Arthur Daigle's Blog - Posts Tagged "undead"
Rented Swords part 2
This is the conclusion of Rented Swords
* * * * *
Dana stared at the mercenaries. “Duke Wiskver hired that many men?”
Jayden shook his head. “More likely these mercenaries were hired by the king and queen. Come spring they will earn their keep in the royal couple’s wars. I imagine Duke Wiskver has the unenviable duty of feeding them during the winter. He’s making the best of a bad situation by using them as guards for whatever those wagons contain.”
Suzy tapped her fingers on the side of her wagon. “Sneaking in there is going to be hard. Getting out with whatever’s in those wagons is impossible. We’re going to have to burn it all, Jayden. I’ve got firebombs to do the job.”
“If the contents of those wagons are flammable, we could repeat the disaster you caused in Armorston,” he said. “We’ll see what’s there and act accordingly.”
“By burning it,” Suzy said sweetly.
“Why does he have two barns?” Dana asked before Jayden could shout at Suzy.
Jayden paused. “I was here before the civil war, and there was only one barn then. Where the second barn stands used to be a far smaller building leading to a large natural cavern. The duke who once lived here used the cave to store beer barrels while the beer fermented. Wiskver didn’t follow his example.”
“That’s stupid,” Dana said. “Brewers make good money. Why wouldn’t he have men do the work?”
“Because he’s a snob,” Jayden said. “Beer is poor men’s drink, and he has aspirations to greatness.”
“We can sneak inside,” Suzy said. “I don’t see guards on patrol, and there aren’t dogs sniffing out intruders. Wiskver is either real confident or real stupid.”
“He expects little trouble with so many men at his command.” Jayden cautioned, “Ground around the manor lacks cover. We’d be seen coming at a distance, and by now both of us have bounties on our heads and wanted posters with our portraits.”
“But not mine,” Dana said.
Jayden grabbed her by the arm. “No.”
Dana pulled free. “There has to be farmers and ranchers living nearby. They’ll think I’m one of them looking for work. I can get in, find out what’s going on and get back.”
“Even if they don’t know who you are, sending a young woman among soldiers and mercenaries is too dangerous,” he said. “You have no ideas the risk you’re taking or the cost you’ll pay if even one man among that thousand seeks to do you harm.”
“What choice is there?” she demanded. “You said those mercenaries are going to be here until spring. We can’t wait that long. And what if they’re carrying weapons in those wagons, maybe more bombs like the one Suzy set off? Whatever is in there is so valuable they’re spending lots of money on it, and you don’t do that without a good reason.”
Suzy smiled at Dana. “McShootersun would love you.”
Jayden stared hard at Dana before marching back to Suzy’s wagon. “You need a disguise that will make them want to let you in, and Lockheart generously provided it.”
“I did what?” Suzy asked.
“Soldiers and mercenaries eat like horses,” Jayden said. He gathered up food that Suzy had cooked and wrapped it in an old blanket. “A peasant girl with food to sell, especially good food, is going to be a welcome sight they will want to return as often as possible. You’ll have to leave your sword here or risk arousing their suspicion.”
Jayden handed her the bundle, but didn’t let go when she tried to pull it from his grasp. His eyes locked onto hers with a fierceness she knew all too well. “If we see or hear signs of danger, if we even suspect a threat to your wellbeing, Lockheart and I will come down on them like the wrath of God.”
With Jayden that was no idle threat. Dana was less certain of what Suzy was capable of, but Jayden made it sound like the woman was a serious threat, possibly his equal.
Dana met his gaze. “You trusted me before. Trust me now.”
She left them and hurried toward the manor and its army of soldiers and mercenaries. It surprised her how far she got before the first man noticed her. Two spearmen wearing chain armor and dressed in blue and black stepped toward her and gave her curious looks when she stopped in front of them and curtsied.
“Good sirs, my name is Candice Latchkey. My family needs money to cover next year’s taxes. Forgive me if I ask too much, but I brought home cooked meals I thought you might like to buy. I know you’ll love it, and I don’t charge much.”
One spearman looked through the bundle of food while the second kept an eye on her. The first one pinched off a piece of Suzy’s bread and tasted it. He nodded and looked to the other spearman. “It’s good. We’ll have to clear this with the captain first. Sven, take her to the command tent.”
A spearman barely older than Dana led her to a large brightly lit tent. Inside stood three older men wearing plate armor and arguing over plates of cold chicken. They paused when the young spearman entered and saluted. Dana opened her mouth, but one of the men spoke first.
“Peasant,” he said. The man had ugly scars along the left side of his jaw, like he’d been badly burned in the past. His hair was black going to gray and cut very short. He walked up to her and saw the bundle she was carrying. “Trying to curry favor or do business?”
Dana curtsied again. “Business. I’m selling home cooked—”
The man jammed a finger into one of Suzy’s pies and stuck it in his mouth. “Sweet bark. I haven’t tasted that in a long time. Where does a peasant girl get sweet bark?”
Thinking fast, she said, “A man came to my village with spices for sale. We didn’t know why he sold it so cheaply.”
The scarred man laughed. “He’s a clever thief to sell to peasants. You’d eat the evidence fast enough. Fine, sell your food and be on your way, but if one of my men eats it and falls sick, you’ll pay.”
Dana did her best to look offended. “Sir! I’ve never disappointed a customer, much less harmed one.”
“Off with you,” the scarred man said.
Dana left the tent and went among the armed men around the manor. She gradually made her way closer to the armored wagons, careful to take a roundabout path so it didn’t look like that was her objective. As she walked she offered food to nearby men. Most refused her, but men came in ones and twos to buy what she had. This earned a fair number of copper coins, far less than the spices in the food were worth, and kept up the appearance that she was a peddler.
Bit by bit she got closer to the armored wagons. She stopped when she was twenty feet away and tried to look inside the nearest one. The back of the wagon had been lowered, and even in the poor light of the camp she could see it was empty. The contents had been unloaded.
So many wagons could carry tons of cargo. That meant it had to be transferred to a building with lots of space. Dana studied the two barns and decided to check the one built over the cavern. If Duke Wiskver was feeling particularly paranoid he might hide the goods underground.
Dana earned another handful of coins as she worked he way closer to the barn. Neither barn had soldiers or mercenaries camped close to it, which meant approaching them might make her stand out. Dana risked it and went closer. She got within fifty feet and stopped, but not willingly.
Her feet didn’t want to move. She pressed on, lifting a foot and trying to fall forward, but even this got her only a step closer. The closer she got the worse this strange compulsion was until she couldn’t move her arms, legs, even her fingers closer to the building. Panicking, she took a step backwards, and to her relief she moved away at full speed.
What to do? There was still another barn to check. Would the same mysterious force defend that one? She tried to look casual as she approached the barn. This time there was no trouble, and she reached a side door without incident. The door was barred from the outside. Dana had no trouble lifting the bar and setting it quietly on the ground.
She opened the door to find the enormous barn was filled front to back with people. Most of them were girls her age or younger, while about a third were boys no older than twelve. They wore simple cotton clothes and huddled around small brick lined fire pits. The girls and boys were chained together in long lines like prisoners.
Worse than this, if such a thing was possible, were their anguished faces. They looked at Dana in fear and self-loathing. Many turned away at the sight of her. Those who did meet gaze had writing tattooed onto their right cheeks just below the eye. Dana took a step forward and read the words on the nearest girl. It said, “Property of,” with a line below those repulsive words. They were slaves.
“Who are you?” Dana whispered.
“The man said we don’t have names anymore,” a girl responded.
“What man?”
Another girl told the first one, “Don’t talk. You’ll get us in trouble.”
“It can’t get worse than this,” the first one said. “The tall man, Wiskver, bought us in Skitherin. He brought us to a city, and today he brought us here. He’s going to sell us in springtime.”
These girls and boys were the cargo of the armored wagons. Jayden had said Duke Wiskver was still earning his riches through trade. They’d met slaves in Baron Scalamonger’s estate, and later a boy owned by an army officer Imuran Tellet. Scalamonger had said many noblemen used slave labor, but even in Dana’s worst nightmares she hadn’t believed the trade in human lives was this extensive. Duke Wiskver must be supplying the demand, and no doubt earning a handsome profit.
Dana took the girl’s hands in hers. “It’s going to be okay, I promise.”
“How? We can’t go home. Our own families sold us. We have no money, no land, no one to turn to.” The girl looked down. “Run. Leave before they sell you, too.”
There wasn’t much of Suzy’s cooking left. Dana handed it to the girl and said, “It won’t go far, but pass it around. Please believe me, help is coming.”
Dana left the barn and closed the door behind her. She felt an empty feeling in her heart. She had to help these poor people, but what could she do when the duke had a thousand men? Dana hurried away from the barn and headed for the edge of the camp.
“Hey, girl, you have anything left?” Dana spun around and saw the young spearman from before approach her.
“Uh, Sven, isn’t it? Sorry, no, all out. I’ll bring more tomorrow.”
Sven laughed and caught up with her. “You sold out that fast? I thought you’d be here all night. This duke is an idiot, but he feeds us enough that we don’t have to poach game or buy food. You’re good.”
Dana kept walking toward the edge of the camp. “Thank you.”
“You don’t have a man yet, do you?”
That made her stop in mid step. “I have a boyfriend.”
“But does he have money? You’re a good cook, and you’re good at peddling. Most women are too shy for that. You should see girls run when we come into town! Sheep are braver. A man would do well to have you for a wife.”
“I’ll be sure to tell my boyfriend.”
Sven cheerfully said, “My captain shares loot and pay from our employer, not like some captains. I have enough to settle down and buy a farm. I just need a wife. Your man doesn’t have money or he wouldn’t let you come here alone. I’m a better choice than he is.”
“Wait, you’d asked a stranger to marry you?”
“Why not? Back in Skitherin Kingdom, grandparents arrange marriages. Here we have to find wives by ourselves. A woman who can cook and is pretty, that’s a good catch. Love can come later.”
Dana knew parents who meddled in their children’s love lives, forbidding certain boys and encouraging others. It wasn’t strange for parents to pick a wife or husband for their children. “Take your money home and let your family pick a girl for you.”
Sven waved his hand like he was shooing away a fly. “Why go back? You know what would happen if I tried? The nobles, the magistrates, the Ministry of Obedience, they’d take every coin from me. I risked my life to earn that money. I can spend it, I can give it away, but no one takes it from me.”
Sven stopped her and pulled a coin pouch from his belt. He opened it and held it up to show her. “See, gold. That’s enough to buy good land, livestock, tools—”
“And buy a wife, too,” Dana interrupted.
“No, it’s not like that!”
Skitherin Kingdom must be a miserable place if men like Sven would risk their lives by becoming mercenaries. It must be doubly miserable if families sell their daughters and even sons. Sven hated his homeland, natural enough given what he’d said. The other mercenaries probably felt the same. But how did they feel about the common people from back home?
Dana put her hands on her hips. “It is so! You think you can buy me like those poor Skitherin girls in the barn.”
Sven’s expression went from panic to confusion. “What girls?”
“The ones in the barn. Duke Wiskver bought them from your homeland, and he’s selling them here. I won’t be bought for pocket change.”
Confusion gave way to anger, and then grim determination as Sven grabbed Dana’s hand. “Come with me.”
Dana barely had to feign indignation as Sven dragged her to the command tent. “Hey, wait a minute!”
Soldiers and mercenaries watched with concern as Sven pulled her along. They reached the command tent to find little had changed, except the cold chicken dinners were now only bones picked clean. The scarred man leading the mercenaries raised an eyebrow when he saw Dana again.
“What did she do?” he demanded.
Sven pushed Dana toward the ugly man. “Tell the captain what you told me.”
Dana pointed at Sven. “He wants to settle down and asked me to marry him.”
The captain burst out laughing. Sven blushed and shouted, “Not that part!”
“He showed me what you paid him and said he could support me. I said I wouldn’t be bought like those Skitherin girls in the barn.”
The captain stopped laughing. “Girls? What’s this about? How would you know what’s in those barns?”
Oops. Dana prayed she was a convincing liar. “I heard voices in the barn and thought some of your men were staying there. I opened a side door and saw girls and young boys chained up. They said they were from Skitherin Kingdom, and that the duke had bought them.”
The captain’s eyes narrowed. “The wagons that came in this morning, they went straight into the barn before unloading so we wouldn’t see.”
“Is this how they’re able to pay us?” Sven demanded. “Our daughters and sisters are being sold like oxen, and to do what? Mop floors if they’re lucky! Captain, are we going to take money from a man who hires us to fight his battles while treating our women like animals?”
Sven’s yelling brought mercenaries running to the command tent until there was a crowd gathered around the entrance. The captain glared at Sven and Dana. He looked angry and conflicted. Finally he said, “I don’t take a peasant’s word for anything. She says there are slaves in that barn, I look before I believe her.”
The captain marched out of the tent with his men following. Sven took the lead with Dana still in his grip. They marched up to the second, older barn, and the captain tried to open the large front door. He glowered at Dana when it didn’t budge.
“I used the side door,” she said, and pointed to it.
Grumbling under his breath, the captain marched to the side door, pulled off the bar and threw it aside. He opened the door and peered inside. Seconds later he came back out. “Sven, let the girl go.”
“Then it’s true.” Sven released Dana and ran to the door. He came back swearing and stomping his feet. More mercenaries came over and looked inside. Some looked outraged, while others were merely curious.
“Karl, open the door,” the captain ordered. A man big as an ogre lumbered up to the barn’s main door, lifted a sledgehammer and struck the lock. Wham! Wham! A third blow took the lock off, and the enormous man pulled the door open to reveal hundreds of cowering girls and boys.
The commotion brought soldiers, archers and knights running over. Steps behind them came a man wearing a sable coat. He was older with silver hair, and would have looked handsome except for the look of utter contempt on his face.
“What is the meaning of this?” the older man demanded.
“I believe that is my question, Duke Wiskver,” the mercenary captain replied. He gestured to the slaves. “Women and children of Skitherin in chains, goods to be sold no different than sheep or goats, and you thought we wouldn’t care?”
“My property is none of your business,” Wiskver said haughtily. “You have been paid well to fight for the king and queen. Nothing else that goes on in this kingdom is your concern.”
“King and queen,” the captain repeated. “Strange how often I hear that. Most kings speak for themselves, yet your king’s proclamations always come with his wife’s name attached to them, like she is his equal.”
“You dog!” Wiskver spat on the ground. “You’re hired help, nothing more, yet you dare to speak so contemptibly of my king!”
Dana watched the mercenaries and soldiers. The two sides were the same size, but the mercenaries were better armed and armored, and they looked more confident. Jayden had said mercenary captains didn’t owe their positions to royal commands or grants. The captain had earned his position through courage, quick wits and constant victories. His men followed because he paid them, and they could leave if they were dissatisfied. Many of them looked furious. If he backed down he risked them deserting or replacing him.
A fight could break out any second. Dana raced away, slipping twice on snow trampled down to mush by foot traffic. She heard shouting and insults behind her as she reached the tents, and barely got past them when she ran into Jayden, Suzy and Yub. She slid across the wet ground and landed at Jayden’s feet.
Jayden looked worried as he helped her up. “Are you hurt?”
“No, but it’s about to get really messy.” Dana looked back at the growing crowd of soldiers and mercenaries. She wasn’t sure which side would win if they fought. Jayden and Suzy could tip the fight in the mercenaries’ favor, but she hesitated to explain what she’d seen. Jayden had gone berserk when he’d seen the slaves at Scalamonger’s estate, and he might do so again. “Promise me you’re not going to go feral.”
Suzy looked confused. “What?”
“She’s worried I’ll lose my temper,” Jayden explained. “Dana, I won’t get angry. Tell me what you saw.”
“The new barn is protected by some kind of magic that kept me back, and I learned what was in the armored wagons. They were carrying people, Jayden, hundreds of girls and boys from Skitherin Kingdom. They’re chained up in the other barn. Wiskver is going to sell them this spring. I told the mercenaries, and they’re confronting the duke.” Dana saw Jayden’s eye’s narrow and his face turn red. “No, you promised!”
Suzy went through her coat and brought out a small bomb. “He promised, I didn’t. Back home I saw too many people treated like dirt, but they were still free people. This stops if I have to blow up every building here to do it.”
“Ms. Lockheart, I believe we’ve finally found a matter where we’re of the same opinion,” Jayden declared.
Dana grabbed them both by the arm. “The mercenaries are minutes away from rebelling. If you attack they’ll join forces with the soldiers to defend themselves. Just sit still and let them fight each other.”
Jayden looked dubious as he studied the growing conflict. “They’re too busy to pay attention to us. We can get closer and take action if needed. Lockheart, I assume your wagon is well supplied with explosives?”
“Like you have to ask.”
“Bring it with us and hide it behind a tent.”
They snuck into the tent camp and found the mercenaries and soldiers in a war of words. Men shouted back and forth, with Wiskver and the scarred mercenary captain the loudest and angriest.
“You came highly recommended as skilled warriors, yet I find disobedient curs before me!” Wiskver bellowed.
“You want blind obedience, buy a golem,” the scarred captain retorted. “You want battles won, hire men who think and treat them well. Is that what you thought we were, slaves for rent?”
A lone mercenary approached the barn’s entrance. Wiskver shouted, “Get away from there!”
The mercenary ignored him. “Tanya?”
One of the slave girls sat up straight, her eyes snapping open and her jaw dropping in shock. Just as fast she crouched down and covered her face with her hands. The mercenary ran to her and wrapped his arms around her. “Tanya!”
The scarred captain went to the man and put a hand on his shoulder. The mercenary had doubtlessly fought many battles, seen horrors beyond description, yet tears ran down his face like rivers. “S-sir, this is Tanya, from my village. She grew up three doors down from me. She’s a good girl. I, sir, I can’t leave her like this.”
The scarred captain looked at his followers, now universally angry. His eyes fell on Wiskver. “They’re coming with us. Take whatever they cost you out of our pay.”
“You’ll do no such thing!” Wiskver thundered. He pulled a jeweled rod from inside his coat and pointed it at them. “Men, attack!”
Dana had to give the soldiers credit for bravery if not brains as they charged headlong into the mercenaries. The mercenaries battered them aside with contemptible ease, fighting with a unity and ferocity Dana had rarely seen. Soldiers were surrounded and knocked to the ground, their weapons broken, and a few were even robbed.
Suzy ran headlong into the fight with Yub at her side. “I want in on this!”
Jayden handed Dana her sword back and followed Suzy. Suzy threw bombs and sent knights screaming from their horses. Jayden formed his giant magic hand and bowled over archers taking aim at the mercenaries. Yub tripped soldiers and took their wallets.
Dana ignored the fight and ran into the barn. Slaves cowered when she approached, and they screamed when she drew her magic sword. She swung down as hard as she could. A shower of sparks shot up as it hacked through a chain holding twenty slaves together. Screams turned into shouts of joy, and slaves held up their chains for her to cut.
Wiskver ran into the barn and saw her chop through another chain. “No, stop!”
Dana pointed her sword at his heart. “I’m coming for you next!”
Wiskver ran screaming from the barn. Dana hacked chains apart one after another until everyone was free. She led them out to find the soldiers falling back. Wiskver wasn’t with them. Instead he headed for the second barn. He held up his jeweled rod and went right through the barrier that had kept Dana back.
“Oh no.” Dana saw Jayden pursuing fleeing soldiers and waved to him. “Jayden, stop Wiskver!”
The warning came too late. Wiskver pressed his rod against the barn’s door, and it swung open as if strong men were pushing it. He stepped aside and pointed his rod at the mercenaries.
“Idiots!” Wiskver screamed into the barn. “Worthless retches the lot of you! I paid good money for you failures! Not one of you would do a day’s work! If work is too good for you, then fight in my name! Kill! Kill!”
Seconds passed with no response, making Dana think Wiskver was out of his mind, before a lone voice called back, “You only had to say it once.”
The barn’s interior lit up with a sea of red lights. There was a strange clacking sound, like sticks hitting sticks, followed by a hateful, braying laughter, and the stuff of nightmares poured out. Animated skeletons ran screaming from the barn like a river in flood, each one with red light pouring from empty eye sockets, and unarmed except for their sharp teeth and nails. Horrible as even one of these abominations was, they emerged by the hundreds, laughing, screaming and throwing their heads back as they howled.
Dana would have screamed in horror or fear, but the cry died in her throat as a wave of pain washed over her. She grabbed her head and pinched her eyes shut as she doubled over. The slaves suffered the same agony and cried out. Seconds later pain turned to rage, an unquenchable hatred that made her entire body shake.
The skeletal horde crashed into the mercenaries with overwhelming numbers. The scarred captain rallied his men into a rough square that slowly fell back. Skeletons surrounded the formation and pounded on it from all sides. Mercenaries battered skeletons to pieces, only for more to take their place.
Skeletons also went after the soldiers. Wiskver shouted at them to stop and waved his rod at them to no avail. Soldiers fought with fierceness equaling the mercenaries, falling back only far enough to have walls at their backs. Skeletons attacked the buildings as well and tried to force their way through doors and windows. Wiskver pulled at his hair, helpless to stop the battle.
Then they came to the barn.
“Ooh, look at all the pretty pretties to kill,” a horrifying skeleton said as it stepped in front of the barn door. This one was missing a foot and had a horse’s hoof in its place, and there was an extra arm on its left side. “I must have been a good boy!”
Dana screamed in pain and revulsion as she charged the monster. It tried to grab her with its three arms. She slid under its clumsy swings and lashed out with her sword, hacking off two of its arms. The skeleton looked puzzled and held up the stumps in front of its glowing eyes. She swung again and lopped off both legs at the knees. The skeleton fell to the ground, and she plunged her sword through its ribs and spine, destroying it.
“Hey, save some for me,” a skeleton with a wolf’s skull said as it swaggered into the barn. It stared at the shattered bones and its jaw dropped. “Huh?”
Dana charged the skeleton and swung across its chest, slicing through rib bones before cutting off the front of its skull. The skeleton fell backwards into a third skeleton, knocking it over. She leapt onto the fallen skeleton and cut it to pieces.
Dana heard a faint noise of a girl screaming. In her fury it took seconds to realize the screams were hers. Pain and rage made it hard to think. She saw skeletons running to join the attack on the mercenaries. She growled under her breath and ran after them, catching up with one and stabbing it in the back until it fell.
Mercenaries and soldiers were pushed together by the rush of skeletons until they stood side by side. The men fought with the same fury Dana did, snarling and screaming as they battered and hacked their enemies to pieces. Skeletons mobbed men and dragged them down, but men ran to the rescue and pulled their victims to safety. It would have been impressive, except the stream of skeletons from the barn never slackened.
Jayden fought his way to the embattled men, his black sword slashing apart skeletons like they were wheat before a scythe. He seemed to be the only person not totally consumed by rage. Suzy Lockheart was steps behind him and hurling explosives at anything within range. Yub followed suit with more explosives. When he ran out he threw himself at the nearest skeleton and bit it, chewing the skeleton’s leg and eating it.
Dana destroyed ten skeletons getting to Jayden. She was hit twice and knocked back, but she went on heedless of the blows until she reached him. Jayden embraced her with his left arm when she came close.
“Jayden, make it stop!” Dana clutched her head and gritted her teeth. “I want…I need to kill them! I hate them all!”
“Your body is reacting to the presence of undead,” he said. “The pain will stop when they’re gone. My mind cloud spell protects me, but it takes too long to cast it on you.”
Skeletons tried to swarm the two of them. Suzy spotted the attack and hurled a bomb into the mob, blasting it apart. She tried to charge the next group of skeletons until Jayden pulled her to a stop.
“Why don’t they stop coming?” Dana asked. “The barn’s not that big.”
“Wiskver must have put them into the cavern below as well as in the barn,” Jayden said. “It’s large enough to house thousands of skeletons. We’ll be overrun if we stay and chased down if we flee.”
More skeletons attacked. These ones were pieced together nightmares with bones from men and animals fused together. Jayden destroyed the first two with his black sword, while Dana charged a third one and cut it apart. Suzy hurled firebombs into the skeletons and burned them to ashes.
“More!” Suzy yelled. “Keep them coming! I’ve got bombs for weeks!”
“Cave,” Dana gasped. “If most of them are underground, can we bring the cave down on them? Like we did in Armorton when we blew up the sewers?”
“We’d need an enormous amount of explosives,” Jayden told her.
“Suzy, we need all the bombs you have!” Dana yelled.
