The Dark Path

by James M. Bowers

  "I have heard nothing of this. Though your friend must have assaulted them or broken the law of magic use for them to have attacked him. Is that all?”

  Gen nodded. "Thank you for your time. I apologize, but I must take my friend to his home. Please do not get in my way." With that said, Gen stood up and walked for the door.

  "Stop him!" the commander ordered. The young officer jumped up and followed Gen out the door. He caught up to him half way across the path.

  "Please Sir. I beg you. Do not make me stop you," the officer said in Eremian. Gen stopped and turned to face him.

  "You have been kind and polite. I know you would make a good commander. You have choices to make here. I will enter the Schola. You can try to stop me, but know that every man that stands in my way, I will kill without mercy. You can tell your commander that." Gen bowed to the officer then turned back around and entered the tent where they had taken Thomas. The officer stood outside for a moment and hung his head. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He had made up his mind. He ran back into his commander's tent. The commander had stood up and put his helm on. The young officer came to a stop and stood silent for a moment.

  "What is it, Peleus? Did you stop him?"

  Peleus bowed down on one knee before his commander. "I beg you Sir. Let him and his friend pass. If you try and stop him, we will all die." He remained bowed with his head down.

  "What is this nonsense! They are two men, one of them injured! We have our orders!"

  "I know the man in black, Sir. I saw him in Artoria." He remained bowed.

  "Then who is it? A friend of yours? This is beneath you Peleus!"

  "He is the Nameless Necromancer, Sir. I saw him on the battlefield once in Artoria. I watched him send his hoards of undead to rip, kill, and slaughter our men. I beg you. Let him pass." At this, Peleus looked up at his commander. The commander's face went pale. He stood still a moment and removed his helm. Then he set his jaw and walked past Peleus and out the tent. Peleus moved so that he was on both knees. Tears ran down his cheeks. He clasped his hands together and prayed to his gods for mercy.

  Outside, Gen had retrieved Thomas and they were walking slowly towards the gate. The commander came barging out of the tent, and thrusting the helm back upon his head, he pointed at Gen.

  "Stop those men!" he ordered. Two soldiers shot to attention and ran over to stand before Gen and Thomas.

  "Know this! Any man that tries to stop me or my friend will die," Gen said with that cold fire in his eyes and a deathly chill to his voice. The two soldiers before him stopped. One of them was the man that had been shaking earlier. He was definitely shaking now, the point of his gladius dancing all around. The man beside him was scared as well. Gen kept walking towards them at Thomas' slow pace. When he got within striking distance Gen stopped. "Move aside boys, and you will live." The one on the left that was shaking horribly suddenly screamed and ran. The other man set his jaw and stood up straighter. "I have my orders." He said.

  "So be it." Gen's hand went to his cane and faster than anyone there could see. He drew the blade and cut the man from the middle of his jaw up through the top of his skull and placed it back in the scabbard. Then he started walking again. The soldier had seen the flash of movement but didn't know what had happened. He opened his mouth to shout for the man to stop and pain shot through him. His jaw separated along the cut and his head slid sickeningly apart. It didn't fall in half, just slid a bit out of place along the cut. The man's eyes rolled back and his limp body hit the ground. The commander took a step back. What the hell was that? He wasn't even able to see the man attack. Had he cast a spell? He felt his fear and grew angry at himself.

  "Stop those men!" he shouted as loud as he could. "Where's that priest? You! Go fetch the priest." The soldier he had addressed ran off into the middle of camp. Finally his men were coming to attention. A group of five came running up and stood before Gen and Thomas. The two on the ends of the row carried spears, which they pointed at Gen.

  "You won't let me leave quietly, will you?" Gen asked as he turned to look at the commander. "You will order every one of your men to their deaths?"

  "You will be the one to die! Kill him!" the commander shouted. His face grew bright red with fury.

