The Lich's Thrall

By Austin Julian

A student of the Mage's Academy is detained by its malicious headmaster. She is spared, though she is forced to prove her worth. Edi Nari—a woman once resigned to a quiet life of study—soon finds herself thrust into a small-scale war against the living dead. Though they are controlled by beings of unfathomable power called liches, something more baleful stirs beneath the land...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Julian
• Release date: Jun 15, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393450467

Austin Julian

Austin Julian is an avid gamer and aspiring author. If I'm not at my computer, I'm on a console. Books aren't the only place to find a good story. I blog weekly on my Patreon, with behind-the-scenes info and ramblings open to everyone, and short stories and teasers provided for patrons on the off weeks. I also use twitter (@ajulianwrites), where I typically talk video games but also let people know when a blog page is up. My current mailing list is just release notifications at this time, but if you're interested in that sort of thing go right ahead. But it's not only about me: it's about you guys, too. Please, if you can spare the time, leave a review wherever you bought the book. It doesn't matter if you liked it, hated it, or didn't even finish it; I'll be sure to read it. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=21233253 Twitter: https://twitter.com/ajulian_writes Notifications: https://books2read.com/author/austin-julian/subscribe/22656/

Book preview

Chapter 1

MAGDELENE’S HEAD SPLIT open as a massive battle axe dove into her skull from behind. Bloody globs of brain spattered onto Edi’s and Valerie’s horrified faces as their friend slumped lifelessly to the floor, the weapon slipping out of her with frightful ease.

Edi Nari willed herself to look back despite an oppressive glare from the man before her. Towering over her friend’s corpse was some kind of giant; a suit of armor spewing ghastly emerald flame through its openings. A dullahan, Edi presumed—a malevolent spirit driven to replace its lost head by any means necessary. This particular ghost had a cracked skull floating over its empty gorget, though Edi didn’t dare wonder who it originally belonged to.

I’ll ask you again, said the male’s voice as Edi’s gaze returned to him. How did you come to possess restricted spellbooks? He leaned forward in his ornate chair, folding his hands over his wide desk. Three heavy tomes lay spread across it—evidence he pulled out to prove Mags was lying just before her gruesome demise.

He was an experienced wizard of some sort, possibly a necromancer if the dullahan belonged to him. Edi and her two friends were forcibly teleported to his well-decorated abode and questioned about the past few days and themselves. He was far too young to be a staff member of the Mage’s Academy, though. He and Edi looked to be in their early twenties, and the faculty consisted of middle-aged masters with large personal libraries and shot silk robes that shimmered black and violet. So how did this inky-haired, green-eyed man come to possess both of these things? Edi assumed the worst: that this was some kind of madman who stole them and planned to murder students like her in droves.

Valerie didn’t answer his question. Instead, she tucked her hands into her woolly yellow robe’s pockets and muttered something beneath her breath. Edi noticed her fair-haired friend tremble uncharacteristically. For such a typically calm person it was unexpected, though not unsurprising—they were sandwiched between two malicious beings with their close friend’s blood pooling at their feet. Edi refused to answer the man as well—not because she didn’t want to, but because she was frozen with terror.

Without warning Valerie’s hands aimed toward the necromancer and shot great orbs of fire from each palm. The magnitude of both spells was considered a spectacle to Academy staff and students alike, but the man glanced at them dully. He nonchalantly lifted a finger and flicked both hurtling balls away, reflecting them back at their caster. The balls of flame slammed into her and burst open, spreading intense heat throughout the chilly room. Valerie hurriedly patted out the fire singeing her robes, and then stared with shock at the unfazed wizard.

Edi only saw it for a split-second. The finger that touched Valerie’s spells seemed to melt away, revealing an ancient bony digit before flinging the fireball back. As soon as the magic left his touch, his hand appeared normal again. At first she thought her eyes deceived her, but then the man placed his hands on the table to stand. The same thing occurred, only this time everything up to his wrist became skeletal. Edi realized this man disguised his true form through magic. He wasn’t human. Not anymore, at least.

