by Josh Vogt
As he stomped toward the human village, a couple denizens spotted him and called to the others. By the time he tracked mud into the main square, several dozen villagers gathered around the well. The man who called himself their mayor pushed to the front, buttoning up his vest.
"It's done, then?" he asked."Our village will be at peace?"
The mayor squawked as Ondorum wrapped a hand around his throat.
"Look me in the eye and Irori take you if you lie," he said."Those spirits you set us after, the ones haunting you and bringing madness and nightmares into your midst—were they or were they not the spirits of your own children? Ones you cast into the swamp to die?"
The mayor squirmed, but he couldn't budge Ondorum's grip or stance. Finally, he ceased struggling and drooped."They were."
Murmurs twisted through the crowd; from the subdued noise, though, it sounded like few, if any, were surprised at this revelation. Akina jogged up in time to catch the confession, and she scowled as she joined Ondorum.
"You murdering bastards." She spat at the man's feet.
The mayor fixed Ondorum with a manic look."They were cursed. Deformed at birth. Not of pure blood. Had we let them live, they would've brought even greater doom on our heads."
Ondorum shoved him back in disgust. The mayor cast nervous looks to the stooped, mossy trees forming the swamp border."They're all gone, then?"
"We eliminated them all," Ondorum said."They only had voices to wail and weep; if we had encountered them alone, we might've never learned the truth. But the witch responsible for their manifestations revealed herself. A naga."
That brought gasps from the crowd.
"A naga!" The mayor wrung his hands."She's the one behind all our terror?"
"Yes." Ondorum glowered at those gathered."She told us the truth of the situation. How she sensed the torment of your dying children. How their desperation for someone to care for them drew her here. In her own way, she did."
The crowd stirred, many clutching themselves as if chilled to the core.
"What was the naga's fate?" whispered the mayor.
"She lives."
The man paled."Y-you can't leave her out there. She'll be our ruin."
"She may, yes." Ondorum stepped back."But that's no longer our concern after the bargain she struck with us."
"What manner of bargain?" someone called.
"Just as you cast aside your own offspring, so you deserve to be cast aside." Ondorum's heart clenched, struggling with the path he must walk."The naga took your children and made them her own. Now that you hired us to destroy them—as we have—she has claimed you in their stead." He shared a look with Akina."We agreed to no longer interfere in your dealings with her. In return, she has agreed to stop interfering with your dead."
"Even if such a vile beast can be trusted, that won't stop her from attacking us directly." The leader fell to his knees."Please, have mercy. We can't face a creature like this. We'll pay double if you go back and destroy her for good."
Akina's eyes lit up at the promise of more coin, but Ondorum cut her off with a growl."No. You do not deserve such a mercy. You've fed this creature all these years, nurturing her power by sacrificing your children to her, whether you knew it or not. Now reap what you've sown." He spun on his heel and strode off.
Akina caught up with him on the village border."Can't count how many times Durgan tried to abandon clients and you convinced him to give them a second chance. You've even fought for folks when they didn't pay a dull copper."
Ondorum cast a glance back at the villagers. The people had started to disperse back to their huts, heads and shoulders bowed."There are times I fear certain souls don't deserve a chance to redeem themselves." He sighed and stared at the road they walked."I also fear I erred in giving the naga my word. I spoke rashly, letting anger guide me rather than seeking the straighter path. It infuriated me to discover what the villagers had done, and that they'd try to pay their way out of their sins. It doesn't work that way. It can't. It shouldn't."
"You being the angry one for once is a nice change. It's a good look on you."
He glared her way."But if I had at least measured my speech, I might not have bound us to wholly stand aside. The mayor is right. They remain vulnerable. We could defend them. Yet Irori teaches us to hold our word as oath, otherwise everything we say is inherently flawed."
"Not the first time I've paid for your beliefs. Doubt it's the last." She scratched her chin."What if you go on while I head back and—"
"I told the naga we would not interfere."
"You're letting poor promises and single words carry a lot of weight."
