Book 5.3

13 Esterealan (continued), Strand’s Shadows


The warehouse seemed eerily quiet now that the commotion of battle had subsided. Only Gore’s injuries, the blackened floors and the lingering smell of smoke remained to prove there’d ever been a fire elemental here. We opened a few of the singed crates surrounding us. At first glance, they contained nothing more interesting than inferior clothing and unscented soap.
Gore peered at a bar of soap – likely he’d never seen anything like it before – then tossed it back in the open crate. “Bah. The other warehouse was much more suspicious than this one. I’m going to check it out.”
Canliss and I exchanged a look. Sal’s boys were not going to tolerate Gore’s poking around. But if the man was hell-bent on plunging into disaster, who were we to stop him? Bianca also left, but she was polite enough to make excuses first.
“I’m sorry, I have to meet a customer at the shop,” she explained. This might have been a lie to cover up a loss of nerve after our battle with the fire elemental, but I doubted it. Bianca seems rather feisty. And many of Istur’s more important business negotiations are conducted in the middle of the night.
Digging through all that refuse to make sure the crates contained nothing of importance promised to be a lengthy and uninspiring task. Canliss, however, has an inexhaustible supply of patience whenever there’s any possibility of financial gain. We practically had to peel the six-fingered mage away from the open crates.
“Canliss, dear, my spells won’t last forever.” He and I were still enjoying the benefits of several spells to aid in concealment, while Val and I were still able to speak telepathically. I gave Canliss the scowl I’d learned from Donar, making it quite clear that it was not acceptable to waste Torodin’s gifts.
“Right,” said Canliss. “Let’s go downstairs.”
Canliss and I went ahead, while Val and Ester followed us a way behind. Val is actually fairly quiet for a warrior, but she wasn’t in the same league as myself, or even Canliss. Besides, Ester would sulk if we asked her to walk behind all by herself.
A withered, blackened corpse lay at the bottom of the stairs. I pulled the hem of my skirt away and gestured for Canliss to check it out while I telepathically communicated this macabre discovery to Val.
“The body is still warm,” Canliss whispered. We looked around at the singed walls and steps. Had the fire elemental come from down here? A corridor with several doors stretched ahead of us. What was this place? I’d never heard of people living underneath a warehouse; judging from his puzzled expression, neither had Canliss.
Three more burned bodies lay in the open doorways on either side of us. Each door led to tiny rooms “furnished” (to use the word loosely) with straw mattresses and battered night stands. The others joined us, and Val helped Canliss search the rooms. They didn’t find anything of interest, which didn’t surprise me. (Val and I shared a disgusted look when Canliss insisted on a thorough search of all the corpses – honestly, did he think people who lived in these conditions would have owned anything worth taking?)
The door at the end of the hallway led to a simple kitchen. With a cry of glee, Ester ran to the counter and began helping herself. “Cheese! Bread! Oooooooh, I can make a sandwich.”
“Ester, shush.” I was searching in mouse form at the moment, but thanks to Torodin’s new gifts I could still speak. Sadly, I don’t seem to get as much cooperation when I’m in that form; it’s hard to really convey a tone of authority when you’re a small rodent.
The door at the far end of the kitchen led to a classroom equipped with desks and a chalkboard. After waiting for Ester to put all the food in a sack, we went in and looked through the papers.
“They were being taught the spell to endure elements,” Canliss informed us after a few minutes of studying the chalkboard.
“I think they failed the test,” quipped Val.
We laughed. Well, I suppose it was uncouth of us to be amused by the burned bodies, but it was a rather witty remark.
Like the stairs and the hallway, the classroom bore its own share of scorch marks. Surely one fire elemental hadn’t done all this?
“So,” said Val, “do we have any protection from fire?”
“No,” I said sadly. I wished I’d taken the time to talk Jven into helping us. Sulking in the temple really isn’t healthy for her, and Jven’s powers would be very useful against our current foe. I think I’m going to have to pay my friend a visit as soon as the opportunity presents itself.
Ester swallowed a hunk of cheese and gave me a crest-fallen look. “You can’t protect any of us?”
“No. That was Jven.” I twitched my whiskers at her. Had Ester thought I was only refusing to cast protection spells on Val because I didn’t know her? Would I ever be so rude? To Gore perhaps, but he’s earned it. Val is rather likable. In fact, I really need to make a point to introduce her to Seregil – I think they’d get along rather well.
