Chapter 12 - the Sleeping Necromancer

  Cal prepared to strike, but as he stumbled and struggled back a step he noticed that, though it was stood ready to attack, the wolf skeleton… didn’t. After a pause Cal frowned and released his weapon, staring down at the beast. As he did so, it stood back a little and sat down, watching him with it's head tilted to one side, no longer threatening him. “Okay then…” He whispered.

  Cal started moving around the dog and it moved to meet him. As he began to circle the girl it sat back down and other animals tore their way out of the ground to block his path. Big cats, more dogs, several nastier looking things. Cal walked an entire circle around the girl and, though they didn’t attack him or become at all aggressive or threatening - so long as he didn’t touch his sword - they didn’t let him get any closer. As he stepped forward they would gnash their teeth, never hitting him, but warning him away. If he continued to try they would gather up to block his path. When he stepped back they moved back around to create a defensive circle around her.

  Intrigued, Cal took a few steps back, but they didn’t hide back away in the dirt.

  Unsure what else to do, Cal raised a hand to wave. “Hey, Kaila!” He shouted. “I’m here to collect you. Liana- Sorry, Meliana sent me.” In her little tree hollow the girl stirred, but then buried her head in her cloak further. “Oh, by the Dawn.” Cal grumbled. “Hey! Girly!” He yelled louder. “Necromancer!”

  Her eyes shot open and darted to him. She sat up, fear and anger in her eyes as she pointed her hand towards him. “Hold Him!” She called out.

  The animals instantly went for him. Not with their teeth or claws, but with their bodies, intending to knock him over and hold him down. Cal’s eyes widened and he darted back. “Whoa whoa whoa!” He called, his eyes flicking from the oncoming horde to the girl as she leapt to her feet. She was clearly deciding which way to run. “I’m Cal, I was sent by Meliana to collect you!” He shouted, but the girl was too rattled to listen.

  Cal cursed again, eyes moving back to the animals. He groaned. “God this better work.” He said and ran forward. He looked at a spot about fourteen meters ahead of him, a meter in front of where the girl looked like she was going to run and - more importantly - the other side of the skeletal horde. He took a breath, concentrated and, as the animals were about to leap at him, he breathed; “Emdiness!” the feeling of a hook sliding in just beneath his ribs caught him off guard for a moment as it always did, then he was being pulled by the hook and he was gone. He vanished and a moment later appeared next to the Kaila.

  The disorientation was nowhere near as bad as it had been when he was first starting out with the teleportation spell, but it still took him a moment to recover.

  Because planar magic wasn’t Cal’s affinity he couldn’t teleport far, it took a lot more out of him and he didn’t always feel okay after. It worked though, and that counted for a lot when you were surrounded by necromantic skeletons, human or animal.

  She screamed, startled at his sudden appearance, skidding to a stop and falling to the floor, giving him the time he needed to gain his bearings. Panting a little, Cal raised his hands placatingly. “It’s okay, it’s okay, I’m not here to hurt you.” He said. He took a breath as she eyed him up and down in fear. “My name is Cal, I work with Meliana Roe, the woman who contracted you.”

  Her brow furrowed at the mention of Meliana’s name.

  “You… you are the woman Meliana hired, right?” Cal asked, standing up straighter and lowering his hands. He ran one hand through his hair, pushing it out of his face. “This is going to be really embarrassing if you’re not Kaila and there's another necromancer in this forest.”

  “I…” The girl started. She sounded like she hadn’t spoken in a while. “I’m Kaila.” She said. She looked back at her animal horde and it stopped, but she didn’t dismiss it right away. The animals had been scrabbling over each other looking for Cal and trying to get back to her.

  “I’m sorry for startling you.” Cal said, taking a step back to give her a little room. Meliana hadn’t been kidding when she’d said that the girl was jumpy. “The animals wouldn’t let me get closer to wake you more gently.”

  She looked up at Cal, who smiled back at her in as disarming a manner as he could muster and then she sighed. She nodded and looked back at the animals. They dug their way back underground and then the earth seemed to settle in around them. She let out a breath, like she was finishing an exercise and looked back up at Cal. “I’m sorry for attacking you.” She said. Her voice was still a little horse, but he recognised her accent as that of someone from the country to the south-east, Zeroden and suddenly a lot of things clicked into place for him.

  Zeroden... it was… well it wasn’t a great place. They were known as the warring nation. They had been at war with the eastern continent of Corvus for centuries, since before the alliance even existed. They’d been at war with the Alliances neighbours to the north and south west - Yuliar and Cadelar respectively - for almost as long, and they’d been at war with the Alliance since it’s founding. The only place they weren’t officially at war with was the Elves home continent of Sagittaa, and many people believed that that was only because the Alliance, Yuliar and Cadelar were between them and it.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  Cal didn’t know a lot about Zeroden, but he did know that it was a bad place for Mages. The Black Blades had told him that much.

  “It’s okay.” Cal said, warmly. “I shouldn’t have shouted.”

  Kaila shook her head. “It wasn’t the shouting, it was…” She shivered. “People shouting 'Necromancer' aren't usually friendly” She elaborated succinctly. "Pitchforks, torches... bad word."

  Cal didn’t say it, but he understood. Under different circumstances he might have been one of the ones carrying a torch. It made him feel a bit guilty to think that since he was speaking to her so pleasantly now.

