by BJ Hanlon
But he and Berka weren’t close enough, right? Edin stopped.
“What are you—”
Edin jumped and landed hard on the stone floor with a smack. The water was still. Maybe he was just seeing—
The water rippled again. But neither of them were moving.
“There’s something coming, isn’t there?” Berka whispered.
Edin nodded.
“It’s big?”
“I would certainly guess so.”
“A wyrm or something?”
“The ‘or something,’” Edin said.
“And why are we here?”
“To find the last Ballast Stone.” They began walking again while whispering. “If the dematian king gets all of the stones, he can open a door.”
“A door to where?”
“To a place we really don’t want him opening a door to.”
“Cryptic,” Berka whispered and was quiet for almost ten seconds.
A puddle Edin spotted off to his right rippled. That time, he was almost certain he felt the tunnel rumble.
“Who was that person you and the abbot were talking about?”
They came to a four-way crossroads and Edin looked down them, at least as far as he could see.
How was he expected to find the birth stone? Did Lorno leave a trail? He didn’t for any other of the stones, or maybe he did and Edin didn’t follow it. Maybe Edin was just running off like a treasure hunter without a map. Edin felt the fire on the torch, he let it grow and looked around. Nothing. Then he summoned a decent sized ethereal light so it overshadowed the firelight.
“What’s that?” Berka said. He was pointing at a green symbol on the wall of the tunnel straight ahead. Slowly it faded but Edin was able to make it out. A green crown. An emerald crown and it was pointing the way.
The feeling of something coming up on them grew as they continued. It felt like forever though it was probably only twenty minutes. The few puddles he’d seen had stopped rippling and Edin wondered if the guardians had left or if they had taken a wrong turn. It was possible.
They began to hear water. Trickling at first around the walls but then it sounded like a river rushing through the underground. It was impossible to know how close or how far away it was. Edin closed his eyes and tried to sense it. And he did, a lot of water.
The air was damp with moisture and puddles and he was almost certain there was another river down below them.
The river they heard was ahead, a quarter mile or so. There was another crossroads, he used the ethereal ball and saw the symbol. They continued straight and toward the river.
The damp, moldy taste and feeling began to grow in conjunction with the sound of the river. After a little while, the tunnel expanded and they were in a large open space with an arched ceiling fifty feet up. Cutting them off like one of the crossroads was a channel of gurgling black water. The tunnel on either side went off into darkness with damp walkways following it like boardwalks.
As they stepped forward, something danced at the edge of the firelight. Something that seemed for a moment to be two giant green emeralds. Edin tilted his head slightly and saw in the green ovals a black dot that looked directly at him.
Then something snuck out of its mouth. Something that looked a bit like a half-moon spade, but it was pink and came with a hissing sound.
Edin stepped back and drew his sword. “There,” he croaked and heard Berka doing the same. The thing was out of the firelight now though he could see the remnants of the green in those eyes. He handed Berka the torch. “Hold this for me.”
Berka took it and Edin felt that flame, the fire, and summoned a bit of it from the torch. It was more than a bit. A ball the size of his fist leapt off the torch.
It hung in the air above his hand and he let it grow and spin. Edin stepped forward again to see the green eyes of the beast.
They were gone.
“Blast,” Edin said as he let the fire grow larger until he could see the other side of the room. There was an identical tunnel over there, only there was also a hole in the wall. A large one and oddly shaped. Edin glanced back and saw holes on either side of their tunnel as well.
“I think it made those holes.” Berka said.
Edin said nothing. He didn’t see the beast in either hole or anywhere around. The giant eyes were so like emeralds, just like the Birth Stone.
“So… about heading back,” Berka said, his voice shaking slightly.
Edin shook his head. He looked at each of the open apertures slowly and in turn wondering which one the beast went through. “You don’t see any emeralds, do you?”
“No.”
