Cathexis: Necromancer's Dagger (17 page)

A few feet away Drake regained his balance
from his hasty retreat, but he had to dodge furiously to avoid the
long reach of the charging vorghoul. The creature was only slightly
hampered by the bolts that stuck out from its side and upper back.
The towering beast
leaped
at the
small knight who continued to retreat in front of its awesome
onslaught, but that is when Drake's foot caught on a root and he
went down
backward
.

Before the creature could pounce on the
fallen knight Gustin made a flying tackle onto the creature’s back
and locked his right arm under its thick biceps and up behind the
creature’s neck. Using the hunting knife clutched in his other hand
he repeatedly plunged the broad blade into the creature’s side.
Gustin used his massive muscles to sink the blade
into
the hilt as he searched for its pumping
heart.

Just as his knife found its target the
creature’s clawed hand tore through the tough leather protecting
Gustin’s thigh and its venomous claws injected poison into his
body.

As the big man fell he looked up to see the
other vorghoul standing above him and reaching for his head to rip
it from his shoulders. Gustin's
ax
was still embedded in its shoulder. The poison locked Gustin's
muscles and kept him from avoiding the creature's reaching claws.
Fatefully, Gustin watched the claws as they reached down and
grasped his head, but that is when the
hilt
from Drake’s poniard appeared in the creature’s left
eye. Gustin continued to fall and he found himself looking at
Drake, who was just regaining his feet.

The vorghoul clawed at the hilt of the knife
projecting from its eye socket, but it was still on its feet.

Drake rammed the point of his sword through
the creature's heart and used his entire body weight to drive it
home. The vorghoul howled and clubbed Drake to the ground with one
of its meaty fists, but
finally,
it staggered and fell as it died.

Gustin felt his muscles continue to lock up
as he succumbed to the paralyzing poison that coursed through his
veins, but with an incredible effort of
will,
he began to pull himself toward the empty
crossbows. Drake looked across the clearing to see what had
transpired with the third vorghoul.

Hetark met the leader of the vorghouls with
his sword and dagger.

Werwoe was the least wounded of the
monstrous creatures, with only one bolt in the thigh. It limped
swiftly up to the waiting knight and attacked with a sweep of its
left claw.

Hetark let the blow meet his dagger’s point
and let the creature’s own power sink the blade
into
the hilt, but he lost the knife when the
creature yanked his hand back. Then the massive vorghoul
leaped
forward and closed the
distance to Hetark in an instant.

Hetark was unable to avoid the attack, he
had not anticipated a creature of that size moving so fast, or
leaping so far on a wounded leg. The knight desperately tried to
bring his sword into play, but only managed to pierce the shoulder
of the creature as it hit him with the massive weight of its body.
The impact knocked Hetark to the ground. Before he could move the
beast
leaped
onto him and leaned
down with gaping mouth.
Its
two
projecting fangs ripped open the right portion of the fallen
knight’s neck and blood gushed out of the mortal wound.

The creature raised its gory visage up to
howl in triumph while Hetark’s blood streamed down the outside of
its throat. Then its gaze shifted to Elizabeth and her son.

Drake was desperately racing toward the
creature, but he was too far away to stop its advance on Elizabeth.
The sorceress stood with Michael supported by her left hand and
arm. Her right hand lifted to point at the creature, palm out.

A crossbow bolt from across the path
punctured the vorghoul squarely in the
back
while simultaneously Drake launched a dagger in a
lethal arc from his hand to the creature’s neck. At the same
time,
Hetark focused his remaining
energy and stabbed the monster in the belly with his sword. All of
this happened just as a beam of blue light from Elizabeth’s hand
lanced out to strike the creature in the chest. The aura energy
from Elizabeth raced around the exact contours of the
vorghoul’s
body, battling its distorted aura,
which finally succumbed to the overpowering energy of the Kirnath
sorceress. Any remaining unused aura power pulled back down the
beam, returning to Elizabeth’s body.

With an audible thump, the vorghoul toppled
to the ground, totally lifeless.

