Mortals & Deities (38 page)

Loud clacks and hisses filled the courtyard behind them. Shifting his eyes to Alant, he held his brother’s gaze. “The good news is, it seems we are getting near the end of our journey and mayhaps you will find those answers you seek.” Arderi then flicked his chin in the direction of the noises. “The bad news is, I am not sure we will live long enough to enjoy the good news.” With a bark of a laugh, he turned and held his sword out in front of him. The light from Alant’s glowing hands stretched down into the darkness. Reaching over, he drew his long dagger from its scabbard and took a few more steps down. The sounds of the others following echoed off the wet walls, and he saw that the stairway continued to curve well out of his line of sight. With a last glance over his shoulder, he started his descent.

This is insanity! Yet, if there is anything down here that can help my brother, it had best be ready to deal with me.

Shaking his head, Alant Cor followed his brother down the dark stairwell. The sounds of the jungle and the horde of lizard creatures with their hisses and clacks, were soon swallowed by the silence of the tunnel. A distant plip-plop of water dripping onto stone resonated from somewhere ahead. Klain’s low, throaty growl, like a sudden avalanche of noise, reverberated past him, and Alant turned with the intent to hush the big Kith. The look of outright bestial rage in Klain’s eyes forced him to swallow his reprimand.

One paw on young Charver’s shoulder, Klain waved his other toward the darkness beyond. “This is no place for the living.” His nostrils flexed as if he smelled something putrid, though to Alant, the air simply carried an old and stale odor. “It smells…wrong. We should not go down there.”

With a grunt, Rohann Vimith pushed past Klain and took his son by the arm, pulling him away from the Kith before anyone could stop the man. “Stay outside if you wish,
Master Klain
, and deal with all those monsters. We, however, are heading down. I will not have my son miss meeting a goddess.” As the merchant pulled Charver past Alant, the Kith reached down and gripped the odd-shaped, claw-looking hilt of his sword. If not for the fur covering his paw, Alant knew the beast’s hand would be white-knuckled. Pausing, he looked back toward the opening at the top of the stairs as if contemplating going out and actually fighting all those creatures alone. Without another sound, however, Klain whipped around and strode after the merchant, knocking Alant flat against the wall. The large lion-man descended the stairs like a man on his way to meet the headsman’s axe.

Elith glided down and stood next to Alant. “Do not fear, Mah’Sukai.” She raked her lithe, gray fingers through his short dark hair before giving him one of her feral smiles. “When the time comes, she shall take care of the Kithian.” Releasing him, she glided down into the darkness below.

Alant shook his head and sighed.

Arderi is correct! Even if I find my answers, I am not sure I will survive gaining the knowledge!

Pulling in more energy, Alant increased the light generated between his glowing hands. He did not fully understand how he had done this. The light generated shined with an even, pulsating life of its own. Letting out a long, shuddered breath, he followed the others down into the darkness.

The group had not gone far. Just to the edge of where Alant’s light reached.

Well, everyone except Elith. She must have gone on ahead.

As soon as Alant caught up, the rest started walking again. For the most part, the stairs were surprisingly intact. A few spots had crumbled away, leaving a slippery, pebble-strewn ramp for several paces. And for a time, a small stream of water poured from a hole in one wall and meandered down the center of the stairway until it disappeared through a second hole in the opposite wall. Moss grew thick in spots, especially around the water. They descended without incident, and soon Alant stepped out into a large open room resembling a grand hallway. It was enormous, large enough to hold a two-story building. Beyond the ring of light, it seemed as if the room stretched off both right and left without end. Tall, arched pillars ran down the middle. They rose high into the air, their tops lost in the blackness beyond the reach of his light. Moss grew up the walls and roots penetrated the ceiling, dangling down toward them. Large boulders, smaller rubble and other debris littered the broken tiled floor. On the far side, about two-thirds the way across, a trench ran the length of the room. Alant had no guess what the area had been used for in the past.

Arderi was bent over some rubble, fumbling with something. He stood as Alant approached, a long pipe with a globe at the top held in his hand. “This looks like a torch. Yet, I cannot figure out how it burns.” Turning, he pointed to a spot on the wall about three paces from the floor that had a large gouge in it. “I think it was attached up there. We may find more further along, if you can somehow make them work.”

