The Necromancer's Rogue

by Icy Sedgwick

  “Come along, Jyx, Vyolet. We’ve got a lot to do, and not a lot of time in which to do it.” Eufame plunged along the tunnel, away from the grate. She held aloft her left hand and conjured flames of silver light.

  Jyx and Vyolet took each other’s hands and followed.

  16

  Chapter 16

  The tunnel led into the sewers, brick-lined corridors with vaulted ceilings like the chapels in the temple. Ledges ran the length of each wall to allow workers to keep their feet out of the bulk of the sewage. The trio walked along the ledges in single file, and Jyx curled his toes around the edge of the platform as he inched along behind Vyolet. Eufame took the lead, holding aloft her flickering silver light. The flames cast shadows up the walls that danced and twisted as she moved. Jyx wasn’t sure what the spell was, but the flames also seemed to hold the stench at bay.

  “Will your sister know we’re gone yet?” Jyx’s voice echoed around him.

  “Undoubtedly, but unfortunately for her, she can’t venture beyond the House of Correction. She’s the only thing holding it together and, unless she wants it tumbling down, she’ll stay there,” replied Eufame.

  “Will she send anything after us?” asked Vyolet, sounding small in the darkness.

  “She may try, but her power is limited beyond the confines of the House. Our biggest worry is if the City Guard are mobilised to re-arrest me, so we need to sort this whole mess out before that happens,” replied Eufame.

  Jyx thought about Eufame and her relationship to the House of the Long Dead. It couldn’t be a coincidence that her sister was also in charge of a House.

  “Eufame, why is it that your sister can’t leave her House without it collapsing, but you can leave yours?”

  “That’s an excellent question, and one with a very simple answer. I had my House built out of actual stone, not souls.”

  “But the House of the Long Dead is really old!” replied Vyolet.

  “So am I.” Eufame turned and flashed a smile at Vyolet, and the stiffness eased in Jyx’s shoulders before he even realised he’d been tense. Eufame’s aura didn’t feel as black as it normally was. Since leaving the House of Correction, her tone had been lighter. Maybe she’d felt as oppressed as Jyx had, and probably more so, since it was her sister who was in charge of the oppression. Jyx tried to picture an older Delsenza sibling, but his brain kept short-circuiting and focusing on Vyolet’s hair bobbing in front of him instead.

  “What’s the actual plan now that you’re free?”

  “I might as well tell you, since you were good enough to get me out of that hole. Have you ever heard of the Heart of the City?” asked Eufame.

  “Yes, every kid knows that story,” replied Jyx.

  “It’s not just a story, though,” said Vyolet.

  “What?”

  “It’s real. It’s somewhere beneath the Underground City. It’s just no one actually knows where it is now.”

  “How can there be anything beneath the Underground City? I thought it was as low as you got,” said Jyx.

  “There are lots of things below it. The Shrine of Beseda, for one thing. The sewers. Tombs. But there are the ruins of a much older city below it too, and the Heart of the City is somewhere down there. I have to find it.”

  “Why?”

  “Whoever controls the Heart controls both Cities. I don’t want to control them, I just want to use the Heart to sweep the corruption out of the council.”

  “Is that because they’re after your job?” asked Vyolet.

  “I would never be that vindictive. No, I am fed up with having to block the asinine plans of the councillors who only want to line their own pockets. I’ve spoken with long-dead rulers, and they’ve asked me to do something about it. The council is taking the City Above in the wrong direction, and they can’t be allowed to clear the Underground City. The two need to act in harmony if they’re going to survive,” replied Eufame.

  The tunnel opened onto a wider sewer, with a river of waste rushing along before them. The ledges continued along either side of the larger tunnel, and a doorway cut into the wall across the river. A white mark had been carved into the brick behind them.

  “Wait, I know where we are!” cried Vyolet. She traced the mark with her finger.

  “You do?” asked Eufame.

  “Yes, this isn’t far from the Flee Market. It’s known as Lost Dare Gap,” replied Vyolet. “The urchins used to come down here and dare each other to jump over to here from that doorway.” She pointed across the river.

