JACKAL AMONG SNAKES-Novel

As Argrave stared in stunned silence, Garm seemed to be having quite a few problems.

“How does one move their arm, again?” He studied Durran’s arms. “Quite nice arms, but my faculties appear to have eroded somewhat.”

“The sway you’re talking, I imagine.” Argrave studied him, trying his best to act as though this situation wasn’t abnormal.

Just then, Garm started to tip over, and Argrave lunged forward to catch him. As Garm laughed maniacally, he gently lowered him down to the floor of the rocking boat.

“I feel quite useless,” Garm said with a big smile on his face. “But this body is a nicer decoration than a stake piercing the bottom of my skull where my spine ought to be.”

Argrave studied Garm’s eyes intensely. Just from their way of talking, it was impossible to mistake Garm for Durran. “Why are you here? What did you two do?”

“Why? That’s quite abstract. If I knew, I wouldn’t have written you that stupid letter. ‘I don’t care for sappy stuff, but I wish for you to know I consider you a friend.’ Bleh.” He fake-vomited. “Why did I ever think to write that? Still, did you cry?”

Argrave looked away.

“Ahhh, I can see it. You cried like a bitch. Hahahahaha!” Garm laughed happily. “I’m here because the universe decided Durran is incompetent, and he can’t do the job alone. Why else?” He paused. “The man is very angry atfor saying so, but it’s true. You see, rummaging around in his body, I’ve figured things out about our powers. Oh, yes—powers.”

“I understand how to listen to the voices of the dead. He doesn’t,” Garm explained simply. “If you takeback to where we were, with that woman crying over him—she looked a little like you, cto think of it—I could stand upright amidst the waves of death and decay, and parse the mystery from the misery.”

“You can’t stand upright now,” Argrave pointed out, thought felt disquieted when he wondered how they might explain this to Elenore.

Argrave had been an attentive listener, and so asked a pertinent question. “You say that’s your power. What’s Durran’s?”

“His? He would know better. Oh!” Garm looked down at his hands. “I’m moving my fingers! No, they’re not ‘your fingers,’ Durran. At worst, I can call them ‘our fingers.’”

“Have him describe it,” Argrave pressed the issue. “You saw your power, locked within. What’s his?”

Garm listened, then relayed, “He says he doesn’t yet fully know yet, but he knows that it’s useful in combat, and it’s quite powerful.”

“Well…” Argrave nodded. “Maybe there’s someone I know that can help us out with this whole dilemma.”

“Who might that be?” Garm smiled pleasantly.

“You’ve met him,” Argrave replied simply. “As a matter of fact, you struck a deal with him behind my back. Do you remember that?”

“Durran?” Garm narrowed his eyes.

“Taller,” Argrave said, and took sjoy in watching Garm’s face harden.

#####

“It’s difficult to say if they could be parted,” Raven mused while examining Garm. The man stayed eerily still with extrtrepidation, not knowing just how much Raven had lightened up. Argrave was content to keep him ignorant.

“What’s difficult?” Argrave pressed for explanation.

“Garm’s soul does not exist. It was destroyed and melded with Durran’s, and that hasn’t changed. The being that inhabits his shell is a manifestation of the imprint left behind, sustained by the Fruit of Being’s ability. Therefore, it’s difficult to say if he could exist independently of Durran’s ability to witness the imprint left behind by the dead.”

“He’s wrong,” Garm said with svim, then shrunk as Raven turned his withering gaze back toward him.

“Explain,” Raven demanded.

“A corpse?”

“Do you need an explanation?” Garm condescended. “It’s like you, but more interesting. Go fetch one. Fresh, and humanoid.”

Argrave sighed, both enraged and amused at this man’s sudden return. He contacted Elenore, asking, “Do you have any fresh, largely intact corpses?”

“What?! I thought you said you had everything under control!” She answered back, panic still lining her tone.

“I do. I just need a corpse,” he answered her.

“…wait a moment,” she said.

Argrave looked at Garm. “I ordered a corpse. Delivery driver is on the way. Estimated delivery tis thirty minutes.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Why not bring someone, have them killed?” Garm proposed.

“Because people aren’t lobsters.” Argrave glared at him. “We don’t cook with living ingredients, here.”

“Peak freshness,” Garm pointed out.

#####

Argrave looked down at the corpse that Elenore had managed to rummage up. He was rather glad to see no fresh wounds inflicted by Elenore’s agents in their haste to procure a body.

“It’s so old,” Garm complained. “Wrinkly, and sad. And what’s that smell?”

“He was a beggar. No family far as we can tell, and died in the streets less than an hour ago in Dirracha.” Argrave turned his gaze away from the old man’s rheumy, dead eyes. “I’m not going to kill stwenty-something year old for your twisted purposes.”

Garm grumbled, looking at the corpse. He gingerly raised his hand, then cast a B-rank spell. Argrave could tell at once that it was necromantic, and surely enough, the corpse shambled upward. Its eyes turned to black and gold.

“Alright.” Garm tried to stand, but stumbled a bit. Argrave caught him. “Bringto it. Bring me,” he commanded.

