Chapter 117 - A Mystery, And Dangerous

  Gideon jumped over the side of the boat as it cruised into the dock. His booted feet landed firmly on the wooden planks with a hard thud. It was good to be back on land—well, near enough to land, anyway. He’d never been much of a seaman, although you couldn’t live in Burlington as long as he had without spending at least some time on the water. It just wasn’t his preference.

  The so-called ‘pirates’ were done for. The ones who’d been at the base or in their boats offshore were dead to the last man. If they had any others out there in the world, raiding or whatever, they’d return to find things very changed.

  He now owned their Domain, as well as his own. His power had spread and grown, and now…now he had twice as much territory to protect.

  “The reward for doing a good job always was more work,” Gideon muttered under his breath. But he smiled as he said it, because he didn’t actually mind.

  Stopping the pirates, putting an end to their depredations; it was a good thing he’d done. He’d saved lives directly, by rescuing their prisoners. Even now, those men and women were being tended by his people back at the fortress. When they were healed, he’d either find places they could stay, or send them on their way to wherever they wanted, with some supplies for the journey. It was a small thing, but it made his heart warm to think of it.

  Beyond that, of course, stopping these assholes ended their raids. He’d saved many more lives than just the immediate prisoners. It had been a good day. Now night had fallen, and it was time to get back home, to join the others in celebrations he felt certain would last long into the night.

  “Sir, look over there!” Brian called out to him.

  Gideon whirled. The alarm in Brian’s voice told him something dangerous was afoot, and his reactions had grown swift since the Event. But there was no immediate danger apparent—just a massive column of smoke, rising into the air in the distance. Off to the east, something big was burning. The flames glinted faintly even at a distance.

  “Not near enough to the fort to threaten our people,” Gideon replied, still eyeing the smoke and wondering what had caused it. “Where is that, anyway?”

  “Looks like the mall, sir, or right nearby.”

  That gave him pause. “Didn’t our scouts say there was some sort of undead incursion at the mall?”

  Brian nodded. “Zombies, if I remember right. They reported a very large number of zombies.”

  That was right. A horde of zombies, they’d said, leaving the mall each night and raiding the surrounding area. That was on his list of places to investigate, because lots of zombies would mean lots of black crystals, which he very badly needed. But then there’d been all of these Domains springing up. One of them, he felt sure, was based at the mall itself, which made him think perhaps there was another necromancer out there.

  Could it be Ms. Serrano, his student who’d collected a few black stones on the day of the Event? He doubted it. Like most people, she was probably dead by now. Since there was a Domain there, though, it was likely someone was in charge. Who, remained the question.

  “You want to send scouts that way, sir?” Brian asked.

  Gideon realized he’d still been staring at the fire. He shook his head to clear it. What should he do, here? The pirates were defeated. He’d wanted to deal with them first, before tackling any of the other nearby Domains, but now they were gone.

  That left two other nearby Domains. One, he felt confident was the Air Guard base. The location was right, and his scouts had already told him that there were over a thousand humans living there, building defenses around the site. Gideon felt it likely he could reach a peaceful arrangement with that group. They were military, which meant they probably had codes of honor, rules, and a leadership in place. All of those things would help make them a potential ally.

  The mall horde, on the other hand, was randomly raiding and killing refugees. They weren’t that different from the pirates, and they needed to be stopped for precisely the same reason. If they kept spreading out, eventually they’d threaten his fortress. Better to remove the danger before it grew too large to fight.

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  In spite of that certainty, Gideon hadn’t been planning to strike them right away. But those flames made him curious just what was happening over there this evening. Enough fire to be seen at such a distance meant there were a lot of flames. Was it a battle? Or just a building the zombies had accidentally set alight during their plundering?

  Or something else entirely?

  Whichever the case, he wanted to know more. Decision made, Gideon turned back to Brian.

  “Assemble the men.”

  “We’re not going home right away, are we sir?” Brian asked.

