CHAPTER 5

The companions, excluding Ruth who didn't need to sleep in any of her forms, slept the day away and awoke shortly before evening. Lord Tramadore had packed them a great deal of supplies for their long journey into the world, and their horses were at the ready when the gargoyles awakened at nightfall. In keeping with the secretiveness of their mission there was no fancy sendoff by the populace. The adventurers met at the destroyed entrance to the cavern. They included Percy and Deadly Sins, Canto on his noble ass, Ned and Pat on horses, and Fred on Fluffy. Ruth flew above them with her family, but would ride Fluffy during the daylight hours. In one of Ned's pockets was the special box with the coconut halves. Hawkins, Captain Spalding and Lord Tramadore were their farewell party. The traveling companions were on their steeds with the three on the ground before them.

"I was hoping for fewer dry eyes," Ned quipped at the three serious men.

Tramadore chuckled. "Perhaps we're glad to be rid of you and the trouble that always follows you," he replied.

Ned smirked. "We'll be sure to make enough out in the world that never a day will go by without your hearing of us."

Tramadore patted Ned on the leg and nodded. "Perhaps I'll look forward to those posts."

The adventurers turned their horses away toward the road except one. Hawkins moved over beside Pat's horse and looked up to his captain with a worried expression. "Are you sure you won't have me with you?" he insisted.

Pat smiled at the captain. "The fewer there are the safer everyone is, and the people of Galaron need a good leader to care for them."

Hawkins saluted her. "I will care for the Galaron army while you are away."

Pat shook her head. "No, I give you back your army, Captain Hawkins," she told him. "Perhaps it was always meant for you."

"Lady Lamikan?" he asked her in surprise.

"No, just Pat," she replied. She held out her hand and he shook it. "Now keep care of everyone while we're gone."

"Will do, Ca-Pat," Hawkins corrected himself.

Pat smiled and galloped off to join the others. Spalding came up to the reinstated captain and laughed. "It seems we're on equal footing. What a horrible thought," Spalding teased him.

"Not quite," Hawkins countered as he turned to the other captain. Spalding raised an eyebrow. "My men and I are still superior to yours."

Captain Spalding smirked, and the three silently watched the adventurers disappear into the distance.

The adventurers went on their journey, destroyed all the stones and Canavar himself, and returned to Tramadore within a week. Or rather, that's what Fred wished would have happened. Instead they galloped along the creek with the gargoyles overhead and reached Salaron before sunrise. It was rather an uncomfortable trip, at least between Canto and Deadly Sins, and Percy and Fred. The dwarf and assassin didn't trust one another, and Percy stared at Fred quite often.

"What is it?" Fred asked him after catching the older boy shamelessly looking over him for the fifth time.

"I don't recall your having that jacket before," Percy commented. "The cut is very becoming, and I was wondering where your tailor acquired such fine material."

Ned shot Fred a warning glance, and Fred shrugged at Percy. "I just picked it up somewhere because it matched my hair," he replied.

Percy smiled and nodded at Fred's waist where lay his staff. He didn't trust himself not to lose the stick in the bottomless pockets. "May I see your staff?"

"I guess," Fred grudgingly agreed.

Percy pulled back so they rode side by side, and Fred handed him the stick. The young man examined the weathered leather and the wood. "How very unique. I've never seen such a simple object become such an incredible weapon."

"It's not really a weapon so much as a tool for protecting people," Pat corrected him.

"Doesn't the wielder decide how to use his magic?" Percy countered.

Pat looked Fred over and rolled her eyes. "If that were completely true then the staff would only use escape spells," she teased Fred.

Percy smiled and handed back the stick. "And even his escape spells help other people, as it did us in the valley."

"Where did you go after that, anyway?" Fred spoke up. He hated being the center of attention in this strange, flattering conversation.

"That was when my father led me away to conquer Tramadore," Percy explained to the pair, though everyone in the group listened in on their talking. "He met the man in white along the mountain walls and was given that ring to use against the city. We returned to Tramadore and he unleashed the army on the city. I was ashamed beyond words, and enlisted Deadly Sins help to travel to Galaron for help."

