The Call of Ancient Light

by Ben Wolf

  He swallowed the orange pulp and licked his lips clean. “What about me?”

  She chuckled. “How’d you end up working in that quarry?”

  Memories of his parents flooded Calum’s mind. “Actually, I—”

  “We should keep moving,” Riley’s voice split the darkness. He trotted back toward Calum and Lilly with Axel close behind. “Something’s not right. I think we should go.”

  “Did you find the right path?” Calum asked.

  “I’m pretty sure,” Riley replied, “but either way, we shouldn’t linger here.”

  “Yeah,” Axel said. “Puppy’s got a bad feeling about this part, so we’re moving along.”

  Riley growled at him. “Call me ‘Puppy’ one more time, and I’ll rip your throat out in your sleep. Crystal?”

  Axel rolled his eyes, unconcerned. “Whatever. Nicolai and Magnus are waiting for us up ahead. Are we going or not?”

  Calum cinched up his food pack and tossed it to Axel. “Hey, do you mind carrying this for a bit? My shoulder’s getting sore.”

  “Like I said: whatever.”

  “Thanks.” He turned to Lilly, but before he could say anything, Axel called to her.

  “Lilly, got a question for you,” he said. “Care to walk with me for a minute?”

  “Sure.” She walked next to Axel as if Calum had never existed in the first place.

  Calum sighed and started walking at the rear of the group. He let them get some distance between them so Axel wouldn’t hear the things Calum muttered about him.

  Three steps later, the ground under his feet gave way.

  Calum’s left hand caught the edge on the way down, but his torch kept falling. It dropped farther and farther down until it finally struck a large gray boulder and bounced off onto the dirt floor below. It had to be at least a fifty- or sixty-foot drop.

  If he let go, it was over.

  “Help!” he yelled. “Come back! Help me!”

  Though higher quality, his upgraded metal armor weighed more than the old leather armor he’d worn before the fight with the Southern Snake Brotherhood. He strained to reach up to grab hold of the edge with his other hand, but his fingers had already begun to slip.

  “Help!” he called again.

  No one came.

  The rock under his left hand shifted as if it were giving way, but he managed to hold on.

  Calum glanced down at the torch again. If he fell, he’d follow its trajectory. His body would smash against that big gray boulder, then he’d bounce off and probably land facedown.

  If the impact didn’t kill him, broken ribs, punctured lungs, and internal bleeding eventually would. And even if he didn’t sustain any major injuries, he’d never find his way back up.

  He would land ten feet away from the boulder where the torch still burned, now surrounded by dozens of small sparkles. They reminded him of the gems he’d mined at the quarry not so long ago.

  Great. He’d die among rocks, boulders, and gemstones, just as if he’d never stopped working at the quarry.

  Calum’s fingers slipped a bit more.

  “Help!” he called again, his voice weaker. “Axel, Magnus—help me!”

  The edge crumbled under his fingertips, and he fell.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  A dark hand clamped onto Calum’s wrist.

  He looked up and saw Nicolai’s face, illuminated by the torch in his left hand.

  “I’ve got you,” Nicolai said. He clarified, “I—I think I’ve got you.”

  Good thing Calum had decided to spare Nicolai’s life after all, despite Axel’s objections.

  Magnus appeared behind Nicolai. He reached down, clamped onto Calum’s bicep, and pulled him out of the sinkhole in one fluid motion. He set Calum down against the tunnel wall. “What happened?”

  Lilly landed next to him and touched his shoulder. “Are you alright?”

  Calum nodded and sucked in several deep, quick breaths to calm his racing heart. “I’m fine. I was just walking, and the ground gave way. I grabbed onto the edge on my way down, but I dropped my torch. Thank the Overlord that Nicolai was there or I’d be dead.”

  “It’s like you said—we’re a team. We look out for each other.” Nicolai smiled.

  Axel huffed, but he nodded at Nicolai. “I guess you are good for something after all.”

  Nicolai’s smile shrank to a smirk. “Thanks, Axel.”

