Tired Of Death

Cuthbert led his friend to another corner of the room, where they rummaged about in Dreth's rather depleted traveling sack for a snack.

Dreth shook his head as he watched them. 'Zombies,' he thought.

Quiet descended once again, broken only by the occasional snore from the wizard. Dreth sat still, falling into the trance he used instead of sleep.

"You betrayed me."

"What?" Dreth looked up. There was no one there. He shook his head. "I'm spending too much time with those zombies," he muttered, and slowly fell back into his reverie.

"Betrayed me and left me to die."

This time Dreth jumped to his feet. "Who said that?" he demanded.

Percy looked across the room at him. "Did you see my father?"

"No, but I think I'm getting as crazy as you. I'm going for a walk. Stay here." Dreth picked up a torch and stalked off towards the doorway Percy had gone through earlier.

The room beyond was almost identical to the one he had just vacated. A chamber made of dull gray stone blocks, empty except for old cobwebs in the dark corners.

Dreth stood in the middle and waited.

Sure enough, after a few minutes, there was movement in the shadows. He peered into the gloom, to see a tall thin female figure walk towards him. She was slim and certainly attractive, if you overlooked the blank holes where her eyes should have been. Wavy hair hung loose over her ghostly white dress. Pale thin legs terminated in b.a.r.e feet that slid across the floor like cold gusts of wind.

"Who are you?" asked Dreth.

The woman stopped and smiled. "Don't you recognize me?"

Dreth tapped his jawbone with a skeletal finger. "You do seem somehow familiar. Was that you speaking before?"

She moved closer, her translucent robe billowing about her as if an unfelt breeze was tugging at it. "Oh Dreth, I've waited so long for my revenge. We could have shared the power, but you were greedy, wanting it all."

Dreth nodded. "I don't recall the situation, but it certainly sounds like me."

"You betrayed me. Me, your lover! You left me to die. And yet what good did it do you? Look at what you are now." The figure laughed; a chill sound. "A remnant of your past self. You can't even remember what you lost, can you? Can't even remember how you, in turn, were betrayed? Oh, the irony of it is almost overwhelming."

The woman was quite close now, and Dreth could see her form was translucent, the dull stone of the room behind slightly visible through the ghostly body.

"It would almost be worth letting you carry on like this, but I want vengeance!" She opened her mouth with a predatory hiss and lunged forward, her features suddenly becoming far more skeletal and corpse-like than a moment ago.

Dreth jerked back as she swiped at him with her hand, leaving three burning scratches on his forearm.

"Hey! Stop that!" He drew his sword and retreated several steps.

"Your blade won't help you now! It's time for my revenge! Time to join me in this hellish limbo, to walk the earth, never knowing rest. You will wander through the ages with me. Doomed! Doomed with the knowledge there is no end. No end…"

"Hey, Dreth! You in there?" The spirit's monologue was interrupted by Cuthbert, poking his head around the door.

Dreth glanced back at the zombie, then forward again. The ghost had vanished.

"Cuthbert," he said, sheathing Darkblood, "I never thought I'd be glad to see your decomposing face."

"Well, that's not a very nice thing to say," the undead replied, walking into the room and gazing about. "Were you talking to someone in here? I thought I heard voices."

Dreth looked at his arm, where three dull red scratches marred his regenerating flesh. "No," he said. "You must have been mistaken. There was just me."

"Mmm. Well, I think we should get out of here. Percy won't shut up about being a 'bad boy', and it's beginning to get on my nerves, rotten and decomposing as they are."

Dreth glanced back around the room. Was that a slight movement of white back there? He nodded. "I think, for once, you have the right of it. This area is a little too dead, even for me. Let's go."

They moved back to the other room, and woke the wizard and Emerald. Dreth tied Smudge to Sprat as Percy was being a little erratic, jumping at shadows and mumbling about 'how he didn't want a spanking'.

"I'm still tired," complained Emerald, rubbing her eyes.

"Yes, well you can sleep when you're dead, which might not be such a long wait if we hang about here," Dreth replied. "Smudge, which way?"

The Fearie pointed down the corridor, and they moved swiftly off.

Behind them the shadows twisted and writhed in fury.