Jonathan Moeller - The Ghosts 08 - Ghost in the Mask

by Jonathan Moeller

  Kylon drew on his sorcery, leaping to his feet. Rhames strode towards Claudia, the Ascendant Bloodcrystal in hand. Caina and Corvalis hurried towards the seset-kadahn on the other end of the chamber. They must have come to the same realization as Kylon. Corvalis attacked the undead thing, and Caina darted behind it.

  The seset-kadahn seized the broken pillar and flung it at Corvalis. The former Kindred assassin ducked, but the flying piece of masonry clipped his sword and ripped the weapon from his hand. Corvalis stumbled, and the seset-kadahn seized its khopesh from the rubble and turned to face Caina. She dodged under the swing, the gleaming steel blurring over her head.

  Kylon sprinted forward, drawing on the sorcery of air and water, and jumped. The power of his leap carried him over the shattered rubble, and he plummeted towards the undead thing. The seset-kadahn turned towards him, but Kylon had the momentum. His blade came down, ripping open the creature’s chest, and he pivoted and slashed at its leg. The creature tripped, and Corvalis snatched his sword and stabbed into its leg.

  Again the seset-kadahn stumbled, and Caina leapt upon its back, her dagger sinking between its ribs. She began sawing the blade back and forth, trying to tear an opening in the undead flesh, and Kylon knew that his guess had been right. The canopic jar was within the seset-kadahn.

  They just had to get it before the creature ripped them apart or Rhames blasted them ashes.

  The seset-kadahn surged to its feet, throwing out its arms, and Caina lost her grip. She landed hard upon the uneven floor, and the undead warrior swung its khopesh at her. Caina rolled to the side, the hooked blade striking the stone hard enough to draw sparks. The seset-kadahn charged again, and Caina scrambled back, trying to get out of reach. Corvalis attacked, his flashing blade opening a gash on the back of the seset-kadahn’s right leg. Again the creature stumbled, turning to face the new threat.

  Kylon sprang into the opening, both hands around his hilt, all his strength and sorcery driving the blow. His sword sank to the crosspiece in the seset-kadahn’s belly, and the sheer power of the impact drove the creature onto its heels. Kylon yanked his sword free, the icy blade swirling with white mist, and Caina drove her dagger into the undead warrior’s back, tearing the gash wider.

  The creature’s wounds were still healing themselves, but the more wounds it took, the slower they closed. And the seset-kadahn was not adapting well to fighting all of them at once. Kylon suspected that for all the warrior’s strength and speed, it was simply not that intelligent. Or perhaps it had no mind at all, and was simply an automaton driven by Rhames’s sorcery.

  The seset-kadahn threw off Caina, and Kylon and Corvalis attacked.

  ###

  “I…I don’t know,” said Claudia, stalling for time “I…I just have to think it over. It’s…so much. So many lives, so much responsibility…”

  She rambled on, keeping her eyes fixed on Rhames and fighting the temptation to see what Caina and Corvalis were doing. She had to keep Rhames’s attention focused upon her, keep him from noticing whatever Caina intended.

  Rhames’s undead face displayed no expression, but she suspected that the Great Necromancer was growing impatient.

  “But…my family, my friends,” said Claudia. “I don’t think I feel that…”

  “Enough,” said Rhames. “I offer you purpose, order, and immortality, and you fret over such meaningless quibbles. Perhaps you are not worthy after all. Decide now. I…”

  He titled his head to the side and turned.

  Caina, Corvalis, and Kylon circled around the seset-kadahn, darting in and out of the hulking warrior’s reach. The undead thing was faster and stronger than a normal man, but even a seset-kadahn could not be everywhere at once. Claudia watched as Caina and the others carved wound after wound into the creature’s scarred hide, opening new gashes as the old ones disappeared.

  But what were they doing? They couldn’t hope to wear down the seset-kadahn. Their own strength would fail long before the undead warrior faltered.

  Rhames’s shriveled fingers tightened against the Ascendant Bloodcrystal, and the Great Necromancer hissed in fury. “Fool.”

  “But I haven’t…” said Claudia, and then she realized that Rhames was talking to himself.

