Rise of the Lich Sentinel

by Jessamyn Kingley

  “Yeah, it’s a trick necromancers use if they want to resurrect a certain person without their body,” Chander said. “They will use a loved one to find that soul. But I don’t have any dead ancestors or anything like that.”

  “I’m guessing the dead Egidius wouldn’t help you?”

  Chander grinned. “I’d be the first person to be told to fuck off by a ghost.”

  “We need a dark sorcerer with a large family.”

  “Or a dark sorcerer with a small family that’s somehow connected to dragons.”

  “Too bad none of your elders fit the bill,” Alaric observed.

  “Like those jerks would help me.”

  “We’d just need to offer them a bargain.”

  “Like what?”

  “If they don’t comply, I’ll kill them and then they’ll be as dead as the dragons,” Alaric suggested. “Maybe when they’re ghosts they will see to being more helpful.”

  “Not that we would resurrect them.”

  “Of course not, who wants to be around those assholes?”

  Chander laughed and cupped Alaric’s face in his hands to kiss him. His mate was wonderful, and he was happy to have him. That ugly voice inside him that said he didn’t deserve him wanted to fill him with fears and recriminations, but Chander knew life was too short to let that stop him from finding happiness with Alaric. And hopefully the following day the doctor would let them add the physical delights of being joined because he was tired of not having all of Alaric. He didn’t know how much time he had to enjoy with him, and he wanted a complete relationship while he could have it.

  Chapter 38

  After arriving at the hospital, Chander was put through several tests before they finally led him and Alaric into a room to wait for the doctor. Alaric was hoping for good news but would settle for any signal Chander wasn’t somehow getting worse.

  “I hate waiting,” Chander announced. He was sitting on the examining table and swinging his sneakered feet.

  Alaric smirked. “The Arch Lich is unused to that kind of treatment.”

  “Are you calling me a spoiled leader?”

  “That depends, do you prefer people to fawn all over you when you walk into a room?”

  “Ugh,” Chander said. “That used to happen when I was Council leader. You’d spend half your time dodging phony compliments and wishing whomever it was you were talking to would just get to the damn point already.”

  “I take it you don’t miss it.”

  “No, I tried to avoid it then. I would call in the elders if the person wouldn’t shut up. They loved that shit, ate it right up.”

  “They do sound like the types that would like to be flattered.” Alaric was happy to discuss something not connected to Chander’s health; he didn’t want him to stress about whatever the results of his tests might be.

  “Absolutely. That’s why I irritate them. I should be thankful they took such great care of me as a child and grateful that I’ve had them there to guide me in everything.”

  “How do the necromancers feel about your elders?”

  “Who really knows? The structure in place has all my people answering to them. I imagine there’s a level of respect there at the very least. The necromancers have, for all the contempt the elders have for me, prospered,” Chander said. “The elders tell me they’re suffering now that I’m no longer Council leader, and the necromancers don’t get special treatment because of that distinction.”

  There was a knock on the door and then Dr. Tranelephas walked into the room. “Good afternoon Arch Lich and Arch Lich-mate.” They returned his greeting and then he began to examine Chander. He listened to his heart and made him take a great many deep breaths before he sat down in a chair.

  “How are you feeling in general?” he asked.

  “Good,” Chander replied. “I’m still tired during the day, but it’s getting marginally better.”

  “Eating right?”

  “I had to buy new pants.”

  “Delighted to hear it,” the doctor responded. “Let’s talk about your test results. The anomaly is obviously still there and keeping steady at fifty percent of your blood volume. I’ve talked with the Prism Wizard and I must say, I’m intrigued by the Grand Summoner’s theory of you being a hybrid. It’s too early to come to that conclusion, but we can’t rule it out either. We’ll keep working on figuring this out though. Your blood pressure is good, and the deterioration in the last two weeks of the heart muscle is minimal. I think it may be leveling off and we could see more improvement in the coming weeks.”

  Chander looked relieved. “That’s great.”

