Crossroads - Part #2
Rebecca Smith
Issue #6 (August 2008)
The warrior mage, Alicia, the older sister to a newly born brother retuns home from being out for the evening to find her home burnt to the ground and her parents and grandmother murdered. Her new brother is missing; stolen by demons.
Alicia decides she must find him whatever the cost. She enters into a losing contract with the Dauphin in an attempt to find and rescue her brother from the demon, Embreon. The Dauphin’s price for aid is Alicia’s soul, and Alicia agrees.
When Alicia broke through the cover of the woods on the near side of the Dauphin’s lair the first thing she saw was the portal. It was large, as tall as a man and as wide as the path. It had no visible support; instead it seemed to float suspended in place. It was framed in black and inside was a swirling green mist that made Alicia’s stomach queasy. She approached it cautiously. Nothing was visible on the other side. That strange mist seemed to go on forever. She peered around the portal to either side and saw the village in the distance. A few cautious guards were staring at the odd appearance of such a thing.
Carefully, she touched it with one hand. A soft, warm sensation flooded her fingers. It reached out and touched her very soul. This wasn’t Hell she was touching. Maybe this path led there, but this, this was the magic that bound the universe together. Something deep inside her recognized it. She felt her soul began to sing as energy poured into her from inside the portal. No matter what happened on the other side, she would have this, at least.
Alicia took a deep breath. It was now or never. She summoned her courage and stepped into the mist. Something seized her and yanked her off her feet. She felt herself falling down and then up and then she seemed to be curving from side to side. It was like being caught in a whirlwind. She went faster and faster until the green mist became a blur and it was all she could do to keep hold of her senses. Finally she began to slow down and she wished it were otherwise. The green mist was no longer refreshing. There was a poison here that tainted the mist and drained it of its life force. She felt it resonate deep within her body and fought against it as she slowed almost to a standstill. There was a dark shape up head. With a start she realized she was heading right for it. She tried to brake, but it was no use. She was falling again and suddenly she fell right through that black hole...
And came out into the middle of a deep, murky pond. Water closed in around her. She felt herself sinking and forced her way to the surface with strong, powerful strokes. Her head broke the surface and she sucked in air ravenously. It smelled awful and her stomach threatened to rebel; with a will she kept it back and forced herself to look around while she treaded water.
There was light, of a sort. Alicia didn’t think it came from a sun. It was entirely too pale and too depressing. The sun that lit all Redora was bright and cheerful, while this light was wan and menacing. The portal was below her; she could see the glowing light even through the water. She was in the middle of a swamp. Rotting vegetation surrounded her on all sides. The trees were stunted and twisted; the bushes dark and dank. Horrible smells filled the air. There was no sign of a demon or his minions anywhere. Nor any other sign of animal life, for that matter. How was she supposed to find them?
A smudge of dry land poked out of the water not too far away. Alicia swam for it with relief. As she got nearer the water became shallower and soon she could walk. The sand on the bottom of the swamp felt strange and unstable. The bank was high and steep; it reared upwards almost as high as she was tall. She couldn’t see any easier way out so she began to climb. As she neared the top she grabbed hold of a strange looking bush and used it scramble the rest of the way onto the bank. The bush ripped apart just as she made it and hideous, twisted insects fell out. They lay wriggling on the mud, desperate to get back under cover. In disgust Alicia threw the remains of the bush away and wiped her hand on her all ready muck covered clothes.
‘What now?’ She wondered. The demon couldn’t be too far, could he? Those monsters had been fast, but not overly so. They probably wouldn’t have been able to keep up that kind of pace for very long. Aside from that, the demon would want his “prize” as soon as possible, wouldn’t he? So it stood to reason that he was somewhere near by. Yet which direction? She took her bearings again and discovered that this was only a small hassock of dry land in the middle of the swamp. There were others, spread here and there. The most seemed to be in the direction she was currently facing.
Taking that as a sign, Alicia hopped from the hassock she was on to the next and then the next after that. Sometimes they would be so far apart that she would have to wade between them and yet the dank disgusting water never got above the level of her chest and she took it in as good a grace as she could manage under the circumstances. Things occasionally bumped into her under the water. They didn’t feel like fish, or snakes and she wasn’t too curious to find out what they were. Twice something tried to latch itself onto her and she had to fight it off with her sword. Other than that there was no sign of life anywhere and that made her nervous. This was supposed to be Hell. Where were the monsters?
