Medallion of the Undead

by Anthony Rudzki

  Kyle put the medallion into his pack and closed the flap.

  “Legan, I don’t want to make more of this Andelon alloy, I want a way to destroy the medallion.”

  “Well, we’ll need to find a forge that can reach a temperature needed to melt the metal to destroy it. I don’t believe you’ll find one in the human settlements. If you want to destroy the medallion, we’ll have to travel back to the place where it was originally made. The Dwarven forges at Southbend.”

  * * * *

  Jennifer crept along the edge of the tunnel, slipping into the shadows of small alcoves when the sound of footsteps grew louder. Fortunately, the heavy boots of the guards announced the approaching guard long before they stepped into view. She didn’t know how long she had been making her way through the maze of halls and thick wooden doors, but she’d climbed several long flights of stairs and the air was noticeably fresher.

  As far as she could tell, the alarm hadn’t been sounded yet announcing her escape, but it was only a matter of time before someone noticed the missing guard and then began the search for him.

  Had she re-locked the cell door after she passed through it? She paused as the question jumped to her mind like a crack of lightning. She couldn’t remember. If it was locked, it might buy her some additional time, if not…she shook the thought from her mind.

  She stopped again as she heard the methodical scraping sound of the guard’s boots on the stone. Looking around quickly, she darted forward toward the sounds and slipped into a small dark alcove containing wooden shelves attached to the wall. The shelves were empty and she squeezed into the corner and waited, using the shelves for as much cover as they could provide.

  The single set of scraping footfalls grew louder and then changed to regular footsteps as the guard reached the tunnel and started in her direction. She held her breath and stood frozen when a guard turned the corner and passed by her position and continued on. Waiting until the sounds faded and the hallway was quiet once again, she extracted herself and eased her head out into the tunnel looking one way and then the other.

  She hurried to the end of the hall in the direction the guard had come and found two openings, one to her left containing stairs leading upward and one to her right with stairs leading downward. She stepped onto the first step to her left, when she heard the distinctive scraping sound of footsteps climbing the steps behind her. She crouched down and shuffled back into the hall. Pressing her back against the wall, she listened as the footsteps grew louder.

  Judging the nearness of the climber to the stoop required Jennifer to stand quietly, patiently, until the last possible second. Surprise was her only hope. She pulled the dagger from her waistband and held it at the ready.

  Now.

  She spun from the wall and immediately faced the guard, who was caught completely unaware of his impending doom. Jennifer’s hand rose in a smooth arc and buried the dagger into his throat. Blood sprayed the walls and zig-zagged the front of Jennifer’s dress. The guard was not yet dead however, and his hands rose to his throat and grasped the hilt of the blade. Taking a step forward, she planted her foot in his chest and pushed him backward.

  He fell, stumbling down the stone stairs, his arms pin wheeling, trying to maintain his balance as his life blood drained from him. He fell against the wall, knocking a burning torch from its holder. In a shower of sparks, he continued his tumble and disappeared around the corner of the circular staircase.

  Jennifer, now weaponless, turned and ran up the flight of stairs behind her, careful to make as little sound as possible.

  The dead guard in her cell might not be discovered for hours, but the one she had just killed was going to raise the alarm and soon.

  * * * *

  Thomas chewed on several pieces of chicken, enjoying the seasoned bird that lay piled on his plate against a smaller pile of vegetables.

  “How did the medallion come into being?” Adam asked between small bites of food. He placed his plate on the edge of the desk and leaned forward, listening.

  Thomas finished chewing and dropped the piece of food he held in his fingers back onto his plate. He pushed his plate away from his seat and sighed. “You know how to ruin an appetite, don’t you?” He wiped his greasy fingers on the cloth in his lap and then used it to clean his lips.

