The Wyvern's Spur - Kate Novak [111]
Olive hit a second undead vulture with a holy water missile. The bony creature broke up in the air and crashed into the temple pillars. It lay still, but in the temple behind it something else moved.
Olive's mouth fell open as she caught sight of what caused the movement. "There's a girl back there!" she gasped.
"Where?" Giogi cried, pulling back on the horse's reins.
"Don't stop!" Mother Lleddew ordered, her wrinkled face tight with panic.
Giogi stood in his seat and looked at the temple. It was the girl he'd spoken with the night before. "We can't leave her!" he objected.
"You must," the priestess insisted. "She's a Shard. It's her duty to protect the temple. Mine is to protect you. Now go!"
Giogi stared at the girl, shimmering still like a moonbeam in the shadow. "But she's just a girl," he said, unable to bring himself to abandon so helpless a creature.
"She just looks like a girl," Lleddew argued, moving forward to take the reins from Giogi. A pair of ghouls dropped onto the carriage roof from an overhead branch. One slammed into Mother Lleddew and succeeded at knocking her to the ground. The other lunged at Olive. Giogi stopped the carriage immediately.
These ghouls stank with an overwhelming odor of rotting meat. The halfling doubled over with nausea, but managed to sidestep the undead attack anyway. Brandishing her dagger, she whirled about to keep the creature in sight. "You really need a bath, pal," she gasped. "Why don't you go jump in the lake?"
To Olive's astonishment, the creature immediately turned from her, hopped off the carriage roof, and headed down the hill.
Realization and recognition flamed in the halfling's mind. "It just obeyed me. A ghast! That was a ghast! I just commanded a ghast!" she cried excitedly. "The potion only works on ghasts!"
Suddenly remembering Mother Lleddew, Olive looked down at the ground. The other ghast had the priestess pinned to the ground with its inhuman strength. Olive scrambled down from the carriage roof and gave the creature a kick, trying not to inhale its odor.
"Get off her, you stupid undead," Olive ordered the ghast.
The ghast stood up and blinked its bloodshot eyes in confusion.
"Go away!" Olive shouted.
The ghast stumbled off into the woods.
"Ugh!" Olive grunted. She bent over the priestess. "Are you all right?" she asked.
Mother Lleddew groaned. Her shift had been slashed in a dozen places, and she was bleeding profusely. Her breath was husky and labored, and the whites of her eyes had gone strangely dark. Olive couldn't tell if these were symptoms of an injury or an effect of the ghast's touch. She tried to pull the large woman to her feet, but Lleddew slumped against the half-ling, driving Olive to her knees.
"Damn! Giogi, give me a hand here!" Olive cried.
Oblivious to the undead closing in on the carriage, Giogi stood on the driver's seat, watching with horror the undead surrounding the dark-skinned, silver-haired girl. The girl shone now more like a powerful magic light, and the undead nearest her covered their eyes with their hands.
Olive looked up at the nobleman and noticed with panic the ghouls coming down upon them. "Giogi!" she shrieked.
Huge arms lifted Olive from behind and tossed her onto the top of the coach. Olive looked down to see Mother Lleddew, once again on her feet, facing the pack of ghouls with her arms outstretched. Her whiteless eyes held a manic gleam. The priestess roared a guttural, incoherent cry of rage. Then the ghouls were upon her, toppling her and burying her with their bodies.
Olive shouted Giogi's name again.
The roar, and Olive's shouts, finally attracted the noble's attention from the girl at the temple. He looked down to where Olive pointed frantically just in time to see Lleddew disappear under a torrent of undead.
Like a man awakening from a dream, Giogi whispered, "No, no," and then shook himself to action, screaming, "No!" He leaped down and began stabbing like a madman at the pile of ghouls.
Olive wondered if, by now, it wasn't too late for the priestess when the pile of undead