There was a whistle from above them. The signal.
Durham watched as Thud stepped forward with the shiny key they’d gotten from the chest in the poisonous smoke room. He knelt and inserted it into the base and gave it a twist. The lid of the sarcophagus clicked, jerked forward and then paused a moment, teetering, waiting for gravity to take over. Thud was backing away as quickly as walking backward allowed, while holding Gong’s shield in front of him, which wasn’t quickly at all. The lid toppled, falling to the side with a crash and a puff of dust.
The mummy lord stood within, arms crossed the same way they had been on the lid. He was wrapped in brown linens, the ones over his face separated just enough to reveal his glowing blue eyes, the ones on his chin split apart to allow his beard to stick out. It looked a bit silly but Durham supposed it would look even sillier had they wrapped it as well.
The mummy’s arms slowly uncrossed as its shining eyes focused on Thud. Even without the rest of its face the rage was clear. It reached out with its arms, a low and deep moan emanating from its chest as it took a lurching step forward, then another.
That was as far as it got.
It had taken ten minutes and the assistance of both Durham and Leery to get Gong up onto one of the statues.
It took much less time for Gong to arrive at the floor once he stepped off.
There was a rope around his waist that was looped around the statue’s neck, the end a snare buried in the sand just where the mummy had stepped out.
Durham’s brain automatically supplied a ‘yoink’ sound effect as the mummy lord snapped up into the air like a yo-yo.
It dangled briefly upside-down, arms flailing as Gong regained his feet and started running, pulling the rope along with him. The mummy’s ascent continued, the rope dragging it through the smoldering coals. It ignited like a match, adding cheerfully flickering fire-light to the room’s ambiance as it swung free again to dangle from the statue’s arms. The most revolting chandelier Durham had ever seen.
A mummy-lord was not a foe to underestimate, however, and the snare did not hold it for long. Durham didn’t know if it was the fire that had burned through the rope or if the mummy was strong enough to snap the rope with the strength in its ankles but it took only another second before the mummy dropped free of the trap, falling to the ground like a camphor-scented comet.
It landed directly on the spears Gong had collected from the traps. They’d arrayed them in two neat little rows, braced between the pieces of lumber they’d brought. It wasn’t a strong brace but it was enough to keep the spears pointed upright to catch a mummy.
The mummy’s momentum was enough to slide it halfway down the shafts before it stopped, held a few feet off the ground with four spears sticking through it. It was wiggling a lot but was pinned like a beetle in a scrapbook. Sparks spilled as it sizzled and snapped.
Thud and Keezix had been waiting next to the spears, axes drawn. They set about systematically chopping bits off of the mummy and tossing the smoldering chunks around the room, keeping them well spread apart. They finished with Thud taking one of the spears the mummy had missed and skewering the thing’s head after Keezix severed it.
He carried the head on a spear back to the sarcophagus, placed it inside and shut the lid. “Should take some time for it to piece itself together after that. Think that’s enough to count as a win as far as this place is concerned.”
“Seems so,” Durham said. He pointed at the dais at the back of the room. A large chest glittered there, trimmed in shining copper. It hadn’t been there a few seconds earlier. Some sort of lift in the floor? Leery seemed to be having similar thoughts. She was nudging at the seams on the dais with her foot as Mungo scrutinized the chest to see if it was going to try to kill whomever opened it. Even after pronouncing it safe they opened it by levering the top up with one of the spears. The interior glittered with treasure.
They stood and waited as Leery inspected the contents, using the spear to poke through them.
“Junk,” she said, tossing a necklace aside to land on the floor. “Garbage,” she said as a silk vest followed the necklace. A pile began to accumulate as she tossed things aside. Armor pieces, rings, and brooches. She finally cast the spear aside and reached in to lift out a glowing sword with a silver quillon of dragon wings and a pommel studded with gems. “Fakes glitzed up for tourists,” she said. She pointed at the sword’s hilt. “Look, it even still has the Khomen-Te smith mark on it. Someone added some tin dragon wings and some glass jewels to pretty it up.”
