Chapter Thirty Five: We Have Worms!
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"I'm not hungry," Thorian grunted, "I've had enough of seeing things that ain't what they're supposed to be."
Jeremiah went to say something unkind and then stopped to think about it. He reached up, took hold of one of his antlers and tugged. The antler stayed most firmly attached to his head. He tugged again and winced as something in his skull stretched and ached. Whether he liked them or not, the antlers were here to stay by the looks of things.
"Maybe Thorian is right," he muttered as he dug through his pack, looking for something, "Maybe we should be wary of anything those... creatures gave us. Ugh, Kaelin, I don't suppose you picked up one of those little mirrors that were laying around in Myslynn's manor while we were there?"
"Why would I have picked up a mirror while we were at Myslynn's mansion?" Kaelin asked with a guarded expression, using her foot to hook her pack closer to her and further away from Jeremiah, tucking it further under her cot. Estella glanced at her but shrugged and went back to tending the pot of tea by the fire. She also seemed to be doing some form of breathing exercise, rhythmically drawing her hands towards her chest and then pushing them away. Quenril frowned at her and then looked at the cup of water she'd kept out of the pot. He wasn't entirely sure that the surface of it wasn't rippling in time with her motion.
"Because you are a thief, my dear," Jeremiah smiled his not nice smile, "A thief, a petty criminal and a convict. You openly admitted to flogging silverware so need I add any more? Now do you or do you not have a mirror in that copious pack of yours?"
"If she's looking for her honor, she could try looking in her hair do," the bag of scolding chipped in, "I've never seen a more ragged rat's nest of a hair do, or perhaps its a hair don't!"
"I'd forgotten about you," Ulrich admitted, a little pained.
"Aye, along with your common sense and your dignity," the bag snapped back, "The lot of yer sounded like a bunch of hogs in a saw mill. Disgusted I was, having to hang about with you, drooling and lolling about like sacks of dirty washing. Don't you ever bathe?"
"Well I wouldn't mind having a good soak right about now," Kaelin deep panned, her new wings rustling, "As long as I had a nice soft cushion to sit on in the water. I wonder where I could find such a nice soft cushion? Oh, it does appear that I'm looking at one." She stared at the bag of scolding.
"If I had a nose, I'd unplug it at you," the bag snarled but then it subsided, apparently unwilling to push its luck.
"Now that rude interruption has been dealt with," Jeremiah observed, "Are you going to give me that mirror you undoubtedly have in your bag?" His smile was still more fake that a president's promise.
Kaelin's hand shot out, palm up.
"I'm sorry," Jeremiah frowned, "I don't quite follow."
Kaelin's fingers clapped against her palm in the universal gesture of 'pay me, now'. She waited a beat and then clapped her fingers against her palm again. Jeremiah's expression became pained.
"I don't suppose there is any way you would consider doing it for the good of the team?" he suggested. Her expression of blank deadpan would have made a raven stop in admiration.
"You pointed out yourself, I flog silverware," she said, "Flogging silverware means that I get paid in return for it so..." Her fingers clapped on her palm again. "I'll settle for the standard rate." Jeremiah glowered but she remained unmoved. He gave a long suffering sigh and muttered about employees who weren't willing to take one for the team before fishing out his money bag and counting out five gold pieces. Kaelin made them disappear a lot faster than he had made them appear. She pulled her bag out from under the bed and flipped over the top flap. After a few seconds of pouring through the contents she paused.
"Doesn't look like there was any tampering in my bag," she admitted.
"I was just thinking the same," Ulrich admitted, "Seeing as I still have all my most valuable acquisitions."
"It is possible that those little creatures do not have much care for gold," Jeremiah observed, "I did not see any payment for goods or services going on in the establishment where we dined. It is possible that they are still too primitive for the understanding of currency so gold would have no meaning for them besides as a method of adornment. Undoubtedly they will eventually discover the proper flow of commerce."
"What? All the money from everybody else flowing up into the pockets of the rich and powerful?" Kaelin paused in her hunting and raised an eyebrow at him.
"I was thinking more of the proper funding of the great and good," Jeremiah ground out.
"That's what I said," Kaelin noted and went back to her pack digging, finally finding what she was looking for and handing it over to Jeremiah. He took the vanity mirror and started peering at the new growths on his head. On the other side of the cavern Sabal, with his eyes down cast, handed Tasnar a pair of soft black leather gloves, Tasnar being careful to not touch his cousin's fingers as he took them. Ulrich passed round the ever full tin of biscuits.
"Tea and a biscuit, or three, is better than no breakfast at all," he said, "I don't know about you chaps but despite the weirdness of the dreams... and their reality... and their weird reality, but I feel the most rested since we left the dwergs behind and I don't think we should waste that by avoiding breakfast simply because we are acting paranoid."
"He has a point," Estella nodded as she poured out the cups of tea, "No point in starting the day hungry, that is just going to lead to trouble down here." She handed out the cups.
They were part way through their drinks when the fire sank down in the pit and turned a sickly shade of purple.
"Uh oh," Thorian said and went to toss what was left of his tea away. A voice stayed his hand, or rather froze it.
Jeremiah was chanting, a deep, guttural sounding tongue that made the hairs on all their arms stand up straight and Kaelin's bones melt and reform into wolf, her snarling teeth chattering even as she tied to growl. Estella crabbed away from him on her butt, Valodrael's darkness filling both her eyes as the three Ash Elves flicked their fingers in signs meant to ward off evil.
Jeremiah's antlers twisted.
They became soft, flexible, bending like yellow hot metal on the anvil, curling inwards until the tips of the crowns touched together and fused, non-typical tines sprouting from the lower tine. The brow tines lengthened and took on a jagged look, whole the whole spiraled slightly, taking on a twisted aspect, becoming a cage for the sigil that flamed into being, hovering within the branch like enclosure of the warped antlers. It cast a sickly glow across the chamber, barred by the shadows of the antlers. Ulrich dropped his cup with a clang of tin on stone, turning his face away, fighting not to scream and run, weeping like a child.
It was there again!
That... that... that thing that was dragon and not dragon at the same time. That thing that defied reality and defiled sanity. Ulrich gripped the edge of the cot so hard his hands burned as he bit his lip, eyes squeezed shut but still somehow seeing that damn thing there. His guts bubbled and roiled, his tea fighting to either come up or go down, or maybe both at once.
Jeremiah stopped chanting. Ulrich cracked open one eye, looked at the sickly white glow that now shone from Jeremiah's gaze and screwed his eyelids shut again, fighting back the urge to whimper.
"Aye think aye leaked," Thorian admitted, "Just a little."
"You wouldn't be the only one," Estella admitted, what looked like black syrup trailing down her cheeks, her hands shaking.
"That made my skin crawl," Ulrich admitted, finally opening his eyes again, "No, that made it race for the door, screaming all the way."
"My dear friends," Jeremiah stood, eyes shining with a power that none of them wanted to name, "Why do you fear? After all the times I have demonstrated the holy power of the great god Klu'ga-nuth why do you falter and cower? Have I not shown how the One True God would protect you, if only you would serve him? Give unto him your love and obedience, bow down to him and worship him and he will provide all that you need."
"And do you you think that I haven't had that offer made before?" Kaelin snarled, face stuck half way between human and wolf, "The gods are baskets and I have been their play thing before. Never again!"
"But my dear Kaelin," Jeremiah smiled, "They were not true gods, they were but false idols, the graven images carved by the hands of men. Klu'ga-nuth is the one true god. He..."
"Will you stop saying that name!" Kaelin bellowed.
The chamber rang with silence as their eyes locked, struggling wordlessly for domination, the others watching them with bitten lips, frozen faces or fingers raised in gestures of warding. Estella fiddled with her necklace of emeralds.
Jeremiah narrowed his eyes and something twitched behind him, knocking the vanity mirror off the cot on to the floor with a noisy clatter. Jeremiah frowned and looked over his shoulder. He stared and then groped for the new thing. He turned, trying to catch it. He turned some more, hand clutching for it.
"Meow," Ulrich muttered, insinuating that Jeremiah looked like a cat chasing its own tail. Jeremiah ignored him as he finally managed to grab the thing waving around behind him. He tugged, viciously and grunted as the pain flared up his spine from his tail bone. A voice behind him sniggered.
"And you dare to judge my host for letting me ride crossbow," Valodrael grinned with Estella's mouth, "Well, it seems that you are becoming quite the dragon yourself."
