Adventure (Dragons & Magic Book 2)

by Dave Higgins

  Edmond peered into the gloom. Apart from a thin trickle of blood down his shoulder, he couldn’t see anything odd. Nothing to worry about, unless whatever it was, was poisoned. And without a second healing potion, there wasn’t any point worrying about poison either. “Be careful. There’s something sharp here. I caught myself on it.”

  “Ow,” Daffodil said. “What is that?”

  Edmond glanced back. “Glad I’m not the only clumsy one.”

  Daffodil shot him a glare.

  Edmond kept going, staring into the darkness. Then spun around at the sound of rock cracking in two. Daffodil kicked at a widening fracture in the wall.

  “What are you doing?” Edmond asked.

  Grew moved closer to Daffodil and did the light dance, turning the flickering light brighter. “There’s someone back there.”

  Daffodil peered through the hole, then ripped chunks of rock away with her hands. “He’s right. There’s a tunnel back there and someone’s running away. Should we chase them?”

  Edmond imagined all the possible traps waiting for them down that tunnel. “No, let’s keep going this way.”

  The others looked uncertain, but followed his lead. After a while, the tunnel widened. Once there was enough space, Daffodil stepped alongside him. Each swept their gaze across the walls and floor.

  Ahead, light spilled through a hole in the ceiling. A dozen skeletons lay beneath, tattered cloth and rusty equipment strew across the pile. Edmond crept closer, ready to leap back at the first clatter of bone, and glanced up through the hole.

  It didn’t stop at the floor above, or the ones above that. The skeletons might have fallen any number of levels to land where they were.

  Ten paces beyond the pool of light, the tunnel reached a dead end. They’d have to climb up to the level above or return to the tunnel with the stranger in it.

  “Hey, there’s a scroll.” Grew tugged the roll of parchment from a skeleton’s hand.

  Edmond stared at the pile of bones. Why hadn’t the fingers collapsed when—?

  The dead adventurers struggled to their feet, still wearing their weapons and armour, even in death. Hollow black pits where their eyes should be stared at Edmond.

  “Nice move, Grew,” Daffodil said.

  “Sorry.” Grew retreated behind her. “I didn’t know.”

  “First zombies, now skeletons.” Edmond scratched his head. “Is this the level of the undead?”

  “You could seem at least a little scared,” Daffodil said.

  “Why? We dealt with the skeleton pigs. We can deal with these even easier. It’s not like they have tusks.”

  Steel scraped on steel as the skeletons drew their weapons.

  “You had to open your big mouth, didn’t you,” Daffodil said.

  The tunnel with probable traps became a lot more appealing as the skeleton warriors advanced. “Back. Back to the tunnel.”

  Grew scrambled away into the dark. Edmond retreated shoulder-to-shoulder with Daffodil, sacrificing chances to attack so they stayed in range of Grew’s light spell; it was one thing to fight the undead, but Edmond didn’t want to do it in the dark.

  Edmond parried a swipe from the lead skeleton with his shield and Daffodil cut its skull from its shoulders. The skeleton sagged to the ground.

  Bony fingers hooking eye sockets, it settled its skull back in place and straightened. Apart from the shiny scuff on its neck from Daffodil’s blow, it seemed none the worse for wear.

  Edmond grabbed Daffodil’s shoulder and spun them both around and sprinted away. Grew’s flame bounced near the curve in the tunnel, as he alternated between hitting the wall and peering back. At least he hadn’t just run this time.

  As the tunnel narrowed, Daffodil shoved Edmond ahead of her and turned to guard their backs.

  Having done his best to bash the tunnel opening wider, Grew moved aside as Edmond reached him.

  Edmond advanced, his eyes wide, searching for traps or any sign of the man Daffodil and Grew had seen. The edge of Grew’s light washed along perfectly straight, fitted slabs, before revealing a door at the far end. With nowhere else to go, Edmond pulled the chain beside the door and stepped through onto a balcony overlooking a wide, dirt-floored room.

  Below, a campfire burnt in the centre. Four people danced around the flames while a fifth man with a shaved head, naked from the waist up, sat cross-legged in front of a nearby tent. The man at the tent seemed to be playing with dolls.

