Depths of Madness td-1

by Erik Scott De Bie

That's the second time I've leaped on that boy, Twilight thought as Liet groped his way off her. Best not make a habit of it.

  She rose, fluidly and gracefully. Gargan and Slip seemed indifferent. Taslin and Asson had politely turned their backs. Only Davoren stared. Twilight shot him a kiss, and he turned away.

  She waved them on and they continued up the steps, avoiding the walls.

  "What language was that?" she asked Asson, who had seemed to understand it.

  "Netherese," the old wizard said. " 'Tis a difficult dialect, though." Taslin, Twilight noted, scratched at an earring she wore. "The words were… inverted, somehow. Curious. I shall ponder this."

  "Well, keep pondering," said Davoren. "It's all you'll be good for."

  Twilight hissed them to silence. The top of the steps opened into a new chamber.

  Motioning Slip to join her, Twilight drew Betrayal and crept up the stairs, leaving the others a few paces behind. The dusky blade felt light and eager in her hand. Flames, alternating with a humming pulse of lightning, hissed up the blade out of the corner of her eye. Twilight was accustomed to the idiosyncrasies of the rapier, so much that they reassured her. They provided a kind of constancy in a world defined by change.

  She and Slip crept to the opening, staying low to the floor.

  "I can't see in the dark," whispered the halfling.

  "I can," replied Twilight. She scanned the rough-hewn walls and the myriad runes inscribed on stone slabs that lay strewn about the room. "A crypt." She eyed the sarcophagi, many of which were upset or torn open. "A disturbed crypt."

  "By the Matriarch," said Slip with a shudder. "A crypt? I hate crypts!"

  "We're probably coming from the lowest point in these catacombs," said Twilight. "Why? Because that's always the way it is."

  She could see no movement in the crypt, but that didn't mean nothing was there. Possessed of the silence and patience of the grave, undead could elude the most delicate eyes. Twilight saw red streaks that traced a path from this stair deeper into the chamber. She didn't have to smell or taste it to know what it was.

  "Slip." Twilight turned to her companion, who was huddled against the wall beside her. She reached out and touched the halfling lightly on the shoulder, which evoked a gasp. "Does Yondalla grant you power over the dead?"

  "Well, um, I, uh," said Slip. Some of her confusion might have come from shock at Twilight's guess-some from fear. "I'm not really, um, a priest, uh, exactly."

  "Fair enough." She turned back and beckoned. "Taslin."

  The elf moved up to Twilight's side. Clad in full armor, hand on her sword hilt, the eldritch priestess looked bold and strong compared to the hesitant halfling at her side. Slip crossed her arms and assumed a pout.

  Twilight's eyes narrowed. "Do you have power over the walking dead?"

  "The power of Corellon shall smite them if they dare rise against us," Taslin said.

  "An 'aye' would do as well, sun-but onward. Conjure some light and let us go."

  Twilight, Slip, and Taslin strode into the room. In her armor, the priestess made enough noise to wake the dead, but Twilight decided that was irrelevant. If anything objected to being roused, Taslin would give them a morning feast of Corellon's power. The Seldarine had their uses.

  Slip, not to be completely undone, sent a flicker of magic into a stone that she held, lighting it.

  The crypt was wide with a low ceiling. Compartments for the dead were carved in the walls. Decorating the walls were runes and crumbling mosaics. The former she could not read, and the latter depicted great battles between spellhurlers, dragons, and creatures she didn't recognize-strange worms shaped like cones, with arms that flung fire. The humans seemed to be winning, but Twilight knew appearances could be deceiving. A central mosaic on the ceiling depicted a number of casters-one crowned wizard in particular-surrounding a black creature in a cage of magical force.

  She and Slip scanned the coffins but found nothing. Neither rat nor insect moved, and not a shadow stirred. They found no corpses, nor bones become half-dust-though the fresh stains were curious. In several of the compartments, Twilight also found teeth-broken and discarded-which she didn't reveal to the others. No sense worrying them.

  Twilight waved forward the others. Gargan and Liet, blades at the ready, stood at the flanks of Davoren and Asson. The warlock sneered, uncertain whether to be insulted at the concern or pleased at the attention. Jaw set, Asson gripped his walking staff with its silver flame.

