Spliced

“Good evening,” the man in the cloak remarked as his gaze swept every inch of the room.

Amanda resisted glancing toward the kitchen, where the necromancy book still lay on the table. She pushed any thoughts of it as far back in her mind as she could, bringing to the forefront her initial impressions of him and his sudden barging in here. A lot of sorcerers carried mindwalking infusements, or at least a lie detection charm. One had to be wary of one’s thoughts and words in the presence of a sorcerer, if that’s what this man was. But why was he here?

“I apologise for the intrusion,” he continued. “But this won’t take long. I just have a few questions.”

“Sure,” Amanda replied, her mind still fully focused on the moment. It was easy enough for her to let curiosity rise to the top, but in the back of her mind she knew the danger they were in. “And you are?”

“Gideon Turner, registered warlock, and investigator with the southern necromancy guild.”

“Do you have id?” Felix asked, his tone brusque.

Gideon pulled up his left sleeve and showed them a tattoo on his inner wrist. It looked like an hourglass sitting inside a circle with four curved and protruding spikes. “Good enough?”

Felix gave a nod but continued eyeing the newcomer with suspicion.

“Good,” said Gideon. Then he turned to Amanda. “How many people live in this house?”

“Seven,” Amanda replied. Not technically a lie. Seven people lived here normally. Seven people lived here now while Sirius was away at sea. She couldn’t feel any fingers prying in her mind. A warlock was less likely to carry a mindwalking infusement than a sorcerer, and it took some skill to pull off deep mindwalking without her noticing but there was still the chance he had lie detection powers on him, and she wouldn’t notice those. Plus she still had no idea what his own powers were.

“All your family?” he asked.

“I’m sorry?”

“Is everyone here your family? The seven who live here, they’re all your own kids or partner? No current guests?”

“Yes,” Amanda replied. “Everyone who lives here is family.” That wasn’t a lie either. Lie detection would only pick up phrases that she viewed as falsehoods. That was their weakness. As far as Amanda was concerned Lily was family now.

He nodded. “And you haven’t met or known of anyone who’s died recently and then appeared later perfectly fine?”

“Recently?” What counted as recent? “No. There was one a few years back. A woman fell off her horse at the racetrack and broke her neck. I believe a necromancer was summoned then.”

“Ah, no, I know about that one. That was one of ours, perfectly legal. Um, you haven’t had any offers for cheap necromancy services have you? No one’s approached you or anyone you know?”

“No, nothing like that.” Amanda gave him a sweet smile.

“And you don’t know anyone by the name Blair Babich?”

“No.” She didn’t.

He nodded then he gave the room another sweep with his eyes. He missed nothing. Amanda was glad he couldn’t see the kitchen table from where he stood. He only needed to take but a few steps forward though. She wasn’t sure what she would do if he asked to look around.

“Cheap’s a bit of subjective term when it comes to necromancy, isn’t it?” Felix asked. There was an edge to his tone and he looked at Gideon with a frown.

Gideon shifted uncomfortably. “The prices we set are well justified, I assure you.”

“I’m sure they are.” His tone did not belie his disagreement.

“Anyway,” Gideon turned to Amanda with a smile. “Thank you for your time.”

Felix opened the door for him but Gideon paused at the exit and then he looked back at Amanda. “One last question, do you know a Natasha Crimson?”

Amanda shook her head. “No.” Was that a lie? She recognised the name but she couldn’t place where it was from.

It wasn’t until Gideon had left that she remembered where she’d heard it. Natasha was one of Coal’s acquaintances, and Cat’s too. Amanda had met her once or twice. She’d come to rally car races that Cat had held on the track near her garage. She’d always looked a little out of place, too dressed up for the kind of crowd that usually attended. Amanda remembered Cat saying that the woman didn’t actually know anything much car engines, she just liked to watch them race. Why was a warlock asking about her?

“That was weird,” remarked Felix with a frown.

Amanda sighed. “I do know that name.”

“Which one?”

“Natasha Crimson.”

For a moment, Felix seemed to relax. Then he frowned.

“You lied?”

“No, I just didn’t remember where I’d heard it. She works for Coal I think. Some sort of liaison.”

“Oh, well, probably good you didn’t remember. Better not to get between warlocks and aristocrats. I wonder why he was here. It may have something to do with the events in town earlier.” Felix looked contemplative.

“Events?”

“There was a zombie outbreak at the mall. Only happened within the last couple hours.”

Amanda tried not to let the chill that sent through her show.

“And they’re already what? Scoping every house?” Amanda doubted it. She felt that if they had come here then it was probably to do with Lily, but how they knew she wasn’t sure. And if they did know about Lily then why had he left so easily? Maybe it really was just a coincidence?

“Looking for people who know Babich I think.”

“You know her?” Amanda suddenly clicked. His earlier hostility toward Gideon made more sense now.

But Felix shook his head. “I know of her,” he corrected.

Amanda raised an eyebrow.

Felix sighed. In a low voice he replied, “Sometimes customers want to resurrect their pets but don’t want to pay guild level prices.”

“And you what? Point them in the right direction?”

“No, it’s just something I’ve overheard.”

Amanda didn’t believe him. Perhaps he wasn’t their main contact with the underground necro but he definitely knew more than he was saying. For a second she considered pressing for more information. A contact with a non-guild necro could be useful, but that was risky territory, especially given the company they’d just had. Besides, underground necros were rarely top tier. The woman probably wouldn’t be much help with Lily. Amanda needed a different sort of a approach and she needed one fast.

She bid Felix good night and then she returned to the kitchen where the necromancy book lay tauntingly on the table.

Lily was running out of time. Wolf was right though, you can’t do a necromancy twice. Unless... unless you undid the first one. A reversal spell? They were tricky things. You had to know how the first spell was cast. But it was done sometimes, especially for necromacies that had gone wrong, or for accidental mind wipes. She’d seen it done. Once.

She sighed and shook her head. What was she thinking? Even the one situation where she’d seen it done, it hadn’t worked quite right. And that reversal spell had been cast by a sorcerer. Besides she didn’t know the details of Lily’s necromancy. The only person who knew that was dead, lying on a slab here in Little Rock no less.

Amanda paused. She looked at the book in front of her. Lily’s father might have taken all his secrets to the grave, but there were ways of making the dead talk.