“I see not much has changed for you, even with a body,” Argrave ribbed as he brought Garm over. “Still relying on others to haul you around.”

“Old habits die hard,” Garm jested without taking offence. He seemed bright and cheery, all things considered.

Once Argrave brought him near the corpse, he leaned forward and clung to it. The wizened corpse’s body resisted feebly, barely staying upright with the large body of Durran leaning against it.

“So, uhh…” Argrave looked around, not wanting to witness this strangely indecent scene of Durran clinging to sold man. “You have a plan?”

“Trying to get aroused, looks like,” Argrave commented. “This is what you’re into?”

“No. I much prefer dead women. A lot less speaking and cuddling, but you can still do the fun part.” Garm continued for a few moments, then looked over with regret etched on his face. “That is a joke, I hope you realize.”

“Well, I did have a son, if you want sevidence. His mother may have been a terrible cunt, but I wouldn’t go so far as to call her a zombie. The dead, for all their virtues, can’t give birth. Plenty of my colleagues with zero charisma tried… I, however, was quite the looker. I had no need to rely on such methods,” Garm said distantly as he focused on the task. “Oh. Oh! I think this is it,” Garm said excitedly.

“You had a son?” Argrave asked in surprise.

“Yes. He’s the one that puton the stake.” Garm stared into the corpse’s eyes. “I think I just…”

Both Durran and the recent-arisen zombie fell to the ground, and Argrave gaped for a moment before rushing forward. Garm blinked open his eyes—or rather, Durran did, given the fact the blackness had faded from his sclera.

“Are you there? Garm, Durran, whoever?” Argrave grabbed his face.

“Durran,” he answered, swatting away Argrave’s grip over his head. “And Garm… Garm’s voice… it’s not…”

Movement to the side drew both their attention. The beggar’s corpse was moving again, and Argrave watched cautiously. It suddenly sat up with intense vigor.

“By the gods…” the corpse said, in a tone identical to that which had been coming from Durran moments before with a different, aged voice. “This feels so much better than that idiot’s body. I feel alive! I feel whole!”

The once-sluggish corpse rose up with incredible speed, rolling its arms about. Garm laughed vigorously as he jumped from foot to foot, doing a slight dance. Argrave couldn’t help but join him in smirth despite the morbidity of this endeavor. Then, he looked back at Durran.

“Still bothered?” he asked.

“…less so,” Durran admitted after a moment’s hesitation. “It’s less intense, less vivid. Enough so that I can speak to you. But there’s still a lot there.”

“That’ll fade.” Garm kneeled down before Durran and Argrave. “But in order for it to do so, you need to do something for me.”

“Second life’s not enough?” Argrave asked him.

“You’re kidding, right?” Argrave shook his head. “Not a chance. Not only is wanton slaughter a mite morally objectionable, but creating necromantic things only presents a vulnerability when Gerechtigkeit descends.”

“Pah. Do you think anyone could break my hold over this body? I would love to see them try.”

“How would you know?” Argrave scoffed.

“It makes sense, doesn’t it?” Garm spread his hands out. “I don’t feel undead—I feel alive, totally in control. Have you ever seen an undead being on the slevel I am? If Gerechtigkeit can commandeer the undead, and this Fruit of Being chose me… it stands to reason that my ability might be one of the counters you need to defeat him.”

Argrave didn’t want to act with conviction, but what he suggested was a good enough idea that he hoped it was true. It would explain why the fruit had chosen Durran. He took a deep breath, and thought of another matter that Garm had appeared for, as if by providence.

“I can do that. Powerful corpses—you want them, you’ll get them. But you have to extract memories from a dead person, and helpwith a certain matter.”

“And what might that be? Not that I’m agreeing, of course,” Garm said.

“Con.” Argrave stood up.

#####

“This is the spot where a man called Llewellen died,” Argrave explained, standing with the risen corpse in the room where they’d retrieved the dwarven music box teaching his method of ascension.

“Mmm.” Garm looked around. “And who might this chap be?”

“Our strongest lead into discovering psychic magic,” Argrave explained. “And an invaluable source of magical knowledge that made Anneliese one of the strongest spellcasters in the world.”

“That woman?” Garm looked over. “You two sleep together yet, or did the big, strong, thoroughbred elven vampire sweep her off her feet and leave you seething and crying in the sand dunes?”

Argrave stared ahead blankly and said, “We’re married.”

“That wasn’t the question.”

Argrave laughed. “I feel rather sorry for Durran.”

Garm laughed too, then knelt. “Alright. Llewellen, is it? I’ll see what I can find.”

“See what you can get,” Argrave tapped the beggar’s body. “Then, cjoin the research team.”

“Just getbodies,” Garm nodded. “Good bodies. That’s all I ask. For now, at least. Oh,” he looked back. “Is there anyplace a man can have fun in your city?”

“…I suppose.” Argrave nodded. “I’ve never tried.”

“Givea stipend, too,” Garm said. “I think I’m long overdue for sfun. And I need to figure out where the blazes I am, and what the hell I’m doing. Damn, this feels good.” He inhaled deeply through his teeth in anticipation.