Cricket

26

The Summit

The pyramid rose as high as the group could see, though the ceiling was yet shrouded by the pervasive black mist. Three-foot high steps led a hundred yards up the side before an entrance presented itself. The veins that ran along the ziggurat were more dried out than the ones farther away, and flakes of grey ash broke free, only to rise up in the warm air and into the darkness. Cricket imagined them collecting against the ceiling like reverse snowfall.

As they climbed, Oydd covered his nostrils with the sleeve of his robe, and Bax began to cough.

"Are you all right?" Cricket asked in concern.

Bax smiled. "Just a little coughing spell. I'm fine."

"A coughing spell?" Cricket said, his eyes wide. He looked accusingly at Oydd.

Bax nodded. "Not that kind of spell. It just means an episode."

Cricket looked disappointed. "Oydd, do you know a coughing spell?"

"Of course."

Cricket grinned.

"And a hiccup spell, and a sneezing spell..."

"Oh, now you're being sarcastic."

"I assure you, my level of sarcasm did not change."

"Well, you should learn a coughing spell. It could come in handy."

Oydd took a deep breath. "I will give that suggestion all the consideration it is due."

Cricket, however, missed the sarcasm this time, and smiled proudly as he began to hop up the stairs.

The dryad found the terrain most difficult to traverse—not tiring, but requiring a significant stretch to make each step. Spindle appeared at his side momentarily.

"The azaeri told me you needed me?"

"What?" Jeshu stammered, shooting Scorpion a passing glance. "Oh, um... yes. Oydd could use your help."

The changeling ran up the steps on all fours and caught up to the rudra, while Cricket and his clones leapt ahead, taking several of the titanic steps at a time in bounds. Scorpion exerted himself to match Cricket's pace.

After passing through the main entrance—a grand, square passageway—the group found themselves in a long hallway, spacious enough for a fomorian. The greyish veins from earlier began to interweave like competing roots, and now matted the walls so thickly that the original stone was seldom visible.

Large patches stretched over the floor, and hair-thin worms squirmed around inside serum-filled blisters about to burst from internal pressure. One did, and the worms writhed and flopped about on the spongy ground as they died.

The patches, when exposed to Jeshu's light, burned and floated toward the ceiling in flakes.

Cricket looked sideways at Skunk. The mutant's slimy grey skin very nearly matched the growth on the ground and walls in color and texture.

The group came to a cross in the expansive halls. Thick, pitch black pustules clogged the passage ahead, making it almost impossible to proceed. Flooded stairs led down to the left, and another stairway went right, which Cricket peered down, assuming it had an identical layout. He waited for the rudra, then immediately pitched the idea of splitting up again.

Oydd ignored him. "Scorpion, is your arm hot?"

"Almost burning," the ratling replied.

Oydd nodded, as if confirming a theory. "Your body will adjust soon. Or, perhaps the arm will adapt? Either way, this has happened to me before."

The ratling grimaced in pain. "What is it?"

"Some... I don't know. Proximity to Bale's essence? I felt it when I encountered the elder rudra atop the tower. Mine is just warm now, but it's palpable."

The smell of singed fur filled the hallway.

"Are you all right?" Jeshu looked at the ratling in alarm.

"It's fine." Scorpion pointed at a bubbling pod of mucus on the floor. "Are there bones in that goop?"

Oydd inched toward the goop. "Yes. Ratling... goblin... lizardman. This femur is in between."

"Is it... eating things?" Cricket ventured.

Oydd shook his head. "No. Everyone stand back."

Everyone but Cricket obliged, and the rudra's robes began to whip about him. The grey mat began to tear away from the stone at his feet as a whirling funnel of force spread the substance violently. The fluids flew away from them, and the rudra controlled the direction precisely toward the clog in the hallway, but the insect flinched regardless.

The wind calmed, and then a bundle of vine-like, black veins in the ceiling snapped, and the torso of a large skeleton dropped partially, still suspended by the cords.

"All these bones belong to a single being."

"A changeling?" Spindle asked.

"More specifically... Aberron."

