Forge of Ashes

by Josh Vogt

  "See? Not always wrong to give people what they deserve."

  He closed his eyes and drained his breath in one long sigh. His fist uncurled and he reached for her hands, but she pulled away. Scowling, she plunked her cheek down on a fist—and then jerked back up as stinging pain ripped through her face.

  At her startled grunt, Ondorum leaned over and inspected her skin. Izthuri peered closer too, and Akina tensed to keep from shoving them both back. Even Ondorum's gentle touches sent off pings of flame, and she realized what it came from.

  "Those bastards threw some crystals at me that broke when they hit. Must be from that."

  "Should come out," Izthuri said."Bad crystal. Hurts inside."

  Ondorum drew out one of his iron chips and concentrated until it grew into a pair of long tweezers. Akina sighed but propped forward on her knees to set her profile to him. She tried to avoid making eye contact with the caligni, but Izthuri stared back, black eyes unblinking. Akina's grunts punctuated the stillness as the oread pried larger pieces loose and picked around for the smaller fragments. Nearly twenty shards had embedded in her face and throat. Lucky none had pierced an eye or gone so deep as to require cutting to retrieve. By the time he finished, her face felt swollen ten times over, and each twitch of her cheek or lips sent a crackle of flame across her skin.

  "Thanks," she muttered, trying not to rub at the area."I had Selvia pack a few healing quaffs in with our supplies, but I guess Nullick stashed all that elsewhere."

  The mention of Selvia dropped a whole bunch of new, sticky questions to splat on her mind, and she started wondering them out loud. What had been the duergar woman's purpose in Taggoret? Was she connected to the duergar who'd helped Gromir abduct Brakisten? If so, why had Selvia lured the pair down into the Darklands after Gromir indicated Akina should wait for him? He must've known Selvia's real identity, but his knowing didn't explain any of his actions.

  What could've driven him to align himself with the duergar in the first place? That was one of the most obscene things any dwarf could do. It practically made him a non-dwarf in their people's minds.

  Akina's head whirled with all the unknowns. By the time she finished rambling off all the whys and how-abouts and maybes, Ondorum looked as befuddled as she felt.

  "And then there's Gromir's note..." Akina dug at her belt and, to her relief, found the parchment still tucked into the pouch. She drew it and held it up to illustrate her point.

  Like a bat snatching a bug from midair, Izthuri reached over and clipped the parchment away.

  "Hey, give that—"

  Ondorum raised a hand and held a finger to his lips. He pointed down over the edge. Guess it didn't make much of a hidey-hole if she announced their presence by shouting. Akina forced herself to whisper, though still harsh enough to echo.

  "Give that back."

  Izthuri rubbed the parchment over the cloth masking her lower face. She snuffled; then she made a lip-smacking noise."This. This smells like him. Strong. His touch."

  Akina looked at her askance."You're hunting someone who... smells... like the person who wrote that?"

  "Not like. Is. Him."

  "Can you describe him some other way besides smell?"

  Izthuri sniffled."Sight is lie. Smell is truth." She shrugged a shoulder, almost hitting the top of the hollow."Dwarf. Carries tiny axes." She drew a line diagonally across her chest and then plucked at her chin."Gold face fur."

  "Beard," Akina corrected."Dust and drudgery, that's Gromir! You're talking about Gromir. He ran the shop Selvia worked at. We were following him before we got ambushed."

  Izthuri's eyes narrowed to dark slits. Her hand went to the hilt of her light-sucking blade.

  "Hold on, hang on now..." Akina fumbled for her own weapon, but didn't think she had room to draw or wield.

  Ondorum thrust both arms between them like bars; he stared at Izthuri, making it clear who he'd go after if anyone attempted violence.

  Izthuri eased her hand back, but her eyes remained suspicious."Why you here?"

  "I'd ask the same," Akina said."You seem pretty sneaky and you claim to have a tribe off somewhere. So why leave them and let yourself get caught by Nullick and his little crazies?"

  Izthuri hissed."No let. Mistake." She kept Akina pinned with her eyes.

  Akina tried to stare the caligni down, but then scowled and relented."Right. I'll go first."

