by Jack Conner
“Suffering makes great art,” she nodded “That’s what they say.”
“Right. They’re smart, but their passions might get the better of them. If we went down into the mountain with them, could they resist the temptation to … do something to us?”
“On the other hand, what choice do we have—stay here?”
“I can beat Kiernevar.”
“We can’t take the chance, Ruegger. I …” She seemed to gather her strength. “I can’t watch what happened to Breedlove happen to you.”
He squeezed her arm. “It won’t.”
“It might.” Anger clouded her face, but it was layered over other emotions. Her eyes glistened. “Don’t do that to me, Rueg. If you … if that … ” Tears spilled over her cheeks and she couldn’t continue.
He held her gaze. “Believe in me, Danielle.”
She watched him quietly. At last she shook her head. “You’re asking too much, Rueg.”
“What, to believe in me?”
“To risk your life by believing in you. He died in chunks.”
Ruegger paused. Reaching out, he clasped one of her hands in his. “I’m not running, Dani. I have to do this. If I run now, I’ll be out of the Castle. I’ll never find out who killed Ludwig, never know what this is all about. I’ll never have a chance to stop Malie from making a terrible mistake or be able to affect the course of the War.” He let that sink in. “Do you understand?”
Another tear formed in the corner of her eye. “I .... Ruegger, this is a mistake.”
“Maybe, but it’s mine to make, and I’m making it. Will you stand beside me?”
She hesitated, then nodded, and when she spoke her voice was hoarse. “Always.”
He felt a lump form in his own throat. “Thank you.”
She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. As she did so, one breast crushed itself against him, and it was all he could do not to reach out to her then and there. He wanted her, badly, but there wasn’t time. He started to stand, but as he began to rise he realized that his member was fully engorged and sat down again.
Danielle laughed, patted him on the thigh, and stood up to relieve the problem. Her Coke in hand, she walked to the mini-bar and replaced her drink with a jigger of scotch. Green-glowing water dripped down the length of her body, over her small high breasts and past her navel to snare in the web of her pubic hairs. He looked at her longingly, knowing once again the strange powers of the green water, and knocked back another sip of his drink.
Shaking her head in sad amusement, she said, “I hope the Castle doesn’t fall. I really want to come back here someday.”
She turned to him, and her face was deadly serious. “What are we going to do?”
He tapped his chin. “I have a plan. Junger and Jagoda have the answers we need …”
Briefly, he outlined what he had in mind. She resisted at first, then agreed, though he could feel her trembling against him and held her tight. He was scared, too. Whatever awaited them in the heart of the mountain would be the deciding factor in whether they lived or died.
In the meantime, however, locked in a tight wet embrace, overwhelmed with lust and adrenaline, they had several minutes to kill. They used the time wisely.
* * *
The Balaklava were waiting for them when they returned.
“It’s been over an hour,” said Junger irritably.
“Well, we’re here now,” said Ruegger.
“What’s your decision?”
“To go with you.”
“Good. Then let’s get this over with.”
“Not so fast,” said Danielle. “We’ll go with you, but only under one condition.”
“Yes?”
“That only one of you come along.”
“Out of the question.”
“Then we stay here,” said Ruegger. “Listen, together you’re too strong for us. Even one of you might be too strong, and we wouldn’t put ourselves in an unknown situation with two powerful potential enemies at our sides.”
“You don’t trust us?”
Ruegger smiled to show what a joke this was. “As a gesture of our alliance, we ask that one of you stay behind while the other leads us out. Is that a deal?”
Junger and Jagoda exchanged looks, silently debating the issue. As he watched them, Ruegger felt certain that they had expected something like this, for they didn’t act in the least surprised.
“Fine,” said Junger. “Jagoda will stay here, and I will lead you out. Satisfied?”
“It’ll do.”
“Good. Now, shall we?” He motioned toward the corpse-chute.
Danielle smiled. “You first.”
