Rod of the Heart

by Cebelius

  That's not a map. That's a mess.

  Yuri was watching him, and began nodding as he showed his teeth. "Starting to get the picture? Sub-Cel is rough, and there are plenty of folk who make their home there that do not take kindly to surfacers. Aside from goblins and orcs — you have already met them — there are kobolds, fadekin, and this close to the ocean we may see troglodytes if we run into deep water. There is supposedly a ridiculously huge gelatin in the area, and if we run into that thing, well, it was nice knowing you. If you wonder why there is no debris in the tunnel we are moving through, that thing is why, and it is a good sign: means there is no reason for it to come back."

  Yuri glanced at Marcus and said, "You got this?"

  Marcus was looking steadily at the map, and his eyes were bouncing around as Terry glanced to him. After another few seconds, he nodded and said, "Yep."

  Yuri rolled the map back up and handed it to Terry, who took it with a bemused expression. Yuri jerked a thumb at Marcus as he said, "Man's got perfect recall when it comes to mazes."

  "Master?"

  "Mm?" Terry looked at Euryale, who pointed at Laina and said, "Give the map to her. She should be able to memorize it as well. Minotaurs are all about labyrinths."

  "Minotress," Laina said as Terry handed the map over. Euryale shrugged and said, "Same thing. Not my fault languages change."

  Laina grumbled, "It is not the same thing, I've got tits."

  "Big ones," Euryale agreed with a slightly sadistic smile as she added, "Still a minotaur."

  Terry opened his mouth as Laina's ears and cheeks darkened with anger, then shut it again. This did not need his help. Laina was a grown woman and she'd figure this out on her own.

  Or she'll ask me, and I can do something about it then.

  Laina chose not to reply as she opened the map and her brow furrowed as she looked over it, then up at Terry as she said, "I'm not exactly sure what you want me to do here, Boss. I can't just stare at this thing and memorize it like he does."

  "That's all right, just have a good look at it and hand it back to Yuri."

  "You do not want it?" the tiger man asked.

  "Naw. This is a dungeon run as far as I'm concerned, and in a dungeon, you're the boss. I don't know shit about this place that I didn't learn in the last two weeks. Giving me the map would be like giving one crutch to a dude with no legs. If I get lost down there I'm fucked, map or not."

  The Kolenkos and Marcus laughed, and Yuri took the map back with a shake of his head and rolled it as he said, still chuckling, "Fair enough, Boss. Just do not trade me nicknames. I kinda liked 'Chief Running-Mouth.' We all good then?"

  Terry grinned and nodded. For some reason he couldn't quite put his finger on, the thought of going back into the dark didn't bother him like it had the last time.

  Maybe it's that I have the women I love with me, and I know exactly why I'm going. I have a reason more concrete than 'got no better ideas' this time, and that has to count for something.

  Marcus spun his pack off one shoulder and reached in. He pulled out an unlit torch and tossed it to Terry, who caught it as the minotaur rumbled, "Just in case."

  Aaaaand there goes my sense of well-being.

  Yuri's grin widened as he waggled a finger and said, "And remember, a man with no legs and a crutch can still use it to beat a goblin to death. Take what you can get."

  Terry chuckled despite himself. "You're all heart, chief."

  The stone door into the crypts creaked on old metal hinges as Marcus twisted the wheel that controlled a cross of heavy metal bars that slotted into the stone on all four sides and pulled. A fetid breeze blew into the room, as the opening door revealed a stairway spiraling down into the dark.

  "All right, order of march is the usual for us, Boss. Marcus goes first, I am second with Mila behind me and I want you close behind her. Disperse your lovely ladies as you see fit, but you stay in the middle. You are the whole reason we are throwing this party — not about to lose you. Let us go."

  Terry nodded and glanced at each of his women in turn as he said, "Shy's behind me, then Laina. Euryale, you bring up the rear."

  "Why?" Euryale asked, clearly put out at being last. "I can't shoot anything if all I can see is Laina's ass, pleasant though that view is."

