by Tracey Alley
absolutely terrifying.
“Exactly. We suspected that whoever was behind the secret army was likely behind the search for the Dragon Clans as well but we didn’t know. We got back to Malerok. Lord Nexus was waiting for us. He and Lord Michael had uncovered information of their own, and Patrick and I gave Nexus our report. It all tied in with the information he and Lord Michael had discovered, which when put together, gave us a name. Shallendara. She had been on the Council of Nine in Malerok but was dismissed for having some rather, how shall I put this, unsavory notions. After that she had seems to have disappeared and no one really knew where she was. There would be reports, occasionally, of different places where she was said to have been seen. The one thing we knew for certain was that she had been to the Hidden Palace to see The Dark One and we were pretty sure she had been to Brikenwald Court to see King Karlos. Lord Michael had also managed to prove, I realize now through Lara, that the Silent Hand were very much involved in all of this. Not, as I misled you earlier Slade, to assassinate any member of Saxenburg’s royal family. Their job was solely to eliminate anyone that Shallendara and those with her, considered to be a threat to their plans; including myself and Patrick.”
“Is that why he’s not with you any more?” Slade asked, willing for the moment to ignore the anguish that the necromancer had subjected him to through his misrepresentation of the facts.
“I almost wish that were true, if Patrick were dead that would be one thing but this…,” Nikolai broke off, obviously upset and hung his head, “and I blame myself. Even though we had a lot of information, we really knew enough to begin to prepare but I insisted on going back. I believed we could find out more and that the more we knew the better prepared we could all be. I convinced Patrick and together we convinced Lords Nexus and Michael to let us make one more trip to the Badlands. As it was we were captured almost immediately. We were barely across the border, just south of Fort Doom. They separated us at once. I was tortured and questioned for hours at a time, and it went on for days while they tried to figure out how much I knew. Finally with some help from a friend I was able to escape, and he said he’d help Patrick as well. I made my way back to a spot that Patrick and I had arranged in advance and waited for him there. I got the shock of my life when Trunk wandered in three days later. I almost killed him. Then he gave me this,” Nikolai said pulling out the ring of Belenus and placing it on the table.
Slade stared at the ring, then at Trunk and then Nikolai, unable to comprehend what he knew this must all mean. He kept trying to tell himself that he was tired, that he was overwrought, and yet he knew that every word the necromancer had said was true. The evidence of the mage’s truthfulness was written all over Nikolai’s face, including the shine of tears in his eyes.
“You mean that Trunk? But, I, I don’t understand,” Slade stammered.
“Neither do I exactly but somehow while they held Patrick they transformed him into…this,” Nikolai gestured towards Trunk with a small shrug, “and he calls himself Trunk now. I don’t know how they did it, I don’t know how to fix it and I have no idea exactly how it’s affected him. He can communicate and some of the time seems to be almost like himself, but for most of the time he’s just, well, just like he is now. Outwardly he seems to have characteristics of both ogres and trolls, which is why he’s still suffering from the fire because as I’m sure you all know, fire is the worst thing in the world for trolls. It’s the one thing they can’t regenerate against. I think, but I’m not certain, that most or all of his healing powers are still there but he obviously can’t cast any complex spells that require verbal prayers or spell components. But he remembers me and, even though he must know that what has happened to him is my fault, he doesn’t blame me.” As Nikolai lowered his head Trunk reached out and clumsily patted the mage on the head, very much, Slade thought to himself, like a parent would comfort a child.
“We were planning on making our way back to Malerok,” Nikolai eventually continued when he had regained his composure, “when Trunk was captured again. That was a ten-day ago. I probably should’ve continued on to Malerok, let someone else deal with it but I couldn’t do it. I followed, waiting for a chance to get him out of their clutches again. I actually broke into the prison, although The Dark One knew well I was there, he just didn’t think I’d get out again. Most of the rest you already know. I only went there to save Trunk and my goal is to get him to Lord Michael, who I’m hoping will be able to cure him. As for you are concerned, Slade, I overhead a few conversations while I was a captive in the Badlands, and all of them were about you. I never heard enough to put all the pieces together but it was obvious to me that the Hand, and Shallendara, is very interested in you and for some reason High King Erich. Why I don’t know but that’s the main reason why I felt I couldn’t trust you, I’d never heard of anyone the Hand was interested in not ending up dead. Except for me and Trunk, I suppose. I didn’t know the full extent of who was behind this and I wasn’t willing to risk Trunk anymore than I already had. I owe him my life. He’s my friend. So that’s it. Somehow I have to get Trunk back to Saxenburg, get the information I have back to Lord Nexus and,” Nikolai paused for a rueful chuckle, “keep an eye on you Slade.”
