“Polk, give Escalla your magic light.”
“But I need it for my chronicle!” The teamster bridled inalarm. “How can I see to write?”
“I don’t care. She needs it more than you do.” The Justicarrapped his knuckles against the man’s bulging pack-load of gear. “Use alantern.”
Polk muttered, tucked his parchment under his arm and fussed with flint and tinder. Creeping out of her sulk, Escalla leaned over and plucked one of the parchments from Polk’s grasp.
“So what are you writing there, anyway?”
“It is a chronicle of our adventure.” Polk shot a meaningfulglance at Jus. “Assuming the two of you both end up doing things worthchronicling.”
Escalla read a few lines of Polk’s horrible scrawl andblinked in surprise.
“Hey! This is all about me and the vampire!”
“Of course.” Scorching his fingers, the teamster adjusted thelens of his bullseye lantern. “A heroic act! One slip of a girl fighting atriumphant battle against a creature of darkness.”
“Hoopy!” Always happy to have her ego stroked, Escalla puffedherself up with pride, lost treasures instantly forgotten. “Hey Jus! This isactually pretty good! Check it out!” The girl read a line from the top of thescroll. “Ooh! ‘Escalla, siren of the sylvan forest, slayer of the shadow-fiend!’I like that!”
“Thank you.” Polk bowed.
“Yeah!” The girl read more. “And what’s this? ‘Sensuous,sinful silky-thighed seductress of the…’” Suddenly unamused, Escalla beganflipping back through pages of the scrolls.
“What’s this? ‘Love hungry’, ‘perfect peach’, ‘pinched,lissome bounty of her tightly curved…’” The girl put the scrolls asideand flicked a hard sidewise glance to Polk.
“You don’t get out much, do you?”
“This is the recognized heroic literary style.” Polk swelledhimself up with an enormous, fragile dignity.
“Really?” Escalla tossed the man his scroll. “Well if I catchyou staring at my silken thighs again, I’m gonna turn into a giant bedbug andvisit you in the dark!”
It was time to retrace their tracks. Wearily trying to keep the peace, Jus lead the march into the dark. “Polk, stop writing purple proseabout Escalla’s thighs. Escalla, stop hassling the sidekick. Now come on,there’s still two more weapons and a wizard to find.”
Ducking a cobweb, Escalla frowned.
“Isn’t there only one weapon left?”
“The city wants Wave and Whelm, and the erinyes must still beafter Blackrazor. It’s a good guess that our old allies are hoping to collectall three.” Jus led the way down steps and back into the waterlogged corridorsof the main dungeon. “Let’s get back to that first junction and see your friendthe sphinx.”
Back at the intersection, Enid the sphinx rose from her soggyvigil and waved one big paw as the party approached. Tramping squishily through the muck, Jus, Cinders, Escalla, and Polk all waved in return.
The green slime in the corridor had been bypassed in the brusquest possible style. Thick overshoes of rope for Polk and Jus had used up the bulk of Polk’s climbing gear. Polk muttered and grumbled, unhappy at theslow attrition of his dungeoneering equipment. He wrote his chronicles while glaring at the Justicar’s back, the harsh sweeps of his wax marker showing thecolor of his mood.
Sitting upon Cinders and Jus, Escalla gave the sphinx a merry little salute and said, “Hey, Enid!”
“Hello.” Enid looked up from teasing knots out of her tail.“Did you beat the vampire?”
“Yeah.” Escalla made a twiddling little motion of her hand,unsure quite how to broach an uncomfortable topic. “Hey, about that… so youdid know he was down there?”
“Oh, yes.” Enid nodded as bright as can be. “I heard themagicians talking about him.”
“Um, for future reference, a vampire is a pretty major encounter.” The faerie gave a sigh. “Is there anything else you mightwant to fill us in on before we go down any more of these tunnels?”
It seemed to be a brand new thought to poor Enid. The sphinx turned to look down the northern tunnel and gave a little frown.
“Well, no one tells me much, but seafood or something is downthis tunnel. When the breeze blows from that direction, my allergies break out.” The cat woman gave a puzzled shrug. “They deliver about a ton of fishheads down there every day or two.”
“Fish heads.” Escalla nodded, storing the information dulyaway. “Uh-huh. And the other way?”
Enid shrugged.
“Umm, every day at about nightfall, someone deliverslivestock down the western tunnel. Goats, cows, sheep, a few peasants on occasion. It gets pretty noisy down there for about five minutes or so.” Thesphinx frowned. “Then it all just stops.”
“Oh, good.” Overjoyed at the thought of all the toothymonsters just waiting for faerie snacks, Escalla sighed. “Gentlemen, thoughtsplease?”
Jus looked from one tunnel to another.
“Big hungry things in the west tunnel, maybe lots of tinyhungry things in the north where the fish heads go.” The Justicar approachedEnid the sphinx. “Thank you for the stun symbol.”
“You liked it? Oh, good!” Immensely pleased, Enid preened hermuddy hair. “So few people appreciate quality spells.”
“It helped.” Jus stood with one hand on his sword, lookingdark and powerful. Above his head, Cinders grinned and let his eyes gleam bright red. “You said you sometimes see the wizards?”
“Every day!” The sphinx settled proudly in her place. “Thelibrarian and his two acolytes, the keepers of Keraptis.”
“Keepers of Keraptis?” Escalla raised her eyebrows andskimmed a meaningful glance at Jus. “Oh, really?”
“Those’re the chaps! They’re making a new Keraptis.” Enidscratched at her slightly flea-bitten hide. “Dedicated to their job, they’veworked ever so hard to restore this place just the way it was! My older sister was the sphinx in this dungeon ten years ago.”
The Justicar scowled and carefully weighed this little gem of knowledge in his mind. Settling his sword, he reached up to pat the sphinx’sflank and thoughtfully passed the creature by.
“Thank you, Enid. We’ll see you again soon.”
“All right.” Enid settled into the mud. “Have a nice time!”
It was time to pick a new route. Jus swiveled Cinders so thatthe hound could take a good sniff at the dungeon airs.
“Cinders, what do you think, old friend?”
Cinders smelled the western tunnel. That way is beasts-cats, bugs.
“Yup.” The Justicar opened his badger-skin purse and took outa piece of snack-coal for the hell hound. “And the other way?”
Fish this way. The hell hound sniffed at the northtunnel. Evil this way. Fresh blood, dead things, slimy water.
“Evil again?” The Justicar narrowed his eyes. “Interesting…”
Escalla rose up from the rangers shoulders and hovered in the air.
“Hey! I vote north! I vote for the fish heads! One vampire isenough. This time, I say we face something small.” The faerie whirrednorthward and turned invisible. “Now, come on! Let’s go find some cash and getthose weapons back!”
With the invisible faerie in the lead, a slow, careful advance began. Like the other tunnels, this passage seemed to have been burned and gouged out of the mountains heart. Algae caked the walls and spread horrid color across the surface of the mire. The knee-deep waters were unpleasantly warm and made the tunnel echo with the splash of walking feet. Ripples in the surface sent refracted light dancing madly back and forth across the walls.
Cinders tracked Escalla with his sharp eyes. The girl flew up to a dark alcove leading off the passageway, inspected the darkness within, and even unveiled her borrowed magic light to take a closer look. She seemed satisfied. The light waved her companions down the main route, and the little faerie light swiftly disappeared.