Jeremiah turned, a thunderous expression on his face, the scaly tail, the end shaped like the head of an arrow, grasped firmly in his hand.
"I'd be careful," Valodrael still smiled, "Many more blessings from your god and I think that you might not be human at all any more."
That brought Jeremiah up short, the glare fading as his gaze turned inwards, one hand still holding the tail.
"Don't play with that or you'll go blind," Kaelin said, finally able to return to her full human form.
"What?" Jeremiah blustered, blinking. Estella sniggered, sniggered and blushed at the same time, but still sniggered as Valodrael faded out of dual control. Jeremiah glared at her but the effect was slightly ruined when an overly strong impulse made his new tail yank itself out of his hand and start switching back and forth behind him. Estella managed to control her impulse to laugh at him outright by turning away to make sure her satchel was properly repacked. She blinked as she saw that the lump of talisman wood she had started working on in her dream wash lying in there, the very roughest outline of its shape beginning to take shape. She looked at it and then looked at Kaelin, a small frown on her face. After a moment she nodded to herself, a silent decision made. The other talismans peeped at her but she held a finger up to her lips.
"Shush," she whispered, "I'll explain later."
Kaelin had already turned her back on everyone else and gone to the opening that seemed to form the door of the chamber they were in. In the corridor beyond their pets shuffled, Peter the centipede whistling around a mouthful of crab leg. Weatherall stood, the legs on that side of his body struggling to reach the floor as Peter kept the crabs weight off kilter. Kaelin didn't know whether to smile at the display of loyalty to Ulrich or be concerned about how well Ulrich had managed to tame the giant bug.
"That is not natural," she observed after a moment. She looked up and down the corridor and sniffed. There was something, a slight something on the air that suggested that she could possibly track the goturi back to their city but she didn't really see the point. Her wings rustled as she realized that she felt that she had been underground for too long, she needed the sky above her, preferably with a high moon and stars. She needed the smells and touch of nature around her again. She needed to be able to run in whatever direction she chose and she couldn't do that here, stuck under the earth.
"Your animals are out here," she reported over her shoulder as the others made their final preparations to move out.
"Of course, Kaelin should really join the pets," Jeremiah observed as he picked up his pack, "After all, quarters are for proper people."
"Speak for yourself, Scaly," Kaelin called back and then stepped out into the corridor, turning right, snapping a light stick as she went. Peter whistled again as he watched her go. Thorian went to check what the matter was as Peter continued to whistle and squeak.
"Hey what's up boy?" he asked and then saw Kaelin disappearing into the dark. "Hey, wait up," he called, hurrying after her.
"Well I'm not staying with the creepy girl," Jeremiah muttered as he marched out of the room, wings twitching and new tail switching behind him. Estella shrugged and made no comment as she followed, the purple toad settling on her shoulder and singing in her ear as the red cardinal settled on her hair and peeped, the other talismans running through the air around her.
Ulrich stepped outside and patted Peter on his carapace.
"Good boy," he congratulated, scratching round the base of Peter's antennae, "Well done for making sure he didn't wander off. Now do you think you could keep guard for us while we are on the move, make sure nothing is laying in wait ahead of us and nothing is creeping up behind?" Peter whistled as he released Weatherall's leg and waggled his antennae. He took off, scuttling over the roof of the tunnel, mandibles snipping quietly as he peered into every crack and crevice, determined to please Ulrich.
"Always better to have the service pleased with their work," Ulrich observed and swung up on to Weatherall's shell, crouching and taking hold of the crab's eye stalks before it could think of scuttling away. Weatherall smacked the tunnel floor with a claw and then began to march sideways, legs scrapping over the stone as Quenril and his kin fell in at the back of the group. Peter can surging back, checking the tunnel behind the group for anything following them before turning round and rippling back to where Kaelin was far ahead.
She did pause for a moment when she came to a crossroads of tunnel, sniffing the air and gazing for a long moment down each tunnel.
"This way," she stated as Thorian and Peter reached her, heading down the left hand way, not waiting for the others to catch them up but Jeremiah and the following Estella were not far behind any way. Estella was watching Nanny Tatters' fascination with her master's new tail, the undead Crone Dragon fixated on the twitches and waves of her controller's new appendage, her single black threaded eye blinking sideways as she watched and walked, head swaying to keep track of the arrow shaped tip.
"Val!" Estella suddenly hissed, turning her face away and covering her mouth as the Void Dragon made certain comments about the relationship between master and servant.
"What?" Valodrael asked, "I was only observing that our interesting friend seems to know more about tactics than a novice in a nunnery."
"And I now know what that means!" Estella noted, blushing furiously. Jeremiah glanced back and Estella tried for a straight face as she looked back but her skin still felt like it was on fire.
Behind them, Ulrich started whistling Rule Portasia, Portasia Rules The Waves. Kaelin stopped then, glaring back at the noble as he rode up on the back of his giant crab, his centipede pet swirling over the rocks over head. Ulrich's eyes twinkled at her as he continued to whistle. Kaelin opened her mouth then shut it again and turned away, continuing to stomp down the tunnel, Ulrich's whistling still ringing in her ears as they pushed on into the dark, counter pointed by Marmaduke's clanging footsteps. The automation was many things, quiet was not one of them.
Thorian frowned, feeling the tension rolling of Kaelin's shoulder's and he was about to ask her what the matter was when Kaelin tipped her head back and started singing.
It was Ulrich's turn to glare as Kaelin continued to make up verse on the fly, each one more and more rude and unflattering as she went alone, her voice warbling off key just enough to make it obvious that she was doing so deliberately as she handed Thorian the light stick. He began whistling louder trying to drown her out. Kaelin raised her voice even higher, making him merely the accompanying music to her mockery of the national anthem. He started sing the true and beautiful lyrics, the proper music to stir the soul and fire the blood.
Kaelin responded with the bagpipes. For a moment Ulrich thought, thought that it was the better option, if nothing else, while her mouth was full of the blow stick she could sing those disrespectful verses. Granted there was the risk that the noise would bring in trouble but trouble was what the King's Special dealt with and there was just as much chance the skirling of the pipes would scare everything in a five mile radius away. He had just started to relax and nod along with the music when...
Kaelin played a note half an octave to high.
Ulrich blinked.
The music continued without and hitch and he was just beginning to believe that he had imagined the whole thing when...
She played a note quarter of an octave too low.
Ulrich flinched. The music continued, picking up the pace and Kaelin walked in time to her tune, making everybody else keep up with her. Ulrich shrugged. Maybe it had been an honest mistake, after all it wasn't like that she had heard the...
She added a note that made it sound like the pipes where pfffting. Ulrich flinched and glared at her. Kaelin looked over her shoulder at him and the sparkle in her eyes let him know that she knew exactly what she was doing. She continued marching and playing, Thorian and Estella looking back and trying not to smirk at Ulrich. Ulrich leaned over and whispered something to Weatherall and then straightened up and took both hands off the crab's eye stalks. He swung his pack round in front of him and started digging through it.
Kaelin was coming towards the end of the tune and was building up to the grand finale, still dropping notes here, there and every where. She took a deep breath and...
The grating, nerve shredding whine and squeak of that accursed tin whistle scrapped its claws over her ear drums, making them want to curl up and run away! Kaelin's eyes crossed and her nose watered, Haggis squealing and grinding, totally off key.
Ulrich continued playing as the King's Special filed through a narrow gap in the stone, his eyes twinkling this time as he couldn't smile while playing the tin whistle. Kaelin's eyes turned yellow as the wolf bubbled under the surface but she managed to reign it in, forcing it to channel through a different release. Haggis thundered so hard the echo made Kaelin's ears ring and Estella clapped her hands to her head, the talismans diving for the safety of her satchel as the stones around them rang. The whole of the King's Special came to a stop, wide eyed and frozen.
Silence reigned.
As the last of the vibrations faded away, Peter whistled a very quiet whine.
"We done here?" Ulrich asked after a moment.
"Yeah," Kaelin agreed, "Yeah, I think we are." She let Haggis fall to her side and the set of bagpipes hissed quietly, almost apologetically.
They moved on, pushing into the dark, not speaking, the stone around them still humming quietly to itself with the final echoes of their sound battle.
