Chapter 16 - Y
I hated leaving him back there alone, but I knew the others would need me and Zael would never forgive me if Dagran was injured in any way. We ran back to where the bookshelf was and, once again, were surrounded by bats. God damn theses bloody creatures! Horace took the key and did some weird turn of it in the wall and the bookshelf lowered into the floor. We ran inside the room to see Meredith tied up by what looked like… energy chains… or Ghost Chains… She looked as if she hadn't eaten in days. She probably hadn't.
Horace tried to touch her but was thrown backwards by some sort of force, knocking him unconscious in the room. Then some crazy glowing skeleton, tomb stone, demon looking thing, came out of the room.
"What the hell is that?" Lowell asked as it spun dangerously around the room.
"Is it a coffin? A skeleton?" I asked, not being able to tell just by looking.
Horace, apparently able to talk but not move, informed us that it was called Nebirous. "How could this be?"
"This is a what?" Lowell asked, but then apparently didn't care enough to receive a reply.
"He was supposed to be killed centuries ago!" Horace yelled.
"What are you talking about, old man?" I asked.
"I told you, I am an archaeologist." He started.
"What does that have to do with this giant glowing rock thing that is attacking us right now?" I interrupted.
"I've seen this thing in text books." He informed.
It started towards him as he tried to get up. "Stay down, Horace. We'll deal with this. By the way, did your text book tell you how to kill it?" Dagran yelled.
"Nebirous is immortal… but there may be a way to destroy him." Horace was taking his sweet time telling us. Oh, great. It's immortal… and there may be a way to kill it…
"Get on with it! What do we do?" Then I thought about Zael. "We can't let it run around the house so the quicker you tell us, the quicker we end this!"
"It's slipped my mind!" he whined.
"Of course it did," I muttered.
"We're not making a dent. Retreat for now." Dagran ordered.
"No! Dagran, we can't allow it to get near Zael. He isn't in any condition to fight right now!" I grabbed his arm.
"We can't hurt it! It's just not fair!" Lowell shouted. We ran out towards the balcony. "Maybe if we offer it Horace, it'll give him his wife back."
"I'm trying to remember! Please wait!" Horace shouted after us.
"He must have a weakness, Horace, come on!" I followed Lowell down the balcony, but I didn't want to lead it towards Zael. I stopped and cast a circle, but I wasn't sure if it would even do anything since the thing already seemed to be on fire. I ran towards the thing and tried to lead it the other way. Lowell followed me and called for Dagran, who followed as well.
"What the devil are you doing, Yurick?" Dagran shouted as he followed after me.
I kept running, slowing every now and then to make sure it was going to keep following me. "It can't be near him. I won't let it!" I continued to run until the end of the hallway where there were only two rooms until the grand hall and turned around so it would continue the wild goose chase. "This is the best thing I can think of until Horace tells us what's going on!"
Lowell shrugged and joined me. "It's a good work out."
Dagran just stood there looking at us like we were stupid for running up and down the hallway. "I don't know what's worse, the fact that you are running in circles or the fact that it's chasing you."
I turned around to a cry of pain from the demon thing and saw that it was no longer shiny and on fire. It was black and running scared. Dagran and Lowell charged at it, seeing that it was weakened by something. I looked around it and saw Zael leaned up against the opposite wall with his cross bow. He was panting. I ran passed the now venerable demon and helped Zael stand.
"What are you doing? You're not supposed to be up!" I yelled at him with care.
"I told you," he paused to breathe. He was sweating, too. "I'd be right behind you." He smiled weakly and fell to the floor, with me, again.
"Rest." I tried to maneuver him so he was more comfortable. "By the way, how did you know that arrow would work? What type of arrow was it?"
He held up a beautifully carved arrow with the smoothest head I had ever seen. "Silver arrows are really rare because they are really strong and durable." He smiled again, "I just guessed, but that ass is going to have to give every single one that I fire back to me. They're expensive and I didn't want to have to use them."
I was going to keep talking to him, but the Nebirous was on fire again and began attacking back. Zael held up his crossbow again and, like always, hit the target right in the chest. Its flames disappeared again and it began to run.
"You know, it's pretty sexy how you don't even miss when you're injured." I whispered to his ear.
"You think?" he smiled that cocky smile that I only saw when he bragged about things.
I nodded and bit my lip, looking him in the eyes. He looked so tired though. "How did you know we were over here?"
He shook his head. "You're going to thing this sounds crazy, but that little boy showed me," he pointed towards the far wall. "He also showed me where some extra arrows were."
I followed his finger to 'look at the boy'. "Thank you," I said even though I couldn't see him.
"Zael! One more time, please!" Dagran yelled as he was shoved into a wall.
