Alaric Swifthand

by Steve Lazarowitz

  “How very noble of you. Just hope that we live long enough to negotiate. In the meantime, how do we get upstairs?”

  Graham looked over my shoulder. “We may not have to.”

  I turned. Theona and Jeren had descended already and were walking across the tavern toward us. While I waited, I gingerly touched my face, wincing at the pain. I resisted the urge to punch the giant, just to show him how it felt.

  Theona spoke first. “Hello, Alaric. You’re looking well. Did Graham finally have enough of you?”

  “No. Not that it matters. You see, Graham doesn’t fight.”

  “What do you mean, he doesn’t fight?” She turned toward the giant, who nodded. “Then what the hell good is he?”

  It was Jeren who answered. “Not every member of a party need be a warrior. I’m certain he must have some skills of value.”

  Graham inclined his head. “Thank you.”

  Theona glared at Jeren, then at Graham, until finally her gaze settled on me. “I believe it was your idea to bring him.”

  “Oh no, don’t put this on me. At the time, we both thought he could hold his own.”

  “I can,” said the giant. “I just choose not to. Violence is not the answer.”

  “It depends, I suppose, upon the question,” retorted Theona. “Still, we have other problems without having to deal with a cowardly giant.”

  “I’m not a coward. I’m a pacifist.”

  Theona shrugged. “Whatever.” She turned toward me again. “What do you make of all this?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t think they’re ghosts.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because one of them knocked me clear across the room. These are living breathing people.”

  “Well what do we do now? We didn’t find anything upstairs.”

  “We found the wine cellar. Not much else though.”

  We all sat and looked at each other, until Jeren broke the silence.

  “I’ll be right back.” He rose and walked toward the bar.

  “Where is he going?” I asked.

  No one answered. Having nothing else to do, we sat and watched. I didn’t realize just how out of place we must have looked, until that moment. Jeren stood out like a priest in a brothel. He caught the bartender’s attention and they conversed briefly. The bartender reached under the bar, pulled out a rather ornate bottle, placed it on a tray with four glasses and followed Jeren back to our table.

  I looked at Jeren. “Can’t you go one day without a drink?”

  Theona kicked me and I shut up. The bartender smiled. “Here to try the Labyrinth, are you?”

  “You told him!” I said.

  “I had to. He’s the only one who knows how to get there.”

  “Ah. And how do we do that?”

  “By drinking this elixir.” The bartender placed the bottle on the table.

  “Let me get this straight,” said Theona. “If we drink from this bottle, we’ll end up in the Labyrinth, is that it?”

  The bartender nodded.

  “Wow, that must be some powerful stuff.”

  I was tempted to kick her back, but restrained myself, turning instead to the bartender. “How do we know this isn’t poisoned?”

  “You don’t,” replied the bartender.

  I smiled. “Okay, Giant, it’s time for you to start earning your keep.”

  I uncorked the bottle and poured a bit of it into a glass. I had never seen a liquid quite that color. It was red with gold swirls and a small head of steam. I pushed the glass across the table. Graham picked it up and examined it. Then he looked at the rest of us.

  “If I don’t make it, good luck.”

  There was something about the solemn way he said it that made me regret some of my earlier anger. He really wasn’t a bad guy. Before I could say as much, he raised the glass to his mouth. He downed the contents and immediately pitched forward onto the table. His head struck with a resounding crack.

  I stood quickly, knocking my chair over backwards. Theona looked at the bartender and Jeren took a step forward. Nobody breathed. Then Graham sat up.

  “Just joking. Actually, it wasn’t that bad.”

  Relief battled with anger. I was about to let him know how I felt, when there was suddenly a hole in the room where the giant had been sitting. At least, that’s the only way I can describe it. One moment he was there, the next he had vanished. Jeren poured three more servings.

  “Shall we?”

  I picked up the glass and stared at the elixir with the same sort of suspicion employed by a child examining medicine his mother is about to force down his throat. I placed my nose above it. It didn’t have much of an odor. Then I tossed back my head and downed it.

  “Good luck on your journey,” said the bartender. “You’re going to need

  it.”

  It was actually pretty tasty. I was about to say so, when the universe went away and I found myself falling through an endless black void.

  PEGEBREAK

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  Chapter Nineteen

  It was the oddest sensation I’d ever felt. One minute I was standing in the Dangling Dagger, the next I was suspended between worlds. It was as if all of my senses had been taken from me. It wasn’t that it was dark, but rather there was nothing to see. Nor could I hear anything. I was almost beginning to think I had died, when suddenly, I was somewhere again.

  Of course, I still couldn’t see anything because I had stupidly left without a lantern. I listened for a time, but could hear nothing, save the sound of my own breathing. If you have ever been alone in a dark, strange place, then you know how I felt. Except this particular place would have been dangerous enough with a source of light. When I realized nothing was going to happen if I didn’t do something, I spoke. My voice sounded harsh and desperate in the darkness.

  “Graham? Theona?” There was no answer. I would have even welcomed Jeren at that point.

  “Nervous?” The question made me jump. I looked around before I realized the sound had come from inside my head. I looked down, but it was so dark, I couldn’t even see the Sword of Truth.

