| Excerpt from REVENGE OF THE USURPER:
... when the thing stepped down from the mount and swaddled its robes
about its body, he could see that this was little more than a skeleton
with parched, pale flesh wrapped in thin cloth. In the next moment,
the horse collapsed on its own legs and sprawled dead in the dusty road.
The thing before him drew its hood from its head, revealing a gaunt
and wasted visage beneath. It was barely more than a skull, and the
warrior had never seen a living thing so deeply malnourished as this.
“Who are you?” the Duke asked.
“I am a living thing that envies the dead,” the man responded.
“Save your poetry. Speak your piece or leave this place.”
The green eyes beneath the helmet flamed in anger as his arms tensed
with anticipation.
“I am the wizard, Berenger,” he announced. “Scourged
by our master and damned to torment some years ago.”
“Berenger’s castle was destroyed, and he along with it,”
Duke Brôn challenged, lifting the axe and striding forward for
the kill. “He was a traitor and usurper, destroyed by our true
master!”
The gaunt figure waved a finger in the air, a small and hideous smile
on his face. “Have you not tasted the tears of angels? Have you
not heard the black cockerel, crowing at midnight? Have you not knelt
at the throne of the flesh of the fallen?”
Brôn stopped, lowered his axe. The tears of angels, the black
cockerel, the gruesome throne… these were all avatars of those
closest to the supreme necromancer, the Chaos-Bringer. Only his trusted
captains knew the incantation, and they only spoke it to one another.
“Berenger, you say?” He had never met the necromancer, but
knew of his cruelty and malice by reputation alone.
The necromancer nodded. “I knew your vizier, Etherén. I
visited with him when I escaped our master’s prison and he told
me of your news. Fortuitously, the boy you send for his counsel found
us both at his home. Etherén sought advice from me—one
who would know these signs.”
“Go on,” Brôn prodded.
“Our master has been defeated but not destroyed.” Berenger’s
voice was a tapestry of hope and trepidation. “His will is undone,
and those he imprisoned or rebuked are now free again.”
“And those he aided are now blind,” Brôn finished.
A bearer of ill news was an ill guest. “What do you want here?”
At this, Berenger moved forward, his wrap wafting gently in the little
breeze drifting across the road. The necromancer wrapped a skeletal
hand over his opposite arm in a subtle gesture, meant to convey frailty.
“Sallo was a powerful sorcerer… and now all that power is
in a void. We must fill that void before another does.”
“Why?” Brôn rumbled.
“Because you have done well, Duke. But you achieved your duchy
by means greater than you now possess. He who fills the void left by
our old master will no doubt hold sway over whether you keep the power
you have. You have many enemies, and not all of which you are aware.”
“Why should I trust you?” the Duke snarled, not liking where
this was going.
A puff of red flame purled up from the necromancer’s hand, causing
the dark knight an almost imperceptible flinch. “If you help me,
you will at least have my gratitude.”
Brôn considered this, carefully assessing the necromancer’s
words -- against the advantages of dispatching him here and now. A usurper
known for sadism would almost certainly betray him as he’d betrayed
their common master. Then again, treachery was the coin of the Realm
among Sallo’s minions, and he knew that a lie could travel around
the world before the truth sets foot out of the door. Or perhaps even
the years of imprisonment may have even tempered the necromancer’s
ways. Berenger’s reputation for cruelty was matched only by his
mastery in the arcane arts, and he might even have learned his lesson.
It would be better to keep this one at arm’s length than to be
unaware of his machinations. “It will not be easy,” Brôn
intoned, half to the necromancer and half to himself.
“True… we must move quickly to secure both our rightful
place as the Chaos-Bringer’s successors and to eliminate the greatest
obstacle in our path while it is still unaware.”
“And how will we do that?” Brôn rumbled.
“First we will need the aid of one of our most trusted allies.
Then we must recover a little friend. Its kind are almost extinct, but
one can still find them if one knows where to look.”
“And you know where to look?” the Duke hissed.
Berenger managed a modest smile across his thin lips, “I kept
one safe from harm for just this type of situation.”
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