The hassocks gradually grew closer and closer together as Alicia worked her way from one to the next. Tufts of black grass started to appear on some of the knolls. The gnarled, black trees that covered the swamp began to thin out. Finally she saw what looked like solid land ahead. She hopped to the next knoll and looked closer. Yes, there it was. Ten feet away. She would have to wade or swim to get there. Without hesitation she plunged into the murky water. She sank to her chest before her feet found purchase in the slippery mud on the bottom. She crossed quickly to the other side. Once her foot slipped in the mud and she stepped on something soft. Something that moved. She quickened her pace, snatched at the reeds on the bank and pulled herself ashore.
Water fountained up behind her in a giant wave. It washed over the edge and bowled her over. She grabbed at the bushes to keep from being sucked backed in and turned over. A giant shape broke the surface of the water. It was a reptile of some kind, dark and bloated. It let out a great roar that echoed through the swamp. Tentacles rose out of the water and lashed out at Alicia. One hit her boot and bounced off. She backed up quickly and the thing latched on to one of her legs and began pulling her towards it. She pulled her sword and hacked at the tentacles, severing the one that held her completely. Two others she injured badly, but it hardly mattered because the thing was coming closer and reaching for her with what seemed to be a hundred arms. It had half a dozen eyes and a large mouth set into the hideous, blistered hide of its face.
There was no time to get away. Instead Alicia went for it, plunging toward it sword first. The sword sank to the hilt in the soft flesh between its eyes. The thing began to convulse wildly. Alicia jumped back, pulling the sword with her. The thing’s tentacles thrashed the air. One of them grazed Alicia’s shoulder and she felt fire in her arm. Then the arms that had grabbed her suddenly went limp and the tentacles stopped thrashing. Alicia pushed herself away and gave the thing a good kick. It floated out a few feet and then disappeared under the water with a hiss of bubbles.
“I guess that answered my question.” She crouched at the edge of the swamp, shivering. That had been the closest call she’d ever had. Her sword was smeared in black blood. Her shoulder hurt badly. She tested it and found that it wasn’t really injured, just sore. Hopefully that poison wouldn’t prove fatal. And what if it did? She wouldn’t have to worry about that for long, at any rate.
Alicia cleaned her sword with a rag from her belt and resheathed it. She stood up and started off in a straight line away from the swamp. The trees, what there were of them, thinned out even more and eventually faded all together. She found herself standing on the edge of a broad, featureless plain covered in red earth. It was entirely desolate. No water, no plants and no animals were anywhere to be seen. The plain stretched into the horizon as far as she could see. Nothing broke that line, certainly no buildings.
Now what? She took a few cautious steps away from the swamp. After the first step the ground became soft and her feet began to sink down. She jumped backwards onto solid ground. What? Sinking sands? That was supposed to be reserved for the swamp! She tried going another way, the one she judged as north and found the same problem. Two more attempts had the same results. She came back to her starting point and considered her options. The only one seemed to be to go back into the swamp. The thought made her queasy. And it didn’t seem like the kind of place a demon would live.
There had to be a way out of this bizarre puzzle. There just had to be.
Alicia sighed in frustration and kicked a dirt clod at her foot. Wait a second... that hadn’t been there a moment ago. She looked down and found a path, outlined as clear as day, under her feet. That had not been there before, she was certain of it. Except now it was and it led south, along the edge of the swamp. She took several steps along it and found that it was solid. She clutched the wooden medallion that hung around her neck and prayed that this was right.
The path stretched on into the distance. It was narrow and winding. Twice she almost lost her way and had to fight her way out of the shifting sands. The trail hugged the edge of the swamp so close it almost ventured beneath the overhanging branches of the trees. Alicia saw many pairs of eyes staring at her from inside that darkness. Occasionally something would hiss or cackle, or make another, indefinable noise that was just as threatening. Alicia kept her hand on her sword hilt. Suddenly she came around a bend in the path and walked head first into a wall.
