Part II
Return
Far away, in a small graveyard in southern Cranan, a body stirred. The body was young and female, dead for nearly thirty years, but some strange magic had made it almost as fresh as when still alive. Still, there were rotten places on the body which the magic had not been able to fix. The long-dead body was female, but the spirit that inhabited it was not. The box burst open and dirt sprayed all over as the slim body heaved at it with inhuman strength, escaping the tomb where it had lain at rest for so many years.
The spirit had chosen this body for many reasons. The knowledge that the woman, Catherine, had accumulated in her short lifetime would be useful, but in truth he knew most of what she did about how to survive in Cranan with both servants and nobility. The body would certainly scare the man and woman he planned to kill, but even that was secondary. The real reason he had taken this body was because in a past lifetime she had been his mother.
Clemen knew that he had never known his mother and had no reason to feel close to her, but he did, closer even than to the father that he had both loved and despised. Obviously it was his father's fault that she had died, and he must be punished.his wife too. He felt that she had guided him from beyond the grave, calming him and telling him to avenge her on his father and his father's wife when he was older and stronger. He had held his temper and waited. And almost he had waited too long. He had died, but that didn't matter. He had inhabited his mother's body and now could kill his father, and that was all that mattered. Once his father was dead, his life, or rather half-life, would be complete. Then he could rest knowing that the purpose he had had throughout his life, from the day his father had asked Clemen to pretend that he was not really his father's son, had been completed, and he could leave the world that had treated him so unkindly and in which he had found no pleasure. Then, at last, he might be happy.
But even this was not the extent of his motives. Even his vow to slay the man who had robbed him of his entire life was not all that made him want to kill his father. Clemen knew that he had not been quite strong enough to work the spells that had brought him to this new body. A power far away, many hundred miles distant, had given him the strength to return at least partially to the land of the living. Clemen was not sure exactly what this power wanted. All he understood was that his new mistress wanted him to perform a task for her, and once this task was finished he could leave his mother's body and reside evermore in the Dark's heaven. All that stood in his way, he knew, was his father, because only his father could recognize this body.
~~~
Baron Robert and his wife Amelia entered their house arm in arm, laughing merrily. They had just returned from watching a play at the palace, and the evening had been wonderful. The Queen had assured them that their son had been located, and the boy that they had not seen for ten years would be returning within the week. Also, they were grandparents! That nice girl from school-Buttercup, that was her name-that Nechtè had always been sighing over had finally married him, and they had a sweet, magically talented little granddaughter.
The two walked in. However, in their joy over the upcoming reunion with their son they failed to notice the muddy footprints that covered the carpet. An obedient butler trailed after the happy couple of nobles with a torch.
The married pair entered their little house in the city, sure that they would find a roaring fire and some hot tea awaiting them, for their maid, Celia, was very adept at realizing what people want to come home to. But as they had been expecting comfort they were sadly disappointed, for the house was stone cold and Celia was nowhere to be seen. They entered the kitchen, looking for Celia.
Baroness Amelia frowned. She knew that the maid that had served under them for years was no slacker, but she had somehow managed to break several dishes and scatter little bits of glass all over the place and had not cleaned them up before her employers returned. Then she caught sight of something on the floor that made the composed, even-tempered woman scream in horror for her husband.
Baron Robert ran to his stricken wife. "What is it, Amy? What's wrong?"
"Blood!" the woman babbled in terror. "All over! And Celia, where is Celia?"
The baron blanched. "Blood? Are you sure?" He squinted at the floor. "Oh dear."
They rushed into the maid's quarters. Celia was there, lying on the bed. The baroness rushed towards her and screamed. She was dead, her neck covered in blood.
"Robert," said a high voice from the closet. "I've been waiting for you." The dead woman stepped forward. A shining knife was clutched tightly in its unnatural hand.
"Catherine? What.what." Robert sputtered in fear and anger. He had believed that his mistake was forever behind him. Now here was Clemen's mother to torment him from the nether world.