Pat's eyes dodged over to Sins, and she dropped her voice to a whisper. "How did you convince the assassin to betray your father?"

Percy shrugged. "He has a strange moral code for an assassin."

"Any moral code for an assassin other than not get caught is strange," Canto quipped.

Sins didn't even flinch at the insult, but Percy shook his head. "That's not true. Sins agreed to help me because he couldn't stand the slaughter, either. Without his help I would never have gotten out of the city. My father would have stopped me and branded me a traitor."

"Weren't you?" Ned spoke up in an offhand manner.

"Not to my people," Percy countered with a smile.

The travelers rode on and at Salaron it was decided a portion of them would scout the trail ahead, and the rest would stay with the gargoyles and protect them. Canto, Ruth and Pat opted to stay, while the other four, the two young men, Sins and Ned, went forward. A few sputtering columns of smoke told them there was still activity in the city, and the view from the top of the hill confirmed it. The undead still roamed the streets, but in less number than before.

Percy was confused by so few undead. "Have there always been this few attackers?" he asked them.

"No," Ned replied. Their eyes focused on the glowing stone in the square around which congregated the greatest concentration of undead.

"So this will be easier than we expected?" Percy guessed. "All we need do is clomp the coconuts within hearing range of the stone and it will be destroyed?"

In answer to his question Ned raised his staff and a tiny sparkler emerged from the tip. It gently floated over the ruined city and within twenty yards of the stone. The shining rock came alive as the pulsing light ignited and a column of brilliance shot into the sky. Undead creatures jumped from the column and grabbed at the sparkler. Their clawed, decayed hands sliced and tore the sparkler into dust, and the light was extinguished. With the threat destroyed the column of light disappeared, but the number of undead didn't diminish.

Percy's face paled. "I stand corrected, but was that wise to alert them to our presence?"

Ned nodded at the stone. "Would you have appreciated that surprise on us rather than on that small bit of magic?" he countered.

Percy smirked. "I suppose not, and it seems even from the air we have the disadvantage." He turned to Sins. "Have you any suggestions on avoiding that detection mechanism?"

Sins dark eyes glanced over the city, and they stopped on a particular group of undead. These ones shuffled around in circles on the outer ring of the city. Sins nodded at the undead. "They will provide us the cover we need," Sins told them.

Fred looked at the assassin as though he was insane. The young man suspected he wasn't too far from the truth. "How are they going to help us?"

Ned pulled at his beard and nodded. "That may work," he agreed with Sins.

"What may work?" Fred asked him.

Percy's eyes lit up and his smile slipped into a smirk. "That is very ingenious, even for you, Sins, but how are we going to use the undead without destroying them?"

"What's ingenious?" Fred yelled at them.

Ned wrapped an arm around Fred's shoulders and grinned at the boy. "How would you like another new outfit?"

Fred blinked. "Um, no?" he guessed.

"But you might look becoming in undead," Ned insisted.

"Undead?" Fred squeaked.

"Exactly," Ned replied. "The only way to get close to the stone undetected is to be undead, but seeing as none of us is willing to go the full distance then we will need to acquire outfits to deceive the stone. That's where you come in."

The other two with them were surprised, and Percy gestured to Fred. "Where he comes in?" Percy repeated. "Why not let Sins handle them and we create the skins?" Fred's face paled. These mad people intended to wrap themselves in rotting corpse flesh.

"Those undead are too close to the others. They need to be led away, and our best bait is Fred here," Ned insisted. "Then I can use my magic and Sins his skills to capture them."

Fred's eyes widened and he tried to slink out of Ned's grasp. The old castor wasn't letting go. "Maybe we can try flying over again?" Fred desperately suggested. "The gargoyles are a lot faster than a floating sparkler."

Ned solemnly shook his head. "I'm not willing to risk their lives."

"But I'm risk-able?" Fred countered.

"You only need to catch their attention and let them shamble after you," Ned pointed out. He grabbed Fred's chin and turned him to face the city. "See how slow they move? A blind, one-legged beggar could outrace their gait." Fred gulped. Those things hadn't looked so slow when they sprang from the column. "And you needn't lead them too far. We will wait for you behind those rocks." Ned indicated a pile of stones along the road that led past the dead city. The distance from the group of undead to the stones was two hundred yards. "Just to be safe you should leave Fluffy with us."

