“Three wagons full of loot, horses to haul it and an army to defend it!” Kaylee exclaimed looking down at the bodies.

“No,” I stated simply.

“Why not!” she grumbled.

I grabbed her hair roughly.

“Sorry,” she said.

Annoyed at her outburst but still in a good mood from my improvement at shading I decided I could teach her instead of punishing her, for now at least.

I released her and leaned myself close to whisper in her ear.

“Raising all these corpses would drain me dry and we used all the residual mana in the air from the dead to practice. Right now barely contained kobolds now make up one half our army and they could easily kill us while we’re weak.”

Her voice sounded hurt as she asked, “what about me though?”

“I only let you become exhausted because there is a store of power there in that amber for you to draw on my pet.”

She smiled slightly.

“Not all these corpses are useful either.” I continued. “Your standard zombie is generally a weaker version of whatever it was in life. You can rebind lost limbs and strengthen weak specimens but your better off having good stock to begin with.”

She looked at the corpses again but this time with an eye to the zombie they would become.

Both kobolds had exploded into bits and the caravans rich passengers were far too old and weak to be worth the effort. Of the seven guardsmen, several were missing chunks of flesh from where the dog had ripped flesh from neck and leg. Then there was one Kaylee fought with an eviscerated arm barely hanging on.

That left only three worthwhile specimens all stabbed clean through with a single wound and otherwise unmarred.

I raised all of them and set them to work collecting supplies from the wagons. As Kaylee made her way towards the trio of horses used to haul the wagons they whinnied and tried to escape.

“It’s no use, horses can’t abide the smell of necromancy. You’ll stink like the dead to them no matter how much you wash.” I told her. “Best to put them down.”

“No! You-”

My gaze hardened.

She cleared her throat.

“Should let them go instead.” she finished.

“Why?” I asked.

I could almost see the cogs turning as she fished desperately for a reason.

“Atlas may not care about most of what goes on in the Veil, but they’ll notice those two went missing. When the caravan doesn’t arrive their family will send a search party if nothing else. But...”

She paused briefly, and I waited as she finished rationalizing the whole thing.

“If we can send the horses along with the wagons and leave a few supplies and a corpse inside. They’ll suspect there was no way the nobles survived and give up searching for them sooner! And we can‘t take any of that stuff with us anyway!” she finished.

I considered her words; it was mostly bullshit, but it mattered little.

I grunted.

“Have fun getting them harnessed,” I said.

“Kobolds! Come here!” She exclaimed. And with that began the process of wrangling some very reluctant, very large beasts. I noticed her surreptitiously filling the bags around their yokes with water and hay from the wagons when she thought I wasn’t looking. They’d make it to Atlas most likely, or not, either way, it mattered little.

I watched the Kobolds carefully as they worked. They were getting more and more disobedient as time went on.

They’d put on more a show of force than a real fight against the caravan guards. It was the undead skeletons that did most of the real work.

Still, I couldn’t afford to be too harsh. I had to keep them battered, not cornered.

Otherwise, I risked having to put them down, an ordeal which was itself fraught with risk.

We started our walk back to camp carrying fresh supplies of food and water and several artifacts I could sell or trade. I had discarded most of the loot as too heavy or bulky, but a few small things were worthwhile.

Our attack and training had taken us through the night and after a morning march the sun was well into the sky when I saw yet another cloud of dust, this time coming behind us. Likely a patrol. Though perhaps the caravan was already running late, and they’d sent scouts to find it.

Either way, the sand was already working to obscure our passage, they’d find nothing that could lead to us.

My mind continued to insist that truth even as the dust cloud drew closer. They must be going this way by chance I reasoned. I shifted our path forty-five degrees. It seemed to work for about half an hour. Then they mirrored our change.

Shit.

We were being followed.

And even worse my attempts to throw them off had confirmed what everyone had hither for only suspected. Even a fucking lizard could see the dust trail was turning to follow us again. The kobolds kept throwing nervous glances behind them and everyone subconsciously picked up the pace.

I searched around as if wondering if the desert might suddenly provide us with a forest to hide in or even just a nice place to make a last stand. No such luck.

“Put down your packs, we’ll wait for them here,” I said casually.

The Kobolds clearly disagreed with my choice, Kaylee did as well but she knew enough not to voice it openly.

“What are we doing?” She whispered after a moment.

“Just what I said“ I snarled

“or would you prefer us being run down exhausted and carrying a wagon’s worth of goods?”

