When the party found a suitable campsite and stopped to rest,the only one unhappy with affairs was Benelux. The sword sulked in silence, but no one paid her any attention. The swords ornaments had been made from gold, with an eye for decoration rather than function. Her gold pommel was now gone, and her elaborate golden crossguard was battered and scarred. She finally made a petulant noise and spoke up as Jus laid her out on the ground.
Well? Have you a repair spell? Are you fixing me? I’m inruins! I cannot be seen in public like this!
“We’re fixing you.” Jus sat with the sword over his knees,using an old pair of pliers from his pouch to unfix the weapon’s broken handle.The blade gleamed, its tang white and perfect.
Exposed, Benelux gave a little screech of shock. Sir, I’mnaked! Have you no sense of shame?
“Sorry.” Jus polished the weapon on a piece of black drowcloak. “Just wait a minute.”
Have you the means to fix me?
“Definitely.”
Escalla came tripping innocently over from the portable hole. “We can fix you. Just close your eyes or whatever, and it’ll be a surprise!”
I insist upon fittings suitable to my high station. Thesword gave a sniff. I have appearances to keep.
“Oh boy, have I got a fashion look for you!” The girl held thehilt of Jus’ old skull pommeled sword hidden behind her back. “We’ve got theperfect thing right here!”
Somewhat mollified, Benelux gave a sniff. Will I look dignified?
“It’ll be great!” Escalla gave a shrug as innocent as thedawn. “Trust me. I’m a faerie!”
In the underdark, time never seemed to pass. The water andthe cold, the echoes and the darkness, all blended into a never ending daze. Sleeping and waking came and went unregulated by night and day. The party camped at need on shelves of rock or hid in dripping caves.
Jus and Henry awoke from their latest sleep to find that Escalla had gone.
Her beaver skins lay where she had left them, but her scroll case and staff were missing. Kicking Polk awake, the men arose, packed the bags, and sped into the main tunnel. Several minutes of frantic searching revealed nothing but empty spaces until Jus spied a trail of hardtack crumbs.
In a passageway beside the main tunnel, Escalla sat happily upon a toadstool, fanning her little wings. Surrounding her was a ring of giant ants, each insect fully two feet long, armored and armed with formidable stings. Escalla twined antennae with the leader, laughed, and apparently told a joke that the ants appreciated. She patted them on their shells as the creatures went their way, giving a piece of spider jerky to each one as a parting gift. As the last ants scuttled off, the girl looked around to see Jus, Polk, and Henry gazing at her with hooded, unamused eyes.
Wondering at their expressions, Escalla gave a shrug. “So Ilike bugs!” The girl waved her hands. “Like my magic bees weren’t a clue?”
Jus walked toward the girl, his tread heavy, and gave a tired sigh. “We’ve been looking for you for ten minutes.”
“I was just down here. I gassed out a nest of gremlins forthe ants, and they came to say thank you.” Escalla handed a tiny leg bone toCinders. “Here you go, pooch! Compliments of the chef.”
Mmm! The hell hound mumbled the bone in his mouth.Good gremlin!
Jus sat down beside the girl, unsuccessfully pretending that he had not been worried sick. “Don’t run off alone.”
“It was ants, man! Ants are hoopy!” The girl paused. “Andbees.”
“Escalla.”
“What?” The girl collected herself. “Anyway, the ants saidthere’s some stuff down this corridor to watch out for. Magic using two-leggershave blocked the next junction. Guess it must be drow.”
“They don’t know for sure?”
Raising one brow, the faerie looked as Jus as though he were insane. “Hey! They catch ’em and eat ’em. They don’t interrogate the beggars!”
Jus shook his head. “Nice.”
“They’re ants, man!” Escalla gave a shrug. “Didn’t youever have an ant farm when you were a kid?”
“Why would I want to grow ants?”
“For fun!”
Jus simply looked at her. “Escalla, oversized carnivorousinsects are not fun. Oversized carnivorous insects are alarming.”
“Oh?” Scratching her head, Escalla puzzled over the strangeways of the world. “Eerie!”