The figure advanced, knife in hand. The baron yelled for help, backing into the wall. The butler ran in when he heard the yell, gasping when he saw his employer being threatened by a corpse and his friend Celia lying cold and dead.
"I warn you, madam," the butler quavered, holding the torch before him like a sword as he placed himself between his lord and the rotten woman, "I am armed. Please put the knife down."
Clemen/Kate shuffled forward with the knife still clutched in those dainty fingers. They reached the bewildered butler and shoved him aside, continuing on towards the stricken baron. The baroness and butler seemed to be in a daze, for they made no move to stop the apparition. Clemen stopped before his father and a knife flashed.
The baron screamed as sharp metal plunged into his side, and with that harsh sound the spell of the zombie was partially broken. The baroness seized the torch from the frozen servant and thrust the flame at the specter.
The zombie groaned, a horrid, unearthly noise, as the rotten flesh was seared by the heat. "You have not finished me!" it howled. "I shall return!" And it rushed off, running away from the only thing which it feared: fire.
~~~
"Quite clearly," Queen Anala the Third reassured the frightened baroness, "it was some old friend of your husband's who dislikes nobles. They must have attacked you two because your husband was once a merchant and seemed to be 'siding with the enemy.' But as you are both fine I am sure that this assassination attempt is nothing to worry over."
"But it was her!" Amelia wept. "It was Catherine! It was that awful woman who my husband had a child by! But she died in childbirth! I know it for a fact!"
"Well," replied the unshakable monarch, "maybe the angry commoners found a woman who just looks like this Catherine. I'm sure it is nothing to be frightened by. I will have some of the Queen's Guard look into it. Your husband will make a full recovery, and while he is unwell you will be more than welcome in the palace. Now.how about a game of cards?"
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"Isn't the whole situation with the Yemenese odd, though? They used to be so friendly, before that Queen Amber married their King Paber."
The baroness was not much reassured after that meeting, but the horrors of the night before were hard to recall in the bright sunshine and fragrant air of the Queen's garden.
~~~
Baron Robert lay in his bed, white as a sheet. He had not yet recovered from the shock of the night before. He couldn't speak rationally, only babble, "I'm sorry, Amy. I didn't love her. I'm sorry."
~~~
Clemen nursed his burnt flesh tenderly, wishing his mother's body wasn't so vulnerable to flame. He knew that his father's wife knew now that he could be harmed by fire, and he wasn't sure that she wouldn't know how to use this knowledge to destroy him.
The zombie began to make plans for sneaking into the palace. He knew that his father was lying in the palace hospital. Getting into the palace was as easy as pie: it had not been so long that he had forgotten the hidden tunnels that led to the palace mews. But how could he reach the hospital ward in which his father resided? It was surrounded by guards to protect him from the 'angry commoners.'
Guards could be bribed, he knew, but he lacked the heavy purse that had been left by his tortured body in the fields where he had met his death. Guards could be conked on the head and so kept from interfering, but there were too many for that to be practical. He had to see if his mistress in Lacar would lend a hand.
First, however, he had to attempt to make himself temporarily invisible. He had no girls' blood to use for the spell, but he hoped to be able to cast the incantation anyway. He knew that often those mage's spirits which came back to the world of the living to right the wrongs done to them could still receive magic from their patron deity.
He chanted the necessary verses while holding his breath, and was delighted to find that the spell worked perfectly and he quickly became invisible. Dark smiled at him, as Dark was currently at war with his siblings and would act against their interests as much as he could. He was ready to face his treacherous father. He held in his breath and set out on the mission his mistress had set for him.
He passed his hand through the wall first. His sorcerer's mind absently noted that his mistress could send her spells to aid him even from as far away as Maram. Such an impressive feat would have been a worthy topic at the university, but here it was only to be remembered so that he could thank her.
The invisible creature took a deep breath and disappeared into the walls of the hospital.
