The Isle of Torment

by Andrew Hunter

  “Try to get him moving again,” Tanys said, “Tell him to wait for me at the sea beast… and tell him he’d better have my fucking cat when I get there!”

  “Don’t leave me!” Princess Anavaiel gasped as Tanys and Naietta turned to go.

  “Stay with Vael and Brynn!” Tanys said, “You’ll be safe with them.”

  Anavaiel glanced fearfully at the faceless boy and then whispered, “Please! I want to be with you!”

  Tanys jabbed her finger toward the unconscious beastmaster and hissed, “They need your help! I need your help! It’s time to grow up, Princess! Do your duty, and help my friends!”

  Anavaiel looked stung by her words, but she nodded curtly and whispered, “I will.”

  “Thank you,” Tanys sighed and then jogged away down the corridor toward the lift with Naietta close behind.

  Tanys jogged to a halt in the center of the stone lift, suddenly realizing that she had no idea how to operate the thing.

  “Where are we going?” Naietta asked as she stepped onto the lift as well.

  “All the way down,” Tanys said, “Do you remember how to make it go?”

  Naietta nodded. “I remember… everything,” she said, looking away as she waved her hand, and the lift began to descend.

  “I’m sorry, Naietta,” Tanys said, “I couldn’t… leave you to him like that.”

  “I know,” Naietta said quietly.

  Tanys flinched, her blade at the ready as they descended past a level lit by pools of burning pitch that had been spilled across the floor. The acrid smoke stung her eyes, and the scent of burning flesh hung heavy in the hazy air. Then they were past, and the cool, dank air of the underdelve washed over them again.

  They jumped off the lift as it reached the bottom, and Tanys raced toward the stairway leading down into the earth. The air grew warm again as they descended, the sound of booming machinery and the oppressive humidity growing ever stronger.

  “How were they able to capture you and Jorva?” Tanys asked.

  “We were sleeping in one of the little boats,” Naietta said, “The one up really high on the back of the ship… I was having a bad dream, and I then I woke up, and there was a man standing over us… a man with a metal face. I started to scream, but he pointed his finger at me… I don’t remember anything after that.”

  “The Mirrormage was on the Gannet?” Tanys said.

  “Who?”

  “The ghast we’re going to see now,” Tanys said, “He has Jorva under some kinda spell.”

  “But magic doesn’t work on Jorva,” Naietta said.

  “I don’t know what’s going on,” Tanys said, “but the mage said he would help us. Still, be ready in case he turns on us.”

  Naietta drew closer to Tanys when they reached the worm-walled level of the Mirrormage’s lair. She drew closer still when they entered the chamber of horrors where it kept its collection of glass-cased specimens.

  Tanys held her knife low to her side, ready for action, but doing her best to seem as non-threatening as possible. She had already fought one wizard today. She’d rather not have to fight another.

  “Jorva!” Naietta cried, rushing past Tanys as they sighted the dwarf sitting on the edge of the examination table.

  Jorva looked up with an expression of drunken amusement that brightened into a broad, blissful grin as he jumped down to run to Naietta’s arms.

  “Jorva, you’re all right!” Naietta sobbed, falling to her knees to embrace him tightly.

  “N’etta!” Jorva gasped, “You talk now!”

  Naietta said nothing more but pressed her lips to his and kissed him hard as she stroked her hand across his bald, tattooed head.

  At last she pulled away to take a breath, smiling deliriously at her beloved.

  Jorva reached up and pulled her lip down with his finger, peering inside her mouth and giggling at the sight of her pink tongue. “You all better now, N’etta!” he said, “Jorva thought he wake up in hell, but this not hell. This heaven!”

  “Hello, Jorva,” Tanys said, smiling as she walked up behind Naietta.

  Jorva’s eyes went wide. “Tanys!” he said, “What you doin’ in Stinky Heaven?”

  “We’re not dead,” Tanys laughed, “We were captured by ghasts. It’s time to escape now.”

  “Oh, Tanys,” Jorva sighed, “Sometime ghost don’t know they really dead. It all right to let go of old life.”