  “An egregious oversight,” said Rhames. “She is a clever woman, yes, but utterly lacking in arcane talent. She couldn’t possibly threaten me…and yet she does. At the very brink of defeat, she dares to make a final throw. But even in threat there is opportunity.” He turned back to Claudia. “We shall see, right now, if you are worthy of serving the Kingdom of the Rising Sun or not. Watch as I kill your friends for the greater good. If you are strong enough to endure this sight, then you are worthy of serving me.”

  He pointed the Ascendant Bloodcrystal at the melee, its tip brightening with emerald flame.

  ###

  Caina was almost out of time.

  She and Corvalis and Kylon had managed to hold their own against the seset-kadahn, landing hit after hit while avoiding the undead warrior’s khopesh. But they could not keep up his pace forever. Every inch of Caina’s body ached and throbbed from her exertions and the shock of the explosion, and if she lived through this she would be black and blue with bruises. Corvalis had begun to slow, his chest rising and falling with his ragged breathing. Kylon remained a blur of white frost, but even his sorcerous strength could not last forever.

  All it would take was for her to stumble, and then the seset-kadahn would have her. Or for Corvalis to trip or Kylon to stumble over a broken piece of stone.

  She had to find a way to knock the creature down, to hold it pinned in place as she cut open its torso. So as it stayed on its feet, she could not get it to hold still long enough to make an effective cut.

  Kylon leaped past her, slashing at the seset-kadahn’s chest. His cut arced up, carving a frozen gash along the creature’s chest and shoulders. The tip of his sword bounced off the serene bronze mask with a deep clang, frost spreading over both the mask and the helmet. Kylon landed and turned, his sword stabbing at the seset-kadahn’s legs.

  But Caina stood frozen, staring at the creature.

  At the mask and helmet covering its head.

  The clang Kylon’s sword had made against the mask played again in her head.

  The hollow clang.

  “It’s behind the mask!” said Caina. “The jar! It’s in the helmet. Get the helmet off!”

  She lifted her dagger and felt a tremendous surge of arcane power from the center of the chamber. Caina turned her head and saw Rhames standing atop the dais, pointing the Ascendant Bloodcrystal at them.

  He had realized his danger.

  The crystal blazed with enough power to kill a thousand people in a heartbeat. Certainly it would have no trouble killing Caina and Corvalis and Kylon.

  She wanted to scream in frustration.

  They had come so close.

  ###

  Claudia sensed the gathering force as Rhames drew on the Ascendant Bloodcrystal’s might, weaving a spell that would kill Caina and the others and likely blast half the basilica to molten slag.

  A spell that would kill Corvalis.

  “No!” said Claudia, flinging every last bit of arcane force she could muster into a hammer of psychokinetic force, a blast of invisible power that could have crushed a man’s skull.

  Rhames’s wards turned the attack aside without difficulty, his robes rustling as if in a gentle breeze.

  The Great Necromancer spun towards her in fury, free hand raised, and suddenly Claudia could not move, could not speak. She felt herself floating into the air as Jadriga had, Rhames’s power wrapping around her like a fist of iron.

  “You dare!” he screamed. “I offer you immortality and honor, and you strike at me? You are no better than the great abomination herself! Share her fate!”

  The iron grip closer tighter around her, and Claudia would have screamed, had she still possessed the power.

  ###

  Kylon sprinted forwar
d. His head ached from the sorcerous power he had channeled, and he felt his strength ebb. The sorcery of water gave him superhuman strength and endurance, but his body had limits, and he was reaching them.

  But that did not matter. If they did not smash the canopic jar, Rhames would destroy the world.

  And Thalastre would never awaken from her sleep.

  Kylon sprang into the air, sword in both hands, and swung with all his might.

  His blade crashed into the bronze mask with crushing force. The helmet fell away with a clang. The mask slid forward, bouncing off the seset-kadahn’s muscled chest.

  And behind that mask Kylon saw not a face but a jar of gleaming white marble, its surface carved with dozens of intricate Maatish hieroglyphs.

  He had realized the seset-kadahn did not need internal organs…but it had never occurred to him that creature had no need of a head at all.

