The Necromancer's Apprentice

by Icy Sedgwick

  “I said I had a surprise for you, and this is it. I’ve got a few more menial tasks for you, and once those are done, we’ll have a go at raising this pterosaur. It’ll be a good introduction to the process, and if it works, you may keep it as a pet. Bastet tells me you’ve been a little lonely,” said Eufame.

  Jyx stared up at Eufame, aware his mouth was hanging open. Thoughts of the stolen knowledge hidden in his bedchamber flitted around the edge of his conscious mind, and he pushed the thoughts away. Eufame would never let him raise the pterosaur if she knew what he’d done.

  Or maybe she knows and she just doesn’t want to let on?

  The Wolfkin growled at Eufame. The necromancer rolled her eyes and dipped a slender hand into the bag hanging from the guard’s sash. Jyx’s heart leapt to see a slim book emerge, its yellowed pages bound in purple leather.

  “I’m sure you’ve re-read your introduction to ritual circles so often you feel your mind might explode through boredom so here is your next text. It’s not quite the Dominantur Umbras but it will explain the history of our dark science, as well as the basics of necromancy. You’ll probably finish it in no time, but I’d like you to study it carefully all the same.”

  Eufame handed the book to Jyx. He leafed through its pages. His heart sank to see no sigils to practice or incantations to learn, but he fought to keep his disappointment from his face. The Necromantiae Advenis was no real substitute for Impetritae Inceptivus but it would have to do. At least it wasn’t the ritual circles book again.

  “Now I’ve been called back to the palace yet again, and I don’t know when I’ll be back. That’s why I’m giving this to you now. I’d like you to study this in my absence, and we’ll see about finishing off the mundane nonsense when I return. That way we can get started on the real work,” said Eufame.

  She closed the lid of the chest and the Wolfkin retreated into her chambers. Based on the clicking of its claws on the floor, the Wolfkin took the chest into the right hand chamber that led off the atrium. Jyx tried to picture what the room might look like, but all he could see was that vast library of treasure.

  Bastet let out a loud miaow and Jyx jumped, suddenly aware of his thoughts. Eufame raised one eyebrow but said nothing. The Wolfkin returned from her chambers, and Eufame clapped her hands.

  “Enough for today! Jyx, go and study. Bastet will keep you company, and I shall see you tomorrow.”

  Jyx watched the necromancer march along the central aisle. She and the Wolfkin disappeared through the archway leading to the staircase, leaving behind the Wolfkin on guard. Jyx sighed and headed for his own quarters, the Necromantiae Advenis loose in his hands. He had a feeling his evening of study would prove to be incredibly dull indeed.

  * * *

  The soft thump of a book landing on a stone floor jolted Jyx awake. He looked down to find his hands empty, and the Necromantiae Advenis on the floor. He sat forward in the rocking chair and snatched up the book. Looking at the open page, he’d fallen asleep halfway through chapter four. He flicked backwards but nothing looked familiar. Jyx grimaced at the book—in his opinion, books could be hard, or challenging, but they should never be boring.

  He hauled himself out of the chair and stretched, wincing as several vertebrae in his spine popped. Something scratched at the back of his mind, like a cat pawing at a doorframe to be allowed inside. Something he’d forgotten was trying to be remembered. Professor Tourney always told him that knowledge was infectious, and once learned, it would try to be used. Jyx shuddered.

  “What is it I’m trying to remember, or do?” Jyx’s voice sounded hollow in the empty room, and he shrank away from the echo. He frowned. He didn’t like his classmates at the Academy, but at least they were people to talk to. Here, he had no one.

  Jyx stopped pacing the study and headed into the bedchamber. He picked up a purple velvet pouch from the small dressing table, testing its weight in his hand. The sand inside shifted to accommodate the shape of his palm, and Jyx smiled. He’d created the bag of sleeping sand to practice the geo magick of his Academy days, but now it became a reassuring reminder of what he could do.

  A clicking of claws behind him made him jump. Jyx spun around, the pouch slipping from his hand. It landed on the floor in front of Bastet and sent a cloud of sleeping sand into the air. Her nose twitched twice, before she keeled over onto her side.

