Chapter 12

Despite all that had happened to him, Sareth had enjoyed a certain amount of Anonymity. No one knew who he really was and so that granted him a small reprieve from the reality shattering events that seemed to follow him like a lost puppy. That was no longer possible for he was now 'Malassa's blessed'.

Throughout the city the dark elves would bow to him, even the children. Before he had been little more than a visitor to the city of Virbeth and now he was their hero.

Desperately he wanted to tell them to stop it, to leave him alone but how was he supposed to tell an entire city that he would prefer not to be the absolute centre of attention.

It had been Malassa's benediction more than his acts during the siege which had promoted him into instant fame. The Dragon of Darkness, mistress of the mysterious faceless and god of the dark elven people was a reclusive deity. She was rarely seen by many and, according to Lethos, only revealed herself when it was to her own interests. She was the god of intrigue and plots and was interested only in the events that subtly shaped history and culture.

Sareth was not sure what to make of his meeting with a god. There had been things in that meeting which had confused him. The self realization of his atheism was something to be concerned about as well.

He knew the gods were real. He knew that the Dragons worshipped by the peoples of Ashan were actual deities, real and powerful and yet he did not believe in any of them.

He did not deny their existence… he simply didn't feel any compelling need to worship any of them at all. Malassa had seen this and referred to him as 'Atheist Sareth' and he was not sure whether that had been intended as an insult or not.

The blade she had given him, the Dragon Flame Tongue, was a unique weapon that he had never seen the like of before. The metal was black as if forged in both the hottest flames and in perpetual darkness. When he held it in his hands, the blade itself burst into fire and like Raelag had said it responded to how emotional its wielder was. The more excited Sareth was the hotter and brighter the flames became and when he calmed down the flames shrank before extinguishing themselves.

If he was honest, he would admit that the weapon intimidated him. It was a sword of elementals, something he had only read about before in his studies with Phenrig. Never before would he imagine he would see one, or own one.

"You're what?!" Leanna gasped as Lethos, having no other choice at this point, explained their plan and intentions to her. The mage held both hands to her lips in surprise at the announcement. The dark elf shrugged with a sly grin.

"It won't be that difficult." He stated as if it were nothing at all. "We'll be inside the manor a maximum of ten minutes. Raelag's council will go on until twilight and Arantir will be required to attend it. That leaves his manor house with a minimum of security."

When they had been dismissed by the clan lord, the four of them had not preceded back to their rooms but rather instead, at Lethos' insistence, had headed into the city itself. In the aftermath of the siege, few were still too afraid to come outside their doors and the suspended stone catwalk streets were for the most part deserted. Although those that they did see would bow to Sareth the moment they saw him. Rumour travelled faster than any rider in the land.

The dark elf assassin had taken them to a tavern in the rider's district. This was another of the large sections of the city that stood removed from the main structure of the palace. It was here that the Grim Riders, the backbone of the armies of Ygg-chall, were trained and their rides bred for combat. The reptiles that they rode were about the size of a horse, a type of lizard bread from creatures the dark elves had captured in the jungles to the east centuries ago. The district was sectioned off into pens and training areas that had the faint appearance of jousting arenas. Minotaur slaves were used to clear out the stables and from the smell, Sareth reasoned that these lizards required more cleaning up after than a regular horse.

The inn was called the 'Galloping Raptor' or at least that was what Lethos translated the sign out front as. It was a small establishment usually occupied by the Grim riders themselves for recreational usage.

"Sareth, was this your idea?" Leanna asked, looking over at the young man. Sareth squirmed in his seat a little guilty, not able to withstand her accusing glance.

"Well…" He began slowly. "Yes."

"Sareth…" She began again and her look of disappointment was almost heart breaking. "Do you have any idea of what a necromancer can do?"

Sareth had read about necromancers and the art of necromancy in his studies. It had been a small part of the education however had Phenrig had focused his education on destructive magic more than anything else. It had been one of the reasons he had wanted to leave his old home and journey out in the first place, to find and learn new magic.

"My dear lady." Lethos started with his typical gentlemanly façade, which he always seemed to adopt in the presence of beautiful women, breaking in quickly but he kept his voice low as the tavern was not empty. "We all here know what a necromancer, especially one of Arantir's reputation, is capable of doing to his enemies. The stories of Markal the necromancer are renowned throughout most of the civilised world. Our intention is not to confront him directly, but rather to ascertain the truth of something."

