"Heh. Is there really a problem that a necromancer can't solve with more zombies?" he muttered to himself, then gestured to his zombies. "Slaves! Take all the bags you were carrying and start packing them on the horses."
"What are you doing, master?" Spine Staff asked while the zombies followed Aleric's orders.
"Undead don't need to breathe, so they can just take something heavy and walk over the river's bottom. I still need to breathe, so a horse will carry me over. The rest of the zombie horses will swim." Aleric paused. "I hope they can, because these bags have all my food. It would be a pity to abandon my mattress here, either."
"Oh, of course, master! Remember, I don't need to breathe, too, so you don't have to carry me above water. Although it would be more dignified for an artifact of my power."
Aleric chuckled and silently went to help his zombies with the bags. There were a lot of them, so he had to sort out which things could bear some water, and which couldn't.
The river was around 150 feet wide, with sloped shores and a lot of reeds growing near them. Even after the rain, its current was slow, but anyone swimming through would have to watch out not get tangled in the plants.
Aleric sent the zombies to cross the river first.
By his command, the first two stepped inside. They were holding onto each other and also carrying rocks to not get pushed by the water.
The undead walked into the river without a twitch. When they got up to their belts in water, one of them stumbled, but the other zombie didn't let it fall. They continued walking.
Soon, the water hid them entirely. From then on, Aleric could only guess where they were. But he still felt it when both of the zombies stumbled and fell!
Aleric tensed, preparing to guide them out of the water—but the undead slaves successfully got up on their own and continued to walk. Soon, their drenched heads became visible on the other shore.
Relieved, Aleric sent the rest of his zombies the same way. Some of them also carried his skeletons, since those would definitely be carried away by the water.
In half an hour, all of Aleric's undead, except for the horses, were on the other side.
With bated breath, Aleric sent an undead horse ahead. Since horses were naturally buoyant, they easily floated on the water. Following its remaining instincts, the horse even began padding.
The water lapped at the bags carried by it, and the horse's head often submerged in the water. But for a zombie, it didn't matter.
Inexhaustible, it slowly but surely traversed the river. Relieved, Aleric prepared to cross the river with the rest of his horses.
At this time, from a grove of trees sixty feet away, a group of five people was watching him unseen.
All of them were some of the best fighters of Justicar Esvan, but they rarely fought in a formation. They were undead hunters and witch-slayers—Esvan's "scalpel", sent when Esvan's "hammer" didn't work.
Instead of axes and white clothing that was easy to spot from afar, they wore green cloaks and wielded swords and bows. The trees and bushes, yellowing with autumn but still thick enough, hid them from Aleric's sight.
Their leader, Captain Gedich, smiled at the sight and stroked his goatee beard.
"Just look at the necromancer, brothers… Without his zombies, without his skeletons… He even sent his skeleton "scouts" to the other side of the river!"
The latter fact was what let the templars approach so close to Aleric so easily.
"When the necromancer crosses the river, he will be a perfect target for our arrows. And without him, the undead will become simple punching bags for our brothers," Gedich continued.
"I can put an arrow in him already," another templar replied.
"No, hold your fire. He's on a horse—don't give him even a chance of running away."
"Yes, sir."
The templars waited for Aleric to enter the water. His horse made several steps in and stumbled.
Aleric cursed, clutching for its back. He wondered if he'd be better off trying to swim by himself. Then he straightened back and resumed the crossing.
"Close," Gedich said, raising his hand. "Let him sink in…"
At this moment, Aleric sensed a disturbance.
What the templars didn't know was that he wasn't entirely without scouts.
Knowing how exposed he will be after sending away his scouts, but unwilling to just leave them behind, Aleric killed and reanimated several small critters earlier: mice and snakes.
They were slower and even dumber than human undead, but they were also much harder to notice.
Right now, a zombie snake, that was lying only several feet away from the hidden templars, has finally noticed them with its dulled senses. Its rotten tongue flicked in and out, trying to catch the humans' scent.
Through the snake, Aleric knew about the presence of enemies and that they smelled of human and metal. They could only be enemies: templars or common bandits foolish enough to approach the necromancer.
Aleric also realized how vulnerable his current position was! He knew he could easily be shot with an arrow or spell from this distance.
"He stopped," Gedich said, frowning. "Does he suspect something? Prepare to fire, brothers!"
Before they could, Aleric acted!