Ususi said, “It’s another portalbut it is a breach, aided by the Keystone’s power. I’ll see Fallon’s head in a pot for this defilement.”
The mass was not staticit slowly heaved and bulged as if its surface were boiling in slow motion, and creatures inhabited the island. The muck man Marrec had earlier stabbed stood waist deep in a pool of ooze. The portion of his flesh lost in breaking loose from Marrec’s spear was healed with seepage from the island mass. Two more muck men slouched near the light-limned portal. The stench had returned, with a vengeance. Marrec thought they looked like vicious dwarfs dipped in oil and sewage, with wings.
“What’s all the gook those things are standing on?” wondered Marrec.
“A manifestation of the Talontyr’s power over rot and decay,” said Elowen.
“It doesn’t take Talona’s Consort for such a trifle,” slobbered the creature lounging in the slime pool, refuting Elowen’s statement. “It was Anammelech who plucked the Child of Light from this forgotten demiplane easily enough My siblings and I are but extensions of Anammelech’s will. He wants you dead, so our task remains undone.”
The three creatures took to the dark air, swooping toward Marrec.
“That’s just great,” muttered Marrec. He called behind him, “Anammelech, I recognize that name for a reason, right?”
The first creature was upon him before he got an answer. Two claws raked at his stomach, but his armor saved him. The force of the creature’s attack might have pushed him over the side of the root, but the root’s sticky nature held Marrec fast. He felt a tiny surge of satisfaction in realizing that “Anammelech” had miscalculated the utility of his root. Despite his excellent footing, he was still spattered in slime in the wake of the creature’s passage, and the stink assailed his nostrils.
The second creature flew wide past him; he wasn’t its target. The third, the one he had struck before, bore down on him with vengeance in its muddy heart.
” “Ware my reach, creature of dust, or I’ll do more than stick you this time. Flee or perish,” promised Marrec.
“Stick this,” said the slime man, as it cocked back its hand as if holding something.
A green glow emanated from its palm. Its arm came around and it released. A glowing green viscous glob sailed at Marrec. The cleric tried to sidestep, but the throw caught him on the left leg.
He knew pain then. He’d expected the glob to be something akin to the spittle it’d caught him with earlier, but the glowing glob was acid. It was eating away at his clothing and his skin. It was pain.
But pain was something a warrior expected and could overcome. He charged his tormenter, running up the slender root and onto the slowly-roiling surface of the island. The creature could not evade him. With all the power of his enhanced strength and Justlance’s enchanted fervor, he struck at his tormentor and pierced its head. It tried to scream around the shaft of his spear, but only for a moment. A second later it decomposed into slumping ooze, completely devoid of life.
He whirled, trying to see his friends who were still strung out along the length of the root. At the same time, he grabbed up a double handful of the island’s muck and begin to scrub at the burning spot on his leg. He had to neutralize the acid.
One of the creatures hovered just beyond Elowen, who had drawn Dymondheart. It threw an acid glob at the elf similar to the one Marrec was attempting to scrub away, but in a feat of amazing swiftness, Elowen deflected the glob away from her and into the void with the flat of her blade. Dymondheart was a potent weapon indeed. Marrec understood why she hadn’t pulled out her longbow to strike the creature at a distance.
Behind Elowen, Ususi stood incanting, while Gunggari beat away the advances of the last ooze creature who was attempting to dart in and claw Ususi’s face. Gunggari clipped the creature once with his dizheri, sending it into a shallow spiral, but it recovered.
Ususi finished incanting and commanded, “Slumber take you.”
The command had no effect on either of the remaining creatures. They didn’t even flinch.
“They’re not really alive, only animate,” yelled the mage.
The creatures tittered but redoubled their efforts. One gurgled, “We will have more claim to life than you, when we’ve completed the task Anammelech set for us.”
Marrec cursed, ceased scrubbing at the acid on his leg, and cast Justlance. He winged his target, which squealed and dropped away. Moments later, the damage to its wing oozed closed, and it flapped back up, still too afraid of Dymondheart to close with Elowen. Justlance fell out of sight.
Gunggari reached into the haversack and pulled out one of the vials, glinting with red highlights. He hurled it at the creature bedeviling Ususi. The creature evaded, but as the vial flew past, it exploded in flame. The wave front of fire expanded, encompassing the frantically flapping mud creature in an instant, before burning itself out. All that remained of the flame was smoke, and all that remained of the animate ooze was a crumbling form of flash- dried earth, which fell quickly into the unlit silence of the Nadir.
Gunggari said, “I wondered what the ‘Bead of Flame’ might accomplish. Good thing that I did not drink it!” The Oslander grinned at his witticism.
The remaining visible creature, which continued to evade Elowen’s reach, reconsidered its chances. Breaking off, it made a beeline for the glowing exit.
“Don’t let it get away,” yelled Marrec. He wondered what had become of his spear, it wasn’t like the enchanted shaft to take so long to come back “Return, Justlance!” he yelled in frustration.
Elowen drove Dymondheart point first into the root-path with one hand while her other hand simultaneously pulled out her longbow. Problem was, she didn’t have it strung, though she made a valiant effort to quickly pull it
Ususi flipped the latch on the bright yellow wand pouch she wore on her belt, quick-drawing a slender glass rod, also yellow, but translucent.
A sizzle of magic leaped from the wand’s tip, closing the gap between Ususi and the creature in an instant, but the bolt continued past the creaturewho had not been its true targetand impacted the portal. A slab of crystal force sprang up, completely blocking the doorway. The daylight beyond continued to stream through but filtered by the translucent wall to a brilliant gold.
The fleeing creature managed to avoid dashing itself against the newly created wall. It squealed in rage, but instead of turning to face its foes, it winged off into the darkness, snarling threats all the while.
Ususi sheathed her wand in satisfaction. She said, “The Wand of Citrine Force is nearly spent. I like to conserve it… but I did not want that beast warning its master that we were so close.”
Marrec had privately speculated about that wand pouch. He said, “You may have saved us a nasty greeting on the other side. Good thinking.”
Ususi smiled, and Marrec found himself smiling back. She had a good smile, when she chose to flash it.
Justlance sparkled out of emptiness, falling into Marrec’s grasp. “Finally,” he murmured.
“Everyone ok?” wondered Gunggari.
When no one spoke up immediately, Marrec said, “Good. Surprise is hopefully our friend still. Ususi, dismiss your blockade. Fallon can’t be far, and poor Ash with him.”
As Elowen finished stringing her bow, Ususi walked across the oozing surface to the blocked portal. She touched the tip of her wand to it and looked at Marrec. “Ready?” she asked.
Marrec took up a position directly in front of the door. Gunggari was right behind him, and Elowen was off to the side, an arrow strung. He nodded.
Ususi pulled the wand away from the crystal surface. The wall wavered and was gone, as if it had never truly existed. Beyond, Marrec saw the edges of a great forest.
Behind, Elowen said, “It’s the Rawlinswood. Looks like Fallon couldn’t penetrate to its heart in Dun Tharos. We’re lucky.”
Marrec studied the scene carefully. Nothing moved, save branches idly swaying in a breeze. No sound penetrated the portal’s mouth. A great arch of weathered and vine-encrusted stone was visible at the forest’s edge, standing like a great gate. Further in, he thought he spied another. Marrec estimated that the mouth of the portal was not more than twenty feet from the first arch.
“What’re those?” he asked Elowen.
“‘Those’ are the reason I know where we are; I recognize them. They are called the Arches of Xenosi. Sounds scary, but they’re just another ruin claimed by the Rawlinswood.”
