The necromancer gestured. A wave of power slammed into her, shoving her back. Emily grunted as his magic tore into her wards, a combination of raw magic and cunning spells threatening to break through her defenses and tear her apart. No wonder he’d stopped to talk. He’d needed a few seconds to prepare a far more dangerous attack. She felt the floor disintegrate under her feet, threatening to plunge her into the shadows. Emily separated herself from her magic and dropped down. Rangka stepped forward, clearly confused. He couldn’t understand why she’d cut herself loose from her wards. She might as well have stripped naked in the midst of battle.
Emily ducked behind a pillar, hastily re-establishing her wards as the necromancer jumped down after her. She could feel his power seeking her out, trying to locate her and hold her in place... she shuddered, shaping a handful of illusions to buy herself time. A scaly hand came out of nowhere and caught her, yanking her back. Sickly yellow magic flared as she found herself staring into the face of an overseer. Two more clustered behind him, their magic pressing against her. They’d caught her...
She turned the air to fire, flames licking around her so brightly the overseers caught fire. She recoiled at the stench, just as Rangka plunged through the smoke and grabbed her by the neck. Emily felt a flash of panic as she cast a cutting spell to slice through his arm and then a force punch to throw him away from her. The necromancer seemed unbothered by losing his hand, even as he landed neatly on the floor. The wound wasn’t even bleeding! He smiled, then came at her. Emily mustered her magic and tried to drive him back, but he just kept coming. She threw herself to one side, then levitated down the corridor. Rangka roared and charged after her.
Flying would be fun if I didn’t have him on my tail, she thought. The necromancer seemed too angry to cast a cancelation spell, but it was only a matter of time before he realized he could ground her easily. If I...
The ground shuddered, turning liquid again. Emily lifted herself up, then flew down the stairwell and back into the darkness. She saw a pair of terrified eyes staring at her, a young boy who couldn’t be more than ten; she shouted a warning, ordering him to run as the necromancer crashed after her. Rangka didn’t seem to give much of a damn about his castle, she noted absently. It would be a different story if he realized there was a way to reignite the nexus point.
She turned and hurried down the corridor, casting a handful of spells to suggest she was trying to hide. They wouldn’t work, but they should make him think she was running for her life. He had to wonder where she thought she was going, if indeed she was thinking at all. She could teleport out, if she really wanted to escape, or hurl herself through one of the cracks into the open air. She hoped he wouldn’t wonder if she wanted him to come after her.
A shudder ran through the castle. The necromancer was plunging through the floors one by one, not trying to use the stairwell. Emily’s lips quirked into a smile, even though it wasn’t funny. Castles were designed to be tough, but this castle had been bombarded for hours. There was a very real chance the entire building would collapse. It wouldn’t kill the necromancer - she thought - but it would kill everyone else and bury the nexus point beneath a pile of rubble. Getting down to it would be tricky.
The oath yanked at her mind, reminding her she couldn’t leave. Not now, not until the nexus point was reignited. She gritted her teeth as she ran into the chamber, glancing towards the mimic-spell. She stood there... no, the mimic stood there. She muttered the activation words under her breath as she heard Rangka crashing after her. Time was not on her side. She had to hide before the necromancer saw two of her...
A chill ran down her spine as the mimic-spell stood. It looked like her, a perfect duplicate of her, but there was something inhuman about it. The first mimic she’d encountered had managed to effortlessly duplicate its victims, to the point the mimic itself hadn’t known it wasn’t real. This one looked like... she thought of a wax model, but it looked a great deal more human than that. It was like looking at a moving picture of herself.
She hurried to one side, casting the most powerful obfuscation charm she could muster. Rangka should have no reason to look for her - he should have no reason to think she was trying to hide - but there was no point in taking chances. She let out a long breath as he thundered into the chamber, reddish eyes searching for prey. They seemed to linger on where she was hiding, just for a moment, before fixing on the mimic. The mimic just stood there. Emily watched, kicking herself for not making the illusion look scared. The lack of visible emotion would tip off anyone sane.
