Descent Into Underearth

by Susan Bianculli

  Surprisingly, he laughed quietly. “That is the spirit, Lise. That is what good leaders look for, because small victories can lead to bigger ones.”

  I smiled as a warm glow at his compliment spread throughout me.

  Arghen retained the Captain disguise since it had sort of worked in the patrol encounter. The air-moss-and-lichen-lined caravan tunnel was empty, but that wasn’t surprising according to Emalai, because there were no merchants in Chirasniv at the present that she knew about. I halted our faux caravan a little before the exit out onto the training grounds.

  “Emalai? Where do we go from here? You can’t keep telling us anymore because any whispers might be overheard, and that would bring the Under-elves down on us faster than a ton of bricks,” I said.

  “Ton of bricks?” she asked with the by now familiar-to-me-look of confusion on her face. It was echoed by pretty much everybody there but Jason. “What do bricks have to do with our escape?”

  Jason sniggered as I said tiredly, “Never mind. Just answer the question, please.”

  Emalia outlined for us the route that caravans took towards the front gate, which seemed to consist pretty much of walking around the edge of the cavern so as to not get in the way of training.

  “All right, then. Let’s move out,” I ordered. I couldn’t help but gulp as I stepped out into the military grounds.

  We trudged along the cavern wall and were almost to the entrance of the next training cavern over when suddenly armored Under-elves came boiling out of the passageway right in front of us, hissing battle cries. We all stopped and fell into a fighting stance, ready to sell our lives dearly, but the warriors barely spared us a glance as they spread into the cavern. Those fighters already in the military training grounds turned with battle hisses of their own to fight with the newcomers.

  “What luck!” Arghen said just loud enough for me to hear. “It is a military exercise! With the chaos happening here, we will find it much easier to get to the gate unnoticed!”

  But, out of the blue, a hand clapped on Arghen’s shoulder and spun him around. The largest Under-elf I had ever seen stood face-to-face with Arghen. He slapped an orange patch on Arghen’s chest, which matched the one on his chest.

  “With me, Captain! I claim you for my team, since you have not yet been chosen!”

  Arghen straightened up, snapped off a military salute, and barked out, “Yes, Primus!”

  He threw Emalai’s lead into my hand, whirled about, and dashed off into the melee with his war spear. The Primus looked curiously at the rest of us, but thankfully didn’t stay to question us, as he, too, leapt into the fray, hissing with what I would have sworn was joy.

  The way Arghen had saluted the Under-elf told me just how important a rank Primus was, but I was still in shock. We’d just lost Arghen!

  “Lise!” Emalia begged, trying to break through my disbelief. “Do not stop here, or there will be more questions to answer afterwards, especially if the Primus remembers where he picked up Arghen! During a melee everyone who is not fighting is to clear the battlefield. There is a holding area to the left of the gate for just such a purpose, and we can run there without it looking overly suspicious!”

  I snapped out of it. Throwing a longing look at the battleground in which Arghen had disappeared, I barked to the caravan, “You heard the lady. Run!”

  We double-timed it around the edge of the caravan, dodging stray arrows that were weighted blobs of metal instead of tipped with razor sharp poisoned metal points. I snuck peeks at the fight as we ran, hoping against hope to see Arghen, but the training fields were a seething mass of fighters who all looked very much alike. That, coupled with the Under-elf ability to disappear into the darkness, made it impossible for me to find him.

  “Jamaj!” Harerah screamed all of a sudden, pushing herself out of the caravan so she could be seen by the battlefield.

  The Allocations Kobold was dodging around the field with a cart of training arrows, handing them out as well as scavenging them up off the ground to hand out again. He turned around with astonishment at hearing his name being yelled from some place he wasn’t expecting it. Even at our distance, I could see his eyes bug out.

  “Harerah?” he yelled back, as he left his cart in the battlefield and barreled towards us.

