Haunted (Otherworld 5)

"Only an hour, then. An hour every two months or a half-day every six."

"A half-day every six, then."

I looked at Kristof. He nodded and I waved for him to begin the binding ceremony that would tie us both to our sides of the bargain.

35

"WHAT DO YOU WANT TO KNOW FIRST?" DANTALIAN asked. "Where the amulet is? Or where your Nix thinks it is?"

"Back up," Trsiel said. "This amulet. If by some chance she gets it, will it work?"

"Of course it will work. I designed--"

"I meant will it work for her?"

"For anyone with demon blood."

"And if she fails to get it, is there any other way she can achieve her goal and take on human form? Some rite or mystical object she can use? When she first made the leap, she used a witch spell--"

I interjected, "Which will no longer work or she'd have used it long ago. Likely a side effect of her now being a ghost."

"Yes," Dantalian said. "As a ghost, she is restricted to ghost methods of possession. Without the amulet, she could only use full spiritual possession, through a necromancer."

I nodded. "Which any necromancer who's powerful enough to perform is also smart enough not to perform. So she's stuck with the amulet. Good. Well, then we should go after the amulet..." I hesitated. "No, the Nix is our primary target. If we get her, we don't need to worry about her getting the amulet or finding some other way to dimension-jump. We'll get her, and then..." I steeled myself, knowing what I needed to say, but having to force the words out. "And then Trsiel can retrieve the amulet and put it away for safekeeping. I--we don't need it."

I could feel Kristof's gaze on me. I didn't look, but knew that if I did, I'd see not relief, but skepticism, as he searched my face and tone, trying to figure out whether I was telling the truth or saying what he wanted to hear. I wasn't sure which it was, either.

"Okay," I said, facing the demon--or his direction--again. "So where is she?"

"I sent her to a building, one that once housed half a million scrolls, which later were said to have fed the fires at the public baths; a thousand years of knowledge destroyed to keep bathwater warm. And one wonders why humans--"

"The Great Library of Alexandria."

His laugh boomed through the room like a furnace blast. "You are quick. And that's where

you'll find your Nix, in the ghost-world Great Library, searching madly for my amulet among those half-million scrolls."

"And the amulet?" I said.

"Oh, that's closer. Much closer. There's a tunnel under Glamis, connecting it to Castle Huntly. It's--"

"A legend," Trsiel said. "The tunnel doesn't exist."

"Nor does this room, my dear mongrel angel. Your sorcerer has bound me to tell the truth. If I say the amulet is in that tunnel--"

"Then it is," I finished. "But if it leads to another castle, I'm guessing there's a fair bit of tunnel to travel."

"Fifteen miles."

"Uh-huh. Care to be more specific, then?"

"Not really."

"You gave your word," Kristof said.

Dantalian's sigh fluttered around us. "That I did, and I will keep it. But she asked whether I cared to be--"

"Be more specific," I said. "Please."