"Truth?" Leanna repeated with a raised eyebrow. "What truth?"

Xana, who had been sitting on the opposite side of the square table from Leanna, folded her arms and shook her head with a superior look of smugness that she knew irritated the mage.

"Haven't you put it together yet?" She asked her. "Sareth is doing this for you, girl!"

"For me?" Leanna asked looking over at Sareth inquisitively. "What does she mean?"

Sareth cleared his throat, looking a tiny bit embarrassed.

"Your uncle; Menelag." He began and the look on her face softened as realization crept into her eyes. "A Wight was the thing that caused his death and they can only be summoned by necromancers. The ghoul's as well. They were all undead things. Arantir is the only necromancer we've seen for miles so…" He left it hanging.

Leanna held a hand to her lips again only this time her expression was filled with an intense compassion. Tears formed and stood openly in her eyes. She was genuinely touched that Sareth was doing something this dangerous for her.

Sareth found that despite this he could not meet her eyes.

"Look, just let me in!" A loud guttural voice stated from the doorway to the tavern. Sareth half turned to see that the tavern's bouncer, a large dark elf armed with a pike, was looking through a shutter in the door at whoever was outside.

The young man had turned because that voice coming from outside was quite familiar.

"Read the sign outside." The bouncer replied with flat indifference. "No creatures or pets."

"Creature?! PET?!!!" The person outside spluttered. "I'm warning you sonny, let me in or there'll be trouble!" The door shook as something hammered into it from behind. The bouncer let out an unimpressed grunt and held his pike forward menacingly, flexing his muscles.

"Get lost or I'll have you run through!" he threatened.

"Alright, I warned you!" There was the sound of metal sliding beside metal from beyond the doo. The door suddenly heaved inwards in a mighty spray of wood chips.

A metal projectile flew through the shattering wood, soaring up and straight into the doorman's face. Knocked silly, the dark elf was sent flying backwards some dozen or so feet before he slammed into the far wall, his pike dropping to the floor with a loud clattering.

As the smell of gunpowder filled the room, a short figure in a ale spotted robe of animal skins stepped through the gaping hole in the doorway, idly tapping a unique club that doubled as a mortar against his palm.

It was Graug, the gremlin that Lethos had introduced both Sareth and Xana to some days before.

"Hey, you heard all heard me." Graug remarked to those in the tavern who were staring at both him and the unconscious bouncer, who quite possibly had only been saved from death by the fact that the door had taken a good deal of the punch of the mortar's cannon ball.

"I did warn him. And does anyone ELSE want to make me leave because I'm a 'creature'?" He waved his club around, more in the direction of the dark elf behind the bar. The barman raised his arms quickly, shaking his head from side to side. "Wise decision." He remarked and stepped forward, kicking the debris from the door out of the way.

The door, or what was left of it, was pushed open and the wizard Havez stepped forward with a pained look at the carnage his gremlin partner had brought before even stepping inside the place.

"Ale, if you please good man." The wizard told the startled barkeep. "Quickly too if you can. Ale mellows him out and he's already in a bad mood." He glanced back at the unconscious dark elf. "And he gets violent when he's in a bad mood."

The barman immediately began pouring tankards of foaming liquid from the kegs stacked to one side.

As Havez dumped a few coins on the counter to pay for their drinks, Graug waltzed right up to their table and jumped up into the seat beside Xana.

"Hey there girly, nice to see you again." He remarked with a wicked grin, affectionately patting Xana on her hip.

"Unless you wish to loose it, remove your hand." She told him with a steely glint in her eyes. Graug laughed.

"Ah ha, feisty ya are!" He said approvingly. "I like that quality in my woman. Even so he did move his hand.

"Ah so glad you too managed to get through the siege of the city unharmed and unmolested" Lethos remarked to the two of them as they sat down. Lethos shrugged.

"It wasn't difficult." He stated and folded his arms on the table. "For individuals of our skill, evading danger was quite easy."

Graug looked up at the wizard with a sour expression.

"You hid under an ale sodden, lice ridden bed in a dingy back alley tavern until it was over!" He said and Havez glared back.

"So did you!" He snapped. "And at least I didn't scream like a little girl and then wet myself."

