“Can you leave mine like it is? I think it’s helping Bast.”
I shrugged. “Sure, sweetie. It looks like you’re pretty safe, but if you start feeling like something isn’t right you can cut it off like this.
I showed her how to safely cut the connection, which of course she immediately did when she copied me. But I had enough wits left to hook her back up. Hey, was her fur even softer than before?
Cerise leaned heavily against my back. “I guess I have to put my clothes back on, and hide what I really look like. Can we figure out a way to explain to everyone that I’m not going to eat them? Like, soon?”
“Sure. Remind me in the morning, and we’ll figure out a plan.”
Avilla helped her dress, and by the time she’d finished she didn’t look nearly as scary. Too bad, she made a damned sexy demon girl. But that was a thought for later. I fumbled for the bar, and opened the door.
I knew right away something was wrong. Marcus’ face would have been enough of a clue, especially since Oskar was with him. But they had a hundred men mustered in the vehicle bay, with all three armored transports lined up in front of the gates. Oh, and there were bells ringing in the distance.
“Good to see you, sir,” Marcus said with obvious relief. “We have a situation.”
I frowned. “Is the island under attack?”
“No, sir, they haven’t tried the causeway yet. But there’s a lot of trouble in town. The bells started ringing half an hour ago, and they haven’t stopped since. Gronir took a scouting party out to investigate, and ran into a battle on the docks. He says to tell you that the dead are rising from their tombs.”
Chapter 23
“Really?” Cerise said. “I thought Hel’s legions were supposed to reach Midgard on ships?”
Captain Rain shrugged. “I don’t know about the magic, Cerise. But Gronir reported that the band he fought was definitely dead men. Their arms and armor were of an ancient style, and they didn’t bleed or feel pain. Fire kills them well enough, but it takes half a dozen bullets to put one down.
Yeah, that sounded about right. Urban fantasy likes to pretend that undead are immune to bullets, but those big rounds my guns fired would punch fist-size holes all the way through a zombie. Shattered bones will cause all sorts of mechanical problems, and if you keep shooting the thing will rapidly fall apart. Since my weapons didn’t run out of ammo we were also spared one of the classic problems of zombie movies.
But this wasn’t a movie. Hel was the goddess of underworld, and in Norse mythology she was supposed to lead an army of the dead to assault Asgard during Ragnarok. Every man who didn’t die on the battlefield was under her sway, which meant they’d outnumber the heroes of Valhalla a hundred to one. But Cerise was right. The legends talked about them sailing there in a ship made from dead men’s nails.
Was that wrong? Had Hel discovered some kind of necromancy that would let her just animate every corpse in Europe? That was a terrifying thought, especially since they probably weren’t the mindless automatons of horror movies. But surely I would have noticed a spell of that magnitude being cast? If nothing else, the wards we’d raised to keep out foreign magic during our ritual should have felt the pressure of her spell’s passing.
Wait. No.
“Mara,” I groaned. “I saw her in the graveyard on the river bank, the day I went to the funeral. She must have been preparing this.”
“Mara is quite powerful, but I doubt even she could call thousands of dead souls back from the underworld at once,” Elin said doubtfully.
“She doesn’t have to,” Cerise pointed out. “Hel is her half-sister. All she has to do is break the consecrations on the graveyards, and open the way for Hel’s influence. A drop of her blood on each skull would do it, or a little desecration ritual on each mausoleum.”
“Elin, does anyone check the graveyards for that kind of thing?” I asked. “Could she have gotten away with doing it in advance?”
“Easily,” Elin said faintly. “The priests only check the mausoleums that are open, and being used for new burials. If she’s been infiltrating older areas of the graveyards, and hiding her tracks… Daniel, the catacombs are filled with bones.”
I closed my eyes. “Tens of thousands? Hundreds?”
“Kozalin has been a major city for six hundred years, Daniel. There are probably millions. I think the only limit would be how many she had time to prepare.”
“Fuck.”
