“Does it matter?” Vandenberg’s voice boomed with excitement. “We can’t set up a base at the entrance with that Darkling out there harrying us at night. And if we allow the Greimere in the mine to leave, they’ll come back with more and our main force will wind up in a battle with Fates know how many warriors. We have to breach that mine. Best case, we end up backing the remaining Gaia forces inside.”
“We’re here to occupy their mine, Light Hand.” Nero scowled, continuing to stare at the mine entrance.
“We’re of Rellizbix, though; fellow soldiers. I’m willing to bet they side with us over the bloodthirsty Greimere.” Vandenberg stood and shouldered his barricade shield. “Besides, coming to the 5th Regiment’s rescue might encourage them to just give us the mine.”
“It’s not what we’re here for,” Nero replied. He wiped his face, fighting off the swells of doubt bashing against the walls of his confidence. “But you’re right, Light Hand. We can’t allow the Greimere to take this mine before us. If we take them by surprise as they’re coming down from the high of their victory, we could shatter their defense.”
Nero rallied the men and they descended the mountain. The trip down took several hours, despite the entrance seeming so close through the scope. The sun dipped into late evening as they wove through the bodies of Gaia’s soldiers. Nero offered up a prayer to the Fates as they passed. He could set about burying them in their armor once the mine had been secured, but for now they had to strike fast.
After his men cleared the entrance and began descending into the mine, Nero dropped the gate and disengaged the pulley on their side. Reconnecting it in order to leave would take some time, but it would prevent their stalker from following them in.
Victory over the Greimere was now their only way out of the mine.
It took three trips in the basket to get them all to the bottom. The entrance hole dropped hundreds of feet below the surface. Nero had never been in a mine before. His days under the coastal sun had not prepared him for the suffocating closeness he found there. Faeir magic had shaped the rock into clean hallways, but he could feel the unfathomable breadth of those walls all around him. The glow of the emberstones nestled in sconces seemed to stop dead against the rock. Nero fought against the panic that replaced his self-doubt.
“Fates guide us,” whispered a few of the Paladins as they pushed on.
In some areas, the ceiling disappeared out of the light’s reach. Nero pushed down the inexplicable feeling he might suddenly fall upward into the abyss. They heard no sounds of the Greimere nor saw any signs of their passing save a few splatters of blood, either from their dripping weapons or the walking wounded.
After nearly 20 minutes of walking, the hall abruptly opened up into a massive store room. Giant stone pillars reached up into the blackness above them, holding up a cave ceiling too high for them to see. Silver twinkling lights like stars plucked from the sky clung to the pillars and lit the entire cavern floor. Carts sat abandoned everywhere. Raw ore piles ten feet high dotted the area; segregated into unknown categories.
Exiting the close hallway and entering the giant store room, the sounds of battle finally reached their ears. Somewhere in front of them deeper in the mine, screams of the dying echoed up to them.
“Tulan, find where it’s coming from and lead us onward,” Nero commanded. “Paladins, prepare yourselves.”
The group surged forward, the Twileen scout choosing their path. They skirted ore deposits and came upon more tunnels. Tulan stopped for a moment, before locating the one producing the noise. The group pushed on. Twinkling star lights replaced the emberstones casting the rugged tunnel in a blueish-white hue.
Suddenly the tunnel gave way to a sprawling quarry. To the left, a massive cut in the stone paved way for the wide, four-man carts that hauled ore up from the mining area. The sounds of battle came from that direction, but to the right, Nero found a basket, like the one they rode down into the mine.
This basket hung suspended from a steel cable running horizontally over the abyss. The cable attached to a sturdy bracket the size of Vandenberg. Elemental magic had been used to secure the bracket deep within the stone wall. Nero traced the cable with his eyes until it disappeared in the direction of a pair of star lights nearly 200 yards away.
“A steel cable? This must have cost a fortune to make.” Vandenberg stopped to inspect the contraption. “This isn’t for hauling ore, just miners. Whatever is so important over there that they would go through all this work to rig one of these, it’s not Hermesium.”