"I did not!"

"Your screams of terror were heard all over the merchant district!"

Lethos burst out laughing, smacking his palm down on the table as the two of them argued about the clear lack of courage either of them had displayed during the siege. Sareth decided not to brag about his victory over the Hydra to either of them. With these two he could pretend that the monumental events had not taken place.

As they argued he sat there alone with his thoughts, wondering still about their impact. In the space of a few days everything had changed about himself. There was power in him, he could sense it now, a power that went beyond magic. There was a bestial side to him, a feral nature that had to be controlled before it was unleashed around some innocent people.

"Arantir's manor house has on the surface only one entrance, the main gate by that opens out towards the main citadel." Lethos was saying. "It's patrolled however by the Black Guards and we'd never bluff or bribe our way in."

"Why not?" Graug asked, taking a swig from the tankard of ale brought to him.

"They can't be bribed." Lethos told him. "The Black Guards are perhaps the most incorruptible men in the world."

The gremlin snorted, blowing the head off his beer.

"There's no such thing as an incorruptible man. No one is ultimately loyal."

"Oh its not loyalty that drives them." Lethos explained with a whimsical expression. "And it's not how much their paid either. The Black guards take what the Necromancer's give them and any lack attention to their duties result in immediate punishment."

Leanna looked up at Lethos with a horror stricken expression on her face.

"You're a mage m'lady." The Dark elf said with neutral voice. "So I'm sure you've been told what Necromancer's can do to those who displease them."

Sareth's own studies in magic had covered this as well, if only peripherally. The Necromancer's held the power of life and death in their hands and their chastisement could literally damn a soul to an eternity of pain and torment.

"You said it was the only entrance on the surface?" Havez asked. Lethos nodded and then began arranging tankards and pots on the table to form a makeshift diagram to show them. The Raelag's citadel was represented by an earthenware jug while a half empty cup served as Arantir's guest mansion.

"Like most of the buildings in Virbeth, the manor has an aqueduct delivering water and taking away waste. It's not particularly large but it is possible to get into the manor that way without being seen."

Xana grinned at him.

"You've done this sort of thing before." She accused him. Lethos smiled back impishly.

"Infiltration was one of my specialties at the academy."

Havez frowned.

"Well if you can get in that way, why do you need us?" He asked, gesturing to Graug and himself.

"Because I do not think that Arantir is that stupid." Lethos told him. "Undoubtedly I am certain he is to have left some magical defences across any entrance to a place he dwells." He turned to look at Sareth. "It will be dangerous brother mine; Necromancer's are quite unforgiving to trespassers."

Sareth ran a weary hand over his face.

"I know." He remarked. "But I owe Menelag this much. If Arantir was the one who sent those ghouls and that Wight…" He stopped to glance over at Leanna, who sat looking up at him with wide eyes. "…then I want to know."

Lethos sighed and nodded once.

"So be it then." He said with a note of finality. "Then let's go!"

Arantir's manor house was an impressive building with large ivory statuettes on either side of the large bronze entrance. The building had suffered a bit of damage during the siege and the side of a wall was being repaired by dark elf work men who laboured uneasily under the suspicious eyes of the Black Guards.

Arantir, who would be consulting up at the citadel with Raelag for some time, had left his ambassadorial home relatively undefended taking a large number of his guards with him.

This did not mean however that it was unprotected. Even before they had gotten within sight of the building, Havez had stopped suddenly and shuddered as if the air around him had suddenly gone cold.

"What's the matter?" Sareth asked as the wizard leaned on a wall to steady himself.

"Oh… I can feel it even from over here." He said scowling. "The reek of death magic is so strong I could almost gag."

Leanna herself went pale when she came here and had to back off to a side street.

"I can't feel anything." Sareth stated, not sure whether to feel glad or disturbed about it.

"Necromancer perversions have this particular stench to them." Havez explained with his face wrinkled in consternation. "Those trained in the arts taught in the Silver cities can sense it. To me that place reeks worse than an abattoir."

Sareth's stiffened.

"Then he is summoning creatures."

"Let's not jump to conclusions." Lethos told him quickly. "This might just be Arantir's natural magical aroma. Besides, we need proof… not just an uneasy feeling."

