◆
Anna awakened with a start, Lamb’s hand over her mouth. She nodded recognition, and he released her.
“Khan-Tral heard movement above us,” he said quietly. “He’s gone up to investigate.” The rope twitched as the warrior climbed. It seemed like an eternity before he climbed back down again.
“There are signs of something very large being slid across the floor,” the swordsman said quietly, “but Khan-Tral did not see anything in the cavern above.”
“How far up is the opening?” Lamb asked.
“Not far. We have climbed more than halfway. The cavern itself is quite large. There is a primary tunnel passing through it that we want to take, as well as two other side passages and another in the ceiling.”
“What do you think you heard?” Anna asked.
“It sounded like something being slid across the ground,” the warrior replied. “And that agrees with the marks Khan-Tral found on the floor. But they did not go very far, nor did they seem to go anywhere in particular.”
“We should proceed with caution then,” Lamb said.
Khan-Tral nodded, grabbed a lantern and took it by the handle in his teeth, and immediately climbed back up the rope.
“I didn’t mean right now-” he added, but the warrior had already disappeared into the blackness. A moment later, light appeared about ten feet above them. “I guess it’s time to go.”
◆
As before, Anna walked up the narrow shaft, and then Khan-Tral pulled up the supplies.
While this was happening, Anna lit another lantern and explored the illuminated part of the cavern. It was significantly larger than any of the previous chambers, and the walls were grey with white flecks here and there. There was what appeared to be a main thoroughfare passing through the chamber. The tunnels on opposite sides of the cave were tall and arched, easily big enough to pull a wagon through. The two other tunnels were smaller and more natural-looking. She could not see the alleged shaft in the ceiling.
Anna realized that the cavern, despite its size, was fairly clean. The ever-present dust was significantly lessened, making the wide track through it barely visible. It was nearly ten feet across and seemed to go haphazardly around the space, stopping at the foot of an enormous stalagmite.
Anna turned to see Lamb poke out from the hole in the floor and gasp.
DESTROY IT, a voice said in his head.
◆
O’Malley jumped as three Junazhi appeared at his side, the stalks on their heads, and on Bierce’s attachment, flashing rapidly.
“What’s going on?” he cried. Then he looked back at the image and shuddered. Anna stood next to a giant, conical being with twin stalks like a slug near the point. As he watched, numerous, ropey tentacles emerged seamlessly from orifices in its surface and reached for her.
◆
“LOOK OUT,” Khan-Tral cried, leaping toward Anna, his huge sword at the ready.
Anna saw Lamb fire half a dozen arrows in rapid succession and the swordsman charge toward her, Nightbane at the ready. She looked up and behind her where the others seemed be focusing and saw the tentacles coming for her. Instinctively, she pulled two knives from her bandoleer and rolled away from the oncoming appendages.
Khan-Tral arrived a moment later and sliced through the tentacles just before they reached her. Lamb’s arrows barely missed one of the stalks, which evaded them effortlessly.
◆
DESTROY IT, O’Malley heard a voice say in his head. The Junazhi stalks continued to flash furiously. A moment later, Lamb shot off a series of arrows.
“The Junazhi can communicate with them!” O’Malley shouted.
“Not now,” Bierce replied. “That is one of the Junazhi’s ancient enemies.”
“What is it doing in Brian Teplow’s dream world?”
“That is a good question. I suspect that, just as the Junazhi can impose themselves into it, the ancient enemy can do so as well.”
YOU CANNOT DEFEAT ME, another voice said loudly in his head. O’Malley covered his ears, but it did nothing to reduce the volume. YOUR PUPPETS ARE POWERLESS. THE DARK ONE WILL BE DEFEATED.
◆
Anna fought desperately to hold off the tentacles, but they kept coming. While her knives bit into them, they could not slice through, and the wounds closed almost instantly. Even Khan-Tral’s sword only provided a temporary respite. The severed ends pursued them as the limbs regenerated and attacked again a moment later.
Suddenly, the colossal thing slid toward them at surprising speed. Anna and Khan-Tral dove out of the way in opposite directions.
Lamb kept firing as he ran toward Anna. His arrows stuck the mass of the thing and seemed to disappear harmlessly into it.
The mass stopped when the Razor of Delusions sliced into it from the other side. Lamb fired off several more shots, striking the thing squarely in the center. This time, they seemed to have some effect.
Instead of closing, a gelatinous green goo erupted from the wound and pooled on the floor. As they watched, the mass expanded rapidly, and countless mouths, eyes, and pseudopods appeared.
“RUN,” Khan-Tral cried as he sprinted into view around the conical creature. He was heading toward the passage nearest Anna and Lamb, which was one of the smaller, natural ones. Anna turned to follow.
Lamb shot an arrow at the globular monster slurping toward him, but the shaft disintegrated as soon as it made contact. Lamb turned and followed the others as fast as he could.
◆
“What does it mean ‘the Dark One will be defeated,’” O’Malley shouted at Bierce. “Who is the enemy here? Or are all of these things to be vanquished?” He brandished the relic defensively in case someone or something attacked him. But nothing threatened him.
