She blinked away just as his great foot stomped down where she had been squatting. Unlike the other zombies which only moaned if they made any sound at all, the gruesome foe howled in a rage. His head swung back and forth like a predator as he scanned for his quarry. When he saw Sai up on the balcony once again, he rushed forward and yanked a post from its mooring, causing yet another of the stilted homes to topple.
“Maybe that took care of him, just like the others,” said Sai.
“Not this one,” said Marie. “We’re going to need something more to take down Gruesome George.”
“It has a name?”
Marie threw a burning skillet at Gruesome George, saying, “Yeah, you can’t have a thing like that running around without calling it something.” The grease from the pan splashed across George and he caught on fire for a moment, but he simply ducked down into the water and extinguished himself before again attacking the stilts of the town.
Arrows flew swift as lightning from Hatch’s bow as he spotted the great new foe, but George just plucked them out and straightened up as if the wounds made him even stronger.
“What could make such a beast?” asked Sai as she looked for something to throw.
“Some demented gnome Shamble Priest, always tinkering with the secrets of life, I’d wager,” answered Marie as she pushed a bathtub down at George. It barely missed. “Goddess! I missed. I was really hoping that would crush his bones.”
“He packs a punch all right,” said Sai. “Any other ideas?”
Marie looked grave and shook her head until her braids swayed back and forth. “I don’t know what else to do—he’ll climb up here any minute. Best we can do is cut the rope bridge when he comes.”
“I’m all for that. I’ll set something terrible up for him to land on.”
“You better hurry.”
Sai ported to the lower level beneath the rope bridge, looking for anything that might damage the behemoth if he should fall on it. Trouble was, there wasn’t a lot of that sort of thing in Stilt Town, especially on the spot beneath the bridge.
She saw a broken section of railing from one of the toppled stilt houses. No one else could have possibly been fast enough to grab it and set it beneath the bridge, but Sai was. She pushed herself hard, taking two sections and crossing them upside down beneath the bridge like an X. Broken sharp points faced upward like spears. Sai guessed that any way George fell, he should get stuck by a section of the trap.
Sai ported back to Marie and saw they were now faced with George, who howled at them and lumbered across the rope bridge. More zombies crowded in behind him.
Marie held her knife ready. “Don’t cut it, until I say,” she said.
George took a wary step across the wooden planks of the rickety bridge. The boards strained beneath his awesome weight. He was halfway across.
“Now!” cried Marie. They each slashed the ropes and the bridge buckled.
Zombies fell like stones, but George leapt, and incredibly, his fingers caught the edge of the boardwalk on which they stood. Who would have thought a monster that big and clumsy-looking could be so agile?
They stomped on his fingers, but he gave no indication he felt any pain. An elbow slammed onto the boardwalk, then he swung a leg up and over and suddenly he was on the balcony facing them.
They backed away but felt trapped against his horrible menace.
He roared.
Then something roared back. A great dark brown thing all covered in hair moved like a whirlwind and tackled George. It was as big or bigger than the gargantuan zombie was. It looks like a werewolf.
Sai ushered Marie away from where the two titans struggled against each other.
They hammered at each other with tooth, fist and claw. Audible blows rocked each opponent and the whole of Stilt Town. One went crashing through a wall, only to emerge and do the same to his opponent.
“Where did a werewolf come from and why is he on our side? I thought such beasts would serve Von Drakk?” asked Sai, perplexed.
Marie shushed her. “I think I know.”
The werewolf caught George’s arm in a terrible bite and shook its head like a dog with a bone. George howled in pain but reached up and brought his giant fist down on the werewolf’s skull. Dazed, the werewolf let go and backed away a step. It howled at the rising moon and again assaulted the rapacious foe. They hit through the boardwalk, which creaked beneath their weight until finally snapping. They crashed through to the next floor down. Just as quickly, they were up and trading blows again. The werewolf slashed his claws across the zombie’s chest, while the zombie punched the wolf hard enough to draw blood across his muzzle.
