Return of the Hunters (The DeathSpeaker Codex Book 4) (21 page)

P
apa Legba didn’t die.

He thumped to his knees with his cane jutting all the way through, a good six inches of it sprouting from his back. Blood pooled on the flagstones below him, thick and nearly black in the moonlight.

But he was breathing. He was
laughing
.

He wrapped both hands around the cane, just below the silver skull, and pulled. It came out of him with a horrible sucking sound. Then he planted the end on the ground, pushed himself up to one knee, and stood with his white suit soaked in red.

With one hand, he calmly wiped the blood from his cane. “Perhaps you have some power, child,” he said. “And perhaps you do not know my true name. Even I do not, as it is lost to the ages. So I am, and have been, Legba.” He smiled again. “But you see…I am immortal. Even with your power, you cannot destroy me. I will never die.”

Movement behind him drew my attention—Zoba, approaching his back with an upraised dagger. I caught his gaze and mouthed
don’t.
Legba could still murder any one of them with a gesture, and I refused to take that chance.

“Fine. Maybe I can’t kill you,” I said. “But unless you release the Duchenes, I’m going to make sure you
wish
you were dead.”

He raised one eyebrow. “You wish me to release them, no?” he said. “Very well. I will release them to oblivion.”

My heart seized. I understood exactly what that meant.

Gideon!
Senobia called in my head.
His true name. You can control him with it.

Glad as I was to hear from her, I wasn’t exactly relieved. “One problem. I don’t know it.”

The Old Soul knows.

“The what?”

Legba’s features twisted in fury. “Have you gone mad, child?” he said. “Who are you speaking to?”

Shit. I had to keep him from following through on his threat, at least long enough to hear what Senobia was trying to tell me. The old encounter with Reun was fresh in my mind, so I decided to cast one of the spells he’d used on me. “
Na boegth
,” I said, gesturing at Legba.

He went completely still and silent.

“Christ, what happened?” Denei said. “Is he—”

“Be quiet. Please,” I added as an afterthought. Hopefully the spell hadn’t affected the souls, because I knew it wouldn’t hold him for long. He was already struggling to break free. “Sorry. What were you saying?”

After a pause that was long enough for me to suspect I’d frozen them all, Senobia said,
The Old Soul. First one he claimed. That one, she’d know Legba’s true name.

“Great,” I muttered. “So I’ve only got to interrogate all however-thousand souls he has in there, right?”

Me and Rex, we gonna try an’ hold her.

I frowned. “You can see all these…souls?”

Kinda.
This time the voice was Rex.
She down at the core. We almost there.

“Um. Try to hurry.” Legba was starting to twitch. I looked at the rest of them, and saw Denei and Isalie helping a groggy Reun to his feet. At least he was still alive. Zoba and Bastien were both armed with daggers now, and they watched Legba with fiercely glittering eyes.

They weren’t going down without a fight.

At last I heard Senobia again, much fainter this time.
We got her,
she said.
Do what you do, cher. Get his name.

“Right,” I said. Except what I did was pull souls into my head—and I wasn’t in contact with this particular one. Rex and Senobia were.

So maybe if just one of them held the soul, I could pull them out and bring other one along. Two at a time was going to be hard enough. I really didn’t think I could do three. “Senobia, can one of you let go without losing her?” I said.

There was another pause…and Senobia said,
She ain’t fightin’ us.

She kin,
Rex said with a touch of awe.
She a Duchene.

“What?” I blurted.

Then a new voice spoke in my head.

DeathSpeaker.
The voice was vaguely female, and barely there. Thin as paper.
You wit’ my people, boy?

“Yes, ma’am,” I said automatically. Weak as it was, that voice demanded respect. “Who are you?”

Aurelia Duchene. And don’t be compelling me, boy. I got centuries over you.

“Sorry, ma’am. I can’t help it.” The more she spoke, the more Legba shivered in place. He was really fighting it now. “I’ll just—”

I do the talking. You do the listening,
Aurelia said.
First off, he got no name. He nothin’ but a bug wrapped in shadows.

My gut sank like a stone. “So we don’t have a chance.”

You no good at listening, are you, boy? My kin, they say you got the power over souls. I got the power over creatures. You pull me out, an’ together we make him let the living go.

Legba’s face twitched, and his mouth drew down in a stone scowl. He managed to move one arm.

There was no time to think this over.

“All right,” I said. “Let’s do it.”

It was still easier for me to do this with physical contact, so I grabbed Legba’s wrist. And thousands of voices immediately filled my head with agony. “Aurelia,” I gasped. “Keep talking. I need to hear you.”

ALL YOU SOULS HUSH YOUR MOUTHS, RIGHT NOW!

The piercing shout made my nose gush blood. But the voices fell silent.

Quickly, boy,
Aurelia said.
I’m right here.

I focused on her voice, and pulled her into me.

The instant the pressure filled my head, Legba shook of the last of the spell and snatched his arm away from me. “Foul thief!” he shouted. “Give her back to me, child, or I will make
them
pay.”

My mouth opened. But the words that came out weren’t mine.

“
Renonsé-ou pouvwa sou fanmi mwen.
” It was my voice, but it wasn’t. Aurelia’s husky drawl underscored the words, echoing through dead air. “
Movè lespri sou, renonsé-ou pouvwa sou fanmi mwen. Renonsé-ou pouvwa sou fanmi mwen!
”

Legba threw back his head and howled. A jet of black smoke plumed from his open mouth and bent in mid-air, billowing toward the Duchenes.

