Soldiers of Avarice

by Stephen L. Nowland

  “I’d think I’d remember another tunnel in me own home,” the dwarf replied, skidding down the inclined rocks to land on the stone floor. “But if you’re sure about it, I’ll take some time to look at it. Is this tunnel o’ yours big enough to squeeze through?”

  “Yes, and with room to spare,” Pacian replied. “A lot of room to spare, actually. It’s almost as big as the stairwell we came down.”

  Clavis paused in mid-stride, his expression slack as he seemed to be struck by a horrible thought. “There wasn’t anything like that last time I was ’ere,” he said, slowly and deliberately. “I think ya better show me, lad, and quickly now.”

  Pacian used his torch to light the way back towards the tunnel he’d found. With a feeling of growing dread, Aiden and Sayana followed.

  It only took a minute to reach the gaping hole in the side of the stone wall, and despite Pacian’s brief description of its size, the walls of the tunnel didn’t appear to be carved by crude tools, or even those of master craftsmen. They were, in fact, quite smooth, and the tunnel itself was more or less round, and almost ten feet across.

  Clavis crept forward slowly, his left hand extended to touch the stone, almost in disbelief. And then Aiden felt another vibration in the stone, this time much stronger than before.

  “By Relnak, did you feel that?” Clavis exclaimed, invoking the name of the dwarven battle god. He started backing away, and Pacian did likewise, grabbing the hilts of his daggers just in case.

  “What caused this?” Sayana asked, her voice tight with anxiety. “Is it connected to that tremor we felt?”

  “Back in the day,” Clavis explained, licking his lips with consternation, “we had these critters we called borers. They grew to about yea big,” he described, holding his hands about two feet apart. “Kinda like moles, but with a hard shell like a tortoise, able to dig their way through stone given enough time. In the wild, they’d cause all sorts o’ problems with the tunnels, but they’re usually not dangerous, ’cause we’d cull their numbers every few years.”

  “Clavis, this tunnel is huge,” Aiden pointed out, placing a hand on the hilt of his sword as he did so. “How many borers would it have taken to do this?”

  Another tremor rippled through the stone, this one sustained for over five seconds before it stopped. Motes of dust and dirt cascaded down from above them, coating them in a fine layer.

  “Thing is,” Clavis explained, his voice too calm. “Thing is ... without anyone around to cull ’em, there’s no telling how big they could grow. Could be five feet, could even be ten feet high.”

  The implications of this statement slowly sunk into Aiden’s mind, and the picture it formed was not something he wanted to see emerging from the tunnel. “Get your gear, everyone,” he ordered tersely. “We’re not waiting around to see—”

  He was interrupted by another tremor, this one even more intense than before, accompanied by a loud screeching noise. Aiden’s heart almost leapt out of his chest as his natural instincts to run kicked in. The tremor did not stop, and instead continued to build in intensity.

  “Run!” Aiden shouted, hesitating a moment while the others bolted before joining them. They raced back towards their excavation site, still being lit by Nellise’s staff and several flaming torches. She was already on her feet, using her staff to help her move across the unsteady ground towards Aiden.

  Colt had managed to get his equipment together when the rock behind him exploded outwards, showering him in gravel and dirt. The spray obscured Nellise and most of the torches, but there was enough light around to see that something big had emerged.

  From behind, the loud screeching sound grew louder, and the torch Pacian had dropped when he took flight with the rest of them lit up a huge creature, easily filling out the tunnel it was crawling through. Aiden saw a shiny, dense outer shell and two beady eyes, glowing yellow in the torchlight.

  He was still half-running, half-stumbling across the rock-strewn floor towards Nellise, who was backing away from the borer that had emerged almost right next to her. She was clearly stunned by what she was seeing and couldn’t move fast enough before one of the borer’s great paws, tipped with huge razor-sharp claws, lashed out and struck her across the chest, sending her tumbling backwards.

  Aiden drew his sword and spoke the command word to activate his magical glove, bringing the shimmering force field into existence. He continued moving as fast as he could towards Nellise, hoping to find her armor had protected her from the slashing claws.

