by Harry Nix
Another hour went by in companionable silence. We’d joined a sparse flow of other travelers heading back to Bron. Ahead of us a family with a cart full of apples. The husband and wife were taking turns to hold the reins. They had a daughter, about six perhaps, who was sitting in the back of the cart in a small area they’d blocked off with planks of wood to make space. As I watched, the father switched places with the mother and then climbed back to where his daughter was sitting. They soon started playing some game, clapping their hands together.
I couldn’t help but to think of John, looking up at me, foaming at the mouth. He had a wife and child who would be waiting forever for him to return.
“Shut the hell up,” I said aloud to myself. Scarlet glanced across at me and then wrapped her arm around my shoulders.
“Hey, be nice to yourself. I actually kind of like this summoner,” she said. She passed me the reins and then climbed back across the cart to stretch her legs.
I smiled weakly at her and then shook the reins again, urging the horses on. I had to get my head in the game… or more accurately out of the game enough to realize this was just a game. They weren’t real people, but digital constructs.
With a creaking cart underneath me, horses chuffing away, the sound of spiders moving and a family up ahead, I was having a damn hard time convincing myself this wasn’t reality.
13
The feeling the quest was on rails came to a grinding halt when Wolf stepped out of the darkness.
We made it to the elevator, almost. As we were driving in an apparently officially sanctioned spider kidnapping cart, we’d made our way easily into the mines, following guards waving directions for us. We rolled in, Scarlet clucking a tongue sometimes at the horses as she gently shook the rains. Finally we came to a stop, just outside the elevators.
Last time they’d been guards here, but only a few. Now there was at least fifteen hard-faced men and women all armored up and each carrying crossbows. They weren’t quite pointing them at us, but not far off it either. I had no doubt it would take that half a second for them to lift and fire.
“Have some trouble? Where are the other five?” Wolfe said, appearing out of nowhere.
I could feel Scarlet tense beside me. She was ready to throw a fireball in any moment and I knew Isabel would be the same, ready to attack. Ori was standing somewhere at the back as well. The little demon had almost shrunk down into himself under the gaze of the mercenaries. I had the distinct feeling if I said the wrong thing, everything would go bad in an instant. I decided just to go full tilt.
“Don’t send amateurs to do a professional’s job,” I said, waving vaguely at my forehead where I still had a wound from the graveyard spike and some dried blood.
Wolfe glanced up at the wound and then away before giving some unseen signal. The mercenaries stood down, moving away from the cart, although some of them were still keeping an eye on us.
“Were running out of good professionals. Sometimes amateurs is all we have. Once you’ve delivered come and see me again might have another job for you,” Wolfe said.
He walked away and between one blink and the next vanished into the darkness.
I didn’t even dare let out a sigh of relief with the mercenaries watching us. The guards in front of us must have sent a signal because it wasn’t long before the man from upstairs came down the stairs and waved a hand, causing the wall to shimmer away and the elevator to appear. Up close I got a more of a proper look at him. He was wearing a long cloak with pockets all over it, both inside and out. He was tall and slender and slightly hunched over. Although he had a long beard I got the feeling he was younger than he looked.
He was grumbling to himself as he went back up the stairs with look like some someone had pissed in his mouth.
The guards pulled the doors of the elevator opened and without prompting the horses walk their way forward, pulling us and the cart inside. The guards pulled the two doors shut behind us, and there was a creak and a lurch as the elevator began to rise.
“See no problem at all,” Scarlet whispered under a breath to me and then winked.
I nodded back and released the grip on my staff. My palms were sweaty. I dried them off my clothes and got ready for whatever would come next. I turned to check on Isabel and Ori but only the ink demon was there. I looked around but I couldn’t spot Isabel so I guessed she’d gone into stealth somewhere. Not wanting to give her away if we were being watched, I kept my mouth shut. After a few moments of creaking the elevator in front of us suddenly opened up revealing an expansive room that was lit by more of those magical, non-heat lights. I was expecting more soldiers but instead I got a rush of bustling staff who came into disconnect the horses from the cart.
