Cricket

27

The Nine

"Oh, crap!" Cricket backed away from the ledge, but one of the clones gestured, politely, for him to move in first.

"No, we have to wait for everyone else."

In response, the queen of the dethkiri roared—a roar both high-pitched and deep, as if born of two throats. A long, fleshy stalk rose from the center of the queen's forehead and dangled a glowing orb before her open maw, shedding a pure white light on dozens of thin, black fangs—each as long as a spear—covered in glistening saliva.

The Dethkira turned toward the sound of Cricket's voice, but rose slowly, as if waking from a long slumber.

Behind her, Cricket saw Shisu, standing next to the largest egg sac. Despite its size, it contained the smallest creature—what appeared to be a girl, no larger than Shisu herself, jet black and curled over like a fetus, nestled between large batlike wings.

Shisu placed her small hand lovingly on the bulge of the pod. Bale's wings rose magnificently from her own back, but the violet light paled in comparison to the light from the queen's lure.

As Cricket stared, the image grew blurry, and the brightness began to burn his sensitive eyes.

The queen roared again, and the pebbles at Cricket's feet clattered from the vibration.

"Can she reach us from up here?" Cricket turned to look for the rudra, but could only make out Jeshu among the blurry silhouettes.

Jeshu shouted, "Cricket, get down!"

Trusting the dryad, Cricket dropped almost instantly, but not before a crossbow bolt passed straight through his shoulder.

"Ah! Where'd that come from!" The insect screamed, more in annoyance than pain.

Sensing an open link, Cricket sent his thoughts to the group. "There are more coming! Get up! We need to fall back."

Cricket scrambled backward on his hands and feet as two more twangs echoed through the large chamber. His shadows panicked as well. One crashed right into the wall, and two others stumbled over each other, evidently blinded as well.

"Fall back!" Cricket yelled, waving at the blocky shapes in the hallway.

He felt the gnome's tiny hand grab one of his own, pulling him in the right direction.

Bax scrambled over the prone form of a dazed shadow clone, and chattered as he ran. "Too, too, too many demons! Bax warned us!"

Oydd, alone, advanced toward the queen, holding his staff protectively before his face.

When Cricket and Bax were halfway back down the hallway, they passed the gnome's illusionary skeletons, rattling and clanging their weapons against the walls. The multiple images gradually coalesced and Cricket let go of the gnome's hand.

"What!" Bax objected. "What are you doing! Cricket said to run!"

"Cricket said to fall back," Cricket corrected, looking over his shoulder. "I did. That was me. Just out crossbow range. But," the insect pointed with his sword, "that's just a drop-off up ahead. We can't hide around the corners. We have to fight here."

"We'll go back down!"

Cricket shook his head. "That just gives them a long-range advantage. We attack when they round that corner!"

As if on cue, a fat dethkirok with particularly under-developed wings poked its open maw around the corner, slumping forward on all fours.

Cricket could barely make out the queen's light far below the ledge. "Oh, good. That looks like one of the dumb ones."

One of Cricket's shadows, evidently drawing the same conclusion, stood very quietly against the wall with his bill hook raised high, and as the demon passed, he tried to hook its throat.

The demon, however, sidestepped, slammed it against the wall, and pinned the shadow with its superior weight.

"He's not one of the dumb ones!" Oydd yelled. The rudra exerted his mind to pull the heavy dethkirok from the trapped clone, barely moving him a few feet. "Bill," he called out. "Are you all right?"

In response, the clone crumpled to the ground. It tried to give a thumbs up, but its arm twitched too much.

Cricket caught up to the rudra. "Bill? Who's Bill?"

Oydd, looking quite embarrassed, stammered, "You told me that was his nickname."

"No I didn't..."

"Cricket!" Oydd glared back.

"Oh... oh! Yeah, I remember. Man, that was ages ago." Cricket scratched his antenna. "That got too confusing. Just call him Cricket."

"Changing names is confusing!"

A shadow with four shields moved in front of the group while the shadows that specialized in spears and daggers hacked at the dethkirok brute, gaining its attention.

The shadow with the spear jumped onto the wall, using his legs to push its weapon deeper into the opponent, to little effect.

The dethkirok rose up on its hind legs, instantly dwarfing the clone and slammed it in the face with its open paw.

The shadow's head barely moved, however, and the dethkirok paused after the blow, studying its prey. The clone clenched its jaw with an intense glare.

Another shadow brought its hammer down directly on the demon's collar bone, then pulled back and struck the same spot before the it recovered.