Suzy had trouble focusing enough to answer. “Bombs. More bombs in my wagon.”
“Enough to blow up the barn?” Dana asked.
“Yes.” Suzy ran to her wagon just as her horses broke free of their yokes. Dana assumed the animals would run off. Instead they raced to the nearest skeletons and stomped them to pieces. Suzy climbed onto her wagon and said, “I can set the bombs to go off, but I can’t move them closer.”
Jayden hacked apart another skeleton and impaled a second one that Dana finished off. He let his black sword fade out and formed one of his giant magic hands. The hand grabbed the back of the wagon and pushed it toward the barn. Suzy pulled a test tube out of her coat, shook it hard and threw it into the back of her wagon. She jumped off as the wagon rolled by Jayden and Dana.
The wagon rolled fast and struck the stream of undead coming from the barn, crushing a dozen of them before going through the barn’s door. Skeletons kept pouring out, and some climbed onto the wagon.
Dana grabbed Suzy by the arm. “When is it going to g—”
BOOM! The explosion leveled the barn, throwing huge pieces of burning timber through the air to crash into skeletons. Dense clouds of smoke and dust billowed into the air. The ground shook and began to sink, slowly at first but picking up speed quickly. What little remained of the barn vanished into the ground, and more land around it disappeared. Soldiers, mercenaries and slaves fled when the manor house crumbled into the earth.
Mercenaries and soldiers surrounded a hundred skeletons still standing and finished them off. Three skeletons tried to flee. They only got a few steps before Jayden caught up with them and swung his black lash, wrapping it around them and burning through them. With the last skeletons gone the pain lifted, and people across the battlefield collapsed in exhaustion.
Suzy stared at the gaping hole where the barn and manor house had been. “That was good.”
Jayden let his magic whip fade away. “Incredibly satisfying.”
* * * * *
Dana woke the following morning to see soldiers and mercenaries, who’d only the night before had tried to kill one another, were side by side picking through the remains of Duke Wiskver’s property. They looted anything worth taking, loading up with food, drink and warm clothing. One soldier kept apologizing, telling anyone who’d listen that he hadn’t known of the duke’s crimes. Dana looked around and found Jayden talking to the scarred mercenary captain.
Jayden asked, “What will you do now?”
“There are other companies of Skitherin mercenaries in this kingdom,” the captain said. “I need to tell them what we’ve learned, both about our womenfolk and that a duke was involved in necromancy. We’ll take the women and children with us and leave the kingdom. No amount of gold is worth this.”
“It’s a pleasure to hear that.”
The captain slapped Jayden on the back. “I’ve heard about you. You’re got quite a price on your head. You’re also quite a wizard. I don’t have a wizard working for me. You could come with us.”
“Tempting as that is, I have work to do here.”
The captain saw Dana as she walked up to them. He looked at Sven the spearman and shouted, “That the one you wanted?”
Sven blushed. “Uh, yes.”
“I saw her fight last night. Good eye, boy.”
The captain walked away, leaving Dana and Jayden alone. Dana looked at the gaping hole in the ground left by Suzy’s explosives. “Jayden, there was an army of skeletons down there. How hard would it have been to make so many?”
“Only the strongest necromancers would have the power.” He frowned and added, “Animated skeletons are typically made from the bones of only one animal or person. The ones we faced had been cobbled together from many sources, sometimes with extra limbs. If a necromancer that powerful is allowed to continue experimenting, there’s no telling what horrors he could produce.”
“They were stored on Wiskver’s land. He thought he could control them. He was in on it, Jayden, he had to be.”
“He was indeed. The duke fled during the battle, a wise move given that his own men would tear him apart if they got the chance. Wiskver’s dealing with a necromancer opens the possibility that the king and queen might be behind it. Would Wiskver take such a risk without their support? Did they order him to do this?”
Jayden looked off into the distance. “Father, what have you done?”
Dana heard horses whinny and armor plates clink. She turned to see Suzy and Yub driving an armored wagon and stop next to them.
“There wasn’t as much loot as I’d like, but Wiskver had agricultural supplies I can use,” she said. “Sulfur, charcoal, and a soldier told me I can find saltpeter in the next town. It’s enough to make the bomb I need. We’ve got time to reach Brandish and close off the pass. Let’s go.”
“I can’t,” Jayden told her.
“What do you mean you can’t?” Suzy demanded. She waved an arm at the liberated slaves. “You saw that! Girls were turned into property! It makes the garbage I put up with growing up look like a cakewalk. We can’t let this spread to other kingdoms!”
“Which is why you have to close the pass to Brandish as soon as possible. You have the tools to do the job without us. Dana and I have to find the necromancer responsible for this outrage before he causes further suffering.”
“You think you can stop the monster who did this without me?” Suzy asked.
“There’s no choice. If I come with you the necromancer will produce further atrocities. If you come with me Brandish is left open to attack. Neither of us can fail.” Jayden walked up to her and took her hand. “You have to do this.”
She stared at him. “This is why you’re like this, isn’t it? You saw this nightmare coming and focused your whole life to stopping it.”
“I suspected it, but last night proved I underestimated the threat. I’ve failed to end this horror. I need you, Ms. Lockheart. Help me stop this madness before it spreads. Hundreds of thousands of lives depend on you.”
Suzy stared hard at him and rode off. “We’ll meet again.”
“Feeling relieved?” Dana asked him as he watched Suzy leave.
“Yes, but not for the reason you think. Suzy understands me better than she did before, perhaps enough that what she’s doing in Brandish is no longer just a job. If so, the people of that kingdom have a worthy ally for the battles to come. Dana, we need to go. Finding the necromancer will be no easy feat.”
They left Duke Wiskver’s ruined estate and headed into the snowy wilderness. Dana looked back briefly at the soldiers who’d once served the duke. What would they do now? If nothing else they could spread the word of the duke’s crimes. That alone could do immeasurable good.
“You know, I’ve been thinking about a name for my sword,” she began.
Jayden smiled. “Again?”
She drew the blade and studied it. “You said the name should mention important battles or famous deed. I know it sounds silly, but destroying Wall Wolf didn’t seem like it was important enough. The golem wasn’t a monster, just a mindless tool. It could have been used for good if better people were controlling it.”
“That is a very good point.”
“Duke Wiskver is different. He decided to be a slaver. He decided to use the undead.” She thought back to the night before and shuddered. “How could anyone think he could control those things? Stopping him, freeing those children, I’m proud of that. My parents would be proud. I used the sword to do it. So I’m calling it Chain Cutter.”
No sooner has she said the words then the sword shook so hard she had to hold it with both hands. Sparks poured off it like a shower, and it made a crackling sound like distant thunder. The noise, sparks and shaking stopped almost as fast as it started, leaving Dana worried and confused. She looked at the blade. The words Chain Cutter were written across one side of the sword in flowing letters that faintly glowed like stars at night.
Hesitantly, she asked Jayden, “Is that normal?”
Jayden didn’t look bothered. “Normal is a relative term with magic.”
* * * * *
Dana stared at the mercenaries. “Duke Wiskver hired that many men?”
Jayden shook his head. “More likely these mercenaries were hired by the king and queen. Come spring they will earn their keep in the royal couple’s wars. I imagine Duke Wiskver has the unenviable duty of feeding them during the winter. He’s making the best of a bad situation by using them as guards for whatever those wagons contain.”
Suzy tapped her fingers on the side of her wagon. “Sneaking in there is going to be hard. Getting out with whatever’s in those wagons is impossible. We’re going to have to burn it all, Jayden. I’ve got firebombs to do the job.”
“If the contents of those wagons are flammable, we could repeat the disaster you caused in Armorston,” he said. “We’ll see what’s there and act accordingly.”
“By burning it,” Suzy said sweetly.
“Why does he have two barns?” Dana asked before Jayden could shout at Suzy.
Jayden paused. “I was here before the civil war, and there was only one barn then. Where the second barn stands used to be a far smaller building leading to a large natural cavern. The duke who once lived here used the cave to store beer barrels while the beer fermented. Wiskver didn’t follow his example.”
“That’s stupid,” Dana said. “Brewers make good money. Why wouldn’t he have men do the work?”
“Because he’s a snob,” Jayden said. “Beer is poor men’s drink, and he has aspirations to greatness.”
“We can sneak inside,” Suzy said. “I don’t see guards on patrol, and there aren’t dogs sniffing out intruders. Wiskver is either real confident or real stupid.”
“He expects little trouble with so many men at his command.” Jayden cautioned, “Ground around the manor lacks cover. We’d be seen coming at a distance, and by now both of us have bounties on our heads and wanted posters with our portraits.”
“But not mine,” Dana said.
Jayden grabbed her by the arm. “No.”
Dana pulled free. “There has to be farmers and ranchers living nearby. They’ll think I’m one of them looking for work. I can get in, find out what’s going on and get back.”
“Even if they don’t know who you are, sending a young woman among soldiers and mercenaries is too dangerous,” he said. “You have no ideas the risk you’re taking or the cost you’ll pay if even one man among that thousand seeks to do you harm.”
“What choice is there?” she demanded. “You said those mercenaries are going to be here until spring. We can’t wait that long. And what if they’re carrying weapons in those wagons, maybe more bombs like the one Suzy set off? Whatever is in there is so valuable they’re spending lots of money on it, and you don’t do that without a good reason.”
Suzy smiled at Dana. “McShootersun would love you.”
Jayden stared hard at Dana before marching back to Suzy’s wagon. “You need a disguise that will make them want to let you in, and Lockheart generously provided it.”
“I did what?” Suzy asked.
“Soldiers and mercenaries eat like horses,” Jayden said. He gathered up food that Suzy had cooked and wrapped it in an old blanket. “A peasant girl with food to sell, especially good food, is going to be a welcome sight they will want to return as often as possible. You’ll have to leave your sword here or risk arousing their suspicion.”
Jayden handed her the bundle, but didn’t let go when she tried to pull it from his grasp. His eyes locked onto hers with a fierceness she knew all too well. “If we see or hear signs of danger, if we even suspect a threat to your wellbeing, Lockheart and I will come down on them like the wrath of God.”
With Jayden that was no idle threat. Dana was less certain of what Suzy was capable of, but Jayden made it sound like the woman was a serious threat, possibly his equal.
Dana met his gaze. “You trusted me before. Trust me now.”
She left them and hurried toward the manor and its army of soldiers and mercenaries. It surprised her how far she got before the first man noticed her. Two spearmen wearing chain armor and dressed in blue and black stepped toward her and gave her curious looks when she stopped in front of them and curtsied.
“Good sirs, my name is Candice Latchkey. My family needs money to cover next year’s taxes. Forgive me if I ask too much, but I brought home cooked meals I thought you might like to buy. I know you’ll love it, and I don’t charge much.”
One spearman looked through the bundle of food while the second kept an eye on her. The first one pinched off a piece of Suzy’s bread and tasted it. He nodded and looked to the other spearman. “It’s good. We’ll have to clear this with the captain first. Sven, take her to the command tent.”
A spearman barely older than Dana led her to a large brightly lit tent. Inside stood three older men wearing plate armor and arguing over plates of cold chicken. They paused when the young spearman entered and saluted. Dana opened her mouth, but one of the men spoke first.
“Peasant,” he said. The man had ugly scars along the left side of his jaw, like he’d been badly burned in the past. His hair was black going to gray and cut very short. He walked up to her and saw the bundle she was carrying. “Trying to curry favor or do business?”
Dana curtsied again. “Business. I’m selling home cooked—”
The man jammed a finger into one of Suzy’s pies and stuck it in his mouth. “Sweet bark. I haven’t tasted that in a long time. Where does a peasant girl get sweet bark?”
Thinking fast, she said, “A man came to my village with spices for sale. We didn’t know why he sold it so cheaply.”
The scarred man laughed. “He’s a clever thief to sell to peasants. You’d eat the evidence fast enough. Fine, sell your food and be on your way, but if one of my men eats it and falls sick, you’ll pay.”
Dana did her best to look offended. “Sir! I’ve never disappointed a customer, much less harmed one.”
“Off with you,” the scarred man said.
Dana left the tent and went among the armed men around the manor. She gradually made her way closer to the armored wagons, careful to take a roundabout path so it didn’t look like that was her objective. As she walked she offered food to nearby men. Most refused her, but men came in ones and twos to buy what she had. This earned a fair number of copper coins, far less than the spices in the food were worth, and kept up the appearance that she was a peddler.
Bit by bit she got closer to the armored wagons. She stopped when she was twenty feet away and tried to look inside the nearest one. The back of the wagon had been lowered, and even in the poor light of the camp she could see it was empty. The contents had been unloaded.
So many wagons could carry tons of cargo. That meant it had to be transferred to a building with lots of space. Dana studied the two barns and decided to check the one built over the cavern. If Duke Wiskver was feeling particularly paranoid he might hide the goods underground.
Dana earned another handful of coins as she worked he way closer to the barn. Neither barn had soldiers or mercenaries camped close to it, which meant approaching them might make her stand out. Dana risked it and went closer. She got within fifty feet and stopped, but not willingly.
Her feet didn’t want to move. She pressed on, lifting a foot and trying to fall forward, but even this got her only a step closer. The closer she got the worse this strange compulsion was until she couldn’t move her arms, legs, even her fingers closer to the building. Panicking, she took a step backwards, and to her relief she moved away at full speed.
What to do? There was still another barn to check. Would the same mysterious force defend that one? She tried to look casual as she approached the barn. This time there was no trouble, and she reached a side door without incident. The door was barred from the outside. Dana had no trouble lifting the bar and setting it quietly on the ground.
She opened the door to find the enormous barn was filled front to back with people. Most of them were girls her age or younger, while about a third were boys no older than twelve. They wore simple cotton clothes and huddled around small brick lined fire pits. The girls and boys were chained together in long lines like prisoners.
Worse than this, if such a thing was possible, were their anguished faces. They looked at Dana in fear and self-loathing. Many turned away at the sight of her. Those who did meet gaze had writing tattooed onto their right cheeks just below the eye. Dana took a step forward and read the words on the nearest girl. It said, “Property of,” with a line below those repulsive words. They were slaves.
“Who are you?” Dana whispered.
“The man said we don’t have names anymore,” a girl responded.
“What man?”
Another girl told the first one, “Don’t talk. You’ll get us in trouble.”
“It can’t get worse than this,” the first one said. “The tall man, Wiskver, bought us in Skitherin. He brought us to a city, and today he brought us here. He’s going to sell us in springtime.”
These girls and boys were the cargo of the armored wagons. Jayden had said Duke Wiskver was still earning his riches through trade. They’d met slaves in Baron Scalamonger’s estate, and later a boy owned by an army officer Imuran Tellet. Scalamonger had said many noblemen used slave labor, but even in Dana’s worst nightmares she hadn’t believed the trade in human lives was this extensive. Duke Wiskver must be supplying the demand, and no doubt earning a handsome profit.
Dana took the girl’s hands in hers. “It’s going to be okay, I promise.”
“How? We can’t go home. Our own families sold us. We have no money, no land, no one to turn to.” The girl looked down. “Run. Leave before they sell you, too.”
There wasn’t much of Suzy’s cooking left. Dana handed it to the girl and said, “It won’t go far, but pass it around. Please believe me, help is coming.”
Dana left the barn and closed the door behind her. She felt an empty feeling in her heart. She had to help these poor people, but what could she do when the duke had a thousand men? Dana hurried away from the barn and headed for the edge of the camp.
“Hey, girl, you have anything left?” Dana spun around and saw the young spearman from before approach her.
“Uh, Sven, isn’t it? Sorry, no, all out. I’ll bring more tomorrow.”
Sven laughed and caught up with her. “You sold out that fast? I thought you’d be here all night. This duke is an idiot, but he feeds us enough that we don’t have to poach game or buy food. You’re good.”
Dana kept walking toward the edge of the camp. “Thank you.”
“You don’t have a man yet, do you?”
That made her stop in mid step. “I have a boyfriend.”
“But does he have money? You’re a good cook, and you’re good at peddling. Most women are too shy for that. You should see girls run when we come into town! Sheep are braver. A man would do well to have you for a wife.”
“I’ll be sure to tell my boyfriend.”
Sven cheerfully said, “My captain shares loot and pay from our employer, not like some captains. I have enough to settle down and buy a farm. I just need a wife. Your man doesn’t have money or he wouldn’t let you come here alone. I’m a better choice than he is.”
“Wait, you’d asked a stranger to marry you?”
“Why not? Back in Skitherin Kingdom, grandparents arrange marriages. Here we have to find wives by ourselves. A woman who can cook and is pretty, that’s a good catch. Love can come later.”
Dana knew parents who meddled in their children’s love lives, forbidding certain boys and encouraging others. It wasn’t strange for parents to pick a wife or husband for their children. “Take your money home and let your family pick a girl for you.”
Sven waved his hand like he was shooing away a fly. “Why go back? You know what would happen if I tried? The nobles, the magistrates, the Ministry of Obedience, they’d take every coin from me. I risked my life to earn that money. I can spend it, I can give it away, but no one takes it from me.”
Sven stopped her and pulled a coin pouch from his belt. He opened it and held it up to show her. “See, gold. That’s enough to buy good land, livestock, tools—”
“And buy a wife, too,” Dana interrupted.
“No, it’s not like that!”
Skitherin Kingdom must be a miserable place if men like Sven would risk their lives by becoming mercenaries. It must be doubly miserable if families sell their daughters and even sons. Sven hated his homeland, natural enough given what he’d said. The other mercenaries probably felt the same. But how did they feel about the common people from back home?
Dana put her hands on her hips. “It is so! You think you can buy me like those poor Skitherin girls in the barn.”
Sven’s expression went from panic to confusion. “What girls?”
“The ones in the barn. Duke Wiskver bought them from your homeland, and he’s selling them here. I won’t be bought for pocket change.”
Confusion gave way to anger, and then grim determination as Sven grabbed Dana’s hand. “Come with me.”
Dana barely had to feign indignation as Sven dragged her to the command tent. “Hey, wait a minute!”
Soldiers and mercenaries watched with concern as Sven pulled her along. They reached the command tent to find little had changed, except the cold chicken dinners were now only bones picked clean. The scarred man leading the mercenaries raised an eyebrow when he saw Dana again.
“What did she do?” he demanded.
Sven pushed Dana toward the ugly man. “Tell the captain what you told me.”
Dana pointed at Sven. “He wants to settle down and asked me to marry him.”
The captain burst out laughing. Sven blushed and shouted, “Not that part!”
“He showed me what you paid him and said he could support me. I said I wouldn’t be bought like those Skitherin girls in the barn.”
The captain stopped laughing. “Girls? What’s this about? How would you know what’s in those barns?”
Oops. Dana prayed she was a convincing liar. “I heard voices in the barn and thought some of your men were staying there. I opened a side door and saw girls and young boys chained up. They said they were from Skitherin Kingdom, and that the duke had bought them.”
The captain’s eyes narrowed. “The wagons that came in this morning, they went straight into the barn before unloading so we wouldn’t see.”
“Is this how they’re able to pay us?” Sven demanded. “Our daughters and sisters are being sold like oxen, and to do what? Mop floors if they’re lucky! Captain, are we going to take money from a man who hires us to fight his battles while treating our women like animals?”
Sven’s yelling brought mercenaries running to the command tent until there was a crowd gathered around the entrance. The captain glared at Sven and Dana. He looked angry and conflicted. Finally he said, “I don’t take a peasant’s word for anything. She says there are slaves in that barn, I look before I believe her.”
The captain marched out of the tent with his men following. Sven took the lead with Dana still in his grip. They marched up to the second, older barn, and the captain tried to open the large front door. He glowered at Dana when it didn’t budge.
“I used the side door,” she said, and pointed to it.
Grumbling under his breath, the captain marched to the side door, pulled off the bar and threw it aside. He opened the door and peered inside. Seconds later he came back out. “Sven, let the girl go.”
“Then it’s true.” Sven released Dana and ran to the door. He came back swearing and stomping his feet. More mercenaries came over and looked inside. Some looked outraged, while others were merely curious.
“Karl, open the door,” the captain ordered. A man big as an ogre lumbered up to the barn’s main door, lifted a sledgehammer and struck the lock. Wham! Wham! A third blow took the lock off, and the enormous man pulled the door open to reveal hundreds of cowering girls and boys.
The commotion brought soldiers, archers and knights running over. Steps behind them came a man wearing a sable coat. He was older with silver hair, and would have looked handsome except for the look of utter contempt on his face.
“What is the meaning of this?” the older man demanded.
“I believe that is my question, Duke Wiskver,” the mercenary captain replied. He gestured to the slaves. “Women and children of Skitherin in chains, goods to be sold no different than sheep or goats, and you thought we wouldn’t care?”
“My property is none of your business,” Wiskver said haughtily. “You have been paid well to fight for the king and queen. Nothing else that goes on in this kingdom is your concern.”
“King and queen,” the captain repeated. “Strange how often I hear that. Most kings speak for themselves, yet your king’s proclamations always come with his wife’s name attached to them, like she is his equal.”
“You dog!” Wiskver spat on the ground. “You’re hired help, nothing more, yet you dare to speak so contemptibly of my king!”
Dana watched the mercenaries and soldiers. The two sides were the same size, but the mercenaries were better armed and armored, and they looked more confident. Jayden had said mercenary captains didn’t owe their positions to royal commands or grants. The captain had earned his position through courage, quick wits and constant victories. His men followed because he paid them, and they could leave if they were dissatisfied. Many of them looked furious. If he backed down he risked them deserting or replacing him.
A fight could break out any second. Dana raced away, slipping twice on snow trampled down to mush by foot traffic. She heard shouting and insults behind her as she reached the tents, and barely got past them when she ran into Jayden, Suzy and Yub. She slid across the wet ground and landed at Jayden’s feet.
Jayden looked worried as he helped her up. “Are you hurt?”
“No, but it’s about to get really messy.” Dana looked back at the growing crowd of soldiers and mercenaries. She wasn’t sure which side would win if they fought. Jayden and Suzy could tip the fight in the mercenaries’ favor, but she hesitated to explain what she’d seen. Jayden had gone berserk when he’d seen the slaves at Scalamonger’s estate, and he might do so again. “Promise me you’re not going to go feral.”
Suzy looked confused. “What?”
“She’s worried I’ll lose my temper,” Jayden explained. “Dana, I won’t get angry. Tell me what you saw.”
“The new barn is protected by some kind of magic that kept me back, and I learned what was in the armored wagons. They were carrying people, Jayden, hundreds of girls and boys from Skitherin Kingdom. They’re chained up in the other barn. Wiskver is going to sell them this spring. I told the mercenaries, and they’re confronting the duke.” Dana saw Jayden’s eye’s narrow and his face turn red. “No, you promised!”
Suzy went through her coat and brought out a small bomb. “He promised, I didn’t. Back home I saw too many people treated like dirt, but they were still free people. This stops if I have to blow up every building here to do it.”
“Ms. Lockheart, I believe we’ve finally found a matter where we’re of the same opinion,” Jayden declared.
Dana grabbed them both by the arm. “The mercenaries are minutes away from rebelling. If you attack they’ll join forces with the soldiers to defend themselves. Just sit still and let them fight each other.”
Jayden looked dubious as he studied the growing conflict. “They’re too busy to pay attention to us. We can get closer and take action if needed. Lockheart, I assume your wagon is well supplied with explosives?”
“Like you have to ask.”
“Bring it with us and hide it behind a tent.”
They snuck into the tent camp and found the mercenaries and soldiers in a war of words. Men shouted back and forth, with Wiskver and the scarred mercenary captain the loudest and angriest.
“You came highly recommended as skilled warriors, yet I find disobedient curs before me!” Wiskver bellowed.
“You want blind obedience, buy a golem,” the scarred captain retorted. “You want battles won, hire men who think and treat them well. Is that what you thought we were, slaves for rent?”
A lone mercenary approached the barn’s entrance. Wiskver shouted, “Get away from there!”
The mercenary ignored him. “Tanya?”
One of the slave girls sat up straight, her eyes snapping open and her jaw dropping in shock. Just as fast she crouched down and covered her face with her hands. The mercenary ran to her and wrapped his arms around her. “Tanya!”
The scarred captain went to the man and put a hand on his shoulder. The mercenary had doubtlessly fought many battles, seen horrors beyond description, yet tears ran down his face like rivers. “S-sir, this is Tanya, from my village. She grew up three doors down from me. She’s a good girl. I, sir, I can’t leave her like this.”