The entrance to the aqueduct Lethos had told them about was little more than an opening in the next street, leading down through one of the suspended stone walk paths into a running drain. The dark elf pried off the metal lid with slid aside with a rusty grating nose. The water running inside was not very deep but it was flowing very fast towards the manor. This was the supply of water feeding into the house, rather than the waste disposal for which Sareth was intensely thankful.

"We'll stay out here." Xana stated. "Leanna and I can be your look outs. If anything happens…" She tapped the amulet around Sareth's neck tenderly. "Then we'll let you know."

"Much appreciated, girly." Graug remarked, climbing down into the underground aqueduct. "Cheer us all on while we risk life and limb won't you lass?" Xana shot him a venomous look and with an amused cackle, the Gremlin retreated down.

Havez followed quickly. Although he was considerably taller than his friend and had to stoop a great deal in order to fit inside. Havez and Sareth, both being moderately medium in size got in fine although they still had to duck their heads underneath the low ceiling.

The water running around Sareth's feet was icy cold, probably channelled in from the surface. The only light came from the open hatch from which they'd just come.

In this strange moment Sareth realised that he had grown accustomed to the dim light of the Dark Elf caverns. His eyes had completely adapted and the dingy gloom of this underground world was by now as clear to him as a pale daylight.

"We definitely don't want to be wandering into this in the dark." Lethos said sardonically. "Lethos, can you make us a little light? Not too much, just enough so we can see but not enough so it might draw attention."

The wizard made an annoyed expression before holding out his hand, the fingers arched. There was a whispered breath as he uttered some incantation and a waft of pale yellow fire appeared in his grasp. It softly illuminated the dank tunnel, showing the mushrooms lining the walls with a thick layer of algae surrounding them.

"Alright gentleman." Lethos began. "We have ten minutes inside that house. I won't risk any longer than that and if something goes wrong, we vacant immediately."

Graug nodded.

"Sounds fair enough." He said, hefting his mortar club over one shoulder.

Trudging in single file through the stone pipe, the four of then moved in total silence towards the house. There was only a thin covering of stone and marble flooring above and they could hear voices and footsteps coming from above. Some of those walking around were wearing armour and they clinked nosily. Lethos talked to them in hand singles, gesturing with his fingers when they needed to stop or when they needed to hurry. If they could hear what was going on down here, it was a safe bet that someone might be able to hear them from above.

The tunnel seems to be the main aqueduct for this district, tunnels diverging off at various points to deliver the water needed for the various other buildings. Lethos led them confidently without ever once taking a wrong turn.

Despite how intimidating the blade across Sareth's back had become, suddenly he was glad of its presence. It's intimidating had changed its role to a reassurance against the anxiety.

Suddenly Havez put his foot down on something that moved and slithered away, a water snake that hissed angrily at him. It was small and non venomous but Havez reared back ready to let out an instinctive yell. Quickly he was grabbed by Graug, who clamped a hand over his mouth so only a muffled grunt escaped him.

"Quiet!" Lethos whispered back urgently. "We're right underneath the house now."

The wizard nodded and the gremlin released him.

About twenty meters around a corner, they could see light. The water level rose as the pipe dipped down until it was swirling around their chests. Being the smallest, Graug had to paddle through it. At the end of this tunnel it widened out into a small well like pool, a soft pale green light coming from above. The entrance to which was cut off by a rusty grate which did not look very strong.

Lethos reached for the bars to pull them aside when Havez grabbed his wrist.

"Wait!" He said.

"Why?"

Havez reached down, snapping off a small mushroom from the side of the wall and tossed it at the bars. When it made contact, the fungus instantly withered away into a blackened husk. A foul stench filled the air as the mushroom then turned to dust and dropped away for the fragments to be carried away by the water.

"Aye, black magic." Graug muttered and then he spat. "The slightest touch and instant death." Lethos drew back from the grate instinctively.

Havez cracked his knuckles.

"Give me a minute and I'll crack it open." He said and held forth his hands perhaps an inch from the bars. He closed his eyes and began muttering an incantation in a voice so low it was hard to mark out what he was saying.

The bars before him hummed with a responding low resonance and slowly, marks on their battered surface began to glow bright red. Havez continued muttering, going faster and faster and the markings grew brighter and brighter. Then with a jerk, he twists his hands around and lunged forward grasping the bars.

