"So I had this idea," he said quietly to the bird. "Dragons. Are there a lot of good dragons out there? All I ever saw were the killers. And Sharpstone..."
"Lots," the bird replied, looking at him as if he had lost his mind. "But is this the time — "
"And what do dragons need besides their hoards?" he persisted.
"Safe lairs and lots of food they don't have to risk their necks for. Sometimes the Godmothers can help with that. But we haven't time to wait for Godmother Lily to fetch a dragon!" The bird fluttered her magnificent wings.
"That's all I need to know." The idea was forming up quickly in his mind. If they rescued Rosa — When they rescued Rosa, damn it all! They would! He had to! He was not going to let that damned fop Desmond take her!
Just as he was wondering exactly how near the wolf was, the animal himself pushed his way through some bushes to the side of the path. He looked up at Siegfried, but there was no sign of good news in his scarred face.
"The foul one is clever, BigMan" thewolf said. "First, he cleared back the forest. Then he has put some sort of bad magic between the forest and the stone place he built in that clear place. Then he made a terrible thorn tangle to grow about the stone place. All that is before you even enter it"
"But the Princessis there, right?" he asked, as Leopold fidgeted, looking baffled.
"Oh, yes. I Smell her." The wolf pause. "The bad magic smells like bones and dragons."
Well that didn't sound any notes of recognition. He turned to Luna, the bird and Leopold. "The wolf says there is magic that smells like bones and dragons. Does that mean anything to any of you?"
"Not me, I don't know much of anything about magic," Leopold replied.
The others were still shaking their heads when Jimson's muffled voice came from the saddlebag. "The Children of the Dragon's Teeth."
Siegfried twisted around and flipped back the flap. "The what?" he asked, looking down into the dark bag.
"The Children of the Dragon's Teeth. Rather nasty, dark-tainted magic. Necromancy, of a sort." The green face looked up at him. "The spell is called 'The Children of the Dragon's Teeth,' but in actuality, the sorcerer in question sows the finger-bones of warriors in the ground. When the ground is trodden upon, the warriors spring up out of it to fight. Or rather, their skeletons do. Of course, they can't be killed in the usual manner."
"That...doesn't sound good." Leopold frowned.
"Well, it's not, if you go in there in the usual manner!" Jimson snapped, sounding exasperated. "Don't slash or stab at them, break them apart. Staves, clubs, the flat of your sword, shield bashing — " He looked up at Siegfried again, clearly impatient. "You're a barbarian, that sort of thing ought to be natural to you!"
"I'm not — " Siegfried began, feeling insulted. But Jimson was already gone. The mirror was blank again.
"We can help you in this, BigMan" the bear said, and the wolf nodded his head. "That sort of fighting is natural to me, and the wolf can break their leg bones with a snap. They cannot fight if they cannot stand"
Siegfried was not too certain of that last, but the first — oh, yes. He had seen bears fight. And this one was huge. He didn't think that there was a warrior born who had the reach of this bear.
"All right then. Take us there, brother wolf. And my thanks to both of you."
"We told you we would not forget your kindness," the bear said gravely. The wolf made a whuffing sound, and turned to lead them in.
They stopped at the edge of the cleared area — and the wolf had been less than accurate when he said "cleared." The trees, the bushes, everything had been taken down to the bare soil, and the soil itself had been plowed up. Mindful of what Jimson had told them, Siegfried took all four mirrors out and placed them face up on the ground. Then he and Leopold armored up, Leopold pausing to cut himself a stave rather than using his sword.
Siegfried looked at the bird and Luna. "I think you had better stay back," he said, cautiously. "You two are not well suited for fighting something like this. Luna, I think they will stay well away from you, so I would appreciate it if you would guard the mirrors, the horses and the bird."
The bird trilled agreement. Somewhat reluctantly, Luna bobbed her head. He looked over at Leopold, who nodded.
"Try to stay back-to-back," he said. "I don't think these things will be like living fighters. I think they will just keep throwing themselves at us until they are all in bits. If we can keep our backs protected, we can just let them do that."
The wolf looked up at him. "I am not suited to that. Let me run the outside, breaking legs''
"Agreed." Siegfried took a deep breath. "It will probably take them a little while to come out of the earth and attack us. Let's try to get halfway there before they do. Ready. Set. Run!"
The moment he and Leopold set foot on the churned-up soil, there was a strange, moaning sound, followed by the appearance of bony arms sprouting all over the field, punching through the dirt like some macabre crop. The three of them sprinted for the center of the area, but the arms were quickly followed by the rest of the bone bodies, as the things got a grip on the loose surface and hauled themselves up.
Before they had gotten a quarter of the way there, the creatures had shoved themselves up out of the dirt and turned the empty eyeholes of their skulls toward them.
They were all armed, and armored, though the armor hung loosely on them and looked as if it would be more hindrance than help. Most had round shields, though a handful had shields of other sorts. Most had helmets of wildly varied design. None had any weapon that would give them any reach, and Siegfried gave silent thanks that they were not going to have to deal with rains of arrows. No, the weapons they faced now were swords, axes and the shields themselves. If they could manage to not be overrun — they could do this.
What seemed like hundreds of dark eye sockets glared at them. Then, from all directions, the reanimated army charged.
"Form up!" Siegfried shouted; the bear reared up on his hind legs, and he and Leopold put their backs up against that furry bulwark just as the first of the skeletal warriors reached them.
If they had not been warned of how to fight these things, Siegfried and Leopold would certainly have been cut to ribbons in the first moments. But they had been, and instead of trying to stab or slash the monsters, both he and the Prince concentrated on smashing down the skeletal arms. Leopold's reach with that staff was tremendous, and Siegfried's strength was definitely his best asset in this fight. The bear roared, and when Siegfried took a sideways glance, he saw that the great beast was sending skulls flying, leaving the bodies to flail their weapons in random directions, connecting with their fellows more often than not.
So they need the heads —
"Leopold!" he shouted. "They need the heads to see!"
Leopold's answer was a swipe with the staff that took off at least four skulls.
There were hundreds of the things. But as Siegfried has suspected, they were essentially mindless. Breaking their arms or heads off was the best tactic, since there wasn't much they could do to attack or defend themselves with no arms, and leaving them headless meant they attacked whatever was nearest. The ones with shields held out a bit longer, but eventually either a blow from the flat of Siegfried's sword, or from the bear's paw, would break the shield-arm, and at that point the warrior had fundamentally lost. As the ranks thinned, Siegfried could see the wolf darting into and out of the mob, snapping legs with a single bite of his tremendous jaws. That took them down, but not out. His stomach twisted with nausea as he watched the downed skeletons continue to crawl toward them — until they got within sword, staff, or paw-reach, and were reduced to fragments.