The Archimage Wars: Wizard of Abal (24 page)

The ghost laughed aloud, and cried
out, “I am FREE! There are not enough of these shades to hold me
now, not when my Archimage draws near!”

Then his ghostly form flew out the
window and streaked away into the night, headed toward the
approaching glow of flames.

“
You know, this just can't
be good," I decide.

Myrka struggled to gain her feet but
failed. Then she said, “I must Five Point travel to a portal, and
tell my Archimage of the coming of The Dark One!”

Hydan shook his head, “A Traveling
Star takes power, which is something you don’t have right now, it
would kill you.”

“
You could make one for
me!” she exclaimed.

Hydan stared at her for a moment, and
then started gesturing at the floor, but the familiar red fire did
not appear.

Hydan stopped gesturing and said, “The
Dragon has put a StarWard around this area, he must be getting
near! We cannot use a Star for travel now.”

Myrka snarled, and struggled to get
up, as she said, “Then I will fight! I will not go down cowering on
the floor of…”

Hydan suddenly gestured and Myrka
slumped back to the ground, unconscious.

“
What did you do?” I
asked.

Hydan shrugged, “I just gave her a
nudge, she was about to pass out anyway, and this way she is
healing rather than passing out from taking herself over the brink
into possible death.”

I looked around the room, “And, what
do we do now?”

“
We get out of this tower,
or did you want to wait around for The Dragon?” Hydan
asked.

I didn’t even bother to answer, but I
said, “What about the shades?”

Toji went to the wall and put his ear
there to listen, and then he said, “I can’t hear them howling
anymore, I think they have departed, they have no reason to stay
now that the ghost of the Dragon Third has fled. It was to keep his
soul trapped in this tower which made them stay. Perhaps now they
can move on out of this dark existence.”

I pondered that and asked, “Why worry
about a soul? I mean, he was dead.”

Toji replied, “There are ways of
speaking with the dead, perhaps Abraxas knows something they wanted
to keep from The Dragon? Besides, The Dragon has stolen secrets
from all the Houses, and now Morgain is bringing back dead mages
and necromages. Who knows, perhaps The Dragon is the one who gave
her that secret!”

“
Ah, good point,” I
answered. I then wondered which of his secrets I knew, I wish I
remembered.

“
I will carry Myrka if you
will carry Ziny, Nick,” Hydan said and picked up the unconscious
Tarvos sorceress.

“
All right,” I answered,
but added, “But if I were you, I wouldn’t want to be very close to
Myrka when she wakes up, she’s going to be very pissed with
you!”

“
I’ll deal with her at the
time,” Hydan noted. Then he added, “Toji, if you would be so kind
as to make an opening, let’s get out of this foul
tower.”

Toji went to the wall where the arch
had been, raised a hand when he was about a foot away, and then the
stones vanished and became an arched opening again.

We made it down to the bottom of the
tower without incident. This time, we followed the path to a quay,
though there were no boats moored there. We got rid of our armor
and then slipped under the water. It turned out to be even easier
to tend to Ziny and Myrka in the water, where their unconscious
bodies were weightless.

We swam tiredly for two hours and
finally reached the far shoreline. When we surfaced I could see a
glow coming from the Tower. It seems The Dragon, and his firey
mount were causing quite a fire. I just hoped he had no way of
sensing us.

We rested in the shallows, staying in
some river reeds for concealment in case any of those flying things
came near. It gave me a chance to ponder what I had just learned.
If Fiona was correct, then I had stolen something valuable from a
necromancer Archimage so evil they wouldn't even speak his name.
Now this 'Dark One' was hunting me, across the worlds. The biggest
problem I had was I didn’t know what it was I had stolen. I mean,
come on, if you are going to be hunted by the Ghost of Christmas
Future, at least you should know what the hell he wanted! What, did
I take forget to send him a birthday card or something?

Chapter Nine

Caught in a
trap.

Sometimes you got to know
where to run for cover.

-Electric Light
Orchestra

When morning light appeared, Myrka and
Ziny woke up. Ziny was in better shape than Myrka and was soon
swimming around looking for fish for breakfast.

Myrka was still weak, too weak to form
a Traveling Star, though she nearly tried it until Hydan convinced
her that she would just pass out again, and we would have to leave
her here while we went to the capitol. She was determined, more
than ever, to stay with me now, she had confirmation that The
Dragon really was after my hide.

I sat down in the shallows next to her
and said, “So, what, exactly, is your mission again?”

“
To find The Dragon and
report his location to my Archimage.”

I nodded, “And when we first met you
had tracked him to Earth?”

She nodded.

“
And now you know he is on
Abal. Tell me, just before we met, why didn’t you fly off and tell
your Archimage The Dragon was on Earth?”

“
Because I need a more
precise location than a planet to fulfill my mission,” she
replied.

“
And now The Dragon has
left the tower, do you know precisely where he is on
Abal?”

She scowled at me, “No.”

“
Then why go back to your
superiors yet?”

She was quiet and stared at me darkly.
Then she said, “I see your point, and I will stay with you until
The Dragon arrives to kill you.”

“
Right, that’s a jolly
thought.” I gazed at her for a minute and then said, “At the Inn, I
was ready to cut you loose at the first opportunity. You had shown
no care for anyone but yourself, and that’s not a very good
teammate in a crisis.”

She just glowered at me.

“
But then, in the Tower,
you nearly died to defend us from those shades, why? You could have
run into the room after Toji.”

She tilted her head at me in a puzzle
fashion, “It was my task to defend you, not bring them upon
you.”

“
Your task?”