Beyond the classroom, we found a door leading to a steep staircase hewn into the rock. I unmoused, because the stairs were much too steep for a small rodent, and cast Creeping Shadow. There was a strange, sulfurous smell coming from down below; I wanted to be able to scout ahead without endangering any of us.
“Canliss, dear, come along.”
The six-fingered mage was intently perusing the students’ notes. “Nikita,” he said. “Hold on. Look at this.”
Canliss had found some sort of memo addressed to ‘the neophytes.’ (This Brotherhood of the Flame certainly is full of itself; couldn’t they just call a student a student? Honestly.) It explained that their final test was to claim their badge of rank from the statue below.
“Oh dear,” said Val. Was she, like me, imagining another group of careless young students wandering around below and summoning more fire creatures they couldn’t control? Or perhaps she just didn’t relish the thought of climbing down all those stairs.
“Let’s hope that we don’t trigger another elemental,” Val remarked as we started down. Normally I would have scoffed at the idea of something like that happening accidentally, but this Brotherhood seems awfully careless. I wouldn’t put it past them to store evil artifacts in the cabinet next to the extra chalk.
“Can you protect us, Canliss?” Ester asked. She was awfully worried if she was looking to Canliss for protection.
“No, I can’t cast endure elements either.”
“Oh,” said Ester. There was nothing else to say, really. We carefully walked down the stairs, sending my shadow creeping ahead of us. It grew increasingly hot as we went down. I was unbuttoning my sable coat when the shadow rounded the last flight of stairs and I caught sight of what lay ahead of us.
At the bottom of an enormous cavern flowed a river of lava; the gods only know from whence it came. Somehow, platforms of stone rose above the lava. Rope bridges connected them. I could see three immediately beyond the stairs, and others stretching out of sight. There was no way of telling how vast this cavern was – the scope of what I could see seemed impossible.
A mage stood on the rope bridge, wearing the robes we’d come to associate with the brotherhood. He waved a staff, sending a ball of flame hurtling toward the otherworldly, reptilian creature that hovered above him. It flapped its enormous wings, gusting hot air over the embattled mage, and breathed ice down upon him. Then it whirled for another attack. I don’t know from which plane the creature came, but the beast could have swallowed a small dragon whole.
“I don’t mean to alarm you,” I told the others in my calmest voice, “but down below is a rope bridge above a pit of lava. There is a mage casting flame spells against… well, I don’t think it’s a demon… I don’t want to be an alarmist. It’s some sort of large, reptilian creature from another plane of existence, and it’s breathing cold on the mage. They’re battling quite furiously. Perhaps we should just leave them to it?” It wasn’t that I didn’t want to find out what was happening, but I hate to interfere in other people’s battles.
“Demons are bad, right?” asked Ester.
“Yes,” said Canliss, whose eyes seemed a little wider than usual. “Demons are very bad.”
“Same robes?” asked Val.
“Yes. I didn’t see his face. The shadow only saw him from behind, so I don’t know if was the same man who sent the threatening note to Lorinar. So, do we want to get involved in this?”
“Yes,” said Ester. “Demons are evil.”
The other two looked less certain. Canliss was probably weighing our odds of survival against the loot he might be able to get from the fire-wielding mage. Val was probably remembering that we had no way to protect ourselves from fire.
Was it my place to make the decision here? As the wisest and most intelligent person present, I suppose it was. I wasn’t entirely comfortable with this new burden of responsibility. I’d grown rather accustomed to Rhavin making all of the decisions. Torodinites generally don’t aspire to leadership roles for a reason; it’s much safer to manipulate those in charge than put oneself in a position to take the blame if things went wrong.
On the other hand, blaming Lorinar for anything unfortunate that happened would actually give that man a purpose. And I was rather curious to find out what was going on down here. Could I really return to my brother priests and tell them I’d left a mystery unexplored?
Then there was the simple reasoning: “We have to fight the demon,” Ester insisted. “It’s evil.”
Canliss sighed. “Lead on, sergeant.”
“We should try to help the mage,” I told the others. “Convince him that we’re on his side, and then we can find out what this Brotherhood is up to. We can always betray him later.”
