“Those are the ones.”
“What about them, master?”
“It occurs to me that if we were to add an extra two wings and bring the total up to eight, we could melt down some of those golems and use them for armour plating. They stood up to magic pretty well, and magic is the only thing that will have any luck against this zombie, short of a catapult or a ballista landing a direct hit.”
Katie’s eyes widened. “Great idea! It’ll be able to fight right through a lot of lesser magic with the right armour!” She could remember having to put more effort into her shadows to cut through those golems. Her zombie would laugh at most weaker forms of magic. “And since it’s a shark, we could even add a battering ram to its head to let it ram ships!”
Her master threw one arm over her shoulders. “And that kind of thinking, Katie, is why you are my apprentice.”
Katie cackled. Her master cackled. The rats that had come along cackled. Everyone else on the ships nearby shivered – except for Avraniel. The elf might have cackled too.
“All right,” her master said. “Let’s go grab Gerald. It’s a good thing I had him store all of those zombie parts with his magic.”
“He is very handy to have around,” Katie agreed. “We should let him set up his own library in the castle. He’s definitely earned it.”
Her master patted the giant shark. “I’ll talk to him about it. Avraniel’s already made herself at home, and it’s about time Gerald did the same. He likes books, so we could help him set up a personal library, maybe even get him some of the rare books he wants.”
An hour later, she and her master were standing next to their giant shark and six hydra heads. They’d considered adding a seventh, but they’d both agreed that the lack of symmetry would be bothersome from both an aesthetic perspective and a flight perspective. The first step to adding the hydra heads was to prepare the sites on the shark where the heads would be attached. It would require a combination of necromancy, manual labour, and creativity. Once they’d done that, they’d have to make sure that all of the necessary organs had been added or removed before they could link the hydra heads to the shark and use necromancy to ensure that the two sets of body parts effectively became one. Only once they’d done everything else could they even think about adding the legs and the wings. It would probably take them a week and a half to get the whole thing done, and it would take them about two weeks to reach the island with the Eye at their current speed. They’d be cutting it close, but they both agreed that this zombie could be devastatingly effective when they attacked the island, particularly against the enemy fleet. If it couldn’t ram a hole in a ship’s hull, then its acid could easily do the same thing, and it would likely outpace even the fastest ship in the water by a considerable margin.
They worked until they were interrupted by a shrill cry and the sound of wings beating furiously. Katie wiped some sweat off her brow with her shadows and went over to the side of the deck. So far they’d yet to finish preparing all of the sites for the hydra heads, so there was still plenty of work to do. Spot was there. The dragon had a toothy grin on his face and a dead shark that was, indeed, roughly twice his size clutched in his claws.
Help.
Katie used her shadows to help haul the dead shark onto the deck. Spot had already taken a few bites out of it, and he pushed it toward Katie.
Want some?
Katie considered the question. “Now that you mention it… I am hungry.”
Timmy nodded. “I could use something to eat too. We’ll need to cook it, but I’m sure you can handle it, right, Spot?”
The dragon’s eyes lit up. He’d gotten a lot better at controlling his fire, and he was looking forward to showing off a bit.
Fifteen minutes later, the three of them were enjoying grilled shark with some of the rats. Katie thought it tasted rather good. Spot ate his fill and gave a low rumble of contentment before he settled down in a patch of sunshine on the deck to nap.
“Okay,” her master said. “We need to get back to work.”
Katie got back to her feet. “If we work hard enough, we might be able to finish preparing all of the sites for the hydra heads today.”
Her master stretched his shoulders and back. “We already know what runes and seals we want to use to help reanimate this thing, so we can prepare those as we go along too. It’ll save us a lot of time in the long run.”
Katie imagined what her zombie would look like when it was finished, and a smirk crossed her lips. It would be glorious, absolutely glorious. She could hardly wait to see it in action.
