Paul Kidd - Descent into the Depths of the Earth

“Going.” Jus tried not to breathe the tavern stink. “Theseare lower level predators. The disaster in the valley’s giving them the chanceto prey on these refugees.” The man’s face was a shadow beneath the jet blackhell hound skin. “Kill the head, and the body has to die.”

The Justicar swung the pack onto his back, and Escalla stayed inside for the ride. Above her, Cinders’ tall ears stood proud. With her handsfolded behind her head, Escalla wriggled on her bed of misappropriated gold and sighed.

“That’s the man!”

Walking heavily through the tavern, Jus heard the excited yell from the door ahead. He stopped and saw a skinny, pimple-smothered man backed up by four huge half-orcs dressed in rusted armor. The leader of the armored brutes seemed strangely hunched and bestial. Part bugbear or part ogre, he had a skin covered in scabs.

The smaller man swelled in righteous fury and roared, “Thatman there! He has a carnivorous backpack! He uses it to extort people!” Thethief waved his hand. “He’s in league with the Takers! He’s here to scoutfor the pale lady!”

The four half-orcs instantly started forward. Polk immediately took a big step to one side, carrying himself away from the Justicar as he opened up his chronicles and dug out a fresh pen. Behind him, the whole tavern crowd arose. At least twenty thugs, mercenaries, brigands, and rogues surged to their feet.

Jus walked toward the huge, misshapen figure of the senior guard. The big ranger scratched his stubbled chin and scowled. “Who’s the palelady?”

“She runs the Takers! She clears the valleys.” The half-orchissed and flexed its claws. Yelling to his men, the guard began to draw a scimitar. “They’re Takers! Hang ’em!”

Jus felled the beast with a lightning fast left jab. The half-orc flew backward into his men, sending weapons flying and armor clattering.

Another soldier grabbed his comrades by the shoulder and hurled them to the floor.

“Down!”

The half-orcs threw themselves flat. Behind them stood two more bestial soldiers, each leveling a crossbow straight toward the Justicar. Fangs spread into grins as the men swung their weapons onto target.

Cinders’ huge teeth gleamed.

Hello!

Flame blasted through the doorway, slamming the crossbowmen back into the street. Cinders’ flames sheeted across the half-orcs on thefloor. The hell hound screeched in happy bloodlust as screams filled the air.

Burn! Burn!

A sword hissed toward Jus’ head. The big man ducked andlanded a massive kick into the swordsman’s guts, folding him in two.

Inside the tavern, men scattered aside in terror as Cinders’nostrils trailed little flames. One man hammered a spell at the Justicar, a charm spell that twisted aside from the shielding influence of the ranger’smagic ring. Jus strode forward with a roar, and tavern goers scattered and fled out the back door.

Escalla popped her head out of Jus’ backpack, looking towardthe open street. She paused for one thoughtful moment, then opened up her hands and molded an arc of sizzling electricity between her palms. She sped the spell through the door. A lightning bolt flashed into being just outside the doorway, sizzling perpendicularly left and right. Unseen voices screamed and wailed. Escalla dusted off her hands, having eliminated an ambush party waiting just outside the doors.

Flattened against one tavern wall was the thief. The man quaked in terror as he stared at Escalla and the Justicar. He took one long look at Escalla, shook his head in absolute terror, and slid to the ground with his eyes rolling upward in a faint.

Unused to her beauty being so sadly reviled, Escalla dusted off the smoking palms of her hands and said, “Next time, just listen to yourfriendly neighborhood weasel!”

The tavern seemed deserted. Escalla flew out of the backpack and went to search her victims for loose change.

“Are we done yet? I hate taverns like this!”

Jus shook his stinging left hand. The half-orc’s jaw had feltlike it had been drop-forged out of steel.

“Let’s go.”

“Sure. Just a bit!” Escalla surfaced from amidst a pile ofsmoking half-orcs. “Hey! A gold tooth! You got any pliers?”

“Escalla…”

“Your dagger will do in a pinch.”

“Escalla!”

“Just kidding!” The faerie waved her hands in innocence.“Lighten up! We came, we saw, he toasted butt-just another typical day.”

Jus snared her by the wings and dragged the girl outside.

“Let’s get moving before their pale lady takes an interest.”The ranger shot a look at Polk, who was taking a hasty body count. “Polk, move.”

Jus strode onto a street that now seemed deserted. A last few people were fleeing into their homes. Jus threw Polk into the wagon and wrenched the mule into motion, whacking the creature into a trot and running heavily alongside.

Still busy with his books, Polk totted up numbers and beamed in delight. “Not bad, son! Not bad!” Polk tried to make a note in his ledger. “Imake it sixteen at least!”

Jus clung onto the mule’s mane as he lumbered down the road.“Shut up and drive the cart.”

Polk closed his book with a loud bang. “One punched, onekicked, six burned, and eight fried.”

Escalla clung onto the sides of the cart, her hair streaming in the breeze. “And one just kinda fainted!”

“So that’s seventeen!”

Jus looked back over his shoulder and said, “Polk, what areyou doing now?”

“Keeping score! Every group of heroes has to have a score!”

A side trail led off the main track. Forced to slow down, theJusticar cursed the mule and cart for the thousandth time as he swung them onto the new route. Hanging back as the cart blundered onward, Jus swept the new trail with a severed branch and retreated away from the main track.

Escalla sat atop the cart counting a little pile of gold. She smiled at Jus, holding up one of her glittering trophies. The Justicar growled under his breath, swept the trail clean of cart tracks, then walked irritably along at the wagons tail.

A mile down the track, Jus allowed the mule cart to slow to a halt. Wheezing like broken bellows, the mule staggered forward to a little stream where it stood hock-deep in water. Polk took the chance to uncork his whiskey bottle. The little man took a swig, sighed, sealed his bottle, and then sat up in his seat.

“When do we go back to town? Your ruse must have worked, boy!The soldiers will be out searchin’, so now’s the time to head back and face downtheir leader with cold, hard steel!”

Annoyed, Jus glared at the little man, half tempted to harness him next to his own mule. “Polk, we are not fighting anyone!”

“But they said they knew a pale lady! Were she good, she’d bethe ‘fair lady’, but ‘pale lady’… she just has to be evil!”

“They thought we worked for her, Polk. Shut up anddrink.”

The glade seemed peaceful, deserted, and quiet. Little birds twittered amidst the brilliant red autumn leaves while the cups of fallen acorns shone twinkling in the sun. Water flashed and sunken leaves lined the streambed with red and gold.

The Justicar stood, feet planted wide apart, and his gaze speared Escalla. The little faerie raised one brow and pointed at herself in inquiry. Jus answered by crooking a finger in her direction.

“Escalla. A word.”

Deliberately innocent, Escalla drifted into the air and kept pace with Jus as he stalked beside the stream. Already guessing virtually everything he needed to know, the Justicar turned toward Escalla.

“The tavern…?”

Rubbing her hands together and looking a tad embarrassed, Escalla shook her head in wonder. “Yeah, some place, huh? Sad how some peoplejust take an instant dislike to you for no reason at all!”