Jeshu peered down the hallway. "Aberron?"

The rudra nodded. "That's why this... flesh," he kicked at the spongy grey substance at his feet, "looks so familiar."

"Man..." Cricket poked at the dangling, upside-down torso with the edge of a blade. "I guess we haven't seen him for a while."

A pile of goo dripped from the chest cavity, revealing an almost black heart shedding a very faint violet light. The heart looked humorously large with the relatively small ribs wrapping around it.

As Cricket watched, it slooped down into the half-lizard, half-ratling jaw. "What do you think he did?"

"Did?" Oydd repeated. "I don't think he did anything to deserve this." Oydd followed the veins spreading from the torso and back down the hallway. "I think he was sacrificed as a sort of... protection for this place."

"You think the disease is spreading from him?" Jeshu asked.

"I..." Oydd hesitated, then gestured back down the hallway with his staff. "I only see what you see. But this growth is consistent with Aberron's tissue. And so are the remains. Aberron possessed a uniquely stable blend of troll's blood and changeling blood."

"I wouldn't call this stable," Bax argued. "Too... messy!"

"Well, it is surprisingly hard to balance. Aside from Aberron..." Oydd paused, with a sudden look of deep concern, then continued. "Skunk is only stable due to his diet of mothwings, and beetle shells, and spider silk, along with a few other oddities. He can't really produce all of the proteins he needs. I... under other circumstances, I would want to study these remains, since they appear self-regenerative. Perhaps we'll take a biopsy before we leave."

Skunk sniffed at the torn tissue on the hallway floor, then began to consume a small piece, and Oydd let him.

"But... we're taking the heart too, right?" Cricket pointed with his sword.

"I wouldn't touch it. It is nearly depleted anyway." The rudra turned his attention to the flooded stairwell on their left. He groaned as he inspected the water. "We have to go this way. I should have expected this." The water looked nearly pitch black. He stuck his staff in to test the opacity, and lost sight of the tip after it sank only a few inches.

"We'll get lost," Cricket stated.

"Is that your greatest concern? This is filthy. Probably ridden with those parasites."

"What do you..."

"Let me think." Oydd sat, cross-legged, at the brink, and stared into the blackness. He looked over at the dry stairs with a sigh.

"We'll have to boil it."

"Will that clear it up?" Cricket stooped over the ledge, his lower hands on his knees.

"No. But..." Oydd glanced at the ratling and caught him staring off at Spindle. "Scorpion, can you see through?"

"I can sense the walls pretty far out. I wouldn't call it seeing."

"That should do," Oydd said as he scratched his chin. "Can I connect with you?"

"Go ahead."

Cricket couldn't resist tuning in to the link. He looked back at the water disappointed. "I don't see anything!"

Scorpion closed his eyes. "Try now."

"Still nothing."

"Close your eyes." Scorpion sniffed the humid air, concentrating on his other senses.

"I can't!"

Oydd closed his eyes. "Oh, how odd! I can see it now. Or... perceive it, anyway. Cricket, don't pout." Bale's brain began to glow from within his head, and a moment later Cricket sheepishly said, "Oh... thanks."

"Now let me concentrate." The rudra, keeping his eyes closed, the tip of his staff still in the water began to focus. For over a minute, nothing changed, but then small bubbles began to rise to the surface, and soon the water grew so hot that Oydd was forced to step away from the brink. Still, the boiling only intensified, and Cricket sat down to watch. The heat caused the water to become less murky, as bits of parasite rose to the surface, gathering in clumps.

"Um..." Cricket stared at the cooked parasites in disgust. "How do we cool it down?"

"With Jeshu's hammer."

"Will that..."

"It will still take a while."

"But won't it just freeze it, and then it will be too cold?"

"No." Oydd answered curtly. "It will cool before it freezes. Can your clones swim?"

Cricket looked back at his shadows. "They're too light to swim down, but they can cling to the walls, and just kind of... climb down?"

If Oydd listened to the response, he gave no indication. He nodded at the druid. "Jeshu."

