by Tony Roberts
“Me too,” Lace agreed. He waved to his men to keep alert.
“What weapons do the lizardmen use?” she asked.
“Old swords, spears, anything really. They can use their claws and teeth, too, if necessary. They tend to stick close to water, so this far out is reasonably safe, except when it rains.” Lace looked around once more, then waved his men onwards.
One man remained back, an eye to the rear. He was to warn of any pursuit. One scout went on ahead but ensuring he kept in sight of the rest. The ground felt odd underfoot and Faer looked down. The ground was paved, but in squares that were slightly raised, each square being about the length of her feet. In between the squares grass grew thickly, covering much of the path. The two edges were blurred as vegetation had encroached on it and in places roots had displaced the path, pushing it upwards into rises.
Ahead the vegetation rose up into mounds. Lace pointed to the biggest one. “The Temple of Caldok,” he said.
“That’s a temple?” Faer was amazed.
“Yes. Covered in creepers, vines, foliage. Cut it all away and you’d find a huge stone temple underneath. Its surrounded by a pool. Avoid it; the lizardmen are everywhere there.”
The scout turned to the left and paused. The rest came up to him. “This is where we enter the ruins,” Lace said.
The scout pointed across the clearing to the other side. “Sir.”
They all swung their heads. Sat atop the tallest tree was a nightmare apparition. A huge winged beast, with reptilian head and a gaping beak that revealed two sets of jagged teeth. The wings were not bird-like – they were more bat-like. Claws protruded from the front of the wings about a third of the way along.
“Swooper,” Lace said grimly. “Wondered where one would turn up.” He turned and waved his rearguard man to hurry up. “Damned things look for easy pickings, but when hungry enough will attack a group.”
Faer crouched, fascinated, as the beast turned its head and spotted the running lone man. Immediately it emitted a piercing screech and rose up onto its tiny clawed feet, spread its wings and sprang from the treetop. It was clear it was going to attack the solitary man.
Faer was on her feet instantly, avoiding Lace’s hand and ignoring his shout of caution. She had to stop the soldier being killed. “Look out!” she shouted.
The swooper angled its wings and came for the man, plummeting through the air. The solider had perhaps three heartbeats to get out of the way, but he had no cover where he was.
Faer stopped and raised one hand, forcing her veins to pour energy through them. A burst of fire shot from her fingers and smashed into the swooper’s head, forcing it to swerve in shock and alarm, and the soldier ducked as the winged nightmare narrowly missed him. “Come on!” she screamed to him.
The swooper gained height, shrieking in rage and pain, flapping twice to rise higher, then it banked, turned and came back, this time intending to exact vengeance on the slightly-built figure that had hurt it.
Lace and his men crouched by the edge of the path, watching impotently as Faer stood defiantly in the path of the swooper. Now she placed both hands together and pointed them at the attacking monster. Again, flames shot from her, engulfing the creature’s head. It shrieked and twisted in mid-air, swooping away in an effort to escape the unexpected form of defence from the tiny figure. The smell of burned flesh reached Faer and she grabbed hold of the stumbling rearguard soldier and pulled him with her towards the others.
The swooper banked, emitting a shriek of rage and now it came low, streaking across the path, intending to punish this figure who had dared to inflict pain upon it. Faer pushed the solider ahead of her into the undergrowth and threw herself forward just as the swooper passed by, furious that yet again its meal had escaped.
Faer slowly got to her knees, mud smeared across her face. Captain Lace stood above her, his hand outstretched. She took hold and was pulled up, facing him with her face covered. He eyed her with amusement and she wiped some off, looking at it. Then she grinned, and then began laughing.
A couple of the others joined in, and soon all were convulsed with mirth, except Heller. Lace slapped her on the back. “Good work, Dark Blade. I’ve never seen anyone dare face up to those things before.”
“It’s going to be in a terrible temper for some time, I expect.” She wiped her hands on her thighs. “So now where do we go?”
