The Sunken Tower

by James E. Wisher

  A rustling sound behind him pulled his attention from the journal. He turned slowly.

  Please don’t be the body. Please don’t be the body.

  He found himself face to chest with the now-standing corpse.

  “Shade!” The cry for help ripped out of him before he even realized he was going to do it.

  The body leapt at him.

  Rondo scrambled back, barely avoiding a flying tackle. His escape was brief.

  The body scrambled after him, flailing with its arms as it tried to get a grip on him. Rondo dearly wanted to avoid that.

  Something tripped him, sending him sprawling to the floor.

  His headless pursuer pounced, pinning him down.

  “Shade!” Rondo screamed.

  He batted grasping hands away as the body tried to get its hands around his throat. The damn thing was strong. Far stronger than anything that should have been dead had any right to be.

  Its left fist crashed into Rondo’s temple.

  The room spun and spots filled his vision.

  The body wrapped both hands around his neck and started to squeeze.

  “What’s the pro—” Shade sprinted over and kicked the body hard in the chest.

  The blow broke its grip and sent it flying ten feet across the room.

  Shade pulled Rondo to his feet. “You okay?”

  “No,” Rondo croaked, barely recognizing his own voice. He coughed and tried again. “What kept you?”

  “Figured you were jumping at shadows.” Shade had both his daggers drawn. “Thought maybe the mean old head was picking on you. Never guessed the body was the problem. How does it even know where you… are.”

  Shade leapt over to Polymus’s head and grabbed it by the hair. “Hey, knock it off with the body. Unless you want me to sever all your tendons.”

  The body collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.

  “So you figured it out,” Polymus said. “Here I thought you were the muscle not the brains. Yes, I can control my body with my thoughts. And what happened to your companion? Did he abandon you when it became clear you had no hope of making me talk?”

  “Hardly.” Shade set the head back down. “When he gets back, you’ll be dealing with our leader. Unless you want to make it easier on yourself and tell us what we need to know now.”

  “I could tell you everything you wanted to know and you still wouldn’t understand. Unless you’re secretly a genius alchemist only pretending to be killer.”

  “This guy’s got the personality of a constipated vulture,” Shade said. “We’ve got at least two days to kill. I don’t suppose you brought any cards?”

  Rondo shook his head. He doubted he could concentrate on a game anyway. Besides, there was so much to look at in the lab. Surely he could find a way to entertain himself for a few days.

  A few steps brought Rondo to the nearest glass vat. Inside, a vaguely humanoid figure with prominent draconic features floated, still as a corpse, in an amber solution. He shuddered. Hideous thing. Why did all alchemists seem intent on pickling their failures? Rondo doubted he’d ever understand.

  He turned away to find Shade sitting on the floor sharpening his daggers. Beyond him the body started twitching again. Just like it did the last time before it rose and attacked him.

  “Shade.”

  The moment the assassin looked at him, the headless body sprang to its feet and ran for the far wall.

  Shade whipped a dagger into its back, but the body didn’t even slow.

  It reached a section of wall devoid of bookcases and pressed a slightly protruding stone.

  Shade sprang to his feet, ran over, and slammed the body to the ground before ripping his dagger free.

  His effort came too late.

  The room rumbled as six hidden compartments appeared behind bookcases that slid into the floor. Inside each compartment was a scaly humanoid whose hands ended in curved claws. They all opened their eyes at the same time.

  “Shade?” Rondo said.

  “I know, I know.” Shade slashed the body behind both knees and ran over beside Rondo.

  “My creations are going to tear you limb from limb,” Polymus said.

  “Oh, shut up,” Shade muttered.

  Slowly, as if waking from a long sleep, the creatures stumbled out of their niches.

  Never one to waste an opening, Shade charged in and slashed the nearest monster. His blade skipped off the hybrid’s scales. For his part, Rondo saw no need to get in the way. He inched back, keeping the workbench between him and the monsters. It made a poor barrier but was better than nothing.