  Waste churned and bubbled within the black water. Nausea burned in Jyx’s throat.

  “Used to?” Eufame raised an eyebrow.

  “There were a lot of accidents, so they found new ways to challenge each other that didn’t involve anything so gross. The Shadowkin took over the sewers instead to hide in, but we don’t often come this far into the network. I never knew why, but being down here, I can see it’s too close to the House of Correction.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes, this is my brother Benjamin’s mark. It’s not new, probably about six months old, but we just need to get across there, and there’s a ladder which’ll take us up into the service tunnels above the sewers, and you can walk straight out of those into the City.”

  “I didn’t know there was a link between the City Above and the Underground City,” said Jyx.

  “I’d hardly call the House of Correction a link, but there are passageways all over the place if you know where to look. Sadly, I don’t, because geography has never been a strong point of mine,” replied Eufame. “Now I think our priority is crossing this river.”

  “Jumping it isn’t going to work,” replied Vyolet.

  “No, I have no intention of falling into sewage. I think young Jyx here should be the one to solve the problem,” said Eufame.

  “I don’t know what to do! I can’t conjure a bridge out of thin air,” replied Jyx.

  “No but try to think laterally. How else could you cross moving water?” asked Eufame.

  “You could freeze it.” Vyolet peered over the edge into the river and wrinkled her nose.

  “I don’t know how to freeze things. I didn’t get to that at the Academy.”

  “But you do know how to un-freeze things.” Eufame gave him a pointed look. A memory scudded across his mind’s eye; he saw himself wandering into the Ornamental Garden in the Academy grounds, and leaning over a bridge to peer into the frozen stream. Faces looked up at him from beneath the ice, reflections caught by the water. He drew a sigil, and threw a stone, and the ice cracked.

  “Does that work in reverse?” He didn’t want to know how Eufame knew about that. Her crow spy had probably told her.

  “Give it a go.” Eufame smiled.

  Jyx practised drawing the sigil to unfreeze ice several times in the air then faced the torrent of sewage. It bubbled and frothed just inches beneath the lip of the ledge on which he stood. He drew the sigil in reverse, wondering if there was an incantation to go with it. He’d never used one to thaw ice.

  Nothing happened. The river continued to roar past them.

  “Try it again, and this time put some oomph into it,” said Eufame.

  “Is that a technical term?” Jyx muttered under his breath and pushed up his sleeves. He concentrated, visualising a cold wind blowing up the river towards them. He pictured the sewage coming to a standstill, the water becoming solid and freezing the river mid-flow. He drew the sigil again, and this time pushed it into the deluge.

  A sudden blast of cold air roared up the tunnel, whipping Eufame’s hair away from her face. Its wintry fingers plunged into the water, turning the river to ice. Solid clumps of matter paused, caught in the frozen embrace. Further upstream, the ice groaned where the oncoming river pressed against it, desperate to break through.

  “We haven’t got long,” said Jyx.

  Vyolet streaked across the ice so fast her feet barely touched the surface. She stood just inside the doorway in the opposi
te wall. Eufame strode after her, flicking her fingers as she walked. The ice crystallised into a fine powder of crystals so she wouldn’t slip.

  Jyx stepped down onto the frozen river. It shifted beneath him, and he swore under his breath. He tried to hurry, but water flowed beneath the thick crust of ice. A crack appeared to his left, and a thin trickle of brown sludge forced its way upwards, spilling onto the ice. Eufame reached the other side and stepped up beside Vyolet. Jyx focused on the crystal path left by Eufame, placing his feet inside her footprints.

  “Jyx, it won’t last much longer,” called Eufame.

  Jyx glared at her and considered using another sigil, but he didn’t have time to pause on the ice. He broke into a run and got one foot onto the ledge when a huge crack split the ice behind him. The water roared beneath, springing up wherever it found room, and the ice splintered into small frozen islands. Vyolet reached out and grasped Jyx’s hand pulling him onto the ledge. No sooner had his other foot touched the brickwork, the river overwhelmed the ice, and the remains of his spell disappeared away down the tunnel.

