“Many would use it to torture their enemies. You’re necromancers. I’m sure you have enemies.” The wraith chuckled mirthlessly. It was a sound straight from a nightmare. “Indeed, the king was quite fond of using it on those who opposed him. But there is more buried here than the Crown. The secrets to its creation were buried with it too.”
“Oh?” Her master’s eyes gleamed. “Tell me more.”
“Master!” Katie cried, rounding on him.
“Relax. We’re not going to make one. Think about it. The Crown can make people feel pain. It likely uses magic to do so, and from the legends I’ve heard, it didn’t matter what magic the wearer had. In other words…”
“The Crown isn’t amplifying someone’s magic.” Katie nodded thoughtfully. “It must be creating the effect on its own, kind of like how most magical swords work. But I’ve never heard of a magical sword that could make people feel pain without causing physical damage.”
“Exactly. That alone is interesting enough. But the legends go further. Supposedly, the Crown doesn’t use runes or seals.”
“It doesn’t?” Katie gasped, and the wraith gave another haunting chuckle. “But that’s crazy! If you don’t use runes or seals when imbuing an object with complex magic, then it either doesn’t last very long, or it requires exotic materials and complicated rituals to maintain. And if the Crown still works after all this time under the ocean... did they have some way of getting around those limitations?”
Her master ruffled her hair affectionately. “And that, Katie, is why you’re my apprentice. You might be short and kind of grumpy, but you’re clever too, which makes my life much easier.”
“Master…” She was tempted to swipe at him with her shadows, but the wraith was still there. Appearances needed to be maintained.
“And what if the Crown doesn’t have to induce pain?” her master asked. “What if we could make something similar, but instead of causing pain, it took pain away?”
“You’d have magical pain relief! It might even be better than what we have now, especially since you can run out of potions and not many people have healing magic. Plus, potions can be addictive if you take them too often. But if the Crown doesn’t cause physical damage…”
“It might not lead to addiction or overdosing either.”
The wraith tilted his head to one side. “You two are unlike any necromancers I’ve ever met. Instead of thinking about who you’re going to torture, you’re talking about helping people.”
Her master laughed. “Believe me, there are some people I wouldn’t mind torturing, but I have a castle in desperate need of upgrades and maintenance. There’s no money in torturing people, but there is plenty of money in helping them. Besides, I’d rather not have the Council come after me, which they absolutely will if I go around torturing people.”
“Common sense in a necromancer. Will wonders never cease?” The wraith gave a low rumble and stroked his chin again. “If the Crown is not to your liking, there is other treasure to be found here too. There are magical artefacts and books. If I am not mistaken, we even have a copy of The Tome of Forbidden Eldritch Wisdom. It should still be in good condition. This part of the tomb is protected by preservation magic.”
Katie rubbed her hands together in glee. “Did you hear him, master? We need to get that book! We don’t have one, not a complete one.”
“At this point, I don’t know if anyone does. The Tome of Forbidden Eldritch Wisdom is more than four thousand years old.”
“Then we’ll be the only ones.” Katie cheered mentally. Outwardly, she had the good sense to realise that cheering loudly in the middle of a tomb filled with traps and perhaps even monsters was a bad idea. “Can you tell us anything about the traps down here? Are there any monsters?”
“I cannot tell you much.” The wraith was beginning to fade. Even with her master’s expertise, it seemed like talking to them had drained the last of his strength. “I am bound to this area – my grave is under the floor nearby – and I was not here when they built this place although I was still alive when they brought in many of the tomb’s treasures.” The wraith gestured, and tendrils of ice formed a crude map on the floor. “This is the general shape of the tomb. Good luck. You two are my best hope of getting what revenge I can against the ones responsible for putting me here.” He paused. “Send me to the afterlife when I fade. I’ve lingered here long enough, and I have answered your questions as best I can.”
The wraith faded away. It would be hours, perhaps longer, before her master could summon him again.
“Most wraiths you meet are jerks, but some of them are actually quite nice. He was certainly helpful.” Timmy gestured, and his magic sent the wraith on to the afterlife. “He deserves his rest, and I don’t think he was lying to us. My magic should have made it impossible, but it can’t hurt to be careful.” He studied the map the wraith had left behind and made a rough copy of it on a piece of parchment. “Let’s get moving. We’ll head toward the library first.”
* * *
Katie was annoyed. No, annoyed wasn’t the right word. She was murderous. They had run into one trap after another. So far, there had been so many that it wouldn’t surprise her to find out that the entire tomb was actually made of traps. There had been pit traps, arrow traps, oil traps, acid traps, swinging blade traps… the list was endless. And the worst part? Whoever had built this place had clearly been prepared for necromancers because the traps were designed to also hit people who were walking what seemed like a safe distance behind the zombies who were taking the lead. It was crazy.
“You might want to duck,” Timmy said.
Normally, Katie would have argued. She was already short. What good would ducking do? Anything aimed at decapitating her master would not get anywhere near her. Not this time. The last time she’d thought about arguing – roughly fifteen minutes ago – her master had been forced to trip her over to keep her head attached to her shoulders. Wonderful. Either the people who built this place also liked cutting people in half, or they had planned for pint-sized tomb raiders too.