  She told Izthuri of her return home and the plight she found her family in, and how Gromir had insinuated himself into her family's business, thinking he could win her affections back. How she'd rebuffed him, and he'd disappeared with her brother alongside the duergar. Then she read the note aloud, though it made no more sense to her than it had before. Izthuri's threatening air faded, replaced by wary curiosity. When Akina finished, the caligni's hiss sounded more thoughtful.

  "He go back down. To my home. You follow... for brother? Not evil?"

  "You're saying Gromir is evil?" Akina shook her head."Why are you hunting him?"

  Izthuri waggled fingers as she spoke."Long time past, my tribe hunted by buggane."

  "Buggane?"

  "Mole beasts. They slaughter any of us they catch. We run. We hide. They follow. They find. They kill. Then tribe finds old ruins. We enter. Buggane stay out. We not know why. We make new home. We live quiet and deep and dark and safe. Old tribe leaders dead. I care for all."

  Her eyes flared."Then ruins wake up. Become hungry. I go to make ruins sleep and see dwarf. Gromir. I hide. He run away. But come back later with duergar. I hide from duergar. Duergar stay. Gromir come and go. My tribe hide, but some found. Killed by duergar. Gromir bring duergar. Gromir kill my tribe, I must kill Gromir. He leave ruins last time. I follow to kill. He go to surface, beyond gate. I wait below for him to come down again. Listen and wait. Watch travelers from darkness. They go up. They go down. I wait. Learn their words and hear their secrets."

  "That's how you can speak Taldane?" Akina asked.

  Izthuri nodded and shut her eyes."I watch for Gromir. Not for Nullick. He catch me. You say Gromir go back down while I in warren. My tribe in danger."

  Akina gnawed a knuckle until it bled."So Gromir found the ruins your people live in and brought a bunch of duergar there. He's been going back and forth, working with them on something?"

  "Hungry evil."

  "The buggane?"

  "No it..." Izthuri went still for several long moments. Then she waggled fingers faster, perhaps indicating she either didn't know or didn't have the words to explain in the surface-dwellers' tongue.

  "Right. We'll work on that." Akina bent her head and hit the heel of her palm on the side of her helm, trying to knock answers loose. All the unknowns just kept rattling around."I can't figure it yet, but I'm not about to let Gromir give my brother over to duergar who've gotten their hands on any sort of hungry evil. Whatever it is." She raised her head."Izthuri, can you get us down to those ruins, to your tribe, so we can take care of Gromir?"

  "You help my tribe?" Izthuri lowered her head to meet Akina's gaze on the same level."You stop hungry evil?"

  "We're going to stop Gromir and get my brother back. If that means dealing with duergar and knocking a few monsters to pulp, we'll handle it."

  Izthuri stared at her for another instant, and then rolled sideways off the ledge.

  Choking down a surprised shout, Akina leaned over to see her scrambling down the wall, not even using the larger handholds. When she reached the bottom, she looked up, white face a strip in a blotch of darkness.

  "Come. We go. I show."

  Chapter Thirteen

  Darkness and Light

  Izthuri set a frenetic pace and hardly seemed to remember she needed to remain close enough for the other two to follow. She whipped down tunnels like a black breeze, vanishing ahead only to hiss back, urging them to hurry. A few times, they'd hear or see nothing of her for so long, Akina felt sure the caligni had abandoned them. Then Izthuri would pop back up by her side, making Akina's fingers t
witch for her maulaxe.

  Her own urgency built the deeper they went, the new revelations spurring her almost as much as her need to get Brakisten back. With each step, the many questions they'd pondered back in the wall hollow flared in her mind, adding more steam to a growing pressure that would only be properly vented when she wrapped hands around Gromir's throat and squeezed the truth out from between his purpling lips.

  Even Ondorum seemed gripped by a fresh energy. His jaw had locked tight, and he'd shed some of his usual grace for extra haste. She could well guess why: Knowing that not only her brother stood threatened by Gromir's scheme, but also an entire tribe of innocents, he'd likely be seeing this as a way to redeem himself from past mistakes. Whether or not Izthuri's people counted as actual innocents was another question, but if taking care of them soothed his tortured soul, maybe it'd also loosen his tongue at last.

