Once Felix was aboard and introductions were made, we set up in the mess hall, as it was the only room on the Night Wisp large enough to comfortably accommodate everyone. Felix recounted his story and finished with, “That’s all I know. I have not seen or heard from Narcion since the attack on the station.”
“The person who wanted you to deliver that warning to Zah’rak: did he look like this?” asked Agent Byron as he produced a picture on a datapad.
“Yep, that is him,” said Felix. “Who is he?”
“We do not know, but he or she keeps showing up and always attempts to break up Narcion’s team,” said Agent Byron.
“Can you show me on the star chart where you woke up?” asked Shira.
“Sure, way out here,” he said and pointed to a section deep within the space that was firmly controlled by the government and well away from the reaches of the various consortiums.
“Strange,” she said.
“How is it strange?” I asked.
“Well, my former master has never reached that far in, or even come close to it,” she said.
“Where was the portal supposed to take him?” asked Ragnar.
“Here,” she said and pointed to a sparsely-populated region of space. “There is a hidden planet near here, in the Siden System; it is lush with forests and wildlife, but has no inhabitants, or none since he purchased me. This is where his fortress is and where he had hoped to trap and kill Narcion.”
“Makes sense,” said Agent Byron. “The first station he attacked was near there, and each one gets successively farther from there.”
“Exactly. He is slowly stretching to see how far he can reach,” she said.
“To what end? What is he reaching for?” I asked.
“Spirits; living spirits. He is trying to come back from the dead, and to do that he needs life energy,” she said. “The typical plan was simple: I arrived at a station and opened a gate through which he sent the collectors. The collectors sucked the life force, the spirit, out of all the people on the station and brought it back to him. Once they were finished, the wraiths were sent in to animate the dead and kill anyone remaining. It was my job to make sure that no clue to our motive was left behind. Once all the spirits had been harvested, I gated off to a waiting transport and headed to the next station.”
“What do you mean ‘come back from the dead’? Can he really do that?” I asked. We had not encountered any collectors in any of our missions, but Narcion had taught me about them. I wondered if this necromancer pulled them out before we arrived to make sure his plans were not discovered.
“He is not really dead, but trapped in the Realm of the Dead. He is old, very old; far older than anything I could name. Somehow he has cheated death by hiding in the Realm of the Dead and is now trying to come back. If he can gather enough life force he will be able to do it, and then there will be no one in this sector who can stand up to him, except maybe Narcion,” she said.
“Realm of the Dead?” asked Ragnar. “Do you mean the Spirit Realm?”
“Maybe; I know it only as the ‘Realm of the Dead’,” she said.
“If he is so powerful, why did he need you at all?” I asked.
“Because he needs someone to work through, someone in this realm. He has only enough power to exert himself to a small extent here,” she said.
“How do we take him down?” I asked.
“In a direct fight, I doubt if we could; but we can cut off his supply of power. If we do that, he will be cut off from this world, at least temporarily,” she said.
“If Narcion can kill him, then it might be better to let him come back and help Narcion fight him,” suggested Agent Byron.
“No!” cut in Ragnar. “You have not yet lived through a necromancer battle. Even if Narcion wins, this entire region would be destroyed by the battle. Our best chance is to keep him out of this realm.”
“I see,” said Agent Byron. “Can we go to where he is, then, and kill him there? Assuming we find Narcion, that is.”
“We would be assaulted the moment we arrived by an almost infinite number of enemies, and when we die, we would be trapped in that prison for all eternity. Shira is right: the best plan is to cut off his supply and trap him there,” said Ragnar.
“How do we do that?” I asked. It was bad enough dealing with the dead in this realm; I could not imagine the thought of living with them for all eternity in their realm.
“He uses an artifact to interact with this world. If we destroy that, he will lose his connection,” she said.
“What is this artifact?” asked Ragnar.
“A stone table with six legs, each representing a mythical creature of some kind. The center of the table is a pool of some viscous, silver liquid,” she replied.
Ragnar looked very concerned. “Have you seen this table yourself?”
“Yes. Many times,” she said.
“What is wrong?” I asked.
“I don’t like the way things are beginning to look,” said Ragnar. “Shira, what else can you tell us?”
“I know he has no fear of any of you. Only Narcion concerned him, but even he did not frighten him; he was confident he could beat Narcion once he was back to full strength. The only one he seemed to be concerned about was someone he kept referring to as ‘the grandmaster,’ but I don’t know who that is,” she said.
“Grandmaster Vydor?” asked Ragnar.
“I don’t know. He never used a name, just ‘grandmaster’,” she said.
“You said he is old. How old?” asked Ragnar.
“I don’t know exactly, but you get a feeling of ancientness when you are around him. The weight of centuries … millennia … I can’t really say; all I know is that he radiates a strong sense of age,” she said.
“So we get Byron here to call in the fleet and blast his fortress to smithereens. Right?” asked Felix.
“No!” said Shira and Ragnar at the same time.
“The moment that fleet is in range, he will send out his collectors and harvest them all. That will greatly speed up his return,” said Shira.
