Salamaine's Curse (8 page)

“The blade still had the power to destroy you,” Porter shot back.

“Destroy me?” Keegan's dark brows shot upward. “My dear boy, do I look destroyed? All you've done is waste my time. An offense you'll pay dearly for, I can assure you, but not until I've availed myself of you and your brother's unique gift.”

“What do you want, Keegan?” Umbrey said with a growl.

Keegan shook his head, making a
tsk
ing sound with his tongue. “So righteous, all of you. Salamaine's curse created the scavengers, yet here you are, coming to me to save you from them.” He rose and looked at Umbrey. “You brought the map?”

Umbrey removed the rolled scroll from his coat.

With a careless swipe of his arm, Keegan cleared the table, sending the china and crystal crashing to the floor. He grabbed the map of the Cursed Souls Sea and spread it across the newly vacant surface.

“Read it,” Keegan commanded. “Show me the Black Book of Pernicus.”

Not about to take orders from Keegan, Tom looked at Umbrey. He gave a curt nod. “Do it, lads.”

Porter stationed himself at one end of the table. Tom wordlessly followed suit, taking the opposite end. Their eyes met, and together they placed their fingers on the edges of the map.

Thick clouds of silver mist rose from the map. The sea began to froth and foam. Waves rose and crashed. Beneath the surface of the ocean, shadowy creatures slithered and writhed. Tom's stomach clenched. He broke out in a fine sweat. Rather than the euphoria he normally felt when touching a map, he felt nauseous, dizzy. Seasick. As though the floor beneath him pitched and rolled.

As he watched, a stark outcropping of rocks rose from the depths of the Cursed Souls Sea. The rocks shifted, growing larger and broader until they became a barren island. The scattered remains of an ancient city spread across the island. Dominating the northern end was a towering fortress surrounded by barrel-chested guards, all of whom brandished glistening scimitar swords.

“Arx,” Keegan breathed. “It does exist.”

Within the fortress was a single black book, floating in mid-air. From the corner of his eye, Tom saw Keegan remove a gold key from his pocket and place it on the map. The pages of the book fluttered open.

Next, Mudge lifted the Sword of Five Kingdoms and touched it to the map. A brilliant light shot from the book. Mudge cocked his head and moved closer to the map, studying it intently. His focus locked, he looked from the book, to Keegan's key, to his sword, as though puzzling something out. Then the boy's face changed. Before Tom could ask him what he saw, a high-pitched scream filled the room. Tom jerked back his hands and the spell was broken. The images of the island, the fortress, and the book all vanished. The map returned to its dry, flat state. But the terrified screams continued.

He glanced at Porter. His brother had gone even paler than usual. So had Willa.

Another scream echoed through the room. It took Tom a moment to realize the sounds weren't coming from the map at all—or from anywhere in the basement cell. The panicked screams came from somewhere beyond the courthouse.

Then he heard something else. Umbrey had told him he would know it when he heard it. He'd been right, for this was a sound he knew he would remember for the rest of his life. A low, steady, desperate moan. The sound of hunger and pain and rage all coiled into one. An animal-like howl with a human edge.

Above their heads, the door to the courthouse crashed open—or possibly was knocked off its frame—impossible to tell which from where he stood. Tom's gaze shot to the ceiling. The slow, heavy shuffle of feet echoed overhead. It sounded as though someone—or maybe a group of people—had entered the courtroom above them. But the sounds they made weren't normal. He heard grunts and groans, followed by staggering, stumbling footsteps. As though whoever was up there was dragging something very heavy behind them.

Willa's eyes widened in horror. She grabbed Mudge and pulled him protectively toward her.

“We were supposed to have time,” Porter said, panicked. “I heard the reports. They were last seen crossing Mumdai. They're not supposed to be here yet.”

“Release me!” Keegan cried, pulling at the chain that secured his ankle. “I won't die like this! Not ripped apart by scavengers.”

“Shut up!” barked Umbrey.

“Release me now or you'll all die—all of you! You saw the map. You need me! You can't open the book without my key!”

Mudge tore away from Willa and ran to the outer cell wall. He grabbed the thick iron key that unlocked Keegan's shackle and rushed back to the cell.

Porter blocked his way.
“No.
You can't let him go. Think of everything he's done.”

In that instant, Mudge looked far older than his years. He met Porter's eyes. “I
know
what he's done. But he's right. The book would be useless without him.” He turned to Keegan. “If I release you, you will accompany us as our prisoner.”

“Fine. The key. Now.”

“Swear it.”