Jesh took a deep breath and lowered the hammer from his shoulder. "Mouseling, you may want to step away."

She hopped down to the floor and ran over to Oydd's side, half-hiding in his robes.

The druid gingerly placed the head of his hammer against the surface at arm's reach, and the floating clumps of hairlike worms frosted over. A cool steam rose from the superheated pool, but the water did not freeze. As Oydd predicted, the heat from his spell overcame the magical cold of the hammer, and several minutes passed uneventfully.

The entire hallway grew to near-freezing temperatures before the water cooled. Frost from the humid air formed in beads and branching patterns on the insect's shell.

Cricket shivered, and in his impatience went to feel the temperature of the water with his toes.

"Warm," he announced, then plunged his whole calf in.

"For the love of God, Cricket! Don't go in until you're told!" Oydd began to fish around in his pouch.

Meanwhile, Jeshu removed his hammer from the water and furrowed his brow.

"What's wrong?" Cricket asked.

"Oh, I... may have to leave the hammer behind. It would freeze us."

"Don't be absurd," Oydd exclaimed, pulling a small piece of amber and a copper wire from his pouch. "I intend to suppress it. We will need it for the fight."

He reached out for the handle, then withdrew his hand suddenly at the surprising bite.

"I don't know how you manage that..." The rudra whispered a word before touching the shaft again with one finger, this time somehow enduring the cold.

He used the copper wire to wrap the shard of amber around the leather grip, then spoke a few more words under his breath, and the amber glowed very faintly before darkening beyond its initial hue.

"Hold it to the water."

Jeshu waited for the insect to vacate the pool and placed the head of the hammer again to the surface with no visible effect.

Cricket stuck his toes in again.

"Dammit, Cricket!" Scorpion barked, but the insect was already waist deep.

"Oh, calm down... it's fine."

Cricket felt Oydd pour energy into the mental link, and he saw the walls even more clearly. Oddly, he also sensed, very vaguely, the others' thoughts. No more than wisps and impressions and the occasional muted word, but he sensed them nonetheless.

"Which way..." Spindel started to ask, but apparently realized she already knew the answer. She ran and dived into the water gracefully, gliding below like a fish.

Cricket pinched his mandibles together with his thumb and forefinger and submerged himself. He clung to the ceiling and scurried under the water at about half of Spindle's speed, and his clones soon passed him.

Gad let out a sorrowful moan. Cricket sensed it, rather than hearing it. He suddenly noticed the trollblood's mind. Not weak, but hampered. Not ghoulish in any way, as far as Cricket imagined, but deep like a pit, and beginning to fill. It was clear he would not come, and Cricket sensed that Oydd did not object.

Skunk, however, had no reservations—not even the natural hesitation of a sentient being. He moved like a machine fulfilling its purpose and outpaced Scorpion in the murky water using his strong, lizardlike tail.

"Don't worry about me," Bax proclaimed. "I've got a potion for this." The gnome was several feet underwater, however, before he began to drink his potion, and accidentally inhaled some of the black water, beginning to cough again, letting out most of his breath.

As the rudra stepped into the water, a sphere of air formed around him, and it seemed he might remain dry, until Jeshu jumped in, creating a magnificent splash. With the added weight of his hammer, the druid still barely sank, drifting down slowly. He waved his legs in the air attempting to propel himself more quickly to no effect.

Before his head disappeared below the surface, Oydd looked back to see Patches quivering at the edge of the water, and he held out an arm to her.

Patches, however, ignored the invitation and plunged into the water and began to dog paddle ineffectively, barely making any headway, until Oydd was forced to pull her into his bubble. He levitated the two along at a steady pace.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Don't leave the water until we all arrive. This instruction was joined by a clear thought of their destination.

As an insect, Cricket did not run out of breath quickly, but he did worry about the others. If anything, the changeling seemed most at ease in the water, being largely amphibious in nature. Jeshu felt a bit panicked, though he was not at risk of drowning, and Patches felt safe—almost cozy even!—by Oydd's side. Sensing her ease helped Cricket relax as well.

