Betrayed: Necromancer's Blight: Book 3

by D. L. Harrison

  If that caused the shadow of war so be it, and if defending the last chance of peace meant urging others to forgive, but watch the Fae warily in the future for treachery, I would do that too. The whole point was to free the necromancers from their horrible fate due to a Nephilim’s error, not to punish a whole race for what their long dead leaders did thousands of years ago.

  It’s too big, too bloody, and had gone on far too long to expect any form of true justice. The only sane thing to do was to stop the cycle of violence. Of course, no one ever accused humanity of being sane. Perhaps it was naïve, but I had to believe we had a chance to make that reality. Otherwise, what was the point? Might as well just grab Serena and run for the tropics. I could open up a surfboard stand, or something.

  Aerelon asked, “Is that your final word on the matter?

  I said, “Yes. Though I would welcome a second counter offer to mine, the first offer you made is off the table. The time for hiding truths is in the past.”

  If I hadn’t been expecting treachery, I’d have died right there. As it was, I felt a sting across my throat as I dove backwards. Damn, those skinny bastards moved fast. As I came back to my feet, I sent a blast of necromantic magic at our attackers. My magic raced at them both, and when it reached their bodies it just fell apart.

  I recognized the feeling, they must have a lot of silver on them, and somehow they were making it work like a power sink, or a lightning rod. My magic wasn’t going to work. I pulled the dagger as I rolled up to my feet and was already dodging left as I slashed out ahead and to the right.

  I didn’t even see it’s arm, but I heard it’s hiss of pain. My right arm started to throb painfully, and I dove to the right, rolled, and popped up. My arm was getting worse, and it didn’t feel like it had been cut. Realization hit me.

  “Drop the dagger Serena,” I said as I threw it at the fae bastard, who easily dodged and laughed.

  I’d forgotten my first lesson. Blood fought the necromancers, the witches enchanted the daggers, but the silver daggers came from the Fae. Humans still had trouble forging silver, it was a pain in the ass to work with, a few thousand years ago humanity wouldn’t have had a chance to make them. Talk about a gift that bites back, my arm still hurt which also meant the Fae magic worked with silver just fine, how else could they make them? It was also a two-edged gift, I bet the fae enchanted them too, it’s just none of us could feel their magic.

  It was obvious in hindsight, to fight the Fae I’d need an iron dagger, and not a silver one of their making. I’d missed what I should have seen sooner.

  Iron didn’t do shit to human magic, but it was the equivalent of Silver to the Fae. Idiot. I was a moron. I really should have thought of this sooner, before I was fighting for my life against two Fae, now I was totally disarmed, my magic didn’t work for shit, and this idiot was fast enough to slit my throat before I knew he was there. Which meant if I stopped moving, or moved too predictably, I was dead.

  I called my wights in a desperate call for help, even though I didn’t think they could do anything as I dove to the right and felt a blade across my shoulder instead of my neck. I could still feel the bond and Serena, but I was terrified my stupidity was going to get her or both of us killed. Dodging was working, but it was only a matter of time, I’d been cut several times now, but not deeply enough to kill.

  Running wouldn’t work, they were too fast.

  I was angry at myself, and at them, but I wasn’t frightened thanks to our shared bond. I think that’s the only reason I wasn’t dead already, as I randomly dove, rolled, and jumped in different directions. Eventually though, my stamina would run out, or the Fae would get lucky and guess my true direction.

  The wights came, and attacked the Fae, the first five just died, as soon as they touched the Fae the magic was sucked out of them. If I survived, I’d have to invite them back. The rest broke for a second, and then disappeared. Shit.

  As I dodged, I blasted the Fae with everything I had, since the shields were worthless anyway, but it didn’t do a damned thing, it was like pouring a thimble of water into a maintenance drain, the power just got sucked down and dissipated.

  One, two, three more slices on my body, and I was starting to breath hard.

  Then my wights came back, and the screaming started. I risked a glance, and then stopped dodging. I looked immediately to Serena, who was cut up, but less than I was. We would heal.

  “Are you okay love?”

  She nodded, and kicked the Fae’s corpse, “I’m just fine.”

  Then she came over and gave me a hug. It stung a bit where her body touched the knife wounds, but I dealt with it.

  “I love you too,” She whispered in my ear. The too confused me for a second, until I realized what I’d just called her. The Fae were lucky she was alright, because I’d have been leading the damned war, not defending peace, if she’d died tonight.

  I grimaced at that thought, how many others would feel that way, when they learned the truth? When they found out they’d lost parents, sisters, brothers, and lovers to a war that should never have happened. The insanity of necromancers could be excused, but the blame for the deaths could be firmly placed at their feet. The Fae of today may not have started it, but they had continued it with the full knowledge of the cost in lives resulting from their lies.

  The Fae, when I looked down at them, were pin cushioned with about forty steal knives. Their eyes were glassy, and empty as they stared up at the uncaring sky. I didn’t give a shit either. I knew wights could carry stuff, but I imagine it took the skills of a Blood to pull this off.

  “Thank you everyone.”

