by Eric Vall
Before us were two hulking twenty foot stone statues on either side of us whose features had been worn away with time. Snow drifted down onto their heads and swords and onto their carved armor. They faced each other and in their hands were drawn swords, and the weapons crossed over one another. It was as though they were there to greet us. Behind them was a path lined with stone pillars that were nearly as tall as the statues.
“Who are these guys supposed to be?” Rana tilted her head back to look at the towering figures as we strode past them. “The welcoming committee?”
“Those are two of Tamarisch’s greatest kings,” Annalíse replied as we walked between the pillars. “King Thom and King Berold. King Thom died in the first great war, and King Berold, his son, gave his life defending our lands during the troll uprising.”
“Oh, I see,” Rana mumbled. “Pretty grim history if you ask me.”
“There’s the entrance,” I pointed to the wide opening in the mountain’s side at the end of the rows of pillars. It looked large enough for us to enter shoulder to shoulder.
“I wonder what kind of stuff is in there,” Rana said as she and Annalíse each lit a torch for themselves. “Ice monsters probably, or man eating polar bears.”
“What?” Carmedy cringed as fear sparked in her green eyes.
“There aren’t any polar bears in Tamarisch,” Annalíse waved a hand passively as we all entered into the dungeon side by side. “Those are only found on Tintagal.”
“Oh, thank goodness,” Carmedy breathed a sigh of relief.
“You did not deny the presence of the ice monsters,” Morrigan pointed out.
“Well, I don’t know that for certain,” Annalíse said slowly, and Carmedy regained her frightened expression.
“That means there are,” Rana groaned. “Maybe not in this one but I’d bet my tail that one of these dungeons has some.”
“There’s only one way to find out,” I said with a mischievous grin aimed at the fox woman.
Then we entered the dungeon.
It was pitch-black inside and quiet except for the wind whistling through the tunnels. The sides of the cavern into which we had entered were carved from black rock with icy veins running along them. Positioned along the walls were the same stone pillars that we had seen outside. They were also carved of the same dark rock and many were crumbling from age, thus leaving loose pieces on the ground that were kicked away as we passed by. My hand brushed against one of the pillars as I strode past, and it felt like ice.
The wind pushed and pulled through the tunnel as we carried on, threatening to extinguish the torches that Annalíse and Rana carried, but their flames held fast despite noticeably quivering from the brisk air currents. As we continued, I noticed Rana’s face twist into a frown, and her tail twitch in the way that it always did when she was annoyed by something.
“Is there something wrong?” I questioned the fox woman. “Do you hear something?”
“I thought I did,” Rana murmured, “with the wind whistling in here, I’m not for sure. But I thought I heard something… scratching.”
“Scratching?” Morrigan raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean by something scratching?”
“I mean like the sound of something scratching against a rock, or something like that.” Rana bit her lip. “Like I said, I’m not completely sure.”
“Perhaps it is one of your ice monsters,” Morrigan said blankly but the corner of her mouth twisted upwards ever so slightly.
“How very droll,” Rana rolled her eyes. “That could be exactly what I heard you know. You won’t think it’s so funny when they come busting in here.”
“Ice monsters or not, everyone be on your guard,” I instructed. “If Rana says she heard something I trust her judgement.”
“Thanks Mas-- Demon Man,” Rana said.
“You called him Master!” Carmedy giggled loudly, and the three other shushed her with sharp hisses.
“No, I didn’t!” Rana whispered.
“It sounded like you--”
“Well, I didn’t, Carmedy.” The fox-girl glanced at me, cleared her throat, and then gestured frontward. “Everyone be quiet so I can listen.”
We didn’t come across any ice monsters or any other living creatures as we continued through the dark pillar lined tunnel, but that didn’t mean that there weren’t any in here. The fact that we had made it so far into the dungeon unchallenged was interesting, but I had a feeling our uneventful trek wasn’t going to remain uneventful too much longer. Finally, we emerged from the mouth of the tunnel and into a dark cavern, and I felt the air change as it became unfocused.