They came to a fork in the road and without asking Kaelin continued straight on, going 'up' as far as she could tell. Thorian frowned, feeling that he really ought to have at least one say in which way they were going. He sniffed. Something, something like bad eggs wafted on the air currents and the air felt as if it was getting warmer. He couldn't remember the surface always smelling like that but the warmth was promising. They could be getting closer to the surface. It would be cool if they were nearly home. It had been a long old trip underground and he'd like to be able to hunt easier. A good roast boar would go down a treat, or maybe a mountain thunderer. Yeah that would be good, going on a good hunt for a mountain thunderer and then roasting it over an open fire. All they'd need then to make the night perfect would be a good barrel of ale and they could get hold of that easy enough.
Behind him, Tasnar shone a light stick into the left hand way but it turned out to be nothing but an empty chamber hollowed out of the rock by the steady tickle of water over time. Peter crawled in, swarming over the ceiling to double check that nothing was there but it ready did seem that it was completely empty so Tasnar shrugged and followed along behind the rest of the King's Special.
Kaelin stopped and sniffed as they came to a T-junction, the way forward coming down to the choice - left or right.
"This way," Thorian said, turning right.
"Are you," Kaelin cleared her throat, "Are you sure?"
"Aye-yep," Thorian beamed, "The air's getting warmer. Soon be out."
"If you say so," Kaelin grunted, sniffing. There was a definite foul smell on the air that she wasn't sure about and her nose was telling her that it was becoming stronger in the direction that Thorian had chosen. There again...
She stopped, one ear swiveling back and she turned her head to look down the left hand way.
"What is it?" Estella asked quietly.
"Now sure I heard... something," Kaelin admitted.
"Oh?" Jeremiah raised his beetling eyebrows, "Please do tell us if your little show with Ulrich has called a predator of the Underworld down on our heads. Of course we don't mind that your little temper tantrum has put us all in mortal danger."
"That's not what I heard," Kaelin shook her head, "It sounded more like... more like stone breaking."
"Stone breaking?" Ulrich asked, looking that way himself, "Let's be moving on chaps. I'm sure its just an earth tremor but let's not be hanging about."
"I'm not," Thorian called, already ahead, "So what's keeping you all?"
Kaelin rolled her eyes but then started walking after him, stepping out with a brisk pace.
They pushed on into the dark but after a while they started loosening collars and cuffs as the temperature rose. Kaelin frowned some more. It felt like they had been walking too long for this to be warmth coming down from the surface. The temperature had dropped a lot quicker when they had first came down here for this distance of stone to be warmed by the sun. She began counting paces under her breath to double checker that it wasn't her ingrained hyper-vigilance playing tricks on her distance perception. When she had a score of three hundred racked up she frowned some more.
"It is still too deep for it to be the surface, favorite of my sister," Tasnar was saying to Ulrich, "Trust us on this, we have a sense of depth when we are in the lands of our home, we are still too deep for it to be the surface."
"Wonder how that works," Estella murmured.
"No idea," Kaelin grunted but Estella wasn't really listening to her, nodding instead to the words of her draconnic passenger as he observed that he had a similar sense of how far away the ground was when he was flying so that he didn't come out of the bottom of a cloud and slam himself into the face of a mountain side. That would be a totally undignified death. She had to smile at that but no one questioned her as they marching on, the tunnels now most definitely smelling of bad eggs as they pushed deeper into the dark.
"I don't know," Ulrich was saying, "I have the distinct feeling that there is an uphill slant to this tunnel."
"That maybe, Favored," Sabal noted, "But that does not mean that we are near the surface."
Jeremiah, meanwhile, was sniffing, more and more exaggeratedly.
"Tell me, my dear," he asked Estella, "Have you by any chance, um, let wind as the more intelligent refer to it?"
"No," Estella replied, her face insulted.
"Then perhaps you should ask your dragon friend if he has noticed any signs of ill health," Jeremiah suggested, "Such... odors are not natural in a healthy body."
Estella coughed as she looked at him and his oily smile.
"Perhaps you should ask your god to double check your own health," she replied and turned away, stepping out quickly to catch up with Thorian and leave Jeremiah behind. Kaelin looked back over her shoulder and shook her head. She falter and then swore under her breath, realizing that the distraction had made her lose her count. At a loss for any other stimulation she'd found that keeping count of her steps as they threaded the curves and twists of the tunnel was helping her to not go to sleep as they pushed on further and further into the dark of the Underworld. With a grunt she started her count again.
She's topped five hundred when she realized that the light stick in Thorian's hand was burning down.
"Thorian," she called, "Light stop." Then her face twisted as she tasted the scent on the air. It was definitely bad eggs.
"No need," Thorian called back, grinning, "Told you we were near the surface!"
As the light stick sputtered out she saw what he meant. They had finally reached another T-junction and light was shining down the left hand way. Kaelin frowned. The light seemed too red for it to be sunlight, unless they were having an absolute shiner of a sunset and the smell was just wrong and the heat, the heat wasn't natural for the sunset.
"Come on," Thorian called and started running towards the light. Kaelin rolled her eyes and followed him. It was undoubtedly trouble but trouble was going to come their way no matter whether they went forward or back so they might as well press on. Still, the smell and the heat... She ran a finger under her collar, glad that the wolf had retreated fully and allowed her to ditch the fur for the moment.
They clattered out into the cavern to find Thorian standing, dejected, sniffing.
"Aye really thought that I'd found the way out," he muttered, "Aye... Aye thought I'd done good."
The pool of slowly rolling magma popped and bubbled at his feet, the bursting skins of molten stones splashing the sides of the pool, building up a slowly growing lip of hot stone.
"You done good enough," Ulrich nodded, "Yes it rather stinks in here and I don't think we should stay for long but this path is definitely on an upward slop and if there was something moving in the tunnels back there then it won't be so keen to follow us through here."
"You sure of that?" Thorian sniffed again.
"I'm sure," Ulrich smiled, "Now people, unless we all want to smell of odor de sulfur, I suggest we move along." Weatherall clattered his agreement to that statement, Peter whistling a rather smug sounding reply from where he was scampering up the wall to where the convection currents caused a cool band of sinking air that only he could reach.
They started forward, following the path forward and round the edge of the bubbling, glooping pool of glowing stone, liquid with the heat from the core of the planet, Hestia's fiery heart laid bare. For some reason none of them felt like speaking until they were passed that pond of liquid fire and saw that the way ahead of them divided as it curled to the right around the lava pool and split to pass the column of rock that was holding up the ceiling of the cavern.
"Alright friends," Ulrich smiled, edging Weatherall forward to the head of the group as the path widened out, "The low road or the high road?"
Kaelin eyed the 'low road' where it passed by the pool of bubbling molten rock. A particularly large bubble splattered liquid slag right across the path.
"High road," she stated, "Definitely the high road."
"As my lady wishes," Ulrich inclined his head and led the way.
"I still don't get it," Thorian was muttering to himself, "Stuff like this was supposed to be down with the dwergs, not up here. Where even are we up here?"
"Still underground," Jeremiah observed, "Despite your oh so gallant efforts to lead us out. Full score on enthusiasm but total lack of results."
"Sounds like your work to try and get us to worship that freaky god of yours," Thorian grunted, aware that Jeremiah was being not nice again, real not nice again.
"Now Thorian," Jeremiah smiled as they walked, "I'm sure that the great god will over look it this once but you should talk of him with more respect. It is heresy to speak of the one true god in such a fashion."
"If he don't like the truth he should change the truth, not shot the messenger," Thorian grunted again. That smile of Jeremiah's really, really irritated him. He knew that when Jeremiah smiled like that he wasn't really smiling. He wasn't happy, he wasn't pleased and he wasn't being friendly like, he was smiling but whatever he was saying or doing he meant something else. Thorian couldn't tell how he knew, he just knew that when Jerry smiled like that it didn't mean what it was supposed to mean and the not knowing how he knew that the messages were all wrong drove him nuts as well. He wanted to punch the grinning priest in the face, he really wanted to punch the grinning priest in his smiling not-smiling mouth.
"Now Thorian," Jeremiah continued smiling that not smile, "It is understandable that you are ignorant of the true nature of gods, seeing as you have undoubtedly only been exposed to the false gods of mortal creation but the one true god does not hide his face behind a false mask of comfort and predictability, he appears as he truly is, in all his wonderful and terrific glamor..."
"Terrific? Ha!" Thorian bellowed, "He ain't terrific, he causes terror! Gods are supposed to look out for their people, not scare them into submission!"
"Um, guys?" Kaelin called, coming to a stop ahead of them, "Could we have quiet a moment please?" She was frowning as she gazed at the floor.