  Tanys shook her head. “Where is the Mirrormage?” she asked.

  “Huh?” Jorva said.

  Then Tanys noticed a dark shape on the floor on the far side of the table, and she moved past the two lovers to approach the unmoving body of the sorcerer.

  The Mirrormage lay, apparently dead, on the floor at the base of the table. Its body had fallen with its spindly arms and legs akimbo on the metal grate. The polished mask looked up from the floor, casting a distorted reflection of Tanys’s face.

  Tanys hesitated, part of her wanting to stoop and pull the mask from the corpse’s face, but she was too afraid of what that might reveal. The muffled boom of an explosion sounded from somewhere above, and she backed away with a shudder.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Tanys said, patting Jorva on the shoulder as she moved past him toward the exit.

  “How you get killed, Tanys?” Jorva asked as he and Naietta followed her out of the room. “How Jorva get killed anyway?”

  “We’re not dead!” Tanys said again, “But we might be if we don’t get off this island.”

  “It’s true, Jorva,” Naietta said, “We’re all right.”

  Jorva giggled again like a little boy. “Say Jorva’s name again, N’etta!” he said, “Jorva like N’etta’s new voice.”

  “I missed you too, Jorva,” Naietta sighed.

  Tanys cursed when they reached the top of the stairs and found the lift gone.

  Naietta ran forward, waving her palm as she looked up into the shadowy shaft above. A distant grinding sound could be heard from far above.

  Naietta yelped and jumped backward, blinking in astonishment as she put her hand to her cheek where a large drop of blood had spattered against her face.

  A hideous groan sounded from the shaft, and Tanys yanked Naietta clear as a cascade of shattered obsidian and burning body parts crashed down into the chamber at the base of the lift tube.

  The three of them scrambled back into the stairwell as burning pitch splashed across the floor, roasting the rivulets of living ants that streamed down from the floors above.

  “This a stupid heaven,” Jorva mused, “Jorva probably do somethin’ really bad once.”

  “Is there another way up?” Tanys asked.

  “I don’t know!” Naietta gasped, still wiping the blood from her face.

  “We go up tunnel,” Jorva said.

  “What tunnel?” Tanys asked.

  “This way,” Jorva said, leading them back down the stairs.

  They followed him until he came to a featureless section of wall in a side corridor. The dwarf banged his fist on the wall twice, and a section of stone slid open to reveal a secret passageway.

  “How did you know that was there?” Tanys gasped.

  Jorva shrugged his massive shoulders. “That where they put it,” he said.

  Tanys and Naietta shared a worried look and then followed the dwarf into the lightless tunnel.

  They stepped out of the tunnel a few minutes later, finding themselves in a round chamber containing a much smaller, but apparently still operational version of the stone lift.

  “Where Jorva go now?” Jorva asked, stepping into the center of the lift.

  “The prison cells,” Tanys said, eyeing Jorva warily as she and Naietta stepped onto the stone disc as well, “We have to get Berra and Tyll.”

  Jorva grunted and the lift began to rise beneath them at once.

  “How are you doing that, Jorva?” Naietta asked.

  “Jorva’s heaven,” the dwarf mused, “Do what Jorva say.”

  The lift rose
past a series of identical circular rooms, stopping at last on a floor, indistinguishable, to Tanys’s eyes, from any of the others. Jorva led them from the lift into another shadowy tunnel. Another secret door opened before them, and they emerged onto the prison level where Tanys had nearly perished at the hands of the sadistic jailors.

  “There may be some fighting to do up here,” Tanys said, “There are at least two guards.”

  Jorva flashed her a sharp-toothed grin. “Maybe heaven not so bad!” he said.

  They passed the gaping pit of the ruined main lift. Acrid gray smoke was drifting up from below and being drawn up into the shaft above. Beyond that lay the archway of the prison entrance. They found the two hulking spearmen, still standing guard just inside. Tanys readied her dagger for a fight, but recoiled in horror when she saw the guardsmen’s faces.

  Naietta screamed.

  The two guardsmen stood motionless, their weapons ready for battle, but their faces were obscured by a writhing mass of crawling ants. Their lumpy heads turned toward the sound of Naietta’s scream, and they advanced toward them with spears lifted.

