"Yeah," he said. He stepped forward, hands trembling as he pulled the leather belt straps until they creaked, being careful not to touch anything but the harness. "How's that?" he asked, his voice a little hoarse.
Marla slipped her thumbs between the straps and her body with some difficulty. "Perfect, thank you," she said. She walked back to the gear pile and picked up a tool belt, buckling it around her waist. A slender headband, with a small vial of glowing essence affixed in the center, served as her light source.
She spent the better part of the next half hour looking for the best place to anchor her climbing rope. Diggs and Warren passed the time with an epic game of bone, meat, or maggot, though no one seemed to be keeping score.
At last, Marla hammered a series of ring spikes into the floor and threaded her rope through them. She gave the rope an experimental tug and seemed satisfied. She nudged the first spool of rope over the edge of the pit and hefted the remaining two coils over her head and shoulder. "All right," she said, "Wait here for a few minutes while I see what things look like down there."
Garrett and Scupp walked over to the edge and watched her descend. Her little green light glistened against the damp walls of the shaft and sparkled in the water falling down from above on either side of her. Marla moved with confidence, descending rapidly until she reached the end of the first rope, nearly five hundred feet below. The sound of metallic hammering echoed up the shaft for a few moments, and then Marla's light began to descend once more, hardly more than a wavering firefly against the blackness of the pit.
"Do you see anything?" Garrett yelled down the pit.
A moment later, the faint answer came back, "Nothing yet."
Soon, they could see nothing at all of Marla's light, and Garrett began to worry.
Scupp sensed his tension and whispered, "She'll be all right. She knows what she's doing."
Garrett nodded and gave her a thin smile.
More hammering, a faint echo from below.
"Marla!" Garrett called, but no answer came from the pit.
Garrett groaned, pacing back and forth between two channels at the edge of the pit.
"Did we bring any food?" Diggs asked, looking up from his game.
Scupp shook her head.
Diggs frowned. "Garrett," he said, "when we find this dead king... we get to eat him, right?"
"The guy's like a million years old," Warren said, "He'd taste like moldy sandpaper."
Diggs looked heartbroken. "Why are we doing this then?" he moaned.
"We're doing it for Garrett!" Scupp said, "So quit your belly-aching!"
"But my belly actually aches," Diggs whined. As if on cue, a loud grumble came from his furry middle.
Warren's stomach answered the call as well. "Yeah, I didn't really think it would take this long," Warren said.
"You two run back to town and get somethin' to eat then!" Scupp said, "And bring me and Garrett somethin' too... we'll likely be here a while."
"What's vampire girl eat?" Diggs asked, already headed into the tunnel back to Marrowvyn.
Scupp looked at Garrett, but he shook his head. "I dunno," she said, "Bring back somethin' juicy."
"Right!" Diggs said, bounding off into the darkness with Warren close on his heels.
Scupp smiled and looked back to Garrett. "That oughtta keep 'em busy a while," she said.
Garrett laughed.
"So," Scupp said, prodding Garrett in the arm, "What's the story with little miss leatherpants down there?"
"What do you mean?" Garrett asked.
"Why you so sweet on her?" Scupp asked, "She seems a bit... twiggy."
"Huh?"
Scupp shrugged. "I dunno, seems like huggin' on her would be like squeezin' an old dead branch... cold and hard and afraid you're gonna break her."
"No," Garrett said, "she's... soft, and really nice... her hair smells like... old flowers."
Scupp snorted with laughter. "Like a bunch o' dried up roses?" she said.
"No!" Garrett said, "Just... she smells nice."
Scupp chuckled. "Well, I wouldn't be sniffin' at her too much when she crawls back outta this hole," she said.
Garrett winced, imagining the amount of wastewater that was pouring down all around Marla from above. At least the heavy rains had kept the sewers relatively clean of late.
"Sorry," Scupp said, her voice softening, "I'm just worried about you."
"Worried about me?" Garrett said.
Scupp nodded. "Warren says you got it pretty bad for this girl... We just don't want to see you get hurt is all."
