Matt finished, “And so they stripped him of his titles.”
Denir nodded. “And banished. I expect he will one day return to claim the throne and abolish laws against magic.”
Matt said, “I can’t say I blame him. He doesn’t sound like he’s that bad of a guy.”
Denir sighed. “He enjoys sympathy in some quarters, but his actions since then leave little doubt that he can only be a hero to unsavory people. He is very charming, as if the spell he weaves is one of seduction more than wizardry. You should know that you will not identify him by a sorcerer’s attire, for he seeks to hide his talents and skills, I think more to surprise people than from shame, though perhaps his past inspires it. Do not look for a wizard’s robe or staff, but a well-dressed man of royal refinement in a tunic and trousers, the ingredients for spells discreetly on his person. He keeps a wand up one sleeve should he need it. Beware the Dragon’s Fire Wand, for it is powerful.”
Eric observed, “You refer to him as a sorcerer, not a wizard.”
“Yes, but there is no difference, though sorcerer has a connotation of using dark arts.”
Anna wondered what he was willing to do. She recalled that Matt had two of Soliander’s spell books in the bag he always arrived with. The techie had said one had seemingly more innocent or benevolent spells, while the other tended toward dangerous and possibly immoral. She thought of it every time her friend was looking in that one, wondering what he was learning. She had wanted to look through it herself, but Matt tended to find excuses for secrecy, which only made her more curious, but not quite concerned. Still, when he performed a spell, she sometimes wondered which book he got it from.
“Speaking of dark arts,” she began, “who is the necromancer?”
Denir began, “Lord Areon the Soul Stealer was a priest who married into royalty, but lost his title when his wife was murdered. He was too late to heal her and began practicing necromancy to not only resurrect his wife, but to get revenge on her killers, as they were executed too mercifully for his tastes.”
Grimacing, Anna asked, “Did he succeed?”
Denir looked unsure how to answer. “Stories conflict as to whether he was successful, but I believe he did not reanimate his love in satisfactory condition, and they remain apart.”
Novir added, “They banished him for this. There is a bounty on his head. His god forsook him so that he cannot heal anymore.”
“Did that push him further into necromancy, so he still had power?”
Denir looked at her approvingly. “Yes. He has since shown little regard for life, or death, and has become powerful in his quest to restore his love.”
“That’s tragic and very creepy,” Anna remarked, shuddering. No one should love so deeply as to become corrupted throughout their being. Sometimes letting go was better, however painful. But then she had never known such love for another or herself. Could it really be so wonderful, then so awful? Part of her didn’t want to know, but she was sort of curious. She supposed she couldn’t really judge this lord, but if he was doing unholy things to others, that would be enough to condemn him in her eyes.
Breaking her thoughts, Matt asked, “What’s sorts of things is he capable of? Raising the dead? Defying it himself? Controlling them?”
Denir replied, “All of that and more. Communication with the departed has given him vast knowledge found in no library. That may have been how they knew of the orb. That said, this communication is difficult to achieve, as not all deceased are accessed as easily as some. We will never know.”
“Novir,” began Ryan, “Do you have a mace or flail I can borrow? My sword may be of limited use against the undead, assuming he has a bunch with him.”
“Of course.” He gestured to one warrior, who had a spiked, black mace on one hip. They gave this to him.
“Thank you,” said Ryan. “This may also be useful with the undead knight, as well. I don’t suppose he became that way because of the necromancer?”
Denir fixed him with an appraising look before turning to Matt. “Indeed. And this story may be of special interest to Soliander.”
Matt cocked an eyebrow. “Why is that?”
“The undead knight is technically King of Aranor now. That is your home kingdom, is it not?”
Matt nodded slowly. “Tell me.”
“Lord Voth was an ambitious knight, second-in-command of the knights, in service to the king. Some in the knighthood believed the king had grown weak, spoiled, and uninterested in the greatness some wanted of their monarch. And so they staged a successful coup, killing the king and much of the royal family.”
“That is a betrayal of their oath as knights,” Ryan observed, frowning.
Novir smirked. “There was worse to come. Voth’s commander assumed the throne, but not for long. Voth killed him and took his place.”
Denir added, “Yes, but he miscalculated. The population had supported the coup due to the popularity of the commander he had just killed, and they were irate at his murder at the hands of Lord Voth.
“Good for them,” Ryan said. “What happened?”
“They swarmed the castle, and when Lord Voth, now King of Aranor, ordered his knights to slay the mob, they refused, seeing him as a worse ruler than those they had executed. And so they opened the gates and let the mob have Lord Voth.”
Eric laughed and held up one apologetic hand for his reaction. “No honor among thieves, we say on… we’ve heard said on another planet. Seems like he caused his own downfall.”
“Yes,” agreed Denir. “He does not elicit much sympathy, only terror. The royalty had access to an ice dragon, and so his punishment was to have it breathe on him, encasing him in ice and killing him. This resulted in one of his nicknames, the Ice King.
Matt asked, “And he somehow escaped
