The Dread Lords Rising

by J. David Phillips

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Some Rules Must Be Broken

  Jolan Kine looked as if he had sunken into the bed and nearly become a part of it. His eyes were so bloodshot that barely any white showed through. His face was as pallid as a corpse’s, and around his eyes the strain on his health showed most. Niam was taken aback when the Wizard’s Hammer spoke to him in a voice so haggard that he sounded as if the ghost of death itself spoke for him.

  “Young Maldies—good job bringing that box to me.”

  “Um,” was all Niam managed to say for the moment. “Um, how are you sir?” he managed to ask.

  “Worse than I look,” he rasped, and then laughed, but he was soon bent nearly in two by a severe coughing fit.

  Niam looked up at Joachim, sorry that he had been so insistent on seeing the Wizard’s Hammer now that he knew how bad off he was. When he had pictured Jolan Kine, injured by a poisonous arrow, he had in his mind an image of the man with a thick bandage over the wound.

  “Um,” Niam said. “I had a lot of help getting that box.”

  Kine slowly raised himself enough to prop himself up with two pillows. When Lord Joachim said, “Let me help you with that you fool,” Kine waved him away.

  “I’m not dead yet.”

  “Well good, then,” Joachim told him. “Because Maldies here has something important he needed to share with you.”

  “Important?” Kine coughed painfully.

  “Of the utmost importance.”

  Niam shuffled his feet.

  “Go on then, Maldies. Out with it. Something about hair, didn’t you say?”

  Suddenly, Niam wanted to shrink down into something very small and fast so he could scurry away. Instead, he asked, “How much do you know?”

  Jolan Kine laughed again, and his laughter immediately turned into a series of body wracking coughs. Niam really wished he would stop laughing. When Kine saw the look in his face, he laughed harder, and Niam thought for a moment that the act was going to kill him.

  “It’s the poppy,” Joachim said, as if reading his mind. “And actually, it’s good for him to cough. He’s got to keep his lungs clear.”

  “He’s going to break a rib,” Davin said, obviously as appalled as Niam by Kine’s condition.

  “Better that he should break a rib than lose his life,” Joachim said matter-of-factly.

  “According to who?” the Wizard’s Hammer croaked.

  “Duty before death,” Lord Joachim replied. Niam never could tell when Lord Joachim was joking and when he was serious. Kine leaned back into his pillows and grabbed a cloth to cover his mouth as he cleared his throat. “So is this about my duty or is it about death, Mr. Maldies?”

  “Um. Both maybe.”

  Jolan Kine arched an eyebrow. The act looked painful. “Did you really disarm a sorcerer’s seal when you were at Kreeth’s manor?”

  Niam shuffled his feet again. Talking about sorcery made him uneasy. “It took me a few minutes and was kind of hard at first, but yeah, I guess that’s what I did.”

  Now both men laughed. Joachim positively roared with laughter. It took Kine several minutes to get himself under control. Niam had no idea what he had said that was so funny, but he wished he hadn’t said it. A horrid wet, crackling sound came with each breath Jolan Kine took, and it lasted an uncomfortably long time.

  Looking up to Joachim, Niam asked, “What did I say?”

  Jolan Kine answered for him. “Young man, do you realize that when there’s not a Wizard’s Hammer around—and usually that’s most of the time—it frequently takes a team of mages hours to disarm sorcerer’s seals? And that’s at great peril to their own lives.”

  “Oh.”

  Lord Joachim added, “What you did alone and in a matter of minutes, scholars will write about for the next hundred years.”

  Niam felt completely overwhelmed and wished he could have a few minutes to think, but Kine continued on in his hoarse voice. “Your ability is much more sensitive than even a Wizard’s Hammer’s. And apparently you’re somehow attuned to the forces sorcerer’s draw upon. I’ll tell you, that is something every member of my order would give a year of their lives to be able to do.”

  “You had ‘hair and stuff’ to speak to Mr. Kine about?” Joachim said after clearing his throat.

  Niam told him about the altar and the objects they saw on top of it, and asked, “Can things in a circle be linked with the people they belong to?”

  Kine nodded his head. “Both mages and sorcerers can do bindings. And it is highly illegal to cast a binding against someone’s will.”

  Niam nodded his head and told them about the encounter with Betsy and Kreeth, and about her late-night wanderings. Jolan Kine and Lord Joachim looked at one another silently for a moment. “If this is true, Niam, then Kreeth’s influence may be spread over a countless number of people, and there’s no telling why.”

  Joachim’s voice grew noticeably worried. “Niam very well might have explained what’s behind the nods. I am gathering the names of everyone that’s been affected. I’m also going to have troops from my garrison begin patrols. Maybe this has something to do with all of the break-ins that have been occurring lately. Thought it might have something to do with the trade conference. That always brings out its share of thieves. But too much is happening at once that is too damned coincidental for me.”

  “You know what less than friendly elements are going to say about the patrols, don’t you?” Kine asked.

  “Yeah,” Joachim sighed. “Show of force like that is illegal and unnecessary except during a time of war.”

  “That’s not going to go over well with your enemies in Kalavere or Pallodine.”

  “Then we’ll call it safety drills. Nobody can make hay out of that,” Joachim said, absently rubbing his eyes as if he had a headache. “I hate politics. I wish my forefathers had been circus performers.”

  This elicited chuckles from both Niam and Davin. Joachim turned his attention to both of them. “You young gentlemen are going to spend a good bit of time here with me. Niam, you and Hapwell will eventually stay with the Sartors. I have to send Karin and Brent on an extended business trip. Gaius will quietly allow some of my troops to stay there.”

  “But!” Both Niam and Davin said at once.

  “But nothing,” Joachim said sternly. “Before anything else is done, Jolan here has to recuperate. I think things have gotten to the point where he needs to be able to do what’s necessary now that he has enough evidence to move against Kreeth. But I’ve got to get to the bottom of this nods business while he is getting better.”

  Niam and Davin both held their heads down. “Yes sir,” they said in unison.

  “I mean it,” Joachim warned them. “I better not catch you off of my property before Mr. Kine here is up and moving around.”

  “I promise,” Niam said.

  “I promise,” Davin said.

  Moments later, as they strolled alone down the hallway, Davin asked Niam, “What do you want to do now?”

  “Oh,” Niam said. “I intend on keeping my promise. I’m going out tonight, but I’m not letting him catch me.”

  “Good,” Davin replied eagerly, “I was thinking the same thing.”