“Someone is feeling spry, isn’t he?”
“It’s you. Would you expect otherwise?”
Her warm smile cooled. “You’re trying to seduce me.”
“No, I know better than that.” He gave Blackie a look. The dragon lay on the ground, curled up with his tail wound around him. One eye was open and fixed on Fogle. He had no doubt that the dragon heard and understood every word that he said. “Besides, you’re spoken for.”
“True, I am.” She twirled her hair around her finger. “Blackie’s so amazing.”
Fogle didn’t try to hide his frown. “I understand.” His legs tingling with the new sensation of blood flowing through them, he began to walk away.
Cass caught him by the arm. “Fogle, I adore Blackie as a creature of this world. I admire the living things so much more than the races. But I’m not such a freak that I hope to lay dragon’s eggs one day.” She pressed her exotic little frame into his. “The truth is that one of the reasons that I left you as I did was because I never met a man I was as fond of as you. It scared me.”
Feeling his heart begin to lift him from his toes, he reeled himself in.
Boon’s voice overpowered the rising dawn. “Now I’m feeling better!” With the spell book tucked inside his arm and the everlasting fire in his eyes returned, the old mage seemed to crackle with energy. “It’s time to scrape the black scum from Bish forever!”
CHAPTER 33
Venir and Melegal sat inside the tavern beside the fireplace, arguing as fiercely as ever. Altan Rey had departed with his companion to one of the rooms upstairs. The mage was going to resume his underling form. That was where things became dicey.
“You’ve taken too many blows to the head, Venir,” the thief argued. “You think you can fight your way up to the top and behead the leader. It won’t be so simple. It never is. We aren’t here for that. We have a mission.”
Venir teetered on the back two legs of his chair. “You sound like a soldier. I like it. I knew I’d rub off on you someday.”
“Pah! And now you want to jest. Have you forgotten that Kam and Mood are counting on you? You can’t do this by yourself no matter how big your axe and ego are.”
“You can get the west gate open.”
“Over a hundred underlings man it. Look at us—it’s only five of us against all of them.”
“We have allies. Altan Rey assured us of that.”
Melegal leaned forward with his fists on the table. “You don’t fully trust that royal, do you? Certainly, you know better than that. If you press that man enough, he’ll go flat. They always do.”
“I don’t know. I have a feeling about him.” Venir dropped his chair on all four legs. On the table steamed a mug of coffee that Jasper had poured for them moments before. It had been so long since he’d had good coffee. The brew stung his lip when he sipped. “Ah. Now that’s what I call roasted.”
“Your wits are roasted.” Melegal took out a thumb knife and carved on the table. “And what are you going to do when they pit you against other men? Huh? Are you going to butcher your own blood too?”
Venir’s brow furrowed. “I hadn’t considered that.”
“Of course not. You’re an oaf. You swing first and question the corpses later.” Out of nowhere, a huge black cat hopped up on the table. “Octopus!” The mangy feline’s supine muscles rippled as he purred. Smoky, unseeing eyes scanned Melegal’s face. His whiskers brushed against Melegal’s chin. The thief scratched the big, eight-clawed cat behind the ears. “Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes.” Octopus lay down on the table. Purring like a tiny thunderstorm, the black cat closed his eyes as Melegal rubbed his head.
“You should take a lesson from your cat, Melegal. If he’s not worried, then perhaps you shouldn’t be so worried, either.”
“I never worry.”
“Hah.” Venir gave Melegal’s words some more serious thought. The thief was right. He couldn’t abandon one plan for another one. The goal was to get the gate open, but with hundreds of underlings in the way, not counting the forces that would rally around them, the task might be impossible. Besides, the steel gates of the portcullis were huge. It took two men to work the mechanisms that lifted the forty-foot wall of steel from both sides. The ramparts on the upper walls of the castle were heavily guarded by men and underlings. Still, Venir wanted a closer look.
Hitching his arms over the back of his chair, he checked out Hoff, Nikkel, and Billip. The men began to stir. “I’d say that their heads will be aching for a while once they come to.” He reached down and grabbed his pack. “Perhaps it’s time to go for a stroll.”
