Cathexis: Necromancer's Dagger (33 page)

The proclamation stated:

Attention citizen's of Lindankar.

By foul
treachery,
the country of Olsk has sent agents into the
city of Tarnelin. These agents bribed officers of the Lindankar
militia and certain servants of the Royal palace staff. Four days
ago they conspired with these traitors to assassinate Lord Ardellen
in the palace. By chance Lord Ardellen escaped and killed three of
the assassins.

On the same day, at approximately the same
time, Lady Elizabeth and
Shaard
Michael were abducted. Efforts to recover them have met with
failure and word has reached Lord Ardellen that they have both met
their fate at the hands of the Olsk agents.

After questioning each suspected servant and
officer our ruler uncovered the plot and imprisoned those guilty of
treason. According to the laws of this country the traitor’s heads
shall be struck from their bodies at noon in the central
square.

Lord Jatar Ardellen declares this city in a
state of mourning for thirty days. He has also proclaimed this
country at war with Olsk and volunteers for the army of retribution
will be accepted at the main barracks.

May G’lan have mercy on Lady Ardellen and
the young
Shaard
Michael
and ease their spirits' journey down the
river.

This proclamation is signed by Lord Jatar
Ardellen, ruler of Lindankar.

Major Harland Von Dracek walked up behind
the back of Lord Jatar’s body. CAracusS was standing on a balcony
looking out at the front of the palace where a herald had just
finished reading his proclamation. People were running around the
streets and spreading the news like a fire through dry wheat.

Von Dracek scratched at his short beard and
said, “Wasn’t that proclamation a bit premature or did you receive
confirmation from the Darknull?”

“Oh, I’m sure they are dead, but the Baron
has not yet returned. He is probably relaxing in a dark place after
his meal. He will return to the gate tonight after dark,” replied
the necromancer.

“Call me a pessimist, but I’m going to
continue assuming they escaped until their deaths are confirmed.
Now, it’s obvious that they were heading for the Kirnath School.
Actually, it’s too obvious;
therefore,
it may have been a ruse to make us concentrate
our efforts on the school. Still, just in case that really was
their destination I’m going to alert Raven."

CAracusS raised one of Jatar's eyebrows in
question at the mention of their spy within the Kirnath School.

“Lady Elizabeth wouldn’t count on our having
a spy within her precious school, the Kirnath don’t believe a spy
is possible. They think their mind screening methods cannot be
bypassed; I proved them wrong yet again,” Von Dracek said while
flicking imaginary dust from a finger tip.

“Don’t you think it unwise to jeopardize the
spy’s cover by sending a message through the pickup spot when it
may not be necessary? We will get
confirmation
this evening, so you could at least wait
until then,” CAracusS suggested.

“I’ll wait until evening, but if your slimy
creature has not returned I’m sending Raven a message by
stirglik
. I think I’ll also
dispatch more soldiers; they might get lucky while the sorceress is
wounded. Perhaps you should consider committing more of the
souldead,” the Tchulian commander suggested.

“They aren’t that easy to come by, but don’t
worry, you met the Baron, do you think four tired mortals could
stand up to that baneful creature?” he asked, disdainfully.

“Jatar escaped, and don’t forget that the
woman is a sorceress,” the major reminded the necromancer.

“You’re the one who said she was wounded,”
CAracusS argued.

“Yes, but I don’t know how much reserve
power she still had at her disposal."

CAracusS waved a hand in dismissal and said,
"This discussion is futile, we’ll just wait until this evening and
then we’ll know.”

Von Dracek’s thoughts returned to CAracusS’
proclamation and he said, “Blaming Olsk for the murders and asking
for volunteers for the army at the same time was a wise choice. The
citizens should be signing up for our army in herds and cheering
the deaths of their old commanders when you execute them later
today,” Von Dracek said, complimenting CAracusS on his move.

“Yes, it’s a fine day. With Elizabeth and
her son destroyed I don’t see anything standing in our way. The
necromancers control Autrany and now Lindankar is in our grasp; I
see nothing to stop us from continuing our plans
for
expansion.” CAracusS was pleased and he
could not wait to parade his newest accomplishments in front of the
Necromantic Council.

Elizabeth reined her horse in at the edge of
the trees. At long last she had reached the Kirnath School, though
she had mixed feelings about her return. She could just make out
the large buildings of her old school across the meadow. This
school had been her home for fifteen years as she learned the ways
of the Kirnath Adepts. She longed to go into the familiar halls and
reunite with her teachers and friends, but she could not.

Elizabeth was careful to keep her shield
around herself and her son, hiding their presence from the watch
Adept within the school. Elizabeth could not let her presence be
discovered lest someone learn that this was her son.

The four major tan stone buildings with
their dark roofs were laid out in a rough square and surrounded by
a high wall. The still waters of a moat surrounded the high wall,
and out past the
moat,
some thirty
yards was the outer defense; a twenty-foot high and ten foot thick
stone wall. The main entry gate in the outer wall was always
guarded and faced the forest road coming out of the trees to
Elizabeth’s left. Inside the outer
wall,
a stone bridge spanned the moat and entered a
smaller gate through the high inner wall.
That, in turn,
led to the center of the main structures.
Elizabeth knew there were other smaller structures within, though
they were hidden from sight from the forest: a stable, blacksmith
and other structures.

Six leagues away, down a gentle sloping hill
that led into a valley was a small village. Elizabeth could just
make out the dim glow of lanterns shining orange light from cottage
windows and the thin trails of smoke coming up out of a few
chimneys.

