Chapter Nineteen
I was back in bed with my three wonderful women, and while I’d just finished reassuring them all was well, I knew the truth was slightly different. Not only was an assassin going to attempt to take my beloveds’ lives, but Dumas the necromancer would unleash his power upon anyone around when he was confronted with his treachery.
I had to find a way to capture Dumas before he could use his staff to turn the guards into zombies, since killing all the red-eyed men coming at me hadn’t felt like the right choice. They were being mind-controlled and not making their own choices, so it didn’t feel good to think about fighting my way through them.
I could use my ice spell to freeze them in place, but with how many guards the king had summoned to the throne room, I would soon be worn out magically. While I’d mastered the spells, casting them cost energy, and I didn’t have an unlimited amount.
I carefully slid out of the bed, and I prepared to capture the assassin. I’d done it so many times now I wasn’t worried about being successful, so as I pulled on my clothes and strapped my weapons to my side, my thoughts were mainly focused on the issue with Dumas.
I’d just have to tell the king not to summon the extra guards since it only gave the necromancer something to work with.
I waited by the entrance to the west wing until the assassin showed up, and then I captured him with my ice spell. After I’d gotten him to confess Dumas’ name with my fire magic, the assassin and I were on our way to the throne room alone. I’d considered bringing Riondale with me, but there was a chance the necromancer would turn him against me with his staff, and I didn’t want to have to fight off my right-hand man.
“If you’re going to kill me,” the assassin hissed in my grasp, “just do it already.”
“Nah.” I grinned. “I still need you. You’re going to share your little tale about how Dumas hired you with the king, as well as any other details you may have neglected to give me.”
“I know nothing,” the assassin insisted. “Only targets’ names and location. I was paid half up front, and the other half was promised upon completion.”
“Save it for the king,” I growled, and I shoved him down the hallway ahead of me.
King Frederick questioned the assassin and then announced his intention to arrest Dumas, but before he could request the presence of more guards, I raised a hand to stop him.
“Your Majesty, that is a bad idea,” I informed him with a solemn shake of my head. “The wizard Dumas has a staff with the ability to control minds. The more guards present, the more enemies we will have to fight through to get to him. I can handle him myself, but if you summon a bunch of guards to the throne room, it’s going to be harder.”
“How did you even know I was about to request more guards?” The king’s eyes widened. “I hadn’t even spoken the words out loud yet.”
“You seem to keep forgetting I’m the God of Time,” I pointed out with a smirk. “There’s not much I don’t know.”
“I am fortunate to have you on my side,” the king allowed. “I shudder to think of you as an enemy.”
If he would only put that energy into believing me about Edinburg, Mistvale, and her wizard Zorya, then it would save me a lot of trouble, but he insisted upon proof, so I would comply.
The king called for Dumas, and we waited in the empty throne room in the middle of night until the necromancer made his appearance. While we waited, the assassin muttered some choice words at me and eyed the entrance in hopes of an escape, but I kept him close to me and ignored his taunts.
After what felt like an entire lifetime, the necromancer appeared surrounded by the ten guards the king had sent to go get him. Dumas’ pale-green gaze landed on the assassin, but no spark of recognition lit up in his eyes. I knew he was going to play innocent, but it wasn’t going to do him any good.
I eyed the staff he carried curiously, and the red crystal at the top shimmered in the candlelight with each step he took. It almost seemed to radiate light from within the stone itself, and I wondered where Dumas had acquired it.
“Your Majesty,” the necromancer greeted with a respectful bow of his head. “Your Grace. May I ask what causes you to summon me at such an hour?”
“Master Dumas,” the king intoned, “do you recognize the bound man before you?”
“Not at all, Your Majesty.” Dumas shook his head. “Should I?”
“Yes, indeed.” The king nodded slowly and dramatically, and I had to admit he had a flair for theatrics. “According to this man, you hired him to assassinate the Archduke’s women on this very night.”
“He lies,” Dumas said simply, and his eyes narrowed as they darted to me. “The Archduke could have paid him to accuse me. I suggest you kill him and be done with it.”
“That’s not true!” the assassin blurted out. “You hired me, Master Dumas.”
“The Archduke has convinced this man of his own lies,” the necromancer countered in a sympathetic tone. “It is sad to think I would be so easily accused.”
“It’s sad to think you have no remorse over your actions,” I shot back, and then I gave the king a pointed look. “Of course, he denies it, he wants to save his own neck. You have to believe me, Your Majesty.”