A second dethkirok, with a torso so wiry and wings so well-developed it looked like it might be capable of flight, drifted around the corner with a loaded crossbow, and the shadow with the daggers left the side of the first demon, rushing in low.

The crossbowman tried to train its weapon on the darting shadow, but the clone landed the first move, wedging its long knife between the bow at the cords. With a twist of its hips, and a loud crack, the cord snapped, whipping back and striking the demon harmlessly on its facial plating.

The shadow moved in tightly,with a series of powerful stabs and slashes to soft spots and tendons—some more effective than others—before the demon caught it with an elbow and sent it flying several yards.

Cricket watched slack-mandibled as the shadow landed on a wall and lunged back into the fray.

Cricket ducked as a second crossbow missfired and placed a hand on the rudra's shoulder. "We need a darkness spell."

"Are you mad? We've been in darkness for hours!"

"We can't fight with that glare."

"It's practically nothing," Oydd argued.

A shadow dodged one of the dethkirok's swipes, only to misjudge the width of the hallway and slam into one of the walls headfirst. It dropped to the ground twitching.

"Fine!" Oydd roared. "I'll consider it." He risked a glance behind him. "Where are the ratlings!"

"I haven't seen Scorpion for a while. I don't think he's up here."

"I'm here," Patches reminded, from the druid's shoulder.

"No, I mean the other ratlings! I need Scorpion's eye."

A third dethkirok appeared at the end of the hall, but fell back as the queen leapt onto the ledge, gnashing and undulating her tail as if trying to propel herself through water.

She dropped backward into the chamber below, her claws tearing sizable chunks from the stone as she slipped. A moment later, the crown of her head rose above the ledge.

"Is she... on her hind legs?" Cricket choked. "She can't be that tall!"

The shadows, finishing off the two dethkiri in the hallway, helped the wounded clones to the rear of the group as the queen reached one long arm into the hall. She dug her claws into the stone floor for purchase and her palm filled nearly a third of the twenty-foot expanse. Her skin appeared a sickly translucent grey in the druid's light.

Jeshu charged, smashing one of her fingers with his hammer. His weapon landed on one of the protective plates and rammed the edges back into her own skin. Still, the damage—considering her sizle—was superficial.

Jeshu readied a second blow, but the Dethkira thrust her second paw into the hallway, and though it landed across from him, the druid gasped in awe, and fell back.

"Get her one more time!" Cricket shouted from safety, but the druid's caution proved prudent, as a moment later the queen leapt up into the hallway, her oversized head scraping both the floor and ceiling, so that she had to tilt it sideways to open her wide maw.

She lurched forward, gaining several feet.

Cricket heard her back legs scrambling and scratching the wall on the far side where they hung.

He raised a hand to block the glare while he readied a shuriken, then aimed for the glowing orb.

Though he struck his target, the light from the luminescent bulb swallowed the tiny shuriken with no discernable damage.

After that, Cricket was forced to turn away. "If you can't put out that light, then we have to run!"

"I don't have any spells that will work on something this size!"

Bax's skeletons moved to the front of the group, performing a clamoring dance, slapping their own armor and clapping their boney hands together, but the queen ignored them. She even ignored the clones, grasping for the druid, just out of her reach.

Oydd began to gather a black energy around the tip of his metal rod, and when it formed a sphere roughly the size of his head, he released it, aiming for the bobbling light.

The ball of energy flew no faster than a stone, and splashed against the glowing orb, as harmless as a wave against the rocks.

The shadows fled. Oydd turned to Cricket, but the insect was gone.

"Dammit!" The rudra swore under his breath as he, too, turned to flee.

He nearly passed Jeshu, but the druid began to glow yellow and matched the rudra's pace.

Patches, in a panic, hopped from Jeshu's shoulder and scurried around the far corner.

Cricket waited for the others at the end of the tunnel, though some of his clones had already hopped below. "How did she fit in there in the first place!"

"Good question," Oydd replied. "Perhaps she's grown since."

The queen pulled herself faster and faster through the hallway, wiggling and lurching several feet at a time.

Oydd touched Bax on the forehead.

"Ah! that tingles!"

"It's a spell. Leap off and you will fall slowly."

Bax, skeptical, peered over the brink and gulped. He made no motion, until the druid asked for a similar enchantment and leapt without hesitation. Jeshu kept his forward momentum, descending at a diagonal.

Oydd levitated himself down, leaving only the gnome on the platform.

With a slight yelp, Bax plugged his nose and jumped.