"But that is the way of the false gods, it is the way they trick people into worshiping them," Jeremiah ignored her, "They whisper false promises of comfort and care that they cannot deliver upon so that people will give up their souls to them for these false gods to feast upon. The one true god does not need such false ways, he comes with his true power to judge all and out of those who fall down in fear to worship him he choices those at are worthy of him. Those that are not... well those that are not good enough are waste to be disposed of."
"As much as that is fascinating," Ulrich called, bringing Weatherall to a stop a little way beyond Kaelin, the walls of the cavern and the pillar rearing on either side of him, "Can we have a little quiet? I think Kaelin is right there is something happening around here."
"Well Aye don't want to worship a god who has no love for his people," Thorian snapped back at Jeremiah, ignoring Ulrich's request, "Who'd want to go to heaven if your tormentor meets you there? And no Aye may not be the biggest thinker but Aye know that a god who doesn't care about you, who doesn't understand that us mortals are messy and confused and worried and harried, ain't a god worth believing in!"
"Not around here!" Kaelin yelled, staring at the floor, "Underground here! Shift your afts!" She turned to run.
The floor erupted.
Rock and stones showered down as dust and shards fountained up, minerals screaming as they tore and in the middle of it all something roared as it burst out of the ground and smashed jagged mouth parts together.
Weatherall made that grinding sounding inside his shell as he was blasted up into the air, claws waving, legs peddling frantically, Ulrich screaming as he let go of the crab's eye stalks to grab at the edge of its shell. He missed.
Still yelling, both of them bounced off a horny, fang tooth edged mouth blade as it swung up and shut, Ulrich only just managing to snatch his ankle out of the way as the thing snapped and grabbed. He thudded to the ground and rolled away from the falling stone and rippled skin of the thing that arched over to wave its five feelers at the scattered members of the King's Special. Its jaws unfolded and and unfolded again, feelers waving in obscene patterns round a maw that belonged in hell, great scissoring blades edged in great tusks that sheared through the air, clashing like the gates of doom.
Estella took one look from where she crouched, just beyond the edge of the debris fall and threw up. She threw up a great black waterfall of oil that surged and pulled, the noise of flesh oozing into new positions mixed with the cartilage crunch of joints twisting back into alignment, Valodrael's face emerging from the flow, pulling the black ooze into shape behind him as he reared and spread, wings booming open as he roared at the gigantic worm that clicked its jaws at him. It waved the hooks that studded its form at him, each hook as long as Thorian's forearm. Valodrael snarled, eyes shiny with the light of dying supernovas.
"It's not working!" Sabal yelled, blinking, the glow in his gaze faltering in his panic.
"It doesn't have eyes!" Quenril snapped, red anger and green fear rippling in alternating bands over his skin, "You can't meet the gaze of something that has no eyes!"
"Let's try this," Estella smiled, her talismans swirling into distinctive patterns behind her as she raised her hands, all seven - red cardinal, purple toad, turquoises kirin, black bat-cat, gold phoenix, white serpent and black devil flower mantis - carving the runes of Kronzyn in the patterns of their flight, helping their mother channel her new abilities. She widened her stance, crouching slightly, something in her stance combative. Raising two fingers on both hands, her right hand traced the top of the circle, her left traced the bottom, making the foundation of the spell as the sparkles fizzed in the wake of her gestures, binding to make the whole.
"Ha!" she punched through the center of the circle and it speed across the space, slamming into the worm, outlining it in dazzling flickers of color. It reared over, bending away from them, snapping at something that wasn't there. "Get on with it! I don't know how long I can hold the spell!"
Valodrael didn't need telling twice, slamming into the worm, teeth grinding over its skin that turned out to be a lot tougher than he had expected it to be. Growling he sort to change his grip. The worm thrashed and roared, arching away from him and then smashing back, Valodrael's head caught behind it and the pillar of stone. His head splashed over the rock face, bursting like an over ripe plum. With a bone shattering crunch, his skull reformed, twisting back into being at the end of his neck.
"Ow!" he said slowly, turning his reforming face to glare at the giant worm.
Below the clashing giants, Ulrich pulled himself to his face and lifted a hand to his shoulder, wincing as pain flared up his back like liquid fire.
"Marmaduke," he croaked and then coughed, "Marmaduke, help me with this." The automation stamped forward and helped his master right Weatherall as the crab had landed fall on its back, unable to right itself amongst the rubble and shattered stone.
"Marmaduke," Ulrich instructed as he climbed back on to Weatherall's shell, "Fight with the Ash Elves, help keep them safe. Peter, see if you can strike the thing from above." Peter whistled his salute and scrambled up the rock face to hang from the ceiling, snipping venom loaded mandibles at the giant worms feelers.
Kaelin doubled over for a second, the shift rippling through her bones, nose and mouth merging to become the long snout of a wolf, her brown fur sprouting over her skin like corn in a wheat field, her jacket shifting along its seams to take the change. She crouched, lifting her wings.
"Let's see how these things work," she mauled the words through her fangs. She jumped, wings kicking into the down beat, climbing high faster than she expected. She wobbled in the air as she tried changing the direction of her thrust, hands flaring out. She tumbled but it brought her within range of one of the worms thrashing tentacle feelers. She bit it. The worm thrashed, shaking her through the air, making her new wing arms ache and her neck strain. Her grip slipped and she span through the air. It was only bit good luck that she landed feet first on the wall, if it had been any other way she would probably been killed. She narrowed her wolf eyes and the thrust off from the wall, slamming into the back of the worm's head and sliding down its length, claws hooked over, gouging at its hide the whole way but she didn't even scratch it. She jumped back out of combat as her feet touched the floor.
"What the hell is this thing made of?" she demanded, "Dragon leather? Cold ooze?"
"Couldn't tell you my dear," Jeremiah called from where he hoovered out of reach of the worm's snapping maw.
The Quenril rolled his eyes slightly as he dropped the bolt into the groove of his crossbow and took the knee to steady his aim, Tasnar and Sabal flanking him. The bolts hissed through the air, slamming home against the worm's under belly. They dug in, ever so slightly but the worm didn't seem to notice them, rounding towards them as the glimmering light around Estella's hands began to fade.
"I can't hold it much longer!" she warned.
Jeremiah tugged at his beard as he considered the scene below, his wings curving in a complicated pattern as he hoovered. He tapped his chin and then pointed at Nanny Tatters, muttering his prayers he did so. The air groaned as Nanny Tatters swelled back to her original size, cloudy skin stretching to take the expansion, her one huge eye blinking its sideways lids as her bones settled back to being solid.
"Feed my pretty," Jeremiah called, "Feed!" She took him literately, the stump of her tail beating the air behind her as she charged, the Ash Elves having to dive out of the way as her foot nearly crushed them, rearing to seize the giant worm and worry it with her teeth. It writhed and clicked its massive jaws, the shock waves popping everyone's ears. Nanny Tatters bent it and bowed it, trying to find a way to split its skin.
Thorian's eyes widened as he saw the patch of the worm's skin that was pulled tight as Nanny Tatters bent it over backwards.
"It's Thorian time!" the orc crossed breed thundered forward, broadsword raised. He leaped.
The worm's skin burst under the strike, the cut ripping back, the tissue tearing under the pressure.
The worm screamed.
It was a noise like no other that they had ever heard, gurgling liquid sound not unlike Valodrael's liquefying sound but much louder. It shook Nanny Tatters off and dived, Weatherall double switch backing to get out of the way fast enough and Thorian throwing himself against the wall as the worm became a blurring arch of flesh as it tunneled into the floor. Nanny Tatters tried to grab it again and had her head nearly ripped sideways for her effort. She pulled her head back and shook it but stopped part way through the motion, almost as if it pained her.
Kaelin narrowed her eyes as her bones reformed into her human face. As an undead... thing, Nanny Tatters shouldn't have been conscious of any pain. This was worrying but there were more pressing matters as the tail end of the worm disappeared into the floor, leaving two gaping voids.
"Um people," she called, "I suggest we don't stay here. I don't know what that things turning circle is like but I don't want to be here when it surfaces again."
"A sensible suggest," Ulrich agreed, rubbing his neck, "I think this is one of those 'let's go while the going is good' moments."
"Agreed," Valodrael rumbled, his size decreasing to that of a draft horse so he could stand close to Estella, head swinging back and forward, glaring at the place the worm had come from and where it had gone to. Estella gave a nod and edged round the pits in the floor. They pressed on into a larger area of the cavern and the air warmed again.
Valodrael snorted and started pacing back and forth across the cavern.
"The ground is hot here," he noted, stepping back from one area of the cavern floor.
