"Why only a major? Why not a higher rank?"
"Too high and people will remember you. The rank of colonel is fairly rare, and the day a soldier meets a general is a big deal to some. Something they remember."
"What if you need to get a colonel or general to do what Captain Waltham just did?"
I thought for a second. "You know, it's never come up. Avalon has enough people scattered in high-ranking positions that I can always find someone to help out. And if I can't, well, then I do things a little more subversively than I did to get into this place."
"You're just full of surprises."
"I like to impress. Did they treat you and Sam okay?"
Sam finished chewing and wiped his mouth. "Not very nice food, but that's about it. That captain yelled at me and Sky a bit, calling us traitors."
"Sounds like you had fun," I said. "Where are the chief and his men?"
"In the woods to the north," Sky said. "Arriving with a full accompaniment of native warriors wouldn't have done us many favours. I told them to wait until morning. I was hoping that you'd have found out more from your trip to Kilnhurst."
"There's something going on there, that's for sure" I said. "Sam told me about the monster that killed his friend. Apparently, it's protecting the town, or at least that's how the inhabitants see it."
"It's not protecting them, it's using them," Sky said.
"You want to tell me what it is?"
"It's called a lich."
"Is that what the monster's called?" Sam asked, finally having eaten his full. "I expected the name to be more... horrific."
"Liches are evil in a way I can barely put into words," Sky told Sam. "Hard to kill, too. If you met one of them, Sam, you're lucky to be alive."
"So how do we kill it?" Sam asked.
"You don't. That's why I'm here."
"I think you need to explain exactly what's going on here, Sky," I said.
"A lich is roaming the countryside killing people. As a necromancer, it's my job to make sure that stops.”
"So, who sent you here?"
"My employer. Don't ask for more, because you won't get it."
"Whom does this lich hate enough to do all of this?"
"No idea, I'll ask it when I tear its soul out. In the meantime, we have a problem. I overheard the asshole in charge of this fort say that he wants some men to ride to the ranch and the other fort tomorrow. I think he's involved in all of this somehow."
As if on cue, the doors slammed open and Captain Waltham marched into the dining room with his pistol drawn. "I can't have you walking around saying things like that," he said and aimed the gun at Sky, but he was far too slow.
Sky's hand moved a fraction of a second before mine and Captain Waltham turned into a statue. He blinked twice in what I took to be shock and then collapsed to the floor.
"What did you do?" I asked
"Moved his soul."
No one spoke; I wasn't even sure I'd heard Sky correctly.
"I didn't tear out his soul," Sky clarified. "I moved it, slightly. Do it just right and you cause a person to freeze. It only lasts a few minutes, though."
"How did you do that?" Sam asked.
"Necromancy," Sky said. "The manipulation of the spirit, soul or whatever else you wish to call it. Everyone has a soul. No matter if they're evil, angelic, twisted or otherwise, they still have one. Only the dead don't. If you tamper with the soul of a living person, you can do all kinds of horrible things. Freezing them is one of the more humane. I usually deal with dead spirits or souls just leaving the body, but I'm not without my talents when it comes to the living either."
"So I can see," I said, as I picked up Captain Waltham and carried him to a comfortable chair before depositing him in it. I removed his Army Colt and passed it to Sky.
Captain Waltham blinked again.
"You don't have long," Sky said. "And he can still hear you just fine."
"Captain," I said, my voice calm. "You're going to regain the use of your body in a second, but please don't make my companion here angry. She's not too good at holding back the urge to hurt those who have clamped her in irons, stuffed her in a prison and been generally unpleasant toward her. She's probably tired, too, that tends to make people a little cranky. So, no shouting, screaming, yelling, or general loudness will leave your lips, or I'm going to find the monster that you've made a pact with and I'm going to feed you to it."
"You won't torture me," the captain said, his words slurred and slow.
"Who said anything about torture?" I asked. "I said I'd feed you to the monster. If he wants to take his time, then so be it. Me, I'm not going to get my hands dirty dealing with a piece of shit like you."
I moved him into a more upright position.
"What's your plan?" I asked him. The captain opened his mouth to answer, but before he could speak, I shushed him to silence once more. "Before you start, we know you're involved, so don't bother denying it. You've been told to ride to both the ranch and the fort east of here, where you will find the various signs of violence left behind—blood at the fort and the ranch owner’s body strung up and butchered. You will then cry 'Indians did it' and use the tomahawks as evidence."
"They're savages, goddamn savages. May the Lord burn—"
I punched him in the face with just enough force to shut him up. "Don't bring any Lord of yours into this. You did this for revenge or money. Probably both. So, don't you dare pretend that this was some divine act."
Captain Waltham touched his bloody lip and glanced at his fingertips. "You're going to burn along with them. The righteous will cast your bones into the flames of hell."
I stood back and laughed. It was a full belly laugh, and Captain Waltham's expression slowly evolved from one of anger into one of confusion. "You're an idiot," I said. Fire ignited in my hands. It was only a small sphere, spinning with slow purpose like a planet on its axis.
Captain Waltham scrambled back up and over the chair, ducking behind it.
"As you can see, the fires of hell would have to be really goddamn hot to make me concerned."