Though Cricket could not really read Bax's thoughts, the potion seemed to have the desired effect, and the gnome even—if Cricket perceived accurately—began to feel lightheaded from too much oxygen.

When Cricket realized he was struggling the most for breath, he picked up his pace.

Cricket passed several glowing red pods under the water that hummed with life. As soon as he noticed them, he sensed Oydd analyzing their risk, as well as pondering how they had survived the intense heat.

More curious, to the insect, was how he knew they were alive. He sensed it, and felt like the impression had come from the vastness of the druid's calm mind. It tingled a little.

We're not alone.

Spindle, far ahead of the others, began to swim back. It took a moment for Cricket to register that the voice in his head belonged to the changeling. It somehow felt different than her spoken voice.

Oydd reached ahead through the blackness, and Cricket sensed a dethkirok ahead in the water. His shadows perched along the side walls as Spindle swam back between them, and the dethkirok appeared moments later.

Cricket sighed, knowing he could not reach the fight in time. But he sensed the clone's plan for an ambush and mentally nodded his approval.

When the shadows sprang from hiding, Spindle darted back in, holding her crossbow point blank against the creature's exposed neck, and fired a bolt.

The dethkirok swatted one of the shadows away, and Cricket felt another plunge its spear deep beneath one of the armored plates. The sensation was so real that Cricket actually experienced the sense of satisfaction first hand.

He smelled, in a manner of speaking, the blood in the water from a distance and for a very brief moment he sensed the dying demon's mind join the link, feeling... not rage, and not hatred, but a sort of calm malevolence before it was snuffed out.

Cricket, Oydd asked. You're running low on air. Do you need to swim ahead?

Cricket nodded.

Oydd sighed. We can all sense you nodding. You don't need to think, 'I'm nodding'. It's distracting.

It is distracting, Jeshu agreed.

You're over-reacting. That's the first time I thought about what I was doing.

An awkward silence followed, which made the insect suddenly feel very self-conscious. And it did not help him to think less about what he was doing. He kicked quickly with his legs while stroking with all four arms as he sensed himself nearing the end of the tunnel.

He perceived a mild irritation from the others, except from Bax, whose thoughts remained oddly encouraging.

Cricket began his ascent up another set of stairs. When he finally broke the surface at the far end of the flooded area, he poked only his head out and was met by utter darkness.

I can't see anything!

I'll be there in a second, Scorpion replied. It's confusing to see past the water.

Almost immediately, Scorpion surfaced, and Cricket sensed the hallway around him.

Rather than a thank you, he thought to the others, annoyed, Why can I say that I can't see, but I can't say that I'm nodding? It's the same thing. I'm describing what I'm doing.

It's not the same, Oydd replied.

Why isn't it the same?

Jeshu answered. Because we all sensed you nod before you thought that you were nodding. It was redundant.

But didn't you all sense that I couldn't see before I said I couldn't see? Why didn't that annoy anyone?

Cricket, rather smugly, sensed that the others had no worthy explanation. Oydd skirted the question. We can't control how we feel.

That reply made Cricket feel a bit more smug, which in turn made the others a bit more irritated.

Stop it! Oydd snapped.

Stop feeling the way I'm feeling? I don't have to defend my emotions!

Oydd growled and temporarily cut the link. When it resumed, the connection was much weaker. Cricket plopped, dripping, onto the ground at the far side of the flood and folded his arms indignantly.

He waited impatiently as his companions emerged, one after another, from the black water.

Oydd surfaced out of breath, immediately releasing his levitation and crumpling to the ground.

Scorpion and Spindle both looked pitiful in their drenched fur, but the mouseling shook herself out and almost immediately seemed presentable. She started, instinctively, to lick herself clean, but thought better of it, repulsed by the smell.

Cricket, his arms still folded as he watched the others, leaned back against the wall. "Are you sure this is safe? It doesn't smell safe."

"For the last time, this is not safe. Jeshu, do you think we'll need any treatment?"

"Bax definitely will. He swallowed some. I can... is he still swimming around down there?"

I have too much oxygen. I'm worried if I surface now, it will magnify the problem. Let me work a little of it off!

