by Dave Higgins
“It’s their second brains,” Gus said. “They won’t let them.”
She frowned. “Second brains?”
“In their gut.” Gus patted his stomach. “I was born differently. Caves are where I always hid when Flaurtewyibn and the others bullied me. They can’t force themselves to enter tight spaces, but I can.”
“I’ve heard about that,” Rauger said. “Fear’s how people clear giants out, when we want to make a new town.”
“The rats.” Gus shivered.
“Rats?” Peony asked.
“It’s not just tight spaces,” Gus said. “Our secondary brains make us run from tiny creatures and large bodies of water. We can’t control it. It’s a flight response that’s hard-wired into us. Humans, with their limited, single brain, can ignore the response if they need to.”
“Not so limited, then,” Rauger said.
“Not the time, Rauger.” Peony glared at him, before moving closer as a dozen giants raced toward the cave.
The giants paced back and forth, their gaze locked on Peony and her companions.
She pressed back against the rear wall, expecting to be smooshed at any moment. One pace inside and the giants could have killed them. But they seemed unable to take that step. Then a female giant picked up a rock and hurled it at Peony.
Gus lunged into the way, grunting in pain as the rock smacked into his kidney.
Rauger took shelter beside Peony as more rocks followed the first. Peony saw the wince of pain on Gus’ face as each rock hit him, but there was nothing she could do.
“Don’t worry,” Gus said. “I’m used to it. It’s not the first time someone’s thrown rocks at me. They can’t hurt me too badly. In the end, they’ll get bored and go away.”
It took an hour, but he was correct. The giants grew tired of throwing rocks and moved away.
“Your society seems harsh,” Peony said.
“We value strength. Come on, there’s a long way to go if we want to reach the border by sundown.”
Cradling Peony and with Rauger on his shoulders, Gus set off at a jog. Peony looked around for signs of the other giants, but they seemed to have gotten bored enough to find something else to torment.
After several hours, Gus set them down on the top of a hill. “This is where our lands end and the kingdom of men begins.”
Peony stared across the dusk lit land; at the wide, green fields; the rolling valley; and the large band of zombies shuffling around.
Chapter 15
Undead
Peony dropped to the ground, unable to take her eyes off the undead shuffling around. On closer inspection, there was a pattern to their wandering, as if they had a collective purpose. Zombies came over the far hill at random intervals and rambled across the valley; but as soon as they passed within arm’s reach of a rock, they picked it up and staggered back over the hill. Even more surprisingly, if the rock was too large for a zombie to lift, it waited until another zombie arrived and they carried it together. Apart from the stench of decaying flesh and inchoate moans, they were nothing like she’d expected. “What are they doing?”
“I was about to ask the same.” Rauger rose to a crouch. “Come on. We’ve more chance of sneaking around a bunch of mindless zombies than those giants. We’ll travel south for a while, then go east.”
She nodded carefully. The giants were more of a threat, but didn’t smell nauseous. Before following Rauger, she turned and gave Gus a hug. “We’ll be back with magical help, just as soon as we return to my kingdom.”
Gus patted her on the back, sending her staggering forward a step. “I hope you will. I won’t survive long without my tribe. We giants are social creatures.”
“See you soon.” She waved goodbye and turned to follow Rauger.
Rauger crept down the far side of the hill, his gaze sweeping across the zombies.
Peony knew little about zombies—other than the one lecture Edmond had got her to sit still for. They bit humans, turning the humans into zombies; who then bit more humans. They were also mindless and slow, which made her wonder why anyone was ever be caught by them. How did zombies track their prey? Did they have better hearing or smell than humans? With hundreds of them wandering the countryside, avoiding them didn’t seem so easy.
Once off the hill, Rauger kept to lower-lying areas. There weren’t many trees, so they had to crouch behind bushes. They never got within a hundred paces of the zombies. However, every rustle of breeze through leaves made Peony’s heart race. They reached the far side of the valley without incident, but the itch between her shoulders got worse by the moment.