“
Yes, why is this
confusing?” she demanded, blinking at me.

I shrugged, “I don’t know, why did the
chicken cross the road?” I retorted, as an example of a question
you just can’t answer.

Hydan perked up at the chicken
reference, and exclaimed with a grin, “Because such a ridiculously
designed bird couldn’t fly over! What a gloriously dumb fowl! I
wonder what I would get if I crossed a chicken with a snogfish, A
snoken? That would be a creature which can’t walk, swim or fly!” He
thought about it, perhaps picturing the crossbreed, and then
laughed.

Ziny swam up at this point with a fish
stuck in her mouth, and one in each of her hands. She spat out the
one in her mouth, so it landed on the shore, and then gave us a big
crooked smile as she declared, “Breakfast!”

Even Myrka smiled.

When Myrka had recovered enough to
travel we took to the water. It wasn’t long before the Celadon
River departed the lake, and we were once again headed downstream
with a strong current. In another day, we should reach the capital,
and then I could try to find out whom my saeran parents really
were, and if they were still alive. I needed some answers, badly. I
really hoped they could help fill in the gaps in my brain. There
had to be a reason why they had hidden me on Earth, and why I had
the balls to steal something important from The Dragon, of all
dudes. Perhaps I had been on some secret mission?

As we continued down the river we
passed three burned out villages. These were old battles, with only
skeletons of the dead to decorate the ruins. Ziny and I surfaced to
take a look, but she turned her head away when we saw the rotting
bodies, and I thought I saw a tear in her eye, but then the river
water washed it away.

Soon the river entered a dense forest
and started winding through the tall trees. The water was slowing
and had started to spread outwards into the surrounding forested
area. I noticed many tree trunks in the water, which was odd.
Normally they are near the water, but not in it. Which meant there
had been some kind of flood recently.

I called to the others and said I was
going to surface and do a quick visual scout ahead. When my head
lifted from the surface of the Celadon two things happened, I saw a
temporary log dam built just ahead of our position, and I heard
someone call out from the shore.

That’s when the log dam just
disappeared.

Instantly the water picked up speed,
and we were sucked along with the flow.

I tried to swim toward shore, but the
pull was too great, and moments later I found myself rolling and
tumbling down a short cascade which led to a lower pool of water.
It wasn’t a far drop, but it was enough to expose us as we
fell.

I slammed into some thick netting a
moment later, and the water was pounding on me from above since I
was held in the net. Someone had strung nets out in the cascading
water, and this one closed around me immediately. Then I felt
acceleration upwards as I was lifted by the net out of the water.
Looking up I could see a rope attached to my net on one end, with
the other end tied to a young tree which had been bent down, and
had now been released. The tree straightening was plenty of power
to yank the net, and me in it, up and out of the river like a
grizzly bear snaring a salmon. To my left, I spotted another net
flying up, and I think I saw Ziny cocooned within the bundle of
ropes.

The nets around us swung over to the
right bank, there were people waiting. They immediately started
clubbing me, pounding at my head right through the net. In moments,
I was struck and blackness took me down the dark hole to
unconsciousness.

Some indeterminable time later my eyes
snapped open. I didn’t drift back into consciousness; I just woke
up like someone had dashed a bucket of water in my face. I think
Hydan must have ‘magiced’ me awake.

Hydan was yelling at me, “Get UP, and
run!”

Strangely, all around me, there were
several snogfish flopping on the forest floor. I could see the rope
which had bound the net together, but the net was gone. I got to my
feet.

That’s when I saw Toji fighting with
three Living Husks. Toji had his tantos flashing, and his
adversaries had long poniards. Those dried and dead looking saeran
emaciated bodies were spry, and not very zombie-like at all. It was
all Toji could do to keep them at bay.

Then, to my left I saw Myrka, she had
six of them around her, and she had her blue glowing knife ready.
One tried to thrust a poniard at her, and she cut through his
forearm with a flick of her knife. The others were trying to
maneuver around to get behind her.

I knew Myrka was not fully recovered
yet, and so she couldn’t do a lot with her Derkaz magic.

Farther off I could see a group of
three of the Husks carrying a net with a body inside, hurrying
away. The one toward the back limped from a leg that ended in a
stump. His fibula and tibia bones projected out of the dead flesh,
working kind of like a peg leg. He turned his nasty head back and
gave me a sick rotten-toothed grin.

“
Nicholas!” I heard her
tiny voice call out in a pleading tone, and it was like someone had
stabbed me in the heart.

“
They have Ziny!” I yelled
and took a step in that direction, but Hydan grabbed my
arm.

“
I can help Toji and Myrka
with the necrosouls, or go after Ziny, but not both!”

I hesitated, and that’s when things
got worse.

A massive flying beast of some kind,
with flaming wings, and a snake head, landed in the trees about two
hundred yards away. Fire instantly started around it in the forest.
It wasn’t a classic dragon, but some other kind of flying snake
monster. A dark shape leaped from its back to the forest floor, and
then it gestured for the three necrosouls to get Ziny up on the
beast.

While they did that, the dark shape
strode toward us purposefully. Four necromages arrayed themselves
behind the powerful looking dark shape.

“
By Baal’s colossal ego,”
Hydan said, backing up a step.

I was trying to move forward, but he
still had me by the shoulder.

“
Let me LOOSE!” I
yelled.

He shook his head, “He’ll just kill
you, Nick, instantly. That is Medrod approaching, or I’m a
snogfish. And those are necromages, we are outnumbered, and Myrka
is weak.”

“
Medrod?” I said
stupidly.