The Nekromancer - 99. Chapter 99

“Four cups, two that would let us pass through the wall, two that are poison.”

“Let me guess, there’s a riddle to figure out which is which, right?” Jeremy frowned. “I’ve seen this trick before.”

They stood in a small chamber with two doors, an exit and a door that led into a stone wall. It had been confusing until Jakun found a note, the catfolk’s ears folding over as he read it.

“All bring despair, if not death… Why would they bring despair?” Jakun frowned. “Two will pass, two will kill, one a poisoned delay. Well, I can’t say whoever wrote this was good at explanations.”

“Probably a god with little memory of how mortality works,” Jeremy shrugged. “Any ideas for drinking the right ones?”

“I’m undead, I doubt a poison would harm me,” the lich suggested.

“Yes, but you also cannot taste,” Jeremy pointed out. “What happens when you end up drinking both potions? I’ve been through one of these before, it was a dare by some ganzi.”

“A what?”

“Ganzi. Mutated humans. She had crab pincers for hands,” Jeremy shrugged.

“So how did she survive? It would be hard to eat like that.” Jakun frowned.

“I have no idea. But it should be easy to get through this. I could cast this spell in my sleep. Remember when we first met and you thought I was poisoning you with the alcohol?”

Jakun nodded slowly as Jeremy held out a hand.

“Yeah, Anya warned me about the poison, as if I couldn’t smell it. But none of these have a scent. And Anya’s never coming back.”

“I am sorry for your loss, but you should have known not to play with death,” Jeremy admonished. “This spell only affects water. And these all look like water, but two of them aren’t. It should turn those but leave the potion untouched.”

“Most potions use water as a base I think,” Jakun said. “How do you know this won’t affect the water in them?”

“If anything, the water would turn to wine, leaving the spell untouched. I think.”

“That’s a big risk for a place like this,” the amurrun warned.

“I know. But I’m feeling lucky,” Jeremy grinned.

He raised his hand, a prayer slipping from his lips as he called upon the power of his god. The liquid in two of the cups started shaking, turning from clear into a rich red colour, the spell making them into wine. Jeremy smirked as he picked one up, studying the colour.

“See? It would have killed us instantly,” he said, before draining the wine in a single gulp.

“What are you doing?!”

“Waste not want not,” Jeremy shrugged, picking up the other glass of wine. “Don’t worry, the spell completely neutralises the poison. The worse the poison, the more full body the taste is. Want a sip?”

Jakun shook his head, watching the cleric swallow the second cup. Jeremy let out a satisfied burp, setting the cups down on the table.

“You know, back in Anuli I had this great shop Amnor Sen helped me build. It was a brewery dedicated to Cayden Cailean. All handcrafted and brewed by myself. Of course, what I didn’t tell people was that the specialty brews were poisoned before being turned to ale; they would have never tried them to begin with. This spell earned me quite a bit of money.”

“So the venoms you used to carry around, they were just for your alcohol?”

“Yeah, they were each specifically tailored to a different taste. I had a nice little system, but now I can’t find the damned things. It’s all about knowing what to add and what poisons go well together. Of course, most of them were far too expensive and I ended up losing the shop when I couldn’t pay off a certain dealer. There’s probably a life lesson in there somewhere, but I don’t do those.”

The cleric picked up one of the remaining cups, looking down at the clear liquid. He heard Jakun muttering beside him, the lich’s eyes glowing a brief red. It was unnerving, but then, so was Jakun as a lich. Jeremy still wasn’t used to that.

“They’re magic. Transmutative,” he said. “A form of teleportation. They should get us through that wall.”

“Okay,” Jeremy shrugged, handing one of the cups to the lich. “I’m going first, then you follow as long as it doesn’t turn me into a toad, deal?”

The amurrun nodded, and Jeremy stepped up to the false door before drinking the contents of the cup. Instantly the cleric felt the effects of the potion, his body feeling like it was split in half. Glancing briefly at his hand, he saw it flash translucent. Hopefully it was enough to get through the wall.

Taking a deep breath, the cleric charged forward, every instinct telling him to turn back before he hit the wall. He passed into darkness before emerging in a dimly lit hall, and Jeremy let out a shaky laugh. It worked… he couldn’t believe it, he had just walked through a solid wall. Well, ran through a solid wall.

His body flicked solid again as he examined the hall briefly, and Jeremy frowned at the sight of a strange glowing rune. There was a sudden burst of blinding green light and the cleric staggered back, his body struggling to fight off the spell that had been thrown.

It was no use. He could feel his body coming apart at the seams, a loud cry piercing his ears as cold hands caught him. Jakun… he needed to know about the trap…

“Jakun…”

Jeremy’s mind turned inward, his life flashing before him. Abandoned on the streets of Anuli, fighting people for coins… meeting Amnor Sen and finding his best friend in the world… helping the paladin build his forge before losing everything to his dealers… deciding to set out north to make their mark on the world.

It had been a stupid choice for them both, they should have stayed in the south. And he felt arms close around him as his body fell apart, Amnor Sen’s kiss the last thing to cross his mind.