The shining knife blade gleamed under the light of the moon. Lirk's arm was outstretched to its fullest extent, aiming the point of the weapon straight at Amcerlizar's heart. For the briefest second, I thought that we might not even need the Ruby. Amcarlizar had only just noticed Lirk and didn't even seem to be reacting. He just had a dumb vacant stare as he tried to process the fact that it wasn't gorgeous Professor Magdat rushing into his arms; it was my skeleton minion rushing forward to try to kill him. Maybe Lirk could finish the job right here. 

And then Amcerlizar stretched out his hand, and from his fingertips shot  out lavender sparks that coated Lirk's bones like sticky spring pollen. Lirk's leg continued to charge forward, but he slowed more and more with each passing second until he was nearly running in slow motion. Then the little lavender sparks began to tug against the bones until Lirk's arms and legs were pulled straight out of their sockets. His pelvis, torso, and skull were left floating helplessly in the air, supported by the glowing sparks.

Even separated from his body, Lirk's arms strained forward with the knife in hand, as though he could still plunge it into Amcerlizar and finish the job. This is why undead minions are the best: they'll keep trying even against impossible odds. Anything to complete the mission that I've given them. And Lirk was the best of the best. But whatever spell Amcerlizar had cast was too strong, and his various parts were frozen in place just a few feet from the intended objective. Ah, well: finishing Amcerlizar off with the knife had never been the original plan.

Just in time, the Ruby came to life and grew warm against my skin. It sensed that Lirk was in danger, and glowed an angry red around my neck. In the scarlet light, I could see Skip's gleeful smile. Lightning arced out of the stone and crossed the ruins, striking Amcerlizar in the chest exactly where it had hit Sir Athaelwas, all those weeks ago. Gods, it seemed like it had been years ago! And he froze in place in just the same way too. For the first time, his confident smile faltered and a shocked 'o' of surprise and confusion replaced it. "It worked!" Skip hissed in my ear.

Before she could even finish saying it, I could tell something was wrong. Rippling waves of white light radiated out from where the spot on his chest where the lightning had struck him. And of course he should have been turned into a pile of ash by now.

"Well, that was new," Amcerlizar called out. Skip's grin dropped in an instant, and she gripped my arm tight. "You'll have to teach me whatever spell that was." I breathed a faint sigh of relief: he hadn't seen that the lightning was from the Ruby. I tucked it back under my robes; you can never overvalue the element of surprise. 

"Come on out," he shouted, glancing around the ruins trying to find out where we were hiding. He'd been looking at Lirk when the lightning struck him, so he probably hadn't seen where we were. "Come out NOW, or this whole damn province will crumble into the sea!" Fury filled his voice, and he stamped his foot like an impetuous child. Behind him, I could still see Lirk's arm straining with the knife.

"You have until the count of three to reveal yourselves, or this whole..." Amcerlizar looked around at the ruins, "Wherever the hell we are... is completely destroyed." From within his robes, he took out small glass vials and began hurling them against the crumbling stones of the temple. Even from a distance, I could clearly hear the tinkle of glass and see dark splotches where the vials had impacted.

"What are those?" Skip whispered to me. I shrugged. Most Necromancers would carry around some extra potions for magical energy, but it didn't make sense for him to throw them against the rocks.

"I don't have all day!" he shouted, still pacing around.

  "What do we do?" Skip hissed.  

"We go with plan B, I guess," I told Skip. "You stay here in case I need backup. Mog, we're going to need you in a few minutes, OK? I'll try to distract him and draw him over here. Then you crush him. Think you can handle it?"

Mog was grinning like he was on his way to a party, not fighting the most powerful sorcerer in the world. "Crush!" he answered as quietly as he possibly could, which was still pretty loud.

"Three!" Amcerlizar shouted, still pacing around the perimeter of the Summoning Pedestal. "I want some answers, damn it! TWO!"

"OK!" I stood up on the broken tower where Skip and I were hiding. "Ok, Amcerlizar. Let's talk."

He lifted off into the air and hovered through the ruins to a soft landing right in front of me. Lirk's bones came floating through the air behind him as if he had them on an invisible magic leash.