* * *
Timmy climbed up the rigging and settled into the crow’s nest beside Avraniel. The elf had decided to contribute by taking lookout duty on a regular basis. It was a good task for her. There was no one who could match her sight, even with magical enhancement. Not even Spot’s vision was as keen as hers. And her keen vision could prove to be crucial. They were almost halfway to the island with the Eye and getting closer by the day. These waters were technically neutral, but Timmy wasn’t stupid enough to think that the Eternal Empire didn’t have ships crawling around. Already, they’d avoided two patrols thanks to early warnings from the elf.
“Any trouble?”
Avraniel rolled her eyes. “It’s the same as usual, idiot. Not a thing. Sometimes, I wish you and that burly bastard Travers would let us run into a patrol or two. It’s been a while since I’ve had a good fight. I’d go hunting with Spot, but he doesn’t have to worry about getting wet. I, on the other hand, do not enjoy getting soaking wet.” Her amber eyes gleamed, almost golden in the darkness. “But we are getting closer. I can feel it.”
“Oh?”
“Come on, idiot. You should know what I’m talking about. Elves are more sensitive to the magic in their surroundings than humans. The Eternal Empire has concealment magic and detection magic running in this area. They won’t be able to notice us – our own concealment magic is too good thanks to the old people eater we’ve got on board. It’s nice to know she’s good for something other than drinking blood. But I can sense magic on the horizon – hell, I can see it.”
Timmy bit back a chuckle. Avraniel still hadn’t managed to egg Amanda into a fight, nor did she think she would ever be able to. Amanda wasn’t one to lose her temper easily, nor was she one to fight needlessly. And the vampire’s concealment magic was powerful indeed. It was clear to him that becoming a vampire had only accentuated a pre-existing gift for illusions and mind magic. “So… basically, you’re bored.”
“Very bored.” Avraniel snarled. “I can’t wait for us to get there, so I can kick the crap out of those stupid imperial bastards.”
“You never did explain your problem with them,” Timmy said. In all honesty, he was surprised that she didn’t like them at all. She’d never struck him as much of a patriot.
“Oh, don’t get me wrong. The elves are bastards. The Council are damn bastards. The whole of Everton is full of bastards, but the Eternal Empire is worse. At least, the people of Everton are only making trouble where they live. Sure, I don’t like most of the jerks who live in Everton, but I understand why they’re there. It’s where they’re from. It’s their home. But the Eternal Empire? They want to sail across the stupid ocean to make war on a country they lost centuries ago. It’s the kind of thing that only a complete and utter bastard who is trying to make up for not having a dick could come up with to win back their pride. They’re still angry about how badly we kicked their ass all those years ago. They should know they won’t win against us, or if they do, it’ll be over a pile of corpses so big they’ll be crushed under all of the bodies.”
“That’s one way to put it.” Timmy turned away to hide a smile. Everton was full of bastards, but in a way, they were her bastards. He also had a feeling that Avraniel like living in the castle with her gardens full of carnivorous plants, her demolition rats, and Spot. And she really, really, really didn’t like people trying to take her stuff or make trouble for her.
She burned those people.
“Do you have a plan, idiot? You always have a plan, and this won’t be as easy as those other missions.” The elf’s eyes narrowed, and he was reminded again of the fact that this was someone who’d survived centuries of being at the top of the elves’ hit list. She was no fool, even if she often fought with what appeared to be reckless abandon. “I’m not dying because you were too dumb or lazy to come up with a strategy.”
“To be honest,” Timmy admitted. “We’re going to have to improvise a lot during this mission. I’ve never been to the island – none of us have – and we can’t use scrying magic without letting them know we’re coming, which would be a disaster. Basically, we’re going to have to handle things your way – get in there and blow the crap out of them while trying to steal the Eye because there is no way we’ll get past the island’s fleet without being noticed.”
Avraniel’s lips curled. “Sounds like fun. Tell me more.”