  They all looked insane, but at least they were human. And if they were evil, it’d be easier to fight humans than practically invulnerable skeleton warriors. He waved Grew through the door. Daffodil followed a moment later, chased by the skeletons.

  The moment she passed under the lintel, Edmond yanked the handle, dropping the door in the skeletons’ path.

  Grew peered at the bottom of the door. “Can’t they open it again?”

  Edmond didn’t answer, his eyes on the door. When it didn’t move for several long breaths, he turned his attention back to the room they were in. “Perhaps next time we shouldn’t take things from corpses.”

  “I didn’t know that would happen.” Grew opened the scroll. “At least we got something good. It’s a fire shield spell, so it can protect us from things.”

  Edmond had to admit that sounded useful. “Let’s find out where we are now.”

  Stairs swept down from either side of the balcony. Picking the set on the left, Edmond led the way down to where the four dancers circled the campfire.

  Grew pointed at the thinnest dancer. “Hey, I recognise that one; that’s the rogue I followed into the dungeon.”

  The cloaked man danced around the fire, as if unaware Edmond and the others were there. However, when Edmond stared, he saw the man’s wide eyes flicking from side-to-side.

  “Come over here,” the man at the tent said. Parallel scars ran along his scalp, as if someone had once gouged channels in his skin there. His ears had stretched lobes, cut in half. But his eyes were his most frightening feature: blue-white and cloudy, with heavy lids that made him look half-asleep.

  Edmond rounded the fire, sword in hand, and stared down at the man. “What’s going on? Why are those people dancing?”

  “It gets boring down here,” the man said. “Welcome to my camp. I am Dr Mumbo.”

  “Nice to meet you. I’m Edmond. This is Daffodil and Grew.”

  Dr Mumbo put the dolls to one side and picked up three more. “I’m so glad you joined us. I lose so many guests to those skeletons. Now, if you’ll just put your sword away.”

  The four people stopped dancing and sank to the ground, panting, as Edmond sheathed his sword and slung his shield across his back. He stared down at his own hands. He hadn’t meant to do that. Beside him, Daffodil sheathed her own blade. “How are you doing that? Controlling us?”

  Dr Mumbo tapped his lips. “That’s a secret. Now, dance for me.”

  Edmond turned to Daffodil and bowed. As he raised his arms, she stepped gracefully into his embrace. Moving in perfect unison, they twirled across the floor. How could they dance that well?

  After two more circuits, Edmond bowed low to Daffodil as she curtsied back.

  Throughout, Grew peered back-and-forth between them, his brow furrowed.

  “Superb.” Dr Mumbo rested the two dolls on his knees and clapped. “Now, I have an arrangement for you all.”

  “What kind of arrangement?” Edmond asked.

  “A minor task that should be no trouble to adventurers such as yourselves. I need you to fetch me the Milk of the Green Heart.”

  “What’s a Green Heart?” Edmond asked.

  “You’ll find it on the level below,” Dr Mumbo said. “Trust me, you’ll know it when you see it. Fill a flask with the milk and return to me. In exchange, I’ll release my control over you. Fail, and you’ll join my dancing troop.”

  Edmond looked over at the rogue. Wide brown eyes flickered back at him from a motionless face. “We won’t fail.”

  �
�Good. That’s what I like to hear. And don’t try running. I don’t have to see you to control you. Imagine tripping as you face a monster below, unable to get up as it eats you.”

  Edmond tried not to imagine that. “How do we get to the next level?”

  Dr Mumbo waved at a door in the wall behind his tent. “Through there, then keep turning right. There’s nothing else between you and the stairs down.”

  Edmond nodded to Dr Mumbo before leading the others to the door. Once through it, he shut it behind them.

  “What do we do now?” Grew asked. “If we bring this milk back, there’s no guarantee he’ll relinquish control.”

  “Grew’s right,” Edmond said. “But we can’t run either. Even if he can’t make us trigger every trap there is, the slightest hesitation against the dragon will end with us dead. We need to bring him the milk. If he double-crosses us, we’ll find some way to get control back.”

