The Bowl of Souls: Book 01.5 - Hilt's Pride

by Trevor H. Cooley

  “Don’t worry. Just stay here with Yntri. I have to go look. I can’t be this close to a legend and not go see it.” He gave her a confident smile. “Don’t worry. I got where I am by knowing my abilities. I’m not going to fight something I can’t defeat. I’ll be right back. I promise.”

  He gently pried her fingers from his arm and hiked toward the top of the ridge. There was a slight rumble at his feet as the behemoth roared again. Hilt grinned, and sweat broke out on his forehead. He would keep his promise. He wasn’t about to fight a hopeless battle. He hadn’t prepared for such a task after all. He would want torches and spears, barrels of oil, perhaps some fire arrows . . . but what if? What if it could be done?

  Beth watched Hilt ascend the slope with a sinking feeling in her chest. She looked to the ancient elf. “He’s going to try and fight it isn’t he?”

  Yntri Yni’s dark look was the answer she hadn’t wanted to see.

  Hilt neared the top of the ridge and glanced back to see Beth and Yntri staring up at him. They were still standing where he had left them, which was good. If there truly was a troll behemoth nearby, he didn’t want Beth seeing it.

  Her reaction to the earlier troll attack had taken Hilt by surprise. Why had she been so shaken by it when before she had been so fearless? Her explanation of why the trolls had affected her didn’t make sense. He had no reason to doubt her story, but the idea that she had gone through life near the Tinny Woods without ever being attacked by a creature was something he found difficult to fathom. Was it just odd luck or was there something else about her?

  Hilt reached the top of the ridge and his nose wrinkled with the rancid smell of troll that hung in the air. He saw what Yntri Yni had already seen. The ground leveled out, then dipped slightly before rising into another rocky slope. He now had a pretty good idea where the behemoth was. Nearly every inch of ground was covered in slime trails, most of it leading from a wide cave mouth that yawned from the base of the slope ahead.

  Hilt drew his swords and stepped forward cautiously, ready for an attack to come at any time. For that much slime to be around there must be dozens of trolls in the area. But he didn’t see any. Where were they?

  He hesitated in front of the entrance. What was he doing? Yes, the chance to see a legendary beast was hard to resist, but was it okay to leave Beth alone with Yntri when so many trolls were about? Yntri would be able to protect her just fine. He had lived for thousands of years near the troll swamps after all, and his fire arrows were quite effective. But Beth did not understand the ancient elf language and her willfulness could get them both in trouble.

  Hilt’s excitement was too great to be held back by doubts however, and he shook off his apprehension. He would be gone minutes at the most. He was just going to have a look at the beast.

  Troll slime oozed from the cave mouth like an open sore. The behemoth had to be enormous. He wondered how far into the cave he would have to go to find it. The next question was how was he going to see? The light from outside would only illuminate so far into the interior and it would be foolhardy to attempt lighting a torch. One drip of flame in this slime and he would immolate himself.

  Hilt peered inside. The ceiling was high enough that he could enter without bending over. Slime squelched around his feet as he eased into the cave and he was grateful that the boots he had chosen for the journey were calf high. A bright beam of light shown in from outside, illuminating everything in its path, but at the same time making it hard to see what was outside the beam.

  Hilt stepped into the darkness and put the light at his back, waiting for his eyes to adjust. He listened carefully and heard bubbling along with a steady low throbbing sound. Splashes echoed out nearby. Something was coming towards him, something low to the ground. By then he could see just well enough to make out that it was a troll.

  It was half a troll really. Just a torso with arms and a head, yet it dragged itself through the slime towards him, its beady eyes gleaming hungrily from the sunlight at Hilt’s back. Hilt extended his right sword and watched its approach, wondering what had happened to the rest of its body. He reached into his bond with the sword and stepped towards the troll. He focused the air magic into an extension of his blade, and swung down.

  The precise cut cleaved the troll’s head in two and the air magic continued the cut down to its shoulder blades. The troll jittered on the floor silently and Hilt examined the stump of its lower half. The wound was ragged and torn, entrails still pouring out of it. Whatever had cut the thing in two had done so very recently. Hilt crept past it, knowing that it would heal quickly. He would have to finish his exploration fast or deal with it again on his way out.

  At the back of the cave was a narrow opening and Hilt could see that this was the source of the slime that filled the cave. The flammable substance poured into the cave from this passage in a steady stream. Hilt edged up to the opening and peered inside. There was a faint glow coming from a chamber further down the passage along with a hot and humid stench. He hunched over and walked through the passageway, swords at the ready. The slime flow made for treacherous footing and he had to step carefully to keep from slipping.

  The chamber beyond was enormous, easily three times the size of the cave entrance. Phosphorescent fungus lined the walls and ceiling, lending the area an eerie green light. The horrid smell and humidity were intense. In the center of the chamber, a wide pool bubbled and Hilt could see that underneath the slime was a boiling hot spring.