“Then I suppose I should make Shira and Felix some armor, and we storm the castle?” I asked. I was becoming a regular tailor, it seemed.
“Yes, I am afraid so, but we will need better armor,” said Ragnar. “Crivreen crafted his first wand successfully yesterday. My suggestion is that both Crivreen and Felix work on creating as many wands as they can to supplement our swords, and you start improving our armor. Once we are ready, we will have to sneak into the fortress and attempt to destroy the table. It will be extremely dangerous, and it is almost a certainty that we will not all make it back alive,” said Ragnar.
“What do you mean by: ‘improving our armor’?” I asked.
“You enchanted the armor with leather. Leather is a force multiplier that takes all the traits of the armor and makes them stronger. I suggest you add a layer of cotton and stitch that layer with spider silk. The cotton will add life to the armor, which will increase the vitality of the wearer and has the convenient side effect of increasing its protection against the dead. Spider silk has binding properties which will make both the leather and cotton more effective; it will bind them to the armor better than the thread you are using now,” he said.
“What other materials should I consider?” I asked.
“I do not know if any others work for enchanting armor. My knowledge of the subject is quite limited, but I do know that leather, cotton, and spider silk is the preferred combination for armor,” he said.
“I have no idea where we could find such supplies,” I objected.
“Leave that to me,” said Agent Byron. “I have hundreds of agents all over the region. If it can be found, we will find it. I assume we want to keep this purchase as quiet as possible?”
“Yes. The less we tip our hand, the better,” said Ragnar.
“Assuming we get into the castle, how do we destroy the table?” as
ked Crivreen.
“I don’t know,” said Shira.
“Artifacts are strong, but not invulnerable. From what you told me of your weapons, I am sure we can make something equivalent, perhaps, to a dozen or so of the explosive runes you saw me use,” said Ragnar.
“Yeah, I can do that. Narcion has plenty of explosives; I can rig something up. We will just need to place it on the table and run,” he said.
“Well, a remote detonator would be nice,” I said.
“If you can get the explosives placed, I can gate us all to safety,” said Shira.
“This sounds like a dangerous plan. Is that the only way?” I asked.
“Yes, I believe so,” said Ragnar.
“How long will it take to gather the supplies we need?” I asked.
“Well, natural spider silk and cotton will be pretty hard to find quietly, since they are fairly rare. I would expect several weeks before I can get the first shipment out here,” said Agent Byron.
“I have enough branches to get started on the wands, but only enough to make a couple for each of us, assuming no more mistakes. That leaves none for Felix, though,” said Crivreen.
“I can get you more branches, too, but what are wands?” asked Agent Byron.
“A magus can cast spells into a natural wood stick and then release them later with a command. So my wands will hold lightning bolts and Felix can make fire bolt wands. Since the power is stored in the wand ahead of time, it takes no energy to use the wands, and they have a nearly instantaneous casting time. Essentially, it is the magi equivalent of a blaster,” said Crivreen.
“The only real drawback is that only a magus can use them,” said Ragnar.
“Byron, please start your team gathering supplies. Sounds like we have a good month, maybe two, of preparation before we can attack. Shira, how likely is it that he will attack another station in that time, without your assistance?” I asked.
“Not very likely, I believe. He will have to find a new person here to help him before he can attack, and that will use up some of his power. He will probably fall back and wait for our next move. He assumes Narcion is out there getting ready to attack him, so he will consolidate his power base,” said Shira.
“Do you think he suspects we will come?” I asked.
“He assumes you are all still working with Narcion, so he expects you will arrive with Narcion when the time comes,” she said.
I wanted to wait for Narcion to return, but if this necromancer got stronger with time, that would not be wise. Narcion would want me to go ahead and take down the necromancer, so that was what we were going to do. “Okay, unless anyone has a better plan, I think we all have our marching orders.”
Chapter Forty-Four
While Zah’rak and the others were preparing for their showdown with the necromancer, Narcion stood on a hill overlooking an old decrepit castle. Around it was a thick lush forest, but the trees closest to the castle were dead and petrified. Nothing stirred anywhere near the castle, although the rest of the forest was filled with life.
Next to Narcion stood the yellow-eyed stranger who had warned everyone not to allow Narcion to continue. “I can’t believe we are actually here,” said the yellow-eyed stranger. She pulled her hood back and revealed long, thick and straight brown hair tied back in a sensible ponytail. Her face spoke of a long life of struggle and hardship, but her natural beauty was undiminished.
“Now that you have returned to my side, Raquel, I can believe anything,” responded Narcion. “But soon this will all be over.”
“There are other tables, you know,” said Raquel. “They copied your design.”
“Yes, but even as we stand here the Wizard’s Council is discovering the tables and preparing to destroy them,” said Narcion.
“Then let’s leave it to them. We can depart this realm and start a new life somewhere else,” pleaded Raquel.
“No,” replied Narcion. “I created this. I am responsible, and I must make it right.”
