by Clayton Wood
“Wait here,” he ordered. Then he lifted Kalibar off of the ground, slinging the older man over his shoulder. He turned about, wading right back into the acid pool, going around the massive corpse of the Lurker and continuing forward until he disappeared in the orange spore-mist that still hung in the air beyond.
“What is he, crazy?” Ariana asked, staring at the spot where Darius had vanished. Kyle said nothing, but he had to agree. If Darius breathed in enough of that orange dust, he would go crazy.
After a minute, Darius reappeared – without Kalibar – wading out of the fog and back up to Kyle and Ariana. He stepped up onto the rock, the armor on his feet and legs hissing loudly. Darius cleared his throat, glancing down at his own feet.
Kyle took the hint, weaving the water pattern to create a stream of magic level with Darius's waist. Darius stepped into it, rinsing his legs thoroughly. When the stream stopped, Darius reached out to Ariana, motioning for her to crawl up onto his back. She hesitated, glancing nervously at Kyle, then obeyed, climbing onto the bodyguard's back. Darius stepped down into the pond once again, wading forward until he disappeared beyond the orange mist.
Kyle stood there, now alone, facing the motionless body of the Lurker. It lay in the pool of acid it had created, yellow fluid dripping slowly down the side of its skull. He peered into the mist, trying to find Darius's dark form in the distance, feeling more and more uneasy as the seconds passed.
What if he doesn't come back, Kyle thought. What if he leaves you here, all alone?
The thought made his guts squirm.
A dark shape appeared in the mist, wading through the deep pool of acid, coming toward him. Kyle breathed a sigh of relief, watching as the warrior made his way to the shore, climbing up onto the rocky ledge and turning around to present his back to Kyle. Kyle doused Darius again with the water pattern, then hopped onto his back, wrapping his arms around the warrior's neck, being careful not to strangle the man. Darius walked into the pond a final time, wading slowly to the right of the creature's massive corpse. Kyle looked down, realizing that Darius was up to his thighs in acid. Kyle gripped Darius tightly; if he slipped now, he was as good as dead. The only thing preventing Darius from being horribly burned was his heavy golden armor, and even that was slowly dissolving in the deadly fluid. Darius ignored the danger, making his way toward the dense orange mist.
“Hold your breath,” Darius ordered. Kyle complied, taking a deep breath in and holding it. They waded through the orange mist, emerging at length into the open air on the other end. Kyle let his breath out, taking a few deep, gulping breaths of the fresh air. It wasn't long before Kyle saw two figures on a rocky shore in the distance. As they got closer, he saw that it was Ariana and Kalibar, safely on the other side of the acid pond. Ariana was standing over Kalibar, who was sitting on the shore, his head in his hands.
Darius waded to the rocky shore, stepping up onto it and dropping Kyle next to Ariana. A stream of water appeared before Darius – created by Ariana, of course – and the warrior rinsed himself off a final time. Kyle found himself staring at the man; Darius's red cloak, once at ankle-length, ended at hip-level now. The rest had completely dissolved, the edges blackened. Much of the warrior's armor was dull and deeply pitted, corroded by the Lurker's deadly juices.
“He's starting to remember,” Ariana said, gesturing at Kalibar, who raised his head.
“Ariana said that you defeated the Dire Lurker, Darius,” Kalibar said. “Is that true?”
“Yep,” Darius answered.
“Impressive,” Kalibar murmured. He rose to his feet then, aided by Ariana. “We should get going; the Death Weavers will send more men after us before long.”
“Let's go,” Darius stated.
“Are you going to be okay?” Ariana asked, staring at Darius. The man said nothing, offering his shoulder for Kalibar to hold on to. Then he strode forward, leading the way forward through the tunnel. Kyle and Ariana followed side-by-side, their footsteps muted by the glowing moss underfoot. More mushrooms stood throughout the cavern, forcing them to weave around the tall, thick white stalks. Mushroom caps of different colors, some as low as Kyle's hip, and others twenty feet up, topped each stalk. The taller mushrooms grew nearer to the cave walls on either side, while the shorter ones sat nearer to the middle. Kyle stepped around one at belly-height, glancing down at the mushroom cap. It was bright red, with white stripes at the edges...he'd seen several just like it earlier. But something was different about this one; the cap looked swollen somehow, as if it were about to...