Melegal’s brows knitted. “Your legendary strolls sometimes take years.”
“I’ll be right back.” Venir removed the mystic sack from the pack. One by one, he removed the three elements of the armament, setting the helm on the table last. Octopus rolled toward it. The cat petted the helmet with his paw. “Your little kitten has a good sense of character.”
“The cat’s blind. He doesn’t know any better.” Melegal pulled the cat toward him. “But I do.”
“I thought you’d finally succumbed to my character.” Holding Brool by the haft, tip toward the rafters, Venir spun the axe in his hand. “I have to do what I have to do. It’s what we are here for. Keep an eye on things. I’ll be back in a few hours.”
“Bish, no.” Melegal rose from his chair. “I’ll be your shadow.”
Jasper made her way over to the table. “You aren’t leaving me.”
“See, someone needs to stay back and protect the women and kittens.” Venir was up on his feet, adjusting his girdle. “You’re the perfect rogue for the job.”
“No, I’m going, dear.” Melegal patted Jasper on the rump and kissed her cheek. “No worries. Octopus will protect you.”
“The underlings can’t see me with this getup on,” Venir said.
“Lucky for them. Too bad I don’t have the same problem. Heh, they won’t see me, either, if I’m hiding behind you.” He adjusted his cap. “I can handle myself. Besides, I know a better way to the western wall.”
“It’s a long walk, and since when are you so willing to engage with the underlings?”
“Since they didn’t give me a choice.” Melegal made his way over to the door. “After you.”
CHAPTER 34
“You are mad,” Fogle said to Boon. Everyone had gathered around the mages and was listening to the heated discussion. Boon was adamant. Fogle couldn’t disagree more with what the mage had to say. “We aren’t going into the Underland. It’s suicide.”
“You don’t know that,” Boon said. “I’m telling you they are exposed. The very heart of them. They’ve sent all of their forces to the surface. Their homeland has no defense. Their armies are gathered on the surface.”
“You couldn’t possibly know how many of them lie within. Besides, there are only a few of us.” Fogle paced back and forth with his hands waving at his sides. “We aren’t an army. We are going to Bone, period.” Shaking his head, he added, “You just came back from the dead, and you want to go visit it again. Certainly, you have a better idea than this.”
With his fist clenched in the air, Boon said, “I’m telling you that this will be the end of them. One crack in their sunken seams, and they will be wiped out. We can choke them off from their supplies.”
“They’ve usurped the supplies of the land above, Boon. They have all they need so long as men continue to cower. I’m not stopping you, but you aren’t going anywhere with my spell book.” He stretched out his hand. “You’ve got what you need. Hand it over.”
Boon clung to the book. “Certainly you wouldn’t separate a withering old man from some light reading material.” He caressed the book. “I wrote most of it.”
“Hand it over.”
“Let me show you one thing first.” Boon opened up the leather-bound tome. “Come, look, look.”
Fogle studied the pages as Boon’s fingers caressed the words of a very powerful an
d lengthy spell. Boon flipped through the pages. He was practically drooling. The old mage said, “If we cast a tremor such as this in the right place, the entire Underland will cave in. It will be nothing less. The underground is the source of their power.”
Fogle nodded. What Boon was offering made plenty of sense. “I don’t think you’re going to get many volunteers aside from yourself.”
“I can handle it myself if that’s the only choice that I have.” Boon flipped a page. He gasped. “What in the infernos is this?”
Fogle leaned over the book. The next page to the spell was missing. “Oh, about that. I had a run-in with an old ally of mine. He destroyed a few pages.”
Boon leafed through the pages. “A few!”
Fogle shrugged. The tightness in his chest subsided. He did the best he could to hide his relief. Maybe Boon’s plan would have worked, but he had no desire to see the Underland. Slapping his bewildered grandfather on the shoulder, he said, “Looks like we’ll be spending the next few days together.”
“No, no, no!” Boon’s grim expression changed. “I have another idea.”
