Necrophobia (35 page)

“Gods!” Hayley shouted her voice cracking. “Get the Caelites now!” She shooed Adrian off to fetch Reiner. Claire followed her gaze and her blood ran cold. A gigantic winged creature descended from the blackened storm clouds and tore apart one of the watchtowers. It was as mesmerising as it was horrifying. The sight of a noble dragon of Caelus descending from the heavens was one of the holiest icons she knew; countless murals and artworks honoured the draconic god of the skies. Throughout her entire life the Caelites and the priests spoke of the divinity of the ancient dragons, their wisdom, strength and guidance. It was nothing short of blasphemy to see a beautiful dragon corrupted by foul magics ravaging the watchtower with unrestrained malice.

“Sevaur was right!” Claire couldn’t take her eyes off the dragon. Even at a distance it was still a terrifying titanic creature of unstoppable raw strength and divine retribution. No lesser wyvern, nor one of the smaller and more common feathered dragons. No Valdgeirr was undeniably a greater ancient dragon of Caelus. And under the control of Inquisitor Haures and his death cults. The watchtower crumbled under the bulk of the dragon as it threw itself upwards from the smouldering ruins and back into the cover of clouds. It’s size and movement impossible, despite its absurd wingspan the creature displayed incredible mastery over its speed and weight. Shifting direction and ascending far faster than any other winged creature with just a few strokes of its wings. Its flaps a mere nod to aerodynamics as the dragon flaunted its mastery over aeromancy. The way it moved was unnatural and disconcerting to watch. The clouds tore apart as the dragon swooped down upon another watchtower bringing itself up from a terminal dive without any apparent effort. Valdgeirr circled the watchtower avoiding the ballista fire aimed at it with ease. It countered with a brief flick of its head and holy flame tore apart entire sections of the tower.

“How are we supposed to deal with that thing?” Hayley swore as the watchtower fell apart under its own weight and rained debris upon the streets below. Satisfied with its kill the dragon ascended into the skies again hiding within the cloud cover before it struck. “It’s destroying all our siege weaponry!”

Clutching a bow armed with home-made arrows Claire felt utterly inadequate before the terrifying creature as it tore apart the city’s defences. Reiner and the Caelites arrived splashing water everywhere and out of breath. Sevaur stared at the rampaging dragon with a look of horror.

“Captain what do you advise? How do we stop that bloody thing!” Panic leapt into Hayley’s voice. Vampires and their mutated kin failed to worry the Night Guard detective, to hear fear in her voice now set Claire’s nerves on edge.

“We don’t.” Reiner replied with a clipped tone. He silenced Hayley’s foul mouthed retort with his hand. “The Caelite order can. Get me to the temple and I can summon aid.”

“We’ve got other problems.” Adrian pointed across the street, his axe in hand. Night Guard officers engaged with a mass of shambling figures in an intense melee. Even through the heavy rainfall the flashes of pale green told them all they need to know. “Whatever they’ve got planned they’re committed now.”

“Listen to me.” Reiner shouted to anyone within earshot. “We’ll handle the dragon, you defend the mansion. It won’t be long before Valdgeirr’s finished softening up the city defences and focuses here.” He turned and gestured for emphasis, she could see he was in his element now. A situation he could do something about. He pointed towards Alvar and Sevaur. “You two with me. We’ll make for the temple.” Sevaur exchanged a brief worried glance with Claire before she nodded him away to follow his brother.

“Right.” Hayley nodded, her confidence now returning. “Rest of you form a defence here.”

