Chapter 14 – Exterminators
After spending a total of seven days charging the power crystals, including taking time to replenish their own personal jhorun, the emissaries from R’Tal were finally ready to fulfill the arrangement made with the dwarves. Outfitted in their brand new leather armor (except for Sarah, who was wearing a scaled-down lighter version), the troupe of humans, with Breslin as their guide, left Borahgg behind to venture into the recently dug eastern exploratory tunnels, last known location of the dreaded guur.
“I’m not kidding,” Steve was saying again, his right hand resting on the hilt of his sparkling new sword. “If there’s the slightest sign of trouble, I want you to get back to the city on the double. Okay?”
“No worries, honey. I hate bugs. I see a bug that big coming at me and I will give you my personal guarantee, on my honor, that the last person you’ll have to worry about will be me.”
“Have you practiced teleporting at all?”
“I have! You’re going to be impressed! Watch this!” Sarah stopped walking, closed her eyes, and vanished.
The rest of the group disappeared into the tunnel when Rhenyon, about to step foot into the dark opening, noted Sarah’s absence. Pausing in mid-step, he turned, raising an eyebrow at Steve. The male Nohrin held up a hand with one finger raised, signaling him to wait. Sure enough, moments later Sarah popped back into existence right next to her husband.
“See? No queasiness, no stumbling, no problem!”
Steve breathed a sigh of relief. One less problem for him to worry about. If things were going to get sticky, as he was certain they would become, it was a welcoming relief knowing that his wife could get herself to safety.
“So what changed?” Steve wanted to know. “Or did the queasiness just go away by itself?”
“Maelnar explained it to me,” Sarah answered. “The reason I got so nauseous before, back in that tunnel, was of something they call ‘the Barrier’. Basically it’s a series of enchantments they have in place to prevent people like me from getting in the easy way. The Barrier was supposed to repel teleportation. Somehow, and I’m not sure how, I managed to sneak through.”
“So your jhorun essentially defeated the security the dwarves put in place to keep strangers out, is that right?” Steve observed.
“That’s exactly right.”
“Cool!”
Following Steve closely, Sarah ducked behind her husband as he disappeared into the dark tunnel. Within moments they had met up with Rhenyon and the others, each holding a lit torch. The soldiers appeared to be in the midst of detailing their plans for the assault on the guur.
“We must assume that these creatures are wickedly fast,” the captain was saying. “According to the dwarves, the guur’s only weapon is its bite, so everyone keeps their armor on at all times. I do not care how cumbersome it feels to have all this on in here. Is that understood?”
Echoes of “aye, sir” resonated off the tunnel walls as each soldier checked their weaponry. Swords were unsheathed, inspected, and sheathed again. Three of the soldiers were wearing full quivers of arrows, each with a long bow already strung. Breslin pulled his axe off his back and checked the sharpness of the twin blades. Rhenyon pulled Steve and Sarah aside.
“Are ye prepared for battle, sir Steve? Lady Sarah?” Both Nohrin meekly nodded. “Keep your crystals ready. In fact, give several to Lady Sarah to hold for ye in case ye are too busy to get them out.”
“Good idea.” Steve pulled three mimets out and offered them to Sarah, who tucked them safely inside her pocket.
Silently, the group descended further into the depths of the earth. Pheron, being the logical choice to lead the group onwards, cautiously inspected tunnel after tunnel, only to find them consistently empty. Following the lieutenant was Breslin, quietly pointing out the minimal traces of spoor he could locate.
“Guur spoor,” Steve snorted, chuckling to himself.
Sarah elbowed him in the stomach.
“Quiet.”
Rhein, Kern, and Darius were all casting their torches about, looking for any traces of the huge insects. Following Darius were the Nohrin, nervously looking here and there for some signs of their adversaries. Bringing up the rear, Rhenyon kept an eye out behind them. It will be a cold night in a dragon’s nest before he’d let anything come up behind them and catch them unaware.
It wasn’t until they had finished their midday meal in a small cavern they had discovered when Pheron stiffened, motioning for the others to be silent.
