What Lurks Below

by Michael Soldat

  “I’ve got more!” the dock worker yelled, returning with another armload of wood.

  Lara urged him forward, along with the clothier. She pointed to where they would make the next blaze two wagon lengths west from the first. They began their work, but the grays did not command their grog to attack this time. Lara held her blades high as far away from her body as she could.

  “Come on! Get what you came for!”

  She stamped forward several steps, but the grog mass recoiled. They still outnumbered the orc and the human many times over, but dared not approach. Behind them, the grays hissed and pointed, but their pets did not move. Finally, when the second blaze began to intensify, the grays stepped forward.

  “Lara, this is not good,” Diedra said.

  “You’re welcome to turn back. I don’t think they will, at least not until we get the entire wall burning.”

  “Wait! I’m coming!”

  Behind them, Lara and Diedra glanced to see Nami run under the gate. She came equipped with a sword that nearly rivaled the war club in size.

  “Found me a new toy. You didn’t scare them off yet, did you?”

  “Now is not the best time to try something new, Nami!” Lara said.

  “Oh, come now. I’ve killed things with weirder stuff. This isn’t my first two hander, I just haven’t had one in a while.”

  Diedra shrugged. All three of them stood their ground until the dock worker returned with another load of wood. Slowly, they advanced the same distance that the second fire was from the first. The citizens got to work.

  Two of the grays dashed forward, along with a pair of grog. Diedra easily swatted one of the creatures away. She grunted when a gray hit her in the back with a blast of something arcane. Lara responded by barely missing with a downward stroke, forcing the gray to retreat. Nami had the other gray and its grog covered by wildly swinging with her blade. She hit nothing but air, but the strikes were swift enough that neither beast could press an advantage.

  Diedra’s first foe tried to get up, but faltered. Lara wondered if they didn’t need a functioning spine to keep moving, then focused on her gray. It stepped back once, but no further. She swung the townsfolk’s sword down at it again. Then, she pivoted around the gray by twisting and slicing at its midsection with her own blade. It backed up, but not far enough to avoid a cut to the midsection. Black ooze erupted from the wound as it cried out, not a hiss but some kind of off key shriek.

  The grog Nami tried to fight dashed over to the wounded gray, leaping up into Lara’s face. She blocked its claws, but was driven back from the gray.

  “Duck!” Diedra yelled.

  Lara turned, confused, but when she saw the orc charge she fell to the ground as quickly as possible. Once she did, Diedra swang the club as hard as she could, launching the grog back into its brethren. That particular beast completely stopped moving. Meanwhile, as the second gray watched, Nami swung her two handed sword upwards. The beast split in two in a perfect diagonal line. Once it dropped, she turned to the gray Lara fell in front of, and severed its head with the blade.

  “Aaugh!” Nami cried out.

  Behind her, on the ground, the gray pointed at her. She fell to one knee as Lara scrambled up with her own blade. She fell upon the gray, beating its face in with the pommel of her sword until it was no more than a collection of dark ooze and mush.

  In the distance, the other creatures fled. Diedra figured they started to run about when she hurled the grog into their midst. Two grays were dead. Nami got up, staggered over to the grog with the broken back, and stabbed it in the head with her blade while cursing at it. With the enemy soundly defeated, the three women stood to catch their breath. Nami leaned on her sword, but managed to stay upright.

  “Are you OK?!” Lara yelled.

  “Fine! Fine, I’m fine, just… winded…” Nami said, putting her hand up.

  Lara grabbed her hand, put it over her shoulder, and helped Nami get back to the gate. Diedra moved the bodies of the fallen creatures into the fires they had created.

  “They will be back. We must strike,” she said.

  “Can we get a little while to rest?! Nami’s hurt!”

  “Am not! I didn’t expect this to be so heavy, is all. That thing didn’t even hurt me.”

  As she finished talking, Nami coughed several times.

  “I swear, I just need to breathe. I’m fine.”