  Her staff was still glowing, making it easy to locate her in the dusty mess they were mired in, though getting there through the shadowy half-light without tripping was challenging. Nellise was starting to pick herself up as Aiden reached her, a sizable dent clearly visible on the lower part of her breastplate.

  “I’m fine,” she coughed as he helped her up. He didn’t get a chance to say anything, for a second giant borer followed the first one, screeching in unison, and the two started shambling their way with alarming speed towards the light sources — Nellise and Sayana.

  “Everyone, rally around me!” Aiden cried out, readying his sword as the others rushed over to him. “Clavis, can we outrun these things?”

  “They can keep up with us real easy,” he called back, pulling out a hatchet as he skidded to a halt next to Aiden. “They hate bright lights, loud sounds, and fire, though, and I think we have plenty o’ that. We don’t have to flee, man — we can hold here!”

  “You’d better be right about this,” Aiden muttered, as the larger of the two borers shrieked and charged towards the light that was hurting its puny eyes. The giant borers moved on all fours, and seemed to resemble a cross between a wolverine, tortoise, and a mole. Their armored hides glistened a sickening shade of yellow-white, and each of their four paws was tipped with vicious claws.

  They towered over Aiden and the others by a full three feet, and must have weighed close to a ton. Colt was the closest to the creatures, and had been backing away from them to regroup with Aiden and the others.

  The big ranger drew his greatsword and waited for the large borer to move in close enough, then swung the huge weapon at its flank, slicing through its hide and gashing it severely. He hadn’t anticipated the creature’s hind legs, though, and was suddenly thrown backward by a retaliatory blow from a leg that sent him into the path of the smaller borer, though small was definitely a relative term.

  Aiden may have lost track of Pacian in the darkness, but Pacian had found a way to be useful. He struck hard, plunging a dagger in between the smaller beast’s armored plates, giving Colt a chance to stagger back to the rest of the group. Pacian tried to hit it again with his other dagger, but the borer’s thrashing turned it away, and he was thrown back into the shadows with his first dagger still stuck in its side.

  “Clavis, give Pacian some cover!” Aiden yelled, as the small borer turned to follow its attacker into the shadows.

  “I can’t,” Clavis exclaimed. “I left me bow over with me tools!”

  “Same with my longbow,” Colt grated, swinging his sword back and forth to try and keep the large borer at bay.

  “I’ve got mine,” Nellise cried, raising her crossbow and aiming at the smaller creature, while Sayana pulled out her hatchet and ran to one side of the large beast. It was lashing out with its paws at Colt as he warily searched for a way past. There was enough light to see the back end of the smaller creature, which gave Aiden an easy target for his sword.

  A flash of light lit up the area of the cavernous hall, followed by the roar of the larger borer as Sayana bathed it in flame. Aiden risked a quick glance, seeing Clavis and Colt working together, when a crossbow bolt from Nellise pierced the creature’s side, drawing its attention.

  The huge borer turned in a slow, lumbering fashion and then squirted a stream of liquid from its mouth. Whatever it was, it splashed on the ground at Nellise’s feet, sending up a cloud of noxious vapor as it sizzled on the bare rock.

  “Oh,
they also squirt acid for eatin’ through rock,” Clavis yelled as an afterthought.

  “That would have been handy to know a few minutes ago!” Aiden called back, his heart racing as he took another swing at the borer in front of him. “Pace, are you still over there?” he called.

  “Yeah, thanks for the assist, mate,” Pacian yelled back. “I’m pulling back, though; it got my arm pretty good.”

  “I’ll follow you out,” Aiden cried, stepping to one side and bolting for the group that fought the larger creature not twenty yards away. More flame erupted from Sayana’s position, causing it to shriek and recoil from the heat and light.

