A line of crackling electricity streaked toward the alchemist.
An instant before impact the spell shattered on a barrier of some sort.
Cursing his luck, Silas began a second spell. His only hope was to smash his way through.
Halfway through his spell the alchemist pulled a vial out of his pocket and threw it.
Silas abandoned his casting, setting a wave of sparks flying from his fingers, and leapt right. The explosion when the vial shattered drove the air from his lungs and hurled him ten feet.
Grunting with the impact, Silas sprang to his feet.
Just in time to see another vial flying his way.
A harsh word and slashing motion with his left hand shattered the vial halfway between Silas and the alchemist. The explosion staggered them both.
So whatever defense his opponent had in place didn’t stop the effects of his own attacks. Silas could use that. Instead of starting a new spell Silas waited.
The alchemist glared and Silas glared right back. Each knew exactly what the other was doing. As long as the alchemist was focused on him, Silas’s friends could do what they needed to. Once the bard had dealt with her counterpart the two of them could overwhelm the alchemist.
For now, a stalemate suited Silas just fine.
The alchemist had other ideas. He gestured with the black rod and half a dozen of the nearest zombies moaned and shifted toward Silas.
The game had just changed and not in his favor.
Tonia dropped Silas twenty yards from the alchemist, blasted the zombies with a gust of wind, and whistled to the wind spirits to let them know she wanted to return to the sky. Mel wasn’t with her new boyfriend, which was a change from her usual pattern. If Tonia couldn’t find her they’d have no hope of stopping all the zombies.
Despite the dust that swirled around her, Tonia could see perfectly. The wind spirits kept a clear area directly in front of her. They were so eager to please she almost felt bad about using them. Once, she’d tried explaining to them, but the spirits she controlled were simple things and all her worries got in return were feelings of love and a desire to play. When she realized they considered her orders a game it took some of the sting of using them away. Besides, it wasn’t like anyone could hurt them.
Now, where was Mel? The zombies had begun to recover so she had to be somewhere nearby, close enough to see what was going on at least.
An explosion shook the air. She looked back to see Silas engaged in a fierce battle. Tonia clenched her teeth. She didn’t have time to waste. Until Mel was neutralized, one way or another, she couldn’t help him and Yaz and Brigid would be stuck on the scaffold with the slaves.
Everything was on her. This was part of the reason Tonia preferred to work alone. Too much pressure when others were counting on you doing your part. A faint shimmering fifty yards from the scaffold caught her eye.
She whistled and the spirits sent a rush of straight-line wind at it. A shimmering cloth ruffled and was quickly shredded. Behind it stood Mel, looking small and frail in a simple black dress that made her pale skin look even paler.
How long had it been, two years, three? The youngest member of her year group at the Bardic College looked exactly as Tonia remembered.
The spirits set Tonia down a few feet away from Mel who cringed and looked around for an avenue of escape. Behind them more explosions went off. The duel between Silas and the alchemist was heating up. She’d give Mel one last chance to surrender and return home. If she failed to take it, Tonia would do what she had to.
“I can’t go back,” Mel said before Tonia could even get a word out.
“Why? Was it really so bad?”
“Maybe not for you,” Mel said. “But for me and my power, it was horrid. Everyone was scared of me. They all called me zombie girl and shuffled around and moaned whenever I was around. Somebody brought a dead dog to school and wanted me to make it dance.”
Tonia blinked. She hadn’t heard any of those things. Granted it wasn’t like she was friends with Mel, but still, she should have heard a rumor or something.
“I’m sorry. Listen, you don’t have to go back to the college if you don’t want, but you do have to return to Rend. Your powers belong to the kingdom.”
Mel glared and her eyes glowed purple. “My powers belong to me and no one else. Not the kingdom, not Callie, just me. Here I’m free to use them to accomplish something valuable. What will I do back home?”
Tonia didn’t have a good answer, or any answer at all for that matter. Still, her orders were clear. “If you don’t come back…”
“What?” The ground rumbled and Mel’s eyes glowed brighter. “What are you going to do if I refuse? Kill me! You think death frightens me?”
