Ghost in the Seal (Ghost Exile #6) (26 page)

“If he is,” said Caina, “then why hasn’t he used the Staff and Seal?” 

No one had an answer for that. 

“Perhaps he isn’t aware of them,” said Kylon. “Perhaps he awakened from his hibernation and began some great spell, and so hasn’t noticed the Staff and the Seal yet.”

Morgant grunted. “Then we need to sneak into the tomb of an awakened Great Necromancer and steal away something from under his rotting nose?”

“We must,” said Annarah. “We have no choice. The relics of the regalia are too powerful. They will react to the presence of the necromantic aura. Sooner or later Kharnaces cannot help but notice them.” 

“Then let us waste no further time,” said Nasser. “We…”

Kylon didn’t hear the rest of the sentence.

He went rigid, a familiar dark presence brushing against his arcane senses. It was a corrupted, alien thing, filled with malice and hate and hunger. The hunger dominated everything, a creature that wished to gorge itself upon pain and torment and death…

“Kylon?” said Caina. “Kylon!”

She grabbed his arm, and her emotions flooded over him. She was afraid, but mostly for him, and her concern snapped him out of his surprise.

“Nagataaru,” said Kylon. “There is a nagataaru nearby.” For a furious instant he was sure that the Red Huntress had returned, but he realized that the nagataaru he felt was weaker than the Voice that had given the Huntress her power. 

“Where?” said Nasser in the calm voice of a man accustomed to command in battle.

“North,” said Kylon, scanning the trees behind the sphinxes. “We should see it…”

A dark, hunched shape moved into sight, loping on all fours. At first Kylon thought the creature a misshapen child clad in gray cloth, but then he realized it was a large gray baboon, its snout long, its limbs heavy with muscle, its tail coiling and uncoiling. 

“Ugly damned monkey,” said Laertes. 

“That’s not a monkey,” said Caina. “That’s a baboon.” 

Kylon frowned, puzzled. “The nagataaru. It’s…I think it’s inside the baboon.” 

Then he realized something else. 

The baboon was dead. 

It had been dead for a long, long time. Its carcass had been mummified, its fur brittle and piebald, its leathery hide clinging to its bones. Kylon sensed the necromantic spell around the dead baboon. The Maatish had held various animals sacred as totems of their gods, just as Caina had said, and the baboon had been one of them. 

The nagataaru inhabited the mummified baboon. 

The undead baboon paused behind one of the sphinxes, standing with the motionlessness of a dead thing, purple fire flickering in its empty eye sockets. 

“Those must be the creatures that Murat saw,” said Annarah, her staff flickering with white fire as she summoned sorcerous power. 

“Kylon,” said Caina. “How many of them?”

Kylon stared to answer, and then the trees rustled. 

A wave of malevolent hunger washed over his arcane senses.

Dozens of undead baboons erupted from the trees, charging in eerie silence, their eyes burning like cold purple stars. 

“Defend yourselves!” shouted Nasser, raising his scimitar, and Annarah began casting a spell. 

Chapter 15: Guardians of Heresy

The undead baboons charged, and Caina raised her ghostsilver dagger. Kylon lifted the valikon, the sword’s blade burning with white fire. Morgant drew his black dagger and crimson scimitar, while Laertes reached over his shoulder and lifted a javelin. Caina had seen him throw such javelins with great skill, but it seemed a pitiful weapon against the undead baboons charging towards them. Kylon braced himself, and Caina knew he was about to spring into the nagataaru-possessed baboons and attack with the valikon. Perhaps that would be enough to drive them back. 

Or they would swarm over him and tear him to pieces.

Before Caina could act, before anyone could attack, Annarah moved. 

She thrust her staff, the bronze length blazing with white flames, and shouted the Words of Lore. Caina felt a surge of raw, resonant power, and the end of Annarah’s staff shone like a blazing star, a dome of white light falling over the baboons. 

A dozen of the nearest baboons erupted in white flames, and the creatures fell motionless, their bodies crumbling as the Words of Lore devoured the nagataaru within them. Caina sensed the ripple in the necromantic aura around the undead things as Annarah’s power shattered the ancient spells. For a moment it seemed like the battle would be over before it began, with the baboons consumed by the light from Annarah’s staff. 

Yet Annarah gasped and leaned against her staff, the light winking out. 

