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.Its mouth was slightly open, bottom teeth visible, gray and worn.She could even see its eyelids, half-lidded, over the empty eye sockets.Its arms were crossed over its chest as though it were trying to hold itself together against death, clutching its soul inward.Its soul.“Of course,” Alexia gasped.“How could I have been so blind?”Lady Kingair looked to her sharply.“I have been thinking all along that it was an ancient weapon, and Conall that it was some plague your pack caught and brought back with you from Egypt.But, no, it is simply this mummy.”“What? How could a mummy do such a thing?”Resisting the terrible pushing sensation, Lady Maccon strode into the room and picked up a piece of the mummy’s discarded bandage, pointing to the image depicted on it.An ankh, broken in half.Like the circle on top of a cross in Lord Akeldama’s aethographic message, only fractured.“This is not a symbol of death, nor of the afterlife.That is the name”—she paused—“or perhaps the title, of the person the mummy was in life.Do you not see? The ankh is the symbol for eternal life, and here it is shown broken.Only one creature can end eternal life.”Sidheag gasped, one hand to her lips, and then she slowly lowered it and pointed to Lady Maccon.“A curse-breaker.You.”Alexia smiled a tight little smile.She looked to the dead thing sadly.“Some long-ago ancestor, perhaps?” Despite herself she began to back away from it once more, the very air about the creature driving her away.She looked to Lady Kingair, already knowing her answer.“Do you feel that?”“Do I feel what, Lady Maccon?”“I thought as much.Only I would notice.” She frowned again, mind racing.“Lady Kingair, do you know anything about preternaturals?”“Only the basics.I should know more, were I a werewolf, for the howlers would have told me the stories that, as a human, I am not allowed to hear.”Alexia ignored the bitterness in the older woman’s voice.“Who, then, is the oldest of the Kingair Pack?” She had never missed Professor Lyall more.He would have known.Of course he would.He was probably the one who told Lord Akeldama.“Lachlan,” Lady Kingair answered promptly.“I must speak with him directly.” Alexia whirled away, almost bumping into her maid, who stood behind her in the hallway.“Madame.” Angelique’s eyes were wide and her cheeks pink.“Your room, what haz ’appened?”“Not again!”Lady Maccon dashed to her bedchamber, but it looked the same as when she had last left it.“Oh, this is nothing, Angelique.I simply forgot to tell you about it.Please see it is tidied.”Angelique stood forlornly among the carnage and watched her mistress rush back downstairs.Lady Kingair followed sedately after.“Mr.Lachlan,” Alexia called, and that earnest gentleman appeared in the vestibule, a look of concern on his pleasant face.“A private word if you would be so kind.”She led the Gamma and Lady Kingair across the hall into a tight huddle away from the other pack members.“This may come as a strange question, but please answer to the best of your knowledge.”“Of course, Lady Maccon.Your wish is my command.”“I am muhjah.” She grinned.“My command is your command.”“Just so.” He inclined his head.“What happens to us when we die?”“A philosophical conversation, Lady Maccon? Is now the time?”She shook her head, impatient.“No, not us here.I mean to say we as in preternaturals.What happens to preternaturals when we die?”Lachlan frowned.“I have not known very many of your kind, rare as they fortunately are.”Alexia bit her lip.Lord Akeldama’s message said preternaturals were cremated.What would happen if one was not? What would happen if the body was never allowed to decompose? Ghosts displayed, in their very nature, the fact that excess soul was tethered to the body.As long as the body could be preserved, the ghost would stick around—undead and progressively more insane, but around.Surely the ancient Egyptians would have discovered this for themselves through the process of mummification? It might even be the reason they mummified.Was there something about not having a soul that was also connected to the body? Perhaps soul-sucking abilities were coupled to a preternatural’s skin.After all, it was through her touch that Alexia managed to negate supernatural power.She gasped and, for the first time in her stalwart life, actually felt near to fainting.The implications were endless and terrifying.The dead bodies of preternaturals could be turned into weapons against the supernatural.Preternatural mummies, like the one below, could be divided up and transported about the empire, or even turned into a powder and made into a poison! A humanity poison.She frowned.Such a drug might pass through the body after digestive processing, but still, for a time, a werewolf or vampire would be mortal.Lachlan and Lady Kingair remained silent, staring at Alexia.It was almost as though they could see the gears and cogs in her head moving.Only one question remained to be answered: why was she repelled by the mummy? She asked Lachlan, “What happens when two preternaturals meet?”“Oh, they dinna.Not even their own bairns.You never met your father?” Lachlan paused.“Course, he wouldna been the type.But, regardless, they simply dinna.Preternaturals canna stand to share the same air as one another.’Tis naught personal, simply unbearable, so they tend to avoid the same social circles.” He paused.“Are you saying somehow yon dead mummy is doing all this?”“Maybe death expands our soulless abilities so they no longer require touch.Just as a ghost’s excess soul can move outward from its body to the limits of its tether.” Alexia looked at them both.“It would explain the mass exorcism within a specific radius.”“And the fact that this pack cannot change.” Lady Kingair was nodding.“Mass curse-breaking.” Lachlan frowned.Just then they heard the murmur of voices from behind the locked door near them.The parlor door clicked open, and Tunstell stuck his red head out.He started back upon seeing the three of them standing so close.“Mistress,” he said, “Madame Lefoux has awakened.”Alexia followed him inside, turning to Lady Kingair and Lachlan before shutting the door.“I need hardly tell you how dangerous the information we just discussed.”Both looked appropriately grave.Behind them, the rest of the pack emerged from the artifact room, curious at Tunstell’s appearance.“Please do not tell the rest of your pack,” Alexia asked, but it sounded like a command.They nodded and she shut the door.CHAPTER THIRTEENThe Latest Fashion from FranceTunstell was bent over the inventor, helping her to sit upright on the small settee, when Alexia entered [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]