Thud rolled his eyes. “And I’ll bet they’ve got merchants just outside the exit, ready and waiting to buy it all from us for dungeon tokens. We might have earned enough here to be able to afford one of the hats.” He turned back to where the rest of them waited. “So, we’ve navigated the Mazerynth. Did we learn anything?”
Gong gave a contemptuous grunt. “Just a game with a theme and a budget.”
“No sign of a djinn lamp,” Leery said.
“And the foes are impostors,” Mungo said, pointing at nothing. The nothing was where the pieces of mummy should have been. They were gone, joining the drifts of sand on the floor.
Durham still had a concern. “I was expecting the exit to open once we finished.”
They all turned to look at the far side of the room. There was an arch there, beyond the sarcophagus and the dais. The arch was blocked by an ornate stone slab that looked like it was intended to slide down into the floor to allow an exit.
“Never been in a tomb that had a back door before,” Thud said. “So can’t claim any expertise on what’s likely to make it open but it does seem like that’s what’s s’posed to happen.”
“No mention of it in the directions.” Keezix had unrolled the bottom end of the scroll and was rereading the instructions. “Just says to fight the mummy, collect the treasure and leave the tomb.”
There was a loud clonk noise. A hole appeared near the top of each of the room’s walls. Scarcely a breath had passed before a torrent of sand began falling through each hole, streaming down the walls with a loud whispering sound. It quickly began making piles on the floor.
“That’s not on the scroll either.” Keezix sounded annoyed. She tossed the scroll aside.
“New feature they added?” Thud asked. “It’s comin’ out awful fast.”
Mungo nodded “Rate of flow factored by room volume gives us ten minutes until the room fills to the point where…well…” his voice trailed off.
Keezix was still glaring at the sand and muttering. “If I live to see that merchant again I’ll…”
“Pull it together, sergeant,” Gong snapped. “You ain’t on Vanguard because I needed someone that could read instructions. Assess the situation and plan accordingly. Quickly. Treat it like a problem in any other dungeon we been in.”
“Any other dungeon and traps-team woulda been on this like grit on a rockbeetle. But traps wasn’t looking because I thought we had it all sussed out.” Keezix glanced at Mungo, the resident representative of traps team.
Mungo wasn’t paying attention to any of them. He had his head craned back and was peering at the ceiling.
“Ah,” he said and smiled one of his absurdly wide gnome smiles. “Just what I was hoping for.”
“How’s that?” Thud asked.
“If this place is simply a game to play, a way to siphon money out of adventurer pockets then it stands to reason that there’s a way to reset it between groups, yes? Someone has to come in here and replace the treasures, close the doors, reset the traps, mop up the blood, that sort of thing. The obvious way to do that is with hidden employee entrances. Such as that one.” He pointed at the ceiling. “That wide stone in the corner. Extra gap around the perimeter and no mortar holding it up. I’d wager that as soon as the dungeon is finished that’s going to lift up and a clean-up crew is going to come sliding down in here on ropes. I suspect there are similar features in some of the other rooms. The hole in the ceiling of the first room
with the hobgoblin was the most obvious of them. Probably one or two behind some of the mirrors in the maze. If we’re going to find a way out, it’s going to be there.”
Thud stroked his beard as he contemplated the corner of the ceiling. “Well, no time like the present to have a look.”
Durham could see the suspicious gap around the stone now that Mungo had pointed it out. Its location in the corner made it easily accessible from the wall should they manage to get someone up there. Unfortunately the wall beneath was smooth, a canvas for the ever present murals. “Can we just wait until the sand is deep enough that we can just stay on top and be able to reach it?”
Thud shook his head. “That’s what seems the common sense solution until the first time you try to stay on top of a growing pile of sand. Sand may seem solid to walk on once it’s had time to settle and pack itself in but falling loose like this? It’d be like trying to stay on top of a pile of dried beans.”