  Shade tried stabbing the hybrid with equally poor results. If the assassin couldn’t defeat those things now, how were they going to fight them once they fully woke?

  Rondo grasped the workbench both to steady himself and to keep his hands from trembling. When he did, he found a protrusion on the underside. Since their situation couldn’t get any worse, he pressed it.

  A second rumble ran through the lab.

  “What did you do?” Shade asked as he slowly backed away from the hybrid he’d tried to stab. The creature stared at him with freaky yellow eyes. It didn’t seem quite sure what it was supposed to do.

  “Kil—” Rondo slapped his hand over Polymus’s mouth before he could give his creations an order.

  A section of wall behind the desk had dropped into the floor revealing a passage running deeper underground.

  “I found a hidden tunnel,” Rondo said. “I suggest we take it.”

  “Where does it go?” Shade asked.

  “Somewhere else. I don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty good to me.”

  Rondo kept his hand firmly across Polymus’s mouth as he picked the head up and moved back toward the passage. Shade joined him a moment later and the pair inched their way backwards down the tunnel.

  A few seconds later the first of the hybrids appeared in the mouth of the tunnel, blocking some of their meager light.

  Shade looked back over his shoulder, but Rondo feared to take his eyes off the approaching monsters. Stupid as it was, he imagined if he looked away they’d rush him and attack.

  “Why aren’t those things tearing us apart?” Shade asked.

  “Because I stopped our decapitated companion from giving the order. I don’t think these hybrids are capable of independent action like the bigger ones upstairs.”

  “Are you sure?” Shade asked.

  “No, but since we’re still alive, I feel okay about my theory. Can you tell where this tunnel leads?”

  “Down into the dark, but other than that I haven’t a clue.”

  Once more into the unknown. Rondo wanted to explore forgotten ruins though he would have preferred to do it without half a dozen monsters shambling after him. Polymus tried to work his jaw free of Rondo’s grasp, but Rondo squeezed harder. One word from the former prince and they were dead.

  Chapter 8

  Time passed and the light from the lab gradually dwindled to little more than a speck in the distance. The hybrids were still chasing them. Rondo could hear them breathing and every once in a while, one would pass in front of the light. They appeared to be keeping a pretty steady distance away, about twenty yards or so.

  Beside him Shade was silent and invisible in the dark. Hopefully he was still there. There weren’t, as far as Rondo could tell, any side passages branching off from the main tunnel. Polymus kept trying to speak every few seconds and Rondo’s hand was getting cramped. He was tempted to pass the head off to Shade but feared bungling the transfer and letting Polymus get a word out.

  A crimson light flared to life. Rondo winced at the sudden brightness but kept his grip on Polymus. He could see the hybrids trailing them again. The light made them look blood drenched.

  “Shade?”

  “Hang on, it looks like there’s a big room ahead of us. Stay here while I check it out.”

  Rondo stopped and the hybrids stopped. How much intelligence did they really have? They
seemed like little more than mindless automatons. He could certainly see why Polymus wouldn’t want them to be aggressive like the monsters upstairs – the damage they could do to the lab would be immense – but guardians incapable of doing anything without an order weren’t very useful, especially if you couldn’t give them an order.

  “The room’s empty,” Shade said. “Sort of empty anyway.”

  “What does sort of empty mean?” Rondo asked.

  “You have to see it for yourself. Hurry.”

  Rondo trusted the hybrids to keep doing what they were doing, turned, and jogged to the bottom of the tunnel and through another door into a large, round room. It was indeed empty as long as you didn’t count the gaping hole in the center of the floor. It looked about ten yards across and so deep he couldn’t see the bottom.

  The pit was ringed with deeply incised markings that were the source of the ruddy glow. There was no other exit from the chamber. The pit gave Rondo an idea. He and Shade moved to the far side as the hybrids emerged into the room.