Still holding the Sight, Alant saw the residual influence of the Essence in the strange, glass-like ball at the end of the pole. How the glass had remained unbroken after such a fall was beyond him. Still, he recognized the pattern. It was close to what he did to produce the glow between his hands. Concentrating on that, he shifted the Spectals inside the globe and was rewarded with a blinding flash. Slamming his eyes shut, he whipped his head away from the light.

Arderi gasped in pain. “Aye! I guess that does it. Now, can you dim it?”

Trying to understand what he saw within the Essence enhanced globe, Alant reached out and adjusted it. After a moment, the
torch
lit the area without blinding all who looked upon it.

Holding his torch high, Arderi took a few paces down the right wall. “There is a smaller tunnel that leads off from here, though it looks badly damaged.” Bending down, he pulled a second of the strange torches from a pile of rubble and held it toward his brother.

Focusing on it, Alant adjusted the Spectals within as he had done with the first. It flared to life, though not as bright. A few minor adjustments and it glowed at the same level as the other. Rohann stumbled over the rubble and took the torch from Arderi, then turned and headed off in the opposite direction.

Shaking his head and sighing at the merchant, Arderi walked further down the large hallway. “It looks as if there is another fork further on.”

“Nix!” Rohann’s voice rang out loud. He stood pointing with the torch he carried deeper down the main pillar-lined hall. “It is this way.”

“How can you know that?” Klain waved his strange, black-veined sword at the man.

The merchant looked as if he meant to throw his torch at the Kith. “Can you not hear her? She calls. It is so sweet. Can you not hear?” His feverish look now filled his eyes with a strange radiance. Without warning, the man’s look spun from bliss to hatred. “I am not used to having my employees question me!”

The beast seemed unaffected as he stalked up to Rohann. “You have no more employees.” His tone was low, almost a growl. “They are all dead between these accursed ruins and their homes in Mocley. And I will not let that happen to Charver.” Placing his free paw upon Charver’s shoulders, the Kith glared at the boy’s father.

Moments passed before Rohann scoffed and waved a hand at Klain. “There is nothing to fear here. We are under the protection of a goddess now!” Turning, the older man walked into the darkness beyond, his torch casting shadows across the rubble and debris.

Arderi crossed to Klain, and glancing at the boy first, he nodded to the Kith. “Protection or no, I say we stick together.” He waved the light he carried at the merchant’s back and lowered his voice. “Keep that man in sight. Whatever he is up to, it will be best if we work to ensure everyone’s safety.”

Klain looked from Charver to the direction Rohann had gone. “Agreed.” The beast reached down and took the boy by the hand. “It may be best, at that.” Kneeling down beside the boy, Klain looked him in his terror-filled eyes. “Stay close to me, Charver. I will not let anything happen to you.”

The boy nodded before glancing past Klain’s shoulder toward Rohann. “There is something wrong with Father, I think.”

Ruffling the boy’s hair, Klain stood. “I am afraid so. Still, it will be all right.” He looked over his shoulder at the fading torchlight. “I will take care of him as well, if I can.”

With the boy in hand, the beast headed across the room with Arderi close behind. It was only then that Alant noticed that Elith was still nowhere to be seen. “Elith?” He kept his voice to little more than a whisper, yet it echoed through the large chamber.

Two silver-metallic eyes appeared from the darkness well away from where the group had stood and floated toward him. Elith’s slim form materialized from the shadows. “She is here.” A strange look had settled over her—well, stranger than Alant was used to seeing. “This place calls to her as well. It is odd, yet she feels like she has been here before.” Without waiting on an answer, the gray-skinned girl turned and slipped back into the darkness.

Alant did not like the tone in Elith’s voice. It sounded distant, distracted. Forcing himself to follow his brother and the others, he shook his head once more.

Is everyone going insane except me?

The Human spoke well. Still, despite his easy manner, Klain smelled a thick undercurrent of fear in Arderi’s scent. The boy was downright terrified, and with good reason. Klain could not understand the change that had befallen Rohann—the man had been acting strange since the day he announced this expedition. Yet, madness had taken hold of him and grown with each day they drew closer to this accursed city.

