Cathexis: Necromancer's Dagger (66 page)

His foggy mind noted that it wasn’t supposed
to be there, but as he tried to reach for the hilt his legs buckled
and he dropped to his knees. Looking up into the intense eyes of
Elizabeth he had
a last
instance
of clarity, he realized that she had beaten him, and then the light
of life faded from the killer’s eyes.

Elizabeth turned her back on the dead
lieutenant and faced the shocked bandits. “This filth was a traitor
to Autrany, the merchant that he wanted to attack is from Belorn, a
country that has always been an ally of Autrany. I say we leave
them be and take the Tax Marshal and all the round metal he has
squeezed from our friends. He only has ten guards, we can easily
defeat those guards and capture the Marshal, then we can parade him
into camp tomorrow as heroes! We'll be very rich heroes. Are you
with me?” she called out.

“I’m with you,” Bushwhacker yelled.

“And I,” another called out.

“I always hated that murderous, slither
eyed, scum,” another of the bandits said, spitting on the body of
Razor, “I’m with you.”

The rest of the bandit squad all
through
in under the leadership of Elizabeth.
She gathered them together and went over their plan of attack.

“G’Taklar, I’m thirsty, can I have another
drink?” Rachael asked the young man as they fled their Tchulian
pursuers through the night’s cloaking darkness.

“A small one, we have to conserve most of
the water for the horses. From what I know we have at least another
night’s ride ahead of us and the horses have already used a lot of
our water in the two days since we left the river,” he
answered.

“Are they getting any closer?” she asked,
looking fearfully behind them, but the sky was still too dark to
see anything.

“I wish I knew, but when we left the river
and hills they were perhaps a half-day behind. Since this G’lan
forsaken dessert is flat I can’t tell if they’ve closed the
distance. We need some high ground to look at our back trail,” he
explained.

“There’s something off to the left, up
ahead, do you see?” she asked pointing with her right hand.

Something even darker than the night sky
blocked the stars behind it.

“Yes, I believe you’re right,” he said when
he squinted and looked.
“What do you think that is?”
he
thought to Jatar.

“
I don’t know, from the maps I remember
of this region, there shouldn’t be any towns until you pass the
border into Autrany. Besides, there would be lights,”
he
thought back to G’Taklar.

“
Do you think it wise to head in that
direction? If we can climb up on something we could check on our
pursuit,”
G’Taklar thought to Jatar, looking for advice.

“
It’s your call, perhaps it’s only an
outcropping of rocks,”
Jatar guessed.

“
I think we’ll take a closer look, we
need somewhere to hole up and rest anyway. If those are rocks it
will do my nerves good to know if the pursuit is still with us, or
getting any closer,”
G’Taklar decided.

“Are you busy thinking again?” Rachael
asked. “I know you’ve told me not to bother you when you get quiet
to think, but you’re the longest thinker I’ve ever met. Are we
going to see what’s over there or not?” she asked.

“Yes,” he answered.

“Yes? After all that thinking, the total sum
of what you came up with was ‘yes’?” she asked him
sarcastically.

“Yes,” he replied again, irritated at her
sarcasm.

“I should have left you in that stockade, my
horse is a better companion,” she said, now angry as well.

“And I should have a Kirnath examine my head
for coming with you,” he answered.

“They won’t find anything, but air,” was her
immediate retort.

They rode in silence, heading for the tall
objects, each of them stewing in angry thoughts.

“
So, did she make you angry?”
Jatar
asked.

“
This girl is a real pain in the saddle,
if you get my meaning,” G’Taklar
responded.

“
Then you think this is her fault?”
he prompted back.

“
She’s the one who got sarcastic,”
G’Taklar defended.

“
Then you believe you’re right?”
Jatar continued.

“
Yes, I am,”
G’Taklar assured Jatar
and himself.

“
Then apologize.”

“
What?”

