Son of the Keeper: Book 1: Principles of Magic

by R. S. Merritt

  It was the necromancers turn to fall towards the ground. Blood pooled up underneath him. The necromancer started chanting and was working on healing himself. Chris brought the flat of his sword down hard on the necromancers exposed head. The necromancer tumbled to the ground.

  “Did you kill him sire?” Omasa asked. He’d made it back over with a group of knights. The rest of them were still digging in the rubble. Wessel had just emerged from underneath where the roof had fallen. He jogged over to where Chris was standing in front of the unconscious necromancer.

  “Nice job your highness. Want me to finish him off?” Wessel produced a wicked looking silver dagger from his sleeve and waited for Chris to give the order.

  “Hold off. We’ll kill him in a little bit. For now secure his arms and what’s left of his legs. Throw some tourniquets on him and see if you can get him to the healer before he bleeds out. He has info and I want it. Keep him completely immobilized and don’t let anyone make eye contact with him. I’ll catch up as soon as we get everyone dug out of here.” Then Chris went to help dig his men out of the collapsed building before the police could get to the villa. He was sure he didn’t want to deal with answering questions from confused Hungarian policemen about giant dead spiders.

  Chapter 20: The Right Questions

  They had not lost a single knight in the battle. The healer would be working overtime patching people up but so far no one had died except for bad guys. Omasa had left to make some calls and when he was done he let Chris know they should be fine to stay at this villa for a little while. Omasa had sent some men back to take care of destroying the evidence at the destroyed villa by burning the whole thing down. As if on cue Chris and Omasa heard the sirens in the distance as ambulances and police rushed towards the blaze that erupted out of nowhere.

  It would make country wide news that night as the blaze ended up spreading to a few other nearby homes and doing a few million in damage. Luckily the people in those homes were warned in time to be able to get out of the way of the fire. They had secured the necromancer in the back bedroom. The knights had stripped him and tied a canvass sack over his head. Each of his hands was tied to a different bedpost. His one good leg was secured as well. The stub of a leg was wrapped in bloody bandages that looked like they needed to be changed pretty soon. No one really suspected the necromancer would be living long enough for infection to become an issue.

  Chris walked in the room with Omasa. The two knights guarding the necromancer bowed deeply and waited for orders. Thanks to the psychic connection during the fight the knights all knew Chris had been the one to bring down the necromancer. Chris asked the knights to remove the bag covering the necromancers head. Chris saw that the man had been lying on the bed completely relaxed. His eyes blinked open and he lifted his head to smile at Chris.

  “Your highness. We meet again. A man on the verge of death meeting a boy ruling a dying kingdom. Tell me. What is it you want to ask before you have me killed?” The necromancer smiled revealing his jagged, filed teeth.

  “What’s your name?” Chris asked.

  “Oh no your highness. I won’t be giving up something so valuable just on the threat of death. I’m a necromancer so I know what lies beyond. I do not fear death. What do you really want to ask me?” The necromancer continued to stare and twist his head from side to side while he awaited a response from Chris. The two knights at the end of the bed by the man’s heads shifted uneasily and kept their hands close to their weapons.

  “I want to know what the other worlds look like and where your master lives? I want to know what the horde plans to do with Earth?” Chris asked the questions calmly. He kept his focus on the necromancer who remained cold and poised. The man might as well be sitting in an easy chair at a coffee shop instead of slowly bleeding out while lying tied naked to a bed and missing most of one leg.

  “What the other worlds look like? My master? The plans of the horde? You ask such sweeping questions my lord. I don’t think I have the time to fully answer them. I feel my blood leaking out even as we speak. My heart slows. I’ll be making a journey soon to see my true master. No need for all that.” That last sentence was aimed at Omasa who was tired of the riddles and had jerked out his knife to get rolling with the torture. “I’ll answer the questions without having you crudely slice me up.” Chris nodded and Omasa went back to quietly standing guard.

  “I think he’s angry at the way I defeated him and his patrol so easily. I believe his job is to protect you and yet you were the one who saved him by confronting me at the last. That is delicious. Now. First question was about what the other worlds look like. I have no idea. I only ever lived on one other world before being shoved through a portal to come exist on this nasty pile of dirt. The world I came from was full of lights and colds and the people were subjugated and submitted to our every whim. There I was a god. Here I am forced to amuse myself by throwing your little boys in the tin can outfits all over the place.” The necromancer paused to cough and take a deep breath.

  “It won’t be long now. I feel the cold settling in on me. You asked about the plans of the horde. I’m sure I don’t presume to have that answer. If I were important enough to know the heart and mind of the hordes leaders I wouldn’t be rotting away on this insignificant excuse for a planet. What else? Oh yes. My master. My master was on my planet of Terbia. He was a master sorcerer. He beat me until I bled when I did not want to be put on portal watch. When a portal was opened they had to pick me up and throw me through it as I had no desire to leave my old life. That was all your questions. They were all well and truthfully answered. Finish me now. Wherever I end up will be better than this miserable world.”

