The Necromancer's Rogue

by Icy Sedgwick

  “You’re a Shadowkin!”

  “I am. Who are you? And why are you here?” asked Vyolet.

  “I could ask you the same thing!” he replied. His hand trembled and the flames in his palm performed a jerky dance.

  “Fair enough, I suppose. I’m Vyolet. And you are?”

  “Monte McThwaite. Why is a Shadowkin down here? Are there more of you?”

  “Why is a gravedigger from Canalsditch in here?”

  Monte stared at her. Vyolet stared back. Years of having the people of the Underground City staring at her made it easy to challenge their looks. Most turned away, guilty at having been caught, but not Monte. There was curiosity in his gaze, not fear.

  “Oh, you have no idea what it’s been like. I met him in the pub, and he offered me a job, and it seemed like a good idea, what with the money he was offering and everything, and it seemed exciting at first. But then he took my Myrtle, and dragged me down here, and no I don’t know how to get away from him without just doing what he says. He wants to bring back the Lords and Ladies of Death, and I don’t think I can stop him!” Monte’s shoulders sagged and he dropped his gaze.

  “The man outside?” Vyolet jerked her thumb towards the archway behind her.

  “Yes. Mr Gondavere. I think he’s one of the Lords and Ladies of Death – or at least he’s related to them somehow.”

  “I thought as much. He looks like the drawings I saw when I was little, but he’s not as tall or thin as them. He’s a bit too human,” replied Vyolet.

  A grin spread across Monte’s face. Was that relief in his eyes? Vyolet cocked her head and peered down at him.

  “What?” she asked.

  “I don’t even know who you are, or even why you’re here, but it’s just so nice to have someone to talk to that’s not him,” he replied.

  “Most people won’t talk to Shadowkin,” said Vyolet.

  “I don’t care what race you are, at least you’re not like him.” Monte pushed himself to his feet, keeping the flames away from the floor. “Is he still out there?”

  “He was exchanging barbs with Eufame, and he’s called Bloodhounds on the Wolfkin. I wanted to help them, but I thought it was more important to know what was going on in here.” Vyolet listened hard but the sounds of the fighting were distant. Maybe the Wolfkin forced the hounds outside. Unless she pulled down that cloak in the corridor, she couldn’t hear anything.

  “Eufame Delsenza is here?”

  “Yes. She’s looking for the Heart of the City,” replied Vyolet.

  “Well she’s going to be a bit disappointed then.” Monte pointed at the assorted stones and rocks on the floor.

  Vyolet gasped. “Mara was right!”

  “Who’s Mara?” asked Monte.

  “One of the Wolfkin. She told us the Heart was broken, but Eufame seemed to think we could find a way around it,” replied Vyolet.

  “An old woman warned me the Heart was broken, but I didn’t know what she was talking about,” said Monte. “Though given all the fighting between the Cities, I can’t say I’m surprised at all, more shocked it didn’t break sooner.”

  “Is that why Mr Gondavere is here?” asked Vyolet.

  “Yes. He wants to use it to re-open the realm that Eufame’s sister banished the Lords and Ladies of Death to. I don’t know about you, but I think that’s an awful idea. I always thought the Lords and Ladies of Death just looked after people on the deathbeds, speeding them to wherever they were supposed to go next, but then I met him,” said Monte. “I only came with him because I didn’t really know what he was going to do. He certainly isn’t going to let me just quit a job like this.”

  “Why did you take the job in the first place?” asked Vyolet.

  “Same reason you take any job. It paid better than the one I had.”

  A loud crash penetrated the cloak of shadows. Vyolet started, and Monte scrabbled to his feet. Something came along the passageway towards them.

  30

  Chapter 30

  The noise of the Wolfkins’ battle receded down the corridor as they pushed the Bloodhounds into the darkness. The barks and snarls of the burly warriors chilled Jyx. He’d grown so used to Validus’s calm eloquence inside his head.

  “You see, Ms Delsenza, there’s not really any way that this situation can play out in which I will not walk out as the victor.” Mr Gondavere smiled again.

  A high-pitched squeal rattled against the stones. Jyx gasped, but when he looked at Eufame, confidence had replaced the fear in her eyes.

  That mustn’t have been a Wolfkin then.

