“Could be, but then what do you make of that?” Logan said, as they reached the top of the sloping tunnel, pointing ahead. The cramped area widened out into a taller cavern, at the end of which was a dead end of sorts. The companions all drew their weapons as they approached, carefully surveying their surroundings.
“There’s something you don’t see every day, eh?” the gnome wondered aloud in awe, referring to a large, shiny column that came down from the ceiling to the floor.
“What do you think it is?” Logan asked his brother as they made their way closer to the strange pillar. At its base a doorway lay open in ruins, exploded from the outside in, crushing the small room behind it into a twisted, crumpled mess. Corbin stuck his head through the opening to gaze up into a shaft of darkness.
“Looks like some sort of manmade tunnel.” His words echoed up the metal tube.
“Aye, like an elevator but smaller.” The gnome reasoned, comparing the human creation to the pulley system used to transport workers and ore in the gnome mines back home. They clambered over the wreckage inside the shaft to find footholds he said would be there, stretching all the way up and disappearing into the dark above. Corbin stopped his brother from climbing, to tie a rope around each of their waists, connecting them in a lifeline.
“We have no idea how far up this thing is going to go, best to play it safe.” He reasoned.
Logan had to be extra careful gripping the rusty metal rungs, less he crush one with his mechanical grip. Up and up they went, climbing for hours on end. Bipp’s shorter arms grew tired quicker than his companions did, so the men had to take turns carrying him on their backs. Just when Logan’s muscles were burning beyond belief, aching to stop carrying his own weight, he caught a glimpse of something to their right.
“Look there Corbin, I think it’s a door.” He called to his brother above, pointing to a feint rectangular outline set in the shaft next to them. Bipp nodded excitedly, scrambling up his back and stepping on his head to get back on the ladder.
“If this is like the ‘vators back in the mines, we should find an… ah yup here it is!” Bipp worked a rusty door the size of his hand open. Inside it, he struggled to turn a metal wheel. At first it did not want to budge, but then with a sharp crack began squeaking as he slowly turned it counterclockwise. The outline moved inward, revealing a double set of doors that shifted slowly to either side, opening a portal.
Light flooded the shaft from the chamber beyond, stinging their eyes, which had grown accustomed to the bleak darkness. One by one, the companions pulled themselves through the opening, until they all lay about in a heavy breathing pile together. Logan was laughing, happy to be out of the never-ending tube. Looking around the room, he could see the dim light was coming from a small recess in the wall. Standing up he gauged the room was not built of stone or wood. The walls’ material was alien to him, yet comforting in some long forgotten way.
“Yuck the floors are all sticky.” Bipp slapped the ground with his bare hand and pulled it away with a slight sucking sound.
Strands of thick webbing covered the ground in interlacing patterns. At the far end of the room lay piles of rounded clumps of the stuff. Corbin found that the sole doorway out was stuck in place and refused to budge.
“I don’t have a good feeling about this place; this room is giving me the willies.” Bipp stated the obvious.
“Feel like sitting ducks in here, let me boost you up to that opening so you can scout out the path for us?” Corbin asked Bipp, pointing above their heads where a section of the ceiling had been torn away revealing a crawl space over the doorframe.
The gnome climbed up over his shoulders and, once inside, turned to give an encouraging thumbs up. “Okay I won’t go too far, just enough to see where this leads. Be back in a jiffy, fellas.” He scurried away on all fours.
“Corbin, come check these out.” Logan called over his shoulder, inspecting two large hanging sacs, which were covered with more of the sticky strands. He pulled a dagger out and cut a long slit down one. A putrid odor of rotting fruit emitted leaving them gagging, coughing hard to get the foul taste out of their mouths. Inside the sac was a grisly form, some sort of oddly contorted humanoid that had been sucked dry of its fluids, leaving only a husk of skin and bones that looked like mummified leather.
“I think this was a person.” Logan remarked, looking at the humanoid’s strange clothing.
His heart jumped two feet from his chest when the sacs twin shifted slightly. He hoped his little brother did not notice the reaction. “Try that one, something is inside.” He said, steadying his revolver. Corbin looked to him, gave a nod, and slit the sac wide open. This time a fresh body fell forward out of the thing. Logan reflexively reached out to catch it from hitting the floor and sharply realized how disgusting it must be, flinging the thing away from himself. They were both astonished to find it was a female human!
“How in the hell did she get up here? Where did she come from?” Logan asked, not that he expected his brother to know the answers. It was just so shocking to find a human that he did not know what else to say. A woman lay sprawled across the floor, eyes closed, her skin a pale gray sickly color and long raven-black hair strewn across the sticky strands of webbing. Corbin mouthed a response, unable to find adequate words to describe his thoughts and before he could muster anything intelligible, they heard Bipp’s screaming.
Running over to the hole, Logan shouted for the gnome to see if he was okay. Bipp answered by jumping out of the void, screaming and pointing over his shoulder, while dashing to the far side of the room. The brothers did not need more information than that and quickly joined him with weapons drawn.
