Necromancer Falling: Book Two of The Mukhtaar Chronicles (60 page)

The necropotency grew stronger as two doors on opposite sides of the wall came into view. The source had to be in one of those two rooms.

As he crept along the wall, the guide turned toward the door across the hall.

There it is.

The door cracked open and Nicolas jumped back into the shadow.

Tullias—Zorian’s servant—emerged from the room and ran farther into the darkened hallway.

A high-pitched screech came from the room beyond the open door. There was something familiar about the sound, but he couldn’t place it.

Nicolas released the necropotency, and the guide disappeared from his field of vision. At least two people had been killed in that room. And from the look of it, Tullias had done the killing.

The presence of necropotency grew stronger as Nicolas stepped toward the door.

“There now,” Zorian said.

Nicolas startled until he realized Zorian’s voice had come from within the room.

“Now you know them,” Zorian said. “Tell your sisters. Their hunger will soon be over.”

The screech came again, this time louder, and an image of a cloud materializing over the ruins of Caspardis formed in Nicolas’s mind.

Nicolas peered through the gap in the door. When the source of the screech came into view, he stepped back and flattened himself against the wall.

A small shriller, no more than three feet tall and ten feet long, wings the length of a minivan, had been feeding off the dead corpses of two palace guards. It had the same concentric rings of scalpel-sharp teeth. But where a full-sized shriller was turquoise and had a feathery mane around its neck, this smaller version looked leathery, like a tiny dinosaur.

Could these be the creatures the Barathosians had used to hunt survivors in Caspardis? Zorian had been stroking its head like a cherished pet. Had they been domesticated somehow?

A third screech came from the room, and it was the loudest of all. A great gust of wind swept over Nicolas as the shriller flew out through the doorway and up the hall toward Tullias.

Nicolas began to suspect he had the whole situation wrong.

Zorian is going to use those shrillers here just like in Caspardis. I can’t let that happen again. I can’t just take Kait and leave.

Nicolas pulled all of the ambient necropotency he could gather into his well, and mental clarity washed through his mind. His thought processes sped up. Pieces of information he once thought dissimilar grew connected. Patterns formed where previously none existed.

His suspicion became a certainty. The emperor was hiding something.

When Saleem greeted them on arrival, he’d reacted as if it were normal when Kagan spoke with Nicolas’s dialect. He’d said Kagan’s
travels
were probably causing the confusion. But he’d emphasized the word
travels
as if he didn’t really believe it was
traveling
that made Kagan odd.

Saleem had commented on the haste with which Kagan arrived, as if the emperor had sent for them.

And the patterns didn’t end there.

When they’d entered the throne room, the emperor was angry with Zorian. He’d given Kagan a strange look that Nicolas had interpreted as concern. But to a necropotency-filled mind, it was obvious there had been more to it than that. There’d been an ever-so-brief instant of shock, disgust, and caution.

Nicolas had seen that look many times in the last year. It was the look of an average person gazing upon a penitent.

The emperor had known Kagan was dead.

And
that
must mean the emperor had been playing along with the charade.

But Emperor Relig didn’t even glance in my direction. He doesn’t know about me.

He’d called Zorian his most trusted adviser. The emperor must be working with the Barathosians. Zorian all but confirmed it when he’d made the
puppet master
comment.

Nicolas knew what he had to do now.

The only way he and Kaitlyn would get to safety would be to confront the emperor himself. Toren Relig was the only person in Dar Rodon with enough power to make it possible.

But he’d have to cut Zorian’s
puppet
strings
, somehow.

I could kill Zorian right here and end it all. I have enough power.

The words of Siek Lamil rang like bell in his mind. “When life finally leaves your body, you will make the journey to the Plane of Death with the blood of many men on your hands. It’s the horrible certainty of our vocation.”

No.

I can’t just start killing people when it’s convenient. That’s how Kagan got us into this mess in the first place!

It was time he acted like a man who could make kings tremble. It was time to flex some muscle.

Nicolas ran.

