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[Lazybones]

Okay, I'm off for a nice long holiday weekend in San Diego, so here's the cliffhanger for the weekend. Back on Monday!

* * * * *


Chapter 38

A WATERY GRAVE


“Dar... hold...”

The fighter paused at Varo’s voice, scowling as he waited for the cleric to catch up. The priest’s mace glowed with a light spell, allowing them to see as they made their way back up the path of the underground stream. “How much longer is your spell going to last?”

“Not much longer,” Varo admitted. “But we must wait for the others nevertheless.”

“Why? They seemed eager enough to get themselves killed; I didn’t tell them to attack that golem.”

Varo paused; he had to put this in terms that the fighter would accept. “Without them, and especially without the healer, we have little chance of surviving long enough to find another way out of the dungeon.”

Dar sighed. “Assuming that there is another way out.”

Varo looked at the fighter critically. They had left behind the lingering effects of the emotion-dampening aura that infused the vicinity of the Well, but if Dar’s spirit had been broken, then his own plans would be cast into significant jeopardy.

“Screw it,” the fighter finally said, spitting loudly and drawing out his punching dagger. In the close confines of the tunnel, it was his most effective weapon. “Let’s go rescue those clueless idiots.”

But as the pair turned around, they could already see a glow approaching up the course of the stream. The light resolved into the flame atop Aelos’s staff, accompanied by all five of the survivors of Talen’s team. Argus still looked terrible, but he was moving under his own power, under the watchful eyes of Allera. Shaylara was bringing up the rear, casting frequent looked back behind them, alert for any signs of pursuit.

“Hey, glad you guys could make it,” Dar said.

“No thanks to you, coward!” Talen snapped.

“Hey, jerk, just because I’m not stupid enough to go charging a gods-damned iron golem...”

“Gentlemen!” Varo interjected. “We have only a few minutes before our water walk spells expire... I suggest we get moving.”

“We’ll never make it back to the far cavern,” Talen said.

“We’ll, we’re sure as hell not going to make it if we keep yammering here,” Dar said. “Let’s move it!”

The seven hurried back up the stream as fast as they could, helping each other past the inevitable low stretches and tight squeezes. They passed the fork in the tunnel, and here Varo bid them pause.

“We can’t stop here!” Dar exclaimed. Already, water was starting to froth around the soles of his boots; the spell was beginning to fade.

“As soon as the spell fails, we’re going to be shot down the river, right back into the waiting hands of those golems,” Shaylara said. “I’m a good swimmer, but there’s no way I can fight that current.”

“We have one other option,” Varo said. “As a contingency, I prepared a water breathing spell this morning. It won’t get us back to the worm cavern, but it may let us survive being washed down this fork.”

“But we don’t know what lies that way,” Shaylara said. “What if it pours off a thousand-foot cliff, onto rocks?”

“It can’t be worse than the alternative,” Dar said. He was holding onto a rock, now; the water was up to his ankles, and the current was beginning to tug at him. “Whatever we do, we have to do it now!”

Varo looked at Talen. “Do it, then,” the captain said.

“Gather around me,” Varo said. They did, with Aelos lingering the longest, expediency warring with preference in his expression.

The cleric cast his spell, touching each of them in turn.

“How long?” Talen asked.

“With all of you? A little less than an hour.”

“If we’re going to do this, we might as well get started,” Dar said. He led them into the side tunnel. He barely got thirty steps before the current grabbed him, and he fell into the water, the others close behind.

* * * * *

Dar’s head broke the water. His entire body felt battered and bruised, and he knew that had he not been able to breathe water, he would have certainly drowned. The river had been as fast and as nasty as they’d predicted, and it had not taken it easy on him.

He grabbed a rock and pulled himself half out of the water, gasping for air. It was dark, and the air felt cold. He looked around, but didn’t see any sign of his companions. Not that he could have seen them in any case.

No, wait. There was a flicker of light, under the surface of the water nearby. Trying to ignore the protests of his body, he made his way over to it. The current was still pushing at him, but it wasn’t as insistent as before; he must have ended up in a rivulet or pool of some sort.

“Varo? Allera? Anybody there?” he hissed.

“I am here,” Varo’s voice came from somewhere nearby. The cleric’s voice sounded as beat up as he felt.

“The others?”

“I don’t know,” came the response.

“There’s a light here,” Dar said. He reached down, and pulled out Aelos’s staff from where it had been jammed between two rocks.

Lifting the staff, he could finally see more of their surroundings. The magical flame revealed a large cavern, its ceiling beyond the range of the sphere of light. To his left, on the far side of the stream, a pair of massive stone formations rose up into the air. On the near side of the stream the cavern floor was relatively flat, rising slightly the further it got from the water. Lying on the strand there, the light shone on the prone forms of Shaylara and Talen.

“The captain and Shay are over here,” he said to Varo. He pulled himself out of the water, even that meager action taking a considerable effort. He wanted to lie down and pass out, but his battle-worn instincts were telling him that this place wasn’t safe. He saw that his pack had been ripped open, and his shortbow, stuffed through the loops for storage, had been snapped in two. A number of his weapons had been lost in the flood; the magical warhammer, the silver-edged greatsword, the orc cleric’s morningstar. But he still had his personal weapons, and one of the throngs holding the magical club had held, keeping the weapon bound to him. He shrugged off the waterlogged pack, and looked around.

“Help!” came a faint cry from the water. Dar turned and shone the light in that direction, revealing Allera, back near the mouth of the stream, only her head visible above the surface of the water. She was struggling with a heavy burden, which Dar identified after a moment as Aelos.

“Help the others, I’ll get them,” Dar said to Varo. Poking the staff into a gap in the rocks, so its light clearly illuminated the area, the fighter jumped back into the water, and pushing himself toward Allera and Aelos. The cleric was bleeding from a cut just above his left eye, and there were a few obvious bruises darkening in other places where the rocks had battered him. Dar took the man’s weight onto his, wrapping the unconscious cleric’s arm around his shoulder.

“Get him to shore, and I’ll heal him,” Allera said.

“I think we can all use some healing,” Dar said. “Where’s Argus?”

“I think I saw him over there,” Varo said, pointing. The cleric had pulled himself out of the water, and knelt beside Talen and Shaylara. The captain was stirring and groaning; he was alive, at least.

Dar looked at where Varo had indicated. There was a lump lying face-down in the stream, apparently caught on an obstruction just under the surface of the water. Argus.

And standing directly above him, leaning out over the water, was the largest troll he had ever seen.