Eight: Chapter 19

I didn’t have far to go before the passage curved into another series of shallow terraces, each a foot or two feet below the previous. It was like walking down an elegant staircase meant for giants.

I heard the river before I saw it. The tunnel opened into another chamber, this one about thirty yards deep and an unknown distance wide. To the left, the cave wall was riddled with holes, all well above where I could reach. An underground river flowed in front of me, the water rumbling as it dove under the wall. To the right, a natural stone bridge crossed to the river’s other side, and beyond that the room was swallowed by darkness.

I moved forward carefully, scanning for danger, then used the candlestone to make sure there weren’t any predators in the water before cupping some in my hands to sniff. I put a couple of drops on my tongue. It tasted clean, like newly fallen snow. After a relieved sigh, I drank my fill.

My whole world was renewed. I was still trapped underground with zombies and who knew what else, but at least I wasn’t going to die of thirst. It also eased the hunger pains that had been troubling me. I cleaned out the water skin and refilled it.

Next, I explored my side of the river, but the bank ended when it curved into another wall. The other side of the river continued, though, so I went back to the bridge and crossed over. This side of the bank opened like a V, widening as I walked, and it was another forty yards before I found the river’s source: a small waterfall pouring from a hole high in the wall.

I checked, but there wasn’t a cave behind the falls. I did, however, find a tunnel to the left of it leading out of the chamber—and I nearly jumped out of my skin when I saw the corpse of a large cat blocking the way. My first instinct was to spear it through the heart, which I did in a frenzy. I got two stabs in before I realized it wasn’t responding.

Click.

The cat was dead, but not a zombie. There wasn’t much flesh left either. It had a thick, square skull that looked about the size of a mountain lion’s. The bones around its shoulders were reinforced, with five protrusions that likely connected to the jumble of small bones on the ground beside the corpse. The bones seemed to fit together with bits of ligament and muscle to form a tentacle, and at the end of each tentacle was a flat claw, sharp as a razor.

Well, this creature was likely what had killed Biaka and Akbash, and it gave me the willies something fierce. Looking closer, I saw that the rib bones around the creature’s heart were caved in, and the core was missing.

I didn’t find a mace or hammer on either of the zombies I’d encountered thus far. Did they have compatriots who’d survived the encounter, or were they zombies too, still wandering the tunnels? Perhaps it was another creature, one even fiercer than the cat, who’d killed it?

Resolving to be careful either way, I scavenged the claws, then gave the dead murder cat my thanks for its gifts.

The next chamber was shaped like a balloon, with me at the narrow end. In the room’s center, a collection of stalactites descended like pipes. Below them, a single broad stalagmite rose; it made the whole arrangement look like a cathedral organ. To the right of the organ was a pool of still water. There were puddles everywhere. The sound of dripping water echoed off the walls.

Halfway to the organ, I spotted three bodies at the room’s far end: a man, a woman, and something that looked like a giant boar. The man sat with his back against the wall. The woman was beside him with her head leaning on his shoulder. The boar was seated on his other side, like a faithful companion.

None of the zombies moved. I was a good twenty yards away, though, and the light from the candlestone barely touched them. Maybe I had to be closer for them to sense me or it?

Another tunnel’s entrance sat just to the left of the zombies. There were also shards of broken stone all around them. Even the wall behind the zombies looked like it was riddled with cracks. No, not cracks. It had somehow been assembled from boulders and stones; the surface was speckled with bits of glass glinting, even in the candlestone’s dim light.

The assemblage had been fused together. It had previously been another exit, but was now blocked.

Were Woldec and Kiertie sealed in, or had they sealed themselves in? Because that was what it looked like to me, and the feat had been done with magic. I didn’t know how else someone could have gotten that mishmash of debris to mesh together so well.

Unfortunately, I’d have to go through the three zombies to investigate further, or even to use the tunnel to the left. The only other route open to me was to backtrack: to go back to the large room with the deep drop—that whole area was still unexplored.

I weighed the options in my mind, but three considerations convinced me to stay and fight. The first was my lack of rope, the second was a sense of obligation to the dead, and the third was much more selfish: the zombies likely had gear I’d want. I hated thinking like that, but practical needs required practical solutions.