  “Guess that explains the holes we saw in the ground,” Calum quipped. “Now I know where they lead, and trust me—we don’t want to end up down there.”

  Riley growled. “Well, we’re down to one torch now. I can see in the dark just fine, but you all can’t. You’d better not lose the other one.”

  Axel stepped near the sinkhole and peered into it. “I can still see it down there. You weren’t kidding, Calum. That’s a long way down.”

  Calum patted Lilly’s hand, which was still on his shoulder, and nodded to her, then he stood up and walked over next to Axel. “No kidding. Plus that huge boulder down there would’ve broken my fall.”

  “Where?” Axel tilted his head. “I don’t see any boulder.”

  Calum leaned over the hole for a look.

  “Do not fall back in, Calum,” Magnus said. “Nicolai may not be able to grab you in time if it happens again.”

  “Yeah, I’m only good for saving one life per day.” Nicolai laughed. “I’ve reached my quota.”

  “I’ll be alright,” Calum assured them. He wouldn’t have fallen in there in the first place had it not caught him by surprise.

  Far below, the torch still flickered along with some of the shining flecks, but he couldn’t see the gray boulder anymore. Weird.

  “Well, when I fell in, the torch smacked a boulder on the way down. Maybe the torch has faded too much to see it now.”

  “Come on. Enough dawdling.” Riley nodded into the darkness of the tunnel. “We need to move.”

  “He’s right,” Calum said. “Let’s go.”

  As Calum and the others followed Riley, the ground shuddered beneath Calum’s feet. He jumped to the side for fear that he’d drop down again, but he didn’t fall, nor did another hole open underneath him.

  “Did you guys feel that?” Calum asked.

  Nicolai glanced back at him and nodded, as did Axel and Lilly.

  “Tremors are normal in here,” Riley said from the lead, his voice flat but firm. “Just keep moving.”

  As Riley said the word “moving,” the ground shook again, this time with more force.

  Nicolai glanced at Calum. “I sure felt that one.”

  “Just keep moving,” Riley repeated. “We’ll be fine.”

  After another mile or so of tremor-free progress through the tunnel, Riley stopped and sniffed the air. Within seconds, he began to growl.

  “What is it?” Magnus stopped too, and the rest of the group stopped behind him.

  Riley stepped back and snarled. “We’re not alone.”

  “Now!” Commander Anigo yelled.

  His twenty men poured out of shallow crevices in the tunnel walls not more than fifty feet from the Wolf’s position with their weapons drawn.

  Commander Anigo came out last, holding a torch. One of his men approached and sparked it to life with a flint and a knife, then the soldier took the torch and passed the fire to a few of his comrades.

  The added light allowed Commander Anigo to see his catch with significant clarity. He couldn’t help but grin. His plan had worked perfectly.

  “We meet again,” he said.

  One of the men with the group, the one whom he’d fought and lost to, stepped forward. “You—I stabbed you with my spear. You should be dead.”

  Commander Anigo shook his head and took a few steps forward, into the torchlight. The high ceiling of the tunnel seemed to yawn open around them, trying to drain the additional torchlight away as if to preserve the inherent darkness of the space.

  “I’m sorry to disappoint you,” Commander Anigo said.
“I’ve been pursuing you three for some time, as I said when we first met. But now I’m after the girl, too. She’s wanted for the murder of my superior officer, Captain Fulton.”

  “Fulton was a backstabbing liar and a rapist pig,” the girl spat. She’d drawn her bow and nocked an arrow. From what he’d read of the carnage that had ensued during her escape from Thirry’s warehouse, she was quite an impressive shot with it.

  “I am well aware of Captain Fulton’s dealings, but you stand accused nonetheless. Lay down your arms, all of you.”

  None of them moved.

  Commander Anigo pointed to the Saurian, two of the men, and the Windgale girl. “You four are under arrest for crimes against the King.” He pointed to the other man in the green armor. “If you do not interfere, we will allow you to pass.”

  The Wolf growled.

  “And you, Wolf—” Commander Anigo pulled his spear from where he’d secured it to his back. “—if you so much as twitch in my direction, I’ll skewer you like the stray dog you are.”