I stopped my magic as screams sounded from out in the courtyard. The momentary loss of concentration allowed Captain Waltham to sprint away and up a nearby flight of stairs. A door slammed above us.
"Someone's nervous," I said, as more screams ripped through the air around us.
"Sam, stay back," Sky told him. To his credit he didn't argue.
The two of us moved toward the door and opened it slightly. The courtyard was a battleground. Two dead soldiers lay near the barracks, and even from the distance between us I could tell that their throats were torn out.
There were things moving in the darkness around the buildings. Occasionally another scream would sound out, and then those who had finally armed themselves, or found their nerve, would start firing wildly. Sergeant Roberts ran past us as we stepped outside, and I grabbed his arm. "Is there someplace big enough for everyone that can be barred from the inside?"
"There's a room in the basement. The captain had it built. The doors are reinforced with steel plating. It's big enough to hold a hundred people and there's food and water stored there. The entrance is over in the corner." He pointed off past the officer's building to what I'd assumed was just a storage shed when I'd first entered the fort.
"Get everyone down there, now."
"But—"
"But nothing, get your people in that room right now, or you'll have no one left."
He nodded curtly, with more than a little fear in his eyes, but he was soon barking orders and gathering his men. Sam ran with a large group of soldiers, as Sky and I covered them. But whatever was hiding in the shadows did nothing to stop their retreat.
"How many men did you lose?" I asked once the massive doors were closed and forced shut.
"I'll do a count," Sergeant Roberts said.
"I'm in charge here," Lieutenant Burns snapped.
"Were you even out there? I didn't see you run in," I
said.
Lieutenant Burns glanced around at his men with nervous anticipation. I was certain they weren't about to like his answer. "I was in here already, preparing for my men's retreat."
"Well, and didn't you do a good job, too? If the US had more men like you, you'd still be under English law."
I glanced around at our new temporary home. It was mostly a giant open space with a small room at the rear. Through the open door, I could see bags and barrels of food and drink, enough to keep us supplied for some time. There were only twenty-six bunk-beds, and most of those were now taken up with the injured. But there was plenty of floor space for the remaining soldiers to take the weight off their feet and try to come to terms with their new circumstance.
Torches on the wall burned brightly and I could see the holes in the ceiling that supplied the ventilation. There was even a dart board at the far end of the room. The captain had certainly taken his time to plan out everything he'd need.
A massive pounding sounded against the outside of the door, but stopped soon after. "Someone isn't taking the hint," I said.
"I sensed barrens out there, Nate. A lot of them. Ghouls, too," Sky whispered to me.
"We need to protect the captain," Lieutenant Burns snapped to no one in particular.
"Where is he?" I asked.
"Still in his quarters. He needs to be rescued."
A picture of the maid I'd met earlier flashed to mind. "How many have we left out there?"
"We got everyone we could" Sergeant Roberts said re-joining us. "In terms of Army losses, we've lost twenty-two men, thirty are injured and another six are unaccounted for. But there are still civilians who work in the officer's quarters that we couldn't get to in time. There's probably four or five people still inside. What the hell attacked us out there?"
"I'll answer the 'what' in a second, first we need to get everyone from upstairs in here," I said. "Is there any other way to get out of here, besides that door?"
Sergeant Roberts was about to talk, when someone shouted him over and he excused himself to go deal with the problem.
Lieutenant Burns was spending his time yelling at anyone who dared to help the injured instead of rallying to find Captain Waltham. Thankfully, everyone appeared to be ignoring him.
"Sam, can you go help any wounded? I know it's not going to be nice, but we can't have people dying in here if we can help it."
"I'll do my best," Sam said with a forced smile.
"You have taken charge very quickly," Sky said. "But if you think I'm going to be nursing people—"
"I need you to find anyone who had been bitten by a ghoul," I interrupted. "We both know what'll happen to them. We can't have people turning in here. I assume a ghoul bite and barren bite can be told apart?"
"It'll be easy enough to find those who were bitten by a ghoul and not by a barren. You want me to use my necromancy to kill them without people knowing?"
"We can't have panic in here. You're the only one who can kill those infected in a peaceful way. My glyphs give it away and we can't start shooting or stabbing them. I'm sorry to ask this of you."
"Those bitten are already dead, Nate. I'll be doing them a favour. But if you're not back soon, I'm going to find you."
"Deal. But let Roberts know that anyone infected will die. Hopefully, he'll be able to better prepare people for what's going to happen."
I collared Lieutenant Burns as he walked by. "A second exit into the officers' quarters. Where is it?"
Burns shook my hand off. "That's not your concern."
"Do you see anyone else running upstairs? Because if you want that captain of yours back, you'd best point me in the direction of an exit from this place. One that doesn't involve me running a gauntlet through a mob of killing machines."
"In the food pantry, there's a lever beside one of the cupboards, pull it and the cupboard moves. The stairs will take you to the dining room directly above."
"Excellent," I said. "Sergeant Roberts, the men seem to respect and like you, you're in charge until I return."
"You can't do that," Lieutenant Burns whined.
