Cor found every tavern in the area to be basically alike, and he searched three more before he finally found the man he sought. It seemed Kamar drank constantly, and his method of choosing today’s drinking establishment was relative to which ones he owed money. The bartender of this particular tavern pointed Cor to a man who was short in stature, but solidly built despite the constant influx of alcohol. His hair was light brown, almost to the point of blond, and his skin was tanned brown by the sun and elements. He sat on the far side of the room, his head laying flat on the tabletop, drool seeping from his open mouth.
Cor could only rouse the man with the help of the bartender and a cold bucket of water. This woke Kamar in quite a fury, hurling curses, insults and threats at Cor with every breath, ignoring the fact that he couldn’t even stand on his own. Cor easily calmed Kamar’s ire with promises of more drink, but it was only after his second round that he would allow Cor to tell him why Cor sought him.
“Aye, ye’re a fool,” Kamar told him between gulps. “Why in Garod’s name would ye want to go to the Spine?”
“I understand you used to go there often,” Cor answered.
“Aye, used to. Not now. People die up there, between monsters, animals, Loszians and just dangerous mountains,” Kamar said, again burying himself in his mug.
“I’m not asking you to go,” Cor explained. “I just need a mountaineer to guide me into the mountains. I know nothing of climbing.”
“Ye’re looking for some great treasure no doubt,” Kamar stared at him, somewhat bleary eyed. Cor’s hood covered his face well in the gloom of the tavern. “Where exactly in the Spine ye needs to go?”
“I’m not sure, but I’ll know when I get there,” Cor answered, a spittle ridden laugh erupting from Kamar. “Just tell me who I should talk to. I’ll pay well.”
“Ye’re needing a madman like yerself, methinks. Tell me what it is ye seek. I say nothing else until ye do,” Kamar said, and Cor recognized the ultimatum. He stared back at the man and took a long breath.
“I’m looking for a building,” Cor explained, “Perhaps two hundred miles to the northeast from Worh, somewhere in the mountains, is a strange place made of steel and glass. It is ancient, surely dating back before any of the history we know. The inside has marble floors, statues and items of all sorts that predate history.”
“So it is treasure ye seek,” Kamar said, deep in his cup.
“Not exactly, not treasure of gold and jewels at least,” answered Cor.
“There is only one man who can take you where you want to go. He’s actually been to the place you seek,” Kamar said. He seemed instantly sober, and his odd accent and inflections were gone.
“What’s his name and where do I find him?” Cor asked.
“He’s me.”
* * *
Kamar agreed to take Cor into the mountains, swearing that he’d seen the building Cor sought, and in fact, it was the finding of that building that made Kamar give up the World’s Spine altogether. Two years ago, a lifelong friend of his had found ancient writings in a tomb in the mountains; the writings were in an odd dialect of Western and spoke of a great building filled with the treasure of many kingdoms. Oddly, the location of this hall had to be in the mountains, though the writings spoke of sweeping plains and other strange ruins.
Kamar, his friend and four others set out looking for the treasure, expecting to be rich for as long as they lived, but instead they found death. The climb was more treacherous than they expected, and one of them died in an accident on the mountain before even finding the building. They were running low on provisions and decided to turn back when a third simply lost his footing and fell down a steep incline. When they reached the bottom he was dead, but there, only a few hundred feet away sat the most bizarre edifice they had ever seen, disguised from above by an ancient rockslide, and nestled in a tiny valley. They rushed into the building, through an open side of shattered and dangerous glass, anxious to lay eyes on the treasure for which they had already sacrificed much.
They stood in a large room, millennia of dust caking the floor. Natural light filtered in from the outside, and they could see two large doorways leading further into the building at the rear of the room. There were four perfectly round marble columns arranged as the corners of a square near the center of the room, and there were a number of other portals shaped like doors that seemed utterly sealed and impassable. It was then that Kamar’s friend met his end; a black spider, with legs and body as shiny as polished steel and twice as wide as a man is tall, dropped out of shadow from the ceiling and picked the man up. He screamed, pleading and begging for help as the spider rolled him in silk while climbing its own line back to the ceiling. Kamar’s final companion, all sanity lost, ran screaming deeper into the building, and Kamar with no intention of dying, left as quickly as his feet could muster.
