[Galaxy Of Fear] - 02(12)

With those words the armored assassin turned and walked away until he was swallowed up by the darkness.

Meanwhile Pylum had examined Kairn’s body, especially the red liquid on the side of his mouth. The Master of Cerements stood up and shook his head. “Cryptberries. They grow around the graveyards, and they are extremely dangerous. The boy has poisoned himself with cryptberries.”

“He didn’t poison himself,” Zak said. “It was Evazan. He tried to do the same thing to me. And before that, I saw corpses crawling out of their graves! “

“I warned you,” Pylum said. “The dead are rising! The Curse of Sycorax is real!”

“Ridiculous,” Hoole snorted. “Show me these empty graves.”

Zak was frightened. He could see that no one believed him. They returned to the Crypt of the Ancients, led by Pylum. Hoole and the others shone glowrods all around the crypt.

But the graves were undisturbed.





CHAPTER 8


“That’s impossible,” Zak whispered. “There were creatures. Zombies! Dig up the graves. You’ll see that they’re empty.”

“We cannot do that!” Pylum argued. “That would be the worst crime of all. The dead would never forgive us.”

“But you’ve got to believe me!”

“Calm down, Zak,” his uncle insisted. “Tell us exactly what happened.”

Zak sighed. “I came into the graveyard on a dare. I was supposed to stick a knife in one of the graves to prove I’d gone all the way to the center of the cemetery. But when I did, the bodies started crawling out of the ground!” Zak could tell that no one believed him. “At first I didn’t see anything, but I heard noises coming from underground.”

“The ground settling, most likely,” Deevee said, tapping the dirt with one metallic foot. “All the soil here is loose from so many burials.”

“But then I saw them… dead-white shapes moving in the darkness.”

“Boneworms,” Deevee suggested. “You must have seen boneworms crawling on the topsoil.”

Zak was growing frustrated. “Oh? Then what about my cloak? Kairn loaned me his cloak, and one of the zombies tore it right off my shoulders. It should be around here somewhere.”

“Here it is,” Hoole said. He held a glowrod over the dropped cloak. “And here’s your explanation.”

The edge of the cloak was pinned to the ground by the knife Zak had stuck into the grave. “You must have caught the edge of the cloak when you stuck the knife in. You only thought someone was grabbing you.”

“But I saw them!” Zak insisted.

Pylum cut in on their conversation. The Necropolitan jabbed one finger at Zak while speaking to Hoole. “It does not matter what the boy thinks did or did not happen. The fact is, he intruded on sacred ground. He has broken the ancient laws and must be punished in the ancient ways.”

The Shi’ido’s frown deepened. “I’m afraid I can’t allow that. Zak shouldn’t have come in here, but he didn’t know anything about your laws, and he didn’t mean any harm.”

“The strangers are right, Pylum,” one of the other Necropolitans said. “We can’t punish offworlders for laws they don’t know about.”

Pylum disagreed. “This boy’s mischief led to the death of one of our own. “

“Evazan killed him!” Zak said.

“Will you believe this boy?” Pylum asked his companions. “Or the laws of Necropolis?”

“Let them go, Pylum,” said another Necropolitan. “This boy’s been through enough for one evening.”

Outnumbered, Pylum could do nothing. But he threw Zak an angry glare that said, You haven’t heard the last of me.

Hoole led his niece and nephew away from the cemetery. A solemn crowd followed them, carrying the bodies of Dr. Evazan and Kairn.

Tash Arranda worried all the way home, and stayed worried even after Hoole and Deevee had seen her and her brother to their rooms. Zak hadn’t said a word, and he was silent all the way back to his room, where he locked the door behind him.

The next morning, Zak stayed in his room during breakfast. For Zak, who usually ate anything and everything in sight, that was a sure sign something was wrong.

Tash decided to tease him out of his sullen mood and knocked on his door. He opened it with a scowl.

“Hey, rancor breath,” she said.

“Hey.”

“What’s this? No comebacks? No insults? You’re slowing down on me, blaster brain.”

Zak’s face darkened. “I’m not in the mood, Tash, so leave me alone.”

She tried her best to sound cheery. “Nope. Can’t do it. You’re my brother, and it’s my job to see that you get insulted as often as possible.”