As far as he knew, they were only human . . .
Weren’t they?
Saida
It was well past dawn when they reached the Akkeri temple. The rains had come and gone, leaving them cold and damp. Saida leaned forward in her saddle while her eyes scanned for the entrance to the temple. The salmon pink walls were made of rough coral, pockmarked and oddly formed, with large appendages jutting out here and there. Where the walls, if one could call them walls, met the boggy ground, moss and slime seeped up over the coral. Overhead the walls met with the gleaming sun where the temple had formed into the steep hillside, guarding the caves within. There was no way such a temple could be built, it had to be magic, though as far as she knew, the Akkeri had little magic, save their dark rituals in dedication to Ilthune.
“Alright,” Elmerah said. “Who will be keeping a lookout for the witch hunters, and who will be going inside?”
Alluin’s green eyes scanned the coral. “We’ll have to find a door first, but I will go inside.”
Saida shivered at the thought of entering the temple, but she wanted to do her part. She looked to Elmerah. “It makes sense for me to go in as well. I’ll be able to see better than you if we get lost in the dark.”
“And I can conjure a flame,” Elmerah added, shifting in her saddle to look toward Alluin, “which means you must be the lookout.”
Alluin shook his head. “I’ll not send both of you into danger. We have no idea what might lurk inside.”
Elmerah and Saida both stared at him.
He stared back, commencing the battle of wills.
It wasn’t long before Alluin lifted his hands in surrender. “Alright, alright. I’ll find a place to keep watch out of sight, and try to slip inside unnoticed if anyone approaches. But first, we need to find the entrance.”
Elmerah turned to Saida. “This is where you come in, princess. If you can see through illusions, you should be able to see through whatever is guarding the entrance.”
Saida leaned back in her saddle, wincing at the soreness of her rump. “We don’t know that I can see through illusions, just the Nokken’s disguises. And why do we believe there’s an illusion here to begin with?” She scanned the rough coral, spanning way up into the hillside.
Elmerah followed her gaze. “There’s magic here. I can sense it. I assume it’s what’s hiding the entrance from view, unless we are at the wrong place entirely.”
Alluin dismounted, then walked forward through the mushy yellow grass, his boots making a slight suction sound on the soggy earth. “Look,” he pointed, “there’s a difference in the soil here leading up to the wall. I think it once was a path.”
Saida followed the demarkation with her eyes. Sure enough, it led right into the solid coral. She climbed down from her horse and led it behind her, doubting she’d be able to suddenly see the entrance. Reaching the coral, she smoothed her hand across the surface then recoiled, wiping a slimy substance on her pants.
She scanned the surface with her eyes instead. “I don’t see anything. If only Merwyn were here.”
Alluin approached her back. “He might not have known how to enter either. This temple was likely abandoned well before the Great War.”
Elmerah reached Saida’s other side. Trailing her reins in one hand, she reached up with the other and gripped one of the odd appendages. She pulled down on it and it moved, dropping flakes of coral from the seam.
Saida jumped back as the solid wall in front of her let out a deep rumble, then shifted, breaking apart the mineral sediment that had sealed it together. The section shifted back just enough to let out a wash of musty cave air from within.
Elmerah wiped her hand on her black breeches. “Not an illusion after all, though I do feel magic here. Perhaps it’s something inside. It feels . . . dark.”
Saida and Alluin both stared at her.
“Well?” She gestured to the slight opening. “Push.”
Muttering under his breath, Alluin braced his shoulder against the slimy, crumbling door and pushed. Flakes of minerals and small chunks of coral rained down upon him as he forced the door further inward through the collected mud. Once there was a wide enough opening to walk through, he stepped back.
He dusted off his clothing as he turned to Elmerah. “Don’t go too far in if it seems risky. Judging by the state of the entrance, I imagine it was a long while ago that Isara visited this place, if she even made it inside at all. We promised Saida’s parents we’d keep her safe.”