Captain Rain looked about as happy about that as I was. “What do we do, sir?”
Elin put her hand on my back, and reached out to me with her healing magic. The fatigue that fogged my brain began to clear.
“We need to find out how bad this is,” I decided. “Marcus, I want you to take the skimmers and a strong force of infantry down to the end of the causeway and secure it. Oskar, station a group of militia here to defend the gates. I expect we’ll be sending refugees back, but I want you to check them carefully to make sure they’re actually alive before you let them in. There’s no way the enemy can assault our walls without siege engines, but they might get clever and try to infiltrate us. What will that leave us to man the walls?”
“A hundred or so trainees,” Marcus said. “They’re too shaky to take into battle, but they can keep watch and raise an alarm if there’s trouble. Their marksmanship is terrible, but as fast as our guns fire I expect they’d still be enough to discourage a probing attack.”
“I could keep a team of militia out on the island, ready to respond to trouble,” Oskar added. “But we’ll be stretched for manpower. Any chance the nymphs can pitch in?”
I turned to Corinna.
She nodded. “My girls are ready, and I’m sure the others are too.”
“Better keep them together, and away from the men,” Demetrios said, entering the hall with Zoe and a pair of dryads. They were all armed and armored like ancient Greek warriors, although with wood instead of bronze.
“They’re able enough, but most of the girls haven’t lain with a man in years,” he went on. “They’ll get distracted easily if they mingle, especially if they have a few hours of nothing happening.”
I nodded. “Fair enough. Then you and Pelagia will help keep the island secure. Work with Oskar here to figure out the best way to deploy your people. Corinna, go get your troops together and meet me at the end of the causeway. Time to show me how badass you are.”
She smiled fiercely. “We won’t fail you, lord of my mistress.”
“I’m sure I’ll be impressed.”
I turned to my girls. Cerise had perked up considerably, and seemed almost eager for a fight. But Elin was pushing herself, and Tina and Avilla were asleep on their feet.
“Thanks for the boost, Elin. It looks like this is going to be a long night.”
I walked back into the power room, and linked myself to it again. Doing it with a spell like that instead of an enchantment wasn’t as stable as I’d like, but it should hold up as long as I stayed within a mile or two of the power source. Then I used my flesh magic to banish each girl’s fatigue, one by one. Not as good as an actual night’s rest, but it would have to do.
“Cerise, you up for some fighting?”
“You know it,” she grinned. “Things have been getting kind of boring around here. It’s about time I had a chance to feed my blades.”
I chuckled. “Nut. Alright, you’re with me. Elin, are you up to some healing?”
She nodded. “Yes, I can set up a healing station here. May I renew my link to the power stone, and borrow a few of Avilla’s maids?”
“Of course,” Avilla said.
“Any time,” I agreed. “Just be careful about how much you use it, alright? The amount of power that thing can give you is immense, and so far I’ve only been using it to run my own enchantments. There are probably all kinds of ways to accidentally hurt yourself with it if you make a mistake.”
“I shall be most careful, and I implore you to do the same. I know you have your sorcer
y, but I expect your use of the link shall be far more demanding than my own.”
“I’m not planning to single-handedly fight an army,” I told her.
“Good,” Avilla said. “I’ll be in my kitchen. I need to repair the damage Elin did when she forced my ward.”
Elin flushed, and hung her head. “Sorry.”
“It’s alright, dear. I forgive you. Anyway, that won’t take long, and then I can prepare something to help keep us all going in case this is a long battle.”
“Sounds good, sweetie,” I told her. “Tina, you stay with Avilla, alright? Help her out if you can, and keep each other safe.”
Tina nodded. “I can do that.”
Cerise and I went back upstairs to change and retrieve various bits of gear before setting out. I donned the breastplate I should have been wearing when I’d talked to Mara, and grabbed the talisman I’d enchanted to work earth magic at a distance. I didn’t have the protections I was used to relying on in a fight, so I’d have to play this carefully. Fortunately I didn’t have to do it alone.