Yelping, she leaped back and looked up. The wall reared three or four man-heights over her head and beyond that, she could see a towering fortress that had somehow hidden itself until just a moment before. It was jet black, with several solid spires reaching for the sky from the top of the keep. It was massive, as large as the King’s great palace or St. Martin’s was reported to be. The wall itself was constructed of stones almost as large as Alicia herself.
And the path led right under that wall.
Something screeched and suddenly a massive black birdlike thing landed on the keep’s roof. She jumped back into the shadows of the trees. Well, she’d found the demon’s lair all right. Now, how in hell was she supposed to get in? There were no gates in sight. She had no rope or grappling hooks. She touched the wall and found it frustratingly solid.
A bolt of lightning split the sky, causing Alicia to jump. Where the sky had been a featureless grey a moment before, black clouds were now gathering overhead. They seemed to be centering over the fortress. A strong gust of wind hit Alicia, whipping her hair into knots and causing stray leaves to swirl about. The wind smelled strongly of death and decay. She gagged from the stench. Time was running out. She could feel it. She closed her eyes and prayed to the Gods for help.
A stick cracked somewhere behind Alicia. She spun around, sword drawn. Something leaped into the bushes and out of her sight. She went after it, prying apart the thick vegetation. There had been intelligence behind that, she was certain of it. She couldn’t afford to let a spy get away. She pulled away the last bush growing up against one of the hideous trees and raised her sword to swing.
And stopped abruptly. A lizard- no a lizard man- cowered at the foot of the tree with his arms over his head. He was dressed in a simple loincloth and a small knife hung from his belt. Standing up, he wouldn’t have reached much past Alicia’s knees. She was struck by just how much he resembled an overgrown frog.
The creature looked up at Alicia with large yellow eyes through webbed hands. “I not hurt you. No hurt me.” He said in perfect Redoran. Shock flooded Alicia. “What are you?”
The thing giggled. “Sometimes this, sometimes that. What be you?”
“A Redoran. I’m looking for my brother.” Something glinted gold on his chest. It was a gold painted medallion, identical to the one around Alicia’s neck. Only members of her family had them. Her brother hadn’t had his yet, obviously. Her grandmother and mother had, however. And, she remembered suddenly, her grandmother’s had been missing. In one lightning movement she had the little lizard man pinned to the tree. She pressed the point of her sword into his neck. “That medal you’re wearing belongs to my family. Where did you get it?”
“Nowhere! Mine, it’s mine!”
“Don’t lie, lizard man, I’m not in the mood.” Alicia pressed the sword in just a little closer. His neck bulged out around it. “I think that you were one of those Demonkin that murdered my family and now you’re out here on watch for your master. That’s it, isn’t it?”
He squealed. “NO! One of the neda dropped it on their way in. I swear. They had mortal babe with them, I saw. They drop this, it shiny, I pick it up. Not work for the demon. Nasty he is. I swear!”
The frog man looked at Alicia with such entreaty in his eyes that for some reason she couldn’t help but believe him. She removed the sword from his throat but kept him pinned to the tree. “All right. I’ll believe that. However, I also believe you know how to get in there. Will you show me?”
He looked at Alicia warily for a moment. He glanced at her sword, then back to her. Apparently he decided he wasn’t in immediate danger of being chopped up and answered her question. “What’s you got?”
“What?”
He spread his hands. “Whatcha got?” He repeated.
Did everybody have to have payment for everything? That wasn’t the Redoran way at all. “You like you’re new medal?” At his nod, she went on. “Show me the way in and you can have mine as well. However, you cross me and I’ll make you pay if I have to chase you across all of Hell to do it.”
He laughed. “You would, too. I no trickster, not in this; I show you right.”
Cautiously, she released him. He stood up straight and dusted himself off. He held his hand out. “Medal?”
Alicia shook her head. “Show me first. I won’t risk you cheating me.”
The frog man cocked his head to one side. “How I know you will not cheat me?”
“Because I keep my promises, that’s why.”
He seemed to accept that at face value. He turned and headed into the swamp, beckoning her to follow.
“Wait a minute. The walls that way.”
The frog man looked back over his shoulder and giggled. “We not get in that way. Too well guarded. I show you the back way.”
