Legacy of the Necromancer [Legacy, BK1 - Completed]

Chapter 7:3

I laid back and closed my eyes. I don't remember trying to sleep, but the next thing I knew, John was shaking me, roughly. "Ezra, wake up. Something's wrong."

I shot up, instantly alert. Tamner knelt on the other side of Poe, trying to hold the bird down. Poe shrieked, the sound piercing.

"What's wrong?" I reached out, intending to help the old man hold him. As soon as I touched Poe, though, I could feel his power building.

"I don't know, Hasim," Tamner said, struggling.

"Let go," I said, stepping back. John stepped forward to help as well, but I grabbed his arm. "No, stay back." Poe continued to thrash about.

"Hasim, he'll hurt himself."

I grabbed Tamner as well and pulled them both away, back towards the fire.

"Just wait. I think he's-" I didn't even get the words out of my mouth before feathers exploded across the room. Then there was a groan of pain.

Poe's human form was very still against the furs he laid on, his clothes torn and dirty from the blast. I rushed back to his side, checking first to see if he was still breathing. Tamner wasn't two steps behind me.

"What-" John stuttered. "What did I- where'd the bird go?"

"This is the bird." Tamner spoke as he examined the sprawled body, not bothering to face John. Poe stirred, but didn't regain consciousness.

I waited, anxious to see what he'd say. When Tamner finally turned to me, he smiled.

"He will be well, although it will take time for him to heal. Maybe long time. His injuries are great. I think it took a lot of his power to contain the blast as he did."

I did not like the sound of that. "We'll have to find another way back, is what you mean."

Tamner nodded.

"Is there any other way back?" John asked, stepping closer.

The old man looked to me. "Only the Blessed Hasim and the Great Ones have the power to travel between the worlds."

John looked at me. "He calls you Hasim, does that mean you can get us home?"

I sat down by the fire, the panic and exhaustion catching up with me. "Poe mentioned that possibly, one day, I could open portals like he does. But I'm nowhere near that point in my training. I wouldn't even know where to start."

I thought about what Tamner said, how the Hasim and the Great Ones were able to travel between worlds, but it didn't fit with the Stanwood legends. The Stanwoods didn't always have a familiar like Poe to guide them. In fact, Poe was the first true familiar they'd had.

"Wait, how many others came here before me? Was it just Poe?"

He shook his head. "There used to be many like you. The Blessed Hasim who walked between the worlds with the Great Ones. But that was in my great, great grandfather's time. They spoke of a war in their world, one that brought much sadness to their hearts. We watched their numbers dwindle until eventually they came to visit no longer." He looked at me. "I was just a young child when I saw the last one leave. It is how I recognized you. I felt the portal, like I had so many years ago, and sent my granddaughter to guide you to us."

Tamner's words hit me hard. I already regretted my hesitation on that day, more than I regretted anything else in my life, but to learn that she had been his granddaughter... It felt like I was living the night all over again.

He looked at me with sorrow in his eyes. "Hasim, there will be a great many tragedies in your life, but there will be wonders as well. We must find balance between the two, lest the heavier pull you under."

I glanced away from him, not able to meet his gaze.

"I will go find something to eat. Food will help." Tamner left me and John alone.

John sat across the fire from me and shifted, trying to stretch his legs out. "I wondered what had happened, you know," he said after a minute or two of silence. "You didn't answer any of my emails or phone calls. It was like you had just vanished off the face of the earth."

Looking away, I shrugged. "I've been home. Remember how I told you we didn't have a computer or cell phones? My grandfather always thought they were a trick, that the Witches were using them to hunt us down. He wouldn't allow them anywhere near the house. Even now, we don't have Internet and the cell phone reception is non-existent. We have to go down to the nearest town about an hour away."

He stared at me. "You're telling me you haven't left your house in three months."

I shook my head. "Not until recently. I left on a road trip with my dad earlier this week, but other than that, no."

He looked at me like I was crazy. "Your family is that scared of us? That you barely leave your home?"

"When we've been hunted to the last four of us, yes. You could say we're afraid," I snapped at him. Although, as I said that, I had that odd feeling of knowing they aren't my blood, even though I referred to them as my family.

John was quiet for a while after that. Only the sound of the fire and Poe's labored breathing filled the hut.

"They were right about you, though," he said finally.

I glanced through the flames of the fire. "What?"

"About being a Necromancer, I mean. The Priestess thought it was a long shot, seeing a Stanwood name pop up on a student loan form. They choose me because I was the closest and the easiest to get into college."

He laughed a little. "We tend to focus solely on developing our powers. We don't study much else beyond that, just enough to get through high school and complete whatever orders are passed to us from the Priests and Priestesses. I was kinda the odd one out in that respect.

"They arranged for us to end up as roommates and even take a few of the same classes. I couldn't tell you how nervous I was that morning, moving into the dorm. I'd never even seen a Necromancer, let alone have to take one out all by myself."

I looked at him sharply. "You mean, you were supposed to kill me?"

He looked guilty. "But I didn't, obviously! As soon as I met you and knew you weren't a Necromancer, I realized someone had to have made a mistake somewhere. There was no way I would have gone through with it."

I stood on shaking legs, they felt weaker than before. "But you would have, right?" I accused around the tightening lump in my throat. "If I actually had any Talent then, you would have killed me. Just like any other Necromancer you might have come across."

John bit his lip, forcing his eyes up to meet mine. The truth was there, plain to see.

I turned on my heel and headed out of Tamner's hut. 

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I've had a super crappy week and to be honest, this update almost didn't happen. I'm hoping, as long as everything goes better over the weekend, to have the last section of Chapter 7, (7:4), up in the later half of next week.  As always, stay tuned to my Twitter and Instagram for updates.