by Rick Dearman
The List
By Rick Dearman
Copyright 2011 Rick Dearman
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“Move out of the way, I’m going to block the door.” Adderand said. He pushed the heavy stone door shut with his shoulder and removed his backpack. He pulled out a large iron stake and a hammer. Hammering the stake into the crack between the door and the doorframe hoping it would wedge the door tight. Only then did he look around to see where Seevan was.
Across the room Seevan had lit a torch; the darkness of the room departed. Adderand could see a stone sarcophagus at the centre of the room and Seevan on the other side. The walls were covered with green slime and peeking through in places tattered tapestries. Adderand wasn’t interested in the decoration. He was looking for a way out.
“By all the gods of Argorth. You’ve brought us to a dead end again.” Seevan said. Adderand turned his head and glared. Seevan’s small frame was silhouetted in the torchlight, his hair sparkled as the light glinted off his grey hair.
“Aye. Well if you don’t like the accommodation maybe you’d like to go back and discuss it with the vorgog. I’m sure once it stops gnawing on the bloody flesh of your hired help it will consider your problem.” Adderand said.
“And it stinks,” muttered Seevan just loud enough for Adderand to hear.
Adderand picked up his broken sword. Cursing, he ripped away a piece of his tunic and wrapped it around the broken blade. Now it was at least a dagger. He gave it to Seevan and kept the hilted end for himself. He swiped his arm across his head to dry the sweat rolling down from his receding hairline. His once brown hair now matted down by sweat into a grey and brown blob.
“Let’s try to find an exit before that thing comes looking for us.” Seevan said holding up the makeshift dagger. “I doubt we can kill it with this, and we have to get the battle plans off Mealdan’s body.”
Adderand walked to the sarcophagus, the top of the coffin was carved in a relief of the king’s figure. Adderand pried at the lid and shoved with all his strength, but it was useless. It would take than him alone to move it.
“Why did you let that fool carry the plans anyway? He was a spy not a fighter he couldn’t protect them. If those fools you hired had listened to me and surrounded the vorgog we wouldn’t be in this bloody mess. Bugger, I’m too long in the tooth to be a spy. How did I let you talk me into this?” Adderand said.
“If you’ll remember, your choice was here or in the slave pits servicing Orc women. Kings pardons remember?” Seevan replied.
“Aye. But finding Mealdan’s body is going to be a problem. Vorgogs only eat gamy meat so it will have hung the bodies in its lair somewhere waiting for them to rot.” He tugged on his salt and pepper beard, as he contemplated where a hidden exit might have been put. “Help me look for a passage or something.”
They began tapping on the walls and moving the rotted tapestries out of the way. In the space of a few short minutes they had managed to canvas the entire room, but to no avail. The door appeared to be the only exit. Adderand wiped the green slime from his hands and tried once again to shift the lid of the sarcophagus. Hopefully there would be something useful was inside.
“I told you those puppies were not going to be of any use. Help me move this lid maybe there is something inside.” Seevan walked over to help him and Adderand continued. “All we had to do was make a circle around the vorgog and whoever was at it’s back would attack. Simple vorgog killing tactics.”
Both men pushed their shoulders into the lid of the sarcophagus. He thought the lid had moved slightly.
“Adderand, you crotchety old bastard. Stop your bellyaching I think I heard something.” Seevan held up the broken sword and pointed at the door.
A tremendous boom came from the door. The vorgog had found them. Adderand looked at Seevan and shrugged. He knew the wedge on the door wouldn’t hold. They couldn’t kill a vorgog with two halves of a sword. They'd entered the mountain tombs five strong humans, now they were going to die.
“Split up, go for the legs. Try to work it into the centre of the room.” Adderand moved around to the front of the sarcophagus. “Maybe we can get around it and go back out the door to the entrance.”
The door burst asunder, the wedge held but the door hadn’t. The vorgog charged into the room. It tripped over the broken door; off balance it stumbled into the room. Adderand looked up at the monstrous creature.
