Cathexis: Necromancer's Dagger (69 page)

“
I hope you have one of those fabulous
plans that get people like Furnian the Invincible out of bad
situations like this,
otherwise,
we may be in for some serious trouble
momentarily,”
G’Taklar thought desperately to Jatar.

“
If there’s no way out and nowhere to
hide, do the next best thing, make them think we got out,”
Jatar answered.

“
I’ll bite, how?”
G’Taklar asked.

“
Try unbarring that door,”
was
Jatar’s suggestion,
“and hurry,”
he added.

“Come on Rachael help me get the bars
off
this door,” G’Taklar said
quietly, so as not to be heard.

“What if some souldead thing is still alive
in there!” she hissed back.

“We’ll gamble, besides, it would have to
have died long ago. Grab the bar, OK, on three,
heave
. One, two, three!” he counted out
quietly
and then strained upward
on the first of the three iron bars that kept the door from being
opened by anything within the chamber. After a moment of strained
effort,
they both stopped, the bar
hadn’t budged.

“Let’s try the second one, maybe we’ll have
more luck,” G’Taklar suggested.

They strained and this bar slowly gave, rust
grinding out between the slots and the bar. A moment later it came
completely loose.

“
Use it to pry out the other two, but
hurry!”
Jatar encouraged.

G’Taklar relayed the idea and Rachael helped
him pry the other two bars out of their slots. Both bars fell to
the ground, clanging loudly. They could not stop them as the bars
were heavy and their hands were busy holding the pry bar.

When the second bar hit the ground something
on the other side of the door struck it resoundingly. Dust and
corrosion trickled down around the edges of the door.

Both Rachael and G’Taklar backed fearfully
away from the unbarred door and what wanted to get out from the
other side.

“
Drop that bar, put out your torch and
get behind a pillar, now!”
Jatar insisted.

“
There’s something alive in there,”
G’Taklar said unnecessarily.

“
Get behind a pillar!”
Jatar mentally
yelled.

That woke G’Taklar up and he quickly
smothered the torch with his foot on the ground and grabbed
Rachael’s hand so that he could pull her behind the closest
pillar.

They were just in time. They heard the sound
of multiple boots echoing on the hard stone floor. Soon they could
see the flickering light of torches coming down the hall.

“Look, there’s what made the sounds we
heard; they must have gone through this door, see the dust?” the
soldier said, pointing to the rust that had fallen
from
the cracks and the recent footprints of
G’Taklar and Rachael at the door.

“Get that door open, but remember, I want
them taken alive,” the gruff voice of Sergeant Herms commanded.

Two soldiers tried to pull the large door
open, but it was hard to move. Two more soldiers grabbed two of the
metal bars and
pried
at the door.
At their
effort,
the door began to
grind open and the hinges screamed their displeasure at being
disturbed. Just as the door started to open Sergeant Herms said,
“If that door is so hard to open our prey couldn’t have…”

But the door finally swung free at that
moment, opening wide. Dust came down from the top frame and the two
soldiers up front extended torches inside to reveal what was within
the chamber.

Sergeant Herms finished his sentence, “…gone
this way. I think that we’ve been duped; there is no way that they
could have opened that door.”

The two men with the torches stepped forward
to search the open chamber anyway. That’s when a horrible roar of
insane hunger cleaved the musty air of the tomb. It was immediately
followed by the screams of the two Tchulian soldiers within the
chamber. Their screams were mixed with the sounds of snapping
bones,
rending
tissues, and
splattering blood.

The soldiers who were still outside the tomb
froze in horror at the sound of
slaughter
coming from within the chamber.

Sergeant Herms glimpsed something huge and
horrible beyond that open doorway.

“Close that door, now!” he bellowed to his
remaining men.

His order galvanized three of the men into
action, the rest stood in shock for a moment more before throwing
their weight against the large stone door as well.

