Hive Queen

by Sinclair, Grayson

  More of the same rock on this side, but it spread in a rough circle around us, and our little bubble had been carved by hand, rather than nature. The sharp scrapes and tool marks that riddled the space told me as much. What the hell is this place? My question had to wait as Maus slid out behind me. He coughed and hacked up a gob of phlegm onto the floor.

  “Damn, what is this place?” Maus stared and scratched his head. “Not a part of the mine, the markings aren’t from mining. They’re from excavation.”

  I peered closer at the marking and realized he was correct. And that they were old, years and years old. But that alone didn’t tell us anything. “Let’s keep going, see if we can find a way out of here.”

  We pushed forward and eventually came to the end of the room, and on the far wall, was smooth stone bricks, worn and crumbling from age.

  “Shit, do you know what this has to be?” I asked.

  “A building buried deep under the earth, housing some ancient Lovecraftian monstrosity?”

  I laughed, despite the pain. “Hopefully not, but this has to be a forgotten part of old Aldrust, something that was left over when the dwarves rebuilt it.”

  “Okay, but how does that help us?” he asked, exasperated and exhausted.

  We were both at the end of our rope and struggling just to stay on our feet. The days of little food and sleep had taken their toll.

  Rushing wind split the still air, and I turned at the sound, going for my sword, only to find it not on my waist.

  I was slow turning, too slow to react fast enough.

  A small hunk of rock grazed my forehead as it sailed past, ripping a rough tear across my scalp. It clanked against the stone behind me as I hastily equipped my steel.

  “The hell was that?” Maus asked, stating it into the darkness.

  “I’ve got an idea,” I replied as the adrenaline of battle flooded through my veins.

  My hunger and exhaustion didn’t matter anymore; the only thing that mattered was the sword in my hands and the blood I was about to spill.

  Another rock flew toward me from the abyss, and I angled the flat of my sword just in time to deflect it.

  “Quit hidin’, you bloody coward!”

  “Maus, shut it and draw your weapon. If there’s one, there’ll be more.”

  He shot me a questioning look but did as I told him and donned his mottled gray and black armor, drawing an elegant dagger. I couldn’t wear my armor; it was too heavy and would sap my strength like nothing else. I needed mobility for what was coming for us.

  They clung to the darkness like ghosts, but only one thing would be this deep below the earth, and they travelled in clusters.

  One of them scuttled into view of the torch, lighting their malformed features.

  It was tiny, moving quickly on six legs. Its spindly lower half ended at its waist, and a childish torso slunk into view. A wide head with no mouth or nose stared back with eight sets of lidless eyes. Dull white irises reflected the light of the torch.

  “The fuck is that?”

  “A knocker,” I replied. “Be fast on your feet. They’ll chuck rocks fast enough to crush your skull if they hit. They’re territorial little bastards, and we’ve just intruded on their domain.”

  More stone cut through the air, and we scattered as they pinged around us. There wasn’t any cover in the room, and there was no way we could shimmy back through the gap in time before we got brained by one of them.

  Our best bet was to retreat rather than engage. They wouldn’t stray far from their home, which meant if we could get far enough away, they wouldn’t follow us.

  Maus dodged a volley of rocks, but he tripped, and one of them smashed into his forearm. A sharp crack echoed sharply, followed by a tortured scream as Maus clutched his limp wrist. Bloody bone split his skin, and crimson rose around it to spill down his fingers.

  It’s broken, but at least it was his off hand. We didn’t have any more room for mistakes, but we couldn’t stay in the room. It was a deathtrap, and sooner or later we’d exhaust ourselves and our luck.

  “Maus, get to cover!”

  “Where?”

  My eyes scanned the darkened cavern, and besides the enclosed space we resided in, there was nothing but the wall in front of us. If we can get inside, they’ll be forced to come down from the ceiling to attack us.

  “Follow me!” I shouted, running for the other end of the room.

  Lend me your power, I need it.

  “Of course.”

