None of it panned out. The only way forward was along the stream and into the darkness.
The upside of the looking around was that we spent a good part of the day on it, so we did camp outside for the night. Still, nothing at all bothered us. It was nice, but it did get me to thinking why not. Why did nothing else seem to be around here?
It wasn’t a dragon.
The next morning, we were up with the sun. This time we had no excuse, so we worked our way among the boulders and to the stairs.
“You haven’t gotten any guidance, have you?” Adrian asked.
“Not since the city,” I answered. “What about you?”
“Not a peep. But I haven’t been told I’m going in the wrong direction either. So, there’s that.”
“Me neither. No funny feelings about going in here?”
“Not from the voice in my head,” he said.
“Didn’t think so,” I muttered.
The entrance was even larger close up. It loomed over us as we approached, like a giant mouth opening to swallow us whole. The walkway led into the gloom, going straight and flat, further than the light could penetrate. The clouds of steam from yesterday seemed to have disappeared, but the stream itself was still almost boiling hot.
Once inside we stopped and got torches ready. It would be a faint light, but better than nothing. Then, holding the flickering lights up, we moved deeper.
We walked as silently as we could, feeling like we were forcing our way through the hot, wet air. But finally, we came to the end.
The walkway continued, and the stream still flowed past us, but now it was coming out of a rough built stone wall that stood in front of us. The large tunnel that we were following didn’t end here, but someone had built a tall barrier, ending several feet short of the ceiling. We looked up but saw no sign of anyone at the top peering back down at us. On either side of the stream a wooden doorway was set into the wall.
Most disturbing of all was the soft glow that we could see above the wall, telling us that there was a source of light on the other side.
Adrian tried one of the doors, but it was firmly closed.
“Think we should knock?” he asked.
“No, I think that’s a really bad idea. What about the stream?” I thought that maybe we could swim under the wall.
“I don’t want to be boiled alive, do you?” Adrian said.
“Right. Bad idea. Up and over?”
“Only way I can see,” he said.
The wall had plenty of hand and foot holds from where the stones were haphazardly stacked together. Whoever built it had no concept of someone climbing it, or possibly didn’t care. Either way, it was easy enough for the two of us to scale it. For a moment, I could almost imagine that we were back in Capital City, if I could ignore the gloom, the steam, and that glow.
We threw the torches into the stream to free our hands, and moments later, pulled ourselves up over the top of the wall. We lay there, flattened to the stone, while we looked at the other side.
The light came from torches blazing away in sconces set into the walls. The walkways continued, widening into avenues, with stone bridges crossing the stream every so often. Wide openings led off into smaller hallways, most of those also well-lit.
For all that, there wasn’t a single living thing that we could see walking around. It was lit, clean and utterly empty. Still, we stayed where we were for several minutes, listening and watching.
“This is weird,” Adrian said.
“Yeah. Why would a dragon need all these torches? And this wall?”
“I thought you said it wasn’t a dragon?”
“Right. See? I told you it wasn’t.” I said.
Adrian didn’t answer, but we still didn’t move, our eyes scanning the scene in front of us. Finally, he pointed.
“What’s that?” he whispered.
I followed his finger and saw what he was talking about. In the near distance was a figure, slumped against the wall as if sleeping. We watched for a bit, but he or she never moved.
We silently swung ourselves over the far side and made our way down the wall. While it was nice to be in the light, it made it harder to sneak, but we stayed along the edge and slowly worked our way to the figure.
When we got close, I recognized the clothing. Dark, well-made and utilitarian, capped off by a dark green hat, with a black band. That hat was the trademark of Yuan Margold, a Nuisance Man of some renown. He was known for being fast, clever, and hell with the thin sword he used.
“Yuan?” I said, but there was no movement.
I crouched down next to him and touched him on the shoulder while Adrian kept watch. Not hard, but enough to make his head loll around on his neck to stare at me. Well, the vacant sockets where his eyes used to be stared at me. Most of his face was a ruin, almost melted. The front of his clothes were charred as well.
“Can’t be a dragon,” Adrian said.
“Why not?”
“He’d be a pile of ash, not like that.”
I patted Yuan on his shoulder and wished him a good journey, wherever he was bound. At least we knew one Nuisance Man who got past the giantess.
“What now?” Adrian said.
“We go on, carefully. Something tells me we’re coming to the end of all this.”
We moved away from Yuan’s body and down the hallway beyond him. It ran down at a slight angle, with the stones of the floor closely fitted together, along with those of the walls and roof. Dwarven work, for sure. But where were the dwarves who built it?
We finally reached the bottom. The hallway opened into a large circular space, with a well in the center of it. Around the edge were the fronts of buildings, constructed right into the stone of the mountain. Houses, stores or taverns, we had no idea what they once were. The torches were lit in tall lamps spaced around the well, but beyond that was only darkness.
Adrian examined the well while I went to one of the facades and looked inside. Nothing. Just dust and crumbled old pieces of furniture, all made to about three-quarters human size. It was a tavern at some point, that much was evident by the rotting bar running along the far side of the room. Stairs led from the left side of it up into the darkness of a second floor.
