Looming Shadow: Journey to Chaos book 2 (42 page)

Nolien quickly cast
Illumination Orbs and threw them into the sky. Like floodlights, they
illuminated the entire area. Tiza closed her eyes and looked over the entire
area with her Third Eye. It was all she could do to keep from squeeing in glee.
This was
her father’s
legacy!

Sias signed rapidly
while staring at him with narrowed eyes. Basilard smiled awkwardly and signed
in response. The others didn’t know what he said but, whatever it was, it
didn’t pacify her. Instead, she puffed up in anger and marched to the other end
of the camp where she occupied herself by brushing her hair.

“Let me guess,” Nolien
said. “She’s mad because you weren’t worried about her during the attack and
neither did you look for her when you noticed her absence because you
didn’t
notice her absence. You didn’t even ask ‘are you okay’ before giving orders.”

“I said I have faith in
her ability to take care of herself.”

“That translates into
‘I don’t care about you’ and, in your case, ‘I was leading you on for my
amusement’ because of your early flirting.”

“It does!?”

Nolien sighed. “This is
why you don’t have an heir yet.”

Tiza sighed. “Even
I
would be mad if a guy I liked treated me like that.”

Basilard pretended he
didn’t hear them and turned his attention to Haburt. Standing over him, he
placed his hand on the man’s head.

“There are two ways we
can do this: You can tell me the truth or you can lie and your blood will turn
into poison. Bladicraft will tell me the difference. Which do you prefer?”

“The first, please.”

“Where is Eric?”

“Straight to the point,
I see. In exchange for Eric –”

“You are in no position
to bargain.”

“You are in a hurry! Do
you have time to negotiate?”

Basilard snarled. “What
is it?”

“I want you to
guarantee my daughter’s safety. My own as well if possible, but my daughter’s
–”

“Your daughter is dead.
That’s why you kidnapped Tiza; to brainwash her into thinking she was your
daughter.”

“That was my back-up
plan! I tried to bring her back! I called in a favor from Nulso to get her soul
back and he pointed me in the direction of someone who could make her a new
body.”

“My uncle,” Basilard
hissed. “The Exile. The Crimson Killer.”

“He calls himself
‘Mr.15’ these days. He almost succeeded eight years ago, and if you hadn’t
destroyed his laboratory, I would have my daughter back and we wouldn’t be
here!”

“It’s Daylra’s fault
you kidnapped me because he stopped Bad Blood from doing unrelated evil stuff?
What kind of warped logic is that?”

 “Tiza, hush. I need
you focused on dangers
outside
of this circle. As for you, Professor, I
don’t think The Exile would give up so easily.”

“Yes. Even without the
original soul, he said it was possible.”

“Implant memories,
steal a girl’s soul, and implant it in the body so the body won’t rot.”

For the first time that
evening, Haburt grinned. “We’re not so different.”

“Daylra, what’s he
talking about?”

“He’s familiar with the
process. Carbon Copying is one of the Bladi’s clans Forbidden Arts and he’s too
familiar for casual interest.”

The novices looked to
him and he grasped BloodDrinker’s hilt in an effort to remain calm.

“I can empathize with
you, Professor, but the difference between us is
that
I never
snatched a girl from her mother’s lap!
”

His grip tightened so
much that Haburt screamed in pain.

“Daylra stop!” Nolien
shouted. “You’re going to kill him!”

Basilard didn’t stop
and blood appeared in five points on Haburt’s head.

“Dragon’s Lair Charter
Article Number Three: Never Kill the Client!”

Basilard paused.

“The Mother Dragon
says, ‘We are professionals, not mongrels.’”

Basilard let go and
stepped back. Nolien rushed forward and worked his healing magic. There was
bruising, bleeding, and even cracks. He was fortunate his patient was a greater
mage, because otherwise, his spirit might have fled its damaged vessel. His
magic was inadequate to the task, but he kept Haburt stable enough for Basilard
to calm down and finish the job himself.

“Please accept my
apologies, Professor Haburt. I shouldn’t have lost my temper.”

