Necromancer Falling: Book Two of The Mukhtaar Chronicles (10 page)

Nicolas drew necropotency into his well of power. He wanted to be as prepared as possible, in case some use of magic could help her.

Mujahid pushed the attendant aside, but he drew back when the attendant’s hand came away from Kaitlyn’s face. It was subtle, and Nicolas wouldn’t have noticed the reaction if not for his necropotency-enhanced senses. What had Mujahid seen?

With a fair helping of composure, Mujahid recovered and began casting necropotency forward.

Kaitlyn stirred and Mujahid touched the rose in her hand.

“This isn’t just any rose,” Mujahid said. “It’s a Rose of Shealynd. It’s…magical. What happened?” he asked the attendant.

“A guard found her at the Shrine of Shealynd, my lord.”

Mujahid looked away as if considering something.

“Nick?” Kaitlyn said. Her voice was raspy.

“Right here,” Nicolas said.

“Where am I?” Kaitlyn said. When her gaze landed on Mujahid, she jumped. “He was there! He was there with the woman!”

Mujahid shook his head as if to say
no
. But there was no mistaking the look in his eyes. There was only one other person on Erindor Kaitlyn could have confused Mujahid with.

“Nuuan?” Nicolas asked.

“New what?” Kaitlin asked.

“Did the man you see look identical to me, dear one?” Mujahid asked.

Kaitlyn narrowed her eyes, but she nodded.

“This is the man I told you about,” Nicolas said. “This is Mujahid.
Lord
Mujahid, I should say.”

“That’s all right,” Mujahid said, smiling at Kaitlyn. “There’s no need for her to call me Lord.”

Something was off about him, and Nicolas couldn’t figure out what it was.

More importantly, Nuuan must still be alive.

“Mujahid has an identical twin brother,” Nicolas said. “It was him you saw. That’s true, right Mujahid?”

The look on Mujahid’s face expressed the shock Nicolas felt.

“I can tell you I was nowhere near the Shrine of Shealynd today,” Mujahid said. “As to whether it was my brother, the evidence certainly suggests it.”

Kaitlyn pursed her lips and shrugged.

Nicolas leaned closer to her and put his hand on her head, brushing her auburn hair away from her eyes.

“Can you tell us what happened?” Nicolas asked.

“Don’t leave anything out,” Tithian said. “No matter how small you think the detail is.”

“I was curious about the architecture you mentioned,” Kaitlyn said. “So I took a walk around the grounds. Sergeant Diggins was kind enough to show me the way to the gardens.”

“Were you feeling out of sorts when you embarked on your constitutional?” Mujahid asked.

“Embarked on my constitutional?”

Mujahid smiled and laughed.

Smiled and laughed!

Something was odd about him today.

“I felt fine,” Kaitlyn said, “until I saw a woman in a red dress.”

Mujahid leaned closer.

“I was…I don’t know…
drawn
to her. I wanted to get a closer look, and she was farther down the path, but every time I’d get close to her, she’d take another turn and disappear. I caught up to her eventually. She was checking out some building at the center of the garden. You’d love it, Nick. Looks like an old Roman temple. There’s a beautiful statue there in a clam-shell enclosure.”

“The Shrine of Shealynd,” Mujahid said.

“But when I went inside, she was gone,” Kaitlyn said. “I know I wasn’t seeing things. There was only one way out, and she was just
gone
. That’s when I noticed the statue I told you about.”

Nicolas gave Mujahid a questioning look.

“The statue of Shealynd,” Mujahid said. “Go on.”

“It was just weird, you know?” Kaitlyn said. “I could swear that woman
modeled
for the statue or something. Her face was almost identical.”

Mujahid’s face had issues of its own. It had lost all color in the last few seconds.

“Then what happened?” Nicolas asked.

“I went to get a closer look and smelled the most beautiful roses. Like
this
one.” Kaitlyn held up the rose she was carrying.

The rose was the size of Nicolas’s head.

“I saw this one laying at the foot of the statue,” Kaitlyn said. “So I went over to pick it up. When I leaned against the statue…that’s when I saw them.”

