h I count you as a friend, Anders, there are many things about me of which you know nothing,” said Karsten.
“But it was my fault,” I said. “Mine alone.”
“She was my mother. I claim my bloodright,” Karsten said, looking me straight in the eyes.
“I feared this,” Woltan said. “Yet I must accept it. It is our law.”
Karsten was still staring at me, waiting for a response. “And do you, Anders Tomason, accept me as well, of your own free will?”
I felt the eyes of the whole group upon me. I wanted to look away but I knew somehow I couldn’t — I had to look Karsten in the eye, and so I did. Karsten’s face was free of anger, and full of determination. His eyes were red, but his face was calm.
I nodded. “Hail and well met, Karsten Ludwigson.”
I felt a shock run through my hand and up my arm as I shook hands with Karsten. There is magic in you too.
Karsten smiled a grim smile. Are you surprised? I told you I have many secrets. I am a cook by choice, not for lack of other options.
Woltan nodded. “Then all is decided. Anders, Kara, myself, Elias, Karsten, and our smith. A party of six. Kalle and Kara and I will make the gateway, and Elias will transfer energy from the city. But we must hurry. There’s a disturbance in the air; the dark lord attempts to probe us all, and we must hurry yet be wary.”
Kalle nodded and stepped forward. He grabbed my hand with his right and Kara’s with his left. “When you are all through I will close the gateway. We will attempt to reach the outside camp of the Kriek. Inside there is strong magic that allows no gateways in or out.”
Kalle squeezed my hand then, and a gateway opened up before us.
The face was hooded, but the eyes were green, and I felt them bore into me.
The man smiled.
“Neffe.”
I felt everyone around me freeze. The room was silent except for the sound of laughter. The man was laughing at us.
Are you so surprised? Did you really think I’d just let you all pop out of there on your little mission? Come, join me, Anders. We can be great together.
I turned my head to look at my companions but there were all frozen; I felt Kalle’s hand tightening in my own, and Kara’s too.
No!!!
Elias!!!
I needed energy — I felt my companions being sapped, stuck in this cycle as the Dark Lord laughed and continued talking to me.
Come on. They are your past. They will soon be ashes and dust. Come with me, to the land of the living, and leave the dead behind.
I felt my hands being squeezed, looked to my right and left and saw Kalle’s eyes unfocused, Kara’s eyes rolling in her sockets. It was now or never.
And then I felt a small hand touch me, the hand between the sword pommel and my waist, and a word erupted forth from my mouth. Energy surged from the sword, and from the hand, and from the ground beneath me and the word knocked me back against the wall behind me as it blasted into the laughing face.
SCHLIESSEN!
The energy surged through me, and the gateway turned into a tiny dot. But it did not vanish. Then it was growing again, the size of a coin, of a fist. I felt a surge from the sword and wished I could grab it, but my hands were squeezed by Kalle and Kara, and then Elias spoke behind me:
VERSCHWINDEN!
There was a great boom. The fist sized gateway simple ceased to be, in a flash of light and the smell of burnt sulfur. There was a burn mark on the wall behind where the gateway had been, and all around us the walls seemed cracked, dull, broken.
Lifeless.
Elias had sucked the life energy out of the very stone and mortar around us.