Forge of Ashes

by Josh Vogt

  Izthuri halted and spun a circle. Her hiss went on longer than usual.

  "What's wrong?" Akina asked. Despite the leagues they'd gone without any other sign or disturbance, she didn't figure their luck would hold forever. They'd paused in an oval-shaped cave with two main offshoots, one of which had deep claw marks in the stone around it. She reached for her maulaxe handle, but Izthuri waved her hands down.

  "Wrong way."

  "Don't tell me that." Akina made fists.

  The skin around Izthuri's eyes crinkled."Long time since here. You think always same? Always easy?"

  "You call what we've been trotting easy?"

  "We not dead. It easy."

  "Figures. Did it just get harder?"

  "We being followed."

  "By what? For how long?"

  Izthuri sniffed."We need fast. I make fast. Not see signs."

  "Of?"

  The caligni crouched in the middle of the cave, knees up past her head."We in buggane territory."

  "Buggane? Those... what... mole beasts that killed some of your tribe?" At Izthuri's nod, Akina snorted and shifted her armor so it sat on her shoulders better."I can handle a few moles."

  "Several buggane kill..." Izthuri stared at her fingers."Quarter of tribe. Most fighters and leaders. Why we weak. Why we hide."

  "Oh." Akina cleared her throat."Which way gets us past them?"

  Izthuri rose and headed for the non-clawed-up path."Here. If lucky... it easy. If not..."

  "We dead. Got it."

  ∗ ∗ ∗

  Ondorum passed through the tunnels using the directions Akina gave him, forming them into a mantra that looped through his mind, making a path for his feet. Always down and left. Down and left. He tested his chains as he went, looking for flaws he might exploit to remove them. The shackles themselves offered no such opportunity, and he tired of feeling sharp fingers stab his neck whenever he flexed and stretched his arms too much. Even when he could transform another link, it would take multiple attempts before he'd be entirely free.

  He tried to channel the discomfort aside, but it became a fraying presence—chafing, stinging, rattling, grinding. Just enough to set him on edge and forbid him true meditation.

  Rather than see the chains and their nettling as an enemy of enlightenment, he tried to use them as a reminder of his flawed physicality and accept them as a learning opportunity. A temporary lesson, he hoped, as he had no intention of bearing them any longer than necessary.

  A dull roar in the distance intrigued him as he traversed a narrow channel. A tingling in his feet spoke to a deep thrumming ahead, but it seemed to emanate from a single grand source rather than any sort of underground crowd. He emerged into a cavern with no ceiling, where water gushed from a hidden source high above. The waterfall cascaded over a hundred feet into a dark pool that filled much of the right side of the cavern. Clouds of mist billowed up from this, and water trickled over the walls and slicked the stone underfoot. A main channel wound away down the slope, offering the next portion of his path.

  Ondorum gazed at the falling waters for a while, aching to plunge into them, to bathe, to drink. Dust caked his throat, and he gulped deep breaths, thinking the droplets in the air might soothe him some. Yet the effort teased his tongue and only heightened his cravings. Still, he heeded Izthuri's warning and did not so much as approach the edge of the rippling current. He noted how no vegetation grew in the area, despite such an abundant water source.

  With a mighty leap, he crossed the channel, coming down on the other side with a sway of the chains. He followed the current as directed, keeping an eye out for any crystals and glowing spots around him, green or otherwise. He thought he spotted an emerald flash of light once in the distance, but it faded as he approached and he didn't see it again. Did his eyes jest with him? Not a comforting thought, and he began picking out nearby details, fixing them in his mind, and then turning after he passed to make sure they remained as he noted. After a while, he felt assured he saw clearly and did not walk fooled by illusions, conjured by himself or others.

  At last, he came to a wide ledge where the ground dropped away before him into a bottomless expanse. The current flowed straight over the edge, forming another waterfall that plunged to depths unknown. This must be the abyss Izthuri spoke of. Heading off to the right, he found the proper tunnel—he hoped—and aimed down it. Following the main tunnel proved trickier than it sounded, as it hosted constant offshoots, from the slightest fissures to openings nearly as wide as the one he'd first taken. Multiple times, he had to pause at a forking of several paths and determine which deviated the least.