  “Exactly who are you?” asked Eufame. “You’re not one of the Lords and Ladies of Death. If you were, you’d be rotting with the rest of them. Were you the runt of the litter?”

  Mr Gondavere scowled. His left eye twitched, and a faint red flush crept up his neck from beneath his collar. “You think you’re so clever, don’t you? Everyone’s been too scared to stand up to you, and now you think you own the place.”

  At her side, Eufame drew a tiny sigil in the air. Jyx noticed her fingers spelling out the characters, but Mr Gondavere was too focused on staring her down. A faint scent hung in the air, like the smell of the sky before a thunderstorm. Dust motes flickered white in front of Jyx’s eyes.

  “If you bring back the Lords and Ladies, you won’t own a thing. They will burn through the Cities like locusts, leaving you absolutely no one to rule over, and they’ll treat you as badly as they did before Brigante intervened. So I’m offering you the opportunity to step aside, and disappear. Go back to the shadows. Hang around the bars of Canalsditch – do whatever you want, but move aside,” replied Eufame.

  Mr Gondavere sneered. He raised his arm and hurled a bolt of red energy towards them. Jyx ducked, but the bolt collided with the almost imperceptible white shield in front of Eufame. The ball of energy sizzled and dropped to the floor, where it seeped into the cracks of the stones.

  “Really, Mr Gondavere. You must learn the rules of engagement.” Eufame’s fingers worked again.

  “You are not getting past me!” Mr Gondavere brought up both hands and threw two bolts. Both of them hit the barrier, although a spiderweb crack raced across the white shield in front of Jyx. The smell of burning flesh hung heavy in the air. Eufame frowned.

  “You’re not that clever, necromancer.” Mr Gondavere held up his hands. Red mist gathered around his fingers, coalescing into barbs and thorns. The energy sizzled and crackled, emanating waves of anger and hate. Jyx stared at Mr Gondavere. The red mist grew thicker and the colour drained from his already-pale face.

  Jyx was torn between the desire to watch and learn, and the impulse to run and hide. Blood magick was beyond him. He’d never managed to read the single book about it at the Academy, kept as it was under lock and key in Dean Whittaker’s office.

  “I’ve faced worse than you, Gondavere.”

  Eufame waved her hand and the shield disappeared. She pushed back her sleeves to reveal the dark red tattoos that snaked up her arms. Jyx had seen her call on their power before, when she faced Queen Neferpenthe in the courtyard of the House of the Long Dead. New additions occupied the spaces between the swirls. The black runes replicated some of the markings Jyx had seen on the walls of the House. Her tattoos pulsed white, filling the corridor with the searing heat of lightning. A funeral bell tolled in the recesses of Jyx’s mind.

  She’s drawing on the power of the Veil itself.

  Mr Gondavere drew back his left hand and hurled a handful of glowing red spikes at them. Eufame pushed Jyx forward and he scrambled under Mr Gondavere’s outstretched arm. Eufame screamed and the tattoos spat forth twisting snakes of white energy. The red spikes collided with the white plumes, and the howls of both weapons filled the corridor, echoing against the stone.

  “Go!” Eufame shouted at Jyx.

  Mr Gondavere turned and raised his right hand. The words of the old spell sprang to Jyx’s lips. It was one of the first he’d ever learned and drawing the sigil
was as natural as drawing breath. Seconds later, green flames erupted at the hem of Mr Gondavere’s coat. They licked upwards, leaving charred rags in their wake. Jyx darted through the archway and into the corridor before. Mr Gondavere roared after him but a bolt of energy turned the air white. With Eufame occupying Mr Gondavere’s attention, Jyx ran along the passageway.

  Halfway along, the air grew thick and wet, but an instant later he emerged into a dimly lit passageway. He turned around. A rippling cloak of shadows hung from the ceiling, hiding whoever hid in the tomb beyond. The cloak bore the same dead flesh smell as Mr Gondavere, and Jyx repeated the flames sigil where the shadows met the floor. The green fire tore up the cloak and the shadows screamed as they burned.

  Flickering lights lay ahead, and Jyx ran towards them. Mr Gondavere was guarding this tomb for a reason, and Jyx suspected he knew why. The Heart of the City must be down here.

