by Edward Lang
“Necra used it against us last time, and I hope she does it again, because it uses up most of her resources and it’s not very fast. As long as you keep it distracted and stay out of its reach, you can keep 300 liches occupied at one time without too much danger.”
“What happens if you can’t kill the necromanceress?” Seera asked.
I paused.
“If the battle isn’t over by sundown, it means something went seriously wrong. If that happens, retreat and get out of there. You’ll have fulfilled your promise to me. I don’t want any of you dying over this.”
Raptora spoke up, no longer giddy from her dozen orgasms. “If you don’t kill that Imperium bitch, we’ll be running from her for the rest of our lives.”
“Trust me, I’m going to do everything in my power to finish her – and I think I have an excellent shot. But if the worst-case scenario happens, get out and don’t look back.”
There was a sense of unease amongst the troops when I said that, but I didn’t want them going into this overconfident. It might be a tough battle, and I wanted them prepared for it.
“All right… if there’s no more questions, let’s move out.”
As everyone got ready to leave, all five girls in my harem came up to me. Apparently they’d appointed Alia as the leader, because she was the one who spoke.
“Scott, we think one of us should go with you to watch your back.”
I shook my head. “Impossible. Hara can only take one person.”
“We’ll get another harpy – ”
“You know they won’t be able to carry you, Spirella, or Seera.”
“Dyra, then!”
“No. We need her to heal everyone else and to use the plants against the liches.”
“Then Hara can stay with you after she drops you off.”
“She can’t go inside the castle – there won’t be any room for her to fly in there. She’ll be an easy target.”
I almost said ‘a sitting duck,’ but stopped myself at the last second. This wasn’t a time for levity.
Alia looked despondent. “You can’t go up against Necra alone! You didn’t battle the Baron alone!”
She had a good point.
“I know,” I said gently, “but this is the only way. Otherwise we all have to break inside a castle that’s only been taken once in the last two hundred years. I have a way better chance of ending this if it’s just me.”
Neither Alia nor any of the others looked persuaded.
“Stop worrying,” I told them. “I was just starting out when we fought the Baron. I have more experience now – and more powers! First Flight and… uh…”
Okay, I didn’t see how Horse Cock was going to help me.
“Look, it’ll be fine. Stop worrying.”
“If something happens to you, we’re coming after you,” Alia said grimly.
“Nothing’s going to happen to me.”
“We’re still coming after you.”
“No, you’re going to retreat with the others.”
“Scott – ”
“That’s an order, Alia.”
She and the others stared at me unhappily.
I pulled them all in for a hug – which was quite the feat, considering there were five of them. “Look, it’s going to be fine. You’re worrying for nothing. If I see I can’t kill Necra, I’ll run, okay? I can easily escape over the side of the castle walls with Wall Crawler. Hara can even circle high over the castle and keep watch, and she can catch me if I have to jump off the side. How about that?”
“…alright…” Alia grumbled.
I kissed her on the forehead. “Stop worrying. It’s going to be fine. Now go get ready, we have to get moving.”
Four of my five harem members gloomily walked away – but not Dyra. She stayed behind.
“Yes?” I said.
“You know that because of the Reseeding, there is a bond between us,” she said hesitantly.
My eyes widened as I remembered Parch’s words:
Your life is now linked with Dyra’s.
Although you will not be affected if SHE dies, she will most definitely die if YOU do.
I took her in my arms. “I know that I’m putting you in danger by doing this, and I’m sorry, I really am – but I can’t just leave Zala. I wouldn’t leave any of you – ”
She put a finger on my lips to stop me. “I know. That’s not what I meant.”
“What do you mean, then?”
“I told the others already: as long as I’m alive, we know YOU’RE alive. But if I die without being wounded in battle… well…”
“That’s not going to happen, Dyra,” I said fiercely. “I won’t let it.”
“I just wanted you to know that Alia knows. They all do. They’ll be watching me. If I die unexpectedly, then they’ll retreat. No one wanted to say it to you out loud, but I figured you should know.”
My eyes misted up as I pulled her to me and hugged her tight. “I won’t let anything happen to you…”
“I wasn’t trying to make you feel sad or guilty. I just wanted you to know that if something happens, the others will be safe.”
I pulled back to look at her. Dyra’s eyes were brimming with tears, and she smiled at me sadly.
“I’m sorry…” I whispered.
“Don’t be.” She kissed me gently on the lips, then backed away. “If you die – ”
“I won’t. YOU won’t.”
“We all die sometime, Scott,” she said softly. “But if you do… then I don’t want to live anyway.”
She squeezed my hand and smiled sadly as a single tear ran down her cheek.
Before I could say anything, she turned and walked away.
23
We set out for the Grim Keep ten minutes later.
The harpies flew on ahead to begin their reconnaissance.
The female centaurs allowed me and my harem members to ride atop their backs – which was quite the honor. After all, they normally looked upon the practice as degrading.