Haburt remained dazed
momentarily as the magic moved on from mending external damage to internal
damage to relieving the concussion and restoring full consciousness. He
blinked, made a face, and then cleared his throat.

“Apology accepted,
Chief Bladi. Do we have a deal?”

“Sure. Even though your
‘daughter’ was created through a number of crimes, she is not responsible for
any of them. If she’s already alive and sapient, then I will make sure she
leaves the country safely. You have my word. Now where is Eric?”

“He’s either around
here fighting clones, nearby because he escaped, or being taken to Mount Heios
as we speak.”

“Is that where The
Exile is hiding?”

“Yes.”

“Team, we’re moving.”

“Wait, shouldn’t we
find out more about the situation?”

“I know where The Exile
is and I am fairly certain he has my student. That’s enough.”

“The Mother Dragon
says, ‘Going into a mission without knowing the whole situation is like starting
a duel with a blindfold and earplugs.’”

“Fine. Professor,
explain.” 

“This mission was a
trap designed by myself, Nulso, and Mr.15. I wanted my daughter back, Nulso
wanted Eric out of the way, and Mr.15 wanted a number of things like revenge,
your sword, and an elfin battery. To get them, we were going to kidnap your
students. My role was to draw you here and keep you here until you were
sufficiently weakened from the local atmosphere. When the time was right, I was
to send him a message to send in his clones and aid in kidnapping Tiza.”

“Why me?”

“Tiza, focus!”

“You’re not a mage. We
deemed you the weak link.”

Basilard chuckled.
“Obviously, you don’t know how our guild works. She’s the team’s shield. Her
job is to protect the mages. You should have gone after Nolien.”

Tiza burst out
laughing. Nolien was less amused.

“
Really
,
Daylra?”

“Why did you judge
tonight to be the time?”

“Eric was the highest
priority target and he was tired from practicing mana compression. When you
told him to leave the campfire and return the skull, I judged he would be at
his most vulnerable because the skull would distract him, so I sent the
message. Zettai’s preparations for departure, Nolien’s inclination to stop her,
and your habit of going off into the darkness with Sias meant you would be
divided and more vulnerable still.”

“What about the plan of
attack?”

“A trio was to attack
each of you, but Sias deserved two trios because of her power in addition to
the same honey-pot trap we set for you.”

“What about the Exile
himself? Did he sit at home for all this?”

Tiza jumped behind
Basilard and crossed her arms. Blood-red light exploded against them and pushed
her backwards. She recovered and returned fire towards empty air at the edge of
the Illumination Orbs’ radiance. Following her cue, Nolien generated two dozen
mana bolts and fired them in a fishing-net formation with Tiza’s bolt as the
center. Several in the bottom left struck something and so Nolien aimed a Dispel
at that area. It tore away the interloper’s Dark Veil, revealing his identity.

“You trained the second
batch well, dear nephew.”

His face was covered by
a mask of a legendary creature that fed on blood. Only his red hair and red
eyes were visible. A crimson cloth embroidered in gold wrapped his neck and
covered his jugular vein. At his waist, he wore a belt that held two scabbards,
one of them empty. Over his shoulder, unconscious, was Eric.

 “EXILE!”

Basilard drew
BloodDrinker and the blade hummed with pleasure at its wielder’s bloodlust.
Mr.15 waggled his finger disapprovingly.

“Don’t you recognize
Bladi Cannibalism, dear nephew? I used
his
power to create that Dark
Veil. I could shut off his brain in a heartbeat.” 

“What do you want,
Diseased Blood?”

“Name calling? I
thought I raised you better than that, dear nephew. In any case, what I want
should be obvious. Why don’t we discuss it at my new home? I’ll make snacks.”

The ground underneath
his feet melted and he began to sink. Sias stood, holding up her skirts with
one hand and pointing at Mr.15 with the other.

“You can bring your
earth lady with you. I’d love to meet your first girlfriend in fifteen years.”

He remained calm
despite sinking. By now, he was buried up to his knees. It was disturbing to
the novices.

“By the way, Eric put
up a jolly good fight. He was blasting, dodging, striking, and sneaking around
invisibly. You did a good job training him. Not quite as good a job as Haru,
but then again, you had more time with him. Once I make a clone of this one, we
can have a match!”

