And then, after what seemedlike an age, many of the dead men began to move and shift about.Through them all, he couldsee a dark figure some distance away. It slowly approached, and, likethe Red Sea for Moses, the throng of dead men parted dutifully.Soon, the figure wasstanding before the warrior.It was the necromancer. Hisneck was only a bloody stump – the blood was no longer flowing,however – and he held his own severed head in his hands before him.“Hail, Ragenard,”“What is this? How?”Ragenard said, the best he could. Bone-hands clung to his face andhis jaw. “You said yourself that you cannot raise a body from thedead with...”“No, I cannot do asChrist did,” he said. “There is a hex, however, that a magiciancan place on himself. It is a great secret among great secrets – itbinds the soul to the body, ensuring that, after death, it remains inplace for longer than it ought to.”Ragenard put his mouth intoa snarl, but he was speechless.“And I must say that I amglad that it has actually succeeded.”
The necromancer’s handslifted his pale head up, and set it firmly in its rightful spot atophis neck. His hands then he put toeither side of the warrior’s face, and took tight hold.“If the sea of fire is tobe my final end, Ragenard, know that I will see you there, too.”The necromancer’s grip onthe warrior’s head tightened, but then loosened. He let go andwalked away several paces, and then turned to look upon the captivewarrior once again.The necromancer then made amotion with his hand.The massed host ofrevenants took that as their instruction to make a martyr ofRagenard, and this they did. Despite their mindlessness, they actedslowly and deliberately; they tore the warrior apart piece by piece.He screamed bloody curses and blasphemies until there was nothingleft of him.The necromancer stood by,forcing himself to watch the grisly scene. He wanted to be certainthat the beast of a man was truly gone from the world.As thehundreds of ghouls slowly shuffled back to their age-oldresting-places, he could not help but wonder about where the warriorRagenard would end up, at the other end of things. He could not helpbut wonder, then, about where he would find himself.
That thought would turn outto be his last, however: the magic he had cast to preserve hisconsciousness had at that moment run its full course. His head cameaway, and the necromancer fell down dead, then, becoming what he wassupposed to be.
That thought would turn outto be his last, however: the magic he had cast to preserve hisconsciousness had at that moment run its full course. His head cameaway, and the necromancer fell down dead, then, becoming what he wassupposed to be.