Paul Kidd - Descent into the Depths of the Earth

Infinitely relieved, Private Henry sat and hugged his crossbow for joy. “I knew it! The Justicar can’t be defeated by a bunch ofdamned trogs!”

“Yeah, well, let’s just say he’s gathering his resources tohelp us with our efforts.” Escalla lay back against the rock wall and stared atthe ceiling, wincing as she tried to find inspiration. “We’ll have to get movingquick.”

“Just say the word!” Henry was so full of trust that Escallacould have killed him. “What do we do first?”

The faerie slapped a few half baked ideas together in the vague hope that they might stick.

“Well, kid, look on it as a five point plan.” Escalla sat up,knowing that she was heading for a hellstorm of trouble. “First we get a newweapon for Jus, then we sneak into the lich’s caves, then we take out most ofthe trogs, then we kill the lich. After that, we free Jus, Polk, and Cinders, then run off into the tunnels.”

With a happy sigh of relief, Henry stood up and began to climb out of the crevasse.

“Thank the gods!” Henry reached the cave floor and gallantlyoffered his hand to haul the little faerie up onto her feet. “For a while, Ithought we were in trouble!”

“Yeah, silly you.” Escalla tapped her fingers together,trying to make vague ideas feel better than they looked. “As I said, the detailswill be revealed, ah, as we need to know.”

The faerie heard the beholder growling off in the caves and fetched her battle wand.

“Come on, kid. Adventure calls.”

Followed by the absurdly happy soldier, Escalla fluttered off into the shadows. Private Henry checked his crossbow, set his helmet to a jaunty angle, then marched off in pursuit of the smartest, prettiest, most competent girl he had ever clapped his eyes upon.

A beholder’s life was apparently a merry one. Havingslaughtered a horde of ghouls, the beholder now amused itself with the corpses of the deceased. It had gnawed the faces off one or two and dragged out the intestines of others to create a vile, nose-blistering stench. All about the pit that the ghouls had uncovered, body parts lay scattered. Bleeding a noisome green ooze from a few cuts and severed eyestalks, the beholder hovered above its kills, chewing on a severed hand and scowling in thought.

Escalla’s plans were detailed, concise, and foolproof. Inaccordance with these directives, something went “chink” against the beholder’sarmored shell, rebounded, and fell rattling to the floor. Utterly unharmed, the beholder swiveled around to look at the offending object. Lying on the floor, the drugged crossbow bolt lay pointing back down the corridor like an accusing finger.

Still frozen with his empty crossbow pointed at the beholder, Private Henry crouched behind a pile of rubble. The boy squeaked, the beholder roared, and a beam lashed out to blast a huge chunk from the rocks overhead. Henry ducked and fled like a hare. The boy’s wail of panic brought the beholdershooting out of its cave like a cork popping from a bottle.

Spells shot from the beholder’s upper eyestalks, blastingrock as Henry wove madly through the caves. With a shuddering roar, the beholder flew down the tunnels. As the monster flashed past, Escalla swung out of hiding. The girl gave a nasty little grin and fired her very best charm monster spell right into the beholder’s unprotected back.

The magic stabbed straight toward the beholder’s shell-ashell no longer guarded by its anti-magic front eye. As the spell struck home, Escalla hopped up and down and did a little dance of glee.

“Gotcha!”

The beholder screeched to a stop, whipped around, and gave a violent roar. Escalla stared for one brief instant, then screamed like a peeled weasel and flew madly up through the stalagmites. Death and disintegration beams blasted rock right at her heels. Utterly unaffected by her spell, the beholder barreled after her like a runaway wagon, smashing into stalagmites and shattering them like glass.

Tunnels and caverns opened up at every side. Escalla blurred inside a cave and rolled madly aside as a death beam stabbed half an inch below her nose. She saw a side opening and made toward it to escape, only to have a disintegration beam from the monster blast into the arch and bring the whole cave mouth thundering down in an avalanche. Trapped, Escalla squealed and wrenched aside. An instant later the beholder lunged into the cave after her, its central eye open and all magic instantly dispelled.

Even without its magic eyes, the beholder was well adapted for chewing faeries. With its jaws gaping, it charged straight at Escalla. The girl planted her back onto the wall, coiled her legs beneath her and launched herself away an instant before the beholder smashed against the wall. Finding long tufts of ragged hair hanging beneath the beholder’s belly, Escalla latchedonto the hair and hung dangling like a puppet. Above her, the beholder roared and bashed itself against the walls, angrily trying to shake the little faerie free. It tried to blast her with its eyestalks, but was unable to see beneath its own fat shell. Escalla wailed and held on for dear life as the beholder began to buck wildly in an attempt to shake her loose.

A crossbow bolt flashed past a hair’s breadth beneathEscalla’s bottom. Hanging on to the beholder, the girl managed to look back andsee Private Henry and his trusty crossbow.

“Are you crazy?”

“Sorry!”

Flung madly left and right, Escalla screeched and held on tight. The beholder went on a wild ride to dislodge the hanging faerie. Careering madly down the tunnels, it bashed against the walls, knocking the breath from Escalla and making her see stars. Racing through caves, it smashed its belly against the ground. Escalla flapped her wings in panic, towed along just inches behind the bottom of the monstrous sphere.

The beholder dragged her painfully across rubble, through a stream, and then ploughed her through a fresh dung pile. As Escalla emerged, choked and spluttering, the beholder roared and burst through a pile of old dry bones.

Jerked and flung madly about beneath the monster, Escalla managed to wipe dung from her face and give a snarl of rage.

“You goggle eyed git! You’ll pay for that!”

The beholder had traveled full circuit through the caves. It blundered into the cavern filled with dismembered ghouls and then tried to bounce like a ball and squish Escalla into the filthy guts of its last prey. Escalla flung herself left and right, swinging on the beholder’s dangling hairs,felt herself land in something best left unidentified, then flailed out with one hand and caught hold of a prize.

A crossbow bolt!

Frustrated at its inability to dislodge the troublesome faerie, the beholder saw a long line of stalagmites down a side tunnel and roared with glee as it raced toward the stone spikes. Escalla took one sharp glance at the onrushing doom, hefted the drugged arrow, lined it up on a bleeding claw gouge in the beholder’s carapace and rammed the weapon home.

“Take this!”

Above her, the beholder gave a scream of rage then quite suddenly took on an odd expression. With eyes wide in shock, it went plunging down to the ground. Escalla flew tumbling free an instant before the creature hit the ground. The beholder bounced onward like a titanic ball straight down the passageway.

Ten stalagmites stood in its way. Nine fell immediately with the blast of impact. The tenth cracked at its base and wobbled uncertainly in a spin. As Escalla climbed to her feet, the final stalagmite toppled and fell, landing with a crash upon the motionless beholder.

“Yes!”

Escalla leaped into the air and gave a highly immodest scream of victory. With one fist raised, she suddenly paused, sniffed, and made a little face of dismay.