"That slip of paper that says I outrank you, tells me otherwise. And Lieutenant, if you annoy me once more, I will personally throw you out of that door to fend for yourself, clear?"
Lieutenant Burns nodded furiously.
"Great, now go make yourself useful by helping anyone who needs it." I waited until he was out of earshot. "How the hell did he make Lieutenant?"
"Important daddy," Sergeant Roberts said. "I'll make sure he's kept busy."
"I'll be back soon. If he causes you any trouble, shoot him."
"It's not him I'm worried about. What happens if those things get in here?"
"The two slits on the door can be opened to let you see outside, yes?"
Sergeant Roberts nodded.
"Most of what are out there are called barren," Sky told sergeant Roberts. "They can be killed with a shot to the head or heart, just like a human."
"I'm pretty sure what was out there wasn't human."
"That's true, but they die just as quickly once they're reminded of it."
It didn't take long to get through the pantry and up the hidden stairway to the officers quarters. Finding the civilians help took far longer, mostly out of a desire not to make too much noise. But eventually, I found them, four women and a man, all of whom were huddled together in a corner of the large kitchen. The man swiped at me with a butcher's knife, but it was easily avoided and he was disarmed without further incident.
"Please don't kill us," one of the women said with a thick French accent.
"I came up through a secret stairway from an underground room, all of the soldiers are down there," I said. "You'll be safe there."
The woman translated to the other women who nodded with enthusiasm.
I stopped by the front entrance and motioned for the others to continue as I glanced into the courtyard beyond. Men shuffled about without purpose. They moved with a slightly unnatural step—it was as if they were unsure they could restart if they stopped moving. They were the barren, and there were dozens and dozens of them. A mixture of army soldiers, still in their uniform, and ranch hands. These were the missing people from both the other fort and the Warren ranch.
The two bodies I'd noticed dead on the ground earlier were being devoured by several of the barren. They tore apart the flesh and snapped the bones as if they were eating a chicken at a banquet.
I hurried after the group into to the dining room, and opened the secret door that sat behind a moved cabinet, which I'd pushed away from the wall when I came up earlier.
"Is there anyone else left up here?" I asked. "Apart from the Captain?"
Three of the women and the man shook their heads and entered the tunnel, but the fourth woman, the same who had spoken earlier, paused as she stepped past me. "There are two children. The Captain keeps them in his room."
"What?" I asked with far too much anger. "Why didn't anyone mention this to me before?"
The woman flinched back as if I were about to strike her. "None of the men know, apart from Lieutenant Burns. I was sworn to secrecy. They threatened to have me executed for treason if I spoke of it. Captain Waltham says they're Indian spies; he's interrogating them. Lieutenant Burns brought them in about a week ago."
I pointed down the path. "Go find Sergeant Roberts and tell him that I'm up here and going to find these kids. If you happen to see Lieutenant Burns, please feel free to shoot him."
The woman’s eyebrows rose in shock.
I walked away without telling her if I was joking, mostly because I was pretty certain I wouldn't be able to lie convincingly and say that I was.
Moments later, I was standing to one side of the Captain's room banging on the door. "Either you open it, or I will."
A rifle round shot through the wood exactly where my head would have been if I'd been in front of the door.
A quick glance through the hole told me that the captain was alon
e in the room. I placed a hand on either side of the doorframe and increased the air pressure around it, crushing the wood, until the door buckled and collapsed under its own weight. I immediately grabbed the remains in a bubble of air as they fell inward and flung them into the room beyond, slamming into the captain like a... well, like a door being slammed into a human at near hurricane speeds. I was almost certain it hurt, and from the moaning noise creeping out from under the reshaped wood, I was more than likely right.
"You should have opened the door," I said, pushing a heavy trunk, which had been used as a barricade, aside and stepping into the room, which apart from the trunk was devoid of any other furniture.
The captain moaned and pushed the pile of wood off of him as he reached for the rifle. I picked up the weapon and emptied it, tossing it through the open doorway. "The children, where are they?"
"Spies."
I kicked him in the ribs and he yelled in pain.
"They were caught running from Kilnhurst." He tried to push the remains of the door off him, so I stepped on it to apply a little more pressure, which caused him to wheeze.
"They found out about the lich," he said breathlessly. I removed the pressure and allowed him to continue. "I had to keep them away from everyone. Couldn't let them go running back to their friends."
"And you couldn't kill them. You couldn't risk their bodies being found. Two dead native children showing up would cause you a few problems."
"Are you going to kill me?"
I kicked the wood aside, and dragged him to his feet. "That sort of depends on how much help you give me in finding those children."
"They're behind the wall there." He pointed behind me. "I've been keeping them inside a hidden room to make sure no one discovers them. The door can just be pushed aside."
"Good to know," I said and launched the captain through the wall with a crash, that was accompanied by the screams of children. I suddenly felt very bad about using the Captain to open the door for me. It probably hadn't helped their nerves. Bits of plaster and wood rained down over the floor and I waited for the dust to settle before stepping over the prone form of Captain Waltham, and into a small room that held two beds, a small table and two buckets. Two children, a boy and a girl around ten or eleven years old, sat at the end of the room, huddled together in a corner.