Chapter 19

The burst of light blinded me, and I fell back from the table, tumbling out of my wheelchair as the ward lamp's stone exploded.

Needlepoints of pain throbbed all across the hand that had been touching the stone, save for the fingertip capped in the magic thimble. I flexed my right hand, and felt everything respond like it was supposed to. I could feel tiny shards of stone beneath the skin, though.

What I couldn't do was see them.

"Are you alright?" Amy asked worriedly, a vague form in the all-encompassing white moving around in front of me. I tried blinking, and colors started returning, circles and blobs of different hues that had nothing to do with the objects and people in the room.

"I'm okay," I assured her. "Just blinded."

The blur moved away. "I'm sorry, I should have warned you to disconnect."

"What happened?" I asked, as dark shadows began to return where they belonged. The shades of light were almost three-dimensional again, and I saw the outlines of the others moving about quickly.

"A lightning strike," Kyveli said as she helped me stand and get situated in the wheelchair again. "A very large one. It came down where one of the lanterns had been placed."

"Somboon used his death curse," Nelson said as he moved about. I couldn't quite make out what he was doing. "He must have called down a full strike on the ward lamp. It's been blown away."

"Is the wall down, then?" I asked, my vision beginning to pick up details. Nelson was hunched over the map table, while Amy was speaking softly to the others via the speaking stones.

"The southern fifth," Nelson said. "Zombies are coming through in the southwest. The rest are still standing."

"Not for long," Amy muttered. When we looked toward her, I saw the hazy outline of her head shake slowly. "Martin and Anya just figured out what Peña was up to all this time."

I thought back on my time in the skulls, and realized that once the battle had begun, the noise from the other stones had become muted. Words and sound had still traveled through, but not enough to distract me or the others from their duties. Apparently Amy had remained in communication with everyone.

"What was it?" Nelson asked.

"They said he's—" the goth wizard started. Her words broke off, and I saw her turn toward the map table.

I did as well, but still couldn't make out any sense of what I was seeing. Nelson could, though, and his curses echoed off the walls. It was the first time I'd ever seen him lose his composure.

Then again, he'd seen his apprentice cut down only a few moments ago. So maybe that was understandable.

"What is it?" I asked the room.

"The wall is down," Kyveli said softly.

"The others were reporting that Peña never attacked," Amy said, her face looking even more like a skull than usual as my vision slowly returned. "They took some shots at him, but didn't want to be lured out. Seems that he was using his earth magics to undermine the supports for the crystal relays."

"What about the protective circles?" I asked. I'd seen Penny's magics flail against them.

"He didn't attack the ward lamp itself," Amy informed me. "He basically just caused a minor earthquake that knocked out the crystal repeaters."

"The northern third is still up," Nelson said, his voice calming as he worked through his emotions. "Not that it matters at this point."

"Moretti and the others are falling back," Amy reported quickly. "No response from Simon or Lane since the strike."

"The police are still in place, yes?" Kyveli asked.

"Last I heard," the goth girl replied. "But that was before a horde of zombies had a clear shot into the city."

"I will touch base with my sisters and those in charge," the woman said, quickly moving away. I rolled my wheelchair over to the map table, where I could see a haze of green moving toward the outer streets of the city.

"Where are the others?" Nelson asked. "I can't track them with all of the enemy units washing over everything."

"Martin and Anya are heading toward Simon and Lane's last known position," Amy replied, her dark eyes distant. "Vaccaro has rerouted to take Penny to safety. Moretti, Argondian, and the goblin are joining the law officers."

"What about Peña?" I asked.

"Martin said he fell back once the ward wall fell," Amy said. "It seems like they're willing to let the zombies do the heavy lifting."

"More like Salvago didn't want to lose him, too," Nelson said softly. "He's down three Revenants."

"Makes sense," I said with a nod. "He's only got Peña and Katya left."

"What about the others?" Amy asked. "The shepherds or whatever?"

"Violet and the Hound are out commission until nightfall," I reminded her. "He probably kept Katya back to guard him."

"Not just that," Amy corrected me. When I looked to her, I could finally make out details. "Argondian is reporting that sniper fire is taking out the civilian response leaders."

