Cahira turned around and without missing a beat. �No. He is a second cousin on my mother�s side,� she said.
�That�s quite distant. Are you sure he isn�t your suitor?� asked Xandra confidentially.
Cahira looked shock. �How could anyone marry their second cousin!� she said startled.
"My mother and father are first cousins.,� she said, �it makes for pure blood.�
Before Cahira could reply a scream arose from below in the village. Before anyone could responds more screams joined as smoke began to fill the air. The air suddenly stank of decaying flesh enough so that many gagged from it. Caden jumped from his chairs as many soldiers did.
�Gather the troops at the fort leave enough to guard and protect but send the rest to the square immediately!� he demanded of Commander Ifor.
Connor hearing the screams quickly departed but not before sending a shimmer of light from a serpent-like blade of flashing silver belonging to a kriss dagger into Cahira�s eyes. She smiled and was about to run to go get it when Caden grabbed her arm. She yanked at her arm but he ignored it.
�Cadet Cromley, take charge of the Golden Pegasus Unit and get the girls into the fort,� he ordered. Cahira looked at him stunned. He didn�t honestly expect her to go hide in the fort did he. She looked for Connor but he had already departed. She yanked against his hold, this time he paid attention if only to tighten his grip on her upper arm.
�Sir, yes, sir!� asked the startled red headed boy.
Caden turned his attentions to Xandra expecting to see the woman in shambles bawling on the floor. Instead, she was positively glowing with energy. A toothy grin plastered on her face. �Xandra, go quickly with the cadet,� he said.
�You leave me with a child,� pouted purred Xandra. �I am embarrassed by your lack of concern.�
�The cadet unit is fully capable of transporting you within the gates of the fort. Now hurry!� he said angrily.
Xandra gave a hearty laugh and proceeded to walk slowly in the direction of the nervous cadet. �Coming Wenchie-Woo, to hide with the women and children in the ground?� she teased.
�Xandra!� barked Caden. He released Cahira�s arm to which Cahira leapt to the kriss on the table. She gave the blades a once over look and was startled by their amazing condition. She hadn�t expected Connor to own such wealth let alone give it away. �What are you doing? You must flee!� he yelled at her angrily.
�I must fight and so should you. You tarry to long in dealings, Lord, the battle will be won while you are still standing there,� she said.
Angrily he turned away from her and ran for the door to where the battle was being waged. Xandra smiled secretively and followed the Cadet Unit out of the door. Cahira turned away from the vine bridge and into the kitchen. Through the kitchen she went down the wooden stairs to the basement and ran for the exit in back of the living tree tavern.
The sight would strike fear into the hearts of hardened soldiers for the enemies were no living things. Disemboweled organs dripped black stinky blood upon the ground as the rotting corpses rushed forth onto the village. Patches of skin and a few spots of hair covered their bodies in no discernable pattern of purpose. Muscle, bone, and organs were displayed at random, for sometimes the creatures would appear to be falling apart loosing intestines or an eye and yet other organs remained pulsating with life although nothing held them inside the corpse. They looked fairly human, decaying ones, except some had an extra eye in their forehead or a mouth in their stomach. In fact, some were hideously disfigured as well as decaying and had their eyes and mouth switched. Some, the ones with no heads or heads that hung on thin cords of flesh and muscle had their face on other parts of their body mostly their stomachs. They traveled at a surprisingly fast speed and attacked with feverish agility. The scent of death and corrosion was so strong it created a haze in the air that turned the stomach. To make matters worse, bloody black bubbling vomit spewed from their mouth and down their chest and clothing.
Cahira gagged and gripped tighter on the unfamiliar blade in her hand. It was lighter, thinner, and shorter the her curved onyx long daggers. She was in no mood to be a hero. She was only interested in protecting her family�s tavern from being burned or over run.
�Glad you could make it, love,� responded Connor.
Cahira smiled, although she didn�t turn to him she knew he was beside her. �Thank you, for the dagger,� she said.
�I couldn�t very well let you go after them with a skinning knife, could I? Ai, they seem not in a laughing mood and even if� they have no skin to peel,� he said laughingly.
"Ai, these would be the fabled Undead?" she asked, her voice barely quivering.
Connor smiled to himself. She was strong and unshaken by the sight so gruesome before them. He made a good choice in her. Others, he wasn't so sure of... Rhian burst onto the scene fighting in her violent fever. Passionate, he thought, although many believed her to be a depressed sociopath. In her fiery eyes he saw depth and sanity, for that he knew she was neither. Whether or not she could contain her passion in times of stealth and use her mind instead of fury was what he questioned. "Ai, these would be those born of Celestial Chaos," he said.
"You've fought them," she said suddenly. She looked at the rouge with renewed interested.
"Watch yourself, beware of the bile," he said. With that note he rushed forward into battle and Cahira followed him.