Laying the subject aside for now, Escalla produced the indicator needle from her pouch. As always, the needle pointed northwest. This time, however, a faint quiver in the needle made it tickle in Escalla’s hand.The Justicar watched the motion for a moment and then nodded in slow satisfaction.
“Stationary target. Ten-mile range.”
“Really?”
“Really.” Peering through a cave mouth into the mainpassageway beyond, Jus led the way into the gloom. “Let’s get moving.”
Polk followed the Justicar, carefully recording the route. Henry brought up the rear, his crossbow at the ready. Escalla looked over her companions in satisfaction, dusted a speck of lichen from Cinders’ freshlybrushed fur, then flew down to salute the skull-pommeled sword at Jus’ hip.
“How’s life on this beautiful subterranean morning?”
I am not talking to you. The sword was in a most offendedhuff. You tricked me.
“What trick?” Escalla opened her hands, admiring the sword.The wolf-skull pommel, the stark black grips… it all looked wonderfullygrim. “It’s dire, it’s dark, it’s minimalist. It’s a statement! This is a swordfor striking fear into… into… into folk who need to be fear strucken!”The faerie fluttered along beside the sword. “This is your look. Iswear!”
The sword remained indignantly silent.
Unperturbed, Escalla shrugged and flew ahead to scout for danger. As the party moved on, Benelux snorted then muttered in ill temper. Justicar? I am beginning to feel your companion the faerie is perhaps a tad tarnished.
“Yup.” The big man never once took his eyes away fromscanning the gloom. “Tarnished in some ways and surprisingly pure in others.”
Polk snickered, and from the corridor ahead, Escalla’s angryvoice drifted back. “I heard that!”
Cinders gave a brilliant grin. Funny!
Half a mile beyond the ants, the tunnel opened out into agreat echoing cavern filled with ghastly phosphorescent light. A fortified wall ran across the cave, pierced by a gate studded with bronze spikes. Guards patrolled the wall above, and more guards stood at the gate. They were drow-ebony skinned, silver haired, and sinister.
Jus lay flat in cover with Henry at his side, both carefully scanning the distant scene. Behind them, Escalla watched master and student at their work.
“A guard post has at least four times as many soldiers as youcan see.” Jus carefully pointed out the hidden spy holes in the distant wall.“There’s probably thirty drow soldiers with commanders, a priest, and a powerfulsorcerer as back-up.”
Trying to count the drow, Henry bit his lip. “How do we killthem all?”
“No point.” Jus shrugged. “Escalla, what have we got spellwise? You had some scrolls?”
“Yeah. All earth ones. Stone to flesh, flesh to stone, dig,pass wall. That kind of thing.” The faerie patted the scroll case slung acrossher back. “I can make a hole through the wall, but we’d still be seen.”
Behind Jus, Benelux made an irritated little noise and spoke to Polk. The drow city is nearby, and that means there’s work to do. Thesword wriggled unhappily in its sheath. We can’t fight stone walls. I do wishthey’d just find a way to sneak past.
“They’d never consider it! No, it’ll be a frontal attack,blades swinging-courage against all odds!” Polk gave a self important puff ofhis chest. “These people are adventurers. They’re the slayers of Keraptis,conquerors of White Plume Mountain, masters of the underdark!”
Escalla appeared, peeking over Polk’s shoulder as he spoke.“Polk, have you got those gee-gaws we found on the drow guard post back beforethe trogs? You know, those spider amulets?”
“Yes! Yes I do!” Polk had proudly organized the portablehole’s storage space and had inventoried every single item. “Six medallions,black, spider images on the reverse!”
“Hoopy!” Escalla held out her hand. “Pass ’em over! I’m gonnatalk our way past these guards.”
Polk and Benelux gave an almost identical squawk-“Talk?”-but had no choice in the matter.
The faerie led the way into the middle of the cavern. Polk hung at the rear, kicking toadstools. Escalla flew straight up to the drow, tipped them a salute, and presented them with one of the black medallions. Her other hand was behind her back, readying a spell.