As we headed down the last flight, Ester and Val pointed out that they had no way to battle a flying creature. I solved that little problem by casting Air Walk on them both. A part of me was a bit resentful that the two warriors would be the first to try my new spell before I’d even had the chance to experiment with it myself; but sometimes a girl has to make sacrifices. It was certainly preferable to charging into the fray myself. I even loaned Val the magic silver dagger Canliss insisted on giving me; Torodin knows I never have a use for it.
Intense heat engulfed us as we reached the first platform at the bottom of the stairs. The air around us steamed, and perspiration beaded on our skin. From this vantage we could see an enormous statue on the platform across the bridge from us – it was one of the salamander-like creatures we’d battled last night. How long have these people been living here, that they’ve had time to install art?
The winged beast flew past the mage, raking his shoulders with its massive claws, then whirled about for another attack. The mage flung a ball of fire at the beast, but blood poured from his shoulders. He staggered as the rope bridge swayed from the creature’s onslaught. I looked uneasily at the lava below. We weren’t going to get much information from the mage if he fell.
“Hey, I’ve made a grilled cheese sandwich!” Ester cried with delight. Apparently she’d stuffed some bread and cheese in her pocket and the heat from the lava had cooked it.
“Ester, focus,” I hissed. I cast a spell, summoning a celestial hippogriff. Immediately its feathers began to smolder. “Oh, dear. I don’t think that hippogriff is going to last long.”
In fact, it raked the reptilian beast once with its claws, shrieked in pain as it was engulfed in a blast of cold from the thing’s fanged maw. The hippogriff plummeted into the lava below, where it disappeared with a disconcerting swiftness.
“Well, that didn’t last long.”
“Huh,” said Val. “Maybe we should retreat soon.”
“My armor protects me from fire,” Ester informed us happily. It wasn’t going to protect her from falling into the lava, but I wasn’t going to point that out. Didn’t want to hurt Ester’s feelings.
“I’m not protected from fire,” Val pointed out. “I can’t go out there.”
“Oh dear. I wouldn’t have wasted the air walk on you if I’d known that. Not that it’s your fault.”
Val nodded. “I didn’t realize it was quite so toasty.”
I sighed. I guess we should have paid more attention to what Ester’s been eating. Heat that can grill cheese can also grill an adventurer.
Canliss flung a barrage of magic missiles at the reptilian beast then hid behind the door. The creature screeched in pain, an eerie, high-pitched scream that sounded more like an old woman than anything reptilian. What was that thing?
Val moved up above us. Standing in mid-air, she shot two arrows at the beast. One buried itself deep in the things’ breast, casing it to twitch and scream in pain. The second arrows bounced off of its scales and fell into the river of lava.
“Aaaaarrgh!” Ester charged through the air and slashed at the winged beast with her flaming blade. The monster roared in pain as the blade scored a bloody gash along its side. Ester looked quite pleased with herself.
Screeching horribly, the winged beast raked poor Ester with its claws. Then it opened its jaws and sang out with a strange, hypnotic cry. Val ran over to stand beside Ester. Both warriors stood completely still, staring adoringly at the beast as if it were their last hope for salvation.
“This isn’t good,” Canliss said needlessly. He had to shout over the constant, ululating cry of the winged beast. He flung more magic missiles at the thing. They scorched the back of its neck, but didn’t seem to deter it. Canliss ducked back around the corner and covered his ears with his hands.
Desperately, I cast a silence spell on the beast, but it shook off the magic and continued its ghastly screaming. Val and Ester stood helplessly beside it. Things looked grim for our little band.
Now that our warriors were captivated by its magic, the winged beast ignored them. It dove at the mage, who blasted the beast with flames. The monster screamed in pain, but still it lashed out with its massive claws. The mage staggered as they slammed into him, then fell from the bridge, screaming until the lava swallowed him.
“Oh dear,” I said.
“I don’t think those are really the right words,” said Canliss. I couldn’t blame him for being unnerved. The two of us and our paralyzed warriors were all that remained to battle that monster. Could we possibly prevail.
Canliss answered the unspoken question with another volley of magic missiles. They blasted into the beasts’ wings. Screaming, it flapped once… twice… then fell into the river of lava.
Ester and Val ran back over to us. Val looked a little singed around the edges, but she wasn’t terribly harmed.
“I guess he’s not gonna answer our questions,” said Ester, looking sadly into the river of lava.
