"Urt! Wake up, quickly! You''ve been found!"

    Urt ?r??n?d in complaint as someone poked him in the side.

    "Get up you lazy mage!" A bolt of electric pain shot through Urt, who screamed and leaped clean out of bed, landing hard on the floor.

    "What the Dregg?" he cried, looking up at the bald head of Mangle, who was holding a finger out. A thin line of smoke trailed from the end of it.

    "Get up, they''re looking for you," his old master repeated.

    The urgency of the situation suddenly peculated through Urt''s consciousness, and he scrambled to his feet. "Who?" he said, looking around for his clothes.

    "The necromancers," Mangle said, thrusting Urt''s garments at him. "Quickly, you can slip out of the rear. The others are already preparing." Without any further words, he turned and hurried out of the room, leaving Urt, still not fully awake, to struggle into his clothes.

    A minute or two later, pulling on his robe, he staggered out of the room he''d been given for the night, to see the others scurrying about.

    "Here," said Mangle, thrusting the Devil blade at him. "You need this. You should be able to use it to locate the target."

    "How? How do I do that?" Urt looked blankly at the weapon for a moment, before struggling to sling the sword''s sheath over his back. It was almost immediately tangled in his cloak.

    "You''ve a spellbook, use it," said Mangle. He indicated something on the table, and Urt realised he was pointing at the Lexicon Tormentus, which Urt had gone to such pains to retrieve for the Hag. He''d not even opened it.

    "Come on," Reginald urged. He was clothed and pulling on a backpack. Besides him Lucy also carried a pack on her back. Horace was held in front of her, in both hands

    "Exciting stuff eh, master?" the zombie head said, grinning like a demented football.

    "Urg," said Urt. He grabbed the lexicon and stuffed it into his pants.

    "This way," Mangle indicated, ushering them out through what turned out to be the kitchen. Penfold was there, holding the rear door open. "It was good to see you again lad," his old master said, smiling down at him. "I hope we''ll meet again on this side. Now go, the were-beast knows the way. I''ll try and send the searchers off in the wrong direction, but I don''t know how much of a head start you''ll have."

    "Thank you master," Urt said, nodding.

    The two looked at each other for a second more, before Mangle pushed him out of the door. "Go," he simply said, and closed the door on them.

    "Come on," Reginald said. He was standing in a surprisingly spacious yard, holding the reigns to both their mounts. "There''s a path to the rear we can take, but we''ll need to lead the horses."

    "Let''s move then." Urt grabbed the reigns of his steed and followed Reginald out of a small gate and into a narrow lane that apparently ran behind the houses. Lucy, with Horace, brought up the rear.

    ~ * ~

    There was an explosion of displaced air, and the large and battered form of Nicolas landed with a disorganised thump on the floor.

    "By the Dark Gods!" he swore, as he pulled himself, slowly, up into a sitting position. This mission for his master was proving to be far more painful and costly than he could have ever foreseen.

    He looked around. The emergency teleport spell had taken him to his nearest safe house, which was somewhere near either Groan or Banesville, he couldn''t remember off-hand, especially in his current condition.

    Dragging himself over to to the nearby bed in the small room, he pulled himself onto it and took stock.

    That bitch in white had been unbelievably strong, although unskilled she had a feral magic ability that he''d never encountered before. With Blue out of the fight, he didn''t know if his misdirected spell had finished the other mage or not, the Nothing girl had attacked him. Still trapped under his horse, he''d been forced to defend himself, and there had been a furious exchange of wild magic between them, until some kind of critical mass had built up, causing a giant explosion and forcing him to use his emergency teleport once again.

    The fat necromancer ground his teeth. If his master heard about this he''d be in trouble. He needed to get his mission back on track quickly.

    First things first though. He had some healing to do. His leg was a mangled, crushed mess.

    ~ * ~

    "Come on Urt," shouted Reginald.

    "Hold on!" Urt cast a Slidey-Skin Death spell, hurriedly learned from the Lexicon, against the small group of necromancers and their minions that were chasing them, and had the great p???sur? of seeing their skin slough from their bodies. The screams of agonising pain as they died, writhing in agony, gave him great satisfaction.

    "Here!" Reginald shouted.

    Urt looked over, to see the were-sheep gesturing from the ruins of some long abandoned cottage. He glanced about. Apart from the bloodied mess of his spell, it appeared to be clear from behind for the moment.

    Jogging over to Reginald, who was hunkering down behind a crumbling wall, he grinned wildly.

    "Did you see that?" he said. "That will teach them not to trifle with me."

    "I think they knew already," Horace said. He had been placed on top of the far wall for a better view.

    "What?" Urt asked.

    "There''s a zombie horde intercepting," the head replied. "With mages herding them on. I don''t think you''re going to find it so easy to turn them this time."

    "Dreg''s balls," cursed Urt. He su?k?d in a deep breath and took a look. The approaching zombie horde were cutting off their route to the forest, through which they had to get to escape.

    "Better arm up," he said. He ran back out to the mess that was the result of his spell and dashed this way and that, recovering several useful weapons. A minute later, breathing hard, he handed Lucy and Reginald some bows, arrows and a short sword.

    "We''ll try to get around, run ahead of them," he panted. "Lucy, put Horace in your pack, you''ll need both hands."

    "Yes master," the small zombie replied.

    "Let''s move then," he said.

    With Reginald and Lucy following, he made a dash towards the forest in the most direct clear route he could see, which was hardly the shortest one, with the horde cutting them off as fast as zombies could.

    First contact was moments later, as a small group of warrior skeletons that must have been in hiding somewhere near bore down upon them. Urt made a few quick gestures, and suddenly the undead were working for him. Proximity and their relatively few numbers, in this case, helped him overcome their commanding wizards.

    "Clear a path for us!" he screamed at his new bony troops, as Reginald loosed an arrow at a zombie that had appeared to their left.

    With the skeleton warriors scything a path ahead, they made good progress for a minute or so, until a new wall of walking dead blocked their path. Urt tried to turn them, but only a few responded to his commands. There was no-doubt another necromancer nearby, maintaining control.

    "Over there," said Reginald, pointing to the right, at a cluster of boulders.

    The group changed course and leaped into the meagre cover provided by the large stones.

    "We''re done for," Reginald gasped.

    "Then we go out fighting," Urt said.