The Necromancer

A powerful necromancer aspiring to accomplish great and terrible feats discovers a long buried secret that could enable him to do so. The Dead Will Rise Again.

He walked with a purpose once more.

    There was a certain pleasure here. Walking among the dead. Standing upon the earth that sheltered the remnants of the people of the past. Marius walked with a determined stride, he had a goal, part of a much larger plan that would once again tip the balance into his favor. He ran his pale slender fingers over a tall tombstone as he passed it by, not even bothering to take a glance at the name of it's owner, which had undoubtedly been chiseled in many years ago. His dark gray and black robes dragged lightly behind him as he headed towards his prize. This cemetery was much more than it seemed. Few people knew of the unforgivable arts of the desecration of the human body as well as he did. But it would seem that here, in this most unusual of cemeteries, the people that constructed it had been forced to do something most unrighteous.

    Hidden deep in the back corner of the large cemetery of the city called Ruek was a well guarded secret, a mass burial ground. Marius had learned of it in his studies over a year ago and had immediately started an expedition upon obtaining further research to back this claim. Hiring henchmen for the job had been easy enough. The promise of simply attained wealth drew many. Even if Marius had no intention of keeping his word. But they need not know that just yet. Now that he was so very close.

    He could feel the masses of empty life vessels all around him, waiting to be filled again with insatiable desires. His pace slowed as he took a glance at the tome he kept with him at all times. A tome bound with blackened leather and inscribed with the unholy symbol of the necromancer. It had been printed in an archaic text thought long forgotten. A language Marius had spent two decades mastering. The language of the Dead. He had memorized most of this book of course, he had read and studied it hundreds of times.

    Though he was not yet old and frail, this book could stall that from happening altogether. His naturally black hair had it's first signs of gray. His lightly trimmed beard as well. His pace began to quicken as he wound his way through the large city cemetery. He found the page he was looking for. With this spell he would have no trouble dealing with the henchmen after they had served his purpose. He quickly reread the spell, making sure that every syllable would be perfectly enunciated and shut the book, hiding it among his robes once more.

    He could see it. The entrance to the burial grounds was mere paces away. His corrupt heart beat in his chest. He had never felt more alive, being here among the dead. The entrance was cleverly disguised as a small royal crypt for the lesser nobility. It read: 'Here lies Edwyn Carver, the last of the House Carver. May their souls and royal line rest in eternal peace.'

    Marius chuckled to himself as he approached the entrance. His henchmen busily attempting to break down the door for him as he had ordered.

    "Not far now," Marius said. His voice tingling with anticipation. "What you all seek is hidden within this crypt. Work faster. The sun is setting."

It always worked best to be short and plain with simple men. Confusion due to complex dialogue could only create turmoil and mistrust. And that would make him have to kill them before their task was completed.

    "Just through this door yeah?" One of the men asked him as he pointed towards it. Marius nodded, not even caring to waste his breath forming words for this man. The henchman pushed the other two he was working with aside as they finished loosening the rusted hinges on the side. The man sucked in a mighty breath and kicked hard at the door where the locking mechanism should be. He kicked at it again and the door groaned in protest. It was working. Two more kicks and the door broke free and was even blasted off of one rusty hinge. A cloud of dust poured out from the mouth of the crypt as the four of them stepped inside. They had broken through.

Now for the tricky part.

    The crypt appeared to be a normal crypt used for deceased people of nobility. There were dusty ceremonial candles laid all around the small room. The casket lay in the center of the room up on a large pedestal.

    "Bring me more light." Marius commanded.

The two henchmen that had been working on the door left the room to fetch oil lamps from the wagon they had used to travel here. Marius could have brightened the room with wytchfire, but the men thinking he was just a wealthy merchant with a head for exploration, and not a manipulator of the dead, was more than likely the only reason they had agreed to accompany him thus far. They were all armed with basic weaponry. The man that had chosen to stay with him was called Sten. At least he thought that was his name. He carried a hand axe, which he had used earlier and failed with miserably when he had attempted to chop his way into this room. All three of these men were balding and brawny. Members of some sort of club he assumed. They were the ruffian type, all brawn and little to no brain. Perfect, as far as Marius was concerned.