  Daffodil yanked her sword out and waved it around. “He’ll have trouble controlling us with my sword through his back.”

  Edmond glanced at Daffodil. “Heck, my dancing wasn’t that bad.”

  Daffodil’s eyes softened. She lowered the sword, but her shoulders remained rigid. It rankled Edmond too, but he wouldn’t let it show. Not when they were getting closer to the dragon. “How many levels do dungeons normally have, Grew? Unless I’ve counted wrong, we’re on the sixth.”

  “Ten,” Grew said. “Every book I’ve ever read says they have round numbers. So ten, twenty, thirty.”

  “Thirty…” If the sixth was this difficult, Edmond couldn’t imagine what the twenty-sixth level would be like.

  “There’ll be ten,” Grew said, desperation apparent in his voice. “There can’t be twenty.”

  “Let’s hope so,” Edmond checked his hourglass. “That only gives us four to go. And we have almost three days left. We’ve plenty of time for this detour.”

  “Fine,” Daffodil glared down the corridor. “Then let’s get it over with.”

  Edmond led the way, turning right at every junction. After quarter of an hour, the smell of fresh greenery filled the corridor. Past the next bend, a flight of rough, wooden steps led downward. A few of the steps still had leaves growing from them.

  The scent of sap filled Edmond’s lungs with each step. What could the Green Heart be? It seemed to be something vegetable related; but it couldn’t be easy to find if the heroes above had succumbed to Dr Mumbo instead.

  Chapter 13

  The Green Heart

  Sweat trickled down Edmond’s neck as the air thickened. The scent of sap and cut grass grew stronger as the steps levelled out into a dirt-floored corridor. Instead of the generic brown of previous levels, this was a rich, red tilth; even with the little Edmond knew about farming, he felt sure it would be fertile.

  A few paces ahead, vines blocked the passage. Behind them, Edmond could make out an archway. With no other option, he drew his sword and cut the vines away, allowing him into the room beyond.

  The smell of sap was strong enough that Edmond half-expected the air to be green. Knee-high plants covered the floor of the room from wall to wall. However—unlike other plants—tendrils and vines reached between them; as if it were one giant plant, instead of many smaller ones. Edmond pushed his way in, feeling stems rub against his legs with every step.

  “I don’t like this,” Grew said. “What are these things?”

  “They’re plants,” Daffodil said. “Plants can’t hurt you.”

  “I know what plants are,” Grew said.

  Edmond sighed and turned around, about to tell them to stop arguing. Before he could, the nearest vines wrapped around his legs. He grunted in pain as they pulled tighter. “Help!”

  Daffodil, only three paces behind, tried to reach him, but the vines had her too.

  Tendrils slid higher up each of them, stretching for their arms.

  Yanking his sword out a breath before the vines reached it, Edmond slashed around him. Oily sap coated his clothes and face, the scent of greenery making it hard to breathe. With the thinner tendrils scythed away, Edmond saw a vine as thick as his arm wrapped around both his legs like a snake. Hilt gripped in two hands, he chopped down.

  But the blade bounced off. “Help!”

  Grew peered through the doorway, brow furrowed. The vine was so low that he couldn’t see it from where he was.

  A fine layer of dirt sprayed up around Edmond’s feet as the vine began to sink into the dirt, dragging him with it. “The plants are attacking us. They’re wrapped around us.”

  Grew took out a scroll. A huge grin replacing his frown, and he began a happy dance. It was great he was helping, but Edmond didn’t see why he needed to be so pleased about it.

  Edmond’s skin caught fire. He thrashed the upper half of his body around as best he could, trying to pat the flames out. Smoke boiled up around him as the vine caught fire too.

  A moment later, he realised his clothes hadn’t caught light, and the flames didn’t hurt. Instead, they only burnt the vine clinging to him.

  Scorched vegetation falling around him, he pulled his boots free of the earth and hurried over to help Daffodil. But, as he sprinted forward, arms spread, she waved her palms at him.

  With a blush he was glad was hidden by the fire, he realised his touch would’ve burnt her as well.