Shrugging, Junger slipped inside with an agility one wouldn’t suspect of the giant, and disappeared from sight.
“Now you,” Jagoda demanded, indicating Ruegger.
The Darkling didn’t like the thought of leaving Danielle alone with the bearded demon, even for a moment, but he felt it only right that he be the first one to face whatever awaited them at the bottom of the chute. With a nod to Danielle, he moved to the hole, again feeling the heat that Junger claimed was just an illusion, and slipped inside. Immediately, he started sliding down the slick, dark ramp, gaining momentum with every second. Above him, he heard Danielle enter the chute and was glad that at least she was away from Jagoda.
The tight tunnel twisted and turned frequently, preventing Ruegger from seeing anything beyond the next bend, and he wasn’t happy to find that the further down he slid, the hotter his surroundings became. In fact, the slippery stone that surrounded him grew so warm that it would’ve blistered the skin of any mortal—if the heat were real.
“It’s hot!” Danielle cried, somewhere above him.
He realized that, young as she was, she would be more vulnerable to the temperature than himself and only hoped that it grew no warmer. Already, sweat poured from his brow.
He bounced off the final bend, where the chute angled sharply down, staring into the hungry jaws of a monstrous fire, just ten short yards away. Ruegger cursed himself, afraid that this had all been a trap, that there really was a furnace down here, but then he hurtled through the flame—or the illusion of flame—and spun through empty air.
He opened his eyes just in time to see a vast chamber all around him, and a great lake of green and bubbling slime below. He struck the liquid and plunged under. The substance, similar to that in the Pools of Pleasure, was luminous and he could feel that this slime, too, had healing properties. Unfortunately, he could see many large dark shapes hovering far below him underwater, and he didn’t doubt that they would be rising to meet him in short order. Just as he kicked toward the surface, Danielle joined him in the sticky slime. He grabbed her arm and towed her to the surface.
Once up, he glanced about for Junger, and spotted the tusked Balaklava standing on a barren islelet not too far away.
Ruegger turned to Danielle, gasping for breath, and said, “You okay, baby?”
Unable to speak for the moment, she nodded her head urgently, and he realized that she too had seen the dark shapes below.
“Can you swim?” he asked.
Again, she nodded. As if to prove her point, she started off for the tiny island on which Junger had planted himself. Ruegger followed, and together they dragged themselves onto the island and wiped the slime from their clothes and skin. Not bothering to speak to the demon, Ruegger gave this large chamber a quick inspection. The first thing he noticed was that there were many islands dotting the lake, some connected by long thin bridges of land. Some islands even boasted severe-looking trees sprouting from their inhospitable sands. Far above, Ruegger saw dark winged shapes flying about the ceiling, cawing and screeching to each other between dripping stalactites.
“Don’t worry,” Junger assured him. “They’re not stupid enough to attack us. They feed off living creatures. Humans, mainly.”
“I thought any humans that came down the chutes were dead,” protested Danielle.
; The Balaklava shrugged. “Some are, some aren’t. The ones that are salvageable are rejuvenated by the slime. If they’re healed quickly, they make their ways to the islands, where the fliers and trees usually finish them off. If they’re not swift, though, the monsters of the lake get them first. However, if they’re really quick, they can make it to the shore and into the tunnels ...”
Ruegger studied the chamber in greater detail. The walls of the vast cavern were dotted with hundreds, maybe thousands, of holes, and at each one an image of fire blazed brightly. Even as he watched, a human corpse shot out from one of the holes and plummeted into the lake.
In seconds, the man, resurrected by the slime, gasped for air at the surface, then swam toward one of the islands. A dark finned shape rose up behind him, barreling down on the poor mortal. Luckily, the creatures of the lake were not overly friendly towards each other; even as the first monster closed in on the mortal, another rose from the depths and attacked it. As they fought over their meal, the human made it to the island and crawled breathlessly onto its filthy shore.
