Logan slapped his own face in frustration, which the little gnome found puzzling. “Bipp, we know it’s sealed off… what we don’t know is why.” Corbin explained.
The gnome looked up at him and nodded his head, turning back to the strange blockade. “Hmmm… says something about the Ul’kor rift and some such about an evil that...”
“Fer Thorgar’s sake lad, just read the whole flippin’ thing out loud to us from the beginnin’!” Grubble snarled, he was clearly past the point of annoyance and even unlatched his battle-axe for extra incentive. Bipp gulped and read from the beginning.
‘Through this portal the inner sanctum,
Sealed forever to protect Vanidriell,
The Traitorous fiend Balthier,
Goodly gnome turned to the path of Evil,
Power he sought, our kingdom he split,
Never release these haunted grounds,
Less you free Evil upon the land once more.
The message was clear and foreboding. None of them intended to try to get past this seal.
“Well Grubble, at least now we know what happened, guess it wasn’t human trouble after all, eh?” Logan taunted the gnome, rubbing the proof in his face and laughing it off.
The little warrior growled up at him, smashing his axe into the stone wall several times in a rage and spat on the ground at the seal’s foot. The angry gnome hurried off back down the hall, cursing the whole way.
“What gotten into him?” Logan innocently asked with a nervous giggle.
“Seriously, Logan? Sometimes I don’t know what to do with you?” Corbin shook his head, chasing after the warrior.
“What?” He asked again, still not understanding why Grubble would be so upset, then shrugged toward Bipp.
“Ye have to understand this is a shock to us, all our lives we knew Ul’kor was cursed. But, not to be hurting your feelings, general consensus has always been that it was something the humans did to our people. For us to find out now, after all these years thinking otherwise, that it was one of our own what did this to our race… well it’s a lot to take in.” Bipp helped his friend understand, he knew Logan did not mean any real offense, and reasoned sometimes he was most likely just too dumb to know otherwise.
Corbin bolted back around the corner looking frazzled. “I don’t know where he went off to, one minute he was there and the next he was gone!” he was genuinely worried about the warrior.
“Did you search for him with your mind thingy?” Bipp asked.
“When I put that shield on us, it blocked him from me as well. If I take it down that exposes us all to Baetylus again and he’ll know I still live to boot.” That was not good, most likely the gnome just needed time to stew. However, it would be dangerous to stay in one place, they would need to keep moving otherwise run the risk of getting caught.
“Look, let’s retrace our path to the other halls. He couldn’t have gone too far.” Logan wanted to be rational about their approach to finding Grubble. All the way back they saw no sign of him, Bipp began nervously fidgeting his thumbs, worried that their companion had been captured. They traveled as far back as where the path split and followed the alternate route until they came to an exit, bringing them back into the night air.
“There is no way we could have missed him in there.” Logan insisted, looking back at the castle walls.
An arrow hissed through the air, clipping the wall just beside him. Weapons immediately drawn, the trio fell into a triangle formation ready for the fight.
“Oh sweet mother of pearl.” Bipp croaked, astonished at the horde surrounding them. There had to be at least thirty of the little monsters searching the courtyard for their whereabouts. The archer who had thought to make a name for itself cursed its luck at missing the unsuspecting target.
“Well boys, it’s been fun but I think it’s time to RUUUUUNNN!” Logan yelled. Bipp hopped up, his little feet pumping in midair, and landed barreling full speed ahead. The archer called out to alert his clan, jumping and pointing at the fleeing intruders. They were running straight for the edge of the spire, where a massive stone bridge, lined with gnome statues of guardians and wide enough across to fit five carriages back to back, arched across the yawning chasm. A band of cobolds ran to block their escape as the horde behind sprang into action, clambering over one another to get to the intruders and howling in glee. Logan called for his companions not to slow their pace, running hard into the group blocking their way to the bridge. He did not waste time with hand-to-hand combat, taking one of the beasts out with a laser blast to the chest and slamming the butt of his rifle hard across another’s forehead.
