Chapter 83 - The Night and the Maiden, part 1

The old man succumbed to a terrible death, there was nothing the surgeon or the priest could do to prevent it. They took turns fluffing the sweat-soaked pillows on which the old man lay, and they toiled with candle stubs and curtains to ward off shadows and prevent drafts, but the bedroom was still chilly nonetheless.

Where there should have been a roaring fire, the stacked logs and thin branches remained unlit. The two men lit herbs so that the smoke would protect them from noxious humors, and offered prayers of benevolence to the six great gods of the Sextet Pantheon. None of this changed things in the least.

Count Victor Drake was dying.

They both knew it, and worse still, he knew it.

That is why they were by his side; they had come to watch over him.

His lower lip hung limp, and a trickle of saliva trickled down his chin. Victor wiped it away with the back of his fr