Tapestry of Whispers Session 17
The South Rises Again
Thorne's private jet landed at Monroe Regional Airport, where it was cooler and a light drizzle was falling. Daniel had flown out of there a couple of times over the last ten years to visit his family back in Missouri. The airport had upgraded since he'd last used it, but had never entirely lost its small town airstrip feel even under its new faux southern charm. It did not take long to search the entire airport, and Silas was nowhere to be found.
Thorne was frustrated that he couldn't reach Silas by phone, so he rented a car for the group to get to the site, suggesting that perhaps Silas was already there. Daniel didn't think the location had ever caused phone problems, but that was before the Blackwoods angered the spirits. If the spirits were more active now, they might be able to block phone service.
Daniel asked Thorne if they could get some kind of healing for himself and Beth before going into the haunted house. Thorne curtly refused, and seemed to be in a hurry to enter the house. Daniel wasn't sure if Thorne was more worried about his brother or if he was greedy for the occult secrets that the house might hold.
Daniel decided not to tell Thorne about Chance's shortcut because he was afraid that Ebonshard's regiment might still be lurking in the area. The main road from Monroe to Bosco was lightly traveled, and they encountered no delay beyond the driver Thorne had hired stopping for gas. The driver became uneasy when instructed to turn off the road, and looked quite terrified when the outer walls of the old estate came into view.
Thorne instructed the driver to park in an abandoned area. Daniel noticed that the old iron gate was still open and Blackwood's limo was parked nearby and looked heavily damaged. As they carefully approached the gate, they heard yelling and pounding from inside the limo. Gideon Blackwood was inside the limo, and he looked badly hurt.
Examining Gideon, Beth said it looked as if he had assaulted with a bullwhip, although that couldn't account for all of his injuries. He was barely conscious, his expensive suit now ruined by blood, what appeared to be mold, and some sort of ectoplasmic gunk. Apparently he had bitten off more than even he could chew.
"I thought I could control it. I thought I knew what it could do. It fooled me, the Tapestry," Blackwood muttered incoherently. "Tell Primo I'm sorry."
“Where is Primo?” asked Thorne. Gideon shook his head.
“Didn’t see. Didn’t see. I think he got away, but they took the girl.” Blackwood was obviously in a lot of pain. “Can’t drive, or I’d be away from here.”
“What girl?” Thorne asked.
Blackwood's words were incoherent, but he seemed to be saying that "the one from the bar" was taken by Les Invisibles and dragged into the plantation grounds. He gestured weakly toward the gate.
“Do you have any healing spells?” Daniel asked. Blackwood groaned. “Primo took it.” Of course. Beth finished her examination, and said she thought he would probably recover if he received medical attention.
“What about Silas,” Thorne pressed him. “Where is he?”
“He was here,” said Blackwood. “I think he fled.” He swallowed hard and coughed. “I have never seen anything like what happened in there.” Given his experience, this was not terribly encouraging to Daniel.
Victor said they had to find out what was going on, and they left Blackwood's limo behind to approach the wall separating the plantation grounds from the outside world. As they got closer, Daniel noticed that the bricks no longer looked cracked and pitted from age, and many of the missing ones had been replaced with bricks of a strange, jet black material. When he touched one of the black bricks, it felt icy cold and emitted a soft wail, as if in torment. He was overwhelmed for a moment by a vision of working on the plantation when it was active. The brick was, or had once been, a sentient soul.
“The Soulforge,” he whispered softly.
Sneaking up to the gate, he and Beth peered inside. There were many Confederate soldier ghosts, like the ones who had attacked them before, patrolling the perimeter of the estate with ethereal sabers drawn, while the ragged figures of long-dead slaves pantomimed their daily work. There were more of both than he had seen before.
“What the hell?” Beth whispered. “Where did all those people come from? Why aren’t they paying attention?” One of the soldiers kicked a drone slave out of the way when she got too close to him
“You see them too?” Daniel was surprised. Beth had learned to tell if a ghost was present, but usually could not see them like he could.
Moving back from the gate, he gathered Beth and Thorne near the wall. “I’ve heard of this before. This is what the old books called a shallowing - the living world and the spirit world are one and the same here.”
“Silas never mentioned this,” said Thorne.
