Cathexis: Necromancer's Dagger

by Philip Blood

  “And you’ll keep your end of the bargain?” G’Taklar asked.

  Halvisun nodded his little head.

  G’Taklar took a deep breath and then started telling the lonely Halvisun all about Lindankar’s court, then about his recent trip to Zinterdalin for his first embassy. After they’d talked for over a full bell Ebemoon’s voice suddenly bellowed out.

  “Brains!”

  Halvison’s pipsqueak voice exclaimed, “Vorg change me, just when it was getting interesting. Oh well, I do thank you for your conversation.” Halvisun stood up.

  “Eat your brains, get smarter than Halvisun!” the big head exclaimed.

  The small head sighed in the darkness and said, “I can’t control his voice anymore, so I’d best get going. I’ll go as far as I can get in the opposite direction so that he’ll have a long way to return before he can hunt you. Follow this passage to the river and take the path along the bank...”

  “Kill you!” Ebemoon bellowed.

  “...it will lead to a place out of the caverns. Do hurry; eventually, he will regain control…”

  “Kill, kill, kill!” Ebemoon barked.

  “...and he’s quite worked up.”

  “Good-bye, Halvisun, I wish there was something I could do for you...” G’Taklar said, his voice trailing off.

  “You have, now run, G’Taklar.”

  G’Taklar heard the sound of Halvisun leaving and a moment later he was alone.

  “Get moving G’Taklar, we’re not out of here yet,” Jatar reminded his cousin.

  “No problem, all I need is a map and a light,” G’Taklar replied, sarcastically.

  “Don’t complain, at least you have some time. He could be using your head for a breakfast bowl right now,” Jatar answered.

  “Don’t remind me,” G’Taklar replied, shuddering at the thought, and then said, “Suggestions?”

  “Keep listening for the sounds of flowing water and keep moving fast,” Jatar answered logically.

  “You’re the older and wiser, I follow, master!” G’Taklar replied, dripping sarcasm.

  “Don’t lay it on too thick,” Jatar cautioned.

  “Whatever you say, Halvisun,” G’Taklar responded.

  “Oh, brother,” Jatar complained.

  “Cousin,” G’Taklar corrected.

  At his Shadow fortress, SKartaQ, head of the necromantic council, was visited by a shade. SKartaQ sat at his desk in the Ice Tower, writing down the results of his latest experiment. He was recording the details on a piece of tan parchment with red letters done vertically down the page. He dipped his pen in the bowl of human blood before him and then after a thoughtful pause, he wrote his next three words and the parchment absorbed the blood hungrily.

  A voice broke the silence and SKartaQ looked up calmly from his work.

  “Greetings SKartaQ,” the shade of CAracusS addressed his fellow necromancer.

  “CAracusS, how go our plans in Lindankar?” he asked.

  "Everything went as planned, with one exception. Elizabeth Ardellen escaped with the heir to the Lindankar throne, and all our attempts to apprehend her have met with failure,” he replied.

  SKartaQ absorbed that news for a moment and then said, “She must be stopped, why haven’t you taken care of this?” He demanded with a dark frown stealing over his scarred face.

  CAracusS gave him a quick summary of everything they had done to try and kill Lady Ardellen and capture her son. He finished with the absence of the Darknull.

  "I sent a Darknull Baron after the wounded sorceress and her child, but it has not returned. As impossible as this may sound I have no other option, but to believe that she destroyed the Baron. The only other explanation would be that she reached the Kirnath School and the Darknull is still waiting, but I doubt that is the case, he would have returned by now."

  SKartaQ's frown twisted the scars that made up his face into a new map of pain. "I find this all very disturbing. You better have some plan to handle this, CAracusS."

  The shade nodded and replied, “Our Tchulian merc has a spy within the Kirnath School. The spy is watching for the Sorceress and has orders to kill her and the heir if she shows up, but I don't want to trust this to the Tchulian and his spy, which is why I’m here now. My resources are limited while I play at being Lord Jatar, so I'll need you to convene the council and alert them as to the developments. You must convince them to apply further assets to the destruction of the Sorceress and the heir.