  The jar fell from the twisted stump of its neck, and the seset-kadahn’s free hand slammed into Kylon’s chest. The power of the blow hurled him backwards, and he landed on the collapsed balcony, a wooden table shattering beneath him.

  His head struck something hard, and everything went dark.

  ###

  The white stone jar rolled across the black floor.

  Rhames turned to face Claudia, his enraged voice echoing through the ruined Chamber of Ascension. Caina threw herself after the rolling jar and caught it with her free hand. The thing was heavy, at least twenty pounds, and throbbed with potent sorcery beneath her gloved fingers.

  Caina jammed her ghostsilver dagger beneath the lid and popped it off. A dusty stench filled her nostrils, and within the jar she saw a lump of flesh wrapped in ancient, hardened bandages, mighty sorcery radiating from it.

  The heart of Rhames.

  The seset-kadahn raced after her, untroubled by its lack of head, and raised its khopesh high.

  Caina plunged her ghostsilver dagger into the mummified heart.

  ###

  The pressure holding Claudia vanished, and she fell to her knees, coughing and gagging. Maena did the same, red hair falling in a tangle around her face.

  “No!” said Rhames. “Stop!”

  Green lighting crackled up and down his frame, and he began to jerk and twitch, like a puppet controlled by a drunkard.

  Claudia pushed against the floor to stand. Instead she flopped upon her back, darkness swallowing her.

  ###

  The seset-kadahn froze, green lighting coiling around it.

  Caina drove the dagger deeper into the mummified heart. It was like pushing the blade through a sheet of thick leather. The dagger glowed white, excruciatingly hot against her fingers, and the heart smoked and sizzled with green flames.

  Corvalis stared at the seset-kadahn, his sword and dagger ready.

  “Stop!” shouted Rhames, staggering towards her like a drunken man, the bloodcrystal still clutched in his grasp. “Stop at once! I command it, I am a Great Necromancer of Maat, I command…”

  “Rhames!” said Caina. “Horemb the scribe sends his regards.”

  Caina saw the horrified twitch go over the undead face, and she threw herself against the dagger’s hilt, all her strength and weight driving the blade.

  The heart flared once with green fire, and then crumbled into dust.

  Rhames threw back his head and screamed, pale emerald flame erupting from his face and hands. The fire burned through him, his leathery skin turning to dust, his bones turning to charcoal. The last Great Necromancer of Maat collapsed into a pile of smoldering coals.

  The Ascendant Bloodcrystal rolled away from his ashes and came to a stop against the steps of the dais.

  The seset-kadahn took one more step, fell over, and did not move again.

  Caina let out a long, shuddering breath.

  Boots scraped against broken stone as Corvalis stepped to her side.

  “Claudia,” said Corvalis. “Do you see where Claudia is?”

  “Over there,” said Caina. Claudia’s blond hair was a gleam among the broken stones of the floor. She could not tell if the former magus was alive or dead. “Go to her. I’ll check on Kylon.”

  But a darker thought came to her. Rhames had killed Jadriga, and likely killed Maena as well.

  So where had Sicarion gone?

  The sudden tingle of a spell washed over Caina.

  She whirled as Maena got to her feet. Her face was cut and bruised, her gown in tatters, her eyes bloodshot and wild. Yet she still had the strength to cast a spell…and grinned as she flung out her hands.

  Invisible force slammed into Caina and threw her across the floor, and she saw Corvalis go tumbling away. She hit the floor, bounced a few times, and rolled, her head spinning. For a moment the ruined basilica swam around her, the green glow from the Ascendant Bloodcrystal shifting as well.

  No. That wasn’t her head. The glow was moving.

  Caina rolled onto her side as Maena scooped up the Ascendant Bloodcrystal and fled for the doors.

  Jadriga was dead, at least for now, and Sicarion must have been killed or crippled in the chaos. There was no one to stop the Moroaica’s rebellious disciple from using the crystal for herself. She would take it to Calvarium, and use it to kill everyone in the town and most of the Caerish provinces.

  Caina pushed against the floor, got to her knees, and then stood. She felt dizzy and lightheaded, but she could stand. She looked around, found Corvalis slumped against a pile of rubble, his clothes wet with blood.