Ruegger started toward him, meaning to help, but as the man dragged himself to his feet the weird leafless tree of the isle suddenly shot to life. It sprang like a snake, its black limbs and slender black trunk coiling about the man like a python. Its sharp barbs pricked him in a hundred places, and the bark of the sentient tree drank up his blood with relish. The human screamed and thrashed, but the tree was too strong. From above, several of the winged monsters swept down, thinking to pry the victim away from the predator plant, but, as they drew near, the tree pointed a branch at the invaders and squirted a cloud of musk.
The winged creatures hastily broke off the attack and returned to the higher regions of the chamber, hacking and coughing all the way. Meanwhile, the main body of the evil plant had finished with the human, and it dropped the corpse to the sand, where the thing’s roots quickly coiled themselves around the dead man and dragged him underground.
“Jesus,” whispered Danielle.
Junger smiled. “You see why I chose an island without a tree.”
Ruegger said nothing, just reached out and gave Danielle’s hand a squeeze. At the touch, she moved closer to him.
“I don’t like this place,” she said.
“Neither do I,” he said. To Junger, he asked, “Is it all like this?”
“Oh, no. This is but the introduction to Blackie’s Zoo, the Chamber of the Green Lake.” He gestured to the far shore, where the great cavern ended and many tunnels waited ominously. “There’s where the real fun begins.”
“That’s the way out?” asked Ruegger.
“Indeed. Are you ready to go?”
Ruegger looked to Danielle, who wore a grim but determined expression, and she nodded.
Junger leapt onto one of the many land-bridges that ran from island to island. The vampires followed, careful to keep their distance from the assassin. They hopped from tiny isle to tiny isle, at last making their way to the far shore.
Ruegger found the beach cold and unfriendly, but he was glad to be out from above the slime. Studying the beach, he saw that it was merely the widest point of a ledge that ran all around the perimeter of the cavern, just above the glowing lake. At this point, the wall of the cavern was riddled with caves, but there were no chutes that emptied out over this portion of the chamber. This is where the Castle ended and the mountain began. And under the mountain ... the zoo. Or Refuge, as Sarnova liked to call it.
Junger turned to him. “Let’s go, Darkling.”
Ruegger gestured toward the lake of slime. “Who made all this? Is it magic?”
“Of course. As to who made it, I assume some sorcerers played that role.”
“Sorcerers. Why is it that I’ve never met a sorcerer, or even heard of a living one?”
“They’re dead, Darkling. Don’t waste your time thinking about them.”
“Dead?” pressed Danielle, and Ruegger was relieved that he was not alone in his curiosity. “What happened to them?”
“They killed each other off, or Roche Sarnova did,” Junger said. “Really, I don’t know. The sorcerers all disappeared around the time Blackie built this zoo. As to why he built it, I suppose he wanted to preserve a few of the creatures that used to roam the world. However, most of them fed off of humans, much as we do, and many wars were waged by the mortals against them. We survived because we could blend in with the humans; they couldn’t. Blackie, knowing that the humans would eventually wipe them off the face of the earth, created a place where they could live in secrecy.” He smiled. “I guess you could call him the defender of the oppressed.”
“What about the sorcerers?” Danielle said, not to be put off the topic.
“All I know is from rumors I heard at the time, maybe a thousand years ago, and many of the rumors contradicted each other. Anyway, we didn’t come down here to talk about sorcerers, did we?”
“No,” Ruegger agreed, although the whole subject interested him greatly. Now that he had overcome his feelings against magic, he wanted to learn all he could about it. But that could wait. “Which of these caves will lead us out of here?”
Junger indicated one. “That one will take us where we want to go. Just watch your step. There are many things down here you don’t want to meet.”
“You’ve explored this place much?”
“Just enough to know the areas to avoid.”
“Then lead on,” said Danielle.
Junger smiled. “Oh, no. I wouldn’t think of it. Just little old me in the dark, with the big bad Marshals at my back? I don’t think so. Please, after you. I insist.”