  "Thomas, if you have the strength, protect yourself. This is going to get messy," Gen said quietly. He then turned to the five men before him and attacked. First he performed a lightning quick draw cut on the spearman to his left, then followed that with a downward stroke through the chest of the man to the right of him. The man in the center began a slow stab to where he had been. Gen ducked easily under it and cut him in half as he rose back up. He made a horizontal cut across the throat of the fourth man and thrust through armor, between ribs, and into the heart of the fifth man. He drew his blade back out of the man. Flipping it around quickly, he flicked the blood off of the blade and thrust it back in his scabbard. When the handle clicked into place, all five men fell dead at the same time.

  The commander couldn't believe his eyes. Who was this devil! It couldn't be who Peleus said it was. Why would that man come here? Anyway, that man was a necromancer. A weak twisted man that used magic and the undead to do his killing for him. Gen looked back at Thomas to see tears running down his friend's cheeks. He only nodded and began walking forward again, stepping over the corpses that were still spewing blood upon the ground. He walked on toward the gate. Two more soldiers came from the tents and stood before him. Then they looked behind Gen and saw the bodies. One of them leaned over and vomited right on the spot. The other one stood his ground. He looked to be in his early thirties. He drew his gladius and stood ready. Gen walked slowly up to the two soldiers and stopped.

  "Step aside, or I will kill you," Gen stated calmly.

  "If I step aside, my commander will kill me. I'm dead either way so I may as well die with honor." The soldier looked back at Gen sadly. Gen bowed slightly to the man then drew his blade. It was still as black as void and beyond razor sharp. Gen held it lightly in his right hand. He held the scabbard in the other. He motioned for the soldier to attack. The older soldier nodded and slowly closed the gap between them. He quickly thrust for Gen's chest. Gen quickly parried the attack and brought the scabbard around lightning quick and cracked it into the soldier's neck. The soldier stepped back choking on his own adam's apple. He dropped his gladius and grabbed for his neck. Gen brought his blade around and severed the mans head from his neck. He sighed sadly and then turned to the younger soldier who was vomiting anew now that his older companion was spraying his life blood all over him. Gen flipped his blade over and brought it down on the back of the young soldiers head. He fell unconscious instantly. Gen flipped the blade back over and resumed walking to the gate once more, Thomas right behind him. Thomas had tears running down his cheeks. What had happened to Gen? He killed so easily! He didn't seem to enjoy it, true, but he was so good at it! What had his friend been through these past seven years? Now he was, in a way, afraid to find out. The commander, meanwhile, was furious. He ran toward Gen and easily caught up to the slow moving mages. He placed his large frame between them and the gate.

  "You will go no further!" the commander shouted. His face was blood red with rage and his eyes carried the fire of threatened pride. Gen squinted his eyes a bit and put his sword back in his sheath.

  "Move aside or you will die very painfully," Gen said softly. His voice had been low but it carried through the encampment.

  The commander's fury only grew. He started to scream a battle cry. Gen brought up his hand and chanted four arcane words. Thomas winced at the sound and had to quell the bile that rose into his throat. The commander's scream of rage instantly turned to one of excruciating pain. The man fell to his hands and knees in the dirt and continued screaming. Moments later, the cause of his torment became clear. The man's bones were growing spikes that pierced through his skin. They ripped through his entire body and suddenly the man's scream was silenced. His eyes became the glassy s
tare of the dead and he fell over. Gen looked up to the soldier to his left that stood in horror watching. Then he spoke.

  "Learn from this foolish man's mistakes. Follow your orders yes, but when someone comes to you asking only for aid, relent. Now no more of you stand in my way or I will not stop till you are all members of my army!" This last bit he shouted roughly, his cold voice like a dagger through everyone's chest. Then he put his arm over Thomas' shoulder and helped him walk on to the gates. When they were no more than fifteen feet from the gate, a pillar of fire rose from the ground, roared high above their heads, then went out to reveal a priest standing there. He wore robes of blood red trimmed in gold. He had the dark hair of an Eremian but it was left long. In his hands, he held a war staff. He looked around at the bodies on the ground then nodded and raised his hands and began to chant a spell. Gen pushed Thomas, gently but forcefully away, then held his hands aloft as well. A second great pillar of fire rose from the feet of the priest then shot straight for Gen. Gen stood motionless and the flames wrapped around him. The fire seemed to go on and on. Finally the flames died and the priest leaned heavily upon his staff. When the smoke cleared Gen still stood where he had. His robes were smoking but otherwise he was unharmed.