"Must be another up welling of the rock that burns," Quenril observed, "They are dangerous as one never knows how thick the stone over them is."
Valodrael stepped even further back.
"What is the matter," Jeremiah called, a mocking edge in his tone, "Surely a quick dip in a little lava should pose no threat to one such as you?"
Valodrael's expression was flatly unfriendly.
"It is possible that I cannot die," he observed, "Seeing as I am not truly alive but bathing in lava would still be painful in the extreme and I don't hunt pain for myself. For others, yes, for myself, no. And sides from that I have no ready wish to be trapped within a lava pocket for the next thousand years. I know you have no concept of hunger but I can testify to the fact that hunger can become its own form of torture when it cannot be sated."
"I beg to differ," Jeremiah half bowed, still mocking, "I am perfectly familiar with hunger. After all, days of fasting are a common occurrence within the church's calendar."
"That I doubt," Valodrael said flatly.
"There is something else to consider here chaps," Ulrich called, eyeing the two passages out of the cavern, "No matter how tough those worm things are, I highly doubt that they are fire proof. If we stick close to the lava we should be safe from attack from below."
"As much as that is a marvelous point," Jeremiah smiled the smile that made Thorian want to punch his teeth in, "Said lava will also be our doom if we put a foot wrong."
"So we don't put a foot wrong," Ulrich countered with a real smile, "Here, I'll show you, come along chaps, let's not provide food for the worms." He jockeyed Weatherall towards the opening straight ahead of them, a gap illuminated by a yellow red glow that flickered with the bursting tempo of lava bubbles exploding. Kaelin shock her head as her ears picked up the sound of roiling molten rock. Ulrich was a nice guy but sometimes he was that damn reckless it was unbelievable. She actually felt sorry for Quenril and the others as they followed Ulrich towards the gap, Marmaduke clanging along behind them. Peter at least was not likely to fall into the pit, seeing as he was crawling along the wall again. She turned to the rest of them.
"Shall we find out if the other way is safer?" she gestured to the other gap in the wall.
"Fair idea," Estella nodded and walked with her towards it, her talismans twittering around her head. Thorian glanced at how fixed Jeremiah was on the little wooden creatures of magic and stepped behind Estella to shield her from the priest. Valodrael nodded to him in silent thanks and agreement.
Kaelin leaned cautiously round the edge of the opening.
"Watch your step, single file people."
She flicked an ear in the direction of Ulrich's voice but she was more focused on whether or not the path became lighter in the distance or whether her eyes where playing tricks on her. Estella stepped up beside her and peered into the gloom as well. The red cardinal twittered to her and Estella looked up at it. After a moment she nodded and it flicked off into the gloom. Valodrael watched it go and then padded passed them both, the soft liquid sound of his footfalls muted as he padded into the darkness that clung deeper to the left side of the path. A second later he emerge back and Kaelin could tell from the angle of his head that he had turned a circle in the darkness there.
"Empty," he reported, "Just a hollow space. If it was closer to time for making camp I would have suggested there but there again," he looked back towards the wormholes they had left behind, "Maybe not."
The Red Cardinal came flitting back to Estella, chirruping the news.
"Another lava pool but it is small," Estella translated, "Should give us light but not danger if we are careful."
"Let's be careful then," Kaelin noted, walking into the gloom. A second later it started lighting up with stripes of a sickly yellow glow that made Kaelin feel slightly sick, only slightly sick all over, like her whole body had suddenly become her stomach and it didn't know whether or not it was going to throw up. She glanced back over her shoulder and Jeremiah smiled below his crown of warped and twisted antlers, that mind challenging sigil turning slowly within its cage, casting its diseased light. She shuddered as she turned away. So far he had done nothing that would bring sensor down on his head, other than murder Stink of the Midden and goblins weren't not recognized as people by most people. Nobody else would care that he had slit Stink of the Midden's throat from behind, a callous killing but one that most would see as just a disposal of a piece of vermin. Kaelin clenched her fists. They were people, gods be damned, the goblins were people, people driven down to where being criminals were pretty much all they had left and then they were blamed for the path that others made sure was the only one that was left to them. Yes many of them would stick to that path now, after all it was the only one they had been allowed for thousands of years, it had been breed into them but some wanted a chance to be something more and people weren't allowing them to take it. That was what hurt. If the goblins were allowed to try and be people then perhaps someone, somewhere would allow her to be a person.
There was a soft wriggling sound behind her. Steeling herself she looked again. Nanny Tatters was squeezing herself into the tunnel one wiggle at a time, blinking her huge single eye. Kaelin looked at that blue orb with its black threads and shuddered. That thing just gave her the creeps.
Ulrich guided Weatherall carefully. The lava in this pool was lower than in the first pool that they had passed or the edges of the stone lip was higher, either way the splatters of molten stone were not reaching their feet. The heat however was still intensive and the smell was enough to put you off dinner for hours. It was certainly enough to make Ulrich feel dizzy and light headed, hence why he told his party to walk in single file, he didn't want anyone taking a tumble in, despite how small the hell pit was. Thankfully it was barely more than half a dozen paces to get past it and then they were back on solid ground. He looked around as Weatherall turned to the left. To the right was another dead end, alight with its own pool of molten rock. Ulrich frowned as he realized that before several circles within circles of fist sized rocks had been placed on the floor. A shiver ran up his back as he realized that this place could be some sort of ritual site and the thought of what those rituals could be crossed his mind. He most firmly nudged Weatherall up the left hand curve of the path, Marmaduke bonging along behind, sounding like an oversized kettle going for a walk.
"Anyone else wondering if our sister's favorite may have made a... slight miscalculation?" Tasnar asked the others quietly as they walked passed the end of a long thin pool of lava that curved away out of sight around the stump of a pillar of stone to touch the path again on the other side of the pile of rock, or at least that is how it appeared judging by the blood hued glow.
"We do not question the Favored," Sabal hissed, earning himself a reprimanding hiss from where Peter was scurrying on the wall, "Unless you want us to face the reprimand when we return to our Matriarch."
"That may have been true once," Quenril observed as they forged on through the heat, his skin shading towards a light purple, a color that seemed to be a sign of curiosity, "But this one is not like the Favored of old, he is something new and he may accept being... inquired of, if we do it carefully enough."
"Quiet a minute chaps," Ulrich called, holding up a fist as he reached the mid point of passing the stump of the pillar, "There's something here." It took the Ash Elves all of a heartbeat to respond, unslinging their crossbow and cocking them. The bolts dropped as one into the grooves. They stepped forward carefully, a quiet as only an elf could manage, crossbows pointed slightly down but hands ready to shift them to the level and fire from the hip if needed.
Kaelin's team stepped into the light of the open space they had finally found. It was the largest free space that they had found so far in this leg of the journey and Kaelin breathed easier to see the room, even if it had the largest lava pool so far bubbling away at the far end. She definitely needed to get out from under the ground and breath under the free sky for a while. She scanned the space, years of living on edge making her prepare for what ever could be coming.
"There's the exit," Estella pointed over the space to where a pathway seemed to rise out of the floor of the depression and curve away, up and to the right. Kaelin frowned, trying to picture the lay out of the surrounding tunnels.
"Aye think Ulrich's behind this wall," Thorian banged a fist against the wall to their right, "Aye think that there path is going to meet up with him."
"And how would you know about that?" Jeremiah smiled, ignoring Nanny Tatters' efforts to squeeze her way through the tunnel exit into the chamber, "Do your people possess a tremor sense?"
"You what?" Thorian asked but then ploughed on before Jeremiah could clarify, realizing that the priest was only trying to be unkind again, "I've got a good think of where we are and where the tunnels lead to, at least for a short ways. My people where made down here, 'member? Stands to reason that I have some sense of the tunnels, not as good as those Ash Elf fellows but a little."
"Well standing here gassing isn't getting us any where," Kaelin noted, "Come on feet." She started crossing the depression, the others falling in around her. Possibly because of her need to started feeling like they were making some progress on getting out of the Underworld, she wasn't paying as much attention as she should have done.
"You know what?" Thorian chattered, "Aye think that when we get out of here we should go for a hunt together. Something big, something fun, something like a mountain thunderer. Have you ever seen a mountain thunderer?" Busy with describing a mountain thunderer Thorian didn't realize that the pebbles that rattled away from his boots hadn't been kicked by his feet.
Jeremiah narrowed his eyes, noting the shifts in the floor. He looked up at Kaelin and Thorian, noting that they hadn't noticed. Without changing the speed of his steps, he shortened his stride so that he dropped back behind them, gesturing for Nanny Tatters and the vigor to stay back as well.
