Zombies Sold Separately

TWENTY-TWO



The Sorcerer Amory’s heart pounded and his chest ached as he stood on the balcony and looked down at Tieve and Una. They had just returned from the Earth Otherworld and now knelt at his feet, both with their heads bowed.

The lavender-streaked skies crackled, lightning passing from one cloud to another as rage shook him.

“What do you mean, Bryna might be dead?” Amory’s voice shook with both fury and fear for his niece who was also one of his trusted advisors. “Why was she with you if you say she had found her Host?”

Una looked up and licked her dry lips. Amory could smell the beginnings of decay from the sickness on her breath.

“Yes, Bryna found her Host and had taken the body,” Una said. “She was prepared to go to you with her Host’s stone but she asked Tieve to hold it for her.”

“Why would she do something so idiotic?” Amory looked at Tieve. “Bryna is not stupid. As soon as she exchanged essences with her Host she should have returned in the new body with her stone.”

“The Host body wasn’t taking well to her essence, Lord Amory.” Tieve’s voice trembled. “She felt ill and weakened, so she asked me to carry her Host’s stone until she could get to the portal.”

“Why did you not bring her straight to the portal?” A slow burn began to warm the Sorcerer’s chest and he clenched his fists at his sides. He would have taken care of her. He could have cured the sickness his people sometimes felt when they took a new Host’s body.

Una said, “The Shells of those left behind—what Earth Otherworlders call Zombies—were hunting. The Shells found two paranorms. They seemed drawn to them. As if they held a vacated stone.”

Amory frowned. “That is not possible,” he said and dismissed that thought.

Tieve looked at Una. “The paranorms appeared strong, magical. We were certain they were some of the Trackers whom we have studied and just what we were looking for. Una and I stopped with the Shells to capture the paranorms and trade our essences.”

“What happened?” The growl in the Sorcerer’s words made both Una and Tieve flinch.

Lightning flared across the sky. Thunder rumbled and the balcony shook. Wind blasted them, pressing his tunic and breeches against his body, sending cool air over his bald head.

“The Trackers were much stronger than we anticipated,” Tieve said. “They fought off thirteen Shells as well as both of us.”

Una nodded. “One was a Dragon.”

Shock filtered through the heat of Amory’s anger. “A Dragon? In the Earth Otherworld?” And the possibility of a stone. Had he been wrong to dismiss that idea?

“We saw him change,” Tieve said. “And the other Tracker must be Drow. She looks much like the Dark Elves we fought and the one we captured in Otherworld. This one had blue hair and purple skin.”

“A Dragon and Drow in the Earth Otherworld,” Amory said aloud, unable to believe his fortune. “That would explain both paranorms’ strengths.”

The Sorcerer felt more than heard Una’s and Tieve’s sighs of relief because he hadn’t killed them for the news they had returned with. Nor had he eliminated them for leaving his niece behind.

No, he wasn’t going to kill Una and Tieve. He had better plans for both.

For a long moment he stared off the balcony and at the rich lands and let Una and Tieve shiver with the knowledge that he still might hurt them. Cloud to cloud lightning continued to crackle overhead and hair rose on his arms.

What lay before him and around him had served as their homeland for over twenty years and he would be sorry to leave it. The world they had taken control of when they fled Kerra had been a good home.

With the exception that Doran had eventually rejected the current bodies they were in even as the Kerrans’ home world had rejected their original bodies.

Amory turned back to the two, who had their heads bowed. “Stand.”

Una and Tieve hurried to their feet. They cowed when he put a hand on each of their heads, but they did not move.

The Sorcerer delved into their memories and the image of Bryna finding a new Host filled his mind. It was with some sadness that he watched her Shell join the others. A Shell was a being neither alive nor dead that would help his people find new Hosts while ridding them of those who were unwanted.

Candace Moreno was the name of the Host Bryna had taken. She had been what humans called a “CEO” of a “brokerage house.” Amory wasn’t clear on what that position entailed, but his research team and advisors believed it to be a good thing for him to have control of in their takeover of the Earth Otherworld.

Amory moved on from that memory and images of the Drow female and the male Dragon rushed through his mind. He brought the memories to the forefront, making them strong in the minds of Una and Tieve.

They would now be able to remember every single detail about the Trackers. Details they hadn’t consciously noticed would now be firmly set within them.

When he removed his hands from their heads they slowly looked up at him. Both had expressions of surprise on their features.

“Where they live,” Una said. “They were talking about it when we entered the café.”