Sai noticed the Shamble Priest watching, rubbing his hands with glee. She knew what he was thinking; he couldn’t wait for George to defeat the werewolf so he could turn the walking canine into one of his undead slaves. She wasn’t sure George could defeat the werewolf, but she wasn’t about to risk it.
She ported to the Priest’s side and sunk a dagger into his abdomen, but he whipped around and struck at her fast as lightning. Sai had not expected that. Her dagger was still stuck in his ribs!
He casually reached over and drew it out, then licked the blood from across the blade. “You don’t know me, Sai Delaronza, but my master knows you,” he said, pointing the dagger back at her. “He has sent me to reclaim your body and soul, that you might serve him and the Midnight Queen beneath the impenetrable glory of the Dark Consul. You will join us.”
Sai snarled, “I’ll never join you,” and ported, returning to stick him again and again from multiple directions as she circled fast as the wind, cold as the north. With the thought that no one could have withstood such an attack, Sai paused a few feet away from him.
His skull face only grinned at her. “You can’t hurt me, Sai, not with such parlor tricks. I am undead and cannot be harmed by things as simple as a knife thrust. Unfortunately, you can!” He charged at her with Sai’s own blade, and she ported away just as the tip of the blade scratched her arm.
She reappeared a good twenty feet away. I’m getting better at this.
He wheeled to face her. “You’re quick, that’s good. But you’ll only die tired. Maybe while I wait to finish you, I’ll take the rest of these as my servants first. Hmmm?”
Sai glanced behind him and saw George and the werewolf still beating each other senseless while the zombies swarmed over the town and forced the people to retreat.
“There is a way to beat him,” said a soft voice.
Sai looked over her shoulder to see Esmerelda hiding in a clump of bushes. “How?”
“Life takes away the power of the undead.”
“What does that mean?”
“Use your gifts, your talents,” said the little witch.
Sai looked back to face down the skull-faced Shamble Priest. He grinned at her, thinking himself invulnerable, but she had a new plan. She ported to the Shamble Priest, gripped him tightly across the coat, and ported just a few steps over, beside a tree. The Shamble Priest was stuck halfway in and out of the tree’s trunk. His eyes bulged and then he was still.
The glowing green skull that he held like a lantern went out. As the eerie light faded, the massive hoard of zombies suddenly halted and fell, back to being the corpses they truly were.
All except George; he fought on against the werewolf. They were a bloody mess, but still they grappled on. He caught the werewolf in a headlock and squeezed. Marie ran up behind them and smacked her rolling pin repeatedly against George’s head, distracting him just enough that the werewolf broke free of his death grip. The werewolf, in a burst of energy, took hold of the monstrous automaton and lifting him up, slammed him down on the crossed railing that Sai had set up earlier. Gruesome George met a gruesome end as he was pierced by no less than ten of the sharp stakes. He whined for a moment, then went as still as his master.
All that was left was the handful of witches that still flitted about
the night sky sending curses and blasts at the townsfolk. Now, with no zombies to worry about, all the archers and folk could throw stones and arrows at them and they too began to retreat.
The last one, however, swooped in close to Hatch and got him with a curse. He convulsed and rapidly shrank down into a miserable toad before their very eyes.
“Hatch!” cried Sai. She rushed to his side, only to see a large toad sitting beneath his lump of clothes and mail. She picked the miserable toad up. “Is that you, Hatch?”
The toad said, “Ribbit.”
The townsfolk crowded in around her. She wiped her eyes, hiding the tears, and looked at them, saying, “I like him better this way. Serves the bossy do-gooder right.” She placed him in her satchel and quickly walked away.
The crowd cheered, “Hooray, hooray! We have been delivered!”
Lost in her own thoughts of loss, she saw Marie facing the werewolf, whose massive chest was still heaving from his confrontation with Gruesome George.
“It’s you, isn’t it?” Marie asked.