  Passageways of multiple sizes and shapes opened up here and there all along the chamber walls. Hilt saw the tiny reflections of a rat’s eyes in the edge of one of these passageways. It was eating some of the glowing fungus and after watching it for a few moments Hilt understood how the behemoth survived in this place. The heat and moisture created the perfect environment to grow the fungus. The fungus was a food source for other vermin, and the behemoth ate the vermin.

  Hilt’s eyes widened as he looked to the rear of the chamber. In the darkest corner was a large pile of troll bodies. Hilt had seen nothing like it before. They lay motionless as if paralyzed. It looked as if someone had discarded hundreds of troll corpses in the corner, stacking them haphazardly. He stepped out of the passageway and moved closer to get a better look. Then the entire rear of the chamber shifted and Hilt realized that he had been mistaken. That was the behemoth.

  It was a pulsating mass of glistening flesh. All along the surface of the behemoth, pieces of trolls were sticking out. No, that wasn’t quite true. They were growing out of it. Heads, legs, arms, torsos, all protruding from it at different angles. Now he understood where the troll torso in the cave entrance had come from. It had been protruding from the behemoth and was scraped off on the cavern wall. The beast was so large it had to happen from time to time, and it explained why there were so many trolls in the area. If a piece of the behemoth broke free, it would eventually grow into a regular troll.

  There was a shudder under his feet and the pool in the center of the room began to boil madly. Every head on the behemoth’s body opened up into a wailing screech. A rush of air knocked Hilt off balance and he nearly slipped and fell. That was the sound they had heard earlier, the behemoth’s roar. Luckily it hadn’t been focused at him or it may have burst his eardrums.

  Hilt realized he was looking at the behemoth’s back. Its limbs and head had been shoved down passageways into other chambers, most likely in search of food. His fingers twitched with excitement and he felt the magic stirring within his swords. This was a good time to strike. Now, while its back was turned.

  A voice echoed from the darkness behind him. “Hilt! You come out of there!”

  Hilt winced. It was Beth. Why hadn’t she obeyed his instructions?

  The glistening bulk responded to the sound. It shivered and moved, sliding further into the chamber. Hilt could hear bones within the behemoth cracking as it withdrew its extremities from the rear chambers. The torsos on its back began to stir. Beady eyes blinked. Clawed hands quive
red. Heads swiveled, searching for the source of the voice.

  “Hilt?” she shouted again. Her voice carried through the passageway remarkably well. Hilt could faintly hear Yntri clicking, warning her not to enter the cave. “You had better be alive in there!”

  Hilt swore under his breath. He had no choice. He had to leave.

  He bit his lip and twirled his swords. But before leaving, he had to try an attack. He had to see what would happen. Hilt called to the magic within his swords, then darted forward around the edge of the bubbling pool and unleashed a powerful double slash, extending the blades of air out past his swords as far as he could. Two very deep slits appeared in its glistening back.

  The wounds split open and a dozen clawed arms and torsos reached out, screeching and clawing. Then pushing past them came a large set of curved teeth that opened into a mouth wide enough to swallow him whole. A long tongue uncoiled from within and began reaching and searching for him.

  “Hilt if you don’t come out of there this instant, I am coming in after you!” came Beth’s voice. “I am counting to five!”

  Long clawed barbs burst from the end of the tongue and it whipped about wildly, smacking against the floor and ceiling of the cavern, but not coming close to reaching him.

  A half dozen small spherical bulges appeared around the gaping mouth, then spit open to reveal large lidless eyes. It saw him now. The tongue stopped its blind searching, and the bulk of the behemoth surged forward, filling the cavern. Hilt smiled. Now this was a beast of legend.

  “One!” Beth shouted. Yntri’s clicks were getting more plaintive now.

  Hilt fumed. Why couldn’t she leave him be? Hilt took a half step back and calculated how much damage he could inflict upon the beast before she came in after him.

  “Two!”

  He took several more steps back, staying just out of its reach. Of course he couldn’t cause any significant damage to it without attempting some truly devastating attacks. There were things he might be able to do, but . . . the truth was that he didn’t know if he could attempt it without pulling the cave walls down on top of him.

  “Three! Hilt, you better-! Hey! Don’t you dare touch me again, elf!”

  Hilt bit his lip again. But what an opportunity! When would he get the chance to try his skill against such a beast again? He twirled his swords and called to the magic, but hesitated. Would Beth truly be so crazy as to follow through with her threat? Surely she was bluffing.

  “Four!” There was no hesitation in her voice and Yntri had stopped trying to convince her. The stubborn woman was going to barge in and Hilt knew there was no way he could protect her against this beast, not in close quarters like this. Then he remembered the half-troll he had left in the outer chamber. She would be forced to face it and the only weapon he had given her was the fire stick.

  “Stop your count, I’m coming!” he shouted.

  “You’d better! I am going to count to three, and if you aren’t out here-!”

  “Shut up, woman! I’m coming!” The behemoth surged forward again and its tongue whipped at him again. One quick slice of Northwind lopped off the barbed tip and Hilt backed up to the passageway that lead back to the entrance.

  The behemoth slid to the right and shivered as it pulled an enormous tentacle out of one of the side passages. It swung the tentacle towards him and Hilt’s eyes widened. This wasn’t a tentacle; it was an arm. An arm made of hundreds of troll arms fused together, all of them reaching and grasping.

