by Paul Kidd
“Cinders is still humming away from some damned idiot’srepair spell! We’ll be lucky if he wakes up before lunchtime!”
Huge with anger, the Justicar paced back and forth, his furious eye always fixed upon Escalla.
“That sword saw me through a hundred fights. That swordwasn’t stopped by any blade. That sword was the only thing I had to keep usalive long enough to beat your damned murder charge!”
Private Henry peeked out from behind a stalagmite. “Murder?”
“It’s a bum rap!” Escalla shot a comment at the boy, thensqueaked as Jus’ hand fastened around her and dragged her down to face him.“All right, I made a teeny error of judgment! I was tired, man! Those drowreally blasted me!” The girl clasped her hands. “I’m really sorry. Really reallyreally sorry! Really really really really amazingly sorry! Now will you just calm down?”
Jus released the faerie and sat down, fuming angry and swearing at the dark. Polk cleared his throat to speak, but Escalla waved the man down before he could make a bad situation worse.
“Jus? We can get you another sword.”
“We are in the bowels of the earth a hundred miles fromanywhere!” Jus seethed, his head stubble standing up like porcupine quills.“Where were you planning on going shopping?”
“Hey! We’ve got swords! See! Lots of swords!” In a mad panicto head off Jus’ rage, Escalla spilled captured drow short swords all over thefloor. “See? These are swords.”
The drow weapons were scarcely eighteen inches long. Jus picked one up, the weapon looking like a toothpick in his hand. He dropped it and sat down to brood, seething in annoyance at the whole wide world.
Escalla wrung her hands in misery and hovered at his side. “Jus…?”
“I’m really mad, Escalla.”
“I’ll make it up to you. I promise! I’ll find a better sword,a much much better one.” The girl bit her thumb in shame. “And I’m really sorryabout falling asleep. I stayed up for hours working, man. Honest.”
He smoldered. Escalla ended up in his arms, trying her very best to be contrite.
“I promise you I’ll do the next thr-err, two things you orderme to do without question. All right?” Anxious and much cowed, Escalla sketcheda little salute. “Promise.”
Looking at the sad little stub of his sword-the wolf skullpommel still intact, but the blade a total ruin-Jus sank into a bearlike sulk.
“I pulled that sword out of my dead master’s hands back inthe Iuz wars. Killed the wight that was after me. Saved my life a thousand times.” Bitterly unhappy, Jus sheathed the blade stub then jammed a drow daggerthrough his belt. “We’d better find some proper armament before we run into anymore of our murderer’s little friends.”
There was a shy shuffle from behind. Looking up at the Justicar, Private Henry cleared his throat and timidly offered his sword.
“Sir? I’m really not much use with it.” The boy unsheathedthe first few inches of the blade and looked down at his feet. “I watched youfight. I… I could never be a fighter like that.”
The Justicar looked down at the boy with a sudden grim pride. Rage and annoyance forgotten, he laid a hand on Private Henry’s shoulder.“What’s your name again, son?”
“Henry.”
“Thank you, Henry.” Jus hefted the boy’s sword, then laid itback in Henry’s hands. “Keep it. You’ll need it. You kept a drow off my back.Well done.”
Henry slumped in self-made misery. “It was only one, and shewould have killed me if it wasn’t for the faerie.”
Perking instantly up, Escalla whirred over to the rescue.
“Spell! Ha! That’s right! That was a. faerie spell!”The girl dusted off Henry’s helmet in pride. “Didn’t they ever tell you aboutfaerie magic? That spell is only effective if the recipient is pure of heart.”Escalla smoothed the boy’s hair and jerked his collar straight. “You’ve got theright stuff, kid. Magic never lies. Now let’s get moving. We need your sharpeyes covering the rear while we go find Jus a new sword!”
Private Henry drew himself fully upright, reaching almost to Jus’ chest. Full of pride and energy, he clapped a bolt into his crossbow,squared his helmet, and marched off into the passageway. Watching him go, Jus cradled Escalla in the crook of his arm.
“Was that true about that spell?”
“What, stoneskin?” Escalla pulled her nose. “Naah! But lookhow good it made him feel.” The girl spread her wings and whirred into the air.“Come on, J-man! Time’s wasting, and that slowglass is gettin’ halfway to drowcentral!”