A drow passed a detection spell over the girl, seeking to discern whether she was a secret agent of purity and goodness. The spell inevitably came up blank. The drow consulted one another, made a note in a record book, then opened up the gates to let the party through.
Walking past the guards, Polk shot a sidewise look at the dark elves and then glared at the other adventurers.
“That’s it?” the teamster whispered hoarsely. “We’re justwalkin’ though?”
“Yep!” Escalla tied the spider medallion about her neck. Hersuspicions were growing richer. “And the drow were amazingly unsurprised to seea faerie pass them by. How about that?”
“We’re just leaving then?”
“Polk, there are waaay more drow in the world that we havetime to bump off! Now if you want to get to the drow city, just shut up and march.”
The long tunnels were joined now by other paths. A reekingdrow merchant caravan plodded past, guarded by warriors and trailing a swarm of flies. Cinders growled as he passed the drow, and Jus firmly kept the hell hound’s snout pointing toward the walls.
Dark elves glared as the party passed. Escalla nodded and waved in response, her grin staying even as she sweated in fright.
“Oooh, we are going to get so killed!” The drow caravan hadan armed escort of a dozen trolls-massive green creatures that dragged theirknuckles as they walked. Escalla gave them a tinkling little wave. “I’m gonnakick the arse of that Seelie Court when we get home.”
Jus kept a quiet eye on the disappearing drow. He walked slowly and carefully, one hand resting upon Benelux, his eyes spearing every shadow. Above his head, Cinders’ red eyes gleamed as they searched into thedark.
The tunnels were now a well traveled road with the marks of thousands of marching, hopping, or dragging feet. Walls grew farther apart, the glowing fungi seemed deliberately tended, and nightmarish streaks of phosphorescent minerals added their pulsing light. The miles went slowly past, and then quite suddenly the tunnel walls simply disappeared.
Standing in a great, gloomy silence, Escalla, the Justicar, Polk, Cinders, and Private Henry gazed upon the vault of the drow.
It was a vast, empty space in which echoes simply died. A cliff wall soared into unknown distances above, dwarfing the adventurers below. A roof arched upward, disappearing into the distance a thousand yards above, the ceiling’s arc shown by nebulous sprays and swirls of colors stolen from amadman’s dreams.
The caverns stretched for untold miles. Overhead, a great bloated node of minerals stole a lurid glow across the scene. Light the color of blood seeped across the rocks, making each formation shimmer with sickly colors all its own. There were pale blues and acid yellows. Clouds of blue spores drifted from titanic mushrooms that loomed into the sky.
Half hidden in the eerie hush, noises drifted in the gloom: distant night creatures gave screams and cries or wept like children and sighed awful promises. There was no wind. The air never stirred, and the false stars upon the ceiling were dead and cold.
The light made all shapes flat and lifeless and turned familiar colors into startling new hues. Escalla hovered, staring at the hideous kingdom, and her bared skin shone a cadaverous lavender-blue. The Justicar turned to look at her and slowly raised a smile.
“Lavender?” Jus seemed amused. “Heh.”
“Lavender!” Recoiling in panic, Escalla almost expired inshame. She was utterly appalled as she looked at her own usually milk-white flesh. “Lavender! Aww man! What sort of style credibility is lavender?” Escallawhirled, trying to see her rear.
The cave gave an impression of vast, terrifying space, yet the light was dim enough to make vision fail to see more than a few hundred yards. A path of crushed crystal ran out of the tunnel. Overhung with stinking toadstools in which gibbering little creatures lurked, the path shone a horrible violet-blue. Jus stepped cautiously onto the crystals, felt them crunch like bird skulls underfoot, then led the way forward into the emptiness.
The huge, dark figure of the Justicar seemed utterly indestructible. Having hesitated at the threshold, Escalla and Private Henry moved instantly onward in the Justicar’s wake. Simply being near him seemedprotection against the horrors of the unseen. Standing and writing in his book of chronicles, Polk finished a paragraph with satisfaction, looked up to find that he was standing alone, and ran after the other explorers as fast as he could.
A tower loomed above the path-a savage shape framed byimpaled corpses that were gnawed and worried by jabbering creatures of the dark. Lit by stars that were not stars, the carnivorous beasts tore strips of flesh from corpses and cackled as they ate.