  Thomas raised a crooked finger and pointed it at Adam and Delas. “You know, if you ask most people, they believe that wisdom and knowledge are the same things, but I don’t agree with that. When I was younger, I believe I knew much more than I do now. Forgetfulness, old age, death sneaking up on you, turning out your mental pockets, as it were. When I was younger, it didn’t occur to me to make the connection between the experiment with the rabbit and those first undead attacks…that occurred later. Now, of course, I realize how foolish I was, but that is where wisdom comes in.

  “Kurilan established himself a workshop, a laboratory in a small tower on the far end of the guild compound. I knew of it, having been part of a party that had used the two rooms at the top for storage, but I hadn’t entered the place since the change came over Kurilan. I felt it might be time to see what he was doing in his private areas, away from the eyes of the others in the guild and the council.

  “Three nights after I spoke to Solace, I was outside looking at the stars and imagining how the confrontation with Kurilan would be as I tried to convince him to abandon the path he was going down. I guess I had convinced myself he was not too far gone and would agree to ignore the dark powers of creating and extinguishing life. I found myself walking away from the guild building and toward Kurilan’s workshop.

  “‘Kurilan is evil. Pray you don’t turn a blind eye to what he is doing.’ I heard Solace’s voice in my head.”

  “I turned the corner in the path and Kurilan’s workshop lay ahead. What I saw made me stop in my tracks. Through the windows, near the top of the tower, I could see great flashes of red and purple light.”

  “‘Keep him close so that you can stop him when the time is right.’ Solace whispered again in my ear, but that night it was as if he were screaming at me from half a dozen feet away.”

  “I started running toward the tower, unsure of what I was going to do once I got there. I found the entrance unlocked, and stepped inside cautiously. I climbed the circular staircase, each footstep feeling more leaden than the last, and reached the door to his laboratory. The door was open just a crack, so I pushed it open and stepped into the smaller of the two rooms. There was an arched doorway opposite where I entered and the light I saw earlier was exploding from the opening. I stepped across the room quickly, but stopped in mid stride when something on the table caught my eye. It was a seal. The seal was affixed to a scroll, and it was an Elvin seal. I remember thumbing the seal and glancing at the other material on the benches lining the left and right sides of the narrow room. There were scrolls and books, loose sheets of parchment, all lying hap-hazardly, as if someone rifled through them. Most of it looked to be quite old and I could recognize the seals of the Elves, the ancient Azunan civilizations and the Borons from across the Great Sea. There were others I couldn’t identify, but it was obvious from the ones I could, that Kurilan had amassed materials from the races known for their magical spellcraftsn.

  “‘Quit wasting time. Get in there.’ Solace screamed.”

  * * * *

  Jennifer climbed the stairs, taking them by twos when possible. She forced herself to slow down as she neared the top. Reaching the threshold, she peered around the corner and saw a short hallway, hardly sixty meters long, and at the end of it was a solid looking wooden door, banded in iron.

  The torches along the wall flickered and danced toward her and she caught the unmistakable smell of wildflowers carried by fresh air. The hallway was empty and the door was unguarded.

  Suddenly, from far below her, the sound of a horn filled the air. It was quickly joined by another and then a third.

  The alarm.

  With a quick look behind her, she r
an toward the doorway and her freedom. The blaring of the horns seemed to be getting louder, closer. Fear overtook her for the first time since she’d escaped and she looked back over her shoulder. In doing so, her feet became entangled in the hem of her dress, causing her to tumble to the stone floor, knocking the wind from her.

  She sat on the floor, grasping her knee, now weeping blood and looked back at the end of the long hall at the staircase she’d climbed to get to this floor. She could make out a dim light flickering and the sounds of boots climbing the stone steps was all the motivation she needed to get back onto her feet and moving toward her freedom.

  She reached the door and grasped the metal ring set along one side. Pulling as hard as she could, the door refused to swing open. She pulled again and quickly looked over her shoulder.

  Where there was the faint flicker of light, now were two guards, jockeying for position at the top of the stairs, each with a torch in one and a sword in the other. They called down the staircase to those a floor below, and panicking, she turned to the door once again. Grasping the ring, her eyes focused on the metal bolt, fastened to the door and slid deep into the wall next to the door.

