Forest Kingdom Trilogy 3 - Down Among the Dead Men

mouth fell away behind them as they threw themselves out into the outer cave. Hammer spun around, startled by their sudden entrances. He took one look at their shocked faces, and his hand fell automatically to the sword at his side.
    “What is it? What have you found?”
    “Walking dead men,” said Jack breathlessly. “We’ve got to get out of here!”
    “And leave the gold?”
    “The gold will keep!” snapped MacNeil. “Those liches want your sword, Hammer! The Device! The Beast must be frightened of it. That’s why it had the gold brought down here, to lure you into its clutches.”
    He stopped suddenly and looked back at the tunnel, and as he did a bare dead white arm snaked out of the tunnel mouth. MacNeil put his lantern down on the floor and drew his sword. The tunnel was full of soft, slow, scrambling noises. MacNeil swung his sword with both hands and cut cleanly through the lich’s wrist. The sword rang dully on the stone floor, and the severed hand flew away across the cave. It scrabbled briefly on the floor, and then pulled itself back toward MacNeil like a huge pale spider. Jack kicked it away. The lich burst out of the tunnel mouth and threw itself at MacNeil. Its pallid skin was flecked with long-dried blood, but no blood pumped from the handless stump. Hammer handed Jack his torch and drew the sword at his hip. MacNeil cut at the dead man’s neck with his sword, but the lich blocked the blow with its bare arm. The blade jarred on bone, but the lich just smiled. MacNeil backed away as the lich reached for his throat, and the dead man went after him. Another lich crawled out of the tunnel. MacNeil cut again at the advancing lich, but still it kept coming. Hammer moved in beside MacNeil and cut at the lich’s legs. It finally fell to the ground as a half-severed leg collapsed under it, but already the second lich was moving toward MacNeil, and more of the dead were emerging from the tunnel mouth.
    Hammer and MacNeil tried to stand their ground, but faced with an endless stream of opponents that wouldn’t stay dead, they were forced back step by step. The only way to stop the liches was to hamstring or behead them, and even then the crippled bodies would drag themselves along the floor to try to pull down the living that dared stand against them. Most of the liches had once been men, but there were also women and even children. MacNeil found it almost impossible to cut down the first child, but then he looked into the dead child’s eyes and saw there a blind, unreasoning malevolence that had nothing human in it. After that, he dealt with the dead children as methodically as he took on the adults, and with every child lich he faced he renewed his promise of vengeance against the Beast that used them in this way. Hammer didn’t seem to care whom he was fighting. He swung his sword with grim competency, his only expression a slight, satisfied smile.
    Jack stood to one side, holding his torch out before him and waiting for any lich that managed to get past the other two. He’d already guessed his knife wouldn’t be much use against the dead, but he’d had some success with the torch. Their cold flesh felt no pain from the blazing brand, but their hair and clothing were bone dry and burned fiercely. Already the cave was brightly lit by half a dozen burning corpses that thrashed weakly on the floor as the fire slowly consumed them.
    And still the dead crowded into the cave from the narrow tunnel, forcing the three defenders back. The cave floor was strewn with mutilated liches that still crawled determinedly after their prey. MacNeil felt an old fear stir within him again, threatening to unman him—the same fear he’d felt when the demons came swarming out of the endless night in a nightmarish assault that seemed to go on forever. Fear and panic tore at his courage until he wanted to scream at the liches, but somehow he held on to his self-control and continued his slow, cautious retreat to the tunnel behind him. Hammer moved back with him, and Jack guarded their rear with his flaring torch.
    And still the dead came crowding into the cave, their pale faces contorted by the dark dreams of the Beast that controlled them.
    “We can’t hold them off much longer,” said MacNeil tightly. “Draw your other sword, Hammer. Drawn the damned sword.”
    “Yes,” said Hammer. “I don’t seem to have any choice anymore, do I?”
    He cut viciously at a lich as it reached for him with clawing hands,