“Die,” Rangka said.
He jabbed a finger at the mimic, throwing raw magic into the illusionary face. The mimic absorbed the power easily, then took a step forward. And another. Rangka seemed stunned, unable to believe she’d survived. Emily braced herself, ready to hit him in the back and throw him towards the mimic. It might work. If he turned and fled, he might just get away.
And if he has the wit to realize he’s being tricked...
The necromancer raised his remaining hand, then grasped the mimic by the neck and squeezed. His hand sank into the spellwork. Emily heard him gasp in surprise before the mimic wrapped its arms around the necromancer and start to pull him apart. Rangka struggled frantically, but it was already too late. The more power he unleashed in a desperate bid to free himself, the faster the mimic absorbed him. Emily shuddered, despite herself, as the illusion turned into a spinning cloud of light and magic. Rangka’s form froze, then came apart. Emily sensed the magic a second later and threw herself to the ground as the mimic exploded, raw magic flaring wildly. She felt a shudder running through the castle as the wards vanished. Something crashed in the distance. She wondered, numbly, just how much of the castle had been held in place by the necromancer’s will.
She stumbled to her feet, staring at where the mimic had been. She’d expected the blast to be bigger... no, she’d hoped to keep the mimic intact long enough to steer it into the nexus point. Had he been weaker than she’d thought? Or had the mimic been unable to sustain itself for more than a few seconds, once it absorbed his power? She had no idea. Her calculations had suggested the mimic would stabilize itself, but she’d clearly made a mistake somewhere. Perhaps the power demands had just skyrocketed to infinity.
“It worked, though,” she said, more to herself than anyone else. “It worked.”
She wanted to wait for Cat and the others, to welcome them to the castle now the necromancer was dead, but there was no time. The oath pushed her on, her legs quivering as it tried to force her to move. She gritted her teeth, then headed down to where she’d hidden the knapsack. The batteries were waiting for her.
And it’s time to put an end to this, she thought. A low rumble echoed through the castle as something crashed above her head. She eyed the roof warily, then hurried on. Once the nexus point is reignited, we can go home.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
THE NEXUS CHAMBER FELT... DIFFERENT.
Emily paused as she stepped through the door, peering down. She could feel something within the chamber, even though the nexus point was dead. It felt as if something were missing, as if there should be something there. Her eyes narrowed as she studied the chamber, wondering who’d built it and why. It looked almost as if the chamber - and the balcony - had grown out of the rock. She felt a chill run down her spine as she walked to the edge and looked down. The darkness seemed too thick to be real. It pulsed against her mind, as if it were sleeping. She found it hard to look at it too closely.
She looked around, her eyes tracing the chamber. The nexus point was surrounded by crystalline structures and pillars that seemed to stretch into infinity. She studied them, trying to determine how they channeled power from the nexus point into the castle. They looked surprisingly undamaged by whatever had quenched the nexus point, as if the necromancer had ignored them - or they’d somehow grown back after the nexus point had flickered and died. She didn’t know if that was possible. There was a faint hum of background magic in
the air, little more powerful than a faint ray of sunlight. She doubted it was powerful enough to repair the damage, if indeed there had been any. Rangka and his predecessors might have decided it wasn’t particularly important. She couldn’t believe it. There were techniques on display, right in front of her, that had been lost long ago.
We just don’t know who built the castles, Emily thought, numbly. She’d seen similar structures at Whitehall and Heart’s Eye, but... they hadn’t been precisely the same. We don’t know who tamed the nexus points first, or why.
She shivered. The castle had seemed barren, but she’d barely had any time to take note of her surroundings. She hadn’t even had time to make a proper study of the nexus point. She made a mental note to search the castle from top to bottom, after the nexus point was reignited, to see if there were any documents that might point to whoever had built the castle in the first place, then put the thought aside as she drew the first battery from her knapsack and attached it to the valve. She wasn’t trying anything clever, she reminded herself as she readied the spell. She was merely going to shoot a lot of magic into the nexus point.
