They heard a faint and indignant reply. “I said… I am a necromancer!”
“It sounds like the physician,” said Coltic quietly. “The mage.”
“The thief, you mean… He must be in the cave. Stand back, Princess. We will open the door.”
“Curses, no!” She shuffled backwards in sudden alarm. Where was Jay when she needed his pious pleas to our dear Goddess? Dear Goddess, she tried. But she could sense no response.
Coltic studied the wall and then lifted his hand and pushed the trigger stone.
The bricked-over section shuddered and pivoted open, as it had the last time they stood before it. But it was not a dark hole this time. Several large candles flared within, guttering as the wax melted around the wicks. There was enough light to expose the slender, middle-aged man within.
“Greyel!” Scylla breathed, peeping past Coltic’s shoulder.
The physician sat on a box full of gold. The coins gleamed warmly in the candlelight. Greyel held the small book of magic, open to a page closely covered with writing, and blinked at the two men who stared back at him. Beside him, the stacks of crated gold dwarfed him.
“Greetings, gentlemen,” he said, pleasantly enough.
“Greetings! I believe you have something belonging to us,” said Mako, less pleasantly.
“Everything belongs to me,” Greyel said with a simple shrug and a flash of bright eyes. “It is all within this book.”
“What is?” Coltic asked.
“Every great secret. I have deciphered many of its mysteries… the ancient magic shown only to the few who find the means to unravel it!”
“I bow to your great mind! You are a powerful student—I am in awe!” Coltic said.
“You should be,” the mage said simply.
“How did you find the entry to this cave?”
“It is written in this book.”
Scylla saw Mako’s eyes flicker to Coltic’s face. She knew what he was thinking. The door would soon swing closed.
“Did I hear you say you are a necromancer?” Coltic asked.
“I am. I have raised old Mother Tercue from the dead. She is described in this book. Did you see her?” he asked with interest.
“We did.”
Greyel said with a satisfied nod, “I have brought back others. Imagine! A physician who can bring the dead back to life!”
“The ultimate power,” Coltic agreed. “How did you find that in the book?”
The door creaked. It pivoted back into place with a thud. Dust filled the air.
Coltic grinned at Mako, who glared back. Scylla’s skin crawled. Her fingers found her braid. Convulsively, she combed her fingers through, freeing the silken strands.
They could hear Greyel’s measured voice, but behind the wall the words had become indistinguishable.
Coltic waited until he stopped talking. He spoke up loudly. “Greyel! Open the door!”
There was a silence. Then the physician answered. For the first time his words carried a plaintive tone. “The book is plagued with riddles. I have not yet found how to open the door from inside!”
Coltic chuckled quietly. “There you have it, Chancellor… Princess. If the candles burn out before he deciphers that riddle, he may never get out.”
He pushed the trigger stone again and the heavy door creaked open.
“What else have you found?” he asked Greyel when he was visible once more.
The man shot him a sly glance. He closed up the book and held it between his hands. “I have found things of which you have never dreamed, soldier! Can you imagine a passage through the mountain?”
Coltic shook his head in pretended confusion. “There is no passage through the mountain. We travel by sea.”
“I hate the sea! The priests said they had found mention of a former passage through the mountain. When I received this book, I studied its riddles.”
“You stole the book,” Mako said.
“A book of magic will always seek its rightful owner,” Greyel pronounced. “I am he!”
“Why didn’t the priests find the passage through the mountain?” Coltic asked.
“They found reference to it, but their insufficient minds could not unravel the mystery. Unlike myself.”
“You must have an exceptional mind.” Coltic gestured at the boxes of coins stacked against the walls of the cave. “Did the priests also find reference to the king’s gold?”
“Reference, yes, but again no detail. I decoded that. It took hours of study.”
“So you have found your way to the king’s gold, you have raised the crone from her grave, and you are looking for a passage to the east?”
Greyel threw his head back and sneered. “Looking for? I think not! I have thrown open the passage to the east! On your knees to the master, soldier!” He pointed at Coltic, who dropped to his knees and bowed his head. Without Coltic’s body to shield his view, Greyel now saw Scylla standing behind him.