From behind the pipe organ, I readied Cold Snap and nocked an arrow. A deep breath. A long exhale. I drew the bow, and released.

The arrow hit Kiertie in her right hip, and the zombie stirred and pushed herself to standing. The movement was clumsy, as something appeared to be wrong with her feet. That disturbed Woldec’s zombie, and he started to get up as well, which then disturbed Basa the Javelina.

“Bad pull,” I muttered while I nocked a second arrow. I shot at Kiertie again, but it turned out that the threat of three zombies was stressful—I rushed the shot, and the arrow flew wide.

I winced when it struck against the stone wall. I was saving my magic for spells and hadn’t enchanted my arrows beforehand. The second arrow was likely ruined as a result, the flint broken and the shaft compromised.

Kiertie, instead of rushing at me like the other zombies, took the time to pick up a short spear on the ground before approaching. It was only about five feet long, but its spearhead looked plenty sharp. Woldec had an ax in his hand, but he stood in place, not looking to move any time soon. The only one to charge was the javelina.

I dropped my bow, picked up my spear, and ran back the way I’d come. I’d only managed a handful of steps when my feet slid on a patch of wet stone and sent me tumbling. The fumble saved my life. A stone spike shot up from the ground where I’d been running. I looked back in a panic and saw Woldec approaching now, the air around him shimmering.

A magic zombie? It must’ve been the Earth-Touched talent in his Status at work.

I felt wronged. Deeply wronged. Zombies weren’t supposed to have magic powers. What they were supposed to be was mindless and shuffling—not that I knew anything about real zombies, just the movie ones.

I scrambled upright and ran in a zig zag to avoid more earth spikes. A needle of stone shot past my shoulder and shattered against the wall.

Damn it. He’s got a second ranged attack.

The javelina should’ve caught up by now. I glanced back and saw her ten yards behind, blindly stumbling into a stalagmite.

What? Ah, there’s a slash across her eyes.

Basa got back up, and her head swiveled until she pointed in my direction. Whatever she was using to sense me, it apparently didn’t register the obstacles in her way. Meanwhile, Kiertie moved with a stutter; her gait was impeded by the arrow in her hip, as well as whatever was wrong with her feet. Woldec also moved slowly, but that didn’t stop him from summoning a length of stone from a nearby wall. I dodged when he flung it at me.

Woldec was the most dangerous of the three. If I took him out, I was sure I could handle the others. It just had to be done quickly, before his slower friends caught up.

I dodged the moment I saw him cock his arm back to throw another stone spear, and it shattered behind me. My candlestone swung wildly as I zig zagged toward him. Woldec changed tactics, and earth spikes shot up from the ground. The magic was too slow, though, so the spears rose up behind me each time.

My spear punctured his belly. I’d missed the heart and was pulling back for another try when he dropped his ax and drew a hunting knife from its scabbard at his belt. With his free hand, he shot a cluster of pebbles at my face. They stung, and my vision went blurry, but there was no time to fuss with clearing the debris from my eyes. I drew my own stiletto and threw myself at him, trusting the adrenaline coursing through me to power my strike.

No. Fighting the little plant horrors showed me adrenaline wasn’t enough. I needed more. I poured qi into my muscles, and the stiletto punched through his jacket and into his chest. My hand searched inside, and quickly pulled his core free.

The javelina’s straight tusks flashed past, missing me and Woldec’s corpse both. I cleared the dirt from my eyes just in time to see Kiertie lunge with her spear. I fell back in surprise, and the weapon passed over me. I didn’t know what else to do, so I grabbed the spear. Pulling it from her hands didn’t work—the leverage was all wrong, even with my qi-and-adrenaline-fueled muscles.

It was my turn to change tactics. I dropped Woldec’s core and used Kiertie’s spear to stand up; I stuck close to her, so that she couldn’t use the point against me. I was in the process of drawing my second stiletto when she surprised me by dropping her spear. Before I could react, she reached out to claw at my face with hands that were more skeleton than flesh.

I ducked to get away from her, so she grabbed me instead, hugging me tight and trapping me against her rotting body. Basa, in the meantime, was charging again. Kiertie put me between them, setting the javelina up to gore me in the back.

