The Redemption, Volume 1 by Clyde B Northrup

Author:Clyde B Northrup [Northrup, Clyde B]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, redemption, epic, tolkienesque
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

The only way to stop nekerpum is to disrupt the purgle who raised and controls them. This action is difficult as the purgle will surround itself with nekerpum; this course becomes even more difficult after the blood frenzy takes hold of the nekerpum. . . . No one has discovered a way to disrupt the purgle from a distance, avoiding the nekerpu blood frenzy which always follows close combat. . . .

from the seklesi Manual of Enemies, origin unknown

Shouts from company captains and squad leaders rang out, to form up and prepare to attack. Delgart shook his head several times, trying to clear it and refocus his eyes; he finally saw Marilee laying sprawled nearby and crawled over to her side. “Are you all right?” he asked, face wrinkled with concern.

Marilee’s eyes focused on him slowly, and she finally recognized Delgart kneeling beside her. She reached out and put her arms around his neck, but then she dropped her arms and sat up. “What’s happened?”

Delgart looked at her, then looked suddenly around to cover the troubled look on his face. “The army of nekerpum are moving to attack,” he said after a moment’s hesitation. “We are called to form up and prepare for attack.”

“No,” Marilee frowned, “I meant, what happened to us?”

Delgart thought this was odd. “What do you mean?”

“I remember rushing toward the megatri,” Marilee said, “then I was lifted into the air. Next thing I remember was seeing you looking down at me.”

The rest of the squad had run up to where Delgart and Marilee sat on the ground; Grelsor and Lidelle knelt next to them. “Are you all right?” Grelsor asked, both held out their green-glowing staves, ready to heal.

“A little shaken, I think,” Delgart said, “but all right otherwise.”

Rellik reached out and helped first Marilee, then Delgart, to their feet. “Orders?” he asked.

“Form up,” Marilee said, “and let’s get back to work.” She shot a sidelong glance at Delgart.

“We will have to move to our position,” Rellik added, “the Eighth Company is forming over there,” he pointed.

Marilee looked to where her second pointed, then nodded. “Let’s go.”

Marilee’s squad jogged off together, moving among the other squads forming, to their position in the Eighth Company.

“How do we fight the nekerpum?” Delgart asked as they moved into their position.

Grelsor sighed. “They are the most difficult to destroy,” he replied, “as they cannot be killed, for they are already dead. The same is true of their purgle masters.”

“I thought they were red kailum,” Delgart noted.

“Not all of them were,” Grelsor said, “some are red kailu masters; some are black maghi masters; both have sold themselves to Nekerp, Lord of the Dead, in return for immortality, but it is not true immortality, for they are not alive in the same sense that we are; it is better described as un-life, for they, like the corpses they animate, are dead.”

“How can they be dead, but still alive?” Delgart asked.

“They kill themselves in a ritual that uses a powerful teka-enhanced object,” Grelsor went on, “that is both the means of their death and a receptacle for their life essence.

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