"Then perhaps it'd be better if I were to not speak at all!"
"I've thought the same a few times." At his glower, she nudged him with an elbow."Ondorum, we finished the job we were hired for. Not our fault there was a bit more mud in the stew than we figured. What happens next isn't our business."
They fell into silence as they headed down the road. As evening dusted the world in gray, they found a sheltered grove where they made camp and then pleasure, as they'd gotten into the habit of doing whenever their campfires only cast two shadows. A far cry from the constant winks and crude jokes they'd endured in the band, so they made the most of the solitary times they had.
Then distant screams tore the night in half. They lurched up from their bedrolls, Akina going for her maulaxe. Ondorum stared at the sky, which filled with flickering blue and green lights. They didn't have to guess where the sounds or sights emanated from. Nor did they doubt that if they raced to stop the slaughter, they'd arrive far, far too late.
Akina came up beside him and laid a hand on his back."It's not your fault."
Ondorum knew better. And he believed he knew how to fix this mistake. He grasped her hand and faced her.
"Akina, from this moment on, I vow..."
The vision faded back into the swirling mists, and Ondorum found himself alone within the white void once more. He doubted he'd received a vision from Irori himself; more likely a vivid memory brought on by exhaustion and the fumes. Whatever the source, he now knew... he knew...
It hadn't been the act of speaking itself that doomed the villagers. The words only represented the underlying lie he'd allowed to skew his path. In fact, both his words and his actions had been based on falsehoods: The belief that the villagers were irredeemable. That he had the right to pronounce judgment on them. That their lives were of less value than his oath.
Just as he'd allowed Akina to believe she mattered less to him than his vow.
It was a lie he could no longer live by, and a mistake he needed to live to amend.
The steam faded, and Ondorum's vision blinked clear. The lava tube wavered into being around him with all its heat and fumes and promise of death. But with renewed vigor, he fixed on the next hold well enough, and the one after that. Feeling ebbed from his hands and feet as he contorted them into place. His joints seized, refusing to bend when he needed, and he broke them into submission, refusing to be defied by his own body. Through it all, somehow, his body felt lighter than it had when he started.
He crossed to the far ceiling slope and began a series of hitching turns to orient himself sideways, then upright. As he crept down, the other side of the lava flow coming into view through the red haze, he edged back toward the mouth of the tube. That's when he realized a key feature was missing in his descent.
This side offered him no shelf to land on.
His muscles and bones quivered, but he didn't pause at this observation, knowing any hesitation would buckle and drop him to plop into the churning magma below. Already, he could count the seconds left to him, before his body simply stopped responding to his mind's commands. With rapidly fading strength, he worked as close to the tube opening as he could. Twenty feet to the ground, by his estimate, but he could wait no longer.
Hooking a hand around the corner of the tube mouth, he threw himself out, flipping around so his back struck the outer w
all. He tried to brace, digging hands and feet into the crumbling cavern slope to slow his descent as much as he could. The ground rushed up at him, and he rammed into the floor a step away from where it dipped into the lava.
Ondorum wavered, knees threatening to collapse and send him tumbling into the flow. Then he whirled away and threw himself prone. Uneven stone scraped his chest and cheek, but he lay there, spent, lacking even the strength to shut his eyes.
He had come through the furnace and been found worthy. After a time, he pushed himself to his knees and almost whispered audible thanks for this new understanding. Yet a touch on the back of his mind made him hesitate. Not yet. Not until he could share the joy of this new perception. Revelations proved worthless when savored alone.
So he sealed his lips a little while longer and cast out silent thanks to Irori. He also prayed this proved the last major obstacle between him and the ruins. Rising from the edge, he staggered far enough away to leave the heat behind, and then dropped into repose once more, where he rested for an immeasurable time. When his body at last cooled and the trembling left his limbs, he gathered himself and found the proper tunnel on this side to resume his journey.