“As per usual,” Leery said, pulling on a pair of gloves. “Once Vanguard and Traps teams both fail it’s up to Acquisitions to sort everything out.” She snapped the wrists on each glove then began to climb back up the statue.
Chapter Eleven
Durham was torn between watching Leery and watching the piles of sand accumulating against the walls. There was a constant tide of sand streaming down the sides of the piles, pushing softly against his ankles and tugging at his feet when he took a step. Above him Leery jumped from the statue to a pillar, shimmied around it, then crawled across a ceiling beam through one of the sand torrents. She emerged on the other side spitting and puffing then dropped to dangle and move hand over hand across the moulding.
“Must be an easy climb for her,” Thud commented. “Usually she falls and breaks something partway through the first attempt.” He looked down at the sand accumulating around his knees. “For the best, eh? Don’t think I’d want to wait through a second attempt.”
Leery reached the corner where they’d spotted the panel and hung there a moment examining it. She reached out with one hand and gave it a shove.
Nothing.
Mungo had climbed on top of Gong’s shoulders to keep clear of the sand. Keezix had been trying to step her way on top of it but sunk back just as fast. Now it was to the level of her waist and she switched tactics to trying to roll onto it.
There was a hammering noise from above as Leery drove a climbing ring into the seam of the door. She looped her beard-braid through it and hung from it, feet against the wall, enabling her to have both hands free to fiddle with the latch.
“Gonna be on your shoulders any minute,” Thud said to Durham. “An’ I just want to apologize in advance for that.” The sand was to the dwarf’s chest, his arms splayed out across the top as if he were in a lake.
There was a clank from above. “Got it!” Leery yelled. She disappeared through a dark rectangle in the ceiling. Durham grabbed Thud under the arms and lifted him toward his shoulders. Dwarves pack a lot of mass into their size and Durham wasn’t able to squat down to lift. He felt something in his back go off like a spring from a clock and his legs went tingly. Thud was awkwardly clambering around on his head, neck and shoulders until he was able to gain a sitting position.
A rope dropped from the hatch above, the end twitching and jerking several feet away. Thud launched himself off of Durham’s shoulders to grab onto it. Gong tossed Mungo up and Thud caught him, hoisting him further. Mungo was a fast climber and scampered up the rope. He’d reached the top and dropped a second rope down before Thud had managed to climb more than halfway. Keezix was on the rope below Thud, not so much climbing as using the rope to help her keep on top of the sand. Gong began climbing the second rope. He paused a few feet up to harness his armor to it. Gong was not a fast climber and a bit of hoisting usually assisted his climbs.
By the time Thud reached the top and Keezix had started up the sand was above where Durham’s head had been, back when there had been a floor to stand on. Durham was climbing after Keezix, feeling a bit seasick as the rope spun and jerked him around from Keezix’s enthusiastic climbing technique.
Durham’s arms were burning when he reached the top of the rope. Leery helped tug him the rest of the way up and through the hatch. He found himself sitting against the wall of a small room, seemingly in existence only to give space for the hatch. He was on a three-foot-wide strip of floor between the hatch and the walls. There was an opening in the opposite wall to a larger room.
“Through here,” Leery whispered. Durham followed her through the opening, doing his best to creep in the way her whisper had implied. Brooms, mops and buckets occupied one wall along with a pump. Shelves on the other walls held rolls of linens, painting supplies, torches and soaps. A dozen or so crates were stacked in a corner.
The rest of the team was clustered around a door on the far side, all four leaning around the doorjamb to peek out at once, two to a side. It looked choreographed when they all jerked their heads back in and pressed flat against the wall. All four of them made a wait gesture toward Durham and Leery, eight wide eyes added for emphasis. Mungo’s goggles made his eyes the widest.
Durham and Leery froze, mid-creep.
There was noise from the hall outside. Footsteps, getting louder uncomfortably fast. Too fast to creep back into the hatch. Leery dropped flat and rolled underneath the shelves on the left wall. Durham tried the same with the shelves on the right and discovered he didn’t fit. He lay very still and tried to look like a roll of carpet. If the owners of the feet came into the room maybe he would confuse them enough for the dwarves lurking to the sides to get the jump on them.
