"What?"
Knoblauch nodded. "That's right. Purdun is a mage."
"But…" Liam stumbled for words. "He pulled a sword on me."
"I heard about that." The veteran chuckled.
"You and everyone else in Ahlarkham," said Liam, sulking.
"Well," said Knoblauch still laughing, "I'll give you this-you certainly have courage,"
Liam tried to hide his smile by turning his head and covering his face with his hand. Finally he couldn't hold it back, and the two men had a good laugh.
"Purdun only dabbles in the martial arts," explained the veteran, his laughter subsiding. "At heart, he's an evoker."
"An evoker. Really?" Liam didn't know what an evoker was, but he didn't want to reveal his ignorance.
Knoblauch smiled. "You don't know what that is, do you?"
"Uh," Liam started. "Of course. An evoker, sure I know what one is."
"All right." Knoblauch shook his head. "I'll let you off the hook. Evokers manipulate arcane energies to create things out of thin air."
The regiment rode around the bend. The road turned west again, away from the lake and into the surrounding forest. The clopping of the horses' hooves grew quieter as the ground turned soft and damp under the canopy of trees.
Liam shrugged. "Yeah."
"You know the battle mages who patrol the top of the wall at Zerith Hold?"
Liam nodded.
"They're all evokers."
Liam understood. "You mean the ones that shoot the big balls of flame?" He blurted.
"Have you heard Lord Purdun ever referred to as the Firefist?"
"Yes." Liam had heard him called that more than a few times. Ryder had even used that nickname the day they had ambushed the carriage.
"Do you know how he got this nickname?"
Liam relaxed, glad to get to a different topic. "No, I don't." Making up stuff to sound like he knew what he was talking about was hard work.
"Well, you might not guess it now, but as a younger man, Purdun was a brash, foolish, hothead with a quick temper." Knoblauch leaned away in his saddle, taking a long look at Liam. "Not unlike someone else I recently met."
"Is this part of the story?" asked Liam.
Knoblauch ignored him and continued. "Just after he married Princess Dijara and became baron, Purdun had a meeting with one of the princess's previous lovers, a minor noble by the name of Stanley Smorthby."
"Stanley Smorthby? What a name," replied Liam.
"I know. Anyway, Stanley had been in line to marry the beautiful young princess and become the Baron of Ahlarkham. So naturally, he was a bit uppity when meeting the man who had taken away not only his woman but also his political power."
"Yeah." Liam scratched his chin. "Must be rough."
"As the story goes, old Stanley Smorthby rubbed Purdun the wrong way. Nobody knows exactly what he said or what he did, but all those present could see that Purdun was mad." Knoblauch shifted in his saddle once again, settling in. "When their conversation finally ended, Purdun offered Stanley his hand-presumably to shake and part on peaceful terms. But when Stanley grabbed hold a huge jet of fire launched out of the baron's fingertips, filling up a quarter of the room and looking like a giant piece of molten cherry pie."
"He burned him? He torched his wife's old lover?"
Knoblauch nodded, a mischievous grin on his face. "Scorched all the clothes and hair right off the corpulent, uppity little snob." The veteran laughed. "It was the funniest thing I ever saw."
"You were there?"
Knoblauch smiled. "I was one of Purdun's personal bodyguards."
"Really?" asked Liam. "So what are you doing back here in the guard?"
Knoblauch paused. "I failed in my duty," said the veteran.
Liam laughed. "What do you mean you failed? Purdun's still alive, isn't he?"
Knoblauch nodded. "Yes, but only by the grace of the High Priest of Gond and an expensive resurrection spell."
Liam cocked his head, a huge smile spreading across his face. "Dear Tymora. It's amazing he even keeps you in the elite guard."
The veteran got a sour look on his face, his smile fading quickly into a powerful scowl. Liam felt like a scolded child. His comment was flippant, yes, but he hadn't intended to make the man angry.
"Hey, Knoblauch, I-"
The veteran held his hand up to silence Liam. Then he pointed to the ground beside them. "See that."
A chill ran down Liam's spine, and he looked to where Knoblauch was pointing. While they were talking, they had ridden deep into the Argent Forest, which bordered Shalane Lake. The trees had grown thick along the side of the road and overhead, blocking out the sun's rays and making it very dark. The road was soft and damp, and though it was midday, it felt like an early summer evening.
On the ground, near the horses' hooves, a wispy, translucent mist was seeping out of the dense bushes that defined the edge of the road. It seemed to move with a purpose, growing as it pulled into view. The sight of it gave Liam a very bad feeling.
"What is it?"
"We have company," said the veteran. He pulled up on the reins of his horse and shouted. "Captain, it's the undead."
The entire regiment came to a halt. The horses whinnied and brayed as their riders turned them to face the bushes and trees. The mists grew, taking shapes-ones that looked vaguely human.
"Vampires," said Knoblauch.
The undead creatures materialized, surrounding Liam, Knoblauch, and the rest of Captain Beetlestone's unit. They hissed at the mounted soldiers, their mouths sharp with teeth, and their skin pale and taut against their bones. As they became fully corporeal, several of them leaped into the trees, climbing with both hands and feet up the trunks and into the canopy above. They moved with a preternatural swiftness that caused the hair on the back of Liam's neck to stand on end.
"Stay close," said Knoblauch. "Your blade has been enchanted to hurt them, but vampires and their spawn are very difficult to kill. Take their heads from their bodies, and if we live through this, we'll deal with the remnants so they don't ever come back." Knoblauch pulled his long sword from its sheath.
Liam nodded and also pulled his blade.
Knoblauch looked into Liam's eyes, his countenance serious and dire. "Watch my back. This may be the toughest fight of our lives, and we're gonna need to be a team if we want to make it out of this."
A pair of vampire spawn-both appearing to have at one time been human men-pounced on the two soldiers. Knoblauch kneed his horse.
"Yah," Knoblauch shouted.
The horse jumped forward and smashed its chest into one of the oncoming undead with force enough to knock a normal man to the ground. But the vampire spawn just latched onto the horse's front quarters with its clawed hands and bit down on the mount's flesh.
Knoblauch's horse let out a tremendous wail-a sound that shook Liam to his bones. Then his mount stumbled and fell forward onto the damp ground. Knoblauch tumbled out of his saddle, rolled once, and came to rest on the ground beside the dense bushes on the edge of the road.
The other spawn jumped at Liam.
Bringing his long sword around with both hands, Liam caught the attacking undead in the chest, slashing it open and knocking it back to the ground. The beast let out a hiss, leaped to its feet, and bounded back at Liam, moving with amazing speed.
Pushing the horse with just his knees, Liam turned his mount so that the barding on its left side was between the vampire spawn's teeth and the horse's flesh.