“
Movè lespri sou, renonsé-ou pouvwa sou fanmi mwen!
”

The plume split off into four streams. Each one slipped into one of the Duchenes’ ears, incorporeal snakes diving into living burrows.

“
Renonsé-ou pouvwa sou fanmi mwen!
”

All four of them jittered and shook like holy rollers with the Spirit on them. Their mouths opened in perfect synchronization—and three-foot long, hideous black, stone dead centipedes poured out and splattered to the ground.

But the Duchenes were still very much alive.

I gasped and staggered back as the pressure pounded my head. “Gonna let you go now, Aurelia,” I said roughly. “I think they’ll be fine.”

Thank you, boy. ’Bout time I got out that slimy cesspool callin’ himself Legba.

I barely had to push, and she was gone.

And now, there were only two more Duchenes to set free.

C
HAPTER 38

I
n the few seconds it took me to get my breath back, Zoba and Bastien must’ve decided they’d had enough. They ran at Legba, blades flashing, and knocked him to the ground. Bastien jammed his dagger deep into Legba’s side.

Zoba carved his throat open.

I’d never seen so much blood come out of one person. Legba lay still beneath them, fingers twitching and eyes rolled back as the dark pool spread rapidly around him. He was still breathing, but in ragged, erratic sips of air.

Zoba stood first, with Bastien close behind. The younger brother stood over the still body and spit on him with pure contempt. “Immortal, my ass,” he drawled. “He look mortal enough to me.”

With a grunt of agreement, Zoba glared down at Legba. Then he raised his bloody knife to strike again.

“Whoa! Let me get Rex and Senobia out of there first,” I said. “It might not work if he’s dead.”

Zoba stared for a minute, shrugged, and steered Bastien back to the rest of them.

I took a careful breath and walked around Legba. At least I knew for sure that I could get souls away from him—but I really didn’t know much more. Maybe his claim of immortality was another bluff, and maybe it wasn’t. Because he was still breathing. “Senobia? Rex?” I said. “You guys still there?”

He ain’t dead!

I noticed it the same instant Senobia shouted in my head. The pool of blood had stopped spreading…and now it was getting smaller. He was drawing it back in just as quickly as it’d drained.

Legba blinked once and grinned.

“Watch out,” I shouted, and gestured at him. “
Mahrú à dionadth!
”

At the same time I spoke, he extended an arm. The cane that had fallen a few feet away flew into his hand. For a few seconds the shield spell pressed down on him, mashing his features into a grotesque parody of a snarl.

He tapped the shield with the head of the cane, and it shattered like breaking glass.

Legba was on his feet in seconds. “Freedom you may have,” he said. “But you will not defeat me, children. I am, and I will be!” He raised his arms.

All four of the Duchenes charged him.

I was about to plunge into the fray when Rex spoke up in my head.
Won’ do no good. You cain’t beat him by knockin’ him down—he jes’ get back up.

“Yeah, I’m starting to see that,” I muttered. “Any ideas?”

You gotta free the souls. All of ’em. They his power.

“Jesus Christ.” I watched the brawl for a minute, a writhing mass of scuffles and tosses, punches and magic ranging all over the square, and glanced back at Reun. He was on his feet, pale but determined, and headed toward the fight. “Hey,” I said. “Maybe try to minimize the damage out there, okay? I think I know how to slow him down.”

Reun nodded as he limped past me. “Do what you can, Gideon.”

“Yeah, you too,” I said.

But it still didn’t feel like anything we did would be enough. He really was immortal. Even if we slowed him down, he’d just gather more souls and regain his strength.

And then he’d come after us. Over and over again. Forever.

Right now I couldn’t think about that. I had some souls to free. I focused on reaching out with invisible arms, searching for Legba. But they were all moving so fast. I felt him for an instant, heard the short, sharp cry of a thousand voices. Then he was gone again.

So I closed my eyes.

Searching in the dark took a few minutes, but I finally grabbed something. The sensation of hot, squirming flesh was real enough, even though my hands were empty. And the souls filled my head with their screams.

“Calm down,” I said through gritted teeth. “Please.”

The volume decreased to a dull roar. I’d already started to bleed again, and holding Legba without the ability to physically touch him took most of my concentration. He was fighting me just as hard as he fought the rest of them.

I managed to pick out one soul from thousands and pushed it from my head. The process was slow. I did it again, and again. Every release tore at me some and left me a little weaker. As I kept going, sweat streamed down me along with the blood. I couldn’t even tell if I was making a dent in the bastard’s power.

Then my chest started to burn.

“Goddamn it, I
am
keeping my promise!” Hadn’t meant to say that out loud, but it pissed me off. I released another soul, then another, and stopped to gasp for breath. “I’m getting to them, okay? Eventually.”

The burning intensified—and I realized with a start that it didn’t hurt. It was just really warm. I glanced down and saw a bright blue glow beneath my shirt in the shape of an X. And I remembered what Reun said about a
gealdht
working both ways.

The closer you are to realizing the promise, the stronger you’ll become against the challenge.

It was trying to help me. Because promises wanted to be kept.