  The sound of grunting and the clatter of boots on the stone floor grew louder.

  Jennifer swore to herself and grasped the cold iron bar and pulled it free of the hole. Yanking on the ring, the door swung open easily, flooding her with bright sunlight and a huge open field of wildflowers stunned her for a moment as her eyes fought to adjust to the sudden brightness, and her mind on the beauty of freedom.

  Squinting, she leapt forward beyond the open door and immediately ran into something soft, yet unyielding. The sound of the guard’s movements in the hall behind her suddenly diminished and then ceased. She opened her eyes, looking back at the guards who stood quietly, their eyes fixed on the stone at their feet. Looking up, she squinted at the figure silhouetted by the sun.

  “We can’t have the bait in my wonderful trap leave so soon now, can we?” Kurilan asked her.

  Chapter Twenty

  “I heard a muffled cry from beyond the door and that’s what got me moving. I ran to the door, pushed it open with a stiff arm, and crashed through into the larger room beyond,” Thomas said.

  “Kurilan was enveloped in a globe of red and purple energy that pulsed and swirled around his body as he hovered several inches above the floor. His face was locked in a grimace, his eyes clamped shut and his teeth bared. Sweat clung to his nearly naked body, which jerked in random spasms.

  “Kurilan, I called, but he didn’t respond to my voice.”

  “How was the sphere being sustained? It sounds like Kurilan wasn’t in a condition to maintain it,” Delas asked.

  “I don’t know. I didn’t understand it at the time and over the years I’ve thought about that day and I’m still puzzled. Unless there was some kind of outside force at work, Kurilan must have stumbled on a self-sustaining casting method. I never got the chance to ask him,” Thomas said. “So I didn’t know what to do to get Kurilan out of the sphere.

  “Back then, when I was younger and foolish, I came up with the idea to cast a shield spell and direct it close enough to him to bump him, nudge him out of the sphere.”

  “Didn’t you think…?”

  Thomas lifted his hand and Delas closed her mouth.

  “At the time, no. I was foolish and mistakenly thought I could deflect the energy away from the both of us. I thought I could handle the release of energy.”

  “And?”

  “Well, I did say I was foolish.”

  Adam shook his head.

  “I remember casting at the swirling mass. It shrank and then disappeared as if it were swallowed into a hole.” Thomas brought his fingertips all together in front of him. “And then boom. It exploded outward,” he separated his fingers, re-enacting the explosive force.

  “I was knocked down, and the energy flowed over me. I covered my face with my arms to protect myself.” Thomas pushed his sleeve up his arm to reveal a cross network of scarred, shiny pink skin. “That was all I remembered until I woke in a healing room three days later. Oh, the healer was the ugliest man I’ve ever seen.”

  Thomas winced at the thought, and then let out a slight chuckle, “He was strong enough to lift me out of bed and get me out of doors for some fresh air while I healed. Jeromy was a blessing to me.”

  Adam leaned forward. “And Kurilan? Was he there with you?”

  “No, he was much worse off. The healers that attended to the Guild were quite skilled, but bewildered at his condition. He was taken to the Following of the Blessed One, a Healing Guild a week’s travel by horse and caravan.

  “I remember seeing the small line of horses followed by the lone wagon head through the front gate in the direction of the Guild. That was the last time I saw Kurilan.”

  * * * *

  Kyle crested the hill first and stopped while Legan finished the last few meters. He smiled and looked over his shoulder.

  “Well, come on,” he teased, waving his hand in a mocking effort to hurry the dwarf. “Look what I see.”

  Legan stepped up to the crest and looked out along the horizon to where Kyle was pointing. Tall mountains covered the horizon as far as the eye could see. Towering peaks were covered with snow, even while the heat of the day was causing the two to wilt under its powerful glare.

  “More mountains?” Legan sighed. He found a spot and settled down, crossed his legs and sighed deeply.

