Dungeon Explorers (Tales of Magic and Adventure Book 1)
Page 18
“Towards me,” thought Rasmus with a slight amount of concern.
Usually, he’d have just thrown a destructive spell in the direction of the noise, but since he didn’t know where Viddo had got himself to, he refrained from giving in to his instincts. At the edge of his light, he saw the massive shape form, getting rapidly larger as it barrelled towards him. Wishing he’d memorised a few sticky web spells, Rasmus took the most expedient option and dashed back to the safety of his pillar. Whilst he had no hope of besting the dread knight in martial combat, Rasmus hoped that a fleet-footed wizard such as he could run it a merry dance around an eight-feet diameter pillar until he found out what had happened to Viddo.
The dread knight evidently had more decorum than Rasmus had given it credit for and it chose not to pursue him like a shopkeeper chasing an urchin with a stolen loaf of bread. It merely stopped to one side of the pillar and waited. Rasmus was curious, but for the moment, he was content to wait on the other side of the pillar to see what it planned.
What if it summons other undead? asked a voice in his mind. And what if it’s capable of letting its fellows know that it has found us?
Rasmus liked these two ideas not one little bit, so he took advantage of his concealment and tip-toed away towards the next pillar, keeping his fingers crossed that the undead would not hear him, nor come to investigate what he was up to. The next pillar was over twenty yards distant and Rasmus had almost made it to half way, when he realised that the light from his spell was following him treacherously and that he’d just made a neophyte wizard’s blunder.
The dread knight had noticed the light from the spell was receding and it came around the first pillar at a run, one heavy foot crushing through the torso of an unfortunate corpse. This dead body had not been here for long enough to dry out completely, and its innards were still greasy. With its footing gone, the undead slipped catastrophically and landed flat on its back with a reverberating clang. Strangely, this was good news for the creature, since Viddo had been stalking it with the intention of landing another backstab next to the first. As it was, the thief had to settle for the next best thing and he jabbed a dagger through the eye slit on the visor. His aim was true and the blade skewered one of the red eyeballs. Viddo had no intention of hanging around to watch, and jumped away behind the pillar.
The dread knight acted with predictable violence. It bellowed again and used one hand to swing the full-length sword from its prone position. The sword missed Viddo, but hit the stone pillar, producing a skittering of blue sparks. More sparks appeared, only this time they came from the hands of Rasmus. The wizard had been quick to react and cast one of his minor-but-disposable spells at the disadvantaged black-armoured shape. The electricity ran over the entirety of its body, illuminating it in a pattern of fleeting brightness. The dread knight struggled to its knees, just as more sparks appeared to replace those which had faded.
The creature swung its sword blindly in a wide arc, hoping to catch one of its tormentors. Rasmus was far out of reach, but Viddo had darted in once more, looking to take advantage of the situation like the thief that he was. The massive blade flashed over his head, missing him by a whisker. Viddo did not believe in the gods, but he believed in luck and was thankful for his. An unexpected memory appeared in his head for the briefest of moments, reminding him that he’d been called Viddo the Lucky for a time, until he’d asked people to stop calling him that, in case it caused him to be somehow double-crossed by tempting the luck he coveted.
Viddo had been blessed by lucky moments for his entire life and had learned to react to them, rather than stand blinking in surprise. He drove his dagger through a joint in the dread knight’s armour, just behind the knee. A normal dagger would not have penetrated easily, but Viddo’s crunched through metal and bone with similar ease. He felt the tip cut through something important and again he jumped away to safety. A full-blown fighter would have stayed in range and duked it out, but Viddo knew where his strengths were – he could be just as effective in combat, but had to rely on hit-and-run to make the best use of his talents.
Whatever magic-reinforced flesh it was that held the dread knight’s joints together, it was destroyed by Viddo’s dagger and the undead fell unwillingly to one knee. From where he stood, Rasmus could see that it had only one eye left and that it was badly hurt, presumably from whatever injury Viddo had inflicted upon it earlier. The single red eye stared back and the creature used its remaining leg to push itself upright. It knew Viddo was there, but was unable to see him with its reduced vision from the sides of the helmet and because of its missing eye. It carved the air with its sword and attempted to turn, but Viddo came upon it unseen, and stabbed it once more in the back. It fell over with a clang and the light faded from the second eye. Knowing how stubborn the undead could be, Viddo stabbed the other eye anyway and then stabbed it in the chest a couple of times for good measure.
“I wish these undead would piss off,” he said.
“Yes, they are becoming a trifle monotonous in the regularity of their appearance,” said Rasmus. “Anyway, that was good work, Viddo. You’ve saved me from having to waste some of my more powerful spells that we might need to use later. I notice you rubbing at your rib cage. Did it catch you?”
“A glancing blow and nothing more,” said Viddo. “There’ll be some bruising, but nothing that will slow me down.”
Rasmus was already distracted from his friend’s wellbeing and was forced into asking another question. “Why are you taking its pants off?” he asked.
