He dropped his saber, gasping and clutching at the dagger that was sucking his soul out of his body through his belly. I snatched up the saber he had just dropped and spun around to race to Elyse’s aid.
I did not expect to see this.
The final soldier, the one who had attacked Elyse, was hovering in the air a few inches above the ground. Some sort of ethereal rope made of warm, glowing light was wound around his body. Elyse was standing before him with a furious look on her face and a small flanged mace in her hand.
“You bastard!” she hissed, right before she slammed her weapon into his skull.
His head crumpled like a smashed watermelon, and Elyse’s pretty face was splattered with bright-red blood. The soldier slumped lifelessly in the ethereal ropes, which continued to suspend his body in midair until Elyse whispered a few words and made a gesture. Immediately, the corpse flopped to the ground.
That was it; everyone and everything in the clearing was dead, aside from Elyse and myself. I retrieved Grave Oath from the swordsman’s corpse and strolled over to her with a broad grin on my face.
“I didn’t know you had it in you,” I said, looking down at the soldier’s caved-in head and then back up at her blood-splattered face. “You owe me a soul though. He should have been mine.”
“There’s a lot you don’t know about me,” she said, folding her arms across her chest. “And what the hell were you thinking! That thing could easily have killed you! Don’t you think before you act?”
“There’s obviously a lot you don’t know about me. I was always in complete control of the situation. And, speaking about the giant lizard… hot damn, look at the thing! It’s… it’s fuckin’ magnificent!”
“And it eats people,” she murmured as she stared at it in horror. “I knew the stories about the creepy creature of these woods were true. I just hope there aren’t more of them around. Anyway, I can hear a stream nearby. I need to wash up.”
In the sudden silence, the gurgle of the stream did sound close; it had to be somewhere within 20 or 30 yards. Close enough for her to go on her own.
“All right,” I said. “I’ll search the campsite.”
She nodded, her face now blank, and wandered off in the direction of the sound, her blood-dripping mace hanging limp in her hand. I doubted she was used to killing people, especially with as brutal a weapon as that mace.
As soon as Elyse was far enough away, I felt a familiar presence. Isu was near.
“You have given me more souls, Vance.”
Her voice sounded like it was everywhere at once, as if every tree and bush and insect nearby was whispering these words.
“I have, yes,” I answered calmly. “Does that mean my powers get upgraded again?”
“I will grant you another gift, yes. Another two gifts, actually.”
I liked the sound of this. “Two, huh? You’re in a generous mood. So. These gifts?”
“The first is something I think you’ll find very useful as a budding necromancer. I’m granting you the power to resurrect beasts.”
I glanced over at the huge, dead lizard. “Great timing, Isu! That thing too? Do my powers cover resurrecting something that big?”
Again, Isu’s laugh echoed through the trees, carried on a thousand invisible tongues.
“Try it and find out, Vance.”
“I will, in a second. First, though, I want to know what the second gift is.”
“The souls you have given me have allowed me to do something I have not been able to do for thousands of years: to take on physical form, in a living body.”
“You mean you’ll be able to take on human form?” I was itching to see if Isu was as hot in human form as the other forms she had taken had suggested.
“I will—but only for a short time at this point.”
“When?” I asked eagerly, looking all around me and wondering if she was here, in human form, hiding behind a tree or a bush. “When are you going to do this?”
No answer.
“Isu? Isu, are you there?”
She seemed to have disappeared again, unfortunately. I guessed I’d have to wait a little longer until I got to see her human shape. Well, I had my new powers to play with for now. I stared intently at the dead lizard for a while. Man, riding that thing would beat riding any horse. And what more appropriate mount for a necromancer assassin than a gigantic red-and-black man-eating lizard?
I hesitated before resurrecting it, though. If I did resurrect it at this point, it would follow us back to camp, and I doubted Elyse would get a wink of sleep with it hanging around. But I could leave it here and come back for it in the morning; there was no way a corpse this big and heavy was going anywhere any time soon.
I could, however, do with a bit of extra protection around camp, just in case there were more of these lizards around, and what better sentries than those that didn’t need to eat, drink, or sleep?
It was a lot easier to raise the dead soldiers’ skeletons this time around; like with anything, practice was, indeed, making perfect. And now, thanks to another one of my new abilities, the skeletons that burst out of the soldiers’ corpses were able to wield their old weapons. I looked at my little troop of undead soldiers and nodded appreciatively. This would have to do for now.
I then searched the campsite and found a couple of hares, along with some other food, and a couple more bottles of wine and liquor. Just as I was gathering these things together in a sack, Elyse returned, looking relaxed. The flanged mace seemed to have disappeared again.
“Where’s your weapon?” I asked. “You could have told me you were packing, you know.”
She ignored the question and looked at the skeletons. She folded her arms across her chest and frowned.
“How many more