“Our first task will be to bust through their fleet. We’ll use the zombie pirates and the zombie that Katie and I have been making.” Timmy smiled thinly. The zombie shark-hydra-drake was almost complete. Soon, they would have a flying, swimming, acid-spewing monstrosity the likes of which the world had never seen. “We might have to level the place to avoid being caught. I’m sure we can leave that up to you.”
The elf sniggered. “You’d better. Plus, Spot is a growing dragon. He could use some extra meat and metal once we get there.”
“Speaking of Spot,” Timmy said. “Could you ask him to hunt down some fish for me? I’ve already got zombie whales ready to pull the zombie ships, but I need something a little smaller. Tell him not to eat them. I need them as intact as possible.”
“What for?”
“I’m going to make some zombie fish. But the bigger and more complicated a zombie is, the more magic it takes, which makes it easier to detect.”
“So, you’re going to use zombie fish to scout ahead?”
“That’s the idea. I’ll need several of them since some are bound to get eaten or attacked by things along the way. But if we’re lucky, I can sneak around the island with a zombie tuna or something and get a better idea of their forces and the island. It’s not perfect, but it’s better than nothing. Even if they have another necromancer around, I should be able to get a decent look around before they notice it. I don’t know how much it will help, but it will give us a better shot at coming up with a proper plan.”
Avraniel gave him a thoughtful look. “You know, you’re not a total idiot. You’re only an idiot most of the time.”
“Thank you – I think.”
Avraniel was about to reply when her gaze snapped over to something in the water ahead of them. Timmy couldn’t see a thing, but the elf’s keen eyes could see far better than his. Even in the dead of night, with barely any moonlight to help her, Avraniel could still see clearly.
“What is it?”
“It’s a giant squid.” Avraniel grinned evilly. “It’s headed straight toward us, and it’s about to breach the surface.” She raised her voice. “Giant squid ahead! Giant squid ahead! Prepare for battle!”
There were cries of shock and alarm as the crew hastened to prepare themselves. Mages swarmed onto the deck while others rushed to grab more mundane weaponry. A crossbow wouldn’t be much help against a giant squid, but no one wanted to fight such a beast unarmed. As Timmy prepared to climb down to the deck, Avraniel simply vaulted out of the crow’s nest. The fall would have broken both of Timmy’s legs, but Avraniel barely even broke her stride as she landed on the deck and then hurried to the bow to ensure that she would be the first person to fight the sea beast.
“Come on, Spot!” she bellowed. “We have a giant squid to kill! If it goes well, we can all have some calamari for a midnight snack!”
Tentacles burst out of the water as the giant squid gave a deep groan and latched onto the galleon. Avraniel laughed, long and loud. The battle was on. One enormous tentacle thundered down to crush Avraniel and to tear a gaping hole in the ship. The elf blew it clean off the squid’s body with a blast of searing, blindingly bright flame.
“Come on you tentacle-waving jerk!” Avraniel shouted. “Is that all you’ve got?”
Half an hour – and a lot of fire – later, and the first servings of freshly caught calamari were being cooked out on the deck. Even the crew were enjoying the meal. Over the past week or so, they’d learned that Spot was quite a hunter, and he didn’t mind sharing his food if people asked nicely. Of course, sharing often meant having to catch more food, but Spot was only too happy to flex his fire and his wings.
“I was kind of hoping to use the giant squid,” Timmy grumbled. It had been a nice specimen, right up to the point that Avraniel had immolated its brain and a decent portion of its head.
The elf scoffed. “You and Katie have the zombie shark… thing to play with. Spot was hungry, and I’ve been wanting some calamari for days now.”
“You’re probably right.” Timmy glanced over to where Katie and the rats were enjoying some calamari of their own. Nearby, Old Man and Amanda were comparing the way it had been cooked to the way it had been cooked in their nation and their era, respectively. “And this is nice.” Seeing Avraniel in action against the giant squid had definitely boosted the spirits of Travers’s troops. The elf was a force of nature, one that could slaughter a giant squid as if it was nothing more than an overgrown cow, and she was on their side.
