Fall of the Arch Lich (D'Vaire, Book 6) Read online

  “Fine, but know we’re here for you whenever you want to,” Benton offered. Chander’s heart, so black and barren, softened a bit. He’d missed his closeness with the two men and was hoping for a permanent thaw in their relationship.

  “Thank you. If I’m ever ready to discuss it, I’ll let you know.”

  “Fair enough,” Baxter said. “We just want to help. We’re sorry for being hardasses about it for the last couple of months.”

  “I’ve missed you guys,” Chander told the pair. “You don’t have to apologize. I can’t talk about Alaric. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to. And it’s just as hard to keep things from you.”

  Benton gave him a solemn glance. “We’ve missed you too, and we do owe you an apology. We’re a family. We shouldn’t turn our backs on each other.”

  “I didn’t see it as turning your back on me. I figured you were pissed.”

  “We want you to be happy,” Benton insisted.

  Chander’s throat tightened and his words were low when he spoke. “Happy isn’t in the cards right now.”

  “Okay, we get it,” Baxter said. “But you need to start taking better care of yourself.”

  “I guess we’re right back to normal, aren’t we?” Chander asked with a chuckle which came close to being teary.

  “Yes,” Benton replied. “You need to eat. You’ve lost the weight you gained after you were sick, and your eyes are so bloodshot it hurts to look at you.”

  “Hey, I slept last night.”

  “Was it the first time in three months?” Baxter asked.

  Sleep didn’t come easily. Before Alaric, he’d avoided it to get in more time to study spellbooks. He was on a never-ending quest to restore the dragon counterparts of the Reverent Knights. Now that Alaric was gone, he didn’t want to doze off because he knew all he’d dream of was that damn picture. And since that was something he didn’t want to talk about, he let Baxter’s question go unanswered.

  He knew neither of his sentinels was fooled, but he just couldn’t humiliate himself by telling them what Alaric had done. Chander wasn’t sure they’d ever know the truth. A great big part of him wished he didn’t and that he could return to the brief time when he’d thought he’d been in love. The delusion of those days might just be preferable to the cold, stark reality of an endless eternity alone.

  Chapter 4

  Alaric grabbed the papers from his desk and headed down the hall to his conference room. He walked in and seven heads turned in his direction. All of the Skeleton Seven were already in attendance; they could get their meeting started.

  “How’s everyone at D’Vaire?” Alaric asked the two sentinels who hailed from there.

  Gedeon smirked. “You mean since you last saw them three days ago?”

  “Exactly.”

  “Fantastic,” Gedeon replied. “Larissa sent over more pajamas, and Noirin gave me a pile of recipes.”

  “Wonderful, did Larissa get another shipment yet from the uniform company?” Alaric inquired. It had taken a few weeks, but Alaric had convinced the D’Vaire tailor to outsource the stunning uniforms she’d designed for the Sentinel Brotherhood. There was no way she would have time for much else with over eight thousand men to supply, so she had relented. However, Alaric and the Skeleton Seven would continue to have theirs made by Larissa. She’d insisted and Alaric had agreed. He knew their uniforms were more intricate and knew Larissa would never feel comfortable unless they were being crafted in her own shop.

  “Another shipment is due next week,” Gavrael replied.

  “Good, I want everyone to have plenty when we’re finally ready to leave the compound,” Alaric said. “What kind of recipes did Noirin send over?”

  Gedeon handed Alaric a few pages. “Ever since D’Vaire became her test kitchen for the sentinels, the food has become even more incredible. And since she insists on dessert items too, Dra’Kaedan has never sung her praises so loud.”

  “May I see them?” Brynnius requested. Alaric slid them over to the Skeleton Lord. He was skeletal and couldn’t eat, but he was intrigued by all things related to food. Alaric couldn’t wait for his humanity to return, so he could experience the culinary delights Noirin provided both at the compound and at D’Vaire.

  “The one for carrot cake looks especially interesting.” Brynnius handed the pages back to Alaric.