It stood a full sword length above his head. Its face reminded Adderand of a walrus he had once seen in a painting. Two huge fangs protruding from its mouth the rest of the mouth filled with serrated teeth. It stood on four legs with a thick tail that ended with a large round bulb. This bulb was pure bone and hard as granite. Adderand had lost his sword to this smashing weapon. But that wasn’t the only weapon of a vorgog; it could stand on two legs like a man and use it’s powerful front legs to punch and grapple.
“Come on ye great hulking dirty brute!” Adderand yelled.
The vorgog lumbered toward Adderand. He danced away, wanting to get the sarcophagus between himself and the monster. Leaping over the top of the sarcophagus he landed on the other side. The vorgog stood on its back legs and raised its front legs above its head. It smashed them down where Adderand had been.
Adderand saw that Seevan had managed to get behind the brute. The vorgog’s tail swung back and forth behind it. Seevan was grinning as he rammed the broken sword tip as hard as he could into the joint at the back of the vorgog’s left rear leg.
The beast bellowed with rage and pain and spun around to find out what had attacked it. Adderand leaped to the top of the sarcophagus. He only had an edge to use not the point of the sword, so he sliced into the vorgog’s exposed neck muscles, hoping to hit a vein.
Bellowing, the vorgog turned in the direction of this latest attack. The sound was deafening in the enclosed room. The vorgog tried to hammer Adderand with its fist as he leaped off the sarcophagus. The force of its blow was delivered in full to the stone lid. The heavy stone lid split in half with a crack. Part of the lid fell from the top of the sarcophagus.
Adderand ducked behind the sarcophagus and the lid passed over his head. He looked up and saw the vorgog stunned and shaking its head. It was losing blood rapidly from the wound in its neck. Adderand knew the vorgog would kill him long before it bled to death.
He stood and glanced inside the now exposed sarcophagus at the body of the mummy. In the mummy’s hands a bright steel sword with a deep black hilt. Not believing his luck, Adderand grabbed the sword and pulled it out of the sarcophagus.
The sound attracted the attention of the dim-witted vorgog. Adderand back-pedalled toward the wall of the room, hoping to give a good account of himself before the vorgog ripped him to shreds.
The beast roared and swept forward its huge arms; it picked up the remaining part of the heavy stone lid and lifted it over its head.
“Hey, over here stupid!” Seevan shouted.
Adderand saw Seevan pelting the vorgog with rocks from the broken door. As the vorgog turned Adderand ran back towards the creature. He pointed the sword at the creature’s back and ran the sword into it.
The vorgog managed to throw the stone lid as Adderand’s new sword plunged into its body and exploded out the other side.
Adderand pulled the sword roughly from side to side attempting to cause as much internal damage as he could. He pulled the sword from the vorgogs body in a shower of blood.
The sword pulsed with power; Adderand could feel his flesh tingling with the magic. The steel shone with a pale white light. The room flooded with illumination. Adderand squinted slightly as he struc
k the next blow straight and true into the heart of the vorgog. Dying the vorgog swung its tail and struck Adderand’s side. He felt a blast of pain and heard the cracking of his ribs. The vorgog fell forward twitching in death throes.
“Aye, ye bastard! That’ll teach you.” Adderand wheezed triumphantly. He watched the vorgog for a few more seconds before prodding it with the sword to make sure it was truly dead.
“Help,” Came a faint voice. He turned to find the Seevan trapped between the lid and the wall. Adderand winced as he approached Seevan. Adderand could see the blood pooling on the ground underneath the lid, even from this distance he could tell that Seevan wasn’t going to live.
“Not good huh?” asked Seevan. Blood dripped from his mouth as he spoke.
“Aye,” Adderand said.
“Get the,” Seevan stopped, he gasped for a breathe. “plans to the king.”
“Aye.” Adderand’s throat choked like he’d eaten ash from an old fire.
Seevan looked into his face and with a small sigh he died.
Adderand’s looked at the corpse and bending down he wiped the blood off Seevan’s face. He walked over to the Vorgog and hacked at it, the pain from his broken ribs making him cry out with each blow.
He collapsed exhausted to the floor.