“Saw who, dear one?” Mujahid asked.

“You,” Kaitlyn said. “Or…your brother…the man who looks like you. He did something odd with his hand.”

That grabbed Mujahid’s attention. “What did he do?”

Kaitlyn put her thumb on her chin and extended her little finger.

“Like this,” Kaitlyn said.

Mujahid nodded. “That’s Nuuan.”

“Something you’re not telling me?” Nicolas asked.

“He wasn’t alone,” Kaitlyn said. “There was something else with him.”

“Some
thing
else?” Nicolas asked.

“The man who looks like Mujahid was standing next to a…a
giant fish
. But the fish had legs.”

“A cichlos?” Nicolas asked Mujahid.

Mujahid shrugged. “Nuuan is as familiar with them as I. Who’s to say?”

“But that’s not the worst part,” Kaitlyn said. “The decapitated head from my dreams was there too.”

“The what?” Nicolas and Mujahid said in unison.

“You never said anything about a floating head!” Nicolas said.

“I’ve been…trying to find a time to tell you about those,” Kaitlyn said.

“Arin be praised,” Mujahid said with a wide smile on his face.

“Oh don’t you start!” Nicolas said.

“It’s too soon to tell anyway,” Mujahid said.

“Tell what?” Kaitlyn asked.

Nicolas rubbed his temples. “Whether or not you’re a necromancer. Like us.”

Kaitlyn gave Nicolas an incredulous stare.

Nicolas rubbed her arm. “I…need a minute. Is there anything I can get you? Something to drink?”

Kaitlyn shook her head. “I’m fine.”

Nicolas walked toward the infirmary entrance. This was a lot to absorb. First, being told that something had happened to Kaitlyn, then learning Nuuan was somehow involved.
Then
discovering Kaitlyn might be a necromancer, with all the risk and trouble that brought with it.

The weight of everything that had happened over the past year pushed down on his shoulders. It was too much for one person.

I just wanted us to start our lives together. Now this. And somehow I have to figure out what to do about the Barathosians, too?

Nicolas needed more than a minute. He needed a week on a beach with some drinks…the kind with those little umbrellas.

When Nicolas stepped into the hallway, people scattered out of the way, trying their best…but failing…to not look at him.

There’s no reason for these people to be afraid of me. I’m not Kagan.

Mujahid stepped out behind him. “I suppose you’ll want to know about the hand gesture.”

“I want to know about
everything
,” Nicolas said. “Yes, I’d like to know what the hand jive was about, but I’d
also
like to know why a Mukhtaar Lord is acting like a little girl at a dog shelter.”

“Excuse me?”

“You’re practically fawning over her!”

“Come now, lad, I didn’t take you for the jealous sort.”

“That’s not it,” Nicolas said. “That’s not it at all. You’re…not
you
. And that
bothers
me. You and Tithian are the only solid ground I have on Erindor right now. I can’t have you flaking out on me. Not now of all times.”

Mujahid put his hand behind his neck and massaged it.

“Did I ever tell you of my mentor?” Mujahid asked.

“You did,” Nicolas said. “Not much, though.”

“Her name was Mordryn. And she meant more to me than anyone I’ve ever known.”

“
Remarkable
was the word you used, if I recall.”

“Then I understated things. She was more than just remarkable. She was
everything
. And when she disappeared, all I had to remember her by was a broken blade and one of those roses the lady Kaitlyn is holding.”

“The rose set you off then,” Nicolas said. “I can understand that.”

“Not the rose. Her face.”

“I don’t follow.”

“As surely as I know I’m standing here, I know I was looking into Mordryn’s eyes when I saw your lady Kaitlyn. The resemblance is uncanny.”

“I grew up with her, Mujahid. She’s not Mordryn.”

“And here you stand.”

“Mujahid, she’s not—”

“I
know
she’s not Mordryn, boy,” Mujahid said, holding up his hand. “But you have to admit something is afoot here.”

