Wilem
watched Robert and Stevan take the two dead guards out of the gate
house. Once they were gone, he headed for the chapel to rouse Sister
Niela, the castle’s cleric. Normally, Niela wouldn’t have been
needed to preside over the guards’ burials – commoner burials
typically needed neither monk nor cleric, as no special rituals were
required – but Wilem feared that, in this case, Niela’s more
particular talents might need to be called upon. If that turned out
to be the case – if the Baron did already possess the power to
raise Abominations – Niela, and all of the other Sisters, besides,
would soon become an invaluable asset. But
not even they will be enough to turn the tide,
he thought.
Wilem found Niela asleep in the
small room just off the chapel’s main hall. She awoke as soon as
he entered the room, sitting up and turning a troubled look in
Wilem’s direction. “What’s happened?” she asked.
“Two of the gate guards are
dead,” Wilem said. “They need to be buried, and I want you to be
there when it’s done.”
Niela – who had been
Valewind’s cleric since before Wilem and Garrold were born, but
didn’t look a day over forty – frowned. “Why?”
“Their minds were wiped by a
Necromantic spell before they died. I fear there may be others on
them that we missed.”
Niela’s eyes widened. “You’re
worried they could be raised, aren’t you?”
“I am.”
Niela
got out of bed, and Wilem had to hurriedly turn his back to avoid
seeing her change out of her shift and into her cleric’s robes.
Hearing the rustle of cloth behind him, Wilem was reminded of how
beautiful he’d always thought Sister Niela was, and how wrong it
would be for him to admit that to someone who’d known him – and
ministered to his various injuries and illnesses – since he was a
boy. Not to mention to fact that, while it hadn’t been required,
Wilem had taken an oath of chastity on becoming a monk, meaning that,
no matter how long he’d known Sister Niela, he could never be more
to her than just a friend. Purity.
Why in Hel’s name did I have to choose purity?
“Done
ruminating?” Niela asked. “Or do you want to waste more time
standing there looking at your feet?”
Wilem gave her a sheepish smile
and led the way out of the chapel. The commoners’ graveyard was
behind the main castle, an unadorned patch of earth covered in
numerous rounded humps. Each hump represented the grave of a
commoner. There were fresh flowers on some – evidence of recent
visitation – but most were bare. None of them was marked with a
name. At the end of the row of graves nearest the yard’s entrance,
Robert and Stevan were busying themselves digging, the bodies of the
two gate guards lying on the unbroken ground beside them.
“Brother Wilem!” Robert
said, looking up as Wilem and Niela came over. “Sister Niela! We
weren’t expecting the two of you.”
“I wanted Sister Niela to
examine the bodies before you buried them,” Wilem said. “I need
to be sure nothing was missed.”
“Missed?” Stevan asked.
“Like what?”
Wilem didn’t answer right
away, but did take note that Robert and Stevan each still had their
swords. That was good. He watched Niela as she knelt over the
bodies of the guards. “Hopefully nothing,” he said at last.
Suddenly,
Niela gasped, and Wilem watched in horror as one of the dead guards
reached up and grabbed her by the throat. Niela’s hands started to
glow with radiant energy, but, before she could cast it, the
Abomination threw her back with inhuman force, sending her flying
halfway across the graveyard. Wilem vaulted back, holding his hand
out to the side as he summoned his staff, which glowed with radiant
energy of its own. The staff would protect him from the
Abomination’s touch – and would do damage of its own as it did –
but, until, and unless, Niela could get back in the fight, Wilem
would have to rely on his martial skills, alone.
The
Abomination – both guards were Abominations, now, Robert and Stevan
drawing their swords to deal with the second one as it came to its
feet – rose and charged at Wilem, growling like a feral animal.
Wilem dodged and rolled, swinging at the undead horror with his
staff. The staff struck, causing the Abomination to screech and
steam to rise from its skin, but it kept coming, its eyes glowing in
their sockets like a pair of burning coals. Wilem struck. There
were more screeches, and the smell of burning flesh filled the air.
“Don’t
let it touch you!” Wilem shouted, whirling just out of the
Abomination’s touch, then knocking it back with two wicked strikes
from his staff. If either of the Abominations touched any of them,
its corruption would spread, turning whoever it touched into another
Abomination.
And something far worse if it touches me,
Wilem thought.
A
sudden blast of amber radiance struck the Abomination in front of
Wilem and sent it flying.
Niela!
He looked at her, seeing that, though she looked a little shaken,
seemed no worse for wear. Wilem offered her a quick smile, and got
one back in return before Niela unleashed another torrent of radiance
on the Abomination Robert and Stevan were fighting. Neither
Abomination stirred, but Niela hit them both, again, incinerating
each with balls of light almost as bright as the sun. Which, once
their light faded, Wilem realized had not yet begun to rise.
No sunrise. Gods Above, things are worse than I thought.
“Are you two all right?”
Wilem asked, looking at Robert and Stevan.
The two Silver Shields sheathed
their swords. Amazingly, neither of them looked as shaken as they
should have. “We’re all right,” Robert said. He looked at
Wilem. “What would have happened if one of those things touched
us?”
“You don’t really want an
answer to that question,” Niela said.
“Just
be thankful it didn’t happen,” Wilem said, dismissing his staff.
“The only one of us, here, immune to the touch of one of those
horrors is Niela.”
“Almost got me, though,”
Niela said, rubbing absently at both her throat and her backside.
“Wilem?”
“Yes?”
“If we survive this, would you
care to have a drink with me, sometime?”
“I thought you didn’t
drink.”
Niela smiled. “I think a lot
of old, stuffy oaths just went out the window.” She raised her
eyebrows. “Don’t you?”
Wilem smiled back. How much did
it really matter that Niela had known him since he was a child?
“Maybe so.”
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