Under the Shadow of Darkness: Book 1 of the Apprentice Series (10 page)

Bel could not hide his smile. “So that’s good. There are others out trying to fight this. Perhaps we will meet them on our way?”

“Problem is they haven’t replied to the sending. None of them.”

Kerlith asked, “What does that mean?”

“I do not know. Perhaps when a person comes too close to the breach or enters into it then the sending will not work. Certainly no one can send into the land of the dead. It is forbidden. But with this breach open… I do not know.”

No one wanted to say the obvious—that they could all be dead. No one wanted to say it because if a handful of masters from Lasaat, their teachers, the ones chosen from among all the masters to teach were dead, then what chance did a wizard long past his years and two newly appointed apprentices have? The room grew quiet.

“Eeeeaaaarrrr!” Muolithnon squealed as his hand unconsciously groped at his side for something.

Nes’egrinon’s shoulders tensed and after the man on his deathbed stopped squirming the mage motioned for Kerlith to step out into the hall. Bel followed him to hear what he would say. “Listen, I need you to remove all of your master’s stones. All of them. Rings, necklaces, anything with any magical properties that he could use. Okay?”

Kerlith face contorted uncomfortably because he knew exactly why he was being asked to do this. In case they had to fight him after he died. “But. I can’t.”

“You have to. You don’t have any choice. Fifth Year, you help him. Make sure it happens. We don’t need this situation becoming any worse.”

“Yes, Master,” not trying to sound too eager in front of Kerlith, Bel replied.

“Good. I’ll be in the back trying another sending. Come tell me when it is done. Bring me everything.”

“And Master?” Bel glanced at Kerlith and back to the mage then said, “The villagers, they’ve been talking. They think we should send him out into the forest now. I was just wondering. What are we going to do? When he dies?”

“I’ve been thinking on that. It’s a hard one. If we send him out into the forest then we may have to fight him later. And then how could we leave? I would feel responsible. We couldn’t. But what else can we do? We can’t keep him inside with us here. The villagers wouldn’t stand for it. And they probably shouldn’t. So I was thinking, when he dies, we leave and we take him with us.”

“What?” Kerlith yelped.

“I know. It’s a risk.”

Bel asked, “But we are heading into the mountains, are we not?”

The wizard looked at Bel. “It seems so. I know. The land of stone and rock. He should become stronger while I will become weaker when we leave the forest. But what choice do we have?” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “If we leave him here this village will fall in minutes. I cannot do that to my people.”

Kerlith tried to turn the conversation. “Do you expect him to help us after he is dead?”

Nes’egrinon’s voice suddenly sounded haggard. “I don’t know. I think so. I hope. Just because he’s dead doesn’t mean he turns into a monster. He will be the same person, just dead.”

Kerlith’s face brightened then frowned. “But the thirst, Master Nes’egrinon? What shall we do about the thirst?”

Suddenly the old man looked angry. “Does it look like I have all this planned out? You kids again. You think I’ve got all the answers. I don’t. I don’t. Can’t you see that? You’re not in school anymore. This is not a lesson plan. This is real. Okay? One step at a time. We leave. We take him. I don’t know. Hopefully find some small animals along the way that can keep him satiated. I don’t know. We find this
so called
breach. Where? I don’t know. But say we find it. Then what? I don’t know. We do something about it. Hopefully we can close it. I don’t know. Maybe. If not, we call the others. Get some help. What’s the alternative here?”

The two said nothing so Nes’egrinon turned and left.

Removing Muolithnon’s stones was less difficult than they imagined. The mage was mostly unconscious and didn’t know what they were doing. After he pulled off his master’s last stone, a large polished ring made from jade, Kerlith said, “It won’t be long now. Without these he will die faster.”

“I can take them to my master if you want to stay with him.”

Kerlith passed Bel the stones, all except one, the ring. He put it on his own finger.

Bel left the room and scampered down the stairs. All eyes in the inn were on him and all conversations stopped. As he traversed the hall one man standing at the counter yelled out, “It stinks in here!”

Bel tightened up his shoulders and paused, then continued walking.

“Hey! I’m talking to you, kid!”

The boy stopped at the door and turned to look back at the man.

“You can’t keep a dead man up there. Wizard or no. We don’t want no dead here. Got it,” the man hissed his words.

