Tigris was grateful for the mission. It was probably a terrible thing to say because there was the possibility that the kingdom was in danger, but she couldn't deny that it was a welcome excuse to leave the castle. She could barely stand next to her father after everything that had happened. As they drew further and further away, Tigris found herself relaxing.

The feeling, apparently, was not shared by everyone.

And by everyone, she meant Roche.

"Oh, I forgot to pack my spices!" the maid moaned when they were in the thick of the forest. Tigris snorted.

"Oh no, what a travesty!" she mocked. Roche whirled on her with an indignant huff.

"You're laughing now, but you'll need to eat unseasoned stew. Speaking of, I think I forgot to pack dried meat too."

Tigris felt a flare of annoyance. "Is there anything you actually remembered to pack?" she asked, smiling when some of the knights chuckled. Roche's hair whipped against her cheeks as she rummaged through her pack frantically.

"We have to go back!" Roche said urgently.

Aodh raised his brows. "Not a chance."

"But what will we eat?" Roche asked. There was something strained about her voice that made Tigris stop laughing. Aodh didn't seem to notice. Without batting an eye, he lifted a dagger and hurled it into the canopy. Roche yelped as a bird with a dagger through its neck fell on her head. Aodh pulled his horse beside hers and yanked the dagger out.

"There's your meat," he announced, grinning as Roche scowled, "Honestly, it's like you don't even want to be here. Scared of a little riding?"

Roche huffed, her eyes darkening. She crossed her arms and glared at Aodh venomously. "Forgive me for not wanting to wade through bandit infested trees!"

Ah, so that explained Roche's moodiness. The maid was just scared out of her wits. It wasn't like Roche to be scared of much, the girl was foolishly brave for a defenseless maid, but Tigris supposed the recent events had frayed her nerves.

"Don't be so cowardly, Roche. I'm sure it's nothing." Tigris said, swatting the back of the maid's hair. Roche glowered at them all, ducking beneath Tigris' hand. Tigris was ready to tease the maid further when her eyes caught on movement ahead of them in the trees. She held up her hand, signalling for the knights to quiet. Immediately, the group stiffened into alertness.

Roche's horse nickered nervously as the atmosphere grew thick with tension.

Tigris saw Aodh lifting a brow at her questioningly. She pointed silently to the treetops. Above, wafting past the thick leaves, was thick trails of smoke drifting into the blue sky. They were close to the valley. Something was travelling from the valley towards the city.

Something was coming towards them.

Tigris' mind whirred, alert with thought. If it was a threat, they could intercept it before it got to the city, as her father demanded. From the position of the smoke, the threat was up ahead, somewhere past the edge of the forest at the mouth of the valley.

"Everyone off your horses," Tigris ordered, leaping off her stallion quickly, "The valley's too narrow for them to follow."

Roche hurried to her side. "I have a really bad feeling about this, princess. We should go back to the city for reinforcements."

"Since when have you been an expert on defensive strategy, Roche?" Tigris asked, beginning to feel more irritated than sympathetic for her maid's cowardice. "Come on."

Roche grumbled, but followed, just a step behind Tigris. Aodh flanked her on her other side. The knights trailed behind them, their hands locked on their weapons. Slowly, the trees began to thin and the ground transitioned from thick, fresh smelling mulch to dry, brittle ground. The scraggly dirt piled into large, dark stones that came up to Tigris' waist. The ground sloped downward, and Tigris found herself leaning her weight back, her muscles coiling with tension. She signalled for quiet.

There was a scuffle behind her, Roche tripping over something and Aodh hissing at her. Tigris couldn't focus on either of them as she caught sight of thick smoke wafting from around the bend. The hills stretched on either side of her, tall and leaving only a narrow passageway to enter into the valley.

A hand landed on her shoulder, warm and familiar. She turned to find her brother with his brows raised.

"Let me go first," he mouthed. Tigris shook her head, shaking him off and plowing around the bend.

And she promptly froze in place.

The ground dropped off sharply in front of her, revealing the depths of the valley. The hills, once green and rolling, were dry and cracked with obsidian and ashy stone. But that wasn't what had Tigris stifling a gasp and gripping her sword. The valley was moving. Tigris blinked, squinting because that was physically impossible. Her stomach bottomed out as her vision focused on the flames.