  “Do you have a length of rope and something we can use to gag Polymus?” Rondo asked.

  “Of course, no assassin worth the name goes anywhere without a length of rope. Why?”

  “I’ve got a plan, assuming those hybrids are as stupid as they act.”

  Shade unwound a length of silk rope from around his waist and pulled a rag out of his pocket. With the hybrids shambling their way around the pit, Rondo held Polymus while Shade jammed the rag practically all the way down his throat and out the hole in the bottom.

  Polymus grumbled and gagged out something unintelligible which Rondo ignored. He took the rope from Shade, wrapped it around Polymus, and lowered him down into the pit about fifteen feet.

  The hybrids stared at his head dangling like a worm at the end of a hook. Now if they’d only take the bait.

  As a group they turned and marched straight toward the head and right over the edge of the pit to tumble out of sight.

  When they were gone, Shade clapped him on the shoulder. “Clever. How did you ever come up with that idea?”

  “While we were retreating, I couldn’t help noticing the hybrids kept staring at Polymus rather than us. I figured they wanted to get to him. When you found that pit the idea just popped into my head.”

  “Well it worked, that’s the main thing. Let’s pull him up and get out of here. Hopefully there are no more nasty surprises waiting for us.”

  Rondo pulled Polymus up and untied him before removing the gag.

  “Do you know what you’ve done?” Polymus asked.

  “Beaten your monsters?” Rondo said.

  “Grandfather wasn’t only interested in alchemy. He also tried his hand at diabolism.”

  “You mean…” Rondo stared into the pit, a sick feeling twisting his guts.

  “Yes, I mean you idiots just threw six sacrifices into a demonic portal.”

  Polymus had barely fallen silent when a pillar of red light shot out of the hole. When it vanished, the sound of steel scraping against stone emerged from the pit.

  “What is that?” Shade asked.

  The answer appeared seconds later when the first hybrid’s claw slapped over the lip of the pit. It dragged its head over the edge a moment later. The creature’s yellow eyes now burned with crimson flames. It bared its fangs and fire dripped from its mouth.

  “I think we should go,” Rondo said.

  Shade darted in and jammed his dagger into the hybrid’s eye. When he pulled back the blade had melted all the way down to the hilt.

  “Agreed.” Shade tossed his ruined weapon away and they ran.

  The two of them had barely started up the tunnel when the tapping of claws on stone came from behind them.

  Rondo didn’t dare look back.

  He ran with everything he had.

  His lungs burned and his heart raced.

  Any moment he expected a clawed hand to drag him down and tear him to pieces.

  The light of the tunnel entrance appeared ahead.

  It wasn’t far now. He could make it.

  Rondo had no thoughts to spare for Shade. Every bit of his focus was on putting one foot in front of the other without tripping. If he went down, it was all over.

  Behind him the sound of pursuit grew louder. The monsters were closing in.

  The door was only yards ahead.

  With a final burst of speed Rondo lunged through, tossed the head aside, and ran for the workbench.

  He pressed the button and the hidden door rumbled shut.

  Back in the tunnel glowing red eyes were far too close for comfort.

  One of them stuck a hand through the quickly closing gap. The door slammed shut, severing it at midforearm. The appendage fell to the floor, flopped around a few times like a fish out of water, and burst into flames. Luckily it was a good twenty feet from the nearest books or they might have been in big trouble.

  “That was close.”

  Rondo nearly jumped out of his skin when Shade spoke. “Could you please make a little noise?”

  Shade grinned. “I figured since you knew I was ahead of you, you wouldn’t be startled. You did know I had already made it into the lab, right?”

  “Of course I did,” Rondo said. “If you couldn’t outrun me, then you wouldn’t be much of a warrior. What now?”

  “We wait for Jax to get back with the boss, just like we were supposed to. Assuming no more surprises.”

  Polymus made a muffled noise from his spot on the floor.

