My harpy circled above the camp as the name of my new spell echoed in my ears.
Corpse explosion.
We’d need to get close enough to kill a few soldiers to create corpses, and probably a whole lot of them. My only projectile attack was my throwing stars, and I had a limited supply of those. I didn’t want to lose them.
Then, I had another idea. Elyse could use her holy fire. The only problem was that she would need sunlight—or, at least, moonlight for a watered-down version of her magic—to call up her powers. And with these massive trees all over the place, there was barely any moonlight. The only moonlight to be seen was among the ruins, in the very center of Rollar’s camp. But there were no soldiers there, no one I could use for a corpse explosion.
Suddenly, a solution pierced my brain like an expertly loosed arrow. There was plenty of moonlight above the treetops, and I now possessed a creature that could fly. The only question was, would Elyse be up to it? There was only one way to find out.
I ordered Talon to remain in the sky until I said otherwise and returned to my body.
“The bad news,” I announced to my small army once I was back with them, “is that Rollar is expecting us. He’s set up ditches and pits lined with sharpened stakes to prevent a cavalry charge, and he has troops just waiting to form a number of staggered shield walls. He also has a dire bear that appears to be under his control.”
“By the Lord of Light,” Elyse said, “he must possess great power.”
I shrugged. “Something like that. The good news is that I have a plan. Elyse… how do you feel about flying?”
Chapter Fourteen
Elyse raised an eyebrow. “Flying? I do not have such powers.”
“No, you don’t,” I said with a swift grin, “but she does.”
With a snap of my fingers—and a bit of magical communication, of course—I summoned my zombie harpy. Talon came crashing down through the tree branches. A less than graceful entrance, but it wasn’t like there was much space for her to get down to the ground with all the thickly bunched tree limbs in the way.
Elyse scowled at the harpy, her pretty lips curling disapprovingly. “You’re not suggesting what I think you’re suggesting, are you, Vance?”
“That you mount my zombie harpy and ride her like a flying horse? Yes, that’s exactly what I’m suggesting.”
“I tolerated your raising of skeletons, riding your man-eating lizard, seeing you turn the corpses of Resplendent Crusaders into zombies, and many other distasteful things. To expect me to fly atop one of these abominations is a little much, I must say!”
“We’re heavily outnumbered, and Rollar has made it practically impossible for me to use my cavalry troops. I need to use my corpse explosion spell. To do that, we need dead bodies, and we need them in the middle of his defensive formations. A couple of well-timed corpse explosions will rip those formations to shreds. We’ll then be able to pour our cavalry troops in through a narrow but heavily guarded funnel. Once they’re past the defenses, we win. I’m sure of it. There’s just that one hurdle to get over, a hurdle you can get over for all of us.”
Elyse could see the merit in my plan, that much was clear, but she still seemed very reluctant to fly with Talon. Still, she was driven by noble desires, and the success of the mission rested on her agreement.
She let out a long sigh before casting a sidelong glance at the harpy. “How will I fly?” she asked finally.
“That’s a good question.” To be honest, it was one for which I hadn’t quite ironed out all the details.
“The harpy’s feet are strong enough to lift a man in each of them,” Isu pointed out. “Let the creature hold her like that.”
Elyse glared at Isu. “The harpy’s claws also have razor-sharp talons that will puncture my torso like sword blades.”
In response, Isu merely smiled darkly. Perhaps she was hoping that Talon would have an “accident” with Elyse, and thus eliminate one of her rivals for my affection and attention.
“Definitely not,” I said, shutting Isu down. “Elyse is right; that’d be far too risky.”
“I can’t very well sit on the thing’s back,” Elyse said. “Its wings will knock me off before we even get off the ground.”
“That’s true as well.” I considered a horse saddle, but that would be far too small for the harpy, even with some adjustments.
“In Drok’s tribe,” Drok rumbled, stepping forward, which made all of the women wrinkle their noses and mutter curses under their breath, “women who have baby carry baby in leather bag strapped to belly. With baby in bag, woman can do everything other women can do: cook, clean, fight, kill. Maybe can make baby-bag for harpy to carry Elyse.”
I threw my head back and roared with laughter. It was a comical suggestion, but surprisingly ingenious for someone as apparently dim-witted as Drok. The safest area of the harpy for Elyse to travel on would be its torso, and throwing together some sort of “baby-bag”, as Drok called it, would be a perfect solution to our problem.
Elyse stared at the barbarian with a look of disbelief and disgust on her beautiful face.
“A barbarian ‘baby-bag’? There’s no way in the seven hells I’m getting into a ‘baby-bag’ strapped to that, that revolting thing!”
“I learned to be pretty handy with improvised weaponry and other items at the Assassin’s Guild,” I said. “I think if I cut up a few saddles, I could easily rig up a ‘baby-bag’ for the harpy to carry you. It shouldn’t take me more than an hour or so.”
“When did I say I would agree to do this?”
“Don’t think
