The Brega path tsc-2

by Dennis McKiernan

  The Shelf in turn came to an abrupt end, scissured by the Great Deep, black and yawning, the ebon gape splitting out of the high rock walls to jag across the expansive stone floor and bar the way. Beyond the mighty fissure the wide stone floor continued, lit by guttering torches, and on farther the Squad could see the beginnings of the vast Mustering Chamber-the War Hall-receding beyond the flickering light into impenetrable blackness, the distant ceiling supported by four rows of giant Dragon Pillars marching away into the vast dark. Across the Great Deep a spidery rope bridge with wooden footboards was suspended. The span was narrow; those using it would have to cross the wide gulf in single file. It was anchored on the near side by two huge iron rings on iron posts driven into the stone; and it was held on the far side by a winch set far back from the!ip of the rift-the winch a remnant of the ancient drawbridge destroyed in the Winter War. Guarding the hoist on the distant side were two Rucks, squatting on the stone floor, casting knucklebones and muttering curses at each other.

  Lord Kian motioned Shannon Silverleaf forward. "Can you fell the Rukh on the left with an arrow from here?" Kian whispered.

  Shannon eyed the distance; it was a far shot. "It would be surer from the bottom of the steps.*' He motioned downward into the shadows.

  Lord Kian gave a curt nod, and signalling the others to remain, the Man and the Elf crept down the broad stairway. At the bottom, Kian knelt to one knee while Shannon stood straight, and each drew his bow to the full. The Rucks continued their quarrel, unaware of their danger; one, enraged at the turn of the dice, jumped up with a snarling oath and clouted the other behind the ear. The second Ruck kicked out at the first and with a curse sprang to his feet, and they both drew their scimitars, bent on murder. But before they could close with one another in battle, Th-thunn! two arrows were loosed and sped hissing through the air to lodge deeply into the Rucks. One fell instantly dead, pierced through the heart. The other stared in astonishment at the point emerging from his stomach, but ere he could draw breath to scream, Th-thock! two more arrows thudded into him, and he pitched forward on his face, dead before striking the stone floor.

  Perry and Delk dashed down the steps, with Anval, Bonn, and Ursor right behind. "Now!" barked Kian. "Across the bridge. Hurry!" But Shannon, in the lead, had just stepped onto the span when out of the first side tunnel on the left came tramping a H!6k-led company of Rucks. It was the change of the guard.

  For an instant in time, the Rucks stopped, frozen in amazement at the sight of these intruders. Then, with snarls of rage, the maggot-folk leapt forward, scimitars raised.

  "Wait!" Kian called to his companions. "There are too many of them to meet on the open floor. We'll make our stand on this side of the bridge where they can only come at us one at a time. Ursor, to the bridge. Anval, Bonn, flank Ursor. Shannon, with your bow stand thwartwise to the span from me; we'll catch them in our cross-fire. Perry, Delk, take those who get past the first rank. Yield no quarter."

  Across the bridge charged the maggot-folk, the span bouncing and swaying under their rushing feet. On they came, right into Ursor's devastating mace, and Anval's and Bonn's lethal axes, and the first to fall was the Hlok leader.

  His heart hammering, Perry had drawn Bane, and its blue flame blazed; the Warrow and Delk stood ready, but as of yet no Spawn had won past the front rank. Kian's bow hummed as arrow after arrow hissed into the Rucks at the rear, and Shannon's aim was just as deadly, the bolts slashing into the foe from right and left.

  The Rucks were single file on the narrow bridge and jammed closely together; those in the fore fell screeching into the Deep, hurled there by mace or axe, while those in the rear plummeted into the black depths with quarrels through them. Many in the span center turned to flee, elbowing, pushing, wildly clawing, jolting into each other and shoving one another off in their mad bid to escape; yet some at the distant end regained the far side only to be dropped by deadly arrows before they could reach the sanctuary of the far tunnels.

  But one fleeing Ruck ran to the windlass, where he grabbed up a mallet and with a wild swing knocked the brake-wedge loose just as an arrow sprang full from his chest and he feir dead. Yet the winch was free and spinning as the anchor ropes ran loose. And the bridge, now held only at one end by the large iron rings, rucketted down to crash into the side of the abyss, and the remaining Spawn fell screaming to their doom. And Perry's blood ran chill as he unwillingly listened in frozen horror to the shrieks and wails of the plunging Rucks-screams that dwindled and faded, to be tost at last in the black silence as the maggot-folk plummeted beyond hearing down into the dreadful depths.

