Kathy's sense of urgency had cut quickly through any racism or animosity lieutenant Warren might have felt toward her. If trouble was coming, his duty was clear: protect the town. Byron also had no problems convincing folks of the danger coming. Daggeuro, however, was dealing with an altogether different problem in the form of one Councilman Herbert Stahg, dressed in his plantation suit with a solid walnut cane in hand.
"I'm suggesting that you let the appropriate people handle this," the kennin High Knight snarled in response to the fellin saying he'd help defend the township.
"I have more than enough skill to protect myself in battle, Sir Daggeuro," Stahg hissed. "I may not be some knight, but I can hold my own. Surely I'm better qualified than the humes."
"That is where you are very wrong," Daggeuro said, drawing Boon and Bane. Warren and his top three officers were approaching the town square from the south, behind Stahg. "Kathy and Byron are both heavily battle-tested, Councilman."
Stahg flapped his hand to one side. "But they're humes, Daggeuro! This is not their town, it's mine!"
"It isn't her kingdom either, but Kathy has stood in its defense," Daggeuro retorted hotly. "Now get inside before I declare martial law and have you arrested!" Stahg recoiled as if struck, sneering before he stalked angrily away. Warren strode up with his sergeants, an elven man and fellin woman in khaki uniforms, mace in his hand, scythe in hers. "I can sense them, coming from the west. Undead, scores of them," Daggeuro said quietly.
"Velit is over on that side, life magic specialist. He'll be able to turn a chunk of them to dust," Warren said.
"Good. Kathy and Byron should be here soon." A blast of magic to the west drew all eyes. "They're already here. You and these two, hold the square," Daggeuro said. He was about to instruct Warren to direct Kathy and Byron to him when the humans came running into the square from the east.
"They're fast," Kathy wheezed, axe in hands. "I have a scout figurine out west. These things are like zombies, but quick, and they use weapons."
"Revenants," Daggeuro said. "They can't turn you, which is good, but their bite can cause rot. Fight them at a distance where possible." Kathy switched weapons, bow at the ready. Byron snapped out a card, which flashed into a fresh hellfire shotgun. "Let's go."
Daggeuro led them west, the first revenants sprinting full bore at them after four-hundred yards. Kathy fired an arrow, taking one in the forehead. Byron waited until his target was twenty feet away and fired, his weapon discharging a scattershot of hellfire pellets that reduced it to burning Swiss cheese on the ground. Daggeuro, with his blades, carved through two in one fluid motion.
Retrieving her arrow, Kathy launched it again, infusing it with her power. She guided the arrow with her will through the heads of four more snarling, reanimated Ranger corpses, once more putting them to rest.
The Watchmen at the west side of town were doing well enough to protect themselves, but the sheer number of revenants was overwhelming. As the trio from Celia reached the outskirts, only three officers remained standing. Byron swept his shotgun across an arc of the monsters, which screamed as he shot them down. When they had cleared the lot of them here, Byron discarded the spent weapon and drew out another card, holding it between forefinger and thumb.
"That's only about a third of them down," Daggeuro said. "Split up and lend support," he said to the humans. "I'll go back up this road. Byron, north half, Kathy, south. Go!" The trio split, each taking their talents to the undead.
Kathy found a café with several tables and chairs on an outdoor patio a minute after parting company with Daggeuro and Byron. She quickly animated these with the intent of always being between her and members of the undead and hostile attacks. She took back to the street, surrounded by tables and chairs that pranced and ran around like loyal guard dogs.
At a streetlamp torch pole, she paused to channel her power again, taking the time to make this construct change its shape into that of a towering man-thing with clubs for arms. As four revenants charged down the street at her, she watched the pole-guardian hammer them into paste on the street.
For Byron, being freed of Kathy and Daggeuro set off joyful bells and Beethoven's 9th Symphony in his head, the 'Ode to Joy'. He snapped his card out, and when its flash disappeared, he stood before a metallic wagon, lashed to two mechanical horses. Mounted on either side of the wagon were two crank operated automatic crossbows, each loaded with one-hundred shot belts. He couldn't bring a tank into being in the Ether, but with the right amount of imagination, he'd accomplished a similar effect.
He hopped inside, opening the viewport in the cockpit. Using levers and pulleys, he got the war machine moving, raining destruction on a flock of revenants he spotted ahead. Watchmen screamed at the sight of his machine, and one fool lobbed a fireball at it. Luckily for him, the armor plating held. "It's me, I'm not undead," he shouted into a bullhorn attached to the controls. "Don't hit me, just get out of the way!" He churned through several dozen more revenants.
Daggeuro, for his part, moved through the raging undead like a whirlwind, Boon and Bane making easy work of them. One managed to cut through his armor along his right arm with a rusted glaive, but he put paid to that worthy with a pirhouette slash, decapitating the beast. He grieved for these men; he recognized them as Rangers, all buried and raised in their worm-eaten uniforms.
An hour later, he stood with Warren and Kathy in the town square, the last of the revenants beaten back to death by a Watch officer wielding earth magic. Byron brought his dented, battered war machine around, stepping out as he willed it away, just another card turned to dust. Kathy whistled. "Impressive."
"Exhausting," Byron countered, flopping into a seated position in the dusty street. "You okay?"
