A hard gust of wind forced him to shield his eyes. When Yaz looked again, Tonia and Silas were soaring down out of the sky.
Silas hurled a lightning bolt.
That was their signal. Yaz helped Brigid over the side of the pit and she dropped safely to the scaffolding. Yaz joined her a moment later.
On either side of them slaves looked left and right. Explosions from below shook the rickety scaffolding and gusts of wind set it to swaying. They needed to get these people down before it collapsed.
“Mrs. Carmichael?” Brigid said.
Yaz turned to find her approaching a middle-aged woman dressed in a torn smock and wearing sandals below the manacles clasped around her ankles. He took a step closer.
“Brigid?” the woman said. “How on earth did you get here? What’s going on?”
“That’s a long story, Mrs. Carmichael,” Brigid said. “But the short version is we’re here to free everyone. Do you know who else ended up here?”
Another explosion shook the scaffold.
“I hate to break up your reunion,” Yaz said. “But we need to climb down before we fall down. Everyone line up and make for the ladder. Drop your tools and hurry.”
“If we leave, we’ll get whipped!” someone shouted.
“Or killed and raised as one of those monsters!” another added.
Yaz grimaced. Of all the problems he expected, convincing them to flee hadn’t crossed his mind. “My friends are dealing with your captors as we speak. But if we all die, their efforts will be for nothing. Please, hurry.”
“Who the hell are you anyway?” asked a rough man that looked like he’d been a slave for many years.
Gods above, they didn’t have time for this. “My name is Yazgrim Yeager. Many of you probably knew my father, he was chief of Dragonspire Village. When Brigid and I returned home and found everyone missing we came looking. You are the first group we plan to free. I know where the others are and I’ll need your help freeing them. So please, I’m begging you, get off of this scaffold before it collapses and kills us all.”
The murmurs that began when he told them his name grew louder. Finally, a woman said, “I’m with you, young lord.”
“For our village!” another shouted.
“And our people!” a third added.
They made for the ladder, tugging reluctant slaves along with them. Yaz blew out a breath and fell in behind them with Brigid.
“Nice speech,” she said.
“Thanks, but if Silas and Tonia don’t deal with the magic users it won’t mean much.”
Despite being a wizard, Silas had never flown. Standing beside Tonia in the center of a screaming tornado was an experience he’d never forget. And never hoped to repeat. They rushed in toward the mine about ten times as fast as a horse could gallop. The bard had a huge grin on her face, like this was the most fun she’d ever had. Silas focused on not throwing up. He also gathered power, so he’d be ready to strike as soon as he spotted his target.
All he had to go on was Tonia’s description and the fact that he was the only living non-slave male in the mine. His fingers flexed and relaxed, little bolts of lightning jumping from his ring to his nails. If he could take the alchemist out with his first spell, that would be ideal. Not that Silas had much hope. His master always warned him to avoid duels with wizards when he didn’t know their abilities. Yet here he was about to break that rule.
Yaz and Brigid were nice kids, sure, but why was he so determined to help them complete their mission? Silas was honest enough with himself to know it wasn’t out of a sense of justice. He wasn’t that naive. And it wasn’t because they saved his life in the Aqua Kingdom ruins, though he did appreciate it. No, what it came down to was he felt like, since he met them, he’d found something worthwhile to do with his life. Something more than surviving and dodging bounty hunters.
Silas liked that feeling. He liked that they counted on him and trusted him. It had been far too long since he had friends that relied on him.
“We’re almost there!” Tonia had to shout to make herself heard above the roaring of the wind.
Silas shoved his thoughts aside and nodded. “I’m ready.” As I’ll ever be, he didn’t add.
With a final scream the winds vanished. All around them zombies had been scattered like twigs by the gale.
He leapt forward and Tonia took off again to find her former comrade.
Silas scanned the area. He had to be here somewhere.