  Lara let her go, though she held her hands out in case Nami fell. A moment later, Nami cracked her neck.

  “Whew. That was fun, but I think I’ll go back to the little blade next time. You two OK?”

  Lara and Diedra nodded.

  “How much time until sunrise?” Lara asked.

  “A while. Hours.”

  Lara turned away from the two and ran back to the guards. They stood around the gate machinery, unsure of what just transpired.

  “You two! Shut the gate for now. One of you, gather as much wood as you can. The other, go to the west gate and tell them to do the same. I’ll have people sent out to help start fires on the outer edge of the wall. If the other guards have a problem, tell them they’ll have to deal with me!” Lara barked.

  The guards set off to their tasks and the two townsfolk continued gathering lumber. Lara walked the other two back to the castle, if only to get a break from the stress of running or riding everywhere. It would only last a short while, but they would be able to relax their muscles and work their minds on the walk.

  “Diedra,” Lara said. “What exactly do we gain by going into the mountains? I’m not disagreeing that we have to kill more queens, but won’t grog have the advantage in the tunnels?”

  “They will. That does not matter right now. We must go, or else they will come to us. I am not sure how many they can bring.”

  “Alright. As important as this is, we should attack with at least some amount of sleep behind us. It’s still early in the night, so if we ride at dawn, that will give us enough time to make some progress.

  I don’t know how long you’ve been up, Diedra, but I’m beat. Nami got a nap in, but I just… I need to sleep.”

  “That is OK. The grays will run, and they will regroup. Daytime is when they are weakest.”

  “What, are you saying this will be easy?” Nami said. “I thought I was in for a fight!”

  Both of the other women turned, Lara with a glare and Diedra with what passed for puzzled as an orc.

  “Sorry, sorry. I like my work, is all.”

  No one spoke for the rest of the walk, whether out of exasperation, fatigue, or contemplation. At the castle, four of the soldiers from the wall guard greeted them. One, much to Lara and Nami’s dismay, was Cecile.

  “You’re back! Are you OK?! I heard there was a terrible fight. You should have sent for me! I’d have given those things a nasty cut or three.”

  “Cecile, it was dangerous. I know you’re anxious, but-”

  “Dangerous nothing. Robert is dead, and I have nothing left but possessions. For the last time, spare me your concerns about getting hurt. I’m coming with you, like the nice messenger said, and I’m going to carve my wrath into every gray, grog, and whatever else I can find down there. Understand… ma’am?”

  Lara stared at Cecile for a moment, then sighed.

  “You asked for it,” she said before addressing the group. “Get some sleep, we ride at dawn. Also, this is our orc friend. Her name is Diedra. I’d prefer we get the amazement out of the way now so we can get to business in the morning. Understand?”

  Cecile and the other soldiers shook Diedra’s hand, introducing themselves one by one. Lara managed to feel proud of her fellow citizens for a moment. But, the moment passed, and she realized she was too tired for this.

  “Dismissed. Meet back here at dawn.”

  Lara, Nami, and Diedra walked towards the office, stopping only to arrange for beds for the others. Upstairs, Lara dropped her weapon and armor on the floor. She flopped into bed fully clothed, and drifted off without a tho
ught about the situation. The others were adults, they’d figure it out.

  8

  Lara snapped awake, hearing what seemed to be an intruder smashing through an office wall. Thinking they were being invaded in broad daylight, she leapt out of bed and darted into the office. There, a snoring orc sat in her chair, leaning against the wall. Lara smiled, a wave of relief washing over her. Nami, somehow, was still sound asleep, possibly because her bed was on the opposite side of the room, far from the doorway. Her head lay between the wall and a balled up shirt she was using as a pillow. Lara envied her.

  After taking a look around, Lara realized that it was not actually daytime. The light shone from a torch Diedra placed in a holder on the wall, not the sun. If it had been day, she would be too late to leave on schedule. Outside, only a few buildings nearby cast light into the early morning darkness. If the bakers had begun, then Lara aimed to start with them. She walked back into the recently designated bedroom and shook Nami’s shoulder.

