Cathexis: Necromancer's Dagger (58 page)

“M-M-M-Master SCorcH
inv
-v-v-
vites
you
to m
-m-m-meet him in the t-t-third
t-t-tower ch-ch-ch-chamber, M-M-Mistress,” the petite blond servant
stammered with her eyes downcast. She held the front of her smock
with both hands and was wringing the material nervously.

“You may inform Master Mouthless that I will
be with him in a few moments, feel free to paraphrase my response,”
RIveK responded.

“P-P-Pairafiz?” the confused and timid
servant girl asked.

“Paraphrase, just
don’t
call him Master Mouthless, I don’t wish to
antagonize him just yet,” RIveK explained.

The young girl didn’t understand, but one
thing she knew for sure, she wanted away from the possessed door
and the red headed necromancer. “Y-Yes M-M-M-Mistress, I will
t-t-tell him.”

“Then you may go,” RIveK said, and forgot
the girl instantly; she had more important things to think about.
She gestured again and the door slammed shut.

The servant girl picked up her skirts and
fled.

Three-fourths
of a bell later RIveK swept into the third
level of the ice tower, her long green gown of translucent silk
billowed out behind her giving glimpses of her taut body wherever
the material pressed against her skin. SKartaQ and SCorcH both
pretended not to notice, which informed the
shrewd-eyed
RIveK that her ploy was working, she had
gained the advantage before she even spoke.

SKartaQ sat at the head of the black onyx
table and SCorcH paced around the curved wall like a caged animal.
He stopped when RIveK entered and looked up at her with a narrow
disapproving glare above his burnt and ruined lower face.

He would be frowning at me, but he
doesn’t have the lips,
RIveK thought with amusement.

“Nice of you to show up,” SCorcH greeted her
sarcastically.

“Were you waiting long? I’m so sorry,” she
replied, and they both knew she didn’t mean it.

“It’s time we finalized our plans and
departed on our quest to locate and finish Lady Ardellen and her
son,” SCorcH lisped, deciding to let her get away with her petty
game of ‘make them wait’.

“I agree, but I have some new ideas about
how we should proceed,” RIveK stated.

“And what are these new ideas?” SCorcH asked
suspiciously.

“Since we don’t precisely know where she is,
I think one of us should leave immediately for her last known
position while the other searches by mind projection. This way we
can achieve maximum speed in intercepting the Kirnath woman. I
volunteer to be in the field while you make the search for her,”
RIveK finished, but thought
, Come on, pretty boy, I know you
won’t let me have my way.

“It is a good plan, but I think I should go
after the sorceress. As you pointed out in the council meeting, use
a woman to catch a woman. You have a better chance of tracking her
than
a man, you can better relate
to how she thinks,” SCorcH responded.

Thank you, SCorcH,
RIveK thought in
amused glee,
for being so predictably contrary
, but she
answered SCorcH’s proposal as if angry with the idea. “No, I should
go after her; the same logic applies to the battle when we find the
Kirnath witch.”

“I disagree; there will be no battle, just
an execution. She is only a sorceress, a healer, no match for a
full necromancer wielding the power of the Dark Plane,” SCorcH
replied with certainty.

RIveK
paced
along the table looking as if she was in deep thought. She paused
thoughtfully to stare into one of the purple crystals lighting the
room.
I wonder if I have pondered my alleged second defeat long
enough to convince him that I wanted to go? Probably, but it’s best
to make sure.
After her brief
pause,
she spoke, “Fine, but I want it under protest that
I think I should have confronted her, not SCorcH,” and she looked
at SKartaQ who had remained silent through the earlier
exchange.

“So noted,” SKartaQ said quietly.

RIveK hid her triumph behind a mask of
anger. “Fine, we’ll arrange nightly places where I can contact you
by projection, that way I can find you easily when I have located
the sorceress.”

SCorcH nodded his grotesque head once in
agreement.