Jaelin? the man called. That was all it took for the dullahan to respond. The spirit—or Jaelin, as it was named—walked over to Valerie with creaking footsteps. She reeled back and prepared another spell. The third-year student flung a bolt of lightning that pierced through its armored chest, punching a hole through the hollow suit. Viridian fire raged out of the new opening as the armor’s ethereal possessor steadfastly raised its weapon. Before she could strike again, the creature’s axe sliced horizontally through her mouth. Her body from the jaw down fell to the carpeted stone floor, but the rest of her head sat plainly on the bloodstained armament, her teeth clanking on cold steel.

First the ghost knight turned to face Edi, then the man—the undead—glared at her crossly. What’s your response, then?

Edi shivered in her green silk robe. She felt like she was trapped in an iron maiden, where regardless of her actions she would ultimately be impaled on its spikes. She looked to Mags and Val. It was futile to deny anything or fight back, but by what chance could she survive from telling the truth? Giving him what he wanted would only make her usefulness decline. Could he possibly be reasoned with?

Silence, eh? I expected nothing less. The necromancer raised an arm, wordlessly commanding his dullahan to end her.

W-wait! she cried. I found them in the library.

The man raised an eyebrow and gestured for Jaelin to stop. And?

Honesty it is then, she thought. With quivering lips she answered, They were just sitting on a table. I got curious and snuck them in my bag before checking out what I came for. I took them to my dorm so Mags and Val could read them with me. The undead man’s eyes narrowed, his stare becoming fiercer by the second. Edi forced down her dread and continued. The things in those books were... vile. I mean, it was stuff like using human entrails to create magical diseases. I stopped after a few pages because I felt sick.

The man’s expression lightened. He even smirked a little, possibly because Edi just gave him an idea of what to do with her. She gulped and added, I went to bed, but Mags and Val were sucked into them like ghost stories. I put them back in the library yesterday, then left with my friends on our hike to Terna City. They planned to purchase extra snacks for study time before their vacation ended, and were halfway to the city earlier today when the killer brought them to this horrid place.

The man clasped his hands in thought as he sat back down. Every time his body touched something his true nature was partially revealed, it seemed. The dullahan Jaelin dropped Valerie’s head to the floor and moved wordlessly to his master’s side. You are Professor Erin Nari’s kin, correct? the man asked.

Gramma? I—I mean, um... She didn’t want to get anyone else involved, but the words slipped out of her mouth as though coerced by an unseen force. The man closed his eyes. Whatever was coming next, Edi knew she wouldn’t like it. The fact that he knew Gramma by name was unsettling. Did he know Edi’s mother as well?

He opened his eyes and looked upon her again, asking, Who do you think left those books so carelessly out in the open?

The student was right: she did not like where this was going. Was he implying that her grandmother had something to do with this, or was he going to kidnap her as well if Edi provided an unsatisfactory answer? I d-don’t know.

Guess.

I don’t know, honest!

The undead necromancer frowned. Edi quaked as the dullahan took a step toward her, but the man raised a hand and Jaelin halted. "The Art of Necromancy? Manipulating Fanatics by Edvard Stye? Meadhbh’s Shortcuts of Grafting? You truly have no answer for why these appeared before you in a wholesome school library? She had a hypothesis, but she really didn’t want to confirm it with him. Edi shook her head grimly. He chuckled and said, Either the whelp is dense, or she just wants to ruin my fun. Oh well."

He stood and walked around his desk. His eyes glowed a pale shade of lavender as Magdalene’s and Valerie’s corpses levitated into the air, enveloped in a thin aura of the same hue. The man passed Edi with the bodies following closely behind. She warily turned to watch him, but then felt an icy pair of hands grip her scalp and chin from behind. Her heart raced as she realized Jaelin was about to snap her neck! She was right about her usefulness running out.

Let her be for now, the necromancer called.