Katie ducked, and a blade whistled through the space where her head had been. A growl left her lips. The zombies ahead of them had triggered the trap. One of the tiles under their feet had moved. However, the trap hadn’t activated for almost thirty seconds, enough time for her and her master to wonder if it was broken and to get within its range. Unfortunately, one of her zombies was slow to duck. Despite its durability, the massive blade, which was bigger than Katie, made short work of it. She winced. The blade was still sharp, even after so many years. Her other zombies managed to grab the chain attached to the blade, and they brought it to a halt before it could swing back toward them. Naturally the chain was attached to another trap. Arrows shot out of holes in the wall, but her zombies were sturdy enough to take a few of those without flinching.
“Who designs something like this?” Katie grumbled. “I mean… they had to have been intelligent. The traps are too well planned for them to have been stupid, so why didn’t they use their intelligence to work on something useful?” Her shadows clawed at the air. “Instead of using their intelligence to build a tomb like this, couldn’t they have focused on, I don’t know, better sanitation and plumbing in their cities?”
“You raise some good points, Katie, but I think you greatly underestimate how fun it is to build deadly traps.”
He gestured for her to press herself flat against the wall, and she hurried to obey. The middle section of the floor fell away to reveal another pit trap, complete with barbed spikes because, clearly, normal spikes weren’t deadly enough. Wonderful. And was that poison on those spikes? Good grief. She used her shadows to make it easier to creep along the narrow ledge she was on. As for her master, he treated her to an impressive display of agility as he managed to make it to the other side despite his ledge collapsing halfway. Their zombies, far stronger and faster than most humans, simply leapt over the gap or were ferried across by the zombie gecko-drake.
/> “People have always been obsessed with protecting their treasure, so it’s no wonder people go overboard with traps.” Timmy grinned. “You should give it a try. We’ve got plenty of traps in the castle, but there’s always room for more. Who knows? You might even come up with something new and exciting.”
“Like what? A pit full of zombie honey badgers…?” Katie trailed off, imagining her enemies being torn to shreds after they plummeted into a pit full of ferocious zombie honey badgers. “Wait… how long would it take for us to get some honey badger corpses?”
He laughed. “And now you understand. As for the honey badger corpses… it’ll take at least a fortnight to get a reasonable number, less if you only want one or two.”
They continued until they reached the large corridor that her master suspected would take them to the library. He’d been to other tombs from this era. Given the wraith’s map and his own experience, he was confident of the library’s location. Katie frowned and signalled for them to stop. Their zombies were in front of them, but her shadows had sensed something further ahead. She raised her crystal to shine some light down the corridor – and then stumbled as her master pushed her out of the way. Her shoulder hit the wall hard, and she bit back a cry of pain. It would have been easy to bite off a snappy remark, but he wouldn’t have shoved her unless he had to. She turned her head –
Oh.
One of her zombies had been sliced in half, and a massive shard of ice was imbedded in the wall where she’d been standing. It must have moved too quickly for her zombies to react, but her master had somehow seen it coming. Their zombies rushed forward to form a protective cordon, and the zombie warriors locked their shields together. Katie got back to her feet and extended her magical senses. Their opponent was standing at the other end of the corridor. It was a lich.
“Master?”
He swung his shovel and smashed the shard of ice to prevent them from running into it if they were forced to retreat. “I’ll let you handle this one, Katie.”
She grinned. He was probably just feeling lazy, but this would be a good chance for her to learn. Liches were powerful undead that often specialised in ice magic. Even without a necromancer to guide them, they were often highly intelligent and cunning. Had she been alone, she would have been tempted to retreat, but she wasn’t alone. She had her zombies, and they made all the difference.
She sent a few of her zombies forward as her shadows raced toward the lich in the form of thin, narrow ribbons. Her shadows could cut through wood with ease, so she hoped they and her zombies could distract the lich while she prepared her real attack. Shards of ice shot forward, but her zombie warriors were ready this time. Their shields rattled from each impact but held firm. A wave of bitter cold rushed outward, and an icy wind roared to life in a bid to shove her zombies back. Her lips curved up into a small smile. Good. The lich was distracted.
There was a reason necromancers didn’t send small groups of zombies against other necromancers unless they had no choice. Zombies and other undead could be created through necromantic magic. Another necromancer could attack that magic, reducing zombies to little more than rotting corpses. Only the most finely made zombies – or berserk, rampaging, rebellious zombies – could resist such an attack, so the usual alternative was to rely on overwhelming numbers. A necromancer who was under attack by hundreds of zombies at the same time would be hard-pressed to deal with them before they were ripped to pieces, especially if the zombies were being reinforced by their creator. Katie wasn’t as skilled or as powerful as her master – yet – but this lich was on its own, and it did not have a necromancer to protect it.
Another volley of ice shards clattered into the shields of her zombies, and Katie’s necromancy surged. This was the opportunity she’d been waiting for. The lich staggered back and gave a hideous, keening wail. Violent spasms wracked its body, and chunks of ice flew every which way. With one last, grating shriek, the lich exploded. Bits of bone and rotting flesh flew through the air, along with more ice and snow. Katie grimaced as what appeared to be one of the lich’s fingers ended up in her hair.
