I made Fang run at full tilt. Usually, the swaying motion of his running would have induced seasickness in anyone who wasn’t used to riding him—like Friya and Yumo-Rezu—but the two were so exhausted from our night of pleasure that they passed out.
With Fang sprinting along at full speed for an hour or two, we managed to cover a good few miles. Finally, after the sun had completely cleared the eastern mountains and was bathing the land in light, I figured it was time to find shelter and lay low for the rest of the day. We were in a remote region, it was true, but Elandriel had eyes and ears everywhere, and whenever I was out in the open, he knew where I was. My entry into Luminescent Spires needed to be a complete secret, and I needed him to think I’d gone to fight his army at Brakith. As annoying as it was to have to wait and hide during the daylight hours, it had to be done.
Yumo-Rezu and Friya were grateful for the long period of rest, at least. Unlike them, I needed neither rest nor sleep, and it was more frustrating for me than anything else. To pass the time during the day, I cast my spirit into various members of my undead army, just to keep an eye on things and to make sure everything was okay.
First, I checked in with the harpy I’d perched on the mast of my warship. It was my lone harpy which I would use if I needed to fly at all while in Luminescent Spires. Percy and his pirate crew seemed to be handling everything smoothly. They had wisely taken the ship in a wide arc out to sea, many miles from land, so they wouldn’t be spotted by anyone on the coast or by fishing vessels in shallow waters.
Then I examined the kraken and the whale, who were slowly dragging my undead army across the bottom of the ocean. As powerful as these two denizens of the deep were, they couldn’t go any faster, and it would still be a long time before my troops would emerge onto the shores of Prand. I could only hope that they would arrive in time for the final battle with the Blood God and Elandriel. Without my two most powerful undead monsters on the battlefield, I stood about as much chance as a gnat against a bull, even with all my newfound powers.
Finally, I looked over my harpy army, who were flying the rest of my party members to Brakith. Hopefully, they would be arriving before the Church of Light army had beaten down the city’s defenders and breached the walls. I was pleased to see that my airborne army had made excellent time, and it looked as if they would arrive sooner than I had anticipated. I was also happy to see that my party members were in good spirits, and were all ready and psyched up for the coming battle.
I would be there with them, in a way. All it would take was for Anna-Lucielle to stab the actor with the enchanted bone I had created. For now, though, they were on their own, under Rollar’s capable command. As a veteran of a number of sieges, on both sides of the castle walls, I could rely on him to boost the strength and morale of Brakith’s beleaguered defenders. Then, once Anna-Lucielle had readied the actor for the greatest “performance” of his life, I would be there to lead the counterattack against the Church army in spirit and body … almost.
While Yumo-Rezu and Friya were sleeping, I found a pointed stick and began to draw in the dirt. When I had outlined my drawing, I gathered pinecones and rocks. When I was finished, I had constructed a crude model of Brakith and its defenses. I didn’t know where the Church army would be pressing their attacks the hardest, but I had a pretty good idea, so I collected a bunch of different colored pebbles to represent the Church troops and my troops. The pair of women continued to sleep after being awake most of the night, so I spent the day going over various strategies to use against my enemies.
By the time night fell, I’d picked out two or three strategies that I felt would work best, and these I kept in the back of my mind. One thing all the strategies featured was a massive attack from under the ground. The Church Army would never expect it. By the time they noticed the ground rumbling with the approach of my undead wyrm, it would be far too late for them. Hell, with the immense strength of the wyrm, I might be able to turn the tide of the battle with it alone, no matter how many Church troops there were. I’d sent the massive creature racing toward Brakith, coursing through the vast network of subterranean tunnels deep below the soil of Prand.
In the next few days, my harpies would fly over the mountains and get a good view of Brakith. Then, they would see exactly where the enemy troops were, and I would know which strategy to use in addition to the wyrm attack. I only hoped that they would get there in time, and that they wouldn’t arrive to find Brakith sacked, a smoldering ruin full of corpses.
As much as these things weighed on my thoughts, dwelling on them wasn’t going to help. I also had my own mission to
