NOVEL NEXT Book 10 Chapter 28
The ceiling of the chamber was so high above she couldn't make it out in the darkness, the torches in the city far too dim. She would have almost believed it was night time and there was just sky above them, if not for the lack of stars. It was damp and stuffy, the scent of undead making her want to cover her nose.
There were countless tunnels, some of which she suspected led to the surface, but she had no idea which ones or how far a journey that was. She couldn't even make out where the walls ended, instead they seemed to go on forever before being swallowed by shadows, the city itself just a small, dim island of light in a sea of darkness.
The city itself was built into the stone, forming a somewhat stair-like appearance of roads, stone buildings that had roofs that melded with the road above, only for more stone buildings to rise opposite them. From the distance she couldn't see, but up close she imagined they looked amazing. While elven homes were often shaped and grown from the trees, dwarven homes were shaped from stone, molded within the mountain through magic and elemental forces that few could ever hope to control. Like a pebble that had been smoothed in a river over years, the stone of such homes were often almost gentle to the touch.
Unfortunately, the dwarves who had shaped this place were long, long gone and the buildings were likely in need of much repair. Torches lined the roads and many of the buildings had collapsed. At the base of the city was a pier leading into a lake, though she had no idea how big it was. It seemed to go on forever, disappearing into the darkness as well. There weren't any ships that she could see.
"So, we're going there?" Joan asked. "A city of undead, right? Sounds fun."
"Not just undead," Qakog said. "But no, not quite. We're going to the collapsed castle. Penthe showed me." He pointed away from the city and towards one of the tunnels in the wall that had half a plaque over it, the other half having long since fallen off. "Through there."
"Oh," Joan said, unable to keep herself from deflating a little bit. "So we're not going to have to sneak through a city of undead?"
"Can you please try not to sound so disappointed?" Bauteut asked.
"It sounds cool," Joan said. "Most undead I run into try to kill me."
"Some of them did kill you, remember?" Bauteut asked.
"Well… okay, yes," Joan said. "But I never came here as the Hero, it's an undersea city of undead and who knows what else? It—"
"Come along, mouse," Chase said before giving her a very gentle nudge towards the tunnel.
Joan rolled her eyes, but walked towards it with the others. Their feet squished in the damp mud underfoot and when they made a small light to illuminate the path forward she saw rather sizeable rats scattering off in all directions. At least, she thought they were rats. She hoped they were rats.
"Are you sure it's this one?" Joan asked.
"It's the one Penthe told me it was," Qakog said before motioning against the walls. They were shaped, like much of the tunnels were, except there were deep holes every few lengths, as if something had been driven in and then pulled out. "She said this tunnel was once lined with gold and there were gems that glimmered like torches illuminating the way."
"Really?" Joan asked. "I'd have loved to see that."
"It does sound pretty," Bauteut said. "A shame it looks like this now."
Sadly, all that lined the walls now was mold and slime. The ground squished with every step and occasionally she'd hit a stone that just bounced a bit down the tunnel.
When it ended, there was no light, no illumination. Joan held up her hand and made the light go up--
And barely suppressed the urge to scream when she saw the two massive spiders on the walls over the tunnels, Penthe and the dryad on their backs.
"You two took forever," Penthe said coldly.
"You're just incredibly fast," Chase said. "How did you get here so quickly, anyway?"
"We rode," Penthe said. Slowly, the spiders descended on them and Joan couldn't help it. She reached out and took Chase's hand again, moving behind him a little. She knew they weren't dangerous spiders, that they wouldn't hurt them. But even so, having the two descend and come to a halt just a few steps away from her sent a flurry of emotions and mild panic through her. Penthe jumped off the back of her spider and landed in the mud, splashing some of it up against the stone. "Come on, we've wasted enough time."
"It's okay," Chase whispered down to Joan before giving her hand a little squeeze. "Come on." He started walking, lightly tugging her with him. The spiders waited for all of them to pass before following behind.
Joan didn't like this at all. She could hear the light clicking of their legs skittering along in the mud and stone. Even with the dryad riding them, and Chase between her and them, she didn't like it at all. Now the light she used only seemed to make things worse. She swore she could see shadows of more of them in the darkness, great spidery legs disappearing from view the moment the light came near, another spider skittering out of sight and over a pile of rubble as they passed.
It was nonsense and she knew it was nonsense, but it didn't make her feel any more comfortable. It didn't help that the chamber itself was, once again, massive. Little patches of moss were growing over ancient piles of rubble. It seemed as if there had once been a great wall surrounding it, but the wall had been destroyed long ago and most of what remained of it had long since collapsed.
"What happened here?" Bauteut asked.
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"It was lifetimes ago," Penthe said. "Their final stand against another one of the Hungry One's children. The Hero came too late, only a handful of them managed to escape to the surface, sealing it up behind them."
"Sorry," Joan said quickly. "I… didn't mean to…"
"Don't," Penthe said. "That wasn't your fault. None of what happened was your fault. It's here." Penthe came to a stop in front of a large pile of rubble that looked like every other pile of rubble.
"Are you sure?" Chase asked.
"Not entirely," Penthe said. "These memories are ancient. But I'm remembering what I can. Is there enough water for you here?"
"There's plenty," Chase said. He gently nudged Joan towards Bauteut and Qakog, the former of which took her hand and gave it a little squeeze while the Chosen walked away. He took a slow breath before he began to glow with a bright, blue light. Joan gulped, she'd never really seen it up close like this. It was like a star made of the purest blue sapphires. Magic so powerful it was practically solid.