Elizabeth quickly knelt by Hetark, who
looked up into her eyes and tried to smile. He managed to speak in
a rough whisper through the blood coming from his mouth, “I tried
my best, milady, I’m happy to die knowing that you and Michael are
safe.”

Elizabeth placed her hand against his
wounded neck and said, “Save your pretty speech for another time, I
will not let you die.” Summoning the full aura remaining at her
control she concentrated and poured her power through her hands
into Hetark's aura in the area around the ragged neck wound. The
ragged hole was rapidly pumping out Hetark’s blood onto the ground,
so the sorceress had to work swiftly. Soothing the ragged colors of
his wounded aura to match the original hues, Elizabeth caused the
neck tissues to re-knit. The flow of blood slowed and then stopped
as Hetark healed swiftly. Concentrating completely on the rapid
healing, Elizabeth didn’t see Drake kneeling with a look of awe
displayed on his incredulous face as he watched her perform the
magic art of aura healing.

Soon Hetark was whole again and although
blood still stained his clothing and armor his body was repaired
completely.

“Milady, I don’t believe it. I should be
dead, but you saved me, it just isn’t possible!” exclaimed the
incredulous Hetark as he reached to feel his repaired throat.

Elizabeth answered Hetark as they hurried
across the path to check on Gustin. “Many things people think of as
impossible, are possible, Hetark. We have a saying in the Kirnath,
‘you can do it unless you have convinced yourself that it can’t be
done’.” Elizabeth suddenly had the feeling that she was forgetting
something extremely important concerning possibilities, but she
could not quite put her aura on it; she hoped it would come to her
later.

They found Gustin twenty feet from where he
had been poisoned by the vorghoul, he had managed to load and shoot
a crossbow into the last vorghoul while he was almost completely
paralyzed. The weapon was still clenched in his immobile right
hand.

“Is he dead, milady?” Drake asked quietly as
he knelt by Gustin’s big motionless body and picked up the fallen
knight’s large hand in his two small ones.

Elizabeth checked Gustin’s aura with a quick
glance before she replied, “No, the vorghoul’s poison only
paralyzes their victims, that way they can drink the blood from the
flowing veins.”

“Please help him, milady, I owe him my life.
If he had not
leaped
onto the back
of that monster I would be dead now,” pleaded the young knight with
uncharacteristic seriousness painted on his round face.

“Do not fear Drake, he is well within my
powers to heal,” Lady Ardellen assured the concerned knight.

Bringing her remaining aura powers to play
she placed her hand over the heart of the brave knight and altered
his damaged spirit to match its original colors, thereby changing
the composition of the poison to the natural blood that ran in his
veins, the paralysis ended.

The big man slowly began to stir, but
Elizabeth said, “Hold still for a moment longer, Gustin, while I
heal your thigh.” She concentrated on the aura around his leg wound
and healed it swiftly.

Gustin regained his feet then tested his leg
gingerly. He grinned broadly when he found that it worked normally.
“Thank you, milady, I think it works better now than
originally.”

“No thanks are necessary;
in fact,
I must thank you on behalf of Michael
for your brave acts in protecting him with both life and limb.”

They muttered their responses in
embarrassment at the praise from their Lady.

Drake straightened up before the big
knight
. “Gustin, I find myself in
your debt, thank you for saving my life. I will try and repay you
as best I can, though it may take a long time as it must stand
second to my pledge to Michael’s safety.”

“It’s all right Drake, you owe me nothing.
You saved me from the vorghoul that was about to remove my head
from its proper place on my body with that amazing throw with your
poniard. Perhaps you could try to teach me to throw a knife like
that someday?” the towering Gustin asked, looking down with a shy
grin.

Drake’s shock at his friend’s close call was
subsiding; it was obvious that Gustin was completely back to
normal, so Drake's natural mischievousness immediately returned to
take up its normal residence behind his eyes. “Well I could try,
but large fingers are somewhat clumsy for knife throwing.”

