Dirge for a Necromancer - By Ash Stinson Page 0,99

the hall, talking to each other in hushed voices. As they noticed him, they broke off their conversation. “Good morning, Magician,” one of them ventured timidly. Raettonus nodded to him and wordlessly went on his way.

He thought of going to his lessons with Maeleht and Dohrleht but decided against it. Instead he went back to his room and laid his sore, tired body down on the bed and slept for a long while.

* * *

Most of the soldiers in Kaebha were employed pulling huge stone blocks to the citadel and helping maneuver them into place. Another large portion of the soldiers were busy digging an enormous trench to separate the citadel from the rest of the mountain. When Raettonus asked about it, Diahsis expressed his intention for the trench to be dug so wide and deep that nothing would ever be able to cross it. Raettonus thought that idea impractical and told the general as such, only to be met with a light-hearted laugh. They spoke no further about it to one another.

“The soldiers seem very busy,” Slade remarked to Raettonus, a week or so later. “What are they preparing for?”

“I’m not sure, Master,” Raettonus said.

Slade frowned. “I see you talking to the general an awful lot,” he said. “He didn’t tell you what was going on in a single conversation?”

“He hasn’t told me anything, no,” said Raettonus. Slade gave him a hard look, but dropped the issue.

At night, from the citadel’s roof, Raettonus could see a pulsing light far off in the distance, obscured by the mountain tops and cliffs. The gently shifting light was blue and bright, and it made the mountains appear as if they were breathing in and out in slow, rhythmic patterns. Brecan sat with Raettonus, staring at it.

“What do you suppose that is?” the unicorn asked.

“Hell, I think,” answered Raettonus.

Brecan cocked his head this way, then that. “It’s pretty,” he said. “Raet… Something bad’s about to happen, isn’t it?”

“Something bad’s always about to happen,” Raettonus said.

“Worse than usual, I mean,” said Brecan. He turned his face from the distant light, toward Raettonus, and looked at him with one pale blue eye. “You told me before that it’s impossible to bring someone back from the dead, and even though Sir Slade’s been brought back… It’s still impossible, isn’t it? He doesn’t belong here, and bad things are about to happen because of it.” He waited for Raettonus to respond, but was met only with silence. Looking back toward the light, Brecan went on, “I’m afraid, Raet. How can we fight Death himself? I don’t think we can. I think when everything’s said and done, we’re gonna be in a bad way.”

“You think I should give Master Slade up without a fight,” Raettonus said, his voice dangerously low.

The unicorn readjusted his leathery white wings. “No, I don’t think that at all,” he said. “I just think… Well, I just think that, in the end, things’ll turn out bad. I was thinking that maybe you didn’t realize that, but… No, that was stupid of me. You know it…don’t you?”

Raettonus nodded mutely.

“I just…I wanted to make sure you knew,” said Brecan.

“Don’t tell Slade about any of this,” said Raettonus.

Brecan flattened his ears. “I wasn’t going to,” he said. “I mean, yeah, I think you should tell him what’s going on, and that it’s kinda mean of you to keep it from him, but if you don’t want me to tell him, Raet, I won’t.”

“If he knew that this is happening because of him, he’d try to stop it,” Raettonus said. “I can’t let him do that. How could I just let him do that?”

“In your place I wouldn’t either, I guess,” said Brecan. “I won’t tell him anything about it, Raet.”

Absently, Raettonus reached up and stroked Brecan’s neck. Brecan laid his head in Raettonus’ lap, and they watched the night for a while longer. In the distant blue-lit valleys they began to see things moving along the paths in tight, orderly rows. The black shapes marched closer and closer. It wouldn’t be long before they were at Kaebha’s doors. Raettonus suspected noon would see them making their way up the mountainside. And after that…

The wall still wasn’t completely fixed—not by a long shot. The trench was coming along, but not nearly well enough to be finished by the next day. An infirmary was being set up for the battle to come, but it wasn’t going to be big enough or well staffed enough to help anyone. Raettonus had