Cathexis: Necromancer's Dagger (26 page)

CAracusS had been disappointed when he
discovered that the Lindankar palace didn't come equipped with a
torture chamber,
How uncivilized,
he had thought. He could
not imagine how a ruler could build a palace and not have all the
essential tools of leadership nearby. He immediately corrected the
oversight by converting a storeroom into a passable information
gathering and fear inducing chamber of pain.

Von Dracek had left some Tchulian soldiers
at his disposal, so the necromancer used them to remove the
contents of the storeroom.
Next,
he had them bring in some items he desired: a stone table, a
brazier with coals, chains with ring attachments, which he had
servants mount into the walls. He also had them bring candles for
hot wax, six different knives, two hammers, leather strings, a
bucket of water, three pairs of tongs and a stool for his comfort.
He had surveyed his accomplishment from the door and thought,
Well, it’s rather crude compared to the comforts of home, but it
will have to do.

Now he approached his new room to use it for
the first time. A colonel from Jatar’s old military staff waited
inside, chained to the stone table. He was shaking in fear, his
head turned to stare
wide-eyed
at
the approach of the necromancer, though he saw him as Lord Jatar.
CAracusS immediately went over to the shaking man and recognized
him as the colonel who had been found tied up under his desk. After
he had been released he had come to CAracusS to expose Becaris and
the others that he considered traitors. CAracusS had listened and
then decided that since the officer had read Elizabeth’s letter he
could not be trusted, and had him locked up in solitary confinement
until now.

He looked down at the man’s fearful face
almost kindly, CAracusS often felt a kindred spirit for his
victims. He spoke to the shaking man in a pleasant conversational
voice, “Well Colonel, we meet again. You should know that I didn’t
specifically ask for you, but now that you are here we’ll have to
make the best of the situation. It’s nothing personal, but you
couldn’t be allowed to live to talk to any of the other commanders
anyway, knowing what you know. I would have given you a quick death
for your help in coming to me with the information about the
traitors, but it just slipped my mind. Now it would waste time to
get another prisoner up here to be tortured. The truth is I just
can’t afford to wait, so I'm sorry, but it’s a busy time.”

Behind the gag the man tried to speak, but
only an
unintelligible
high-pitched
squeaking issued from behind the
cloth binding his mouth.

“No, it won’t help to argue, my mind is made
up, so we’ll just have to make the best of it. We’ll start simple
and work up to the more excruciating elements.” As the necromancer
spoke he picked up a candle and lit the wick from a nearby torch
and opened the man’s shirt to expose the white skin of his
quivering stomach. After a few moments to let the flame melt the
wax, he tilted the candle to let the hot liquid pour out onto the
soft white skin.

Out in the Gellern forest Corporal Bante
reached the splitting of the paths, he was supposed to continue
back to Lindankar, but he considered making a change in his orders.
He knew that there was an Inn not far down the southeast path, and
there might be the chance of obtaining horses. If he hurried the
men and could procure horses at the Inn it was still possible that
he might overtake Lady Elizabeth and her knights before they
escaped.

He contemplated his options: he knew that
with Von Dracek out of the picture he was in charge; however his
commander had left him with clear orders. He considered the
consequences of disobedience and the rewards for success.
If I
get the sorceress,
he thought,
I will get the glory, and
perhaps a promotion.
If
on the other hand, I go back empty handed I’ll have
a black mark on my record for losing all the men in my first
command. I need a victory to offset that defeat.

Having decided that the move would benefit
his career, he ordered the men to double time it down the southeast
path toward the Inn.

CAracusS determined that the tortured bloody
body of the officer had reached its maximum potential of pain and
despair. He concentrated and tore open the rift between the planes,
calling out into the darkness. “I, CAracusS, call forth Baron
Qyrmswav; speak with me as was our bargain.”