Saida bit her tongue, waited for her sudden irritation to ebb, then replied, “We’ll be fine. We won’t take any unnecessary risks. Now let’s go before we change our minds.”
With a small smile that Alluin likely found infuriating, Elmerah handed him her reins.
Saida did the same. She didn’t know where he’d put the horses while he was hiding on lookout, but trusted he knew what he was doing. Turning away from him, she leaned forward and peered into the dark opening, nearly gagging at the potent musty odor. While she could see well in the darkness, it was so pitch black inside, she couldn’t even gauge the size of the space.
Taking a final deep breath of clean air, she stepped inside, her eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness. The first thing that caught her attention were the carvings. She could barely make them out, but could see the outline of curved tentacles, and a large, strong female body. Ilthune, the tentacled goddess of the underworld.
A flame came to life behind her, then Elmerah walked past, holding her blazing cutlass aloft to light up the stone carvings. “It seems we’re in the right place. Only Akkeri would put such a thing in their temples, though I never took them for artisans.” She continued onward toward a tunnel leading deeper into the cave.
Saida took one last look at Ilthune, then followed. The tunnel ahead was perfectly still—not even rats scurried about—so hopefully they would encounter nothing living deeper in.
“I don’t think we’ll find much here,” Elmerah said without looking back. “I’d say that door has been sealed for a very long time. I don’t think Isara made it inside, if she came here at all.”
“She left Faerune last winter. We cannot rule out the possibility she visited this place, as deserted as it may seem.”
“Maybe we’ll find treasure.” Elmerah and her flame disappeared around the bend ahead, prompting Saida to hurry and catch up with her.
“That’s not what we’re here for,” she whispered, wishing Elmerah would keep her voice down. If there was something down here, some dark magic or nocturnal monster more horrifying than Saida’s worst nightmares, her blabbering would draw it right to them.
Suddenly Elmerah’s flame went out, and Saida’s eyes had to readjust to the darkness. “Elmerah?”
“Shh.”
Saida opened her mouth to speak again, then she heard it. A faint hissing like something dragging across the stone beneath their feet. First one long hiss, then another like . . . feet? No. Many feet. Many huge, dragging feet.
She nearly screamed when something touched her, then realized it was Elmerah. Elmerah’s fingers dug into one shoulder, turning her back in the direction they’d come.
A strange sound like an arrow leaving a bow echoed through the cave and Elmerah’s hand was ripped away.
“Bloody bootlicking cur!” she cried out, her voice suddenly further into the cavern.
Wishing she hadn’t left her staff with her horse, Saida drew a dagger and rushed toward Elmerah’s voice. She found her hacking at a sticky white substance with her flaming cutlass. A big white glob covered her chest. Tugging at the other end of the glob was the largest spider Saida had ever seen. Elmerah hacked away at the last clump of spider silk just before the creature could tug her toward its giant mandible.
The spider lifted an abdomen larger than a horse over its head. White silk spewed toward them.
Elmerah’s flaming cutlass whipped down, clouding Saida’s vision and sense of smell with an acrid black smoke as the webbing burned.
“Run!” Elmerah shouted to Saida. She spread her legs and bent her knees, holding her flaming cutlass out in front of her. She watched the spider with a calm eye.
Saida was about to obey, figuring she’d be more of a hindrance than anything else, then her blood turned to ice. Deep within the cave shadows, more giant forms shifted, lifting up legs longer than Elmerah was tall as they cautiously sidled forward. Elmerah could handle one spider, but many? She’d never make it out alive.
They needed a distraction so they could run.
Unfortunately, not a single thing came to mind.
Alluin
Alluin leaned forward from his perch in one of the few trees, debating his options as the three black-clad men approached, leading stocky warhorses behind them. If there was any doubt in his mind the witch hunters were after Elmerah specifically, they were gone now. All three were nearly as big as the man who’d attacked Elmerah at the inn, though he surely could not be among them, having taken an arrow to the shoulder before vaulting out a second floor window.