  “Who told you to kidnap my mother and try to get me off the island?” Chris asked. The necromancer smiled real big then opened up his mouth and bit down hard on his own tongue. He spit a giant glob of tongue and blood at Chris. Blood went everywhere and Chris recoiled at the repugnant act. The necromancer was covered in blood and more was oozing out of his mouth. The blood bubbled and all the fluids and organs in the man’s body seemed to erupt upwards into the roof in a grotesque fountain.

  “I guess he didn’t want to answer that one your highness.” Omasa was dripping with blood and other less liquid pieces and parts. Chris and the other two knights were similarly covered in the gelatinous insides of the now very deceased necromancer. They all turned to move out the door of the bedroom. The door opened and Wessel was standing there looking at them.

  “I guess I’m ok with being late to this little party. Find out anything useful or just studying for an anatomy test?” Wessel smiled. Chris made sure to rub up against him as he walked past him and smear some gunk on his robes. He wasn’t in the mood for all of his advisors to be leading with gallows humor. He had been hoping to get some real answers from the necromancer and he didn’t feel they had gotten any further than before. On the plus side the necromancer was dead. The trip hadn’t been a total bust.

  There had to be someone else though. They should have spent some more time searching the villa to try and figure out who the necromancer was talking to. It was too late now. Any clues would be a big pile of ashes at this point. The knights started gathering all of their gear as a string of dark black limos pulled up in front of their villa. The knights began filing out and piling into the limos for the ride back to the airport. Randall and Steven were staying behind to make sure the mess here got completely cleaned up. Chris pulled them and Omasa to the side.

  “Sir Randall, your detective work found us the necromancer. Thank you. Now I’d like to ask that you continue to try and find powerful members of the horde here on earth. Compile a list of who they are and where they live. We’ll start cleaning out the horde starting right here at home. Once we’ve defeated them here we can start thinking even bigger. I don’t want to live in fear.” Sir Randall bowed to Chris.

  “We’ll get started right away your highness. We already have some good info accumulated from trying to track d
own the necromancer. I don’t think you’re going to have a problem with living in fear though. You were pretty fearless today.”

  Chris told Randall thanks again and grabbed his gear and headed for the car that was waiting for him and Omasa. Omasa shook Randall and Stevens hands.

  “Keep me in the loop on what you find since I assume I’ll be leading a lot more of these little dances here in the near future. I don’t think our young king fears for himself when he talks about living in fear. He fears for all of us. Especially those he loves. Be safe.”

  With that Omasa went and joined Chris in the limo for the ride back to the airport. They were pretty sure they had cleaned up the mess and bribed the right people but it was always easier to get the hell out before the cops came knocking on the door and asking awkward questions.

  Chapter 21: The Library Life

  Nicole and Brent kept busy while Chris was gone. As soon as he had left for the armory to prepare for the attack they headed back to the library. Taking the key Chris had given them they found it easy to gain access to the large wood lined room containing thousands of books and scrolls. There was a desk inside the library where they assumed someone normally sat who could help them but the desk was currently empty. Probably due to the late hour.

  They fumbled around in the room with Nicole rapidly getting bored while Brent kept finding new things to be excited about. Nicole was gradually drawn out of her boredom by the infectious excitement of Brent. Brent had a ton of potential according to the testers. He was slated to be a pure mage based on the testing that he‘d gone through. That suited Brent just fine. He’d always been a book worm and had shared that passion with Chris as they’d grown up together. Chris had left him behind on the baseball diamond but in academic pursuits they had been neck and neck.

  Brent was new enough to magic that it all still constantly astounded him. Every morning he woke up wondering if this was going to be the day that all of this turned out to be a dream. Every morning the wonderful reality hit him again. Chris was alive and magic was real! He tried to limit himself in the number of questions he asked someone in a row. He’d noticed it annoyed people to be asked a ton of questions about things they saw as just common sense. Brent was intelligent enough that a lot of his questions left even older students and some of the instructors struggling to come up with an answer.

  “Do you think Chris is ok?” Nicole asked him as Brent dug through a bin of scrolls trying to find one that might identify the locations of all the known portals.

  “I’m sure he’s fine. He took enough knights with him to take on the army of whatever country he’s going to. Not to mention he has Wessel with him who is a seriously hard core warlock. Chris isn’t any kind of slouch either.”

  “I know. I just worry he’s going to bite off more than he can handle. Those knights he has with him won’t have any kind of issue cutting their way through regular enemies but a powerful enough shaman or necromancer will throw them around like rag dolls. Chris keeps having these amazing victories and he learns so fast that it’s scary. The scariest part for me is worrying that he starts thinking he’s invincible and all powerful. He hasn’t even passed his trials yet.” Nicole realized she was sharing quite a bit. Her and Brent had developed a strong friendship as they hung out together. Being the kings confidants was a lonely position since Chris didn’t seem to want to spread his trust out very widely. He also didn’t seem to have the slightest interest in doing anything socially. That was going to be an issue since he was king and pretty much all of society orbited around royalty in their culture.