The cap exploded, sending a cloud of thick orange spores up into the air...and right into Kyle's face.
Kyle jerked away from the mushroom, slamming into Ariana. They both fell to the ground, a huge orange plume expanding all around them. Kyle landed on his back, knocking the air out of his lungs.
He rose to his hands and knees, gasping for air.
Ariana scrambled to her feet beside him, orange dust swirling all around them. She offered her hand, and Kyle grabbed it, rising to his feet. He felt a tickle in the back of his throat, and coughed, a thick cloud of orange shooting out of his mouth.
He stared at it, his blood going cold.
“Kyle?” Ariana said, staring at him. Then she coughed, a puff of orange escaping her lips. She stared at this, then at Kyle, her face going pale. Her pupils were huge.
“Hold your breath!” Kyle ordered, following his own advice. He brought the front of his shirt over his mouth and nose, squinting in the cloud of orange. Then he grabbed Ariana's hand, pulling her forward. He felt her pull back, resisting him, and turned to find her staring at him, her eyes filled with terror.
She screamed, then tore her hand free, shoving him backward. Kyle stumbled, falling onto his buttocks on the rock floor. He scrambled to his feet, then froze.
Something was wrong.
He closed his eyes, and immediately felt the floor dropping out from beneath him, as if he were falling upward. Opening his eyes, he saw his feet standing on the ground, as they should be. He hesitated, then closed his eyes again. Once again, he felt as if the floor were dropping out underneath him. But he still felt his feet on the ground; it was as if the ground were falling and his legs were growing longer at the same time. As soon as he opened his eyes, the sensation stopped.
Weird.
He looked forward, spotting Darius's armored back in the distance ahead. He stared at the warrior's golden armor, at the way the metal caught the light of the glowing moss. Darius seemed to freeze in place, as if suspended in time, every detail of the shimmering armor magnified and amazingly sharp. He devoured every detail, even the distorted reflections of the cavern. He'd never seen anything so incredible in his entire life.
He felt a hand on the back of his shoulder, and turned around to see Ariana staring at him. Her lips were slightly open, her big brown eyes staring right into his. He stared back, realizing that her eyes were growing, so large that he was afraid he was going to fall into them. He took a step back.
The world shifted.
Kyle stumbled to the side, feeling the ground tilt to the left. He caught himself on the wall of the tunnel, righting himself quickly. Taking a step toward Ariana, he felt the ground tilt in the opposite direction, throwing him into a thick cluster of mushroom stalks.
What the...
He staggered away from the stalks, stumbling toward Ariana. The tunnel tilted backward then, and he cried out, closing his eyes. He fell back, two streams of brilliant rainbow-colors shimmering in wondrous arcs before him. Time slowed, then stopped.
He fell through infinite space.
Kyle felt his back striking the ground, felt pain there, but it was as if it were happening to someone else. He opened his eyes, and saw two huge blue eyes peering down at him.
“Darius!” Kyle exclaimed.
And it was Darius. The man's mouth was moving, but the words were gibberish. He stared at Darius's mouth, watching as it started to grow. It was a perilously deep cavern now,
lined by teeth ten feet high. Kyle felt as if he were being pulled upward toward that huge orifice, and cried out.
Hands shook him.
Kyle scrambled backward on the cavern floor, feeling it tilt crazily to the left. He rolled onto his belly, pushing himself up onto his hands and knees, a sudden wave of nausea coming over him. He resisted the urge to puke, gritting his teeth. He could feel the back of his throat with remarkable clarity, all the way down to his stomach. Warm, bitter fluid gushed upward, filling the back of his throat.
Don't puke don't puke...
He vomited, a wave of orange-brown fluid spewed from his mouth in slow motion, flying toward the ground in a graceful arc. He watched in fascination as tiny droplets separated themselves from the main vomit-stream, spinning majestically in space for minutes until they splashed onto the ground. Then he vomited again, but this time the liquid poured from his mouth rapidly, splattering onto the glowing moss underneath him. He vomited until he had nothing left in his belly, and then he retched some more. The world tilted crazily around him.