It felt like an earthquake now. Mel didn’t have power over earth spirits and her partner the alchemist was engaged with Silas. What was causing the tremors?
The answer came a moment later when a skull the size of a peasant hut burst from the earth. Its empty eye sockets glowed purple, just like Mel’s. The skull rose on bleached vertebrae. A shoulder blade appeared next along with some ribs.
Tonia needed to end this before the dragon skeleton fully emerged. She whistled to the wind spirits. A fierce, focused gale filled with grit would slice someone open as easily as a blade.
The wind howled and a narrow cloud of dust shot toward Mel.
Before it could strike, a skeletal arm emerged and shielded her. The attack broke against calcified bone as hard as stone. The back hips and legs of the dragon smashed free of the stone.
The skeleton turned the arm it used to protect her and Mel jumped into its claw. The dragon lifted her up and placed her carefully inside its ribcage, right where its heart would have been. In a way, Mel was the skeleton’s heart and its brain. She kept it moving and did its thinking.
The question now was, how to defeat her with the dragon as her guardian.
Chapter 23
Yaz nearly dropped his staff when the giant dragon skeleton emerged from the earth at the edge of the pit. He and Brigid had guided the slaves about halfway to the ground when the tremors began. Now everyone cowered on the planks, trembling and refusing to look at the monster. He didn’t blame them a bit but hiding behind their hands wasn’t going to get them to safety.
“What are we going to do?” Brigid asked.
“Our job hasn’t changed. We still need to get everyone down off the scaffolding and out of the mine in one piece.”
She kept staring at him like she expected some obscure fact about how best to deal with a rampaging undead dragon. Yaz hated to disappoint her, but he’d never come across a situation like this in any of his books. He doubted anyone in the world had come across a situation like this.
“Try to keep everyone calm,” Yaz said.
“Who’s going to keep me calm?” Brigid asked.
“At least we’ve got weapons,” Yaz said.
Brigid brandished her staff at him. “We’ve got sticks. That’s a gods damned dragon!”
“But we don’t have to fight it, remember? That’s Tonia’s job. Our job is to escort everyone out of here. And the sooner the better.”
She took a few deep breaths and nodded.
“Good.” Yaz knelt beside one of the villagers, the woman that had spoken up for him first. She trembled so her teeth chattered. He laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. “We need to keep moving. The others will keep the dragon busy. It’s not that far to the ramp up out of here. Can you stand and come with me?”
She looked into his eyes and Yaz smiled. “I’m with you, as I said. No bloody dragon’s going to keep me from getting out of this hole.”
“That’s the spirit.” He helped her to the ladder down to the second level and moved on to the next person.
Once the slaves saw their fellows moving, it was easier to convince the next one to go. The explosion, cracks of lightning, and stomps of the dragon’s foot didn’t hurt either. No one wanted to be on the scaffold an instant long
er than necessary.
The process of getting everyone down took a hideously long time, or so it felt to Yaz. In reality it probably wasn’t more than five minutes.
Yaz’s feet had barely touched the ground when a zombie came shambling towards them, a bucket in its hand raised as a makeshift weapon.
He stepped forward and thrust hard.
The zombie’s head exploded like an over-ripe honeydew. It collapsed and didn’t move. Ahead of them zombies stumbled around seemingly at random. Sometimes they lashed out at each other and sometimes they bumped chests and staggered off in different directions.
Yaz flicked a glance to his right where the dragon skeleton was doing its best to swipe Tonia out of the sky and crush Silas to pulp at the same time. So far it hadn’t had any success and clearly maintaining control of the giant monster was keeping the enemy bard from managing her zombies. Pity they wouldn’t just collapse on their own, but you couldn’t have everything.
Another explosion shook them and sent dust flying. Yaz didn’t need any more encouragement.
“I’ll clear a path,” he said to Brigid. “You watch our back and flank. If anyone sees a weapon grab it and lend a hand. Let’s move.”