Jus sighed and hung back a few moments to use his healing spells to cure his wounds. Unarmed yet still dangerous, he stalked out of the cave mouth and moved into the dark.
They walked into the vile tunnel, water dripping and worms slithering wetly through the mold about them. Polk marched unsteadily, dwarfed by the pack of loot balanced on his shoulders. Somehow the little man never minded the load, being driven onward by sheer bloody-mindedness as he cleaved the dark like an icebreaker forging through a polar sea. Coming level with Escalla, he shot the girl a long glance, swelled his pigeon chest, and cleared his throat. “Discipline!”
“What?” Escalla eyed the man suspiciously. “Polk, have youbeen reading those stories about dryads again?”
“Discipline!” Polk sniffed, never to be swayed from hispurpose once he had begun. “That’s what you need. Rewards never come byaccident. Since the fall of evil is a reward to the good, the good need discipline, application, a sense of responsibility!”
The faerie made a face and simply stopped listening. “Yeahyeah. Blah-blah-blah. The faerie fell asleep, so it’s her fault Jus’sword got eaten!”
Walking just ahead of her, Jus raised one finger without bothering to look around. “Escalla.”
“Yes?”
“Order number one. For the next hour, listen very closely toeverything Polk has to say.”
Escalla shot Jus a look that could kill, glowered, then sat herself atop Polk’s backpack, propping her chin in her hands. Swelling grandly,Polk marched doggedly along behind the Justicar and tucked his thumbs into his braces.
“Well now! You see, back when I was a lad, schoolin’ wasdifferent. Focus, that’s what they gave us-focus and a sense of worth.Why, once I remember I gave my lunch to another little boy because his family was poor. Day after day I helped him out. No credit wanted! No fuss! In those days you spoke when you were spoken to! Kept your thoughts to yourself. Lesson I learned to heart!”
Escalla sighed, propped her elbows on her knees, and endured.
* * *
The locator needle pointed northwest. Ignoring side tunnelsand slimy caves, the group moved northwards in skill and silence, watching carefully for sign of ambush. Their path continued sloping downward, descending in occasional steps and terraces where waterfalls of slime trickled slowly in the shadows.
Jus knelt to examine strange footprints he found gleaming wetly on the fungi here and there. None of the marks were fresh, but they gave a horrible feeling of presence, of a hidden life lurking always just out of sight.
Miles passed. It was a weird limbo in which time scarcely seemed to exist. One patch of fungi-smothered tunnel could have been any other, and the underdark was sealed away from the rhythms of night and day. Drifting from his peaceful haze, Cinders’ eyes finally gleamed bright again. He wriggledhimself into place across the Justicar’s warm back and said, Hi!
“Hello.” Jus carefully examined a hanging curtain of mold fordanger, then led the party well away from the obstruction. “Nice rest?”
Nice! The hell hound wagged his tail, his grin gleaminglike a nightmare. Cinders better!
“Well, wake up and keep your ears open.” Jus cautiouslysteered Escalla away from an innocent looking covey of screamer fungi. “We’re introuble. I lost my sword.”
Cinders help! His long black tail went wag-wag-wag.Fun!
The main pathway dissolved into a maze of interlocking caverns-some large, some small. Jus squatted down and had
Escalla consult thelocator needle, choosing a route that seemed to lead in the required direction. The team ducked one by one beneath a low ceiling and walked uncomfortably crab-wise between shallow pools of slime. They emerged into a new cave, where the lost tunnel reappeared.
Escalla heaved a sigh of relief at having found the right path again, waved the others to follow her, only to freeze, turn invisible, and dart madly back down amongst the mounds of bat dung.
“Down!”
Three shapes hovered in the gloom, bobbing malevolently up and down. They were huge, grim spheres, each one topped with a cluster of eye stalks and with one huge eye glaring off into the dark. Gaping mouths slashed across the arc of the spheres, mouths crammed with fangs that seemed to thirst for blood.
In a mad panic, Escalla grabbed Polk and Jus by the ears, trying to tow them back into the caves.
“Come on! Gotta go!” Her whisper hissed above the whirof busy little wings. “Beholders! Run like hell!”
