A Different Kind of Deadly (21 page)

"You're transferring the Contract, but not
becoming a Doll -that's cheating!"

"No it's not, at least not if I start the
process of turning into a Doll, but can't finish it for whatever
reason."

"And what, pray," said Will, devoid of his
usual snark, "might that reason be?"

I looked at my mangled legs and recalled
Purilo's words from the lab. The process began at the extremities
furthest from the heart.

"One that would allow you to make me suffer, a
deal where everyone wins... except Koronos."

Diana emerged from the hill,
triumphantly raising two skinned vultures above her head. I'd long
since stopped thinking of her battle-torn appearance as
frightening. Even covered in blood, she was beautiful. This world,
with all its death, decay, and senseless violence, was one bursting
at the seams with life.

It was in these pockets that I
felt, on the deepest level of my being, "Ah, this is a world worth
saving."

And at the heart of all of it was
her.

27: Faustian
Folly

Leo and I
had our first fresh meal in ages, devouring the
birds of prey with much gusto. And after Leo had finished picking
the bones clean on his end, he reanimated Tully II, vulture
edition.

I watched with a bemused smile as the skeleton
hopped around our fire before stopping to shiver at the twilight
wind.

Diana eyed my legs and furrowed her
brow.

"Did Leo forget to wrap these?"

"They're not as bad as they look."

She made a face in my direction. "Marvin, I
used to be a necromancer myself. At the very least these need to be
cleaned so an infection doesn't sink in."

Before she could grab our dwindling medical
supplies, I grabbed her arm and winced at the tenderness of my
newly reconstructed abdomen.

"Diana, wait."

She knelt beside me. "What is it?"

I noticed that the ends of her hair, which I'd
spent years brushing, had been burnt.

"I'm pretty sure I found a way to make you
human again."

I expected some sort of reaction from her.
Shock. Anger. Joy. But instead all I got was a blank expression,
not unlike those she had before acquiring the ability to
speak.

"Marvin. You don't have to lie to
me."

Will cut in before I could lose my temper. "He
isn't lying, Lady Galatea. There's a chance his plan will
work."

Diana stared at him for a long moment before
turning back to me. Embers danced in her eyes, filled with hope and
terrified longing.

"B-but how?" she stammered, unable, but not
unwilling, to comprehend the news. "No one managed a way for
hundreds of years yet-"

"They were just looking in the wrong places,"
I smiled.

The answer was intentionally ambiguous,
because if Diana ever learned the truth then there was no way she'd
let me go through with it.

"I'm just curious, though," I ventured. "What
will you do, once you're human again?"

Diana blinked. I wondered whether she had the
same idea I did -none. But then her lips shifted, and I saw her
dream spill from their faceted surface.

"I always wanted to go on a journey to the
East," she confessed. "I want to walk to road Inval once walked.
And if I can find any traces of how he lived, what it was like
outside of Nethermount, then I'd have that for closure." She cast
her eyes to the stars above us. "After that... well."

"Well?"

"We'll see," she said, and locked gazes with
me. I remembered my outburst back in the Salamander Nest when I
fumbled over my feelings and blurted out the most pathetic
confession of love this side of the desert dunes.

I blushed, and she looked away.

"So, how is this going to work?" she asked.
"Can we do this here? Now?"

"Yes and yes," I said with confidence. "But
you can't move until it's over, or else things could get very
complicated very quickly."

Diana narrowed her eyes. "What's involved,
exactly?"

"Do you trust me?"

"Marvin..."

"Diana, I'm begging you!" I gripped her by the
shoulders, relying on a card I prayed I didn't have to use. "The
whole reason you were turned into a Doll was because you didn't
listen to Inval. I'm asking you to listen to me."

Bringing up old scars was a low blow, but if
it meant I could help her then it was worth it.

"Alright," she acquiesced. "What do I have to
do?"

"Just lie down. Leo," I said, and he handed me
two wadded up balls of ribbon. "Put these in your ears,
alright?"

Diana followed my directions to the
letter.

Leo, Will and I drew deep breaths to steady
ourselves.

Since Diana and I already had a Contract then
the matter of transferring it was fairly simple. Leo did his part
by drawing the necessary glyphs in the sand since he knew more
technicalities than I did. Will did his part by tying off the space
above my knees.

"Are you sure about this?" he
whispered.

"Not in the least."

"Then why are you risking life and limb for
it?" he demanded under his breath, hoisting me by my ruined collar.
"You're a necromancer, a selfish bastard who shouldn't give two
shits about Dolls or any other undead."

"Is that what you think we are?" My eyes
crinkled at the sides, grinning.

"What's so damn funny about it?"

"Will... I won't lie. Some necromancers are as
bad as their reputation, but then again so are a lot of
people."

He released me, shoving smelling salts and
sedatives under my nose.

"You really piss me off." I watched as his
gaze shifted to Leo's knife. "...are you sure you want me to do
this?"

"I thought you of all people would've loved to
take a dagger to me."

"Yeah, well," he shifted his weight. "You
asking for it takes a lot of the fun out of it for me."