Corbin weaved his voulge around low, knocking three of the monsters to the ground, while Bipp barreled into another headfirst, pummeling the screaming creature over the edge of the cliff. The little hairy humanoids were stabbing, bashing, and slashing at them with all manner of weapons. As soon as one fell another was there to take its place, rushing in from the side.
“There are too many of them!” Logan shouted before blasting another pointblank in the chest, while looking over his shoulder at the incoming army of humanoids.
“We have to get past them to the bridge, it’s our only hope!” His brother urged, dancing backward, avoiding a dagger and swinging his weapon in for a mortal blow. The horde was close enough now, where they could rain a barrage of tiny arrows down upon them, callously taking down a couple of their own kindred in the process. One pierced right into Logan’s thigh. Howling, he missed an opportunity to block, catching a dagger across his forearm. Corbin saw his brother go down, but there were too many of the little monsters around them and the horde was closing in quickly.
The eager furry cobolds jumped up and down, stomping on Logan where he fell, as he tried in vain to protect his head with a blocking arm. One of the laughing monster’s head went flying past its friends as a roar announced Grubble’s arrival on the other side of the blocking clan. Corbin took full advantage of the moment, slashing brutally against the pressing beasts. Both of them worked furiously to cut a swath through their enemies while Bipp helped Logan to his feet, who had begun blindly firing rounds off with his plasma rifle hoping the take down some of the incoming attackers.
Their path clear, the companions took flight over the massive stone bridge. If Bipp had taken a second to look down over the edge, the engineer in him may not have been able to get across, realizing how high they were on a centuries old unkempt, stone unused overpass. Logan took up the rear blasting deadly shots into the wall of snarling pursuers. The horde broke once on the bridge with lone cobolds splitting off in different directions and a couple even slipping under the suspended platform scurrying on all fours.
“Did you know they could do that?!” Logan asked Bipp in bewilderment.
“They’re cobolds!” Bipp replied, as if that were answer enough. Grubble shouldered one of the beasts hard, shoving its flailing body off the bridge. “Less talk more killin’!” he growled at the amateurs.
Corbin ran from side to side, cutting down the humanoids as they scrambled from beneath the bridge. Logan felt an icy chill of fear as more and more of the furry little monsters flooded toward the overpass from inside the city, there had to be hundreds of them! As if that were not bad enough, something was making its way through the army, flinging cobolds in the air to clear its way. Logan took another newcomer down then decided he did not want to be the one to greet whatever was coming.
Running further across the bridge, over his shoulder he saw the hulking form of a gigantic shiny black rhino beetle ram through the blocking horde, stomping heavily onto the bridge. On its back rode the cobold king, swinging an eight foot flail with a spiked ball at the end. Grubble barely had time to move out of the way before the weapon smashed past his shoulder. The chain still caught him, throwing the gnome spiraling in the air across the wide bridge.
Logan stopped short, and let off a blast just missing the gloating rider’s spinning weapon
. The king directed his attention at him, confidently gritting his fangs before charging the armored beetle, straight in his direction. Pulling on chains that were bored right into the armored hulk’s head; the king forced his pet to thrash the three-foot horn at the tip of its face as it came on. Logan rolled across the area like a ball, having to drop his rifle, which was mangled to a pulp under the sheer weight of the mount’s stomping legs. Skittering to a halt, the chieftain turned around, pulling hard on the reigns with one arm while swinging his mighty flail with the other.
Corbin sprinted in using his voulge to pole vault high over the cobold leader. As he passed overhead, he swung down in an arc, cutting the laughter from the monster along with half his ear. Corbin cursed his aim, it was a prime opportunity lost. Bipp had no time to watch the spectacle, holding off circling cobolds while Grubble recovered his senses.
The king roared defiantly, brutally charging in to crush Logan again. He was in a murderous rage, having been cut by the other sneaky human. To avoid being crushed, Logan desperately threw himself over the edge of the bridge, his metal fingers digging deep into the crumbling stone and stopping his fall, to dangle dangerously on its side. As the rhino beetle barreled past where he had been, it crashed right through a towering gnome statue, shattering it in a shower of rocks and dust that rained down all around Logan’s cringing form. The king peered back over to Corbin, coldly laughing over his victory.
