The Dragon's Champion (17 page)

“Very good, my boy.
What else have you learned?”

“The Ancients
protected the land from the demons and Shadowfiends in that time. There were
many battles, most of them minor, until the rise of Nagar the Black. He must
have been a very powerful wizard.”

“He wasn’t just
a wizard, boy, he was a necromancer. The book you’re reading now won’t describe
the magic that Nagar’s Secret contains, but my grandfather was there. He saw
it, and he told my father about it. Then my father told me and my brother about
it. Nagar the Black discovered how to harness powers of the underworld that
were so great he could bring dragons back from the dead, only when he raised
them from death they were not the same as they were in life. The magic twisted
them, and made them utterly evil. They were stronger than living dragons, and a
lot more cunning. It took everything the Middle Kingdom had to stop them.”

“That’s awful,”
Erik said.

“And that ain’t
the half of it,” Al groused. “The magic had the power to reach into a man’s
heart and pull out the wickedness that hides there. No man is all good. There
is always some amount of evil in a man, just usually we learn to control it as
we grow older. We learn the difference between right and wrong and choose to
try to be good. But this magic, it preyed on the shadows in men’s hearts. Thus,
Nagar used it to warp and control not only the dead that he called back from
the underworld, but also the living.” Al shuffled over to a chair and flopped
down, staring at the floor. “It used man’s greed and jealousy against him. The
war turned brother against brother, and father against son. That is why it is
so important that Nagar’s Secret never be found again by those who would try to
use its power. If it is ever found again, we will have no chance of stopping
it.”

“What about the
magic of Allun’rha, can’t it defeat the dark magic?” Erik asked.

“It did once,
but no one knows how it was done. The wizard who discovered the power died
using it to save us all from darkness. There are some references in obscure
texts about a book that is said to hold the writings of Allun’rha, The
Illumination, but no one knows where that book is. The Ancients never found it,
and the Keeper of Secrets has never found it. It is lost, if it ever existed at
all.”

“Al, where did
the Ancients go?” Erik asked.

Al looked up
from his chair and smiled half-heartedly. “Go to page one-thousand and
sixty-eight. Read the last paragraph aloud.”

Erik flipped
through the tome until he found the page and scanned down to the last paragraph
on the page. “
Two hundred years after the Battle of Hamath, the Father of
the Ancients lay dying, being called to the underworld by the dark forces
within Nagar’s Secret. He knew that the book would continue to warp dragons as
long as they remained in the Middle Kingdom, so he decreed that all of the
Ancients would leave. After all of the others had left, the Father of the
Ancients took a group of devoted followers into his lair. He granted them the
gift of True Sight, so that when one Keeper of Secrets died, or became unworthy
of his calling, they might select another in his stead.”

“No one knows where
they went,” Al said with a sigh. “Some say they flew over the oceans and made a
new home on the far away continents of our ancestors. Others say that they have
all died out, killed at last by the book’s terrible power. I don’t know for
sure where they went, or if they still live, but I doubt they will ever come
back. As long as Nagar’s Secret remains, they can not return. Tu’luh and Nagar
may have lost the Battle of Hamath, but it appears that their cunning may prove
to get the better of us in the end. If the book is found and opened, there is
no magic that can counter it, and without the Ancients to help us fight off the
Shadowfiends that would swarm to the book’s call, the whole of our kingdom
would crumble in the span of two months, maybe less.”

“The people that
attacked Lord Lokton, and that warlock that came after me, they are trying to
find Nagar’s Secret, aren’t they?” Erik asked.

“Yes, Erik, I
think they are,” Al said with a somber nod. The dwarf hopped out of the chair
and snatched a brown leather tome from the second shelf of a tall bookshelf
that spanned the entire wall. He walked over and
thunked
the book down in front of Erik. “Master Lepkin will return soon. He will have
more information for us when he returns, but until then, read as much of this
book as you can.”

Erik picked it
up and read the title aloud. “‘Shadow and Light’, written by Misgerahh’tanah
Sit’marihu.” Erik paused after he stumbled through the difficult name on the
cover. “It sounds a lot like your name,” Erik said to Al.

“That’s because
the book was written by my grandfather,” Al replied.