Return
Far away, in a small graveyard in southern Cranan, a body stirred. The body was young and female, dead for nearly thirty years, but some strange magic had made it almost as fresh as when still alive. Still, there were rotten places on the body which the magic had not been able to fix. The long-dead body was female, but the spirit that inhabited it was not. The box burst open and dirt sprayed all over as the slim body heaved at it with inhuman strength, escaping the tomb where it had lain at rest for so many years.
The spirit had chosen this body for many reasons. The knowledge that the woman, Catherine, had accumulated in her short lifetime would be useful, but in truth he knew most of what she did about how to survive in Cranan with both servants and nobility. The body would certainly scare the man and woman he planned to kill, but even that was secondary. The real reason he had taken this body was because in a past lifetime she had been his mother.
Clemen knew that he had never known his mother and had no reason to feel close to her, but he did, closer even than to the father that he had both loved and despised. Obviously it was his father's fault that she had died, and he must be punished.his wife too. He felt that she had guided him from beyond the grave, calming him and telling him to avenge her on his father and his father's wife when he was older and stronger. He had held his temper and waited. And almost he had waited too long. He had died, but that didn't matter. He had inhabited his mother's body and now could kill his father, and that was all that mattered. Once his father was dead, his life, or rather half-life, would be complete. Then he could rest knowing that the purpose he had had throughout his life, from the day his father had asked Clemen to pretend that he was not really his father's son, had been completed, and he could leave the world that had treated him so unkindly and in which he had found no pleasure. Then, at last, he might be happy.
But even this was not the extent of his motives. Even his vow to slay the man who had robbed him of his entire life was not all that made him want to kill his father. Clemen knew that he had not been quite strong enough to work the spells that had brought him to this new body. A power far away, many hundred miles distant, had given him the strength to return at least partially to the land of the living. Clemen was not sure exactly what this power wanted. All he understood was that his new mistress wanted him to perform a task for her, and once this task was finished he could leave his mother's body and reside evermore in the Dark's heaven. All that stood in his way, he knew, was his father, because only his father could recognize this body.
~~~
Baron Robert and his wife Amelia entered their house arm in arm, laughing merrily. They had just returned from watching a play at the palace, and the evening had been wonderful. The Queen had assured them that their son had been located, and the boy that they had not seen for ten years would be returning within the week. Also, they were grandparents! That nice girl from school-Buttercup, that was her name-that Nechtè had always been sighing over had finally married him, and they had a sweet, magically talented little granddaughter.
The two walked in. However, in their joy over the upcoming reunion with their son they failed to notice the muddy footprints that covered the carpet. An obedient butler trailed after the happy couple of nobles with a torch.
The married pair entered their little house in the city, sure that they would find a roaring fire and some hot tea awaiting them, for their maid, Celia, was very adept at realizing what people want to come home to. But as they had been expecting comfort they were sadly disappointed, for the house was stone cold and Celia was nowhere to be seen. They entered the kitchen, looking for Celia.
Baroness Amelia frowned. She knew that the maid that had served under them for years was no slacker, but she had somehow managed to break several dishes and scatter little bits of glass all over the place and had not cleaned them up before her employers returned. Then she caught sight of something on the floor that made the composed, even-tempered woman scream in horror for her husband.
Baron Robert ran to his stricken wife. "What is it, Amy? What's wrong?"
"Blood!" the woman babbled in terror. "All over! And Celia, where is Celia?"
The baron blanched. "Blood? Are you sure?" He squinted at the floor. "Oh dear."
They rushed into the maid's quarters. Celia was there, lying on the bed. The baroness rushed towards her and screamed. She was dead, her neck covered in blood.
"Robert," said a high voice from the closet. "I've been waiting for you." The dead woman stepped forward. A shining knife was clutched tightly in its unnatural hand.
"Catherine? What.what." Robert sputtered in fear and anger. He had believed that his mistake was forever behind him. Now here was Clemen's mother to torment him from the nether world.
