The Dragons of Decay (10 page)

Up on the parapet, the wind smacked
into him full force and he squinted as he looked along the wall.

A few feet away he saw Aiden, longbow
in hand, lean over the wall, aim carefully and shoot at an unseen
target.

“
That's got it,” the
wizard heard someone yell with a laugh and then saw the massive
figure of Malcolm just beyond Aiden, nodding in approval.

The big man spotted Simon and smiled
broadly. His dark face and long braids were barely recognizable in
the dense storm.

“
Wizard!” he called
gleefully. “Nice of you to join us.”

Aiden spun around and smiled down at
Simon

“
Good day, sir wizard. Come to
join the hunt?”

“
Hunt?” Malcolm said
scornfully. “Shooting fish in a barrel is more like it. No
sport at all in this.”

Simon was pleased that the men's
spirits were high but he wondered if they were taking the situation a
little too lightly.

He peered at Aiden through the snow
and saw a pinched look underneath the bravado. The man wasn't as calm
as he wanted others to think, obviously.

“
Yeah, good to see you both.
Aeris is out there,” he pointed beyond the wall, “checking
out the situation. He'll report back in a bit.”

Simon leaned over the wall and stared
down at the moat below.

The deep ditch was hard to make out
through the blizzard, but he could see vague shapes moving along the
bottom. The moat was a dozen feet deep at least and the drawbridge
was raised to cover the front gate. Beneath it, Simon stared intently
at fuzzy white blobs that seemed to be creeping up the walls of the
moat with slug-like speed. Wights? He leaned further. Wights.

They could move incredibly fast on
level ground, but on the slippery wall they moved with glacial
slowness. But the climbing monsters crept upward with a deliberate
intent that was frightening.

He watched as one reached the bottom
of the drawbridge and started to climb up the wooden structure. As it
got closer, Simon saw at least a half dozen arrows sticking out of
its pallid, emaciated body but the creature ignored its wounds and
crawled steadily toward the top of the gate.

Aiden followed Simon's gaze and
whipped an arrow out of the quiver hanging on his hip. He aimed his
bow and shot in one smooth, economical motion.

The arrow slammed into the wight's
face, right between its dead, red eyes and it was flung off of the
drawbridge to tumble back into the moat. It made no sound at all.

“
Nice shot,” Malcolm said
and clouted his partner on the shoulder.

Aiden laughed shortly and then his
face took on a serious expression.

“
This has been fun and all, but
what happens when we run out of arrows?”

He pointed beyond Malcolm to the
other side of the gate and Simon could just see a handful of figures
standing on the opposite parapet.

“
There's just us two and those
four over there who are trained in combat. We sent another three to
the back gate along with our four magical friends, but that's all we
have to defend the town.”

Malcolm's smile faded as Aiden spoke
and he nodded reluctantly.

“
He'd got a point,” he
said soberly. “Aiden and I have enchanted blades, which
hopefully will work against the undead. The others do as well, but
they simply aren't as well trained yet.”

He sighed and his foggy breath blew
away in the incessant wind.

“
We've been working with them,
but everyone has other duties as well, so their skills aren't where
we'd like them to be.”

“
They will stand though,”
Aiden said firmly. “Those damned beasts will have to go through
all of us before they can get into the town.”

“
Aye,” Malcolm said with
a scowl. “That they will.”

The pair suddenly fitted arrows to
their bows, turned as one and let the missiles fly.

Simon looked down and saw two more
pale bodies falling back into the ditch below.

“
Nice,” he said with a
smile. “If you had enough arrows and could keep doing that, all
we'd have to do is wait out this blasted storm.”

“
Wishful thinking,” Aiden
said with a shrug. “Speaking of which, any idea how long this
blizzard is going to last?”

Simon wiped his eyes. Tears were
leaking down his face from the bitter wind and icy snow and kept
blurring his vision.

“
According to my air elemental
friend, another couple of days. Too long, I'm afraid.”

“
Lovely,” Malcolm
grumbled. “To be honest, we can't hold out that long, Simon.
Even if we had the arrows, eventually exhaustion would set in and
we'd lose our focus. Personally, I'd rather face those monsters in a
stand-up fight before that happens.”

Before Simon could find something
reassuring to say, Aeris popped up in between him and Aiden.

“
Whoa!” Aiden exclaimed
and stumbled backward. Malcolm steadied him and laughed at his
partner's reaction.

“
Skittish?” he teased and
Aiden glared at him.

Simon chuckled and then looked at the
elemental.

“
What's the word?” he
asked anxiously.

“
Well, good and bad news, I
think,” Aeris said looking from one face to another. “I
counted at least thirty of the monsters out there. They're bunched up
at the bottom of the trench and climbing over each other as they try
to reach the gate. Disgusting,” he added with a grimace.

“
Is that the good news or the
bad news?” Aiden asked with a frown.

“
That is the bad news. The good
news is that they are spending as much time tearing at each other as
they are in trying to climb over the wall. Wights, and undead in
general, hate everything, including each other. I think the fact that
they can't reach you is frustrating them. If such creatures can
become frustrated, that is.”

“
So,” Simon said,
thinking quickly, “they're all bunched up below the
drawbridge?”

“
They are.”

The wizard smiled.

“
Perfect. I was afraid that
they'd be scattered all around the perimeter and I'd have to hunt
them down one by one.”

He looked at Malcolm and Aiden
grimly.

