Black Coven (Daniel Black Book 2) (41 page)

Crack. Crack. Crack. Crack.

Four shots, as fast as the weapon could fire, and the skulls of the four closest skeletons exploded. Only a couple of stragglers were left, and they abruptly decided that running away from us was a smarter idea than charging. Neither made it more than a few steps.

The cannon went to rapid fire, and I added a flurry of bouncer rounds to the barrage. Most of the skeletons in the tangle were reduced to broken bones, and the ones in the rear ranks were fleeing now.

“Good shooting,” I told Cerise.

“I love this thing!” She exclaimed, and kissed me.

Wow. What was I doing, again? Oh yeah, undead horde.

We climbed back down from the skimmer, to find that Corinna had just arrived with a group of dryads. Only ten of them in all, but they looked to be almost as fast as the wolfen.

“If that’s what we’re up against I think we can hold this position,” Marcus said. “I’ll put sharpshooters on top the skimmers to pick off the ones that get close, and a few men with force blades in the front rank.”

“Wish I’d thought to put force bayonets on the guns,” I observed. “I’ll have to fix that later. Gronir, what have you found?”

“They’ve taken all three gates leading out of the docks,” he answered. “That must have been their first target. There’s at least a couple of companies of them at each gate, and they’ve already got archers up in the gatehouses. There’s another big group at the graveyard on the coast, at least a thousand of them. They’ve taken a couple of docks and set a few buildings on fire, but I’m not sure what they’re after. From the sound of things there’s a lot of fighting going on in the rest of the city, too.”

I frowned. “That sounds like they think they can actually take the city.”

“It does, sir,” Marcus agreed. “But so far we haven’t seen nearly enough troops for that. They must be expecting reinforcements.”

“There aren’t that many ways out of the catacombs,” Cerise said. “Maybe she’s down there raising more troops?”

I felt a chill at that thought. With my amulet healing her Mara could spill an ocean of blood without doing herself any real harm. If Elin was right about how many bones were down there…

“Lord wizard!” An unfamiliar voice called. I looked up to see that the door of the inn next to my causeway was open, and a nervous-looking townsman had emerged with a couple of burly sailors at his back. They hurried up to the line of soldiers blocking the road.

“Lord wizard, will you give us refuge? The brewery on Cod Street is burning, and the fire brigade can’t muster with the dead walking the streets! Please, milord, we’ll die if we flee or be burned out if we stay.”

“Today is just one thing after another,” I muttered. “Yes! Grab what supplies you can carry, and you can take shelter in my tower.”

“Thank you, lord wizard! May the gods bless you. Cone on, Rolph, we need to hurry before they come back.” They scurried back to the inn.

“A place like that probably has a lot of provisions on hand,” Marcus pointed out.

“Yeah, but we don’t have time to worry about that right now. Corinna, are your people better for close quarters combat, or open terrain?”

“Our magic is of the earth, lord of my mistress. If you’re going into the catacombs, you’ll want us at your back.”

I took her at her word. “Alright. Gronir, go get Elin and see if you can get her close enough to those fires to put them out. Take a skimmer and your pack, but be careful not to get in over your heads. If you get surrounded don’t forget you can just close the doors and run them down.”

“Marcus, hold this position and be prepared to throw back more assaults. If more civilians show up looking for shelter use your judgment. Small groups are fine, but we don’t want a huge mob covering the island.”

“Corinna, you’re with me. Cerise, you know where the closest entrance to the catacombs is? Let’s go check it out.”

Those dryads could run like the wind, but the bike was much faster. Cerise had to hold it down to thirty or so, but that was still a pretty amazing rate of speed for this world. We sped halfway across the docks in a matter of minutes, before Cerise pulled up in front of an ancient mausoleum crammed in between two warehouses.

“In there,” she pointed.

I dismounted as Corinna’s warriors came pelting up after us, their breath steaming in the cold. It had been quite a run, but they didn’t seem even slightly tired.

