And here is the next one. Enjoy!
Chapter 11: * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"The Necromancer"
Like when they had made the journey to the Sour Lake Post the Seraphon did not really set up a proper camp. They lit a few fires with wood that they collected from the dry bushes that were scattered over the grassy plains and on the river bank. They fished in the stream and like the mayor had told them it was not hard to catch enough fish to avoid using up their dried rations.
The rest of the day they spent nursing their wounds, scouting the area, and preparing for the next battle. Then they slept for a few hours, and when the light was good enough to see again they continued their preparations.
For Jarel that meant that he trained. A few Skinks included him in their sparring fights, and he learned that even though Skinks were quick, he had a better reach and was stronger than them. It was a nice boost to his confidence when he even managed to land hits on Cayo once or twice.
That quickly changed when he started to fight Saurus though. Jarel was not even able to hit the limping warrior with the missing eye that Nay-Noatl commanded to "get the Warmblood into better shape". The Saurus had longer arms, and he was so much stronger than Jarel that every time Jarel parried one of his swings with either his buckler or his sword he was either pushed back, or the Saurus blew through his defense. His arms hurt after every swing, and his opponent easily parried every attack Jarel attempted. The knight also made a point of getting into grappling distance with Jarel, and the human had even less of a chance there. The Saurus' large hands held him in a vice-like grip, and when the Saurus had grappled Jarel he reminded him that he still had a weapon left by opening his mouth to show his teeth. In a real fight he would have just bitten Jarel now, and likely ended the fight.
"Stop!" Nay-Noatl growled, "this is just unbearable." He had watched the fights while eating a raw fish that the Skinks had caught in the early morning hours, but when he had finished his meal he walked over. "I can now see why you are constantly losing, Warmblood" he told Jarel, while he dismissed the one-eyed Saurus knight with a hand motion and took the wooden practice weapon himself. "You are fast enough, but you are weak. You cannot change that, that's just how humans are. But you parry like you were fighting goblins, or men." He was not hiding the fact that to him the two were roughly equivalent. "Rotbringers are strong, almost like Orruks or Saurus" he continued, "and that means that in order to defeat them you have to fight like a Skink, not like a Saurus. Use your speed, don't let them grapple you, and stop with those damned static parries. Use deflectional parries, and keep your distance unless you are striking yourself."
He then attacked Jarel, who tried his best to avoid the blows. He had thought that he had been more careful fighting the Saurus warriors than he was fighting Skinks or men, but now that Nay-Noatl had mentioned it he realized that he had apparently gotten used to them too much. He had been thinking of them as equals, although even the smallest and weakest of them were taller and stronger than him. That would surely not happen this time, he thought to himself. The Scar-Veteran was more than a foot taller than most Saurus, and even though he was armed with a piece of wood, Jarel instinctively wanted to run. He fought the feeling, and tried to do what Nay-Noatl had told him. If he wanted to have a chance against Silas, he would have to fight that way, or he would die, or worse.
The Saurus did not give Jarel an opportunity to counterattack. A steady stream of attacks forced Jarel into a number of parries, some with his weapon and some with the buckler. Nay-Noatl looked almost bored as he kept attacking his much smaller opponent from all directions, now and then rushing in to attempt to grapple him. He clearly was not fighting at full strength, but Jarel recognized that he was testing his techniques.
They fought for a few minutes, while a few of the Skinks and Saurus watched. Now and then the Scar-Veteran took a step back and let Jarel attack, and it felt a bit like back in training with his sword instructor. At no point was Jarel close to scoring a hit, but he did notice that the Saurus had to move more quickly now and then, and even grunted a few times when he barely avoided one of Jarel's attacks.
He also noticed that he got better at defending. It still felt like a sledgehammer blow when the Saurus hit his shield, and his arms did still hurt, but he managed to let the blows glance off far more often now.
After a while the Scar-Veteran signalled Jarel to stop, just as Jarel felt like he was finally finding weaknesses in his defenses. "What is it?" Jarel asked, panting.
