Revenant's Resolve Chapter 25

Zarah let out a long groan as she leaned over the bedpan before coughing up some more bile. 

She spat once, not lifting her head where it hung loosely above the receptacle. 

“Where… where are we?” Zarah questioned barely above a whisper between deep breaths. 

The inn! The town of… what was this place called again? 

Dalbu? Baldu? 

Dalgu!

Yes.

We’re at the inn in Dalgu!

Reznik couldn’t feel Zarah’s presence in his head, so he pushed the words at his body. 

“I-innn… Dal-allgoo.” 

“Dalgu…” Zarah repeated a second later, as if the name was confusing for some reason. “That’s… more than twenty miles from the hill.”

Reznik nodded enthusiastically, feeling marginally proud of his ferrying of Zarah. At some level, he had saved her. 

Or at least that’s what his ego was telling him. 

“I’m guessing I have you to thank for that.” 

Again, Reznik gleefully bobbed his head as Zarah sighed deeply and frowned sideways. 

“Well. I guess that kills the last of my doubts, then.” Zarah began to shake her head slowly before abruptly wincing and quickly leaning back over the puke bowl. After a moment, when nothing further seemed forthcoming, Zarah continued: “How many days have I been out?”

Reznik pushed at the idea that he wanted his body to lift his right hand, fold his ring finger, pinkie, and thumb down. A moment later, his hand shakily rose, fingers extending into something that vaguely resembled a V. 

“Two days?” Zarah chuffed and lifted her head further to look Reznik in the eyes. “So you carried me here, somehow paid for a room at an inn, and then waited for me to wake up, all on your own? Is there anything I’m missing?”

Reznik chewed at that thought for a moment before he felt a candle light inside his mind. 

“Dock-t-tor.” 

Zarah laughed barkingly once, rolling her eyes at him with a hint of a smile. 

“You’re joking.” 

Reznik blinked twice.

“You’re… not joking.” Zarah deadpanned, watching him with an expression that grew more concerned by the second. “You… actually did all that.”

Zarah watched him for a moment longer before turning away, stuttering with an open mouth as if she was about to say something and scratching the back of her head. 

No words came out, and she closed her mouth. 

As if wordlessly changing the subject, Zarah began to look around the room with a frown and bunched eyebrows before glancing down at herself. She raised a finger, pointed at the rough-spun, single-piece dress the apothecary had put her in after seeing to her, and asked:

“What am I wearing, and where are the rest of my clothes?” 

Reznik didn’t feel nearly confident enough to answer the first part of her question, so he pivoted directly to the second part, pulling out the burlap sack that contained Zarah’s bloodstained trousers, shirt, and overcoat, along with her belt and everything in it. 

He also retrieved her saber from under the bed. 

Zarah set the chamberpot to the side and accepted the proffered items, looking like she was struggling to lift the sack as she set it to the other side. 

“I -really- overdid it. I haven’t popped that many consciousnesses back-to-back in many years, and the last time it nearly killed me.” Zarah mused, rummaging through the bag haphazardly. “I’m a little fuzzy how it all ended, my mind was starting to fail by the end, there. Any chance you could tell me, since you’re suddenly so chatty?” 

Reznik thought on that for a moment, sliding his jaw back and forth as he thought on how exactly he could explain what happened. Once he had his idea firmly locked down, he raised his hand like holding a gun, and mimed a shot before pointing to his eye. 

Zarah clucked her tongue as she withdrew her pistol from the bag and inspected it. 

“I’m surprised I managed to hit that shot. I’m even more surprised that I used my last bullet for it. That’s… not something I try to make habit of.” She set the empty weapon to the side and continued to rummage for another moment before she snapped her head over to Reznik. “You wouldn’t happen to have my coinpurse on you, by chance?” 

Reznik nodded and pointed to where it sat on the chair on the other side of the room.

“You really did take charge of everything…” Zarah muttered thoughtfully as she seemed to burrow her eyes into a point in Reznik’s chest. “You know, it took a lot of trust to fire that shot. 