  From the way Taslin, Asson, and Gargan moved, Twilight could tell they had delved into crypts before. Slip and Liet, not so much.

  Several long breaths passed and nothing sprang from the darkness to attack. Each visibly relaxed, and even the nervous Slip breathed easier.

  "Aye," she said, making them all jump. "Why do you suppose we're here?"

  "Philosophy is a waste of schooling," Davoren said with a dismissive wave.

  "No, silly," Slip said. "I mean here in this dungeon, of course."

  That got a reaction. Twilight saw Davoren staring at her. His mouth opened, and she held up a hand to stop them all. "Perhaps later," Twilight said. "Keep your guard."

  "Twilight is correct," Taslin said, though the words didn't seem to please her. "We cannot be too careful." She fell into a chant, then, beseeching Corellon's aid.

  "A meaningless gesture," said Davoren. He leaned against an open sarcophagus and illuminated its interior with ruby fire. Empty. "There hasn't been anything alive in these catacombs for many years."

  Twilight thought of a riposte, but Asson beat her to it. "Undead are, by definition, dead," he said.

  Davoren spat on the floor.

  Taslin finished her spell and laid a hand on Asson's shoulder. A golden aura surrounded him, then faded. "So you will need no aid," she said to Davoren.

  The warlock scoffed. "As though I would accept your pathetic spells."

  "As you say," said Taslin. "I can cast the spell once more." She looked at Gargan, but the goliath stepped away.

  "No," said Twilight when Taslin turned to her. The sun elf didn't seem convinced, so Twilight added an explanation. "As much as I can avoid it."

  Though her eyes remained suspicious, Taslin shrugged. She looked to Liet, who made no protest. Tenderly, she laid her hands on his cheeks, fostering the aura around him, and Twilight felt a twinge in her stomach. Suppressing a growl, Twilight broke away from the others.

  It did not seem possible that they were alone. This tomb might have been carved a millennium past, but those bloody stains were fresh. Twilight kept her guard up as she headed toward the opening to another catacomb. Outside the aura of magelight, her attunement to the shadows took over, and she could see in the darkness.

  The next room looked as empty as the first, devoid of bodies as if the interred dead had withered, been stolen, or-most unsettling-walked away. She didn't enter the room, but searched along the door for traps or magical wards.

  A ten count yielded a series of scorch marks along the inside of the portal, as well as a series of sigils inscribed faintly along the stone doorframe. Twilight tentatively examined them with her fingers and concentrated, seeking the resonance within the lettering. She felt nothing. A magical ward had once bound this portal, but its power had been long exhausted.

  Just behind her, Twilight sensed a presence.

  She peered into the gloom, ostensibly planning their route, all the while observing her companion without her eyes. She could not hear breathing or feel a heartbeat. Then, on her own count of five, she spun and bent her knees for a lunge.

  "Gah!" Liet stumbled back, startled. "My-my apologies!"

  How he had kept so quiet, Twilight could only wonder. She supposed she must have been more intent upon the door than she thought.

  "Sneak up on many lasses, do you?" Twilight reached to help Liet to his feet.

  "Uh, no, not as such," he said, climbing up. When he had risen, he looked at her awkwardly. His face was red. "I wanted… to talk to you… about…"


  "What?" she asked. And this boy was almost thirty years of age? She'd thought humans became adults before twenty. Well, no matter-she was sure no elf would call her mature for her age.

  Liet's eyes widened. "Oh, ah, nothing, then…"

  "I see," Twilight said, allowing a little danger in her voice.

  He gave her a helpless grin, and shielded himself with his hands.

  Twilight had to smile at that. He might have been immature, but he didn't suffer from stupidity-or plainness, for that matter.

  She slapped Liet's cheek lightly. "Now pay attention, boy," she said. "Look with more than your eyes."

  "Eh?" Liet asked.

  "I'll show you." She took his hand and pointed him toward the chamber. They gazed into the darkness. Liet's grasp was tight, and Twilight found she enjoyed it.

  Enjoyed it too much. She dropped his hand.

  Davoren grumbled something under his breath, too soft for Taslin to hear.

  "What was that?" Slip asked brightly. She looked at her mace, then down at Gargan's bare foot, as though comparing the weapon and his toe.