Lady Dimwater
threw the old tome to the ever growing pile of discarded books on her desk. She
leaned back in her high-backed arm chair and sighed heavily. Her hands went up
and she rubbed her temples in circular motions to dim her headache. It didn’t
help. She snapped her fingers and a small goblet of absinthe appeared on her
desk before her. She took a drink and allowed the liquid to course down her
throat unimpeded. When the goblet was drained she leaned forward and pointed to
the bookshelf across the room. Five books removed themselves from the middle
shelf and floated over to her. They neatly arranged themselves in a pile to her
right, with the spines facing her so she could see the titles.

She examined
each title, looking for any hint that a book may contain the information she
sought. The first book, The Life and Times of Adamus Garr, was discarded
immediately from the pile. The second book, Arts of the Soul Thief, was taken from
the pile and set in front of her. The other three, Flight of the Krilo, Ician
Barriers of Magic, and Forging the Saddhumah, were all sent back to the shelf
with a wave of her hand.

Determined, she
opened the book she had set aside and searched through the pages. As with many
other books written in ages past, it was hard to glean the information she
needed from this book because there was a lot of content added to it to make
the book’s true message harder to understand. This practice was common, she knew.
The masters of the past had, in their wisdom, decided to shroud their knowledge
and secrets in an effort to keep unworthy, lesser minds, from discovering the
great powers of the arcane arts. But, Lady Dimwater was not one with a lesser
mind. She picked apart the riddles, saw through the misleading phrases, and was
able to make short work of understanding each of the tomes in her possession.
She had always had a great gift for deciphering the codes in ancient tomes. She
was even able to read the language of the Ancients themselves, and learn from
those great sages.

Finally, she
found what she was looking for. Buried within the text of Arts of the Soul
Thief, there was an obscure reference to Nagar the Black, and Tu’luh. She
followed the clues in that passage until she found instructions for several
rituals that, once enacted, would help the followers of Tu’luh find Nagar’s
Secret and
unlock
its power.

A knock on her
door forced broke her concentration. The door opened without her consent and in
walked Master Orres. “Lady Dimwater, I have been looking for you.”

“I was unaware
of that,” Lady Dimwater lied. She stealthily closed the book and weaved a spell
of invisibility over it, to keep it hidden from Master Orres.

“I’m afraid I
have some disturbing news,” Master Orres said.

“What is that?”
Lady Dimwater asked. Mentally she prepared a charm spell. She knew that if
Orres was indeed a traitor, as Master Lepkin suspected,
then
it was Lepkin’s right to enact a punishment. So, if Orres proved to have ill
intentions, she had decided to capture his mind and hold him in a magical cell
until Lepkin could return with the proof that the law required.

“Janik is gone,”
he said.

“What do you
mean?” Lady Dimwater pressed.

“Over the
weekend, he fled Kuldiga Academy.” Master Orres closed the door and walked in
to sit across from Dimwater. “I am afraid he may be working against us.”

Dimwater’s
eyebrows arched.

“What I am about
to tell you must not leave this room,” Orres said with a glare more fierce than
she had ever seen before. Lady Dimwater nodded in assurance and waited for him
to continue. “The other night, I was searching Kuldiga Academy for Nagar’s
Secret.”

“What? Why would
you do that? You have no right.”

“I know,” Orres
said as he glanced to the floor. “It wasn’t my choice, believe me.” He fidgeted
with his thumbs in his lap for a moment before continuing. “I received word
that Lokton Manor had been attacked by a powerful warlock. I was told that
Master Lepkin was there, protecting Erik.”

“That does not
explain why you sought after that which is forbidden,” Dimwater said. The
warning was apparent in her tone.

“The message was
sent to me under the seal of House Lokton,” Orres replied. “The message said
that Lepkin was charging me with retrieving Nagar’s Secret from his study and
hiding it. Master Lepkin believed that the warlock’s assault may have been a
ploy to distract him from guarding the book.” Orres looked up at her with
determined eyes. “You and I both know how important Erik is to the salvation of
this realm. If he was lost, it would have proved as much a death sentence for
us all as if Nagar’s Secret itself had been taken and opened.” Orres cleared
his throat.

“So, what did
you do?” Dimwater pressed.

