The Chronicles of Rapina
Chapter 18, Judgement In Disguise
"Ah, what a tiring day, but I think we have accomplished much of what we needed to." Guardian Thane sighed. I've arranged with representatives of the church to meet me at Granville so that I can dispose of my bounty money before I spend it on spells or some such."
"Dispose of?" Rapina asked.
Thane chuckled, "They won't throw it out. They'll take a tithe, certainly, but I have decided to put nearly all of it into the Church's investment program. You see, the church of Mortaebius gives loans to finance funerals and mausoleums; it runs graveyards, throws estate auctions and does many other such things. The church allows priests to invest with the church towards their retirement or simply to augment their income. I've been watching the church investments for years. They are quite stable and lucrative. There is only one thing one can truly bank on in this life, and that is death."
"You're not going to spend the money?" Rapina asked incredulously.
"Heavens no, girl, you have no idea how large the bounties on those pirates had grown over the years. The amount I will gain is much too large to simply spend, but if I invest it I will be able to make a very comfortable monthly income on the interest. At last I will not have to pinch every penny just to get by. I'm going to take a nap, and I suggest you do so as well. I will see you in a few hours."
Later, Thane emerged from his suite and found Rapina.
"Might one of the many sea chests we rescued from the pirate camp be yours?"
"Yes," Rapina frowned
"Good then, let's take a look. You could use more clothing. Thane took Rapina to a storage room where she pointed out the appropriate chest. "Hmm, a shortsword, another rapier and a main gauche. Goodness you came well-armed."
"Those are my spares," Rapina said. "I like my Montfort set the best though, they were fine weapons. My bow is probably around here somewhere too. There it is," Rapina pointed.
"You'll have no need for these here," Thane said. "I'll lock them away with your other weapons, for now. Lets see what you have in the way of clothing."
Thane held up Rapina's sail-cloth mini skirt and raised an eybrow.
"This certainly wouldn't leave much to the imagination."
Rapina blushed. "I think that was the idea."
Thane frowned. "It would be an interesting diversion to watch you prance around in such a thing, but unfortunately, my chambers are much too cold for such garments. I've often wished I could do something about that. I spend most winters huddled in the kitchen or in my bedchamber shivering next to the stove and wearing gloves with the finger tips cut off so that I can write. Unfortunately, boring through 30 feet of granite to make chimneys, while possible, is not advisable as the smoke from the chimneys gives away the position of my abode, especially in the winter when the trees have shed their leaves. Thus I normally confine myself to small fires in the cook stove except at night."
Thane pulled Rapina's red silk bustier from her sea chest. "Gracious, I haven't seen one of these since I worked for my father. Amazing what booty pirates can come up with. Does it fit?
"Yes, although the cups are a little on the small side," Rapina said.
Thane nodded. "Here are some more practical garments. It seems all your clothing is either much too scant, or decidedly boyish. I guess boyish will have to do for now. Thane put Rapina's clothing back into the chest. Guard, pick up and bear this chest for me. Rapina, I've had the skeletons draw a bath for you. I have a magnificent iron cauldron in my laboratory that makes a perfect bath, it's quite a luxury, and I've formulated instructions for the skeletons, including a ratio of boiling water to lake water that gives just about the right temperature. When you are finished, put your panties on and call on me. It's been a long time since I've tailored anything for a living woman, but I'll get your measure and help you to make a few changes to the ill-fitting dress I provided you with when you arrived."
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Thane's laboratory was South of his chambers. It included several stark rooms, but the only one that seemed to be in use was furnished with a single forge, a stove and an oven, several tables and an assortment of mismatched old glassware. There was a circular alcove off to the side of the main room that had a domed roof with a large chimney at its center. In it was a huge, black caldron. There was a stone ramp about a foot wide that one could use to step into the caldron or fill it using a wheelbarrow. She imagined a fire could be built beneath it, but in this case the hot water must have been heated on the stove. The water was quite warm. Rapina soon got used to it and luxuriated for a while, scrubbing the stains of toil and terror from her young body. When she had finished, she called Thane in as he had bid her.
Thane looked at Rapina's semi-nude body and shook his head in amazement. "It was apparent that you were intelligent, but I never would have guessed you had such a figure when I first saw you in the tomb. Come over to the desk, young lady. I have parchment here to write down your measurements."
Rapina walked to the desk, her lush breasts bouncing slightly as she moved. She could sense lust from the necromancer, but it was much more controlled than what she had been used to from the pirates.
Thane took up a cloth tape and measured the length and width of Rapina's feet, then worked his way up her body recording the measurements as he went.
In spite of the lust Rapina could sense, the necromancer was all business as he meticulously measured Rapina from her feet to her head. Rapina's skin prickled whenever she felt the touch of his boney left hand. As he worked he made conversation.