The monsters moved, drifting slowly up and down. Hovering silently and lost in their own thoughts, the three beings stared off into the caves, having failed to catch sight of the tiny faerie. With her friends hidden safely in cover two dozen yards back in the caves, Escalla reappeared, plastered flat against the rocks and looking in fright toward the tunnel mouth. The girl worked the slide of her battle wand.
“Oh man, oh man! Paranoid xenophobic homicidal maniacs thatshoot killer spells from every eye!” The girl looked left and right, trying tosee a route past the lurking terrors up ahead. “We are dead!”
Jus stood up, tugged his armor straight, and settled his dagger in his belt. He strode straight down the passageway with his usual irresistible tread. Escalla could only gape in horror for a moment, then flew off madly in pursuit.
“Jus, get down!”
The three monsters were still there in the cave, circling and maneuvering slowly in the still air. Jus levered himself down a terrace and walked into the tunnel, marching over to the monsters and standing directly beneath the nearest one. He scratched the stubble of his chin, betraying amusement by shooting a sly look sideways to make sure Escalla was watching him. Intensely annoyed, Escalla emerged from behind the cover of a rock outcrop.
“Why aren’t you dead, you shaven-headed git!”
Unconcerned, Jus stood beneath one of the monsters and cut himself a piece of spider meat, which he crammed into his mouth. He motioned to the monsters with his dagger, supremely unconcerned.
“Beholders are solitary psychopaths. Did you think theremight be something weird about seeing three beholders together all at once?” The man spat a piece of spider chitin toward a nearby slug. “They’re gasspores.”
“What?”
“A type of fungus. Dead ringers for beholders, exceptbeholders are waaay too paranoid to ever be this close to one another.”
Wings whirring and a disgusted scowl on her face, Escalla came out of the caves to glare at the floating gas spores. From a few inches away, she could clearly see that they were fakes-just blobs of fungi. Escallaaimed a kick at the nearest one, only to have Jus snatch her foot and tug her hastily away.
“Leave ’em be!”
“Why?”
“Poisonous. Touch it, and die young.” The big man tuggedEscalla’s makeshift dress straight as he released her into the air. “They’re atrap. Puncture the skin, and they explode.”
“Oooh.” Escalla instantly perked up her ears. “Really?”
“Really.” Jus forcibly propelled the curious girl away fromthe spores. “The explosion of each individual spore is enough to turn you into ashadow on the wall. Three of them would be apocalyptic!”
“Wow. Can I have one?”
“No.”
“But-”
“No, Escalla.”
“Ju-uuus…”
“No, Escalla. Absolutely not! End of discussion.”
Jus gave a courtly bow, inviting Escalla to lead the way. “This is where the passage turns. It heads toward the troglodytes.”
The faerie hmphed and acquiesced, but still remained obviously unconvinced.
As the party pressed on, they saw that the spores were growing from the body of a big lizard lying around the corner. The cadaver stretched almost twenty feet from nose to tail and wore a harness and a brand. Growing out of the damaged tarpaulins, packs, and rotten flesh were yet more floating spores-perhaps half a dozen bobbing booby traps, still tethered to therotting corpse.
The spores remained hanging in the still, cool air, drifting slowly forward from time to time as gas trickled from tiny holes at their rear. Carried over Jus’ shoulder, Escalla gazed back at them until they disappearedfrom view, watching past Private Henry as the boy walked nervously, cradling his crossbow.
The narrow, slimy tunnel curved and dipped, then suddenly opened onto a wider passageway. It was the old, familiar path that ran northwest, at least forty feet wide and user friendly. Escalla consulted the locator needle and pointed the way into the dim phosphorescent depths. She escaped from her perch upon Jus’ shoulder, using her sharp ears and clever eyesto hunt for dangers lurking far ahead.
Danger soon appeared. Escalla’s sensitive ears detected ascratching noise far ahead. Signaling the others to halt, the faerie turned invisible and flew softly forward down the passageway.
A few dozen yards beyond the adventurers, a dozen hideous monsters crouched in the dark. Working with great stealth, the savage creatures were pulling apart the rock wall with their claws.
Skeletal and horrific, the monsters were mere skin stretched over bone-human-like, but with bestial faces, and spreading a vicious stink ofrotting flesh. At the rear of the pack, two of the creatures crouched over a long bundle wrapped in rags. The bundle seemed to pain them, for none would touch it willingly. The beasts seem to be squabbling over which of them should drag the heap of rags closer to the new hole in the wall.