He drifted left and right like a feather, very, very slowly. In fact, due to his size, the spell worked too well, and Bax had only made it about halfway to the ground before the queen's fangs breached the hallway. Her stretching jaw knocked one of the dethkirok corpses from the tunnel and it tumbled past the gnome.

Bax screamed and flapped his arms, flipping in circles, and just as the queen emerged, slinking over the precipice, Oydd was forced to reach out with his mind and yank the gnome out of her grasp.

Oydd tried to call a shadow over—but, not knowing its name, he just pointed futilely and snapped his fingers. The clone glowered.

"What's his name?" Oydd asked.

"Cricke," Cricket answered.

"And that one?"

"Cricket."

The queen smiled cruelly as her tail dripping from the hallway above. Fortunately, the clone Oydd signaled decided to attack of its own accord, circling the queen with its halberd at the ready.

"You can't just call them all Cricket!" Oydd blustered.

"What? Of course I can." The insect gave Oydd a sideways glance as he absently twirled the swords in his hands. "It's about respect, Oydd. It turned out Bill didn't like being called Bill. He just liked it more than Brihicket."

Oydd ignored him. He concentrated on a dethkirok corpse, and it began to stir, rising trancelike to its feet.

Oblivious, Cricket continued, "We were about to draw straws, until the other Crickets started to give me nicknames..." He stopped midsentence to duck beneath a surprisingly fast swipe of the queen's claw. "So then, I was like... ah, it's so bright!" The insect turned his face away and put some distance between him and the queen.

Meanwhile, the nearest two shadows fumbled about, swinging at midair, until the queen managed to swallow one of them whole, spitting out the halberd a moment later.

"Where's Scorpion!" Oydd hissed. He opened a link, probing for the ratling.

Cricket joined in. "I wasn't like, 'ah'. That was from the light. I was like, 'I wouldn't want to be called Bill either'. I wanted to be called Cricket. So I said that, and then the other Crickets looked at me like, do you get it yet?"

"Stop!" Oydd ordered, trying to concentrate.

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"And I did. Get it I mean. Who do you want to stop?"

"I'm talking to you! Save it for later!" The rudra waved a hand, deflecting a crossbow bolt with a pulse of his mind.

"Well, the story's kind of over anyway."

The Dethkira lurched toward Bax, reaching out to stomp him with her forepaw, and the gnome cringed, throwing his stubby arms up before his eyes.

The claw crashed down and Bax burst into a multicolored cloud of baby blue and tan and purple dust.

"Bax!" Oydd yelled, excitedly, looking for the original. He sent the reanimated dethkirok after its queen, hoping to stall while he spoke to the gnome. "She fell for it!"

"She did?" The gnome's voice came from behind. "She did!"

"She's intelligent," Oydd replied, "but she can't see through your illusions. It just has to be something believable!"

"I have an even better idea!" Bax shouted gleefully. "Can you buy me five minutes?"

"No, Bax, that's an absurd request." Oydd levitated himself away from the fight. Mentally, he commanded Skunk to assault the luminous stalk on the queen's head.

The mutant approached from her rear, leaping onto her tail, but only made it half way up her back before the Dethkira shook him free.

"I have an idea that would take ten minutes, but it's three times as good!" Bax continued, undeterred. "So that's still more efficient, right?"

"We don't have that kind of time."

The frustrated gnome blew a pout of air through his lips. "Got it. Let me think..."

* * *

A line of indecisive dethkiri appeared in the hallway above. Jeshu, having gained some distance between himself and the queen, now worked his way back beneath the opening. He concentrated and the floor of the hallway above cracked and rose very slowly to meet the ceiling. It sped up, but not considerably, as he drew closer.

Three dethkiri opted to simply drop over the edge before the opening grew too tight, but the others backed away, overly concerned about being crushed.

Jeshu fiddled with the wire on his hammer, attempting to release Oydd's magical seal, but when he removed the amber the metal barely cooled.

"Oydd!" The druid's voice cracked. He scanned the battlefield, but couldn't see the rudra beyond the hulking queen.

He did notice three clones between him and the Dethkira—wrapping their eyes in their arms and launching themselves recklessly into the air toward the queen's stalk. Blinded as they were, they each missed the mark by some distance, landing out of the druid's sight on the far side, except for one unlucky clone that crashed headlong into a wall.

* * *

By this time, Cricket had mostly regained his sight, but not wanting to look directly at the queen, he skirted the battle and joined Jeshu some distance away. He found the druid fending off two dethkiri while a third circled to his flank.