“Yes … the female will be easiest to watch for.” Tieve glanced at Una as he spoke. He looked at Amory again. “The Dragon will be far more difficult to find because he did not give as accurate of an address as the Drow did.”

“Locate the female and she will likely lead you to the male,” Amory said, then continued, “You will find my niece and recover Bryna. You will recover her stone and if there is a vacated stone, you will recover that as well. You will take the Drow female and the Dragon male as your Hosts.”

He had seen more in their minds than the memories Una and Tieve had of the pair and it bothered him enough that the snap and sizzle of the lightning grew louder and thunder shook the valley.

“This Nyx and Colin will be trouble for us if they are not taken.” Amory considered the situation. “However, they will be great assets once they are taken. They can aid in our plan to infiltrate the Paranorm Council.” He nodded to himself. “Yes. That is what we will do.”

He scowled at Una and Tieve. “Get the Drow and the Dragon and get Bryna. If you do not, you will suffer for what you have done and have not done.”

The pair bowed and fled.

Amory took a deep breath and drew his magic within himself. He let his body relax, tension leaving him.

The skies cleared until they were a lavender-streaked whitewashed blue and nothing more than a soft breeze stirred the leaves of the trees that shaded part of the balcony.

He turned and strode to the manor, entering the large hall and walking toward the Inner Circle chamber where his advisors should have convened by now. The polished marble floor was smooth and cool beneath his bare feet.

The Sorcerer entered the room and in one glance he saw that eleven of his advisors were there, standing around the large circular table. Only Bryna was missing. That thought alone made his belly boil as though hot oil had been poured into it.

Several of his advisors had already taken over Host forms that controlled important positions in the Earth Otherworld. Amory had arranged this meeting so that he might tell them he was prepared for the next step.

Each one of his advisors remained standing as he entered the room and with a gesture he bade them to sit. The circular table had been in the manor when the Sorcerer Desmond had ruled. When he had exiled Desmond, Amory had found it amusing to refer to his advisors as his “Inner Circle” and began using this as a strategy room.

“We have chosen a venue for our trial takeover en masse.” Amory raised his hands and the glow of his magic traveled like mist to the wall behind him.

A picture formed of what humans called a “concert” with hundreds of people gathered around the stage of musicians. Not that Amory considered them true musicians with their version of “music.” It was nothing like what the people of Kerra embraced and had brought with them when they fled their dying, murderous world.

“This is a theater known as Town Hall,” Amory said and the floor plan of the building floated into existence onto the wall. “It seats eight hundred, and we arranged the purchase of four hundred tickets. Four hundred humans will be in attendance and four hundred of our own people will go to the theater with stones. We will have our first mass exchange of essences.”

“What about sealing their Hosts?” Jalen asked. He was dressed as, and in the body of, the Host he had taken over. A U.S. Army general. “That many people leaving the Earth Otherworld at one time would cast suspicion.”

“Suspicion upon whom?” Amory waved the statement away. “They have no way of knowing, no way of even suspecting our infiltration.”

“These humans are intelligent.” LeeLa, now an Earth Otherworld surgeon, looked thoughtful. “They will be searching for answers.”

“Let them search.” Amory continued, “As to the Hosts returning for sealing … I believe I have perfected a way that the Hosts will not need to return. I will go myself and seal them all at one time. Thus no one in the Earth Otherworld will know anything has happened at all.”

“What about the Shells?” Roan asked. “Will they not wreak havoc? Four hundred is a large number to turn loose on the city.”

“I will program the stones to stay with the Shells, and the Shells will bring them back to Doran while their new Hosts stay in the Earth Otherworld,” Amory said.

“The Earth Otherworlder paranorms call the Shells ‘Zombies,’” Xella said with a smirk.

Amory ignored Xella. “For now the Shell attacks in the Earth Otherworld will be kept to a minimum,” Amory said. “Once we have taken this world and control it with all of my people transferred, they will be released to terrorize and destroy those not taken.”

His advisors nodded their approval.

Amory turned to his image on the wall and pointed out sections of the theater and explained how the plan would work. “I have our teams working with those of our people who will be making the journey and taking the essences. They will know what must be done.”

“What if this test fails?” Jalen asked.

Amory scowled at being questioned in any way. “Then I shall work to perfect it. Once I have perfected it, we will then be ready for the humans’ ‘New Year’s Eve’ celebration in their Times Square.”

Amory’s scowl slipped into a harsh smile. “And thus it begins.”