  "Because you can see in all directions at once, making you almost impossible to surprise, and you're used to the dark," Terry said quickly, glancing at Laina's far from happy expression back to Euryale and giving her an even look. "Not to mention you're completely immortal. If something does manage to surprise us, at least you'll live through it. This is the best order for best protection, for everyone. I trust you to keep us all alive if the worst happens."

  She blinked at him, her snakes fanning out as though to consider him from different angles. After a moment she said, "As you wish, Master," and fell in behind Laina without another word.

  As he descended into the darkness, guided by the green glow of Mila's staff, foreboding settled on Terry like hundred-degree heat after a rain. It was stifling, and he rotated the haft of his ax with a quick twist of his wrist, watching the head of it spin as the blood-stained wood whirled in his hand. It was a weapon he'd grown to trust, and he was literally surrounded by friends and family.

  Yet the idea that they were all in this because of him didn't make him happy, and he wondered again how he could have handled this whole misadventure in a way that would have avoided all the calamity he'd brought down on them, and on Florence.

  Shake it off and adjust your game, T-Mack. Doesn't matter what you could have done, because it's too late. You're a man on a mission: act like it. Worries aren't going to save anyone. Fucking up the bad guys on the other hand ...

  That will.

  16

  Crypt Walk

  "This question is probably going to wind up at the top of a long list I have titled, 'Wish I hadn't asked,' but why were we warned so strongly not to turn off the path?" Terry asked as they moved through the utter stillness of the crypt.

  The stairway had wound around a central pillar for what felt like several stories at least before terminating in a long, arrow-straight hallway.

  Mila's white hood was down and her ear turned toward him, which made him smile for reasons he couldn't explain. She didn't turn to look at him though as she said, "The short answer is probably ash rot. Most civilized cities in this part of the region burn the bodies of the dead and deposit them in ash pits which are either covered over with several feet of soil if they have no safe place, or left in crypts like this one. Ash rot is difficult to classify really, but it grows exclusively in corpse ashes. Breathe in the dust from those ashes, and you will breathe in the ash-rot seeds as well. It is a particularly virulent toxin, and most people who accidentally inhale it are dead within ten minutes. Because it goes into the lungs rather than the stomach, purgatives do not help."

  "Why the hell leave it in the open like this then?" Terry asked, waving at the fairly frequent side hallways that branched off to the right and left.

  "Ash rot grows best in dry, open air, and its seeds are also very valuable pesticides. Cities and even rural farming communities will mix ash rot with a few other ingredients to protect their granaries and food stores from insects and vermin. Because the burial of the dead is a civic duty, city governments typically control and disburse ash rot, and those funds cover cremation and body storage. It is a key resource."

  Terry blinked as he turned that over in his mind, then shrugged and said, "Well, okay then. That's a lot better than, 'The dead will rise to feast on the brains of the living' kind of answer I was half-expecting."

  "Undead typically do not eat," Yuri called back. "They are dead. Their staple intake is principally ambient mana. Some intelligent and semi-intelligent undead eat, but for most of those it is just a proxy for pulling in mana from their kills. The actual meat is useless to them. That is why when we kill ghouls we always, always open up the body cavity and root around. All kinds of interesting shit
in there."

  Feeling distinctly queasy at that, Terry said, "Yeah, thanks Yuri. Good to know. So no real risk of having anyone attack us out of these tunnels?"

  "No. What did you think would happen?" Yuri said cheerfully. "That maybe Florence crypt would be some sort of deadly maze filled with traps and roaming corpses? Psh. We have enough to worry about coming up in Sub-Cel. Try not to invent even more trouble in your head."

  "Master?"

  Feeling distinctly foolish for his concerns, Terry glanced over his shoulder as he said, "Yeah? What's up, Euryale?"

  "We're being followed."

  A mournful howl rose from the darkness behind them, and it was taken up from countless other throats both in front of and around them. They'd stopped at a four-square junction, and Yuri demonstrated his leadership with aplomb. He didn't hesitate, or ask any stupid questions. He simply started giving orders, shouting to be heard.