  Aiden wasn’t sure what had motivated them to attack — it might have been hunger, or that the light pained their eyes, or some other reason. With the large borer on the defensive, Colt took the opportunity to take a powerful, reckless swing at its head. His weapon struck a telling blow, gouging out one of its puny eyes as it sprayed acid from its mouth. The big man’s left arm was splashed with acid, which quickly ate through his leathers and burned his skin. Colt dropped his sword and staggered backward, clutching at his arm and screaming.

  “Bugger this, I’m goin’ for me crossbow,” Clavis bellowed, running past the gravely wounded borer and over to the rock-pile as fast as his little legs would carry him.

  “Watch out behind you,” Sayana warned, spotting the smaller borer starting to move in, dragging its wounded hind leg. “Cover your ears; I’m going to try something.”

  Sayana brought her hands together in front of her as she unleashed her spell, shaking the rock around them and blasting the two wounded borers with deafening sound. They shrieked in agony, unable to withdraw or cover their ears from the assault, but worse still, the blast dislodged rock and debris from above, which scattered across Aiden’s head and shoulders.

  “Sayana, you’d better not do that one again,” Aiden warned, glancing up at the ceiling in trepidation. “The roof could come down on us completely.”

  “I had to do something,” she yelled back, as the echoes from the sound blast slowly dissipated. The smaller borer slumped to the ground, as blood oozed from what seemed to be its ears, and its tongue unfurled onto the stone floor.

  The large one, however, was not only still active, it had gone berserk. Its tiny eyes narrowed on Sayana, and it spat a stream of acid at her.

  She was quick to react, leaping away to avoid most of the acid, though she still caught some of it on her legs. Pacian started to work on the other side, stabbing away at its exposed flank. Nearby, Clavis stood amidst the rubble, cranking out bolts as fast as his repeating crossbow could manage.

  Pummeled from all sides, the beast eventually stopped moving and slumped to the ground. Aiden struggled to catch his breath, the left side of his chest stabbing with pain if he breathed too deeply. Clutching at his side, he staggered over to check on the others.

  “Everyone okay?” Aiden croaked, trying to see how Nellise and Colt were faring. A soft light glowed from the crystal Nellise held as she healed Colt’s burned arm. Grimacing through the pain, Sayana had dragged herself back over to Nellise as well, her legs sporting some nasty burns that would need tending.

  “We’re fine,” Colt replied gruffly, examining what remained of the armor on his left arm.

  “Everyone, gather around, and I’ll do some group healing,” Nellise instructed, opening her eyes to take in the line of patients awaiting her care. Clavis walked over and sat on the ground with the rest of them, looking overwhelmed at what he’d just seen.

  “We used to keep ’em as pets,” he mumbled in disbelief, looking at the massive bulk of the dead creatures nearby. “Now I see why we used to cull ’em in the wild; I wouldn’t want a bunch of those giant things running through me city.”

  “Clavis, it would have been handy to know about them before we entered the city,” Colt growled in frustration.

  “Pets, I tell ye!” Clavis protested, his hands raised in supplication. “If’n I thought they’d be a problem, I woulda told ya. I swear on me life.”

  “So, you never encountered them before on your previous visits?” Aiden pressed. “Not even a tremor?”

  “Nay; the first time down I ran into a pack of bandits that were using the top level as a hideout,” he replied as way of explanation. “Twenty-five o’ the bastards, more’n I could take by meself. So I left again before they saw me, never having gone beyond the entrance.”

  “What about the last time,” Pacian asked bluntly. “You made it to this point, and yet saw no giant monsters?”

  “That’s right; I never saw or felt the damn things,” Clavis shot back. “Me and my team made it here and no further, with no sightings.”

  “Easy,” Nellise said gently. “No one is accusing you of hiding their existence on purpose. The question we need to ponder now, however, is do we continue on, knowing there could be more of them?”

  “I’d hate to have come all this way for nothing,” Aiden sighed. “I hear what you’re saying though; this was a bit more than we bargained for.”

  “Nothin’s changed really,” Clavis suggested. “I told ye all that Ferrumgaard was dangerous, but the reward is gonna outweigh the risk, so long as ya have the courage to persevere. And on the upside, we’ve got a way through now that we never woulda had afore them borers came through.”

