Cathexis: Necromancer's Dagger (25 page)

“Could Lady Rinholt have changed any
evidence before you got there, milord?” asked a Prutian.

“No, the servant was right there with her
and she fainted to the floor immediately. In fact, she was still
out when I arrived and I had her removed from the room. I found the
two rulers seated at a table and both were dead from dagger wounds.
Lord Armal had a dagger with the Rinholt family emblem on it stuck
through his left eye. Lord Rinholt had a dagger wound in his
stomach, which I assume is how he was killed due to the amount of
blood. Lord Armal’s personnel dagger was still clenched in his dead
hand and both the dagger and his hand were covered with blood.

“From the evidence I can only conclude that
Lord Armal stabbed Lord Rinholt in the gut first, and then he must
have pulled his dagger and stabbed Lord Armal in the eye. Lord
Rinholt then died of the stomach wound soon after dispatching his
attacker, Lord Armal,” CAracusS said, lying effortlessly and
convincingly, he had practiced this speech several times.

“So you believe there was no chance that
Lord Rinholt stabbed Lord Armal first?” asked the Prutian
emissary.

“Absolutely not, it’s rather difficult to do
much of anything when you have a dagger stuck in your brain.”

“Then Lord Rinholt was only defending
himself against a murderous attack by Lord Armal of Olsk,” the
emissary concluded.

“That’s the way I read it as well, and I’d
like to add that based on these facts Lindankar must side with
Pruta. It is clear that the ruler of Olsk committed the first act
of war. Lindankar is prepared to back Pruta against Olsk should
this come to battle. I would like to offer my personal help in
organizing things until the political leadership question can be
resolved in your fine country.
Now,
gentlemen, we have much to prepare, so I suggest
that we reconvene tomorrow at this time to plan our next action,
thank you,” CAracusS finished and walked to the door and Von Dracek
got up and followed.

A few minutes later CAracusS was in the
Ardellen private library again, this time with Major Von Dracek. He
had just finished explaining that their fellow conspirator had
killed the rulers of two countries in one day, without consulting
either one of them on such a drastic action.

As the necromancer stopped his narrative Von
Dracek looked up at him from where he had been staring at a shelf
of books and said, “If anyone discovers that Armal and Rinholt did
not murder each other the blame will immediately fall on Jatar
because they were killed in your palace. Not to mention that you
were one of the first people on the scene and confirmed that they
killed each other. Both Pruta and Olsk would then attack Lindankar,
likely defeating us and ruining all our plans.”

“You see,” CAracusS fumed, “he has sabotaged
us! I think it is
about time
we
kill that pompous idiot!” The necromancer’s tone showed he would
really enjoy killing the nobleman.

But Von Dracek shook his head, “No, as a
ruling Lord himself he can still be of too much use to us with all
the political power he controls, and killing a third Lord would
probably make suspicion for your involvement in all three murders
escalate. No, we’ll just have to keep this
ruler
on a shorter leash. Besides, he hasn’t ruined
anything yet, in fact as bold and rash as his move was it looks as
though it might work out like he planned. That would put us in
control of two more countries years before I expected we would get
that far."

"Assuming everything falls our way," the
necromancer noted with gloom.

Von Dracek nodded and said, "The trick is to
win this war against Olsk. They are a larger country with
correspondingly larger
manpower
for their
army;
however with both
Pruta and Lindankar combined we should be able to win. I'm not
saying that it will be easy, but if I take command of the war
strategy and you put me in charge acting as your liaison to the
Prutian commanders, it could work.”

CAracusS could see the wheels of thought
turning by the look in Von Dracek’s eyes; his pupils had contracted
to mere
pinpoints
. After a
moment,
the necromancer asked,
“How soon do you think we can wrap this up and get back onto our
original plan?”

“Oh, I’d say we can probably win the war
with Olsk in about five years,” replied Von Dracek.

“Five YEARS, I thought it would be over
within the year!” the necromancer exclaimed.

“Completely
subjugating
a country isn’t something that happens
overnight
, it will take hard work
to do it within the five years I estimated, and I may have been too
optimistic,” he explained.