Yaz set out toward the ramp leading out of the quarry. He tried to pick a path with the fewest zombies, but the way they constantly shifted around made it impossible. After a hundred yards he shrugged and made straight for the exit.
A zombie that had been a woman in life and had lost its bucket in one of the many collisions stumbled toward him. Yaz lashed out with his staff, catching the creature in its raised arm with the first strike then crushing its skull with the second. Killing the horrid things was vastly more satisfying than slaying the living. The zombies needed to be put down. Returning them to their graves was a mercy.
A few dull thuds from behind indicated Brigid had gotten into the fight. With her skill, nothing short of a wave of the undead would be a threat.
Half a mile and three slain zombies later they reached the gravel path outside the quarry. Yaz blew out a breath of relief. They’d made it clear by some miracle.
Down in the quarry the dragon skeleton still stomped around, the wind howled, and lightning occasionally cracked. The battle was still very much underway.
Brigid left her position at the rear of the group and joined him at the front. “What now?”
“Now you stay here, keep everyone calm and together. If any zombies should come shuffling your way, bash ’em. I’m going to see if I can help Silas and Tonia.”
“That’s crazy,” she said. “How could you possibly help two wizards?”
Tonia was technically a bard, not a wizard, but he knew what she meant. “Maybe I can’t, but the reason Silas is even down there is because he wanted to help us. I can’t very well stay here and let him fight this battle on his own. Don’t worry, I’ll be okay.”
Before she could offer any more arguments, he turned and jogged back into the pit. Yaz had barely started down the earthen ramp when he paused. Silas hurled a lightning bolt that slammed into the dragon’s skull. A few shards of bone fell, but it remained otherwise unharmed. The bones must retain their resistance to magic even though the dragon was dead. Small wonder two magic users weren’t making any progress.
In the ribcage, Mel hung suspended in a purple energy field. Yaz didn’t recognize the magic, but it was clearly connected to her ability to control zombies given the color. Faint crackles of the same energy sparked off the skeleton in random bursts. The zombies didn’t give off sparks like that. Did that mean something? He didn’t know.
Yaz considered the situation. Despite what he said to Brigid, he wasn’t dumb enough to just charge in without a plan. Joining Silas in evading the dragon’s claws wouldn’t help anyone. He needed to figure out how to make a difference.
Yaz was still considering his options when one of the zombies roaming the quarry noticed him and came shuffling up the ramp. The things were so slow and stupid all Yaz had to do was wait for it to come into range and smash its head in with the butt of his staff. The corpse became a corpse again and Yaz went back to watching the battle.
A second later the purple energy field flickered as a wisp of energy struck it. Yaz frowned and looked back at the now-still zombie. Had he released that energy so it could return to its master? It seemed reasonable.
If that flicker created an opening, no matter how brief, it might give Silas and Tonia the chance they needed. But Yaz had to be sure.
A quick glance located the next closest zombie. He ran towards it and swung. It dropped and he turned at once to the battle. As before, the energy field flickered for a moment. Not a coincidence then.
Time to see if there was anything Silas could do in that window.
After a moment to get a general feel for the zombies’ movement, Yaz took off. Down the ramp he ran, avoiding zombies that seemed content to ignore him or were too slow to hit him if they didn’t.
Silas had moved a safe distance away and was panting, doubled over, elbows on knees. Tonia dove in and out, evading the dragon’s claws and keeping Mel distracted. You’d think the bard would get tired keeping such a large skeleton moving, but she showed no sign of collapsing.
Yaz skidded to a stop beside Silas. “You okay?”
“Yeah, just getting worn out. I had to send Wicked further away. That crazy bard tried to take control of him. Did you get the slaves out?”
“Yeah, they’re on the ridge with Brigid. I’ve got an idea.”
“Don’t hold back. Nothing we’re doing is making a dent.”
“When I killed a zombie, I noticed that purple energy field around her wavered for a moment. I thought if we could time it right maybe you could sneak a spell through the gap and take her down.”
