Cathexis: Necromancer's Dagger (70 page)

“I think I counted
fourteen
if the five guards at the entrance join them,
nine if they don’t,” G’Taklar responded.

“Too many, if they charge us they will
overwhelm our position. If that happens we will retreat to the next
chamber and make them try it again. Perhaps we can whittle them
down that way. We can’t take any chances with you G’Taklar. Lady
Ardellen sent us to retrieve the ring that you carry, it is of vast
importance. You still have it, don’t you?” he asked suddenly.

G’Taklar held up his fist, displaying the
ring on his finger.

“
Good man
,
guard it carefully. Take the girl and get to the chamber behind us.
There is a rope hanging down from the hole in the ceiling. Get her
out of here and we’ll follow as soon as we can get away. You’ll
find your horses with the soldier’s mounts. We took out the two
guards they left there already. Scatter their mounts and ride away
toward Myrnvale, that’s where you can meet us or find Lady Ardellen
if we don’t survive. Go quickly, before they attack. May G’lan be
with you,” Becaris said, clasping G’Taklar’s hand.

“
Ask him what’s happened to my son and
kingdom,”
Jatar prompted quickly.

“What of the heir and Lindankar?” G’Taklar
asked before turning to go.

“Michael is safe, Lindankar is held by an
evil necromancer in Jatar’s body. Do not go there with the signet
ring. One more thing, we’ve come upon some information that
Elizabeth will need to know. One of the conspirators that plotted
against the royal family is one of Lord Jatar’s three foster
brothers,” Becaris told him quickly.

“
It can’t be!”
Jatar exclaimed in
G’Taklar’s head in disbelief.

“Are you sure?” G’Taklar asked Becaris.

“Yes, but we don’t know which one. Now get
going, quickly! Get that ring to Lady Ardellen!” Becaris said and
gave him a slight push in the direction of safety. He then turned
to face the inevitable attack from the Tchulian soldiers.

G’Taklar and Rachael began working their way
toward the next chamber.

As they neared the opening they heard the
sounds of fighting behind them, the next wave of attack had
commenced.

Jatar was silent as he contemplated the news
that one of his beloved foster brothers had betrayed their bond. It
left Jatar deep in thought.

From the sounds of the Tchulian soldiers
yelling and the harsh clangs of clashing swords, G’Taklar feared
that the three knights were being overcome. If the knights did not
hold the Tchulians long enough for Rachael and himself to climb up
the rope, they would be captured. G’Taklar made a quick decision;
he had to keep this ring from the Tchulians and if the soldiers got
to them before they escaped they would find it on his hand.

Without consulting Jatar, G’Taklar got the
ancient dagger back from Rachael and unscrewed the trick pommel. To
make room in the hollow interior of the hilt he quickly poured the
gold out and stuffed it into his pocket. Then he pulled the
Ardellen cathexis signet ring from his finger and dropped it inside
the hilt. He tore off a piece of his shirt and stuffed it in after
the ring to keep it from rattling inside the hilt, and then he
sealed the signet ring within the dagger. He figured that even if
he was captured, they would not know of the precious ring in the
secret hilt.

Since he was no longer in contact with the
cathexis metal of the ring G’Taklar was now out of communication
with Jatar.

As soon as we’re safely out of here I’ll
put it back on,
G’Taklar thought. He tucked the dagger into his
belt and helped Rachael begin the climb up the knotted rope.

When she had reached the top G’Taklar looked
over his shoulder toward the clashing sounds of weapons in the
other chamber, but he still could not tell how well things were
going for the knights. He quickly ascended the rope which swung
wildly with his motion. As he climbed the ancient dagger began to
creep up from where it was tucked
under
his belt.

When he reached the top Rachael helped him
over the lip of the hole. They climbed down from the rocks and
found the Tchulian horse picket. Their mounts were with the
soldiers’ mounts as Becaris had explained.

Two soldiers lay dead a short way from the
picket.

