‘Did it work?’ she asked.
‘Yes. It’s fine. Are you okay?’
‘Pushed myself too hard.’ Kana turned her head to look down the corridor to see Rain chopping up the last of the zombies. ‘I didn’t put them all down then.’
‘You thinned them out a lot. Zombies are nasty. Tough. It takes a lot to put them down.’
Kana managed a grin. ‘No kidding. I’m going to be useless for a good half an hour. I’m not going to be able to do anything like that again for ninety minutes or so.’
‘Huh. None of us are going to be doing anything much for a while.
Take it easy. We’ll all be joining you shortly.’
~~~
‘There were people living down here,’ Kana observed as she examined the desiccated contents of a chest of drawers. ‘Quite a while ago, at a guess.’
More or less recovered from the fight with the zombies, the party had set off down the corridor to discover a small complex of stone-lined tunnels which, it seemed, had once been the home of some group of dwarfs. Certainly, there were carved plaques on some of the walls with writing which Aneshti and Rain both identified as Dwarvish. Rain was fairly positive that what they had seen were basically street signs. Dwarvish was related to Skonari, which Rain could read, but the reliefs were old and worn in places. Old enough that some of the lettering had changed form since the stone was carved.
‘This isn’t a dungeon,’ Kana added, ‘it’s an archaeological site.’
‘What’s an archaeological?’ Aneshti asked.
‘Uh… Basically, it means it’s really old. Thousands of years. Can zombies really last that long?’
‘Zombies,’ Constance said, ‘are preserved by the spell and won’t decay beyond a certain point no matter how long they wait in a dusty old corridor for something to do. It’s one reason why they are fairly commonly used as guardians in dungeons. What I don’t get is why they were here at all. I mean, this doesn’t exactly look like a treasure vault. Underwear that crumbles when you touch it is not a valuable commodity.’
‘We haven’t searched all the corridors yet,’ Kana said. ‘Maybe the treasure vault is deeper in. What gets me is how deep we are.
If this place is this old, it should have been built more recently, right? These tunnels have to date from before a lot of the construction higher up.’
‘It probably dates back to some of the first mining operations under the city,’ Rain called out from the doorway. She was watching the corridor in case more zombies decided to reveal themselves. ‘Before they got this deep to make room for housing, they were digging down to find valuable ores. Dwarfs just love
getting deep under the ground and they’ll tunnel long distances in search of some mineral some mage had located using magic. They probably tidied up these tunnels to provide living space after finding a good seam.’
‘We should continue searching,’ Constance said. ‘We’re not historians. Our job is making sure anyone else coming down here is safe.’
They trooped out of the room and, Rain in the lead, set off to search more of the complex. That was when another thought came to Kana. ‘Shouldn’t we be having trouble breathing? We’re really deep and I don’t see any ventilation.’
Aneshti pointed at the ceiling. They were passing under a sheet of metal with various symbols etched into it which had been bolted up there. Now Kana thought about it, she had seen a few of them at fairly regular intervals. ‘Those are air purifier enchantments. They constantly refresh the air below them and it circulates through the tunnels. Dwarfs have been using that kind of thing for millennia. They produce them on an industrial scale these days, here in Dvartim, and ship them out to mines across the continent.’
Kana shook her head, grinning. Magic really had taken the place of technology on Soken. There was technology, but it was not nearly as advanced as it should have been given the length of time civilisation had existed in this world. There were other factors, such as the elves being unable to really use iron, but it seemed to be mostly down to the existence of magic. Magic could do things which would have needed fairly advanced technology back on Earth. Getting the power and air down to this level of a mine would have been a major technological achievement, but here the power came from the omnipresent magical field and there was no need to move air around when you could just magically clean up the air that was already there.
The appearance on the floor ahead of them of another Pentagram circle derailed Kana’s chain of thought. Once again, someone had carved a permanent circle into the stone floor in order to seal something inside the room ahead of them. ‘Not more zombies,’ she grumbled. ‘This time I’m just going to nuke them straight off the bat.’