Cerise met me in the breakfast room, wearing something I hadn’t seen before. A catsuit of black leather that covered her from the neck down, but was so tightly fitted that it left very little to the imagination. Boots, fingerless gloves and a billowing black cloak completed the ensemble.
“Already? When did Avilla find time to make that?” I asked. “We were just talking about it the other day.”
“My girl is the best,” Cerise replied, and hugged her. “Stay safe, honeydew.”
I hugged Tina. “Yeah. You two get some rest if you can.”
I moved to hug Avilla. She hesitated momentarily, and then threw herself into my arms.
“Thank you, Daniel,” she choked. “For everything. Come back safe.”
The gates were already open when Cerise and I made it back downstairs, and the three skimmers were slowly working their way down the causeway with a couple of squads of men on foot following along behind. Cerise grabbed her bike from where it was stashed between a couple of the older transports, and flew it over to me.
“Hop on,” she said.
I climbed up behind her, and wrapped my arms around her waist. Cerise drove like a maniac, but I’d come to trust her superhuman reflexes. As we flew out into the cold night air I closed my eyes, and concentrated on building myself a temporary shield. It wouldn’t be nearly as tough as the one my stolen amulet created, but every little bit helps.
We caught up with the skimmers as the first one floated onto the street that ran along the shore. It turned left, cannon moving to cover the road ahead, and the next one turned right to cover the opposite approach. Marcus shouted an order, and both of the massive machines grounded themselves. Their rear doors flew open, and the troops they carried began to debark.
Cerise pulled up next to the captain.
“Better have someone keep an eye on the rear,” I advised. “The dead don’t need to breath, and they might get the idea to circle around underwater to get behind you.”
He frowned. “Wizard wars are enough to drive a calm man paranoid,” he grumbled. “Will do, sir. Looks like Gronir left us a guide.
Sure enough, Embla had hopped off the roof of a nearby warehouse and was trotting over to us.
“Good hunting tonight, milord!” She enthused. “Gronir took the pack west to do a quick sweep of the harbor, and see how bad things are. Hel’s warriors have captured the gate to the Military District, but we’re not sure what else they’re up to.”
I frowned. “That’s bad enough. So they aren’t just attacking people at random?”
She shook her head. “No, milord. They’re acting like soldiers with a plan.”
That was when the fun started. There was a shout from one of the soldiers, and I looked up to see the rest of the wolfen pack charging down the street towards us. Pursuing them was a horde of animated skeletons, waving rusty swords and an assortment of improvised weapons. The wolfen were faster, but their pursuers were pretty spry for piles of bones.
“Damn it, we can’t open fire with Gronir’s men in the way,” Marcus cursed under his breath.
“I’ll slow them down,” I told him. “Get ready to deal with them once the wolfen are clear.”
I tossed my earth talisman into the air, and sent the enchanted ball of iron zipping down the street towards the wolfen. Halfway there I stopped it, and made it grow into a horizontal bar stretching the width of the street at chest height.
The wolfen barely broke stride, some jumping over the obstacle while others nimbly tumbled under it. I had it grow support posts, and then another bar at waist height once they were past. Another set of posts sprouted diagonally, planting themselves against the cobblestones to brace the fence.
The mob of skeletons smashed into the improvised barrier and ground to a halt.
Here and there a corpse that still had some flesh on its bones howled, in rage or pain. A few tried to vault over the obstacle, but once the first rank was pinned against it by the weight of those behind there wasn’t room for such maneuvers. Only one made it over, and it took only a few steps before it realized it was alone and stumbled to a halt.
Meanwhile Marcus had assembled twenty men in a double line in front of the parked skimmer, the front row kneeling and the back row standing. They’d left a couple of breaks in their line, which the wolfen bounded through.
“Ready!” Sergeant Thomas called.
I banished the fence. The undead who’d been pinned against it stumbled forward and fell. The ones behind them mostly tripped and fell atop them, leaving the whole mob floundering. I sent my talisman shooting straight up, out of the line of fire.