  “Aah! Five more minutes! I was cutting off so many heads!”

  “Get lucky, and you might do that today anyway. Or, unlucky, maybe.”

  “Ugh. You’re right, but it’s much nicer in bed.”

  “And that’s why you’re the assistant, so far. Get up.”

  Lara walked back to her desk to see Diedra still snoring away, though her head tilted and quieted the noise. She heard a thump from the other room, looked back, and saw Nami half fallen out of bed.

  “Why is getting out of bed so hard?!”

  “That’s hard? What I want to know is how you managed to sleep through the roar out here. I thought we were being attacked.”

  Lara now faced a problem: she had never roused an orc before. It was not exactly the type of issue anyone in town ever faced, at least to her knowledge. She snuck up to Diedra and poked her in the arm before backing away. The orc snorted, but kept sleeping. Lara tried again, but harder this time.

  Diedra shouted as she snapped her head back and hit the stone.

  “Oh! I’m so sorry! I didn’t know how to wake you up, and I uh, I just, I’m really sorry!” Lara said.

  “It could be worse,” Diedra said after groaning. “I live alone, so it is best you did not shake me. I live with things that wish to escape. If I mistook you for them, who knows where you would land.”

  Lara couldn’t help but chuckle.

  “I’ll arrange for breakfast. Is bread and stew fine with you? Do orcs have coffee?”

  “Thank you, it will do, but I must educate you some day on the rest of the world. Things like coffee don’t stop at your borders,” she replied with a smirk.

  “Well, there’s something we have in common. I can’t imagine living in a city too far north to get coffee beans.”

  Lara walked outside her door to find a steward. She asked one what they could scrounge up so early in the morning, then returned.

  “It shouldn’t be long. We’ll eat quick, and hopefully the others will be downstairs by then. If not, a few messengers are going to be quite angry with me.”

  The steward returned to inform the ladies that breakfast would be prepared in the castle kitchens. They made their way down, and upon arrival each one graciously thanked the sole cook who got up so early. He could do no wrong in their eyes, considering they forced him to wake an hour or two earlier than normal. Lara, Diedra, and Nami drank a clay pot of coffee and ate a meal between the three of them, then walked out to the front of the castle. Lara left instructions with another steward on how to protect the wall from attack. She worried they may not return before next nightfall, so the army needed to know how to keep Thogt safe in their absence.

  In front of the castle stood a reminder of the dread she carried all throughout the past week or so. There, Cecile stood ready and waiting, along with the two other soldiers. They grumbled. No one woke this early for their health. They had a job to do.

  “Morning, ma’am. We’re ready to go. Weapons, food, nothing too heavy. We don’t have horses, though. Who’s that?” Cecile said before yawning.

  Nami walked off to gather some horses while Lara thought of the best way to explain things.

  “This is Diedra. I imagine none of you have seen an orc in some time, if ever, but here she is. Diedra knows far more than we do about the creatures we are going to hunt, today. I can personally attest to her being more than able to fight them off.”

  “Will she fit in the tunnels?” one of the others asked.

  “I have gone there more than you, friend,” Diedra said.

  “Fair enough.”

  “Hopefully, we won’t be underground for long,” Lara said. “We’re going to find as many grog queens as we can, kill them, and get out of there. If they swarm us, we retreat. I would rather we fail and survive then die under the mountain.”

  “Listen to me, and we will survive,” Diedra said.

  Nami returned with the horses, including one big enough for Diedra. The orc stood only a head or two taller than everyone else, no bigger than a particularly large soldier. But, the stablehand worried when Nami mentioned who would be riding. He'd never seen an orc before, and Diedra’s biceps alone were as thick around as Lara’s neck. Everyone mounted, making sure Diedra's horse could handle her, then rode off.