Nikolai had barely finished speaking when Tares began to laugh, a deep full laugh that was completely unlike his normally serious demeanor.
“I believed you necromancer, you had me completely fooled,” Tares could barely speak over his laughing.
“I assume you mean about the ring?” Nikolai asked, continuing when Tares nodded, the minotaur unable to speak for his laughter, “Yeah, I’ve never actually spoken to Lord Michael personally and I had no idea whether or not they’d send anyone to look for me and Trunk. I did think that if the Knights sent anyone it would likely be you but mostly because a minotaur can pass pretty much unnoticed either in the Badlands or here in the Islands. I needed your help, Tares, because you were the only person I felt fairly certain about, so I lied.”
“That would always be your way would it not, Nikolai?” Tares asked kindly, “It would not occur to you to simply ask for my help.”
“Would it have occurred to you if our positions were revered, Tares?”
“I do not know,” Tares answered thoughtfully, “but we must all learn to try if what you say is true.”
“It is.” Nikolai said simply.
“Oh, and again,” Wulfstan cut in sarcastically, “we’re all just supposed to take your word for it because you say so. For all we know you and this creature killed Sir Patrick, stole the ring and you’re part of this, this,” he stumbled, searching for the right words, “whatever it is, if it is anything.”
“Wulfstan he’s telling the truth,” Lara cut in, “well probably most of it anyway. I knew he was working with Patrick ages ago. Michael, sorry,” she corrected herself before Tares could interrupt, “Lord Michael, spoke very highly of Nikolai, he had a great deal of respect for his talent. Plus a lot of the things he was telling us about the secret army, well I’d heard some of that while in the Hand myself. I know that you don’t like him Wulfstan but I do think we can trust him. I mean he got us this far didn’t he?”
“Oh yes, he delivered us right into the hands of The Dark One’s chief lackey,” Wulfstan responded sulkily. There was a pause as all eyes turned slowly to the dark-skinned wizard.
“I admit that I work for The Dark One but I have done so, for many years now and at great personal risk to myself, as a spy.” Malachi spoke with quiet dignity, “I was sent here nearly twenty years ago to keep watch over The Dark One and to aid the people of Saxenburg wherever possible and, to the best of my ability, I have done that. I aid anyone who needs it, but I have to do so very carefully because I am still needed here. At least for the moment.”
“And let me guess you actually work for Nexus too right?”
“No Wulfstan, I was sent here by High King Erich.”
Slade’s head swung up in surpri
se; many times as he was growing up he had heard his father speak of a ‘secret weapon’; something that his father had hoped would one day help him to retake Ixlan.
“You,” he said looking at Malachi in shock, “you’re the secret weapon?”
“I suppose you could call me that, yes.” Malachi answered before telling his story.
He told the group how he had been born in Kemet and raised to be a priest of Thoth but had always been drawn to arcane magical power. In his adolescence Malachi had been caught experimenting with the arcane and been brought before the Council of Clerics for trial. It had been Malachi’s extreme good fortune that High King Erich had been present that day. Otherwise he would have been tied and bound then left to die slowly in the vast desert sands of Kemet, the typical punishment inflicted on those who practiced the arcane arts in that extremely religious land. Instead Erich had pleaded with the Council to exile Malachi instead and allow Erich to take the young man with him back to Saxenburg; a proposal the Council had reluctantly agreed to. Erich had sponsored Malachi’s education, sending him to The Malerok Republic for his formal training.
“Once I had finished my training I returned