Rhein and Kern were instantly by his side.
“What is it?” Rhein whispered. “What do ye see?”
“Perhaps two hundred paces away, along the back wall, two creatures have descended from a hole in the ceiling. They are presently about five feet from the ground.”
Both men were shaking their head. They were unable to see that far away in the darkness.
“Are they the guur?” Kern asked softly.
“Insectoid, at least eight legs. No, make that ten,” Pheron corrected, squinting at the far wall. “If that is something besides a guur, then we have more problems than we were led to believe.”
From a safe distance, Pheron observed the two guur excavating a section of a stone wall. The insects’ jaws were literally scooping mouthfuls of rock right from the surface of the wall, as though they were pulling the soft part of a piece of bread away from the crust.
“They are digging into the stone,” he whispered, watching in awe as an opening to a new tunnel started to form. “Our armor is ineffective. They are digging into solid rock as though they were digging through sand.”
“Good. Then this blasted armor is history.” Darius pulled the buckles loose on his bulky armor, restoring his arms to full motion.
“No, wait!” Rhenyon’s call came too late. The armor fell to the ground with a noisy thud.
In horror, Darius looked at Pheron. The lieutenant cursed as he stared at the far wall.
“Look out! Here they come!”
The two guur covered the distance across the small cavern in a matter of moments. Their ten segmented legs smoothly carried their heavily armored bodies towards the fresh meat they had just learned existed.
Watching the guur rapidly approach, Pheron whipped out his bow, fit an arrow, and fired it at one of the large insects in a single fluid motion. Disheartened, he watched as his arrow bounced harmlessly off the insect’s thick carapace.
“Arrows are useless! No arrows! Use swords!” he called, pulling out his own sword. More shouts sounded behind him as the rest of his companions followed suit.
Rhenyon hastily pulled his own sword out and watched as his men attacked the two advancing guur. The bugs were incredibly fast, darting easily around the swords that were thrust at them. One of the soldiers howled in pain and went down as a guur managed to slip by the jabbing swords. Rhein feinted right, and as the huge bug went to lunge to the left, the short sword he was hiding behind his back whistled through the air, slicing the unfortunate bug in two. The remaining guur lunged for the fallen man, hoping to get in a couple of solid bites before the other bipeds could drive it off.
Breslin’s axe suddenly whizzed by Kern’s head, actually shaving off a few facial whiskers in the process. The attacking bug was neatly sliced in half, right down the middle. Such was the force of the throw that the axe actually embedded itself into a stalagmite several feet away.
Ignoring the grisly sight of squishy bug innards, Sarah pushed by the soldiers to kneel beside the fallen soldier. Darius was clutching his right leg, which had blood steadily pumping from an ugly gash on his upper thigh. Retrieving her precious vial from her medallion, she administered a single drop to the wounded soldier’s leg. The bleeding lessened, but unfortunately did not stop. What was happening? Sarah stared at her vial. This was supposed to cure everything, wasn’t it?
Breslin knelt down, inspecting the wound.
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nbsp; “His leg has been infected with guur venom. Elixirs will not help him now. He will need the help of a wizard.”
Helplessly, she looked at her husband. “What do we do? How do we get Shardwyn here?”
Rhenyon leaned over to grasp Darius’ arm. “Ye have fought well.” He glanced at Sarah. “We cannot get Shardwyn here, but maybe we can get Darius to him. Think ye can take him all the way to the castle?”
Sarah sat back on her heels and thought for a moment. “Castle R’Tal is much farther away, but I think I can do it. If I get too drained, I’ll just use one of the mimets I have. I’ll be right back. Don’t go anywhere.” Leaning forward, she took the wounded soldier’s hand. “Hang on, help is on the way.”
Darius’ glazed eyes focused on Sarah’s. “Many thanks, milady. Sorry to be a burden. Sorry to be –”
“Don’t start.” Sarah closed her eyes, bringing up the familiar image of the throne room. “This is likely to cause a strong jolt to the system. Deep breath. Ready?”
Darius nodded.
