Chapter 5: Slaughter in Bloom
Night had fallen. Raul trudged along the wilderness road with the warped skeleton at his side.
Ambrose's castle stood far from town, and there wasn't even any starlight that night. Raul could only rely on the eerie green flames burning in the skeleton's skull to light his way.
He walked slowly—not just because of the darkness, but also his own hesitation.
He didn't want to help a lich capture living people as test subjects, and especially not the townsfolk fleeing from ruin. The lord's sudden tax hike had already destroyed their lives. Raul himself was one of those refugees. How could he harm others in the same plight?
But if he didn't… what would become of his sister, Isabel?
Just as he wrestled with that thought, he sensed the sound of hooves and flickering torchlight before him.
Raul immediately ducked into a roadside brush. This had to be the lord's patrol.
Sure enough, there was a knight in soft leather armor at the front of the party followed by a few armed retainers. There were ten people in all, with hunting dogs in tow.
Raul lay flat in the grass, hardly daring to breathe. One knight and nine men, and the knight had a horse. Even without heavy armor, that was far more than a refugee like him could handle. He could only pray the dogs wouldn't catch his scent.