Hedge
What he couldn't think about were the cries and screams of the tiny part of his soul that had escaped the free magic's destruction. The little piece of his original self that had clung to his originally unbroken charter mark. Somewhere deep within him, it announced his wrongs and proclaimed his lack of morals and ethics. It begged him to forget the bells and the books and the dead, and especially the Destroyer. No matter how it yelled and kicked and tried to make itself heard, Hedge never heard it, and so it wept, grieved by the destruction he was causing and would cause if he was successful in releasing the Destroyer.
What he could think about was killing the Abhorsen.
He stepped into the ninth precinct of death with bell and sword prepared. All he had to do was watch them by their feet, and all would be well. As the battled ensued, he became certain of his success. They would die here and pass beyond the ninth gate and he would leave, make the journey back into life, and watch his master reign supreme!
Then the dog broke free of his binding – or maybe the binding had never held – and he looked up.
They were all dead. The entire crossing point scout troop. I was the last one and that damn necromancer stood over me, laughing. By some miracle, my sword flashed out, he tripped and speared himself on my weapon.
The piercing white fires of free magic inside him were quenched as if a waterfall of charter had suddenly drowned them.
Then I heard the bells. They wanted a master. They needed a master. They promised healing and extra strength, extra power. They promised extended life. I knew it was forbidden, but it was free magic or death, and I really didn't want to die.
He raised his arms and felt the clouds of stars embracing him.
The necromancer's book led me to the mound by the red lake and the power that slept beneath it. The only thing it needed was someone to work on the outside, someone who could set events in motion across the seas and create the perfect conditions for release. I had to do it. I had to. I don't know why. I just know I had to.
The little piece of his soul that had survived swelled to the surface, weeping with charter-stained tears.