“Hey, Cerise? How did you know about this place, anyway?”

She grinned. “I figured we might want to use the tunnels for smuggling or something, so I introduced myself to the local ghouls while you were out of town. I know enough of the layout to get us from here to any of Kozalin’s other districts.”

I raised an eyebrow. “You just walked up to a pack of ghouls and said hi?”

She dropped her illusion, and resumed her full demonic appearance. “It’s not that hard. You just have to look like you’re a more dangerous creature of darkness than they are. Come on, the way in is back here.”

The mausoleum appeared to be sealed at first glance, but around the back there was a snow-covered bush that camouflaged a hole in the wall. Cerise crouched to crawl through it, but I put my hand on her shoulder and shook my head.

There had once been protective spells on the stone, but the passage of centuries had worn them down to almost nothing. I brushed them aside, and reshaped the stone of the wall to form a proper doorway. Sure enough, there were half a dozen skeletal warriors waiting to ambush anyone who came through what had previously been a narrow opening.

“Oops,” Cerise said.

I threw our enemies back with a burst of force magic, but that was all I had time to do. Corinna charged past me with a wooden blade in her hand, and Cerise leaped to follow her before the rest of the dryads piled in behind. In the blink of an eye the interior of the mausoleum was a confused, densely-packed melee that I didn’t dare cast a spell into.

Fortunately, our enemies were badly outmatched. I caught a glimpse of Corinna smashing a skeleton’s head from its shoulders, and her dryads simply tackled their opponents in the crowded confines and tore them limb from limb. In a few seconds the fight was over.

“No blood,” one of the dryads pouted.

“No marrow,” another added.

“Unnatural things,” a third hissed. “Can we kill them all, Corinna?”

Yeah. Anyone who thinks dryads are sweet, innocent nature spirits hasn’t thought much about what nature is actually like. This bunch was reminding me more and more of a pride of lions.

“We shall destroy all the unliving that we find,” Cerise announced, letting a hint of her allure slip out. The dryads all turned to her with shining eyes.

“Yes!”

“Thank you!”

“We hunt for the lady of shadows and lust tonight!”

Corinna crossed her hands beneath her mountainous breasts. “Control yourselves, sisters. We kill until all our lady’s foes lie dead, and only then do we celebrate. Lead us to victory, Mistress.”

“Girls, I think this is the start of a beautiful relationship,” Cerise purred. Then she turned to me, and made a show of bowing her head. “This way, Master.”

“Imp. Stay serious, Cerise,” I chided. “The city may be at stake.”

“I am serious, Daniel. They need to understand who submits to who here, or they won’t listen to orders in the heat of the moment. But I think that was enough to get the message across. How do we do this?”

I conjured three short lengths of stone, and started sticking light spells on the end of each one. Red light, and relatively dim, so it wouldn’t spoil our night vision too badly.

“You go first. You’ve got a better idea of where to look than I do, and you’ve got the fastest reflexes. Then Corinna, then me, then the dryads. If we find a large group of enemies I want you to hold position and let them come to us. There are a million things I can do to even the odds, especially underground. Don’t worry about dropping the torches if there’s a fight, they won’t go out unless someone dispels them.”

A narrow stairway in the back of the mausoleum led down to a small chamber, with alcoves full of bones in the walls. Not complete skeletons, just piles of ancient bones stacked up to fill the space. There must have been forty or fifty skulls in that one room.

Two narrow passages wound off in opposite directions. Cerise turned right and led the way past more niches filled with bones, seemingly confident of her path. That led to a chamber with three exits, and another short flight of stairs going down.

I tried to keep track of where we were, but it wasn’t long at all before I found myself wondering if I could find my way back. The tunnels wandered, branched and intersected seemingly at random. Most of the tunnels were lined with bone-filled niches, with barely enough room for our group to pass in single file. Sometimes there were side chambers, or pits piled high with ancient skeletons.

