by Josh Vogt
"At least it still goes up," she said, looking to the tunnels winding off from this one.
As they continued, she spotted a handful of shell pieces strewn about, from chitinous plates as large as her head to a club-like length of what might've been an oversized antenna or leg. She paused to pick up the latter, thinking she might use it as a weapon, but it crumbled in her grip.
They entered an area where several tunnels converged. The walls of these had been worn away, creating passages that wove back and forth between them until the whole place looked like one big maze. Larger columns of the muck-daubing looked to be all that supported the ceiling in some spots.
In the middle of one wide stretch, Ondorum halted their run.
Akina stumbled to followed suit and stared back at him."Why'd you stop?"
"Movement ahead."
With a click of claws, three giant insects strove into sight. Twice as large as the strange rust-eating creature that had invaded the duergar camp, they spread out as they came on, mandibles flaring. Six barbed, hook-clawed legs propelled each one forward. Broad chitinous heads sloped down into segmented bodies, every inch covered with the same brown shell she'd seen discarded before—though she doubted theirs would crumble at a touch. Their mandibles were shaped like axe blades with curving spikes at the tips, and beady eyes fixed on the intruders. Mucus oozed from their wriggling mouths, dripping to sizzle on the rock.
Considering a tactical retreat, Akina looked behind to see Ularna and four duergar soldiers run up the way they'd just come, blocking off any escape. She put her back to Ondorum's and waited to see which set of foes reached them first.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Tunnel Pests
Ondorum rooted himself as their enemies closed the distance. Beside him, Akina tore her helm off and clutched the ruined straps in one fist. She bared teeth at both oncoming parties and loosed a rock-quaking shout.
The duergar would reach them a few strides ahead of the insects. Ondorum shifted his balance, ready to face Ularna and resume their previous battle.
To his surprise, the duergar monk darted toward Akina while the four soldiers raced at him. They hacked axes and thrust daggers as he spun away from the rush of attacks. He used his palms to push and slap their blades aside. Nearby, Akina used her helm as a makeshift flail to ward off Ularna. The monk shifted from side to side, looking for an opening.
Ondorum snapped a kick into one duergar's chin, thrusting him back. An axe swished past his nose, and he took an armored elbow to the side while shifting past an attempt to cleave his guts. He stopped a descending blow by ducking under the duergar's arm. Spinning in place, he grabbed the wrist and shot up, wrenching the arm down across one shoulder. The duergar bawled as his elbow crunched and he went flipping over Ondorum's shoulder.
Then Ondorum found himself face-to-face with one of the charging insects. He flung himself to the side, wheeling over a planted arm. The insect barreled through the space he'd just occupied and into the duergar who'd come up to stab him from behind.
He righted as a second insect rushed at him. Planting his feet, he reached up and grabbed the two main mandibles gnashing for his face. The insect surged forward, skidding him back on the looser rock. It bucked and jerked to try and dislodge his grip. As it reared, he yanked on the mandibles and used the leverage to launch himself over its head. He landed on its ridged back, near the narrowed segment where its front half connected with the rear.
The insect scrabbled forward, legs pumping as it tried to dislodge the unwanted rider. Ondorum balanced and then leaped off to plow both feet into the back of a duergar bearing twin battleaxes. The soldier collapsed in a rattle of mail and hardened leather, one axe spinning away. Unaware it had already lost its victim, the insect spun and slammed its back end into one of the daubing columns. The column cracked, and the whole area shook, scree drizzling from the ceiling.
After running over to grab the fallen axe, Ondorum took in the situation with a glance. Two duergar hacked at one of the insects, harrying it from either side as they tried to lop off its legs. The other two duergar soldiers—including the one he'd just downed—had vanished.
Near the far side of the open area, Akina fought desperately to meet Ularna's attack. She tried to grab the duergar monk's flapping sleeve to keep her from constantly pulling out of range of the helmet horns. But the monk chopped a hand into the dwarf's wrist, knocking it away. Akina barked and jerked back, shaking her hand as if it'd gone numb.
