The Grim Wanderer (58 page)

The other companions saw the sense in this, and began down the passage. Drual took up the front position again, with Baek and Jvarna by his sides, but now Forgrun, Ragad and Balthus watched Drual’s movements as carefully as they searched around and looked back up the passage. Of all of them, Ragad was the most anxious. The uncomfortable possibility of a traitor had him unsettled.

‘What happened?’ Hirandar asked, as Logan ran his fingers along the bottom of the stone-slab door.

‘Someone must have triggered a switch,’ Logan handed their lantern to Taem. ‘Can you move it?’

‘It’s too heavy to lift using air magic,’ Hirandar said. ‘It’s solid rock. Fire will do nothing, and raw power may not be able to destroy it. I could try breaking it with earth magic, but green magic is wild and unpredictable. My attempts could bring down the entire pyramid on our heads.’

Taem was still heedful of back up the passage, whilst his guardians examined the fallen stone that barred their way.

‘We must go back and try a different route,’ Logan led back towards the chamber with three doors.

The trio went back and took the middle passage that Balthus had advocated. This tunnel sloped downwards and was crossed with other passages, but they kept going straight. They went straight so it was easier to work out where they had gone, and would be easier to retrace their steps. The three of them stayed close together. Taem watched the rear, and Logan led at the front, whilst Hirandar lit up the deserted passage with a floating ball of magic light. As they travelled the spooky passages, Hirandar attached Power Stones to walls at the prominent crossroads of their route. Each time she channelled the smallest strand of fire and air magic into the stones, leaving them with a faint yellow glow.

Taem heard a knock faraway in the dark, and his pulse raced.

‘That was a long way in front of us,’ Logan whispered, as he gestured for Hirandar and Taem to stay close. ‘Be wary.’

The three companions walked on, and Taem heard a bang far back in the tunnel behind them. Taem spun. His hand shot to his sword hilt above his left shoulder. Logan and Hirandar froze. Hirandar’s magic orb lit up the passage. Taem strained in the darkness, beyond the light. The sound of his own pounding heartbeat seemed deafening in the silence. Taem readied his sword to lash out. But nothing came. Nothing stirred in the dark. Taem’s Sodan senses told him dead souls were close, and they were full of malice.

Logan glanced at Taem, and whispered to Hirandar, ‘We can feel the walking dead approach. I sense they know we are here, and they want to kill us.’

‘Light protect us!’ Hirandar stared into the darkness. ‘The wickedness of this place has made the dead evil. And now they want our souls as well. Best not let them catch us,’ Hirandar looked to Logan.

‘Follow me,’ Logan stalked on down the corridor, every footstep heedful and vigilant. Hirandar and Taem kept close behind, thankful the dauntless Sodan Master was leading them.

Taem’s fear grew with every minute that passed. Logan had them moving fast now. Taem stiffened as he heard shuffling, as if a broom was sweeping the kitchen floor. He sensed the lost souls trapped in this place had become agitated. A tapping echoed through the darkness, as if a workman were chiselling away. The noises made the three companions glance around the tunnels, alarmed, not sure where the sounds were coming from. Taem felt a shadow of terror swamp his heart. His trembling hand clasped Estellarum’s hilt.

The ominous sounds got closer and louder, and behind them as well as down the side passages. Taem’s nerves balanced on a knife edge. He was filled with the urge to run. They had to get out! Taem could hear low, mindless groans with the sounds of movement now, as a great many things lurched in the shadows.

‘We’re going the wrong way!’ Balthus moaned, for what seemed the thousandth time, as the group of six adventurers traipsed on through the empty passages.

‘We don’t know that,’ Jvarna said through gritted teeth. The fierce Shacainian was growing more exasperated with the King of Grantle and his ceaseless whining.

‘This passage has to lead somewhere,’ Baek said dubiously.

‘We mus’ do be a mile from ye pyramid by now,’ Forgrun muttered.

Ragad was stone faced, his gaze darting all over the passageway, but his thoughts he kept to himself.

