Grinning a big placatory grin, Escalla backed slowly away.Quite suddenly she gave the vampire a friendly little wave.
“Um, hello! Look, I’m just having a look. Didn’t touch athing, I swear! So I’ll just be on my way now. Sorry to have bothered you.”
The vampire came toward her, and Escalla’s antennae drooped.
“Aaaw, come on! I’m just a snack for you! You keep eatinglike this between priests and you’ll get all fat and bloated!”
Lean as a strand of wire, the vampire bared his fangs. Claws shot from the ends of his fingertips as the last of his body coalesced from the swirling mists.
With a pop, Escalla instantly changed form.
“Look, I’m a skunk, a talking skunk!” Now a pink and lavenderfemale skunk, Escalla waved her tail. “One more step and I do the musk thing!Yeah! Pow!” The skunk retreated as the vampire continued his slow,deliberate advance. “You guys do have a sense of smell, don’t you? Comeon, man, I’m serious! One step closer and you’re gonna reek like the dead! Justlike the dead…” The skunk suddenly looked a little anxious. “Then again,you already are dead. Oh, damn!”
Radiating a lifeless cold, the vampire spread his claws wide and gave a feral hiss. Quavering, Escalla changed herself into a spiny sea urchin and enthusiastically waved her prongs.
“Look, I’m all spiky! You’ll pierce your lips if you try tobite! Definitely a stupid meal!” Seeing the vampire still coming toward her,Escalla changed herself into a floating rock. “Whups! Silicon life form! Look!No blood, I swear!”
A vampire claw ripped past her. The rock that was Escalla screamed and dodged aside. She turned back into faerie form, back-flipped, and then ricocheted from the ceiling as the vampire slashed at her with blinding speed. After an evasive somersault, Escalla hung hovering in the air, gleefully readying her last remaining battle spell.
“Oh yeah? You think you’re pretty tough?” The whole dungeonlit up as brilliant sparks arced between the faerie’s hands. “Well suck onthis you undead yo-yo!”
Escalla screamed with laughter as sorcerous power blasted into life between her palms!
“Lightning bolt, attack!”
A blast of electricity stabbed out from the faerie’s palms,sheeting the entire tunnel with light. The lightning bolt blasted into the vampire, arcing out to snake coils of power all across the floor and walls. Escalla fluttered her wings in triumph as. she saw her enemy ripped apart by the spell.
“Escalla! Escalla!” The Justicar’s booming voice drifted fromacross the cavern. “What’s going on?”
The hole blown through the vampire simply closed itself. Scarcely even ruffled, the creature resolidified from mist.
“Oops!” Escalla’s face fell, and she hovered in midair. “Look,about that ‘undead yo-yo’ thing…”
Furious, the vampire flexed his talons. Clearing her throat, Escalla steepled her fingers and became the soul of calm.
“Look, let’s be reasonable about this. I’m sure we can bothcome to a mutually advantageous-”
With a scream of wild hunger, the vampire attacked. He ripped the air with his talons, missing Escalla by the barest fraction of an inch. Fluttering madly back and forth, the girl screeched in panic as the creature howled for her soul.
“Jus! Jus, there’s a vampire here!”
The answer came echoing back past the sound of geyser steam.
“Don’t let it touch you!”
“Don’t let it touch me!” Escalla roared as she dodgedvampire’s claws. “What kind of damned fool advice is that?” The faerie tried tolunge between the vampire’s feet, only to have a claw smash into the stone andblock her path. “Six foot four, shaven headed, and the brains of a dead ant!”
Escalla tried to dodge past the vampire and into the corridor that led to her friends. The fanged monstrosity blocked her every move, snatching at her with claws that seemed to rip the heat from the air.
“Jus, I could use some help here!”
“Hold on! I’m coming!”
The vampire whipped his head about and gave an ululating cry. From the little crevices and shadows hidden in the corridors, a chittering, squealing horde of bats came whirling through the air. They descended about the Justicar in an enraged black cloud, blinding him with their wings. The ranger cursed, shielded his eyes, and retreated as he swatted at the bat clouds with his hands.
Hissing as he summoned his winged minions to harass the Justicar, the vampire’s instant of distraction gave Escalla an opening. The girlhurled herself backward into the pitch black room from whence the vampire must have come. Hitting the magical zone of blackness, Escalla’s magic lightinstantly flared and failed, breaking both spells but plunging the room into utter darkness.
“Oh, great!”
