by A. Giannetti
At first, they were afraid that the Goblins would see even their firefly lights, but whenever they looked up, there was never any sign of anyone looking over the edge of the shaft. Unknown to them, the guards around the pit had already grown bored with looking into the dark depths below them and were making only a pretense of guarding the shaft. As the normal activity of the mine resumed around them, they began to grumble among themselves over the inconvenience of being assigned to this useless duty.
“Waste of time standing here,” said one. “If they are not dead already, the old one will have them soon enough. No one has ever escaped it.”
Hundreds of feet below the feet of the Goblin guards, Elerian and Ascilius continued to make slow but steady progress in their descent. There was no still no sign of any guardian, but Elerian found himself becoming increasingly uneasy.
Drawing closer to the Dwarf, he said in a whisper, “Ascilius, I feel that there is something watching us. It is out there, just beyond the reach of our lights.”
“I can feel it too,” said Ascilius nervously, “but there is nothing we can do except to keep moving. We cannot go back.”
The feeling of being watched continued to trouble Elerian. He could feel something gloating over him out in the darkness, some great, dark hunter that savored the feeling of the impending kill as its prey crept closer and closer. The feeling intensified when their lights revealed a dark crevice on the far side of the shaft. An inky blackness, which their dim light could not penetrate, filled the opening. A deep menace seemed to radiate from that darkness, and in the center of it, Elerian saw two points of light, burning like red coals.
“That cave appears to be our unseen friend’s home,” said Ascilius grimly, for he too saw the eyes glowing in the crevice. “I do not think we will stop to visit, however,” he said with a dour humor.
At that moment, they both felt a strong compulsion to enter the crevice wrap around them like a strong, invisible hand. Elerian felt his body quiver, as he exerted all the force of his will to make it remain where it was. Ascilius, who clung to the rock face on Elerian’s left, was already moving around the shaft toward the creature’s cave, the veins bulging in his forehead as he struggled to resist the guardian’s powerful command.
THE GUARDIAN
Drawing on a half forgotten power, Elerian threw up a shield in his mind to block the will of the creature trying to draw him into its den. As if he had closed a door on it, the relentless pressure forcing him toward the cave abruptly vanished. Nimbly working his way closer to Ascilius, Elerian reached out and grasped the Dwarf’s right shoulder with his left hand. When he came under the influence of Elerian’s mind shield, Ascilius stopped his advance toward the guardian’s cave, and the strain left his face.
“Stay close to me, Ascilius,” Elerian said softly to the Dwarf, who was breathing heavily, as if he had run a long distance. “I can only protect you when we are close together.” He cast a quick glance over his left shoulder and saw that the eyes in the crevice now wore a baffled, angry look, but they did not advance any closer. For reasons of its own, the guardian of the shaft chose to remain in its cave for now.
“It wants us to run so that it can pursue us,” thought Elerian to himself in a flash of understanding. Cautiously, he let down his mind shield. The compulsion to enter the cave was gone for now. “Climb down the shaft, Ascilius,” Elerian said urgently in a whisper. “I think it means to let us pass for now.”
Elerian resumed his descent, and Ascilius followed as quickly as his sore shoulder allowed. As they made their way deeper into the shaft, the murmur rising from the black depths below them became louder, turning into a faint roar. Elerian wondered what they would find at the bottom of the shaft, if they got that far. He paused a moment, standing on a slight projection of rock while his hands gripped the side of the shaft, looking up past the faint illumination of the mage lights into the sooty darkness above him where the guardian waited in its cave. A pair of fiery eyes suddenly appeared, circling around the side of the shaft until they were directly above him and Ascilius. Elerian opened his third eye and saw a red shade, with a shifting outline, clinging to the rock wall above him. A deep, menacing growl issued from the shade, reverberating in the shaft like the muted rumble of thunder, but no attack came.
“I think it may be wary of the lights,” said Ascilius hopefully from Elerian’s left, for he too had paused to look up at the sound of the guardian’s voice.
