The Melaki Chronicle (10 page)

He mounted Tila and the donkey followed alongside. Both
beasts kept eyeing each other and showing teeth. Melaki slapped his forehead
and took a deep breath.

Birds stalked through the remains of the thing they had
destroyed the previous day. They would start to peck, but then stop. They were
eating nothing, finding nothing edible, but drawn by the carrion smell.

Melaki pointed. “There's a graveyard there and most likely
where we will find its gems.”

Neret looked down at the mess. His eyes were wondering, wide
and appreciative. “Might there be more?”

“I have not seen them operate as anything but single
entities.”

The graveyard was another jumble of headstones and crypts.
The village beyond was on the outskirts of Kellerran. He felt he would be
passing this spot later, frequently. Talin would make sure of it. He cast out
his senses and felt nothing close. Something fluttered at the edges, making him
feel ill. But nothing here in the graveyard. He pointed to an open crypt-gate.
“There, I am sure.”

Dismounted, he led them inside, his blue magic-light flaring
bright.

Neret and Tila both stared open-mouthed at the ease of his
entry. No fumbling for oil and no fumbling to light the lantern. He just walked
in and produced perfect light.

He peered into a stone coffin with a missing lid. It was
filled with bones. “Here we are.”

Neret stepped back as Melaki tossed out bones.

He pulled up a small box and cracked the lid. Four gems sat
in velvet. Two baubles were also laid inside. He wondered about how many gems
might mean something in relation to the thing's power. This box had less of the
other stuff and more gems compared to the other boxes he had seen so far.

Who knows. This demon magic is sick.

“This is a fantastic find,” said Neret.

He closed the box and placed it in his satchel. “This? Nah.
Small, really. I am sure we shall find better in your village.”

“I hope so.” But Neret's face was unsure.

Tila looked worried.

“Oh, I'm sure you are manly enough to handle anything
there.” He felt guilty for poking the man's ego, but he felt vindictive at the
moment. “Shall we return to Soam's Crossing and then proceed to your stake?”

Outside, Tila and the donkey were nipping at each other. Back
and forth.

“Stop it, you two.” He patted the horse's neck and whispered
to it. Then he stepped over to the donkey and scratched behind its ears. The
donkey poked its head around Melaki to look at Tila. Its lips quivered, showing
teeth. Tila snorted behind him.

He patted the donkey's neck. “If I release you will you
stay?”

Its ears twitched back and forth and it nudged his chest.

Melaki released the summoning on it. It tossed its head, but
stood still.

Tila the woman came up and stood beside him. She reached out
to pet the donkey. It gave her a baleful look and she decided not to touch it.

What will I name...
He looked.
Her? Neret?
He
chuckled.

“Are you done fawning over your animals?” Neret said. He was
shifting from foot to foot.

Melaki glanced and then waved to the crypt. “If you need to
relieve yourself, I'm sure the dead will not mind.”

Tila reached out and petted the donkey. Its ears went flat
and it rolled its eyes to look at her.

“Be easy,” he said to the animal. “Be easy.” He smoothed its
neck. He leaned to an ear and whispered, “I shall name you Sala.” An ear
twitched. He continued to whisper to it.

Tila the woman said, “You sure calmed her down fast.”

“Care and affection go both ways. You can not command
affection. It must be earned.”

She looked at him with haunted eyes, pleading.

You must face your own difficulties, woman. Your marriage
is none of my concern.
“Let us go.”

Sala followed.

*  *  *

Melaki rode beside Neret. Tila rode behind, leading their
third horse. She had been exceedingly thankful for his summoning and the three
horses provided. They did not mind that he kept the donkey.

Tila the horse kept looking back and swishing her tail at
the donkey' nose. Sala would try to bite the tail.

“There is our stake,” Neret pointed. “Those buildings, I
believe.”

Tolam's Ford was smaller than Soam's Crossing. It was also
more dilapidated. But a few of the structures were solid stone and looked very
sturdy.