“No, Ester, I fear not.”
“Well, do we cross this bridge and explore, or go back?” Canliss asked of the group at large.
“What we should do,” I said, “is go to Ebb Tide, tell our dear friend Jvennika to stop sulking – you didn’t hear me say that, Ester – over that sailor and come help us.”
Canliss chuckled. “We should go to Ebb Tide and beg her to come help us because we’re in really bad shape, and we really need her.”
“You’re exaggerating, Canliss. We’re not in bad shape. But we could certainly use her assistance.”
“Maybe I should go and grovel,” Canliss amended.
“Why not, dear? You do it so well.”
“Um, Nikita,” said Ester. “I can get you across the bridge if you mouse. We’re already down here and all.”
In retrospect, I can admit that retreat was our only sensible option. But we had learned so little. I simply couldn’t face the prospect of returning to Strand’s Shadows with my mousy tail between my legs and no answers – only more questions. I succumbed to Ester’s enthusiasm and agreed to the plan of running across the bridge. (Besides, the Air Walk spell lasts more than an hour – it would have been a shame to waste it.)
“I could cast polymorph on myself and Val,” Canliss offered, “and we could all hide under Ester’s armor.”
“As long as we never tell anyone else about this plan,” I said. Effective it might be, but it wasn’t very dignified.
“Don’t waste your spells, Canliss,” Val said. “I can run.”
“I’ll carry you, Canliss.”
The plan evolved into me hiding under Ester’s breast plate in mouse form, and Canliss being carried over her shoulder like a sack of meal while Val ran above us. Funny how only the warriors got to preserve their dignity.
We made it across the bridge with a minimum of harm. A stone staircase led into the lava; we certainly wouldn’t be making use of that. We could see rope bridges extending to at least two more platforms, but first we stopped to examine the statue of the salamander. What it lacked in artistic merit it made up for in size – it took a few minutes before Canliss found a hidden compartment in the base. There were two rings hidden inside. They were identical bands of silver set with a single, white stone; they weren’t very pretty. At Canliss’ request, I used one of my few remaining spells to determine that they were both magical.
“I can’t make a blade of ice any more,” Ester whined while Canliss studied the rings. “The ice is all melted.”
“Well, there’s always metal, Ester,” I said reasonably.
Val grinned. “How about ‘Blade of Grilled Cheese Sandwich?” Ester was munching on another one – how much food had she stuffed in her pockets?
“I don’t know how much further we should explore tonight,” Val said dubiously.
“We certainly can’t go too far. At least, not without Jven to assist us in our efforts.”
Val raised her eyebrows. “You think you’re going to convince a Jveltoan to come down here?”
She had a point. Jven was still complaining about being under a mountain that was on fire. Lava was unlikely to thrill her. “We’re going to have to do some lying.”
“Nikita!” Canliss scolded. “We don’t lie to Jven.”
“Hey, whatever it takes,” said Val.
“I won’t lie. I’ll just omit a few details.”
“Can we go to the next platform?” Ester asked.
Val, Canliss and I exchanged uneasy glances. Canliss was looking somewhat badly injured, and I had only a couple of spells remaining. “Well, we do still have the Air Walk spells.”
It wasn’t much of a reason to press on. I think the others were as curious as I was. We ran to the next platform. Halfway across, we saw a young woman running towards us, casting nervous glances over her shoulder. Ester climbed down to the platform to stand beside her. She yelped, startled to find a mouse-carrying giantess suddenly looming over her.
She was a young woman, with a slender frame that was swallowed by the robes that appeared to be all the fashion in the lava pits under the city. She brushed her long, brown hair from her face; it really could have been cut better to frame her features. She stared at us, eyes wide with air as she gulped air.
“Aaaah!” She screamed.
“We’re here to help!” Ester shouted. How much we were capable of helping was open to debate, but there was no point in mentioning that – the poor girl was already terrified.
“What’s coming?” Canliss asked as he jumped down from his undignified perch over Ester’s shoulder.
“They all are,” she said vaguely. “Everything’s finally broken loose.”
“Hell’s broken loose?” I asked. I thought a joke might calm her down, but she just stared at me in disbelief. People just don’t expect mice to be talking.
“What’s broken loose?” asked Ester. “The shelves? Is there something we can fix?”
“I don’t know. I’m just a scribe. I quit. I quit. I don’t believe them any more.”