“Down, down, you know the drill or is this your first day?” a woman called up at us, waving her hands. The three of us scurried off the cart as the horses were expertly disconnected and then a trestle was placed where they’d been so the cart remained balanced and locked in place. It took but a moment before the doors in front of us were slammed shut and the elevator resumed its ascent.
“Well that was—” I began before a sudden deluge flooded from the roof, saturating three of us and the cart. It was more of that potion, the one that Wolfe had demanded we pour over the spiders. It rained down on us like were in a giant shower for thirty seconds straight.
I was coughing and sneezing by the time it finally stopped and then the doors opened behind us, revealing a room with six men waiting for us. All of them were dressed like butchers with long leather aprons and gloves up to the elbows. The one in the front was fat, his belly bulging out and he had a shaved head, which actually made it look like an oversized baby. He had a wickedly sharp cleaver in one hand but didn’t seem intent on using it on us.
“Gotta keep your mouth shut when that piss comes,” he laughed and then waved the cleaver at the other five men to come in to the elevator. We were instructed to help push the cart out of the elevator and into the room. As we did I was half-expecting Isabel to appear from beneath the cart or to be in the corner of the room, but she just wasn’t there.
We pushed the cart out into the main room and then the elevator doors shut behind us again, one of the men turning a handle then hitting a bell before it began to descend.
We were in a mudroom of sorts. The floor was stone and there were track marks of previous carts as well as dried blood over in the corner. Around the outer edge of the room were tables with nets hanging off hooks nearby. Over in the corner were a pile of damaged nets, perhaps waiting for repair. The burning torches were gone, replaced with flames behind glass. It was like stepping into a modern hospital room.
“Names October, chief spider handler. How many did you bring us?” he said.
I managed to restrain a double blink at his name, wondering if this was Lucy weaving in details from outside. What did they call months here?
“Six spiders, all adults,” I said.
I’ll still assessing our chances and they didn’t look very good at all. Each of the men were armed with cleavers and there were plenty of weapons about to grab even if we managed to disarm them. There were also the nets and ropes—as soon as we attacked, they’d be thrown at us.
“Six? That’s biggest haul we’ve had in a while. We’ll open the lockbox and you’ll help us take the spiders out, one at a time. Me and the boys will give them another clean and lock them into the harnesses before taking them out to the other room. Your job is to stand here and make sure nothing goes wrong,” October said.
As he spoke, one of the other spider handlers returned from the other room pushing something that looked like a cross between a table and a bondage harness. There were loops of leather and metal, including a golden ring that was shimmering with magical light. It was like seeing a guillotine or electric chair—a thing designed for one dark purpose only.
October glanced at our cart and I realized our mistake. We hadn’t bound the spiders so all our ropes and nets were still hangi
ng from it. I guess it was just pure luck that none of the guards at the bottom of the elevator had noticed.
“Did you take extra nets with you?” he asked, almost to himself. Just as I was about to shout to attack, Isabel beat me to the punch. It was like she’d stepped out of the wall itself.
She leaped into the air and stabbed her knife straight into one of the spider handler’s neck. She was a blur, leaping off him and on to the next man. The first one crumpled to the ground. The second managed to yell and get a hand up but got a knife in the throat too.
“Attack!” I yelled. I had a brand-new spell and there was no better time to try it so I cast Vibrate on October’s cleaver, hoping I wasn’t about to split my head open. It shot out of his hand, spinning in a blur across the room. A spider handler lost his nose, sliced off his face and then the cleaver lodged itself in the wall.
It had been five seconds and already two of them went dead and one was crashing to the ground, a jet of blood shooting up from his wound. October was disarmed. We might be able to do this.