And now, many of those who followed him here lay rotting in this infernal jungle.

Klain felt no pity for them.

It is the way of things. The weak fall.

They had all been weak. Too weak to have attempted such a journey. Klain’s eyes fell to Charver. The boy was too weak for this as well.

Nix! He has my strength! I will not allow him to pass into the Aftermore while I still hold breath.

Scanning the surrounding darkness, his eyes picked up the strange girl’s silhouette slinking along the far side of the great chamber. He doubted any of the Humans could see her. She glided, a predator at her ease in total darkness. Every so often, her silver eyes—her slit-like pupils so much akin to Klain’s own, yet so different—wandered across the space between them to regard Klain with…What? Not caution. Not exactly hate either. More like an understanding of a confrontation to come. An acceptance of what must be. He hated to admit it, yet he was unsure if he could best her when that time came. She had held her own against the lizard monsters and he begrudgingly admired her skills.

The two boys were a different matter altogether. Arderi, the boy with the lightning fast hands, showed promise. He could not believe he now owed a debt to the Human who had embarrassed him with such ease back in Mocley. Arderi still had much to learn before he could wield that blade of his with any true skill, though Klain liked him. His brother, however...

Power radiates from that man!

As ignorant as Klain felt about life in this
free
existence, he felt sure that Alant held more power than any one man should. The fact that that she-wench followed him like a protective dog reinforced his belief.

The hallway was massive. When they stepped from this large hall into an even more massive domed room, Klain paused. The hall they had traveled continued on out of sight. Rohann, however, did not continue down it. Instead, he crossed to the far side of this new area and entered an arched doorway leading down a different tunnel. Rubble littered this tunnel as well, though it appeared less damaged than the one they left behind. This new tunnel was not small, just small compared to the cavernous expanse of the main hallway. It stretched off in the distance, curving away to the right. High overhead sat a row of egg-shaped windows, a delicate pattern of circles within circles created a design on their bubbled interior, running down the right side of the tunnel. It struck Klain as odd that none of the panes of glass had broken. Most were caked with mud and grime. If they were meant to cast light into the area—and he could not fathom where this light would come from—none passed through them.

The tunnel continued. With its ever-present curve to the right, Klain never saw far enough ahead to be certain they were not walking into danger. Though his ears caught nothing, and the only vibrations the pads on his hindpaws picked up were those of his traveling companions.

“She is here!” Rohann’s excited shout cut through the silence that had fallen on the party. Little Charver jumped when the merchant took off at a run.

“Wait!” The brother, Alant, threw a hand up in frustration. “No one else go running off. Whatever is ahead, it is the source of the Essence draw I am feeling.”

Klain did not need the Human’s warning. His hackles had risen to an unseen danger that clung to this area like stench to rotten meat.

Stepping in front of the group, Alant looked at each in turn, stopping at his brother. “I do not know what awaits us. Keep a good head on your shoulders.”

With a nod to Alant, Arderi turned and gazed deep into Klain’s eyes. “Together?”

Baring his fangs, Klain looked to where Rohann had run. “Aye.” Brushing past Alant, the two headed off down the corridor shoulder to shoulder. It was the first time Klain had allowed anyone to enter a fight by his side. Cutting his eyes to the boy, he marveled over the thought of someone willing to fight beside him. It filled him with an odd sense of pride.

I now owe you two debts, boy.

The others followed, and he knew they would aid him if needed in not only a fight—in protecting Charver as well. Never before had he felt a kinship to another. Now, he felt it with many. Looking over his shoulder, he smiled at Charver who held onto Alant’s side. His gaze slid to Elith who slipped back to the far wall.

Well, mayhaps not with that gray wench. Still, she protects the brothers, which is aid enough.

As the group continued down the ever-curving hallway, their boots echoing in the vast emptiness, Klain felt a palpable change. More vines broke through the ceiling here than elsewhere, and a blue glow emanated from further ahead. A massive pillar splitting a descending stairwell appeared in the center of the hall. The blue light radiated around both sides of the structure.

Whatever doom Rohann has been chasing, we have found it.