“I’ve always saved it for myself. I know what happens if I get captured by men or undead.” She let the words hang heavy in the air as she pulled her hands out of the bag and set them on her lap. “I thought that even if I over-exerted my telepathic abilities that you would just stand watch… like a guard dog. Wait for me to wake up, if I ever even did.” 

Reznik cocked his head curiously as Zarah bit down on her tongue and sighed deeply. 

“I guess you could say that I’m impressed, and it’s made me think that maybe I’ve been looking at you all wrong. You’ve a lot more autonomy and drive than I thought, and perhaps you’re capable of far more than just being my own personal cudgel and fighting dog.”

Zarah flipped the blanket off of herself abruptly and slid forward until her feet touched the floor. She attempted to push herself off of the bed, but only ended up flopping back a moment later, causing a sloshing noise to emanate from the puke-laden bedpan. 

She sighed deeply, scowled, and cocked her head to the side before raising her left hand. 

“Help… would you help me stand?” 

  *

Reznik stole another glance up to Zarah on her freshly-purchased horse. Once more they moved through the outskirts of Bratsow on the main road, though this time Reznik marched beside her instead of towed behind her horse. 

Something about the way the sun behind her head scattered light through her brown hair in a way that left it looking like the orange flickers of a dying fire itched at the back of Reznik’s mind. 

I think I understand why that Lord’s cousin is so smitten with her. 

She radiates strength, even covered in bandages from head to toe. Not to mention that she’s pretty.

Zarah brushed a flitting lock of hair behind her long, pointed ear and smiled fractionally out of the corner of her mouth. 

“You’re staring.” She noted, turning fractionally to look at him with a curious smirk. “If you’re thinking something at me, I can’t hear you. My telepathic abilities are still… drained.” 

Reznik abruptly looked away, feeling a twinge of embarrassment that he’d been caught looking at her. 

He wasn’t entirely sure why. 

“S-ssory” he pushed out a moment later.

Ah.

Still haven’t nailed down the “S” sound, have I?

“No need to be sorry, just something for you to know. I personally don’t mind it - in my homeland, prolonged eye contact more often than not leads to establishing good rapport with someone. The conversation of souls, my grandmother called it.” Zarah chortled amusedly before she ducked forward with a groan, narrowly avoiding a low hanging branch. “People here though, staring tends to make them uncomfortable.”

Reznik grunted understandingly as he stared down the road ahead of them, along with the distant farms that had grown far less so since they’d left Dalgu. 

I wonder what Luminita will say when we get back. We’ve been gone far longer than we thought we would, just under a week, in fact.

Oooh.

I wonder what food she’ll make!

Hopefully that brisket again, or at least a roast. 

Honestly, I’d kill an army for a roast like that. Wouldn’t even snack on them, just kill. 

Reznik glanced back over to Zarah, only to find her eyes waiting for him. 

They twinkled a rich golden brown in the bright sunny day, watching him in a piercing, intense way that left him with an odd sense of velvety vertigo. 

He stared back, caught off guard by the sudden intensity of the gaze and tried to think of something to say. Nothing came forth in his mind as his thoughts seemed to catch and stumble over themselves. 

Then, his foot hit a dip in the road, and he proceeded to stumble forward, breaking the eye contact as he attempted to right himself. 

Zarah began to laugh boisterously as Reznik pulled himself out of the near-tumble, shaking out his head like a wet dog as he caught his footing. 

“Perhaps eye contact and walking isn’t something you’re cut out for, yet.” Zarah got out between ripples of dying laughter. “That, or you’re just naturally clumsy. Were you like that before you became a Revenant?” 

Reznik thought on that for a second before he shrugged.

“D-don’t r-r-remmm… re-me- k-know.” He answered, having to change words mid-sentence as his mouth struggled to work out the longer word. 

It was true that in the past weeks, he’d been having tiny flashes of memory that didn’t line up with the wastes, but he couldn’t tell anymore what was just active imagination or not.

“Hm.” Zarah acknowledged in a chipper tone. “I like to imagine you were someone far less… Revenant-like. Maybe a scientist, or a painter. Your thoughts are often… backwards from other people. 