Sareth and Lethos let out a startled oath despite themselves but the wizard did not instantly perish. The bars sizzled in his grip and the water around them boiled and churned as if suddenly boiling.

The marks on the bars then sizzled, peeling off and turning into a faith foul smelling gas in the air that drifted and then dissipated.

Havez let go of the bars, straightened and dusted his hands.

"Nothing to it." He remarked smugly.

"Well now, if you're done patting yourself on the back…" Graug began, pushing past and with a solid kick he knocked the rusty bars aside. They fell into the water with little more than a splash.

The wall beyond was not very deep; the walls curved and made of white brick. A few drains in the floor led the water away and down some side was a pulley system of ropes where a pale could be loaded up and down to fetch the water. Another grate covered it perhaps twenty feet above with a trap door for the pulley system on the far side. Through the most substantial bars, Sareth could see the ceiling of some room above. The four of them stood very still, listening for the sign of any movement above.

"This would be the kitchens." Lethos said in a low voice. "Might not be any guards here but let's not take chances." He looked at Graug. "Can you climb up and have a look?"

The gremlin nodded, slung his mortar over his back in its holster and went over to the far wall. Gremlins it seemed were natural climbers and Graug very quickly scaled the curved slippery surface, latching on where any other would have fallen and very quickly he was at the top, poking his head through a gap in the bars.

This was not the first time Sareth had heard the gremlin swear but the words he choked out then made his hair stand on end.

"What's wrong?" Havez called up.

Graug looked back down at them, his scaly face a mix of contending emotions. There was anger there with some intense loathing and contempt with a sprinkling of horror for seasoning.

"It's hideous!" He spat, grinding his teeth together. "Abominable!" Lethos made a face.

"Are there any guards?" He asked.

"No." Graug said without looking at him. "The room doesn't have anyone alive left in it." The three down below exchanged worried looks. "Hang on, I'll open the trap door and you can climb up the ropes."

The gremlin swung across the bars like a monkey until he reached the closed opening. Reaching through, he toyed with the latch for a moment it moved aside the bar with a loud metallic clank and then pushed the trapdoor open and upwards.

"I'll lead from here." Hazed told them. "I can sense where the largest concentration of mana is in the house." Lethos nodded and the wizard went first up the ropes, using the pales and buckets and footholds to better propel himself up. Sareth followed with the dark elf right behind him.

The smell of blood was more than familiar when Sareth pulled himself up over the ledge. He had smelt this carnal house reeks once before in Phenrig's private study.

Arantir's kitchen was awash with dried and fresh blood. The surfaces, floor and walls were dark with it. Hooks, saws, knives and other cutting instruments were hung on racks on the walls and hanging up in rows nearby were slabs of meat. Not pork nor beef or even lamb but flesh cut and salted from a humanoid species, a small as a human child.

"Oh." Havez began with a weary sigh. "Goblin meat."

Graug stood nearby, staring at the rows of dead goblins with an expression of complete and utter rage.

"Monstrous!!" He managed to say between curses, barely keeping his voice down.

"Goblins are looked on as edible animals in various parts of the world." Havez explained to them, ignoring the gremlin's spluttering. "The meat's considered a delicacy in Heresh and Ranaar." He went over to Graug and put a hand on his shoulder. "Come on now, we don't have time for this."

"It's murder!" He blustered.

"You can rant later." The wizard said sternly. "Right now we need to prioritise."

Graug paused and then drew in a large breath, purposely closing his eyes to the slaughter of creatures he would consider his own kin. Then he turned not to look at the display anymore but the edges of his mouth were turned down into a snarl of hate.

"Are you inside?" Sareth could hear Xana's voice echo into his own mind. "I heard raised voices through your ears, what's wrong?"

"Nothing." Sareth replied silently. "We're ok. Are you two hidden?"

"We are. Leanna's found us a spot were we can watch the guards without being observed ourselves." Xana paused before adding reluctantly. "You know she's not quite as useless as I thought she was."

Lethos went over to a door in one of the walls and put his ear against it listening. Then he leaned against it and pushed it open an inch at a time, just enough so he could peer out.

"It's a side corridor." He announced. "Nobody there, come on, let's go." The four of them hurried out into a stone passageway lined with a thick red carpet on the floor. Feminine sculptures lines the walls with two small chandeliers paced about ten feet from each other. There was a door at the far end, a large solid built oak door with engraved panels. A flight of stairs led up from the left hand side of the corridor, spiralling upwards in a stone column.