  The wights bowed, and disappeared, they probably went back to their delivery gig. I walked over to the corpses and searched them. The only silver I found was a small amulet on both of them, which as far as I could tell, had no magic at all. It had to though, this wouldn’t block my magic just on its own. I grabbed the other one, and retrieved the silver dagger and stabbed them both. The witch enchantment should still work on their corpses.

  Then we collected the steel throwing daggers. I’d be keeping some of these, unfortunately we had to keep the silver ones too, for the crazy necromancers. Lastly, I sent an invitation back across, and remade the five wights.

  “Let’s go home, we need to plan, and get out what happened over the computer pads.”

  She kissed me, and we went home. Luckily, there were no more surprises…

  Chapter Fourteen

  Timothy was cleaning and dressing my cuts, while Leda got Serena’s. My arm had finally stopped aching, whatever the Fae had been doing to me through the silver dagger had worn off. We were also briefing them on what happened, including all my own conclusions, and that the silver daggers were Judas weapons.

  I concluded, “We need to have every blood armed with a steel dagger, or pure iron if we can find it.”

  Chances were we couldn’t, but ninety seven some odd percent iron seemed to work just fine.

  Leda frowned at me, “I thought we were supposed to defend peace.”

  I nodded, “Here’s how I see it. The Fae are a tricky race, they like to pull the strings, lie, and cause chaos with the rest. The last thing they want to do is fight with us directly, what fun would that be? Except, they aren’t stupid, so they gave us this great gift of their silver daggers, just in case it all comes tumbling down on them one day. All the sudden their facing the entire Blood race, but if it does come to war they’re ready for it, they can make our very weapons betray us.

  “Yes, we want peace, but I don’t think we’ll get it unless we carry a big stick. The Fae won’t back down, unless we prove we’re actually a threat, and right now we aren’t. The Blood’s physical weapons are worthless against them, the witches and necromancers magic is as well, thanks to the amulet I gave you.”

  She sighed, “So you’re saying, we need to stop the shadow of war, because the Fae will actually win?”

  I frowned, “Win? Maybe not, but they will hurt u
s badly in the initial encounters before we can adjust. We need to adjust now to bargain from a position of strength. We also need the witches to figure out how to enchant Iron to do that power sink shit back to them.”

  Leda snorted, “Anything else? I can get the president on the line, or perhaps the queen of England? Wait, there’s a million dollars in my back pocket.”

  I laughed, “I know. But the old axiom is true, it’s best to pursue peace when ready for war, and we aren’t ready. We can’t scare them to the bargaining table if they see us all as weak. At the very least, daggers without their magic in them and that can harm them are necessary. We can do that much, just the Blood foot soldiers. Who knows what the Fae will do though, when they figure out their two assassins are dead. We have no choice but to keep our silver daggers for the necromancers, but if facing the Fae they should be discarded immediately. We’re already set here, though where the wights got forty steel throwing knives on short notice is beyond me.”

  Serena said, “I agree, peace through strength is our only chance. They wouldn’t even haggle with Tom about their terms. We were simply an annoyance, at least until they figure out their messenger assassins are dead.”

  Leda sighed, “Alright, I agree with your arguments, and I’ll have the messages out to all the leaders already online when we’re done here, and by tomorrow they’ll all have it. As far as the witches, I do have something. There was a highly respected witch, probably the most respected in the last thousand years, back in the eighteen hundreds. You can try to invite her, and then convince her to go speak for you. We need to get them on our side first though, as far as being on the same page with the story and the necromancers, before they’ll even talk about Fae enchantments, and making their own on iron.”

  I nodded, “Thing of it is, I’m making a lot of assumptions. I think we need to update the weapons just in case, but it’s still possible the shadow of war is referring to something else. After all, we still haven’t won over the witches, or the Blood leadership. The plans we have for that are good and in motion, but plans get… broken.”

  Serena said, “Maybe, but if it’s something different it will be a split. I don’t see the Fae bending and joining our side.”

  I couldn’t argue with that, but I didn’t want to contemplate the Witches taking the other side, or even a split inside the races…

  I found myself telling the whole story again, of that night’s events to Angelique Durand. Luckily, she’d already heard the story from Sara and other ghosts, and had been intrigued when I’d called her. I didn’t know if this would work, if even this witch of the past could convince the likes of Katherine of the truth, but it was worth the twenty minutes of my time answering her questions.

  She also verified that there was no way for Witches to see Fae magic, but pointed out the reverse was true as well. They had the silver amulets to protect from it, but only because the spell must expand the protective powers of the silver itself. Witches should be able to do something similar using Iron quite easily.

  Of course, the major problem with that is when it came time to fight, it would fall to the Blood and Shifters, if a war did happen. The Witches and first race of Necromancers had no physical prowess like the Blood did. All the Witches would be able to do was support it with spelled iron.

  If of course, she could talk them into believing the truth.

  I made her a wight at her request, it would be the only way for the witches to see or speak to her, and she left.

  Then I kissed Serena until she was breathless, and went to bed filled with doubts. Had I identified the shadow of war? If not, if I’d jumped to conclusions, the witches and Blood would at the least be wasting time and money, but better to be prepared, just in case I was right.