Edin let loose the fire and summoned the ethereal ball. There was no green marking. Ahead, there was a thin bridge that crossed the river. It looked to have seen better days. Holes in the stone and rusted metal posts indicated there had been railings once, only trip hazards now.
Edin stepped onto it and crossed. There were cracks and crevasses in the stone through which he could see the black water. He thought maybe he should seal them with ice but didn’t want to release the ethereal ball.
What was that guardian? It wasn’t big enough to be the ponnoa, the giant serpent of the vale. Maybe another wyrm or some other creature. Why were all nasty beasts some sort of reptile? Edin wondered. Then he remembered the crillio and the giant spider from the dream and shivered.
Was it one of Yio’s beasts? If so, if there was some sort of connection between it and the god of the underworld, the dematian king should be able to get to the Birth Stone.
But according to Vestor, he couldn’t.
Edin was just about across when he heard a small cracking sound. It sounded like a few pebbles clapping on stone. Edin paused and slowly turned back.
Between the two, Edin on one side of the river and Berka on the other, was a thin gray mist; but it wasn’t a mist. It was a waterfall of those pebbles and dust.
Edin locked eyes with Berka and slowly, they both began to look up.
High above his head, he saw something walking, crawling on the ceiling. It was long and gray and its body was scaly. It reminded him of a snake, only with legs. The tail, he saw, was thin and long, but it ended in a large ball that looked almost like stone.
It stopped and looked down. The green emerald eyes glared at Edin. It had a long, thin face with a squared snout. The tongue slipped out and hissed. It blurred in the air so fast it was as if it were two feet tall.
Then, it opened its mouth to show razor sharp teeth. Its jaw shot open and there was a giant flap of skin, something like a shield that sprang up around its head.
Then something shot out of its mouth toward Edin.
A glob of gooey, putrid smelling saliva. Edin reacted with barely a split second.
His mind told him, ‘whatever that is, don’t touch it.’ So, he jumped sideways over the last still intact rail and wrapped an arm around it. The ethereal light disappeared and all that was left was Berka’s torch.
The rail groaned and at the same time, he felt a sizzling and burning sensation on his right thigh. Edin screamed in pain as his body slammed into the side of the bridge and then the water started dragging his legs back trying to pull him into the water and the darkness.
Then he saw Berka running up the bridge trying to help him. Edin sheathed his sword as he saw Berka, whose hands were full with the torch and his greatsword, looking confused as to what he had to do.
Behind him. Edin saw the beast. Its shield around the neck was still up. There was a design around it. Four triangles all connected by wide Ms like a child drawing birds. They were oddly blue on the beast’s gray skin.
He could see the mouth snapping open and knew what was going to happen next. Edin reached up and grabbed Berka’s lapel and pulled.
Time slowed. Berka’s face filled with horror for a moment as the glob slowly exited out of the thing’s mouth.
It moved and morphed into an indistinct shape, twisting and reforming as it came at them. Ed
in let go of the rail and dropped as Berka crashed through the railing.
The balustrade exploded outward and bars of metal crumbled with them into the river. Edin’s breath fled as he was shocked by the water’s temperature. He kept hold of Berka’s shirt but was blinded a moment later when the fire completely went out.
That wasn’t good. He guessed that those green eyes could see in the dark.
But for the moment, they were moving with the current and further out of the range of that goo. That amorphous and foul blob. His right thigh still burned but he ignored that for a moment as he tried to get his bearings and figure out where was the surface. He held out his hand and summoned an ethereal ball.
Underwater, it made everything an eerie green blue. Berka was staring widely around. He looked confused. His cheeks were puffy and his eyes bulged. The walls were very clearly manmade or at least not natural, and they were covered by many years of algae with the bottom of the channel only a couple of feet below them.
As they were floating slowly with the current Edin’s air ran out. He kicked his legs and popped up to the surface.