He passed the intersection leading back toward the guest wing and continued forward, past more whitewashed walls and golden doors.

When he reached the next intersection, the gargantuan gold doors of the throne room stood down the hall to his right.

He smoothed his robes and walked across the hall, toward two guards in Religarian livery. They guarded the throne room doors with six foot tall pikes, leaning inward to form an ersatz archway.

When he got within ten feet of the door, the guards crossed their pikes.

Nicolas retrieved his chain of office and allowed it to dangle freely in the open.

The guards noticed, but they didn’t step aside.

“This won’t do,” Nicolas said. He extended two ropes of necropotency, wrapped them around the guards’ pikes, and pulled them aside.

Nicolas stepped between them. And as they struggled against the necropotency in a futile attempt to free their weapons, he pushed the throne room doors open.

A dozen or more people spoke in private conversations around the periphery of the room.

“I sent for no one,” Emperor Relig said when Nicolas entered the throne room.

The private conversations came to an abrupt halt.

Saleem and Kaitlyn stood next to the emperor on the dais.

Kait?

She seemed fine. In fact, she seemed pleased to be there.

Kaitlyn smiled and moved to greet Nicolas, but he gave her a look. He had to play this carefully.

As Nicolas drew closer, the emperor saw the chain of office and stepped off the main platform.

“Holy One,” Emperor Relig said. He sounded like a man who was greatly relieved about something. “My sincerest apologies for our misunderstanding. The Lady Kaitlyn recently informed us of your true identity.”

She
what?
What if I was still working Kagan as the archmage?

“Had I known
you
were our new archmage,” Emperor Relig said, “proper introductions would have been made. I certainly wouldn’t have allowed Zorian to arrest and detain you. I would have flogged him myself for merely suggesting it. I’ll understand if you must exact punishment for my sacrilege. I throw myself on your mercy, which I know reflects the abundance of Arin’s holiness—may he be praised.”

Emperor Relig bowed his head and raised his hands in a gesture of prayer.

Nicolas wasn’t quite sure how to react. He’d been expecting many things, but apologies and obeisance wasn’t among them.

“No punishment necessary, Emperor Relig,” Nicolas said. “There’s no way for you to have known. No one questions your devotion and faithfulness. But, like I tell everyone else, ease up on the
Holy One
title. I’m no holier than anyone else. The way I see it, it’s my job to serve the people, not the other way around.”

The emperor looked up, and when their eyes met, his expression spoke volumes.

Nicolas had lost respect. Awe. Authority. Emperor Relig had been expecting—
wanting
—hellfire and brimstone. But Nicolas had given him Kumbaya and a campfire.

“I’ll consider it,” Emperor Relig said. His tone had changed. He was speaking to a
subordinate
. “Now, if you’ll excuse me,
Archmage
, I must discuss this with Zorian. He’s under the
mistaken
impression that
Kagan
still reigns. He’ll no doubt be as disappointed as I.”

Remember what Tithian and Nuuan told you, idiot! King of all assholes, remember? You’re a pope. A medieval pope. So act like one.

Emperor Relig started to turn away.

“You turn away from Arin so easily?” Nicolas said. It was the best he could come up with.

The emperor stopped and faced Nicolas once more, a look of defiance on his face.

Nicolas was going to have to do
much
better than
that
. He stepped close and whispered.

“I’m generally a nice person,
Toren Relig
. But if you
ever
disrespect me like this again, I’ll command the religious orders to leave this place and end the pilgrimages. I’ll close every temple in Religar, excommunicate you, and see you tried for heresy and sacrilege. How long before your subjects depose you to quell my anger and restore their sacraments?”

Shock entered the emperor’s eyes.

But Nicolas wanted
awe
.

He took hold of one of the golden chains hanging across Emperor Relig’s chest and pulled him closer.

“Or perhaps I’ll simply call you
King
from now on. I’m sure Arin will agree to nullify my predecessor’s proclamations.”

Emperor Relig stepped back, dropped to one knee, and lowered his gaze.

Awe
had returned.

Time to drive it home
.

