Chapter 10: Just For The Night

Chapter 10: Just For The Night

The tower wasn’t alone on its dismal, fog-shrouded island. There was a whole little compound of moldering buildings slowly sinking back into the mud. Kaligos couldn’t imagine what would have driven someone to build such a building this far out into the middle of nowhere. It was a creepy old thing, but unlike the rest of the buildings, it still had a roof, and since it looked like more rain, that fact alone settled their sleeping arrangements.

He’d initially planned on setting up camp on the top floor to give them a commanding view of everything, but that changed after a quick survey of the area with Von Wandren. The top of the tower stank of evil, and it didn’t take his pet mage’s warnings to understand why - the remains of a magic circle on the floor was caked in blood. Something terrible had happened here.

“I think we should tell the others,” the mage said on their walk back down, but Kaligos just glared. He knew how superstitious his team was.

“I think you should leave your damn mouth shut and let me decide what’s the best thing to tell to who, Von Wandren. You’ve already done enough today, don’t you think?” Normally Kaligos didn’t like to twist the knife, but right now, he was short-tempered and didn’t want to stay up half the night arguing about ghosts. He wanted to do his watch - get some sleep and be halfway back to the boat by this time tomorrow.

Besides the signs of old evil, there really wasn’t anything to worry about. The rest of the day had gone remarkably well. Once they’d stowed the injured and the gear on the tower’s second floor, they’d scavenged wood for a large bonfire just outside the tower’s front door. Then Kaligos had put the uninjured to work chopping up lizardmen and stacking tails. Even after they paid out to the families of the dead, they still looked to make even more than he thought when they planned this trip. The deaths were tragic, of course, but not as tragic as wasting this windfall would be.

That night the company dined well. Why shouldn’t they? They’d packed in enough supplies for a week, so they had a hearty stew instead of the thin soup they usually dined on this far out in the wilderness. “Did you decide to thicken this up with some lizard meat when no one was looking, boss?” Serin joked. His humor didn’t slow down his eating, though, Kaligos noted. The bowl was halfway empty already. Serin was a big man with a powerful appetite, so he had no doubt he’d be back for seconds.

“Of course! Anything to pinch a copper or two,” he said, absently looking past him to those assembled. Something seemed amiss, and it was only after he did a head count he realized what. “Where did Marko and Lizela sneak off to now?”

“Oh, you know them,” Serin laughed. “Always looking for a little alone time.”

“Maybe when you finish that bowl, you go beat the bushes and let them know it’s supper time. I don’t want them out after dark.” Kaligos was worried about something even though he shouldn’t be, and it wasn’t hard to think of what. The blood-red sunset made it impossible not to think about what he’d seen on the tower’s top floor, and that wasn’t doing anything for his appetite or his sense of inner peace.

“Oh - well, they aren’t out there. Too many bugs.” As Serin spoke, he gestured broadly to the horizon with a spoon. “Marko decided to have a look at her underground passage... I mean the tower’s

The tense silence didn’t last much longer. Kaligos spotted a silhouette moving at the edge of his light and had Teryn and Grim put a couple arrows in it; the screaming started from somewhere behind them. The holy man didn’t let that distract him as he noticed that not only did the arrows do nothing to the creature that was very slowly approaching, but that others seemed to be closing in behind it.

“Zombies,” he spat in disgust. True evil had a face, and it was a face that was very slowly decaying. “Come on - let’s get back to the other group and see if we can stay ahead of these slowpokes. No need to fight what we can outwalk.” Kaligos tried to put a brave face on it, but he was worried. Who knew how many of these abominations were tucked away down here or even how long they’d been here.

The way back was easy, and when two zombies suddenly appeared from a side passage, his glowing claymore made quick work of their heads, but Kaligos was already regretting his choice of weapon. If they got boxed in, the thing would be less than useless, and the further they went, the more shuffling and moaning they could hear down the side corridors. Once their group had returned to where they’d split up, Kaligos called out, “Wizard - where in the hells are you!” There was no response to that or the follow-up calls he made, so, in the end, he had to rely on his sense of smell, leading his team to the smell of burning that became visible as smoke after only a few more turns.

“Show’s over,” he said, walking into the room. “Grab your wounded, and let’s get out of here before we’re...” The words died in his throat. This wasn’t a battlefield - it was a last stand. Even as they rushed into the room to try to save the other half of their team, they found only pieces of them mixed with pieces of the enemy they’d died fighting. It was a charnel house, and just looking at the scattered viscera and the violent end it implied made Kaligos gag. He turned to block the doorway and keep his remaining men, but the fop Solovino was too close behind, and his eyes went wide at the awful sight before he ran off into the darkness screaming.

“Solovino - get back here!” Kaligos yelled, but the bard was beyond listening, but more importantly, he was heading the wrong way.

“Want me to chase him down, boss?” Teryn asked, looking pale as he tried to keep it together. “There’s about 15 royals running away in terror right there.”

“Hang the money. We’re leaving while we still can,” the holy man said, turning around and leading them back toward the staircase. There was nothing left down here worth dying for.

Kaligos cursed himself on the way back. He cursed himself for deciding to stay the night in this tower. He cursed himself for not listening to Von Wandren, and most of all, he cursed himself for not listening to his gut while it screamed at him all through dinner. If Marko and his minx wanted to die as kinkily as they’d lived, that was between them and their gods. All Kaligos wanted to do was live to fight another day. Fighting was something they couldn’t escape, though, and by the time they got back to the main hall, they found it clogged with another dozen zombies, including the one with two arrows in its chest.

That meant that they were surrounded now, but that fact would only become more obvious as the minutes passed and the noose closed tighter. Kaligos did something he hadn’t done in a long time, and he beseeched his god for aid, “Lord of blood and battle - smite this wickedness from the face of creation,” he cried out, holding his claymore not as a cleaver, but as the cross that it was in the face of evil. The light of his sword shone brighter for a moment, and the two zombies closest to him crumbled to dust before they could reach him.

The rest froze or backed off a few steps as they recoiled from the light, and Kaligos pressed his advantage, beheading one as he tried to break through. If they could just force their way past these last few, then they could reach the stairs and flee long enough to return with a cadre of real templars to deliver proper vengeance for the fallen. He could hear his last two men fighting their own battles behind him, but it didn’t sound good. He was no mage, able to cast spell after spell, and his faith was no match for the darkness of this place. Reluctantly he let go of his sword that was stuck in the body of one of the bloated corpses before him and pulled out his last axe.

If they were going to die on this spot, then they were going to die fighting.