  I skidded to a stop when I reached the smooth gray brick of the long-forgotten dwelling. With my hands encased in chitin, I tore at the mortar that held them together and ripped them apart with ease. The wall came down like clay in my hands, and in a handful of seconds, we had our egress.

  Maus filed in after me, and we paused in what had once resembled a workshop. Stone tables were strewn with a heavy layer of dust, and the rusted remains of iron lay in scattered chaos.

  I kept an eye of the entrance while Maus pulled a health potion from his inventory and downed it in seconds. His labored breathing evened out as his bones reset in his arm, and he wiggled his fingers, twisting and bending his wrist.

  “Much better.”

  “Good, ‘cause we’ve got company.”

  Four thumps landed on the roof, and many legs scuttled towards the gap I’d made. They crept over the lip, clinging to the ceiling. When they spotted us, they fell to the floor and raised their slender appendages.

  They scraped them along the edges of the floor and walls, and the rock bent to their will, forming heavy clumps of stone at the tip of each limb. As they reared back to throw them, Maus threw himself to the side, and I activated Dance of the Immortal.

  What little color that existed in this gray landscape bled away to mix with the stone around us. Maus froze mid-roll, his chin tucked to his collarbone. The knockers froze before they could loose their homemade projectiles at us.

  I had ten seconds to kill them, it was more than enough.

  They had grouped up, making my job easy for me. I crossed the room and arced the edge of my steel through the neck of the first knocker. It hung in the air as my blade passed through it and the momentum carried my swing to the second monster.

  The tip scored a deep gash in the second’s cheek and split its jaw in two, continuing until the metal lodged in its throat.

  I pulled my sword free and vaulted over the split-mouth knocker to engage the final two. For my encore, I rammed my blade through the chest of the one on the right and grabbed the final knocker in my blackened hand.

  I crushed its windpipe, tearing through its soft skin to shred and pulp its flesh and arteries. Too-dark blood sprayed from the wounds I’d inflicted, and the color stuttered, telling me my time was up.

  I left the carcasses of the creatures to fall and ran back to my original position, just managing to wipe the blood from my blade before the world restored its dominance, and I sagged to my knees.

  “The fuck?!” Maus shouted when he came out of his roll and saw the blood-strewn bodies.

  I couldn’t muster the strength to even speak, and my sword slipped from my fingers as my battle fatigue jumped to nearly max and I fell to the ground. Maus raced over to me and pulled me out of the path of the pooling gore.

  “What just happened?” he asked, his voice frantic.

  I tried to form words, but using Dance had taken the last of my strength, and I lost consciousness.

  When I finally opened my eyes, I hurt everywhere. The nap I’d taken had only exacerbated my exhaustion, and sitting up brought aching misery to my bones and muscles. Maus sat cross-legged by a fire.

  “Where are we?” I asked, looking around.

  We were in a building, equally as decrepit and worn as the workshop, but it wasn’t the same building. The roof was convex, rather than flat.

  “Still in the cave, just a lot further in. Had to carry your ass when more of those knockers showed up after the others died. Which, speaking of, how th
e hell did you do that?”

  “Do what?” I asked, feigning ignorance.

  “Don’t give me that,” he said, waving a thin wooden skewer at me, its tip blackened by flame. “All four of those things die at the same time and then you collapse like your battle fatigue maxed out. I know you did something, just can’t figure out what.”

  I shrugged and grabbed one of the skewers that still had a bit of food on them and dug in. The meat was bland, absolutely no seasoning, but I was ravenous and inhaled it as fast as I could chew.

  “Don’t know what you want me to say,” I replied with my mouth full.

  He gave me a sideways look and smirked. “Fine, then, keep your secrets.”

  Maus didn’t pry more after that, and I was thankful. He’d revealed a bit about his own class, but that was only because it was necessary to us getting out of Tombsgard. He’d dragged me out of a bad situation, and I owed him, but I wasn’t about to spill one of my trump cards to someone I didn’t trust.

  Haven’t killed a knocker in a while. Let’s see what they gave me.

