Necrodruid

by Adam Witcher

  “What do you want from me, Terriah?” He yelled out into the forest. Nearby birds alighted at the sound. “You were supposed to give me peace. Well, where is it?”

  He kneeled and dropped his hand into his hands.

  Some bushes in front of us rustled. Nephrum gasped. A small brown fox stepped out and stared at him. Curiously, its brown fur seemed segmented like scales, but hair still grew from it.

  “Terriah?” he asked. “Is that you?”

  The fox only stared at him.

  “You’re just a fox, aren’t you?” Nephrum hung his head. “Go ahead and go then.”

  “Just a fox?” it said, “and aren’t you just a man?”

  “You’re speaking to me?” Nephrum perked his head up. “But other animals…”

  “I can speak to whomever I’d like.” The fox paced back and forth. “Regardless of what the other animals do. I am not Terriah. You seek peace and satisfaction from her, but that is a mistake. Perhaps I can offer you something better.”

  “Who are you?” Nephrum asked.

  “I am called Cyrus,” the fox said. “And I have many abilities that your goddess could only dream of. What do you wish, Nephrum, to feel peace, or to feel power?”

  Nephrum seemed to consider this.

  “I can feel power in you already,” the fox said. “You are a highly skilled destruction mage. One of the best I’ve ever sensed. You deserve something greater than peace.”

  A smile crossed Nephrum’s face. He didn’t even seem to notice that the fox knew his name already. It seemed that the sorcerer was quite susceptible to flattery.

  “The world is full of people that would slight you, Nephrum,” the fox went on. “You can either let them betray you, or you can dominate them. You can change them into whoever or whatever you desire. You could become the most powerful mage in the history of Iggoroth. I can help you.”

  “Why would I trust you? You could be anyone, anything.”

  “But I am not, Nephrum.” The fox nuzzled up against the mage’s leg. “I am only a fox. And you know what they say about foxes. Foxes are like family.”

  Once again, the scene began to dissolve, and we returned to the purple ether. There were still many more memory orbs. I saw another with Leon’s face and dove in.

  We stood in someone’s sleeping chamber, and I realized after a moment that it was Leon’s. The druid priest was fast asleep in a modest bed against a wall. Nephrum stood next to the bed with fox Cyrus at his feet. He held up a glass flask and put it to Leon’s sleeping head. Green smoke flowed out of the man’s head and into the flask. Once it stopped, he plugged it up and crept out of the room.

  “Holy shit,” Camilla said as the scene dissolved again, “He drained his mana. Cyrus must be really powerful.”

  “I don’t know if we should keep doing this,” I said, back in floating space. “At a certain point it just becomes creepy on our end. Voyeuristic. Are we really learning anything that’s going to help us?”

  “I think so.” Lily said. “He’s not the emotionless automaton we thought he was, obviously. He’s just a human being who had a messed up life.”

  “And made some terrible choices,” Camilla added.

  “True, but no matter his reasons, we’re going to need to fight him. And we can’t do it here.”

  Just then, the purple haze began to swirl violently. We could not swim toward each other against the whirlpool-current of the ether. Ultraviolet beams shot out and surrounded us each individually. Through the chaos, I saw one small orb floating near me, separate from everything else. A familiar structure was buried somewhere in its depths. It was the tower, but its tops were jagged and unfinished. My blood turned to ice as the swirling clouds of light disappeared and the temple, in its modern ruined state, began to materialize around me. The little orb was fading quickly. I crawled to it across the rapidly forming temple floor and barely managed to reach into it.

  Back in my phantasmal form, I now laid on a great expanse of dirt before the tower. An army of monsters marched around me in organized groups, hauling bricks of stone toward the growing monolith. Goblins, hobgoblins, bugbears, orcs, and other monstrosities made up the rag-tag group. It wasn’t hard to guess why these things had become Neptos’ thugs after the construction.

  I stood up and looked around. A fully robed and angry looking Neptos marched alongside them. He barked orders at many of the creatures, but it seemed to be more for show than anything else. He never looked back to see if his messages got through.

