Chapter 19

The journey back to the Chenodia was much easier than the way from it. Knowing that the mist was associated with the presence of the undead, they avoided it and followed the clearest path to the docks. They made it back to the docks in less than a few minutes which was devoid of any mists. Slender then explained to them that the undead greatly feared running water and couldn’t cross rivers, lakes or oceans even if there were bridges over them. The few undead that could cross large bodies of running water were, according to the old anaconda, vampires, ghouls, revenants and liches like the dreaded Donato Sebastian.

It was around then that Vic also realized that the docks were devoid of people. There were lit torches around, providing ample light to navigate by, but there wasn’t a soul about asides from those who watched them anxiously from the Chenodia. This either meant that there was no one on the docks at this hour or they simply hid within their homes, possibly waiting for dawn.

+++

“I told you that we should not have gone any further,” Khayyam the crocodile growled at Zane the cobra. “I told you we should’ve gone back!”

“Well if we’d gone back earlier, we’d have known nothing about Count Belford,” Zane the cobra glared back. “Nothing.”

They were currently in the Chenodia’s mess hall where the rest of the crew had also gathered. Blankets were passed around and given to all those who had been outside in the past few hours. Vic and Zenny as well as all those who had been with them were served a fresh meal along with a tankard of ale. Meanwhile, Captain Meralco sat with them, listening to each of their stories while Prince Gaius himself stood at the door, leaning against the wall casually.

Zenny had already told her story and just how odd the people of Karlaca behaved. She told them of how they had encountered the zombies outside and were nearly torn limb from limb if not for Fr. Stanwick’s prayers. Gasps could be heard at this and invocations of the name of the Redeemer were said when the tigress described the zombies that approached them with candles in their hands, murmuring blasphemous incantations and hissing at them ferociously.

Vic told his own story and there were those who applauded Tom Slender the anaconda’s use of torches in deterring the undead. It was all good until he got to the part about the wraiths that attacked them in the woods. He told them of how the creatures whispered to them terrible things about themselves and or those they held dear. How the wraiths had lied about the fate of their loved ones and what they actually thought of them. A tear rolled down the lemming’s eye which he mostly ignored but which everyone else seemed to notice, up to and including Prince Gaius himself.

Now, they were supposed to be discussing the whereabouts of Count Belford’s home which Sienna and Khayyam’s group had already found. Unfortunately, it was very hard to make sense of anything they said because of their constant arguing. Beryl thought that it was going to be a long night.

“We should’ve gone back the moment we saw the place!” Khayyam went on. “Couldn’t you even sense the evil coming from that house?”

“To know the truth, you sometimes have to take risks!” Zane countered. “Even if that risk means going somewhere unpleasant!”

“Unpleasant?” the crocodile glowered at the cobra. “We could’ve all been killed by those things in the mansion!”

“Enough!” Beryl shouted and slammed a fist down on the table. “Tell me again what happened. Start from the beginning. And please, stop arguing. I couldn’t make a shred of sense about what you were saying.”

“Captain,” said Yvonne who had been silent up until now. “If you’d hear my say on what happened...”

“Yes, go ahead Yvonne,” Beryl said, frustration clear in her voice. “Tell us.”

“Well, we were searching and asking for anyone around who knew about Count Belford among the locals,” Yvonne began. “But no one wanted to talk about him. In fact, when people found out that we were looking for Count Belford, none of them wanted to even talk to us. They hid inside their houses and refused to come out. But then we met this bat named Pietro.”

“Pietro?” Beryl mulled that over. “Go on, tell us the rest.”

“He said that he could take us up to Count Belford’s house in the hills on his wagon,” Yvonne continued. “His price was very steep.”

“How much?” Beryl asked.

“Seventy silver coins.” The fruit bat answered.

There were whistles in the group around them and Quan the toad put a hand over his frustrated face.

“That is a bit excessive,” Beryl agreed. “Go on, tell us more.”

“So Pietro took us on his wagon and got us through the forest just fine,” Yvonne said. “But there were things that were strange about the forest. Things like scratches and markings carved into the tree trunks. There were messages carved on the tree trunks like ‘go back’, ‘not safe’ and ‘evil ahead’. But we kept on because we thought we had to find out more about the count.

“We asked Pietro many questions as we went along, asking him if he knew anything of the count. He refused. He said that if he were to answer any of our questions, we would have to pay him more. He named his price at ten silver coins per complete answer. And so we stopped asking him anything. He didn’t even speak to us altogether. In fact, he kept looking away from us as he drove his monoceratops on to pull the wagon.

“As we went on, we noticed that Pietro’s monoceratops was becoming more and more unruly. It was becoming harder and harder to direct the beast forward. It mewled weakly every time Pietro tried to spur it onward. We were beginning to feel sorry for the great creature, what with the way Pietro was forcing it to go on.

“Then we reached the mansion. It stood near a cliff on the other side of the island. It was huge. It was at least five stories tall and was wide at the eye could see. Pietro took us to the gate and refused to stay with us.