  “Why that one?” Ducarius asked.

  “I like the color of carrots,” Brynnius replied.

  “Orange is a strange color,” Albrecht threw in.

  “I think that’s because orange is a weird word,” Cassius said.

  “We have strange conversations,” Gavrael observed.

  “We do,” Alaric agreed. “Let’s move on. Any news on Drexley’s whereabouts?”

  “It helped that you remembered the last time you saw him,” Gedeon responded. “And you’d think since you also recalled who his necromancer is, we’d be able to find him, but the truth is we’ve gotten nowhere.”

  Alaric frowned. “I thought the Order of Necromancia kept excellent records of all their people.”

  “They do,” Gedeon said. “I was able to do a search. He existed, but appears to have dropped off the face of the earth right around the time Drexley left the compound.”

  “That was five hundred years ago,” Alaric replied. “That was when the Council was still in Europe. Is there any chance he stayed there and joined the Consilium Veneficus?”

  “We considered that,” Gedeon told him. “I asked Trystan to help me out. He knows way more about computers and searching historical stuff than I do. The problem is, the records for the Consilium Veneficus aren’t accessible, and Trystan was pretty sure all the necromancers came over with the Council. I mean they weren’t thrilled the Arch Lich wasn’t going to be the Council leader anymore, but they didn’t want to stay to find out what life would be like with Arch Wizard Egidius in charge.”

  Trystan D’Vaire was the only child of Reverent Knight Drystan Gylde-Kempe and a historical scholar and author. Since he was also half necromancer, he was a virtual authority on the Order of Necromancia. “I have no idea what to do about finding Drexley,” Alaric confessed. It bothered him that there was a sentinel out there missing. If he could find him and be assured he was fine then he’d move on, but the not knowing was driving him crazy. He was glad that once he had started regaining his memory, he could at least pinpoint the moment Drexley had left the compound and who had summoned him.

  “Trystan’s committed to continuing to help me search. Hopefully we can find something to give us a lead. It makes sense that he’d be in Europe though—you said when you tried to track him after you regained your memories of him, you couldn’t sense him at all,” Gedeon commented.

  “You’re right, I hadn’t thought about that,” Alaric replied. “I feared he was dead.”

  “I didn’t think any sentinels had died,” Eduard responded.

  Alaric nodded. “To my knowledge none have, but I’m still missing well over a thousand years of my memory.”

  “We don’t have any more missing names,” Albrecht pointed out.

  “Your name was never on any ledger,” Alaric reminded the only black skeleton. “And we found you behind a barely marked wall, thanks to Cass.”

  “I’ve still been hunting around as we move stuff and visit the other sentinels,” Cassius revealed. “If there are any more men in this building missing, we’ll find them.”

  “Let’s talk about rooms,” Alaric suggested. “How’s everything working out?”

  “I think it’s going great,” Cassius replied. “We’ve added so many new spaces. I think we have a really good look at what kind of blueprint we’d like to have in our new facility.”

  “We’ll need more when we move to the Council,” Brynnius said. “We should have classrooms to bring in instructors on everything. Sentinels like to learn things.”

  “That’s true,” Alaric agreed. “We’ll sit down and figure out the criteria we want when we know we’l
l be able to bring our guys there.”

  “The basketball hoops have been a big hit,” Eduard responded. “Albie doesn’t like them though.”

  “I’m the shortest sentinel. I get my ass kicked whenever I play,” Albrecht complained.

  “You’re fast as fuck—use speed,” Cassius suggested.

  “The rules state you have to dribble. I don’t seem to be able to dribble as fast as I can run.”

  “You need more practice,” Gavrael observed.

  “I prefer the other sports we’ve added,” Albrecht told them.

  “Which ones?” Ducarius asked.

  “I like playing soccer,” Albrecht said. “It would be my favorite.”

  Cassius laughed. “That’s because no one can catch you.”