There was a foul disturbance on the other
side of the rift and a smell like rotten meat wafted into the room.
Some time went by, and CAracusS figured they must have summoned the
Baron. Then suddenly he heard words that sounded like the sucking
pop of eyeballs being gouged from their sockets which formed words
within his mind that said, “I am here necromancer, what is your
bargain this time?”

“Would the great Baron be interested in the
spirit energy of a full Kirnath sorceress adept?”

“What is the catch, necromancer? The soul of
an adept is a rare find and so you would not offer it lightly,” the
disgusting voice noted.

“There isn’t much of a catch; she is fleeing
from us in the Gellern forest. She is severely spirit wounded and
low on aura power, ripe for the plucking with her normal defenses
against you in a weak and easily breached state. You can just
follow a path I will describe that will take you to her general
area, and once there I assume you can track her by the taste of her
wounded spirit. Once she and anyone protecting her
has
been eaten, you must then return to the Dark
Plane,” finished CAracusS, with a merchant’s smile painted on his
face.

“Which adept is it that I follow?” asked a
voice that sounded of ripping and snapping tendons from a knee
being forced open
backward
.

“Lady Elizabeth Ardellen; now do you accept
the bargain?”

“Yes, she will be mine! Long have I lusted
to taste the life force of a Kirnath female. Tell me where to find
her and I will feast,” Qyrmswav agreed.

“Take the southern path out of the city that
enters the Gellern forest, follow the southwest turn at the fork;
she will be somewhere along that path,” CAracusS instructed the
foul creature. Then he opened the rift wide enough for the Baron to
enter the world and begin his chase through the night’s cloaking
darkness.

Elizabeth was up with the dawn light
contemplating the future when she suddenly turned and walked
swiftly back to rouse the knights. She hurriedly began to roll up
her blankets as she explained, “We must leave for the Kirnath
School immediately.”

“You don’t wish to train a little more on
combat this morning?” Hetark asked.

“We’ll have to forego that today, we have
need of speed if we are going to reach the school before pursuit
overtakes us,” Elizabeth said, her voice carefully controlled since
she didn’t want her fear affecting the knights.

“You located some soldiers back on our
trail?” Drake guessed.

“Actually, I did locate a few groups of
humans traveling the path behind us, ten men are just reaching the
Targ’s Inn and one of them had a mind shield. No doubt they are the
remaining Tchulians obtaining more mounts, but humans are not my
concern or the reason for my haste.”

“More vorghouls on our trail?” Gustin
guessed.

“I wish that were all,” she said quietly,
and then spoke louder, “I sense the Darknull beast that I feared
the necromancer might send, perhaps the very one that destroyed
Jatar. The horrid creature is swiftly following our back trail.
Right now it is seeking shelter for the day in a dark hollow a
couple of bells behind us, but close enough for me to sense. If it
had been just a little closer it would have reached us last night.
Thank G’lan that the summers sun rises early or we would have been
surprised by that thing,” she answered, her voice quivering
slightly.

“It can’t pursue us in the day?” asked
Drake.

“It could, but sunlight makes them
uncomfortable, though it won’t kill a Darknull. They prefer the
darkness of night as it is more like their own world,” Elizabeth
explained.

“Well, at least now we know of the
necromancer’s next attack,” Hetark put in.

“Yes, and it’s as bad as I expected, we
cannot kill this creature. If I were at full strength I could
protect us, perhaps even wound it, but I doubt I could kill such a
beast. If three or four adepts all attacked at once, we might have
a chance to finish this monster, or at least send it back from
whence it came. Our only hope is to run for the Kirnath
School.”

Hetark was concerned and said, “Milady, it’s
more than a day’s ride to the school from here, won’t it overtake
us once night falls?”

Elizabeth’s voice quivered even though she
tried to keep it steady, “Yes, it will. I will attempt to fight it
off, and may succeed if it isn’t too powerful.” , but the knights
could hear the hesitation in her voice.

“Is there anything we can do to fight it,
milady?” asked Drake.

