Coral stared down at the empty space, pretending that the dark ick on the ground was not monster blood. There was an extraordinary amount of it, spread across the flagstones. Just how much blood did that kind of creature have? It made her uncomfortable to think about that because it led to other unsavory questions like where was the bloody body?
No one spoke. No one moved.
Coral searched the dark shadows surrounding them, suddenly very thankful that she had an adventurer, a witch and a vampire with her. She pursed her lips. That sounded like the beginning of a terrible joke.
“Where is it?” Pearl asked.
“It’s reanimated.” Silas said in a hushed voice. It sent a shiver of fear racing down Coral’s spine. “Stay behind me.”
Coral did not need to be told twice. She already stood behind Silas, and she shuffled her feet so that his body would hopefully block any attack straight on. She refused to feel guilty about using Silas as a human barrier, he had after all manhandled her.
“Shouldn’t we go back upstairs?” Pearl whispered back. She clutched at Coral’s arm; her face terror stricken.
“No. We don’t know where it is. It could be anywhere.” Silas said, his fingers tightening around the pommel of his sword.
“If we go back to the Winter Salon, then we can hold up in there until you can deal with it. We’re going to be in the way. I can’t fight.” Pearl said, looking between Doctor Thornheart and Silas. She gave Coral’s arm a tight squeeze.
“No.” Doctor Thornheart breathed. “You’ll get yourself killed doing that. Wooden doors don’t stop ghouls. Only death will stop them.”
“In one clean sweep.” Silas said, turning his head to check beside him. Coral had caught his expression as he moved and was shocked to see elation on his face.
“Are you... excited?” She asked, staring at his profile.
Silas answered with a predatory grin. What was with the men in Direwood? First Caspian with his delusions of ghosts being exciting, and now Silas. The men in Direwood were of a class all their own. Handsome and deranged. Coral’s younger self might have been delighted.
“It’s been a little while since I’ve taken out a ghoul.” Silas said. He raised his head and sniffed.
Seeing him do this, Coral copied him. Her nose picked up on an array of smells she hadn’t recalled being this pungent. There was a damp earthen smell, laced with the remains of charred wood. A vague raw meat smell, sickly sweet and rotting. Coral wanted very much to blow her nose. It was like the scent clung to her nostrils and now she couldn’t take the action back.
“Wasn’t that ten years ago?” Caspian asked mildly. He had taken up a place beside Pearl now that Silas was more concerned about the ghoul than he was of Caspian turning blood-crazed. Or that Pearl and Coral weren’t to become Vampire thralls. Coral tried hard not to roll her eyes at that. She understood even the weakest person could be of use to a vampire. Most of society worked throughout the daylight hours. But it was hard to imagine herself succumbing to the will of a vampire. Coral considered herself quite strong-willed.
“Fourteen and untrained. I suppose I should be grateful you didn’t have any sense to lop off its head and burn it. I’d probably go another ten years before I got to kill another one of these damned things.” Silas said.
Silas looked young, possibly around Coral’s age or even a little older. For him to have killed a ghoul ten years ago, that would have placed him in his mid-teens. Coral was instantly impressed, and somewhat disturbed to know that Silas faced off a ghoul and came out the victor. That encounter was likely to spark quite a few nightmares for Coral. Caspian had been injured severely, yet Silas didn’t appear to be scarred from the encounter. His face was whole and unmarred.
So was Caspian, now that she thought about it. Vampirism had many drawbacks as it did benefits. One such benefit was beautification.
“I can’t feel any other auras.” Doctor Thornheart said, sweeping the darkness before her with focused concentration.
“No. I can’t sense anything either. Light up the place Sirona.” Silas said.
Doctor Thornheart muttered beside them, her words low enough that Coral couldn’t distinguish them. Thornheart held her cupped hands in front of her, where a small light was beginning to form. It hovered an inch above her palms, a silvery grey that shimmered, then grew. The light brightened as Doctor Thornheart mumbled into her palms, the words sparking the spell into life. The light pushed back the darkness in the basement as the orb tripled in size.