Then, mercifully, everything went black.
* * *
Kyle's head hurt.
He groaned, opening his eyes, and saw Darius kneeling down before him. The bodyguard stood up.
“Welcome back,” he grumbled.
Kyle blinked, realizing that he was lying on his back on the cavern floor. He sat up, glancing down at his hands. Glowing moss coated the palms of his hands, the light slowly fading as he watched.
What the heck happened?
Darius stepped away, reaching down and lifting Ariana up from the ground. She was clutching her head in both hands; she looked absolutely miserable.
“What happened?” Kyle asked. He felt the ground tilt ever-so-slightly underneath him, and tensed up. But the sensation vanished as quickly as it had come.
“You passed out,” the bodyguard answered. Kyle resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
“I mean before that,” he clarified.
“Let's go,” Darius said, walking forward, Kalibar leaning on his shoulder. Kyle sighed, rising to his feet. He glanced at Ariana, who fell into step beside him. She was a little unsteady on her feet, and bumped into him as they walked.
“You okay?” Kyle asked. She nodded, rubbing her temples gingerly.
“That was really weird,” she stated.
“You felt it too?” Kyle pressed. Ariana nodded, but said nothing more. Kyle couldn't blame her. As novel as the experience had been, he would never ever want to go through that again. It was no wonder that the Death Weavers had gone insane after the Lurker had exposed them to the mushroom spores. It was pure luck that Kalibar hadn't inhaled the stuff. If he had, they'd all be very dead by now.
They walked in silence, the tunnel ramping slightly upward now. The glowing moss became sparser, making the cave appear darker as they went. At Darius's request, Kyle made another magical light above their heads to guide the way. The underground fungal forest eventually thinned, the mushrooms becoming smaller and smaller until there was only bare rock left. The glowing white moss vanished as well. They marched slowly along the uneven ground, dodging stalagmites carefully. No one spoke.
The silent hike gave Kyle's mind plenty of time to wander, and he found himself contemplating the strange mushroom forest they'd left behind. The Dire Lurker's acid had dissolved the stone floor, and the moss – which seemed immune to the stuff – had grown there. And then there were the mushrooms. Were they the creature's food supply? Maybe the mushrooms needed the glow-moss to grow...and the moss needed the Lurker. With the Lurker gone, would the mushroom forest die off? It made Kyle a little sad to think so. An entire ecosystem might have been destroyed by their actions.
His morbid thoughts were interrupted by a sudden, sharp pain in his right heel. He yelped, stopping abruptly and lifting his foot to inspect his heel. The sole of his shoe had a large hole in it. It must have been eaten away by the acid he'd stepped in earlier. His exposed heel was red and flaking, and stung terribly. He rinsed his foot off with a stream of conjured water, then continued onward. With each step, his heel struck the hard, cold rocky floor, throbbing fiercely.
He limped along, following Darius through the winding tunnel. The ground angled upward sharply at times, making the going particularly difficult. Kyle's legs burned with each step; still, he limped along, trying to keep up with Darius and Kalibar. Ariana was limping too, her undershirt riddled with holes from the acid that had splashed on it. She shivered in the cool breeze, hugging herself closely. Kyle offered his shirt to her, but she refused.
Darius set a tireless pace, leading the group onward and upward. The stalactites and stalagmites become sparser, until there were none at all. The pain in Kyle's right foot intensified with every step, until it became nigh unbearable. He stopped, feeling Ariana bump into him from behind.
“I need a break,” he called out, shifted his weight to his good foot. Darius didn't even turn around, continuing his brutal pace.
“You stop, you die.”
Kyle stared at the bodyguard, images of the Dead Man flashing in his mind's eye.
He’ll come for us, he realized.
Kyle continued forward, limping badly. Ariana squeezed in beside him, wrapping an arm around his lower back. He gave her a weak smile, and they leaned on each other, walking behind Kalibar and the dour bodyguard. Kalibar, who hadn't said much of anything the entire trip, seemed to be concentrating entirely on putting one foot in front of the other. The former Grand Weaver's boots were in terrible shape, eaten away by the Lurker's acid, and he too was limping. Kyle felt suddenly ashamed; Kalibar, having been imprisoned, mutilated, and having suffered greatly at the whim of the Lurker, hadn't uttered a single complaint. Kyle grit his teeth, resolving to be more like the former Grand Weaver. If Kalibar could make it, so could he.
