His sword was in his hand in the next breath, and he continued through the motion bringing his arm around to slash down in a deadly swing. A woman swept out in dark robes at the very moment his sword made contact, the creatures head spinning away with a spray of sparks. She gaped as the children behind him shrieked in surprise.
The woman shouted fiercely. No doubt she was protecting the creature. Was she its mate? She was gruesome though not particularly large, but he knew better than most that such details did not matter. He turned on her with a hiss as he adjusted his grip on his sword’s hilt as Deroxas shifted within his hood.
He was unable to attack, however. His arm suddenly weighted down with the hard press of his mate’s body against his, and she whispered a magical command to the bone beast before she turned her attention to the female in front of them.
“I’m so sorry,” Robyn said hurriedly to the vicious she-creature causing Ashul to stare at his female in confusion.
“Sorry?” the creature shrieked. “Your friend there destroyed my mech-magic droid. Do you have any idea how expensive that was? Now I will have to get the local spellcrafter to come down and try to repair it.”
His jaw hardened, a prickle of unease filling him with the returning sense of being watched. It did not seem to be related to the creature in front of him, and yet he felt surrounded by danger where they stood. With a potential enemy somewhere in the crowd around him. his desire to dispatch the creature and remove one threat grew, even though his mate was anxiously tugging him away. She cast him an exasperated look, which he returned with a scowl before grimacing at the other female apologetically.
“I know, and again I apologize. My husband is confused. He’s never been to the town before. I can pay for the damage,” she said, hastily drawing several coins from the pouch on her belt.
Ashul gaped in protest as the scowling she-creature held out her hand and Robyn quickly pressed the coins into her palm as she pushed him past. A warning growl rose in his throat as the female sneered at him, but Robyn propelled him further. Children filled the space they had vacated as they crowded around the woman, their hands open to her. He bristled, prepared to escape his mate’s hold, but to his shock the female suddenly gave a ghastly smile and dug into her large apron, dragging out numerous small bones—finger bones, he wagered, taken from her victims—that the children snatched up and stuffed into their mouths gleefully.
His stomach pitched. Humans ate their deadand they found the drow monstrous? The more he looked around, the less he understood. There were many more such displays that dotted the streets along with normal vendors that he had seen before in the previous town. Unlike that town, there were no brilliant hues that made his eyes hurt. Everything had a darker cast to it in black, grays, and hues of deep blue and green with dark fluttering veils. Among various breads and food things offered, he spotted crystalline skulls stacked everywhere amid similar-looking bones, and strange twisted forms made of straw.
What eccentricity was this? Although the dark hues reminded him of the cities beneath the ground, such fascination with death and horrific hungers bewildered him. This was far beyond what he knew of humans. There were more unnatural creatures in front of the shops and stalls. Were they perhaps diseased, and the others maybe suffering from a seasonal madness? He cast a cautious glance toward his mate, wondering if she was similarly afflicted.
Robyn glanced back and caught his eye, a small smile tugging at her lips.
He leaned in, his eyes narrowing. “You find this amusing, mate?”
She stifled a laugh behind her hand and shook her head. “I’m sorry. This is all my fault, I know.” He straightened, his brow furrowing in confusion as to what she was admitting to, and she shrugged. “I did not realize that it was so close to the Festival of Shadows. All of this,” she gestured to their surroundings, “is not how this town looks the rest of the year. It’s a time for honoring the dead, remembering them, and for acknowledging our fears. And of course grotesque disguises so that evil spirits do not recognize us,” she added with a chuckle as she waved a hand toward a male who appeared to have skin sloughing from his face.
His brows dipped. “These are disguises?”
“A bit of face paint, prosthetics, and occasionally enchanted product for those who have the coin,” she agreed with a smile. “And there is enchanted tech like what you just dispatched in that display.”
That put things into perspective. Although he had known priestesses and warriors who adorned themselves with bones whether of sacred beasts or enemies to imbue themselves with the power, but the preoccupation with death was still a bit odd to him. Yet for such short-lived, vulnerable beings, it made sense as he peered around with new eyes, allowing himself to take some measure of enjoyment from the gruesome spectacle.
“I imagine that the services of your monastery must be in high demand during this festival,” he murmured thoughtfully.
He still felt the same unease of being watched—if anything, it had intensified—but it was possible that he was sensing something in the strange festival that he was instinctively interpreting that way. He had no plans on letting down his guard but acknowledged that it was possible and resolved to keep the matter to himself unless the situation changed.
His mate’s nose wrinkled in distaste. “Ah, no. Not really. Though the dead—especially beloved ancestors—are honored, necromancers are still not welcome here despite its proximity to the monastery. We are still a pariah—the thieves of the dead,” she observed bitterly as she led him deeper into the town. She cast a curious glance around them, her lips pursing. “I admit it’s strange to not see the students lurking about as they always do, especially for the Shadow Festival. They are always easy enough for a fellow necromancer to spot from their clumsy shielding that doesn’t quite damper their dark energy, except there’s not a one here.”
He considered her words and understood clearly what she was not saying. There was most certainly something strange going on to have caused a noticeable difference. If younger necromancers commonly frequented the town, why would they not during their favorite festival? Changes in behavior were reason enough to be wary.
He also understood that his mate had suffered silently the cruelty of the people there as she did everywhere she went. How many times during her training, or as a young necromancer, did she suffer at the hands of these people here? He scanned the streets, seeing in each face, whether disguised or not, the face of one who scorned her as his view of the town dropped dangerously. The children were safe from his fury, but he wanted more than anything to make the humans of the town suffer for their ignorance in repayment for his mate’s pain.
Robyn’s hand rubbed his arm. “Calm down, Ashul, before you get Deroxas all worked up,” she murmured. Her lips tipped as she gave him a loving glance. “I know that look.”
“What look?” he muttered pensively.
She laughed. “That one right there that says you want to cause bloody mayhem. You can’t just kill everyone who has ever been unkind to me.”
“That is what you may believe.”
“Okay, let me rephrase that,” she replied with an exasperated sigh. “I don’t want you to. If my life is in danger, then by all means go wild. But the way people react to me—to us really—is due to a fear of what they don’t understand. Necromancy has a bad reputation.”
“As do drow,” he admitted. “Though I do not see how we are so fearsome if you eat your dead at this occasion.” He wrinkled his nose in disgust. “Even drow do not do that, for all that your kind seem to dislike and fear us.”
Robyn’s eyebrows flew up, and a laugh bubbled out of her as she shook her head. Her hand went to a small sack secured at her belt that he had not noticed. She untied it and loosened the strings, revealing numerous finger bones inside.
“Do you mean these?”
She picked up one of the bones and, to his disgust, placed it in her mouth. There was a loud snap that made his ears twitch as his mate’s mouth closed around it with a happy hum. As provocative as seeing her mouth pucker around anything was and how much he enjoyed her little sounds of pleasure, his nose wrinkled, and he stepped back when she offered the bag to him.