  “Why didn’t you do something to stop the water coming through?” Jyx glared at Eufame again.

  “You may be my apprentice, Jyx, but I won’t always be around to help you out. You need to learn how to do things for yourself. If you were truly in danger, naturally I would have stepped in, but you were not in any immediate peril,” replied Eufame.

  “Don’t you care about him?” asked Vyolet, still clutching Jyx’s hand.

  “Of course I do, but Jyx will become a much more powerful mage when he learns to solve his own problems. I learned an awful lot through having to think on my feet,” replied Eufame.

  She swept through the doorway past Vyolet. Jyx followed. The dark anteroom led to a narrow, rickety metal staircase that ascended into the gloom above. Eufame’s feet disappeared into the darkness. Vyolet let go of Jyx’s hand and sprang upwards through the shadows. Jyx sighed and began the steady climb out of the sewers.

  The smell subsided as they ascended, replaced instead by damp brick and moss. Jyx’s eyes adjusted, and the dim outlines of the steps melted out of the darkness.

  They climbed in silence and the staircase brought them into a second anteroom. A heavy wooden door occupied most of the wall opposite the stairs, with a second low door set into the larger gate. A familiar figure stood, half cloaked in shadows by the stairs.

  “Validus!” cried Jyx. Without thinking, he darted forward and hugged the Wolfkin.

  The Wolfkin patted him on the shoulder with a giant hand. “Master Faire. Mistress, and little Miss Vyolet. I am pleased to see you all.” Validus’s voice echoed in Jyx’s head, and he disentangled himself to relay the message to Vyolet.

  “My sister didn’t make things easy, but as you see, we’ve made it,” said Eufame.

  “How did you know we’d be here?” asked Jyx.

  “I heard from a mutual acquaintance that you’d entered the sewers. I guessed that you would emerge here.”

  “Very good. We don’t have a lot of time to lose. Jyx, Vyolet, I must accompany Validus to the Wolfkin archives. I don’t doubt that they have information that will be of use to the quest. Jyx, I want you to go and check on your family, and await my next instructions. Vyolet, I need you to be my messenger. You’re the fastest of us, and you can evade detection,” said Eufame.

  “Where’s my mother now?”

  Eufame relayed an address, and Jyx committed it to memory. His family had moved to a new tenement not far from the temple – Jyx guessed Eufame had chosen it because the City Guard wouldn’t be keen to cause a commotion near a house of worship.

  Validus handed Jyx a new robe, this one purple instead of apprentice red. He hauled the red one over his head to swap the clothing while Validus passed his mistress a hooded cloak. Eufame tucked her hair out of view. The hood cast shadows across her face, and she muttered an incantation under her breath. Her features shimmered, and resettled in the expression of an old human woman. Wrinkles clustered around her eyes and mouth.

  “This should keep me safe for now,” she said. Eufame squeezed Jyx’s shoulder, and followed Validus out into the street. Vyolet plunged after them, casting a final glance behind her before the doorway swallowed her up.

  Jyx pulled up his own hood. He waited in the darkness for a few moments, before slipping through the doorway and into the Underground City.

  17

  Chapter 17

  Vyolet tailed Eufame and the Wolfkin named Validus through the narrow alleyways near the Flee Market. So much had happened since her last visit here. She pressed herself against the walls, skipping from shadow to shadow. They passed city dwellers wearing DWS patches, but thankfully they didn’t wear the goggles so beloved of the City Guard. Eufame and Validus might protect her, but she’d rather not test the theory.

  Vyolet knew the alleyways and hidden passages of the Underground City well, a vast network of shadow streets that twisted and turned beneath the flickering gaslight, but she couldn’t work out where the Wolfkin might keep their archives. Until recently, she hadn’t known they even had archives – which was clearly the point. She couldn’t work out why such a powerful and intelligent race wanted to remain enslaved by humans, though they probably had their own reasons. After all, letting humans think they were nothing more than guard dogs let them get on with their own endeavours away from any prying eyes.

