Fairy Opera Chapter 14: Zombies

 

Zombies

As the sun went down, the sounds came. The door to the castle was pounded on by a dozen hands. The wood vibrated with each strike. Randy locked the door to the keep with the rest of us inside.

Randy huddled in the corner. “They’re everywhere. They’ll eat me. They’ll tear me apart with their teeth.”

Tae looked at Orion and the two of them nodded. “How many people were in this village?”

“I don’t know. I never counted.” Randy continued to huddle in the corner. “Please, get me out of here.”

“We can’t get you out of here now for obvious reasons.” Orion looked out the keep’s window at the garden, which was separated from the town by that solid wood door. The door continued to vibrate as zombies hammered at it. Orion looked back into the keep. “Can you tell me more about this inquisitor that changed the town into undead?”

Randy shuddered. “I can’t. I didn’t recognize him. He wore all black and had a dark cloak.”

Something screamed in the village. Randy covered his face with his hands. “They’re coming!”

We waited out the night while we listened to the noises outside the castle. When dawn came, the sounds died down.

“How much supplies do you have here?”

Randy stood up and pointed to the storeroom. “Lots. Plenty. If you take me with you when you leave I’ll help you carry them onto your ship.”

“But the monsters will attack if we try to leave, right?”

Randy shuddered. “They will. They don’t allow anything to leave. If you try to walk in the direction of the docks, they’ll come out of their hiding places and kill you. Then you’ll become one of them.”

Orion cracked his knuckles. “There’s a simple solution for that. Just have Jak fly the Grand Mahogany above the keep. He can let down some ropes and we can load the supplies that way.”

I frowned. “But flying skyships over habited areas is … Oh, I see.”

Orion nodded. “Good.” He activated his telepathy spell. “Jak. I want you to do something strange. Take the ship and fly it over the castle at the top of the hill.” He waited. “Yes. I know it’s illegal, but there’s no one here to care.” A pause. “Great. I’ll see you then.” He lowered his hand. “Looks like he’s coming.”

Ten minutes later, a shadow fell over the castle. The Grand Mahogany floated above the keep’s tallest tower. Ropes were thrown down.

Behind the door, screeches echoed. The monsters were alerted to the fact that we were trying to escape.

The door to the castle garden bulged, and then shattered. Dozens of monsters poured through.

“Fight!” Orion took out his sword. “Protect the ship while we load the supplies!”

Five sailors slid down the ropes and landed next to us, as well as Jak. More sailors landed to assist Randy with the loading of supplies. We just needed to keep the monsters away from them.

Orion slashed his way through the zombies. Blue ichor flowing from his blades, he twirled as he moved between his marks, slicing them to pieces and felling them.

I engaged two zombies that had gotten close to the supply depot. One of them swiped at me with its long, grotesque claws. I dodged the swipe and slashed the monster’s hand off. Blue ichor sprayed everywhere. I cast a fireball spell without using a scroll, and then duplicated it. Both zombies were engulfed in flames—but it didn’t bother them. They came at me anyways, their bodies flaming. One of the zombies grabbed me by the shoulder. I pushed it away, trying to disengage. The flames licked at my clothes. I improvised a spell.

“Null push!” I had never heard the word “push” used in a spell context before. “Blast away! Register library flame one! Explode!”

The zombie flew backwards, bowling over a number of other zombies as it fell. I felt my entire body tingle.

Orion came up to me and stood with me, back to back. “Rock, did you just improvise a spell?”

“Yeah.” I slashed the head off of another zombie. “It was easy.”

“You could have killed us all.”

“But I didn’t.” I stabbed a zombie in the stomach.

“Don’t ever do that again.”

“Would you rather I died?”

Orion gritted his teeth as he slashed the arm off of a zombie. “Let’s talk about this when we’re not fighting a life or death battle.”

We held out for another five minutes, until the supplies were loaded. We then retreated and were pulled back up onto the Grand Mahogany by rope. Randy came with us.

When we were all on board, Orion performed a head count. “We’re one short!”

One of our sailors was stuck behind a wall of zombies. I looked down at him. “Orion. Hand me a fly spell.”

Orion tossed me a scroll. “It’s not a fly spell, but it will work!”

I leaped off the edge of the ship, and cast feather fall as I flew. I landed gently right next to the trapped sailor. The sailor was a woman with red hair and freckles, wielding a cutlass. Her name was Ako.

“Master Rock.” The Ako pushed a zombie away. “You came for me.”

“I never leave anyone behind. Grab on!” I grabbed the Ako and cast the jump spell that Orion had handed me. I flew up into the air and, a few seconds later, landed on the deck of the Grand Mahogany. With that, we flew away, the castle receding as we rose into the sky. The zombies howled with rage as we left them behind.

There were a large number of supply crates on the deck. Orion barked orders at the sailors as they helped stash away all the supplies.

Ako turned to me. “Thank you for saving my life, Master Rock.”

“It’s not problem. Like I said, I don’t leave anyone behind.”

Randy came up to me. “Your name is Rock!” He bowed. “Thank you for saving my life as well.”

“We’re going to need to ask you a few questions about what happened in that town.”

“Yeah, yeah. I can tell you everything I know.”

Ten minutes later we were in the captain’s quarters. It was me, Tae, Orion, Jak, Ruby, Jastle and Randy.