  A quick check showed that none of the Seven had received so much as a minor wound, though there was a long scimitar scar on Ursor's learner breastplate. Albeit free from injury and successful in battle, still the Squad may have lost the campaign, for they had yet to cross the gulf; and the span was down, dangling from the iron rings on the near side, creaking and swinging slowly like a great long pendulum as it hung down the sheer undercut wall of the Deep.

  "Did any of the Rutcha escape to warn the others?" asked Ursor. "I could not tell, for I was busy at the fore."

  "I think not," answered Shannon, gesturing toward the many dead on the far shelf. "Our arrows dropped all who tried to flee."

  "Though none escaped," declared Kian, "we must be across and gone ere any more come. If that was the changing of the guard, we have at most six or eight hours-likely less-Before others arrive."

  They went to the lip of the gulf and searched for a way across. The chasm was wide: the far rim at the narrowest point was some fifty feet away, and in many places the width exceeded one hundred feet.

  Anval, Bonn, and Delk unhooded three Dwarf-lanterns, and with Perry they lay on their stomachs on the lip of the rift and examined the depths for as far as the light shone. They could see the bridge dangling down the wall, swaying slowly, but they found no way to span the abyss, for below the undercut the sides were smooth and sheer, dropping straight for as far as the eye could see, vanishing into the unguessable depths beyond. Perry quailed at the sight of the endless-fall, and pushed back from the rim.

  Finding no way to cross down below, the buccan and the Dwarves strode out to the sides where the great ebon crack disappeared into the stone walls of the mountain, but the rift was even wider at those points. Lord Kian, Shannon, and Ursor spoke quietly together and eyed the distance to the winch; they saw that it was covered with a grapnel-shelter, whose rounded edges and tumed-under sides were cunningly contrived to resist hooks; in any event, the cast was a long one to carry a rope of any consequence The rest of the far-side shelf was barren and smooth, flattened ages agone by Dwarven adze and stone chisel to resist invaders' grapnels.

  "Our mission has failed before it ever got properly under way," groaned Perry in despair. "We are stopped here at the Great Deep. All of our hopes and plans have fallen into its black depths just as the burning Gargon fell long ago."

  "Speak not the name of the Dread needlessly"-Shannon's voice held a sharp edge-"for it portends evil in Black Drimmen-deeve. And do not despair too soon, for I believe our Drimm friends will yet show us the way."

  "Kruk!" spat Anval. "We cannot throw a hook to cross over, and we cannot go around the ends, and we cannot climb down and across. Bonn, it will be slow, yet all that is left to us is a climb up and over on the roof."

  "Roof? Climb?" asked Perry, looking upward, dumfounded. "How can we cross over on the roof? It must be eighty or a hundred feet up to there, and we are not flies to walk upside

  down on that stone ceiling. Do you propose an enchantment, a miracle?"

  "Nay," growled Bonn, rummaging in his pack, "not a miracle, nor spell, but this instead." From his pack Bonn extracted a leather harness laden with crafted metal snap-rings and thin-bladed spikes, each spike with an eyelet on the side of the thick end; also affixed to the belting were many different-sized, small, irregular iron cubes, each hollowed out by a hole through the center.

  "Wha
t is that?" asked Perry, puzzled.

  "A climbing harness," replied Bonn.

  "And what are those things fastened to it?" Perry pointed to the metal objects.

  "Rock-nails. Rings. Jams," answered Bonn, unfastening one each of the three types of devices and handing them to the Warrow, who held them in the lantern light to examine them closely. Bonn spoke on: "Heed: with the nail, you drive the spike into a thin crevice in the stone, then snap a ring through the eyelet; one of several leather straps is then clipped between the climbing harness and the ring. You haul yourself up and along as you go, suspended by strap on a trail of driven rock-nails and attached rings. When you come to a place where the crevices are wider, you wedge a proper-sized jam in place, slipping a snap-ring through the hole, using it instead of a nail."

  Borin turned to Lord Kian. "I will make the climb, and once across I will let myself down; and then we will fix a rope over the Great Deop for the rest to use; or we will haul the bridge back up, and all can stride above the dark depths on its broad span."

