“You!” He spat, seeing me appear as the illusion dropped. “I don’t know how you managed to find me here, but-”

  I raised my hand and said loudly, “Yes, yes. I am sure we are all about to hear some wonderful threats and some terrifying use of grammar, but in truth, you are done for, alchemist.”

  He stood tall and laughed. Actually, it was less a laugh and more a deranged cackle.

  “I am no mere alchemist, fool, I am Drogan the-”

  “Necromancer.” I finished in the same loud and insolent voice. “Yes, we have been briefed.”

  He blinked and looked at me, both furious and confused.

  I took the lead. I knew that keeping him off balance was key.

  “As I was saying, you are done for. There is nowhere you can run. You can’t return to your tower. All the potions have already been confiscated, and it is crawling with wizards and elementalists. It’s amazing how quickly mages respond to a common threat.”

  “You lie. I was just at the tower. It is secure.” He snarled.

  “Actually,” I corrected, “you were recently at the tower, but I was just at the tower. And I assure you, it is anything but secure. Your potions are all gone, right down to the thin dusty cedar wood shelves. Nice choice, by the way, very aromatic. It keeps insects away, I hear.”

  “You lie!” He repeated.

  “Look, Doogan,” I began.

  “Drogan Leech!” He corrected loudly.

  “Sure, whatever. I have been given a message to deliver to you. Do you want to hear it or do you want to argue over the pronunciation of your little scary alias?”

  He was balanced precariously on the border between fury and madness, but his obsessive alchemist mind won out. “What message, and from who?”

  I turned around. “Is it from who or from whom?” I asked.

  Adriana replied, “I think he got it right, it is who. Whom is used as an object.”

  I replied. “But from is a preposition and shouldn’t whom be the object of the preposition?”

  She tilted her head. “I see your point, but he was using it as a subject, I think.”

  He watched us discuss this back and forth for a few moments and then yelled. “Enough! What is your message, insect?”

  “And that is why they used the cedar,” I quipped.

  Turning back to him, I said, “Sorry, I can get easily distracted.” I looked over at the wizard journeyman, Cecil. “Where was I, Chompers?”

  “You were going to share the message.” He said.

  I looked up at the necromancer and began. “Right. The message is-” I turned back to Cecil. “Do I share the message to me or the message to him?”

  “To him, of course.” He replied steadily.

  The necromancer was turning a dark shade of red. I had better press on.

  Bella whispered, He has summoned a horde of undead. In his mind, there are over ten thousand nearby in hidden recesses that he has secured over the past days.

  Turning to look up at him once more, I said, “Hear this, necromancer Master Dollum Jotter,” I began.

  Adrianna piped in, “He is named Doogan, now.” She said.

  Cecil corrected her, “Actually, his new name is Drogan, not Doogan, Drogan Leech.”

  “Hear this, necromancer Doogan Leech,” I mispronounced, “The Tower recognized your attack during the trial of Patron Istari, and all your possessions and the alchemist tower are in the hands of Mage Council.”

  “You lie!” He spat a third time.

  I looked up. “I was not entirely done with the message. The part about his,” I turned to Cecil again, “Chompers, what did the War Wizard call his necro boxy thing?”

  “His necromantian.” The wizard journeyman replied.

  And that got the necromancer’s attention. He had been about to explode into another spell when that single word drew his attention like a moth to the flame.

  The necromancer stood taller and became stiff. “What did you say?” He hissed.

  “Right,” I began again. “Hear this, necromancer Doogan Leech, The Tower recognized your attack during the trial of-”

  “I heard you the first time, wretch! Get on with the rest of it.” He interrupted.

  “I was almost there, stop interrupting me!” I shouted at him. He actually blinked and took a step back before leaning forward and hissing, “I shall tear your entrails-”

  I raised my hands and said, “I know, I know. More threats. Do you want to hear the message about your-,” I looked questioningly over my shoulder at Cecil.

  “Necromantian.” He offered again.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Do you want to hear the message about your necromantian or what?” I asked with my hands on my hips and an irritated look on my face.