“It doesn’t matter. We’re not going that way.” Nero turned to the left, where the sounds grew louder and more frantic. “Let’s move.”
The mining area loomed ahead of them. They could see the familiar star lights dotting rudimentary, unformed pillars.
A roar shook dirt free from the walls, booming through the cavern. The Paladins halted. As debris from the high ceiling rained down on them, they hugged the walls to avoid it.
“What the fuck was that?” Tulan asked.
“Sounded like… I don’t know what it sounded like,” Longinus replied.
“The Greimere must have some sort of beast, but to make that kind of sound…” Vandenberg trailed off, looking toward the mining area.
“They don’t have anything we can’t kill,” Nero yelled over the sounds coming at them from beyond.
He pushed forward out into the mining area. The others joined him as they formed up to enter the tunnel on the other side to join the battle.
“Arbiter, does that sound like Rellizbix voices to you?”
Nero focused on the cries for the first time now that they were close enough to make out. They were clearly the guttural, choppy words he remembered from his engagements with the Greimere.
Tulan turned around to face Nero. “They’re not going further in; they’re coming back to us.”
“Are they on to us?” Vandenberg asked, gripping his massive shield in front of the formation.
Nero moved the formation into the large shadow of piled mineral deposits for cover. “Steady, men. Whatever comes through that opening, we attack as one.”
The cries gathered into a crescendo as a dozen Darklings surged out of the opening on the far side of the mining area. They did not move in formation. Several of them did not even have weapons. They poured out in a sprint, making for the path leading up into the store room.
As they neared, Nero spotted a familiar form.
The warrior’s unmistakable teal braids bounced behind her as she ran. She gripped the wide-bladed spear in her hand. Beside her ran a behemoth Rathgar woman with a heavy executioner’s axe.
“The Fates are with us,” Nero cried out. “As one… surge!”
The Paladins emerged from the shadow, their shield wall leading the way as they set themselves in between the Greimere and their escape.
The Darkling warrior’s eyes widened upon seeing them, but instead of engaging the Paladins, she and her warriors diverted to the side in an attempt to just run around them.
Nero raged from within the shield wall and broke formation. “They’re making a break for the surface!”
“Dear Fates, what is that thing?”
Nero heard one of his men gasp in shock, but he focused on the teal-haired warrior.
“Nero! Behind you, dammit!”
Vandenberg’s voice stopped him just before another wall-shaking roar ripped through the open space. Nero turned to see something deformed and gray bolt out of the opening where the Greimere had emerged. It appeared to be one of the Rathgar, at first, but it moved way too fast.
In two bounds, it cleared half the open mining area. A wide, flat, eyeless face charged at Nero like a loosed arrow. He saw the blazing orange grin, like a furnace within a gaping maw of shark-like teeth.
Vandenberg slammed into it from the side with his shield, knocking it off course and preventing the monster from tearing into Nero. In an instant, the beast recovered and turned on the giant Paladin. W
ith a roar, Vandenberg pulled the war hammer free from his shield and swung for the creature’s anvil-like head.
The hammer struck rock. In the second it took for Vandenberg to strike, the creature flanked him.
The creature reached out and then spun away, recoiling from Vandenberg. Nero caught only a glimpse of the odd maneuver, the monster moved so quickly. In that brief glimpse, under the blue-white glow of the odd star lights, Nero saw the gray, mottled thing reach into Vandeberg’s back like it was a coin purse. In the next instant, the creature burst forward toward the retreating Greimere as Vandenberg slumped forward.
A black line up his back showed the other Paladins the void where Vandenberg’s spine once was. The Paladin Juggernaut folded and crumpled like a scarecrow unhooked from its post.
Behind them, Nero heard the Greimere scream and he took his eyes off the dead Light Hand to track the otherworldly monster. It had leapt in front of the fleeing warriors and caught one of them in its claws. Its entire face split open to reveal the blaze within and in one move it dropped its gaping mouth over the poor girl’s head and halfway down her torso.