Not two turns later, a skittering noise made him pause. He briefly shut his eyes, trying to quell his exasperation at such terrible fortune. He'd not recovered enough yet to face any significant foe, and he held no quarrel with any creature here. Just a traveler, passing through.
He checked the various nearby pathways, trying to determine where the noise originated. Plenty of sizable tunnels filled this area, all leading in vaguely the same direction. Perhaps that's why Izthuri had planned to go this way. If multiple routes led to the same place, there was less chance of error or getting lost.
A humped shape scuttled into view along the tunnel on his right. As large as a wild boar, the creature had a carapace made up of spike-edged plates that narrowed down into a lashing tail. Long, feathery antennae extended from below its obsidian eyes, and both the eyes and the antennae seemed to lock on him as it sped along on four multi-jointed legs. It spread notched mandibles.
Ondorum grabbed the chain link out of his loincloth and stretched it into a staff, thinking the sudden appearance of a weapon might give the creature pause. Instead, the insect rushed in even faster, and the burst of speed threw off his timing. As he side-stepped, letting its bite lash past, his strike bounced off hard shell. A leg joint thrust into his chest, throwing him back. He slammed against the wall while his staff went clattering away.
Ondorum tried to recover, thinking the creature would be on him. But the insect had raced to his fallen staff instead. Its antennae brushed the length of the staff and, from one blink to the next, the metal reduced to a line of rust. Ondorum struggled to his feet as the creature began munching on the corroded remains.
An insect that feasted on metal? He kept an eye on it as he shuffled around to the tunnel he'd been heading for before the interruption. As he backed away, he thought it fortunate the rock-beast had removed the rest of his chains. Otherwise, he might've been trampled in the insect's attempts to devour them. At least he no longer had any metal on his person.
The insect gnawed up the last of the staff. Then its antennae waved, and it scurried to the spot where he'd fallen. A splotch of blood from his wounded hand stained the stone, and the insect brushed its antennae over this before scraping mandibles across the stone.
Metal and... blood? Or an element present in both?
When the rock resisted its attempts to get at the bloodstain, the insect whirled and stared down the tunnel straight at him.
Ondorum engaged a tactic he rarely employed, except in the most dire circumstances.
He turned and fled.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Vaskegar
Stepping into view behind the duergar patrol, Akina raised her maulaxe and called out,"My hammer's missing a nail. Seen it? About your height and shaped like a skull."
The three duergar spun, and their surprise turned to wicked glee when they saw a lone dwarf challenging them. They hollered what she figured were indecent things about her parentage as they raced her way, axes and daggers readied. One vanished in mid-stride, employing their kind's disappearing tactic.
As the two visible duergar sprinted at her, three caligni dropped from above and cut them down. A ghostly hand appeared in front of Akina, glowing blue as it flew through the air and struck an unseen form. An axe appeared, falling from an unseen grip, and a large puff of dust indicated an invisible body striking the ground. It didn't stir.
Akina grinned as the caligni caster stepped out of an alley, blue glow fading from his true hand. Izthuri finished off the duergar on her left with a slash across the throat, and then rose to waggle fingers Akina's way. She nodded back. Right. Last patrol down. Time to get into position. Izthuri directed four of the caligni to split off, and they vanished back into the shadows. Then she, Akina, the caligni caster, and another fighter wove their way toward the nearest gate into the forge ring.
It had taken Izthuri a bit to convince any of her people to fight. Akina had watched as the tribe leader hissed and flicked fingers at the others. Seemed like most of the caligni had become used to hiding and didn't see any need to tip the stew pot, so long as the duergar stayed away from the district the caligni had chosen as home. Izthuri had punctuated her speech with gestures using the buggane tusk as well as numerous elbow jabs Akina's way. The dwarf felt uneasy at being painted as a savior, but she held to her promise to protect them. It just wouldn't hurt to have a little help along the way. Six caligni had joined them in the end, most armed with daggers and short swords. Another hadn't held any weaponry, but proved his usefulness soon enough with a knack for deadly magic.
