“The last necromancer. Here in Selkarc if not the entire world,” Cinna confirmed. Lying to Bjorn would be of little use at this point. She’d hoped to have this conversation in a safer time and place, but unfortunately reality cared little for hopes.
“You knew,” Bjorn said accusingly. Cinna clicked her tongue. This already seemed to be going poorly. “You knew, but you haven’t killed her?”
“A year ago I personally gave the order to find and protect Selkarc’s necromancers. That I failed at the time does not change my commitment to doing so,” Cinna replied, watching Bjorn carefully. Her fight with Count Keller had played out so quickly that Bjorn hadn’t had time to react, so he hadn’t drawn his weapon yet, but Cinna saw how his hand strayed towards his axe.
“Your Highness, necromancers have destroyed this city. A rogue necromancer is responsible for the deaths of my mother and younger brother. We can’t let her live,” Bjorn argued, growing heated.
“There are no rogue necromancers. Something has changed, Bjorn. The dead are rising on their own. I’m sorry for your loss, but the rogue undead issue is closer to a natural disaster than something anyone deliberately did,” Cinna explained calmly. Even so, Bjorn’s hand landed on the shaft of his axe.
“Did she tell you that? She can’t be trusted, Your Highness. If she’s the last necromancer then you have no way of verifying anything she says! She could be lying to you, trying to infiltrate Selkarc. Think of the damage she could do if she betrays us! She could wipe out the entire royal family in a single attack!” Bjorn insisted, finally drawing his weapon.
“Bjorn, this is neither the time nor the place for this conversation! Stand down! I assure you that I have spent enough time with this woman to judge her character. She…” Cinna nearly called Lilia a good person, but she actually had a strong suspicion that Lilia didn’t have a grasp of the difference between good and evil in the first place. Lying outright might set Bjorn off, so she decided to switch tacks. “I’m confident that Lilia isn’t malicious in her intentions.”
“You’re risking all of Selkarc by letting her live!”
“I’d be risking all of Selkarc by doing otherwise. She may by our only source of information on necromancy now.” Bjorn took a step forward. Cinna decided she’d humored him as long as she could. “Have you forgotten your oaths? As a representative of the royal family and a duly appointed general of Selkarc, I am ordering you to back down now, soldier.”
“…some things are more important than oaths, Your Highness. I can’t let you doom Selkarc on the off-chance she can be trusted.” Bjorn took another step closer. Despite what he said, though, his body language told Cinna that he still hadn’t completely resolved himself.
Standing against authority was difficult. More so for the average commoner. This man had spent his entire life being told to obey the nobility and to obey the crown. He’d joined the army and been selected for the intelligence services, too. His training would only have reinforced that conditioning.
“Put down your weapon. I will not give you another warning. Come any closer and you will be executed with the full authority of the crown,” Cinna growled, attempting to reinforce Bjorn’s position in his mind. For a moment the man hesitated. Then his eyes strayed to Cinna’s broken arm and he tightened his grip on his weapon. With his other arm, Bjorn brought his shield close to his body.
“You’re injured, Your Highness. Please. Don’t make me betray my oaths. It’s not too late to do the right thing. You don’t have to do it yourself. Just let me do what has to be done. For the good of Selkarc,” Bjorn pleaded.
“Who are you, to decide what is best for Selkarc?” Cinna challenged. “Much less without all the information. All I ask of you is to wait.”
But Bjorn took another step before Cinna could continue and she realized there could be no convincing this man who merely shared a name with her friend. The difference in station, the good of the kingdom, logic—none of it actually mattered. Because the core of the matter was that Bjorn hated necromancers and blamed them for the loss of his loved ones. Everything else amounted to justifications.
He wanted to kill Lilia to make his own heart hurt less. Even if he succeeded, though, it would never make the pain go away. And yet, how could Cinna possibly convince him of that? She couldn’t. That left her only one course of action.
Bjorn was no knight. He might have been a spy inserted into Count Keller’s forces by the crown, but he was still a lowly footsoldier and was equipped like any other. He wore chainmail, a gambeson, and a simple helmet that didn’t cover his face. His shield was large and round; meant to be used as part of a shield wall. As for his weapon, he’d likely been issued a spear as part of his standard kit and a bow for use on the ramparts, but at the moment he carried only an axe.
As for Cinna, she’d been fighting since childhood. She had a full suit of plate armor aside from her lost helmet. Her pilfered war hammer would cave in Bjorn’s helmet easily on a good hit. Even her sword would be deadly if she aimed for the man’s vulnerable face.
Common and cheap though his equipment might be, though, Bjorn remained a threat. Even the most experienced of fighters could be caught by surprise when a less skilled opponent did something unexpected. Having the use of only one arm placed Cinna at a major disadvantage as well, just as Bjorn had noted.