Melaki sent his senses out. Three pockets of evil resided
here. Soam's Crossing had only held one. “Three entities are here. There might
be skeletons and zombies, too.”

“Entities?” Neret said. His hand gripped his sword.

“Demons or other summoned or controlling beings. I am not
sure. I can feel them, not see them. We should find shelter for the horses and
gear, then eliminate whichever threat is closest.”

“I was about to say that.” Neret rode ahead, searching for a
sheltered place. He pointed to a hut with an intact door. “We could rope the
door shut. The jamb is kicked in.”

“Good eye, Neret.” He slid from his horse and looked inside.
It was clear. But the closest evil was coming, lurking, moving closer. “We must
be fast.”

Tila and Neret herded their horses in.

He scooted his horse in and turned to Sala. She laid her
ears back and splayed her legs.

The evil was very near.

“Sala, there is no time for play. Get inside.” He pointed.

They heard the rustle of bones.

Sala heard it too and her ears waggled this way and that.
Finally she moved into the doorway. Melaki landed a slap on her rump and the
donkey brayed in indignation.

“Tila, rope the door. I am about to be very busy.” He turned
to see a shamble of skeletons moving around a building and towards them. Neret
was rushing to the front, both swords out. He looked like he knew what to do
with them. But Melaki was not interested in the skeletons. They would be
controlled. It was the controller he was looking for.

Neret was chopping down skeletons. “Are you going to help?”

He ignored him and sent his sense out, probing.
Yes,
right there.
A white head was poking around the building. He formed a fast
pattern and sent it, hoping to be fast enough to surprise the thing. He did.
The head exploded and the skeletons collapsed.

Neret raised a sword. “That was easy.” His voice held a
tinge of disbelief and relief.

“Not all are so. The others will be more wary.”

“You said the skeletons do not have cachements?”

“Not the skeletons, no. But that thing I blew apart does.”
He pointed.

“Let us find it, then.” Excitement radiated from the man.

“You do not want to secure a place for yourselves first?”

“That can wait. We can look while we find the gems.”

He shrugged.

Tila looked up at him, her eyes searching.

“They were close to begin with,” he said, “and came from
around that building. That building or the others right behind it. Skeletons do
not move all that fast.” Melaki rounded the building and looked along the
street. Three dwellings lined the opposite side of the street and the building.
All the doors were open. “Let us search this building first, then move across
to the homes.”

They entered the building - some kind of warehouse. Crates
were cracked open, empty. Melaki's blue light lit everything. They swept the
building and found nothing. Descending to the cellar, Melaki took the lead.
Shelves, a few small crates and broken glass were the only things there.

Back out on the street, they entered the first house.

“This was it,” Melaki said.

“How can you tell?” said Neret doubtfully.

“I can feel the stink of the thing clinging to my skin.
Upstairs.”

“Not the cellar?”

“Not this time.”

The two rooms upstairs were splattered with old blood and
bits of bone. Possibly the timeframe of the Altanlean conquest. Melaki kicked
open a chest lid. Bones filled it. “In here.”

Neret shouldered him aside, his eyes aglow. He dug into the
bones, pulling them out and flinging them across the room. Big bones. Small
bones. The former family of the home. He pulled up a box, his hands shaking. He
popped open the lid and gasped in wonder. Two pulsing gems lay amidst a jumble
of trinkets.

Melaki frowned. Perhaps the gems needed a nest of jewelry.

“My first gems,” said Neret. He was breathless. He snapped
the lid shut in triumph.

Tila poked her husband and indicated Melaki.

His face fell. “Oh. Yes.” He opened the lid and selected a
tiny trinket. “Please, accept this as appreciation.”

Melaki took it without blinking and gave the man a nod. “My
thanks to you.”

Neret grunted. “Yes, well, there are more gems to be found.”
He was waving his arms to usher everyone out of the house.

*  *  *

Melaki shrugged. “I suppose you are right.”

Neret nudged his wife. “There, see? We should not leave any
pockets of undead in town. How could we sleep knowing they were lurking?”

Tila looked up at the darkening sky.