  “Why would I be nervous? Just because I’m in a dangerous labyrinth, alone and deprived of light? Don’t be ridiculous.”

  “Remove me from my scabbard.”

  I reached down and placed my hand on the hilt of my sword. I slowly drew the weapon forth. At first, nothing happened. Then in the darkness, a dim light began to form. As I watched, the Sword of Truth began to glow. The light had a bluish cast to it, but was bright enough to see by. I breathed a sigh of relief.

  “What other tricks can you do?”

  My weapon didn’t answer. Perhaps it was expending so much energy, it couldn’t light the way and carry on a conversation at the same time. At least, I could hope that was the case. On the other hand, it was probably just being mysterious.

  I was in a rough-hewn stone corridor. On three sides, walls blocked the way. I started walking in the only direction open to me. I followed the corridor for a long time, until I noticed something at the very edge of the light, further down the passage. I moved closer to investigate.

  “Is that you?” asked a deep voice.

  “Graham?” I increased my pace. “Why didn’t you wait for me?”

  The giant replied. “I have been waiting for you.”

  As I approached, I noticed he was facing away from me. I was almost beside him, when he turned. Whatever it was, wasn’t Graham.

  The creature lunged. If I hadn’t already been holding the Sword of Truth, I would have died. I took a swipe at it and it backed away. It stood still then, giving me ample opportunity to examine it.

  It would have been ugly enough without the bluish sheen from the light of my sword. It was as tall as Graham or perhaps even a little taller. Its face looked as if it could have once been human, but only after a few months of decomposing. The flesh was rotted and pulled back from the cheeks, making its eyes seem like they were bulging. Stra
nds of long, scraggly gray hair dangled from the top of its head, some reaching halfway down its chest. Its nose was missing altogether and its lips drawn back, displaying a mouthful of rotten teeth. The nails on its huge parody of hands were long and horribly misshapen.

  “What are you?”

  “What do you mean, what am I? Shouldn’t you be fleeing in terror about now?” It no longer sounded like the giant.

  “I can’t flee.”

  “Why not? Do you so relish your own death?”

  “Because there’s nowhere to flee. The corridor behind me is a dead end.”

  The creature looked surprised, then a bit miffed. “Listen, I’ve been here for a long time. People always flee in terror. You’re making me look bad!”

  “Gee, I’m sorry. What will you do to me if I stay here?”

  “I’ll walk over to you and rip your heart out!” He enacted the movement to show me, I suppose, that he knew how to do it.

  “Will you really?”

  For a few long seconds he didn’t answer. “No. No, I won’t. Oh what’s the use?” The creature squatted and placed its grotesque head into its misshapen hands.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked, though I didn’t move any closer.

  “When I was young, I was the nastiest, most vile creature in the Labyrinth. Now look at me. My teeth are all but gone. I have almost no strength in my arms. Once, I spoke with such power, people fled at the very sound of my voice. Now I can’t even drive them away with threats. Do you know how hard it is to find a job terrorizing at my age?”

  I did move closer then. “Well, you still look horrible. I was scared.” I knelt next to him.

  “I thank you for that.”

  “Exactly how long have you been here?”

  “A couple of centuries, at least. It’s been terribly dull. We don’t get nearly the number of adventurers we once did.”

  “They did a good job of hiding the place, that’s why. You wouldn’t believe what I had to do to get here.”

  “You don’t say? I really have to have a talk with the monsters in charge. When I took the position, they guaranteed me a certain number of adventurers per year and for a while it was great. Just like they said it would be. I do so miss the old days” The creature was silent for a second. Then it dropped its head even further and began to cry.

  I turned away, so I wouldn’t have to witness that. The creature was hideous enough without a face contorted in grief. I was about to rise, when a voice called to me.

  “Alaric, look out!”

  I turned quickly, raising the sword as I did. Graham was standing further down the corridor. Beside me, the creature had drawn itself up to its full height. It continued to make sobbing noises. Its mouth was now full of pointed teeth and the nails on its hands were straight and sharp.

  “Good-bye, do-gooder.”

  I jumped backwards and brought my sword down as a giant claw reached for me. I noticed Graham moving closer, though he didn’t draw his weapon.

  “Stop that this instant,” he yelled. “There’s no need for this kind of behavior.”

  He said it so powerfully, the creature paused before backhanding me hard down the corridor. I flew about twenty feet before I fell. I ignored the pain and found my feet slowly, only then realizing I had dropped the Sword of Truth en route. The creature moved toward me so quickly, I didn’t have a chance.

  Then the sword spoke in my head. “Call me.”

  “What?”

  “Call me.”

  “Sword of Truth,” I yelled, not knowing what good it would do.

  The sword raised itself off the ground and flew toward me. The beast had already passed it and was almost on me, when the blade buried itself deeply into the creature’s back.

  “What!” it screamed and turned to face what it must have thought was Graham.

  The Sword of Truth was now in front of me. I grabbed the hilt and pulled. The creature turned back. I lifted the weapon and saluted it.

  “Let’s see how well you do against an armed opponent,” I said.

  It struck at my chest.