  I followed him to the tower, and to my delight, it actually did appear to be getting closer. Whatever charm he’d set to keep us from reaching it hadn’t been cast yet. Before we reached the huge black door that led to the mysteries inside, he stopped. A large wagon was stopped nearby. It already bore the tower’s sigil. Neptos walked around the back of it and threw open the flaps. Through the opening, I could see Tholen huddled over something. Neptos commanded him to come out. He gingerly stepped out cradling something wrapped in a grey blanket.

  Tholen’s forehead was covered in sweat. “I just finished crafting it this morning, and I haven’t tested it yet, but it should be able to channel the energies that you need.”

  “Should or will?” Neptos gave Tholen a gaze that made him recoil.

  “Will, sir. Cyrus was very clear about what he needed me to make. We just need to make sure that the tower is tall enough for this kind of power. And you’ll need a great deal of defenses to keep this thing from anyone’s reach. At least for a while.”

  “No need to worry about that. The barrier will go up right after construction.” Neptos looked pleased with himself.

  “Sir,” Tholen said, “I have one more thing that might help us.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “I’ve perfected an illusion that…” Tholen’s words faded into a jumble, and the scene around me began to do the same.

  “Gods, no!” I shouted. “What illusion? What illusion?”

  There would be no answer. The purple lights swarmed, and I was swept away again. It happened more rapidly than the other times, as if it was accelerated. The temple floor appeared around me, still covered in misty purple light.

  Then I had the sensation of being in my own physical body again. I reached down and grabbed at my chest. It was there. My legs too. But the light remained. I felt my back. My weapons were still attached. Then the clouds of purple light faded, and we were back in the temple. This time, I knew it for sure.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  The first thing I noticed was that Camilla and Lily were not next to me. The second thing was that Neptos was glaring at me from across the chapel, and he looked pissed. I scrambled to my feet and pulled my bow out. To my surprise, though, Neptos didn’t attack. He just stared at me so intensely that I thought a blood vessel might burst out of his bald head. I looked around for my companions and saw that the room had been ravaged, pews upended, the wooden decor splintered on the walls. Finally, I saw them hiding among the wreckage. They both gave me a mixed look of relief, worry, and anger.

  “What… what did you see?” Neptos’ voice sounded like it was about to split apart. His hands glowed, but he kept them idle.

  “Enough,” I said, testing my leverage. “You’ve had a sad life, Neptos. But that doesn’t excuse any of this.”

  “No, you bastard,” he said viciously, “the tower. What did you see?”

  “Oh, that last memory?” I said with a grin. “That was just you taking a nasty shit. I don’t know anything about a tower.”

  I looked over at the girls, who didn’t seem to think my joke was very funny.

  “Do not lie to me, you worthless piece of…” The sound of his energy attack destroying the bowl at the altar. Purple liquid spewed upward. “Tell me what you saw!”

  I rolled over to where the girls were crouched to avoid the debris.

  “You all okay?” I asked as Neptos stomped toward us.

  “Yeah, Rahm, but where were you?” Lily asked.
“You were gone for like half an hour. Luckily Neptos spent the whole time trying to get you out so he pretty much ignored us. Please tell me you saw something important.”

  I started to respond when a purple beam struck a stone pillar near us. It crumbled and a loud, slow creak emanated from the ceiling

  “Soon,” I said. “Let’s get the hell out of here first.”

  I popped up and fired a couple of shots toward Neptos. It occurred to me that my quiver was half depleted. I resolved to be more careful with the ones that remained. The shots didn’t harm Neptos, but they did distract him long enough to let the girls find an escape. Luckily, one of Neptos’ attacks had blown out a stained-glass window that the girls climbed through while he deflected my arrows. Just when he was about to send another attack flying our way, I squeezed through it as well.

  Then we were outside in the desolate courtyard again. Gragos stood far in the distance, the tower off to our side. There was nothing else.

