The Dungeon Con: One Foot in the Grave ( Hank Grave Book 1): One Foot in the Grave (Hank Grave series)

by Marty Myers

  But now with a fresh new mate in view and a rival appearing for his affections she was motivated to fight fiercely for him and his cause once again. In fact, he had a brilliant idea which had just come to him. He carefully reached down through the bond he had with Hank and checked. Yes! His soul was still completely unlimited by the bans. having never sworn to them nor lived under them before being brought here. Now in his cursed and warded state, they could not take a hold of him properly even though he was within their bounds. He tweaked a few things through the geas and increased certain essences flowing through both the man’s body and his soul. It would slow his resurrection attempts just a bit to try this twist on his scheme, but it could very well pay off handsomely in the end. The Bans were already beginning to be eroded by Hank and this Francis appearance and continued existence within the realm and his own efforts to restore his Dark Prince would continue to further their hastening collapse.

  Working much more subtly he slowly began the same process through Llywelyn’s bond to him. He must be extremely careful now if he wanted to get the correct result with none the wiser to his meddling. Luckily he was a master at hiding his manipulations when he bothered to do so. When he was done at last, he spoke once more. His minions were used to his occasionally long pauses since his attention was often split between his many manifestations and it was never a good idea to interrupt his lapses for anything less than that of the utmost importance. Otherwise, the Darkness might visit his aggravation at being roused from his thoughts upon you and no one willingly risked to be punished by him.

  “ Hmm very interesting Llywelyn, You have done very well in finding, distracting and diverting these pesky angels from their goal of finding Hank. I want you to be most careful dealing with them, but continue to try to monitor their activities when you can. Perhaps by proxy, as they will be particularly leary after this last meeting with you. Use someone most subtle and expendable and without any knowledge whatsoever of Hank or his whereabouts.”

  “ I want to know more of what is going on with these Angels and their new saint. I know something has seemed off about my rivals since this whole plan of mine went into action. They have been much more proactive and frenetic than usual. Maybe the appearance of this unknown female saint is what has kicked them out of their complacency. Yes, it must have caught them totally unprepared, her coming from outside their sphere of influence and then arriving in the heavens and having to be recognized as Apostaphus companion.” “ Master,” she said, “ I have already got a spy or two placed with them that I hope will not be discovered,” she said. “ They should be able to keep me appraised of the angels and their saint’s whereabouts.”

  “ Maybe we can capitalize on this turn of events the Darkness mused. There is still a big contingent within certain segments of the church which dispute the truth of the first Matron Saint and her Angel companion. If we spread the news of her successor’s arrival across the world it should help to further confuse the mortals and help spread division amongst them when they should instead be focused on stopping us. I will have to do some thinking upon the matter to decide how best to do this.”

  “ We will also begin mobilizing a large horde right outside your dungeon in plain view to distract them and give them the false impression that this is where the Dark Prince will rise again. I want you to begin rebuilding your exterior battlements as well and making a show of returning your defenses to fighting condition. In the meantime, I believe it is about time for us to arrange another transport of minions to Hanks Dungeon. Up till now, I had hoped his small kingdom would be overlooked by those sanctimonious fools since I have not sent any more minions there to stir up trouble, but the angels you found show me that they are getting far too close to finding the location of his dungeon despite our precautions.”

  “We must accelerate his growth and defenses even more so I am putting you in charge of visiting him more regularly and getting him ready for the Light’s attempting to breach his dungeons defenses while I work upon preparing his body for the resurrection. In addition, you and I will not be telling him just yet that this so-called Saint Francis has arrived in the Realm. I do not want to lose him Llywelyn as we have lost so many others to the false hope of returning to the Light.” “ It will be just as you say,” Llywelyn said with real steel in her voice. “ No more losing to the Lies of the Light.”

  Chapter 27

  Hank was beginning to realize that even with not sleeping he just didn’t have enough time in each day to get everything done. He decided he was already working just about as hard as he could most of the time. What he needed to do was work smarter as well. Or else he would fall behind and end up being punished once more. So he split off a second part of his attention and focused on learning to multitask better. The first him he set about learning and working with Melody on setting traps on the second floor. They grabbed a few skeletons and worked on setting both illusionary and real physical traps from the parts Birch had brought back. He even added in cursed traps and illusionary treasure chests into the mix. Then they added a large hall on to the back of the floor filled with a big illusionary maze with a false stairwell exit at its center which was, in reality, a large fiendish pit trap.

  While that was being worked on his second self went right on working with Alastor down in the lower dungeon excavating more large hallways and chambers to hold more of the Dark’s minions as Llywelyn had encouraged him to do. He even carved out a floor below that one, built on almost the same floor plan as the altar room level just with a more modest great hall. He did leave the area directly below the altar entirely intact for fear of disturbing whatever the Dark was doing in there. The balancing act of splitting his attention was trying for a while until he began to get the hang of it.