"We should stop," the Saurus just replied, not looking even a little bit tired, "because we might have to fight soon, and I... want you at full strength. You are getting better and it would be a waste of my time if you died too soon."
With that he walked off, probably to yell at one of the Saurus knights that was slower than the others in preparing his Cold One.
"Wait," Jarel mumbled to himself. "Was that a compliment?"
He heard a chuckle behind him, it was Cayo who was cleaning his blowpipe and grinning. "I think it was," the Skink Alpha laughed, his crest twitching, "but he was right. You should sit down and eat a fish or two."
The thought of eating the Shyish fish that looked more dead than alive even when they were alive was not too thrilling, but at least the Skinks had cooked the fish, unlike the Saurus who seemed to prefer eating them raw. So Jarel shrugged and shared a meal with a few of the Skinks. He liked being around Skinks. Like most Seraphon they were very serious when doing something important, but in their free time they joked, sang, and pretty much did all the things humans did. One told a story about when he had last been to Shyish and had barely escaped a group of ghosts in a haunted forest, and for a moment Jarel felt like back home. Eduardo had enjoyed ghost stories, and frequently told them. Apart from the fact that this one was real, it could have been one of Eduardo's. Well, if it had contained girls. That made Jarel think. He decided to ask about how Seraphon reproduced, and was mainly met by confusion when he asked whether there were caves with Seraphon eggs somewhere. "We don't lay eggs, Jarel" Cayo explained. "We are spawned in spawning pools. We develop in them and eventually emerge from them, fully grown and basically ready to fight or work to fulfill the Great Plan. So no, there are no males or females among us, unlike it is the case with most beasts or peoples", the Skink Alpha explained. "...which brings us back to our current situation" he said, pointing at the hills. "It seems like the humans have something to tell us."
Indeed there was a single villager on the next hill. He had apparently come from the village, and was led towards Jarel by a Skink.
"The Necromancer has arrived, and has agreed to the mayor's plan" the villager explained smiling. Like the mayor he was short, but he was muscular and had hair like straw. "Oh, and the Necromancer would like to talk to you" the young man added. He looked nervous, but Jarel was not too concerned at this point. Cayo had told him that the people of Shyish were usually quite honest, it had apparently to do with their religion. Cayo claimed they believed that they would be punished after their death if they lied while they lived.
Like the evening before only Nay-Noatl and Cayo accompanied Jarel into the village. But the rest of the Seraphon remained close, and Jarel noticed that both the Scar-Veteran and the Skink wore their weapons.
* * *
A few villagers followed them as they walked into the village, but most of them continued with what they had been doing. Jarel noticed that many of them were carrying weapons, but other than that the village and its inhabitants looked ordinary, except for the towers.
When they followed their guide past one of the tall buildings Jarel looked up. The towers looked like they had doors on every level, and there were stairs on the outside to access the upper levels.
"Are those for storage?" Jarel asked the man with the strawy hair.
"Yes, in a way" the man replied over his shoulder. "We store weapons in the lower levels. But they are built for our master and our honored dead."
Jarel looked at Cayo, who explained that there were temples of different kinds in Shyish, usually dedicated to Nagash and his Mortarchs. He had not seen towers yet, but pyramids or long pillard temples were as common as large underground structures.
When they reached the village green - which was not very green here at all - the mayor met them.
"The Reaper King's favor" he repeated the same greeting he had spoken the last time they had met. "The Necromancer is here and ready to meet you inside." With that he pointed at the largest building of the village besides the towers. It was a three story house, probably the town hall. "Follow me."
The white-robed man walked up the stairs that led to the second floor. Nay-Noatl had to duck to not hit his head on the ceiling, and looked decidedly uncomfortable while he walked down the corridor trying to not knock over any of the wall decorations.
At the end of the corridor there was another door. "My office" the mayor said proudly, "but of course it is the Necromancer's right now."
The mayor opened the door and led his guests into the office. Book shelves lined most of the walls and to the right stood a desk with all kinds of papers on it. On the opposite side of the room was a large window, and in front of it stood a dark-hooded figure. The Necromancer.