“You’ve heard the saying ‘breadth of a sea, depth of a puddle’ before, yes? You’re the opposite. Tall, focused ideas - like your mind is set up to solve the world, one singular problem at a time.” The woman on her high horse smiled beatifically again before she leaned over to him and added; “Perhaps that’s why you’re so bad at multi-tasking. Maybe it has nothing to do with your condition after all!” 

Reznik narrowed his eyes at her lighthearted teasing before he decided it wasn’t worth the effort to jab back. 

He was clumsy, after all, so it wasn’t like she was lying. 

More and more as they approached Bratsow, Reznik spotted patrols of armed city guards patrolling the offshoot roads across the plains, not to mention the several they passed. They sold the horse to a stable just outside the wall, and continued on foot to their destination. 

Though Zarah told Reznik that she was more than healthy enough now to walk, she still did so with a faint limp and a far slower pace than usual. 

When they reached the gate, there were far more guards atop the walls and inspecting the people entering than there was when they’d left. They eyed Reznik and Zarah with suspicion, one even running into a door inside the gatehouse when Zarah mentioned her name and station. 

After what felt like far more of a hostile questioning than the last time, he and Zarah were allowed passage through to the inner city, though not without many wary and suspicious glances from the guards as they passed.

“Something’s wrong…” Zarah murmured quietly after they’d made it a block into the city. She walked fractionally closer to Reznik as she slowly panned her head back and forth and eyed the other denizens of the city. “The streets are never this quiet at this hour. I’m hearing thoughts of something… a raid, maybe?

“Somewhere near the city, and apparently it’s got the guards riled up.” 

Zarah clucked her tongue and exhaled a breath. 

“We should pick up the pace. Whatever’s happening, I should go inform the Lord Inquisitor of the success of our mission, at a minimum.” 

Reznik’s unease grew as they turned onto the row of old townhomes that contained Zarah’s residence. 

A quartet of armored men in black tabbards stood at the gate to Zarah’s home. All four turned their heads in unison to face Reznik and Zarah, watching them with weapons in hand. 

Oh. 

Someone’s coming to kill us, then? But why?

And why not just stop us at the gates?

Reznik heard a footfall to his left and turned, noticing a man with a rifle atop a nearby roof. 

“Dont.” Zarah hissed, continuing at the pace she had been before, jerking Reznik along with her by his arm. “These are not men to be trifled with. I know them, or at least of them.”

She paused a moment longer as the four at the gate fanned out in the street. One of them raised an open palm at her door, indicating for them to enter Zarah’s home.

“They’re the Queen’s chosen men. Don’t do anything… brash.” Zarah instructed, reaching out to gently squeeze Reznik’s forearm. “I’m only just getting my strength back, it wouldn’t be wise to start something we couldn’t finish.” 

As they turned into Zarah’s small front yard, the four men behind them collapsed in and began to follow them. 

Reznik tilted his head, hearing faint yet bright laughter from inside the home as they approached. When the door opened, it carried through bright and melodic. 

“…And so, I had to send the Prussanian ambassador back to his parliament without any pants! I sent those separately, in a gift-wrapped box addressed to the Arch-Duke personally, along with a note detailing every moment of his peon’s impropriety!” Reznik saw the source of the voice seated at the kitchen table as he entered the room, and understood why the Queen’s chosen men were at Zarah’s home. 

Queen Dzvina sat across from a resoundingly nervous Luminita at the dining table. Dzvina’s smile was bright as she laughed at the end of her own tale, in stark contrast to the flat, emotionless expressions of her guards. 

She turned fractionally, her smile changing tone as her yellow eyes found Zarah. 

“Ah, so you bothered to return. How kind of you.” The Queen offered in a tone that dripped with a kindness that did not fit the tone of everyone else in the room. “It’s no matter, your lovely handmaiden here has made for exceptional company in your absence.” 

ROYALTY!

Right! 

Kneel!