Cricket darted to intercept the offending demon, but when it noticed him, it turned to prepare for the insect. Cricket abandoned that plan, running on toward the other two, hoping to overwhelm them before the last arrived.

While the dethkiri surely heard him coming, they had their hands full with the druid's war hammer.

As Cricket crossed the last few yards, something blocked out the light from the queen, and he glanced over to see one of his clone's vaulting past. The light returned, then a second clone smashed into the stalk, clinging on with all six limbs as it bounced from side to side.

Cricket looked away, not willing to be blinded again. He dropped one silver sword, grabbing the remaining blade awkwardly with both upper hands, and rammed it as deep as he could into the base of one of the dethkirok's spines—near where it met the tail. The creature arched its back with a pitiful squeal, and twisted so abruptly that it wrenched the sword from his hands. Still, it only writhed about on the ground, it's legs limp.

Cricket jumped to Jeshu's side. "Hey," he said casually.

Jeshu panted for breath. "Hey."

The dethkirok attacked with a spear, and the druid swatted it aside with an unimpressive swipe of his hammer. Immediately, Cricket ran in landing two solid strikes with his scimitars as he drew them—cross-armed—from the sheaths. He barely had time, afterward, to bring them both up to catch the dethkirok's spear, as the demon's intestines slurped out of its stomach.

"I haven't seen you out of breath before," Cricket commented to the druid.

Jeshu took two deep breaths, keeping his eyes trained on the remaining demon. "Sure you have. In Agoth."

"Oh, yeah... but that was hot."

"It was ashy..." Jeshu corrected. "And this place is ashy."

"Oh... well, not any more."

Jeshu inspected his surroundings. "I suppose you're right."

"Not since we came up from the water." Cricket dropped into a defensive stance,

The last dethkirok stopped its approach. It sheathed its sword and unslung a crossbow from its back.

"Oh, no you don't!" Cricket lobbed one scimitar up over the dethkirok's head. And while it looked up at the projectile, he tossed his second sword straight at the demon.

The hilt bounced harmlessly off of its skin, but before the demon recovered from the surprise, the first sword landed on its head, and an instant later Cricket crashed into it from the front, landing on its crossbow. With a quick flurry of motion, he had his mandibles around its throat and he bit down as hard as he could with a loud pop!

Cricket kicked off, harder than he intended to, which sent him flying head over heels as the demon slumped to the ground—deep, purple blood spurting from its throat.

The insect managed, mostly through luck, to land on his feet, but almost immediately fell backward, screaming and holding one of his mandibles.

"What's wrong?" Jeshu asked in alarm.

Cricket kicked the ground, rolling around on his back. "Aw... ih... cwacked my jaw..."

"Hold still." Jeshu started to kneel, when another dethkirok dropped from above, landing on the rubble several yards away. Another followed.

Far to the side, the light from the queen flashed and suddenly dimmed to almost nothing.

* * *

"That's been two minutes! You said one!" Oydd squawked.

"I said I needed a minute to select a memory to lose. Then I needed a minute to work the illusion. You know, you'd be just as mad if I forgot your name again!"

Oydd growled.

"Got it!" Bax said cheerfully and clapped his hands. But curiously, the rudra heard no sound. From the gnome's palms, a sphere of grey light spread at about walking speed, creating a growing dome that soon encompassed the rudra.

Oydd opened his mouth, but no sound came out. At first, his eyes widened in alarm, but he smiled as the dome of silence spread across the battlefield, albeit much more slowly than he would have preferred.

Once inside of the dome, Oydd could not hear anything on the outside, though he saw the Dethkira scream and watched the clones scramble about, whacking her extremities.

Two clones vaulted over the queen's head. The fist approached the dangling stalk so closely that it sent shadows across the battlefield, and then the second latched on, swaying like a reed in the wind.

It struggled to cling to the stalk with thhree arms as it covered its eyes with the fourth. Finally, it tucked the bulb of the fleshy appendage under one arm and twisted violently, rolling the stalk around itself as it hacked at the base.

This entire scene played out in silence. Oydd looked up at the opening far above, which had warped, but not entirely closed, from Jeshu's druidic magic.

A dethkirok squeezed itself through the gap. It dropped behind the queen, where the rudra had last seen Jeshu and Cricket.

When the dome of silence reached the queen's head, she froze, disoriented, saliva dripping onto the rocks.

Oydd watched in fascination, eager to see if the eyeless demon could somehow sense her surroundings without sound to guide her.