    "It's in here then?" Sten asked him again. Full of questions this one. He began to shamble around the room and fumble with some of the candles and vases lining the walls.

    "Yes, we're looking for a hidden passage somewhere in this room. My guess would be that it would likely be somewhere along the floor..." Marius informed him impatiently as Sten continued to peek under vases and sniff candles along the walls.

Thankfully, the other two henchmen came back shortly after each armed with two glowing lamps. Were they twins? Or did they both just look the same on purpose? One had an earring in his left ear while the other had an earring in his right. That was about it for trying to tell them apart.

    "Hand me that." Marius said as he reached out for one of the lamps. The left eared one handed him a lamp. "Now look along the floors here, look for a false slab of stone or something of that nature you understand?" They both nodded simultaneously and began searching in opposite directions. Sten finally caught on to what he was supposed to be doing, and the only reason he was being kept alive, and began to examine the floor as well.

    Marius, however, moved to the casket. It was made out of metal of all things. Royalty deserved to rot in metal instead of wood apparently. Marius studied it and noticed two hinges on one side. So he walked around to the other and gently lifted up the casket.

    If it did not reek of the dead before, it certainly did now. There was definitely something long dead in it. But because this person or creature was left in a metal casket, in a place that reached very high temperatures during the summer. Most of it had been melted over the past sixty years that it had been kept in here.

    Sten and the others were noticeably gagging from the smell. So Marius quickly closed the casket and covered his nose and mouth with cloth. His henchmen followed his example after many complaints and kept on the search.

    "There ain't nothin' in here!" Sten whined. "All these stones is the same! Every one. I been around and around this cramped little room five times now and I tells yah, they're all the same!"

He was unfortunately right. Marius had to think. Every stone slab on the floor was damn near identical. They were all placed together perfectly, pressed and sealed down. None were loose, none wobbled. There was nothing.

    "Calm down mighty Sten. I swear to you that it is in here. We are missing something. Give me some time to think." Marius pleaded as he began pacing around the cramped little room.

They were running out of options. The room was far too plain to hold any secret levers or mechanisms. Just dust and cobwebs and candles. Oh and lets not forget the vases that Sten thoroughly examined for damn near half an hour. What was he missing? He was so very close! Marius balled a tight fist in frustration.

    "Oy! I think I've found somethin' here!" The right eared one proclaimed a few minutes later.

Marius jumped with elation and quickly moved over to see what he had found.

    The brawny idiot was staring straight up at the ceiling. He was just staring off into space. Useless, incompetent, worthless henchmen. "Well...What did you find?" Marius asked anyway.

    "Well I was just givin' myself a moment to rest and think things through a little," He began with lots of needless enthusiasm and hand motions as if he was recounting a favored childhood memory. "An' I just happened to lean back to stretch out my back like this," He stood tall and leaned back exaggerating the motion.

    "And...?" Marius asked, his impatience reaching its limit. "Get on with it!" he yelled. But he stopped almost mid sentence and began to flash a smile of pure delight.

   "You've done it! You're a genius! Good work my friend!" Marius praised as he followed the mans gaze upward. Once again, every slab of stone used here was about as identical as you could get them to be. Every slab but one. Just to the right of the casket, up on the low ceiling was a slab of stone that stood out from the rest. This slab had a small marking in it's center. It was the symbol of forgiveness. A shield with a glorious stag carved into it. It was small, but painstakingly carved into this stone. An attempt for them to be forgiven for what they had done here, he assumed. It was directly above the entrance to the burial grounds.

    "Get this stone out of the ground." Marius commanded, as he pointed to the stone directly beneath the symbol, his resolve restored.

