Two Necromancers, a Dragon, and a Vampire (The Unconventional Heroes Series Book 3)

by L. G. Estrella

  Katie put her hand up – it was the polite thing to do – and waited for Vicky to nod in her direction before she replied. “The Eye of the Abyss is a powerful artefact that has traditionally been handed down through the imperial line of the Eternal Empire. According to legend, it was given to them by the Lord of the Abyss, who is one of several gods worshipped throughout the Eternal Empire. It is thus supposed to be an artefact of divine origin, not unlike the Empyreal Armour kept by the Order of the Blessed Dawn.”

  Vicky clapped briefly. “You know about the Empyreal Armour? You are certainly very well read, Katie.” Her lips twitched. “Timmy, you’ve managed to snag an extremely clever apprentice.”

  He smiled dryly. “Well, you can’t have her. She’s too good at doing my paperwork.”

  “Master…” Katie rolled her eyes and continued. “The Eye of the Abyss is supposed to be a powerful anti-magic artefact. According to some of the legends I’ve read about it, it is capable of completely consuming magic across an entire country and sending it to the Lord of the Abyss.” Katie shrugged. “But those are legends. Even if it exists, it hasn’t been used in centuries, and it sounds a bit too good to be true, even for a legendary artefact that was supposedly made by a god.”

  Amanda met the gazes of both Vicky and James. The two councillors nodded. “You are not that far from the truth, Katie. The Eye of the Abyss is real. I should know. I have seen it. The emperor planned to unleash it during Everton’s war of independence, but he never got the chance to use it because we were able to sabotage it. As you can imagine, such a powerful weapon takes a considerable amount of time to prepare, and the preparations involved are not easy to conceal. The Lord of the Abyss is said to be equal in power to the Lord of the Blessed Dawn, but the power he provides comes with a price. The Eye of the Abyss was not a weapon that could be used lightly.”

  “The Eye is what concerns us.” James folded his hands together on the table. Gone was the childishness he’d shown when bickering with Timmy. He was completely serious now. “Some of our spies have obtained information suggesting that the Eye is either being repaired or has already been repaired. Based on the records you and the others left from the war of independence, we know that the Eye can only be fired once a decade at most, and that doing so requires an absurd amount of power and preparation. However, if the Eye were to be aimed at Everton, it is conceivable that it would significantly damage our magical defences, perhaps even render them totally inoperable for the duration of the war that would surely follow such an attack.”

  “I do wish I had been able to steal the Eye on my way out,” Amanda said. She shook her head and poured herself some wine. “Alas, I was very nearly killed simply damaging it, and even then, I was unable to completely destroy it. Such a shame – the follies of the past have a way of returning at the most inopportune times.”

  “Indeed.” James scowled. “We have not been able to locate the Eye although we do know that it is no longer in the emperor’s personal possession. It is highly unlikely that he possesses the skills to repair it. This means it has most likely been moved to a secure location for repair and preparation, which narrows our list of possible location. The Eye would need… unique conditions to be repaired and operated. Once we have located it, we intend to draw the Eternal Empire’s attention away by stepping up the proxy warfare we are already involved in. This will, hopefully, draw at least some of their forces away from the Eye, providing us with an opportunity to either steal it or destroy it. If necessary, we may even commit some of our own troops to the field, whatever it takes, short of outright war, to draw their attention elsewhere.” He smiled thinly. “And, congratulations, you lot will either be leading the forces sent to attack the Eye or playing a crucial role.”

  “Us?” Timmy leaned away from the table. “If the Eye is as big a threat as you say, why not deploy the Council itself? Heck, send Vicky. I’m sure she can handle it.”

  “If only it were that easy.” Vicky waved one finger in the air, a ribbon of light trailing in its wake. “This is not a problem brute force alone can solve. The only person who understands the Eye outside of the emperor and his closest advisors and family is one of the people who helped make it in the first place. Unfortunately, all of those people are now dead.” Vicky put on an expression of mock surprise and then looked at Amanda. “Oh, wait. That’s not entirely true.”

