The Pulptress Versus The Bone Queen: Blood and Bone (9 page)

His hand clenched around the medallion and a slow wheeze of air escaped the rotted body. His head snapped toward us, nothing but hollow, empty space staring towards us.

I reached for my pistol, aiming squarely at an empty eye socket.

He took several slow deep breaths through his nose, sniffing the air. Then slowly, he began to drag himself toward us.

I fired straight through his skull. He slumped to the ground and I let out a breath I’d been holding. “Okay, we need to find a way that this connects back to the main tunnels,” I told Jackson.

She nodded, and, with flashlight in hand, began crawling forward through the dirt, I followed behind her.

I felt something circle around my ankle and then tug me sharply backwards, dragging my stomach against the ground as I struggled and kicked, glancing over my shoulder enough to see the tattered edges of a civil war uniform.

I kicked again and again until my free leg finally made contact with the corpse’s jaw and he let go of me with a howl. In the tight space I struggled to aim again and fired at him, narrowly missing as the bullet slammed into the dirt wall beside me.

“Go!” I yelled at Jackson.

She scrambled forward and I crawled right behind her, glancing over my shoulder. I could hear the chains around the man’s legs dragging against the dirt as he pulled himself after us and grabbed me again. This time he twisted, and I was just barely able to roll into the movement enough to keep him from snapping my ankle.

I kicked at him, struggling with the tight space and his firm grip around my ankle. He clawed up to my knee and began jerking me backwards, back toward the coffin. I heard Jackson yell something and then start after me.

“Let go!” I growled, managing to kick him hard enough to loosen his grip, but as we neared the coffin, the ceiling above raised slightly and he took that chance to leap onto me, pressing his hands around my throat and squeezing. I punched at him and kicked, rolling around and slamming him back into a coffin. He growled and lunged for me again, but Jackson was suddenly there with one of the handful of rosemary she’d collected in her hand. A lighter flicked to life and rosemary burst into flames as Jackson shoved the flaming sprig onto the man’s uniform.

Instantly the cotton fabric was ablaze. The dead man howled and struggled, rolling from one side to the other, unable to put out the flames. I pulled my feet away from him and stared in stunned silence as the fire ate over him. As it slowly began to smolder out I looked to Jackson and asked, “How do you know that would stop him?”

“Granddaddy told me that they plant rosemary at the cemeteries to keep the devil away, and I knew those uniforms would be flammable,” she said, catching her breath and coughing, trying to get the smoke out of her face.

I nodded, and paused as that glint of gold against his chest caught my eye again. I leaned in closer and reached over to it, pulling it off of his neck. He lunged forward to grab at my hands, but as soon as the necklace left his body, he crumbled into dust.

I took a slow breath and looked over the amulet in my head. One side was engraved with the image of a phoenix while the other side had a beautiful pale grey gem embedded in it.

"Do you really think that’s it?" Jackson asked, leaning over my shoulder. “That man had it,” she murmured. “The legends were true.”

"Something is true," I muttered, turning the gem over in my hands, running my thumb over it and feeling the phoenix and the stone cold against my finger.

I winced when my leg burned from the dog's claws ripping into me. Jackson frowned. "Here, sit down for a second," she said.

Reluctantly I agreed, slowly sitting down on the ground, wincing and extending my leg out.

Jackson knelt beside me and tugged at her jacket. Pulling a pocketknife from her jacket, she carefully cut off the sleeve of her jacket and wrapped it tightly around my leg. She held pressure tightly against the wound, counting softly under her breath before tying it off. "We need to stop the bleeding before we get moving again," she said.

"We need to find Aramis," I responded, leaning against the wall and slowly getting back to my feet. "I've had worse. I'll be fine."

Jackson frowned, standing up after me. "I really think-"

"Look, we don't have time for this. We need to get to Aramis." I shook my head, and pulled out my flashlight and shone it around in a quick circle, finding a narrow pathway of loose dirt leading in a separate direction.

"Come on," I said before crawling forward down the pathway on my hands and knees.

Jackson sighed, but I heard her crawling steadily behind me. At several points, we had to stop and shove past a few loose clusters of dirt, digging our way forward.

I paused, Jackson nearly crawled into me. "What are you doing?" she grumbled.

"Just listen for a second," I hissed, closing my eyes. I could hear the dull thudding of feet against the ground, feel it vibrating overhead.

"I think we're below one of the tunnels," I said, opening my eyes. "Have you still got some weapon?" I asked.

Jackson nodded. "Yes." She pulled out a collapsible nightstick.

"Push it upwards through the roof here," I instructed.

"If I do that, it's gonna collapse down on us," Jackson protested.

"And we'll find the tunnel. Come on," I said. "Take a deep breath and do it."

Jackson hesitated and I could hear her turning the nightstick over and over in her hands before she took a sharp intake of breath. I did the same and waited.

The stick burst through the ceiling above us. Two chiffoniers and a pile of dirt collapsed on top of us. They hissed and immediately lunged at me. I pushed through the dirt and stabbed my knife firmly into one's neck. He dissolved into dust. As I turned toward the other one, Jackson burst through the dirt and cracked the bat against his skull. He toppled backwards into dust.

Coughing and spitting out dirt, Jackson crawled back out of the chaos and into the main tunnel. "That was the stupidest idea you've had," she muttered.

"So coming down here after a murderous necromancer wasn't the worst idea I've had?" I asked as I worked out of the dirt.

Jackson offered me her hand and helped get me to my feet. I winced a little before shaking off the pain in my leg. "Come on, we still have to find Aramis."

She frowned. "Lean on me," she offered.