  “I was thinking we could add bowling,” Gedeon replied. “But technology doesn’t work here, so I don’t know how we’d get the balls back after they knocked down the pins.”

  Alaric lifted a brow. “Magic?”

  “Yeah, maybe but what if it starts doing weird shit like eating the balls?” Gedeon asked.

  “We’ll use magic to create more balls,” Alaric countered. “Get all the specifics we need to add bowling. I am anxious for the sentinels to experience as much as they can. They’ve wallowed in solitary confinement for two millennia. They deserve to have fun.”

  “They’ve responded well to everything we’ve added so far,” Cassius pointed out. “The game rooms and gymnasiums are always packed.”

  “We should consider adding libraries,” Eduard suggested. “The only books here are full of weapon techniques. They are informative but you can only read them so many times before they get dull.”

  “Perhaps we could acquire donated books?” Gavrael asked. “I know I always wished for more books when I was here.”

  “If it’s all right, I’ll talk to Trystan. He’s been a bookworm forever. I’m sure he could help us with ideas on how to get started on that,” Gedeon said.

  “Go ahead and talk to him, but I’m willing to do the legwork. Trystan doesn’t need to spend all his time doing work which belongs to the sentinels,” Alaric replied.

  “We can help too,” Gedeon insisted. “It sounds like a great project, and we can easily move all the donated books to our new facility when it’s ready.”

  “Speaking of our new complex, there’s still no reasonable location for us. We want to be close to Headquarters, and all that land is owned by other Council leaders. I think we can contact the owners to see if we can convince them to sell, but it seems foolish to pursue it when we can’t even bring our guys to the Council yet to get their damn ID Cards,” Alaric stated.

  “Has the Order of Necromancia filed any new petitions to block us?” Eduard asked.

  “They don’t need to,” Alaric retorted. “The Council has yet to come up with a way to essentially force them to summon our sentinels. They’ve never encountered a situation quite like this one, and I think they’re at a loss. It’s my understanding that the Council has never forced a race to change their bylaws. In this case they would have to. The Order of Necromancia’s clearly states the summoning of a sentinel is voluntary.”

  “It’s ridiculous—we’re not their possessions. We are people. We shouldn’t be forced to obey their whims,” Albrecht said.

  “I couldn’t agree more,” Alaric responded.

  “What do we do?” Brynnius inquired.

  “The Emperor says we must stay patient and keep a constant presence,” Alaric replied. “He’s thrilled we have our offices set up, and he believes I should begin attending daily Council sessions.”

  “How do you feel about that?” Gedeon asked.

  “I’m not crazy about seeing the Arch Lich, but I know my needs are secondary to that of our people. We need allies and we can’t gain them if I’m always here. It’s imperative we pressure the Order of Necromancia, or we’ll never have a need to build our complex,” Alaric explained. “And that will keep the sentinels that’re here who haven’t found their mates alone forever. That’s unacceptable to me.”

  “At least our vestibule in the Main Assembly Hall is far away from the Order of Necromancia,” Cassius added.

  Alaric appreciated that though he’d met five of these men after Chander had ended things, they all stood behind him and understood that things were difficult. “Yes, and it’s at an angle from them so I will only get a glance at Chand anyway.”

  “When will you begin attending?” Eduard asked.

  “I thought next week on Monday.” Alaric turned to the D’Vaire sentinels. “That is if I can count on one of you to come and get me?”

  “We’d be more than happy to help,” Gedeon insisted. “It’s ridiculous that clocks don’t work here.”

  “There’s not even sunlight to use a sundial,” Alaric quipped.

  Gedeon rolled his eyes. “Even the old-fashioned wind-up clock began acting weird and losing time when we brought it here. It’s nuts.”

  “I know, I had hoped it would work.” It’d been annoying that it didn’t; Alaric would have preferred to be able to keep track of time without having to ask the D’Vaire sentinels to come and get him each time he had an appointment or obligation.