G’Taklar helped Rachael mount and then swung
up
onto
his saddle.

As he made the quick swing of his leg over
the horse’s back, he dislodged the loose dagger and it fell
silently below his horse on the soft sand of the
Erclesian
desert.

G’Taklar’s mount danced around, which moved
him away from the fallen dagger containing the cathexis ring.

He untied the soldier’s mounts and then
yelled and the horses galloped away, scattering across the
desert.

G’Taklar and Rachael headed in the direction
of Myrnvale, putting as much distance as they could between them
and the soldiers and the horrible tomb of Vorg.

In Myrnvale, Hetark and Poison were just
finishing their breakfast at a restaurant. Hetark stood to go and
spoke to Poison, “Thank you for the breakfast company. I need to
swing by a blacksmith before checking to see if any of the other
knights
have
come into town.”

“Would you like some company during your
walk?” Poison asked.

“Yes, that would be nice,” he replied,
thinking that Poison’s company no longer seemed as bad as a poke in
the eye. They had gotten along quite well in the last two days.

“Good, I’ll meet you at the Carriage Hotel
in a quarter bell, ‘til then,” she finished nodding politely.
There,
she thought,
that was perfect, and I didn’t make
an ass out of myself once during breakfast. I must be getting this
lady stuff down.
She gained more confidence with Hetark each
hour they spent together. She had also found that he wasn’t as
stuffy as she had first thought when she met him in Roper; overall
he wasn’t such a bad sort.

She sipped her tea and watched out of the
corner of her eye to see if anyone was watching, she wasn’t sure
she was using the proper etiquette.

A few moments after Hetark had left the
waiter came to her table and spoke, “Excuse me miss, but does your
name happen to be Marinda?”

“Yes, it is.” She started to add, ‘What of
it?’ , but
instead,
she said, “How
can I help you?”

“I have a message from a lady, she didn’t
want to disturb you until your breakfast was over, so she left this
message with directions to deliver it after you were finished
eating,” the waiter said, extending the message in his hand.

Poison took the folded piece of paper and
wondered who could know her real name. Apprehensively she opened
and read the message. It confused her even more, it read:

Dear Elizabeth,

You don’t know me personally, but that
doesn’t matter, I will

soon introduce myself in person. I have come
upon some

information that is vitally important to
you. A creature, named

SCorcH, is headed your way this very moment.
He is a necromancer

bent on destroying you. I know you are a
powerful sorceress and

with
prior
warning,
you can defeat the attack
of this enemy. He

will be waiting in ambush, so beware. Until
I see you in person,

take care,

A friend.

Poison read the message a second time. How
had this woman known that her name was Marinda? It was a fact known
to very few, but even more puzzling, once knowing her real name why
would she mistake her for Elizabeth? It made no sense. She decided
to worry about that later, for
now,
her main concern was the necromancer on his way to
kill her, assuming he too mistook her for Elizabeth. She knew she
had to get to Hetark; they needed to warn Elizabeth of this
threat.

She got up quickly and left the restaurant.
As she stepped into the street she scanned the area, her sharp eyes
looking for a trap. She saw a little street urchin headed purposely
in her direction and knew that this could be the beginning of a
setup, so she looked around carefully for the other players, but
saw no one.

Poison stepped back onto the landing of the
restaurant ready to flee into the crowded room, and then she waited
for things to unfold.

The small girl looked fearfully around as
she crossed the open street and Poison realized that something had
this little girl terrified. “Is yer name Elizabeth?” the little
girl inquired when she was close to Poison.

Poison was not sure what to answer, she
needed information and something told her that this little street
urchin was not her enemy. “Yes, how can I help you today?”

“An evil woman is here te kill ya, she
killed them all, the whole street league. She’ll kill me if she
sees me warning you. She has evil powers… purple light,” the little
urchin blurted out in one breath.