***
Brak sat on the ground. Jubilee lay in his lap, rubbing the wounds on his legs. He rubbed his eyes and yawned.
“What’s the matter, Brak? You’re awfully quiet this morning.”
“I’m always quiet.”
“It’s more daunting this time around. What’s going on inside that great skull of yours?”
“I dreamed of my father.”
She twisted her head around and searched his eyes. “And?”
“I saw metal jaws swallowing him up. It seemed so real.” His stomach rumbled.
Jubilee quickly sat up. “It sounds like you’re about to swallow me whole. We better find you something to eat. Slim, Brak’s hungry.”
The lanky cleric sauntered over with a husk from a cactus. The needles were cleaned off of the plant. “Chew this. It tastes horrible, but it’s better than eating your fellow man.”
“I’ll pass. I can handle it.” Brak got up. He walked toward the dragon. The big black thing lay on the ground like a humongous dog. It reminded him of Chongo. The druid woman Cass was lying against the beast. Her pretty eyes found Brak. She waved him over.
“Come, Brak. You can pet Blackie, and no harm will come to you.”
He laid his hand on the dragon’s side. The diamond scales were warm plates of malleable armor that shifted under his fingers as the dragon breathed. Brak had never felt such raw power in a creature before. “I never imagined such a creature. Are there more like him?”
“It’s hard to say what lies in the Mist,” she replied.
Before Brak realized what was going on, Cass was up on her feet, hugging his arm. With an alluring look in her eyes, she said, “I sense great power in you. You’re like your father, but so young and enticing. Perhaps I can take you on a ride later.”
“On the dragon?”
“That’s one of the options I had in mind.” She hugged him tight. “It’s good to have options, isn’t it? We’d better wait until night, though. Too many eyes scan the sky in the day.”
Jubilee wedged herself between Brak and Cass. “What do you mean, too many eyes?”
Cass backed away with a frown. Tossing her hair, she said, “The hordes of underlings. Those nosy dwarves. They pollute the precious land with blood and bones.”
“What dwarves?” Brak asked.
“The ones that huddle in the west of Bone in the Black Columns.”
Marching into the conversation, Jarla said, “The Black Columns? Dwarves set up for war in the rock? How many dwarves?”
Looking bored, Cass shrugged her narrow shoulders. “I don’t know. Thousands perhaps. They’re such a noisy bunch.”
Towering over Cass, Jarla asked, “And how many underlings did you see?”
“Oh, vastly more. Wave after wave as far as the eye could see.”
By this time, everyone had gathered around. Fogle’s cheeks reddened. “Boon, why didn’t you tell us this?”
“I’m old. It escaped me.”
CHAPTER 35
“The sewers, huh?” Venir ducked beneath the bridge that connected one side section of tunnel to another. “If I’d known this, I would have left you behind.”
“It’s for the better. I can’t turn you loose and let you start swinging on the entire city. You’d lose control up there, you know.” Melegal led the way. He had the little coin of light pinched between his thumb and finger. It made for a narrow, illuminating beam. “It’s not like you haven’t been through worse.”
“No, but I’d forgotten that the stench in this city takes a little getting used to. This trip ought to do it.” He followed the light-footed thief. Brool hung from his hand. Helm was tucked in his arm, and the shield covered part of his back. He’d had Helm on earlier, but the underling presence started driving him into a frenzy. “You’d better know where you are going.”
“Even the man-urchins don’t know these tunnels better than I do. Why don’t you keep your lips sealed for a change? There’s no doubt in my mind that plenty have sought harbor in the tunnels.”
Venir grunted.
Melegal eased through the tunnel like a giant rat. From time to time he’d climb and take a peek out of the drains and gutters. For someone who hated to get dirty, Melegal let himself get surprisingly grubby. Venir felt proud of his friend for some strange reason. Truly, even the underlings had gotten to him.
At a bend in the stone pipeway, Melegal stopped. “You might have a time with this.” He shone the light down the next tunnel. It was much smaller than the other channels, which were almost big enough for Venir to stand in. Whoever had made the City of Bone, he swore they built for bigger men. “Go on. I’ll fit.”