"Damn it," I cursed, banging my fist on the arm of the wheelchair. I managed to stand, but only made it three steps before my head spun. Nelson was there, and pushed me back toward the chair. "Easy," he said. I felt like I was in one piece, but I didn't have the energy to resist him.

"I wish Anya were here," I muttered, glancing at the table, and the green dots that began to enter into the city limits. "If I could top off my tanks, I might be able to do someone some good."

Nelson looked at me, and then my stomach. "You're really healed?"

"Yes," I insisted. "Just tired. But a feeding session always fills me with energy."

A thoughtful look crossed his face. "She had just fed on you when you kept up with me back at the cottage."

"Yeah," I said, not understanding what he was getting at.

"I wonder if a spell circle could match the effect of what she does?" he mused with a soft frown.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Like the one we used earlier…" he said, seeming to ignore me.

I looked back and forth between him and what he was studying, which appeared to be my stomach. When he finally noted my attention, he coughed. "While healing you, we used a spell to try and harness the power from your Manipura," he said. "The chakra point I told you about before."

"So?" I asked. I could hear Amy working to one side of the room.

"It was quite successful," he said. "Once the spell was triggered, your body healed itself. Your lingering weakness is not due to injury, but the blood loss, and the recovery from the infusions."

I frowned. "Can you repeat the spell?"

"Well, it seems the spell was excessive," Nelson said. "At least compared to what you would require now. But I might be able to draw a circle over the chakra point, to aide your own meditative healing."

"Alright," I said quickly, willing to try whatever it took to help. I pulled the scrub top off and started picking at the bandages around me. Nelson let me work on that while he recovered a marker.

Once the bandages were off, he used a piece of fabric to rub away the last of the paint from their last efforts. It gave me an opportunity to look at the tender scar along my left side. My fingers traced it, running across the staples they'd used to hold me together. The metal didn't look like anything you'd find in a hospital setting, though. Most likely the magnetic mage had crafted staples from something else to punch into me as I lay dying. They ran from the front of my belly all the way around to my back.

I shuttered, knowing that I should, by all rights, be dead.

A dark worry took root in that moment, as I wondered if Salvago had thought the same thing.

My body shook, and Nelson looked up at me. "You need to hold still. This is delicate work, and I'm not very good with my right hand," he said, gesturing toward the sling he wore on his left.

"You did well enough the first time," I assure him.

"Argondian handled that," Nelson said as he concentrated. "I'm left handed."

"Never trust a lefty," I mumbled, repeating an old adage my father had tried to instill into me. I frowned at the thought. A sense of deja vu came over me, as if I'd recently talked about that with someone. But I couldn't remember with who, or where.

"Alright," Nelson said, sitting back. I looked down at my stomach, which was stretched out straight in the chair. There was a circle with triangle, a series of what looked like might be petals on the outside, and some odd symbols here and there. "Just meditate like you normally would."

"No magic words?" I asked. He just shook his head, so I sat up again, and closed my eyes. I thought of the mantra Olivia had taught me, and concentrated on the point in my navel where the power flowed from during Anya's feedings. I'd never felt it in my solo meditations, but I assumed it was the same point providing the energy; I was simply incapable of drawing enough at once to sense it.

Until then.

As I got rolling with the mantra, a familiar warm feeling began to flow out and across my body. I almost lost concentration, but recovered quickly, and allowed the power of the apple-seed to do what it could for my weary body.

After about five minutes, I stopped, and opened my eyes. Nelson and Amy were busy coordinating with the others, and Kyveli had returned at some point. Her head swiveled to me as I rose, feeling much more steady on my feet.

"Did it work?" Nelson asked, shifting his gaze.

"Yeah," I said, touching my left side as I took a few tentative steps around the room. The wound was tight, as were the muscles beneath it. I tried stretching, and winced at the pinch of the staples. But the exhaustion was gone. "Not one hundred percent, but better."

"Good," the wizard said, his gaze reverting back to the map. "Tell Serg to give up that street and head south," he told Amy. "They're about to overrun his position."

I looked to Kyveli, who filled me in. "Several of the police units broke when the undead appeared in the mist. More fell back to the city limits when the sniper opened fire, killing several high ranking officials. Now they're trying to hold ground, to prevent the undead from reaching those that didn't evacuate."

