A lot of things happened all at once.

  With the spell, I appeared about twenty feet past the door. I was fag away from it, so I quickly spun around.

  At the same time, there was a noise as the first of the zombies emerged from the path to the north, which meant to my right, about forty feet away, and promptly tripped over a root, hitting the ground with a thud.

  Talos turned. “Val! Zombie!”

  A sed zombie appeared, as Valeria ged her focus, and noticed me. “Talos,” she said, and pointed.

  “So let’s talk,” I said. “As it turns out, zombies py an important role in the ey of this region, solidifying peace betweeives of the nearby hills and the denizens of the forest.”

  I must not have been ving, because Valeria said, “I’ll watch her, you kill the zombies.”

  They moved. Talos charged the zombies, ma hand. Valeria moved to get iween me and them, her own sword ready, but she kept her distance.

  “Valeria,” I said. “Do you know you’re beautiful?” Meanwhile, I thought: Charm Person.

  I would have much rather do to Talos. I had no doubt that he was into me, or at least that he liked my body, which was enough to give the spell a boost as I uood it. Valeria was more of an enigma. If it worked, though, maybe she could get Talos to stop.

  But Talos was quicker than I expected someone encased ial from head to toe to be. And he knew what he was about, too, not that killing unarmed zombies required a great deal of skill. Hell, even I could do it. Okay, with a saw, but still. Talos swung his mad the zombie’s head broke like a pi?ata.

  “I what?” Valeria said, looking fused.

  “Stop Talos,” I said. “He’s making a mess of things.”

  “No,” Valeria said. “He’s proteg the forest. He’s proteg you, Abby. And that’s important. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

  Okay, I made Valeria like me, but that didn’t really solve the problem given her worldview. Tellihey were my zombies might stretch the limits of the spell, given her hatred of neancers.

  Talos killed another zombie, this time with two blows to the chest, and short of ambushing him with my katana, I didn’t know what I could do. But I had to try before more of the zombies came, so I started running his way.

  Valerie moved to intercept me. I wasn’t sure whether she was going to fight me me, because she was smiling. I think she was friendly, she just thought she knew what was best and o stop me for my own good.

  I used Dimensioo get past her. Talos was charging dowh, and I ran after him, because it was too twisty for Dimensioo make up a lot of ground in most pces.

  I realized I’d probably broken line of sight with Valerie, which meant she wasn’t charmed anymore. As long as I didn’t use any neancy spells, hopefully she wouldn’t want to kill me.

  The path straightened, and I used Dimension Step again to get ahead of Talos, just as he spotted another zombie. I turo face him and got ready to use Charm Person.

  A familiar voice yelled, “Down, Abby!” I stopped what I was doing and hit the dirt.

  Twang.

  An arrow flew over my head and hit Talos in the shoulder. He had plenty of armor there, but it still peed, a testament to the power of pound bows, thirty-dolr modern arrows, and the skill and power of my favorite archer.

  “By all that’s holy!” yelled Talos. He kept charging, but now his target was behind me. I gnced back that way, quickly, and saw Gren calmly nog another arrow, and another zombie, tinuing on its path.

  “Run away!” I yelled at the zombie.

  They were good at following simple orders, and so the zombie turned and ran. But I was in Talos’s way, too. I rolled off the path between two trees, and he had to decide who to go after. Me, Gren or the Zombie.

  I suppose from his point of view he was just defending himself.

  “She’s got some kind of bewitg magic,” Valeria yelled. “Don’t lht at her!”

  “Freeze,” yelled Gren. “Or the one is going through your head, and don’t think I ’t do it.”

  Valeria screamed. I couldn’t see why, and I instinctively wao go to the rescue of a screaming woman, even if she was oher side.

  Talos didn’t freeze, but he did move from the path, which took him toward me. His gaze shifted around, like he was trying to keep trae but didn’t want to look at me for long. Holy, that robably pretty smart, but it left me with only fatal options if I was going to front him. Instead, I just kept bag up, terrified because a man with a sword was ing toward me and I didn’t know what he was going to do. I was ready to teleport away at the st minute.

  Then I tripped over a root, and fell backward. The hing I knew, he was standing over me, mace lifted.

  “If you harm her, I’m going to kill you,” Gren said. She’d gotten closer, and I knew how deadly she was.

  “If you fire an arrow,” Talos said, “I’m going to kill her. We’re here to hunt zombies and neancers, and I don’t know who you people are, but if you’re on their side, then your lives are forfeit. I’ll take my ce that my armor will protect me, and heaven will receive my spirit if I fail.”

  “Don’t kill him, Gren,” I said. “I think he means well.”

  “If he hurts you, he dies. If he doesn’t, he lives. It’s that simple,” Gren replied. “His choice. I won’t miss. Not at this range.”

  I could teleport, but ft on my back as I was, the only dire I could go was straight up, and there was enough brush around us that the first clear spot was thirty feet up. I’d do it if I had to, but I wasn’t looking forward to the fall. I didn’t think I could Dimensiowi a row fast enough to avoid hitting hard.

  So instead, I moaned.

  “I didn’t touch you,” Talos said, clearly not wanting to provoke Gren to shoot.

  I really hoped I could pull this off. “It’s not that. It’s being at the mercy of a big, strong man.” I squirmed. “It turns me on.” I let out a hopefully sexy gasp, and cupped one of my tits, which made the nipple press harder against the fabric. “The thought of you having your way with me!”

