Necromancer Awakening (6 page)

Mujahid grabbed Nicolas by the shoulders.

“You must be truthful with me, boy. Your life depends on it. Have you entered a Hall of Power?”

“Mister, you got a hole in your screen door or something? I told you. I have
no idea
what you’re talking about.”

“The room with two doors. Have you seen it?” Mujahid shook him. “One is light. One is dark. Answer me, boy!”

He remembered them. He also remembered the skull waiting behind the black door, and how the white door tried to pull him in.

Nicolas nodded.

Mujahid balled his hand into a fist and shut his eyes. “Did you enter one?”

Nicolas couldn’t stop thinking about the skull floating behind the dark door.

“There was something off about the white door so I left it alone. And there’s a floating skull behind the black one. It’s always there. I feel the energy, I get sick, and I see the skull. That’s how it happens. Am I going crazy?”

“That skull is the reason you exist.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re a necromancer. This fact isn’t conditional upon your belief. You can’t eradicate truth by denying it. You have the blood, and you can’t wish it away.”

As much as Nicolas hated to admit it, Mujahid struck him as a straight shooter. He was out of options, and he didn’t like it.

Nicolas stopped, hoping Mujahid would slow down. The man sure was spry for an old guy.

“Keep moving,” Mujahid said. “This tunnel isn’t going to wait for me to cure your insufferable ignorance. When did your skull dreams start?”

How does he know about the dreams?

An aftershock caused the ground to heave, and Nicolas stumbled.

“Answer me,” Mujahid said.

“A couple of weeks. At most.”

“Arin’s grace, it’s a wonder you’re still alive. Stay close. Our destination is near.”

Mujahid began running up the passageway.

“Texas, you said?” Mujahid said without turning back. “I’ve never heard of it. Tell me more.”

Nicolas sighed and followed. What choice did he have?

They ran for several minutes, and three aftershocks followed the first.

The tunnel was damp in places, with small rivulets of water running down the porous walls. Nicolas covered his nostrils to block the smell of mold and dirt. He hoped Mujahid knew what he was doing.

“The power will fill you soon, but don’t fear it,” Mujahid said. “We’re approaching a vast source of necropotency.”

“A what?”

“I’ve slowed your awakening, but this will make you weak with the power.” Mujahid raised his eyebrow. “Though it’s doubtful you’ll notice the difference.”

Nicolas was getting tired of the sarcasm. Mujahid didn’t like him for some reason, and he couldn’t figure out why. He’d have to ignore it for now. The man was his only lifeline.

The tunnel curved to the left, and the rivulets of water disappeared. Energy pooled inside him, and Nicolas tried to stay calm like Mujahid asked him to, but when they rounded the curve, he jumped backward.

A crackling blue wall that looked like a force field blocked the tunnel ahead, and Mujahid wasn’t slowing down. It emanated a faint humming sound that reminded Nicolas of a transformer at a utility substation…the kind always blowing up and causing power outages.

“What is that?” Nicolas asked.

“Why don’t you tell me what you know? The list will be shorter.”

Nicolas fought back the urge to insult the man and took a deep breath.

“Let’s start with that then,” Nicolas said. “I know that isn’t a door.”

“It’s a barrier, boy. Barrier magic, to be precise. Not as strong as the Great Barrier, of course.”

“This is the part where I ask
what is that
again.”

Mujahid huffed. “The Great Barrier covers all of Erindor like a dome. Barrier magic is a mystical force, which serves whatever purpose its creator imbues it with. I created this one, and therefore it serves my purpose.”

“That yellow sky has a barrier in it?”

“That yellow sky
is
the Great Barrier,” Mujahid said. His expression grew slack. “The true sky of Erindor is hidden.”

“Yeah…so…remind me what Erindor is.”

“The Three Kingdoms. Though that name hasn’t applied for decades. We’re standing in the Shandarian Union, the northwest portion of Erindor. The Religarian Empire spans the eastern half of Erindor, and the Kingdom of Tildem lies to the south, smallest of the Three Kingdoms.”

“Only one kingdom in the Three
Kingdoms
?”

“Long story. This small barrier in front of us protects the coven from quakes and intruders. Can we dispense with the lessons and get to safety?”

Mujahid gestured through the barrier, but Nicolas hesitated. The last time he stepped through something mysterious he found himself on another world.

Mujahid stepped through and waved Nicolas forward.

Nicolas tested the surface with his finger. He knew, somehow, he was in the presence of death…in the same way he knew at the car accident. It felt as if he were standing on the border between two worlds.

He couldn’t do it. He took a step back, afraid of what would happen if he stepped through.

Mujahid shook his head and pulled Nicolas through the barrier by his shirt.

An electric shock passed through his body. The presence of death grew stronger now that he was on the other side of the barrier.

“Can you feel that?” Nicolas asked.

“Look around you, boy. This tunnel serves more than one purpose.”

The natural stone wall of the tunnel turned into course, stone brickwork. The bricks were set in three rows of arched alcoves that lined each side of the tunnel, one row on top of the other. Each alcove contained a simple, unadorned sarcophagus. He expected to see cobwebs stretching from grave to grave, but the alcoves were pristine.

“We’re safe from the tremors here,” Mujahid said.