The magic sword at Jus’ side stirred softly in its scabbard.Undead.
“I see them.” Jus kept his voice low. “We’re too near thetower to risk killing them.”
Ah. The sword seemed thoughtful. I take it we shallpursue such aims later? If so, I believe I can coach you in appropriate heroic rhetoric.
“I look forward to it!”
A checkpoint barred the road ahead. Drow stood to watch the party approach, while others leaned over the parapets of the tower. A freshly impaled victim still jerked and twitched beside the road, blood pouring out to seep through the glowing crystal path. Jus looked upon the sight and bristled like a vast, dark animal.
“We have a very great deal of work to do.”
Drow soldiers stirred-males left to do the dirty work whiletheir dark sisters indulged their appetites in the tower.
Escalla whirred forward, producing her black medallion for the guards, and announced, “Greetings.”
The senior guard looked at Escalla as though she were filth from underneath a stone. The drow took the medallion, tossed it into a basket, then wiped his hands upon a cloth as though they were suddenly unclean. The elf’s voice, oddly accented, dripped with scorn, soft and sibilant, sweet aspoisoned syrup and utterly foul. “Why have you come?”
It was Escalla’s moment to shine. Dressed in artfully tornblack silks, she arrogantly threw back her long blonde hair and disdainfully looked the dark elf up and down.
“I have business. Business far too complex for a mere elf tounderstand.” The girl flicked a hand toward the other adventurers. “These threehumans are my retainers.”
Escalla very deliberately ran her fingers into her hair, lifting her glorious golden locks. The spider pin gleamed, and the drow instantly stiffened and backed a step away. Weapons wavered and then pointed aside.
“Go.” Looking as though the words choked him, the chief drowmotioned for his men to let the travelers pass. “Go along the right hand path tothe city. Do not deviate.”
“As you wish.” Escalla made a wave as she turned away,muttering beneath her breath. “And a nice day to you, you walking sphincter!”
Followed by her entourage, Escalla began to move away.
As he passed, the Justicar turned, vast and deadly, and looked coldly down at the drow.
“When did a convoy of two hundred slaves pass here?”
The drow sneered.
Escalla snapped an icy glare at the elves. “Answer him.”
Reluctantly, the elf shot a glance at Escalla’s golden hairpin then looked away. “Yesterday. The ceremony will not be for another fourhours. Cross the river to the temple.” The drow wrote a description of thevisitors into a book and slammed the cover shut. “Go. The presence of lowercreatures is offensive.”
Cinders grinned at the very flammable elves, his teeth promising a later meeting, and then Escalla grabbed Jus and dragged him away. As they moved down the road, Escalla let the man’s bulk hide her from the elves.
“I thought they were going to go for you, man. That gold pinsaved the day.”
A dozen armed elves stood by the roadside, crowding close enough to be threatening, their weapons only just pointed aside. Escalla led the way ahead of her retainers, giving a cold, disdainful sniff toward the watching elves. She whispered to her friends as they passed slowly through the gauntlet toward the open mushroom fields.
“It’s all right. Just be natural.” Escalla glared coldly at adrow who stood watching her pass beside a huge alarm gong. “We’re evil. We eatbroken glass and wire for breakfast. We do bad things to woodland wildlife.”
Bum elves now! Funny!
“Pooch, be good, or I’ll smack your nose!”
Walking past the drow, Jus came level with the faerie. “Theyhave a ceremony planned. The traitor faerie is probably involved somehow.”
Escalla kept her face neutral in case the elves were watching. “I know that, Jus. Great! So we’re heading for their maintemple?”
“Looks like it.” The Justicar settled his armor across hisshoulders. “We can’t get back out the same tunnel we used to get here. Any ideahow we find a route to the surface once we’re done?”
“No idea in the world.” Escalla seemed amazingly unconcerned.“Let’s just wing it. We’ll figure something out!”
The Justicar shot a look at the girl, who replied with an open little shrug, “Trust me. I’m a faerie!”
