The Dragons of Bone and Dust (Tales from the New Earth Book 7) (51 page)

With a last glare at her brother, Tamara nodded.

“If you are willing to do that, Hallic, then
yes, it sounds like a good plan. Now, can we all get on with this
please? We have a long way to go and time is not our friend.”

The company crept up the ramp to the
fifth floor. The ground was covered with dirt, small stones and
several oddly-shaped footprints that made Simon shiver when he
noticed them; whatever had made them had clawed feet.

As they caught their first glimpse of
the area, what seemed to surprise everyone was the lighting. The
entire floor was brightly lit with floating globes of reddish fire
that reminded Simon of his own magical lights. But their ruddy hue
was ominous and made the party all look like they were covered in a
thin layer of blood.

“
Man, this is creepy,”
Barnaby whispered.

“
No kidding,” Aiden
agreed.

“
Everyone, come and stand close
to the wall please,” Hallic said softly. “This is the
spot that I hope we can lure the ghouls to. You see? It's fairly open
and there are no enemies nearby.”

The rogue had been right; the entire
floor was open and, because the tower was so wide, it looked huge.

“
My God, we might as well be
inside a bloody football stadium,” Sebastian said in awe. “It
just goes on and on, doesn't it?”

“
That is an illusion, sir
mage,” Hallic told him. “The perspective in this place is
off somehow, but I'm not sure if the cause is magical or just because
the tower is so damned big. Still, this floor is at least a hundred
feet across or more and, as you can see, it isn't completely without
its obstacles.”

The rogue pointed out several low
stone walls that criss-crossed the floor and extended into the
distance like a maze.

“
What are they, pens?”
Simon asked, frowning. “They look like those temporary
barricades they used to put up on highways when the government was
doing roadwork.”

“
Well, they can't be pens,”
Aeris observed as he floated next to the wizard. “They are no
more than four feet high.”

“
Whatever they are, Hallic,
they may slow you down or impede you when you lure the ghouls back
here,” Malcolm warned the dwarf. “Be damned careful.”

The rogue grinned crookedly.

“
Have no fear, sir warrior. I
value my skin at least as much as you do; more, probably. And I have
no intention of being served up as some monster's dinner; not today.”

There was scattered movement all over
the floor as pale forms drifted restlessly from place to place in the
hellish light, making scraping noises against the stony ground;
ghouls.

“
Oh my goodness,” Miriam
exclaimed in a hushed voice. “So that is a ghoul. What a
nightmare.”

The cleric wasn't wrong. From what
Simon could make out, the creatures were man-shaped, with two arms
and two legs, but that was as close to human as they got.

The ghouls were misshapen; some were
hunched over while others dragged an extra-long arm or leg behind
them. They had deep eye sockets and gaping holes in their face where
a human's nose would be. And their mouths hung open, filled with
crooked yellow teeth. They were drooling constantly and their meaty
tongues flopped around as they moved. They were literally a nightmare
made real.

“
Why are they shaped so
strangely?” Barnaby wondered aloud.

“
I assume it's because of how
they are made,” Hallic replied as he watched the monsters
through slitted eyes. “As we heard, they absorb an amalgam of
flesh from any creature they can find and then craft a body with it.
I suppose that's the best they can do.”

“
They're horrible and they move
like they're in pain,” Tamara said coldly. “And they are
between us and the path we must take, so let's get past their
appearance and concentrate on the task at hand. Hallic, are you
ready?”

“
Always, lady mage. Is everyone
else?”

There were a chorus of yeses and the
rogue nodded.

“
Good. You see the nearest
ghouls?” He pointed. “I think I can pull those three back
here without bringing any of the others. Be prepared.”

The rogue pushed away from the wall
and walked slowly toward the ghouls. The monsters were about thirty
feet away from the group, huddled together. It wasn't possible to
tell what they were doing.

“
All right,” Malcolm said
quietly. “Warriors, to the front. Liliana, would you center our
line please?”

“
Of course,” the paladin
said as she drew her sword.

She reached over her shoulder and
slipped her shield onto her left arm and stepped forward several
paces.

“
Do you have room enough to
cast?” she asked the magic-users over her shoulder as the four
warriors drew their weapons and stood next to her, two on each side.

The ramp was on Simon's left and the
fighters were a dozen feet in front of him. He looked at Tamara and
the others.

“
We're good, Liliana. You do
your thing and we'll do ours.”

The paladin laughed lightly, clearly
energized by the approaching battle.

“
Very well. Stay focused. I'm
sure that this is only the first skirmish of many yet to come.”

Malcolm and Aide stood side-by-side
and left enough room between them to swing their weapons. Malcolm was
using a standard sword and shield similar to Liliana's, although hers
looked like it was crafted out of silver. But Aiden was armed with a
mace, its wicked spikes glinting in the reddish light.

Fergus and Kate, on the other hand,
were wielding entirely different weapons. Simon hadn't noticed it
earlier, but Kate was wearing a mixture of plate and chain mail, not
the standard plate that the others wore, and she was armed with two
weapons; a long sword in her right hand and a short, double-headed
axe in her left. She spun them in her hands as she waited and it was
obvious that she was proficient with both.

Fergus, on the other hand, was
gripping a wicked-looking two-handed sword tightly as he glowered at
the distant ghouls. Simon just hoped that he didn't swing the massive
weapon and cut Kate in half.

They know their business, he told
himself. If they didn't, Malcolm wouldn't have brought them along.

The wizard looked at the elementals,
who seemed to be waiting for orders.

“
You guys ready?” he
whispered as Tamara and the others got themselves sorted out.