There were enchantments on the tunnels, too. Remnants of consecrations performed centuries ago, and wards against intrusion that had long since been broken. Another network of spells was still active, working to keep the tunnels from collapsing or being flooded with seepage. But the air was thick and heavy, and I realized there was no magic to keep it breathable. With this many people in one party that could become a problem.

“Is everyone breathing alright back there?” I asked quietly.

Most of the dryads looked confused at that. But one of them smiled, and slipped past her companions to approach me.

“Foul air is no hazard to us, lord wizard. But if you like, we can come closer and breathe sweet air for you.”

She leaned against me, and laid her cheek against mine. How odd. The air was actually fresher when she exhaled.

Were they plants instead of animals? Breathing in carbon dioxide, and exhaling oxygen? I wasn’t sure how that would work, since there obviously wasn’t any photosynthesis going on down here. But it seemed to be the case.

“No, I’m fine,” I told her. “I just wasn’t thinking about the fact that you’re dryads. You breathe like trees instead of like animals, don’t you?”

She smiled as she pulled away. “We do, lord wizard. I see you know the hidden lore of the woods that the gods taught to no man.”

“Some of it,” I admitted. “But this isn’t the place to talk.”

She nodded, and dropped back to take her place amid the pack of dryads again. We traveled in silence for some minutes after that, until Cerise suddenly stopped in an intersection.

“Come out, corpse eater,” she called. “I know you’re there.”

“Murder witch,” a voice hissed from the shadows up ahead. “You bring a crowd this time. What do you want?”

“We’re looking for the necromancer,” she answered. “Her creations are attacking the city. Do you know where she is?”

“What do we care about fighting among the sunwalkers?” It replied. “What will you pay us for answers? One of the pretty trees? The meat?”

Cerise’s aura swirled around her, repelling the dim light of our torches. “Don’t be stupid, Urkl. The pretties are my pets, and the man is a wizard strong enough to bind me to his service. I’m not asking for anything that demands an extravagant price. Tell me what you know, and I’ll bring you a fresh goat tomorrow.”

“War on the surface means feasting below,” the voice objected. “Tomorrow, maybe Cerise be dead. Tomorrow, maybe Cerise forget. Tomorrow, Urkl have full belly anyway. Pay Urkl now. A life, or Urkl won’t talk.”

“You are a fool, Urkl.”

The lights flickered for a moment, and Cerise was gone. There was a panicked shriek from somewhere out in the darkness. A smack of flesh against flesh. Then Cerise stalked back into the range of our lights, with a misshapen creature in her grip.

I almost thought it was a zombie at first. Its leprous flesh stank of decay, and gaping yellow sores dotted its gaunt limbs. It was curled up in a fetal ball, choking and flailing as Cerise dragged it by the throat. She threw it down in front of me, and planted her boot on its chest.

“I only pay you because touching you disgusts me, Urkl. I’ll offer you a life for answers all right. Your life. Start talking, or I’ll start cutting off body parts.”

It tried to struggle for a moment, until I made the floor grow into cuffs around its wrists and ankles.

“Unraveler pay three goats, to not talk,” it complained.

“Is your miserable life worth more to you than three goats?” Cerise countered.

It sagged in defeat. “Yessss. Unraveler not here.”

“What do you know about what she’s been up to? Did she pay you to do anything else?”

It nodded. “Unraveler come, weeks ago. Go to lowest crypts, take treasures. Raise bones to guard crypt, say tell no one. Come again, days ago. Paint bones, make magic. Now many bones come out.”

Cerise frowned. “Where?”

“Crypt of scales! Left, right, down, left, left, right, down, right, left, there.”

“Fine. Get out of here.”

She let the creature up, and it fled into the darkness.

“That doesn’t sound good,” I said. “Did anyone get those directions?”

“Left, right, down, left, left, right, down, right, left, there,” Corinna repeated confidently. “I assume those are turns in these sunless tunnels.”