"Of course! Prince Sullivan, I have some information that will interest you greatly! He- ack-"
The curse I had placed on him triggered and sir Weber's neck exploded as a needle made of darkness pierced from the back of his neck right through his throat. Whatever he had been about to say was swallowed by his rasping breaths trying to enter his lungs through the gash in his hole.
He kept trying to breathe and speak. He was begging prince Sullivan to save him by using his eyes.
However, prince Sullivan had no intention of helping. He gestured for a mage to step forward and start to create a barrier around sir Weber.
"Whoever cursed you is powerful. Don't drag me down with you. You, sir Weber, are a failure of a knight and can just die for all I care."
Prince Sullivan spoke without mercy in his voice. Another gesture of his prompted the mage to lift sir Weber's dying form of the ground using the barrier and bring him out.
Too bad for him that my curse wasn't so simple. Before he was out the door the life left sir Weber and a glowing mark appeared on his neck where the wound was.
"Damn it! Drop the body and retreat!"
Prince Sullivan's reaction was quick and yet all but too late. Within the barrier, sir Weber opened his eyes that were now colored purple. He swiped at the barrier with his hand covered in a dark fog that made the barrier break upon contact. His body flashed and he appeared before the mage grasping the poor lad's throat with his hand.
The dark fog flowed over the terrified mage's face and began to enter through his ears, nose, and mouth. The mage started to spasm and a red glow appeared in his eyes as he too became a creature of the dark fog.
Sir Weber as the main vessel could convert others into pawns of his own. They could easily be distinguished by the different colors of their eyes and the fact that they only retained about seventy percent of their former power.
The pawn was set down and immediately took off towards prince Sullivan. A barrier appeared around the room to seal off the prince's escape.
Prince Sullivan managed to remain calm and sent the pawn flying with a kick. However, while he was still pulling back his leg, sir Weber appeared beside him and slashed at him with his hand that had begun to grow claws. A vicious wound was inflicted on prince Sullivan as he was unable to dodge properly.
The situation looked pretty bad but there was no real danger. I had adjusted the level of the dark fog vessel to that of a rank one archmage. The vessel stood no chance as an icicle tore through the wall, shattered the barrier, and impaled it. Tristan, the court mage had arrived.
"My Prince, are you alright? Let me deal with this abomination before punishing whoever is responsible for its presence here."
Cocky words for someone who had taken his eyes off the enemy. The dark fog vessel expanded like a balloon and self-destructed. The very second the explosion began the pawn threw himself at Tristan and trapped him in a barrier. This was only a minor obstruction but enough to postpone the court mage's reaction.
Already wounded by the vicious claw attack prince Sullivan was hit by the explosion and blasted back through the wall of his mansion into the gardens below. He was still alive but that was part of the plan.
I landed next to prince Sullivan's beat-up body and carefully removed his ornate dagger. I choose a random room inside the mansion and created a corpse that looked like sir Weber. I stabbed the corpse with the ornate dagger and dropped him onto the floor before returning to spectate everything.
The explosion had naturally caught the imperial guards' attention and they came to investigate. They searched the mansion and before prince Sullivan could even claim that it had been done by a knight of his younger brother the body was found.
The dagger was unmistakably the one owned by prince Sullivan so the imperial guards became suspicious. Sullivan was forced to cover for his brother and claim that sir Weber had no further connection to prince Gideon. That way all this was easily resolved but the wounds caused by the claw and the explosion would put prince Sullivan out of commission for a while.
The imperial guards still had some questions regarding the explosion but Tristan used his position as court mage to take over the investigation and send the imperial guards away. After they believed they were alone Tristan let out a long sigh.
"I apologize, my prince. I failed to keep you out of harm's way."
"Do not blame yourself. The blame lies with me. I underestimated the curse that was placed on sir Weber and treated it thoughtlessly. Gideon was a problem before but now he is a real threat. We have to act cautiously and eliminate him before he pulls off another stunt like this."
"You shouldn't think about that right now. You need to recover before doing anything. I will take you to my tower, there I will be able to protect you much better."
Prince Sullivan wanted to decline and insist that his brother's elimination was of higher priority but the court mage was having none of it. He picked the wounded prince up and moved towards his tower.
While he traveled three icicles were rotating around him at all times and his focus was at its highest. He surely wouldn't get a wink of sleep tonight.
I relinquished the chance to look snoop around in prince Sullivan's mansion in favor of returning to my room. The imperial guard had sent a messenger to prince Gideon to inform him of the death of his former knight.
Seeing the genuine surprise on prince Gideon's face the Imperial guards assumed him to have nothing to do with the incident.