Sure enough, Viddo was tugging furiously at the creature’s armour. He cut a couple of thick, leather straps and with a monumental heave, managed to pull away its plate metal leg guards.
“These things always hide in their armour and you never really get to see what’s underneath. I’m just curious to know what it looks like. And to see if it has any pockets worth rifling.”
With the leg armour off, they both stared at what lay beneath. The dread knight wore a pair of ragged brown trousers underneath, which were torn in many places. Through the gaps, they could see a mixture of ancient yellow bones and rotten grey skin, which had shrunk in places to reveal the withered muscle tissue beneath.
“No pockets!” said Viddo in dismay.
“When you’re undead, you don’t need to eat or drink and therefore require no coin to pay for such comforts. They don’t seem to have any desires that we’d understand. Beyond a drive to kill the living, of course.”
“Let’s see what’s under this helmet. I like to look into the eyes of creatures who try to kill me. Usually I prefer to do it while they still have eyes, so I’ll take a look into its sockets instead.”
Rasmus spluttered. “What do you mean you like to look into their eyes? You’re a thief! You stab your enemies in the back and you do a splendid job of it!”
“I’m a man of contradictions, you should know that by now,” said Viddo, deflecting the thrust of the wizard’s argument. He twisted and pulled until the helmet came away. There was a collar of chain mail underneath, which covered the creature’s neck even when the helmet was gone.
“Hmmm,” said Viddo. It was becoming his favourite word.
Rasmus came closer so that he could also look. “Hmmm,” he echoed. “Just a big skeleton, really, isn’t it?”
“He must have been a big fellow when he was alive.”
“The other three dread knights that we saw were all of a similar size,” said Rasmus. “Perhaps they were half-giants or something like that.”
“It would be nice if it had been a bit wealthier. At least we didn’t have to go to the effort of killing all four and then finding they were penniless. That would have broken my heart.”
“I’ll bet that lich is as rich as Kildipot,” said Rasmus, referring to a legendary monarch who was purported to have built a palace out of solid gold and still had enough of the precious metal left over to cast five hundred statues of himself in the same material.
“Why
do you think that?” asked Viddo.
“If it was once a high priest, it’ll have spent decades fleecing the followers of its god in real life, as you are so fond of telling me. Then, in death, it will likely have accumulated another stack of goodies, snatched from the people it has killed. Liches are creatures of magic, and I am sure they are drawn to magical items of value.”
“I’m sure there’s a flaw in your logic somewhere,” said Viddo doubtfully. “Still, I am happy to steal this lich’s eyes and to return for its undead sockets, should we be presented with a reasonable opportunity to do so. Just let’s not try and pummel it to death when it’s got its three dread knight friends in close proximity.”
Without further ado, they left the expunged husk behind them. Viddo appeared to know exactly which way to go, which was lucky, for Rasmus’ sense of direction had been thoroughly befuddled by the twists and turns they’d made in the dark. As they progressed, Viddo noticed that the corpses that littered the ground became gradually older-looking, as if they’d been deposited here long before those near the steps they’d descended to enter this cavernous chamber. The smell had also decreased to a level where it was almost acceptable - neither man wished to smell the decomposition again. They saw another two ghouls and destroyed them, hardly breaking their stride as they did so. One of the two undead creatures had even tried to masquerade as a corpse in order that it might scratch them with its disease-infested fingernails. Viddo had a good eye for a trap – his earlier stumbles notwithstanding – and he identified the prone creature well in advance of their passing, allowing him to shove the sharp end of a dagger into its face.
A new feature became visible – there was a vast, round hole in the floor of the chamber, fully twenty yards across and dropping vertically into the earth. Viddo saw it first, since he could see beyond the extent of the light spell, and he took Rasmus over towards it. The two of them stood on the rim, looking downwards.
“This truly is a place of great evil,” said the thief.
“You can feel it too?” asked the wizard.
“All these bodies, all the blood they must have contained. It was spilled down into this room for a reason. Whatever the reason was, I think it had something to do with this hole.”
Rasmus moved his light spell as far down as he could send it. The sides of the hole were smooth and regular, but there was no sign of the bottom. The wizard shivered. “I have no desire to explore the depths of this particular hole, even if I had several levitate spells and a dozen methods of escape.”
“Nor me,” said Viddo. “I am curious for answers, but am not so curious that I intend to go seeking them in there. Not just now, at least.”
“No. Maybe we can come back at some point with a couple of our acquaintances and when we are better prepared.”
“I agree. I have noticed that old people tend to be wealthier than the young. Whatever has come from this hole is likely to have been very, very old.”
“And therefore very, very wealthy.”
“Probably so wealthy that it’s lost count of all of its treasure and wouldn’t miss a tiny portion of it.”
“Not that we’d only take a tiny portion.”
“No indeed,” said Viddo.
There was some bravado mixed in with truth when they spoke these words. Neither man had seen a real challenge for many years and it was becoming harder and harder to test themselves. They had both been driven to become the best that they could be, and that same drive pushed them to look for constant betterment. Things had not necessarily been easy for them so far in here, but they knew that if they’d been properly prepared and forewarned, they would have fared much better. At least, that’s what they told themselves.