In the blink of an eye, both people vanished. In the second blink, however, a raucous chittering had started and steadily grew louder.
“Uh, oh.” Steve looked at the others. “That doesn’t sound good.”
A single guur appeared at the same entrance its brethren had previously emerged from. It stared for a moment or two at the intruders before making the loud clicking noise again. Instantly more guur came streaming out of the same tunnel. Clicking angrily, a group of at least twenty insects advanced on the small group of humans.
“Not good. This is not good at all.” The dwarf was slowly retreating. “We cannot successfully face that many. We must fall back!”
“Not an option,” Rhenyon snapped. “Lady Sarah will return here in a few moments. I will not let her arrive here to face these abominations alone!”
“And she won’t,” Steve declared, stepping forward. “This is my show. Time to put on a performance these little buggars aren’t soon gonna forget.” He looked back at the small group of soldiers, catching and holding Rhenyon’s eyes. “Watch for Sarah to return. Keep her safe, okay?”
Silently, Rhenyon nodded, turning to watch the group of large insects advance. At that moment, Steve ignited both hands and faced the approaching Bugs from Hell.
The encroaching horde hesitated. Where had the fire come from? Could they still get to the meat they craved while finding some way to avoid their one, true fear? Greed and hunger prompted half the group to try, surging forward suddenly, pincers clicking furiously. Twin jets of fire appeared out of nowhere, incinerating those that had chosen to attack. Confused, the surviving guur turned to face the lone biped. Two of the biped’s appendages were lit like torches. How could they make it to the meat they craved while avoiding the flames?
Dispatch the biped: the fire will be dispatched with it.
This single collective thought circulated throughout the remaining insects. In just a matter of a few seconds, all guur were focused on the same goal.
Steve watched as a wave of restlessness started with one insect and spread quickly throughout the rest of the group. It was then that he realized the clicking noise they were making had been steadily increasing in volume.
They’re talking to each other, Steve thought with amazement. What could a bunch of bugs possibly be talking about? When to attack? How they were going to take me out?
“I never did like ants,” Steve muttered, eyeing the large bugs distastefully.
All the remaining guur suddenly leapt forward in perfect synchronicity, something Breslin hadn’t even known that they were capable of doing. If they could rush this One Who Wielded Fire, then perhaps with the instant onslaught of activity the biped would become confused and be unable to defend itself.
Unfortunately for the guur, Steve was fast becoming a pro at defending himself against a large group of creatures who all tried to rush him at the same time. As the bugs all leapt towards him, he ignited a jet of fire and kept it ignited, essentially turning his left hand into a flame thrower. Sweeping his arm in an arc, he ignited all of the leaping guur at the same time, one right after the other, which resulted in all ten guur falling back to the ground as flaming, charred husks.
At that moment, Sarah materialized back in their midst. Noting the burning piles, the horrible stench, and the tenseness of the soldiers, she went wide-eyed.
“What happened? Were you attacked again?”
“The moment ye left, actually,” Pheron confirmed. “How is Darius? Will he survive?”
Smiling, Sarah shook her head. “Shardwyn is looking after him as we speak. Said he hadn’t seen a bite that bad in some time. Don’t worry, he said that he’ll be fine.”
“Excellent.” Rheyon let loose a deep sigh of relief. “Do ye need one of yer power crystals, sir Steve?”
“Ummm, I don’t think so.” Steve ignited both hands, trying to determine if his jhorun was fatigued or not. Not sensing any type of weariness, he shook his head. “So far, I think I’m good.”
“Keep one ready, nonetheless.” Rhenyon gestured to the far cavern wall. “They came from that direction. Shall we?”
“So these things can inflict pain, whether we have armor or not?”
“So it would seem,” Rhenyon answered, turning to address the soldier who had asked the question. “Why do ye ask, Kern?”
“If it matters not whether we are wearing this armor, then I would rather remove it.”
About to protest, Rhenyon closed his mouth with a snap. Armor or no armor? If they could be hurt either way, what was the point?
Taking the captain’s silence as permission, Kern started to unbuckle the protective leather padding he was wearing.
