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the intense cold.
He slipped his staff over his shoulder so that it hung down along his
spine and peered through the blinding snow.
    “ Any more of those things
around?”
    “ I think we've accounted for
all of them,” Aeris told him. “But I'm going to take a
quick spin around the tower, just in case. Be right back.”
    With that, the air elemental shot off
and disappeared into the storm.
    Simon walked reluctantly over to the
gates and looked down at the bodies.
    Seen up close and unmoving, the
wights looked even more horrible. Their glazed, dead eyes still
seemed to burn with insatiable hunger and their gaping mouths were
filled with broken, rotting fangs. Their pale skin reminded him of
dead fish; colorless and slimy. And if they had any gender, there was
no way to tell. Their bodies below the waist were masses of scars and
ragged running sores.
    “ They're undead, aren't they?”
he asked Kronk, who took a moment to roll in the snow and clean the
blood and slime off of his body.
    “ They are, master. That is one
reason they are only seen during winter storms; they are vulnerable
to sunlight.”
    Simon watched as the other earthen
followed Kronk's lead and cleaned themselves up.
    “ Well, we can't leave the
bodies here. Can I get you guys to drag them out into the field?”
    “ Of course, master,” the
little earthen said quickly.
    The six elementals easily gathered
the corpses together and pulled them through the gates to the
wind-blown clearing beyond.
    “ Not too far,” Simon
called out. “Just pile them together. If they're undead, I want
to make sure they won't somehow reanimate and attack again.”
    Kronk dragged the last body on to the
hideous pile and stepped back.
    “ How, master?” he asked.
    Simon chanted a familiar spell and
pointed at the bodies.
    “ Fire, of course,” he
said simply. “ Invectis .”
    A
ball of flame streaked down out of the storm and slammed into the
remains, instantly igniting them and turning the entire mass into a
bonfire.
    “ That
should do it,” the wizard told the watching earthen.
    They
stared at the burning bodies for a moment and then Aeris flew through
the gates to join them.
    “ There's
no sign of any others. There were scratches on the door of the
stable, but they didn't get through it. Must have preferred going
after you, my dear wizard.”
    “ The
horses are safe?” Kronk asked anxiously.
    “ They're
fine,” Aeris told him. “Chief was standing just inside
the door. I doubt any wight would have gotten past those horns of
his.”
    “ I
must check on them,” Kronk said, obviously worried and would
have hurried off if Simon hadn't stopped him.
    “ Check
on them later, my friend,” he said and motioned for the group
to follow him.
    Once
they were back inside the wall, the wizard turned and looked at the
six earthen.
    “ Okay,”
he said, yelling a bit over the howling wind. “I know we've
just been through a battle, and frankly I think I might still be in
shock, but I have to know something.”
    He
looked from one elemental to the next. All of them were listening
closely.
    “ Why
were the gates open before the attack?” he asked in a level
tone, trying not to sound accusatory.
    Kronk
looked at his fellow earthen.
    “ Yes,
I would like to know that as well.”
    The
remaining earth elementals looked at each other and then one stepped
forward, looking a bit sheepish.
    “ I
saw the storm coming, sir wizard,” he said reluctantly. “And
I wanted to make sure that both halves of the gate were in perfect
working order before it hit.”
    “ I
see,” Simon said. “Mittas, isn't it?”
    “ Yes,
sir wizard,” Mittas said with a bow.
    “ So
you were just trying to be helpful. I understand that. But the
standing order was not to open the gates under any circumstances
unless you asked permission first. Did you ask Kronk or Aeris before
you did that?”
    “ He
said nothing to me,” Aeris growled as he hovered by the
wizard's right shoulder.
    “ Nor
to