Defiant Necromancer (Book 2 stubbing July 3)

“Chad, let’s discuss this rationally,” said Cecilia Schonheit, barely managing to simper and plead rather than scowl and growl at him.

The Hero was making another of his monumentally dumb decisions, and it was all she could do to keep from rolling her eyes.

If Samara was here, we could keep him in line together, a part of her thought. She wanted to tell that part to shut up, that Samara was an annoying goody-goody and that the Party of Heroes was better off without her.

But it was a fact that without Black Hailgrim, they were missing something.

“We were so close to the lich emperor last night,” said Astrid, the Rose of Sarda, a slight pleading note in her voice. “My nature magic is the perfect counter for him. If we try again- ”

“We’ll just get the same result,” said Chad flatly.

“I’m not sure I agree,” said Elara the Sword Saintess, frowning. “Giving up… really isn’t our way, right, Chad?”

“It’s not giving up, it’s- ”

“Getting reinforcements,” said Cecilia. “So you said before.”

“But it’s true!”

“Reinforcements of two people?” she replied sharply. “You just miss Mischa and Samara.”

“The Party of Heroes isn’t complete without them,” Chad said. “There’s also Black Hailgrim. And there’s more than that. I… think maybe we should go after the Defiant Necromancer.”

Cecilia rubbed her temples with the tips of her fingers. She opened her mouth to speak, but Elara was already beating her to it, saying some of what Cecilia was thinking.

“You were the one who opposed that plan, Chad,” Elara said slowly. “We… all listened to you. And we let our friends go off into danger, because you thought it wasn’t a big deal. You wanted to help the villagers deal with their dragon problem.” She shot a glance at the dragon Aoife, who stood in her human form, silently observing the conversation. “Now we’re here, even further away from Samara, Mischa, and Hailgrim, dealing with an ancient lich who the locals have all sorts of horrifying legends about. They’re petrified, they’re relying on us, they need our help… Surely this is where we can do the most good.”

Oh, bless your heart, you really think the Hero’s here to do good, Cecilia thought. He just wants experience and to build his reputation and pump his seed into more innocent maidens… I wonder what the Temple authorities do about that. I’m pretty sure one of those disposable girls he fucked in that village the dragon was menacing mentioned something about missing a period before we left. If she’s unlucky… or if Chad’s seed is as strong as his ridiculous muscles… then she might have a little bundle of Hero in nine months. Does the Divine Trust send inquisitors out to quietly snuff out those children? Classes usually run in families, but surely they wouldn’t want a flock of bastard Heroes running around spreading unconstrained through the land.

“If we complete our group again, and we also level up by building our strength up against this defiant guy, then- ” Chad began, speaking confidently.

But it was Elara again who shut him up.

“What about the people here?” she persisted. “We said we were going to help them.”

“And we will,” said the Hero. “We just need to level grind a bit.”

“You have an answer for everything, Hero,” Cecilia said. “But if we leave, I don’t think the villages we’ve passed in our retreat will be here when we return. We haven’t even tried to recruit a militia from among the people. If they had us to lead them, and we all fought together, then maybe…”

She wasn’t one to be selfless, she had been reluctant to accept this quest from the locals, but now she had seen the threat firsthand. Abandoning the commoners to their fates wasn’t something that a Hero or a leader should do. The Ice Princess, for one, had been raised to lead.

“The common folk have said their elderly and children vanish in the middle of the night,” Astrid said in a reluctant voice. “The lich emperor had wave upon wave of bodies to throw at us. Those didn’t come from nowhere.”

Oh, Astrid agrees with me, Cecilia thought. That proves I’m right.

The two women almost never agreed - mostly due to competitiveness. The Ice Princess and the Rose of Sarda were the highest ranked in the Party of Heroes, by birth. That led naturally to a certain rivalry.

“Why are we asking them what they want to do at all?” interjected Aoife. The dragon shook her head with an irritable expression. “I agreed to fight alongside you- ”

“So that you could have the opportunity to fight me again at an appropriate time, yes,” Chad finished for her. “I know. When we’re both in top condition and have no other distractions. But now is not the- ”

“No, you miss my point, human,” Aoife interrupted. “I agreed to fight alongside you. Just you. These others are your… companions. Their opinions mean nothing to me. You and they are at an impasse, but you are a free adult. You do not require their consent to leave this doomed quest and regroup. I can take you to this ‘defiant’ one myself if you wish. If the battle with the true threat cannot be won right now, then that… practice fight is the only option for you, yes?”

Cecilia, Elara, and Astrid exchanged uneasy glances.

“You wouldn’t leave us here,” began Cecilia.

“To face the lich alone,” Elara said.

“Would you?” Astrid finished.

“Girls, I’ll come back,” Chad said. “It’s not a long trip on dragon back. Right, Aoife?”

The dragon woman pursed her lips for a moment before she spoke.

“Since my wounds are fully healed now, it’s not a particularly time-consuming trip. A month? Two months, at the most. I must factor in that I will have a passenger.”

Right, she’s not a very big dragon, Cecilia thought absurdly.

Another notion occurred to her.

“When do you become an adult dragon?” the Ice Princess asked.