“Let’s take her and go,” I squeaked.
We turned to run, but we were unavoidably detained. Six dog-sized spider-like creatures with serpentine heads rose up out of the lava and fell upon us. Oh dear, this just wasn’t good. I had few spells left, and I couldn’t reach much further than Ester’s shoulder. Still, I was grateful that at least I could cast spells in mouse form. I cast Aid on Ester; we were going to need every advantage to battle our way to safety.
“We gotta get out of here!” Ester yelled. “Canliss, go for help!”
Floating in mid-air, dripping lava, the creatures attacked. One bit Canliss and wrapped its crab-like legs around him, pinning him. The six-fingered mage screamed in pain and struggled helplessly. What was that thing doing to him? Were those slurping noises? Was it drinking his blood; that was just disgusting.
Val dodged nimbly to the side, her cloak swooshing behind her, but a third creature wrapped its spiny legs around Ester. I climbed a little higher on her shoulder so I could still see.
“I quit! I quit!” The scribe kept screaming. She wasn’t being terribly helpful.
Canliss certainly needed help. A summoned a Fiendish Dire Bat (I know I promised Donar no Fiendish creatures; but that resistance to fire is very useful) and ordered it to attack the beast holding Canliss. The bat snapped at the back of the creature’s neck, drawing blood (or some sort of fluid, anyway).
“Canliss, if you can writhe over this way, I’ll heal you,” I called. I just couldn’t reach very far in mouse form.
“Aaaarrgh!” Ester bellowed. She punched the creature that held her in its spidery embrace. It let go and drifted back down into the lava; we couldn’t tell if it was still alive or not.
“Aaaaah!” The woman screamed. She turned to run, only to stop, paralyzed in mid-scream. Another spider creature had appeared in front of her; this one was larger than the others. Some sort of leader, perhaps?
Val sprang forward, still in mid-air, and carved the creature beside her with her rapier. She jumped back, dodging the thing’s attempt to bite her. If only the others could learn to fight like that.
Screaming, Canliss managed to struggle free of the thing that had imprisoned him. He shot magic missiles into its face, but his hand shook when he did it. The six-fingered mage was badly hurt. I unmoused and used my last spell to heal him while the dire bat swooped down on the creature, biting it.
Canliss’ freedom didn’t last long. The creature bit him and grabbed right back onto him. Canliss screamed in pain.
“I just healed that,” I complained. “Canliss, can’t you learn to dodge?”
Luckily for Canliss, our warriors were having a better time of things. Val and Ester killed one beast between them, then Ester whirled and stabbed the creature holding Canliss. The thing screeched and fell back into the lava, leaving behind a very bloody Canliss.
Meanwhile, the largest of the creatures wrapped itself around the helpless scribe. “Save the scribe!” I yelled. Both Ester and Val turned. Val froze in her tracks.
“Oh dear,” I said.
“Uh, I can’t carry everybody,” said Ester. “Canliss, can you leave now?” Canliss didn’t waste any time. He polymorphed into an eagle and flew out of the cavern.
Just as Canliss left, the largest of the spider creatures leaped off the platform and sank back into the lava, taking the scribe with it. We didn’t seem to be having much luck rescuing witnesses.
Ester finished off the last of the creatures. Then she threw Val over her shoulder and we fled for our lives.
We ran into Canliss coming out of Strand’s Shadows. “I explained everything to Donar,” he said.
“I’ll go explain things to the Azkalites!” Ester bellowed excitedly. That was an alarming prospect, but the Azaklites would just have to translate Ester’s story on their own. I had to go reassure Donar that I hadn’t been eaten by lava monsters.
I rushed into Strand’s to find Donar in the lobby, bellowing orders. My brother priests had spilled out of their rooms, some of them rubbing sleep from her eyes. Seregil, Dante and Nysander were hastily stuffing poker chips in their pockets. Carmen looked like she’d just gotten in from her date with Donatello. (My, that must have gone well.)
Donar’s ran over to me, clearly quite relieved to see me alive and well. He looked me over; I didn’t have a scratch on me. My hair wasn’t even mussed. He rolled his eyes, clearly thinking that Canliss had been exaggerating the danger.
“You can all go back to bed,” he told everyone.
“Um, you might want to hold off on that,” I told Donar. “I have some rather alarming news to report.”