‘Let’s see what we have first,’ Constance suggested. ‘Maybe something else is in this room.’
‘Can’t be worse than zombies. I am seriously going to find better magic for zombie bashing if they’re really that common in dungeons.’
There was a fairly solid door behind the circle. Rain edged through and, keeping most of her body inside the barrier, pushed the door open. Nothing happened. Beyond the door, the room seemed
to be fairly large, some kind of hall, maybe for meetings or dining. Currently, it seemed to be empty. All that was visible was bare stone, though there was an air enchantment bolted to the ceiling. The problem was that the only light was coming from their lanterns and that left a lot of dark, empty space in which something could be hiding.
Then it stopped hiding. It was another zombie, but it seemed different from the others. For one thing, it had better armour: an iron breastplate over mail. It also carried a broadsword and shield rather than just a short sword. For another, it was bigger and looked stronger than the others. It stepped out of the darkness and swung its sword at the nearest target, Rain, who could not get her sword in the way fast enough. The blow hit Rain’s breastplate but did not appear to get through. Certainly, Rain responded fairly quickly, swinging her sword in an arc aimed at the thing’s unprotected neck. It failed to get its shield in the way fast enough and… A blow which might have decapitated a human left the zombie upright and swinging back. This time, its sword bit deeper into Rain’s armour and she winced before hacking at the zombie’s neck again. Still, it seemed as though the monster was impervious to Rain’s sword.
That was when Kana jabbed her staff into the melee. The wood clanged against the metal breastplate, sounding loud in the enclosed space, and then fire erupted from behind the metal, bursting from all around the breastplate in a rush of flame. The zombie staggered back a step and then collapsed onto the stone floor, unmoving.
‘Now cave its skull in,’ Constance said. ‘ That is an Undead Knight, and I don’t want to leave it with any chance of getting up again.’
‘It was tougher than the others,’ Kana observed.
‘It takes more power to create them and you need to start with a well-preserved corpse which used to be some sort of holy warrior, a paladin, in life. As you can imagine, it usually requires someone really evil to use one as a dungeon guardian. A satanist, usually.’
Rain finished bashing the zombie’s skull into a distinctly abnormal shape with the pommel of her sword and stood up. ‘Let’s hope it was the only one.’ She winced again and pressed her fingers over the gash in her breastplate which was on the left over her abdomen.
‘You’re hurt,’ Mimi said.
‘It got one good hit in. It can wait until–’
‘Salve,’ Mimi said, placing her hand over the gash in Rain’s armour. A green magic circle popped into existence and then
vanished. ‘There might be more trouble as we move on and you’re in pain.’
‘I was,’ Rain replied. ‘Okay, so that feels better. Thanks.’
Mimi grinned. ‘Both my job and my pleasure. What’s a lay cleric for if not to heal wounds?’
‘Blessing crops if your springtime job is anything to go by.’
‘That too.’
Aneshti lifted her staff and placed
it against the ceiling.
‘Continual Light,’ she said and a circle of white light appeared on the stone ceiling, contracting rapidly into a glow which illuminated much of the room. There were no more Undead Knights, or lesser zombies, but there was not much of anything else either. The room was empty. There were a couple of closed doors at the back, but inside the room there was nothing. Or nothing terribly obvious. When Kana looked down…
‘There’s a Pentagram circle carved into the floor.’
Everyone looked down, Aneshti and Constance frowning at what they saw. ‘That’s got a slightly different design to the others,’
Aneshti said.
‘It’s a satanic design,’ Constance said. ‘Used for summoning demons. Used for summoning major demons.’ Turning, she marched toward one of the doors at the back with purpose in her stride.
‘Wait a–’ Rain began, but Constance slammed the door open without waiting.
The room beyond looked like it had been used as a bedroom at one point. Certainly, there was nothing special about the contents.