"Up there." Havez said, pointing towards it. "The stench of the un dead is coming from somewhere above."

Sareth paused for a moment while the others made for the stairs. He suddenly had the unnerving sensation of being watched, manifesting itself in a cold shiver that ran down his spine. Given his current situation it was not a pleasant feeling. He glanced around but he could not see anything.

"Come on brother, let's not dawdle." Lethos remarked. Sareth blinked.

"What? Oh... I'm coming!"

The stairs wound upwards and the more they went the more the uneasy feeling of observation continued to bother Sareth. He wasn't sure how he knew now but he was certain that someone was watching them.

Suddenly Havez put his hand out to stop them. They had come to the door that led out into another corridor. There was a door at the far end of his ordinary looking passageway and standing to attention before them were two guards. The Black Guards were rigid as if statues, standing there with one arm raised to hold a sword.

Nobody moved, unwilling to make any sort of sound that might attract attention.

Then almost comically, Sareth's nose chose that exact moment to make itself known and he sneezed.

Both guards instantly whirled around, easily spotting them. With a cry of exclamation they raised their weapons and rushed at them. Before Sareth could even react, Lethos was there, darting forth with the agility of a cat. His arm spun down and hurled two more of the glass vials he had stored within his clothes at them. The glass shattered on their dark chest plates and the fatal cloud of poison seeped in through the gaps in their helmets.

They ran another three feet before together they stiffened in mid stride and toppled forward. Lethos leapt forward, seizing the corpses quickly before they could strikes the floor and make any more noise. Gently he lowered the bodies down. Then he pulled out a knife and began ruthlessly stabbing them with it to make sure they were dead.

"We'll drag these two into the room with us and hide them." He stated as the others drew near. "I

"If we're lucky then it'll be several hours before their found and we'll be long gone."

"I don't like basing our escape plan on an 'If'." Havez muttered, helping to drag the corpses towards the far door.

"Neither do I." Lethos said but then smirked. "But it is a whole lot more fun than planning it out."

The room beyond the door was a large vaulted chamber with stone buttress in the four corners. It was quite large with a large central stone bias in the centre and a ring of red carpet surrounding it. The majority of light in the room came from one of the violet crystals that the Dark elves used to light their city that angled down from the centre of the arched ceiling. Candles were dotted around on table, the max melted down over the surface.

It was a room that obviously had many different functions. In one corner was a large canopy bed with a set of surrounding tables, all over laden with piles of scrolls and old tomes. To these, Havez made for with a childish swing to his step.

"I knew it!" He declared, trying to keep his excitement in check as he rummaged through them. "This must be Arantir's study!" He unravelled a few of the scrolls and began reading through them.

Graug and Lethos finished hiding the corpses of the two guards, stuffing them haphazardly into a large varnished closest by the door and shut them inside.

Arantir it seemed was not a believer in keeping his various pursuits separate. He kept them all in one place, often intermixed with one another. There were many tables around the outside of the room, some held alchemic equipment that looped and wound its way back and forth between mortars, retorts and large silver Calcinators. Bottles, empty and filled were stacked in no apparent order everywhere, each one with a label written in a spidery script that Sareth did not recognise.

The smell of sulphur and worse hung in the air and it was this smell that attracted Sareth towards the central dais.

It was a raised platform about a foot high, completely smooth with curved edges along the outside. A wooden pedestal stood in front of it and laying open upon its flat top was another book, a thick tome with an old leather cover.

It was here that he finally noticed the blackened residue that covered the stones, a thick sludge like substance that smelt so bad that when he knelt down to inspect it the smell nearby made him empty his stomach right there on the spot.

He staggered back quickly.

"Over here." He said, gesturing for the others to come and see. Havez reluctantly put down his pilferage of scrolls and tiptoed over to inspect it, whatever scrolls he could conveniently carry were stuffed into his robes and under his turban. Paying no heed to the stench he reached down and scooped up a sample of it between his fingers, rubbing it over in his palm to test its texture and consistency.

"It's elemental residue alright." The wizard concluded after a moment. "I can't tell from what though." He looked over at Graug. "You're better than me at this, we have a sample here we need indentify rather quickly."

