“What about your own snipers?” Elyse asked. “Couldn’t you bring a few of them with to cover you against your uncle’s snipers?”
I flashed her a grin. “Now that’s a good idea. I knew those zombie snipers would come in handy.”
“I’ll just get my mace, and we can head over there.”
“No,” I said, “I’m going alone. It’s a long hike, and you need rest, while my zombies don’t. And the more people I have with me, the greater the chance we’ll be spotted by the snipers.”
“All right, if you’re sure that you’ll be okay on your own.”
“I’m certain. I’ll see you in a couple hours, and when I come back, don’t be too surprised that there’s two of me.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
I rounded up my zombie snipers and set off for the ruins. It didn’t take us too long to get there. Before I headed into the secret tunnel, I surveyed the ruins from the surrounding woods and noted the positions of the various snipers. They were in different places than where I’d last seen them, so I guessed that they rotated positions regularly so that any potential intruders—like myself—wouldn’t be able to memorize their spots and sneak past them.
After I’d surveyed the ruins thoroughly, I led my zombie snipers through the tunnel and into the crypt. Once we were in, I sent my mind into one of the zombie’s heads so that I could use him as a scout—and arrow fodder, if it came to that. Better one of my zombies get a crossbow bolt through the brain than me.
Seeing through my zombie’s eyes and moving vicariously through his body, I controlled him like a puppet, with a million invisible strings, each connected to a muscle and nerve in my body. For all intents and purposes, I became him. The only difference was that if he died, I didn’t.
I—the zombie, rather—crept up the stairs, taking light, deliberate steps that didn’t make a sound. I was amazed at how intricately I was connected to my zombie’s body now, which had to be a result of my powers increasing. It was a bizarre sensation, that of being yourself and someone else simultaneously. It was like seeing and experiencing two separate realities at once, each transposed over the other. Like everything else with this experience of divinity, though, it was something I was growing increasingly accustomed to.
I edged my way up the stairs, my crossbow loaded and my eyes surveying the scene before me through the sights of the weapon, my zombie finger resting lightly on the trigger. These sniper crossbows my zombies used were extremely high-quality weapons, far more accurate than the average army crossbow, and were capable of pinpoint accuracy up to a few hundred yards. If one of my uncle’s snipers so much as breathed in my direction, that asshole would get a bolt through his skull in a heartbeat.
I found myself in a large chamber with crumbling walls and a collapsed ceiling, through which the night sky was visible. A number of doors led out of this chamber, which, if memory served me correctly, used to be the kitchen of the ruined castle. The few rooms that remained fully intact were across in the north wing, and that was likely where my doppelganger lived, or camped, or whatever the hell he did in these ruins. To get there would require covering some completely open ground, and the full moon had made the landscape almost as bright as it would be in daylight. This was going to be a fun test of both my stealth capabilities as an assassin and my efficacy as a sniper.
Keeping to the darkest sections of shadow, I flattened my back against the wall and edged onward to the door that would take me to the open section of the ruins, through which I’d have to creep. As much fun as it would be to skewer a few of my uncle’s snipers with my own crossbow bolts, I wanted to make it in and out undetected. If I killed any snipers, my uncle would know that something was up, and a lot of my plan would fall to pieces.
Once I reached the doorway that led to the open ground, I peered through it, keeping myself hidden in the darkness. With my enhanced night vision, I managed to spot two snipers covering the stretch. They were well-hidden in crumbling sections of nearby towers and certainly wouldn’t have been seen by any normal man. Good thing I was a god, and no average man.
Realistically, there was no way I could get across the open ground without being spotted by one or both of them. I could quite easily have taken both of them out from this spot, but again, killing them would wreck the rest of my plan and was only a desperate final option.
Of course, there was another way, one my old assassin master had always encouraged us to make use of: the art of distraction. But I didn’t need to get these chumps to look away. I only needed to get them to move to another section of the ruins. Shooting one of the pewter ale mugs beside them to make a noise wasn’t nearly a big enough distraction. No, I needed something way bigger than that, and I had just the solution I needed.
The south wing was where I needed to get these assholes to go, and to get them there, it would have to seem like there was a major attack coming from that side. A couple corpse explosions would prove ideal, but there weren’t any corpses I could use. The ones in the crypt were probably too far beneath the ground to actually cause much of a stir. If they were able to cause some noise, it would mean bringing down the entire structure. And I didn’t want to do that.
My corpse explosions would surely work on animal corpses, and there had to be a few dead animals in the woods around