Letting out a brief gasp, Rauger dropped flat at the top of the hill. When Peony joined him, she had to gasp too. An immense castle rose in the centre of the valley. Hundreds of zombies swarmed across the valley floor in all directions, either carrying rocks to the castle or heading out to fetch more. More zombies clambered over the immense fortress, shuffling along rough scaffolding to add rocks to the top of the walls.
A zombie on the nearest wall stumbled and plunged off the scaffolding, splatting into a pile of bones and torn flesh, unable to rise again. Without missing a beat, a nearby zombie picked up the fallen rock and climbed the scaffolding.
“Why are they doing that?” Peony asked. “I thought zombies were meant to be stupid.”
“So did I,” Rauger said. “Whatever the reason is, we want no part of it. Let’s head east now and try to make the coast.”
He turned his back on the sun and crept along beneath the crest of the hill. With a start, she realised the sun wouldn’t be up much longer. In a few hours, they’d either be travelling in the dark or sleeping with zombies nearby. She quickened her pace.
The grassy hills gave way to cliffs, the rockfalls at their base nearly cleared by shambling figures. She shivered as they crept past. What were the undead up to? Her father’s books said they cared about nothing but violence. Why were they building a castle? How would they know to cooperate? Who were they trying to protect against? She flicked her gaze around, certain she didn’t want to meet anything so dangerous it scared the already dead.
Realising she’d fallen behind, she scurried to catch up with Rauger. She pulled level with him as they rounded the end of a cliff before stopping dead.
Ahead of them, a zombie picked tatters of rotten flesh from the remains of a deer.
A shimmering white shape floated beside the zombie, gesturing toward Peony and Rauger. “There! Humans. Stopping eating that disgusting thing, there are humans.”
Rauger grabbed Peony’s arm and yanked her forward, past the zombie that still blissfully ignored them. She looked at the ghost as they passed.
“Come back.” The ghost waved a transparent fist at them, then swept it through the zombie’s head. “Stupo, get up. They’re getting away.”
The zombie raised its head and groaned. With a lurch, it straightened and stumbled after Peony and Rauger. The ghost flitted forward, drawing level with Peony.
A chill sank into her flesh as the apparition grabbed for her and passed through.
“You’re in trouble now,” the ghost said. “He’ll catch you and eat you.”
Rauger strode on, forcing Peony to scurry to keep up. Unable to resist, she looked back.
The ghost whooshed back and forth, waving its arms and pulling ghastly faces, but the zombie had fallen behind.
“I don’t think so,” she told the apparition. “It’s too slow to catch us. Even at my speed. Rauger, we can walk slower. We might need our energy later.”
Rauger glanced back and slowed his own steps.
She noticed Rauger’s eyes were on the ghost and not the zombie. Trying to reassure him, she waved her hand through the apparition. “Don’t worry about him. He’s a little chilly, but he can’t hurt us.”
“I know,” Rauger said. “I just don’t like ghosts.”
“Who does?”
“Hey.” The ghost drew himself up, the effect somewhat spoiled by him rippling. “I’
m right here. You think I want to be a ghost? I didn’t choose to stay here. I wanted to move on like everyone else; but I woke up watching Stupo eat that deer.”
“Stupo?” Peony asked.
“The zombie.” The ghost looked back at the walking corpse, who shambled along in the distance. “He’s me. Or at least my body, but I can’t bring myself to call that thing by my name. It’s Kense, by the way.”
“I’m Peony. This is Rauger. Why are you trying to get your zombie to eat us, Kense?”
“To move on.”
“Move on?”
“There are only a few ghosts around. Most people just came back as zombies. So their spirits must have gone somewhere.”
“Why didn’t yours?” Peony asked.
“Because he’s evil,” Rauger said.
“I’m not evil. I don’t know why I haven’t gone. My best guess was that I needed to help Stupo.”
