by Chris Fox
“Okay, okay.” I stepped aside, and let Vee take my place as I headed to a quiet table. The entire depot was quiet now that most of the occupants were dead. That gave me time to do something I’d been meaning to since we started running. I keyed a missive through the spellarmor, and waited impatiently for it to connect.
“Jer!” Briff’s scaly smile filled my HUD. “You’re alive. I knew you’d make it. Where are you? We can come pick you up.”
“We’re beneath the surface. Are you still near the LZ?” Relief swept through me as I realized they were okay.
“I’m flying the ship,” Rava yelled from off screen. “Better than you, little brother.”
“Oh, Maker, help us,” Seket whispered under his breath.
“We’re right over the LZ,” Briff said, still smiling. “If you can reach the surface and send us coordinates we’ll come pick you up. How else can we help?”
“That will do it, really. We’re going to make a run for the surface. Have you talked to my mom?”
“No, but I saw her shuttle reach the Word of Xal. I think she’s okay, as long as that necroship thing doesn’t fire on her.”
“If she contacts you tell her that the minister was knocked unconscious, but that she’s alive and well.”
I didn’t mention that when I said unconscious I meant I’d dream bolted her in a furious rage. I really didn’t need the lecture that kind of incident would generate. I could hear it in my head now. Now, Jerbear, I know that you don’t like that mommy’s dating someone new, but you have to put aside this anger.
I slung the minister’s unconscious body, which had been politely deposited in a comfortable chair I might add, over my shoulder. Gently. She didn’t stir and I saw no reason to wake her. If I could keep her asleep until we reached the ship that wouldn’t be the end of the world.
I didn’t like having my hands occupied though.
Yet I had to admit that I’d be the best choice to carry her. Vee was a better shot than I was, and Seket a better overall fighter. I scanned the room, and steeled myself against the carnage.
Almost no one else had survived. Even Sarkor had been cut down in the crossfire, the smug Inuran’s face made handsome in death.
But of course Aruni had escaped without a scratch. Or a sweat stain.
“You have some explaining to do.” I knew my tone was accusatory. “And I’ll accept that you won’t do it until we get to the Remora. But if you have anything, any scrap of knowledge, that can help us get there…please tell me now.”
Aruni shook his head. “I don’t have any specific information that will help us, but if I think of anything I will let you know.”
His tone seemed genuine, and I was too exhausted to question it. If only there were a back room with a cot where we could nap for eight hours. Of course, laying down anywhere meant never getting up again.
We had to get off this moon, and if we didn’t do it soon the lot of us would become a permanent fixture.
I hefted the minister over my shoulder, and tried to ignore the chattering of the spellcannons as they laid into the endless wights. Now or never. I walked out of the shop and into the street leading back to the lift, our destination.
Two necromancers with the same skittering legs patrolled the street in the distance behind the wights, but didn’t seem aware of us. I waved at everyone to follow, and we crept around a neighboring building.
If we could make it to the lift, maybe we could reach the surface. “Miri, can you get us there quietly?”
She nodded wordlessly, and took point. Vee fell in behind her, then Aruni, then me, and of course Seket in the rear. His armor whirred and clanked, and every step sent echoing cracks down the pavement.
I summoned a bit of void, and levitated him into the air, then maneuvered myself behind him to grab his arm with my free hand, the minister still slumped over my other arm. “I can make this faster and quieter.”
We hummed along more quickly, and Miri guided us down a series of alleys and access tunnels that skirted the main areas on this level of the moon.
My spirits even began to lift, but the moment they did I knew something terrible was about to happen.
We came around another corner, and saw the stuff of nightmares. Two dozen corpses littered the concourse leading to the lift, and every last scrap of their flesh had been eaten away.
An awful clanking came from out of sight, and we froze until the creature emerged into view. A quartet of skulls stared in our direction, each backed with the same spectral green glow and attached to a similar long prehensile neck.
As I watched, the creature knelt over one of the skeletons, and black tendrils extended from its body and picked the bones up, then grafted them into the body, increasing its size.
A terrible inhuman wail burst from every mouth, and the creature started toward us in a lumbering run.
13
My pistol came up and I loosed a fire bolt, since I was running low on void. The flame liquified the front foreleg, and the creature tottered right into Miri’s life bolt.
Seket charged forward, then dropped low and sheered off the other foreleg, while Vee circled wide and peppered the creature with life bolts of her own.
That seemed to piss it off. All four skulls faced different targets, and I happened be one of the lucky chosen. I’d dropped the minister behind me, but not far enough away to avoid whatever this thing was doing.
There simply wasn’t time to react. A spectral glow built in all four throats, and a ghostly bolt erupted from each. Mine sailed into my chest, and if my armor offered any protection I couldn’t tell.
My very soul eroded as the spirit crackled through my body. Smoke rose from my nostrils and the corners of my eyes…yeah, that wasn’t alarming. I shook my head and raised my pistol for another shot, again aiming for a leg.
The pistol added its own magic, and the enhanced fire built into a towering inferno that roasted the final leg to ash and spilled the creature to the ground.