Nicolas stood over him and looked down. He raised his voice for the entire court to hear.

“And when the day comes that someone
does
manage to stick a blade in your disloyal heart,” Nicolas said, “I’ll make certain your corpse rots in a place no one can find it. No priest will raise you for purification. The Plane of Death will be your home for eternity.”

Emperor Relig lowered his gaze farther.

“Forgive me, Archmage,” Emperor Relig stammered. “I will spend the rest of my days atoning for the treatment you’ve faced in your short stay under my roof. Say the word and I’ll order myself flogged in public. But please…I’m
begging
you…
please
don’t abandon Religar! We will not survive without Arin’s grace!”

The weight of what Nicolas had done pressed down on him. He was no better than Kagan. He may not have killed anyone, but he’d threatened the eternal salvation of a nation.

Was that what it took to rule the Pinnacle? Did Nicolas have to be like Kagan, granting spiritual favors to some and withholding them from others, all to achieve a political goal? Start a pilgrimage here, close a temple there. Hell, maybe throw in a free, guaranteed purification to boot! The popes may have sold indulgences during the dark ages, but they had
nothing
on Nicolas. Oh no they didn’t! He could actually raise their decrepit asses from the grave and declare them pure or impure, all with a god in his back pocket to carry out the sentence.

Why would the gods allow any human being to have that kind of authority?

He couldn’t. He
wouldn’t
be that sort of archmage.

Kaitlyn’s face looked like she was struggling with something. At first, Nicolas thought she was disgusted by what he’d done here. She had every right to be.

But Saleem stood next to her, grasping the sides of his head like it would explode if he took his hands away.

He’s been trying to attack, and she’s keeping him at bay. I have to speed this up!

“Rise, Emperor,” Nicolas said. “You’re no good to me strapped to a flogging post. I have a better use for you.”

Emperor Relig stood, but his gaze remained lowered. “Anything.”

“If that’s your man,” Nicolas said, pointing at Saleem, “then I expect you to control him. If Lady Kaitlyn is harmed, not only will I follow through on every threat I made here today, I’ll invent a few new ones.”

“Saleem,” Emperor Relig said. “You
will
do as the archmage commands.”

Nicolas nodded at Kaitlyn, and the struggle left her face.

Saleem lowered his hands and faced Kaitlyn. “That’s not possible. How did you do it?”

“I need you to get Lady Kaitlyn and I out of the palace,” Nicolas said. “Out of Dar Rodon, if possible. Before Zorian discovers Kagan’s true state.”

“But your translocation orb?” Emperor Relig said.

“Zorian has it. And I assume he
outranks
you here.”

Emperor Relig glanced away.

“I can’t pretend to understand all you’ve been through, Emperor. And I’m not so naive anymore as to believe the situation is black and white. But whatever your reasons for giving them what they want, don’t you think it’s time you started making amends to those who have suffered because of it?”

“Zorian monitors every entrance to the palace,” Emperor Relig said. “But there is at least one he knows nothing about. My personal chambers have a hidden door that will lead you to a tunnel beneath the palace. It served my great-grandfather well when the northern tribes sacked the city.”

“Good enough,” Nicolas said.

“But it doesn’t lead
out
of the city. It leads into the city’s
heart
.”

“What kind of escape strategy is that?”

“When you’re presumably the world’s greatest naval power, you prefer escaping by ship to trekking more than three hundred miles across a barren desert.”

“Point taken.”

“You won’t have long,” Emperor Relig said. “When Zorian discovers your identity, he’ll use my own army against you.”

“What does he have on you?”

Emperor Relig stared at Nicolas, but his expression wasn’t one of contempt or disrespect this time. It was of a man searching for words that wouldn’t come.

“I’m no saint, Archmage. But this isn’t about
me
. When my Church…my
gods
…failed me, I did what I
had
to do to guarantee the freedom of the Religarian people. And it’s a choice I’d make again. But now I may fail them anyway, because I’m refusing to do the one thing the Barathosians asked of me; sacrifice your life for the lives of my people.”