Descent into the Depths of the Earth (36 page)

The drow city was to the north, miles away and unseen, yet
spreading a dark presence and a spreading scent of blood. The Justicar,
apparently unafraid, rested his hand upon his sword and gazed toward the drow
citadel.

“Tell me: Lolth was an ally of a faerie goddess, the Queen of
Wind and Woe?”

“Oh, it’s not a happy story.” Escalla flew up to perch upon
the ranger’s shoulders, resting her elbow upon Cinders’ furry skull. “Ancient
history. A faerie sorceress slew a god and stole his power, then began to carve
an empire through half a dozen planes. The fallout split the faerie races—most
of them for the worse. Pixies and other species are all our degenerate cousins.”
Escalla made a disapproving face. “Anyway, Clan Nightshade trapped her, and it’s
nothing to be all that proud of. We were on her side, then turned coat and
betrayed her. I mean, she was out of her mind. Guess the ancestors figured she
had to go before it went too far.” The girl wasted little time apologizing for
faerie kind; she rarely met a faerie that she liked. “Anyway, she was too tough
to take out in combat, so they tricked her. Turns out there’s a Clan Nightshade
trait for being tricksters or something.”

Jus pulled at his nose. “I hadn’t noticed.”

“Yeah, well, it got the faerie goddess sealed in Pandemonium,
and only Clan Nightshade knows where to find the key.” The faerie shrugged.
“It’s been about, aaah, twenty thousand years since she went in the box. I
imagine the old wench is a tad pissed at us by now.”

Nodding slowly, the Justicar absently stroked his friend’s
feet with one hand. “By killing your fiancé, someone’s trying to delay your
clan’s acceptance back into faerie society.”

Listening intently, Private Henry blinked from one partner to
the other. “Because they have their own plans to release the Faerie Queen of
Wind and Woe?”

Escalla looked at Jus. Jus looked at Escalla, and Polk looked
at no one in particular. The faerie girl blankly nodded in agreement as she ran
the thought through her head. “Sounds like you got it, Hen!”

“What would happen?” Henry shrugged in confusion at his
friends. “If she got out, I mean, would it be bad?”

Escalla looked at Jus then turned around, looking a wee bit
pained. “Um, in her time, this bitch took on whole pantheons—and that was before
she had twenty thousand years to spend getting
really
vindictive.”

“Oh.” Henry blinked, unsure whether he had actually been
given an answer. “Not good?”

“Oh,
definitely
not good!”

Everyone looked northward toward the city of the drow. Thin,
distant screams carried in the air, a moaning sob that made everyone’s hair
stand on end. Escalla wilted, looking north, and was dead certain that she was
not about to enjoy her day.

“All right, so someone is looking to unleash the Faerie Queen
of Wind and Woe. The only way to do that is to seize the Nightshade key.”

Watching the darkness, Jus loosened his sword. “How would an
enemy seize the key?”

“It’s hidden in an energy pocket. Take a real planet buster
of a spell to retrieve it! Even then, the key’s useless until you activate it.
You need Nightshade’s ruling family to do it. The key has two eyes. Each eye
faces a different way. Each eye has to simultaneously see one of
us
—a
true member of the ruling family beckoning it to open. And an illusion spell
instantly sets off an alarm.” The girl shrugged. “Even if one of us was loony
enough to try it, you’d never get a second member of the family to go along.”

“Yes.”The Justicar nodded. “But if you used slowglass, could
you record a visual image and play it back into the eye?”

Escalla froze. Suddenly she looked quite sick and tired.

“Oh great.” Her antennae dropped as the thought struck home
like a soiled knife. “Oh, that’s just frazzin’ great!” Escalla kicked a
toadstool over, sending the fungus cap flying off into the dark. “Slowglass! I
thought they were giving it to me just because it was expensive.” The girl swore
like a teamster.

As a teamster himself, Polk could only blink in surprise at
her technical knowledge and take a pull from his magic whiskey flask. “Girl, now
hold on! Don’t stand there jawin’! It’s fate! Destiny! You were
meant
to
be here!”

The Justicar glowered down at Polk through lowered brows. “Don’t get started
on predestination, Polk!”

