Chapter 47

Terror in the Night

The blizzard ended sometime during the night. Connie awoke in a chilly, darkened hall. The fire in the hearth had gone out. All was silent in the room except for the gentle breathing of the part members and a faint, odd scraping noise coming from somewhere. At first, she thought it was the zombie of Maltokken shuffling through the entry hall where they had left it, but this noise sounded different. Connie waited. The scraping sounds persisted. Now she heard a cracking sound, like splintering wood. She looked over at Theo, Snow, Rahl, and Tristana. All slept soundly, bundled tightly in their blankets to keep out the cold.

Connie slipped on her boots and coat and followed the sound to the long corridor adjoining the hallway. The noise stopped for a moment. She waited. A few seconds later, the scraping sound began again. From what she could determine, the sound originated from the entry hall. She drew her dagger, and using its blue flickering flame to light her way, she headed down the long, dark corridor toward the source of the scraping noises. She traced the sound to the main entry hall of the monastery, where she found one of the double wood doors leading into it ajar. As she approached the doorway, she heard snarling noises along with the scraping. She recognized the noises immediately—thrakes. She peeked through the doorway. To her horror, she found that the thrakes were well along in the process of tearing a hole in the thick main door of the monastery. A piece of the old wood had already given way enough to allow the thrakes to insert their snouts. Connie entered the hall to have a closer look. Upon her doing so, the tearing at the door increased to a mad intensity as the thrakes caught her scent.

Maltokken’s corpse had frozen in mid-step near the center of the entry hall. It rocked back and forth a bit, ever so slightly, the only indication that it was still animate. Without a heat source of its own, the zombie’s tissue had likely frozen to the point where it could no longer move. Suddenly, another piece of the front door gave way. Now a thrake was able to get a claw through the hole. The snarling sounds increased multifold. It sounded like there were several thrakes outside the doorway trying to get in. Connie glanced sullenly at the zombie. The thrakes had probably smelled its proximal flesh from outside, and that’s why they were now trying to get into the building. But now they had smelled her, too.

Connie exited the entry hall. She closed and bolted the smaller, lighter inner door. “Theo!” she called as she ran down the corridor back to the main hall. By the time Connie reached the hall, Theo was already on his feet, staff in hand. Tristana only sat up from her blanket.

“Theo!” Connie called out again as soon as she saw him. “The thrakes! They’ve come back!”.

“They have?” he asked, his voice quavering.

“Yes, they’ve nearly ripped a hole in the front door.”

Connie and Theo ran down the corridor back to the hallway while Tristana stayed behind to guard the helpless Snow and Rahl in case the thrakes found another way into the building. Back at the entry hall, Connie and Theo found the front door had been nearly chewed through. A thrake snapped at them from a large hole near the base of the door.

In an attempt to slow down the thrakes, Connie cast a WoodStrong spell on the remainder of the wood portal to give it additional strength. At Theo’s request, Connie cast a few Warmth spells on Maltokken’s frozen corpse. Free to move again, the creature shuffled through the inner door where Theo commanded it to go. Connie and Theo followed. After the zombie has passed through, they bolted the inner door shut. Though Connie was running low on wood nodes, she gingerly cast a quadruple-duration, double-intensity WoodStrong spell on the inner door, too. Though the wood node expired, she was thankful she cast the spell, for by the time they reached the main hallway, the thrakes were already attacking the inner door. Connie realized that even with the WoodStrong spells, the persistent thrakes would eventually destroy the thinner, weaker inner doors as they had done the outer.

Back in the empty banquet hall, Rahl was sitting up, his sword drawn and glowing bright blue. “There is chaos about,” he said.

“I’m not surprised you detect it,” Connie said.

Connie wrapped her blanket around the swordbearer. “Rahl, there are thrakes in the building. We have to get you and Snow to a safer place.”

“It was a blunder leaving Maltokken in the entry hall where the thrakes could smell him,” Rahl said. “His blood must be driving them mad.”

“What can we do?” Connie asked.

“How many are there?”

“Several of them, I think. I don’t have enough nodes left to take out all of them, and Theo is running low on humors. What shall we do?”

Snow broke in. “I recall seeing a parapet on the east wing of the building. Perhaps we can go there.”

“Yes,” Rahl added. “The parapet should be easier to defend. We can then climb onto the roof if we have to.”

“Then we should go,” Connie stated, recalling the layout of the building from their explorations the day before.

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Connie and Tristana each wrapped one of Rahl’s arms over their shoulders to carry him along. Theo ordered Maltokken’s animated corpse to pick up and carry Snow. They headed into the corridor. The sound of the thrakes tearing at the door echoed down the corridor. It sounded as though they were already breaking through.

Connie led them to a turn in the hallway, then they headed into the east wing. They had to move at the pace of the zombie’s slow, shambling gait.

Just as they reached the stairs to the parapet, Connie heard the door at the other end of the doorway collapse. Seconds later, she heard growls and the heavy clicking sound of claws on the stone floor of the corridor. The thrakes would be upon them shortly, probably before they reached the top of the stairs.

Connie turned to the party members. “You all go upstairs. I’ll stay behind to hold them back.”

The party did as they were told. Connie grasped her last Crystal, Water, and Fire nodes and waited for the thrakes. Seconds later, two thrakes reached the corner.

