Bone Magic (8 page)

"We were
kidnapped!" Lina blurted, and immediately her sister chimed in.

"Tam and Tira
saved us, and now they're taking us home!"

"We saw
dwarves," Lina said, and the two girls were immediately in
competition, talking over top of each other, telling the story of
their adventure in a disjointed rush.

The officer
listened for a while, then raised a gauntleted hand. He seemed
startled when the girls kept right on talking. He frowned and
barked, "Enough!"

The girls fell
silent, and he lowered his hand. His eyes went from Tira's bow and
sword to the sword on the roof of the cart, in easy reach of Tam's
right hand. "By what right do you bear arms on the king's
highway?"

Tira laughed
out loud, and he turned in his saddle, anger on his face. She
smirked at him. "You want us to ride unarmed through goblin
country? Will you be escorting us back to the village, then?"

The officer
reddened. "You can keep your weapons," he said at last. He glared
at each of them in turn, then said reluctantly, "You'd better ride
with us, at least for this evening. There are dark forces afoot in
the kingdom. We can keep you safe tonight, at least."

He didn't ask
if they wanted an escort. He just told half of his men to ride
behind the cart, and led the other half ahead of the cart. They
moved out, Tira catching Tam's eyes and shrugging.

The girls
seemed dazzled by the cavalrymen, gazing wide-eyed at men and
horses. Mikail sat straighter on his pony, emulating the riders,
flushing when he saw Tira watching him.

They rode for
an hour before a low structure appeared on the side of the road.
There was a tiny stream meandering across a meadow, and a crude
wooden fortress stood beside the water. It was a palisade of logs,
the tops sharpened, forming a circular wall ten or so feet high.
The riders led them inside, where they found a compound about fifty
feet wide. There were no buildings, just hitching rails for horses
and a roof mounted on posts covering a rectangle of ground fifteen
feet on a side. There was straw under the roof, and Tira recognized
it as a shelter for sleeping, to keep the men out of the rain.

Low platforms
stood at four points around the palisade, just big enough for one
or two men to stand on and see over the top of the palisade. The
officer put a man on each platform, then sent a couple of men to
gather firewood. Another man built a fire while the rest unsaddled
and brushed the horses.

The officer
himself came over to where the five of them were gathered by the
cart. He tugged off his gauntlets, tucked them under his arm, and
gave them a thin smile. "My name is Carmody," he said. "If I was...
brusque... before, I apologize." He closed his eyes for a moment
and pinched the bridge of his nose, looking suddenly tired. "We
lost a couple of men a few days ago. Things have been tense."

"We appreciate
the escort," Tira said. She didn't like Carmody, but she felt a lot
safer in the compound with his men all around.

"You'll be on
your own starting tomorrow," he said. "I hope you make it home
safe."

Tira went out
at dusk with her bow and bagged a partridge and a skinny rabbit.
She contributed those, plus some carrots they'd gotten from the
dwarves, to the communal stew pot. As the sky went dark and the
stars came out, the firelight flickered on the palisade and the
compound became almost cheery. Except for a pair of soldiers on
guard duty, everyone sat in a circle around the fire, eating and
chatting. The men took off their breastplates and helmets, and
instead of menacing, anonymous soldiers, they became a bunch of
young men, some as young as Tam, with easy grins and hair standing
up in tufts.

A couple of
soldiers set out to amuse Lina and Sari, telling stories and silly
jokes. On the far side of the fire, a man let Mikail try out his
sword, and told stories of battles while the boy listened, eyes
shining.

Carmody
assigned men to sentry duty, two men at a time in rotating watches,
then stood. "Dawn comes early," he said. "Let's-"

There was a
flicker of motion in the darkness, and a sudden spray of sparks
from the fire. Carmody sprang back, his hand going to the hilt of
his sword, and several of his men got to their feet.

"Is that an
arrow?" Tam said.

A long shaft of
pale wood jutted from a log in the fire, the feathers curling and
blackening in the flames. Carmody stared, then kicked the log,
scattering the fire and half extinguishing it. The palisade became
much darker.