“But it has to be destiny!” The teamster opened his hands,
appalled that his chosen heroes could fight against tradition so constantly.
“And what’s predestination got to do with it? Did you make that up of your own
free will?”

“Polk!” Escalla snapped as she paced angrily up and down. “No
philosophy with the Justicar. You’ll burn out your brain!” Escalla paced,
angered, agitated, and seething with energy. She’d been had, and the thought of
being duped had set her aflame. “Let’s say we’ve got a murder plot that’s part
of an attempt to free the faerie goddess. They haven’t won yet. We can still
bust up the works.” Escalla shook her head bitterly. “Breaking into the key’s
hiding place… a spell that size requires a ton of energy. I mean a
huge
amount of energy.” The girl never once took her eyes from the north. “I’m
getting a real bad feeling about what all those captured Keolanders are for.”

After several hours of walking, the darkness ahead finally
began to resolve into a single, massive wall.

A city nearly filled the northern sector of the cavern, a
city of pus-white walls encrusted with strange minerals. The walls glowed like a
corpse glimpsed sinking in the murky depths—a pale shape, cold and unwholesome,
that sent a shudder through the soul.

The city towers rose hundreds of feet into the air. There
were sky bridges and spires, tall spines capped with impaled corpses, and
buildings fashioned into leering demon masks. The walls of the city seemed to
shift and move, as though pulsing with living, corrupted blood.

A city. There would be thousands of drow, any number of them
capable of casting spells to root out an intruder. Escalla stared uneasily.
Beside her, Jus stood and gazed upon the city in cold appraisal.

After a moment, the Justicar looked at the locator needle. It
pointed northeast past the eastern edge of the city and toward the rear cavern
wall. Collecting his friends, he moved off to the east, skirting the city walls
and keeping carefully to the cover of toadstool groves.

Agog, Polk hurried forward and pointed toward the city.
“We’re not goin’ in?” The man seemed disappointed. “I thought we were going in.”

Jus looked down at the irritating little man and scowled.
“Polk, we are not tourists.”

“But it would look good in the chronicle! How can I tell
people we
almost
reached the city of the drow?”

Escalla glowered at Polk then removed the man’s hat and peered inside. “Polk,
I think this thing is restricting the blood supply to your brain.”

“Eh?”

“Nothing.” Escalla replaced the hat and pulled it down tight. “If you’re that
keen on entering the place, be my guest.”

“You’re not going to come?”

“Polk, I’ll kiss a duck before I put my silken little faerie butt inside
those city walls.”

Jus kept the walls in sight, following them for almost a mile
until they finally curved away toward a great pale cliff. Flowing between the
city and the cliff face, there was a black river, its water gleaming like liquid
metal in the hideous light.

Jus ducked into cover and looked carefully at the cliff and
the plateaus above the city. Escalla joined her friend’s side, checked the
locator needle, and pointed up the cliff.

“There. Real close. The needle’s going mad.”

“Then that’s it.” Jus looked at the cliff face on the far side of the river.
“We’ll head to the cliff face, climb it, and bypass the city.”

Listening in, Polk tugged at his collar then stuttered forward in fright.

“So son, ah, did the river just happen to escape you? The black river? The
evil, black, sinister, underground river?”

Shooting a sidewise look at Polk, Jus raised his brows. “Don’t like getting
wet?”

“Son! Big things with teeth live in rivers—especially in
underground
rivers!”

“I thought fighting toothy things was heroic, Polk?”

“Not when it’s in the water!” Polk stamped his foot. “As senior tactical
advisor, I’m putting my foot down.”

Jus looked at the man, feeling tired, then pointed at the forest of
toadstools all around them.

“We’re going to float over on a mushroom cap, Polk. Only an idiot swims
rivers in the underdark.”

“Oh.” Polk sniffed, then decided to take a look at a giant
toadstool. “Well all right them. Good to see my advice is always followed.”

“Right.” Jus wearily waved his party onward. “Come on. We’ll
get out of sight of the city walls.”