Melegal slipped into the pipe. Stooping down, he moved quickly, keeping his feet wide of the stream of muck that passed beneath them.
Crowded in the stuffy pipeway, Venir waddled through on bent knees. It was a strain keeping up with the limber Melegal, but he made the best of it. Legs pumping, he waddled through like a duck. The agonizing trek lasted minutes. Sweat dripped from Venir’s lathered-up limbs into the smelly waters.
Melegal vanished into a bigger intersection where a heavier flow of water rushed by. Taking a breath, Venir hopped down by Melegal’s side. The intersection was huge. The framework was ten feet tall with more than one way to go.
“It’s another city down here, isn’t it?” Venir said.
“You’d be surprised. I’m doing the best I can to avoid any trouble.”
Deeper in the murk, Venir noted a pair of dead bodies damming up one of the drains. The smell could knock an ogre over. Covering his nose, he said, “Tell me you know where to go from here.”
“I do, but you might want to do a check first.”
Venir gave him a puzzled look. He saw Melegal’s disappointment. “Ah.” He put on the helmet. The throbbing started immediately, but it was faint. He gave a nod and knocked on the side of his helmet. “Go.”
***
Melegal scurried down the next intersection. The pair moved like varmints on the prowl, sneaking a few feet beneath the haunting streets. It never failed to surprise him how quietly Venir moved. He always assumed it had something to do with that armament he wore. Venir was never quiet. It’s always better to take a bigger target with you than yourself. Heh-heh. Not much farther, rat. Not much farther at all.
He passed by several alcoves commonly used for shelters by urchins and the like. They were abandoned, much like the streets above. He’d fully expected they’d have run into some adversary or critter by that point. He kept one hand always on the hilt of his dagger. The dart launchers were always ready. His head tingled. He stopped and clamped his bony fingers over his light.
Something lurked in the tunnels. It chilled his bones. There was an ancient, powerful evil among them, a terror that had been awakened. He’d sensed it one of the last times that he was in the tunnel.
The stirrin
g of his heart pounded in his ears. His cold blood never rushed like that. Venir stirred beside him. The man made a wall between him and the unseen threat.
Softly, Melegal said, “You sense it too?”
“Whatever it is, it’s not an underling, but it made my hair stand on end.”
“Slat, that explains why the tunnels are abandoned.” He snaked out a dagger. “Whatever is down here has been down here a long, long time.”
“Or the underlings brought it,” Venir said.
“No, it was here before they came,” Melegal said. “We’re close enough. We need to get topside.”
“That would be fine by me. We should have started there to begin with.”
Melegal hustled down the tunnel. His skin was crawling, and his stomach fluttered. A presence filled the passageway that pricked the fine hair on his ears. Using the coin of light to shed a sliver of illumination, he made it to the next drain tunnel and peeked up. The channel was narrow enough for him. Moonlight showed from the grate above.
“I can make it through, but you can’t. We’ll keep going,” Melegal said.
With Venir lurking behind him, he made it to the next intersection. The rush of rancid waters died. A chill filled the air. The rank passages became quiet as a tomb. A ghostly apparition glided out of the mouth of one of the tunnels. It didn’t appear to see them at first. The mannish, transparent figure wore tattered but extravagant robes and clinked when it moved. Scale armor gleamed on the shambling man’s chest.
Venir breathed on Melegal’s neck. The leather grip on Brool’s handle creaked. Dark, fathomless eyes fastened on both of them.
“What is that thing?” Venir growled.
The phantom answered in a powerful, hollow voice that tickled the marrow in their bones, saying, “The death that rules the tunnels…”
CHAPTER 36
“Your little druid whore will break you again,” Jarla said to Fogle. Isolated from the others and sitting on the ground, he opened his eyes. Meditation interrupted, he turned and looked up at her. “If you ever spawn with the little slut, they’ll be wilder than the hair on an ogre’s arse.”
The Darkslayer: Series 2 Special Edition (Bish and Bone Bundle Books 6-10): Sword and Sorcery Adventures Page 24