  After such a gambling choice, he entered one of the largest caverns he'd encountered since the waterfall. Calcified mounds looked like miniature cities and fortresses, and the walls bulged out at the sides, forming natural side-caves hemmed in by rows of stalactites and stalagmites, many of which stood taller and thicker than him. Ondorum hesitated. Izthuri hadn't mentioned any significant caves before reaching the magma flows. Had he taken a wrong path? Did he now wander lost without knowing it?

  He cycled through breaths to ease the flutter of alarm in his chest. As he stilled himself, tremors rippled through the floor and up into his bones. Not the muted thunder of the water from before, but of a creature moving through the earth nearby. After another tremor shook the area, he corrected himself: a vast creature, one he doubted he wished to meet. Random chance that it disturbed this very cavern as he entered it, or had his presence drawn it somehow?

  He headed for a side hollow, determined to not be standing in the open if the beast appeared. He chose the largest stalagmite, broad enough to hide behind, and eased up against it, bracing on its frigid, grainy surface so his chains wouldn't rattle and give him away.

  The rumblings grew into shudderings that made him grit his teeth as the creature's growing presence made his very core quake. Then the upper portion of the ceiling on the far side blew open in a boom of displaced rock. He glimpsed a maw large enough to swallow a horse, filled with grinding rows of teeth that would spear through the thickest shield. No visible eyes; just a dark, violet carapace covering every possible inch of the creature. Its maw thrust down into the floor, and it passed through like a worm threading through dirt. Its churning teeth turned stone to powder as it plunged on without pause.

  Segment after armored segment slid by until Ondorum lost count. At last, the body dwindled and tapered off. At the very tip of its massive length, it displayed a bony stinger the size of a sword, and then this too slid out of sight. The rumblings went on for a time yet, and only when the last vibration faded did he step out from behind the cover of the stalagmite. He stared in awe at the rubble-strewn tunnels left in the creature's wake, which had reshaped the cavern itself. He wished Akina had been there with him to witness it. Despite the beast's no doubt brutish nature, it had been a marvel to behold.

  He took a few steps forward, and then paused, considering the need to walk with more care, lest his heavy movements draw the creature back.

  A voice like the drizzling of sand broke the silence behind him.

  "A magnificent spectacle, I must say."

  Chains rattling, Ondorum whirled just as the stalagmite he'd hidden behind flexed and bent toward him. Six thick strips peeled away from the column and flared into wriggling life. Four lashed out for him. He tried to leap backward, but a tip snagged a trailing chain and yanked him back with enough force to send fresh blood streaming down his neck. The other strands curled around his waist, left arm, and right thigh. They clenched and twisted, and Ondorum gasped as strength seeped from him, making him tremble where he stood.

  "There, now. That's better. I did worry you'd leave without saying a proper farewell."

  A crack formed near the base of the stalagmite and widened into a circular maw, bristling with dagger-like fangs. Near the top, shards of stone parted, revealing an enormous eye, glowing red with a black slit down the middle. This fixed on Ondorum as the mouth shifted into
a monstrous grin.

  "Greetings, traveler. I do hope you've had a pleasant journey so far. Tell me, what tidings of the surface do you bring?"

  Chapter Nineteen

  Buggane

  No noise alerted her, but Akina glanced back, certain something followed them. A buggane? Yet the way behind her was empty.

  A bulky creature walked out of the stone wall on one side and lumbered straight across the tunnel into the other wall, where it vanished.

  Akina blinked. Had she seen right?

  She turned and tried to catch up with Izthuri. The caligni's wheezing filled the air as she set a near-sprinting pace, and Akina barely kept her fluttering black rags in sight.

  "Shattered stones," she called."Leave me behind and I can't help your tribe."

  Izthuri slowed enough for Akina to match her, though she continued to burst forward at odd intervals, as if the dwarf were a weight she strove to break free from.

  "Can..." Akina gulped a breath."Can bugganes walk through walls?"

  Izthuri's head whipped around, her eyes obsidian disks. In answer, she picked up speed, ducking under ragged shelves, sidling along tight channels, and dancing through fields of spiked earth. Akina puffed as she fought to keep up, glad that while some of the narrower tunnels tried to wedge her in, she didn't have to hunch or crawl as often as her companion. Her heavy boots let her crunch over the jagged terrain without pause.

