“Don’t know how,” said Slobad. “Just sit up and look at me, huh? Like I said … need more time.”
Glissa fought to regain her composure. “Is it friendly?”
“Slobad think so,” said the goblin. “Tell the golem to catch crazy elf, huh? It did. See? You caught, huh?”
“Great. Tell it to get us from here. Now!” The chimney shook as the beast slammed into it again. “Before that thing brings this chimney down on top of us!”
“Golem, walk,” said Slobad, pointing toward the entrance.
The golem walked toward the door, holding Glissa under one arm. Slobad perched on its shoulders. The elf could tell they weren’t all going to fit through the narrow entrance. It had been barely big enough to drag the golem through on its back. Now that she saw the construct standing, she realized it must be tall. When the golem reached the entrance, it thrust an arm out and smashed through the wall. Debris rained down on them, but they were through.
“Golem, run!” cried Slobad.
Glissa strained to look behind her. The huge creature was coming around the chimney. The golem broke into a trot, moving away from the creature, but even with its long legs it couldn’t move through the Dross faster than the twenty-foot-tall beast. The creature gained on them with every stride.
“I need to slow it down,” shouted Glissa. “Tell your golem to put me down.”
“Golem,” called Slobad. “Drop.”
Glissa found herself facedown in the Dross. She pushed herself up onto her hands and knees and looked for the beast then had to dive back into the Dross to avoid its foot. After the monster passed, Glissa stood and followed, pulling out her sword as she ran. She dived forward, hoping to cut into the beast’s tail, but it moved too fast and she couldn’t reach it.
“Help,” screamed Slobad up ahead.
Glissa looked up to see the goblin hanging by his pack on the end of the beast’s hook. The chamber on its back was opening again, and Glissa could do nothing but watch in horror as it dropped Slobad into the chamber.
“No!” she screamed, rushing forward again.
The monster turned at the sound of her voice and moved toward her. Its hook came arcing down at Glissa, but she batted it away with her sword and ran on, trying to get inside its reach. She swung her sword back around at the beast’s tail. The blade cut easily through the creature’s pale skin and sinewy muscles, then stopped halfway through the limb. Glissa tried to pull the sword back out to swing again, but the blade was lodged in the bone and wouldn’t budge.
Glissa looked up and dived from the way just as the hook came slicing at her again. She couldn’t dance around this thing all day, she knew. The Dross limited her movement, and now she had no weapon. Glissa breathed hard, trying to catch her breath and think.
She dived under the Dross again and tried to swim forward as the beast swung the hook at her. The swamp was too thick to swim through. She came up for air right as the hook sliced down at her.
The weapon stopped. Glissa looked up. The golem had caught the beast’s arm in mid-swing. The creature now turned its attention to the larger target. It slapped its hand against the golem. The golem strained to hold on to the beast as it slammed its palm into the metal man’s chest. The golem looked at Glissa, its red eyes seeming to plead for help.
The elf warrior jumped to her feet and ran toward her sword. Instead of trying to pull it out, she jumped into the air and kicked both feet at the hilt, driving the blade through the bone and out the other side, slicing the tail in half. Glissa landed and dived forward again, following her sword as it flew through the air toward the Dross. Behind her, monster teetered, trying to keep its balance.
Glissa grabbed her sword as it went into the Dross and turned to help the golem. It seemed to be struggling with the hand holding the hook, but as Glissa approached, she heard something snap and saw the hook rise up again. Before she could scream, the hook came down hard, slicing through the emaciated abdomen of the giant monster. Pus and entrails exploded from the back of the beast, showering the Dross around Glissa with a putrid rain of gore.
Glissa watched as the beast fell into the muck, cut in half by one swing of its own hook. The giant metal man stood holding the weapon but looking as calm as when Glissa and Slobad had pulled it from the Dross.
“Golem,” Glissa shouted, “pick it up!”
The golem moved forward and lifted the beast’s torso from the Dross and turned it over. Glissa cut into its back beneath the cartilage and pulled open the chamber. A wash of acidic juice poured from the opening, along with Slobad and a number of partially digested bodies.
Slobad was covered in red welts, and the strap on his pack had completely dissolved. Glissa helped the goblin to his feet. “Are you okay?”
Slobad nodded. “Let’s never do that again, huh? Huh?” He looked at his satchel. “Need new strap. Have to cut some rope. Get dagger …”
“Later,” said Glissa. “Let’s make sure you’re okay first.”
Slobad looked up at the severed beast in the golem’s hands. “How did you …?”
Glissa shook her head. “It was your golem,” she said. “He may come in handy after all.”
The golem dropped the half of the beast it was holding at the same moment Glissa saw something dart behind a chimney. “Golem,” she said, pointing, “fetch!”
Slobad started to argue, but Glissa glared at him and he stopped. A few moments later, the golem returned, holding a man by the neck. The man’s eyes and forehead were covered in a metal cowl that made him look more like a nim than a human. Glissa recalled the nim controller had a similar hood, but it had been pushed back at the time. The elf pushed the hood back from his face. His jagged mouth was contorted, and his bony body shook as he dangled in the grasp of the golem.
“Who are you?” she demanded. “What are you doing here?”
“Yert. My name is Yert,” he sputtered, then began to cry. When the sobs turned to wails, Glissa motioned for the golem to drop him. Once he hit the Dross, the man rushed over to the hewn beast and bawled afresh.
“She killed you, my precious,” he wailed.
“Is this your … monster?” asked Glissa.
The man looked up at her. “It’s not a monster,” he said. “It’s … it was a reaper, the most feared enforcer in the Mephidross. Without him, I’m nothing. I’ll never get another reaper. I’m nothing without him. Kill me now.”
“Maybe later,” said Glissa, shaking her head at the pathetic man. “First, you tell me who sent you, then maybe I’ll let you die.”
“Geth,” said the man. He continued to sniffle. Glissa wondered how such a pathetic creature could gain control of a monster. “Geth said, ‘Kill the goblin. Bring me the elf.’ He never said anything about a giant metal man.”
“Who is Geth?” asked Glissa. “What does he want with us?”
It was too late. Yert had begun sobbing uncontrollably again. Glissa would get nothing more from him until he calmed down. Meanwhile he draped himself over the body of the reaper.
Glissa looked at Slobad, who shrugged. She bent down next to the pathetic controller and put her arm around his shoulder.
“Look,” she said, “take us to this Geth, and we’ll help you. We’ll force him to give you another … reaper. Okay? Just tell us why Geth wants us.”
Yert shuddered, then wiped his eyes. He looked over at Glissa. “You would do that for me?”
Glissa nodded. “We’re all just trying to stay alive here, right?” she said. “Following orders. Tell us why Geth wants us and we’ll help you.”
“I can’t tell you,” he said with a sniffle. “I don’t know. Geth gave orders. Controllers don’t question leaders. We follow orders or are banished to Dross. I can take you to him. You can ask him.”
Glissa sighed. “Fine. Where is this Geth?”
“He’s in the Vault of Whispers.”
CHAPTER 10
The dark moon-the “sun” Slobad called Ingle, where souls are stored-hung over the Vault of Whispers like a giant hole in the sky. The top of the huge chimney was shrouded in the ever-present haze of the Mephidross. A viscous purple and green liquid cascaded down one side of the Vault from somewhere within the haze. The rest of the Vault was etched, as if by acid, with a web of interconnecting lines and swirls. The Vault pulsed, much like the chimneys, throughout the etched web-work. Glissa felt a shudder travel down her spine as she stared at the forbidding edifice. She couldn’t help feeling that the Vault was somehow alive.