I stepped back outside and looked up. Yes, there were windows opening out onto the square, but they were empty. I moved to the next building, and the one after that, finding more of the same. All long empty.
“Anything?” Adrian said when I returned to the well.
“No, how about you?”
“It’s a well,” he shrugged. “Bucket, rope, water way down there somewhere.”
“Is the water hot?”
“Nope, clean and ice cold.” He indicated the bucket he drew up and I took a drink. It was cold, so much that it almost burned.
“So, whatever is heating that stream…” I started.
“Is up here,” he finished. “And I’m betting that we’ll find the cup there.”
“Why?”
“Otherwise one of the others would have found it and returned, right?”
“Whatever is heating the stream is guarding the cup for some reason?”
Adrian nodded. “Yeah. Doesn’t make much sense. Unless it’s part of a hoard.”
“Great. It’s not a dragon, though.”
“No. No way. Something else that’s hot and has a hoard. Has to be.”
I glanced back up the way we came. “Follow the stream?”
He grimaced, then nodded. Reluctantly, we started back the way we came.
About half-way back to the main hall, we heard the noise of something moving. It was still up above, in the hall near the stream, but we froze, pushing ourselves against the wall. There was nowhere here to hide, so all we could hope for was that whatever it was would pass by.
No such luck. We heard a snuffling sound, a grunt and then the fire-drake appeared. It was at least seven feet long, all scaly muscle and bulging chest. It sniffed along the ground, following our trail and
started toward us.
Where was Wulfonson when we needed him?
We stayed frozen, letting it pass us by, its nose to the stones. When it drew even with us, it stopped, raised its head and stared straight at me. It took every ounce of willpower that I possessed to stay perfectly still. I had no idea how well these things could see, but at the moment, its eyes hadn’t focused on me yet. They scanned the wall, passing over me, but not stopping.
Then it put its head back down and continued sniffing the ground, slowly moving down the passage toward the well. Twice more it turned back, lifting its head and peering around myopically. Neither Adrian nor I so much as turned our heads until it moved off some distance.
Finally, we slowly relaxed and staying as silent as we could, stole up the passage.
“That thing was tracking us!” Adrian hissed.
“I know. We need a way to fool it.”
We passed Yuan’s body as we ran. Now I knew what happened to him.
“The stream,” Adrian said.
“What, we swim in boiling hot water?”
“No, but we dunk our feet in. Maybe it will wash off our scent enough for us to get away from that thing.”
We ran over and sat down on the edge. Counting softly to three we thrust our feet into the water rushing by, and then back out. Even that was enough for our boots to get uncomfortably warm. We did it again, and then a third time, and finally couldn’t take it anymore.
“Come on,” Adrian said, and we were off and running down the walkway bordering the stream, keeping our eyes peeled as we went for any other fire-drakes.
The road we were on ran deeper into the mountain. Still the torches blazed for no reason that we could see. More hallways and passages opened up on either side. We ran over the bridges as we came to them and stopped a couple more times to dunk our feet into the hot water.
If the fire-drake was still tracking us, we managed to out-run it.
But then, we reached the end of the line.
The torches stopped. One moment they were there, the next there were none. The passage continued on, but it was into darkness, except for down at the end, where there was a soft glow.
“What now?” I said.
We looked down the passage, not liking what we saw. Then we turned back, into the light, and saw not one, two, or even three approaching fire-drakes. There was a whole herd of the things, all sniffing along, steadily coming closer. Beyond them, I saw taller, upright figures. It was hard to tell, but they moved strangely, almost as if rather than walking on legs they glided along somehow.
“Crap,” I said. “I don’t think we have a choice.”
“We could take one of these other halls.” Adrian said.
“And end up at a dead-end like with the well? No, thanks. I’ll take my chances with the glow.”
“Which is probably their nest.”
“Or a dragon,” I said.
“Stop saying that!”
We took off running while we argued, pretending that we still had a choice.
The glow was further away than it looked, although the heat was increasing as we neared. I glanced back once and saw that the fire-drakes had stopped at the last line of torches. The others gathered there as well and stood watching us run from them. Now I could see them more clearly, and what I saw made me put on the speed even more.
They were tall, at least as much as the fire-drakes were long. Their upper bodies were those of well-formed muscular men and women. Their faces were almost human, but with higher cheek-bones and slanted eyes. Short horns poked through the black hair on their heads. The front of their bodies were covered with red scales, which ran down to blend with those of their lower torsos.
I was right about their movement. They didn’t move as if they walked on two legs because they didn’t have any. Instead, their bottom halves were like huge snakes, with tails that ended in a sharp spike.
Salamanders. As if the flames the fire-drakes could breath weren’t enough. Salamanders can shape flame, work with it the way a human could work with clay. Mold it and throw it, use it as a rope, whatever they needed. And the heat from their bodies was said to be so intense that you couldn’t stand to be in close contact with it for more than a few moments. They were deadly on their own, but as a group, with their pet lizards?