  “We won’t comply,” the blond young man said.

  Commander Anigo’s eyes narrowed. “We have you outnumbered, and we will kill you if necessary. This is your last chance. Lay down your weapons and surrender, or face the King’s justice—right here, right now.”

  Calum glanced at Magnus. Of course they would try to fight their way through the soldiers, but they were in for a difficult battle. This time there weren’t any bandits to help them thin out the soldiers’ ranks, and they only had scattered torchlight to help them see their enemies.

  “We can take ‘em,” Axel whispered.

  “I’m not so sure about that,” Nicolai whispered back.

  “No one asked you,” Axel hissed.

  As Riley backed toward them, Magnus addressed the soldiers. “We have not come this far to give in now. You may try to take us if you wish, but you will do so at your own peril. I will never surrender.”

  Magnus drew his sword, followed by Calum, Axel, and Nicolai. Lilly already had her bow out with an arrow nocked, and Riley crouched low as if ready to pounce.

  Commander Anigo huffed. He pointed his spear at them. “Bring me their heads.”

  All twenty of the soldiers stepped toward them slowly with their weapons raised for battle.

  As the soldiers approached, the ground shook with even more vigor than it had before, only this time it didn’t stop.

  Lilly toppled over into Calum, who caught her but struggled to keep his own footing. Together with Axel, they staggered over to one of the tunnel walls and braced themselves as the tunnel continued to shake.

  Dust trickled down from the ceiling overhead, and a few small rocks clacked onto the ground. More rocks trickled down the cavern walls, knocked loose by the quaking.

  Some of the soldiers fell over, and others moved nearer to the tunnel walls as well. Calum caught sight of Commander Anigo clinging to a rock protrusion, but it broke loose and crumbled at his feet, and he fell along with it.

  Sinkholes opened up in the ground in the center of the tunnel. Calum saw at least three soldiers fall in, and he watched another get crushed under a cow-sized boulder that dropped onto him from the ceiling.

  But he heard far more screams than that.

  Riley, Nicolai, and Magnus made it to the opposite wall and leaned against it for support.

  Amid the ruckus, Riley shouted, “This isn’t normal. It didn’t happen like this the last time I was here.”

  The shaking continued for another minute, then it stopped altogether.

  Magnus stepped away from the wall first with his sword and his torch raised. He walked into the center of the tunnel, faced the direction they had come from, and held his torch out in front of him. The others filed in behind him, and Riley and Lilly kept watch on the soldiers who’d started to recover from the quake.

  About thirty paces away, a large gray boulder, one that looked very similar to the one Calum had seen in the sinkhole, blocked most of the tunnel.

  “How did that get here?” Nicolai asked.

  “Heck of an earthquake, huh?” Axel shook his head, then turned back to face the soldiers, as did Calum. “We can’t go back that way.”

  Calum nodded and raised his sword. “Now we have to fight.”

  “Shh,” Magnus hissed, still facing the boulder. “Listen.”

  A faint sound permeated the tunnel, almost like the rats’ squeals when they’d poured out of the wall and all over Axel. It intensified in volume and focused into two distinct voices, both of them wailing like old women in pain.

  Axel, Lilly, and Riley turned back first, and at the sight of the horrified looks on the soldiers’ faces, Commander Anigo included, Calum did as well.

  When he did, he understood why no one was moving.

  As the wails escalated to shrieks, the boulder began to change. It split down the center and slowly folded over until it touched the ground. Then the two halves split, and four rocky points touched the ground. From the center of the segmented boulder arose two tall forms, one on the right, one on the left.

  They lacked definition at first, but they sharpened into forms that looked like human heads and torsos without legs, but the resemblance ended there. Instead of arms, the two forms sprouted a pair of narrow serpentine tentacles on each side of their torsos, and a gaping mouth full of jagged teeth opened in the centers of their abdomens, near the base of their bodies.

  Two red eyes opened in each head.