"First squad,
to the walls," Carmody snapped. "Second squad, into your armor.
Fletcher, Quince, what do you see?"

"I didn't see a
thing, Captain," one sentry called.

"Me either.
Nothing out there but darkness."

"Well, keep
your eyes open," Carmody said, scooping up his helmet and putting
it on.

Tam and Tira
led the children to the cart. "What's going on?" Mikail asked.

Tira thought
about it. "I'm not sure."

"Are we being
attacked?" He sounded scared, but also eager. Well, he would learn
soon enough that excitement came at a price.

"I don't think
so," she told him. "Not yet, anyway. I think the arrow was a
warning."

"A warning
about what?"

"I don't know,
but I want us to be ready. Saddle the pony."

She strung her
bow first, put the quiver across her back, and then saddled her
horse. Then she looked at the two mules. Daisy was better rested
and probably stronger than the other mule. She and Tam hitched
Daisy to the cart. Then Tira planted her hands on her hips, frowned
at the girls, and said, "I want you two in the cart."

To her surprise
they didn't argue, just nodded and climbed inside.

She turned to
Mikail. "I have a job for you, and it's important. Can I depend on
you?"

His shoulders
lifted. "Yes, absolutely."

Tira handed him
the horse's reins. "You're in charge of the animals. If we are
attacked, we're going to need them. It won't be easy keeping all of
them under control if something comes over the walls, but you have
to do it. Understand?"

There was a
glimmer of suspicion in his eyes. He had to be wondering if it was
a trick to keep him out of the way while she did something more
interesting, but he nodded, his expression serious. "You can count
on me."

"Good." She
looked at Tam. He had his captured sword belted on, and he put the
axe on the roof of the cart where he or Mikail could reach it
easily.

"What now?" he
said.

"Now we wait.
And we hope that all this preparation was for nothing."

It didn't take
long. An urgent flap of wings in the darkness outside told of birds
disturbed by something. A sentry called out in a low voice, "I see
movement."

"If it's the
undead," said a soldier on the wall behind Tira, "save your arrows.
It's axes and swords for them. You don't have to cut the arms and
legs right off, just break the bones and it slows them right
down."

She remembered
him from dinner. He'd had Lina giggling helplessly with a
ridiculous story about a magpie that wanted to steal his helmet.
Murf, she thought his name was. There was a dusting of freckles
across his nose that made him seem boyish, but he was old enough to
have children Lina's age. Maybe he did.

Mikail was
breathing in short, sharp pants, and Tira reached out a hand,
resting it on his shoulder. "I'm all right," he said. His voice was
tight with strain, but he no longer sounded as if he were on the
verge of panic.

The fire was
just coals now. Tira's eyes had adjusted to the darkness.
Everything was lit with a soft red glow from the embers, and the
smell of wood smoke hung over the compound, along with the pungent
smell of the horses. Then she caught a whiff of something
darker.

Rotting
flesh.

"Here they
come!"

"Hold your
positions," Carmody snapped. "Reserve squad, to me."

Four of his men
had been working their way along the line of horses, putting on
saddles and bridles. They dropped the saddles they were carrying
and drew their swords, gathering behind Carmody by the west side of
the palisade.

Tira heard the
rustle of footsteps through tall grass. She could sense the
faintest tremble in the ground under her feet. Then something
thudded against the palisade. There was a slippery rasping sound,
and a pale gleam as two hands wrapped around the sharpened top of a
log. A face appeared between the points, and a soldier moved,
slashing his sword across those white fingers.

The attacker
fell, but half a dozen more appeared along the top of the wall.
Then Tira heard the scrape of flesh on wood right behind her. The
undead were attacking from two directions.

"Steady, boys,"
Murf murmured to the men around him. There was nothing they could
do for the moment. The palisade was too high to defend unless the
attackers came over at a spot above one of the sentry
platforms.

Men dropped
over the wall on the far side, and soldiers rushed in, hacking at
them as they landed. Then a pair of pale shapes dragged themselves
over the wall ten feet from the cart. It was supposed to be a sneak
attack, she supposed, with everyone's attention on the far side of
the compound. But Carmody's men were too disciplined for that. Murf
and another soldier closed on the first attacker, and another man
rushed over to deal with the second.

