Descent into the Depths of the Earth

the eye?”

Escalla froze. Suddenly she looked quite sick and tired.

“Oh great.” Her antennae dropped as the thought struck homelike a soiled knife. “Oh, that’s just frazzin’ great!” Escalla kicked atoadstool over, sending the fungus cap flying off into the dark. “Slowglass! Ithought they were giving it to me just because it was expensive.” The girl sworelike a teamster.

As a teamster himself, Polk could only blink in surprise at her technical knowledge and take a pull from his magic whiskey flask. “Girl, nowhold on! Don’t stand there jawin’! It’s fate! Destiny! You were meant tobe here!”

The Justicar glowered down at Polk through lowered brows. “Don’t get startedon predestination, Polk!”

“But it has to be destiny!” The teamster opened his hands,appalled that his chosen heroes could fight against tradition so constantly. “And what’s predestination got to do with it? Did you make that up of your ownfree will?”

“Polk!” Escalla snapped as she paced angrily up and down. “Nophilosophy with the Justicar. You’ll burn out your brain!” Escalla paced,angered, agitated, and seething with energy. She’d been had, and the thought ofbeing duped had set her aflame. “Let’s say we’ve got a murder plot that’s partof an attempt to free the faerie goddess. They haven’t won yet. We can stillbust up the works.” Escalla shook her head bitterly. “Breaking into the key’shiding place… a spell that size requires a ton of energy. I mean a hugeamount of energy.” The girl never once took her eyes from the north. “I’mgetting a real bad feeling about what all those captured Keolanders are for.”

21

After several hours of walking, the darkness ahead finallybegan to resolve into a single, massive wall.

A city nearly filled the northern sector of the cavern, a city of pus-white walls encrusted with strange minerals. The walls glowed like a corpse glimpsed sinking in the murky depths-a pale shape, cold and unwholesome,that sent a shudder through the soul.

The city towers rose hundreds of feet into the air. There were sky bridges and spires, tall spines capped with impaled corpses, and buildings fashioned into leering demon masks. The walls of the city seemed to shift and move, as though pulsing with living, corrupted blood.

A city. There would be thousands of drow, any number of them capable of casting spells to root out an intruder. Escalla stared uneasily. Beside her, Jus stood and gazed upon the city in cold appraisal.

After a moment, the Justicar looked at the locator needle. It pointed northeast past the eastern edge of the city and toward the rear cavern wall. Collecting his friends, he moved off to the east, skirting the city walls and keeping carefully to the cover of toadstool groves.

Agog, Polk hurried forward and pointed toward the city. “We’re not goin’ in?” The man seemed disappointed. “I thought we were going in.”

Jus looked down at the irritating little man and scowled. “Polk, we are not tourists.”

“But it would look good in the chronicle! How can I tellpeople we almost reached the city of the drow?”

Escalla glowered at Polk then removed the man’s hat and peered inside. “Polk,I think this thing is restricting the blood supply to your brain.”

“Eh?”

“Nothing.” Escalla replaced the hat and pulled it down tight. “If you’re thatkeen on entering the place, be my guest.”

“You’re not going to come?”

“Polk, I’ll kiss a duck before I put my silken little faerie butt insidethose city walls.”

Jus kept the walls in sight, following them for almost a mile until they finally curved away toward a great pale cliff. Flowing between the city and the cliff face, there was a black river, its water gleaming like liquid metal in the hideous light.

Jus ducked into cover and looked carefully at the cliff and the plateaus above the city. Escalla joined her friend’s side, checked thelocator needle, and pointed up the cliff.

“There. Real close. The needle’s going mad.”

“Then that’s it.” Jus looked at the cliff face on the far side of the river.“We’ll head to the cliff face, climb it, and bypass the city.”

Listening in, Polk tugged at his collar then stuttered forward in fright.

“So son, ah, did the river just happen to escape you? The black river? Theevil, black, sinister, underground river?”

Shooting a sidewise look at Polk, Jus raised his brows. “Don’t like gettingwet?”

“Son! Big things with teeth live in rivers-especially in underground rivers!”

“I thought fighting toothy things was heroic, Polk?”

“Not when it’s in the water!” Polk stamped his foot. “As senior tacticaladvisor, I’m putting my foot down.”

Jus looked at the man, feeling tired, then pointed at the forest of toadstools all around them.

“We’re going to float over on a mushroom cap, Polk. Only an idiot swimsrivers in the underdark.”

“Oh.” Polk sniffed, then decided to take a look at a gianttoadstool. “Well all right them. Good to see my advice is always followed.”

“Right.” Jus wearily waved his party onward. “Come on. We’llget out of sight of the city walls.”

This was Jus in his element. He led his companions stealthily down toward the shore, selected a giant toadstool as a boat, and unsheathed his sword. Benelux made a glad battle cry and flashed brilliantly with light, only to see the entire party scowling at her in annoyance.

The sword hurriedly shut off its light and said, Sorry.

Jus grunted in reply and tipped the toadstool over, severing the stalk where it joined the cap and making a paddle by carving the stalk with two long swipes of the hideously sharp sword. He pushed everyone in and paddled the makeshift raft into the water. The river wasn’t wide and was soon crossed.

Jus left his companions standing and staring in amazement as he attacked the cliff face with astonishing speed. The man moved like a mountain goat, lunging upward from crag to crag. When a spider the size of a cat lunged out of a crevice at him, the ranger pulped it with one single massive blow of his fist. Watching admiringly from below, Escalla could only shake her head in love and pride.

“Oh man, he is so harsh!”

Finally, a rope came spilling from above. Jus’ magicrope-taken from another enemy in a far distant place- lengthened and spilled tothe ground. Henry and Escalla looked at one another in agreement, then chased Polk up the rope. It was no easy task.

At the top of the cliff, Polk fumed and glared, looking at Escalla in hurt betrayal.

“No need to push! I was going!”

“Yep, and now you’re here.” Escalla hovered where she couldkeep an eye on Henry as he climbed. “Hey, Cinders! See anything?”

Cave. Lots drow. The black hell hound skin gleamedbeneath the dim, hellish lights. Smell spiders.

“Spiders. Great.” Escalla needlessly gave help to Henry asthe boy crossed the cliff’s edge. “That sounds real fun.”

Puzzled, the Justicar scowled. “I thought you liked bugs?”

“I’m starting to get an overdose.” The faerie made a face indisgust. “Face it, man, this arachnid diet you’ve had me on just isn’t good foranybody.”

Cinders’ nose pointed north. Across the flat plateaus, dimshapes of towers could be seen, each one swimming with eerie lights. Keeping low, the party sped northward, hugging ripples in the cave floor and moving in