I struggled and fought, but Kiertie was stronger than me. I stabbed her with the stiletto, yet sticking her in the torso did no good. I craned my neck to see what was happening behind me. Basa was close and had her tusks aimed straight for me.

What I wouldn’t have given for a Grease spell. Anything to throw off her aim!

Ah! But maybe I had the next best thing. Cold Snap didn’t come to mind easily, but I’d practiced it and the other runes relentlessly. The spell turned the water puddling the stone floor to ice, which sent the javelina slipping uncontrollably into me. The three of us went tumbling in a tangle of limbs and bodies.

I was still gored, but the tusks hit me in the leg instead of the back. I held onto my stiletto in the confusion and stabbed Kiertie between her ribs again and again. I must’ve finally nicked her core, because she stopped moving.

Basa stood and shook herself. I scrambled away trying to dodge the next attack, but she nicked my left arm.

The initial shock of my injuries passed, and my leg started to burn. My arm soon followed. I put both out of my mind as I focused on Basa turning toward me. I didn’t trust my ability to engage the javelina in close quarters, but… but… maybe I wouldn’t have to.

I ran toward the chamber’s entrance, putting the pipe organ between me and Basa’s next charge. Predictably, the javelina ran into the giant stalagmite, giving me the breathing room I needed to reach the room’s entrance. At her next charge, I ducked inside the tunnel and sprinted—there were no obstructions other than the murder cat’s corpse—until I reached the water, then spun around with only a couple of seconds to spare. It was just enough time to leap aside, and the javelina plunged into the water behind me.

Basa struggled, pulled downstream by the current. I followed alongside to make sure she wouldn’t be able to come ashore, and she didn’t. She disappeared under the wall and was gone.

Relieved, I plopped down and cast Healing Water onto my waterskin; the mana rushed through me to bring the spell into the world. As I poured the water onto my wounds, I saw that the chain links protecting my heart were scored. In the rush of events, I hadn’t noticed that Woldec had tried to stab me with that hunting knife of his.

My hands started to shake then, the adrenaline wearing off, but I made sure not to spill any of the Healing Water. All of it went onto my wounds. It was too bad the stuff only lasted for a few minutes. If not, I would’ve kept gallons of it on hand.

My leg and arm still hurt, but the bleeding had stopped and the danger of infection passed. That was what mattered most. I was out of gas, though, both mentally and physically. The fight hadn’t been long, but it was intense and at the end of an already exhausting day. My magical reservoirs were empty too. The qi and mana I’d recovered had all gone into the fight and the healing spell.

Rest. I need a safe place to rest and recover.

I got up and stumbled across the bridge over the river, back toward the bat cave and the narrow tunnel that led to Biaka. I crawled inside with the intention of meditating there, but I ended up falling asleep instead.

I woke in the dark, blurry-eyed and reaching for the alarm that wouldn’t shut up. A moment of disorientation later, I remembered I was trapped underground. The alarm was a room full of singing bats. I was sore, hungry, thirsty, and needed to pee.

Problem #4 was easy to take care of—in a corner of the bat cave—and at the underground river, I refilled my water skin and cast Healing Water again. That didn’t help with the soreness, but it did ease the lingering pain from my injuries. As for food, I considered hunting a bat, but decided to save that for a last resort. I’d wait a little longer if I could.

I found Kiertie and Woldec where I’d left them. There was still a good amount of flesh on their bones, and they weren’t cut up like the others. Instead, they had the remnants of burns on the tops of their heads and the bottoms of their feet, like they’d both been struck by lightning. Kiertie also appeared to have had one of her feet ripped off—the left foot was missing entirely, the pant leg torn and bloody.

The ground and ceiling around them also looked melted. The same was true for the assembled wall behind them. I even found traces of fulgurite on it, the stuff that sometimes shows after lightning strikes sand and rocks.

Giant baboons, murder cats, magic zombies, and now something that tosses lightning around like it’s nothing. This isn’t an easy world you have here, Diriktot.

I pushed, but there was no way I’d be able to get through the wall. Not only were the component stones joined tightly together, the seams were fused.