“Yuck!” Katie screeched. “There’s a finger in my hair!”
“Stop squirming.” Her master plucked the finger out of her hair and tossed it aside. It crumbled to dust only seconds later. “Good work, Katie. But next time, try to be more focused with your necromantic attack. Don’t use your magic like a sledgehammer. That’s why the lich exploded. Use your magic more like a knife. Search for the spark of necromancy animating your target and then extinguish it. It’s quicker, less messy, and far more efficient magic-wise.” He pointed to where their zombies were clearing away the ice and snow that littered the corridor. “It’ll also save you a lot of trouble. Instead of exploding, the lich would either have been completely immobilised or crumbled to dust.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that before I made it explode?” Katie asked. She ran her hands through her hair. Good. There weren’t any other bits of the lich in her hair. She didn’t consider herself a vain person, but she was not about to go walking around with bits of a dead lich in her hair.
“I thought you’d be more motivated to do better next time if I didn’t.” Timmy chuckled. “Plus, I thought it would be funny. You should have seen your face.”
“Master…” Katie growled.
“And you should consider yourself lucky. My master didn’t tell me, and I ended up exploding the zombie barracuda he slipped into my bathtub.”
Katie stared. “You’re making that up. Where would your master even get a barracuda from?”
“Never underestimate the resourcefulness of an evil, drunk necromancer who basically lived to torture his apprentices.” Timmy patted her on the head. “Don’t worry, I’d never slip a barracuda into your bathtub.”
“You’d better not!”
“Given how handy you’ve already gotten with your shadows, I’d have to go with some kind of shark if I really wanted to test you. It’s a pity, though, any shark big enough to make you work is going to be too big to fit into your bathtub.”
“Master, if I find a shark in my bathtub the next time I take a bath…” Katie’s eyes narrowed, and her shadows stirred ominously, forming a forest of jagged, black blades around them. “I will not be happy.”
“Yes, yes. I’m sure you’d attempt to murder me and seize control of the castle.” He grinned. “Don’t worry, I’m not like my master. If I ever ask you to fight a shark, it’ll be at the beach where I can find a suitably large one. And after you beat it, we can turn it into a zombie.”
“A zombie shark?” Katie’s eyes gleamed. “I haven’t made one of those yet.”
“Who knows, maybe we can even make it a composite zombie. How does a zombie shark-whale sound?”
“It sounds awesome.” Katie crossed her arms. “But you’d better not be lying, master. I want to make a zombie shark-whale.”
“Would I ever lie to you?”
“Yes.”
“Maybe. But only for your own good.”
Beyond the lich was the library, and it didn’t take them long to get the doors unlocked. Katie almost squealed in delight. There were so many books and scrolls in here, and she barely recognised any of them. And there, in pride of place on its own shelf, was The Tome of Forbidden Eldritch Wisdom.
“I know that look on your face.” Timmy put one hand on her shoulder before she could lunge at the ancient book. “But first we need to check for traps.”
There were only a handful of traps in the library although the biggest one, a pit full of acid, was right in front of The Tome of Forbidden Eldritch Wisdom. Once they were sure it was safe, it was time to go through the books and scrolls. Katie was still learning the language most of the books were written in – her master knew a lot of languages for someone who claimed not to spend much time on them – but she’d already learned enough to do some rough translations. It wasn’t long before she had a big grin on her face. This library was a treasure trove.
&nb
sp; “Here.” Her master tossed her a sack. “Put the books you’re interested in into the sack.”
Katie caught the sack. Her eyes widened. “Wait… doesn’t the corpse dealer, I think Mike is his name, have a sack like this?”
“You’ve got good eyes. I bought this from him a while back when I first started raiding tombs on my own. It’s a lot bigger on the inside than the outside, a lot like the wagons Mike and his family use to transport corpses. It does something about the weight too, so you don’t have to worry about being strong enough to lift what you put inside it. The magic and seals involved are extremely complicated, and it’s designed to self-destruct if you try to take it apart or reproduce it. It also takes a considerable amount of magic to use, but it’s worth it. Can you imagine how long it would take for us to transport so many books and scrolls the normal way?” He gave her a wry smile. “We’re going to empty this library of anything worthwhile, but it’ll take us multiple trips because we’ve only got two of those sacks. Pick out what you want the most. Once the sack is full, and you’ll know when it’s full, we’ll have one of the zombies take the sacks and retrace our steps back to the surface.”
Katie put a book into the sack and then paused. “Master, if this sack is bigger on the inside than the outside and makes things lighter… why not put multiple sacks inside each other? Wouldn’t you be able to fit even more things in that way?”
Timmy stared at her. “Katie, that is a brilliant idea. Never do it.”
“What?” Katie yelped. “Why not?”
“Logically, your idea is perfectly sound. In fact, I even suggested it to Mike. He didn’t say a word. He just put one sack inside another sack and then threw it as far as he could.”
Katie didn’t like the sound of that. “What happened next?”
“Do you remember what happened when Sam tried to drag something from his home dimension into our world without conducting the proper ritual first?”
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