As much as he doubted Daria's plan, it had worked. Savaran had to admit it.  Right now, the ghouls were out twisting and turning around the countryside following a convoluted trail and looking for their late-night snack of goat. There had been zero signs of vampires. And not a single wight had bothered them.

Two zombies had stumbled upon them, literally, as they approached the secret passage Daria had discovered, and another three had tried without success to make a meal of them once they were within the walls. But other than that, it had been pretty smooth sailing.

"Quick," Daria whispered. "Inside here."

The three of them were immediately into a cramped room off the corridor filled with sheet covered furnishings where she shut and locked the door. That was followed by the moans of "uuunnnnhhhh"s and "uuuggghhhh"s from shambling corpses echoing in the hall.

They all remained as quiet as they could, since the creatures were attracted to sounds, and waited for the abominations to pass. Once the not so melodic songs of their hosts were silent, Daria cracked open the door, confirmed they had moved on, and waved her accomplices out.

"Ew," Traven complained as his foot squished in some rotting flesh residue left behind.

"Shh," Savaran silenced him, and the three snuck to the next corner.

There Daria used a small mirror on the end of a stick to check the adjoining hall. She nodded it was clear, and they all proceeded along again, zigging and zagging through the various hallways that followed. Eventually they stopped at a door that stood out like an infected toenail. It was twice as wide as all the others they had passed and the carvings on it were quite intricate.

"Don't touch," Daria warned with hushed words, drawing out a length of rope from her pack.  It had been written on with various foreign looking words and designs along its length. "Here," she handed the other end to Savaran. "Take this and match up the markings," she pointed to those along the rope. Then she gestured to the door, "With the symbols along the outer edge. Don't disturb the door. Just the surrounding stone. Attach it with this."  She handed him some especially sticky putty.

"And me?" Traven asked.

"I don't know," Daria rolled her eyes at his interruption. "Why don't you go find a couple zombies and offer yourself up as a snack? You've been useless this far, anyway."

Savaran stifled a laugh seeing Traven's face turn red.  "Easy, son. Don't kill her yet. Wait until we're out of this forsaken place."

"Don't make me laugh," Daria said as she strung up her end of the rope with speed and grace. "He couldn't cut his way out of a burlap sack." As both she and Savaran finished, "Ok boys," then turned to Traven adding, "and girls. Step back."

All did exactly that.

The rope began to glow, hiss a little, burn away, and then several of the symbols on the door glowed and popped with brilliant miniature explosions and flashes. Daria stepped forward and turned the handle, pushing the door inward. Once everyone was inside the library, she shut the door.

It was pitch dark, but a few seconds later Daria was holding a glowing rod in her hand. It didn't provide a lot of light, but just enough to allow them to see clearly in the dark. And that is when Savaran could honestly say that their plans hit their first real snag.

He saw the shadow only momentarily before it disappeared. But then again as it was scaling up and down the vast bookcases that lined all four walls like a spider chasing prey in a web. He recognized it instantly as one of the wights in the service of the lich. It had been engaged doing something that seemed important with the books based upon its frantic pace, but Savaran could not tell what. It undoubtedly detected something was amiss when the three of them entered.

"Act like a zombie," Daria whispered out of the corner of her mouth and as its hollow, gray eyes bored in their direction, catching the reflection of the light Daria held.

"What does a zombie act like," Savaran replied in an even softer tone.

The wight was off the stacks of books and scampering towards them with unnatural haste on all fours, snarling like a vicious dog.

"Remember the medallions," she answered. And the beast was upon them.

It smelled like the cold grave, its teeth rotted, and its breath had the stench of blood. It was in Savaran's face first, panting and sniffing at an object it could see, but not identify. Savaran just stood there and hoped he was acting enough like a zombie.

Next, the foul creature shifted over to Daria. It looked at the light in her hand and back to her several times like she was a statue. It reached out and took their only source of illumination away from her, throwing it on the ground as it gargled through its pointed teeth.

