They began to notice bits of bone and splotchy stains on the floor. When they came to a doorway without a door, Alexander drew the Thinblade before angling for a look inside. The room was twenty feet on each side. Remnants of past meals were scattered around a large pile of eggs mounded up in one corner.
“I don’t like the looks of that,” Jack said.
“No. Let’s be somewhere else when mama comes home.”
“The overseers have reached the intersection room,” Jataan said.
“Yeah, and it looks like a lot of them, too,” Anja said.
“Right, let’s go,” Alexander said, setting a faster pace than before.
Echoes of unintelligible shouts from behind them filtered down the corridor, but the only thing Alexander could make out was anger. He didn’t relish fighting the overseers, but they seemed like a far more manageable foe than the centipede.
Their angry shouts abruptly transformed into shrieks of fear and barking commands, followed by screaming and the flash of a spell.
“Well, that worked out,” Alexander said without slowing his pace.
Another hour brought them face-to-face with a stone statue of a man in plate armor-a sentinel. It stood in the middle of the corridor, still and silent. A few dozen feet behind it, the corridor was partially blocked by an enormous stone door. The door looked to have been built to completely block the corridor, yet it had been blasted asunder, cracked down the middle by some magic beyond Alexander’s understanding. This door could have repelled any army, stopped an onrushing flood, protected against any siege, yet magic had undone it, fracturing it right down the middle, opening a crack wide enough for a man to pass through.
When Alexander came within a dozen feet of the sentinel, its eyes began to glow a soft red and it brought its spear and shield up into a defensive stance.
“You shall not pass,” a distant voice said.
“We’ve come to revive the Linkershim,” Alexander said. “We are not enemies.”
“You shall not pass.”
“Who commands you?”
“You shall not pass.”
“Not a terribly responsive fellow,” Jack said.
“How about some light, Jack?” Alexander said, opening the door to his Wizard’s Den and setting Luminessence just inside. Jack held up his night-wisp dust, replacing the soft, warm, life-affirming light of Alexander’s staff with a harsher, more glaring light.
“Perhaps you should allow me,” Jataan said.
“No, I don’t think so, Jataan,” Alexander said. “I’ve fought one of these before, and my sword didn’t even put a mark on it. But I suspect this will do the trick nicely.” He drew the Thinblade.
“As you wish, Lord Reishi.”
Alexander advanced slowly, stretching out into the coming moments with his mind. The sentinel moved quickly, thrusting hard with its spear over the top of its large round shield. Alexander turned sideways, letting the tip go past him before bringing the Thinblade up through the haft. Three feet of the sentinel’s spear fell away, turning to ash and leaving little more than a line of grey powder where it hit the floor.
The sentinel didn’t hesitate, dropping its damaged spear and drawing its sword before pressing the attack, raising its shield high and thrusting low, targeting the inside of Alexander’s leg. He slipped aside, cut the blade of the sentinel’s sword, then swept up through its shield and forearm. The sentinel froze for a fraction of a moment, then turned to ash and fell to the floor in a grey cloud.
There was a moment of silence before the whole world seemed to vibrate. The enormous door started to grind and move.
“Run!” Alexander shouted. “We have to make it through!”
He darted ahead, racing through the narrow passage while the block of stone creaked and complained, coming to life for the first time in centuries. He wasn’t sure what had happened, but he was certain that he didn’t want to be on the wrong side of the door when it closed. They reached the other side, racing into a room so big that Alexander couldn’t see the far wall with his all around sight. A forest filled the room, created in perfect detail down to the texture of the bark and the haphazard ground cover, all made entirely of stone and metal.
The world seemed to rumble as some ancient mechanism struggled to move the broken door, then there was a jolt and the fissure in the enormous door slammed shut with a deafening crack that echoed throughout the forest room.
“I guess we won’t be going back that way,” Jack said.
“Probably not,” Alexander agreed, retrieving Luminessence from his Wizard’s Den and filling the immediate area with light.
The detail was breathtaking. Leaves made of copper adorned stone replicas of a wide variety of deciduous trees, while giant firs reached up to the ceiling several hundred feet overhead, acting as support pillars for the cavernous chamber.
“How big do you think this room is?” Anja asked.
“Huge,” Alexander said. “I can’t see the far wall.”
Jack whistled, shaking his head in wonder.
“I never imagined a place like this even existed,” Lita whispered.
“I know what you mean,” Alexander said.
A noise filtered through the stone forest-voices in the distance.
“Sounds like overseers,” Jack said.
“They certainly had time to get ahead of us while I healed,” Alexander said. “They’re probably crawling all over the underdark by now.”
“So where to now?” Anja asked.
“Let’s see if we can find another passage that runs along the chasm wall.”
They stayed near the wall of the forest room on their way toward the chasm. As much as Alexander wanted to explore, there was nothing to be gained. And since the room was so big, they could easily get turned around within the maze of stone trees and lose valuable time. The wall offered a point of reference that Alexander hoped would lead them straight to the chasm.