The road took a bend around an outcrop of rock. Safely out of sight of the guards at last, Escalla breathed a sigh of relief and whirred down to stand encircled by her friends. She pulled out the locator needle, which now bucked like a beetle dancing a country jig. The needle pointed northeast, toward the farthest reaches of the drow cavern. Henry, Polk, Jus, and Cinders joined the girl in bending over the needle in thought.
“All right, so the slowglass is here. Maybe the murderer iseven here.” Escalla sat down on the gravel with a frown. “Now we ask why. Jus,you’re the investigator guy.”
The Justicar turned to look over the vast reaches of the drow homeland. The venous light made distances impossible to judge. To either side of the roadway, forests of titanic toadstools loomed, the dark spaces alive with horrible, cautious movements.
The drow city was to the north, miles away and unseen, yet spreading a dark presence and a spreading scent of blood. The Justicar, apparently unafraid, rested his hand upon his sword and gazed toward the drow citadel.
“Tell me: Lolth was an ally of a faerie goddess, the Queen ofWind and Woe?”
“Oh, it’s not a happy story.” Escalla flew up to perch uponthe ranger’s shoulders, resting her elbow upon Cinders’ furry skull. “Ancienthistory. A faerie sorceress slew a god and stole his power, then began to carve an empire through half a dozen planes. The fallout split the faerie races-mostof them for the worse. Pixies and other species are all our degenerate cousins.”Escalla made a disapproving face. “Anyway, Clan Nightshade trapped her, and it’snothing to be all that proud of. We were on her side, then turned coat and betrayed her. I mean, she was out of her mind. Guess the ancestors figured she had to go before it went too far.” The girl wasted little time apologizing forfaerie kind; she rarely met a faerie that she liked. “Anyway, she was too toughto take out in combat, so they tricked her. Turns out there’s a Clan Nightshadetrait for being tricksters or something.”
Jus pulled at his nose. “I hadn’t noticed.”
“Yeah, well, it got the faerie goddess sealed in Pandemonium,and only Clan Nightshade knows where to find the key.” The faerie shrugged.“It’s been about, aaah, twenty thousand years since she went in the box. Iimagine the old wench is a tad pissed at us by now.”
Nodding slowly, the Justicar absently stroked his friend’sfeet with one hand. “By killing your fiance, someone’s trying to delay yourclan’s acceptance back into faerie society.”
Listening intently, Private Henry blinked from one partner to the other. “Because they have their own plans to release the Faerie Queen ofWind and Woe?”
Escalla looked at Jus. Jus looked at Escalla, and Polk looked at no one in particular. The faerie girl blankly nodded in agreement as she ran the thought through her head. “Sounds like you got it, Hen!”
“What would happen?” Henry shrugged in confusion at hisfriends. “If she got out, I mean, would it be bad?”
Escalla looked at Jus then turned around, looking a wee bit pained. “Um, in her time, this bitch took on whole pantheons-and that was beforeshe had twenty thousand years to spend getting really vindictive.”
“Oh.” Henry blinked, unsure whether he had actually beengiven an answer. “Not good?”
“Oh, definitely not good!”
Everyone looked northward toward the city of the drow. Thin, distant screams carried in the air, a moaning sob that made everyone’s hairstand on end. Escalla wilted, looking north, and was dead certain that she was not about to enjoy her day.
“All right, so someone is looking to unleash the Faerie Queenof Wind and Woe. The only way to do that is to seize the Nightshade key.”
Watching the darkness, Jus loosened his sword. “How would anenemy seize the key?”
“It’s hidden in an energy pocket. Take a real planet busterof a spell to retrieve it! Even then, the key’s useless until you activate it.You need Nightshade’s ruling family to do it. The key has two eyes. Each eyefaces a different way. Each eye has to simultaneously see one of us-atrue member of the ruling family beckoning it to open. And an illusion spell instantly sets off an alarm.” The girl shrugged. “Even if one of us was loonyenough to try it, you’d never get a second member of the family to go along.”
“Yes.”The Justicar nodded. “But if you used slowglass, couldyou record a visual image and play it back into 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.”