Peony’s mind raced. “Are you sure? Maybe you need to help us instead.”
Kense paused for a moment, considering, then smiled, his teeth glowing white. “It’ll make a change from trying to teach myself table manners.”
“You know why those other zombies are building a castle?” Peony asked.
“Oh that.” Kense shook his head. “That’s Wayke. A couple of ghosts have gathered little armies. Wayke is convinced he needs to build the largest castle in the world to move on. The others are doing things just as ridiculous.”
“But you think you need to help someone to move on?” Peony asked.
“I don’t know. I’m new to this, since I only died yesterday. The others have been dead for years.”
“Years?” Rauger raised an eyebrow. “How have you been staying alive for so long?”
Peony glanced at him, impressed with how quickly he’d gotten over his fear of ghosts.
“I hid,” Kense said. “And never helped anyone that screamed for help. I ran the other way and kept out of trouble. But I got hungry and found that deer. I didn’t see the bite mark until it was too late.”
Peony made a mental note not to eat anything until they got out of the land of the zombies.
“Can you slow down?” Kense said. “Stupo’s fallen way behind. I don’t want him to get lost.”
“You want to keep him with you?” Rauger asked. “I thought he was a disgusting mess.”
“But he’s my disgusting mess.”
Rauger slowed a little. “Fine. On the condition you help us.”
“How?” Kense asked.
“We need to get to the coast,” Peony said. “To find a ship that will take us back to my kingdom.”
“You won’t find one to the east,” Kense said. “All the coastal villages are infested with zombies. The closest boats will be in the north.”
Peony shook her head. “We can’t go north.”
“Then it’s a long trek south,” Kense said. “Through zombie-infested lands I never dared… you really do need my help.”
Peony nodded. “We’d appreciate it.”
Kense took the lead, scouting ahead of them as they moved south-east toward where he thought the corner of the kingdom was. The border was well-protected, so the infection wouldn’t have spread beyond it. She hoped the people on the border would recognise humans when they saw them.
She glanced back at Stupo, checking he hadn’t shambled any closer. But he kept his distance; and when they paused for a break, Stupo stopped when Kense shouted and stood there until they were ready to continue.
As the sun brushed the hills behind, Kense led them to a cave. “You’ll have to sleep here tonight. I don’t sleep, so I’ll watch the mouth.”
Peony and Rauger made sure one of them stood watch while the other slept. With only a rocky floor and her arm for a pillow, Peony could barely sleep anyway. Rauger’s chest looked the right combination of firmness and depth for a pillow, but she shook the thought off.
* * *
The next morning, they woke at first light. Kense waited for them outside, Stupo swaying nearby. The zombie followed them as they moved between sparse clumps of trees.
Around midday, Kense held his hand up. They joined him at the edge of a copse of trees. A giant pyramid of rocks stood in the middle of the barren plain beyond, the air wavering above it in the heat.
“What’s that?” Peony asked.
Kense shrugged. “I haven’t been this far south for a long time. It looks like some kind of monument.”
Zombies shambled around the plain, adding rocks of all sizes to the pyramid. Peony realised some of the haze above the pile was an apparition watching everything.
“We should skirt around this,” Rauger said. “Avoid drawing attention to ourselves.”
Kense snorted and took a sling from his belt. “That pompous idiot up there. One stone and I’d knock him off his perch.”
“He’s a ghost,” Peony said. “What damage could you do? And how would it help?”
“He’d re-materialise back where he first died.” Kense put his sling away. “But you’re right, it wouldn’t do much good.”
They took the long way around the plain, making sure they kept far enough from the pyramid to avoid the scavenging zombies. Then they continued south.
Peony approached Kense when they broke for lunch. “Tell me about your life. What did you do before the zombie plague hit?”
Kense pulled out his sling again. “I thought it would have been obvious from this. I was a goat herd. My wife and I had a farm high in the mountains, away from everyone.”
