Descent Into Darkness (Book 2)

by James R. Vernon

  "Excuse me," Sadiek cut in. "I think I need some time alone." Pushing past Ean, the older man headed back towards the wagons.

  Azalea and Ean both watched him go for a few moments before rounding on each other.

  "If you could just stop from trying to joke about why we are here..."

  "Why don't you just tell everyone about who you really are..."

  They stared each other down for a few moments, but surprisingly it was Azalea that was the first to look away. Looking back towards the wagons, Azalea grunted.

  "There is something not quite right about that man. Even if he didn't know so much about you, I would tell you to be careful around him. He doesn't taste...right."

  "What does that mean?" Ean said, also looking back towards the wagons for a moment before returning his attention to Azalea.

  "I don't know. His emotions just taste different. And he felt less lust towards me than you do, and I have been using my tricks on him since we walked up to him. He just feels very wrong."

  "He is just a little eccentric, I think. Plus, he has been trying to decipher the language of the Abyss for me, which would be a great help, so I would prefer to stay on his good side."

  "Wait, wait, wait. You didn't actually give him your book did you?"

  "Of course not. I've written notes for him to look at and work with. I've never let the Abysmal Tome out of my sight."

  "Alright good. I was hoping you weren't stupid enough to let a stranger have your book alone. And no, I'm not saying you're stupid in general, so don't give me that look."

  "Let's just forget about him then, ok? Like you said earlier, we are here for a reason. Kaz'ren said the Plague-bringer's lair is nearby, so let's see if we can figure out where without angering anyone else around here."

  "Well, that part's easy. There is only one place it could be." When he just stared back at her, Azalea sighed. "The mine. The one place that if you go, it's punishable by death?"

  A knot of stress started to build in his stomach. The one place it was probably impossible to reach.

  Smiling at Ean, Azalea reached over and patted his arm. "Sometimes it takes a while for things to sink into that thick skull. Come on, let's go see what we are up against. No use worrying about things until we see what we have to deal with."

  Grabbing his arm she began leading him down the street. Her eyes darted about while Ean kept his on the stones in front of his feet. It made sense that getting into the Plague-bringer's lair was going to be dangerous. Why wouldn't it be? Ean mentally kicked himself for even having the hope that things would be easy as soon as they got to Ulundkin. A warning from Kaz'ren would have been nice. He could always send a prayer her way and see if she responded...

  "There!" Azalea whispered excitedly into his ear.

  Ean trained his gaze in the direction she was pointing and caught sight of a small path worn into the ground that wrapped around a well and then a few of the buildings off the road.

  "How do you know?"

  The Yulari shrugged. "I don't, but it looks like that path has been used a lot. Let's see, and if it's nothing, we'll come back to the road."

  "Fine."

  They began walking off the road, following the path past the well. The mountain loomed over the few houses, stretching up into the fog and barely visible past the rooftops. Ean hadn't realized how close the mountains were when he had first gotten out of the wagon. It made sense that a path into the mine, and hopefully the Plague-bringer's old lair, would be so close to the village.

  They passed two houses along the path with only one more in the distance. It was eerie moving around the village without a soul around, the only sounds the distant shouts of the men working near the wagons. The houses they passed were dark and appeared abandoned although in good condition. Were the people here out performing their jobs? Or were they hiding from the caravan? Ean would like to at least meet one--

  A sudden blow to the back of both of his legs knocked him to the ground. Face down in the dirt, he heard Azalea hiss somewhere above him.

  "Don't move!"

  Ean didn't recognize the voice and quickly rolled over onto his back. Looking up he saw two men in red outfits like the one in front of the warehouse, each one pointing a thin black blade at Azalea. The Yulari had her hands spread wide, her expression clearly showing her intentions.

  "Azalea, stop!"

  The Yulari looked down at him, then back at the men, then at Ean again, before relaxing slightly. She folded her arms across her chest and glared at the two men. They kept their swords raised although the one closest to Ean had turned his attention away from Azalea towards him.

  Raising his hands, Ean tried to put on his most innocent looking expression.

  "What seems to be the problem?"

  The one closest to Ean snarled at him, although Ean couldn't see his face. Taking a closer look, Ean realized that the two men weren't wearing red outfits. It was actually dark red armor.

  The armor, made from what looked like fist-sized plates, covered the men from head to toe. The way the plates overlapped made it look like one solid piece, but when the men bent their arms or legs, Ean could see the gaps that separated the different pieces. The armor even covered the man's entire head, with two small openings for the eyes, the only perceivable openings in the entire outfit. It was considerably different from the armor he had seen the Seekers wearing.

  "Humans are not allowed here," the one closest finally said. His voice was cold, and slightly muffled by his helmet. "You should have been told that."

  Moving slowly into a sitting position, Ean kept his hands raised. "We were told that we were not allowed near the mine."

  "Exactly." What Ean assumed to be a guard, gestured back over his shoulder. Ean's eyes followed the path as it ran up towards the mountains. "That is the mine."

  "We didn't know. We were told not to go near the mine, but we weren't told where it was located. We simply saw this path and decided to follow it."

