The faerie joined the sphinx in a shared bond of feminine indignation.
“Oooh, I hate that! Some damned sorceress up north hadme doing almost the exact same thing-had me delivering portents! Had to fly tosome ‘chosen child’s’ village and be his mentor for a whole year.” Escalla hadnever had to do anything of the kind, but she instantly threw herself into her role. “Damned little brat tried to pull my wings off!”
“No consideration. None at all.” The sphinx grumbled. Shetried to sit down and fold her paws, but the filthy water deterred her.
“But still, you get time to make up good riddles.” Escallalooked about the floor. “Hey, did some other guys come through here justbefore?”
“Sods snuck past me!” The sphinx grumbled, flexing her claws.“Both sets of them guessed my riddle in seconds!”
“That quickly?”
“Straight off the cuff. Said ‘moon’ in less time than ittakes to draw a breath!”
“Really?” Escalla looked suitably distraught, even whilefiling the information away. “Well it’s going to keep me guessing for a while, Ican tell you!”
The sphinx would hear none of it.
“Oh, I can’t imagine that! A girl like you? You’ll have it ina trice!” Enid scratched her ear with one hind leg. “Go on, give it a try-do!”
“Well, since you insist.” Escalla thoughtfully cupped herchin. “So, let’s see… I mean, it’s a classic. You’ve got reallygood, pure simplicity working for you here.” The faerie bit her lip, flew in acircle, and then came to a stop. “I’m gonna go right out on a limb here. I’mthinking… moon?”
Enid opened her front paws in joy and shouted. “See, you gotit! I knew you could!”
“Well, it took a lot of doing. But hey-moon-somethingeveryone sees, right in front of your face, so you never think about it! Classic misdirection, Enid! You really have the touch.”
Enid reached up to remove a slip of papyrus from the ceiling above the portal. She simpered as the force wall came down.
“Well, thanks. You know, one tries one’s best.”
“Well, your best is pretty good.” Escalla crossed the line ofthe force wall and ushered the two men through. “So Enid, the big J here isthinking something along the lines of finding the guy who summoned you and maybe chopping him into at least eleven pieces. Do you want to come?”
“Aaaaah.” Enid gave a disappointed sigh. “I have to stayhere. Magic spell, you know.”
“Oh, sure, I can see that. But hey, we’ll try to kill the guyand set you free.”
“Oh, thank you!” The sphinx seemed utterly relieved. “Look,just for you, here’s a little help.” The sphinx gave the faerie the slip ofpapyrus from above the force wall. “It’s a stun symbol. Anyone passing through adoor you place this on-instant knock out! I made it as a little extra for anyonetrying to break down the force wall.”
Holding the little gift with unfeigned delight, Escalla held the papyrus out in the light where it could be admired.
“You made this?”
“Certainly!” The sphinx looked a little shy. “It’s a sphinxthing.”
“Well, thank you! That’s really generous.” Escalla noticedJus and Polk waiting for her impatiently in the right-hand passageway. “Wish usluck, and we’ll do our best for you!”
“Be careful!” Enid the sphinx waved the party on their way.“It’s one treasure per tunnel.”
Escalla tucked the papyrus down her cleavage then whirred up the passageway to meet Polk and the Justicar. The two men stared at her, and Escalla opened her hands in innocence.
“What? Just because we’re adventuring, we can’t be nice?”
The Justicar shook his head and motioned down the corridor. “Come on. We have a wizard to kill.”
They moved down the eastern tunnel-Escalla flying invisiblyto the fore, followed by the Justicar with Cinders grinning from his helm. Polk came behind, taking a pull from his whiskey flask to clear his sinuses from the smell of mold. The teamster flicked a glance up the corridor then back to Jus and clucked his tongue in disappointment.
“It’s a shame, son, a shame to see you letting a woman takethe lead.”
“The woman happens to be invisible.” The Justicar let hisvoice drop to a mutter. “And she can fry you like an egg, you old coot.”
With his front leg hovering mid-step in the water, Jus suddenly heard Cinders bark an alarm.
Stop.
The Justicar froze in position. Above his head, Cinders’ redeyes shone. New smell. Danger in water.
“Escalla?”
A bow floated on the water nearby. The faerie’s wingsdisturbed the water surface as she hovered low, her magic light peeping out to illuminate the murk.
“Yeah, yeah, I see it. Some sort of… ewwwww!”
A corpse lay half submerged in the shallow water. A screaming skull thrust up toward the surface, with crooked finger bones already dissolving even as they reached upward for escape. The skeletons flesh had turned into a vile, putrescent ooze, floating in green streamers all about the dissolving bones.
Escalla contributed to affairs by being violently ill. Coming as it did from an invisible source, this was no sight for gentle eyes. As vomit struck the green slime, it instantly began to discolor. Moments later, the slime had grown, absorbing the new matter with terrifying speed.
Escalla popped back into view, looking haggard as she stared down at the skeleton.
“What the…?”
“Green slime.” Jus inspected his boots, which still seemedfree of the infection. “It’s on the floor under the water. Gods only know howfar it goes. Escalla, take a look.”
The faerie looked ill. A swig from a water bottle set her to rights. With a nod at Jus, the girl began hovering above the water and trying to peer below. Watching this display of inordinate, cowardly caution, Polk licked his wax marker and flipped open his chronicle scroll with a snap.
“Son, I fail to see why a hero should be concerned about alittle slime.”
“That slime can eat through anything you care to touch itwith. Wed be dead in minutes.” The ranger held his sword carefully away from thewater as he inspected the skeleton. “He was running toward us when he fell.”
The floating bow seemed to identify the fallen man as the barons archer. How many other men had been in his party was anybody’s guess, butonly one had lived to flee this far back down the corridor.
This did not bode well. Jus scratched the stubble of his chin as he stared at the dead, dissolving bones.
“He’s pointing toward us. He must have already safely crossedthis slime patch on the way down the corridor.”
Hovering, the faerie cocked an eye. “So?”
“So something at the other end scared him so much that heforgot about the slime.”
“Oh…” Escalla looked a little dazed as she looked downthe dark, foreboding corridor. “Maybe he was just a little shy?”
“Maybe.”
The ranger drew in a big sigh then held out a hand to Polk.
“Polk, no comments. We need the iron spikes. Twelve for you,twelve for me.”
The iron climbing pitons had loops and serrations designed for mountain climbing. Leaning against one wall, the two men lashed the spikes to the edges of their boots, pointing down. Elevated a few inches above the floor, they took a nervous breath and strode carefully past the dissolving green skeleton. The spike points grated on the floor underneath the water; Polk almost slipped, wailed, and was caught by one of the Justicar’s huge hands. The rangerhauled Polk to safety in one great surge of strength, propelling the teamster far down the corridor where he landed with a splash. Jus waded powerfully after him for a dozen feet more, then frantically began to tear away the spikes about his boots.
The spikes had dissolved almost halfway. Acid from the slime still clung to the metal and was eating it away. Polk and Jus cleared their boots and hurled the spikes away, watching them fall into the oily muck near the slime.