Lillandra

The walking corpses, some armed with clubs and some with rusted swords and daggers, converged on him. Lillandra had told him that they would be slow-moving, but the skeletons were actually quite spry, and obviously capable of wielding weapons -- one had a spear and the other two had swords. It was the skeletons that reached him first.

Arai's sword, Silus, protected him from magic and magical beings, but that didn't mean he couldn't be stabbed by one of these skeletons, if they managed to get close enough. Fortunately the skeletons had no apparent strategy; they simply walked up to him, stabbing and slashing. The first one attacked him with a rusty sword, while the second, the one with the spear, tried to impale him.

He stopped the rusty sword with his own, shattering it, while dodging the spear and diving to his right, but the skeletons were undeterred -- they kept coming. He set upon them with the Crashing Waves, a series of slashes, severing the arm of the swordsman-skeleton and maneuvering close enough to the spearman-skeleton to separate its skull from its vertebrae. Both skeletons collapsed as soon as Silus touched them, the sword instantly cancelling out the magic that had kept them upright.

He barely avoided the third skeleton, however, which swung its butcher's blade at him. He leaped back to avoid it, then caught it by the arm-bone as it came up to swing the sword again. Yanking it close, he tapped it on the skull with his flat of his blade, and it, too, collapsed.

Erek was obviously alarmed by this. He pointed his ring at the skeletons, evidently trying to revive them, but nothing happened. A look of uncertainty flickered across his face.

Arai had no time to celebrate, however, because now the corpses were coming at him, and there were many more of these -- six in all, and instead of coming right at him, they spread out, surrounding him. He frowned. Silus could stop these things in their tracks, but there were six of them, and only one of him, and he wasn't fast enough to avoid all of their swords and clubs.

"Lillandra!" he shouted. "Now!"

One of the corpses, the one with the maggots writhing within its chest cavity, was suddenly struck by some explosive force and blown backwards. Arai winced, and the corpse stumbled and fell flat on its back.

Lillandra and Temis had come up behind him, and were now hurling the Volcanics at the walking dead. The explosions, which were accompanied by bursts of flame, blasted off limbs and blew the weapons out of their hands. And while they were reeling, Arai raced through their ranks, carving them up with Silus' snow-white blade.

Erek and his human companions were shocked by the explosions, and by the ease with which Arai was able to dispatch the walking corpses. "What are you waiting for?" the necromancer finally shouted at his men. "Kill them!"

Gringus and his thugs hesitated, but the two others, the castle guards, did as they were bid. Arai, finishing off the last of the corpses, turned to face them, this time falling into the Rising Tide stance. The men studied him for a moment, as if trying to decide the best way to take him, and then came rushing forward, at the same time. Arai blocked one blow, and then another, but it took all he had to deflect those heavy swords and he was unable to find an opening between them. He finally got lucky -- one of the men tripped over the severed arm of one of the walking corpses and stumbled forward a step. Arai dodged a clumsy swing, got under the man's guard, and came up with his own blade, slicing into the man's neck. It was a shallow cut, barely a scratch in fact, but the man was so shocked by it that he forgot to counterattack -- he simply staggered forward a few more steps, clutching his bloody neck, while Arai spun on his heel to face his companion.

This man was a big, tough-looking fellow, but he swung his sword like a meat cleaver and Arai had little difficulty with him. He cut through his defenses, and then, in a single stroke, cut off the man's sword hand. He screamed.

Gringus and his men had seen enough. They mounted their horses and fled, leaving Erek and the others behind. Erek began screaming now as well, ordering them to come back. Arai flicked the blood from his blade and approached the necromancer, who scrambled away from him. "Stay back," Erek said, pointing his skull-shaped ring at Arai.

"Hand over the ring," he demanded, leveling his sword at the man.

Instead of handing it over, however, he pointed it at the sky. Arai, bemused, looked up just in time to see a huge, necrotic vulture swoop down out of the trees...and it was coming right at him. He was unable to bring his sword up in time to stop it; it knocked him off his feet.

Erek unsheathed a dagger and immediately attacked him -- leaping on him, trying to stab him. Arai was forced to let go of his sword in order to catch the man's wrist, and for several moments they remained in that position -- on the ground, wrestling for the dagger. The sorcerer was surprisingly strong, and Arai, having been fighting for the last several minutes, was growing weary.

The tip of the dagger scratched his breastplate. Erek tried to maneuver the blade a few inches lower, in order to thrust it into Arai's unprotected abdomen. Arai gritted his teeth, and looked into Erek's beady eyes. There was murder in them.

"Arai!"

And suddenly Lillandra was there. She had picked up one of the clubs wielded by the walking corpses, and was now racing forward. She drew it back, and as hard as she could, smashed it against Erek's head, knocking him off Arai and causing him to drop the dagger. Arai quickly regained his feet, but the sorcerer, stunned by the blow, remained on the ground, blood gushing out of his nose and mouth.

The vulture came at them again. This time Arai saw it coming, and he cut it out of the air. It squawked once and went still.

"Well done," Lillandra commented.

"Thank you," he said tiredly. "I mean it."

She snorted derisively.

By now several of the villagers had emerged from the Lenstable. Arai removed the ring -- the Ghoul's Bit, Lillandra had called it -- from Erek's finger. "This ring was the source of his power," he announced to the crowd. "It was what allowed him to raise the dead." He threw the ring to the ground, and with everyone watching, stomped on it, crushing it beneath his boot.

"What will you do with him?" one of the villagers asked.

"That's up to you," Arai said. He pointed at the two castle guards, who were bleeding badly. "They fought bravely. You might consider treating their wounds, but again, I leave it to you." He sheathed his sword and looked around. The village square was a mess of bones, body parts, and burn marks, and there was blood all over; it looked as though some kind of massacre had taken place here.

