6
Since the battle with the gnolls, Corwin and Alisia had become ever friendlier with one another, riding together on the trail, much to Albrec's chagrin. Albrec rode behind them on Glannor's left, and Rorin rode on Glannor's right. Kaegan brought up the rear.
The human and the elf had also become quite the taskmasters, driving the party well into each night and awakening them each morning before sunrise. Albrec understood the necessity for closing on the enemy party before the villains arrived at their destination, but he hadn't had a full night's sleep since...
"How long has it been since we killed those gnolls?" the halfling asked.
"Nearly three tendays," Rorin said.
"That would put us at almost nine tendays since departing Candlekeep."
"Indeed."
"The human runs us to exhaustion."
"Don't put all the blame on Corwin now. Alisia is as insistent as he that we keep to this pace."
"What does an elf see in a big, clumsy human anyway?"
"Apparently a lot," Rorin said, "judging by the numbers of half-elves."
"And what would an elf see," Glannor said, "in a halfling wee?"
"Shut up," Albrec murmured.
As they traveled further into the afternoon, the rolling green hills slowly gave way to an ashen white landscape barren any growth save a few scattered stunted trees. Alongside the road, ancient bones protruding from the chalky soil seemed to outnumber the rocks and stones one would normally see. Albrec shivered, the hair on the back of his neck prickling.
Corwin took his sheathed sword off his back and hung it from the pommel of his saddle, one hand resting on the hilt. Alisia, following his lead, unlimbered her bow. She nocked an arrow, but didn't draw back on the string.
"This place isn't right," Albrec said.
Rorin fingered the holy symbol of Moradin hanging from his neck. "This, my boy, is the ancient battlefield we now call the Battle of the Bones. The undead outnumber the living here."
"I don't see anything."
"And you probably won't until too late. Skeletons and zombies have been known to rise up out of the ground."
"Rising from graves where they'd been buried centuries ago," Kaegan said.
"I outgrew ghost stories years ago," Albrec scoffed.
"Who's talking ghosts?" Rorin said. "Though some of them may inhabit the Battle of the Bones. No one is certain, as not many living creatures come here anymore."
Albrec, despite his facade, was uneasy in the still air. Not even a light breeze moved across the dead ground. He twisted the leather reins around his knuckles.
"This land of blight," Glannor said. "The feeling isn't right."
Corwin's back stiffened, and his grip tightened around the haft of his sword. Seeing this, Alisia drew back slightly on her bowstring.
"You sense something?" she asked.
He nodded. With a steely slither, he slowly pulled his sword free of its scabbard. He laid the great blade across his lap, the fingers of his right hand curled around the leather-wrapped hilt.
Rorin drew his warhammer and propped it across his shoulder.
The companions continued to ride unchallenged.
Albrec wondered if the paladin might be paranoid. He could understand the human's apprehension; he himself would feel better to have this land at his back. However, he maintained an air of nonchalance for the elf maiden's benefit.
"The paladin seems frightened," Albrec said to Glannor, loud enough for all in the party to hear.
Alisia shot a glance back in his direction. The hard look in her eyes was not the effect he had desired.
Corwin suddenly yanked on his reins, guiding his mare to put himself on Alisia's right flank. Three figures emerged from behind a weather-worn boulder that lay about fifty feet off the path to the right. The human-sized forms were slightly hunched. Their putrid, mottled skin stretched tight across their skeletons. Their eyes burned hotly, glowing in the waning evening light.
Rorin readied his hammer. "Ghouls!"
Alisia drew her bowstring taut and released. The shaft sailed true, piercing one of the ghouls through the ribcage. The undead creature plucked the arrow from its chest and tossed it aside. It leveled its hot gaze at the elven ranger, even as fluid oozed from its wound.
Still gripping his hammer, Rorin held his holy symbol aloft. He spoke an invocation of undead turning.
The ghouls tipped their heads back and howled in anger and pain. Immediately thereafter, their skin dissolved from their skeletons, and their bones turned to powder.
Four more ghouls came out from behind the boulder, two on either side. A fifth ghoul clawed its way over the top.
Alisia unleashed another arrow, sending its point into the upper ghoul's brow. The undead creature fell back and disappeared behind the boulder.
Corwin, meanwhile, guided Katla toward the ghouls rounding the right side of the boulder. His great sword flashed in the reddening sun, and in two quick blows he cut the heads from both foes.
"Corwin!" Alisia warned.
The ghoul that the ranger had shot appeared from behind the boulder, her arrow still stuck in its forehead. It reached out and clawed at Corwin's side. His armor deflected most of the blow, but Albrec still saw red staining his steel breastplate.
Alisia launched another arrow at the ghoul, burying the shaft in its rib cage.
Rorin and Kaegan took the ghouls coming around the left side of the boulder. Unwilling to touch the undead with his hands or feet, Kaegan twirled a quarterstaff expertly. He quickly landed blows against one of the ghouls. Rorin slammed his hammer into the head of his adversary, crushing the skull with a wet squish.