The Chosen then extended his hand and the moisture around them gathered up rapidly, drawing out of the ground itself and swirling into an orb of blue, leaving dry dirt beneath their feet. He then pushed his hands forward and the water dove into the rubble, squeezing between the bricks and stones. The pile shook and rumbled for a moment before it began to be tossed aside, massive rocks flying away from them with ease, while other chunks were merely shoved aside.
Bit by bit the rubble was removed and revealed the stonework that had been beneath it. Sure enough, it was there. A long, long disabled teleportation circle. The stones within were entirely out of alignment and there was no real magic in it, with half of the marks having been washed away.
Penthe walked over to it and knelt down, placing both palms on the stone. The lines began to glow a dull white as, one by one, they were re-drawn and cleared. After a few moments she pulled her hands back, shaking her head. "That should be enough. I'm going to contact Korgron. She should be able to finish the job now." She got to her feet and walked a bit away, a hand moving to the side of her helmet.
"I guess we're almost done then, right?" Joan asked before motioning towards the spiders. "Uhhh, what about them? Can… they teleport?"
"That won't be necessary," the dryad said.
Joan had barely a moment to shriek before the spiders moved into action, charging past them and to the teleportation circle.
The dryad jumping off their back moments before they touched it, then the spiders disappeared as if they had never been there at all. The dryad turned and bowed to them. "This should be more than enough of a connection to return to my home. Thank you, Chosen. Thank you, Blessed One of the Autumn Court. Please, know should you return to the court, you will have another ally." She then turned and placed a foot on the circle, disappearing within it.
Joan stared, unable to stop herself from shaking. It took her a moment to realize she was clutching to Qakog's arm but, admittedly? She didn't mind that much. "I-I thought she was going to turn on us," Joan said weakly. She then realized Bauteut was hugging her just as tightly as she was hanging onto Qakog.
"Admittedly… I… I thought that too," Bauteut said weakly before slowly pulling back. "That is a lot of spider to just have run by you all at once."
Joan slowly pulled back from Qakog and it was a sign of how shaken he was that he didn't say anything, instead focusing on the teleportation circle. If nothing else, at least there weren't any more spiders to make her feel anxious.
"Chase," Penthe said, walking back towards them. "You're with me. We need to go get Dixon."
"We?" Chase asked.
"You're going to try and leave us behind?" Joan asked, her eyes narrowing on her.
Penthe gave a sigh before shaking her head. "Chase is a changeling and I'll need to be subtle to ensure Dixon is safe. I want the three of you to keep the teleportation circle safe until we get back. Korgron is trying to re-connect to it, but there's so many distortions where she is that it's going to be a slow, difficult process."
"Why would anyone come here?" Bauteut asked. "There's nothing here but rubble."
"I don't know," Penthe said. "But the last thing I want is for anyone to come along and tamper with it. We're trying to be subtle and leave before anything here realizes that their leader is gone."
"Don't you mean anyone?" Bauteut asked, just a hint of hope in her voice.
"No," Penthe said. "Joan. Can you just stay here, keep an eye on the teleportation circle and avoid drawing attention to yourself?"
Joan gave a sigh and crossed her arms. "Fine," she said, unable to keep the annoyance out of her voice. "I'm really tired, anyway. Just be careful, okay? Don't pick any fights?"
"If we do this right, there won't be any fighting at all," Penthe said before nodding to Chase. "Do you have any objections?"
"No rest for the weary," Chase said in a playful tone. "Yes, oh Guide. Lead and I shall follow."
Penthe just shook her head before she walked away, back down the tunnels they had come, muttering incoherently under her breath.
Joan snickered before walking towards one of the partially collapsed walls and then sitting down on a stone by it, leaning against it. The light spell had faded out, but the glow of the teleportation circle was plenty for now and she supposed she just had to wait. A small part of her felt annoyed at being left behind again, but honestly?
She was so tired she didn't even mind that much. They'd done a lot in the last few days and now she could feel the exhaustion catching up with her. Bauteut sat by her a moment later before Qakog sat on the opposite side of her. "Are you two ambushing me?" Joan asked.
"Kind of," Bauteut said before reaching out a hand against the back of her neck.
"I'm not getting put to sleep," Joan said quickly.
"I wasn't planning to," Bauteut said. "I was just checking. You are still recovering."
"How do I look?" Joan asked.
"Tired," Bauteut said.
"Well, your magic needs work if that's all it found," Joan mumbled, closing her eyes. "Me being tired is pretty obvious. I'm also hungry, achy and want to take the longest, hottest bath."
Bauteut gave a low chuckle and pulled her hand back. "I think that sums up how we all feel right now. But no, you don't seem much worse than normal. Want some of our rations?"
Joan shook her head and closed her eyes. She then sighed and just leaned over to rest her head on Qakog's shoulder. She ignored the happy little squeak he made. "No. Too tired, too much chewing. Just going to rest for a little bit, okay? Stopping the… I don't know what he was. Whatever Saga was, wasn't easy. And since I'm probably going to have to explain everything to everyone later anyway, I just want to get a little rest."
"That's fine," Bauteut said. "Just rest while you can."
Joan nodded. It wasn't like she was going to sleep, though. She just wanted a little rest. Just for a few minutes.