  "Euryale, if you have a shot take it. Mila, give us general miss chance. Laina! Right-hand tunnel, Shy on the left. Boss, back up your women! If anything comes within reach, chop it down. Here we go!"

  Terry dropped the unlit torch and took his ax in both hands, counter-rotating his hands on the haft until the wood creaked as he spun to face the rear, glancing left and right to see if he could make anything out.

  The howling continued, rebounding off the walls of the crypt until each individual sound faded into one long continuous chorus of aggression. When the first of their assailants finally appeared, Terry bared his teeth.

  Zone Beasts.

  It was obvious at a glance. They had far too many teeth to fit in their gaping mouths, and their builds were thick and gnarled as they hunched over their weapons. Yet the zone beasts he had encountered in Florence had been mindless and attacked without thought or direction. These carried swords, axes, and shields, and though they came in at a run, there was a malevolent intelligence in their eyes that was impossible to miss.

  An arrow sprouted out of the mouth of the first to appear in Euryale's sight, and before it had even lost its feet, the second caught a shaft in the eye. By the time Terry's eyes shifted to her, the gorgon had another arrow nocked, and one of the snakes facing him had its jaws agape in what he would have sworn was laughter as it stared at his stupefied expression.

  Euryale confirmed it a second later as she released her third arrow and the fourth seemed to appear as though by magic in her hand. "You think I've been stuck in a cave for thousands of years with no one to talk to and I didn't do anything with the time? Relax, Master. Go help your other women. I've got this."

  Yes Ma'am.

  He turned toward Laina in time to see her swing that massive battle ax of hers. The zone beast in front of her caught the blow on its shield.

  It didn't matter.

  The ax went through the shield, the arm holding it, and halfway through the body behind that. Said body left the ground to slam into the body next to it, and that body also left the ground. Both slammed into the wall and slumped. One was crushed, the other damn near cut in half, and Laina was already swinging back the other way. The third of her assailants leapt backward out of reach, eyes wide at the display of raw might.

  They might be monsters, but at least THESE monsters know fear.

  Blinding light came from behind him and he turned in time to see four zone beasts shivering in the throes of green electric death as their bodies jolted, arcs flying between them as though playing a game of tag with each other. Smoke rose, eyes popped, and the fur of one caught fire as all four slumped lifeless in the side corridor.

  Jesus!

  Shy glanced back at him and offered a wan smile, and he was startled to see her vastly changed. In place of the smooth skin he was used to, he saw bark covering her limbs in a rough approximation of armor, along with small vines and leaves. Even her face had strips of bark descending over her cheeks and jawline, their ends angled down to cover her throat. Her leafy hair was drawn back by countless layered strips of bark. As his gaze dropped, he realized with a start that her feet were now anchored to the floor, literally rooted there. She had the staff planted upright in front of her with one hand as she cupped the other around the ball, as though to direct its force down the corridor she faced.

  "These won't get past me, Tee. I swear it. There shouldn't be too many in these side corridors. If there were they'd be dead of ash rot by now."

  He turned back to Laina after no more than a glance Euryale's way — she seemed to be taking great delight in piling up the bodies — and watched as Laina struggled to hold the beasts coming for her at bay. It was readily apparent that though she wielded the ax with tremendous strength, she did so with little finesse.

  She'd managed to kill a third assailant — its head was a simple mess of gore that suggested she'd brained it with the flat of the weapon rather than the edge, but the others were hanging back.

  Thank god these things don't seem to have brought bows of their own.

  "Need any help, Laina?" he asked.

  "Just watch my sides, boss. I'm pretty sure I can handle this."

  There was a strain in her voice though that he recognized.

  She sounds just like I did when I was fighting in Monsoon.

  Laina wasn't on a crusade, like Shy, and she wasn't a stone-cold killer like Euryale. She didn't even like to fight, and yet here she was, wielding a legendary weapon to hold back a small horde of monsters. In a flash of insight he was willing to bet anything that the three bodies in front of her represented her first kills in life.

