The next Keeper was seated at the bottom of a tall black tower and wielded a massive war axe made from bone. The fight was, blessedly, as easy as the first; Serana and I took it down with a barrage of arrows and ice spears. Another pulse of soul energy signified that Valerica's barrier had weakened further. Another group of human souls came back to themselves and promptly fled.

With one left to go, we rested, ate, and moved on.

The last and final Keeper was much harder to get to. Serana's Clairvoyance spell led us to what looked like a campfire pit built with stone blocks. Instead of flames, I found myself looking in on a sunburst shape, which glowed the now-familiar purple-white light.

"This is it," Serana said, "This is a portal we need to step on to get to the final Keeper."

I stared at it dubiously, then took a slow deep breath. Bracing myself for pain, I stepped onto the circle.

There was a loud crackling, rushing sound, and my vision went black. I felt myself being pulled across an undetermined distance, and when my vision cleared, I was on some sort of wide balcony on one of the massive towers. There were no railings, just a step into open space. Judging by the drop, I'd say I was several stories in the air.

I stepped off the portal and waited for Serana to join me before cautiously heading up… stairs. Because of course, there are stairs.

I muffled a groan of dismay and the two of us crept up two flights of stairs before meeting the final Keeper on another balcony.

I almost laughed; the Keeper had apparently been staring out over its domain before we had arrived, and was standing right at the edge.

Serana and I shared a glance, and I could see that the same idea had occurred to her. She grinned wickedly, and we acted.

"Hey ugly!"

The Keeper spun to face us, starting to draw a bow made of white bone. An ice spear hit it in the chest, staggering it backward. It caught its balance as its booted heel steadied it right at the very edge of the precipice. I loosed my arrow, and the moonstone tip struck the thing's leg, thrusting it back into open space. The undead figure lost its balance, and could not recover it; it toppled backward off the edge and vanished from view.

I heard a thud and an unpleasant crunching sound even as I crept forward. Then there was a sliding noise, then silence, and finally another, more distant, thud. A blast of soul energy marked the final Keeper as deceased, even as I peered over the edge. Directly below us was the edge of one of the staircases, but no sign of the Keeper. I could only imagine that it had crashed into the staircase, slid off, and then plummeted off the tower.

When Serana and I returned to the tower's base, we found the scattered remains; its bone armor crushed by the fall. I picked up the Keeper's bow, inspecting it minutely for damage. To my surprise and pleasure, it was still intact. The bones, whatever creature they were from, were both strong and light. I pulled back the string, made of some substance I wasn't familiar with, and it drew easily and swiftly for me.

I notched one of my elven arrows, drew, sighted, and loosed. The arrow shot off so swiftly that I almost couldn't track it with my eyes, despite my years of experience. The sound of the arrow striking true into the remains of the tree I had targeted sent a thrill of pleasure through me. The trunk around the shaft disintegrated and the rotten wood crumpled into fragments. I found the arrow sunk all the way to the fletching in the dry earth behind where the tree had stood, and I had to dig it out to retrieve it. Oh yes! This delightful weapon was on a fast horse, riding swiftly toward becoming my favorite!

"Hey Lasirah," Serana called to me, "do you think these might be of use?" I walked back to where she stood by the keeper's body and saw that she had found the semi-crushed remains of a quiver on the Keeper's back. Inside were ten intact arrows, of a color combination I had never seen before.

"Maybe," I agreed with interest, accepting one of the arrows and inspecting it minutely.

My eyebrows jumped in surprise when I realized that the shaft had been finely crafted out of purified ebony. Awestruck, I inspected the fletching, noting that the striped feathers had come from the swift diving hawks that soared Skyrim's skies. Putting aside how this Keeper could have possibly gotten hawk feathers from Skyrim, I moved to the opposite end. Instead of a tight, sleek arrowhead made from moonstone, the head had been split into three barbed prongs. They were carved from the same type of bone that made up the bow. When these hit, not only would they catch in their target's flesh, but they would do extreme damage trying to remove them from anything that was still alive after being shot.

I couldn't even begin to fathom the value of the weapons I was now holding.

"Scratch that; yes I think these would be very useful," I carefully tucked the arrows into my quiver. I would save these babies for later.

.

Valerica was waiting for us, her expression rather awestruck. "You managed to destroy all three Keepers? Very impressive."

"Are you able to give us the scroll now?" Serana asked.

"Yes. Please, follow me. Keep watch for Durnehviir. With the prison's barrier down, he's almost certain to investigate."

Valerica led us through the double doors of the castle. We found ourselves, not in a castle vestibule, but a short, roofless corridor leading to a massive courtyard.

We had barely stepped out into the open before Serana cried out, "Wait! I hear something!"

There was a sound like a pair of massive sails flapping rhythmically in the air.

Flap. Flap. Flap.

There was a roar; somehow deep and also slightly high-pitched, reverberating the air around us. Something launched itself almost vertically into the air beyond the far wall of the courtyard.

"It's Durnehviir... he's here!" Valerica shouted, "Defend yourselves!"

Shrouded by distance, I could only see the silhouette of something long and reptilian. It was kept aloft by massive, bat-like wings that caught the dusty, dry air. The massive shadow circled once over the courtyard before landing with a crash on the far wall of the courtyard. As it leaned down to glare at us, the thing came properly into view.

Durnehviir. A dragon. The first dragon I had ever seen, and it was a nightmare to behold. The skulls that I had seen had been longer than I was tall, and that seemed to be the species standard. But instead of swooping, backward-aimed horns, this beast sported a pair of ram-like horns curling forward on either side of its skull.