Four sets of glowing yellow eyes appeared in the recess, hungrily staring at them, followed by long furry arachnid legs reaching around the opening. A giant spider dropped to the floor in front of them, as another joined it overhead. They were the size of large dogs, and looked like deadly predators. Logan shouldered his awestruck brother out of the way just in time to avoid a hissing stream of green venom.
Another hairy beast skittered across the ceiling, its eight legs driving the hunter with lightning speed. Logan let off two short shots, each bullet tearing off one of the monster’s legs, while his brother fended off the stalker in front. The spider actually hissed in pain, dropping from the ceiling belly up. Bipp ran in for the kill, slamming his hammer hard into the thing’s abdomen but a thrashing leg caught him, throwing the gnome onto remnants of hanging sack, where he solidly stuck and frantically tried to wiggle free.
The spider was not dead and it flipped back over with thick yellow blood oozing across the floor beneath it. A strand of webbing caught Logan’s pistol hand, yanking him forward, toward a set of hungry snapping fangs.
Bipp dropped from the sac, landing on top of the beast’s furry back as Logan struggled against the pull. Multiple eyes shifted to look at the gnome and the spider bucked, flinging him over Logan to land between Corbin and its sister. Logan could see his brother had the other beast in hand, four of its legs already dismembered.
The spider pulled hard on the strand again, reeling him in closer to dripping fangs while its back legs anchored against the floor.
“Want a taste do you?” he grunted, struggling to break free. “I’ll give you a taste, tell me what you think.” Logan gripped the sticky strand with his metal hand, letting electricity course through it into the monster’s open mouth. The spider chittered a high-pitch squeal that made his stomach feel sick. The sides of its body burst open from the inside, and the cooked beast fell limply to the floor.
Logan tried to break free from the webbing, so he could help his brother but there was no hope. Corbin circled the spider, rolling to the side each time it frantically spit venom at him. He could not help smiling at his brother’s skill, to have such a dangerous monster cornered. Corbin feinted right; the spider’s eyes and body following him, then shifted sharply left stabbing the beast’s face with his v
oulge. The spider gave a death rattle with convulsing legs as it too fell limp.
Bipp jumped up and down celebrating, kicking the spider where it lay in front of the door, taunting the unmoving body.
“Corbin, I could use that blade of yours.” He gestured to his hand where it was stuck in the webbing.
“There goes your other gun, guess you are going to have to learn how to fight like a man now, eh?” Corbin teased him, cutting the strands free.
Logan backhanded his brother hard, throwing him to the floor with the force of the surprise attack. Corbin was shocked to look up and see his brother’s hand glowing hot white.
“Bipp duck!” he screamed, as another spider slid down from the hole overhead on a strand of webbing, fangs dripping with venom. The gnome hopped out of the way and a blast rang in their ears, hotly sizzling through the spider, which was slammed flat over the sealed door. When the beam subsided, there was nothing left of the sneaky predator but a gaping hole in the metal door, surrounded by the burnt outline of spider legs.
“Blazing dogs above, you saved my skin!” Bipp exclaimed.
“That’s twice now you owe me.” Logan groaned from the floor, where he weakly sat on his knees, the depletion of energy was too much for him to handle after days without eating. Logan shot his brother an apologetic look for hitting him so hard but Corbin shrugged it off and went back to cutting him free from the strands.
“Why didn’t you just blast your way free from this stuff?” Corbin asked. Now it was Logan’s turn to shrug, as it had not even occurred to him to try.
“Oooh, who is the lovely lass, then?” Bipp hooted standing over the woman they had freed from the spider’s feeding sac. Logan noticed her skin was not as gray anymore, color flushing back into her face. He rubbed his freed wrist as Corbin moved over to her, placing two fingers under her jaw and searching for a pulse.
“She is still alive, but barely, who knows what those things were doing to her.” He told them.
“Looks like they were slowly feasting on her insides, this other guy’s been sucked dry.” Logan reasoned.
“Uh… fellas? You gotta see this.” Bipp called from the blasted doorway. He was staring through the hole into a blue glowing room. They joined him on either side, gazing through the portal where an enormous chamber lay beyond. It was at least fifty times the size of the one they were in, and stretched so far back it seemed to go on forever. All along the walls, row upon row of man-sized glass cylinders were stacked. Each one filled with a frozen glowing blue liquid that housed a sleeping human hooked to some sort of breathing apparatus.
“What in the blue blazes?” Bipp stammered.
The brothers could only look to each other, then back at the woman behind them.
“Well boys looks like we found Isaac.” Logan reasoned.
Corbin nodded his head in agreement. “Yeah, but which one is he?”
“Let’s wake the lass and find out, shall we?” Bipp asked.
The brothers nodded at the same time, staring out into the rows of sleeping humans, and wondering what dark secrets might await.
Epilogue
Baetylus watched on through the eyes of the shaman Burgoth. It was disappointed to see the Walker brothers escape, but at least they would not be able to come back to New Fal and ruin everything the Crystal had spent generations putting into place.