The oath drove her on, making it impossible to stop and think. How much power did she need? She didn’t know. Dua Kepala’s body had been partly composed of magic when he’d fallen into the nexus point. He’d had to channel a lot of magic just to bilocate himself for more than a few seconds without splitting into two people. She shuddered at the thought, then pointed the valve down at the nexus point and let the magic flow. The chamber lit up with eerie light as a stream of power flowed down. Emily braced herself, expecting a surge of magic, but there was nothing. The nexus point remained dark and cold.
“Shit,” she muttered.
She hesitated, then removed the remaining batteries and started to connect them to their valves. Perhaps it needed more magic, a single burst of magic. She stared down at the batteries for a long moment, unsure how best to proceed. If she triggered them as one... she started to rig the spells, feeling as if she were striking matches in the middle of a gas leak. The oath wouldn’t let her stop, even for a moment. She couldn’t consult with Void or Lady Barb or anyone on how best to reignite the nexus point. She had to rely on her own wit.
I have to make a good faith attempt to reignite the nexus point, she thought, numbly. The oath would know if she tried to cheat, even if no one else did. Or die.
She finished rigging the batteries, then muttered the activation spell. The darkness seemed to quiver around her as the batteries discharged, unleashing enough power to reduce the entire castle to rubble... or transfigure it into a palace, if she shaped the spellware just right. No magician, not even a necromancer, could channel so much power. It was so far beyond anything any mere human could handle... her heart sank as she realized it hadn’t worked. The darkness was as oppressive as ever.
She’d failed. She’d done everything in her power -- and failed.
Her legs quivered, refusing to move. She blinked in surprise. She’d had her feet fixed to the ground before, through one kind of magic or another, but this was different. She felt as if she were trapped in a dream, unable to move as a shapeless horror advanced. Her head spun as she stared into the darkness. She’d made a good-faith attempt to keep her oath. She should be able to leave. She should be able to go long enough to think of something else, something... she swallowed, hard. If throwing raw magic into a nexus point wasn’t enough to reignite it, what was?
I did it, she told herself. She knew she wasn’t lying to herself. There was nothing she could do, not now. I could come back with more power...
Or was she lying to herself? What had happened, back in Heart’s Eye? She’d shoved Dua Kepala - one of his bilocated selves - into the nexus point. His death had reignited the magic... her legs quivered, again, as she realized what she was missing. It wasn’t enough to throw raw power into a nexus point. It needed a life. Last time, she’d sacrificed a necromancer. She hadn’t meant to do it - and she’d never realized what she’d done, not until now - but she had. There was no getting around it.
She swallowed, hard. Void had insisted there would be a sting in the tail. He’d cautioned her that the oath might demand more than she could pay. And it was starting to look as if he’d been right. Her legs twitched again, as if she both wanted to jump and didn’t want to at the same time. The oath pushed at her, insisting she walk forward until she plunged into the darkness. Her death would reignite the nexus point...
And I don’t even have time to contact someone to tell them what happened, she thought. She felt a pang as her legs started to move of their own accord. She couldn’t send a message to Void, or Alassa, or Frieda, or anyone... anyone at all. She couldn’t even say goodbye. The oath wouldn’t let her. No one will ever know what happened to me.
She tried to focus her mind, to cast another bilocation spell. She could throw one of her selves into the fire, while the other survived. But she didn’t have the power to make the spell work, not now. The oath refused to let her stop and wait long enough to regain the power and save herself. She knew, even if she refused to admit it to anyone else, that that would be cheating. And cheating would ruin the sacrifice. She had to pay with her life if she wanted to complete the oath.
Her legs seemed to weaken as she reached the edge. Emily tried to catch herself, but it was too late. Her body tumbled forward and plunged into the darkness. A wave of blue fire reached up... she screamed as she fell into a world of blue light, tasting iron on her tongue as the flames burnt around her. It was painless... she felt dazed, confused. Where was she? Her mind expanded, spinning through the nexus point and beyond. She had a sense of something wrapping her in power, something sparkling to life... warmth flowed through her, as if she were being held by a loving mother. Her heart twisted in grief. Her mother hadn’t hugged her after she’d climbed into a bottle...