One of the insects rushed the two women and slashed at them with jagged mandibles, but it seemed confused as to which one it wanted to kill most, and its divided attacks reduced their effectiveness. This distraction also kept the monk from getting the advantage over Akina, as Ularna kept having to dodge claw swipes as well as the helm that whipped at her head from all angles.
Fury flared in Akina's eyes, and Ondorum sensed her getting close to when she would fling the helmet aside and launch herself at either opponent to try and break them with her own body. It might work against ordinary adversaries, but the monk would turn such a reckless attack to her advantage.
He sprinted over, axe poised. Ularna sensed his approach at the last second and tumbled away, leaving him to lash out at the insect as it turned on him. His blow took off one of its antennae, and the creature's shrill, rattling cry jammed rusting nails into his ears. Gurgling noises came from deeper within its carapace, and its mandibles flared.
Ondorum threw himself at Akina, knocking her aside as the insect sprayed a stream of steaming liquid across the area. Some splashed over an unseen figure, revealing portions of a face and torso. The duergar reappeared as he screamed and lashed out blindly with his remaining battleaxe, then dropped the weapon to claw at the acidic spray eating into his skin.
Froth flecked Akina's lips and she shoved Ondorum off her. She heaved to her feet, only pausing to snatch the axe away from him and slap her helm on. Gripping the weapon in both hands, she loosed another shout and charged the two duergar already occupied with an insect. The soldiers had managed to carve off one multi-jointed limb while suffering only a few cuts in return. The nearer one turned just as Akina bulled into him, using the axe as a battering ram. He went flying backward, and the wounded insect whirled to bear down on the remaining soldier, while a second insect skittered in to try and overwhelm him. That duergar swelled in size, almost doubling in height and girth as he tried to bludgeon both creatures into submission.
To one side, Akina went to work on the fallen duergar, chopping away as if he were a log for the fire.
The fourth, the one whose arm Ondorum had damaged earlier, remained hidden. But Ondorum had no time to search as Ularna hastened his way. They didn't bother with bows this time. Their meeting had occurred already, and each clash now only continued the encounter, forming an unbroken vein of ore to be mined and added to either's wealth of skill and knowledge.
"Ondorum," he said as they traded initial blows."You are Ularna."
He blocked a battering flurry of kicks at his shins and thighs. She swiped an ankle, trying to trip, but he planted his feet and her strike bounced away.
"Why protect the dwarf?" Her hushed voice barely reached him over the clamor of the ongoing fight, each word smooth and polished, like pebbles from a riverbed.
"Why serve such a bloodthirsty master?" Ondorum let a punch pass his side and tried to trap her arm. Instead of pulling away, she lunged forward, driving a shoulder into his chest. He spun with the hit, letting her drive by. She recovered and they circled for a few moments.
"The stones led me to him. Said I would learn much beside him. To learn is to live, true?"
"True, but what good is it to only learn of death and destruction?"
Her gaze flicked to Akina and back."Have you learned otherwise from such a flawed stone?"
"She is not stone, but living flesh," he said."As we all are. She grows. I grow. She learns. I learn. We live."
"Flesh is weak." She illustrated her point by turning h
er attacks into all hard angles, using elbow and knee strikes to push him back.
Ondorum made himself a wall and rebuffed further hits."Flesh can be strengthened."
He tried to repay by jabbing into a pressure point to lock her arm. Her skin hardened under the attack, however, and she smirked as a vicious punch struck his inner thigh. Ondorum used the offered momentum to spin and launch a kick at her head. As she ducked, he redirected the kick in midair and brought it down toward the top of her skull. She tried to pull back, but his heel snapped down her face and chest.
She stumbled. Recovering her balance, she wiped a sleeve across the blood trickling from her nose and eyed the stain it left. A strange look passed over her face.
"The stones are already pure," she said."Pure in form. Pure in strength. Pure in silence."
"Silence is a poison," he replied."Emptiness that leeches substance from the mind and body and soul."