The scarred captain looked at his followers, now universally angry. His eyes fell on Wiskver. “They’re coming with us. Take whatever they cost you out of our pay.”
“You’ll do no such thing!” Wiskver thundered. He pulled a jeweled rod from inside his coat and pointed it at them. “Men, attack!”
Dana had to give the soldiers credit for bravery if not brains as they charged headlong into the mercenaries. The mercenaries battered them aside with contemptible ease, fighting with a unity and ferocity Dana had rarely seen. Soldiers were surrounded and knocked to the ground, their weapons broken, and a few were even robbed.
Suzy ran headlong into the fight with Yub at her side. “I want in on this!”
Jayden handed Dana her sword back and followed Suzy. Suzy threw bombs and sent knights screaming from their horses. Jayden formed his giant magic hand and bowled over archers taking aim at the mercenaries. Yub tripped soldiers and took their wallets.
Dana ignored the fight and ran into the barn. Slaves cowered when she approached, and they screamed when she drew her magic sword. She swung down as hard as she could. A shower of sparks shot up as it hacked through a chain holding twenty slaves together. Screams turned into shouts of joy, and slaves held up their chains for her to cut.
Wiskver ran into the barn and saw her chop through another chain. “No, stop!”
Dana pointed her sword at his heart. “I’m coming for you next!”
Wiskver ran screaming from the barn. Dana hacked chains apart one after another until everyone was free. She led them out to find the soldiers falling back. Wiskver wasn’t with them. Instead he headed for the second barn. He held up his jeweled rod and went right through the barrier that had kept Dana back.
“Oh no.” Dana saw Jayden pursuing fleeing soldiers and waved to him. “Jayden, stop Wiskver!”
The warning came too late. Wiskver pressed his rod against the barn’s door, and it swung open as if strong men were pushing it. He stepped aside and pointed his rod at the mercenaries.
“Idiots!” Wiskver screamed into the barn. “Worthless retches the lot of you! I paid good money for you failures! Not one of you would do a day’s work! If work is too good for you, then fight in my name! Kill! Kill!”
Seconds passed with no response, making Dana think Wiskver was out of his mind, before a lone voice called back, “You only had to say it once.”
The barn’s interior lit up with a sea of red lights. There was a strange clacking sound, like sticks hitting sticks, followed by a hateful, braying laughter, and the stuff of nightmares poured out. Animated skeletons ran screaming from the barn like a river in flood, each one with red light pouring from empty eye sockets, and unarmed except for their sharp teeth and nails. Horrible as even one of these abominations was, they emerged by the hundreds, laughing, screaming and throwing their heads back as they howled.
Dana would have screamed in horror or fear, but the cry died in her throat as a wave of pain washed over her. She grabbed her head and pinched her eyes shut as she doubled over. The slaves suffered the same agony and cried out. Seconds later pain turned to rage, an unquenchable hatred that made her entire body shake.
The skeletal horde crashed into the mercenaries with overwhelming numbers. The scarred captain rallied his men into a rough square that slowly fell back. Skeletons surrounded the formation and pounded on it from all sides. Mercenaries battered skeletons to pieces, only for more to take their place.
Skeletons also went after the soldiers. Wiskver shouted at them to stop and waved his rod at them to no avail. Soldiers fought with fierceness equaling the mercenaries, falling back only far enough to have walls at their backs. Skeletons attacked the buildings as well and tried to force their way through doors and windows. Wiskver pulled at his hair, helpless to stop the battle.
Then they came to the barn.
“Ooh, look at all the pretty pretties to kill,” a horrifying skeleton said as it stepped in front of the barn door. This one was missing a foot and had a horse’s hoof in its place, and there was an extra arm on its left side. “I must have been a good boy!”
Dana screamed in pain and revulsion as she charged the monster. It tried to grab her with its three arms. She slid under its clumsy swings and lashed out with her sword, hacking off two of its arms. The skeleton looked puzzled and held up the stumps in front of its glowing eyes. She swung again and lopped off both legs at the knees. The skeleton fell to the ground, and she plunged her sword through its ribs and spine, destroying it.
“Hey, save some for me,” a skeleton with a wolf’s skull said as it swaggered into the barn. It stared at the shattered bones and its jaw dropped. “Huh?”
Dana charged the skeleton and swung across its chest, slicing through rib bones before cutting off the front of its skull. The skeleton fell backwards into a third skeleton, knocking it over. She leapt onto the fallen skeleton and cut it to pieces.
Dana heard a faint noise of a girl screaming. In her fury it took seconds to realize the screams were hers. Pain and rage made it hard to think. She saw skeletons running to join the attack on the mercenaries. She growled under her breath and ran after them, catching up with one and stabbing it in the back until it fell.
Mercenaries and soldiers were pushed together by the rush of skeletons until they stood side by side. The men fought with the same fury Dana did, snarling and screaming as they battered and hacked their enemies to pieces. Skeletons mobbed men and dragged them down, but men ran to the rescue and pulled their victims to safety. It would have been impressive, except the stream of skeletons from the barn never slackened.
Jayden fought his way to the embattled men, his black sword slashing apart skeletons like they were wheat before a scythe. He seemed to be the only person not totally consumed by rage. Suzy Lockheart was steps behind him and hurling explosives at anything within range. Yub followed suit with more explosives. When he ran out he threw himself at the nearest skeleton and bit it, chewing the skeleton’s leg and eating it.
Dana destroyed ten skeletons getting to Jayden. She was hit twice and knocked back, but she went on heedless of the blows until she reached him. Jayden embraced her with his left arm when she came close.
“Jayden, make it stop!” Dana clutched her head and gritted her teeth. “I want…I need to kill them! I hate them all!”
“Your body is reacting to the presence of undead,” he said. “The pain will stop when they’re gone. My mind cloud spell protects me, but it takes too long to cast it on you.”
Skeletons tried to swarm the two of them. Suzy spotted the attack and hurled a bomb into the mob, blasting it apart. She tried to charge the next group of skeletons until Jayden pulled her to a stop.
“Why don’t they stop coming?” Dana asked. “The barn’s not that big.”
“Wiskver must have put them into the cavern below as well as in the barn,” Jayden said. “It’s large enough to house thousands of skeletons. We’ll be overrun if we stay and chased down if we flee.”
More skeletons attacked. These ones were pieced together nightmares with bones from men and animals fused together. Jayden destroyed the first two with his black sword, while Dana charged a third one and cut it apart. Suzy hurled firebombs into the skeletons and burned them to ashes.
“More!” Suzy yelled. “Keep them coming! I’ve got bombs for weeks!”
“Cave,” Dana gasped. “If most of them are underground, can we bring the cave down on them? Like we did in Armorton when we blew up the sewers?”
“We’d need an enormous amount of explosives,” Jayden told her.
“Suzy, we need all the bombs you have!” Dana yelled.
Suzy had trouble focusing enough to answer. “Bombs. More bombs in my wagon.”
“Enough to blow up the barn?” Dana asked.
“Yes.” Suzy ran to her wagon just as her horses broke free of their yokes. Dana assumed the animals would run off. Instead they raced to the nearest skeletons and stomped them to pieces. Suzy climbed onto her wagon and said, “I can set the bombs to go off, but I can’t move them closer.”
Jayden hacked apart another skeleton and impaled a second one that Dana finished off. He let his black sword fade out and formed one of his giant magic hands. The hand grabbed the back of the wagon and pushed it toward the barn. Suzy pulled a test tube out of her coat, shook it hard and threw it into the back of her wagon. She jumped off as the wagon rolled by Jayden and Dana.
The wagon rolled fast and struck the stream of undead coming from the barn, crushing a dozen of them before going through the barn’s door. Skeletons kept pouring out, and some climbed onto the wagon.
Dana grabbed Suzy by the arm. “When is it going to g—”
BOOM! The explosion leveled the barn, throwing huge pieces of burning timber through the air to crash into skeletons. Dense clouds of smoke and dust billowed into the air. The ground shook and began to sink, slowly at first but picking up speed quickly. What little remained of the barn vanished into the ground, and more land around it disappeared. Soldiers, mercenaries and slaves fled when the manor house crumbled into the earth.
Mercenaries and soldiers surrounded a hundred skeletons still standing and finished them off. Three skeletons tried to flee. They only got a few steps before Jayden caught up with them and swung his black lash, wrapping it around them and burning through them. With the last skeletons gone the pain lifted, and people across the battlefield collapsed in exhaustion.
Suzy stared at the gaping hole where the barn and manor house had been. “That was good.”
Jayden let his magic whip fade away. “Incredibly satisfying.”
* * * * *
Dana woke the following morning to see soldiers and mercenaries, who’d only the night before had tried to kill one another, were side by side picking through the remains of Duke Wiskver’s property. They looted anything worth taking, loading up with food, drink and warm clothing. One soldier kept apologizing, telling anyone who’d listen that he hadn’t known of the duke’s crimes. Dana looked around and found Jayden talking to the scarred mercenary captain.
Jayden asked, “What will you do now?”
“There are other companies of Skitherin mercenaries in this kingdom,” the captain said. “I need to tell them what we’ve learned, both about our womenfolk and that a duke was involved in necromancy. We’ll take the women and children with us and leave the kingdom. No amount of gold is worth this.”
“It’s a pleasure to hear that.”
The captain slapped Jayden on the back. “I’ve heard about you. You’re got quite a price on your head. You’re also quite a wizard. I don’t have a wizard working for me. You could come with us.”
“Tempting as that is, I have work to do here.”
The captain saw Dana as she walked up to them. He looked at Sven the spearman and shouted, “That the one you wanted?”
Sven blushed. “Uh, yes.”
“I saw her fight last night. Good eye, boy.”
The captain walked away, leaving Dana and Jayden alone. Dana looked at the gaping hole in the ground left by Suzy’s explosives. “Jayden, there was an army of skeletons down there. How hard would it have been to make so many?”
“Only the strongest necromancers would have the power.” He frowned and added, “Animated skeletons are typically made from the bones of only one animal or person. The ones we faced had been cobbled together from many sources, sometimes with extra limbs. If a necromancer that powerful is allowed to continue experimenting, there’s no telling what horrors he could produce.”
“They were stored on Wiskver’s land. He thought he could control them. He was in on it, Jayden, he had to be.”
“He was indeed. The duke fled during the battle, a wise move given that his own men would tear him apart if they got the chance. Wiskver’s dealing with a necromancer opens the possibility that the king and queen might be behind it. Would Wiskver take such a risk without their support? Did they order him to do this?”
Jayden looked off into the distance. “Father, what have you done?”
Dana heard horses whinny and armor plates clink. She turned to see Suzy and Yub driving an armored wagon and stop next to them.
“There wasn’t as much loot as I’d like, but Wiskver had agricultural supplies I can use,” she said. “Sulfur, charcoal, and a soldier told me I can find saltpeter in the next town. It’s enough to make the bomb I need. We’ve got time to reach Brandish and close off the pass. Let’s go.”
“I can’t,” Jayden told her.
“What do you mean you can’t?” Suzy demanded. She waved an arm at the liberated slaves. “You saw that! Girls were turned into property! It makes the garbage I put up with growing up look like a cakewalk. We can’t let this spread to other kingdoms!”
“Which is why you have to close the pass to Brandish as soon as possible. You have the tools to do the job without us. Dana and I have to find the necromancer responsible for this outrage before he causes further suffering.”
“You think you can stop the monster who did this without me?” Suzy asked.
“There’s no choice. If I come with you the necromancer will produce further atrocities. If you come with me Brandish is left open to attack. Neither of us can fail.” Jayden walked up to her and took her hand. “You have to do this.”
She stared at him. “This is why you’re like this, isn’t it? You saw this nightmare coming and focused your whole life to stopping it.”
“I suspected it, but last night proved I underestimated the threat. I’ve failed to end this horror. I need you, Ms. Lockheart. Help me stop this madness before it spreads. Hundreds of thousands of lives depend on you.”
Suzy stared hard at him and rode off. “We’ll meet again.”
“Feeling relieved?” Dana asked him as he watched Suzy leave.
“Yes, but not for the reason you think. Suzy understands me better than she did before, perhaps enough that what she’s doing in Brandish is no longer just a job. If so, the people of that kingdom have a worthy ally for the battles to come. Dana, we need to go. Finding the necromancer will be no easy feat.”
They left Duke Wiskver’s ruined estate and headed into the snowy wilderness. Dana looked back briefly at the soldiers who’d once served the duke. What would they do now? If nothing else they could spread the word of the duke’s crimes. That alone could do immeasurable good.
“You know, I’ve been thinking about a name for my sword,” she began.
Jayden smiled. “Again?”
She drew the blade and studied it. “You said the name should mention important battles or famous deed. I know it sounds silly, but destroying Wall Wolf didn’t seem like it was important enough. The golem wasn’t a monster, just a mindless tool. It could have been used for good if better people were controlling it.”
“That is a very good point.”
“Duke Wiskver is different. He decided to be a slaver. He decided to use the undead.” She thought back to the night before and shuddered. “How could anyone think he could control those things? Stopping him, freeing those children, I’m proud of that. My parents would be proud. I used the sword to do it. So I’m calling it Chain Cutter.”
No sooner has she said the words then the sword shook so hard she had to hold it with both hands. Sparks poured off it like a shower, and it made a crackling sound like distant thunder. The noise, sparks and shaking stopped almost as fast as it started, leaving Dana worried and confused. She looked at the blade. The words Chain Cutter were written across one side of the sword in flowing letters that faintly glowed like stars at night.
Hesitantly, she asked Jayden, “Is that normal?”
Jayden didn’t look bothered. “Normal is a relative term with magic.”
Dead End part 1
This is the first part of Dead End, with Dana Illwind and Sorcerer Lord Jayden.
*****
“Dana, I do believe we can finally travel.”
Jayden’s cheerful voice made Dana sit up from where she was playing on the floor with a toddler boy. This was harder than it sounds, since the boy had no intention of losing his playmate and wrapped both arms around her. She staggered for a moment before grabbing him and carrying him to the window.
It wasn’t a cheerful sight. Dozens of fruit trees in straight lines were still bare of leaves. The ground was covered in wet snow as slippery as grease. Smoke rose from the chimneys of nearby houses even during the day.
“It wouldn’t be fast or dry,” she pointed out.
“A temporary situation. Look by those rocks. Green grass, proof that spring is upon us, and with it mobility.” Jayden rubbed his hands together in gleeful anticipation. “Muddy boots is a small price to pay for ending two months inactivity.”
“Ba,” the toddler said.
Dana rubbed his mop of messy yellow hair. “You’re not a sheep.”
“Ba, ba, ba. Da? Ba!”
The rest of the family they were staying with gathered around the lone window of their house. Grandfather Glen Stex, his two daughters, three daughters-in-law and fifteen grandchildren made for a large family. Dana and Jayden’s presence made their house even more crowded. Still, it was a cheerful place, and their hosts were always kind.
After destroying the undead horde hidden in Duke Wiskver’s estate, Jayden had been adamant on pursuing whoever had made the skeletal horrors. They’d marched to the nearest village, where Jayden introduced them as Stanly and his daughter May. He’d questioned the locals if there had been strangers or suspicious events in recent months. The residents had been happy to help, especially when Jayden started buying drinks.
Then the snow came. Winter storms were nothing to sneer at in the kingdom, and this one had been brutal. When the storm ended there was nearly two feet of dense snow, the kind that packed down easily and clung to boots. Walking a mile became a grueling challenge, and going to the next village was impossible.
Fortunately the villagers were only too happy to take them in until the weather improved. This didn’t surprise Dana. Merchants and travelers came to small villages like this only rarely, leaving residents starved for information on the outside world. So great was their isolation that they didn’t even have wanted posters for Jayden, surprising given how high the price on his head was. Jayden had insisted on paying for room and board, making Glen and his family even happier to have them. Their stay had been pleasant, but Jayden had chaffed at the delay as days stretched into weeks and then two months.
“I’d wait another two weeks if I were you,” Glen cautioned. “Roads are going to be thick mud where they’re not covered in ice.”
“Delightful as your company has been, I have work to do and limited time to complete it,” Jayden said. He shook Glen’s hand and smiled. “Your hospitality exceeded all expectations. I’m glad we met.”
“I’m not sure it counts as hospitality when you paid for everything you received,” Glen told him. “I’d have been happy with half what you offered.”
“Many men wouldn’t have opened their home up to strangers, a testament to your kindness and generosity,” Jayden replied. “Nevertheless, I fear our paths must separate.”
Glen opened the door for Jayden and Dana. “Let me at least walk you to the road.”
“It’s been wonderful spending time with you,” Dana told the women and children. She tried to hand off the little boy to his mother. Then she tried again. The boy’s grip tightened. “And, um, it was great getting to know you all. Come on, little guy.”
The toddler’s smile turned into a shockingly serious look. “No.”
“Some children’s first words are mama,” the boy’s mother said. The family laughed as Dana tried to pull the little boy off her.
“No! No, no no!”
A girl of eight years came up and put her hands on the little boy. “Sorry, he gets like this. You kind of have to pry him off. Mom, you get his left arm and I’ll get the right.”
The little boy’s face turned red as his sister and mother removed him from Dana. He made a humming sound that turned into a howl before screaming, “Dada!”
Dana looked away as the boy’s mother held him tight. He squalled and struggled to break free, his howls doubling in intensity when he saw Dana heading for the door.
“I told you not to play with him so much,” Jayden reminded her.
“I couldn’t help it. He’s cute.”
Glen picked up a wood ax by the door and went outside with them. “I’m sorry about that. He’s a good boy, strong willed and with a loving heart. He took it hard when his dad was conscripted. We all did.”
Dana and Jayden’s stay had provided fresh evidence of hardships in the kingdom. Glen was 57 years old, patriarch of his little clan and the only man left. Press gangs had come through the village in late autumn and forcibly enlisted Glen’s sons and son-in-laws. Each man was presented a spear, dagger, wood shield and uniform, and declared to be infantry in the king and queen’s army. Rumor was nearby villages had suffered similar losses, and farmers rich enough to own draft animals had lost those as well. Dana wondered how these people would run their farms.
She also wondered if men in her hometown were being conscripted. The king and queen had already called up the militia to serve, but many men weren’t in the militia. Life had been hard back home with so many farmers and ranchers gone, and could get even worse in press gangs came for the rest.
As they walked down the muddy, snowy road, Glen took a scrap of paper from his pocket and pressed it into Jayden’s hand. “These are my boys’ names and descriptions. Chances are you won’t meet them, but if you do, tell them we miss them, and we’re doing the best we can.”
Jayden studied the paper before slipping it into his backpack. “I’ll keep this with me, but I intend to avoid armies as much as possible.”
“No surprise when they’d impress you the second they got the chance.” Glen walked on in silence for a few more steps. “I can’t imagine why the king and queen need so many soldiers. I heard talk of trouble at the border with Kaleoth, but that’s a small kingdom. If war breaks out it would be a short one.”
“You’re following us farther than I’d expected,” Dana said.
Glen’s brow furrowed. “I don’t talk much about it, but there’s a frozen one hereabouts called Jenny Glass Eyes. Long ago a woman died in the cold and evil spirits moved into her body. She’s haunted these parts for decades, coming out on winter nights, scratching at doors trying to get inside, ambushing travelers when she can. I figure it’s too warm for her to come out if the snow is melting, but I want to be sure you two are safe.”
Dana smiled at him. “That’s very kind of you.”
“I got worried when you went out for a walk last month,” Glen told Jayden. “I wouldn’t have allowed it if I’d known you were going, but you left when I was in the barn. You seem like a clever sort, plenty strong, too, but Jenny Glass Eyes is tougher than she looks. I was plenty glad to see you come back that night.”
“I apologize for troubling you,” Jayden said.
“I understand staying indoors for weeks can be trying,” Glen said as they walked. He pointed at depressions in the snow. “Those must be your footprints. You went pretty far. Wait, what’s that?”
Ahead of them was a patch of bare ground covered in a layer of wet ashes. Glen approached it carefully with his ax held high in case there was danger. Up close they saw what looked like blackened bones mixed in the ashes. Most of the remains were unidentifiable, but there was a charred skeletal arm wearing a melted gold ring. Glen’s eyes opened wide, and he pointed his ax at it.
“That’s Jenny Glass Eyes!”
Dana went for her sword Chain Cutter hidden deep in her backpack. “You’re sure?”
“I saw that ring on her hand when she attacked me twenty years ago. Look, she’s missing her little finger. Back then I had to cut it off to get away.” Glen pointed at footprints in the snow, wider now that the snow was melting around them. “You can see where the fight happened. Those are her prints right there, and those ones are… yours.”
Glen’s face turned white as he looked at Jayden. Jayden’s earlier cheerfulness was replaced with a studious look. “I see a rose sprouting from the remains. Legends say when a frozen one dies a blue rose grows where it was destroyed. Check what color the flowers are in summer.”
“What kind of man are you?” Glen whispered.
“The kind who doesn’t tolerate abominations.” Jayden turned to face Glen. “It angers me such a threat was allowed to exist for so long, and pleased me greatly to end it. Good day, Glen. May the future be more merciful than the past.”
Dana and Jayden left without another word, leaving Glen dumbfounded behind them. Once they were far away, Dana said, “You should have taken me with to fight Jenny.”
“Doing so would have alerted our hosts. And I needed the exercise. When I heard it scratching at the door, I suspected it was a frozen one and went to deal with it. Frozen ones are legitimate threats to farmers, not sorcerer lords. I’m surprised its remains melted out before we left.”
“Do you think it had anything to do with the necromancer we’re after?”
Jayden frowned. “I thought so at first, but our generous host’s tale proves my concern baseless. This was a local threat that should have been slain long ago, further proof that the king and queen are delinquent in their duties. We were in the right place at the right time to remove the threat.”
“One of these days you’re going to get yourself killed,” she scolded him.
“Likely so, but I plan on taking a great many monsters like Jenny Glass Eyes with me before I go.”
This was typical of Jayden. He didn’t seek death, but he didn’t fear or respect it the way he should. Such a cavalier attitude was going to get him in trouble. They walked on in silence for a time before Dana spoke again.
“I’m sure you still want this necromancer. How do we find him?”
“The first way involves making inquiries among the locals in the hope that one of them saw or heard something ominous. This is risky because it might draw royal attention. It’s also time consuming, and futile if the necromancer resides in an isolated location where few would notice him.”
“Let me guess, the second way involves magic.”
“It does, and is even riskier. Sorcerer lords in ancient times developed a spell to detect other sorcerer lords. Generally they used it to find and kill one another, as they were a paranoid and vengeful lot, but it can be used to find any form of magic. I need a body of water to cast the spell on, and with winter over we should find one shortly.”
Dana frowned. “Exactly why is this risky?”
“Wizards from every school of magic crave privacy. You know of my mind cloud spell, which makes it hard for other wizards to find me. Rival schools of magic have their own ways to deter spying, some of which retaliate against the spy.”
“The necromancer made lots of skeletons once,” Dana said. “If he figures out he’s being watched, he could come looking for us with an army behind him.”
“We could be in serious danger, but I fear there is no choice. We lost two months in our hunt for the necromancer, giving him time to produce horrors similar or even greater to what we already saw. The longer he remains at large the more damage he can do. That means doing this the hard way.”
It took the better part of a day, but they found a narrow pond clear of ice. Jayden stood at one end and began chanting. The water turned choppy like someone was splashing in it. Waves grew until they were as tall as Dana and incredibly noisy. Jayden’s chanting grew louder until he clapped his hands together. The waves fell silent, and the water became as still and reflective as a mirror.
A tiny ripple formed in the water, then another. More ripples formed as if someone was dropping pebbles into the water. Dana tried counting them and stopped when she reached fifty. She waved her hand at the scattered ripples. “There can’t be this many wizards in the kingdom!”
“The spell detects any form of magic, including wizards, magic items and certain monsters.” Jayden pointed at a wide, shallow ripple near the middle of the pond. “That, for instance, is me. My mind cloud spell dissipates traces of magic left behind when I cast spells. A wizard hunting me wouldn’t be able to pinpoint my location, nor how powerful I am.”
“What about that big ripple at the edge?”
“It’s too strong to be a spell caster. I suspect a dragon or other powerful monster. There’s a dragon living in Kaleoth who’s been hibernating for three years. We used to have two living in the kingdom before the king and queen thought they could give them orders. Both dragons left for greener pastures, or at least more peaceful ones.”
