Page 79 of Death Dance

Well, he had me dead to rights. “I have been told I’m married to an unreasonable vampire who works too much, so I need every weapon in my arsenal possible to combat such things.”

Somewhere behind me, Ben snorted. “I’ve learned not to ask for the impossible. There is an anole crawling on your back that is injured. Its foreleg no longer works properly. Broken. Emerick, perhaps you should give that one to her so she can carry it. It will need help.”

I came to a halt, and I felt something tug at my clothes before Emerick came around and showed me a small blue lizard, which true to Ben’s word, had an obviously broken foreleg. I cradled the poor thing in my hands, taking care not to injure it further. I stepped to the reformed necromancer and asked, “Can you help it?”

“This one is a little female, young,” he replied and leaned over, taking hold of the tiny, clawed hand and manipulating it, easing it back into the correct position. A dark blue glow enveloped the lizard’s foreleg “That will hold until you can take her to a vet for proper treatment. I have begun the process of mending the bone, but you will want to have her overall health attended to. The break is new, which is why she still lives at all.”

“Is this the type of workings you did on your pilgrimage?”

He smiled and nodded. “It is. You will need your father to tell her she needs to stay with you beyond the removal of the evil plaguing this place.”

My father sighed. “Very well. Was it your custom to remove them from the island?”

“Not often, but sometimes. Some of the anoles from today are the result of our pet blue anoles escaping and breeding with other anoles. That was long ago. If the owner of one such beast perished, they were cared for until their death and then buried alongside their master. If the beast perished first, they were laid to rest until they could be reunited. I had three such lizards, and the dust of their bones awaits for the day of my passing in my home.”

I considered the lizard I held, and then I held her out to him. “Perhaps she should go home with you?”

“If I am chosen, I will know. She will be happiest with you and the other two, and you will help recolonize this beautiful island and undo much of the harm done here. Do not fret for me, Pepper. I have several iguanas at home, and they are spoiled and treated like the queens they are. Let us continue and see what we can find here. With luck, we will close the book on Breckenan’s evil once and for all.”

Necromantic wards safeguarded the skeletal remains of six figures, four those of children or teenagers, two of adults. They had been laid in repose together by a loving hand. More bones scattered on the jungle floor, disrupting the wildlife and barring the plants from growing as they should.

With a wave of his hand, the reformed necromancer shattered the protections, which were shaped to be stone pillars. The rock cracked before thumping to the forest floor.

The snakes draped on my shoulders hissed, lifting their heads.

“They are hopeful,” my father reported. “The corpses have ruined their home, and they wish for their lives to go back to what they once were.”

“Priestess, you may wish to look the other way. What I will do will surely upset you.”

“You’re going to redirect the latent necromantic energy into the corpses,” she guessed.

The reformed necromancer nodded. “I am reformed, but reformation does not mean I have forgotten my skills or refuse to use them. I simply use them for the better good. This jungle needs these bodies removed. We would disturb the creatures here far more using our hands than having the corpses escort themselves away. Will we be getting a boat, Charlie?”

“There is an empty cargo ship approaching as close as is safe.”

“Have them lower lines into the water and ask for the workers to steer clear of those lines. We will move the bodies onto the ship and take them to shore for proper burial and identification. I will use my power to preserve as much DNA as possible and make it easier to retrieve.”

My father nodded before making use of his phone, relaying the necromancer’s directions.

The priestess stepped through where the wards had once been, wrinkled her nose, and approached the bodies laid out in repose. She held out her hand over the adult bodies and frowned.

A golden glow enveloped her skin before sinking down in the remains.

After a few minutes, she sighed. “Yes, these are that foul man’s family. I can feel the connection. He has, time and time again, attempted to use the deaths of others to restore life to their bodies. He left the corpses where they fell. He started at the beach and worked his way here, and his miasma kept the snakes at bay. That miasma remains on the bodies here. Once they are gone, nature will be able to return to its set path. You have my blessing to work your magic, necromancer. You will have to free the spirits lingering in these bodies. They have been sealed, and I cannot set them free.”

I grimaced. “They can’t rest in peace?”

“No, they cannot,” the priestess confirmed. “In that, his necromancy worked. The souls are here. They are mostly dormant, but they are trapped and unable to continue their final journey. This does not offend them, however. But they were also necromancers.”

“And they were bound by their flesh and blood,” the reformed necromancer commented, and he joined the priestess. After a moment, he offered the woman his hand. “I feel it is for the best that I seek your blessing for this work. It will prevent the old souls within the remaining bodies from being drawn back. I wish to move them, not summon spirits.”

The woman smiled and she rested the tips of her fingers against his palm. “I would hold your hand, but you would be burned by the light and the fires of the sun; I can protect you like this, but you may be injured all the same.”

“It would be well worth the price. Charlie, please warn the wildlife that the dead will rise and we are removing them from their territory. If they wish to seek shelter, they can come to us, but remind them we are mere mortals and cannot work if they bite us. Nowhere will be safe except the tallest of trees and the canopy, but I would prefer if the endangered animals and birds living up there have a chance to survive, too.”

My father sighed. “Can you clear a space for them near us first?”

“Yes, that is my plan. They can occupy the spaces I free up as we go and can follow us in safety.”