Albrec and Glannor urged their ponies to charge down the last ghoul, Arisia's arrows still jutting from its body. Before they closed half the distance, however, the ground churned in front of them. Ranks of skeletons emerged from the ashen soil, clutching ancient weapons in their bony hands. Albrec reined his pony to a halt and leaned back in his saddle to avoid the swing of a rusted halberd.
The halfling rolled off his saddle and drew both his swords. He hacked at the legs of the nearest skeleton, shattering its thigh bones and toppling it over. As soon as it hit the dirt, its bones scattered.
Glannor parried an axe stroke with his sword and counterattacked. His steel blade met oaken haft. Another skeleton pulled him off his saddle, and the gnome bard's sword skittered out of his grasp when he landed hard.
Both their mounts now fleeing in fright, the halfling and the gnome found themselves surrounded by the skeletal undead. Albrec waded through the skeletons on foot as he moved toward Glannor. His twin swords flashed with each blow, hacking at the animated skinless bones.
An arrow struck a skeleton in the skull, carrying the grinning head off its body. The headless skeleton fell apart.
Albrec was hard pressed now, his forward movement bogged by the sheer numbers of skeletons between him and Glannor. The bard lay helpless as a skeleton hefted a battleaxe to cleave his living flesh.
The blade of a great sword descended, cleaving the axe-wielding skeleton from skull to pelvic bone. Corwin, on foot, swiftly picked Glannor off the ground and set the gnome on his feet. Katla's hooves crushed another pair of skeletons before they could harm either Corwin or Glannor. Albrec and Corwin stood with their backs to the disarmed Glannor, protecting him with their bodies as their swords clove bone. To Albrec's right, he could see Rorin and Kaegan engage the skeletons with hammer and staff. Alisia drew her sword to receive the contingent of skeletons that charged her position on the trail. She struck foes with her long blade and parried the skeletons' attacks with her bow, all the while nimbly guiding her horse in evasive maneuvers.
Rorin shattered the last skeleton's head with his hammer, and the battle with the ghouls and skeletons was suddenly over. The companions, wary, hesitated to move right away.
Albrec picked up Glannor's dropped sword and handed it over. He and the gnome waited pensively near the tall human. Rorin and Kaegan, still on horseback, trotted to the path and joined Alisia.
The halfling felt a trickle of sweat rolled down his nose. His palms were clammy as he gripped his swords. He dared not speak. He'd never fought undead before, and it was more than a little unnerving.
"This isn't right," Glannor said. "The undead only come out at night."
"Tell them that," Albrec said, motioning to a pile of bones with the tip of a sword.
"It's certain undead that comes out only at night," Corwin said. "Though, to be honest, I thought ghouls were one of those."
Rorin gazed skyward. "Twilight approaches."
Corwin grabbed Katla's reins. "Then it's best we not tarry."
"Agreed."
"We don't stop until we leave the Battle of the Bones."
"Not even to make camp?" Albrec asked.
The paladin swung himself up onto his saddle. "Unless you wish to sleep in a land ruled by the undead."
"No stopping. I'm with you."
Albrec and Glannor recovered their mounts and climbed into the saddles. With the companions gathered on the trail, they resumed their journey at a brisk pace. Their weapons were still bared.
Alisia noted the rent on the left side of the paladin's breastplate and the swath of crimson staining it. "Corwin, you're injured."
Corwin glanced down at his side. "A flesh wound."
"What hit you?"
"One of the ghouls."
"Corwin, the ghouls are carrion eaters. Your wound will fester if you don't have it tended."
"It won't fester. The blessing that Tyr bestows upon his paladins protects me from infections."
"At least bandage it so you don't bleed your strength."
"Or do your paladin thing," Albrec said, wiggling the fingers on one hand.
"I can lay on hands once per day. It's best I save that power for injuries more grievous than mine."
Rorin moved to ride beside the paladin. "Stubborn human. And everyone thought my kin were obstinate."
The cleric removed his gauntlets and quietly muttered a prayer. He touched Corwin's torn breastplate, and his healing spell sank into the human's flesh even through the metal.
"There," Rorin said. "The wound is gone."
Corwin lifted an arm, stretching the once-wounded side of his torso. "Feels good."
As the sun dipped further toward the horizon, the shadows around them stretched. Darkness slowly descended upon them, encasing them in its murkiness. Albrec wiped at the sweat beading his brow, his fingers cramping from his tight hold on his two swords. The still air offered no comfort to its dry heat.
The companions came around a bend that curved around groves of long-dead trees. They stopped short as they rounded the bend. Arrayed across the trail before them were ranks upon ranks of decaying corpses standing upright. What was left of their faces were blank, unseeing, yet the figures shuffled toward the travelers.
Albrec knew what they were.
Zombies. Dozens of them.