Dana couldn’t see a pattern to the ripples or way to tell them apart. “How do you know which one is the necromancer?”
“I don’t. Our foe is powerful enough that his magic will be easier to detect if he casts a spell. If he is silent for a few days then the traces of magic I’m trying to detect will fade away. He may use spells to conceal his position the same way I do. But if he uses powerful magic no spell can hide him, and making a horde of undead like we saw at Wiskver’s estate qualifies. He did it once. I’m counting on him being rash enough to do so again.”
“If that happens we have a big fight on our hands.”
Jayden studied several of the larger ripples. “True. Some of these are much too close together. They’re likely magic items owned by nobles.”
“Do you use this spell to find old sorcerer lord treasuries?”
“If only I was so lucky. Magic items only show up when they’re used, making magic treasures buried a thousand years ago impossible to detect. In truth I’ve found this spell to be of questionable value. I can detect only some magic with it, and at such a great distance that it’s often long gone before I reach it. My hope is the necromancer doesn’t live far from Wiskver’s estate, or that he’s…that’s bad.”
Water in the middle of the pond suddenly spiked up three feet in the air before dropping back down. It did so again, and then a third time that didn’t fall back down.
“My, my, my, what an inquisitive little boy you are. Not many hunt me. Smart wizards don’t try.” The taunting voice came from the pond. It spoke with an accent that made the letter w sound like v.
“Smart wizards don’t degenerate into necromancy,” Jayden retorted.
“Cowards turn down power because they fear where it leads. I fear nothing. I see you, a brat and an impetuous fop. I saw through the eyes of my creations when you two idiots destroyed them.”
Jayden began chanting again. The pond began to ripple around the spike of water.
“Oh this is rich, like frosting on a cake. You think you can focus your spell to learn where I am? I’d forgotten how foolish apprentice wizards are. It’s embarrassing.”
The pond grew choppier until water shot into the air like a waterfall flowing in reverse. Only the part of the pond with the spike of water representing the necromancer’s magic remained unchanged. Dana pulled back and drew her sword. Jayden continued chanting.
“Do you want to know what’s funny? I’m not trying to hide from you. I could have broken this spell in seconds if I desired. I don’t care. Come to me. Fight me. Die. You wouldn’t be the first to follow those well-worn steps, nor will you be the last.”
Water in the pond shot thirty feet into the air. Suddenly the huge waves turned inward and hit the spike of water. Dana heard the necromancer’s taunting words change into frightened cries as the entire pond seemed to turn against itself.
“What did you do?” Dana demanded.
“He was foolish enough to allow me to determine his precise position. I used my detection spell to send a pulse of magic at him, nearly everything I had. I imagine it hurt.”
“You pile of maggot-infested dung! Two can play that game!”
The sky darkened around them and grew cold. Plants died and the few animals present fled. A globe of utter darkness formed over the pond. The globe hummed and shimmered before vanishing to reveal a hideous mockery of a man, with greasy white skin, tangled black hair, long nails and longer teeth. The monster wore only tattered bits of filthy clothing and stank like rotting meat. It was hunched over to fit in the globe, but now that it was free it bounded toward them on all fours. As it neared them, Dana felt a stab of pain followed by rage, like she had when the undead appeared at Wiskver’s estate.
Jayden cast a spell to form his black sword and met the monster head on. He swung at its legs, but the monster leaped over him and landed next to Dana. It howled and lunged at her face, its toothy maw opened wider than her head. She screamed and swung her sword. Sword met teeth, and Chain Cutter hacked through the monster’s yellowed fangs. Pain should have driven it back, but the monster rammed into her and knocked her onto her back.
The monster leaped at her with outstretched hands, claws reaching for her throat, when Jayden drove his sword through its back with a powerful overhand swing. He speared the beast, pinning it to the ground. The monster shrieked and tried to reach Dana. She got to her feet and swung Chain Cutter, hacking off the monster’s right arm. Another swing took off the left one. Anything else should have died, yet the monster howled and struggled to reach her.
“Enough!” Jayden roared. He pressed his left foot against the monster’s back and pulled his black sword up, cutting the beast in two. Once his sword was free he brought it down again, removing the monster’s head. The air chilled again, and Jayden turned to see another black globe forming. He charged it, and as the globe dissolved to release another monster as wretched as the first, he plunged his sword into it. The monster’s howls died stillborn as his sword went through its heart.
“Send another barrow wight!” Jayden yelled. “Send three, a dozen, a hundred! There’s nothing your foul magic can produce that I can’t kill!”
“We shall see, little mage,” the taunting voice said with its strange accent. It grew softer as it spoke for the last time. “All that lives must one day die.”
Dana ran over to Jayden. The monster he’d impaled was blackening and crumbling away until there was nothing left of it. Once it was entirely gone, he marched back to the first one and drove his black sword into each piece, destroying those as well.
“He’s stronger than I’d feared,” Jayden said as his sword destroyed the final piece of the monster. “Barrow wights are as hideous as they are uncontrollable. Bending two of them to his will is difficult, and sending them over such a great distance staggeringly hard.”
Dana stared at the ashes at her feet, the only sign that there had been a fight. “I never saw your sword do that.”
“In times long past this land was infested with necromancers, some working alone and others in cabals dozens strong. They damaged both the people and the land itself. Shadow magic was developed in direct response to the threat of necromancy and is especially potent against it. Early sorcerer lords hunted down those necromancers and slew them.”
“Then why is he willing to fight you?”
Jayden let his magic sword dissipate. “Sorcerer lords died out long ago. I daresay my spells will come as a surprise to him. But that is a small advantage, and he has large ones. The necromancer has power to spare, time to use it, and royal support. Most necromancers live in fear of the law, constantly moving, never able to build laboratories or spell libraries. Our foe has no such concern, and my spell tracked him to where he has no shortage of human remains.”
Worried, Dana asked, “A graveyard?”
“The biggest and most isolated in the kingdom. Heaven help us, it’s not far away.”
Spring days were short, and they had to make camp not long after Jayden confirmed the necromancer’s location. There were no villages here, just wilderness encroaching onto old fields. Jayden said these lands once had farms, but they’d been destroyed in the civil war and were never resettled. Eventually they found the ruins of an old church and took shelter there.
“We’re fortunate to find this church in more ways than one,” Jayden said as he piled up loose boards and dry brush over the doorway. “The ceiling is intact, no animals or monsters have occupied the building, and I feel lingering holy influences. The necromancer’s creations may be unable to force their way in.”
“I feel it, too,” Dana said. She unrolled a blanket and used her backpack as a pillow. “It’s sort of a calm feeling, like the church is waiting for people to come back.”
“We have a long walk tomorrow, and possibly a battle with the necromancer. Sleep well, Dana, for the future will be taxing.”
Before she went to bed, Dana asked, “What if he runs away?”
“He has little reason to flee with the power and resources at his command. He can comfortably wait until we come to him and face him at his strongest.”
Dana was tired and wanted to sleep, but she forced herself to stay awake. That was difficult under a warm blanket on a cold night. She stayed quiet and motionless, waiting for what she knew was going to happen. She could only guess what time it was when she heard Jayden get up and collect his belongings. She let him go a few steps before speaking.
“Go back to sleep, Jayden.”
He stopped but didn’t turn to face her. “I’m trying to be gallant. Pick a direction other than the one I’m taking and you’ll be safe.”
“You’re not trying to be gallant. You are gallant. You’d go into a fight alone that you might lose if that means I live. The necromancer knows there are two of us. I get the feeling he’d kill me, even use his magic on me after I’m dead and send me after you. The only way I’m getting out alive is with you, and I’m sorry if this upsets you, but I don’t think you’re getting through this alive without me.”
“Your prediction is possibly, even likely given how morally degenerate our enemy is.” He set his belongings down and wrapped himself in his blanket. “It’s strange. I’m grateful we met, yet terrified and ashamed at the same time. I’ve been alone for so long partly because I never wanted to be in this position. I have few friends, Dana. I can’t lose one.”
* * * * *
Morning came, and Dana was relieved to see that Jayden hadn’t left in the night. She recognized how brave he was to try facing this madman alone, but she’d seen him hurt in fights and nearly killed by Wall Wolf. Jayden needed her just as much as the kingdom needed him.
“Our destination has no name by design,” Jayden explained as they headed out after breakfast. “The king and queen wanted its location unknown, as well as its occupants, for the graveyard contains rebels who died in the civil war.”
“My parents never told me much about the war,” Dana admitted.
“They likely knew very little. The king and queen worked hard to erase less savory aspects of our kingdom’s history.” Jayden grimaced as he spoke. “Rebels in the civil war were needlessly brutal, causing considerable damage to infrastructure like bridges, dams, canals, granaries, even schools. If they couldn’t hold territory, they made sure the victors would gain no benefit from it. Nor were they merciful to prisoners or civilians.
“The king and queen were equally brutal. They ordered fallen rebels buried in mass graves without headstones or memorials. These mass graves were placed deep in the wilderness and in utter secrecy. In theory this meant the gravesites couldn’t become rallying points for rebels eager to avenge their losses.”
Dana thought back to the graveyard outside her hometown. It wasn’t visited often since people had so much work to do, but the entire town went there on the first day of the year, drinking toasts to their ancestors and sharing stories of loved ones who had passed on. It was a time of celebration and remembrance. Originally Brotherhood of the Righteous priests led the event, but her father did the honors after the priests were expelled from the kingdom.
“That’s terrible, and stupid,” she said.
“It didn’t stop there. The king and queen declared that rebels lost their property. Farms, livestock, coins, legal rights, it was all forfeit.”
“What happens to their things?”
There was fierceness in Jayden’s voice when he answered. “It went to the crown. Loyalist forces were clamoring for rewards for their services, and they accepted rebel property in lieu of cash. Widows and orphans who had already lost so much were evicted and made beggars. Many of them had no involvement with the civil war. Their men went to war because treacherous noblemen ordered them to fight or forced them to, and their families suffered for it.”
“How do you force someone to fight for you?” Dana asked. “Give a guy a sword and he could use it on you instead of your enemies.”
“The first way is to seize his loved ones and hold them hostage. The second way is to put unwilling soldiers in the front of your army and dependable troops behind them. They can’t run without being cut down by their enemies or their allies.” He saw Dana’s terrified expression and added, “I did say the rebels were brutal.”
“It doesn’t sound like there was a good side in the fight,” she said reluctantly.
“There could have been. The king and queen refused to let Brotherhood of the Righteous priests bless the bodies or hold funerals for defeated rebels. Priests argued these blessings made sure bodies couldn’t be inhabited by foul spirits or used by necromancers. The king and queen didn’t care. Denying rebels even such a basic right was another way to take revenge. Our enemy is camped on one of those mass graves. We are paying the price for the king and queen’s act of spite.”
“That’s how the necromancer made his army!” Dana exclaimed. “I couldn’t figure out where he got the bones for all those walking skeletons at Duke Wisker’s estate, but he’s got an entire cemetery to dig up.”
“The bones were from men who died fighting, so many were badly damaged. I believe the necromancer experimented with replacing destroyed or missing limbs with bones taken from animals.”
Fearing the answer, Dana asked, “How many men were buried there?”
“I don’t know. The necromancer may have looted other mass graves. Worse still, you saw the barrow wights he sent after us yesterday. He may have other undead more dangerous than animated skeletons.” Jayden stopped walking and turned to face her. “I don’t exaggerate when I say this battle may be more than I can handle. Your life is in mortal peril if you come with me.”
“What happens if we don’t stop him?” she asked.
“The necromancer will continue amassing undead followers for uses too horrifying to contemplate. The king and queen will try to use these abominations in their war. Perhaps the necromancer will humor them and send his minions to fight their battles, but it’s equally possible he’ll unleash his nightmare army against the two of them. Innocent people will die by the thousands or tens of thousands before he’s stopped.”
“Who can we call on for help who could get here in time?”
Jayden paused. “Reginald Lootmore and Suzy Lockheart are too far away to reach us in time. I don’t know where Ian McShootersun is. Other men I know lack the power or skill to make a significant impact. They would be targets rather than assets. I might be able to convince nobles or army officers of the danger and get their aid, but they have little reason to believe me when I’m a wanted man.”
“Then you need me.” Before he could argue, she said, “He’s got to be stopped. If you fight him alone he’ll swarm you with skeletons and wights. I’m not a sorcerer lord, or lady, I guess, but I can help. You need friends, Jayden, and right now I’m it.”
He smiled at her. “It’s ironic. The harder I try to keep you safe by excluding you, the harder you insist on remaining.”
“You could have more help, you know. There are people who like you and could fight. And let’s face it, you’re going to run into more big battles, not fewer.”
“More fights like this,” he said ruefully. “Dana, you have no idea how many battles I’ve fought, how many enemies I’ve defeated—”
“How many people you’ve saved?”
“There is that. I’ve done much, yet there is so much more to do. This battle will be terrible, and you’re right that coming battles will be as bad or worse. Would you stand with me through that, knowing it will never end?”
“We saved hundreds of children and young girls sold as property. I’ll stand with you through anything to save even one more.”
They spent much of the day heading deeper into the wilderness. Abandoned farmhouses gave way to scrub forests thick with briars and weeds. The roads had already been muddy and narrow, but as they went on the few roads shrank into narrow game trails. Wildlife was rare so early in spring, yet they saw not one bird or rodent.
“Hey, it’s our anniversary,” she said playfully.
Jayden stared at her. “Our what?”
“We first met on this day one year ago.”
“I’m surprised you keep track of the date,” he said. “You know, it’s embarrassing, but outside family members or servants, this is the longest I’ve known a woman.”
Dana laughed. “What about those two girls you told me about?”
“The first young lady and I were together for eight months. The second lasted only eight weeks. I have difficulties with relationships. I’m told I rub people the wrong way when I don’t offend them intentionally.”
Feeling mischievous, Dana asked, “And how long were you with Suzy Lockheart?”
“She and I weren’t together in any sense of the word. We were in the general vicinity of one another for less than a month total, although it felt like years spent in purgatory.”
“You were a little rough around the edges when we first met, but you’re doing better these days.” Jayden gave her a questioning glance, and she went on. “You don’t lose your temper as often, and insults and snide remarks are way down.”
“Judging by that left handed compliment, you’ve taken it upon yourself to compensate for my good behavior.”
“It’s good you’re getting better around people. You deserve to have healthy relationships like you did when you were a boy. Maybe you could fall in love. No, seriously, there’s a woman my hometown who…oh.” Dana stopped marching. “Oh dear.”
“Not a cheerful sight,” Jayden agreed.
Ahead of them was a wide path beaten through the undergrowth. Seven men could have walked down it side by side, and the thick growth of plant life had been trampled into the muddy ground. Strange as this path already was, trees growing alongside it were dead, their blackened bark peeling off in strips. Normally hardy weeds sprouted this time of year, but here they were stunted and brown. Dana touched a dead tree, only for it to topple onto the path.
“One way leads to our foe, the other to Duke Wiskver’s estate,” Jayden declared.
“How did the necromancer get so many walking skeletons into Wiskver’s estate without anyone noticing?”
“I imagine Wiskver brought them to his property inside armored wagons, the same way he did the slaves.” Jayden ran his fingers along a dead tree branch. “The necromancer may have used magic to temporarily mask the natural aversion all life has to the undead.”
The branch crumbled apart under Jayden’s gentle touch and fell to the ground. He scowled and drew back his hand. “I have to wonder how Wiskver thought he could profit from such monsters. They don’t require food, drink or rest, but how could he have used them as laborers without others noticing? How could he think such bloodthirsty monstrosities would consent to cutting timber or tending crops?”
“How close are we to the graveyard?” Dana asked.
“Close enough I should take precautions. Hold still.”
“What are you,” she began, but stopped when Jayden placed the palms of both hands on her forehead. He began to chant and his fingers grew warm. Dana waited for him to finish before she asked, “What did you do?”
“I placed a mind shield on you. It will last long enough for our purposes. As you don’t cast spells it won’t hide you from magical detection, but it protects you from the fury you felt when near the undead.” He smirked and added, “Blinding rage has its uses, but your best feature has always been your mind, and I need it to be as keen as your sword.”
Dana held up Chain Cutter. “Can wizards sense my sword?”
“You saw how unfocused my detection spell was. Your sword will register as one of hundreds of magic sources with no way to determine what it is or who wields it.”
“That’s helpful, I guess.” Dana paused when she saw green among the dead plants. “Jayden, look, that plant is growing. I didn’t think anything would—”
The tiny weed grew so fast it shot across the ground, spreading new leaves and sinking deep roots before lashing out at Dana. She screamed and swung her sword, hacking the plant in half, only for it to sprout four new ends that wrapped around her and pinned her to the ground.
More vines grew outrageously fast and headed for Jayden. He barely had time to cast a spell that formed a shield of spinning black blades in front of him. Vines grappled the shield, were shredded, regrew and were shredded again when they hit the shield. He cast another spell to form his black sword and cut off the vines holding Dana. For a moment the floral assault paused.
“Why does this not surprise me?” a familiar voice called out.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Dana said as she got up.
“Green Peril?” Jayden asked in disbelief.
It was the elven wizard, wreathed in living vines as he emerged from the ruined forest. He wore the same white and green robes as when they’d last seen him in Fish Bait City. His face was as handsome and sneering as ever, but there was one big difference in his appearance. Jayden had destroyed the elf’s staff in their previous battle. Green Peril held a new one, dark red like blood made solid, and with a cluster of opals near the tip. Dana didn’t know much about magic even after a year traveling with Jayden, but this staff looked impressive.
“Birds in the sky told me they’d found you but dared not approach. Land soaked in death and suffering, unhallowed and unwelcome to all life, this would scare anyone with wits and working eyes. Yet this is where I find you.”
“Don’t you know when to quit?” Jayden demanded as he stepped between Dana and the elf. “The last time we fought you ran for your life! You didn’t bring allies for this battle, proof you learned nothing from our encounter.”
“The last time we fought you had help! No ghost is here to save you, but that would explain your destination. Do you seek to recruit another tortured soul?”
“Shadow magic doesn’t work that way, you pampered twit! You’d know that if you’d done even the most rudimentary research into the man you’re trying to kill.”
“Why are you even here?” Dana asked. “The king and queen must have hired a court wizard by now.”
“I’d have heard about it if your idiot king and shrewish queen had accepted another wizard into their service,” Green Peril retorted. “Even if they don’t honor their promise made months ago or pay the ever growing bounty on your head, I have reason enough to hunt you down after you humiliated me! I suffered endless insults for losing to a human! Your death will cleanse the stain upon my honor.”
Green Peril held his staff in front of him. “I learned new spells, and spent a fortune in gold and promises to lesser elves to produce my staff. Blood wood harvested from a willing tree, carved with the finest tools, imbued with nature magic, it is the ultimate weapon.”
Dana’s brow furrowed. “Lesser elves?”
“Each elf thinks himself superior to all other elves,” Jayden told her.
“I had to grovel to get the blood wood!” Green Peril yelled. He drew a step closer to them, and to Dana’s surprise green grass sprouted and seeds burst into life. That hadn’t happened the last time they’d seen the elf. It made her think his replacement staff was as powerful as he claimed.
“That’s just peachy,” Dana interrupted. “You got your stick finished in time to use against an actual enemy instead of someone who saves lives.”
“What’s your pet babbling about?” Green Peril asked.
Before Jayden could issue an angry reply, Dana said, “We’re chasing a necromancer who made an army of walking skeletons and hid them in a duke’s estate. We killed them, and we’re after the necromancer before he makes more.”
Green Peril laughed. “Do you seriously expect me to believe that?”
“Look, these plants died a long time before we got here. Jayden’s magic didn’t kill plants the last time you two fought, or he would have won even quicker than he did.”
Before the elf could answer, Jayden said, “I’m facing what could be the biggest battle of my life against a man who will do unspeakable acts if left alive. I can’t afford to exhaust myself beating you hours before doing battle with the necromancer.”
Green Peril hesitated, given Dana hope that this meeting could end peacefully. The elf wizard retreated a few steps and pointed his staff at a tree left half dead by the necromancer’s magic. He cast a spell, and to Dana’s amazement the tree’s branches bent like they were made of loose cloth.
“Brother tree, friend to elves since ancient times, speak to me,” Green Peril said to the tree. Normally Dana considered talking to trees to be a bad sign, but it made a rustling, whispering noise as it moved. It waved branches along the trail of devastation, and it trembled as if in fear. Green Peril’s face turned pale, and he placed a hand against its trunk.
“You have suffered much, brother,” Green Peril said solemnly. He cast another spell, and fresh growth burst from the trunk to replace what it had lost. The tree stopped moving as Green Peril turned to face Dana and Jayden. “You speak the truth, a shocking a turn of events.”
“Then can we call off this senseless vendetta?” Jayden asked.
Green Peril bared his teeth in a snarl, only gradually regaining self-control. “Vulgar and brutal as you are, there is a greater foe I must deal with. I declare a truce until this perversion of a man is destroyed. After that, no promises.”
“Fair enough,” Jayden replied. “We haven’t far to go to reach him.”
“I said truce, not partnership,” Green Peril snapped. “I’d sooner fight alongside an drunken ogre with lice than trust you not to put a dagger in my back. The only concession I’ll make is to care for your pet girl after you’re dead. What’s her name again?”
Dana slapped a hand over her face. “I can’t believe this.”
Jayden spat in disgust. “This necromancer is a threat like none I’ve faced, and we are mere miles from the graveyard he plunders for bodies. He knows I’m coming and is not intimidated. Battling him together stands the best chance of success. Claim you lead us if it sooths your bloated ego, but if you go alone don’t expect to do anything except die.”
The two wizards stared at one another in mutual loathing. Jayden had often told Dana how ancient sorcerer lords fought one another. Watching these two, she had no trouble believing the tales.
“We’ll let you have any treasure or magic he has,” Dana offered. A shocked look from Jayden made her hastily add, “Minus sorcerer lord spell tablets.”
Green Peril hesitated. “And I get to claim leadership of the expedition?”
“If that’s what it takes to keep you two from butchering each other before we even reach the necromancer.”
“We have a deal. I won’t insult either of us by offering to ‘shake on it’, as you clearly don’t want to and I don’t know what diseases the two of you carry.” Green Peril headed down the trail of devastation. “Come along.”
*****
“Dana, I do believe we can finally travel.”
Jayden’s cheerful voice made Dana sit up from where she was playing on the floor with a toddler boy. This was harder than it sounds, since the boy had no intention of losing his playmate and wrapped both arms around her. She staggered for a moment before grabbing him and carrying him to the window.
It wasn’t a cheerful sight. Dozens of fruit trees in straight lines were still bare of leaves. The ground was covered in wet snow as slippery as grease. Smoke rose from the chimneys of nearby houses even during the day.
“It wouldn’t be fast or dry,” she pointed out.
“A temporary situation. Look by those rocks. Green grass, proof that spring is upon us, and with it mobility.” Jayden rubbed his hands together in gleeful anticipation. “Muddy boots is a small price to pay for ending two months inactivity.”
“Ba,” the toddler said.
Dana rubbed his mop of messy yellow hair. “You’re not a sheep.”
“Ba, ba, ba. Da? Ba!”
The rest of the family they were staying with gathered around the lone window of their house. Grandfather Glen Stex, his two daughters, three daughters-in-law and fifteen grandchildren made for a large family. Dana and Jayden’s presence made their house even more crowded. Still, it was a cheerful place, and their hosts were always kind.
After destroying the undead horde hidden in Duke Wiskver’s estate, Jayden had been adamant on pursuing whoever had made the skeletal horrors. They’d marched to the nearest village, where Jayden introduced them as Stanly and his daughter May. He’d questioned the locals if there had been strangers or suspicious events in recent months. The residents had been happy to help, especially when Jayden started buying drinks.
Then the snow came. Winter storms were nothing to sneer at in the kingdom, and this one had been brutal. When the storm ended there was nearly two feet of dense snow, the kind that packed down easily and clung to boots. Walking a mile became a grueling challenge, and going to the next village was impossible.
Fortunately the villagers were only too happy to take them in until the weather improved. This didn’t surprise Dana. Merchants and travelers came to small villages like this only rarely, leaving residents starved for information on the outside world. So great was their isolation that they didn’t even have wanted posters for Jayden, surprising given how high the price on his head was. Jayden had insisted on paying for room and board, making Glen and his family even happier to have them. Their stay had been pleasant, but Jayden had chaffed at the delay as days stretched into weeks and then two months.