“I called upon
my three bodyguards to do the task. They could not find the book. They returned
to me empty-handed, so I sent them to look again. Shortly after I sent them the
second time I noticed a light coming from one of the library windows. Before I
could reach the room, I heard shouting and screaming. I could tell that there
was a battle going on. I reached the room too late. My three bodyguards were
dead. Books and papers were strewn about the place with blood slung all over.
After I saw that, I went to Janik’s room, fearing for his life.”

“Janik is not
put down so easily,” Dimwater put in.

“I know,” Orres
said with a sober nod. “That is the problem.”

Dimwater leaned
forward, planting her elbows on the desk and lacing her fingers together. “That
is when you discovered that Janik had fled?”

“Exactly,” Orres
replied. “He had obviously been to his room. The door was open, and you and I
both know he never leaves his door open. A wardrobe was also left open and his
pack was missing.”

“That only
indicates that he fled, but not that he is working against us.”

“When I returned
to my room, I found some things missing from my safe box. My journal was taken.
It outlines not only personal details of my life, but also talks about many
secret things of the kingdom.” Orres slapped a hand to his forehead and leaned
forward. “I was a fool to write those things down, even in a book guarded by
magic. It is only a matter of time before someone of magical ability is able to
either undo the magical locks or decipher the password for it.”

Lady Dimwater
thought for a moment. She had known Master Orres for a very long time, most of
her life in fact. She knew when he was hiding something, and this time he
wasn’t. He was telling the truth. He was not a traitor, as Lepkin feared.
Dimwater had always known Orres to be too quick to react in some situations.
Often he overreacted to most situations, as was confirmed by Orres’ quick
readiness to draw swords against Lepkin just last week. Someone had abused
Orres’ trust and manipulated his overzealous sense of duty to try to find the
book, she knew. Whoever had sent the message had lied. She would have to
discover who that was.

“There’s more,”
Master Orres said. “It isn’t just the journal that is missing.”

*****

“Mr. Stilwell, I
am at your service,” Lord Lokton said. The two clasped wrists in greeting, but
Lord Lokton could see that Mr. Stilwell was far from smiling. Dried tears and
caked dust stained the man’s cheeks. Sir Duvall was with him, looking as grave
as the face of death itself. “What is wrong?”

“Lord Lokton,”
Mr. Stilwell began with his head down. “I apologize for bringing more grief to
House Lokton than has already come this past weekend.”

“It’s alright.
Just tell me what has happened and we will put it right.”

“My cousin, the
magistrate, is dead.” Mr. Stilwell looked up to Lord Lokton’s wide eyes. “A
knife was found in his back.” Mr. Stilwell pulled a cloth from a leather bag
and held it out for Lord Lokton. “The knife of Lord Cedreau’s eldest son was
deep in my cousin’s back. There
were
many other stab
wounds as well, all made by the same knife as far as I could tell.”

Lord Lokton took
the cloth and slowly unrolled it until he saw the weapon. The hilt was black
with gold inlay fashioned to look like braids on the handle. The short
crossguard was silver, with a single ruby embedded in the center of the
crossguard on both sides of the dagger. The blade was crusted with blood. The
words
For Eldrik
were engraven at the base of the blade. Lord Lokton
knew for certain that it was the same dagger he had personally seen given to
Eldrik Cedreau during the youth’s Konn Deta several years ago. Lord Lokton ran
his thumb over the blade and discovered that the tip had been blunted, with
part of the blade chipped off. He held it up to Mr. Stilwell with a questioning
look.

“The dagger was
embedded in my cousin’s spine. The blade was damaged in the bone on the final
strike. I believe that is why Eldrik left the knife. It was too hard for him to
free it, so he fled the scene.”

“It seems odd
for one as cunning as any Cedreau is to leave evidence behind,” Lord Lokton
said.

“I was hunting
with Sir Duvall when we saw a column of smoke rising above the trees,” Mr.
Stilwell said. “We rushed to see what was going on and found my cousin’s house
aflame. I went in and was able to get my cousin out of the house before the
flames took him.” Mr. Stilwell choked on the lump in his throat and clenched
his jaw. It was obvious that he couldn’t speak of the event anymore.

“Sir Duvall,
tell me the rest,” Lord Lokton instructed.

