After The Rabbit (Waldo Rabbit Series)

by Chereta, Nelson

  “How am I supposed to protect myself when I’m a zombie and she is a necromancer?”

  “Perhaps you should have thought of that before confronting and threatening her.”

  “What would you do if she actually killed me?”

  “You can’t be killed, you are already dead.”

  “You know what I mean! What if she hadn’t been satisfied with my arms and legs? What if she had burned me up completely?”

  Lilith shrugged. “I’d have had the servants sweep you up and scrub clean the hall.”

  Walter stared at her. “Is that all?”

  “What would you have me do? A soul can be summoned back to earth only once. That is why it is so important the container be protected.” With one finger she thumped the seal mark written in her own blood. “If the container is destroyed, or the seal broken, the soul is lost for good.”

  “Would you at least have avenged me and killed Hera?”

  “Why would I?”

  His teeth snapped at her.

  “Stop acting like a child. Children can cry about how unfair the world is. Adults are expected to know better. You are going to have to deal with things as they are, not as you wish them to be.”

  “I thought she was going to destroy me, I really did. When she stopped she said it was only because she didn’t want to upset you.”

  Lilith inspected one of the hooks. “You might want to keep that in mind from here on out. Hera is not going anywhere. If you want to survive you are going to have to stop antagonizing her.”

  “You’re saying I have to treat her as if I were a servant?”

  “What I am telling you is you have to know your place.”

  “You can’t trust her.”

  Lilith gave an annoyed sigh. “I don’t trust anyone.”

  “But you’re sharing your secrets with her,” Walter whined.

  “I am teaching her. I will show her only what I wish to. Believe me, I keep secrets from her as I do with everyone else.”

  “You care more about her than you do me.”

  She ran the hook against some blackened skin. It flaked right off. Lilith gave a satisfied nod and returned it to the cart. “Now you really do sound like a child, and a spoiled one at that.”

  “You don’t care about me at all.”

  “If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be going through the trouble of fixing you.”

  Walter glanced at the severed limbs on the cart. “I don’t want them, they’re the wrong size.”

  “They are fine. I took them from a healthy young slave named Tomas or Tamos. They will fit you perfectly,” she picked the saw up and studied his left shoulder. “Now relax and let mother take care of you.”

  Lilith began sawing off what was left of his arm.

  Chapter 25

  Better Run Through The Marshes

  They were wading hip deep through water. Except for Gronk, it was only up to his thighs.

  Waldo shaded his eyes as he looked off to his right. “The group over there is heading in the opposite direction now. I don’t think we’ll need to worry about them,” he pointed northwestward. “There are still five of them about half a mile from us, but they’ve stopped for now.” He pointed due west. “There are probably more than a hundred of them about two miles that way. It must be some sort of village. Right now none of them are too close.”

  Cleptus glanced back towards Waldo and rubbed his chin. “Does he really know where all the goblins are?”

  “We haven’t run into any have we?” Alice said. “My husband’s magic is amazing.”

  “Can’t deny that I suppose,” Cleptus rubbed his chest absent mindedly.

  Cleptus was leading them through the marsh while Waldo and Gronk trailed behind. Her husband was struggling to keep up the pace and Gronk lent a hand now and again. Alice had decided to keep close to the thief. She didn’t doubt that he believed Waldo’s bluff, but still wanted to watch him.

  Having to trudge through warm water, mud, and grass taller than she was had slowed them to a crawl. That they had been forced to stop of change direction to avoid goblins hadn’t helped. If not for the trees they could have looked back and still seen the walls of Norwich on the horizon.

  “This is a huge mistake. Everyone knows better than to come here except when the army is around.”

  “You should have more faith in my husband.”

  Cleptus glanced at her and his eyes slid across her face and body. He silently chewed the corner of his lip.

  “What?”

  “Just wondering the sort of man he really is. My experience is what a man says is often a lie, but what he does will tell you the truth.”

  “I’ll admit to having learned the same lesson. Who’d have ever thought we’d have something in common?”

  “I think we might have a whole lot in common.”

  “I doubt that.”

  “Don’t be so sure, I can be very charming when I want.”

  “Do you really think you’re the first sweet talking man I’ve ever met? I’ve known men whose mouths dripped honey.”

  “Is that how Waldo got you? With sweet words and promises?”

  “Is that what you think? That he seduced me?” She couldn’t help it. She burst out laughing.

  “What’s so funny?” Waldo asked from the back.

  “Nothing. Cleptus just thinks that you’re very seductive.”

  “Well thank you, but I have no interest in men.”