"The Seraphon are here to meet you, Necromancer" the mayor announced, and stepped aside.
Jarel had expected a wrinkled, bald man with bad teeth in filthy dark robes, or perhaps a vampire with fangs and bloodshot eyes, but when the Necromancer turned around Jarel instead looked at a slim woman in a black, red lined gown split for riding. Like most inhabitants of Shyish Jarel had met she had very fair skin, and dark hair. But unlike most of the villagers' hair hers was long, and hung over her left shoulder in a neat braid.
She smiled as she took a step forward, and made a graceful all-encompassing gesture with one of her arms. "Welcome to the Amethyst Realm, visitors" she said in a melodic voice that had something aristocratic to it, "it seems that you arrived here in the right moment to revive an ancient alliance of the forces of Order against Chaos." In a slightly sharper tone she added "Although I am curious to learn how you got here. These are dark times, and we should not keep secrets from each other when our very existence is at stake."
Jarel cleared his throat and took a step toward her.
When he looked at her more closely it looked like she was about his age, probably a bit older, but it was possible that she looked older than she was, because she looked very tired. Dust from her journey covered her black cloak, her boots were muddy, and there were dark shadows under her eyes.
He bowed and introduced himself. This time he mentioned that he and the Seraphon had been teleported to Shyish from Ghur, without going into too much detail. It was not the full truth, but not a complete lie either. He did not want to tell her about the Realmgate, and the Necromancer would surely know that Slann were very powerful, and thus might believe that they had been teleported by a Slann's magic.
She raised an eyebrow when he mentioned the Realm of Beasts, but she let him continue.
"I fear that I am in no position to speak for all the forces of Order, but I can speak for this group of Seraphon. We are here to destroy those Nurgle forces, and we are ready to fight at your side... my lady... Necromancer." He stumbled over the titles. Until that point he had managed to speak relatively smoothly, but he had not been told how to address her.
"Call me Kalene" she said with a smile that made her look younger and far more attractive than a Necromancer should have looked in Jarel's opinion.
He had talked to the two lizardmen about what to say in which situation, so he had a good idea how to continue: "So, Kalene, how are we going to prepare for the assault? We don't know how many of them will come or when they will come, and we don't have an army at our disposal. I assume that you will be able to call some undead? How many?"
She looked at him for a moment, not smiling anymore now. Instead her brown eyes looked at him thoughtfully. "I can raise a few hundred skeletons," she explained calmly. "I also have access to a few Fell Bats from the swamps."
"No cavalry?" Jarel inquired.
She shook her head. "There are not many horses around here, there never have been. They don't like the grass. Keep in mind that I can only raise what died here once. So that means no Black Knights. But if we need fast troops I could raise some warhounds."
"Where are you going to get those from?"
She looked surprised about the question. "Well, from the ossuary towers, obviously."
So that's what they were. The villager had been literal, earlier when he had referred to them as having been built for the dead.
"That means that you have access to the remains of all the people that ever died here?" he asked.
Kalene nodded. "Yes, in principle. But I am no Mortarch. I cannot just raise all of them at once. Then there is the tithe, and Guteruh has never had a large population, so there are less skeletons available than you might think. If they can really bring an army then we will be in trouble." She indeed looked concerned. "As for when they will come: Based on where their army was last seen I estimate that we have two to three days. So I will start summoning right now, even though I am very tired." She straightened herself and took her staff from the corner. It was a simple, slightly curved wooden staff, but its tip was decorated with bones and a stylized scythe blade.
On her way out she paused and turned back at Jarel. "Wait. You have not told me why you came here with so little support. Where are your masses of lizards, your mighty beasts, your Starpriests, or your Engines of the Gods?" She pointed out of the window. "Those out there number just over four dozen. If I include you, which I am not sure I should." That made him think. Was he part of the Seraphon now? Did they see him as one of their own? He sometimes felt like the Skinks did, but much of the rest of what the Seraphon were was still alien to him, and that feeling was probably mutual. He banished the thought and concentrated on the answer that he needed to give.