“
This is your chance!”
Jatar
exclaimed to G’Taklar
, “Keep the pillars between you and the
soldiers, and make a break for the entrance. If that thing gets out
you do not want to be trapped in here with a monster.”

G’Taklar didn’t need any further incentive
and he began pulling Rachael along behind. Behind
them,
the drama at the chamber door
continued.

Just before the soldiers got the door
completely closed, one of the men trapped on the other side tried
to escape, sticking his hand in the crack of the slamming door. It
was pinned in the jamb, stopping the door. The man screamed in
pain, then something grabbed him and his hand was yanked back into
the chamber, shearing off his thumb and part of the hand. The door
slammed shut under the combined weight of the remaining soldiers,
even Sergeant Herms was pushing at the back of his men.

Two men grabbed a bar and tried to drop it
into its slot, but something with massive weight hit the door from
the other side, driving the mob of nine soldiers back a
foot
before their combined weight slammed it
shut again.

The soldiers with the bar dropped it into
place, just as the creature’s weight hit the door again, the bar
bent slightly.

Quickly, they dropped the other two bars
into position, and the door was safely locked.

“In Vorg’s name, what was behind that door?”
a terrified soldier exclaimed.

“It must have been another of
those souldead
, like the one in the caverns
under the keep. Thank yer mothers that we got that door closed
before it got out o’ that room or we’d all be dead. If our
prisoners went in there, then they’re dead, but suddenly I don’t
think so. If that creature knew the door was unbarred it would have
come out,” the sergeant reasoned.

“G’lan help the men in there,” another of
the soldiers prayed.

“They’re already dead, forget them. Now
let’s get on with it, those two escaped prisoners have a lot to
answer for,” the sergeant ordered.

Down the other hallway
G
’Taklar and Rachael had to stop their stealthy
retreat when they ran into the five soldiers who had been left at
the entrance to the tomb to make sure they did not get out.

G'Taklar leaned close to Rachael's ear and
whispered. “Come on, let’s go back. We don’t want to be trapped
between whatever comes out of that room and these soldiers. If that
creature gets loose I hope it will kill the soldiers on its way out
of the tomb. On the other hand, if the soldiers manage to get the
door closed then they might trap us between their forces. Our only
chance is to hide down the hall where we first fell in and hope
that they leave thinking we were killed by the monster.”

Rachael nodded and the two fugitives crept
back toward the ‘T’ intersection, keeping to the shadows. As they
passed between two of the pillars torchlight flickered across them
and a soldier’s voice called out, “There they are!”

“
Run for it!”
Jatar advised,
unnecessarily. G'Taklar did not need any encouragement and together
he and Rachael
leaped
away like a
pair of frightened deer. They raced down the hall until they
reached the hole that led into the rooms of bones and quickly
crawled through. The soldiers arrived just behind them.

“
Give me control, G’Taklar, I can hold
them off,”
Jatar pleaded.

The first soldier started to crawl
through.

“Take it,” G’Taklar gasped.

Jatar flowed into G’Taklar’s body again. He
immediately pulled the old dagger from G'Taklar's belt and sprang
to the hole. With a quick
jab,
he
stabbed the soldier entering while he was too cramped to defend
himself with his sword.

Jatar grabbed the man’s sword and stepped to
the side of the hole, ready for the next attack.

The attackers cursed and pulled the body of
their dead companion back.

The Sergeant’s voice echoed in through the
hole. “You’ll regret that as well, boy, I’m going te make ya pay
fer
each man ya cost me."

“
First,
you’ll have to take me, you stinking kesera,” Jatar replied.

“
I’m just
go
’in te beat ya, not kill ya, so why don’t ya give up now?
Otherwise, I might let that thing in the other room loose and lock
ya in here with it,” the sergeant threatened.

“Go ahead, I prefer its company to a lying
piece of slime like you,” Jatar replied, and thought to G’Taklar,
“He won’t let it out, he’s too terrified of that
monster.”