“Perhaps,” said Elerian doubtfully, “but I think it more likely that it is playing with us, like a cat with a mouse. In any case, let us keep moving while we can.”
They descended further down the shaft, the guardian following them without drawing any closer. When Elerian and Ascilius failed to show any signs of panic, the growls and roars of the creature increased in volume and frequency, assaulting the ears and nerves of the two companions. As if it were running on level ground, the guardian began to make short rushes down the side of the shaft, holding onto the rock with its claws like some great spider. Convinced the creature was still trying to panic them, Elerian and Ascilius maintained their deliberate descent. The cold breeze blowing up from the bottom of the shaft was more pronounced now, and the faint roar had become the unmistakable sound of water rushing through some underground passageway. A mist wafted up from the underground river, and the projections and crevices, which Elerian and Ascilius clung to, grew slick with moisture. Ascilius, who was now just below Elerian on his left, suddenly lost his footing, giving voice to a startled gasp as his hands also slipped off the slick rocks he was gripping. The sound attracted Elerian’s attention. He made a wild stab with his left hand, seizing Ascilius by his long, tangled hair, just before he fell out of reach. As they both hung precariously from the side of the shaft, supported only by the uncertain grip of Elerian’s right hand on a slippery projection of rock, Elerian heard the scrabble of iron hard claws on the rocks above his head. He looked up and saw the guardian’s eyes burning malevolently, like fiery embers, just outside the dim pool of illumination cast by the mage lights. Evidently still unwilling to end its play, it made no move to come any closer.
“Draw me up or let me go,” said Ascilius irritably from below, as he dangled painfully by his hair from Elerian’s left hand. Elerian drew the Dwarf up next to him in one easy motion, and Ascilius quickly found hand and foot holds to support himself.
“Are all Dwarves as ill tempered as you?” asked Elerian conversationally, keeping a wary eye on the creature above them.
“You try dangling by your hair over a bottomless pit,” grumbled Ascilius, “and see how you like it.”
“It is not bottomless. There is a river down there and perhaps a passage leading out of this shaft.” Cautiously, Elerian began to descend again. As if his movements were a signal, the eyes launched themselves down the shaft.
As the guardian hurtled out of the impenetrable darkness above them, Elerian had a quick glimpse of huge, leathery wings. Set between them was a wide head, crowned with two short, dark horns, which reared up between long, pointed ears. Below the burning red eyes was a snarling, pushed in snout, filled with razor edged, shearing teeth. Scaly five toed feet, tipped with sickle shaped claws, were extended to rip and tear. Between the rear legs, Elerian glimpsed a long, scaly tail ending in a single wickedly hooked claw.
“Close your eyes,” shouted Elerian to Ascilius. He cast a light spell, and through his own closed eyelids, saw a great flash of white, as a globe of piercing light appeared before the guardian’s face, stabbing through its eyes and into its brain like a sharp sword. Elerian heard a brief scream of pain and rage that rose all the way to the upper reaches of the shaft. The glare of the mage light beating against his eyelids suddenly ceased and a deep silence filled the shaft.
Cautiously, Elerian opened his eyes. Both his light and the guardian were gone. “The creature must have mage powers,” thought Elerian to himself. “It was able to extinguish my light before it fled.” He heard shouts from far a
bove and extinguished his own small light and that of Ascilius just before the Goblin guards looked over the edge of the shaft. They had heard the cry of the guardian and were talking excitedly among themselves, as they looked into the impenetrable darkness that filled the shaft below them. All of them assumed that the sound they had just heard signaled the death of the prisoners. “The old one has taken them,” said one to the rest before running off to inform their captain that the two escaped prisoners had met their doom.
Meanwhile, deep in the shaft and still very much alive, Ascilius whispered to Elerian, “Your spell has driven the creature away, but it may return once it recovers its sight. We must get to the bottom of the shaft and away from here as quickly as possible.”
Above them, the guards had moved away from the edge of the shaft. Elerian lit another diminutive mage light, and Ascilius did the same. Guided by the faint glow of their lights, they continued their descent down the side of the slippery shaft, casting many an apprehensive glance at the opaque darkness above them. They saw no eyes, but it seemed to them that a monstrous shape followed them down the shaft, staying just beyond the limits of their vision.
