“So far, so good,” Jerdren said as the priest came up to join him.
Panev pointed across the hall. “The other undead at this end of the temple are in that chamber,” he said quietly. “They are bound to that chamber, or the noise of battle would have brought them out to aid their fellows just now.” He eyed Jerdren, glanced at Eddis. “We can leave them alone for now. But if we did, their high priest could summon them against us.”
“We fight them, then,” Jerdren said with satisfaction.
“We fight,” Panev said. “Though I will turn them, if I can. Wait, all of you, until I order an attack.”
His black gaze rested on Hebold, who rolled his eyes and shrugged.
“It is seldom given to a man of my calling to turn the undead—but perhaps the gods of order will aid me in this. When we are done there, I will help Mead with the wounded.”
Eddis thrust herself forward. “You who’ve been hurt—stay out of this fray, and watch our backs.”
Panev beckoned as he strode into the room. Zombies—eight more of them—came to staggering life as he entered the chamber. Eddis moved to M’Baddah’s side and drew back her bowstring.
Her lieutenant hadn’t been quick enough to get Flerys behind him this time—or more likely, the smell of rot and decay from the hall behind them had already affected the girl. She stumbled away from him, clutching her stomach, and vomited. M’Whan snatched at her arm and dragged her back to the nearest wall, where he thrust her into Mead’s grasp.
Eddis and M’Baddah shot and shot again, moved sideways as one, the way he’d taught her. But the two zombies stalking them seemed unfazed by the arrows. One of the spearmen came from somewhere to bury his weapon into the nearest, angling up from the base of its neck and into the skull. The head popped off, and the body went down like a sack of pudding. The undead at its side pawed at the man but slid in Flerys’ mess and fell on its back. Hebold was there with his axe before it could rise, and across the chamber, Jerdren came darting up behind two more undead, beheading them both in one mighty swing.
“Back!” That was Mead, who thrust Flerys back at M’Baddah and strode forward, unstoppering a gourd of oil as he walked. He whipped the thing back and forth, then backed away himself as he tossed a lit candle stub into the spill of liquid. Fire roared up. The three zombies still on their feet went up like torches.
Mead was already back in the short, broad corridor. “There is no one and nothing out there just now. Catch your breath, all of you, drink water—no, not here, out in the passage, where the air is cleaner. Let me know which of you was wounded in that fray. We cannot afford to lose anyone here.”
Eddis hugged Flerys close as they left the chamber. The child was pale, and her lips trembled.
“Here,” the swordswoman whispered. “Eat a little of the travel bread, it won’t hurt your stomach.”
“I’m sorry.” The girl’s eyes filled with tears. “I didn’t mean to.”
“You couldn’t help it. It’s all right, Flerys. I almost got sick in there myself. A little bread and a drink of water. You’ll be fine.”
Flerys took the wafer and tucked a bite of it in her cheek, sipped water, and leaned back against the wall, spear clutched to her body.
Mead’s voice roused Eddis. “Anyone so much as touched by those foul creatures, come to me or Panev now and let us heal you.”
Hebold sighed heavily. The mage eyed him with disdain.
“Of course, a man like you bears his wounds bravely, but the least touch from these undead may turn you into one of them. Do you want that, hero?”
Time passed. It was deathly quiet here. Eddis thought she heard something like a distant flute once, but when she held her breath to listen closely, there was nothing.
“So.” Jerdren came up quietly behind her. “What next?
The priest answered for her, as he pointed north. “There are men. Fewer than we but strong in evil. We must be careful.”
Jerdren smiled grimly and got to his feet. “I can deal with men.”
Back past the entry and a like distance on, the passage ended in a door ahead and a door on their right. Panev brought out a stubby black wand and gazed at it, then turned to look from one door to the other. He nodded toward the one straight ahead, but as Jerdren and Hebold surged that way, the priest blocked their way.
“There are priests within,” he murmured. “Four priests. Trust nothing they say or do!”
Hebold shrugged and slammed into the door. The panel gave way. Four hooded, red-robed men snatched up weapons and ran to put themselves between the invaders and two other priests who had been reading a text.
Mead fired a glowing dart across the chamber into the nearest standing priest. The fellows hood smoldered, and he flung his mace aside to beat at the thick doth. Mead jumped back, M’Baddah and Willow brushed him aside and blocked the entry, firing two swift arrows each. M’Baddah’s bounced off the robed being with a dang. Willow’s lodged deep in the hood, and the unseen priest sagged and fell across the table. Hebold and Jerdren charged into the room then, as outlander and elf swung away from the doorway. Two Keep men followed, bearing down on the priest with the still-smoking hood.
Eddis and Flerys stayed in the hall, the swordswoman with her blade out and her free arm around Flerys, her eyes searching both corridors. Panev said noise would bring the undead down on us, she thought. If this isn’t noise, I don’t know what is.
It was abruptly quiet back in that chamber, all at once. Someone was moaning in pain. A sword clanged into something hard and metal, and the moaning stopped. Eddis looked that way. Blood splashed the far wall, and all four hooded men lay still.
“It’s all right, child,” she told Flerys. “We’ve won again.” She hoped. There were men down in there—one she could see with a long dagger sticking out of his neck, his eyes open and vacant.
Panev walked around the chamber, spoke a blessing over their dead. “Everyone out,” he said tersely, and began pouring oil on the bodies. When Hebold protested the waste of oil and time, the priest gave him a chill look. “Would you be foolish enough to leave a body in this unholy place?” Without waiting for a reply, the priest strode on down the west-facing passage.
At its end, he paused once more. There was a chamber to their left. Eddis could just make out a large, red stone block that might be an altar and farther in, a great tapestry that covered most of the wall behind it. She shuddered and turned away.
Panev led them past the room, then paused. “There is a door ahead—perhaps two doors. Men are there, and evil surrounds and fills them. The gods grant us courage.”
Jerdren nodded grimly and led the company on.
Another dosed door. Hebold broke this in and threw himself at those inside. M’Baddah fired his remaining magic arrows, and the battle was quickly over. Hebold came back into the open, bleeding from a head cut, which he grudgingly let Panev heal.
Another chamber, more priest-clad enemies who grimly swung maces. Two Keep men went down under the attack. Eddis leaped back as a priest evaded Hebold’s axe and pelted straight for her, hand snatching at her. Blorys’ sword came down across the robed back, and Flerys lunged, spear stabbing deeply into the hood. The enemy sagged, dragging the spear from the girl’s hands. Blorys pulled it free, and she snatched it up.
Another hooded man burst free, and his mace knocked Blorys to his knees. Eddis jammed her blade two-handed into thick cloth. The weapon felt sluggish, her arms weak, and the point seemed to hesitate just short of flesh.
“Foul thing!” she yelled and used her legs to drive the sword in. The man wailed, staggered back into the wall, and slid down it.
More dead men, more injured, and another room ablaze. Where does it end? Eddis thought wearily. Panev looked as exhausted as she felt.