“I’d wait another two weeks if I were you,” Glen cautioned. “Roads are going to be thick mud where they’re not covered in ice.”
“Delightful as your company has been, I have work to do and limited time to complete it,” Jayden said. He shook Glen’s hand and smiled. “Your hospitality exceeded all expectations. I’m glad we met.”
“I’m not sure it counts as hospitality when you paid for everything you received,” Glen told him. “I’d have been happy with half what you offered.”
“Many men wouldn’t have opened their home up to strangers, a testament to your kindness and generosity,” Jayden replied. “Nevertheless, I fear our paths must separate.”
Glen opened the door for Jayden and Dana. “Let me at least walk you to the road.”
“It’s been wonderful spending time with you,” Dana told the women and children. She tried to hand off the little boy to his mother. Then she tried again. The boy’s grip tightened. “And, um, it was great getting to know you all. Come on, little guy.”
The toddler’s smile turned into a shockingly serious look. “No.”
“Some children’s first words are mama,” the boy’s mother said. The family laughed as Dana tried to pull the little boy off her.
“No! No, no no!”
A girl of eight years came up and put her hands on the little boy. “Sorry, he gets like this. You kind of have to pry him off. Mom, you get his left arm and I’ll get the right.”
The little boy’s face turned red as his sister and mother removed him from Dana. He made a humming sound that turned into a howl before screaming, “Dada!”
Dana looked away as the boy’s mother held him tight. He squalled and struggled to break free, his howls doubling in intensity when he saw Dana heading for the door.
“I told you not to play with him so much,” Jayden reminded her.
“I couldn’t help it. He’s cute.”
Glen picked up a wood ax by the door and went outside with them. “I’m sorry about that. He’s a good boy, strong willed and with a loving heart. He took it hard when his dad was conscripted. We all did.”
Dana and Jayden’s stay had provided fresh evidence of hardships in the kingdom. Glen was 57 years old, patriarch of his little clan and the only man left. Press gangs had come through the village in late autumn and forcibly enlisted Glen’s sons and son-in-laws. Each man was presented a spear, dagger, wood shield and uniform, and declared to be infantry in the king and queen’s army. Rumor was nearby villages had suffered similar losses, and farmers rich enough to own draft animals had lost those as well. Dana wondered how these people would run their farms.
She also wondered if men in her hometown were being conscripted. The king and queen had already called up the militia to serve, but many men weren’t in the militia. Life had been hard back home with so many farmers and ranchers gone, and could get even worse in press gangs came for the rest.
As they walked down the muddy, snowy road, Glen took a scrap of paper from his pocket and pressed it into Jayden’s hand. “These are my boys’ names and descriptions. Chances are you won’t meet them, but if you do, tell them we miss them, and we’re doing the best we can.”
Jayden studied the paper before slipping it into his backpack. “I’ll keep this with me, but I intend to avoid armies as much as possible.”
“No surprise when they’d impress you the second they got the chance.” Glen walked on in silence for a few more steps. “I can’t imagine why the king and queen need so many soldiers. I heard talk of trouble at the border with Kaleoth, but that’s a small kingdom. If war breaks out it would be a short one.”
“You’re following us farther than I’d expected,” Dana said.
Glen’s brow furrowed. “I don’t talk much about it, but there’s a frozen one hereabouts called Jenny Glass Eyes. Long ago a woman died in the cold and evil spirits moved into her body. She’s haunted these parts for decades, coming out on winter nights, scratching at doors trying to get inside, ambushing travelers when she can. I figure it’s too warm for her to come out if the snow is melting, but I want to be sure you two are safe.”
Dana smiled at him. “That’s very kind of you.”
“I got worried when you went out for a walk last month,” Glen told Jayden. “I wouldn’t have allowed it if I’d known you were going, but you left when I was in the barn. You seem like a clever sort, plenty strong, too, but Jenny Glass Eyes is tougher than she looks. I was plenty glad to see you come back that night.”
“I apologize for troubling you,” Jayden said.
“I understand staying indoors for weeks can be trying,” Glen said as they walked. He pointed at depressions in the snow. “Those must be your footprints. You went pretty far. Wait, what’s that?”
Ahead of them was a patch of bare ground covered in a layer of wet ashes. Glen approached it carefully with his ax held high in case there was danger. Up close they saw what looked like blackened bones mixed in the ashes. Most of the remains were unidentifiable, but there was a charred skeletal arm wearing a melted gold ring. Glen’s eyes opened wide, and he pointed his ax at it.
“That’s Jenny Glass Eyes!”
Dana went for her sword Chain Cutter hidden deep in her backpack. “You’re sure?”
“I saw that ring on her hand when she attacked me twenty years ago. Look, she’s missing her little finger. Back then I had to cut it off to get away.” Glen pointed at footprints in the snow, wider now that the snow was melting around them. “You can see where the fight happened. Those are her prints right there, and those ones are… yours.”
Glen’s face turned white as he looked at Jayden. Jayden’s earlier cheerfulness was replaced with a studious look. “I see a rose sprouting from the remains. Legends say when a frozen one dies a blue rose grows where it was destroyed. Check what color the flowers are in summer.”
“What kind of man are you?” Glen whispered.
“The kind who doesn’t tolerate abominations.” Jayden turned to face Glen. “It angers me such a threat was allowed to exist for so long, and pleased me greatly to end it. Good day, Glen. May the future be more merciful than the past.”
Dana and Jayden left without another word, leaving Glen dumbfounded behind them. Once they were far away, Dana said, “You should have taken me with to fight Jenny.”
“Doing so would have alerted our hosts. And I needed the exercise. When I heard it scratching at the door, I suspected it was a frozen one and went to deal with it. Frozen ones are legitimate threats to farmers, not sorcerer lords. I’m surprised its remains melted out before we left.”
“Do you think it had anything to do with the necromancer we’re after?”
Jayden frowned. “I thought so at first, but our generous host’s tale proves my concern baseless. This was a local threat that should have been slain long ago, further proof that the king and queen are delinquent in their duties. We were in the right place at the right time to remove the threat.”
“One of these days you’re going to get yourself killed,” she scolded him.
“Likely so, but I plan on taking a great many monsters like Jenny Glass Eyes with me before I go.”
This was typical of Jayden. He didn’t seek death, but he didn’t fear or respect it the way he should. Such a cavalier attitude was going to get him in trouble. They walked on in silence for a time before Dana spoke again.
“I’m sure you still want this necromancer. How do we find him?”
“The first way involves making inquiries among the locals in the hope that one of them saw or heard something ominous. This is risky because it might draw royal attention. It’s also time consuming, and futile if the necromancer resides in an isolated location where few would notice him.”
“Let me guess, the second way involves magic.”
“It does, and is even riskier. Sorcerer lords in ancient times developed a spell to detect other sorcerer lords. Generally they used it to find and kill one another, as they were a paranoid and vengeful lot, but it can be used to find any form of magic. I need a body of water to cast the spell on, and with winter over we should find one shortly.”
Dana frowned. “Exactly why is this risky?”
“Wizards from every school of magic crave privacy. You know of my mind cloud spell, which makes it hard for other wizards to find me. Rival schools of magic have their own ways to deter spying, some of which retaliate against the spy.”
“The necromancer made lots of skeletons once,” Dana said. “If he figures out he’s being watched, he could come looking for us with an army behind him.”
“We could be in serious danger, but I fear there is no choice. We lost two months in our hunt for the necromancer, giving him time to produce horrors similar or even greater to what we already saw. The longer he remains at large the more damage he can do. That means doing this the hard way.”
It took the better part of a day, but they found a narrow pond clear of ice. Jayden stood at one end and began chanting. The water turned choppy like someone was splashing in it. Waves grew until they were as tall as Dana and incredibly noisy. Jayden’s chanting grew louder until he clapped his hands together. The waves fell silent, and the water became as still and reflective as a mirror.
A tiny ripple formed in the water, then another. More ripples formed as if someone was dropping pebbles into the water. Dana tried counting them and stopped when she reached fifty. She waved her hand at the scattered ripples. “There can’t be this many wizards in the kingdom!”
“The spell detects any form of magic, including wizards, magic items and certain monsters.” Jayden pointed at a wide, shallow ripple near the middle of the pond. “That, for instance, is me. My mind cloud spell dissipates traces of magic left behind when I cast spells. A wizard hunting me wouldn’t be able to pinpoint my location, nor how powerful I am.”
“What about that big ripple at the edge?”
“It’s too strong to be a spell caster. I suspect a dragon or other powerful monster. There’s a dragon living in Kaleoth who’s been hibernating for three years. We used to have two living in the kingdom before the king and queen thought they could give them orders. Both dragons left for greener pastures, or at least more peaceful ones.”
Dana couldn’t see a pattern to the ripples or way to tell them apart. “How do you know which one is the necromancer?”
“I don’t. Our foe is powerful enough that his magic will be easier to detect if he casts a spell. If he is silent for a few days then the traces of magic I’m trying to detect will fade away. He may use spells to conceal his position the same way I do. But if he uses powerful magic no spell can hide him, and making a horde of undead like we saw at Wiskver’s estate qualifies. He did it once. I’m counting on him being rash enough to do so again.”
“If that happens we have a big fight on our hands.”
Jayden studied several of the larger ripples. “True. Some of these are much too close together. They’re likely magic items owned by nobles.”
“Do you use this spell to find old sorcerer lord treasuries?”
“If only I was so lucky. Magic items only show up when they’re used, making magic treasures buried a thousand years ago impossible to detect. In truth I’ve found this spell to be of questionable value. I can detect only some magic with it, and at such a great distance that it’s often long gone before I reach it. My hope is the necromancer doesn’t live far from Wiskver’s estate, or that he’s…that’s bad.”
Water in the middle of the pond suddenly spiked up three feet in the air before dropping back down. It did so again, and then a third time that didn’t fall back down.
“My, my, my, what an inquisitive little boy you are. Not many hunt me. Smart wizards don’t try.” The taunting voice came from the pond. It spoke with an accent that made the letter w sound like v.
“Smart wizards don’t degenerate into necromancy,” Jayden retorted.
“Cowards turn down power because they fear where it leads. I fear nothing. I see you, a brat and an impetuous fop. I saw through the eyes of my creations when you two idiots destroyed them.”
Jayden began chanting again. The pond began to ripple around the spike of water.
“Oh this is rich, like frosting on a cake. You think you can focus your spell to learn where I am? I’d forgotten how foolish apprentice wizards are. It’s embarrassing.”
The pond grew choppier until water shot into the air like a waterfall flowing in reverse. Only the part of the pond with the spike of water representing the necromancer’s magic remained unchanged. Dana pulled back and drew her sword. Jayden continued chanting.
“Do you want to know what’s funny? I’m not trying to hide from you. I could have broken this spell in seconds if I desired. I don’t care. Come to me. Fight me. Die. You wouldn’t be the first to follow those well-worn steps, nor will you be the last.”
Water in the pond shot thirty feet into the air. Suddenly the huge waves turned inward and hit the spike of water. Dana heard the necromancer’s taunting words change into frightened cries as the entire pond seemed to turn against itself.
“What did you do?” Dana demanded.
“He was foolish enough to allow me to determine his precise position. I used my detection spell to send a pulse of magic at him, nearly everything I had. I imagine it hurt.”
“You pile of maggot-infested dung! Two can play that game!”
The sky darkened around them and grew cold. Plants died and the few animals present fled. A globe of utter darkness formed over the pond. The globe hummed and shimmered before vanishing to reveal a hideous mockery of a man, with greasy white skin, tangled black hair, long nails and longer teeth. The monster wore only tattered bits of filthy clothing and stank like rotting meat. It was hunched over to fit in the globe, but now that it was free it bounded toward them on all fours. As it neared them, Dana felt a stab of pain followed by rage, like she had when the undead appeared at Wiskver’s estate.
Jayden cast a spell to form his black sword and met the monster head on. He swung at its legs, but the monster leaped over him and landed next to Dana. It howled and lunged at her face, its toothy maw opened wider than her head. She screamed and swung her sword. Sword met teeth, and Chain Cutter hacked through the monster’s yellowed fangs. Pain should have driven it back, but the monster rammed into her and knocked her onto her back.
The monster leaped at her with outstretched hands, claws reaching for her throat, when Jayden drove his sword through its back with a powerful overhand swing. He speared the beast, pinning it to the ground. The monster shrieked and tried to reach Dana. She got to her feet and swung Chain Cutter, hacking off the monster’s right arm. Another swing took off the left one. Anything else should have died, yet the monster howled and struggled to reach her.
“Enough!” Jayden roared. He pressed his left foot against the monster’s back and pulled his black sword up, cutting the beast in two. Once his sword was free he brought it down again, removing the monster’s head. The air chilled again, and Jayden turned to see another black globe forming. He charged it, and as the globe dissolved to release another monster as wretched as the first, he plunged his sword into it. The monster’s howls died stillborn as his sword went through its heart.
“Send another barrow wight!” Jayden yelled. “Send three, a dozen, a hundred! There’s nothing your foul magic can produce that I can’t kill!”
“We shall see, little mage,” the taunting voice said with its strange accent. It grew softer as it spoke for the last time. “All that lives must one day die.”
Dana ran over to Jayden. The monster he’d impaled was blackening and crumbling away until there was nothing left of it. Once it was entirely gone, he marched back to the first one and drove his black sword into each piece, destroying those as well.
“He’s stronger than I’d feared,” Jayden said as his sword destroyed the final piece of the monster. “Barrow wights are as hideous as they are uncontrollable. Bending two of them to his will is difficult, and sending them over such a great distance staggeringly hard.”
Dana stared at the ashes at her feet, the only sign that there had been a fight. “I never saw your sword do that.”
“In times long past this land was infested with necromancers, some working alone and others in cabals dozens strong. They damaged both the people and the land itself. Shadow magic was developed in direct response to the threat of necromancy and is especially potent against it. Early sorcerer lords hunted down those necromancers and slew them.”
“Then why is he willing to fight you?”
Jayden let his magic sword dissipate. “Sorcerer lords died out long ago. I daresay my spells will come as a surprise to him. But that is a small advantage, and he has large ones. The necromancer has power to spare, time to use it, and royal support. Most necromancers live in fear of the law, constantly moving, never able to build laboratories or spell libraries. Our foe has no such concern, and my spell tracked him to where he has no shortage of human remains.”
Worried, Dana asked, “A graveyard?”
“The biggest and most isolated in the kingdom. Heaven help us, it’s not far away.”
Spring days were short, and they had to make camp not long after Jayden confirmed the necromancer’s location. There were no villages here, just wilderness encroaching onto old fields. Jayden said these lands once had farms, but they’d been destroyed in the civil war and were never resettled. Eventually they found the ruins of an old church and took shelter there.
“We’re fortunate to find this church in more ways than one,” Jayden said as he piled up loose boards and dry brush over the doorway. “The ceiling is intact, no animals or monsters have occupied the building, and I feel lingering holy influences. The necromancer’s creations may be unable to force their way in.”
“I feel it, too,” Dana said. She unrolled a blanket and used her backpack as a pillow. “It’s sort of a calm feeling, like the church is waiting for people to come back.”
“We have a long walk tomorrow, and possibly a battle with the necromancer. Sleep well, Dana, for the future will be taxing.”
Before she went to bed, Dana asked, “What if he runs away?”
“He has little reason to flee with the power and resources at his command. He can comfortably wait until we come to him and face him at his strongest.”
Dana was tired and wanted to sleep, but she forced herself to stay awake. That was difficult under a warm blanket on a cold night. She stayed quiet and motionless, waiting for what she knew was going to happen. She could only guess what time it was when she heard Jayden get up and collect his belongings. She let him go a few steps before speaking.
“Go back to sleep, Jayden.”
He stopped but didn’t turn to face her. “I’m trying to be gallant. Pick a direction other than the one I’m taking and you’ll be safe.”
“You’re not trying to be gallant. You are gallant. You’d go into a fight alone that you might lose if that means I live. The necromancer knows there are two of us. I get the feeling he’d kill me, even use his magic on me after I’m dead and send me after you. The only way I’m getting out alive is with you, and I’m sorry if this upsets you, but I don’t think you’re getting through this alive without me.”
“Your prediction is possibly, even likely given how morally degenerate our enemy is.” He set his belongings down and wrapped himself in his blanket. “It’s strange. I’m grateful we met, yet terrified and ashamed at the same time. I’ve been alone for so long partly because I never wanted to be in this position. I have few friends, Dana. I can’t lose one.”
* * * * *
Morning came, and Dana was relieved to see that Jayden hadn’t left in the night. She recognized how brave he was to try facing this madman alone, but she’d seen him hurt in fights and nearly killed by Wall Wolf. Jayden needed her just as much as the kingdom needed him.
“Our destination has no name by design,” Jayden explained as they headed out after breakfast. “The king and queen wanted its location unknown, as well as its occupants, for the graveyard contains rebels who died in the civil war.”
“My parents never told me much about the war,” Dana admitted.
“They likely knew very little. The king and queen worked hard to erase less savory aspects of our kingdom’s history.” Jayden grimaced as he spoke. “Rebels in the civil war were needlessly brutal, causing considerable damage to infrastructure like bridges, dams, canals, granaries, even schools. If they couldn’t hold territory, they made sure the victors would gain no benefit from it. Nor were they merciful to prisoners or civilians.
“The king and queen were equally brutal. They ordered fallen rebels buried in mass graves without headstones or memorials. These mass graves were placed deep in the wilderness and in utter secrecy. In theory this meant the gravesites couldn’t become rallying points for rebels eager to avenge their losses.”
Dana thought back to the graveyard outside her hometown. It wasn’t visited often since people had so much work to do, but the entire town went there on the first day of the year, drinking toasts to their ancestors and sharing stories of loved ones who had passed on. It was a time of celebration and remembrance. Originally Brotherhood of the Righteous priests led the event, but her father did the honors after the priests were expelled from the kingdom.
“That’s terrible, and stupid,” she said.
“It didn’t stop there. The king and queen declared that rebels lost their property. Farms, livestock, coins, legal rights, it was all forfeit.”
“What happens to their things?”
There was fierceness in Jayden’s voice when he answered. “It went to the crown. Loyalist forces were clamoring for rewards for their services, and they accepted rebel property in lieu of cash. Widows and orphans who had already lost so much were evicted and made beggars. Many of them had no involvement with the civil war. Their men went to war because treacherous noblemen ordered them to fight or forced them to, and their families suffered for it.”
“How do you force someone to fight for you?” Dana asked. “Give a guy a sword and he could use it on you instead of your enemies.”
“The first way is to seize his loved ones and hold them hostage. The second way is to put unwilling soldiers in the front of your army and dependable troops behind them. They can’t run without being cut down by their enemies or their allies.” He saw Dana’s terrified expression and added, “I did say the rebels were brutal.”
“It doesn’t sound like there was a good side in the fight,” she said reluctantly.
“There could have been. The king and queen refused to let Brotherhood of the Righteous priests bless the bodies or hold funerals for defeated rebels. Priests argued these blessings made sure bodies couldn’t be inhabited by foul spirits or used by necromancers. The king and queen didn’t care. Denying rebels even such a basic right was another way to take revenge. Our enemy is camped on one of those mass graves. We are paying the price for the king and queen’s act of spite.”
“That’s how the necromancer made his army!” Dana exclaimed. “I couldn’t figure out where he got the bones for all those walking skeletons at Duke Wisker’s estate, but he’s got an entire cemetery to dig up.”
“The bones were from men who died fighting, so many were badly damaged. I believe the necromancer experimented with replacing destroyed or missing limbs with bones taken from animals.”
Fearing the answer, Dana asked, “How many men were buried there?”
“I don’t know. The necromancer may have looted other mass graves. Worse still, you saw the barrow wights he sent after us yesterday. He may have other undead more dangerous than animated skeletons.” Jayden stopped walking and turned to face her. “I don’t exaggerate when I say this battle may be more than I can handle. Your life is in mortal peril if you come with me.”
“What happens if we don’t stop him?” she asked.
“The necromancer will continue amassing undead followers for uses too horrifying to contemplate. The king and queen will try to use these abominations in their war. Perhaps the necromancer will humor them and send his minions to fight their battles, but it’s equally possible he’ll unleash his nightmare army against the two of them. Innocent people will die by the thousands or tens of thousands before he’s stopped.”
“Who can we call on for help who could get here in time?”
Jayden paused. “Reginald Lootmore and Suzy Lockheart are too far away to reach us in time. I don’t know where Ian McShootersun is. Other men I know lack the power or skill to make a significant impact. They would be targets rather than assets. I might be able to convince nobles or army officers of the danger and get their aid, but they have little reason to believe me when I’m a wanted man.”
“Then you need me.” Before he could argue, she said, “He’s got to be stopped. If you fight him alone he’ll swarm you with skeletons and wights. I’m not a sorcerer lord, or lady, I guess, but I can help. You need friends, Jayden, and right now I’m it.”
He smiled at her. “It’s ironic. The harder I try to keep you safe by excluding you, the harder you insist on remaining.”
“You could have more help, you know. There are people who like you and could fight. And let’s face it, you’re going to run into more big battles, not fewer.”
“More fights like this,” he said ruefully. “Dana, you have no idea how many battles I’ve fought, how many enemies I’ve defeated—”
“How many people you’ve saved?”
“There is that. I’ve done much, yet there is so much more to do. This battle will be terrible, and you’re right that coming battles will be as bad or worse. Would you stand with me through that, knowing it will never end?”
“We saved hundreds of children and young girls sold as property. I’ll stand with you through anything to save even one more.”
They spent much of the day heading deeper into the wilderness. Abandoned farmhouses gave way to scrub forests thick with briars and weeds. The roads had already been muddy and narrow, but as they went on the few roads shrank into narrow game trails. Wildlife was rare so early in spring, yet they saw not one bird or rodent.
“Hey, it’s our anniversary,” she said playfully.
Jayden stared at her. “Our what?”
“We first met on this day one year ago.”
“I’m surprised you keep track of the date,” he said. “You know, it’s embarrassing, but outside family members or servants, this is the longest I’ve known a woman.”
Dana laughed. “What about those two girls you told me about?”
“The first young lady and I were together for eight months. The second lasted only eight weeks. I have difficulties with relationships. I’m told I rub people the wrong way when I don’t offend them intentionally.”
Feeling mischievous, Dana asked, “And how long were you with Suzy Lockheart?”
“She and I weren’t together in any sense of the word. We were in the general vicinity of one another for less than a month total, although it felt like years spent in purgatory.”
“You were a little rough around the edges when we first met, but you’re doing better these days.” Jayden gave her a questioning glance, and she went on. “You don’t lose your temper as often, and insults and snide remarks are way down.”
“Judging by that left handed compliment, you’ve taken it upon yourself to compensate for my good behavior.”
“It’s good you’re getting better around people. You deserve to have healthy relationships like you did when you were a boy. Maybe you could fall in love. No, seriously, there’s a woman my hometown who…oh.” Dana stopped marching. “Oh dear.”
“Not a cheerful sight,” Jayden agreed.
Ahead of them was a wide path beaten through the undergrowth. Seven men could have walked down it side by side, and the thick growth of plant life had been trampled into the muddy ground. Strange as this path already was, trees growing alongside it were dead, their blackened bark peeling off in strips. Normally hardy weeds sprouted this time of year, but here they were stunted and brown. Dana touched a dead tree, only for it to topple onto the path.
“One way leads to our foe, the other to Duke Wiskver’s estate,” Jayden declared.
“How did the necromancer get so many walking skeletons into Wiskver’s estate without anyone noticing?”
“I imagine Wiskver brought them to his property inside armored wagons, the same way he did the slaves.” Jayden ran his fingers along a dead tree branch. “The necromancer may have used magic to temporarily mask the natural aversion all life has to the undead.”
The branch crumbled apart under Jayden’s gentle touch and fell to the ground. He scowled and drew back his hand. “I have to wonder how Wiskver thought he could profit from such monsters. They don’t require food, drink or rest, but how could he have used them as laborers without others noticing? How could he think such bloodthirsty monstrosities would consent to cutting timber or tending crops?”
“How close are we to the graveyard?” Dana asked.
“Close enough I should take precautions. Hold still.”
“What are you,” she began, but stopped when Jayden placed the palms of both hands on her forehead. He began to chant and his fingers grew warm. Dana waited for him to finish before she asked, “What did you do?”