“Carmedy, can you give us a little light please?” I asked the feline.
“You got it,” the little alchemist said brightly. She pushed back her cloak and reached a hand to the belt around her waist that held her pouches of chemicals. The cat plucked two of the bundles, quickly untied them, poured the contents of one pouch into the other and gave it a quick shake. Carmedy removed her enchanted elven slingshot from her cloak pocket and loaded the bundle into the golden weapon. She squinted an eye as she pulled back the bands and aimed toward the ceiling before letting fly. The bundle flew into the air above our heads and exploded into a brilliant blue light.
The luminescent presence extinguished the darkness and bathed the cavern’s surfaces in a radiant sea of blue.
“Hey, look, it’s snowing in here,” Carmedy grinned, held her hands up to catch the descending flakes, and we all tilted our heads upward.
“That’s odd, is there an opening in the ceiling?” Annalíse frowned as she scrutinized the roof over our heads.
“No,” I shook my head after examining the ceiling. “There don’t appear to be any holes.”
“It’s snowing inside the cave,” Rana snorted. “Why am I not surprised?”
“How very strange,” Morrigan proclaimed as she suddenly raised her hand to gesture ahead of us. Several yards in front of us was a large frozen lake that glimmered in the sapphire light. Beyond that lake was an army of white stone statues. There appeared to be about one hundred of them, and they were arranged in neat rows ten across and ten long. It was as though they were in formation about to march off to war. The five of us crept closer to the carvings, and we spread out amongst their ranks to inspect them.
The statues were carved from flawless white marble, and though they were covered in dust and cobwebs, they showed no other signs of age. They bore no chips or chinks and their faces and features were still immaculately carved as though they had been crafted only a week ago.
“What is the purpose of these sculptures?” Morrigan asked under her breath as Fea and Macha beat their wings restlessly.
The statues were identical in height and each stood over six feet tall, but every last one of their carved characteristics was unique. Some stood tall with their hands by their sides while others looked poised to attack with weapons in their stony clutches. Some had their mouths gaped open as though they were sounding a battle cry, others wore gruesome looks, while others still had stoic expressions etched into their faces.
“Look at their helmets,” I called to the others as I studied the statue in front of me. I had observed that some of the men I’d seen so far wore the familiar bear helmets that soldiers from Tamarisch were known to wear. The particular figure that stood before me had one cradled in the crook of one arm.
“Yes, I recognize these men,” Annalíse said from the row beside mine, and her eyes roamed around the white figures. “They are in the likeness of our legendary ancient warriors. The mighty Ordonn, King Galterius, Maolmhuire, they’re all here.”
“Whoever sculpted these was very skilled indeed,” I said thoughtfully as I gazed upon the carving of a very fearless looking bearded man with a battle axe in his clutches. “They’re very realistic looking.”
“I’ll say,” Carmedy said from a few rows down. She stood on her tiptoes to look closer at one sculpture with a long braid that reached to his tailbone, and
a spear reared back in his hand. “They look so real.”
“Yeah, yeah, they’re works of art,” Rana said as she weaved in and out of the warriors. “Look, no offense to your ancestors or anything Annalíse but this place is giving me the creeps. It’s like a tomb in here or something.”
“Perhaps that’s exactly what it is,” I nodded, “or at least a tomb of sorts, perhaps a shrine to remember Tamarisch’s greatest fallen warriors.”
“That’s all well and fine,” Rana replied, “but it’s creepy nonetheless. Let’s get out of-- Hey! Cut that out Carmedy! That’s not funny!” The fox-girl suddenly yelped, and spun around to face the cat-girl
“What did I do?” the cat cocked her head to one side as she walked behind Rana.
“Stop playing around,” the fox hissed. “This place is freaking me out enough as it is, I don’t need you pulling on my tail trying to scare me.”
“But I didn’t pull on your tail,” Carmedy shook her head.
“Sure,” Rana rolled her eyes and waved her paw. “Go ahead and act innocent. Now if you all don’t mind can we please-- Carmedy knock it off! It wasn’t funny the first time and isn’t funny now.”
