Krusk stepped behind the creature and plunged his axe into its back. No satisfying shudder vibrated down the handle. There was no vibration because the half-orc, too, had missed the foe by several paces. The barbarian felt that what he was seeing was completely impossible. He heard Alhandra shout something about a displacer beast and realized that all he could do was keep fighting and hope that his axe blade and the monster's obscene body would eventually occupy the same place at the same time.
Krusk sensed Jozan at his side, but wasn't surprised that the cleric's mace only passed through empty air, even when it looked like it could not miss the atrocity. Barbarian, cleric, orc, and paladin all found that their efforts were ineffective. The target was rarely where it appeared to be.
Krusk felt his axe dig solidly into flesh. Wounding the monster won its attention, and the dark creation thrust both tentacles at the barbarian. They raked across his shoulders and chest so that he bled like a criminal at the whipping post. Yet, its attack against Krusk gave Alhandra the opportunity to slice neatly through one of the tentacles.
The dismemberment of the creature's tentacle changed the momentum of the fight. When the creature turned its attention back to Alhandra, both Krusk and Jozan began landing blows more often. Finally, Krusk's blade split the skull of the monster, and it fell forward onto the tip of Alhandra's sword. The monstrosity collapsed to the stone floor and lay still.
Seeing no other foes, both Krusk and Alhandra dropped to the ground in exhaustion. Krusk looked up and saw Jozan breathing heavily and rummaging swiftly through his pack. Yddith watched the tunnel in one direction and Qorrg stood sentinel over the other. The cleric removed two vials and offered one to each of his suffering comrades. Krusk quickly downed the potion and watched his wounds knit together. A moment later Alhandra was back on her feet and speaking.
"I don't suppose we need to wonder if they're expecting us," commented the paladin. "They wouldn't have left two vicious creatures like those in the main corridor if they were only expecting a slave train."
No one debated the issue. They merely readied their weapons and moved on.
23
Calmet finished etching Gruumsh's name in the muddy transformation he had substituted for the damaged stone on the shrine's cornices. When the mud dried, the powerful god's effaced name would be artlessly restored to the inscription admonishing the strong not to spare the weak. He climbed down off the rock on which he stood and no sooner touched the floor than he saw Laud instructing a work crew to roll the boulder out of the sanctuary.
Calmet was glad to be finished with his work on the shrine. The fumes from the pots where the gold ore was melting were horrendous. He nervously watched as Fluhrn, the orc artisan, ladled molten gold into the cracks of the idol to restore the god's misshapen visage. Instinctively, he glanced up to where Laud was pulling rocks and loose sand out of a natural chimney. It was bizarre to see the archprelate standing on nothing. Laud's spell allowed him to walk on thin air, to climb up to the roof of the cavern at a sharp angle as though he walked up a low hill. When Laud first started clearing the chute, some of the larger rocks crashed down into the sanctuary and caused many of the slaves to run away in panic. The guards quickly intercepted the would-be runaways, whipping and beating them until they returned to work in the cavern. They looked up uneasily at Laud from time to time, but eventually focused on the task at hand.
With one, final tug, Laud dislodged the keystone jamming the hole in the ceiling. Rocks and debris tumbled into the chamber and rolled or bounced across the floor. When the cascade stopped, a shaft of light pierced the room, brightly outlined by the dust roiling in the air. Laud screamed at the slaves to haul away the stones and clear the floor.
Laud then moved adjacent to Fluhrn and began the process of casting a powerful spell on the idol itself. As Flurhn sculpted and Laud imbued the idol with his magic, Calmet couldn't help but notice the light from the ceiling creeping ever closer to the statue.
The archprelate finished his chanting. It seemed to Calmet that every cleft, hole, and worn spot on the statue had been made whole. It pulsed with energy.
But it's false, thought Calmet. Laud propped up his god with his own power. It was a powerful spell, too, he concluded, judging from his superior's pallor.
Laud looked at Calmet and grinned. There was no benevolence in his smile.
He pointed to the light easing across the floor of the shrine and said, "Behold, the light that shall fill the Eye of Gruumsh!"
It didn't take a prophecy to realize that Laud would summon the avatar of Gruumsh as soon as the line of light was aligned with the statue's eye.
Slaves still rolled some of the larger boulders away from the shrine and left them at the side of the tunnel to be broken apart into easily removed chunks on another day. Others carried heavy bags of dirt and gravel on their backs. All of the slaves walked nervously around the two hybrid soldiers, monsters placed by Laud in anticipation of the arrival of Jozan and his companions. The whips of the taskmasters gave even the most hesitant slaves a sense of urgency.
Calmet watched Laud's preparations with a mixture of fascination and fright. Fluhrn stirred the molten gold with his ladle. Laud was consumed with lighting candles and placing them atop various runes scribed on the floor. With every hair's breadth the line of light advanced, Laud either lit a candle next to a symbol or cut himself to spill blood into the indentations on the floor.
The preparations for the summoning ritual were disrupted by sounds of yelling and clanging from the tunnel. Five orc guards scuttled around the corner like rats being chased by a cat. The gorgonoid reacted immediately. It gored the first orc and shook the gray corpse off its horn to brace for the next attack. The other monstrosity, created with the head of a krenshar, emitted a heart-pounding scream and pulled the loose folds of skin back from its face. Two of the orcs, on seeing the Horrid visage, immediately turned around and ran back toward whatever was chasing them. Calmet winced as he heard the grunts, crunching, and muffled blows that indicated combat beyond the junction of two tunnels.
Two of the orcs remained in the temple, squared off against the soldier with the krenshar's face. Their valiant efforts to defend themselves didn't even strike the monster's armor. It clawed the face from one screaming orc and grabbed the other's axe. The vicious onslaught against their own mercenary orcs surprised Calmet, but he realized that Laud must have instructed the monstrosities to attack anyone or anything that rounded the corner from the main intersection of tunnels.
"If I'm right," mused the apostate, "my former pupil will start his advanced lessons in a moment."
Calmet was watching the tunnel when the half-orc stepped around the corner ready to swing his greataxe at anything within reach. The first target to present itself was the gorgonoid with its bloodied horn and ferocious appearance. The half-orc's eyes were red with rage. He attacked Laud's hybrid with animal ferocity. The greataxe sliced open the atrocity's scaly belly, but Calmet knew that the gorgonoid could stand up to such punishment for a long time.
Of course, the half-orc wasn't the hero Calmet awaited. The evil priest watched the paladin rush at the soldier with the krenshar head and lunge with her long sword at the fiend. The monster sidestepped nimbly.
Calmet removed a piece of coal from his component pouch and prepared a special surprise to inflict on Jozan as soon as his former pupil came into view. He waited expectantly, but instead of Jozan, he saw a crossbow bolt hammer into the krenshar hybrid's eye. The nightmarish hybrid tottered for a brief moment on its human feet, then dropped soundlessly to lie in a motionless, lifeless heap.