“
Yes master.”

“
Of course.”

“
Good. I won't tell you what to
do; you both know your own powers and how best to use them. Just jump
in wherever you think you're needed, okay?”

Both of them agreed and Simon tried
to focus on the approaching ghouls.

And they were approaching. Hallic,
amazingly, had used the network of low walls and his own small
stature to creep just close enough to the three monsters for them to
catch his scent. All three had raised their lopsided heads and turned
as one toward him.

But they didn't race to the attack;
maybe they had never smelled a dwarf before. Their approach was
cautious, hesitant, and it suited the rogue's purposes perfectly.

Hallic kept low and hurried back to
the party.

“
That seemed to go well,”
Malcolm told him with a tight grin.

The dwarf drew two daggers that began
to glow with a clear blue light and slipped behind the line of
fighters.

“
Thanks,” he said as he
watched the advancing ghouls. “Let's hope our luck holds as the
night progresses.”

Simon and the others knew exactly
when the creatures had scented the rest of the party. The three of
them stopped, reared up to almost man-height on their crooked legs
and then leaped forward toward their prey.

“
Holy shit, they run like
deer!” Barnaby squeaked.

He was right. The ghouls had gone
from crawling like crippled beasts to running like greyhounds. It was
terrifying.

“
Steady,” Liliana barked.
“Controlled strokes. Aim for the neck. We have to be quick
before we attract the attention of the other beasts.”

She followed her own instructions as
the first ghoul threw itself at her, mouth gaping open hungrily.

Her sword barely seemed to flicker
and the monster's head went bouncing across the floor while a gout of
reeking blood spewed from its neck and it collapsed.

Its fellows met a similar fate.
Malcolm dispatched one, taking both its head and most of its shoulder
off with one massive blow, while Fergus literally split his opponent
in half. Both sections flopped around on the ground, grabbing
futilely at nothing.

“
Show-off,” Kate said
with a grin.

“
Sorry,” Fergus replied,
also smiling. “Adrenalin's running a bit high at the moment.”

“
Nicely done, everyone,”
Tamara told them. “If we can keep the situation controlled like
that, we should make decent progress.”

“
I can't promise that every
pull will be that clean, lady mage,” Hallic warned her. “So
don't hold me to too high a standard.”

He sheathed his daggers and waved as
he headed out again.

“
So far, so good,”
Barnaby muttered in Simon's ear. “They went down easier than I
thought they would.”

Simon nodded and watched as the
ghoulish remains began to fall apart and decompose at an incredible
rate.

“
It helps that everyone's
weapon is enchanted. Somehow I doubt that a regular sword would have
much effect on those things.”

“
Ah, I hadn't thought of that.
So, do you think that we'll even see action? I mean, we casters?”

Simon looked at the young mage's face
and couldn't tell if he was excited or worried by the prospect.

“
Oh we'll be involved very
soon, I can almost guarantee that.”

Barnaby frowned at Simon's firm
statement.

“
How can you be so sure?”

“
Because no matter how well
laid out your plans are, things always eventually go to hell,”
he replied and nodded out at the floor in the distance.

The mage followed the nod and
swallowed loudly.

“
Oh crap,” he said.

Whether because of a mistake or just
bad timing, Hallic was returning to the group not at a walk, but at a
sprint. A mass of ghouls, Simon counted at least a dozen, were hot on
his heels and it was obvious that the rogue wasn't going to make it
back before he was swarmed.

The wizard hurried forward, pushed
his way between Kate and Fergus and pointed Mortis de Draconis at the
fleeing dwarf.

“
Shield!” he said firmly
just as a ghoul launched itself at the rogue.

A flash like lightning sent the
monster somersaulting through the air as it hit the globe of energy
that now surrounded Hallic. The dwarf continued to run but waved his
thanks as he came.

Just before Hallic reached the group,
Simon dropped the shield and the rogue slipped in behind the
fighters.

“
Thanks to whoever did that.
The damnable things were lying down in a group, if you can believe
that. I was in the middle of them before I realized that they weren't
just heaps of trash. Damn stupid mistake on my part.”

“
You're welcome,” Simon
told him. “Happy to help. And apparently we made the monsters a
little wary.”

It was true. The pack of slavering
ghouls seemed puzzled by what had happened to the one who had
attacked Hallic. Simon could see that it was still moving but
considering the fact that its face had burned off, that wouldn't last
for much longer.

“
Good,” Liliana said,
glancing back at them. “I'd prefer it if they would scatter a
bit so that we can deal with them a few at a time, not all at once.”

The paladin had her wish. The ghouls
were tentative in their attack and the entire group was dispatched
fairly easily. Fergus did get splashed in the eye with some ghoulish
blood, but Miriam checked and pronounced it both safe and gross at
the same time.

“
Yeah and it smells disgusting
too,” Kate told Fergus.

“
Thanks a lot,” he
replied as he wiped a handkerchief over his face again and again. “I
can't get the stench off; it's like it's seeped into my pores. Ugh,
revolting.”

The rest of the fifth floor was
cleared out in a more orderly fashion. Hallic kept a close eye out
for resting ghouls and brought no more than four back to the group at
once for the remaining encounters.

Finally he returned to the party,
grinned widely and announced that the way was clear.

“
Not a single monster is left
between us and the next ramp,” he told Tamara. “And may I
suggest that the group rest for a few minutes, have some water and
food if they want it? There's a long way to go.”

The mage agreed, but wanted them all
to move across the distance to the other side of the floor first.
Once they had, everyone relaxed while Hallic headed upstairs to scout
out the next floor. Aeris joined him.