Necrodruid

by Adam Witcher

  I focused hard for a moment, trying to connect to any dead spirits below me. It was no use. I could sense a huge space below me, devoid of soil or bones. There was something in there, though, something big. I turned to Lily, who wielded dual ice daggers. She was torn in her attention between a dumbfounded Piggy, who had retreated backward a few steps, and Neptos, who stood across the room preparing another strike.

  “What do you say we take this outside?” I said to Lily, my hand still on her arm. She nodded. I grabbed the bow in my other hand, and we ran to the door. Along the way, I managed to string one arrow and fire it toward Neptos, but it was stopped by a zap of energy before it reached him. He waved it away and it fell to the floor.

  “Come on!” Lily yelled from the porch, so I ran out after her.

  The front yard was seconds away from erupting into violent chaos. Thirty, maybe forty creatures stood with their backs to us. Hobgoblins and orcs waved spears and axes and screamed taunts that I couldn’t understand. They didn’t even notice us. They had their full attention on the men who came rushing to our summons.

  Gani and his brothers led the attack. Though barely outfitted in steel, the courage on their faces gave me a surge of confidence. They waved their weapons right back at their foes with as much ferocity. The men behind them filled out a triangle shape with Gani at the lead point.

  “Quick, let’s break them in from the other side,” Lily said.

  I’d already strung my bow. I aimed carefully, then fired an arrow at the small gap between one of the orc’s helmets and the top of his back armor. Right before it struck, he yelled out a battle cry that dissolved into a mush of bloody gurgles. Lily formed an ice spear and flung it at another. It didn’t meet flesh, but it did smash so hard into an orc’s helmet that it knocked him to his knees. Though we’d barely made a dent in their numbers, our attack seemed to divide their attention. A hobgoblin was the first to turn and see us. He hissed and pointed, and many of the others turned as well. The front lines kept their attention focused on the oncoming attackers. Just as steel met steel, we launched forward to flank the foes. I took off as a purple beam destroyed the wood I’d been standing on.

  I fully extended my dagger, but an orc with yellowed eyes was ready for me. He was quick with his axe. He flipped it to the side and blocked my blow with the handle before lifting it above his head and swinging downward. I quickly dove to the right and the axe blade sunk into the dirt. While I was on the ground, I rolled over to where a hobgoblin was preparing to gut me and shoved the blade into his abdomen. He froze in place for a moment before blood dripped from his mouth and he fell to the ground.

  I narrowly missed another blow from the yellow-eyed orc when I stood up. Ducking below his power swing, I twisted around behind him and jumped onto his back. When I had my arm around his shoulder, I cut his neck open.

  Meanwhile, I caught glimpses of Lily kicking some serious ass. She was lightning quick with her ice daggers, and the more poorly armored foes stood no chance at all. She flung her cold blades around in a flurry of stabs, turning one hobgoblin’s torso into a red cloud of mist. Then she ducked, somersaulted to dodge an attack, then jumped to her feet. She formed a pile of ice crystals in her hand and threw them into the face of an attacking hobgoblin. He dropped his sword and shrieked in pain. She put him out of his misery with his own blade.

  The men, or the help, I thought with a smile, carried their own weight better than I expected. For manual laborers, they had a penchant for violence. I imagined they’d spent a bit of time sparring with those weapons of theirs. Though not as nimble as Lily or myself, they made up for it with brute strength. Gani was a particular force of nature. Despite his age, he seemed to be putting down enemies with a ruthless efficiency.

  I saw Togo facing off with one of the largest orcs. He wasn’t a small man, but he still had to look upward to meet the eyes of his foe. The orc brought down his sword, hard, and Togo blocked it with his own. The orc was too strong though, and Togo only managed to deflect it toward the side. It sliced into his arm just below the shoulder, and he wailed in agony. Breece fought nearby him and turned at his brothers cry. “Togo!” He cried, rushing to his aid. He was too late. While Togo was still in shock from the sliced arm, the orc stuck him through the stomach. Not even a second later, Breece stabbed his sword in the orc’s lower back and thrust it upward.