Savaran was ready for it to move over to Traven, but the former prince, surprisingly, acted first. There was a flash of steel and Traven let out a pathetic battle cry, stabbing at the undead creature.

"N-" was the only part of the word 'no' Savaran was able to get out before the blade plunged though the remnants of the monster's tattered clothing.

A second later there was a flare and a bright light. As flames began to consume the shrieking beast, it knocked Traven to the ground, but it wasn't going to do much more than die as it was overcome and burning within a moment. Daria and Savaran both took a step back, the heat intense and pulsing from the flames as the creature thrashed on the floor.

"What the -" Daria cried, looking to Traven who was getting up and dusting himself off. "What was that?"

"Yes," Savaran added, "what indeed?"

The flames died down over the course of the next minute and all that was left of the undead creature was a pile of charred bones, ash, and scorch marks on the ground. Traven pulled the knife, still looking pristine as always, from the corpse of the corpse.

Daria was incredulous. "Were you going to tell us that your little pokey dagger thingy there was enchanted against undead?"

Traven returned it back to its place at his side. "Need to know basis," he replied.

Savaran elbowed Daria with a playful tease, "See, not so useless after all."

She recovered her glowing rod. "I'll give him a special reward later," and winked at him.

Traven only scowled in response.

Savaran brought their sidetracked mission back to more relevant issues. "So, where's this book?"

"Right there," Daria pointed to a granite podium in the middle of the library, dimly lit by her light.

"Right there?" Savaran asked.

"Yep." Daria beamed.

"On that pedestal?" Savaran once more queried.

"Yes."

"On that empty pedestal?" he finally pointed out.

Daria took a second. She stared at where the book should have been according to her, but wasn't. She darted over, examining the area as though maybe the book had fallen on the floor or was hiding behind the pedestal.

"But," she stammered, "it's always here."

"Always?" Savaran asked for clarification.

"Yes," Daria said. "Always. Unless -"

"Unless what?"

She paused. "Unless he is preparing to do a soul transference."

"A soul transference?" Savaran asked.

"Yeah," Daria explained, "liches now and then have to replenish their own life force by recharging their phylactery."

"Their phyla-what?" Savaran stammered on the word.

"Their amulet," Daria said. "Remember, I told you about the moonstone charm he uses to re-energize?"

"Yeah." Savaran, grumbled, knowing this was going to go down a path that was only more troublesome than their previous.

"Well, that is what contains his soul," Daria added as though it was common knowledge. "Because his body can't. Because souls can only inhabit a living body. Or a properly enchanted phylactery. But his soul also needs to feed off another soul. So, every so often he needs to place another soul inside the phylactery -"

"Amulet-thingy?" Savaran clarified.

"Sure," she rolled her eyes. "So, he has to place another soul into his 'amulet-thingy'," she did the air quotes around amulet-thingy, "to keep his soul fed."

"So, if the book's not here, then it's where exactly?" Savaran asked, irritated.

"With the lich." Daria stated.

Savaran threw his arms up in the air. "Ok, let's back this shit cart up for a second. So, we're here. But there's no book. But the book is with the lich."

"Right," Daria smiled.

"So, to get our book we have to go to where the lich is?" Savaran attempted to spell out the situation to the best of his understanding.

"Yes." Daria's smile widened.

"And you don't see a problem with this problem?" Savaran's voice started to get an edge to it.

Daria snapped her fingers. "The arrow."

"The arrow?" Savaran parroted.

"Yes, the arrow," Daria said. "The one I gave you that can take out the lich?"

"I know what arrow you're talking about," Savaran was growing impatient.

"You haven't used your lucky shot today," she reminded him.

"No."

"Perfect then!" Savaran couldn't have imagined her smile getting any wider, but it did. "I've got a Plan B." 

And once again, thank you so very much for reading!  Please let me know what you think of the story with a comment and/or a vote for this chapter!