The darkness seemed less complete-merely a “bowels of theearth” darkness as opposed to the “magical spell” kind. Escalla shot up to thedoor lintel, licked, slapped her hand on the stone, then hovered a few feet behind the frame of the door.
“Yoooo-hooooo! Hey, fang boy! Nice coffin! Wanna bet Ican break it?”
The vampire whirled.
Escalla twiddled her fingers at the creature and waved in mock friendliness. “What, you’re so lame you can’t even take down a faerie?”
With a snarl, the vampire lunged for Escalla’s throat. He passed beneath the portal, and a massive crash of force pounded downward from the sphinx’s parchment stuck above the doorframe. The vampire spun anddropped like a stone, lying stunned and twitching weakly on the floor.
Leaping in utter glee, Escalla gave a screech of victory.
“Yes! I did it! He’s out like a light!”
With the bats dispersing, Jus answered the faerie’s cry. “What? You stunned it?”
“With the sphinx’s papyrus-thingie! Wham! One in, onedown!” Escalla weaved back and forth, boxing at shadows. “Pow! You betterwatch yourself if you try takin’ on this faerie!”
“It won’t hold for long!” Jus bellowed across the geysercave. “You’ll have to kill the vampire while he’s down!”
Having changed shape into a large firefly to light the room, Escalla blinked and looked down at the vampire.
“Kill it! How? I just used my last major spell!”
“What spells do you still have?”
“Ummm, lessee…”The firefly ticked its list of spells offon its feet. “Um, two magic missiles, a sleep spell, web spell, a stinkingcloud, and Tensor’s floating disk!”
“Floating what?”
“Disk! It levitates stuff! I wanna use it to haul all mytreasure out of the dungeon!” Escalla hovered over a long wooden box in themiddle of the square room. “Hey, he has a coffin in here!”
In the geyser cave, Jus retreated as a lethal blast of steam shot up through the mud. There was no way to cross the chasm in the few scant minutes Escalla had left.
“Escalla, listen to me! Use a magic missile! Hurry! Blast hiscoffin and use a sliver of the wood as a stake!”
The man cocked his head, Cinders helpfully lending his own keen hearing as the girl’s voice drifted back through the steam.
“Wood slivers? What, you want me to kindle a fire?”
“No!” Jus leaned over the ledge to give his voice an extraounce of force. “Hammer the stake through his heart!”
“No way!”
“Just do it! Hurry!”
“But I’m a girl!” Escalla wailed. “I’m a faerie! Blood’llsplurt over my dress!”
“Just do it!” Jus felt a thrill of fright as though thevampire was already reaching for the girl. “Hurry, before it wakes up!”
A flash came from the distant tunnel. Seconds later, there was a revolting sound of hammering, and Escalla’s wail managed to carry acrossthe intervening yards.
“Eeeeew! Eeeeeew-ick! I can’t believe you’remaking me do this!”
Jus helplessly clenched his sword.
“Is it done?”
“Yes, damn it! I staked him, and there’s black guck all overme! Are you happy now?”
Jus breathed out a deep sigh of relief, swapped a brief look with Polk, and felt Cinders happily wagging his tail.
“She did it.”
Whack in heart! Splat splat splat! Cinders dwelt on thecool sound effects and jiggled in glee. Stick bad monster again!
“Yeah, time to finish it.” The Justicar turned back to bellowout across the open cave. “Escalla?”
“Yeah?”
“The vampire’s out, but he’s not dead. To kill it, you haveto do something more.”
“What now?”
Jus stood at the edge of the mud and folded up his arms. Smiling, he shouted, “Now turn into a big rat or something and gnaw off hishead!”
There was a long moment’s pause.
Spattered with goo and utterly unamused, Escalla appeared at the ledge opposite the Justicar’s perch.
“You have got to be kidding.”
“Just do it!”
“No way, no where, no how!” Escalla met Jus eye to eye andplanted her fists upon her skinny hips. “You want someone’s head gnawed off, youcome over here and do it!”
The Justicar sighed.
“All right, take my sword and do it.”
“Yeah, right!” The faerie gave a toss of her gooey hair.“Like I can really carry that chunk of ironmongery all the way over the mud!”
“Well, find another way!” The Justicar clenching his fists infrustration. “Your magic missile spell fires darts! Saw his head off with astream of those!”
The faerie glared at her friend.
“You are a sick, sick man, you know that?” The girlturned back down the tunnel. “I am doing this under serious protest-andonly because this vampire really pissed me off!”
Holding a torch made from a chunk of vampire coffin, the girl tramped off into the gloom. A staccato series of little blasts revealed that the grisly job was being done.
