“If the dwarves could see this, they would never stop making war on this place,” said Decima in a whisper. They’d moved further down the hill to get a better look and confirm what Rose had seen. The shuffling corpses of the dwarves who died here. In fact, only four of them were shuffling. They seemed to be on a circuit around town, likely as guards. But there were others. Ten that they could see, standing two abreast directly in front of the doors of five homes.
Emrys nodded. “I’ve heard that they hold their dead in very high regard.”
“That’s putting it lightly. They revere them almost like gods.”
Rose was busy counting the seconds between dead dwarf movements, but she had the time to say, “Well I wish we had time to get them all pissed off enough to come here and fix this, but if that bloody faced motherfucker and my mother are down there, I could end this all right now.” She hesitated. “Can’t I?”
Emrys nodded. “Opal believed that the sacrifice would be most potent in the place their god slumbers. That isn’t here. He will likely take her there first, so yes, if we catch them before they leave, I think that would be best.”
“Right,” said Rose, settling herself into her seat a little deeper. “So, we’ve got these dead dwarf zombie things that kick off a new walking circuit every twenty seconds. That one goes back and forth from the bridge to the gate, that one goes from the first hut to that cluster of buildings over there. That one over there does the same thing in the second courtyard and the last one walks the wall. So ….. hell, I don’t know. This isn’t my kind of thing. I usually have more time than this. If we had a few hours…”
Decima looked impressed. “Excellent. That last one, though, will switch direction when it hits the wall. Watch.” It was only a few seconds away, but as Rose watched, it sure as shit happened.
“How did you know,” asked Emrys.
“Because it’s smart. If not, we could just follow him around the wall. Whoever gave them their orders was thinking ahead. They probably update them when they have new ideas, which is how we know that the dead by the doors will split if they sense us. One will go inside to raise an alarm and the other will engage us.”
Rose furrowed her brow. “But we could go around the outside of the wall when he’s on the other side, right?”
“Yes, as long as we don’t want to get at the center of the village, but for that matter, we could safely skirt the whole village. The point isn’t to keep us out, it’s to keep themselves safe.”
Rose cursed because, of course, she was right. Of course she was, she was a freaking soldier. She knew this stuff. “So, what do we do?”
Decima chewed her lips a bit, thinking. She cocked her head to the side a bit, looking at the place like a game board. “The problem here is that we don’t know where we want to go. If we had a target, I could do it.”
Emrys straightened up. “I should be able to sort that out. I can send in an elemental to scout, yes?”
Decima frowned. “Maybe. Unless that will set them off. Can the dead see them?”
Emrys deflated a bit. “I cannot know. I have never seen real undead creatures before. To be honest, this is quite terrifying to me.” He did seem a bit shaky.
Rose nodded. “Do it. It’s worth the risk. Worst thing it could do is alert them, but we’d do that by entering the village anyway.” Emrys seemed nervous, but he nodded. Decima also nodded, which made Rose feel good about her choice.
Emrys summoning a wispy smoke elemental was the work of moments. As it materialized, he said, wryly, “They are so eager. There must be very little for them here now.” Rose wanted to look around and say “duh” but somehow, she restrained herself. He gave it some orders. Or maybe he made a request. She wasn’t sure. It was in whatever language he used to speak to the elementals. It sounded like a request to her. Whatever it was, the thing wooshed off at a good clip. Emrys handed his necklace to Decima. “Here. I have bound the smoke to myself for a time and I know this amulet very well. I will be able to channel my magic through it. It may help you.” She took it as if he had just handed her a sacred thing. Or maybe a new weapon, but same thing for her. It didn’t seem to fit comfortably over her head, so she looped it onto the strap of her left bracer and nodded her thanks.
Rose sat and waited as sweat trickled down into her collar. Was she about to get her friends killed for her mother? That seemed like madness. When she’d set out it was easy numbers. She was ricking her own life for her mother’s life. Fair trade. But for the last few days she’d been wondering if her mother was worth Emrys or Decima. Decima seemed to think so, but Rose didn’t like the idea of making that choice for her. Wasn’t Decima biased or something? Didn’t she think she owed Rose her life or something stupid? And Emrys had never faced shit like this. How could be really choose? And how long did it tale elementals to scout anyway?
It turned out that it was about a full fifteen or twenty seconds. That’s how long they waited before the dead started to move.
The wails reached them a few seconds later and they were … Rose wasn’t sure how to describe the sounds the dead made. It wasn’t the sound a throat can make, which was fine because most of them didn’t have throats. Instead, it was a huffing and a hooting, as if whatever rotten bags remained of their lungs were blowing rapidly across the top of a fat wooden flask. It wasn’t just one, but several of them were making the noise. One might have vanished into the wind, but several of them doing it at once was unmistakable.
Decima drew her gladius, with a sigh. “Time to remind these dwarves that they are dead, I’m afraid.” As an afterthought, she whispered, “sorry, Captain.” And even softer, “Sorry, Opal.” She launched herself into a run without debate or discussion. Her way.
Emrys was at a loss for words. Rose gave him a shove and he looked to her stricken. “It was just the smoke, I’m afraid. The fires have been cold too long to allow me to summon it here and stone is quite slow. Perhaps the cold mountain air?” He wasn’t good at action under pressure. His way.
Rose wasn’t really sure what her way was in this sort of situation. Her way would have been to scout for days before acting. But there was no time for that and Emrys needed her. Could she choose for him? Her last choice hasn’t been ideal. But better her insecurities than his. She placed a hand on each shoulder and pulled him down a bit to look her in the eyes. “Stick with the smoke, Emrys. You use what you have. Throw them off balance as much as you can and let Decima and I do the real damage.” She pushed past him and let the wheels pick up speed as she moved down the hill.
As she picked up speed and started to feel the burn of the grips she watched Decima take apart the first dead dwarf. That was the right way to describe it, because she didn’t kill it as she might kill a living being. It was already dead. As it raised its arms to reach for her, she swung hard and took one arm off at the elbow: the precise strike hitting the tendon and it let go. The arm fell to the ground and the dwarf barely reacted. The thing had her by the forearm with the hand still attached. She dispatched it almost as neatly as the other, the same way Rose had seen her mother do with chicken wings. A slice, a crack to expose the tendon, and a second slice to cut the whole thing loose at the elbow. The dead dwarf was now an upright corpse with two stumps, biceps bunched up at the shoulder. They weren’t bleeding, but they were leaking a bit. Rose was planning to take out the legs, but Decima beat her to it and sped forward. Shit was Rose even needed here? Seemed maybe the tide was moving in their favor.
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