Ruegger and Danielle exchanged glances. He saw the grim determination in her eyes and nodded. Soon. The plan would be harder to act out with Junger at their backs.
“Very well,” Ruegger said, and stepped into the cave that Junger had indicated. Danielle and the assassin followed.
Torches blazed along the walls at uneven intervals, but even without them it would not have been hard for the three immortals to see. Even so, their steps were cautious as they moved through the tunnel. The only sounds to be heard were the rapidly diminishing cries of the winged creatures above the lake and, from up ahead, a slow and steady dripping noise that Ruegger recognized without much trouble.
As he suspected, the tunnel widened after some time, and the ceiling climbed higher. Many stalactites plunged from the shadows, moisture building on their sharp tips and dripping down to stalagmites below. Some had been growing for so long that they formed one large column from floor to ceiling. Along one stretch of the chamber, there were no stalagmites, and Ruegger could only assume they had been cleared away to allow the monsters of the zoo easier access to their victims. He wondered where those monsters were now. Had the Balaklava moved them out so as to make the assassins’ ambush that much easier?
He knew it was coming. The Balaklava had no intention of letting them go free. Oh, they might keep them alive to use as hostages against Amelia, but in the meantime they would rape and torture the vampires to their hearts’ content.
Ruegger threaded his way through the virtual forest, sometimes ducking his head to avoid a leering stalactite, and soon reached the end of the maze, where the ceiling lowered once again and the tunnel forked.
He turned to Junger, who was still in the middle of the sharp stone forest, and, careful to keep his voice steady, said, “Which way, right or left?”
“Left,” called the unsuspecting Balaklava.
Ruegger nodded, and when Danielle emerged from the forest, he smiled at her. At his gesture, she nodded, and rushed to his side. She turned and saw Junger entering the region where the stalagmites had been cleared.
Now.
Ruegger focused his efforts quickly, utilizing his considerable telekinetic abilities, and sent a huge force toward the cluster of stalactites hovering above Junger. Immediately, the mineral deposits cracked under the vampire’s will and a dozen stone teeth dropped toward the Balaklava. At the last inst
ant, Junger glanced up and screamed, but too late.
The severed stalactites drove him to the ground. When the dust cleared, Ruegger and Danielle approached, relieved to find him impaled by several of the thick spears. One had driven itself through his chest, pinning him to the ground, while another had relieved him of a forearm. Others had done serious damage to his legs and head. For the moment, at least, he was unconscious, and Ruegger knew that he could kill the creature right now. Junger was completely at his mercy.
He kicked the assassin in the side. Junger didn’t stir.
Danielle drew her curved machete, knelt and placed the blade to Junger’s throat.
At the kiss of metal, the Balaklava blinked and glared up the vampires. “Release me!”
“Not on your life,” said Ruegger. “You’ve got some questions to answer.”
Junger sneered. “You can’t intimidate me, Darkling. You could torture me for days, years, and I wouldn’t say a thing I didn’t want to.” He smiled. “I like pain.”
“Excellent. I’ve always prided myself on being a good host.”
He pulled out his guns and spent a few moments making sure the machinery hadn’t been plugged up by the slime, then aimed his pistols at his captive and fired several bullets into Junger’s groin.
Junger screamed. Vainly, he tried to free himself of the stalactites with his one good arm, but Danielle knocked the limb away, and he’d lost too much blood to counter Ruegger’s strong telekinetic powers.
Gritting his teeth, he said, “Bring it on, fanger!”
Ruegger shook his head. “That was for Danielle. As for myself, I wish to make this as quick as possible. So tell me: why was Ludwig killed?”
Junger stared at him for a long moment, and there was something strange about his expression, something especially repugnant and cunning.
Somewhere inside Ruegger, a light flickered on, or at least began to.
Junger lifted his upper lip. “What would you do if I told you, Darkling? Seek out the one who hired me and kill him—if it is a him, that is?”
“That’s for Danielle and myself to figure out. Just tell us, Junger. Haven’t you done enough already?”