He led her through the trees to a place close to a collection of tents of all sizes and colors. They scurried through the heavy boles until they found a gap between two campfires, where they could slip in without attracting undue attention.
They passed by unchallenged. Nakor led Miranda past a series of campsites, where they were just two people among several walking about on some errand or another. But as they passed a large camp, a man walked toward them. His head was shaved, save for a single fall of hair, tied up to cascade behind him. The hair looked to be cinched by a ring of bone. He wore deep scars on each cheek. He was bare chested and wore a vest of what appeared to be human skin. His trousers were dyed leather and Nakor didn’t inspect them too closely. He was massively muscled and carried a huge curved blade known as a flasher. It was a two-handed weapon, but he looked capable of wielding it with one hand.
He walked up, weaving slightly, to Miranda, and looked her over in a very frank fashion, then turned to Nakor and said, with a drunken slur, “You sell her to me.”
Nakor grinned. “No, I can’t.”
The man’s eyes grew wide and he looked as if he was about to erupt into a rage as he said, “No? You say no to Fustafa!”
Nakor pointed at the building and said, “She goes there.”
Instantly the man’s expression changed, and he looked at Nakor and backed away. “I don’t ask,” he said, hurrying away.
“What was that?” asked Miranda.
“I don’t know,” said Nakor. He looked at the building, less than a hundred yards away. “But I think it means we need to be careful in there.”
“We’re going to walk in?” asked Miranda.
“You have a better idea?” replied Nakor, walking toward the building.
“No,” said Miranda, hurrying after him again.
They both felt a strange energy as they neared it. As they got closer, it grew stronger. Miranda said, “That makes me feel like I need to take a bath.”
“If your husband doesn’t object, I’ll join you,” said Nakor. “Come this way.” He motioned toward an opening in the fence, between sections of the building, and they entered.
Once they had entered, Nakor saw what the structures were. A huge square had three small buildings at each corner. In the center rose six large stones, each one carved with runes that set Miranda’s teeth on edge to view. “What is this place?” she asked.
“It’s a place of summoning, a place of dark magic, a place from which something very bad will come,” said Nakor.
They saw movement in the dark, in the middle of the ring of stones. They moved forward quietly. A band of men, all wearing dark robes, stood around a large stone. Behind the stone was a man who stood with arms outstretched, one who chanted something to the sky.
“Now we know why that man was so afraid,” whispered Nakor. “Look!”
Upon the stone lay a young woman, her eyes wide with terror, a gag in her mouth. Her hands were tied to rings of iron in the stone and she was dressed in a short black sleeveless shift.
Nakor’s eyes widened as he considered this. “We must leave!” he said urgently.
Miranda said, “We can’t leave her there to die.”
“Thousands will die soon if we don’t leave,” he whispered, holding her elbow and steering her back toward the exit.
Then there came a rumbling in the air, and Nakor said, “Run!”
Miranda didn’t hesitate, and followed Nakor out the doorway. The soldiers nearby ignored the two who ran from the building, for their eyes were riveted on the scene before them. A faint blue-green light was gathering around the building, swirling as if being stirred by a giant invisible stick.
Nakor stopped a few yards before Miranda and held his staff overhead. “Fly!” he shouted.
Miranda halted, closed her eyes, and gathered her own powers to fly. She leaped forward, as if diving, but rather than falling, she rose. She grabbed Nakor’s staff and hauled him into the sky.
She flew in a straight line, up the hillside, then began a gentle turn. When she could look down upon the building, she said, “Oh, gods of mercy!”
Up the coast, a dozen lights like the one before them had blossomed, evil green and blue lights that filled the night with a terrible illumination. Then down the coast came a line of power, moving from each of the constructions, starting somewhere near Ylith and ending below where Miranda flew.
A note painful to hear rang and below those soldiers camped nearest the building reeled back from the sound. A faint light spread out in a fan from the building, toward the Kingdom camp, growing fainter as it went. It shifted through the spectrum, going to red, then back to green, then to violet. A last deep indigo wave faded from view, and the grinding sound suddenly stopped.
Then, on the battlefield, the dead began to rise.
Twenty-Five - Confrontation
Men screamed.