He stared at me for a long while, and I glared back at him. "Who the hell are you?" he said at last. He looked around the ruins again. "Come on, guys," he shouted to the night. "The rest of you stupid Paladins need to come on our so we can get this over with."

"It's just me" I told him. "There are no Paladins."

He glared at me. "That's exactly what a Paladin would say. I'm not stupid. I know that you all have been trying to kill me for years now. That was clever, using Macera against me. I swear, if you self-righteous pricks hurt a hair on her gorgeous head, I'll scourge you all from the planet."

"I swear," I told him. "No Paladins. Just me. And I'd never hurt Professor Magdat."

Amcerlizar studied me a bit more closely with his eyes narrowed. "Do... do I know you from somewhere?"

I rolled my eyes. As if failing to kill him wasn't humiliating enough."I was in your class at the Academy, you dimwit!" 

He looked confused as he continued scrutinizing my face, waiting for it to jog his memory. Finally it dawn on him. "Oh, right. Wilson."

"WINSTON," I growled back.

"Right, right." He gave a casual wave. "Well, never thought I'd see the day. This is truly a pathetic new low, even for you. A Necromancer, working for the Paladins."

"I'm not working for the damn Paladins, you idiot!" 

"Oh? Then expain how you did that illusion with Macera. Pretty powerful spell, tricking a Summoning Pedestal like that. Seems like something a Paladin would be able to do, but not you." The last word he spat out was full of disgust and hatred, like he was talking to a worm. "And what was that destruction spell you used on me? Certainly not something I was ever taught at the Necromancer Academy. Must have been a Paladin ability." The Ruby, tucked back into my shirt, was nearly hot enough to burn me now. 

"It was an artifact," I told him. "The Ruby of Mertialz." I'd always been a terrible liar, so why not try telling the truth for once? If there's anything that I could use against Amcerlizar now, it would be his desire for even more power.

Amcerlizar's whole demeanor changed. The anger and suspicion changed to greed and lust. "You have it? YOU?"

I nodded. 

The Dragonheart staff glowed bright blue as Amcerlizar began channeling some sort of spell. "Give it to me," he ordered. His voice grew deep and terrible and disembodied, like he was shouting at me down a long hallway. 

I quivered meekly and pointed around the corner of the tower where Mog was hiding. "I hid it back here," I told him. He was too focused on getting it that he didn't even stop to consider the fact that that made no sense. Why would I hide it and then tell him where it was? I guess he was just so used to people cowering before him that he didn't question it. He just shook the staff, gesturing for me to lead the way. Thankfully he didn't notice the bulge under my flowing robes, where the Ruby's energy was pulsing on my chest, eager to help Lirk but unable to affect Amcerlizar.

We crossed under a shadowy archway; all that remained of what had once been a grand room. "NOW, MOG!" I roared as soon as I crossed the threshold.

The ogre burst forth from his hiding place and stretched out one massive hand toward Amcerlizar. I could see the triumphant grin on his face as victory was once again within our grasp.

And then a hand reached out of a nearby stone column. In the exact same place that Amcerlizar had thrown one of those glass vials earlier. Where there was still a dark stain on the white marble. The hand was as large, if not larger, than even Mog's massive paw. And it grabbed the ogre by the wrist with an iron grip. 

"I should have known!" he growled, seething with rage. "A stupid twit like you wouldn't actually have the Ruby of Mertialz."I suppressed the overwhelming urge to grin, knowing that the Ruby he wanted as actually right underneath my robes. He just assumed the whole thing was a lie. Finally Amcerlizar regained his composure, and his face went back to his familiar sneer. "I knew that summoning some Golems would be a good idea," Amcerlizar told me smugly as a gigantic beast grew out of the column and towered over us. Behind me, seven or eight more also emerged from the ground where Amcerlizar had thrown his other vials of blood. Blood golems were powerful magic, and so complicated that Professor Magdat always said that she rarely used them. I certainly didn't think Amcerlizar would be able to create them. Apparently I was wrong. "Any more tricks up your sleeve, Wilson?"

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This part is still a bit rough, and I want to do more to hint at the exisentence of the blood golems without really making it clear that they're there. But I have to run out and do some errands today, so I'll do those revisions later. I hope you like this part! Also, remember to vote on the chapter and follow me for more updates!