The demon queen crouched, very still except for the drool and froth spilling from her maw, and her ominously sweeping tail.

And then she began to sniff—her rudra-sized nostrils flaring.

* * *

While Cricket approached the new wave of demons, a wall of grey light passed over him and the world went silent. Cricket gasped, but heard no sound, then reached for his antennae to confirm they were still there.

Jeshu grabbed his shoulder and spun the insect to face him. He shouted somethingas he pointed at Bax.

Cricket pointed at Jeshu's ears, and the druid shook his head.

"Oh," Cricket mouthed. He watched the dethkiri. They froze when the wave overtook them and stumbled on the rubble. Cricket tapped a sword on the ground, but the dethkiri did not respond to it. He smiled, then frowned—as the silence brought back some traumatic memories.

The insect skulked toward the dethkiri, not quite trusting his fortune, before charging in. He impaled one through the throat with three blades, while his fourth arm pinned its weapon to the ground. He supposed it gurgled.

Surprisingly, its ally rushed toward the silent squeal, hacking at the air near Cricket with its two-handed axe.

Cricket let out an embarrassing scream, but realized no one could hear it anyway. Only seconds later, he convinced himself that he did not scream at all, as he worked a scimitar between the dethkirok's ribs, puncturing one of its hearts—if he remembered Oydd's autopsy well enough.

The demon whirled on him so quickly, he was forced to leave the sword inside it while he shifted to the side.

He returned a moment later with three more stabs and retrieved his scimitar.

Cricket turned to Jesh and pointed at his turtle charm. The druid mouthed "which one?"

Cricket flexed his bicep, though it was not visible beneath his shell, and pointed at the muscle.

Jeshu nodded.

While Cricket waited for the Grace to kick in, he felt a splash on the side of his face. At first, he thought it was somehow blood from his previous kill, but then he felt a larger drop and looked up to see a torrent of black liquid pouring from a significant crack in the ceiling of the hallway where the queen had squeezed through. A drop of the brackish liquid landed on his tongue and he spat it out, then put some distance between himself and the cascade.

When he turned, he found the queen almost upon him, and ducked, making the daring gambit of rushing between her legs.

When he crossed the far side, the queen reared about, somehow sensing him. Cricket stabbed at her ankle, hitting bone, then doubled back on his trail, hoping to throw her off.

The queen whipped her tail in his direction, but he leapt straight up, and it passed harmlessly below him.

However, it curled back, and stopped directly below his fall. The insect found himself helpless to alter his course. He cocked his legs before landing, ready to launch himself in a new direction, and came crashing down with such force that he bent both of his silver swords on her plates, without making so much as a crack.

The queen, sensing him on her back, though only for an instant, coiled around lithely and swatted at the air above her own tail with her foreclaws.

A shadow landed on the side of her face, digging in its spear. It jumped away just as quickly, pulling a chunk of flesh from her bone with the barbed hook.

A second clone hopped on top of her calf, making several slashes at her hamstring before it dropped out of sight.

Nearly a hundred yards away, the remains of the queen's lamp stalk lay on the ground. Two clones stood over it smashing it to bits with a hammer and set of shields respectively.

The smaller pieces still shed as much light, though, and eventually the shield-wielding clone placed a few shields over the light source, donating them to the cause. Then both clones kicked dirt over the remains to snuff out the glow.

Meanwhile, Oydd animated the remains of the other dethkiri warriors, which managed to stall the queen long enough for the rudra to kneel at the side of the largest corpse in order to create something more powerful.

The rocks grew slick from the black water, and Patches bounded out from her place of hiding to climb the druid and take refuge on his shoulder.

The Dethkira, smelling the wet rat, whirled on the druid. Her nostrils flared again, and the behemoth charged.

Jeshu, unable to outrun the queen, took a solid stance and gripped his hammer with both hands.

"Over here!" Oydd yelled, reopening the link, but the queen ignored him.

The panicked druid cried out, "Oydd, can you release the seal on my weapon?"

"Not from here, but the mouseling can!"

"No I can't!" Patches' voice practically squealed.

"You can! I've seen you do it before, when you transfer enchantments. It's the same principle."

"It will break the whole thing," the mouseling whined. "It has to go somewhere. It will break it and the magic will go everywhere!"

"Don't release the ice enchantment. Only release my seal."

The mousling whimpered. "The seal will go everywhere!"

"That's what we want, little one…" Jeshu assured her. "That will weaken it."

Still, the mouseling hesitated.