  “You’re doing better than I expected. I think your magic is back on board helping your body instead of spending all its time fighting the warlock magic wrapped around your heart.”

  “But I’m still not allowed to cast, am I?”

  “I don’t think it’s a good idea at this stage.”

  “Okay, what about my other restrictions?”

  “Since you are looking at your mate while you ask me that question, I’m going to assume you’re hoping to be able to hop back in the sheets with him,” the doctor said. “I think it’s okay if you want to do that, but remember your heart is still weak. Nothing crazy. No trapeze acts or wild stuff. And if you feel short of breath or experience increased pain, stop.”

  Alaric didn’t know what the hell the doctor expected them to be doing, but he was glad to know he could be intimate with Chander. He was nervous at the prospect, not having any experience, but he knew Chander would guide him along as necessary.

  “I had my heart set on starting a double trapeze act with Alaric, but I guess we’ll have to put our plans on hold for a while.”

  “Might have to shelve that for quite some time.”

  “Damn,” Chander joked. “What about returning to work?”

  “Your sentinels were quite clear you’re a workaholic, so I’m hesitant to give you the green light there.”

  “I don’t know many Council leaders who aren’t workaholics, but I think we can come to a compromise. I have three sentinels in my life who are going to be breathing down my neck making sure I don’t overdo.”

  “It sounds like you have a specific request in mind.”

  “I do,” Chander revealed. “And I’m willing to start out slow. What if I went to Council session in the morning and then worked from home in the afternoon right after having my nap?”

  “That’s jumping in with both feet,” Dr. Tranelephas said. “Let’s start with one or two days attending sessions and on the days you don’t, you can work from home in the afternoon. You have a stressful job. It’s going to take a toll on you.”

  “Fine. Two days at Council Headquarters in the mornings. Three afternoons I work from home.”

  “Let’s start there and then reevaluate in a few weeks,” Dr. Tranelephas suggested. “If things still look good, we can increase. If any time in the next couple of weeks your energy level begins to dip or your pain increases, pull back. This is not the time to muscle through as you’ve done in the past. Okay?”

  “Fair enough.”

  Dr. Tranelephas turned to Alaric. “I expect you to keep him honest because you’ll both face my wrath if his health relapses.”

  “I’ll tie him down if I have to.”

  “He might not be ready for bondage.” The doctor grinned as he stood up and shook Chander’s hand. “I’ll see you both back here in a few weeks.”

  “Thanks,” Chander said. He hopped off the examining table and Alaric took his hand. They went out into the waiting room and collected Baxter and Benton. Chander had forbidden them from attending his appointment. Alaric knew now it was because the two would have balked at the mere suggestion of Chander returning to work. And they’d planned to speak to the doctor about the ban on intimacy and that was a subject best broached without the pair. Baxter drove them all home while they filled the guys in on all they’d learned from Dr. Tranelephas.

  Neither one com
plained about Chander’s new schedule, but they shared pointed looks. Alaric knew they were saying plenty to each other through their mindlink. He was glad they weren’t objecting to Chander’s face; he knew he was sick of being coddled. Once they got back home, they had lunch and then Chander headed off for his nap. Alaric prepared to head to the compound. Before he left, he asked Baxter and Benton to invite Gavrael and Gedeon over. They needed to have a meeting to go over the stacks of papers they’d all been reading through and see if anyone had anything interesting to share. Once it was set for the afternoon, Alaric teleported to his former home and got to work.

  * * *

  Alaric pulled Chander’s feet into his lap as the other four sentinels in the room grabbed seats. They had dragged two of the dining room chairs in so everyone had a place to plant their butts. Looking over at Chander, who was as usual, buried in a book, made his heart rate pick up. Later that night, he had plans to take their relationship to a deeper and more intimate one. It was thrilling and though he planned to take it as slow as possible, he would not rest until Chander was completely satisfied. Knowing it didn’t help to think about it, he set it aside and refocused on his task.