  Gideon chuckled at that. “No, I’m afraid not. We need to get eyes on whatever is happening out there. If it’s not an immediate threat to the fortress and our people, then we’ll withdraw back home to rest and recover. You and your men have certainly earned their rest! You all did outstanding today.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Brian replied. “I understand, though. The men will, too. We all have people back home and none of us want those things to attack us. Better to hit them before they can.”

  “Which we will absolutely do. Whether that happens tonight or, more likely, another day soon, depends on what we see when we get there. I want to see how big a threat this horde actually is.”

  “The scouts did say ‘many hundreds’ of zombies,” Brian pointed out. “It sounds like a credible threat.”

  But Gideon shook his head. “It’s not the zombies I’m worried about, not really. They’re likely all tier one or two. Low threat. But consider, Brian—how many zombies can I control?”

  “You, sir? I don’t really know.”

  “Think about it.”

  He watched Brian doing the math in his head, glancing around at the undead present. “I can’t say I’ve ever seen you with more than a hundred or so, even when they were all low ranked. When you make higher tier ones, you control less. Am I right?”

  Gideon nodded. “Exactly so. All of these powers have limits. Tier seven Control Dead allows one to command sixty-four tiers of undead, and tier seven Animate does likewise. The most I could control would be thirty-two, and the most I could animate would be sixty-four. If someone out there has a horde of over a hundred zombies, they have to be at least tier seven in each spell.”

  “Higher than you, sir?” Brian asked. He sounded worried now, which was good. He should be.

  “That’s correct. In fact, if they’re right about it being many hundreds, then whatever is controlling them all has to be substantially higher tier than I am. A tier eight in both spells would allow about two hundred and fifty undead. Tier nine would double that. But I don’t understand how anyone could have made tier nine already,” Gideon said. “Which means the entire thing is a mystery, and dangerous mysteries are best solved sooner rather than later.”

  “I completely understand, sir. I’ll gather the men. We’ll be ready to move out in fifteen minutes.”

  Brian rushed off to pass the word, leaving Gideon alone to survey the dimly-lit horizon. He watched a while longer as the flames continued to light up the darkening sky. The longer he did, the more certain he felt that things were happening over there, things he needed to get involved in.

  Then all at once, the fires vanished. They didn’t slowly flicker and die; they simply stopped cold, the light vanishing in an instant. At the same time, Gideon felt a pulse of magical power stronger than anything he’d ever sensed before, stemming from that place.

  It was a battle, then. Some great force was opposing another one. Whoever had cast that spell was far stronger than he; that was obvious by the raw power behind their magic. That had been at least two tiers above him! That made it a threat far beyond his ability to deal with alone.

  Perhaps it would be better to simply withdraw to the fort and allow whatever was out there fighting to weaken each other without his involvement. Retreat would be the safer move, at least for the short term.

  But the new world wasn’t like the old. The winner wouldn’t be made weaker by the conflict; quite the opposite. Whoever won the battle would likely reap large crystal rewards from the loser, and become far stronger than they’d been before. The winner would not be reduced by the cost of battle; they would be made more powerful still, and a greater threat. That made retreat the greater long term risk, even if it was safer in the moment.

  Gideon summoned all his undead, the ones remaining from his strike against the pirates. Many of them had fallen in the battle, yet he still had enough to keep him safe while he learned what was afoot. And if he discovered there was a pitched battle where it would benefit him to join a side? Well, if he was right, and it was undead marching, then his powers would find plenty of fodder for new troops among both the fighting and the slain.

  “The men are ready, sir!” Brian said. “I’ve brought your horse as well.”

  “Thank you,” Gideon replied, taking the reins. He mounted the undead horse, a trusted ally who’d fought alongside him from the first day. He turned back toward the men Brian had brought together, the best and highest tier warriors from his fortress. “This is a scouting mission! Something strange is happening near the mall—a battle, most likely, and there are spells of enormous power being used there, strong enough I could feel the force from here. We’re going to investigate. If it looks like one side represents a future threat to our home and families, though, we will engage. Are you ready?”

  A ragged chorus of cheers, mixing ‘aye’ with ‘yes sir’ was his reply. These men were not a well-honed army—not yet, at any rate. That might come with time. But they were loyal to him and to the home they’d all built together. That would be enough.