AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I tiptoed closer to him, mindful to keep a wide berth, and caught the attention of his glossy eyes. “If you weren’t awake until a few hours ago, how did you know I stumbled against your grave a week ago?”
Fox chuckled. “I was resting quite peacefully, I assure you, but when a spark of magic as powerful as the Prima Staff stumbles against your headstone one is bound to notice.”
Ben strode up to the mantel and draped an arm over the top to face our ‘guest.’ “Who were you?”
The corpse’s filmy eyes twinkled with amusement. “An appropriate question. I was Thomas Fox, a young professor at the Enastros Academy.”
My eyes widened. “The one the professor belongs to?”
He frowned at me. “What professor?”
I cleared my throat. “Professor Impara.”
Fox burst into laughter so violent that I could hear his bones rattle. He grasped the edge of the mantel with both hands and managed to get a hold of himself. The corpse stared into the fire and shook his head. “My God, how the world has changed. I never thought I would live to see the day whenhewould be given the title of professor.”
I snorted. “Technically, you didn’t.”
He pushed off from the mantel and spun around to face us. “You’re quite right, and my rising from my slumber is the matter upon which we must focus.”
I looked him over. “How are you able to talk while the others were just mindless zombies? Are you too, um, fresh?”
He shook his head. “No. My physical state has nothing to do with my sentience. In life, I was a master of mind tricks, so I was able to overcome whatever dark powers overpowered the others.”
“What did overpower the others?” Ben asked him.
The zombie sighed and shrugged his rotten shoulders. “Unfortunately, I cannot say. I only know that I felt something slip into my mouth, and that was what revived me. I attempted to cough the thing up, but whatever it was slid down my throat and to where my heart once lay. This is what it did.”
He grasped the sides of his cloak and drew them apart to reveal his chest. Most of the flesh had rotted away so that we could see much of his rib cage. The interior was just as rotten as the rest of his body, but tucked into the spot in the cavern where the heart had lain was a strange round object. The thing gave off a deep red pulsing glow, and I could see through it as though it was a phantom of a heart.
Fox patted his chest over his ‘heart.’ “This grew out of whatever wormed its way down my throat. It’s what gives me this strange ‘life,’ if life I can call it.”
Ben moved over to stand in front of our rotten acquaintance and bent down to peer into his rib cage. After a long moment of study, a dark cloud settled on his worried brow. “I have never seen magic like this.”
Fox shook his head. “Nor have I, though admittedly I never studied the darker arts.” He dropped his robe and tried to smooth out the dirty wrinkles. “But do you have any leads to the culprit?”
I shook my head. “Not a thing.”
The corpse’s white lips drew down into a frown. “How troublesome. There must be some connection amongst all of us who were disturbed.”
Ben furrowed his brow as he folded his arms over his chest. “Perhaps there is.”
I lifted an eyebrow at him. “What is it?”
Ben nodded at Fox’s attire. “That is the robe of a member of the academy, is it not?”
Fox lifted his arms and showed off the ruins of his robe. “Quite right, but what has that to do with anything?”
My eyes widened as the realization struck me. “The other dead guys were wearing the same thing!”
Ben cupped his chin in one hand. “Yes. The connection didn’t strike me immediately because of the worse decay of their attire, but they were most definitely wearing robes.”
I looked between the men. “So they were part of the academy, but where does that lead us?”
“To the archives,” Ben announced as he dropped his hand to his side. “They will have a record of all the burials in the city dating back to the last great fire and may have a note as to which ones were members of the academy. Through that information, we may be able to predict where our foe will strike next.” He glanced at the window and the darkening sky. “But we must leave immediately if we’re to reach the archives before they close.”
“I believe I will remain here,” Fox mused as he plopped himself into one of the seats. He clasped his hands together in his lap and a crooked smile appeared on his rotten lips. “I will only be a hindrance, and my feet are rather sore enough from having walked as far as I did.”
I lifted an eyebrow at him. “Howdidyou follow us back here?”