“Too many,” she croaked. “There’s too many. I can’t banish them all at once. I…”

As one, the baboons swiveled to look at her, their necks creaking. 

Then they charged in a rush, a mass of spindly limbs, flashing teeth, and patchy gray fur. 

Kylon shot forward to meet them, the valikon leaving a trail of white fire as he attacked. The valikon spun in his hands, his strength driving the sword like a bolt of silvery lightning, and he carved his way through the mass of baboons. He cut down five of the things in the blink of an eye, and they came nowhere close to touching him. 

Yet five hardly seemed more than a drop in the ocean.

More of the baboons rushed out of the trees, their dead eyes shining with purple fire. Two of the creatures leapt at Caina. She ducked, hit the ground, and rolled, the ghostsilver dagger sweeping before her. The blade struck the nearest baboon across its wasted chest, and the handle grew hot beneath Caina’s fingers. The baboon shuddered, its aura flickering, and Caina slashed again with the dagger. The ghostsilver weapon disrupted the necromantic spell upon the baboon, and the creature fell apart into a pile of bone and ragged strips of leathery hide. A hooded shadow with eyes of purple flame rose from the bones, the nagataaru freed from its undead flesh, but the spirit faded as it was pulled back into the netherworld. 

The second baboon slammed into Caina, scrambling up her torso The thing’s arms and legs felt like bars of cold iron, and its jaws yawned wide, exposing yellowed teeth, the musty stench of mummified flesh washing over Caina’s face. Baboons, she had read somewhere, preferred to attack enemies by biting them, and it seemed the nagataaru had decided to follow the customs of its undead host. Caina snapped up her left arm, getting it between her throat and the baboon. Its jaws clamped upon the leather bracer covering her forearm. The sturdy leather kept its teeth from breaking her skin, but the thing was so strong that pain flared up her arm, and she was sure that if she lived through this there would be teeth-shaped bruises upon her forearm. 

Her right arm was still free, so she raised her dagger and buried it in the side of the baboon’s neck. There was a hissing, crackling noise, a wisp of smoke, and the spell binding the undead baboon collapsed. The creature fell apart with a puff of dust, the nagataaru rising from the bones to vanish into nothingness. The skull was still clamped to her arm, and Caina hit it with the dagger’s butt until it came loose. Another baboon lunged at her, and Caina dodged, dragging the dagger along its back. Again the ghostsilver blade carved a sizzling gash through the leathery flesh, and the baboon fell over, the nagataaru expelled from its undead host. Still another came at Caina, and she seized its wrist as it reached for her, twisted, and drove her dagger into its chest. Two or three seconds of contact with the ghostsilver dagger seemed to be enough to disrupt the spell of necromancy upon the baboons. And once the spell was broken, the nagataaru within was banished back to the netherworld. 

Now Caina had to do it only a few hundred more times.

Caina struck down another baboon, giving herself a moment to look around. Kylon held his own, the valikon a blaze of white fire in his fists. He was holding the baboons at bay, but dozens of the things surrounded him, and more streamed out of the jungle to the north. Kylon was a ferocious fighter, but even his stamina would not last forever, and if he stumbled the baboons would swarm over him and tear him to pieces. 

Annarah stood with both hands wrapped around her bronze staff, white light shining from it. Her first attack, banishing a dozen nagataaru at once, seemed to have drained a considerable part of her strength. The light now blazing from her pyrikon did not destroy the nagataaru-possessed baboons, but it did push them back, and it appeared to pain the creatures. Nasser, Morgant, and Laertes stood in a ring around Annarah, fighting the baboons as they tried to advance. Laertes wielded his heavy shield like a club, smashing the baboons back with such force that they fell apart. Morgant’s scimitar and black dagger flickered out, cutting the baboons to pieces. Nasser thrust with his left hand, grabbing the creature and lifting them from the ground. They invariably tried to bite off his fingers. Since his left hand was made of living crystal, the baboons only succeeding in shattering their teeth, which made it easy for Nasser to take off their heads with his scimitar. 

They were holding, but only barely. Worse, Caina had gotten separated from them. If she tried to force her way through the baboons to rejoin Kylon or Nasser, the creatures would rip her to shreds. Isolated from her friends, she stood little chance against the hordes of undead things. Even as the thought crossed her mind, she heard the trees rustle to the south. 