I guess all that group sex changed their minds.
I rode on Seera’s back, and Dyra rode on the Chieftess’s.
Spirella fashioned spider-silk ‘saddles’ that wrapped around two centaurs and hung between them. Four of Seera’s tribeswomen volunteered, and that’s how they transported both Spirella and Alia.
That way we were able to descend the mountain at a trot, and travel across the plains at a gallop.
Along the way, I asked Parch for as much information as he could give me.
“Is Necra going to have any powers like the Baron’s?”
In general, necromancers only have power
to reanimate and control the dead.
Obviously they can refigure them to a degree,
like Necra did with the giant
made out of the liches’ bodies.
But as far as I know,
they do not have any magical capabilities
like the Baron’s Plague Bolts or Hellbolts.
They rely almost entirely upon
their dead minions to fight for them.
That was good to know.
“Can you find me some sort of map for the Grim Keep, like a blueprint?”
Miracle of miracles, he actually had one. I studied the layout of the castle as we rode, trying to familiarize myself with all the different structures – ramparts, towers, courtyards, and dozens and dozens of rooms.
I would be able to refer back to the map once I was inside – but better to do the heavy lifting now, rather than go into the open-book test completely cold.
The time passed more quickly than I would have thought, and after an hour of traveling, we started up the mountain towards the Grim Keep.
I had warned the female centaurs about lich scouts – both the crucified ones and the heads on posts. Ten centauresses went ahead of the main group and sought them out. Any skull they saw, they put an arrow through.
Since those liches weren’t mine, I was fine with tak
ing them out.
I figured Necra felt it every time one of her supernatural security cameras winked out of existence.
I was hoping her paranoia was starting to run wild as she imagined an army of thousands bearing down on her.
Then, when we got there and she saw she was only dealing with 30 centaurs and 40 harpies, she would laugh – and immediately send out her forces to rout us.
I hoped.
We finally reached the stretch of forest where we’d been ambushed last time.
No hanging men in the trees, which was good.
Raptora, Hara, and the other harpies flew down from the skies to fill us in on what they’d seen.
“The entire army is inside the castle walls,” Raptora informed us. “Hundreds of liches, maybe even a thousand.”
“Any sign of Necra?”
“Not that we could see.”
“What about Zala?”
Hara shook her head ‘no.’ “I’m sorry, Scott.”
“It’s okay. Doesn’t change our plans one bit. Spirella – it’s up to you now, babe. Raptora, if you and your flock could keep watch?”
“Of course,” Raptora said, and the harpies took off into the air.
Spirella quickly scuttled through the woods, first on one side of the road, then the other. She spun single strands of sticky webbing at knee-height, stringing them from tree to tree. Once that was finished, she repeated the process, this time at waist-height.
But she left the road clear. That was our bottleneck for the liches.
Then she climbed into the treetops and started laying a network of silk strands that she could use to traverse the canopy. She was able to fire multiple strands off from one tree to the surrounding ones, then climb across one strand to another tree and begin the process again.
By the time she was finished, dozens of strands crisscrossed the road 40 feet overhead. Though they looked insubstantial, each thread could easily bear her weight.
The entire process took almost an hour. In that time, the harpies didn’t sound the alarm once.
Either Necra didn’t know we were here, which was incredibly unlikely…
…or she didn’t know how small our army was, and she was playing it safe.
The sun was nearing the horizon when everything was ready. I sent Hara up into the air to summon her mother and flock. Once everyone was gathered, I spoke to the entire group.
“I would thank you all individually,” I said to the harpies and centaurs, “but there will be time for that after we’ve won. But I do want to say ‘thank you’ for your help – there’s no way we could have done this without you.”
“It will be a glorious battle,” the Chieftess said confidently.
“That Imperium bitch won’t know what hit her,” Raptora cackled.
I went to my harem, one by one. I kissed them passionately and gave parting words of advice.
“Remember, engage and retreat,” I warned Seera. “And no head shots if you can help it.”
“Of course,” she said somberly. “Be careful.”
“Don’t put yourself in any unnecessary danger,” I told Spirella. “If the liches start firing arrows, get back to the rear lines with Alia and Dyra.”
“I will… please be safe…”
“Protect Dyra,” I told Alia.
She nodded. “With my life.”
Then I turned to my dryad. “It’s all going to be okay.”
She smiled tearfully. “I know it is. I believe in you.”
I turned to Hara. “You ready?”
She nodded. “Ready.”
She flapped her wings and lifted off, grabbed onto my shoulders with her talons, and lifted me into the air.
I threw one fist into the air and roared, “ALL RIGHT, EVERYONE – CHARGE!”
Forty harpies rose screaming into the air, and 30 female centaurs thundered down the road with their voices raised in a battle cry.
If Necra didn’t know we were there before, she sure as hell knew it now.
24
Hara carried me through the woods, down low and out of sight of the Grim Keep.