There was a fairly simple bed, a chest of drawers and a wardrobe, and a desk with a couple of books on it. Constance walked over to the desk and picked up one of the books to look at the cover. She dropped it almost immediately, her lip curling.
‘Yes, as I thought. Whoever was using this place was a demonologist. Probably an ex-satanist. His taste in reading material leaves much to be desired.’
‘An ex -satanist?’ Kana asked.
Constance turned and flashed a stiff smile which came nowhere near her eyes. ‘Satanists are “encouraged” to avoid researching the true nature of demons. They may pick up some details along the way but having books on the subject’ – she turned a look of considerable disdain upon the offending volume – ‘is strictly forbidden.’
‘I’d have thought knowing about demons would have been a good idea if you’re going to summon them.’
‘Yes, but then you’d know not to do it .’
‘Well,’ Aneshti said from the other doorway, ‘if that’s the case, this guy was definitely an ex -satanist.’
Kana shifted her position to look into the other room and immediately saw Aneshti’s point. The second room was a library.
There were shelves lined with books of all shapes and sizes.
There were even a few scrolls visible on an upper shelf.
Constance stepped up beside Kana and followed her gaze. The necromancer’s lip curled. ‘We should torch the entire place.’
‘I can do it if you want it done,’ Kana said.
Sighing, Constance turned away. ‘No, it’s not our job. We’ll inform the guild of what we’ve found. That should stop the client sneaking this stuff out to sell on the black market. Let’s make sure we’ve covered everywhere and then get out of here. This place makes my skin itch.’
~~~
The hot water of the guild baths felt rather good as Kana sank into it. Dungeons were grimy. Well, that one had mostly been dusty and she did not really want to think of where the dust had come from. She had once seen some bit of trivia suggesting that a lot of dust was actually human skin and the dungeon had been full of zombies…
‘So,’ Kana said, turning her attention to Constance and her floating mountains. It was next to impossible to ignore the necromancer’s boobs when she was in a bath. They were just so there . Kana was really not sure whether to empathise over the probable issues or be jealous.
‘So?’ Constance asked.
The party was alone in the bathhouse. Rain had, once again, gone off to take care of Ranulf, but everyone else was there. Most importantly, no one else was, so Kana felt she could bring up what was bothering her. ‘So, you’re an ex-satanist, right?’
Constance frowned. ‘Upon what evidence do you make this assertion?’
‘Apparent hatred. It’s either that you used to be one and learned to hate them, or they hurt someone important to you. You know a lot about them. I’m siding toward you being one and figuring out that they were… Is “evil” too strong a word?’
‘Huh. Well, most of them aren’t evil. They’re stupid and they do things considered… tasteless. At best. Those in higher positions tend to get to like it and I’d suggest they’re evil, but the lower ranks are usually just misguided. Unless you consider seeking power without considering the consequences evil, I guess.’
‘No, that’s just human nature.’
‘Wow, you really have a jaundiced opinion of humans,’ Mimi said.
‘It sounded about right to me,’ Aneshti said. ‘Uh, not that I’m saying elves are more moral.’
‘Whatever,’ Constance continued, ‘I thought it was an easy way to gain power. I was born in Sintar which has a looser moral code than most human cities.’
‘Slavery is legal there, right? That’s something I do consider evil.’
‘I’m not going to argue. Anyway, satanism isn’t a fast way to power. You have to learn magic the same old way. They teach a lot of necromancy, which the Mages’ Guild only teaches to advanced students, but it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. And your purpose is to further the goals of Satan. You eventually learn to summon demons, but they won’t teach you a thing about what demons are, what they want, how to deal with them… Eventually, you’ll summon a demon which does something you weren’t expecting.
Probably something you have to be pretty hardened to deal with.
Well, I was lucky enough to find out about that kind of thing before I learned demon summoning. I helped with a few rituals. I saw the thing that was summoned to steal something which then slaughtered an entire family, including three children. I did some research. And then I ran. They don’t like me very much but it’s mutual, so I suppose that’s okay.’