The tragedy of it all became even more pronounced over the next few days. Kamar, most of his climbing equipment lost or otherwise used, spent days trying to find a way out of the mountains. He knew this part of the Spine well, all things considered, and he had never come across this building or any pass leading to it. However, the hall had been completely disguised from above, and it stood to his reason that there may be trails or passes to this place that are otherwise disguised. He investigated every nook and cranny leading from the tiny valley, mapping each route on a flat boulder, writing with indigenous chalk. On the second day he found a path, a mere crack that squeezed between two cliff faces, that eventually emptied onto a well known track through the mountains. The crack was hidden from plain view by a massive boulder.
All of this Kamar related to Cor in complete detail after Cor had agreed to the price. Kamar would take him there, so that he may find whatever it was he thought was so important, and then Kamar would lead him out. In addition to provisioning the trip, which they would undertake on foot, Cor agreed to pay Kamar a handsome sum of fifty gold pieces as well as pay all of Kamar’s drinking debts.
Kamar estimated that the journey would take four days on foot at a brisk pace to reach the mountains, followed by an additional one or two days in the mountains. Cor paid up his room and the horse’s board for an additional two weeks, and he also paid for a separate room for Kamar for one night, allowing the man ample time to sleep off his hangover before leaving the next morning.
22.
They ate a hot breakfast shortly after sunrise and then entered the markets to provision the trip. They would carry everything they needed on foot, since once in the mountains, a horse or mule would be unable to follow them. Kamar explained to Cor that it would be hard enough at times for them to squeeze through the route they would take. Kamar also expressed his concern that should an errant rockslide have blocked the passage, they would have to climb over and down as he had done with his earlier expedition. Cor hoped this wouldn’t turn out to be the case, having about as much interest in the concept of climbing as he did sailing.
The trek to the mountains was absolutely miserable, but uneventful. The summer was fully in effect, reaching sweltering temperatures in the afternoon and never really cooling down even in the middle of night. They started at sunrise, resting for several hours during the hottest part of the day, and walked until the sun was fully down before stopping. They encountered several short, summer rains that did little to cool them off in the oppressive heat; in fact, the rain simply amplified the discomfort, bringing an extreme humidity that made it hard to breathe.
Kamar tried to convince Cor to leave his armor in Worh; Cor would not, explaining that he refused to be without protection. The armor became burning hot to the touch in the summer sun, and Cor’s tunic and other undergarments became completely soaked with sweat throughout the day. By day’s end, his clothing would begin to chaff against his skin in most uncomfortable ways, and at night, he would remove his armor and clothing and sleep naked, allowing his skin the opportunity to breathe and his clothing to dry.
The mountains can be easily seen
on a clear day from the city of Worh, and Cor got the distinct impression that no matter how far they plodded, he and his companion never seemed to get any closer. By the fourth day, he could finally see that the mountains loomed larger now than ever, and ground became hilly, but with an overall constant incline upwards. On the fifth day, the going became noticeably rougher as the ground became rockier, and the hills gave way to boulders, rocky outcroppings and mountains themselves.
Kamar explained that there were many paths and passes in the Spine, and very few of them would lead one all the way into the Loszian Empire, though, he wasn’t sure why someone would want to go there anyway. At this Cor said nothing, very aware of an unseen force that pulled him that direction. It was also quite plain to Cor that they were nearing the hall and the fetish in his visions; his blood tingled, and he felt increasingly restless. They walked north up a small ravine on the mountains outskirts, before Kamar, clearly finding the path he sought, turned them east into the mountains.