Lace turned and pointed along a narrow dark path, hemmed in by columns of stone, carved with intricate and indecipherable glyphs. “There’s a way into the ruins through there. We will have to be careful from now on. Once within the ruins we may encounter lizardmen or some other denizen. We will have to be on our guard. Single file, spread out,” he said to everyone. “We change scout and rear every so often. Let’s go.”
Torches were lit and they set off after a brief wait. Faer went directly behind Lace with Heller behind her. She wasn’t too happy about that, as Heller showed nothing but hostility towards her and clearly disliked her. Maybe one day she would have to face him. She was confident she could defeat the surly soldier, but wondered just what she had to do to earn his respect. Maybe he was one of those who never liked women, dark elves or half-elves.
The ruins enclosed them a few paces further on through an open entrance, marked by two huge stone blocks as thick as a man and twice as high, angled slightly inwards so that it was a quarter of the width less at the top than the bottom. The air temperature dropped as they went in, and the torches lit up a chamber, a hallway in all probability, long and narrow, and containing long stone benches running along each wall. The floor was of flat stone, littered with small stones, husks of small rodents and other creatures, webs, dust and other unidentifiable objects.
The walls were smooth too, but faded murals were still visible on both. The ceiling was mostly hidden under webs. They went through this chamber and came to a cross-passageway. They turned left. Faer glanced to the right but the passageway ran into darkness and the torchlight ruined her dark vision so she couldn’t see what lay beyond.
The left hand passage ran for a short while then came to a chamber, this one being square and had two other exits, one opposite and one in the middle of the right-hand wall. The flickering light revealed carvings on the walls here, and Faer squinted, trying to see what they were. Figures, certainly, but ones that were not that clear. The footsteps of the twelve people echoed through the chamber, and they went straight through.
Faer looked behind her but the figure of Heller looked back at her stony-faced. No comfort there. She followed Lace into another passageway and then they slowed. Sounds came to her, of water. Not running water, but dripping water. The passageway ended with a large room opening up, and in the middle of this was a huge pool, dark, and gently moving as if something was active within the black depths.
Lace put his finger to his lips and pointed to the left. All around the pool was a rim of stone, and this acted as a sort of barrier. It was only calf-deep so it was still easy to stumble and fall into the pool. The wall glistened here and the smell of damp was almost overpowering.
The room went around the pool and they followed the walkway halfway round to the other side. They stopped and spread out. Lace indicated to Faer to go with him. There was a deep recess in the room at this point and they walked away from the water. A statue with the top half broken off and missing was passed, and Faer looked at the feet, waist and lower torso. It had a thick tail and clawed feet.
“Lizardman,” Lace whispered. “We think its descendants are in that pool.” He walked up to a small doorway and looked in. He could see nothing. He turned to Faer. “Can you see what’s in there? We don’t want to alert anything with torches.”
Faer nodded and stepped up to the black oblong and looked in, her eyes adjusting. She had one hand on the hilt of her sword, just in case. As the greyness grew, so did patches of yellow which coalesced into shapes. She stepped forward, pulling her sword free of its sheath. Inside the chamber, which smelt of damp and
had a chill borne of a wet atmosphere, she looked carefully left, right, and up. Up there was nothing, save for an uneven roof, which looked like a natural cavern to her. To left and right there were definitely constructed walls, smooth, slightly inclined inwards. In places the stonework had perished and had fallen, leaving holes where water seeped through.
In the centre of the floor a number of statues stood, all seemingly of old denizens of the temple. Around these were the living beings. They seemed not to notice Faer, so she took another pace and kept her eyes fixed on the nearest figures, about thirty paces distant. They seemed to be lying or sitting around one of the statues. They were in the dark so it was almost certain they could see in such environments, like her.
“Dark Blade?” Lace asked from the doorway in a whisper. “What do you see?”
“Creatures,” she said, turning her head towards him. “About eight of them. Halfway down the chamber.”