The men smiled broadly and eagerly got to work.

They brought out their hammers and Sten's axe and began their work chipping away at the slab, loosening it from it's sealed position in the ground. Marius peered between them on occasion, eager to get inside and begin his dark work. The men worked hard, he could give them that much credit. Easily worth the small incentive fee to get them to come along. Marius knew they had reached his target when he began to smell another foul smell coming up from the loosened floor. This one was much more persistent.

    The henchmen groaned with displeasure. "What is it? That's a horrid smell that is!" Sten remarked. The others clearly agreed.

    "You are in a cemetery, do not be so alarmed when you smell the dead." Marius was quick to reply.

They kept groaning as nearly any man would, but they kept to their job and were finally able to lift out the broken pieces of stone to uncover a moldy wooden trap door.

    "Step aside if you would." Marius commanded as he bent low to inspect the trap door. The others backed away giving him some space and glad to be getting out of the more intense stench coming up from the trap door. He pulled on the latch but it would not budge. Someone had gone to great length to keep this place sealed.

    "Sten," Marius barked. Gaining the big man's attention. "Break it down." He commanded and pointed to one of the hammers they had left on the floor. The man walked up and picked up the hammer as Marius stepped behind his henchmen. He rolled up his sleeves and began casting as the other two men stepped forward to watch Sten in his labor.

     Marius chanted softly so that the others would not be alarmed, as he began, his naturally green eyes began to swirl and darken with black and gray mist until his cornea were filled and his pupils could no longer be seen. "Ak-tra-nyu May-setta-va-na, Et-rhu-toh Sha-kavalia-nhu, Li-esto-provacadya-wa-oom-falasha." He timed the end of his chant perfectly with the final crash of Sten's hammer. The men looked back to him then, having heard him muttering something under his breath.

    "What did yah say now?" One of them asked as their eyes fell upon him.

 They were unnerved. After peering down and seeing the horrors of Death itself lurking below. Horrors that had been carefully hidden and forgotten for over half a century. If that was not enough to frighten them, then seeing the man that led them here with two black orbs for eyes was surely enough to do so.

    The air chilled, the temperature dropping rapidly around the three of them. Marius could see Sten's breath coming from his lips. The lights from the oil lamps began to flicker and wane as the cold intensified. At least this man had the mind to try and attack Marius. The man charged forward, hammer held high. Or tried to. He moved with great difficulty, every muscle in his body slowing. No, not slowing. Decaying. He was aging rapidly. His life running the course of decades in well under a minute. He managed to take two steps forward before he hit the ground, drained and lifeless. He died with the setting of the sun just outside.

    His two companions were experiencing the second spell he had cast. For Marius had realized halfway through casting his spell on Sten that he would not have enough time to complete it two more times for the rest of them. He had cast a deep freeze spell right on top of where they had been working. They could not even move right now if they had wanted to. Their skin and lips turned blue as they literally froze to death before him. Marius smiled and thanked them for their services. "That, my worthwhile companions, was the language of the Dead. May you have the privilege of serving me in Death as well." He said as he descended down the stairs hidden beneath the trap door.    

The burial ground was dank and reeked of rotten flesh. This is where they had left them. The people of the fair port city of Ruek. Though few were still alive who could remember such events. A great battle took place not far from here a little over sixty years ago. Though he knew Ruek to be the clear winner, the losers were unknown, and they had paid a unimaginable price for their defeat. Whether the lords of Ruek decided that they did not deserve proper burials or that it would be too costly, they were placed, unceremoniously, here. In this massive cavern dug beneath the ground. Afterwards they had a cemetery built on top to ward off investigation and as a reasonable cover for the smell and had bribed off all of those involved. Hiding the dead with the dead. Smart of them. Leaving the bodies where they had been killed in battle would have been sacrilegious after all. Marius smiled at the irony.

