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“I have my suspicions, but I have not yet tested them,” the professor replied as he drew out a small vial and scanned the room. “Thus a little experimentation is in order.”
Impara slipped up to one of the chairs beside the fire and popped the cork. He tipped the mouth of the glass and a strange substance like tar oozed out of the vial. A droplet of the goo separated from the body and fell onto the seat of the chair.
Ben and I moved in closer as the professor watched the liquid with a sharp eye. Nothing happened.
After a good minute of waiting I couldn’t stand it any longer. “What are we waiting for?”
The professor wrinkled his nose. “Some semblance of life returned to this wood, but I see my assumption was incorrect.”
“Perhaps you might find this more useful,” Ben suggested as he moved over to one of the bookshelves. He took down a skull of a rat-like creature and returned to us where he set the item on the seat. “So far only bones have risen from the ground, some with their flesh intact and others less so.”
Impara nodded. “You’re quite right. Now stand back, the two of you.”
The professor pulled out a pen from his cloak and knelt in front of the chair. He scooped up the goop on the end of the pen and brushed it over the top of the skull. We all waited with bated breath as the glop slowly sank into the cracks in the bones.
My heart gave a leap as the skull suddenly jiggled a bit. A soft red glow appeared behind its empty eye sockets. Then the skull gave a leap straight at the professor. He fell back with a sharp intake of breath and twisted to one side so the skull landed where he had just sat. The creature opened its jaws and bounced across the carpet toward Impara’s ankles.
Ben leapt forward and slammed the blade of his sword into the top of the skull, pinning the creature to the ground. The light behind the sockets flickered before it went out, and the skull stopped moving.
Impara scowled at the skull as he climbed to his unsteady feet. “What filth that man has wrought! What vile potion he has crafted!” He was in such a fit of rage that he risked falling over, so I grabbed onto his arms so he could continue his tirade on his feet. “That monster has taken it upon himself to recreate that devilish blasphemy and use it against his own son! His own flesh and blood!”
CHAPTERTHIRTY-EIGHT
“Take a breath, old friend,”Ben scolded him as he offered him a handkerchief. “Before you lose yourself completely.”
Impara took a deep, unsteady breath and accepted the cloth which he used to wipe his forehead. “Thank you, but my fury is not near the invections that should be thrown at that. . .that man.” His hand that held the handkerchief trembled and his cheeks became flushed once more. “How could he defile so many sacred resting spots is. . .is too infuriating to discuss.”
Ben held out one of the glasses of wine. “Then tell us what it is he’s using to bring the dead back.”
The professor accepted the glass and downed the entire contents. He swallowed hard and pursed his lips. “He has unleashed the life sap on the city.”
I blinked at him. “The what?”
Impara frowned at me. “Life sap is a forbidden substance concocted by a mad magician some four hundred years ago who sought to bring his wife back from the dead. It has the ability to revive the soul, but only partially. The creature isn’t truly alive nor dead, but in between worlds.” He dropped himself down in the chair he’d used as an experiment and shook his head. “I had no idea anyone would be insane enough to revive the potion, and much less to use it for such a shallow revenge plot.”
Ben turned his attention to me. “Is something the matter?”
I started and blinked at him. “What?”
“You had a contemplative look on your face,” he told me.
I dropped my attention to the impaled skull and furrowed my brow. “I was just thinking that the skull came to life pretty quickly, but we never saw anyone standing over the other graves.”
“It would take time for such a viscous substance to burrow its way through the earth and into what remained of the coffins,” Impara pointed out as he wiped the fresh sweat off his brow with the handkerchief. “And then the corpse must dig its own way out. All of that takes time.”
“And when they come out they’re really hungry from all that digging,” I added, though a thought struck me. “Phantom said his name was Hearth, right?”
Ben nodded. “He did.”
“Didn’t that first grave we found have that name on it? And the records showed it was some William Hearth?”
“Samuel, but yes,” Ben confirmed.
“Samuel Hearth. . .” the professor muttered.
“Do you know him?”
Impara nodded. “I believe I do, or rather, that I’m acquainted with the name. If my memory serves me, and it always does, he was Elias’s great-grandfather on his father’s side.”