Estella's talismans swooped low, their piping little voices becoming agitated as they inspected the floor.
"What's the matter?" Estella called and the talismans suddenly squeaked, speeding back to her, pushing against her chest. "What...?" she began.
Valodrael seized her in both hands and lifted her off the floor, back winging a leap and not a second too soon.
The floor erupted! The giant worm, arched over and snapped its freak show mouth parts at them.
Weatherall also reared, flinging his claws wide as the floor burst open, the worm forcing its way through like an explosion of hunger and snapped its jaws at them. Ulrich's fae-gifted, elf forge blade leapt to his hand.
"Charge!" he roared, jockeying Weatherall forward. The crab obeyed, claws snapping and clashing as it scuttled and turned so that it face the worm and could bring both sets of claws into work. Ulrich slashed out, drawing an elegant X with his blade work but the edge that had never failed him before when it came to just sheer cutting power barely dented the things skin and it shrieked at him, not a sound made by vocal chords but the explosive release of pressure being vented through a space gap. It was not unlike the shriek of one of the dwerg's locomotives and just as piercing. As it bore down on him Weatherall snatched out and managed to pinch one of the worm's feelers in his grip. It reared back and nearly hosted Weatherall off his feet but the fleshy appendage was slimy and the crab's grip slipped. He landed with a clack of hard shell against stone.
"Steady on!" Ulrich called as he was nearly thrown off, "I say you chaps, give us a hand here will you?"
Marmaduke took that as instructions, stepping into the breach, making Quenril and his kin change their aim but when the automation hit the worm, it staggered, its length wavering as the force of the blow rippled through its length. Weatherall jigged as an extra large bubble of lava burst and splattered uncomfortably close to the edge of the narrow path. The bubbling pool seemed to have been stirred up by the vibrations of giant worm thrashing in the rock so close to it.
In the larger chamber Jeremiah took to the wing, heavy membranes thumping through the air as he decided whether he was going to hover to have the optimum position to over see the battle field. Having decided his position he turned in the air, wings pumping, finger joints twitching to change the shape of their membranes to alter lift and air direction. He pressed his lips as the muscle burn began to kick in but he was determined to not let that show. He would have dignity in front of these peasants.
"You," he called imperially to Nanny Tatters, "You, looked at me!" She took a moment to respond, apparently interested in the little people hoping and jumping around the giant worm but then she slowly looked up at him. His will lanced into her head, probing into the swirling muck heap that was her mind. It was just the dark cloud of half remembered glimpses of her life, a scattered handful of impressions that had not yet decayed into the nothingness of death. He narrowed his eyes and focused his mind like a scalpel. Nanny Tatters staggered but then something bubbled up to the surface.
Jeremiah smiled, turning in the air, chanting the words to make his Will reality.
The giant worm yet loose that squealing explosive hiss that was their version of a scream as the bands and chains of light writhed into being around its form, constricting on its flesh and biting in deep. It quivered, unable to writhe as the binding light held it tight.
In the tunnel by the bubbling pool of lava, Quenril twitched his head, hearing the hiss of Jeremiah's dark will. He couldn't see the fat one but he could hear that malicious greed but he shook the distraction from his mind, focusing on the giant worm in front of them as it brought its horror jaws down towards his sister's favorite. He had to lead his kin, they had a job to do. As one their fingers tightened on the triggers. The bolts whistled out and the worm reared back, snapping its jaws on the nasty little barbs that stang. The bolts shattered and fell in pieces from its jaws as it reared back over and scream hissed at them again.
"Well that's an embuggerance," Tasnar noted as Peter reared down from the ceiling and snapped at the giant worm, hiss screaming back at it, which at least had the effect of distracting it for a moment as it turned. For a second Ulrich dared to hope that perhaps, just perhaps, Peter might be able to talk to it, use the same language to break through the barrier and bring an end to this conflict as the horse shoe pool of lava bubbled and foamed, greater splashes flying into the air. Then the giant worm bit at Peter and sent the giant centipede scurrying away, shrilling in fear and panic.
"Oh great," Ulrich observed, trying to get Weatherall into a better position, "They're one of those species that eat their own young!"
Jeremiah heard the yell echoing down the tunnel but seeing as it was Ulrich's choice to divide the party then he deserved everything he got. Jeremiah frowned as the giant worm strained and bucked against the magically restraints.
"You," Jeremiah called to his vigor pack barer, "Hide there." He jabbed his finger at a cleft in the wall close to the pathway up and out of this world of rock and monsters. The vigor turned its lamp like eyes to where he pointed and started towards it, heedless of the noise of battle, ignoring the lumps and chunks of rock that went spinning passed its head, utterly single minded in its goal of doing what its master had commanded. It did not flinch as a fist sized chunk of rock smashed into the edge of the cleft as it reached it and spat shrapnel at it. It gave no sign that it felt the slivers of rock cut into its face, squeezing into the cleft instead and then stilling to a complete stillness was unnerving to observe but at the time everyone else was too busy to notice.
"You!" Jeremiah ordered Nanny Tatters, "Use your breath weapon on it!"
She swiveled her eyed stared to the giant worm and lumbered across the cavern, Kaelin and Thorian having to dodge out of the way as she stomped forward.
"Oi! Steady on!" Thorian yelled.
Nanny Tatters paid him no heed, opening her maw and then that soul chilling death rattle rang through the chamber. The worm juddered against the cage of light around it, shaking so hard the ground rumbled, making the pool of lava froth but it didn't visibly age. Nanny Tatters blinked her sideways lids and something that could have been the stirrings of a growl echoed in her desiccated rib cage. She stumped forward, reared and seized its mouth parts. It tried to snap shut on her fingers like a rat trap, slamming against her, the bounds of the spell of entanglement beginning to weaken against its continued struggles. She just kept it from closing its jaws, only just but she managed it. It scream hissed at her as she started forcing its jaws open again, a dreadful creaking cracking noise sounding as it fought against her.
In the tunnel, Ulrich hit the giant worm over and over again as Quenril and the others reloaded their bolts.
"Anytime now chaps," Ulrich called to them as Weatherall battered his claws against the worms hide, "Any time now!" Weatherall ground and growled, the noise of frustration bubbling up from his stomach.
He wasn't the only one becoming frustrated.
Thorian charged forward, broadsiding the giant worm Nanny Tatters grappled with, his great sword not so much slicing at it as slamming into it, battering at it like an unskilled woodsman hacking at a tree. That was hardly surprising as orc weapons were not built to be fancy, fencing and flourishing were a foreign concept to them. Orc weapons were closer to being a very long baseball bat with a sharp edge and wielded in much the same manner, swung at the target as hard and as fast as possible until the target fell over. Well Thorian swung at the target as fast and as hard as he could, hitting it over and over again, his sword thudding at its hide over and over but unable to pierce through it.
"Aye don't like this!" Thorian growled, his eyes beginning to shine, "Aye don't like this at all! Aye want a enemy that know when to lay down and quit!"
"Unfortunately some people don't know when to quit," Valodrael observed as he set Estella down safely out of the range of the giant worms attempts to sling lumps of rock around with its heaving and gouging. Valodrael's eyes were shining with the sickly glow of dying supernovas as the giant worm tore free of the magical bindings and ripped itself out of Nanny Tatters grip. It arched backwards and then slammed forward, body slamming the undead dragon, driving the breath from her lungs and wrenching several joints out of place. She backed off, hissing and wheezing, her translucent hide blooming over her left shoulders with the purple and blue of extreme bruising, which was even more impressive because the King's Special didn't just seen the surface level bruise but also the bruising at depth, going all the way down to her muscle.
"That's going to hurt tomorrow," Kaelin noted as she took to the air.
"Now Kaelin," Jeremiah corrected as she flew unsteadily passed, "You forget, Nanny Tatters is just an animated object, a puppet if you will, she does not feel pain, she can't, she doesn't have a functioning nervous system."
"Oh really," Kaelin grunted, "And I need to know this now because?"
"Dear Kaelin, I am a man of the cloth," Jeremiah smiled, "It is my duty to instruct those that have incorrect thoughts."
"Incorrect thoughts?" Kaelin called back as she rose higher, heading for the ceiling, "Or just the thoughts you don't like?"
Jeremiah glowered.
The worm facing Ulrich's team in the narrow space between wall and horseshoe pool of lava swung around, Marmaduke's heavy, resounding footfalls having caught its attention. It waved its feelers at Marmaduke.