In that terrible instant I realized it wasn’t a creature. It was creatures. A sea of tiny black insect corpses scuttled away from the bones, abandoned as they swarmed toward me and my friends.
“I get the feeling we know what happened to the flesh on those bones,” I muttered into the comm. “Fry these things. Do not let them reach us.”
I unleashed a cone of flame from my pistol, which cooked the insects carpeting the ground before me. More swarmed forward, and I fired again. As I did so I noticed that some of the insects hit by the first spell were clambering to their feet. Damned these things were tough.
Miri and Vee were peppering the creatures with life bolts, but we simply couldn’t inflict enough damage to stop them all.
I used the last of my void magic, and levitated all of us into the air. If I was wrong, we were in terrible danger, but if I was right, then the insects couldn’t reach us.
A tendril rose from the floor, but fell short of reaching my foot.
“How did you know?” Vee asked. “And what if they figure out a way around it?”
“The bones,” I explained as I drifted over and pushed Vee into Seket, then into the minister until we were one awkwardly flying ball. Miri managed to kick off a wall, and floated in our direction. “I think they eat the flesh to survive, and take the bones to give them structures to work with. Whatever they are, there’s spirit magic in them. I can see it.”
Another writhing tendril lashed up at us, but gave up and sank back into the mass when it too failed to reach us. The bugs swarmed toward the abandoned bones, and erected them into a creature once more.
I dropped the levitate. “Run for the lift!”
We sprinted before the bugs, and covered the thirty meters to the lift before they’d finished the hellish transformation back into an undead creature, this time with only one skull.
The thing lumbered in our direction, and I stabbed the button on the lift. “Come on, come on.”
It picked up speed as the doors began to open, a
nd I used my last void spell to launch a gravity bomb in its path. The creature’s body flowed around the affected area, which took time.
Yes, I know I already said I’d used the last of it. I’m dramatic. Sue me.
We piled into the car, and Vee stabbed the button labeled surface. Panic rolled off us in waves, all save Aruni who moved to the lift’s rear corner and waited passively with his hands clasped together.
The doors closed, and I finally exhaled when we whirred into the air.
“That was too close,” I panted, and willed my helmet to slither off. It was the first time I’d tasted station atmo since I’d arrived.
“It isn’t over,” Aruni muttered in his corner. “The bone thief still pursues us.”
“You mean it’s climbing up the shaft?” Miri asked. She’d holstered her pistol, but drew it again.
“Precisely.” Aruni hadn’t budged a millimeter, and made no move to prepare a defense.
“I hate this moon so much.” I dropped to my knees, then whispered a weaken miracle. A small section of the lift floor flaked and crumbled away, allowing a whooshing wind into the car. I peered through and paled at what I saw. “It’s climbing the cables. We need a steady shot on this, and I’m all but out of magic. Who wants it?”
“I’ll take it.” Vee moved into position over the hole, the wind kicking up strands that had escaped from her auburn ponytail. She set her stance and aimed her bracelet through the hole. “I see it. I’m going to let it get closer before I take the shot. I don’t have much juice left either.”
We waited tensely, and about fifteen seconds later her bracelet flared and a beam of pure golden brilliance streaked through the hole I’d made. A frustrated cry came from below.
Vee fired another spell, and I noted the sheen of sweat along her brow. No scream accompanied this spell, but Vee still aimed, so she hadn’t killed it.
“Out of the way, lurker girl.” Miri nudged Vee aside, though gently at least. “I’ve still got a few spells. I can take this.”
Vee’s face became an emotionless mask, and she stepped aside.
Miri dropped to one knee and sighted down her pistol. “You really messed that thing up. It’s slithering up the cables now, and the bones are gone. I can shave some of them off, but what we really need—”
“Is fire.” I knelt next to her. “I can deal with them, but not until they’re almost close enough to get in. And to be honest I don’t know what my spell will do to the cable. If I make it low magnitude it won’t kill the bugs.”
“It will still knock them off,” Vee pointed out. She knelt next to the minister. “I’m going to wake her, just in case we need to climb out the top or something.”
I tuned her out, and focused on the shot. My cone extended about fifteen meters, and the bugs were maybe twenty-five meters away. I nearly loosed the spell when the first bugs made it in range, but forced myself to wait until all of them were within range.
“Maker please bless this shot.” I squeezed the trigger, and gasped when a river of blue flame came from my weapon.
The fire flowed as if alive, and twisted around the cables to destroy the bugs, but not to harm the thick rubber that would send us tumbling to our deaths.
“How?” I held up my pistol and eyed her suspiciously. “Was that you?”
There were no words, but I could sense an empathic response. She seemed as surprised as I was.
“That was incredible.” Miri delivered one of those smiles, but this one seemed tailored just for me. “I’ve never seen that kind of spell mastery.”
I holstered my pistol and stared Aruni directly in the eye. “Neither have I.”
Aruni offered an innocent shrug that seemed anything but. He was saved from further explanation as the lift rolled to a stop. Aruni withdrew a slender helmet from within his jacket and affixed it over his head where it connected with a slender suit of spellarmor I hadn’t even realized he’d been wearing
My hand hovered over the button to open the doors, but I glanced around first to make sure everyone had their helmets on. The concourses on the surface might still have atmo, but we couldn’t count on that.