  She ran out to meet him, and I ran out after her. They met on the edge of the grounds and hugged. I let them hug briefly before ordering both of them back in line. Harerah was only too happy to comply and dragged her long-mate with her, the confusion on his face giving way to astonishment as she quickly filled him in. We continued running for the front gate and reached it with no other trouble. The gate was, not unexpectedly, closed and guarded.

  “Halt!” said the two gate guards in unison, lowering their war spears at us. The one on the left then added, “No one leaves the city-state while the training exercise is underway.”

  I replied, panting, “We understand, Warrior. We are here in compliance with the directive we were given by the Primus to get off the battlefield.”

  At my ready compliance and my words, the guards relaxed a little but didn’t put up their weapons. That was okay because I needed time to think anyway. Getting out while the training exercise was underway would be perfect cover, but then we’d lose Arghen. And if we waited until the exercise was over, we’d be faced with questions that Arghen would have covered for us but couldn’t because he was not with us. And I didn’t want to leave without my friend and mentor. I looked back over my shoulder and saw all the eyes of the caravan on me filled with emotions ranging from hope to fear.

  Crap.

  I didn’t like it, but I knew what we had to do. I knew that Arghen would have done it, and would yell at me for not doing it if—no, once—we saw each other again. I had to get the caravan out.

  Now. Without him.

  I turned my back to the guards, and said to the caravan, “All right, everyone. Break time. Use your time wisely.” I punctuated the word ‘wisely’ with an eye roll towards the gate, trying to get some of them to take the hint and attack the guards.

  The members of the caravan started sitting down one by one. I held my frustration in, wondering what to do next, and then had an idea. I casually walked over to Emalai.

  “Hey Emalai? You know that vial of yours? Just how versatile is it?” I asked softly under cover of the faux battle.

  She shrugged. “I do not know. I have never experimented with it. I have only done as my owner told me to do.”

  “Do you think it could create something like a drink that might make them go to sleep?”

  “You mean like a magical potion? I do not think that is possible, a magical item creating magic like that.”

  “No, no. Not magical. Just something to knock them out. Even in the human world there are things that can be eaten or drunk that will incapacitate beings one way or another. Isn’t there anything like that over here?”

  “Hmmmm.” Emalai thought for a moment, and then her face brightened. “Shield me from their sight.”

  I nodded to a couple of the ‘merchant guards’, who drifted over to her while I walked over to Harerah near its front. My movement towards the front naturally attracted the gate guards, which was what I’d been hoping.

  I whispered to her, “Play along with me.”

  She, looking puzzled, nodded slightly.

  “So, Kobold, I hear that you have been causing trouble in the ranks of my caravan?” I said threateningly but with a wink that let her know I didn’t really mean what I said.

  She caught on, and fell to her knees. “No, Matron, I swear. Others have been telling lies about me!” She started going on and on about the supposed misdeeds of other Kobolds and Troglodytes, who looked delighted to be pulled in. Soon a large verbal fight was happening. Too large, as it turned out, because the gate guards came over to break it up. I looked over at Emalai, and she gave me a reassuring wave of her hand.

  I shouted loudly, “That is enough!” Immediate silence came from
my group.

  “What is going on here?” asked one of the guards.

  I turned to him and bowed obsequiously. “I am so sorry to disturb you, brave warriors. Some little interpersonal problems, that is all, which I will swiftly remedy. In the meanwhile, let me make it up to you. Emalai! A drink for these warriors as an apology for disturbing them!”

  Emalai walked past me with a full wineskin held out to the guards, swaying seductively and capturing their instant attention. I could practically see their opinion of me going up at the sight of a collared Surfacer doing my bidding without need of a leash.

  “May I offer this to you, Patrons?” she asked with a seductive smile. “I dare not disobey my Leader.”

  I nodded graciously in encouragement, and they took the wineskin. After the first couple of sips, which apparently they liked very much, they greedily passed it between them. As they drank, they got progressively clumsier and clumsier. By the time they got to the last drops, they were barely standing on their feet.

  “Tha–that wasss, verra goo’. You got an-anny morre?” one of the guards managed to get out before they both collapsed to the floor and started snoring.

