Free Ruins of Myth Drannor by Carrie Bebris

of those advancing, while Durwyn arced his axe to crush another. He and the paladin then set about picking off the retreating skeletons.
    A low moan behind her caused Kestrel to spin around again—and add a groan of her own to the chant as an all-too-familiar smell greeted her nostrils. “Zombies!” she called out. Five of the creatures shuffled into the chamber from the door through which the explorers had entered. She tossed her twin daggers at the first walking corpse, then reached for the blade she’d retrieved from Loren’s body. As she threw the unfamiliar weapon, it glinted in the magical light of Ghleanna’s spell. The blade struck the creature’s heart causing it to crumple to the ground. She was out of daggers—she’d have to fight off the rest of the zombies with the club.
    To her amazement however, the nondescript dagger pulled itself free of the monster and flew back into her left hand. A magical dagger! She both thrilled and cringed at the discovery. A returning dagger could prove valuable, but magical weapons had been known to hold curses.
    As the sounds of the skeleton battle died behind her, Corran’s voice echoed off the chamber walls again. “Trouble us no longer!” The remaining zombies ceased their advance and attempted to escape. Kestrel threw Loren’s blade at the creatures she’d already injured. No way were they shuffling off with her twin daggers stuck in them. Thanks to the weapon’s boomerang power, she felled both foes. Corran and Durwyn took care of the last two zombies.
    In the aftermath, Corran removed his helm and pushed sweat-dampened hair away from his eyes. He nodded toward the dagger that had once again found its way back to Kestrel’s hand. “A magical blade. What will you call it?”
    “Call it?” She wasn’t even sure she would keep it—she would certainly use it conservatively until she knew she could trust its sorcery.
    “Enchanted weapons deserve their own names.”
    Kestrel shrugged. “I’ve thought of it as Loren’s blade up to now. I guess I’ll continue to do so.”
    “Loren’s Blade,” Corran repeated. “A good name.”
    Kestrel studied the paladin as he cleaned and secured his own weapon. He might be an arrogant know-it-all, but the man knew how to fight. That little routine he did with the holy symbol was proving useful, too.
    She’d sooner eat roasted zombie flesh than tell him so.
    “Do you suppose we stumbled into their lair?” Ghleanna asked the group at large.
    “Either that, or they may have been guarding something,” Corran answered. “An exit, perhaps? Let’s take a look around.”
    They poked through the room from which the skeletons had emerged, finding little more than rubble, and continued to explore the rest of the complex. Ultimately, they came to what appeared to be the main chamber. Bones lay strewn about, some human, some not. Unlike the animated skeletons they encountered earlier, these seemed to lie where their owners had died, earthly possessions still surrounding them. One of the skeletons yet wore a gray woolen cloak and a pair of snakeskin boots.
    At the sight, Jarial caught his breath. “Ozama.”
    Kestrel turned away, allowing the mage a few moments of privacy in which to grieve his former lover’s loss, or curse her for entrapping him, or whatever he wanted to do upon discovering her remains. She glanced around the room, noticing that the door opposite bore an unfamiliar glyph—two swirling circles drawn with a single line. The symbol was burned into the wood. A small barred window in the door looked into the next chamber, but from her vantage point she could see only darkness within.
    She approached the door. Finding it sealed, she peered through the window but still couldn’t see anything inside. She beckoned Ghleanna. “Can you cast the light from your staff into there?”
    “Certainly.” The mage came forward and lifted her staff toward the opening, but the darkness beyond completely swallowed up the light. Ghleanna frowned. “How strange… .”
    “I’m