Jaelin released its vise-like gauntlets and pushed Edi forward. She followed the man through a wooden door out of the room. They stepped onto a spiral staircase and descended, the dribbling blood of her friends making the steps slick. Edi soon perceived they were in a tower as they neared a dark, foul-smelling chamber in the center. The necromancer walked in and unceremoniously dropped Mags and Val on the ground, then left as quickly as he came. It was difficult for Edi to see them clearly, but she could make out other corpses in there—or what was left of them at least. Some were scarcely more than bones or lumps of meat. The fourth-year student gagged and forced herself to look away before Jaelin prodded her to continue on. They passed by a heavy steel door that presumably led to the outside world, but Edi knew she couldn’t test that theory with these two around.

In the basement was a torch-lit tunnel slightly warmer than the rest of the building. It was a narrow hallway lined with prison cells, and in each one lay the rancid remains of souls unfortunate enough to cross this wizard’s path. Some were in the trappings typical of citizens living in Terna City. Most, however, were dressed in the hooded robes of the Academy. The seven colors of the rainbow designated how many years a student spent at the college from novice red to veteran purple, the material depending on the wearer’s preference. Graduates were granted embroidered silver robes and employees wore the same shot silk as the monster in front of her.

All colors were down here.

The three of them walked to the end and the man grabbed a ring of keys from a nail on the far wall. He unlocked the last one on the right and opened it, Jaelin escorting Edi into the cell. The dullahan exited and the man locked the barred door. The necromancer looked at her as if he wanted to say something, then instead passed the key ring to his subordinate and left. Jaelin pressed its armored back against the wall and silently stared at her, ignoring the nail that no doubt punctured its pauldron.

Is this what the man intended for her? To let her languish and rot rather than give her a quick death? Did he leave to interrogate her grandmother before locking her down here as well?

Well maybe that’s what he wanted, but Edi wasn’t going to wait for such an end. What kind of fool thinks a mage can’t unlock doors without a key? She could easily get out of this jail and flee the tower... if that possessed hunk of metal wasn’t watching her every move. It was the real problem, and most likely the cause of everyone’s demise in these cells. Even those who knew teleportation magic probably got warped back here thanks to that thing above masquerading as one of the living.

Edi moved to the side wall and slid into sitting position. Across from her lay a corpse emitting an acrid stench that attracted mountain flies. He—she guessed at it being male—didn’t look like he died more than a week ago. His robes were green like hers, so they were in the same grade, maybe even the same class. If his face wasn’t missing, she would probably recognize him. Perhaps it was better that she didn’t: she’d been through enough for one day.

She clenched her hands in anger and realized she still had her staff. The man and Jaelin never took it from her, and she was so numb from the prior events that she forgot it was in her hands at all. The emerald-topped shaft of wood was a memento from her mother who left the Academy to travel abroad, leaving Edi in the care of her grandmother: a professor who taught enchanting magic. The student gripped it tightly and pulled the hood of her robe over her head. She didn’t want Jaelin to see her weep, both for her fallen friends and her sudden homesickness.

There was an abrupt clank from the tower above; a dull metal noise clamoring against stone, followed by seemingly endless echoes. It was large, whatever it was, and the sound it made caused Edi’s ears to ring. She instantly dropped her staff and pressed her hands to her ears, but the racket wasn’t muffled in the slightest. Vibrations from the disturbance pounded in her chest and felt like they could shatter her sternum at any second. She screamed madly in pain, but soon the noise stopped and all fell silent.

She opened her green eyes, her breathing ragged and slow. Removing her hands from her damp hood revealed bloodstained palms. Edi turned her head and saw Jaelin leave to investigate the source of the noise despite having no ears, but she couldn’t hear his creaky footsteps.

Whatever the sound was, it was enough to deafen her.

Temporarily, she thought. Edi removed her hood and took the staff in both hands, pressing the embedded crystal against her forehead. Damp fingers slipped along her implement as she spoke in an ancient language, unable to tell how loud she was or if the words were pronounced correctly. Hopefully she was casting a spell to mend her eardrums, but if she messed up most of the chant it could destroy something else. As she spoke she felt a little twitch in her ear canals followed by the faint rhythm of steel boots moving further away. Then she could hear her voice and finished the spell properly.