"Couple of scratches," Kathy said, fingering a hole in her enchanted cloak. "Daggeuro, how many did we lose?"
"We don't know yet," he rasped, redoing the tie-downs on Boon and Bane. "Warren? How are you holding up?"
"I'll be okay," the elven lieutenant said, holding his left side where a scimitar had hacked into him deep. The female sergeant he'd had with him was using healing magic on the wound at the moment. "Scarred, sure, but I'll live." Together, Daggeuro, Kathy and Byron departed, heading for the hotel to regroup and discuss the battle. The Chained One, they all agreed, had raised the revenants and set them loose on Ryalt. Yet it had not appeared itself, a point that confounded Daggeuro. Why send footsoldiers, but not accompany them?
"Distraction," Byron offered, sipping Coke from a can. "This thing can move around pretty much at will, right? Shows up without notice?"
"Yes," said Daggeuro. "How it can do that, we have no idea."
"So raising a bunch of nasties in one place, then bugging out to somewhere else isn't out of the question," Byron said.
"What are you thinking," Kathy asked.
"I'm thinking this thing wanted a big distraction here so it could set up shop someplace quiet, out of the way. You can't invade a town or city with a lot of people and have folks not take notice. But there's a lot of little towns and villages in this country. It could go to any of those and get cozy."
The trio lapsed into silence then, considering what they knew. Finally, Daggeuro spoke. "The Ranger support officers saw strange lights in the woods west of here. You said Warren told you that, right, Byron?" He nodded. "That's our next stop. Now, no time for waiting," he said.
Half an hour later they were riding horses west out of town to track down their lead.
Leroy Ferter dismounted his horse when it was only midway across the stream, slapping it on the backside so it would continue on without him. This was his only good chance of gaining maximum ground on Senta. He dove into the waist-deep water, and using his water magic, shot downstream like a runaway torpedo.
The stream ultimately terminated thirty-two miles away in a lake, which he reached twenty minutes later. His Awakening had given him a supreme mastery of water magic and the power to break seals. One had gotten him in deep shit, and with luck, the other would keep him out of it. Being able to breath underwater had at first seemed a pointless ability. Now, he cherished it.
He came up out of the lake along its shoreline, shaking himself off. With a flicker of will, he drew the moisture from his clothes and hair, returning it to the lake. He cast about, getting his bearings. He had no idea where he was, and that was fine.
Perhaps two-hundred yards away, also on the lakeshore, stood a squat red cabin. A burly figure stood out on the lawn, chopping wood. Leroy headed that way, raising an eyebrow as the figure resolved into clarity. It looked like a tall, vaguely humanoid moth-man, bare arms scrawny, wings flapping with each blow of its axe. It looked up at him and set the axe aside, wiping its hands on a gray rag.
"Ho, there," it said in a lilting voice. Ferter would have pegged the accent as Irish back home. "Who's this, then?"
"I am Leroy Ferter," the human said. "And I wonder if you might help me."
As the trio from Celia stepped into the clearing, they discovered the source of the glowing light pulses and deep thrumming sound that Warren's people had picked up on. On the ground lay a fallen ghostwood tree, a single dark chain pegged to its trunk. Both were glowing, humming, and from what Kathy could tell, deteriorating.
"What is this," Byron asked.
"If I had to guess, his means of transport," said Daggeuro. "It is a little known fact, but ghostwoods are not grown from seeds. They are magical plants, created when enough wild magic fills an ordinary tree to change it. Since Cassius was bound to one, I'm guessing he can go wherever they are."
"Pretty wicked," said Byron. "And the portals, like the one he used to get at the Awakened?"
"Magic of another sort, less permanent, not as stable. Ghostwood trees would never be able to pass through."
"Well, at least we're getting to know its limitations," Kathy said. "So when he uses a ghostwood to zip around, it dies? That's no good."
"Keeps him from going back to places he's been, though, if trees are sparse," Daggeuro said. "This chain is symbolic, not one of his. Look," he said, grasping one of the links. "His are sharpened. This Chained One is a curious creature indeed."
"Sooo, we still have no clue where it is," Kathy pointed out. Daggeuro sniffed at the fallen ghostwood, sneezing. "Getting its scent?"
"A reminder. Remember, I've already faced it once. But there's been so many other new scents between then and now, I needed a refresher." He sniffed at the air quickly. "It went west from here. There's an old Ranger memorial cemetery beyond these woods. It came back here, held its minions in waiting for a predetermined time, and left again. Where, I know not." He grunted. "Well, your theory holds water, Byron. Unfortunately, we have nowhere to go from here."
"Not true," said Kathy. "Think about it, Dag. How many big wooded areas are there in Alsem?"
"A few," he replied.
"Okay. Now, you said there were five trees when you faced him before. Those are going to be noticable anywhere other than a woodland community," Kathy said. "That narrows down his possible choices for places to go."
"That's what I was thinking," Byron said. "Now, every village has at least a few Watch officers on hand, right? Couldn't you try to touch base with all of them, have them do a check-in?" Daggeuro smiled broadly, clapping them both on the shoulder.
"Yes, I can! Gods bless human curiosity, I wouldn't have thought of that so quickly! I just need to get back to the hotel. I have my master copy of the command roster in my office bag." The trio headed back to their horses and began riding back for town.