"Silence," hissed Yu Wei. "We've reached the bottom."
Around them long spires of rock now appeared at the edge of their bubble of light, gleaming wetly in the darkness and growing thicker and wider as they descended toward the giant stalagmites' unseen bases. Jack had the curious fear that the platform would settle on one of the rocky points and upend itself, but the makers of the ancient mechanism were not so careless; the platform came to rest on a square of polished granite with a soft grating sound. Jack hopped to the floor of the chamber and helped Illyth down; the others dismounted carefully, searching for any signs of danger.
"The gargoyles did not pursue us," Jelan said, looking up into the darkness. The Warlord frowned in concern. "They have wings. Why didn't they chase us down here?"
"Perhaps they have not yet broken through Yu Wei's wall," Amarana, the Shar priestess, said.
"Or perhaps they have no wish to be where we are now," Jack muttered. "It could be that they feared to follow you into the chasm."
"A cheerful thought," said Jelan. She shook herself and looked around the stone forest surrounding them. Great needles of stone rose into the darkness, as tall as the turrets of a castle. "Which way now?"
"According to my divinations, we should seek a lake of darkness," Yu Wei said. "We will find the wild mythal there." He consulted a small, dark orb held in his left hand and studied it for a moment. Then he pointed off into the darkness. "That way."
"Hathmar, you lead," said Jelan. "Amarana, would you join him? Your dark lady favors you with sight in places such as this. Yu Wei, Kel Kelek, follow them. Jack, you and I will stay close to Illyth. Tenghar, you and the rest cover the rear. And make sure you keep your eyes open."
With the drow and the Shar priestess in the lead and half a dozen swordsmen guarding their backs, they set off between the huge stalagmites, winding across an uneven floor of natural rock that surrounded the dwarven platform at the foot of the long descent. Jack offered Illyth an arm to steady herself and picked his way carefully across the damp stone. He could feel something now, even without closing his eyes or concentrating on it, a subtle tide that seemed to tug on his soul. It almost felt as if he were caught in an undertow, the race of water receding away from the shore to gather for a tremendous wave still unseen. And the power of the magic streaming past him resonated, recharged him, so that he felt full of power and skill and confidence. With every step he could sense his magical strength replenishing itself, a sensation he never experienced on the surface.
"I think we're getting close," he told Illyth. "I can feel something ahead of us, a very strong magic indeed. I don't think I've ever held this much power."
"The lake," called Blademark from the front, softly.
A moment later they all reached the shore. The water was oily and blacker than night, a great dark expanse whose farther shores might have been a hundred yards away or a hundred miles. Here, at least, the shore seemed to indicate a sizable body of water. Small waves lapped at the gravel strand, and a band of damp stones above the waterline hinted at a small tidal range. Left and right the shore was bare, marked only by boulder falls and rare pinnaclelike stalagmites rising up into the darkness.
"Are we supposed to swim from this point forward?" Jack asked.
"If necessary, I can arrange it," Yu Wei retorted. "We will do what must be done."
"Quiet," said Jelan. "Look." She pointed toward the center of the black lake. Out over the water, hundreds of yards beyond the limit of their vision, a green aurora danced. Emerald energy twisted in an ever-changing spiral, weird and ethereal. Jack felt each undulation as a tremor in his bones. "The wild mythal. That must be where it lies." She smiled and started forward-
— only to be abruptly lassoed by a slimy, brown tendril from the darkness to their right. Two more shot out, tangling her arms and wrapping several times around the Warlord's torso.
"Look out!" she cried. "Ropers!"
In the murk and shadows of a large fallen boulder, three dark, pulsing things shifted and gaped. Each looked like a stalagmite that had suddenly sprouted six long, thin tentacles. Jack caught a quick glimpse of bright teeth in their huge maws, and then more tentacles shot out, looping around Yu Wei, Amarana, and Jelan again.
Tenghar shouted a battle cry and leaped forward to hew at the tendrils binding the Warlord, only to be caught in turn by four more tendrils. He had the curious misfortune of being lassoed by two of the creatures at the same time, and between them the monsters were far stronger than him. The Tuigan was hauled off his feet and dragged toward the waiting fangs.
"Get off me!" he shrieked, flailing ineffectually with his tulwar.
His cries rose to a fevered pitch as he was dragged within reach of the ropers' maws. Something crunched in the darkness, and Tenghar abruptly stopped screaming.
"Merciful Oghma!" Illyth choked. "Those monsters-"
"I know," said Jack.
He looked around quickly. Jelan's warriors rushed forward to hack at the monsters. Yu Wei burned away one tendril, but two more seized him. Amarana fought to invoke her dark powers, but whipping tendrils spoiled her magic. The Warlord fought silently to keep from being dragged closer. She suddenly dropped flat and braced her feet against a ridge of rock, wedging herself in place. Calmly she released her sword and drew a dagger to begin sawing at the tendrils binding her.
"Kel Kelek! Hathmar! Aid Yu Wei and Amarana! The rest of you, slay those things!"
Jack saw his opportunity. Every one of the Warlord's followers was engaged by the ropers. He took Illyth's hand and quickly worked the spell of shadow-jumping, moving several hundred yards into the darkness and broken rock of the cavern floor. One moment they stood in a circle of yellow light, caught in the middle of a furious battle against monstrous predators; the next, he and Illyth stood alone in the darkness, listening to the sounds of a far-off battle.
Illyth recoiled in panic and cried out. Jack quickly caught her hand again.
"Shhhh," he said quietly. "We're safe. I took the opportunity of the ropers' attack to abandon the Warlord's expedition."
The girl panted in the darkness nearby. Her breathing slowed after a dozen heartbeats, and her hand stopped shaking. "I understand," she whispered back. "Jack, they'll come for us as soon as they finish with those-things."
"They might," he admitted, "but we will be hard to find. And it may be that Jelan has no further use for us and does not wish to spend the time tracking us down."
Illyth fell silent for a moment. Her hand gripped his tightly. "Jack," she said, "Could you please make some light? I don't like this."
"It's not wise, Illyth. Even a glimmer might be seen from a long way, and remaining inconspicuous is our best defense at the moment."
"I know, but… what if something like those ropers, or worse, is waiting out here in the darkness?"
Jack shivered despite himself. "Very unlikely," he lied. He looked around, and noted a faint glow of green in the distance. "Look, over there. I suspect that the mythal lies in that direction, and the lakeshore as well. We will head in that direction and then backtrack toward the stone platform from there. I'll have you out of here in an hour or two, and you'll have an adventure of your very own to write about in your journals."
"Are we going to abandon the wild mythal to the Warlord?"
"Illyth, what else are we supposed to do? She's leading a dozen extremely skillful and ruthless mercenaries, including a very powerful mage and a couple of top rank swordsmen. And Jelan herself is quite competent, too. There's only the two of us. Our best move is to get out of the way and hope that she doesn't find what she's looking for down here."