“You can’t force him to stay,” Magnus argued, even though he knew he, himself, was doomed to stay. Doomed because he was no one’s prince, no royal’s child. He was no one.

“We can and we will,” Father Robert lashed back. “Don’t make us.”

Magnus took a step to protect his only friend, his anger getting the better of him, but Talan quickly caught his arm and pulled him back to his side. Eyes locked on the monks, Talan reached into the pocket of his robes and quickly salted the earth in a circle around them.

The monks immediately backed up, their eyes desperately searching, while Father Robert pointed an accusing finger at Talan.

“What have you done, Abomination?”

“And there it is,” Talan announced. “The truth. How you think about me. All of me.”

Magnus jerked at the sound of something crashing into the wall behind them.

“You are an abomination against the gods,” Father Robert roared over the increasing sounds of crashing coming from the other side of that damn wall. “A demon of the earth. You do not deserve to live!”

“My mother would disagree with you. She adores me. I’m her little boy.”

“She is the bitch that spawned you. It is her sin that brought the Abominations to us.”

“Or yours, Father. Perhaps the sins of this world were so great that you brought us to you. And now you must pay for your sins. With blood.”

The wall burst outward, forcing Magnus to duck as chunks of stone flew. When he was able to look again, three bulls stood in the opening, eyes bright red, wounds still open so that he was able to see bone and sinew, their blood still oozing out of their big bodies.

Massive heads and horns turned toward Talan. With an easy gesture, the royal pointed at the five monks. “Kill them all.”

The bulls’ heads twisted in the other direction, and the monks stumbled back, raising their hands and quickly calling on protective forces to do battle.

The bulls charged and Talan ran. “Come on!” he called back to Magnus.

Taking off after his friend, Magnus glanced back to see that one bull was down, but the other two had already impaled one monk and stomped another into the ground.

Deciding not to look back again—it was too much—Magnus caught up with Talan, the two running toward a main road about three leagues away.

“You can raise the dead,” Magnus noted stupidly, unsure what else to say as they continued to run.

“I can raise some dead. Animals, mostly. Still a bit to go before I’ll be able to raise more complicated creatures.”

Magnus knew Talan meant humans and dragons. Creatures with souls and brains.

“Does that bother you?” Talan asked him after a few moments of nothing but their breathing and their booted feet running over snow-covered land.

“No,” Magnus answered, a little surprised by that. “It doesn’t. Just don’t do it to me.”

“You’re already alive. . . . Why would I raise you?”

“I mean if I die.”

“What if I’m still in a fight and need you to back me up? Can I raise you then?”

Magnus stopped and Talan did as well. They faced each other.

“All right. You can do it then. But don’t let me hang around, pieces of me dropping off, body beginning to spoil.”

“I’ll have to wait then, won’t I?”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’ve learned how to raise some dead . . . but not to actually put a time limit on how long they can be around.”

Magnus gestured with a thumb over his shoulders. “What about those bulls?”

“They could drop suddenly and turn to dust.”

“And if they don’t drop suddenly?”

“Then our dear brothers will have to chop them to bits, bury them in consecrated ground, and salt the earth around their graves.”

“You sure that’ll work?”

Talan frowned a bit, his gaze moving in the direction they’d just left. After a moment, he shrugged. “I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

With that, Talan charged off toward the main road. Magnus took one look back, briefly chewed his lip. He could still hear screaming and the sounds of magicks being used to combat the undead beasts.

Whether to go back to what he knew, or go forward . . . into the unknown?

“I’m sure,” Talan yelled at him, “the other Brothers will come to help at some point!”

Briefly closing his eyes, Magnus muttered, “He’s probably right.”

Then Magnus headed after his friend—and into the unknown.

Chapter Fifteen

At the edge of another town, Celyn and Elina dismounted their horses and slowly entered, slipping into the flow of foot traffic, so they looked like all the other travelers coming through.

This wasn’t the first town they’d been to since leaving Lolly’s shop, but it was the first one they’d decided to walk through. They had simply ridden through the others, Celyn feeling those towns were a little too close to Lolly’s shop for his comfort. And since they hadn’t seen anything very interesting anyway¸ it had seemed fine to just keep on riding.

But the town of River Road was a good distance from Lolly’s place and it was large enough that Celyn felt sure they’d be able to find out more here than in any of the smaller towns.

“Are you hungry?” he asked Elina.

“I could eat.” Then she turned and started to walk away.