' What? ' snapped Saark. 'Are you out of your mind, you crazy old fool? You might set them all off, then we'd be fucked for sure. And here's another thought – if they are eggs, then what in the name of the Grey Blood Wolf laid them?'
Kell nodded. 'I suggest we circumvent.'
'I would second that,' agreed Saark.
They moved to the right, still watching the thousands of pulsating, segmented cocoons, or eggs, or whatever the organic objects were. They looked dangerous, and that was enough for the party.
Taking a right-hand tunnel, Kell led the way once more, wary now, Ilanna in his great fists. He was more alert, eyes straining to see ahead, ears listening for sounds of any approaching enemy. He wouldn't let Saark or Nienna speak now, and they travelled in morbid silence, ears pricked, nerves suspended on a razor wire.
The tunnel wound on, ever upwards, crossing many more in a complex maze. Kell chose openings with a sure knowledge, and Saark made a mental note not to get lost down here. The Valentrio Caves were a maze like nothing he had ever witnessed.
Eventually, the low-ceilinged corridor ended in a small chamber. It glowed. There were eight of the slowly pulsating, slowly breathing pods blocking their path.
Kell halted, and held up his fist. Saark and Nienna froze, peering past him. The chamber, floor lined with sand, was small. The pods filled it entirely, leaving nothing but narrow passages between each throbbing slick body of luminescent white. Nienna shivered.
'I don't want to sound like a pussy,' whispered Saark, 'but is there another way around these… these blobs?'
'It'll be all right,' said Kell. 'I'll lead. Nienna, stay close behind. Saark, bring up the rear.'
'Why do I always have to go at the back?' he whined. 'What if one of the quivering little bastards wakes up and jumps on me?'
'Well,' smiled Kell, 'it won't be the first time you've taken it from behind.'
'You are a jester, Kell. You truly should be capering like an idiot in the King's Court.'
'Can't do that,' growled Kell. 'The king is dead.'
They moved into the narrow spaces between the segmented bodies. Each cocoon was tall, as tall as a man, and most at least as long as a horse, high in the centre and then tapering down in staggered segments towards the tips, which seemed to glow, changing suddenly from pale white fish-flesh to jet black, and then back.
Saark shivered. Kell moved with his jaw tight. Nienna desperately wanted to hold somebody's hand, for she could feel the fear in the air, smell the metallic scent of these pulsing cocoons. Kell brushed against one, and for a moment the pulsating ceased. In response, Kell, Saark and Nienna froze, staring in horror at the huge bulbous thing.
'You woke it!' mouthed Saark, urgently, face screwed into horror.
Kell gripped Ilanna tighter, but after a few moments the regular rhythm of the creature resumed. The group seemed to breathe again. They crept past, six, seven, eight of the cocoons, and then Kell stepped out into the opposite tunnel and breathed deeply, shoulders relaxing. Nienna stepped out behind him, and Saark turned to stare back at the corrugated pods. 'Well thank the bloody gods for that!' he grinned, as his rapier swung with him, tip at knee level, and the point of his decorative scabbard cut a neat horizontal line across the nearest pod's fleshy surface. There came a hiss, a bulge, then a thick tumbling spill of white splashing out like snakes in milk. A scream rent the air, so high-pitched the group slammed hands over ears and grimaced, then ran down the tunnel as the scream followed, perfectly in rhythm with the pulsing of the thing's body.
'You horse dick!' raged Kell. 'What did you do that for?'
'I didn't do it on purpose, did I? Can I help it if their skin is as flimsy as a farm maiden's silk panties? I barely touched the damn thing!'
'Come on,' said Nienna, pale from the screaming, and she led them on a fast pace up a steep corridor. Suddenly Kell lurched forward, grabbing Nienna and bundling all three into a side-tunnel. They stood, in the gloom, and watched the albino soldiers pounding past. Kell counted them. There were fifty of the very same black-clad albino warriors who'd invaded Falanor. 'So, this is where they hide,' whispered Kell, face grim.
'I am assuming,' said Saark, in a quiet, affable voice, 'that this place wasn't crawling with either egg-pods, nor albino soldiers, the last time you came through?'
'It was twenty years ago,' snapped Kell. 'I've slept since then.'
'And got drunk many times,' responded Saark, voice cool, eyes shaded in the gloom. 'You've brought us into a hornet's nest, old friend. How many albino soldiers are here?'
'Let's find out,' said Kell.
They moved back up the tunnel, which rose yet again on a steep incline that burned calves and sent shivers through straining thighs. They travelled for an hour, and three times more they came across squads of albino warriors wearing black armour and carrying narrow black longswords. And several times they passed along the lips of vast caverns, each full of pulsating segments, glowing, quivering cocoons. The third time they did so, Saark called for a stop. Down below, they saw several albino soldiers moving through the chamber, and one stopped, resting a hand on a quivering flesh segment.
'They're changing colour,' said Saark.
'Eh, lad?' said Kell.
'The pods. They're no longer translucent. Now they are a deep white. Like snow. Look.'
Kell peered. He shrugged. 'So what?'
'And their pulsing is slower,' said Nienna.
'So what?'
'You're an irascible old goat,' snapped Saark. 'The point is, each chamber seems to be some kind of birthing pit. That's my opinion. And these things are looked after by the albinos.'
'Why would they do that?'
'Maybe they like to hatch worms,' said Saark. 'Maybe they are building a worm army!'
'That isn't even funny,' said Nienna, eyes wide.
'Who said I was joking?'
'Shut up,' said Kell. 'Look. Something is happening.'
They watched. A hundred soldiers marched into the cavern, and arranged themselves around a circle of five pods. A tall albino warrior stepped forward, and drawing a short silver dagger, he cautiously inserted it into the nearest pod and, with intricate care, cut a long curve downwards. Flesh bulged, and was followed by a flood of white which sluiced across the stone floor. There followed a tumble of cords, like thin white tree roots, and then there was a shape nestled amongst the mess, amidst the thick strands and gooey white fluid. It slopped, spread- eagled to the floor, and several of the soldiers stepped forward and…
'Holy Mother,' said Saark, mouth open.
'So this is where the bastards emerge,' growled Kell.
'What are they?' whispered Nienna, stunned by what she saw.
The soldiers wrapped the newly born, nearly-adult albino soldier, naked, flesh white and pure, scalp bald and glistening with milk, limbs shaking and unable to stand without support, in a blanket. The man was like a newborn foal, weak and quivering. The surrounding soldiers led the blanket-trussed newborn down a corridor in almost reverent silence.
'They're hatching,' said Saark, without humour. 'The human maggots are hatching.'
'They're not fucking human,' snarled Kell.
'Well,' continued Saark, in the same cool, level voice, detached and not quite believing as he tried to comprehend the magnitude of what he was witnessing, 'what actually are they, then?'
'They're the enemy,' said Kell, 'here for us to kill.'
'An interesting viewpoint,' came the smooth, neutral voice of the albino warrior. He stood, and behind him were thirty soldiers. All had bows bent, arrows aimed at the three peering intruders. 'They are, in fact, our alshina larvae. As you so quite rightly put it, young man, we are not human. This is where we are hatched – eggs laid, implanted, and hatched by our queen.' He drew a short black sword, and used it to point. 'Ironic, that you refer to us as the albino. That would be your arrogance speaking. To think we are simply humans without pigmentation. Man, we are a different species.'
He turned, then, and surveyed the bent bows of his warriors. Several smiled.