"There are people still in town?" I asked, startled.

"There was not time to get everyone away," she replied. "Not that some would leave. Most are behind locked doors, but there are reports of some houses being overrun."

"Dammit," I said, leaning on the map table. I could see where the green had washed over the first third of the southern part of the city; the fog of green sparks hadn't crept into the north end of town. Blue dots were spread here and there, indicating where the others were trying to hold back the horde.

My eyes drifted westward, toward the hills leading to the mountains. There was a smattering of green dots there; a small group of zombies that hadn't joined the others in the assault on the city, but were still advancing slowly.

"That's where Salvago is," I said, pointing to it. The group hadn't been identifiable before the horde had moved into the city.

"We can't get to him," Nelson replied, frustration seeping into his voice. "There's thousands of zombies between us."

"Fight fire with fire," I said softly as I stared at the map. "Is there a high enough building with line of sight to this point?" I asked Kyveli.

"Yes, several," she replied. I gestured toward the map, and she indicated one to the south that was close to the line of advancing zombies.

"How easy is it to work all of this?" I asked, gesturing toward the map. At Nelson's bewildered look, I continued. "I mean, can Salvago control the storm, draw from it, control his Revenants, and control the zombies, all while maintaining an air shield?"

Nelson blinked at the last. "Maybe. Maybe not."

"Let's say we find out," I said, standing up. "I'm going to need a few things things."

The others just blinked at me, but moved quick enough once I'd outlined my plan.

I only hoped that I could make it to the church before it was overrun. If not, then the whole city might fall, and us with it.

The first thing they gave me was my duffel bag, which I'd last left with Rose as we started saving the towns the night before. In it was the last of my spare underclothes, which I put to good use. Next was my black leather jeans, which didn't smell too much like I'd been rolling around in corpses.

Then came my leather jacket, which chilled me to the bone.

My blood was still on it, soaking into the the inner lining. There wasn't much; the armorers over at Monoc Securities that had worked the raw Balaur skin into clothing hadn't given much consideration to chaffed nipples. What little lining there was had now been throughly soaked in my lifeblood. The left side was sliced horizontally, where the Warden's sword had easily cut through the spellworked leather.

I ran my fingers along the tear, silently wondering when I'd get around to addressing those dark thoughts I kept suppressing.

After donning the coat, I put on my pistol harnesses, slipping a Beretta Px4 under each arm. I was glad I'd removed them; otherwise they'd be lost in some building in Anavatos, along with my spear, boots, bracelets, and rings.

I was really missing my rings. I'd worn the bone-white gift from Violet ever since she'd given it to me, taking it off only on rare occasions. The silver steel rings that linked with the spear had also become part of my regular gear, and my hands felt bare and vulnerable.

Part of that might have also been that I'd lost my Balaur leather gloves in Anavatos as well.

Decked out with a few of my weapons and some borrowed shoes that didn't quite fit, I went down to street level, where I met Kyveli and Amy. They had three more of the things I'd asked for, the first being one of Amy's communication stones. I hung it around my neck while Kyveli displayed the ancient rifle she'd retrieved.

"It was in a museum adjacent to the old fort complex," she said with some chagrin. "It was the best I could manage in such a short time."

The rifle looked like it hadn't been fired since the second World War, if not before that. But at least the museum staff had done a good job oiling it and preparing it for long-term storage. All the parts that were supposed to move did so, and I sighted down the old scope, pleased to see the lenses were intact.

"Here, do what you can," I told Amy as I passed the gun to her. Kyveli passed off a small box of ammunition as well. The young wizard was already pulling a tool from her bag as Kyveli walked me over to the last thing I'd asked for. "Start with a bullet, and then see about the rifle."

"Be careful with her," Kyveli said from beside a little moped, patting the seat fondly. "She is mine."

"I'll take good care of her," I assured her as I donned my motorcycle helmet and glasses. At least those had been stored in my duffel bag, and not lost with everything else in Anavatos. "She won't get a scratch."

The native Greek woman surprised me with a bright smile and an appropriate response. "I have your word now. Not a scratch!"

I laughed, the light-hearted moment interrupted by the sharp crack of thunder. "Alright, if we succeed, it'll hopefully make things easier for you and your sisters."