This was Jus in his element. He led his companions stealthily
down toward the shore, selected a giant toadstool as a boat, and unsheathed his
sword. Benelux made a glad battle cry and flashed brilliantly with light, only
to see the entire party scowling at her in annoyance.

The sword hurriedly shut off its light and said,
Sorry.

Jus grunted in reply and tipped the toadstool over, severing
the stalk where it joined the cap and making a paddle by carving the stalk with
two long swipes of the hideously sharp sword. He pushed everyone in and paddled
the makeshift raft into the water. The river wasn’t wide and was soon crossed.

Jus left his companions standing and staring in amazement as
he attacked the cliff face with astonishing speed. The man moved like a mountain
goat, lunging upward from crag to crag. When a spider the size of a cat lunged
out of a crevice at him, the ranger pulped it with one single massive blow of
his fist. Watching admiringly from below, Escalla could only shake her head in
love and pride.

“Oh man, he is
so
harsh!”

Finally, a rope came spilling from above. Jus’ magic
rope—taken from another enemy in a far distant place—lengthened and spilled to
the ground. Henry and Escalla looked at one another in agreement, then chased
Polk up the rope. It was no easy task.

At the top of the cliff, Polk fumed and glared, looking at
Escalla in hurt betrayal.

“No need to push! I was going!”

“Yep, and now you’re here.” Escalla hovered where she could
keep an eye on Henry as he climbed. “Hey, Cinders! See anything?”

Cave. Lots drow.
The black hell hound skin gleamed
beneath the dim, hellish lights.
Smell spiders.

“Spiders. Great.” Escalla needlessly gave help to Henry as
the boy crossed the cliff’s edge. “That sounds real fun.”

Puzzled, the Justicar scowled. “I thought you liked bugs?”

“I’m starting to get an overdose.” The faerie made a face in
disgust. “Face it, man, this arachnid diet you’ve had me on just isn’t good for
anybody.”

Cinders’ nose pointed north. Across the flat plateaus, dim
shapes of towers could be seen, each one swimming with eerie lights. Keeping
low, the party sped northward, hugging ripples in the cave floor and moving in
silence.

Beyond the towers, the cavern wall was pierced by a horrible
tunnel mouth—a vast carving of a spider that seemed to suck the cavern roads
into its maw. Escalla looked up at the spider’s mouth, spared a swift glance
across the plateaus, then shuddered as a shiver crossed her spine.

“I guess this must lead to the temple?”

“I guess.”

Jus was lying flat just ahead of Henry and Polk, carefully
scanning the tunnel mouth for the faintest sign of guardians. Escalla sat beside
Jus, ludicrously tiny next to his armored bulk. With her long hair stirring in a
strange breeze from the tunnel, Escalla stared wide eyed into the dark and
swallowed.

“I think Lolth’s in there.”

“I know.”

The faerie wilted, suddenly feeling sick. She leaned her head
against Jus’ shoulder and held onto his arm.

“Jus? I am just
so
sorry I had to drag you here.”

“Sorry?” Jus turned, a strangely puzzled look crossing his
face before he softened with a strange, sad little smile. “Someone has to look
after you.”

“Yeah.” Escalla ruefully gave the man a smile. “Hey, Jus?”

“What?”

“Present for my man.” The girl threw dust over Jus’
shoulders, a stoneskin spell shimmering as it took effect. “Stay safe.”

“Thanks.” Jus loosened his sword in its sheath. “I love you.”

“Yeah, I know.”

The big ranger and tiny faerie clasped hands, squeezed, then
released each other. They rose up and began to move toward the tunnel mouth.

Behind them, a grinning Private Henry nudged Polk as he
watched Escalla and the Justicar. Hefting his crossbow, the boy rose to his
feet, followed his friends, and then idly glanced over to one side.

Sitting in a shadowy crevasse, a drow looked at him. Henry’s
jaw dropped, and the elf’s eyes widened in shock. The drow took one look at the
party and gave a sudden panicked cry. Something big erupted from the shadows in
the cave behind her. Emerging into the meager light, a troll reared from the
darkness and slashed at Escalla with its claws, the creature’s talons striking
sparks as they crashed against her stoneskin spell.