Corbin Walker was a tricky one; it had vastly underestimated the power of that man’s mind and had a sneaking suspicion he had garnered help somewhere else. It was a shame all these deaths were not closer, where it could feed off their dying souls. So much power to be harvested with such a massacre and after the meddlesome boys had ruined its plans to have the Skex feast off the citizens of Fal. That had brought on a feeling that the Crystal had never felt before, something of annoyance. Baetylus did not like wasting its time, and it had taken months of focus, constantly sending its will into the dimwitted insects, mustering them up to send in the wave of attacks. He lamented the missed opportunity for reaping, that would have greatly boosted his strength.
“Ahhh…” The Crystal sighed, leaving the distant ruins of Ul’kor behind and directing its attention back on the human city of Fal below. Here its latest pawn lay in bed, tossing in a feverish sleep. Baetylus cackled over Fafnir’s anguish as visions of a taunting Lady Cassandra plagued his dreams. The magistrate was running down an endless street while citizens were throwing rotten vegetables at him and screaming for his execution. Around a bend, Arch Councilor Zacharia pointed an accusatory finger at him, screaming “half-blood.”
How weak and fragile the human condition, yet how delightful for Baetylus to toy with.
Dipping inside the dream, he appeared before the magistrate as the visage of an old man in white flowing robes the Crystal used of late. Baetylus sent out a mental suggestion to the magistrate that everything was safe now, calming his churning mind. Fafnir gathered his dream self, looking around at the fading shadows of his tormentors, and understanding that his Lord had come calling again. He was a little embarrassed with the realization that he had been caught having a nightmare, not wanting his god to see his moment of weakness.
“Fear not my son; it is natural for mankind to dwell on fears.” He spoke in Fafnir’s dream.
“All-Father, to what do I owe this great honor, my Lord?” Fafnir piously asked.
“The dangerous Walker brothers are gone from this realm. They will no longer pose a threat to our people.” The Crystal explained.
Fafnir felt a wave of relief to have the despicable problem dealt with. He had feared Logan’s return and had worked out several scenarios to hide the truth of his involvement in Beauford’s assassination, but once Arch Councilor Zacharia opened up your mind there was not much hiding of the truth. To know the man would never be able to return just secured his seat on the council.
“I see your greed for personal glory has not lessened.” Baetylus coolly observed.
“My humble apologies, Lord, everything I do is truly for the betterment of my people.” Fafnir groveled, believing in the righteous nature of his own lies.
“And what of the Ivarone girl, I do not see her anymore?” the Crystal inquired.
“She has gone missing, my Lord, though we are still trying to figure out how. We will catch her soon enough, however.” Fafnir assured.
“It would be wise that you do, and be sure to lay waste to Riverbell. I will damn their souls to the abyss for this betrayal.” Fafnir could almost hear the hunger in his god’s voice, though he had no idea it was for the souls it would soon feast upon.
“I already have men traveling there to kill everyone as we speak, Great One.” Fafnir said.
Baetylus got what it had come for and switched the nightmare back on for Fafnir, turning up the intensity for fun through a minor mental suggestion. It had dwelled so long in this one’s mind that it was mere child’s play to influence the man, who had already forgotten his conversation with the Crystal and was running terrified down the streets while his tormentors cut his bare blue skin with whips, yelling for the death of the half-blood Jotnar traitor.
Baetylus coiled inside its crystalline shell above the kingdom of New Fal, smugly savoring another day to come with its playthings. Soon the corrupt sentience would gather enough power to walk among the weak-minded mortals below and claim its birthright. However, until then, at least it had the upcoming harvesting of souls from Riverbell to look forward to. The image of it had him cackling so loudly into the psychic aether, that all the babies in Fal woke with cries in the night.
FOLLOW THE ADVENTURES of Bipp and his human companions, Logan and Corbin Walker, in book two of the series, LAND OF THE GIANTS, coming Winter 2014. Join my mailing list at http://www.davidmatthewalmond.com/contact.html to receive notification of its release.
Acknowledgments
Without your input, this project would have been impossible. I appreciate all the time and energy each of you put into this. Special recog
nition for Jeni, who really went above and beyond for me!
Richard Skelany - Beware of falling asleep beside mushrooms little necroscope.
Travis Williams – No one runs backward through a window with more flair.
Denier Spade – When will you rage?
Robert Fox – Keep to the shadows my friend.
Jeni Hamilton – I promise never to add S’s to my backward and toward again!
David Matthew Almond has been working in the restaurant and IT industry for the last 19 years. Over the last two, he has finally made time to focus on one of his true passions, writing stories. David grew up in the upstate NY city of Utica, (home to such rare delicacies as Tomato Pie, Utica Greens, and Chicken Riggies) and attended “Buff State,” in the city of Buffalo NY, where he would eventually return to run his bakery café, meet some of the best people in the world, and fall in love with his wife.
He currently lives in beautiful Monkton, Vermont and would love to hear from you...
To keep up on David’s wild exploits, check him out at:
http://www.davidmatthewalmond.com/under-the-almond-tree
https://www.facebook.com/DavidMatthewAlmond
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