Reluctantly, Alicia followed the little frog man back into the swamp. The trees here were taller than those were she had come in and blocked the light, making the swamp terribly gloomy. There were no phosphorescent mushrooms here to light the way. She scrambled after him, over tree roots and through muddy pools of filthy water. He was a fast little guy and she had to struggle to keep up. When she lagged behind he would stop, look back and admonish her. “Hurry, hurry. Not much time left. The ceremony’s started.”
“I’m coming!” Alicia yelled and somehow found the strength to scramble up yet another massive tree root. She hurried after him and finally managed to catch up, out of breath. He looked at her and shook his head. He was perched on the edge of a large, slimy pool. He pointed to the other side. “There!” he said, triumphantly.
Alicia looked and saw a round pipe emerging from the wall on the other side of the pool. It was half submerged and it undoubtedly led inside the fortress. Finally! She started to slide into the water and the frog man grabbed her arm. Oh right, the medal. She reached to take it off, but he shook his head and pointed into the water. She glanced in and saw several of those water monsters swimming round inside. She knew she couldn’t kill that many, not in the amount of time she had.
“You have any ideas how I can get past those things?”
He blinked his bulging eyes. “Why not use your Power?”
It was Alicia’s turn to blink. “Power? What power?”
He touched Alicia’s chest with one webbed hand. “Power in there. Break things, cause things, don’t you? You have the Power. Use it. Won’t get past him without it, you won’t.”
Alicia closed her eyes. It was real, then. She’d been afraid of that. It was one of the things that set her apart from everyone else in the village. Why she’d never had any real friends. Why Jok tried so hard to gain control over her. “I don’t know how to use it.” She admitted weakly.
“Yes you do. Think about brother. You know.”
‘He was right’, she realized. ‘I can do this. I have to.’ She pulled the medal from around her neck and handed it to him. “Here. I told you I keep my promises.” She took a deep breath and slid into the pool.
The water was so filthy she could barely see. She hated to think about what was in it that made it this filthy. She swam straight for the tube in strong, even strokes. Maybe the monsters wouldn’t notice her. That was a forlorn hope, of course. One of them spotted her before she got a third of the way across the pool. It changed course and came after her, tentacles reaching. Alicia reached down inside of herself, way down to the part of her she’d tried so hard to avoid for so long. She thought of her family and of her brother and of all the things good in Redora that might be destroyed if she failed. And somehow, somewhere inside her she found the source of that Power.
It was as if an explosion took place inside her. Energy surged through her veins. She felt the power rise up and up and still up until it threatened to break free of her and spiral out of control. She couldn’t have that. With a will she wrestled it back down and got it under control. Now she drew upon it carefully, forming a small portion of it into a missile aimed at the ever advancing water beast. Then she threw the missile with her mind as hard as she could.
A lightning bolt exploded from her hands. She hadn’t even noticed she’d been treading water. The bolt shot straight and true into the heart of the beast. It exploded and generated a wave that almost washed Alicia back to the edge of the pool. The other beasts noticed its death and swarmed on it, feasting on the remains. A few more noticed Alicia, but instead went after the easier prey. Soon the pool was awash in body parts and blood. Many of the monsters had fled; the rest were busy feasting on their fallen comrades. Alicia took advantage of the confusion to finish swimming over to the sewer pipe.
Only to find bars across the outside.
Well, if her powers could take care of those monsters, why not a set of bars? She concentrated carefully and aimed a jet of power at the top and bottom of the bars. The power cut them off clean and they fell into the muck below.
“Careful!” The frog man called from the bank. “Too much will attract His attention. And you can use it up!”
“Thanks!” She waved at him and he waved back, the medallion glinting in the pale light. She turned and ducked through the hole in the bars. The light blinked out and darkness surrounded her. She swam bravely forward, feeling with her arms what she could not see with her eyes. The sewer smelled terribly. It began to curve upwards shortly and the water level declined. Soon there was only a trickle of water running down the side of the sloping incline. Alicia used both her hands and feet to scramble up the slippery slope. This had not been intended for entry into or exit from the fortress, she was certain. Slime covered the tunnel on all sides. Her boots found little traction on the wet stone. Twice she slipped and slid part way back down before catching herself. Resolutely, she started again each time.