The werewolf nodded, and for such a ferocious creature, he tenderly gave his wounded hand to Marie. She took it and wrapped a bandage about it with care.
Sai was stunned.
The werewolf transformed before her very eyes back into Von Wilding.
“What!” she cried.
But he didn’t hear her; he was too busy embracing Marie.
Sai pushed closer after giving them a moment. “Hey! When were you going to tell the rest of us about your condition?”
Von Wilding looked at her and gave a toothy grin. “I wasn’t if I could help it.”
“Seems like something you should have shared with your teammates a long time ago,” Sai argued.
“I’m sorry, I’m not sorry. The curse of my family was not something to be bandied about with just anyone.”
“I’m not just anyone. I’m your friend,” Sai blurted out. She blushed a little. She hadn’t meant to say that. She was surprised that it had come out at all.
Von Wilding went quiet, as did Marie. “Princess Citrine knew. She trusted me and said it would be all right if I kept it to myself. I didn’t mean to keep secrets, but I didn’t want anyone worrying about whether they could trust me either.”
Sai nodded. “I’m sorry,” she said, walking away feeling like it was her tail between her legs now. Sai opened her satchel to look at Hatch the Toad, asking, “Why couldn’t you have been turned into an incredible monster?”
The toad answered, “Ribbit.”
Chapter 11: The Sunken Tower
Stilt Town was delivered from a great evil that day, but not without plenty of loss. Many had perished, and many homes had been destroyed. The first terrible thing Sai witnessed after the battle was Esmerelda cradling her grandmother’s hand. It looked like the old woman was sleeping, but Sai knew that could not be the case. Her smile of joy at their triumph vanished as tears ran down the little girl’s face.
Esmerelda looked to Sai and Marie. “Gran is gone. I don’t have anyone now.”
Marie glanced at Von Wilding and Sai. “We’ll look out for you now.”
Sai tensed and whispered, “But we have an urgent mission. And we’ve lost a man already.”
Von Wilding said, “I thought you wanted out of here. What makes it so urgent to you now?”
Sai sniffed at that. She didn’t want the attention on her now, but decided she owed him an answer. “That Shamble Priest knew my name. He said he knew that those dark forces had a claim on me. That I was fated to serve Von Drakk. I don’t believe in fate, and I aim to make sure that they are dead wrong.”
“I’m glad,” he said, putting his hand on her shoulder.
Marie dabbed at her eyes. “I am with you too and will do the best I can to make up the difference, but we can’t leave her here.” She looked to Von Wilding who gritted his teeth but nodded in agreement.
“She better come with us, but stay out of the way when trouble comes,” he said.
“Are you going to play nursemaid to her?” Sai asked, realizing after the fact how insensitive she sounded. “I just mean it isn’t going to be safe for any of us.”
“I can help out,” said a new voice. It was Chev the ferryman from the night before. “I know what ye’re all trying to do, and I’ll help ye where I can. I know the fastest route down to the vampires, and if that’s where ye mean to go, I can get ye there. And look after the girl too,” he said, rubbing a hand over her messy hair.
Esmerelda bristled at that display of affection, but still grinned up at the old man when he offered her a cookie.
“Then we better get moving soon, we have a lot to do,” Von Wilding said.
“One more thing. Is there anything that can be done?” Sai asked, holding Hatch the toad out to Von Wilding and Marie.
Von Wilding said, “I have heard that there is a wizard, a crazed old mage of wonderous powers, further into the swamp that might be able to help. He supposedly lives in a sinkhole on the way to Von Drakk Manor from here. He might help us. Then again, he might not, but I know of no other way for us to reverse such a curse from a witch, save the Goddess herself intervening for us.”
Sai said, “Let’s be on our way then.” She looked at Hatch.
He looked up at her and said, “Ribbit.”