“Well I suppose I shouldn’t complain;
Jatar’s body is young, so time is not my chief concern. Besides,
when the time comes I will just transfer myself into another young
body,” he
said
and patted the
cathexis dagger stuck through his belt.

Von Dracek was behind CAracusS, so the
necromancer didn’t see the hungry look the major gave the dagger.
After a
moment,
Von Dracek pulled
his thoughts away from the cathexis blade and his plans for taking
it from the necromancer one day. He decided it was time to deliver
his bad news and said, “We have another problem; Lady Ardellen and
the heir are still on the loose.”

CAracusS turned around in surprise and
exclaimed, “Then why have you returned? She must be killed! We
can’t afford to let her stir up trouble while we’re trying to win a
war; it will undermine us.”

“She slipped through the trap I set for her,
and our horses were lost in the confusion, but I did manage to
wound her severely,” Von Dracek admitted reluctantly.

“How severely, is it possible she’ll die?”
the necromancer asked hopefully.

“No, it was an attack on her spirit and
though it was supposed to kill her somehow she defeated it.
Eventually,
the wound she took to
her spirit will heal, but it will take time. Meanwhile, her aura
powers will be severely limited. If our horses had not been lost we
would have followed and finished her swiftly,” he explained.

“Then there’s no need to worry, my vorghoul
will find and kill them,” said CAracusS with confidence.

“How many did you send?” Von Dracek
asked.

“I had three of them near enough when she
fled, I sent them all,” replied CAracusS.

“Only three, well that’s too bad,” the
Tchulian merc replied, shaking his head in mock sadness.

“Don’t worry, they’ll kill her, I guarantee
it. They’re much more reliable than soldiers who can’t even keep
their horses,” CAracusS answered in a mocking tone.

“Don’t be so ready to guarantee your
beasties; at least half my men came back alive. I found all three
of your creatures slaughtered on the road,” countered Von
Dracek.

“What… you’re sure they were vorghoul?”
asked CAracusS incredulously.

“They’re hard to mistake, you know. Even
dead they have a certain look to them,” Von Dracek said
sarcastically.

“This is inconceivable, a woman with a child
and three green knights defeat three of Vorg’s ancient creatures,
and twenty Tchulian soldiers!” exclaimed the necromancer as he
paced back and forth in the room in total disbelief.

“One Knight Protector isn’t green, his name
is Hetark and he has the reputation of being a good commander. And
although the other two don’t have much experience, they were two of
the most skilled fighters in this whole country, don’t count them
too lightly,” cautioned Von Dracek, and then added, “And then there
is Lady Ardellen, she is a full Kirnath Adept.”

“Warriors, they are just bodies needing
disposal,
however,
I'm growing
tired of this woman; she has been a problem from the start. At the
beginning,
I didn’t take her too
seriously, but I think it’s time she got my full attention,” the
necromancer intoned with narrowed eyes. CAracusS opened the door of
the room and stuck his head out into the hall before calling loudly
to a servant, “You there, have one of the officers I arrested
brought to the questioning room; I’ll be down momentarily to handle
the interrogation.”

The servant left to do as his ruler
commanded.

CAracusS closed the door and turned back to
Von Dracek and said, “I’m going to recall the Darknull Baron. I’m
sure he would relish the chance to consume a Kirnath sorceress.
With the Lady Ardellen suffering from your attack the beast should
make short work of her soul,” CAracusS exclaimed, rubbing his hands
together in anticipation.

“How did the arrests of the Lindankar
commanders go?” Von Dracek inquired.

“Not as well as we hoped, only about a third
of the military commanders and a few of the servants were around
when I started the arrests. That sorceress bitch got a message
passed around the very night she escaped! She explained what she
believed happened to her husband and her guesses were fairly
accurate. The bitch figured out our whole plot and warned many of
her retainers and commanders. She instructed them to leave here and
join her in a year’s time. A stupid colonel told me about the note
before I had him imprisoned. That’s another thing we owe that damn
woman,” fumed the necromancer.