  The vampire sighed wearily. “Yes, I was involved in making that obnoxious thing.” She caught Katie’s surprise and chuckled. “Oh, make no mistake, it was a gift from the Lord of the Abyss. The design itself came to the Eye’s creator in a dream given to him by the Lord of the Abyss himself. Naturally, it drove the poor fellow insane, so we were never able to replicate it, which was perhaps for the best. But he merely delivered the designs to us. We still had to build it ourselves. I was involved in certain… bloodier aspects of the Eye’s creation. It was why I was able to damage it before I left.” Crimson and violet bled into her blue eyes. “And the councillors are right. The Eye will be heavily protected. And if the Council has spies in the Eternal Empire, then you can be certain the emperor has spies in Everton. I am sure that the two councillors here were able to disguise the exact nature of their visit to this castle with some excuse or another, but going further and deploying the Council itself is not something you could hide from the Eternal Empire. Deploying the Council would mean war, and I am under the impression that you wish to delay such a conflict until you are more confident of victory.”

  “So there you have it.” Vicky picked up a grape and tossed it to Rembrandt, who was still on Katie’s shoulder. “Once we locate the Eye, which ought to take us anywhere from two weeks to two months, we need you to either bring it back to Everton or to blow it up. We can discuss the details more once we have more information, but that’s the gist of it. If war is to come, we cannot allow them to use the Eye against us. Disabling it would even the odds, and having it available to us would be a powerful deterrent.”

  Katie was good at analysing things. It was a quirk of hers, most likely from her master’s crazy approach to training. Katie, he would say, study this book and summarise it for me because I can’t be bothered reading it and you’re my apprentice. Katie, do my paperwork. Katie, explain the results of this experiment in your own words. Katie, come up with a better filing system for all of our bits and pieces. Katie, Katie, Katie! It was aggravating, but it was also extremely useful at times like this. She was good at thinking quickly and deeply because her master had made her think quickly and deeply from the start of her apprenticeship.

  The Eternal Empire had the largest amount of territory of any nation in the world and the largest military as well. The number of troops combined with the quality of those troops was particularly troublesome. Everton had better mages, but the Eternal Empire wasn’t far behind them. The Eternal Empire also had more mages, lots more mages. Everton’s main advantage was its geography. They were across the sea from the main body of the Eternal Empire’s territory, and the Eternal Empire’s navy had never been much good. It was certainly worse than Everton’s, which was not only better equipped but also far more battle tested due to the constant skirmishing over some of its island holdings and coastal areas.

  The Eternal Empire did have client kingdoms on the same continent as Everton, and Katie knew they had some forces stationed in those kingdoms. It was why Everton had tried to maintain buffer zones – nations that were either neutral or favourable toward them. They would slow down any potential attack and give Everton more time to respond.

  But if the Eternal Empire had the Eye, then they could force a decisive naval engagement on their terms because Everton could not allow the Eye to be used. And despite having a worse navy, being able to set the terms of what would be a defensive battle would undoubtedly bolster the Eternal Empire’s chances. They would be able to choose the best time and location and ensure that the navies of all of their allies were in attendance as well. Vicky and the others were right. The Eye had
to be dealt with as soon as possible.

  Katie blinked and turned her attention back to the conversation going on around her.

  “We’ll let you know once we locate the Eye. In the meantime, get plenty of rest and have lots of fun.” Vicky gave them a thumb’s up. “And I hope you don’t mind, but we’ll be spending a few more days here. We have lots to talk about, and I’ve been meaning to take a break.”

  Timmy tossed a piece of his orange at Vicky. She caught it out of the air and put it in her mouth. “Of course, you have.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Katie reached over to pat the rat that was banging together a small pair of cymbals to wake her up. The rat in question had been giving his all to the task, and he stopped and squeaked a cheerful morning greeting as she opened her eyes and looked around. It was still dark outside, but it wouldn’t be long before dawn broke. Ugh. She yawned and stretched. She wasn’t a huge fan of waking up this early – as a necromancer she often worked late, which meant sleeping in was a regular occurrence – but she had asked for this. The rat stayed long enough to ensure that she wouldn’t simply roll over and go back to sleep before he scampered off.