He had defeated the necromancer and driven off his men. He ought to have been pleased, but looking at all this carnage only made him feel queasy. He sheathed his sword, and with Lillandra following quietly behind him, he began making his way back to his camp on the outskirts of the village.

* * *

It was only later, after getting over their shock at what had happened, that the villagers realized what Arai had managed to accomplish and began to show him their appreciation. The village elder thanked him personally, and several families offered them food and supplies for their upcoming journey.

Two days later, while Arai was making preparations to leave, Tal walked down to his camp to speak to him, his toddler son riding on his shoulders. "You're going?"

"Tomorrow morning," he confirmed.

"I thought you might like to know that Lord Barlotte has been released from the dungeons. It took a toll on him, but he seems to be in a relatively good health."

"That's good to know. And Erek?"

"Locked up," he said, "in the same cell in which he had imprisoned Lord Barlotte. He's a sorcerer, though, and the people are afraid of his magic. He'll probably be executed."

"I see."

Tal regarded him quietly. "Thank you," he said, "for everything."

"It was nothing."

"It was hardly that. You saved our village."

"I wasn't the only one fighting up there. If your wife hadn't been there to hold off those corpses..."

"Speaking of my wife..." He looked over Arai's shoulder. "What exactly is she doing over there?"

Arai turned to look. Lillandra and Temis were both sitting in front of the cauldron, in meditative poses. "Ah. It seems your wife has a talent for sorcery. Lillandra is teaching her how to make more of those magic explosives, in case Gringus and his men come back."

"My wife? A sorceress?" He blinked a few times, then smiled. "Actually, that makes a lot of sense. But what about you? Where are you headed?"

"Back to Velon," he said. "Unfortunately I have no idea how to get there. I suspect it lies somewhere to the west, but I don't know for sure."

"If you follow the road north, and then west out of the forest, you'll eventually arrive at the capital," he provided. "Kingsaile."

"Big city?"

"Very big. You might be able to find someone there who's heard of Velon, or someone who can point you in the right direction, at least."

"Thanks."

"It's a long journey," he warned him.

He nodded sadly. "I had a feeling."

* * *

The next morning they said their goodbyes to the villagers. Tal had given them a pair of leather rucksacks, which they had filled with dried fish, dried fruits, and hardtack, and with various supplies: a knife, flints for making fire, a couple of worn-out bedrolls, and three large copper coins, which were apparently Addish currency. The coins had the head of the Addish king on one side, and a leaping fish on the other.

"It's not much," Tal told him, "but it might buy you a couple loaves of bread, or a night at an inn in Kingsaile."

"Thank you." He shook the man's hand, while Lillandra, a few feet away, parted with Temis. Temis actually pulled Lillandra in for a hug, and Lillandra hugged her back, which surprised Arai -- who would have thought the Night Queen, the Shadow of Velon, was capable of that kind of tenderness?

And with that, they started off down the road. It was a hot, sunny day, but the trees gave them shade, and Arai had stashed his armor in his backpack, so he was comfortable, at least.

They walked in silence for about an hour. It was Arai who finally broke that silence: "You're not what I expected," he said.

"What?"

"I grew up hearing stories about the Night Queen's wickedness. How she had conquered Velon, killed Prince Ryal, and sicced her dragon on anyone who displeased her. There were rumors about her kidnapping young maidens, taking them to the Nightfall, and experimenting on them, to try to learn the secrets of eternal youth."

"I never did that," she snapped.

"But those were the stories I heard. I thought you were a monster -- someone like Erek, I suppose, only worse."

"You don't think that anymore?"

"I think," he said carefully, "that you're a bit more complicated than that. Why did you come to my rescue, when Erek was trying to stab me? You could've just let him kill me. You would have been free of me then."

"I don't know why I did that," she said hesitantly. "I suppose it was instinct." She glanced at him. "Do you still plan to kill me, after I return your friends to normal?"

He surprised himself by saying, "I'm not sure."

She was quiet for a long moment. "Was...was I really so hated?" she asked tentatively.

"Yes."

She frowned. "I didn't know."

"How could you not know?"

"I hardly ever left the Nightfall," she said. "I slept for years at a time, and only spoke with the Lords Protector once in a while. I trusted what they told me."

"They told you you were beloved by the people?" he snorted.

"I knew I wasn't beloved," she said. "I'd overthrown their king, after all, and created this Night Queen persona in order to instill fear in them. They had to fear me; it was the only way I could maintain power. But I didn't know I was hated. I didn't know the Pierces had allowed the kingdom to fall into ruin. I thought...I thought I could do better than King Reemus."

Arai wasn't sure if he believed any of that...but he was more inclined to believe it now than he had been when he had first met her.

She couldn't be completely innocent, though. She had admitted to killing Prince Ryal, hadn't she? And she was the one who had installed the Pierces as the Lords Protector of Velon in the first place; that made her responsible for their actions, including the death of his father.

Didn't it?

He sighed. Arai was a simple man, and he believed in simple things -- truth, honor, loyalty, and the absolute difference between good and evil. It made him uncomfortable when these notions were challenged, and Lillandra, to his frustration, was very good at challenging them.

"I don't really understand your motives," he told her. "I don't really understand you. But we've got a very long journey ahead of us, and until we get back to Velon...I'm willing to reserve judgment. Is that good enough for you?"

"We've got a long journey ahead of us," she agreed. But that was all she said; without another word, and with her eyes fixed on the horizon, she walked on ahead of him.

Arai sighed again, and, adjusting his pack, followed her up the road.