The dragon tipped its head backward and bellowed, "DIIL QOTH ZAAM!" I had no idea what the words meant, but a ball of dark purple energy flew into the air from his massive jaws. The ball fragmented and struck the ground in multiple places around us. Everywhere they landed, dark red energy exploded around the impact site. Black skeletons formed before my eyes, each wielding weapons.

"All right vampire hunter, Serana and I can handle the undead; necromancy is our field of study. Your job is to take out that damned dragon," Valerica barked at me.

Killing undead is MY job! I wailed silently in protest. Reluctantly, I drew back an elven arrow and fired it at the gigantic beast that still perched out of Dawnbreaker's reach.

The response was exactly the opposite of what I wanted.

I heard the arrow thump against the figure, and then bounce off of its flesh. I could barely see the arrow spin end over end through the air before landing with a clatter on the ground somewhere ahead of me.

Well, that's a river without a bridge. I grimaced.

The massive beast took flight, hovered, and then dropped to the ground with a crash, kicking up a cloud of brittle earth. As the dust blew over me, so did the horrific stench of rotting flesh.

I very nearly doubled over, struggling to hold the contents of my stomach where they belonged. Well… I guess that explains how a dragon could live here; it too is undead. I shouldn't be surprised, really. Then… Damn it, that means killing him really is my job!

Glancing up, I got an up-close view of just what it was that I was fighting. I had fought draugr before. They tended to be well preserved despite the centuries since their death. Draugr were all leathery flesh and desiccated muscles, relegated to guarding their ancient tombs. But the dragon had not been granted such a kindness. Despite millennia passing since coming to the Soul Cairn, he was still actively rotting... somehow.

Durnehviir's flesh was grey-green in complexion. His scales were oozing what could only be described as putrefied bodily fluids from countless lesions in his hide. Flies swarmed around him in thick, black clouds. I had the horrifying realization that not all of the movement involved rotten tissue flexing every time he shifted his stance. Indeed, tiny white squirming things were being shed from the beast's flesh and dropping to the ground beneath him. Maggots. Ew. As he turned to fix me in with his glowing gaze, a putrid yellowish drool constantly dripped from his fanged mouth. Getting that fluid in a wound would be a very bad idea.

I leaped backward to evade a lashing tail, and the air whistled with the speed of the blow, buffeting me with the wind of its passing. I fired another arrow, and it too bounced off without so much as denting the rotten flesh.

Muttering curses under my breath, I grabbed one of the bone arrows from my quiver and drew it back.

"Joor!" The beast growled, "Mortal! My voice has been silent for too long. Hear me, and despair!"

I loosed the arrow, and with a wet shunk, it buried itself in the dragon's neck.

Durnehviir's bellow was nearly deafening, a combination of shock and pain as his glowing, undead eyes widened at his wounding. Then he inhaled deeply and blasted me with his fetid breath. "You wield a bow and arrows honed from the bones of my own kind. It has been a long time since I have felt the true sting of pain. So, it's to be a real fight then... good! Krif voth ahkrin. I honor your courage. Come now, and face me!"

Dragonbone arrows! I sent a quick prayer of gratitude to Stendarr for the gift of these ten precious arrows. Well, nine now. I have to make them count.

The sounds of Serana's and Valerica's spells in the background told me that the two vampires were keeping the black skeletons at bay. As the dragon turned directly toward me, I saw that his lack of front legs forced him to support his entire front half on his bent wings. Yet he moved with an agility that belied his size.

I aimed and fired again, the second precious arrow sinking home into his forehead. Durnehviir thrashed his head back and forth, as though trying to shake the embedded barb free. Failing to do so, he reared back like a snake, and the third arrow disappeared into his gaping jaws as he prepared to strike.

There was a wet gurgling sound and a wave of black liquid sprayed out of his mouth. The undead dragon hunched, quivering, and spasming as I nocked the fourth arrow and took careful aim.

The glowing eyes had an instant to widen in realization, and perhaps fear, before the glow in his left eye was snuffed out. The dragon jerked backward, quivered, and collapsed to the ground. Purple flames erupted from his decaying flesh, consuming his body within seconds and leaving nothing behind... not even bones.

A clatter behind me made me turn, and I saw the last of the black skeletons crumble to dust before the two vampires.

Valerica was staring at me, her jaw dropped. After a moment, she cleared her throat. "Forgive my astonishment, but I never thought I'd witness the death of that dragon."

"What makes you say that? I mean, besides the whole undeath part."

The vampire matriarch shrugged. "Volumes written on Durnehviir allege that he can't be slain by normal means. It appears they were mistaken. Unless…"

I heaved a deep, unhappy sigh, "Unless… what?"

Her expression was as unhappy and resigned as my own, "The soul of a dragon is as resilient as its owner's scaly hide. It's possible that your killing blow has merely displaced Durnehviir's physical form while he reconstitutes himself."

I shuddered, "How long will that take?"

"Minutes? Hours? Years?" she spread her hands helplessly, and paced, "I can't even begin to guess. I suggest we don't wait around to find out. Now, let's get you the Elder Scroll and you can be on your way."

"No disagreement from me," I muttered fervently, checking the spot where the undead beast had fallen. There was no sign of the arrows that I had used. I felt a small pang of sadness that I could not retrieve the precious ammunition. I hoped that I would not encounter any more dragons that would force me to use up my remaining six.