Elizabeth sighed as she gazed upon the
school where she had grown up, she had not seen it in three years
and
homesickness
plucked the
tender strings of her soul. It was all the worse because she knew
she could not go in, she could not afford to connect the Ardellen
name with the young boy that was about to join their community.

She spoke to her young son even though he
was asleep in the pack on her back. “I envy
you,
my son, I would give anything to go back in time and
grow up again in this gentle meadow, for then I would still have
your father to meet on that beautiful day when he rode his prancing
stallion through that gate and into my heart. He is the only thing
that made me want to leave this peaceful place and I miss him
terribly.”

Elizabeth rode back into the forest a little
way and then dismounted. She took some writing materials out of her
saddle packs and wrote a note to leave with Michael. She made sure
to use very poor handwriting and misspell words, it read:

Take car o this
boi
. His ma
an
pa is
deed
an e
aint
got
knoen
te car
fur
im
, I
nowed
is
perents
wel
bot I
canott
take
im
. His pa
gav
him the earring, so please let him keep it.

a
vilager

an o
yeh
,
he
liks
goot
milc
perty
fayr

Elizabeth took off her cathexis earring and
carefully pierced Michael’s ear with it, he cried out for a moment,
but Elizabeth quickly healed the small wound and with the brief
pain gone the small child stopped crying. When she was done the
earring looked like it had been in his ear for months.

She spent the rest of the afternoon holding
and playing with Michael. As dusk’s overture played into evening
Elizabeth
breastfed
her only son
for the last time and then she wrapped him in a coarse saddle
blanket. Tears streamed down her face as she looked at her beloved
son and tried to store his features in her mind for the years they
would be apart. Silently weeping the tired young mother took her
son and walked up to the large gate to the Kirnath School.

Since the
watch
Adept made no alarm, and the gate guards were busy
at cards in the guard house, no one saw her bring Michael to the
gate. Elizabeth lovingly arranged him and his blanket for the last
time and carefully tucked the note into the blanket where it could
be seen. Then nearly blind from her tears, Elizabeth pounded on the
big gate and turned to run back into the cloaking shadows of the
forest.

From the edge of the
trees,
she watched the gate open. The
gatekeeper
looked around before walking over to
the bundled up young child. He looked at the note and then picked
him up in the horse blanket and carried the young heir to the
Kingdom inside the walls of the old school.

Elizabeth watched the guard’s aura and read
his intent to take the baby to the Headmaster Corus. He would
decide what was to be done with the abandoned child. Lady Ardellen
assumed that Corus would read the note and take care of Michael,
and she could begin her vigil through the cathexis earring.

Elizabeth’s head drooped forward as the
grief for the loss of all her loved ones weighed down her body, she
was utterly alone. It was a very lonely woman who mounted her horse
and rode down the forest path that dark night. Her mind was lost in
her thoughts of grief as she cantered down the main forest road
back toward Lindankar, headed for the fork in the road.

Because of her
grief,
she forgot to check her surroundings for enemies,
and she didn’t see the rope suspended in the tree, nor the Tchulian
soldier who swung out and struck her with the bottoms of his boots.
His blow took her on the upper right arm and shoulder and knocked
her off her horse and onto the ground where her head hit a stone
and she knew no more.

Deep below the world of air and light
moisture condensed out of the cool air and formed a drop on a dark
stone ceiling. It slowly ran down the tilt of the craggy stone
until it reached the lowest point. The droplet of water made no
sound to disturb the dead silence that inhabited the dark
underground. The drop paused a moment and then slowly elongated
before finally separating from the stone and falling the
six-foot
distance to land with a
dull ‘
plip
’ sound on the forehead
of a young man.

Until that
moment,
the naked
fifteen-year-old
had lain unconscious on his back, but
with the tiny impact of the water droplet his head jerked though
his eyes remained closed. Slowly he brought his right hand up past
his chest to the back of his head. He massaged his sore scalp
through the short brown hair and after running a dry tongue over
his cracked lips, he pried open his sleep encrusted eyes. He found
that opening his eyes did him no good at all; it was darker than
the bottom of a barrel of tar.

The thought that came to his awakening mind
was:
Where in the Dark Plane am I?

The modestly muscled young man sat up, which
started the unseen room spinning in his head. He was of average
height, about five feet and two hand widths tall.

He held his aching head in his hands and
realized that he had no idea where he was located. He remembered
riding along on the return trip toward Lindankar. He had been
thinking about a dancing girl from the Zinterdalin palace, but then
suddenly horses were rearing, men were fighting, and people were
dying all-round. It all came back in a flash, someone had attacked
their troop! He remembered drawing his sword, but something had
struck him from behind and
knocked him to
the ground
.

He recalled a
foreign-accented
voice yelling, “Where’s the ring bearer,
which one is he?”

Not knowing what else to do, he had quickly
taken out the case containing Jatar’s signet ring, yanked out the
cathexis artifact and promptly swallowed the thick round ring, and
that was the last thing he could remember before waking up in this
blackness.

He crawled around in the darkness and found
out a few things; he was in a small stone room about five feet by
five feet and he was chained to one wall by his right ankle. The
chain trailed up the wall to connect to a ring set in the stone.
Opposite from the wall was the room’s only door, but when he
checked it he discovered that the door was locked.

I must have been captured by whoever
attacked my troop and now they want to ransom me to my parents,
he thought, illogically. Then he remembered the ring:
Wait,
perhaps it is Jatar’s signet ring that they want! They must think I
know where it is and they’re going to torture me for the
location!
He thought again, this time making a little better
guess, but then he thought:
Or, they are slavers and are
planning on selling me down south.
That thought was
imaginative, but severely back off track.