‘Maybe we should take one of the side tunnels,’ Drual said reluctantly. ‘But I’m sure this was the way to the treasure chamber when–’

All of a sudden, the passage floor jolted.

‘What’s going on?’ Jvarna yelled, as she planted her feet and her spear butt.

‘It be a trap!’ Forgrun hollered.

From a level tilt, the juddering floor realigned to form an angled slide that fell away into an opened pit, further down the passage.

‘We don’t want to go down there!’ Drual searched for handholds on the smooth passage walls.

The six companions struggled to retain their balance, swaying one way then the other. The rumble of grinding stone drowned out the warriors’ cries. The lurching floor shook the whole corridor, and the adventurers all lost their footing and plummeted down the slippery slope into the hole below, screaming as they went.

The slide did not stop there. It continued going down and the falling companions gained speed. Round and round, over and under they tumbled. Baek feared the terrifying ride would never end. He heard the horrified shrieks of his companions magnified in the narrow tunnel. In front of him, Baek could hear Forgrun bellowing, and see the glow of the Rhungar’s lantern-light, as they all zoomed down the smooth slide. The darkened walls rocketed past the slipping adventurers. Baek did not know which way was up. He began to fear what could be at the end of this slide. Panic overwhelmed Baek when he thought the shoot could end in a spiked pit trap, or a vat of ancient acid. The slide wound off in different directions so the warriors were swirled and turned so many times that they were disorientated, but still the tunnel slid on and down.

The six adventurers were flung out the slide, spinning onto a flat stone floor, skidding into a heap, lying against each other. Forgrun had managed to protect the lantern as he fell, cradling it in his massive arms, but the other torches had been lost. As the dazed adventurers regained their feet, Baek saw the chamber they had arrived in was many levels tall and was square. In fact, Baek thought through his dizzy head, the chamber was a perfect cube. Relief flooded in when he realised they had not fallen into a fatal trap. He saw there were tunnels leading off this chamber at ground level, as well as stone stairs that climbed up to passages on the levels above. Every way Baek looked there were more tunnels, or stairs ascending up to the level above or leading down below. They were right in the middle of a three-dimensional maze.

‘Brilliant,’ Balthus grunted, as the party shook themselves off, and their dizzy heads began to steady.

‘Which passage do we be takin’?’ Forgrun glanced around the chamber, at all the different passages and stairways.

All the adventurers looked around the underground chamber, searching for some clue. They all heard worrying noises stirring in the countless dark passages.

‘What is that?’ Baek said nervously, as the shuffling approached.

The anxious companions huddled close to each other, around their one lantern, facing out to the dark chamber on all sides. The menacing sounds grew louder and more numerous. They were surrounded!

‘
What – by the Light – is coming
?’ Jvarna trembled.

‘We need to get out of here,’ Drual said fearfully.

A sinister moaning reverberated through the deep, and was echoed a hundred times in the tunnels. The warriors grabbed their weapons. The groaning became louder still, as the apprehensive adventurers waited in the middle of the chamber. A great many things approached from the dark passages, from all directions. Baek shirked back, quaking in terror, as he watched skeletons came stumbling out of the passages.

The skeletons’ hollow eye sockets and rictus snarl gave them a miserable expression, which transformed into hatred at the sight of the living defilers. Baek felt Jvarna quivering with sheer dread, he could see the terror in Drual’s eyes, and even the unflappable Ragad seemed fearful. Forgrun had a determined look on his face though, and Baek was glad the powerful Rhungar fighter was there with him. Balthus was grinning! If anyone could find humour in this predicament, he had to be a madman.

‘The Light protect us!’ Baek cried out, as the skeletons leered at him with wicked intent. ‘There is no escape!’

Being faced with this macabre horde was a spine-chilling prospect for even these stout warriors. The adventurers’ eyes were frozen wide open, and their faces drained of colour. The Aborle could see a lot of the skeletons carried ancient, rusty weapons, and the rare one wore an archaic piece of armour, but most were simply the bare animated bones of long dead people. How these skeletons could stand with nothing visible holding their bones up was a frightening mystery. Somehow, they growled and moaned, despite having no remnant of living tissue. And those black orbits – where eyes once were – could see the adventurers. When those black pits fixed on the living people, Baek and his friends shuddered as the skeletons’ growls became angry.

