The knight, the dragon and the necromancer. Daert dilogy-1

— You should look after Toad. — Knight turned to Rosa, who was just unfastening the straps that held her in the saddle. Until the last moment she had feared that they would have to take off again under artillery fire.

— I'm coming with you. — The young sorceress gave Marius a glare. He shook his head:

— Good. I hope you... find something to do after this.

Toad was obviously not happy to let his master go anywhere in such a tense situation, but after a few repeated commands she resigned herself and stayed where she was. The uninvited guests were led to the camp on foot, under a solid escort. Colonel de Beaulior certainly knew what dragon knights were capable of even without weapons. Strangely enough, the escort did not go to the main camp, but somewhere around it. It wasn't a long journey, and Rose was out of breath before the group reached their destination. It was a smaller part of the camp, made up of tents of a different colour. While most of the tents Rosa had seen were made of yellow and red cloth — probably de Velonda's crest colours — these stood out with grey or brown walls. Only a couple of larger tents flaunted black and gold colours. The dim camp was far away from the river and the other tents, and the ducal banner did not fly above it.

— They are Loyalists, — Marius said quietly to the girl. — Supporters of Queen Octavia. Donna Vittoria is with them, not the duke's men.

— Who is she? — Rosa asked, but she did not have time to hear the answer. He went into one of the black and gold tents, stayed there for half a minute, and came out in a hurry. He gave orders:

— Come on in. Donna's waiting.

The convoy remained outside — the young men and girl entered the tent alone.

— Good day, Don. Good day, colleague, — the hostess greeted them, standing beside a mahogany folding table.

Donna Vittoria de Morax was a woman just over twenty-five, tall and slender, even graceful. And dazzlingly beautiful — Rosa felt a pang of envy at the sight of her delicate face, her pure white skin, and her luxuriant red hair in two thick braids. As if realising that her beauty was already obvious, she wore a simple blue dress with a pelerine, adorned only with a gold brooch, as well as unadorned high heeled boots. She wore round gold spectacles, much thinner and lighter than Rosa's. The woman's waist was bound by a wide magician's belt with the obligatory set of flasks and pouches.

— I have been informed that you have arrived in a rather memorable way. — Donna rested her palm on the tabletop. Her green eyes glittered behind the lenses of her glasses. There was a strange half-smile on her lips — like she seemed to know something about her guests that they didn't know themselves. — And it's me you're looking for. Well, I'm listening.

The dragon knight bowed briefly, and Rose, belatedly realising, followed suit.

— Are you Donna Vittoria de Morax, royal forensic necromancer of Daert, my lady? — Marius straightened and stepped forward.

— That's right. — The woman only nodded slightly in response to the ceremonial bow.

— You were commissioned by Queen Octavia to investigate certain events in the kingdom with the bailiff, Don Armando de Gorazzo?

— Right. — The red-haired donna tilted her head to her shoulder. Her face remained impenetrable, but her lips quivered for a subtle moment. Rose wouldn't have noticed it if she hadn't been watching the woman's face closely.

— I met Don Armando a few weeks ago. — Marius put his hands behind his back. — He was travelling with a party along the Senare River. Among his companions were my cousin, Minerva, and her dragon.

— Have a seat. — Vittoria gestured to a couple of chairs in front of the table. She lowered herself into a much more comfortable armchair with a soft, high back. When the guests were seated, she said: — Luca, get the wine.

What Rosa first thought was a grey leather bag in a dark corner moved. The strange wrinkled creature straightened up, waddled over to the chest covered with a white cloth. The girl held her breath as she realised she was looking at an orangutan ape. A bald ape. A dead bald ape that Donna the necromancer uses as a servant.

— Go on, Don. — Vittoria herself did not even glance in Luca's direction. Her attention was on Marius. — Hurry, the Duke's men will be here soon.

— Don Armando was disembarking from a riverboat on the shore of Senara when I met him. — The knight tried to remain calm, but his gaze also jumped back and forth to the necroconstruct. — Don Ardano, my cousin, and a group of imperial agents were with him.

— Imperial? — Vittoria raised her eyebrows.