  She missed his voice, she had to admit. It went beyond wanting the convenience of talking again. Where his voice soothed, his silence grated. Where it had offered new perspectives and options, the silence made her feel trapped. She supposed there was reason to admire his dedication, but she'd have preferred the commitment be external—and extended to her—rather than internal. What if he started talking again but someday made a vow that bound them apart in more permanent ways? She tried to cast off her doubts, but they flitted after her like insects, nipping at her thoughts.

  After the initial rush dulled, Akina realized they'd need fresh supplies if they intended to keep up the pace. She asked Izthuri where they might dredge up any resources, and the caligni started pointing out various molds or mosses they could gnaw on and taking them by puddles or pools of still water they could slurp up without fear of poison or anything lurking in the depths. Hardly tasty fare—in fact, most of it left a tang of stale dung in Akina's mouth—but it kept their legs moving.

  More than a few times during their travels, the pitch darkness was broken up by patches of luminescent mold, glowing patches of water, or radiant crystals that speckled the wall with red and green starfields. Every so often, Izthuri would pause at such a spot and carefully unwrap the cloth around her hands to bare her palms. She held these over the light source and closed her eyes as if basking in their emanations. Akina recalled what Nullick said about Izthuri's people feeding off light itself, and since she never saw the caligni consuming anything else, she figured it for one of the few truths the warren leader had discovered in his madness. When Izthuri removed her hands, the light would be dimmer or gone altogether, while she sprang forward with renewed vigor.

  Once, as they passed into a low cavern where the walls slanted off into the distance on either side, Izthuri made them stop. She hushed Akina's questions and shook her head, pointing to one side of the cavern, beyond where even dwarven eyes could penetrate the gloom. Then, through a series of gestures and her own posture, she indicated they must walk without making any noise whatsoever. When Akina took a step that clinked her armor, Izthuri made her stop again. She kept critiquing Akina's steps until she could take one without anything but the softest creak of leather or jingle of mail. Izthuri's eyes still narrowed at this, but she let her progress.

  In this manner, it took them hours to cross what might've taken half of one at a steady walk. By the time they reached the other side and ducked back into new tunnels, Akina nearly vibrated with the craving to move faster. Her legs cramped at the effort of such a slow pace, and when Izthuri waved them on faster, she almost sprinted in relief. Izthuri never explained the purpose behind the snail's crawl through the cavern, but she kept casting relieved looks behind them for a while longer.

  At another spot, the tunnel ended in a sudden drop-off, with the path resuming a hundred yards across the gap. The sound of rushing water emanated from below. Izthuri prowled the edge up and back, hissing to herself.

  "Not like before. Flood took stone."

  They had to double back almost half a day before cutting through a series of low tunnels that both Ondorum and Izthuri stooped to navigate. At one point, Ondorum even had to slide through on his belly. Izthuri crawled ahead, elbows and knees bent at right angles while her body lay flat, making Akina again think of a giant, underground insect.

  One cavern held enormous mushrooms that shed a yellow glow as they towered over the group. While the glow did nothing to match the warmth of dwarven lamps, it at least struck the eyes softer than the blue mold from that hideous warren. Izthuri guided them around the densest clusters of mushroom-trees, and picked her way along with care. Akina wondered at this until she studied the forest-like clusters and noted the thick webbing strung between the mushroom stalks, and the occasional shadow of a multi-limbed creature skittering through the fungus. After that, she too chose her steps more carefully, cautious not to tromp on anything looking too much like a strand.

  During a straighter trek, Izthuri came up short and motioned for them to do the same. At her aggressive posture, Akina drew her maulaxe and peered ahead.

  Fifty feet down the tunnel, a length of the floor moved. What Akina had taken for rippled stone was, in fact, an enormous centipede stretched across their path. The beast lay twenty feet long and as wide as Akina stood tall, body supported by dozens of spear-thin legs. A pair of tendrils quivered up from the segmented end closest to them. The head on the other end bore enormous pincers, and it used these to tear chunks of mold off the wall, stuffing the scrapings into its maw with a set of smaller claws.

  The caligni waggled fingers and whispered,"Back." She waited until they retreated a few paces and added,"Stay." Then she whipped out her blade and sprinted ahead.

  Ondorum and Akina exchanged surprised looks.

