Chapter Twelve
Normally, I’d have just driven out to the Mount and worked my way up the hill, but Katon was a professional.
Or lazy.
Either way, he contacted Rahim and had the wizard teleport us onto the mountain, just a short distance from the cross itself. There, I peered up at the monument and was certain it was the one Michael had seen in Chatterbox’s mind. It looked exactly as he described it.
The hill was covered in yellow-green scrubs and explosions of hardy, wild grasses. From where we popped in, our route up the backside of the mountain was fairly inconspicuous and for the most part, easy. We’d be able to spot anyone on top of it before they could us.
Not that it mattered.
As it turned out, no one was there.
We crept low until we had a clear view of the monument, then walked the rest of the way once we were sure it was abandoned. Though, while there wasn’t anyone around, a whole bunch of evidence showed that someone had been there.
The first thing I noticed was a huge hole dug at the base of the white dais, just before the stairs. Mounds of rocky earth were piled to either side, each a couple of feet high and wide. There was a lot of dirt. While I couldn’t see into the hole from where I stood, it was clear by how much was excavated, it was deep.
As we moved closer, the brush clearing from our view, other things became apparent.
Scattered about the grave were dozens of zombie pieces. Arms, legs, and a myriad of other less definable body parts lay spread about, stained dark with wet blood and what looked like ashes. Scorch marks were present on some of the larger sections. Their presence probably explained Reven’s need for additional corpses, but it sure didn’t shed any light on what had happened here. Just as lost as before, I kept looking for clues.
Broken and melted candles surrounded the hole, most knocked to the side and trampled. Distorted and misshapen footprints were everywhere. The loose topsoil had been stomped down and stirred up across the entire area.
With my eyes peeled for an ambush, I peered into the hole as a thick, pungent scent wafted up and saturated my nose. Inside, the entire thing was filled with black, frothing blood. I couldn’t see the bottom through the dark murk, but there didn’t seem to be anything obvious lurking in the pool. Its inhabitant was likely gone.
“Care for a dip?”
Katon moved to my side and examined the hole with me. Seeing the blood, he went to the edge of the monument and retrieved a long branch from one of the bushes. Back at the hole, he shoved the branch inside, stirring the liquid and feeling for the bottom. He sighed, letting the limb slide from his hands into the pool. “It looks like Reven has succeeded in raising Longinus.”
I shook my head, remembering what Lilith had told me. Things didn’t add up. “I’m not sure he did.”
Katon raised an eyebrow.
“A source told me Reven had possession of Longinus’s body, stolen from its resting place in Limbo. If that’s true, given the body’s importance, why would he re-bury it out here and risk letting it out of his hands?”
Katon didn’t ask where I’d gotten my intel from. He knew the way I worked, understanding I wouldn’t name my source until necessary, but it didn’t stop him from questioning the factual integrity of the information and where it’d come from. “Can your source be trusted?”
It was a good question. “At this point, I can’t say for sure. But beyond the likelihood of manipulation, take a look around.” I gestured to the scene. “While there are candles all over the place, there aren’t any necromantic symbols. Wouldn’t Reven need some kind of a ritual to raise the dead?”
Katon glanced around, spinning in a tight circle, his eyes narrow. “Maybe they were drawn in the dirt.” He didn’t seem to believe that.
I pointed to a couple of areas where the dirt had been unmolested. “There were symbols everywhere in the mausoleum where he raised the zombies, why wouldn’t he need them here?”
It was Katon’s turn to shake his head. “I’m not familiar enough with necromancy to say.”
“And all this?” I pointed to the zombie pieces. “It looks like there was a fight here, and it doesn’t look like the zombies were on the winning side. Going back to my point, given the presumption Reven already had the body and he knew others were looking for it, does it make sense he’d leave it somewhere, guarded only by a bunch of corpses?”
“No it doesn’t, but you’re placing an inordinate amount of trust in what you’ve been told.” He held up a hand to shut me up. “Whether he raised Longinus or not, there are other things to be considered here. Reven may have been interrupted as he went about preparing the body, caught before he reached the symbol-drawing stage. There’s also the possibility Reven didn’t have the body to begin with and came here to retrieve it, or he left it here and someone else found it.” He shrugged. “There are a ton of scenarios for which we don’t know enough to discount.”
I sighed as I let his words sink in. He was right. There were far too many possibilities I wasn’t giving any thought to.
“Moreover, this could have nothing to do with Longinus.” He added fuel to the fire.
His words settling in, I looked the site over again, trying to piece it all together. The more I thought about it the more distorted my train of logic became, veering off the tracks to tumble into a chaotic pile of nonsense. What if he was right? What if the site hadn’t been for raising Longinus? What then?
A sick, bitter feeling crept over my stomach. There could be another player in the game, that’s what.
Growling, I turned to Katon who’d walked to the edge of the clearing, scanning the horizon. “What a mess.” Things were complicated enough, but if someone else were involved, there was no telling what we were looking at.
Katon nodded as if reading my mind. His face was a mask of lined frustration and sour thoughts. “You need to speak with your sources again, find out what you can. I’ll go and talk to Abra-”
His eyes went wide, his body rigid.
Before Katon could react, a sinewy hand burst from the ground beneath him, wrapping its fingers around his ankle. With a twist, he stumbled backward pulling his leg free, drawing his blade as he fell. He landed on his back, a cloud of dust billowing out around him.
An explosion of dirt filled the air as the arm was followed by a lithe, motley creature whose smile was filled with rows upon rows of razor sharp teeth. Its large, round black eyes swirled, sparks of fury lighting off in their darkness. It set its sights on Katon and barreled forward, steely claws and gaping mouth spearheading the way.
It took me as long to recognize the creature as it took for it to reach Katon.
It was a frickin’ ghoul.
A metaphorical cross between a zombie and a wolverine, ghouls were the clawed equivalent of a demolition derby. Fast, strong as a bear, and utterly fearless, they were the shock troops of the undead.
I shrugged off my surprise and drew my gun as three more ghouls rose up from their earthen hidey-holes. My first thought was for Katon. Spinning, my gun leading the way, I aimed at the creature hovering over him, its gnashing snout snapping. But before I could fire, Katon got his feet beneath it and sent it flying, sending it tumbling down the hill.
He hopped up as I turned to face the others. They were nearly on us.
Without aiming, I squeezed the trigger, my. 45 barking in rapid succession. The ghouls charged forward, oblivious to the threat, hell-bent on tearing us to shreds.
My first shot slammed into the lead ghoul’s shoulder spinning it around, its momentum hardly slowing. The second bullet crashed into the meat of its back with thud, the third winging past without impact.
It stumbled and fell to the ground with a guttural snarl, its claws reaching for me as I stepped to the side, inches from being caught. The rest, showing no interest in me whatsoever, raged past me and headed for Katon. Confident he could hold them off long enough for me to do what I needed to with mine, I pointed my gun at the fallen ghoul’s head and fired.
