by Dan Willis
“What’s down there?” Bradok asked, pointing down the lane of dead trees.
“A couple of big doors that lead to a rough tunnel,” Rose said.
“All right,” Bradok said, rechecking the compass and shouldering his pack. “Let’s head in that direction.”
The doors at the end of the tree-lined hall were large and ornate. They looked almost decorative, but Kellik pointed out the massive iron bars that could be dropped from a hidden slot in the ceiling. Once in place, the bars would keep the doors closed against just about any menace. The fact that they were still slotted in their holes in the ceiling made Bradok wonder again: Just what had happened to Galoka and his followers?
The passage beyond appeared to be a natural tunnel, like the ones they’d followed all the way from that first beach where the skeleton of Silas’s boat lay decaying. With a sigh, Bradok pressed forward. Kellik was closest to him, trailed by Much, Perin, and old Marl Anvil. The rest of the survivors followed at a short distance.
“Well, this is interesting,” Rose said, coming up beside Bradok. “Evil mushroom people behind us and killer insect creatures ahead. Never a dull day here in the underground.”
“What makes you think the killer insects’re ahead of us?” Bradok asked.
Rose offered a thin smile. “No reason,” she said. “That just seems to be the way our luck’s been running.”
Bradok nodded with a humorless smile.
“What do you want to do when we get out of here?” Rose asked as they walked along with the others.
“What do you mean, get out of here?” Bradok asked, surprised.
Rose smiled genuinely. “When we get out of here,” she repeated. “When we finally reach the surface again. Then what?”
Bradok hadn’t given it any thought and he said so.
“What if Much is right?” she prodded. “What if we’re the only dwarves left alive? What if all the towns are gone?”
“I suppose we’ll have to start over ourselves, then,” he said, wishing she would switch to a more pleasant topic.
“All right, so let’s say you’re starting all over fresh,” Rose said. “What would you want to do?”
Bradok laughed. He realized that she was doing a good job of distracting him and the others from their fears as they continued to explore the area for any signs of the dread killer insects.
“Hmm, I see what you mean,” he said. “There won’t be much use for a jeweler anymore. But I’m good with delicate metalwork. I suppose I could be a tinker; you know, make pans, hinges, locks, and such. You?”
Rose shrugged. “My family have been merchants for six generations,” she said. “I think I’d like to be a rancher and raise cows and pigs and goats. Assuming we can find some left alive.”
Bradok chuckled.
“Your friend here wants to be a builder,” Rose said, nodding in Much’s direction.
“A builder of what?” Bradok asked skeptically.
“Everything,” Rose said. “He said he helped rebuild Ironroot’s ventilation and water systems when he was young. I bet he could build a mill and set up irrigation for farming.”
Bradok had trouble picturing Much working on millwheels and aqueducts. What his friend really liked to do was drink and talk.
“I want to be a brewer,” Corin’s voice came from behind them.
They turned to find the Daergar a few paces behind them.
“All those years in the penal caves made me quite a connoisseur of rotgut. I’d like to try my hand. It would be nice to drink something that wasn’t made of boiled mushrooms.”
Rose chortled. “It sounds like what you really want to be is an innkeeper,” she said.
Bradok was only half listening. Up ahead, the passageway forked. Automatically he pulled out the compass and flipped open the lid. Glowing smoke rose up out of it and coalesced into the form of the Seer. When Bradok reached the fork, she extended her spear, pointing left.
“This way,” Bradok said.
He’d scarcely put the compass away when they came to a second fork. The spear pointed right. Then another fork, and another, and another, each time the spear telling them which way to go.
“It’s like a maze,” Corin said an hour later.
“It reminds me of something I saw once,” Rose said. “Some humans put two pieces of glass together with dirt between them. Then they put ants inside and watched them dig. They called it an ant farm.”
“What are ants?” Omer asked, curious. He was walking up front with the lead dwarves, clutching his rag doll.
“Insects,” Rose said.
Bradok shivered involuntarily at the word, thinking of the dead Disir.