Coral made sure to stay quiet as Doctor Thornheart worked. Spell casting took a great deal of concentration. Magelight was tricky to master with disastrous results if done improperly. Most spell work was. It was why magelight was so expensive.
With light filling the basement, the fear eased the tiniest fraction from Coral now that she could see more. There were still many long shadows the pillars cast, and the arched stonework made her feel like she was in an mortuary rather than her basement. The light revealed that the room held nothing more except for wine barrels, charred shelving and the splatter of blood before them.
“Coral, you said it came from a hole. Show me.” Silas asked.
Coral motioned towards the back of the basement. Silas stalked in that direction, his steps light. Coral practically blundered her way behind him. Her footsteps sounded heavy in the quiet basement even to her own ears. Especially as she was picking up the subtleties of a dripping tap from the kitchen and the way the house seemed to breathe.
They reached the mouth of the hole and Coral made sure to watch the top of the wine barrel this time. It took a great deal of courage to lift her head to that dark space overhead, she half expected to see the creature perched there again, its chest gaping and heartless. There was nothing there. Relief flooded her, only to be replaced just as quickly with fear once again.
Coral really didn’t want to be down here.
Silas took his time inspecting the rubble, and the bricks that had fallen away to reveal the corridor hidden behind. He robbed them temporarily of the lantern as he sank down and stuck his head through the hole, light held aloft. Silas was too large and had to pry back another brick to allow enough room for him to squeeze his shoulders through. He forced his way in, and then stood on the other side.
“Stay there. Sirona, watch the rear.” He ordered.
“Will do,” Doctor Thornheart said, nodding her head once in agreement though Silas could not see her.
Silas’s legs disappeared as he stepped away. Coral had to praise his bravery. It took a great deal to face something as terrifying as a ghoul on your own.
“Stand back over here Pearl. We don’t want anything to come running out at you if it goes straight through Silas.” Caspian said, stepping closer to the hole. Pearl dragged Coral along so that they stood several feet away.
They stood in silence for several minutes. Coral could feel the hair on the back of her neck raise as she swore she heard a breathy whisper somewhere from a dark corner. She looked around though saw nothing. Now would be most inconvenient if those ghost children made an appearance. Coral lifted a hand and gently touched her nose, scowling.
“When this is done, come see me at my shop. I can give you something for the pain and speed up the healing process.” Doctor Thornheart said, catching Coral gently prod her nose.
“Thank you, I appreciate it.” Coral said, then jumped. From the corridor behind the wall came a horrible scraping sound of wood on stone. Coral stepped back further, tense and waiting for the ghoul’s screeching to start. There was only quiet, hitched breathing. Then, a soft pat on the flagstone.
“It’s me,” Silas said before the toes of his boots came to a stop before the hole’s entrance. He bent down so that he could talk to them without the upper half of the wall blocking him. “It’s not here. There’s another tunnel leading off from the room. I’ve blocked it for now, I’ll put together a team to track it down. Ladies, we can’t leave you here. The ghoul could be in the manor for all we know. I’ll accompany you to the Adventure’s Guild where you can stay until a full investigation is completed.”
“Very well,” Coral agreed easily.
“We’ll need a clean up too. I think I’ve found the reason why the dead keep coming back every year. You’ve got a necromancer’s lair back there.” Silas said, sidling back through the hole.
Coral took a step away. “I thought this place was cleared out?”
Silas didn’t say anything. Coral stared back at him, horrified. For the last month, she and Pearl had been living above dangerous magic. Magic that required blood rituals, pain, and death. Were there curses in that room? Bodies?
She didn’t want to know. Coral was very glad that an adventurer had come today.
----------------------------------------
Coral walked quietly behind Silas, still too tired to do much more than shuffle her feet forward down the road to Direwood. Arrangements for Caspian to be able to leave the manor safely had to be made. While he had survived his encounter with the ghoul, he wasn’t keen to meet it again. Doctor Thornheart had offered to stay with him until a carriage could be sent to the manor to collect them both.
