The other side of the camp was in much better shape but it was beginning to fall apart. Sir Harold stalked up and down the line, stepping in to dismember the undead wherever they overwhelmed the human defenders. Unfortunately the defenders were being overrun in more locations than Harold could be at one time. Looking out beyond the line I could see at least a thousand shiggreth pressing forward.
Since the line on this side was still intact Walter was spared from having to repeat his part with the staff again. Drawing forth more of my iron spheres; I began systematically destroying everything on the eastern side of the camp.
Within a few minutes it was over and I found myself standing alone except for Walter. The soldiers around us were watching me silently, eyes blank from shock and fear. An onslaught of undead monsters followed by an awful lot of fire and explosions seemed to have that effect on most people I had learned.
I glanced around and stared back at the men staring at me. After a moment I grinned and yelled, “And that’s what happens when you wake me up in the middle of the gods-be-damned night!”
Silence reigned for awkward seconds around me before finally men began chuckling. Once they started it was infectious and soon most of those that could, were laughing. I headed back to my tent. Harold found me there several minutes later.
“What do we do now?” he asked simply.
“Clear out any bodies inside the camp, ours and theirs. Make sure the men are careful not to touch them directly. They’re still dangerous. Set new watches and reform the picket. Once that is done put everyone not on duty back in their bedrolls,” I told him.
“Shouldn’t we burn the bodies?” he asked worriedly.
I sighed wearily, “Yes, in the morning, not tonight in the dark. That light up there won’t burn for more than twenty minutes or so.” I pointed upward at the brightly glowing light I had created. I had placed it extremely high to keep the undead from nullifying it, but now that I considered it I realized it was a good idea for any nighttime battle.
“But what about the ones that turn…,” he started to ask.
“The men on watch can keep an eye on them. If any of the corpses get up and start walking have them cut them into pieces. We’ll burn them in the daytime. The men need sleep.” I was already climbing into my bedroll as I relayed my instructions. I was exhausted from my own use of magic, though Walter seemed to be much worse off.
“But…” he protested.
I closed my eyes, “Ask James. Don’t wake me up unless we get attacked again.” He left after that and I was asleep not long after he had gone.
Chapter 35
I rose early the next morning but I had pity on Walter and let him sleep longer. The poor man seemed to have been truly exhausted by his efforts the night before.
I found James and Harold supervising the collection of bodies and body parts. It appeared that neither of them had slept at all after the attack. They both appeared worn and weary.
“How many did we lose?” I asked James.
“Slightly more than a hundred and fifty men,” he answered immediately. “They wiped out the men guarding the cave last night before they assaulted the camp.”
I grimaced. We couldn’t afford to lose men that quickly. The shiggreth could replace their numbers much more easily than we could. “At least there’s one bright side,” I noted.
“What’s that?” asked Harold.
“If they wiped out the detail guarding the cave first then it means they’re desperate and that opening is their only means of ingress or egress. If we assume that the ones remaining last night didn’t skulk off somewhere then we have most of them cornered,” I explained.
“They might have wiped the guard detail out to give us that impression falsely,” suggested James.
I sighed, “If they’re that clever then we may be in trouble. Let’s hope they aren’t.”
James nodded, but spoke up anyway, “Hoping and wishing are good ways to get men killed.”
“You sound a lot like Dorian,” I said with a sour grin.
“It’s more likely that he sounds like Gram Thornbear, which is where I heard that originally,” he corrected me.
Sir Harold spoke up, “Alright, let’s assume that they want us to think it is the only entrance. Why would they do it? What are the advantages to them?”
James responded first, “The obvious conclusion would be that all or part of their forces would take us from the rear. Then they could either bring the caverns down and trap us, or slaughter us between them.”
“The real question is how many of them are left down there,” I pointed out.
“We accounted for over a thousand of the bastards last night,” said Harold. “Well Mordecai did anyway,” he amended.
“Let’s not start counting notches, Harold,” I admonished him.
“We can’t do anything until tomorrow at least, no matter what we decide,” James said, drawing us back to the proper reason for our discussion. “It will take the rest of the day just to collect all of the bodies.”
“They need to be burned,” I added.
“I agree,” he said, “but that will take even more time. Collecting the wood necessary to burn that mountain of flesh will take a lot of men and labor.”
“I’m not entirely certain how useful an army will be once we get past the entrance to those caverns,” I said at last.
“It isn’t as if we can starve them out,” James answered bitterly.
That set me to thinking and I put my hand out to forestall further discussion for a moment. “We don’t actually know that. In fact we know next to nothing about them. Those bodies may decay and become useless after a certain period of time, or they may require some form of sustenance.”
Harold snorted, “You mean us.”
“That might be true, or not. We don’t really know,” I clarified. “James I’d like you to keep one of the cut up shiggreth bodies quarantined, rather than burning it with the others. We can take it back to Lancaster when we’re done. I’d be very curious to know if it will eventually lose its animation, or whether it will decay.”
James looked thoughtful. “We need one that hasn’t been cut to pieces as well then. They might last longer if they haven’t been cut up, if indeed they can starve at all.”
Sir Harold spoke up, “This might be beside the point, but how do you plan on capturing a creature whose very touch is anathema to us?”
James smiled, “Ha! We use nets. Once we have one trapped we bind it carefully with ropes. After that we can put it on a litter and drag it back to Lancaster, the dungeon and a couple of guards should be sufficient then.”
“Actually I’d like to construct a special holding cell for it James, but we can keep it in your dungeon for a while at least,” I added.
“So back to the point, what are we going to do today?” asked Harold.
We all fell silent for a moment, and even the normally decisive duke looked to me first to see what I might say. “Keep most of the men at clean up and burn duty. I’ll take Harold and a small contingent into the entrance. If we can clear out whatever defenses they have in there we’ll scout a bit further in. If we can’t we’ll pull back and wait until the clean-up is finished.”
Surprisingly they both agreed with me. “How many men?” asked Harold.
“About fifty I think. Make sure they are among the better armored of our men. No one in anything less than full chain, the less exposed skin the better,” I told him.
Two hours later we were ready and we were staring into the yawning mouth of the cavern. The entrance was fully fifteen feet in height and more than twice that in width. The morning sun illuminated the first twenty feet or so, but beyond that it was shadowed in darkness. From outside it was impossible to see more than that, if you were relying on normal eyesight.
Thankfully I was not. The contingent assigned with guarding the entrance had pulled back to allow us to enter. They would resume their duty after we were inside. I made note that James had supplied them with onagers and barrels of oil. If the shiggreth tried to break free of the caverns again they were prepared to set fire to the entire cave entrance. I just hoped they didn’t panic when we made our exit later.