There! Fifty feet from the scaffolding standing atop a perfectly square stone. A man in dark robes with a gold necklace and a rod clenched in his right hand. That had to be him.
Silas pointed and released the lightning bolt he’d prepared.
A line of crackling electricity streaked toward the alchemist.
An instant before impact the spell shattered on a barrier of some sort.
Cursing his luck, Silas began a second spell. His only hope was to smash his way through.
Halfway through his spell the alchemist pulled a vial out of his pocket and threw it.
Silas abandoned his casting, setting a wave of sparks flying from his fingers, and leapt right. The explosion when the vial shattered drove the air from his lungs and hurled him ten feet.
Grunting with the impact, Silas sprang to his feet.
Just in time to see another vial flying his way.
A harsh word and slashing motion with his left hand shattered the vial halfway between Silas and the alchemist. The explosion staggered them both.
So whatever defense his opponent had in place didn’t stop the effects of his own attacks. Silas could use that. Instead of starting a new spell Silas waited.
The alchemist glared and Silas glared right back. Each knew exactly what the other was doing. As long as the alchemist was focused on him, Silas’s friends could do what they needed to. Once the bard had dealt with her counterpart the two of them could overwhelm the alchemist.
For now, a stalemate suited Silas just fine.
The alchemist had other ideas. He gestured with the black rod and half a dozen of the nearest zombies moaned and shifted toward Silas.
The game had just changed and not in his favor.
Tonia dropped Silas twenty yards from the alchemist, blasted the zombies with a gust of wind, and whistled to the wind spirits to let them know she wanted to return to the sky. Mel wasn’t with her new boyfriend, which was a change from her usual pattern. If Tonia couldn’t find her they’d have no hope of stopping all the zombies.
Despite the dust that swirled around her, Tonia could see perfectly. The wind spirits kept a clear area directly in front of her. They were so eager to please she almost felt bad about using them. Once, she’d tried explaining to them, but the spirits she controlled were simple things and all her worries got in return were feelings of love and a desire to play. When she realized they considered her orders a game it took some of the sting of using them away. Besides, it wasn’t like anyone could hurt them.
Now, where was Mel? The zombies had begun to recover so she had to be somewhere nearby, close enough to see what was going on at least.
An explosion shook the air. She looked back to see Silas engaged in a fierce battle. Tonia clenched her teeth. She didn’t have time to waste. Until Mel was neutralized, one way or another, she couldn’t help him and Yaz and Brigid would be stuck on the scaffold with the slaves.
Everything was on her. This was part of the reason Tonia preferred to work alone. Too much pressure when others were counting on you doing your part. A faint shimmering fifty yards from the scaffold caught her eye.
She whistled and the spirits sent a rush of straight-line wind at it. A shimmering cloth ruffled and was quickly shredded. Behind it stood Mel, looking small and frail in a simple black dress that made her pale skin look even paler.
How long had it been, two years, three? The youngest member of her year group at the Bardic College looked exactly as Tonia remembered.
The spirits set Tonia down a f
ew feet away from Mel who cringed and looked around for an avenue of escape. Behind them more explosions went off. The duel between Silas and the alchemist was heating up. She’d give Mel one last chance to surrender and return home. If she failed to take it, Tonia would do what she had to.
“I can’t go back,” Mel said before Tonia could even get a word out.
“Why? Was it really so bad?”
“Maybe not for you,” Mel said. “But for me and my power, it was horrid. Everyone was scared of me. They all called me zombie girl and shuffled around and moaned whenever I was around. Somebody brought a dead dog to school and wanted me to make it dance.”
Tonia blinked. She hadn’t heard any of those things. Granted it wasn’t like she was friends with Mel, but still, she should have heard a rumor or something.
“I’m sorry. Listen, you don’t have to go back to the college if you don’t want, but you do have to return to Rend. Your powers belong to the kingdom.”
Mel glared and her eyes glowed purple. “My powers belong to me and no one else. Not the kingdom, not Callie, just me. Here I’m free to use them to accomplish something valuable. What will I do back home?”