  “Did everyone get through the stacks I gave them?” Alaric asked and watched four heads bob in unison. “Did anyone find anything of note?”

  “Geddy and I found ourselves with stacks of what appear to be rosters of sentinels at the compound,” Gavrael stated. “We may have discovered some unusual things, but I am curious if anyone else had similar papers.”

  “Yeah, what we think is curious may only be so because what we’re looking at is incomplete information,” Gedeon added.

  “We didn’t have anything like that,” Baxter said.

  “Neither did I,” Alaric added. “I remember writing plenty of them but none were in my stack.”

  “Okay, well, as we all know, sentinels are immortal, so they wind up with more than one necromancer,” Gedeon began, “It appears they’re given new names when they are reassigned.”

  “Yes,” Alaric responded.

  “On a side note, how do you pick the names?” Gedeon asked.

  “I don’t, I get a piece of parchment with a name and the room number they’re now housed in.”

  “Interesting,” Gedeon replied. “So, on the lists you have added the sentinels’ complete history with all their known aliases.”

  “Really?” Baxter asked. “What other names did I have?”

  “No one in this room apparently has any aliases.”

  Alaric smiled. “That could mean one of two things. Either you were resurrected at the time of your necromancer’s birth because there was no other available sentinel, or your leader knew his office contained ledgers and removed the aliases so you wouldn’t be privy to your past lives.”

  “Which is it?” Benton asked.

  “I’ll never tell.”

  “He’s no fun,” Baxter complained.

  “Was that the only curious thing you found on the rosters?” Alaric asked.

  “No,” Gavrael replied. “We found some notations next to certain names. PS was written next to some and FS was used a few times.”

  “PS is for partial skeleton,” Alaric explained. “It’s a temporary condition. As you know, sometimes we’re asked to do things that are inhumane. It causes us to lose our outward humanity. After time at the compound, it’s restored and the sentinel regains their corporeal self.”

  “Some necromancers are real shitheads,” Chander threw in.

  “Thanks to your fallen knights who came up with the law that punishes necromancers for crimes committed by their sentinel, it’s a rare occurrence to see PS next to names anymore,” Alaric added.

  “Score one for Drystan,” Chander responded.

  “What does FS stand for?” Gavrael asked.

  “I don’t remember using that.”

  “The mystery deepens,” Gedeon responded. “Every sentinel that has an FS next to their name winds up missing on future rosters.”

  “Missing?” Alaric asked.

  “Yes,” Gavrael said. “They show up as FS and then the rosters with later dates have no mention of their name again. It’s as if they disappear.”

  “How many names are we talking about?” Alaric asked.

  “Four,” Gavrael stated. “Brynnius, Cassius, Ducarius, and Eduard.”

  “Four missing sentinels. How does that happen?” Alaric asked though he knew no one had the answer.

  “There was one more name that disappeared without an FS next to it,” Gedeon revealed. “His name is or was Drexley.”

  “How long have they all been missing?” Alaric asked.

  “The FS ones are ancient sentinels. Eduard is the one missing for the shortest time and that’s still over a thousand years,” Gavrael explained. “Drexley’s name disappeared about five hundred years ago.”

  “If PS stands for partial skeleton, then wouldn’t it make sense for FS to stand for something else skeleton, perhaps full?” Chander suggested.

  “It seems logical,” Alaric replied. He was growing irritated that he had missing men. “How in the world could I have lost track of five sentinels? My spell forced me to see to their needs. It makes no sense I would lose people.”

  “Unless that was part of the spell,” Chander said. “Or whoever cast it didn’t factor in every situation and when one of these men fell into that category, you simply wrote them off.”

  “This pisses me off,” Alaric retorted. It made his blood boil to think he’d shirked his duty somehow, and now they had no idea where these five men were.

  “Is it possible they are somewhere in the compound?” Gavrael asked.

  “I don’t know,” Alaric replied. “It is an enormous building and it’s magical.”

  “Magic is dangerous when it comes to buildings,” Chander told them. “That’s why as Council members we still rely on old-fashioned methods of creating them. Things can and do disappear.”