“I side with the Archduke,” the king announced in a decisive tone, and he nodded to the ten guards to arrest the necromancer. “Restrain him and take him to the dungeons.”
“You will never capture me!” Dumas spat as his calm facade crumbled. “Your petty attempts are no match for my power.”
I spun to face the necromancer, and I saw him struggling against the arms of the guards. Then he waved his red staff in a broad circle, which knocked back a couple of the men, but he brought the end of it down against the floor while he chanted words in a strange language. The eyes of the ten guards turned red, and they released the court wizard before they turned toward the king and me.
The mind-controlled men guarded the wizard’s escape as he jogged toward the entrance of the throne room, and a loud cackle escaped Dumas’ throat just before he disappeared from view.
I had to stay and protect the king first, but I didn’t want to kill these men. Maybe I could tie them all up, but that would require a lot of rope, and I wasn’t prepared to do so during this attempt.
I’d have to kill them and then figure out a way to make it not necessary, but I couldn’t stay with the king and chase after Dumas at the same time.
“I have to kill them, Your Majesty,” I informed the king in a regretful tone. “I’ll figure out a better way next time, but right now I just need to know you’re safe before I go after the wizard.”
“It would be treason to leave me,” the king replied, and he pulled the ceremonial looking sword from the sheath at his side. “But you won’t have to fight alone.”
“Good.” I grinned. “Then let’s kick ass together.”
Then I turned, drew my feather sword, and summoned my ice spell all in the same breath. I shot out ice at the feet of the guards closest to the throne dais, and I nodded my chin toward the frozen enemies.
“Those are yours, Your Majesty,” I said before I darted off into battle.
I met a sword with mine, blazed a ray of fire in the guy’s face, and then knocked his feet out from underneath him. As he fell to the ground, I began to coat his arms and legs in the ice restraints I’d grown fond of using, but I didn’t manage to cover his entire body before another red-eyed guard came at me.
The guard on the ground beneath me was frozen enough to not be able to move, so I turned my attention to my new assailant. I brought my feather sword up over my head to catch his downward blow, and then I shot a ball of ice right at his most sensitive area.
My opponent doubled with pain for a brief moment, but his face didn’t register any of the emotion when he met my gaze with his red eyes. It was like he was wearing a mask or something and didn’t really feel anything. He came at me again with a low, menacing growl, and I backed away slowly.
Time to use some of the awesome new magic I’d learned at the banquet.
I summoned a vine in a spot where my opponent would be stepping within the next few breaths to give myself some time to help it grow, and the tiny bud of green poked out through the lush red carpets like a dandelion growing up through a crack in a sidewalk. The vine uncurled and stretched upward, and it was roughly twice the size it had been when I first summoned it, but was still too small to accomplish much.
Fortunately, I didn’t need the vine to do a whole lot for me this time. I merely needed it to be a slight encumbrance to my target.
The guard lunged forward with sporadic jerky movements, and right when he stepped beside my vine, the green tendril shot out and curled around the red-eyed guard’s ankle. That was all the upper hand I needed to coat his arms and legs in heavy, restraining ice.
When my vine’s duty was completed, I thanked the tiny growing plant for its service, and I sensed a feeling of gratitude from my summons in return. It was such a strange connection, but I was looking forward to experimenting more with my vines in the future. With enough time and effort, I could get them to be as big as the Wild Land’s shaman’s were.
I repeated the process of fighting off then restraining with ice on the remaining guards, and the king ended up disarming two of them by himself. He tied them up with the sash of his robe, and his eyes were bright with battle lust when he met my gaze across the room.
Once the ten men Dumas had mind-controlled were eliminated as a threat, I saluted to the king and turned to chase after the necromancer without another word.
I’d already lost a lot of time, so there was no telling where he would be. I darted out of the throne room, and I almost collided with two thick-chested red-eyed guards. The guard to my left tried to grab me by the neck, so I ducked low and came back up with an uppercut to his jaw.
The mind-controlled zombie guard flew backward, but that left the guard to my right to contend with. He pushed against me with his spear, and I was pressed into the wall beside the entrance to the throne room. I grabbed his spear with both hands, and I grimaced with effort as I tried to shove him off me, but he was bigger and slightly stronger, plus not in his right mind.
Finally, an idea struck me, and I murmured the power word for my ice spell under my breath. “Chs.”