  The necromancer’s jaw moved back and forth, and I thought for sure I had pushed him too far. But he hissed again. “Finish your message so that I can reward you appropriately, messenger.”

  “Wow, that wasn’t veiled or anything,” I said. But before he could say more, I raised my hands and said quickly, “The Majordomo and the War Wizard used the War Sorcerer to divine the location of your-” I paused, “necro boxy thing. They asked us to delay you here long enough that they could destroy it with,” I paused and looked at Cecil again.

  “Fire, Patron. Non magical, pure fire.”

  “Right. They have torched it by now. You cannot return to the alchemist tower because it is filled with really, really angry mages. You cannot return to your secret rooms here and your necro box. In fact, they should be arriving here at any moment. I was just asked to delay you until they made sure you had no real retreats left.”

  It dawned on him what had just happened, and in a furious scream, he cast another spell, the effort of which drained the color from his face and drew shadows around him.

  I pointed my staff at him and cast another countermagic spell. I used my last platinum SUS Counterspell ring for it.

  The spell fizzled mid-cast, and it left him gasping for breath.

  “This is a neat battle staff,” I said, flourishing it. “It is pretty flashy, I admit. But it really only has a couple of powers. Its main power, granted by the Archmage himself, is a unique ability to cancel spells cast in its area of effect. It is really cool because it casts the counterspell at the exact level of the spell cast against it. If you cast a Seventh Marrow spell, I cancel it with a Seventh Spellbook counterspell. If you get cute and cast a First Marrow spell, hoping to drain my higher-level cancellation spells, it uses a First Spellbook counterspell. It is a brilliant effect and one he created to preserve his casting points when he fought big baddies. Which, I’m afraid. You aren’t.”

  He raised his arms again.

  “Uh Buh Buh!” I said loudly. “I’ll just cancel it again. Look, you can’t go to the tower, you can’t go to your secret rooms, as I see it, you have three options.

  “First, you just give up and repent of your ways.” I offered.

  He spat.

  “Okay. So it's a no to option one. Option two: you ignore me and run into the mages in the tower or the Majordomo and War Wizard in your secret room. Or, option three. You run away. If you can get away, that is.”

  He became very calm and said, “Or, option four, I kill you all and call your bluff.”

  “I’ll just cancel your spells,” I said with a shake of my head.

  “Just how many do you have?” He inquired.

  “In the staff, or with my journeymen?” I asked. “Raise your hands, team.”

  They all raised their hands, and glinting magical Dwarven Copper and gems flashed in the torchlight.

  “I’m confident we’ve got you covered, bony boy.”

  He cackled again. “If you could have truly canceled all my spells, why did you not do that while your little playmates attacked me?”

  I looked shocked, and he snarled a self-satisfied grin.

  Until I turned my back on him and said to the others, “And why didn’t one of you think to have me just cancel his spells and then you blast him? Here I have been blathering on like an idiot, stalling for the masters when I could have held him from casting any spells, and we just blast him before he runs out the back way. We take him out, and I get the credit!” I shouted excitedly.

  He suddenly looked less confident.

  Adriana and Cecil stepped forward. Cecil said, “Patron, you cancel his spells and we’ll show him what a wizard and an elementalist can do!”

  “And a Thaumaturgist!” Bido yelled.

  The others chimed in with their own guilds as well. “And a Summoner!” “And a Conjurer! “And a-”

  He bolted behind the large stone chair and made for the back of the hall.

  The Gray Master charged forward, but I caught his arm, carefully avoiding his blade. “Why are you holding me back?” He asked angrily.

  I replied quietly. “Because he is running into a group of 10,000 undead that he has summoned here and will guard his retreat. I am out of cancellation spells, and all of us combined are probably no match for the powers of a mage who is a master Alchemist and Master Necromancer fighting for his life. A lot of your people will die if we do not stay here and act quickly.”

  “What of the Majordomo and War Wizard?” He asked, hopefully.

  “Did you really want me to bring them into your private guild hall? I have no idea where they are.” I admitted.