  Rondo picked him up. “What’s your problem?”

  “Do you imagine that door will keep the possessed hybrids back? It’ll delay them certainly, but not for long.”

  “How long?” Shade asked.

  “And what happens when they break through?” Rondo added.

  “I don’t know how long and let’s just say I’m glad I’m immortal and can’t feel pain.”

  Rondo and Shade shared a look. It was time to think of a new plan.

  The possessed hybrids’ constant scratching made it impossible for Rondo to rest and when he tried to read, all he thought about was getting killed by some bizarre monster. As best as he could figure, a day and change had passed since they were forced to flee back to the lab. Umbra should have picked up Lord Black by now and be on his way back. With his power, surely Lord Black could handle a few demons. That thought was the one thing keeping Rondo from losing his mind.

  He was well and truly sick of monsters of all shapes and sizes. Somehow, Shade had found a clear spot on the floor to stretch out and as far as Rondo could tell was fast asleep. If he’d needed any further proof of his friend’s mental health issues, that would have settled the matter.

  Rondo shut the cover of the book he’d been staring at for the past fifteen minutes and walked to the secret door. The stone still appeared intact. It was probably just his imagination that the scratching was getting louder. Yeah, that had to be it.

  He turned back to the bench. “Are you sure there isn’t another way out of here?”

  Polymus rolled his eyes. “For the tenth time, no. The more exits, the more passages that would need defending. Grandfather built this place to be secure. Probably to reduce the chances of any demons he summoned escaping into the empire.”

  “With all the power at his disposal, why did Emperor Alexandros bother with all this? For the gods’ sake he could command dragons. Wasn’t that enough?”

  “‘Enough’ wasn’t in Grandfather’s vocabulary. The only word that interested him was ‘more.’ If he could control dragons, why not demons? If pure-blooded dragons were good, why not make hybrids and diversify your forces? He died when I was still a teenager, but I think what he liked most was the idea of twisting life to suit his whims. It is quite addictive.”

  There was a crunch behind him. Rondo turned to see a finger-sized hole in the door and a glowing eye staring out of it.

  “Oh, hell. Shade!”

  “Can’t a condemned man sleep in peace?” The
assassin sat up, took one look at the door, and sprang to his feet. “Won’t be long now.”

  “My thoughts exactly. Any ideas?”

  “We only have one option really. Fall back to the cage and pray the bars hold until the boss arrives.”

  “I’m not going to lie, that’s not the best plan I’ve ever heard.”

  “Me either, but it’s all I’ve got. Seeing as how I can’t kill them, running is the only option.”

  At least it was an option Rondo knew well. “Do we go now or wait until they’re almost through?”

  The hole had grown as big as a fist and the hybrids were expanding it at an alarming rate.

  “Unless you want to watch, I say we go now. I need to open the lock then close it again. Not exactly something best done with a pack of demon things breathing down your neck.”

  Rondo grabbed Polymus by the hair. “After you.”

  “What about my body?” Polymus asked.

  Shade shrugged. “We don’t really need it. Your brain has everything the boss is interested in.”

  He grabbed their gear and led the way while Rondo fell in behind. They hurried up the dark passage and soon found themselves at the heavy steel bars of the hybrid’s cage. There were six inches between them and those humanoid hybrids were pretty skinny. If they could squeeze through the gaps, Rondo and Shade were going to be in trouble.

  The heavy lock clicked open just as a crash came from the lab.

  “Sounds like they’re through the door.” Rondo stepped into the cage and Shade joined him before getting to work locking them in.

  Any second now Rondo expected to see a line of glowing eyes come charging down the tunnel. When nearly a minute passed with no sign of them, he asked, “Where are they?”

  Shade clicked the lock shut and stepped back to a safe distance. “Who cares?”

  “They’re tearing my body to pieces,” Polymus said in a surprisingly calm tone. “Don’t worry, they’ll be along in a few minutes.”