Step by step, pain after pain, he made his way forward. The air, having been dank and musty since leaving the Arena, started to smell fresher. A cool breeze wafted through the cave, giving poor Ariana a chill. The cave became progressively brighter, until Kyle was able to stop his magic stream to the light pattern.
Then, at long last, an impossibly bright light shone in the distance. Kyle squinted at it, his eyes smarting. Slowly his vision acclimated, and he saw a hint of blue and green beyond. He quickened his pace, ignoring the pain in his foot.
Is that...?
He caught up to Darius and Kalibar, squeezing past them as the tunnel broadened, pulling Ariana with him. The light at the end of the tunnel grew larger and larger, until at long last he reached the mouth of the cave. Warm, sweet air greeted him, the sky opening up before him in a magnificent blue vista. Soft, fragrant grass tickled his feet, so green that it seemed unreal. The sun's rays felt wondrously warm on his skin, and Kyle lifted his face to the sky, laughing joyously. He let go of Ariana's hand, lowering himself onto his belly on the grass, embracing the warm earth. Tears of joy streamed down his cheeks.
We did it, he realized, his spirit soaring. We made it!
Despite losing all hope, in the face of impossible odds, they had escaped!
Chapter 18
The warm sun shone on Kyle's back as he lay on his belly on the grass just outside the mouth of the cave he'd just escaped, and he basked in its healing rays, closing his eyes and resting his temple on the ground.
“Are we outside?” he heard Kalibar ask. Kyle opened his eyes, rising to his feet and turning to face the Weaver. Kalibar was still holding onto Darius's shoulder.
“We are,” Ariana answered, as if she couldn't believe it. She turned in a slow circle, taking it all in. Kyle grinned at her.
“We're free!” he exclaimed.
Ariana nodded, but didn't smile back. She turned to face the mouth of the cave, staring at it for what seemed like an eternity.
“Ariana?” Kyle asked, stepping toward her. She turned to face him, then froze, her eyes going wide. She backpedaled, then tripped and fell backward onto her butt on the grass.
> “Going somewhere?” said a voice behind Kyle.
Kyle froze, the hairs on the nape of his neck standing on end. He turned around – slowly – his eyes dropping to the ground before him. He spotted two black boots hovering above the grass, surrounded by a black cloak with ornate gray symbols woven into its thick fabric. His eyes drew upward of their own accord, until he found himself staring into dark eyes sunk into a pale, drawn face...and that green, diamond-shaped crystal, sparkling brilliantly in the sunlight.
“No,” Kyle whimpered, feeling his legs wobble underneath him. He fell onto his rear, landing hard, pain shooting up his back. He stared at that horrible face, and scrambled backward in the grass, terror gripping him.
The Dead Man stared down at Kyle, his expression unreadable.
“I'm disappointed in you, Kyle,” he murmured, levitating forward toward Kyle, his dark cloak rippling behind him. “I thought we had an understanding.”
“Darius, what's going on?” Kalibar demanded. Darius pushed Kalibar away from his shoulder, grabbing his sword and pulling it from its scabbard.
“The Dead Man,” the bodyguard growled. The Dead Man turned to face Darius.
“I underestimated you,” he stated, his deep voice sending chills down Kyle's spine. “I won't make that mistake again.”
“Doubt that,” Darius shot back, stepping in front of Kalibar. The Dead Man smirked.
“Wait!” Kalibar exclaimed, stepping from behind Darius and facing the general direction of the Dead Man. “You have me,” he stated, stretching his arms out before him. “Take me, take what you want from me. But please, let the others go.”
“You are correct,” the Dead Man stated, facing Kalibar. “We do have you...and you will continue to contribute to our future.” His smirk faded. “And in time, so will Kyle...and Ariana,” he added, gesturing at the two.
“Please,” Kalibar pleaded, stepping toward the Dead Man. He reached out blindly, grabbing the Dead Man's arms by the sleeves and falling to his knees before the dark Weaver. “They're innocent children!”