Descent Into Underearth

by Susan Bianculli

“But all is not well,” I sighed. “Arghen is still missing, as far as I know, unless he had somehow figured out how to get out of Chirasniv in company with Levahn from the Exchange.”

  An intense wave of need-to-know filled me, and I stood up out of Jason’s arms.

  “All right. We’ve done what we came here to do. Let’s go to the valley and see if Arghen and Levahn have made it back.”

  CHAPTER 40

  Jason, Ragar, Heather and I headed back to the Valley, Auraus having flown ahead with the news that Heather had been rescued and that both Bascom and Morsca were no more. We arrived to a celebration prepared for us in the courtyard by all the Grey riders, the ex-Exchange Surfacers, Dusk, and Emalai. Before things started up, though, the four of us asked about Arghen and Levahn since we didn’t see them anywhere. We were disappointed to learn that Arghen and Levahn had not put in an appearance. I’d been secretly hoping that Arghen would rescue himself while we rescued Heather, but it looked like that hope had been dashed. I snuck a look at Emalai standing nearby. She was putting on a brave face, but I could tell now that she was trying to hide how she really felt.

  I went over and hugged her. “I’m so sorry,” I said. “We’ll go back for him.”

  “How?” she asked. “The way is permanently closed.”

  That was how I learned that Dusk had found some of the Magelings who used to work for Bascom hiding in the valley village and had put them to use. The Miscere Surface-elf had overheard a conversation between two workers about them, and then he’d contacted the new village Council. He’d assured the Council there would be no hard feelings and asked if the Magelings would please come and talk to him, because he could really use the help. Eventually they crawled out of whatever hole they’d been hiding in and came to work openly for Dusk. They had been hiding because they were afraid that the Grey Riders would have had a grudge against them for supporting Bascom when all they had been doing was working for him to protect their families.

  “Is this true?” I asked Dusk, dismayed.

  Dusk replied that what he’d wanted the Magelings for was to make the valley safe by filling in the tunnels that led to the Sub-realms of the Under-elves. Once he’d managed to get that across to them, they worked pretty willingly. Over the last couple of days the amber-eyed Surface-elf had gotten the Magelings to steadily use their powers in combination with actual physical lifting of big rocks by Ogres and Miscere Giants who stuffed the stones into the tunnel. Apparently it was easier to solidify rock that was already there than to make it melt off the walls to seal the tunnel, as well as being more solid that way. Dusk explained why to me, too. Since Under-elves were non-magical they would have to somehow burrow through the stone plug if they wanted to come back up through that tunnel which would be hard to do physically. And to do that swiftly, they would need magic. But with our successful raid on the Exchange it was unlikely the Chirasnivians had anything powerful enough to undo what the Magelings had done. Even if the Under-elves somehow had powerful enough magic to manage it, he doubted that it could happen without notice since the Magelings had choked the tunnel with pretty much solid rock from the two-sided trap area all the way up to the back of the entrance cave.

  “You–they–didn’t do the cave, too?” I asked.

  Dusk looked at me. “Lise, what they did was a magical feat in and of itself. Magic is useful, but it takes energy, time and effort on the part of Magelings. Full mages are rare, but even a full mage would have sweated to do what we had five Magelings do in the short amount of time they had.”

  “Oh. Sorry. I guess I still don’t quite get it. How magic works, I mean. I guess it’s because I keep facing off the big bads that I forget that other magics are more, well, normal.”

  Dusk smiled. “There’s normal, and then there’s normal. But I believe I understand what you mean.”

  “But, Dusk, why did you seal off the only way that Arghen and Levahn could come back to us in the first place? Couldn’t you have waited at least a little while for them?” I couldn’t hide the agitation I was beginning to feel.

  Dusk turned solemn. “I did what I had to because I did not want to chance an army of upset Under-elves boiling out of that cave and falling upon the valley that I have been working so hard to put on a normal footing. Arghen is an Under-elf. He would appreciate the problem and would likely be searching for another way up to the surface anyway.”

  “Or he might have been caught and is suffering the tender mercies of the Chirasnivians,” I said a little bitterly. “And that plug prevents us from going down after him.”