  Smiles of relief passed among us all, and I hugged Emalai. The Dwarves of the caravan meanwhile must have been waiting for that to happen because they started up the mechanism that opened the two-story tall gates. The noise of the gates opening went unnoticed in the din of the Under-elf training exercise.

  “What was it?” I asked.

  “A potent liqueur that we brew in my home settlement. It is made to be watered down a lot, but I gave it to them full strength,” she replied with a grin.

  I nodded and then turned to the Dwarves who were dealing with the gates. “Say, do you know if we can we shut the gates behind us by pushing on them from the other side?” I asked.

  “Yes, but not easily,” said one of the Dwarves. “They are designed to respond to the mechanisms that move it. Without them, it would take many beings to close it.”

  The Ogres began to flex, and the Dwarf regarded them sourly. “No, not even two Ogres could do it. Eight maybe, but not two.”

  The Ogres put their arms down sheepishly.

  “How can we close the gates again, then?” I asked out loud. “Leaving them like that is a sure-fire sign that something fishy had gone on while the fighting was happening. But even if we close the gates, we would lose Arghen for sure, so I don’t see a way out!”

  “I will stay,” announced Levahn reluctantly. “I can be a gate guard and say that the other guards got caught up in the frenzy and joined the battle. I can shut the door behind you, then open them when Arghen comes so we can slip out and follow you.”

  “No,” I said flatly. “I’ve had just about enough of losing people to self-sacrifice today, thanks.”

  “Be reasonable, Champion,” said Harerah, appearing at my elbow. “What the disguised Surfacer suggests is workable as long as he does not draw attention to himself. He and the other Champion would have to leave the gate open behind them when they left, that is true, but Levahn’s actions would mean that the caravan would have a longer start on any pursuit.”

  I glared at the Kobold and she shrank back, but after a moment a line from a famous movie based on a famous 1960’s television show popped into my head: the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one. Even with the one being Arghen. I tried to shove it away, but it kept coming back because I knew in my heart-of-hearts it was right.

  I smiled bitterly. “Fine, Levahn. Be self-sacrificing if you want. The rest of you, shuck off your chains, and let’s get out of here.”

  CHAPTER 26

  The sounds of the Surfacers’ chains hitting the rocky cavern floor were lost in the noise of the ‘battle’ going on behind us. Levahn gathered the manacles together and shoved them out of sight in the guard house.

  “NO!” squealed Emalai. “We cannot just leave Arghen! I–we–need him to be with us!”

  “I am sorry, Emalai, but I believe in Arghen’s survival skills more than I believe in our chances if we remain here,” I replied. “We are leaving. As he would have wanted us to.”

  She had no reply to that, and I pulled her along with me as the rest of the caravan booked it through the opened two-story doors.

  “We have companions waiting for us at the first cavern,” I yelled over my shoulder to the Surfacers as we ran down the tunnel, “so no fighting with anyone unless I say to! Understand?”

  I heard various sounds of agreement behind me, so I counted on their understanding. Eventually I saw the tunnel open up ahead of me.

  I called out as I ran into the cave, “Auraus! Ragar! It’s me, Lise, and boy, do I have a surprise for you!”

  “Lise? Good. And is that so? We have a couple of surprises for you, too,” Ragar’s growling voice echoed in reply around the cavern. But he himself was nowhere to be seen.

  “Where are you, hombre?” asked Jason, coming up to stand beside me.

  “Jason. Good to hear you as well. Over here. You are going to have to come to me. I cannot come to you.”

  Mystified, Jason and I followed the sound of his voice, with the Surfacers following us, and found the mountain-cat-elf webbed to a stalactite in what looked like thick, ropy white strands of shredded fabric. And he looked furious about it. My eyes grew big. Remembering huge spiders from a favorite fantasy book series back home who could truss a person up in a matter of minutes, and remembering my close encounter with the Trappist spider some time ago, I whipped out my iron and dropped into a defensive stance. I looked wildly around, determined not to be caught unaware of the spider who had done this to Ragar. Jason, reacting to my body language, immediately fell into a combative crouch and drew his dirks.

