“All that we have accomplished so far will be as naught,” the wizard said solemnly, “unless we destroy the Necromancer.” He pointed to the south. Lines of oncoming zombies blocked the way. “Our path lies there.”
44. BLACK VERSUS WHITE
WITH THE FOUR VOLKAANES leading the way, the party surged forward into the mass of hungry zombies, cutting through the mostly slow moving creatures with relative ease. Wanting to save his strength for the confrontation with the Necromancer, Dominic used his magic sparingly now, flinging bursts of magic only at some of the faster zombies who got too near.
Leesa and Cali stayed close behind the wizard, with Jenna bringing up the rear and using various spells to keep the pursuing zombies at bay. First, she turned the ground to mud, causing the ungainly creatures to slip, slide and fall over one another. When the mud spell wore off, she froze the ground, which had the same effect on the zombies’ footing as the mud. She would have preferred to destroy as many of the creatures as possible in revenge for Michael’s sacrifice, but she knew she could never kill enough of them to slow their advance the way the mud and ice did.
Finally, the party broke through the last of the zombies. Jenna wove a spell that filled the air behind her with a pale pink mist that smelled of strongly cherry blossoms. No longer able to smell the humans, the zombies turned and headed for the borders of the graveyard in search of food.
A short distance ahead, a man Leesa recognized from her dreams pushed himself up out of a sturdy chair and turned to face them.
The Necromancer looked the same as he had in her dreams, only more gruesome, if that was possible. She had known he was a huge man, but seeing him in person brought home just how big he was. His round, hairless head, easily twice the size of an average man’s, reached a height of almost seven feet above the ground, and she guessed he must weigh five hundred pounds if he weighed an ounce. Despite his immense size, it was his eyes that frightened her the most. No eyeballs peered out from the fleshy sockets. Instead, they were filled only by a flat pink film.
He stood beside a large round table fashioned of a black material Leesa could not recognize in the darkness. There seemed to be faintly glowing circles scattered on the tabletop, but she was too far away to see what they were. On his other side, she could see a pool of some kind of black substance that looked even darker than the table.
The Necromancer kept his empty pink eyes fastened on Dominic.
“I guess I have always known it would come to this,” he said. “Your former comrades were supposed to destroy you with the powers I gave them, yet here you stand.”
“Yes, here I stand,” Dominic agreed, “while they are no more. I hope you are ready to join them.”
The Necromancer’s thick lips twisted into what Leesa guessed was a smile.
“Not so fast, wizard,” he replied. His eyes finally left Dominic and moved across the rest of the group. “I am impressed—volkaanes and a witch. And this one,” he pointed a fat finger directly at Leesa, “seems to have powers inside her as well, though I cannot sort them out.”
Leesa was surprised. None of the black waziri could sense her magic, but the Necromancer clearly could.
“A formidable team indeed,” the Necromancer continued, addressing Dominic again. “But it shall avail you not.”
He waved his hand over the black pool. Seven ribbons of black magic similar to the ones that had animated the zombies rose from its depths and streaked toward each person in Dominic’s company.
The wizard threw up a shield in front of them. The black magic struck the invisible barrier with a hiss. Unable to penetrate the shield, the dark strands faded away. Before they disappeared, Dominic recognized a familiar vibration mixed in with the magic. He knew now what had become of Andre—the Necromancer had fed his pool with the black waziri’s magical essence.
The Necromancer immediately invoked a new spell, calling forth a ghostlike apparition from the depths of his magic pool. Formed of what looked like black mist, the thing was only vaguely human in shape, with wispy outlines that seemed to have no solid edges. The undulating, uneven shape reminded Leesa of a tattered bed sheet flapping in the wind—except that nothing more than a light breeze blew across the graveyard tonight. The shadow thing floated straight toward Leesa and her friends.
“A wraith,” Dominic said. “My shield will not stop it—the specter is too insubstantial. In this form, it cannot harm you, but be ready. It can assume other, more deadly forms.”