The figure advanced, knife in hand. The baron yelled for help, backing into the wall. The butler ran in when he heard the yell, gasping when he saw his employer being threatened by a corpse and his friend Celia lying cold and dead.
"I warn you, madam," the butler quavered, holding the torch before him like a sword as he placed himself between his lord and the rotten woman, "I am armed. Please put the knife down."
Clemen/Kate shuffled forward with the knife still clutched in those dainty fingers. They reached the bewildered butler and shoved him aside, continuing on towards the stricken baron. The baroness and butler seemed to be in a daze, for they made no move to stop the apparition. Clemen stopped before his father and a knife flashed.
The baron screamed as sharp metal plunged into his side, and with that harsh sound the spell of the zombie was partially broken. The baroness seized the torch from the frozen servant and thrust the flame at the specter.
The zombie groaned, a horrid, unearthly noise, as the rotten flesh was seared by the heat. "You have not finished me!" it howled. "I shall return!" And it rushed off, running away from the only thing which it feared: fire.
~~~
"Quite clearly," Queen Anala the Third reassured the frightened baroness, "it was some old friend of your husband's who dislikes nobles. They must have attacked you two because your husband was once a merchant and seemed to be 'siding with the enemy.' But as you are both fine I am sure that this assassination attempt is nothing to worry over."
"But it was her!" Amelia wept. "It was Catherine! It was that awful woman who my husband had a child by! But she died in childbirth! I know it for a fact!"
"Well," replied the unshakable monarch, "maybe the angry commoners found a woman who just looks like this Catherine. I'm sure it is nothing to be frightened by. I will have some of the Queen's Guard look into it. Your husband will make a full recovery, and while he is unwell you will be more than welcome in the palace. Now.how about a game of cards?"
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"Isn't the whole situation with the Yemenese odd, though? They used to be so friendly, before that Queen Amber married their King Paber."
The baroness was not much reassured after that meeting, but the horrors of the night before were hard to recall in the bright sunshine and fragrant air of the Queen's garden.
~~~
Baron Robert lay in his bed, white as a sheet. He had not yet recovered from the shock of the night before. He couldn't speak rationally, only babble, "I'm sorry, Amy. I didn't love her. I'm sorry."
~~~
Clemen nursed his burnt flesh tenderly, wishing his mother's body wasn't so vulnerable to flame. He knew that his father's wife knew now that he could be harmed by fire, and he wasn't sure that she wouldn't know how to use this knowledge to destroy him.
The zombie began to make plans for sneaking into the palace. He knew that his father was lying in the palace hospital. Getting into the palace was as easy as pie: it had not been so long that he had forgotten the hidden tunnels that led to the palace mews. But how could he reach the hospital ward in which his father resided? It was surrounded by guards to protect him from the 'angry commoners.'
Guards could be bribed, he knew, but he lacked the heavy purse that had been left by his tortured body in the fields where he had met his death. Guards could be conked on the head and so kept from interfering, but there were too many for that to be practical. He had to see if his mistress in Lacar would lend a hand.
First, however, he had to attempt to make himself temporarily invisible. He had no girls' blood to use for the spell, but he hoped to be able to cast the incantation anyway. He knew that often those mage's spirits which came back to the world of the living to right the wrongs done to them could still receive magic from their patron deity.
He chanted the necessary verses while holding his breath, and was delighted to find that the spell worked perfectly and he quickly became invisible. Dark smiled at him, as Dark was currently at war with his siblings and would act against their interests as much as he could. He was ready to face his treacherous father. He held in his breath and set out on the mission his mistress had set for him.
He passed his hand through the wall first. His sorcerer's mind absently noted that his mistress could send her spells to aid him even from as far away as Maram. Such an impressive feat would have been a worthy topic at the university, but here it was only to be remembered so that he could thank her.
The invisible creature took a deep breath and disappeared into the walls of the hospital.