"We were only a small vanguard to begin with, and we had some losses" he gave back. Again, that wasn't a lie, just not the whole truth. "I hope that there will be reinforcements soon, but I don't know when they will arrive. It might be in an hour or in a week." Or never, he thought to himself, but he did not want to tell Kalene. He was not even ready to accept that possibility himself.
There was an expression of scorn from her.
"You have chosen the wrong master it seems. The Slann have a reputation for sending their troops into certain death, without further support if it doesn't factor into their 'Great Plan'." Jarel was glad that Nay-Noatl and Cayo could not understand her, the way she talked about the Great Plan and the Slann. But then, they might have wholeheartedly agreed, and not even have seen a problem with that. He still wanted to object, but he had not yet made up his own mind about the Slann's ethics either, so he remained silent.
"But the Grave God cares about his servants" she continued, smiling again. "Where there are bones there is an army to support us. We never fight alone." For a moment she looked at him without saying anything, as if she was waiting for him to disagree, then she shook her head. "We can talk later. Now I have to start summoning. You should also prepare your troops. Stay close to the village, within it if you like to. Just don't stand in the way."
* * *
Jarel and the two Seraphon followed her out of the building, where the mayor and several villagers joined them. Some approached her and spoke about gifts that they had for her, which she told them she would gladly receive later, as now was the time to do work. The kindness with which she spoke to them was a stark contrast to the cool tone in which she told Jarel that she expected to not get interrupted in any way.
Jarel carried no wish to anger a Necromancer in himself, so he stepped aside.
While Kalene used her staff to draw runes into the dirt of the village green, and poured white powder from a pouch that she carried into them, Jarel quietly spoke to Cayo and Nay-Noatl to keep them up to date.
Nay-Noatl decided to keep the Seraphon in their riverside camp, but both him and Cayo were in favor of staying in the village to keep an eye on the Shyishans.
When she had finished her circle of runes Kalene took a deep breath. Then she slammed her staff into the ground, which made a louder sound than Jarel had expected on soft ground. She repeated the process three times, then stood still as a statue while a soft purple glow developed around her. Jarel's skin began to crawl while it intensified.
Eventually she spoke, and her voice sent shivers down Jarel's spine. It was too loud and booming for any man, and the single word she uttered was spoken with such an authority that even Jarel could feel an impulse to follow it.
"RISE!"
Again Kalene assumed a statue-like pose, Jarel could not even see her breathing. First nothing happened, and he thought that maybe her ritual had failed. But then the doors of the closest ossuary tower opened, one by one. And out marched skeletons. Dozens of them. In a neat row they marched down the tower stairs, evenly spaced as if they were parading, and each of them carried a spear and a shield in its hands. Some were armored, but most of them only partially or not at all.
The villagers stood there and cheered, equally reminding Jarel of a parade. It felt wrong. Even Cayo and Nay-Noatl looked uneasy as the skeleton warriors marched onto the village green and formed up a rectangle, twenty skeletons wide and four deep.
"RISE!"
Kalene's voice boomed once more, and a second tower's doors opened. The skeletons marched out, this time some of them were carrying swords instead of spears and Jarel counted fourty spearmen and fourty swordsmen - or swordswomen, it was hard to tell from a skeleton's body - that formed up two rectangles next to the ones from the other tower.
Jarel looked at Kalene. The lines in her face had deepened, she looked older now, and like on the brink of death. She swayed, and the mayor offered her his arm, but she softly brushed it away. "Just one more" she told him. It was almost a whisper.
This time she turned around and faced the west, and she uttered a different word, but it was as loud and booming as the other two.
"COME!"
Nothing obvious happened. But after a moment she smiled. It was more a grimace than the endearing smile Jarel had received earlier, but then she looked into Jarel's direction for a moment, gave him a quick nod and at least started breathing again.