Sir Duvall
nodded grimly. “We had thought that the smoke had been the reason the
magistrate was slumped over on his table, but once we had him outside we saw
the truth of it. There were many stab wounds in the man’s back, and as Mr.
Stilwell has already said, the dagger was stuck in his spine. It is my belief
that when Eldrik realized he could not free his dagger he tried to cover his
tracks by torching the house. I believe the fire was started using one of the
oil lamps from the wall.”

Lord Lokton
nodded and stood quiet for a long time. He placed a hand on Mr. Stilwell and
squeezed the man’s shoulder. “I swear, by the honor of House Lokton, that I
will investigate this. The guilty will be found and punished.”

Mr. Stilwell’s
head jerked up suddenly. His eyes flashed with anger. “An investigation, what
do you mean you will investigate? I have brought the evidence to you. I have a
witness here. My word may not be good enough on its own, as I am not a lord or
a knight, but the word of Sir Duvall and the dagger should suffice to confirm
my claim.”

“I know this is
hard, but a dagger is not enough. Someone could have stolen it and used it in
the hopes of throwing us off of the real murderer’s trail.”

“Shut up!” Mr.
Stilwell roared. He wrenched free of Lord Lokton’s hand and pointed an accusing
finger at him. “This is your fault! I told you to pay heed to the omen at
Erik’s Konn Deta, we all did! Then, the warlock came with the prophecy, but you
didn’t heed that either.”

“Warlocks twist
the-”

“Enough,” Mr.
Stilwell raged. “You will see. When your son puts a dagger in your back then
maybe you will open your eyes. You had a chance to turn the prophecy, but it is
too late now!”

Lord Lokton
turned to Sir Duvall. “Where do your loyalties lie?” he asked the knight. Lord
Lokton noticed Braun stepping into view behind the two men, a sword in one hand
and an axe in the other.

“My loyalties
lie with House Lokton,” Sir Duvall assured with a nod.

“Then arrest Mr.
Stilwell,” Lokton ordered. Sir Duvall hesitated, but only for a moment before
grabbing Mr. Stilwell’s left arm.

“This is an
outrage!” Mr. Stilwell shouted. His right hand dropped to his sword belt but
Braun was there before the blade could be loosed. The massive man seized Mr.
Stilwell and held him completely still as Lord Lokton undid Mr. Stilwell’s
swordbelt and removed the weapon.

“I can not have
you going out to enact vengeance that may not be just upon Lord Cedreau’s son,”
Lord Lokton said. “Even if the accusation is true, it would start a bloodbath
between our houses. The kingdom is weak enough as it is. It does not need two
of its nobles waging a war of their own instead of guarding the king as they
should.”

Mr. Stilwell
spat in Lokton’s face. “A curse on
you,
and your
house.”

Braun’s fist
came in hard to Mr. Stilwell’s side and doubled the man over.

“No, Braun, that
is enough,” Lord Lokton commanded. “Just take him to the dungeon and put him in
a private cell. See that he is well fed and comfortable. I wish to regain his
friendship after we have finished our investigation of the magistrate’s
murder.”

“As you
command,” Braun said with a nod. He and Sir Duvall started to take Mr. Stilwell
away when Lord Lokton put a hand on Sir Duvall’s shoulder.

“Stay, Sir
Duvall,” Lord Lokton commanded. Sir Duvall turned and bowed and Braun took Mr.
Stilwell away. “I want you to go to Lord Cedreau and explain what has happened.
Inform him that a full investigation is underway, but that as a courtesy I
thought I would inform him first.”

“My lord, that
will only give him time to hide his son,” Sir Duvall countered.

“I will keep the
knife here,” Lord Lokton said. “I will also send a full report of your
testimonies to the senate. If Lord Cedreau hides his son, it will only prove
his guilt. Whatever happens, we must handle this by the letter of the law. One
misstep on our part would be a disaster for both houses.”

“I see,” Sir
Duvall said. “I shall go immediately.”

“No,” Lord
Lokton said. “It is already late in the day. If you go now you would arrive
during dinner. I know him well enough that he will refuse a private audience,
insisting that anything House Lokton has to say to him can be said in front of
his guests. If you were to give this message in front of guests it would be as
bad as if we had arrested his son. Go in the morning, so you will have a
greater chance of gaining a private audience with him.”