In the pitch dark world of the Dreadwood, tiny lights dippedand swirled though the treetops. The forest floor glowed the sickly colors of dreams as savage little shapes tore through the woods in search of prey.
Beside a burned and ruined village, among corpses and old apple trees, an elf hound ran sniffing wickedly at the ground. The creature leaped up to land upon an upper branch and found a scent clinging to the bark. He gave a long, flute-like howl.
Two faerie warriors flashed into visibility. They flew up to the branch and joined the elf hound, then pulled out a hunting horn and blew a low, moaning note that echoed above the trees.
Long minutes later, Lord Ushan arrived.
The faerie lord still wore his robes that swam with all the colors of flame, but now the fire ran blue and white instead of red. The lord knelt beside his hunters and fingered a single strand of perfect golden hair that had caught upon the apple bark.
He breathed a long, slow breath of triumph and turned his face toward the waiting apple trees.
The warriors watched and waited while Lord Ushan of Clan Sable let his thoughts drift with the wind.
The gate could lead almost anywhere and pursuit was no longer the top priority. A great many plans had worked well tonight.
It was enough.
Lord Ushan made a slashing motion with his hand. The warriors sheathed their swords then flashed back into invisibility, their wings whirring as they shot off into the gloom.
Twenty minutes after their arrival, the group stood at thelip of a chasm that plunged deep into the earth. Volcanoes lit the distant horizon, ebbing and pulsing like blood. The red light made the shadows seem darker and more filled with menace, and the whole landscape seem to shift and move in hunger. The air held a stink of sulphur, ash, and acidic rain. Cinders breathed it in like a breath of holiday air, while his companions’ noses snortedfrom the hellish stink.
The tracks of hundreds of feet led down treacherous paths toward the chasm floor. Skeletons and corpses glimmered in the ebbing volcanic light, showing where some captives had slipped and tumbled to their doom. In this grim scene, the only sounds were the distant hiss of steam from the volcanic range and a sudden snicker from the Justicar.
Stung and indignant, Escalla shot the man a dire glare.
“Will you stop it with the laughing already? Enough!” Thegirl tossed her golden hair. “I just happen to be saving myself for MisterRight.”
“While dressing like Miss Wrong!”
“No one likes you, Jus! We took a poll!” The faerie waved herhand toward the chasm. “Now if we are all
Jus and Polk were utterly incapable, their hands still weak and shaking from their suppressed laughter. Seething, Escalla relieved them of the locator needle and stood at the precipice, unraveling the needle’s string.As she made ready, Private Henry stood over her, looking skinny as a bean pole and about as dangerous as a mouse. Escalla saw the lantern quiver and shot the boy a glare that could have shattered stone.
“Kid, don’t you say a frazin word!”
“No, ma’am!” The young soldier blinked in the lantern light;his face seemed to be mostly composed of freckles, and he seemed to be in absolute, worshipful awe of her. “Not one word. Not one!”
For once, someone seemed to be treating her like the legendary sylvan overlord she really was. Escalla sniffed importantly, absurdly soothed, and smoothed her long gloves.
The girl let the locator needle dangle, taking a reading on the whereabouts of the slowglass necklace. The needle pointed straight down the canyon at a good, sharp angle. The needle actually quivered, wavering happily from side to side as though excited by the proximity of the prey. With a professional sniff of disdain, Escalla put the locator needle away and flew over the path.
“This way.” Escalla magnanimously gave Private Henry a magiclight. “Here, Private. I will lead, and you may light the way.”
Having been given a magic light by a real faerie was apparently the high point of the young soldiers life. He looked up at Escalla in amazement, held up the magic light, and proudly began walking down the path, crossbow in one hand and magic light in the other. Escalla made to go after him, when Jus suddenly lumbered over to the trail.
“Escalla, we can’t take him with us!”
“Well he can’t stay here. He’ll get eaten.” The faerie gavean expressive shrug. “He’s safest with us.”
With a sigh, Jus acknowledged the point. Finally composed, he unsheathed his sword, the blade long, black, and comfortingly lethal, and walked to the path.
“All right. Have him bring up the rear behind Polk. He can berear guard. You take the point, and I’ll be right behind you.” The Justicarlooked up at the faerie girl. “You got your spells memorized?”
“Sure! And you?”
“Healing, anti-poison…”
“So it’s all hoopy! We go in, kick troglodyte tail, release afew thousand prisoners, catch that murderer, and retrieve the evidence!” Thegirl gave an airy wave of her hand. “What could be simpler?”
The trail seemed long, the chasm deep. Back-lit by volcanic fires, Jus stared down into the depths. “We only have a few days of rations andabout one gallon of water.”
“Don’t worry about it! It’s a
11
Through a darkness so absolute that it hung like velvetfolds, the party descended into the depths of the earth.
It was a well traveled route, a tunnel partly natural and partly carved by hand, that formed a roadway plunging into the heart of the Flanaess. The tunnel floor had been leveled roughly flat, but the jagged roof dipped and soared into vaults and dripping ceilings. A reeking little rivulet led the way ever deeper, twisting left and right, then splashing down into a limestone cave.
The tunnel descended down, down, down… first a hundredyards and then a thousand. Soon all memory of the outer world, all breath of sulphurous air, all light of sun and moon, had almost vanished. The long, cautious descent plunged the party half a mile below the earth. Neither Escalla nor the Justicar suffered from delusions of collapsing walls or crushing roofs. Even so, the sense of so much rock above and the infinite earth to either side made the tunnels seem horribly oppressive.
Finally, a wide limestone cavern opened before the party. Escalla flew with her little light out into a massive void. Long stalactites hung down like spears overhead, while drips of water fed into trickles that joined into the single stream. Jus held up a hand to halt Polk and Private Henry, then lifted his magic light to spill its glow into the cave. The light shone as brilliant as day, flooding into the cave to strike sparks and highlights from countless outcrops of wet stone. While comforting, it was also a trifle blinding.
Escalla swirled up toward the roof and tried to peer down into the maze of shapes below. “Hey, Jus!” she whispered, “there’s a dead guydown here!”
Her voice carried strangely, the strength of it lost amidst muffled echoes. Jus lowered himself down a gigantic limestone shelf and frowned.
“What killed him?”
“Dunno. I can’t see.” Escalla flew to hover above the corpse.“Oh wow! Hey, guys! I see a-
