The Queen of Dragons (Tales from the New Earth Book 8)

by J. J. Thompson

  And now they were trapped.

  The doors shuddered again as the monster on the other side slammed into them.

  “I never knew that a chimera was even a real thing,” Sylvie said as she paced back and forth, trying to think of a way out of the trap they were in.

  “I doubt that they were, before the old gods returned to fill the world with magic,” Chao told her as he stood next to his brother.

  Both of them were facing the heavy doors, obviously putting themselves between the threat and Sylvie.

  The mage noticed their protective stance and rolled her eyes silently. The last thing she needed was protection, but this wasn't the time or place to explain it to the gallant pair. It was endearing though.

  “The question is, what do we do about it?” Lei asked evenly as he kept his eyes glued to the doors. “And do we need to? I mean, no offense to the missing wizard, but we have seen no sign of him in this place. I personally doubt that Simon O'Toole was ever here. Whomever or whatever Ellas sensed, I don't think that it was him. Should we not simply Gate away? Why are we waiting?”

  Both of the brothers turned to look at the pacing mage and Sylvie stopped to return their gaze.

  “We're waiting because...well, because...”

  She shook her head.

  “Oh damn, you're right. What are we doing? Simon was never here, that much is obvious. If he had been, that monster out there would have been nothing but a rotting corpse.”

  She smiled in embarrassment at the men.

  “I'm so sorry, guys. I guess I've been the victim of wishful thinking. I've been so worried about Simon that I was grasping at straws, hoping that we'd somehow stumble over him in here somewhere. And my obsession put the two of you in danger.”

  “There is no reason to apologize,” Chao said hurriedly, with his brother nodding in agreement. “We were honored to join you in your hunt. And I hope that the wizard is alive and well, and that one of the other teams has found him somewhere. But now...”

  He looked over his shoulder at the sound of splintering rock; the doors were on the verge of collapse.

  “Now I think it is time to go, yes?”

  Sylvie gestured at the brothers.

  “Yes. Chao, touch my shoulder. Lei, hold on to your brother. We are getting the hell out of here.”

  The two men quickly lined up while Sylvie chanted the Gate spell. She finished just in time to see the doors burst inward and the yellow-eyed monster leap through the shower of debris straight at them, its poisonous stinger thrusting forward out of the darkness.

  “Invectis!” she screamed.

  The last thing she heard as they were swept away into the Void was a roar of frustrated hunger. They had escaped just in time.

  “I hate bugs!” Aiden shouted from behind Tamara. “I hate them!”

  The mage thought it was remarkable that a big man wearing plate armor could run and loudly complain at the same time. Definitely had a good set of lungs.

  “Will you please shut up and keep running?” she yelled back. “We need to find enough space so that I can turn around and fry it.”

  “Hate 'em,” she heard Aiden say again, more to himself this time.

  They had exited the elevator shaft, which had been extended deep into the ground by some unknown force, and had found themselves standing in a tunnel that was definitely not natural.

  It ran off to their left and right, was perfectly round and about eight feet in circumference. It was as if a huge drill had been used to dig out the passageway.

  “What the hell is this?” Aiden wondered as Tamara's light globe illuminated the area.

  She dropped her shield and ran her fingers over the wall, which looked almost shiny in the magical white light.

  With a sudden hiss, the mage drew back her hand and wiped it quickly on her robe.

  “Ugh, the wall is slimy,” she said in revulsion. “Disgusting.”

  The warrior sniffed loudly and shrugged.

  “There's no smell. It must just be caused by dampness or something. Now where was that rustling sound coming from?”

  The odd, crackling noises had faded away as they had reached the bottom of the deep pit and now the tunnel was eerily silent.

  “Nowhere. It's gone. Forget about it for now. Are there any signs of footprints or anything?” Tamara asked as she scanned the smooth floor. “Do you think Simon made it down here?”