Corin stopped abruptly. “You mean these tunnels remind you of ones dug by insects?”
Rose shook her head. “I just meant that they twist and turn a lot,” she said. “Then again …”
Bradok had slowed and Rose bumped into him.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
The faint light of the open compass illuminated the passage for several yards ahead. Just at the edge of its light lay a glossy black body. Bradok froze. Willing his limbs to move, he lurched forward, holding the compass high.
The light washed over the body on the ground. It had a hard, outer shell with a segmented body and four walking legs. The torso and head, however, were different from the Disir skeleton in Starlight Hall. It was decidedly female, with a line of eight breasts running down its front. The head had a much smaller mouth, and its arms ended in hands with three long fingers. The body was smaller than the other, perhaps a little shorter than the average height of a human. All over the creature’s outer shell were thousands of little cracks, as though it had come under tremendous pressure and tried to shatter but couldn’t.
Bradok felt his arm going numb then realized that Rose had it in a death grip.
“Is it dead?” she whispered.
“Yes, thanks be to Reorx,” Bradok said, seeing the stain left by the vital fluids that had leaked out from the many cracks.
“What happened to it?” Corin said, edging closer.
Bradok kicked the dead Disir with his toe, but it didn’t budge. “I don’t care,” he said, checking the direction of the Seer’s spear. “Let’s just keep moving.”
“Quietly,” Rose said.
“Right,” Bradok said, turning to Corin. “Pass the word: less talking, everyone.”
The sandy passage grew wider and wider until it became a broad avenue. On either side, Bradok could see the bulbous protrusions of eggs buried in the sandy dirt. Each looked about the size of a man’s head. Several of the eggs had broken open, but there were no signs of any young. Two more shattered insect bodies lay at a juncture to a side passage, but there was nothing else.
Bradok could feel his skin crawl as he walked on in silence. Everyone carried weapons but nothing came rushing out of the darkness to meet them. Still, with every step they took, Bradok could feel the tension growing inside of him. He began to think it would be better if they were attacked. As formidable as he imagined the Disir to be, he was afraid of the tricks his terrified mind might play on him.
At that precise moment, a horrible nightmare appeared out of the darkness. In his overwrought state, Bradok cried out in alarm and fumbled for his sword.
“Stop,” Corin commanded, putting a restraining hand on his shoulder. “That one’s dead too.”
The body of a Disir warrior stood there, leaning against the wall of the tunnel, giving it the illusion of life. Its massive jaws dangled open as though it were ready to eat the next thing foolish enough to come near it. The long, wicked blades that made up its arms hung loosely at its sides, dragging in the sand.
Like the others, the Disir warrior appeared to have been shattered by some strange pressurized force.
“What could have done this?” Bradok asked, running his finger along one of the long fissures in the creature’s body.
“Could whatever destroyed Ironroot have struck h
ere as well?” Rose asked.
“I’m grateful for it, whatever it was that killed these nightmares,” Corin said. “We’re among the nests of these creatures, can you imagine what they’d do if they caught us here?”
“I prefer not to think about that, if you don’t mind,” Bradok said. “Let’s go.”
Several hours later, just when Bradok was ready to call a halt, he detected the faint smell of fresh air drifting down from somewhere up ahead. Twenty minutes later, the cavern opened up into a massive, empty hole. The roof of the new cavern extended well beyond their meager light, hiding above in impenetrable shadow.
Without any encouragement, the dwarves staggered out of the tunnel and dropped down on the rocky floor. They hadn’t had much of a rest for the better part of a day. The stretcher with Lyra arrived, and the dwarves carrying her set her down gently before collapsing nearby.
Xurces followed the stretcher, carrying the sleeping form of Lyra’s daughter, Jade. He reverently deposited the girl beside her mother then staggered off to find a place of his own to rest.
“We can’t stay here,” Urlish Hearthhome said in a hoarse whisper.
“Why not?” Corin asked, sitting with his head on his knees.
