Chapter 126 - Bob's Had it.

"Master, master, wake up." Urt was pulled from a dream where he was trying to clean the sewers with, for some reason, a shoe. He ġrȯȧnėd and pulled himself upright, blinking in the sunlight. The sun! They'd slept all night!

"Wake up master!" Horace's voice once again impinged upon his consciousness. "We need to get out of here. There's a disturbance outside, and your old friend Bethany the Blue is involved. Lucy says that's her anyway. I wouldn't know, having been stuffed in a bag at the time."

Ignoring the head's gripes, Urt staggered over to the window, where Lucy was holding Horace so he could look down on the street below. As he approached, Urt could hear shouts, and sounds of metal on metal. 

"Wake Reginald," he told Lucy, as he peered out.

Below was a scene of chaos. Two groups were fighting each other. From what he could make out, one side consisted of the local city guards. The other side were just men in armour. Even though these men were outnumbered, they looked like more competent group, to Urt's inexperience eye anyway. 

The only reason they weren't winning then, was a tall figure in robes that was launching pale green fireballs at them. 

For some reason most of these bolts were going astray, which was causing significant damage to the surrounding property, some of which was already on fire and burning quite well.

Urt's eyes went back to the mage. "Oh Dreg, you're right. It's the Blue and..." he stopped and squinted. There was another figure, dressed in white, standing there, right in the midst of all the fighting men who, for some reason, were totally ignoring her. 

Reginald chose that moment to lumber up. He wedged himself besides Urt and took in the scene below. 

"By Growl, it's your crazy girl from the castle! What's going on?"

"She's not my crazy girl," scowled Urt, "and I don't know, but I think we should take this opportunity to leave via the back door. Lucy grab the clock, Reg, put Horace in the bag."

Turning away from the window, he looked down at their two captives. The innkeeper was awake, and staring at him with wide eyes. Her friend, Bob, though, was a rather unfortunate grey colour. Urt winced internally, and regretted not having enough time to see if he could raise him as a zombie. 

"Bob's had it," Reginald said, poking the poor man with his toe. 

"I know, well, nothing we can do about it now. Sorry about him," Urt said to the innkeeper. And then to his rag tag team: "Come on, let's go."

They went.

~ * ~

Bethany scowled in anger and tried casting another bolt of Garan's Green Engulfer at the bitch in white, but, as with all her other attempts, something went slightly wrong, and the fireball veered off course, incinerating one of her own guards in the process. 

"Damn you!" she screamed, and in frustration threw a surge of pure energy at her target. That one flew almost true, spinning the girl around as it scraped past her and melted a hole in the street. Reckless's dress caught fire. 

"Hah!" screeched Bethany in triumph. Only to shout again a moment later, but this time in alarm. Lady Nothing had glared at her mount with an almost palpable hatred, and her horse, her trained and magically warded warhorse, reared in terror. 

Only lighting fast reactions and years of experience enabled Bethany to hold on, but that's all she could do, as the animal below her bolted, totally out of control, sending her on a mad ride through the, fortunately not too crowded, streets.

By the time she'd managed to get the beast reigned in, and make it back to the scene of the fight, the battle had been lost, and all that remained were some of her injured and dead guards.

~ * ~ 

"Well that was a close thing," Reginald said, as they paused for breath in a quiet alleyway. 

"I don't understand how they found us though," Urt said. "Come to think of it, how did they find us down in the were-rat lair?"

"For a wizards you're a bit clueless," Horace pointed out. "Magic obviously."

"Oh, of course." Urt frowned. "And that's no way to speak to your master."

"My apologies oh mighty mage," replied Horace, rolling his eyes.

"I'm fairly sure zombies shouldn't be sarcastic either. Maybe I can do some magical adjustment upon you." Urt rolled his sleeves up.

"If you're going to cast magic, why don't you cast something to hide us?" Reginald interrupted.

Still glaring at his zombie head, Urt nodded. "Maybe so. Let's tend to the important matters first. I can deal with upstart minions later." He turned to look at the were-sheep. "Now then, how do I go about masking us?"

"Are you asking me?" Reginald raised his eyebrows.

"I'm just pondering out loud, it's a creative process." 

"Well, maybe create a bit faster then, if they could find us before, they can find us again."

"Fine fine." Urt frowned. He did know a masking spell, somewhere deep down. He rummaged around in there, searching for the elusive memory, until finally it came to him. "Yes!" he exclaimed. "Mangle cast this very spell on me, many years ago. How did I forget that?"

"So you're protected already," Reginald said. "Maybe you should give me a share of the loot and I'll wait for you in a hotel somewhere."

"I don't think so," Urt replied, making a face. "And don't think I've forgotten about all the rabbits you owe me. In fact, we should probably call it a cow now, with all the interest."

Reginald opened his mouth to make a retort, but Urt stalled him, holding a finger up for silence as he concentrated, trying to remember the spell Mangle had used. Eventually he nodded. "Right, I think this will do it."

"Think?" Reginald opened his eyes. "That's not very reassuring."

Urt didn't respond, but simply started the incantation, which was a fairly simple one. A few moments later, he made a gesture at his companion, and then at the two zombies as well. Better to be sure after all.

There was a brief shimmer in the air.

"Is that it then?" Horace asked. "Are we invisible?"

"Only to tracking spells," Urt replied, pleased with himself. "We should move on though, just in case they've locked on to this location.

"Let's go then," Reginald replied. "Er, which way?"

"To the library," Urt said. "I have a book on order."