“I placed a mind shield on you. It will last long enough for our purposes. As you don’t cast spells it won’t hide you from magical detection, but it protects you from the fury you felt when near the undead.” He smirked and added, “Blinding rage has its uses, but your best feature has always been your mind, and I need it to be as keen as your sword.”
Dana held up Chain Cutter. “Can wizards sense my sword?”
“You saw how unfocused my detection spell was. Your sword will register as one of hundreds of magic sources with no way to determine what it is or who wields it.”
“That’s helpful, I guess.” Dana paused when she saw green among the dead plants. “Jayden, look, that plant is growing. I didn’t think anything would—”
The tiny weed grew so fast it shot across the ground, spreading new leaves and sinking deep roots before lashing out at Dana. She screamed and swung her sword, hacking the plant in half, only for it to sprout four new ends that wrapped around her and pinned her to the ground.
More vines grew outrageously fast and headed for Jayden. He barely had time to cast a spell that formed a shield of spinning black blades in front of him. Vines grappled the shield, were shredded, regrew and were shredded again when they hit the shield. He cast another spell to form his black sword and cut off the vines holding Dana. For a moment the floral assault paused.
“Why does this not surprise me?” a familiar voice called out.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Dana said as she got up.
“Green Peril?” Jayden asked in disbelief.
It was the elven wizard, wreathed in living vines as he emerged from the ruined forest. He wore the same white and green robes as when they’d last seen him in Fish Bait City. His face was as handsome and sneering as ever, but there was one big difference in his appearance. Jayden had destroyed the elf’s staff in their previous battle. Green Peril held a new one, dark red like blood made solid, and with a cluster of opals near the tip. Dana didn’t know much about magic even after a year traveling with Jayden, but this staff looked impressive.
“Birds in the sky told me they’d found you but dared not approach. Land soaked in death and suffering, unhallowed and unwelcome to all life, this would scare anyone with wits and working eyes. Yet this is where I find you.”
“Don’t you know when to quit?” Jayden demanded as he stepped between Dana and the elf. “The last time we fought you ran for your life! You didn’t bring allies for this battle, proof you learned nothing from our encounter.”
“The last time we fought you had help! No ghost is here to save you, but that would explain your destination. Do you seek to recruit another tortured soul?”
“Shadow magic doesn’t work that way, you pampered twit! You’d know that if you’d done even the most rudimentary research into the man you’re trying to kill.”
“Why are you even here?” Dana asked. “The king and queen must have hired a court wizard by now.”
“I’d have heard about it if your idiot king and shrewish queen had accepted another wizard into their service,” Green Peril retorted. “Even if they don’t honor their promise made months ago or pay the ever growing bounty on your head, I have reason enough to hunt you down after you humiliated me! I suffered endless insults for losing to a human! Your death will cleanse the stain upon my honor.”
Green Peril held his staff in front of him. “I learned new spells, and spent a fortune in gold and promises to lesser elves to produce my staff. Blood wood harvested from a willing tree, carved with the finest tools, imbued with nature magic, it is the ultimate weapon.”
Dana’s brow furrowed. “Lesser elves?”
“Each elf thinks himself superior to all other elves,” Jayden told her.
“I had to grovel to get the blood wood!” Green Peril yelled. He drew a step closer to them, and to Dana’s surprise green grass sprouted and seeds burst into life. That hadn’t happened the last time they’d seen the elf. It made her think his replacement staff was as powerful as he claimed.
“That’s just peachy,” Dana interrupted. “You got your stick finished in time to use against an actual enemy instead of someone who saves lives.”
“What’s your pet babbling about?” Green Peril asked.
Before Jayden could issue an angry reply, Dana said, “We’re chasing a necromancer who made an army of walking skeletons and hid them in a duke’s estate. We killed them, and we’re after the necromancer before he makes more.”
Green Peril laughed. “Do you seriously expect me to believe that?”
“Look, these plants died a long time before we got here. Jayden’s magic didn’t kill plants the last time you two fought, or he would have won even quicker than he did.”
Before the elf could answer, Jayden said, “I’m facing what could be the biggest battle of my life against a man who will do unspeakable acts if left alive. I can’t afford to exhaust myself beating you hours before doing battle with the necromancer.”
Green Peril hesitated, given Dana hope that this meeting could end peacefully. The elf wizard retreated a few steps and pointed his staff at a tree left half dead by the necromancer’s magic. He cast a spell, and to Dana’s amazement the tree’s branches bent like they were made of loose cloth.
“Brother tree, friend to elves since ancient times, speak to me,” Green Peril said to the tree. Normally Dana considered talking to trees to be a bad sign, but it made a rustling, whispering noise as it moved. It waved branches along the trail of devastation, and it trembled as if in fear. Green Peril’s face turned pale, and he placed a hand against its trunk.
“You have suffered much, brother,” Green Peril said solemnly. He cast another spell, and fresh growth burst from the trunk to replace what it had lost. The tree stopped moving as Green Peril turned to face Dana and Jayden. “You speak the truth, a shocking a turn of events.”
“Then can we call off this senseless vendetta?” Jayden asked.
Green Peril bared his teeth in a snarl, only gradually regaining self-control. “Vulgar and brutal as you are, there is a greater foe I must deal with. I declare a truce until this perversion of a man is destroyed. After that, no promises.”
“Fair enough,” Jayden replied. “We haven’t far to go to reach him.”
“I said truce, not partnership,” Green Peril snapped. “I’d sooner fight alongside an drunken ogre with lice than trust you not to put a dagger in my back. The only concession I’ll make is to care for your pet girl after you’re dead. What’s her name again?”
Dana slapped a hand over her face. “I can’t believe this.”
Jayden spat in disgust. “This necromancer is a threat like none I’ve faced, and we are mere miles from the graveyard he plunders for bodies. He knows I’m coming and is not intimidated. Battling him together stands the best chance of success. Claim you lead us if it sooths your bloated ego, but if you go alone don’t expect to do anything except die.”
The two wizards stared at one another in mutual loathing. Jayden had often told Dana how ancient sorcerer lords fought one another. Watching these two, she had no trouble believing the tales.
“We’ll let you have any treasure or magic he has,” Dana offered. A shocked look from Jayden made her hastily add, “Minus sorcerer lord spell tablets.”
Green Peril hesitated. “And I get to claim leadership of the expedition?”
“If that’s what it takes to keep you two from butchering each other before we even reach the necromancer.”
“We have a deal. I won’t insult either of us by offering to ‘shake on it’, as you clearly don’t want to and I don’t know what diseases the two of you carry.” Green Peril headed down the trail of devastation. “Come along.”
Dead End part 2
This is the conclusion of Dead End with Dana Illwind and Sorcerer Lord Jayden.
*****
Jayden grumbled as he followed. Dana saw him smirk, and before she could stop him he asked, “How is your job hunt coming along?”
Green Peril stopped and glared at Jayden. Hoping to distract him, Dana ran alongside the elf and asked, “What did the tree say to you?”
“She said months ago a great host of undead marched through these woods, destination unknown,” the elf replied. “They had trouble passing through the dense stand of trees and thick underbrush, so a human created the path we walk on by blighting the land. Once the way was clear the undead marched on and the necromancer returned to where he’d come from. She asked me to find this wretch and rip him limb from limb.”
Puzzled, she said, “That’s kind of vicious.”
“Trees are bitter and vindictive,” the elf told her. “Most of the time they don’t get to strike back at their enemies. When she saw me she thought, rightly so, that I was willing to pay back this monster in full.”
Green Peril marched on. “She also said this land has been abandoned and neglected for decades. When I become court wizard, and I will, I shall oversee the restoration of this kingdom. Clearly humans aren’t up to the task.”
“Before we go any farther, Jayden knows a spell to shield you from the whole ‘kill everything’ feeling you get by being close to walking skeletons,” she told him. “I’m sure he won’t mind casting it on you.”
“I have my own shielding magic, child, far superior to anything this wretch could offer. I gather you are desperate to travel with this clod and depend on his outdated spells. It doesn’t speak well of this land that a child should need a criminal’s aid. Never fear, soon enough you’ll be able to go back to your mud hut and live in peace.”
Dana looked over to Jayden. “I tried. I really did.”
“Don’t expect better from him. That we’re not ripping one another to pieces is a testament to your kind nature, but this is all we can ask for.”
Their journey was tense from their grim surroundings and the constant tension between the two wizards. Dana stayed between them as a badly needed buffer, but she had little success in tamping down their hate. After two hours they reached what had to be their destination.
The trail ended in a wide valley flanked by steep hills. Trees had once grown here in abundance. In their place was blackened trunks tipped over at sharp angles. There were no animals, nor signs that anyone had ever lived in the valley. A huge earthen mound two hundred feet long and twenty feet wide dominated the valley’s center. Dana saw a long, deep gash running down the center of the mound.
“Welcome!” an echoing voice called out. Dana recognized the necromancer’s strange accent. She couldn’t pinpoint the voice’s source as it bounced between the high hills. “I see you brought another fool eager to die! You surprise me, sorcerer lord! I’d been told you only traveled with this brat!”
A lone man stepped out from the edge of the long mound. Dana had met several wizards in the last year, all of them flamboyant, like they wanted the world to see them. In contrast the necromancer was bland, with average height and weight, short brown hair, balding in the front and wearing simple leather clothes. He carried no staff or weapons, nor did he have jewelry. If she’d met him on a street rather than a mass grave, she wouldn’t have given him another thought.
“I’m awed you would face me,” the necromancer continued. He walked casually, watching his guests but taking no action against them. “You might as well have walked into a dragon’s lair. The results would have been faster and less painful.”
“Where are his creations?” Green Peril whispered.
“I don’t know,” Jayden answered softly. “He sent two barrow wights against me earlier, but that can’t be the extent of his servants. He’s out of range for my spells. Yours?”
“The same. He planned his entrance well.”
The necromancer stopped and pointed at Green Peril. “You? Ha! This day gets better with every second! I’d heard about the elf sent to kill the sorcerer lord. You thought you were going to be the king and queens official wizard, and you couldn’t kill one man.”
“There were no witnesses to that battle except these two and the Shrouded One,” Green Peril said. “How would you know of it?”
“People in Fish Bait City found a dead plant monster in the streets,” the necromancer told him. “They told their nobleman, he told the king and queen, and when they heard Jayden was still in the kingdom it was clear what had happened.” The necromancer grinned like an idiot. “In case you were wondering, the job offer has been revoked. The king and queen have no need of failures when a better choice is available.”
“What do you mean?” Jayden demanded.
“You are dull, boy.” The necromancer bowed and said, “Allow me to formally introduce myself. I am Cimmox Valgor, unofficial court wizard to the king and queen.”
Green Peril bellowed, “They wouldn’t be depraved enough to accept a necromancer into their service!”
“I don’t share your faith in them,” Jayden said softly.
“Accept me?” Cimmox asked slyly. “They sought me out! The king and queen plan a grand and glorious war. Losses promise to be staggering, but I can make the dead serve again regardless of which side they were on. Friends, enemies, civilians, whoever they were, they will fight in my name once they’re dead. The king and queen can lose an army, and I can give it back.”
“Good God,” Dana said.
Cimmox pointed at Jayden. “The king and queen told me much of you, secrets gleaned from those who saw you in battle. Let that be a lesson to you, boy, leave no witnesses. I hear you seek to overthrow the royal couple, maybe take their place. Ha! Do you want to know a secret?”
Jayden formed his black sword. “Do tell.”
“All your years fighting didn’t matter one bit. The king and queen have replaced everything you took from them. They sent word to the dangerous, the desperate and the depraved. Come, they said! Come and serve, your crimes forgotten, your sins ignored, and rich rewards for the taking.
“Come they did. Gladiators from Battle Island, beast tamers from Quoth, wizards of the Inspired and more gather in record numbers, promised gold and positions of power in return for shedding blood in the king and queen’s name. Every foe you bested has been replace two times over. You may as well have done nothing.”
Jayden was silent for a moment, staring at the necromancer in such disgust that even that twisted madman took a step back. When Jayden spoke, it was like the wrath of the underworld being unleashed.
“You heard of my victories against the king and queen’s soldiers. Gargoyles, a chimera, Wall Wolf the iron golem, all these and more fought me and died. I’ve faced your inexcusably foul creations and slew them, as any sane man would. All this you know, yet you’d face me. What madness made you think you’d win? What idiocy made you think you ever stood a chance against me?”
“Oh dear,” Dana said. She could feel an entire year’s work trying to temper Jayden’s rage slip away.
Jayden marched toward the necromancer. “You claim to be one of many degenerates called to arms by the king and queen. You freaks and nightmares came a long way to die. You should have stayed in whatever hole you’d been hiding in, because now you stand before me, and nothing under heaven can save you.”
Cimmox stared at Jayden before saying, “You would have made a fine necromancer. Instead you’ll make fine parts for my next creation. You’ve met some of my followers. Let me show you the rest.”
The great earthen mound heaved like a living thing before the gash in it opened wide to vomit out masses of the undead. Walking skeletons made up the bulk of the unspeakable horde, but Dana saw barrow wights loping like wolves among their lesser cousins. More and more abominations poured forth as if they would never stop coming. None carried weapons beyond their sharp teeth and claws. The crowd of nightmares howled like wild beasts.
“Let them come to us,” Green Peril said. He planted the tip of his staff into the ground and cast a spell. His red staff sprouted roots that sunk deep into the ground before growing forward as fast as a galloping horse. The vanguard of the skeletal army covered half the distance to them when a tree root as thick as a wine barrel and fifty feet long burst from the ground and swept over the undead. Thirty of the horrors were crushed to pieces. The root made another swing and battered apart still more, but the rest of the horde grappled the root and ripped it apart.
The time this bought them was well spent as Jayden finished chanting. Dana recognized the spell and braced for the coming explosion. When he finished a single spark drifted toward the oncoming horde.
Green Peril watched the spark float along. “You must be joking.”
“Wait for it,” Jayden told him.
BOOM! Jayden’s fireball burst among the front of the undead, swallowing them up like so much kindling. Dana had seen this spell before, but this time something was different. The fire grew with each skeleton and barrow wight it consumed, as if they were fueling it. The blast grew and grew until it was double its normal size before burning out.
Jayden’s spell had cost the undead army a quarter of its size, yet more came up from the grave to replenish their numbers. They spread out to avoid being caught by another fireball. Behind them Cimmox laughed like this was a grand joke. Dana didn’t know why he stayed out of the battle, but every second he did gave them a chance.
Green Peril took a jar from inside his robes and uncorked it. He poured out dozens of tiny green beetles and cast a spell on them. The beetles swelled up, doubling in size every second until they were as big as hounds. Green Peril pointed his staff at the oncoming undead, and the beetles charged into the horde, their sharp jaws cutting skeletons apart.
“You have an army of bugs?” Cimmox mocked him. “All things die, elf, even the undead. Let me show you.”
Cimmox finally cast a spell, and ten skeletons in the front of the army suddenly turned black. One said, “Hey, what’s going on?”
BOOM! The black skeletons exploded, destroying themselves, nearby skeletons and all of Green Peril’s beetles. Cimmox laughed again as his surviving monstrosities surged forward.
The horde was almost upon them when Jayden turned to face Dana. She saw the concern in his eyes. Dana held up her left hand and said, “Jayden, wait, I—”
Jayden cast one last spell before the nightmarish horde struck them. He spoke strange words that caused shadows to bend and twist until they formed a fierce suit of black armor with razor sharp edges. Pieces of the suit flew through the air before hitting Dana, locking in place over her until she was covered head to toe in black magic armor.
“I wasn’t expecting that,” she said. The armor was menacing, yet so light it felt like she was wearing only a summer dress. Somehow she could see through the helmet even though it had no eye slits. Her fingers on both hands ended in thick, sharp claws, barely flexible enough to hold her sword.
Then the horde hit them. Dana lost sight of Jayden and Green Peril as skeletons swarmed around them as thick as stalks of wheat in a farm field. She tried to stay close to the two wizards and failed utterly in the face of overwhelming numbers. Dana swung her sword with wild abandon and sliced apart the first two skeletons to reach her.
A hideous skeleton made of both human and bull bones pushed its way to the front of the crowd. “I want the little one!”
Dana charged the mismatched skeleton, hacking apart a smaller skeleton that tried to tackle her. She swung once and took off the large skeleton’s right arm before slicing through its right leg. The skeleton fell to its knees. Somehow looking surprised even without a face, it asked, “Can we talk this over?”
A barrow wight bounded onto the crippled skeleton, crushing it underfoot before leaping onto Dana. It hit her with enough force to knock her over. Once she was down the barrow wight bit her right arm. Its teeth scratched her shadowy armor without penetrating. Dana swung her left arm into the barrow wight’s head, and the wight howled in agony before staggering back. Its head was blackened and crumbling under her blow.
Dana got up and punched it again, watching her blow burn its chest. Jayden’s shadow magic was especially dangerous against necromancy, and that clearly included her armor. The wight tried to flee, but she was on it in a flash and impaled it. The wight howled even louder as its entire body blackened and fell apart.
“What was that?” Dana asked. In seconds she remembered that Chain Cutter had been made in part with Jayden’s shadow magic. It must share his magic’s destructive effect on the undead.
The horde of undead parted as a giant plant with a toothy maw grew up from nothing in their midst. Skeletons to Dana’s right screamed in panic as a giant plant monster leaned down and gobbled them up. It was like the plant Green Peril had used against Jayden in Fish Bait City. The huge plant leaned down to snap up another mouthful.
Fortune turned against them as a crackling black bolt shot through the air and hit the plant monster in the side. It toppled over under the assault, and Dana had to run to avoid it landing on her. Four skeletons weren’t as fast and were crushed beneath it. The plant hadn’t even hit the ground when it started rotting, and in seconds it was nothing more than festering slime.
“Did seeing your plant die hurt?” Cimmox taunted them. “I hope it hurt.”
Skeletons piled on Dana while she was distracted. She braced her feet against the ground and pushed into them, knocking them back. She punched and kicked the skeletons, taking them apart piece by piece. She grabbed one skeleton in a bear hug, and her armor burned it with shadow magic. One skeleton bit her shoulder and dented her armor, only for the monster to be burned away. She finished the last one with a swing of Chain Cutter.
Jayden ran past her with his shield of spinning black daggers in front of him, grinding up skeletons in his way. A single skeleton jumped him from behind and wrapped its arms around his throat. He staggered under the attack before a vine seized the skeleton, pulled it off and crushed it against the ground.
“Jayden!” she shouted.
“Keep away from Green Peril!” he shouted. “He’s using spells that cover a wide area.”
Just then a forest of wood spears shot up from the ground, impaling countless undead on their sharp tips. The spears quivered before launching into the air. They came down on more undead and destroyed scores of them.
That cleared enough space for Dana to see the elf. Vines wrapped around his body grappled skeletons and crushed them. A barrow wight leaped over the vines and tried to claw his face. Green Peril swung his staff and struck his foe in the chest. The opals on the staff flashed, and the barrow wight disappeared in a blast of light.
“The horde is thinning,” Jayden told Dana. “If we reach Cimmox, we can deal with the source of the problem.”
“What about Green Peril?” she asked.
Jayden and Dana turned at the sound of horrid screaming, and saw thick roots crushing two barrow wights and dragging them underground.
“I think he’ll manage,” Jayden said dryly. “Come on.”
Dana and Jayden charged through the scattered ranks of undead. A skeleton lunged at Dana and scratched her breastplate. She swung her sword and took off its arm, leaving Jayden to finish it with a sword strike to its chest. Jayden’s shield of daggers cut through three more skeletons before it gave out under the strain. Once it was down a dozen skeletons mobbed them and fought them to a standstill. Dana struck down two while Jayden cut four more apart. Seconds later a boulder flew through the air and flattened the last six. They turned to see Green Peril pull another boulder loose from the ground with the vines twined around him and hurl it into another skeletal mob.
“You don’t leave your leader behind!” Green Peril yelled at them. He frowned and added, “Admittedly I’ve done so, even robbed a few of them, but it was justified.”
Cimmox saw them coming and laughed. “That fight forced you to use your best spells while I used only two. It’s embarrassing. Doesn’t anyone conserve their magic these days? Let me show you what I saved just for you.”
The necromancer uttered strange, hateful words and made intricate gestures with his hands. Dead trees near him rotten away into a slimy goo from his foul spell. No sooner had he finished then bones littering the valley rose up and flew to him.
“Wait, I can still fight!” a skeleton pleaded before it was ripped to pieces and carried off into the air, as were all the skeletons still standing. Broken bones joined the cloud, as did those reduced to splinters in the fight. Still more bones shot up from the gash in the burial mound to form a dense cloud around the necromancer. The cloud tightened as bones linked together in a revolting mass twenty feet across with the necromancer standing on top of it.
“How do you like it?” Cimmox asked. The huge, barrel shaped skeletal creation stood up on six legs as thick as tree trunks and ending in wicked claws as long as a man’s arm. It had no head or eyes, but the many skulls in it had red light pouring from their eye sockets. “It won’t last long, but it doesn’t need to.”
Green Peril yelled, “You destroyed what was left of your own army!”
“I made them to expend them,” Cimmox replied casually. “I mourn them no more than an archer does for the arrows he fires. The king and queen are eager to have Jayden’s head. Yours means nothing to them. Let’s see if you’re smart enough to run.”
“Go left and I’ll go right,” Jayden said to Green Peril. The two wizards split up. Dana followed Jayden.
“Smart enough to master magic, yet dumb enough to stay in a losing fight,” Cimmox said. He picked a leg bone out of his creation and pointed it at Dana. “This is a battle of wizards. Children aren’t welcome.”
“Get down!” Jayden yelled.
Cimmox cast a spell, and the bone glowed before exploding into a stream of bone needles that flew through the air. Dana tried to get behind a dead tree, but she was too slow. The needles hit without puncturing her armor, instead cutting long grooves across the back and left side.
“Wretch!” Green Peril screamed. His next spell caused plants to grow around him and spray the necromancer’s foul creation with orange sap, gluing two of its legs together.
“Oh be quiet,” Cimmox said tiredly. He spoke vile, hateful words before vomiting up a stream of black liquid, far more than he could possibly hold in his stomach. The steaming liquid hit the vines wrapped around Green Peril and melted them away. The elf avoided the noxious stream only by diving into the mud. “Now then, where were we?”
Cimmox’s gloating expression turned into one of terror when a giant black hand missed him by inches. Instead the blow connected with his skeletal mount and staggered it. Jayden was running to Dana and made a swinging motion with his right hand. The black hand mirrored his movements and hit the huge skeletal monster again.
“That is enough,” Cimmox snarled. “I met an old friend of yours while I was waiting for you to arrive. No introductions are needed for one of his status.”
Cimmox cast another spell and formed a large black sphere behind Dana and Jayden. It was much bigger than the one he’d used to send the barrow wights against them, and Dana could see why when it dissolved to show its horrible contents. It was the Living Graveyard, back from the dead yet again.
“It’s a pleasure to work with one created when necromancers and sorcerer lords fought for this land so long ago,” Cimmox said. “Let’s see which one of us kills you first.”
Dana and Jayden took cover in a grove of dead trees. She turned to him and said, “You and Green Peril fight the wizard. I’ll keep the Living Graveyard back.”
“You can’t fight him alone,” Jayden said.
“A year ago I couldn’t. I can now because of you. We beat him before I had Chain Cutter or you could make this armor. Trust me.”
The giant skeleton brought one of its huge legs down on the grove. It crushed three trees and toppled two more, forcing Dana and Jayden to fall back. Cimmox laughed and the Living Graveyard marched toward them.
Green Peril ran over to them, filthy, out of breath and bruised. He opened his mouth, but suddenly his eyes opened wide in surprised. He looked at them and said, “I can stop Cimmox, but I need time. Can you keep him busy for two minutes?”
Jayden looked at Dana and Green Peril, fear visible on his face. As a boy he’d lost everything, and this fight could cost him what little he’d clawed back. Fear gave way to resolve, and he stepped out from the shattered grove. “Two minutes, elf. Use them wisely.”
“Is this the best you can do?” Cimmox gloated as his monster lifted a leg to stomp on Jayden. “Soldiers spoke of you in terror. Knights trembled at the mention of your name. The king fears you even if he dares not show it. How could a stripling wizard like you, a fool using magic outdated a thousand years ago, earn such respect?”
