The Dark Path (29 page)

"After what you did to me, I deserve to know," she said. She knew it was a cruel statement but she also knew it would get her the answer she wanted. Manipulation was her game as well as his. She thought it was time she started playing it again.

His eyes stared off again. "After the war, I came across a man in a small village. He wore robes the same as the ones I wear now, though around the hood were the symbols of necromancy in silver thread. He looked to be about my age and smiled and called to me when I walked by. I learned that we share the same first name and that we were both students of necromancy, though he studied it for reasons he did not tell me. He seemed friendly but I later learned that in truth, he is as cold-hearted as anyone I have ever seen." Gen shuddered a bit. " As I studied with him he eventually taught me what I have done to you. What you have seen me do is only a minor part of it. Though he was my age, he had knowledge that was beyond ancient. I have no idea where he found the books that he had or where he had learned the things he knew. What I do know is that after a few months, he left in the middle of the night saying he had strings to pull elsewhere. I haven't seen him again. Now please do not ask me more of this. I will teach you something else, instead, to help you."

"Okay, for now, I'll leave it alone. Why did you grow all this mint anyway?"

"The mint is for the spell I'm to teach you. The spell takes the essence, or life, if you will, of the plant and channels it into you. If the words are spoken one way then the energy goes to heal your physical body. With a minor change though, the energy flows into you and allows you to cast spells even though you had been drained and in need of rest. I will teach you the first use."

He chanted a long complex string of words that again sounded elven to Beth. She tried to repeat them and after a short time finally said them correctly. When she got the spell correct and put her will and energy to it, the mint all around her turned brown and she felt the energy rush to her. Her bruises healed and she opened her other eye. It felt good to see out of both of them again. Gen looked at her and tightened his lips a bit.

"Have you always had one red eye and one blue?"

"No, what are you talking about?"

Gen reached into a pouch at his side and pulled out a small mirror. He handed it to her and she quickly looked into it. He was right. One of her eyes was the deep blue it had always been, but her left eye was now a deep red that looked almost to burn. The contrast of the two colors added somehow to her beauty.

"I believe things have changed. That's all for today. Let us get some rest and some lunch. We'll talk more later." Gen stood and helped Beth up then walked with her back to the dorms. He had a lot of research to do.

XVI

The Tests Begin

Gen walked the familiar rows of the library late that night. He carried no candle. He had long ago learned simple spells to let him see in the dark. He found himself standing in the only row of books he had avoided when he had last lived here. The dark bound books that lined these shelves used to scare him more than anything else. Now he felt a sort of comfort flowing from them. He could read all the titles of the books now. He scanned the spines and smiled a bit to himself. He had read most of these from collections taken from enemy mages during the war. He still had them in his library back in D'Nhia. Maybe he would send Beth there after she learned more here at the Schola. He sensed the librarian before he rounded the corner.

"Greetings," Gen whispered to him.

"Oh! I didn't expect to find you here." The librarian bowed his head slightly. "Is there anything I can help you with?"

"I need to see your books on demonology. I see that you don't keep them on the common shelves." Gen smirked a bit. He had never thought, back when he was a boy, that the librarian would have hidden any books. He knew better now though. He had learned a lot in seven years.

"Of course, Master Gen, this way." The librarian walked Gen toward the back of the library to a small door that appeared between the shelves when the librarian walked close to it. He withdrew a small silver key and unlocked the door. The door opened silently on well oiled hinges. The door lead to a room half the size of the main library. Nearly all the books here were bound in dark materials.

"What type of demon are you wanting to research?" the librarian asked in a voice barely above a whisper.

"Greater demons." Gen's answer was not a whisper, and he smirked a bit to see the librarian flinch at his louder tone. They walked toward the other side of the room and the now young looking elf took down a book that was bound in what looked to be red leather. He handed the book to Gen then motioned to a study table set up in the center of the room.

"Shall I light candles for you?"

"That would be nice." Gen didn't look at the librarian. He ran his fingers over the spine of the book. It held no title. The material he found was not leather and was warm to the touch, almost as if it was still living flesh. He walked over to the now well lit study table and unconsciously ended the sight enhancement spell. He set the book down on the table and pulled out one of the chairs.

"Is there anything else I can help you with?"

"Yes, there is. Sit." Gen looked up to the librarian and motioned with his hand to the chair opposite him. They both sat. "What can you tell me about the student here named Beth? The one that wears red robes."

"She is only half human. I haven't found much time to study her further than that though. Did you learn something about her?"

"Those little games used to work on me but they do not any longer. Do not attempt to toy with me again!" Gen's eyes burned the icy blue of anger and he saw the librarian shrink back from him a little. Good. Power and fear were things he knew the librarian respected and understood.

"I apologize, Master. It is a habit I've had to keep for a long time. I am not used to speaking openly. Forgive me Master." He bowed his head.

"I forgive you this once. Never do it again or you just may lose the gift that you so recently received." He watched the librarian shiver under his dark robes. "Now tell me what you know of little Beth."

"I suspect she is half-demon. She was dropped off here when she was very young. Her mother I saw and know to be human so her father must have been the demon. I have not told her my thoughts. She will learn soon enough."

"She knows now. I have told her today."

"Very good, Master."

"I believe that her father was no ordinary demon. As we both know, there are not that many greater demons that can come across. I would like to see if we can discover which one sired our little Beth."

"Where should we begin?"

"Let us start on demons that affect emotion. It seems that she has gained that gift from her father." Gen pushed the book across the table to the librarian. "You look. I don't feel like fighting a book today."