Bel couldn’t read the crowd, but none of them dissented. He replied, “We will take him out as soon as he dies.”

“What are you waiting for? He ain’t gonna make it. No one does. He’s as good as dead now. Tell you what. I’ll help you carry him out right now.”

Nes’egrinon stepped inside. “That won’t be necessary.” Bel was relieved to see him. He had no idea what to say to the man. The wizard said to Bel, “Come. Pack your things. We leave now.”

Bel passed his master the stones. The two scaled the steps and opened the door to their room to find Muolithnon sitting upright. Bel caught his breath for a moment as the thought that the wizard was somehow miraculously cured left him and he realized that he was dead. He was a ghoul.

Nes’egrinon walked in the room and stood in front of the dead man. He spoke softly. “Old friend. We must leave now. You are coming with us.”

“Yes. I… I feel odd.”

“Come. We must go now.” He looked at both of the young boys and nodded.

They quickly gathered up their belongings. Kerlith pulled his master’s hood over his head and pulled it down to obscure his face then grabbed his elbow and tugged. “This way. Come. Come. Let’s go.” The newly dead man was disoriented but he followed the apprentice out of the room and down the stairs.

Nes’egrinon kept them moving quickly and clearly wanted to make a fast exit to avoid any protests from the villagers. He handed the barman some coins and said, “Here you are, my good man. This should more than cover our stay.”

As the four walked out a woman at the tables yelled out, “You’re not leaving, are you?”

They kept walking but Bel became nervous when he heard the legs of a few chairs scrape the wood plank floor. People were standing up. He refused to look over at them.

Another called out, “You can’t! You can’t leave us! We’re surrounded! The ghoul-kind!”

Two men stood and blocked the exit just as they reached the doors. Others began yelling out, begging them to stay. The wizard looked deeply into the men’s eyes and said, “Son, you don’t want to do that.” The man’s face melted, knowing there was no way he could stop the wizard, then he moved from their path.

The four walked out of the inn then quickly ducked behind the building and grabbed torches. Kerlith and Bel filled both their water and oil flasks then they followed the old man into the woods on a narrow winding path. Ten paces in, the woods became so dense that it felt as if they could be miles if not hundreds of miles from civilization.

As they walked Bel forced his mind to other things to avoid the idea that what they were doing was madness. All madness. His mind wandered to the thought of fishing on the water with his father. It was a simple time. He would sit on the bow, bouncing with the waves, calling out for school sign. Where there were schools of small fish, there were always larger fish, predators, hunting near the large groups. When he saw them, he would call out and his father would heave to and anchor. Bel’s memories were flushed when the dead man spoke. “What? Where?”

The wizard replied, “Keep walking, my old friend. All will become clear.”

A few ghouls met them on the path but none of the marauder type so they did not contest but moved out of the way and let them pass. The dead people all recognized them from before and knew what they could do. A few asked for blood but did nothing when the mage-kind did not respond but merely continued on.

The newly dead man did not walk as fast as the others; he lumbered, almost zombie-like. It wasn’t that his leg was injured or anything like that but he somehow didn’t have the motivation to do it, like he was a small child who was following his mother but really didn’t want to.

They walked on the path for a long time. It rose and fell, twisted and turned and occasionally broke into clearings. If the clearing was elevated then they might be able to see to the horizon. If not and they wanted to check their bearings then someone had to climb a tree. The path didn’t have many forks so the two young men only had to each climb once as yet. At first Bel wasn’t even so sure that they were heading the right way, and maybe he was kind of okay with that, but as it got colder he knew they were heading into the mountains.

The group stopped when they came to a small bridge over a stream. They all drank deeply and filled their flasks, all except the dead man.

Muolithnon was becoming more coherent. “I am dead, aren’t I? It feels really weird.” He stared at his gray arms in his gray jacket. “I didn’t think it would feel like this. My mind’s kind of foggy. I sure am hungry too.”

The three started at that last sentence.

“Oh. Hahaha. Don’t worry. I’m not going to bite you. Hahaha. I’ll just call a rabbit. Hey where’s my ring? And… Hey, where’s my stone?” He was perturbed.

Nes’egrinon stood up from the soft earth he was sitting on. “Don’t worry. We have them. We didn’t know what to do. You would have removed them if it were one of us too.”