  A man stood in the centre of the room, clad in the clothes of a gravedigger. Vyolet stood beside him. The fear on her face dissolved when she recognised Jyx, and she ran across the tomb. She wrapped her arms around him. Her skin was warm against his, and he resisted the urge to sniff her hair. He knew she’d smell of gun smoke.

  “Who’s this?” he asked when Vyolet disentangled herself.

  “Monte. He’s from Canalsditch.”

  “What’s he doing down here?”

  “He came down here with Mr Gondavere, and he can speak for himself, thank you very much,” replied Monte. “Who are you?”

  “Eufame Delsenza’s apprentice. Jyximus Faire, sir.” Jyx bowed. Bent at the waist, he noticed the collection of rocks on the floor. A statue sat pressed against the wall, a broken spear on the floor by its feet. The carving of the beautiful warrior in Eufame’s room sprang to mind. It seemed like months since he’d been in the House of the Long Dead.

  “That’s the Heart of the City, Jyx. Or at least it was,” said Vyolet.

  “It was a statue?” Jyx knelt on the floor. He picked up two of the fragments.

  “Yeah. Monte thinks it’s useless now. How can you mend a broken heart like that?”

  “It’s quite easy, actually. You just need to persuade the stones to get back together.” Jyx grinned at Vyolet. He’d often wondered if geomancy was a waste of time, but this was the second time in as many hours that he’d needed it.

  “Can you do that?” asked Monte.

  “I can. Right. I’ll need to concentrate.”

  Monte moved across to the doorway to keep watch. Vyolet knelt beside Jyx, ready to disappear into his shadow if anyone came in. Jyx closed his eyes and rifled through his mental library. First he’d need to actually talk to the stones. He aimed his finger, and drew a perfect circle on the floor in green light. He added the relevant sigils around its edge and placed each of the fragments within its perimeter.

  “Et ego loquar de lapidibus, ego quaero pro auxilio.”

  The sigil glowed and earthed itself with a low hum. Tiny sparks ran in circles around the edge of the circle. Jyx smiled at Vyolet. He’d made a connection with the flagstones, at least. Now for the fragments.

  “Nunc ego loquar ad fragmenta.”

  The fragments lay inside the circle. The circle continued to pulse with green light, but the stones didn’t move.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Vyolet.

  “Are they supposed to be doing something?” asked Monte.

  “Shush, both of you! I don’t understand why it isn’t working. I need to think.” Jyx stared at the stones. Had he missed out a clause? The last time he did that, he resurrected a mummy horde that devoured council members and killed Wolfkin. Having said that, he could do with resurrecting the Heart of the City right now.

  He clapped his hands to clear the air and tried again. “Nunc ego loquar ad fragmenta.”

  The stones inside the circle skittered around, but still didn’t glow green. They just wouldn’t respond to him.

  “Oh no, I just remembered! We were told you’d need to know the Heart of the City’s name before she’d respond to you. Perhaps that’s the problem now?” asked Monte.

  “How am I supposed to know her name?” Jyx stared at Monte. He’d always just known her as the Heart of the City. He’d never stopped to consider that she might have an actual name.

  The Eufame shard in his head wriggled. He didn’t hear her voice, but his gaze moved downward, as if a hand directed his head towards the floor. The circle pulsed, quietly humming in front of him. Understanding snapped its fingers in his mind.

  Jyx placed his fingertips on the edge of the circle. “Hi, stone floor. Can you hear me?”

  “Of course we can hear you. We’re not deaf, you know,” replied the flagstone nearest Jyx’s knee.

  “Oh thank you! I’m sorry, I’m not usually so bad mannered, I’m just a little stressed,” said Jyx.

  “We can see you’re in a spot of bother, son,” said the flagstone nearest Vyolet.

  “Can you help me?”

  “What is it you need? We can’t persuade the Heart to get back together, I’m afraid,” said the first stone.

  “Do you know the Heart’s name? When she was a warrior?”

  “Of course we do! Everyone down in the Ruined City remembers her. Oh, she was glorious. Such a sight to be seen! I remember when she’d ride down the boulevards in her chariot, her hair flying and her spear held high. Oh how everyone would cheer,” said the second stone.

