Kasidy threw her arms around me as she got to the throne. She was both rushing to hug me and careful not to touch my exposed leg. She was crying both tears of joy from being out and muttering something I couldn’t understand. As she hugged me, I sagged just a little and hugged her back.

I had been so worried about saving her, and now she was free. I pulled her in close and struggled to fight the pain as her body shifted and hit my leg. She went to pull back, but I held on, and she hugged me even tighter.

Kasidy was sobbing on my shoulder as Irwin gingerly walked over to me, still rubbing his shoulder from where he had been injured. As he approached me, he shook his head, and his eyes widened as he looked over my wounds. Then he dropped to a knee in front of my throne.

His voice trembled as he spoke. “My lord, there’s nothing that I can do for missing limbs. I lack the skill right now. Perhaps in a few years of leveling, I could.”

I nodded. “I didn’t expect you to be able to do anything. Now get up. We still have the merchant’s guild to deal with.”

Renfry looked around the room. “Where are they?”

I laughed and then coughed, which caused me to wince as the nub on my left leg hit the floor. “There is a team up in the throne room. I have them pinned down for now, but I am sure they will try something soon.”

I felt Blink push back into my head. “What happened to you!”

I glanced over Kasidy’s head at my bonded companion. “Blink, I’ll tell you the whole story once we get this settled. It might take a while to explain it all. But the quick of it was an undead rat with too much acid and nowhere to go started the whole problem.”

My ropola gave me a slow blink. I could tell that wasn’t enough of an answer, but she nodded. As she did, I watched her fade out of my view. Because of the bond, I knew she hadn’t moved, but I still couldn’t see her anymore.

I ran my hand over Kasidy’s head and said. “Let’s grab our gear. We need to finish the others and then lock down the portal. Once we do, we should be able to get a breather.”

I drew on my connection with the lich and asked. “Where’s my team’s equipment?”

The lich pointed to a cell. “They moved it all in there for sorting.”

The guys headed that way as I pushed Kasidy away slightly. “You want to grab your gear?”

She shook her head and pulled in tight. I sighed and sent a skeletal guard over to grab her gear for me. Then I jumped back up to the shades watching the battle up above.

I was glad to see that the battle was going about the same as it had been. What I wasn’t expecting though, was to see the reinforcements coming through the portal. The advance team wasn’t just trying to figure out how to get out of the choke point. They were establishing a foothold.

I shook my head, and Kasidy mumbled. “What?”

I smiled even through the pain. I wasn’t sure when, but at some point, I had started to care for her. I knew we had a fight ahead of us, but I had already gotten her free, so if we had to, we could run from the rest of this.

I was about to answer when I heard the rescued cook yelling. “We’ve found more prisoners!”

I whipped my head around to look down the hall where the cook was. I had a guard down that way, so I moved my senses into it and sent it down. My skeleton moved forward to the door where the cook was standing out. I moved in front of the small window and looked in.

From what I could see, there were dozens of people chained up inside. I moved down the hall from that point, checking several other doors. Each one showed the same thing through the window. I left the skeletal guard, slowly moving to the other end of the hall. I put it on a guard pattern so it could find hostiles but wouldn’t attack.

I looked over at the lich. “Where’s the key?”

The lich came over and stopped before me. “I know not, master. I wasn’t able to go down that hall.”

I sighed. “Irwin, Renfry, we have people locked up down there, likely needing help. We have more reinforcements coming from the portal. See if you can find the key and get those people out.”

The two men both ran in different directions. Irwin started with tables while Renfry ran to check the bodies of their former captors. As they were doing that, I was trying to figure out what was happening in the rest of the castle.

I motioned with one hand for the lich to come over. “The undead in the city, are they under your control?”

He shook his head. “Whenever my body is killed, I lose connection with everything I have control over.”

I nodded slowly. “How many minions do you have at this time?”

“Twenty-five, master.”

“The hidden passage to the portal, is that something you can get all of your undead to as well?”

“Yes.”

“How long would it take you to get your minions to the portal through the hidden passage?”

My lich took a moment to think. “About 15 minutes from here.”

I nodded. “Lead them yourself. I am going to send fifty skeletal guards with you as well. Keep yourself from dying but cut off the merchants guild from sending more reinforcements down the hall. Do you know how to close off the portal?

Eric shook his head. “No, Master. I know it’s there but not how to use it.”

Renfry returned from the hall, holding a set of keys up. “I got them.”

I smiled. At least something was going right. I nodded to the lich. “Go now. We will make our move about the same time.”

My lich turned and started to walk off. As he went, several of the undead in the room turned to follow him. I grabbed fifty of my guards, attached them to his group, and sent them to follow him. I shifted the now quiet Kasidy a little as I pulled out a couple of shade stones. Then I sent two shades to follow him as well. While I had control of him, I still wasn’t sure it was complete.

I leaned my head down to Kasidy’s ear and asked. “You okay?”

She nodded her head, rubbing her hair against me. “I am now that you are here.”

I gave her a quick hug and said. “Kas, we haven’t won yet. Do you want to stay down here? I can leave some guards, and it will be safe for you.”

She shook her head. “Noo, I’m not leaving you again.”

I nodded. “Okay, get your equipment from the skeleton. We are heading out in just a few minutes.”

She pushed herself away from my shoulder. As she passed my cheek, she gave me a kiss and a smile. She walked over to the skeleton with her gear and started to take her equipment back. I sighed and wished that she would stay.

Renfry and Irwin came back from the hall. Renfry said, “Looks like we have freed most everyone down that way. The hall keeps going, but we opened a few rooms without anyone else down there.”

I nodded. “How did they look?”

Irwin sighed. “Badly, my lord. They looked like they had been in there for a long time.”

I nodded slowly and looked down the hall. “We’ll deal with it once we finish off the team from the guild up above and shut down the portal.”

Renfry smiled and nodded. “I’ve been thinking about ways to pay them back for a while.”

I laughed and then winced. “You and me both.”

Kasidy walked back over with her harp and gave me a nod. “Okay, Irwin, that zombie there has a box of mana potions and one healing potion. Let’s head up there as we do. I’ll fill you in on what to expect.”

I had the undead lift my throne and turn me around. As we headed back up, I started to give my plan to my friends. We were bringing most of our troops forward, which meant it was time for me to hit them with everything we had.

As we moved forward, I saw the quiet woman exit the hall. Her hands were covered in blood, and her face was splattered with it. But she had a slightly off smile. I shuttered when I realized that the gray goop on her face was brain.

I smiled at her as she passed me the siphon, and I asked. “Better?”

She shrugged and moved back to the right side of the throne. I wasn’t sure what to do with her, but she hadn’t freaked out from the undead and saw everything I did. I wasn’t about to tell her that she had to stay out of the fight, but I also didn’t know what she could do in a fight.

As we started down the hall, I said to her. “You can stay down here if you want. We are going into a fight with the guild now.”

The woman shook her head. I sucked in a deep breath through my teeth as the edge of the throne hit a wall. I saw why when I jumped into one of the zombies behind me. The corpse of the man the woman had helped kill was mostly flat. It looked like she went to town on him with a large hammer.

It took us just a few minutes to get into the throne room. I looked over at my friends. “Oh, and one more thing. I need to be close to at least one of the lead team as they are dying. I want to know what’s on the other side of the portal, and the best way to do that is to turn them into a wraith.”

Irwin stumbled as he looked back at me. Renfry just gave me an almost feral grin. I tried to get a read on how Kasidy felt, but she was just stone-faced. I knew that she was scared but not leaving my side. The woman on the other side smiled.

* * *