by Tom Lloyd
The mage-reinforced stone was weakened, Lynx realised. Whatever had broken it must have disrupted those magics woven in the walls just enough. Without the hole to aim for, its strength and grip would fail and it would fall, but now Lynx saw the deepgod fight with every instinct remaining to it. With fury and desperation it clawed its way upwards. It gouged through the rock as bursts of power propelled it higher before its momentum was lost, using the damage left by its spear-limbs as footholds.
With one last effort it threw itself up to the edge of the hole. Its long forelimbs shot through and ripped up the mosaic floor as it sought purchase. Something broke under it and the deepgod twisted sideways. One long limb flailed for a moment until the shorter arms could catch the lip. Once they had it, its grip was secure. The spear-limb hung awkwardly as it clambered through and out into the mosaic hall beyond.
The Cards watched it go, still too shocked to move or try another shot. The huge creature paused at the edge, lying flat with its legs draped over, but finally righted itself with slow, pained movements. It took a step, then two. In moments it was out of sight.
‘Back up the tunnel!’ Toil roared. ‘Shift yourselves!’
‘What?’ Lynx stared blankly at her until Toil grabbed him by the jacket and hauled him closer. ‘We’re not done yet!’ she yelled into his face. ‘We didn’t come all this way and kill a god only to unleash something worse on Urden!’
Slowly Lynx nodded. ‘What’s the plan?’
She gave him a wild grin. ‘We’re the world’s authority on killing the biggest, nastiest fuckers out there. We’ve got some evil ammunition, colossal arrogance and a desperate need to blow stuff up when sober. Get moving, you fucks, it’s time to be heroes.’
‘Will we get paid?’ Anatin asked.
‘Probably not.’
‘Go down in legend?’
‘Doubt it.’
He thought for a moment then shrugged. ‘Fuck it. Guess we’ve come this far. Maybe it’s worth a try.’
Chapter 41
Toil ordered the white-light spheres to the front. There wasn’t much time for caution now – their only constraint was Reft’s injury and no one felt much like splitting up. They weren’t catching something that big in a race and if they found it, they’d want every gun to hand. Aben and Varain led the Cards with the mage lamps held above their heads to cast the light as far as possible. The big man could walk, but clearly only thanks to Sitain’s efforts. Whether it meant he was making his injuries worse in the process was something she decided not to mention.
In the smaller chambers and tunnels, the spheres provided enough light for the whole company to see by so their pace was better than before. The light wasn’t bright enough to drive off maspid packs, but each bare stone room proved as empty as the last. Their guns were silent all the way to the huge mosaic hall.
Before reaching it, Toil stopped and had the spheres covered again. They couldn’t make any great impact in the darkness of such a large space and the Marked Cards needed time to readjust if a fight awaited them.
‘Plan?’ Lynx asked as they huddled just out of sight.
‘A quick look,’ Toil said. ‘Kas, me and Brel. Doubt there’s much waiting for us though. If they were going to hang around we’d have walked into an ambush already.’
‘You think they just left?’ Anatin said dubiously. ‘Wandered off arm in arm with their bloody great beastie overlord?’
‘Could have run at the sight,’ she replied. ‘I would’ve. Maybe they’ve been eaten – or they’re in thrall and mindlessly following wherever it’s going.’ She nodded to the two scouts. ‘Let’s go find out.’
She activated her Duegar lantern, cupped between her hands to limit the light, and used it to just see an outline of the tunnel. Taking her time, she scanned the ground with a practised eye and finally discovered what she was looking for – a length of twine strung between empty alcoves. Barely visible if you weren’t looking for it, it led to a grenade tucked into a corner.
Kas padded noiselessly forward and retrieved the grenade. As she made it safe, removing the mushroom-head pin which would crack the glass core, Toil saw the lightning symbol on the head. Despite herself, she felt a shiver run down her spine. A crackler was a nasty thing at the best of times, let alone in the confined space of a tunnel. For the very last stretch they walked in total darkness, using the wall as a guide. The ground was free of debris so it was less than a minute before the trio had reached the high opening to the mosaic hall.
