Sunset of Lantonne (62 page)

Raeln nodded and adjusted his aim, readying himself to draw and fire at one of the ghouls in hopes that he could slow it, should the need arise.

The four people down on the road watched each other in silence for a minute or better. Finally, the Turessian broke the stillness by chuckling and stepping forward. “You know what the others were seeking,” he stated, gesturing broadly in the direction of the plains. “One specific tribal necklace stolen from my city and a staff of historical significance last seen near Lantonne. They not only failed, but brought me back a fake necklace in hopes of appeasing me. Do tell me you fared better in your search.”

The dwarf eyed the bag he held and let out a long whistle. The men at his sides drew their weapons and a dwarven woman hidden in the wagon stood up, raising her hands toward the Turessian. A wizard, Raeln realized.

“The deal’s off,” the lead dwarf announced, tossing the bag to the ground. “Tell me where I can find our dead and we’ll leave you and not return. You can have the bracelet if you don’t stand in our way.”

Without any visual cue, dozens of dwarven corpses charged into the open gate area, flanking the Turessian. The bodies were mostly intact, though their pale skin and distant gazes left no doubt they were dead.

“You do not set out terms,” the human explained, walking over to the nearest dwarven man, his jaw hung limply as he stood ready. Drawing a knife from his belt, the Turessian reached out and sliced off the dwarven corpse’s beard, dropping it into the mud at his feet. “Either run or collect your fallen,” he added, stepping behind the rows of dwarven zombies. “I will dishonor them one at a time until you pick your battles, merchant.”

The spokesperson for the dwarves clenched his jaw and roared a call to battle as the Turessian cut off the braids of a dead woman.

The dwarves never stood a chance. Raeln fired his first arrow as soon as the dwarves charged, knocking the closest ghoul off its feet. As it landed, the first dwarf died, not even having reached the zombies. It was their wizard that fell first, collapsing lifelessly atop the wagon.

Raeln searched the road for what had gotten to the dwarves as they formed up in a circle around the wagon and their leader rushed to the fallen woman. It took him several seconds, but he spotted a silhouetted shape darting around near the trees, trying to approach one dwarf at a time rather than the whole group.

“Greth…” Raeln said sharply, catching the man’s attention as he pointed, “…ghost.”

Snarling angrily, Greth threw his bow back over his shoulder and shoved the arrow he held into his quiver. Turning and grabbing Raeln’s arm as he retreated, Greth told him, “We’re out of here. We can’t fight a ghost. Start running and we’ll double-back to…”

A few feet behind the two of them on the hill stood another dwarf, hiding behind a large pine. He waved when they looked at him, then took off running into the woods, keeping one hand on a bag at his hip. Unlike the others, he was far less heavily armored and had the filthy look of one who had been crawling through the woods.

Raeln turned back to the road below and saw all of the dwarves were lying on the ground with no visible wounds. The Turessian had come forward again and was rifling through the bag they had left in the road. A second later, the man’s furious scream echoed off the hills.

“Decoy,” Greth thought out loud, nodding toward the dwarf that had run. “He has whatever the dead guy wanted. We catch him and we can deny them something they want badly.”

Raeln did not need any other instructions. He took off at a dead run, trying to chase down the running dwarf with Greth flanking him to cut off any escape. Even with a head start, the dwarf had shorter legs and less experience in the difficult terrain of the mountains.

The trail abruptly disappeared, the dwarf’s tracks vanishing into a rocky area that did not offer Raeln any clues. Dropping to his knees, he sniffed the stones in several spots, trying to find the scent.

“You’re taking too long,” snapped Greth, running up beside him. Sniffing a few times, he pointed west. “He went that way.”

They took off running again, this time with Greth several steps ahead as he followed his nose through the trees, across a small stream, and farther up into the mountains. They covered miles of ground, the dwarf always a little ahead of them, which was a shock to Raeln given the dwarf’s far shorter stride. Finally as the sun neared the mountains and the woods began to darken, Greth slowed them and motioned that they should watch for movement.

Raeln parted from Greth, circling farther north to cut down on the chances of the dwarf getting past them and running again. He crept through the woods as quietly as he could and soon came on a nearly sheer drop-off that fell almost a hundred feet to a valley below. Knowing dwarf had not crossed, he turned west again and watched for the man to double back.

Sounds of movement in the woods caught Raeln’s attention and he froze, listening for their source. It took him a moment to narrow down the direction, then realized it was coming from the same direction he had. Dropping low, he watched the woods for movement and soon saw a small group approaching, following his trail.

The creatures following Raeln had once been human, but that was apparently a long time gone. The two leading the group, sniffing along the ground like animals, looked to have been humans, though their skin was thinned to near transparency and their clothing hung in rags. Behind them, a single mangled corpse walked along, following the ghouls doing the tracking, but the bloodied man’s remains never looked up or gave any indication of understanding. Why a Turessian would include the clumsy, mindless zombie among the others in trailing the dwarf or himself, he could not guess.

Raeln waited at the edge of the hillside for some time, watching as the ghouls sniffed and snorted their way past him, heading farther into the woods. Once, one of the creatures looked his way, snarling to expose broken teeth caked with dried blood, but then they continued away from him.

Not willing to risk being found by the undead, Raeln remained hidden for another minute after he could no longer smell them, then got up and started back toward where he had last seen Greth. He had gone no more than twenty feet before the dwarf he had been hunting came running from the trees straight toward him.

“They’re right behind me!” shouted the man, his short legs pumping with endurance borne of panic. “Run!”