“Here, thrakies!” Connie called to them. “Come and get it!”

The thrakes glared at Connie, then bolted toward her at full speed. Connie cast a Slush spell on the stone floor of the corridor several paces in front of her. Once the thrakes reached the slushy area, they sank into the softened stone up to their chests. They continued fighting their way toward her amidst growls and snarls. As soon as the creatures were completely mired at the center of the enchanted area, she cast Solidity on the slush. Instantly, the slush turned to stone. The thrakes were trapped. Now the two creatures snapped into the air at Connie. An instant later, a few more thrakes appeared at the end of the corridor. They, too, charged toward her. Before the thrakes could reach her, she cast a FlameBall spell on them. Giant globes of fire erupted from her fingers and landed on the thrakes. The fire node expired in the casting, but it had done its job well. The struggling creatures were now completely engulfed in flames. Amidst their yowls of agony, an acrid, black smoke filled the air. The other thrakes charging toward her halted at the burning mess in front of them.

Connie ran up the stairs. She found herself in a vestibule with four doors and two, narrow flights of stairs that led upwards.

“Where do we go now?” Theo asked.

Connie pointed to one of the narrow staircases. “Up,” she said, catching her breath.

“I hope you know where you’re going,” he said.

The party moved toward the stairs. Theo gave the order to Maltokken to follow. With Snow in his arms, the zombie slowly, inexorably shuffled toward the stairs again. The cold was affecting his tissues again.

“Wait,” Connie said on seeing this. “We don’t have time to take Maltokken with us. He has to stay here.”

“Then who is going to carry Snow?” Theo asked.

Connie scrutinized both Theo and Tristana. They looked somewhat winded from carrying Rahl.

“I will,” Connie said.

Theo laughed. “You will?”

“Don’t you have a spell that gives strength?”

“Only if you have Vitriolic humor for me to cast it with.”

At that moment, Connie heard some growling from the darkened stairs that led to the corridor.

“Just let me go,” Snow broke in. “Save yourselves.”

“Not in your lifetime,” Connie said. With those words, she removed Snow from Maltokken’s stiff arms. Snow wrapped an arm around Connie’s neck. Connie was glad she kept herself in good shape. Just the same, her body trembled with the sorceress’s additional weight.

“By the gods, you’re heavy,” Connie grunted as she shifted Snow around in her arms.

“I’m impressed that you are able to lift me,” Snow said.

“Believe me. It isn’t easy.”

With Snow removed from Maltokken’s arms, Theo controlled him to go downstairs to fight the thrakes. Connie watched Theo amble stiffly down the darkened stairs, knowing that within a few moments he would be torn to bits. At least it would buy them some precious time.

They continued up the stairs, which led to a hallway that extended to the right and to the left.

“That way,” Connie said, pointing to the right. “Twenty paces.”

Connie, Tristana, and Theo carried Rahl and Snow down the hallway. In short order, they were heading up a narrow spiral staircase to the top of a tower. Once at the top, there was a door. Theo checked it. It was locked.

“This door wasn’t locked before,” he said with a frown. “Maybe it locked itself the last time we passed through it.”

“Then open it,” Connie commanded, out of breath from carrying Snow up the stairs.

“I don’t have the right spells.”

“Dammit!” she said, her legs wobbling on the steps. At any moment, she felt she might lose her balance, and she and Snow would end up tumbling to the bottom of the stairs.

While they decided what to do next, they heard some snarling and thrashing about somewhere below. The thrakes had found Maltokken. Connie hoped he could hold the thrakes off long enough for them to open the lock.

“I don’t have time to pick the damned thing,” Connie said.

“Allow me to open it,” Snow said. “Bring me closer to the door so that I may touch it.”

Connie did as Snow requested. Snow felt the thick, wood door.

“Lower,” Connie said.

Finally, Snow found the metal lock. She muttered an incantation, then she withdrew her hand from the lock. A few seconds later, the staircase filled with the scent of burning wood. When Connie looked down, she saw the metal lock had melted away to a kind of pink, rubbery goop.

“What did you do?” Connie asked, incredulous.

“№373. Temporary transmutation of unenchanted metal to sludge.”

“Not bad. You’ll have to teach me that one,” she said, staring at the bubble-gum-like substance that had been a metal lock a few seconds before.

She nudged the door open, and they entered a large, semicircular room about twenty paces square. Lining the walls were several bookcases filled with rotting books and scrolls, most of them damaged from the leaky, dilapidated, conical roof. A broken-down meeting table and group of high-backed chairs sat in the middle. This room had three shuttered windows. All three were bolted shut.

“Help me drag one of these bookcases to the hallway,” Connie said out of breath to Theo and Tristana. “Come on! Hurry!”

Working together, the three of them slid one of the bookcases out the doorway and pushed it down the stairs, where it landed about five paces down with a loud crash, partially blocking the spiral staircase. Connie immediately cast a Flameball on it. The old, dry wood of the bookshelf readily burst into flames. The three reentered the room, closed the door, and moved another one of the bookcases in front of it. Unlike the first bookcase, this one was in such a decayed state that it nearly fell apart as they moved it.

Now, there was nothing else to do, and so the five of them sat clustered together on the opposite side of the room, staring grimly at the bookcase by the flickering light of Connie’s dagger, waiting for any sign that the thrakes had followed them.