A cobold looked shocked to see Logan hanging right in front of where it crawled across the underside of the bridge. He seized the moment of surprise to disarm it with a smile then yanked down hard with his free hand around its filthy neck, dropping the screaming monster down the dizzying heights, into the yawning abyss below.
Above, Grubble had come to his feet and was viciously cutting down cobolds once more. The chieftain reigned in his beast seeing his men go down and slammed the swinging flail across the warrior’s back, ripping pieces of his armor off in chunks. Grubble roared, thrown by the weapon’s momentum into the air again. His axe flew from his powerful grip, spinning through the air, head over hilt to land sure and true into the horned mount’s cheek. The beetle’s high-pitched screech of pain was so loud everyone on the bridge had to stop for a moment, and cover their ears. Then it barreled in to eat the little gnome, oblivious of its master’s commands. Corbin threw himself swiftly across the ground, plucking Grubble out of the air before he landed. Another statue was shattered on the other side of the ancient bridge and the rider’s flail dug a chunk out of the stone at their heels.
“You okay, Grubble?” Corbin asked the wounded gnome.
“Fit as a fiddle.” He growled, unlatching a sickle from his belt.
Logan took Bipp’s offered hand to help him back onto the bridge. When he released the clutching metal fingers, a heavy piece of stone came with them. He could see the king was just getting ready to crush his brother’s exposed flank with the deadly swinging flail. Logan almost fell forward throwing the chunk of bridge as hard as he could muster. He could not help laughing as his aim hit the cobold leader square in the side of his head, almost wrenching him off his saddle and disarming the flail from his grasp. The head of the weapon went flying into a nearby group of cheering cobolds who were gored by the deadly spikes. Logan called for his companions to retreat, running past the stunned king to the far side of the bridge.
“He’s turning about!” A wide-eyed Bipp warned. His brother stopped in the middle of the bridge, spreading out his feet for support, and harnessed his voulge behind his back.
“Corbin, are you out of your mind?!” Logan screamed, as Corbin channeled the psychic aether around him, letting it build up inside him until it felt likely he would burst. Opening his eyes, he screamed for Elise and let the pent up energy shoot out like a lance burning and tearing into the beast’s mind. The beetle stopped its charge, screeching again and standing upright on hind legs, while the other four legs scrambled in midair.
Logan let out a massive electric blast from his fist, cooking the exposed underbelly and ripping the rhino beetle’s insides apart. The vicious king tried to escape his mount as it flipped onto its back, but was not fast enough, crushing half his body under the weight of his slain pet. The bridge shook violently as the hulking beast crashed down upon it. No sooner had it laid still, than Grubble made his way over and was pulling his battle-axe from where it was stuck in the vanquished beast’s armored face.
The cobold horde fell silent, watching in horror as their great and mighty leader was bested by the foul greedy humans. Grubble stalked around the armored hulk, all the while contemptuously eyeing the monstrous horde with hatred. Their chieftain was squirming, desperate to get out from beneath where his legs were crushed, and went stock-still seeing the angry gnome stalk over to him. Grubble spat on the ground toward the clan, and slammed his axe down, cleaving the chief’s head off with one mighty swing. The warrior picked up his prize, lifting it high into the air for all to see, then spat again and threw it far across the bridge into the mob of humanoids.
“Go back to the hell where ye came from!” He spat again toward the little monsters then strode back toward his companions, ignoring his serious battle wounds in his moment of triumph.
“They are not following?” Logan asked.
“They’re confused with no one to tell them what to do.” Corbin explained.
A bolt flew from the crowd, piercing hard into Grubble’s back, and opening his eyes wide from the truth of the sting. Burgoth, the shaman, grinned from inside the horde, to see that her shot found the mark. Grubble stood still staring at his companions while the air behind him filled up with a cloud of raining arrows, one after the other thudding into the proud warrior’s back, as he stubbornly began to walk toward them, flinching with each stab.