“Fire is the only physical thing that
bothers a Darknull. Remember that you cannot kill it, but the
fire
could help to keep it at bay.
When it gets near we must make torches and have them ready to
light. I can give you a little notice when the thing is approaching
now that I know it is coming. We’ll have to picket the horses some
distance away or they will bolt in fear and be lost. Then we must
try to keep it at bay until daylight comes once again and it
retreats.

“Once it
attacks,
keep in a small group to protect each other’s
backs, but don’t bother with your
swords
, they won’t do anything to the Darknull. Instead,
put a torch in each of your hands and wave them around to make a
barrier of fire. If possible, I will try to drive it away so that
we can continue running for the school come morning.”

“There must be some way we can help attack
the beast, I’m not afraid of this thing,” Drake said bravely.

“Don’t try
it,
Drake, the Darknulls are not of this world. If the
Darknull attaches to your body it will destroy your immortal soul.
Remember that the death of your body is a far better choice than
the foul kiss of the Darknull beast as it destroys your soul,”
Elizabeth said looking into the young knights' shining eyes and
speaking in a low tone to emphasize the seriousness of the
danger.

“I’m not afraid,” Drake said, with his chin
held high.

In reply Elizabeth just said, “We had best
be on our way and we must ride like the wind, the eater of souls
will fly swiftly after us once the sun sets.”

Quietly they mounted up, but just before
they spurred their mounts Drake muttered under his breath so that
only Gustin heard, “Well you’re out of a job; we have a real enemy
to try and kill me every mile, oh joy.”

Major Von Dracek was sitting at a desk in
the Lindankar palace, the morning sunlight left a band of light
across the
desktop
. Three sets of
orders were lying in the light on the desk and all three were
penned in Jatar’s handwriting. Von Dracek read them over again
carefully. His thoughts were puzzled:
“Why Jatar, why would you
send your precious signet ring with one of these ambassadors? Or
maybe I should say this ambassador,”
he picked up an order.
“The other two are unimportant, but Zinterdalin is a sticky
piece of politics. You should have been there yourself; a
substitute, even if he is your cousin, was not enough for that
volatile of a situation. Did you send the signet ring with him to
show the Zinterdalin ruler that your ambassador had been granted
the power to make decisions? Perhaps...”

He picked up a blank piece of paper and
began to write. The message was in code, but translated it
read:

“Command: N. has replaced J.- War eminent
between O. and P.- L. will support P. in the upcoming battles. Need
commanders sent to L. immediately - Man named G’Taklar on
embassy
to Z, apprehend and search
for J.’s signet ring, find it by any means possible. - Lt.
V.D.”

Having finished writing and coding the
message, the major went to the closet in the room and removed a
small wicker cage. Inside there were three leathery winged
creatures wrapped up into little cylindrical shapes standing on a
perch. Each was about two hand spans tall, two beady red eyes and
two large pointy ears projected above the wings that wrapped the
bodies tightly.

Von Dracek carefully removed one of them
from the small cage door, tied the message to its blue scaly leg
and took it to the window. He placed the winged creature in the
sunlight. Slowly the
cold-blooded
creature unfolded its wings and stretched, its wing span was
surprisingly large, about two feet from tip to tip. After a short
time,
it bounced toward the window
edge twice and then launched itself into the air as it took flight
for its home in a far place.

The orange sun was falling toward the
horizon rapidly and long shadows of dusk fell across the path of
Elizabeth and her knights as they galloped down the forest path.
They had switched horses regularly all day to allow the horses to
keep up this grueling pace. Suddenly Elizabeth reined in and she
slowed her horse to a canter as she said, “We are still too far
from the school, I cannot reach the Adepts in thought, and we
cannot reach the school before the Darknull overtakes us. We must
use the remaining light to gather wood for a large fire, the
Darknull will catch us very quickly once darkness is here and we
must be prepared.”

They did as she commanded. A few minutes
later Drake and Gustin were out gathering wood and Drake said,
“What do you know about these Darknull things?”