“What are you talking about,” I heard the cat call back from somewhere up ahead. “I’m not even near you.”
“Do you really expect me to believe… to believe…” the fox’s voice trailed off. And out of the corner of my eye I saw her turn around. I turned to see Rana staring up at one of the marble statues with her green eyes widened in shock. The sculpture was turned in the opposite of his comrades and now faced the fox. In its stony clutches was Rana’s tail and its eyes flashed with a pale blue light as it slowly closed its grip.
Chapter 4
“Let go of me you marble freak!” Rana shouted as she yanked her tail away from the statues grasp.
The red-headed woman quickly backed away into another of the marble figures. Then she gasped as its eyes flickered with the same blue light and started to flex its arms. The fox woman sprinted out of the rows of soldiers, and the rest of us raced to join her. One by one each of the stone warriors’ eyes started to glow just as the others had, and their bodies started to come to life. Their fingers twitched, and their limbs moved as they shook themselves free of their statuesque poses.
Then all at once, the horde of soldiers turned their eerie blue gazes upon us and started to march quickly in our direction. As they walked, the sound of their stone feet scraping against the rocky surfaces echoed throughout the cavern.
Our group took defensive positions as they enemy came toward us. Those who had been depicted with their weapons drawn now pointed them at us threateningly, and those whose weapons had been sheathed now took them out as they hastened toward us.
“Uh, I’m getting a wild idea that we’re not exactly welcome in here,” Rana grumbled. She reached into each of the square leather pouches that were strapped to her thighs and removed two of her elvish daggers. As she spoke, Carmedy loaded a bundle into her sling shot and Morrigan’s eyes began to turn black in preparation of an attack.
“I’m afraid we’re going to have to do battle with your kinsmen Annalíse,” I said as I removed the God Slayer from my void pocket. Then I tapped the pole on the ground, and the jagged sinister faces of my weapon immediately retracted.
“I take no offense,” Annalíse glared at the approaching throng as she removed Bloodscale from her back and unsheathed the great sword at her hip. “They’re only statues.”
With that the warrior princess released a battle cry and plunged into the army with the rest of us at her heels. The human woman swung Bloodscale over her shoulder, brought it down on the head of one of the soldiers, and then swung her great sword to parry the stone blade of another. The sound of metal scraping rock rang in the air, but Annalíse’s attack seemed to have had little to no effect on them.
A few small pieces of marble fell away from the first soldier she had struck, and he stumbled back a bit, but he quickly regained his footing and charged at her spear in hand virtually unscathed. The sword of the other soldier hadn’t taken any damage and Annalíse’s blade was still locked with his. With a heavy raspy grunt, she raised her leg and kicked the sword wielding statue away and turned to face her opponent with the spear. The white warrior positioned his spear to pierce her chest but Annalíse brought one sword down on his weapon to pin it down and attempted to slice through the figure’s torso with the other. Just like before, the soldier appeared to take no damage, the only proof of Annalíse’s attack being a shallow scratch mark along its chest.
“These statues aren’t going down easily,” the freckled woman sneered as her opponent yanked his spear away from her hold.
The blue-eyed sculpture raised its weapon, once again poised to attack, but before it could, I unleashed a bit of my power and several ribbons of lava materialized around the marble ankles and started to work their way up. The streams of scorching fluid snaked along the figures legs, wrapped around its torso, and coiled around its arms.
“What the--” Annalíse blinked in surprise and then she turned to see me behind her with my fingers curled upward. The statue halted and frantically shook its limbs in an effort to escape the snake like formations of lava, but there was no escaping my fiery grasp. Steam erupted from the soldier’s body and stray drops of lava melted away the snow near the soldier’s feet. His face elongated as his features started to liquify, and his limbs began to lose their shape as he slowly dissolved into a puddle of white liquid. A group of the marble warriors attempted to surround us, and I raised my hand to call forth the power of the lava god once more. Just as before, the soldiers that circled around us became twisted up in my deadly ribbons of lava. The sculptures stamped their feet and swatted their arms at the living lava but to no avail, and soon they too were reduced to mere puddles.