She needed to be quick and decisive. The time for hesitation had passed. Bjorn had declared himself her enemy and she would eliminate him like one.
“As you wish!” Cinna shouted as she drew her sword and flung it across the room at Bjorn. He flinched and lifted his shield to catch the projectile just as Cinna had intended. If that had been Cinna’s only weapon, or even if she’d just been uninjured, she would never have discarded one of her weapons so carelessly. But she hadn’t done so without purpose.
By the time her sword glanced off Bjorn’s shield and he lowered it, Cinna had crossed two-thirds of the distance between them and had her hammer in hand. Again he reacted with surprise—and why wouldn’t he? His foe, whom he’d last seen on the far side of the room from him, was now a mere handful of meters away.
Bjorn defaulted back to his training. He widened his stance and braced his shield. That would have been the correct response if he’d been fighting in formation with hundreds of other soldiers. The men and women behind him and to his sides would cover his blind spots and push against his back, keeping him on his feet even when he collided with the enemy.
He’d never been trained to fight in single combat. Cinna had, and that was precisely why she’d given him as little time as possible to consider his response.
A hundred kilograms of knight and armor slammed into Bjorn at full speed. Cinna struck him shoulder-first. She lowered her own body and lifted on impact to negate the effects of Bjorn’s stance, driving him straight off his feet. Even with the breath driven from his lungs, Bjorn maintained his awareness. He kept his shield in place over his head as he pushed himself up on one elbow.
Cinna didn’t give Bjorn time to recover. She hooked his shield with her hammer and flung it aside. Her foot slammed down on the rim, pinning it to the ground. Then, without hesitation or mercy, Cinna brought down her hammer.
The fight swiftly ended with a sickening crunch that Cinna had heard far too many times in her life already.
“I’m sorry,” Cinna said softly into the resulting silence. She would have liked to spare the man, but he’d made his opinion clear. Just like he didn’t believe he could risk allowing Lilia to live, Cinna didn’t think she could have given him an opportunity to assassinate Lilia the moment Cinna turned her back.
Too much rode on Lilia’s survival. On bringing her back to Alfvin and having her teach Baron Lundgren everything she knew. Lilia’s practical knowledge combined with Lundgren’s family library might together be enough to resurrect the practice of necromancy itself. With an army of necromancers…Selkarc might stand a chance against the unending hordes at its gates.
Bjorn’s stubborn refusal to accept Lilia’s importance worried Cinna, though. Others would likely have the same reaction. Cinna decided that by the time she returned to friendly territory she would have to have a plan in place to manage public reaction.
“I did it!” Lilia celebrated, exhaustion clear in her voice. Cinna turned her way just as Lilia spun around in search of Cinna. Her eyes widened when she spotted Cinna standing over Bjorn’s corpse. “Oh, no! What happened?”
“A difference of opinion,” Cinna summed up tiredly. Lilia pushed herself to her feet and rushed over. “Would you please ensure he doesn’t revive? It’s…all we can do for him, now.”
“Are you sure? I could bring him back instead. Maybe you can convince him this time!” Lilia squinted, carefully examining the remains of Bjorn’s skull with a clinical detachment that made Cinna slightly uncomfortable. “Just so you know…undead don’t need their eyes or ears to hear, but he might have a little trouble speaking.”
“I’m certain,” Cinna replied, looking away. “Be quick. You said your interference with Count Keller’s soul would likely be noticed, did you not?”
“Um, yes. But this won’t take me long. He…Bjorn, right? He wasn’t a mage. He doesn’t have as much mana. I just need to reach out and…done,” Lilia said, stepping away from the body.
Cinna found herself torn between being impressed and disturbed by Lilia’s indifference. The first time Cinna had stepped foot on a battlefield she’d thrown up. Not because she’d killed someone. That came later. The sight of the bodies and the smell of blood and entrails had been more than enough.
Did neither bother Lilia? Had she simply been exposed to such sights and smells so much as to be desensitized already, or was she like this all along? Questions for later.
“Let’s hurry back to the tunnel. I remember the way. Stick close and don’t allow any undead to target us,” Cinna instructed. While she spoke, Cinna grabbed the map she’d seen on the table when she entered the room and began rolling it up. During the confrontation with Count Keller Cinna had been careful to divert his attention from it knowing an air mage like himself could have destroyed it long before she’d reached him if he’d had reason to. By the time she was running across the table Count Keller no longer had the time left to notice Cinna’s care in stepping over the map and change his spell.
“Too late,” Lilia replied. Cinna froze for a fraction of a second before spinning around. She didn’t need to ask.
The doors swung open with painful slowness
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