The Black Necromancer-Book 4

Chapter 15

Dun, dun, dun! Here's the next chapter! :D I hope you guys like it... haha. Well, comment to tell me your opinions about this chapter, please! :D I'm still dedicating the chapters to my loyal readers so please vote and comment to identify yourselves to me! :D Thanks! :D Picture of Tamarak on the side. :) 

Chapter 15

                When they reached the top floor, Arulan unlocked the door of his chambers and ushered all of them into the main room. None of them could see a thing; there was no modern electricity at the Elemental Academy and not a single candle had been lit.

                “It’s really dark in here,” Dahlia said, the emptiness swallowing up her voice.     

                “Hhoisha!” Arulan commanded. (Fire)

                A wick of a small wax candle burst into flame. Arulan handed the bronze candlestick to Kayla to light the other candles that were arranged strategically all around the main room while he headed for the main fireplace around which a short table and sofas were organized. Once Kayla had lit another candle, Tamarak took the other candle and started helping her.

                Arulan produced his staff and, after repeating the same incantation, lit a roaring fire in the fireplace. The flames seemed to eat up the chill that had settled on the cold stone and sunk into their bones. Kayla had endured much worse, but Dahlia shivered in appreciation, wrapping her arms around herself and approaching the fire. Some of them, namely Kayla and Tamarak, had lived as nomads in hidden areas in the human world, but magicians like Dahlia had had the comforts of the rich and famous.

                Once Kayla had finished lighting all the candles she could see, she put her light down on the wooden table and sank down into a single armchair. Dahlia, Tamarak and Cedric seated themselves strategically on a couch meant for three people whilst the twins, Romulus and Remus, sat down on a sofa, leaving enough space for Troy, Sapphire and Hunter to take another sofa and armchair.

                “Do you know if Raven is any better?” Dahlia asked Arulan, curling up into a ball in her seat and stifling a yawn behind her hand.

                Kayla felt a wave of guilt at Dahlia’s words. That day had been so long, what with Raven’s poisoning, Jenna’s disappearance, the previous discussion with Arulan about the House of Glamours and the most recent fight. She had completely forgotten about Raven’s predicament… and the fact that the Magician of Air was on the brink of death.

                Admittedly, she was not very close to Raven, not the way that Dahlia and Troy were, but it was still painful to watch someone die. Kayla often thought that watching someone whom you cared about die was worse than actually murdering someone else in battle. At least then you knew that you had no choice and it was your life or the other person’s.

                Arulan rubbed his temples, running his long fingers through his grey hair and stroking his beard. “Before you came to see me earlier, I spoke with Sapphire and Jared. I do not know if she will ever wake up. Her coma… it might be permanent. They don’t know how to fix the damage that the poison has done.”

                “But she’s still living and breathing, isn’t she?” Cedric asked, uncertain.

                “Oh, yes,” Arulan said. “But she just lies there. Jared’s potions are the only thing that’s keeping her alive. They can’t seem to figure out what the poison has done to her.”

                “You mean that she’s… she’s brain-dead?” Remus asked.

                Arulan sighed. “We don’t know that for certain. But if Sapphire cannot figure out how to keep Raven alive without Jared’s constant use of potions, we might have to… let her pass on. Jared’s stash of elixirs, tonics and potions has greatly been depleted in the Battle for Avalon and Raven is an infinite waste of his resources. We don’t even know if she’ll recover. Every potion that he uses on her is the waste of a potion that could be used to save another magician’s life.”