The minister’s eyes fluttered open a moment later. She’d missed the entire ride up.
“What happened?” The minister sat up and probed a knot in her forehead with a finger.
“Here, put this on.” Vee handed the minister her helmet, and the woman’s training took over.
The minister quickly sealed it over her head, then rose to her feet, all business now.
“We’ll explain later. We’ve got immediate problems.” I indicated the concourse outside the lift.
Hundreds of spectral faces were turning in our direction.
14
I slipped into Arena mode as the doors opened, and directed the squad like we were moving onto an unfamiliar level. Somehow that divorced me from the situation, and let me focus on what we needed to do. “Seket, you’re on point. Vee, Miri, take up covered positions flanking him. Minister, put yourself up against the lift’s wall, and don’t come out until the shooting stops.”
My people moved with a purpose, and it made me inordinately proud to see how well they performed. Seket swept outward with his shield held high and blade at the ready. Wights and walking corpses called shamblers began making for him. You’ve seen shamblers in every horror movie. They shuffle and try to bite you, and also they’re dead, so don’t let them.
Dozens of the things shuffled toward Seket, who’d knelt and begun pouring salt from a vial into a ring around him. It wouldn’t stop the shamblers, but it would prevent the wights from touching him.
Vee and Miri were both in position, and both erecting similar salt lines. Confident that they were in position I turned back to the lift and poured a line of salt across the threshold to protect the minister.
“I still have no idea how we got here from the depot,” the minister hissed. “I know now is a bad time, but if you could explain while you work I’d appreciate it.”
“Hassle Aruni.” I nodded at the judge, who’d predictably not left his corner of the lift. “I need to arrange our ride.”
I tuned back to the rest of the squad, and keyed a missive through my HUD. Several moments later Briff’s face filled the holo. “Jer! Are you on the surface?”
“We’re up,” I explained. “I’m transmitting our coordinates now. We’re in pretty deep. Holdout mission, basically. Wights and shamblers are moving in our direction, and sooner or later we’re going to get the attention of one of those necromancers. We need to get out of here. Now.”
“You got it, Jer,” Briff promised. “We’ll be there as soon as we can. Rava’s a great pilot.”
I killed the missive and turned back to our battle lines, or lack of them. Only six of us remained, and only four could fight. Seket stood ready to receive the initial charge, which mostly consisted of wights, as they were faster than the shamblers.
In that instant my gaze passed the wights and the shamblers, until I locked eyes with the pale-skinned necromancer and his pet dragon, the soulshackled Wyrm. They stood well away from the pending battle, quietly observing while making no move to approach or interfere.
He raised a hand then, and offered a friendly wave. His smile and whole demeanor was all, “hey there, neighbor.” It hurt my brain. “Good morning! I hope you slept well. I am genuinely impressed you overcame the Spite. I lost a dram of souls over that one. You’re out of spells, though. How will you escape the current predicament? I’m so excited to see how you resolve this.”
How do you respond to that? Exhaustion robbed me of any cool, or even mediocre, comebacks. I settled for an eyeroll, raised my pistol, and prepared for battle.
Game time.
I thumbed the ammo selector from spells to my new salt rounds and trotted over to a pile of crates behind Seket’s position. It would divide the flow of enemies if he were forced back, and also provided hard cover for my right flank.
The wights rushed toward Seket, b
ut stopped outside the salt line he’d erected. Three sweeps later and his giant sword had eliminated seven wights.
Another wave had already reached him though, and prowled outside the salt line, encircling it as they sought entry.
Behind them a half dozen shamblers had finally shuffled close enough to be a threat, though given how slow they were I suspected Seket wouldn’t have any problem dealing with them.
I brought my pistol up and walked it down the line of wights, one after another. Each time a salt round struck, it released a white cloud that detonated inside the spectral form, and the doomed creature’s elongated shriek accompanied its dissolution. Just that like all the wights were gone, and I still had one round left.
Damn. I should have made more. A lot more.
Dozens of shamblers were converging on us, with more waves behind them. A pair of necromancers on their strange harnesses pranced behind the ranks, apparently taking the lead from our chatty friend and staying out of it.
“Briff, buddy,” I mumbled under my breath. “Now would be a great time for a last minute rescue.” There was no sign of the Remora on the skyline, no whir of engines, though to be fair there was no atmo either.
Seket’s blade was everywhere, and his shield just as lethal a weapon. Both whirred around him, and sliced through any shambler that made it close enough to be a threat. A pair of wights made it to the salt circle, but were still kept at bay for the time being.
I executed one, then switched the selector back to spells, and executed the second with a fire bolt. Again I held my weapon up in disbelief. Wights didn’t have any special vulnerability to fire like they did dream. There was no way a single fire bolt should kill one. But mine had.
Miri finally engaged, and used a pair of life bolts to thin the herd of shamblers before it reached Seket. Good thing, as even the mighty paladin had been taxed to the limit of his abilities.
More shamblers shambled, and more wights clustered. There didn’t appear to be an end to them, in any direction I looked.