“I do not know how much more of this I can stand,” whispered Ascilius, coming to a stop on another narrow ledge. The pain he had suffered from his wound, exhaustion, and nervous apprehension had given him a haggard look.
“He is nearing the end of his strength,” thought Elerian to himself, worriedly, as he paused beside Ascilius. “I wonder how much father it is to the bottom of this accursed shaft.” He looked down over the edge of the narrow shelf of stone that he and Ascilius were standing on and was surprised to see the swift, dark waters of an underground river just at the limits of his mage light. He and Ascilius had descended much farther that he had thought.
“There must be an exit for the water,” thought Elerian excitedly to himself as he watched the river flow smoothly between the slick walls of the shaft. “How are we to reach it?” he wondered, for the walls of the shaft below the ledge appeared smooth and bare of any handholds. He cast a worried glance above him, and started when he saw a pair of fiery eyes hurtling down at him.
“Jump!” shouted Elerian to Ascilius. Pushing himself strongly away from the wall, he dropped feet first toward the rushing water below. Out of the corner of his left eye, he saw Ascilius falling beside him. Above them, drawing closer every second, was the hideous shape of the guardian. Elerian felt a rush of cold air past his face before striking the dark water of the river feet first, sending a plume of water into the air. To his left, he heard a splash as Ascilius disappeared beneath rushing waters of the underground river.
The icy water struck Elerian like a fist, knocking the breath out of him. Swept downstream, he sank a short distance before feeling his feet drag along a stony bottom. With a vigorous push of his legs, Elerian shot back to the surface, gulping a quick mouthful of air before the swift, turbulent water carried him into a tunnel, thrusting him against stony walls one moment and down to the bottom the next. He tried to fend off the walls with his hands, but several times, he was swept into them with bone bruising force. Fortunately, the river did not quite reach to the top of the tunnel, and every so often, Elerian was able to reach the surface and snatch a mouthful of air. He had no idea what had happened to Ascilius.
Suddenly, Elerian felt himself dropping straight down, feet first. Desperately, he felt all around him for some handhold to stop his fall, but his fingers touched only cold, rushing water.
“I must have gone over a cliff,” he thought to himself, as he fell blindly through torrents of rushing water. “Will I strike water or rock?” he wondered to himself an instant before he plunged feet first into the surface of a deep pool.
The column of water falling on Elerian from above pummeled him and tumbled him about, forcing him deep into the pool. In the depths, the force of the falls grew less, and Elerian righted himself, before kicking and stroking toward the surface. After what seemed an endless time, he suddenly shot partway out of the water. Falling back with a splash, he began treading water and gulping cool, damp air. Around him, all was pitch black, except for the pool of illumination provided by his small mage light, which had maintained its position above his head through all the turbulence of the river and the plunge into the pool. Elerian had the sense that he was in a great open space like a vast cavern.
He looked all around him but saw no sign of Ascilius. Had the Dwarf followed him over the falls? Supple as an otter, Elerian dove beneath the surface of the pool and opened his eyes. In the dark depths of the pool, he saw a small spark of light tumbling about that could only be Ascilius’s mage light. Swiftly, Elerian swam downward, until he drew close to the Dwarf, who was kicking feebly in a desperate attempt to reach the surface of the pool. For the second time, Elerian grasped Ascilius by his long, streaming hair with his left hand, and stroking mightily with his right hand and legs, swam for the surface, dragging his heavy burden behind him. Breaking free of the water, he filled his lungs with welcome air as he hauled his limp burden up above the surface of the pool. The two mage lights illuminated Ascilius’s pale face. The Dwarf looked thoroughly miserable. Water streaming from his nose and mouth, he began to cough uncontrollably. He was making no effort to swim and would have sunk like a stone if Elerian had let go of him even for an instant.
“Are you all right?” asked Elerian when Ascilius stopped coughing for a moment.