"Marmaduke!" Ulrich tried to steer Weatherall as far away from Marmaduke as possible in the confined space, seeing what was about to happen, "Defend..."
The worm struck, huge bulk arrowing down towards the automation.
"Jump!" Ulrich commanded.
Marmaduke, ever obedient, jumped, the worms massive mouth parts scissoring shut behind his feet, rather than sheering them off at the knees. It reared, trying to workout what this hard thing that was now tumbling down its gullet truly was.
In the cavern, having reached the top of her flight, Kaelin curved over and arrowed down, smacking into the worm just beyond its mouth parts, hoping that the skin, being more flexible there would also be thinner. It wasn't. She gouged down ten feet and then pushed off, winging away, dodging and rolling as best she could as the worm snapped and clashed its horror show mouth parts at her. It did not get long to chase her though, Valodrael was suddenly there between them, rearing up, wings spread wide as he sucked in the breath that proceeded the blizzard that was more than a blizzard. The worm lunged forward, snapping its mouth parts just short of Valodrael's face. It opened its mouth again, its jaws unfolding and unfolding again.
With the sound of an Arctic howl, Valodrael roared the cold of the Void between the stars into being. Rock popped as it froze, the air screamed as it contracted, the worm reared back, bending over to get away from him, icy chiming as it crystalized on the worm's form. Within moments the flailing bulk of the giant invertebrate was stiffening as its skin thicken into ice, crystals erupting through the surface as cell walls burst. It scream whistled as it surface bulged and rippled unevenly, then the shriek of the Arctic gale ran out, Valodrael stepping back a pace as he gulped for air, eyeing the creaking, oozing worm. He'd never had a target of the Breath of the Void survive it for longer than a handful of seconds and this thing had, just as the first one had not only resisted his fangs, it had actually managed to hurt him.
With a series of creaking, crunching bangs, the worm bent back the other way, the ice that one side of its hide had become, cracking and crushing as it forced ice to bend and break so that it could rear back towards the panting Void Dragon and bite at his face, water and another, darker fluid spilling down its side from multiple fissures and rents. Its hide had become a glacier on one side, creaking and groaning with the movement. Lumps and chunks of off color ice spilled down to smash upon the floor.
Estella was already drawing the circle of sparkles, feet spread wide, back braced, her talismans cheeping and whirring as they supported her efforts, the Devil Flowers Mantis taking the top of the circle, its fan wings buzzing as it light up sparks of its own and fed them into the circle of Spirite born power.
"Ha!" Estella yelled, unleashing the spell.
The worm's maw smashed shut inches to the left of Valodrael's head, distracted by the false sensations its feelers were picking up and Valodrael reared, punching it in the side, slamming its length against the cavern wall.
"Returned to sender!" he barked as more chunks of frozen hide burst from it and cascaded to the floor, shattering with the ring of breaking glass.
Jeremiah looked away, bored with the whole thing. That and his shoulders were aching with the effort to stay air borne, which was making him irritable. He also needed to give a sacrifice to his god. He had been blessed and he must give thanks to his god for the privilege. He muttered a prayer, asking for guidance and for a second he had to grit his teeth as it was revealed to him that Thorian had been correct, Ulrich and his trio of sycophants were just the other side of the wall, close to where his party had entered this chamber. It was galling to know that the orc cross breed had been right. He was a non person, he had no right to be correct but there again the big, dumb, green lump was the larger meat shield when Jeremiah needed one so... And Ulrich was out of Kaelin's sight so she wouldn't be able to tell if Jeremiah... affected things. He smiled and folded his hands together, muttering a prayer to his god to destabilize, to weaken and undermine, while at the same time to cause turmoil and agitation, to bring heat to the surface, to break and destroy.
Ulrich felt the Weatherall's shifting weight as the crab panicked. He lurched as Weatherall stumbled and saw the ground below cracking up, a rising glow shining through the cracks in the stone.
"Oh golly!" he yelled, lurking the other way as Weatherall skittered and the giant worm started to thrash, "We need to get out of here!" He looked around wildly and saw the impossibility. Being Ulrich he went for it.
"This way!" he guided Weatherall round the flailing worm clockwise, squeezing him between the mass of the worm's heaving body and the wall of the cavern, leaning back so far his knees started sliding forward as Weatherall's back edge rose in the air to squeeze both himself and his rider into the gap, scurrying away from the shattering stone, the rising heat making Weatherall grind in pain as the points of his legs started to blacken.
Quenril's bolt jolted out of the groove as he stumbled, the solid stone crumbling beneath him. He whirled his arms a moment and then threw himself forward, Tasnar at his side, Sabal behind him. Quenril seized his brother's arm and half pulled, half shoved him towards salvation. Tasnar jumped, leapt, scrambled and threw himself through the gap, bouncing off the worm's bulging side as he did so. Quenril leapt, feet find purchase on falling stones, making them bare his weight for just a fraction of a second, making them give him just enough purchase to leap from one to the next and the next and the one after that. He landed in the gap and turned in time to see Sabal's terrified face as he started toppling over backwards, eyes wide, mouth agape, the beginnings of a terrified scream rising in his throat as the ground opened up to drown him in lava.
Before Quenril would have let him topple, before he would have accepted that the weak should die for the good of the strong, before he would have believed that Sabal had proven himself weak. However, that was before, this was now.
Quenril dug his fingers into a crack in the rock face to his right and swung his crossbow by the stock towards Sabal, leaning out as far as he could, swinging the stirrup towards him. Sabal flung out a hand and caught the bar of metal, gripping so hard his knuckles were white even as he started dropping but he had both hands on the stirrup when he slammed chest first into the rock fast, his boots smoking with the heat of the rising lava, the breath punched from his lungs but he held on, as did Quenril, even while the giant worms thrashing threatened to crush him. Then Tasnar was there, grabbing his belt from behind, sinking into a back stance, taking the strain so Quenril could risk letting go of the rock face, could risk grabbing Sabal's wrist in his free hand and heave him up and over the crumbling lip and drag him passed the crumbling rock, could risk holding him up as they staggered passed the stricken behemoth as it thrash and writhed and hiss screamed.
In the larger chamber, Estella flattened her hands and stepped into a wider stance, the glow building around her, echoing the flickering lines of fire ringing the worm's feelers. She cut through the air with a slow motion as she crouched and then rose, first one hand then the other as she span with slow grace, catching and shaping the wavering light between her hands, lifting it high, hands together, palm to palm, heel of hand first in the style of a chest pass but from above her head, the light fracturing as it sprayed from her finger tips. The worm lashed from side to side, ice chunks raining down, exposing the tender surface of a blister underneath. Estella held her stance, holding the double layer of the spell. Valodrael stepped back, shrinking in size, standing behind her.
"Do you know who you are?" he asked quietly. She face twitched and the light flickered.
"You are not who you were so who are you now?" his voice was a quiet rumble in her ear. She twitched a foot, the light flickered again.
"Widen your stance," he advised, "Don't lock your knees, feel for the flow of of the stream, my little Longma."
She muttered something through her teeth and then stilled. She took a proper breath through the nose and breathed it out through her mouth, matching the beats that Myslynn had shown her. Her hands relaxed, moved, slowly, carefully, drawing the brush strokes of light and the spells moved in time with it, smooth, fluid, strong but mobile in their foundations.
"Seeds of the time," Valodrael hummed, "Caught in the flow."
The talismans flew, spiraling above her, the light trailing in their wake, something like a horse taking shape in their carving of the stream but it was not just a horse, there was something of both power and pain within it, its brow noble but its teeth sharp, its wings of scales as well as feathers. It leaned forward until its face was super imposed upon her own, its antlers crowning her brow.
Valodrael looked on and beamed, humming with pride. She was glorious. He had seen the seed in her heart all those years before, it had been his greatest moment to know that it was his, his to hoard and protect and now at last, it had truly started to grow, no longer a flicker in the sand, now the spring started to rise and already it was no longer just a trickle in the sand. He grinned to see her find her power, to see the first hints of her crown. His queen was magnificent.
Kaelin swooped lower and brought her feet down for a landing. This dodging a giant worm wasn't being the best time to practice her flight work and the landing wasn't exactly the neatest ever as she had to hop and skip and stumble to stop herself from face planting straight into the ground. She managed it, just and took a moment to grab a couple of mouthfuls of air.
"Help!" a voice called. Kaelin stood up, looking around.