  Akina called after,"Wait, we can—"

  The centipede writhed and coiled around at the noise, bunched body filling the tunnel. It chittered as it advanced, pincers clicking. Akina growled back and raised her maulaxe to join Izthuri's charge.

  Before she took a step, an impenetrable cloud of darkness dropped over the area just ahead of them, cloaking the tunnel, Izthuri, and the beast. Akina scowled at the unnatural blackness, loathe to step inside. What sort of magic was this?

  The insect's chittering rose in pitch, accompanying Izthuri's hissing and the ringing of a blade against shell. A loud crunch echoed. The darkness dissipated, revealing Izthuri perched on the dead centipede's body, sword embedded in the center of its head.

  Akina sheathed her maulaxe, grousing."Couldn't save any for me?"

  In a smaller cave, they came across a patch of multicolored crystals, shining bright enough to cast speckles of light over the whole area. They thrust in finger-length bunches out of a mound of dark earth. As Izthuri went over to feed, Akina hung back, wary. She could swear some of the gems were flawless diamonds, emeralds, and rubies, but the formation was clearly unnatural. And why were they glowing?"Izthuri..."

  But Izthuri was already extending her hands. In response, the mound trembled and rose. The caligni hissed and tumbled back, drawing her sword as the mound resolved into a roughly humanoid shape formed of packed earth and rocks. Its boulder head rested just below the eight-foot ceiling, and its stony arms drooped to the ground, while hundreds of crystals protruded from its stooped back.

  As Izthuri raised her blade, Ondorum ran in between her and the creature, arms extended to ward her off. When she hesitated, he turned and offered open palms to the creature, which Akina realized must be an earth elemental. Two gleaming rubies poked out from the front of the head boulder. It bowed until those gemstone eyes bathed Ondorum's face in red light, and she wondered if it sensed the earthen elements in his blood.

  Ondorum tilted his head, as if listening to a voice the other two couldn't hear. Then he knelt and bowed low, palms pressed to the stone. The earth elemental formed a giant hand that drizzled dirt and laid it on the back of the oread's bent neck. The two remained like that for a time. Izthuri skulked on the other side of the cave, miffed at not getting a meal, while Akina kept her hands away from her maulaxe, not wa
nting to threaten the elemental and make it decide to crush Ondorum flat.

  Then the elemental raised its hand and collapsed into a pile of rubble, sending a cloud of dust through the cave. Akina sneezed. She waved the air clear to see Ondorum rise, cradling a massive diamond in his hands. He turned and offered this to Izthuri with one of the widest grins she'd ever seen on him. Izthuri scuttled over and, after a wary look, plucked the gemstone from him. She bowed until her nose almost hit the floor. Then she took her time sucking the glow from the diamond, before setting it back on the ground where the elemental had been. Akina itched to grab it, but figured this might ruin the mood, and could be a huge insult to both her companions and the creature that bestowed the gift. Wouldn't do to have a cranky elemental pounding after them because she got a little greedy.

  They moved on, Ondorum beaming to himself, Akina trudging after. She struggled with a strange jealousy, wondering how a random elemental could commune deeper with him than she had in a long while. Even Izthuri had been in on the action. She tried to be happy for the oread, but kept questioning why he got to be blessed and given a chance to make friends and give gifts, while she got touched by a god who gave her the ability to send more souls to the Boneyard in the most savage manner possible.

  While the tunnel they headed down shot along straight, Izthuri waved them into a side corridor, where she drew them down a ways and then motioned for a stop. She checked every nook and cranny, sniffing around limestone columns and peering up at the bare ceiling. At last, she returned to them and kept her voice even lower than normal.

  "We here. Long Walk not far."

  Akina made fists."About time. But it's a Darklander path, hm? Any other way to get to these ruins?"

  "Fastest way. But not safe." She turned to Ondorum."You, no worry. Seen your kind before. Her..." Lines formed around her eyes in what Akina now equated to a frown."Her they kill or slave."

  Akina scowled."That's not happening."

  Izthuri waggled a few fingers and reached under her rags. She came out holding a handful of what looked like thick flower petals. Akina poked one, and then pulled back, disturbed by the petal's fleshy texture.