As Dominic predicted, the wraith floated right through the place where the other black magic had been halted. It approached to about ten feet and then hovered in the air above the party. At first, they could see the moon through its diaphanous shape, but as it began to grow thicker and more solid it blotted out the sky behind it. At the same time, its undulating edges ceased moving and began assuming a definite shape, one that Leesa quickly recognized.
“Alas! A dragon!” Dominic cried. “The one creature in all the world waziri magic is useless against.”
Leesa stared up in awe as the deadly creature flew in tight circles above them. Including its pointed tail, the dragon was nearly twenty feet in length. Its lizard-like jaws boasted long rows of razor sharp teeth, and the claws curving down from its feet looked to be the size of daggers.
She wondered how they could possibly stop such a fearsome beast without magic. Her dismay increased ten-fold when the dragon opened its jaws and spit out a long stream of blazing fire.
The monster performed a loop high up in the air and then dove straight toward Dominic, fire streaming from its mouth. Its mission seemed clear: destroy the wizard first.
At the last instant, Dral threw himself in front of Dominic and fired a bolt of blue fire directly into the dragon’s fire. The volkaane fire did not stop the dragonfire, but it split the stream in two, causing it to pass harmlessly on either side of Dral and Dominic.
Rave wasted no time. He knew Dral’s actions were merely defensive and would not stop the beast. And once the creature finished with Dominic, Rave knew Leesa would be its next target.
With a running leap, he threw himself up onto the dragon’s back as it swerved away from Dral and Dominic. Leesa looked on in horror as Rave wrapped his powerful legs around the beast’s neck to hold himself in place as he rode the dragon. He struck downward onto the top of the monster’s head with one of his spikes, hoping to pierce its brain, but the scales atop the creature’s head were too thick and hard, even for Rave’s volkaane strength. Changing his strategy, Rave plunged the spike down through the top of the dragon’s snout, where the scales were much thinner. This time, the weapon sank deep into the beast’s head. With his other hand, Rave stabbed upward into the fleshy bottom of the monster’s jaw, impaling it from beneath with his second spike. Using all his strength, Rave used the two spikes to pin the dragon’s mouth closed.
Unable to open its jaws, the dragon’s fire was useless. It still boasted the deadly claws and whip-like tail, however. Worse, the beast seemed otherwise unharmed by Rave’s attack. It flipped itself over and flew upside down, trying to dislodge Rave from his seat.
Leesa watched breathlessly, desperately trying to think of a way to aid her lover when her magic was useless against this foe. She wasn’t sure if her eyes were playing tricks on her, but it seemed as if the dragon’s dark scales had begun taking on a reddish hue as it whipped into a series of tight loops and spins. She wondered what new deviltry was afoot as Rave clung to his perch, his legs wrapped around the monster’s neck and his hands holding tightly to the spikes.
Unable to dislodge its tormentor, the dragon apparently decided to forget about the thing clinging to its neck. It flew upward to gain some altitude before pivoting in the air and speeding straight down toward Dominic once more, its deadly talons spread wide in a killing position. The beast’s scales glowed bright red now, making it look like some kind of fiery comet aimed straight for Dominic. Only Rave’s volkaane resistance to fire kept him from being burned by the heat
emanating from the dragon’s body.
When the creature was barely twenty feet above the ground, Rave suddenly leaped from its back. An instant later, the monster exploded in a fiery blast. Unable to release its fire through its pinned jaws, the dragonfire had built up inside the beast’s belly until its body could no longer contain it. Chunks of burning dragon flesh rained down from the sky. The volkaanes raced around, swatting away any falling hunks that threatened their comrades.
If the Necromancer was bothered by the failure of his creature to destroy Dominic, he didn’t show it. He calmly summoned two more wraiths from his magic pool.
This time, Dominic was ready. Nearing the limit of how long he could maintain his air shield, he let it dissipate. With a wave of his arm and a quick incantation, he sent a howling wind across the surface of the pool, blowing the misty substance of the wraiths into a million tiny droplets before they could coalesce.