As the Paladins stared in horror, the monster pushed its mouth-like head down over the twitching body of the Darkling. The entire scene reminded Nero of the time he caught a snake in the middle of a kill. The little reptile had caught a mouse twice as big around as it was, but it had still opened its mouth all the way around the squirming rodent. As Nero and his uncle watched, the snake maneuvered the mouse down its throat until only the curling tail hung out like a pink tongue.
The Rathgar warrior raged and swung her axe, but the monster sidestepped the blow without releasing the girl. Arching backward, it lifted its head. The Darkling’s feet pointed skyward for a brief second before folding at the knees and falling limply against the top of its skull. With a dramatic full-body gulping movement, the rest of the warrior glided down into the monster’s gullet.
At no time did the creature’s belly swell around the warrior being consumed. It was as if the blaze within the creature disintegrated her body as he ate.
The Rathgar and teal-haired warrior attacked the monster, but the other four warriors backed away. Nero met the black and purple eyes of one of the warriors and saw the slight movements of her lips as she and her sisters edged back toward them. She was pleading, to him or some higher power, and it dawned on Nero that despite being their enemy, his men were less terrifying than what lay before them.
As Nero looked on at the monster, with its man-like form and craggy, granite-colored skin, all thoughts of fighting the Greimere drained from him. This thing, seemingly born from the deepest depths of hell, did not care about the war raging above it. It would not distinguish between Paladin and Greimere. They would all die down here.
Nero took a breath, looked around and then met the Darkling’s eyes. He moved his shield aside and waved the warriors toward him, hoping they understood the gesture.
“Get in front of the Darklings!” Nero yelled as he moved, trusting that his men would follow him without locking up in fear. “Stay together.”
Nero prayed to the Fates the warrior he passed did not strike him down the minute she saw his back. Getting in front of the fleeing Darklings, Nero lifted his shield and waited.
No one joined him, but he did not turn to see why. Nero lost control of his bladder and his legs shook with every step, but he pressed on, shield in front. He had locked up the first time he saw combat but when he joined the Paladins he swore he would never freeze again. He drilled his maneuvers, over and over, in the dark. He forced his muscles to remember the basic movements, so that even if his mind went numb, his body would continue fighting. The abomination in front of him unnerved him more than anything he had experienced in combat. He could not dream up such a thing in his worst nightmares.
Still, he pushed forward, closing the distance between him and the two Greimere warriors frantically trying to fend off the creature as it darted back and forth.
Movement to his side startled him. The Darkling warrior hugged tight to his right flank and held her spear forward of his shield. Another warrior joined his left side. In the next second, two of his Paladins skidded up next to the warriors. As one, the mixed company of Greimere and Paladins moved forward in formation.
The Darkling to Nero’s right screamed at the two in front of them and the teal-haired warrior turned. Without hesitation, she and the Rathgar dove to the side as Nero’s formation met the monster with shields and spears.
“Watch for the jump!”
Nero cringed as he heard the words come from the teal-haired warrior behind them. She could speak the Rellizbix tongue.
Before Nero could refocus, the monster crouched low and bounded over the tops of their heads. The warriors lifted their spears and jabbed at it, but the creature cleared them in the blink of an eye and landed atop Paladin Odeon.
The young Paladin dropped underneath the weight of the monster and screamed for his life. His short sword shot upward into the beast’s chest as its mouth bore down on the man’s face.
Odeon’s sword thudded against the thing’s rippling pectoral muscles, but did not penetrate. The monster seemed unfazed as it cut Odeon’s screams short and feasted on his body.
“Run!”
Tulan yelled and bolted for the exit, but Nero turned and ran for Odeon. Leaping past the others, Nero swung hard with his sword, impacting against the monster’s shoulder, but failing to break through the hide.
The monster turned and roared. Nero felt the heat of its breath as the toothy furnace shot toward him.
