The Necromancer

Chapter 7, Part 4

Lirk's jaw hung open, like he was going to say something. I could nearly hear his voice, thanking me for reviving him. I'd never hear it again. I used to get so annoyed by that.

"Winston, we need to go," Skip hissed in my ear. I was dimly aware of the two Golems stomping through the ruins toward us , while more of them moved in Mog's direction. They obviously saw him as the bigger threat, and didn't care too much about two measley humans. Humans who had failed even with the Ruby on their side. Really, I shouldn't have been surprised. This was just my life. I'd been a failure from day one, according to my father. Why should things be any different now?

Skip gave a hard tug on my robes. Instead of having the intended effect of getting me to my feet, I just toppled over in the grass with Lirk's skull still between my hands. My vision blurred as I finally became aware of the tears spilling down my cheeks. She finally managed to drag me to my feet, and I let go of the skull. It rolled up against some broken bricks and came to a stop with his eye sockets against the ground. 

"I can't leave him like that," I told Skip as she tried to pull me away from the approaching Golems. "I can't abandon him with his face in the dirt!" He was buried in a nice grave when I found him all those years ago, and that's how I intended to leave his bones.

"We'll get him later," she assured me, hand still gripping a big bunch of my robes as we made our way toward Mog. He had somehow broken free from the grip of his captors, and had snapped off part of a large column from the ruins to use as a weapon. Each time one of the Golems reached toward him, he swung it with a savage roar and knocked off their hands in a shower of dust and rubble. But the Golems only needed a moment or two to lean down and absorb more dirt and rocks to regrow their limbs, so it was a losing battle. He was being slowly pushed towards the sea cliffs. "Come on, Winston," she said. "I need you to concentrate. What are these, and how do we kill them?"

"Blood Golems. They..." I tried to think back to Professor Magdat's classes about them. But instead that just brough back memories of Lirk, from back when we were in school. "They... uh..." I stifled a sniffle and tried to focus. "They have a heart," I told her, thumping on my own chest. "Behind all the rocks and dirt. There'll be a large, glowing red stone." At least, that's what I thought Professor Magdat had said. What did I know?

The two Golems sent after Skip and I approached with thunderous footsteps. Long, sharp swords made of dust grew out of their hands where their thumbs had been, and the rest of the fingers shrank back into their palms until only the wicked new weapon remained. One of the golems casually swung his weapon/limb through the air and into a low brick wall, which was cleaved straight through. 

"Get back, Winston," Skip said. Without waiting for me to obey, she leaped in front of me brandishing the knife as if that would actually do anything against six tons of angry living rock. She danced lightly to the side as one of the swords came crashing down with ferocious speed. And instead of running and hiding like a sane person, she dashed forward and climbed up its leg like a squirrel after a nut.

"MOG," she shouted across the battlefield. "They have hearts! Hit 'em in the chest!"

The Golem managed to swat Skip off, sending her tumbling down to the grass again. He slammed his sword down toward her, nearly slicing her straight in half. At the last second, she rolled to the side and the blade buried itself into the grass. Before it could even raise the weapon again, she jumped to her feet and dashed straight up its rocky arm with the knife in hand. "How do I get to it?" she shouted down, darting between its shoulders as the golem thrashed around wildly. One of its swords turned back into a hand and grabbed at her, but she was too fast for it. Whenever she had a free moment she tried prying up the rocks on its chest, but more them just took their places from inside the golem. 

I didn't answer. I had no answer. We were truly and completely boned this time. 

The second golem rumbled toward me while Skip was still clambering over the other one's head and trying to dig through its chest. It stood over me  with its blank, featureless face looking down and sword raised high. It didn't speak, gloat, smile... nothing. And I just stared back, helpless. Lirk wasn't here to save me anymore. The sword came plunging down, with the impossibly thin blade coming straight toward my head. Then the Ruby on my chest burned through the fabric of my robes and sent a bolt of scarlet lightning straight into the chest of the Golem. 

The Golem froze and looked down at the lightning with his non-existent eyes. Then his entire body turned to ash, just like Sir Athaelwas and the giant spider. Just like Amcerlizar should have. It came raining down on me, covering my dark robes in little grey flakes.

"Winston!" Skip shouted, dismounting from the Golem. "You have the RUBY! Why didn't I realize that??" She dashed over and got behind me. "Come on, we can get them to attack you!"

I could feel the Ruby against my chest, like a burning ember straight from the heart of a fire. But somehow, it didn't hurt me. The heat radiated across my body and out through my feet until the grass underfoot turned black and brittle. Pure power flowed through my veins, even stronger than when I'd fried that field full of spiders. More power than I'd ever felt in my entire life!

The second golem that Skip had been toying  with stomped forward, with one arm ending in a hand and one ending in a sword. Before it could even get close enough to take a swing, I reached out my hand and released a gout of fire. It wasn't the pitiful little flicker of orange that I usually got when I tried a fire destruction spell. It was a full-on, dragon's breath inferno in hues of purple and orange that even the best masters at the Academy wouldn't be able to summon. I didn't even need the incantation, which was always the hardest part of spellcasting for me. Somehow I always managed to mix up the letters or words at the very worst time. But with the Ruby, it just knew what I wanted to do and made it happen. 

The fire wrapped around the golem, turning its pebbly skin to glass in seconds. The sword blade shattered overhead, raining down large shards that turned to dust whenever they got too close to me. The golem stopped moving completely as its entire body fused together and it was completely frozen in place. 

"Twelve hells, Winston!" Skip breathed out, picking up a piece of the glass blade that was longer than her forearm. "How did you do that?"

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