"Help!" the voice came again and she recognized it as Quenril's, though she did not see him.
"Please! Help!" Quenril's voice again and she realized that she wasn't hearing it with her ears but rather with her mind. She looked around, eyes running away from where the others still fought with the giant worm that was threatening them, over the rock faces of the cave. She wasn't sure were they were but if they were close enough that Quenril's new ability could reach her then that should mean that they were close enough for her to be able to do something for them. She steadied herself and unslung Haggis.
"No funny stuff this time alright," she warned him.
"Parp, puh, parp," he hooted but she wasn't entirely sure he was being apologetic for nearly choking her the day before but she didn't have time to clarify. She pocked the blow stick between her lips and blew into the bag, the drone beginning as Haggis' furry bag filled up, the tartan pattern showing up in lines of black and tawny brown as he bulged. Kaelin unleashed the opening notes, fingers flickering up and down the chanter, making the rocks around them ring. She closed her eyes, blocking out the sight of the giant worm thrashing as its feelers were overloaded with a level of vibrations it didn't usually deal with, feeling for the edge, feeling for how she could take this power and send it to Ulrich and the others. The stones resounded, layering back her playing building harmonies and counter harmonies, some stones deepening the notes, some lifting them higher and Kaelin suddenly saw how she could do it. She concentrated, focusing on sending the music along the veins of metal ore in the rocks, channeling it along those highways of crude but resonating metal. She frowned as the sensation became mushy for a moment, almost as if something soft, something fleshy had got in the way of the signal and then she felt a mass of metal, refined and shaped, cast and polished to perfection. She wasn't sure what it was but she piled the power on, puffing into the blow stick as hard as she could, fingers flying faster than ever, cheeks bulging, eyes screwed shut.
Ulrich stared as the point of a gleaming bronze sword erupted through the giant worm's side. It bucked but had hardly a second to do more as that sharpened edge sheered in a complete circle and the entire top half of the giant worm that had nearly done for him and the Ash Elves toppled sideways, splashing down into the bow shaped pool of lava, blackening and erupting into flames a moment later, black and greasy smoke boiling up to roll across the roof of the tunnel.
Marmaduke, covered in worm slime and worse, stepped down of the ragged stump on to the rock before Ulrich and the Ash Elves and then took the knee as Ulrich whooped and the Tasnar cheered. Even Quenril laughed as Sabal giggled shakily in the nervous back wash of adrenaline, shaking as how close he'd come to death shook through him. The automaton seemed slightly puzzled by all the noise as he straightened at Ulrich's command.
Jeremiah's mouth thinned as he felt the success of Kaelin's support. He had been so close, so close to disposing of his unwanted traveling companion and for the second time as well. The only thing that kept him from commanding Nanny Tatters to shred the interfering hussy was the warmth of the trio of books in his pocket, the heat a comforting glow in the small of his back. It appeared that his god was satisfied with his effort at least. Due to that and only that, he focused his ire on the giant worm still facing his half of the King's Special, muttering the words of the spell that had bubbled out of the undead Hag dragon's mind.
The cage of light sprang into being around the giant worm again but Jeremiah kept muttering, shaping it to his will, contracting the bands of light until they cut deep into the worm's form, like a collar too tight and too long around the neck of a dog, biting into its flesh pulling it over backwards until it ran out of breath to hiss scream, its agony feeding the warmth in the books he carried.
"Marmaduke!" Ulrich suddenly called in the tunnel, "To me!" The automaton stumped forward, heedless that the rock floor had nearly crumbled out from underneath its feet. Quenril and his kin swayed, staggered as the floor lurched beneath them, Weatherall flinging his claws out as the tunnel shook.
"Time to be going!" Ulrich yelled above the noise of popping and cracking rock. He fought with Weatherall a moment, struggling to make the giant crab turn and scuttle up hill, but at last his mount obey and they scrabbled upwards, Marmaduke bonging along with them as they staggered and reeled up the slop and out of the tunnel, pieces of the ceiling beginning to rain down, crashing into the bonfire that was the upper part of the giant worm, splashing into the lava pool, hammering on the oozing stump of the worm's lower half.
In the main chamber Kaelin let the blow stick fall from her lips, widening her stance as she slung Haggis behind her and arched her wings. She kicked off from the floor, pumping her wings to build up speed and braked at the last second, flipping her entire length, slamming feet first into the worm's wounded side. It whistle screamed, sounding like a locomotive in distress. Kaelin bent her knees and kicked off from its side, streaking through the air, having to roll through the air to avoid being smacked by Nanny Tatters swinging half tail and then executed a flip so that she landed back on her feet, facing the worm again, the wolf bubbling under her skin.
Valodrael nodded to her. He recognized raw skill when he saw it.
The worm bent over towards them, shaking the last of Estella's Sprite born power from its feelers.
"Sorry guys," she called, shaking her hands, "I'm all out!" Thorian on the other hand wasn't.
"It's Thorian Time!" he roared, charging towards the worm. It swung round to face him and Thorian leapt, his rage carrying him high, great sword swung like it was a toy. The worm's horror show jaws gaped, scissoring towards him ready to sheer him in half...
Valodrael's left wing talon smacked it in the side of the head, slapping it away from Thorian and the orc crossbreed's sword slammed point first into the top of the soft, tender area of blister pink flesh and went in up to the hilt. Thorian roared as his weight carried him down, dragging his sword through the worm, opening it up like a sausage on the fire bursting its skin. The worm screamed and toppled, slamming down into the floor of the chamber, leaking a flood of ooze on to the stony ground.
"How's that?" Thorian bellowed with a grin as he turned.
"Not out," Jeremiah called as he drifted down to the floor, "Not out my good sir."
The floor juddered under their feet and a sizable chunk of stone fell from the ceiling and burst upon the ground, shards slicing through the air. The talismans squealed and dived for Estella's satchel.
"Time to get out of here!" Kaelin shouted and started running towards the slope that led up and out of this place.
"I'll second that," Valodrael noted, stepping forward and spreading his wing over Estella, smaller pieces of rock pattering off it.
"Yeah," Thorian noted, "Nothing here I want to keep." He waved his sword a couple of times, showering the surrounding stone with worm muck and then wiped it on the leg of his draws. He slammed it home into its scabbard and took off after Kaelin, Estella catching up to him, sat aside Valodrael's neck as the chamber rumbled and groaned.
"Oh surely all this charging around..." Jeremiah began and then a chunk of rock the size of cart wheel slammed down only ten feet from him. It was only thanks to a flung up arm and his new, dragon skin robes that he didn't lose an eye.
"Nanny Tatters!" he barked, "Protect me!"
Nanny Tatters bounded over like a giant sized dog and stood over her master, lumps and chunks of stone bouncing off her back. She grunted under the repeated blows.
"You! Follow us!" Jeremiah commanded his vigor pack barer as he hurried passed and the purple goblin thing squeezed its way out of the cleft and stumped along after him and Nanny Tatters, unblinking as destruction rained down around it.
Ulrich felt the tremors continue and tapped Weatherall's shell, trying to convince him to go faster.
"No point hanging around here chaps," he called but he didn't have to, Marmaduke had actually calculated the meaning of the cracking and shifting floor and picked up the pace, out distancing the Ash Elves.
Quenril and Tasnar scrambled up beside their lord and threw themselves up and off the tunnel's sloping floor as said floor began the serious work of disintegrating and rolling back down to were the lava fissure was growing and spreading. Sabal yelped and yelled, falling forward and nearly sliding on the tumbling stone to his death but one hand found a finger grip and he clung on like grim death, legs churning until he found enough purchase to haul himself into the chamber that stood high above where they had been.
Ulrich looked around, very aware that the earth tremors hadn't stopped. To the right the path arched up and out. To the left.
"Oh that's were you chaps got to," he noted, "I did wonder."
"Yeah, well, you know," Jeremiah noted, "Distractions, detours, these things happen. We did have a close look at some of the native wildlife of the area. Did you know that..."
"As much as I'm sure it would be fascinating," Ulrich called, "I'm afraid that we need to get out of here as quickly as possible."
"Oh Ulrich," Jeremiah smiled, "There is no need to be so dramatic. I'm sure..."
The ground lurched.
"Stuff it!" Kaelin barked, "If you think this place is safe, stay here and tell it to the gods!"
"I agree," Estella noted, blinking Valodrael's darkness from her eyes, "This is not the place for a happy reunion!"
"Moving on," Ulrich noted and guided Weatherall up the path while the rock groaned and creaked around them.
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