“We can starve ya out, we found yer horses
outside. It seems that in yer haste te hide from us that ya
fergot
te take yer food and water
with ya,” was Herms’ next sally.

Jatar did not answer Herms, but in a moment
he heard the sound he feared, they were prying the bars off the
door into this chamber. Soon they could attack from two
directions.

“
If they get that door open I fear we may
have to surrender, otherwise they’re going to take us anyway,”
Jatar informed his cousin.

“
We could move into the next
chamber,”
G’Taklar suggested.

“
And we will, but that also has a wide
entry, two of the soldiers can attack at once. I might be able to
hold them, but the odds are against it. If I do fight eventually
they will kill you, counting the five at the entrance, there are
still about fourteen of them. I might get a few, but
eventually,
I’ll
tire and one of their thrusts will get through,”
he
explained.

“
I’d rather go down fighting than give up
to these torturing monsters,”
G’Taklar decided.

“
I understand, but we’d better explain to
Rachael,”
Jatar said.

“Rachael, we’re going to retreat into the
short hall between the chambers. That is where I am going to make a
stand. Most likely I will die, though I promise I will take some of
them with me. If you give up to them without a fight they may treat
you roughly, but they probably won’t kill you,” Jatar
explained.

“Give me your dagger; if I see you go down
I’ll use it. I’m not going to be captured,” she said looking into
G’Taklar’s eyes. She stepped forward, lifting her hand to the back
of his neck and pulled his face down toward her parting lips.

“
Take
over
, ‘Tak, I think this is for you,”
Jatar said
hastily.

G’Taklar flowed back into control just as
Rachael’s soft lips met his; she lingered for a moment, giving him
a kiss that held the promise of what might have been. Then she
pulled back and looked into his eyes as she said, “Send them to the
Dark Plane, G’Taklar.”

They climbed over the bones until they
reached the short corridor between the rooms. G’Taklar gave control
back to Jatar when they heard the door in the other chamber groan,
the old hinges taking the weight of the heavy door for the first
time in a thousand years.

Then they watched as the Tchulian soldiers
cautiously crept into the room. The last door they had opened in
this place had them pretty scared.

Jatar readied his sword and Rachael watched
from behind him, fingering the sharp edge of the dagger she held in
her hand. Neither of them saw the movement as something slipped
into the dark corridor from the chamber at their backs.

“G’Taklar?” a voice whispered.

Jatar spun around and Rachael nearly jumped
out of her clothes in fright.

Three dark shapes could be seen in the
corridor silhouetted by the dim light filtering through from two
rooms away where the hole was broken through the ceiling.

“Who’s there?” Jatar answered back.

“We are knights of Lindankar come to rescue
you,” was the welcome reply.

“Becaris?” Jatar said in relief as he
recognized the voice of the noble he had recently knighted.

“Indeed, with Lasar and Rasal with me,”
Becaris responded.

“Quickly, the soldiers are nearly upon us!”
Jatar said, stepping from between the knights and the approaching
Tchulians.

The ‘
shing
’
of three swords being
drawn
rang
in the corridor.

Becaris,
Lasar,
and Rasal
leaped
forward and met the charge of the Tchulians.

“Back down the hall, we need the space of
the chamber to better withstand them,” Becaris called to
G’Taklar.

“Come on Rachael, these are my friends,”
Jatar said to the stunned girl who had been ready to die on the
point of the dagger.

“
May I have control back?”
G’Taklar
asked.

“
Of course, ‘Tak,”
Jatar responded
and the young man slipped back into his physical body.

A moment later three knights traded blows
with the surprised soldiers, who had only expected to find one
opponent, not three armored knights.

The knights slowly backed into the second
chamber and then stopped to bottle up the soldiers within the
confined area of the corridor. Two of the soldiers were killed
before the rest backed off for the moment to regroup.

Becaris asked G’Taklar a question. “Quickly,
before they charge us, how many do we face?”