“
Apologize. You know you’re right, so why
make her eat a sour dish? It takes a mature person, the kind of man
who can become a knight, to apologize when they’re in the right.
Making someone grovel is for the weak and cruel,”
Jatar
explained to his young cousin.

“
You would have apologized to Elizabeth
if you’d been right?”
G’Taklar posed to Jatar.

“
On a good day, when I was thinking
correctly, yes; it’s the smartest thing you can do if you want to
keep peace and the respect of your woman,”
he answered.

“
Rachael’s not my girl,”
was
G’Taklar’s embarrassed response.

“
Of course not!”
Jatar thought
strongly.

G’Taklar wasn’t sure if Jatar was being
facetious or not, so he chose to assume he wasn’t.
“Right, but
I’ll do what you suggest to calm her down.”
To
Rachael,
he said, “I’m sorry I was short with
you, I was wrong. I could’ve explained my reasons to you and I’ll
try to next time.”

“And I’m sorry I snapped at you when you
have so much to think about,” she apologized back.

“
There, was that so bad?”
Jatar
asked.

“
No, and she apologized as well, does it
always work that way with girls?”
he asked.

“
More often than not, unless you really
rubbed their fur the wrong way, then it may take a little
longer,”
Jatar answered.

“
I’ll try and remember that,”
G’Taklar promised.

Jatar’s next thought was only to himself.
Too bad memories like that seem to take a vacation when you’re
angry.

As they got closer to the rock outcropping
they could make out more details, they were approaching large
rounded off stones.
One, in
particular,
towered high into the air and was surrounded by
some smaller stones, but even the smallest would be as large as a
big house. The central stone stood about as tall as a four-story
building.

“Perfect, we can rest in some shade and
climb up to check on the pursuit,” G’Taklar explained to
Rachael.

“Thank G’lan we’ll have shade when the sun
comes up,” Rachael replied, the daytime desert was blistering
hot.

They arrived at the pile of stones
a sixth-bell
later.

G’Taklar picketed the horses and they looked
for a place to ascend.

He climbed a low rock and then extended a
hand down to help Rachael up the incline. They kept climbing until
they reached one of the highest points, only the top of the central
stone was above them. Looking back toward the bare beginnings of
the false dawn G’Taklar thought he could see a dust cloud along
their back trail.

“Yulkcrap, they’re still following! At least
it doesn’t look like they’ve closed much of the distance yet,”
G’Taklar told Rachael. Then he thought to Jatar,
“How far away
do you think they are?”

“
About four bells. They have closed the
gap more than you think; they are probably riding part of the day
as well. You need rest, so stay here awhile, but keep an eye on our
pursuers and see when they stop. That will show you how early to
start this afternoon,”
Jatar suggested.

“
What if they keep coming?”
G’Taklar
asked.

“
They might, they know that they have to
catch you before you reach Myrnvale or they might lose you in the
city,”
Jatar explained.
“If they’re still riding after two
bells I think you should make a run for it, but those two bells of
rest for your mounts may be the difference. You can use most of
your remaining water for the horses, and then they should get you
into Myrnvale ahead of your pursuer’s tired mounts,”
Jatar
explained.

“We’re staying here to rest the horses for a
couple of bells, but if the Tchulians keep coming we’re going to
make a break for Myrnvale. If they stop, we’ll rest until they move
and then go when they start to move again,” G’Taklar explained in
turn to Rachael.

“Through the heat?” she asked.

“If we have to, but I’d rather be hot and
thirsty than in the hands of Sergeant Herms,” G’Taklar
responded.

Rachael gave an involuntary shrug of disgust
at the sergeant’s name and added, “You’re right there, I’d rather
be almost anywhere than with that filthy, sweaty, smelly,
disgusting excuse for a human.”

“He’s not my favorite, either,” G’Taklar
agreed with a grin.

Rachael smiled back.

Rachael pointed behind G’Taklar, toward one
side of the largest rock. “What are those lines, they almost look
like words.”

G’Taklar turned to look at what she had
seen, really looking at the side of the stone for the first
time.