Her expression turned pitying."Then you haven't listened to it long enough."
Before they could continue either their physical or verbal debate, one of the insects slammed into the earth between them. The enlarged duergar stomped after and embedded his axe in the creature's head. Ichor spewed from the wound, and the insect's screeches died away as it curled in on itself. The duergar yanked his blade free and turned to face Ondorum, axe dripping with gore. Behind him, a second insect had engaged Ularna, who landed punches and kicks with shell-cracking force.
Akina had grabbed her duergar up by his beard and mashed his head repeatedly against a daubing column. More pebbles and larger rocks clattered from the ceiling with each hit, until the column and the duergar's head cracked at the same time. She flung him away and searched for a new victim, eyes glazed with fury. The insect missing one antennae obliged by scuttling her way, mandibles clacking.
Ondorum spun aside as the overgrown duergar charged. The duergar tromped past and rammed into a thin wall of stone and daubing. This shattered beneath the hit, and the ceiling sagged. When the duergar turned and raised his axe, it struck the roof and broke through. Rock and dirt cascaded over his head. As the duergar tried to stumble clear of the miniature avalanche, Ondorum ran in and drove palm-heel strikes into his exposed side. Ribs cracked beneath the duergar's mail tunic, but he kept on swinging. Ondorum retreated before the savage blows. Half whiffed through air, while the others chopped into more daubed columns.
Another section of the roof caved in, billowing dust everywhere. Ondorum's opponent bellowed as he tried to close the distance. Ondorum led him in a wide sweep, circling toward Akina. As he maneuvered, Ondorum spotted a set of footsteps appearing in the fresh debris. The tracks aimed for Akina's back as she battled her giant insect, but didn't coincide with any visible form. Ondorum waited until the person took one more step, and then exclaimed,"Akina! Behind! Head level!"
She whirled without question, axe lashing out. Blood sprayed and a cry sounded. She followed through, spinning aside as the insect lunged into the gap, antennae quivering. It landed on an invisible form, trampling it. Acidic spray coated the duergar a moment later, sending more screams across the chamber.
Akina joined him in facing the giant duergar. She hacked at his legs from behind while Ondorum kept his attention, dodging blows that would cut him in half if one landed. At last, when she planted an axe edge into his lower back, the soldier stumbled and went down. A kick crushed his throat, and his form shrank back to normal size in death.
An enormous crack resounded. Ondorum looked up to see Ularna wrench her insect's upper half away from its lower. The upper body continued to writhe and gnash as vital fluids drained, staining the ground about it. The oread met Ularna's eyes as she straightened from the kill. Akina spotted the other woman at the same time and barked her name. The duergar's lips twisted in a half-smile, half-grimace, and she vanished.
Akina charged where she'd stood, swinging wildly. Ondorum held a defensive form, but was at a loss when no more attacks came. He wondered at the monk's retreat, not thinking her one for cowardice.
Then the whole area shuddered under another small cave-in.
He timed Akina's cuts and caught the axe haft on a backswing, forcing her stop."We must go. Unless you wish to be buried."
She tried to pull away, but he held firm. A few moments later, her eyes cleared somewhat and she rumbled."Almost had her."
"Next time, no doubt."
He urged her to ignore the final insect, which continued to savage the fallen duergar's body. As they hurried by, heading for the upward slopes, a mound of rock collapsed and buried the creature. As they dodged further falls, rushing for the other end of the tunnels, it reminded Ondorum of the battle in the Long Walk, and the subsequent sprint for survival before the plummeting stalactites crushed them. A couple sheets of stone cracked against Akina's helm, but she didn't falter. He kept a forearm raised over his head to deflect the worst of it. Rock thundered down as the whole area collapsed on their heels. Dust blasted past them, shoving them forward and into a firmer set of tunnels.
They stopped on the edge of the destruction, looking back at the area sealed off by rubble. To have been caught in there would've meant a slow crushing death or agonized suffocation for either of them. Knowing this, they advanced, aiming to get clear of the area in case other sections proved unstable. The insect-daubed tunnels ended after a little while longer, and they began cutting through more level tunnels, to their relief.
