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Ben reached me and I threw my arms around him. He wrapped his own around me and we united in a tight hug. A few whispered words came from him. “Thank God you’re alright.”
I drew us apart and held up the flute. “Thank this thing, too.”
Elias furrowed his brow as he studied the glowing instrument. “It has the power to fend off the dead?”
“And maybe more,” I told him as I held it out to the musician. “Try playing that song you played the other day.”
“You fools!” Josiah shouted as he balled his hands into fists, shattering the vials in his palms. The goop, and his blood, dripped onto the ground on either side of him. “You don’t know what you’re doing!”
Elias took the flute from me and turned to face his father. He put the instrument to his lips and the sweet melody from before floated out. The song seemed to dance around us as it echoed off the walls. Soft orbs of light floated out of the mouth and drifted toward the corpses. The creatures swung their hands at the orbs, but the balls floated right through them and into their chests. The moment the light touched their unnatural hearts, the red light vanished and the corpse crumpled to the ground. A soft sigh of relief accompanied each light going out until none of them remained.
Josiah was left standing alone near the wall in the midst of his ruin. The corpses had managed to tear a hole about two feet wide and one foot tall in the wall through which I glimpsed deep shadows.
“No!” Josiah screamed as his veins popped out of his face. He turned his full fury on his son as he wrenched a vial from his coat and popped the cork. “You’ll pay for that, you son of a whore!”
Elias stopped his playing and gave his father a look that promised death. “You take that back!”
“Never!” Josiah yelled as he rushed toward us.
Or tried to. Two pairs of shriveled arms shot out of the hole in the wall and wrapped themselves around him. Josiah let out a terrible shout and dropped the vial. The glass broke on the rocks and the contents ate a hole through the rocks. The air filled with an acidic odor as Josiah thrashed about in the hold of the undead.
The light from the flute shone just inside the hole, and I glimpsed the face of our old friend Fox. The other corpse was a man I didn’t recognize, but he sported a short gray beard and a ring on his finger. The same style of ring that Josiah wore as he was dragged into the hole.
“Let me go!” Josiah shrieked as his feet kicked in the air. “Let me go!”
At the same time he started to be dragged into the hole, the wall began to repair itself. The bricks climbed back up the barrier of their own accord and returned to their positions. Josiah’s feet were the last part of him to disappear into the darkness, and the bricks closed in behind him.
Silence fell over us until the professor’s soft sigh of relief as he fell back against the wall. “My goodness,” he muttered as he wiped his forehead with the back of one sleeve. “I think I may be getting too old for this much excitement.”
I looked up at Elias and Ben. “One of those corpses was Fox, but who was the other guy?”
A crooked smile slipped onto Ben’s lips. “I have a feeling we just made the brief acquaintance of Samuel Hearth.”
My eyes widened. “Then he was brought to life by Josiah?”
“And apparently with all his faculties intact, and a thirst for vengeance,” Ben mused.
I clapped a hand on Hearth’s shoulder and grinned at his quizzical expression. “Your dad may have been a jerk, but I think I really like your great-granddad.”
He shook off his shock and offered me a smile. “Yes, I believe I’ll have to toast to many grandfathers when I return to my quarters.”
I dropped my gaze to the flute in his hand. The light had vanished and it was just another plain instrument once more. “It looks like you and the flute belong to each other.”
Elias shook his head. “No. When I played the flute I could feel it fighting against me. It had done so the last time I played it, as well.” He held it out to me. “I have a feeling it would rather have you as its mistress.”
I couldn’t deny that I was a little flattered by the Prima Staff’s affection, and I gladly accepted the flute which I clutched in both my hands. “I think I’ll still need some practice.”
He bowed his head. “I will gladly give you lessons any time you want. After all, you did save me from certain death.”
“Could we get out of here before that certain death comes back!” Phil snapped as he threw his arms up in the air. “First the city officials, then those corpses rising out of the hall floor, and then your crazy dad comes with corpses to do I don’t know what to the underground!”
And with that, he stomped out of the room.
Elias looked at where he’d gone with amusement. “I had better follow him. He doesn’t know his way around.”
“Nor do I,” the professor chimed in as he stepped up to Elias’ side. “It’s been fifty-odd years since I was down here last and the cobwebs haven’t cleared away just yet.”
Together the pair hurried after our companion, leaving me alone with Ben. I turned to him and found a contemplative expression on his face. “What’s is it?”
