The Dragons Revenge (Tales from the New Earth #2) (21 page)

Simon tried to speak and
his voice caught in his throat. He swallowed dryly and tried again.

“
Madam?” he
called out. “Is that you?”

“
Oh how sweet. You
remember me! You remember how I promised you a gift, don't you? And
since you left me so abruptly, I've decided to deliver it in person.
You should be flattered, my darling child. Madam doesn't do this sort
of favor for just anyone, you know.”

There was a crackle and a
hiss from behind him and Simon whirled to see Clara running back
through the shield.

“
By all the gods,
Simon. Who is that out there?” she asked desperately.

“
Something that
calls itself Madam,” he told her quietly. “I ran into it
when I visited Ottawa, over a year ago. It, she, whatever, was
hunting Changlings who were living in the ruins there. I have no idea
what she is.”

“
There are
Changlings in Ottawa?” Clara asked with wide eyes. “Why
didn't you tell us?”

He shrugged, keeping his
eyes on the gap in the wall.

“
I thought I did.
They aren't interested in leaving the city. They've made it their
home. And they have strange powers. I don't think they'd appreciate a
visit from any of us.”

“
I can hear you
whispering in there,” Madam called out. Clara shivered at the
sound. “And I can feel someone with you. Is it the cleric?
Wonderful! My masters wanted her dealt with and now I have my little
poppet of a wizard here as well. Two birds with one stone, as we used
to say.”

“
So what happened to
Sarah and her friends?” Simon shouted, more to stall for time
than anything else. Dawn was approaching and maybe he could keep the
creature talking until it was too late to attack.

“
Ah, that one,”
Madam answered, her voice now a hiss of malevolence. “Well,
thanks to you, dearie, I was able to catch up to the little urchins.
They are now part of my lovely family. Isn't that nice? No more
trouble from them. And don't be so concerned. Soon you and the others
in there with you will become my children as well. One big happy
family. I hope you're as excited as I am.”

That cackling laughter cut
through the air again and Simon had to wipe the sweat from his palms
before his staff slipped from his grasp.

“
If we only knew
what she was,” Clara whispered. “We might find a way to
stop her. Or at least hold her back until sunrise.”

Simon stole a quick glance
at the sky, but the elusive light of pre-dawn was nowhere to be seen.

“
I think I might
know what we are dealing with,” Aeris said in a small, tense
voice.

Both Simon and Clara
looked at him in surprise.

“
You do?”
Simon asked.

“
Perhaps. I could be
wrong. I hope that I am. But with the evidence of her power...”
he pointed at the destroyed gate, “I'm afraid that I might just
be right.”

“
Well, what is she?”
Clara asked somewhat impatiently.

“
Only a wizard is
strong enough to cast a spell like the one that smashed the gates,”
the elemental told them.

“
She's not a
wizard,” Simon said hotly. “Wizards don't command the
dead.”

Surprisingly, Aeris
nodded.

“
Exactly, Simon. But
a dead wizard can. That's what I think we are dealing with here.
She's a lich. Or so I believe. And if she is, then may the Four Winds
have mercy on us.”

“
A lich?”
Clara asked. “Then that means that she is undead, like those
walking corpses she commands.”

“
That is true.”

“
In that case, she
has to be vulnerable to the same things that they are, doesn't it? My
spells against the undead should affect her.”

“
Possibly,”
Aeris said. “But not as much as those walking bundles of bones.
She may be discomforted but I doubt that it would be more than that.”

“
I can hear that you
are still chatting with each other,” Madam's voice cut in. “But
I'm a little pressed for time at the moment. Don't worry though.
You'll have all the time in the world to chit-chat when I adopt you
into my family.”

There was a pause.

“
Now, my children,”
that hateful voice shrieked suddenly. “Take them in my name!
Bring them into the houses of the dead!”

“
Everyone, get
back!” Simon shouted. “I have to drop the shield to
cast.”

He moved back away from
the ruined gates as he spoke and Clara and the elementals moved with
him.

From the darkness, a
shuffling, staggering mass of rotting corpses slowly came into view.
Simon gagged at the stench of putrescence that wafted ahead of them.

Some were missing limbs,
others were eyeless. One or two were so rotten that their lower jaws
had fallen off and they oozed green goo from their gaping throats.

The wizard heard Clara
begin to whisper and he cut her off.

“
Wait a second,”
he said as he watched the army of undead shamble toward them. “Let
me try something first. Save your strength for their leader.”

The cleric didn't respond
but she stopped chanting.

Simon held up
Bene-Dunn-Gal in both hands, holding it horizontally as he spoke an
incantation.

“
Invectis
!”
he cried as he triggered the spell.

The
staff quivered in seeming delight as it bit deeply into both hands
and then burst into a red radiance.

Directly
in front of the mindless attackers, a wall of fire shot straight up
from the earth. The zombies ignored it and kept walking.

They
went up like torches. The heat of the flames was so intense that the
scattered piles of snow within a dozen feet instantly turned to
steam.

Simon
and the others fell back from the blast of heat as the undead
continued to walk into the fire. They burned like oil-soaked rags.

“
Stop!
Stop!” the voice of Madam screamed in rage. “I command
you to stop!”

It
was too late. Dozens of the undead were burning and the fire leaped
from one shuffling corpse to the next like a living thing.
Bene-Dunn-Gal shook in Simon's hands and he seemed to hear a far-off
laughter, as if the staff was delighted at the carnage. He was sure
that it was.

