Chapter 5
The town was silent as the grave, save for the faint sounds of their horses' hooves scraping the dirt path that cut through it. The houses were in bad shape, most destroyed beyond recognition. The telltale signs of magic marked the area, craters marred the area and many of the buildings showed signs of being blown apart. Ag took it all in, the sight familiar yet foreign. He’d only seen the aftermath of his village from afar, never this close.
The air still carried the scent of ash which was confusing as this appeared to have happened quite a while ago. As they moved farther in the smell only grew stronger until they rounded a corner and saw the source. A building that was far larger than the rest stood in ruined glory, its timber still smoking from its destruction. Bodies lay around it, some men but most stone skin, their corpses had been cut to pieces by blades but it seemed they had gotten their revenge for it. The bodies of the men, thieves and highway men from the looks of their clothes, had been ripped apart to the point that there were only chunks of most of them.
All around the house were footprints. Either a few had come through and walked round and round the building or it had been a massive swarm of them. Torvund stopped his horse in front of the house and dismounted. He picked his way through the array of corpses then up to the steps of the great house.
He turned and pointed to Ag, Marus, and Genine. “You three, with me, the rest of you, check the area, I don’t want a swarm creeping up on us unawares.”
After a moment's hesitation the men did as they were told. Ag and the other members of Torvund’s picked group dismounted and headed for the house. The smell was bad though perhaps not as bad as it could have been with so little sun. The bodies had begun to rot and their foul odor mixed with the scent of blood and smoke to create a sickening concoction.
“What’s the point of this?”Ag asked as he shouldered the charred door aside. “They all look pretty dead to me.”
“Maybe not all of them.” Torvund replied.
The interior of the house was a mess, beams from the roof had fallen along with most of the roof itself. The debris made walking through the house rather challenging along with the added problem of staying quiet. Flies filled the space, seemingly thousands of them buzzing in hordes around more corpses. They were mangled beyond recognition but you could always tell the stone skins from the men even if they hadn’t been able to, the flies would have made it clear. They avoided the bodies of stone skins as much as men did, their swarming mass enveloping the bodies of regular men and leaving the stone skins as bare as the rock that grew from them.
Ag let Marus sweep the right side of the building while he moved left. From the looks of the men it seemed they were bandits, what clothes and weapons could be found was roughly made seemed in poor condition even where it wasn’t shredded or broken. Some scattered belongings were strewn across the room but nothing stood out as unusual or valuable to Ag at least not until they reached the back wall.
Slumped against the wall was a mangled corpse in armor far more sturdy than the rest. It was made of iron as far as he could tell with inlays of what might have been silver on the chest. A helmet covered the face, a closed face helm with a tattered blue plume on the top. It didn’t look like any Ag had ever seen, the quality was impressive even through the dirt and blood. Genine froze when she saw it but Marus moved forward on silent feet. He reached under the helmet and unfastened the strap, pulling the helmet free a moment later.
The face was in rough shape, shrunken and yellow with its eyes missing, probably eaten by insects. Even so Ag could tell there was something off about it. Twin bone ridges protruded from the forehead to the back of the skull which was the most obvious difference but the features themselves were too thin for most men. If the man had been alive he might have been handsome in a more refined manner than most men, all gently curving lines of bone that kept his face thin and slightly taller than normal. Genine sank to her knees at the sight of the face and when Ag looked back at her he saw tears in the corners of her eyes that she quickly blinked away.
“What is that?” Ag asked as Torvund approached.
“Looks like a Therudi.” The big man replied, squatting down by the corpse. “I haven’t seen one of them in a while. I thought they were dead a long time ago.”
“Why?” Ag asked, his attention flitting from the body to Genine who continued staring at the gaunt corpse.
Torvund took the helmet from Marus and examined it. “Well from what I heard the plague seemed to hit them harder, more turned which meant more got ripped apart. When the hordes started coming up from the south they went right through their homeland which probably didn’t help.”
“It’s a shame.” Marus said, which was more of a surprise than the strange corpse. “I heard they had the best weapon smiths anywhere.”
“Yeah.” Torvund said, standing. “Best armor smiths too.” He stuffed the helmet under his arm and looked around. “I’d guess the bandits tried to rob this guy for all he had and either woke up the local stone skins or attracted a passing group. Either way it looks like they all died painful deaths.”
“Great.” Ag sighed, folding his arms. “Can we leave now? This place doesn’t feel right.”
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Just then a man came running through the door, a wild look in his eyes. “Stone skins!” The man shouted. “They’re coming from the forest, hundreds of them!”
A moment of shocked silence followed before Torvund sprang into action. “Have they seen us?” He asked, making his way out of the hall with swift strides.
The man shook his head, fear making him jittery. “No, but they’re nearly on us.”
The group froze as a smell carried to them. Now that he was looking for it Ag could smell them, a foul odor of rot and burned flesh that cut through the death around them.
“Hide!” Torvund hissed. “And let the horses loose.”
The men scrambled to obey some, unhitching the horses and giving them a slap on the rump to send them on their way while the rest scrambled for cover within the burned wreckage of the buildings.