  Perry examined the devices while Borin prepared himself for the climb, putting on the. tackle, buckling the cross straps of the harness and cinching tight the wide belt burdened with the rings, nails, and jams. The Dwarf also attached hanks of rope to the belt; and he tied a small hammer by a thong to his wrist.

  "Here," rasped Anval, fastening a thick leather pad to the hammer face, "it will deaden the sound of each strike." Borin nodded but said nought, for his gaze was sweeping up and across the roof.

  "It is a long reach," growled Borin to his brother as they

  surveyed the intended route. "Should I need more climbware, I will drop a line to you." Anval merely grunted in reply.

  The Ironfists selected a place to start, and Perry gave Bonn back the nail, jam, and ring. The Dwarf reached up high on die wall beside the stairs and with muffled blows drove the rock-nail into a thin crack; then began the perilous climb.

  Quickly, Borin drove nail after nail into the stone, clipping and adjusting an appropriate harness anchor strap to each new nail as he went, unclipping the hindmost strap and retrieving the free snap-ring as he left each embedded nail behind; and up like a fly he clambered. At times there were handholds, and he did not use the rock-nails as he ascended. At other times, however, long still study was needed before he drove a nail or wedged a jam and moved onward. At last he topped the wall and started across the ceiling, the Dwarf now totally dependent upon the leather belting, rings, nails, jams, and harness. Perry was glad that it was not he who had to climb so high and dangle like a Yule decoration, and he was amazed by Borin's ability. "How surely he goes," breathed the Warrow, looking up, knowing that were their places exchanged he would be frozen with fear.

  "Aye," answered Delk. "Borin is accounted a master stone climber-even among the CMkka."

  "You speak as if all Dwarves climb like that," said Perry.

  "Aye," responded Delk, "for the inside of a Mountain needs climbing more than its outside ever does. And the Chilkka have been climbing Mountains since we and they were created-yet we more often climb within the living stone than without. Even so, mayhap Borin is the best of us all."

  Once again Perry turned his sight toward the Dwarf above. Yet Borin's progress had slowed markedly, for he was now on the most difficult, the most hazardous reach.

  Bit by bit, the Dwarf inched across the ceiling as precious time eked beyond recall into the past. And Perry fretted that the climb had already taken too long, and that more time would be spent ere the task came to an end; for the buccan knew that at any moment a Rucken band could swarm into the War Hall. These thoughts were on Lord Kian's mind too, for the young Man said to Shannon, "It is now that Borin is most vulnerable to Yrm arrow; if Spaunen come, we must slay any archers first." Perry's heart sank at these dismaying words, and his eyes once again turned to the exposed climber. And up above, the Dwarf crept onward as the sands of time ran swiftly down.

  Hours later, it seemed, Borin, now well out over the chasm, called down to the companions below, pitching his voice so that it would not carry into the caverns to be heard by hostile ears: "Ziggurt!"

  "What did he say?" asked Perry.

  "Ziggurt," replied Delk. "It is one of the many ChSk words describing the condition of rock. Borin says the roof stone where he is, is ziggurt. That means it is not completely sound; perhaps when the Great Deop first split upward, reaching into the Mountain from below, the stone was stressed so.";

  "Does that mean it's going to fall?" asked the Warrow, yielding back.

  "Nay," Delk assured him. "Ziggurt is not rotten stone, yet it may give way, but only if stressed more. Ziggurt means that the rock is crazed, that it has many small cracks and large, and fissures running widely through it. The rock is untrustworthy for bearing weight: small chunks may fall if pulled upon; large slabs can shatter down if stressed just so. No, ziggurt does not mean weak stone; it can be very strong and stand forever. But long careful study is necessary beforehand when working the stone, to prevent mishap. Yet ziggurt is more than I have just told you. Pah! The Common Tongue is not suited to any better description than that; it is not capable of shading the meanings of stone as is the Chak Speech."

  "Time, Delk?" asked Kian. "There is the rub: you have said that time is needed to work ziggurt rock to prevent mishap; yet I deem that our time is nigh gone. Other Yrm patrols will come, and we must be away ere then with no trace of our passage remaining. If Gnar suspects that his enemies are within these caverns, he will turn out all of his forces to search for us. And we do not want a Spaunen Swarm hunting through the halls, seeking our party. No, our only hope to help Durek is to win through without alerting the entire Yrm army." In a muted voice, Kian called up to Borin, "Can you go on?"

