The 9th Fortress

did, but I coveted the Gauntlet even more. 'You know where to find the Gauntlet? You know where it is?'

'I do,' he answered, 'but I dare not run it.'

'We go to the well,” interrupted Kat, still making our decisions for us. 'You have a deal with us creature. Do not break it!'

I did not like nor understand Kat's sudden hunger for this well, the man seemed drunk on the preposterous power of it. 'Why do you want this Kat?' I asked, taking him aside. 'Why…would we want it?'

His expression scrunched queerly, as if I was insane for not understanding his motives. 'Your task is the 9th Fortress,' he grizzled back; 'mine is to get you there in one piece. The well guarantees both.'

His brief argument sounded reasonable enough — insurance you could say. Fill the flasks with this miracle water and insure the bodies I dragged down here, whilst gaining the vital location of the Gauntlet.

'What do you think?' I asked Harmony and Eddinray, who shrugged unhelpfully.

'The well…for the Gauntlet,” I said, agreeing terms with Wisp by shaking his hairy hand. And so we five set off along the confined corridors of the labyrinth, eyes ever sharper — for the jewel of invincibility will not come cheap…or unguarded.

24. War

Apprehensively, Kat was led by Wisp, and following that beaten old tire took time. I stuck to the lagging group with Eddinray and Harmony, and it seemed only I was confused by Kat's sudden shine to the merchant. Ahead, those warriors passed words with occasional nods of agreement and unheard of smiles from the samurai.

'You believe that?' I whispered. 'I've been with Kat forever. We've climbed mountains together for God-sake, fought a Centaur king; he even cut my toes off at one point! Yet there he is…having more conversation with a stranger than he ever has with me!'

The Angel and Knight shared wiry grins. 'No need to be jealous,” Harmony said. 'Besides, I'm sure Kat likes you the best.'

'How many toes?' asked Eddinray. 'Have a falling out then?'

'It's a long story. And I'm not jealous of Wisp, okay?'

'We know Daniel,” added a condescending Harmony, causing me to stop them both.

'I am not jealous! Guys this is not about being popular, I just don't understand it, that's all. The Apache was the same ilk as Kat, why not show him the respect he's giving Wisp now?'

'Perhaps our Indian friend was too similar to the samurai?' Harmony considered. 'A threat to Kat's leadership?'

'Leadership,' Eddinray pointed out; 'requires a commanding of communication my dear, which the Kat is clearly lacking.'

'Wisp on the other hand,' continued Harmony, 'is an older warrior, an alien thing with no territory to mark, a merchant making a trade and keen to share his wisdom. Why wouldn't Kat embrace this?'

'He's still a stranger,” I said, expecting them to agree; but all I got was another joke-like grin between the pair. 'It is not jealousy!'

'Sometimes it's best to talk to a stranger,” said Eddinray. 'They do not judge a man…Not out loud at least.'

'Yes,” added the angel. 'They share experience those two, surviving danger and death at every turn. The Kat and Wisp are kindred spirits.'

'I also share their experience!' insisted Eddinray. 'But they are not as gallant as I. They are blood thirsty killers clearly, having nothing of the moral dilemma that tortures the gentleman warrior, who kills because he has too, not because he wants too.'

It was now Harmony and my turn to share smiles. 'Thanks,” I said. 'Don't know where I'd be without you two.'

'I do,” answered Eddinray, with complete confidence. 'Danny you'd be in the belly of the Scurge, and Harmony you'd be locked away in a wizard's cage — if it weren't for me that is.'

'And we thank you very much indeed!' cried Harmony, exasperated. 'Godwin, there are times when you need a good kick up the backside!'

My laugh was cut short by the sight of maggots, slithering up a crack of labyrinth stone. Rodents came next, scurrying every so often along rails with their chubby bodies and wiggling tails.

'Filthy things!' complained Eddinray, attempting a swipe at them.

'You fear them?' inquired Harmony.

Her innocent question caused the knight's body to seize up, his ego badly bruised by her assumption. 'A man of my abilities fearing a little rat?' he choked. 'The suggestion is comical!'

'It is far from a comical matter,” she replied. 'I detest worms, and they are even smaller than rats!'

'You fear worms?' he chortled back. 'My dear darling angel, what a precious little sprite you are!'

Eddinray then let out a brief, feminine shriek as one rat squiggled between his legs. Amused, we three hurried on Kat's order to join him and Wisp at another fork in the labyrinth — the hunched over Wisp taking the right route with a step and limp, a step and limp.

We took the following left and were left speechless by the new corridor of horror on display. Walls were no longer made of stone, but of living bodies — men, woman, and children lashing their bare arms and legs. This was the Hell we'd all been waiting for, the Hell one cannot prepare for.

'The wall of tears,” said Wisp, grimly. 'Be careful on your way.'

Aghast, Harmony and Eddinray covered their mouths at this vision of screwed up skin and jammed together faces. Although I could not see Wisp's expression, I assumed it was similar to Kat's — emotionless, like the dull doctor examining his hundredth patient that day.

'Save us!' one yelled. 'Save us! The flood!'

'Single file,” advised Kat, starting through the narrow gap between their outstretched fingertips.

'Help me!' begged a young woman.

'She can't be more than sixteen years old!' said Harmony, mortified. 'And the children, these poor children! What could they have done to warrant such a sentence?'

'There are no children here,” said Wisp, over his shoulder. 'Look closer angel…do not let them trick you into their forlorn hands. This is what they want.'

These words in mind, I surveyed the face of what I thought was a child, and repellently, that young expression instantly wrinkled old and toothless before me.

'How did they get here?' asked Eddinray, bringing up the rear.

'We wander insignificantly in the labyrinth,' answered Wisp, 'as these souls did in life. Aimlessly frittering ones time away with no cares, no hopes or dreams. They are waste. All of it waste.'

'The flood!' they moaned. 'Coming! Do not leave us to it! Pull me from this! No more!'

'Eternity they spend in the wall of tears,' concluded Wisp; 'and the hands of time move slow here.'

The merchant ignored them, as did his new disciple, Kat. Unfortunately, Harmony, Eddinray and I were not as thick skinned.

'Do not leave us!'

'It's coming!'

'The flood!'

'God help us!'

'You help us!'

Caught off guard, Harmony was suddenly snatched by the wrist and pulled into a frenzy of tugging arms and skewed faces. A stubbly man with a hairy chest held onto her, and lustfully he gorged over her unblemished skin.

'Alright my darling'' he said, his lips dotted with sores. 'How about a rub?'

'Help!' she grimaced, fighting him. 'Godwin!'

Already on the case, the knight was in amongst them. The monster clutching Harmony meanwhile lovingly