  “We have to get to that tower,” I said. “He’s got some orb at the top that’s doing something for Cyrus. That’s why it’s so tall. Cyrus needs it way up in the clouds for some reason.”

  “Great, but that doesn’t really help us,” Camilla said. “We still don’t know how to get there.”

  The side wall of the druid temple exploded, and the remaining stained glass exploded, shooting colorful shards all around us. We ducked for cover, but even so, a few pieces scraped my skin. Neptos’ attacks were getting stronger, and I had no doubt that his rage fueled it. The girls both looked dazed, but mostly unharmed. The temple, though, couldn’t take any more damage. The ground shook as the building began to collapse. Neptos screamed from inside. It was only a few moments before the cloud of dust settled to reveal a pile of rubble with Neptos buried within it.

  “Oh my gods,” Camilla said. “He can’t be dead, right?”

  “Unlikely,” I said. “Let’s not wait around to find out. Look, I don’t know what kind of illusion he was talking about, but Alastair specifically used the word illusion in Neptos’ memory. I don’t it’s as far away as it looks. We just need to keep moving toward it.

  The rubble began to stir.

  “It’s the best idea I’ve got,” I said.

  They nodded and we started to run. Almost immediately the same visual trick began, but I encouraged us to keep going. After a few minutes, I heard some percussive sounds behind us in the distance. I gave a cautious look over my shoulder. To my relief, the ruins of the druid temple were getting further away as we ran. Pieces of stone spewed out of it like molten rock from a volcano, but I turned back to the road ahead of us before I saw a glimpse of the sorcerer.

  When I looked back, the tower looked even further away. The women glanced at me suspiciously, but I urged them onward. We kept our eyes on the place as it disappeared further into the horizon.

  “It’s going to completely disappear soon,” Camilla said. “This is useless!”

  “Just keep going,” I said, running out of breath, “it’s got to be there.”

  Eventually we reached the point where the great black tower was only a distant speck on the horizon, no longer even discernible as a tower. The girls stopped, but I didn’t take my eyes from the spot where it was supposed to be.

  “Just keep a little longer,” I said. “If we don’t see a change within ten minutes, we’ll hatch a new plan. At the very least, we are getting further from Neptos.”

  That was true enough for them. Behind us, both the ruined temple and the city of Gragos had disappeared. There was no sign of Neptos, either. We ran.

  Several minutes later, I swore that I could see the speck returning. My adrenaline surged and overrode my fatigue. We kept going, and the girls saw it too. Its details came back into view. It became larger and larger until it towered over us the way it towered over the entire city of Gragos.

  The tower was so enormous that I nearly lost my balance looking up at it while I ran. At the base, a broad charcoal staircase led up to the enormous black doors. A set of spires was barely visible at the very top, nestled in the clouds. It seemed that an entire army could operate out of such a place, yet it was completely unmanned. Not one monster or guard tried to meet its defense, no turrets unleashed arrows or boiling oil upon us. It was quiet and eerie. When we reached the staircase, no seemed willing to take the first step.

  “I guess we should just walk straight up to it,” Lily said. “Doesn’t seem very clever, but I’ve got no doubt that we’d be fooling anyone if we tried sneaking.”

  “Maybe,” I said, “but something tells me that Neptos didn’t expect us to make it this far. There might be nobody here.”

  Lily and Camilla looked at me skeptically.

  “Nobody builds something like this and then just leaves it abandoned,” Lily said.

  “Regardless,” Camilla said. “We need to keep our guard up and stick together.”

  I took the first step. If the tower or anyone in it noticed our arrival, they kept quiet. We crept up the stairs one by one and looked outward over the landscapes of Iggoroth. We climbed for a hundred feet, and I could see forests and grasslands off in the distance. The massive city of Gragos was visible again, its rolling hills stretching on indefinitely. I even recognized the set of hills that led to the great sea. It all looked so beautiful. I wondered how someone could see all of this and want to destroy it so badly.