She thought she saw her mother, standing in front of her. Not her real mother, not Destiny, but... the person she could have been. The person she should have been. A mother who’d raise her daughter properly, a mother who’d defend her daughter, a mother... a wave of sadness ran through her, so intense she nearly cried. She wasn’t sure what she was seeing - a vision of what could have been or a reflection of her deepest desires - but it didn’t matter. The vision wasn’t real. She wanted to stay in the light, she wanted to embrace her mother-figure, but she couldn’t. It wasn’t real.
Her mind glowed with blue fire. Magic sparkled around her, warm and welcoming. The sadness vanished, washed away by the light. And yet, something cold ran through the air. She had the strangest sense that someone was laughing, that - in some way - she’d made a terrible mistake. The magic built up and...
She opened her eyes, unsure when she’d closed them. She was lying on her back, lying on warm stone. She sat up, realizing - slowly - that she was naked. Her body felt... she shook her head slowly as she tried to put the feelings into words. She felt as if someone had washed her thoroughly, scraping away every last trace of dirt and grime from her body and mind. She rolled over and found herself staring down into the nexus point. Magic - clean magic, pure magic - sparkled through the air. The oath glowed in her mind for a long moment, then vanished. It was over.
“I’m alive?” Emily stumbled to her feet. Her legs felt wobbly, but... she was alive. “What happened?”
She smiled as she stared into the glowing light. The nexus point was alive. Her mission was over. She gritted her teeth, then started the task of taking control. Magic flickered and flared around her as she cast the spells, aiming them into the nexus point. The spellware built up rapidly, despite strange and seemingly random flickers of magic. The castle had been built to draw power from the nexus point, she realized dully. She hadn’t seen or sensed anything like it since she’d left Whitehall.
It felt like hours before the spells finally took root, her modified charms spreading through the castle and taking control. The old wards were gone, shattered with their master’s death; Emily hesita
ted, then crafted a pair of basic wards to protect the castle long enough for a new wardmaster to be installed. She wasn’t sure if she owned clear title to the castle, even though she’d killed the necromancer. She wasn’t the only one who’d beaten him. And if some people had freaked out over her controlling one nexus point, who knew what they’d make of her controlling two?
Nothing good, Emily thought. She scanned the castle hastily for traps, finding nothing. The defenses had been wired to the wards, which were now gone. I might have to give the castle away as quickly as possible.
She closed her eyes, reaching out with her mind. Warmth was spreading through the castle - and the surrounding land - now the nexus point had come back to life. She could sense troops slowly inching their way towards the castle, unsure if they’d encounter friends or enemies when they battered down the door. Emily smiled, then sobered as she realized there were still hundreds of orcs within the castle. They’d have to be dealt with before it was too late. She heard a crashing sound from the darkened passageway and turned, just in time to see Cat run into the chamber. He skidded to a halt and stared at her.
“Emily?” Cat sounded astonished. “Why are you naked?”
Emily flushed. “I’m not sure,” she admitted, turning to cover herself. Cat had seen her naked before, but it was still embarrassing. God alone knew what was going through his mind. “Give me your cloak.”
“Where are your clothes?” Cat took off his cloak and held it out to her. “What happened?”
“I honestly don’t know,” Emily admitted. Had her clothes been consumed by the nexus point? She found it hard to believe. There were spells to make someone’s clothes fall off, but none of them worked like that. “I’ll tell you when I figure it out for myself.”
Cat gave her a doubtful look. “You did it, then?”
“Yeah.” Emily wrapped his cloak around her, then cast a pair of spells to ensure no one looked too closely. “The nexus point is back and I’ve laid the groundwork for a modern set of wards. Do you still fancy being lord of the castle?”
Oathkeeper (Schooled in Magic Book 20) Page 36