Branches smacked my visor and dragon-scale armor as we sped through the trees –
And then suddenly we broke through.
We had reached the edge of the mountain, the same steep slope that Alia, Dyra, Spirella, and I had slid down just 36 hours before.
Instead of sliding down it, though, we flew down it.
My heart pounded as Hara dove headfirst into the valley.
You know those clips on the internet where extreme sports guys don special suits with wings stretching between their legs and arms, sort of like giant flying squirrels, and zoom down mountainsides at 100 mph?
It felt a lot like that.
The cliff flashed by ten feet away from my face.
The wind whipped past me, lifting my body so that I trailed out straight behind Hara like a flag in a storm.
Up ahead, the final mountain peak in the chain rose hundreds of feet up to the Grim Keep.
Hara kept close to the rocks until we got beneath the castle. Then she swung out into empty space so she had room to flap her wings.
She carried me up, up, up, until we rose above the castle’s base – at which point she flung me straight at it, just as planned.
I stifled the scream in my throat as I flew through the air.
We had been flying upwards and parallel with the castle. After all, I didn’t want to fly straight at it and knock myself out when my head bashed against the stones. That would end the mission real quick.
All I had to do was reach out with my hand and latch on to the castle wall with Wall Crawler.
Which I did, though I was a bit more practiced this time. Instead of doing a hard grab that jerked my arm out of my socket, I dialed down my powers and used them as friction to slow me down.
I went sliding across the castle wall like a speed skater wiping out on an ice skating rink.
A second later, as gravity started to counteract my upward trajectory, I slapped down another hand and managed to slow my speed until I stopped. Then I put my feet against the wall and crouched there on all fours.
Beneath me was a thousand foot drop.
I tried to keep my mind off of that.
Instead, I focused on Hara circling down below me. She was my safety net in case I fell.
I gave her a thumbs-up to let her know I was good.
She nodded and withdrew a little farther out, but still stuck around – just in case things went south.
Hell, just in case I went south.
I looked straight up the castle wall. It was a good 60 feet to the top.
Time to get goin’.
I jumped straight up in the air using First Flight, keeping just inches away from the stone wall. Before my momentum ran out and I started falling back down, I slapped my palms on the wall and used Wall Crawler to cement me there.
Ten feet in one second.
Wash, rinse, repeat.
In less than ten seconds I was directly beneath the ramparts.
I listened carefully for any sounds above me.
I could hear plenty of chaos in the distance – the clack of bony feet on stone, the groaning of giant iron doors opening up – but nothing directly overhead.
So I took a chance and peeked over the edge of the wall.
Not a single guard was near me, which made sense. There was no threat on this side of the castle.
All the guards were gathered on the other side of the wall, a hundred feet away, pointing into the sky and at what was going on down below.
The guards had good reason to be alarmed: I could hear the female centaurs’ battle cry, and I could see the harpies circling in the air a thousand feet away.
And when I say ‘guards,’ I mean liches. Skeletons.
I couldn’t tell if they were my friends from Mereep, but definitely none of them was Zala.
Though I could see directly across the courtyard to the castle wall across from me
, I couldn’t see much else.
I didn’t want to take the chance of climbing over onto the ramparts just yet, so I checked out my other options.
Six decaying towers soared up from the castle wall, so I headed for the nearest one and jump/climbed my way to the top, careful not to dislodge any crumbling stones on the way.
I reached the conical roof, which had mostly fallen in, exposing the rotting wooden beams beneath.
From up there I had a better vantage point to see everything going on below.
Fifty feet below the ramparts was a courtyard, in the middle of which sat a dilapidated stone building – the heart of the castle.
In the courtyard, hundreds of liches were grabbing spears and swords off wooden racks and rushing through the giant iron doors that led to the outside.
Necra had taken the bait.
YES!
After most of the liches were gone, the iron doors shrieked closed.
Only a couple dozen guards remained on the far side of the ramparts…
Just a skeleton crew, really.
Sorry. BAD joke.
If I was going to act, now was the time to do it.
I slid down the tower wall, back to the ramparts…
Crept over the edge of the parapet, keeping a watchful eye on the guards across from me…
And then crawled down the interior wall of the castle to the courtyard below.
Not a single lich was nearby.
Then I heard a commanding voice yell out, “Press the attack and overrun them!”
A woman’s voice.
The voice had come from inside an archway in the courtyard wall.
I crept down the dark tunnel, lit only by torches.
I reached the far end of the passageway. As I peeked around the corner, I saw what I can only describe as something out of a nightmare.
There’s a creepy medieval chapel in the Czech Republic called the Sedlec Ossuary, where everything is decorated with bones. A chandelier of bones hangs from the ceiling. There are four massive pillars made of skulls. And the altar is flanked by art made out of human remains.
Well, this room had done the Sedlec Ossuary one better: instead of just decorating with bones, nearly everything was made out of them.