“By thinking,” Jayden said. His next spell made shadows around the valley shimmered and solidified into pieces of frightening black armor identical to what Dana wore. Black armor pieces flew through the air and struck Cimmox hard, snapping over him and encasing him head to toe.
“What is this?” Cimmox yelled, his voice echoing inside his new helmet. He held up his hands and tried to move his fingers. “I can’t cast spells in these gauntlets!”
“No, you can’t,” Jayden said, his voice low and menacing. He still had his black sword, and the giant hand floated in the air. “Goodbye, Cimmox. You won’t be missed.”
Dana dearly wanted to stay and help him, but the Living Graveyard was almost on them. She needed to keep it away from Jayden for him to finish the necromancer. With damaged armor and a magic sword, she ran to fight a monster that had died and come back three times she knew of.
The Living Graveyard was as hideous as always, twelve feet tall, eight feet across and made of grave soil, human bones, broken headstones and splintered coffins. The nightmare monster had a cluster of human skulls embedded in its chest and two intact gravestones jutting from its shoulders, one reading No Rest and the other No Peace. Dana raised her sword to strike, and watched the Living Graveyard walk past her to Jayden.
It was ignoring her. Over the last year many people had done the same thing, focusing instead on Jayden. Normally she was happy to take advantage of this, but not today. She’d come so far, done so much, owned a named magic weapon, and this monster still walked right by her.
“Get back here!” she screamed. Dana charged the monster and swung Chain Cutter with all her strength. Her sword sliced into the Living Graveyard’s right hand and hacked it off. This brought the monster to a halt, and it tried to club her with its now handless arm. Dana ducked under the clumsy swing and sliced the arm open up to its elbow. She followed up with a strike on its right knee, chopping out a huge piece of dirt and bones.
The Living Graveyard’s next blow sent Dana flying backwards. Her armor was cut open across the stomach, but luckily the damage went no deeper. She struggled to her feet as the Living Graveyard marched after her. It lifted one foot and tried to step on her. Dana rolled aside and cut open its leg. The Living Graveyard howled at her with its grinning skulls, and for a moment she quavered under the awful screams.
Then she saw the edges of the wounds she’d scored on the Living Graveyard were black and crumbling away. Cimmox had said that this monster dated to when necromancers and sorcerer lords had fought to decide who would rule this land. That meant it was made with necromancy, not surprising given its appearance. Her sword was poison to it.
Dana charged the Living Graveyard and drove Chain Cutter deep into its body. The monster tried to claw her with its remaining hand. Instead of fighting it she let go of her sword and fell back. The Living Graveyard marched after her. She kept falling back and it kept after her as bits of it flaked away. More and more of it began to crumble and blacken.
As she retreated she came across Green Peril. The elf was kneeling with his staff pressed against the ground. He spoke, but not the strange words of magic. “All things die, but in dying they leave the seeds for new life. From death new life grows, sprouting, spreading, replacing what was lost.”
The Living Graveyard was going to trample Green Peril on its way to her. She didn’t know what the elf was doing (it sounded more like a prayer than a spell), but she couldn’t let the monster kill him. She charged it and drove her clawer gauntlets deep into its right side. Coffin wood burst into flames, bones cracked and headstones turned to gravel. The Living Graveyard seized her with its remaining hand, and she felt her armor buckling. Smoke rose up as her armor began to dissipate.
Crash! Dana kept clawing the Living Graveyard as she spared a glance at Jayden. The sound came from his giant hand slamming into the monstrous skeleton. He was tearing it apart, and as she watched he tore off one of its legs. The monster hobbled after him, trying to crush him underfoot, but with one leg gone and two glued together it didn’t move fast. Cimmox was still on top of his foul creation, struggling to pull off the magic armor that trapped him. The magic armor was toxic to the hideous creation he rode, and his feet burned into it.
“It won’t come off!” Cimmox screamed. With his accent it sounded like von’t.
“How can you cast spells with that atrocious accent?” Jayden demanded. He plunged his black sword into another of the skeletal monster’s legs. “You sound like your mouth is full of live fish!”
There was an ominous crack as the Living Graveyard broke Dana’s breastplate. Her shoulder guards went next. Broken bits dissolved into smoke, and then intact pieces began to boil away. Jayden’s spell was ending before the fight was over.
Devastating as this was to her, it hurt the Living Graveyard just as much. Her sword was destroying it from the inside out. Touching her armor was killing it as it tried to kill her. Its right arm fell off, then two of its skulls followed. Her armor was almost gone when the monster’s hand wrapped around her came apart. Dana grabbed her sword and pulled it out, then swung again and again. The Living Graveyard howled at her, a halfhearted moan rather than a scream. She answered with a scream of her own as she drove her sword deep into it. The Living Graveyard toppled and fell silent.
That’s when she heard a whisper, easy to hear even over the deafening sound of battle. 'It still lives. Strike again.'
Dana didn’t know what it was, but she did as told and swung Chain Cutter into the fallen monster. She cut off huge slabs of dirt and rotten wood, hitting it again and again. Her third swing tore deep into the monster, and that’s when she saw a human skull with horrible symbols carved into it. The skull had long legs like a crab, and now that it was visible it tried to run away.
“That’s how you keep coming back!” she cried out. “You’re like an estate guard. As long as that part of you gets away you can make a new body. Get over here!”
Dana chased the fleeing skull past Green Peril, the elf still speaking formally. Plants began to grow around him. His staff had white patches, and it sprouted leaves and vines that spread across the tainted landscape.
“From deserts dry to frozen tundra, life struggles and succeeds,” Green Peril said solemnly. “In oceans depths and mountains high, life struggles and succeeds. When molten rock pours forth to make new land, once red lava cools, here too life takes root.”
The fleeing skull ran by the elf and headed for Cimmox. The necromancer still struggled to remove his magic armor. His giant creation was trying to flee while Jayden chased it and hacked pieces off. Dana didn’t know what the skull could do if it reached Cimmox. Could it make another body fast enough to rejoin the battle?
Dana raced after the skull and caught up with it. It zigged and zagged, trying to avoid her. It ducked under a fallen tree and came out the other side, but Dana jumped over the dead tree and came down on top of it. The skull looked up as she plunged her sword into it. A shower of sparks shot up from Chain Cutter as the sword pierced the skull. The cursed thing screeched so loud that Jayden and Cimmox both turned to watch. Dana held her sword in the air, and the skull slid down the length of the blade before splitting in two.
“No,” Cimmox said. “It’s not possible!”
Cimmox threw back his head and issued such a horrible cry that Dana and Jayden fell backwards. Even Green Peril much farther back was rocked by the sound. The magic armor encasing Cimmox was ripped apart. Cimmox’s skeletal monster, already badly hurt, broke apart entirely. The necromancer fell to the ground and landed on his back.
The three of them staggered to their feet. Cimmox was missing what little hair he had. His face was gaunt and pale, his eyes sunken and yellowed. “Cry of the banshee is the only spell I know that needs no gestures. That took ten years off my life.”
With his hands free again, Cimmox cast another spell. Black liquid like tar spread across his hands, and the few drops of it that fell burned the ground. “I’ll get those years back by taking fifty years off your life.”
His next spell knit together shattered bones to form long spider legs that sprouted from Cimmox’s back. He ran fast as a horse with those revolting legs, his hand outstretched as he charged Jayden. Jayden raised his sword while Dana ran to his side.
Then Jayden looked like he was listening to something. Cimmox was almost upon them when Jayden said, “At least your wife isn’t here to see what you’ve become.”
Cimmox halted his charge. He looked confused before his face betrayed a great sadness. He backed away as Jayden continued speaking.
“She loved you. She tried to protect you. She deserved better than for you to ignore everything she said. So many times she tried to save you from threats, only for you to destroy yourself. You can still go back to her, but not like this.”
“I,” Cimmox began. Tears ran down his face. He scowled and raised his hands. “How dare you use her against me! I’ll kill you all!”
He didn’t get the chance. Grass spread across the valley floor as fast as a flying hummingbird. Trees sprouted and grew in seconds what should have taken years. Dana, Jayden and Cimmox turned to see Green Peril standing next to a tall white tree set with opals. The elf stood up and looked at Cimmox like a judge passing sentence.
“Life recovers from all losses. Fire, flood, frost, drought, through it all life survives, prospers and grows. Life conquers death!”
Dead trees sprouted new leaves and shoots. Vines twisted and wrapped around one another. The whole valley came alive in an unstoppable wave that reached for Cimmox. The necromancer blasted the plants with the same black bolts he’d killed Green Peril’s plant monster with. He cut huge gashes into the plants, yet the damage regrew in seconds. Cimmox turned and fled, running away on his spidery bone legs.
The tidal wave of greenery swept over him. For a few seconds he fought back, unleashing magic more horrible than any Dana could imagine. It was useless. The plants bound him and pulled him in, and with a sudden thunderous rush crushed him.
Dana leaned up against Jayden. “Wow.”
“That wasn’t nature magic,” Jayden said. “You cleansed this entire valley of the taint of necromancy, undoing Cimmox’s damage and the atrocities of the king and queen.”
“I had help,” Green Peril told them. He ran his hands over the lush plant life. “I imagine we all did.”
Hesitantly, Dana said, “I heard a whisper during the fight. Jayden, what you said about Cimmox’s wife, how did you know?”
“You weren’t the only one hearing whispers.” He looked at her and said, “Cimmox traveled a dark road. A man who sinks that far into perversion and depravity suffers a cost to his soul. I heard a voice telling me to give him one last chance, and what to say to reach him. He refused.”
She pointed up. “You mean we got help from…”
“Yes.”
“Huh. A bolt from the blue would have been nice.”
“A wise gardener removes weeds carefully, lest he damage his crops at the same time,” Green Peril replied. “We were given what we needed, no more, no less. Do not depend on such gifts, for they are given only in exceptional circumstances and against the most implacable of foes.”
“Where’s your staff?” she asked.
Green Peril glanced at the large white tree. “There. You can still see the opals. I needed a focus for the purification ceremony, and only my staff was strong enough.”
“So you can’t try to kill us?” she asked hopefully.
Green Peril gave her a sincere smile. “No. Nor do I wish to. If the king and queen would employ such a fiend then they don’t deserve my help.”
A thorough search of the area turned up no treasure. If the king and queen had paid Cimmox, he’d either spent it or hidden it. They did find a small camp with a stack of scrolls made of vellum. Jayden identified the as spell scrolls containing secrets of necromancy. He wasted no time in burning them. They tried to bury Cimmox, for even villains deserve burial, but they couldn’t find his body amid the plants.
“Our endeavor was successful, yet yielded little fruit besides defeating Cimmox,” Green Peril said. “I need time to replace what I’ve lost, no easy task when I will go home empty handed yet again. I will return in time.”
“Not as an enemy?” Jayden asked.
“No. You have earned my respect. Take comfort in knowing that no one else has.” Green Peril cast his last spell that day and transformed himself into a giant hawk. He spread his enormous wings and took to the sky, then flew south.
“That was exhausting,” Dana said.
“But necessary.” Jayden hesitated before asking, “Dana, before I gave you magic armor, why did you say wait?”
“I thought you were going to make one of those huge hands, scoop me up and make it carry me away.”
Jayden nodded his head slightly. “That was a much better plan than the one I came up with.”
* * * * *
With Cimmox and his foul army gone, Dana and Jayden headed to more populated parts of the kingdom. They needed days to reach the nearest town where they could buy food and maybe a good night’s sleep at an inn. Both of them still wore heavy winter clothes that helped mask their identities.
“Where do we go from here?” Dana asked as they entered the town.
“Cimmox made bold claims that may have been lies. He’d provided Duke Wiskver an undead army, so he was likely honest when he said he had royal patronage. The question is whether the rest of his tales were idle boasts. We could face threats more numerous and terrible than what we’ve seen to date.”
“The king and queen have money to hire more men, especially after years of high taxes. They may not even need the money.”
“What do you mean?”
“Last summer they promised to hire Green Peril if he killed you. They could make promises like that to other people, making them work before they get paid. If they die in battle, the king and queen aren’t out a single coin.” Dana grabbed his arm and pulled him to a halt. “What’s going on up ahead?”
Over a thousand people were gathered in the town center, so many it seemed the entire town was present. People looked worried and spoke in hushed tones. As Dana and Jayden drew near, a lone man carrying a scroll came to the center of the crowd.
“Settle down, everyone,” the man called out.
“Mayor, what’s this about?” a farmer asked. “I’ve got planting to do.”
“I’ll get you back to your fields soon,” the mayor replied. He unrolled the scroll and held it up for them see. “A royal proclamation came last night by fast courtier, with orders to read it to the entire town.”
“You had to have the sheriff come get us for this?” another farmer asked.
The first farmer said, “The old mayor wouldn’t have done that.”
The mayor stared the farmer down. “That’s enough! The old mayor is gone. I’m here. The king and queen declared a state of war with Kaleoth, Brandish and Zentrix. Quiet that shouting! Mercy, it’s like herding sheep. The proclamation says Brandish and Zentrix are colluding with Kaleoth against our kingdom. We’re surrounded by enemies and have no choice but to fight our way out.”
“Against three kingdoms?” a frightened farmer asked.
“We’ve got no choice but to go forward.” The mayor checked the scroll before speaking. “There’s also been a rebellion by Skitherin mercenaries. One company went rogue and incited the others to rebel. Inform the authorities at once if you see them, because those men are dangerous.”
“This keeps getting worse,” a rancher said.
“Can’t you idiots stay quiet for five minutes?” the mayor asked. “Rumors have been going around about undead in the kingdom. Criminals and madmen have been claiming that walking skeletons were seen not far from here. We can’t have fear mongering during a time of war. Anyone caught spreading lies will be charged with sedition and sentenced to ten years hard labor, so mind your own business.”
The mayor walked up to a message board and tacked the scroll onto it. He stepped away and began, “I’m leaving this here for the rest of the—”
A giant black hand swung down and smashed the message board to splinters. Men yelled and women screamed as the hand grabbed the mayor and threw him into the crowd. Panicking people scattered in all directions until the town was empty. The huge hand didn’t follow them, in part because Dana was struggling to hold Jayden’s right arm. She held on until he let the hand dissolve into a cloud of black smoke. Jayden threw his head back and screamed. He pulled away from her, but she followed him and grabbed him by the shoulders. “Jayden, don’t!”
He kicked pieces of the destroyed message board. “I’ve fought for decades to keep this from happening, Dana! You have no idea the hardships I’ve faced, the wounds I’ve suffered. Twenty years and every day of it a battle for time, for money, for some shred of hope, and it was for nothing.”
He stared at her. “I was supposed to stop this. It was my penanced for failing to stop my father descending into evil. My failure means countless multitudes will suffer the horrors of war.”
Those painful words showed how Jayden blamed himself for the king’s misdeeds, as if a child was responsible for the crimes of his father. In a way it proved his virtue, for he loved these people and would sacrifice himself if it meant saving them, but this self-loathing was destructive. He’d ruin himself, and he could do immeasurable damage to others if he didn’t get it under control.
“You didn’t fail,” she told him. “You haven’t succeeded yet. There’s a difference. You’ve saved lots of people, and you can save even more. Come on, Jayden. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
They left the town as residents slowly began to return. Dana wasn’t sure what they could do in the face of such a terrible threat. Three Kingdoms faced invasion, and people here were at the mercy of the king and queen, plus whatever monsters and madmen the royal couple had invited. What could two people do to stop that, even when one was a sorcerer lord?
Dana looked back the way they’d come, where a necromancer who’d created armies of the dead was gone forever. One threat was gone, yet so many remained.
*****
Jayden grumbled as he followed. Dana saw him smirk, and before she could stop him he asked, “How is your job hunt coming along?”
Green Peril stopped and glared at Jayden. Hoping to distract him, Dana ran alongside the elf and asked, “What did the tree say to you?”
“She said months ago a great host of undead marched through these woods, destination unknown,” the elf replied. “They had trouble passing through the dense stand of trees and thick underbrush, so a human created the path we walk on by blighting the land. Once the way was clear the undead marched on and the necromancer returned to where he’d come from. She asked me to find this wretch and rip him limb from limb.”
Puzzled, she said, “That’s kind of vicious.”
“Trees are bitter and vindictive,” the elf told her. “Most of the time they don’t get to strike back at their enemies. When she saw me she thought, rightly so, that I was willing to pay back this monster in full.”
Green Peril marched on. “She also said this land has been abandoned and neglected for decades. When I become court wizard, and I will, I shall oversee the restoration of this kingdom. Clearly humans aren’t up to the task.”
“Before we go any farther, Jayden knows a spell to shield you from the whole ‘kill everything’ feeling you get by being close to walking skeletons,” she told him. “I’m sure he won’t mind casting it on you.”
“I have my own shielding magic, child, far superior to anything this wretch could offer. I gather you are desperate to travel with this clod and depend on his outdated spells. It doesn’t speak well of this land that a child should need a criminal’s aid. Never fear, soon enough you’ll be able to go back to your mud hut and live in peace.”
Dana looked over to Jayden. “I tried. I really did.”
“Don’t expect better from him. That we’re not ripping one another to pieces is a testament to your kind nature, but this is all we can ask for.”
Their journey was tense from their grim surroundings and the constant tension between the two wizards. Dana stayed between them as a badly needed buffer, but she had little success in tamping down their hate. After two hours they reached what had to be their destination.
The trail ended in a wide valley flanked by steep hills. Trees had once grown here in abundance. In their place was blackened trunks tipped over at sharp angles. There were no animals, nor signs that anyone had ever lived in the valley. A huge earthen mound two hundred feet long and twenty feet wide dominated the valley’s center. Dana saw a long, deep gash running down the center of the mound.
“Welcome!” an echoing voice called out. Dana recognized the necromancer’s strange accent. She couldn’t pinpoint the voice’s source as it bounced between the high hills. “I see you brought another fool eager to die! You surprise me, sorcerer lord! I’d been told you only traveled with this brat!”
A lone man stepped out from the edge of the long mound. Dana had met several wizards in the last year, all of them flamboyant, like they wanted the world to see them. In contrast the necromancer was bland, with average height and weight, short brown hair, balding in the front and wearing simple leather clothes. He carried no staff or weapons, nor did he have jewelry. If she’d met him on a street rather than a mass grave, she wouldn’t have given him another thought.
“I’m awed you would face me,” the necromancer continued. He walked casually, watching his guests but taking no action against them. “You might as well have walked into a dragon’s lair. The results would have been faster and less painful.”
“Where are his creations?” Green Peril whispered.
“I don’t know,” Jayden answered softly. “He sent two barrow wights against me earlier, but that can’t be the extent of his servants. He’s out of range for my spells. Yours?”
“The same. He planned his entrance well.”
The necromancer stopped and pointed at Green Peril. “You? Ha! This day gets better with every second! I’d heard about the elf sent to kill the sorcerer lord. You thought you were going to be the king and queens official wizard, and you couldn’t kill one man.”
“There were no witnesses to that battle except these two and the Shrouded One,” Green Peril said. “How would you know of it?”
“People in Fish Bait City found a dead plant monster in the streets,” the necromancer told him. “They told their nobleman, he told the king and queen, and when they heard Jayden was still in the kingdom it was clear what had happened.” The necromancer grinned like an idiot. “In case you were wondering, the job offer has been revoked. The king and queen have no need of failures when a better choice is available.”
“What do you mean?” Jayden demanded.
“You are dull, boy.” The necromancer bowed and said, “Allow me to formally introduce myself. I am Cimmox Valgor, unofficial court wizard to the king and queen.”
Green Peril bellowed, “They wouldn’t be depraved enough to accept a necromancer into their service!”
“I don’t share your faith in them,” Jayden said softly.
“Accept me?” Cimmox asked slyly. “They sought me out! The king and queen plan a grand and glorious war. Losses promise to be staggering, but I can make the dead serve again regardless of which side they were on. Friends, enemies, civilians, whoever they were, they will fight in my name once they’re dead. The king and queen can lose an army, and I can give it back.”
“Good God,” Dana said.
Cimmox pointed at Jayden. “The king and queen told me much of you, secrets gleaned from those who saw you in battle. Let that be a lesson to you, boy, leave no witnesses. I hear you seek to overthrow the royal couple, maybe take their place. Ha! Do you want to know a secret?”
Jayden formed his black sword. “Do tell.”
“All your years fighting didn’t matter one bit. The king and queen have replaced everything you took from them. They sent word to the dangerous, the desperate and the depraved. Come, they said! Come and serve, your crimes forgotten, your sins ignored, and rich rewards for the taking.
“Come they did. Gladiators from Battle Island, beast tamers from Quoth, wizards of the Inspired and more gather in record numbers, promised gold and positions of power in return for shedding blood in the king and queen’s name. Every foe you bested has been replace two times over. You may as well have done nothing.”
Jayden was silent for a moment, staring at the necromancer in such disgust that even that twisted madman took a step back. When Jayden spoke, it was like the wrath of the underworld being unleashed.
“You heard of my victories against the king and queen’s soldiers. Gargoyles, a chimera, Wall Wolf the iron golem, all these and more fought me and died. I’ve faced your inexcusably foul creations and slew them, as any sane man would. All this you know, yet you’d face me. What madness made you think you’d win? What idiocy made you think you ever stood a chance against me?”
“Oh dear,” Dana said. She could feel an entire year’s work trying to temper Jayden’s rage slip away.
Jayden marched toward the necromancer. “You claim to be one of many degenerates called to arms by the king and queen. You freaks and nightmares came a long way to die. You should have stayed in whatever hole you’d been hiding in, because now you stand before me, and nothing under heaven can save you.”
Cimmox stared at Jayden before saying, “You would have made a fine necromancer. Instead you’ll make fine parts for my next creation. You’ve met some of my followers. Let me show you the rest.”
The great earthen mound heaved like a living thing before the gash in it opened wide to vomit out masses of the undead. Walking skeletons made up the bulk of the unspeakable horde, but Dana saw barrow wights loping like wolves among their lesser cousins. More and more abominations poured forth as if they would never stop coming. None carried weapons beyond their sharp teeth and claws. The crowd of nightmares howled like wild beasts.
“Let them come to us,” Green Peril said. He planted the tip of his staff into the ground and cast a spell. His red staff sprouted roots that sunk deep into the ground before growing forward as fast as a galloping horse. The vanguard of the skeletal army covered half the distance to them when a tree root as thick as a wine barrel and fifty feet long burst from the ground and swept over the undead. Thirty of the horrors were crushed to pieces. The root made another swing and battered apart still more, but the rest of the horde grappled the root and ripped it apart.
The time this bought them was well spent as Jayden finished chanting. Dana recognized the spell and braced for the coming explosion. When he finished a single spark drifted toward the oncoming horde.
Green Peril watched the spark float along. “You must be joking.”
“Wait for it,” Jayden told him.
BOOM! Jayden’s fireball burst among the front of the undead, swallowing them up like so much kindling. Dana had seen this spell before, but this time something was different. The fire grew with each skeleton and barrow wight it consumed, as if they were fueling it. The blast grew and grew until it was double its normal size before burning out.
Jayden’s spell had cost the undead army a quarter of its size, yet more came up from the grave to replenish their numbers. They spread out to avoid being caught by another fireball. Behind them Cimmox laughed like this was a grand joke. Dana didn’t know why he stayed out of the battle, but every second he did gave them a chance.
Green Peril took a jar from inside his robes and uncorked it. He poured out dozens of tiny green beetles and cast a spell on them. The beetles swelled up, doubling in size every second until they were as big as hounds. Green Peril pointed his staff at the oncoming undead, and the beetles charged into the horde, their sharp jaws cutting skeletons apart.
“You have an army of bugs?” Cimmox mocked him. “All things die, elf, even the undead. Let me show you.”
Cimmox finally cast a spell, and ten skeletons in the front of the army suddenly turned black. One said, “Hey, what’s going on?”
BOOM! The black skeletons exploded, destroying themselves, nearby skeletons and all of Green Peril’s beetles. Cimmox laughed again as his surviving monstrosities surged forward.
The horde was almost upon them when Jayden turned to face Dana. She saw the concern in his eyes. Dana held up her left hand and said, “Jayden, wait, I—”
Jayden cast one last spell before the nightmarish horde struck them. He spoke strange words that caused shadows to bend and twist until they formed a fierce suit of black armor with razor sharp edges. Pieces of the suit flew through the air before hitting Dana, locking in place over her until she was covered head to toe in black magic armor.