The student took a moment to rest, knowing full well that this could be her only chance to escape. Edi knew her limits though, and a minute break might save her life later. She just used a fair amount of essence—her internally-produced source of magic—to mend what would normally be permanent damage. Edi also suffered from what was considered a handicap: she couldn’t channel magic without a staff to aid her, so it required more essence on her part. Novices utilized them when starting out, dropping them when they get a feel for how spell-casting works. For some reason however, Edi was incapable of channeling magic with her body alone. It was one of her greater shames, and now two parts of her emotional support were rotting in a mass grave.

She could mourn when every second didn’t matter, however. Edi stood and tapped her staff on the cell’s lock without a word, opening it like a parlor trick. Spells as trivial as this still required the ancient language, but the chant could be recited in the minds of experienced practitioners. Edi stepped into the jail’s hallway and paced herself for climbing out of this infernal basement.

There was no sign of Jaelin or the undead man inside the tower. Once Edi approached the ground floor she saw what caused the noise. The heavy steel door, once attached to the outer wall, was now lying on the ground in a puddle of water. The opposite wall’s stones were cracked and pressed in, a sure sign that someone blasted the entrance off its hinges. Edi stepped through the open path.

Outside was filled with bright snow and icy wind, a staple of the Quartz Mountains north of Terna City. On Edi’s left—to the east—stood the distant Academy in its fort-like glory: a stark gray to contrast the shining white ground and cloudless noon sky. To her right were the jagged peaks of mountains not yet flattened by warlock’s hands, snippets of the vast ocean below peeking between them. Looking behind, Edi only saw the archway she came from—if the tower was there she couldn’t see it, and would have never known about its existence otherwise save for bumping into it.

Partially down the mountain’s gentle slope before her stood Jaelin with its axe raised over a black lump in the snow.

Edi didn’t hesitate. Whoever it was that distracted Jaelin for her didn’t need to die today. She was far away from her target and the undead’s master wasn’t around, so she felt confident enough to fight it. All she needed to do was incapacitate it, so she pointed her stave at the dullahan and whispered her incantation. White-hot lightning crackled around her weapon’s jewel and shot toward the possessed armor. Jaelin turned to face source of the sudden noise and her spell bored a second large hole through its chest plate, overshadowing Valerie’s last-ditch effort to stop it. The electricity grounded itself in the mountain rock beneath the undead, leaving the prone person unscathed.

Jaelin charged toward Edi with frightening speed, ignoring its former prey. Blobs of molten metal dripped from the dullahan and seared the snow with a bubbling hiss. Edi took a deep breath and brushed her long red hair behind her ear, trying to keep calm as the wind blew it back in her face. With a little more effort she launched another bolt of lightning at the dullahan. Her spell struck its legs and liquefied them within moments. Jaelin dropped the axe and clawed its way up the trail, determined to end her life.

Edi started panting and sweating. It took more essence to cast this many spells than she would ever admit. She had one more like that in her before it could endanger her, two at best. Even if she stopped Jaelin in its tracks, she might not have enough energy to walk to safety—but if she didn’t stop it here and now, she wouldn’t have a chance to escape in the first place. She knew it was suicide to strike a dullahan’s head: that would only send it into a deeper frenzy. It might be best to remove Jaelin’s arms, though hitting both with only one spell could prove difficult.

As Edi thought about how to do this, Jaelin got uncomfortably close. It reached for her ankle and she stepped back, narrowly dodging the undead’s grip. She moved to its side and prepared her last spell simultaneously, lining herself up with both of the dullahan’s arms. The spell fired and hit Edi’s target perfectly. Too perfectly, in fact: while it melted the rest of Jaelin’s body, the spirit’s skull was included. Ethereal viridian flame was all that remained of Jaelin’s form—a harmless ghost despite its now mindless bloodlust for her head.