The chill spread from my hands across the wooden handle of the guard’s spear, and I focused my will power on making the ice stronger and stronger. My head began to throb with the effort, but soon the ice started to cover the guard’s gauntlets and forearms. The ice grew steadily until it reached his face, and as his cheeks began to freeze, I pushed him backward with a loud grunt.
“Chill out, dude,” I said as the frozen guard fell over to hit the ground flat on his back, and then I laughed out loud at my own cheesiness. At least there was no one else around to hear me.
I continued on down the corridor until the next junction, and I was trying to decide what I wanted to do when a red-eyed servant came charging at me from the shadows. It was a young man, probably no older than eighteen, and he held a candle holder base in his fist.
I shook my head in disbelief at how low the necromancer would stoop, and then I punched the kid square in the nose. He collapsed instantly, and I checked his pulse. He was alive, but unconscious, which meant I didn’t have to kill him.
So far, I still hadn’t had to kill any of the zombie guards Dumas was sending to guard his tracks, but I didn’t think it would last forever. I still needed to find the court wizard, so his trail of zombies was actually very helpful.
I went to the hallway where the servant had come from, and I shot one last doubtful glance in the other possible direction before I followed the corridor away from the audience chamber. I was headed in the direction of the main entrance, so I had a reasonable suspicion that Dumas was trying to get out of Dodge.
With a better destination in mind, I could cover a lot of ground if I went faster, so I stomped my foot to activate the fleetness ability of my griffon feather boots, and then I zoomed down the corridors and hallways to the main entrance of the palace. I passed by several red-eyed servants and guards on my way, and I assumed the necromancer had so many victims because the royal household was beginning their morning rituals and routines.
I dashed between the red-eyed zombie servants and guards, and if they got too close to me, I would blast out the gusts of air I’d learned from the Zaborial Isle priests to knock them back.
Finally, I burst out the main entrance and past the group of guards protecting the portal, and I used the water spells I’d learned from the banquet to coat them in liquid before I doused them with ice. I swiveled once I knew they were taken care of, and across the courtyard in the distance, I saw Dumas heading toward the city streets.
I stomped my foot again, and I chased after him with several spells ready in my mind. As I crossed the distance between us, the necromancer caught wind of my approach, and he turned to face me.
“Stop, dumbass!” I shouted, and I started the hand motions for another ice spell. “You’re under arrest.”
“Why in all of Sorreyal would I stop for you?” Dumas snickered, and he flicked the wrist of the hand not holding the red crystal staff. “Nin!”
My ice shard dissipated before it’d even formed, and I cursed under my breath. Apparently, the necromancer could do more than just raise the dead and control people’s minds with his staff. He could also cast negate, which made me wonder what other spells he would throw at me.
I zoomed across the distance and grabbed the red crystal staff in his hand. The necromancer yanked back on it, but I didn’t release my grip. We struggled back and forth for a long moment, and then I remembered what I’d done to the spear, so I focused my will power and summoned my ice spell.
“Chs,” I hissed as I glared into Dumas’ pale-green eyes.
“Nin!” he shouted as soon as he saw my lips move, and then he flicked his wrist in an effort to dislodge my grip on his staff, but his eyes glowed with rage. “Perhaps a god under my command would come in handy.”
“It won’t work on me,” I assured him, but in reality I wasn’t so confident.
Still, I had to get the staff away from him before he tried it, because I wasn’t certain I was immune to the mind control effects.
“We shall see.” Dumas twisted the staff in his hand, and the motion bent my wrist backward, which caused me to break my hold on the handle.
I trotted backward to get some distance between us, and I shook out my left hand as I considered what spell to use next. With his negating spell being so well-timed, it was difficult to get anything cast, but I would figure out how to beat this wizard even if it took me a thousand lifetimes.
I twirled my sword in my right hand as I considered my next step. Dumas was whirling his staff around his head the way he did before he performed the mind control spell, so I knew I didn’t have a lot of time before we were going to find out if the staff would work on me.
I had to act fast.
I stomped my foot to activate the fleetness ability of my griffon feather boots and then charged forward as Dumas went to slam the staff’s handle down onto the ground, but I managed to tackle the necromancer around the waist before he could complete the motion. We both went down with a heavy thud, but I landed on top of him, and the staff fell from his grasp.
The wooden handle with the red crystal on top skidded across the paving stones as it bounced a yard or so away from us, and we both eyed it in our peripherals.