"Marla is really nice," Garrett said, "She wouldn't do anything to hurt me."
Scupp gave him a flat look. "Garrett," she asked, "how many girlfriends you had?"
Garrett felt his cheeks blush. "What?"
"How many?" she asked.
"I don't know..."
"You kissed a girl before?" Scupp asked.
"No," Garrett said.
"It ain't nothin' to be ashamed of, Garrett," Scupp said, putting her paw on his shoulder, "and I ain't tryin' to make sport of you. I'm just sayin' that you're new to this, and it's real easy to get hurt your first time."
Garrett laughed. "I've been hurt before, believe me," he said, "I had a little run in with a dragon once..."
"No," Scupp said, her face serious, "that ain't the same. Fire only burns your outsides, and it can only burn you enough to kill you. Then it's over with. There's other hurts that can eat up your insides, and they let you live, burnin' you for the rest o' your life. Fire ain't got nothin' on that."
Garrett said nothing. He stared down into the blackness of the pit.
"Just be careful, all right?" Scupp said, "You're the only human was ever really nice to me and my brother. Be a shame if you went all crazy and bloodthirsty like the rest of 'em."
Garrett laughed. "We're not all like that," he said, "The other necromancers like you guys."
"Yeah," Scupp laughed, "they like us as long as we're doin' the dirty work for 'em. You know, Garrett, I think as you're the only person with no tail ever tol' me Good Mornin'." She thought for a moment and then made a playful grab at his backside, "You ain't hidin' a tail in there, are you?"
Garrett laughed, jumping clear of Scupp's paw. The heel of his boot caught on the edge of the channel behind him, and he teetered for a heart-stopping moment at the edge of the pit.
Scupp shot out a hairy arm and caught him by the front of his harness, pulling him back from the edge.
"Thanks!" he gasped.
Scupp gave him a pointed grin. "Friends gotta look out for each other," she said.
Garrett smiled and nodded.
Suddenly, the rope affixed to the spike between their feet began to vibrate, and they looked over the edge to see Marla's light coming up the shaft from below. Garrett marveled at her speed as, a few moments later, she pulled herself to the top of the pit, panting with exertion.
Marla looked up at them, her black hair plastered to the sides of her head, and her face and clothing streaked with filth. "I... found something," she gasped.
****
Garrett and his friends assembled together on a narrow ledge, halfway down Marla's last length of rope. Garrett leaned out, shielding his eyes against the foul-smelling rain of water, to peer back up the shaft, unable to even make out the light of the torch they left burning in the chamber far above. The rope continued into the darkness below and the shaft deeper still. To go any further down would be beyond Marla's ability to take them, but a narrow tunnel lead into the rock face behind the ledge, and the group was keen to explore it.
They stepped back into the tunnel to get out of the malodorous rain that fell on the ledge, and the ghouls passed around an old shirt that Warren had pulled from the food bag that he had brought back from Marrowvyn. They used it to scrub the grime from their faces. Garrett took the shirt in turn, and then grimaced at the old bloodstains surrounding an enormous gash in the shirt's back.
"Where did you get
this?" Garrett asked.
"Chunnley wrapped the pies in it," Warren said.
Garrett mastered his revulsion and found a clean patch of sleeve to rub against his face. He offered it to Marla, but she politely refused.
"This isn't a lava tube," Warren said, running his paw across the pale, rippling stone of the tunnel wall.
"Limestone," Scupp said.
"You sure we're in the right place?" Diggs asked.
"I don't know," Garrett said, "I just know we're supposed to be looking really deep. How deep are we?"
"Way below the catacombs," Warren said, his eyes wide and glowing in the witchfire light.
Garrett's chest swelled with pride at the look of wonder on his friends' faces.
"Everyone be careful," Marla said, "I haven't explored very many caves before."
"No worry," Diggs said, "Ghouls love caves... just like home." He stuck out his long tongue and licked the moisture from the tunnel wall. He rubbed his tongue around inside his mouth for a bit and then spat. "Yep, this cave is full of demons."