The invaders
were a man and a woman. The woman faced Murf and another soldier.
She was heavyset, with a dress that had been torn off above her
knees. Her legs were white, streaked with scratches and scrapes
that didn't bleed. Her face was almost obscured by the greasy
tangle of her hair, but what Tira could see made her stomach
tighten. This was deadly combat, but the woman's face was blank and
expressionless. She looked like a human being, moved like one, but
there was no life behind that slack, mask-like face.

The woman held
a long knife low in her right hand. As the soldiers lunged at her
she twisted to the side, then slashed upward with the knife. Murf
plunged his sword into her chest, and she ignored it, grabbing
Murf's sword arm with her free hand. As the other soldier hacked at
her legs, she pulled on Murf's wrist, tugging him forward
off-balance. Her knife scraped against the side of his breastplate
and slid upward.

And sank
hilt-deep into his armpit.

He fell, and
the second soldier brought his sword slashing across, mostly
severing her neck. Her head flopped sideways, hanging by a strip of
flesh, and she stood frozen long enough for him to take her knife
hand off at the wrist.

The soldier
lowered his sword, looking around for the nearest threat. And Murf
rose behind him. Tira felt a brief surge of joy, thinking he had
survived. But Murf's face was slack and dead. As Tira opened her
mouth to scream a warning, Murf stepped forward and plunged the tip
of his sword into the other soldier's neck.

Murf's head
turned, and Tira shrank back, putting the cart between them. He
broke into a run, ignoring her and Tam and Mikail, heading for the
main battle. Only six of the undead had come over the wall in the
main attack, but they had been joined by three of Carmody's
men.

Tira turned
back to the soldier Murf had killed, but he lay unmoving on the
grass. The undead man who had come over the wall was flopping on
the ground, his legs broken, slashing with a knife at a soldier who
danced back out of reach.

"Neris preserve
us," Tam squeaked. "What do we do, Tira?"

She watched as
Murf flung himself into the fray, striking down a soldier and
hacking at another, distracting him enough that an undead man was
able to dart in close and stab the soldier in the leg. The battle
was turning against them, and quickly. She thought about joining
the battle and rejected the idea immediately. Her duty was to get
the children out.

"Forget the
cart," she said. "We're taking horses. Mikail, I need you to open
the gate."

The boy gaped
at her, then dropped the reins he was holding and took off at a
run.

She turned to
Tam. "We'll take one girl each." They ran to the back of the cart,
swung the back panel down, and lifted out the wide-eyed girls. Tira
climbed onto her horse, then pulled Sari up behind her. Tam carried
Lina, and they headed for the horselines.

The cavalry
mounts were frightened, milling and tossing their heads, but they
were well-trained and didn't panic. Tam set Lina on the haunches of
a roan gelding and swung up into the saddle while Tira chose a bay
mare for Mikail and leaned down in the saddle to untie the
reins.

Mikail, heaving
with all his might, dragged the palisade's heavy gate open. Tam
raced out, Lina clinging to him from behind. Tira paused long
enough for Mikail to clamber into the mare's saddle, then handed
him the reins. He dug in his heels and the mare raced out through
the open gate, Tira and Sari right behind.

She paused just
outside the gate and looked back. She could see Carmody, flanked on
either side by another soldier, sword in hand, hacking desperately
at a circle of his own men now trying to cut him down. He drove his
sword into the side of a man's neck, and in the moment of respite
before another attacker stepped in, he looked up and saw Tira. He
gave her a nod, then turned his attention back to the battle.

Tira wheeled
her horse, dug in her heels, and followed the others away from the
palisade and into the night.

It was not a
restful night. They galloped madly down the road for a mile or two,
then turned off the road and walked their horses across the open
grasslands. A dip in the ground revealed a small stream, either the
same one that passed the palisaded fortification or one just like
it. They picketed the horses by the water's edge where the ground
was low enough to keep them out of sight, and unrolled their
bedrolls.