The going became slow now; the mountains of the Spine contained huge amounts of basalt and granite, and loose rock could be seen everywhere. The two tread carefully, keeping their eyes on the ground to avoid missteps that could lead to twisted or even broken ankles. Kamar, familiar with the mountains and their environment, also kept a watchful eye about and above, and he was extremely concerned with potential rockslides or the occasional denizens of the Spine, such as huge brown bears.
Sunset in the mountains was unlike anything Cor had ever experienced. In the pass, they could not see the horizon, and the sunlight seemed to pass over them with an odd orange and red glow, while the pass itself seemed shrouded in blue shadow. Kamar announced they would stop for the night, and he pointed, saying that the final leg of their journey started right behind a large boulder. Cor protested, saying they may as well finish if they are indeed that close. Kamar explained that they still had about two miles left to travel, and that was through a tight squeeze that would likely take them several hours. Cor acquiesced, but he simply could not force himself to be still.
Cor did not sleep at all that night; he could feel the fetish was close by, and this gave him a nervous energy, almost anxiety that he could not manage to calm. Additionally, night in the mountains was an extremely nerve wracking experience. When one camps in the plains, he can see in all directions for miles, but in this mountain pass, Cor could see little beyond twenty feet. The moon rarely shined directly into their campsite due to the immense size and shape of the mountain formations, and every sound echoed between the rock walls to sound as if it were right behind him. He quickly came to the conclusion that he would never pass through the Spine again.
Cor woke Kamar early, much to the man’s disgruntled chagrin. Cor was eager to finish this expedition, and he recognized a longing to wrap his fingers around the fetish’s ebony handle. He didn’t bother to breakfast, though Kamar made it clear that he was not continuing on an empty stomach. Cor paced like a caged tiger the entire time glaring at the man, who it seemed took a bit longer than usual to finish his meal.
Behind the massive boulder was a triangular crack in the rock face less than five feet tall. It was wide at the base and tapered at the top, and the claustrophobia of it reminded Cor of the round tunnel through which he had escaped the catacombs of Sanctum. Kamar said it would be best to leave all of the gear and provisions here, and with any luck they would be back shortly after midday. Cor could not deny the wisdom of this, though he refused to leave his armor or Soulmourn behind, especially following the story of an easily twelve foot wide spider.
Kamar led the way into the rocky crevice that apparently wormed its way between two mountain cliffs. The crack actually consisted of two rock faces that came flush together just below head level. It was less than three feet wide at the base, which forced the men to enter it sideways and shuffle with their backs to one rock face, while hunching over or bending their legs to avoid banging their heads on the top. Once inside, Cor realized the tunnel he had made his way through underneath Sanctum really could not compare to this crevice. Rock jutted out at odd angles, sometimes forcing the men to contort in strange ways to pass by. After a short distance, Cor stopped and took off his sword belt, as the sword had a tendency to get stuck at awkward angles. He wrapped the belt around the scabbard and carried Soulmourn in his left hand to keep it out of the way. Roughly halfway in, Kamar had found a pile of loose rock that had apparently come down in his absence; it blocked most of the way through, and the men had to crawl over it while on their sides. Kamar clearly would have been happy to turn back, but Cor forced him to press on.
It took the pair nearly two hours to push through the crack, and when they emerged the other side, no amount stretching seemed able to relieve the fiery aches in their muscles. While attempting to work the kinks out of his sore neck and back, Cor saw they had emerged into a small valley or gorge. Mountains and cliff faces rose on all sides for several hundred feet, preventing the sun from shining into the gorge except for the hours around midday. Like the rest of the mountains, the gorge was desolate and rocky; no vegetation grew here, indicating the obvious absence of water.