  “How could you remember that? You were in here with me,” said the first stone.

  “Oh hush your nonsense, you jealous old fool,” replied the second stone. “We can each see what our brethren sees, remember?”

  “You’re all connected?” asked Jyx. Geomancy was proving to be a lot more interesting than he’d first thought. It stood to reason that all of the stones would share a consciousness. After all, water and air did – why not earth?

  “Indeed we are. I must say, this is so nice to be having a chat with a mage again. It’s been a long time,” said the second stone.

  “He’s not a mage, you idiot. At least not yet. He’s an apprentice. We shouldn’t really be talking to him.”

  “If he’s mastered the ability to talk to us, then he’s more than an apprentice, and we should give him some respect, you idiotic slab of flooring.” The second stone wriggled, as if it made a rude gesture at its companion.

  “Don’t listen to those two old women. She’s called Hari-Ma’hara. She was always very approachable, if I remember rightly. Well, approachable for a warrior goddess, anyway,” said the stone nearest to Monte.

  “Thank you so much! You’ve been very helpful!” replied Jyx.

  The three stones glowed once, and fell silent. Jyx rearranged the fragments in the circle and held his hands over them. “Nunc ego loquar ad fragmenta“.

  Mr Gondavere burst into the tomb. Blood ran down his face from a cut above his left eye, pooling in his eyebrow. “You fool!”

  “Do it, Jyx!” The Eufame shard screamed in his mind. Jyx looked for her behind Mr Gondavere, but the doorway remained empty. He paused. Should he wait for her?

  “I said do it!” she shouted again.

  “Hari Ma’Hara, Nunc ego loquar ad fragmenta, placere adiuva me et congregabit.”

  The fragments of the Heart jittered around in the circle. Mr Gondavere lurched towards Jyx, his hand outstretched. Crackling red energy twisted around his fingers. Jyx turned his head away and squeezed his eyes shut. The sound of crunching stone and the squealing of rocks grating against each other, filled the air. A sickening thud, of flesh against stone, prompted Jyx to open one eye and look up.

  The statue leaned across him, shielding him with her body. She held up a shield on her right arm, a broken spear in her left hand. Mr Gondavere leapt around, nursing his left hand. He howled, issuing curses in a language Jyx didn’t recognise.

  The stones in the circle rearranged themselves into the shape of a heart. They glowed beneath Jyx’s outstretched palms.

  “Speak, and I will
listen.” A female voice, deep but rough around the edges, rang out in the chamber.

  “Why did you just do that?” asked Jyx.

  “I could not let someone injure the mage who knows my name before I discover what he wants,” replied the voice.

  “He’s no mage.” Mr Gondavere straightened, bruises blooming all over his left hand. Red energy coiled around his right hand.

  “Leave him alone, sir. He’s only a boy,” said Monte.

  Mr Gondavere grimaced. He raised his right hand and flung a bolt of angry energy at the gravedigger. The statue threw the remains of her spear and it pierced the bolt, carrying it across the tomb to the far wall. The spear absorbed the energy and burrowed into a crack between two stones.

  “Pick on someone your own size!” Vyolet stepped forward, placing herself between Monte and Mr Gondavere. Her skin darkened, turning her the colour of fresh charcoal, and her eyes flashed indigo in the dim light. Dark grey clouds swirled around her feet. Jyx gasped to see the power pulsing through his Shadowkin friend.

  “A Shadowkin!” Mr Gondavere’s grimace disappeared. His eyes widened and his mouth formed a rough ‘o’.

  “You’re damned right I’m a Shadowkin, and now I’m an angry Shadowkin!”

  31

  Chapter 31

  Jyx stared at Vyolet. Clouds of charcoal smoke drifted across the floor, and Mr Gondavere shrank back towards the wall. The statue of Hari-Ma’hara lowered her shield arm.

  “I would have the young mage speak.” The weight of Time itself hung heavy at the edges of her voice.

  “Spare us all the indignity, Honoured One.” Mr Gondavere clung to the wall behind him, held at bay by the rippling shadow currents at his feet.

  “Speak ill of my friend again and I’ll slap you,” said Vyolet. Black sparks danced in her eyes. Monte stood behind her, hand outstretched as if to stop her, but too terrified to intervene.