“As you can well imagine,” Bierce said, “the Junazhi have their own long and storied history. Their story precedes the concept of humanity or life as you know it. From their perspective, as well as that of their ancient enemy, humanity is inconsequential. The ‘Dark One’ it spoke of could be anything.”
O’Malley considered this. These entities all seemed to transcend space and time. Contrary to theological dogma, in the grand scheme of the universe, the existence of mankind or even life on Earth is inconsequential. Still, he was skeptical of the aliens’ motives.
◆
Khan-Tral led the three through the tunnel. There was light up ahead. After about twenty feet, it opened up into a tall chamber dominated by a stalagmite that reached up toward with a stalactite. The two were connected by few feet of ice on a narrow ledge.
Emerging from the tunnel, Lamb looked back and watched the light from their abandoned lantern disappear as the monster filled the passage behind them. Fortunately, it did not seem to move very quickly.
“Up top,” he shouted and started climbing the stalagmite. Anna and Khal-Tral followed suit. They could hear the sound of the creature as got closer, preceded by a noxious cloud that caused their noses to burn and their eyes to water.
The stalagmite was pitted and the climbing was fairly easy, even for Anna. When they reached the top, Anna realized that the ice between the stalagmite and the stalactite was glowing. It illuminated the chamber.
As Khan-Tral helped Lamb onto the surface, the monster emerged from the tunnel. To their horror, it continued to grow, expanding like rising dough, coming closer and closer.
Like a moth to a flame, Anna reached out and touched the glowing ice. The was a flash, and then she was gone. Lamb and Khan-Tral saw her disappear, touched the ice themselves, and disappeared as well.
Chapter 23
July 17, 1929
“You still have not explained to me how they can communicate with Harry,” O’Malley said with irritation. The Junazhi vanished as soon as the image on the screen went blank. The priest kept the relic at the ready, but there were no targets.
He turned with a start and nearly blasted Billy, but the silent watchmen was merely setting a tray of sandwiches with a pot of
coffee and a single mug on the table next to the Bierce device.
“I take it with cream and sugar,” O’Malley said sarcastically. Billy turned the tray to reveal a sugar bowl and small pitcher, which had been hidden by the pot. “Thank you,” he said apologetically out of habit.
“I mentioned previously that the Junazhi sense things differently from you,” Bierce said. “They can communicate telepathically to Dr. Lamb. It appears to him as a compelling thought. He does not even realize it.”
“So he was the puppet that cone thing referred to,” O’Malley fumed. “And they can command him at will to do their bidding without him even realizing it? What else have they had him do?”
“You have been present since his implantation. They have not sent him any instructions other than to attack the ancient enemy. And that, I assure you, was an instinct burned into their collective memory.”
“So you’re saying that making Harry fire at that thing was an involuntary reaction to seeing it.”
“That is correct.”
“So these aliens have things that go bump in the night too.” O’Malley considered that information. He noticed Billy move to stand behind him, an arm’s reach away. “Interesting.”
◆
Anna awoke with a start and started rolling on the ground. She felt as if she was on fire, but realized that the glowing, metallic square that she and her companions were laying upon was extremely hot, and only their clothes had shielded them from burning. She rolled off the square, which was elevated about a foot over the soft floor of a vast cavern, and rose to her knees.
“WAKE UP!” she shouted, reaching out to shake Lamb’s leg. The doctor stirred, and then duplicated Anna’s previous movements, including shaking Khan-Tral awake. The swordsmen leapt from a lying position off the platform and landed on his feet behind the other two.
Anna looked around the cavern, which appeared to be illuminated by some kind of phosphorescent fungus growing all around. The cavern was enormous. They could see neither the sides nor the ceiling. The metal platform stood in the center of a thick, subterranean forest. A few feet back from the heat of the platform, a thick carpet of moss-like growth covered the ground. Here and there, large mushrooms grew as big as trees.
Lamb gazed in wonder at the plant life all around. He heard the trickle of water and followed the sound. It emanated from a small brook that pooled into a pond. As he approached, Lamb noted the rustling of the foliage, suggesting that something or things had fled his approach. He knelt by the water and unconsciously took a drink. The water tasted cool and fresh.
Suddenly, he saw a large shape move rapidly in the water and stepped back as a four- or five-foot pike-like fish leapt from the water and snapped at where he had been, before disappearing back below the surface. Lamb backtracked to where he had left the others, only to emerge on the opposite side of the platform from them.
“Where are we?” Anna asked, amazed at the beauty of the underground garden.
“Khan-Tral is not sure,” the swordsman said with uncharacteristic uncertainty. “He would surely remember growth such as this. Khan-Tral does not believe that he has been here before.”
“So we’re lost?!” Lamb cried. “How are we supposed to find Brian now? We’ll wander these tunnels forever before we stumble upon an exit.”
“Not necessarily,” Anna said, examining the mushroom trees. “Mushroom such as these require consistent temperature and moisture. This cavern is comparatively warmer than those below, which suggests that it is closer to the surface.”
“Unless there is some other heat source down here,” Lamb retorted. “I read somewhere that caves tend to be a uniform temperature, around 52 degrees Fahrenheit. There must be some other source for the additional warmth.”
