Descent into the Depths of the Earth (34 page)

With her pommel shattered, Benelux made outraged noises, but
Jus was long past caring. A doorway sealed the top of the new stairway. Jus
crashed into it with his shoulder, breaking the door off its rails. He burst
into the passageway that led into the underdark. A single kuo-toa was running
past, heading for the temple beyond. Jus caught it with a savage flail of his
unbalanced sword, sending the creature reeling into the wall where he stabbed it
through the gills.

Five more kuo-toa stood just inside an entrance that led back
into the temple. They turned, roared, and snatched up their harpoons to attack
Jus’ unprotected back.

Reeling out of the stairs, Private Henry screeched a thin
noise of panic as he tugged and struggled at his captured crossbow. The huge
boxy mechanism fumbled in his grasp. Spell runes flashed, the boy pressed one
with his thumb, and suddenly the weapon bucked like a maniac. A blurred stream
of crossbow bolts ripped into the kuo-toa, the crossbow flashing as spells
blurred its mechanism back and forth. Henry stared in shock as the kuo-toa spun
with bolts ramming into them. Still hanging over Jus’ shoulder, Escalla looked
back at the boy and gave a dazed thumbs up as she saw him fire.

“Hoopy!”

The entire temple had been roused. Jus began running up the
northwestern tunnel, heading into the dark. Jolting up and down, Escalla fired
her ice wand behind the party—the last shot from her wand, which finally
sputtered out and died. The spell stabbed back down the tunnel and made a wall
of ice, blocking the angry kuo-toa from pursuit. Escalla shook her wand and
cursed, slinging it across her back upon its strap.

“That’s it! The wand’s out until I get it recharged!”

There were hundreds of angry foes just behind them. It might
take five minutes for them to break the ice wall or five hours. Escalla could
not afford to wait and see. She summoned her floating disk spell beneath Jus’
feet. The big man blinked in astonishment, then grabbed Henry as they began to
whiz speedily down the tunnel.

Escalla led the way. Her ribs were crushed; she was ripped
and battered. With hundreds of baying enemies just behind her, she chose to look
down at herself and make a little rant of outrage.

“They tore my dress! Those fish tore my dress!” The girl had
worked for hours to make something out of the drow fabrics. “What the hell does
the underdark have against my clothes?”

The faeries slim little middle was now bared, framed by
ragged strips of silk. She flew upside down and backward, peering at herself as
she flew, somehow missing a stalactite in her path.

“Actually… I think I can work with this!”

“Escalla!”
Jus managed to get the girl’s attention back
onto the road just in time to make the disk dodge wildly through a forest of
stalagmites and then plunge down a limestone cascade. Jus and Henry lay flat on
the disk, holding on like grim death. The disc dodged, twisted, then turned,
narrowly missing rock pillars and walls. A stream of carnivorous stalactites
came showering down, missing the floating disc by a hand’s breadth as it plunged
down a slippery chute of stone.

Blank with fright, Jus ducked beneath a gibbering stirge.

“Escalla?
Escalla!”
The disc tilted sideways and shot
through a tiny cave mouth. “Escalla, is this thing safe?”

“Sure it’s safe! I’m totally unharmed!” Ahead, the passageway
branched then branched again. “Hey! Does anyone remember that map we found?”

She chose the narrowest passage, a tiny thing only a few feet
wide. The floating disk blurred over a forest of shrieker fungi, the huge
toadstools wailing like banshees as the party passed, awakening monstrous shapes
burrowing in the muck nearby. The companions left the cacophony far behind as
they wound through twists and turns, ducking beneath low ceilings that almost
skinned Cinders off the Justicar’s back. They dodged right and left through a
maze of caves, muddling their trail.

Quite suddenly, the disk spell dissipated. Hanging in midair
and still shooting forward, Jus and Henry blinked then went crashing to the
ground. Escalla heard the noise and doubled back, hovering above the two men and
managing to look immensely pleased.

“Hoopy! I never had one last that long before! We must have
come four miles!”