 Only his waist and above
were still visible.

“Until then, goodbye.”

He disappeared and teleported
out of Sias’ quicksand as if it didn’t exist.

Basilard sheathed
BloodDrinker and regulated his breathing until his eyes stopped glowing. Then,
with great gentleness, he took Sias' hand into his own and brought it to his
lips.

“Thank you for your
hospitality, milady, but I must attend to pressing business.”

She looked away from
him disdainfully and pulled her hand loose.

“Tiza, Nolien, stay
here and –”

“With all due respect,
Daylra, we can’t obey such an order.”

“We’re coming with you,
got it?”

“It’s too dangerous,” Basilard
said.

“For you to go alone; yes,
it is. You’ll need my Third Eye.”

“The Mother Dragon
says, ‘When two healers travel together, they are immortal.’”

Basilard shoved them
into a tent and began a containment spell. As he chanted, Nolien made an
eloquent speech about the guild values of family and unity and other things
that made Tiza roll her eyes. She knew that would only solidify their mentor's
resolve and indeed Basilard chanted faster. So the fighter did what she knew
would work.

“Is this exile more
powerful than you?”

As she suspected, he
stopped.

“Even with BloodDrinker,
you failed to kill him last time. With a sufficient degree of power, he could
shatter anything you make. Leaving us here is likely part of his plan. You
would naturally do the opposite of what you did last time, thus leaving us here
unprotected.”

There was a pause and,
at last, Basilard dismissed the unfinished spell.

“Tiza, Sathel taught you too well.”

Tiza beamed.

“Nolien, Tsilear didn't teach you well
enough.” 

Nolien frowned.

To Tiza, Basilard said, “Would you like to
change before we leave?”

“Are you kidding? We don't have time for
that; Dimwit needs us now.” She marched out of the castle with her skirts
swaying in time with her steps. “On the plus side, I won't have to clean it
after all the zombies I'm gonna kill.”

Zettai joined Tiza's
free side. “I owe Eric for rescuing me and teaching me. This is the least I can
do in return. If nothing else, I can be your lizard’s tail.”

“Nolien, make sure it
doesn’t come to that.”

“Yes, Daylra.”

“Sias, may I count on
you to watch the prisoner?”

The lady delayed her
response until a second before Basilard gave up hope that she would give one. A
quick sign affirmed her agreement. Nolien whispered into Basilard’s ear and he
signed several more words to the effect of how much he would miss her,
apologized for putting her in danger, and mixed in shameless flattery. In
response, she gave him a small smile before quickly turning cold again.

Smiling himself,
Basilard stuck Zettai and Tiza under his arms and jumped off the cliff. Nolien
bowed to Sias and followed him. Zettai shrieked as wind whipped around her in
freefall, but no one else did. Air Disks formed under the feet of the mages and
slowed their descent. The Illumination Orbs from earlier followed them and lit
their path.

“Daylra, I appreciate
the view from here, but is there not a way for you to teleport us directly to
the mountain? Going there on foot will take hours.”

“Teleportation is not
in my skillset. A mage of your education should understand how difficult it is
and how much more difficult it will be in this area.”

“Then how did Mr.15
accomplish it?”

“My guess is
necrocraft. Death is everywhere and so his servants learn to travel great
distances quickly. He probably drains people dry of their
kon
and saves
it for times like this.”

“Like in the stories
people tell about him,” Nolien said coldly.

In the light of the
Illumination Orbs, they saw a massacre. Dead bodies littered the base of the
mountain. There was a full score of them and many were children. All of them
were pale and withered but still warm to the touch. Nolien inspected them
further and frowned.

“There’s definitely no
more
kon,
but there’s plenty of
paku
, which means the soul is
still there. That can’t be right.”

Basilard drew
BloodDrinker. “What about necrocraft?”

“I haven’t read that –”

A corpse snatched his
ankle just as Basilard pulled him back. His finger brushed Nolien’s skin for
only a second and it sent a chill up his spin. The corpse stood up, followed by
the others. Twenty hostiles faced them on three sides.

