The Key To The Grave (#2 The Price Of Freedom) by Northern Chris

Author:Northern, Chris [Northern, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Fantasy
ISBN: 9781452346427
Publisher: Chris Northern
Published: 2011-09-03T04:00:00+00:00

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The east side of the river was much the same as the west had been, irrigated farmland packed close to the banks, breaking into moorland inside a mile or so. Small fields of plough-lands with their attendant farms and small communities, sheep herded on the moors. But the road south was clear and broad, following what had clearly once been a city-made road but now was a grassy track since the foundation stones had long since been removed for building materials. Out of curiosity I asked Jek where the road went.

“North? It leads to Hederan, another city fort from before. There were mines there. The story goes that the citymen came, mined the place out and then left again.” He shrugged.

I let it drop. It was as much as I had suspected. And I could infer what I wanted to know from his answer; that there were no further forts turned towns in the north. Just these two. Curious, but not that interesting. If Hederan had already fallen to the Necromancers he would know of it and would have said. I guessed its situation was much like Learneth's. The Necromancers did not seem to be coordinated. It was clear that they had not secured this area before heading south to stir up the Alendi and other tribes against us. Ishal Laharek had a few allies south of the mountains and clearly had some influence in Learneth, but the lands around and between Learneth and Hederan were only now being subverted. I already had some indications that there were rivalries between the Necromancers, that they vied with each other for power and influence. I decided to stop thinking of the Necromancers as they, and start thinking of them only as individuals with similar methods but greater and lesser industry and competence. Ishal, who had influence in Twobridges and Darklake, possibly an ally in Duprane, and clearly some influence in Learneth. Another who worked his will among the surviving Alendi who had fled into the hills. And surely a third Necromancer worked in Learneth and had some influence there. Then there was the one Dubaku had killed, and maybe a handful of others not so far away.

“How many Necromancers are there?”

Jek shrugged. “I don't know. How could I? From what I have heard, they were never many. A dozen, two dozen. Not more, I would guess. They are are jealous of their power and do not spread it readily, so they are always few. In the past they have focused their attention around Battling Plain. I know that ten or twelve years ago they extended their influence to within a couple of days travel of Hederan in the north. I used to travel that far to trade.”

“Why did you stop?”

He looked at me, face grim. “They mark their borders with talking corpses, Sumto. They don't encourage outside involvement in their business. I took the hint.”

“But you didn't guess that the Blackrobes and Necromancers were the same?” I couldn't see how he had not made the connection.

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