Seconds later and they came within view. Goblins, tugging at their leather armor, javelins held casually under their arms or over shoulders. Durham counted eight as they went past. The last one was trying to tie a boot-lace one-handed as he hopped along to keep up, the other hand trying not to spill his coffee.
Thud popped his head back out the doorway a few seconds later then made a quick hand motion. They filed out into the hall, everyone still walking in a crouch as if there were anything to hide behind. They were on a balcony of sorts. The far side was a row of towers rising from somewhere below, separated by lengths of railing. Each tower had a door leading onto the balcony. The one to their left had a sign that said ‘STAIRS’. The tower to the right was labeled ‘GREENROOM 7L’. Durham duck-walked forward until he could get a peek at what the balcony looked out over.
It was a large dining hall. Several rows of people sat on benches with boards across their laps, spearing unidentifiable bits of food from their trenchers. They had the look of adventurers and were all wearing matching blue shoes. A large orange humanoid of some sort Durham wasn’t familiar with was ambling along between the rows toting a giant pot and a dripping ladle. Another half dozen of the orange creatures were clustered at one end of the room chopping vegetables and throwing them into a trio of stew-pots hanging in a fireplace the size of a wagon. They were wearing matching red tunics that fit them awkwardly. Durham reversed his duck-walk and spun back around, bringing him face to face with a frowning Thud.
Then the sound of bootsteps from the STAIRS tower, ghostly and hollow as the echoes ricocheted up the stairs. “Quick!” Thud whispered, pointing at GREENROOM 7L. There was a great deal of furtive scampering as the party tried to get through the doorway in the most efficient, quiet and rapid manner, complicated by unspoken and differing viewpoints on how best to achieve any of the three.
Durham ducked through last and Thud pushed the door shut behind him. The dwarf turned to face everyone. His voice was pitched low. “This is where them goblins came out of so I figure maybe it’s gonna be empty for a few minutes. Maybe enough time to figure out what’s next.”
The room they were in had a counter along one wall. There was a mirror above it flanked by bright lanterns. The counter was covered with colored powders and brushes. A long closet was on the other wall, one door slid open to reveal a few goblin-sized leather chest-p
ieces hanging on pegs.
“My minin’ instincts tell me we’re just below the ground level of the pyramid.” Thud looked at the ceiling as if that might confirm his notion. “This hallway runs along the western side of it. That seem about right?”
The other dwarves nodded which was enough confirmation for Durham. He had no idea where they were in relation to anything that had been before the mirror maze.
“Reconnaissance in pursuit of an exit plan,” Keezix said.
“And whatever else we can suss out while we’re at it,” Thud said. “We’re behind the curtains. When we come back with a mind to breaking things it’s going to be in here instead of down there with the mummies.”
Mungo opened his mouth.
“And no, we ain’t disguising ourselves as goblins.”
Mungo closed his mouth.
***
“It’s time,” the djinn said. “My master has requested your presence.”
Ruby looked up from her journal. She’d finished her tea and most of a bowl of dates while bringing it up to date. “Try not to drop me this time. Even if he has a pile of pillows like you do it’s a rather undignified way to meet one’s employer.”
Zabawa gave an apologetic bow. “An unfortunate reality of whisking someone away by surprise is their tendency to try and stab you as soon as they get their bearings. Dropping you on a pile of pillows will not be necessary.”
Ruby stood and straightened her cassock. She had an unopened inkpot in her pocket and a freshly whittled quill. “Anything I should know before meeting your master? Who it is, for example?”
“You shall know soon enough.”
“Very well.” She stepped forward and took the djinn’s outstretched hand.
She didn’t notice the rush of speed and explosion of arrival nearly as much when she was in the middle of it. Their surroundings simply blurred for a moment and then unblurred into something completely different.
Mazerynth Page 13
