Dain Barden dismissed the woman with a curt gesture. "So let us be clear," he said. "You know where this relic is, along with this pool of essence?"

"That is correct," Melovar said.

Barden looked past the Primate's shoulder. "Renrik?" he called.

Melovar turned in his seat, where an Akari in a silver robe approached. He had black hair, which was unusual for an Akari, and wore a necklace of what appeared to be bones around his neck.

"Primate Melovar Aspen, this is Renrik Hormundar, one of my best necromancers. Well, Renrik?"

The necromancer ignored the Primate. "We have examined the book. It is authentic. We believe the relic exists, as does this pool. The structure though, where the relic is housed… we cannot say where it is."

"And we can return to the Empire?" Dain Barden addressed Melovar.

"Yes," said the Primate. "You can resume links with the houses, with the Assembly, and with the Empire. Your exile will be revoked."

"This relic will be ours?" Dain Barden asked.

"Yes. And the essence," Melovar said.

"And in return?"

"In return, you provide your formidable warriors to fight alongside the imperial legion and our templars."

Renrik spoke up, "But not in the warmer lands. Not in Altura, Halaran, or Petrya. Our warriors will decompose too quickly."

"Agreed." Melovar knew that with the Akari added to his strength in the colder lands in the east, he would be able to free up more of the Black Army to crush Altura.

"However, I know what you want most of all," Dain Barden said.

Melovar knew he was too eager, and that the Akari knew it. He didn't care.

"Yes, I want the secret."

"The reason we were exiled." Dain Barden regarded him with level eyes.

"Yes, yes, I want it."

"Let us show it to you first, and then we'll see if you're still so eager."

~

THE Primate wished Zavros was with him. The sharp-eyed templar would understand much more than did Melovar himself. Nevertheless, it was beautiful to behold.

Dain Barden spoke as he showed the Primate the cavernous chambers deep beneath the ice city. "The dead are animated using the necromancers' arts. Depending on the age of the body and the skills it possessed in life, it may become a warrior, or a servant, or a, how do you say it, a creature of pleasure?

Melovar shivered. "How long do the revenants last?"

Necromancer Renrik spoke up. "We do not call them revenants, that is a word of your people." He gestured to a corpse that lay flat on a slab of ice. "To us he is a draug, the plural of which is draugar."

"Not ghouls then?" Melovar smiled thinly, his lips splitting again and blood trickling through the cracks.

"No," Renrik bristled, "not ghouls. They were once beloved, and they serve the Dain in death as they served in life. They are draugar."