  The guard swung his sword around and leveled it close to Ean's face. He heard Azalea take in a sharp breath and hoped the Yulari wouldn't do anything foolish.

  "Ignorance is no excuse. We are in our rights to detain you for execution if we wish."

  "Try it," Azalea growled. Again both swords were pointed in her direction, and her face darkened.

  "There is no need for that," Ean said, talking both to Azalea and the guards. "I'm sure we haven't gotten so close to the mines that you absolutely have to take such drastic steps."

  "It is within our right..."

  "Enough, Naren," the other guard said, speaking for the first time. "They're only kids. We've scared them enough."

  "I wasn't trying to scare them. We are in line with the law to--"

  "They didn't even make it to the base of the mountain. Threatening them with execution is pushing--"

  "Enough. Fine." Grumbling, the guard closest to Ean lowered his sword, his partner mirroring his action. "Both of you return to the wagons. If I catch word that you've gone anywhere off the main road again, I won't be as generous next time."

  Rising, Ean nodded slightly. "Thank you, we appreciate it. Come on, Azalea."

  The Yulari let out another low growl at the two men, but let Ean linked arms with her and led her back towards the road. Once he got back to the road, he didn't slow down until he had dragged Azalea most of the way back to the wagons. Members of the caravan now littered the road, walking with no real direction. They seemed to just be taking everything in. Ean noticed a few tried the door to the general store and found it locked.

  "You should have just let me kill them," Azalea growled, catching the attention of two wagon drivers that Ean had seen before. He waved them off with a smile and dragged Azalea further down the road.

  "Quiet! Do you want to get us in more trouble?"

  When she spoke again it was in more hushed tones. "I'm just saying, two men--"

  "Two armed and heavily armored men."

  "Two heavily armored men wou
ld have been simple even without my skills."

  "And you could have taken care of them quietly?"

  "Well...no, probably not..."

  "And do you know how many more might have been waiting up by the mine? Or even in that house we were next to, or the other ones close by?"

  Azalea's face scrunched up as the point behind Ean's questions began to sink in. "Fine, fine, mister know-it-all. What's your big plan then?"

  Surprisingly, a plan was starting to come together in Ean's mind. Nothing overly dramatic or exciting, but more subtle than he thought he was capable of. A safe plan. Well, safe-ish. Closing his eyes for a moment, he tried to ignore the weight pushing in on him and started feeling out for energy from the Abyss...

  And was nearly crushed by the enormity of what he found...

  The energy was EVERYWHERE. He had simply been trying to find Zin, but that was impossible. He felt the energy in the grass, the buildings, even the air. He could even feel the people, for the most part hiding away in their houses, the guard by the warehouse, the two closer to the entrance of the mine.

  And the mine itself...it pulsed like a heartbeat, the strength of each beat hammering against him. The energy coming out of it had the power of a dozen Scars. So much energy...

  But something was off about it; it wasn't quite right. He could feel the difference between the energy he held inside his own body and the energy all around him. The energy inside of him was like running his hand through a raging stream--raw power and completely pure. The energy around him--the energy that had soaked into everything in the Deadlands--was like running his hand through a viscous bog. Its stagnant funk had settled into everything. Ean didn't know how energy could feel dirty, but it was the only way he could describe it.

  How could this Plague-bringer have corrupted the power this badly and have it spread out to the lands in the south.

  Closing himself off from the outside energy and its filth, Ean turned to Azalea. "Would you be able to find Zin? I'm...having trouble feeling where he is."

  Ean expected some kind of argument about how they didn't need the imp but was surprised when she simply nodded.

  "I can find the imp. Nothing else around here smells as bad as he does." She sniffed at the air three times and in three different directions before nodding again. "He's in town. You wait by the wagons, I'll go get him and bring him back."

  The Yulari walked off at a brisk pace. Ean watched her go, smiling slightly every time he saw her lift her nose slightly in the air. When she was a decent way down the street, he shook his head and turned back towards the wagons. It didn't take him long to walk the rest of the way back, and what he found was a flurry of activity.

  Wagon drivers and loaders alike had formed human chains to carry large sealed crates off the wagons and into the warehouse. Off to the side of the doors sat three people: the guard Ean had seen earlier, Meganan, and a new person that Ean had never seen before.

  The newcomer was dressed in old-fashioned fancy clothes. He wore a broad-collared, light-blue coat that hung down to his knees, with golden embroidery and large gold buttons holding it closed. His pants were solid black and neatly pressed without a single wrinkle. The color of his boots matched his coat, with red-dyed laces running up their fronts. Finishing off the outfit, a dark red sash covered the lower part of his mouth, tied tightly around his face and neck.

  From far away, the outfit looked very impressive, but as Ean got closer, he could see the wear that could only come from dozens of years of use. Patches of the coat were darker in color, making it clear that the coat had once been a dark blue but had faded over time. Both coat and pants had a variety of stitches in different places, well done as to not be obvious, but it was clear those clothes had been used well past their intended lifetime. Even the boots looked worn, the fabric barely holding at some places, the laces frayed.