“I feel like I’m fighting a losing battle over here,” I heard Rana call out from somewhere in the fray.
I glanced over to see the fox woman attempt to slash the arms of a few of the sculptures that surrounded her, but just like Annalíse, her efforts proved futile. With a grunt of frustration, the fox sent a few well executed kicks and punches into the faces, torsos, and kneecaps of her adversaries. As they stumbled backward, Rana darted in and out of the horde of stone soldiers and slashed all around herself with her elvish daggers. The white warriors attempted to strike her with their swords and axes and spears, but the red-headed fox was far too swift.
I quickly curled my fingers upward and consumed several more of the sculptures with my boiling lava. Then I glanced in Morrigan’s direction and saw that she was no better off than Rana. The elf’s mage tattoos glowed and pulsated with blood red fury and trails of crimson fog-like magic already floated from the tips of her fingers and were curled around a few of the men, but the marble soldiers continued to charge toward her though completely unharmed by her attack.
“I’ll help you, Morrigan!” Carmedy rolled through the legs of two statues, and popped up next to the elf with her golden slingshot ready. Then the cat-girl took aim at the nearest statue and let fly with a small bundle of her mixture. It exploded upon impact, caused the figure, and the three nearest to her target to disintegrate into crumbled bits of rock. Then Carmedy shot three more bundles into the mob and these other pouches erupted in a burst of orange flames that melted the soldiers into goo just as my lava had.
“Rana, come over here and help Annalíse,” I shouted to the fox as I blocked a clumsy attack from one of the stone soldiers with my poleaxe. “Your attacks may not take them out entirely but together you can at least knock them down temporarily. Steer them toward Carmedy and I and we can dispose of them. Morrigan, I’m afraid you’ll have to--” The words caught in my throat when a loud scratching sound unexpectedly came to my ears.
“That’s the scratching sound I heard from before,” the fox woman yelled, and she whirled her head around to look at the frozen lake. “It’s coming from over there.” She gestured to the body of water,
and we all turned our attention toward it as we tried to move away from the mob of stone soldiers.
The scraping grew louder and louder, it sounded as though someone, or something was digging through the ice. Suddenly, two sets of white talons burst through the frozen lake. Then another set of pale hands clawed through the ice, and then another, and another until there were so many, I could scarcely keep track.
This might be a problem.
The claws scraped against the surface of the frozen lake and dug in as they tried to take firm hold. One after another. the long bony talons hauled up the bodies of some most vile looking creatures. They were gangly long-limbed beasts, and their ribs poked against their colorless skin. At the center of their faces was an empty triangular hole where a nose should have been, above it a set of beady pale blue eyes the same color as the stone soldiers. And below the hole, an unnaturally wide gaping mouth of jagged teeth that stretched to either of their long pointed ears. From their heads sprouted a set of white antlers with a bluish tinge. The creatures bared their teeth and snarled at us as they emerged from the icy depths.
Yes. This would certainly be a problem.
As soon as their bodies had been completely hauled to the surface, they began to crawl toward us on all fours as they hissed menacingly.
“Ugh what are those things?” Carmedy wrinkled her nose as she sent another bundle into the face of a soldier causing it to explode into white dust.
“Ice demons,” Rana smirked as she kicked away another sculpture. “Didn’t I tell you there would be some in here?” As she spoke, the ice demons slowed their pace and stood upright.
“Why did they stop?” Annalíse called out as she knocked down one of the sculptures with her sword.
“Surely, they haven’t ceased their attack,” I said suspiciously.
Their purpose soon became clear though. The monsters stood in hunched over positions, and their fangs dripped as they growled. Something began to emerge from the skin on the underside of their wrists, something shiny and pointed. They were daggers crafted from ice. The translucent weapons slid away from the pockets in the demons’ skin and into their clawed grasps. Without hesitation, the pale creatures proceeded to hurl them at us.