  “There is that,” Dusk said. “Perhaps you and Auraus could pray about him?”

  I left him and sought out Auraus. “We need to find out about Arghen. Let’s go pray to Caelestis and see if we can get some sort of answer, or suggestion on what to do, about what’s going on with him.”

  Auraus nodded. “Let’s go out to the vineyard. I’d like to be in a more peaceful place when we pray.”

  The two of us slipped away from the ruined keep’s courtyard before the celebration began. At the vineyard Auraus and I scrounged enough wood to make the small fire we required, and the Wind-rider lit it with her fire brooch. We sat down side-by-side and started our meditations for prayer. When I was comfortably in the zone I felt a whoosh of air around me. Opening my eyes, I saw golden motes dancing around Auraus and me. The Wind-rider looked over at me, and at that moment the motes swirled back to the fire and solidified in Caelestis, who stepped out to stand in front of us. She, for the first time ever, didn’t look completely pleased.

  “My Priestess, My Champion,” she carefully greeted us.

  I looked at her with wariness. “My Goddess. You don’t seem happy.”

  “I am not,” she replied. “Not because I am unhappy with either of you, but because I know why you are praying and I do not know what to answer you.”

  I felt relief as her words confirmed to me that Auraus wasn’t in trouble over the soul ritual, but I didn’t understand what they meant exactly.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “Do you remember me saying to you that the Divine are not all-knowing nor all-powerful when first we spoke in this world?”

  I nodded.

  “Then I need to tell you that I have no knowledge of what transpires in the Sub-realms. I do not know of Arghen’s fate.”

  “You mean, Arghen and Levahn’s, right?” I asked.

  She looked faintly surprised. “No. I was unaware of anyone else being involved with Arghen.”

  “Well, what about Quiris? You may be her boss, but as Arghen is the one who worships her, maybe she has a better connection with him than you do?” I suggested.

  To my shock, a second figure appeared beside Caelestis. She was an extremely white Under-elf, tall, muscular, with a long white warrior braid that fell to the waist of her blackened chainmail armor and thigh-high leather boots. Despite that, I could easily see the resemblance between her and Dusk.

  “Qui-Quiris,” I breathed out softly, in case I was wrong.

  Auraus gave a bow of greeting to her, and I hurriedly copied the Wind-rider.

  The lesser goddess nodded her head once to us in a regal sort of way. “I will tell you that you are both correct and incorrect, Analise,” she said briskly. “It is true that as Arghen’s Goddess I have a closer connection with him than Caelestis does, but as the primary Deity, She feels everything I can if She wishes. We do not hear his prayers anymore.”

  “What! Is he dead, then?” I asked, aghast, as Auraus gasped.

  “No, because otherwise he would be with Us. He has more than earned a reward afterlife,” she said. “Let Me clarify—We do not hear the words of his prayers anymore, but We can feel the thread of them. It was interesting in a scholarly manner,” Quiris said, “to watch and feel you both descend to the Sub-realms. The deeper you went, the less We were connected to you until We had only a tenuous connection that let Us know that you were still alive. We could feel that you were prayin
g from time to time, but We heard no words. That is what We feel from Arghen now.”

  Ah. That also explained what had happened to me down there, and why I’d not felt any responses to my prayers.

  “What do you mean?” asked Auraus. “I do not understand.”

  “Hmmm. Think of a nice bonfire,” said Quiris. “Up close the fire is warm, and you smell the pleasant scent of burning wood, and you hear the crackling of the fire. Back away some few feet, and the fire is less warm, the scent is less, and the crackling is less. Back away to the other side of the village from where the bonfire is burning, and you can still smell the fire burning but you no longer feel the warmth or hear the wood crackle. That is an inadequate explanation for what Caelestis and I feel, but it will have to serve.”

  “So he is alive,” I said. “That’s good, at least.”

  “Not necessarily,” said Auraus worriedly. “Remember the Art section of Chirasniv you told me about. You said the Surfacers were alive in their cages despite what had been done to them, right?”