Choking
smoke, smelling of cooked, rotting meat, filled the air. Simon kept
wiping his eyes on his sleeve as he held the staff steady. Beside
him, Clara coughed raggedly, but mixed in was the sound of her
vengeful laughter.

“
Wonderful,
Simon. That will show that monster that we aren't her helpless
victims.”

“
Not
so fast,” Aeris said urgently. “Don't mock the thing.
These corpses were only the first volley in her attack.”

Simon
glanced at him and Aeris nodded his head vigorously.

“
Oh
great,” he muttered. “I only have two spells left and no
time to memorize more.”

He
lowered the staff and leaned against it heavily.

“
Then
let's hope they're good ones, my dear wizard,” Aeris said
earnestly.

“
Yeah,
right.”

All
of the undead were now in flames. At a guess, Simon thought that
they'd destroyed at least fifty of the horrible things. He wondered
how many people had been killed and made undead on Madam's journey
from Ottawa.

From
the inky darkness beyond the walls, they could hear Madam cursing and
hissing insanely as her 'children' burned like so much kindling.
Simon looked up again and felt a faint twinge of hope. The sky was
turning a very faint shade of pink. Dawn was coming.

“
How
are Richard and the others?” he asked Clara as they waited to
see what the lich would do next.

She
sighed and he looked at her in time to see tears wash two narrow
tracks in the soot on her face. They were both covered in it.

“
Richard's
dead, Simon,” she said with a catch in her voice. “So are
the other guards. Eight in all.”

Simon
grew cold and a heavy lump seemed to settle in his belly.

“
Lynn
too?” he asked with dread.

Clara
could only nod.

“
God
damn it!” he said with mingled grief and fury. “What the
hell did we ever do to deserve this, except survive?”

He
turned and glared out through the walls at the slowly fading
darkness.

“
Come
on, you bitch!” he shouted suddenly. “If you've got any
more, then let's get on with it!”

Madam's
cursing stopped abruptly. And then they saw movement beyond the wall.
A tall shadowy figure glided toward them and, as it finally entered
the torchlight and stopped in between the ruined gates, Simon and
Clara gasped in unison. Behind them, several people screamed.

Black
robes, tattered and filthy, covered the tall creature that glared at
them. Madam floated a foot above the ground and reared up almost
seven feet higher than that. Only her hands were visible, skeletal
and covered in thin, tattered skin. Her face was hidden deep inside
the cowl of her robe, but huge eyes, like red flame, burned from
within. Like Simon, she carried a staff, although this one looked
more like a twisted tree branch, dead and brittle.

The
cowl turned this way and that, surveying the crowd and then looking
down at the heaps of ashes which were all that remained of her
followers.

“
Oh,
that was cruel, child,” she croaked, her voice low and
tortured, sounding like breaking glass. “Cruel to destroy my
family. It took me so much time to adopt so many. Now I shall have to
start again.”

The
eyes gazed balefully at him and Simon held up Bene-Dunn-Gal as if it
were a shield.

“
Oho!
Look at the pretty staff you wield. Is it a gift for Madam? It should
be, as payment for all the trouble you've caused me.”

A
bony hand extended toward Simon.

“
Give
it to me and I'll let you live, for now. Time is short anyway and I
need some rest.”

Simon
stared at the lich and watched her fingers crook as if grasping the
staff. He watched the creature silently, thinking fast.

“
You
aren't thinking of actually giving that thing to her, are you?”
Aeris asked with wide eyes. “Do you know what a creature like
that could do with a relic as powerful as that staff?”

“
Simon,
don't do it,” Clara said urgently. “Dawn is almost here.
We can hold her back until then.”

“
Can
we?” he muttered, still watching the eager lich. “You can
barely stand, my friend. And I don't think that the spells I have
left will be enough to stop her.”

“
But
to give her your staff? That's...”

“
Insane,”
Aeris said shortly.

“
Maybe
so, Aeris.” Simon told him. When the elemental began to argue
again, the wizard waved at him to be quiet.

'Bene-Dunn-Gal,
can you hear me?' Simon asked silently.

The
staff quivered slightly in his hand.

'I'm
guessing that you probably wouldn't like belonging to an evil, undead
creature like Madam, would you?'

There
was a surge of warmth in his palms as the staff responded.

'I
didn't think so. I'd like you to do me a favor, if you would. Show
her your dislike.'

The
staff went quiet in his hands and Simon hid a grim smile. He looked
at the lich, who was slowly inching forward as if to tear the staff
from his grasp.

“
Before
I give you my staff, Madam, I want your word. Your word that you will
leave us alone.”

“
Of
course, dearie. I give you my word,” she squealed eagerly.

Simon
pulled back the staff and held up a hand. Madam hissed in anger.

“
Uh-uh.
I want your word that you won't attack us for at least, oh let's say
a month. And I want you to swear on your dark gods to that effect.”

There
was a long moment of silence.

“
Oh,
you are a clever one, aren't you, sweet child? You know that Madam
must keep her word if she invokes her masters. Very well then. I need
time to rebuild my family anyway. So here is my word. In the name of
my dark masters, I shall leave you and yours in peace for a month.”

And
then she giggled.

“
But
not a moment longer. After all, I mustn't make the game too easy for
you, hmm?”

“
I
accept your promise, Madam. And when you come back in a month, we'll
be ready for you.”

The
cowl flew back as the lich suddenly howled with laughter. Simon felt
sick as the undead's head was revealed to be nothing but a skull
covered with thin, broken skin and crowned with a few wisps of long,
gray hair. Madam's blackened teeth clashed together as she laughed
insanely and her burning eyes rolled in their sockets.