Baek realised that, in seconds, the chamber would be full of the roused skeletons.

‘This way!’ Forgrun bellowed, as the skeletons shuffled toward the group.

The Rhungar’s deafening roar shocked the quaking companions into action. Forgrun sprinted to the bottom of some steps. The courageous Rhungar bounded up the first few steps, swinging his great axe. Forgrun threw himself into battling the skeletons coming down the stairway. The steps were wide enough for two, and Balthus soon joined Forgrun as they smashed through the undead warriors, or threw them off either side of the steps. As the last companions made it to the bottom of the steps, the skeletons had flooded the chamber and were scrambling to get the adventurers. Jvarna and Ragad just made it onto the bottom of the staircase, and swivelled to smite down any undead that came close. Massive swings of the Croma’s huge warhammer destroyed four skeletons at a time.

The skeletons may have been fear-inspiring to look upon, but the warriors soon found they were slow moving. When the companions’ weapons crashed into the old bones, they lost any sign of life, and their broken bodies slumped to the floor. Even Baek’s longbow and Drual’s crossbow could destroy whatever essence held these living dead upright, as they shot off the staircase to the ambling skeletons below. Sometimes, Baek saw a bolt or arrow pass right through where flesh would have once been, not touching any bone, but even this was enough to destroy whatever dark force held the bones together. Nevertheless, the undead may have been slow but they were relentless. Baek knew the skeletons could overwhelm the adventurers if they got surrounded.

Forgrun and Balthus surged up the stairs, cracking skulls or smashing through rib cages, fighting to get out of the overrun chamber. The furious Rhungari axe and the knightly longsword scythed through the enemy with ease. Jvarna and Ragad – turned to guard the lower steps – used wide swings of their weapons to smack back any skeletons that tried to ascend the stone steps. Baek loosed his bow at undead climbing up the sides of the staircase. The Aborle could see Forgrun and Balthus had pushed to the top of the stairs, and entered the passageway, but up on the higher level there were yet more
skeletons to kill.

‘Go and help them clear the passage!’ Baek yelled at Drual, as he turned to support Ragad and Jvarna. The Aborle gulped hard as he took in the horrific vision below. The skeletons had now filled the cubed chamber, numbering hundreds. Baek saw the nightmare of a writhing pit of empty skulls, glowering up from the shadows.

‘We do have been fought our way free!’ Forgrun shouted back to the other adventurers.

‘Time to move!’ Baek cried to Jvarna and Ragad, who now stood at the top of the stairs, barring the oncoming undead horde.

The rearguard spun and hurtled down the cleared tunnel. Charging for Forgrun’s lantern, they caught up to the other adventurers, who joined them in sprinting away. The six of them fled down the passage at full pelt, dashing past more of the undead in side passages. The companions reared back in terror, as the lantern light revealed yet more snarling skeletons off to the side. But the warriors just ran on past. If the skeletons barred their way in front, the companions just found a new tunnel to turn into.

Forgrun pulled back, Baek went crashing into the Rhungar’s solid back, and everyone else piled into him. Up ahead, the passage was blocked by shadowy undead coming for them. Twisting round, Baek knew the tunnel behind was filled with shambling silhouettes.

‘We do go in ’ere!’ Forgrun yelled. The Rhungar had found a room. ‘It be lookin’ like we can be barrin’ ye door, if we be gettin’ it ter come down!’

The adventurers rushed inside the empty chamber – the size of an inn’s common room – as Forgrun struggled with the door mechanism.

‘
It be jammed!’
Forgrun pulled on the lever by the side of the door.

‘
Hurry
!’ Baek hollered, for the living dead were closing in down both sides of the dark passage.

‘It do nay budge!’ The Rhungar howled, as he tried with all his might to get the door mechanism working.