A moment later, and Reznik’s armored knee thudded into the floorboards loud enough that several guards raised their weapons, and even the Queen herself jumped slightly. 

Then, she laughed abruptly, what felt like a genuine smile returning to her face before the smile grew chilly again. 

“Oh, Zarah, your companions are so… quaint - no, charming.” Dzvina offered as she composed herself, before waving with an open palm at the seat to Luminita’s right. “Please. Sit. -Now-.” 

Reznik tilted his head fractionally, wondering if he should stand yet. 

Zarah inhaled through her nose and slowly crossed the room to sit at the directed chair as Reznik began to stand.

“Oh no. I did not give you permission to stand. You will stay right there, like that, or my men will kill those two first, and then find a way to deal with you. Trust me, they are -very- resourceful.” 

Reznik had his answer. He wasn’t supposed to stand yet. 

A dark part of his ego screamed at him to stand up out of spite, but Zarah faintly shaking her head at him as she took her seat quashed the final bit of resistance he had for the queen at that moment. 

“Thank you. Now, Zarah. Have you any reason why I’m here yet? Have you properly scoured their minds, or should I explain details for everyone?” the Queen asked with the same hostile grin, leaning forward on the table and quirking a brow. 

“I… haven’t done any deep dives yet, your majesty, but from what I can tell, Vezemir has gone missing, yes?” Zarah offered after clearing her throat nervously. 

“No… no not missing. Captured.” Queen Dzvina corrected with a waggle of her finger. “An ambush. Coordinated, informed, and executed near-flawlessly. They killed everyone. Except for my son, of course. An entire convoy of royal guard overwhelmed and slaughtered to the last man. They even went so far as to kill several peasants that crossed their path - wrong place, at a very, very wrong time.”

Does… Does she think Zarah had something to do with it? 

She’s been with me the entire time - not to mention that we don’t have the ability to take down a regiment of royal guards… I think.

Could I?

I’m hard to kill in this armor, after all. 

I wonder, what would be harder, that Necromancer and her army of undead, or a regiment of royal guards protecting the Prince…

“Except one, that is. A boy, who managed to survive after his parents shoved him into a thicket. When a local patrol found the site several hours later, he came running to them. Told them everything he saw. 

“Then I had my own psychers tear into him. That’s where you come in, you see - both you and I know one of the men who kidnapped my son. My -only- heir.” 

Dzvina’s smile had turned into a snarl as she let her words hang dramatically. 

“Your brother, Szymon.” 

“Oh.” Zarah gulped and somehow sat even straighter in her seat than before. 

Zarah has a brother? 

And he’s a bad guy? If there weren’t a bevy of armed guards around us, I’d probably be excited. 

Seems like a story from one of the books Luminita reads to me. 

“So, you see position I’m in, even if by some miracle you weren’t involved. My son has been stolen from me, leaving me not only without an heir, but without the most valuable treasure that my husband left me.” Even though Dzvina’s tone dripped with hostility, Reznik heard a slight hitch as she spoke about her husband. “And given that you’re a viciously talented telepath yourself, I don’t wish to risk putting my psychers in danger probing the depths of your mind. 

Reznik tilted his head curiously as he thought about Dzvina, and what he would do if he were in her position. 

Honestly, I’d probably have thrown us all in a dungeon by now. 

Maybe killed one of us, too…

Raised every soldier I could and sent them out after my son. 

I doubt I’d really be talking - I’d have other people do that for me. 

Dzvina took in a long, deep breath, closing her eyes and blowing it out in a rush as she seemed to recompose herself.

“You are… lucky it is I that is widowed, not my husband.” She opened her eyes and glared down the bridge of her nose at Zarah. “He was a brute, as you know. A good man, but a brute nonetheless. I prefer to fix my problems with words, not steel. 

“Dame Zarah Bukewicz, you are under arrest, and you will spend your days in the noble dungeon until my son is returned to me, your brother is dead, and any guilt that could be laid on your conscience is cleared.” Queen Dzvina stated in matter-of-fact tone before waving her hand at one of the soldiers in the room. “Guards, take her away.”