The silk clad
redhead
turned and stormed from the room, her thoughts
triumphant,
I achieved everything I wanted. When we find her I
will get credit for it. The Kirnath
witch
should have no problem eradicating
SCorcH once I warn her that he is coming. Once that deed is done I
will destroy her and get the credit for avenging SCorcH and
removing the sorceress as a threat to our plans. There’s something
refreshing about killing a rival and then getting the credit for
avenging his untimely death. I just wish it was CAracusS I was
about to kill, then life would indeed be perfect.

Back in Lindankar's capitol Major Von Dracek
received a coded message while preparing the schedule for the
Lindankar troop movements during the upcoming campaign against
Olsk. The message was his reply from Raven, his spy at the Kirnath
School and it read:

Major:

Only one strange event has transpired since
I received your last instructions. On the
night
I received the message a baby was found at the gate
of the school. Such things happen here from time to time, so
normally I would think nothing of it, but I was suspicious since
you warned me to watch for the arrival of a mother and her high
aura child.

Any child brought to the school is always
tested for aura potential. I heard that this child tested
abnormally low, a total washout as a student. They considered
sending the child to foster parents in town, but decided at the
last to give him to a serving drudge here that had recently lost
her child, she was still with milk.

I decided to check into it further. So the
very night the child was found I went to see his new stepmother and
the child in question. I did my own test and confirmed that this
child had a very weak aura. It is definitely not the boy about whom
you had written. This has been the only odd occurrence since you
have instructed me to be on guard. Since that
night,
I have watched diligently for the woman
and boy in question, to my knowledge neither have arrived.

Since I lack a target I will revert to my
old orders. I'll keep sending information about Kirnath movements.
I will also continue to watch for the woman and boy in case they
arrive later than you anticipated.

Until next we communicate,

Sincerely,

Raven

The major destroyed the message and went
back to work on his battle plan, but the Kirnath school was seldom
far from the Tchulian commander's thoughts.

Deep under the Tchulian stronghold far from
Lindankar, three of the Knight Protectors were cautiously moving
through the dark passages.

“What was that?” Lasar asked suddenly,
holding up his hand to halt the progress of Becaris and Rasal.

He was five paces in front of them holding
up a torch to light their way through the natural caverns under the
Tchulian fortress. They had wandered around for three bells, hiding
from search parties and twice getting into battles with small
contingents of Tchulian soldiers.

Both battles had ended inconclusively. They
had killed a few Tchulians and then fled in the confusion. Rasal
had taken a small wound in his upper right shoulder, but other than
that they were untouched.

“I’m not sure, did you hear anything,
Rasal?” Becaris asked.

“No, I think Lasar is just hearing things
again,” the twin brother responded.

“There, did you hear that scraping sound?”
Lasar hissed back to them.

“Yes, I think there is something there, draw
your weapons,” Becaris decided.

“And I was just hearing things,” Lasar
muttered.

The three knights took up a defensive stance
and heard a strange deep voice out of the dark from just beyond
where their
torchlight
illuminated
the passage.

“You not uniforms, you
integlebat
?”

“What, in G’lan’s name?” Lasar
whispered.

“Who calls out in the dark?” Becaris said
boldly.

A high pitched voice now answered his
question. “He meant `intelligent’, he’s just too stupid to say it
correctly. “

“What do you want?” Becaris called out into
the dark.

“I’m Halvisun and the other disgusting voice
you hear is Ebemoon,” the high pitched voice called back.

“Come into the light,” Becaris said trying
to get a look at the creatures.

“NO, fire little sticks at us,” the deep
voice bellowed.

“My brainless companion is correct, we dare
not risk bow fire, so we must remain in the dark for now. What are
you doing in these caverns?” Halvisun’s voice called out.

“We’re looking for a man named G’Taklar,”
Becaris called back.

“Eat
G’tabler
brain!” the deep voice of Ebemoon boomed.

“He did what?” Lasar called.

“That’s what he wants to do, not what he has
accomplished. I stopped him,” Halvisun explained.

“Since you saw him, perhaps you can help us
find him,” Becaris suggested.