And there it was; a large edifice stood only a minute’s walk from the crevice. The building’s façade was made of crisscrossed beams, made of steel perhaps, and shattered glass still hung in places, suspended from the steel. It had an oddly skeletal look about it. From Cor’s vantage point, it looked as if the entire roof of the building was covered with boulders and other debris from an apparent rockslide. The detritus was ancient and well settled, which would explain the virtual invisibility of the building from above. Cor immediately set out for the building, leaving Kamar behind to his surprise; the man followed Cor, but he kept his distance and only approached at a slow pace, in sharp contrast to Cor’s meaningful and measured strides. To withstand millennia, as well as some unknown number of years with tons of basalt and granite on its roof, the building was an amazing feat of engineering if not magical prowess. No doubt, the kings and queens that ruled in the days this building was erected were truly powerful.
Cor passed through the building’s portal and found himself within the room Kamar described. It was truly impressive and awe inspiring, walls, floors and four massive columns of marble. Centuries, if not millennia, of dust and detritus littered the hall, and huge webs hung suspended from the ceiling and columns. Cor quickly reminded himself to be wary; he was not overly interested in becoming a meal for an enormous spider.
He cautiously walked deeper into the hall, aware that Kamar stayed outside. The man was clearly unwilling to enter the building, and Cor did not urge him to do so; Kamar’s job was only to guide. At the end of the hall, Cor could make out the vague outlines of the two massive doorways that Kamar described. They were obscured by a huge mass of webs that was centered between them, which lent credence to Kamar’s tale of an enormous spider. This made Cor uneasy, and he found himself looking about in all directions; Cor had fought and killed men, but an unnatural spider was something different.
Cor knew he needed to pass by the webs to access the part of the building that housed the fetish, and he felt an enormous pressure urging him on. Getting to it would mean hacking through or even burning the webs, and in his experience, the smallest spiders tend to respond to such disturbances. He stood in place, contemplating the situation; the obvious answer would be to somehow draw the spider out of its hiding place and even perhaps out of the building itself. Of course, he didn’t know exactly where the creature was at this moment, if in fact it still existed. Cor turned, following with his eyes the webs that reached out to columns and the ceiling, and he realized the entire hall was one giant spider lair, culminating its center directly between the two doorways.
It was then Cor saw movement in his peripheral vision, and shifting his gaze back towards the open entrance, he froze in horror. A truly enormous creature, taller than he, was headed towards the portal leading outside. The legs and body shined with reflected light as brightly as
the most polished plate armor. Its eight segmented legs were longer than described by Kamar, excepting the front two, and were as thick as Cor’s upper arms. The arachnid’s body was huge, with a disgustingly bulbous abdomen, which hung only a couple of feet off the ground, and it shocked Cor how quietly the thing moved; it was nearly silent, despite its bulk.
Cor realized the thing stalked Kamar, who sat on a small boulder outside the building staring out over the gorge. Too late, Cor shouted a warning to the man, who turned just in time to be punctured by the creature’s giant fangs. Kamar screamed, either in pain or terror, for a long second before his voice cut off. Cor stood silent and still as the huge spider pulled the front half of its body back through the doorway and began to ascend a nearby web. Once closer to the ceiling, it used its rear legs to begin rolling Kamar’s body into a wrap of silk.
Cor needed to move quickly; he had little doubt that once he began hacking his way through the webs, the spider would come for him. He also had doubts as to whether his sword could cut the webs without getting caught in the sticky silk, but grasping Soulmourn’s hilt filled Cor with a warm confidence. He moved deeper into the room, close to the heart of the massive web, noting a number of bones caught up in it, many of them not human. He kept one eye trained on the massive creature, not totally certain how he hadn’t spotted it sooner, and Cor was certain the thing returned the gaze.
Cor was amazed at how easily Soulmourn passed through the first swath of webs, and by his second swing, large sections of the web fell to the room’s marble floor. Cor hacked through a third time before the spider even moved. It came frighteningly fast, dropping Kamar’s half mummified body to the hard floor with a sickening thud of broken bone, and if Cor held any hopes that his companion still lived, they now dissipated.
Blood and Steel Page 17