  As Grew finished a second dance, Daffodil caught light too, burning the vine away from her.

  A wave of shifting vegetation swept away from them as the thick vines slithered from view.

  “It only lasts a minute,” Grew said. “Get out of there.”

  Instead, Edmond raced through the room toward the exit, touching every plant he could. The stems took a moment to light; but as soon as they did, the sap ignited with a whoosh. The blaze scorched a path across the room. The last few flames guttering around him, he dived into the bare earth beside the doorway.

  Daffodil jogged after him, dragging Grew with her.

  “I don’t have enough mana for both of you next time,” Grew said. “We can’t risk going any further until I recharge.”

  “It’ll be fine. We scared that thing off, whatever it was.” Arms aching, Edmond chopped through the greenery covering the exit and led the way along another corridor. It grew wider as he walked, the walls receding away until they disappeared into the darkness.

  Daffodil hurried to Edmond’s side, her sword ready. The pool of light from Grew’s spell revealed only bare earth in every direction. In the distance, Edmond saw something glowing green.

  As he watched, it flickered, pulsing larger and smaller; like a heart. “The Green Heart.”

  The ground erupted in front of them, a giant vine towering over them. Thick thorns jutted along its length and the tip of it whipped through the air like a snake.

  More vines broke through the surface to the left and right, then whipped downward at Edmond, Daffodil, and Grew.

  Edmond raised his shield, but the force of the vine’s impact drove him to his knees.

  As he struggled to his feet, a second vine whipped at his ankles and he fell on his back. Above him, a vine raised and then hammered down.

  Edmond’s shield stopped the thorns, but drove the air from his lungs. Gasping, he felt something drag him up.

  Daffodil let him go and fixed him with a determined gaze before turning and parrying another vine attacking from her side.

  “Fall back!” Edmond looked around for Grew. He didn’t have to look far. Grew danced as fast as he could manage, sheets of fire running across the floor away from him.

  Another vine slashed at Edmond. He parried with his shield, only for the wood to split beneath the blow. Planks tumbling to the ground, he was left with only a handle.

  Dropping that, he gripped his sword in both hands and cut at the nearest vine, then ran back to Grew, waving for the boy to retreat with him. Grew fell in behind Edmond as they raced back the way they’d come.

  Lungs clawing for air, Edmond realised Daffodil wasn’t
with them. When he peered back into the darkness, he saw her dangling from a vine by her sword hand. Another vine raked across her chest, ripping her armour free. “The shield spell!”

  He sprinted as fast as he could, watching a vine take aim at Daffodil. Then his skin erupted in fire. Trailing sparks, he screamed at the vines, hoping to distract them.

  With whip-like precision, the vine struck Daffodil, the tip of it stabbing into her chest. Uncurling, it tossed her to the ground.

  Lightning flashed as she struck the dirt, blinding Edmond. When his vision cleared, Daffodil was gone. In her place was a small pile of bones.

  Edmond roared at the vines and waved his sword randomly. They curled in, then backed off from the fire.

  He didn’t have long until the flames vanished. Resisting the urge to punish the vegetation, he gathered up Daffodil’s bones and ran back to Grew. Whatever had happened, the boy would know how to fix it.

  Edmond didn’t slow until the walls had appeared out of the darkness again. Once he was sure the vines weren’t following, he stumbled to a halt. Vision blurring, he collapsed against a wall and stared at the bones cradled in his arms. “Grew, what is this? What happened? Is Daffodil really dead?”

  “Yes. She’s dead.”

  Edmond bit down on a sob. This wasn’t Daffodil. Daffodil had sparkling eyes, and a bit of hair that never stayed behind her ear. “Then where’s her body?”

  “We’re on a quest. As long as we stay on that quest, she’ll be a pile of bones. Once the quest ends, she’ll become a corpse, just as she would have on the surface. For all the difference it makes.”

  “The resurrection chamber! That’s why she’s bones instead of a corpse. She’s not really dead.”

  “She is dead.” Grew patted Edmond on the elbow. “There’s just the possibility of resurrecting her. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have twenty-five thousand gold.”