“Not personal items your Lordship, I found a few torn bits of cloth from her dress, and a dagger, nothing else,” he replied.
“No jewelry? The Countess wore a necklace I made for her,” I told him.
“No your Lordship,” he said.
I felt a tiny spark of hope. One thing we had learned in our few encounters with the shiggreth since I had made the enchanted necklaces to protect our people was that the undead did not like the enchantment. A few of our men had been taken since Dorian’s famous battle with them and in every case we found each man’s necklace not far from where he had been ‘turned’. Apparently once they had gone over to the other side they found the necklace to be unbearable and removed it. If Penny still had hers it meant she had not been ‘turned’, it meant she might still be alive.
Dorian of course did not wear one, his natural ability as a stoic had made the enchantment unnecessary for him. I wondered what that would mean if he was taken by the shiggreth. Would he go mad? He had no necklace that could be removed. I was still uncertain why the mind protecting enchantment bothered them so much after they had become undead.
I looked at the people around me. “I will go and see where they were ambushed. I’d rather do something while I wait for this wizard to wake up. I don’t think I can sit still.” I glanced at William Doyle and without waiting I indicated the door that led out. “Let’s go.” I started walking toward the door before he had even risen from his chair.
With my mage-sight I could see him look toward the Duke, who merely nodded, and then he ran after me.
Chapter 25
I walked through the courtyard from the keep to the main gate, scanning the ground as I went. William walked beside me silently. He obviously had a good sense of my mood. We passed the stables on the way to the gate, but I never even spared them a glance. I didn’t intend to ride. I wanted to examine the ground carefully from here until the trail went cold, and possibly beyond.
“Tell me what you know of what happened here,” I said. William was a smart fellow and he did as I asked, giving me only the information pertinent to where we stood. Once we got beyond the gate he showed me the area where they had mounted horses and ridden away.
“And Dorian was on foot here?” I asked.
He nodded affirmatively. I walked on without commenting. William led me to the trail where they had turned off the main road to follow a small forest trail. I watched the ground along the path with both my eyes and my other senses. I wasn’t sure what I was looking for but I didn’t want to miss anything. Unfortunately I didn’t find anything that William hadn’t already noticed.
“What was this? The ground is all churned up here,” I pointed at a place where the earth had been disturbed.
“I didn’t see with my own eyes but some of the men on the walls were watching. According to their reports the enemy sent one of their riders back to stop Dorian’s pursuit. The rider charged him with weapon drawn and if the witnesses are to be believed Lord Dorian threw him over his shoulder.” William hesitated as he spoke, unsure if I would believe such fantastic details.
“What the man dismounted first?”
“No your Lordship, according to the people watching Dorian picked the horse and rider up and threw them both over his shoulder,” he clarified.
I stopped and put my hand on the ground. I couldn’t imagine what my friend had been going through at that moment, but I knew he had done his best. I might have laughed at the image of him throwing a horse, but the fact that he was probably dead now stole the humor from the thought. I straightened up and resumed walking. Despite the emotions within I still had not had the urge to cry. I was somewhat numb, though I felt a cold fire burning inside my stomach.
William led me along the path, showing me where they had found Miriam before leading me on to the place where their last stand had occurred. I surveyed the area carefully. “What happened to the body parts that were found?” I asked.
“The Duke had them collected and burned,” William replied.
I nodded approvingly. “Give me a moment alone William,” I told him.
Without a word the huntsman retreated back down the path and waited at a distance. For being a man of few words William was remarkably adept at discerning my intentions from a few words. I imagined his perceptiveness must come in handy when tracking and understanding game.
I closed my eyes so that I could better focus on my mage-sight, then I took a deep breath and began to search the area carefully with my mind. I hoped to find some indication of which way they might have gone but I knew that it was a long shot. After a quarter of an hour I had nearly given up when I detected a faint gleam of magic, something that had fallen to the ground.
It was a few hundred yards to the north of where we were now and I had a sickening feeling I knew what it was. I pulled my mind back rather than examine it more closely. I didn’t want to know, not yet, not till I could see it with my own eyes.
I waved at William and pointed north so that he would understand my intention, then I started trudging through the brush. It took me almost twenty minutes to reach the spot where it lay and the closer I got the more I shuttered my mind, to keep from seeing it before I could pick it up. Now I stood over it and I could not avoid looking at it any longer. Lying at my feet was a silver necklace with an enchanted pendant, the first of its kind I had ever made. The necklace I had given to Penny for her protection.
Kneeling, I gently picked it from the leaves and draped it across my left hand. The chain had snapped, as if its wearer couldn’t be bothered with the clasp. In my mind I could see her eyes glazing over as the life was drawn from her, till at last her dead hand had reached up to pull the last remaining annoyance from her prior life away. The creature she had become had ripped the pendant from her neck and tossed it as far away as possible.
There were tears on my face now, but I paid them no heed. Standing I tried to think of a course of action, but all my paths seemed dark and meaningless without her. I will have to hunt them down, all of them, I thought to myself. The shiggreth were a scourge meant to destroy humanity. Too long I had waited to act, and now my wife and unborn child had paid the price. Eventually I would find her too. And I’ll have to burn her as well, came the unbidden thought to my mind. With it came a torrent of rage as the floodgates of my soul opened up.
The air turned red as my anger boiled up, like blood from the earth, filling my mind and erasing my doubt. My heart beat like thunder and my body swelled as adrenaline filled my muscles with energy. A small voice in my mind warned me, I was losing control, but I didn’t care, not any longer. Power filled me with exhilarating potential to match the rage that had consumed my mind. I could see the world below me for miles; I could feel the earth’s blood deep below, crying out in anger and pain to match my own.
Around me the world grew smaller with each passing heartbeat and soon I could see all the way to Albamarl and further, beyond even that. Below it all the earth boiled and seethed in anger. The world of men was built upon a thin skin of crusted rock that barely covered the hot reality underneath it. It would take very little to unleash the fury below and wipe the surface clean with fire and magma. The thought had just occurred to me when I knew I must do it. Too long I had lain dormant, too long I had slumbered while the world grew cold and strange around me. I would wipe it clean.
I felt a hand resting atop mine now, a woman’s hand, long and slender. I looked down to see whose it was and I was surprised to see that my arm was red and swollen. It appeared to be made of molten rock. Resting atop it was a dark brown arm and following it I found its owner, Moira Centyr. “Stop Mordecai, this is not the way,” she rebuked me softly.
I gazed at her with tears in my eyes, tears that fell to the earth and set the dry leaves there aflame. Moira was tiny now; she had never looked so small to me before. “Who is Mordecai?” I asked her. The name felt familiar but it held little meaning for me.
“Mordecai is the man you were, the man you must remain,” she answered sadly. “Do not let your anger