  Finally, we reached the great wooden door. It stood at least twenty feet high and was adorned with engravings of gargoyles, horrible pig-faced things with horns, wings, and looks of sadistic fury. I recognized them from bestiaries, but I wondered then if they were real. In the engravings, they flew around and tormented terrified people like demons haunting hell. It sent a shiver through me.

  “Sure knows how to make his guests feel welcome,” I said. The girls didn’t comment.

  An enormous brass handle shone against the black door. I approached it and pushed cautiously. It gave way with surprising ease. After a deep breath, I pushed it all the way open and went inside.

  I was surprised to see how well-lit the place was. The center of the tower was a giant open chamber with a skylight that cast a rainbow of colors through what could only have been stained glass. Deep blues, yellows, and reds made kaleidoscopic view. The sides of the tower were lined by another staircase, this one spiraling all the way up to the top. All along it, statues of more gargoyles were frozen into menacing positions.

  “Guys,” Lily said. “I think I remember something else from that story about Lombok and Cyrus. Cyrus had the power to turn people into stone and also to reanimate them, but at the cost of them becoming grotesque, grey creatures. They traded their flesh and form to regain the ability to move.

  “Gargoyles only exist because of Cyrus?” Camilla said. “I’ve heard of them before, but I had no idea.”

  “Maybe not only because of Cyrus,” Lily said. “But I mean…” She gestured upward.

  We started up the massive staircase when Camilla stopped us. She opened up her small sack and pulled out the last bits of Druella.

  “Could come in handy,” she said as she chewed it up. I nodded.

  Our footsteps echoed through the massive tower, making us sound like giants. In truth, I had never felt so small. There must have been hundreds of gargoyles, each one more grotesque than the last. They were bastardizations of animals, some of them not so unlike Tholen’s hybrids. Some were twisted into aggressive poses. They brandished swords and axes and looked ready to swing. Others just stared. They looked insane and unpredictable, and somehow creepier than the attackers. Yet none of them sprung to life as we ascended the giant spiral.

  This didn’t stop our paranoia. As the colored lights shifted around the tower, I thought I saw movement on the periphery of my vision. Each time I turned to look, though, all was still. I could tell that Lily and Camilla were as uneasy as I was. When I picked up the pace, they didn’t complain.

  We’d spiraled about three times when I heard the whooshi
ng sound of beating wings. I turned to look behind me, and one of the gargoyles’ wings was settling into place. I drew my bow quickly and Lily formed an ice dagger in her hand.

  “You saw it too?” I asked her. She nodded.

  We approached the gargoyle and stared at it closely. It truly seemed still. I touched its meaty arm and found it to be as hard and cold as stone. I stared deeply into its eyes, but it stared back at nothingness.

  “We’re getting paranoid,” I said. “Let’s just keep going.”

  But as we continued upward, the phantom movements continued. At one point, a piece of rock went careening over the side of the staircase and crashed at the base of the tower down below. There was no way one of us kicked it without realizing. Tension hung thick in the air.

  “Where the hell is Neptos?” Camilla said. “I feel like he should have reached the tower by now.”

  As if only awaiting this summoning, a deep and maniacal laugh echoed out through the chamber. Each of us cringed at the sound.

  “You will never reach the top, necrodruid.” The booming voice of Neptos seemed to rattle the entire tower. “And now you are so far from the bottom, where all of your precious little creatures are buried deep below the surface. My own army has just been so patient with you.”

  “He was waiting!” I slammed my fist against the wall and closed my eyes. Was I really too high up to raise anything useful? I quickly looked over the edge. We had been ascending for over an hour, and the ground was far, far below. I focused my energy for a moment and tried to detect any hint of life down there. If there were spirits below, I couldn’t detect them. Behind me, I there was a commotion I tried to tune out, a chorus of low, crazed cackling.

  “Uh, Rahm?” Lily said. “Forget raising the dead. We have a much more immediate problem to deal with.”

  I turned around. The gargoyles no longer lined the staircase. Each of the monstrosities had taken flight and whizzed around the empty space of the tower. They were all bathed in technicolor light. Many of them swung their weapons and glared at us.