“This is why Regulars
need to read that far!”

Glassy-eyed stares,
open mouths, and loose limbs; caricature of the living people they used to be.
Sparks of black lights arched from one to the other. In a listless tone, they
chanted,

“Kon…Kon …Kon…Kon …”

They advanced on the
group, and Basilard barrier-blocked them. The force of it knocked many of them
on their butts and they had difficulty getting up again. Sparks of black light
jumped back and forth between them and they coordinated their effort.

“Necrocraft zombies
linked into a hive. Then there must be a hive queen around here.”

“Looking for me?”

A human-sized monkey
swaggered forward. A bone horn grew out of his forehead, but he was no longer
wearing an outdated suit. This one was brand new. Its red jacket was bright and
its black undershirt was unblemished. The suit pants, which shared both colors,
were crisp and pressed. Each piece was decorated in symbols of blood or swords.
Yet, despite the sharpness of the new suit, it was the man’s face that captured
Basilard’s attention.

There was no fur at all
and the skin underneath was pale as chalk. His eyes were sunken and black. On
his forehead, a name was chiseled that made Basilard snarl.

“Where’s that
professor? I want to rub my new power in his face before I crush it.”

“Governor Caffour, my
apologies for your misfortune. I can reverse the transform –”

Caffour screeched like
the monkey he appeared to be, and the sound reverbed in the darkness. He leaned
over on his knees, it was so intense.

“Are you stupid? The
outside may produce strong spirits, but the minds are pathetic! I have power!
Real power! My soul is channeling ten lifetimes worth of
bon
or
sown
,
or whatever you call ‘life energy.’ I took it from them and made them into my
servants! After decades of groveling to the Powers That Be, that power is now
ME!
Why would I want you to reverse this?!”

“It will kill you,” Basilard
said. “It’s killing you right now.”

“We’re
all
dying
right now. Only the elves, avatars, and other immortals are not dying at this
very moment.” He held up his hand and it shined with the black light of
necrocraft. “I was misguided by hypocrites like you. The Crimson Killer did not
come to destroy our town, but to
save it!
”

Black light poured out
of him and his skin shrank further back. Black spots grew in random places and
he hunched forward slightly.

“It is only through
dying that we gain eternal life.”

“He’s too far gone,” Basilard
said to his novices.

“
You’re
too far
gone!”

Caffour punched
Basilard’s barrier with five lifetimes in his fist and shattered it like a sugar
pane. Then it continued unhindered to Basilard himself. He ducked and sprang into
his own punch, catching Caffour in the stomach and knocking him back. The
zombie slaves pounced.

Tiza cut off the arm of
one and the head of another, but they pressed in by sheer numbers. They grabbed
her and pulled her away from the others. By their sheer weight, they held her
arms behind her back and pushed her to her knees. Nolien suffered a similar
fate, and Zettai as well. While Basilard was too strong even for the bigger
zombified beastfolk, he stopped fighting when he saw the claws at his students’
jugulars. He dropped his hands, slipped out of a fighting stance, and unfurled
his spirit.

The blast hit the
zombies directly but did not subdue them. Another spirit was bracing them
against his power. Caffour sneered again.

“Yes, I can do that
trick now too. So useful for proving one’s superiority, isn’t it?” He screeched
a second time.

“How can you possibly
do this?”

“A boost from my
partner’s patron. My soul is no longer the puny mortal soul it was when you
arrived. It is divine. I am a
god!
”

Even as he said this,
his skin shrank further and the smell of rotting meat hovered over him.

“You sold your soul to
a renegade reaper. When you die, you will be his slave forever.”

“Shut up! Shut up, or
I’ll kill your precious students!”

One zombie twisted
Tiza’s arm. Another pulled Nolien’s hair. A third pushed Zettai’s face into the
dirt. Basilard glared at the undead monkey. Caffour showed his teeth in
response; yellow and on the verge of falling out.

“So this is what it’s
like to have the upper hand. For too long, I have been a yes-man and rubber-stamper.
Now I am the one in control!”

The undead monkey man
pointed at the ground between himself and Basilard.