“So you were both safe from the zombies to begin with.”
“She was gone by then. A man called Imperatis took her. I assume she’s dead.”
“Imperatis? The same man who had me kidnapped.”
“He’s known for it. Sees someone he likes and takes them. Drains their minds and leaves them worse than dead. I’m glad I couldn’t find her when I got back.”
“Got back?”
Parts of Kense glowed and faded. “From where I’d run. Imperatis flew in on a gust of breeze, a sword in his hand. I saw him coming and ran. I thought Jane had run too; then spotted her in his grasp. His men chased me and I fled. I didn’t return for hours.”
“That’s awful.”
“She was the love of my life and I ran.” Kense turned away. “I should have fought.”
“A sling against a sword?” Rauger stepped closer. “You would have died.”
“Maybe I should have.”
Peony pondered. “Could that be why you haven’t moved on? An unresolved desire to fight Imperatis?”
“Revenge is a strong motivator,” Rauger said.
Kense frowned. “I hate him, but others lost their families to Imperatis. What makes me special?”
“I don’t know,” Peony said. “But something must. It’s more likely to yield results than building a castle or a pyramid.”
“You’re right,” Kense said. “He can’t hurt me now. I could fight Imperatis.”
“You’d need an army,” Rauger said. “Like the other ghosts have.”
Kense snorted. “They took years to make their armies. It’ll be easier to take one.” He floated away.
“Wait,” Peony said. “What about helping us?”
“You’ll be fine. The border’s another two hours south. Good luck!”
She watched the strange ghost leave, Stupo trailing him. She’d met the oddest people on her journey, but at least it would be over soon. The captain of a trading vessel had to see the benefit of taking her home. They just needed to find an incorruptible captain.
Chapter 16
Tribal
Edmond spotted more of Imperatis’ scouts paralleling them in the distance. After Daffodil had massacred the third band of soldiers—with his help—the attacks had stopped. At first he’d thought they’d killed them all. However, over the next half-a-day he’d spotted soldiers trailing them or skulking away ahead of them. And they’d stayed that way overnight. The enemy were clearly giving his wife space.
He hadn’t seen her so driven in a long time. Her eyes shone with something indescribable. Most of it was fury at the danger their daughter was in. But there was something else; an enthusiasm he hadn’t seen for a long time. As if she’d moved through the council meetings and royal negotiations asleep, and was only now waking.
“Should I do something about them?” Grew gestured at the scouts.
Daffodil patted her axe. “Let them watch. What can they tell Imperatis that he doesn’t already know? We’re moving south. We’ll keep going south until we knock him into the sea. And every report he receives will tell him we’re closer; that his minutes are growing less.”
Edmond met her eyes, his grin as sharp as hers. She held his gaze, a spark passing between them that he hadn’t felt for a long time. This was what they were born to do: fight evil doers and rescue captives.
He just wished it wasn’t his daughter in danger. He hoped she was all right, wherever she was. Perhaps she’d returned to Green Moss.
“The scouts are falling back,” Grew said.
Edmond looked around and saw Grew was right. The scouts had stopped following them, the last of them just visible, crouched where the trees petered out into moorland.
“See,” Daffodil said. “They know it’s pointless to follow us. They’ll probably report back and find us again in another eight hours.”
Edmond nodded absently, his attention on the surrounding landscape. Something seemed familiar; something he’d read in a book, long ago. But he couldn’t put his finger on it. It was about the way the rocks were shattered.
“Look.” Grew pointed at a raised circle of earth about two yards in diameter, the area inside perfectly flat.
It must have been made with earth magic. Edmond wondered if he was remembering tales of a famous magician? Was there someone on Oteon with that kind of power? And might they be willing to help?
“There’s another,” Daffodil said.
The second circle was wide enough to hold a large group of people, yet only shin high. Edmond remembered what they were. “A giant circle.”
“It’s not that big,” she said.