  Both Piggy and Neptos were on the porch now. The sorcerer watched in expressionless silence. Piggy still held his knife, but he barely seemed to notice it. He rubbed his belly and grimaced, then looked at the sorcerer anxiously. I stuck my dagger into my bow and drew an arrow while dodging a blow from a hobgoblin’s spear. Then I exited the fray of battle and ran a circle along the outside. I shot arrows while strafing so I could keep an eye on the porch. Piggy suddenly doubled over in crippling pain. There was panic in his eyes. I launched another arrow, this time at the silent sorcerer. Once again he stopped it with a wave of his hand. He turned to look at me, his eyes glowing. I stopped running for a moment. Time seemed to stand still as the mysterious man lowered his hood. Locks of long black hair tumbled around his shoulders. A yellow and green circlet sat atop his head. To my surprise, the man didn’t look as old as I once thought. His skin was pale and smooth. Yet he didn’t look youthful either. He looked like he had stepped out of some dimension where time worked differently.

  He didn’t stop staring when he raised his hands. The glow spread from his eyes to his circlet, then to his fingertips. Instead of shooting a beam at me, or toward his own henchman, he directed the beam straight downward, where it shot through the floor of the porch.

  The earth churned. Deep vibrations came from the house. Neptos stepped off the porch, leading a miserable looking Ignatius down to the lawn. I fired off a few more arrows, but it was hard to focus. Something big was coming.

  The porch exploded and sent debris flying. First, I saw the giant thing’s fists, huge grey and green monstrosities that seeped bits of blood from where the wreckage had cut them. It was unfazed. The roar that shook the battlefield and stopped the fighting in its tracks was one of rage, not pain. Eyes appeared through the rubble. They were pitch dark, the black of a starless night sky. Pale green ears pointed upward behind them. Then I saw his gaping maw, long pointed teeth dripping thick saliva.

  “Troll!” one of the men yelled. The hobgoblins and orcs whooped and hollered, but none seemed eager to go near the emerging monster. The old legends told of such giant things, but I had never seen one in the flesh. It was even larger than I imagined. By the time it stood erect on its sinewy legs, it stood as high as four men. The troll was lanky, but its muscles were lean and powerful. It was clad only in brown cloth around its waist, and its long fingers gripped a wooden club that must have made up the better part of some forest’s mightiest tree. It looked around, disoriented and groggy. I wondered what sort of magic Neptos had used to keep it incapacitated in the basement. I also wondered if the Wolfgang family had any idea what resided under their feet.

  They did now. Though the troll had burst forth from the front of the house, they stood crowded around the exposed second floor landing, unsure what to do. A couple of the children ran for the staircase, but the adults held them back. I wasn’t sure who was wiser.

  The troll stretched its limbs and surveyed the battlefield. It looked over to its master, who watched from the side of the yard. Next to him, Piggy kneeled on the ground, whimpering. The sorcerer took something in his hand, waved the other hand over it, then gently pursed his lips and blew. A thin wisp of black dust traveled from the sorcerer’s palm and flew through the air and up into the troll’s nostrils. The thing stopped and its eyes grew cloudy and menacing. It screeched, then began to beat its chest, first with a fist, then with its club. He slammed the club into the earth and took a step forward. All the fighters scattered—men, orcs, and hobgoblins all fleeing with the same desperation.

  “We might need more reinforcements,” I heard Lily say. I turned and she was standing behin
d me. I nodded.

  I took one knee and closed my eyes, focusing my energy on the energies that ran deep beneath me. I locked onto a few small ones that seemed too afraid to emerge. With some effort, I detected something larger and more ferocious. Then I felt another, more familiar energy coming from the road just outside the estate. I suddenly remembered Milo. I bid him to come. That’s when I detected ties between our approaching steed and those stronger entities in the earth below me.

  “Lily, how did the Wolfgangs first make their fortune?” I turned to her.

  “Is that really relevant right now?”

  “Just humor me, please.”

  “All sorts of ways,” she said. “Banking, construction, shipping.”

  “No, but I mean, how did they first get it? All of those take startup money.”

  “Well I suppose we started… they started with ranching. Raising horses,” she said. “Some of the fastest and the strongest in the realm.”