Randy looked at ruby with a surprised expression. “You’re a fairy.”

“Sorry I didn’t introduce myself.” Ruby shook her head. “I’m usually with Rock, but I stayed on board this time. I had work to do.”

Orion chuckled. “She prefers to dig her head into magic scrolls all day.” Then he turned to Randy. “So tell us. Exactly how did the entire village of Anerville turn into undead?”

“An inquisitor came into town holding a large white orb. The orb exploded with light and then everyone who saw it turned into a zombie. Then anyone who got bitten by one turned into a zombie as well.”

“And your lord was one of the victims?”

“Yes, yes.” Randy bobbed his head up and down. “I’m the only survivor. I was in the kitchen the whole time preparing for the lord’s daughter’s birthday.”

“So you’re a cook.”

“Yes. A lucky cook.” Randy looked at the people arrayed around the room. “I know Rock’s name. But who are you? Why are you here? Anerville hasn’t been along a major trade route for decades.”

“My name is Orion.” Orion bowed. “I’m helping Rock on his quest to save his sister from an inquisitor.”

Jak bowed. “Jak Green, at your service.”

Jastle nodded. “My name is Jastle.”

“Tae.” Tae smiled.

“Ruby.” She flew up to Randy and examined him. “You’re quite well-built for a cook.”

“I used to be an adventurer.” Randy sighed. “But I got too old for it.”

“That happens.” Jak laughed. “The same thing happened to me. Old age doesn’t really play favorites.”

Randy bobbed his head. “Yes, yes. I think the inquisitor was testing some new game-breaking technology for warfare. If you can turn the entire enemy army into zombies, then you can defeat them easily.”

“You mean the war in Okari?”

“Yes, that. The Alliance of Nations really is putting our Empire through its paces.” Randy sighed.

“Why do you even know about that?” Orion appeared a bit surprised.

“I worked for a marquess. I overhead a thing or two while I was working.” Randy shrugged. “I may have sold a few secrets in my time.”

“Which I don’t really care about.” Orion nodded. “As long as you’re a hard worker and not a slack, you’re welcome aboard this ship.”

“So where are we headed?” Randy looked around the room.

“We’re headed to the Grand Castle, where Rock’s sister is being held captive.”

Randy turned pale. “Grand Castle? The sight of the Dungeons of Kerth?”

“We believe that’s where Rock’s sister is currently trapped.”

“So why did your sister get kidnapped in the first place?” Randy turned to me.

“Should I tell him?” I looked at Orion without saying that aloud, trying to communicate it with my eyes.

Orion shook his head, slight enough that Randy didn’t notice.

I held my tongue on the matter. “Somehow or another I got on the Empire’s bad side.”

“Yeah, I understand how that can happen. You guys don’t happen to be part of the Rebellion, do you?”

“Not at all. We are not affiliated with them.”

“I was kind of hoping you were. I’ve been wanting to join the Rebellion for some time now.”

“But you never had the guts to actually do it.”

Randy looked defeated. “Yeah. I guess that’s true.”

Orion shook Randy’s hand. “Welcome aboard. I’ll have your ship’s duties assigned to you in a couple of hours. Have you ever sailed aboard a ship before?”

“I served a stint in the merchant marine, so yes.” Randy appeared quite happy.

Randy and Orion left the room. Ruby flew up to me and poked me in the nose.

“You almost gave away that you’re a technomage.”

“Well, on your part, we’re lucky he didn’t dig too deep into why we have a fairy on board.”

“Fairies are pretty common, right?” Ruby landed on my shoulder. “At least that’s the idea I was given.”

We left the captain’s quarters and headed to the console room.

“Ship.”

The ship powered on. “Yes, sir?”

“Put us on a course to Grand Castle Island.”

“Of course. Your first mate has already given me an order.”

I nodded. “Also. You have a database, right?”

“I do.”

“I need to know if the people before had any kind of weapon that could turn people into undead.”

“Yes. The Dalnor had a couple of weapons that could achieve that goal.”

“Okay. Can you find out whatever you can about those weapons? I believe we’ll be facing them before long. We need to come up with a countermeasure.”

“Will do. I will alert you when I discover something. Is there anything else I can serve you with?”

“That’s it, ship.” I bowed. ‘Thank you.”

“It’s my pleasure.”

I left the console room. Ruby kicked her legs back and forth on my shoulder. “You knew of the existence of a database. Where did you even learn that concept?”

“Um, I don’t know. It just appeared to me. Like, breathing or walking. Somehow I know about that stuff.”

“Database. Hah.” Ruby continued kicking her feet back and forth. “In any case, we’re headed for a real battle. You need to hash out a plan with Orion. Didn’t Jastle say that he knew a secret passageway into Grand Castle?”

“He did. I’ll go figure this out now.”

About an hour later, Jastle, Orion, Jak, Tae, and I stood in the captain’s quarters.

Orion leaned forward. “We’re going to have to plan our insertion into Grand Castle carefully.” He spread a map out onto the table. “Jastle. Can you tell us exactly where the secret passageway is?”

Jastle pointed. “It’s right here.”

“Good.” Orion then turned to me. “Do you have any inputs or ideas?”

“Here’s my plan.” I began outlining what I had come up with.