"I found only a strongbox with a lot of silver, some copper and a few gold pieces amongst Red Jack's things piled in the fort. Did he not have a chest of treasure like most successful pirates are supposed to?"
"He never talked much about money, except to complain about his expenses. If he had a hoard, he kept it a secret from his people, at least us recruits," Rapina replied.
"Ach, well, I always thought a successful pirate would have a stash of treasure like in the storybooks. It would be such a disappointment if he just managed to make ends meet. The question is, did he have treasure with him, and if so, where might he have hidden it? An intriguing question, don't you think?" Thane asked.
Rapina shrugged.
"I will take a look at my maps and the model of the fort while you dress. I am going on the assumption that he did have some treasure, and I am sure we can narrow it down as to where he might have hidden such a thing. If I find it, perhaps I will be able to purchase a few spells after all."
When he was done, Thane looked at the paper.
The necromancer chuckled, "My father and I knew a bevy of noblewomen who would have killed for measurements like these. I believe I can instruct you on the changes that need to be made to the dress, but that can wait. We must first restore the isle's defenses. Put on something boyish that you don't mind getting stained with glue."
For four days, Rapina did little more than stick bones together with unholy glue made of cooked down human bones and some unholy resin that Thane produced using a clerical font and some priestly rituals. Rapina worked right along side Thane who went back and forth between adjoining storage rooms. Rapina worked in one room and the necromancer's ghouls, Kent, Edgar and a few others, worked in the other. The knowledge of the human skeleton Rapina had gained from leech Kennon and his books was strengthened as Thane had Rapina do the more difficult reconstructions. He always asked her the names of the broken bones she was sticking back together.
After a while, Rapina got somewhat used to rebuilding human skeletons, but she still preferred cooking and tending the necromancer's extensive herb and vegetable garden that grew hidden on the cliff-top above his abode. For one thing, garden work allowed Rapina to bask in the light of the afternoon sun, something she missed while cooped up in the necromancer's chambers. One skeleton, a huge one that had red glass eyes, Thane insisted on reassembling using magical mending spells alone. The skeleton seemed to be something of a mascot, and the necromancer wished to fully restore it.
Only about half of Thane's skeletons could be salvaged, but the necromancer felt that he might be able to do something special with the bodies of the veteran pirates, something more elaborate than turning them into zombies as he had many of the recruits. Thus Thane had his workers concentrate on his old skeletons so that he could quickly restore some of his forces while thinking about what he might do with the new bodies. While Rapina worked, Thane also had Kent and the zombies transport the pirate's bodies and all of their equipment to the storage rooms in the lower areas of his abode.
Finally, after four days of spending long hours gluing bones, Thane was satisfied enough with the progress they were making to take Rapina on an evening ride to the pirate camp. Thane stood up in his saddle. Rapina and he were on top of the pirate's fortified hill looking down. Thane's mounted guards surrounded them.
"If Captain Red Jack buried a treasure chest up here, I believe Kent and his ghouls would have bumped into it while tunneling. Here wouldn't be the place though, there were too many people working on this fort all day when it was constructed. Hmmm, I doubt he would have hidden it to the South or East. That was where my forces were coming from. I also doubt he would have hidden it in the cleared area between here and the cove, too many prying eyes. Now, I think it would have to be hidden to the West and North in the direction of the cove, so that Jack could take it if he wished while making an escape. The question is, where? I've been in the forest looking with Kent and we have found not the slightest sign of digging. Kent has also checked extensively under the water of the cove."
"It occured to me early this morning before bed that it might have slipped by Kent because of being buried under the water rather than simply sunken. Yet I cannot imagine Jack burying a chest of any size in deep water. For one thing, it would have been a risky proposition with the ghouls out and about. That's why we're going to check the shallows on the Southwest side of the cove today."
Thane had restored Red-eye, the skeleton of the half-ogre, double-animated him, added more weight to him, and given him a long, pointed wooden spear for the purpose of this mission. While Thane and Rapina watched the sun set, Thane had Red-eye plunge the spear into the rocks and sand beneath the shallow water. Whenever the skeleton hit something hard, Thane's other guards would dig it up. After seven rocks and a log, Rapina heard a hollow sound as the tireless skeleton plunged the spear deeper than any man could have driven it.
Thane's lips flowered into a smile.
The guards dug down deep and pulled a bronze chest from the water. The huge skeleton had barely managed to reach the chest with the point of the spear.
"Set the chest over there." Thane dismounted and cast a spell on the chest's stout lock. The lock opened. "Remove the lock and open the chest when I say, now," Thane told one of his most beat-up skeletons. "Rapina, let us ride a distance down the beach in case Jack saw fit to purchase a trap to protect his hoard... "Now!" The monster complied, but when it opened the chest, four crossbow bolts shot from the chest ruining the skeleton's breast plate. "Ugh, I see more mending work in my future." Thane grimaced.
