A Soul For Trouble

Chapter 12

Arden spun around. Her wet hair lashed against her cheeks, and the smell of rotting corpses filled her nose. All the blood drained from her face. It had taken the necromancer three days to catch up with them, and now he was nearly on top of them.

Distant voices shouted between the sounds of fighting. Some unsuspecting party had stumbled across the undead. Would they have any idea how to kill them?

Loku snorted. "Ranellians refuse to believe undead exist. What makes you think they'll know what to do when they meet them? It will be lambs to the slaughter."

Dev grabbed her arm and steered her to the horses. "Let's go before they find us."

"But what about the others?"

"They'll slow the necromancer down and give us a chance to escape."

She wrestled free from him. "But they'll die unless we help them."

"Better them than us."

"How could someone who calls himself a knight think that way?"

His face hardened, and he reached out to grab her again.

She ducked out of his grasp, refusing to be affected by his cowardice.

"I'm a knight of Gravaria, not Ranello. I owe no loyalty to this kingdom. My only duty is to keep you alive and unharmed. Now get on your horse, and let's go."

"He has a point, my Soulbearer. Best to run away now and live to see another day."

They both told her to run, but her heart kept her feet planted in the ground. Why would the Lady Moon give her these powers and allow her to become a Soulbearer if she couldn't use her gifts to help others when they needed her? She'd faced the necromancer once. She knew how to destroy the undead.

"Don't even think about it. You're already exhausted from your training. There's no way you can fight him on your own and win."

"Then you'll just have to help me," she told Loku. To Dev, she said, "You may not owe any loyalty to this land, but you're sworn to protect me, and I'm a Ranellian." She grabbed her sword and ran in the direction of the fighting, ignoring Dev's shouts for her to come back.

The wind whipped through the trees, causing their branches to claw at her face like dozens of spindly hands. The clouds blocked any light from the moon. The rain came at her sideways now, so she lifted her arm to shield her face.

She paused at a clearing. A bolt of lightning illuminated the scene in front of her, and her heart jumped into her throat. A score of undead with their glowing red eyes shining in the darkness battled an equal number of humans in the storm. "Sweet Lady Moon, what was I thinking?"

"I was wondering the same thing. You wanted to help them, so do it."

The smell of death drew closer, and she turned just in time to see an undead plow toward her. The fat in his face had obviously vanished days ago, leaving the loose skin clinging to his prominent facial bones. What had once been a man was now reduced to a skull, with a sinister light radiating from his hollowed eyes.

She tightened her grip on the hilt of her rain-slicked sword, bracing for his attack. The clang of steel echoed in her ears, and she took a step back to keep her balance. "Either Dev must have been holding back on me, or this undead is stronger than him."

"The first, I'm certain. Aim for the head."

"What?" she managed to ask before she dodged another swing of the undead's sword. His miss opened him up enough to allow her blade to slash through the bloated stomach. He stumbled back as his guts spilled onto the ground but continued to attack.