Rick Cook - The Wizardry Quested

Or maybe there’s just a lot more stuff down here, he thought as the party moved along a tunnel as wide as a four-lane highway. I wonder how you estimate the monsters per square kilometer in a dungeon. Or should that be per cubic kilometer because the place has so many levels it’s really three dimensional? The air was getting more humid as they went along. At first there was a nasty, cold clamminess that seemed to ding to them. Then it got warmer until all the humans were sticky with sweat Finally, after two more turnings into smaller tunnels they were surrounded by a thick, warm mist.

"I hear water up ahead," Malkin said softly. Wiz nodded and took a better grasp on his staff.

Suddenly the tunnel opened out into a cavern. The far wall and the ceiling alike were lost in billows of mist. The sound of trickling, splashing water was loud before them.

They paused while Danny surveyed the area with his magic detector.

"No sign of anything," he said at last. "Whatever’s up ahead of us is natural, not magic."

"Natural hot springs," Wiz said. With a gesture he increased the intensity of the light from the magical globe and the party stepped into the cave. They looked around and gasped.

Brightly colored flowstone had congealed like melted candle wax in opalescent patterns. The fog and mist made the place look like a Hollywood soundstage.

"It’s beautiful," Danny said softly. June said nothing, but clung open-mouthed to Danny’s arm, staring wide-eyed like a child on Christmas morning.

"Quite something," Malkin said. Wiz looked back and saw her standing arms akimbo and feet spread. She was also eyeing the scene as if she was trying to figure out how to take the place home with her. Wiz decided that where Malkin was concerned, larceny was the sincerest form of flattery.

"Stay close people," Wiz admonished. "Just because there’s no magic in here doesn’t mean there’s nothing dangerous."

The room was not as big as it had seemed, being much longer than it was wide. The tunnel they had entered from angled in on the long side and in perhaps fifty paces they were across the room.

"Here’s your hot spring," Malkin said, gesturing at a place where the water trickled out of the rock wall. From there it ran along the floor of the cavern and gathered in a series of pools before disappearing through a crack in the floor.

Danny mopped his sweaty brow on his wet sleeve. "Whew, this place is like a sauna."

"Yeah," Wiz said slowly. "Or a hot tub. Come on, let’s see how hot it really is."

The water at the seep was scalding, but by three pools down it had cooled until it was just barely tolerable. Wiz stuck his finger in and nodded.

"Are you thinking what I think you’re thinking?" Danny asked.

Wiz just gestured at the pool. "Looks big enough."

"Right," Danny said, dropping his pack and staff and stripping off his outer tunic. Wiz and the other humans followed suit.

Glandurg eyed the water with distaste. "Another of your mortal customs, eh? Fear not. I’ll guard the door while you pollute yon stream." With that he turned his back and disappeared into the steamy fog.

They kept their shirts on for modesty’s sake, but tie thin fabric clung to their bodies as soon as it got wet and the result was more like a wet T-shirt contest than swimming suits. The pool wasn’t even waist deep, but the four lowered themselves into the steaming water with much "oohing" and "aahing" and made themselves comfortable on the smooth flowstone of the bottom.

For several minutes no one said anything, letting the heat and warmth soak into their bodies.

"First time I’ve even been on a quest with a hot tub," Danny said at last. Wiz sighed deeply and relaxed further into the steaming water. "Civilized though."

Malkin ducked under the water and came up with her long dark hair streaming behind her. She was the picture of ease but Wiz noticed she never strayed more than a foot from her rapier. She shook her head vigorously to clear her eyes, splashing everyone else with droplets flung off from her raven hair.

"Jerry told me that in your world you have such things built into your dwellings," the thief said. "Now I see why."

"We ought to put one of these in at the Wizards’ Keep," Danny suggested. Wiz didn’t say anything. He leaned back, rested his head on the rim and let the hot water drain the tension from every muscle.

A fine sifting of dust was falling from the ceiling. Wiz brushed it out of his hair absently and sneezed as the pungent dust tickled his nose. He wet his finger and caught a speck of the dust on the end. His eyes wrinkled at the sharp taste and then widened as he recognized it. Lemon pepper!

A broom-sized bundle of herbs dropped from above and splashed into the pool next to him. "Look out! It’s the lobster again."

There was a mad scramble for weapons and wizards staffs as the pool emptied almost instantly.

"Oh, pshaw!" came a crustacean-accented voice from the misty darkness above. Glandurg came pounding up through the fog, waving Blind Fury as if to decapitate the foe-or someone- with a single stroke. The others moved around to the opposite side of the pool, well out of range.

"What happened?" the dwarf demanded.

Wiz pointed to the bundle of herbs floating in the pot of would-be Cannibal Soup Mix. "The lobster. He must have come across the roof of the cave."

Glandurg looked up and snorted. ’The craven creature was afraid to face my steel. Little did I expect the foe to crawl along the ceiling like some verminous spider. But never fear. I shall be ready if he returns."

Wiz glanced at the pool, already filling the steamy air with the spicy aroma of herbs, pepper and lemon.

"Never mind. I think I’ve had all the swimming I want."

"What now?" Bal-Simba asked Jerry after they had stashed the truck with Moira in it in a hotel parking lot.

"Back to the convention, I guess. We’ll start working the outlying halls. That’s where they put the newcomers to the show and Taj is more likely to be hanging around some of the more innovative startups." He sighed. "This isn’t working very well. I’m sorry."

"There is nothing to be sorry for," Bal-Simba said. "The obstacles are clearly very great."

Thanks, but we can’t keep going like this. Not with the cops looking for us."

"I do not believe Moira can continue here either. She grows ever sicker and weaker. It is well that she can sleep the day away, but even so:" He shrugged.

"Yeah. Okay, let’s try today, and if we haven’t found him by evening we’ll just head north to the power spot and go home."

Even the smaller halls were jammed and, if anything, the crowds were more colorful than at the main exhibits. There was a higher ponytail-and-T-shirt to suit ratio, Jerry noted approvingly, and here and there someone was sitting on the steps or a bench with an open laptop actually hacking code.

Their first stop was the message center, more out of optimism than genuine hope. There was still nothing for Taj, but to his amazement Jerry found a message for him from Elaine Haverford.

Their second stop was the line at a pay phone. After twenty minutes, Jerry paid a scalper twenty dollars to use a cell phone that had been hacked to have a fire marshall’s priority so its calls would get through.

Dr. Haverford answered on the second ring. "Oh yes, Mr. Andrews, I did see Taj last night. He was at the chili cookoff. Were you there?"

"Ah, we were having a hot time of our own," Jerry told her. "Did you talk to him?"