Rise of the Supreme Necromancer-Chapter 83: A Change of Plans

Half an hour later, Aleric silently stared at the smoked remains of his wagon.

All the personal comforts that he took pains to gather and fit in his travel home were either gone or made unusable by the fire.

Several other zombies were still sorting the things inside, while Ditrich directed the recovery of other supply wagons and the moving of surviving supplies to other ones.

"Master Fenn! We found this—it seems mostly fine!" a zombie servant said, showing Aleric a thick leather tome pulled from the fire.

He passed the Spine Staff to a staff-bearer and approached to take it.

The tome’s leather cover was covered in soot, but didn’t burn and even protected the thick paper pages inside. Aleric opened the book at the first page.

The original text was scraped over, and on top of it were written rows of repeating letters. Here, Aleric was practicing his writing.

On the later pages, the letters became more coherent, and to them were added notes on magic that Aleric had learned. In a sense, it was his own grimoire.

Aleric closed the book.

"Put it with the rest of my surviving things. What about my bedding?"

"It caught fire one of the first, Master Fenn... All those feathers, you know... Very flammable..."

"Then take that worthless thing away!" Aleric scowled, shoving the book back into the hands of the zombie who brought it. "Aren’t books more burnable? I remember all the things I wrote in this tome anyway, but where am I going to find a goose feather mattress in this area, now? How can I sleep on straw again when I experienced how soft feathers and silk are? I am fighting to allow myself these comforts and a good life! Not a life when anyone can burn my things!"

The surrounding zombies paused, alarmed by the anger of their master. All except one person with the courage to approach.

"Master Fenn, I apologize for saying this, but we have other problems..." said Samuel.

Aleric let out a long breath.

"Of course! I know that. The entire march had stopped because of this attack... I don’t know right now whether the king had sent his forces after my raiders. Since they had orders to avoid fights with people who can resist them, I won’t even feel their destruction if they do everything right. But the king certainly realized that we are trying to reach Soromill faster than I do."

Now that the moment of weakness was over, Aleric refocused on his goals.

"And they probably will now," Samuel said. "We have dealt some damage to the mages, but not enough that they couldn’t return and repeat the attack when their mana recovers."

"Do you think this will take long?"

Samuel shook his head.

"Elemental energies are abundant in the world. A few bonfires, a stream of water, open sky, and the soil under their feet are all these mages need. And the smaller their mana reserves are, the faster they will refill them."

Aleric rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"We must change our travel formation moving onward. Leave archers with the supply wagons so they can start firing at the enemy as soon as it appears. Let the wights roam around, too."

"Yes, master. But this will slow us down even more."

Aleric nodded.

"At this point, we can’t even hope to take a defensive position at Soromill. We might as well change course. Hey, workers—did my personal map survive the fire?"

"Yes, master! It was in this leather tube—here, here it is!"

Aleric took the map tube from the approached zombie servant and pulled the map out. He and Samuel leaned over it.

After a minute of studying it in silence, Samuel leaned back and bowed his head in shame.

"I am sorry, master, but I’m lost for ideas. There are some towns nearby we can take, but I don’t think any of them have walls at all. I can ask the soldiers that live nearby, one of them might know a good place."

Aleric didn’t reply. He was staring at a line that marked the river Estauter, which was an offshoot of the river Esta. They had already crossed it on their way to Soromill only a few hours ago.

"Remember when we crossed this river?" Aleric asked. "The banks near the bridge were very steep, but the river widened in the distance, didn’t it?"

Samuel nodded.

"I want to know how long it stays this way. If for long enough, then this is where we will go, and where we will make our stand. Right there." Aleric poked his finger into the map.

"On the shore, Master Fenn? So that the royal army will have to cross it to get to us?" Samuel asked, squinting. He reached to lift the visor of his helmet to see better, then decided not to show his bandaged face.

"No. The royal army has way more archers and more than one dwarven weapon... But if I remember right, then this will be a good place for an ambush." Aleric smiled. "Just as long as we can hide our presence from the damned templars and make sure the battle mages aren’t following us there. But for the latter, we can just wait until night."

***

Although this was slowing their advance, the undead army stopped. The battle mages tried to raid it one more time, but now that the undead were ready, they met them with a rain of arrows. Aleric also had time to repair his ghost and send it hunting once more.

After this, the mages retreated farther to recover, chased from afar by half a dozen howling wights—the last ones Aleric still had.

They made sure that none of them was near after sunset, when the army resumed marching again.

In a few hours, they reached a bridge over Erstaughter, and after that, turned downstream, where it spread much wider between the gently sloped hills.

As Aleric examined the place from the back of his horse, Spine Staff in his hand suddenly said with excitement:

"Master... Master, I recognize this place! The Bone Crown is close!"