  Aiden got down on one knee and ran his mailed fingers over the stone.

  “No way to tell.”

  He rapped his knuckles on the ground.

  “I doubt that anything lighter than a truck would make a dent in this floor. So, do we look around or what?”

  Tamara glanced in both directions, frowning indecisively.

  “We're down here now,” she replied, “so I suppose we could poke around a bit. Do you agree?”

  Aiden shrugged again.

  “Sure. Why not? But unless we find some sign of him, I'm just going to go out on a limb right now and say that I doubt Simon was ever here. Why would he be? This place is plain and boring.”

  “And creepy,” the mage added. “Okay, then. Pick a direction and let's go.”

  Aiden turned left and began walking slowly along the tunnel. Tamara followed and sent her floating light globe ahead to give the warrior enough illumination to see the ground in front of him.

  “Thanks,” he said. “It's like being at the bottom of a coal mine down here.”

  “Have you ever actually been in a coal mine?” Tamara wondered with a smile.

  “No, but I have a vivid imagination. Just ask Malcolm.”

  The mage laughed lightly and focused on the tunnel.

  It was definitely artificial, but who had created it? And why? This close to the Seine, she was surprised that there wasn't a foot of water on the ground. Maybe that was the reason for the slimy walls; the river was trying to seep in through the rock.

  But surely the French government, for some reason, must have dug this tunnel. Who else could it have been?

  “Is it possible that this passage leads to a government bunker or something?” Aiden asked as he looked back at the mage. “It's too perfectly formed to be natural.”

  “I was actually thinking along the same lines, more or less. Could be some project that was started years ago and then abandoned. The walls must be sealed somehow or the river would have flooded the place by now.”

  “I hadn't thought of that. Maybe so.”

  They had moved along the tunnel about fifty feet from the elevator shaft when the passageway began to curve gently to the right.

  They followed the corridor for several more minutes and that's when the strange rustling sound began again. This time it was plainly coming from behind them.

  “Oh crap,” Aiden said as he stopped short.

  Tamara almost ran into the armored figure and she halted and glared up at him.

  “Careful there, big guy. You're like a walking building, do you know that?”

  He gave her a cursory smile and then frowned, looking back in the direction they had come. The noise was getting closer.

  “What is that?” he wondered.

  The mage had no answer. It was like nothing that she had ever heard before.

  “It almost sounds like dry leaves blowing along the ground in an autumn wind,” she said as she listened closely. “But that's ridiculous. There is no wind down here.”

  “And no leaves,” Aiden added.

  He moved around Tamara to stand between her and the approaching noises. He slipped the shield off of his back and settled it on his left arm before drawing his sword.

  “Get ready with your Shield spell,” he said tersely.

  “That's a bad idea in these close quarters, Aiden,” the mage warned him. “If you're fighting and back up into my shield, you'll be hurt, probably quite badly.”

  He cursed under his breath.

  “I hadn't thought of that. Any suggestions?”

  “If it's a threa
t and we need room to fight, my suggestion is to run until we find some.”

  “Oh great, running in full armor; my favorite thing,” he said sarcastically. “Then again, I could stand to lose a few pounds.”

  “Always the practical one,” Tamara said as she stared past him down the tunnel. “And you don't need to lose weight, just so you know.”

  “Well...”

  His reply was cut off as something came racing around the distant curve of the tunnel.

  It was huge, filling the circular passageway completely. A putrid mottled brown, the bulbous creature was dragging itself along on thousands of tiny legs that scrabbled over the tunnel walls.

  “Oh crap!” Aiden shouted.

  “Run!” Tamara told him. “We have to find some open space.”

  They both turned and fled while the grotesque creature, some sort of gigantic worm, raced after them.

  “What is it?” the warrior asked loudly as they ran.

  “At a guess, I'd say it's a millipede,” the mage called back to him. “Or at least it used to be before it Changed. Well, now we know what dug out this damned tunnel.”

