Alex found the others easily, though he was not sure he wanted to answer questions even now. His sorrow had lessened, but the death of his horse was still clear in his mind, and the fact that she had willingly sacrificed herself to save him made her death harder to bear.
Thrang and the others said nothing as Alex sat down beside the fire. He could feel them looking at him nervously. He was sure Kat had told them what had happened and what she had seen, but that would not explain everything. Alex had done something out of pure anger, and now he wondered if he had been right to do it.
“Something to eat?” said Barnabus, holding out a bowl of stew for Alex.
Alex accepted the bowl, but he did not eat. For several minutes he just looked at the stew, and then he spoke. “I destroyed them. All of them. Forever.”
“The wall of flame?” Arconn asked.
“Yes,” said Alex. “It has moved across all of Thraxon and destroyed every hellerash that ever has been.”
“All of Thraxon?” Thrang questioned nervously.
“Yes,” said Alex, setting his bowl down and putting his head in his hands. “Nowhere, in all of this land, does even a bone of a hellerash remain.”
“A powerful spell,” Kat said softly.
“Perhaps too powerful,” said Alex.
“How so?” Thrang asked. “Surely you don’t feel sorry for destroying those evil creatures.”
“No, I don’t feel sorry for that,” said Alex, looking up. “But now I fear the necromancer will try to hide. He may no longer wish to face me. If that is the case, it may take me years to track him down.”
“Will you . . .” Thrang began but did not finish.
“I will finish this quest regardless of what the necromancer chooses to do,” said Alex, answering Thrang’s unasked question. “If he remains, I will face him. If he flees, I will pursue him. But after this adventure is over.”
The others remained silent and Alex picked up his bowl. He didn’t feel hungry, but he forced himself to eat anyway. He knew that he would need his strength, and he knew that he had to write to Whalen immediately.
Chapter Seventeen
The Cursed City
No one slept that night. When dawn finally came, they quietly collected their gear and prepared to resume their journey.
“Where are your horses?” Alex questioned, noticing for the first time that none of his companions’ horses were anywhere near the campsite.
“They broke away when we were trying to get up the hill,” Thrang answered. “Arconn’s carried him to the hilltop, but the rest ran.”
“And even mine ran when the hellerash closed in on us,” Arconn added.
“How close did they get to you?” Alex asked.
“Too close,” said Nellus with a soft laugh.
“We were standing back-to-back on the hilltop,” said Thrang. “The hellerash were closing in slowly, looking for a weak spot, I guess.”
“I’m sure they were about to charge us when the wall of flame appeared,” said Barnabus. “If your spell had been a few seconds later, I doubt we would have survived.”
“I shouldn’t have left the group,” said Alex bitterly.
“No harm was done,” said Thrang. “And you saved Kat from those foul creatures.”
Alex could tell that Thrang and the others wanted to hear about how he had rescued Kat and destroyed the hellerash. He suspected Kat had told them what had happened while he had remained with his fallen friend, but he knew they still had questions. He was grateful that none of them asked about it, and the conversation trailed off quickly.
They moved down the hill toward the spot where Shahree had fallen, and a fresh wave of sorrow filled Alex. He noticed Kat glance at him as if she wanted to say something, but she quickly turned away.
“A fine monument,” said Thrang when they reached the spot Alex had hoped to avoid. “And never a truer statement has been carved.”
“‘A True Friend,’” Arconn read from the stone. “Yes, I would say that is fitting.”
Kat made a strangled, sobbing sound and hid her face. Alex thought for a moment that he’d seen tears in her eyes, but he couldn’t be sure. Turning away from the monument, he wished the hollow feeling inside him would go away. The pale morning light shined on the open land in front of them, but in several places Alex could see where the stones and grasses had been scorched black.
“It appears that there were quite a few of them,” Arconn said, moving up beside Alex. “More than I would have guessed.”
“And now there are none,” said Alex, starting off across the open ground without looking back.
Arconn’s comment had not angered him, but Alex wasn’t ready to think about what had happened. He wanted to forget about it for a time, and move ahead with the business at hand. But he knew that he would not forget, and perhaps that made it harder for him to turn away from the monument and leave his fallen friend behind.
His companions hurried after him, not saying anything more about the monument he’d created or the spell he’d cast. They fell into line behind Thrang and Arconn. Alex noticed that Kat kept her head turned away from him. At first he didn’t know why, but then he realized that she blamed herself for Shahree’s death. She felt that Shahree’s death was her fault, and she feared that he would blame her for the loss of his friend.
Alex’s own sorrow melted away like ice, and he suddenly found himself concerned about Kat’s worries. Shahree’s death had not been Kat’s fault, and Alex could not blame her even if he’d wanted to. She had told him to leave her behind. She had warned him that her weight would be too much for Shahree to carry.
For one long, terrible moment, the images of Shahree’s death rose once more before his eyes. If Alex had been a little quicker or if he hadn’t frozen when the hellerash had charged him, then Shahree would not have had to sacrifice herself to save him.
But Alex knew that he was not to blame either. The only person to blame was the necromancer who had called the hellerash back from the dead. It was the necromancer who had killed his friend, and it was the necromancer who would pay for that death.
Alex wanted to say something to Kat, something to ease her troubled thoughts, but her sorrow seemed almost as deep as his own, and nothing he could think to say sounded right in his mind.
“I don’t blame you,” Alex finally said softly.
“I know,” answered Kat, looking at him for the first time since the night before. “But I blame myself.”
“Don’t,” said Alex forcefully. “There is only one person responsible for what has happened, and he will answer for it, to me.”
“A dangerous attitude,” said Kat in a lowered voice.
“No, not really,” said Alex, forcing a weak smile. “I do not wish to take his place or steal his power. I will simply call him to account for what he’s done, as I must.”
“And if he is the stronger?” Kat questioned. “Necromancers are said to have a great deal of magical power.”
“Then he will go on,” said Alex with a sigh. “Though I think my dragon friend might put an end to him, if I were forced to summon him.”
“You are set in your course, then,” Kat said flatly. “You will summon the dragon to destroy you before you let yourself be used by the necromancer.”
“Better to die once in flame than live forever in the half-life of the necromancer,” said Alex. The words were not his own, and he was a little shaken by what he heard himself say.
Kat gave him a puzzled look for several seconds before she turned away.
As the day wore on, they began to look for any sign of a dwarf city or possibly even a party of dwarfs on the road. The road, however, remained empty, and for all they could tell there were no cities anywhere nearby.
“Can you sense anything, Kat?” Thrang asked as the afternoon was wearing away. “Anything at all?”