The effects of the Magic Winds of Death vanished, except for Kalene's physical state, but when he inquired about her she just told him that it was normal, that she needed rest, and that the villagers would care well for her.
She then accepted the mayor's arm and the man with the white robe led her back into the town hall, a beaming smile on his face.
In the meantime the villagers had gathered around the skeletons, and some of them were apparently caring for the armor and weapons that the skeletons were carrying. Some attached colorful strips of cloth on them, and Jarel even saw some of them attach flowers to the undead, looking elated to do so while he tried to shake off that primal fear of death which befell most people looking at the walking dead.
He forced himself a few steps toward them. Most of the skeletons didn't react at all. Some turned their heads for a moment but otherwise didn't move. He still felt like they were watching all of his steps.
"Come closer, they don't bite." a voice said. It belonged to an elderly woman with a friendly face that reminded Jarel of his late grandmother. She was in the process of carefully cleaning a skeleton's breastplate with a piece of cloth, and smiled when Jarel approached her.
"I am sorry, but being around undead is new to me" Jarel explained. "You don't seem to fear them at all."
"Well, there is no need to fear them, these..." she motioned towards the orderly lines of skeletons on the village green, "...are family" she just said. "Look at Jens over there, the young man that led you into the village earlier." The old woman pointed at the man with the strawy hair, who stood next to some armored skeletons twenty yards away. "See those three warriors with the long chain shirts? Those are his parents and his brother. You don't fear your brother, do you?"
"I am an only child" Jarel answered laconically. When she had asked him the question he had immediately thought of Silas, who had been like a brother to him. And he did fear his brother now. Thankfully she misinterpreted his facial expression. "Ah, don't be sad. It is nice to have a large family, but you can also have family that isn't related to you. Let old Mina tell you this: Some of the best family members can be the ones you meet during your life, and don't share a single drop of blood with." She continued wiping down the skeleton's armor and chattered on happily like some old lady at home would have done while cleaning her kitchen.
"My husband was part of the last tithe," she explained. However before Jarel could ask what that was she continued: "It was a proud moment, but I am still happy that at least Timon is still here."
"The Necromancer mentioned the tithe earlier, but she had no time to talk," Jarel interjected. "Could you explain it to me?"
She looked at him thoughtfully for a moment. "Of course you wouldn't know. I sometimes forget that customs are different elsewhere. The tithe happens every few years. The army of our lord sends a caravan and they take some of our dead with them to support the army. It was a great honor for my family, we did not expect that my husband's old bones would still be worthy. He died over ten years ago."
There was a hint of sadness in her voice, but it vanished when she carefully took a white flower out of her pocket and attached it to the skeleton's armor. "Timon is my son. He was a farmer but died six years ago. He is still here and protects us. This is only the second time I see his body since his soul left." She smiled at the skeleton, and Jarel felt torn. His instincts still told him to run away, but a part of him understood the old woman. She knew that those were only bones, but just like people cared for the graves of their ancestors, she cared for her beloved son.
He still wanted to change the topic.
"About the Necromancer..." he began. Immediately Mina's mood brightened even more. "She is wonderful, isn't she? We can be so thankful that she was sent here. She is more powerful than our former Necromancer, so she made this area much safer. We are indeed favored by the Reaper King."
"Ah, uhh... yeah, you really seem to be" was all that Jarel could reply to that. "I wanted to ask why she doesn't live here in Guteruh."
Mina shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe it is easier to concentrate out there, where there aren't hundreds of people around you. But you have to ask her that question yourself. Just don't be sad if she does not answer you. Necromancers need to have their secrets!" she added with a raised index finger that was wet and soapy from her ongoing cleaning task.
In the meantime even more villagers had gathered on the village green and like Mina most of them cleaned the skeletons, repaired their armor and weapons, or just talked to each other about their families. Some of them were waiting near the town hall, and now and then one or two of them entered it.