“Just a moment. We do not know if the armor saved Darius from losing a leg or not. I believe I will retain my armor. Whether ye choose to remove yer armor is yer choice to make.”
Not wanting to risk losing any appendage, Kern hastily retrieved his pieces of armor that had fallen to the ground.
Up near the mouth of the guur tunnel, Pheron and Breslin were both peering into the dark opening, whispering together. As one, they slipped inside, vanishing from sight.
“Shouldn’t they wait for us?” Steve wanted to know.
Rhenyon’s head jerked up.
“Pheron! Breslin!” the captain snapped. “Get back here, on the double! Acknowledge!”
Silence.
“Lieutenant!!”
Suddenly they could hear distant shouting. With a curse, Kern and Rhein darted into the tunnel, followed closely by Steve and Sarah. Rhenyon brought up the rear, hurrying them along so that they could render assistance as quickly as possible.
“Sir Steve! Light!”
Steve ignited both hands as he ran, racing to catch up to the two sprinting soldiers, all the while straining to hear if Sarah was still next to him. No matter how fast the soldiers ran, he wouldn’t dare try to outpace her. There was no way he’d leave her behind. Not in here. As they rounded yet another bend in the tunnel, he spared a few moments to glance behind him. There was his wife, just ahead of Rhenyon.
The shouting increased in volume as they progressed deeper into bowels of the earth. Without warning, the dwarf shot by them, heading in the opposite direction as fast as his short legs could carry him. A second later Pheron appeared, also running as fast as he could, shouting erratically. Breslin managed to avoid running into the humans, but Pheron wasn’t so lucky. Coming around the bend he ran full-tilt into Rhein as Kern dove out of the way in the nick of time. Both soldiers went down in a tumble of arms and legs. Hot on their trail, however, were a group of guur. As the insects observed the two bipeds fall to the ground, they clicked their pincers hungrily. They were about to feed. Life was good.
Running up to the fallen men, the lead guur prepared to gorge on the highly coveted piece of meat it had finally caught up with. The larger version of
these strange bipedal creatures were much quicker than the smaller ones!
Pheron and Rhein started to disentangle themselves from each other when a searing blast of heat was felt directly above them. Lying as still as possible, with one soldier still draped over the other, they waited, motionless, as the entire tunnel was illuminated. Loud screeching noises sounded all about them, and yet they still did not move for fear of being caught in the deadly stream of fire whizzing by less than a foot above them.
A few of the hardier guur managed to survive Steve’s furious attack, only to stumble out of the roaring flames and quickly be dispatched by Rhenyon. These nasty insects weren’t nearly as fast when they were being roasted alive! The captain glanced down at his two lieutenants, still lying sprawled on the floor of the tunnel as Steve fired off jet after jet at the swarming bugs.
“Rhein! Pheron! Stay as ye are!” Rhenyon ordered. “Do not attempt to move!”
“Fear not, captain,” Rhein called, from underneath the bulk of Jheron’s body. “We are quite content to remain here for the time being.”
“Ye would not say that if ye saw what was trying to take a bite out of ye!”
Rhein twisted around on the ground to see for himself. Flat on his back, head tilted as far back as he was able to, all he could see between the jets of fire streaking over him were legs. Hundreds of insect legs.
“Wizards be damned!” Rhein started wiggling out from under Pheron, back towards the safety of the others.
All of a sudden Pheron let out a shout of alarm. From his ground-level vantage point, he had just caught sight of several of the large insects stealthily appearing out of the shadows behind them. Had he not been flat on his back, staring back at his companions, he would never have seen them.
“They approach from behind!”
Steve threw a quick look behind him. Sure enough, a group of about five guur were preparing to attack his companions where they were the weakest.
“Aw, crap. This is not good.” He turned to his wife, who was trying to make herself as flat as possible against the tunnel wall. “This is about to get seriously ugly. You need to get out of here. Get out of here now!!”
“What about the others? If they are hurt, I can’t help them!”
