by Clark Bolton
“You seemed to have pieced it all together with not too much help from me. Anyway I suppose not even the Dieknotkows could tell them what to prepare for, just like the one we have left can’t help us as much as we need.”
“They saw it I think, O’t. They saw themselves, but I would guess by then it was too late for many of them.”
“Sounds like a fable given to us by the gods. Can’t but think it was not so simple.”
“Maybe, but the other likely cause was those gods you mentioned. I would think just like the Tesslodken Sta’s they could have recalled the mages.”
“And I suppose just like the Sta’s, they left one or two behind. Kind of like seeds, or maybe more like weeds.” He chuckled.
“You're getting to think like me, O’t, very dangerous, but wise.”
At forty-five days come winter Neustus announced the chamber built below the tower cellar to his specifications was complete. The dwarves had some weeks before finished the stonework but Neustus had much to do in the chamber involving wards and other details. He had even asked Berdtom to bring in some Gitra priests to bless the place which really put everyone on edge as now their secret chambers were not so secret.
Autbek ended up apologizing for Neustus. “They were handpicked I’m told and so there are but a few of them that know the location.” They had blindfolded the priests before leading them down into the cellar, but the dwarves were not too impressed by that fact.
“I don’t think one of them was a priest, O’t.” Castor had warned. “He was the one master Neustus was so interested in. The one he kept poking at like he was a pig.”
“I know what you mean; I just wish I knew where this was ending and when.” Autbek knew only a little more than the others, except for Onaleen. Neustus expected both of them to perform somehow, and it involved their studies with the Grimoire Rassboatta, but Neustus assured them it was best they not know exactly what for the moment.
“It’s not going to be necromancy is it, O’t?” Onaleen had asked repeatedly. She seemed in terror of the idea that she would be forced to do something that no healer would in their right mind do.
“Hope not, anyway I don’t think either of us is going to stand for that. Nor do I think Neustus would ask it of us.”
On day thirty-nine come winter the Gitra priests showed up again. They brought the same man with them but this time he was dressed in ceremonial robes and his face and hands were inscribed with symbols to the point where he looked truly ghastly to the mages.
Autbek had been warned by Neustus to prepare his tools, the ones he had been using for dissection, and Onaleen was to come prepared also with her most potent healing spells. The both of them felt an ominous task was going to be asked of them, and that Neustus was not going to allow them to refuse.
They filed into the small chamber which contained a large stone table set in its center not unlike an altar. A second table was built into the wall as were a number of niches that now contained either candles or various items such as instruments, towels, and small basins of water. Several flasks had been filled by Autbek with various liquids according to Neustus’s instructions. This included alcohol, berry oil, and several water based concoctions containing strong reagents.
Castor and Haspeth played minor roles as did the three priests that accompanied the man whose name was Kersic.When the priests had the man lay down on the table affixed to the wall the two apprentices looked to Autbek for an explanation of what was about to come.
“O’t, where is this going, are we about to do something we'll regret?” Caster whispered as soon as the opportunity presented itself.
Haspeth jumped in with his concerns. “Not demonology is it, O’t?” He was glancing nervously about at the arcane-symbols he had helped carve into the stones.
Autbek took a deep breath trying to alleviate his own fears. “No, it isn’t, not in the way you are thinking. Just do what is asked of you now, and I’ll do the same.” He turned to Onaleen who had been given the task by Neustus of cleaning Kersic’s face, with particular attention to be given to his right eye. She was hard at work now and so did not see the concern on his face.
Neustus himself had come in now and so Castor and Haspeth helped him onto the table. They had been given strict instructions not to allow the priests to touch Neustus nor to cast any spells inside the chamber though no one thought they were even capable of spell-craft. When settled on the table Neustus called Autbek over.
“Difficult … but you must do now what I ask. Time has run out … I must see as you do, Autbek.”
“Yes, sir … but still I have not mastered all you asked.”
Castor watched as the two mages whispered softly to each other then he went back to his main task now, which was keeping an eye on the priests. They hovered around Kersic and seemed to be trying their best to help Onaleen. When she was done she looked to him and Haspeth with apprehension. “Ready?” Castor asked.
“Yes, I think so, but best not wait too long or I should do the cleaning again.”
“Stand over there please, Onaleen, until he’s ready.” Castor wanted plain view of the priests and was making sure both he and Haspeth had it. They then all waited impatiently as Autbek and Neustus continued to confer.
Standing up now, Autbek said softly to Castor. “Let Resbeka and Pemmesa in, but no one else, and make sure Murac stands ready outside the door. I don’t think he is needed, but …” After the two were let in and positioned where he wanted he nodded to Onaleen and then one after another to each of the other apprentices.
Walking over to one of the niches where a scroll had been previously laid out next to several lit candles, Autbek began casting the spell. It was a cancellation spell that Neustus had prepared for this day. When the spell was complete he turned and touched Neustus.
The others watched in shock as Neustus transformed slowly into his man-bird form, after which Autbek signaled Onaleen to bring several instruments and other items from some of the niches. Each niche had been filled in a precise way such that Onaleen had only to know which to start with first in order to find the item that was needed next by Autbek.
First Autbek poured a solution into Dieknotkow’s right eye. This quickly effervesced and so soon the room was filled with a sickly-sweet smell. Onaleen then stepped in as she had done a hundred times before when assisting Autbek with his dissections. She cleaned away the excess liquid and then leaned back so that Autbek could continue.
