Troy Denning: The Sentinel

“Where are the rest of Yder’s warriors?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” Joelle said. “Maybe we killed-”

She was interrupted by the wet crunch of bodies coming apart, and Arietta saw the tip of a shadow scythe slicing through the mass of undead. One after the other, zombie and ghoul torsos fell away from the legs beneath. In the blink of an eye, she had a clear view into the heart of the swarm, where both shades remained on their feet.

One was swinging the scythe. The other brought his arm forward, about to fling a shadow spell in their direction.

“Down!”

Joelle was already pulling Malik down, so Arietta grabbed Gingrid and sprang in the other direction. Or tried to. The young woman had gone limp, perhaps from the shock of seeing-or feeling-the destruction of so many of her undead at once. Arietta had no choice but to release her and dive into a neatly stacked row of femurs.

The shade’s spell sizzled by a few feet behind her. Arietta spun to a knee and saw the dark band of a shadow disk streak past-straight toward the fight at the far end of the barracks.

Arietta turned to shout a warning, but Kleef was already spinning around, bringing Watcher down to defend himself. He caught the disk on the blade’s edge and sent it spinning off in three hissing pieces.

By then, Yder was on him, bringing his glassy blade around in a vicious overhand strike that looked as if it would split Kleef from collar to navel-until the watchman landed an equally vicious back kick in the middle of the shade’s chest.

Yder doubled over-and still managed to drag his blade down the length of Kleef’s back, opening a wound so deep that Arietta saw the blood spray from twenty feet away.

Kleef roared in pain and whipped Watcher around one-handed-catching Yder on the elbow and dropping a murky forearm onto the floor. Then the battle continued as before, with Kleef pressing the fight and Yder giving ground, retreating inexorably toward the waiting arms of the wallbound.

Closer by, Gingrid lay on the floor, unconscious but not obviously injured. Malik and Joelle were just gathering themselves up, Malik tucking the Eye back inside his robe while Joelle drew her sword. The two Shadow warriors quickly advanced, hacking and blasting their way through a steady stream of undead.

Arietta rose and started across the bone-strewn floor to help defend the Eye-and quickly found her path blocked by the withered forms of two snarling ghouls.

“Out of my way.” She waved them aside, then pointed her sword at Malik. “I’m with him.”

The ghouls hissed, but reluctantly took a single step apart-then seemed to catch themselves and leaped forward to attack.

Arietta was so surprised that she barely managed to duck away as the nearest one’s claws raked through the air above her. She pushed her sword up through its chin, deep into its brain. Then, dragging the blade free as she moved, she spun around behind it and drove the tip through the back of the second ghoul’s skull.

When she turned back toward her friends, it was to find a trio of zombies shuffling away from the Shadovar toward her. The two shades quickly took advantage of the shift to break free of the other undead and rush Malik and Joelle.

Arietta charged straight at the zombies, then changed course at the last second and launched herself into a flying dropkick that caught the nearest zombie square in the chest. The zombie went over backward, clawing and clutching at her legs. She landed atop him with bent knees, then quickly freed herself with a couple of quick slashes to the wrists.

By then, the Shadovar were on Malik and Joelle, the larger one hammering at Joelle’s guard, driving her away from Malik and forcing her sword farther down with every strike. The smaller shade had Malik pinned to the floor, his foot in the middle of the little man’s chest and his sword tip pressed to Malik’s throat.

“No need to die,” the shade was saying. “Give me the Eye and-”

Arietta slashed her sword across the back of his neck as she raced past, then reversed her stroke and buried her blade deep into the side of the larger shade’s throat. Joelle finished the job by lopping off the head completely.

Arietta turned to find Malik withdrawing his little black dagger from the other attacker’s chest. It was hardly a beheading, but with the shade’s body withering into a shriveled black husk, the shadow warrior was clearly just as dead as the one Joelle had killed.

Before Arietta could ask after the Eye, the three zombies she had eluded a moment before came shuffling toward her. She backed away, then looked to Malik.

“Aren’t you supposed to be protecting us?”

Malik rose. “As I have been.” He took Arietta’s arm, and the zombies instantly turned to shamble after Joelle. “But I warned you, Myrkul’s magic will only protect you when we are touching.”

“What?” Arietta glanced toward the far end of the barracks, where Kleef and Yder were battling a handful of undead as well as each other. “You can’t even command the undead?”

Malik straightened his shoulders. “I have commanded them not to see us so, have I not?”

“That’s not very strong magic for one of Myrkul’s Chosen,” Joelle said. She slipped behind Arietta and grabbed the hem of Malik’s robe, and the zombies turned toward Kleef and Yder. “Especially when Gingrid can control them with a thought.”

“Gingrid has lived with them all her life,” Malik said. “I have only just-”

“No more excuses.” Arietta grabbed Malik’s arm and started toward Kleef. “We do what we can.”

They quickly caught up to the three zombies and cut them down from behind, then Arietta and Joelle grabbed Malik beneath the arms and practically carried him into the battle.

Yder saw them coming and twice attempted to retreat into the shadows. Kleef made him pay in shadow and blood, slashing him behind the knee the first time and slamming him in the head with the end of Watcher’s crossguard the second. The Shadovar finally countered by smashing an elbow into Kleef’s nose and driving him back into the arms of a lunging ghoul.

The ghoul raked open one side of Kleef’s face, and the watchman staggered a single step forward, blinded by his own blood. For a heartbeat, his legs seemed to go rigid, and it appeared he had been immobilized by the creature’s poison.

Yder turned to flee.

Then Watcher’s tip came shooting out through the ghoul’s back, and Kleef whipped his sword around, slamming the thing into Yder and sending him sprawling.

Arietta and Joelle arrived in the next breath, leaving Malik’s side and tearing into the nearest undead. Kleef shook the blood from his eyes and sprang after Yder, bringing his sword down in an overhand strike that the prince escaped by a mere inch.

Yder rolled onto his back and swung at a knee-only to have Watcher’s tip come up beneath his blade and send it spinning away. Kleef’s boot caught the shade beneath the ribs, lifting him completely off the floor.

Yder planted a foot on the ground and twisted into a standing position, his remaining hand already dipping into a pouch on his belt. Kleef feinted a sword strike, then skipped forward and planted a stomp kick in the Shadovar’s chest and that sent him flying backward.

Into the stony arms of the wallbound.

The arms pulled him tight against the wall, and then a pair of heads emerged from the stone and bit into his murky flesh. Yder screamed and pulled his hand from the pouch on his belt. Kleef quickly stepped forward and brought his sword down across the prince’s neck.

Yder’s head fell free and bounced off Kleef’s boot-but the hand opened anyway. A tiny ball of shadowstuff slipped from between the dead fingers and sank into the wall. A dark stain slowly blossomed around the spot, and the pop-crack of crumbling stone shook the room.