  The bond helped calm me though, the steady pull in Serena’s direction down the hall, and what we had together gave me hope. She was the bright spot in all of this, and who I wanted to share my life with, even if I wasn’t quite ready to ask yet. The fight earlier that night also scared the crap out of me, now that I wasn’t in her presence anymore. I’d almost lost her tonight, almost died myself. I had to remember the goal, saving those like Macy, innocent fourteen year olds, and ones like my father that just needed to be cleansed and bonded. I couldn’t let the fear and anger at the Fae take root, not if I had to defend peace.

  No one would listen to me, if I didn’t believe it myself.

  We had a lot of things going on. Angelique working on the Witches, the Blood as a whole would give our leaders a kick in the ass tomorrow to get them on board. The Fae were a threat that had to be countered if we ever hoped to have peace. Then of course, the whole point of all of this, we had necromancers to save.

  Regardless, it was a lot of stuff, all of which could potentially go very wrong.

  Tomorrow, was another day…

  Afterword:

  I hope you enjoyed this story, if you did please leave a review. Reviews are the lifeblood of independent authors, and I would greatly appreciate any constructive feedback or opinions.

  About the Author: If you have any comments or suggestions you can send me an email at dlharrisonauthor@gmail.com If you like my work, or even if you don’t, please consider leaving a review of this book. I can also be found at https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7456808.D_L_Harrison

  Other books by D. L. Harrison:

  http://www.amazon.com/author/dlharrison

  The Formerly Dark Mage, by D. L. Harrison – This stand-alone fantasy book follows the life of Silvia and takes place in a world unique and separate to our own.

  Silvia is a dark mage. Unfortunately, she finds herself about to be sacrificed. Someone must have told her evil master about her plans to kill him and take over. After that, things just seem to go downhill. She has no choice but to escape the kingdom of Zual, something that to her knowledge has never been done before. She will need to deal with many issues she never had to face before.

  Among those issues, the white mages, and her conscience.

  The Rise of a Dark Mage - This stand-alone fantasy book follows the life of Cassandra, it takes place in the same world as The Formerly Dark Mage, but happens three hundred years later, long after Silvia is gone and some shocking changes have taken place in the world.

  Cassandra is a dark mage in the kingdom of Zual, she’s also a mage prodigy.

  She hates both her kingdom, and her master. She wants him dead, not to take his place, but so she can leave and explore the world. Her ambition will drive her to rediscover the secrets of the strongest of magics.

  She is determined to succeed, or she’ll die trying.

  Celia Winters Novel Series

  Witch’s Moon: A Celia Winters Novel Book 1

  Celia Winters was raised by her single mother, and her earliest memories are of the store her mother owns and the nearby coven, who have always been her family’s close allies and friends.

  She grew up believing her magic was weak, but she was satisfied with her life, and happy. She was a midwife, healer, and supplier of surrounding covens.

  Then her mother died, and she’s about to discover she isn’t who, or what, she believes herself to be, not completely. She will learn that her entire life up until now was a lie. She’ll need to figure out her place, who she is when she no longer recognizes herself, and try to hold on to her closest friends as she gathers enemies for the simple crime of her existence.

  She’s stronger than she believes, but will it be enough?

  Power of Air Series:

  Just a Psychic: The Power of Air Book One starts off this series.

  Ben has grown up with missing memories of his early childhood.

  He has known he was a psychic since his earliest memories, seeing the future and gaining knowledge with his gifts.

  Is it possible he isn't just a psychic?

  Ben's world is about to be turned upside down as he turns twenty-one, all is not as it seems.

  Alicia Jones novels is a series that follows a bright you
ng inventor and scientist named Alicia Jones. It is a space opera and light science fiction.

  The first book is titled First Contact:

  Alicia Jones is a genius, and a little odd. At just twenty-three years of age, she is close to finishing her doctoral dissertation. But when she tests her latest theory in the lab to generate a strong EM field, it has very unanticipated results. Results that lead to faster than light travel, and first contact with another race.

  Her life just gets more complicated after that, when she finds out who she really is, and that the universe may not be as nice a place as she’d been told. Her determination to help keep Earth safe takes her to places more dangerous and strange than she’d ever envisioned.

  Spirit Sorceress series, by D. L. Harrison is a new urban fantasy series. Miku is a spirit sorceress who spent the last one hundred years growing up and learning about her power in the forests near Seattle Washington. She’s about to make her debut in the big city, but not in a way she ever expected.

  The first book is titled Spirit Sorceress:

  Miku is a spirit sorceress who spent her unusually long childhood in the forest away from the city with her mother and father. After tragedy strikes, she finds herself alone and on her own. She knows that one day she’ll need to move to Seattle, and fully accept her birthright, and if necessary finish her training on her own.

  But before she’s ready, and still in grieving, a rogue vampire and his band come along and change everything. She’ll need to learn her new place in the world, and find some allies quick if she’s to survive.

  Katrina Baker Novels, by D. L. Harrison is a new series about a super named Katrina Baker. Problem is, she gets caught up in her mother’s plan, who is a mad scientist and supervillain, and gets herself transported to another world in the multi-verse. A world where mages, witches, clerics, and the gods are real. Not to mention the monsters…