  I smiled, then closed my eyes again. The troll stumbled forward, swinging his club at anything in his way. He swung at one of the men but missed him barely and instead hit an orc in the leg. The orc yelped and flew several feet. I did my best to ignore the commotion and focused on the energies again. I pictured them using my mental image of Milo, and soon they began to stir. I felt more vibrations in the earth as they wriggled to the surface.

  Milo showed up just as his brethren pierced the surface. He ran right up to me, so I climbed atop his back. He sprinted toward the troll. Horse heads broke through, followed by powerful legs. Milo herded them together, neighing loudly. With a herd of twenty undead stallions, we charged. I let my arrows fly at the troll. They stuck into his skin, but he barely noticed. He bared his teeth at the approaching horses. Just before we reached him, three lined up on either side of Milo, with him and I taking the center and lead. When the monster swung at the middle, we all veered left. Two of the risen horses took the bulk of the swing. Their bodies exploded into a cloud of bones and flesh.

  Milo sank his teeth into the troll’s leg just as it struck the other horses. I took the opportunity to make a gash in his lower thigh. It turned its wild gaze to us, and I could smell rot and decay on its breath. We rode faster to regroup for another strike. Several of the horses went straight in, but the troll recovered quickly enough to decimate them. I silently wished more patience upon them.

  I caught sight of Lily mounting a freshly risen horse, a beast with an exposed ribcage and a long black mane. She formed ice spears and flung them at the troll. One missed, but the other clipped his side. She rode forward to join the stampede.

  Though scattered, the men resumed their fight with the orcs and hobgoblins. I heard the clinks of metal again. A few of the orcs turned their attention to the horses and squared off against them.

  Though their numbers were great, the troll plowed through the zombified horses, some blows taking out as many as five at a time. The things were powerful and fast, but they seemed not to care much for self-preservation.

  Lily rode her horse over to me and brought it to a stop. The ten remaining horses gathered around us. Not far away, the troll bared his teeth and stumbled toward us. It looked even more enraged than before.

  “We need to get this thing on the ground,” I said. “Quickly. Follow my lead.”

  I raised my dagger to the sky and let out a war cry. The herd rallied, bucked, and neighed. Lily’s horse reared up on its hind legs and she had to grab on to keep from falling. I took off toward the troll and my equine army of darkness followed. The troll squatted down and braced himself for impact when I abruptly veered left. Lily was right behind me, and I heard her cry “Hyah!” and follow. We circled around the troll, taking down a few stray hobgoblins along the way. A few men had to run to get out of our way. I closed the gap in our circle, singling out the troll in the middle. It took it a moment for it to remember how strong it was. It swung its massive club at me horizontally, and I ducked to avoid it. The wind whizzed over my head.

  “Pull in tighter!” I cried out to Lily. Silently, I relayed the message to the horses. The troll took a step backward to compensate and the horses lashed out as they passed him and bit his ankles. He swung his club down and struck one horse directly in its head, smashing it down into the dirt. A couple of closely following horses tripped over its body, but they soon recovered. The troll swung again and hit two more. He was becoming more and more erratic. I knew we needed to end this quickly.

  “Lily!” I called out behind me. “The grass!”

  Though it was hard to see through the darkness, dew glistened on the grass beneath us. I hoped it would be enough. Her hands glowed a blinding blue, and she shot a flurry of blue energy toward the troll’s feet.

  The monster was about to take a step forward. His club was raised in anticipation. He hadn’t even noticed what Lily had done to his right foot, and when he began to lift his left foot, she struck again. The thing was so surprised that it dropped its club, narrowly missing a horse. With both of its feet frozen together, it toppled down to the ground, roaring ferociously.

  Once the troll was on the ground, it was all over for him. We closed in entirely, and I could barely see the troll’s body as what was left of my army of zombie horses trampled his flesh. He let a deep wail of pain that accompanied the sound of his breaking bones. And then he was still.

  I realized that I had been so distracted that I hadn’t seen what else was happening on the battlefield. It seemed that the men and the fiends they were battling had stopped to watch. They all stared, their mouths agape. Once the deed was done, they regained their senses. The men cheered wildly, and I basked in the glory of victory for a moment. But the battle wasn’t over.