“I wasn’t expecting that,” she said. The armor was menacing, yet so light it felt like she was wearing only a summer dress. Somehow she could see through the helmet even though it had no eye slits. Her fingers on both hands ended in thick, sharp claws, barely flexible enough to hold her sword.
Then the horde hit them. Dana lost sight of Jayden and Green Peril as skeletons swarmed around them as thick as stalks of wheat in a farm field. She tried to stay close to the two wizards and failed utterly in the face of overwhelming numbers. Dana swung her sword with wild abandon and sliced apart the first two skeletons to reach her.
A hideous skeleton made of both human and bull bones pushed its way to the front of the crowd. “I want the little one!”
Dana charged the mismatched skeleton, hacking apart a smaller skeleton that tried to tackle her. She swung once and took off the large skeleton’s right arm before slicing through its right leg. The skeleton fell to its knees. Somehow looking surprised even without a face, it asked, “Can we talk this over?”
A barrow wight bounded onto the crippled skeleton, crushing it underfoot before leaping onto Dana. It hit her with enough force to knock her over. Once she was down the barrow wight bit her right arm. Its teeth scratched her shadowy armor without penetrating. Dana swung her left arm into the barrow wight’s head, and the wight howled in agony before staggering back. Its head was blackened and crumbling under her blow.
Dana got up and punched it again, watching her blow burn its chest. Jayden’s shadow magic was especially dangerous against necromancy, and that clearly included her armor. The wight tried to flee, but she was on it in a flash and impaled it. The wight howled even louder as its entire body blackened and fell apart.
“What was that?” Dana asked. In seconds she remembered that Chain Cutter had been made in part with Jayden’s shadow magic. It must share his magic’s destructive effect on the undead.
The horde of undead parted as a giant plant with a toothy maw grew up from nothing in their midst. Skeletons to Dana’s right screamed in panic as a giant plant monster leaned down and gobbled them up. It was like the plant Green Peril had used against Jayden in Fish Bait City. The huge plant leaned down to snap up another mouthful.
Fortune turned against them as a crackling black bolt shot through the air and hit the plant monster in the side. It toppled over under the assault, and Dana had to run to avoid it landing on her. Four skeletons weren’t as fast and were crushed beneath it. The plant hadn’t even hit the ground when it started rotting, and in seconds it was nothing more than festering slime.
“Did seeing your plant die hurt?” Cimmox taunted them. “I hope it hurt.”
Skeletons piled on Dana while she was distracted. She braced her feet against the ground and pushed into them, knocking them back. She punched and kicked the skeletons, taking them apart piece by piece. She grabbed one skeleton in a bear hug, and her armor burned it with shadow magic. One skeleton bit her shoulder and dented her armor, only for the monster to be burned away. She finished the last one with a swing of Chain Cutter.
Jayden ran past her with his shield of spinning black daggers in front of him, grinding up skeletons in his way. A single skeleton jumped him from behind and wrapped its arms around his throat. He staggered under the attack before a vine seized the skeleton, pulled it off and crushed it against the ground.
“Jayden!” she shouted.
“Keep away from Green Peril!” he shouted. “He’s using spells that cover a wide area.”
Just then a forest of wood spears shot up from the ground, impaling countless undead on their sharp tips. The spears quivered before launching into the air. They came down on more undead and destroyed scores of them.
That cleared enough space for Dana to see the elf. Vines wrapped around his body grappled skeletons and crushed them. A barrow wight leaped over the vines and tried to claw his face. Green Peril swung his staff and struck his foe in the chest. The opals on the staff flashed, and the barrow wight disappeared in a blast of light.
“The horde is thinning,” Jayden told Dana. “If we reach Cimmox, we can deal with the source of the problem.”
“What about Green Peril?” she asked.
Jayden and Dana turned at the sound of horrid screaming, and saw thick roots crushing two barrow wights and dragging them underground.
“I think he’ll manage,” Jayden said dryly. “Come on.”
Dana and Jayden charged through the scattered ranks of undead. A skeleton lunged at Dana and scratched her breastplate. She swung her sword and took off its arm, leaving Jayden to finish it with a sword strike to its chest. Jayden’s shield of daggers cut through three more skeletons before it gave out under the strain. Once it was down a dozen skeletons mobbed them and fought them to a standstill. Dana struck down two while Jayden cut four more apart. Seconds later a boulder flew through the air and flattened the last six. They turned to see Green Peril pull another boulder loose from the ground with the vines twined around him and hurl it into another skeletal mob.
“You don’t leave your leader behind!” Green Peril yelled at them. He frowned and added, “Admittedly I’ve done so, even robbed a few of them, but it was justified.”
Cimmox saw them coming and laughed. “That fight forced you to use your best spells while I used only two. It’s embarrassing. Doesn’t anyone conserve their magic these days? Let me show you what I saved just for you.”
The necromancer uttered strange, hateful words and made intricate gestures with his hands. Dead trees near him rotten away into a slimy goo from his foul spell. No sooner had he finished then bones littering the valley rose up and flew to him.
“Wait, I can still fight!” a skeleton pleaded before it was ripped to pieces and carried off into the air, as were all the skeletons still standing. Broken bones joined the cloud, as did those reduced to splinters in the fight. Still more bones shot up from the gash in the burial mound to form a dense cloud around the necromancer. The cloud tightened as bones linked together in a revolting mass twenty feet across with the necromancer standing on top of it.
“How do you like it?” Cimmox asked. The huge, barrel shaped skeletal creation stood up on six legs as thick as tree trunks and ending in wicked claws as long as a man’s arm. It had no head or eyes, but the many skulls in it had red light pouring from their eye sockets. “It won’t last long, but it doesn’t need to.”
Green Peril yelled, “You destroyed what was left of your own army!”
“I made them to expend them,” Cimmox replied casually. “I mourn them no more than an archer does for the arrows he fires. The king and queen are eager to have Jayden’s head. Yours means nothing to them. Let’s see if you’re smart enough to run.”
“Go left and I’ll go right,” Jayden said to Green Peril. The two wizards split up. Dana followed Jayden.
“Smart enough to master magic, yet dumb enough to stay in a losing fight,” Cimmox said. He picked a leg bone out of his creation and pointed it at Dana. “This is a battle of wizards. Children aren’t welcome.”
“Get down!” Jayden yelled.
Cimmox cast a spell, and the bone glowed before exploding into a stream of bone needles that flew through the air. Dana tried to get behind a dead tree, but she was too slow. The needles hit without puncturing her armor, instead cutting long grooves across the back and left side.
“Wretch!” Green Peril screamed. His next spell caused plants to grow around him and spray the necromancer’s foul creation with orange sap, gluing two of its legs together.
“Oh be quiet,” Cimmox said tiredly. He spoke vile, hateful words before vomiting up a stream of black liquid, far more than he could possibly hold in his stomach. The steaming liquid hit the vines wrapped around Green Peril and melted them away. The elf avoided the noxious stream only by diving into the mud. “Now then, where were we?”
Cimmox’s gloating expression turned into one of terror when a giant black hand missed him by inches. Instead the blow connected with his skeletal mount and staggered it. Jayden was running to Dana and made a swinging motion with his right hand. The black hand mirrored his movements and hit the huge skeletal monster again.
“That is enough,” Cimmox snarled. “I met an old friend of yours while I was waiting for you to arrive. No introductions are needed for one of his status.”
Cimmox cast another spell and formed a large black sphere behind Dana and Jayden. It was much bigger than the one he’d used to send the barrow wights against them, and Dana could see why when it dissolved to show its horrible contents. It was the Living Graveyard, back from the dead yet again.
“It’s a pleasure to work with one created when necromancers and sorcerer lords fought for this land so long ago,” Cimmox said. “Let’s see which one of us kills you first.”
Dana and Jayden took cover in a grove of dead trees. She turned to him and said, “You and Green Peril fight the wizard. I’ll keep the Living Graveyard back.”
“You can’t fight him alone,” Jayden said.
“A year ago I couldn’t. I can now because of you. We beat him before I had Chain Cutter or you could make this armor. Trust me.”
The giant skeleton brought one of its huge legs down on the grove. It crushed three trees and toppled two more, forcing Dana and Jayden to fall back. Cimmox laughed and the Living Graveyard marched toward them.
Green Peril ran over to them, filthy, out of breath and bruised. He opened his mouth, but suddenly his eyes opened wide in surprised. He looked at them and said, “I can stop Cimmox, but I need time. Can you keep him busy for two minutes?”
Jayden looked at Dana and Green Peril, fear visible on his face. As a boy he’d lost everything, and this fight could cost him what little he’d clawed back. Fear gave way to resolve, and he stepped out from the shattered grove. “Two minutes, elf. Use them wisely.”
“Is this the best you can do?” Cimmox gloated as his monster lifted a leg to stomp on Jayden. “Soldiers spoke of you in terror. Knights trembled at the mention of your name. The king fears you even if he dares not show it. How could a stripling wizard like you, a fool using magic outdated a thousand years ago, earn such respect?”
“By thinking,” Jayden said. His next spell made shadows around the valley shimmered and solidified into pieces of frightening black armor identical to what Dana wore. Black armor pieces flew through the air and struck Cimmox hard, snapping over him and encasing him head to toe.
“What is this?” Cimmox yelled, his voice echoing inside his new helmet. He held up his hands and tried to move his fingers. “I can’t cast spells in these gauntlets!”
“No, you can’t,” Jayden said, his voice low and menacing. He still had his black sword, and the giant hand floated in the air. “Goodbye, Cimmox. You won’t be missed.”
Dana dearly wanted to stay and help him, but the Living Graveyard was almost on them. She needed to keep it away from Jayden for him to finish the necromancer. With damaged armor and a magic sword, she ran to fight a monster that had died and come back three times she knew of.
The Living Graveyard was as hideous as always, twelve feet tall, eight feet across and made of grave soil, human bones, broken headstones and splintered coffins. The nightmare monster had a cluster of human skulls embedded in its chest and two intact gravestones jutting from its shoulders, one reading No Rest and the other No Peace. Dana raised her sword to strike, and watched the Living Graveyard walk past her to Jayden.
It was ignoring her. Over the last year many people had done the same thing, focusing instead on Jayden. Normally she was happy to take advantage of this, but not today. She’d come so far, done so much, owned a named magic weapon, and this monster still walked right by her.
“Get back here!” she screamed. Dana charged the monster and swung Chain Cutter with all her strength. Her sword sliced into the Living Graveyard’s right hand and hacked it off. This brought the monster to a halt, and it tried to club her with its now handless arm. Dana ducked under the clumsy swing and sliced the arm open up to its elbow. She followed up with a strike on its right knee, chopping out a huge piece of dirt and bones.
The Living Graveyard’s next blow sent Dana flying backwards. Her armor was cut open across the stomach, but luckily the damage went no deeper. She struggled to her feet as the Living Graveyard marched after her. It lifted one foot and tried to step on her. Dana rolled aside and cut open its leg. The Living Graveyard howled at her with its grinning skulls, and for a moment she quavered under the awful screams.
Then she saw the edges of the wounds she’d scored on the Living Graveyard were black and crumbling away. Cimmox had said that this monster dated to when necromancers and sorcerer lords had fought to decide who would rule this land. That meant it was made with necromancy, not surprising given its appearance. Her sword was poison to it.
Dana charged the Living Graveyard and drove Chain Cutter deep into its body. The monster tried to claw her with its remaining hand. Instead of fighting it she let go of her sword and fell back. The Living Graveyard marched after her. She kept falling back and it kept after her as bits of it flaked away. More and more of it began to crumble and blacken.
As she retreated she came across Green Peril. The elf was kneeling with his staff pressed against the ground. He spoke, but not the strange words of magic. “All things die, but in dying they leave the seeds for new life. From death new life grows, sprouting, spreading, replacing what was lost.”
The Living Graveyard was going to trample Green Peril on its way to her. She didn’t know what the elf was doing (it sounded more like a prayer than a spell), but she couldn’t let the monster kill him. She charged it and drove her clawer gauntlets deep into its right side. Coffin wood burst into flames, bones cracked and headstones turned to gravel. The Living Graveyard seized her with its remaining hand, and she felt her armor buckling. Smoke rose up as her armor began to dissipate.
Crash! Dana kept clawing the Living Graveyard as she spared a glance at Jayden. The sound came from his giant hand slamming into the monstrous skeleton. He was tearing it apart, and as she watched he tore off one of its legs. The monster hobbled after him, trying to crush him underfoot, but with one leg gone and two glued together it didn’t move fast. Cimmox was still on top of his foul creation, struggling to pull off the magic armor that trapped him. The magic armor was toxic to the hideous creation he rode, and his feet burned into it.
“It won’t come off!” Cimmox screamed. With his accent it sounded like von’t.
“How can you cast spells with that atrocious accent?” Jayden demanded. He plunged his black sword into another of the skeletal monster’s legs. “You sound like your mouth is full of live fish!”
There was an ominous crack as the Living Graveyard broke Dana’s breastplate. Her shoulder guards went next. Broken bits dissolved into smoke, and then intact pieces began to boil away. Jayden’s spell was ending before the fight was over.
Devastating as this was to her, it hurt the Living Graveyard just as much. Her sword was destroying it from the inside out. Touching her armor was killing it as it tried to kill her. Its right arm fell off, then two of its skulls followed. Her armor was almost gone when the monster’s hand wrapped around her came apart. Dana grabbed her sword and pulled it out, then swung again and again. The Living Graveyard howled at her, a halfhearted moan rather than a scream. She answered with a scream of her own as she drove her sword deep into it. The Living Graveyard toppled and fell silent.
That’s when she heard a whisper, easy to hear even over the deafening sound of battle. 'It still lives. Strike again.'
Dana didn’t know what it was, but she did as told and swung Chain Cutter into the fallen monster. She cut off huge slabs of dirt and rotten wood, hitting it again and again. Her third swing tore deep into the monster, and that’s when she saw a human skull with horrible symbols carved into it. The skull had long legs like a crab, and now that it was visible it tried to run away.
“That’s how you keep coming back!” she cried out. “You’re like an estate guard. As long as that part of you gets away you can make a new body. Get over here!”
Dana chased the fleeing skull past Green Peril, the elf still speaking formally. Plants began to grow around him. His staff had white patches, and it sprouted leaves and vines that spread across the tainted landscape.
“From deserts dry to frozen tundra, life struggles and succeeds,” Green Peril said solemnly. “In oceans depths and mountains high, life struggles and succeeds. When molten rock pours forth to make new land, once red lava cools, here too life takes root.”
The fleeing skull ran by the elf and headed for Cimmox. The necromancer still struggled to remove his magic armor. His giant creation was trying to flee while Jayden chased it and hacked pieces off. Dana didn’t know what the skull could do if it reached Cimmox. Could it make another body fast enough to rejoin the battle?
Dana raced after the skull and caught up with it. It zigged and zagged, trying to avoid her. It ducked under a fallen tree and came out the other side, but Dana jumped over the dead tree and came down on top of it. The skull looked up as she plunged her sword into it. A shower of sparks shot up from Chain Cutter as the sword pierced the skull. The cursed thing screeched so loud that Jayden and Cimmox both turned to watch. Dana held her sword in the air, and the skull slid down the length of the blade before splitting in two.
“No,” Cimmox said. “It’s not possible!”
Cimmox threw back his head and issued such a horrible cry that Dana and Jayden fell backwards. Even Green Peril much farther back was rocked by the sound. The magic armor encasing Cimmox was ripped apart. Cimmox’s skeletal monster, already badly hurt, broke apart entirely. The necromancer fell to the ground and landed on his back.
The three of them staggered to their feet. Cimmox was missing what little hair he had. His face was gaunt and pale, his eyes sunken and yellowed. “Cry of the banshee is the only spell I know that needs no gestures. That took ten years off my life.”
With his hands free again, Cimmox cast another spell. Black liquid like tar spread across his hands, and the few drops of it that fell burned the ground. “I’ll get those years back by taking fifty years off your life.”
His next spell knit together shattered bones to form long spider legs that sprouted from Cimmox’s back. He ran fast as a horse with those revolting legs, his hand outstretched as he charged Jayden. Jayden raised his sword while Dana ran to his side.
Then Jayden looked like he was listening to something. Cimmox was almost upon them when Jayden said, “At least your wife isn’t here to see what you’ve become.”
Cimmox halted his charge. He looked confused before his face betrayed a great sadness. He backed away as Jayden continued speaking.
“She loved you. She tried to protect you. She deserved better than for you to ignore everything she said. So many times she tried to save you from threats, only for you to destroy yourself. You can still go back to her, but not like this.”
“I,” Cimmox began. Tears ran down his face. He scowled and raised his hands. “How dare you use her against me! I’ll kill you all!”
He didn’t get the chance. Grass spread across the valley floor as fast as a flying hummingbird. Trees sprouted and grew in seconds what should have taken years. Dana, Jayden and Cimmox turned to see Green Peril standing next to a tall white tree set with opals. The elf stood up and looked at Cimmox like a judge passing sentence.
“Life recovers from all losses. Fire, flood, frost, drought, through it all life survives, prospers and grows. Life conquers death!”
Dead trees sprouted new leaves and shoots. Vines twisted and wrapped around one another. The whole valley came alive in an unstoppable wave that reached for Cimmox. The necromancer blasted the plants with the same black bolts he’d killed Green Peril’s plant monster with. He cut huge gashes into the plants, yet the damage regrew in seconds. Cimmox turned and fled, running away on his spidery bone legs.
The tidal wave of greenery swept over him. For a few seconds he fought back, unleashing magic more horrible than any Dana could imagine. It was useless. The plants bound him and pulled him in, and with a sudden thunderous rush crushed him.
Dana leaned up against Jayden. “Wow.”
“That wasn’t nature magic,” Jayden said. “You cleansed this entire valley of the taint of necromancy, undoing Cimmox’s damage and the atrocities of the king and queen.”
“I had help,” Green Peril told them. He ran his hands over the lush plant life. “I imagine we all did.”
Hesitantly, Dana said, “I heard a whisper during the fight. Jayden, what you said about Cimmox’s wife, how did you know?”
“You weren’t the only one hearing whispers.” He looked at her and said, “Cimmox traveled a dark road. A man who sinks that far into perversion and depravity suffers a cost to his soul. I heard a voice telling me to give him one last chance, and what to say to reach him. He refused.”
She pointed up. “You mean we got help from…”
“Yes.”
“Huh. A bolt from the blue would have been nice.”
“A wise gardener removes weeds carefully, lest he damage his crops at the same time,” Green Peril replied. “We were given what we needed, no more, no less. Do not depend on such gifts, for they are given only in exceptional circumstances and against the most implacable of foes.”
“Where’s your staff?” she asked.
Green Peril glanced at the large white tree. “There. You can still see the opals. I needed a focus for the purification ceremony, and only my staff was strong enough.”
“So you can’t try to kill us?” she asked hopefully.
Green Peril gave her a sincere smile. “No. Nor do I wish to. If the king and queen would employ such a fiend then they don’t deserve my help.”
A thorough search of the area turned up no treasure. If the king and queen had paid Cimmox, he’d either spent it or hidden it. They did find a small camp with a stack of scrolls made of vellum. Jayden identified the as spell scrolls containing secrets of necromancy. He wasted no time in burning them. They tried to bury Cimmox, for even villains deserve burial, but they couldn’t find his body amid the plants.
“Our endeavor was successful, yet yielded little fruit besides defeating Cimmox,” Green Peril said. “I need time to replace what I’ve lost, no easy task when I will go home empty handed yet again. I will return in time.”
“Not as an enemy?” Jayden asked.
“No. You have earned my respect. Take comfort in knowing that no one else has.” Green Peril cast his last spell that day and transformed himself into a giant hawk. He spread his enormous wings and took to the sky, then flew south.
“That was exhausting,” Dana said.
“But necessary.” Jayden hesitated before asking, “Dana, before I gave you magic armor, why did you say wait?”
“I thought you were going to make one of those huge hands, scoop me up and make it carry me away.”
Jayden nodded his head slightly. “That was a much better plan than the one I came up with.”
* * * * *
With Cimmox and his foul army gone, Dana and Jayden headed to more populated parts of the kingdom. They needed days to reach the nearest town where they could buy food and maybe a good night’s sleep at an inn. Both of them still wore heavy winter clothes that helped mask their identities.
“Where do we go from here?” Dana asked as they entered the town.
“Cimmox made bold claims that may have been lies. He’d provided Duke Wiskver an undead army, so he was likely honest when he said he had royal patronage. The question is whether the rest of his tales were idle boasts. We could face threats more numerous and terrible than what we’ve seen to date.”
“The king and queen have money to hire more men, especially after years of high taxes. They may not even need the money.”
“What do you mean?”
“Last summer they promised to hire Green Peril if he killed you. They could make promises like that to other people, making them work before they get paid. If they die in battle, the king and queen aren’t out a single coin.” Dana grabbed his arm and pulled him to a halt. “What’s going on up ahead?”
Over a thousand people were gathered in the town center, so many it seemed the entire town was present. People looked worried and spoke in hushed tones. As Dana and Jayden drew near, a lone man carrying a scroll came to the center of the crowd.
“Settle down, everyone,” the man called out.
“Mayor, what’s this about?” a farmer asked. “I’ve got planting to do.”
“I’ll get you back to your fields soon,” the mayor replied. He unrolled the scroll and held it up for them see. “A royal proclamation came last night by fast courtier, with orders to read it to the entire town.”
“You had to have the sheriff come get us for this?” another farmer asked.
The first farmer said, “The old mayor wouldn’t have done that.”
The mayor stared the farmer down. “That’s enough! The old mayor is gone. I’m here. The king and queen declared a state of war with Kaleoth, Brandish and Zentrix. Quiet that shouting! Mercy, it’s like herding sheep. The proclamation says Brandish and Zentrix are colluding with Kaleoth against our kingdom. We’re surrounded by enemies and have no choice but to fight our way out.”
“Against three kingdoms?” a frightened farmer asked.
“We’ve got no choice but to go forward.” The mayor checked the scroll before speaking. “There’s also been a rebellion by Skitherin mercenaries. One company went rogue and incited the others to rebel. Inform the authorities at once if you see them, because those men are dangerous.”
“This keeps getting worse,” a rancher said.
“Can’t you idiots stay quiet for five minutes?” the mayor asked. “Rumors have been going around about undead in the kingdom. Criminals and madmen have been claiming that walking skeletons were seen not far from here. We can’t have fear mongering during a time of war. Anyone caught spreading lies will be charged with sedition and sentenced to ten years hard labor, so mind your own business.”
The mayor walked up to a message board and tacked the scroll onto it. He stepped away and began, “I’m leaving this here for the rest of the—”
A giant black hand swung down and smashed the message board to splinters. Men yelled and women screamed as the hand grabbed the mayor and threw him into the crowd. Panicking people scattered in all directions until the town was empty. The huge hand didn’t follow them, in part because Dana was struggling to hold Jayden’s right arm. She held on until he let the hand dissolve into a cloud of black smoke. Jayden threw his head back and screamed. He pulled away from her, but she followed him and grabbed him by the shoulders. “Jayden, don’t!”
He kicked pieces of the destroyed message board. “I’ve fought for decades to keep this from happening, Dana! You have no idea the hardships I’ve faced, the wounds I’ve suffered. Twenty years and every day of it a battle for time, for money, for some shred of hope, and it was for nothing.”
He stared at her. “I was supposed to stop this. It was my penanced for failing to stop my father descending into evil. My failure means countless multitudes will suffer the horrors of war.”
Those painful words showed how Jayden blamed himself for the king’s misdeeds, as if a child was responsible for the crimes of his father. In a way it proved his virtue, for he loved these people and would sacrifice himself if it meant saving them, but this self-loathing was destructive. He’d ruin himself, and he could do immeasurable damage to others if he didn’t get it under control.
“You didn’t fail,” she told him. “You haven’t succeeded yet. There’s a difference. You’ve saved lots of people, and you can save even more. Come on, Jayden. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
They left the town as residents slowly began to return. Dana wasn’t sure what they could do in the face of such a terrible threat. Three Kingdoms faced invasion, and people here were at the mercy of the king and queen, plus whatever monsters and madmen the royal couple had invited. What could two people do to stop that, even when one was a sorcerer lord?
Dana looked back the way they’d come, where a necromancer who’d created armies of the dead was gone forever. One threat was gone, yet so many remained.