"Red-eye, flip the chest's lid open with your spear." The huge skeleton gave the lid of the chest a nudge with the tip of its spear.
Rapina gasped. The red glow of Red-eye's eyes was reflected a million times over by the facets of countless gems and jewels within the chest.
Thane chuckled. "I'd say Jack favored gemstones."
It was a long process, but Thane had two of his skeletons spoon the stones into stout leather sacks that the necromancer had brought in case he found something. When the chest was empty at last and meticulously searched with calipers for hidden compartments, of which there were three, Thane took pains to instruct a skeleton in small steps so that he could see the trap mechanism. The necromancer had the chest filled with rocks and sand from the bed of the cove and then reset the trap. After that, he carefully inscribed a magical glyph within the chest, replaced the lock and had the chest buried in its former location.
"There now, if any of Jack's officers ever return to dig up this chest, I will know the moment they open it," Thane smiled.
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That evening, Thane put Rapina and several skeletons to work cleaning Thane's hall and laboratory and sweeping the staircases. Thane appeared frequently and ordered greater speed. He seemed quite preoccupied and at about half past eleven at night Rapina noticed that he had a clean priest's robe on emblazoned with the insignia of his order.
Rapina had just finished up with the staircase that led up to Thane's cliff-top herb and vegetable garden and returned to the great hall when Thane bustled into the room with six of his guards. The breastplates of each of them had been fully mended and polished brightly.
"Are you finished?" Thane asked.
Rapina nodded.
"Good then, run put away the broom, take food from the kitchen and go to your room and read. I'll let you out as soon as I can."
"Are you having visitors?"
"Do not concern yourself with that, hurry and do as I say."
"Yes Guardian." Rapina ran to put away the large broom in the laboratory closet. She glanced around furtively, then went to a drawer beneath the shelves full of earthen crocks of herbs and pulled out the listening tube and cup, it was one just like leech Kennon had used to listen to people's heart beats. Rapina shut the drawer then tied the tube around her leg beneath her dress and went to the kitchen to get food and thence to her bedroom. As soon as she went through the door, she heard the lock turn from the other side, she would not be coming out of her room until Thane wanted her too.
Rapina smiled and pulled out the listening tube and placed the cup against the door. The sounds within Guardian Thane's chambers were muted, but if she strained her ears and used the listening tube, Rapina was able to hear most of what went on in the grand hall.
At about midnight Rapina heard an assortment of footsteps, boney and otherwise coming down the staircase that led down from the clifftop gardens, and then she heard voices, one of them obviously Thane's, the other an undead voice more akin to Kent's but not as high in pitch.
"Please, have a seat if you will Mortancer," Thane said.
"Now that we have dispatched greetings and salutations, Guardian, let me tell you why I am here," the raspy voice said. Your work against the pirates will be earning you a commendation from the Church of Mortabius, but that is nothing more than a formality, and they might be appalled if they knew the details of how the feat was accomplished. They will give you a little plaque you can hang on your wall, but The Order of the Shroud has other ways of rewarding promising necromancers.
As you may have heard, at the center of our order is a circle of wizard-high priests of which I am one, the necromancers of Mortaebius. Originally known as mortaemancers, and now shortened simply to mortancer. On the rare occasion that the deeds of a promising new priest recommends him, we add to our number. Your defeat of Captain Red Jack has earned you far more than some bounty money. You are to become one of us."
The chests of books I brought contain spells and processes available only to mage-priests of Mortaebius, yet none mention his name or the name of the order. They are for your eyes only, to be both hidden and locked away. If the authorities ever find them, you did not get them from us, do you understand?
"Yes Mortancer Greel," Thane agreed.
"Good. You will read and study those books. In as far as advanced animations, pick a specialty and you will be given specific training in it. The rest you can pick up on your own, filling in any details through experimentation, or by trading your creations for additional knowledge within the circle of mortancers. I will provide you training in one skill to make you useful to the order and to give you something desirable to trade.
We have considered your inquiry about having a basic magic apprentice not affiliated with the church. The applicant is palatable to the church based on her history, yet such practice is not encouraged. However, since you gained your current knowledge largely without our help, and since the practice is not without precedent, we will allow you to have an outside apprentice if you wish but you will not train your apprentice in necromancy beyond the novice-level spells needed to understand the basic concepts. Furthermore, you will encourage your student to join the church, at very least as a worshipper. In addition, you must train a church-sponsored apprentice without additional support from the order. How you arrange to feed and cloth him is your own concern. Do you plan to take on an outside apprentice then?"
"... ... If I take an outside apprentice, the order will also send me a deserving priest to train in the arts of magic at my expense. Do I understand correctly?" Thane asked.
"Yes," the voice grated.
"The arrangement sounds fair enough, and I would not mind having another priest here anyway. I would like to proceed with the arrangement."