"Fine whatever." The gremlin muttered and pushed past him, kneeling down to sniff at the sludge like a hunting dog. Then he actually licked it and Sareth had to shudder in completely revulsion.

The gremlin ran it over his tongue for a moment tasting it, savouring the flavour with his face taking on a unique expression that was a mix of curiosity and disgust. Then he spat the glob of black out and whipped his mouth on the back of his sleeve.

"By Asha, that's disgusting!" He cursed and then looked directly at Sareth. "Looks like you have your murderer boy. This is Wight residue, quite fresh too. Probably from a summoning that took place within the last few weeks."

That was it.

This was all the proof Sareth needed now. It had been no coincidence just as he had thought. Arantir the Necromancer had been the one who had sent the Ghouls and the Wight after them. He was the one responsible for the death of Menelag, Leanna's uncle.

With a sudden surge, anger and rage flew through him completely unbidden and the fiery blade on his back which had been quiet burst into fire.

"Sareth!" Lethos hissed. "Get that sword under control! Its light will attract every guard in the building here!!"

It took a great deal of effort to clam himself down and the images of Menelag's death kept stubbornly repeating themselves over and over in his mind, refusing to go away. It was as if his rage were reluctant to go back to sleep once it had been riled up.

Eventually however his willpower won out and he forced himself back to an agitated calm, the sword's flames dying away in response.

"You're going to have to do something about that Sword." Havez noted critically with a shake of his head. "It's very conspicuous."

"Alright Sareth." Lethos began, this time far more calmly. "We have what we came for, confirmation that Arantir summoned the Wight you fought. Now, what do we do about it?"

Forcing himself to dwell on this rather than on how angry he was.

"We…" He began but stopped, slowly going over his options. He would need to take back proof, very conclusive proof if he were going to convince Raelag to take a stand against Arantir. "We save some of the …er… sludge, as evidence, along with anything else here that we can bring back as proof of his guilt."

Lethos nodded with a grin.

"It's a nice plan." He concluded.

"I'll start searching for more evidence back in his collection of spell scrolls." Havez said quickly and before anyone could stop him he was back to rummaging for whatever magical things he could take away with him. Graug was more practical, retrieving an empty jar from one of the tables and scooping as much of the black sludge into it as possible.

The Dark elf assassin went over to the door, leaning against it, keeping watch to ensure that no one might blunder in and catch them unawares. This left Sareth to search through the mass of documents himself.

He was about to start when the large leather bound book placed near the dais. As he looked as it more closely, he could see its extreme age and the smell of preservatives that had been used to ensure its integrity. The book had frayed page edges and the leather cover showed signs of extreme age. He felt instantly that he was looking at a book that was perhaps centuries old.

Coming up to it, Sareth glanced down across the open page. The text on the paper was written in a language he did not understand but notes had been placed for reference alongside underscored passages of texts. The notes were written in a form of Arshanese that Sareth could read.

"And behold…" He began, reading aloud from one of these notes. "There will come into your midst, the One and he shall descend from both Chaos and Order." He squinted at the scrawling text for a moment. "In his right hand shall he hold the blade of the Accused and in his left the skull of his predecessor and with this power shall none prevail against him."

It sounded like utter gibberish in his head but the words when he spoke them made him feel cold none the less. He glanced over at another of the notes which by now he supposed to be translations.

"Guard well then the fruit of the Falcon for if she falls to the fire then shall her soul be cleft in twine and she will bare forth the One and then bare him away again. For only she can lead the One down the course of either path, or neither."

Not sure why, he reached forward and gently turned the page. Spread out across the width of the book before him then was a diagram that took up the entire spread.

It resembled the old anatomy drawings Phenrig had once schooled him through when the subject of biology came along. It looked like a representation of the skeletal frame of a horse, but there were differences. Sareth had seen a horses skull before and the skull here did not look entire the same. It had a stouter nose but a wider head ridge and the mouth was lined with large dagger like teeth clearly showing that aside from whatever else this creature was it was a predator. This page had notes attached to it as well and one of them caught Sareth's eye. This artefact, this skull, had a name and Arantir had translated it.

"The Skull of Shadows?"

A moment later, that feeling that he was being observed which had followed him ever since he had set foot in this house intensified and it was no longer to unique to just him. Lethos sprang to attention, his body reacting with the trained alertness of a professional assassin.