  I brought the sword down as hard as I could, severing its arm with a single, powerful stroke. The creature threw back its head and roared. I didn’t wait for it to stop. I lunged, burying the blade deep into its chest. It continued to roar for a few long seconds before toppling over backwards. As soon as it fell, Graham was there.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yes, thanks to you. I can’t believe I turned my back on that thing.”

  Graham smiled. “I can. You’re a compassionate man, Alaric. You may not see it, but I do.”

  “Yet you still wouldn’t have drawn your sword to help me.”

  “Nonviolence is my choice. I have a right to that, just as it is your right to choose the sword. Is there some law of which I’m unaware that says large people have to fight?”

  “No, of course there isn’t.”

  “It doesn’t mean I won’t help you. It means I’ve made a personal decision I’m asking you to respect.”

  I nodded, remembering my reaction to his words in the bar. “I suppose that’s fair.”

  I looked around. “Okay, where the hell are we?”

  “I would suspect we’re in the Labyrinth of Kerrenar. Once again, we seem to have been separated from Jeren and Theona.”

  “So it seems. Graham, can I ask you a question?”

  “Go ahead.”

  “If that thing got the upper hand on me and I was about to die, would you have reached for your sword?” I wasn’t certain I wanted to hear the answer.

  “To tell you the truth, I’m not sure.”

  At least he was honest. I knelt to clean my blade on the dead creature’s cloak, when I was startled by a voice from behind.

  “Did you check it?” I looked up and there stood Theona.

  “What?”

  She sighed, pushed past me and started to examine the body of the creature. While she was thus engaged, Jeren joined us. “Hey, I’m missing all the excitement.”

  Theona didn’t look up. “Don’t worry. There’ll be plenty.”

  He nodded, sagely. I guess that’s the way sages nod.

  “What’s this?” Theona removed a crumpled piece of parchment from a pocket in the creature’s cloak. She opened it and flattened it on the ground. “It’s a map.”

  “That’ll help,” I said.

  “If we can figure out where we are on it,” she countered.

  She was probably right. I didn’t know much about maps.

  “Which will only happen if we locate a useful landmark,” said Jeren. “Which way should we go?”

  I pointed the way I’d been heading. “Behind us is a dead end.”

  He nodded and started walking. Theona followed behind. Graham went next, while I watched the rear. Not that I needed to. The dead end guaranteed there was nothing behind us.

  We walked for a long time until the walls, which had been stone to this point, became metal lattices, like the bars of a cell. Each square was about eight inches across. Further down the corridor, where the walls became stone again, a lever jutted from the left wall. We looked at each other.

  “Okay, Giant,” said Theona. “You’re on.”

  I looked at her. “Why does Graham have to go?”

  “Because he isn’t going to fight, so his risk is less than ours. I think we should all have the same amount of risk. Don’t you think so, Jeren?”

  The sage smiled and stepped forward. He was holding an iron spike in his right hand. “A moment, please.”

  He tossed the spike down the corridor. It landed between the bars with a clatter. At once, hundreds of thin, clawed hands reached out and grabbed for the thing. Even after one of them got it and dragged it back through the bars, the claws continued to grasp and swipe at the air and floor. There might have been about a foot forming an alley that the claws could not reach. If we stayed exactly in the middle, we might be able to sidestep through the area.

  “It was th
e sound,” said Jeren. “They didn’t come out until the thing hit the ground. If you can make it to the other side quietly enough, you should be safe.”

  I looked. It was perhaps forty feet across. Already some of the arms were beginning to withdraw. Soon they were all gone. Finally, Theona spoke.

  “Ready, Graham?”

  I stepped forward. “I think you should do it, Thea.”

  “Who gave you permission to think?” She didn’t look happy.

  “As a member of the thieves guild, you have the best chance of making it across silently.”

  She glared at me.

  “He’s right,” said Jeren. She shot him an exasperated look. He met her gaze, without flinching.

  “Fine. I’ll do it.” Without relinquishing her glare, she removed everything that could possibly make a sound. She took a deep breath. She still didn’t look happy.

  Theona set off down the aisle, trying to position herself in the precise center. She moved slowly, carefully, barely breathing. We all held our breath watching. Soon after she reached the halfway point, she started moving faster. I wanted to shout a warning, but I was afraid the sound might call forth the creatures again.

  At first I thought she might make it. Then, when she was most of the way across, she kicked a stone. It only rolled a few inches, but it was enough.

  Theona stopped moving completely. A second later, a hundred clawed hands went for her.

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  Chapter Twenty

  The events of the last few years had left me increasingly immune to the feelings that usually accompany a crisis. At least my own crisis. Seeing Theona in a potentially fatal situation was another thing entirely. I had never been so scared in all my life.

  Through the iron lattices emerged those terrible clawed hands on the ends of arms that were both too thin and too hairy to belong to any human. I had never seen anything like them and hoped I never would again.

  Theona stood sideways. Arms before her reached for her stomach and others behind nearly missed her back. Fortunately, she had positioned herself perfectly. As long as she didn’t move, she’d be all right. However, the slightest shift would take her into one claw or another and if that happened, she’d lose her balance and be dragged toward the bars and her inevitable demise.