“Haven’t you fools ever seen an anthill or a beehive?” she demanded.
Bradok and Corin exchanged blank looks, but Rose went pale.
“She’s right. I’ve been thinking the same thing. This must be the core.” She gasped. “The center of the hive.”
The men leaped to their feet, their weapons in hand, and stood there, sweating, straining their ears for a sound, any sound.
They heard nothing. “Whatever killed those others must have destroyed the whole hive,” Corin said with obvious relief.
“Maybe,” Bradok said.
“We shouldn’t stay here,” Urlish hissed.
“Everyone’s exhausted,” Rose said in a whisper. “We can’t go much further right now. Better to rest, at least for a short while.”
“She’s right,” Thurl said, coming out of the darkness on silent feet. “We may have to fight these things eventually, but I’d rather be rested and fresh.”
Bradok quickly checked the compass. The Seer had her cloak wrapped about her, and her spear lay hidden beneath.
“All right,” Bradok said, though the idea of sleeping there made his flesh crawl. “If the compass says it’s safe, then it’s safe.”
“Wouldn’t hurt to make sure,” Rose said.
Thurl smiled, showing his pointed teeth. “I’ll check out the rest of the cavern,” he said. “I can move quietly.” Without hesitation, the ex-assassin melted back into the darkness.
“Let’s make camp here tonight,” Bradok said to the others. “Pass the word for everyone to keep as quiet as possible, though.”
That command wasn’t needed; within minutes, most of the dwarves were fast asleep. Only Bradok, Rose, Corin, Tal, and Much stayed awake to talk things over and divide the watch.
“There are a whole bunch of Disir bodies over there,” Thurl said, materializing close to them so suddenly that he gave them all a start. “But other than that, the cavern’s empty.”
“Have someone wake me for the third watch,” Corin said, heading for his gear.
Bradok reached out and caught the Daergar by his cloak. “Sleep on your sword,” he said. “Pass the word to anyone you trust.”
Corin nodded then disappeared into the semidarkness. Bradok made his way back to where the large passage emptied out into the enormous cave. The rear guard had been set up there, and he smiled to see Rose, Tal, and Thurl waiting for him.
They engaged in small talk for an hour while everyone quieted down. Then, bone weary, Bradok returned to where he’d spread out his cloak and lay down. He thought he had too much on his mind to sleep, but before he knew it, the blackness encompassed him.
He woke what felt like an instant later with Thurl poking him in the ribs with the tip of his boot. Bradok knew that a lot of time had passed. The roof of the cavern, far above, could be clearly seen as sunlight streamed through its wide cracks.
“What’s going on?” he asked groggily.
“Trouble,” Thurl said.
He put out his hand, and Bradok took it, allowing the Daergar assassin to help him to his feet. Bradok brushed the dirt from his cloak and whipped it over his shoulders.
“Over here,” Thurl said, moving off toward the side of the cavern.
A large group had gathered in the dim circle of the diffuse light filtering down from the ceiling so impossibly high above. Much, Corin, Kellik, and Rose were among the assembled dwarves.
“How far up do you think that is?” Kellik said as Bradok drew closer.
“It’s at least a mile,” Much said.
“I don’t care how far it is,” Chisul said. “It’s a way out.”
Bradok looked up at the glowing slits high above. They were indeed some kind of conduits to the surface world, but Much was right, they were far away—very, very far away.
“I say we try to send a few of us up there to check it out,” Chisul said. “Let them check if the path is safe.”
“What path?” Bradok asked.
Chisul smiled and pointed over his shoulder to the wall of the cavern. It took Bradok a moment to penetrate the darkness since his eyes had adjusted to the light. As his vision cleared, he could see that a narrow footpath had been cut into the wall. It ran up and around the cavern, spiraling upward toward the openings in the ceiling. He couldn’t see where it ended.
“What do you think?” Chisul said, grinning widely. “It’s worth a look, right?”
Bradok grinned back. It looked promising. He stepped closer for a better look. The path was narrow and had no safety rail, and Bradok shuddered as he imagined what a single misstep would mean. Still, if they moved slowly and carefully, they might reach the surface.
