The Truth About Noussoir
Part 3. Blood and Snow
For nearly a year, Dame Geneviève de Sephora worked feverishly in her laboratory.
No one understood what her project was about, but everyone in Touraine understood it was one of supreme importance.
One dreary night, when a concerned servant brought an exhausted and bedraggled Comtesse her food, and inquired about her health, Dame Geneviève only said that this project was “her life’s work and the only reason she continues to live.”
At another time, when Dame Geneviève finally agreed to meet with her seneschal and her representative at Parliament, she let it slip that what she was working on “would be the undoing of my archenemy,” assumed to be Malachie du Marais, Baron of Morlay.
Raoul had seen nothing of her, since he last saw (everything of) her. But being the Comtesse’s most trusted henchman, he was soon called in a special task.
He was to gather snow for the Comtesse’s project: pure, clean, white snow, untouched and unshod, in unbelievably large amounts. The Comtesse’s magists and apprentices accompanied Raoul on the mission. Three times he had to do this, the third in the early spring when the only snow that could be had was from the icy mountains of Boldavia. The Comtesse spared no expense, magical nor monetary, which made Raoul’s task all the more easier.
All this over a bloodied piece of bandage.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Epilogue
