"Very funny." The Justicar lay flat, waited for a swarm of bat-winged severed heads to fly over the river, then slithered belly first into the mud of a flooded field. "Eyes open. Let's go."
From inside the portable hole, voices drifted up-Escalla scolding Polk for the twentieth time that day.
"Polk! What are you doing?"
"Updating the chronicles." The badger sounded positively overjoyed. "We're going to the Abyss! The pit of evil itself! Best place a hero could ever hope to carry the blade of the just and true! It's time to put in some illustrations!"
"You're a very sick person, Polk. You know that, don't you?"
Cinders wagged his tail. Jus shook his head and began the careful business of penetrating the defenses of hell.
"Out! Quiet and quick. Hide over to the left."
Wet and lying flat in the wreck of a house, Jus carefully helped his friends out of the portable hole. They were inside the ruins of Keggle Bend where giant spiders had strung webs hung with corpses. A gargoyle lay dead on the ground-characteristically sliced from head to groin with a single blow of Jus's sword. Enid flowed out of the portable hole like a gigantic panther and hid herself, brown fur and freckles invisible in the gloom. Henry took one brief look from the edge of the hole, then slid into position with his crossbow covering the ruins. Polk and Escalla emerged, and Jus folded up the hole and put it in his pouch-shutting out the stench of dried fish from within.
Polk trundled over to the lip of the ruined house, his cap set at a jaunty angle above his eye. "Son! Where are we? Where's the demons?"
"They're leaving. There's no garrison." The Justicar motioned toward the bloodstained towers of the citadel. The back of Lolth's spider palace loomed above the battlements. "They're using the populace for food and moving on. The front door to the spider palace is guarded, but there are portholes in some of the sides. If we can get on top, we can find a way in."
Henry kept careful watch over the ruins. "Won't they see us from the air?"
"Might. But their fliers have all gone. They're abandoning this site and marching north."
With a shrug, Escalla pulled off her gloves. "Well, let's take a peek. Me first. You guys keep hidden."
Skirt, leggings and halter followed, Escalla kicking her clothes into Jus's hands. Henry blushed as he stared rigidly off at the ruins, and Escalla kissed him on the ear.
"Wish me luck, Hen." Escalla cracked her knuckles and prepared to change shape. "Were the tanar'ri imps or quasits? I forget. Wait! Wait! It's quasits! Right! Got it!"
There was a brief pop, and Escalla disappeared. In her place stood a hideous little demon-horned, clawed, with a sting on its tail and a cookie-cutter mouth filled with teeth. Escalla's distorted voice came from the beast as it skittered off into the rubble.
"Back in ten!"
Enid watched her best friend go, and arched her brow. "Eerie."
Escalla the quasit kept a hard grip on her frost wand. It was too late now to ask her to leave it behind. The hideous little demon shape hopped up onto the rocks, then disappeared.
Long, anxious minutes passed. Beyond the lingering sound of screams, a strange rustling sound could be heard. It was the sound of a vast multitude of creatures on the march-an army moving slowly away. The wind blew through the ruined city, making the rubble shift and hiss. Jus kept Benelux in his hand, and Cinders's red eyes scanned the ruins. Henry kept watch. All seemed quiet.
A giant spider came out of the ruins, dragging a corpse wrapped in silk behind it. It moved awkwardly, finding the burden heavy. As it worked, a quasit came bounding out of a window. The little demon ran fearlessly beneath the spider's legs. Annoyed, the huge black widow hissed but left the quasit alone. The spider disappeared around a corner as the quasit slipped into the shadows and sat happily beside the Justicar.
There was a pop, and the quasit now wore Escalla's face.
"Right! They're loading that spider palace up with loot. Gold and stuff. They're getting ready to move out." Escalla lashed her little demon tail. "I think the west tower of the citadel might give us a way up onto the spider palace roof. From there we can slip across without being seen." The girl stood, took a peek out of cover, then waved the others on. "Coast is clear! Let's go!"
She changed her head back into quasit shape. The Justicar moved like a vast, silent bear as he followed her. Next came Enid, with Polk running at her heel. Henry spied a coal lump in the ruins, pocketed it for Cinders, then scuttled awkwardly backward, covering the rear with his crossbow.
The entire town lay empty. The gates were smashed in, and the few small towers crumbled from blows made with demonic force. Bloodstains splashed the walls in dry brown crusts, and the courtyards reeked of death. But there were no bodies-no slaughtered guards, no dead ladies-in-waiting. Lolth's minions had scoured the city clean, taking every corpse for the value of its meat. Escalla the quasit waited in the shattered gateway as her comrades caught up. She peeked about a corner, scampered across a dangerous patch of open ground, and waved her friends to follow. Jus crossed at a dead run, disappearing into darkness as he dived behind a door. With a nervous glance at the walls, the others followed swiftly and slipped into the empty castle halls.
They descended into a kitchen that had been thrown all awry. Pots and pans were crushed and buckled. A charred, twisted human skeleton lay over the cooking range where it had burned. Enid leaped over the party and landed at the opposite door, where she stood peering and thrashing her tail.
"I hear singing!"
A strange music drifted through the air-joyous, carefree, the sound of a girl without a care in the world. The music was unearthly, and strangely unsettling. Her fur standing on end, Enid nosed open a door and peered into a long, dark corridor.
The singing was louder. Enid edged forward, her nose sniffing. Hurrying across the kitchen, the Justicar caught up with the sphinx. "Enid, careful!" he whispered.
There was a hissing squeal as a giant black widow spider launched itself out of the corridor straight at Enid's face. Jus lunged, but Enid merely stamped her foot. Her big paw smashed the spider to the pavement, swiftly followed by another spider clinging to the wall. She trod the monsters as she walked into the corridor.
"It's only spiders. Come on!"
Jus looked down at the squashed spiders, met Escalla's gaze, and shrugged. He followed behind Enid as the big sphinx padded down the hall toward a glimmer of light.
The singing grew louder, more gay, and beautiful. Enid settled down on her haunches beside a shattered wall, peering curiously out into the light.
"Oh! Look here!"
Escalla avoided squished spider, scampered over to Enid's side, and joined in the view.
A courtyard spread itself under the sky. The walls were lined with flayed human corpses that had been nailed to the stones so that the impaled bodies formed a grisly colonnade. Once-graceful flowering trees now had skulls hanging from their branches like fruit. A portable stove seemed to be cooking toasted cheese, and the broad fountain, beautiful with mosaics, now brimmed with milk and almond oil. Sitting happily in the bath was a drow woman of stunning beauty. In the pool her silver hair floated all about her sheer black skin. Her eyes were quicksilver fire, and an aura of darkness shimmered from her skin. The drow beauty sang as she lolled in perfect happiness. She sang like a choir of angels. Behind her, shambling, imbecilic slaves milked a cage of butterflies to help top up the woman's bath.
Standing at the edge of the bath and looking extremely annoyed was a strange tanar'ri female. A thin, sharp featured woman with bobbed black hair with a tart expression on her face, she was consulting a notebook and shooting meaningful glances at a big hourglass propped beside the bath.