“Even Mr. Zane asked him to stay but, from the way he looked at the mansion, Pietro was very scared. He spurred his monoceratops on which ran faster than the way we had come. He did not even look back once and was gone before we could even call out to him.

“We stood outside for a while, calling out to whoever was on the property but with got no answer,” Yvonne said. “That was when I got the idea of flying over the gate and calling out at a closer distance. But nothing. There was no response. It was as if the place was deserted.”

“What happened then?” Beryl asked.

“Captain, I think it would be better if Ms. Sienna take over,” Yvonne said and looked at the owl. “I think she’ll be able to tell a clearer story.”

Beryl looked to the owl in question as did everyone.

“Fine,” sighed Sienna. “We decided to go in and see the count directly. Perhaps he was just an eccentric man who disliked company, as Zane here claims. Besides, we did have money with us that we could interest him in. We got the gates open with the help of Biggs and Khayyam. They were very hard to open. As if they had been closed for centuries or more.”

“I can certainly confirm that!” Khayyam said.

“It was like,” Biggs the elephant said. “It was as if something didn’t want us to open the gates and was pushing back against us.”

“And then?” Beryl urged Sienna to go on.

“Again, we stood outside for a few moments, calling out for anyone who could hear,” Sienna continued. “But still there was no answer. We waited for almost an hour and continued calling the attention of anyone. But it seemed that there was really no one there. No one at all.

“So we decided to go in. The doors were locked so we had Biggs there break it down. It took him quite a while too.”

“It was hard too Captain,” the elephant in question added. “Just like the gates, I felt like someone was pushing back against me from the other side.”

“When we got in, we found quite a few things,” Sienna went on. “Everything was musty and covered in cobwebs and the like. It was a little scary too just like the old painting of the count and his family. It made us all shudder really because of how realistic it looked. It was as if they were right there staring at us directly.

“But we went on. We even called out, hoping that someone would answer us. Perhaps the count was home after all, too busy to even notice that people had already broken into his home. But that was clearly not the case as we walked the empty halls of Belford Mansion.

“Things were creepy then, but it would become quite terrifying once the sun had set.”

“Could you tell us more?” Beryl urged her on.

“I think captain, it would be better if Khayyam took over,” Sienna said. “He became our leader once things went pear-shaped inside the mansion.”

Beryl shifted her focus to the crocodile.

“We were there until evening,” Khayyam sighed heavily. “To be honest, we were planning to go back by sunset. It was more than a little scary inside Belford Mansion after all. It was when we first found the skeletons in the dining hall of the house that we all decided to leave. But by then, it was too late. The sun had already set and what evil magic was in Belford Mansion came awake.

“Mist began to pour from the basement and spread through the rooms and corridors. It made seeing and making our way around the house really hard. But then the skeletons we found began to move of their own accord, possibly animated by the mist. There were voices too, the voices of ghosts. They weakened our minds and hearts even as we fought the skeletons with our bodily might. Skeletons from other rooms came out and fought us.

“I managed to fight off many of them with my scimitar and Biggs fought them off with his battle axe. Yvonne had her dagger but it wasn’t of much use against the skeletons as they had no flesh. Sienna had her magic which I saw work quite well on the bony rascals. Zane had his bombs and, while they worked really good, destroying more than a few skeletons at the time, he had only three on him.”

“They were my last ones too,” Zane said. “I’m going to have to make some new ones and their ingredients don’t come cheap, you know.”

“So how did you get out?” Beryl asked. “How did you escape the mansion?”

“Captain,” Khayyam said. “I think it’ll be better if Zane finished the story. He understands what happened better than I do. I’m still dizzy from all the things that had happened in the mansion.”

“Very well,” Beryl said. “Mr. Zane?”

“It was when the ghosts attacked that we ran out of options,” Zane said. “For one thing, I had spent all three of my bombs and I doubted they would’ve hurt ghosts anyway. Sienna’s sorcery was very strong, but she was running out of spells by then because there were just too many skeletons and whatever magic was in the mansion weakened hers as well. Khayyam and Biggs were good fighters but their strength wouldn’t last long, especially now that ghosts had started appearing, weakening their resolve as fighting on sapped their strength.

“But then there came another voice. We all heard it but we just weren’t sure where it was coming from. It was the voice of a woman and it was benevolent. It told us that it would do its best to get us out of the house alive. But we would have to do everything it told us.

“By then, we were desperate enough to try anything. The voices of the ghosts were loud and terrifying but the voice of the woman was louder and it seemed to come from inside our heads. It told us that if we ever got out, it wanted us to help her ‘end the curse’, whatever that meant.

“And so we followed the instruction of the voice. It led us through musty old corridors and hallways that strangely weren’t flooded with the same mist that covered the whole house. We got out through a backdoor and from there we ran out like frightened children back into the surrounding woods. It wasn’t long then until we saw the others, including Father Stanwick here and, you know what went on from there, I suppose.

“If there is one thing to be said though,” Zane said finally. “The rumors were true after all. I didn’t want to believe it at first, but what we saw in the mansion confirms everything I’ve heard. Count Joseph Belford the jackal is a necromancer. And a very powerful one at that.”