  More rats came into her bedroom, each of them flashing her a quick salute as they replaced the ones that had guarded her chambers throughout the night. She had tried to explain to them that she didn’t need a guard while she was in the castle – she had zombies, and her rooms had runes, seals, and some nasty traps and surprises – but the rats had insisted. They’d even received her master’s backing too. If the rats wanted to guard her, he’d said, let them. It couldn’t hurt to have a bunch of super-loyal assassins standing guard while she slept.

  “Morning, guys.” Katie stumbled out of bed toward her bathroom. She rubbed at her eyes and used her shadows to make sure she didn’t bump into or trip over anything. After she’d used the bathroom, one of the rats made an appearance. He perched on her shoulder and gave her a quick summary of everything that had happened while she’d been asleep as she brushed her teeth and washed her face.

  “My master finally rearranged his collection of shark jaws the way he wanted?” Katie headed back to her bedroom to change. “It took him long enough, but I guess it makes sense. The councillors left a couple of days ago, so he doesn’t have to worry about Vicky moving things around.” It had become a game of sorts while the female councillor had been at the castle. Her master would arrange his shark jaws, and Vicky would wait until his back was turned before rearranging them and then pretending to be completely uninvolved.

  Council business had finally called James and Vicky back, but it had been an enlightening week since Katie and the others had returned from the desert. Vicky had been a constant presence around the castle, bustling about as she supervised various repairs and maintenance issues with Timmy and the workers who had been brought in. She was, Timmy insisted, a total busybody, but she was also a useful busybody. When she wasn’t teasing him, making sure he actually kept regular sleeping hours, and rearranging his stuff, Vicky knew exactly how he wanted the repairs and restoration of the castle to go, which let him spend more of his time on necromancy. Katie didn’t see how it made for much of a holiday, but Vicky insisted that it was a great deal more relaxing than running the massive bureaucracy of the Order of the Blessed Dawn and wrangling the Council into some semblance of order.

  Of course, Katie’s master didn’t actually get a lot of necromancy done. No, he and James ended up in a prank war that steadily escalated until her master had claimed victory by somehow managing to fit half a dozen chimeras into the councillor’s bedroom while making it appear to be an accident. Katie was happy to admit that although her master could seem, and often was, tremendously lazy, he was not someone who should be underestimated. And she had to know how he’d done it. The door to James’s bedroom wasn’t big enough to let even one of those chimeras in, never mind half a dozen. There had to be some trick to it.

  “Did my master perform any experiments while I was asleep?” Katie asked. She would normally have bathed before changing into her black robes, but she was about to do a fair bit of exercise, so it made more sense to bathe afterward. It still irked her that her master didn’t let her participate in all of his experiments. Admittedly, some of them were still too dangerous for her to be involved in, but he could at least tell her about them. One of these days, she’d be a Grand Necromancer too, and she’d see how he liked it when she conducted experiments in secret.

  The rat pulled out a small roll of parchment. Katie reached into her pocket, and offered the rodent a treat. The rats had excellent memories, so the experiment must have been quite complicated if the rat had been forced to take notes. The rat offered a carefully worded reply, and Katie frowned.

  “He tried something involving the things that live underneath the castle?” Katie pursed her lips. She wasn’t nearly as well versed in the lore of those things as her master, but it was unusual for him to try something new although it did explain why he hadn’t wanted her around. Sam was friendly – as were most of the ones they allowed to move around the castle and its surroundings – but there were others, creatures that were truly alien in both appearance and mentality. Those creatures could not be reasoned with. They had to be bound and commanded by the darkest and most ancient of rituals. Sam had, on more than one occasion, warned Katie to steer clear of certain places under the castle until she was stronger and knew more of the lore about his kind because not all of them would be so understanding toward a curious, little girl. “Amanda must have given him some ideas. She did mention she’d been here before, and if Sam managed to find that shrine…” The rat mentioned something else. “Oh? He used something that belonged to his master? I wonder what it was.”