“Hm?” Aoife said. “I reached my species’ age of majority this past week. I told the Hero. Were you not all planning a celebration worthy of me?”

Cecilia glared at Chad, who looked away.

“It’s a shame that you can only take one passenger,” Astrid observed, picking up on what Cecilia was hinting at.

“I choose to only take one,” the dragon woman replied fiercely. “More would slow me down, but I am capable of it. None of you have proven yourself worthy.”

Right. Only Chad gets to ride you.

Things made a bit more sense now.

“I think we should leave tomorrow morning,” Chad said.

“Why not just get out of here now?” Cecilia said acidly.

“Cici’s right,” Elara said, avoiding making eye contact with the Hero. “You should slip away unseen if you can. If the peasants learn that you’re, um, temporarily retreating, they might feel abandoned. It can only hurt the local population to be plunged into that kind of despair.”

“Uh, yeah, maybe- ” Chad began.

“I am ready at any time,” Aoife said with a shrug.

She transformed before their eyes into her true shape, a mighty red dragon. Cecilia could see it now, how her scales had strengthened a bit, her form looked just a little more majestic. The transition from juvenile into adult hadn’t been drastic, but she was already over a decade Cecilia’s senior. The aging of dragons was slow and subtle.

“All right,” said Chad, biting his lip. “Good bye, all. I’ll see you again soon.”

He walked over to Elara and pulled her into a hug. She didn’t react, just stood there stiffly until he let her go. He tried the same with Cecilia, but she gave him a look that could freeze hot blood. He backed off from her and Astrid, who was shooting an equally poisonous gaze in his direction.

This was abandonment, no question about it.

Chad mounted Aoife’s back, gave a single wave, and then the two were off.

***

Tybalt’s decision, the morning after the visions with Vidalia, seemed obvious.

He had one of his mummies escort Andric to the Whadesgart Mayor’s house, where Tybalt remained an honored guest.

And the two ate breakfast together, privately, both men’s fiancees making alternative arrangements so they could have this delicate conversation alone.

“It’s thoughtful of you to invite me to a meal, Tybalt,” Andric said politely. “But since we have yet to socialize much, I suspect this is not a social call.”

“I wish it was,” Tybalt said - and was surprised to find that he meant it.

I guess I would enjoy knowing Andric as a friend, rather than him being a potential rival I have to factor into all my political scheming. And maybe… I have kept him at a distance for too long. It wasn’t on purpose, but while we were courting the same women, we couldn’t exactly get close. Now that we’ve been leading this expedition together, he seems eminently reasonable.

“Last night, Vidalia used her powers to look around the continent for potential allies and enemies,” the necromancer continued. “I’m making plans to deal with a few of them, mainly the powerhouses that Vika and Astara are sending our way. On the southern border, there’s a situation with the Walian Empire… but that’s thousands of miles away, too distant for us to concern ourselves with right now, except that it’s a valuable distraction for our enemies.”

“But there was something I could help you with.”

Tybalt nodded. “Please, eat.”

They tucked into the meal.

“So, there’s this horde of ogres…”

***

The combined undead and beastfolk march from Humun to the next town, Lind, was breathtakingly quick.

Edgard sent the giant monster skeleton to Lind ahead of the army, and that was a mistake. He had assumed, without asking the master, that the creature would be as slow as its absurd size suggested, but it actually outpaced all of the other troops. Its agility had to be off the charts.

When the rest finally caught up, the gashadokuro was already tearing apart the stone walls protecting the town with its bare phalanges. There were already large, gaping holes in multiple locations that one could easily push soldiers through, but it continued its demolition. Edgard had ordered it to breach the town, not to attack anyone, so as far as he could see, it had not done any killing. That perhaps made it more terrifying as it demolished Lind’s defenses. The monster remained invisible, so the town watchmen were trying unsuccessfully to fight something that they could not see, but that was destroying everything that separated the town from the open desert.

When Edgard shouted for it to show itself, the guards broke off the defense on sight of the giant skull and started running back toward their homes within the town, screaming that death was coming for them.

An impressive display, Edgard thought. But we were hoping that the soldiers would get some actual experience on these expeditions. If the gashadokuro alone destroys everything and everyone that we send it to attack, I’m better off not using it at all. Not unless we get into a real bind.

He thought of the town that was next.

No, I will want to take care of that myself.

“Return to my side, Charon,” he ordered. “The rest of you, secure the town.”

The combined beastfolk and undead army surged through the gaps, into Lind.

Before dusk, the town was either burned or smashed into rubble, its inhabitants either marched back toward Humun or - for the more opportunistic locals - joined the ranks of the Grand Beastfolk Army.

The force moved on, toward Vors.

The town where my last war stopped, Edgard thought. Where I failed.

It was several days’ march away, but the mummy was more excited than he’d been at any time since his resurrection.

***

At roughly the same time the Grand Beastfolk Army was departing Humun, a smaller strike force also left.

“So, where’s the bandits’ hideaway?” Baldwin asked as they set out.

Sir Damek swallowed. “We believe up in that mountain.” He pointed to the easternmost of the three mountains in the vicinity of the town.

You believe, huh?

The revenant said nothing, but somehow he now expected this to be a much longer journey than his master had indicated.