“You’re right; I can make out a few words.
It’s written in
Serinna
, an old
language that I’ve learned to read from my studies of ancient
history,” G’Taklar explained.

“Well?” she prompted.

“
Well,
what? Oh, you want me to translate. Let me see, some of it is so
worn from sandstorms that I can hardly make out the letters. Well,
this part says, ‘Beware, herein lies,’ I can’t make the next word
out,
‘remains of
,’ I’m not sure of
the next four words, but then it says, ‘his terrible creatures. Do
not open this tomb lest you infect’, something blurred, ‘again.
Beware,’ and the next word is unreadable, ‘those who do not
believe, this is the evil that never dies,’” G’Taklar finished
reading.

“What does all that mean?” Rachael
asked.

“It seems pretty clear; this is the tomb of
some evil creature or creatures. The
Serinna
must have built this to hold the remains of their
enemy. They seem to have believed that he was immortal or
something
because they’re warning
unbelievers that the evil will return if it is disturbed,” G’Taklar
explained.

“
There is definitely something I don’t
like about this place,”
Jatar said to G’Taklar.

“
I’m with you cousin, perhaps we should
consider making that run for Myrnvale in two bells, no matter when
our pursuers decide to rest,”
G’Taklar thought back to
Jatar.

“How long ago did the Serinna live?” Rachael
asked.

“A little over a thousand years ago, then
they disappeared. Most scholars believe they were wiped out in a
massive war. There weren’t enough of them left to keep their
civilization going,” G’Taklar explained in his scholar’s voice.

“Then whatever they put in here is over a
thousand years dead?” she asked.

“That should be correct,” he answered.

“Then we don’t have anything to worry about,
it’s dust by now,” she said, deciding for herself that they were
safe.

“
She’s probably right, and we’re probably
just jumping at shadows, so don’t scare her. She has been under
enough stress with these Tchulians after her; she needs to rest and
ghost stories won’t help,”
Jatar suggested.

“
All right, but I’ve read that the
souldead creatures have survived over thousands of years, this
could be something along those lines,”
G’Taklar replied in
thought.

“
I agree, but we aren’t going to mess
with the place. If it has kept them contained for this long, then
it will survive another two bells,”
Jatar opinioned.

“
You’re right, but it’s an interesting
piece of history. Perhaps I’ll come back some day and do some real
research. There are quite a few mysteries surrounding the Serinna
and their eventual disappearance.”
Then to
Rachael,
he said, “Come on Rachael, let’s get
down from here and get some rest while we can, we have a hard ride
ahead of us.” They began their climb down.

G’Taklar hopped down a
four-foot
drop; landing on the flat top of what
he thought was a house sized boulder below. When he landed, there
was a cracking sound and the surface broke below his feet.
Scrambling for purchase, he slipped down and through the hole,
disappearing from Rachael’s
sight
.

Deep in the slums of Myrnvale the
necromancer RIveK clapped her hands in feigned delight when the
little girl finished her story. It was the last of the five stories
told by the children that RIveK had kept prisoner while she waited
for the return of the other urchins with their scouting report on
Elizabeth.

“That was a very good story! For a reward
you may go,” RIveK told the frightened girl.

A little while after the little girl fled
the building, the other members of the urchin gang began to return,
sliding into the room from the various holes and openings to their
lair.

When the majority of the urchins were back
RIveK addressed them all. “So what have you found in exchange for
my gold?”

“Bumpy thinks he found yer marks... tell
her,” the leader prompted to a small boy with dark wavy hair.

“I found them stay’in at the Rose and Thorn.
They were up early,
gett
’in ready
te eat their breakfast. Both ‘ad ‘
ighborn
accents. I heard the one call the other,
‘
etark
,” he explained.

“And they fit the description I gave you?”
she asked.

“I think so,” he responded.

“Now do we get our gold?” The leader asked,
looking greedily at the stack of coins beside the necromancer.