Motion sick, slashed, half choked and dangerously annoyed, Jus arose,
straightened Cinders on his head, and dusted himself off.

“Polk?”

From inside the portable hole, a muffled voice replied, “Yes,
son! What is it?”

“Get out of there!”

“I’m just sorting a few things!” The hole unfolded. Escalla
threw it away in alarm, and Polk’s head emerged. “I’m writing us a schedule! We
need organization and planning. That’s the backbone of any good adventure!”

“Right.” Jus fetched Escalla, inspected her, then sank a
healing spell into her ribs to clear up her bruises and scrapes. “Have you got
the map?”

“Lich took it,” Polk replied.

He shrugged, then clambered out of the unfolded hole. Inside
the pit, a scatter of pearls, gems, bent copper coins, and old keys glittered in
the gloomy light. The teamster heaved out his chronicles, slung them safely over
his back, then took a sharp look at Escalla’s face.

“You all right, girl?”

“I’m fine.”

“Did you know you’ve got some freckles down your front?”

Escalla hovered, regarding Polk through lofty eyes. “Polk, a
woman without freckles is like a night without stars!” The tiny faerie posed
sweetly, them smacked the human up the side of his head. “Show’s over! We need
to hole up for a while. Let’s find a stream, get some water, then get moving!”

A side cavern gave access to a freezing cold, clear little
river, a stream haunted by eerie eyeless fish and transparent shrimp. Helping
herself to a cup of water, Escalla shook her head and dabbed at her countless
bruises, cuts, and scrapes.

“Damn! Why didn’t my stoneskin work? That was a perfectly
good spell!”

Sitting beside her and carefully filling his water bottle,
Jus shot the girl a droll glance. “Did the beholder ever look at you?”

“Oh. Oh yeah.” Crestfallen, Escalla helped herself to a mug
of water. “I can’t be expected to remember everything.” She sipped her water,
made a face, then held out her little cup for Polk to sweeten from his magic
whiskey bottle. “Well, we can’t go to the drow without all of us having
stoneskin put on us. We’ll get creamed!”

“How long would it take to conjure the spells?”

“Ah, well, I’ll have to rest overnight.” The girl
thoughtfully ticked off each stage upon her fingers. “Probably enchant you and
me tomorrow, rest another night, then do Polk and Henry the next day.”

The Justicar corked his water bottle and shrugged. “The
kuo-toa will be following us right now.”

“Point taken.” The girl stood and tossed her empty frost wand
inside. She settled her scroll tube across her back and polished off the little
lich staff. “I guess we’d better go.”

The party gathered themselves. Henry stood peering into his
new crossbow, which seemed to fit about a dozen crossbow bolts into a magazine
at the top—a problem, since he now only had twelve quarrels left in his quiver.
The boy examined the whole mechanism in puzzlement.

Escalla perched on his shoulder and said, “Guess it’s a type
of haste spell on the thing. Hoopy.” The faerie patted Henry on the head. “Don’t
lose it!”

Polk bumbled past, his book open as he began scribbling his
own version of the fight. He licked the nib of his pen and looked thoughtful,
failing to see the glowing caterpillar that had taken up residence on his hat.

“Come on. We’re behind schedule.” The man shot a look at
Escalla, then scribbled on his page. “How do you spell ‘svelte hellion’?”

Escalla gave a warning snarl. “Polk, if you’re planning on
writing about my cleavage, you can forget it.”

When the party found a suitable campsite and stopped to rest,
the only one unhappy with affairs was Benelux. The sword sulked in silence, but
no one paid her any attention. The swords ornaments had been made from gold,
with an eye for decoration rather than function. Her gold pommel was now gone,
and her elaborate golden crossguard was battered and scarred. She finally made a
petulant noise and spoke up as Jus laid her out on the ground.

Well? Have you a repair spell? Are you fixing me? I’m in
ruins! I cannot be seen in public like this!

“We’re fixing you.” Jus sat with the sword over his knees,
using an old pair of pliers from his pouch to unfix the weapon’s broken handle.
The blade gleamed, its tang white and perfect.

