Just as the nearby trees were host to the life-sapping fungus, the very stones that gave the place their name were scarred with innumerable patches of growth, staining them with gray slime and obscuring the nature runes etched into the stone.
There, too, was Briartan. Elowen gave out a gasp before she could rein in her reaction. Her old friend was staked to one of the Mucklestones, spread-eagle, an iron spike driven through the palms of both hands. His head lolled down on his chest, and he didn’t move. His left leg was missing, amputated. Blood stains spattered his clothing.
“Briartan!” whispered Elowen, unable to stop herself.
Something else moved within the bowl. Many somethings, but from her current position, the recessed nature of the bowl hid what moved, or how many potential foes lurked within.
Defiant, Elowen moved. She motioned for Gunggari to accompany her but didn’t wait to see what action the Oslander would take. All her attention was on Briartan. She needed to see if he was still alive, despite his awful state.
Defying her stealthcraft, she darted up to Briartan. The druid was staked up on an exterior face of one of the great stones. She reached up and felt for a pulse on the man’s neck. A slight staccato beat, but it was, oh, so faint.
“We’ve been spotted,” hissed Gunggari.
She glanced into the bowl. Gunggari was right.
10
Marrec didn’t know what to do with Ash, he realized too late. He debated leaving her back with Ususi, but according to Elowen, the woman was a skilled mage, and they could use her talents against the Blightlord, if indeed Gameliel was found in the center of the Mucklestones. Besides, he doubted Ususi would hang backshe was out for Gameliel’s blood.
Gunggari’s dizheri blared forth, penetrating clearly even through the thick forest growth. It was a call for aid.
Marrec realized the time for worrying was over. He whipped Henri’s lead around the bole of the nearest tree and tied it with a loose knot. He had tied Elowen and Gunggari’s horses on the same bole when they had departed. Ash sat her mount without comment.
He fixed the girl with a look and said, “Ash, stay here. We’ll be back. You’ll be all right.”
The girl looked at him, unconcerned. Now that he had seen her defend herself against the uthraki, some of the anxiety he felt about escorting such a small child into danger was reduced.
Ususi used the time Marrec was dealing with Ash to charge ahead on her horse, heading toward the dizheri’s call. Marrec cursed and spurred his own horse in pursuit.
Marrec goaded his steed to the maximum pace it was willing to take through the forest, which was too fast for his own comfort, he realized only after the fact. Tree trunks and low branches whizzed by, and a jump over a fallen log almost sent him tumbling off the back of the horse. The retreating, snaking hem of Ususi’s cloak led him on, elusively remaining just out of reach.
Then everything opened up, as he flashed past two standing stones, one on either side, and into a wide circle bounded by rune-etched obelisks. At the last, Ususi held back, allowing Marrec to charge into the bowl by himself. He cursed again when he saw what was waiting.
At least ten gangrenous rot fiends occupied the outskirts of the bowl, concentrated to Marrec’s left; he saw they were engaging Gunggari and Elowen. His attention was consumed by the man who stood at the center of the ring at its deepest point It was Gameliel. It had to be.
The blightlord wore dark gray plate armor, etched with runes that appeared to pulsate and overlap each other occasionally, and from which seeped an oily, black fluid. He wore reddish gauntlets and a helm constructed of the same blood-hued alloy. In one hand he seemed to clutch a halberd-shaped hole in the air leading into utter blackness. Marrec felt he could feel cold bleeding from it, even from where he heeled his mount to stand several yards away.
Gameliel the blightlord stood in a puddle of ooze that was constantly being replenished from the blightlord’s armor. Small tendrils of ooze snaked up away from the shallow pool at the bowl’s center, touching many of the flat stones ringing the space.
“You picked the wrong day to visit the Mucklestones, friend,” came the blightlord’s rasping voice.
“You picked…”
Interrupting Marrec’s witty response came Ususi’s strident yell, “You’ve contaminated the portal system You’ve wrecked the stones!”
She had to shout over the clamor of fighting between the volodnis, Elowen, and Gunggari. Marrec could barely see either the elf hunter or the Oslander. Their fight continued outside the ring and was screened from the cleric’s view by the press of rot fiends, but he could hear Gunggari’s dizheri singing to itself as the tattooed soldier swung it against the swarming volodnis.
“On the contrary,” rasped Gameliel. “I haven’t wrecked them. I’ve rerouted the stones for my own use.”
Marrec, in turn, interrupted Ususi, “Call your rot fiends off and yield, or we’ll force you to succumb. If you yield willingly and answer my questions about the goddess Lurue…”
Ususi struck, interrupting his ultimatum. A rush of unintelligible words preceded her throwing motion. A bead of fire arced high over bowl then dropped toward the blightlord. Marrec sighed. He’d have to get his answers the hard way.
Gameliel glanced at the falling bead but was unruffled. Instead, he spewed a foul syllable. Even as Ususi’s fiery bead fell toward him, the oily sludge in which he stood inflated, as if it was a mammoth bubble of swamp gas on the surface of stagnant water. In a mere second it enclosed Gameliel in a transparent dome. The blightlord stood within, gesticulating and chanting.
The bead of fire detonated directly over the blightlord’s head. The rush of heat singed Marrec’s eyebrows, but when the flash faded, Gameliel was unharmed. The bubble was gone, and there was less ooze at the blightlord’s feet than before.
From the back of his horse, Marrec hurled Justlance at the blightlord. It sped unerringly at Gameliel, but a tendril of ooze rose up and flicked the spear away. Instead of the blightlord’s chest, it buried itself in a rune-etched stone, its shaft quivering.
Gameliel finished incanting. A flash of dark green heralded the sudden appearance of a monster no more than arm’s length from Ususi. The powerfully built creature stood taller than Ususi on her mount. She yelled in alarm and shrank back on her saddle. Marrec recognized the monstera forest troll, and a big one at that.
Already Gameliel was chanting away on another spell. Marrec knew a troll so close would challenge Ususi’s ability to defend herself, but the cleric judged that he had to deal with the blightlord first, or they might face even more trolls.
Time to use up another hoarded spell, Marrec decided. The slime shield had to be burned away.
He called on what grace was left to him, channeling a searing beam of divine light, which he hurled as a spear at Gameliel’s heart.
Again the slime bubble rose up and absorbed the blast, or at least part of it. This time, a trickle of light played across the blightlord’s form. Gameliel cried out then cursed as he lost the weave of his spell.
The volodnis continued their attack on Gunggari and Elowen across a quarter span of the Mucklestones bowl, not Marrec’s concern right then.
What about… soot and coal!
His glance back revealed Ususi squirming in the troll’s grasp. With both hands clamped upon the wizard, the troll was attempting to pull her into two pieces.
Justlance appeared once more in Marrec’s hand, and in a single liquid movement he cast the spear directly into the troll’s back.
The green behemoth screamed, dropping Ususi. The woman scuttled backward on all fours, bloodied but still alive. The troll whirled, searching for its attacker an instant before fixing its hungry gaze on Marrec. It charged, its powerful arms raised high, its claws promising a lethal rain. Marrec spurred his horse, tried to get it to sidestep the charging monster, but his mount reared in a sudden panic, throwing the cleric to the ground. The fall jolted the wind from him.