“I will be fine when I am out of this accursed water,” said Ascilius weakly.
“Why did you not swim?” asked Elerian in a puzzled tone. “You would still be on the bottom of the pool, if I had not brought you up.”
“When you jumped into the river, you gave me no time to explain that very few Dwarves can swim,” said Ascilius irritably. “It is not a common skill for a people who spend most of their time below ground.”
At that moment, above the roar of the waterfall, they both heard a loud splash behind them, as if something large and heavy had plunged into the pool. Elerian looked back and, with his third eye, saw a red shade in the depths of the pool below the waterfall. “The guardian has followed us,” he said in an alarmed voice to Ascilius. “We must get out of the water.”
“You will have to swim for both of us, or leave me behind,” said Ascilius apologetically.
The current had already carried them some distance across the pool by now, and on his left, Elerian could see a stony shore, faintly illuminated by their mage lights. He began stroking in that direction, fighting the drag of the current as he pulled Ascilius along next to him. The Dwarf hung limp in his grasp, his heavy body constantly threatening to sink the both of them. Luckily, Ascilius did not panic. He remained still until Elerian reached the stony bank of the river. Together, he and Elerian splashed out onto the rocky bank, dripping streams of cold water from their bodies. Elerian immediately looked over his left shoulder. With his third eye, he saw the fiery shade of their pursuer following them languidly, swimming with an eel like grace through the water. The creature still appeared to be in no hurry to reach them. Evidently, it entertained no worries that they would escape.
“There must be some way we can get away,” thought Elerian to himself as he looked around him. The mage lights revealed a stony shore that was perhaps thirty feet across. It ended at a steep slope of loose rocks of various sizes. At the top of the slope, Elerian could see the wall of the cavern. There was a dark patch there that might be an opening.
“Can you walk?” he asked Ascilius, who was now sitting on the shore with his head resting on his knees, exhausted from his struggle with the river. “The creature is right behind us in the water.”
“Leave me!” said Ascilius, wearily raising his head. “I am spent and will only slow you down.”
Without hesitation, Elerian lifted the heavy Dwarf across his shoulders and ran lightly across the shore, ignoring Ascilius’s feeble protests. Leaping swiftly from rock to rock, he climbed the slope that led up to the cavern wall. At the summit of
the incline, he found a narrow crevice, about six feet high and three feet wide, with a pronounced, cool breeze blowing out of it.
Elerian set Ascilius on the ground and turned to look back at the pool. A dark, sinuous figure slipped from the water. Its wings were folded back neatly against its sides, and its wet, sable fur gleamed in the mage lights. The creature’s fiery eyes stared malevolently up at Elerian, its scaled, clawed tail lashing the air like a snake. Elerian raised his left hand and cast a light spell like the one that had driven off the monster before. A golden orb shot from his fingertips, but the creature standing on the shore opened its jaws and spat out a red orb that engulfed and consumed Elerian’s spell before disappearing itself, its power spent. As Elerian had guessed earlier, the guardian possessed mage powers of its own and was now prepared to defend itself against magical lights.
With a supple leap, the creature bounded across the shore, toward Elerian, landing gracefully on the rocks at the base of the slope on which he stood. Before it could spring up at them, Elerian picked up a rock the size of his fist and flung it with all his considerable strength. It struck the guardian in the forehead, between its burning eyes, stunning it for a moment.
“Ha,” shouted Ascilius from behind Elerian. “That was a child’s throw!”
Elerian threw him a quick look and saw that Ascilius had regained his feet. Calling on some deep reserve of strength, the Dwarf had lifted a flattened boulder, almost three feet across, above his head. Corded muscles bulging beneath his pale skin, he threw it with terrific force at the dazed creature below, striking it on the shoulders just back of its neck. The guardian was crushed to the ground by the heavy missile, and Elerian fully expected to see that its back had been broken. A moment later, however, he was stunned to see it scramble back to its feet. Hastily, Elerian picked up another heavy stone, and Ascilius strained to lift an even heavier boulder above his head.