  Aiden spared a quick glance back at the huge insect and gagged. It was spewing gelatinous slime from its round, pulsating mouth as it chased them, allowing its bulbous body to slide more efficiently along the tunnel walls.

  “I hate bugs!” he shouted. “I just hate them.”

  “Less shouting, more running please,” Tamara yelled back. “If we can't find enough space to fight that horrible thing, maybe this tunnel circles back to the elevator shaft and you can hold it off long enough for me to Gate us the hell out of here.”

  She lifted her robe higher to avoid tripping on it and focused on the ground ahead. Her mage light kept pace with them and shone off of the smooth surface.

  “Tamara, this won't work,” Aiden told her raggedly.

  He was beginning to wheeze as he ran and the mage felt a cold sense of dread; the man was starting to tire.

  “I'll be out of breath and walking long before we circle around, if we ever do.”

  “Then we'll think of something else,” she called back desperately. “Just don't stop running.”

  They raced down the tunnel for another minute.

  “No, this is stupid,” Aiden told her. “If I'm going to have to stop anyway, at least I want to have enough strength left to put up a decent fight. And I can give you the minute you'll need to Gate the hell out of this place.”

  Tamara looked back just in time to see the warrior skid to a stop.

  “Aiden, no!”

  They had gained some distance on the millipede, but the monster was barreling down the tunnel straight at them, the rasping sound of its countless tiny legs sending shivers up the mage's spine.

  Aiden gave her a last look, his dark eyes shining in her magical light.

  “Goodbye, my friend,” he said, panting. “Give my love to Malcolm.”

  He smiled warmly at the mage, turned and raced toward the approaching monster.

  The creature squealed in seeming pleasure as Aiden moved to attack and, in turn, the warrior bellowed out a battle cry.

  Tamara froze in surprise for a brief moment and then raced after him.

  “No way, Aiden!” she shouted furiously. “You don't get to be a hero on my watch! Not today!”

  She raised her wand and invoked one of her prepared spells.

  “Invectis!”

  Aiden looked back at her cry and then jumped to one side with a bellow of surprise.

  A bolt of electricity sizzled through the air next to him as it passed and slammed into the enormous insect, exploding against its smooth head.

  Slime and juices spewed everywhere and the millipede's shrill screeching deafened both mage and warrior.

  It was far from beaten though and began crawling mindlessly forward again, thrashing in obvious agony as it came.

  “Get over here, you idiot,” Tamara yelled at Aiden. “Move it! We have to leave before that damned thing regains whatever senses it has.”

  She quickly chanted the incantation for the Gate spell while Aiden limped back to her. He had wrenched his knee as he had slammed into the tunnel wall and he was exhausted from their long run, but the warrior was still grinning as he returned.

  “So much for my glorious exit,” he wheezed as he kept a watchful eye on the struggling millipede.

  “Not today, buddy boy,” Tamara told him. “I'm not going to be the one to tell Malcolm that you died, gloriously or not. Now take my arm and let's go home. I don't know where he went, but it's pretty obvious that Simon was never here.”

  She invoked the transportation spell and the pair were pulled into the Void, leaving the bleeding, whining millipede to its own fate.

  Chapter 14

  The next day, the four teams assembled in the conference room of Nottinghill Castle. They had all needed time to rest and recover after their various adventures and now wanted to discuss what they had experienced.

  Elaine, one of a handful of Nottinghill's clerics, had returned while the teams were gone and had took it upon herself to visit each of the travelers in turn. She had healed their various injuries, light as they all thankfully were.

  And so it was a refreshed, if somewhat gloomy, group that met up the next day at around noon. Kronk and Aeris were there as well, standing in the center of the table and listening attentively to everything that was said.

  “So how is everyone feeling today?” Tamara asked as the group got settled into their seats.

  She was sitting at her usual spot at the head of the long table, Sebastian seated to her right.