"Very well, we have selected an apprentice whose skills complement your own, and we will be delivering him through normal channels.
his knowledge of sorcery is elementary at best. On the other hand, he should prove useful and allow you to leave this isle on occasion. Within the books I brought, you will find spells that will aid you in becoming more mobile. You should be able to understand one or more of them. Once you do, you will be able to attend the meetings of the Mortancers and be ordained as a full member of our circle. Do you have any questions?"
"No, Mortancer Greel."
"Good," the dead voice continued. "You will find robes and a death mask in the chests with your books. Wear it to all meetings as soon as you are learned enough to attend. As ours is a secret order, it is best that we not know one another by sight. At this moment I am using a form of magical vision that does not show me the details of your features. My hearing is likewise modified. Even under torture I could not identify a portrait of you from what I have seen and heard here tonight. Included with your books are certain warding spells and modifications you can make to your viewing pool to become more anonymous. You must also choose an order name for yourself. It is a dire offense to attempt to gain knowledge of the identities of other mortancers on the circle. Our group has survived because this rule is meticulously enforced, do you understand, Guardian?
"Indeed, the precaution seems most wise, and I will see that I do not find out who any of the other mortancers are," Thane said
"Good, Welcome to the fold, Guardian."
"Thank you Mortomancer Greel, I shall endeavor to serve the order well, as always," Thane said.
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Two weeks after Thane had bested Red Jack in the nighttime battle, Rapina was tending the hidden garden on top of the cliffs above Thane's abode. She saw a pigeon fly past the marker-plaques of the several graves of previous priests of Mortaebius that brooded from an outcropping of stone overlooking Thane's garden. The pigeon circled, then fluttered into Thane's pigeon roost. Rapina realized the bird had a message attached to its leg.
Rapina rushed down to tell Thane. Things had been going well for her in the past week, they had finished most of the repairing of skeletons and the necromancer had Rapina reading several engaging books. Thane had added several new shelves to his library in order to house the volumes that once belonged to Red Jack, but Rapina, now quite involved in being an apprentice, was reading volumes from The magical section of her master's library. In truth, she was devouring them. The only thing she was having trouble with was celibacy. It was making her very uncomfortable. She absorbed herself in books as much to escape the feeling of need as to learn about magic, but both were powerful factors.
"A pidgeon came in just now, Guardian Thane," Rapina said breathlessly as she found the necromancer.
"Excellent. I will come up and take a look at the message straight away." Thane locked the book he had been reading in a strongbox and bounded up the stairs like a man half his age. In a few minutes he had removed the message from the bird's leg and read it."
"Eleven days ago, a ship came to Granville to take Red Jack East to stand trial, and another bearing the reward money is scheduled to arrive next week. Judge Grainger has scheduled a hearing for us at the same time. We're to be there sometime Sunday, as the hearing is Monday and the ship is due at the same time. I must activate my magic pool and make arrangements with the church. I have a dress for you to try on. I have been using a mystic servant spell while I sleep to sew the seams. Its stitch is as regular as any I've ever seen. I believe this creation will be a winner. Let us go downstairs and you can try it on. You will need to bind your breasts tightly as you did when the constable was here."
Rapina looked at herself in the mirror. The dress was a particularly uninspiring shade of dark green. The cut, the ruffles, everything conspired to make Rapina grimace. She saw why Thane had gone into the mortuary business rather than stay on as a clothier with his father. Had he staid, the business surely would have died.
Rapina dutifully put on the clunky high-heeled shoes and came out of her room to model the new dress.
Thane inclined his head this way and that. "Turn around slowly."
Rapina turned.
"What do you think?" Thane asked.
"Uh... you're right, the spell did make some very nice seams," Rapina said.
"But what do you think of the dress?" Thane asked.
Thane began chuckling and couldn't stop.
Rapina cocked her hips as realization struck her, "This is the dress for the hearing, isn't it? Gods, I look more attractive in pants and a tunic. I was thinking how horrible a dress designer you were when all along this dress was *supposed* to make me look plain and frumpy."
Thane nodded as he chuckled. "Indeed, and the shoes make you over-tall, though we'll have to do something about your face. It's much too comely even without make-up, but I think with the *right* make-up we can make you look much worse than normal, and that will just have to do. We're going to have to work on your body language, though. It's much too vivacious. For the next week, I'll be teaching you how to stand, and to walk, and to talk, just like a regular spinster."
Ironically, Rapina learned a lot about proper posture and deportment in the next week, as she had to practice to do something other than what was proper and desirable. It was unnatural for her to act as she needed to for the hearing, but she made a game of it and did fairly well at practice.
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This ends Judgment in Disguise, Chapter 18 of The Chronicles of Rapina.
The story continues in, Chapter 19, Sudden Death.