The torches were cradled between bodies. Not people. Bodies. Corpses. The remains of life that should not be walking around, holding weapons and flames, but they were. They strode forward with slow purposeful steps, stringy flaps of rotting flesh hanging off desiccated limbs. Together, the beats of the fifty men's feet shook the ground, stronger than any earthquake Tigris had ever felt.

She stepped back before she could stop herself, her back crashing into Roche. The maid grabbed her, steadying her quickly before they both tumbled off the edge. She exchanged a glance with Tigris, her face bloodless and terrified.

"What are they?" Roche whispered, looking revolted as she stared at the animated corpses with their dead, grey skin and their rotting limbs that somehow supported their weight as they marched towards the city.

Aodh cursed at the sight. Behind him the knights were standing, their faces pale and horrified.

"Why are there so many?"

"Can they even fight?"

"Of course they can, look at how they're holding their weapons."

"God, I can see their muscles!"

Normally, Tigris would have reprimanded them for their open terror when they didn't have time for fear, but she couldn't fault them. She turned, swallowing down her own anxiety.

"We need to return to the city," she hissed, "Our party is smaller, we can return before them and rally defenses."

The men before her fell silent. Aodh pressed his lips together, moving aside to let her through. Tigris had turned the corner back towards the horses when a blur of motion had her flinging her sword up defensively.

A shock reverberated up her arm as metal clashed on metal. She leapt back, her mind settling into an adrenaline fueled haze. Another twenty undead warriors stood before her in a triangular formation.

Tigris barely had time to think oh shit, before she was lifting her sword up in a defensive parry.

"Pair up!" she shouted over her shoulder, "Fall back!"

She gave the order knowing there was nowhere to fall back to. Around the corner was a cliff's edge. Her mind raced for a solution, some way out of this unmatched battle as she swung her sword at the warrior's legs. Her blade connected, lopping off the rotting, gangrenous limb with a wet squelch. The warrior fell to the side with an unearthly wail. Tigris kicked it aside with triumph.

Perhaps they had a chance.

She glanced to the side where Aodh had hacked away the creature's sword arm. He smiled victoriously, meeting her gaze. Then his eyes widened in horror.

"Behind you!" he shouted. Tigris turned, catching a blur of metal in her periphery. A body slammed into hers, shoving her aside as a blade swung for her head. Roche rolled them both until Tigris was on top, flipping back to her feet to meet another swing. The warrior she'd cut down had somehow reattached its leg, the rotted ligaments somehow allowing it to work perfectly. Tigris deflected another blow, sweat running down her temple as horror bloomed within her. She looked around.

Her knights were shouting in alarm, learning for themselves that these creatures somehow could reform. Aodh was still battling the same warrior, his blows to its heart skimming off the flesh harmlessly.

A hand grabbed her ankle. Roche yanked her down, ignoring Tigris' affronted shout. The maid stuck out her foot, and a second warrior who had been aiming for Tigris' back crashed forward with the momentum of their attempted death blow.

"There's too many of them!" Roche shouted. Tigris gritted her teeth, hauling herself back up.

"Get out of here, Roche! Tell my father of the threat that comes!" Tigris shouted, turning towards her knights, "On me!"

There were too many bodies on the ground, her knights. The few remaining knights tried to converge towards her, but were promptly blocked by a line of knights. Aodh was the only one close enough to fight his way closer.

"We need to go!" Roche shouted, still not moving like Tigris had told her to. She gritted her teeth, fear and annoyance melding into a frantic haze.

"Do as I say!"

Aodh gritted his teeth, his skin gleaming with sweat. He parried a blow, his speed flagging. "Go, Tigris! I'll stay with the knights!"

Tigris shouted a warning as a knight approached him from behind and he spun around, slashing and dodging and even firing his gun. Tigris dove beneath another blow, narrowly missing Roche's body. The maid's hand reached out, snagging Tigris by the shoulder. Tigris was wrenched back towards the corner.

Roche shouted something guttural and unintelligible, and Tigris finally noticed the warrior that had been creeping up behind her. The moment Roche's scream echoed through the valley, the ground began to tremble. Even the undead warriors froze in confusion as the rocks perched at the top of the valley shook, teetering on the edge for a moment.

Then the walls began to crumble and collapse.