  “Oh no, Bastet? Are you okay? I’m sorry, it was an accident.”

  Jyx bent down to inspect the cat. Her side rose and fell in time with her gentle snores. Her tail and paws flickered, dreams already occupying her sleeping mind.

  “I really hope she doesn’t tell Eufame about that.” Jyx spoke aloud, more to the mannequins than himself. He shuddered to think what the necromancer general might do if she thought he’d used sleeping sand on purpose—even the fact he’d made some might earn him some sort of punishment.

  Jyx walked out into the main Vault. The doorway leading to the spiral staircase stood unguarded again. Either Eufame had taken the Wolfkin guards with her, or they’d left of their own accord. The tiny hook of fear that had lodged itself in his mind when he arrived wriggled, trying to drag him in the direction of the stairs.

  “Don’t be silly, Jyx. You can’t leave now. You’re starting to get to the good stuff, and what would you do if you left?”

  He scolded himself, even wagging his finger for good measure. A return to the Academy was out of the question, and Academy dropouts rarely fared well in the Underground City. The educational institutions would break someone with a genuine academic background, and he just wasn’t built for manual labour. At least here, at the House of the Long Dead, he had food, shelter, and the possible access to more books than he’d ever have time to read.

  Books…

  Jyx looked across the Vault towards Eufame’s quarters. He thought again of the Impetritae Inceptivus, and the forgotten knowledge in his mind burned brighter. The incantations wanted him to learn the words of their siblings; they wanted to be spoken. The illicit sigils begged to be drawn, to have their power unleashed again.

  Jyx forced himself to turn away. One trip to the library was enough. He didn’t think Eufame knew, but he didn’t want to push his luck by chancing another visit. He’d lived on a knife edge since he learned those incantations, constantly working to push the knowledge to the back of his mind until it was time to use it. Another glance at the book would be his undoing.

  But the pterosaur…

  Jyx smiled. The pterosaur was another matter entirely. All he wanted to do was look at it, to get a sense of its age, and how a resurrection might actually work. Surely Eufame would never have shown him the pterosaur if she didn’t want him to be curious. It was only a look. He wasn’t going to raise it himself. He wasn’t even sure how.

  Of course you are…

  Knowledge, pieced together from all the texts he’d read, blossomed in his mind. The words learned from the Impetritae Inceptivus spun through his thoughts. Jyx forced them aside. At the right time, he’d enjoy being able to demonstrate he possessed such knowledge, but for now, he just wanted to satiate his curiosity.

  Jyx headed through the doorway into Eufame’s chambers. He ignored the lure of the velvet curtain, and turned right into the other room. More bookshelves lined the walls, although these contained no books of magick or arcane lore. Based on the titles, these were fiction, or works of myth. Jyx recognised one or two novels about a mage who could manipulate time, travelling back and forth to correct the mistakes others had made in their lives. Other titles, this time about an adventurous archaeologist who battled to keep powerful objects out of the wrong hands, caught his eye. The pulp stories were incredibly popular among those rare literate folk in the Underground City.

  Vases of varying sizes covered the many tables and chests, each containing beautiful floral bouquets. On closer inspection, Jyx discovered the leaves to be the finest velvet, and the stems to be painted wood. He’d only ever seen a fake floral once before, a ratty old
thing his mother had found in the street, but these were beautiful.

  The chest containing the pterosaur lay beside an overstuffed sofa. Jyx knelt on the floor, glad Eufame didn’t entirely disapprove of rugs, and ran his hands over the metal bindings. He drew a small sigil in the air with the third finger of his left hand, leaving behind a faint trace of pale blue. The sigil faded, and Jyx smiled. As far as he could tell, Eufame hadn’t placed any protective seals on the chest. Even the padlock hung open.

  Jyx removed the lock and lifted the lid. The pterosaur lay inside, its wings folded and its head to one side. It suddenly looked fragile, and the weight of its age pressed against Jyx’s sense of adventure. He reached out a trembling hand to stroke the tattered remains of its wing. The skin, halfway between leather and stone, was cool to the touch, but Jyx sensed an underlying electricity. An image floated before his mind’s eye, a memory of clean air and space, of blue sky and freedom.

  “I bet you’d love to fly again, wouldn’t you?”