  “Where’s the trouble?” he asked me urgently as he, too, scanned the area.

  “Nowhere, Jason,” Ragar said. “Lise, this was not done by a spider.”

  A flash of insight lit my brain as I relaxed my stance. “Bascom. It was him, wasn’t it?”

  “Yes!” Ragar growled out in loud frustration. “And he had Heather with him!”

  I blinked. That meant Ragar had been webbed against that rock for quite a while.

  “Ragar! I am so sorry you’ve been stuck all this time. Let’s get you loose, give you something to eat, and then we’ll get going after Heather,” I promised as without touching them I looked at the strands holding him.

  Eyeing the parade of beings in back of me, he asked, “So this is your surprise?”

  The Surfacers shuffled nervously in his stare, and I didn’t blame them. An angry Ragar looked pretty terrifying.

  “Uh, yes. We rescued Jason, and a few more along the way.”

  Ragar’s green cat eyes narrowed. “Where is Arghen?”

  I closed my eyes briefly because I didn’t want to have that conversation just then, so all I said was, “He’s still in Chirasniv. Let’s get you taken care of before we start trading stories, all right?”

  But Ragar’s mention of Arghen made me realize that Auraus hadn’t appeared yet, and I was immediately concerned. Had Bascom somehow captured the Wind-rider, too?

  “Where’s Auraus, Ragar?”

  “Over behind the stalagmites to your left,” he said flatly, but somehow still injecting a growl into his words.

  “I’m guessing something has happened to her, too? But let’s get you out of these sticky strands first.”

  “How?” he growled.

  That stopped me. My iron wouldn’t be any good. It stopped magic while it was happening, not after it happened. I turned around and faced the caravan.

  “Hey, any of you guys happen to be carrying a magic item that could deal with this problem?”

  The Surfacers looked at the things they were carrying, and a few stepped forward to try various things on Ragar. But Jason’s cold frost ring only made the web cold and sticky, a heat ring just made Ragar’s fur hot, and a couple other things that were tried also had no effect. And Ragar flat out refused
having one tried that made fire. I was stymied until I remembered my mother sometimes used rubbing alcohol to loosen sticky stuff. Maybe Emalai’s vial could help!

  “Hey, Emalai, try pouring that potent stuff on these webs!” I told her.

  Emalai, a dubious look on her face came up to Ragar and carefully poured some of the liqueur onto the web. I could see that it was a ruby red in color and smelled very fruity.

  After a few minutes of Ragar pulling while the vial kept pouring, I could see the web starting to give way and cheered. It took a little while, but soon a sopping wet Ragar was free of his bindings.

  “Not that I’m ungrateful, but I really hope this won’t stain my fur as it dries,” he said.

  Emalai produced water to rinse him off. I had been so caught up in getting Ragar free that it was only when he was getting rinsed off did I remember that so far he was the only living thing I’d seen since coming in here.

  “Ragar! Are the mounts okay?” I asked the mountain-cat-elf worriedly.

  He waved me to follow him as he walked towards the side of the cavern, answering, “The horses, at least, should be fine. Bascom did not go looking for what brought us here. He seemed to be in too much of a hurry to leave the cavern.”

  Just the horses? I thought, becoming worried about Arghen’s dranth.

  “What about Stalker?” I demanded.

  “You’ll see,” came the reply.

  I noticed signs of scarring on the stalactites and stalagmites as we rounded a pillar of rock, and I realized a magical battle had taken place. I felt proud of Auraus for that. Despite her utter fear of Bascom, it seemed she’d stood up to him. Dusk had been right in advising me to let her ‘spread her wings’ with us. I also saw blood on the cavern floor and and became concerned that Stalker had been hurt, since Ragar had not mentioned him being okay. Ragar brought us to where Auraus and Stalker stood in two seperate places frozen in stone in mid-attack, looking something like the stone statues I’d seen in Bascom’s tower. My proudness of her and worry for the dranth dissolved into pity and shock.