  “Does save us a lot of rock-moving,” Colt grunted.

  Nellise seemed to weigh up the positives against the perils, and reluctantly gave in. “All right; if the hard part is over, we may as well press on,” she agreed. “The reward had better be worth the risk.”

  Having made their decision, Aiden went over to the pile of rocks to put on his leathers once more, swearing to never remove them while still underground.

  “There’s something I never thought to pack,” Sayana observed quietly, as she mournfully picked at the tattered remains of her leathers. “Spare pants.”

  Chapter Eleven

  The tunnel curved through the rock for some distance, then re-entered the old chambers of Ferrumgaard once more. Clavis explained that while the borers could dig through rock well enough, they preferred to set up a tunnel network to move around with ease.

  While they were walking, Aiden dropped back to the rear of the group to speak with Nellise about the body they had found under the fallen rock.

  “It was no more than three years gone, at the most,” she informed him quietly. “Apparently the local wildlife cleaned up the bones quite rapidly, for if he had received a proper burial, the body would obviously have appeared quite differently. A little more... fleshy, as it were.”

  “Only three years,” Aiden mused, trying to resolve something that didn’t quite add up. “Clavis claims the rock fall stopped their progress two years ago, but that body was definitely buried underneath it.

  “Therefore, the passage had to have collapsed on them, trapping those underneath. Clavis lied about what happened the last time he was here. That body must be the remains of one of his companions.”

  “It doesn’t please me to say it, but I don’t see any other way he could have become trapped there,” Nellise whispered. “We shouldn’t jump to conclusions, though — perhaps there was an accident, or he ran into something that attacked his team.”

  “Even if that’s true,” Aiden disagreed, “why would he keep that information from us?”

  “When we stop to rest, I think we should confront him about these omissions,” Nellise suggested. “I have the distinct feeling this place is only going to become more dangerous the further we go.”

  They left the confines of the borers’ tunnel, entering a new part of the city, and weren’t quite prepared for what they saw. The decaying bones of hundreds of dwarven people were strewn across the streets, and the buildings here were heavily damaged, but from what, Aiden couldn’t tell. The air was quite stale and warm in this part of the complex.

  “What in God’s name happened here?” Nellise breathed, looking around at the carnage. The othe
rs were similarly taken aback, but nobody, even Clavis, had any answers.

  “Me first thought was that these folks died in the flood,” he muttered grimly, “but the water never came up this far.”

  “And what about this?” Pacian called from behind them. Aiden turned and saw that his friend was pointing at the collapsed section they had just bypassed.

  The bones of numerous people were sticking out of the rocks, much in the same way as the other body they’d seen on the other side of this rock fall. Signs of broken weapons were littered amongst the bones, and Aiden exchanged a knowing glance with Nellise, whose eyes were wide with puzzlement at this new development.

  “Give me a few minutes to examine these bodies, and to pray,” she asked. “I need an answer to the carnage I see before me.”

  “I think we all do,” Sayana said, appearing distraught. Aiden gave Nellise the space she needed and moved over to speak with Clavis.

  “Is this still the worker’s district?” he asked, looking around at the wreckage and trying to see if there was any similarity to the buildings further back.

  “If memory serves,” he answered darkly, “this was the dwellings o’ the common folk. More’n that, I couldn’t tell ya with any accuracy. I haven’t stood on this ground in nearly a hunnerd years, Aiden, and truth be told, there’s much that I didn’t know, even back then.”

  They stood amongst the devastation of the city for a few more minutes in silence, where only the faint whispers of Nellise’s prayers could be heard echoing through the still streets.

  “It would seem this group of people left this world nearly a century ago,” she eventually reported, looking drained, although whether from the prayer or the information she’d gleaned, it was hard to tell. “The manner of their deaths was not revealed to me, but it was virtually simultaneous. All of them died around the same time. The weapons strewn around here indicates there was a battle, and we are looking at the losers.”