“Fire!”
Twenty guns spoke as one. The heavy bullets tore through the thrashing mass of undead, smashing bones and shattering decrepit armor. I saw half a rusty sword blade fly into the air, the broken end gleaming in the moonlight.
“Ready! Fire!”
“Ready! Fire!”
“Ready! Fire!”
The undead weren’t as clumsy as I might have hoped. They quickly started to untangle themselves, but they were taking heavy casualties from that withering fire. A skeleton is a harder target than a man, but the way they were packed together a lot of those rounds were hitting.
Then the cannon thundered, and the middle of the mob exploded. I realized the gunner had fired down into the road beneath them, and the heavy cannon shell skipped through the surface of the street for several yards sending fragments of cobblestone flying. Dozens of skeletons fell, although a lot of them got back up.
A handful of the enemy managed to get clear of the tangle, and charged our position. The massed gunfire picked off some of them, but it looked like a few might actually reach our lines.
I jumped to the top of the skimmer, and fired a bouncer round down the street. The invisible blades cut two of the enemy in half, and then it bounced into the main body and sent almost as many body parts flying as the cannon had. Cerise jumped up next to me, and aimed the gun I’d made her.
Crack. Crack. Crack. Crack.
Four shots, as fast as the weapon could fire, and the skulls of the four closest skeletons exploded. Only a couple of stragglers were left, and they abruptly decided that running away from us was a smarter idea than charging. Neither made it more than a few steps.
The cannon went to rapid fire, and I added a flurry of bouncer rounds to the barrage. Most of the skeletons in the tangle were reduced to broken bones, and the ones in the rear ranks were fleeing now.
“Good shooting,” I told Cerise.
“I love this thing!” She exclaimed, and kissed me.
Wow. What was I doing, again? Oh yeah, undead horde.
We climbed back down from the skimmer, to find that Corinna had just arrived with a group of dryads. Only ten of them in all, but they looked to be almost as fast as the wolfen.
“If that’s what we’re up against I think we can hold this position,” Marcus said. “I’ll put sharpshoote
rs on top the skimmers to pick off the ones that get close, and a few men with force blades in the front rank.”
“Wish I’d thought to put force bayonets on the guns,” I observed. “I’ll have to fix that later. Gronir, what have you found?”
“They’ve taken all three gates leading out of the docks,” he answered. “That must have been their first target. There’s at least a couple of companies of them at each gate, and they’ve already got archers up in the gatehouses. There’s another big group at the graveyard on the coast, at least a thousand of them. They’ve taken a couple of docks and set a few buildings on fire, but I’m not sure what they’re after. From the sound of things there’s a lot of fighting going on in the rest of the city, too.”
I frowned. “That sounds like they think they can actually take the city.”
“It does, sir,” Marcus agreed. “But so far we haven’t seen nearly enough troops for that. They must be expecting reinforcements.”
“There aren’t that many ways out of the catacombs,” Cerise said. “Maybe she’s down there raising more troops?”
I felt a chill at that thought. With my amulet healing her Mara could spill an ocean of blood without doing herself any real harm. If Elin was right about how many bones were down there…
“Lord wizard!” An unfamiliar voice called. I looked up to see that the door of the inn next to my causeway was open, and a nervous-looking townsman had emerged with a couple of burly sailors at his back. They hurried up to the line of soldiers blocking the road.
“Lord wizard, will you give us refuge? The brewery on Cod Street is burning, and the fire brigade can’t muster with the dead walking the streets! Please, milord, we’ll die if we flee or be burned out if we stay.”
“Today is just one thing after another,” I muttered. “Yes! Grab what supplies you can carry, and you can take shelter in my tower.”
“Thank you, lord wizard! May the gods bless you. Cone on, Rolph, we need to hurry before they come back.” They scurried back to the inn.
“A place like that probably has a lot of provisions on hand,” Marcus pointed out.
Black Coven (Daniel Black Book 2) Page 36