And it did, opening onto a balcony running for a full league along the chasm wall, the entire length of the forest room. Stone trees stood at the edge of the balcony, holding up the ceiling three hundred feet overhead.
“Looks like you’re right,” Jack said, pointing out into the darkness.
They could see clusters of light in the distance, both back toward the entrance and across the chasm, but the thing that caught Alexander’s attention was the giant pillar in the middle of the chasm that was encrusted with glowing crystals.
“Did any of you see that when we first entered the underdark?”
“No,” they said in unison.
“In this darkness, it should have been visible … provided it was glowing when we came in.”
“What are you thinking?” Jack asked.
“When I killed the sentinel, the underdark seemed to take notice. I’m just wondering if I triggered something.”
“You think you woke up some ancient security apparatus?” Jack asked.
“Possibly,” Alexander said. “That sentinel wouldn’t have been there, and that enormous stone door wouldn’t have been there, if someone or something didn’t want to secure this part of the underdark.” He pointed to the edge of the balcony. “There’s no corridor running along the chasm wall that joins the previous part of the underdark with this one. Seems we’ve entered a more secure part of the city.”
“Maybe that means we won’t run into any more bugs,” Anja said.
“We can hope,” Jack said.
They set out along the balcony, keeping a close eye on the artificial forest filling the cavernous space to their right. A bridge arced away from the balcony to the glowing pillar in the middle of the chasm. It was wide, easily broad enough to drive a horse-drawn cart across, and the railings on each side looked like perfect rows of oversized tulips, three feet high. A few were broken, but most were intact and flawless.
“Should we try the bridge?” Jack asked.
“Let’s see if there’s a corridor along the chasm wall leading from the other sid
e of the balcony first,” Alexander said. “A lot of those bridges don’t look entirely stable, so I’d rather avoid them if we can.”
Muffled voices filtered out of the stone forest. Alexander reached out with his all around sight, sweeping through the artificial trees until he found the platoon of men. Most were Lancers, but without their force lances. They were led by an Acuna wizard who’d brought along a few overseers for good measure.
“Seems they ran out of overseers and started sending in Lancers.”
“This entire place is probably crawling with them by now,” Jack said.
“Let’s keep moving,” Alexander said, continuing along the balcony, staying close to the railing. The sheer size of the forest room was impressive but it only served to underscore the vastness of the underdark-as big as any city in the world and bigger than most. He couldn’t help wondering anew about those who had lived here so long ago.
Several more bridges arced gracefully away from the balcony into the darkness. All looked intact, but Alexander ignored them, hoping the balcony would join with a corridor running along the wall of the chasm, but his hopes were in vain. The balcony ended without a way off save the bridges or whatever passages might lead out of the forest room.
Not a minute after they turned back to try one of the bridges, men started filing out of the forest several hundred feet ahead of them, fanning out across the balcony and drawing weapons, the overseers shouting orders to the soldiers, forming them into two ranks stretching across the balcony, blocking escape by any route except the forest.
“Run or fight?” Jataan asked.
Before Alexander could answer, a blue sphere the size of an apple shot forth from the wizard’s hand, crossing the distance with alarming speed. Time seemed to slow. Alexander saw the coming moments, and they were devastating. He moved quickly, pulling Anja away from the balcony, nearly throwing her toward the forest just a moment before the force sphere detonated. His friends were all blown toward the forest, scattering them across the stone floor, dazing them all. He was blown from his feet toward the chasm, over the railing and into the deep dark.
He’d known what was going to happen to him the moment the Acuna wizard cast his spell, but it was far preferable to losing Anja to the dark. He saw the balcony railing pass beneath him, then nothing but endless darkness. Gravity started to claim him.
He opened the door to his Wizard’s Den and tumbled inside, the portal suspended in space over the void a dozen feet from the railing. He hit hard, landing poorly, Luminessence clattering across the floor. Willing himself to his knees and then to his feet, he looked out the door but couldn’t see past the railing. He heard shouting and boots running on stone.
Stepping up on a chair, he could just see over the railing. Jataan was up. Anja was racing toward the railing with a look of wild panic that melted into relief the moment she saw him standing in the doorway of his Wizard’s Den. Soldiers were advancing on Jataan. He strode calmly toward them, no hint of a weapon in his hands.
“Don’t scare me like that,” Anja said.
Alexander tossed her a coil of rope, tying one end around his waist.
“Got it?” he shouted.
Anja wrapped the rope around her waist and nodded. Alexander stepped off the edge into the darkness and fell in an arc defined by the length of the rope, his feet landing hard against the wall below the balcony. Anja started pulling, drawing him up and over the railing just in time to avoid a sword stroke.
He hit and tumbled, rolling to his feet, the Thinblade coming free … and then he was lost in the moment, the battle joined, men coming from several directions at once as the enemy ranks closed in around them. Alexander didn’t think or plan or choose his moves, he simply let them happen, taking life and limb with each stroke, seeing the coming moments as if time had slowed just for him, allowing him to act with perfect knowledge. He was always right where he needed to be to avoid the next attack and deliver his next strike. Death piled up around him.