  Katie would have to look into it later, but Amanda’s presence could easily explain the experiment. The ancient vampire had a wealth of arcane knowledge, much of it strange and esoteric. Her master had taken copious notes and asked plenty of questions. To help keep the vampire well fed, her master had brought in even more livestock – they had officially started raising their own cattle because of Spot, which Katie found immensely amusing – and he’d even started taking blood donations from nearby villages. The villagers were paid handsomely, and no one was particularly surprised when a necromancer needed blood. All in all, Amanda was happier and better fed, and she had settled into the castle rather nicely. Katie had asked Amanda plenty of questions herself, and the vampire had not hesitated to help her. She wondered if Amanda had known others who had wielded shadow magic like hers, but Katie wasn’t sure if she wanted to know. What little she had learned had not been pleasant at all. If she had learned one thing from necromancy and the things that lived underneath the castle, it was that sometimes it was better to not know.

  “Never mind.” Katie took a moment to brush her blonde hair, which currently resembled a hedgehog. “He can’t be trying too hard to keep it a secret if he let you watch. I’ll ask him about it later. Right now, I have to go meet Spot and the others.”

  Katie left her chambers and headed for one of the courtyards closest to the walls that faced the lake. Amanda was idly sipping from a bottle which Katie was fairly sure contained blood while Spot amused himself by chasing after a few of the demolition rats that had come along to enjoy a ride. The dragon gave a happy cry at her approach, and Katie barely managed to dodge when he threw himself at her like a small, scaly boulder.

  “Hey!” Katie kept him at bay with her shadows, but Spot was determined to get closer. “No jumping on me! You’re getting big now.” Spot huffed and hung his head, and Katie couldn’t help but laugh. He reminded her more of an overgrown puppy than the spawn of one of the deadliest dragons in history. “Oh, don’t mope. Fine. Come here.” She tugged the dragon over with her shadows and gave him a good scratch behind the chin and along his back. He flicked her gently with his tail, which had begun to look a little less stubby, and Katie wondered how much longer it would be before it took on the more serpentine appearance
common to older dragons. As it was, both Spot’s tail and his neck had a way to go before they resembled those of an adult dragon.

  Not far away, Avraniel was watching Amanda carefully. Would she try to pick a fight with the vampire again? The elf had been trying to find out what Amanda was capable of for days – well, ever since she’d taken a hit from Vicky and not exploded – but the ancient vampire refused to take the bait. To be honest, Katie was morbidly curious to know who would win in a fight. Amanda had supernatural strength, speed, and healing, but vampires were naturally weak against fire, and Avraniel was basically an inferno on two legs.

  “You’re late, twerp.” Avraniel flicked a spark at Katie. “Get moving.”

  Katie batted the spark away with her shadows. “I am not late. You’re early – for once.”

  “Hey! I’ll have you know, I am perfectly punctual.”

  Amanda did her best to disguise her inelegant snort of laughter behind a cough.

  “What was that?” Avraniel growled. “Do you have something to say, people eater? You’ve only been around for a week, so you don’t get to complain about my punctuality.”

  “I would like to point out – again – that I do not eat people. I drink their blood, which is a subtle but important difference. Now, if I were a werewolf, then perhaps you would be correct in saying I eat people. And, yes, Avraniel, you do have a tendency to be late. I assume no one says anything because they would like to avoid incineration.”

  “You’re still a people eater,” Avraniel muttered. “And if I’m always late, then you two should be glad I turned up on time.” She beckoned Spot over and gave him a good rub down. How long would it be before he was too big for her to do that? Oh well. When that day came, she’d know they were one step closer to unleashing fiery vengeance upon all of her enemies. “Are you ready for another flight, Spot?”