Ag darted down a side street, Genine and Marus following. He found a particularly burned house and scrambled inside. He kicked up ash and grabbed a charred piece of timber, with the wood in one hand and his knife in the other he began scraping ash off, showering himself in black flecks that would, hopefully, cover up enough of his scent. Marus followed suit but Genine simply watched in confusion.
“Cover yourself!” Ag barked. “They’ll smell you otherwise.”
She jumped to and in moments they were covered in smears of black and smelled like a chimney. Ag crouched low beside a wall, a crack giving him a view of the side street. Sound faded once again as they crouched, hidden from view. It seemed to last an eternity but slowly, noises broke the stillness.
Gutterall chitters heralded the arrival of the horde and the smell grew to be nearly unbearable. Shuffling steps sounded on the many dirt paths and dust began to cloud Ag’s view. A series of meaty clicks sounded as a stone skin shambled into view and Ag held his breath as the first of many of the creatures began to shuffle past. His weapon was clutched in his hand without him even remembering pulling it out. His white knuckled grip made the leather creak slightly and his heart skipped a beat but none of the monsters seemed to notice.
Onward they shambled and for a moment everything seemed like it would work out without a fight. The stone skins continued on, their rhythm and sounds unchanged until a scream broke through the monotony. A high pitched chittering sounded then a scream seemed to roll through each of the creatures from the high street. They flew into a frenzy charging down side streets to reach where the call had come from. Over their chittering calls Ag heard men shouting, someone had been spotted and now they were all dead. Once the creatures had frenzied they would rip the whole town apart until they finally moved off in search of new prey.
A cloud of dust was kicked up from the street outside their hiding spot and one of the stone skins slammed into the broken wall as another shoved it aside. Genine gasped but just as quickly clamped a hand over her mouth. It was only a momentary sound but that seemed enough for the stone skins outside to begin ripping their way through the wall in search of the sound's origin.
Ag swore and stood tall, his blade up and ready. Genine and Marus followed suit, a sword and twin short blades rasping against sheaths as they prepared to fight. The first of the stone skins shoved its way in and Ag took its head. There was a spray of viscous blood far brighter than human blood before the body was pulled away and another tried to shove through. Genine jumped forward and stabbed it in the neck, her blade sinking deep between stone growths and the creature writhed in pain as it tried to pull free. Marus rushed to another section as hands began ripping away wood and buts of stone.
Genine pulled her weapon free and slashed at the creature again nearly cutting its head free. It spasmed, its head still attached by bits of meat jittering as it before more stone skins pulled it aside. More gaps appeared in the wall and Ag immediately lept into action, cutting hands, arms, and heads, anything that poked through. A larger beast smashed into the wall, cratering the wood inward and sending splinters flying. Ag felt the small cuts on any part of exposed skin before a greater shower exploded out at them as the stone skin breached the wall and fell to the floor in a flailing mass of body and wood..
He leapt onto it, hacking away at limbs and neck until the beast stopped moving but it was too late. More started charging the newly made hole in the wall but their press of bodies slowed them from entering. Marus yelled something and Ag turned to see him holding some kind of glass vial filled with a dark substance. A small rag was pressed into the bottle's opening and flickered with a sputtering flame. Ag didn’t know where the bottle had come from or when Marus had had time to light it but he didn’t think about it long. Marus threw the bottle as hard as he could at the mass of bodies and it exploded on impact before igniting. The screams of the stone skins reached a crescendo as they burned, flailing madly at each other and the opening.
One fell through, its body encased in a shell of fire. It stumbled to its feet and charged blindly forward before Ag cut one of its legs out from under it. It crashed to the floor, trying in vain to find the one that had attacked it.
“Get out the back!” Ag shouted. “There’s got to be a door or a window!”
The three turned away from the fire that had now begun burning the house as well. They stumbled through the wreckage and into a back room where there were no doors but there was a window. Marus pushed the wooden shutters aside and poked his head out to scan the street. A moment later he leaned back and gestured for them to follow before clambering through the small opening. They followed as fast as they could, desperation lending them a careless speed.
They found themselves on the side of the village, a slope of grass before them that led to the forest. They hesitated a moment, unsure of where to go until Torvund came charging around a corner followed by Esker and Martine. Torvund had a streak of blood running down the side of his face and Eskers’ left arm was noticeably limp at his side.
“We need to go, Now!” Torvund shouted.
“Which way?” Genine asked.
“Doesn’t matter!” Ag snapped and took off at a dead sprint down the slope towards the forest. Trees were better than open planes and would give them ample cover for a few miles at least. The others followed with a rhythmic thumping of feet but theirs were the only steps he heard following him through the wild hammering of his heart.
The town behind was a mess of dying screams and chittering calls as the stone skins feasted on their comrades. All they had left was to flee, no horses, no supplies, less than two days out and they had already hit a wall. Ag would have laughed at the foolhardiness of their job if he wasn’t running for his life. They were dead, they were just waiting for the blow to fall. The six of them ran, shadows moving down the knee deep grass slope off towards the line of trees that stood tall and dark. It was safe but how safe none of them knew. The sun was setting and night would aid them in their flight, already the shadows were long as if the trees were casting out dark tendrils towards them, welcoming them into its depths.