Cathexis: Necromancer's Dagger (34 page)

What shall I do? What would Lord Jatar do if
it was him? I wish he were here to help me… wait, I swallowed his
ring, and his imprint IS here! Jatar, speak to me, help me!

Within his
mind,
he heard Jatar’s response:
“What… who, G’Taklar,
is that you?”
Jatar’s thoughts from the Cathexis ring sounded
as if he were coming out of a deep sleep.

“Yes, it’s me G’Taklar; I’m chained to the
wall and locked in a dark cell. What do I do?” G’Taklar asked
aloud, not bothering to explain much of anything.

“
Hold on, where did you say you are… and
how did I get here?”
Jatar responded, puzzled.

“Well, do you remember telling me about how
to stop the imprints in the ring from listening or talking by
willing them not to speak or hear. I did that to you after the
party, there were some cute girls and, well you know I, well I...
anyway I forgot to wake you up later, besides the Zinterdalin
negotiations were completed, so that’s why you don’t know about the
attack. You see we were...”

“
Hold on,”
Jatar’s thought
interrupted G’Taklar’s,
“I wasn’t at the Zinterdalin
negotiations, that’s why I sent my cathexis ring and imprint with
you to Zinterdalin!”

“What are you talking about; you are the
imprint in the ring!” G’Taklar replied in exasperation.

G’Taklar’s hand shot up to feel his
face.

“Stop that!” G’Taklar exclaimed, “This is my
body!” and back under his own control the hand returned to his
side.

Jatar’s panicked thought boomed into
G’Taklar’s mind:
“I am in your body! I can’t move!”

“
Of course
you are,” G’Taklar replied, “and I’ll thank you not to try and take
it over again! You knew you were an imprint on the way to
Zinterdalin and when I spoke with you at the negotiations, why
don’t you know now?”

“
I wasn’t at the negotiations!”
Jatar
insisted, exasperated and confused,
“I stayed back at Lindankar
to celebrate Michael’s day of birth and designate him heir to the
throne!”

“That’s what the real Jatar did, but you,
well he, gave me his ring to talk to his imprint for important
decisions,” G’Taklar tried to explain.

“
Wait, you have to get back to Tarnelin,
we need to warn Elizabeth! A necromancer and one of those Darknull
creatures are in the palace!”
Jatar exclaimed, as the dire
events at the palace came flooding back into his mind.

G’Taklar’s body had the sudden urge to
stand, but he suppressed it. “Please, stop that!” he said angrily,
“First, we aren’t going anywhere right at this particular moment,
and second, how would you know what’s happening at the palace in
Tarnelin?” G’Taklar questioned the imprint.

“
I was there, a Darknull tried to kill
me, but I escaped. Then I fought with a Tchulian major named Von
Dracek, and then something hit me in the chest, some kind of light
from the Tchulian’s hand. I remember
a white
light, and then... I woke up
here,”
Jatar’s thoughts explained.

“But how could your thoughts travel all the
way to the ring from the palace in Tarnelin?” G’Taklar asked the
imprint, trying to be reasonable.

“
They couldn’t, you have to be in close
contact with the cathexis before imprinting can happen,
unless...”
Jatar trailed off, suddenly stricken with the hard
truth.

“Unless what?” his young cousin asked.

“
Unless you die,”
Jatar answered
quietly.

“When you say die, you don’t mean die as in
being dead do you?” replied the confused G’Taklar, unable to accept
what he had heard.

“
That’s the only kind I know about,
cousin,”
Jatar responded.

“Are you trying to tell me you died?”
G’Taklar said incredulously.

“
It seems that way; when you eliminate
all the other answers, that’s the only solution left. When you die
your spirit leaves your body and tries to go on to the next plane -
unless it has an imprint in cathexis metal. The imprint draws the
spirit to the cathexis object. Once the spirit reaches the cathexis
it replaces the current version of the
imprint
with the real aura spirit. That’s
why I don’t remember any of your journey or the negotiations, my
real spirit replaced the imprint.”
At the realization that he
was truly dead Jatar’s mind left his own troubles and his thoughts
went to his wife and child. “
Oh Elizabeth, what’s to become of
you and Michael?”