Spattered, bedraggled, and extremely annoyed, Escalla appeared back at the ledge.
“Hey Jus, what about the dead priest? Isn’t he gonna turninto a vampire too?”
“No!” The geyser gave its customary warning cough, and Jusducked down low. “You don’t turn into a vampire unless you’re buried in theearth! That’s why you leave the bodies out for the scavengers.”
“Oh, great!” Escalla stood on the chest of the dead Blereddpriest to give her voice more height so it would carry. “Great, I can see it allnow. You get fanged to death by a vampire, and just to add insult to injury, your friends just leave you on a roadside to get eaten up by crows!” Pausing,Escalla considered the point. “Hey, but what if you were half eaten bycrows, but then someone came back and buried you? Would you turn into a sort of half-skeleton, half-vampire?”
She disappeared back into the gloom. Flinching back from hot steam, Jus edged closer to his own rim of the ledge.
“Escalla? Escalla, get back here!”
Jus heard a warning rumble from the boiling mud down in the cavern and dodged back as a geyser spurted its lethal column up into the cave. When the steam and raining water had finally cleared, Polk, Cinders, and the Justicar blinked to see Escalla leaping and waving excitedly from the opposite ledge.
The faerie made a little dance of triumph in the air and shouted, “I found it! I found it!”
The Justicar’s heart gave a surge of joy. “One of the magicweapons?”
“No!” Escalla came dancing out onto the ledge holding alittle coin. “I found gold! The vampire had a big bag of treasure!”
Shaking his head to clear a rain of hot sulphur-water from Cinders’ snout, Jus gave a sigh.
“Does the dungeon go on?”
“Naah, dead end.” Escalla shoved her gold coin down hercleavage for safekeeping. “But there’s treasure here, bags and bags of it! Oh,and there’s a big hammer hidden underneath the coffin!”
Polk applauded, jerking his head in approval. The faerie took a bow as the teamster showered her with praise.
“That’s it! That’s got to be the magic hammer. She did good!She did damned good!”
“Damned good.” Jus felt himself relaxing piece by piece. Hisfingers had almost stamped their outline into the handle of his sword. The man blew out his breath and fixed the faerie with his eye.
“You be careful!”
“Why Jus, are you concerned for little me?” Escalla posed andfluttered her lashes. “Now wait there! I’ll go get the treasure!”
The girl disappeared, and Jus tried to see where she had gone.
“Escalla? Escalla! Don’t touch the hammer with your barehands! You’ll get a power shock unless you’re aligned with the damned thing’sgod!”
A flash came from down the dark corridor, joined with a screech of pain. Jus closed his eyes and rubbed at his forehead with his fingertips.
“You touched it, didn’t you?”
“Shut up!” The girl’s distant voice went into a sulk.“I’m going to drink my healing potion now.”
Long minutes passed, and then Escalla came fluttering into view. Behind her came a big floating force-disk, upon which rode a dozen huge bags of coin, a hammer wrapped in scraps of the vampire’s cloak, and the undeadcreature’s raggedly severed head, riding on the prow like a figurehead.
Grinning, Escalla timed the geysers, picked a gap and flewhappily over the mud. The floating disk behind her went out into the open air then plunged down to ride three feet above the boiling morass.
Her wings whirring, Escalla flew past the swinging, dripping chains and came hovering up to land in the Justicar’s arms.
“I’m here! I’m a vampire slayer!” The girl helped herself tothe ranger’s canteen, pleased to find that the scoundrel was carrying beerrather than water. The girl wiped foam from her mouth. “Right! That’smy blow struck for truth and light! Let’s go!”
The disk, however, remained stubbornly stuck three feet above the mud. Annoyed, Escalla peered over the ledge at the disk in alarm and knitted her alabaster brows.
“Damn it! Stupid floating disk spell!” The girl signed forPolk’s rope. “Right! Gimme the rope! We’ll bring the gold up the old fashionedway. I’ll go tie the sacks to the line.”
Jus looked at the steam-drenched cavern in glowering disbelief.
“You’ll be cooked like a dumpling!”
“No way! Three minutes between the geyser over there goingoff, and five minutes between blasts for this one! That gives me a window of…of two minutes!” The faerie dived down toward the mud, trailing a noose in hergrasp. “Now come on! We’ll get your magic hammer first!”
The magic hammer Whelm was hauled up from below, with the severed vampire head dangling below it on the rope. Jus removed the grisly head and tossed it over to Polk.
“Here. Catch!”