“Aye. I would have.” He calmed down. “Well, let me have them then. I’m getting hungry.”

“I don’t know if—”

The dead man grew angry and cut his words. “You don’t know what?”

“Honestly. I don’t know if I trust you yet. I’m sorry. You will get your stones. Just not yet. Apprentice, call a rabbit for your master.” Nes’egrinon gave the dead man a little honor by labeling him as such, saying he was still Kerlith’s master but everyone knew that was a lie, even the dead man, but it appeased him.

Kerlith rubbed his stone and called. There was not much life here. Not much at all. They were coming closer to the breach and closer to where all was dead and death and decay. Anything living here had been long gobbled up by the stream of dead coming out of the doorway to the underworld. It took quite a while but a small rabbit came and stepped right into the apprentice’s hand. By that time Muolithnon’s eyes were bulging as he paced back and forth, rubbing his belly. His skin was the darkest gray. He darted to Kerlith, snatched the bunny from his hand and tore into it. Blood leaked down his cheeks. After a few gulps, color washed back into his face, hands and clothing. He laughed. “Hahaha. Whew! That’s a rush. You’ve got to try it! Whew! Hahaha. Just kidding. I know. I know. I’m dead. High price to pay for the surge. Okay, I’m good now. Let me just pour the rest of this into my flask. I know, kind of gross. You don’t have to watch if you don’t want to. Whew! Yeah.”

Nes’egrinon looked at the two thin boys and said, “Come. We walk. It will be fine.”

“Hey, what should I do with the rabbit? Should I bring it? I should, yeah. Maybe I can squeeze more out.” The dead man stuffed the dead rabbit in his pocket but his pocket wasn’t big enough so the head hung out.

Bel couldn’t keep his eyes off the bobbing rabbit head and couldn’t keep his mind away from replaying that scene in his mind. He wondered if how he felt was displayed on his face. Doubt and fear.
Did it show? Did they know that he was terrified and he thought that they would most surely die soon?
He didn’t want to be a ghoul and especially not one happily bounding along with a dead rabbit hanging out of his pocket like it was the most normal thing in the world
. Dead people should stay dead. That’s like, what did they call it at the school? A universal truth?
Bel didn’t like their situation one bit. But there was nothing he could do about it. He would press on. He would fight. To the death if that’s what it took. But he didn’t have to like it.

They walked for what felt like a half-day’s journey, no one knowing whether it was day or night, and there was less and less trees and more and more rock. The path grew steeper also. They trekked by the light of a single torch and the two boys took turns leading the way. They wanted to conserve oil. No one was to talk, Nes’egrinon told them, and they walked as softly as possible. Sound would travel far in the mountains. Many times the pathway looked to be on the top of the ridgeline but they would walk just off of it, down onto one side of the backbone of the hills and mountains so that at least the light would be somewhat blocked from being seen from afar. This made the going much slower because of the uneven terrain and rock. Twisting an ankle out here would mean certain death. Bel longed for the ridgeline.
At least ghoul-kind couldn’t sneak up on them out here in the open,
Bel thought.

The dead man grew disoriented more and more quickly so they had to keep stopping and allowing him to drink from his flask. When his flask ran out, he took to wringing the rabbit above his opened mouth. Some more blood came out. It wasn’t much but it restored him, at least a little.

Muolithnon spoke, “I know. I know. It’s gross. I can’t believe I have to do this. Ah well. Such is life. Hahaha. Or death. Hahaha.”

Each time they stopped, Kerlith tried to call more rabbits but none came. Then he cast his net wider and called for other creatures. Anything. “” But nothing came. They were surrounded by boulders, rocks and stones; his magic should be strong here, but nothing came.

It felt to Bel like they had been walking for days in what seemed like one long running, continuous dream. A nightmare, really. The silence was so heavy. His ears rang from the lack of sound. It was cold. He knew they would have to sleep soon. They couldn’t walk forever. And what then? They would have to take watches.
Could he handle a master who decided he was going to drain him, even without his stones? Not likely. And all it took was one bite. A nip even. You couldn’t fight the poison. It even took a master.
He knew he wouldn’t last long if he was bitten. Doubt, fear and now dread seeped from his every pore.