  With only a little over a meter between them, Cal had a better look at her now. She still had her hood up, but he could now see that her hair was straight and she’d had it cut near to neck length, but shorter in the back and quite long in the front. Her hair was parted to her right and trailed down the side of her face.

  He had been right, she was pretty, though she had a weariness to her expression. A suffering that he didn’t know if he could relate to, even despite his recent months. Kaila had brown eyes, though he could see a little green in them. Her skin was fair, almost sickly pale, and she had bags under her eyes, evidence of living rough. Others might not have called her pretty, more gaunt or skeletal, but Cal had lived rough long enough to see past such trivialities.

  Her green cloak had black and white embellishments and patterns. It buckled up at the front but only covered her to just above her knees. Below he could see black trousers that looked like they’d been regularly repaired with a variety of different threads, and a pair of knee high brown leather boots that looked well worn, but also well taken care of.

  She didn’t appear to be carrying any weapons, but there was a bulge under the left side of her coat that looked like a bag.

  Despite knowing what she was there was something about her that made him want to protect her. Cal chalked it up to his long years on the street, fighting to survive with others like him and, after a long moment, realised that he’d been staring and turned away. “Shall we get back then?” Cal asked.

  “Are we going to meet Miss Roe?” She asked. As Cal started to walk she followed, though she remained a couple of meters behind.

  “Yeah, we’ll meet her in a tavern called-” Cal paused when he heard her stop walking and looked back to her. She had frozen. “What is it?”

  She looked over at him, took a breath and shook her head. “It’s nothing. Lets go.” She stepped past him, making sure to go around the tree so that she was never closer than a meter to him. She passed him and continued walking towards the edge of the forest.

  Cal frowned and watched her walk, but then followed after. She was scared, but too proud to admit it. And why would she say anything to him, they’d only just met. He wasn’t even the one who’d hired her.

  “So, you’re a travelling adventurer? Or is this just a side gig to fund some other project? Skeletal animal zoo or something.” He asked.

  “Adventurer.” She said simply.

  “Must be hard to get a lot of work with… you know. The reputation.” He replied. He didn’t say it, but that would explain why she didn’t look like she’d eaten any time recently.

  “Take big jobs only.” She replied becoming more monosyllabic as time went on and she woke up.

  Cal nodded. That made sense. If you needed a necromancer it probably wasn’t your everyday, run of the mill mission to kill some kobolds. “You’re from Zeroden?” He asked. “What’s it like there?”

  She stopped and turned to look at him, causing him to stop as well. She eyed him flatly. “It’s quiet.” She said pointedly.

  Cal couldn’t help but smile, then he mimed locking his lips and started walking again. She hurried to move first, to keep the distance between them.

  It wasn’t long before they reached the edge of the forest and after stepping a little way out into the sun they heard Melt come trotting around the edge of the trees.

  Kaila initially jumped, looking around, presumably for a rider, but seeing Cal looking unconcerned she lowered her guard ever so slightly. He watched her face as best he could as Melt came quickly towards them and he couldn’t help but catch the look of wonder at the sight of the beautiful mare.

  Cal looked back at his horse and frowned, looking at the reigns that had been well secured to a sapling. Either Melt had snapped the tree, or she had undone the knot he’d tied. It was ludicrous to think that she’d untied a knot though, wasn’t it?

  As Melt drew near she went straight to Cal and nuzzled him briefly before turning and walking over to Kaila. Far from frightened of the large animal, she was enamoured with it. As it reached her she leaned up to stroke it’s head and it nuzzled her back.

  Cal raised a brow. Terrified of someone as good as Meliana but affectionate towards the Necromancer? This horse is a lousy judge of character. He thought. Of course she had instantly loved him, so what did that say about him.

  “Her name is Melt.” Cal said, shaking himself out of his musing.

  “She’s beautiful.” Kaila said, continuing to stroke the horse. “What breed is she?”

  It was the most engaged he'd heard her be since they'd started walking, and the least hostile she’d been since they’d met. A fact he opted not to mention lest she return to her previous manners.

  “Not sure. She’s definitely from here, a Westcoast Red, but her other parent is unknown.” Cal replied.

  “Wow.” Kaila said. “She’s so interesting, you look in her eyes and it’s like she understands you.”

  “You know, I’m not sure that she doesn’t.” Cal replied, deciding to step up on the other side of the horse. “She was caught up near the Creeping Forest. The ranch I bought her from speculated that she had a Fey parent.”

  Kaila nodded, smiling affectionately at the horse. “That’s amazing.” She said. As she did so she looked past Melt’s head to where Cal stood, closer than he had been up until then. It caught her off guard and her eyes widened in a moment of shock before she jumped back to get him out of her wide personal space boundary.

  He ignored it, having spent a lot of time around terrified people, he knew that responding as if it weren’t normal would just freak her out more, make her defensive. Instead he patted Melt on the neck and she turned to nuzzle and hug him. “Hah, you miss me, girl?” He asked. She seemed to squeeze tighter. “It was like twenty minutes.” He sighed, grabbing her reigns. “And what did you do to that poor tree?”

  “She…” Kaila said. “She likes you a lot, huh?”

  Cal looked over at her. “Looks like it.”

  The Necromancer took a breath and nodded. “Animals are usually good judges of character.” She was speaking more to herself than Cal, but she stepped tentatively back over and resumed petting Melt. “I’m trusting you.” She said to the horse.

  Patreon ￡3 a month for the first 25 people then ￡5 after that!