The Abhorsen was here, finally.  Jacel the Impure looked at them from a distance, but she knew the blue of the coat he wore over his armor.  Their conversation - about her -  was lost on her, she couldn't hear form this far away.  She turned and started walking the other direction.  Rushing would give away her position, there was no sense in it when they were distracted by the stone.  The proximity to that much corrupted Charter would make her own Free Magic presence impossible to detect.  

Now that the Abhorsen was here, he could do... something.  Some Abhorsen trick that she, as a common Necromancer, was not savvy to.  Could an Abhorsen repair the stone?  Or was that the domain of the Royal Family.  She didn't know.  It irked her to be that ignorant, but she was.  

Jacel had not gone more than twenty meters when a shape burst form the trees.  It was all shadow, like a vaguely-shaped man cut out of the scene in front of her, untouched by the sun under the cover of the thick trees here.  Jacel reached in instinct first for her bells, but she didn't dare ring those this close to the [i]Abhorsen[/i].  She changed the movement to her sword, steeling herself for the burn as the Charter Magic in it fought the Free Magic that tainted her body.  She thrust the sword, but the only sparks that flew were from the hilt where her own hand touched it, the shadow thing had twisted like a snake away from the blade.  It brought an arm down, wrapping like a tentacle around Jacel's own, locking her sword arm away from her body.  She cut her losses and dropped the sword, all it was doing now was burning her.  It landed flat on the ground.  

Jacel grabbed at her bells with her left hand, she took Kibeth and rang it.  The Abhorsen would be here in moments, she knew.  But he was better than the dead.  She might walk past the Ninth Gate if he interfered, but if he didn't, she might never make it there at all.  

The creature was strong, and she couldn't get a full control of it when she was off balance and unprepared, but she managed to force it to take a step back, its shadowy foot landing right on the Charter-spelled blade.  Now the white sparks were form the creature, it screeched and let go of her, falling backwards.  When it hit the ground it slithered away from her, even more like a snake than before.  But she rang the bell a second time, and it faded away, passing back through the barrier into Death.