Scupp and Warren snickered with laughter.
"Keep an eye out," Garrett said, "We don't know if there really is a guardian or not."
"Guardian?" Marla asked.
Garrett went suddenly cold. "Oh... yeah, I forgot to tell you," he said, "There might be some sort of... guardian."
"Yeah, big demon. Eat your face and everything." Diggs said as he and Warren headed off down the tunnel.
"Garrett, why didn't you say something about that before?" Marla asked.
"Sorry," he said, "I just forgot..."
"Don't worry about it," Scupp laughed, "Garrett's fought demons before, on the way back from the war. He ran into a whole nest of 'em. Burned one of 'em to nothin' and scared the rest off. Just stick by him, girl, and he'll keep you safe."
"Garrett?" Marla said, looking from him to Scupp in disbelief.
"Yeah... well I was just lucky really. I guessed the right spell and got him before he got me. It was pretty close though."
"He's just bein' modest," Scupp said, slapping Garrett hard on the back, "I imagine they call him the Scourge of Hell by now. Any demon sees him now is likely to just poop hisself and start runnin'."
"Garrett, this is serious," Marla said, "How much danger are we in?"
Garrett started to answer, but Scupp cut him off.
"Come on! Let's keep up, or my fool brother's gonna wind up down a sinkhole if we don't watch him."
Marla gave him a flustered look but hurried after Warren and Diggs with Scupp shooing her and Garrett from behind.
"Hey, Garrett!" Warren called from somewhere up ahead, "You really need to see this!"
Garrett and Marla and Scupp followed the tunnel as it descended in a narrow zigzag between high walls of limestone, having to go single-file in some places. Presently, Garrett became aware of a pale blue light from up ahead, and he wondered if one of the ghouls had lit an algae lamp. Then the light became so bright that he extinguished his own torch and had to squint against the brilliance of the glow as he reached the end of the tunnel.
They stepped out onto a broad ledge of rock, overlooking a vast underground chamber filled with twinkling blue lights. The lights hung from the cavern roof high above, streaming down like beaded strings of stars, their light reflected perfectly in the smooth surface of a black lake below. A series of natural flowstone terraces acted as steps, leading down to the lake's edge, and, from there, pale domes of stone peeked above the motionless surface of the water like stepping stones all the way across the lake to the far side.
"It's beautiful!" Marla gasped.
"Yeah," Scupp agreed.
Diggs snorted. "I seen prettier," he said.
Scupp slapped his ear.
"It's lucky there's a path across the water," Garrett said.
"Yeah," Warren said, "a little too lucky, don't you think?"
"What do you mean?" Garrett asked.
"I've never seen a cave give you a clear path to follow," Warren said, "I mean caves are natural things. They don't care whether you explore 'em or not. Usually you have to dig your way through in spots. You never just find a trail laid out for you. This is weird."
"You think it's a trap?" Garrett asked.
Warren shrugged. "Only one way to find out," he said. He loped down off the ledge to the edge of the lake, and they followed him.
"What are those lights?" Scupp asked, the blue pinpoints of light reflected in her large, dark eyes.
Diggs found a spot where the ceiling came low to the ground at the edge of the lake. He crouched low and then leapt up, grabbing a sparkling thread and tearing it from the ceiling. He squinted at the filament in his hand and then stuck it in his mouth. "Yech," he said, "some sort of spiderweb. It's all sticky."
"No," Marla said, narrowing her eyes as she studied the ceiling, "It's some sort of worm spinning these webs."
"Are they dangerous?" Garrett asked.
"Probably not," Marla said, "Still, I don't suggest trying to eat them. They could be poisonous."
Diggs continued to try to spit the taste out of his mouth and pull the sticky thread from his fingers. At last, he reached over and wiped it off onto the fur of Scupp's back.
"Hey!" she shouted, and the sound of her voice echoed through the chamber. Ripples formed on the surface of the water, wherever it touched the walls or the white stepping-stones. The ripples spread out, shimmering with rainbow light, stunning them all to silence with the beauty of the sight.