  “I also suggest we postpone the assassination of the traitor, the Tchulian has found another use for our pet Lord. As far as the Tchulian major himself, once he is no longer an asset I will remove him myself,” CAracusS said, finishing his briefing.

  SKartaQ paused a moment in thought and then spoke: “For now, at least, I will do as you request, but RIveK will ask for your soul when she learns of this foul up.”

  “I know, but if she becomes too big of a problem then send her to see me, I can still handle that bitch,” CAracusS claimed.

  “You underestimate her, CAracusS, you have never been able to handle her,” SKartaQ noted.

  The Shade scowled, but refrained from arguing with the council leader. “I’m returning to Jatar’s body now, we’ll speak again at the next Council meeting,” said CAracusS and there was a sick tingling in the air as the rift opened and the projection of the necromancer was gone.

  SKartaQ took out a new piece of parchment, dipped his pen in the blood and started a summons message to the other members of the Necromantic Council.

  G’Taklar arrived at a place where the cavern widened out into a larger space. It was still pitch dark, so he felt around the walls until he discovered the openings of three new passages. As far as he could discern the two left ones angled down slightly and the passage on the right was level.

  “What do you think,” G’Taklar asked Jatar, “the left passage is as good a choice as any.”

  “Wet your finger and hold it up near each passage opening, see if you feel any wind,” Jatar advised.

  After doing as asked G’Taklar reported, “My finger feels a little cooler in the middle passage, but I might be imagining it.”

  Jatar had him take that passage while feeling his way along the right side with his hand.

  “Ho!” G’Taklar exclaimed aloud. He had nearly pitched forward when his left foot came down on nothing. He swayed on the brink waving his arms for balance, but managed to recover; his earlier fall had made him leery of a sudden drop off in these dark passages.

  “I guess this passage was a bad idea, after all, we should go back and try another one.”

  “Wait!” Jatar exclaimed, “Check for wind.”

  G’Taklar wet his finger again and held it aloft and then said, “I definitely feel some air movement now, but it won’t do us any good, we can’t continue this direction.”

  “Hold onto your boots! Let’s check this out completely before we give up, something tells me this wind may lead to that river. Find a small rock and toss it down the hole, and then we’ll listen and see what we hear,” Jatar instructed.

  By feeling around the edge of the tunnel G’Taklar found a hand sized rock. Sliding his feet forward carefully he relocated the edge of the pit and dropped his rock. It only fell for an instant before clattering on the rock bottom.

  G’Taklar spoke enthusiastically, “It isn’t deep at all, I hardly let go before it hit.”

  “Good, now lower yourself over the edge and see if you can feel the bottom,” Jatar encouraged G’Taklar.

  G’Taklar lowered his body feet first with his back to the opening and his weight resting on his downturned palms, but he still could not feel the bottom. “What now? I don’t feel like going any further, I’d have to hang from my hands over an endless pit in the dark.”

  “It’s not a bottomless pit, we already discovered that it’s a short drop, but we’re just not sure how short,” Jatar reminded the teenager.

  G’Taklar pulled himself back out of the unknown hole. “The
re is no such thing as a ‘short drop’ when you own the body taking the fall.”

  “Fine, then let me have control of your body, and I’ll do it,” Jatar suggested seriously.

  G’Taklar’s mind immediately felt fear as he remembered childhood stories of Wervorgangling monsters taking over young children’s bodies. The thought of giving complete control of his body to Jatar was terrifying at a deep level in the young man’s psyche.

  “I can’t, Jatar, I just can’t,” G’Taklar whined, “It was bad enough letting you use my arms to undo the locks, but at least I was still in control of my body, so I knew I could take control back anytime I chose. Isn’t it true that if I gave you control of my complete body that you would then be the host, and I would be the rider? You could keep the body no matter what I wanted, right?” G’Taklar demanded.

  “Technically you’re correct, but I wouldn’t ever do that, ‘Tak. I only suggested it so that I could help you overcome your fear of falling in the dark, a fear that is very understandable,” Jatar answered.