The torrent grew in volume, to the point that it looked almost powerful enough to wash away the queen. Still, it showed no signs of stopping. Bax hopped to higher ground.

The queen charged—her heavy paws splashing in the downpour.

"Mouseling," Jeshu cried. "Run!"

At the last moment, she dropped from his shoulder onto the wet rocks, shivering as she climbed up the wall to the passageway behind the waterfall.

The queen swerved, leaving Jeshu standing alone. She plunged her head into the torrent, just seconds after the mouseling. However, the hallway was now so small that she could only reach one arm inside.

The dome of silence suddenly burst, releasing all the sounds it had swallowed at once in a violent cacophony.

The queen reeled and roared in pain from the deluge of sound.

The Grace of strength faded from Cricket, and the red light radiated instead from the druid—so powerfully that Cricket was forced to look away.

Jeshu let out a furious bellow and sent his hammer flying with all his might, head over hilt, at the queen.

Slowed by the downpour, it struck the side of her head with a pitifully dull force and vanished behind the waterfall—its sound entirely drowned out.

The queen thrust her arm again through the black flood after the mouseling, and Patches squealed through the telepathic link, high and shrill in all of their minds.

"Patches!" The rudra called out, desperate and helpless.

Cricket felt cold. His legs wouldn't move. He stared in horror. But then the mouseling's voice came very weakly through the link.

"Dim... Dimessra!"

A loud crack echoed from the hallway, louder than the rush of water, and the dark liquid began to crystalize around the demon's head in magnificent black shards. She wrenched her arm free before it became trapped in ice, and a tiny, furry shape flew from its grip.

The unbound ice magic rushed so quickly that the entire waterfall froze solid before the mouseling passed over Cricket's head. He leapt as high as he could, but his fingers just brushed the bottom of her tail.

Before he even landed, Patches smacked the far wall so hard her body stuck to the stone a moment before it fell.

The queen writhed, her head shrouded in far too much ice to roar, snapping her tail about in rage.

Cricket's shadows swarmed the trapped behemoth, though one of the gigantic ice crystals had lacerated the side of her throat, and her struggles only grew more and more feeble.

Cricket didn't stay to watch her die. He had no malice for the queen, and no interest in the fight. He ran, rather, to where the mouseling had fallen, his antennae ringing and his hands shaking. He found her body buckled over in a lump, her fur lined with frost.

"Patches..."

Cricket watched her still body so long that he convinced himself he could see her breathing.

Eventually, Oydd arrived at his side.

"Oh, child," he said with great tenderness, scooping her up in his arms. The pink ribbon slipped from her tail and drifted to the wet rock.

"She's okay, right?"

Oydd didn't look up. "No, Cricket."

"I'll get Jesh." No sooner had Cricket stood before he ran, face first, into the druid.

Deep troughs marked the dryad's face.

"Jesh, she... she needs you. She..."

"Oh, little one..." Jeshu reached out and closed the mouseling's eyes.

"Don't do that!" Cricket sobbed. He lifted a finger to his eye, wiped away a tear and observed it, perplexed. "I... didn't know I could do that..."

Jeshu reached out for the mouseling, and Oydd released her body to the druid's care. The rudra climbed to drier ground and stared into the black water at his feet, watching it writhe and foam with parasites.

Across the room, the black column of ice clogged the crack in the ceiling, and the queen's corpse blocked the hallway to the heart of the temple with her neck and forearm.

Still, a fresh stream of filthy liquid had begun to cascade down the wall of ice, filled with millions of squirming worms.

"Jeshu?" Oydd asked without explanation.

The druid followed the rudra's gaze and shook his head. "I am nearly spent. Perhaps if we take a break."

"Perhaps?" Oydd repeated sadly. "And by then we'll be swimming in worms."

"I..." Jeshu dropped the thought.

"What are you talking about?" Cricket joined. "You're not thinking about leaving now, coming this far!"

Bax tugged on one of Cricket's lower arms to get his attention. "Sunk cost fallacy. We can pay more, but we won't get more."

"We run," Oydd said pragmatically. "If we hurry, we may outswim the worms."

"But..." Cricket sputtered. "This is our last chance to stop—"

"It was our last chance," Oydd stated harshly. "We failed."

Cricket cleaned his feelers. He clicked, but it came off more like a facial tick. "So what do we do now..."

"We endure the tide," Jeshu said.

"What does that mean?"

"It means," Oydd answered. "That we cannot stop her. Our new objective is simply... survival."