“We’re gonna have to chance it. I’m not risking you. Not now, not ever!”
Steve shared a quick look with Rhenyon, who gestured in the direction of his men. Steve nodded, whispering instructions to his wife.
“Ready?”
Sarah nodded, hugging the tunnel wall as Steve simultaneously let loose jets of fire both in front of and behind them.
Rhenyon yanked Kern away from an advancing bug, while simultaneously plunging his sword through the insect’s cranium. He pushed him towards Sarah.
“Ye will be the first. Go now! We are outnumbered here!”
Even in the midst of circumstances as dire as this, Kern bristled.
“With all due respects, captain, ye can take that suggestion and –”
Sarah lunged forward and grabbed Kern by the wrist. Both vanished right before their eyes, with echoes of Kern’s curses fading away moments later.
Steve addressed the two fallen soldiers who still hadn’t regained their feet.
“I’m going to fire off one helluva blast. Should be enough to back them off a bit. When I do, you two need to move, got it?”
Both fallen soldiers nodded.
Firing off a blast behind him to keep the bugs back there in check, he swung his right arm around to join his left. Before the guur could take advantage of the momentary lapse in their defenses, Steve fired off a massive wall of flames towards the carnivorous insects.
“Go!”
The two soldiers scrambled to their feet, joining their captain as they fought off more guur from the rear.
Sarah materialized right then, snagged Rhein by his ear, and vanished before his cursing could begin.
Pheron turned, noting Rhein’s absence. He then swung his gaze around the area, taking a head count.
“Captain! We lost Kern and Rhein! Were they taken by the guur? We have to get them back!”
Sarah appeared again, right before him. Pheron suddenly understood what had happened to his companions.
“Lady Sarah, do not even think about –”
Sarah grabbed the shaking finger and the two of them both vanished.
“It is just the two of us now, sir Steve,” Rhenyon called, hacking through the advancing horde of guur.
One guur hesitated, trying to decide which biped to sink it’s fangs into. Its hesitation cost it dearly; the head and fangs went flying left while the rest of the body flew right.
“Make that three.” Breslin retrieved the axe he had thrown, eyeing the surviving guur with undisguised hatred.
“I think I need a mimet!” Steve called out.
In a move so blazingly fast that he could barely follow him with his eyes, Rhenyon slashed viciously through an attacking bug, whirled his sword to decapitate a second guur, spun around Steve between bursts of fire, and then returned to his position facing the rear. Steve’s mouth fell open, for in his mouth was the mimet that the captain had so deftly extracted from one of his pouches.
“Wow!” Spitting the disc into his hand, he replenished his jhorun before firing off a tremendous blast at yet another wave of insects tried to overwhelm them with sheer numbers alone. Fanning the air in front of him, Steve glared at the remaining guur, all of which were now slowly retreating. He cast a look behind. Three guur remained.
“Would you step aside a minute?”
Rhenyon nodded, flattening himself along the tunnel wall while Steve incinerated everything behind them. With retreat now a possible option again, the three of them turned to face the last of the attacking horde.
“Let’s end this. I’m tired of smelling burnt bugs.”
Steve’s head swiveled as he counted the remaining insects. Seven left. Three leapt towards him. Make that four left, he corrected, nostrils flaring at the unpleasant odor of deep-fried guur.
The last four bugs paused to determine their next move. Attack or retreat?
Rhenyon lunged then, impaling one guur while decapitating a second. Their numbers halved yet again, the remaining two guur attempted a last ditch effort to eliminate this new foe. Deciding to attack the torso and the legs of the closest human simultaneously, both guur leapt in tandem. Both ignited in mid-jump; their charred carapaces landing with unceremonious thuds next to the captain.
“I really,” Steve kicked the smoking remains of a guur out of his way, “really hate bugs,” he finished.
In one fluid motion, Rhenyon cleaned his sword on the back of his tunic and slipped it neatly back into its scabbard.
“Nasty creatures, these guur,” he observed.
“Let us find the female and be done with this,” Breslin said.
“Lead the way, master dwarf.”
The Prophecy Page 38