As I’d feared, my stray arrow was ruined, the flint arrowhead snapped and the shaft cracked. The only things salvageable were the orange feather vanes.

At five feet long, Kiertie’s spear was a little cumbersome for me, but it was so much better than my homemade one. I couldn’t not upgrade. Her clothes were mostly whole too, ignoring the left leg and the holes where I’d stabbed her, but I could patch those with a bit of time and fine cordage. I scavenged her clothes, replacing the shirt and jacket I’d gotten from Biaka. They were too big for me, so I had to roll up the sleeves and use the armor to keep them in place.

She also had a candlestone, cloak, belt, water skin, small knife, pouch, seven small silver coins, and a silver brooch in the shape of an eagle. The brooch had two small emerald chips for eyes. As near as I could tell, none of it was magic except for the candlestone.

As for Woldec, I took his hunting knife. The blade was eight inches long and two inches wide. The hilt was wrapped in leather, and there were a deer’s antlers engraved into the base. He also had a small knife on his belt, and I added it to my growing collection. His ax was better than the one I’d gotten from Biaka, but I didn’t want to leave either of them behind.

At this point, I had five knives in addition to my stilettos. Each was a treasure and represented hours and hours of work saved. I was thanking the dead for these and the other gifts when I noticed the backpack sitting in the corner. It was on its side, like it’d been thrown there. Unashamedly, I scurried over as fast as my legs could carry me.

The leather was well worn and soft from use. The stitching was tight, though, and the pack appeared to have been well cared for. The main pouch was buckled closed, and there were two side pouches with leather ties. It was beautiful, just beautiful, and looked even better after I cleaned out the rotten food.

There was more coinage inside, three small silver coins and one large silver one, a rolled-up map, and a small rod that looked to be made of either bone or antler. It was five inches long and etched with a series of long wavy lines.

A wand? That’d be the perfect loot for an encounter with a wizard, even if he was a zombie.

I spun a line of qi into the rod, but didn’t find a rune. The candlestone had needed mana, so I tried that next, and a flame lit at the rod’s other end: a firestarter. When I put the rod down, the flame went out. When I picked it up, the flame restarted.

Okay, it wasn’t a wand of magic missiles, but a bit of convenience was nice too.

I didn’t spot anything else magical in nature. Whatever Woldec had used to bend earth to his will hadn’t left any traces behind.

As for the map, it was just six inches by six inches, drawn on vellum with black ink. It showed a cave entrance leading down to a balloon-shaped chamber, and two passages stretching away from it. Only one of the passages was sketched, and it led to another room, this one circled in red ink.

It wasn’t much of a map, but it did confirm there was an exit on the other side of the assembled wall. I went back for a second look, just in case I had missed something, but there didn’t appear to be any gaps, nor was it feasible for me to break through. I’d break bones trying.

I’d have to find another way out of this cave system. Maybe over by the red room? Which, from the way it was emphasized on the map, had been the group’s destination. There weren’t any labels, but with how heavy the ink was penned, I could practically feel the title case being applied: it was the Red Room.

I didn’t see any picks or other mining tools among the zombies, though. What had they been after?

Well, I’d find out soon enough.

The backpack was too big for me, but there was no way I’d leave it behind, or any of the other loot. I took the time to jury rig straps to hold my bow and both of the new axes. I also made sure I could drop the pack quickly when needed. It was cumbersome and would throw off my balance in a fight.

And finally, there was one last thing to take from Kiertie:

And from Woldec:

The darklight around his core had already dispersed after cracking against the stone floor. Also unlike the others, which had been grains, his silverlight surprised me by being in the shape of a single nugget. Absorbing it, there was the feeling of ice running through my veins—of a cold winter morning, clear skies, and the chill of the deep earth. I could almost taste the loamy soil.

I nearly dropped my new pack. What was I taking from these people? It wasn’t their spirits or souls, I knew that, but silverlight clearly had some kind of spiritual base. I didn’t think it’d be taboo—not with Ikfael having told me it was okay—but not everything considered acceptable by society would be okay with me. There were cultures in my old world that used to practice slavery and cannibalism, after all.

The System didn’t think I was doing anything wrong. In fact, it encouraged me.

And then another notification popped up.