Paul Kidd - Descent into the Depths of the Earth

“When did a convoy of two hundred slaves pass here?”

The drow sneered.

Escalla snapped an icy glare at the elves. “Answer him.”

Reluctantly, the elf shot a glance at Escalla’s golden hairpin then looked away. “Yesterday. The ceremony will not be for another fourhours. Cross the river to the temple.” The drow wrote a description of thevisitors into a book and slammed the cover shut. “Go. The presence of lowercreatures is offensive.”

Cinders grinned at the very flammable elves, his teeth promising a later meeting, and then Escalla grabbed Jus and dragged him away. As they moved down the road, Escalla let the man’s bulk hide her from the elves.

“I thought they were going to go for you, man. That gold pinsaved the day.”

A dozen armed elves stood by the roadside, crowding close enough to be threatening, their weapons only just pointed aside. Escalla led the way ahead of her retainers, giving a cold, disdainful sniff toward the watching elves. She whispered to her friends as they passed slowly through the gauntlet toward the open mushroom fields.

“It’s all right. Just be natural.” Escalla glared coldly at adrow who stood watching her pass beside a huge alarm gong. “We’re evil. We eatbroken glass and wire for breakfast. We do bad things to woodland wildlife.”

Bum elves now! Funny!

“Pooch, be good, or I’ll smack your nose!”

Walking past the drow, Jus came level with the faerie. “Theyhave a ceremony planned. The traitor faerie is probably involved somehow.”

Escalla kept her face neutral in case the elves were watching. “I know that, Jus. Great! So we’re heading for their maintemple?”

“Looks like it.” The Justicar settled his armor across hisshoulders. “We can’t get back out the same tunnel we used to get here. Any ideahow we find a route to the surface once we’re done?”

“No idea in the world.” Escalla seemed amazingly unconcerned.“Let’s just wing it. We’ll figure something out!”

The Justicar shot a look at the girl, who replied with an open little shrug, “Trust me. I’m a faerie!”

The road took a bend around an outcrop of rock. Safely out of sight of the guards at last, Escalla breathed a sigh of relief and whirred down to stand encircled by her friends. She pulled out the locator needle, which now bucked like a beetle dancing a country jig. The needle pointed northeast, toward the farthest reaches of the drow cavern. Henry, Polk, Jus, and Cinders joined the girl in bending over the needle in thought.

“All right, so the slowglass is here. Maybe the murderer iseven here.” Escalla sat down on the gravel with a frown. “Now we ask why. Jus,you’re the investigator guy.”

The Justicar turned to look over the vast reaches of the drow homeland. The venous light made distances impossible to judge. To either side of the roadway, forests of titanic toadstools loomed, the dark spaces alive with horrible, cautious movements.

The drow city was to the north, miles away and unseen, yet spreading a dark presence and a spreading scent of blood. The Justicar, apparently unafraid, rested his hand upon his sword and gazed toward the drow citadel.

“Tell me: Lolth was an ally of a faerie goddess, the Queen ofWind and Woe?”

“Oh, it’s not a happy story.” Escalla flew up to perch uponthe ranger’s shoulders, resting her elbow upon Cinders’ furry skull. “Ancienthistory. A faerie sorceress slew a god and stole his power, then began to carve an empire through half a dozen planes. The fallout split the faerie races-mostof them for the worse. Pixies and other species are all our degenerate cousins.”Escalla made a disapproving face. “Anyway, Clan Nightshade trapped her, and it’snothing to be all that proud of. We were on her side, then turned coat and betrayed her. I mean, she was out of her mind. Guess the ancestors figured she had to go before it went too far.” The girl wasted little time apologizing forfaerie kind; she rarely met a faerie that she liked. “Anyway, she was too toughto take out in combat, so they tricked her. Turns out there’s a Clan Nightshadetrait for being tricksters or something.”

Jus pulled at his nose. “I hadn’t noticed.”

“Yeah, well, it got the faerie goddess sealed in Pandemonium,and only Clan Nightshade knows where to find the key.” The faerie shrugged.“It’s been about, aaah, twenty thousand years since she went in the box. Iimagine the old wench is a tad pissed at us by now.”

Nodding slowly, the Justicar absently stroked his friend’sfeet with one hand. “By killing your fiance, someone’s trying to delay yourclan’s acceptance back into faerie society.”

Listening intently, Private Henry blinked from one partner to the other. “Because they have their own plans to release the Faerie Queen ofWind and Woe?”

Escalla looked at Jus. Jus looked at Escalla, and Polk looked at no one in particular. The faerie girl blankly nodded in agreement as she ran the thought through her head. “Sounds like you got it, Hen!”

“What would happen?” Henry shrugged in confusion at hisfriends. “If she got out, I mean, would it be bad?”

Escalla looked at Jus then turned around, looking a wee bit pained. “Um, in her time, this bitch took on whole pantheons-and that was beforeshe had twenty thousand years to spend getting really vindictive.”

“Oh.” Henry blinked, unsure whether he had actually beengiven an answer. “Not good?”

“Oh, definitely not good!”

Everyone looked northward toward the city of the drow. Thin, distant screams carried in the air, a moaning sob that made everyone’s hairstand on end. Escalla wilted, looking north, and was dead certain that she was not about to enjoy her day.

“All right, so someone is looking to unleash the Faerie Queenof Wind and Woe. The only way to do that is to seize the Nightshade key.”

Watching the darkness, Jus loosened his sword. “How would anenemy seize the key?”

“It’s hidden in an energy pocket. Take a real planet busterof a spell to retrieve it! Even then, the key’s useless until you activate it.You need Nightshade’s ruling family to do it. The key has two eyes. Each eyefaces a different way. Each eye has to simultaneously see one of us -atrue member of the ruling family beckoning it to open. And an illusion spell instantly sets off an alarm.” The girl shrugged. “Even if one of us was loonyenough to try it, you’d never get a second member of the family to go along.”

“Yes.”The Justicar nodded. “But if you used slowglass, couldyou record a visual image and play it back into the eye?”

Escalla froze. Suddenly she looked quite sick and tired.

“Oh great.” Her antennae dropped as the thought struck homelike a soiled knife. “Oh, that’s just frazzin’ great!” Escalla kicked atoadstool over, sending the fungus cap flying off into the dark. “Slowglass! Ithought they were giving it to me just because it was expensive.” The girl sworelike a teamster.

As a teamster himself, Polk could only blink in surprise at her technical knowledge and take a pull from his magic whiskey flask. “Girl, nowhold on! Don’t stand there jawin’! It’s fate! Destiny! You were meant tobe here!”

The Justicar glowered down at Polk through lowered brows. “Don’t get startedon predestination, Polk!”

“But it has to be destiny!” The teamster opened his hands,appalled that his chosen heroes could fight against tradition so constantly. “And what’s predestination got to do with it? Did you make that up of your ownfree will?”

“Polk!” Escalla snapped as she paced angrily up and down. “Nophilosophy with the Justicar. You’ll burn out your brain!” Escalla paced,angered, agitated, and seething with energy. She’d been had, and the thought ofbeing duped had set her aflame. “Let’s say we’ve got a murder plot that’s partof an attempt to free the faerie goddess. They haven’t won yet. We can stillbust up the works.” Escalla shook her head bitterly. “Breaking into the key’shiding place… a spell that size requires a ton of energy. I mean a huge amount of energy.” The girl never once took her eyes from the north. “I’mgetting a real bad feeling about what all those captured Keolanders are for.”