He lifted his crossbow again and took another shot. He hit Nebirous in the back of what we thought was the head and it screeched in pain again. This time when Dagran and Lowell attacked it, I sent flames to their swords.
"Immortality makes you this stubborn?" Dagran asked as he slashed and stabbed.
"He must have eaten tons of people to get this powerful," I said with a shiver. I wasn't as scared anymore. Zael, even though he was injured, was the most powerful assurance that I could have ever had. That and I just wanted this all to be over so I could get him out of here.
"If we kill this thing, Meredith'll be safe, right? Then we can get out of here?" Zael scratched his nose, "I'm sick of all these bats."
I laughed. Me too.
"That's more like it. It's a man's job to save a damsel in distress!" Lowell ran towards us to trap the thing between the two of them.
"Zael!" Dagran shouted again.
He shot again, narrowly missing Lowell's head.
"Whoa, mate! Watch it!" Lowell shouted, putting his hand to his ear. "I need that!"
"I wasn't going to hit you as long as you didn't move in front of me," he smiled.
I thought about how crazy our group was and why I ended up loving it so much even though I always said I hated them.
"Yurick, do me a favor, would ya?" Lowell asked as the arrow hit the demon, causing it to screech again. I nodded. "Fuse magic with me for the blades." I nodded again and we both cast our elements onto his and Dagran's swords. A fire and ice blend usually dealt twice the damage. They both charged for it and smacked it around a few more times until it cried out so loudly, I swore my ears would bleed. It fell to the ground and exploded into a giant cloud of purple smoke.
"It's dead?" I perked up. "We can go home! Woo!" I threw one arm up in the air.
"He's a little scamp, isn't he?" Lowell laughed.
Dagran ran over to us and helped me get Zael to his feet. "Couldn't have done it without you, mate." He hugged him lightly.
"What about Meredith?" Zael asked, trying to walk.
"Umm… well, Horace seems to be having a moment with his wife so we should probably leave them be for now." Dagran said awkwardly.
We helped Zael walk back to the grand hall and found Horace, who introduced us all to his wife, who seemed too good for him, but hey, love is love.
Lowell teased me some more about how I screamed and sounded like a coward and so on and so forth. After a while we left.
"Man-eating mansion, huh? Nothing to it." I joked.
"Oh, so you weren't flapping about screaming like a little girl, then?" Lowell poked back.
"Me? Scream? No idea what you're talking about." I saw Zael smile and look the other way. I knew he was laughing at me, too, but him I don't mind.
"You, uh, pissed your pants there." Lowell pointed to my trousers.
"What?" I looked down, "I don't think so. It's sweat." I argued.
At last the night in the haunted mansion was over.
"I don't know what or who that boy was," Zael whispered, seemingly to himself, but since he was on my shoulder, I heard him. "But I think he's resting in peace now. This mansion seems calmer. I don't think strange things will happen here anymore." He looked seriously down at the ground. I kissed his cheek and we walked, almost silently, back to the tavern.
When we reached the tavern, Mirania immediately ran over everyone else there to see what was wrong with Zael.
"I just need a good rest," he said.
"I can do some recovery magic, if you want."
"No, Mirania, but thank you." He looked up at me, "Can you help me up the stairs?"
I smiled. "Of course, but first…" I looked over at Syrenne. "Hey, Syrenne. Lowell tried to get you eaten. He said you had some 'real prime beef'." I really wanted to see her hit him.
She stood up, nearly falling over from how drunk she was. "You bloomin' bastard. To cowardly to let yourself get eaten? Had to offer up a woman, hmm? Well, I thought you were a lady's man. I guess I'll have to teach you a thing or two on how to treat a woman!" I saw Lowell back up as she approached him with mug in hand and that was good enough for me. I helped Zael up the stairs and to our room.
"Yurick," he started as I set him on the bed, "I need to rest, but…" he groaned as I laid him down and pulled off his boots. "I don't want to be alone tonight." I smiled sincerely and helped him out of his armour, but not his clothes. I didn't want him to get cold tonight.
"I'll stay. It's not like I have anything more important than taking care of you." He smiled back and I ran a hand through his hair, feeling how soft it was mixed with the feathers he always wore.
"I mean with me. It's going to be cold tonight." He rubbed his hand along my arm. "I don't want you to be cold."
"I don't think Dagran-," I started.
"I don't care. I felt like I lost you today and my heart was ripped out. I need to recover from that." He met my gaze, "I need you."
I sighed and took off my armour and boots as well. Then I pulled the blanket over him and climbed into the small bed with him, my head on his chest and my arms around his neck. I felt his arms wrap around my waist and, I must have been more exhausted than I thought, I fell asleep.