Alluin didn’t think they’d spotted his party’s horses, tethered deeper in the marsh amidst thick vegetation, but they’d surely see him if he tried to run into the temple ahead of them now. No, it was better to watch and wait. Maybe they would send just one or two inside, and he could quietly take care of whoever remained to keep watch.
The three men barely glanced at their surroundings as they reached the temple entrance. Were they idiots, or just that confident? Thinking of Elmerah’s fear, he assumed the latter, then watched as two of the men handed off their reins to the third, who stationed himself with his back against the coral near the entrance while the other two ventured inside the temple.
So there would be no sneaking up, apparently.
He glanced back at his bow, knowing it was his best choice, but what if he was mistaken? What if these men weren’t more witch hunters, but simple treasure seekers? He knew the chances were exceedingly slim, that the coincidence was too high . . . but his uncle had taught him never to shoot a man unawares. One should face his opponent with dignity.
Of course, doing so might risk Saida and Elmerah’s lives.
No time for indecision now. He grabbed his bow, hopped down from the tree, and knocked an arrow as he approached.
The remaining man turned a bored, cool gaze toward him. His features were all mashed up like clay, whether from childhood disease, or injuries, was difficult to say. Either way, he didn’t seem to mind the arrow pointed at his heart.
Alluin stopped walking, his muscles tense from keeping his bow drawn. From this distance, the witch hunter would know his shot would not miss. “What do you want?”
Still leaning casually against the coral with the horses at the end of their tethers, the man spat on the ground. “We’ve no quarrel with you, elf. We want the witch. Do not get in our way.”
“Who sent you?”
The man grinned, a sickening gleam in his eye.
This was useless. He needed to get inside to Elmerah before the others reached her.
Alluin sensed something behind him, then dove aside as something whizzed past his ear. He rolled across the soggy ground, soaking his shoulder in muck, then came to his feet and redrew his bow. The witch hunter lay slumped against the coral, an arrow sticking out of his chest. His eyes, which had gleamed with malice just a moment before, stared lifelessly at the cloudy sky.
Alluin whipped his bow around, coming to settle on a elf about his height, with long silvery hair braided back from his face.
Malon, the elven guard from Faerune, approached, another arrow knocked and ready to fly. He wore simple clothes in earthy shades, including a chestnut travel coat similar to Saida’s, all perfect for traveling undetected through the wilds. “Where is Priestess Saida?”
Alluin’s brows raised as he lowered his bow. “You tracked us?”
“To trust Saida’s life in the hands of an Arthali witch is folly.”
Alluin turned to look down at the witch hunter. If Malon was going to loose an arrow on him next, he would have done it already . . . and he would likely be dead. The arrow had pierced the witch hunter’s heart. A perfect killing shot.
He shook his head. “We’re wasting time. There are two more witch hunters inside.”
Malon reached his side and looked down at the dead man in disgust. “Let’s go.” He strode confidently past Alluin and into the temple ahead of him.
Alluin followed, reluctantly reminding himself that Malon could see in near darkness. He would be needed to locate the others.
They entered a large cavern adorned with ornate carvings, echoing dully with sounds of commotion further in. Malon hardly seemed to notice the carvings. Alluin wasn't even sure he noticed the sounds. Malon’s long legs strode onward toward a tunnel leading deeper inward, barely perceptible to Alluin in the minimal light.
He hurried after him before he could get left behind. Once they were in the tunnel, the distant echoes grew louder. He heard Elmerah shout, "Get down!"
Malon took off like a silverfish in the presence of a whale, his footfalls silent, or at least, covered by the noise ahead.
His bow gripped in one hand, Alluin threw himself forward, trusting his instincts to protect him from any cracks in the ground or low hanging stalactites, which he could not see at all. He sensed something solid ahead of him a split-second before he would have run into Malon’s back. A small measure of light from the cavern ahead outlined the two witch hunters, silently watching as Saida and Elmerah were cornered by giant spiders. The dull light he'd noticed was from Elmerah's flaming cutlass.