As she spoke siege weaponry slammed into the dragon hovering above another smouldering watchtower. It’s wings remaining still in defiance of gravity and the sheer weight of the ancient creature. Cannon fire and ballista impacted against its black scales with little effect. It shielded itself with its huge wings wrapping around it in a gentle embrace, still hovering above the ruins until the weapons fire subsided. With a roar that exploded through the air like the primordial roar of a god it threw itself upwards skimming cloud cover as it rushed towards the ill-fated siege weaponry. Reiner ran through the streets downhill carving his way through the undead clawing their way upwards scrambling to reach the mansion. Alvar and Sevaur covered his flank throwing aside anything that got in their way with jets of wind whilst Sevaur’s fireballs exploded into massed groups of them. Claire turned her attention from the dragon overhead and focused on a fight she could do something about. She loosed a flurry of nocked arrows and tore into the crowds of green-flamed monsters. The streets were so packed she needn’t aim it was almost impossible to miss.

“Hope he knows what he’s doing.” Hayley shouted to her as they ran to reinforce their stricken allies further downhill.

“The Caelites managed to repel Valdgeirr once.” Claire replied with more confidence than she felt. Though she’d missed the battle against the dragon in Caelholm, Cynthia had made it clear Haures retreated to preserve his latest thrall rather than risk losing it.

At the back of the swarming undead Claire saw humans clad in platemail and rushing with swords and axes towards them. Her heart sank when she realised these weren’t Night Guard or civilian reinforcements. Pavlovich’s mercenaries were moving in for the kill, the undead ignored them as though they weren’t there. Adrian tore into the undead with a ferocity she didn’t realise he had. His axe cleaved rotten flesh in two and severed limbs and heads causing green flame to erupted from their wounds. His face never wavered as the undead massed around him clawing at his breastplate before he kicked, headbutted and hacked into them with his axe.

“We need to fall back!” Claire shouted. “We’re going to get overwhelmed fast!” Scores of undead lay dead or wounded upon the streets but more came, flowing over the fallen like a river of spectral flame and rotten flesh. Her quiver was almost empty and any melee against that number of enemies would be suicide. Hayley stopped in her tracks and fired her crossbow into the mercenaries striking one in the throat.

“Agreed.” She conceded and grabbed a wounded officer off the floor and slung his arm over her shoulder dragging him back uphill. “Fall back to the mansion!” She ordered to what remained of the Night Guard patrol. Her words lost to the heavy deluge and the constant rumble of thunder as the storm intensified. Adrian ran over and grabbed the wounded Night Guard from her and slung him over his shoulder with a grunt.

“I got ‘im.” He hacked at the nearest horror reaching out for him with his axe, his other hand steadying the officer over his shoulders. “We need to get behind those gates!”

The lumberjack kicked out as another undead woman rushed at him her gnarled rotten hands scraping gouges into his armour with a hateful scream. Claire lashed out with her rapier and stabbed through the zombie’s desiccated face. The creature bled green flames rather than blood as it staggered backwards into the influx of undead.

“Hurry!” Hayley shouted holding open the mansion gates with her foot and firing into the horde of undead with her crossbow. “It’s now or never!”

Claire and another officer made a fighting retreat as they covered Adrian’s back, stumbling their way uphill towards the mansion. She was down to the last three arrows and there were at least ten times that amount closing in on them.

“C’mon! C’mon!” Hayley’s crossbow fired again felling another howling corpse into the crowd.

With everyone clear she slammed the gate shut and locked it. Overlaid grid patterns of metal bars and lined with barbed wire the gate could hold back a riot for enough time for the Night Guard to amass in force. The top of the gate spiked with stakes and metal spikes and seemed impossible to climb without injury.
Not that the undead would care.
She glanced back at Hayley struggling to administer bandages and gauze to the injured Night Guard.

“Now what?” She asked as the undead thrashed against the gate grasping through the spaces at them. Their human allies were absent and no doubt seeking another entry route. Adrian hacked at any exposed arms and fingers reaching through the gate with his axe. He took great care to avoid damaging the gate itself but he soon gave up as more and more crowded around the entrance howling and screeching. He wiped the sweat and rain from his brow with the back of his hairy arm and took a deep breath.

“We’d better hope Reiner reaches the church. We won’t last long when the dragon heads this way.”