"Does that make sense?" Oydd asked no one in particular, but shook the thought away, not willing to expend any mental energy on it.

The group spent a couple minutes drying themselves and observing their surroundings before Bax finally joined them.

When he did, Scorpion almost immediately grumbled, "How do you have a potion for everything?"

"Because I made a potion for everything," Bax answered, wringing out his hat.

"That doesn't make any sense," Oydd replied.

"The things that make sense to you aren't the same as the things that make sense to me. We have different sensibilities."

"That's not what that word means," Oydd argued.

"It is," the gnome stated confidently, as he placed the hat back on his head. However, he hiccupped a second later, and the hat vanished. "And you can. Make one of every kind of potion, that is..."

"How? Would you care to enlighten us?"

"Well, have you heard about the placebo effect?"

"I have," Oydd answered dryly.

Bax went ahead and explained it anyway. "The mind works better when it thinks it's supposed to work better. Even the body works better when you think it's supposed to work better."

"That's not true," Scorpion replied.

Oydd flinched. "Actually, it is."

"So what I did was," Bax continued, "was I made several potions that did nothing, and one that did something. Then I carefully dyed them all the same shade of brown, and removed the memory of which one was the real potion."

"What did the real potion do?" Cricket asked.

"I don't know. I removed that memory too. So I can't prove it wasn't underwater breathing, for example. So if I need a potion to cure hiccups, also for example, I just grab a brown one, and it might as well be a cure for hiccups. I mean it's as likely as anything."

"It's not," Oydd huffed.

"Then why does it work?"

"Because of the placebo effect?" Cricket ventured.

"Because of the placebo effect! The one potion I made might have been a cure for hiccups. We just don't know. But we know it will do something!" Bax had plopped himself on the ground, removed his socks and shoes, and was now wringing out a sock, which somehow made the rancid hallway smell worse.

But a moment later he hiccupped and the sock disappeared. Bax reached into his pouch, produced a brown potion and downed half of it. The hiccups ceased.

"But now, see, I know this one cures hiccups, so it's not good for anything else."

"But that means it was the real one, so it won't work next time you try," Oydd declared triumphantly.

"Except that I don't think it was the real one. Tastes like placebo, so... probably a placebo."

Oydd looked furious at this explanation. "If that really works, then its actual manifestation again, and not simply the placebo effect!"

Bax, returning the vial to his pouch, calmly replied, "Don't try to teach me about illusions, and I won't try to teach you about astrology."

"Is that what you think I do?" Oydd roared.

"It's this way, right?" Cricket yelled from down the hallway.

Oydd, still glowering, began to follow.

"Everything's kind of broken up here," Cricket shouted back. "But none of that grey stuff."

"This is the right way. And I would tell you to lower your voice, but I imagine we are expected already."

"Already?"

"Did you sense it? When we killed the demon underwater. It was linked."

"To us? For just a split second."

"No, before that. I didn't let it in. I just didn't expect it to... to already be communicating."

Scorpion unsheathed his invisible blade. "They're always linked?"

Oydd shook his head. "No... but perhaps the queen can... Regardless, I sense them, and they sense me."

* * *

As they plodded along, Scorpion watched Spindle nervously from behind. Somehow it seemed her fur had grown darker. Not just because of the water. He had noticed it earlier.

Spindle slowed her pace. Scorpion also slowed, trying to stay behind her, but she just slowed even more in response. Soon both had fallen behind.

Scorpion grunted, then swallowed hard, and scurried up next to her. The changeling only gave him a sideways glance before lifting her chin and baring her teeth.

Scorpion avoided her gaze, but moved closer still. Eventually Spindle stopped in place and sized him up.

The ratling's lip curled. He finally made eye contact and at the same time reached out and shoved her with Bale's arm—much harder than he had intended!

Spindle managed to remain upright, landing in a crouch. She inhaled slowly, like before, which Scorpion now registered as a sign of arousal. Her tail waved excitedly.

* * *

Cricket picked his way around the rubble of a spacious chamber looking for an exit.

