I brought my hand up and ran it over the area which had been grazed and applied pressure. Whoever shot at me had crappy aim. I heard a scuffle, and then Ristan was back and ripping part of his cloak to make a field dressing.
“He’s dead, but I think he was dead for a while before I got to him. Danu brought those who got lost in this place back to life to fuck with us.”
“Peachy.” I ground my teeth together tightly, as he pressed the black coarse material to my arm and then tied it there. “Wait, if she is bringing those that got lost and died in the maze back to life, where they hell did they get the gun? I mean, if this place was shut down when Kier took his throne, that was centuries ago; way before firearms would have been around.”
“Fuck if I know. Bermuda Triangle, perhaps? The one I killed—again—looked like a Spanish privateer. Can you walk?”
“He grazed my shoulder, Demon, not my ass.”
He laughed and the light caught his eyes and twinkled with humor. “Oh the things I could say to that,” he whispered as he helped me to my feet.
I was barely upright when the next attack came. There were several men who looked just like Ristan had said my shooter looked. Their clothing was from the 1600s; cutlasses, old flintlock pistols, and decomposing faces. “Ristan,” I warned, as I looked at those coming closer to where we stood. “Are those Zombie pirates?” I asked, trying not to sound crazy.
“What the hell?” Ristan asked as he reached for me, only to stop as a loud explosion sounded.
We both ducked as what looked like a ghost cannon sent a round black ball sailing over our heads. “They’re firing cannons at us?” I asked in shock as guns were drawn from the sickly looking men who were growling, and making strange gurgling sounds.
“Shit,” Ristan said, half laughing, half shock. “Syn, there’s too many of them. Get behind me.”
I didn’t have time to reply as one of the Spanish pirates rushed at us. On instinct, I dropped and brought my foot out to trip him. When he was on the ground, Ristan brought out his wicked looking sword, and severed his head.
Another rushed in, this one with his gun pointing at my head. I dodged it easily, maneuvering around its sluggish gait. “They’re slow,” I blurted as I used the dagger to pierce its heart. “Ristan, they’re slow.”
“No shit, but so are you!” he shouted as the cannon’s booming noise sounded again.
“I’m not slow!” I growled as I took a second to level him with a killing glare.
“Synthia!” he shouted as a zombie sifted in beside me. I turned quickly; avoiding the rusty sword it aimed at me, and made quick work of it. “You are pregnant, which makes you slow. Get behind me,” Ristan continued as he took out another zombie.
I swung the short sword Ristan had given me at the beginning of the maze and decapitated another zombie. “Just because I’m pregnant, doesn’t make me slow, Demon!”
He took out another zombie, and turned to give me a disgruntled look of irritation. “I like my head on my shoulders. If you so much as get a scratch on your delicate flesh, Ryder will remove it!”
I rounded on him, and glared. I didn’t have time to argue, and the look on Ristan’s face confirmed it as I turned back around and swung the sword, taking two heads off with one swing. I was relieved that the zombies did not get back up once they had been dispatched. “Ryder knows I can take care of myself. You really think I’d let him remove your head?”
“You really think he’d wait for your opinion if you were hurt? He’s unstable when it comes to you.”
“Unstable?” I asked as I swung the blade again, severing yet another head. I looked at the blade, and then at Ristan. “These blades are wicked,” I mumbled as I watched him take out three zombies as easily as I had taken out the one. I looked around the dark green grass, to where the zombies were now all littered upon the ground.
“Well, that was educational,” Ristan said, as he wiped his blade on one of the pirate’s jerkin. “Goddesses, Pirates, and Zombies, oh my!” he joked with a smile twisting his lips.
“The Zombies were the pirates.” I smirked and took his lead in wiping off my own blade. The blood from the pirates was black, and just not natural. “These beings don’t belong to Faery. Look at this,” I said, reaching down to grab the pouch one of the zombies had tied to his belt. The pouch contained Spanish gold. “These are actual pirates,” I said in confusion.
“Come,” Ristan replied, pulling me up to my feet from where I’d kneeled beside the pirate.
“You having to help me up is really getting old, really fast,” I complained.
“I don’t mind,” he replied, and we both stopped cold as another fork presented itself. The bushes parted to open up into a three way junction once again. “More riddles.”
“Let’s hope there are fewer bullets on this one.”