    He walked among almost three thousand corpses. All piled on top of each other, like carpets in a shop or loaves of bread cooling in their shelves. This was where he would make his army. It was perfect. A necromancer's dream. The amount of bodies alone was enough. That most were not striped of their armor and weapons before dying made this place priceless. Marius could not help but shiver with anticipation. He could feel Death's presence all around him, in a way that he had never felt in all his life. He would change the world.

    He began immediately. The magical ring on his left hand begging to be put to use. He began chanting again as he took the ring off his hand and traced it along one of the musty walls. The ring left a faintly glowing purple trail where ever it went. He drew a large circle with runes and symbols carved all around it. Ancient texts of the dead.

    All the while he chanted, practiced words of the dead that he knew all too well. Soon the lines began to glow brighter as he finished speaking in the unnatural tongue. "Come forth, spirits and souls of the fallen. Serve me and be made anew in undeath." He took a step back and waited. He knew they would come. It was eerily quiet for several moments as the glowing portal flickered with unnatural energy. Suddenly, the air picked up all around him, churning and whirling inside the large dark burial ground. The souls began pouring through the open portal in great numbers.

    The Undead had come, and they filled their new hosts eagerly. And began to rise. They knew only one purpose, to serve their summoner until Death claimed them once more. In this undeath, they felt jealously and pain and suffering. They yearned to kill those of the living, for if they could not truly live again, then they would take the lives of those that did.

    Marius chanted, straining with the massive amount of magical energy required to maintain the portal, and to summon so many souls into this world. His muscles tightened and his hair waved wildly in the wind as the souls swirled around him fighting among themselves for the best hosts to carry them. His hair began to gray and thin and lengthen. The spells taking his very life-force as recompense for his need of so many souls. His beard grayed and lengthened until it reached his chest and his head hair drooped down past his shoulders. Finally the magic stopped, the last vessel was filled. The drawings on the wall dimmed and faded with the rest of the light. His army stood all around him.

    He had aged. But it was unnatural aging. His body felt the same even though it was at least twenty years older. He hardly cared. There were dozens of ways for a necromancer to preserve his youth. He left the burial chamber, and then the crypt, and stepped into the moonlight.

    He could hear shuffling and shambling all around him, and beneath him came the sounds of banging and loud thumps. Even the dead up here were summoned. They attempted to break free of their coffins and up through the shallow earth above them. They would join him as well. And he controlled them all. Through his thoughts and through his spells. They began to flow steadily out of the crypt they had been left to rot in all those years ago.

    Marius beamed with unnatural energies. He cackled with glee as he saw his three henchmen approaching him as well as another of them that he had killed in secret after he had sent the man to kill the owners of the cemetery. He would prepare here throughout the night. He knew he would have enough time. He had already thought out much of the battles to come. Zombies and skeletal corpses roamed all around him, doing his mental bidding. Forming into ranks, into command groups, into battle lines. Soon, after Ruek lied in ruin, he would have bows and arrows, machines of war, even cavalry. Horses were far easier to summon than humans after all. Marius looked out over the small hill that hid his unnatural business from the watchmen of Ruek, no one would disturb him tonight. They were all tucked safely behind their walls. He looked back to his army, at Sten and his henchmen that would slay his horses that he left with the wagon by his orders so that he could make them anew. He still could hardly tell the four men apart. He walked over to them as they began slaughtering his horses. He pulled up his hood and slid down the long sleeves of his dark gray and black robe and climbed up into the front of his wagon. His disheveled gray hair poured from the hood's mouth.

    "The people of Ruek, will die with the coming dawn." He said to himself.

But his legions of undead drew their weapons anyway and raised them high into the sky. Completely agreeing with his claim.

Author's Note

If you enjoyed this short story please feel free to leave comments or email me any feedback that you have so that I might improve my writing.
Also please feel free to check out my blog where I post all of my works.
http://shortstoriesandtwistedtales.blogspot.com