The elf must have caught the seriousness in his voice. “You worry too much. If it were up to just you and the twerp, you’d have your work cut out for you. But you’ve got a whole bunch of idiots following you – and there’s me and Spot too.”
“I feel so relieved.”
“You should.” Avraniel snorted. “We’re going to burn the damn island to the ground, steal the stupid Eye, and run off with as much treasure as we can carry.”
Chapter Seventeen
Timmy couldn’t stop the feeling of unease that crept through him. He was always like this before a big battle. He’d been in too many of those to think that everything would go according to plan. At some point, something was going to go wrong. He didn’t know when it would happen or what it would be, so he could only hope he’d find a way out of it. If he screwed up, he was okay with paying the price. It was how the world was. But he didn’t want anyone else getting caught up in it. Maybe it was because of how little his master had cared about anyone else, but he’d gotten quite attached to his precocious apprentice and all of the people who’d moved into his castle. They were weird, sure, but they were his kind of weird. He took a deep breath and slung his shovel over his shoulder. There was no point in worrying too much about anything now. They were as ready as they could be.
Earlier that morning, Jake had warned them that they were closing in on the island. The pirate reckoned they’d breach the magical barrier around the island a little after lunch. The zombie fish Timmy had sent ahead had only confirmed Jake’s words. They were lucky that the barrier wasn’t like the one around the Nameless Citadel. The citadel’s barrier had likely taken a master a lifetime to create, and it had covered a much smaller area. The size of the barrier around this island combined with the fact that his zombie fish had been able to swim through it suggested that it was designed primarily to conceal the island and detect anyone approaching the island.
So far, they’d managed to avoid detection thanks to a combination of simply avoiding any ships on patrol and concealment magic that had been cast by Amanda and the other mages in the fleet. But not even Amanda’s magic would be able to hide them from the barrier. Oh, the vampire’s magic would make it difficult for the barrier to get an exact read on them, but the island would know they were coming. There was an inner barrier too, one which covered the docks and the key buildings on the island. He’d sacrificed a few of his zombie fish to get an idea of how strong it was. Unlike the outer barrier, it was designed to both repel intruders and zap anything that tried to force
its way through. There was no time to come up with an elegant solution. They’d have to brute force their way through. Thankfully, it wasn’t as powerful as the barrier around the Nameless Citadel, which wasn’t surprising. The island hadn’t been around anywhere near as long as the Nameless Citadel. According to the information that the Council had managed to obtain, the Eternal Empire had only been using this island to repair the Eye for two decades at the longest. Given more time, they would surely have set up something sturdier. Right now, however, he was reasonably sure they break through it with the firepower they had available.
He wouldn’t have been worried if all they’d been up against were a couple of barriers. Barriers were mostly defensive in nature. If barriers were all that the island had, they could have anchored off the coast and bombarded the place with magic at their leisure. No, he was worried about the fleet anchored in the harbour. There were a dozen ships in the fleet: four dreadnoughts and eight galleons. His zombie fish had managed to get close enough to the ships to get a feel for the magic on each of them. Those ships were fully crewed, or close to it, which meant hundreds of sailors, mages, and soldiers who would do their absolute best to sink Timmy’s ships and the rest of Everton’s forces. Because the inner barrier stopped things from going out as well as coming in, the enemy fleet was stationed outside it. It was a good choice. They could prevent Timmy and the others from simply attacking the barrier until it broke, and even if the fleet were defeated, whoever was inside the barrier would have enough time to prepare a second line of defence. It was a pity that he hadn’t been able to map most of the harbour, but his zombie fish had been spotted and eliminated after scouting the enemy fleet. Someone on the other side must know a lot about necromancy. On the upside, he’d gotten enough information to formulate a plan of attack.
Two Necromancers, a Dragon, and a Vampire (The Unconventional Heroes Series Book 3) Page 37