A movement in the corner of his eye caught Jarel's attention. A swarm of large bats silently approached the village from the west, and Jarel had already half drawn his sword when he realized that neither the villagers nor the skeletons paid them any attention. The old woman noticed his confusion. "Fell Bats from the swamps" she just said. They serve the Necromancer. See how numerous they are. I told you that she is powerful". It were at least a dozen of them. It was hard to tell but they looked almost the size of men. They landed on the towers and folded their wings around themselves, most hiding their faces from the light of Hysh that was slowly rising higher. Their eyes were fixed in one direction, and without looking Jarel knew that they were staring right at the town hall, into which Kalene had retreated. Compared to them even the skeletons looked almost harmless. Jarel figured that he would be able to beat several skeletons in a fight if need be, but he doubted that he would stand a chance against even a single of those bat monsters.
"Just one last question," he turned to Mina again. "What are the gifts that the villagers bring to Kalene?"
"Just regular things," she said. "Some provide her with food and drink, some with information she needs. Some wash her clothes, clean her belongings, run errands, or help in any other way she might need us. We do everything that helps her helping us. That tall woman with the crossbow who just entered the town hall was Uta, who leads our crossbow units. She will probably inform the Necromancer about the number of men and women who will be able to fight."
* * *
Jarel thanked Mina for the explanations and made his way back to the two Seraphon.
Nay-Noatl and Cayo were talking quietly among themselves. When Jarel arrived, they were just discussing lanes by which the Knights would be able to pass through the village in all directions, should it be necessary. Apparently they expected the Rotbringers to attack from different angles, especially if they had enough troops to swarm the village, like they had done it at the Sour Lake Post. They included Jarel in their conversation, and time passed quickly while they discussed how to hold the village as long as possible. They did not talk about possible reinforcements, but Jarel had decided that it would not change anything for now. Their best chance was to stay and fight.
Jarel appreciated how the Skink Alpha and the Scar-Veteran more and more treated him like one of their own. He doubted that they would ever become family, like Mina had said, but he slowly came to the conclusion that even though the lizardmen were confusing him at times, so were other humans. He wondered whether he would ever return home, and whether he would even be able to fit back in, after the things he had seen now. He had to remind himself that he had only been with the First for a few weeks, but his life had changed so much in that short time.
The hours passed, and at some point before noon the Fell Bats moved deeper into the shadows of the towers. They came back out later in the afternoon, and so did Kalene a few moments later. She looked a lot better, and even smiled at him again when she noticed Jarel who had taken position on the tavern's front porch, sipping on a surprisingly tasty ale that the Shyishans brewed.
She did not talk to him - which disappointed him more than he liked to admit - and just repeated her earlier ritual. Another fourty skeletons from an ossuary tower joined the units on the village green, and again she slumped after summoning them and went back inside. This time however she made sure to send a villager to inform Jarel that there would be a meeting to discuss tactics the next day.
Before Jarel and the Seraphon eventually returned to their camp in the evening, Uta walked over to them. She carried an additional crossbow and quiver.
"I noticed that you lack a ranged weapon. Can you shoot?" she immediately came to the point.
"I can." He was not great, but crossbows were easy to aim and shoot and many soldiers of the Crawling City trained with them.
She explained the loading mechanism to him, which was slightly different to the crossbows he knew. So far he had only shot hand spanned crossbows and the unwieldy but strong windlass crossbows. The crossbowmen of Guteruh mostly used goat's foot mechanisms that were neatly stored on the shaft when not in use.
Under Uta's strict gaze he demonstrated his ability to shoot the crossbow on a practice target behind the village's smithy, and after two dozen shots of which most hit their targets the hard faced woman was satisfied with the results: "Probably good enough to not kill yourself or one of my people by accident" was all she said. He thanked her, and she just nodded and walked back toward the town hall without another word.
Neither her nor Nay-Noatl knew it, but she reminded Jarel of the big lizard in a way.
He later told Cayo about it, and the Skink laughed so hard about the idea that he nearly fell off the rock he was sitting on.
They went to sleep early that day, and Jarel's dreams would have been more pleasant if they had not been a confusing mix of scenes in which Kalene either smiled at him or made the undead attack him.