“Regardless of the cause of the growth here,” Khan-Tral interjected, “a forest such as this is likely to be inhabited, so be wary. Subterranean predators can be more cunning than their surface counterparts.”
“Our first priority is to assess our situation,” Anna said in a fresh, business-like manner. “We have lost all of our supplies except what we have with us. Therefore we have no food, water, lanterns, or oil.”
“There is a pond over there,” Lamb said, pointing over his shoulder with his thumb, “but we have nothing to carry the water in. I drank some. It’s fresh.”
“How cold was the water?” the swordsman asked curiously.
“How cold?” Lamb asked. “I don’t know. It hadn’t just thawed from ice, if that’s what you mean. What does it matter?”
The warrior did not respond, but instead stepped purposefully into the foliage, where all but his head and shoulders disappeared. As they watched, he looked from side to side and up and down as if searching for something.
“We had better stay together,” Anna said and followed the trail of trampled vegetation. Lamb followed with an arrow nocked, watching their rear.
◆
They followed Khan-Tral in silence for some time. They had given up asking him to explain himself a while ago after repeated shushing. When the cavern wall came into view, the swordsman seemed disconcerted. He tracked the wall to his right and Anna followed his gaze, but Lamb looked the other way.
“What’s that?” the doctor said, pointing to a narrow strip running up the side of the cavern in the distance. Khan-Tral turned, saw the subject of his inquiry, and smiled.
“You’ve found it. Khan-Tral knows where we are, and we are much closer to our goal.”
“What is that?” Anna asked.
“That,” he said with a grin, “is a ladder hammered into the side of the cavern. There is a trapdoor in the cavern roof at the top that will put us one layer below Gho-Bazh’s dungeon.”
“Who put it there?” Lamb asked.
“Khan-Tral does not know, but it was there when he and Deb-Roh made their escape. Come!”
The warrior led Anna and Lamb along the wall of the cavern until they came upon another pool along the edge. Avoiding the water, they stepped back into the thick foliage.
Suddenly, something leapt onto Lamb and knocked him out of view.
Anna heard the commotion behind her and turned to see that Lamb was missing. She heard a commotion in the growth to her left, drew twin hand axes from her bandoleer, and dove in.
What she found was a growling mass of fur with sharp claws. She caught a glimpse of a rodent-like snout and a long, furry tail, but it darted through the underbrush too fast to properly recognize.
Lamb was trying to fend off the creature, but the dense foliage was too thick for him to draw his sword. He had fallen into a sitting position, and the mass of fur and fury seemed to circle around him continuously.
Anna tried to reach in and attack, but she was fearful of hitting the doctor.
Then Khan-Tral was at her side. He reached in and took hold of the creature. The greyish-brown fur consolidated into a large, weasel-like creature. The swordsman gripped it in both hands behind its forelimbs, but the creature had sufficient mobility to wrap its long body and tail around one of his arms and claw at it.
Anna took her chance and chopped at the creature’s head with her axe. She missed, striking the swordsman’s belt buckle instead.
The creature paused for a moment to assess the new attacker, and Anna lashed out with the other axe, landing a solid chop across the back of its neck. The animal screeched, but had lost most of its mobility. She chopped again and the neck broke with a solid crunch.
Anna dropped the axes and knelt at Lamb’s side. “Are you hurt?”
Lamb looked himself over. His long sleeves and trousers had been torn in several places, and there were some scratches on his hands and face, but he did not detect anything more than superficial injuries.
“I don’t believe there is anything life threatening,” he replied, “as long as that weasel didn’t have rabies. But we’ll have to take our chances.”
Anna helped him to his feet and then retrieved her axes. When they returned to the trail K
han-Tral had blazed, she noticed that the warrior had the giant weasel’s headless corpse draped over his shoulders.
“A memento?” she asked.
“This will make a fine coat,” the swordsman replied and trekked forward into the fungus forest.
Chapter 24
?
By the time they had circumvented the pond, the direct path seemed much closer than returning to the cavern wall, so they continued on through the mushrooms and moss until they discovered a road of stone-grey brick that passed from an opening in one wall, through the cavern, and out another opening on the opposite side, barely visible in the distance. The road was wide enough for two-way traffic, and ruts in the bricks indicated use by heavy carts or wagons.
Khan-Tral knelt and examined the tracks and the brickwork.
“Come quickly,” he said abruptly as he suddenly rose and advanced toward the ladder, unconcerned with the terrain between them and it.
“What is it?” Anna asked, jogging to keep up with him and tripping on the occasional vine.
“There are beings that live below the ground,” the warrior said gravely. “Things that see anything not like them as food or slaves. We want to avoid them if we can.” As an afterthought, he added, “That is why no one else has escaped the Red Wizard this way.”
“What kind of things?” Lamb asked.
“Let us hope that you do not find out,” Khan-Tral said ominously, his pace never slowing.
Eventually the foliage gave way to open ground. The ever-present moss ended just short of the wall. Anna saw the iron ladder, which was mounted in the rock of the cavern wall about one foot out from the face and rose perhaps 100 feet to a metal door that could barely be discerned in the ceiling.
The Other Realm Page 14