  “Bug men!” Jorva cried, “Jorva never fight bug men before!” He leapt forward with a wild howl.

  Tanys shook off her fear and charged ahead as well.

  Jorva dodged the sluggish jab of a spear point and clawed his way up the big guard’s body to tear at his ant-covered face with his dagger-like teeth.

  Tanys dove beneath the other man’s spear and came up inside his guard, driving her blade up between his legs, sinking it hilt-deep in his codpiece. The man let out a muffled groan, but did not go down. He turned his spear around for a closer strike as Tanys twisted the blade and then yanked it free with a spurt of blood.

  Jorva spat out a mouthful of crushed ants and pounded his fist into the first guardsman’s face as the man dropped his spear to wrap the dwarf in a tight embrace.

  “Don’t let the ants get on you!” Tanys shouted as she spun clear of the second guardsman’s spear thrust. The man’s blood was pouring like a dark fountain from his mangled groin, but he seemed to take no notice of it. Tanys dodged another strike and then stepped in to sever the man’s right bicep through the gap between his brigandine shirt sleeve and his forearm greave.

  The man’s spear clattered on the floor as Tanys knocked it from his grip. The man reeled as she hooked a slice across the back of his thigh. Then he turned and spread his jaws to cough out a clot of wriggling ants into Tanys’s hair.

  Tanys cried out in disgust as she staggered away, trying to claw the things out of her hair. She panicked as she felt one of them working its way toward the base of her neck, and she jabbed the bloody point of her dagger between the creature and her skin to stop its paralytic sting.

  She grasped hold of it with her left hand, wincing as it sank its mandibles into her finger. She tore it from the dark tangle of her hair and then brought her dagger around to grind it to paste against her palm with the pommel of her blade.

  “Tanys!” Naietta screamed.

  Tanys turned just in time to avoid the grasping left hand of the ant-covered guardsman. She retreated quickly, watching as the man stumbled to his knees, finally succumbing to blood loss.

  She watched in horror as the man toppled forward, and the still living ants abandoned their dying host to scurry away toward the shadows.

  Jorva as well had finally cracked the skull of his opponent, and the ants spilled from the man as he fell to his knees with a gurgling sigh and then collapsed. Jorva hopped free of the corpse and danced a wild jig, crushing as many ants as he could beneath his bare feet before they could escape.

  “What were they?” Naietta cried, trembling with fear.

  “I don’t know,” Tanys said, untangling the last of the little monsters from her hair and tossing it away, “Let’s just find the sisters before more of them come back.” She gathered up the two short spears the dead men had dropped and handed them to Naietta to carry.

  She had to pull Jorva away from his bug-stomping game, but he followed her along the corridor as Tanys tried to remember the way back to the cell where the two Neshite sisters were imprisoned. She spared a glance into one of the dark little side chambers, her skin crawling at the sight of the shadow-draped wooden torture rack within.

  They found Berra and Tyll taking turns hurling their bodies at the stout iron door of their cell. Tanys peeked through the barred window and smiled at the two naked, red-shouldered girls within.

  “You ready to go?” she asked.

  Tyll grinned and Berra scowled back at her.

  Naietta lifted her palm to the door, and the latch sprang open.

  “Jorva!” Tyll cried with joy as she rushed out into the hall. She gave the dwarf’s bald head a quick rub before hugging Naietta.

  “Where’s the cat?” Berra asked, nodding her greetings to the others.

  “Waiting for us at the boat,” Tanys said.

  “You found a boat?” Tyll asked.

  Tanys gave her a weak smile and a shrug. “Sort of…”

  “Jorva go to a different heaven now?” Jorva asked.

  Tanys gave up on trying to convince Jorva he was still alive and simply sighed, “Let’s go.”

  Naietta handed the spears to the gladiatrix sisters.

  “You couldn’t find any swords?” Berra asked, looking at Tanys.

  “It was all we could find,” Naietta said.

  The two sisters jumped in surprise at hearing the formerly mute girl speak.