  At the gate, Lara had to explain to new guards why they shouldn’t worry about the orc riding with them. It took some convincing, but Lara’s threats of telling Felas about holding up business got them to open the gate. Seven horses trotted out, then turned north.

  Clouds obscured the moonlight, making the riders' path difficult. Lara didn’t like using torches so soon, but it was dark enough that she worried about the horses’ footing. Nami kept one lit in front, and everyone hoped it was enough. She left the torch at the entrance to the underground once they arrived. The group passed the grog queen’s staked head, which had begun to rot, in silence. With the horses tied, Lara led the other six soldiers into the tunnels.

  They began as they did last time, by clearing out spaces that had already been explored. Lara only glanced into the cavern where the rocks fell, anxious to avoid noticing what fate befell Tali’s corpse. One of the other soldiers looked and tried to relay what he saw, but Lara would not hear him.

  “Alright, these are clear,” Nami said as they returned to the entrance.

  “Then we head back to where we were, and further. I can’t see any light outside yet, which means the sun hasn’t risen fully. We still need to be quick, but so far we’re on target.”

  Lara led them onwards. This time, the faint hissing she knew and expected wafted down the tunnels, but it did not comfort her. She marched them forward carefully, even on familiar ground. The grays figured out where they had been. Lara did not want them to know where they were now.

  “Is this the one you killed?” Diedra said as they moved through the lair of the grog queen.

  “Yes. Two regular grog defended it, and the gray. This was the first time we saw a gray at all.”

  Diedra inspected the remains, which resembled little more than gray mush.

  “This should still be here.”

  “It was mangled the second time we came. I’m not surprised that it’s trampled into the ground.”

  “Is this where…” Cecile said.

  Nami nodded. The widow stifled a cry, then scowled

  “I will kill them.”

  “Cecile, you don’t try anything crazy, you understand? I want you to come home with us alive,” Nami said.

  Lara pressed them forward until they reached the stone huts. She paused, hearing scratching nearby. Diedra and Nami went right while Lara led the others left. They scoured each structure until a growl rang out from their right side. Diedra bashed a queen’s head in, then rained several blows down on its abdomen in case it was with child. Lara felt thankful. At least they wouldn’t have to worry about something small and sharp ambushing them on the return trip.

  Reuniting at the other end of the cave, a decision confronted Lara and the others.
Several passages led onward, but which would take them to more grog queens? Lara consulted her map.

  “That path over on the left will take us northwest, but the mountains are not that tall. Those two to our right will go back into town, and while the ridges get high, I’m not sure what good that would do us,” she said.

  “So, straight ahead?” Cecile asked.

  “I like it when things are easy,” Nami added.

  The middle tunnel went on for some time. Whoever carved it out of the earth didn't know how to dig straight. The ground moved up and down at random intervals. Still, they heard the hissing, but nothing appeared in the distance to confront them. Lara stopped them after the ground dropped over a distance, forming a sort of ramp.

  “What do you see?” Nami asked.

  “There, in the distance. The tunnel ends, and I can’t see a thing ahead.”

  “So do we go up and find out what’s there?”

  “I don’t have a better idea. Plus, we’ve only killed one queen. I imagine more are hiding around somewhere.

  They edged closer. Lara held the torch behind her until she reached the very edge of the tunnel.

  “It just goes on and on,” Nami said from behind her.

  “Check up,” Diedra added.

  Lara did. With her torch, she could not see the top of the cave. The sides of the cavern were visible with the meager light. Diedra poked her head inside and looked around as well before Lara urged them all to move in. She led them along the left wall of the room, turned the corner, and moved into the darkness.

  “Wait, hold on,” Cecile said.

  Lara looked at her, confused, then listened. There was scratching in the distance.

  “Draw weapons, and keep an eye behind us.”

  The group walked forward for a short time. Ahead of them, a large stone wall appeared. Diedra stalked ahead of them, though only as far as the light would go. She motioned the rest of the soldiers further to extend her field of vision with the torch. The orc looked ahead, then returned to the others.