Oydd levitated the corrupted bloodstone egg in front of him, dispelling the black, though the effect was very similar to illumination. "I know it's around here somewhere."

"Is it buried under all of this?" Jeshu asked.

"No... this all looks... old. Ancient even. The path we want has been used recently."

"We could split up and cover more ground."

"Dammit, Cricket..." Oydd paused. "That actually makes sense right now. The dethkiri wait for us on... on the far side of this wall. But it is... they are not close." Oydd brought the egg close to the wall, revealing another set of glyphs. "Where's Bax? Are these illusions again?"

Cricket looked behind him for the gnome, then offered, "How about, I go right and you go left?"

"If we split up, it should be your shadows that branch off."

Cricket raised his antennae in curiosity. "Why?"

Oydd scoffed, then noticed the insect's innocent look. "You really don't know? Are you going to make me say it?"

Cricket cocked his head, and the rudra lost his nerve. "Fine. I'll go left."

Cricket hopped up a large pile of debris to his right, and then looked back to see Jeshu take one step toward him before giving up and heading after the rudra.

Two of Cricket's shadows followed the druid, while another handful followed Cricket, outpacing him again. Cricket looked up in frustration, following the strange carvings on the wall. Which is how he happened to see Bax at the edge of a passageway far above. Cricket took a step closer and grabbed the gnome's attention with a short whistle.

Bax waved back, looking a little lost.

"How'd you get up there?" Cricket shouted.

Bax sat with his legs dangling over the ledge. "I started up here! How'd you get down?"

"That can't be right," Cricket muttered to himself before shouting back, "What's in the hallway behind you?"

Bax looked over his shoulder. "A bunch of big demons, so I came back this way."

"We're looking for a bunch of big demons!"

Bax frowned. "Oh, I'll... Okay, I'll head in..."

"No, Wait for backup."

Cricket looked down, thinking, and saw a second Bax picking his way through the rubble. Cricket waved nonchalantly and the Bax waved back.

"Oh, hey, I was looking for you." The gnome smiled. "I... I think we found the exit. That is, Bax and I."

"Oh, are you the real one?"

Bax looked up, placing a hand above his eyes, as if that helped him see further. "Who's to say?"

"Can you get up there?"

"No... not so much on my own. What's that... like, forty feet?"

"How high can you jump?"

"Oh, six feet, tops," the gnome overestimated.

"We should get Oydd then." As he spoke, Cricket's shadows began to jump up to the ledge, if anything, overshooting their mark.

Cricket looked slightly irritated. "Just a sec."

He studied the overhang, realizing he'd have to make it in one jump due to the incline, then crouched on his powerful hind legs and launched himself into the air, only covering about thirty feet before tumbling back down and landing on his feet.

"Did that hurt?" Bax asked in concern. The other Bax shouted the same question a moment later from above.

"No, no! I've got... shock absorbing legs!"

"Like springs?" Bax asked.

"I don't think so."

"But kind of like springs."

Oydd, hearing the commotion, approached from below the pile of rubble. He floated the last few feet over a short gap in the rocks and followed the insect's gaze upward. "Ah! We were looking down when we should have been looking up."

Eagerly, the rudra began to levitate himself to the top, with Skunk at his side.

When he landed he spoke a word and the Bax atop the ledge vanished.

"Hey!" the gnome on the ground protested, until he felt himself begin to rise off the ground. Slowly, carefully, Oydd placed him up on the ledge.

Bax straightened his vest and grumbled. "How do you know you didn't just kill the real me?"

Oydd, ignoring the ridiculous question, leaned over the edge again and asked if Cricket needed a hand.

"No... I got this. It's actually pretty easy for me." Cricket jumped again, falling short of his record, then readied a third jump. This time, Oydd caught him at the apex and levitated him, squirming, the remaining distance. Some of the clones snickered.

Cricket looked down to see the druid approaching and shouted out, "It's impossible. No one can do it. You wait there!"

But the stones below began to rumble, and a pillar of earth rose from the ground with the druid atop. Patches squealed and clung to his neck with her tail and her good arm.

