Paul Kidd - Descent into the Depths of the Earth

Benelux. How do you do? The sword sniffed suspiciously. Are you certain you are a fit addition to this party?

Cinders wag-wag-wagged his tail.

Benelux seemed indignant. Ye gods, you might be a mongrel! I can hardly keep company with a mongrel! The Justicar is a swordsman, and swordsmen by definition are gentlemen. He will no doubt be as uncomfortable with the situation as I.

With his big grin gleaming, Cinders’ sniggered in the gloom. Sword funny!

I beg your pardon!

Funny funny! The hell hound waggled his ears. Cinders’new friend.

As the group jogged off down the tunnel, Benelux addressed the Justicar. Sir, I have grave doubts about the decorum of this party.

Ignoring it all, Jus merely walked faster. Far behind him, distant walls crumbled as the beholder rampaged through the lich’s lair.

“Oh! Oh yeah! Yeah! Harder! Harder!” Lying on herstomach on Cinders, Escalla ploughed her fingers into his fur and clenched her toes. “Yeah! Oh push! Yeah!”

Lying face down on Cinders, scrubbed clean and awaiting her fire-beetle roast, Escalla groaned and sighed as Jus massaged her back with one careful finger and his thumbs. Escalla drummed her fist on the floor in fits of ecstasy. Still paralyzed, Private Henry sat propped in a corner and could only stare. Polk had been reunited with his whiskey bottle and was already giving the day’s horrors a rosy glow. Jus, now repaired and wiped clean, sat beside thesteaming cooking pot that had served as Escalla’s bath, attending to the girl.Knowing his friend far better than she thought, he rewarded her for the rescue in the most practical way.

“Oooooh!” Escalla slumped in a post-massage daze. “Ooooh, Ilove you!”

Jus gave a slow, knowing smile and let the comment slip. Escalla sighed, unaware that she had ever spoken.

Propped within swift reach of the Justicar, Benelux made disapproving sounds as Escalla’s noises went on.

Sir Justicar! This faerie of yours, is she always this noisy?

“I’m a screamer! What can I say?” Escalla answered the swordwithout real malice. “You never get polished or anything?”

I have a permanent shine. Benelux sniffed in colddisapproval. Expressions of pleasure are undignified.

“Yeah, but they add to the fun.” Escalla turned to jelly asJus hit the right spot just in the hollow of her neck. “Ooo yeah.”

A tireless man with strong hands, Jus showed no signs of slowing in his work.

“Benelux, true worth is never obvious. Find the good in otherpeople and work outward from there.”

Hmph! The sword’s flawless blade gleamed. Of courseworth is obvious, because true worth is never slack. The wise must share their wisdom, for the general elevation of all. Polk understands! The sword had apparently not yet heard Polk humming his rather off-color song about the princess and the gnome. This girl needs improvement. I intend to provide suitable advice.

“Oh, be my guest.” Jus worked carefully on Escalla’s feet,making the girl claw the giggling hell hound and scream like a happy banshee. “But there are some battles best not fought.”

Benelux made a noise of scorn. You are clearly tired, sir. A true gentleman must realize that good fights are necessary fights.

“No argument there.”

Private Henry tried to talk but could only mumble. Escalla looked up and patted the boy on one boot. He was at least back in his own physical shape. White hair had hardly suited him.

“You all right, Hen?”

“Mrl murgle mungle.”

“Hoopy!” Escalla smiled then hissed as her calves weremassaged. “You’d think drow would carry the antidote to that stuff.”

Looking happily up from his bottle, Polk wreathed himself in smiles. “There must be antidote there. Elves are elves. Ain’t all elveslogical?”

“Polk, they’re dark elves. If they were animals, they’d bepond dwellers who eat their own young.”

The teamster looked about the little cavern in clear, undiluted joy and said, “We now have one portable hole, ten feet deep by tenfeet wide.”

He folded up the portable hole and took charge of it himself, putting it in his breast pocket with a satisfied pat. Reaching for his bottle, he gave a toast to victory.

“I knew you could all handle it. Just needed the rightcoaching. A prod. A push toward glory!” The little man crowed in triumph,puffing out his meager pigeon chest. “That’s what Good does. It overcomes! Ittriumphs in adversity! The more the obstacles, the greater the victory.”

“Yeah right.” Escalla was almost asleep, butnevertheless managed to look up at the Justicar. “Hey, Jus? He thought weweren’t coming to rescue you, didn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“Polk, say, ‘I have just been rescued by a teenaged boy and afaerie’!”

Annoyed, Polk sniffed through his great hatchet nose. “I havejust been rescued by a teenaged boy and a faerie.”

“Good!” Rolling over, Escalla held up on self-righteouslittle finger. “Now say ‘I, Polk, hereby declare that I owe the faerie a totalof seven hours of foot rubs, to be delivered at the rate of one half-hour per evening for the next two weeks.’” The faerie hovered overhead as Polk irritablymuttered the promise. “Good! And Private Henry hereby requires a really bigchapter in your chronicles, all about how he blitzed a beholder and became a total hero.” The girl rubbed her eyes, more than ready for sleep. “Are we allhappy?”

The sword Benelux snorted. No.

“Is everyone important happy?” Escalla gave a titanicyawn. “Then let’s get some sleep.” The girl rolled herself up in silks andnuzzled happily down into Cinders’ soft black fur. “You guys had a hard day.I’ll take first watch.”

She was asleep in moments. Jus tucked her in, patted Cinders on the head and served out dinner to his companions. He popped a coal into Cinders’ mouth, put Henry in a comfortable position away from the fire, thenwatched as the adventurers slowly drifted off to sleep.

Escalla rolled over in her bed, fast asleep, and quietly murmured Jus’ name. The big man sat beside her, looking down at the little formwith its strangely innocent little smile.

Jus quietly bent over and kissed Escalla in her sleep. He stroked her hair then sat down to keep watch over his friends.

Behind him, Cinders grinned his piranha grin and quietly thumped his tail.

“You!”

Lord Ushan burst into the pearlwood chambers, his robes swirling with illusory flame. He pointed one finger in accusation at Lord Faen. “Clan Nightshade kills a scion of the Seelie Court, and yet you elect to sithere as their guest!”

Closing one of Clan Nightshade’s books, Lord Faen raised hisbrows and replied, “This is common enough knowledge. I have no reason todepart.” Lord Faen tilted his head to gaze at Lord Ushan thoughtfully. “You seemto have been sadly out of touch.”

“I have estates to govern! Bifrost, Beastlands, Elysium! Girlor no girl, some of us still have to rule!”

“Estates. How interesting.” Lord Faen arose and walkedquietly over to the windows, looking out across Lord Charn’s lake. It all had awonderfully rustic appeal. “Nightshades invitation to us all is still in force.I would consider it rude to reject them at this time.”

Furious, Lord Ushan paced back and forth. His orc servants waited with eyes downcast in the corridors beyond. He took his staff of office from one girl’s hand then whirled on Faen in a rage.

“This is collusion! By staying in this… this primal filth,you give royal approval of assassination! Does the Erlking not care that Cavalier Tarquil is dead?”