"Relay the report to the Mistress and inform her of the accusations that were made. The next message will be made on schedule and if it is not made I was bested."

  The skeletons of three mice and two bats received the message and went down the tunnel dug through the rock in the luxurious tomb. They would gather some dozen miles away and relay the message to the dead there who would continue until it arrived at the Mistress' tower. It was one of the original towers and one of few to remain intact.

  A direct connection could be tracked if there's no convenient ley lines to hide it within, especially when one's presence is supposed to be secret and deniable. Even if Adras seemed to have pulled out there were no official declarations and war would be devastating for his Mistress. She helped him early on and was unwilling to do more to draw his ire since the last war.

  He would have preferred to have a larger animal but since his wolves lost their leader they refused to return. The smaller ones would have to do in greater number. Being dead most animals won't try to consume them and if they do they will be turned and bring the message themselves. Loss was theoretically possible but the messages were never once intercepted even when solitary messengers were sent. It was simply caution at the much stronger force that he was facing.

  He was in the furthest depths of the tomb complex, where the most important dead no longer rested and the vault, looted before his arrival, stood empty. Some dead knights he'd picked up in the months he'd wandered were slowly rotting in a corner. Once he managed to get at his mana he'd raise them and send them after the enemy. He had a trick that worked on strong wills often enough.

  He tried again to pierce the bubble that kept him from directly using magic. It did not budge. He would have to continue using this elderly skeleton. Unlike it's daughter he was much more willing to work for the greater good of his mistress. Another chance at life did that to people sometimes.

  "Activate all traps." The necromancer with a young face declared to the skeleton of a king.

  (And the product?)

  "Except for that room. Once these enemies are destroyed we will have to move the product away. Sabir has been too late by weeks so he will have lost his down payment for the phoenix." The creature and it's bonded human would be more useful for the Mistress anyway. The child could be turned if she was reluctant but she would come around.

  (There's a breach in the preparation rooms.) The dead king remarked blandly. He wasn't fond of putting emotion into his projections, he'd only done it when he was first put in his place.

  "They will be dealt with. They won't have preparations for the poisons."

  (The tomb of the guards was sealed. They are continuing down.) The king used the sleeve of his robe to wipe at the corner of his daughter's broken tomb.

  The necromancer thought for another moment, "Have the lower levels protect the storeroom." The distraction should give him enough time to deal with the barrier.

  (When will you 'see them off'?) The king wondered, (The greatest soldiers fight face to face with their enemies. Could you not prevail against these peons?)

  "They will be a trivial threat." The necromancer spat as he fumbled for his own magic to bear. Something was different and it came to him, though the barrier had disappeared without him noticing it. He took up the rod his Mistress gave him and set the other soldiers resting in the room to activity.

  The beginnings of rust edged the corners of steel armor on the four knights. They had wardings to protect them from damage though not the slow decay of time. Something about self discipline. The knights stood and the gaze of a glamor, an illusion, came across the rotted eyes in their heads.

  "They've broken through! You must defeat them before they get to the king!" The necromancer didn't smirk as the four ran off to the stairwell to deal with the intruders. He'd slid a bit of the glamor on himself so the lie would feel true to them. The head knight was dangerous and cunning or else they'd have already been raised and set to work.

  Minutes of silence passed, the dead king tidying the space. His coffin was still intact, as the princess was the one who rose to defend the crypt. She had been difficult to command but specific commands took a lot less effort to enforce than general ones so she was following the orders of one of his old soldiers. They'd obviously lost at the Abbey but their orders would get the stragglers to return.

  (They're outside.) The king sounded like he had a smirk as the wards on the stone doors bent from a blow. (Time for you to show them what for.)

  The wards that he'd set about himself felt insignificant. Had they dealt with the knights so easily? They had nearly destroyed his entire force when he'd stumbled across them.

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  The door opened gently and the knights tore into the room.

  Their glamour was removed.

  Three of the four swords clattered against his shield before he's gotten the spell animating them and ended it. They hadn't been present long enough for the spell to become ingrained in the bodies so they collapsed.

  Then before him was the mage and the princess. She'd slipped her bonds, or been taken over by the other mage.

  "Free your daughter from the interloper." The necromancer commanded as he activated a much stronger shield to hold between him and the mage. Since he was without the tree or any visible magic items he just needed to wait until the other troops arrived to strike them from behind.

  Then a sword pierced his back.

  (So she is free.) The dead king chuckled. He'd been given more leniency since he'd always done what was meant instead of what was said.