The Necromancer countered by calling forth scores of fist-sized black beetles that came skittering across the grass from the edge of the pool.
“Death beetles!” Jenna shouted. “Do not let them bite! Their poison is instantaneously fatal.” She drew a quick spell in the air, turning the ground in front of the insects into gooey mud.
The beetles’ charge was slowed to a crawl as they tried to force their tiny legs through the sticky muck. Rave and his volkaane comrades knelt at the edge of the morass and fired short bursts of blue fire from their fingers into each beetle, picking them off one by one and incinerating them before they could reach dry ground.
With his wraiths and death beetles thwarted by his foes, the Necromancer decided on a more direct attack. Raising his arms, he sent twin beams of black magic corkscrewing toward Dominic. The wizard had never seen magic move in such a manner. He met the attack with streams of white magic, but the spiraling black beams bored into the white like powerful drills, pushing steadily closer to Dominic.
“Leesa, add your magic to mine,” the wizard commanded. “Quickly! I cannot hold these back on my own.”
Leesa hurried to Dominic’s side and shot a pair of yellow beams into the white ones, reinforcing them with her power. For the moment, the contest was a near stalemate, though the spiraling black beams still edged slowly nearer to Dominic and Leesa.
“Jenna, the pool!” Dominic called. “He’s drawing strength from it. You must try to destroy it.”
Jenna sensed that the magic of the black pool was far too powerful for her to destroy. She thought for a moment—maybe she could cap it somehow. Perhaps that would be enough to keep the Necromancer from drawing on the pool’s magic. She glanced around, but saw nothing large enough to do the job. It seemed she was going to have to create something.
She wove another spell, freezing a large area of ground wider than the diameter of the pool. She made sure her spell reached more than a foot down into the soil.
“Halee, Bain, I need your help,” she shouted.
The two volkaanes raced to her side while Rave and Dral continued burning the remaining death beetles.
“Dig out the edges of this ground I just froze,” Jenna instructed. “Go deep enough to reach the bottom of the frozen part.”
Without wasting time to reply, Halee and Bain dropped to their knees and began digging with their spikes. So quickly did the metal rods pump up and down, the effect was almost like digging with jackhammers. In thirty seconds, they had dug a narrow trench around the frozen square of earth.
“I can help you lift it with a spell,” Jenna told them, “but I’m going to need you to drop it on top of the pool.”
The two volkaanes positioned themselves on opposite sides of the square while Jenna wove her lifting spell. The frozen hunk of ground tore itself loose from the earth and rose a few feet into the air. Halee and Bain grabbed the edges and heaved it atop the pool. Their aim was perfect. The frozen square landed without a splash, completely covering the black pool.
“Quickly, now,” Jenna said. “Pile some gravestones on top.”
Halee and Bain ripped a dozen headstones from the earth and tossed them into place.
“Can you melt them?” she asked. “And then let the stone harden, like concrete?”
The two volkaanes set to work with their blue fire, doing exactly as Jenna instructed. When they finished, the effect was as if the pool had been capped in stone. The whole enterprise—from Jenna freezing the ground to melting the headstones—had taken less than three minutes.
Those minutes had let the Necromancer’s spiraling black bands push dangerously close to Dominic and Leesa, however. But without the threat of allies created from his pool, he now faced the whole of his enemy force alone. How dangerous that could be was driven home when Rave threw one of his spikes like a knife toward the Necromancer’s head.
The dark mage managed to raise a shield in time to block the missile, but the effort cost him precious inches in his struggle with Dominic. Two more spikes, these thrown by Dral and Bain, hurtled toward him. Once again, he blocked them with a shield, but he lost a few more inches. Worse than the spikes, he saw the witch beginning to weave a spell of some kind.
For his part, Dominic recognized that capping the black pool had not weakened the power of the Necromancer’s magic one bit, which told him the source of the Necromancer’s immense magical strength was not the pool—it was the table!
