Paul Kidd - Descent into the Depths of the Earth

Escalla idly dangled her locator needle, staring at it blankly as she tried hard just to stay calm and think. The needle pointed northwest, away from the lich’s caves, and quivered slightly as though theslow-glass was moving at the very limit of the locator’s range.

The lich was out there, organizing its troops. Here was the ally Escalla’s enemy had dealt with to find raiders to attack thesurface world, but if the lich controlled the troglodytes, then why were the drow involved? What could a faerie possibly need from a city of dark elves?

The troglodytes were stealing living people. Perhaps that was why Jus and Polk were still alive.

Maybe.

“All right, Henry. We… we have to see where they are andwhat happened. Then we have to figure out our options once we see if they’re.. once we see if they’re all right.” Escalla tried to calm her ragged breathingand wipe the tears back from her face. “Just keep calm, all right? You’re withthe faerie. No one touches the faerie.”

The girl had a useful spell up her sleeve-provided the lichwasn’t just around the corner and about to blast them all into rich meatychunks. She tried straightening her hair, sat erect, then forced herself to be calm.

“Henry?”

“Yes, my lady?”

“I have to concentrate, so just keep low and only disturb meif that beholder comes into this room.”

“All right.” The young soldier swallowed then crept back intoplace, trying to move the way the Justicar would. “Don’t worry. I’ll protectyou.”

“I know you will, Henry. Thanks.”

Escalla took a deep breath and bowed her head. Sitting cross legged on the floor with a look of supreme concentration on her face, she opened her hands and quietly spoke a spell. Her point of view shifted to somewhere between her hands, the position wavering slightly until the spell steadied in her mind.

She turned slowly and looked up at herself. Her hair hung bedraggled, and her thin face was smeared with tears. The viewpoint bobbed and carefully rose, then Escalla turned and shot her viewpoint through the caves, leaving her mind and body safely behind.

The spell’s eye moved forward swiftly through the caves andout into the main tunnel. It floated forward in eerie silence, able to see but not hear. Escalla slowed as she approached the entrance to the lich’s cavern,feeling her way carefully forward. She wanted nothing to betray her spy spell. Jus would expect her to be as perfect as possible.

The entrance to the cave lay quiet. Huge bugbears-great hairybeings eight feet tall with stupid, pig-like eyes-leaned on their clubs andstared along the tunnel. Six were on guard at the tunnel mouth, with drow warriors tending a little fire behind them. Escalla hesitated, then drifted the spy spell past the guards. The bugbears never even twitched an ear as Escalla’sviewpoint drifted by.

The main cavern was dangerously immense-a great arching spacewith an unsupported roof that dripped with slime. To the northeast and northwest, great tunnel roadways cleaved into the underdark. The vast central hall seemed to serve as a nexus point where drow caravans and travelers came to trade.

Beside the entrance to the northwest passageway, a hideous black presence materialized from the dark. The lich appeared, its rotting, skeletal face still hung with flaking strips of skin. With its magnificent black robes trailing all around it, the lich walked slowly forward, its steps so cold that they made the cave floor steam. The lich turned and stalked back toward its lair-troglodytes and bugbears bowing and cringing in submission as it passed.The drow watched coldly from the sidelines-dark, elegant, and vaguely amused bythe spectacle of horrid death. Chilled, Escalla backed away, then whirled about and hastily sped after the lich.

Outside the lich’s cave, a drow awaited. A huge pack lizardchewed on rotting meat behind the dark elf. Sitting beside the beast were a dozen spiritless creatures linked together by a chain, slaves apparently being traded to the drow. There were cowed, beaten bugbears, troglodytes, a pair of orcs, and a goblin child.

The lich leaned forward to speak to one of the drow. The dark elf nodded, paid a sum in precious gems, then walked back to the campsite while the lich returned to its cave. Torn with indecision over where to go, Escalla darted left, darted right, then shot after the lich and followed the dreadful being into its lair.

In a cavern lined with magic mouths that murmured and whispered in the very rock, Jus and Polk lay unconscious beside a pile of equipment. Jus still wore his armor, and no one had yet taken his magic ring. Two large troglodyte guards crouched beside them. The two humans were tied tight. The lich stooped over each man, staring, then spoke to the troglodytes and motioned toward the cave entrance.

The troglodytes bowed, lifted Jus between them, and carried him out to the slave merchants. The lich moved over to a shelf of rock, lay a hand in a niche, and drew forth a tiny folded piece of cloth. Opening a few folds of the cloth, it dropped the gems onto the fabric, and the gems seemed to disappear.

The lich peered into the cloth for an instant, replaced it in the niche, then lay down upon a shelf of rock and closed its eyes in repose. An instant later, an illusion spell snapped into place, hiding the lich from view.

Cinders lay in a heap in one corner, his mouth tied shut with Jus’ own magic rope. Escalla hovered anxiously over the poor hell hound, seeingthe dog’s ears jerk and his head twitch as he saw her spell. Through hisbindings, the black hell hound suddenly began to grin. Escalla bobbed up and down in encouragement, then as more troglodytes came to gather Polk, she flitted from the room.

Jus had been carried to the caravan and laid beside the slaves. The drow themselves were relaxing and eating. Boxes were being unloaded from their pack lizard, while a few more slaves were beginning to arrive. The drow were all supremely unhurried, passing their time torturing minor lifeforms and drinking thick black wine.

The spell began to flicker and fade. Escalla took one last scan of the route into the cave, drew one long, deep breath, then opened her eyes and found herself sitting cross legged at the bottom of the crevasse.

Henry lay motionless in cover, frightened yet still soldiering on. Rubbing her temples to clear a swimming sense of vertigo, the faerie blinked and then called out to the boy, “Hey, Henry!”

The boy slid back down to Escalla’s side, keeping his faceturned to the cave above, and sat at her side. “Did you see them?”

“Yeah. They’re alive.” Escalla sniffed, hoping that the badsmell in the air wasn’t her. “The lich is selling them to the drow as slaves.Must be why the trogs raid the upper world. Looks like the slave caravan won’tbe heading out for a while.”

“Where will it go?”

“Probably northwest. But to follow it, we’d still have to getpast the lich and all his friends.” Escalla felt tired and worn. The relief atseeing Jus alive had yet to settle her soul. “I could do with some ideas.Where’s Enid when I need her?”

Private Henry blinked owlishly in the dark. “Who’s Enid?”

“Gynosphinx. Freckles, perfectly spoken, polite and with amind like an encyclopedia. You’ll like her.” The dear, quiet, lovely sphinxwould have been such a comfort. “I’d say we have about an hour to effect arescue before those drow get on the road.”

Off in the deeper caves, the beholder gave an echoing growl. Perfectly trusting, Private Henry settled down to look at Escalla in joy.

“So that’s it! They’re alive! And you have a plan, right?”

“Sure!” Escalla blinked. Jus was alive! She sat a littlestraighter, her mind racing in a hundred directions and arriving nowhere at all. “Sure. Yeah, I have a plan, and it’s a hoopy one, too! Best if I keep it secretfor now, though. I’ll fill you in on a need-to-know basis.”