  The necromancer tried to get back at the king but the invader and the princess reached him.

  But the Mistress would save him. She would deal with this vile pretender.

  She would raise him and he would continue to serve.

  ---

  It wasn't nice, but bringing the necromancer back through his own mana and tying him to his captive seemed just. If he was willing to make people into proper undead who knew what they were doing the same should be done to him.

  A good chunk of Taramo's mana was spent making him completely subservient to the princess. The necromancer was prone to sniveling and trying to slip his way around every rule but when he allowed the princess to mete out punishments she was able to make him serve.

  Taramo was a little reticent to let the necromancer continue to exist if he could feasibly escape but most escapes would happen when they were sent on independent tasks and allowed to use mana. With both princess and king to guard him the necromancer would be sealed and would have his knowledge gathered for Taramo's use. If his mistress was who he thought it was he'd need to be ready for many sorts of trickery if the message he'd sent had gotten through. Ariwyn reported she'd gotten four messengers but there was potential for more.

  The vault they'd left when they rushed to get the Necromancer had been a complicated situation. There were two dozen of the villagers who were caged. Apparently there were lineages of villagers who went back to the time when the barrow was an active gravesite and there were some inherited talents whose use had been forgotten over centuries of lack of use. There were also rabbits with fur that was made of silver and the girl from the abbey. She'd bonded with a phoenix, though it was young and a quarter the size of a pigeon.

  They were the last of the villagers and the necromancer had plans to sell some of them as apprentices to more morally pliable mages or those who wanted to experiment with more dangerous spells. None of them had been sold yet since anonymous communication was slower and the necromancer wanted the highest prices.

  The villagers didn't want to stay, though hoped they could return someday. They were willing to wait and leave for the abbey in the morning since, as a group outside the protection of any of the cities, they knew about the abbey folk and were as friendly as one could be when you had enough food to survive one bad harvest.

  Their cookware, blankets, and other items had been sold though, which frustrated them quite a bit. Insistences that he would get silk wares from Tarnox to help them in the meantime helped somewhat, though they had many reasons to be unhappy at the moment.

  Ariwyn was unhappy for a much simpler reason.

  (You should have let him escape. I wanted to try putting this body through it's paces.)

  "I didn't get the opportunity. And what if he noticed 'you' were the vulnerable plant on the tree and got you?"

  (It would be an inconvenience, but I'd be back and able to keep watch on you by tomorrow. Earlier if I thought you'd make a foolish decision.)

  "Then you'd want to be back the very next minute."

  (When you say it like that it sounds like a bad thing.)

  "It doesn't matter." Taramo waved it off, "Would you be able to get Niki to bring some of her silkworks with her? We'll need them to help the villagers before they can get more for themselves."

  Ariwyn stilled for a full ten minutes, communicating the message to the main body, probably conversing over Nikalia's supper, and sending the reply back.

  (She was going to bring it anyways. She'll have less to sell at Newport but she said it was fine.)

  ---

  Before Taramo went to sleep the princess approached with one of the villagers. A woman a few years into adulthood with a child swaddled in a strip of the necromancer's cloak, once it's spells were removed.

  "She wishes to thank you and offers fealty." The woman said.

  Most of the families in the village apparently kept on with their local language. There were a few other villages dotted around the wilderness here and most of them taught trade languages if they were close to the road.

  "Get whatever you can out of that necromancer and that will make us even. Beyond that we will probably work together in the future. I don't plan to leave Tarnox and I like having no bandits or slavers skulking around."

  "She wishes for insistence that we will be safe from future attacks." The woman continued.

  Taramo thought for a minute as he decided the best approach. "I can have Ariwyn leave a cutting here to keep connected."

  "The tree?" The woman asked

  "No. She's the local deity of Tarnox. She's the vine on the tree. I can take you to the abbey for now and get more protection for later, but I don't want to waste my time managing this when you know your way enough as is."

  "That is agreeable." The woman replied after listening to the princess, "She promises to provide information if you promise to help build defenses and involve us in your future plans."

  "I promise." It was good enough. He'd have to get involved with

  The baby was looking at the dead princess and crooning, reaching out for the crown that she'd recently freed from the necromancer's horde. It had some good enchantments but everything with good enchantments in the horde was stolen from the barrow and returned.

  The child was interested in the eye sized sapphire in the middle and the princess left after the child cried when she was not allowed to eat it.

  Thoughts on