Tending to so many bodies took time, weeks of uncovering corpses and dragging the frozen dead to their interment. Robert was certain Christmas passed and January took hold of the northland with ice fingers. Never had he been this cold; forced to adopt clothing from corpses and search the remains of the prison for clothes and food.

There were just over thirty bodies scattered around the prison. Some of them were Rebels who never escaped the camp, tortured to death, the rest were Union guards who had fallen out of favor with Lieutenant Pace; these were the men who had fought for the lives of their prisoners and Robert was shocked to find anyone who had resisted the purge. Events had been occurring so fast for the guards in the few days before the last battle that none of the dead were buried.

Their interment was simple enough; water still flowed in the remains of the quarry, leaving a small area free of ice directly above the entrance to the cave. He pushed the corpses into the water and they obligingly sucked below and into the cave to join their brothers in arms.

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When Robert entered the wreckage of the warehouse, he found the remains of two men. One was Pace. Pieces of uniform still clung to the burned body, but the other corpse was questionable.

He surveyed the creature, suspecting he was seeing the true nature form of the Robber King’s spawn. It was half again as tall as Lieutenant Pace and quite robust. The skull held far too many teeth to be a man, short sharp teeth better suited to shredding its victim. A leg was missing, suggesting the leg he had seen in the flames was from the creature.

How it changed shape was a mystery. There was nothing beyond the size of the creature that suggested a physical ability. Perhaps it was a feat of the mind like mesmerism. Robert could only guess and he was tired of thinking about the Robber King.

In the end, these bodies also went into the quarry.