  Jyx ran his finger along the creature’s skull, marvelling that the memory was not of the pterosaur in flight, but rather the world seen through its eyes. Jyx delighted in the sensation of weightlessness, of riding the air currents far above the ground, dipping and swooping, master of the horizon.

  A low hum caught Jyx’s attention and snapped him back to the present. His left arm was outstretched, his index finger pressed against the wooden floor at the edge of the rug. A ring, glowing green with power, pulsed in time with Jyx’s heartbeat. His finger rested at the edge of the ring. Jyx gulped, recognising the ring as the Circle of Ani Pe Khamun—just one of many resurrection circles he could have drawn.

  Jyx thought of the knowledge he’d been trying to forget. The incantation sprang to his lips, coiling on his tongue like a cobra waiting to strike. The words mirrored the symbols at the edge of the circle, ready to call forth the spirit of the dead. A second incantation, designed to turn sustenance from the ether into sustenance for the physical body, lurked at the back of his throat.

  “I could really do this,” he said. The electricity in the pterosaur’s wing fluttered in response.

  “I shouldn’t.” Jyx wanted to close the chest and leave the room, but as he wracked his brains, he realised he couldn’t remember the incantation to close a circle. He couldn’t leave it glowing on the floor like that. Eufame would know what he’d done, and even though he’d drawn it by accident, it didn’t change the fact he shouldn’t even be in her quarters at all.

  Jyx tried drawing over the circle backwards, convinced he’d once read that such a process would erase a circle. Instead, the ring glowed brighter as it earthed itself. Jyx groaned—the only way he could dispel the circle would be to actually use it. He reached into the chest and scooped up the pterosaur, cradling it in his arms as though it were a delicate newborn. In a way, it is. Eufame would be furious but hopefully a successful resurrection, on his own, would negate any anger she might feel.

  “I don’t think I should be doing this but I know how to do it, so everything should be fine. You’ll be alive again soon, but I think I’ll set you free. The world’s changed a bit since you were around, but nothing’s going to trouble a pterosaur,” said Jyx. The pterosaur said nothing in reply.

  He placed the pterosaur on the triangle inside the circle, and held his hands over the glowing ring. The incantations swirled and eddied in delight, readying themselves to be spoken aloud. The air grew thick with magickal intent, and Jyx took a deep breath. His nerves sang a song of terror and exhilaration.

  “Oh great ones, masters of eternity and guardians of the dark places…” Jyx spoke the words aloud, fighting to suppress the tremor in his voice. The first incantation announced his intention, and altered his consciousness to see beyond the Veil. Shooting stars crossed his vision, and amorphous shapes shifted within the grey mist of the World Beyond. Jyx opened his eyes wide, fighting to see something familiar.

  Despite his fear, the second incantation made its way to his lips. This one called out to the spirit of the pterosaur. Jyx spotted its approach, its aura a shining shade of gold, and its lifespan strung out as a field of stars in its wake. Jyx found he could read its story, and saw that the pterosaur died of old age, at peace with the world.

  A third incantation, this time in the form of a wordless ballad, issued from Jyx’s throat as an undulating stream of music. Fear gripped Jyx as he realised he didn’t understand the content of these incantations, and he had no control over the magick he now wielded. He had to trust in the knowledge, and hoped it knew what came next.

  The World Beyond faded from view, and Jyx blinked hard. The pterosaur still lay in the middle of the circle, but now its twin, a golden outline of stars, hovered in the still air above it. The fourth and final incantation fell from Jyx’s lips, and the soul dropped from the air, melding with the fossil lying on the floor.

  Jyx watched as muscle bloomed on the bones, filling the sunken holes and rippling beneath freshly grown skin. The pterosaur twitched, its wings trembling.

  “Are you okay?” Jyx knew it was foolish to ask the question, but he felt he needed to say something to fill the silence.

  With a screech, the pterosaur hauled itself to its feet, coughing a millennium of dust from its regenerated throat. Jyx couldn’t keep the smile from his face. He’d done it.