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The chill afternoon air helped to wake Coral up, though she did have to squint into the daylight. Silas was gentlemanly enough to allow Pearl to pack the steak that Caspian had thoughtfully cooked for them, and some bread. She attempted to be delicate and proper while eating the sandwich, but her hunger out won her finer mannerisms and she was stuffing as much of the food into her mouth as fast as she could.
Before they left, Coral had insisted on cleaning herself up. She had taken the briefest bath possible, spurred on by the fact that she felt like she was being watched by the dead, at any moment a ghoul could attack them and that someone had to stand guard at her door while she did so. It had been an argument that she had barely won, with a well-placed statement that she didn’t want to go through town and raising the already distressed townsfolk further. There was no sense raising an alarm, yet.
There was a small part of Coral that wanted to dress herself in one of her nicer ensembles. She had thrown the two options she had kept for a formal occasion on her bed. At worst she could have re-sold them for some coin, but these two were the only dresses she had ever actually liked. Both would be completely impractical for walking to town in.
Coral would have looked much more respectable if she had worn one of those instead of the frilly dress she had put on the day before. Why couldn’t Silas have seen her in that? Not that it would have improved her face, puffy and bruised as it was. Her ruined dress now lay crumpled at the foot of the bathtub, where it could only offend Coral’s sensitivities when she deemed to grace her bathroom again.
Freshly dressed in a hunter green skirt and cream blouse, Coral pulled Doctor Thornheart aside before she had left with Silas and her sister. The whole morning her senses had been bombarded with sounds and smells that she was not used to experiencing. Even her own heartbeat felt too loud. When Coral had enquired to these symptoms, Doctor Thornheart had assured her that the effects were from Caspian’s bite, and that the symptoms would wear off in a few hours. Coral was also given strict instructions to eat red meat and to drink plenty of fluids.
Truthfully, Coral felt a little disappointed by Doctor Thornhearts’ final advice of, ‘no strenuous exercise’. Even with her high upbringing, Coral had never been treated by a witch when she fell ill. It was known that witches held immense healing capabilities, and Coral had expected Doctor Thornheart to wave her hand over her and any afflictions would melt away.
It was disheartening to know as well, that while Doctor Thornheart could tell that Coral had been cursed, it was unable to be removed until she understood fully what the curse did. Which Coral was not able to advise, as so far, the events over the last day had completely driven the curse from her mind. She hadn’t noticed anything odd.
So, there she was following behind Silas and her sister, her head cold from damp hair and thinking about how nice it would be to just settle down in bed with a good book and a hot cup of tea to soothe her soul. Or something a little bit stronger. Her steak would have been more well received too if it were hot and juicy.
“Stupid ghoul,” she mumbled between the last bites of her sandwich.
Silas looked over his shoulder, then adjusted his pace. Coral had completely expected him to keep charging on ahead and get frustrated with her slow ambling. She was surprised when she caught up with him a moment later.
“You can rest when we get to the guild, the sweep of your manor will be a few hours, if not all day. There’s plenty of comfy chairs and if you’re hungry you can get something from the Dog House. You’ll have to give a formal report to Crowcaller first.” Silas said, breaking the silence.
“Thank you,” Coral said, looking up at him and blinking back tears. The sun was so bright her eyes were streaming with the effort of keeping her lids open.
Silas’s mouth pulled up in a half smirk as he looked down at her, a knowing glint in his eye.
Oh, no. She really hoped Silas didn’t think her tears were for him. Yes, she was appreciative for somewhere to rest up while necromancer paraphernalia was removed from her home. However, Coral was not wanting to be mistaken for the blubbering type.
The last two days had been the most her eyes had leaked than for the last several years. She couldn’t even re-call the last time she had cried. Not truly. She might spare a tear for herself when she was in a pitying mood. But for a full-on cry? She couldn’t even force the tears when she wanted to. It was all replaced with frustration and anger.