  “I know you think you would give it back, what if you changed your mind after you had control? Don’t you agree it would be tempting to have a body again? Then you could resume your life. You could track down the men who did this to you, return to your wife and be there to play with your child as he grows,” G’Taklar embellished.

  “Enough!” Jatar said with pain obvious from the tone of his thought.

  “I’m sorry, Jatar, but I had to talk about those things to show you why I couldn’t let you have control my body,” G’Taklar explained.

  “I agree, those are things my heart aches for, but I still wouldn’t take your body, G’Taklar. As tempting a picture as you painted it still wouldn’t happen, I am not the kind of person that could live with the thought of stealing your body. It would be like murdering someone in cold blood, I just couldn’t do it. And you’re forgetting Elizabeth, she wouldn’t take me that way, and I wouldn’t want my son to grow up knowing that his father stole someone’s body,” he said, trying to reassure his young cousin.

  “I still can’t let you, or anyone, take my body, Jatar, it’s mine. The thought of someone else using it is the most terrifying thing I can imagine, I hope you understand,” G’Taklar said to Jatar.

  “I understand your fear, G’Taklar, but you are wrong about me. I just hope that no situations come up where your choice turns out to be your bane,” Jatar cautioned.

  “Everyone goes through life making their choices; they just hope they make the right ones. I’m only taking the risks that everyone else takes,” G’Taklar pointed out.

  “Yes, but most people aren’t in a situation where every other decision might be a fatal one. Just remember, I have some skills that you do not yet possess, try and take advantage of them,” Jatar instructed his frightened host.

  “I’ll do the best I can, Jatar.”

  “I know you will. Now are you ready to look for the bottom of that crevice?” he asked, now that G’Taklar seemed to be calmer.

  “All right, I’ll extend down, but I’m not going to like it,” the young man said as he moved over to lower himself down into the darkness.

  G’Taklar hung his legs over the emptiness and once again rested his weight on the palms of his hands, his arms locked at the elbows. “I just hope you’re right about this,” he thought to Jatar as worry for his predicament started to rise and eat into his momentary calm.

  “Lower yourself down onto your elbows, you’ll probably find the bottom then,” Jatar suggested.

  “All right, I’m at my elbows and still feel nothing,” G’Taklar responded.

  “Yes, I can feel it with your senses. Try hanging by your hands.”

  With a large intake of breath that communicated his nervousness to Jatar, G’Taklar lowered himself further until he hung straight down; his gripping fingers gave him his only purchase on the rock above. He still could not feel the bottom with his feet.

  His fingers began to slip on the loose gravel on the floor above his head.

  “I’ve had it!” he exclaimed to Jatar, panic making his voice ragged. “The bottom’s too far down, I’m getting out of this hole.” He started to pull himself up and put too much stress on the traction between his fingers and the rock. With a yelp, he lost his grip and fell.

  He landed at the bottom of the crevice about one foot below where his feet had dangled a moment before. His panicked scream cut off abruptly when his feet suddenly impacted the floor.

  Jatar didn’t say anything, but sometimes silence is the worst critic.

  G’Taklar growled aloud, “I know, I know, you told me the bottom was close. I shouldn’t have panicked, but I’m doing the best I can, so would you give me a little rope this time?”

  “I didn’t say a word. I know you’re doing your best, so let’s both forget it and get going before Halvisun and his dim brained sidekick get back on your trail,” Jatar said to get G’Taklar’s mind off his embarrassment.

  G’Taklar got to his feet and carefully felt around the sandy floor and walls of the small crevice. He found two short tunnel openings about four feet high that ran perpendicular to the direction of the passage above. The walls of the new passage were made of a smoother stone, though he stood in fine sand.

  “This is probably a small underground stream when it rains outside and then run off seeps down into these passages,” Jatar guessed.

  “But that means this isn’t the river Halvisun was talking about!”

  “True, but it must lead to that river, small streams tend to run together to form rivers.”

