Chapter 9: Gardens of Flesh and Bone
The stone walls loomed over Siena as she looked upon them, standing at the foot of a stairwell that wound around a statue. They were dark gray in the dimness of pre-dawn, and mossy, like the gardener had not taken care of them for some time.
If there even was a gardener for such a horrific place, of course. Siena moved up the broken stairs, coming to the landing and turning to the right, towards the garden proper. To either side of the next set of stairs were statues of demonic things. Thin and lanky with long fingers and tails and a mouth like a leech, she recognized these beasts from the teachings of the Temple. Hungers, minions of Boethiah, one of the Good Deadra. But it did not make his sinuous and lanky beasts any more appealing in Siena's eyes. Especially since the statues were in a land of Sheogorath.
Jayred was already at the gate, standing there and looking through the bars. Siena approached the gate, which was ornamented with curving lines of metal in smooth, peaceful patterns. She could see through the bars as well, and what she saw made her gasp.
It was a ruin of pillars and steps, of ornate carvings and brazier-lit statues. She could see on the far side a tall staircase, two more hunger statues bordering it. The right statue had a brazier lit, the other, had none. There was a tower of stone -like the two she had seen before arriving in Passwall- to the left and nothing else she could make out in the gloom and shading of her glasses. But nothing like the Garden of Flesh and Bone she had imagined, and that made her heart beat just a little slower.
"Hurry, I need to get in." Jayred told her in a rushed tone. Siena sighed, her shoulders dropping, before bending down in front of the gate and sticking her ear close as the lockpick went in. It's so easy a Nord could open… well… maybe a Nord couldn't. Siena thought as the pick clicked the tumbler into place, and the gate opened. It was one of the easiest locks she had ever encountered, and she slipped the pick into her boot without even thinking. Putting her fingers delicately into the grating, she pulled the gate towards her. It creaked and groaned as it moved.
Jayred bolted through the opening like a thing possessed, and Siena yelled after his fur-armored back. "Wait, there might be-!"
Jayred knocked an arrow on his bow and snarled, as Siena heard that familiar hissing clack of a skeleton angered. The Nord fired a shot from his position as Siena rushed into the Gardens.
The place was one large, dark courtyard, with a second flight of stairs to the right of the stairs she had seen from the gate. And in the center of it all Jayred stood over a large skeleton. He growled again as a second arrow flew at a skeleton charging at the Nord. The arrow hit the ribcage and bounced around before falling to the ground, making the skeleton stop but doing little else.
Despite her shaded lenses making the world darker than it already was, Siena could make out a second skeleton charging at Jayred's left flank. And despite the fear gripping at her heart, a greater power drove her to spring into the air from the top of the steps and crash into the skeleton. She fell on top of the bag of bones with a painful crunch, both of them crashing to the ground and the steel war axe the skeleton held flying into the dirt nearby.
The skeleton was falling apart, some of the bones having been freed by the crash, but it still squirmed and thrashed grotesquely beneath her. A hard object hit the side of her head, dazing her and causing her to roll off the skeleton. The undead horror rose from the ground and picked up the axe with its left arm -it's only good arm- before raising it over Siena.
Survival instincts surged through her mind, and she threw up both her hands, summoning the magic within her into the only spell she truly knew well. Fire belched from her fingers to bloom inside the skeleton's ribcage, blasting it apart. Bones rained down around her, clinking off her chainmail and bruising her already tender arms, just before the axe spun down and dug into the dirt mere inches from her face.
Siena shuddered as her eyes wavered towards the axe nearby. She seemed to have lost all resolve to do anything, fear turning her muscles to stone, until she heard Jayred growl and a skeleton hiss in anger. Siena rolled towards the axe, one hand grabbing it and the motion of her body rising jerked the weapon from the dirt.
An arrow spun end-over-end to her left, having bounced off the hard bones of the skeleton Jayred was fighting. Siena watched as in the span of an instant Jayred knocked another arrow, fired, and hit the eye socket, ripping the skull from the spine. The Nord kicked the decapitated bones away, sending them shattering to the ground before standing proudly over the rotted corpse of a giant.
Siena walked up to him, relief washing over her as she stood at the feet of the massive skeleton. The ribcage alone could fit her body if she curled up inside it. Red flesh still clung to it and a horrid smell tickled her senses. If it was daylight the flies would have been buzzing with skooma-induced delight. With the danger gone Siena could no longer override her disgust and she dropped the axe, doubling over. Her only meal in the Shivering Isles became a new delightful feast for the flies when they awoke at dawn. Jayred did not seem to notice as he reached down and grabbed the skeleton's arm, not caring for the grime on his hands as he twisted and sickeningly crunched the arm out of the shoulder socket.