  He backed into the passageway, sliding and nearly stumbling, but he didn’t dare turn around. The behemoth’s arm followed him into the passageway and he could see that between each set of grasping arms was a toothy mouth opening and closing. This was how it fed. Hilt could imagine the behemoth’s hungry arm clearing passageways of screeching rodents. He worked his swords with a blur, sending tiny blades of air magic into the passageway, lopping off hands and arms and cutting mouths in two.

  The slimy bulk of the behemoth’s arm stopped its pursuit, wedged in the narrow space of the passage. He backed into the outer chamber and almost stumbled over the troll torso he had disabled earlier. Its arms were moving about sluggishly, its head already stitching itself back together.

  Hilt lopped the head off, no longer caring if he was just making more trolls. The bright light of day stung his eyes. Wincing, he stormed out of the cave.

  Beth stood a ways up the slope to the right of the cave entrance, glaring as he approached. In one hand she held a dry pine branch. In the other she held his fire stick. The cap was off. Yntri stood at her side, Beth’s dead viper draped around his shoulders like a reptilian scarf.

  “I told you to wait for me down the slope!” Hilt barked.

  “And let you charge in to your death?” Beth asked incredulously. “There was no way I was letting you be that stupid.”

  “And you!” Hilt jabbed a finger at Yntri Yni. “Why didn’t you stop her?”

  “You think he could?” Beth said.

  The elf shrugged and clicked helplessly. Hilt couldn’t be angry with him. There was no stopping Beth if she was determined.

  “Well look at me. I’m fine. Not dead! Not even a scratch. I was sneaking up on it. All you did was get its attention.”

  Beth’s glare faltered. “Oh, well-.”

  “Look, just stay out here and give me a few minutes. I’m going to go back in. There’s something I want to try.”

  “You’re not going back in there.” Beth said matter-of-factly “You promised to escort me to the top of this mountain.”

  Hilt grabbed his hair in frustration. “And I will. But first I need to go back and-.”

  “No,” Beth rubbed the end of the fire stick against the dry branch in her other hand.

  Hilt threw out his hand in warning, but she didn’t give him a chance. Beth tossed the burning branch onto the nearest slime trail. A line of fire streaked towards the cave entrance lighting every trail it crossed.

  Wasting no time, Hilt ran to Beth and tossed her over his shoulder, then turned and ran away from the cave. “Yntri!” he yelled, but the elf was already running ahead of them.

  When the line of fire hit the pool of slime at the mouth of the cave, there was a whoosh and then a sharp crack. Hilt was knocked from his feet by the concussive blast. His chest struck the ground and Beth tumbled away from him, rolling across the rock.

  IV

  Hilt’s ears rung and as he gasped for air, he looked back to see an enormous twisting plume of flame roaring from the cave entrance. Troll trails everywhere had been lit and the entire ridgeline was aflame. It was sheer luck that the blast had not knocked them into one of those flaming areas or tossed them down the mountainside. Even so, the heat was so oppressive that he feared his clothing would combust. He crawled to Beth.

  She was moaning softly. Her left arm had fallen across a lit troll trail and she hadn’t yet noticed that the sleeve of her dress had caught fire. He beat out the flames and dragged her to her feet. He grabbed her arm and pulled her further away from the blaze. She staggered along in a daze at first, bruised up and moaning. Then the behemoth’s pained roar echoed from the inferno behind them. She forgot about her discomfort and began to jog beside him.

  They didn’t turn back until the air cooled and they caught up to Yntri. The elf stood with arms folded watching the blaze, the flames reflecting in his squinting eyes. Hilt glanced back over his shoulder. The fire still poured from the cave mouth, flowing upward into the sky like an upside down waterfall. Hilt released Beth’s arm and looked her over to make sure she was okay. She was bumped up and bruised and her dress had torn in a few places, but from the way she glared back at him, he figured that she had recovered from her tumble.

  “What on earth were you thinking?” Hilt snapped. “We could have all been killed!”

  “I made sure we were standing in an area clear of slime before I lit the trails,” she said. “The fire was a bit more intense than I figured though.”

  “A bit?”
Hilt said in disbelief. “And where is my fire stick? Please don’t tell me you dropped it.”

  “Here,” she said and stuck out her right hand which was still clenched around the stick, her knuckles white. “I made sure not to let go of it.”

  “And the cap?” Hilt asked. “Please tell me you didn’t lose it.”

  “Uhh . . .” Her brow furrowed, her eyes darting back and forth for a moment as she tried to remember what she had done with it. Then she sighed in relief. “That’s right. Yntri pulled it off when he tried to take the stick away from me.”

  Hilt glanced over to Yntri. The elf handed it to him wordlessly. Hilt snatched the fire stick from her hand and placed the cap back on it before tucking it into his pocket. “I see that you can’t be trusted with this.”

  “I can’t be trusted?” she scoffed. “After you ran off to your doom, leaving me alone with a handsy old elf, I’m the one who can’t be trusted?”