  Then below that he carved out a large rough cavern for future projects. Luckily only one of him was actually learning anything new while his second half was performing tasks he had mastered already. After a few hours of this Hank tried dividing his attention into three parts but he quickly noticed each of his three selves performance dropped noticeably. He could focus on one of the three and have one of him perform about the same as always while the other two did really poorly or return to all three being mediocre copies of Hanks. He stubbornly stuck with it until his being split into three began to give him a real headache.

  Finally, he excused himself from Melody and returned to being just two of himself. Leaving one with Alastor to recover and think about what he had learned. He knew from sharing some of Llywelyn’s memories that overstressing himself this way would be temporary and that she had regularly split her attention in three before to accomplish tasks when she needed to.

  She often had at least one of her in her main Great Hall sitting on her queens thrown. This incarnation was here for those who needed to report to her or address her formally. She had often had a second her working somewhere within her halls on one project or another or directing different parts of her staff in their training or duties. A third Llywelyn often split her time between scrying or patrolling the edges of her domain checking for anyone who might trouble her dark kingdom or off working on magics. She could also create duplicates of herself within her own mindscape to study or work through personal issues but her perception of time was so dilated there that those didn’t need to be maintained too long in relation to the others.

  For now, it seemed Hank should stick to trying two Hanks and then build up his skills to managing a third one as time went on. Hank said, “ okay Alastor, I am done with that experiment of splitting my attention for a while.” “ That’s good,” the imp said, “ as I was getting tired of picking up the slack carving out more of the dungeon. Especially since I know how much better at this than me you have gotten recently. Let’s take a break and practice some more necromancy before too much longer or Provoas is going to be getting on to us again about learning.” Hank nodded and summoned Birch to join them. Then he asked, “ so what do you think we should practice.” “ Well I know we ha
ve covered the basics of all three of the beginning paths but we really haven’t done much more with Darkness, Sickness and Death other than casting those curses on the chests in the vault. I thought maybe we could instead teleport in the guards next meals in and curse the crap out of it until it falls over,” Alastor said, “ and then remove the curses and then strip the meat from the bones and turn some of those big aurochs into skeleton bulls for the dungeon.” Hank agreed and so they relocated back to the kitchen area. They made yet another large storage chamber not far from the kitchen and then scryed out the biggest badest looking aurochs they could find. Hank prepared a stunning curse before they brought the first bulls in and he and Alastor rapidly set loose a slew of curses upon the beasts.

  Birch tried to emulate them but was only able to cast a couple of the curses on his own. Their huge size, stamina, and natural vitality made it hard to affect them with some of the curses while others worked just fine despite their robust natures. By the time they were done they had become more competent at casting them. They then dispelled and removed the curses which was another learning experience for them. Again Birch’s lesser aptitude showed as he had trouble removing the curses the others had cast.

  Then they focused on using the path of flesh and bones to strip the bulls clean and then reanimate them as deadly horned skeleton bulls. They strengthened the beasts by hardening their bones with chants until they were almost as hard as granite. The meat they teleported into the kitchen onto a prep table for the chef and his skeleton cooks to prepare for the next shift change.

  Hank said, “ guys, these bulls are a nice addition to our minions but I really need to get serious about stocking this place with many more of my own undead as soon as I can. Llywelyn is urging me to prepare to raise a host of my own within my halls. I want it to be as Provoas has said a dungeon of the dead but she says that we don’t have the resources locally to raise them out of and I know what she says is true. However, with our ability to teleport like it is, I think we can bring enough of them in to compensate.”

  Alastor said, “ yeah but just where are we going to find enough bodies that have not been blessed or laid to rest in holy ground?” Hank said, “ I’ve got an idea, I ran it past Llywelyn and she said it might work. I was thinking about where to find unburied bodies that haven’t been given last rites and I thought about scrying for shipwrecks and gathering up the remains of pirates. Llywelyn said that many sailors are dedicated to a Lord of the Seas Manuck, but that pirates on the other hand often belong to cults of Darkness or worship no one in particular.” Alastor said, “ that’s not really a bad idea Hank. If we can manage not to offend Manuck we could potentially get quite a few minions that way.” Great,” Hank said I am glad your on board with this plan. Now how do you think we should go about not offending the Lord of the Seas.”

  They thought about it for a while and then Alastor said, “ well I know from stories about him that he likes to keep to himself generally leaving others in peace unless they mess with him or what is his. There are however groups of islanders called Wreckers who scavenge wrecked ships close by their shores and take from the sea without incurring the sea lords wraith. I seem to recall hearing them read about in one of Provoas dry dusty tomes. They were mentioned as an odd sub-cult or group of pirates in the book which was only notable because they paid homage to both Manuck and the Darkness.”

  Hank said, “ the story Llywelyn told me about Manuck destroying the Darkness undead pirate fleet and the Dungeon Scarlock went that he did it because the Darkness had not asked permission from him to operate in his territories beforehand and then raided what was Manuck’s. He seems like he is all about respect. I wonder if I can approach the wreckers cult and gain entrance or permission to do as they do and scavenge wrecks. Just not for the same things they are after. I mean yes treasure would be cool but If I can make a deal with them to split the treasures between us in exchange for the bodies and being safe from their Lords wraith that would work out nicely.”