His eyes narrowed viciously, and his head thrust forward. “Her!” he spat. “Yon mewling… limping… screeching excuse for a princess! A pathetic shadow of the loveliness she replaced! Unfit to set foot on the priceless carpets of our late Queen Maris’s royal chambers…”
The door lurched into motion and swung shut with a dusty clunk. Behind the now-blank wall, Greyel’s muffled voice continued its angry monologue.
Ignoring him, Coltic got to his feet. “Forgive me, Princess, I forgot you were standing behind me.”
“Good Goddess,” she exclaimed, for want of anything better to say. “Did you kneel because he made you?”
“No, to make him think he could.”
“I am not a hundred percent sure what a necromancer is, Captain.”
“Someone who raises the dead to do his bidding, I believe. Whether it is newly dead bodies he can raise, or merely the spirits, I do not know.”
“Perhaps both. Perhaps we should not open the door again! What else can he do, I wonder?” she said nervously.
“He has an exceptional mind,” Coltic said again.
“You admire him?”
“I wouldn’t say that. But he does have an exceptional mind.”
“He may have, but now he has captured himself. How convenient for us that he entered the cave… and cannot get out,” said Mako.
“He has not got out… but do not presume he cannot.” Coltic hesitated. “Greyel! Why did you not travel through the passage when you opened it?” He listened for the faint reply.
“I came back for more gold. I am planning to purchase land in the Kingdom of Gryor!”
“Gold is heavy. How much are you taking?”
“As much as I can!” His voice fell and his words became indistinguishable.
“Should you tell him about the curse?” Scylla said in an undertone.
“There is no point—he is already on the verge of madness… or past it.”
“Can you, as a sorcerer, do anything?” She eyed him with hope, while Mako nodded agreement.
“Whatever you can do, Captain.”
Coltic shrugged. “I am rusty. He has possession of a very robust book of magic, and he has deciphered too much of it already. As I said, he is an exceptional student and his skills have grown at a shocking rate. I wonder where the madness will take him… In the hands of a madman, the book will be even more dangerous. But how to get it away from him?”
“If we don’t open the door, he may blast his way out with a strike of magic,” said Mako.
“Like the priests did to the castle wall… but at such close quarters, it may kill him. And us too, if we are standing here.”
“If he destroys the door, the cave will be open to thieves,” Scylla said. “What do you plan to do, Chancellor?”
“I am turning it over to our sorcerer… Captain, lead on!”
The candlelight flickered. Coltic grinned, his eyes gleaming.
“I believe I will open the door once more. Princess, I think you should go back upstairs, and outside. You too, Ch
ancellor.”
Scylla turned instantly and headed for the wide, inviting staircase. Mako followed. “Bring that candlestick, Chancellor… it is almost dark and the floors here are treacherous!”
As they reached the top of the stairs, they heard Coltic calling. “Greyel! Come out… Greyel?”
“What now?” muttered Mako, looking back over his shoulder as the shadows below danced in the flickering light. “Step over that gap, Princess. Take my arm and keep moving!”
They found their way over the maze of splintered floorboards and left the building. In the clearing, soldiers had brought out torches and lit them, driving back the approaching night. Jay, holding the lead lines of Browny and the pony, stood rigid and staring at her.
A moment later, Scylla heard Coltic’s quick footsteps, and he appeared suddenly behind them in the doorway.
“Greyel went further into the cave,” he whispered. “When I opened the door, he was not there… and did not answer. The candles are still burning.”
“Did you see the door close again?” asked Mako. Coltic nodded abruptly. He looked around the clearing.
“What now?” Scylla said.
“If he strikes at the door, we should hear something. Let me know.” He left them and strode towards the soldiers, stopping to have a word with them before moving on to the next group.
“We must decide what to do next, Princess,” said Mako. “The lodge is uninhabitable.”
“Yes, as there is a mad mage in the cellar!”