  “N’etta grow her tongue back!” Jorva said proudly.

  Berra looked at Tanys questioningly.

  “I’ll explain everything later,” Tanys said, “Right now, we have to get off this island before the whole place is overrun by ants.”

  “Those things from the forest?” Tyll shuddered.

  “Yes,” Tanys said, “The ghasts aren’t controlling them anymore.”

  “That’s good, isn’t it?” Tyll asked.

  “I don’t think so,” Tanys said.

  A terrified scream from the direction of the prison entrance drew their attention. They said nothing more but brandished their weapons and moved to investigate.

  When they reached the archway, the bodies of the two guardsmen were gone. Long streaks of blood traced a path back through the archway toward the chamber beyond. Tanys’s breath caught in her throat when she saw what lay within.

  A living column of ants now bridged the gap between the floor and ceiling around the shaft of the broken lift. The ants stretched like a latticework of interconnected bodies that formed a new lift system, and Tanys could see the bodies of men and women being dragged upward through the wriggling matrix of ants.

  “What the fuck is that?” Berra whispered.

  “They’re taking them back to their nest,” Tanys gasped.

  “Some of them are still alive,” Tyll said.

  A woman, trapped within the living column of ants screamed again and again as the insects lifted her body up through the hole in the ceiling. Her frantic cries for help grew fainter as the ants carried her away.

  “Get us out of here, Jorva,” Tanys hissed.

  “Go this way,” Jorva said, leading them toward a side tunnel.

  Jorva led them through another secret door without a word of explanation, and Tanys did not bother to ask how he knew it was there. Whatever the Mirror mage had done to her friend, at least it was working to help them escape.

  They followed Jorva into a damp, mossy-walled vertical shaft, lit by sunlight, faintly glimpsed through a canopy of leaves very far above. Water dripped from above, disappearing into the darkness below, and a narrow spiral staircase, hewn into the natural stone of the walls, led upward and downward around the central pit.

  The women needed no urging to follow the dwarf upward toward the sweet light of day above. They made good time climbing the narrow steps, at least until they reached a point where vines from the forest above had descended far enough to tangle around the steps of the stairway. Th
ey moved more cautiously after this, half walking, half climbing, clutching at the viney walls with their free hands as they ascended.

  Suddenly an agonized scream came from above, and they looked up to see the ant-covered body of a man stumble through a passageway in the opposite side of the shaft above. The man’s body hurtled past them as he fell, disappearing into the shadowy pit below. His horrible cries ended suddenly with a muffled thud.

  Another cry drew their attention upward again, and they saw another ghast trying to follow his companion into that final escape, but a living mass of ants poured from the tunnel mouth with him. The creatures wrapped a long tendril of wriggling bodies around his leg and then fully encased his body, stopping his fall and dragging him back into the tunnel above.

  Tanys watched in horror as the ants began to spill out across the vines above, covering the staircase and feeling outward, searching for fresh flesh.

  “We have to find another way,” Tanys whispered.

  “No,” Jorva said, “This the right way.” So saying, he wrapped one massive arm around Naietta’s waist and hefted the girl over his shoulder. She yelped in surprise as the dwarf lifted her and began to climb the vines.

  “Oh, hell,” Tanys sighed. She slipped her dagger beneath the silk of her bodysuit between her shoulder blades and started climbing after him.

  Berra and Tyll muttered a curse and tossed their spears into the pit before following behind.

  Tanys’s limbs burned with exertion as Jorva pulled ahead. The little man effortlessly scampered up the vines, despite Naietta’s added weight, humming happily to himself as he climbed. Soon, they had passed the level of the ant-infested corridor on the far wall, and Tanys caught a glimpse of wriggling red bodies, crawling across the vines to her left and right as the ants fanned out to cut off their escape.

  “Climb faster!” Berra growled, and Tanys felt the big gladiatrix brush against her leg from below.

  Tanys groaned and heaved herself up with greater effort, grabbing handful after handful of the slippery vines. She gasped with some relief when Jorva reached down to haul her up onto the stairway above. She lay, panting on the steps as Berra crawled up beside her.