Roche's hands yanked her back, pressing them against a crevice in the wall. Tigris' eyes locked with the helpless expressions of her knights as they looked up, horror blooming in their eyes as they noticed the rocks caving in on them.

"NO!" Tigris bellowed, but it was too late. The valley walls caved in. Someone lunged, leaping out of the way and into Tigris' hiding spot as the rocks crashed into the ground with a deafening boom, crushing the undead fighters and the remaining knights. Aodh scrambled to his feet, hacking and spitting out shards of rock.

They were surrounded by darkness.

"Is... is anyone alive?" Roche rasped, smushed between Tigris and the wall. Tigris squirmed, loosening some of the rocks. She peered out, finding nothing but large boulders in front of them. Devastation wrenched her heart.

"No one could survive that," she said hollowly. The space they were in was so narrow she could barely turn without risking being crushed by the piled rocks around them. "We need to get back to the city before those undead freaks reform."

"I believe the proper term is zombies, my lady," Roche groaned. The maid shifted against Tigris, "Can you get off me?"

"Not without bringing down the rest of the rocks on our heads."

They all stood in grim silence. Roche coughed awkwardly.

"Yeah, I don't think you need to worry about that. If my predictions about the orientation of the rocks are correct..." Roche wriggled in place, squirming past Tigris to tap a stone, "Just hit here."

"No way in hell," Aodh growled, "Is she risking that."

But Tigris was risking that, because the kingdom was in grave danger and no one except them knew about it. She slammed the hilt of her sword against the stone. Rocks exploded outwards, forming a small hole that Tigris crept out of. She stared at the ruins in front of her.

Nothing stirred amongst the endless sea of stones, yet she knew the warriors waited below and in the valley.

"Come on," she muttered, already feeling the loss of her knights deep in her heart. She vowed to avenge them in the coming battle, "We need to get back to the city."

-------

They rode silently. Not even Roche tried to break the tense silence that had fallen over them as they barreled through the forest at breakneck speed. Tigris couldn't shake the feeling of devastation and outright wrongness as they approached the gates. She thrummed with nerves, wondering how on earth to report this to her father as her horse snorted impatiently by the gates.

She waited for a moment.

Then two.

No guards or patrols came to grant her entry into the city. The feeling of wrongness and dread knotted tightly in her chest. She glanced at Aodh, who looked back at her with similar concern.

Where were the knights?

Roche made a worried sound as Tigris urged her horse past the gates. Her heart was pounding in her ears. The cobbled path towards the city was empty, as were the streets of the lower town. A few people snoozed among the steps and behind carts.

Her hackles rose at the eerie quiet.

"Where the hell is everyone?" Roche murmured, glancing nervously at the sleeping merchants, "What happened to them?"

"Maybe they got tired?" Aodh suggested tensely. Tigris swallowed, not daring to disagree. Every clop of the horses' hooves seemed to echo and a thin sheen of sweat formed on her brow as she neared the courtyard. Again, no guards stopped her at the castle gates.

She pushed past, and nearly collapsed at the sight.

Bodies. They were strewn across the carefully maintained stones of the courtyard like a terrible art piece. Her mind whited out with panic as she leapt off her horse, ignoring Roche's frantic shout as she knelt next to the closest body. It was a knight, cloaked in a regal Silvian grey. He was one of the newer recruits. Tigris turned him this way and that, trying to find what felled him before she distinctly recognised the sound of strangled breaths coming from the man.

"He's alive!" Tigris shouted. Across the courtyard, next to another body, Roche nodded.

"This one is too."

"And her too," Aodh pointed out gruffly, wiping his brow. "What the hell is this?"

"It has to be the work of inkblood," Tigris realised with a sickening lurch of her stomach, "Some kind of illness."

Roche's eyes lit up. "Leinos would have quarantined the castle if that's the case."

Shock cracked through Tigris like a lightning bolt. She turned to Aodh in horror.

"Finn's in there! So is father!"

Aodh's jaw tightened. They both plowed towards the castle, dreading what they'd find. Tigris ignored the pull of her back as she raced through the castle doors, praying that someone was awake, someone who could help fight the threat approaching the city.

A/N: What has Aodh done? :O

Sorry for the late chapter today, hopefully it was juicy enough to make up for the delay :D

As always, happy reading!