The Jewel of Turmish - Mel Odom [124]
The undead creature lay stretched out a few feet away. The red jewel, still pulsing with power, lay still farther away.
Haarn stood on trembling legs, his lungs burning, but the burn eased and his head cleared with every rapid breath.
The hawk dropped to the street, wings outspread and becoming human by the time he touched down. The druid was an older warrior, shaggy headed and bearded and human. He took a sickle from his side and advanced on the fallen skeleton.
"You've done your duty, lad," the druid said. "Lay there and leave off for a time. I'll finish the foul thing, then we'll see about doing for Borran Kiosk as well."
Haarn gasped and stood on his weak knees. The druid maid remained on the other side of the street, a quarter-staff in her hands. A look of fear filled her face when she stared at the skeleton.
The human druid drew his hand back and swung the sickle. The keen blade rasped against the skeleton's spine but didn't quite cut through. Before the man could deliver another blow, the skeleton pulled one of its broken ribs free, rolled to its foot and wooden block, and brought the jagged bone in its fist around in a hard, tight arc that ended up under the druid's chin.
Pained surprise showed on the druid's face as he died with the bone shard driven deep up through his throat and curving into his brain.
"No!'' Haarn shouted, moving toward the skeleton, but he knew he was too late to save the man.
The skeleton held the dead man at the end of its arm, then cast the corpse away and pulled another broken bone from its rib cage. It turned to face Haarn.
Haarn whipped his scimitar forward, slapping the skeleton's hand away and kicking the foul thing in the side of the head. Bound by the narrow spinal column and whatever magic had brought it to life, the skull rocked precariously but didn't snap off.
A new and eerie purple light filled the skeleton's eye hollows, warring with the green fire the druid maid had ensorcelled him with. Its mouth opened, dropping broken teeth out, and it spoke in a dry, hoarse voice.
"Don't fight. Run."
At first, Haarn thought that it was talking to him, trying to scare him, then he realized that the voice was someone else's. Someone else had entered the skeleton's skull through a magical link, and the instructions were for the undead thing.
The skeleton turned and ran away from Haarn, streaking for the jewel lying a short distance away on the cobblestones.
Body protesting, pain screaming in every joint, Haarn pursued the skeleton, overtaking it in five long strides even as it reached down for the jewel.
Haarn smashed into the skeleton with his shoulder, knocking it from its foot and wooden block. Landing on the ground, it seemed to bounce then turned over and flailed at him with its fist. The cracked knucklebones skidded across Haarn's face, opening cuts that stung like he'd brushed up against fire weed. Face aflame with pain, Haarn drew back his scimitar and brought it down, crushing the skeleton's skull and extinguishing the purple light in its eye hollows.
Gasping for breath and wary, struggling for control, Haarn crossed to the jewel.
"Be careful," the druid maid called from her position across the street.
Senses alive for the slightest danger, praying to Silvanus to guide his hands, Haarn dropped the scimitar and fell to his knees. Anxiety filling him, he cupped the jewel in his hands, finding to his surprise that it was cool to the touch for something that blazed so hot.
Concentrating on the task before him, he prayed to Silvanus and invoked a spell designed to seal the magic inside the jewel. With Silvanus's blessing, his own meager magical seal would hold the jewel dormant until he was able to turn it over to Ashenford Torinbow or one of the other members of the Elder Circle. Perhaps there was even a wizard in Alaghфn who could more properly deal with the device.
"Do you know what it is that you're holding, boy?" a harsh voice demanded.
Haarn looked up, and his blood ran cold.
Borran