  "Is that all you have? I thought your god more powerful than that!"

  "You will die from his great wrath!" the priest shouted once more and started to raise the staff to strike. He froze in place, a mixture of fear and panic upon his face, as Gen's counterspell took effect. Gen began chanting and slowly the sky grew dark. The ground underneath Gen seemed to disappear to be replaced by a void of pure black. He continued chanting and the darkness flowed from the void to spiral around him. The dark void lashed out with four tentacles of black energy and wrapped around each limb of the priest. They pulled slowly in four different directions and the priest screamed in horrible pain as his limbs were ripped from his torso. Gen's chanting changed and the priest's soul drifted, wraith-like, from his maimed body. The soul screamed in an agony unknown to the living and floated down into the void. The dark portal slowly closed and Gen lowered his arms. The entire camp was silent. Around thirty soldiers had gathered but had stood in place when the battle between the priest and the dark mage had began. Thomas looked at his old friend in fear. Who was this man? Could Gen really have just done that? What type of spell could do that to a man, let alone a priest? Gen turned and looked back at the Eremian soldiers.

  "You will all pick up camp and leave within the hour. If any of you remain after that time, I will show no mercy." He then turned and looked at Thomas. His eyes went from the burning hatred to a sorrow deeper than any Thomas had ever seen. "Let us go."

  No one else tried to stop them and when they reached the gates, they opened enough to let them in. They entered and the gate slammed shut with a resounding boom of finality.

  XXI

  Confessions

  Inside the walls, the whole school was quiet. It looked exactly as Gen had remembered it. Gen helped Thomas walk toward the healer's building. Thomas looked very pale. The wounds on his chest had reopened and were seeping blood into the front of his robes. Thomas suddenly broke out in a fit of violent coughing. He covered his mouth with his hand, and when he pulled his hand away, it had blood dripping from it. Gen said nothing. Just picked Thomas back up and carried him like he had before. Thomas started to complain then relaxed into Gen's arms.

  Gen walked up to the door of the healer's building and spoke a word of magic. The door opened at his command and he carried Thomas through the opening. Inside, the room was almost empty. An elderly woman, wearing deep blue robes with white trim, was standing at the other end beside the only bed in the room that held a patient. She looked up when Gen walked in. When she saw who he held, she rushed over to them.

  "Put him here," she ordered pointing to the bed nearest the door on the left. Gen placed Thomas gently upon the bed then walked over to shut the door. The elderly healer took a very sharp knife and cut open the front of Thomas' robes. She gently peeled them back from his chest. Gen walked back over to see his friend's chest covered in about six deep stab wounds. The wounds had reopened and were seeping. The skin around each one was red and looked badly infected.

  "How can I help?" Gen asked the healer.

  "Do you know any healing spells?" she asked, not looking up from her examination of Thomas' chest.

  "Some," Gen stated directly.

  The healer looked him over for a moment, taking in his gaunt features and solid black robes. Then she returned her focus to Thomas.

  “I will start. Help where you can. I don't have time to find out what you know.” She started chanting and Gen mentally shifted his vision to the weave of magic. Thomas' weave was torn here and there but was less damaged than he had expected. He saw the healer's weave of a spell to stop the bleeding and regrow the skin at the wounds. He studied it and did some quick comparisons to other spells of it's nature he knew. The healer was reaching the end of her spell when Gen spoke arcane words of his own. The weave twisted just a bit here and there.