Polk held the head and almost screamed in fright.
“What am I supposed to do with this?”
“Stuff the mouth with holy wafers.”
“Wafers?” The teamster stared. “Where in damnation am Isupposed to get wafers from?”
“You forgot the wafers?” Jus shook his head in disappointmentas he hauled up the first heavy bag of gold. “I don’t know what adventureparties are coming to. Well, just stick it in your pack.”
Escalla helped push the first heavy bag of gold onto the ledge and began to frenziedly untie the rope. She ignored the warning rumble from the geyser down below and triumphantly pulled the rope free.
“Right! Next bag!”
“Escalla?” Jus crouched as the ground began to shudder.“Escalla, get back!”
“What? No way!” The faerie blinked. She began edging backtoward the ledge. “I have time! Just a few more bags!”
A sudden roar came from the mud pits as the geyser exploded into life. Already running for cover, Jus tackled the girl and dived with her back into the passageway. An instant later, a vast roaring column of boiling water shot into the air. Amidst the steam, gold and silver coins could be seen showering through the cavern.
“No! My treasure!”
Flapping and fighting, Escalla desperately tried to reach the gold. Jus grimly held her fast, and the girl slumped as she watched the coins go dancing down into the boiling mud. Finally, the girl simply ceased struggling. When the geyser finally halted, she clung miserably in the Justicar’s arms witha tear welling in her eye.
“My gold! My beautiful gold!”
The ranger’s face brimmed with sympathy.
“Hey, cheer up. I’ll get you more treasure.”
“But it was my gold!” Escalla made a miserable littlenoise, looking wanly off into the boiling mud. “I won it on my very own.”
Shooting a glance toward Polk, who was no damned help at all, Jus patted Escalla on the back.
“You did well. You took out a vampire all on your own. We’llmake a Justicar out of you yet.”
“You’d have to eradicate my fashion sense first.” The girlgave a sigh for lost glories then seemed to cheer up. “Easy come, easy go, Iguess.”
“Hey, you’ve still got one bag and the hammer. And the piecedown your front can be your lucky piece, hey?” Jus tried his to cheer her up.“Come on, let’s get back to the sphinx.”
The man sat Escalla up on his shoulder where she could talk to Cinders, and the hell hound did his best to wag his tail and nuzzle at her hand. Jus picked up the little sack of gold and stuffed the money into Polk’sbackpack.
“Polk, give Escalla your magic light.”
“But I need it for my chronicle!” The teamster bridled inalarm. “How can I see to write?”
“I don’t care. She needs it more than you do.” The Justicarrapped his knuckles against the man’s bulging pack-load of gear. “Use alantern.”
Polk muttered, tucked his parchment under his arm and fussed with flint and tinder. Creeping out of her sulk, Escalla leaned over and plucked one of the parchments from Polk’s grasp.
“So what are you writing there, anyway?”
“It is a chronicle of our adventure.” Polk shot a meaningfulglance at Jus. “Assuming the two of you both end up doing things worthchronicling.”
Escalla read a few lines of Polk’s horrible scrawl andblinked in surprise.
“Hey! This is all about me and the vampire!”
“Of course.” Scorching his fingers, the teamster adjusted thelens of his bullseye lantern. “A heroic act! One slip of a girl fighting atriumphant battle against a creature of darkness.”
“Hoopy!” Always happy to have her ego stroked, Escalla puffedherself up with pride, lost treasures instantly forgotten. “Hey Jus! This isactually pretty good! Check it out!” The girl read a line from the top of thescroll. “Ooh! ‘Escalla, siren of the sylvan forest, slayer of the shadow-fiend!’I like that!”
“Thank you.” Polk bowed.
“Yeah!” The girl read more. “And what’s this? ‘Sensuous,sinful silky-thighed seductress of the…’” Suddenly unamused, Escalla beganflipping back through pages of the scrolls.
“What’s this? ‘Love hungry’, ‘perfect peach’, ‘pinched,lissome bounty of her tightly curved…’” The girl put the scrolls asideand flicked a hard sidewise glance to Polk.
“You don’t get out much, do you?”
“This is the recognized heroic literary style.” Polk swelledhimself up with an enormous, fragile dignity.
“Really?” Escalla tossed the man his scroll. “Well if I catchyou staring at my silken thighs again, I’m gonna turn into a giant bedbug andvisit you in the dark!”
It was time to retrace their tracks. Wearily trying to keep the peace, Jus lead the march into the dark. “Polk, stop writing purple proseabout Escalla’s thighs. Escalla, stop hassling the sidekick. Now come on,there’s still two more weapons and a wizard to find.”