“The sword, if you
please. Otherwise…” He gestured with his head and his servants lifted their
hostages’ chins with their claws. “Your students will become permanent
residents!”

Basilard hesitated.

“Don’t do it, Daylra! That
asshole’s gonna kill us anyway.”

A zombie kicked her
stomach and another bit her arm, sucking out a year of her life.

“I concur,” agreed
Nolien.

A zombie kicked him in
the jaw before another sucked a year of life out of him.

Zettai didn’t say
anything. She closed her eyes, bit her lip, and resigned herself to the
inevitable.

“We can do this till
morning, Mr. Bladi, but your students will be older than you by then.”

 The blade shined, the
man nodded, and he tossed it to the area indicated.

“Thank you for your
cooperation.”

The monkey man indulged
a third screech on his way to the sword. When he picked it up, it zapped him
hard enough to fly backwards and roll head over feet. Basilard used Chameleon
Flash to appear beside Tiza in a heartbeat and quickly disabled the zombies
restraining her with a flurry of punches and kicks. When he tried the same with
Nolien, Caffour intercepted him.

The undead monkey
wasn’t exaggerating when he said “powered by ten lifetimes.” His spiritual
power dwarfed Basilard’s. All it took was a two-handed gesture to press him
flat against the ground. The veteran mage couldn’t even raise his head to glare
at his tormentor.

“Nice try, Mr. Big and Powerful,
but the strongest will always win and, right now, I AM THE STRONGEST!”

The crowd dragged Tiza
back and made her kneel a second time. A claw poised to cut her throat. Nolien
swallowed over the one at his throat. The biggest of the zombies raised its foot
above Basilard’s head.

 “KILL THE –!”

“That won’t be
necessary.”

Caffour abruptly
stopped gloating and looked over his shoulder.

A man in a black cloak
crossed the boundary between the town and the base of the mountain. He carried
a scythe in his right hand and a book strapped under his left shoulder. He
stopped a respectable distance from Caffour and said, “I am Neuro of the
Brotherhood of Death. You are aiding and abetting a known criminal. Cease and
desist or you will be tried for your crimes in the Court of the Abyss.”

“Fool! Now I will have
your scythe as well! Surrender, or I will kill these people! Surely a priest of
Death would want to prevent untimely death!”

He began a fourth
monkey screech, only for a sudden coughing fit to overwhelm him. The priest
lunged and cleaved him in two, skidding to a stop behind him. Caffour’s lower
body fell forward and his upper body backward.

Despite the gruesome injury,
Caffour didn’t feel anything. All the pain receptors in his body had shut down,
along with its other functions. The only thing keeping his soul in his body was
the Undeath spell cast him on him by his master. Furious, he gathered all the
kon
he had into one almighty blast.

“Die, you insolent
brat!”

He fired and the
dazzling white beam consumed Neuro, obscuring him from sight. Then it
diminished and he became visible again. It all went into an open gourd he held
in his left hand. With every second, Caffour lost power and, with every second,
it became harder to keep Basilard pinned.

“I-I still have the
zombies! Zombies, kil –”

 Neuro raised his
scythe high and proclaimed, “Ye guilty.”

Glowing with majestic
black light, Neuro plunged the tip of his scythe through Caffour’s forehead and
into the ground beneath it. The undead monkey howled in horrendous pain as his
false life was revoked and his soul ejected from his body. Ethereal chains
appeared and bound him hand and foot, then anchored him to the ground with a
stake. Neuro removed a second gourd from within his cloak, opened the top, and
pointed it at him.

“You will be delivered
to the local reaper. Until such a time, you will be in my custody. Do you
understand, Caffour Sappin?”

His answer was the
fourth monkey screech.

“The local reaper? You
fool! I work for –”

The rest was cut off
because his chains pulled him into the gourd. Neuro replaced the stopper, attached
a label, and then returned it to his cloak.

Next, the priest turned
his attention to the slave zombies. He slashed the air above their heads and
the ground beneath their feet to sever their thrall chains. After he restored
their free will, he opened the first gourd and returned their life energy. Each
one received half of the ten lifetimes Caffour stole from them, thus returning
all of them to normal, albeit with shorter life spans.