  I blanched. The thought of Arghen being displayed like them sickened me, and I clutched at Auraus’ arm.

  “We have to go back down there after him!” I cried.

  “But how? Dusk has closed the tunnel!” she exclaimed. “And I know he will not have an opening made in it for fear of compromising the valley.”

  Quiris gave a half smile. “While I can commend My son for attention to future threats, I sometimes wish he was not quite so quick about them.”

  Auraus and I turned to her at the same time.

  “Can you ...?” we started, but both Quiris and Caelestis were already shaking their heads at us.

  “We cannot move the rocks for you,” they said in unison.

  “Then how can we rescue Arghen?” I shouted angrily.

  Quiris said almost off-handedly, “Because I have a connection to the mortal realm through My son, I can bend the rules a little from time to time the way most Divine cannot.”

  That was interesting to hear. Did that mean that there were other children of other gods and goddesses walking around out there? I’d have to ask Auraus later.

  “But,” Quiris went on, “I can only bend them for situations regarding him and only in the most oblique ways. Remind My son of this next time you speak with him,” she said.

  “In the meantime,” the Goddesses said in unison as they shoved both their hands out at us, “We are pleased with all you have accomplished on Our behalf, and We do wish to thank you, and reward you.”

  A co-mingled stream of gold and silver particles flew towards Auraus and myself from them. The motes quickly swirled so thickly around me that I could not see beyond the end of my nose, and I felt like I was in a snowglobe storm. When the silver and gold cleared away, Quiris and Caelestis were gone—and just like before, Auraus and I were refreshed and renewed in both clothing, armor and body.

  I looked at the Wind-rider. “I think it is time to go and see Dusk. That hint of Quiris’ was too strong to ignore.”

  CHAPTER 41

  We sought out the amber-eyed Surface-elf back at the celebration that had started in our absence, but we didn’t see him. Jason saw us return and came hurrying over, a cooked chicken leg in one hand and a filled wooden cup in the other.

  “Where did you both go?” he asked.

  “Auraus and I went to go pray to Caelestis, and Quiris ended up joining the conversation,” I replied.

  Jason’s eyes bugged out a bit. “Quiris? Why?”

  Auraus said, “We need to tell Dusk what his mother said, so why not come with us and we can tell you as well?”

  I asked, “Do you happen to know where he is? I can’t see him.”

  “He said something about dealing with a few matters, and left the party not long after you did,” Jason said.

  I raised my eyebrows. “Really? He’s working now? So that probably means he’s at Barrel HQ.”

  We went to the wooden mountain, which was shorter than when we’d left, and this time the line of people needing to talk to Dusk was non-existent. It was nice to see the pieces of paper and scrolls and other office-like things jumbled on his desk were down to a bare minimum.

  “Hello, my friends!” Dusk said cheerily, looking up at our approach. “I do believe I will be able to hand over the reins to the Valley Council in the next couple of days or so! Then I will be free to make more plans with you.”

  “Weeeelllll, Dusk, we need to talk to you about that,” I said.

  The happy look on his face dropped. “You have been talking to Caelestis.”

  I nodded. “Not only Caelestis, but your mother, too,” I replied.

  “My mother?” He looked surprised. “You do not worship her.”

  “Because of Arghen,” I said pointedly.

  “Ah.” He nodded. “What did she say?”

  “She said that since she has you still in the world, she can sometimes bend the rules a little for you and that we were to remind you of it,” I said.

  He smiled as he pushed back his stool and stood up. “Yes, that does sound like Mother. It would be her way of saying that if you want help in getting Arghen rescued, I have to be involved. Fortunately,” he said, coming out from behind the desk, “I had already planned on joining whatever party you were going to make towards that end.”

  “Me make?” I squeaked.

  “Yes, you,” he said. “Are you not a Champion of Caelestis? Are you not going to rescue a Champion of Quiris, the demi-goddess of your Deity? Do you think that anyone else should have the ordering of such a rescue?”

  When Dusk put it like that, it did seem rather obvious.

  “You will get no dearth of people wanting to help you, Lise. Pick those whom you feel will be of the most help, and let us be underway soon.”