  He stared at me. “You, you lied?” He said, eyes wide in surprise.

  I smirked. “I was taught by the best.” And I squeezed his arm.

  He frowned. “I never lied to you.” He said, hurt.

  “I was joking. It was a compliment.” I shook my head. “Oh, forget it. The undead are almost here.”

  Bella, ETA on the undead?

  Less than sixty seconds.

  I shouted out loud. “Okay, Thieves Guild, listen up! I am Patron Istari. A horde of hundreds, maybe thousands of undead are entering this hall through your back door. Everyone up to the highchair and form a ring. We will fight them as they climb, fly, or march up the ramp!”

  Half the thieves began to move; the others looked to the Gray Master, who shouted, “You heard the Patron! Up to the Gray Chair!”

  He turned to me. “The highchair? Really?”

  I shrugged. “It’s just how it came out. It sounded better in my head.”

  “The empty echoes probably helped.” He replied sarcastically as we moved toward the ramp.

  “How many, really?” He asked.

  “According to Bella, it really could be ten thousand.”

  His face paled. “Glad I got the ring when I did.”

  “Me too.” I agreed. “We may need everything we can pour into them.”

  We ran up the ramp, covering as much ground as we could.

  Bella said, Shadows!

  I yelled, “Shadows! Clerics, get your Holy Light up. We should expect shadows and shades. They will know to strike you first!”

  The timing was about right. As the clerics raised their Holy Light seconds after I uttered the word ‘shadows’, the popping sounds of shadows hitting the spell barriers and turning them into ash and dust alerted us that our time was up.

  Bella, tell Wizard Draconis and Isaac what’s happening. Any help they can send is greatly appreciated.

  I have already alerted them. They will try to bring a force from behind all the undead attacking you.

  The front where we are defending would have been better, I offered.

  Sorry, this was the best option for them. She replied, and I could sense a tiredness in her voice. However, she was accomplishing what she was doing was a strain upon her.

  But what about us? I asked with real concern. A few hundred almost took us out the last time. Ten thousand is a crazy large number.

  You have plenty of magical potions to help with your casting points. She said, slightly annoyed.

  She was right about that. We filled our potion belts and vests with good ones, and we had a lot of SUS rings as well. We came loaded for bear. I just didn’t think it would be thousands of bears.

  The AL whispered into my ear. Enchanter Gwydion earns a spell or skill point to be placed as desired for preventing the Undercity Coup quest. Undercity Prestige changes from level negative eight, Horrible, to level four Notable. Spell and skill points must be reclaimed at a guild hall or sanctuary. Additions and notes have been added to your Book of Quests that remain unread.

  The raised stone dias appeared to have been a natural stone outcropping that got worked by masons to smooth it out many years ago. As we fanned out around the throne, we could hear the stomping of a lot of feet coming toward us down a ten-foot-wide corridor that served as the back entrance to this room.

  I turned to the Gray Master. “Do you have any defenses in this room?”

  “You mean in case we were overrun by undead?” He asked.

  “Yes, that was what I had in mind,” I answered

  “Then no.” He said. “This is our meeting room. There are any number of traps along the way out of here, but since Dollum would have known about all of them, he undoubtedly deactivated them.”

  “Oh,” I replied.

  “On the positive side, anything coming through that passageway will be an enemy. We just need to use it as a bottleneck to slow the undead down and prevent them from swarming us.” He added.

  “Any chance they could swing around and come at us from any of the other three compass point tunnels?” Biff asked.

  “Not really. This serves as an intentional connector to four parts of the city. Unless they went topside and walked among the humans, or-” His face paled suddenly.

  “Or?” I prompted him to finish.

  “Or they went deeper and came up from one of the abandoned tunnels.” He finished with a grimace. “But what do you think the chances are for that?” He asked.

  I wanted to say it was never wise to give the universe an opening like that, but the marching sound coming from our right told us that at least some of them did that very thing.

  “I am disappointed,” I said to the Gray Master as I looked at the other tunnel where more undead were approaching.

  “Believe me, I share your sentiments.” He replied.