“It wasn’t like this last time,” Daniel answered. “Something has turned up the heat in the boo factory. Three guesses what. There’s more soldiers, and this time they all can touch you.”
“It sounds like a strategic retreat may be in order,” Thorne said. Beth concurred.
“Let’s grab Blackwood and get the hell out of here before -” It was at that moment that one of the patrolling Confederates passed the gate and noticed them out there, giving a loud whistle to his teammates. As one, all of the Confederates turned to glowing orbs and sank into the ground of the old estate cemetery.
The earth began to rumble and churn, just like it did at Riverview Cemetery, as glowing green cracks appeared. Skeletal forms clad in the rotting remains of gray uniforms wielding rusty sabers and rust-caked long guns with bayonets emerged from their unmarked graves. In a strange mockery of military precision, the rotting carcasses plodded toward the gate with stumbling steps that seemed meant to be a precise march, even though their dead limbs could not pull it off.
None of them stopped to think twice. They dragged Blackwood from his limo and piled into the rental car. The driver didn't ask any questions, but screeched down the narrow gravel road as a dozen rotting Confederates shambled out of the gate, with others on the way.
As the mansion and its inhabitants receded into the distance, Daniel noted that the Shallowing seemed to extend only a few hundred yards from the walls, but the newly minted Confederate zombies didn’t seem limited by it.
“The shallowing is small now,” Blackwood whispered weakly. “But it will expand. Before long they will be at Monroe’s door.”
“Well, what do we do about it?” Daniel asked.
"Take me back to the marina," Blackwood said. "I have something there that can help us." Daniel wasn't sure he trusted Blackwood, but he couldn't think of any other options, so he gave the driver directions to the marina. He figured he'd rather be stuck with Blackwood than the Confederates.
When they got to the Marina, Blackwood gave them the keys, and they helped him into the office, sitting him in the chair behind the desk as he instructed Victor which key would open the safe. Inside, Victor found a strange-looking amalgamation of mirrors, brass fittings, and magnets. Everyone looked a bit dubiously at the machine, but when Victor wound it up and they all stood around it, they found that they did begin to feel better. Blackwood appeared to be more stable, although his wounds were not instantly cured. “You owe me for this,” he said. “Don’t forget it.”
Daniel realized that the Confederates would probably come looking for their commander, Colonel Ebonshard, whose spirit jar Victor had brought along to interrogate. This made the spirit jar a bargaining chip, but it also meant the Confederates would be coming to the marina to get it back. Daniel thought that if the Confederates were typical grunts, they might not be terribly intelligent, but their regiment's honor might be important to them. However, the Confederates were shambling about in rotting meat suits that didn't feel pain or get tired, so Daniel's only advantage was that the zombies were slow and clumsy.
“Those zombies will be coming here,” said Daniel. “Beth and I will go get our weapons, while you mount up Blackwood’s defenses. We’ll also try to drum up some reinforcements. Going out to the rental car, they found that Victor’s driver had prudently fled, but he had at least left the car and the keys inside it. Making the short drive back to their house, Beth went to gather the enchanted items that Daniel had made, while Daniel himself started a surprise of his own for the zombies.
He thought that he should be able to force the zombies into inactivity, for a while at least, until they could figure out what to do with them, by calling on the energies of the Tempest that seemed in part to animate their corpses. It took him ten minutes, but he managed to prepare the spell, needing only to say a word in Stygian Greek to release it. Beth told him she had not been able to get hold of Chance, so they were unlikely to see any help from him.
When Daniel and Beth returned to the marina, they found it under siege by a dozen Confederate zombies, who had apparently arrived in a beat up camper truck. The zombies were whooping and yelling, and had several shotguns and hunting rifles they had apparently stolen from hapless travelers. The zombies were kept from entering the marina by Blackwood's wards, but they were prepared to shoot anyone who showed their face.
The zombies surrounded the marina and demanded that the group inside release Colonel Ebonshard. They said they would come in and get him if they didn't comply. Daniel was surprised that the zombies could speak, and wondered what else they might be capable of.While they were watching the zombies, Reginald pulled up in a late model sportscar. He got out and stood next to Daniel and Beth. "They can talk?" he asked. "Heck with that, they can drive?"
“Apparently so.” Daniel was nonplussed.