Castor found the whole scene both fascinating and horrifying at the same time. Most in the room watched closely, except for Haspeth who kept his eyes glued to the priests. Looking to Kersic he could see the man had his eyes tightly closed as he lay on the other table, and was trembling with what Castor assumed to be fear.
After briefly rinsing his hands in a small basin that Onaleen now held, Autbek reached forth and spread open the right eye of the Dieknotkow and brought his first instrument into play. It was a scalpel with a specially curved blade that allows its wielder to easily sever the muscles about the eye, which Autbek did to his former master at that very moment.
Castor looked away as did most in the room; else they shut their eyes as Autbek drew forth the eyeball and then carefully cut the long nerve that hung from it. At no time did the Dieknotkow move or offer resistance though it did emit soft clicks and whistles. Castor’s stomach began heaving a little and he had to force down some bile as he did his best to focus on the priests.
Placing the eyeball in a special cup, Autbek then turned to focus on Kersic. From memory Autbek cast a holding spell upon the man which immediately stopped the man from trembling further. Then using a previously prepared thread and needle Autbek unceremoniously sowed the man’s eyelid to his eyebrow forcing the eye to remain open. Onaleen then handed Autbek an identical curved scalpel, like the one used on the Dieknotkow, and so then Autbek cut out the eyeball of the man.
Onaleen looked about to faint and so Resbeka and Pemmesa came to steady her. After placing the second eyeb
all in a bowl, Autbek grabbed a small vial off the shelf and then after pulling the stopper from it he held it to Onaleen’s face. She jerked back at the smell, and after a moment color came back to her face. Before putting the vial back in its niche Autbek took a whiff of the stuff himself.
What happened next seemed surreal to Castor after the removal of the eyeballs. Autbek transformed Neustus back into a man and then cast another hold spell, this time to keep Neustus from moving. After this he proceeded to stitch Kersic’s eyeball into Neustus’s empty socket. When complete with that surgery Onaleen moved in to cast several healing spells from scrolls.
The procedure was repeated on Kersic, such that now the man had one human eye and one eye from the Dieknotkow. When the surgery was completed an exhausted Autbek ushered everyone from the room except for Resbeka and Pemmesa, who were to stay to attend the two patients.
“Ah … I’m going to be sick.” Haspeth announced as he leaned against the wall outside the chamber. Murac, who had stood guard the whole time outside the room, smiled at him humorously.
“Not your thing is it, battle-mage!”
Castor looked at Murac contemptuously. “Ain’t anybody’s thing I hope!” He then watched Autbek walk quietly with Onaleen in hand around a corner, and out of sight.
With winter only a couple of weeks off the viken took their leave of the city of Astrum and proceeded to various locations far away that they kept secret even from Pemmesa. They had insisted this was best for all, for as far as they could see with their divinations great conflict would arise between them and the Hon-Chi if they remained.
Aldem kindly hugged Pemmesa and wished the apprentice well and then warned her not to use the viken name though they now considered her one of them. “I won’t.” She promised as she tearfully said goodbye.
The viken had a shack now, it had been built by the dwarves and was attached to the side of the tower away from the courtyard. Most nights she met one or more of the viken there, some of which stayed for weeks at a time. She felt a great emptiness building in her as she watched them leave.
The whole scene made Autbek shudder as the Hon-Chi returned to his mind. Every day now he worked to prepare and pushed the others to do the same. And with Neustus still recovering from surgery he felt even more pressure to root out the flaws in his preparations.
Berdtom, for the most part, kept to the palace and his offices within the city and so only occasionally had time to come to the mage tower. Always his friend tried to alleviate his concerns about not doing enough or not being able to find solutions to the flaws he saw in their preparations. “You have your scrolls prepared … and I see that the teleportation circles are in place throughout the city … not much else to do, O’t. Most of this will depend on the generals now.”
Autbek had watched the army camps grow and morph into small towns about the fields east of the city until the number of troops reached beyond ten thousand. They looked impressive and unstoppable but he knew that the images of the Hon-Chi he had seen also looked that way.
It was almost winter when the troops from Runeholden arrived, and as Berdtom had warned they headed straight for the mage tower as opposed to the camps, which was where all the other arriving men-at-arms were sent. In total there were three hundred of them and they came mostly as light cavalry. They were broken into three companies of a hundred, with each being led by a lieutenant and the whole group by a captain named Gerioud.
Berdtom knew the captain and soon had him and all his troops put under his personal command. Autbek hoped to train them personally to some extent as a kind of countermeasure to whatever the opposing mages threw at them. Time was at an end though, they knew and when the direction of the captive Halflings changed they put aside thoughts of training the new troops.
In the second week of winter they stood atop the walls of Astrum to marvel at the Hon-Chi fleet that had come to the mouth of the harbor. It was beyond anything they had expected and so when the first catapult launched its payload at the city of Astrum, Autbek and his five apprentices felt very inadequate.
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Published God-Kissed books
God-Kissed: Book 1 (The Apprentices)
God-Kissed: Book 2 Part I (The Dragon Coven part I)
Future God-Kissed books
God-Kissed: Book 2 Part II (The Dragon Coven part II)
God-Kissed: Book 3 (Pemmesa)
God-Kissed: Book 4 (The Emperor’s Mage)
God-Kissed: Pulp Fiction
(optional books in series)
God-Kissed: PF #1 (The Spy in the Tower)