There was a confident strut to Silas as he walked ahead, his head held high and chest pushed forward. This mystified Coral. Was this man’s ego so high that he would preen at every teary-eyed woman in need.
Coral suspected that Silas might actually be the heartthrob of Direwood. She had noted that both the men and women in the village were all above general beauty standards. While she had competed with high nobility for finest dressed and preened, it was harder not to feel a little self-conscious when surrounded by people who looked amazing dusted with the workdays grime.
She had cleaned herself up, and as there was little time to do more than let her hair air dry, Coral still looked worse for wear. Pearl still somehow looked put together with minimal effort on her part. At least her sister fit into Direwood.
Determined to not be embarrassed any further from her poor first impression, Coral wanted to fill the silence between them all with conversation.
Unfortunately, all that Coral could think to ask was about her home. “Do you know the history of the manor?”
“Not a lot. It was the home of a necromancer. About,” Silas rubbed at his arm as he thought. “Maybe twenty-five or so years ago. It was cleared out a few years before I was born.”
“I find it odd,” Coral said, stepping over a large branch along the road and slipping slightly in the muck. A little bit of mud splashed over the hem of her skirt. Thank goodness she wore proper boots. “How did a necromancer even get a mansion?”
“I think he might have been a lord before he was found out. I don’t know his name was, but I’m fairly sure he bought the land from the Acheron’s and then built the manor.”
“The Acheron’s?” Coral said, turning back to look at Silas. “Caspian never said anything about this.”
“He tell you he was a leech as well?” Silas said pointedly.
“I wouldn’t expect him to announce what he is when he has people insulting him for existing. As far as I am concerned, Caspian saved us from a real monster.” Pearl said insistently.
“He is a monster.” Silas stated.
Coral agreed wholeheartedly with Pearl. She wasn’t going to force Silas to change his mind just by arguing with him and telling him he was wrong. An awkwardness fell upon them, and for several more minutes they walked quietly with only the accompanying sounds of mud squishing beneath their feet and the leaves rustling in the wind.
“I suppose that explains the hidden lair. Whoever built the manor had terrible intentions. Was there many who died back when the necromancer was first discovered?”
“Yes, and many still do each year. Have you seen our cemeteries?” Silas said. “I don’t know if you’re aware but many flood to Direwood each year to fight back the dead. I don’t know what the necromancer did, but each year the dead rise for a night. We’ve searched that mansion so many times over the years and found nothing. Until now.”
He looked back at her, frowning. “You have been told, yes?”
Coral had seen the cemeteries on either side of the river, brimming with headstones. “Yes, I’ve been told. I’m hoping I can just lock my doors and stay inside for the most part?”
“If it please you. Most who can’t fight hold up in their homes. Precautions are taken of course. Work has already started on most homes to ensure windows and doors are boarded up for the night. Some dead do find their way inside the homes that aren’t protected well. Usually it’s the older homes with a cracked wall.”
Coral received Silas’s message well enough. He didn’t outright say that Coral should start boarding up all her windows and doors if she wanted to stay in her inn, though it was something that she ought to highly consider.
It would take her and Pearl an extraordinary amount of time to go around blocking all points of potential entry the raised dead might squirm their way inside.
“When is this happening again?” She asked, wondering exactly how much she and Pearl could get done in winter.
“Midwinter. From the moment the sun goes down to the next light of day. One year we had a storm blow in. The sun didn’t come out until that afternoon. We lost many people that year.” He said, his shoulders falling a little.
“I’m sorry,” Coral said sincerely.
“Did you lose someone you were close to?” Pearl asked gently.
Silas nodded his head once but did not elaborate. Not wanting to pry, Coral let him stay quiet for a moment. Midwinter was only six weeks away, while she and Pearl had managed to clear the drive in a week in the first month that they had arrived, the temperature had significantly dropped since then. Once the ghoul was taken care of, even if she and Pearl spent the next six weeks boarding up all the windows, they would lose valuable time in preparing rooms for the inn. They would be slowed from dealing with winter conditions too. Besides, Coral hadn’t calculated in her budget for boarding up windows and doors.