  “It’s true,” Gronk said with a sorrowful lisp. “Master, doesn’t have a taste for snails. Least not yet.”

  “That’s not what I meant at all,” Cleptus said.

  “There is no need to be ashamed,” Waldo told him. “I take it as a compliment.”

  Cleptus sent her an exasperated look. She didn’t feel any need to explain things. Having seen Waldo carve symbols into his chest and having gotten all their coins back, she no longer felt the need to inflict pain on him. Alice was willing to tolerate him as he was now a part of their group. That did not mean that she liked or trusted him.

  “Well if he didn’t win you over the old fashioned way how’d he do it? Did he use a spell?”

  “Certainly not, he never needed magic to make me his.”

  “So what did he do?”

  “Well, I used to be a barmaid at an Inn. I was also an indentured servant. The very day we met he made a declaration that I would be his, paid my owner a hundred gold coins, and married me right then and there.”

  Just recalling their first meeting made her heart thump. It had been the most romantic moment in her life, like having every secret dream suddenly made real. Of course it had turned out to be something other than what it had seemed, but that couldn’t change how she’d felt when Waldo had spoken those words to her.

  Cleptus’s eyes widened. “He asked you to marry him the first time you met? And he actually paid a hundred gold coins for you?”

  “He did.”

  Cleptus was silent for a few minutes as he kept slogging through the water. “Well,” he finally said. “I suppose I can believe it. They say White Mages are rich, and I don’t doubt that some men would marry you on sight.”

  “Not you though.”

  “There were lots of things I’d have done to you if I could, but I’m not the sort to marry.”

  “No, you’re the sort to make all sorts of empty promises and tell a girl anything she might want to hear.”

  “Most women would call it being romantic.”

  “I have another name for it.”

  Cleptus clucked his tongue and gave a shake of his head. “So when did he find out?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “When did he find out what you really are? I don’t pretend to be an expert about White Mages, but it’s no secret what they do to monsters. Did he decide to make an exception because you were his wife?”

  “You have it all wrong. He knew from the very start what I was. In fact he’d come to find me because I was a succubus.”


  “Then why didn’t he kill you?”

  “Uhm…”

  That was going to be a little hard to explain. Despite having forced Cleptus to join them Waldo had decided not to tell him the truth about his identity or his goals. Cleptus was to continue believing that Waldo really was a White Mage in service to Avalon. Her husband didn’t trust the thief and didn’t want him to know more than was absolutely necessary.

  “Well my husband is a very forward thinking person. He believes that monsters don’t have to all be killed on sight. Waldo feels we can help him in his battles. That’s why he has me and Gronk and why we are searching for another to join us. After all, don’t they say you should send a dog to kill a dog?”

  “I suppose that makes sense, but why are you so pleased about it? He’s only using you after all.”

  “No he’s not!”

  “You just said he was.”

  “He isn’t like that at all. He truly cares about me.”

  “You sure? Maybe the only reason he married you was to make you feel more loyal to him. I mean it must be strange, travelling with someone who believes in killing your kind.”

  “It isn’t like that at all. He didn’t even realize he was asking me to marry him.”

  “What? How could he not?”

  “He’s a foreigner. The very first words out of his mouth when we met were, ‘I have come here to make you mine.’ He didn’t have any flowers with him when he said it. He just meant it literally. I… I thought he was proposing, and when he paid to free me I was sure of it. He said he’d come all the way to Stratford for me and that I was very important to him.” She began twisting from side to side. Hearing his words had made her want to melt. “He told me he was going to bind me to him, which I took to mean he was going to make me his wife. I had him perform the ritual our way since I thought he was about to marry me using his customs. It turns out he instead used a spell to make me his familiar. But even though it was a bit confused he did marry me and I am his wife.”

  “So you’re saying he never actually intended to marry you? That all he wanted was to make you his servant?”

  “Well, originally, but things have changed.”

  “How?”

  “He treats me like his wife, not like a servant. He treasures me, respects me, and listens to what I have to say.”

  “Really?” Cleptus waves a hand about. “So whose decision was it to come out here and search for some creature that may just be a story?”

  “Well, Waldo’s, but there are plenty of other times when he listens to me.”

  “I’m sure, about small things. I know all about making a woman happy. I’d let her have her away about whatever didn’t matter to me, but I made all the important decisions.”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about. Waldo always listens to me. He may not always agree but my opinion matters to him.”

  “Or you just think it does.” Cleptus gave a sour laugh. “A slave in love with her master, how classic.”