  She took a step towards him, alarmed.

  “Go,” said Corvalis, and he coughed. “I’ll be fine. Go after her. Just give me…give me a minute to catch my breath. Go!”

  Caina nodded and ran after Maena.

  Chapter 28 - Undying

  Caina sprinted out of the ruined basilica and spotted Maena.

  The sorceress half-ran, half stumbled across the plaza, clutching the Ascendant Bloodcrystal in both hands. Caina had feared that she would lose Maena in the nighttime gloom of Caer Magia, but she needn’t have worried. The bloodcrystal still shone in Maena’s hands, the hieroglyphs glimmering with emerald light. And Caina felt the power radiating from the thing.

  Maena could not hide, not while she carried the crystal.

  Caina ran, slipping a throwing knife into her free hand. Maena had discarded her boots for greater speed, but to judge from the way she stumbled and winced, had no experience running in bare feet. The throwing knife felt cold and heavy in Caina’s hand, the aching muscles in her arm coiling as she prepared to throw…

  Maena spun and lifted one hand from the crystal, and Caina flung the knife.

  Her aim was off, but the blade clipped Maena on the shoulder, and the sorceress screamed. Caina felt a faint flicker of power as Maena finished her spell, and invisible force slammed into Caina, shoving her to the ground. Caina landed hard, all the breath bursting from her lungs, but Maena had not hit her nearly as hard as Caina expected.

  Maena was at least as exhausted as Caina.

  She got to her feet as Maena vanished into one of the houses damaged by the Moroaica’s spells. No doubt she hoped to duplicate Caina’s earlier tactic and escape over the rooftops. Caina followed at a limping run, climbing over a shattered door and into a ruined entry hall. The house had once been a fine townhouse, five stories tall, likely the home of a master magus. Now it lay mantled in dust, and Jadriga’s spells had ripped gaping holes in the walls.

  The only light came from the holes in the walls, and Caina saw no trace of the Ascendant Bloodcrystal’s green glow. Maena must have covered it.

  Yet she still felt the crystal’s power, somewhere over her head.

  Caina glided forward, her footsteps making no sound. Maena might have had a clever reason for fleeing to the ruined house. Caina was the only one still capable of pursuing her. If she set an ambush and killed Caina, Maena could escape to use the bloodcrystal.

  Stairs rose to the house’s second level. Caina went up one step at a time, weapons ready, her ear
s straining for any noise.

  The house’s second level must have been a ballroom or a dining hall. Jadriga’s power had ripped away most of the wall, providing a view of the damaged street below. Pieces of ruined furniture lay strewn about the room, throwing crazy shadows in every direction.

  The Ascendant Bloodcrystal was here.

  “No!”

  It was Maena’s voice. Caina stiffened, seeking the attack, but sensed no spells.

  “Sicarion, damn you!” shouted Maena. “Damn you!”

  Caina turned, seeking, and a flare of green light washed over the ballroom.

  Maena stood near the ruined windows, the Ascendant Bloodcrystal in her hands. Her face was a mask of furious rage, her eyes darting back and forth as they reflected the bloodcrystal’s glow. She was alone, and Caina could not see Sicarion anywhere.

  But that meant nothing. Sicarion was a master of stealth, and he could also use a spell to conceal his presence, a spell Caina might not sense through the bloodcrystal’s aura.

  It could be a trap. But Caina could not let Maena get away.

  She took a deep breath and flung another throwing knife with all her strength.

  The blade caught Maena in the side of her belly, and the sorceress rocked back with a scream. Caina threw another knife, the blade sinking into Maena’s thigh. Maena groaned, and Caina raced forward. She threw herself into Maena and knocked the younger woman to the ground. The bloodcrystal bounced from her grasp, and her hands locked around Caina’s wrists, stopping the ghostsilver dagger from reaching her heart.

  Caina strained, and Maena’s eyes widened. Even exhausted, she was still stronger than Maena…

  A surge of sorcerous power, and invisible force seized Caina and flung her against the wall. The spell flickered and shuddered, but still held her pinned. Maena stalked forward, blood dripping from her wounds, and yanked a dagger from her belt.