Corbin and Bipp ran out to pull the gnome across the rest of the bridge as shaman Burthog ordered her tribe to slay the defilers. Once on the other side, Logan aimed his fist high into the air shouting for his brother to hurry.
“I’ve got an idea.” Was the only explanation he gave as the small compartment opened and a tiny pill shape zipped into the air high overhead. The moss ceiling lit up with spreading fire from the explosion that rocked the entire cavern. Corbin finally understood the wall of rocks he had seen while tracking Logan, watching as gigantic stalactites dislodged from the ceiling, pummeling the bridge to pieces and smashing their enemy to a pulp.
The cobolds screamed in fear, scattering in every direction, some jumping right off the bridge in their terrified confusion. Within seconds the bridge, which had withstood centuries of time, was destroyed and the remnants of the evil tribe were scattered, fleeing back into the safety of Ul’kor.
Logan did not have time to savor their victory as Bipp’s sobbing captured his attention. Grubble lay still in the dirt on his side, blood leaking out of him faster than they could possibly hope to stem. Corbin was talking quietly to the old gnome, trying to keep him aware while he broke off the arrows one by one. The warrior grabbed his forearm with a grip strong as a vice to stop the pointless effort.
“Never ye mind that now lad… it’s to the halls of Damwen for me.” He accepted his fate, proud to die a warrior’s death. Corbin offered a heartfelt apology trying to voice how sorry he was that they had let him down.
“Ye did nothing of the sort… yer some of the good ones don’t ye be doubtin’ it… I’m proud to have fought beside ye. Truer warriors have never been seen.” The gnome’s voice sounded like grinding gravel.
“For humans, eh?” Logan stammered through the pain clenching around his throat, forcing the gnome to laugh painfully.
“Aye, even fer humans… best man-folk I ever done met, lad.” Grubble admitted as he closed his eyes for the last time in Vanidriell. Many years of his long life stretched out before him, all the dreams, all the moments of happiness and sadness, the taste of butterscotch, the meaninglessness of anger, all of it passed through an empty void that whispered his name.
The gnome’s chest stopped moving and his grip loosened on Corbin’s wrist as a look of content washed over him. Corbin could dimly make out the proud warrior’s soul leaving his body for the afterlife, wondering aloud if his beloved wife Annit would be waiting for him, and he silently wished the gnome a good journey.
Chapter 22
At first time passed by slowly, the days dragging on as each of them took turns carrying Grubble’s rotting body. After a two-day march, they found an area with soil soft enough to bury the warrior respectfully. None spoke as they laid him to rest. Bipp topped the grave with a cairn of stones.
“He deserves a hero’s parade in Dudje, not this pitiful grave far away from home.” The gnome choked, letting himself feel the pain of loss, and Logan put a hand on the gnome’s shoulder to comfort him.
“Aye, he was an amazing man who died a warrior’s death that surely the gods themselves could smile upon.” Logan consoled uncharacteristically. Corbin was not sure how much belief he held in the gods anymore, after the deep deception of the Crystal, but he said nothing out of reverence for their friend. Bowing their heads, they stood silent vigil for hours before forcing themselves to resume their march.
Corbin had filled them in on everything that he had witnessed while in death. At first Bipp doubted it had all actually happened, he thought perhaps it more likely some deep dream Corbin had been under, something he believed but was not true. On the other hand, the gnome saw how readily Logan was to accept his younger brother’s word. Either way, the decision was made for them. The way back to Dudje was lost, the bridge to Ul’kor destroyed, and the surface was supposedly close by, based on his testament. They were determined now to find the man named Isaac who would help them free the people of New Fal. Three more days dragged by with no life to be found in the wide tunnels, not even the smallest weed.
“Bah, I think we’ve been sent on a wild goose chase by your ghost lady.” Bipp broke the silence, his stomach growling, they had run dangerously low on provisions and the humans actually wanted to ration them!
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