Ducking a cobweb, Escalla frowned.
“Isn’t there only one weapon left?”
“The city wants Wave and Whelm, and the erinyes must still beafter Blackrazor. It’s a good guess that our old allies are hoping to collectall three.” Jus led the way down steps and back into the waterlogged corridorsof the main dungeon. “Let’s get back to that first junction and see your friendthe sphinx.”
Back at the intersection, Enid the sphinx rose from her soggyvigil and waved one big paw as the party approached. Tramping squishily through the muck, Jus, Cinders, Escalla, and Polk all waved in return.
The green slime in the corridor had been bypassed in the brusquest possible style. Thick overshoes of rope for Polk and Jus had used up the bulk of Polk’s climbing gear. Polk muttered and grumbled, unhappy at theslow attrition of his dungeoneering equipment. He wrote his chronicles while glaring at the Justicar’s back, the harsh sweeps of his wax marker showing thecolor of his mood.
Sitting upon Cinders and Jus, Escalla gave the sphinx a merry little salute and said, “Hey, Enid!”
“Hello.” Enid looked up from teasing knots out of her tail.“Did you beat the vampire?”
“Yeah.” Escalla made a twiddling little motion of her hand,unsure quite how to broach an uncomfortable topic. “Hey, about that… so youdid know he was down there?”
“Oh, yes.” Enid nodded as bright as can be. “I heard themagicians talking about him.”
“Um, for future reference, a vampire is a pretty major encounter.” The faerie gave a sigh. “Is there anything else you mightwant to fill us in on before we go down any more of these tunnels?”
It seemed to be a brand new thought to poor Enid. The sphinx turned to look down the northern tunnel and gave a little frown.
“Well, no one tells me much, but seafood or something is downthis tunnel. When the breeze blows from that direction, my allergies break out.” The cat woman gave a puzzled shrug. “They deliver about a ton of fishheads down there every day or two.”
“Fish heads.” Escalla nodded, storing the information dulyaway. “Uh-huh. And the other way?”
Enid shrugged.
“Umm, every day at about nightfall, someone deliverslivestock down the western tunnel. Goats, cows, sheep, a few peasants on occasion. It gets pretty noisy down there for about five minutes or so.” Thesphinx frowned. “Then it all just stops.”
“Oh, good.” Overjoyed at the thought of all the toothymonsters just waiting for faerie snacks, Escalla sighed. “Gentlemen, thoughtsplease?”
Jus looked from one tunnel to another.
“Big hungry things in the west tunnel, maybe lots of tinyhungry things in the north where the fish heads go.” The Justicar approachedEnid the sphinx. “Thank you for the stun symbol.”
“You liked it? Oh, good!” Immensely pleased, Enid preened hermuddy hair. “So few people appreciate quality spells.”
“It helped.” Jus stood with one hand on his sword, lookingdark and powerful. Above his head, Cinders grinned and let his eyes gleam bright red. “You said you sometimes see the wizards?”
“Every day!” The sphinx settled proudly in her place. “Thelibrarian and his two acolytes, the keepers of Keraptis.”
“Keepers of Keraptis?” Escalla raised her eyebrows andskimmed a meaningful glance at Jus. “Oh, really?”
“Those’re the chaps! They’re making a new Keraptis.” Enidscratched at her slightly flea-bitten hide. “Dedicated to their job, they’veworked ever so hard to restore this place just the way it was! My older sister was the sphinx in this dungeon ten years ago.”
The Justicar scowled and carefully weighed this little gem of knowledge in his mind. Settling his sword, he reached up to pat the sphinx’sflank and thoughtfully passed the creature by.
“Thank you, Enid. We’ll see you again soon.”
“All right.” Enid settled into the mud. “Have a nice time!”
It was time to pick a new route. Jus swiveled Cinders so thatthe hound could take a good sniff at the dungeon airs.
“Cinders, what do you think, old friend?”
Cinders smelled the western tunnel. That way is beasts-cats, bugs.
“Yup.” The Justicar opened his badger-skin purse and took outa piece of snack-coal for the hell hound. “And the other way?”
Fish this way. The hell hound sniffed at the northtunnel. Evil this way. Fresh blood, dead things, slimy water.
“Evil again?” The Justicar narrowed his eyes. “Interesting…”
Escalla rose up from the rangers shoulders and hovered in the air.
“Hey! I vote north! I vote for the fish heads! One vampire isenough. This time, I say we face something small.” The faerie whirrednorthward and turned invisible. “Now, come on! Let’s go find some cash and getthose weapons back!”