G’Taklar was also coming to the realization
of what it meant for his ruler to have died, “But you can’t die,
you’re the ruling Lord!”

“
There is no law in the world that
says
rulers
are
immune to death, G’Taklar. I remember being struck in the chest by
something just before I woke up here. That Tchulian officer must
have killed me with some kind of magic.”

“Then who rules in Lindankar?” G’Taklar
gasped.

“
Elizabeth
should
until Michael comes of age. Thank
G’lan that I designated him heir before their plot to kill me
succeeded. I just hope the net of conspiracy that slew me didn’t
catch Elizabeth as well... or Michael. We must return to Tarnelin
to
ensure
that
she and Michael are safe!”
Jatar commanded.

“I’m afraid we are kind of tied up now, you
see, that’s why I wanted to talk to your imprint, I wanted to see
if you could figure out how to get us out of here; I think I’m a
captive.” G’Taklar replied.

“
Where are we?”
Jatar asked, though
his mind was still racing on his family’s troubles.

“I don’t know, not exactly. All I know is
we’re in a cell, about five by five. It’s dark and we’re chained to
a ring in the wall by my right ankle. Last, but not least, I’m
completely naked, I don’t have a single stitch of clothing,”
G’Taklar complained.

“
You should fill me in on what got you
here,”
Jatar replied as he tried to get his mind on his
cousin’s problem.

“This is what I remember...” and the young
man began telling what he remembered of his journey back to
Lindankar.

Far away in the Gellern Forest, Corporal
Bante stood gloating over the bound and gagged Lady Elizabeth. The
Lindankar ruler lay unconscious on the brown leaves of the forest
ground. Bante’s thoughts were gleeful,
“Wait until I’ve brought
back the body of the mighty Kirnath sorceress. I will be promoted
immediately and any minor transgressions will be
forgotten!”

One of the Tchulian soldiers spoke to the
smug corporal, “It was sure lucky that we were waiting there, eh
corporal?”

“Luck had nothing to do with it,” Bante
scoffed, “I chose that spot for our ambush because there was a high
probability that our quarry would come back down that road.
Remember, I’m the one who thought to cut off that bend
in
the road, and get ahead of her to set the
trap,” Bante said.

“But we didn’t get ahead of her, she was
heading back the other way when she came into our trap,” the
soldier responded.

“Don’t quibble, just because she came from
the opposite direction means nothing; the ambush could be used from
either direction, as I had foreseen,” Bante said confidently, lying
through his teeth.

“You pulled that out of your, butt,” a
soldier muttered.

“What was that?” Corporal Bante
demanded.

“It took lots of guts,” the soldier replied
louder.

“Yes, it did. Now, who wants to try that
royalty I
promised
before I kill
her?” the merc corporal asked.

“She’s unconscious, can’t we wait until she
wakes up?” a different soldier asked.

“I’m afraid not, she’s a sorceress, you
wouldn’t want to get fried by her magic powers now, would you? If
you want her, now is the time,” Bante offered the rough Tchulian
enlisted soldiers.

Hidden in some bushes near the gloating
Tchulians, Hetark wiped the blood from his blade onto the jerkin of
the dead sentry at his feet, before looking through the trees
toward the Tchulian’s camp. He could see a large unkempt man
heading over to where Elizabeth lay on the ground, Corporal Bante
was grinning from where he crouched by her side.

Hetark stayed hidden behind the
bushes
but moved forward in a low crouch
until he was within ten yards of the enemy’s camp. He quietly
slipped a dagger from his belt and cupped the hilt in his palm with
the sharp blade concealed along his wrist. As the soldier reached
forward to open Elizabeth’s leather riding jacket Hetark stood up
and yelled, “Get your filthy hands off her, you bastard.
You aren’t fit to be in the same world as
that woman, so join the next!”

All the Tchulians jumped to their feet as
they drew weapons, this included the one who had been hunched over
Elizabeth.

Hetark brought his arm forward in an
up-swinging arc, launching the hidden dagger underhanded at the
soldier standing over Elizabeth. The dagger struck the attempted
rapist in the throat and he staggered
backward
gagging on his gushing blood as he fell back
into the camp fire.