  “How would I find something that has disappeared?” Alaric asked. “It doesn’t sit well with me that there could be men in that building who have been ignored.”

  “Explore,” Chander suggested. “That’s the best advice I can offer since sorcerers can’t visit. If the magic has blocked off an area, it might be subtle but there will always be warped or smudged clues. It should be easy, actually, if you have room numbers.”

  “You think they would be in the same room designated by the rosters?” Alaric asked.

  “I would think so,” Chander said. “You might have walked past it without even realizing rooms used to be there.”

  “The numbering system is rather wild,” Alaric stated. “One is not next to two. More like five. I’ll have to take some time to devote to this.”

  “So, we likely have four skeletons hanging around the compound,” Baxter observed.

  “It almost makes a sick kind of sense,” Chander replied. “They would no longer have the same needs as their corporeal counterparts, so your spell may have written them off as no longer requiring your attention.”

  Alaric didn’t like hearing that. “I would think they could use someone to talk to more than anyone else.”

  “Yes, but what did your conversations usually revolve around?” Chander asked. “Seeing to their needs.”

  “He told us about Baxter and Benton too,” Gedeon added.

  “Our conversations were always brief though,” Alaric countered. “I never spent more than a few minutes at a time with a single man. I couldn’t.”

  “That gives us a plausible explanation for the missing skeletons,” Gavrael said. “But what of Drexley?”

  “Good question,” Alaric replied. “But if I wrote nothing next to his name I can’t answer it. Perhaps as my memory continues to be restored, I can remember him. I think I’m inching closer to that time period, but my days were so monotonous it’s hard to know for sure.”

  “We can start making a map of the rooms we visit,” Benton suggested. “If we all do that
, we can start the process of tracking down these guys if they are still there.”

  “Where else could they be?” Gedeon asked.

  “I hesitate to say this,” Chander began, “but there is the possibility the spell that created sentinels may have destroyed a man who lost all humanity.”

  “I, for one, hope that’s not the case,” Alaric replied. “No sentinel should be punished for something beyond his control.”

  “I’m in perfect agreement,” Chander stated.

  Alaric huffed out a breath. “Did anyone discover anything else?”

  “No,” Baxter responded. “And I want to say I’m pissed off Gavrael and Gedeon got more interesting stuff to go through than we did.”

  Gedeon grinned. “Sucks to be you. The only other thing I thought was interesting was the alphabet stuff. Alaric is the only A and no name is ever repeated.”

  “I would assume Alaric is the first sentinel and that’s why he was an A,” Chander said. “As the leader, perhaps the original creation spell won’t allow anyone else to be A. I guess when we get you guys approved for the Council and more of you meet your mates, we can see if the other weird letter thing continues.”

  “Weird letter thing?” Benton asked.

  “Seriously? Those two are both G and you two are both B.”

  “Well then, whoever named you used the wrong letter, Chand,” Baxter pointed out.

  “I don’t even know who named me to send the complaint letter to,” Chander replied.

  “I happen to like your name,” Alaric told his mate. Then he turned to his men. “Thanks for bringing those names to my attention. We’ll continue to sort through my office. I thought we would be solving mysteries—not adding new ones.”

  Gavrael and Gedeon got to their feet. Before teleporting home, Gedeon responded, “Hey, at least it makes it interesting.”

  “It is that,” Alaric agreed. He just wasn’t sure if it was good or bad.

  Chapter 39

  Alaric brushed his teeth and then gargled mouthwash for good measure. He looked up at the mirror and saw his usual reflection. Messy hair hanging over his forehead, glowing green eyes, and because it was nighttime, a silly pair of pajamas. Chander had seen him this way for several weeks now and so far, he had no complaints. It would do. Closing his eyes, Alaric reached inside himself for the fear he had of not performing well and then with a deep breath shoved it away. It was a technique designed to help sentinels deal with dangerous situations, and having sex for the first time seemed to apply.