With the invisible faerie in the lead, a slow, careful advance began. Like the other tunnels, this passage seemed to have been burned and gouged out of the mountains heart. Algae caked the walls and spread horrid color across the surface of the mire. The knee-deep waters were unpleasantly warm and made the tunnel echo with the splash of walking feet. Ripples in the surface sent refracted light dancing madly back and forth across the walls.
Cinders tracked Escalla with his sharp eyes. The girl flew up to a dark alcove leading off the passageway, inspected the darkness within, and even unveiled her borrowed magic light to take a closer look. She seemed satisfied. The light waved her companions down the main route, and the little faerie light swiftly disappeared.
The Justicar moved forward slowly. As he drew near the alcove, Cinders began to growl, the fur rising up all along his shoulders. Jus cleared his sword out of its scabbard in a single flawless blur, his weapon suddenly hovering in midair.
“Out.”
Cinders’ flames seethed, and a sinister little tongue offlame lit the alcove. A shadow against one wall stirred and moved as the Justicar’s sword point whipped toward its throat and stopped a hair’s breadthaway.
Sir Olthwaite the paladin-pale, filth-spattered and much theworse for wear-edged into the light.
“Greetings, fellows! Well met, well met.” The man raised ahand in wary greeting. “If you will forgive me, I thought you might be some ofthem.”
Polk made a sound of joy and stamped his foot, splashing his inside leg with dungeon soup.
“Sir Olthwaite! It’s Sir Olthwaite!” The teamster slapped Jushard on the back. “Now we’ll go places! We’ve got a real hero for thisdungeon!”
“Polk, sir! My dear chap what a pleasure to see you well!”The paladin made to advance and embrace, only to be halted by the Justicar’ssword at his throat. “Yes, quite well…”
His face shadowed by the hell hound’s twisting flames, theJusticar did not sheathe his sword. He held the point directly under the paladin’s jaw and asked, “Where is the rest of your party, Sir Paladin?”
Clearing his throat, Sir Olthwaite gave a little shrug.
“There were only three of us: myself, the magician, and thepriestess of Geshtai.” The man gave a genteel nod of his chin back toward thesphinx. “That way. The western tunnel. We met wights, two of them. They took afair amount of defeating.”
The Justicar’s sword remained poised for an instant kill, hisstance low and spread.
“Yet you managed to survive.”
“Not unscathed, I fear.” The paladin managed to look a littlepale. “They seem to have left me a tad drained of life. I’m not my old selfquite yet.” The knight swallowed and tried to move the rangers sword point asidewith his fingertips. “Look, well met on the trail and all that! Forgive andforget-what?”
Cinders’ growl became almost audible, his fur rising likeporcupine bristles as his barred teeth ran with flames. Escalla popped into visibility between Cinders and the paladin, resting one hand upon the dog’s wetnose.
“Cinders, down boy! Enough!”
Burn!
“Not now!” The faerie coiled close to the hell hound andwhispered in his ear. “Let him take hits from a few dozen monsters first, thentoast him from behind!”
Unhappy, Cinders drooped and muttered canine curses in the air. Escalla fluttered brightly over to the paladin, inspecting the man by the glow of her magic light. Her tilted eyes shone with innocent surprise.
“So here you are! We were sooo worried!” The girl used onefinger to lower Jus’ sword.
“Jus, ease it back a bit just for now…” The faerie keptherself carefully out of reach of their newfound friend. “So you went down thewest tunnel, huh? What was there?”
“Wights, my dear, as I said.” Sir Olthwaite took his chanceand moved closer to Polk, patting the pleased teamster on the shoulder. “Myfriend Polk here can tell you that underground exploration has its dangers.”
“Really?” Having just polished off a vampire single-handedly,Escalla clasped her hands in mock concern. “Do tell: What else was down there?”
“A pit trap and a corridor that heated metal as you enteredit.” The paladin scornfully adjusted the coil of rope that dangled from hisbelt. “It’s of no consequence! Come. I can lead you back there. We can pass thetraps and find the missing weapons!”
Posing like a confused little girl, the faerie put her finger against her chin. “Oh, but since we’re already partway down this tunnel, whydon’t we keep going?”
“There are no weapons down this tunnel!” The paladin’svoice snapped like a whip. “We have a job to do!”
“Yeah?” Escalla pivoted slowly in midair. “But my good friendEnid tells me that each of these three tunnels has a weapon at the end of it!”