"Very well, Master." The librarian had a sheen of sweat on his forehead as he reached for the book. He started to open the cover, then quickly jumped up and held the book open facing Gen. Fire leaped from the book but Gen was no longer sitting across from him. The librarian felt cold steel against his throat and felt a whisper on his ear.

"You have grown slow as well as stupid. Why would you try something like this?" Gen's whisper carried an unspoken spell behind it. The librarian froze in place and dropped the book which closed as it fell to the table.

"He commanded it," the librarian stuttered.

"Now why would He do something like that?"

"I have no idea why He would command your death. He has always spoken to me of your potential. I am not one to question His commands though."

"Well I find that I question Him often. Why don't we go ask him?"

"W-W-What?!" The librarian's eyes were wide with fear. "What do you mean?"

"Let's pay Him a little visit. Find out what this is all about. Now be a good little lacky and don't move." Gen stepped back and rewove the paralysis spell that he had placed on the librarian. He thought it would hold him long enough. He about turned away, then stopped himself. No, there was no room for mistakes here. He wove five more layers of paralysis around his captive then added some traps into them in case he managed to undo some of them. That would hold him long enough. Gen turned the librarian around. He then reached into the open air and gripped seemingly nothing. He did the same with his other hand then made a ripping motion downward. A hole ripped into the air, a window was between dimensions. He ripped the hole wider then pushed the librarian through it before him.

As he stepped through the rift, he looked around to see the familiar stairs of pure hematite. Green flames poured from the eyes of skulls all along the sides of the stairs. The path led up to a large throne of bone and hematite. A skeletal figure in black robes sat upon the throne. Halfway up the stairs was the jackal headed one. He held a whip ready in one hand and lust for causing pain burned in his eyes. Gen grabbed the librarian by the neck and pushed him up the stairs before him. The Jackal pulled his hand with the whip back to strike but stopped when the figure on the throne commanded. He stepped to the side but glared as Gen walked past. Gen reached the top of the stairs and pushed the librarian down before the throne.

"Now why would you bother to use a lackey such as this to try and kill me? If you wanted my death you should have come yourself!" Gen stated in a voice that resounded throughout the throne room.

"You will bow before the Master!" the Jackal headed one screamed. The whip came flying to the back of Gen's head. The whip cracked in air and the jackal's eyes went wide as Gen stood an inch in front of him. He had not even seen the mage move.

"Do not interrupt!" Gen brought out his blade lightning fast and severed both arms of the Jackal. He screamed in pain as blood poured out onto the stairs. Gen stepped calmly away from him and walked back before the throne. He noticed out the corner of his eye that the librarian had undone almost all of his webs. Gen placed his blade, still slick with blood, against the prone man's throat. He looked up to the figure on the throne. "Tell him to stop or I will kill him now." Gen's voice was cold and without emotion. The figure's head looked down to the librarian.

"You have failed me. If you obey this one here." He motioned to Gen. "I may yet let you live."

"Thank you, Master." The librarian groveled. He instantly stopped unweaving the spells that bound him. Gen flicked the blood from his blade and placed it back into its scabbard.

"Now why this business? Did I offend you somehow more than usual?" Gen's tone was mocking. He saw the librarian shudder out of the corner of his eye.

"Merely a test my young student," the figure stated.

"Have I passed it well enough?" Gen squinted his eyes slightly up at the throne. He sensed something behind him. He counted slowly in his head.

"So it seems," the figure stated. As he finished the statement, Gen dove to the right as green fire grew from the stairs where he had stood. Gen turned to see the Jackal, with arms regrown, standing with the same green fire in his hands.

"You do not learn easily I see," Gen said quietly.

"No one is to speak to the Master in such a tone! No one!" The Jackal screamed.

"I'm not one to bow down to rules from one such as you." Gen stood and walked calmly to the Jackal headed figure. "If you do not call off your dog then I shall kill him." Gen's tone was quiet but it rang throughout the room.

"You can not kill me! Stupid mortal! I know everything about you! I know all your tricks, all your spells!"

"Last chance to call him off," Gen said quietly. The anger was back in his eyes. He reached into a pouch at his side and pulled out a handful of glowing white powder.

"You will pay for your insolence!" The Jackal screamed as he reached for Gen's throat. Gen brought his hand with the powder up and tossed it at the Jackal. It stuck to him wherever it landed and started to sizzle.

"I give you to the god of order and peace. I give you to him who is known by a thousand names, he that knows only love and goodness," Gen chanted in an ancient tongue.

"You can't do that!" The Jackal screamed. "You are the Master's toy! You cannot do that!" The screams turned to ones of agony as the white powder covering his body burned a bright white. The beast turned to the same white powder and it fell to a large pile on the stairs. Gen bent calmly and put a handful of it back into his pouch. He turned again and walked back to the throne. He checked quickly to make sure the librarian hadn't undone more of the spells. He hadn't. His eyes were full of abject horror.

"Any more tests? There are things I have to do and this is wasting my time."

"No. I have no more tests for you here. Is there anything you want for defeating my best general?" The figure on the throne betrayed no emotion.

"You know what I want. I will be back for it soon." Gen turned and started to walk down the stairs toward the rift.

"What makes you believe you have earned it?" The figure betrayed a bit of anger in his tone. Gen stopped but didn't turn back.

"It doesn't matter if you think I've earned it or not. If you won't give it to me when next I visit then I will take it from you." With that said, he walked back through the rift and sealed it behind him. He spat on the floor. He hated the smell of burning flesh. It left a bad taste in his mouth. He picked up the book off the table and walked out of the library toward the mess hall. He would study while he waited for breakfast.