If she didn’t board up the manor, how many skeletons would she have to pull from the rooms?
"Is there somewhere safer to stay during the night?” Coral asked.
“If there’s room, you can stay at the Adventurer’s Guild or the Dogs House. Usually, rooms get filled up quickly with adventurer’s coming for the action. But townsfolk are welcome to spend the night inside if their home isn’t safe. You’ll be in the thick of it, but at least you’ll be protected.” Silas said. He pushed back a branch growing over the road, so that Coral and Pearl didn’t need to duck down to get past.
“Have the dead ever gone as far as my Inn?”
“Sometimes. A few stragglers that have gotten away mostly. The bodies and remains are accounted for. For what’s distinguishable at least. A lot of bones have gone back into crypts, and none were ever checked if a particular part matched or not. They pull themselves back together midwinter the next year regardless.”
“Why not just move the cemeteries away from the village?” Pearl asked.
They rounded the curve along the road. The view to Direwood opened up, and from this distance she could tell the town was in an uproar. People as small as tiny dots hurried from place to place. If Coral hadn’t known about the deaths that had occurred that night, she would have thought the town looked idyllic in the late afternoon sun.
“We tried that. It made a lot of people unhappy. It also didn’t work. Every dead thing within forty miles converges on to Direwood.”
“Even animals?” Coral said, shocked.
Silas nodded again.
“Goodness,” Pearl said, raising a hand to her mouth and covering it with her fingers.
“Still. It brings good business to Direwood. I shouldn’t complain too much.” Silas said. “The only time we get visitors is when a big creature shows up, or people running from their problems.”
Coral stared at the back of Silas’s head. Had he figured her out and was passing a jibe at her? Or was he in fact serious. Coral turned and looked at Pearl with incredulity written all over her face.
Pearl mimicked Coral’s expression, except her mouth was slightly quirked up in one corner, a small dimple dotting her cheek.
Coral squared her shoulders and mustered up her dignity. She may be running from her problems, but at least she wasn’t married to a smelly, handlebar mustached dandy. She’d rather lick a toad. Besides, Coral was making more of herself than what she could ever be as the wife of someone who bought her. She was going to become the prestigious owner of Moonflower Inn. Then Direwood would have more than just Adventurer’s coming to town to chop a few skeletons down. Before then, she would have to find a way to annul the contract between her father and whomever he’d sold her to.
“Silas,” Pearl said sweetly.
Coral turned to look at her sister suspiciously. She had heard Pearl use that tone before. She didn’t care for it, as it meant that she was on the receiving end of Pearl’s mischief. Silas looked over his shoulder at Pearl to show that he was listening.
“Do you have an Adventurer’s title? I’d like to commend you for your efforts today. Is it customary to carry Ladies of gentle birth so attentively?”
“Attentively?” Coral said, rankled. Coral would not have called that anything remotely like attentively. She raised her eyebrows at Pearl, promising retribution should she continue.
“I’m thankful you didn’t tie my sister up; she would have been most distressed.” Pearl said, grinning back at Coral.
“I was distressed,” Coral said, crossing her arms and glaring at her sister.
“I couldn’t, even if I had wanted to.” Silas said. He was still looking forward and for the most part unaware of the entirely silent threats Coral was giving her sister.
“I didn’t have anything on me to restrain her. I couldn’t leave her to come at my back once I turned. Vampire’s force the pretty ones to do all depraved things. Besides I had to see if you were a risk too, Pearl.”
“Oh, my.” Pearl said. “So that’s why you took Coral in your arms.” Pearl sidled up to Coral and prodded her. “He called you pretty,” she whispered.
“Stop it,” Coral hissed and smacked Pearls fingers away.
“So, do you have an Adventurer’s title?” Pearl persisted, looking back at Silas.
“The Unbroken Seolfor.” He called back to them.