Drumbeats echoed through the stone culvert from somewhere overhead. She had to be getting closer. How much time did she have left? Not much, if that frogman had been right. She tried to hurry, and she slipped again and slid twenty feet before catching herself on a patch of slime.
Cursing, Alicia rested for a moment while she tried to catch her breath. Her heart was beating fiercely. The drums echoed still louder overhead. ‘This is all your fault.’ She told herself. If only she had stayed at the house and calmly explained to Mother why she didn’t want to marry Jok instead of barging out like that, this wouldn’t have happened. She’d have been there when her brother was born and when the demon’s kin came. She was armed, unlike the rest of the villagers and she knew how to use her sword. If she’d been there, things would have turned out differently. She was sure of it. Why, oh why, had she acted so childishly?
‘It doesn’t matter now’, she reflected sadly. All that mattered was rescuing the babe and getting him out of here safely. Something brushed by her hand. She looked down but could see nothing in the darkness. She felt it again, this time on her other hand. It was moving upward, whatever it was. And it had many legs. She felt it again and then again, as more and more brushed past her on their way up. Her heart leapt into her throat. She began to shake. Those things felt a lot like spiders, however there was no way to tell without a light.
That gave Alicia an idea. Could this power of hers generate light? It was worth a try. She took one hand off the wall and held it palm up. She looked down at her palm and concentrated. Light, she thought. Light. There was a spark, briefly extinguished. Meanwhile another “bug” brushed her hand. Shaking she tried again. Nothing this time. She closed her eyes and tried one last time. Something clicked inside her mind. When she opened her eyes there was a glowing sphere of light floating a fingers breadth above her hand. She looked around and almost panicked.
Spiders! Everywhere. They swarmed up the inside of the tunnel, on all sides of the stone walls. Little ones smaller than a fingernail and bigger ones the size of her boots. Some were black and some were brown and all had the distinctive eight legs that marked their kind. They brushed by her fingers and boots as they marched ever upwards. Some were using her as a convenient climbing post now, crawling up her legs and back to reach higher places on the tunnel. One climbing up the top side of the tunnel lost its hold and fell straight into Alicia’s hair.
Alicia shrieked. She tossed her head vigorously, dislodging the spider and sending it falling to the depths below. That only left a few thousand others. What was she going to do about them? For a moment panic seized her and her mind went completely blank. She took a couple of deep breaths to calm herself and an idea hit her. She looked down at the tunnel below. They were coming from somewhere down there. Could she block it off? She concentrated, picturing a shield and when she looked down again there was a thin layer of something across the tunnel. Whatever it was, it was blocking more spiders from coming up.
Now she only had to deal with the ones that were here now. That she could handle. She closed her eyes and held herself still, trying not to feel the little legs that brushed her as they climbed up. It wasn’t easy and she found she was trembling inside. Gradually the number of encounters eased and when they finally stopped she opened her eyes to find that the nearest one was several feet on up the tunnel.
Alicia sighed in relief. She began to climb again, using the light in her palm as a guide. Other tunnels soon merged with the one she was in, all of them leading down. Spiders were pouring out of those as well and she was forced to shield each one as she approached it. Luckily, all the spiders seemed to be going up, not down and that let her keep her sanity. Gradually the walls narrowed until there was barely enough room for her to move. The light revealed a sturdy iron grate set into the stone just overhead.
Finally! She dimmed the light and reached for the grate with one hand. It was ancient and slimy and it gave when she pushed at it. Apparently no one had thought someone might enter the fortress this way. She held still just underneath the grate for several long moments, listening intently for the sound of anyone moving overhead. The drumbeats were almost deafening now. She couldn’t hear anything over them now, even her own breathing. When she felt she couldn’t afford to wait any longer, she lifted her head up and peered through the grate. Solid darkness met her eyes. She caught a whiff of something fouler even than the air from the tunnel. What it was she couldn’t say, though it made her stomach roil.
“Light.” She whispered and the sphere brightened. She directed it upward and past the grate. It brightened further, revealing a square room made entirely of stone. The stone was darkened and cracked with age. Slime covered it and water trickled down the sides. The sloping floor guided it down to the tunnel. A large, metal door was set into one wall. Cells lined the other walls.
Part three to be continued in the September 2008 issue of the Fantasy Gazetteer.