  I sighed. Just when I thought that I’d be able to relax and wait for the next mist gate to happen—wait, the next mist gate!

  At the sudden worried look that crossed my face, Dusk asked, “What is wrong?”

  “Chica?” Jason also asked me with concern.

  “Jason and I have only one more mist gate to go before we are trapped here forever,” I explained. “Caelestis told me when I first came here that the gates, like so many things here, operate in threes. Well, Jason and I came through a gate to get here—that was one. I refused to go through the second gate when Heather appeared, so that was two. That means Jason and I have to take the next gate that appears or we will never be able to go home again!”

  Jason put up his hand. “Wait a minute, chica. You gave up a chance to go home for me?”

  “You were in the hands of the Under-elves. How could I leave you there?” I said simply.

  Jason soundly kissed me in gratitude. Afterwards, he asked, “And the gates are unpredictable?”

  “Not–exactly, I don’t think,” I said. “I’ve been thinking about it, and I’m making a guess that they open roughly every six weeks. The first one was in the middle-to-late March, which was around the Spring Equinox. The second was around the beginning of May, or May Day. The next one should be mid-June, probably around Midsummer’s Day.”

  “Which is also known as the Summer Solstice,” he said.

  I nodded.

  “That is plenty of time, then,” said Auraus. “It has not been that long since Heather joined us.”

  “I hope so,” I said. “Because if Midsummer’s Day comes around and we’re still underground for some reason, can we be certain we’d be able to get to wherever it opens on the Surface?”

  No one had an answer for that.

  “Well,” I sighed. “That won’t stop me, at least, from doing what’s right. Which is rescuing Arghen somehow. Auraus? Staying or going?”

  “Going,” she said instantly.

  I nodded and looked at Jason.

  “Do you even have to ask me, Lise?” he said with a smile as he leaned over and kissed me briefly.

  I smiled back. “I knew, but it’s always nice to ask. So unless the others
say ‘no’ when we ask them, let’s keep it pretty much the same way we did before. That means you, Heather, Ragar, Auraus, Dusk, and me to go. And this time we’ll make sure to take extra iron bars for all the humans,” I said.

  “Never a dull moment with you around, eh, chica?”

  “No. And don’t you prefer it that way?” I said to him playfully. “C’mon, Jason, Auraus, let’s go ask the others, and then we’ll go get ready to leave in the morning.”

  “Another day, another quest?” Jason asked.

  “Seems like it,” I said.

  “If I had a dollar for every quest I’ve been on since I crossed the mist gate, I’d have, what, four dollars?”

  I laughed and latched my arm through his.

  But he was right, I thought as we went in search of the others. It seemed one thing after another happened on this side of the mist gate, with never a dull moment. I could only hope that we would be done with the latest quest before the next mist gate opened, or this might be Jason’s and my life forever.

  EPILOGUE

  Arghen stirred where he lay on the rock of the cavern floor by the city-state gates, listening to the arguments happening over his head. Beside him, Levahn lay like one dead, his disguise askew, which revealed him for what he truly was. When Arghen had managed to finally break from the exercise he’d been unwillingly tapped for, he had sped to the gates. He was concerned when he didn’t see the caravan, but he was reassured at seeing Levahn apparently waiting for him. But too late did Arghen see that Levahn was held at spear point and was in fact both bait and hostage for anyone trying to leave the city to catch up with the escapees. A short battle later and both he and Levahn were on the ground, bleeding heavily. The Under-elves stood and watched them bleed to the point of weakness, and only then did they bind his and Levahn’s wounds.

  Arghen was assured that the ex-Exchanger was still alive because his chest still moved up and down, although barely. The Champion of Quiris listened to the arguments that flew above his head about what to do with them. Levahn would be sent to Re-conditioning, of course. But Arghen was another story, it seemed. He was too many different things: he was an enemy Under-elf, so he should be killed immediately. He was an Under-elf who had somehow infiltrated the city-state, raided the Exchange, and would have valuable information, so he should be made to talk. He was a trophy, and so should be sent to Re-conditioning. He was an outsider, and so should be sent to Art and displayed.