The six of them boarded the skiff with all of their gear and supplies, along with everything they could retrieve of Hatch’s. Von Wilding’s somber nature was cheered by the presence of Marie. Sai could hardly blame him; the golden-haired woman was a strong, doughty companion who encouraged all of them. It wasn’t the same as having Hatch there as himself, but it was good to have the company.
Chev had to use a pole and paddle to get them away from Stilt Town in waters that didn’t appear to be moving at all, but Sai was surprised to see that once they had gotten got beyond just a few hundred yards, there was a current helping pull the raft along.
They stayed toward the middle of the river, well away from the shore. When night fell, they could see gleaming eyes watching them, and though they could not tell what was there, all agreed that they didn’t look friendly.
The river grew wide but retained a dark loathsome appearance, and the clouds of biting insects were especially bad. Islands no bigger than the skiff, and clustered with mangrove and cypress trees, dotted the river; but these were home to nothing larger than a lizard or a bird, so they looked to be of no real danger. Sometimes Chev had to work hard to avoid dead trees and other debris in the river, but otherwise the journey was rather uneventful.
“How much farther do you think?” asked Sai.
“Not more than an hour or two,” answered Chev.
“That’s what you said two hours ago.”
“Trust me, this is a shortcut.”
“We’re close,” said Von Wilding. “I recognize this part of the river.”
It was a very wide spot where they could hardly see the banks on either shore, not just because of the mist but also the distance.
They sailed on for another dingy grey day until finally the river started to coalesce back into a swamp and they espied a curious feature looming out of the mist. A lonely tower stood, leaning crookedly and surrounded by masses of jumbled stone blocks. Around about the tower was a moat of dead space, and then stairs spiraling around back into the tower in the center. The ruin seemed to go on for miles. It gaped on the Moor like a festering scab.
“This must be the place the bards spoke of,” said Von Wilding.
“We’re here to cure Hatch on the word of what some lousy bards sang about once?” snapped Sai.
“I was a bard once,” said Chev.
“Shut up!” snapped Sai.
Von Wilding bristled. “They were trustworthy, and I only ever said it was a chance. And as much I feel for getting Hatch healed, he still comes second to the mission. I’ve lost more than you know to Von Drakk. I won’t lose any more.”
“Easy,�
� soothed Marie. “Let’s look around first, huh?”
From where they stood, the edges of tumbled black stone turned up slightly, but water found a way through and cascaded into the abyss. When they looked over the edge they could see no bottom, but there were stairs spiraling down into the dark.
“I’m not going down there,” said Chev.
“Nobody asked you to,” snapped Sai, “but if there is a chance of getting answers, I’ll go by myself if I have to.”
“You’re not going alone,” said Von Wilding.
“No, you’re not,” agreed Marie.
Sai hid her smile and gave them each a nod before saying, “Chev, you stay on the boat with Esmerelda.”
He saluted saying, “Will do, cap’n.”
“But I want to come with you,” Esmerelda pleaded.
Von Wilding said, “Not this time, we don’t know what’s down there, and we are taking a serious chance. You’ll be safer up here.”
Esmerelda stamped her foot and defiantly took a few steps forward.
Sai kneeled and put her hand on Esmerelda’s shoulder. “You’re my backup. If there’s trouble, you’ll come and get us out.”
Esmerelda turned to look at Chev, but he just shrugged.
Sai gave Chev a very cross shake of her head, signaling that they were in no way to follow them no matter what. She could tell by the look in his eyes that there was no danger of him following them into the sunken tower. He was too big a coward to do that. Or was that the real courage? To know when you’re in over your head and the smart thing to do is run? Maybe I should have run before all of this began, she thought. Before I made the mistake of starting to care about my companions. Too late now, she chided herself.
The steps were cold and wet but seemed sure enough. They brought only their weapons, a handful of food, and lanterns. They wanted to move without anything else burdening them so they could be fast if they had to. Bats flitted up from somewhere below.
“Something spooked them,” said Von Wilding.
“Are you sure it wasn’t us?” asked Sai.
The Glauerdoom Moor Page 8