Jataan had engaged and was fighting a swarm of enemy soldiers, several already dead or dying. Jack was still down from the force sphere. Lita was hovering over him, extending her shield around him while she tended his injuries, ignoring the overseer standing over them both, beating on her shield with his weighted club.
Anja gave a battle cry that sounded more like the roar of a dragon and threw herself into the fight, cleaving the nearest man in half with a stroke of her broadsword, striking fear into the other men facing her.
The soldiers fell quickly, blood pooling around their corpses, but the wizard stood off a good distance casting another spell … and he’d been at it for far too long for the outcome to be good. An amber sphere of light leapt from his outstretched hand and shot toward the melee. Alexander saw it coming, but there was nothing he could do. It stopped not ten feet from him and expanded to a diameter of fifty feet in a blink. When the amber passed through each of them, it left them encased in magical energy, completely frozen in place-paralyzed and helpless, except for Jack and Lita. Her shield had protected them.
Fortunately, the remaining few soldiers still standing nearby were also frozen by the spell. Alexander willed the door to his Wizard’s Den closed, then he reopened it right next to Lita. She didn’t even hesitate, grabbing Jack by his arms and dragging him inside. Alexander willed the door closed, then focused on struggling to break free of the spell holding him in place.
“Well, as messy as that was,” the wizard said, looking at the carnage all around him, “we have our prize. The Babachenko will be pleased.”
“Do you think he’ll let me keep this one?” one of the overseers asked, savagely hitting Anja in the belly with his club. She fell backward like a rag doll, crumpling helplessly to the ground. The big man stood over her, leering at her with a purposeful smile.
“Do you think he’ll mind if I kill this one?” the other overseer asked, standing in front of Jataan. “I mean, look at this.” He gestured to the dead soldiers all around the battle mage.
As hard as he struggled, Alexander couldn’t break free of the spell. The wizard stopped ten feet before him and smiled, holding up a slave collar.
“Do as you will with them,” the wizard said to the overseers. “The Babachenko only wants this one.”
Alexander tried to vanish into the firmament, but nothing happened.
“Honestly, where did you plan to go down here?” the wizard asked, shaking his head.
“Ever been stabbed in the gut?” one overseer asked Jataan amiably. “It takes a long time to die.” He hooked his club to his belt and slowly drew his curved knife, holding it up so Jataan could see it.
“I see you’re fighting with a straight dagger,” he said, angling to get a better look at Jataan’s blade as if they were friends comparing weapons.
“I prefer …” he started to say, but never finished. Jataan’s dagger abruptly transformed into a spear, the point driving into the overseer’s eye and out the back of his head.
Alexander opened the door to his Wizard’s Den a few feet behind the Acuna wizard.
“This should make you more manageable,” the wizard said as he slowly approached with the slave collar.
Lita stabbed him in the back, the tip of her dagger coming out of his chest. Shock, dismay and disbelief played across his face just before he slumped to his knees and died-the effect of his spell vanishing with his life.
Free of the amber light, Jataan and Alexander swept back into battle against the remaining few soldiers, quickly dispatching those that didn’t flee.
While they fought, Anja regained her feet and dropped her sword, snarling at the overseer who’d hit her. She was clearly in pain, hunched over, protecting her midsection even as she advanced on the man. There was a moment of wariness in his colors, but it faded quickly. He seemed to decide that she was just a girl-no real threat.
“You want to play?” he asked with a menacing smile, raising his club.
Anja didn’t raise her guard or respond to his
jibe, instead shuffling toward him resolutely. When he drew back to hit her, she sprang, closing the remaining distance before he could bring his club down, hitting him in the groin with the palm of her hand hard enough to lift him a foot into the air, then grabbing him by the crotch and throat, spinning half a turn and throwing him over the balcony railing out into the chasm. His scream seemed to last a long time before it faded into the dark.
She slumped to her knees and Alexander raced to her side.
“Easy,” he said, catching her and carefully picking her up, carrying her into his Wizard’s Den and laying her gently on a bed.
“How’s Jack?” he asked Lita.
“He hit his head. I couldn’t wake him, so I put him to bed and spelled him. We’ll know more in a few hours.”
Jataan was the last one in after retrieving Anja’s sword.
Chapter 34
“She’ll be fine,” Lita said quietly. “Just some cracked ribs. I’m more worried about Jack-he hit his head pretty hard.”
Alexander nodded helplessly.
Lita put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. He forced a smile. Being injured himself was far easier than this; seeing his friends hurt made his stomach squirm. He felt so helpless. For all his magic, he had no power to help them.
“Jataan, watch the door,” Alexander said as he headed to his magic circle.
Jataan took up his post, stepping out onto the balcony and sweeping the area for any sign of threat. “The enemy has retreated.”
“Good, I’m going to have a look around.”
Alexander slipped into the firmament and then coalesced his awareness above his head, gliding into the underdark and flitting to the entrance with a thought. The balcony and entry hall were now a staging area for Andalian soldiers moving into the underdark. They were already collecting Linkershim and loading them into a wagon for transport to the forges, while platoon-sized forces were systematically expanding their area of control.
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