"This place is magic!" Scupp whispered.
"Yeah," Warren agreed, "let's just hope it's good magic." He drew in a breath and leapt across the water to the first stepping-stone.
Warren landed on the stone and froze in place, as though expecting something terrible to happen. Instead, a pulse of green light shimmered from the edge of the stepping-stone, slowly dissipating as it spread across the surface of the lake.
"Huh," Warren said. Then he jumped to the next stone.
A pulse of yellow light rippled out from the edge of the stone across the dark water.
The next stone pulsed with a rich orange glow, and the one beyond that a deep red.
Scupp followed after Warren. She giggled with each flash of light as the others watched in awe.
Diggs decided to go next, though he paused to jump up and down on the first stone, sending out a different color pulse each time he landed.
By this time Warren had made it all the way to the far end of the room. "Come on," he shouted, "it's safe."
Diggs grew bored with the game at last, and moved on, crossing the lake in a series of vibrant hops.
"You go first," Garrett said, lifting his hand toward the lake.
"Thank you," Marla said. She backed up a few steps and then sprinted forward, bouncing from stone to stone and filling the black lake with a rainbow of scintillating color.
"Wow!" Garrett said. He took a running leap and jumped for the first stone.
His foot came down on a smooth section of the stone, and it slipped out from beneath him. He went down with a yelp, his boot splashing loudly in the water.
Garrett scrambled to keep from sliding into the water, pulling his wet boot out of the lake. He gasped at the sight of the water, solidifying into crystal at the point where his boot had gone in. The crystals branched out like frost across the surface, crackling into a solid, glimmering shell atop the dark water. He froze, not daring to move.
"Garrett!" Marla called, already bounding back toward him across the stepping-stones.
"I'm all right!" he said, getting to his feet. He looked around, watching as the crystals slowly dissolved back into water once more, and their light faded.
"Did you break the magic rock, Garrett?" Warren called across the lake.
"No!" Garrett shouted back.
"Then hurry up."
"All right," Garrett growled. He gathered his courage and leapt to the next rock.
It went easier after that. He met Marla halfway across the
lake, and they jumped together, one stone at a time, until they made it to the far side where Warren waited for them. Diggs and Scupp had already gone ahead, through a broad tunnel filled with light. Low stalagmites with flattened tops caught little pools, of water, in bowl-shaped depressions in their tops. Tiny, luminous pink fish swirled and darted in these pools with each pool hosting a slightly different shade of pink.
Garrett and Marla and Warren weaved their way between the living pools, pausing often to marvel at some movement within. At last, they made it to the far end of the tunnel and the chamber beyond. A cool breeze touched their faces as they entered a broad hall of natural stone, filled with a dim violet light. Diggs and Scupp stood, looking down over a ledge with the wind ruffling their brindle fur.
Garrett walked up beside them and looked down.
The pale, waxy stone of the floor, ceiling, and walls, was riddled with smooth round holes of all sizes. It seemed almost as though they stood inside a great slab of cheese, and the wind was blowing in through the holes. The faint light came from every direction at once, infusing the stone with a sort of weird glow.
"Uh, now what?" Diggs asked.
Marla pointed at the wall. "It looks as though there was once a floor to cross."
Garrett looked and saw the broken shards of a thick crystal plane that rimmed the entire chamber like the crust of ice around the edge of a winter pond.
"I'll bet that was the exit," Warren said, pointing out a hole, larger than the rest, in the far wall.
"Yes, the floor is still intact there," Marla said.
Garrett grimaced. The hole-riddled cavern floor dropped at least thirty feet below the level of the broken crystal floor. It looked far too slippery to try to climb down and cross that way.
"I wish we had more rope," Marla said.
"Yeah, and if wishes were corpses, the beggars would eat," Warren said.
"What's left of the floor might hold us," Scupp said with a hopeful smile.
"That or go back," Warren said, "Garrett?"
Garrett shook his head. "I don't know... I hate to give up now, but..."
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