We had no choice but to run on. Otherwise what happed to Yuan would seem like a kindness compared to what they would do to us.
But whatever we were running toward must be worse. Otherwise, why did they stop?
“Oh, no,” I heard Adrian breathe.
I glanced at him to ask what was wrong when I noticed what he was staring at. In front of us was a pile of ash. There was the hilt and a small section of blade from a sword next to it, but that was all.
We skidded to a stop and peered around in the dim light. There were more piles, spaced haphazardly about. Some with more or less of the remains of weapons or shields nearby, but most were piles of dusty gray powder.
Below us, in the glow, there was the sound of a large body moving, and that of what sounded like coins shifting beneath it.
“Dragon!” But I whispered it. Even that sounded too loud.
If my eyes were half as wide as Adrian’s, it was a wonder that they were staying in my face.
Adrian put his head right next to mine so that he could breathe the words into my ear. “It’s suicide to go on.”
I looked back up at the waiting salamanders and fire-drakes. It was suicide to go on. We needed to go back up, figure out a way past the group and…my vision blurred and the tunnel started to waver.
“Not an option to go back,” I said, just as quietly. “Look.”
He did, then shook his head and shut his eyes.
We turned as one and faced the glow. Then, slowly and carefully, we moved forward, staying as close to the wall as we could.
It was magnificent. Even through the mind-numbing terror the majesty of the thing was evident.
Bigger than anything that I could have ever thought existed and lived, it sprawled on the floor of what was once a throne room. It was gold in color and lay on piles of the same material. Coins, bars, crowns, plates, and cups. Jewelry of every imaginable type. Treasure lay everywhere in the room.
The dragon itself was sleeping, smoke curling from its nostrils. The room was stiflingly hot, and we saw that it lay near to where the stream issued from beneath the once-throne. The heat of the dragon’s body was enough to cause the whole thing to become hot.
Spikes ran down its spine, each of them taller than I was, and two huge wings were folded over four powerful legs, each ending in claws large enough to carry cows away. The tail coiled around the back of the throne and out from the other side.
I knew that inside that mouth were teeth sharp and long enough to pass right through me, before tossing me down the long throat as a quick snack.
If the cup was in here, it was staying put.
We were frozen in place, unable to move from the terror the dragon inspired. There was no way around it and we had been lured into a death trap. Even if the voice in my head were to let me go back up the way I came, getting around all of the salamanders and fire-drakes was an impossibility. We were finished.
But as I stood in place, trying to keep my trembling under control, an inner fire of my own began to burn. I wasn't going to simply give up. What was the point of all this if it was just to lure us here for a dragon to cook? There had to be a way forward.
I scanned the room, picking out cup after jeweled cup, any one of which could be the one that Lord Pennywither desired. Frankly, I didn't care if he ever got it back, all I wanted was to get out of here alive and unsinged.
There, behind the throne was a smaller, open doorway, leading to who knew where, but out of here. I nudged Adrian and nodded toward it. Between us and the opening were piles of treasure. All we needed to do was avoid making noise getting there, and we'd be home free.
Nuisance Men know how to sneak. It's ingrained in us as
a tool. But I have never moved so slowly or cautiously as I did then. Step by hesitant step, I made my way forward. Where there was no clear stone to step on, I placed my foot lightly, slowly adding weight so that any shifting would take place quietly.
Once, a small pile of coins slid down, clinking softly against each other. We froze in place as the dragon's breathing changed. Then it rolled over, the noise of its movement affording us an opportunity to move faster, coming that much more quickly to the passage behind the throne.
Breathing a silent sigh of relief, I stepped into the darkened hall, and clear, solid stone. A second later and Adrian joined me. But we weren't out of the woods yet. If the dragon woke, it could shoot flames down this hallway that would cook us where we stood.
I motioned with my head for us to go on, and the dragon spoke.
"Well played," it said. Its voice was a deep baritone, but almost cultured sounding. "But there's no way out from in there." It shifted its position again, and I could see a huge, slit-pupiled eye looking directly at us. Its gaze froze me in place. I couldn’t move so much as a muscle. "I'll see you on the way out, like the others."
The eye closed and I could move again, and move I did. I took off, running down the passage as fast as I could, Adrian on my heels.
Finally, out of breath, I pulled up and leaned against the wall.
"What do we do now?" Adrian asked.
I had no answer for him. Or for myself. Unless the dragon was lying, which was entirely possible. Unfortunately, the piles of ash that were the remains of the other Nuisance Men gave us no indication of whether they were fleeing or entering.
"We go on," I said.
We passed several turn-offs from this hallway during our retreat, but the way still kept on. Rather than chance getting lost, we stayed with it, reasoning that if it came to a dead-end, we could turn back and explore the side passages then.
We walked further and then the tunnel changed. The closely laid stones disappeared and we walked over hard-packed dirt. The walls and ceiling were no longer lined with stone, but seemed to be carved from the very rock of the mountain itself.
Duke Grandfather- The Whole Story Page 83