Instinctively, Bradok’s hand sought Reorx’s compass in his vest pocket. He moved back into the light and held the little brass device out into the glow. As he reached for the catch to open the lid, his eyes caught the intricate engraving on the lid. Once he’d seen words there, urging him to have faith. To his astonishment, there appeared new words, revealed in the etching:
It is the Dwarf who perseveres in the correct road who receives the reward.
His heart sank. Without even opening the compass, he knew what it would show him. Sure enough, he saw after flipping its lid, the Seer extended her spear straight away into the darkness. The thought of following the Seer made him groan. He hadn’t realized how much the light had cheered him in just a short time.
The other dwarves were just as dismayed when they crowded in to see the Seer, suspended in the air above Bradok’s palm.
“Oh, come on!” Chisul exploded. “What are we trying to do here?”
“We’re trying to survive,” Much said mildly.
“Survive?” he said. “Is that it?”
A nervous silence followed; then Chisul continued. “We all know we can’t stay underground forever if we want to survive,” he said. “We’ve been lucky up to now, finding just enough mushrooms to feed us for a few days here, a few days there. If we want to stop anywhere, we’re going to need a cavern this size full of mushrooms and we’re going to have to start farming them.
“I haven’t seen anything as promising as that so far,” he said, daring anyone to meet his gaze. “Have any of you?”
“Reorx has a plan for us,” Bradok said quietly. “If we follow the compass—”
“Damn the compass,” Chisul retorted, pointing up at the light far above their heads. “There’s the surface world. It’s just a short climb away. Once we’re there, our chances of survival go up dramatically.”
“You don’t have any idea what’s up there,” Kellik said, loyally supporting Bradok, though he had his doubts. “Don’t forget what happened the last time we disregarded the compass.”
Chisul opened his mouth to reply, but before he could speak, a violen
t tremor shook the cavern, sending several dwarves tumbling to the sandy floor. Someone screamed and dwarves scattered.
A sinkhole had opened in the floor, the sand dropping down and falling away. A second later, to everyone’s horror, a living, breathing Disir emerged from the depths. It was an awful sight that Bradok would recall in his nightmares to his dying day.
Its dark head rose up, shiny, glistening, and eyeless. Its mouth opened, revealing an expandable lower jaw and rows of curved teeth. The greenish outer shell was transparent, so Bradok could see its vitals right through its armored chest. A pale, blue light shone out from a glowing organ, right behind where the eyes would have been. It looked as if the killer insect had only one large eye in the center of its face.
The creature pulled itself out of the hole with two long, swordlike arms, bristling with serrated spines.
Bradok was frozen in fear. Much grabbed his arm and shook him, pointing over to the far side of the cavern. At least a dozen more holes were opening in the floor all over the chamber.
“To arms,” Bradok yelled. “Here they come!”
CHAPTER 20
Bloodshed
Attack before they get out of their holes,” Thurl yelled, charging the first creature that had emerged.
Bradok scooped up his sword and raced after the assassin. Thurl reached the creature first and drove his dagger right into its head, punching through its chitinous armor and plunging straight into the glowing organ. The Disir went berserk, lashing out with its blade arms and squealing in pain.
Close behind, Bradok chopped downward, slicing right at the joint of one of its legs, severing its limb, and sending the creature collapsing face-first into the sand. Before it had a chance to recover, Much and Corin were hacking it to bits.
Pain exploded in his leg, and Bradok turned to find another killer insect crawling up out of the sand toward him. It had lashed out with its arm and sliced across Bradok’s calf muscle. The cut didn’t look deep, so he decided then wasn’t the time to worry about it. He hurled himself into the fray, chopping down on the Disir’s arm. Unlike the blades from Starlight Hall, Bradok’s sword had been imbued with a certain magic by the elves who had crafted it. It sliced through the creature’s arm easily, sending bits of it and the black ichor inside the Disir flying.