“Yes, yes, I swear.
Now give me that key!”

Mudge tossed it to him.

Keegan caught it and freed himself. He shook off his chain, then reached for a torch and held it aloft. His eyes met Tom's. “Marrick's chosen,” he said, his lips curled back in a sneer. “This horror was not created by me, but by your good and brave King Salamaine. Look. Look what he has wrought.”

Tom looked.

The creature from the map, but much, much worse. Now there were more of them. Too many to count. Filthy, battered, and bruised, their clothing hung in tatters from their skeletal frames as they stumbled down the rough stone steps, pushing and shoving past each other to gain entrance to the basement cell. They moved with their claw-like hands stretched out in front of them, their feet lurching unevenly, monotone grunts and growls issuing from their throats.

Odd clumps of hair sprung from their scalps. Their skin was gray and peeling, their lips rotted off to reveal blackened gums and tangled teeth. The putrid stench of rotting flesh hovered in the air around them.

The word
zombie
flew into Tom's brain and lodged there. But rather than provide him with the shot of adrenaline he desperately needed to jolt himself into action, the realization of what he was facing froze him in place. He couldn't move, couldn't breathe. His feet felt cemented to the cold stone floor.
Run! Get away, now!

He cast a panicked glance around the room. The rush of adrenaline he'd hoped for finally came, but it was too late. The stairs, their only exit, were blocked by the creatures. There was no where to run, no other way out. They were trapped inside.

S
cavengers. Zombies.
The names might not be the same, but the creatures were. As far as Tom could tell, there was no difference between them. But as they drew closer, he noted that one feature was altogether unlike the zombies he'd seen on TV and in movies,.

Scavengers' eyes were not vacant. They were not dull or glassy. Instead, they burned with lethal fury. Deadly rage. They might be slow and unsteady, but these were thinking, angry beings.

He watched the scavengers stumble down the stone steps. His initial instinct, born of both fear and repulsion, was to draw back into Keegan's cell until help arrived. Cowardly, maybe, but it would keep them alive. He shook off his terror long enough to reach for the cell door and slam it shut, but Umbrey stopped him.

“They'll only rip the bars out. Best we fight them directly.”

Rip the bars out? Iron bars lodged in stone? The creatures possessed that sort of strength?
The desperation of their situation quickly sunk in.

Tom shot a glance at his brother. Porter lifted a torch from an iron sconce in the wall and passed it to him. Umbrey armed himself in a like manner, as did Willa. A dim ray of understanding lit a corner of Tom's brain. That explained all the small fires he'd seen when he'd first arrived in Divino.

Keegan held his torch before him, his posture that of an experienced fencer beginning a match. Watching him, Tom repressed a choked laugh. It wasn't Keegan's action that amused him, or even his pose, but the absurdity of facing an enemy so terrifying that they were actually aligned with Keegan, rather than fighting against him. A minute ago he would have sworn that was impossible.

The scavengers shuffled closer.

Goosebumps shot up the back of Tom's neck. His heart pounded furiously within his chest. The creatures' stench, a foul mixture of death and disease and rotted fish, soured the air, making it almost impossible to breathe.

Mudge brought up the Sword of Five Kingdoms. Liquid relief poured through Tom. He'd forgotten Mudge's sword. A sword so powerful it had taken out Keegan's army with one swift stroke. He watched as Mudge raised the sword above his head. They were saved. They'd get out of there, regroup, and—

Mudge swung at the scavengers. A blast of fiery white heat shot from the end of the blade … and went
through
the scavengers. It didn't even slow them down.

“Circle up! Everyone, now!”

Tom didn't know who the voice belonged to. He didn't care. He simply obeyed. They formed a tight knot, their shoulders brushing. The scavengers stumbled closer, desperately clawing and grabbing at them.

One scavenger in particular seemed determined to get Tom. She was old, tall, and skeletal, with frizzy red hair and dark brown eyes. If not for the strips of flesh peeling from her cheeks, she would have been a dead ringer for his algebra teacher. She tore through Tom's tunic with her sharp nails. He jabbed her in the eye with his torch. She backed off, but not enough, continuing to hiss and claw her way closer.

Using their torches to keep the scavengers at arm's length, they inched across the floor. After what seemed like forever, (though it probably took no longer than ten minutes) Tom and his friends reached the stairs. They slowly crept upward, thrusting their fire in the creatures' faces to keep them at bay. Finally Tom reached the top of the staircase. He staggered backward, followed by Porter, Willa, and Mudge. Umbrey and Keegan spilled out into the courtroom after them.