Once there, Toil waited. She had excellent instincts but had learned to trust the sharpness of Kas’s eyes and ears the way Anatin did. It took some biting down on her impatience, but haste in the darkness was a death sentence.
‘If there’s anyone there,’ Kas breathed eventually, ‘they’re perfectly still.’
‘Somethin’ dead out there,’ Brel added. ‘Blood and shit on the air.’
‘But nothing alive. Reckon there’s a light somewhere that way,’ Kas said, pointing. ‘Lamp on the ground maybe.’
‘That’s where they blew the wall,’ Toil said.
‘How’d they do that again? Mage-strengthened rock I thought.’
‘Fuck knows. I’m just guessing, but dark magic’s a fair bet. Highkeep Sanctuary must be set up to create any weapon the mages can think of.’
Kas nodded. ‘I reckon it’s clear out here – enough to risk.’
‘Good.’ Toil turned and gave a low whistle to the rest before heading out into the hall on her own. As she walked, she felt the immensity of the space around her, the cool touch of air and sudden diminishing of the echo around her. It was a familiar presence, one that had almost broken her on her first relic hunt.
The thought made her pause. That bastard Sotorian Bade. The man who left her to die. He’d called the darkness a presence, had even given it a name.
Mistress Dark? Something like that anyway. The idea tickled at her mind, given what they’d seen. Maybe it was a real presence – faint like the gods but calling to those who’re looking for it. Maybe a call to service isn’t so much of a calling as just being open to the sound?
‘Just as well I let the fucker burn,’ Toil muttered.
She tightened her grip on her mage-gun and stalked forward, not waiting for the rest as she headed towards the faint light. The hole that had been torn in the wall revealed itself as she neared. A huge tear surrounded by chunks of rubble often taller than a person. Plenty of space for soldiers to hide behind, but something told her this wasn’t a rearguard ambush. The weak yellow light emanated from the base of one such chunk where the crushed bodies of Charneler dragoons spilled blood across the tiled ground. There were others there too, some in civilian clothing or priestly robes, even mages.
‘The fuck’s this?’ Kas asked, joining her while the rest of the company filed out into the hall behind them. ‘Killed by their own demolition work?’
‘Looks like it. Hardly a sign they were in their right minds, eh?’
Together they turned, following the sweep of dust and shards that ran away from the deepgod’s strange prison. It led across the huge hall to the largest of tunnel exits.
‘Sure about this?’
Toil shook her head. ‘Not even close. You?’
‘Nope.’ Kas shrugged. ‘We’re going to do it anyway, right?’
‘It’s not the fight I came here for,’ Toil admitted, ‘but yeah, we are.’
Either I’m just some city lord’s bloody-handed servant, she said to herself, or I truly believe in something better. This thing could just crawl into the belly of the world and not reappear for a hundred years. I could be risking everything for no damn reason at all, but fuck hindsight. Better than the other way around.
Formed into suits with healthy space between them, the Cards advanced through the dark. Up ahead, the tunnel loomed black and foreboding but as they reached it, Toil could see lights flickering beyond. In any other city-ruin this would have been a major thoroughfare. Here she guessed it was simply
a grand avenue towards the hall, or halls, of the gods. They had only found one path out after all. Quite possibly other mosaic halls lay undisturbed or sealed off elsewhere in the depths of the mountain.
Something more familiar lay on the other side: a great square shaft with broad avenues around the open inner edge. Pillared arcades and arched doorways led off those, grand and ornate constructions often several storeys high. Broad curling slopes led to the levels above and below. It was dully lit by the glow from long trails of creeper that hung from what remained of the ruined upper level. At the far corner of the shaft they had wrapped around each other over the decades and centuries. A broad cable as thick as a mature oak now anchored itself on the shelf of ground there, sending more trails further down.
