The sense of the talisman I feel via my Sight is powerful, but not specific. It’s not even like following a bright light or loud sound—more like following a smell that’s been stirred about by a breeze. It leads me first in one direction, then turns a bit, then turns a bit more. We wind up back in the burned, devastated part of the village, picking our way among the broken remnants of houses where once people lived, and laughed, and loved. I’m so focused on interpreting this mystic sense that I don’t even notice the second bonewalker until it is charging straight at me.

It is a pitiful looking thing—missing an entire arm, as well as its jaw and a several fingers from its remaining hand. It is still frightfully fast, though, and holds a rusted dagger.

I recoil in surprise, but hardly have a chance to catch a breath before I feel a hard shove from behind, and I stagger forward into the bonewalker as I struggle to catch my balance. Desperately, I bring my staff around in front of me, barely managing to deflect a vicious stab from the dagger, and follow through with a blow across the bonewalker’s midsection. It is a lucky strike, and devastates the bonewalker’s ribcage. Bones crack and shatter, exploding around us.

The blow knocks the bonewalker back, and I take quickly look around, trying to understand what shoved me—but all I see is Delkash looking grim behind me. Was it him? Why would he shove me?

I can’t afford to think about it, and spend just one more heartbeat considering the space around us, looking for favorable terrain, anything I might put between the creature and myself. There’s a crumbling wall nearby and I try to maneuver so it is on the far side of the bonewalker, hoping to pin the monster against it. With a shout I raise my staff and charge.

The bonewalker is fast. Quicker than I would have imagined possible, it steps aside and I run past it, barely managing to stop myself short of running into the wall. As I turn around, my heart sinks; another bonewalker is approaching from between two ruined houses.

For a brief moment I wonder if it is the original, the first one, the one I’d been sent to defeat, but no, it couldn’t be. This one is in even worse shape than the beast I was fighting. It is missing a foot, and one of its arms ends at the elbow. Most of its ribs are shattered and broken, and a large chunk is missing from its left hip. It limps toward me, joining its companion, and wielding a thick, blackened club.

Any hope I might have had that the second one would be disabled in some way by the missing foot flees as soon as it charges. It may be limping, but it limps fast. They come at me from both sides and I brace myself and dive between them.

Pain explodes from my left thigh, and I nearly collapse as I try to put weight on that leg. Glancing down, I see blood spreading from a gash where the bonewalker’s dagger scored a hit. I grit my teeth and struggle to maneuver myself so one bonewalker is behind the other.

Raising my staff, I charge again. I hit the nearest of the creatures—unfortunately, not the one I’d hit before—and immediately have to retreat as the monsters come at me in return.

I try to feint, to draw them into another charge, but they are trying to flank me again. A detached, curious part of me is surprised that they seem to be working together, and I wonder how intelligent they really are. A more desperate, frightened part of me stumbles over a stone as I back away, nearly falling.

I look to Delkash, who stands to one side with his arms folded. Rigi is flying in confused circles overhead. I feel utterly alone.

They come at me again and I barely dodge them, ducking desperately to the right. I take a hit on my left shoulder from the heavy club. Pain flares like fire. I feel my head spinning. I’m stunned, perhaps even in shock. I can’t take much more of this.

Another dodge, and another close call. The dagger misses me, but punctures my pack. Water pours from the hole—the dagger must have found one of my waterskins. I grit my teeth and try to focus.

This time when the bonewalkers come at me Rigi is suddenly between us, baring his talons and beating the bonewalkers about their weathered skulls. They flail at him, swinging dagger and club wildly, but he deftly avoids them. His distraction is enough to buy me a moment to center myself, and find a better position, but not much else. The bonewalkers are upon me in an instant, and I retreat again.

There is a scrap of old house behind me, and I move behind the broken wall, finding a shielded space. I’m hurt. I’m stunned.

I’m desperate.

“Delkash!” I shout. “Help me!”

I can hear the bonewalkers scrabbling at the stone wall between us, and I’m sure at any moment they’ll find a way inside my shelter. “Help me!” I cry again.

“Apprentice yourself to me,” shouts Delkash.

“What?” I can’t believe what I’m hearing.

“Apprentice yourself to me!” he shouts again. “Make me your master, and I will aid you here.”

My mind reels. If I apprentice myself to Delkash, there’d be no subsequent apprenticeship with Hilda. I would have to forsake my vow. It would mean giving up.

But the bonewalkers—!

I shake my head. My vow, my ambition, is too great. “I would rather die!” I shout, and I burst from my hiding place, staff already in motion.

The bonewalkers try to strike at me, but I find new energy in my desperation and anger. Their blows miss me, but mine strikes them.

With a single blow, my staff crashes through the clavicle of one, and the spine of the other, and the beasts explode in pieces. I stumble through them, off-balance, and spin to protect myself, but all I see are two collapsing piles of bone and rotting leather.

They’re gone. I’ve done it.

And I’m alive.