  He stared at my tits. Good enough. Charm Person.

  “Abby,” he said. “I don’t know what’s going o, but you have some very bad friends. Together we defeat them. What do you say.”

  I squirmed some more. “Make love, not war,” I replied.

  His mace wavered a little. “I ’t do anything, she’ll kill me.”

  “Maybe we could have a threesome,” I suggested.

  “With a troll?” he asked.

  It robably my imagination, but I felt like I could hear Gren’s b tighten. “I wouldn’t fuck you if you were the st two-legged being on Amaranth,” she said, her voice as tense as her bow.

  I slithered out from uhe sword, and Talos didn’t know what to do. “Talos, darling, why don’t we take off your armor ao that nasty wound of yours. We wouldn’t want it to get ied.”

  “Troll, I’ll let her go,” Talos said. “You let me and Valeria go, and no one dies.”

  Gren ughed, which probably wasn’t very reassuring to him.

  In for a penny, in for a pound. I got to my feet and took my top off. Talos’s head swiveled to stare.

  You’ve got him aroused. He’s wounded. Now! Triple damage!

  “Drop the sword, and you live,” Gren said.

  “I’ll guarantee your safety,” I said. And then I wondered if I could. “Don’t kill him,” I told Gren.

  “His life depends on yours. And your naked knockers are very distrag.”

  “Well, then,” I said. “You two have something in on. Give me your mace, Talos, and I’ll keep you safe.”

  He didn’t want to, clearly. And he didn’t. But he did lower it. “Tell me why you’re proteg the zombies,” he said.

  I pulled my top ba. “Sure,” I said.

  “Well,” said Xy, stepping out of the tree I was standio. “I was willing to watch while she was trying to seduce you, but now…” she shrugged, and vines ed their way around Talos, pinning his mace arm to his side. “I left Valeria in front of the crypt.”

  I was w why Valeria had screamed. “Is she alright?” I asked, as Talos growled.

  “She’s fine,” Xy said, dismissively. “I was tempted to py with her, but I worried you needed me.”

  “And I’m gd you’re here.” I wao talk to Talos and Valeria both, but now that Xy had them separated, I wasn’t sure how to mahat. “And you, too, Gren. But how?”

  Gren spoke. “After you told Xy about your padin problem, she sent one of the trolls w with her to tell me to guard the zombies on their way back. We figured the padins would look for them eventually, and of course that would mess with the peace deal. So I watched over them. But the zombies don’t follow my orders, and they got separated, so I stayed in the middle. Guardian Gren, a foundering failure.”

  “You did great,” I told Gren. I thought I might be able to mend at least one of the zombies. Possibly using the other for parts? I’d have to see how it worked, but I wasn’t going to talk about that in front of Talos.

  “And me?” Xy asked.

  “You did great, too,” I told her. “Arriving in the nick of time.”

  “I’ve been having the forest creatures watch these two,” Xy said proudly.

  “You’re a dryad?” Talos asked.

  “Yes,” Xy said, preening.

  “Dryads are supposed to protect the forest,” Talos said.

  “From people like you,” Xy told him.

  “From evil neancers,” Talos said.

  Xy shook her head. “There aren’t any evil neancers here. Abby’s the best. Just the sweetest necro – oops.”

  I face palmed.

  “Sorry, Abby,” Xy said, looking downcast.

  “Well, the truth will set us free, they say. Speaking of which, I think we o gather our prisoners in one pce, so let’s disarm this one.” I grabbed his mad pulled. He tried to resist, but then Xy tightehe vines on his arm, and I got it from him. I moved behind his back so that I could pop it into my bag of holding without him seeing it. “Let him go, and we’ll walk him over to Valeria. Then you bind him up again, and we’ll have a little talk.”

  “You won’t get away with this,” Talos said, and from the tone of his voice I realized that moving behind him had broken the spell.

  “Wan?” asked Gren. “She says the word, and you’ll be a hole-headed holy warrior.”

  So we marched him. I drew my katana, and walked behind him, poking the back of his head just enough to let him know it was there. Gre an arrow poi his head. He didn’t try to make a break for it, I suspect because he wao know what had happeo his partner.

  Were they just partners? Brother and sister? Or something romantic? I remembered what Enash had said about the vow of celibacy, but maybe that didn’t apply if they were married.

  I heard a moan, and Talos moved forward. I wao get there, too, so I quied my step behind him.

  Valeria was there. Her legs were bent bad spread open, and her ankles were tied to her wrists, leaving her modesty protected by a narrow bit of steel. She was struggling against the vines, and a sheen of sweat covered her chest and face.

  There was wetness ohighs, too.

  “Valeria!” Talos yelled and ran forward.

  A vine whipped up and tripped him, and he ended up face forward in Valeria’s crotch. His forehead hit steel, stunning him for a moment. I pulled him back.

  “ you him up, now?” I asked Xy.

  “Maybe we should take off his armor first?” Xy asked.

  “Good idea.” Gren and I held him, helping where we could, while Xy found the buckles that held his armor on. In a few moments we had him in nothing but a cloth loincloth. Xy reached for it.

  “Leave him that.”

  “But how I tie his balls up if that’s in the way?”

  “Just leave it,” I said.

  “Merciful mage,” Gren said. “Stops the testicur torture.”

  Valeria moaned again. “I ’t get out!” she whimpered.