Tonia didn’t have a good answer, or any answer at all for that matter. Still, her orders were clear. “If you don’t come back…”
“What?” The ground rumbled and Mel’s eyes glowed brighter. “What are you going to do if I refuse? Kill me! You think death frightens me?”
It felt like an earthquake now. Mel didn’t have power over earth spirits and her partner the alchemist was engaged with Silas. What was causing the tremors?
The answer came a moment later when a skull the size of a peasant hut burst from the earth. Its empty eye sockets glowed purple, just like Mel’s. The skull rose on bleached vertebrae. A shoulder blade appeared next along with some ribs.
Tonia needed to end this before the dragon skeleton fully emerged. She whistled to the wind spirits. A fierce, focused gale filled with grit would slice someone open as easily as a blade.
The wind howled and a narrow cloud of dust shot toward Mel.
Before it could strike, a skeletal arm emerged and shielded her. The attack broke against calcified bone as hard as stone. The back hips and legs of the dragon smashed free of the stone.
The skeleton turned the arm it used to protect her and Mel jumped into its claw. The dragon lifted her up and placed her carefully inside its ribcage, right where its heart would have been. In a way, Mel was the skeleton’s heart and its brain. She kept it moving and did its thinking.
The question now was, how to defeat her with the dragon as her guardian.
Chapter 23
Yaz nearly dropped his staff when the giant dragon skeleton emerged from the earth at the edge of the pit. He and Brigid had guided the slaves about halfway to the ground when the tremors began. Now everyone cowered on the planks, trembling and refusing to look at the monster. He didn’t blame them a bit but hiding behind their hands wasn’t going to get them to safety.
“What are we going to do?” Brigid asked.
“Our job hasn’t changed. We still need to get everyone down off the scaffolding and out of the mine in one piece.”
She kept staring at him like she expected some obscure fact about how best to deal with a rampaging undead dragon. Yaz hated to disappoint her, but he’d never come across a situation like this in any of his books. He doubted anyone in the world had come across a situation like this.
“Try to keep everyone calm,” Yaz said.
“Who’s going to keep me calm?” Brigid asked.
“At least we’ve got weapons,” Yaz said.
Brigid brandished her staff at him. “We’ve got sticks. That’s a gods damned dragon!”
“But we don’t have to fight it, remember? That’s Tonia’s job. Our job is to escort everyone out of here. And the sooner the better.”
She took a few deep breaths and nodded.
“Good.” Yaz knelt beside one of the villagers, the woman that had spoken up for him first. She trembled so her teeth chattered. He laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. “We need to keep moving. The others will keep the dragon busy. It’s not that far to the ramp up out of here. Can you stand and come with me?”
She looked into his eyes and Yaz smiled. “I’m with you, as I said. No bloody dragon’s going to keep me from getting out of this hole.”
“That’s the spirit.” He helped her to the ladder down to the second level and moved on to the next person.
Once the slaves saw their fellows moving, it was easier to convince the next one to go. The explosion, cracks of lightning, and stomps of the dragon’s foot didn’t hurt either. No one wanted to be on the scaffold an instant longer than necessary.
The process of getting everyone down took a hideously long time, or so it felt to Yaz. In reality it probably wasn’t more than five minutes.
Yaz’s feet had barely touched the ground when a zombie came shambling towards them, a bucket in its hand raised as a makeshift weapon.
He stepped forward and thrust hard.
The zombie’s head exploded like an over-ripe honeydew. It collapsed and didn’t move. Ahead of them zombies stumbled around seemingly at random. Sometimes they lashed out at each other and sometimes they bumped chests and staggered off in different directions.
Yaz flicked a glance to his right where the dragon skeleton was doing its best to swipe Tonia out of the sky and crush Silas to pulp at the same time. So far it hadn’t had any success and clearly maintaining control of the giant monster was keeping the enemy bard from managing her zombies. Pity they wouldn’t just collapse on their own, but you couldn’t have everything.