They left the hole behind, with neither man wishing to tarry there in case whatever it was that had come out of it originally still lived inside, looking upwards with malice and evil as it awaited the arrival of life. It seemed to Rasmus that the hole had not been placed dead-centre of the room, because they reached the far wall much sooner than they had reached the hole by travelling from the steps down. Viddo assured him that he was mistaken and that the hole was slap-bang in the middle of the room and that the distraction of ghouls and dread knights had interfered with his sense of distance.
Viddo pondered for a second or two while they stood next to the wall they’d reached, before he pointed off to the right and they headed in the direction he’d indicated. They reached another set of steps leading upwards.
“If this vast room went all the way beneath the dungeon above and we go up these steps, are we going to come back near the entrance that we entered?” asked Rasmus.
“No,” said Viddo at once. “This room isn’t as large as the dungeon and if you recall, we wended this way and that as we looked to put distance between ourselves and our pursuers. If I’m correct, these steps will take us to a new place that we have not visited before.”
He was partially correct. The steps took them back up to the same dungeon with its skeleton-filled cells, but it took them to a new area of the dungeon that they hadn’t previously visited. They’d arrived in another passage, with one way leading to more cells and more corridors, the other way leading to steps going up.
“This must have been another entrance into these dungeons,” said Viddo.
“Perhaps there were a dozen or more such entrances,” said Rasmus, guessing. “There were so many incarcerated here that only two entrances must have been insufficient to bring all the prisoners through.”
Viddo didn’t bother to explain that it was unlikely that all of the prisoners had been brought here at once. Sometimes, speculative rambling was necessary before one came upon an idea that seemed reasonable, and that was what the wizard was doing. There was no need to discuss which way to turn, since neither of the pair had any intention or desire to go back into the dungeon. They turned towards the steps and Viddo inched his way forward with his hand outstretched, looking for another force shield spell. He got as far as the bottom step without being impeded.
“Looks like there was either no barrier spell here, or it expired or it got dispelled already.”
“Could be,” said Rasmus, joining Viddo at the steps.
The steps were wide, straight and level. Side-by-side, they climbed.
Fifteen
These new steps were almost a mirror of those they had used to descend into the dungeon area initially. They climbed them quickly and emerged into a new corridor. There were two exhalations of pent-up breath.
“I’m glad to get out of there,” said Rasmus.
“Me too. I didn’t realise how oppressive it was until I got to the top of those steps. What now?”
They were in another of the countless passages that made up the underground complex. This new passage continued for ten yards ahead of them, at which point it gave the option to turn left or right.
“We should try and put some distance between ourselves and the dungeon,” suggested Rasmus. “I very much doubt that our undead foes will have stopped looking. It’s not like they’ll have anything better to do with their time. We’re probably the most exciting thing that has happened to them in two hundred years.”
“The idea that undead might feel excitement is not a one that I am comfortable with,” said Viddo. “Let us be on our way, before these ancient thrill-seekers come upon us again.” And with those words, the thief strode purposefully to the end of the passage and made an immediate right hand turn. Rasmus blinked a few times in unseen mock surprise and then followed.
“More offices or lodgings,” said Viddo in a conversational tone. He indicated left and right as he walked, as though he was a guide showing tourists around a museum. These rooms were all empty of furnishing, being the featureless, square cubicles that they’d come to recognize. They passed by many, for this new passage was long and without branches, though it did turn to the left and right as it went. Eventually, it provided the options of another left or right and this time, Viddo went left. The new corridor
was ten feet in height and width, though in length it was rather more. After another eighty yards, there were three more directions offered to them.
“I hope this isn’t the beginning of a maze,” said Rasmus crossly. “I can’t be bothered with another chuffing maze.”
“No one likes mazes,” said Viddo. “Go left, go right, go left again and suddenly you’re at a dead end, or back where you started.”
“And by the time you eventually find your way out, you just want to go to sleep because you’ve been so drained by the whole tedious affair.”
“Don’t forget that every maze needs to have some sort of magical trickery involved to fool the careful individual who makes a map on a piece of paper, or pulls a ball of string along with them so that they can find their path back.”
“Indeed. Mazes are about as entertaining as those people you see in the streets of the big cities. You know the ones - with their painted faces, that pretend they’re playing with an invisible box, or finding their way around an invisible wall.”
“I know the ones you mean. If I had the choice, I’d pack them all into the closest maze and seal it off after them. See how they like finding their way around a real wall for a change.”
By this point, both men had managed to work themselves up into quite a state over the imagined crimes being committed against them. As it turned out, they were not at the beginning of a maze, nor were they accosted by any pretend-mute gentlemen sitting on imaginary invisible boxes or the like. They discussed whether it would be wise for them to turn tail, but in the end decided to proceed with caution, on the basis that if it looked like they were in a maze, they’d come back in haste.