— Yes, — Marius glanced at Rosa and, apparently for her, explained: — Queen Octavia accidentally discovered that on the territory of Daert there is some secret organisation of people who are beyond the control of any form of magic. These people used unusual machinery that our best engineers cannot understand. To investigate their origins and ties to local forces, the Queen has assigned a few reliable judicial officials.

— Me and the two crown bailiffs, — Donna Vittoria nodded. She intertwined her fingers and rested her chin on them. Luca came over and placed a jug of wine and three silver goblets on the table.

— Turns out these people aren't just active in our Coalition. — Marius moved away while the dead orangutan poured him wine. — They were committing murders and trying to put their people in important positions in the East, in the Empire. Imperial agents in their investigation reached Daert, where they met with Don Armando. They made an alliance. Their captain, the elven Lady Valria, shared the information with me.

Marius grabbed the goblet and drained it half-full at once. Under Donna Vittoria's scrutinising gaze, he blurted out:

— The Imperials are our enemies, but... These people who are immune to magic are aliens. They come from another world where magic doesn't exist, but machine technology is incredibly advanced. So much so that sometimes it's superior to magic or indistinguishable from it. The new king, Auguste, is their ally. They supply him with weapons and men in exchange for co-operation. The outsiders want to control the continent through puppet rulers. Auguste killed Queen Octavia with the weapons of the outsiders. Don Armando saw it with his own eyes. Octavia's family was probably killed in the same way two years ago. It's a conspiracy against everyone. The Kingdom, the Empire, the Coalition duchies, the elven principalities, all are in danger.

For half a minute there was silence in the tent, viscous as tar. Finally, the red-haired donna leaned back in her chair:

— Don Armando worked in the provinces, I worked in the capital. I didn't meet any Imperials, but I learnt a few things myself while the Queen was alive. It's not strange that the new king has declared me and Don an outlaw. If Armando and I combined our information, we could cause Augustus a lot of trouble. We'll have a more detailed conversation, Don Marius. While we think of what to tell the Duke's men.

For the first time in the entire conversation, she shifted her gaze to Rose:

— And you, colleague?

— Rosa Granchi, nature mage. Second grade, fifth year at the Academy. — It sounded silly, but she couldn't think of anything better. Donna Vittoria somehow gave Rosa a feeling of unease and a chill between her shoulder blades. Not only because of her speciality — there was something in her demeanour, in her look, in her intonation, something... unpleasant, but at the same time paradoxically attractive. — I'm just a travelling companion. Don and I met by chance and... well... travelled together. I was treating his dragon.

— I suppose you want to go back to the Academy?

— No. — Rosa pulled herself together and answered firmly. — I want to stay and help. To Marius and... to you, I suppose. Marius will stay with you, won't he?

— Yes, a bail bondsman with a dragon would come in handy for me. — The red-haired donna's grin grew wider. — If he doesn't mind. And you, Rosa...

The necromancer stood up, walked around the table, touched the frozen girl's shoulder with her fingertips. Their gazes met.

— Nature magic and necromancy study the same thing: living beings. — Donna Vittoria spoke with deliberation. — Just in different states. At the end of the fifth year, you are already a graduate, but without the stamped paper. It's time for you to continue your studies with a personal tutor. Would you like to start learning a new speciality...?

"Pragmatists are not born, they become. This is a fairly obvious truth. But some will call my next statement nonsense. Idealism and pragmatism are quite compatible. A person who combines both of these qualities is capable of much. Perhaps it is precisely such people that future generations call heroes"

The Witch-Queen, "Memories", volume one.

Part Two. The Devided Kingdom

"In this book, I perhaps play too often with proverbs, a habit I earned at the Academy when I was still a student. Such a technique allows me to both add clarity to a statement and draw the reader's attention to it at once. In this chapter, my victim will be the assertion that a lost battle does not mean a lost war. I will say, however, that at times to win a war you must lose a battle. As usual, it is a matter of choosing the right moment...".

The Witch-Queen, "Memories," Volume Two.

Chapter 6

Rosa had little interest in the affairs of the neighbouring faculties at the Academy, and it would not have occurred to her that learning the basics of necromancy would begin with an attempt to make an amulet against dust. Yet that was exactly what she was doing now. She sat in Donna Vittoria's comfortable chair and stroked the roundel lying on the table with her fingertips, wondering how to approach it. The problem was that the amulet was carved from wood. That made all the difference.