“
Not an idea I relish in the
middle of a blizzard.”

“
You don't mean that you're
going out there?” Aiden asked in disbelief.

“
Only way,” Simon told
him. “I can't see the bottom of the moat from up here. I'll
have to get down to ground level to get a decent shot at them.”

“
Master!”

All of them turned in time to see
Kronk hop up from the ladder on to the parapet.

“
Ah, there you are,”
Simon said. “How are things at the back gate?”

“
Fine, master. Virginia and the
rest of her group are continuing to batter the wights off of the wall
as they reach the top of the gate.”

“
Is that effective?”
Malcolm asked him skeptically. “I mean, our arrows aren't
having much effect.”

“
It is taking its toll,”
the earthen told him. “Every time they use their power to smash
an undead from its perch, it takes damage. I checked below the gate,
carefully,” he said quickly with a glance at Simon, “and
there are several wights lying there in pieces. They are still
moving, but cannot attack without arms and legs.”

“
Yuck! That's gross!”
Aiden exclaimed.

“
Behold, the brave warrior,”
Malcolm said, with a loud laugh.

“
Hey mister, a stand up fight
is one thing. But tearing things apart piece by piece? That's just
disgusting.”

Kronk gave a little shrug.

“
But effective. Someone will
have to go down there when the battle is over and set flames to the
pieces though, or they may remain a threat.”

“
Lovely,” Aiden muttered
and swallowed convulsively.

“
You know, there's something I
don't understand,” Malcolm said after he'd stopped chuckling.

“
Only one thing?” Aiden
asked tartly.

“
Don't be mean. No, what I
don't get is why? Why are these things doing this? I mean, they're
just mindless walking corpses essentially, yes?”

“
Basically,” Aeris
answered.

He looked at Simon who shook his
head.

“
Don't look at me. I'll bow to
your expertise on this subject.”

“
Really? My, my, what a special
day. Anyway, yes, wights are related to the undead who attacked
Nottinghill in the past. You weren't here at the time, I believe?”

“
Nope,” the big man said.
“We came in the following year.”

“
Right. Well then, the major
difference between the corpses that attacked the town back then and
the wights that are attacking now is speed and strength. Oh and they
are slightly more intelligent than the others.”

Aiden turned, pulled out an arrow and
shot another wight off of the wall.

“
Not much more, though,”
Aeris added dryly.

“
I can see that. But that's my
point. I was told about the attack and apparently, a lich?” He
looked to Simon who nodded. “Right, a lich was commanding the
undead in the attack. So my question is, who or what is controlling
these wights? What, they all just got together at the undead hotel
and decided to attack en masse?”

Everyone fell silent and the only
sound was the wind blowing mournfully across the top of the wall.

“
That's an unsettling thought,
isn't it?” Simon finally said, breaking the silence. “But
let's worry about that later. Right now, I have to get down there.”

He slipped the staff off of his back
and began to chant the incantation for the Gate spell.

“
Do you want someone to watch
your back?” Aiden spoke up. “We won't be much help to you
from up here if something goes wrong out there.”

“
No, that's fine. I can't see
to the other side of the moat, so I'm going to Gate to the top of the
little hill near the forest where I always come out when I ride
here.”

He waved vaguely in what he hoped was
the proper direction.

“
I'll make my way down to the
moat and walk along the edge until I can see the wights. After that,
a good dose of fire should take care of the problem, at least for
now.”

Kronk grabbed the bottom of his coat
firmly while Aeris hurried to float over and catch a hold of his
sleeve.

“
You guys should wait here,”
Simon told them as he took a firmer grip on his staff. His gloves
were slipping on its frosted surface.

“
Well that's not happening,”
Aeris told him stubbornly.

“
You may need our help,
master,” Kronk said, backing him up and looking at the wizard
with wide eyes.

“
Oh for...”

Simon rolled his eyes and the two
guardsmen laughed.

“
Nicely played, boys,”
Malcolm said to the elementals. “Okay then. Good luck, sir
wizard. Watch your back out there.”

“
I will. Just keep those damned
things out of the town for a little while longer.”

“
You can count on that,”
Aiden said firmly and pulled out another arrow.

“
Invectis
!”

The snow
on the hilltop was knee-deep and Simon stumbled and almost fell over
as he appeared.

“
Crap,”
he muttered. “Stupid robe.”

He planted
his staff firmly, took one long step forward and made sure his
footing was firm before moving his other leg. It was slow going but
at least he didn't land flat on his face.

The town
was totally invisible from the hilltop. Snow was blowing horizontally
across the open space between Simon and Nottinghill and his
visibility was reduced to only a few feet in all directions.

“
You
see? I told you that you'd need us,” Aeris said loudly, with a
smug expression on his face.

“
Why?
I'm doing all right so far.”

“
Really?
Okay then, which way is Nottinghill?”

Simon
glared at him and then pointed straight ahead.

Aeris
snickered and the wizard looked down at Kronk, who was tugging on his
coat.

“
The
town is that way, master,” the earthen said, pointing quite a
bit further to the right than Simon was.

“
Are
you sure?”

“
Of
course, master. I can feel it through the ground.”

Simon
wiped off his face and flung wet snow away irritably. He was vaguely
pleased that his hair was staying tied back.

One less
thing to get into my eyes, he thought.

“
Okay,
you guys win. Kronk, lead the way, would you?”