The Necromancer

Chapter 6, Part 2

The world rematerialized again, and I was immediately greeted by an icy wind slicing straight through the billowy robes that Lamneras had loaned me. Probably should have planned for that, I realized. The warm temperatures of Bermatora contrasted starkly with the desolate, icy mountains surrounding the Academy. The school itself was built on a high peak circled by steep cliffs, deep in the depths of the Western Mountains where no Paladin army could ever reach. Not that they hadn't tried: as it turns out there are very few magical defenses to sudden rockslides.

The Summoning Pedestal itself was carved into the valley floor, near a rushing river that carried bobbing chunks of ice downstream at a dangerously rapid pace. The imposing stone edifice of the Academy loomed overhead like a gnarled tree, silhouetted against a light purple sky. The dark greys and blacks of the structure contrasted with the layers of pure white snow that covered every building. Atop the tallest tower, a dragon's reanimated skeleton was lazily pushing chunks of ice over the edge of the roof with long swishes of his tail.

"Ahhh!" I took a deep breath of mountain air and did my best not to shiver in front of Skip. "So good to be back!" It had been... gosh, at least ten years since my last visit. I'd skipped the class reunion; I had no appetite to hear Amcerlizar bragging about all of his conquered territory and minion armies and all that, while I didn't have a single village to my name. Might as well write "loser" on my nametag and abandon any pretense.

"This is the Academy?" She asked. "You lived here for how many years?" She pulled her cloak around her shoulders as close as she could, and goosebumps immdiately spread up and down her arms. "It's... nice." She tried to grin, but she shivered instead. 

"Come on, I'll show you around!" Despite some fairly unpleasant memories, I was still eager to see all the old haunts that Lamneras and I used to frequent. As soon as we stepped off the Summoning Pedestal and onto the pathway, balls of fire appeared in mid air. Each one hovered over sets of twin columns that lined the path up toward the main entrance, lighting the way and providing some much-needed warmth. The sun begins to set at roughly noon this far north at this time of year, so it was already  growing dark. It's the perfect atmosphere for Necromancy, where corpses are well-preserved and the moon's influence is strong... but not so great for making your way up a dangerous, icy path.

"So." Skip was gazing up at the complex of old stone buildings spread across the mountainside. "Which one of these buildings are we looking for?"

I craned my neck too and pointed at one of the highest buildings, crowned with jagged crennelations and imposing spires. "That's the library right there. The records office should be in that tower on the left there." I pointed towards the window, which was lit with a dull yellow glow.

"And what do we need again?" She shivered and grimaced as another gust of wind blew through. 

I shrugged. "Just a normal file that has information to keep tabs on Necromancers who have graduated. I'm certainly not in there; they don't really care what happens to the guy who lives in a cramped rented crypt. Lamneras, too: the school would never admit that one of their graduates had gone on to be a Potions Master. But Amcerlizar is certainly in there. Hell, there's probably a statue of him somewhere."

She was still staring up at the library window. "And what does it look like?"

"Just a big book, I'm assuming. Should be labeled. You know, Necromancers are pretty meticulous about their records. I think it's because..." My voice trailed off as Skip stopped listening to me and just jumped off the side of the road and onto the sheer cliff face. She deftly began moving her way up despite the ice.

"Skip, what are you doing??" I tried to reach out to her, but she'd already clambered so far over that she was out of range.

She hauled herself up onto a ledge and turned back with a grin. "I really don't have the patience to talk my way through this place. It's too damned cold for that, OK? So I'm just going to run up there really quick, grab Amcerlizar's page in the book, and zip back down here." She jumped up with an impressive leap and grabbed onto a crevice too small to even see from my vantage point.

"You don't have to do that!" I shouted to her over another howl of wind. "I can get in there, trust me!"

"Just go back to the Summoning Pedestal!" she replied. She'd already climbed past the curve of the next switchback. "I'll be back in a second, and we can get this business over with!"

I rolled my eyes. Sometimes her headstrong attitude was endearing and useful... and sometimes it was just stupid. I trudged up the path toward the Academy anyway, watching her quickly progress up the side of the cliff. How she managed to do it in flowing robes and without ropes was utterly beyond me; I was barely able to make it up the nearly flat, smooth path without slipping. 

She reached the base of the tower and barely even paused. I was still a good distance from the main gates, but I couldn't take my eyes off of her. Skip was like some... magic squirrel or something. She was already at the third floor of the first-year dormitory building, perched on a gruesome gargoyle, when I walked through the entrance to the Academy.

"Hello there," the guard greeted me at his booth. He wore a pleasant grin on his face hidden behind a big bushy beard, but I could still see the crescent-shaped blade of the battle ax strapped over his shoulder. "Business here? Come to visit a pupil?"

"I'm an alumnus," I told him. "Class of 3,461."

"Very good, sir." He gestured toward the ghoul's head statue on the edge of his desk, with rows and rows of sharp teeth. "Just complete the blood ritual."

I pricked my finger on one of the teeth, as I'd done every day to enter the castle when I was living 'off campus.' A bright red bubble appear on the very tip of my finger and wetted the ghoul's fang; the liquid slid right down onto its stone tongue. The guard and I both watched for a moment, then blue flames shot out of the ghoul's eyes, confirming that my blood had been accepted.

"Excellent!" the guard enthused. He nodded toward the door out into the Academy courtyard. "Enjoy your visit, sir!"

I walked outside to see Skip clinging to the stone of the library tower. She'd managed to wrench open the window, but she was blocked from getting in. Her fist pounded on some invisible barrier, and even from a distance I could tell that she was getting frustrated. If she'd only stopped to ask me, I could have told her that the campus was protected by a shielding spell to keep out unwanted intruders trying to sneak through windows. But noooo, she had to run off and try to do it her way. A few random pupils scurried between buildings but didn't seem to notice the strange woman hanging high above them. 

After about fifteen minutes of me watching her futilely try to get through the window, she finally admitted defeat and climbed slowly back down. A few of the students pointed and stared at her as she arrived on the ground, and she gave them elaborate, embarrassed waves. "I couldn't get through," she told me when she got close enough. I could see that she was out of breath, and her normally carefully-arranged hair had been scattered by the strong winds..

"Yeah," I laughed. "I saw that."

She glowered back. "Well, what's the plan then, smart guy? How are you going to get through that stupid invisble bubble?"

"Watch the master." I strode inside the library with Skip trailing behind me. The demon manning the front desk barely even looked up as the door opened and an icy blast of wind followed me inside. He just seemed to be a bit annoyed by the flicker of the candles. 

"Hello." I approached the desk. The demon was reading some sort of spell tome and drumming his claws on the wood surface absentmindedly.

"Can I help you?" he growled without even looking up. His black lips were pulled back in a sneer that showed his straight white teeth, which looked out of place against his cherry-red skin. 

"Yes. I am an alumnus of the Academy here, and I'm hoping I could use the alumni registry to look up an old friend. You see, he moved to the Whispering Islands, and I lost track of hi...."

I didn't even get the chance to tell him my elaborately-planned lie. "Up the stairs," the demon grunted, thrusting his horns toward the door to show me where to go. His yellow eyes were still transfixed on the page. "Alumni records are on the sixth floor through the second door on the left, and it's all alphabetical." 

Skip's jaw dropped, and I waltzed toward the staircase with a smug, triumphant grin.

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