“Adventurers, come one, come all,
And enter the accursed halls.
Find the weapons, seek the prize.
The weak will rot-the strong survive.
The most worthy will attain the bliss
Of union with Keraptis.”
Escalla slumped.
“Oh, great.” The girl gave a dire look at the inscription.“Nothing I like more than being used as a test subject by a guy who thinksrhyming couplets are actually fashionable.” The girl gave an irritated sigh.“I’m not sure I can deal with this sort of stuff without a good eight hours ofbeauty sleep.”
The Justicar looked at the setting sun, gazed out across the plain, then turned his gaze to the damp, tired adventurers. After a long, silent stare at the other party members one by one, he jerked his chin toward the tangled stones down the road.
“She’s right. Rest. Eat. Sleep.” The man turned away from thetunnel. “We’ll make a better job of it tomorrow.”
Despite resenting his orders, the group walked a hundred yards back down the road. Amidst the pieces of a fallen statue of Keraptis, they made camp and shielded their miserable little stove from view.
Polk’s sensibilities were offended by the overall mood ofsuspicion and gloom. The night before a great adventure was supposed to be a time for tales and splendor. The man ground jerky between two helmets and cooked up a surprisingly good stew, even managing to make a fresh, tasty flatbread upon a stone.
The Justicar ate, raised an eyebrow at the man, and slowly put his meal down. After a moment, he managed to make his sense of natural justice rise to the top.
“Polk, you did well.” The Justicar fought a grumble back downwhere it belonged. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” Polk sniffed and fixed a dour gaze upon theJusticar. “So are you ready, son? Have you prayed to your patron gods to givestrength to your avenging sword? Have you written a poem to a lady love? Have you readied parchment to make a map?”
“No.”
Annoyed by Jus’ total lack of proper sentiment, Polk wentback to improving the morale of the adventurers. Smiling a nasty little smile, the Justicar rubbed his hands, pleased to be irritating one of the irritants at last.
A guard roster was set, and the party bedded down. Sleeping beneath Cinders’ watchful gaze, Escalla and Jus wedged themselves into therocks and tried to get some sleep.
After three solid hours of tossing and turning, Escalla grumpily sat up. With her hair hanging all over the place and her mouth tasting like an old bird’s nest, she scratched herself in places where the sun seldomshone and looked blearily off into the dark.
The damned volcano geyser was drizzling mist all over the campsite yet again. Holding Jus’ backpack above her as a roof, the faeriestraightened a kink out of one wing and for the eleven thousandth time wished that she had a faerie cake for a little midnight snack.
Above her, Cinders’ ears flicked high.
Movement.
“What?” Escalla jumped up, clutching a blanket to her skin.“Where?”
Path.
Hunched shapes skulked through the rocks, moving faster and faster as they slipped away from the campsite and headed toward the sighing cave. The clank and rattle of armor echoed above the sinister breath of steam.
Staring, Escalla hardly dared to move. Beside her, Jus levered himself up, scratching nails across the velvet stubble of his skull.
“Yep. There they go.”
“What?” Escalla looked frantically about the camp, thensaw that half the bedding piles lay empty. “That’s some of the others?”
“Yup.”
“Quick! We have to get in there after them!” The faeriedropped her blanket and hopped up and down on one foot drawing a legging up her thigh. “Jus! They’re getting away!”
The Justicar gave an uncaring shrug.
“And?”
“And come on!” Escalla whined like a frantic littlechild. “Ju~us, they’ll steal all our stuff!”
The Justicar sighed and rearranged his blankets.
“They always planned on ditching us. The Bleredd priest wentan hour ago. The Geshtai only just found out.” The big man gave a yawn filledwith teeth. “Each priest wants to steal both the trident and the hammer.”
Still half-clad, Escalla sped over to Jus and furiously grabbed him by his nipple hairs.
“Jus! Jus, are you listening to me? They are going tosteal all the gold!”
“We have walked over four hundred miles-at least the lasthundred of it through enemy territory to get here.” The ranger regarded the tinyfaerie through hooded eyes. “Just who were you planning on convincing tocarry a hundredweight of gold coin all the way back home for you?”
Escalla folded her arms and hovered in midair.
“Look, we all have our little dreams. In your case, you wanta world of justice for all.” The faerie sulked and flicked long blonde hair intothe wind. “In my case, I just want to roll buck naked on silk sheets big enoughto drape a whale!”
Cinders eagerly began to flap his tail. Faerie on silk! Faerie on silk!
“Cinders, you’re not helping!” The Justicar shifted hissword. “Escalla, we came here for the librarian. And wherever he is, thenthat’s where your gold is going to be. I’ll get some for you when we’ve killedthe bastard.”
The faerie’s eyes sparkled. “Really true?”
“Really true, just for you. Now get some sleep, and we’ll seewho stayed here in the morning.”
Considerably happier, Escalla jumped back into her bed. The sulphur mists smelled fresh and bracing, and the hiss of steam gave the mountainside a magnificent eldritch power. The faerie disappeared into her shelter, turned around and around like a dog treading a bed, and then wriggled down into the blankets. With a last careful glance about the camp, Jus patted Cinders, popped a coal into the hell hounds mouth, and lay back down.
The silence stretched for ten minutes, and then Escalla’smuffled voice rose into the air.
“Hey, Jus?”
“Yes.”
“How do we know they won’t solve the maze, kill thelibrarian, and get the weapons, treasure and all?”
The Justicar lifted his head and replied, “This dungeon wasdesigned to slaughter entire parties. How far do you think only a couple of people are going to get?”
“Oh, yeah. Yeah, that’s right!”
Escalla settled herself back down. She lay still for almost a minute, and then her voice drifted out into the dark.
“Um, Jus?”
“Yes?”
“If it’s going to wipe out the other guys because there’sonly one or two of them, why are you and I going to be all right?”
“Because you’re a faerie.” The human gave a huge, sleepy yawn. “No onetouches the faerie.”
“Jus, do I look too fat?”
“Nope.” The ranger turned over in his bed. “Go to sleep.”
16
Tying her long boots firmly in place, Escalla cast a glanceabout the empty camp. A dawn as weak as dishwater struggled through the clouds of volcanic steam, making light glitter from countless beads of dew. Steam hissed and shuddered out of the hideous mountain cave, blowing like a breath of evil into the morn.
Jus sat beside the remnants of a hot breakfast and carefully sharpened his sword, holding his whetstone at a precise angle as he worked the weapons point.
The Tiger Nomads had a proverb that said, “Even a blind mancan wreak havoc with a sharpened sword.” The Justicar was a firm believer ingiving a blade an edge that could cut like a razor, and he carefully tended his weapon every day. As Escalla watched, he finished his work, blew tiny fragments of metal dust from the ensorcelled steel, then carefully dusted the weapon with black carbon designed to stop light glinting from the blade.
Jus sensed Escalla seething as she tied on her gear. The faerie growled as she pulled bodice laces tight. “So what you’re saying is thatnot one of the rotten bastards decided to stay? We have absolutely no help at all?”