Bristling in indignation, Polk tottered forward beneath his huge backpack full of gear.
“You listen to Sir Olthwaite! Veteran adventurers get a nosefor treasure!”
“But I’m a girl, and girls are just sooo curious!”Ever suspicious, Escalla’s sly eyes gleamed as she flew circles about the party.“I wanna go up this tunnel!”
Sir Olthwaite flexed his fingers.
“There is more profit to the west. We used a spell to tell usso.”
“Oh?” Escalla flew down to pluck at the burnt end of thepaladin’s rope. “But your gear seems to have gotten all scorched and scratched!North seems so much safer.”
The Justicar had heard enough. With his sword still out, he jerked his head toward the end of the northern tunnel.
“Move out. We’re going north.” The ranger shifted his grip onhis sword. “And the great adventurer can show us how it’s done. Polk, give him atorch.”
“A torch?” The paladin bridled. “Why must I carry a torch?”
“Because you’re leading.” His sword held deceptively light inhis hand, Jus nodded down the corridor. “Be my guest.”
Sir Olthwaite took a light from Polk’s lantern, spared anunfathomable glance for the Justicar, and then moved down the passageway. Escalla flicked Jus a glance, smiled, and popped swiftly out of view.
Polk was left glaring at Jus in bitter disappointment. The teamster shook his head slowly from side to side like a judge passing sentence.
Jus ignored the man and walked on.
“Keep that hammer safe.”
“It’s safe.” Polk sniffed in disdain. “Son, I’m disappointed.Disappointed! A knight of the Silver Dragon walks among us, and do you pay him the slightest mind?” The little man swelled up like a puffer fish inindignation. “I suppose you don’t care to hear what I think?”
“No.”
Sir Olthwaite had reached the end of the corridor, where his torchlight showed an open room. The paladin lifted high his light, and Escalla came whirring beneath his arm, her passage shown by the scent of magic in her wake. Coming steadily forward, Jus paused in the doorway and looked out over a great waterlogged room.
A wide expanse of water glittered in the light. Polk’slantern beam searched out the limits of a large, echoing chamber. At the far side of the room, a stairway led upward into a new corridor. The whole place echoed to the lap and swirl of water, and algae-stink made the air as thick as rotting blood.
Jus lifted his own light to carefully inspect the ceiling, then took a careful, responsive grip upon his blade. Cinders’ voice suddenlyflickered in his mind.
Deep water. The hell hound went suddenly stiff.Motion!
Jus whipped his sword up to cover the dark water, and the paladin followed suit. Algae all across the water’s surface rippled into life.Escalla a squeaked as she flew hastily aside.
The center of the room was far deeper than the verge. Water-weeds surged up out of the depths and boiled with life. Moving fast as thought, the dank strands wrapped themselves into a weird parody of human limbs.
The weeds shimmered with magic, the weedy textures disappeared, and quite suddenly two bodies swam happily in the water. Two stunningly beautiful maidens waved eagerly to the men. The girl on the left had long dark pigtails, and the costume of a minstrel girl clung wet and transparent against her curves. To the right, a voluptuous, bright-eyed elfmaid swam stark naked except for a little necklace of flowers.
“You’ve come!” The minstrel girl yearned upward with big darkpuppy eyes. “We’ve been so lonely!”
“Yes!” The elf girl reached up dripping arms. “Lonely! Stuckhere pining away for companionship!”
The minstrel girl swam imploring little circles. As she pleaded, the elf girl echoed her every phrase.
“Come to us!”
“Yes! Come to us!”
“Pleasure us!”
“Yes, in every possible way!”
Pleading hands reached up toward the human men. “Pleaserescue us! Come into the water and we’ll give you anything you like!”
Flying high above, Escalla wearily rolled her eyes.
“Oh, brother! Who are you two kidding?”
“But it’s true!” The minstrel girl pouted, stung to tears bythe nasty-old faerie. She looked imploringly up at the Justicar. “I’m aninnocent girl trapped here by a spell! I’ve been so lonely! I’m human, and I’maching to be yours!”
The elf fought her way to the fore.
“I’m aching too! I bet I ache more!”
“You do not!” The brunette whirled and began arguing with hercompanion. “I was aching this morning!”
“Well I was aching yesterday!”
The minstrel maid went into a sulk. “That’s just like you!You never want to share!” She turned and flicked a hand toward the human males.“Oh, just come in the water and take me!”
Jus felt an ensorcellment rippling across his soul, only to flare out and die against the well-tried power of his magic ring. Sir Olthwaite also seemed magically immune. Bereft of such protection, Polk gave a howl of joy and ran straight toward the women.
