Chapter 336: Night of the Living Semi-Dead (2/2)

Without turning her head, she murmured quietly enough that only he could hear. ”Once we get out of earshot, have the Stalkers take care of them. I can't have any eyes on me at this juncture.”

The taciturn man nodded, but said nothing else. If he felt any trepidation about betraying his subordinates, he didn't show it. Of course, much like her, the veteran warrior had long ago sold his loyalties for the promise of immortality. The two of them had already done much worse in service to their undying masters.

They were now passing through an alley strangely devoid of the monstrous attackers. Kuyana could hear her men shifting uneasily on their mounts, barely audible over the ringing sound of horseshoes striking the cobblestone roadway. While they clearly were unsettled by the course of events, they trusted her leadership and judgement.

For a moment, she had a passing pang of guilt, and wondered if there might not have been a better way to separate herself from the escort, but she quickly quashed it.

[It would have been suspicious if I went on my own into dangerous territory. Even more so if I simply disappeared in the midst of a major crisis. No, I needed to have witnesses who observed me taking action on behalf of the city. Assuming we manage to deal with this situation, it will be important for me to have justification for my absence over the next few hours.]

By the time the Stalkers struck, she'd managed to harden her heart once more. It only took a few seconds for the expert killers to complete their task and vanish back into the night.

[I'll need to come up with a plausible story for what happened here...Damn, I should have let the Stalkers take their time and make a battle of it. Now, I'll need to explain how Barlon and I escaped the ambush that killed everyone else before they had a chance to even draw their weapons.] She lamented to herself without looking back at the slaughter.

”Where to?” Barlon asked quietly, a slight tightening of the only sign that he was anything other than his usual calm self.

”If anyone is to blame for this nonsense it's that disfigured priest. I don't know how he got the corpse eaters to move this quickly, but clearly he's got his own goals in mind.”

”Has there been any word from the Court?”

Out of habit, she glanced down at the ring on her right hand. It was still dark, indicating that none of her vampiric masters had seen fit to reach out to her.

”Nothing yet. I assume that our esteemed leaders are probably taking their usual course of action, and waiting to see how things play out.”

”Should we be interfering then?'

”I've spent the better part of a decade putting myself in a position of authority inside the Lions, all for the purpose of preparing the city for our takeover, and I'll be damned if I let that go to waste simply because some Annhilite bastard decided it was time to kick the hornet's nest.” She grumbled in response.

Sensibly, Barlon let the matter go after that, and the two continued in the direction of the entrance to the undercity where they would have the best chance of finding their target. Neither one of them looked back at the massacre they were leaving behind.

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”Run!” Julia yelled, pulling on Dorn's arm as she did so. The smaller man was gasping for air, barely able to do more than put one foot in front of the other.

While debating on simply picking him up and carrying him, she nearly tripped over the broken remains of a barrel that had evidently come from a nearby cooper's shop. A shattered front window was a clear indication of its origin. From the sounds of it, there were still a few of the cannibalistic madmen fighting with the storekeeper inside.

With a start, she realized that she'd been unintentionally slowing down while she was staring at the store and quickly sped up again. Dorn gave a pained whimper between gasps, but did his best to increase his pace as well. Unfortunately, it didn't matter.

A group of slavering madmen suddenly burst from an alley in front of them, forcing Julia to slide to a halt. She glanced back over her shoulder and saw that their other pursuers were just a little ways away.

”...Dorn...I think we're trapped.” She muttered as the hungry looking monsters slowly began to surround them. Frantically glancing around, she tried and failed to find some path to salvation.

”Julia...(gasp)...my dear…(gasp)...it's been an honor.” He mumbled between agonal breaths.

They were forced to watch the fanged, hollow-eyed creatures grow closer and closer. Soon they would surely move in for the kill. Julia remembered the dead they'd already come across, especially the way their faces had all been twisted in howls of anguish, and felt her legs go numb.

A man fell out of the sky in front of them. There was no other way to describe it. He landed gently on the ground, a tattered cloak billowing around him as he did so. The monsters hesitated, suddenly unsure of themselves. Julia saw a few near the back of the group begin to slowly retreat. However, they never had the chance.

The man raised a hand and swept it horizontally in a harsh, cutting motion, causing a strange eddy of wind to spin around them. For a moment, it didn't seem like anything had happened, but then the leading members of the surrounding monsters toppled forward, collapsing into pieces as they did so. The rest soon followed, and in a matter of seconds the three of them were the only things moving in the street.

While Julia was still trying to process all this, the man, who was surprisingly young she now realized, turned and regarded them with his golden eyes. ”Would you care to tell me what's going on here?”

She opened her mouth to answer, but was cut off by Dorn. ”I'd be happy to. You see, this is all the work of the Shadow Council…”

Julia suppressed a groan.