Raeln had only a second to turn toward the man before the two ghouls burst from the denser woods, running on all fours. The creatures gained on the dwarf quickly and Raeln could see they would have him before he could reach the next section of heavy tree cover.

Deciding saving a stranger was worth the risk—especially one who might know more about the happenings in Altis—Raeln began running straight toward the ghouls, passing the dwarf.

The ghouls parted and tried to make their way around Raeln, their eyes never leaving the dwarf. As they neared him, one ghoul turned and charged at Raeln while the other circled wide in an effort to keep on the fleeing dwarf.

Raeln dove sideways, catching the leg of the ghoul that had tried to get past him. Tumbling, he yanked the creature off its feet and used his momentum to throw it back the way it had come, hissing and spitting as it tumbled across the stones and grass.

The second ghoul seemed surprised that its fellow undead had not kept going and looked around in confusion, its sunken eyes darting between Raeln, the dwarf, and the ghoul that was trying to right itself.

Before the nearer ghoul could formulate a new plan, Raeln punched it in the side of the head, knocking it to the ground. He rolled onto its back with his knee between its shoulders, hooking his hands under its jaw. He braced himself and pulled, snapping the creature’s neck. It continued to snarl and watch him, but could no longer move its arms and legs.

By then, the ghoul Raeln had thrown was back on its feet and rushing him, the dwarf forgotten. Raeln waited the remains of the first undead, then caught the second ghoul as it leapt, using his longer arms to keep its hands and teeth off of his neck and face. Grabbing its wrists to keep it from clawing his arms, Raeln began kicking the creature’s side as hard as he could, breaking bones after several impacts. Still, the creature fought on, flailing and thrashing as it tried desperately to get its teeth into him.

Struggling to keep the undead at bay, Raeln saw Greth emerge from the woods nearby. The man looked to Raeln, who gave a jerk of his head toward where the dwarf had gone. Nodding but appearing concerned, Greth took off that direction.

A sharp sting on Raeln’s left arm warned him the ghoul had nearly pulled free of his grip. The creature’s bloodied and broken fingers had raked his flesh, leaving two shallow cuts on his forearm that burned like he had gotten too close to a fire. Slowly, his strength began to fade in that arm as his muscles went numb.

Raeln knew he had to kill the creature fast or it would soon be able to free itself and tear him apart. Kicking straight at the ghoul’s midsection, Raeln sent the undead flying back several feet. It landed on its feet and charged at him again, trying to get back into the fray before he could recover.

Raeln drew his knife, brought with him from Lantonne, and ducked the ghoul’s first wild swing. Sweeping the blade across the creature’s midsection, he spun out from under the ghoul as it collapsed, screeching as its guts fell from its opened stomach.

The undead stumbled about, trying to hold in its blackened intestines, Raeln and the dwarf forgotten in its animal-like single-minded panic. While it stared at its wound, Raeln came up alongside the ghoul and drove his dagger as hard as he could into the top of its head, killing it instantly.

A furious roar behind Raeln warned him he was not done yet, and he tucked his nearly numb left arm to his stomach to keep it out of the way if he had to fight again. Whatever filth was in the ghoul’s claws continued to burn up past his shoulder, making it difficult to move the arm at all, let alone effectively.

Turning with his arm cradled to his body, Raeln found the dwarf was back and running straight toward him. Behind the short man was the zombie, its eyes wide with rage as it lumbered after the dwarf. Farther back among the trees, Greth lie prone on the ground, trying to get back to his feet with a hand to his head where a small amount of blood stood out against his fur.

Raeln tried to get between the dwarf and the running zombie, but the undead reached the dwarf first, grabbing him by the back of his tunic. As the dwarf lost his forward momentum, he threw the bag Raeln had seen earlier at his side, the canvas sack letting out a metallic ring as it hit the rocks near Raeln’s feet. He ignored it, trying to reach the zombie as it pulled the screaming man to the ground.

Raeln reached the dwarf and undead as the undead began pounding on the dwarf with unbelievable fury, its fists cracking the man’s ribs and easily knocking aside his attempts to shield himself with his arms. Grabbing at the zombie, Raeln was knocked over backwards by the force of the creature’s flailing attacks. It ignored him completely, growling loudly as it beat the dwarf unconscious.

Rolling back onto his feet, Raeln drove his elbow as hard as he could into the back of the zombie, hoping to at least draw its attention. The creature barely stumbled, but continued its brutal attack, spraying blood in all directions as the dwarf stopped resisting.

Raeln continued beating on the zombie as best he could, breaking one of its legs, kicking at its body, anything he could think of to cripple it. Still, the creature kept up the savage beating of the dwarf until the man was unrecognizable as anything more than a bloody mess of raw meat. Without warning, the zombie turned and looked at Raeln, the anger it had focused on the dwarf redirecting to him.

The zombie’s first swing came down on Raeln’s shoulder, dropping him to his knees with the immense force behind the blow. Before he could recover his balance, the undead struck him again, making him stagger backwards to keep from falling. He had seen what had happened to the dwarf once he was prone and Raeln was willing to take the painful blows as long as he had to if it kept him upright. He knew he could not take many more of the zombie’s strong swings, but every second he could buy himself might give him a chance to escape.

Ducking and sidestepping as best he could as the zombie tried to grab him and continued beating at his good arm when he had to block, Raeln kept stumbling backwards. He could barely find a moment to look around and get his bearings between the creature’s attacks, but when he did, he spotted Greth running toward him. A second later as he stepped back again, his foot descended and found no solid ground to rest on. Tumbling backwards, Raeln realized he was falling off the steep lip of the mountainside and the zombie was mindlessly pushing him on, heedless of any risk to itself as it went over with him.