I had just gotten through the hidden door the hell dogs had found. I had sent them ahead as soon as the door opened to scout just a little way down. Their directions kept them from going far, as I didn’t want my presence given away. Then, my skeletal guards moved through, taking up defensive positions. I wasn’t sure where I was in the castle, only that I was in it.

As my throne came through, I was placed back on it. With that, my ability to view through the eyes of one of my minions returned. The gnawing pain of my missing eye was lessened as I activated a shade and slipped into its view.

We had come into what had to be the wine cellar. The ceiling here was only about eight feet high, and built into the walls were racks for wine. It was all gone, but the racks were there. The room itself was also wide open but stripped bare from everything that could be moved.

I took a moment to look around and then nodded to myself. If the men with the lich were the merchants guild, then it made sense that everything was gone. They likely looted the whole place a long time ago. What I didn’t know was what they were doing here.

I sighed and then winced at the pain. “It doesn’t fully matter what they are doing here. I just have to root them out and make sure they pay.”

I knew that it wouldn’t be long before we were discovered. After all, nearly six hundred minions moving through the castle would be discovered. However, I wanted to ensure I was going in the right direction before we started to fight.

The shade flew through the walls and floors on its way to Blink. I knew her direction and wanted to check on her first. I wished not for the first time that shades could interact with the physical world. Unfortunately, with their only interaction being that they could exchange their soul points for HP, I wouldn’t be able to use one to free anyone.

After about two minutes of flying through walls, the shade came out into the room where Blink was being kept. I slowed the shade down and started to view what I was looking at. The main part of the dungeon was big. Nowhere near as massive as the Deathwalker’s crypt, but still big. The ceiling was about fifteen feet tall, and the room was nearly three times that in width.

Unlike the crypt, this place was lit with oil lamps and candles which meant that there were vast areas of darkness. I sent the shade flying along the edge of the room, moving closer to where Blink was. Soon I saw all the tables that the lich used to prepare his minions. Then I found the cages.

Blink was in a cage just small enough that she could almost turn around. She couldn’t quite fit in it well. If my guess was correct, the cage was meant for a dog to be pinned, not something her size. On top of her cage was a small device the shade saw, putting off waves of magic.

Kasidy and Irwin were both close by in their own cages as well. Each of their cells had the same type of thing sitting on top. As I got the shade closer to the device, I saw its health start to fall. I pulled the shade away and slowed to look at my friends.

Irwin was awake, but he looked weak and pale. Without mana, he had been unable to fully heal, which meant he was dealing with blood loss. Like anyone in that situation on Earth, he looked like crap.

Kasidy, on the other hand, didn’t look like she was majorly hurt. The only place that looked like she was injured was her head, where there was a rather sizable lump on her forehead. That said, she was scared as the three men were still nearby.

Those three were doing other things, not talking but working in the room. One of them was sharpening a sword while watching Kasidy whimpering. The largest of them was sorting through orc equipment from a pile. The third one was sitting near the lich, watching him and writing things down.

When I moved closer to the lich, I saw Renfry chained with the lich, slowly cutting into him. Ren, for his part, wasn’t screaming. He was just gritting his teeth. The lich was mumbling something I couldn’t distinguish from where I had the shade. I wanted to move closer but didn’t want to give away that I was attacking yet.

I moved the shade into the shadows and told it to wait. Then I activated another one of the dozens I had brought with me—the last Deathwalker, whoever they were, had bins full of the shade crystals. While I was sure that the guy was going to come and hunt me down for taking his stuff, I was glad I found such a well-stocked armory.

With the new shade, I started to move to my right. I quickly found a passageway that ramped up. After about eighty feet, it ended in large doors that looked like they were meant to open up and outward. I guessed that this was a service entrance into the wine cellar.

My shade went right through the heavy doors, and my thoughts were confirmed. Directly on the other side of the double wooden doors was a wide field. Even now, after hundreds of years, you could still see some of the remnants of an old road leading right to the door. The field was inside the keep’s central most curtain wall, which meant that while the cellar was a weak point, it didn’t much matter.

The field, however, was packed full of undead. Many of them ones that I had never seen before. Truly gruesome monsters that appeared more like Frankenstein had made friends for his monster than the dead were raised. There were orcs with wings far too small to make them fly and goblins with the heads of lizards.