I climbed onto the bike, and Amy shuffled forward, awkwardly slinging the gun around her front so that she could work on it. "Hold on," she said as she pulled the string from her hood. I glanced back at her, watching as she muttered something beneath her breath. When she was done, she tied the string to a belt loop on her skirt, and then the other end went on one of my own.

"What's that going to do?" I asked doubtfully.

The girl muttered something else, and a tingle rippled across my skin. "We're now bound. I won't have to hold onto you, so I can work on this," she said, gesturing to the gun and bullets.

"Okay," I said doubtfully. I turned forward again and started up the little motor.

"May the gods be with you," the old woman said as I got ready to pull out. "My sisters and I will continue our efforts."

I nodded my thanks, and then we were off.

I drove us across the sidewalks, the roads themselves jammed with the abandoned vehicles of those who had fled eastward. The scant number of buildings inside the old fort wall were packed full of refugees, as were the buildings closer to the docks. From what Kyveli said, every boat along the coast had been taken out, filled to capacity with women and children. A few brave souls had started swimming, thinking that the threat of drowning was better than the sure death at the hands of the undead.

It was clear that the populace hadn't bought the stories of airborne fungal growth. Everyone had seen a zombie movie or two in their time; they knew what was coming from within the creeping emerald mist.

There were few people out on the street. A scattering of fleeing civilians passed us a couple times, heading further east toward the coast. I wasn't sure what they were hoping to find, but maybe they'd be lucky.

Based on the directions Kyveli had given us, I estimated we were about halfway to our destination when we came across the first mass of zombies.

"Shit!" I shouted, cutting the wheel to the left as the ambling bodies appeared at the corner we had been passing. Bony fingers reached for us, and I gunned the engine of the little moped, scraping against an abandoned vehicle as we swerved away.

The spell the goth wizard had used to tie us together worked; as my body leaned to the left, so did hers. I noticed our limbs weren't linked together, though. Her arms flailed for a second at the unexpected maneuver, even as I realized it seemed to take me twice as much effort to lean over than it should have. It was as if I were doing all the work for the two of us.

"Hold steady!" Amy shouted at me with a scowl, her dark makeup job making it look all the more sinister. She didn't spare a second glance at the zombie that tugged at her hood before we tore free, shooting off down a side street and away from the mob.

The wizard resumed her work, carving something into a bullet. It took us a few minutes to head south and west, which was the worst possible direction to go with the undead pouring into the city. We had to detour twice more, adding precious seconds to our journey, just to avoid crowds of fleshless skeletons that stumbled across our path.

As I navigated toward the bell tower that was my destination, I rounded one last turn, and came face to face with a horde of the undead.

"Hold on!" I shouted out of habit, even though the wizard was riding without doing just that. The moped jumped the curb as I turned toward the church, and then rode up the short lawn to the heavy double doors at the corner.

Inspired by our sudden appearance, the slow gate of the horde turned into a frenzied run. They were only a dozen yards away when we pulled up to the closed doors.

As we went, I let loose on the small horn on the bike, its mighty beep doing nothing to intimidate the undead. But it did let the people in the church know that we were there, and the doors opened before us just before the front tire hit the wood.

The moped roared between them, and I glanced back to see others slam the doors shut again just as the zombies reached the threshold. The thick wood slabs shook in their frame as dozens of undead hands crashed against them. Those citizens that had fled to the church held the doors shut as they were hastily locked.

I felt a tug again as Amy undid the string binding us, even as a man with a priest's collar cut through the small crowd within the church. "They called and said you would need to get to the tower?"

"Yes," I said as I killed the engine and climbed off the moped. I gave it a grateful tap before following the priest. Amy trailed after us, her head still down as she concentrated. Finished with the bullet, the round now resided between her teeth as she went to work on the rifle itself. "We need a clear view to the west."

"The southern tower provides the best view," the man said, and led us to a stairwell that wound its way several stories up. I thanked him, and quickly started ascending.

When we reached the top, I pushed open the access door, and then helped Amy out onto the small platform beneath the bell. The hatch slammed shut as we looked out over the city, and the carnage that had been unleashed upon its innocent masses.

