The Black Chapel
© 2014 by Walter Reimer

Art by  whitearabmare

Part 27


The first room was, of all things, entirely mundane.

It was a study with a comfortable chair and shelves that held a small collection of books and scrolls. Oil lamps in strategic locations had burned dry and gone out, the only light coming in from three windows cut into the stone. A beam of sunlight fell on a faded tapestry depicting Duke Evoli’s family sigil. Her footsteps and breathing, the only sounds, echoed in the room.

The windows had been literally cut; traces of magic used to hew the granite still lingered to her Sight. She moved into the next room, and promptly held her nose as she gagged.

This room had two windows in it, on the west side of the tower, and had a table and a sideboard. The table had several dishes of what used to be food in them. All of it was rotted away and putrefied now, the haunch of beef seething with maggots in testimony to the weeks that had elapsed since the trap had closed on Amb.

The badger himself sat at the table, the remains of his last meal set before him.

Amb Tokarv sat unmoving, eyes closed and not visibly breathing. The trap holding him was keeping him in what amounted to a deep coma until he could be taken into custody. He was dressed in a gray tunic and dark blue trousers, with low boots of black leather on his feet.

He looked older, of course; more mature and solidly built.

Halvrika shifted her focus and nearly flinched at the radiance of the trap as it swirled around his form.

First things first. A flick of power threw open the windows and sent air in to clear the stink from the chamber before she announced, ”Masters, I am here.”

Master Maffa replied, her voice stern and strained. ”Thou hast done well, Adept. Thou needs must join thy power with ours, and take over the ward that binds this one. I shall guide thee.”

At Maffa’s guidance the Adept poured her strength into the swift current, quickly learning the pattern of the binding-spell. As she moved in closer, Halvrika’s perceptions ran over the badger’s form and her ward began to close over him. He would be a puppet, obedient to her commands –

- His eyes opened –

- Master Spirof gave a choked cry and fell dead, blood drooling from his nose –

- The Balance broken, the binding spell collapsed and Halvrika staggered back. “Wha - ?”

Amb turned to smile at her, a tight smile that nonetheless made him crest, baring his teeth at her.

“Hello, Halvrika.”

A sudden, focused blast of power struck her in the back before she could pull away, and everything went black.

Trasta gasped as light flared from the windows on the third floor of the tower. Calling her guard to her, she ran toward the building.