Scarlet threw a fireball at October just as Ori hurled some ink. It blinded him but the fireball simply burst on his leather apron, harmlessly. He fell backwards, landing on the ground.
There were still two men armed and a uninjured and without hesitation they rushed at us. I cast Bolt at one of them but instead of hitting him in the face as I intended, it earthed on his cleaver in a burst of sparks. It was like a miniature sun for a moment, and when I blinked away the spots he’d stopped, rubbing at his eyes. The cleaver had a wooden handle, which I guess protected him from being electrocuted.
I didn’t have any time to take this in because a cleaver swung past my face and pain burst as it took the tip of my nose off. I roared in agony and swung my staff like a baseball bat, hitting my attacker in the face. I got in two good blows before I remembered I had spells. I cast Vibrate again, aiming to disarm but with the end of my nose missing and eyes watering, I missed his cleaver and hit his apron instead. It snapped off his body like when magicians do the trick with the tablecloth and stacked glasses, flying across the room to hit the wall and crumple to the floor.
He stumbled the moment but it wasn’t much. He swung at me again and I barely managed to get out of the way, taking a wound on my arm from the tip of it. The cleavers were heavy and sharp and would cut through me like butter if he got a solid hit in. I rolled back from him, trying to get some space, ending up over near the cart and then standing on October, which toppled me to the ground. He was still trying to get the ink out of his eyes and not having any luck.
“Let us out!” Ebony called from inside the cart. I got to my feet, just as six small Ori grabbed my attacker around the ankles. They tangled him up and he crashed to the ground. His cleaver finally went flying but unfortunately it slit to a halt beside October.
It took a moment to unlock the cart but it was hard getting Ebony out. She was wedged like when you’re moving a sofa into a new house and have to try three times to get it through the door. I managed to help her halfway out before I had to turn back to the spider handlers.
Two of them were dead, but Isabel was injured, a deep wound on her shoulder, blood dripping down her arm. She switched her knife to the other hand and was grimacing in pain. October was finally getting to his feet, his eyes clear of ink. He spotted the machete, which he quickly grabbed.
I hit his apron with Vibrate, snapping it off him. He came running at me, three steps before Scarlet hit him with a fireball. This time he had no leather apron to protect him. It hit dead center and there was a burst of cold light. I saw a brief flash of the word critical before October fell to his knees, grabbing at the fireball. It wasn’t going out but burning it’s way into his chest.
He died screaming as it seared its way through his ribs into his lungs and heart. Three dead but still three to go, including another who was grabbing a net.
Green flashed by my face as Scarlet threw the Echo Knife but she missed her target. Ori had reformed but was moving slower and was smaller than before. Some parts of him had died, turning into smears of ink on the ground.
The battle became frenetic then. Maybe October dying in such a hideous way had pulled the three spider keepers out of shock to realize it was them or us. I kept casting Bolt, trying not to hit my people. Ebony finally got free of the cart only to be tangled in a net. She started twisting and yelling as her attacker went for another net.
I cast Bolt at one of the men at the same time as he threw his cleaver. We both hit—me shocking him to the ground and him slicing my left ear off. I found myself on the floor, the agony unbelievable, hot blood pouring from my head.
I managed to get to my feet to see my attacker go down underneath both Scarlet and Isabel. Scarlet had lost the Echo Knife over the other side of the room, but she still had the graveyard spike, which she stabbing into my attacker’s back. Isabel was using her other hand and her knife, too.
Ori tossed some ink, blinding another man so I took that opportunity to get close, planning to shove my staff into his chest and cast Bolt. That plan came to nothing as a net spun out of nowhere and I found myself on the ground, trapped under it. I wasn’t sure if there was a spell on the nets but the more I moved the tighter it became.
From my position on the floor I could hardly see, blocked by the dead bodies around me.
I heard screaming and then Scarlet cried out in pain before the blinded man I’d been about to shock crashed to the ground beside me, grappling with her. I’d lost my staff so I held out my hands to cast Bolt, which turned out to be an incredibly stupid mistake.