The town was ablaze further south. I couldn't be sure if that was a result of the zombies, or from the failure of the wards they'd used to temper the forest fires. In the end, it didn't matter. Those that had remained home were left with the horrible choice of staying and burning, or fleeing into the arms of the undead.

I turned my attention to the west, ignoring the sounds I could hear all around me. The zombies were eerily silent as they worked their way through the city, but the screams of those they came across were not. I forced myself to concentrate on the task at hand, and scanned the horizon for any sign of Salvago.

"It's done," Amy finally said, holding up the bullet. I took it, and noted the etchings on the barrel and housing. "Should I start on another round, just in case?"

"No," I said, taking the proffered one. "We'll likely only have one good shot. See what you can do to improve the rifle itself," added, as I slid the ancient lens off of the rifle and handed her the gun. Amy seemed to consider it for a moment, the dark makeup around her distant eyes giving me chills as the screams around us grew louder.

From the map we'd seen, Salvago was about a mile west of our position. I trained the scope on the distant horizon, and then used the telescoping spell on my glasses. The two combined were disorienting, but I eventually found a combination that allowed me to see far enough.

On a far hill, just over a mile outside the town, stood a ring of zombies. In their midst was the pulsing light from the Salvago's spear, shining in the night to reveal his location. He was there beside it, his eyes glazed as he held his hands aloft. Green tendrils drifted out, joining the emerald haze that extended into the city.

There was no sign of Katya. But with the reports of sniper fire, I knew she was there somewhere.

I closed my eyes before taking the scope away from my eyes and releasing the spell. I blinked as I looked to Amy, who was busy working on the rifle.

It didn't take her long, but it seemed like an eternity. But every second is too much when you can see people suffering. A family on the street below had been heading for the church, but turned back when the the horde spotted them. I pulled one of my Berettas and dropped a couple of the zombies that gave chase, but more rounded the corner after them. I could only hope I'd bought them time.

After a short epoch, Amy handed me the rifle back.

"Thanks," I said as I re-attached the scope back to the gun, and then chambered the round the wizard had worked on. The shot was going to be nearly impossible. Aside from the distance, and the age of the gun, and its condition, there was also the ring of zombies shuffling around the wizard to contend with. "This will be like Katya's, right?" I asked, hoping the young wizard had managed to put the extra touches needed to make the impossible shot just this side of unlikely.

"Probably," the goth girl said with a shrug that didn't inspire me to confidence. "I've never tried to work spells on a gun or bullet before."

Great. I'd hoped the little wizard, who Vaccaro had said was quite good at crafting objects, would be able to duplicate the spells Katya used on her own rounds. According to Argondian, she apparently had an assortment she used. The ones I'd asked Amy to duplicate were for accuracy, increased range, and maybe a little luck.

With the target a little over a mile away, and with us using an ancient weapon, I was pretty sure we'd need all three.

"Aren't you going to… you know? Shoot?" Amy asked after a minute. Her calm demeanor was quickly eroding as she finally took note of the chaos below. The church doors were under full assault by the undead, and we could hear the sound of glass breaking as they tried to come in through the windows. I wondered what protection, if any, holy ground would offer those trapped inside.

"Not unless I have to," I told her. At her startled glanced, I continued. "I'm a good shot, don't get me wrong. But I'm no Olympics marksman."

"But if you're not going to shoot, who—" she began, before yelping in surprise as a killing machine with decades of experience with every weapon imaginable leapt over the railing of the bell tower to land silently beside us.

"Is that the best you could do?" Q rasped as he took the rifle from me. The goblin was careful to hold it by the wooden stock as he eyed it critically.

"Best on short notice," I informed him. I pointed in the direction I'd seen Salvago and handed him my glasses. He had crafted them himself, and knew the telescoping spell as well as I did. Even if he did resent the fact that I'd use one of Tolkien's elven languages for the command words. "Target's over there."

"Gloves?" he asked, glaring at the metal barrel and trigger on the gun. When I shook my head, he handed it back and shrugged off his leather jacket.

"Sorry, I lost mine," I said, as I watched him prepare to tear apart his Zombieland t-shirt. But a ripping sound drew him short, and we both looked back to Amy. The girl had picked up on the issue, and had already torn a length of her shirt from around her belly, and then ripped it in half again. Q took the strips of cloth from the girl, winding them around his palms and fingers like mittens, save for the trigger finger that he wrapped individually. It was crude, and there were gaps where the iron might burn him at a touch, but it was the best we could do.