  "Why do we wait here?" the warlock asked. He nodded at Twilight and Liet. "Does she know something, or do they merely wish to be alone, I wonder?"

  "Pettiness toward a boy, Lord Hellsheart?" Taslin asked. "Are you jealous of him?" She looked at Asson, who smiled at her. "Or of her, perhaps?"

  The warlock whirled, outraged. Asson grinned, and Slip's mouth became an O.

  "Jealous of her authority, that is," Taslin finished, to a chuckle and a snicker.

  Davoren scowled. "She is a liar," he said. "Do not trust her."

  "How do you know?" Slip asked, stealing what Taslin had been thinking.

  The warlock's lips pressed into a line, and his blood red eyes narrowed at Twilight. "Look at the way she claims to represent the interests of all, yet obviously favors that one."

  Taslin looked at them, standing close, looking into the darkness. As she and Asson watched, Twilight took Liet's hand for a breath, then dropped it, as though realizing she was being watched.

  Slip looked back. "Nay," she said. "Not seeing it."

  Davoren sighed. "She lies," he said. "She is hiding something. What of her mark? Her sword? That jewel she wears at her neck? Surely those, at least, mean something."

  Taslin stared hard at him. "You know Twilight?"

  "The golden goddess speaks!" Davoren said. "Very well. I shall-"

  Then his words vanished, choked off. An unseen force lifted and hurled the warlock into Gargan, who staggered back, stunned.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Twilight heard shouts and a crash as Davoren slammed into Gargan. She whirled.

  A creature materialized where the warlock had stood. Desiccated flesh stretched tightly across the gaunt figure's bony ridges, and its eyes burned with rage and hatred. Its clothes were old and tattered, the fashion of a long-forgotten age. Tufts of inky black hair stood on its cracked and peeling scalp, and it grinned a mouthful of needlelike teeth.

  "Wights!" Twilight shouted, thrusting Liet behind her and brandishing her rapier.

  "By Corellon!" Taslin shouted, channeling Corellon's wrath. Her holy symbol, a golden crescent fused to her sword's hilt, burst with daylight.

  The wight flew backward and shattered into thousands of pieces, all of which crumbled to dust before striking the opposite wall.

  All around the creature's path, monsters just like it shimmered into being, shambling as though dazed. The display of Corellon's power had not destroyed them, like the first wight, but it had ruined their concealing magic.

  "Invisible wights," corrected Twilight.

  A score of the horrid creatures burst into view all around them, claws and fangs raking. Only Taslin's power kept them all from being overwhelmed in that first moment, foiling many attacks as the wights recoiled from the painful light.

  Twilight shut her eyes, relying instead on her hearing and instinct, and lunged ahead. Sure enough, she impaled one of the invisible monsters as it prepared to leap at her. The thing, confused by her sudden, perfect strike, slumped to the ground, its animating essence lost. Flames flickered up and down Betrayal's hissing steel.

  The shadowdancer had no time to gloat, for she sensed an attack coming from her right. She dived forward in a roll as blasts of energy scored the air where she had stood. Her success was short lived, however, as the bolts veered in the air to slam into Twilight's chest, blowing her to the floor. Through her agony, she saw a wight standing in a corner, weaving its hands in arcane gestures.

  "Wizard wights?" she groaned.

  " 'Light!" Liet shouted, leaping to the attack, but a half-visible wight slammed into him. Liet tumbled to the floor, grappling with the horror.

  Weapons darting, the others formed a tight circle around the staggering Davoren and the coughing Asson. Gargan caused the most havoc to the wights, his battle-axe sending a creature whithering with every swing or two. Taslin continued to blast holy power to shatter the undead foes or drive them back. Davoren righted himself, his eyes blazing. Then he threw a deafening blast of crimson power that drove one of the monsters staggering back, burned by otherworldly fire in the shape of snarling devils.

  "Help Twilight and Liet!" shouted Asson. The old mage could do little but shine the light of his staff wherever the creatures seemed thickest and direct the defense there.

  "Leave them!" Davoren shouted. "Worry for yourself, white-beard!" He cast out a forked blast of eldritch power, sending two of the gaunt monsters staggering back. The power sizzled outward to more wights, burning their flesh as well.