The Tchulian’s brow furrowed in thought as
he said, “This is bad, that means the rumors of Jatar’s possession
will spread even faster. We’ll need to squash every whisper of
these theories or this will be all over the country in days and
you’ll be under deep scrutiny.”

CAracusS’ face was turning red in anger at
Lady Ardellen and the trouble she was causing his plan. After a
moment,
he finally said, “Can’t
this troublesome woman just have the decency to die? I’ve killed
her husband, taken his body and throne, it is clear that she has
lost and is now just clawing at us as she bleeds out.”

Von Dracek shrugged and said, “It is not the
way of the Kirnath Sorcerers to give up easily. We will speak more
about this later, but
for now,
I
must get some rest. I’ve been on the road for the last twenty
bells.”

With a sarcastic
snarl,
CAracusS said, “What, you’re going to forego
meeting the Darknull Baron for the second time? He doesn’t scare
you, does he? Never mind, you would only soil yourself again
anyway.”

“I can handle your gruesome friend,” replied
the major, but his thoughts were of a different nature.
“I hope
you remember your remarks when I
pry
that cathexis dagger from your dead
grasp.”

When evening hung its dark coat across the
sky, the weary travelers finally made camp in the forest. Elizabeth
did another check of their back trail and found nothing in pursuit.
After Hetark had prepared a hot meal over the campfire they sat
around to discuss plans. Drake played peek-a-boo with Michael,
making funny faces between his hands; it was one of his newest
duties as a Knight Protector.

Hetark was lying on his stomach over his
bedroll and drawing designs in the dirt by firelight when he said,
“How soon are we planning on turning west for Mordan? We’re just
about past the mountains, so if we turn now we could cross the
foothills.”

Elizabeth lay curled on top of her unrolled
blankets facing the other three knights across the fire. The flames
illuminated her face in the
yellow
flickering light. For a
moment,
she contemplated Hetark’s question while
staring
into the red coals of the fire.

“I’m thinking about changing our plans and
continuing to the Kirnath School, it’s only another two days travel
south. The Kirnath can protect us from anything short of an army,
and we would have plenty of warning if one attempted to approach
the school. Staying there a few days would give us protection and
time to recuperate. It would also give me a chance to heal my
spirit;
in fact,
the Adepts could
accelerate the healing process by transferring some aura
energy.

“From there we could strike out for Mordan,
fresh.
Besides,
I’ve had a bad
premonition about our current lack of pursuit. They haven’t
forgotten me, and their next attempt will be more serious now that
we have defeated their Tchulian mercs and the necromancer’s
souldead. I’m more than a nuisance now, more than a loose end, they
are probably starting to think of me as an actual threat. They’ll
commit more of their resources to try and stop me before I can
cause them real trouble. The necromancer may attempt some type of
attack with his dark powers and unfortunately don’t know all the
abilities that a Darknull grants a necromancer."

Hetark spoke up at that comment and asked,
"But you know some things, what can you tell us of these
bastards?"

"Only what I was taught by my Kirnath
instructors, I know that they don’t use the power of their aura;
instead,
they somehow manipulate
energy they’ve gained from the Dark Plane. I’ll have to stay
vigilant for an attack of the unknown as well as keep an eye out
for a Darknull. The Necromancer who stole my husband’s body brought
one of those fell beasts into the world, and he may do so again.
Right now my spirit is wounded and I’m weak, so I don't know if I
can protect Michael adequately. The fastest way to get him the
protection he needs right now is at the Kirnath School, even if our
enemies do anticipate my goal.”

“I see, milady; then the only problem with
the plan comes when we try to leave the school, they will
undoubtedly be waiting for us in ambush, however, at this time I
see no better alternative,” agreed Hetark.

“Then we have decided, we’ll make a break
for the school and hope that they don’t get there before we’re
ready to leave. If they do we will just have to come up with a new
plan to make our escape, but at least we’ll be at full strength to
attempt whatever we decide to try, and the other Adepts can help,”
Elizabeth finished.