Forest Kingdom Trilogy 2 - Blood and Honor

said Roderik tightly. 'The same sorcerer who raised the thunderstorm.'
    'He must be getting desperate,' said Gawaine. 'Raising Bloody Bones is one thing, but putting him back in the ground afterwards . . . Even the High Warlock might have some trouble doing that.'
    'That's as maybe,' said Argent. 'In the meantime, what the hell are we going to do? Can we fight him?'
    'I don't think we've much choice,' said Gawaine. 'After all those years in the ground, he's probably very thirsty by now.'
    'Of course,' said Roderik. 'He drinks blood, doesn't he . . .'
    'If he drinks blood, that makes him a vampire,' said Jordan. 'I played one, once. Can't we drive a stake through his heart?'
    'He hasn't got a heart!' snapped Roderik. 'And he's not a vampire, he's much more dangerous than that.'
    'Scatter!' yelled Gawaine.
    Jordan's heart missed a beat as the nine-foot-tall skeleton lurched forward impossibly quickly. Argent and Roderik backed hurriedly away to the right, while Gawaine dived to the left. Jordan stood frozen where he was, unable to move, as Bloody Bones swayed towards him. The huge creature looked more
    dreamlike and nightmarish than ever. A massive bony hand reached down, the twig-like fingers flexing before his face, and then Gawaine slammed into Jordan's side, and the two men fell sprawling to the ground. Jordan hit the packed earth of the trail hard, driving the air from his lungs, and the struggle to get his breath back cleared his head in a matter of seconds. He forced himself doggedly to his knees, and saw that Gawaine was already on his feet and swinging his axe. The runes on the blade were glowing with a scintillating white fire. Bloody Bones grinned down at Gawaine, his fingers twitching eagerly.
    Drops of blood flicked from the bone fingertips in a steady stream. Gawaine's axe whistled towards the nearest bony hand, but the skeleton drew it quickly back at the last moment.
    Gawaine lurched forward, momentarily off balance, and Bloody Bones's right foot shot out and slammed into his gut. Gawaine crashed backwards into the heather and lay still.
    Roderik raised his hands above his head, and a wind began to blow. Sweat ran down his straining face as he used the last of his strength to fuel his magic. The wind hummed and whistled as it whipped through the skeleton's empty ribcage, but he stood his ground easily, unmoved. Argent crawled through the heather on his hands and knees, trying to sneak round and behind the skeleton while he was distracted.
    Jordan saw what he was doing, and decided he'd better add to the distraction. He lurched to his feet, palmed a flare pellet from his sleeve, and nicked the wax coating with his fingernail. He threw the pellet into the heather between the skeleton's feet, and it burst into flames as the pellet broke open. The fire spread slowly through the damp heather, and flames leapt up around the skeleton's legbones.
    Bloody Bones tilted back his grinning skull and screamed. The deafening sound was shrill and piercing, and went on long past the point where a natural voice would have had to stop for breath. How can it scream? thought Jordan crazily. The bloody thing hasn't got any lungs . . . He felt a chill of horror run through him as he realised the flames weren't really hurting the skeleton. The blood on the bones blackened and smoked in the heat, but the bones themselves were untouched.
    Argent rose to his feet behind the skeleton, holding his sword awkwardly out before him. He braced himself, and then cut savagely at the creature's spine. The blade bit into the vertebrae and stuck. The skeleton lurched forward a step under the impact, and looked back to see who had dared attack him.
    His trunk twisted all the way round so that his skull was facing Argent, in a move made possible only by his complete lack of flesh. Argent tried to pull his sword free, but the trapped blade wouldn't budge. A bony hand lashed out and closed around Argent's throat. Bloody Bones picked him up and dangled him in mid-air before his grinning skull. The sword fell harmlessly from his spine. Argent clawed at the bony fingers, but couldn't budge them an inch. Blood ran down his neck as they slowly tightened their hold. Roderik abandoned his air magic and charged forward, sword in hand.
    Bloody Bones lifted Argent effortlessly above his head and threw him far out into the heather. Jordan winced as the sound of Argent hitting the ground came to him with a harsh, hopeless clarity.
    He realised suddenly that