“That Narcion is long dead; let him stay that way,” said Raquel. She was obviously concerned about something, something that seemed to shake her to the core.
“Like the necromancer on the other side of that table, that Narcion is fighting to come back from the grave. It must end here,” said Narcion. “Otherwise I will spend the rest of eternity fighting that Narcion and paying for his actions.”
They stood in silence for a while, staring at the castle. The sun slowly set behind them, creating long shadows, which added to the gravity of the moment.
“Then I will stand by you and see this through. I am as guilty as you are,” said Raquel.
“If I fall, promise me you will find Grandmaster Vydor and tell him everything. He must prepare for the dangers that yet lie sleeping,” said Narcion.
“I won’t let you fall,” she said.
“When I fall, it will not be your choice,” he said.
“What do you mean?” asked Raquel.
“Just what I said. Now, Zah’rak and his team are getting close and we have much to do to prepare,” said Narcion.
“Yes, but I think we will need to visit Korshalemia to get what we need. They have not yet reached that level of progress here,” said Raquel. “We must be careful not to be seen by their wizards; that could complicate matters.”
Narcion nodded, and Raquel cast a spell to open a gate. Narcion took one last look at the castle and then they both walked through the gate. Behind where they had stood on the hilltop, Grandmaster Vydor stepped out of the shadows and smiled. “God be with you, Narcion and Raquel,” he said quietly to the closing gate and vanished.
~~~
It took two months for us to prepare for the assault on the necromancer’s castle. During that time, I crafted armor, and Felix and Crivreen made wands. Shira returned to full strength and spent a lot of time answering endless questions that Agent Byron tossed her way. After a while, I realized he was gently interrogating her, probably without her knowledge. She did not seem to mind it, and it kept him from bugging me about it, so I said nothing.
Ragnar asked Agent Byron to get him some gems and other stones, which he crafted into runes. Much like the wands that Felix and Crivreen were making, he stored power in the runes that he could call up in battle. There was a very large range of runes he could make, but apparently he could only work magic through the use of the runes. His spell would consume the rune in casting and use some of his power, so it was not quite the same as using a wand, but it did have similarities. He told me that rune-casting gave him a much larger variety of spells than most magi, but each spell was weaker.
“Zah’rak, we will be landing in about two minutes,” said Crivreen.
When we had landed I said, “All right, everyone; just a reminder. The plan is simple. The necromancer is using an old castle as his base. Several of the walls have gaps in them that you should be able to slip through unnoticed. We will split into three groups. Ragnar and Byron will sneak in from the left, while Crivreen and Felix approach from the right. Your goal is simple: to get your explosives to the table and get out without being seen. Shira and I will charge the front gate; we will make as big an entrance as we can and attempt to draw his focus. Once you get your explosives planted she will gate us out, and we will all fall back to the Night Wisp. Any final questions or thoughts?”
“One thing: whatever you do, no matter what happens, do not remove any piece of your armor. If you do, a collector can get in and steal your spirit. A magus’ spirit is many times more powerful than a mundane’s. He will come for it the very instant he sees an opening,” said Shira.
“We must also remember our goal, which is that everyone makes it out alive and that the table is destroyed. No heroics, just stay on target,” said Ragnar.
“Agreed,” I said. “Anyone else? No? Then let’s move out,” I said. Once everyone was off the Night Wisp it would fly back to orbit on autopilot where it wouldn’t draw undue attention.
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It happened to be after nightfall when we landed, but Shira assured us that would be no obstacle to the necromancer’s vision. Still, we all did our best to blend in and move quietly through the woods towards the main gate. Shira and I left first, and the other two groups left sometime after us. I had my doubts that we would fool such a powerful magus, but having a plan that sounded good helped keep everyone focused.
Shira’s short legs made slow work of our travel through the woods, and several times I wanted to scoop her up and put her on my shoulder, but I figured that would be inappropriate so I refrained. We walked for a couple of hours from where we had landed until we reached the entrance to the fortress. From our hiding point at the edge of the forest we could tell it was locked securely. “There it is. We just need to wait till the others are in position and I will blast the door.”
“I’m with you,” said Shira.
“You sure you’re up for this?” I asked.
“You couldn’t stop me, at this point,” she said with an evil smile. There was something dark in her eyes. I remembered how she had looked when she’d said she wanted to see the necromancer burn, and I thought about the many nights I had heard her screaming in her quarters as she slept. I knew it would be a long time, if ever, before she would be free of those nightmares. I wondered if I was doing the right thing by trusting her; her quest for vengeance could easily jeopardize the mission.
It was too late now to worry about that, so I pulled out my heavy artillery and started to set it up. It was too big and bulky to be of use once we began our charge, but from where we were hiding it should easily blow a large hole through the door and let us in.
From behind me came a familiar voice. “My brother, well done to find this place!”
“Narcion!” I said.
“Yes, brother, it’s me,” he said.
I turned and saw him behind me, with that stranger with the yellow eyes. “What happened? Where have you been?”
The Sac'a'rith Page 30