  Thanks for the support, Twilight mused.

  Without looking, she waited until a wight leaped for her from behind, then snapped her blade up, spearing it through the throat. The blow was hardly enough to destroy an undead creature, but the beast paused. Twilight used the opportunity to roll between its legs to aid the struggling Liet.

  The youth had lost his sword in the wight's rush and now bent his strength against the creature, merely to keep its claws from his face. Pus and yellowish ooze dripped from a dagger embedded in its eye, but it failed to distract the wight. As they wrestled, it hissed and slavered over Liet, snapping its fangs at his nose.

  Twilight leaped to the youth's defense, putting her rapier clean through the wight's head. The wight turned its attention, and its claws, to the elf. Though the last thing Twilight wanted was to draw an attack, it gave Liet the instant's pause he needed to scrabble out from under the wight.

  Liet climbed to his feet as Twilight danced away, her blade whipping back and forth to ward off the wight's claws. A strike caught her hand, ripping open her thick leather gauntlet, and she felt its cold power stealing away a bit of her vitality. Yet another reason not to let the wights strike her-their touch of the grave. Had Liet not known the protection of Taslin's spell, the wight would have slain him within heartbeats.

  As it lunged, Twilight managed to parry the creature to the left and then riposte, carving a hole in its face. As the wight scrabbled away, screaming in fury and frustration, Twilight snatched the opportunity to glance at the others.

  The tight circle of adventurers made up the center of a hive of clawing wights. Stacked two or three deep, the horrid creatures gouged and slashed from every angle, swarming the living beings with a violence born of incomprehensible hatred. Gargan's axe and Taslin's magic provided stout defense, but the goliath's swings came a little slower each time as the wights stole away his life little by little. Though his stoic face would never show it, Gargan was growing weary.

  In the end, only Davoren kept the wights at bay, each of his blasts striking two or three monsters, pushing them back. And the warlock showed no signs of tiring. As long as the others could keep the circle around him, he could keep blasting.

  Not counting the creature that Twilight dueled, only three of the wights stayed out of the battle. Two of them spat words of magic, and the other lay probing at its torn throat from Twilight's attack. The
casters had focused on the circle of adventurers, but with so many fellows in the way, the two mage-wights turned on Twilight and Liet.

  "Just my luck," Twilight muttered as she leaped back to avoid sweeping claws. "Thanks be to the Maid." Her riposte ran the creature through.

  The monster clawed at her, not hesitating at the pain, but Twilight expected this. Instead of dodging back, she dived around the wight, dragging the sword with all her momentum and strength. The rapier was not made for cutting, but its magically hot blade could certainly stir up the inside of the creature. With a sickly plop, the wight's rotten lungs and heart came out with the sword, and its entrails slithered out onto the floor.

  Though none of the wights died from blows that would have felled a man, Twilight hoped this one would have trouble fighting in so many pieces. When she pulled free, splashed with putrid blood, Twilight locked eyes with a casting wight. She had no hope of dodging more mystical darts.

  But then Liet was there, shouting to distract the wight, thrusting his recovered sword in the way. Surprisingly, the creature flinched and recoiled, abandoning its spell.

  Never one to pass up an opportunity, Twilight danced into the shadows. Darkness flickered across her pale eyes. In a heartbeat, she vanished, only to appear behind the mage-wight. She ran her rapier through its jaws.

  Let it cast without a mouth, she decided.

  The adventurers had almost turned the tide. They could not have destroyed so many wights by strength alone, but Taslin's priestly powers, exhausted as they almost were, had taken their toll, and Davoren's fire laid the wights to waste. The wights were slowly falling away, most to lie unmoving on the floor.

  Twilight even saw Slip doing her part, with just her little mace. A wight leaped on her, but she clubbed at it madly, taking out groin, fingers, and eye in quick succession. Twilight saw the wight she'd injured rushing at the distracted halfling, though, and angled a charge to intercept.

  In her rush, Twilight stared down the wight-fresher than its fellows-and she skidded to a halt. "A-Aran…" she stammered, frozen.

  It gave her a wicked, mad smile and hacked at Slip with a blood-smeared axe Twilight recognized all too well.