The speed of the water wasn’t as fast as it’d seemed and as he broke the surface, he saw they’d been carried into the tunnel and he could no longer see the bridge. To the right, was the boardwalk made of stone. A sidewalk only a foot or so above the waterline.
Berka’s head breached the surface and he spat and gasped almost simultaneously. His arms were flailing. One arm held his greatsword, the other a wooden stick that had once been used as a torch and was now only useful as a club.
Edin kicked his legs to stay afloat, but Berka just bobbed. “Drop the blasted stick!” Edin shouted. Berka looked at him, shock and horror in his face. Then he went under.
Edin grabbed him, his arm straining under the weight. Then the sluiceway swam slightly right and he bounded off a wall. The ethereal light flickered and he nearly let go of Berka.
But he didn’t. The sidewalk was just above him and Berka resurfaced. “Let go of the blasted torch you blotard,” Edin screamed. This time Berka nodded. Though he still looked frightened. Edin saw the stick drop, and his sword. Both disappeared out of sight.
Idiot. Edin thought then yelled, “Grab the ledge!” Berka, who’d been extremely confused, did so. Edin let go and reached both of his hands up as well. His ethereal light went out and his hands slipped for a moment on the damp surface.
But then he caught himself and pulled. Edin got his torso out and over and onto the pathway. He rolled briefly into a rock wall, his quarterstaff digging into his back.
Berka was gasping and groaning next to him, his breathing rapid and his lips fluttering with each exhale.
“Are you okay?” Edin asked in the dark. Then he shivered. His body was cold and wet and he wiped water from his eyes.
“Dropped Marion,” Berka said.
Edin paused, “Marion?” He asked, his voice just above the water splashing about the waterway.
“My sword.”
“You call it Marion?” Edin said as he sat up in the darkness. His feet were dangling off the wall and his thigh was still on fire but other than that, he was fine. Edin summoned an ethereal ball again and lit up the tunnel.
“Yes.” Berka said and he didn’t go into it.
The waterway was curving back to the left. It was a hewn stone tunnel. An underground sewer or sluiceway. He then remembered seeing Arianne in the same type of tunnel. She’d been on the raft trying to escape the dwarven city and the draugrs and dematians.
Edin stared at it. Was it the same water? Did it carry his lady directly into the arms of the dematian king?
“You got the look of a man who’s gotta poo.” Berka said, “for which we don’t have time. What are you thinking about?” Berka asked.
“About Arianne,” Edin said, “she was on a river like this. It must be dwarven made.”
“You think the dwarves made this? They were supposed to be so little. How could they move stones and shape things like that?” He pointed to a giant stone pier. On it, was a large pyramid with a shining stone on the top. It was clear and looked to be a crystal of some sort.
“You should’ve seen Olangia,” Edin said. He didn’t see any green crowns to point the way.
They slowly stood. The ceiling began to arch a few feet above their heads. Edin looked both ways.
There was no sign of the Heavenly Guardian, though heading back toward it didn’t seem like the best move.
“What do you think?” Berka said. “Toward the beast or away?” He was darn near reading Edin’s mind.
Edin looked at the pier and thought that if there was a pier, then there was probably something to do around said pier. An exit or another tunnel. Heading straight up the river was like walking directly into the beast’s mouth. At least he knew what it could do now. Hopefully if they couldn’t avoid it, they could defeat it.
“We go down.” He turned and started going. “Keep your eyes open. That thing could be stalking us.”
“Well maybe you should take the back then. You’re the mage and armed.”
“It could be in front of us too,” Edin said and pulled the quarterstaff from his back and handed it to Berka. Then he led again.
“You stink,” Berka said through chattering teeth.
The dock or pier was really just a slab of stone that pushed out into the river two feet. It seemed to be neither. As they moved closer Edin noticed a light coming from the crystal. He stared at it for a moment and Edin remembered the lava lights in Olangia. How there were lines of glowing orange that lit entire rooms. First, he looked back toward the way the beast was, checking that it wasn’t crawling on the roof, then he released the ethereal ball.