  Brent looked up from the barrel that had the scrolls sticking out of it. Each scroll was stored in a cylindrical tube made of leather. Each tube had been labeled with words in various languages including Latin and English. Brent was looking at one now that was labeled ‘universum portals’ and had a small lock on the top of it.

  “Chris will be fine. He’s a warrior and a wizard and the guys protecting him are all top notch.” Brent tried poking at the lock to see if he could get it to come open.

  “Give me that.” Nicole snagged the container out of Brent’s hands and started jiggling it and working on the lock. When it did not give from any of the obvious ways she sighed and set the container down. She took a hair pin out of her hair and put it into the lock. Then she focused. Brent kept quiet once he saw what she was doing. After about ten minutes of hearing nothing but Nicole’s steady breathing the lock made a clicking noise and it popped open. Nicole reached in and pulled out a large sheet of yellowed parchment that had been rolled up inside. It was old enough that it made crinkling noises and threatened to fall apart as they unwound it. They set it down on the large table in the middle of the locked secret library and used large reference tombs to hold down the four corners of it.

  Once they had it stretched it all the way out they saw it was a map of the earth. Each continent had been drawn out and on each continent dotted and dashed lines intersected at various spots. The lines also intersected at various places in the ocean. It looked like the total number of intersections was over two hundred but not quite three hundred. On a hunch Brent traced out the location of the lines intersecting in Ireland. It was the site of the castle in Ireland. Brent asked Nicole to point out where her families estates were in Canada. She did and he traced out the lines that intersected on her families estate and they also indicated there was a portal location there.

  Nicole confirmed that the spots the biggest lines intersected on the map were the sites where the largest families had their estates around the world. Once again Brent was lacking an important piece of trivia that most of the students at this school knew before they ever even attended their first class.

  “Brent, the homes all have portals in them because for a few hundred years the idea was to build castles where there was a strong mathematical potential to construct a portal. These portals can send people distances that make infinity seem small. They can send people to other universes. They were used in the castles to send out people all around the globe as needed. These were the days way before the Gulfstreams.” Nicole stopped to make sure Brent was following along. He nodded.

  “Ok.” She paused for a second to gather her thoughts then continued. “I think it was the manor in Australia that was attacked first. One minute they didn’t have anything going on and the next hundreds of Corvellans were boiling out of the portal and into the courtyard. The Xandians there tried to defend it but the manor in Australia was overwhelmed. Other manors across the country were attacked but they were mostly able to repel the attackers. Australia is where a bunch of the dark shamans came through. The Xandian king at the time, the great grandfather of Chris, led a charge to Australia through the portal in the manor in Ireland. He actually randomly tried eighth or nine sites before they ended up in Australia. That worked out because when they ended up in Australia the place was overrun so the reinforcements were real useful. They were able to take the place back but most of the horde got away. The king ordered all the portals to be sealed and have halls of protection built around them so the dark ones would not be able to access them and launch a sneak attack again. All of these little lines you see intersect are probably for the small wormholes and portals that can be opened. The small ones wouldn’t be powerful enough to send more than one or two people through at a time before they fall apart.”

  “That explains why all us magic people still have to fly the friendly skies. Portals must have been way more convenient. Another reason to bring them back.” Brent looked thoughtful for a while before he dove back into staring at the large parchment map they had found. Nicole sighed and started walking around the library looking for anything she could find that looked useful. Since the portals had been shut down a few wizards still learned and understood the theory behind them but no one explored it too deeply. What was the point of wasting your life away learning something that could never be used? That was what Chris had asked Brent to do. Of course Chris was also one of the few people o
n the planet with the power to say it was ok to start popping open portals again.

  They stayed in the library leafing through books and scrolls until Nicole could barely keep her eyes open. She had been upset when her sister had hinted at why they had been on the plane where she had originally met Chris. She’d refused to believe it at first. How could her parents have reached out and setup something like that so quickly? Her uncle was on the council so she assumed her mother would have found out quickly about Chris coming to the school. To coordinate and get her and Brittany on the same plane as the future king seemed like a lot of work on such short notice though. If there was someone who could pull it off she knew it would have been her mom. Her and Brittany had been woken up early that morning and basically told they were headed back to the island right then even though they were supposed to stay home for two more days.

  From there it had been rushed flights and long car rides and then a long wait at a hotel in Providence before they’d actually ended up on the same plane as Chris. Nicole had not even known who he was until told by her sister. Brittany had figured it out talking to the guards. As soon as Nicole had figured out who the boy was she had made all the connections in her head and whispered what she thought was going on to Nicole. A lot of giggling had ensued until Nicole had gotten upset. She wasn’t keen on the idea of being setup this way and she was even less keen on being expected to somehow lure Chris into her clutches. Brittany had told her to just relax and be herself and see if it all worked out. Nothing more was expected of her.