Exposed, Benelux gave a little screech of shock.
Sir, I’m
naked! Have you no sense of shame?

“Sorry.” Jus polished the weapon on a piece of black drow
cloak. “Just wait a minute.”

Have you the means to fix me?

“Definitely.”

Escalla came tripping innocently over from the portable hole.
“We can fix you. Just close your eyes or whatever, and it’ll be a surprise!”

I insist upon fittings suitable to my high station.
The
sword gave a sniff.
I have appearances to keep.

“Oh boy, have I got a fashion look for you!” The girl held the
hilt of Jus’ old skull pommeled sword hidden behind her back. “We’ve got the
perfect thing right here!”

Somewhat mollified, Benelux gave a sniff.
Will I look
dignified?

“It’ll be great!” Escalla gave a shrug as innocent as the
dawn. “Trust me. I’m a faerie!”

* * *

In the underdark, time never seemed to pass. The water and
the cold, the echoes and the darkness, all blended into a never ending daze.
Sleeping and waking came and went unregulated by night and day. The party camped
at need on shelves of rock or hid in dripping caves.

Jus and Henry awoke from their latest sleep to find that
Escalla had gone.

Her beaver skins lay where she had left them, but her scroll
case and staff were missing. Kicking Polk awake, the men arose, packed the bags,
and sped into the main tunnel. Several minutes of frantic searching revealed
nothing but empty spaces until Jus spied a trail of hardtack crumbs.

In a passageway beside the main tunnel, Escalla sat happily
upon a toadstool, fanning her little wings. Surrounding her was a ring of giant
ants, each insect fully two feet long, armored and armed with formidable stings.
Escalla twined antennae with the leader, laughed, and apparently told a joke
that the ants appreciated. She patted them on their shells as the creatures went
their way, giving a piece of spider jerky to each one as a parting gift. As the
last ants scuttled off, the girl looked around to see Jus, Polk, and Henry
gazing at her with hooded, unamused eyes.

Wondering at their expressions, Escalla gave a shrug. “So I
like bugs!” The girl waved her hands. “Like my magic bees weren’t a clue?”

Jus walked toward the girl, his tread heavy, and gave a tired
sigh. “We’ve been looking for you for ten minutes.”

“I was just down here. I gassed out a nest of gremlins for
the ants, and they came to say thank you.” Escalla handed a tiny leg bone to
Cinders. “Here you go, pooch! Compliments of the chef.”

Mmm!
The hell hound mumbled the bone in his mouth.
Good gremlin!

Jus sat down beside the girl, unsuccessfully pretending that
he had not been worried sick. “Don’t run off alone.”

“It was ants, man! Ants are hoopy!” The girl paused. “And
bees.”

“Escalla.”

“What?” The girl collected herself. “Anyway, the ants said
there’s some stuff down this corridor to watch out for. Magic using two-leggers
have blocked the next junction. Guess it must be drow.”

“They don’t know for sure?”

Raising one brow, the faerie looked as Jus as though he were
insane. “Hey! They catch ’em and eat ’em. They don’t interrogate the beggars!”

Jus shook his head. “Nice.”

“They’re
ants,
man!” Escalla gave a shrug. “Didn’t you
ever have an ant farm when you were a kid?”

“Why would I want to grow ants?”

“For fun!”

Jus simply looked at her. “Escalla, oversized carnivorous
insects are
not fun.
Oversized carnivorous insects are
alarming.”

“Oh?” Scratching her head, Escalla puzzled over the strange
ways of the world. “Eerie!”

Laying the subject aside for now, Escalla produced the
indicator needle from her pouch. As always, the needle pointed northwest. This
time, however, a faint quiver in the needle made it tickle in Escalla’s hand.
The Justicar watched the motion for a moment and then nodded in slow
satisfaction.

“Stationary target. Ten-mile range.”

“Really?”

“Really.” Peering through a cave mouth into the main
passageway beyond, Jus led the way into the gloom. “Let’s get moving.”