  “Possibly… perhaps I should climb up and continue down the original passage?” G’Taklar mused.

  “I think we should follow this dry stream bed and see where it goes. If it gets too narrow to navigate we can always come back and try the other passage; what do you think?” Jatar asked to make G’Taklar think he was in on the decision as well.

  “I agree, it could lead to the river,” G’Taklar acknowledged, and started down the tunnel in a crouch.

  “We would be better off if you headed downhill ‘Tak,” Jatar suggested as G’Taklar headed in the wrong direction.

  “I was just checking to see if anything was behind us,” G’Taklar replied as he turned around, trying to cover his mistake.

  Jatar let it pass.

  G’Taklar kept one hand along the wall and the other out in front of him to keep from abruptly running into something hard. After a time, he said, “Do you hear that?”

  “Yes, it sounds like flowing water, it’s probably the underground river,” Jatar answered. “But don’t get moving so fast that you fall in, that might be bad.”

  “Believe me, I’ve had enough of underground water,” G’Taklar said in a hoarse voice. The constant fear of Ebemoon catching up in the dark was beginning to wear on his psyche. Jatar could sense his fear getting stronger.

  “You’ll be fine, just remember that this leads to the way out. Take your time and keep listening carefully. The sound of the moving water will keep getting louder so that should tell you when you’re close,” Jatar said to reassure his inexperienced young cousin.

  “And hope I don’t fall in, right?” G’Taklar answered dryly, retreating from his fear by making light of the situation.

  “Hope has nothing to do with it, you must learn to rely on your senses and the information they give you. Just pay attention, you’re doing fine,” Jatar responded, knowing that he would have to keep a close watch on G’Taklar’s fears and emotions if they were to survive the rest of the journey.

  After traveling some distance the sound of water slowly increased in volume. G’Taklar found his fingers getting wet from moisture condensing on the walls of the tunnel as he trailed his fingers along the wall to follow the passage in the dark.

  “Look ahead carefully,” Jatar instructed G’Taklar suddenly.

  “What do you mean look, you mean listen right?” G’Taklar corrected.

  “No, I meant look.”

>   “You’re right, I can sort of make out the tunnel walls ahead! Light must be coming in from a way out!” G’Taklar started to move forward at a faster pace.

  “Hold on, there could be a number of reasons for the light ahead. It could be fire or torch light, so don’t run,” Jatar cautioned.

  G’Taklar’s initial excitement faded at Jatar’s logic, so he continued at a more careful speed. The further they went the better he could see, yet the light was still extremely dim.

  G’Taklar finally spotted a rough shaped round circle of lighter grayness up ahead at the end of this tunnel. Upon reaching the exit he stopped at the edge and looked out.

  His small passage opened onto a much larger tunnel that ran perpendicular to the smaller tributary from which he had approached. The new tunnel was dominated by a river, which was about sixty feet across. The rushing water filled the entire width of the cavern. G’Taklar’s dry tributary stopped twenty feet above the water level. When he looked down he could make out a three-foot-wide path cut into the side of the cavern about fifteen feet below. It followed along the course of the river as far as the young man’s eyes could see in the dim green glow. The light seemed to emanate right out of the walls from no one distinct point.

  “What do you think is making this light?” G’Taklar asked his cousin’s imprint.

  “I’m not sure; it looks like the same dim glow we saw back in the souldead’s cavern. Take a look at the side of the cavern walls,” Jatar asked.

  Leaning out around the edge of his tunnel exit, G’Taklar looked at the rough stone that made up the cavern wall. He touched it and found that some type of moss came off onto his fingers. When he looked closely at the moss it seemed to glow.

  “Some type of light emitting plant, I’ve never seen anything like it,” Jatar noted. “Of course, I haven’t spent much time underground either,” he added.

  “However it works I’m just glad I can see, even if only barely. That constant darkness was starting to get to me. What do you think we should do, follow the river downstream?” G’Taklar asked. His spirits were obviously rising, Jatar could tell by the lighter tone and quicker pace of his voice.