“This Ebemoon sounds huge,” Lasar whispered
to Becaris.

Becaris gestured for him to remain silent.
Halvisun spoke in his
high-pitched
voice, “I can take you to the last place we saw him, but you’ll
have to discern his fate for yourselves.”

Rasal stepped nearer his brother and Becaris
and spoke softly, “I hear soldiers approaching from behind us.”

Halvisun spoke, “Soldiers come. If I protect
you from the
Tchulians
and take
you to where I last saw your friend, will you answer some
questions?”

“I give you my word as a Knight Protector of
Michael Ardellen,” Becaris swore.

“Accepted. Now please stand aside,” Halvisun
commanded.

A Tchulian corporal appeared from around the
corner, he led a squad of ten Tchulian soldiers.

“There are the spies, put ‘em
te
the sword!” the corporal called out when he
saw the three knights.

Lasar and Becaris turned to look when they
heard the corporal yell, so they both failed to see Ebemoon and
Halvisun coming. The giant souldead creature
was passed
them in three bounds. He attacked the
soldiers with his huge muscular arms and clawed hands outstretched
and ready to rend.

Since killing was his specialty Halvisun let
Ebemoon have some control although it was not his cycle. The
souldead’s massive body moved so fast that the Tchulians didn’t see
him coming until he had grabbed the first two men and dashed their
heads together so hard that their skulls burst open.

The Souldead creature bit into the exposed
brain of the dead soldier he held with his right hand. At this
horrible
sight,
the soldiers in
the back turned and fled.

The two soldiers unlucky enough to be next
in line tried to swing their swords at the bloody behemoth.

Ebemoon threw the dead body in his right
hand at the two swordsmen and knocked them to the ground. Then he
pounced on them before they could scramble to their feet. He
grabbed the first soldier by the head and bit off his screaming
face, using his huge fangs that projected down below his bottom
lip.

Becaris got a good look at the monster for
the first time. It was similar in build to the vorghoul that roamed
the northern mountains of Lindankar, with a few exceptions: he was
bigger and he had an extra head growing out of the right side of
his shoulder which was much smaller than the head in the
center.

The terrifying creature picked up the second
swordsman and used one sharp claw to poke a hole into the top of
the skull, and then Ebemoon’s head attached its lips and sucked the
brain out.

Becaris averted his eyes.

Rasal held his brothers shaking shoulders as
Lasar threw up in the passage.

The screams of terror from the surviving
Tchulians could still be heard as they ran into the distant
passages.

Ebemoon cast the lifeless shell of the
Tchulian soldier to the ground and wiped his mouth with the back of
its huge hand.

“Good food,” the big head stated as he
turned his red eyes on the three knights. Then a struggle ensued,
but Halvisun was at the top of the cycle and he quickly overcame
his alter ego’s control.

The head that was Halvisun grinned at the
knights. “That was Ebemoon's doing, he’s quite impressive when he
fights, no?”

An hour later the three knights stood at the
edge of the underground river. Ebemoon/Halvisun stood ten yards
away pointing at the swiftly flowing water.

“This is where he fell in,” Halvisun
explained.

“Why did G’Taklar fall in here?” Becaris
asked.

“Ebemoon was in control and chasing him,”
Halvisun answered casually.

“And G'Taklar was still alive?” Lasar
asked.

“His head was above the water until the
water went below,” Halvisun squeaked in explanation.

“Where does this river go?” Becaris
asked.

“It exits the mountain near here,” Halvisun
answered.

“I see, but do you know how long it would
take to reach the outside if you were in the water?” Rasal asked
Halvisun.

“Maybe one forth the time it took to walk
here,” Halvisun answered after a moment of thought.

“We’ll just have to hope he found some air
pockets along the way,” Becaris told the twins. He turned back to
Halvisun. “Is there another way to get outside? Somewhere near
where the water comes out?”

“Yes, I’ll take you there,” Halvisun
explained and he lumbered down the path along the river heading for
one of the caves that connected to the river cavern.