The nets had metal threaded through them. Electricity shot out my hands, back through the net and shocked me into near unconsciousness. I was down to below a quarter health and it was dropping fast.
Injuries were scrolling on my HUD. Missing ear, bleeding, shock, and more. I struggled against the net and then grayed out before Scarlet was there, unwinding me.
I managed to get to my feet, feeling like I wanted to vomit. I guess my grayed out was actually blacked out because the spider handlers were dead and four of the spiders were now free.
“Where are our families?” Ebony hissed.
She was crouched over October, who was face down on the floor. As I staggered over, Isabel passed me a lump of bandages, which I pressed against the side of my head to stem the blood flow.
“Where are our children? “ Ebony said.
I stepped on a hand that had been sliced off and then saw it was one of October’s hands. They’d been cut off at the wrists. He had tourniquets on both arms to stop him bleeding to death.
October who was alive somehow. I guess I’d mistaken shock for death.
He was grinning but obviously in sheer agony, the shock of it driving him into some kind of craze. He kept bashing his forehead on the floor and there was blood freely flowing from the wound.
“You can’t go in the rooms unless you’ve been decontaminated! The Apothecary forbids it!” he repeated and then bashed his head against the stone. Scarlet appeared beside me with her Echo Knife. I saw its blade was bloody and wondered if she’d been the one to cut his hands off. She crouched down beside October, showing him the blade.
“We’ll make sure we’re decontaminated. Is the Apothecary there now? Are there more men?”
I guess the Apothecary was the man with the beard who opened the elevator for us.
“You can’t contaminate them!” October repeated. Scarlet sighed in disappointment and then Ebony plunged her fangs into his neck, delivering a fatal dose of poison... that had no effect. He didn’t foam and at mouth and die but kept hitting his face on the stone floor. Ebony bit him again and when he didn’t die, Scarlet finally used the blade, cutting his throat. Perhaps some antidote he’d swallowed? Given they were handling spiders, it seemed logical.
We got the last two spiders out of the cart and then Isabel handed out bandages so we could patch up our wounds. She pulled off her cloak and Scarlet helped bandage the wound
on her shoulder. The blood that was leaking out was red but had a greenish tint to it, like her skin. It appeared the injury had cut a tendon or muscle and she couldn’t lift her arm.
Before long she was bandaged up and so was I. My health was slowly inching back up. Now there was a permanent injury warning on my HUD, both my nose and missing ear. I had no idea how things worked in this game in regard to injuries but it seemed my ear wasn’t going to magically regrow. I did take a moment to look for it but there was too much blood, too many hacked body parts.
We gathered at the door to the adjoining room and corridor. There were more harnesses out there, neatly arranged around the walls. Although it was hospital bright where we were, the corridor was dim. It curved and deepened into gloom.
I turned to Isabel. “Can you still stealth with an injury?” I asked.
“Of course I can,” she scoffed.
“Can you scout the corridor? Don’t attack, just count. We’ll follow as quiet as we can before you meet us.”
Isabel nodded and stepped through the door, vanishing into the gloom.
“You should take some nets,” Ebony said.
“And some cleavers,” another spider added, looking at my missing ear.
I let the implied criticism wash over me without comment. That spider had spent the whole fight in the lockbox. Still, we went back to room full of dead to see if there was anything useful.
I spotted the elevator controls and saw they had a setting for lock. Hopefully that meant the elevator would stay at the bottom so we couldn’t be ambushed from behind.
After locking it into place, I scouted the room along with Scarlet and Ori. There were plenty of weapons, cleavers mostly, and if this were any other game we’d be looting bodies. But the spiders were anxious to carry on and I could feel time pressing up against us so we left most of it behind.
I took a net and Scarlet took one too. Ori picked up a cleaver that was too big for his reduced size but I decided to let it go. Soon we were at the mouth of the corridor.