  The man held a clipboard in his hands, his eyes darting from it to the people carrying the crates and back. Each time his eyes returned to the clipboard, he made a mark on it, in sync with each crate that was carried inside. Occasionally he would make a comment to Meganan, who then would say something to one of his men. The man then walked into the warehouse and returned carrying a red crate different from the ones being carried inside. The man then took the crate to the nearest wagon, dropped it off, and returned to wait nearby.

  Ean was very curious about what could be in those red crates. Everyone had made it very clear that most things in the Deadlands contained at least some residue of the Plague. That meant that as soon as it crossed whatever magical barrier separated the Deadlands and Ven Khilada, it would dissolve. The Ciantar family apparently kept it very quiet what they were able to acquire from the people in the Deadlands. It would be interesting to see what could make it out of this land.

  But Ean had more important things to worry about, namely getting up the path and into that mine without having a few of those thin swords the guards were carrying run through his body. Once inside, Zin should hopefully remember enough to take him to where he needed to go. And that was the third thing Ean was going to have the imp do. The first thing was going to scout out the path so they knew exactly how many guards they had to deal with and if there were any other surprises waiting for them. The second was going to be to cause a distraction so they could get into the mine.

  Between the three of them, Ean knew they could come up with something. Their real problem was going to be time. Ean wanted to wait until nightfall, as that would give them the best chance of sneaking up to the mine. Unfortunately, he had no idea how long the unloading and loading of goods was going to take or how long they would need to spend in the Plague-bearer's old lair. One more thing he would have to ask Zin when the imp returned.

  Deep in thought, Ean almost jumped as a hand slapped down on his shoulder.

  "Complete waste of time, this was," Iacane's deep voice was filled with disgust. "I come all this way to spend a day studying the condition of the people here and not a single one is available. The only ones I've seen are those in the funny red armor and the one by the warehouse, but no chance of interacting with them. This place is practically a ghost town."

  "So that's why you wanted to come. The great Iacane wanted to cure the Plague."

  Iacane smiled, clearly missing the sarcasm in Ean's voice. Maybe the man didn't know what sarcasm was. "Thank you for the vote of confidence, lad, but I doubt I could completely wipe it out. I was just hoping that I could cure individuals of the infliction, or at the very least find a way to determine if someone had passed the point of no return."

  "And you don't think if it was possible, someone else would have figured it out by now?"

  "No."

  "But you can?"

  "Given the chance to examine a few citizens here and some of the men on the caravan that haven't been corrupted? Yes, I believe I could."

  Ean just had to laugh at the man's confidence. If you could cure things on pure self-confidence alone, Ean could believe the man could cure death. But no, Ean highly doubted it was as easy as he thought. It would probably take someone with the ability to--

  "Anyway, I wanted to ask you if you had seen Fredren. The boy said he was off to map the village. I haven't seen him since, and I've been wandering around the main street most of the day."

  "No, and I've been doing a little exploring myself and I haven't seen him either."

  Shrugging, Iacane looked around slowly. "I'm sure he is fine. He's a smart boy. Oh look, here comes your sister."

  Sure enough, Ean caught sight of Azalea strolling towards them, a smile already on her face for Iacane. While the Saniteal was happy to see the beautiful illusion of the Yulari, Ean was happy to see the shimmer at her feet that marked Zin.

  "If you'll excuse me, Iacane," he said quickly. "My sister and I have some things to discuss. Family matters. You understand."

  Ean heard the man start to grumble as he moved away. Clearly, Iacane wanted to flirt with Azalea some more, but Ean didn't have time
for that. They had plans to discuss, and judging by how close the sun was to the mountains in the west, not a whole lot of time.

  Reaching Azalea, he gently grabbed her arm and began leading her further toward the wagon grounds. She batted her eyelashes at Iacane as they passed by the man. Ean gave her a small shake in annoyance and received a smile in return.

  "What?" she said. "I don't want to get out of practice charming the men."

  "I highly doubt that's possible."

  "Oh, you are such a flatterer."

  Ignoring the comment, Ean took them to a nice, secluded spot in between two wagons. After checking inside both for workers, he sat down and motioned for Azalea and Zin to join him. They sat close, Zin still completely invisible.

  "Alright, here is where we stand," Ean began. "We know where the mine is and how to get there. We also know that they take trespassing there very seriously, which makes me think that they know what it really is. We've seen two guards, but there could be more up the path."

  "Six." Even after years of hearing Zin's voice float up from seemingly nothing, it was still strange.

  "Six what?"

  "Six guards. There are six guards sitting at the entrance to what they are calling the mine. That's where I was, scouting it out."

  "Oh, uh, well...good. That's one question answered. The next thing we have to think about then is how we can distract those guards long enough to sneak inside."

  He looked at each of them expectantly. Azalea just returned a blank look and eventually shrugged.

  "Clearly, they aren't affected by my tricks so I can't help there. I might be able to take the two guards at the bottom of the path and then the six at the top, but not without attracting the attention of the entire village. And then who knows how many more of the Living Dead would come after us."

  Ean knew, he had felt them earlier. There were probably over a hundred in this small village, and even if only half of them could fight, it would be too many for them to handle.

  "Alright, well, obviously the direct approach is out. Any ideas, Zin?"