  The orcs and hobgoblins rushed the horses, but they were no match. We swept through the field, killing them quickly. A few turned to flee, and we let them. Let them tell of me, I thought with a grin.

  “Look at Piggy!” Lily had ridden up beside me and pointed to the side of the house. Neptos was gone, but Piggy looked like he was barely clinging onto life. He was on the ground, leaned up against a tree. His arms hung limply at his side, and his fine silk shirt was covered in dark green vomit. He could barely keep his eyes open. We dismounted when he reached him.

  “Lily,” he said feebly, as if trying to decide if his eyes were deceiving him. “Lily, what have you done?”

  “What’s wrong with him?” I asked. “He doesn’t look like he got stabbed or sliced.” She knelt before him.

  “The turkey,” he said, “was meant for you… you bitch.” He turned his head and spewed another stream of thick vomit.

  “You tried to poison me?!” Lily screamed. “You spineless bastard, you…”

  “Lily,” I said calmly. “He’s dying. Leave him.”

  She choked back her anger and nodded.

  “Where is the sorcerer?” I asked, grabbing him by the collar.

  “Long gone, I expect. Back to the tower, near Gragos.” He forced a laugh. “You can’t touch him there. Not in his tower or the city. Too many rely on him.” He stopped to spit and cough. “Too many need krokum. You think this was a fight? You have no chance there.”

  “Why is he making it?” I asked, shaking him. “What does he want to do?”

  “What do you think, necrodruid?” He grimaced at me.

  “What was he doing here?” Lily added.

  “He’s expanding the empire,” he whispered. “You have no idea what we could have been…”

  Piggy’s face went blank. His eyes closed. I shook him, but he didn’t respond. Lily kicked his body. She stopped for a moment, then her eyes filled with rage. She kicked him again, harder, then harder still, spewing an incomprehensible series of expletives. I stepped back and let her do what she needed to do.

  That’s when I noticed the rest of the Wolfgangs. I hadn’t noticed that they’d descended the uncovered staircase. All two dozen or so, children and the elderly alike, stood watching Lily beat up the corpse of her dead cousin. It was a
n odd thing to watch. Apparently, the men who had fought thought so too. I put a hand on her shoulder, and she stopped. Her face flushed when she looked around.

  “Hell of a way to make your return, eh?” I said with a grin.

  Chapter Twelve

  The excitement died down after that, and it seemed that nobody knew what to do with themselves. Everyone but me, that is. Once the adrenaline wore off, hunger pangs reminded me of how long it had been since my last meal. I was delighted to find the remains of the feast still intact. I carefully removed the poisoned turkey and tossed it out. After that, it was a free for all. I’ve never enjoyed such a well-earned feast. Despite going hungry for as long as I had, Lily didn’t share my appetite. Piggy’s death hung thick in the air, and it seemed that the family wasn’t sure how to treat her. It seemed silly to me. I may have only met the man one time, but he hardly seemed like the type worth mourning over. Still, family was family, and the blood that ties the rich runs thick. Still, Lily seemed hardly to blame.

  There would be no resolution that night. The Wolfgang family had more immediate problems to deal with. Their home was almost entirely destroyed, and they were forced to ask their servants for places to sleep that night. I chuckled at the irony.

  Lily didn’t bother to introduce me to any members of her family. I guessed that she felt to some degree like she was meeting them for the first time herself. The family dynamics weren’t hard to read, though.

  I took the old, wheelchair-ridden man with the white beard to be Bartholomew, Piggy’s father. His eyes were hazy, and his face was blank. He only seemed semi-present, and I wondered if he fully understood that his son was dead. His wife did, though. Andrea Wolfgang was tall and thin. She seemed a decade or so younger than her husband. Tangled brown curls were peppered with grey. She’d begun the night in an elegant white evening gown, which was now torn and stained with bits of food, ash, and even blood. She didn’t seem to notice the state of it. She had spent a good half hour sobbing over her son’s corpse before calming a little. After that she didn’t seem interested in speaking to anyone.