Izthuri had asked if she wanted to wait a little while and see if Ondorum showed up to add to their number. Akina declined, which drew an odd look from the caligni leader. But they didn't know how much time Brakisten might have left. Besides, she figured it for a simple enough plan: Have a few caligni cause a distraction on one side of the forge ring. Draw away enough of the duergar for her and the others to sneak in from the opposite side, grab Gromir and Brakisten, and scoot back out. Akina also counted on the duergar thinking themselves alone in the ruins, with any disturbances coming from wild beasts roaming the area versus a coordinated attack. Once they had the other dwarves, they'd head back along Ondorum's route, leaving caligni behind to escort him to her if they somehow missed each other.
Izthuri led them into a small building near a gate, where they could see the set of duergar guards over the edge of a crumbled side wall. The light from the forge behind them turned their shadows into black giants looming over the street beyond. From Akina's position, the wall cut off much of the noise, but she could still pick up on the clang of hammers, the whoosh of flames, and duergar voices barking commands.
She hunkered down to wait. It might take the caligni a bit to navigate the ruins without being seen.
Just as she thought that, an unearthly howl rose off in the distance. Akina jerked up and looked to Izthuri, who nodded. Her people.
More howls twined together in a chorus that made her neck hairs prickle. Then came a long gong, like a bell struck by a hammer, followed by bloodcurdling screams. Akina tensed at a boom and rolling clatter of rock. Had they just collapsed a building? How did four caligni create so much ruckus?
Izthuri leaned in and hissed."They in temple in next ring. Stand in center. Hole in top sends noise across all ruins. Loud."
The duergar at the gate had turned around to peer in the direction of the noises, which now echoed over the empty city. Duergar shouted deeper in, and shadows flashed by as troops moved about. These two stayed, though their tense postures indicated they wished to join the effort to hunt down the source of the disruption.
Mad laughter tore into Akina's ears, followed by a hissing gurgle of indecipherable words.
Izthuri tittered."They say very rude things of duergar."
That
did the trick. The guards hefted their axes and lumbered off into the ring. After counting off a few seconds, Akina signaled her companions forward. They sidled up to the gate and she peered around it. The duergar camp had gone into action, with many of the soldiers tromping along. Then a duergar ran into the middle of the opposite gate. He held up the decapitated head of another soldier and babbled in the duergar language. That spurred most of the rest to head over. Even the commander had his beetle mount in motion, heading around so the forge didn't block his sight of the far gate. As he went, the commander shouted up to the duergar working the forge, and they bent back to whatever tasks they'd been assigned.
She scanned for Gromir. The camp didn't have anything in the way of tents, what with no need to protect themselves from weather. However, cots, crates, and paths marked off various areas, including a small mess, piles of stores, and a makeshift meeting spot with chairs and a folding table in the middle. The dwarf sat in the last of these, head in his hands as a pair of guards stood watch.
Akina's breath hitched as she spotted Brakisten lying on the ground beside Gromir. Her brother stretched out on a bedroll, shaggy head propped in the crook of an elbow, as if asleep. After fearing him dead for so long, it felt unreal to see him alive. Now she just had to drag him to safety and ensure he stayed that way.
The chaotic banging, howls, crashes, screams, and laughter continued while the mass of duergar headed in that direction. They didn't all funnel out of the gates, leaving the camp undefended, but most at least wanted to see what was going on. Akina figured her group didn't have a better chance than this.
Caligni at her side, she darted across the gateway and inside the ring. She tried to ignore how the forge reared over them, an ancient structure resurrected by earth and flame. The fires blazing within it tried to draw her eyes, and its massive construction begged her to stand there, wondering at its purpose.
Yet she focused on remaining as hunched as possible as they clung to the inner wall and curved around until they had moved behind the meeting pavilion. With a last check to make sure no one had noticed them and raised the alarm, they swept in. The caligni caster propelled a phantom hand out to stun one duergar, while Izthuri raced up behind the other and jammed her black blade up through the nape of his neck and into his brain. Then the first took a blade between the shoulders to finish him off.