“Let the spiders kill her,” one of the witch hunters said, his words barely perceptible over the sound of hissing and giant legs. They were not yet aware of Alluin and Malon behind them.
“He wants her alive,” the other said. “No matter how many of us die in obtaining her.”
“Then you go,” said the first. “I'm tired of playing lapdog.”
I don't have time for this, Alluin thought. He could shoot them with an arrow, but they’d be more valuable in distracting the spiders. He launched himself toward the nearest witch hunter, shouldering him out into the larger cavern. Two spiders turned with loud hisses toward the noise, raising their front legs defensively. He heard Malon curse as the other witch hunter turned back behind him, then there was a clang of steel, but Alluin was already running toward Saida and Elmerah.
He dove to the ground, sensing a gust of air overhead as long spider legs grabbed for him. Holding his breath a moment, he rolled back up to his feet and kept running, maintaining a death grip on his bow, though he’d lost a few arrows from his quiver to the dark cavern floor. He reached Elmerah and the protective glow of her fire. The spiders remained cautiously distant, watching the blaze.
“Come to die with us?” Elmerah asked, her hands clenched around the hilt of her flaming cutlass. Before he could answer, she added, “At least you brought some witch hunters to die too.”
The commotion had faded where he'd left Malon. One witch hunter was nowhere to be seen. The other was backed into a corner by one of the larger spiders, and Malon was against a different wall. The witch hunter glared at Malon as if their predicament was entirely his fault.
“Can we edge back toward the entrance?” he asked.
Elmerah shook her head. “Every time we try to move they attack.”
The spiders’ hisses were growing louder, more impatient. This stalemate would not last for long. “Well we can't all just stay like this.”
“They are Ayperos.” Malon's voice was calm and even despite the spiders edging toward him. “Demons summoned to protect treasures.”
Elmerah brandished her cutlass at a spider reaching a leg out to test her. The movement caused a collective hiss, followed by the rasp of shifting legs. “I'm so glad to know the name of the things that are going to eat me,” she said caustically as she backed closer to Saida.
The remaining cornered witch hunter snorted. "Of course the w
itch is involved with demons."
“I didn't summon them,” Elmerah snapped. “Now be quiet until I can make it over there to kill you.”
The witch hunter snorted again. This was getting them nowhere. The spiders watched them with rows of little round eyes glistening in the firelight from Elmerah's cutlass.
“The Ayperos,” Malon began, the strain in his voice making it clear his patience was wearing thin, “will only attack when there is a treasure to guard. Capture their treasure, and you will become their new master.”
Alluin gritted his teeth. “A lot of good that does us. Do you see a treasure in here?”
“It will be within the largest monster,” Malon added.
“Of course it will,” Elmerah muttered.
“There,” Saida pointed to one particularly large spider in the center of the group. "That has to be it."
As if understanding her words, the spiders began to hiss louder.
Alluin darted his gaze toward Malon, then back to the spiders. He was good with a bow, but he could admit, Malon was better. “Do you think you can hit it with your bow?”
“Perhaps, but someone will still have to wade in and cut the treasure out of it.”
Alluin sighed. The witch hunter was silently watching them all. Looking for an opportunity to get them killed? No, he was the one that said someone wanted Elmerah alive.
“Just shoot the bloody spider,” Elmerah snarled. “I can't hold this flame forever, and I have a feeling once it goes out, we're all dead.”
Malon glared at her, but lifted his bow. He knocked an arrow, drew back his arm, and aimed.
“Wait,” the witch hunter pleaded. “If you fire upon them they may all attack. Grisham is already dead.”
Grisham had to be the other witch hunter. Good riddance.
“Only one way to find out,” Malon said curtly, then loosed his arrow.
The largest spider crumpled to the ground with a surprisingly soft thud. The rest reacted instantly. The cavern became a flurry of hairy legs and bobbing abdomens. A stream of spidersilk shot toward Alluin, narrowly missing his chest as he hopped aside.
Curse of the Akkeri Page 9