The other eight soldiers and Corporal Bante
started forward angrily toward Hetark when four crossbow bolts
struck them from the woods to their right. Three of them went down
hard and the fourth collapsed slowly to his knees with a bolt
protruding from his stomach.

The remaining soldiers spun to face the new
attack and saw the other five Lindankar Knight Protectors step out
of the forest, each holding drawn weapons in their hands and each
glaring pitiless death from their eyes.

The combatants met swiftly. Drake slew his
opponent after exchanging three swift ripostes and parries before
slicing the man down the face and then running him through the
heart.

Gustin’s sword parried the first blow his
opponent dealt and then he split the man’s skull with the
ax
in his off hand.

Becaris fenced briefly with his opponent and
then cut through the soldier’s throat with a blinding back cut that
left the man unaware his throat was cut until he inhaled and the
blood gushed out of his slit gullet. He grasped at his throat as he
sank to his knees and Becaris ran him through the heart.

Rasal and Lasar took the
longest
when a soldier approached them in a
fighting crouch, they argued.

“He’s mine!” Rasal exclaimed.

Lasar put a hand on his brother’s chest to
halt him and said, “No, you’ll kill him too quickly, I want these
filthy attempted rapists to feel some pain.”

“I promise that I’ll kill him slowly, come
on let me do it,” Rasal begged, solely to torture the sweating
Tchulian.

“All right, but he had better suffer for
what he planned.”

By this time the man had turned deathly
white and was looking around at his other dying companions, he
turned to run and ran right into Drake who thrust a dagger into his
stomach. Drake had just finished with his other man and stepped up
behind this Tchulian merc.

Rasal and Lasar looked into the shocked
Tchulian’s face as he fell to his knees and Lasar said, “You got
off
easy,
scum!”

Bante was running through the trees with
Hetark in close pursuit. The Tchulian corporal was terrified; he
could not believe that his victory had turned sour so quickly. In
fear for his
life,
he gathered his
aura power and suddenly turned to kill his pursuer.

Hetark saw the fleeing corporal start
to turn
and launched his body into
a flying tackle that caught the Tchulian in the upper body. They
landed in a heap with Hetark on top. Before Bante could move
Hetark’s poniard took him under the chin so forcefully that the
blade went clear through his brain and skull, the sharp point
projecting out through the top of the dead Tchulian sorcerer’s
head. Corporal Bante’s body stiffened, and then went limp with
swift death. Hetark yanked out the knife, stood and turned his back
disdainfully on the now dead soldier before heading back to the
other knights.

In the dark cell G’Taklar finished telling
the story of his capture to Jatar’s spirit, “And then I woke up
here, naked and locked to this wall in this dank cell!” He spoke
aloud even though the conversation was within his mind.

Jatar’s thoughts answered
matter-of-
factly
inside G’Taklar’s
mind,
“I would say that the wisest move you made was swallowing
my cathexis signet ring before they discovered it on you;
otherwise,
they
would have probably killed you outright. I think you were right;
they’re probably planning on torturing you to find out the location
of the ring. I’ll bet they are just waiting for you to awaken, so
they can get started.”

The young man shuddered and said,
“
Would you mind not talking about torture? It makes me
ill.”

“
Sorry,”
Jatar replied,
“but if
you want to avoid the real thing we should come up with a plan for
escape, or it’s ‘you know what’,”
Jatar suggested.

“I’ll never get out of here, it’s dark, I’m
chained to the wall, I don’t know where I am and I’m naked,”
bemoaned the young G’Taklar.

“
Quit whining, I’m here with you.
Remember when you came to me and said you wanted some real
adventure in your life? You said you were bored with court life and
you wanted to have one of those
old-time
adventures you read about, well this
is it,”
Jatar explained, trying to get G’Taklar going.

“This isn’t what I had in mind, I pictured
me killing the bad guy, returning the stolen round and getting the
girl. Being naked in a dark cell about to be tortured wasn’t part
of the story, as least not as I saw it,” G’Taklar complained.