Ghaji wasn't sure how many zombies he'd taken out so far. Not enough, he figured as he continued hacking with his axe.
He was distantly aware of the halfling riders sitting on their clawfoot mounts, watching with grim interest as he fought for his life. When the halfling shaman had first cast his spell to make the zombies attack, Ghaji had been surprised. The Talenta halflings were consummate hunter-warriors, and he hadn't expected them to employ such a cowardly-though admittedly effective-tactic as getting the zombies to fight their battle for them. But then he'd realized that he wasn't thinking like a hunter. The halflings were using the zombies the same way that a houndmaster might use a dog: to flush prey out of its lair. The halflings knew they couldn't breach the Karrnathi tower, so instead they planned to make the zombies do it for them. The undead warriors would go inside, kill everyone they could, and if any Karrns were left alive when it was over, the halflings would finish them off. It was, Ghaji was forced to admit, a brilliant tactic. And one that looked as if it might have a chance of succeeding. There was no way that he could stop two dozen zombies on his own, and if the Karrns stationed inside the tower didn't emerge to aid him-and it looked like they wouldn't-then he'd be cut down soon. After that, the zombies would batter open the tower entrance, rush inside, and in close quarters the Karrns would have a difficult time trying to stop the zombies. They'd have a much better chance fighting them out here, in the open, where there was more room to maneuver. And if the door held and the zombies couldn't get inside, the halflings would order the zombies to surround the tower while they made camp, and the sly hunters would simply wait for hunger and thirst to drive the Karrns out.
At least Ghaji had managed to keep the zombies' attention on him so far. He hoped that Kirai would do the smart thing and try to escape while the battle raged on, but that hope-faint as it was-was dashed a moment later when he heard Kirai call out.
"Ghaji, close your eyes!"
Ghaji wanted to shout back, Are you insane? Closing his eyes in a fight like this was an excellent way to commit suicide. But he trusted Kirai, and so, after only a half-second's hesitation, he did as the alchemist instructed. Spinning around in a circle, axe held out before him to keep the zombies at bay, Ghaji closed his eyes.
He heard the sound of a clay pot breaking nearby, and then an acrid smell filled the air. The stench burned his nose and throat, and even though Kirai hadn't warned him to hold his breath, Ghaji did so anyway. The half-orc continued spinning around, and his lungs soon began to ache and he felt dizzy. He knew he had to take a breath soon or his body would give out on him. He'd fall unconscious, and the zombies would make quick work of him.
"The gas has dispersed enough!" Kirai shouted. "You can open your eyes!"
Ghaji did so, taking in a deep breath of air at the same time. The wisps of yellowish gas that filled the air stung his eyes and made them water. He stopped spinning and focused his attention on the nearest zombie. The creature stood near the broken shards of the clay pot Kirai had thrown, its normally brown-leather skin now the color of sun-blasted stone, and its movements significantly slower. The zombie still moved, but with obvious effort, as if trying to fight while deep underwater.
Ghaji grinned. Kirai had done something to reverse the effects of the unguent she used to prevent the zombies' flesh from drying out in the heat of the Talenta Plains. The zombies' skin and muscles had hardened, rendering them nearly immobile. As slowly as they now moved, Ghaji would have no trouble destroying the lot of them. But even if the zombies were no longer a threat, the clawfoot riders-and especially their shaman-still would be.
Ghaji stepped out of the way of a torturously slow scimitar strike and sought out the halfling shaman among the gathered riders. Ghaji picked out the shaman right away, sitting on his red-marked clawfoot mount at the forefront of the hunting party, rune-carved bone staff held high, still chanting in a lilting foreign tongue. The half-orc warrior took careful aim and, though his arm and shoulder muscles ached from fighting the zombies, he put every bit of his remaining strength into hurling his axe at the shaman.
The weapon spun through the air, hit the bone staff, and broke it in two. The top half tumbled to the ground and the bottom joined it an instant later, as the impact of the striking axe knocked it out of the shaman's grip.
The shaman stopped chanting and cradled his injured hand to his chest. The zombies, whether because Kirai's potion had dried their muscles completely or because the shaman's spell was broken, froze where they stood, now little more than undead statues. Ghaji bent down to pick up a scimitar dropped by one of the zombies he'd managed to dismember. If the halflings planned to attack, he would be ready for them.
The shaman glared at Ghaji with a mixture of fury and respect, then with his good hand he took hold of his clawfoot's reins, urged the giant lizard to turn, and the beast bore him away from the tower at a quick trot. The rest of the hunting party followed, and soon the halflings and their clawfoot steeds were nothing more than a distant cloud of dust moving toward the horizon.
Ghaji dropped the scimitar with a weary sigh before turning to check on Kirai. The alchemist rushed to him, threw her arms around him, and hugged him with a fierce strength that he wouldn't have thought her slender body capable of.
"We did it!" she cried. "We stopped them! Just the two of us!"
Tentatively, Ghaji raised his arms and hugged Kirai back.
"I guess we did."
The sun had almost set for the night, and the temperature on the Talenta Plains had become nearly bearable, though evening did bring out clouds of gnat-like pests that seemed to find Ghaji's skin particularly tasty. Kirai knelt next a small fire across which she'd erected an iron spit. A trio of metal pots hung from the cross-rod, their foul-smelling contents bubbling as the chemicals they held simmered.
Ghaji-his wounds smeared with healing ointment and bandaged by Kirai-approached the fire, carrying a clay bowl filled with stew. He crouched next to the alchemist and held out the bowl to her.
"I figured you weren't cooking dinner for yourself out here, so I brought you something to eat. I have to warn you, though: don't ask where the meat in the stew came from."
Kirai laughed. "I don't have to ask. It's plains rat. What else would it be?" Still, she took the bowl and the wooden spoon Ghaji had brought and gave the half-orc a grateful smile.
Ghaji was silent while she ate, and he gazed up at the twilight sky. A palette of colors spread above them-pink, red, orange, blue, purple, and more-all swirled together as if the gods were in an artistic mood and had decided to use the sky as their canvas this evening. He looked at Kirai's face, and though she might be plain by human standards, he found her every bit as beautiful as the gods' sky-painting. He'd been trying all day to think of a way to tell her how he felt about her, but he still had no idea how to express his feelings without sounding like an idiot. Maybe if they started talking about something else first, the words he truly wanted to speak would come to him.
"Any luck with the zombies?" he asked.
Kirai swallowed a mouthful of plains-rat stew before answering. "Not yet. It's possible that their musculature has desiccated to the point that they cannot be made to function again. It's too early to tell for sure, though. I still have a few more tricks that I can try. That's why I'm brewing more of my 'foul-smelling glop.'" She gave him a wink, and Ghaji felt his heart lurch in his chest.