Even Havez stopped in the act of stuffing his clothes with scrolls.

"We have company." Graug muttered, putting the jar containing the black sludge into his robes and slinging forth his mortar.

The candles around the room flickered and then one by one went out, even though there wasn't a breeze in the room. The air was growing colder and colder by the second, their breaths coming out in a thick white haze.

Havez swore.

"What is it?" Lethos asked.

"This room is protected by ghosts!" He spat. "Get down!"

Sareth had no choice but to obey as out of the cold air, forming right in front of him was a face so ghastly that his only response was to topple backwards. It was hallowed cheeked, almost skeletal but with what looked like metal parts sticking out in painful places. Its eyes were blindfolded by a metallic strap that bit down through the head and was riveted in by thick nails that had to have past through the eyes and into the brain.

With a soul chilling moan, it opened its mouth to show that its tongue had been cut out. By Asha that moan! Sareth had to cover his eyes. It was a wail of such pain and horror that he felt if he listened too long he might loose his own sanity.

As if summoned by its shrieking wail, more of these spirits began emerging from the walls, each of them maimed in some way by hideous editions to their bodies of metal and other things. Sareth needed to explanation to understand fully what they were.

They were tortured souls, spirits bound eternally in the service of the Necromancer who had enslaved them. They had been men tortured to death.

Graug took a swing at one of them with his mortar, wielding it like a club but it simply past through the insubstantial body as if it weren't even there.

The leading ghost, the first to manifest swung around and yelled out a single word, quickly joined by the others in a chorus of shrieks.

"ARANATIR!!!" It was a cry that past through the walls and out into the city itself like a shockwave. They were calling the Necromancer back, an alarm to inform him of their presence in his private chambers.

"If Arantir comes back and catches us we'll be worse than dead!" Lethos hissed. "Grab what you can, let's get out of here!"

Without exactly thinking why, Sareth lunged forward and grabbed the book on the book on the pedestal, slamming it shut and catching it up in his arms. Sensing more than seeing his theft of the book, the ghosts wailed and reached out for him with bony arms. They could not touch him physically by as their fingers reached towards him the chill of the grave filled his body, a cold so deep and perpetual that it was enough to cause him to stumble.

Graug went to his side, waving his club back and forth against the ghosts to try and ward them off but to no avail. It was only by his considerable strength that he was able to drag Sareth away. The ghosts did not move very fast and the four of them easily outdistanced them towards the door.

Before Lethos could try to open it, the door suddenly bolted itself shut with a loud grating noise and then seemed to melt, welding the door forever closed.

The Assassin backed off quickly with a startled yell as insubstantial hands reached forth through the solid surface, claw like fingers arching out to clutch towards his eyes.

The spirits that guarded the door had much more substance in their form then the others and instead of horrible implements of pain embedded in their heads they wore dark angular armour down their arms and a spiked helmet. Through the visor their hollow eyes burned bright red and their cries were not the cries of the pain filled damned but where instead cries for blood and slaughter.

These spirits were not at all like those behind them. These were men who had gladly accepted death in order to turn themselves into these abominations out of loyalty to their masters.

"Death!" One of them cried at them, jabbing a bony finger forward. "Death!" The ghosts all around them moaned in unison and advanced, pining the four of them into a defensive semi circle.

"Well brother mine, what interesting situations you manage to get yourself in." Lethos remarked jocularly, holding his dangers and poisons at the ready even though he knew they were useless. "A besieging army and a hydra turned away and now cornered by rapid ghosts."

Havez held out his arms, ready to cast a spell. Out of all their available weaponry, magic was the one thing that might hold these spirits at bay. Sareth quickly adopted his own stance, ready to unleash his own magic.

"Aye but it could be worse." Graug commented with a droll smile parting his scaly lips.

"How?" Lethos asked back over his shoulder.

The gremlin reached into his robe and took out a small canister made of animal skins which he shook. The canister responded with the satisfying sound of sloshing liquid.

"We could be out of booze." He said as sincerely as it was possible for him. "But we've got enough for good few hours."

"Oh well that is a comfort." Lethos sighed with his ears drooping and then he turned back to face the slowly advancing spectres. "If I meet the god responsible for beer after this I'll risk divine wrath and stab him with my knives."