  "It is ziggurt for as far as the eye can see," Borin called back down, waving a hand across the gulf and toward the Mustering Chamber. "But I must try, though it will be a gamble, for the way is obscured by soot from the time the ancient bridge burned, and long study is needed, yet we have not the lime. I must chance a hasty crossing."

  "Wait!" softly called Shannon, cupping his hands about his mouth so that his voice would reach the Dwarf above. "There is this: if you can lower a rope to me, I can swing across-if the stone and iron rock-nails will bear my weight." The Elf looked at Lord Kian. "Except for Perry, I am the least heavy, and you cannot risk him on this scheme." Lord Kian nodded his assent.

  Borin hammered in another rock-nail, and then like a swaying spider strand a thin, strong line came snaking and swinging down out of the overhead gloom. Borin had tied his hammer to the end to give the rope a pendulum weight, and he swung it as he payed it out. Shannon nimbly caught the line on one of the long arcs, and as soon as Borin called down that all was ready, the Elf gave the company a rakish grin and sprang off the edge of the Deep.

  Shannon's first long swing was not far enough, and he rose to the end of his arc, seemed to pause, and then hurtled back across the yawning gulf. On the second swing he pumped hard over the bottomless pit and carried farther still, though it was not yet enough. On the third pass he almost gained the far lip of the chasm, but not quite.

  Only Borin, clenched against the ceiling by the short anchor straps, did not see the Elf come closer and closer with each plunge; instead, the Dwarf kept his eye riveted to the rock-nail. The swings were placing heavy stress on the eyeletted spike, and Borin intensely watched the crevice the nail blade was driven into. On the third arc, a stone chip flaked from the crack: the nail was coming loose! Quickly, Borin jammed his right forearm up into a large ziggurt cleft and made a fist, wedging his clenched hand tightly in the rift; he wrapped the loose end of the pendulum rope around his left arm and forcefully gripped it. No sooner had the Dwarf caught hold than the nail tore loose, and the weight of the plummeting Elf jolted through Bonn's arms and shoulders.

  Silverleaf was swinging back from the far lip when he felt the rope give then catch again, and the jar nearly shook his grip loose, the line slipping
in his grasp ere he caught tight. His grip firm again, he continued his arc and pumped hard on the next plunge across.

  Borin strained desperately to hold on, gritting his teeth and closing his eyes with the effort, his great arm and shoulder muscles cracking with the stress, for he was the anchoring link between the stone overhead and the taut rope to the Elf hurtling the abyss below. The greatest strain came when Shannon hurtled through the bottom of the arc, and Borin strove to hold on: his right fist, jammed in the crack, felt as if the bones in his hand were breaking, and the rope wrapped around his left arm seemed as if it were cutting through the elbow, and his shoulders felt as if his arms were being plucked from the sockets. Yet grimly he held on as Shannon hurled up in a rising arc out of the depths and to the far lip. The Elf cast loose from the line and plunged forward to the stone, falling with a roll and then springing nimbly to his feet.

  Aloft, Borin gave a grunt of relief, and, dangling by the leather straps between his climbing harness and the embedded rock-nails, he extracted his skinned-knuckled hand from the jam-crack and massaged his shoulders, neck, and arms. After a moment, he began coiling the pendulum rope, drawing it upward into the shadows, preparatory to starting back th amp; way he had come.

  Shannon called for a hammer and a rock-nail, and they were tossed over the abyss to him; the Elf drove the spike into a thin chink in the floor. At Silverleaf s command. Perry attached his soft and pliable ancient Elven-rope to a grapnel and threw it across to the Elf, who then wedged a tine of the hook into the eyelet of the nail, while the other end of the line was anchored to one of the iron post rings. At a gesture from Shannon, huge Ursor swung hand over hand and joined the Elf; though he was a giant, the Baerart was deft and graceful. Perry gasped at Ursor's deed, for the line was so slender and the Man so huge, and the Warrow feared that the rope would snap; but it was Elven-made, and Silverleaf had known that it would hold ten like Ursor.