“Not a bad idea, but my magic doesn’t really work that way. Maybe Tonia’s bardic magic could do something.”
“Hey,” Yaz said. “What happened to the alchemist?”
Silas nodded to his left at a lifeless body half crushed in a claw print. “I don’t think she has much control over that thing. If anything, it seems to be running the show and using her as a power source.”
“Is that good or bad?”
“Your guess is as good as mine. This is all new to me. I can distract the dragon with a Lightning Hornet spell while you tell Tonia what you told me. Hurry though, I’m almost tapped out.”
Yaz clapped him on the shoulder. “Thanks.”
He waved to Tonia while Silas began to chant. The instant tiny golden bugs appeared and began slamming into the dragon’s skull and exploding in a burst of sparks she landed beside him.
“What?” she asked.
Yaz went through what he saw a second time. “Can you do anything with that gap?”
Tonia looked thoughtful. “When you destroy the zombie, her bardic power is returning to her. The gap will be tiny, but I can send a wind spirit through at the same time as the energy. Once it’s inside I can affect the air around her. Kind of an iffy plan, but I’m out of ideas. Give me a ten count to get my spirit in place then do it.”
Yaz nodded and picked out a nearby target. He moved slowly closer, counting as he did. The zombie noticed him at three.
It raised a rock above its head at two.
At one Yaz struck, pulping its skull and sending power rushing back to Mel. He immediately spun and ran back to Silas who had gone gray in the face and looked near collapse. Yaz caught the wizard a moment before he hit the ground. If his plan didn’t work, without Silas, they were in big trouble.
“You okay, pal?” Yaz asked.
The wizard nodded. “Tired. Even with a catalyst, a drawn-out battle like this is difficult. I’ll be okay in a day or so.”
Their conversation was cut short by a loud crash. Yaz shifted toward the dragon. Mel clutched her throat as pieces of bone came crashing to the ground. Bone by bone the monster fell apart until Mel came down from her perch and lay still on the earth.
Yaz gave Silas a final squeez
e of reassurance and went to join Tonia as she walked toward Mel. “Is she…?”
“Dead? Yes. I ordered the wind spirit to stop her from drawing breath. It’s an ugly way to die and I hate asking the spirits to do things like that. They’re such playful little things that ordering them to kill feels wrong.” They crouched beside the body. “I don’t know how she got so strong. Before, Mel never would have been able to animate something this big.”
There was a piece of jewelry around her neck. Yaz pulled out a gold chain with an amulet on it set with a large, black stone. No, it wasn’t a gem, it was a calcified dragon energy generator. Probably something they dug up in the quarry.
“Here’s your answer,” Yaz said. “Amulets like this can be used to increase the power of certain types of magic. This one I suspect is connected to necromancy and came from a black dragon.”
Tonia eyed the black stone with distaste. “How do you know so much about it?”
“My village was home to one of the leading experts on dragons and dragon magic items. I read the same books and listened to his lectures. I’ve never actually seen a completed amulet before, so this is a rare treat.”
Yaz held on to the item for a few seconds, waiting to see if Tonia would make a claim on it. When she didn’t, he slipped the amulet into his pocket. Silas could probably make good use of it when he recovered.
Tonia had her head bowed over her dead former comrade, so he left her to mourn. There might be something of value on what was left of the dead alchemist. His torso was totally crushed and some noxious liquid oozed out from under his ruined body. The combinations of stinks nearly convinced Yaz to turn around. Only his determination to make this as worthwhile as possible kept him moving.
Quick as he could, Yaz collected a trio of gold and silver rings along with the black rod he’d been holding. He also found an iron key. Hopefully to the slaves’ manacles.
Smoke started billowing up from the puddle of ooze. Yaz’s eyes stung and he scrambled back.
That couldn’t be good.
He left off looting and rushed back to the others. “We need to move!”
The Dragonspire Chronicles Omnibus 1 Page 53