“Damn,” Lace said, turning round. “Can we go back?”
One of his men shook his head. “Pursuit’s close, sir. A large number of soldiers coming down the pathway outside. They’ll find us soon enough. That swooper’s got one of them, but its now gone, going to eat him, no doubt.”
Lace swore. “We’ve got to go through in that case. Come on you lot, let’s go.”
Faer looked at him as he came alongside. “Where does this lead to?”
“Beyond that doorway at the far end there are two passageways. Take the left hand one and then go up a flight of worn stone stairs. We may have to fight our way through the entire route. Get ready.”
The others filed in, filling the chamber with torchlight. The creatures stood up, alerted by the light. Faer’s dark vision vanished and she blinked a few times to get used to the artificial light once more. Then she was striding forward, moving to the left of the central line of statues, followed by three men, while Lace went right, with five going with him. The rest hung back, just in case things went badly, and they would have to hold off the arriving royalist soldiers.
Faer advanced, her sword tingling in her hand. Now she could see the lizardmen clearly, green-coloured creatures, slightly taller than a man, with large, tooth-filled mouths, arms ending in clawed hands, strong legs and a long thick tail. That would give them balance, but also make them slightly sluggish.
Faer summoned up her inner strength, forcing flame through her veins, and she sent a ball of fire out from her left hand, straight into the face of the nearest creature, which was advancing on her, a spear clutched in both hands. The lizardman screamed and flung away the spear, beating at the fire burning its flesh.
A second came for her, and she had no time to waste seeing what was happening elsewhere. She forced her stomach muscles to send up a wall of force and it slammed into the second, knocking it up off its feet and sending it backwards in surprise and shock. Two more came for her, hissing loudly in rage. One slashed at her head, and she blocked it, then countered under its reach, cutting deep through its chest. She spun, passing clear of the fourth which was armed with a spiked club, putting the dying third lizardmen in between her and it, and she held up her blade that stopped the blow of the club.
She cut down hard, once, twice. The lizardman staggered back, slashed across the chest and neck. It gurgled and sank to its knees. Something evil had gone through its body and it shook in fear. Faer turned full circle. One of the men with her was combatting the second while the first was being finished off by yet another of her comrades. Lace came to her, dark blood coating his blade. “Let’s go.”
They ran towards the far entrance, and Faer could see that around each statue was a pool of water, which explained why the lizardmen congregated there. All Lace’s men came hard in their wake. All eight lizardmen lay dead or dying in the chamber, a sure marker that they had been this way.
Through the far door they turned left. Sounds of something to the right came to them. “Come on!” Lace urged, waving his men to follow Faer who was now at the base of the steps. They went up then turned to the right out of sight. She began the climb, feeling fresh air on her face. Shouts came from those towards the rear, and now the clashing of steel on steel could be heard.
Another turn, and the staircase could now be seen to be rising up inside a tower, square-sided, clinging to the edges of the stonework. In places it had rotted and some of the stairs were treacherous and crumbling. One or two were only half their width and the gap in between yawned blackly. Daylight was visible above her as Faer kept going, and now she could see the ends of vines and creepers reaching down from above.
Then suddenly she was out and onto an immense platform, festooned with vines and creepers, but it was clearly the roof of some huge building. She stumbled out, followed quickly by Lace and Heller, then the rest. Lace waved her on across the massive stone surface. The vista of the surrounding jungle greeted her eyes, a sea of green, flowing off to the horizon. She got going, but slowed as two lizardmen appeared from round the corner of a mass of undergrowth, which was hiding some entryway. Both carried swords and came at her, spaced wide.
Faer clenched her muscles, running at them, and then projected a wall of force at the left hand one, the one closest to the edge of the platform. It was hurled bodily off its feet and vanished over edge with a shriek of terror. The second came at her, rage spitting from its giant maw, and Faer smacked it’s blow aside two-handed, swung back up under the blade and sliced clean through the lower torso. She left it sinking to the ground, entrails spilling out, blood splattering the surface.