There was even a creation that appeared to be a living Voltron. The feet of an ogre was connected to the bodies of orcs, and other creatures were at the end of the ogre’s arms. The left arm ended with a four-foot spider, and the right arm was an orc. It was somehow attached where the legs would have been. In each arm, the orc arm held a hammer.

I wasn’t sure if the ugly thing could even move. However, I did know that there was no way it would reach down to where I was. I couldn’t use my ability to see levels through the shade, so I didn’t know what it was called or how powerful it was. What I did know was that it was huge and ugly.

I slipped my shade back through the doors and headed to the other side of the wine cellar. When I got there, I found a door that led to stairs. I took the shade up the stairs floating just above them as it moved. The stairs went up one floor and dumped into the kitchen.

It was just what I was expecting for a castle kitchen. There were three places for fires that could be accessed from two sides, and one that was set up as a large oven. There were half a dozen people chained in the room. They had enough chain to work where they were and move around, but they could not leave.

Watching over the chained and worse for wear people were two guards. One looked like every goon in every movie did. Huge eyebrows and a muscled jowl that dwarfed my arm. The other one might not have been a guard. She didn’t have weapons but also wasn’t chained up.

I watched for a moment as the kitchen worked. It was obvious to me that they were cooking for many people. The woman who wasn’t chained just looked at the ground almost blankly. The other people were worn and beat down. When one dropped something, the guard would yell. Other than that, there was no talking.

I shook my head. That guard and perhaps the women would have to be killed quickly when I came up. They might be the first thing that the shade kills. If I didn’t take them out, I was sure there would be an armed response.

I floated the shade through the kitchen and open door and into the main hall. The throne was still sitting there, but everything else I would expect in a throne room was gone. However, unlike the kitchen, this room was filled with other things. Stacks of supplies were from one end of the room to the other. It was like they turned the place into a warehouse.

In this room, I noticed that there were more people. Not the undead, but dozens of people moving around. Some were writing at a desk at one end. Others were carrying stuff in while others seemed to be removing. The ones at the desk were chained in place, while the ones moving around weren’t.

I took the shade around the side of the room, trying to get to the other side without being seen. Floating up high meant that someone would have to look up and be able to tell that the shade wasn’t just a shadow. After floating through the throne room, I finished my count somewhere around thirty-five people. Counting them all with all the activity was hard, but it seemed to be around that.

I followed the ones leaving with items, and they moved them down to another room. In that room, there was a large archway on one end. In the archway was a liquid like mercury, silvery and reflective. I floated in right as they turned it on.

The mercury extended out from the middle of the arch and then pulsed red. It slapped back into the smooth vertical puddle of the silvery substance and then turned clear. Perhaps it vanished because the people on this side started to throw things through. As they passed through, there was a slight ripple, and then I briefly caught sight of a clearing.

I wanted to fly through the archway but knew it would give me away. They might not know I was in the building or what I had with me, but I was sure seeing the shade would trigger something.

I flew the shade back to the throne room and, from there, started to work to find my way through the passages to Blink. It took me a few minutes, but I soon found my way. Then I traced it back and forth twice.

Lastly, I had the shade start searching the throne room for more people. It wasn’t long till I found a fully furnished room with a giant bed. In the room was a fat arrogant-looking man sitting at a desk. His hair was slicked back, and he was wearing even more jewelry than I had on. Again, the shade’s senses showed the little ripples of magical items rolling off each piece.

As I floated the shade at the top of the door looking at the magical ripples off half a dozen items on shelves, my eyes got drawn back to the bed from movement. It took me a moment before I saw the heavy iron chains running under the blankets. Then I heard what sounded like a painful moan.

The man yelled as he stood from the desk. His hand grabbed a long stick, and he hit the bed. “I told you to stay quiet!”

There was thrashing under the blankets with each hit. Which only caused the fat man to get angrier. After hitting the bed for a few moments, the thrashing stopped. The man huffed and sat back down. As he did, I saw him run his hand by his ear pushing the hair back. He was at least a partial elf, as his ears pointed a good two inches.

I grimaced through the pain while sitting on my throne of bones. “I’m coming for you.”

* * *