For the first time since he had arrived here, Dominic let his senses flow to the table. What he felt astounded and dismayed him. Here was the source of the familiar vibrations he had detected earlier—the vibrations of his fallen brethren. Somehow, the Necromancer had imprisoned their magical essences within the table and was drawing upon their power.
The Necromancer had not survived all these centuries by taking needless risks. He chose his battles wisely, fighting only when the odds were strong in his favor. Such was not the case now. He could no longer be certain of victory over the power arrayed against him here. Retreat was his best option.
Without any of his lieutenants to hold his enemies at bay while he fled, the Necromancer knew he had but one option—a dangerous choice to be sure, but one that he thought would enable him to escape and come back to fight another day. Throwing up a thick black shield to block any attack by his foes, he began a loud incantation and heaved himself atop of the table.
The magical material immediately began drawing his immense body inside its surface. As he was being absorbed, the Necromancer called out one last spell. The table began to shrink.
When the Necromancer’s black shield faded, Dominic saw his enemy seemingly melting into the fabric of the magical table itself. He could not allow the Necromancer to escape, nor could he permit the essences of his fallen brethren to remain imprisoned in such a horrid state of limbo. Better to destroy it all, he knew. Racing forward, he unleashed his most powerful magic upon the foul instrument, but the magic bounced ineffectually off the slowly shrinking table.
Dominic didn’t hesitate. He knew his only chance to destroy the table and to send his brethren to a final rest was from the inside. This was why fate had spared him a century before, he was certain. He would not shrink from the destiny fate had decreed for him.
“Farewell!” he called to Leesa. “Be strong!” He turned and dove into the table.
“Dominic! No!” Leesa cried as she watched her mentor disappear into the table’s black depths. She ran forward to try to help in some way, but Rave grabbed her by the wrist and stopped her. He draped his arm tenderly around her shoulders. He did not need to have his blood inside her to feel her pain and sorrow.
“The wizard has made his choice,” he said softly. “He would not wish you to endanger yourself. Nor do I.”
Tears streamed from Leesa’s eyes as she watched the table shrink, taking her friend with it. She wondered if it would continue to grow smaller and smaller until eventually it vanished completely.
Cali, Jenna and Rave’s volkaane comrades came over to stand by her side. Cali took Leesa’s hand and squeezed it
, lending silent support in this heartbreaking moment.
No one said anything—no words could possibly be any comfort right now.
The table stopped shrinking when it was barely four inches in diameter. Leesa knelt down and reached out carefully toward it, stopping when her fingers were but a fraction of an inch away. Rave knelt beside her, watching closely.
Leesa didn’t feel anything coming from the table. No heat, no cold, no vibrations—nothing. Praying that it was safe to do so, she grabbed it by the edge and gingerly tried to pick it up.
The thing was much heavier than she expected. She lifted it an inch or two and then put it back down.
“It’s really heavy,” she said to Rave. “Will you carry it for me?”
Rave’s eyes bored into hers. His eyes were filled with love and concern.
“Are you sure?”
Leesa nodded. “We certainly can’t leave it here.”
Rave smiled and picked up the table. He and Leesa stood up.
“What are you going to do with that?” Cali asked.
Leesa looked down at the shrunken table in Rave’s hand. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “But I’ve got a couple hundred years to try to figure something out.”
####
Looking For Some More Blue Fire Fun?
Try Blue Fire Beginnings, a collection of 5 short story “prequels” involving characters from the Blue Fire Saga. Learn how Stefan became a vampire, how Dominic became a wizard and how he escaped from the traitorous attack of the renegade black waziri, and how Jenna discovered she was a witch. Read about the origin of the one-fanged vampire that bit Leesa's mom, and get the full story behind the seduction of Bradley by Edwina. These stories are a must read for any true Blue Fire Saga fan.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009V0M1AM/
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/blue-fire-beginnings-scott-prussing/1113852036
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. VAMPIRE (Stefan)
Restless Page 23