  Twice more, Akina checked behind to see a shadowed mass scurry from wall to wall. Big—at least twice her size—but moving fast. She'd hoped the spaces she managed to barely push through might stall it, but solid earth impeded it not at all, and it paced them with unerring steps. No point trying to be quiet.

  "How far to the ruins?" she asked the next time Izthuri deigned to let her close the gap. They hurried down a wider tunnel that at least let them run alongside one another.

  "Not close. Not far." Izthuri's voice had gone reedy with fear."Two tunnels. One cave. Ruins after."

  Then Izthuri stopped so suddenly Akina smacked into her back and almost toppled them both. As she recoiled, Izthuri turned, eyes wide, and swayed in place.

  "I... I doom my tribe."

  Akina held up hands, trying to placate her."What're you talking about? Why'd you stop?"

  Izthuri plucked at her rags, which Akina took to be a sign of distress."Last bugganes kill many of tribe. I not lead then. I hide then. I lead now. They hide now. And..." She stared back up the tunnel."I show bugganes where tribe hide. I might kill all."

  "At this point, I'm guessing we'll have to deal with it sooner or later." Akina pushed past and tried to tug her along."If the ruins are a few tunnels away, I'd rather face it there. Otherwise I might not be able to do much besides gnaw at its kneecaps. If it has knees."

  Izthuri trembled like a branch in a high wind. Akina dared to press the matter further, sensing she could topple one way or the other.

  "Your tribe already has duergar invading their territory, hm? If we lead the buggane away and die at its hands in some random hole, you'll leave them leaderless. The duergar will find them and we won't be around to protect them. We've got to get there. And I don't know the way, so we can't split up." She clasped one of the other woman's hands between hers."Izthuri, I swear on... on the soul of my mother, Jannasten Fairingot, I'll see your people safe."

  This locked Izthuri's eyes on her own. Akina met the gaze of those bottomless pits. She didn't see emptiness there, but a frightened soul who just wanted to protect her people at all costs.

  "You fight for us?"

  "I will. My life for your tribe. Just get us there."

  Izthuri's trembling stilled and she drew her hand away. Then she nodded and zipped past Akina. Before she took ten steps, though, the buggane shifted out of the wall in front of them. Its appearance left neither ripple nor crack in its wake. Izthuri's rattling hiss echoed about as she drew her blade.

  When the caligni had suggested"mole beast," Akina had imagined an oversized version of the surface creature plowing along after them on four legs, body soft and face ready for smashing.

  What reared before them looked like a cross between a dire boar and an ogre. It had mole-like features with tiny, filmed-over eyes that looked blind by Akina's guess, as well as a narrowed snout and elongated incisors, but the similarities ended there. Tusks jutted from its lower jaw and a spike thrust from its chin. Its sloped back looked like a slab of rock with horns all down its spine, shoulders, and arms. Walking on elephantine hind legs, it could've held a dwarf in each of its muscled forepaws, which ended in six-inch claws.

  The buggane opened its tusked mouth and made a noise somewhere between a growl and a bleat. It raised its arms and raked at the tunnel ceiling, digging furrows and crumbling slabs of rock onto its own head. They shattered and bounced off without the beast seeming to notice.

  Akina realized she'd drawn her maulaxe. Izthuri shrieked, and a cloud of darkness engulfed the tunnel. In the midst of it, Akina stumbled and almost dropped her weapon. For the first time since coming into the Darklands, she couldn't see. Whatever magic Izthuri conjured, it blotted out even her vision. She flailed with one arm, not wanting to swing the maulaxe for fear of hitting the caligni in the confusion.

  "Izthuri, I can't see! I can't fight in your darkness!"

  Izthuri's screams hit a higher pitch. There came a dull clanging, and her cries cut off with a crunch and slap.

  The darkness dissipated, revealing the buggane hunched over a prone Izthuri. Rivulets of blood streamed out of the caligni's side, where the cloth had been torn wide to reveal mangled flesh and bone.

  "Not yours!" Akina launched herself at the buggane's back.