Always the optimist.
She saw the mansion guards rushing across the gardens to their aid with their weapons drawn. Though few in number it would be a start at least. “Could the dragon penetrate the barrier?” She knelt down beside Hayley as she tended to the officer. His bleeding staunched and his face pale he stared between them his gaze unfocused.

Hayley bit her lip before responding. “One way or another. If that shield blocks the magic animating them it could take out the towers that project the barrier instead.”

“I thought they were within the barrier limits?”

“They are.” She fastened another bandage and propped the man against a wall. “You see any men out there? Living ones I mean.”

“No. Just
them
.” Claire waved a hand behind her at the undead horde tearing at the gate.

Hayley clicked her tongue. “Then Pavlovich and his men will be trying to take out the towers. Weaken it enough for the undead and that blasted dragon to get through.”

“Great.” She watched as the mansion guard approached with caution and surveyed the small army outside the gates. “So what options have we got?”

“Go down fighting.” Adrian shrugged and ran his fingers through his soaking wet hair. Overhead thunder rumbled louder drowning out the undead screams for a precious few seconds.

“That’s not an option.” Claire stood up and scanned the gardens. Neatly trimmed rows of hedges and statues lined the path leading to the mansion. Distant figures on the surround walls fired crossbows and flaming arrows into the hordes outside. “We need to find Haures. If this is anything like Caelholm taking out the necromancer kills all his minions.”

“That could work.” Adrian said. “How do we find him?”

She bit her lip and shrugged. That was the difficult part. “He’s looking for something here. Something to do with vampires we reckon. Know anything about that?”

Hayley snorted. “Lord Strigoi holds the forbidden tomes on vampire lore. Rather than burn them as some of his predecessors might he keeps them for study. To find a weapon against those blood-sucking monsters. Veronica’s research is the forefront on that curse.”

“We should start there then.” Claire glanced over her shoulder. The tortured creaks and scraping coming from the gate did not bode well. “And soon.”

Reiner shielded himself as explosive backlash from a misaimed fireball incinerated the undead horrors before him. The heat washing over him quickly dissipated in the furious downpour of rain.

“Sorry!” Came the apology from somewhere behind him.

Reiner focused on clearing a path through swathes of bodies as best he could. The spear allowed him to keep his distance but anything less than dismemberment or impalement failed to grant the dead their rest. They did not feel pain, nor fear. And threw themselves upon them again and again, trying to overwhelm them with sheer numbers. His spear skewered two at a time but three more replaced them before he could even withdraw his weapon. Alvar rushed in to cover him blasting aside the mewling horrors, his magic throwing them into the air like ragdolls and he kicked out at any that remained.

“I’ve got your back Captain.” He offered a meek smile and lashed out again and again into the crowd.

Reiner nodded his thanks. It was clear to him that Alvar wished to make up for his mistakes the previous day and he fought with renewed strength and vigour. Though Reiner couldn’t blame the younger Caelite, three crossbow bolts to the chest would incapacitate most people. Instead he felt it better to indulge him rather than shut down his attempts at redemption reasoning it would be better for his shaky confidence.

“We’re surrounded.” Sevaur shouted between swings, his sword tearing into exposed putrid flesh with ease. “What should we do?”

The Caelite captain couldn’t help but notice the confidence in his voice, Sevaur’s words clear and unwavering. Despite all his excuses and hesitation Reiner had always seen something greater lurking within his brother, yet Sevaur was his own worst enemy. Holding himself back and depreciating himself rather than standing firm and holding true to what he believed in. It was refreshing to see the change emerge from Sevaur. Still, his brother was not wrong — they were surrounded. Reiner glanced around trying to find a gap in their numbers but to no avail. He cursed beneath his breath; though Reiner and Alvar could leap to safety carried by their magics Reiner refused to leave his brother behind. Soaked through from head to toe by the rain he couldn’t risk casting lightning magic without shocking himself.