  “Better after a good night's sleep and a meal,” Malcolm said, sitting next to Aiden several seats away.

  He glanced at his partner and sighed.

  “I just wish that my journey had been a little more exciting. Some people have all the luck.”

  Aiden sat back in his chair and pushed his hair out of his face. Both men were wearing plain white tunics and leather pants and his mane of hair was still damp from his bath. The warriors appeared a lot younger when they were out of their armor.

  Aiden gave Malcolm a look of disbelief.

  “You call almost being eaten alive by a giant worm lucky? Sometimes I worry about you, Malcolm; I really do.”

  “Technically I think it was a millipede,” Tamara told them with a tired smile. “But I agree; the only luck we had with that thing was not becoming its next meal. Anyway, telling tales will have to wait for a bit. I called you all together to ask if any of you had found any sign of Simon; anything at all.”

  She paused and waited. The silence was its own answer.

  “Nothing?”

  “Tamara, if any of us had gotten even a hint of Simon's whereabouts, don't you think that we would have spoken up as soon as we got back?”

  Liliana was wearing her silver armor, as usual, and it reflected the light as she shifted her weight. The paladin looked rested and alert.

  “No, we found nothing,” she continued with a quick glance at Sebastian. “I wish we had. I've begun to wonder if Simon ever actually traveled to any of the sites that Ellas discovered. Maybe he changed his mind?”

  “Or maybe the sprite was mistaken?” Sebastian added. “I know nothing about such creatures, but surely they aren't infallible?”

  The group looked at Chao, who as sitting next to his brother near the center of the table. He smiled as attention was focused on him.

  “No, of course Ellas isn't infallible,” he said as he smoothed out a wrinkle on his robe. “Although I would appreciate it if none of you told her I said that.”

  Lei grinned at his brother while several of the others chuckled.

  “But she is very good at what she does. I firmly believe that your wizard friend searched out the sites that she listed for us. Now, whether he actually visited any of them is a separate question. We can't know the answer to that until we find him.”

  Tamara looked down the table at each per
son in turn and saw nothing but a lot of head shaking and unhappy expressions. She focused on the two elementals instead.

  “My friends,” she said gently. “I am so sorry that we didn't find Simon. We are all upset by his loss, but I imagine that you feel even worse.”

  Kronk's blocky face was capable of an amazing range of expression, but at that moment all that the mage saw was grief.

  “Do not apologize, lady,” he replied sadly. “We both appreciate your efforts on our master's behalf. But now, since you have not found any sign of him, Aeris and I and our people will begin to search in our own way.”

  He looked at the air elemental and Aeris rose up several inches above the table and spun in a slow circle to face each of the humans in turn.

  “I agree with Kronk,” he said politely. “You have been more than kind to us, and Simon O'Toole. But my people specialize in scouting and finding things.”

  He smiled down at the earthen, who looked back quizzically.

  “Let a warrior fight, let a cleric heal,” Aeris said as he rose up even higher. “And, when you need something found, let an air elemental search.”

  His body flared brightly and then the elemental was gone.

  The group looked around in surprise and then back at Kronk.

  The little guy shook his head and tip-tapped across the table to stand in front of Tamara.

  “I am sorry, lady mage, but Aeris does love to make an exit. His people adore dramatics. He is right though; his kind is excellent at finding people. We can only hope that they have better luck than you have had.”

  He turned to bow at the others.

  “Thank you all again,” he said. “Farewell.”

  Kronk hopped off of the table and hurried out of the room. The group heard his little feet tapping away until they faded in the distance.

  Veronique and her sister spoke quietly in French for a moment and then Sylvie looked down the table.

  “I do hope that the elementals have more luck than we had,” she said to Tamara, who still looked bemused by the abrupt exit of Kronk and Aeris.

  Tamara nodded at the comment.

  “They have powers and talents that I still do not understand. But they will be able to track Simon in ways that we cannot.”