The insect, looking quite miffed, began to tap the ground with his foot. "Was that hardest for me?"

Bax joined him. "I think so. I just floated right up!"

"They're coming!" Oydd warned, looking down the hallway. The gloom in the temple was thin, but Cricket still sensed the dethkiri before he saw them, through Oydd's link. Jeshu's light glistened from the charging demons' glossy shells.

"Oh, shoot! These ones look strong!"

"What do you mean?" Oydd peered into the darkness.

"Look how shiny they are!" Cricket readied his silver swords as his lower arms gripped the handles of his sheathed scimitars.

But again, his shadows charged in first.

Cricket swore under his breath and sprinted, trying to catch up to them. The Cricket who specialized in swords, currently wielding four shields, lifted all four before him and crashed into the demon's face. The four shields protected him from the dethkirok's slashing counter, though there seemed to be more luck to it than skill. Cricket caught up just as his hammer-wielding clone swatted the demon aside with an impressive blow that sent it onto the waiting spearhead of another shadow. Cricket managed to whack it once or twice after it was impaled, but he doubted whether the contribution was needed.

He turned to the second dethkirok, ducking under a swipe as he charged, but before he made contact, a crossbow bolt struck the pit of its throat, not killing it but doubling it over, which threw off Cricket's aim. His swords landed harmlessly on the plates of its neck, slightly higher than he intended.

The dethkirok gurgled and spun about thrashing, and when Cricket hopped back to dodge, it gave his shadows, again, the opportunity to leap in for the kill.

Cricket grunted in frustration.

Bax summoned a couple rattling skeletons banging pots in clanging armor with bells—just monstrosities of sound, really—a little too late, but decided to leave them out "for the next fight."

Jeshu, not surprisingly, also reached the front lines too late to be of assistance. Seeing the insect's stance, he asked, "Why do you keep the scimitars sheathed?"

"Hmm? Oh, they're curved blades. They're designed to strike from the sheath. There's a... whole art form dedicated to killing on the draw."

"And you know it?"

"Well, no, but... that's why they're curved, so..."

"I thought curved weapons were more for slashing," the druid said. "So they don't get caught on bone and tendon."

"Well, this kind maybe. I'm not super sure. But these blades are so light, you wouldn't see them coming. Not at the speed they move!"

Jeshu looked impressed, even though the insect hadn't done anything. "May I see?"

Cricket leaned forward, striking a pose more than a stance, and then, in a flash, he unleashed two slashes directly from the sheath, and before Jeshu could much register what had happened, the twin blades were again sheathed in their respective scabbards.

"Hey, I don't mean to be rude," Cricket said, "but I need to have a word with my shadows."

"Of course." Jeshu nodded, and the insect ran a bit ahead to catch up with his eager doubles.

"Hey guys... guys? Come here. Come back." Cricket managed to get the attention of three or four of the nine, before he gave up and simply spoke to those present.

"Hey, look. You guys need to let me do some of the kills."

The confused clones looked to each other. One scratched his head.

"You have to be team players. You set up the kills for each other... and me sometimes. It's more strategic."

The clone closest to him humored him with a thumbs up, and though it wasn't very convincing, Cricket looked relieved, none-the-less. As they spoke, the swarm of Crickets came upon another ledge over-looking a huge chamber with similar entrances from each of the cardinal directions, connected by narrow ledges that ran along the perimeter. A golden dais, over a hundred yards away, marked the center of the temple. Behind it, a thin point of light nearly blinded the insect and he held a hand before his eyes to mitigate the intensity.

Bright red, egg-like sacs covered the floor of the room, spreading to every corner, pulsing with an eerie inner light. Black forms, like giant tadpoles twisted about in the translucent sacs, some of the larger ones tearing open the outer membrane with their malformed wings.

Cricket heard the scraping and shifting of something very large and heavy, like metal against stone, and the pinpoint of light moved. Slowly, as his eyes adjusted to the glare, he noticed a mound of what he thought was rock beyond the dais—at least twenty feet high—rise and drag itself across the floor.