Lord Kathro threw a bolt down at Asha, which she deflected with her shield. Deflected right into his chest.
Ka-boom!
Killum was blown backwards a dozen feet. Blackness sucked him down fast. His friends rushed over before he died, including the dragon. All he wanted to do was order Gyevikxus to protect them.
"Gye – Gyevikxus," he gasped out. The dragon was sucked into his helmet as he continued. "I want you to… Oh crap."
Chapter 39
They just stared at their friend's body. Lord Kathro's bolt left Killum bloody and tattered. One arm was missing, and most of his guts. Bile burned Asha's throat, and nausea threaten to explode out. She averted her burning eyes, quickly wiping the tears away.
He's not really dead, she told herself. Her eyes disagreed. It helped when his body faded away.
Asha picked up his Power Sword, purse, and Ring of Lightning. The helmet was Bound to him. She left his armor on the ground. It was too big for her to wear and too heavy to carry. There was little chance anyone would steal it.
"Where is his Wolfsheart Spear?"
"Back with the mule, I guess," Rand said. "With the rest of our stuff."
"And my staff?" They nodded. She shook her head. "This is ridiculous. The first thing I buy with my cut of the treasure is an inventory spell."
The others nodded solemnly.
Shouts rose up from inside the castle. Lord Kathro was no longer atop the keep. She guessed they were preparing for the coming assault by the four of them. Asha would prefer to wait for Killum to return, but time was of the essence. Yet, there was something else they needed to deal with first.
"We have a moment of opportunity," Asha said. "Scatter. Find a safe place and designate a new respawn site."
Three sets of astonished eyes looked upon her.
"You seriously want us to take the time to create new respawn sites?" Fergus asked.
"Do you want to take the chance of being sent all the way back to the dragon's lair if you are killed?" she snapped, eyes flashing. "I am depending on you being here for me. Rand and Tiana are depending on you. We all depend on each other."
Fergus didn't want to let it go, but Tiana jumped in. "Instead of arguing the point ad nauseam, let's just do it and get it over with."
To end the fight with Fergus, Asha gave a nod and turned toward the forest. She used her levitating spell to propel herself a good ways down the side of the mountain pass. Not too far, though. She estimated it would take her five minutes to run back up to the castle and rejoin her friends if she were killed.
"Wish I had a flying dragon like Killum," she muttered after the respawn site was created. The spot wasn't anything special, but was only a few seconds run from the road. "I wonder how fast he can fly back up here?"
They'd all designated respawn sites within the dragon's lair. That was four days walk to the south, but the dragon was pretty fast. Gye could probably cover a day's walk in less than an hour. So, Killum should return in less than four hours. She had no idea how fast the dragon could fly.
I hope a lot faster.
Asha heard the clash of steel as she approached Warlord's Castle. Rand and Tiana were fighting a mixed group of undead goblins, humans, and a dwarf minotaur. The short, stout minotaur charged her right away. The monster had several serious wounds, none of which seemed to be bothering him. The two-foot length of intestines flopping around on his left side freaked her out a little.
Pulling both of her swords, the sorceress met the mini-minotaur halfway. He fought with a pair of single-bladed axes. They exchanged a flurry of thrusts, jabs, and parries, before she kicked straight up and connected with his chin. That stunned him for half a second, giving her the opportunity to take his head.
A trio of undead humans in pelt loincloths and war-paint charged her. She turned to meet them, but three perfectly placed arrows flew past her and thudded into their hearts. Three zombies dropped to their knees, gave her an embarrassed look, and keeled over dead at her feet.
"You're welcome, sorceress," Fergus said as he strode onto the battlefield.
The castle's iron-bound gates began to swing closed. The portcullis remained raised, so they hadn't found the problem. Asha smiled. Lord Kathro's undead minions weren't the brightest monkeys in the tree, which was what she'd hoped.
"Get inside before they close the gates!"
Asha raced toward the gate, building momentum, before leaping high and using her Levitate spell to fly towards the gate. She threw thunderbolts at the two ogres they had pushing the heavy gates closed. The ogres stopped and raged at her, giving her the time needed to concentrate intense fire on of the giant doors.
It was constant thunder for a moment as she hovered before the gatehouse and rained down thunderbolts on one side of the gate until the iron-bound oak splintered apart. Fergus and Rand attacked the ogres, dancing around them and calling out taunts. The undead beasts lashed out blindly in their confusion. Fergus quickly found their weak spot. An arrow through an eye and into their tiny brain put them down.
Tiana zipped past them and through the long tunnel. Arrows and hot oil came down out of the murder holes, but she was too fast. Rand paused, scowling. There was no way he was fast enough to survive that gauntlet of death.
The sorceress landed between the two men as fireballs began raining down from the top of the gatehouse. A man and woman were throwing them. Asha grabbed her friends' hands.
"Hang on."
She extended her Levitate spell to include them, and leapt up. It used up three times as much mana, but in a heartbeat all three of them were atop that gatehouse. The sorceress used Killum's Power Sword to fight the two mages. Crystals glinted from both of their foreheads, giving the sorceress a chill. That's what Lord Kathro had planned for her. Magical subjugation and forced to join his horde. Eternally enslaved to evil.
She attacked straight on, while Rand and Fergus went after the other guards. Both mages were mobs, but their power was real. One was level 19, but the other just level 6.
Asha charged in behind her Shield Ring. Fireball after fireball burst upon the magical barrier and didn't impede her progress in the least. She threw a pair of fireballs and forced them to split up. She reached the woman first, thrusting the Power Sword deep into her chest.
The mage's chest exploded and made the other mage panic. He took off running. Asha hit him with Bind, which made him freeze in place. A pair of orks came up out of the open door and one of them cut him down to clear his path.
"Help!" Tiana cried down in the bailey.
The sorceress jumped over the two orks and down into the inner ward. She spotted the thief in front of the keep's open entrance and surrounded by Dread Ones, fighting them off like a spitfire. Asha attacked them from behind, cutting down five before they realized she'd come to the rescue. Five seconds later she found herself next to Tiana, and surrounded by undead minions.