  Hank split himself off and took Alastor into his mental mindscape to look over the map Llywelyn had shared with him. “ Where are these wreckers supposed to be located,” he asked? Alastor pointed out a couple islands on the map and said, “ I think they would be somewhere upon these shores. It shows a port over on the other side of this island which I take to mean it’s a safe harbor that wouldn’t be likely to sink ships there.”

  Hank popped them back out of his head and said, “ Birch we are going to try to send you to one of the islands the Wreckers are on. I am going to try to ride with you in a partial possession so I can participate in any negotiations. Alastor will be assisting in the scrying and teleportation and will be constantly connected to us via our bonds. I want you to remember to stay off of any boats and out of the sea. I don’t think you would count as a pirate, but you certainly meet all the other criteria to fall under Manuk’s curse.”

  Once it was clear what part each of them would be playing Hank let the grimoire’s knowledge of possession run through his mind. He had just recently discovered that he was gaining some control over the flow of the information downloads that were happening from the book and was trying to manage it better. He suspected it might be yet another advantage of the sharing he had committed with Llywelyn as she had initially learned necromancy and other dark arts in much the same way as he was.

  Hank began the chant of possession from the Mind, Spirit and the Soul path. He had not done this before, but having a willing bonded minion to test it out on made the magic easier on both of them. Once he cast it and was swept on inside Birches body Hank took a few minutes for them both to get used to it. He walked around in Birch and got his legs back under him, got used to being back in a physical body and then tried drawing far enough back to turn control back to Birch. It was definitely a learning process between them. The bond they shared grew much closer with them sharing one body and they found a few of their thoughts mingling. Hank felt uncomfortable and knew Birch also was feeling cramped in his own head too, so Hank tried projecting himself into the mindscape to give them both some relief.

  This had some unexpected results as the mindscape they ended up in was in Birch’s headspace instead of Hank’s. Hank felt a draw upon his powers as his will and magics established themselves and expanded upon the untapped ability within Birch. Birch was stunned as he looked around at his fathers home in the Great Green Hall within the ancient elvish woods. “ How are we here Hank,” he asked. “ We are not really here at all,” Hank said, “ this must be a mental projection of one of your favored memories of a place. This is an unexpected development. I was attempting to get out of your way and used a technique I have been taught to move my awareness into one’s memories. It seems that you too had the potential to do this and I have activated it within you. I didn’t try to bring you here intentionally but since I am possessing you the magics have kept us together.

  Hank focused and tried opening an eye view of the room they were actually in. It was a bit of an effort but it appeared looking like a scrying pool before them. They could see Alastor standing still there as they were walking across the room. But as usual, nothing was really moving past an extremely slow crawl in the outside world. “ The perception of this place makes it appear that time has slowed almost to a stopping point,” Hank explained. “ It is simply the true speed of our minds as everything here is comprised of thought. It is possible to spend what appears to be a hefty amount of time here and have only seconds pass in the physical world. I use this method to have private conversations I do not wish overheard by others with Alastor or to plan out things when we have little time to accomplish something, but it requires careful thought and discipline to use,” Hank said.

  “ This ability needs to remain a secret Birch. It is a tremendous advantage for us that no one knows we have yet.” “ I understand,” Birch said as he studied his surroundings. “ Who would have thought I would have inherited this. I have heard rumors of this ability among some of the high elvish
mystics including my father’s mother, but had never thought to see it for myself. It is said they hold their own council amongst the wise and learned that none other are privy to.”

  “ It can also be used to share memories and even knowledge with each other,” Hank said. He demonstrated by calling upon the grimoires chants and working on imparting the curses that Birch was struggling with learning earlier. Hank had wondered if they would be able to cast them here, but they actually seemed to work fine after Hank had Birch call up a memory of some brigands to practice upon.

  He also walked Birch through some of the other uses he knew for the mindscape and then cautioned him. “ Only use this on yourself or with myself, Alastor or Llywelyn. They know about this and I trust them. Never talk about it out in the physical world. No one else must know about it for now unless it is an absolute emergency to save one of us. Hank felt closer to Birch now than ever before. “ Birch with this secret you are now one of my inner cabal. I may eventually have stronger minions but you are the first one of mine to think and act on my behalf. Alastor and you are as close to me as brothers now. Lywelyn, the Dark Citadel has become my lover and is also mentoring me in being a dungeon. You three are my family upon this world.” Overcome with emotion Hank could not go on. Instead, he hugged Birch as the Wight did likewise. “ I will not let you down Hank,” he said. “Good because we only have ourselves to depend on here.”

  Hank then showed Birch how to focus and reach out to bring Alastor into their mind space as well. Alastor looked around and seeing the elvish forest his eyes grew big. “ How,” he asked. “ Apparently those in Birch’s family line have a similar ability that was dormant within him until I messed up and tried stepping into my mindscape while I was possessing him. My magic interfered and it seems to have activated his own talent for it,” Hank said. “ Well,” Alastor said, “ I felt something happen, but I didn’t have any time to react before you pulled me in here.”