“Slow down, what’s this about killing a
street league?” Poison asked. She knew of the urchin gangs, she had
grown up in a ‘league’ herself as a small child.

Taking a deep breath, the girl told her
story.

“So you came to warn me; that was very
brave. Come on, we need to find my friend, he’s a knight and maybe
he can make sense of this,” Poison said, taking one of the little
girl’s tiny hands in her left hand. She found that it was shaking,
so she kneeled down before the tiny girl and said, “Don’t worry; I
will take care of you.”

“Promise?” the little urchin asked.

“I promise, and I take my promises very
seriously. Come on, let’s get out of here,” she said, and they went
to meet Hetark.

SCorcH watched from down the street as
Poison met the little girl on the steps of the restaurant. Since
Poison matched the description that RIveK had given him, he assumed
she was his quarry. He waited in the shadows watching the direction
in which they headed, and then quickly he set a course to
intercept.

A few streets away the burnt faced
necromancer lay in wait standing in the shadows of an alley that
led into a square courtyard. The street that Poison had chosen to
follow passed through from SCorcH’s left to right.

A moment after he had taken his position
Poison hurried through, still holding onto the little girl’s hand.
She felt fairly safe now; Hetark was meeting her around the next
corner in a hotel lobby.

As she passed about ten feet away from an
open alley she noticed movement. Fearing the worst she pulled the
urchin girl in close on her left, shielding the girl with her body
from any attack.

When she turned to look she saw a darkly
cloaked man with a black leather domino over his lower face. He had
his right hand held palm outward toward her, like
a warding
.

Just as the image registered, a spreading
purple light emerged from his facing palm and arced across to her
body at the speed of lightning. Poison was fast, but the speed of
the purple energy was beyond human reflexes. The strike of the
necromancer’s attack burned through her clothes in a foot wide
circle, sizzling into her unprotected skin.

The power of the impact drove her a full
body length’s distance to the side, where she landed in a heap
with
the little girl.

The urchin jumped to her feet, and seeing
the evilly masked apparition swiftly approaching, she ran out of
the courtyard.

SCorcH let her go as he considered her
nothing of importance. He kept his protective shield up expecting a
possible counter attack from the Kirnath sorceress, but he was not
too worried, she would have a hard time concentrating
after
taking the full power of his energy blast.
He had seen her spot him in the alley, but surprisingly she had not
gotten her protections up in time to stop his first attack. It had
been simple.

Poison lay in near shock, but she heard the
footsteps of her attacker approaching. Through her pain and
shock,
she managed to pull out the
dagger she had hidden under her dress. When the footsteps were
close, she rolled over, and though the pain nearly caused her to
black out, she managed to throw her knife.

The last thing SCorcH had expected the
Kirnath Adept to attempt was a mundane attack with a dagger. His
energy protections were up, but he had not bothered to waste power
on shielding against any physical attacks.

The dagger struck him in the chest, sinking
in deeply.

He felt the pain, but did not bother to do
anything about it; he would handle the wound later. Death by
mundane weapons would take far more than a simple dagger in his
lung; a necromancer was well conversant with death and pain.

“You can’t stop the inevitable with a mere
dagger, Kirnath,” he said, raising his palm to finish the already
mortally wounded Poison, still thinking her to be Elizabeth.

Poison suddenly knew in a way beyond words,
beyond mere conviction, why Elizabeth fought these evil creatures.
They were the darkness, the evil, all that was wrong in life pulled
together into one place. They had to be stopped, yet she knew she
was finished.

She could tell him she was not Elizabeth and
he might not kill her, but then she would be forced to tell him
where to find the real Elizabeth. She could not do it. The cynical
side of her laughed, telling her she was just like the other
altruistic fools. Then she thought of the little urchin girl, she
reminded Poison of herself as a child. These animals had murdered
children and they had to be stopped. In that moment of choice
between life and death she decided to buy Elizabeth some time with
her silence, Poison decided that her last act would be to join
Elizabeth’s fight against these creatures.