Jus moved silently beside Escalla and joined her in watching the creatures. Escalla nodded her chin toward the beasts, wrinkling her nose in distaste.
“Ghouls.”
Undead and carnivorous, the ghouls were also apparently working to a plan. Within the newly opened cave, a black pit could dimly be seen. The leader of the ghouls-a larger, wart-encrusted male-slashed at one ofits subordinates, which loped into the cave and began sniffing like a dog. It peered into the pit then began snarling to the other ghouls outside.
The creatures crowded up to the cave entrance, the hindmost ghouls jerking their hands away from the rag bundle until forced to drag it closer to the cave. The bundle was unwrapped. The rags proved to be a torn battle flag. Working with fungi stalks as tools, the ghouls began prying and levering at the contents of the bundle, scattering away in panic as something metallic fell to the floor at their feet.
One ghoul tripped as it fled, then screamed, flashed, and blew apart in a choking cloud of dust. The other ghouls fled from the bundle until forced back by vicious blows from their leader.
The ghoul leader snarled at a subordinate, shoved it aside, then levered up something bright and golden with its fungus staff. For a brief instant, a sword glittered in the eerie light, and then the ghoul flung it down the pit. After a long, long moment, a faint metallic clang came from below. The ghouls bellowed and capered in glee.
Escalla looked up as a black shadow loomed nearby.
Drifting quietly in the air behind the ghouls was a great, brooding sphere. The object floated in midair-a menacing presence topped witheye stalks and a single huge eye just above its mouth. The sphere drifted unnoticed behind the ghouls, and Escalla felt a malicious little plan flooding through her mind.
“Hey, guys!” she whispered sharply. “Watch this!”
She fired her magic bees toward the sphere before Jus could stop her. The stream of magic missiles blasted into the giant sphere in a blaze of light. Instead of triggering a titanic explosion to destroy the ghouls, the spell set off a furious roar. The sphere whipped about to face the faerie, eyes red rimmed an
d fangs gaping. The big central eye blinked closed, and from an upper eyestalk a spell blast disintegrated ten square feet of passage wall. Jerked out of the way at the last instant, Escalla hung in Jus’ grasp, staringin shock as the beholder shook the whole tunnel with its roar.
Ghouls screeched, leaping onto the sphere and sinking fangs and claws into its flesh. The beholder pounded itself against the wall, crushing ghouls and catching one of the undead creatures in its jaws. Bleeding, the beholder staggered as the ghoul leader jumped atop it and wrenched off several eyestalks. An instant later the ghoul was blasted into vapor by a shot from an eyestalk at its side.
The battle spilled back into the cave, injured ghouls falling screaming down the open pit and plunging to their doom. Jus pitched Escalla down the passage, grabbed Polk and Henry by the scruffs of their necks, and ran down the tunnel as if every legion of the Nine Hells were behind them.
A sharp zig-zag hid all sight of the fight, but howls and screams echoed through the gloom. Escalla whirred to a corner and clung to a stalactite in fright, covering the retreat of her friends with her wand.
Catching up with her, the Justicar shouted at her, “What arethey when they’re alone, Escalla?” Jus was not having one of his moreenjoyable days. “They’re beholders, Escalla!”
“All right! All right!” The girl angrily waved her hand. “Itstill worked! The ghouls are neutralized! The faerie scores again!”
Jus turned her around and pointed her northwest. “Move! Ifthat beholder comes after us, we’re toast!”
Weighed down by chain mail, Private Henry staggered and fell. Jus picked the boy up with one hand and set him on his feet. The boy looked back in terror as he ran.
“Is it coming?”
“Might not have seen us.” The Justicar put himself at theboy’s back. “If it comes, keep running! I’ll buy you time!”
Escalla shot far ahead as they fled down the passageway. Something thundered in the tunnel far behind. Still invisible, Escalla looked behind her as she flew… and smacked straight into something hard.
Stunned, Escalla tumbled back and hit the ground. She half saw a gigantic figure towering over her invisible body-a big goblinoid creaturethat stank like a sewer. Confused, the monster staggered back and looked around for what had struck it. Squatting beside the first giant goblin was another, and another, and another…