“I doubt you can sleep in the quarters over the horse stables. Either we ride through the forest to beg Bart Smith’s hospitality once more, or we travel back to the castle.” He looked up. “By the light of the moon… if the sky clears.”
“I heard thunder—a distant rumble. And was that not a flash of lightning to the southeast?”
“Yes, Princess. It would have been far more convenient if you had stayed at the castle. I wish… well, never mind! Is this lodge cursed or am I merely…”
“Calm yourself, Chancellor,” Scylla interrupted him. “I see Coltic has found Renold… go and consult with them. I must speak to Jay. He appears distressed.”
She left the doorstep and approached Jay. His eyes were huge.
“Princess!” he whispered, swallowing convulsively. “I saw the king!”
“What king?”
“King Tobin!”
“My father?”
“He was upstairs and looked out the open window.” Jay pointed at a window.
“Well… that is his bedroom window,” said Scylla, unable to think of anything else to say.
Jay’s mouth opened, and his eyes shifted from side to side. “He is dead, Princess! Is he not?”
“There is a slight complication, Jay. Greyel the physician says he has been able to raise the dead.”
“You found the physician?”
“Yes. He has the book of magic and has unraveled some of its mysteries. It is written in riddles, he says.”
“Take it away from him,” Jay begged. “The Goddess won’t like it!”
“I am sure she won’t.” Scylla eyed the upstairs window in question. Nothing moved behind the dark panes. Thank the Goddess, she said to herself. “We are not staying here tonight,” she told Jay.
“Where are we going?”
“I… what is that?” Other eyes were also turning toward the far side of the clearing, where something beyond the trees was moving.
“Someone carrying a candle,” Jay said. “With men walking behind him.”
“The physician… How did he get out?” Scylla said in surprise.
The soldiers were shrinking into tight knots and melting silently backwards. Mako and the two captains stood shoulder to shoulder, staring at Greyel and his entourage.
Greyel paced slowly across the clearing and reached the lighted area. “Soldier!” His bright eyes had found Coltic’s tall figure. Against his chest he clasped the small book of magic, and he seemed pleased with himself. “There you are. I solved the riddle and found my way out.”
“A rear exit?” Coltic guessed with cheerful interest. “Who would have known? And who is with you?”
“Did I not tell you I have raised the dead?” The mage drew himself up and laughed triumphantly. Almost a cackle, Scylla decided. “Behold!”
All beheld, whether they wanted to or not. A line of men had followed the physician from the shelter of the trees and drew up behind him.
“Well…” Coltic drawled, his gaze on the figures beyond Greyel. “I believe I see King Tobin and his father King Corbin… his father King Lorin… and even… yes, old King Belrin himself. And a few other gentlemen I do not know.”
“Through the riddles in this book, I have called them back… almost the entire line of kings!” Greyel chortled. The kings, standing in a ragged semi-circle behind him, inclined their heads in acknowledgment.
Scylla stared at her father’s figure. Even at a distance, she could see that he was a gory sight, his bloody forearms torn to the bone and a red slash across his neck. His tunic was in ribbons, and a dark stain had spread across it and down his legs. The other kings seemed less damaged but they, if she recalled correctly, had not been hacked to death. They all wore royal if antiquated clothing, and they all carried swords of various designs. Some she had seen hanging in King Tobin’s reception room in the past and they likely now lay in the piles on the floor. The actual weapons, she reminded herself, not the ghostly ones held by the kings standing behind Greyel.
None of the figures was fully opaque, and neither were their swords. All but Greyel had a wispy quality, even in the unreliable light of the flaming torches.
“Why have you called up the spirits of the kings?” Coltic enquired. “Should they not be left alone?”
There was a sudden movement among the figures behind Greyel… a shuffle, redirected glances, a few nods.
Leave us alone, soft voices chimed like bells on the wafting breeze.
“They are here to do my bidding,” the mage said, his friendly tone changing to cold menace.
“Oh? As I recall, kings do their own bidding,” Coltic pointed out. His eyes went back to the risen dead. “Do you not, Your Majesties?”