Another explosion shook them and sent dust flying. Yaz didn’t need any more encouragement.
“I’ll clear a path,” he said to Brigid. “You watch our back and flank. If anyone sees a weapon grab it and lend a hand. Let’s move.”
Yaz set out toward the ramp leading out of the quarry. He tried to pick a path with the fewest zombies, but the way they constantly shifted around made it impossible. After a hundred yards he shrugged and made straight for the exit.
A zombie that had been a woman in life and had lost its bucket in one of the many collisions stumbled toward him. Yaz lashed out with his staff, catching the creature in its raised arm with the first strike then crushing its skull with the second. Killing the horrid things was vastly more satisfying than slaying the living. The zombies needed to be put down. Returning them to their graves was a mercy.
A few dull thuds from behind indicated Brigid had gotten into the fight. With her skill, nothing short of a wave of the undead would be a threat.
Half a mile and three slain zombies later they reached the gravel path outside the quarry. Yaz blew out a breath of relief. They’d made it clear by some miracle.
Down in the quarry the dragon skeleton still stomped around, the wind howled, and lightning occasionally cracked. The battle was still very much underway.
Brigid left her position at the rear of the group and joined him at the front. “What now?”
“Now you stay here, keep everyone calm and together. If any zombies should come shuffling your way, bash ’em. I’m going to see if I can help Silas and Tonia.”
“That’s crazy,” she said. “How could you possibly help two wizards?”
Tonia was technically a bard, not a wizard, but he knew what she meant. “Maybe I can’t, but the reason Silas is even down there is because he wanted to help us. I can’t very well stay here and let him fight this battle on his own. Don’t worry, I’ll be okay.”
Before she could offer any more arguments, he turned and jogged back into the pit. Yaz had barely started down the earthen ramp when he paused. Silas hurled a lightning bolt that slammed into the dragon’s skull. A few shards of bone fell, but it remained otherwise unharmed. The bones must retain their resistance to magic even though the dragon was dead. Small wonder two magic users weren’t making any progress.
In the
ribcage, Mel hung suspended in a purple energy field. Yaz didn’t recognize the magic, but it was clearly connected to her ability to control zombies given the color. Faint crackles of the same energy sparked off the skeleton in random bursts. The zombies didn’t give off sparks like that. Did that mean something? He didn’t know.
Yaz considered the situation. Despite what he said to Brigid, he wasn’t dumb enough to just charge in without a plan. Joining Silas in evading the dragon’s claws wouldn’t help anyone. He needed to figure out how to make a difference.
Yaz was still considering his options when one of the zombies roaming the quarry noticed him and came shuffling up the ramp. The things were so slow and stupid all Yaz had to do was wait for it to come into range and smash its head in with the butt of his staff. The corpse became a corpse again and Yaz went back to watching the battle.
A second later the purple energy field flickered as a wisp of energy struck it. Yaz frowned and looked back at the now-still zombie. Had he released that energy so it could return to its master? It seemed reasonable.
If that flicker created an opening, no matter how brief, it might give Silas and Tonia the chance they needed. But Yaz had to be sure.
A quick glance located the next closest zombie. He ran towards it and swung. It dropped and he turned at once to the battle. As before, the energy field flickered for a moment. Not a coincidence then.
Time to see if there was anything Silas could do in that window.
After a moment to get a general feel for the zombies’ movement, Yaz took off. Down the ramp he ran, avoiding zombies that seemed content to ignore him or were too slow to hit him if they didn’t.
Silas had moved a safe distance away and was panting, doubled over, elbows on knees. Tonia dove in and out, evading the dragon’s claws and keeping Mel distracted. You’d think the bard would get tired keeping such a large skeleton moving, but she showed no sign of collapsing.
Yaz skidded to a stop beside Silas. “You okay?”
The Dragons' Graveyard Page 17