  Their high-pitched shrieks shook Calum to his core. Everything above the thing’s boulder-like shell began to glow with an eerie green light that illuminated the tunnel.

  Axel staggered back, his wide eyes reflecting the green light. “What in the Overlord’s name is that?”

  Calum’s heart pounded. Although he’d never seen one, he’d heard those shrieks and seen that green light before.

  “It’s a Gronyx.”

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  “Run!” Riley yelled. He wove through the stunned soldiers, some of whom reached for him to no avail, and he disappeared into the darkness down the tunnel.

  “Riley, wait!” Calum shouted.

  Too late. The Gronyx lashed its tentacles at Magnus and grabbed his ankle before he could swing his sword. He dropped both his torch and his sword as he slid toward the Gronyx, all the while snarling and clawing at the dirt with his free hand.

  “We have to do something!” Calum pointed his sword at it. “Attack!”

  Together with Axel and Nicolai, he charged the Gronyx. Tentacles whipped at them, but the trio cut them away as if they were low-hanging branches in the forest. Glowing green liquid oozed from the ends of the severed tentacles, and with each slice the Gronyx shrieked louder.

  With a roar, Magnus reached forward, grabbed the tentacle that had coiled around his leg, and severed it with the blade attached to the end of his tail. He got to his feet and darted back to the rest of the group, where he collected his sword again.

  The Gronyx recoiled on all four of its stony legs and writhed, screeching all the while.

  Wide-eyed, Commander Anigo stared at the monster.

  “Sir, the Wolf got past us. We’ve already lost at least five men. Possibly six or seven. Do we engage the rest of them?” one of his soldiers asked.

  Commander Anigo shook his head. He’d learned his lesson the last time regarding third parties. “No. Order the men to fall back and form a defensive perimeter. Let them fight it. We’ll clean up whatever’s left.”

  “That will not stop it for long.” Magnus tossed his torch to the side and gripped his sword with two hands. “And I do not know how to kill it.”

  Before Calum’s eyes, each of the Gronyx’s eight original tentacles flared with green light and then split into two tentacles each. By the time the process ended, the Gronyx had sixteen new tentacles, and it started to reach toward them again.

  “Is that gonna happen any time we cut one off?” Nicolai asked.

  Magnus nodded and glanced at Cal
um. “When I went into the Gronyx’s pit at the quarry, I took out several tentacles with the pickax Burtis gave me, but they kept splitting and growing back in pairs. They don’t traverse the ground quickly, but their tentacles are more than fast enough.

  “I only got out of there alive because it went after the man who fell into the hole before you did. I even whacked one of its heads once, but that just made it mad.” Magnus’s voice deepened. “And that one was half the size of this one.”

  Along with the rest of the group, Axel stepped back as the Gronyx approached. “Then what do we do? And what about the soldiers?”

  Magnus stole a look back. “They are not moving. Let’s focus on this. If we can get past it, then perhaps we can go back the way we came.”

  “It’s filling almost the entire tunnel. I don’t think we’re gonna get past it,” Nicolai said.

  “Lilly, try to shoot an arrow at it,” Calum said.

  She drew back her bow. “Where do you want me to aim?”

  “Try to hit one of the heads if you can.”

  An arrow zipped past Calum’s ear and lodged in the left head where the mouth should have been, and more green goo spurted out. The Gronyx’s left torso reeled back, shuddered, and then dropped forward, and its eight tentacles draped over the front of its legs.

  The right torso lurched around, and its boulder legs adjusted so the left torso was in the back. The right torso lashed its tentacles toward the group.

  “Shoot it again!” Calum ducked under one tentacle and jumped over another, but he had to slice one away so it wouldn’t hook his ankle. Irradiated green ooze splattered on the dirt next to his foot, and the tentacle retracted.

  Lilly released another arrow, but the Gronyx raised its tentacles. The arrow skewered one of them, but the Gronyx kept coming toward them.

  “Keep shooting at it!” Calum yelled.

  She fired three quick arrows at the Gronyx’s other head, but its tentacles intercepted them all. “I can’t hit it if those tentacles are in the way.”