I could see the tension in her body as listened to my words. She was scared. Weak.

My fault perhaps?

No.

Even though it felt like a distant past, It hadn’t actually been that long since I‘d started training her and besides look at the stock I was working with!

Still.

I reached out grabbing her ass and pulled her close. Then I bit down on her earlobe, holding her still as she struggled until I could taste blood on my lips.

“There,” I said. “Got the blood flowing, now you're ready to fight.”

“Your welcome.” I finished.

When she said nothing I grabbed her chin and forced her to look at me.

“I said you're welcome.”

Her eyes narrowed staring fiercely at me.

“Thank you.” She spat.

She turned and walked away muttering something to the mutt beside her.

I thought about the coming battle. We were unlikely to survive. But then things happened didn’t they?

The riders drew closer and several knights came into view along with a staff-wielding priestess leading them all. Her white robes and haughty air left little doubt about her profession and though the knights were wearing hardened leather instead of plate, they too could be identified by the long lances at the ready.

Not a patrol then, the caravan must have been late even before our attack.

The woman in robes spoke up.

“I could smell the stench of your kind from Atlas heretic! The Goddess demands retribution for your sins against humanity!”

That explained it then. She must have been able to track the undead members of my party and perhaps even me and Kaylee through the stray mana we let off. That didn’t bold well though as I was pretty sure it took quite a bit of skill to do such a thing.

“The Goddess demands?!” I said incredulously.

“Sins against humanity?!” I continued

“Fuck but you priestesses are all the same. All of you vying to see which of you can crawl furthest up Gaia’s twat. I mean are you in fact even completely certain it was me you smelled and not the dead stank wafting up from Gaia’s taint?” I taunted.

Her face contorted in rage and given a signal all five Knights behind her moved forward. After a moment they broke into a charge and raced toward the kobold line.

The lizards broke before the knights even reached them, running in all directions. But they were running from trained horsemen so all they managed was being impaled from behind instead of facing the enemy. Small comfort true but I’d take what I could get.

The horsemen wheeled to reform and I knew my undead would fair only slightly better. They wouldn’t break willingly like the kobolds, but they’d break all the same. I could try to take several with me though while the undead distracted them.

Then the priestess pointed her staff towards the line of undead and a blinding light poured out.

When my eyes would finally open again, spots dotted my blurry vision and so I could barely make out the row of now dead dead zombies and skeletons in front of me.

I had little time to worry about that though as I the tip of a lance was also visible and mere moments away from impaling me.

Not that I was really worried about dying. But then death has a way of taking its time once you know it’s coming.

My mind reached back to the times he had whipped me with nettles and what they had done to my mother after raising her from the dead. I’d tried to close my eyes and block it out, but that had only resulted in my eyelids being sewn open with thread. Water tossed onto my face every few moments to keep me from going blind blurred the image but didn’t make it go away.

I’d begged the Gods to take me more than once those first few weeks. But the Gods it turns out are no less cruel than anyone else and my prayers went unanswered.

Anger and hate welled up inside me, building until it consumed everything else. Then it disappeared suddenly. I felt disconnected. Like I was not me but was instead looking down on myself. I watched unconcerned as the lance struck. Blood sprayed for a moment but then my body became almost translucent and I watched the lance continue to strike without actually hitting anything. My body slumped down onto the sand after and I looked over to see Kaylee. Terror filled her eyes as the horseman made to ride her down.

I reached out for her and a stream of mana spat out, crossing the gap in an instant. Suddenly I could see two of her. One of her here with me wherever that was and an opaque version of herself also slumped down on the sand and ridden roughshod over by a horse's hoofs. It didn’t look right though. It needed something.

Bits of my body in this world and her body in the real world shimmered and fluctuated in color. I became less real here, and she became more real there.

This time when the rear hoof struck blood squirted out. Better. I could feel a tingling sensation as the hoof struck, similar to pain but not at the same time It was like that uncomfortable feeling you have reflexively at the sight of another guy getting his balls smashed in. A kind of sympathetic pain.

Having apparently accomplished her goal the holy woman smiled in satisfaction and the group of riders reformed, riding off slowly into the setting sun.

The Kaylee that was here with me continued to look around in shock not understanding what was happening.

“Am I dead?” She asked me.

“Are we dead?”

“I don’t know,” I answered “Maybe?”

With that, my mind must have lost its grip on whatever passed for reality and blackness filled my vision.