“What happened to eating brains?”
“They might do that, too. At this point all bets are off.”
“Uh, good to know.” Reginald watched the zombies pace about in front of the marina. “So what do we do?”
Daniel told Beth and Reginald to keep the Confederates off him while he laid out the supplies for the Anarusi En Irenei rite. He knew that if the Confederates figured out what he was doing, they would try to stop him.
As he’d feared, several of the zombies noticed him. They told one of their comrades to go and check it out while they continued trying to rescue Ebonshard. The zombie moved closer, but appeared mystified by the strange activity Daniel was doing. Beth aimed the pistol she had taken from dead Bobby and fired a shot, one of the Dracarys bullets that Daniel had made. A powerful explosion ripped through the zombie’s torso, but it did not appear to feel pain.
“Shit fire!” the zombie exclaimed, looking at the huge smoking hole in its midsection. “You gonna wish you hadn’t done that, young missy!” It lunged at Beth with its rusty saber, and though it missed her on the first stroke, it struck again with lightning speed, slashing her arm. So much for slow and clumsy.
Meanwhile, the group in the marina closed the windows in the face of the zombies trying to negotiate. Seeing that they were outside of a voodoo sanctuary, the Confederates appeared smart enough not to attempt a frontal assault. Instead, they drained the gas from the vehicle they had apparently stolen to bring them to Monroe, and began making Molotov cocktails and lobbing them at the marina. The Blackwoods' business went up in flames when the fire struck oil, paint thinner, and boat fuel. The fire was so hot and intense that it forced those inside the office building out the back.
The zombie that Beth and Daniel were fighting got a second Dracarys bullet, which blew its head off and sent the Confederate ghost inside it howling toward the Tempest. With the fence in flames, the other zombies felt more confident to try breaching it. As they battered their way in, there was a stomping of heavy footsteps, and something that looked like an African warrior cast out of molten iron stamped through the flames unbothered. It fixed them with unseeing eyes and charged forward, wielding a large sword-like blade.
When the Confederate zombies split up to attack from two sides, they encountered Gideon's voodoo veves. One zombie touched an abandoned building and howled in pain as blue flames shot from a veve. Another stepped into a veve on the ground and screamed as his leg burned off below the shin. A third was surprised when an old awning dropped and a veve blew up in his face. One tried to pull his friend away from the veves but ended up touching one himself.
By now, Daniel was finished laying out his components, and he released the spell energy he had been holding. “Anarusi En Irenei!” His voice echoed over the battlefield. Directly above the marina, a rip formed between the material world and the netherworld, and dark clouds spilled out, bathing the area in a soft, calming, gentle rain. It had an almost immediate effect on the zombies, as their bodies dropped to the ground, the ghosts inside hanging over them in stunned unconsciousness.
The iron warrior stomped forward, unbothered by the rain, and began hacking the nearest corpse to pieces. Daniel picked up his pig sticker, intending to help it finish the job, when he suddenly felt something fighting against his spell. Inhaling the resonance, he was frustrated but unsurprised to realize that it was Blackwood. Daniel fought like hell, but Blackwood was stronger, even in his wounded state. Or perhaps he had been playing possum before. The spell began to dissipate, the ghosts shaking their heads groggily and looking around in a vain effort to comprehend what had just happened to them.
As if this were not bad enough, Daniel noticed several figures stumbling across the street through the rain from Riverview Cemetery. Somehow the Confederates had called for reinforcements. Daniel realized it might take a few minutes for the Confederates to reclaim the corpses they had been using, and their best bet was to join with those who had been forced out of the marina. As he told Beth this, she attempted to shoot one of the approaching corpses but missed, the Dracarys bullet blowing a big smoking hole in the street instead.
Reginald ran as fast as he could toward Victor, who was yelling at him to get a boat ready to cast off. Reginald kept going toward the docks, trying not to look at the zombies closing close behind.
The zombies stopped lumbering and started sprinting toward them, one actually springing into the air with surprising strength. Unfortunately for it, it landed on Daniel’s enchanted pig sticker, and he split it from navel to crown. Victor Thorne also attempted to shoot one with his pistol, but was frustrated that it did not even seem to feel the bullet.