The room went dark for barely a second.
Berka said. “Hey—,” before the crystal lit up sending a sweeping arc of white light, ethereal light about the tunnel.
There were a few other crystals in the ceiling at the apex of the arch that seemed to catch the light and hold it.
“It’s a light display,” Berka said.
Edin nodded. It went off into the darkness of the tunnel until it disappeared around the bend.
They followed it forward, their wet boots sloshing on the stone. After what Edin assumed was nearly a full U-turn in the river, the path went straight.
They passed another four pyramids and he held the ethereal light for a few minutes in front of each. He wasn’t sure but he hoped they’d hold the light for longer if he could sort of power them up.
It was comparable to Olangia but maybe there wasn’t any volcanic activity here. He pondered as they walked. What they’d use for power here escaped Edin.
A doorway appeared across the way from them. The actual wood that had been there had fallen away years ago. The rusted metal bands were clumped together on the ground. He caught a quick glimpse of stairs heading up. They continued.
Edin began to feel a rush of air from ahead and heard water crashing down. A few minutes later, they reached a larger room with an open pit in the center. The water churned as a small waterfall dropped a half a yard into a pool. He was looking at it and saw two doors on either side of the pool and a further, wider river that continued on under the wall.
He was too busy staring at the walls and the doors that when Berka tapped him very rapidly, he turned and said “what?”
Berka was looking into a corner. A dark corner to the right and across the pool from them. There was something in there. Sticks, Edin saw. And leaves and something reflective. Next to it was a hole. A hole much like the ones on the previous room they’d been in.
Edin instantly checked the ceilings and walls and behind him for that beast.
He didn’t see it.
He took a breath, his heart pounding very rapidly. “It looks like a bird’s nest.”
“That was my thoughts,” Berka said. “Is it wise to be in its lair? I’ve only got a stick.”
Edin nodded. “I don’t see it.”
“That does
n’t mean it’s not here. It could be in that hole, or in that tunnel.”
“Or behind you,” Edin whispered.
Berka leapt toward Edin like he’d been stabbed in the butt with a glowing fire poker.
Edin was about to laugh but then instantly stopped. His scare tactic, was not far off, the beast wasn’t exactly behind him, but it was coming around the bend of the river on the very sidewalk they’d been on. “Get behind me,” Edin said.
The beast crept toward them, its legs moving silently as it came forward. Edin glanced at the room they’d just been about to enter. “The door,” Berka said.
“Slowly,” Edin said and they started to back up. The breeze blew in harder through the tunnel and he could smell possibly fresh air.
Above him, he noticed a green glow but didn’t look up.
Berka steered him as Edin backed up. His eyes locked with the emerald green ones of the beast before him. Edin felt ready to summon a culrian shield at any moment.
They turned into the doorway that looked at first like it’d be too small for the beast, but despite it seemingly being almost five feet wide and six feet tall when it lifted its head, it slid into the hall with ease, though its shoulders rubbed each wall.
“Stairs, going up,” Berka whispered. “Step… step…” he continued, one hand still on Edin’s shoulder. The overhead lights began to fade. Edin summoned the culrian in front of him.
For some reason, that seemed to trigger the beast. It opened its mouth as the flap of skin flipped up a shield around its head. A glob shot at Edin and hit the culrian.
At first he felt okay. The shield had held. They’d back up, find a place where he could fight it, maybe use the sword or one of the talents.
Then the culrian began fizzling. Steaming and bubbling like water put directly on the stove. He began to see openings in the ethereal light. Small patched holes that started to grow. They were like throwing snowballs at windows during an extremely warm day. It stayed for a moment, dripped down and then grew bigger.
Edin swallowed. He let it go and summoned another in its place. The energy it took seemed difficult. Harder.
The beast shot again. Another glob. It hit and started burning through the shield.