Fred was marched execution-style down the hill road and the group stopped at the rocks. He was shoved out from behind the protection, and glanced back to see the three men and Fluffy peeking over the top of the rocks. "We'll be right behind you," Ned encouraged him.

"Thanks..." Fred muttered.

Fred sighed and crept toward the group of shambling undead. They walked in and out of a hole in the remains of the defensive wall as though guarding the city from the living. Fred dodged behind boulders and abandoned carts overturned from the rushed evacuation. He came within twenty yards of them when he found he no longer had any closer hiding spots. This was the time to catch their attention and lead them back to his ex-friends.

Fred took a deep breath, stepped out in the open and waved his hands. That's when a thought hit him. Why wasn't Percy more expendable than him? Unfortunately, the undead didn't care who was standing there with their hands outstretched and a puzzled expression on their face. They saw fresh food and went for it. They traded their shambling gait in for a souped-up sprint. Fred's eyes widened, and with a scream he spun around and raced for the others.

The growling and moaning came closer and faster than the rocks ahead of him, and Fred risked a glance back. The undead were on his heels and still catching with their teeth gnashing and their mouths salivating for his juicy flesh. Fred reached for his stick, but Ned climbed above the rocks and cupped his hands together. "Don't use magic! The stone will see you!" Ned yelled to the young man.

Fred rolled his eyes, and turned in time to dodge a dive by one of the undead. Its fingers scraped the sleeve of his new cloak, and when he finished rolling out of the way he scowled down at his damaged coat. He lifted his furious gaze at the half dozen creatures, and when another jumped at him he twisted around and swung a fist into its rotting jaw. Its teeth flew off and clamped onto the closest undead, but that didn't stop any of them. Fred yelped and jumped up high enough to avoid another dead dive-bomber, this time at his legs. His feet smashed down on its head and he used it as a springboard toward the rocks and his allies. The undead pursued him over a zigzag course from one boulder to another as he retraced his steps perfectly.

Fred reached the rocks with his lungs burning and the creatures all lined up behind him. When he was twenty yards from the rock Ned yelled at him, "Duck!"

"Are you kidding me?" Fred screamed back. Ducking would have made him a sitting duck.

Ned pointed his staff at Fred, who widened his eyes and dove to the ground. Sins shot out from the side of the rock brandishing a large dagger, and he cut the legs out from beneath the undead. Their limbs turned into piles of dust and they dropped to the ground, but dragged themselves toward Fred. He flipped over and kicked at them before a beam of light pierced the six undead in their heads. They fell face-forward into small heaps of rotting flesh and stopped moving.

Percy came over and helped Fred up. "Maybe next time you can be the bait," Fred wheezed to him.

Percy laughed. "I hope there isn't a next time. That didn't look like much fun."

Ned passed them both and tapped on one of the heads. There was a hollow sound, and he smiled and gave a nod. "This will do very well."

"You're not getting me to wear one of those things," Fred refused.

Ned chuckled, and flipped one of the undead over. The innards were gone, replaced with a smooth sheet of leather attached to the skin. The same was true for the arms where they were merely shells of skin without bone or sinew. "It's nothing more than a hood," Ned told him.

Percy stooped and picked up one of the undead. "So that's how you can use an undead skin. Keep the head intact and remove every other part to create a skin costume."

"Precisely," Ned replied.

Percy tossed the six skins over his shoulder and straightened. "Perhaps we should return to the girls and see how they are doing," he suggested.

"And Canto," Fred reminded him.

The other boy smirked and whispered a few words on passing by him back to the steeds. "I thought I'd already mentioned him."

Ned followed Percy, but Fluffy stayed beside Fred and growled at something behind him. Fred turned to see Sins staring at him. "Oh, um, thanks for saving me," Fred shakily thanked him. "So, um, why don't you use that knife more often?" he asked Sins.

"A cut can miss a vital organ, but a poison dart will always kill the victim," Sins replied.

"I'll, um, I'll remember that," Fred replied. Fred stuck close to Fluffy on the way back to the horses, and the four humans returned to camp.