They stood outside the ruined temple, the door a gaping maw.
Melaki's blue light was required to see anything in the deepening gloom.

“I sense it underneath. There must be a tomb system
underneath the sanctuary.”

“Let us go kill it and be done with it,” Neret said. He
patted the satchel that contained the two boxes. He was already a wealthy man
and yet he still wanted more.

Melaki could see in his eyes that his ambitions stretched
far beyond merely pacifying an area as required in the charter. He wanted to
branch out beyond his stake and snatch up as many gems as he could before the
Second Charter arrived. Melaki was certainly not going to help him pursue that
goal. He was already weary helping them as much as he had.

Neret was already charging in. “Bring your light, wizard.”

Tila looked up at him, weariness in her eyes, and a longing
for something better.

“Arranged marriage?” he said.

She sighed, tears welling in her eyes.

He did not wait for an answer. He followed the brash man in
and brought his light. The moving illumination pulled Tila along behind.

Neret let Melaki move ahead. The altar was gone, probably
having been made of wood and rotted or burned without maintenance and without a
roof. In its place, underneath where it would be, were crude stone steps
leading down. Sconces lined the walls, but were long unlit. At the bottom, a
wide area of ossuaries and crypt doors indicated the once important or wealthy
were interred here. A crudely formed passage went deeper in. This tunnel had
hewn shelves stacked with old bones.

The rattle of skeletons ahead told them they were near.

Neret pushed Melaki faster. “Yes, more.”

“Easy, Neret. Easy.” Pushed into the tomb area by the
anxious man, he was distracted by the rush of skeletons.

Neret rushed past, towards an illuminated figure sitting on
a throne. It had the head of a snake or lizard, Melaki could not tell which.
The throne sat over a pile of bones.

How did it get a throne down here?

Then he realized Neret had dodged the skeletons and was
rushing the thing. “No! Get back!”

The man paid no heed.

Beset on all sides by reaching bony hands, Melaki and Tila
battled the skeletons. Tila chopped with her sword and smashed with her
buckler. She was competent and dropped four of them. He patterned forced and
drove it sideways through two at a time. There were too many. He needed Neret
back here fending off skeletons while he killed the snake-thing on the throne.
That would drop all the skeletons upon its death. “Neret!”

The man was not listening.

The snake-thing hissed, it's tongue flicking out. A stretch
of its hand lifted Neret into the air a full five paces out of reach. The man
never even reached it.

Desperately, Melaki patterned force and just pushed outward.
It was far easier to move them back and give himself a couple seconds of
breathing room. He growled and formed an attack pattern in his mind against the
thing on the throne as fast and as powerful as he could.

He was too late.

Neret's neck snapped, his head flopping to the side and his
feet kicking wildly.

Too late. He threw his attack and the thing, occupied with
Neret's body, exploded in a spray of gore.

The skeletons dropped.

Tila wailed out in horror and ran to the crumpled body of
her husband.

*  *  *

“Are you sure you want to come back with me?” Melaki said.
He sat beside Tila. They sat together next to a warm fire in the home where
they had secured the horses.

Her husband freshly buried, the woman fought back tears. “I
have nothing here. It is empty to me.”

“Your stake--”

“Was his. I was told a single person held stake and could
bring along one partner. But the partner has no claim to the stake.”

He grunted. He had not asked Talin about the rights of the
First Charter. Talin had received the charter and Talin had made the stake. If
it was the same for Tila and dead Neret, then she held nothing but gems. “You
could always go back and restake the claim.”

“I am not of the First Charter. I would have to apply at the
Imperial Court to get on a charter to stake a claim.”

He groaned. That sounded like the empire. Her husband's
stake would be open to anyone in succeeding charters. Tolam's Ford, being
pacified, was a good base for operations inside Kellerran. While she could keep
her share of the gems as afforded by her husband's charter agreement, it was
little consolation. At least she would be wealthy. “Will you be alright?”

“He was not a very nice man, but he was my husband.”

“Sorrow, lady.”

She wept again, quietly.