Kana nodded. ‘I’m not judging. I’m glad it’s in your past, but since it is, it’s just background knowledge on my compatriots.’
Constance gave a little grimace. ‘You ought to know.
Occasionally, we have to deal with some overzealous satanist trying to kill me for leaving the cult.’
‘More zombies?’
‘There have been a few instances of zombie attacks,’ Mimi said.
‘But they know Constance can take control of them, or some of them, so it’s not as common as you might expect.’
‘Good point. My point of view is that you know more about the undead from your experience with the satanists, Constance. Given how tough it was to take down a few zombies, I think having all
the knowledge we can get is a good thing.’ Kana looked around at Aneshti, who had been rather silent during the exchange.
‘I… might take a little while to get used to the idea,’ Aneshti admitted. ‘But, you’re right, Kana. More knowledge is always better. And Constance doesn’t seem to be evil… Unless you made a pact with Satan to get those breasts.’
‘They’re natural,’ Constance told her. ‘And they’re a lot more comfortable to have when I’m in a bath.’
‘I can understand that. And yet I’m too jealous to be sympathetic.’
Constance sighed. ‘Yeah. I get that a lot.’
30 th Sokarte.
‘We haven’t been able to find any indication that Cadorian has been in Dvartim,’ Kana said over her telepathic connection to Sharassa. ‘No one at the Adventurers’ Guild has seen him and we checked a bunch of hotels and guesthouses. Nothing.’
‘It was a longshot,’ Sharassa replied. ‘We had no reports from there. What of these adventurers you’ve hooked up with?’
‘Oh, well, their leader, sort of, is an ex-satanist and a necromancer. Then there’s a lay cleric of Soansha from Trefall.
They get on pretty well, so I’m confident the ex-satanist is really ex. And there’s a fighter-type who seems competent enough.
She’s hiding something, but I don’t think it’s actually a problem. And we’re hiding something from them, after all.’
‘You believe they can be trusted?’
‘Generally. I’l
l reserve judgement on how far until I’ve been around them more. I trust them enough to travel with them. We’re heading south tomorrow. They’re based out of Hillock on the Alabeth road.’
‘Hillock?’ Sharassa paused as if considering the place. ‘That’s not an uncommon stopping-off point for travellers going north to south and east to west. You might find information on Cadorian there.’
Kana smiled. ‘That was what we were thinking. And we should be able to raise some working capital there too. We’ve registered as adventurers here and we have a letter of introduction to give to the guild master in Hillock. From what I hear, if we have to go to Alabeth, we need money.’
‘It’s not a cheap city to live in. Very well, we’ll speak again when you get to Hillock. Safe journeys, Kana.’
Chapter Seven: The Town Where Adventures Begin
Hillock, 20 th Thokarte 6023.
For the last couple of days, they had been walking along a fairly well-built road with Alabeth Forest on their left. It was a moderately dense deciduous forest with thick undergrowth in many places, except where the road cut through it for ten or fifteen miles at one point, and a holdover from when the whole of the Alabethi Plains had been treed. Along the way, they had seen the massive, dead skeleton of the Heart of the North from the road.
The withered tree, once the northern capital of the elves, could be seen for miles. It was an even more spectacular reminder of how the landscape had changed in six thousand years.
Now, however, they were approaching the walls of Hillock, their destination. It was a few miles off the main road and uphill.
Apparently, the name had come from the small hill it sat atop. It was not exactly a spectacular sight. The ‘walls’ were, in fact, a wooden palisade. There were gates, but no real gatehouse. It looked like the gates were closed every night, likely to provide security from the various creatures which called the forest home; Hillock was no more than a mile from the forest’s edge.
‘It’s not exactly Alabeth, is it?’ Aneshti observed.
‘It’s not even Dvartim,’ Rain replied. ‘On the other hand, it’s cheaper to live in than either and the people are always welcoming.’
The Girl Who Dreamed of a Different World Page 15