Aleric slowly rode away from the crypt the entire night, stopping to rest only when the dawn came. At first, his journey was very slow—he had to manually walk each of his zombies, including the horse, and often got their legs wrong. However, soon he got more used to it and picked up the pace.
Aleric estimated being able to puppet a dozen zombies like that while still being able to do something else. Like studying magic.
This was what Spine Staff continued doing as soon as Aleric had the presence of mind for it.
To start with, the Staff explained that there were not only six magical elements: Light, Dark, Fire, Water, Earth, and Air, but also seven magical schools in each.
"Each of us, great Xarvain's artifacts, carries knowledge of only one school of Dark magic. Later, you must assemble them all to gather the entirety of his legacy! But for now, my knowledge of the Necromancy school will be enough, master. You are brilliant already!"
"Do you know where these artifacts are, Staff?"
"Only two of them, master. The Bone Crown near the Esta River and the Dead Finger on the Vestail Mountain."
Even with his pathetic geographical knowledge, Aleric recognized the first name.
"Esta River? It's where the capital city of the Aleshat Kingdom, Estairn, is built! This place is crawling with soldiers and templars… How could Xarvain hide an artifact in a place like that?"
"Aleshat Kingdom? It was just a tiny state when Xarvain created us, master. The only cities on the Esta River belonged to Dark Spires."
Aleric sighed.
"Is it the same with all other artifacts? It looks like I can't gather them without an army powerful enough to conquer all of Aleshat! And I was already going to create one."
After this, Aleric continued to study with even more enthusiasm. The Spine Staff made him memorize more magical words and various spellcasting techniques. Although a lot of this came to Aleric intuitively, he still felt like his head was about to explode in just an hour.
By sunrise, he prepared to rest. As Aleric watched the sky brighten, he feared the sunlight would harm his undead, but his fears were calmed by the Spine Staff.
"Sun is an entity of Fire, not a Light element. Only vampires are harmed by it, but because of a different curse."
This calmed Aleric down and let him rest peacefully. Despite the chase that was surely organized against him right now, he was thoroughly enjoying himself more than he had in ages.
For a start, the travel bags of the dead templars had a lot of food. Good food! Dried meat, cheese, crackers—Aleric had a feast! His wolfish appetite didn't diminish even by the smell that started to come from his zombies.
Also, these bags had various travel supplies, including a map of the province. It was vague, but with the sun to help him, Aleric could tell where he was supposed to travel toward Broomwood. Until now, he was helplessly lost, and the Spine Staff's geographical knowledge was several centuries old.
Aleric rested until evening before continuing on his way. By his estimate, he would reach the village after—a perfect time to dig some corpses. With or without the cooperation of the locals.
***
Aleric stopped when he saw lights in the distance—a village surrounded by fields and an occasional shed or tree. Broomwood was ahead, and someone was still awake there despite the late time. The reinforcements from the Church could have arrived there already. Unlike Aleric, templars didn't have to travel at the speed of shambling zombies.
Aleric didn't want to fight with templars in the village, but he knew that he'd be unable to hide. Not with his entourage…
He smiled, as this gave him an idea.
Aleric took off his dark cloak and threw it to the zombie, who still had the full amount of limbs. Obeying his will, the zombie put it on. With the cloak, it looked somewhat similar to Aleric himself—at least in the dark.
After this, the zombie walked toward the village. At first slowly, but then Aleric focused and made it pick up the pace.
"What are you doing, master?" Spine Staff asked worriedly. "Are you sending the undead puppet away? With all your talents, master, these undead are too simple—you will soon hit the puppet's limits!"
This was absolutely true. The undead puppets were just that—puppets. Aleric could only somewhat reliably control them while he could see what they were doing. Now, when the zombie walked away, Aleric immediately felt it stumble on something and fall.
Undeterred, Aleric made the zombie stand up and keep walking until it bumbled into a tree. Then he made it side step and keep walking again.
"Master…" Spine Staff whispered in awe. "Are you… blind-controlling the puppet? The inventiveness! I've never seen anything like that! But… what for? It won't kill much this way, or on its own."
Aleric chuckled.
"Just wait and see, Staff. For now, I should take my own position, too."
With these words, Aleric dismounted, using the Spine Staff as extra support, and led his zombies on foot toward Broomwood.
He walked until he spotted bushes that could serve as good cover, and hid inside with the zombies.
"Turn off your eyes, Spine Staff," Aleric whispered to his artifact. "You will give us out."
"Oh… An ambush! Of course, master," it replied. The glow in the skull's eyes disappeared.
Now Aleric focused fully on the remote zombie. He led it all the way to the village, orienting himself fully on the feel of the Dark energy from inside the zombie. All the time, Aleric was also listening to any sounds from the village…
A distant shout.
The zombie was spotted by someone!
Aleric grinned and made the zombie dash back as quickly as it could. It ran exactly two steps before stumbling and falling, so Aleric made it crawl on all fours—anything, as long as it was quick enough!
Soon, Aleric saw more fires being lit up in the village. Some of them were moving outside—torches held in the hands of people who thought they were hunting Aleric.
Instead, they were going right into his trap!
Aleric's zombie was getting closer and closer to his hiding spot. Soon, he saw it crawling on all fours with the cloak absent and lost somewhere. Five people were chasing it with torches, and the closest was only a dozen meters away and swiftly catching up.
Aleric grinned, prepared to jump out of his ambush, when one of the chasers stopped in his tracks.
"Careful! I sense more Dark magic—there, in these bushes! It's an ambush!"