There was a chorus of chuckles, soft sounds that almost could have been mistaken for the wind in the leaves. Off to the side, near a torch, a soldier slid to the ground in a faint. Others had withdrawn into the forest and were missing entirely. Scylla could not feel any blame toward them.
“No, they do not!” Greyel snarled. “I have raised these spirits according to the book of magic… and they are mine! So are you, soldier! On your knees… to your master!”
Coltic shook his head regretfully.
Behind Greyel, King Tobin drew his sword from its sheath. He raised it high, took a stride forward and slashed downward at the physician. It went right through him. With an apologetic shrug, the king stepped back.
I tried, lads! His well-remembered voice echoed eerily around the grounds. He slid the sword back into its sheath and his head rolled off. There was a universal gasp from the living, except for Greyel, who was oblivious to the whole sequence. One of the other ghosts reached down, picked up Tobin’s head and set it back on his shoulders. Intact once more, he grinned ruefully across the clearing at Coltic, Renold, and Mako and gave them a regretful salute.
“On your knees!” roared Greyel again, glaring at Coltic. When he shook his head, Greyel drew himself up, his eyes widening with intensity. He flung a ball of fire toward Coltic with a loud snap. The captain caught it and threw it down between them, where it rolled a few feet and then sizzled to nothing among the blades of grass.
Greyel recoiled in shock. “You! You are a mage too?” he gasped. Coltic shook his head a third time.
Ah, the oldest king spoke up with sudden interest. I recognize this man. Is he not a sorcerer from the Time of Trouble? The son of his father!
“King Belrin!” Coltic bowed to the graybeard whose piercing eyes stared at him acro
ss the… what? Across the years, Scylla decided, suppressing a cold shiver. Or… across the veil? “I respected the ban fully—until this very week.”
“A sorcerer! You are a sorcerer?” Greyel stared at the captain in angry disbelief. “You cannot be. You are a mere soldier and a… a rogue with never a thought for tomorrow!”
I suggest you take the Book of Magic from the hands of this madman, King Belrin rumbled with a mighty frown. I had thought it was destroyed! Take it, sorcerer!
Coltic hesitated for a moment. Then he said calmly, “The book of magic is dangerous, Greyel. If you give it to me, I will have it destroyed.”
“Are you mad? The book of magic is mine… it is meant for me. I am its master!” The physician’s voice rose in fury.
Coltic ran his hand over his face. Then he strode forward. Greyel’s eyes widened. Clutching the book of magic to his chest with one hand, he pulled a knife from his belt with the other and slashed without warning at Coltic’s midsection.
Coltic leaped back. He wore an expression of regret. He drew his sword and knocked the knife from the physician’s hand in one smooth motion. It spun away, flashing in the warm torchlight. Greyel’s hand spurted blood, and he pulled it back with a shriek.
Mako dodged in with his sword drawn and flicked the knife away across the grass.
Coltic advanced, his blade at the ready. “Give up the book, Greyel.”
But Greyel refused to submit, even though he was injured. He screamed, his eyes like daggers, and threw another ball of hot energy. It hit Coltic’s weapon with a snap and sent it twisting upwards, smoking. Coltic let go, and the sword cartwheeled away. He spun, kicking the side of Greyel’s knee. The man fell heavily to the ground and lost his grip on the book. It fell to the grass, with the pages flipping open.
Mako returned, aiming to sweep the book out of reach as he had done with the knife.
“No!” Greyel wailed. “It’s mine!” With his uninjured hand, he flung another fireball. This one clipped Mako’s shoulder and bounced away across the grass, shedding sparks.
Mako roared in pain, his head back like a howling wolf. He staggered away blindly, his sword dragging from his hand.
Greyel got to his knees and flung one last handful of fire at Coltic, who dodged it as he caught up the book. Then Renold charged past with finality, thrusting his blade through the physician’s heart. The defiant mage was driven backwards to the ground and the sword tip hit dirt with a thud.
The Queen and the Mage Page 31