None of this gave any great light, far less than a Wisp light garden. Still it was enough to give Toil a sense of where they were. She had coped with far less visibility in the past, albeit never with both humans and a golantha waiting somewhere beyond. At her signal the Cards edged forward, suit by suit, aware these grand dwellings or temples could conceal a regiment of troops. Directly ahead was the widest of the roads here, overlooking the open shaft on the left with a small plaza on the right.
At the edge of the huge shaft Toil stopped. She couldn’t resist looking down. The creeper only extended a short way, enough to light a stretch of the lower level, but other scraps of light showed how deep it was. Up was a rather more dismal sight.
The level above was clearly the top of the shaft, but she knew there had once been more above that. The top part of this vast complex had been scoured smooth by the force of Banesh’s great betrayal. The damage to the ceiling here was considerable. Ramps leading up were blocked with ancient debris that poured down to swamp the level above her. There were holes and fissures too, much of the rock ceiling looking close to imminent collapse. Toil imagined the surviving Duegar had shored it up to protect what remained below, but how well that work had survived the millennia was anyone’s guess.
‘Legend’s looking true then,’ Himbel commented, the company surgeon joining her at the ruined stretch of wall. ‘Banesh fucked this place good and proper. Wouldn’t want to be the first wanker to let off ordnance in here.’
‘But you might be standing next to her,’ Toil said, enjoying the flash of concern on Himbel’s permanently sour expression.
With Himbel silenced, she returned to surveying what she suspected had been some sort of servant-priest district. It had likely served as a buffer between Insar’s private grounds and the rest of the city-complex. Now, however, it was just a potential killing-ground. The small plaza bore four strange shrine-like structures in the centre. There were only six small doorways leading off it, each one beneath massive carved glyphs that were too complex for Toil to read. The shrines rose to a sharp peak above an empty concave section, great stone bowls standing just in front of each.
Toil would be willing to bet those were oil burners, able to draw up the fuel from miles below ground and used in the more dramatic or ritual settings. Now she was thinking along those lines she realised there were great curling cones set into the walls that might serve the same function. Here, so close to their god, the Duegar had likely spared no effort in declaring Insar’s magnificence.
‘Tempest, Snow – skirt round that way,’ Anatin called, pointing around the square. ‘Stars, Blood, cover us when we move.’
Ahead of them, the road continued through another massive tunnel, recently dug out judging by the heaps of debris. This one showed more signs of damage but was clearly the way the golantha had gone. Either it was still injured by its escape or not back to its full strength because there were clear drag-marks on the ground. That was the only obvious way to go, but Anatin didn’t want to make any possible ambush easy.
He allowed Tempest and Snow time to move around two sides of the square before setting off with Sun. Anticipating gunshots with every step, they made brisk progress only to again find a surprising lack of enemies waiting for them. The Cards of Sun took up a defensive position at the mouth of the other tunnel and waited for the rest. Before they arrived, Toil heard a familiar sound echo towards them. The clatter of battle.
‘Shit – glad we’re not the ones in the middle of that,’ Himbel commented.
The sound was coming from the tunnel up ahead. Not far off, there was fighting – a fair bit of it by the sound. It was too muffled for Toil to make much out, but the steady crack of icers and regular thump of heavier ammunition told enough of a story.
‘You realise we’re going to walk into the middle of it, right?’ Toil said as they hurried forward.
‘Creep up on it mebbe,’ Himbel puffed. ‘Even you ain’t getting the Cards to march right out into the mouth o’ whatever shit this is.’
Toil nodded. ‘Fair point. Come on then.’
She walked into a high tunnel wide enough for six carts to be driven abreast. The ground wasn’t entirely level. Two distinct tracks of parallel ridges, each about two yards apart, ran the length of the tunnel. Picking her way over one set, Toil advanced down the left-hand stretch of ground. After fifty yards the tunnel branched left and right. One track headed down each branch. The left-hand was blocked by rubble when they reached it, a collapse dating back to the fall of the gods she imagined. Toil didn’t pay it much mind because the remaining tunnel captured her attention immediately.