"I'm sorry."

"No you're not," he snorted. I caught the
glimpse of a smirk.

Will truly baffled me. I couldn't tell whether
the man hated me or tolerated me; he certainly had reasons enough
for the former.

"Alright!" Leo clapped the sand off his hands.
"All done. And since the Contract's already there we don't need an
Anchor, so I don't need any blood outta you, Marv."

"Such a shame -considering he's about to lose
a bunch."

Leo and I shot Will a dirty look.

"What?" The Demon-Doll shrugged. "It's the
truth."

"The rest is up to you," Leo said to me.
"Where do you want me?"

"Covering my mouth, just in case." Will handed
me a strip of leather he'd cut from Leo's traveling sack. I
swallowed hard. "And Will... you know what to look for. Cauterize
it with the campfire as soon as you're done."

He gripped the dagger tightly and
nodded.

I took a deep breath, hoping I inhaled enough
smoke to take the edge off my impending agony. The leather fit
snugly between my back teeth. Leo's hand hovered over my face. I
twined my finger's with Diana's, and felt for the Contract that had
bound us so deeply, till death did us part.

A mighty gust of wind rushed by, but the glyph
Leo had drawn so well remained untouched -a sure sign that whatever
magic in play was working.

I felt heavy, as though someone wrapped chains
around my heart and body. A peek out the corner of my eyes saw
color returning to Diana's pale, pale body. The ball-joints 
unfurled like paper sculptures returning to their uncreased state.
She seemed in a deep sleep the entire time, untouchable and
blissfully unaware of the change in her state of being. To call
that a relief would be the understatement of a lifetime.

I waited for what Purilo had described as a
numbing sensation, a feeling akin to a foot falling asleep. This
was part of the reason I asked Leo to wait to treat my legs; not
only was I about to lose them, but their aching would provide a
good contrast so I knew when the plan was working.

And sure enough, that aching
vanished.

The process of becoming a Doll was not as
painful as I expected it to be, but it was unnerving. I felt myself
being emptied. It was a fear of disappearing from this world,
fading until there was nothing left. I feared for my life many
times before, but this was not one of them. It was deeper than
that, a fear of not being myself the next time I opened my
eyes.

I dared to raise my head and watched my newly
porcelain skin overtake my shins. I forced the words through the
leather in my mouth.

"Will, now!"

Leo, blessed Leo, covered my eyes rather than
my mouth. I was too stunned to scream, but I knew I had just lost
my limbs. Will was merciful and had swiped through them quickly,
and he took the spit rod from the fire and sealed the wounds
shut.

Leo hurried in reciting the healing
incantation needed to stop any internal bleeding. And by the time I
regained enough focus my first urge was to look at
Diana.

But I saw a pair of sandaled feet.

My eyes trailed to my wrists, where the
Ouroboros once sat, now bare again.

"
How
?" The demon's voice trembled
with rage.

"Move!"

Koronos looked ready to strike me for the
nerve of telling him what to do, but he stiffened and obediently
followed my order. Disbelief bloomed on his face like a pox, to
which Will sneered.

"I was there when you made that deal... what
was it again?" he mused, flirting with the fires of Hell. "Right.
If Marvin turns Diana human again then you're his servant for the
rest of his life." He cackled into his sleeve. "Forget about going
after you; this is a fate worse than death for someone of your
kind."

"Diana?"

My voice cracked.

A middle aged woman stared up at me, her hair
growing fairer by the second. Wrinkles appeared where once was
smooth porcelain. Her hands grew gnarled and frail in my
palms.

Off to the side, Koronos regained a victorious
smile, finding a silver lining in his defeat.

"What did you do to her?" Leo demanded for
me.

"Why, nothing," the devil laughed.
"I simply forgot how fleeting your lives are! Lady Galatea, by
human years, is over four hundred year past her time. Now that
she's returned to her mortal state the universe has come to
collect, it seems."

I shook, holding her shrinking frame in my
arms. Her hair had gone from brown to gray, and was now falling.
The only constant in this entire process were her eyes, beautiful
and pink and swimming with starlight.

"
Oh
Marvin
," she sighed, her voice
scratchy.

"I can bring you back,
Diana." I said, fumbling to grab the Eyes of the Leviathan off my
person. But before I could reach them she stayed my hand. Her
strength once left me breathless, but it was the weakness of her
touch now that broke my heart. She was dying. Dying and it was my
fault. Dying and there was nothing I could do to stop it. "Diana,"
I begged. "Diana,
please
."

She coughed and smiled all at
once, her skin translucent in advanced age, one of the final
indicators of the looming specter of Death.

Her next words... her last words,
I knew they would haunt me for the rest of my life.

"Marvin," she said kindly. "You're much too
old to be playing with dolls."

I cracked a smile in that horrible situation,
as a nightmare I could never imagined came to life before my very
eyes.

Diana started at me to the last. I watched
them still, I watched as they grew gray and were covered with film.
And I gazed upon the place they once were as the woman I loved so
dearly was turned to dust and carried off by the silent desert
night.