The iron warrior had now reached them, and it decapitated a zombie expertly. The one with Daniel’s “pig sticker” in it was not quite dead, and it slashed at his throat with its ragged claws, exacting a pound of flesh. He screamed and yanked the pig sticker back. Another one headed toward Beth but she was able to dodge out of its way.
Even through the pain, Daniel noticed Gideon limping away from Victor and Rginald while they were distracted by the approaching zombies. The Bokor gave him a parting wave with some kind of a bird wing fan and a wink. Daniel gave him the bird return.
Angered by Gideon’s escape and Beth being put in danger by the Bokor’s actions, Daniel galvanized himself and stabbed at the zombie again with his pig sticker. The zombie retaliated with an uppercut that knocked him off his feet. He landed hard, struggling to get up.
Beth blew a hole in another zombie with a Dracarys bullet. Seeing itself on fire, the zombie actually turned and began to shamble back toward the relative safety of the cemetery. Victor also hit the zombie coming after him, but it shook off the impact and continued shambling forward to crack him on the jaw.
The iron warrior caught another zombie, and stabbed it through the chest, but it kept moving. The zombie tried to pummel the golem, but it was like pummeling an iron bar. Seeing that the zombie wasn’t much bothered by bullets, Victor produced a cutlass from somewhere and slashed it it with that, but it wasn’t much hurt by that either.
The zombie Daniel was fighting raised both fists, preparing to bring them down on his midsection, but a devastating explosion dropped it to the ground instead. Beth was out of Dracarys bullets, but she had used them to good effect. She yanked him to his feet and tried to help him make his way toward Victor as the Confederate corpses began to stir again.
Suddenly, a loud voice shouted “Hey, get out of my town!” Daniel looked up to see a man in a pair of coveralls, carrying what looked like a steampunk version of a Ghostbusters pack on his back. The weapon made a loud “BREEEEEE” sound as he pulled the trigger, and a bolt of lightning shot out, disintegrating a zombie that was shambling toward Beth. But then an alarm began blaring on the backpack.
Slapping the part that had generated the lightning bolt, he began to cuss, and then saw that he’d attracted the attention of several more zombies coming out of the residential district. Weighed down by the heavy generator, he attempted to run toward them. But the zombies were on him almost immediately.
Daniel struggled to his feet and tried to help the man, but his aching body wouldn't let him. Beth also tried to help, shooting one of the zombies, but missed its head. Since she was now using regular bullets, the shot had no effect on the lumbering corpse. The iron warrior decapitated the zombie that was coming after Thorne, and then marched toward them. Thorne, Beth, and Daniel were horrified as the Confederate corpses started to stand up behind the iron warrior.
The struggling scientists went down under a pile of zombies, as Beth grabbed Daniel’s pig sticker and ran forward, shoving it into the nearest zombie with all her strength. While this hurt it more than the bullets did, it only slowed down one of the zombies and the others continued to tear at the scientist’s equipment.
Daniel suddenly heard an ethereal bugle call, the classic cavalry charge. Marching down Grand Avenue was a magnificent unit of wraiths, all dressed in the uniform of Hierarchy soldiers. Daniel couldn't tell which Legion they belonged to, but they were different enough from the Kansas City version that he couldn't be sure. With them was Eliott Riley himself, with the rank insignia of a buck private, blowing the bugle.
The zombies also saw them coming. “Galvanized Yankees!” one of the Confederates cried. “Let’s go get ‘em!” The other zombies, as well, let the scientist go and turned on those whom they recognized as tormentors.
Beth and the scientist ran toward Daniel, and he advised them to get into whatever boat Reginald had found, because he didn't think they wanted to deal with whichever side won this battle. The golem would not listen to them, but it marched resolutely after the Confederates as well.
They headed toward the river with Victor, where they found that Reginald had commandeered a small bass boat. It wasn't glamorous, but it would definitely do for an escape. As they roared away from the docks, Daniel looked back to see the ethereal Hierarchy soldiers and the ragged zombies collide. “Steer for the Forsythe boat launch,” he told Reginald. “Then we’ll see what’s what.”
Daniel looked downriver and thought he saw a boat carrying Gideon Blackwood away from the scene. He wasn't sure who was driving the boat, but he silently vowed that the bokor would regret his betrayal
.