There was no doubt the deepgod had gone that way, but she still stopped and stared. The tunnel quickly opened out into what had to be an enormous chamber – perhaps one even bigger than the mosaic hall. There was light there – not daylight but a dim glow like that of a Wisp light garden. Tiny plants populated shelves of rock on the cavern wall, glowing green and yellow. More trails of the pale blue phosphorescent creeper reached towards her, lying torn and scraped aside from where the deepgod had passed.
The sound of violence intensified. The crash of gunfire and strange unearthly roars echoed towards them. Toil pressed on; aware the others were letting her go first but too consumed with questions to worry. At the end of the tunnel the path continued down a slope that arced around and disappeared from view. The flash of an icer streaked past her and slammed into the rock wall, thirty yards off. With understandable caution, Toil put her head around the corner and gasped.
The cavern was truly huge, a mile or more across with at least a dozen vast rock pillars supporting the roof. The largest of the pillars had to be eighty yards high and was festooned with climbing plants that glowed green and red. Beneath the highest points of the vaulted ceiling, a hundred yards up, were small lakes frilled with colourful life. The stone tracks she’d been following ran down the cavern on raised roads that wound through the great pillars.
Near the closest of the pillars stood the deepgod, rising tall above a small attendant force of humans, mostly in Charneler uniforms. The gigantic beast walked upright on four massive legs, its spear-like arms raised in threat towards a lesser golantha that squatted just out of reach. The deepgod’s smaller pair of arms sparkled with light as crackling lightning balled around its hands, spitting and coiling until one was hurled at the golantha.
Lightning burst over it but if anything that seemed to embolden the smaller horror. Thick-bodied with broad jutting limbs and a red frill of spines, the other golantha had huge dripping cracks across its body and legs that oozed with yellow light. More spilled out as the creature roared in defiance, its blockish head splitting open from top to bottom as it showed its rows of teeth.
The Charnelers peppered its flanks with gunfire. The golantha took no notice until a burner splashed over the ground in front of it. Only then did it turn, mouth open to suck the flames in until they were extinguished. It spat the fire back towards the deepgod which batted it away, but despite its advantage in size Toil saw the newly wakened monster’s movements were sluggish and weary.
‘Screaming hellfucks!’ gasped Lynx from her side, one of a handful who’d crept up to see what she’d found. ‘They turning on each othe
r?’
Toil nodded just as the other golantha surged forward. It had seen the same vulnerability, she guessed, and sought to take advantage. Earthers from the Charnelers battered and rocked its body. Still it launched itself at the deepgod unheeding of injury, fire and light streaming from its body as it went.
The deepgod slashed at it and scored a blazing line down its side. Flames exploded out, but the blow couldn’t arrest its charge. The golantha locked its huge maw around the deepgod’s leg. If it had had only two legs it would have fallen under the force of impact. Even so the deepgod staggered. Its human followers continued to fire but the haze of fire surrounding the golantha either deflected their shots or hid the impact.
Fire surged up the deepgod’s body, but it still managed to stab one spear-limb into the golantha’s side. It drove the second even harder in – punching right through the belly of the golantha while its smaller arms smashed down at its head with earth-magic. The pummelling was furious and soon it had dislodged the dying beast. Ichor and fire leaked from every part of it as it snapped and scrabbled forward, trying to reach its killer again. One final stab with a spear-limb stilled it, driving down through its head.
‘Damn thing was mad,’ Lynx croaked. ‘Even at the end it thought only of attack.’
‘Mad golantha,’ Toil said, shuddering. ‘What could do that?’
‘Magic,’ Atieno said in a hollow voice. ‘Drunk or mad, driven insane by more magic than it can contain!’
‘What? How?’
‘The air is thick with Veraimin’s touch,’ he replied. ‘Fire spills unchecked from that golantha – power leaking out even now.’ Atieno’s face hardened. ‘Give a mage a God Fragment and send them into battle. You will see such frothing madness before the end.’
Toil gasped. ‘God Fragment? The other vaults! They must have been lower down, kept apart from the cache of Insar’s to limit the risk to the priests. Shitting fuck, these things have been eating God Fragments?’