  9

  Jyx looked down at the pterosaur before him. The ritual circle faded, leaving nothing but a light dusting of green powder on the floor. Jyx thought of the ritual broom, and his heart sank. He’d used a ritual circle without cleansing it first. Still, it didn’t seem to have affected the pterosaur—it stretched its wings, and flexed its feet.

  “Hello, little man. I’m Jyx. Jyximus Faire. I’m your master,” said Jyx.

  The pterosaur screeched, swinging its head back and forth as if searching for the source of the sound. It scuttled backwards, its claws skittering across the floor.

  “It’s okay, you don’t have to be frightened,” said Jyx. He reached out towards the pterosaur but it screeched again, a shriek full of fear and panic. He looked at its reptilian face, and a cold fist of dread punched him in the stomach.

  The pterosaur’s head snapped from side to side, still hunting for the threat, its dead eyes staring but seeing nothing. It was blind. Jyx’s thoughts skipped out of the room towards the cabinet of vials and potions, particularly the Aperuit oculos salve. He slapped his hand across his mouth.

  “I forgot to anoint the eyes.” Jyx forced the words between gritted teeth.

  The pterosaur tore at the air with its wings and heaved itself off the floor. It flapped to one side, the joints in its left wing seizing solid. It crashed into the table, and a tall vase of glass lace toppled over. The vase exploded against the floor in a cloud of shards, spilling its fake floral bouquet. Glass blooms lurked among the velvet blossoms, adding their coloured fragments to the powder on the floor.

  “No, it’s okay, you don’t have to panic!” Jyx pleaded with the pterosaur as it worked the kink out of its wing and lurched across the room. It slammed into another table, sending yet another vase flying, which cracked apart into hundreds of porcelain slices.

  “No!”

  Jyx dived across the room, his fingers missing the pterosaur by a hair’s breadth. It howled, a prehistoric sound never before heard by man. With a mighty flap of its wings, it launched itself through the archway. The tip of its wing caught a third vase on the plinth beside the door. Jyx threw himself to the floor and caught the vase before it made contact. He shoved it back onto the plinth before plunging through the archway in pursuit of the pterosaur.

  The living fossil made a beeline for the doorway leading back to the main Vault. It let out a series of piercing screams, and Jyx made another grab for its leathery body. The Wolfkin had surely heard the noise, and they would soon be striding through the Vault. The Wolfkin would waste no time in destroying the pterosaur before destroying Jyx too. He caught himself before he could unleash a volley of conte
mptuous curses, aimed mostly at his own stupidity.

  The pterosaur dipped and swooped across the Vault, its claws catching at the mummies on the slabs. Its blind gaze raked across the blank walls, its tongue trying to taste freedom in the cold air. Jyx shouted a warning but the pterosaur failed to pull up in time; it smashed into a table of alchemical apparatus, demolishing the set-up in seconds. Shattered glass covered the floor, and the mixing of the chemicals released noxious fumes. They hung in a dark mist above the stone slabs.

  Jyx vaulted over a slab, apologising to its inhabitant. He rifled through his memory, hoping he’d learned some kind of incantation to protect property from damage. Nothing sprang to mind, and he dived to the floor to catch a mummy before it fell from its slab. The ancient king was heavier than Jyx expected, and they landed together in a twisted heap.

  “Stop it! Stop destroying everything!”

  Jyx threw off the mummy’s cadaverous embrace and leapt to his feet. The pterosaur wheeled and flew alongside the wall, its wings brushing the cold stone. It crashed headfirst into the main experimental table, sending flasks and braziers to the floor. Jyx howled, watching the destruction play out. The pterosaur, startled by the noise, flew upwards. It scraped over the gallery rail and smashed into a glass-fronted cabinet of potions.

  The pterosaur fell backwards, away from the gallery. It landed on a mummy’s stomach with a soft thump. Jyx ran the length of the Vault, his mouth hanging open and tears streaming from his eyes. He reached the pterosaur to find it wasn’t dead, simply stunned from the impact.

  He scooped up its body and made his way between the slabs to his own quarters. He hurried into his bedchamber, where Bastet still sprawled on the floor, snoring quietly. Jyx put the pterosaur into the empty sarcophagus and scooped a handful of sleeping sand from the floor beside the cat. He sprinkled it over the pterosaur, and its laboured breathing slowed and grew calm.