The Justicar spun, punched Polk unconscious with a single massive left to the jaw, and caught the man by the scruff of the neck as he fell. He sat the man up against the wall, then glared down at the two girls in the water.
“Kelpies. Gods, but Kelpies annoy me.”
The two water-women made an “Awww!” of disappointment andlooked imploringly up out of the water.
“We can do drow.” The elfmaid’s form shifted, her silky whiteskin deepening to coal black and her hair shimmering into a silvery white. “Isthis better?”
“Knock it off!” Hovering high above the water, Escallafrowned “Jus? What are they?”
“Kelpies-intelligent weeds.” The Justicar dragged Polkupright with one heave of his arm. “They charm males, let them drown, then chewthem up for plant food.”
The faerie bridled in alarm.
“But that’s horrid!”
“We’re sorry.” The two women hung their heads, then cast alittle glance up at the Justicar. “You should probably spank us.”
“Shut up, or I’ll come back with a bucket of weed poison.”The ranger managed to drag Polk, backpack and all, around the rim of the room. He tested the way ahead with the tip of his sword. “The edges are shallow, themiddle’s deep. Head for the stairs.”
The two kelpies were left behind as Sir Olthwaite, the Justicar, and Escalla scaled the stairs. Pouting unhappily, the kelpies sniffed as Jus tramped past. “Mammals have no sense of fun!”
Jus ignored them. Stamping his boots to try to free them of some of their burden of dungeon water, the big man reached the top of the stairs, dropped Polk against the wall, then felt in the teamster’s pockets forthe inevitable flask of liquor. He trickled a little of the alcohol into the man’s open mouth, took a pull on the flask himself, and passed it up to thefaerie.
Escalla drank, coughed as though she had just swallowed acid, and tossed the drink back down to the Justicar.
“Ooooh, amphisbanae piss! You don’t get much of thatnowadays.” The girl sounded hoarse. “How is he?”
Jus shrugged, hardly caring. At his feet, Polk swallowed, stirred, and opened an accusing eye. Mightily offended, the man cradled his jaw and said, “What did you do that for?”
“They were evil animated water weeds, and they wanted togrind you up for fertilizer.”
“The fiends!” Polk bridled and shot a regretful glance backdown the stairs. “Even the minstrel girl?”
“Definitely the minstrel girl.” Jus hauled the little manup to his feet. “You’re all right. Take another drink, and let’s get going.”
Blinking in amazement, Polk suddenly gazed up at the Justicar and sputtered, “You saved me! You saved my life!”
“Yup.”
“You’re a hero!”
“If you say so.”
Suddenly Polk felt the weight of his backpack and raised a suspicious brow.
“You just didn’t want to have to dive into the water toretrieve the magic hammer.”
“Yup.” The Justicar smiled.
The little teamster muttered, took a drink from his flask, and cast an eye about the room. Sir Olthwaite stood guard against the upper passage while light still reflected from the kelpie pool below. Feeling victimized, Polk tenderly probed his own jaw.
“Kelpies, eh? How did you throw off the evil spell?”
The Justicar held up a hand and removed his gauntlet. A bone ring shone on his finger.
“Useful trinket. Protection against fear and charm spells.”The man cast a glance up at Escalla. “And Escalla’s safe. It’s not like thekelpies have anything to offer her.”
Biting her knuckle and casting an eye back down the stairs, Escalla gave a start.
“What? Oh, yeah! Didn’t do a thing for me! Not even theelfmaid!”
All eyes now turned toward the paladin. Sir Olthwaite drew himself up proudly, his chiselled face radiating a superior air, and he said, “Vows of chastity armor a man against such feminine wiles.”
Escalla and Jus both raised a brow. Sneering from atop the ranger’s helm, Cinders snarled at the paladin.
Burn…
“Later.” The Justicar looked at the plain wooden door at theside of the steps and then at the huge double-flanged metal portal that sealed off the corridor. He jerked his chin toward the metal doors. “That way.”
Escalla fluttered curiously in front of the metal doors and frowned.
“Must be something really important on the other side.”
“Something that eats fish heads.” Polk sniffed. “Can’t bemuch.”
“Yeah, you’re right!” The girl let the humans push open theway. “Well, we’ve had vampires, giant flesh monsters, green slime, and talkingkelp. There can’t be much left.” Her wings whirring, the girl made a toast withPolk’s own flask and then flew into the dark. “Here’s to something small!”