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Kormac groaned. “That will take too long. The birds take at least two weeks of travel to exchange messages.”
“Who says I need a bird?” She offered a mischievous smile. “I’ll need a quill and parchment to draw the symbols so I can pass them on.”
“I’ll send someone for them now.” Kormac stuck his head out of the cell and gave the order, sending a soldier jogging.
He returned to hear Fionna questioning Lomar. “I want to know more about what you’re experiencing. I’ve been told you like to kill at night when you’re not wearing the warding talisman.”
“Not me, the thing inside my head.” Lomar grimaced. “It took over my body and murdered men I knew. Men I respected and liked.”
“You had no control?”
Lomar shook his head. “I was a spectator to what happened. Even worse, it was as if those attacked couldn’t fight. They would stare right at me and not move to defend themselves even as the blade swung.”
Her lips pinched. “Mesmerizing paralysis.”
“You’ve seen that type of thing before?” Kormac asked sharply.
“Not in humans, but there are some animals that are capable of freezing their prey.”
“It would explain why Khaal managed to kill so many,” Kormac murmured. “We thought it might be because his men trusted him, but them being unable to act would be a better explanation as to why none fought.”
“Might I touch you?” she asked, holding out her hand to Lomar.
A slow nod and Lomar placed his fingers lightly against her palm.
Kormac tensed and his hand went to the hilt of his weapon, ready to act.
Nothing happened other than Fionna closed her eyes and murmured, “The threads binding you are dense and unlike anything I’ve ever seen. I see no beginning, no end.”
“Can you cut it?” Kormac offered what seemed like a simple solution to her explanation.
“Perhaps, but I am worried about those strands whipping if severed. Could be the curse is transferrable too. What if I snip it free and it finds someone else?”
“When Ioan—another soldier carrying the curse—died, the affliction ended with him, or so we thought until we visited the source of the infection.”
“Or you haven’t found its new host,” she quipped.
“Pretty sure we’d notice people being murdered which seems to be what this thing does,” was Kormac’s dry reply.
She stepped away from Lomar. “Your warlord said this thing in your body speaks to you?”
Lomar nodded. “Yes, although it’s faint so long as I wear the medallion. At night it whispers for me to remove it. Given my worry I might give in, we’ve resorted to chains at night.”
“And when you remove the talisman?” she asked.
Lomar shuddered. “It is quite vocal. It cackles quite a bit about revenge and how it will return to kill us all.”
“Are you sure it said return?”
“Yes, why?”
“Because that would indicate an outside source that can act through others but not yet directly.” Fionna glanced at Kormac over her shoulder. “You say this affliction started after the discovery of a cave.”
“Yes.”
“I’ll need to see it.”
“Why? Can’t you cure him without it?” Kormac had no interest in returning unless it was to bury that cave again.