Siena watched with a horrid fascination. That a man who had been so courteous and gentlemanly to her would be doing such a disgusting-
Her thoughts were interrupted when a sharp sting in her left shoulder made her cry out and grasp at the perpetrator. It was an iron arrow that had hit her chainmail, but had been unable to penetrate the metal rings with its large arrowhead. The sting had been from the tip piercing shallowly into her skin. She ripped out the arrow with a trickling of blood, noting many of the small rings in the mail were broken; a small hole, but still a hole.
When she looked up her mind instantly calculated the archer's location from the direction of the arrow when it had stuck out of her shoulder, and she could barely make out the thin, gray form through her dark lenses. Snarling, she wanted to move but her stomach protested; it simply would not let her sprint after having expended its contents. She clutched at her shoulder and stomach as the skeleton knocked another arrow and pulled it back. The movement made it easier to see for a moment, and she threw out her hand, letting go of her shoulder to fling a ball of fire at the thing.
The flames lit the area as it traveled across the courtyard, towards the small corner nestled between the two staircases that had been in front and to the right of her when she had come in. So stupid! I didn't make sure the place was clear! I forgot half the area!
The fireball burst behind the skeleton, having missed it, but the light the explosion afforded revealed to Siena just where he was. The second arrow did not hit her this time; she'd seen it coming as it went past her spellfire. She moved to one side in a half-crouch, magic coursing through her hand and sparking into fiery brilliance. Jayred had knocked another arrow and uselessly fired, the arrow bouncing off the bones. Siena swung her hand forward, extending her fingers as if reaching out to the skeleton.
Reaching out to the source of her fear, of her pain, of her anger and of her sickness.
Like a resolution the fireball burned through the air to blast apart that skeletal archer, bones raining down upon the ground. Siena breathed heavily, chest heaving as she fell to one knee. She felt so tired; a fatigue caused by a combination of bruising crashes and bumps, a bleeding shoulder, inadequate sleep and an expenditure of magic. She had drained herself so much in her anger with that final spell. Worse, she knew her magicka would not restore itself on its own, and her loss of control might cost her later on now that she had little magicka left for spells. But she rarely used her magic anyways, since she knew so little and her birthsign was so restrictive.
Bones snapped and ligaments tore, prompting Siena to turn her head and look at Jayred, mouth agape in exhaustion. Some of her hair that had come loose in the fighting fell over her face, but she ignored it as again a horrid fascination overtook her.
Jayred broke the humerus from the rest of the arm, then took the ulna and radius and tied all three of them together with a string. She didn't want to know where he got the string from. He then moved to one of the legs and picked up the axe Siena had dropped. Hacking at the knee cap, he separated the femur from the rest of the leg and ripped it from the pelvis in a brutish fashion. He added the femur to his bone collection and slung them over his shoulder.
"With these Gatekeeper bones, I can make some arrows." The Nord told her, as if proud of himself. Siena simply smiled weakly.
"When will they be ready?" She feigned enthusiasm, her voice falsely sweet.
"I'll only be a few hours." Jayred told her, waving his hand nonchalantly. "Then we'll kill the Gatekeeper." Jayred smiled warmly back before turning and walking out of the Gardens with his bones.
Leaving Siena completely alone, in a dark courtyard with a half-present skeleton of the most loathsome being she had ever seen, and surrounded by pieces of other skeletons. For a moment she simply gawked at his back as he proceeded up the steps and through the gate, but then pouted.
To be expected, really. All he cared about was the damn bones. Nice and all… but he's insane and more in love with bones than a cup of mead. That's not right. Her opinion of the captain seemed to drop in that one moment from attractive to not-so-much. But thinking of him kept the realization of where she was out of her mind.
I need that bow… Dredhwen won't give me hers so I'll have to use that one. I can't shoot bone arrows to kill the Gatekeeper without a bow. Siena thought, moving purposely over to the scattered remains of the skeleton archer. She picked up the rusted iron bow, pulling the string taunt and then relaxing it before shrugging. Could have been better, but a rusted bow was better than no bow at all really. Grabbing the quiver of iron arrows from the ground she slung it over her shoulder and walked out of the Gardens with a pace that neared running.
She made sure to close the gate behind her, and never look back as she walked hurriedly down the hill after Jayred, the world brightening as dawn neared.