  “Content?” Kyle asked.

  “Very much so, for the moment.” Legan replied. He pulled out his cartographer tools and the rolled pieces of parchment until he found the one that he was looking for. He looked up at the horizon periodically and then scratched various symbols on the surface on his lap. When he was finished with the mountain range, he looked up at Kyle.

  “So, young man, see anything else that is of any importance?”

  “Smoke.”

  “Smoke?”

  Legan carefully put his supplies on the ground next to him and got to his feet. “Show me.”

  “I think I can see a town,” Kyle pointed to the base of the mountains and the faint wisps of smoke rising above the treetops. The trees in the area were less dense, and it looked like a wide path of either flattened grass or crushed stone formed a way through the clearing of the trees.

  Legan went back to his document and examined it once more, looking from it to the horizon.

  “Kyle, I think that could be Oldenmills.”

  Legan quickly assembled his pack, threw it over his shoulder and started down the hill in the direction of the town. Kyle raced until he was alongside and then the two kept up a casual pace. They scanned either side of the surrounding forest as it had become second nature to them.

  Soon, they cleared the forest and spilled out into a long meadow. The ground was flattened with two channels straddling an overgrown center. Definitely a cart path, but one little traveled.

  “Have you noticed we haven’t seen a single wagon or mounted traveler so far?” Legan asked.

  “Now that you’ve mentioned it, you’re right. Sorry, I’ve been caught up in my own thoughts.” Kyle looked back the way that they had come. “Some stretches of this road are overgrown, untended. I don’t think the town ahead hosts a lot of travelers or heavy trade.”

  “As long as they have an inn with a warm bed,” Legan said, raising his arms over his head and stretching. “I miss the warm things…a bed, bath…”

  “Warm bread,” Kyle chimed in.

  Legan smiled. “Aye. Let’s get a move on and see if this road’ll get us there before dark.”

  The two walked for several more hours, eventually passing two wagons and an old woman riding on the back of a pack animal. They waved their arms in greeting, but only stony faces met their smiles.

  An hour later they noticed the smoke they’d spotted earlier was heavier and the smell of burning wood hung in the air. The road was now barren from use and contained two distinct, worn
wagon wheel ruts running side by side. Turning a shallow curve, they noticed first the stone walls and then the tall wooden gates. The gates were propped open and to one side of the entrance was a wooden sign driven deep into the ground. It read ‘Oldenmills’.

  Kyle stopped in front of the sign and grasped it with both hands, as if to steady himself. He turned to Legan, tears in his eyes.

  “We’ve made it. We really have,” he said.

  * * * *

  Thomas took a quick drink from the cup at his hand, and continued, “With Kurilan gravely ill and bedridden, the remaining members of the Council met to discuss what should be done with the artifacts. We all agreed the power of the three artifacts could not be placed in the hands of a single person. If they should fall into the hands of an evil mage, it could very well spell the doom of mankind. Of course, when we spoke of evil, we were speaking of Kurilan, and while he was away, we knew we needed to act quickly.”

  “To destroy them?” Delas asked.

  “Yes. First we transferred the documents he’d accumulated to my library for study, and then they were destroyed.”

  Adam said, “But if you destroyed the artifacts, how was it that Kyle found the medallion?”

  “Destroying the artifacts?” Thomas sighed. “Yes, that would have been the best solution, but they couldn’t be destroyed.”

  “What?” Adam asked, his face twisted in disbelief.

  “The disk Kurilan used in the rabbit experiment must have been a trial for the enchanted metal. Kurilan must have had the pieces secretly made for him. The material was foreign to all of us at the time. Eventually, after the fall of Gnorepenne and the destruction of the guild, I discovered the material was a Dwarven alloy called Andelon, indestructible by the human races. Rather than run the risk of all three pieces being intercepted enroute to the Dwarven forges, the decision was made to separate them and hide them instead.”

  “Hide them? Hide them where?” Delas asked.