Lace leaped over it. “Hurry! They’re coming from all directions!”
Faer could see lizardmen erupting from various hatchways and it was going to be a close-run thing to the far side. She panted as she ran, one eye on the others. Some were having to turn and fight and they clearly would be cut off. “Don’t stop!” Heller yelled. Two were coming for him, claws reaching for his flesh.
Off to the right, behind, she could see one of their group being carried away, screaming. “What are they going to do?” she asked, running.
“Feast,” Lace said grimly.
Faer grimaced. Ahead the black entrance to another tower beckoned. Lace pointed to it. “There! Get down it!”
Faer came to a halt by the dark entrance. “No. You go. I’ll follow. I have to keep them off as long as I can.”
“You’ll be killed you silly girl!” Lace snapped. Two of his men stumbled up to them and Lace urged them down. Heller grabbed Lace. “Come on! She wants to be a damned hero then let her! She’s supposed to be super-human, so this is her chance to show off. Go!”
Three more came up, closely pursued by vengeful lizardmen and Faer stepped forward, blade high. As one man passed her, a second was grabbed. Faer’s blade cut down, severing the creature’s arm at the elbow. It screamed and writhed, staggering away. She turned, bringing her blade up under the second monster’s spear point, sinking her steel shaft into its guts.
The third was coming for her, and she knew instinctively she had not enough time to pull her sword free and block, so she sent a ball of fire into its head, engulfing it. The lizard creature staggered away, holding its incandescent head, and Faer could see it was shrivelling and turning black. Now she pulled her sword free from the dying second and stepped across the route of another approaching lizardman. It had a staff with a glowing orb on top. A shaman.
She wasted no time. A quick push against it, just enough to put it off-balance, and she came at it, sword cutting down and across it from right to left, then back across the throat left to right. The creature’s head toppled off, and the torso slowly sank to the ground.
One more man came up to her, his eyes wild. “They got the others,” he gasped. “None more to come!”
She looked behind him. Across the vegetated surface of the platform a mass of green-scaled creatures were making their way towards them. Faer nodded. Time to be out of there. She pushed the man into the entrance of the tower, then turned one last time, holding her sword horizo
ntally, sending out a big pulse of flame against a nearby creeper-tree. It exploded into fire and she nipped into the entrance.
The fire would keep some of them at bay for a few moments. One good thing was that the following royal army wouldn’t be able to get through that lot without wasting a lot of time. She doubted they had enough men to do so.
The entrance was to a small room with a staircase dropping down through the floor. Torches were flickering below and she followed the last soldier down. It was a stone staircase as before, covered in detritus, chippings, and other unidentifiable objects. From the torches ahead she could see the stairwell dropped a long way. There was no handrail. Going as fast as she could without putting her life in jeopardy, she made her way down.
About halfway down she heard sound from above and knew the creatures had got past the burning tree. They were a fair way behind so they had a good head start. It was with some relief she got to the bottom, and passed through a doorway. The floor here was covered in dirt, packed solid, so the original stonework was concealed below it. The atmosphere was drier.
A passage ran ahead then forked into two. The lights were coming from the right hand one so they followed. They entered a large chamber with a sunken floor. In the centre of this was a large stone idol, of some unidentifiable creature.
Lace stood on the far side with the rest. “No others?”
“No, sir,” the soldier said breathlessly, “we’re all that’s left.”
“They’re coming down the stairs,” Faer added.
“No they won’t come any further,” Lace said. “This is not their territory. This belongs to the Kaldeen.”
Faer sheathed her sword after wiping it clean. She had an idea she wasn’t going to like the Kaldeen. “So who or what are they?”
“Bitter enemies of the Caldokians but no friends of ours either. Savage animals, maybe even worse than what we’ve been through. But they’re not so numerous. We’ve been lucky so far in not bumping into them.”