"I'm fine," I insisted. I held the gem out in front of me and then turned the other way. It flickered with a soft grey glow. "This way then." I put the amulet around my neck.

"Is that leading us toward Aramis or toward that woman?" Jackson asked.

"I don't know," I admitted, "But unless you want to wander around in circles, this is the only direction we've got to go on." I held up the amulet as it flickered again.

"Alright, just be careful," Jackson said.

"Oh you know me. Always super careful." I smiled faintly as I continued down the hallway. Every few feet I held up the amulet. The flickering slowly strengthened each time, burning sharper against the metal and getting hot against my skin.

"Aramis?" Jackson called.

I put my hand to her mouth. "Shhh....Do you want more of those things to hear us?"

Jackson glared faintly but nodded and I slowly removed my hand.

"Then how are we going to find him?" she asked.

I held the amulet up again. "This. This is all we have, so just trust me and we'll find him, alright?" I asked.

Reluctantly, Jackson slowly nodded.

I kept the lead, watching the gem carefully and letting it guide me through the tunnels, left and then right, and then straight ahead into total darkness. I tried to keep an eye out behind us, waiting for anything to jump out of the shadows and grab for us. But everything stayed still and totally silent. The quiet made my heart pound, wondering where all those things had gone. I wondered what the Bone Queen was now up to, but I tried to not let it worry me too much.

Pressing forward, the air use a different word than ‘air’ began to flow easier. Cool and crisp fresh air circulated around us and we both took a deep, slow breath in and slowly back out.

"Where's that coming from?" Jackson asked.

"I don't know, but let's keep going," I said, pushing forward toward the cool, crisp air.

We bumped into a solid slab of some sort of stone. Jackson and I worked together to push it to the side. I motioned for Jackson to stay down before I peered up, and found myself looking into a small church built into the tunnels. At the front of the church was a massive pit leading back down into the tunnels. I didn't see anything else around but a few empty, mostly rotted wooden pews. Wincing, I pulled myself up out of the ground and onto the floor. Jackson followed behind me.

"Where are we?" I whispered.

Jackson got out of the small coffin that led down into the pit, and brushed some of the dirt from her jeans. "I don't know," she said after a moment, taking a look around. "I'd guess a church."

"Really?" I sighed. "That's obvious. Are we still in the cemetery?"

Jackson nodded. “I guess this could be an old church somewhere out there. There’s acres of land and at least one church. Judging by the state of the wood that the pews are made out of, that'd be the best guess I have, but as for geographically ‘where are we?’” She shook her head. "I'm sorry, but I don't have a clue."

"But we're still close to the Bone Queen." I said.

"Or Aramis," she added, pointing to the gem around my neck. In the dim light of the church, its glow was pronounced, reflecting against the dark of my shirt.

"And I'd say we're getting closer," I said. “Let's take a look around then. Stay close."

Jackson nodded and kept right at my side. I stepped carefully, the floor worn away to bare dirt in many places, though a few still had patches of wood that creaked and groaned when any kind of weight was put on them.

An altar at the front of the room was decorated with skulls and other bones displayed out by a chalice and a mirror. I shook my head as I walked over to the items. "She's been here."

"This is where she summons those things," Jackson guessed. "She brings the bones here and raises them here, gives them instructions and then," she pointed back toward the coffin that led to the tunnels they'd just crawled out of, "then she sends them out that way."

I nodded. "That sounds logical. But why bring the bones here when she could just summon them straight from the ground?"

"I don't think those tunnels were always here," Jackson said. "What if she had to summon help to look for that stone? She started here and worked outwards through the rest of the cemetery."

"She doesn't know where it is either," I muttered. "She has as much of a clue as Aramis did."

"She might have known a bit more than I did," Aramis' voice spoke up.

Chapter 10

Jackson jumped and grabbed my arm as I immediately drew my pistol and raised it. I took quick stock of the empty spaces around the church, but there was no sign of Aramis.

Jackson gasped and I looked up to find Aramis suspended from the ceiling with thick wires tied around his arms. Parts of his skin were ripped open, exposing the hollow parts of his chest.

"We'll get you down," Jackson promised, and started looking for the way up to the ceiling.

"Over here!" I called, spotting an old, ragged ladder. I put my gun away before grabbing the ladder. Jackson helped me get it planted and then started trying to climb up it.

"No, let me. I've got better balance." I pushed Jackson out of the way and slowly began making my way up the ladder as it started to rock. Jackson rushed over and held it steady. I nodded thanks as I slowly ascended toward the trapped man.

"She tried to get the gem from me," he said.

"And?" I asked, pulling out my knife.

"She couldn't quite manage to cut it out." He laughed. "Finally just said she'd use me to find it."

"What?" I froze, knife just above the top holding him up. "This is a trap."

"What did you think it was?" Aramis sighed.

Growling, I slashed at the rope, and he plummeted to the church floor, landing on two chiffoniers that rushed in from the tunnels. The ladder rocked again, but Jackson held it steady, kicking at the creatures that came close to her. More creatures rushed into the church all of them crowded around us.

I rushed down several rungs before launching myself off the ladder and into the closest creature. I plowed my knife straight into its eye, and then rolled across the floor, popping up with my gun in hand.

Jackson rushed over to Aramis’ side, shaking him as he groaned. "Aramis! Hurry up!"

She shook him harder as more creatures appeared and started toward her. My first bullet tore through three of the rag and bone men and sent them crumpling into dust onto the floor. Jackson pulled Aramis to his feet. His head slumped to the side, and his feet curled under him, but he tried to help get himself upright.

I hurried over and tried to steady him, firing off a few more rounds, trying to find a way out. "If there's a way in there's got to be another way out. Where are they coming from?" I muttered out loud.