Jus smashed his sword onto the chain monk's back. Sparks showered from the creature's thick sheath of chains, blocking the blow. The monster gibbered in rage and tried to punch Jus with a chain-armored fist. The Justicar ducked two blows, caught another on his sword, then kicked the monster in its gut and sent it crashing through the water. He turned and hacked with his sword, severing with two huge blows the chains that bound the snake.
The chain monk surged back onto its feet, whipping out two lengths of chain that caught the Justicar. The monster wrenched, and Jus slipped and fell. Bulling forwards through the water, Henry erupted from the sewer tunnel, firing a quick burst of darts at the monster's chest.
Sparks flew as the crossbow bolts ricocheted from the dense mat of metal chains. The monk whirled and screamed fury at young Henry.
Bursting from the water like a behemoth, the Justicar surfaced behind the monk. His huge arms flew around the creature's throat, the forearm blocking the monster's windpipe and his other arm locking the hold tight. Jus's muscles bulged as he threw all his strength into his grip. The chain monk jerked and flailed backward with its chains, wrapping them around the Justicar's throat. Jus kept his grip, his neck muscles bulging as the chain monk tried to throttle him to death.
There was a cracking noise from the chain monk as it died, its neck crushed. Jus roared and shook his head, loosening the chains about his throat even as he held the monk to make sure the thing was dead.
A second chain monk burst from the dark. Jus whipped his head sideways, Cinders grinned, and then a white-hot column of flame thundered straight into the monster's face. It fell back, screaming yet still alive, the water around it hissing as it met burned flesh and molten steel. Throwing away the first monk's corpse, the Justicar lunged up the ladder. His damaged throat was hoarse as he laid a hand upon the giant snake.
'Enid?'
'Jus!' The serpent collapsed into his grip like coils of heavy cable. 'Jus, Escalla's hurt!'
A little snake hung through the rungs above them. Holding thirty feet of exhausted Enid, Jus felt Enid shivering with shock. Henry slung his crossbow and clambered up the ladder, carefully retrieving the little serpent.
'I think it's Escalla!' Henry tried to feel for a pulse. 'She's cold!'
'She's a snake!' Jus looked anxiously up the ladder. 'She's burned?'
'Bad. Real bad.' Henry tried to cradle the snake carefully as he fought his way down the ladder. 'She won't wake up!'
The Justicar was hurt-burned, half strangled, and a rib felt broken. He had three healing spells to his name. He immediately cradled Escalla and punched two spells into her burned body, feeling the burns shimmer and heal. The snake was still horrifically injured-burned by acid until bones were exposed to the air-but it drew deeper breath, and she seemed alive. The third spell went into Enid. The huge snake heaved, croaking as the spell spread a tiny sensation of cool into her burns.
Polk came paddling madly down the sewers, angry at Henry for hurling him aside.
'Help! Son, help! I can't swim, son! I'm going to drown!'
'All badgers can swim, Polk.' The Justicar snatched a handful of badger fur. 'You're doing fine.'
Henry held Enid's head in his lap, distraught and torn by her pain as he stroked her softly. The snake was still clearly in agony. The Justicar held Escalla and checked under her snake jaw for a pulse, then undamped the wand and staff and shoved them under his cuirass. He draped the snake around his neck beneath Cinders's pelt as, somewhere off in the darkness, more chain monsters keened.
'Enid, how many?'
'Thirty.' The snake coiled into Henry's arms. 'At least. And Tielle! She… she has magic. Some sort of acid blast.'
'Tielle!'
'There's a scrying spell.' Enid sounded horribly weak. 'She… she's tracing us with a scrying spell.'
'Then let's move.' Jus looked up the ladder. Monsters snarled, and the crash of falling, burning houses filled the air. 'Polk, come here! Henry, you have to tow Enid. Keep her head up high.' The man let Polk seize Cinders's tail and towed him through the water. 'Downstream. Go!'
Sword in hand, the Justicar led the way. In the sewer tunnels, monsters screamed, while up above, an entire city burned.
The tunnels angled ever so slightly downhill. The sewers were apparently not draining, and water had risen from the river to flood the tunnel system. The result was that the water level rose higher the farther they went. Inch by inch the roof level grew lower. Struggling to tow an injured snake in his wake, Henry was scarcely able to keep his chin above the water.
One tunnel was alive with the chittering, screeching sound of stirges. It was clearly the best route, but Cinders had only one more flame blast left until he could find time to feed. Jus hoisted his sword and the badger higher and pushed onward, choosing tunnels from the maze of cross connections, twists, and turns.
Enid's snake eyes glazed with pain.
'Sh-should we go this fast? There might be… chain monsters in the dark.'
The Justicar ploughed forward, dark, grim, and confident. 'The last attack came from behind. If we move fast, we'll stay ahead.' He checked a corner briefly, then looked left and right down a tunnel junction.
'Cinders?'
'Left it is.'
Henry and Jus waded forward. At the tunnel junction, the water stirred, and a great rubbery eyestalk rose stealthily from the murk. Black-armored, with a hell hound as a cloak and a magical sword glowing in his hand, the Justicar turned and fixed the creature with a dire stare. 'Don't even
The eyestalk blinked once, then nervously withdrew.
The water became densely matted with floating garbage, until walking forward became a matter of shoving through a six-inch belt of flotsam. Henry foundered, holding Enid's head above him in one hand, and the Justicar held the boy up as he made his way through the gloom.
The tunnel fed into a hideous cavern. It was pitch black, the ceiling hanging mere inches from the water level. The pool here was stagnant, and the bottom was deep in slime and filled with sunken debris. With his chin only just above the water, Polk clinging fearfully to his back, and towing Henry and Enid behind him, the Justicar pushed forward until he reached the farthest end of the cavern.
The sewer simply stopped. There should have been some sort of tunnel leading out to the river-a tunnel that must have been entirely underwater with the river flooded. The drain was probably blocked by a metal grate. The Justicar peeled Polk away from his neck and rummaged in the badger's purse.
'Son! Son, you're hysterical! I'm not Escalla, son! She's the snake over there!'
'Quiet!' Jus retrieved the party's portable hole. Holding it up out of the water, he unfolded a corner of the weird black surface. 'We'll have to make an underwater swim. Get in the hole-all of you.'
'But son!'
Jus tossed Polk into the hole, then nodded to Henry. 'Go. I'll lower you Enid, then Cinders and Escalla.'
'Will you be all right, sir?'
'It's just a swim.' The Justicar sheathed his sword and threw it in the hole, making the sword yell in anger and Polk screech in fright. He followed it with his helm. 'Get in there-hurry!'
The boy climbed awkwardly over the lip of the hole, managing to splash water down into the space below.
'Sir? We could go back up there and try to save the city.'
'Another lesson: Know when to withdraw so you can strike again.'
The Justicar lowered Enid's head into Henry's hand, then Cinders. He peeled Escalla from his own neck, saw that the smaller snake still had a fluttering pulse, and made ready to go.
A wild peal of laughter came from the dark. Light sparkled, and an angler fish floated on the garbage, waggling the glowing bulb that dangled from its brow. In Tielle's voice, the fish celebrated its joy.
'Ah! Here we are at last! Where's your little dog?'
Behind Tielle, a dozen cackling shapes flailed through the water. The chain monks whipped their manacles