  The healer finished her spell and braced herself for the draining effect such a work had on her. When it didn't come, she glanced over and saw the black clad man was chanting under his breath. Putting her confusions aside, she started casting spells to cause her patient's organs to regenerate. She increased her pace again when she noticed the fatigue from the second spell didn't hit her either. A few more spells to put Thomas into a healing sleep and to examine for other trauma she may have missed and she stopped her work.

  Thomas looked a lot better. His wounds had closed and his breathing was deep and regular. The healer looked back up at the man in the black robes. She motioned for him to follow her and walked to the office she had in the back. There were ten beds in the long building but only two of them were occupied. Thomas' by the door and one at the other end beside the office door. On the other bed lay a small figure with its head under the blankets. Gen took care to shut the door as quietly as he could. When Gen had closed the door behind him, she spoke.

  “What did you do?”

  “To Thomas? I found him like that. He said that Eremian soldiers had attacked him and some students. Did the other students return?”

  “Yes the other students returned, mostly unharmed.”

  “That's good to hear.”

  “Now, tell me. What did you do to my spells?”

  “What do you mean? You told me to help where I could, so I did.”

  “You know that healing spells take lots of energy. Usually I feel rather drained after such an undertaking. I do not feel drained. So again, what did you do to my spells?”

  “I merely changed the source of the energy for them.”

  “As I was casting them?”

  “Yes.”

  “I see.” The healer grew quiet and studied the man across from her, closely. His eyes told her nothing but that he was tired. “What source did you redirect me to draw from then?”

  “One of these.” Gen raised his right hand and pointed to a plain ring upon his smallest finger. It appeared to have once been silver but was now tarnished a deep black. He slid it off and set it upon the desk. “I'm afraid you've drained it almost completely though.”

  “What business do you have here at the Schola?”

  “My business here is my own.” Gen idly spun the blackened ring upon the desk.

  “It has been a very long time since anyone wearing robes like those has been at this Schola. If you are here to do damage to anyone here, I will hear of it.” The healer stood and drew a small wooden rod from the sleeve of her robe.

  Gen studied the weave of the rod. It contained only a few charges of what looked to be a sleep spell.

  “I have business with the Headmaster. I do not plan to hurt him or anyone else here unless they attempt to do me harm.” Gen continued to play with the ring upon the aged wood of the desk.

  "Well in that case, go talk to my other patient and let me do my work." She dismisse
d him with an absent wave of her hand. He exited as quietly as he could and returned to Thomas' bedside. Gen looked down at Thomas to see that his friend had fallen unconscious. It was amazing he had made it this far. He turned from his friend's bedside and walked back down the room to see the other patient. It was a young girl of about fifteen years of age. She had bandages covering her arms and chest. A blanket was pulled up to her waist so Gen couldn't tell if she had any other wounds. Her face held several bruises. If she hadn't been so broken and swollen she would have been pretty to look upon. She had long raven colored hair and he saw that she had at least one blue eye. The other one was swollen shut. Gen sat down in the chair beside her bed and smiled down at her. She looked back at him and shuddered a bit.

  "How are you feeling?" He asked softly.

  "I've been better," the girl responded with a grimace as she had tried to shrug.

  "My name is Gen Hothman. It's a pleasure to meet you."

  "Beth Donaldson. I would shake your hand but as you see, I can't move it much," she said with a smirk.

  "What happened to you?" Gen asked gently, a smile on his face.

  "Eremians caught me." Her face grew dark. "They beat me, stabbed me, whipped me, and worse." She grew silent and looked away from Gen. "At least I'm still alive," she said with an edge of sarcasm and a smirk. She looked back at Gen. "What happened to you?"

  "Whatever do you mean?" Gen asked taken aback. Did he look like he was in that bad a shape?

  "You smile at me but your eyes are empty. You look like you weigh less than my eight year old brother, and your face carries a few scars that I can see with only one eye." Her one blue eye gave Gen a piercing look. Gen felt as though she was trying to attack his mind and read his thoughts with that look. It was almost as if she was looking through him.