It floated toward her in rage, and she soon felt just how harmless it really was. The spirit’s fire loosely formed a limb and pressed it against Edi’s throat, knocking her onto her back. Its cold form strangled the sorceress as she thrashed in the snow, beads of sweat crystallizing on her brow. She only struggled for a few seconds however: she was exhausted. Edi spent too much essence in such a short amount of time, and now her body was working hard just to breathe. Replenishing essence wouldn’t be a problem normally—get some water, sleep, and a decent meal—but that was unfeasible in battle.

She didn’t bring anything to restore it in the first place. Neither did her friends: they all planned to conjure provisions for their short trip. Even if she escaped this ghost’s wrath, such magic was only going to waste more essence in Edi’s current state. They weren’t prepared for something like this, and now two of them were dead with the third about to join them.

If I could clap I would give you a standing ovation, said a chillingly familiar voice from behind. Edi couldn’t turn to see him, but she knew who he was. Sounds of crunching snow filled her ears as the necromancer stood from his fallen position and stepped toward her. This was a trap from the start, she realized. Giving her a chance to escape was all a game to give her false hope.

The man stepped in front of her, his eyes glowing lavender. Without moving a muscle he ripped Jaelin away from Edi’s and held the fiery spirit in his illusory hand. He raised his other arm and from it appeared a suit of armor just like Jaelin’s. The man tossed the ghost into the hollow shell and it sprung to life, an identically-cracked skull popping out of the chest plate.

Edi stared in awe as she caught her breath, then weakly tried to back away from the pair. Jaelin overtook her and wrapped its arms under her shoulders, hoisting her up to hang limply above the ground. The wizard approached and she noticed how short he was—or maybe he looked like that because of how tall she was.

You passed our little tests with high marks, he continued. Believe it or not, but you could prove quite useful to me. Edi was too tired to respond. It took all of her remaining energy just to stay awake on this frigid incline. The man frowned and jabbed Edi in the stomach, forcing a cough from her throat while she dropped her stave. You’re supposed to ask, ‘Why would I help an evil man like you? You murdered my friends in cold blood!’ he mocked.

But... but, Edi started, but she didn’t have the strength to finish.

Because, you Stained mongrel, I have need of an experienced human; one who does not succumb easily to the temptation of forbidden magic.

Stained mongrel. That was a phrase Edi heard all too often. Edi bit her tongue at being insulted by the monster in front of her. In response to her silence, she got a fist to her ribs as the man continued his speech. ‘Forbidden magic? What kind of nonsense are you putting me through?’ Simple. You may have heard of a being known as a ‘lich.’ There are four more people like myself who fit that description. I need someone to... take care of the others before they do something everyone will regret. Be sure to get rid of their little minions as well. Should you succeed, he grinned madly and wrapped his hand around her jaw, you might even earn the privilege of challenging me.

He waited for a response, but struck her again when she took too long. He hit hard for a bag of bones; this blow definitely cracked something, but the way he swung made Edi realize he was holding back. She shuddered at the thought of what full-strength attacks from him might be like. He then said, Your line is, ‘Do it yourself then.’ And I would, but someone—or something—put a curse on me, and Jaelin is too easily incapacitated. Hence, I need a mewling pup like you.

Edi felt her stomach churn. How many times has he done this to know her exact response? She almost scoffed at the thought of something being powerful enough to curse him. If something that strong actually existed, he should’ve been dead by now... for the second time. As for Jaelin being easily incapacitated? From Edi’s perspective that was a lie. And... what if... I refuse?

The lich tilted his head back and cackled unnaturally. There is no choice: either you do as I ask or I take your life and make you my slave. When you bite the dust, I’ll find someone else to do it.

She didn’t answer. Edi thought about the ghostly knight detaining her: if she was nigh invulnerable like it then this wouldn’t have happened. As a result however she would be under the thumb of a despicable creature like the undead in front of her. The lich motioned for Jaelin to drop Edi and the dullahan obeyed. The spirit walked over to its axe and picked it up, hanging the weapon from a loop in its armored belt.

I sense shame and rage coming from Jaelin right now, the monster continued. It is not often that one of the living can destroy his body. Even an immortal can feel remorse over losing a vessel. It will drive him to do better next time. He looked to his servant and said, "Get a couple