The Justicar angrily grabbed Escalla by the feet and shoved her onto his shoulder where she belonged. "Quiet! And keep your eyes open!"
The locusts had come out of nowhere. The ash, dust, and smoke of the Abyss was thick as fog.
"All of you! Cover your quadrants, stay together, and keep down!"
Everything here was deadly-the soil, even the air. The Justicar kept his senses tuned to the hunt.
"Recca will be through the gate soon. The air here feels like slow poison. We can't afford to lie in wait to ambush him." The Justicar looked over the river, a place dotted with islands that Lolth's vast palace had simply used as stepping stones. "We need to get to Lolth's palace before he can catch up with us."
The sphinx creased her freckled nose. "Will he be fast?"
"He's only got one foot again. The spare parts he takes from other creatures don't seem to re-attach or regenerate."
"Oh." Ever genteel, Enid looked a little ill at the thought. "The ones you cut off when he died?"
"That's them."
Bad skelly-man walk funny! Cinders grinned, the river light chasing blue patterns through his fur. Cinders burn him good next time. Burn off kneecaps! Burn top of head! Make him go crunchy! Burn! Burn! Burn!
"Good boy." Jus seemed wary and disturbed. "But still… his technique is nothing to be trifled with."
"Ha!" Escalla had salvaged a piece of smoked fish from the portable hole. "We did better against him this time!"
"Not well enough." The Justicar walked onward to the river. "He's still kicking."
The poisoned air of the Abyss was hot and thick, and yet the place felt chill. Worst of all was the oppressive sense of evil. The ground seemed hazed with a maze of skeletal shadows-maddening shapes of bones, claws, and screaming skulls that jerked out of view the instant a head turned. The breeze echoed memories of torture and infinite, screaming pain.
By the river grew great putrid yellow trees with writhing vipers for branches. The trees hissed in hunger, forming a dense thicket that blocked the way to the riverbanks. The ground was covered in a jagged, saw-edged grass through which hissing maggots crawled. The party came to a halt and looked at the air above the river. A flock of wheeling shapes-possibly gigantic abyssal bats, possibly something even worse-kept station high above the isles.
Across the river-just barely seen-lay a white gleam of spider-web. The monstrous net rose into the sky, disappearing in a silver haze of magic. Climbing steadily up the web, gleamed a fat brass dot-the spider palace clambering for home.
Escalla looked over the river and pulled thoughtfully at her chin. "What do you think those flying things are?"
"Dangerous." The Justicar looked at the river carefully. "Watch carefully. They keep away from the river."
"Hoopy! They avoid the river. Problem solved!" The faerie was overjoyed. "There's trees here! All we do is make a raft and float across!"
"Escalla, the trees are made out of snakes."
"Well, I can't think of everything!"
Wearily, the Justicar pointed at the dark shapes seething beneath the water. "Escalla, the flying things keep away from the water because something in there has teeth."
"Hmmm." The faerie hovered. "Look, if we make a raft out of living trees, then the snakes and vipers will scare away the things in the river!"
The Justicar gave the girl a scowl. "No rafts."
"All right already!" Escalla thought a moment, then clicked all ten fingers on her hands. "I got it! I got it! All right, here's the plan. We get everyone inside the portable hole, then I change into something that looks amazingly evil, and I fly across the river."
Jus definitely didn't like the plan. "And the flying things?"
"I just avoid 'em! Easy." The girl put an arm about Jus's shoulder, infinitely confident. "Hey, trust me! I'm a faerie!"
Polk and Enid were already laying out the portable hole, as happy as clams. Henry secured his water bottles, crossbow bolts, and sword and then followed his friends inside. Unwilling to leave Escalla unguarded in the Abyss, the Justicar glowered at the brink of the hole. Escalla gave him a kiss, then tried to push him in.
"Come on. We have to get moving!"
Jus watched the girl carefully. "You won't do anything silly?"
"Me? Me! Hey! Get real!"
"If anything wants to fight, you drop onto an island and yell for help."
"What? No fights! No one touches the faerie!"
Sighing, the Justicar looked over the dreadful scenery. Only the fact that there was nothing in the Abyss to touch, borrow, or steal convinced him to go.
"You go fast and stay away from the water. You fly as fast as you can, and don't touch anything!"
"Jus, get in the hole before I pinch you!"
Escalla tipped him in, turned into a horrific, scaly little skull-faced horror, and flapped up into the air. She grabbed the folded hole in one taloned foot, her lich staff in the other, and flew happily away.
Inside the hole, Benelux simply glowed with pride. I do so love a woman with true heroism in her heart!
Jus looked up at the closed entrance to the hole, his big hands working with worry. "She has no idea how dangerous this is."
"Relax, son! Just watch her and learn!" Polk was busily eating a badly smoked fish, which was stinking up the entire portable hole. "See that girl? Now that's true heroism! Bravery in the face of danger. Courage in adversity. Total overconfidence no matter what the odds!"
"Polk, shut up."
"Son, that gal's one of a kind!"
"Yes." The Justicar sat hard against a wall and glared. "Thank the great sky-goat for that!"
Disguised as a flying imp, Escalla whistled tunelessly to herself as she whirred high above the river Lethe. Far below, skeletal serpents coiled and slithered in the water. The air seemed to be made from a pattern of old nightmares-broken, jarred, and clattering like glass. Escalla had never before seen a place so absolutely ugly. Annoyed rather than frightened, she flew gaily between geysers of Lethe-water, the cursed drops missing her by inches. Two large bat-shaped creatures chased her, then veered off in panic as she skimmed a wing's breadth above the churning waters. A bat dived toward her, Escalla kept a sly eye on the water before looping high, and a split second later a hideous rotting sea serpent blasted out of the water. It missed Escalla and clashed its jaws shut upon the bat. Escalla looked back pityingly at the opposition, then gave an expressive little shrug.
"Gods but it's good being me!"
At the far bank, forests of viper trees lunged and uselessly spat venom. Brass locusts launched, screeching for Escalla's blood. Annoyed, the faerie hovered and smashed the locusts apart with a swarm of her golden bees.
"Scram! Go on!"
There was no point dragging the others out of the portable hole. Escalla was clearly right on top of the dangers of the Abyss. Nothing here she couldn't handle. She followed the clear track of Lolth's spider palace straight to a vast cleft in the Abyssal wall. The web arose a thousand feet, then simply disappeared into a silvery mist, clearly interfacing with another plane. Lolth's home plane.
Escalla tucked her frost wand under one arm, held her lich staff and the portable hole in taloned feet, and soared up along a titanic strand of spider web. She slowed near the silver mist and edged into it slowly, blinking her eyes against the sudden change in atmosphere.
The place smelled even worse than the Abyss. Escalla had found a dead tarantula in a box once, and this new reek had something of that eye-watering stench about it. Coughing and wiping her eyes, the faerie fluttered over to a strand of web and looked around.