  They kept to the canal side of the Underground City, leaving the Flee Market behind them. Darting through the labyrinth, they reached the edge of the warehouse district, and Validus led them down through the narrow streets to the jetties that ran the length of the canal. The dockers ignored them, and Validus pointed out a raft moored in the shadows away from the hustle and bustle. A hooded figure sat on it, muscular arms protruding from the sackcloth cloak, and huge, paw-like hands curled around a long pole that disappeared into the dark water.

  Eufame stepped onto the raft first, and sat down on the bare wood beside the figure. Validus helped Vyolet onto the raft, and stepped up behind her. The figure raised his free hand and made a familiar sign – ‘Please sit’.

  “Fortis!” Vyolet’s voice broke the quiet, and her hand flew to her mouth as if she could grasp the name and pull it back before it was heard.

  The figure signed a greeting, and Vyolet sat beside him, as close as she could get without sitting in his lap. At least now she’d be able to understand what was being said – Eufame and Validus communicated in a complex series of barks and yips.

  Validus took the pole from Fortis, and used it to push the raft away from the jetty. They drifted along the canal, and Validus guided their course with nudges and prods from the pole. Vyolet kept her millions of questions to herself and snuggled closer to the Wolfkin, enjoying the warmth he radiated. They passed other vessels on the canal, but no one paid them any heed.

  After a few minutes of silent travel, Vyolet studied Eufame. She sat on the other side of Fortis, her brow knitted in furious concentration. Both hands rested on her knees, the palms facing upwards, and a black haze hung above her fingers. Tiny sparks flittered through the haze, spinning up into the air to fall again like silver rain around them. Vyolet said nothing – she recognised a cloaking enchantment when she saw one.

  Smaller watercourses branched off the main canal, disappearing into archways hewn from the cliff face that formed the boundary of the Underground City. Validus chose one distinguished only by the almost imperceptible sigil cut into the rock.

  Once they were safely inside the tunnel, Eufame broke her concentration and clapped her hands. The black haze evaporated and the last of the silver sparks winked out of existence. Her disguise faded, and she resumed her usual haughty expression. She cracked her knuckles and held her hand aloft, conjuring the silver flames she’d used to illuminate the House of Correction.

  The canal ran through a narrow tunnel only barely high enough to allow Validus to remain standing. Pick marks remained in the stone from the tools used
to originally hack the tunnel out of the rock. Eufame’s flames only lit the water for a short distance, but Vyolet could make out light further along. A warm rose glow grew brighter as they approached, until Eufame snapped her illumination out with a flick of her fingers.

  The tunnel opened out into a large chamber hewn from the rock, before continuing on the other side of the room. A platform ran the length of the chamber and braziers burned at either side of the stairs leading up from the jetty. A white Wolfkin stood on the platform, wearing a black tunic and leggings not dissimilar from Vyolet’s. The Wolfkin’s body curved around the chest, honed to a fine waist before blossoming out into wide hips. A long white tail curled around the Wolfkin’s right leg, resting on its knee.

  Validus brought the raft to a stop, and the Wolfkin leaned down to offer its hand, thinner and more delicate than that of Fortis, but still markedly a paw, to Vyolet. She stepped up onto the jetty, followed by Fortis. Validus helped Eufame onto the platform.

  “Vyolet, this is Mara. Mara, this is Vyolet, our Shadowkin messenger. You know everyone else,” signed Fortis.

  Vyolet smiled at Mara.

  “I have always wanted to meet a Shadowkin! You are most welcome here,” said Mara, forming the Shadow Speak with awkward hands.

  Mara turned and led them up the stairs and into another corridor, lit by rose-coloured flames. Vyolet tried to count the number of corridors in which she’d found herself during the past few days and gave up.

  “You should be honoured, Vyolet, few but Wolfkin ever see these archives. Even I’ve only been in them once before.” Eufame’s voice echoed around the low tunnel, and she fell into step beside Vyolet. The temperature dropped several degrees in her presence, and Vyolet longed for Fortis’s warmth.

  “What do they do here?”

  “They guard their knowledge. Do the Shadowkin have archives?” Eufame gave Vyolet a sideways look, and Vyolet realised that the necromancer general didn’t really know a great deal about her kind.