  “While we’re discussing the Council, I’d like to add that we have over eight thousand men who need IDs and can’t get them,” Gedeon said. “And we have five in this room who can and still haven’t yet.”

  “We hardly need them. We are never there,” Ducarius stated.

  “Not really the point,” Gedeon replied.

  “I think as long as all of us aren’t free to get them, then the members of the Skeleton Seven who live here should refrain from acquiring them,” Cassius responded. “We stand in solidarity with our men who have no choices. We’re fortunate not to have necromancers. They aren’t so lucky.”

  “Perhaps that is something we can mention to the rest of the Council or the Emperor,” Ducarius suggested. “They will realize we are dedicated to the plight of our men.”

  “Now I feel bad that I have one,” Gedeon complained.

  Alaric’s mouth lifted in a half smile. “Don’t. You deserve the happiness of getting to live at D’Vaire with your family. I want each sentinel to have the pleasure of all you have access to, but I don’t hold it against you that you’re fortunate to have it now. And your family has enriched the lives of everyone at the compound. I want you to continue to carry stories of all that’s available to you to the men you visit here and give them hope they’ll get to see all you speak of.”

  “I will do that gladly,” Gedeon said.

  “Good,” Alaric replied. “Now, is there anything else we need to discuss?”

  Seven men assured him they’d covered all the pressing concerns and so Alaric called the meeting to a close. He headed back to his office to add the recipes to the compound and then set out to talk to the sentinels on his list for the day. They might not have the best of lives here, but it sure as shit beat the ones they’d had just a few months before.

  Chapter 5

  Chander sat down at the large desk that faced the Main Assembly Hall. The room was noisy, leaders were filing in, and the public viewing seats were full of people getting settled. Looking around, Chander was surprised to see the light on in the vestibule that belonged to the Sentinel Brotherhood. He didn’t have the best line of sight, but he could clearly see the strong profile of the handsome, cheating Lich Sentinel. Alaric must have sensed his stare, because he turned to face Chander. Their eyes locked but there was too much distance to read anything from Alaric’s expression.

  It hurt to see him. His chartreuse gaze was as intense as he recalled, and those lips that Chander had wanted to lick from the moment they met still made hunger churn in his belly. That pissed him off. He didn’t want his body to respond to a man who had so callously ripped apart their matebond. Emotions began to boil up from the depths of his broken heart. Desolation was the big winner, and Chander couldn’t take another second of Alaric’s scrut
iny.

  Baxter and Benton opened the door which separated the Main Assembly Hall from the private alcove and joined Chander at his desk. He was grateful for the distraction of their arrival.

  “What the hell are they doing here?” Baxter asked. For a moment, Chander thought he was remarking about Alaric’s presence but then the fact that he’d used the word they registered.

  “They who?” he asked.

  “The elders,” Baxter replied. “They’re down in the public area.”

  Chander tapped on the screen in front of him. There was nothing on the agenda that related to the Order of Necromancia. “I don’t understand. There’s no petition listed for them.”

  Before anyone could answer, the light on his desk went on. He and his sentinels rose to their feet as the Emperor walked in.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, have a seat,” Emperor Chrysander Draconis said. Chander had known the man long enough to recognize the annoyance in his voice. “I received a petition late last night that I have added to the schedule this morning. It should be arriving on your tablets now. I would like to call the elder council of the Order of Necromancia to the podium for questions.”

  Chander’s shoulders slumped. Here they go again with another damn petition to try and undermine the sentinels, he thought with exasperation. It was a good thing Alaric was in attendance, so he could defend his men. With a touch of his finger to the device on his desk, Chander discovered he was wrong. The petition had nothing to do with the Sentinel Brotherhood and everything to do with him.

  “Elder Sigimund, would you please state to this Council the intent of your petition?” Chrysander asked.

  “Yes, Your Majesty. The elder council of the Order of Necromancia is asking this Council to terminate the reign of Arch Lich Chander Daray as the leader of our race,” Sigimund announced.