The forces that any magician controls affect matter animate, inanimate and dead in their own way. Initially dead matter is the most passive and easy to handle. In the bodies of living beings their own energy flows, which must be taken into account. The remains, however, abandoned by life, react to the flow of magic often strangely and unpredictably. As a result, it takes three different sets of skills to create amulets with the same properties from a gemstone, a fresh apple, and a cow bone. Like bone, dry wood was also once alive — which meant that any manipulation of it fell into the realm of necromancy.

Rosa's fingers were entangled in a fine web of shimmering green translucent lines. As the girl's thoughts and the faint movements of her hand, the individual "cobwebs" touched the amulet lying on the table. The wooden roundel was surrounded by its own luminescence — uneven, lumpy, like the surface of an ugly potato. Rosa's touch changed its shape, strengthening or weakening its glow, but she could not get the desired result. The young sorceress caught herself slowly becoming angry. No one would call her an arrogant person, but Rosa was not without a sense of pride and ego. And that was what had given her the clue.

Clenching her fingers into a fist, the girl extinguished the etheric "web" and leaned back. She took off her glasses, rubbed the bridge of her nose with two fingers. Her eyes were watering from the strain.

— Milady, may I ask you a question? — Putting her glasses back on, Rose looked out from behind the high back of the chair.

— Of course. — Donna Vittoria, the former crown necromancer, stood behind the chair with her arms folded across her chest. As a high-ranking court official, Donna was also a courtier, so she had an excellent command of her face — looking into her calm green eyes, Rosa couldn't even guess what her mentor was thinking.

— This amulet assignment... — the girl rested her elbow on the wide armrest. — It's not a lesson, and it's not a test. It's a demonstration, isn't it?

— A demonstration of what? — The red-haired donna raised her eyebrows.

— My... weakness in a new discipline, — Rosa said, choosing her words carefully. She thought about standing up, but Vittoria herself came closer and put her palm on her student's shoulder. Girl had to stay in the chair. — You want me to make sure that my previous skills won't help me. Even though I'm a second-stage mage, even though I've been studying for five years, I have to start over with necromancy.

A faint chuckle crept across the necromancer's impassive face. She squeezed Rose's shoulder lightly with thin, manicured fingers:

— Well done. Almost right.

— Almost... milady?

— You don't have to start from scratch. The skills of a nature wizard will make your training easier. You're already getting a lot of things right. You got the amulet right after all.

— Is it? — The Academy student looked incredulously at the wood wrapped in an uneven halo. — I don't think it did at all.

Vittoria pushed a silver saucer sprinkled with powder from the edge of the table — an improvised test medium. She took the amulet with two fingers and placed it in the centre of the saucer. The white powder reluctantly moved to the sides, clearing a spot around the amulet two diameters wide.

— Here we go. — Rose shrugged, trying not to show her distress. — See? You can't even protect a bookshelf with it.

— But it works. — The red-haired donna emphasized the last word. — Basically, it works. And as it should — it repels dust. That's a good result for the first time, Rosa.

— Isn't that so, my lady? — The girl blushed, in spite of her attempts to be calm and dignified. Before Vittoria could answer, something struck the heavy cloth covering the entrance to the tent. And again. The red-haired donna stopped smiling, swung her right hand sharply, and the canopy swung aside, opening the way for a large bird. Rose felt a twinge of envy — though she and the donna were technically on the same level of magic, their actual abilities were incomparable.

The bird, which turned out to be a raven, circled the tent and sat down on the table, away from the platter of powder. Without making a sound, it opened its beak wide. A rolled-up piece of paper was sticking out of the raven's throat. Only now did Rosa realise that she was looking at a necroconstruct — but so skilfully made that it could easily pass for a living bird, even up close. The raven didn't reek of magic at all, because it had been made almost invisible to the magical eye.

— Well, well, well... — Vittoria stroked the dead bird's head and pulled a piece of paper from its beak. Unfolding it, she read it quickly. To Rosa's surprise, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes. The necromancer stood motionless for a few seconds, completely absorbed in herself. Then she raised her head and squared her narrow, fragile shoulders: