Chapter 14

While Salvago had been speaking, the townspeople entranced by Violet had continued on, more and more disappearing down the road. There hadn't been any sign of them in the part of the town I had seen, but there was a lower section of the town that might have been there destination.

I watched them go as Salvago returned to Violet, to oversee the work being performed on them. I was left alone with Katya, who watched the man depart.

"So what happens nows?" I asked, turning to her. My words drew her gaze back from the dark wizard, and I thought I saw something there. Perhaps her willingness to follow him stemmed from something deeper she'd felt for him before all of this began.

"Yannis needs to rest," she said softly. "Once he has, you will either join us willingly, or you will serve him as a thrall."

"What if I don't want to do either?" She frowned at my question. "I mean, I heard the guy's speech. I get that he's got motivations." Not that I was sure about this dark corruption he was talking about. "But that doesn't change the fact that what he's doing is wrong."

"It is not ideal, but there is no other way," Katya said, her accent thickening as she grew more insistent. I wasn't sure if she was trying to convince me, or keep herself convinced.

"Look, if there's a corruption in the White Council, I'm all for fixing it," I assured her. "The last thing I want is more wizards running around starting fires. But enslaving those that disagree with you isn't accomplishing anything but spreading more of that darkness you seem so concerned about. Even Salvago knows that."

The warden's frown deepened at my words, but she didn't reply. "What? You didn't notice that?" I asked.

"What do you speak of?" she asked warily.

"Did you notice how he could justify his cause?" I urged her. "But when I asked him about those who'd stand against him, he just shut down? Walked away?" I took a tentative step closer to her. Not too close, seeing as she was a warrior wizard with a sword and a gun, but close enough to whisper. "Deep down he knows what he's doing is wrong. That enthralling other people is a violation. A violation of free will."

I could tell my words were reaching her, but I wasn't sure if they were sinking in. "And what about these zombies? Does raising the dead sound like something the good guys should be doing?"

"It is a means to an end," she recited by rote, although I could tell it bothered her.

"Ends justifying the means; where have I heard that before?" I asked sarcastically.

"It is… not ideal," she repeated. "But he cannot stand alone against this darkness. When the others join him, he will not resort to this."

"Sure, I bet putting aside all that power will be easy." I shrugged. "It's not like others haven't done just that. I'm sure there are plenty examples of necromancers just stopping with all the dark magic once they've accomplished something."

"He is different," she insisted.

"Damn right he's different," I hissed. "Is that the man you knew? Is this something he would have done, before all this started?"

Katya looked over at him, and her expression softened somewhat. "Bonding with the Hound… changed him, yes," she admitted. "And he has changed more with each new bond. But he is still the man I— the man I knew."

I might have felt cocky at guessing correctly at her feelings, had I not been so distracted by her other words. "He's growing worse, isn't he? Losing himself as he forces his… essence on others." I refused to believe a mortal soul could be twisted and torn by another.

The warden looked to me, her eyes narrowing as she realized she might have said too much. "You will have an hour to decide. Then he will be ready." She indicated a building across the way. The one we stood beside was one of two three-story buildings in the square. It seemed I was to now be held in the other; the one furthest from escape.

I hesitated to obey, and considered running. Katya seemed to realize what I was thinking, and he hand fell to her sword hilt when I didn't start moving.

"Why wait?" I asked as I obeyed her silent command. She trailed after me.

"I told you, he must rest," Katya said as we cut through the square. She broke off as we waited for more Chians to shuffle off, and then we continued on. Only after we were beyond Salvago and the others did she continue. "He cannot perform two bonds so quickly."

"What do you mean—" I started, until we walked into the building, and I found out for myself.

Just inside the door stood two silent guardians. The eyes of both held traces of green light, the sight of it eerie in the dark building. The first was Rai, the young man who'd been taken when he defended Penny in the graveyard. He stood stoically, staring out into space on one side of the door.

The second was Penny.

I froze just inside the door, my hands clenching helplessly as I looked at her. Her face was slack, and her eyes held no recognition of me. Someone had retrieved the twisted staff she'd drop in the alley, as she bore it in her left hand. Her right held her copper wand.

"How could you let him do this?" I asked hoarsely. "She's just a girl. He's just a boy. They're just kids."

"They will serve a greater purpose than any they could have hoped for," she said, apparently not realizing she sounded like the poster child for Mad Magicians Monthly.

"Are they dead?" My voice was soft, barely a whisper. For some reason, I didn't want what was left of them to hear her answer.

"The boy died," she confirmed. "But Yannis is concerned with how weak they have become. He has decided to try and bond with the still living, in hopes that their power will not be as diminished."

"Peña and Somboon are weak?" I asked, feeling a little sick to my stomach.

"Their magical and combat capabilities are diminished," she informed me. "They are shadows of what they once were. He is afraid that restoring their souls after death loses something. He has tried something new with the girl, although we do not yet know if he succeeded."

I looked at Penny, feeling a profound sense of loss. I recalled the innocent worry she'd had for my welfare when we'd first met; how she'd run across a battlefield to check on two people she hadn't known. I thought back on the selflessness I'd seen in her as we worked throughout the night, her staff and leaves healing the injured as much as she could, pushing herself beyond her limits. I remembered the girl that had laughed and chatted with Sal, brightening the darkest day of my life with her spirits.

All of that was gone now. There was no trace of that girl in those eyes.

"I will not let him do this," I said softly, turning a hard gaze to Katya. "Not to anyone else."

"Your threat is hollow," she replied, her tone hardening as she pushed me toward a room. "In an hour you will see."

"Why does he even want me?" I growled, my temper flaring. "I'm not a wizard! I have no power!"

"I think it is because of the nymph," the warden said. "He needs her, which means he needs you."

With that, the woman closed the feeble door they'd constructed. It was symbolic at best; I could kick it open if needed. The real security lay beyond the door, in the two thralls I would have to face if I fled. Two thralls which I would not be able to hurt, even in their current state.

So she left me, thinking that she and her master had cornered me. Thinking that they had taken away my hope. And perhaps they had.

But her final words had restored it.

I quickly inspected my prison, which didn't take long. It was a large room, consisting of a stone floor, four stone walls, and four stone columns supporting the stone ceiling. Stone, stone, everywhere, and not a sandstone snap to throw.

There were two arched windows on the outer wall that looked out over the city. Glancing outside, I could see where the small town on the mountain sloped away. Due to the nature of the town's construction, there was a roof of another building below the window, but the drop looked perilously far. Had I had my snap bracelet, I might have considered using a wind funnel spell to slow my descent. It looked like the houses all connected together, and a series of small leaps might allow me to run across all the way through the village.

The only problem was taking that first step.

There was no outer ledge; the exterior wall was smooth all the way down, with no footholds for me to use. Even if I'd crawled out and hung down as low as I could, the drop would likely end with a broken limb or two. At best, I 'd earn myself some sprained ankles, which wouldn't really help with the whole leaping from roof to roof thing.

My hour passed, and the others came for me.

The door opened, and I heard Katya start to speak, "It is time— what are you doing?"

What I was doing was sitting Indian style on the window ledge, having spent most of the hour meditating. I felt as energized as I'd ever felt with self-meditation, which was well short of even the slightest session with Anya. But I'd done what I could to prepare myself.

I opened my eyes to find Katya and Peña standing just inside the door.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Well, let's get this over with." I sat up, and draped my waist over the window so that my legs were dangling out.

"Are you mad?!" Katya shouted, taking a step forward.

"Don't come any closer!" I shouted as I slid further out. "I'll jump!"

"You are already doing that!" she shouted back. But she didn't come any closer.

I slipped the rest of the way out the window, with my grip on the inner ledge the only thing from preventing my fall. Then it was just my fingertips, as I went all or nothing. "On second thought, help!"

"Get him, before he kills himself!" Katya shouted.

"I think my hands are slipping!" I called out, not entirely joking.

Peña was there in a flash, his large hand gripping one wrist while another reached out to grab my collar. The larger man started hauling me up by brute strength alone, with Katya watching on. When he had me, I grabbed his arm and collar as well. My bare feet kicked against the stone wall, twisting him slightly as I tried to make sure I didn't fall.

"Stop struggling!" Katya said. My efforts were complicating matters, and I ended up pulling Peña off balance. He dipped dangerously far outside the opening just as I got my feet planted on the window ledge.

Then, I pulled him out the window, and pushed off with my feet.

As I propelled us out, I made sure to twist while I still had leverage. The warden's feet kicked out as well, but couldn't gain enough purchase to affect our descent. When we both finally cleared the building, Peña was beneath me, and I did my best to make sure he remained there.

Look, I saw it in a movie or television show once, and I was pretty sure it worked out okay then, too.

The drop was only several stories, and Peña didn't have time to adjust. I saw his eyes widen as he realized what was going to happen, and he took appropriate measures. The earth mage's spell lashed out a mere second before we landed, but it was enough. The stone roof of the building beneath us splashed like sand, and then we were crashing through to the top floor.

My weight landed on top of the wizard, and I heard ribs crack beneath me. Thankfully they weren't mine this time, although the experience wasn't all that pleasant for me either. I managed to recover from the landing a lot faster than he did, and snapped out a couple punches.

They dazed him, which was enough to buy me the time I needed to get the hell out of there.

I ran out the door of the room, and then down the stairs, leaping over the dead in the process. I was out the front in a flash, stepping over a couple bodies as I ran across the narrow ledge that counted as a street, and then I jumped into open space.

There was a second there when I began to question my plan. I'd been hoping that Peña would be with Katya when she came for me. I could have made do with Somboon as well, but it probably would have ended bloodier. If Katya had come alone, then I would have felt bad about her death, but I'd live it with. Hopefully.

Once we were out the window, there were really only two options. The first was that Peña did nothing to soften our fall, which meant being on top was essential. Assuming I survived, I'd set off down the series of roofs on that level, which would carry a good distance toward my destination.

The second option was what transpired, resulting in me having to jump down to the next level I'd seen, a much shorter jump that could have gone much worse than it did. My landing wasn't stellar, but I rolled with it, and then I was on my feet, jumping down to the adjacent roof. One after the other, I made my way down the curving row of ancient buildings, all while shouts called out from atop the hill.

The first problem with my plan came earlier than expected. I'd seen from my window that there was a gap between the upper section of town and the lower section. I'd only been in the higher area, and knew nothing of what awaited me once I ran out of houses to jump on. At some point I'd have to descend to the surface, where I'd have to contend with the zombies lying all over the place.

What I hadn't expected was for one of the ancient ceilings to give way under me, leaving me falling into the one of the houses.

I landed hard, with rubble cascading across my back as I fumbled through the room. It was made more difficult by the mass of bodies lying on the floor, the stench of which made me gag.

"Oh God," I exclaimed as I pushed myself up off the zombies, my fingers pressing into intestines on one side and an eye-socket on the other. I did by best not to hurl as I slipped across the slick floor, stirring up a cloud of green mist in the process.

And then the first of the undead began to rise.

They weren't like zombies you see in the movies or on television. There was only a limited number of them that had enough flesh and tendons to hold themselves together. What the bodies lacked had to be compensated for magically.

As they began to shift about, supernatural flesh began to spread across them, a ghostly green substance similar to the mist I'd seen in the graveyard. It swelled as they became active, filling the room.

"Excuse me," I said to what was left of a woman that was entirely too fresh, who happened to grasp at me as I slipped by. "Sorry! Hey, not the junk!"

I ended up pushing my way through the one-story home, and then I was out the door and into the street. Every inch of the road seemed to be covered in the dead, and all of them began to shift and rise as I darted around them.

"No wonder they weren't guarding me to begin with," I gasped as I avoided the grasping fingers of a skeleton, the flesh slowly filling in as it absorbed the mist to itself. "These things probably would have made a ruckus if I'd headed the wrong way."

I ran as fast as I could, which isn't very fast when the road is made of the dead. It took me a precious few minutes to reach the end of the upper level, and then I was sliding down a steep rocky slope toward the lower tier.

"Fuck!" I shouted as I bounced, and ended up rolling end over end for a minute.

There was a flight of steps I could have used, but it was covered in the rising dead. I managed to slow my descent, and then skidded to a stop just short of the steps. The zombies ahead of me were still pulling themselves together, but there was no way I'd make it down the steps.

Looking out, I saw the first of the lower tier houses. There was one not too far from the cliff beside the stairway, but it was at least five yards out. Trying to make that jump would be nerve-wracking without knowing that if I fell short, I'd be pulled to pieces by a thousand corpses.

I glanced behind me, and saw Peña not forty yards up slope and coming fast. Because of course he could ride a wave of earth down the hill without any issue, his magic knocking zombies aside as he came.

Knowing I was out of options, I turned and ran, jumping out to the far roof.

I made it, but only barely. A zombie grabbing my ankle at the last second hadn't helped my momentum, but it hadn't been fully formed, so the hand came with me. I pried it off once I was on the roof and tossed it aside, and then I was leaping from one building to the next, hoping I could outrun the enthralled warden.

The wave of waking dead had well exceeded my escape, and as I ran and leapt, angry forms raged and flailed in the streets beneath me. As long as none of them could reach the tops of the buildings, I'd be fine.

I was halfway through the lower section when the roof I was running across buckled, and I was sent tumbling toward the edge.

I managed to skid to a stop before I fell off, and pulled myself back onto the roof just as Peña rode his earthen wave up to the top of the two-story structure.

"Shit," I said as I scrambled to my feet, backing away to one side, trying to keep some distance between myself and the man that had just unsheathed his sword. "Let's talk about this."

The thrall remained silent as he stalked forward, his bare sword held at his side.

"I give up! I surrender!" I said, raising my hands.

The warden feinted to my left, and I moved away, only to meet his sword thrust when he adjusted. The tip sank into the Balaur leather jacket I wore, which I knew from experience was just as tough as the dragon skin itself.

And just like the dragon skin, the leather was no match for an enchanted sword.

The sword cut through the leather as if it were bought off the rack, and sank into my gut. I felt the tip punch through my lower back after making its way through my intestines.

I stared at the man in shock, my fingers grasping at the blade, as if I could pull it from my body; as if I could undo what he'd done. I tried to think of what to do, but my mind was frozen. My mouth worked, but nothing came.

I was held there, pinned on his sword, until he suddenly ripped it to the side. The blade shredded my flesh, and I fell to the rooftop, a nauseas quivering sensation rippling through me as my intestines worked their way out of my body.

There was… there was something I could do. I was sure of it. There was… there was something I could say that could undo this. Make it better. It didn't end like this. There had to be more.

I stared up from the roof, looking into the eyes of the man that had just gutted me. There was no light to see by, save for the faint green glow in his eyes. The sky was overcast, so no stars would see me on my way.

My feet kicked feebly, sliding across the roof without finding traction, as the warden stepped forward, raising his sword for a mercy blow. I couldn't raise my hands to ward off the attack; I was too busy trying to hold myself together.

My head fell back as my heart struggled to beat. I had lost too much blood. I could feel it pooling beneath me, until everything started to go numb. I could feel it in my breath, bubbles forming at the corners of my lips. I tried to turn to look at the man, but I couldn't move my head from where it'd fallen. I couldn't move anything.

Time seemed to slow down at the end. The sky was so dark. So dark. Shadows flickered, blackness. Red. Red eyes in shadows. A cry, inhuman. A clash of steel. A wrenching sensation.

And then…