The wide-eyed girl watched him as he worked. He wasn't bothering with his glamour, which meant that she was getting an eyeful of the goblin's all-natural good looks up close. I got the distinct impression that he was the first such creature she'd ever seen. Curiosity and apprehension warred across her face as she obliquely studied him.

Once his hands were appropriately covered, Q took the gun back and dropped into position at the railing. He cited along the scope, and then hissed out in frustration as he burned his fingertips when trying to adjust it. "Sight it for me," he growled.

Amy stepped forward to do just that, and with his direction, got the scope adjusted appropriately. I stood by, watching, helpless once again. I'd done what I could, but now it was in Q's clawed hands.

The goblin steadied himself, taking a breath as he adjusted the glasses. I held my own, and Amy trembled beside me, waiting for the hammer to fall. An eternity passed, all while I listened to the screams of thousands of citizens fleeing from the horde.

With a slight breath, Q pulled the trigger.

The hammer fell.

The gun exploded.

Q hissed out a curse in Goblinese as metal shards shot back from the barrel. The goblin cast the gun aside, letting it clatter to floor of the bell tower as slivers of iron embedded themselves in his upper body.

"Sorry! I'm sorry!" Amy shouted, her words hushed as the red-eyed goblin glared at her.

I snatched the glasses from his face and grabbed for the discarded rifle, noting that the barrel had flowered open at the end. The rest was intact, as was the scope. I quickly removed the latter and trained it and the telescoping spell on Salvago's location. I needed to confirm what I already knew.

As soon as Q had fired, the zombies below had grown still. A long beat passed as Salvago's control over them failed, leaving thousands upon thousands of undead beasts without a master to order them about.

Some ambled helplessly. Some resumed their frantic efforts after only a few moments, perhaps some fragment of their purpose remaining to drive them after the citizens of Chios. Some, too few to be considered a victory, collapsed where they stood.

There was nothing I could do about that now.

As I trained the glass on the hillside, I saw the ring of zombies that had surrounded the air mage. The man himself was out of sight, even though his spear was still upright. But the pulse of light and sound that rolled out from its tip was gone.

"Come on," I whispered, staring at the guard zombies that had begun to mill about listlessly, as if they'd forgotten what they'd been doing. "Come on."

"I got him," Q growled in obvious pain. "He's dead."

"As dead as the mortally wounded Revenants?" I responded. "Do you really think a bullet is going to end this?"

I cast a glance at him, and saw that he was allowing the wizard girl to remove the slivers of metal from his skin. Each piece burned at his flesh where they'd struck him, and his needle-sharp teeth were clenched in agony. Amy was quickly working her way through them, a small rod from her bag drawing them out one-by-one as she muttered a spell under her breath.

Q's face scrunched up in the ugliest look of confusion I've ever seen. "If we weren't trying to kill him, then…"

Thunder rumbled across the sky as he spoke, and the three of us looked up into the sky as lightning flashed through the clouds. The air itself seemed to ripple, as if some great pressure had suddenly been released.

Then the first drop landed on the roof of the bell tower. It was followed quickly by another, as the skies opened up into a torrential downpour that fell across the city, the pent up rains no longer held back by Salvago's will. The local coven of witches completed their rituals to break through the dark wizard's spells, and let nature run its course.

And as the rain fell, the running water broke through the emerald mists encompassing the horde of zombies, disintegrating that which gave them life.

I looked over the edge, and watched as the supernatural flesh melted away on those below. The dead, fresh or otherwise, crumpled in place as the rains burned through the magics like acid. Within moments, there was nothing left of the army sieging the city.

With one shot, a little luck, and a rain spell from some local hedge witches, the siege of Chios ended.

"YES!" I shouted, brandishing the scope as I pumped my arm in victory. "Take that, you undead piece of sh—"

My celebration was cut short when Katya's explosive round struck the bell tower, unleashing a wall of light and sound and fury that shattered the bell and bricks around us. And then the three of us were falling, as the tower collapsed down upon us.