I’d managed to stop his spell, but now I needed to get my hands on that staff before he did, so I rolled off him and came up on my feet in my next breath. Dumas was hot on my tail, and we both lunged toward the staff in the same instant.
My fist wrapped around the wooden handle just before his did, and I yanked it away from his reach. Then I pulled myself up to my feet, and I brought the wooden shaft down against my knee, which snapped the staff in half.
“Nooo!” Dumas screamed, and a pained expression twisted his face. “My beautiful staff!”
I had a feeling the necromancer was a little attached to his mind control device, but no one, besides me anyway, deserved to have that much power.
“It’s done,” I said as I tossed the two pieces of staff to the side and marched toward the necromancer. “Give it up, Dumas.”
“You have ruined my entire life,” Dumas snarled as he pushed himself to his feet. He flicked his hands, and a large magical shield bloomed from his palm to cover his entire person. “I am not going down without a fight, so do your worst.”
“You want to go toe to toe with a god?” I shook my head in disbelief. “You’re a special kind of stupid, aren’t ya, dumbass?”
Dumas didn’t respond, but he narrowed his pale-green eyes at me with a look that could kill a weaker man than myself.
I didn’t mind pissing off the necromancer, since it was only fair to return the favor.
Then I shot handfuls of ice and fire at his shield, but each time one of my spells struck the magical barrier, they were eaten up by the magical forcefield.
“This is no ordinary shield,” Dumas informed me with an evil-sounding chuckle. “It absorbs the magic, which only makes my spell stronger.”
“Son of a bitch,” I grumbled. “That’s pretty cool. What’s the word of power for it?”
“I would not teach you a single thing even if it was the last thing I did in this world,” Dumas sneered.
“So dramatic.” I rolled my eyes, flicked my feather sword around in my grip, and then brought up my own magical shield in my left hand. “Does your shield counter weapons?”
Dumas’ eyes widened as though he just now realized I carried a sword, and I saw his tongue flick out to moisten his lips.
I’d had just about enough of the mouthy necromancer, though, so I charged forward with a fierce battle cry.
“Die, dumbass!” I yelled as I swung my sword high over my head. I bashed into his shield with my own, and I pushed his arm away just as my blade swished downward toward his neck.
The necromancer twirled away from me with some nimble footwork, and in my next breath, he stood a yard away from me.
“You are the rudest Archduke I have ever known,” Dumas scoffed. “You are a disgrace to the position. Sorreyal would be much better off without you.”
“Hey, I’m not the one trying to fuck everything up,” I pointed out, and I charged forward again.
Dumas managed to evade my next several attacks, but I began to predict some of his movements as time went on. We inched further and further down the streets of Vallenwood, but it was so early in the morning that the pathways were clear of people. The city still slept as we battled on, but I needed to end this soon, since I was quickly getting tired of this cat and mouse game.
I shot ice, fire, air, and water at the necromancer, but each spell only intensified the strength of his shield, and every time I got close enough to slash at him with my feather sword, he managed to avoid my attack. He was good, but I was better, or at least I could be with enough attempts.
I considered resetting to have the whole battle go faster, but I felt like I had Dumas on the ropes, so I decided to let time continue to move forward. The necromancer continued to taunt me in an effort to get under my skin or find a weakness, but I didn’t give in to him. I ignored his words, and I focused all my magical and physical ability on bringing him in.
Then the king’s words rang through my head so loudly it was like Frederick was standing right beside me.
Alive or dead…
I could kill Dumas if I wanted to, and after all the time I’d spent fighting with him, I was about ready to wring his scrawny neck with my bare hands.
I was better than that, though, so I twirled my blade around in my grip and withdrew one of my daggers with my left hand. I was done using magic now since Dumas and I were so well-matched in that area, but I had a good feeling he was less keen with actual weapons.
Then I stomped my foot to activate the fleetness ability of my griffon feather boots before I zoomed across the distance to Dumas, and I buried my two blades in his chest as I collided into him. We went down with a thud, and the necromancer’s face contorted in pain, but then his expression softened as blood dribbled past the barrier of his lips.
He was dead. Finally.
I’d won the battle, but not the war. There were still more enemies out there who wished me and my loved ones harm, but I would make sure they all met the same fate as Dumas, Arginold, and Racine. Nobody could stand in my way and live to tell the tale.
I was Sir Sebastian, the Archduke of Bastianville, Dragon Slayer, and the God of Time. And the God of Death. And Sex. And Winning.
Sorreyal was mine.