“What is this place?”

Mujahid looked down and shook his head.

“There’s something you’re hiding from me,” Nicolas said.

“Oh there’s a lot I’m hiding from you, boy. But it gladdens me to see you’re not a complete dimwit.”

“You don’t even know me but you act like I insulted your mother. Why do you hate me so much?”

“You aren’t the only one who has to adjust here.”

“Are you serious? I got ripped through a black hole in my apartment, bubba. The worst you’ve had to deal with is a tourist with questions, so don’t go thinking you understand me. Because our situations…not the same.”

Mujahid pursed his lips. “You’re right.”

Of all the reactions Nicolas was expecting, agreement wasn’t one of them.

“Wait. Did you just say I was right about something?”

“Don’t grow accustomed to it, boy. You’re correct, and in ways you can’t imagine. Our situations aren’t the same, except in one way…we need each other. You won’t survive without me, and I…well…my concerns are my concerns for now. Trust is earned.”

“But I’m supposed to trust you, right? Why? Because of your charitable nature or winning personality?”

Mujahid offered a bemused smile. “Few would speak to me as you do. You remind me of my brother.”

“See, I’m not all that bad.”

“The difference, boy, is that my brother has the power to get himself out of the trouble his mouth causes.”

“Hey—”

“You’re either brave beyond justification, or ignorant beyond explanation. Perhaps both. For now, keep walking.”

“Where are you taking me?”

Mujahid smiled.

“My home. I’m taking you to Paradise.”

CHAPTER FIVE

Nicolas followed Mujahid for what seemed like hours before the path widened in all directions. The moist brick walls sloped outward, and the path descended into an enormous cavern.

Cooking fires dotted the cavern, and people dressed in rags and patchwork shuffled along the pathways, stopping at the fires for food. Shelters made of cloth and bits of metal formed a ring around the center of the cavern, which was set apart by an iron fence. A bright, thick beam of blue energy extended down from a black void in the center of the cavern ceiling more than one hundred feet above their heads.

The smell of damp earth permeated the coffin-lined tunnel, but the dank atmosphere did nothing to suppress Nicolas’s hunger.

“I have to eat something.”

“A word of warning before we continue,” Mujahid said. “I am not a man moved by displays of obeisance, but I am a person of significance in this community.”

“How does this apply to me?”

“You will refer to me as
Lord
.”

Nicolas rolled his eyes. “Come on. We’re practically old friends—”

Mujahid grabbed his shoulder.

“This is serious, boy. My title and my name hold religious significance. Use these words carelessly, and you tread on fractured ice.”

Nicolas folded his arms and Mujahid released his grip.

“Our community is hierarchical,” Mujahid said. “A necromancer who forgets his place tends to live a short life.”

“Someone insults you and you
shorten their lives. Lesson learned,
Lord
Mujahid. What a wonderful place this is. Where’s your visitor’s center? I need to get a post card.”

“We hold a sacred position in the infinite order of the multiverse. Our power, relative to one another, determines in what capacity we serve our god. A Mukhtaar Lord serves in the highest capacity of all.”

“I told you, I get it,” Nicolas said. “I say something the religious nuts find offensive and someone sticks me with a hot poker. Point taken. Do they wear hoods when they string people up? Do you tell them it’s for the salvation of their immortal soul when you’re lighting the fire?”

One moment Mujahid was several feet away, the next he was in Nicolas’s face with brilliant white eyes. Nicolas hadn’t seen him move.

An invisible force wrapped around Nicolas and lifted him against the cavern wall.

“Fool! You mock what you don’t understand, and I’ll allow it no longer.”

Something had paralyzed Nicolas. He tried to move but he had no power over his limbs. He was under Mujahid’s complete control. He felt cold. The last time something lifted him off the ground was in his apartment…right before he was taken. Was Mujahid somehow responsible for that too?

The glow left Mujahid’s eyes, and the invisible force lowered Nicolas to the ground.

“I can’t bestow four decades of experience upon you by decree,” Mujahid said. “I’m your only guide, and there are some things you’re going to have to take on faith.”

Faith. It had been a while since Nicolas exercised that particular muscle.

“I, too, had a guide once,” Mujahid said. “I, too, had to learn trust.”

“Was he as pleasant as you?”

“She. And she is no longer with us.”

Nicolas recognized the expression on Mujahid’s face. The man looked like Nicolas felt. Confused. Angry. Sad. Nicolas thought of Kaitlyn and could almost smell her rose-scented skin if he tried.

“She meant a lot to you,” Nicolas said.

“Mordryn was a remarkable woman.”

“I appreciate you helping me. But you’re asking me to trust a person who kills people who get uppity.”

“A necromancer who forgets his place poses a serious threat to himself and to a divine purpose you know nothing about, much less understand.”

Nicolas looked down the path into the underground village and chewed his lip. The reality of his situation was sinking in. The people down there were going to have expectations of him, and right now his only guide was this mysterious and powerful man. Mujahid held answers. Perhaps answers to questions he didn’t know he should be asking.

Mujahid’s grip tightened on Nicolas’s shoulder.

“Come. We’ll have much to discuss later. For now we enter Paradise and see about filling that noisy belly of yours.”

Nicolas followed Mujahid down the ramp.