“So what do we do?” Nicolas asked. “I can’t just let her lay in bed while I
hope
everything turns out for the best. Is she
Awakening
? Is that what this is?”

“You know as well as I it’s too soon to tell. All we have is her description of a dream. Take any person on Erindor and give them a bit of bad cheese, and they’ll be dreaming about decapitated heads too. Let’s give it some time.”

“I don’t like this.”

“I’ll help her any way I can.”

Fear bubbled up inside Nicolas, and he took a deep breath to stave off the panic. He remembered his own Awakening. The thought of Kaitlyn going through the same thing made him shudder. Why didn’t she
tell
him about the dreams? He could have helped sooner!

If this is an Awakening, we can handle it. She’s smarter than I am, and I managed to make it through okay.

Mujahid was right. There was nothing they could do except wait and see.

“Please stay close by,” Nicolas said. “I won’t know what to do if she gets worse.”

Mujahid put his hand on Nicolas’s shoulder. “Oh I doubt that. In fact, I suspect you’ll know precisely what to do.”

Nicolas wished he could believe him. “I’m serious, Mujahid.”

Mujahid patted his shoulder. “I’ll be out on the grounds for a while. We need to at least
try
to find this mystery woman in the red dress. And my brother.
And
this seemingly lost cichlos.”

“You really think you’re going to find them?”

Mujahid shook his head. “Not likely. But it will give me a chance to reflect. Sometimes we get so busy looking for answers in the world, we discount the answers within.”

“You never did tell me about that hand gesture.”

Mujahid chuckled and shook his head. “Nuuan’s invention. From when we were boys. It was a way for us to make a humorous connection in an otherwise serious situation, as twins are often wont to do. We had but one rule; it had to be the left hand.”

Nicolas smiled. “Like making faces at a friend in church.”

“In Nuuan’s case, it typically involved breaking wind.”

“But why the
left
hand?”

Mujahid smiled. “So we could make fun of our friends who copied us with their
right
hands, of course!”

Mujahid gave Nicolas’s shoulder one last pat and walked away.

Nicolas had Kaitlyn taken to his private chambers, where she slept throughout the day. It wasn’t home, but she’d be more comfortable without a bunch of attendants buzzing around her.

There was nothing they could do anyway, not if her problem was mystical. And all signs pointed in that direction. The dreams, the headaches, what more could there be? She’d have to face the Halls of Power soon.

And once she stepped through that black door, there was nothing he could do to help her.

The sun had set an hour earlier, casting the room in bluish hues of moonlight. Once again, the gems representing cities on the giant map of the Three Kingdoms shimmered.

Kagan brought a tray of food from one of the many cafeterias at the Pinnacle and placed it on the buffet next to a wooden weapon rack across from the king-sized bed.

Nicolas was sure they weren’t
called
cafeterias, but he had no idea what the word for it was here. Cafeteria would have to do.

Kaitlyn never woke to eat, and Nicolas didn’t want to disturb her, so he sent Kagan away and left the food on the wooden buffet.

He’d come to understand how invaluable wood had become over the last forty years, and it sickened him how much of it surrounded him in these opulent chambers. A wooden four-post bed with a canopy, wooden dresser and wooden wardrobe, wooden nightstands, ornate wooden frame around a panoramic mirror, two wooden chairs, a wooden writing desk with a wooden chair of its own, wooden weapon rack, and yes, the wooden buffet. And as he lifted his head, he saw the wooden crown molding as well.

Nicolas was tempted to strip the room, sell it all, and have the proceeds distributed among the poor. But something told him Tithian and Mujahid would object.

The Council politicians wouldn’t be too happy about it either. If the archmage sold all the wood in
his
chambers, it wouldn’t reflect well on them if they didn’t follow suit.

All these thoughts and more rattled around his mind as he was trying to doze off next to Kaitlyn. Earlier he couldn’t think at all. Now that he wanted to sleep, thinking was all he could do. He spent a few moments focusing his concentration and embracing his cet—clearing his mind and imagining that room with many doors at the center of his Halls of Power. When he managed to let go, he drifted off to sleep.