  Combat Results!

  4 Killed (Knocker): 3400 Exp!

  Total Exp Gained: 3400 Exp!

  Exp: 5900/5900

  Level Up!

  Level: 60

  2900/6000

  10 Stat Points Available!

  1 Ability Point Available!

  Finally made it back to sixty. Good. Though I need to think about what ability I want next. I grabbed my sword and looked down at the slight trickle of poison. Poison Blade has been helpful, but not all that useful since I’ve increased my Attack Damage. Might think about removing it and choosing something else.

  But that can wait till I’m not so exhausted.

  We stayed there for a few hours, just gathering our strength and napping in shifts. The threat of being discovered was mitigated by the knockers. Even if anyone from Tombsgard found the hole we’d made, the knockers would keep them from following us.

  When our strength returned, we set off again through the forgotten and abandoned ruins. They were falling to pieces; some of the very stone itself crumbled under our feet when we stepped on it. It took nearly a full day of exploring the maze of streets and buildings, but we finally found a passage that connected to a section of the new Lowtown.

  It took some digging and Maus using Layout nearly fifteen times over the course of eighteen hours, but we finally broke through the stone and reached civilization again.

  As the dust cleared, we climbed through the wall and stood in the warehouse district for Lowtown, only a few miles from the pleasure district, where I had a score to settle.

  The two of us dusted ourselves off and made sure no one was around before moving.

  Before we’d gone three steps, Maus turned, holding out his hand. “Thank you for all your help, Duran. I’m glad to have made an ally in that misery, but this is where we part ways.”

  “You sure?” I took his hand and gave it a firm shake. “I can’t convince you to come back with me? Could always use someone like you in our guild.”

  He laughed and clapped me on the back. “Coming from the leader of the Gloom Knights, that’s a fine compliment, but you’ve got a score to settle, and so do I.”

  I knew the look in his eye, knew I had no chance to convince him otherwise. So I didn’t even try.

  “All right, but it’s an open offer. And I won’t forget you pulling me from that place. You ever need help, just call,” I said, handing him my contact card.

  With a final wave, he vanished into the stone. Good luck, Maus.

  Okay, time to go settle accounts.

  Chapter 23 - Return

  I kept to the shadows as I made my way to the Low Road. But there were hardly any citizens out at this time of night. Through the stone window, I found Orryn and Tel sitting by the bar, drinking.

  The stone door was closed, but it was thin, easily broken if I put my all into it.

  Ready?

  “Drink her dry, drain them both.”

  I was angry enough that the Aspect’s words were tempting, enticing even.

  The heat of a furnace brushed my skin, and soon I was covered in the obsidian armor. I dug into the stone with my claws and pulled it from its frame with a grunt and resounding crack. It crumbled to nothing in my hand, and I stepped through the cloud to stare down the man who’d wronged me.

  “Hey, Orryn. We need to talk.”

  Both turned when I ripped the door free, but Orryn didn’t panic till he heard my voice. He knew it was me, even if I looked like a demon. He knew what awaited him.

  His fear was palpable in the air, sweat and adrenaline drifted out with every hitched breath.

  “Duran?”

  “You remembered me, though it has only been a few days. Glad to see your memory is intact.”

  “I had no choice, I swear!”

  “Doesn’t matter. You betrayed me. For that, you die.”

  He sold me out, and I refused to let that stand.

  I walked toward them, calm in my steps. There was only one entrance or exit, and they would have to get past me to escape. The end of the line.

  “Fuck you!” Orryn shouted, hands outstretched as he began muttering in Script.

  Tel followed his lead and dropped her illusion over her wings. With a shimmer, her dragonfly wings beat faster than my eyes could follow, and she rose to float over the bar. Her bright blue eyes shone in the candlelight as she scowled at me. She mirrored Orryn and began her spellcraft, both speaking in rolling tongues.

  As their Script circles appeared in front of their hands, I chuckled and activated Aura of the Antimage. It blew across the room and shattered their nascent spells before they could finish. They stared in shock as their colorful magic dissolved back into the ether before their eyes, and they gaped at me.