Gustin looked startled for a moment, but
recovered quickly, he knew the game was afoot again. “Well that’s
all right, knife throwing is for little men anyway, their arms have
too short a reach to properly fight with a sword,” Gustin told him
with a grin.

“Reach isn’t everything, you big bruisers
just bash your way through an opponent with brute strength, it
takes the brain to defeat an opponent with pure skill and finesse,”
Drake retorted.

The danger was over and the two of them
continued to warm up their good-natured argument as they walked off
toward the picketed horses.

Hetark and Elizabeth looked at the two
unlikely friends, Gustin towered over Drake, yet the smaller man
made up for it by gesturing wildly to emphasize each point. The
bantering of the friends and the release of tension from the recent
fight was just too humorous to ignore, the two spectators had to
smile.

By the time they walked the short distance
to the horses, Elizabeth and Hetark were back to business. Hetark
helped Elizabeth onto her horse and handed Michael up where she
could put him into the makeshift sling that she used to carry him
while they rode.

Drake looked back down the forest path. “Do
you think we are safe now that these creatures are dead?”

Lady Ardellen considered and then said,
“Possibly, for a day or so, but I don’t think they were the only
pursuit sent to apprehend us.”

“Can you do your searching thing again and
find out?” asked Gustin.

“Yes, and I will,
however,
I think I should explain a few things about aura
powers. I have used my aura powers repeatedly during the past day.
You’ve seen a little of what I can accomplish, and it probably
looks wonderful, but these powers are directly tied to my aura, my
life spirit, and each use of that aura diminishes my energy. The
power is not limitless;
in fact,
I
have used quite a bit of my available power healing Hetark and
Gustin.”

“Will your power return?” Hetark asked in
sudden concerned.

“Yes, but it’s kind of like a
well
if water is taken away too quickly the
water level drops too low and no more water can be taken from the
well until is seeps back
in to
refill. Your auras are like the water in the well with one
difference, if you run the well dry of water it will refill, but if
you ever use your entire aura, you die.”

“Are you in any danger right now?” asked
Hetark while watching her face intently and biting his lower lip in
concern.

“No, I am somewhat low on power, but nowhere
near putting myself in danger, yet. The check on our trail will not
use much energy and it may net us some important results, so I
think it’s worth the energy expenditure, but I strongly suggest
that you try and keep yourselves healthy, healing draws a large
amount of energy from me,” she explained.

“In other words, watch out for low branches
and duck, so you avoid smacking your clumsy head,” Drake cautioned
Gustin sarcastically.

“Fine, Grace, and you should try and keep
from falling off your horse, although I don’t know why I’m worried,
it would only be a short trip to the ground,” replied Gustin as he
emphasized the word, ‘short’.

“Could you two give it a rest, I need to
concentrate on checking our back trail for a moment,” asked
Elizabeth with a sigh.

She sent her aura out again in a slowly
widening circle as she searched for the presence of other auras.
Elizabeth's perceptions passed over the auras of plants and the
different auras of animals until she found a large grouping of
human spirits. They were very close and approaching rapidly.

Elizabeth probed them quickly, but the range
was too great to learn much. She did discover that two of them had
mind shields
.
After returning from her sojourn Elizabeth
considered her options and then she spoke to her waiting knights.
“There are twenty-two men on horseback following us. They have two
extra mounts per man and are approximately one bell behind us.”

“One bell!” Drake exclaimed, “I thought any
normal pursuit would be a few days behind us!”

“As did I,” answered Elizabeth, “but the
fact remains they are right behind us and closing. I also picked up
another thing; two of them have aura shields up and working. Those
shields block my attempts to read them.”

“Does that mean they are sorcerers?”
inquired Hetark as he thoughtfully scratched at his
close-cut
blond beard.

“It’s possible, not all users of aura power
come from the Kirnath School, but it is rare. Untrained sorcerers
seldom have the control necessary to make full use of their
potential. It’s also possible that someone has taught them how to
create shields, or planted them. Lastly, they could be natural
shields, but I doubt that conclusion because they are extremely
rare and two among twenty-two is very unlikely.”