  “I am not a slave!”

  “Then why did he use that spell to make you a familiar?”

  Alice thought about the argument they’d had immediately after that had happened. Waldo had insisted she call him ‘Master’ and obey his every word. According to him the binding spell should have made her obedient. Like a slave. It wasn’t as if Waldo made any secret of the fact he didn’t like having to actually compromise with her.

  Did he treat her like a wife because he truly loved her, or only because he was forced to?

  The extended silence caused Cleptus to grin. “No answer?”

  “Shut up.”

  XXX

  A few hours later they were standing on a muddy stretch of land. Waldo was staring towards the horizon at a blaze of light. At the pace they were going it would take quite a while to reach it, but there could be no doubt. His third familiar was waiting for him.

  XXX

  Lucius Corpselover was bored.

  All the villages near the city were now emptied. A small army of undead followed after him.

  “Well I suppose it’s time to visit Norwich.”

  Chapter 26

  Come Tumbling Down

  The riders came in shortly after dawn. They went directly to the duke’s keep with the news. Not long after that all the bells in the city began to toll. The gates were shut and men could be seen rushing all along the walls. In the streets women and children were running about in confusion as husbands and fathers were speaking tearful goodbyes.

  Duke Griffinheart had his servants belt on the different pieces of his plate armor. The chest was a tight fit, but so long as he could breathe it would do. One of his retainers brought him a scabbard. Theos made a show of pulling the blade out a few inches and inspecting it.

  “Good steel.” He slapped the sword back into its plain sheath.

  The man tied it on without comment. All his servants were working with a bare minimum of speech. Griffinheart knew what they were thinking though.

  XXX

  He stood upon the battlements above the gate, where all of his people could all see him.

  The pikes with the goblin heads had already been taken down. The pikes had been handed out to the troops who were unarmed. The duke had roughly thirteen hundred men under his command. Of those only twelve were knights and four hundred were full time soldiers. All the rest were militia, men expected to arm and train themselves. Most of them wore no armor and carried staves, axes, long knives, clubs, and a wild assortment of other weapons. The men who had arrived from the countryside had been empty handed and were the ones to get most of the pikes.

  Theos stared down at them. They had been assembled behind the gate with most of the knights there to command them. If things went well he would open the gate and they would go out to deliver the death blow. Theos would only do that once the battle was decided and the enemy completely disorganized. Every man born in Lothas was taught how to fight and knew he might be called upon to serve against the goblins. Most were old enough to have marched the last time the army was raised. He did not doubt their courage or willingness to fight, only their discipline.

  One well trained, well-armed soldier was worth at least five militia in the field. He would rely on his regular troops to fight this battle. All along the ramparts were cauldrons filled with pitch, piles of brick and stone, and quivers stuffed with arrows. His soldiers had all been trained to use longbows. The walls of Norwich had never been breached, its gate had never been broken. Ten thousand goblins could not take this city. This undead horde would smash itself against his walls. Archers would pick some off, others would burn with pitch or be smashed with falling stones. And when most were destroyed he would open the gates and lead out the brave men at his back to glory.

  Theos spread his hands on the stone battlements. He would win this battle and save the city. The duke knew that the story about his lost sword had gotten out, and now all could see he was without Lawgiver. He could feel the eyes of his men digging into his back. Theos could guess what they were thinking. Their liege lord had, had the symbol of his power stolen on the eve of battle. Could there be a worse omen?

  It doesn’t matter. I’ll win this battle despite what that coward and his whore did.

  XXX

  It was the quiet that was the most unnerving thing.

  In his life he’d had plenty of experience against goblins and bandits. As a young knight he’d even visited Torikai and fought in the Grand Tournament once. Whenever goblins gathered for a serious battle they would take up a chant to drive themselves into a frenzy. ‘Grum, grum, grum’ they would go, sometimes for hours. Then from their throats would come a deafening scream that would make any man shake. The beasts would then charge mindlessly into battle. Men always talked as they fought. They boasted, shouted, cursed, threatened, begged, cried, screamed in pain or in fury, fighting for your life brought everything out. Even fighting in a tournament you were surrounded by sound.

  Now in the fields before the
city there was an army approaching, and it was silent. The only thing you could hear were their steps as they stamped down the grass on either side of the road. As he watched they just started spilling out of the wood. The first was the lich he’d heard about. It wore black robes with a pair of glowing orbs within its hood. Following behind it were the other undead, they followed after like sheep following a shepherd. At first you could see individual bodies, then small groups, and before long there was just a mass of them shambling out of the wood.