Nearly twenty more undead baboons burst from the foliage, loping on all fours towards her with terrific speed, their rotted eye sockets shining with purple fire. 

Purple fire…

The creatures had no remaining eyes, yet they seemed to have no trouble navigating. They were possessed by nagataaru, which meant the nagataaru used their otherworldly senses to track their foes. Kalgri had possessed a similar ability, with the Voice able to sense her foes even in total darkness.

But when Caina had donned her shadow-cloak, the Voice had been unable to find her. Kalgri had been forced to use her eyes of flesh and blood to follow Caina.

The undead baboons had no other eyes.

The baboons charged, and Caina reached over her shoulder and yanked out her shadow-cloak. It billowed behind her like a banner of darkness, and Caina pulled it on and drew the cowl over her head.

The charging baboons came to a sudden stop. Their heads swiveled back and forth, and Caina let out a long breath. The shadow-cloak protected her from mind-altering and divinatory spells, and as she had discovered through frequently terrifying experience, it prevented spirits from detecting her presence. 

So. How could she use that to her advantage?

The score of baboons that had charged her headed to join the mobs attacking Kylon and Annarah. Caina cursed and ran after them, striking with the ghostsilver dagger. The blade sank into the nearest baboon, and the creature shuddered, coming to a halt as the ghostsilver shattered the necromantic spell. The baboon fell over, and Caina struck down another and then another in rapid succession. 

The nagataaru might have been driven by their lust for pain and death, but they were not stupid. The baboons realized that something was amiss, that they were under attack from an unseen opponent. Several of them attacked at random, lashing with their arms and feet and tails in hopes of catching their invisible tormentor. A dozen baboons moved together in a coordinated pattern as the fighting raged around them. The nagataaru must have had some way of communicating with each other. After Caina and Morgant had rescued Annarah from the netherworld, Kotuluk Iblis had warned the nagataaru possessing Malik Rolukhan. Kotuluk Iblis, the Great Nagataaru, the prince and lord of the nagataaru, wanted Caina dead. Come to think of it, he had prophesied her death, just as Sulaman had. Unlike Sulaman, the Great Nagataaru wanted her dead, and had uncounted legions of vassals and servants capable of doing it. 

An idea came to Caina. 

Just how much did Kotuluk Iblis want her dead? More to the point, how forcefully had he communicated this wish to his vassals?

Perhaps it was time to find out. Or perhaps it was time for Caina to fulfill Sulaman’s prophecy.  

She raced around the edge of the fighting, striking at the baboons. From time to time she lowered her cowl, allowing the nagataaru within the dead animals to get a look at her. More and more of the baboons broke off to chase after her, and Caina drew off perhaps thirty of the creatures.

“What are you doing?” Kylon shouted, striking down a pair of baboons with a fiery sweep of the valikon. 

Caina sprinted to the road and climbed on one of the sphinxes, gripping its stone head with her free hand. She reached up and pulled back her cowl, and the pursuing baboons turned towards her. Towards the north she glimpsed stone ruins rising from the jungle, and her plan came together. 

“Kotuluk Iblis!” she shouted.

Suddenly the baboons stopped attacking, backing away from Kylon and Morgant and the others. Hundreds of pairs of purple-burning eyes turned towards Caina. 

Gods, there had to be at least two hundred of the creatures.

“Kotuluk Iblis!” said Caina again. “He is the prince of the nagataaru, and your lord and master, and he wants me dead! Come on, look at me. Look at me! Who am I?” The baboons stared at her, motionless. “Look at my destiny thread! You know who I am? I’m the Balarigar!”

A strange ripple went through the undead baboons, the fiery light in their empty eyes burning brighter. The damned things were listening to her. 

“I killed the Moroaica,” said Caina. “I burned the Inferno, I walked in the netherworld and lived, and I’m going to stop the Apotheosis unless you kill me here and now.” She flung out her hand. “Come on, then! What are you waiting for? Come and kill me!” 

For an instant the baboons remained motionless. 

Then they surged at her, all of them, a wall of crumbling flesh and brittle gray fur and yellowed bone. Caina leaped from the back of the sphinx, hit the ground running, and sprinted into the jungle to the north, towards the ruins she had spotted while standing atop the sphinx. The baboons pursued on all fours, quickly gaining ground.