes were even more wet and stained. The energy of the burial ground tried to go into him, but it couldn’t. He desperately wanted it to. Halbert and Eiva were talking quietly not far off.

“If he doesn’t eat and can’t draw energy from burial ground, then what’s sustaining him?” Eiva asked.

“I don’t think anything is,” Halbert said. “I don’t know how much longer we have to undo this.”

Rian closed his eyes. He thought he heard the voices of the dead in the distance, but the voices didn’t get any closer and soon faded away again. When the sun was setting, the three of them met up with Ransey back at the inn, then headed for the small group of trees not far from the village. It wasn’t quite a forest compared to the ones at the borders of the countries, but Ransey seemed certain this was the right place.

The four of them moved more quietly when they reached the trees. Rian heard talking up ahead. The cult was making no effort to be quiet. Soon he saw the group from the house in the village up ahead. A man lay on the ground at the front of the group, his hands bound with rope. The cult leader, with his stained black apron, knelt beside the man. He raised the dark dagger.

Ransey reached for the hilt of his sword. Ravens cried out overhead, a loud chorus from at least forty of them. The ravens swooped down on the gathered cultists. The cultists screamed, running in every direction. The leader lowered his dagger, fending off two ravens. Rian, Ransey, Eiva, and Halbert left the cover of the trees. Eiva looked worried, glancing around at the ravens. Had she called them?

Something stirred inside of Rian again, fighting what Mortua had done. Whatever it was, it couldn’t stop what Mortua had done. The feeling faded quickly. The cult leader tried to run when Ransey drew his sword, light glowing along the blade. Was it Mortua approving of what he was doing, or all of the gods? The cult leader lunged with the dagger. Ransey blocked, swiping the dagger out of the man’s hand easily. The cult leader ran.

Ransey took the dagger from the ground, then untied the ropes on the would be sacrifice’s hands and helped him to his feet. All the cultists had run. The ravens had flown away, leaving the forest quiet again. Ransey talked to the man who had almost been sacrificed, while Rian, Halbert, and Eiva waited nearby.

Eiva was frowning. “I didn’t call those ravens intentionally,” she said quietly. “My magic keeps getting stronger.”

“Maybe we can find the Raven Witch along the way while stopping the cults,” Rian said, though he knew Ransey wouldn’t like that idea, and it would be best if he didn’t find out about Eiva’s magic.

Eiva nodded, looking no less worried. “Maybe.”

The four of them escorted the man back to the village. Ransey went to talk to the village guards about the cultists. Rian, Halbert, and Eiva went back to the inn room. The four of them left for Urvus, the next country over, first thing in the morning. Veron was the main city. Rian tried not to think of what had happened the last time he’d been there, of trying and failing to stop Arwel and Norris at the castle.

By night, they had made it out of the forest, and the air was much warmer. There was no sign of the frost that had covered the plains of Haren. They had reached Urvus. The group stopped for the night in the small village of Rose.