An axe slammed into the side of the monster’s head and rocked it to the side. The large Rathgar woman bellowed and lifted her axe. Her weapon dropped on the monster like the wrath of the Fates and the impact thundered through the cavern as she drove its head into the ground.
“Come on, Nero!” Longinus grabbed his arm and yanked him backward.
Nero turned to see his fellow Paladins breaking away from the Greimere and making for the exit.
“Let the monster have the Greimere while we escape.” Nero cast a glance at the warriors closing in on the Monster. Not even the Rathgar’s mighty blows drew blood.
Nero turned and ran. Ahead of him, he saw only Pikan and Dormas.
“Where the hell are the others?” Nero asked.
“They fucking scattered in the room when you ran at that monster,” Longinus replied. “Tulan bolted past all of us, the skittish bastard. He’s probably halfway to the lift by now.”
“Fates, be kind and let there be no other monsters here.” Nero pushed aside his anger at the men for breaking command. They were terrified, just as he was in Duransk. “We can lead this one away from our brothers. Give them a chance to find a different way out.”
“We can’t get all the way back to the entrance before that thing gets us. Not as quick as it is.”
Nero could hear the defeat in his Paladin’s voice. Then the two far off star lights caught his eye in the distance.
“The basket,” Nero yelled to the Paladins ahead of them. “Get to the basket. We’re going across.”
“We’ll be sitting ducks in that thing,” Longinus argued.
“If we can get outside its leaping distance before it reaches us, what’s it going to do?” Nero sprinted to catch up to Pikan and Dormas. “There’s a fucking chasm below it.”
Pikan got to the basket first and held it steady as Dormas entered and turned to survey behind them.
“Shit,” the Paladin hissed. “Two of those Greimere cunts are coming right for us.”
Nero boarded the basket and pulled Longinus in behind him. He peered down the wide-cut path to see the Rathgar and teal-haired warrior closing the distance on them. The Darkling no longer had her spear. Behind them, a lingering scream drew the Darklings attention, but the Rathgar grabbed her shoulder and pushed her forward.
“Go,” Nero ordered. “I want to be halfway to the other side by the time that thing gets done feasting on them
.”
A strange feeling ate at Nero as Dormus and Pikan manned the crank that jerked them into motion along the steel cable. For a few brief moments, he and his Paladins had fought alongside the Greimere in brilliant synchronization. The Darkling warriors had joined his side against the monster quicker than his own men. There was no discussion, no signs exchanged; the two enemies had instantly determined the monster to be a threat greater than the animosity between them.
Nero scowled at the odd pain he felt in abandoning the Greimere warriors, especially the Darkling with the teal hair. He had sworn to take revenge on her with his own hands and now he would watch from a safe distance in a tram bucket as the monster that killed Vandenberg and Odeon took revenge for him.
The thought left a sour taste in his mouth that he quickly ignored when the monster lumbered into view behind the Greimere warriors.
Chapter 45
“Go, commander!”
Kirika snatched the naginata from Hitomi’s hand and turned to face the monster as it feasted on Chisei. The beast seemed dizzy and lethargic after Indie’s staggering blows, but it still moved fast enough to snatch Chisei right from the middle of them and retreat to consume her. The Lokai warrior beat at the monster with her fists until it slammed her to the ground, cracking her head open against the stone.
Hitomi started forward, intent on finding vulnerability in the monster’s armor-like hide. Kirika stopped her.
“Get to the top,” the seasoned Blade Dancer yelled, brandishing the heavy naginata Hitomi had wielded for so many years. “Seal this thing in here and make sure no one ever finds it again.”
Hitomi tried to argue, but Indie grabbed her and pulled her down the hallway.
“I am not going to abandon by warriors, Indie.” Hitomi fought against the Helcat, but Indie was much too strong for her.
“You’re too important to lose down here, Hitomi. Don’t let her death be in vain.”
“Stop saying that,” Hitomi cried. “Stop telling me how important I am while everyone else is dying!”
Wrath of the Greimere (Hell Cliffs Book 2) Page 35