  "I got you, hon. I won't let anyone get close. I'll call out if I come in on the left or the right. Just stay calm. Unless they attack all you have to do is hold them off. That's all."

  He couldn't see her face, but some of the tension left her shoulders, and she spun the ax around, gripped it just under the blades, and struck out with the haft, smashing the face of a zone beast coming in with the butt as she said, "Thanks, Boss. 'Preciate it."

  Her latest victim let out a gurgling cry and dropped its weapons to claw at its face before turning to flee into the darkness. Three more stepped up to take its place. Two had swords, and the third had a heavy-looking mace and was at least a foot taller than the other two. It took the center and snarled, slaver dripping from open jaws as they shivered with rage and anticipation. The other two seemed to take strength from the one in the middle, and all three tensed.

  "I've got the one on the left, hon. You can do this."

  He stepped up and spun the ax in his hands, the blades glittering as they caught the greenish light from Mila's staff, and his eyes narrowed as he focused on his target.

  The beast had bristling black fur protruding in patches from rusted and mismatched bits of armor, and wielded a sword and shield. Seeing him, it let out an unearthly howl and all three charged.

  A glance showed him Laina winding up her swing from the lower right, and he had no doubt that the first beast on that side was either dead or would dodge backward. The middle beast was ignoring Terry and had its shield up, and unlike the first one she'd crushed this shield looked like the business. It was a solid plate of steel with reinforced bolts around the edges. Whether it would hold up under Laina's onslaught was anyone's guess.

  Leaving this one for me.

  Terry stepped in and instead of attacking focused on catching the sword coming in at him high and from the left with the head of his ax. The blade skipped off the top with a clang as Terry stepped to his left, drew his right leg up and with a snarl brought it down with all his might, hitting the side of the beast's knee just as its foot came down.

  The joint snapped and the leg collapsed sideways. The howling zone beast fell into the path of the larger beast in the center, and that worthy kicked it ruthlessly back at Terry as it shambled forward. Terry shifted his grip on his ax and using the top of the head drove it almost straight down, shattering the wounded zone beast's skull with a sickening crunch that made him wince as he heard it.

  He then took the ax
in both hands and with a roar spun three hundred and sixty degrees to slam it into the back of the largest of the two remaining beasts. Rusty chain mail rings snapped and spun away as the blade destroyed the armor and sank to the haft with a meaty thunk into the thing's lower back. It let out a howl as it suddenly lost control of its legs.

  The body of the beast on the far right flew off into the darkness, cut practically in half, and a tremendous clang echoed through the caves as the central beast's shield withstood Laina's blow, but the force of it crumpled the beast over backward, trapping Terry's ax and ripping it out of his hands.

  He didn't miss a beat, pulling his hunting knife from its sheath as the body crumpled backward. As its head hit the stone floor he sank to his knees and slammed the thick, double-bladed dagger home through the thing's neck and ripped upward. Blood geysered, and the creature shivered in its death throes.

  A quick glance to his left told him no more beasts were coming from that direction, and he dropped his dagger and heaved the body over without even waiting for it to quit twitching. He yanked his ax out and looked up at Laina. She was leaning on her own ax, panting, and her eyes were wide and focused on him.

  "You okay?" he asked.

  "Yeah. Did I ever tell you how fast you are? Cause you're fast."

  He grinned and shrugged as he used the head of the ax to press himself to his feet. "Thanks. You've mentioned it, but kinda like 'I love you,' I never get tired of hearing it. Focus. This is just one corridor. Check the others."

  She nodded and spun away as she shifted her grip on the ax, but the fight seemed to be over everywhere.

  Small fires burned on a pile of still-errantly-twitching bodies in front of Shy, but the significantly-larger pile in front of Euryale was eerily still.

  Terry glanced over at the Kolenkos and Marcus, but it was clear they'd had no serious trouble. Bodies were stacked like bundles of firewood all around Marcus' huge shield, and both men were cleaning their weapons.