  It turned in time to catch the brunt of her swipe across the snout. It didn't so much as stagger, but gave a little squeal as it wiped a claw over its nose. Then it came on, feet pounding, claws raking for her face. Akina backpedaled, trying to hammer one of its arms aside to get a clearer shot, but it felt like chipping away at petrified tree stumps.

  A claw whipped at her head. She jerked to the side, and it hooked the top edge of a pauldron and tore it away as easily as tearing wings off a fly. The blow spun her around. She threw herself forward, and felt the air stir as another swipe just missed taking off her helmet—if not her head.

  She struck a wall and used the rebounding energy to launch herself back all the faster. The buggane dropped to its front claws, head down, tusks poised to gore. She snarled as she struck first on the broad plates of its forehead. Its head jerked aside, and it grunted as she rammed into its side. Horns and ridges ground against her breastplate. She cracked the hammer side of the maulaxe across it, searching for a weakness.

  The beast reared back up, taking her with it.

  Akina hollered as the sudden rise scraped her across the ceiling. She reached back and dug fingers into its snout, using it as leverage to keep hammering away while aloft. The beast lurched, and a claw grabbed one of her flailing feet. A second later, her maulaxe went clanging away as she flew down the tunnel. Her helmet struck first, sending a gong through her head. She tumbled ass over armor until she hit a wall.

  The tunnel wavered back into view. Izthuri lay a few feet away like a discarded strip of black silk. The buggane stomped toward them, snout crinkling as it snuffled, trying to get a fix on their position.

  Akina licked blood from her lips. She swallowed a few drops and they slid down to sizzle in her gullet, striking fire to the embers. Hot blood, hot bones, hot breath... all coursed through her as she rose to face the monster.

  "Much... better..."

  Her maulaxe lay behind the beast, but she didn't give it more than a glance before flexing her arms and bellowing a challenge. She charged the buggane. It thrust claws into the walls on either side of it, digging in to brace itself as it lowered its tusks again.

  Akina rammed her helm's horns straight into its tender snout and heard a satisfying crack deeper inside. With gauntleted fists, she grabbed the tusks and yanked down with all her
might. She braced a shoulder against one tusk and jammed a foot against another. Then she kicked and pushed as hard as she could.

  With a squelch and a horrendous pop, one tusk ripped free from the buggane's jaw. It went spinning across the floor, trailing gore.

  The buggane's squeal rose into a full-fledged roar. Akina dropped flat and scrambled through between its legs. It smashed claws from side to side, carving up the floor and walls in its furious pain. Akina leapt to her feet and sprinted to grab up her maulaxe. Flipping to the axe edge, she raced back at the buggane, steam boiling her from the inside out.

  The buggane staggered around and raised both claws. She veered left at the last second and let them crack down beside her. Spinning, she brought the whirling axe edge down on the creature's exposed right foot.

  Two stumpy toes flew away as the axe bit into the stone below. The buggane roared again, but its cry became a bleat of pain and fear as it stumbled away. Squealing, it started limping off. When she realized where it headed, she growled, a noise like gargling rocks.

  "No!"

  She pounded after it, but the buggane slipped into the earth a second before she reached the wall and struck solid stone. The shock dropped her back, stunned for a moment before she shook herself back into motion. She hammered at the wall as if she could break it down and open up whatever passage it had taken, shouting in denial all the while.

  Then a thought splashed over her mind and temporarily cooled the flow of magma within her veins. The beast could walk through stone. While she stood there dumbly trying to follow it, what if it circled around to attack her from behind or finish off Izthuri?

  She turned to see Izthuri still lying prone. Strapping her maulaxe back on, she ran to the caligni and checked her wounds. The gash in her side oozed blood, but the woman's chest still rose and fell, if shallowly. If she lay near death, her main chance of survival stood in getting her among her people and hoping they had some manner of healing.

  Nothing for it, then. Akina stared down the tunnel and tried to remember what Izthuri said. Two tunnels more, a cave, then ruins. First, she went over and retrieved the buggane's tusk, which she shoved down through her belt like a sword. After doing the same for Izthuri's blade, she dragged the woman up and draped her over both shoulders. Izthuri's feet still dragged, and Akina had to be careful not to whack her head against a wall, but she started off.