From then on, they barely paused for rest; when they did, it was mostly to gather edible fungus or slake their parched throats from small pools of water. During one such short break, Akina worked knots out of her neck and groaned.
"How much further, you figure?"
Ondorum gazed up the tunnel."Perhaps two or three more days? My sense of time underground remains unreliable."
She sighed."You're supposed to tell me we're almost there."
He shot a sharp look her way."I'm not comfortable with stating such a falsehood."
"We'll work on that. Comforting lies can be a big help."
They resumed the seemingly endless trek upward. Ondorum kept a wary eye on every large stalagmite they passed, but none so much as winked a red eye his way. Another stretch of tunnels looked honeycombed with side passages, but whatever creature formed them didn't make an appearance as they skulked through the area.
At last, after several long marches punctuated by short periods of sleep, Akina pointed out chisel marks along the sides of a tunnel—dwarven-worked. Soon after, runes spotted various thresholds, and she used these to guide them along until they came out into a broader tunnel with a smooth floor and arched ceiling. Their pace quickened in anticipation as they worked up through a series of right-angled, narrow halls meant to file possible invaders into more easily defended routes. This let out into another wide path. Up ahead, a gate blocked the way, lit by torches and guarded by four dwarves in plate armor. They must've heard echoes of the pair's approach, for they had weapons unsheathed. Akina waved her axe and hollered hoarsely.
"Hail, Taggoret!"
A crossbow quarrel pinged off the nearby wall, and a dwarven voice barked.
"Don't be moving!"
Akina lowered her axe and cupped a hand to shout."Stone endures! We're friends."
"Step into the torchlight. Slow and steady now. We've already got blades at your back."
Ondorum glanced behind and noted several armed, grim-faced dwarves blocking the last turn they'd taken. There must've been hidden posts on the way in, and they'd been too exhausted to notice.
They eased ahead, letting the guards inspect them. Even when the dwarves waved them closer, they continued to eye Akina and Ondorum with suspicion, especially the weapon Akina carried.
"Where are you coming from?" asked one.
Akina thrust her chin out."Deeper than you'd guess. If you want to keep Taggoret from being overrun, you'll tell the king a duergar army is on its way."
Chapter Thirty
Taggoret
Akina paced in
the chambers they'd been given, muttering to herself. The axe had been taken from her on admittance to Taggoret, with a promise to return it if the king and his advisors decided she was to be trusted. Most of these worthies gathered in a council room, where she and Ondorum had related all they could of their experience in Nar-Voth. They'd warned of Vaskegar's small yet powerful army and his intent to march on the area. She'd recounted the forces he had available—at least a couple hundred duergar if he didn't gather more along the way, plus his gifted scanderigs and Forge Spurned. Not to mention the casters in his service.
The leaders had then presented Akina and Ondorum with maps and asked them to detail their journey, looking for flaws in their story or other reasons to doubt an immediate threat. As she tracked from Taggoret, down to the Long Walk, and back up to the main tunnels, their questioning grew into concern. The gate they'd come to wasn't a major entrance to the city. The largest tunnel offered itself to the south, and she guessed this would be where Vaskegar made his primary advance, considering he'd want to bring his hulking constructs to bear. When the councilors began pointing out different defenses to activate and pulling up lists of reserve troops, Akina felt the slightest relief, knowing she'd been believed. The council thanked them for bringing the warning at such a high risk to themselves and assured they'd be involved once preparations were fully underway. Then they were dismissed as the dwarves set about the task of protecting their city.
They'd been attended to by a cleric who gave them Torag's blessings in healing, restoring their spirits and strength. After a gloriously hot bath, Ondorum received a robe which fit him surprisingly well, while she begrudgingly handed over her armor in exchange for a simple cloth tunic and pants. The attendant who took her gear to be repaired swore he'd have it back before any conflict broke out. He suggested they rest while the council conferred. However, once deposited in a room, Akina found herself more restless than ever.