  “What?”

  “How?”

  I just laughed. “Easily.”

  With their magic broken and their mana drained, Tel could no longer hold herself up, and as the rainbow glimmer dimmed along her wings, she lowered back to the ground. Orryn snarled a curse and charged me. His wiry black hair clung to his sweaty face as he attacked.

  Orryn swung aiming for my chin. I leaned back as his punch went wide and raised my jagged talons. As his arm sailed past, I hooked my fingertips into his bicep, just above the crook in his arm. Resistance tugged at my hand before giving way and sliding deep into his flesh.

  Blood rushed from the wound, fleeing from his severed artery.

  Before he could fall or retaliate, I kicked the back of his knee and brought him to his knees. “I cut your brachial artery. You’ll be unconscious in less than half a minute, dead in under two. It’ll be quick.”

  Blood pooled at his legs from the river soaking into his once white tunic. Orryn shot a final look at Tel and then back to me, his eyes unfocused and distant. “Sorry…don’t hurt her─”

  Orryn collapsed over to the floor from the blood loss, his eyes closing one last time.

  I left him to his fate and crossed the room to stand in front of Tel, who stared at Orryn’s body with tears streaming down her face. Only when my shadow darkened her features did she meet my gaze.

  Panicked, she squinted her eyes, and a burst of rainbow light flared to life through her wings and they flitted, trying to fly. With the last drops of magic in her system, she tried to escape. Her feet lifted an inch from the ground before I reached behind her.

  I took hold of the base of her wings and ripped them from her spine.

  Tel wailed in tortured suffering as sinew and muscle tore free from her and stuck to the ends of her wings, dripping blood. I tossed them aside and clamped my hand over her mouth to silence her screeching.

  “I only came for Orryn, but you had to interfere. I’d have left you alone, but you got in my way.”

  “Let me have her, let me taste of her, let me savor her sweetness!”

  I sighed, but I owed it for lending me its power. Just make it quick, we need to leave.<
br />
  “With pleasure.”

  ***

  I wiped the macabre stains from my mouth and spat, trying to remove the salty sweetness from my tongue. “I hope you enjoyed that, because I’ll never get used to it.”

  “She was delicious. Her memories even more so.”

  Glad you liked them, but I really didn’t need those memories, Aspect.

  It chuckled darkly. “They were some of the best she had. The others were…tame.”

  I shook off the twisted laughter and left the Low Road. I needed to leave Aldrust, but it wasn’t going to be easy. The entrance would be heavily monitored, and I was sure mine and Maus’s escape was already spreading through the city. It might turn into a fight if I try to leave that way, but I don’t have much choice.

  There were still a few things I had to grab back at the hideout, namely the knife Thrayl had given me. I’d left it under the bed, and I didn’t want to leave without it. Thrayl hated me now, so it would probably be the last thing I would ever own by him.

  As calmly as I could, I slunk through the streets of Lowtown till I reached the house. I had a few scrolls left, and after the door slid away, I bolted through, eager to get in and get out.

  My foot hit the stairs when a shuffle came from my right, and a heavy weight bore down on me.

  Something incredibly sharp dug into my neck hard enough to draw blood, and I froze. They had me dead to rights. I risked tilting my neck to get a look at my assailant and sighed in relief when I saw her pale skin and bloody eyes.

  “By the nine kings of hell, Raven. Scared me to death.”

  She flinched as if I’d shocked her and jumped back. Her wicked talons reached for the lantern by the couch. When light filled the room and she got a better look at me, she let out a breath and retracted her claws.

  “Duran, thank the gods,” she said, crossing the room to pull me to my feet.

  Before I could respond when I stood, she wrapped me in a crushing hug.

  “I’m okay, Raven. No need to try and squeeze the life out of me,” I said, my voice strangled.

  Raven pulled back, but her hands lingered on me. Her right cradled my neck, and as she stared up at me, a decision crossed her eyes and solidified.