“Isaac!”
Heturned and looked.
The seaof bones was coalescing again.A flood of corpses tumbled over the shatteredpavement, sockets and joints connecting together, all the pieces buildingthemselves into nests and masses, mashing into swarms, layers upon layerscompacting together, growing taller, churning higher and higher, consolidatinginto a solid, writhing wall of death.The bones encircled them completely.Theycould no longer see the necropolis.
Therewas only bone.
Death.
Decay.
Theeyeless gaze of a sorcerer’s slave.
WithZaria’s arm draping over his shoulder, Isaac cast his anti-necrotic light,burning it into a thick shell around them.The circling tide of bones flinchedback as they singed themselves on the edges, the entire ocean shifting like anuncoiling snake.They were restraining themselves.With this kind of necroticmass, the sorceress could have easily overwhelmed his spell, crushing thembeneath the weight of her power.
They wereat her mercy.
But shewas staying her hand again.
Infront of them, the swirling bones shifted.Something bulbous popped out of thestream, held at the top of an elongated pole of vertebrae and fingers, which began to uncannily resemble the stem and thorns of arose.At the head of the flower was a human skull, leering in their direction,rising like a lighthouse above a stormy sea.It stopped growing just at theedge of the light.The empty sockets seemed to gaze.
For amoment, its lower jaw rattled back and forth.
“Isaac,”the skull said.
Thevoice was thin and hissing, struggling with the word.It sounded only barelylike the modern, common language.
“Isssssaaaaaaaccc.”
“Isaac,”Zaria said, gripping her weapon.“What’s happening?”
“Idon’t know.”
“Pleaseremember your fucking books now, love.”
“Idon’t know!”
“Isa—Ic—aaaaa—Isaaaaac.”
Theskull attempted to come closer, the squirming stem growing taller.Isaacintensified his light, expanding the dome outwards.It slapped the skinlessface, forcing the entire stalk of bones to flinch away, curling like adandelion in the breeze.When it came back down, the skull had partiallymelted, a trail of liquified bone oozing from its cheek.
“Whatdo you want, necromancer?”Isaac asked.
Aroundthem, the bone wall slithered back, the streams inside boiling faster.Therewas a hiss of attempted words.
“Haveyou been listening to our conversations?Is that how you know my name?”
A dozensighs bled from the swirling wall.
“Ioffer no quarter!”Isaac yelled.“You imprisoned my father!You have sustainedyour unnatural life upon thousands of bodies!The Diet of Nine commands yourdeath!”
Zariagripped his shoulder, leaning more weight against him.
“I—I—Issssaa—aaaaaacccc—”
Morestalks grew from the bones, budding outwards like the sprouts of fungi.Theywere all capped with skulls, and the faces began to chatter around them,growling and snarling, fighting their own anatomy.Words were coming from thehissing voices, somewhere just beyond the point of understanding.The sorceresswas attempting to speak, but the bones did not comply, and the language seemedas fleshless as the dead.
“Whatgame are you playing?”he asked.“Just kill us, if you’re going to.”
